One of the deepest and most beautiful things about the Na’vi people is their connections to their planet and all the plants and creatures that call it jome. There is an interconnected bio-sphere that runs through the ground, and holds the memories, the souls, and the very life energy of everything on Pandora. One of the final trials that Jake must undertake during his initiation into the Omatikaya clan in the original Avatar movie is to form the sacred bond Tsaheylu with one of the flying Ikran. At this point, his life is connected to all the other beings in their world. The Avatar sequel, The Way of Water, took this concept one step further by introducing the Tulkun. This underwater species is akin to a whale, but one who composes beautiful music, and is capable of math, science, community, and most importantly love.
The Metkayina clan have formed close bonds with the Tulkun over hundreds of years on their sea-encompassed islands. They see the creatures as family, knowing them on a spiritual and emotional level. But there is one Tulkun among them who is outcast. He has been shunned by the rest of the pod because he is believed to have committed the ultimate crime: the murder of a fellow Tulkun. However, when Payakan, the outcast, befriends and forms Tsaheylu with Jake's child Lo'ak, it is revealed that the creature never intended for his pod to die. Rather, they were all murdered by a whaling boat who were harvesting them for a very rare and potent serum that concentrates in the synapses of their brains, known as amrita. Nevertheless, as the leader who summoned them to fight, Payakan bears full responsibility for their deaths.
The story between Payakan and Lo'ak is a sad one. It's a tale of two lonely souls who feel rejected and unworthy of their families, who find solace in one another. But as The Way of Water progresses, things become increasingly more dangerous as the Sully family is hunted by the avatar of the original movie’s nefarious villain, Miles Quatrich. According to the directorial team, Avatar will have the same adversary in every sequel, which doesn't bode well for the clan, or their ocean counterparts.
Whilst the Na’vi are dealing with their own crisis, the Tulkun are hunted down, and the female who is bonded to Ronal, the Tsahik of the Metkayina clan, is murdered. It is only when they realize that she has been targeted to draw out the Sullys into battle that the Na’vi realize how dangerous the enemy is, and decide that they have to fight back. At this point, Lo'ak flees to find Payakan to warn him of what is coming, and in the nick of time too. When he finds his sea brother, he also discovers the tracker targeting him as the next victim of the brutal Tulkun harvest. Together, the children manage to free Payakan before he can be harmed, and he repays the favor ten-fold, by protecting the children from the submarines and the divers who follow them into the water.
The Tulkun plays a massive part in helping the Na’vi to fend off the human onslaught. He uses his sheer size to snap trapping equipment, to pull lines and chains deep into the ocean with him in order to sink boats. He even jumps out of the water, bringing the full force of his weight down upon the human hunters from above. One of his most notable scenes is when he wrestles with the harpoon ship controlled by the hunters, resulting in Scoresby, the head of the Tulkun hunting operation, losing his upper arm. There were many scenes cut from The Way of Water due to gun violence, but this scene is particularly graphic.
Following the fight Payakan is heralded as a hero in the battle, and the Na’vi wouldn’t have managed to win the fight without him. But is it enough to earn him back a place with his pod? He vowed that he would never again summon the Tulkun to fight the hunters, because of the terrible slaughter that happened in his past. But in wiping out a huge part of the hunting operation that had been killing Tulkun across the seas, he may finally have righted the wrongs, and reset the balance that was lost years ago
The end of the second Avatar movie has no mention of what happens to Payakan, or whether or not he is reunited with and forgiven by the others. Perhaps this is something James Cameron deliberately set up for The Way of Water’s sequel. Being bonded to Lo'ak, who is clearly set to become an important figure within the Metkayina clan, will undoubtedly help Payakan in reconnecting with the Metkayina’s Tulkun. Hopefully, it see him home with his family before long.