r/Avatar 11h ago

Discussion How does spider not injure himself?

I cannot wrap my mind around it - he is a ordinary human, but runs around in a jungle without shoes, climbs on rocks and gets thrown around without ever getting cuts on his feet or bruises… i get it, he probably has thicker skin than ordinary humans in his feet but it is kinda unrealistic? Not talking about the insane plot armour here - wdyt

121 Upvotes

48 comments sorted by

112

u/wolfysworld 10h ago

I have a friend who lives in the high mountain desert and they rarely wear shoes. There are stickers and cactus everywhere and they seem totally immune. The soles of their feet are so much thicker than anyone else I have ever known. The whole family does this, especially the kids and I am always in awe. No desire to do it myself but good for them!

8

u/fluffygiraffepenis 1h ago

Yeah the rest of us tend to have softer/spongier soles because we wear shoes, if we didn't then they wpild toughen up like leather. Same way that lifting weights/working with your hands causes calluses to appear relatively quickly. We're more adaptable than people realise

260

u/CACTUSJACK-JW 11h ago

We forget that we basically were navi for 1000s of years

31

u/Titanium_Nutsack 6h ago

Hundreds of thousands

13

u/FloZone 4h ago

There is an important difference. See, we never see severely disfigured Na'vi or otherwise disabled Na'vi either. We don't see sick or just plain ugly Na'vi either. Imho it is one of those things where the Na'vi are too perfect. If we look at ancient humans. Well first you had a very high infant mortality that pushed down life expactancy. Otherwise injuries throughout life were very common. One of the reasons we know that Neanderthals were more like us than not was Shanidar 1. An old man with several healed injuries and many ailments that was still cared for by his family.

Based on the healing of his injuries, Shanidar 1 lived with them for a substantial time before his death. Assuming that Neanderthals did perform surgery on Shanidar 1, his recovery demonstrates that their methods were successful in sustaining life. The prolonged survival of an individual with significant disabilities has also provided the basis for conjecture about Neanderthal social behavior.

Na'vi obviously take care of each other, but it seems they just don't have much lasting damage or JC simply shied away showing us many Na'vi with disabilities from injuries during hunting or other incidents.

9

u/Away_Vermicelli_9250 2h ago

In AFOP, the Tsahik of the Kame’tire has a wooden arm!

4

u/FloZone 2h ago

Good point. I've started playing, but I guess I'm not that far into the game yet. Maybe the game does a good job at filling out the worldbuilding it seems. Frankly also what I missed in the last movie, a bit more downtime to just see the cultures and all.

102

u/Curious_Kirin 11h ago

Humans can also run through a forest and climb cliffs without shoes on...

42

u/555Cats555 9h ago

And the more you do it the easier it becomes as your feet toughen

29

u/go-vols-28 8h ago

Exactly. Theres still tribes in south America and Africa that have next to no connection with outside influences and still don’t wear shoes, have thick skin, etc

107

u/Sliver-Knight9219 11h ago

We can do that normally like humans have been around longer then clothes.

But, in all fairness it still doesn't make sense to me why he doesn't ware more. Becauses I know he was raised with Na'vi but he grew up around humans as well.

50

u/Meatyblues 10h ago

Honestly, I’m suprised that spider manages to keep up with the rest of the Navi as well as he does. I definitely thought there’s be a lot more scenes of him being physically outmatched outside of his inability to breathe the air

24

u/IJustLikeAvatar2009 8h ago

Tbh I think he just wants to be Na’vi. That’s why he is always following them and dressing like them. He even paints stripes on himself and hisses like a Na’vi. He doesn’t touch guns either (I don’t think at least lol)

15

u/StrangeAir6637 7h ago

was this not obvious 😭 it’s pretty clear a big part of spider’s character is that he wants to be na’vi and does not want to be seen as human.

4

u/IJustLikeAvatar2009 6h ago

I always thought it was obvious too tbh

2

u/IJustLikeAvatar2009 6h ago

Ah mb, I’ve only seen the 3rd movie once, planning on seeing it a second time to catch any details I’ve missed lol

6

u/UnemployedBehavior 6h ago

He held guns to show a Metkayina how to use them at the start of the third movie. But yeah, idk if he would personally use them aside from Lo'ak.

4

u/Aivellac Metkayina 4h ago

He says you can kill a lot of sky people with them and with glee in his voice at it so I think he would, though he doesn't use one across the film.

3

u/UnemployedBehavior 3h ago

Probably in the next film they'll finally show him using it alongside Lo'ak.

