Warning: This piece contains spoilers for Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Grab your ikrans and fly to your nearest cinema, sci-fi fans, because Avatar: Fire and Ash is now in theaters. The third of five planned entries in James Cameron’s epic space opera, this installment sees Jake Sully and his family continue their war against the Resources Development Administration and the Recombinant version of Colonel Miles Quaritch while also dealing with a new threat in the form of Varang and the Ash People, villainous Na’vi with an affinity for fire. Reviews have skewed positive with some reservations, but IGN’s Max Scoville was particularly impressed with this installment as an ending to the first Avatar trilogy, writing in his 9/10 review that the film is “an immensely gratifying finale that’s well worth the wait.”
Still, even with its impressive technical achievements and enjoyable action set pieces, some aspects of the film have left us scratching our heads. Let’s dive into the biggest burning questions we have after Avatar: Fire and Ash!
Why is Varang Not a Bigger Part of the Story?
If you went by the trailers and the title, you’d likely assume that Varang (Oona Chaplin), the leader of the Ash People, would be Fire and Ash’s main antagonist. She’s certainly the film’s most exciting addition to the Avatar mythology, with Chaplin blazing onto the screen with a level of menace and sexuality that we haven’t yet seen in the franchise. Essentially a cross between a warrior queen and a blood witch, Varang hooks up with Stephen Lang’s Colonel Quaritch (in more ways than one), and the two seem set to be co-villains ready to literally take the fire to the Sully clan… until they don’t. The back half of the film doesn’t forget that Varang exists, but she becomes much less important in the later acts as the film settles into a retread of Avatar: The Way of Water’s finale. We end up learning very little about the Ash People’s way of life and how they use fire beyond a couple of weapons and minor rituals, and there’s only one scene set in their home territory, which is an encampment at the base of a volcano. Varang is apparently set to reappear in Avatar 4 and 5, but given that this film is called “Fire and Ash,” we can’t help but wonder why this movie doesn’t make more use of the, well, fire and ash people.
Why Didn’t Eywa Help the Ash People in Their Time of Need?
Speaking of the Ash People, also known as the Mangkwan clan, one of the most interesting aspects of their culture is that unlike other Na’vi clans, they reject the traditional Na’vi goddess, Eywa. Varang explains that this is because of an event that occurred when she was a child: The volcano near where the Mangkwan lived erupted and destroyed their forest, and when they asked Eywa for help, she did not come to their aid. Enraged by this rejection, the Mangkwan reinvented themselves as bloodthirsty raiders who despise Eywa and her followers, with Varang assuming leadership of the clan when she became an adult. But this can’t help but raise the question of why Eywa ignored the Mangkwan in their time of need, since they apparently did worship her in the past. Jake's wife, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), said in the first film that Eywa doesn’t “choose sides” and only protects the balance of life, but that’s a poor excuse when all three films involve Eywa sending Pandoran creatures to help the heroes during their final battles. So what gives? Does Eywa pick and choose who she likes? Or will we learn more about why the Mangkwan were forsaken in the coming sequels?
Why Did Eywa Resist Connecting with Kiri?
On the subject of Eywa, one of Fire and Ash’s subplots is about Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the immaculately conceived daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine’s avatar, repeatedly attempting to commune with Eywa only to be pushed away. It even puts her life in danger, with the Sullys’ human allies Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) and Max Patel (Dileep Rao) telling her that if she keeps trying, she will likely go into epileptic shock and die. While the danger of Kiri’s epilepsy was seeded in The Way of Water, the idea of Eywa pushing back against Kiri’s attempts to communicate with her is new to Fire and Ash but not adequately explained. Kiri’s role in the story is like a Na’vi version of a Jedi; she can sense the energy connecting all living things on Pandora, and can “hear” Eywa’s heartbeat across the planet. She uses her powers to save the family from drowning in The Way of Water, and she saves Spider (Jack Champion) from Pandora’s poisonous air in Fire and Ash. So why does Eywa not accept Kiri’s psychic link until the end of Fire and Ash, when Spider and her younger sister, Tuktirey (Trinity Bliss), help her out? Hopefully the next film will give us the answer.
