Avatar Theory Time: What If Eywa's "plan" For Humanity Is Similar To The Swarm From Love Death & Robots?

Avatar Theory Time: What if Eywa's "plan" for humanity is similar to the Swarm from Love Death & Robots? 🤔

So I was watching Love Death & Robots the other day (great sci-fi show, highly recommend!) and the episode, "Swarm," got me thinking about what Eywa will do in the future of the franchise. Also, I put "plan" in quotes because it's still unclear what Eywa's capacity is to understand and react to the world around her. Regardless of if Eywa is a rational, intelligent being that can plan ahead or is more like a non-sentient super-organism just reacting to stimuli in its environment, my theory about what Eywa will do in the future remains the same.

To give an overview, "Swarm" is about a pair of human scientists who go to investigate a diverse insect-like alien colony they refer to as the Swarm. The female scientist genuinely wants to learn about the Swarm, but the male scientist sees potential in exploiting the Swarm to create an army of alien slaves. Eventually, he talks the female scientist into helping him, arguing that the aliens aren't sentient so it wouldn't really be cruel to enslave them. Little do they know, the Swarm does possess a hidden hivemind-like intelligence. This intelligence senses the threat they pose and reacts by gruesomely assimilating the female scientist into its hivemind, which gives it access to her memories and lets it better understand the threat humanity poses to it. The Swarm tells the surviving male scientist that it will use them to breed its own "humans" to protect itself from humanity, revealing that some of the insectoid members of the Swarm are actually descendants of once-intelligent races that tried to exploit the Swarm, but ended up being absorbed into it just like the female scientist.

In light of some of the leaked info we've found, I think Eywa and the actions she will take to protect herself from humanity might be similar (though more benevolent) to the Swarm.

Just like in the LD&R episode, humans came to Pandora to exploit its resources, and were surprised when Eywa reacted to their presence with her "immune response." Eywa only triggered her immune response after she absorbed Grace's consciousness/memories and Jake warned her that humans would do to Pandora what they did to Earth, giving her a better understanding of the danger humanity posed and the necessity of fighting back against them. This is similar to how the Swarm gained a better understanding of humanity after absorbing the female scientist into its hivemind.

Now to get into some of the speculative territory: by now, most of us have seen the leaks about Spider gaining the miraculous ability to breathe the Pandoran atmosphere despite the fact that humans are in no way adapted to breathe in that environment. This concept felt completely far-fetched for the Avatar universe when I first heard it, however, it came from a real script accidentally shown in the Avatar BTS footage, confirming that its a concept they currently are or previously were considering in the Avatar universe. Ever since I first heard about it, I've been turning it over and over in my mind wondering how and why this would happen to Spider, especially since it there is no precedence for something like that being possible in the Avatar universe.

Watching "Swarm" made me wonder if adapting Spider's body to survive on Pandora is part of some greater "plan" to protect Pandora from humanity. With how technologically advanced the humans are, it's clear that Eywa's immune response won't cut it anymore, and she'll need to do something more drastic if she's going to keep Pandora safe. In LD&R, the Swarm protected itself from multiple intelligent races that wanted to exploit it by assimilating them into its colony. The races that were assimilated ended up evolving from their original forms to be better suited for life in the colony, which included losing their intelligence and becoming mindless drones just like the colony's natives. I think Eywa might do something similar to the humans that come to Pandora (or only to the friendly humans), assimilating them into her biosphere where she'd have sway over them just how she has sway over the Na'vi and discourages them from harming the environment. Sort of a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" situation. The main difference being that the Swarm is doing this aggressively whereas Eywa seems like a more benevolent entity.

To be clear, I am NOT a believer in the Eywa-is-evil-and-controls-the-Na'vi-by-forcing-them-to-stay-in-the-stone-age theory. I see it more like a symbiotic relationship, where the Na'vi have free will and choose not to harm the environment because Eywa connects to them and provides them with everything they need. If humans were given everything they needed, it would remove the incentive for exploiting the environment for resources, and they would be able to coexist with Eywa like the Na'vi do.

