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Lang’s performance as the utterly ruthless Quaritch promises to be a very high bar to meet for Fire & Ash‘s new antagonist, the Ash People’s leader Varang (Oona Chaplin). However, she has already gone a long way to accomplishing exactly that goal in the Fire & Ash trailer, in a scene with Varang holding Neytiri’s daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) hostage. In the scene in question, Varang coldly sneers at Neytiri, “Your goddess has no dominion here”. With just that one line of dialogue from Varang, the Fire & Ash trailer has already sold her as the villainous equal of Quaritch.
There Is More to the Na’vi Religion Than We’ve Seen (So Far)
Varang’s cold-blooded line in the Avatar: Fire and Ash trailer has a number of layers to it that highlight what kind of villainess she will be and even some possible new details about life on Pandora. To begin with, Varang’s reference to Eywa’s lack of dominion on the Ash Clan’s territory (Eywa being the Na’vi goddess from the first two Avatar movies being referenced) really sells her as having no reluctance to kill her enemies and rub it in the faces of their families. Whether Varang is taking Kiri hostage or is ready to kill her right then and there, she clearly has no reluctance to do either, already setting her up as a chilling villainess in Fire & Ash.
Additionally, Varang’s reference to Eywa could reveal that the Na’vi are actually polytheistic. The previous two Avatar movies seemingly centered Eywa as either the sole or at least primary deity worshipped by the Na’vi, with the indigenous population of Pandora even having a direct link to Eywa through the planet’s vast forests and their ability to interface with the Tree of Souls. Varang’s line could suggest that the Na’vi’s religion is either polytheistic or that the Ash Clan prays to a different but equally powerful deity of their own. In turn, Varang’s suggestion that Eywa has no power in the Ash Clan’s territory is the first real restriction the Avatar franchise has placed upon Eywa’s power and omnipresence, which could hint at a far larger Na’vi cosmology than even what the first two Avatar movies revealed.
Avatar: Fire & Ash Focuses on the Na’vi’s Tribal Conflicts
While the first two Avatar movies based their conflicts on a humans versus Na’vi story, Avatar: Fire & Ash will be the first installment of the franchise in which Na’vi characters will have an antagonistic role. In Fire & Ash, the Ash People are a far more aggressive and war-prone tribe compared to the generally peaceful (but certainly war-capable) Omaticaya and Metkayina tribes seen previously. What isn’t immediately clear is what causes the Ash People to declare war on their fellow Na’vi, or whether they have always been hostile to other Na’vi, but it seems that the franchise’s bloodthirsty villain Miles Quaritch (hosting a Na’vi body since The Way of Water) plays a role in the conflict.
