Those who have seen the second installment in the Avatar franchise will know that a huge amount of the story centers around Jake and Neytiri’s children. During a long period of peace on Pandora, the new parents watched their children grow and thrive whilst the threat of the humans was a seemingly distant memory. But now, an avatar form of Miles Quatrich re-entered the scene and put an end to their happy family life. Thus, the Sully clan has to adapt to a new way of living in order to survive, and travels to the Metkayina people, who teach them how to harness the powers of the ocean.
During this new chapter, which adds to the franchise's lore, the 5 children (biological and adopted) learn amazing things and discover hidden talents. But each of them symbolizes a different aspect of Jake and his connection to the world he has chosen. Here’s how.
Neteyam
Jake’s firstborn son, Neteyam, symbolizes the soldier within him. Before coming to Pandora, Jake was a human marine, and was used to fighting to protect people. This only heightened in the first Avatar film when he fell in love with Neytiri, and decided to help her and her people defend their home against the human onslaught.
The Na'vi people in Avatar mirror indigenous struggles in our own world, and this defiance of oppression is epitomized by Neteyam. He always steps in to defend his siblings and fight their battles for them, just as a good leader should. He takes the reconnaissance missions with his parents very seriously, because he has had the same soldier-like mentality installed within him. It is one of his best qualities, but also the thing that gets him killed, as he died trying to keep his younger brother out of trouble.
Lo’ak
Lo’ak represents the curious (albeit sometimes reckless) part of Jake that he lost when he became a father. At the start of the first movie, when Jake arrived on Pandora in his Avatar form, he was wild with excitement, absorbing everything around him with a child-like wonder. This is one of the things that Neytiri first loved about him, and it is what enabled him to learn the ways of the Omaticaya people so quickly. It also, however, got him into several dangerous and life-threatening situations. This is why he tries to curb this same trait within his second son.
Lo’ak, like Jake, is very free-spirited, but often unaware of the danger that causes for himself and those around him. This is what leads him to make the Tsaheylu bond with Pakayan the outcast. It's also what leads him to go back aboard the enemy ship in order to try to find his sisters, despite there being humans with weapons aboard. Jake very quickly had to curb this trait within himself when he became a father, because he suddenly became responsible for his children. But he sees so much of his uninhibited self within Lo’ak, which is probably why they clash so much.
Kiri
There is so much mystery surrounding Kiri, and so much set up for The Way of Water's sequel, about the mystery of her powers and her conception. Kiri is the daughter of Grace’s avatar, who was mysteriously found to be pregnant before she died. There's no hint of the father’s identity. Kiri, like the other children, is a strong-willed and passionate character, who loves healing magic, and is fascinated with the world like her mother.
Kiri symbolizes the Na’vi connection to Eywa, and the faith in something greater than oneself that all people must have in order to belong within the beautiful bio-sphere of Pandora. There is a live connection to past and present running through the ground all over the planet. Kiri is able to tap into it in an even more rare and impressive way than Jake, who was the first to be able to ask Eywa to help them fight to defend their home in the original film.
Spider
Spider symbolizes the human part of Jake that he will never fully be able to escape from. Despite being completely Na’vi by the second film, Jake’s past continues to follow him. This is primarily in the form of the vendetta that Quatrich has against him is because he ‘betrayed his own kind’ by taking a stand against the humans.
Spider is a reminder that Jake cannot change his roots or where he came from. Spider, like Jake, has good intentions but is often flawed. This is shown when he saves Quatrich’s avatar from drawing in the sunken ship, despite knowing the repercussions after having witnessed first-hand his cruelty to the sea tribes of the Na’vi people. Spider has an undeniable affinity with the person who was his father (although there's no reveal who Spider's mom is in the film). This is the same affinity that Jake will always have with humanity, despite everything they have put him through.
Tuktirey
Being the youngest of the five, Tuk symbolizes the naivety of the Omatikaya people before Jake came to lead them. She is too young to understand the reasons behind the war and violence, just as Neytiri didn’t understand the cruel ways of the humans before they burned down her home and killed her father. Neytiri was underutilized in The Way of Water, but the moments that she did have on screen were very powerful. But if her mother is anything to go by, Tuk has an interesting potential to grow and develop into a great character.
Both Neytiri and Jake are fearless warriors, loving family members, and fierce defenders. They have outstanding skills both in bonding with the creatures of the world, and in utilizing their respective weapons. Yet, they both started out at a similar place of naivety like Tuk. The youngest Sully child already shows some of these progressive skills, like how quickly she formed Tsaheylu with the Ilu of the Metkayina clan. This means there may be amazing things in store for her future.