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Sully Family and Avatar Program | Na'vi Tribes | Resources Development Administration | Pandoran Wildlife

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    In General 

Resources Development Administration (RDA)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1_geyvgz6b5zyzdspglkcddq.jpeg

The largest single non-governmental organization in human space. Its power is such that it outmatches most Earth governments in wealth, political influence, and military capability. The RDA has monopoly rights to all products shipped, derived, or developed from off-Earth locations. In the context of Avatar, it has set its sights on the resources of Pandora, which it exploits more and more through increasingly hostile and ruthless means.


  • Ecocidal Antagonist: They want to strip-mine Pandora for Unobtanium, and are more than willing to deforest planets for it. In the sequel, they seek to harvest amrita by fatally extracting it from the whale-like tulkuns. They also have more than enough military power and willingness to violently drive off anyone who opposes their ecocidal plans.
  • Fantastic Racism: The RDA's views on other forms of life can basically be summed up on this: if it's not human, it has no value.
  • Future Copter: The RDA Sec-Ops is an absolute fan of these due to Pandora's high magnetism and low gravity. In the first movie, the majority of the RDA's air forces are made up of light machine gun Samson aircraft, supplemented by more heavily armed Scorpions and a single one of the colossal Dragon Assault Gunship.
    • The second movie has the RDA bring in more of their advanced ships, namely the ocean-adapted Seawasp and the Samson's successor, a gunship known as the Kestrel.
  • Humans Are Average: Humans are absolutely tiny compared to Pandora's massive wildlife, and even Na'vi children manage to tower over human adults. Despite this, the RDA manages to leverage its advanced technology and funding to adapt to Pandora's toxic atmosphere and even the playing field by fighting bows and wildlife with advanced ballistics, and are gradually becoming a massive threat to Pandora's planetary health due to their rapid industrailization.
  • Irony: The tagline on their logo mentions the "sustainable development" of Pandora. Their actual actions on Pandora, which include destroying large swaths of forest, killing many native animals, and building mines and factories that pollute the environment, are far from sustainable.
  • MegaCorp: The RDA is described to be the largest NGO in human existence, wielding the political influence and spending budget of multiple countries due to their monopoly on human space colonization and resource gathering. Expectedly, most of their leaders and motives are aligned with Greed, where they are willing to target foreign planets to strip mine them and exploit their natural fauna and flora. Their influence as an NGO only grows bigger in the sequel when Earth is revealed to be dying, resulting in the RDA taking the reins on humanity's continued survival through colonizing other planets.
  • Mini-Mecha: A.M.Ps, or Amplified Mobility Platforms are a common sight around RDA bases. Four-meter tall motion capture vehicles, they act as both workhorse and heavy infantry for the RDA, and can be equipped with anything to repeater cannons to massive combat knives for their mission in the jungle. The Na'vi refer to them as "the shield that walks", as a nod to their durability and power.
  • More Dakka: This is essentially the RDA's go to tactic whenever they clash with the Na'vi who have greater numbers and better knowledge of the terrain. Combined arms tactics involving mechanized infantry and heavy aircraft, combined with a slow advance into enemy territory and organized firing lines, have twice left the Na'vi reeling with casualties due to them charging into overwhelming firepower.
  • Planet Looters: The primary reason they are on Pandora is to harvest Unobtanium, a precious resource that can apparently be used for energy production, and from what little we see of their mining operations, the process is very destructive. However, come the sequel, their goal has upgraded from mining, to full on human colonization.
  • Private Military Contractor: Most of the RDA's military is comprised of these rather than any soldiers of a national defense force due to their status as an non-governmental organization. The majority shown through the movies are ex-marines or experienced mercenaries, though some such as Scoresby in Avatar: The Way of Water could just be insane hunters.
  • Powered Armor: In the sequel, many humans wear Skel-Suits, which are a more bare-bones variant of the A.M.Ps. A rigged exoskeleton on stilts, they provide their wearer greater height, reach, and lifting power, but also provide essentially no protection otherwise, trading the A.M.P's size and durability for utility.
  • Taught by Experience: By the time of their return in The Way of Water, the RDA prove they have learned from their past failures. The forest around their base has been paved down to the dirt and the main compound is surrounded with heavy turrets that can almost certainly kill anything that might dare charge out of cover. No stampede of wild animals is going to force them out this time. And the commando they send to get rid of Jake Sully is made of Recombinants — autonomous Avatars with cloned minds of fallen Marines (Quaritch and his men), who can breathe without oxygen masks, are much stronger than humans and more agile than AMPs and are able to use Na'vi tactics, such as flying on mountain banshees.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: What they do is for what they believe to be the benefit of the human race, which is living on a dying planet. They're still trying to oppress sentient races though.

Pandora Operations Leadership

    Selfridge 

Parker Selfridge

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/th_34.jpeg

Played By: Giovanni RibisiOther Languages

Appearances: Avatar | Avatar: The Way of Waternote 

The corporate administrator for the RDA mining operation.


