Fire And Ash’s Eywa Twist Was Hiding In Plain Sight

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

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” is a fascinating film. This is James Cameron’s first true sequel, and it suffers for it. Since the second and third “Avatar” films were meant to be one film before Cameron decided to separate them, there is a lot of overlap between “The Way of Water” and this film. That being said, simply saying “Fire and Ashes” is a repetition of themes and plot points completely misses the point of what Cameron does in this film.

This is by far the most plot-heavy and thematically dense film, with James Cameron exploring ideas such as pacifism (in his most outspoken critique to date), religion, identity, culture and parenting. Sure, some broad strokes are similar to “The Way of Water,” but this film introduces not one but two new and fascinating Na’vi clans that further flesh out the world of Pandora. There’s also a game-changing storyline in which Jack Champion’s spider becomes the first human being to not only breathe Pandora’s airbut evolve to develop a kuru, perform tsaheylu and connect to Eywa herself.

Eywa is a key character in “Avatar: Fire and Ash”, not only as a deity but also as a real player in the story. Cameron explores themes of religion and its role in society with this film, notably through Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the mysterious child of Grace Augustine (also Weaver), who has seizures every time she connects to Eywa. The film’s big reveal – that Kiri really doesn’t have a father – has been hidden in the film’s title all along.

The biggest reveal in “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is that Kiri has no father, but was created by Eywa as a clone of her mother Grace. Yes, Kiri is a baby Jesus, just as many audience members had already guessed when she was first introduced in “The Way of Water.”

This reveal was actually hinted at much earlier than that, dating back to the first film. This is because Kiri is heavily implied that she is not just a child of Eywa, but a personification of Eywa herself. This would explain why Kiri has difficulty communicating with the Great Mother, why she feels her heart beating, and why she can so easily connect to and even control Pandora’s wildlife whenever she wants – because she East the Great Mother who connects everything. The clue is in the title of the film: “Avatar”.

The word “avatar” is a concept in Hinduism used to refer to the incarnation of a deity – an appearance of a great spirit on the material plane. Na’vi avatars are, for example, incarnations of their human pilots in Na’vi bodies. In Kiri’s case, however, the fact that she was created by Eywa herself and has such a connection to the environment (just like Eywa) seems to indicate that she is more than just a miracle child. Instead, it is very likely that she is literally an avatar of Eywa, a manifestation of the deity… as Rei Ayanami in the classic “End of Evangelion”.

All that remains for Kiri/Eywa is to meet the radical atheist Varang (Oona Chaplin), determined to destroy the very image of Eywa in the eyes of the Na’vi.