Blessed Spider

#I hope they feel like Italian today

Spixo?? Roter?? Tf are they called??

Anyway

Rotxo has identity issues and has a crisis when the Sully kids show up

They're different. They aren't of their people and they're weird - they have extra fingers, tufts of hair over their eyes, their skin is dark, their eyes the wrong size, their tails too thin - he could go on

Yet they're so proud

There's a sense of purpose in them, they aren't quite kids like he, Ao'nung, or Tsireya are.

It scares the hell out of him

He lashes out at Lo'ak and Kiri, goes for their weaknesses when Ao'nung does

He wants them to leave, take their war with them, and let his family stay safe and tucked away on their beaches

They don't, clearly, and yet he comes to care for them

They're freaks but they're his freaks

Tsireya coming home with blood on her hands, teary cheeks, and Lo'ak in her arms terrifies him. However much he grew up that day he thinks she did double

Ao'nung is suddenly fast tracking his apprenticeship as Olo'eyktan

And he's left behind

Spider comes with the worst day of his life thus far

He once would have gutted anyone who said he would accept a sky person in his home but so much has changed and he can't bring himself to do anything without Ao'nung there to lead him

So he throws himself into his training, wanting to stop what happened to him and his friends from ever happening here

If what happened in the forests happened here he thinks it would kill him

Then Jake convinces Tonowari to let them use a gun

Tonowari - the man who is practically a second father to him after growing up between his children, who hated this war more than anyone he knew, who barely let them use offensive moves before their 15th year - is scared for them

He's awful with a gun

Metkayina kids don't get to carry a gun, it's not allowed to be their primary weapon, it's only for emergencies, but he saw what happened to Neteyam and he needs to know how to use it

He's off in the woods along their beaches trying to practice. Training was over hours ago but he doesn't take to it like the older kids (he and Ao'nung are the youngest learning right now - they strong armed their way in and he thinks it broke Tonowari a little bit inside)

Every shot is just a little off, he can't get the target quite right

Metyakina are spear wielders, their weapons bring them close to their enemies and they use their strength to bring them down. Bows are a necessity but archers are few in the specialty: it's just not what they do

The gun is heavy in his hands, hard to balance and kicks back every time he tries to shoot

Why the hell a weapon bites the user he has no fucking clue -

"Brace your back foot. You're leaning too much, it's not a harpoon."

...

Rotxo will swear for the decades to come that he did not jump, fuck you-

Then the little sky-person is there

He met Spider when they brought him home

The boy was pale, thin beyond what he suspected was natural if the slight sway to his stance had anything to say. He was mottled in bruises and striped with scars but there was a feral strength in the kids eyes

He stuck close to the Sully kids, blended right into the little pack they made up

The other kids flanked him at nearly all times. He never saw the blonde alone and they seemed happy that way. The kid was haunted but he guesses they all are now

They didn't talk much. Lo'ak threatened him with raw fear in his eye that if he and Ao'nung even tried an ounce of what they did to him then peace talks and found friendships be damned, he'd make them regret it

Spider would hang out with them, but he didn't talk much. Most of the others still resented him. They feared him or hated him and Rotxo suspects he knew that

That said, he doesn't know what to do when Spider walks up and forces his gun down to his level

He moves his hands, steps back and adjusts his stance, then steps back with an approving nod.

"Alright. Aim a little lower, you aren't in the green. Shoot, it'll be better."

He hits the target in the neck, then the tree behind it. The gut the third time.

"Uh..thanks."

The boys are barely hitting teenagers when Jake stumbles on Neteyam teaching Spider to shoot his bow. About seeing the little human he watched grow up mirror him 13 years ago, holding a weapon double his size and not knowing how to handle it, but this time the boy is comfortable. He’s grinning, cocky and safe, with his son’s hands over his own. He sees his wife for a moment in his son’s soothing touches and then his brother in Spiders grin. It’s healing in the same way that a part of him curls and aches at the sight.

He watches for a while, a silent guard if they get in over their heads. Neteyam is normally level-headed and responsible but Spider is a wild card - plus he rarely sees the two by themselves.

