Kiri

Kiri te Suli Kìreysì'ite is a fourteen-year-old Na'vi, the adopted daughter of Jake Sully and Neytiri, and the biological daughter of Grace Augustine's avatar. She debuted in the comic Avatar: The High Ground, and is one of the main characters in the films Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Kiri's conception is shrouded in mystery. She is unlike any Na'vi or avatar that the Omatikaya have ever met before. From a very early age, she has had an unusually strong connection to Eywa, even more than that of a tsahìk.
During the Second Pandoran War in 2170, Kiri became a refugee and moved to Awa'atlu, the village of the Metkayina clan who reluctantly accepted her and her family. She and her sister Tuktirey were held hostage by Cet-Ops as leverage during the Skirmish at the Three Brothers, but she managed to survive with the aid of her parents.
==Background==
===Early life===
Kiri was born in 2155 or 2156 through the avatar body of Grace Augustine, which was rendered brain-dead after Grace had passed away. Jake and Neytiri adopted Kiri after she was born. As she and her adoptive brother Neteyam were born around the same time, they were both simultaneously given a first connection to Eywa at the Tree of Souls in front of the entire Omatikaya clan. 
Growing up, Kiri has two younger siblings, Lo'ak and Tuktirey. She became very close to Spider Socorro, a human boy born shortly before the Battle of the Tree of Souls, and considers him similar to her own brother. 
Despite the mystery surrounding her conception, she is a naturally born Na'vi who was raised in the rainforests of Pandora. Her biological father, if she even has one, remains unknown. Because Grace had an avatar body, Kiri possesses human-like traits such as her eyebrows and five fingers on her hands. She also lacks the elongated canines common amongst the Na'vi.
Kiri tamed her own banshee at a very young age, in an unusual way for the Na'vi, simply by asking it to be her friend instead of using the banshee catcher. This led Jake to view Kiri as an "odd" one of a child. 
===Return of the RDA (Avatar: The High Ground)===
Kiri and Spider visit Hell's Gate and watch Jake's video logs. Although Spider has doubts about being part of the family, Kiri insists he is and that Neytiri loves him even if she does not show it.
Later, while their parents are attending the council of elders, Kiri and Tuktirey sneak out to the former battlefield at the urging of Spider and Lo'ak. There, among the branches of a tree, they find the wreck of a Samson and a skeleton of a war victim and an ikran; while the boys are fascinated by the machine and view its remains, Kiri teaches Tuk how to pay their respects to the deceased ikran. When the Samson's wreckage slides off the branch and falls to the ground, Tuk and Kiri hang on the vines, which threatens to fall from a great height. Kiri, however, manages to bring herself and her younger sister safely to ground using her strange powers.
After the RDA announces their return and her family begin to prepare to move to High Camp, Kiri can not be found by her parents. It turns out that Kiri is at Hell's Gate, trying to convince Nash McCosker to let Spider go with her. Jake and Neytiri find them and also believe Spider is best with his foster family. Kiri is upset by this and shouts at her parents before fleeing. She comes across Mo'at, Tuk and Lo'ak. Mo'at tells her that change is a part of life and is what someone makes of it. Kiri goes to pray at the Tree of Souls to beg Eywa for help, then resolves to go get Spider.
When Kiri returns to Hell's Gate, it turns out that Lo'ak and Tuk followed her to help. The siblings go get Spider who hears knocking on his bedroom window. They are soon found by McCosker who says they can be useful, however, he traps Spider and the siblings in separate rooms. Spider is able to escape his cell and frees his siblings. The family becomes involved in another chase and flees into the forest. Although Kiri's banshee Tanhì arrives in an attempt to help the children, the banshee is soon killed by the RDA, much to Kiri's horror. After a series of events involving a crash landing into the ocean, the group is rescued by Norm Spellman.
===Encounter with the Recoms (Avatar: The Way of Water)===
After her parents and brothers returned from a successful raid on a RDA Mag-Lev Train, Kiri attended to Neteyam's injuries with her grandmother. She insisted that Mo'at should use a different type of bark because it stings less. She then entered the avatar facility to meet her mother's avatar and watch her video logs. Lo'ak and Spider teased Kiri about Norm being her father, to which she reacted with disgust. When Spider was reminded of his father, Kiri replied that he is not his father and does not have to be like him.