  • Authority in Name Only: A deleted scene reveals that he actually has very little authority over the military operations on Pandora, though he isn't aware of this until he rightfully threatens to remove Quaritch from his post for escalating the war with the Na'Vi, only for Quaritch to forcefully remind him that Selfridge's jurisdiction means nothing when they're light years away from Earth.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: In theory, he is the one in charge of the mining on Pandora, but it's Quaritch that holds authority over their military operations and actively antagonizes both the protagonists and the Na'vi. Best shown in deleted scenes, where Quaritch unquestionably establishes who is really in command when Selfridge questions his extreme methods.
  • The Cameo: In Way of Water, Selfridge only makes a brief appearance in a video recording where he has to explain to Quaritch how the memory storing device to be reborn as a Recombinant works.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: The only reason he didn't want to initially genocide the natives is he was afraid of a publicity backlash, though he is quite visibly disturbed by Hometree's destruction.
    Selfridge: Killing the indigenous looks bad, but there's one thing the shareholders hate more than bad press, and that's a bad quarterly statement.
  • Deadpan Snarker: "¿Comprende?"
  • Extreme Doormat: He is a passive aggressive man after all and he is implicity brownbeaten into backing down by Quaritch into letting him slaughter the Na'vi.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • He's nowhere near as brutal and bloodthirsty as Quaritch, and is persuaded to allow Grace and Jake one last try to convince the Omaticaya to evacuate Hometree when they ask Selfridge if he's willing to stand by, let Quaritch massacre innocent people and live with that blood on his hands.
      Grace: There are families in there! There are children, babies! Are you going to kill children?
      Jake: You don't want that kind of blood on your hands, trust me. Just let me try to talk them out. They trust me.
      Selfridge: You've got one hour. Unless you want your girlfriend in there when the axe comes down, get them to evacuate. One hour!
    • In a Deleted Scene, he objects to the idea of arming the miners, stating that he didn't hire them to become an armed militia. He even threatens to fire the people in charge for going down such a warpath. Unfortunately for him, he is a long way from Earth, and Quaritch has the power by then.
  • Evil Colonialist: He is tasked with turning Pandora into a trading post, he doesn't really want to kill or upset the indigenous race but having nothing to offer he resorts to violence.
  • Fantastic Racism: Not to the extent of Quaritch, but he's still dismissive of the Na'vi.
    Grace: Parker, these are people you're about to—!
    Selfridge: NO! No, they're fly-bitten savages who live in a tree! Look around! I don't know about you, but I see a lot of trees! They can move!
  • Heel Realization: It is shown that he feels guilty about Hometree's destruction.
  • It Has Only Just Begun: In a scene added into the 2022 rerelease, while he's being escorted off-world, he takes a moment to warn Jake that the conflict is not over as a Sequel Hook.
  • Jerkass: Though slightly downplayed. He may only care about getting the minerals for money, but is still clearly reluctant about more extreme methods being used for it.
  • Karma Houdini: His only punishment was being made to leave Pandora. To be fair, he did seem to regret everything he did, but still.
  • Meaningful Name: His surname Selfridge sounds rather similar to "selfish". It's also probably a reference to retail tycoon Harry Selfridge.
  • Mr. Exposition: Selfridge explains to Grace why they're on Pandora—the $20m/kg Unobtanium. Of course, Grace would already know this, yet she doesn't tell him to stop treating her like an imbecile. It's probably more of a sarcastic reminder that Unobtanium is the only reason Grace gets to do what she does, so she shouldn't neglect it. It's condescending, but still reasonable for someone to take such a tone in Real Life.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Not stated, but implied with a few instances of Parker feeling some slight guilt over the actions he's taken. Watching on a monitor, he's forced to look away at the bloodshed of the final battle and Grace and Jake get through to him enough that he allows them a final chance to negotiate peace before Hometree is destroyed. It's expanded on further in a deleted scene, where he reacts with horror upon realizing that the colonel is bloodthirsty enough to turn all of the RDA's workers into his own personal militia.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: He may be in charge but it wasn't his idea to destroy Hometree. Ultimately, Quaritch is the main antagonist.
  • No-Sell: In a deleted scene, he tries to force Quaritch to stand down by threatening to report him to the RDA higher ups. Quaritch seizes Selfridge by the throat and shrugs off his threats with a sneering "You're a long way from Earth".
  • Obliviously Evil: Selfridge isn't actively malicious or evil; just frustrated and wilfully blind.
  • Office Golf: Selfridge is the boss of RDA... who doesn't mind practicing his putt on the worksite as shown in the film's start.
  • Smug Snake: Honestly, the guy seems completely oblivious (quite possibly willfully) to anything that doesn't have metaphorical dollar signs painted on it. To the greedy bastard's credit, his humanity finally bled through when Grace reminded him that Quaritch was going to kill babies if he didn't stop the bloodthirsty general, and showed genuine horror and sadness when Quaritch did, but was absolutely powerless to stop it from happening.
  • We Will Meet Again: His last words towards Jake Sully in the 2022 rerelease of the first film, warning him that the RDA will come back to Pandora sooner or later, sounds like this kind of threat.

    Ardmore 

General Frances Ardmore

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a_avatarpandorapedia_ardmore_16x9_1098_01_c1ead2f4.jpeg

Played By: Edie FalcoOther Languages

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water

The officer in charge of the RDA's renewed operations on Pandora.


  • "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Claims that the hostile forces on Pandora need to be "pacified".
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: She vastly contrasts the civilian mindset of Parker Selfridge. Ardmore's goals are nothing less than to secure all of Pandora for human colonisation and she has far fewer reservations about using force to do so. Just to underline it, her intro scene shows her boxing in an exoskeleton, and she later drinks coffee (in the same exoskeleton), much like Quaritch famously did during the Hometree bombing in the first movie.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: She has her sights set on colonising Pandora so humans can come to live on it and has already established a huge operation, but she is not directly involved in much of the plot for The Way of Water (recombinant Quaritch is The Heavy) and seems to be set up for later stories.
  • Ironic Name: A warmonger general out to conquer an unspoiled world shares a name with St. Francis, a Christian icon of peace, who is revered by the Catholic Church as the patron saint of ecology.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her goal is to turn Pandora into a human colony so humanity can escape from their dying planet.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Has Spider tortured with a Mind Probe for information on Jake Sully. Even when Quaritch gets her to stop by convincing her to let him talk to Spider, Ardmore coldly tells Quaritch that Spider is not his son.

Security Operations (RDA Military)

    Quaritch 

Colonel Miles Quaritch

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Colonel_Badass.jpg

Played By: Stephen LangOther Languages

Appearances: Avatar | Avatar: The Way of Waternote 

The head of the RDA mining operation's security detail. Fiercely loyal to his military code, he has a profound disregard for Pandora's inhabitants that is evident in both his actions and his language.