What’s the Deal with the Wind Traders?
We get not one but two new Na’vi clans in Fire and Ash, with the second being the Tlalim, more commonly known as the Wind Traders. They travel via airships carried along by medusas and windrays, and are led by Peylak (David Thewlis). One of the early action sequences involves Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family traveling with the Wind Traders and protecting them from a raid by Varang and her warriors. All well and good, but the Wind Traders just show up without much introduction, and don’t serve a role in the plot beyond being a catalyst for that early action scene that subsequently splits up the characters into smaller groups. What makes this more confusing is that Peylak hesitates to let the Sullys travel with him at first, saying that harboring Toruk Makto (Jake became one of the few to ever ride a Toruk in the first film) could be read as “taking sides,” and the Wind Traders try to remain neutral. But neutral to whom? The only Na’vi who don’t respect Toruk Makto that we know about are the Mangkwan, and they are clearly hostile to the Wind Traders already. Do the Wind Traders do business with the RDA? If so, we don’t see it, but perhaps this too will be explored in future sequels.
Did General Ardmore Die?
Another returning face from The Way of Water is Edie Falco as General Frances Ardmore, the head of the RDA’s current mission on Pandora. As Colonel Quaritch’s direct superior in the chain of command, she is functionally the overarching antagonist of both this film and The Way of Water. However, Fire and Ash is a bit fuzzy as to her fate. She takes a more hands-on approach to the war with the Na’vi in this film, directly leading the RDA’s forces into battle with the Metkayina clan in her personal flagship, the Dragonfly. But when the battle turns against her, and it becomes clear that the Dragonfly is going to be destroyed by a magnetic field, she gives the order to abandon ship. That seems simple enough, and we would assume she would have fled with her crew, but one last shot of the Dragonfly’s interior before it’s destroyed shows a figure in a uniform that looks similar to Ardmore’s. We couldn’t tell if it was her or not; did she decide to go down with her ship? Her whereabouts aren’t addressed after that, but given that she is the highest ranking member of the series’ main villainous faction, we’d like some clarification on this point.
What Happened to Dr. Ian Garvin After He Helped Jake Escape Custody?
One of the major developments in Fire and Ash’s middle act is Quaritch successfully capturing Jake and taking him back to General Ardmore’s base. This is also where he reveals to Ardmore that he has made an alliance with Varang and the Ash People. While Neytiri hatches a rescue plan, Jake also receives some inside help from Dr. Ian Garvin (Jemaine Clement), the marine biologist introduced in The Way of Water who is an expert on the Tulkun, Pandora’s talking whales. Garvin turning against the RDA is well set up; he’s clearly disgusted with Tulkun hunter Mick Scoresby (Brendan Cowell) in The Way of Water, and learning in this film that Ardmore has sanctioned an operation to mass slaughter hundreds of Tulkun during their gathering ceremony is what pushes him over the edge. But although Garvin is clearly on the good side now, what happened to him after he helps Jake escape isn’t shown. He doesn’t join Jake’s human allies at the Omatikaya outpost (at least not on-screen), and the RDA would likely imprison him for what he did. Did he slip out on his own? We want to know.
What Was the RDA’s Plan For Breathing Pandora’s Air?
During Fire and Ash, Spider runs out of oxygen for his mask and nearly dies from Pandora’s toxic air. He’s saved by Kiri, who uses her powers to alter Spider’s physiology, imbuing him with what's described as a fungal growth inside his lungs that makes him immune to the toxins. The process is visually similar to the way Neytiri’s mother, Mo’at (CCH Pounder), transferred Jake’s mind into his avatar body at the end of the first film. When Spider is captured by Quaritch, scientists working for Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) discover the growth, and Selfridge says that they need to duplicate it in others so humans can colonize Pandora. However, this raises the question of what the RDA’s plan for breathing Pandora’s air was before now. In The Way of Water, General Ardmore says she was given the mission of making Pandora the new “home for humanity” because Earth is dying. But the RDA has been trying to colonize Pandora for decades, so how come an alternate plan hasn’t been mentioned before now? Was everyone just supposed to wear gas masks forever? It feels like a pretty big oversight to make a new home for humanity on a planet where you literally can’t breathe.