Later, Kiri joined Spider, Lo'ak and Tuk in exploring the forest near the abandoned RDA module. While alone, Kiri became lost in embracing the natural world of the forest, soon fell asleep on the forest floor, surrounded by Woodsprites. She was later roused by Spider and was embarrassed that she did 'it' again. Lo'ak alerted her and the other siblings that there were a group of six strange "avatars" near the module. Once Lo'ak contacted their father, mother, and Neteyam, they were ordered to retreat back to High Camp. On the way, they were ambushed by the strangers who were led by the recently resurrected Miles Quaritch. 
Lyle Wainfleet restrained Kiri and noticed she possessed five fingers which made it clear she was a half-breed. Quaritch realized that he not only captured Sully's children, but to his shock his own long-lost son, Miles. The children were slated to be extracted and taken prisoner back to Bridgehead, however Jake, Neytiri and Neteyam arrived and managed to distract the mercenaries long enough for Kiri and the others to escape. Kiri was able to escape Walker's grasp. However, Spider was not so lucky, as he tripped and fell on the forest floor, out of reach of the fleeing family. Kiri was distraught at being forced to leave her human brother behind in enemy hands. Due to Quaritch targeting Jake for his role in his human body's death and killing RDA personnel, Kiri and the rest of her family were forced to seek refuge with the coastal Metkayina clan.
===Living with the Metkayina clan===
The Sully family's reception by the Metkayina was less than welcoming, especially by the Tsahìk Ronal, who disparaged the forest Na'vi's ability to live among them. Ronal was less then willing to allow them into her clan when she examined both Kiri and Lo'ak hands to find that they had five fingers, signifying that they possessed "demon blood". Ronal claimed Kiri and her brother Lo'ak were not true Na'vi, prompting Kiri to exclaim, "Yes we are!" In the end, her father managed to convince Ronal's mate, Tonowari, to let Kiri and her family stay after they invoked uturu.
She and her siblings meet three Na'vi children of the clan, Tsireya, Aonung, and Rotxo, who teach them their customs and swim with them in the reef. Upon jumping into the water, Kiri is fascinated and enlightened by the marine life. She is so enchanted by sea creatures and plants that the other children accidentally end up leaving her behind. While adjusting to life on the reef she befriends an ilu and later rides it with Tuk and Tsireya teaching them. On one occasion, she was observed by Ronal controlling a school of small shiny fish.
While staring at the sand beneath the water surface, engaged in meditation, Kiri is harassed by Aonung and his friends, calling her a freak and not a true Na'vi due to her hands. Lo'ak comes to defend her, though he also becomes a target of bullying by the group. Eventually, Neteyam arrives to warn them to respect his sister, which Kiri then takes the opportunity to stick her tongue at Aonung. As the siblings leave, Aonung makes a quip of them being a family of freaks, prompting Lo'ak to punch Aonung and getting into a physical confrontation with the other boys. The scuffle is joined by Neteyam who backs his brother, amidst Kiri trying to tell them to stop, before laughing at the boys.
Later, while helping her mother prepare food in their dwelling, Neytiri notices Kiri's melancholy, and asks what is wrong. Kiri though says it's nothing, but when gently prompted by Neytiri, Kiri asks Neytiri why can't she be normal. However Neytiri has no answer for this, and can only hug Kiri as Jake watches from afar. At night, while she has her feet in the water, Jake sits next to her to comfort her, listening to her claim that she can 'feel Eywa'. Their bonding is interrupted when Neteyam comes, dragging Aonung to tell his father that he tricked Lo'ak into hunting beyond the reef of the village.
The day after Lo'ak is found and returned, Kiri is among the group to which Lo'ak tells his story about being rescued by Payakan, an exiled tulkun. She tells him that he was blessed by the ocean with a gift when he was able to befriend the creature that was considered dangerous by the Metkayina. When Neteyam ridiculed the story, Lo'ak became angry and steamed off, which led to Kiri calling Neteyam a "skxawng" (idiot).
On a trip to the Cove of the Ancestors, the children are introduced to the Spirit Tree, their equivalent of the Tree of Souls. Kiri sees a vision of her mother Grace and the two embrace. Kiri attempts to ask Grace about her mysterious existence and who her father is, although their vision is cut short when Kiri suffers a sudden violent seizure due to possible epilepsy in her prefrontal cortex. Neteyam rushes her unconscious body back to the village via ilu.
The clan is unable to awaken Kiri. Desperate, Jake is able to call Norm Spellman and Max Patel for assistance. Although Norm and Max are unable to awaken her, she is eventually healed by Ronal, although it is somewhat ambiguous if it was solely Ronal's doing or if she also needed the combined efforts. Kiri weeps as she wakes up. Since Jake had called Norm and Max for help, Quaritch was able to track their Samson's coordinates to the larger archipelago surrounding where the reef people live. Norm along with Max also tells Jake that connecting to the Spirit Tree with Eywa becomes too dangerous to Kiri as it becomes a trigger to her and told him to never let Kiri connect to it again or she may die.
