History Film / AvatarTheWayOfWater

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Sully family and the Metkayina succeed in repelling the RDA, saving the ocean clans and the Tulkun whales from further violence and oppression (at least for now). The Sullies also fully earn the acceptance and respect of the Metkayina. However, Jake and Neytiri [[OutlivingOnesOffspring have lost their eldest son Neteyam]]. The RDA also maintains a strong, destructive presence on Pandora, with no form of peace or diplomacy between them and the Na’vi in sight. Lastly, their greatest asset, Quaritch, lives to fight another day and is still out for Jake and Neytiri’s blood]].

* FreezeFrameBonus: If viewed closely, Neteyam is shown clutching his chest underwater, before it's revealed that [[spoiler: he's been shot.]]

* FramingDevice: The movie begins and ends with Neytiri singing while Lo'ak explains the songcords Na'vi use to chronicle their lives, [[spoiler:at Neteyam's funeral.]]

* SaveTheVillain: [[spoiler:Spider reluctantly decides to save the unconscious Quaritch from the watery grave Jake had condemned him to. Once Quaritch comes to, however, Spider makes it ''very'' clear that he will ''not'' be returning to the RDA with him.]]

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Zig-Zagged. Quaritch and the other Recoms don’t seem to treat their ikrans noticeably worse than the Na’Vi do theirs, but the RDA whaling division is merciless towards the tulkun, going out of their way to draw out the hunt.

** Neytiri has a reduced role in this film, with her being absent for long stretches in favor of the younger generation's stories.

* TraitorShot: In case it wasn't blatantly obvious Ao'nung and his friends are setting Lo'ak up for failure, the shot of them smirking after they send him into open ocean should do it.

** Aside from Neytiri's, Bob and the other ikran more or less vanish after being taken in by the Metkayina.

* TranslationConvention: Unlike the first film, most of the dialogue in this one is in English, which is shown in the prologue to be because Jake Sully became fluent in Na'vi during the TimeSkip: the dialogue spoken between him and his family shifts from Na'vi to English mid-sentence and stays that way. The language is still used in scenes told from the human characters' perspective and for a few instances of YouAreTheTranslatedForeignWord.

* InformedFlaw: Despite being mocked for their small tails and arms/hands by the water-adapted Metkayina, the Sullies take to swimming and diving quite quickly.

* AssholeVictim: The RDA's whalers. [[spoiler: They mercilessly hunt the ''sapient'' tulkun, specifically go after mothers and [[WouldHurtAChild babies]] because they're slower and more defenseless, use depth charges to deafen them, shoot them with harpoons that carry inflatable sacs to slow them down and force them near the surface, shoot them with explosive harpoons, all while chasing them until they drop from exhaustion, if the aforementioned harpoons don't kill them first. Several whalers take ''glee'' in watching the mother tulkun frantically and futilely try to shield her baby with her own body, and they ''laugh'' about how [[ActualPacifist the tulkun never fight back due to their cultural taboo about killing and violence]]. They then don't even use all of the corpses, only taking the age-halting brain fluid and then leaving the body to rot. Did we mention that the tulkun ''are just as intelligent as humans and Na'Vi,'' '''and that the RDA knows this?''' Seeing Payakan take his revenge against the whalers is nothing short of cathartic. He drowns several, crushes more, breaches atop the whaling flagship, clotheslines the dinghies with their own harpoon cords, tricks the whalers into shooting at their own boats, and rips an arm off Captain Scoresby during the aforementioned clotheslining, and, boy, it is '''''satisfying.''''']]

* SuperSoldier: The Recombinants are essentially this, their Avatar bodies' size, strength and speed combined with their training as former human soldiers being a force multiplier against the Na'vi. It's too bad for them that their target is just like them but with '''''far''''' more experience as an Avatar than all of them put together, not to mention the ever so deadly Neytiri whose ferocity and archery skills are still unmatched, and also the Na'vi's HomeFieldAdvantage.

* BlessedWithSuck: the Tulkuns' bodies are very well-armored - which doesn't actually save them from being killed, just makes their deaths more drawn-out and painful. The combat advantages of their form are [[spoiler:mostly]] wasted on the Tulkuns, given their pacifist philosophy, and their backstory implies their physical attributes only made their original internicine combat more intense.

* BrokenAesop: the film downplays it's predecessor's GreenAesop and anti-colonialist aesops in favor of an anti-hunting aesop [[note]]The villainous hunters could be Na'vi without affecting the intended moral[[/note]]. But the Na'vi are a hunting culture, Pandora operates on a social darwinist ethos in which everyone is fair game for predation, and even the hunting of the sapient Tulkuns is tolerated until [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality close friends of the protagonists are targeted]]. The distinction between hunting sapient and merely sentient beings is blurred by the film's reliance on the suffering of victims to convey its message. Near the end of the film we see a happy memory where Jake is teaching one of his children to fish - and the fish, impaled on an arrow, thrashes in agony much as though it were a Tulkun. Jake is unbothered.

* RecurringMotif: once again Jake (and this time, also, Quaritch) must tame and learn to ride a new mount, symbolizing the conquest of the challenge of the new environment.

* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: because Jake refuses initially to fight the RDA task force that wants him dead, they track his family to his new home among the Sea People and kidnap his children to force him out of hiding.

* IWorkAlone: briefly, during his transition back from RefusingTheCall to military leadership of the Na'vi, Jake (upon deducing the RDA is attacking the Tulkuns in order to draw him out) tells the Metkayina not to fight, but to inform him if any Tulkuns are tagged with tracer harpoons, and he will deal with them himself. Almost immediately the children are kidnapped and the Metkayina [[spoiler: and Pakayan]] [[SoloMissionBecomesGroupMission join him in battle.]]
* IdiotBall:
** [[spoiler:After Kiri's seizure, Jake impulsively (if understandably) calls Norm and the other scientists to help revive her, instinctively trusting modern medicine over the natural remedies employed by the Na'vi. Since they have to fly in by gunship, the RDA picks up the suspicious movement and is able to track their location to the archipelago, allowing Quaritch to deduce that Jake is hiding there and kicking off the final act. To rub salt in the wound, the scientists are of virtually no help, failing to revive her and only offering a theory as to why she had the seizure in the first place, while Ronal's treatment succeeds in waking her.]]
** Jake's decision to seek sanctuary with the Metkayina merely puts a different community in danger, and he of all people should know Earth military culture well enough to understand that humans will follow high-value insurgent leaders to the ends of the world, and for years if it is necessary to hunt them down. [[spoiler: Jake figures this out at the very end of the movie.]]
** Quaritch provokes Jake [[spoiler:into a final, one on one KnifeFight]] by promising [[spoiler:to kill Jake's whole family if Jake does not kill him.]] Jake should realize this challenge is SchmuckBait: given that [[spoiler:Earth's cloning tech means killing Quaritch does not solve the problem, as Quaritch can always be re-cloned, whereas Jake dying in the battle would render him unable to protect his family.]] Even Neytiri grasps this dynamic right away, as she says at the beginning of the movie [[spoiler: she will kill Quaritch as many times as necessary - she understands death is not permanent for him]].