Love How My Development Of Timebomb Went From:

Neytiri and Spider when they’re about to have an argument in front of their whole family:

scenario based on my atla/Avatar Spider au:

The first time Spider enters the Avatar state is when the humans return to Pandora, their flaming ships bringing inferno like wildfires to Eywa's forests act like a comet, and the boy loses control, and the only way to protect him from himself was for Eywa to induce the Avatar state so his body could withstand the way his own flames reacted. He ends up in the center of some of the worst of the flames, engulfed, but shielded by a sphere of his own flames, stone, and air, as he draws water up from the soil to soften the wildfire's rage.

When the infernos die down days later, he rises from the ashes barely scathed, ready to make himself known as the Avatar, despite his fear and the hostility he knows he'll face as an "abomination to Eywa's blessings". But he doesn't care. He's too angry, his eyes and stripes still glowing, the rage of thousands of centuries of warriors and healers and mothers and fathers and devotees coursing through him.

But he is young. He has had no teachers. So his anger only takes him so far, and very few trust him enough to allow him to truly partake in the battles and planning, not within the Omatikaya anyway, seeing him as some cruel hoax formulated by the humans.

The second time he enters the Avatar state is the night the recoms lay their filthy hands on his baby siblings. He rages. Beyond rages. His power comes in the form of animalistic rage. His eyes and stripes white out. One second his siblings are held in bounds, the next they're free and he's yelling at them in a voice they don't quite recognize to run. Then he is gone, his anger quickly spent, leading to his capture, but not without fight. The recoms never expected to deal with a fire bender like themselves, let alone the Avatar.

The casualties left behind that night were his doing.

The third time he reaches the Avatar state is the night Neteyam dies. The boy was a healer, but not with water. He had no teachers to show him the way of using it to heal. He had no herbs or plants at his side that he recognized as Neteyam bled out before him. He screamed to Eywa for help, for the strength and skill to heal his brother. He pleaded for her to force him into the Avatar state so he could keep his brother from slipping away. But she couldn't save him, not this time. She wanted to, but she could not allow him to upset the balance.

Neteyam dies as Spider weakly, despite all of his might, holds an orb of faintly glowing water over the hole in his chest, as his eyes track over the burns left by over eager fire benders with no true skill. He dies as Spider screams and begs. The one time he needed his blessing, his curse, his punishment, his reward- Whatever anyone wished to call it -to do Hun why good, it could not save his problem.

Instead it comes the moment it is too late to do anything, enough rage and grief and hurt pooling in his chest as Neteyam's eyes glaze over and Neytiri begins to scream and his Father's voice begins to mock. That is when he rises to the ground in a cast of white light. He ravages the ship. He isn't alone, but he claims his casualties.

It takes a very long time before he ever allows himself to enter the Avatar state again, and he learns to never depend on it. For anything. And while his faith in Eywa is not lost, it is jaded, because she blessed him with a curse, whether she meant to or not, and couldn't even answer his one prayer.

I just saw this tiktok video of what I believe is an Indian drama. I'm not 100% sure if it was a show or movie. I couldn't find the name on it. But in the video, it was described that a village made its money by selling off daughters to wealthy men for marriage. The female lead was the "ugly" girl (she was not ugly) who managed a side business off this main business by having the potential grooms see her first as their bride and then showing the real girl. Basically, helping with negotiations saying, "Hey, you could've gotten me, but instead, we have this gem here. Don't you think she's worth more?" After getting the higher bride price she takes her cut.

After watching, I said I could see Kate and Penelope making a small business doing this around the ton. Not to say they aren't beautiful, they are, and the girl in the original video was beautiful too. They just don't fit society beauty standards. Actually, side note now that I think about it canonically the only one of the wives who did was Sophie. Sophie was described to fit the ton's beauty standards to a t and would probably have been the incomparable/diamond of her debute season if she was born legitimate.

Anyway, Kate probably started it. For one reason or another, they couldn't wait for Edwina to debute, and Kate wasn't having a successful season, so she thought of a way to earn some money to help her family. It started as an accident, Kate was visiting a friend the same time negotiations were happening for her friend's engagement. Her friend has never met the lord, and two just so happened to walk by the room the negotiations were happening in. The lord saw Kate before her friend and assumed she was to be his bride. He was about to be outraged until her friend turned the corner. Things went much better for the bride to be in the negotiations after that.

Kate's friend apologized for the situation, but the wheels in Kate's head were turning. She didn't care all that much about being compared to her friend. Strangers loved to unpromptly compare her to Edwina when they were together and Kate couldn't really bring herself to care she has other things to worry about. But this new development, might work in her favor.

