Neytiri's Emotional Maturation

[StarWish624]

I just bought the 3 disk Extended Collector's Edition of AVATAR. It has deleated scenes and storylines. In the 3rd disc, there is a deleated scene, wherein Grace discusses why her school closed. She relates to Jake, that in the past, Neytiri had a sister. This sister and three other Na'vi were upset because the humans were clear-cutting down the forest. So the 4 go and set fire to a bulldozer. The human soldier/guards gave chase to the group. The group runs to the school, thinking that Grace could protect them, but all are machine-gunned dead on the school porch. The first to die is Neytiri's sister. Her death happens right in front of the little Neytiri. The shock of this must have scarred and deeply impacted the way that Neytari would view the humans from then on, putting them all in the same category - enemy.
So, when "her" Jake revealed that he was a part of helping the humans to destroy Neytiri's world, she just lost it.
But, as time progressed, and Jake proved his loyalty to The People, Neytiri's eyes were open to another "type" of human - friend.
This lesson would allow her to evolve into the extraordinary woman (and leader) that she became.
The deleated scenes said that the Na'vi had no word for "LIE", but Neytiri had to comprehend this "alien concept" in order to know who was "friend" and who was "enemy".
Instead of allowing her past experience to cripple her, she built upon it, and used her incredible mind and wisdom to not only fufill her father's last request, but to strike a blow for freedom as well!

[prowler]

I could only imagine how much Neytiri got scarred for life seeing her sister get killed in front of her eyes... Just makes me sad thinking about it. Wish i could be there to comfort her when it happened...

['itan Ateyo]

The fact that Neytiri was able to keep an open mind and not completely write off the whole of humanity for one group's actions highlights her maturity and wisdom. She gave Jake a chance when all her instincts and previous experience said no,.

[Porthos1]

Here is another idea on this: The Na’vi are not like humans in both temperament and philosophy. They are highly attuned to life and having relationships with other life would be in their nature. I think that the open mind that you refer to is the nature of the Na’vi in general.

We, the movie goers, are watching events with considerable history behind them. The Na’vi probably were accepting to relations with Humans early on but that they would have degraded as the real nature of the Human’s visit became apparent. By the time of Jake’s arrival, the Na’vi were at “war” with the Skypeople and the past event at the school would have sealed the deal in their minds. Based on my comments above, the Na’vi would treat individual Humans well (enough) but that the corporate imperialistic invasion of the Human group was not worth their respect.

Neytiri was going to kill Jake. She was protecting the people. She didn’t because of a sign from Eywa. It took an even less subtle sign for Neytiri to break from the will of her father and bring him in to Hometree. Once accepted by Eytukan, Jake was treated well by the clan. Neytiri’s “growth” was her evolution from teacher to mate. She had already accepted Jake as a person when they first met and she learned to love him no matter if he was “alien.” Avatar is a love story after all.

Between you and me, I think that Neytiri was already an extraordinary woman (and leader). JC has a habit of having strong women in his movies, but in this movie, Neytiri knocks it out of the park!

[_Omaticaya_]

Very nice post Starwish, I'm gonna bring this thread right back on top because it deserves too I think it's incredible and sad, that Neytiri had to learn the concept of lie, which she didn't even know... On her skin, through the person she fell i love with... :'( time ago, i used to think Neytiri overreacted to jake's confession, because I understood Jake, and knew he wanted to try and fix it all even though it was too late... But I regret that, and will ALWAYS, FOREVER, be with Neytiri, and on her side <3 She lost her Family, because of skypeople! And not only, she was betrayed too... It seems so Impossible that such a wonderful, pure, innocent, out of this world creature, Ma Neytiri had to suffer so much, just shows how cruel life is, and how evil humans are... One of the reasons I love her so much, is because all through the movie, I got to know her, and when she suffered so much, seeing her loved ones die, even her Ikran, Jake breaking her heart, and seeing her in that forest on fire terrified, my goodness, it was so real, and emotional, my dream was to jump in the hell and save her... Protect her :'( She deserves the best, the best only, Neylove, It's My Way <3