  • Actually Pretty Funny: He laughs when Jake tells them how he told the Na'vi that he belonged to the "Jarhead Clan."
  • Affably Evil: He's a nice — if strict — person to have around if you're on his side, a Benevolent Boss to his troops. Nonetheless he is utterly ruthless and unsympathetic towards the Na'vi, to remind the audience of the evil part.
  • Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Quaritch has a habit of using older weapons despite the technology at his disposal, such as a souped-up revolver and an AMP blade based on a 21st century combat knife.
  • Armies Are Evil: The SecOps troops are a private security detail retained by RDA, but many of the same aspects apply, and they are obviously meant to draw parallels with Blackwater.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: During the pause in the final battle, he asks Jake how he feels betraying his own race, to which Jake hissed in response.
  • Badass Boast:
    • Gives out one during his Last Villain Stand against Jake.
      Quaritch: Nothin's over while I'm breathin'!
    • The Way of Water shows that he made another one right before the final battle of the first film directed at his potential future Recombinant copy:
      Quaritch: You're a recom now, Colonel... loaded with my memories and my charm. What you won't remember is my death because it hasn't happened yet... and it ain't gonna!
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: Downplayed. Pandora's atmosphere will painfully kill him as much as anyone, but he seems to have a fairly impressive lung-capacity. He can hold his breath for a pretty long time if exposed to the air. What's more curious however is that his eyes don't seem to be too affected. Hydrogen sulfide is abrasive as hell to the eyes, but he handles it without any problem. This continues when he's brought back as a Recombinant. While he's now capable of breathing Pandora's atmosphere, human air is far too thin and lacking in carbon dioxide for Na'vi physiology. They need to supplement their C02 with breathers to avoid hypocarbia. Quaritch, true to form, uses his breather far less often than the rest of them and suffers no ill effects as a result.
  • Benevolent Boss: He is not an objectively good guy by any measure, but he is still a very caring commander who genuinely looks out for the men under his command, and true to form, his word is his bond. Despite his initial briefing being quite stern, he's also shown to be remorseful over the fact that Pandora will still take the lives of some of his men despite his best efforts. He also shows some level of tact with Jake, even promising to give him back his legs when the job is done. That said, when he gets properly riled up, he can display a level of callous indifference towards his men. When he realizes Jake's party is escaping, he breaks through the glass of the doors to his command center, with the people inside having next to no warning and being forced to scramble for oxygen masks while Quaritch keeps attacking.
  • Big Bad Slippage: He begins as a security chief, but by the end, says "I will blast a hole in their racial memory so deep they won't come within a thousand clicks of this place ever again" before leading a bomb raid against the Na'vi's holiest location.
  • Blood Knight: The good colonel seems to love combat as much as the Na'vi. For about the half of the movie, he keeps talking about going to war. You can feel the tension between Selfridge (who is going for a peaceful solution) and Quaritch (who very obviously resents being kept on a leash and is looking for an excuse for some good old violence).
  • Broken Armor Boss Battle: He battles Jake in a powerful AMP suit mecha. Since Jake's arrows are poorly suited for dealing harm to it, Jake attacks the windshield and cracks it until Quaritch can't see out of it. This forces him to open the suit's canopy and therefore expose himself to incoming arrows.
  • Colonel Badass: This man demonstrates the truth of his rank (and this trope) by his ruthlessly efficient leadership style and personal combat prowess.
  • Colonel Kilgore: Of course. It helps that the character was based off him. Right down to the casual coffee-drinking while leading an airstrike against Hometree.
  • Colonel Kurtz Copy: He's a charismatic military leader stationed on a distant jungle moon who commands a small army of loyal followers and spends most of his time tormenting the natives. Somewhat unusually for this trope, Quaritch isn't a Dangerous Deserter — however, he has practically usurped command from Selfridge, his nominal superior, and is only really interested in aiding the RDA's goals because it enables him to continue his personal war with the Na'vi.
  • Determinator: Quaritch never gives up, not even when he's on fire, lacks breathable air or when all the other soldiers have been killed and he's the last of them standing.
  • Devious Daggers: He keeps a AMP suit sized combat knife in a quick draw position on his AMP suit as a backup weapon. Pandorapedia states this is an optional feature, as well as having shades of Simple, yet Awesome/Rule of Cool about its design in-universe.
  • Dissonant Serenity: During the attack on Hometree, while incendiary missiles are going off left and right and Na'vi are being slaughtered, Quaritch calmly observes the carnage from the flight deck of his gunship, enjoying a steaming cup of coffee.
  • The Dragon: Initially to Selfridge, being the head of the army whilst Selfridge is the highest ranking source of the conflict.
  • Dragon Ascendant: Ultimately, he takes all of Selfridge's power over the mining and becomes the main antagonist.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Selfridge may be nominally in charge, but Quaritch is the biggest threat, and by the end of the movie, he's effectively calling all the shots on the human side—and it's clear they both know it.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The sequel reveals that he fathered a son during his time on Pandora, sometime before his death.
  • Evil Is Bigger: He zig-zags this trope during the final battle. Quaritch is bigger and much more physically dangerous than the wheelchair bound Jake, but is smaller than Jake's Avatar form, which is smaller than the Mini-Mecha Quaritch pilots.
  • Fantastic Racism: Fantastic Institutional Racism, as he is being paid to lead a private security force against a whole species of war-like aliens.
  • A Father to His Men: He's genuinely caring for his men right from the get-go with an impassioned speech of "It's my job to keep you alive...I will not succeed" with genuine remorse. He's also sincere in his offer to get Jake's legs fixed and is respectful of his men, cautioning them, congratulating them and never resorting to using them as throwaway pawns. Of course, besides sentimental reasons, he has very practical reasons for this as well: he's not getting any reinforcements for several years to come.note  Every soldier lost is gone for good. Having good relations with your men in such situation means a difference between life and death.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He dips into mock-politeness territory when taunting Jake during their final battle.
  • Fearsome Foot: The first scene of the Colonel is an establishing shot of his combat boots striding purposefully towards the main window of Hell's Kitchen (Hell's Gate's main cafeteria/briefing area) as he addresses the new recruits.
  • General Ripper: He just wants an excuse to cower the Na'vi into submission and burn their villages to the ground.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has three scars across the side of his head from his first day at Pandora. He claims that while the doctors could fix it, he decided to keep them to remind him of Everything Trying to Kill You and to not get soft.
  • Hand Cannon: Quaritch always carries a massive revolver with a laser sight and high-powered scope.
  • The Heavy: He doesn't run the RDA, but Jake and the Na'vi must fight Quaritch and his army to save the day.