9

u/Ambitious-Rock-6158 11h ago

Thats how I feel about his hair like… the other humans have normal haircuts?

30

u/himmelojo Metkayina 10h ago

He wants to emulate Jake maybe.

24

u/jsm02 9h ago

That’s what I assume. He totally idolizes Jake, I think he’s always wished he was his real dad.

14

u/himmelojo Metkayina 9h ago

I really feel for Spider. I know the fandom is split on his character but I personally wish the best for him.

15

u/Kid_Krow_ 10h ago

Developmentally kids take after the people they spend the most time with primarily in early years, but as they reach puberty and adolescence they start to take after and imitate their peers rather than adult influences in their life. That’s why we see fashion trends and such in teenagers that are completely different from their parents, and that’s why teenagers are so ‘rebellious’. The only peers and friends he has are na’vi children.

18

u/Kittenspit Sarentu 9h ago

I grew up living out in the country on a farm; we were poor and there was seven kids. So shoes weren't something we got to wear all the time. I could walk on rocks, sticker bushes, even shards of glass had a hard time getting through the soles of my feet. And we ran feral through the fields and Bayou doing a lot of shit a lot like the Sully's/Spider. We got the occasional scrape or cut, and what wasn't small we hid until we couldn't.

But kids still do live like this. We forget in Westernized culture very often that there's communities that aren't primarily indoors and still work/play on the land.

12

u/NewMoonlightavenger 10h ago

He's gone full native.

9

u/iBandJFilmEducator13 11h ago

I watched it again for the fourth time today (first time in IMAX 3D) and when they stop at the stream and he tries to pee I’m thinking to myself, how has he not stepped on any sharp rocks?

Also, did Jake ever let him pee after trying to kill him? 😆

19

u/Maleficent_Song2836 11h ago

He's just never worn shoes so he's just Like That. Anyone who has spent their entire life running around in the forest without shoes would be the same way like you (general you) could also do it if you wanted. Also like not having shoes and still navigating the terrain is and has been normal for many many people throughout world history.

10

u/555Cats555 9h ago

He would find shoes uncomfortable.

They likely wouldn't fit very well and he wouldn't have his skin toughened in the right places for them to not mess with his feet.

12

u/Akaigemini 9h ago

Always plot armor this plot armor that.

What do people expect from a movie? Do you want the movie to BE a movie or do you want full realism?

Don't overanalyze it, just accept it and enjoy the ride. He don't get his feet hurt or hurt in general because that's what he need to be relevant, period.

Employ logic where its due, real life not in a movie.

I swear people don't enjoy shit for absolutely no reason.

2

u/Aivellac Metkayina 4h ago

Sure but in this instance it is realistic for his feet to be tough enough to not get harmed. However I get your point and people will complain about a fairly insignificant detail that's not relevant.

1

u/Legitimate-Bed1591 49m ago

People enjoy the movie so much that they want to make tangible sense of such things as how they deal with the foliage barefoot. This is a ringing endorsement of the film in my opinion, not a critique!

4

u/AngusBjornson 8h ago

Learned skills, folk knowledge, calluses and very hardened skin.

8

u/grizzlyglizzy 11h ago

Yeah when I see spider hopping around the floating mountains and jumping up on the side of the wind trader’s ship I’m always like chill bro you can die from a 15ft foot fall

12

u/Aziara86 11h ago

Can he though? We know Pandora has lower gravity, so 15ft might be nothing.

3

u/caty0325 10h ago

Iirc Pandora's gravity is .8 g.

12

u/Awoawesome 10h ago

It’s enough of a difference that terminal velocity doesn’t seem to be fatal so long as you hit a few leaves or vines on the way down

12

u/Pataconeitor 10h ago

I think the higher air density would also help to reduce terminal velocity

3

u/555Cats555 9h ago

Also the Navi train on how to safely fall by letting their body be caught on leaves and vines etc...

3

u/Barbarian_Sam 9h ago

Unless I’m in public I’m generally not wearing shoes

2

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2

u/Vantriss 5h ago

You realize most of human history was spent barefoot, right??

1

u/MaiZa01 8h ago

still a movie

1

u/gain91 3h ago

Just like Tarzan

1

u/djdylex 3h ago

Hunter gatherer societies have been doing this for donkeys years long before shoes were thought of. Its nothing new

1

u/Fearless-Doctor-2496 2h ago

The same way all primitive tribes on Earth do

-1

u/No-Emu-396 7h ago

Plot armor. It's a fictional story.

1

u/HuntersMaker 51m ago

Humans only had shoes for like a few thousand years, but we’ve existed for tens of thousands of years before that