Upon the return of the tulkun from their migration, Tuk dragged Kiri out of the marui where she was recovering. Kiri watched the herd with fascination before joining Tuk and Rotxo for a playful swim with a tulkun.
===Skirmish at the Three Brothers===
After Ronal's spiritual sister is killed by Mick Scoresby's team of tulkun hunters, Kiri joins Lo'ak who goes to warn Payakan about the RDA, Kiri with Tuk follow him to the tulkun. They get involved in an underwater chase, but he is separated Tuk, who is captured with Lo'ak and Tsireya and taken aboard the SeaDragon. As Kiri, Aonung and Rotxo are pursued, she calls on her bond with Eywa to control undersea flora and fauna, using it to destroy the sub and entangle the operators.
Later, Kiri makes it to the SeaDragon but the Recom Wainfleet pounces on her banshee and pulls Kiri out of the sea, onto the ship's deck. Seeing this, Tuk and Tsireya turn around and climb back onto the sinking ship to save her. They find Kiri handcuffed to the railing of the moon pool, but before they can free her, Quaritch and Wainfleet reappear. Quaritch throws Tsireya off the boat and Tuk is again handcuffed against the rail along with Kiri.
During the eclipse, Neytiri and Jake board the SeaDragon to save Kiri and Tuk. Jake frees Tuk but Quaritch holds Kiri hostage by pointing his knife to her neck. However, Neytiri intercedes, similarly holding Spider to the point of her knife. Kiri pleads with her furious mother not to kill Spider and Spider begs Quaritch not to hurt Kiri, while Quaritch claims his son is inconsequential. Eventually, Quaritch releases Kiri when Neytiri threatens to fatally stab his son. Neytiri lets go of Spider in return and seems to calm down a bit. Quaritch and Jake resume fighting, and Jake gets the upper hand. Kiri becomes separated from Neytiri and Tuk after Tuk falls down a shaft.
Kiri and Spider manage to avoid being swamped by the ship. Spider decides to assist Lo'ak in finding Jake, while Kiri decides to use her connection with Eywa to conduct a swarm of squids to light the inside of the ship so that everyone can find a way out. Kiri follows a path illuminated by the fish and is able to rescue Neytiri and Tuk. Kiri gives her mother a gill mantle, seemingly because Neytiri has not been seen practicing free-diving while Tuk has been. The family is able to escape and embraces on the surface of the sea. While the family mourns Neteyam's death, Kiri is relieved when Spider arrives unharmed and places her hand on his chest. Kiri later attends Neteyam's funeral and is seen holding hands with Spider.
==Personality and traits==
Kiri is a girl with mischievous and somewhat rebellious qualities, making her similar to her brother Lo'ak. For example, she disagreed with her parents Jake and Neytiri, and went to retrieve Spider on her own because she felt deep down it was the right thing to do. On two occasions, she followed Lo'ak, Tuk and Spider when the group decided to go exploring in locations such as the old battlefield. As a result, her parents view Neteyam as the most responsible one.
Kiri is shown to have a self-depreciating sense of humor, once saying she would kill herself by drinking acid. She can also be seen lightly teasing her siblings for fun, but does not like it when it becomes too mean-spirited, such as when she told Lo'ak to be nicer to Tuk. Despite this, Kiri takes protecting her siblings seriously; she wields a knife and never leaves her village without it, using it to cut medicinal plants, and she keeps healing herbs with her in her pouch for emergencies.
Kiri struggles with self-conscious feelings of being insecure and inept, as if she is awkward and clumsy. She is not a warrior-type like her adoptive parents. She looks up to her family, wishing that she could be more like them, especially Neytiri and Spider.The Direct: Avatar 2 Director Shut Down Sigourney Weaver's ‘Insecure’ Behavior on Set She is very distraught when Spider becomes abducted, as well as when she is forced to leave the forest. Kiri has a "transformative" experience when she jumps into the ocean after arriving at the Metkayina village Awa'atlu, realizing that there is an entire world full of life and beauty below the water's surface, and this discovery helps her to cope with her build-up of melancholy.
Kiri is quite sensitive and very connected to the world around her, far beyond a normal Na'vi — to the animals, to the plants, and to the rhythm and balance of life. This is to the degree that Kiri could very well be closer to Eywa than even the most experienced Tsahìks.https://www.avatar.com/pandorapedia/kiri Kiri even has the ability to control and influence the nature around her to a degree during Tsaheylu with Eywa. The bioluminescent markings on her body glow unusually bright and pulsate while she is bonded. After she suffered a seizure while connected to the Spirit Tree, her markings completely faded while she was unconscious.
