After 16 Years, the Avatar Franchise’s Biggest Villain Finally Completes a Surprising Storyline

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Life on Pandora, as shown in the Avatar movies, isn’t easy. The Na’vi people desire peace, but humans – known as the Sky People – constantly interfere. Ultimately, humanity wants to exploit Pandora’s resources and send them back to Earth for profit, with any societal benefit being secondary. Things shift when Parker Selfridge learns about Spider in Avatar: Fire and Ash. Spider is unique – a human child raised by the Na’vi on Pandora – and becomes even more isolated after undergoing a significant change.

Spider nearly dies from lack of oxygen, but Kiri saves him by fundamentally altering his body to allow him to breathe the air of Pandora. Unfortunately, when the RDA captures him, they treat him as an experiment instead of a person, deepening his distress. His only ally among them is Miles Quaritch, who is also changing as he begins to understand the true nature of Pandora.

Avatar: Fire and Ash Allows Quaritch to Embrace His True Nature

In the first Avatar movie, Quaritch pretends to help Jake Sully earn the Na’vi’s trust, but it’s just a tactic to lower their defenses. He’d rather destroy the Na’vi than make peace with them. When he discovers Jake is switching sides, he attacks with everything the military has, but suffers a major defeat and dies. However, that isn’t the end of his story. He anticipated many possibilities, and in Avatar: The Way of Water, he returns as a Na’vi, determined to finish his mission against Jake. Though he fails again, the battle with the Metkayina Clan forces him to see things differently.

At the start of Fire and Ash, Quaritch persuades the RDA to allow him to resume his pursuit of Jake Sully. However, the Ash People reach Jake first. Quaritch then makes a deal with them: he provides them with weapons in exchange for their assistance in tracking down the Sully family and Spider. He quickly sees the benefits of this alliance, and also gains the favor of Varang, the leader of the Ash People, who develops a connection with him. This partnership causes friction within the RDA, but Quaritch seems more concerned with achieving his goals than maintaining his position. This significant change in strategy will have major implications for Avatar 4.

Quaritch Could Become More Friend Than Foe in the Final Two Avatar Movies

Okay, so the climax of Fire and Ash is just…wow. The battle between the Na’vi and the humans is back and forth, super intense, until Kiri connects with Eywa and really shifts things for the Na’vi. Honestly, Quaritch doesn’t seem to care about any of the human casualties – he’s completely fixated on finding Spider. It leads to this huge showdown between him and Jake, a fight over Spider’s future, but they’re forced to stop when Spider almost falls to his death. There’s this moment where Jake tries to reason with Quaritch, maybe even offer him a way out, but then his family shows up and everything goes crazy. Instead of listening to what Jake has to say, Quaritch just jumps off the floating rock and escapes, leaving things open for a sequel.

Now that Quaritch has completely fallen out with the RDA, he’s headed for the Ash People’s village. He’ll likely continue to immerse himself in their culture and maintain his position of power within the clan, as it gives him a sense of importance. When humans return to Pandora, he’ll almost certainly side with the Ash People rather than his former colleagues. It’s unclear if this will lead him to work with Jake Sully again, but he may have no other option if he wants to continue living well on Pandora.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters now.

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2025-12-21 20:42