He lurches to intervene when Spider pulls a gun from the bushes, tossing it to his oldest with a teasing prod. It’s big for a human but looks barely larger than a pistol in his son’s childish hands. Neteyam looks nervous but shrugs as Spider lifts his hands to position them better. It takes a few tries to find something comfortable for the taller - it’s one of Norms weapons, not meant for Na’vi, those are locked up safe in home tree - but they settle it in his hands and Jake forces himself to relax. It makes him nervous but he tries to give them a shot. Why, he can’t really decide, but he sits back. If they’ll survive, then they’ll need to adapt. Every solider packs a few scars and he’d rather they do it now when he’s within arms reach.

Spider runs his fingers over the gun and points out where the safety is, how to load it, and then how to trigger it. He doesn’t want to know why he knows all this but suspects his own raids might have been the boys teacher. Neteyam takes a shuttering breath and shoots the gun at the largest tree in their little clearing. The kickback nearly makes him drop the gun and he stumbles back but he grins and laughs like a boy again.

He didn’t realize how long it’s been since he heard that sound.

Spider joins him soon after, clumsily notching an arrow and attempting to hit the same spot. He misses by a long shot and groans dramatically but there’s a camaraderie in the air that he remembers from his own youth. It’s a signature of growing up and something he only really remembers from Tommy. He smiles and watches for a bit as Neteyam tries to fix Spiders posture then tries to one up him with another shot. They’re sparing with the gun, clearly worried about getting caught despite the bravado, but the sound is swallowed by the forest enough to allow a few trysts.

It’s been a good half hour when Spider manages to knock a branch off the tree he’d been aiming at. The boys cheer with such pride that Jake can’t help but feel a little proud. He guesses they really are growing up.

“Okay, okay, hear me out - your dad can’t be pissed if we bring home dinner right? Why don’t we, yknow, try these out for real?”

Jake swallows back a groan and steps out from his hiding spot, perhaps they aren’t that grown up after all.

Look I know we’re not getting shit with the episode count now a days but obsessed with flashbacks to the people the ghosts loved in life. Like let them haunt the narrative PLEASE

Janet whose father spirals, always thinking of how he could have saved her if he forced her to stop. Getting worse and worse, doubling down on his beliefs even as he crumbles. Her brother, forced into the role she dreamed of. Knowing that every step he takes leaves her bloody footprints behind him. How she feels so forgettable but her shadow has been at every one of her family’s shoulder for decades. Her father dying at the hand of incompetence and feeling her fingers dig into his flesh knowing she would have been great. That his faith in a twisted falsity won’t forgive him. The eyes in the fire burn their skin and scorch their pride.

Rhonda who so clearly left love behind. Her best friend seeing her in every blur in her peripheral. How the lyrics turn acidic in her mouth, how she hears a snort and “seriously, cherry pop?” every time but her voice is so, so hoarse. How the gravel in her own burns like hands on her own skin. Rhonda who stuck her classmates to the core. It had to be her fault, had to be, or else it could be them. Or it could be theirs. Rhonda who is swept away but holds an iron grip on their shoulders. Who watches over every failure with the surety that she would have been better. Her parents, crushed under the loss of the only good thing they ever did. Marjorie’s voice lingers and generations feel her fingers over their throat; a lost mystery that drags them forward.

Wally being the fragility of their own lives. Untouchable and above it all, dying in an instant with a broken neck and the promises he was made. The future they were so sure he had, the way he could have made it. But no one knew him. Every story is empty, every memory wrong, he’s forgotten even with a thousand retellings and a blaring stadium named after him. His mother standing in the moment he had. Lost in a split second loop even as decades move past her. How he moves on before they do, haunting because of what they lost in him and no one remembering what he lost for himself. A life lived and mourned for others.

Charley who was swept under the rug. Who no one wants to think of. Who makes them consider their cruelty, they humanity. Who died surrounded by people, knowing they coaxed him into death with kicks and laughs. How an accidental death with no murderer is still a trial of human cruelty. Emilio, aching for years at his own naivety, trying to be better, to make it better for the next Charley. Except Charley is always there (actually this time) and he still can’t hold on. Moving on and feeling every breath stolen from someone else’s lungs. How one boy meant nothing and said so much about people who never saw him. His parents, asked the question of would they rather a dead or gay son but knowing there was never a choice cause they were one and the same and maybe that’s their fault. Emilio holding his husband, seeing baby Charlie on the monitor, knowing a part of him will never not be 17.

Idk if any of this made sense but just give me the people left behind, let them have an impact. I’m losing my mind

I love how, during the dance sequence, rhonda was so adamant that she would Not join them, but then she rolled her eyes and jumped in. like those are her Boys, they're best friends your honor. she's like their big sister who complains about their shenanigans but then joins the shenanigans with a smile because she loves them dearly and they're the only people that can make her feel like she's having fun.

