Neytiri Has Suffered More Than MCU Thor. Here’s Why
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By the time of Avatar: The Way of Water, Neytiri has suffered substantial emotional abuse due to witnessing firsthand attacks on Pandora and its people. Neytiri is the female Na’vi partner of Jake Sully in James Cameron’s Avatar. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the audience witnesses Thor go through many stages of grief by the time of Thor: Love and Thor. Unlike Thor, Neytiri holds an emotional and biological bond with her home Pandora. Neytiri can emotionally connect with Pandora’s forests, unlike Thor with Asgard.
At the Tree of Voices, Neytiri can communicate with her deceased sister, Sylwanin. Neytiri has received visions from the Hometree and has been religiously instilled with the Three Laws of Eywa. These laws consist of not building large stone structures, not using the wheel or unnatural means of travel, and not using Pandora’s metals. However, Thor has been charged with protecting the Nine Realms for the last fifteen hundred years by Odin and Frigga. By the end of Thor: Love and Thunder, eight years have passed, and Thor is content with raising his daughter Love and going on adventures with Stormbreaker and Mjolnir. How Neytiri has chosen to work through her grief shows that Neytiri and Thor relate on matters of grief, anger, and sadness.
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During the Assault on Hometree, Neytiri essentially loses her version of Asgard and Odin. Eytukan is gravely wounded in the blast that destroyed Hometree. Anyone watching their dad die and their childhood home fall to ash would be permanently scared, and the image seared in their mind. Unfortunately for Thor, Asgard’s demise at the hands of Hela followed shortly after Odin’s passing, leading to the deaths of many of Thor’s friends like Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg. Notably, Thor was in grief and anguish after Avengers: Infinity War. Thor reacted to his trauma by falling into a deep depression. Neytiri responded to her trauma similarly to Hawkeye.
After the loss of crucial family members, both Neytiri and Hawkeye proceed to kill humans they deem worthy of their justice. It takes Clint Barton’s family to be revived for Clint to stop killing, and with the Tree of Voices being destroyed, Neytiri can not commune with Sylwanin. Much of Thor’s initial stages of grief are shown on screen, whereas Neytiri has a considerable time jump in Avatar: The Way of Water. By the time the audience sees Neytiri again, Neytiri outright hates all humans and has helped Jake Sully form a cohesive movement to prevent the colonization of humans on Pandora. Neytiri even tries to take every chance to remind Jake and Spider that Spider belongs with his kind. Thor can move past his grievances because he can get closure. Thor heals and develops a perspective by raising the God Butcher’s daughter as his own. Neytiri has not yet reached that level of acceptance and cannot completely recover from the trauma caused by the RDA.
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After the Assault on the Tree of Souls, Neytiri’s losses begin to pile up, with many Na’vi forces slain, including Neytiri’s closest friends, Tsu’tey and SeZe. Tsu’tey and Neytiri were platonically close as Neytiri’s sister Sylwanin was deeply in love and was previously betrothed to Tsu’tey. For many years Tsu’tey continued to protect and look out for Neytiri under the guiding eye of Eywa. Tsu’tey perished bravely, defending the Tree of Souls. SeZe is the turquoise-colored Mountain Banshee that Neytiri rides in James Cameron’s Avatar. Mountain Banshees only choose a single rider to bond with within their lifetime. SeZe would slowly die by bleeding out in front of Neytiri. If SeZe bleeding out was not enough punishment for Neytiri, keep in mind that Neytiri was using Tsaheylu while SeZe was being shot. Tsaheylu allows Neytiri to make emotional and mental connections with other Pandoran native creatures. Neytiri heard every cry and felt every shot fired in SeZe felt in her final moments.
The infamous Loki remarkably cheats death like it’s just another Monday. However, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Loki officially dies at Thanos’s hand. Thor watches Loki’s last painful moments with no actual way of being able to help Loki. Sylwanin, the deceased older sister of Neytiri, went to Doctor Augustine’s school before diplomatic relations with the RDA and the Na’vi were closed off. Neytiri, Tsu’tey, and Sylwanin attended Doctor Augustine’s school to learn as much as possible about one another. Unfortunately, Neytiri wasn’t as understanding of the situation as Sylwanin.
Eventually, Sylwanin would destroy RDA equipment to protest the destruction of Pandora’s environment. Sylwanin’s protest would lead to her and a few other students being shot to death in front of Grace, Tsu’tey, and Neytiri. Sylwanin would slowly bleed out in front of Neytiri and Tsu’tey. Both Thor and Neytiri had to lie there, holding their sibling as they lay there dying and powerless to help their loved one. The shooting at Grace’s school would only be the first time Sylwanin dies in front of Neytiri. The second time Sylwanin dies is again at the hands of the RDA. The Na’vi return their spirits to Eywa and can be visited at sacred sites. Sylwanin’s sacred site was the Tree of Voices. The Tree of Voices is where Jake and Neytiri would give one another their hearts and mate for life. The following morning Neytiri would drag Jake’s lifeless body while witnessing the RDA destroying the Tree of Souls and every Na’vi consciousness contained within.
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There isn’t a loss quite like losing a child, let alone the firstborn. Neytiri and Jake would name their firstborn Neteyam. During Avatar: The Way of Water, Colonel Quaritch shoots and wounds Neteyam with a stray bullet. Neteyam was charged with protecting his siblings and was particularly close with Neytiri. Contrary to Neytiri, Thor has only just adopted Love and hopefully won’t in future Marvel content. Thor has been through enough emotional damage. Love’s biological father is actually Gorr, the God Butcher. The loss for Neytiri hits harder with Neteyam’s death with the mother-son imprinting and natural love for one another.
Overall, if the loss of her father turned Neytiri into an unforgiving racist ready to eradicate humans, one can only wonder about the lengths Neytiri may go to in future Avatar films.
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