  • Idiot Ball: He seems to be holding one in regards to Trudy and her actions before her Neutral Face Turn. When she refuses to fire her missiles on the Home Tree and breaks formation to return to base, he takes no action against her. This is mind-boggling in light of his Colonel Badass and General Ripper personality. A military pilot refusing orders to open fire on a target and subsequently breaking off and returning to base without permission would be subject to immediate grounding and court-martial. Given his Father to His Men character, he may not have been willing to go that far. She still would have been reprimanded at the very least, and he likely would have ordered that a close eye be kept on her because she's already demonstrated that she can't be trusted to follow orders. Instead she suffers no consequences, no mention is made of it, she's keeps her flying status and access to her gunship, and she's allowed to access three prisoners who've gone against orders and that everyone knows she's friends with...
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Killed by two Na'vi arrows (each about the size of an Olympic javelin) to the chest, courtesy of Neytiri.
  • Incendiary Exponent: Quaritch climbing into his AMP suit inside of the crashing Dragon gunship with everything on fire. Including his shoulder.
  • It's Raining Men: Bails out of a burning gunship while inside an AMP suit that has no parachute, yet lands on its feet none the worse for wear.
  • Kingpin in His Gym: Col. Quaritch's second scene has him lifting weights, commenting on the fact that he needs to keep his muscles in top condition in Pandora's low gravity.
  • Lack of Empathy: The only reaction he has to brutally slaughtering Na'vi is happily sipping his mug of coffee.
  • Large Ham: It's Stephen Lang, so Quaritch will sometimes go melodramatic in his speech.
  • Last Villain Stand: After Eywa's intervention turns the tide against him, he escapes from his burning aircraft in his AMP Suit and goes straight for Jake's human body.
    Jake: Give it up, Quaritch! It's all over.
  • Made of Iron: Survives being set on fire and dropping out of a burning gunship to land feet-first in his AMP suit. In several scenes he even takes a deep breath and purposefully exposes himself to Pandora's air without a mask. The hydrogen sulfide in the atmosphere is quite irritant to soft issue (like the eyes), which would've felt a lot like getting pepper-sprayed non-stop. It doesn't even bother him.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: At one point, he ignores that he is on fire. He triages the problem of first and second degree burns to his arm to focus on a complex bailout from a crashing aircraft. Then he puts the fire out.
  • Mech vs. Beast: The fight between Quaritch in his Mini-Mecha and Neytiri's thanator.
  • Mythical Motifs: He puts a lot of work into comparing himself to a dragon. He's an aggressive, dominating figure who gave himself the callsign "Papa Dragon", rides the Dragon Assault Ship in battle, and has a dragon painted on the side of his mech's gun. Trudy, who betrays him to join the heroes, has a tiger on her own craft.
  • Not in Kansas Anymore: He warns the newly arrived soldiers "You are not in Kansas anymore!", saying this trope word for word.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • While he's a ruthless Colonel Kilgore responsible for numerous heinous deeds, his very real concern for his subordinates and desire to protect the RDA personnel prevent him from being completely unsympathetic. Compare his racist disdain for the Navi to his speech to his soldiers how he clearly regrets he won't be able to save all of them for what's coming for them on Pandora.
    • He gets Jake corporate clearance to get his spinal cord repaired in return for Jake being his source in Grace's program just like he promised him he would.
  • Post-Climax Confrontation: After the humans' assault on the Tree of Souls fails, Colonel Quaritch suits up in an AMP mech to battle Jake Sully personally.
  • Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
    Quaritch: Nothin's over while I'm breathing!
    Jake: I kinda hoped you'd say that.
    • "Come on, come to papa!" Said before stabbing Neytiri's attacking Thanator to death with his AMP suit's machete.
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: Head of security and the most hardened human on Pandora.
  • Reverse Grip: He holds a knife not only in reverse grip, but with the edge towards the arm, too. While in a three-meter-tall suit of Powered Armour.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: His sidearm of choice is the revolver when clearly higher tech options are available.
  • A Round of Drinks for the House: He proclaims that the first round's on him tonight to celebrate after Hometree is destroyed.
  • Rugged Scar: Has a three-claw scar on his head, most likely from a viperwolf. After several military tours in actual war-zones, completely unscarred, he came to Pandora and got this on his first day outdoors. He points out that he could have had it removed but chooses not to, as a reminder to himself not to underestimate the dangers of Pandora.
  • Semper Fi: He specifically mentions he did 3 tours in Nigeria as a member of Force Recon.
  • Smarter Than You Look: At first glance he may come across as just an arrogant jarhead, but Quaritch has the brains to back up his brawn. He pays close attention to Jake's intel to prepare for what he assumes is an inevitable attack, and also takes the time to watch and listen to Jake's video logs to also keep tabs on Jake's mental state. It's strongly implied his conversation with Jake where he tells him his new legs are coming was a means to remind him of the mission as he recognized Jake was falling in love with Pandora.
  • The Snack Is More Interesting: When his flagship is barraging the Na'vi Hometree with missiles, sipping coffee in the flagship's cockpit.
  • Sociopathic Soldier: At the core Quaritch is just a Blood Knight aching for a good war, he took multiple military tours, keeps scars as mark of pride more than a reminder and isn't above attacking the enemy's sacred ground as part of psychological warfare.
  • The Starscream: In a deleted scene, he's all but usurped command from Selfridge by the end, even giving his boss a Neck Lift when Selfridge rightfully threatens to fire him.
  • Tempting Fate: He did mandatory video log to explain to his future Recombinant clone of his mission should he die in the Final Battle. He's annoyed by the procedure, saying that his death is never gonna happen. All of this is caught on video and watched by Recombinant Quaritch years later, who realizes the irony of his human self's words.
  • Unflinching Walk: When Quaritch jumps out of the Dragon gunship before it explodes. It lands, burning behind his AMP, and he takes a second to look at it before walking off.
  • Villain Has a Point:
    • He made sure to watch Jake's video logs to keep an eye on his mental state, and when Jake pleads for another chance to convince the Na'vi to relocate, Quaritch is able to pull up a specific log where Jake admits that they'll never leave Hometree, cutting the knees out from under his argument.
    • He notices Jake and Grace being taken hostage and being left to die after Jake confesses to having known about the impending invasion for months. In the moment, it certainly helps the RDA's case.
    • He points out to Selfridge in a deleted scene that they're too far from Earth for him to have any meaningful jurisdiction by the time the attack on Pandora begins.
  • Villainous Valour: There's certainly no denying his courage when he leads attacks on someone's home.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Quaritch directly asks Jake what it feels like to betray his own race for a bunch of aliens. To which Jake replies with a hiss.
  • With Us or Against Us: While fighting Jake Sully at the climactic battle of The Tree of Souls, Quaritch says this line.
    Quaritch: Hey, Sully, how's it feel to betray your own race? You think you're one of them? Time to wake up.
  • Worthy Opponent: He seems to have a degree of reverence for the Na'vi's combat prowess and ingenuity. The problem is that he refuses to see them as anything but opponents.