Animals seem to naturally gravitate towards her presence. For example, she had merely asked an ikran to be her friend.Avatar: The High Ground After reaching the Metkayina clan, she immediately befriended an ilu. Fish exclusively swarmed around Kiri's feet when she tried to describe her natural awareness of Eywa's presence to Jake, both with their feet hanging in the water during an eclipse. She explains that Eywa is so close to her that she can hear Eywa's breath and heartbeat. Compared to her siblings, Kiri adapted much more quickly to the free-diving lifestyle of the Metkayina and experiences little to no trouble staying underwater for long periods of time despite a lack of training.
Kiri finds fascination in exploring her environment. She enjoys discovering new flora and fauna as well as calming, meditative moments like laying in the grass of the rainforest, bonded with Eywa, and the quiet feeling of being under water, even in shallow depths. While being lost in thought and quiet meditation, her surroundings seem to disappear from her perception, causing her to become the target of bullying by Aonung for being viewed as a "freak".
Even though her biological mother, Grace's avatar, is consciousness-less and unable to physically interact with her, she still has a big influence on Kiri. Similar to Grace, she is interested in botany, giving advice to Mo'at to use yalna bark for treating wounds because it stings less. She wears her mother's necklace and medicine pouch wherever she goes, shares her fascination for the biology of the moon, enjoys visiting the Amnio Tank that Grace's avatar is stored in as well as watching video logs of the human Grace. Similar to how Grace enjoyed collecting samples, Kiri enjoys adding items such as rocks and feathers to her clothing; her anklet, for instance, is composed of pebbles from areas that Kiri has explored for the first time. This also serves as a second purpose: being able show those who are curious her discoveries, similar to when Grace was happy to explain the Tree of Voices to Parker Selfridge.
==Relationships==
* See Kiri/Relationships.
==In the Games==
===Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora===
Kiri is apparently mentioned by some NPCs who talk about Jake having an adopted daughter, and they are confused by her existence.
==Trivia==
*When Sigourney Weaver first saw Kiri's initial design, she objected to it because she felt it was "too neat and pretty." She advocated for Kiri to have a messier design and for her to be a more awkward teenager, pointing out that many girls simply do not feel as if they are that "pretty" on the inside.Hollywood Reporter: Inside James Cameron’s Billion-Dollar Bet on ‘Avatar’ The Visual Dictionary gives an explanation for her messy hair, attributing it becoming that way while exploring nature. The design also bears strong resemblance to Molly Ossman.
*In an early script for The Way of Water, Kiri mentions she prefers to believe her father was a handsome and brave Na'vi warrior who died valiantly in the major battle against the RDA, before him and Grace could declare their secret love.
*In an early script for The Way of Water, the mystery of Kiri's father is resolved before the film ends. However, posting the details here is a potential major spoiler for the next Avatar film, as the details could remain the same in it, and thus will not be posted here to respect those looking forward to Avatar 3.
*Kiri has two mothers: Grace Augustine's avatar (her biological mother) and Neytiri (her adoptive mother). Kiri addresses Grace as "Ma" and Neytiri as "Mom".
*In the original script, Kiri does not call Neytiri "mother" and walks away from her in frustration:
**Neytiri: "What is wrong, Kiri?"
**Kiri: "Nothing, Neytiri. I’m fine. Why would I not BE FINE?!"
**Neytiri: "So I am not called Mother now?"
*In the original script, Aonung apologizes to Kiri for his behavior before while they are hiding in an airbell from the RDA, causing her to point out the awkward timing: 
**Aonung: "Kiri, I am sorry I was such a skxawng, before."
**Kiri: "You want to talk about this NOW?"
* Similar to how Grace's avatar could be seen wearing Sylwanin's necklace, Kiri can be seen wearing human Grace's necklace. However, Kiri wears the necklace reversed, with the large cluster of beads resting on her right side, while Grace wore it with the cluster of beads lying on her left side.
*Kiri is known for having a mature sounding voice in the English version (voiced by actress Sigourney Weaver herself), and this also applies in the Japanese version as seen in a trailer.