So Kate started offering her services to get brides to be better deals on marriage negotiations. First looks from arranged marriages she'll be in front and then show the real bride. Sometimes, be part of the negotiations by giving little reminders that hey, she is still in need of a husband, and if they want to pay less, then they can negotiate with her family. Sometimes, she didn't have to do anything besides sit next to the bride to be and just talk with her as a silent reminder. Kate also offered services such as attending balls with her clients and spreading word about bride's accomplishments. Kate would get her cut, which helped her family's financial situation longer, just long enough to get Edwina married.

A few years pass, and Kate is booked, possibly overly so. She has more and more parents there who wish for her to be part of the negotiations. There are so many that there is no possible way she can do them all by herself. Unless she gets a partner.

In 1813, Kate saw a miserable wallflower standing at the edge of one of the balls. That yellow dress did not do the poor girl any favors with her complexion, nor did the shape help with her curvy figure. Her poor red hair reminded Kate of an overdone poodle. She looked to be Edwina's age, and that made Kate's big sister instincts go off.

Introductions were made, and Kate learned the girl's name was Penelope Featherington. Kate learned the girl was rather smart and witty when she relaxed around you. She, like Kate, had a good head on her shoulders and it's a shame others don't see that.

Oh well, their loss is Kate's gain.

"Penelope, how would you feel about helping me with some business?" Kate asked one night at a ball. She had a negotiation to go to tomorrow and it would be an ideal time to take her new friend to get her feet wet.

Penelope looked up at Kate. "What kind of business?"

Kate took Penelope with her to the negotiations, and the deals doubled in favor of the bride.

Kate grinned the first time her friend participated in negotiations, raising deals much more favorably for the bride. By mid-season, Penelope will be ready to go on her own. Which will be good because next season, Edwina debutes. Kate will have to focus on her while Penelope takes on the majority of the negotiation calls. When Edwina is settled then Kate can fully jump back in. Which hopefully shouldn't be too hard, Kate knows Edwina will be popular, so it's just a matter of sorting the good men from the rakes. After that Kate can fully focus on her business.

It will all go according to plan.

I made a photo montage of my version of the Rowdyruffboys.

In this AU they were adopted by a super villain doctor Doom type. With a whole kingdom and everything.

They also have new name they use as civilians.

Brick = Sevan Viktor Vasily

In this AU he's a great cook and his adopted mother taught him chess. He's close to both his parents and take the role of the older sibbling more seriously. He's the cold but caring type, he show his love through action and not words.

Butch = Boris Jegor Valent

His adopted father made him start practising sport and music to focus all his energy. He also made him start hiking to clear his head when he's mad. He's the most reckless of the three but also the most adventurous.

Boomer = Alexei Vladimir Rodion

The more empathetic one. When his adopted parents realised that they managed to make sure he knew thos talent was valuable. Among the three of them he's the one who understands other people the most.

My Avatar: A New Mission saga is complete.

Today, I dropped the final two chapters, an extended Epilogue, for A New Mission: Happiness is Simple. I sure hope these were worth the wait for those still riding with these characters and story. A part of me was maybe even holding off on finishing because it meant that this creative and emotional chapter of my life, which began with A New Mission: Ash to Fire back in January 2023, is over.

With so many Avatar Fire and Ash insights and content starting to emerge, it might just be time for me to retire writing our little Ash families that were, of course, originally crafted with very limited knowledge of Avatar 3 💙

Despite its divergence, I hope this two-story, character-rich, mega-saga, topping out at over 850,000 words, brought readers hours of joy. And, based on what I've heard, I think my first story is going to have shockingly similar major plot points to the 3rd film. We will see! (still can't believe "Ash" and "Fire" are in the official title lol)

And now, I get the great satisfaction of actually going back and reading this second story from start to finish for the first time (sure to be making edits and catching embarrassing mistakes and errors that have been up for over a year along the way, ugh haha.)

But wow. What a journey. Is this truly the last we will see of our cherished recom families, and my writing in general? I'm not sure. Right *now,* I'd say so. I just want to bask in this writing achievement and take a big, contented break and be proud of these works. But you never know! There will be a lot of time between Avatar 3 and 4 after all 💙 Anywyay, for those who have read A New Mission, thank you.

Here is a link to the series on Ao3 and my Wattpad profile.

Extra special shoutout to @tsukioreo and @ellenoir for their works below that really breathed life into the sequel.

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so i was rewatching "the boys are back in town", and i realized that its never explained how butch got this giant slug monster. at first i thought that maybe he just found it crawling around somewhere, since townsville is known for their monster attacks.

my second thought was that he kept it in his pocket with him and it grew in size with butch. this is actually very possible when you remember that brick uses a massive oven mitt in the same episode.

but those are both pretty lame in my opinion. so i thought, if butch's main ingredient is SNAILS, what if he just... produced it? what if that was one of his unique powers, to make slug creatures out of his sweat or oils or something and then do whatever he wants with them. maybe he throws them at people like snowballs, or sneaks them into boomer's someone's food as a prank. i just think itd be cool and would make him stand out a bit more against his brothers :3

His Mama

I know she only alluded to Eros and Psyche to put Debling off of proposing to Penelope, but it is telling that Cressida is seemingly more clued into the Penelope/Colin dynamic and their feelings for each other than Eloise was.