    Lyle Wainfleet 

Cpl. Lyle Wainfleet

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/30019054.jpg

Played By: Matt GeraldOther Languages

Appearances: Avatar | Avatar: The Way of Waternote 

A mercenary working for the RDA.


  • Bald of Evil: He's a shaved bald sadist. Even in his Recombinant body, he has a mostly bald head with the only hair on his head forming around the back part of it around his queue head tail.
  • Bit Character: He does not have much of a presence in the movie, but says enough and stands out enough to be more than an extra.
  • Blood Knight: Is quite enthusiastic at the prospect of fighting the Na'vi in the attacks on Hometree and the Tree of Souls.
  • The Brute: Of the Earth forces. He doesn't seem all that smart, but he can shoot a gun well enough.
  • Dumb Muscle: He is an RDA soldier who does not appear to be that smart. He doesn't even seem offended when Grace basically calls him an "idiot with a gun".
  • Giant Foot of Stomping: He ends up on the business end of a Titanothere's foot which lands on top of him.
  • Mook Lieutenant: Is only a low ranking soldier but is much higher up the army ranks than the other guys (other than Quaritch), giving them orders to attack or retreat during the RDA attack on the Tree of Souls.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: Makes a few nasty comments about Jake's paraplegia.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Realizing that he is about to be crushed under the foot of a titanothere, he lets out a silly high-pitched scream.
  • Trigger-Happy: This man is just itching to shoot something. He usually has a big gun at his side and is always ready to fire on command.

    Sean Fike 

Sean Fike

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sean_fike.png

Played By: Sean Anthony Moran

Appearances: Avatar

One of many mercenary grunts in the RDA.


  • Bit Character: Even more so than Wainfleet. He has a name, but only a handful of lines and scenes.
  • Killed Offscreen: If his Recombinant Avatar body is any indication in The Way of Water, he died in the final battle of the first movie, even if he wasn't shown getting killed.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: He refers to Jake as "meals on wheels" when he sees him moving around on his wheelchair.

    Paz Socorro 

Paz Socorro

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paz_7.png

Paz Socorro was the mother of Miles "Spider" Socorro and lover of Colonel Miles Quaritch. She was killed during the assault on the Tree of Souls in 2154, leaving Miles orphaned.


Recombinants

    In General 

Recombinants / "Recoms"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avatarrecom.png
WE WILL TREAD ON YOU

When the RDA returns to Pandora, its scientists create autonomous and sentient Avatar clones of human soldiers who died during the first invasion of Pandora, with most of their memories from before the Final Battle of the first film.


  • All There in the Manual: Most of their names are exclusive to the tie-in visual dictionary for The Way of Water.
  • Bad People Abuse Animals: Actually averted, despite fan speculation from the trailer. They are all indicated to bond with their respective banshees in the natural way (instead of tranquilizing them as was originally planned) with their own version of the ritual the Na'vi practice (which is to say, fighting with them), and aren't indicated to treat them any worse than the Na'vi do. Quaritch's own banshee even comes back to him of its own accord after the battle.
  • BFG: Quaritch's Recombinant squad are light infantry, and don't carry much human tech, but they do get to play with a brand-new line of human weaponry upsized for their massive Na'vi bodies, including rifles, grenade launchers, and a colossal mounted Gatling gun.
  • Came Back Strong: They were already skilled, trained Marines, and now they have all of that combined with the superior strength, senses, and reflexes of Na'vi. On top of all that, the fact that they're mostly Na'vi means that the wildlife recognizes them as indigenous, and allow them to advance into the Pandoran frontier unopposed.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Neytiri gets to kill the two women on the team, Zdinarsk and Walker.
  • Dwindling Party: Beginning off as a group of twelve, Fike, Brown, Walker, Warren, and Zhang are all killed during the first clash with the Sullys, and the remaining members are picked off one by one during the climax of the final battle. By the end, Quaritch, Mansk, and Wainfleet are the only ones not confirmed to be dead.
  • Elite Mook: They are all assigned members of Quaritch's team, and are meant to be stronger and faster than regular human RDA soldiers thanks to their new artificial Na'vi bodies.
  • Foil: To the Avatars. Both are the results of human consciousnesses inhabiting genetically engineered Na'vi clones altered with human DNA, which give them the ability to adapt, and incorporate themselves into the Pandoran biosphere. However, whereas the Avatars came to embrace join with the Na'vi, the Recombinants use these abilities to persecute the Na'vi even more than they already have. On top of that, the Avatars' link is ultimately temporary, whereas the Recoms are permanently locked into these bodies.
  • Going Native: Ironically, they begin to adopt a number of Na'vi customs, to include the language, and bonding with their own banshee mounts through their own (somewhat simplified) version of the Iknimaya ritual (which the Na'vi perform to claim their banshees). Granted, this doesn't make them any less heavy handed with the Na'vi.
  • Red Baron: By the RDA, they are referred to as Project Phoenix or "Blue Team", both to highlight their revival and enhanced physiology.
  • Shock Stick: They torture the water tribe people with electroshocks.
  • Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Their official team emblem is a dark blue Na'vi skull with several scars similar to original Quaritch's in the first film, a reference to how they are dead soldiers returned to life in the body of Na'vi Avatar. Fittingly, the accompanying motto is "Deja Blu, We Will Tread On You".
  • Super-Soldier: The idea behind them is to combine the superior physical abilities of the Na'vi with human military training and technology to let the RDA finally fight on equal-or-superior terms with their foes. Notably, Recombinants do not need oxygen masks or specialized equipment to survive on Pandora, and they are capable of taming the wildlife and avoiding Eywa's immune response due to their Na'vi physiology.
  • Tattooed Crook: All of them are antagonists sporting various tattoos.
  • Two Girls to a Team: Zdinarsk and Walker are the only women on the team.
  • Undying Loyalty: Unlike Jake or the other RDA defectors who had their own Avatar body, none of the Recombinants even consider defecting, and remain by Quaritch's side on his quest to take down Jake even when they're marooned on a burning ship with little reinforcements left.
  • Villain of Another Story: While only Fike, Wainfleet, and Quaritch are present in the first film, it is heavily implied that the other members were also military operatives in the RDA, and were similarly killed either during the final assault on Hometree or in other clashes with the Na'vi.

