I'm all about knowing the finer details on my peeps, so I'm starting this off with my take on the character of both Neytiri and Jake. The rest of the story will be in accordance with the descriptive summary.
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.-|.|-|.|-. UPDATE . I actually watched the film today and in it I found that war/warriors in fact exist among the Na'vi, which is contrary to the ideas presented in this fic. I don't know if war/warriors existed in the culture of the Na'vi people prior to the arrival of the sky people or were developed as a means of defense... there simply is no apparent definitive answer presented to this uncertainty. I have read Project 880, the original work of "Avatar", and in it Cameron had specifically said that the Na'vi do not kill nor war against one another (I have hopes to quote and cite this in the indefinite future). I don't know whether Cameron is complying to that original idea in the film with some invisible sub-plot or has dismissed it, but I'm going to take the liberty and continue to use the assertions concurrent with it that I have previously made in this fic. So, no changes will be made, even if the ideas presented in my work are technically inconsistent with the movie.
Disclaimer: No, I don't own or profit financially from Avatar.
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Character Analysis: Neytiri and Jake
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NEYTIRI
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Neytiri is a product of her people; a member of a whole that live and act as one. As are her people, Neytiri is bound to ethical virtues that are a natural part of her character and are in no way diminished or tainted. Honesty, respect, consideration, giving and sharing, loving. As do her parents and her siblings, she acts according to a code of conduct that is as inherent to her as the ability to feel emotion. She is simply a person of pristine virtue, as pristine as her planet and the rest of her race. The concept of deceit, of deceiving her virtue, is insanity. To lie, to own, to hurt is an act that would not only lead to negative effects on others, but to a mirroring repercussion on herself. Think karma. Such things simply do not exist in her world, there are not even have names for them. As she is a part of her people her health is in direct correlation to the health of her people, and as so, her peoples' to herself. All is considered in terms of ensuring the sustainability of both her people and her environment. She is one gear in the system of a clock that ensures its own self function. This is simply the way of her people through nature and through rationale. You see, her people are very intelligent, which is why they not only behave in the way they do. It is why they have not developed technology. They live in complete harmony with their environment, therefore ensuring sustainability.
Neytiri is a hunter, as was decided by requirement of her people in the period she would begin to learn. She is an excellent hunter as she trains by Aristotelian ethics, like all of her people, to become a master at any pursuit. As must be noted, she is not a warrior nor are any of her people. War, even killing another Na'vi, does not exist as pursuit of the race for reasons given above; it is insane to kill.
Neytiri's emotions are simple, as is the way among her people. She feels love, happiness, pride, amusement, curiosity, confusion, fear, sadness, concern, frustration, courage and protectiveness. Such are the only emotions that would be created in her community. She does not feel anger—not until the arrival of the Sky People. Anger is only created through subjection of injustice. The Na'vi never commit unjust acts, and therefore, would never create a cause to feel anger. Injustice was introduced to them by the Sky People and correspondingly was anger. Neytiri has never or never will feel shame for such an emotion is only created in the defilement of her ethics, which she and her people would never do. She would only feel shame for a person she loves who commits a shameful act, however, as her people would never do so the only way she could encounter this situation would be by developing such a relationship with a Sky Person. The trait emotions of Sky People, such as hate, arrogance, embarrassment, envy, greed and other such negative emotions have no place among the Na'vi. Self esteem is also a concept that is absent among the Na'vi as every individual bears the same amount of importance as any other, thus, there is no concept of one being better than another. The only judgment among the people is the comparison of the mastery of pursuits.
Neytiri is naturally a quiet but particularly intelligent and thoughtful girl who dedicates herself with special vigor to her pursuits. Therefore, she is an outstanding hunter and ikran rider. Because of this tendency, through which she has developed a strong understanding of the functioning of nature (Eywa) and of her genetic disposition, she is a suitable candidate for a Tsahik. Also an remarkable characteristic: due to her nature she is also very emotionally intense and her emotional relationships are considerably extreme.
Considering all, Neytiri is not remarkably distinctive from her people as generally does not occur among the Na'vi except for when caused by a psychological defect, which is almost nonexistent in its rareness due to the extreme health of the race.
Jake Sully fell into such a trance of love with Neytiri because of 1) her relationship with him, being his first connection to the Na'vi, and being the consistent link to the people in teaching and demonstrating to him how to think and live as a Na'vi 2) her outstanding physical beauty, which he, as a human, is able to recognize.