Nobody talks about Kiri's role in Neytiri and Spider's bad relationship...

I know Neytiri and Spider's relationship has been talked about to death already, but there's one important aspect of it everyone seems to overlook that I want to write down all my thoughts about: Kiri's role.

(Just FYI The High Ground comics are explicitly confirmed to be canon by Avatar's creative team, so please don't try to tell me something's not true because it happened in the comics)

With everything Neytiri has been through, it's understandable that she'd feel uncomfortable with Quaritch's son spending so much time around her children to the point where he starts calling them his "siblings." Contrary to what I've heard others say, Neytiri does not have a "blind hatred" towards Spider. She doesn't want him to be hurt or killed, she just wants him to stay away from her family and mind his own business. From her perspective, an "invader" is acting like he's entitled to being around her family and claiming them as his own, the same family that has been hurt so badly by other "invaders." This perceived entitlement coupled with the fact that he's the son of the guy who thought he was entitled to destroy her homeland is what gives her such strong feelings about Spider compared to the other Na'vi-allied humans.

But is Spider's behavior towards Neytiri's family really entitlement like Neytiri thinks or is it something else? Let's look at why Spider does the things he does:

Why does Spider spend so much time with the Sully kids? Kiri and Lo'ak invite him. From what we see in the movie and the comics, Kiri and Lo'ak don't seem to have any friends before meeting Tsireya and Rotxo, which means Spider is not just their best friend, but their only friend. There is nothing about Spider, Kiri, and Lo'ak's dynamic that implies Spider is the only one seeking them out. They mutually seek each others' company because they all feel like outcasts among their respective species.

Why does Spider call the Sully kids his siblings? Kiri started calling him her brother first. In vol 1 of THG, Kiri tells Spider he's like another brother to her. Shortly after this is when Spider starts referring to the Sully kids as his family. Since Spider has no biological family and a bad relationship with his foster family, it's understandable he would latch onto the people who actually care for him and explicitly say they feel like he's their family member.

Why does Spider insert himself into the Omaticaya? Kiri insists he joins them. in Vol 1 of THG, Spider is present for a Na'vi celebration and Neytiri asks him to leave because he's not a part of their family. Spider is perfectly okay with this and he starts to excuse himself, but Kiri stops him and insists he stay because he is a part of their family. Later, in Vol 2 of THG, the Sullies and the Omaticaya are evacuating to High Camp while Spider's foster family and most of the other humans choose to surrender to the RDA. Spider is initially upset and begs Jake to come with them, but after Jake scolds him, Spider accepts the adults' choice and willingly stays in Hell's Gate, waiting to surrender to the RDA. Kiri, on the other hand, insists Spider come with them to High Camp and goes back for him. This results in Kiri, Lo'ak, and Tuk getting captured by Spider's foster dad and Spider needing to rescue them. In both of these instances, when Spider is told he's unwelcome somewhere, he is okay with it and backs off, but Kiri is the one who fights for him to stay. The only instance where Spider insists he has a right to stay of his own volition is when Jake asks him to turn himself into the RDA soldiers hunting them after Spider helped the Sully kids escape his foster father. Since the RDA likely would've imprisoned, tortured, or even killed Spider for helping the valuable hostages escape, Spider's insistence he stay with the Sullies is completely understandable.

Why does Spider paint himself blue and emulate the Na'vi lifestyle? Kiri again. The only time we see Spider applying his stripes on screen, Kiri is right there helping him. From this we can assume that Kiri and possibly also Lo'ak regularly help Spider apply his stripes since he wouldn't be able to paint his back without help. And while we don't have exact information on when Spider started wearing a loincloth and behaving like a Na'vi, I think we can safely assume Kiri and her siblings are the ones who encouraged this behavior.

After analyzing the origins of what Neytiri perceives as "entitlement," it becomes clear it's not really entitlement at all. Spider never does something he has not been "invited" to do by Kiri or Lo'ak. Spider is not trying to cross any boundaries and he's not trying to hurt anyone; he's just a lonely orphan who has latched onto the only people who show him real care.