    Recombinant Quaritch 

Miles Quaritch

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/milesquaritch_9.png

Played By: Stephen Lang

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water

The Avatar clone of Col. Miles Quaritch introduced in The Way of Water, made with the man's DNA, and a scan of his memories from before the Final Battle of the first movie.


  • Alas, Poor Yorick: He does this pose with his own human skull when finding the remains of the original Quaritch.
  • And Your Little Dog, Too!: During their final showdown in the sequel, Quaritch threatens he won't stop coming after Jake no matter what, and after he's done with him, he'll kill his whole family.
  • Arch-Enemy: Firmly grows into one for both Jake and Neytiri and is looking for payback against both of them, the former for betraying humanity and the latter for personally killing his human self in battle. The sentiment is firmly returned by both of them.
  • Back from the Dead: He is effectively Quaritch revived in the form of a Recombinant, a Na'vi Avatar with all of his memories from shortly before he was killed in battle.
    Quaritch: Remember kid, a marine can't be defeated. Oh, you can kill us, but we'll just regroup in hell.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: While still needing a Pandoran air mix to breathe the air in human buildings/vehicles, he's significantly less dependant on it than other Na'vi and Avatars.
  • Big Bad: Although no longer holding the highest authority over the Pandora expedition's military forces, Quaritch's attacks on the Na'vi and blood feud with Jake's family means he remains the main villain.
  • Blood Knight: Loves to fight as much as the original, with his avatar body allowing him to fight evenly with the Na'vi one-on-one. He even starts his attempt to tame his Ikran without RDA tech by going up to it and punching it in the face.
  • Came Back Strong: He's essentially Quaritch returned to life, merging his memories and combat experience as a human with the enhanced biology and heightened senses of a Na'vi avatar. Soon after taming his own Ikran, Quaritch was able to duel both Neytiri and Jake in the air, as well as fight them in single combat, now that he was no longer vulnerable to his oxygen getting cut off or his mechanical suit being damaged the way they were in the first film. Additionally, his forces are supplemented this time with more advanced Sea Wasp gunships and an entire squadron of other Recoms, which despite being fewer in number, are far more lethal than the average human grunt.
  • Demoted to Dragon: Despite firmly remaining the main antagonist and direct source of conflict like his predecessor, it's very clear that this Quaritch is not the highest authority in charge and is just another cog in the RDA's colonial-imperialism machine.
  • Determinator: He is so hell-bent on killing Jake that the possibility of drowning to death in a sinking ship doesn't stop him from continuing their fight underwater, rather than getting himself to safety.
  • Dramatic Irony: Quaritch never gets a chance to find it out in The Way of Water, but Kiri, the girl who's life he threatens with a knife to the neck in the climax, is the one character who is emotionally closest to Spider, meaning that killing Kiri is the one thing that would devastate his own son more than anything. Tellingly, when Neytiri threatens Spider's life in retaliation, Spider is still more concerned for Kiri's safety than his own — yet Quaritch is still too obsessed with revenge and panicked over Spider's safety to notice the bond between the two kids.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Even before it's totally clear that the avatar being woken up near the beginning of The Way of Water is Quaritch, the fact that his first instinct is to punch everyone in the room shows that this guy is a hot-tempered Blood Knight.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Although he denies it, he has a soft spot for his "son" Spider, even if he doesn't exactly reciprocate the relationship. This ends up being double-subverted when Spider is held hostage by Neytiri — when threatening her daughter, he initially states that there's no relation between his Recombinant self and the child, but he very quickly releases her when he realizes that Neytiri is willing to strike a killing blow on Spider. He later offers to take Spider in after being rescued, and he sounds audibly hurt when Spider angrily rebuffs him.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Quaritch is disturbed by the torture session that's inflicted on Spider and defies his superior to have it stopped. While he tries to portray this as Pragmatic Villainy (playing the good cop to Ardmore's bad cop), the film does show him to have a soft spot for Spider which likely caused him to step in.
    • As much as he absolutely detests all Pandoran wildlife, even he's disturbed by the whaler's cruelty and wastefulness in hunting down and disposing of the Tulkun. A Deleted Scene even shows him averting his eyes when Scoresby executes a Tulkun calf.
  • Evil Counterpart:
    • His actions and character arc closely resemble Jake's in the first movie. He awakens as an avatar with doctors shining a flashlight into his eyes, he immediately disobeys their instructions as he stumbles about in his new body, he receives orders to infiltrate a Na'vi settlement from a superior officer in a human-built settlement, he clumsily learns Na'vi language and culture, and he tames his own ikran. The big difference is that he does all this for the conscious purpose of brutalizing the Na'vi and getting revenge against Jake and Neytiri, whereas Jake made a genuine effort to respect the Na'vi and their ways even before he made a Heel–Face Turn and turned against the RDA.
    • To a lesser extent, to Kiri as they're both human minds reincarnated in Na'vi bodies. The difference is that Grace (Kiri's past life) held the utmost respect for the Navi and all life on Pandora, and it is implied that this genuine empathy is why Eywa chose her to be its avatar. Meanwhile, Quaritch was a colonizer through and through, and had little, if any, respect for the life of Pandora, and his rebirth was accomplished through human science rather than the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane nature of Na'vi spirituality.
  • Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: "Now... I know you're all asking yourselves the same question. Why so blue?"
  • Fantastic Racism: Initially doesn't care much for the Na'vi and their ways thanks to having Quaritch's memories, to the point of demeaning his new body, although having Spider around makes him more open to learn and do things their way.
  • Fountain of Youth: Being brought back in a newly-grown Avatar body means that he's physically younger than his old and grizzled human self.
  • The Heavy: While Ardmore has replaced him as the highest ranking personnel, she still tasks Quaritch with commanding the actual fieldwork and it is him driving most of the actual plot while she takes a backseat.
  • Hidden Depths: Despite having a murderous grudge against the Na'vi thanks to his memories, Recombinant Quaritch is quite adaptive and eager to learn the ways of the Na'vi, to the point he tames a Mountain Banshee with his bare hands just because he heard that Jake Sully did it without an RDA tranquilizer.
  • Instant Expert: He takes to living as a Na'vi quite quickly, even being able to understand some basic Na'vi language and tame a Mountain Banshee with his bare hands on his first try. Even Jake Sully has to take a while to get it right.
  • It's Personal: The grudge he has against Jake and his family from the original Quaritch's memories are further solidified when he learns that they were the ones who killed "him" once before, and wants to settle the score.
  • It's Personal with the Dragon: Quaritch might be under General Ardmore's command, but as far as Jake and Neytiri are concern their conflict is with him while the two have yet to meet Ardmore.
  • Made of Iron: The original Quaritch was hard enough to kill, and now there's an avatar clone of him running around.
  • Papa Wolf: Played With. While being Quaritch's clone means that Spider technically isn't his son, and he acknowledges as much, he still tends to get protective of him.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • He treats Spider better than anyone else does in the RDA, due to him being the son of the human Quaritch. This ends up saving his own life.
    • He's generally reluctant to actually kill any Na'vi not named Jake Sully and Neytiri, unless they're actively attacking him. It's possible he was "going native" from trying to imitate the Na'vi, or he didn't want to murder Na'vi in front of Spider, or both. When searching villages doesn't work, Quaritch comes up with a plan to lure Jake and his family out with minimal Na'vi casualties.
    • An implied example, but while he did take his banshee by punching it in the face, the fact that it returns to pick him up after the final battle implies he treated it well enough to earn its respect.
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: He is in charge of the other Recoms the RDA had made, and is easily the hardest one to take down in a fight.
  • Resurrect the Villain: Quaritch gets brought Back from the Dead, in a way, through cloning into a Na'vi Avatar body with memories of the previous one up to shortly before his death, which is called a Recombinant.
  • That Man Is Dead: Although he's based off of Quaritch's genetic material and brain scans, plus having the same memories, he considers himself to be a completely different person. He even bluntly says that he and Spider are nothing to each other — although he later seems to have developed a connection to the boy thanks to the time they spent together.
  • Would Hurt a Child: He holds Jake's children captive and threatens to kill them. Downplayed, as he is not willing to see his own son hurt.

