The newest and best addition to James Cameron’s franchise was Avatar: Fire and Ash’s Varang, the tsahik of the Mangkwan clan. She was introduced during an air raid on the Windtraders, where she and her clan used fire arrows and some kind of inflammable liquid to take down the convoy. Also present in that convoy were the Sullys, because they were transporting Spider to High Camp, and when Jake retaliated with the help of the guns that had been procured after the battle between the RDA (Resources Development Administration) and the Metkayina clan from Awa’atlu, that caught Varang’s attention. So, she went after the Sullys, Spider, and even Quaritch to learn how to use said guns. In order to avoid getting killed by the Mangkwans, Quaritch obliged her wishes, and satisfied her for the time being. However, when the Sullys escaped her clutches, Quaritch ran away with them too, thereby severing their budding relationship. Later on, when Quaritch resumed his mission to arrest Jake and reunite with Spider, he decided to go directly to the Mangkwan village and ask Varang to join hands with the RDA, thereby giving her access to an endless supply of guns and empowering the RDA with a set of skills that had been effective in weakening the Na’vi. But why was Varang so willing to side with Quaritch? Was it just her lust for all that firepower, or was it something else?
Spoiler Alert
Fire and Ash’s writing was so weird that, despite having such an interesting antagonist, the film chose to rehash subplots from the first 2 films instead of dedicating a major chunk of its runtime to Varang and the Mangkwan clan. We got only bits and pieces of the tribe’s backstory. So, here’s my analysis based on what was shown in the movie, not from some Avatar-pedia, comics, or games. Is that clear? Okay, it’s obvious that the Mangkwan lived near a volcano, but I’m not sure if it was always active, if it erupted because of the RDA’s meddling with the ecosystem of Pandora, or if the eruption was as random as the ones that we have on our planet (even though some of them aren’t entirely random and are a sign of climate change). From the looks of the village that Varang and the Mangkwan were in, a Hometree once stood there. In the scene where Quaritch came to meet Varang, you could see the broken and destroyed remains of one of those massive trees. My initial assumption was that, much like the attack on the Omatikaya clan, these guys must’ve been attacked by a platoon of the RDA. But given Varang and the Mangkwan’s lack of knowledge about guns, it became apparent that they hadn’t come face-to-face with humans, probably ever. The destruction of what once used to be their home was entirely caused by that goddamn volcano. And that brings us to Eywa.
The Na’vi believe that Eywa connects everything, living or dead, that exists in Pandora. When something good happens in the world, the Na’vi thank Eywa for it. When something goes wrong, the Na’vi pray to Eywa for support and strength, and she usually gives them a solution. But in Fire and Ash, we saw Jake questioning whether or not Eywa had any actual powers, because if she did, she would have somehow prevented Neteyam from dying. While Jake was only wondering about all this in the present day, Varang had been molded by such sentiments. She and her tribe felt that their village was purposefully burned to the ground by Eywa, and when they asked her for her help, their prayers fell on deaf ears. Hence, they decided to stop praying at all and began attacking all the Na’vi tribes that saw Eywa as their goddess. Since Varang’s whole life had been defined by fire, she saw that element as the ultimate power. And given how she had more or less mastered fire, she saw herself as some kind of fire goddess who acted as the judge, jury, and executioner of the Na’vi. Unlike the Sullys, who tried to see any atrocity as an opportunity to introspect on where they had gone wrong, Varang urged his people to externalize their emotions in the most grotesque ways possible. The only issue was that the Mangkwan’s actions were weakening the Na’vi and making them more susceptible to the RDA’s attacks.
It’s been firmly established in the Avatar franchise that the Na’vi are the indigenous population of Pandora and the humans are the colonizers. So, it’s obvious that the Na’vi should stand united against the humans to prevent Pandora from being turned into a hellscape akin to Earth. The Mangkwan, especially Varang, were so blinded by their hatred for Eywa and her devotees that they could not see that simple fact. Throughout human history, colonizers haven’t exclusively won by sheer force; they have been helped by those who they are trying to colonize. In this case, those traitors are Varang and the Mangkwan. Of course, Varang doesn’t see it that way, because she thinks her association with Quaritch and the attention she’s getting from the humans is proof of her power and that she’s maybe more influential than Eywa. However, that’s her fatal flaw, because as soon as the humans are done oppressing the devotees of Eywa, and they have destroyed whatever’s synonymous with Eywa, they’ll enslave Varang and the Mangkwan too. That’s because colonizers openly fraternizing with the colonized isn’t good for their image. I mean, Varang did get a taste of RDA’s hatred towards her, via General Ardmore, even though she was instrumental in the capture of Jake. If that doesn’t spark any kind of introspection in Varang, by the time she realizes that the humans have exploited her anti-Eywa sentiments, it’ll be too late.
I am afraid that Varang will eventually be used to send a “nice things happen to devotees and bad things happen to detractors” message, because that’s what happens in every movie about religion and gods. If Eywa was just a concept, not a literal god who could be accessed through every living thing on Pandora and functioned like a goddamn brain, I would have said that Varang will, in her own demented way, compel the Na’vi to become the masters of their own fate, instead of depending on a goddess. But yeah, after Fire and Ash literally showed Eywa through Spider, Kiri, and Tuk’s collective vision, I was certain that Varang’s whole arc would end on a disappointing note. Well, either she’ll be killed or she’ll be converted into a believer again. I mean, Eywa is synonymous with environmentalism, empathy, and humanity, and not stuff that man-made religions are made of. So, I don’t think Varang’s conversion will be all that offensive to an atheist like me. Until that happens, though, I hope that writers of the Avatar franchise take the conflict between the Mangkwan and the Na’vi to its zenith. At least then the restoration of Varang’s love for Eywa, the Na’vi, and Pandora—and her turning against Quaritch, the RDA, or both—will feel somewhat compelling. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on Varang. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