All this would ultimately result in an ending with a positive message where some of the humans stay on Pandora and can live there without being dependent upon technology to survive, and the rest of the humans return to Earth and do some Wall-E type stuff to reverse the pollution damage and make the planet livable. And if the Earth humans ever get too greedy and want to exploit Pandora again, the Pandoran humans are there to act as diplomats or soldiers to protect Pandora from exploitation. The fact that they are human themselves means they can react to any human threats with more intelligence than simply throwing wild animals at them until the problem goes away.

TLDR: Eywa has a long-term plan to protect Pandora from the human invasion by assimilating friendly humans into her biosphere, similar to how the Swarm protected itself against humanity by breeding its own "human" soldiers.

What do you guys think of this idea? Am I onto something or am I just slowly going crazy waiting for Avatar 3 lol? Do you have any other theories for the long-term fate of humanity in the Avatar franchise? And why the heck is Spider going to be able to breathe the poisonous atmosphere???

I love this 💙

Sorry, lovies, no updates on Silent As Shadows or Weaving The Web yet…been in a real bad funk lately and I’m pretty sure work stole my muse as well as my time and sanity! In the meantime, here’s the finished piece of that little closeup of Rey’ka’s face…

The kids were suffering different types of exhaustion by this point in the story…but they’re in good hands. Each other’s.🕷️💙✨

Hi I Love Blood Is Thicker Than Water.❤️❤️❤️

Do you have any other Spider and Quaritch Fanfic Planned?

I'm glad you enjoyed it 💙

Yes, I do have another multi-chapter Spider and Quaritch fanfic planned that would act as a sequel to my one shot, "Don't Ask Questions You Already Know The Answer To," but I'm not ready to start it yet. I need a break after BITTW, plus my personal life is very busy rn. In the meantime, I'm gonna get around to answering the awesome writing prompts folks have sent me with some one-shots!

Even though I haven't started writing it yet and probably won't for a long while, I wrote up a little description of it just for fun :) lmk what you think!

"Along Came Spider"

Quaritch spent his whole life knowing exactly what he believed in: a better future for humanity, no matter the cost— even if that cost was murder. He never doubted himself, never questioned his mission. His loyalty never wavered.

And then along came Spider.

Now, Quaritch has thrown away everything he ever believed in for the sake of his son. The RDA brands him a traitor for disobeying orders, while the Na’vi outcast Spider for saving his life. With no plan and no allies, they’re forced to flee to a strange, harsh land inhabited by a clan that’s even stranger and harsher. Taken prisoner by this tribe of heretical warriors, the only thing they can depend on is each other. But even with all the bridges they burned, the past still haunts them. Quaritch nurses his hunger for revenge against Jake, while Spider dreams of forgiveness from his friends. Surviving their new captors and their unhealed wounds will either drive the father and son further apart, or bring them closer than ever before— if they survive at all.

2/9 pages of my little comic finished :)

(click for better quality!)

I haven't felt up to writing lately, but I decided to try my hand at a longer format comic. It's my interpretation of what could happen in Avatar three based on the leaks, specifically that one where Jake and Quaritch are sitting together talking while Spider is asleep. I kept turning that script page over and over in my head wondering how the hell they went from fighting to the death to having a civil discussion and this is the result! I already have all 9 pages outlined and sketched, but I've only finished the first 2 so far. I can't wait to share the full story with y'all!

And to those of you who have sent me writing prompts: they are not forgotten, they are safely in my ask box and I will get to them some day 💙💙💙

I will never not be salty that all the social media sites advertised Spider as the Sullies adopted son leading up to Avatar 2. I thought the idea of an interspecies family was so sweet and I got really attached to the idea of Spider being a part of their family despite being a different species. I had all these little ideas in my head about Spider going through insecurities about being human but his loving parents and siblings would always reassure him that he belongs just as much as the others do. I was really excited to see how it would play out in the theater (rookie mistake, I know).

