Fire And Ash Proves Jake Sully Is The Worst

Eywa has no dominance here… but spoilers TO DO. Don’t read any further if you haven’t watched “Avatar: Fire & Ash” yet.

The “Avatar” films are cinematic spectacle at its finest. Each film features incredible world-building that makes Pandora a inhabited and tactile planet, as well as a sense of wonder unparalleled in Hollywood. Pandora seems real, at least Real enough to give you depression not being able to visit it.

In the third film, “Avatar: Fire and Ash”, the feeling of novelty of the marvelous waterscapes of “The Way of Water” is gone, but this allows James Cameron to double down on the plot and themes this time around. On the one hand, this is James Cameron at his most religious, with the film presenting a clash of religions and an exploration of what belief means. At its core, it’s also a film about rejecting pacifism in the face of annihilation, and why resisting aggression can’t bring peace when the other side doesn’t respect life itself. This is arguably also the film in which James Cameron strives to pass the torch to the next generation. We see this with the change in narrator and more focus on Jake Sully’s (Sam Worthington) children. This prompted many fans, including some of us here, to assume Jake wouldn’t make it out of the movie alive.

That didn’t happen, of course, but maybe it should have. That’s because Jake Sully is the worst, and “Avatar: Fire and Ash” proves it.

Jake Sully is the protagonist of the first “Avatar” and our entry into this Cameron-created world, also serving as Toruk Makto and, at one point, the leader of the Omatikaya clan. In “Fire and Ash”, however, he just sucks.

Let’s start with his fatherly skills. Jake is a horrible father, in every way. His children don’t listen to him and he doesn’t care to listen to them either. He already had his first born killed and his second almost killed himself in this movie. Then there’s Spider (Jack Champion), his adopted teenage son who Jake and Neytiri practically raised. What is good old Jake doing in this movie? Well, he does the whole Abraham thing and tries to murder Spider while the poor kid desperately tries to hold in his pee.

But wait, Jake is more of a sailor than anything else. He’s a leader, you say. Well, Jake is also a terrible leader for the Na’vi. He ignored every plea from his son Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) to listen to Payakan about the need to fight back, which meant they had almost no Tulkun army for the final fight. Oh, and there was that whole thing where Jake Sully tried to get the Na’vi to use human assault rifles and literally spit in the face of their entire way of life.

Truly, every decision Jake makes in “Fire and Ash” is the wrong one. He decides to run away and hide instead of fighting, which results in many casualties. He steals his big, rousing speech from “Planet of the Apes.” He’s a bad guy, and he doesn’t have to be the main guy.

Jake Sully has to go. He’s accomplished his goal and it’s time to let someone else take his place as the anchor of this franchise. Spiritually, Jake is no longer Eywa’s favorite child. Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) has taken her place as she now continues her own spiritual journey with the Great Mother as a strange, perfectly crafted child. Jake is also no longer the only one who can rally all the troops and call them to action, because Payakan is the hero who managed to convince the Tulkun to join the fight (Lo Ilped, man).

Jake has always been a problematic figure, arguably an example of white saviorism. He is at best a Lawrence of Arabia, and at worst a Paul Muad’Dib Atreides. Still, it’s not too late for Avatar to fix this problem. Jake can simply leave history and pass the torch to the next generation. His role is and always has been to light a spark rather than to lead. He is not the representative of the Na’vi, nor a messiah. He’s just the new Toruk Makto, a guy who was called to rally the Na’vi to defend their home. He’s not supposed to be the guy who will inspire the Na’vi to change their ways and go on the offensive to end the DDR once and for all, much less lead them to the canonical end of the franchise. as seen in the theme park.

But do you know who can lead them? Jake’s children. We’re already seeing Kiri become a new type of religious authority figure, while Lo’ak’s close connection to Payakan puts him in a unique position to take on Jake’s military/inspirational role.

We just need to get rid of Sully.