Imagine This:

Wheeee another one 👀...

I had this idea of Tonowari and Ronal keeping Spider as a "ward" to keep a close eye on him, only to realize that something inside him has shattered.

Tonowari and Ronal make the deliberate decision to take Spider in as a sort of ward, not out of kindness, but to keep a close eye on the human and ensure he doesn’t burn down their village or is left to his own devices to cause trouble. Jake practically falls over himself agreeing to the arrangement, which leaves Tonowari somewhat baffled by how quickly he relinquishes the boy into their care.

But the real shock comes once Spider is living in their home, constantly under their watch. With the boy in such close proximity, day and night, Tonowari and his family see firsthand how traumatized he is. There are dark circles under his eyes, his skin is a sickly shade of pale, he flinches at the slightest raised hand, barely speaks, often stares into nothing, and eats next to nothing.

Tonowari has Spider shadow either himself or Ronal to keep him close and occupied, but the boy moves like a wraith, so quiet that they often have to glance over their shoulders just to confirm he’s still there. It’s… concerning. Human or not, aren’t children supposed to be loud, energetic, and full of life? From what Jake told them, Spider was always underfoot and excitable, eager to prove himself. What happened to this child to make him a shadow of his former self?

Against Tonowari’s better judgment, his heart fills with pain for the child. He was not the boy’s father, and the boy was not even of his people. But Tonowari had seen enough in this world to know a broken spirit. This was not a child who needed discipline or containment or judgment. This was a child who needed healing.

That night, Tonowari spoke to Ronal outside, his voice low but firm. “He does not need to be watched. He needs to be cared for. He needs to be taught to live again.” Ronal was quiet for a long time before she gave a small hum of affirmation. “Then we begin tomorrow.”

Basically, it's Tonowari and his family finding out about Spider’s time with the RDA and being so disgusted and horrified that Spider goes from being a "ward" to a possible future adopted son. Maybe? Spider doesn't quite trust authority or paternal figures and is so used to taking care of himself that he's suspicious of Tonowari and Ronal's sudden change of heart towards him. Even worse, he's bottling up his grief over losing Neteyam because he feels that the cursed son of Quaritch doesn't deserve to mourn.

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Spider Socorro Protection Squad

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Here are some more thoughts on my Neytiri/Spider mother-son relationship where she raises him to be her instrument and attack dog against the RDA and Quaritch. Bonds That Bleed AU ended ambiguously, so here are more headcanons that have been swimming around my brain.

-) Neytiri raised Spider with the ways of the Na’vi, but never let him forget what he was. A human. A creature of destruction. A son of the demon. Every lesson was laced with quiet loathing, every word a seed of hatred planted deep in his heart. "They are destroyers, Miles. They will never stop until our home is dust beneath their feet." She does not temper her words, does not shield him from the ugliness of truth because he must learn, must hate as she hates.

-) And Spider listened. He learned. He fought. He killed. It was easy to lie to him, to pretend to love him, to smile at his victories even when her Jake was deeply troubled by the boy's eagerness to kill RDA soldiers, even when her mother stared at her with eyes full of quiet disappointment. But somewhere along the way, something changed.

-) Oftentimes, Neytiri found herself reaching for him in the quiet moments, pressing her forehead to his like she did with Neteyam, Kiri, Lo’ak, and Tuk. She would find herself soothing his wounds, braiding his hair, smiling at his laughter, glowing with pride when he respected her customs and spoke her language fluently. The lines between tool and child blurred, and before she even realized it, she loved him. Her little blade. Her son.

-) But the damage was already done.

-) Jake had warned her. "You’re filling his head with hatred. This has to stop. You need to stop. He's just a kid." She ignored him. The little demon was hers. Hers to mold. Hers to teach. Hers to wield. He was hers.

-) Until the day Spider leaped on Quaritch's back like a starved animal, clinging onto his father in a death's embrace, blade flashing. The monster who once haunted Neytiri’s nightmares did not even get the chance to scream before Spider drove his knife deep into both of his own father's eye sockets. Once. Twice. Again. Again. Again. Again. A frenzy of violence. His face was expressionless, his hands steady, his body drenched in blood that should not have been on him. The blood of his own father. There is no hesitation. No mercy. He is everything she raised him to be and more.

And for the first time in her life, Neytiri felt fear.

Not for herself. For her son.

She had wanted this—had spent years preparing him for this very moment. So why did it feel like her heart was shattering?

Because in that moment, she saw him clearly—not as the boy she had raised and manipulated, not as the child she had grown to love—but as a reflection of her own hatred. And she knew, with cold, crushing clarity—

She had stolen his innocence just as the Sky People had stolen hers.

"Spider meets Payakan", my new illustration😊

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Was watching a reaction video to the Predator Badlands trailer, and one of the people reacting said something along the lines of, ‘I don’t care about predator culture, I don’t want to learn a single thing about them. I just want them to be mysterious alien hunters.’

Okay, but isn’t this way of thinking precisely what has been suffocating the franchise for the last decade? We never get anything new or anything interesting because film makers keep sticking to the same old formula in order to keep the predator species ‘mysterious’. Well, I hate to break it to you folks, but an alien species that has appeared in seven films has ceased to be mysterious a long time ago.

I need Spider to make friends outside of the Sullys. It feels like we only ever see one side of him because he's always around Neytiri's children and can never truly be himself without raising suspicions or anger. Making new friends beyond the Sully inner circle would give him the freedom to be unapologetically himself, and Kiri would start to notice just how bright and mischievous he really is. Spider is still a teenager, and I want him to act more like one: childish, bratty, sullen, and explorative, the way all teenagers are supposed to be.

I guess the reason I hate the amount of Quaritch thirst, as someone who has many villain/”problematic” faves, is because he’s too real. There are real people out there like him, who are in power like him, and who would do and have done what he’s done.

Miles Quaritch could be a very real person we see in our world. Someone who happily watches the mass destruction and death of a people he deems inferior (people who are also clearly an allegory for real indigenous people). Someone who torches villages and destroys lives because he can. There are real people like that, and that what makes him a compelling villain. It’s also what makes me hate him, and want to see him dead (and major props to Stephen Lang for being able to make me feel that, he’s an amazing actor).