The Surprise

Ya'll send me ideas pls my brain ain't braining

nah cause like you dont get it!!!! the sully kids and spider are a unit!!! they're puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly. the very definition of "the gang is what i trust"!!! they're together their whole lives and then spider gets taken and all of a sudden the puzzle is in disarray. kiri's so spacey cause she doesn't have spider to bring her back down to pandora. lo'ak's acting out cause he doesn't have his usual partner-in-crime/fellow outcast to make light mischief with. neteyam is like two seconds away from a heart attack/stroke the whole movie because the other kid he used to parent his siblings with for the past like decade is gone!!! and spider on the other hand? is completely alone. at least the other four have each other. all spider has is his alien racist, genocidal, imperialist dad dragging him on the world's worst war crime road trip. there's no kiri to get him out of his head. there's no lo'ak to to be outcasts with. there's no neteyam to have a quiet reassurance that they're in this together with. there's just him and his stupid, fucking mind. and then they blend his brain at bridgehead and it's over for him.

Random addict thought/headcanon/theory/bullshit

Angels contract w/ Valentino is a marriage certificate

Sick Headcanons - Rocorro

not sure how much i love this one but 🤪

Spider is a provider type and it shows when his partner is sick or otherwise out of commission

He will spend as much time as he can (mostly when Rotxo is asleep) hunting and gathering so he can feed/provide for him and, later, their kids

He is also the one that will be weaving and trading for new blankets, clothes, baskets, etc - how much it helps is questionable but he is a king of comfort and wants to make sure that Rotxo won't worry for anything since he's a huge stresser

He will take the kids for the day once they reach that part of their lives and huddle them into his pod so Rotxo has some peace, he's a hoverer but gets self conscious about it

Despite Rotxo being a major cuddler and Spider having very little strength against his partners puppy dog eyes, he normally won't stop jumping around trying to 'help' until Rotxo pulls him down and makes him just lay down with him

Spider is a very independent person which follows in how he is when he is sick, Rotxo is not...which also follows into him being sick. Given he's fucking huge, he normally gets his way if he tries to octopus arm him

Spider is an act of service type but is normally put on less physical tasks in the village due to the species difference. Given Rotxo is the same way and gets to fill that role more often. Spider uses sick days to show off a bit lmao.

Rotxo is a big baby when he's sick tho so he loves the attention and thrives on having an excuse to be a baby about whatever he wants

The only downside is he WILL get someone else sick without a doubt

When he is injured, however, he gets angsty and protective - he feels way too reminded of his own vulnerabilities and mortality which only makes his seeing his mate and childrens that much worse

Spider will be the type constantly watching the door and trying to lock down the marui or pod subconsciously - given how little he grew up with, he's very protective of his space and people

Rotxo struggles with this a bit more when he is injured since he doesn't like being confined and it makes him feel weak and disrespected if he isn't allowed to protect them - babying is only fun on the rare occasions the na'vi gets sick

Spider is the type though who wants to hunker down when he's hurt but will try to suppress it. He's prone to pushing himself too far when he's badly hurt since he's bruised up or sore a lot of the time

When he's sick, he's the type to ignore it and work through it, even though it's 10x worse for him to keep pushing when his body isn't made for the environment

He's also an isolator since he has value issues in not wanting to be a hinderance

Rotxo spends a lot of time forcefully babying him when he is sick which is more than they care to admit since homie has no concept of what his limits are (or he just refuses to admit them)

Spoilers for school spirits season 2 finale!!

Okay as a Charley stan first and a human being second: I have so many conflicting feelings about his scar in the finale but I just know nick had the time of his life filming that shit

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."

I should have pregamed that shit

Thinking about Spider in the forest when the sky people come back, running and falling and tumbling with the wild life as he scrambles to get away. Thinking of Blessed!Spider being dragged by a thanator when he falls, heat kissing his face, and making it to base. No one asks what happened or where he was. No one ever wonders where he was.

Spreading the Rotxo x Spider agenda

Listen they're buddies

Rotxo has no clue what the hell he's supposed to do with this little demon when he shows up after Three Brothers Rock but he keeps showing up and he's actually kind of cool

He's like Lo'ak but slightly calmer?? He'll dive headfirst off the cliffs but he'll also sunbathe for 3 hours and that's the energy he needs

At first, their relationship is sorta tense; Lo'ak gave them a run for their money the first time they tried the mean girl routine but a few still try to pick on Spider

Seeing his siblings band around him and he himself attempt to bite and claw his way out of it is sort of his introduction to the group

(aka that's when he realizes they're cool, Kiri dragged Spider with them about a half hour after they got settled)

Meanwhile Spider lowkey thinks Rotxo is a little bitch tbh, it takes until Rotxo punches a guy for him to separate him from Ao'nung at all

Once they start actually talking its game over

Rotxo falls first but Spider falls harder

Spider grew up with absolutely 0 belief that anyone would ever be romantically interested in him and so he never really paid that stuff any mind

So when Rotxo tentatively offers him a courting gift, he has literally no clue why everyone is freaking out cause they're just bros???

But Kiri insists on braiding the little beads into the front of his hair and Rotxo damn near goes down when he sees his gift accepted

Listen he acts all big and tough but he's a big damn softie

Homie is a marshmallow

His next gift was a pair of woven gloves that honestly are absolute crap cause Na'vi don't normally need them but Jake may have quietly dropped that it could help Spider with riding

because yes, Jake is in on it and dammit he needs to make up for the lost Dad time

Spider thinks they're the shit and starts trying to make more pairs. At first, Rotxo thinks his weren't good enough until an even shittier pair ends up on his Marui in the morning

Kiri eventually sits Spider down to be like ",,, you know how na'vi courting is...right??"

But he thinks she is trying to get him to notice his feelings for Rotxo (which she is) and court him (she groaned so loud the birds flew away)

So they both start attempting to court the other, not realizing that the other already is

It isn't until Tsireya sits them down 3 months in and sounds it out for them that they realize anything

At that point though they just settle into a courtship filled with competition

Cause now someone needs to win

Gifts, lessons, help, etc fly between them to everyone's amusement and frustration

Eventually, Rotxo gets a little too confident and gets him a blend of herbs from Ronal that is not human safe and that's when they finally have to call it quits (Spider is adamant that almost killing your boyfriend means he won)

Rotxo is the second person that Spider tells what happened to him in his captivity

(Kiri was the first, they spent hours one night lamenting everything that happened with their feet in the water)

Unlike Kiri, Rotxo had no idea what the sky people are capable of

It's he who finally gets Spider to tell the Sullys, Tonowari, and Norm what happened

Rotxo trains him with Neteyam to get Spider's strength back up, trying to help him regain his abilities from before and feel capable again

Spider never really got real lessons on much of anything, it was all that Neteyam and Lo'ak taught him after Jakes lessons or the few times he snuck with them on a hunt

So his fighting style is a weird mix of instinct, forest techniques, and the military skills he picked up in Bridgehead

Rotxo thinks its hot lowkey but Ao'nung and Tonowari decide he needs real training

(Especially if he's gonna be a part of their clan someday)

Thoughts??? I have many

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