Thinking about a baby Wylan who sets tiny traps all through the mansion. A loose nail on a floorboard, a tiny bell too close to the door dangling from a crooked light, a tiny chiseled hole in the door, and a tiny scrap of medal in the doorknob to jingle when it’s touched. Tiny things all over the mansion, mostly harmless but some just hints of the pain his father causes, acting as a desperate little security alarm for a terrified little boy.

How he grows up and they grow with him. How these little tricks feel like friends when they’re the only thing protecting him.

Wylan Van Eck sets them and Wylan Hendricks(-Fahey) takes them apart with a smug partner at his side.

Wylan with friends now, a real family, who disarms the inside protections and fills it with emotional ones. How it’s suddenly too loud with laughter to hear a little bell and how he doesn’t need it anyway. The only security lingers outside when the first people in his life step in to protect him first. Real security, not traps scattered in the floorboards.

The look on Jespers face as they take them apart lingers but the hurt doesn’t. The pride sticks - the strength of surviving fills the halls but it’s not alone. He’s not alone.

Just thinking about a Wylan who was always a fighter, even when he was small and scared. How he survived and finally made home a real one.

I saw a post discussing Spiders hair earlier and I can’t get it out of my mind. For anyone who doesn’t know, I study theater design and I can’t get over how good of a design choice it would have been to have Spiders head shaved by the RDA.

Spiders dreads are a combatted topic 24/7, but think of it from a narrative stand point. He has dreads to resemble Jake, his hero and desired father figure, but his dreads are choppy and awkward. Jake’s are maintained and well cared for with a regular length and size in comparison to Spiders which are a multitude of lengths, more matted than styled, and just overall poorly done. However, Spider clings to them thinking it makes him more like the na’vi and pass him better as one of the people. He thinks it claims him to a family.

His hair is something of his identity but also a self-proclaimed attachment to Jake that more accurately shows how separate he is from them - his hair is uncared for and shows he’s a child without anyone to help him with it. It moreso shows him as the “stray” he’s fighting not to be.

With that emotional connection in mind, consider the RDA shaving his head. They’re all forced submission and conformity, thinking he looks too savage and too wild by having dreaded hair or stripes on his skin. They shave it and leave it choppy and uneven. It’s embarrassing and a humiliation tactic where he’s left feeling stripped of part of his identity and forced closer to humanity while also having it poorly done as a reminder that no one cared for him enough to do it well.

Consider Quaritch stepping in, all bravado and false fatherly love, sitting him down on their first night out and gently shaving his hair down. Imagine him shaving it into the same crop he wore in his life until it’s even and clean. It’s the first time his hair has been done and cared for properly since his early childhood when Norm still did it for him.

Except this time it’s Quaritch claiming him - bringing out the family resemblance through his hair, marking him as his own in the way Spider always begged someone would, but also marking him distinctly as human. As loved only by those he hates. Imagine the emotional manipulation of his hair being done for the first time by Quaritch after he watched Neytiri and Jake care for their own children’s his whole life.

Imagine him in the reef, blood on his hands and knowing Quaritch is alive, with no braids in his hair, no dreads, and nothing to tie him back to who he was. Kiri trying to thread her fingers into nothing, Spider shivering with nothing on his neck, and then laying there with his hair beginning to grow and again no one to braid it.

The angst it could be. Hair care can be such an intimate thing, especially in native cultures. They missed such a great opportunity to explore a visual cue of everything Spider went through without having to make it gory or too intense. But not only that, it could have shown his arc after with his hair showing where he ends - preferably braided and neat, shells and beads woven in, and him visually showing the change of course his life takes

Thinking about the Sully kids not realizing Spider was gonna stop growing until one day he's barely above their hips

Like angst cause he's human and vulnerable and there's so many lines in the sand

but also fucking hilarious cause this tiny motherfucker will throw himself from trees to tackle his brother and will fully try to yeet a grown ass Na'vi

The grip I can’t 😭 Henry looks so happy

#literally holds his man's wrist

Thinking about Ronen Rubenstein in that Behind The Blinds photoshoot again.

Photoshoot from here.

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WISHING UPON A LONE STAR — ...

Ever since he first discovered the thrill of the stage in his junior year of high school (thank you, unnamed guidance counselor who encourag