Neytiri loved Jake because of his intelligence, his eagerness to learn, his courage, and his kindness. She spent enough time with him to develop a relationship with him that was strong enough to love him. He had the same qualities as a Na'vi, among his other human emotions and traits, and therefore was compatible to her requirements for love. He is not considerably better than any other Na'vi, considering her love for him, but due to his expressiveness with his emotions and traits he is very lovable.
She loved Jake as the Na'vi love one another. Each Na'vi is as lovable, ethically, as any other. It is only through the development of a relationship and the compatibility of personalities that the Na'vi compose love. Unlike humans physical appearance is generally not a great concern to the Na'vi. However, to ensure the good health and figure of the race the Na'vi tend to select their physical opposites, i.e. tall/short, thick/thin, for reproductive purposes. Beauty is not a consideration among the Na'vi as, in fact, all are beautiful.
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JAKE
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There is much and little to say about Jake Sully. He was once a vibrant, colorful man, raised in a nourishing environment of active, intelligent people. His personality was confident, charismatic, and engaging. He loved to please and comfort people and was very good at it being that he was a genuinely kind, empathetic, even altruistic person. His interests were primarily social interests, entertaining his friends and family and stirring happiness in his community, and he in turned developed a deep pool for himself of adoring friends and admirers. He was very intelligent himself, and used his intelligence in humor and in people-reading. But, he lived only for the world around him that was within his sight, his concerns did not extend into that which lay beyond the horizon.
His relationship with his brother, Thom, defied the typical limits of social anxiety and restriction, and his happiness and security in the friendship Jake shared with his brother extended into all realms of his life. Jake had no limits to his humor, no insecurities to limit his curiosity, no psychological trauma to limit his behavior. And in his happiness he was content remain ignorant of much of the world. Though he is in most respects a very good person his natural ethical and moral values, which were unstable due to the ethical instability of his social environment/society of humanity in general, were further tainted by his influences. Due to the number of military personnel from which he descended he regarded the idea of serving in war as something remarkable. He thought that a soldier was a symbol of courage and strength, of patriotism. Because of his grandfather's history in the military Jake felt obligated to pursue a career in the military himself to demonstrate his character and to acknowledge his heritage. Thus, he chose to become a Marine, which is widely considered the most outstanding military force. Jake advanced quickly in the ranking during his time serving and may have held an Officer ranking soon after the time of his spinal injury, if not for the fact.
Everything changed after the injury. Unable to function as he once did, unable to perform the most simple tasks including walking and sex, Jake found himself only living a half-life. With half of his life and his pride stripped away from him he found himself isolated and forlorn in a hostile world that seemed it rather him not exist anymore, which was a feeling that he, in fact, shared with the world. Only the embers of his great humor and love for the people he knew kept him from committing suicide in his state of great depression.
Jake's relationship with his friends, family and his brother remained as strong as ever, his only unchanged characteristic. However, Thom had over the years become a very different man than Jake. Whereas Jake enlisted in the military for social reasons, Thom shunned war entirely for ethical reasons. To Thom killing was the worst action any human partake in. Instead, he focused on science, to help humanity, not kill it. Thom, for environmental reasons that occurred during his youth, was introverted unlike his brother and therefore shaped his ethics on a personal level rather than through the eyes of society as his brother had. Thus, his ideology split with his brother's in their adolescence, and while Jake was encouraged by his family to follow his desires, Thom was as well. So, their relationship was never truly strained. Despite their dissimilarities, the two learned to love each other in the way the opposites attract, complementing each other, though never speaking to each other of their careers.
When Jake heard of Thom's death he was devastated. But when the proposition came that he fill his brother's shoes in his career the opportunity to enact Thom's intentions was a gift and a relief. To know that he could fulfill his brother's wishes, whatever they may have been, sounded wonderful and even more-so, purposeful, as very little had been since his paraplegic inducing injury. So, he accepted largely though uninformed of the situation occurring on Pandora. Had he known about the warfare raging he may have reconsidered his enlistment. You see, Jake never reshaped his opinion of war. It only lingered half-functional, as he did. As so, in his state he was willing and eager to act only on a whim.
So, he went to Pandora a broken, obscure man. Much of his former character was as broken by his experiences in war as was his opinion of war. His was only a ghost, almost.
And yet we find him, through his ability to function fully in his avatar body and the opportunities to live an untarnished life in Pandora, directing a stream of fresh air to stir the last embers of himself. His humor and curiosity return. His hope to encounter purpose and love drives him forward. And his developing love of Pandora and its inhabitants grows his roots of reason to live.