**In preparation for the role, Sigourney Weaver visited a high school in New York, sitting in on some classes to observe adolescent teenagers. She found a great range in voices between the students - some with more childlike voices and others with deeper adult voices. She settled on creating a more mature voice for her character.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grO8wM4NgZA
***Though some viewers feel a bit off-put/surprised by Kiri's voice, it is still realistically very natural for a girl her age. It also creates a strong believable tie-in for the audience to easily believe Kiri is Grace's daughter. Speculatively, those viewers who object to the character's mature voice may confuse the character with being a child/preteen and not a teenager, thus expecting a higher, more childlike voice. However, it's clearly physically evident that Kiri is already within the process of undergoing puberty; her voice deepening along with the development of breasts and the subtle widening of her hips, as well as going through a growth spurt. The Na'vi race are known to mature at a faster rate compared to humans, however it is unknown how the inheritance of Grace's human genetics may play a role in Kiri's development. (Speculation: theoretically there may be potential for it to slightly slow the rate to somewhere in-between a Na'vi and a human. Currently, the audience does not know how this may impact something such a Kiri's full adult height either. Only time will tell, as James Cameron has plans on aging the kids by 6 years in a sequel film, making Kiri 20 years old then.).
*It can be theorized the reason Kiri looks so annoyed while taking the Sully family picture is that Neytiri may have excluded Spider from it.
*When Kiri is being held hostage by Fike, she begins to repeatedly pray to Eywa. It is possible she did this not out of fear, but in order to annoy and eventually distract Fike, giving her parents an opening shot when he is off-guard.
* When Quaritch holds Kiri hostage, he cuts into her throat slightly, causing her to bleed.
*Kiri is said to be 14 years old in The Way of Water, suggesting she was born in the year 2155, a year after the events of the first film. However, there is also a chance she was born in early 2156.
*Kiri's name has been theorized to derive from 'Atokirina', although it also somewhat resembles the Na'vi rendition of Grace's name (Kìreysì)
*Some viewers mishear her name as "Kitty" due to the accents and a lack of clear pronunciation.https://www.polygon.com/23508975/avatar-2-way-water-navi-kids-actors-cast-guide
*Sigourney Weaver described the relationship of her character, Kiri and Jack Champion's character, Miles Socorro, like an "important relationship for the saga".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlD4G1SJrhA&t=88s&ab_channel=ColliderInterviews
*Alicia Vela-Bailey was the stunt double for Sigourney Weaver in some of Kiri's scenes in The Way of Water, including her leap up onto the amnio tank that contained Grace's avatar and the scene in which Kiri met Grace in the spirit world. James Cameron delegated the responsibility to Sigourney to ask Alicia to do things that she could not physically do, and to direct Alicia how to do those things for her.https://screenrant.com/avatar-way-water-sigourney-weaver-scene-director-details/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msrJ_EcLNfg&t=997
*There are many theories on Kiri’s conception and who her biological father is if she has one. 
**It has been strongly suggested that Kiri is a child of Eywa and was placed in Grace's brain dead avatar.
**Some speculate she is meant to serve a bigger purpose and unite the Na'vi with the human race so as to have them live in peace.
*Due to facial changes as a person gets older, Weta assembled photos of Sigourney Weaver as a teenager, as well as footage from some of her early movies, to give the team nuanced references in how her face moved at that age and to eventually get Kiri's facial animation just right.https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/avatar-the-way-of-water-james-cameron-underwater-scenes-1235291361/
* While it is not surprising that Kiri and Grace share similar skin patterns, it can be noticed that Kiri's symbol on her forehead is a completed oval, while the symbol on Grace's was incomplete at the top. It has been theorized this represents Kiri's "third eye" or the Eye of Eywa, as Mo'at said Grace needed to pass through the eye of Eywa.
**From a real-world context, this is somewhat similar to bindi marks in the Hindu religion, which features gods like Shiva and Vishnu with blue skin.
*In the Nintendo DS game, Nok was called the Alaksi Nari ("ready eye"), a cognitive manifestation of Eywa's connection between Pandora and its creatures, whereby a Na'vi is chosen to reveal threats to this ecosystem. Even though the DS game is no longer canon, it could be thought that Kiri is fulfilling the role as the next Alaksi Nari, or a similar purpose.
==Memorable Quotes==
==Appearances==
(2 films)
*Avatar: The Way of Water - Sigourney Weaver
*Avatar: Fire and Ash - Sigourney Weaver
(1 game)
*Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (mentioned only)
(1 comic)
*Avatar: The High Ground
==References==
fr:Kiri
pl:Kiri
es:Kiri
de:Kiri
ru:Кири
Category:Characters
Category:Avatar: The Way of Water
Category:Avatar: Fire and Ash
Category:Comics Characters
Category:Na'vi