    Recombinant Wainfleet 

Lyle Wainfleet

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wainfleet_renden_6.png

Played By: Matt Gerald

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water

The Avatar clone of Cpl. Lyle Wainfleet introduced in The Way of Water.


  • Back from the Dead: In The Way of Water, Lyle's revived as a Recombinant alongside Quaritch.
  • Bald of Evil: Compared to the other Recombinant soldiers who all have hair, Lyle remains the bald one just like his original human self. He does have hair covering his queue on the back of his head though.
  • The Dragon: As a Recombinant, Lyle acts as the second-in-command to the Recombinant Quaritch in The Way of Water.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The notion of killing the unarmed Na'vi seemed to make him at least somewhat uncomfortable. He openly questioned Quaritch if they were truly going to follow through with the threat.
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Recombinant Quaritch first wakes up in a state of confusion and starts fighting his nearby Recombinants, it's Recombinant Lyle who manages to get Quaritch to calm down once the latter realizes that he's speaking to Lyle.
  • Hero Killer: He kills Neteyam, fatally wounding him with a stray shot during the boys escape.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In the first film, Wainfleet could only fight within an A.M.P suit, and got trampled down by Pandoran wildlife as soon as things heated up. Recombinant Wainfleet manages to tame his Banshee and fight Jake Sulley briefly in melee (notable since most of the other recombinants died rather quickly whenever they got close to him) before getting knocked off the Sea Dragon.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Downplayed. In The Way of Water Lyle's major Jerkass tendencies are toned down and the film emphasizes his professionalism and loyalty to Quaritch. When Quaritch is revived and starts a fight, Lyle has the medical staff get to safety before working to calm his CO down.
  • Uncertain Doom: Is last seen knocked overboard by Jake Sully during the climax of The Way of Water, but unlike all other Recombinants, his death is not shown on-screen.
  • Would Hurt a Child: During the climactic battle of the second film, Lyle shoots and kills Jake and Neytiri's eldest son, Neteyam.

    Other Recombinants 

Zdinarsk

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zdinarsk.png

Played By: Alicia Vela Bailey

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water


  • Boom, Headshot!: When she attempts to intercept and kill Jake, Neytiri intervenes by first firing an arrow into Zdinark's hip and then finishing her off with another arrow to the face.
  • Bubblegum Popping: Constantly chews bubblegum and blows pink bubbles.
  • Dark Action Girl: The most prominent female member of Quaritch's Recom squad.
  • In-Series Nickname: Wainfleet nicknames her "Z-dog".
  • Made of Iron: Compared to the other Recombinants, Zdinarsk is this. She manages to take a giant arrow through the back that pierces through her waist and still attempts to stagger around to kill Neytiri. Even after receiving an arrow to the face, she fires off a few last shots.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Although Recombinant Wainfleet reintroduces himself, Fike, and Zdinarsk to Recombinant Quaritch, Zdinarsk was the only one out of the three calming down Quaritch to not be in the first movie.
  • Tattooed Crook: While all the Recombinants have tattoos, hers are the most prominent.

Fike

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/recom_fike.png

Played By: Sean Anthony Moran

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water


Brown

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lopez_20.png

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water


  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Gets hacked in the collarbone with a tomahawk before being stabbed in the chest with a combat knife by Jake during the final battle of the film.

Ja

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avatarrecomja.jpg

Played By: Johnny Alexander

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water


  • Squashed Flat: He's killed when Payakan jumped onto the SeaDragon vessel and smashed him.

Lopez

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alexander_11.png

Played By: Victor Lopez

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water


Mansk

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mansk.png

Played By: Kevin Dorman

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water


  • Sinister Shades: He wears sunglasses that conceal his eyes.
  • Uncertain Doom: He is last seen getting knocked unconscious from Jake throwing an RDA soldier at him during the final battle on the SeaDragon, but is not shown dying. It is more than likely he ended up drowning as the boat was sinking into the depths of the ocean, even if they Never Found the Body.