Why Does Jake Spend So Much Time Trying to Convince Quaritch to Switch Sides?
Another one of Fire and Ash’s new subplots is about Jake trying to convince Quaritch to embrace the Na’vi part of himself and defect from the RDA. Jake says that Quaritch could learn “to see” the beauty in Pandora multiple times, and seems to believe that there’s still some good in his old Colonel. But after three movies of the pair being bitter rivals, we can’t help but ask: Why is Jake so concerned with trying to change Quaritch’s allegiance? This is the man who has not just tried to kill Jake on many occasions, but has also repeatedly threatened the lives of his children. In the last movie, Quaritch literally said, “I’ll kill your whole family.” So why does Jake have faith in his mortal enemy? The argument could be made that Quaritch not willing to let Spider be murdered by Neytiri in The Way of Water was Jake’s hint at Quaritch’s potential goodness, but that’s just one instance, and Quaritch has continued to hunt the Sully clan since then. Quaritch is a ruthless military man who was a major part of a genocidal war campaign, so Jake believing he could change is a bit of a stretch. And he doesn’t change in this film beyond saving Spider again, so will this thread go somewhere in the sequels? We’ll have to wait to find out.
Why Was This Story Split Into Two Movies When It Retreads The Way of Water?
In James Cameron’s original plan for the Avatar series, there were only four films. Fire and Ash was added to the slate later on when Cameron decided to split The Way of Water’s story into two movies, something he talked about in an interview with DiscussingFilm. However, now that we’ve seen both entries, we can’t help but wonder if the split was even necessary, since Fire and Ash repeats several plot beats from its predecessor. There’s Spider being captured by the RDA and Quaritch going into his cell to connect with him; the Metkayina and RDA in a stand-off predicated on Jake handing himself over to Quaritch; Kiri nearly dying from an epileptic seizure when trying to connect with Eywa; and a final battle on the water outside the Metkayina village with Jake dueling Quaritch on foot and a Tulkun leaping out of the water to capsize a ship. Given how much recycling the filmmakers had to do to fill out Fire and Ash’s runtime, it doesn’t feel like the most was made out of the decision to split the story into two installments. The final battle is particularly egregious, because it’s essentially the same scene in the same location, just bigger. We would’ve liked to have seen a finale that better incorporated Varang and the Ash People – why not a final battle at the volcano? Maybe next time?
Will There Be More Avatar Films?
Speaking of next time, the biggest question coming out of Fire and Ash is whether or not Cameron and Disney will follow through on their ambitious five-film plan. We don’t anticipate Fire and Ash will fail at the box office or anything – not after the previous films each cleared $2 billion worldwide – but given that not a lot substantially changes in this film compared to the last one (the Sullys are still with the Metkayina, Quaritch is still on the dark side, etc.), will audiences come away feeling satisfied enough to be excited for the next entry? Cameron is hedging his bets on this front, admitting that if Fire and Ash doesn’t turn a profit, he’s ready to walk away from the franchise and write the end of the story as a book. He also said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he has “other stories to tell” beyond Avatar, but will always be involved in the franchise: “I’m not saying I’m going to step away as a director, but I’m going to pull back from being as hands-on with every tiny aspect of the process.” Cameron has already shot the first third of Avatar 4, so we find it unlikely that at least one more film won’t be made. But will it get all the way to 5, which is currently scheduled for release in 2031? We can’t say for sure, but we’re certainly interested to see how the Avatar saga wraps up either way.
What did you think of Avatar: Fire and Ash? Did you have any burning questions that we missed? Let us know in the comments!
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles, and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.
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