From Spider's perspective, Neytiri hates him for no reason other than his dad. In actuality, Neytiri's strong feelings aren't just about who is dad is, but moreso about the way he behaves on top of who his dad is. Neytiri doesn't have a "blind hatred" for him like Spider believes, but she has a deep trauma-rooted discomfort with his proximity to her family in the context of his heritage, and this discomfort makes her lash out at him. But of course Spider doesn't understand this because he's A. a teenage boy with limited emotional intelligence and B. has no reason to think there's anything wrong with his behavior because Kiri and Lo'ak encourage it so enthusiastically. With Spider's limited understanding, it makes sense that he chalks up Neytiri's behavior as "she hates me!"

So we have these two wildly different perspectives. Neytiri views Spider as an entitled invader and she doesn't understand why he can't just leave her family alone, and Spider views Neytiri as a cruel woman who judges him for his heritage and he can't understand why she can't just let him hang out with his "siblings" in peace. When these two different perspectives clash, it gets ugly, and leads to scenes like the time Neytiri lunged at Spider (to attack him? shake him? it's unclear) and Spider yelling at Neytiri and blaming her for his situation (which is really Quaritch's fault for making his postpartum mother fight).

Then we have Kiri's perspective. Kiri loves her mother and her best friend, but doesn't seem to understand why her mom doesn't want her best friend around and she also doesn't seem to understand why her best friend thinks her mom hates him. In vol 1 of THG, she even tells Spider that Neytiri loves him. Ironically, even though Kiri clearly wants her mom and her best friend to get along, she is inadvertently the source of most of their issues. In all the instances where Spider's behavior makes Neytiri upset, we can trace the behavior back to Kiri as outlined in the bullet points above. The more Kiri pushes for Spider to stay close, the more it triggers Neytiri trauma, the more Neytiri lashes out Spider, the more Spider thinks she hates him, and the closer Kiri gets to Spider to comfort him and try and prove him wrong. It's a vicious cycle.

And just to be clear, I'm not trying to say Kiri is at fault for Neytiri and Spider's relationship. Kiri and Spider are just kids with little understanding of the trauma Neytiri has been through. They just know they enjoy spending time with each other, and neither of them fully understand why it makes Neytiri so upset. Neytiri, on the other hand, is not a kid... she is not responsible for her trauma and for her negative feelings towards Spider, but she is responsible for her behavior towards him.

The one thing I don't understand is why neither Neytiri nor Jake nipped Kiri's behavior in the bud before it got to the point where it is now. If Kiri keeps calling Spider her brother and insisting he stay for family celebrations, and it's obviously very upsetting to Neytiri, why did neither of her parents sit her down and let her know its inappropriate? Spider was clearly okay with being left out of the events. If they'd talked about it with Kiri, they would've avoided all that strife in the first place. Hell, Spider wouldn't even be around them anymore because he would've surrendered to the RDA and lived in Bridgehead if not for Kiri insisting he come with them!

And actually, why didn't they stop the kids from spending so much time together in the first place? Neytiri was telling Jake she didn't like Spider around her kids since they were very little. Why did they continue to let them play together if it made her so uncomfortable? Was Jake letting it happen behind her back? Were the kids sneaking away to play with Spider? Did Neytiri let it happen because she thought they would grow out of it or something? At that age, parents have a lot of control over their kids lives, and I don't understand why Neytiri didn't just redirect her kids to play with anyone other than Spider if it upset her so much. In THG, Neytiri threatened to ban Spider from seeing Kiri, but she did it way too late. The kids were teenagers at that point and already saw each other as family, so if she tried to separate them they would've just snuck out and seen each other anyway. If Neytiri is okay with putting a "ban" on Spider, why did she wait until they were teens and much more difficult to control to do so?

I know the "real" answer is because James Cameron wants ✨DRAMA✨ but I'm wondering if there's an in-universe explanation cause it just doesn't make sense to me. I guess the most realistic answer is that Jake let it happen knowing full well Neytiri didn't like it, but he let it slide anyway because he didn't want to say no to the kids. Jake had two choices. He could've A. honored Neytiri's wishes and separated the children before they bonded or B. sat down with Neytiri and let her know Spider is here to stay and that she can't lash out at him. Either choice would've resulted in a much better outcome for everyone involved, but then again, it would've had a lot less drama so I understand why the writers didn't have that happen instead. Actually, now that I'm typing it out, it is pretty in character for Jake to ignore a giant problem right in front of him and hope it'll go away on it's own (that's how we lost Hometree, Eytukan, and Neteyam rip). I guess we're going to see this situation blow up in Jake's face in Avatar 3, just like his other ignore-the-problem-and-hope-it-goes-away situations did. I just hope that this situation will have a better outcome for everyone involved.

It just frustrates me because I feel like all this could've been resolved years ago if Jake and Neytiri had sat Kiri and Spider down and had a discussion about boundaries, but there's too much bad blood between Neytiri and Spider for an easy resolution now...

Anyways, if you made it this far, thanks for reading, didn't mean to turn this into a whole essay lol. Please share your thoughts with me if you have any!