Prager

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prager.png

Played By: Andrew Arrabito

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water


  • Badasses Wear Bandanas: He is a tough Recombinant soldier who wears a bandana.
  • Pet the Dog: One of his notable actions is running through the blazing inferno to save another RDA soldier who was on fire. Unfortunately, that directly leads to...
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Jake running a spear through his chest and pinning his corpse to the deck of the Sea Dragon.

Walker

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/walker_4.png

Played By: Maria Walker

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water


Warren

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/warren_2.png

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water


Zhang

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zhang_2.png

Played By: Kim Do

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water


SeaDragon Crew

    Mick Scoresby 

Mick Scoresby

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mick_scoresby.jpg

Played By: Brendan CowellOther Languages

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water | Avatar 3

The captain of the SeaDragon leading the RDA's tulkun whaling efforts, under the jurisdiction of Cetacean Operations/Cet-Ops.


  • An Arm and a Leg: His right arm is severed by the cable of his own harpoon when Payakan sinks the ship he is on.
  • Admiring the Abomination: He admires how Payakan is able to keep going despite multiple wounds, calling the animal beautiful.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Selfridge - whereas Selfridge was something of a Punch-Clock Villain, Scoresby will Kick the Dog with glee, given that he kills sapient creatures for their brain fluid as view them as animals despite knowing of their intelligence. Additionally, Selfridge was a Non-Action Guy while Scoresby commands his own ship and directly intervened in the final battle to try and slay Payakan.
  • Evil Poacher: Exaggerated. He's a ruthless, mercenary Egomaniac Hunter who doesn't just unlawfully kill animals - he kills sapient, civilised (and culturally pacifist) aliens to harvest their brain fluid. Made worse by the fact that he purposefully targets mothers with calves because they are easier prey.
  • Fantastic Racism: Views the fully sapient tulkuns as little better than your run of the mill animals - conversely, he doesn't seem to be especially prejudiced against the Na'vi themselves, at least by the standards of the RDA. The general implication is that it's largely motivated by avarice and Pragmatic Villainy - if he could make himself filthy rich by harvesting Na'vi brains, he'd treat them like animals to be slaughtered too, but he can't, so he treats them as a sapient threat to be avoided and not antagonised.
  • Hate Sink: He's portrayed to be unpleasant as possible, from his sadistic methods of hunting tulkun (which he regards to be dumb animals) to his rude personality to his bottomless greed at wasteful expenses. Even RDA villains like Ardmore and Quaritch have sympathetic moments, namely ensuring the survival of the human race. Scoresby only cares about the millions he'll make profiting off of the Amrita harvested from the tulkun and thus, gets what's coming for him when Payakan wrecks his boat and cuts off his arm using the harpoon line meant for whaling.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: His harpoon cable gets turned on him when Payakan manages to snare his boat with it, crashing it and proceeding to tear it apart. This gets Scoresby killed when his arm becomes tangled, dismembering him and tossing him into the sea.
  • Kick the Dog: A deleted scene has him kill the Tulkun calf of the female he just slaughtered. It'd probably count as a Mercy Kill if he weren't so gleeful about it.
  • Not Quite Dead: A deleted scene shows that he was rescued by RDA forces, albeit still in great pain over his missing arm. The fact that he's been confirmed to return in the third movie confirms his survival.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: He's a ruthless, greedy Egomaniac Hunter, but he goes out of his way to avoid hunting the tulkuns under the Metkayina's protection because he knows that doing so would cause unnecessary conflict with the Metkayina. Unfortunately, "unnecessary conflict with the Metkayina" is what Quaritch wants.
  • Underestimating Badassery: He severely underestimates just how absurdly intelligent and powerful Payakan (and the Tulkun in general) is, and it ends up being the death of him.
  • Villainous Valour: For a sleazy businessman who makes a living killing things that completely refuse to fight back, he shows impressive coolheadedness and fighting spirit once he's in an actual battle against an entire Na'vi tribe and a gigantic sea monster while stuck on a not-especially-large harpoon boat. It keeps him alive for a respectable amount of time, although Payakan's wrath catches up with him in the end.

    Dr. Ian Garvin 

Dr. Ian Garvin

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a_avatarpandorapedia_garvin_16x9_1098_03_28064e9c.jpeg

Played By: Jemaine ClementOther Languages

Appearances: Avatar: The Way of Water

A scientist who assists the crew of the SeaDragon in hunting down the Tulkun.


  • Being Evil Sucks: Clearly feels uncomfortable hunting down and harvesting the Tulkun, but goes along anyway because that's how he gets paid.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Garvin mentions drinking because of his participation in the hunting of the Tulkun, which he personally disapproves of, but is how his research is funded.
    Garvin: It's why I drink.
  • Foil: To Grace and Max. Like Grace and Max, he's a scientist whose research is funded by the RDA and is aware of the value and complexity of Pandora's wildlife and native people. Unlike Grace and Max, however, Ian doesn't side with the natives against his corporate benefactors.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Not as borderline psychotic as Scoresby, but still helps in harvesting the Tulkun because it's what funds his research.
  • Smart People Wear Glasses: One of the most intelligent people of the Sea Dragon crew, a scientist that wants to study the Tulkun to understand them better, and wears glasses.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Feels this way about the rest of the Sea Dragon crew, especially Scoresby.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: It's clear he and Scoresby loath each other their conflicting views on the Tulkun. Once Payakan starts turning the tables on their boat, Garvin wastes no time mocking him and even seems to be happy that they're losing the battle.
  • Token Good Teammate: The only one on the SeaDragon crew to display any remorse on hunting the Tulkun.
  • Trapped in Villainy: He clearly wants nothing more than to study the Tulkun, much like how Grace wished to study Pandora's ecosystem, but he's a member of the Sea Dragon crew because his knowledge of the creatures makes it easier to hunt them.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Last seen taking cover from the harpoon line attached to Payakan. After that, we don't see him. A Deleted Scene has the RDA pick up both him and Scoresby, but it is unknown if this is canon.

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