And then Avatar 2 came out and I got hit with "hE wAs LiKe A sTrAy CaT🤪🤪🤪" like??? um??? sir, I was told that was your son 😭😭😭

(to be clear, I'm not blaming James Cameron or the writers for the choice to not give Spider an adoptive family after he was orphaned, bc they're clearly setting up a character arc for him that requires he start out as an orphan. I'm mad at the stupid movie news sites for presenting the misinformation as fact!)

But I'm holding out hope for Spider to get adopted in the future bc I did some research and the misinformation all traces back to this one quote from producer John Landau: “Jake took him in but Neytiri always saw him as one of the people who destroyed her home and killed her father, so you have all these dynamics playing out.”

The key phrase here being "Jake took him in." As of the beginning of A2, Jake made it clear Spider was just a stray to him and has in no way "taken him in." This makes me think Landau got the timeline of A2 and A3 mixed up (which is possible, since the two were filmed simultaneously and it would be easy to confuse what happened in which movie) and when he refers to Spider being "taken in" he's referring to Jake's treatment of Spider in A3. This would line up with Jake's use of the "a son for a son" line as he embraces Spider at the end of A2.

Long story short, I've got my fingers crossed that Spider will finally get a loving family just like all the other child characters, bc all kids deserve to have a loving family (and no Quaritch doesn't count, but he gets a pity point because he tried at the very end)

Neytiri with her little boyssss

(No angst for real spider is her son here)

Death Predictions for Avatar

🟢Definitely not dying🟢

Lo'ak: bro's being set up as the new mc, JamCam's definitely not gonna kill him off

Tsireya: as the new mc's love interest, she's safe, cause this is a traditional blockbuster and we can't have a happy ending without the mc starting a family of his own after all the fighting's done.

Tuk: the Sully family has suffered enough after Neteyam

Neytiri: JAMES FRANCIS CAMERON DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT

🟡Possibly dying🟡

Jake: with Lo'ak being set up as the new mc, I could see Jake dying in the final conflict of movie 5, or passing away in a flashforward of old age

Kiri: they're clearly setting her up to be a messiah-like figure and messiah-like figures have a nasty habit of sacrificing themselves to save everyone else. I could see her death being similar to Princess Yue from the less-blue Avatar, like the humans somehow find a way to harm Eywa and Kiri sacrifices herself to bring Eywa back or something.

Spider: whether or not he dies is gonna hinge entirely on what Quaritch's character development demands, cause that seems to be the reason Spider's character exists. Just how Neteyam's death was used to motivate Jake, Neytiri, and Lo'ak's characters, if Spider dies, it will be used as motivation for Quaritch. It could be a positive "my son would've wanted this so I'm gonna be good now" thing or a "my son is dead and I got nothing to lose so i'm gonna kill everybody" thing.

Norm: Norm is important enough that the audience would feel sad if he died, but he's not important enough that the plot would suffer from his absence, so I can definitely see him on the chopping block.

Mo'at: she's a grandma. Grandmas die sometimes :(

🔴Definitely dying🔴

Quaritch: I'm calling it right now. Quaritch is gonna be an asshole throughout the whole franchise, and then at the last second he's gonna have a change of heart, do one (1) good thing, and then die so he won't have to face the consequences of his actions. This has been cliche since Terminator 2, but then again JC wrote terminator 2 so can you really call it cliche if you made the cliche?

Aonung: Sylwanin, Tom Sully, Tsu'tey, Neteyam... I'm starting to think JC has something against older siblings. Sorry Aonung.

Wainfleet: the second Neytiri learns he's the guy who shot Neteyam it's over for his bald ass.

Scoresby: Payakan should've gone for the head and he's not gonna make the same mistake twice.

Ardmore: she's the head honcho now. Probably gonna get an arrow to the chest in A3.