Payakan is a young male tulkun who befriended Lo'ak, the son of Jake Sully and Neytiri, after saving him from an akula attack. Payakan is an outcast who was exiled from his pod for going against the Tulkun Way to seek revenge against the RDA for the death of his mother, in which many tulkun and Na'vi were annihilated.
Payakan's horrible memory about his mother's death.
Payakan's mother was killed by the Cet-Ops tulkun hunters when he was young. This led him to gather a group of young tulkun and their spirit Na'vi brothers and sisters. He led a charge against the hunters to avenge her death. Tragically, however, most of the tulkun and Na'vi were killed. Even Payakan lost one of his left fins from a shot and received a large scar over his left eye.
According to the Tulkun Way, Payakan caused their deaths, and thus he was outcast by the tulkun and the Metkayina clan, gaining a fearful reputation among the Metkayina for being a killer. Payakan then moved up north to the Eastern Sea, close to the village of Awa'atlu.
Meeting Lo'ak[]
Lo'ak notices Payakan's missing fin.
In 2170, Payakan experienced a fateful encounter at the Three Brothers. He discovered a strange young Na'vi named Lo'ak, the son of Jake Sully and Neytiri, who was left there on purpose by Aonung and his friends. Payakan saves Lo'ak from an akula that was chasing him and about to kill him, attacking the predator and crushing it. He carries Lo'ak to the surface after Lo'ak almost drowned from lack of air. Lo'ak awakens on Payakan's back and thanks him for saving his life, then notices an old, rusted harpoon stuck in Payakan's right fin. Lo'ak pulls it out, to which Payakan is grateful. Payakan playfully submerges Lo'ak under the water and offers him his fin, inviting him to play. Lo'ak grabs onto him and swims with him, eventually noticing that Payakan is missing one of his left fins and has a large scar over his eye. Lo'ak signs that he's sorry.
Payakan then takes Lo'ak back to the Metkayina clan village. Along the way, Lo'ak stargazes with him and points out the star that his father, Jake, comes from. Lo'ak eventually tells his siblings and friends about Payakan, but Tsireya, Aonung and Rotxo warn him about Payakan's history. Lo'ak, however, is unconvinced that Payakan is a violent killer, and leaves to find him again.
Lo'ak embracing Payakan after realizing his family and friends were slaughtered.
Lo'ak and Payakan play with each other, and Lo'ak continues to be curious as to why Payakan is outcast. Payakan says it is too painful to talk about, but eventually decides to show Lo'ak. He opens his mouth for Lo'ak, who swims inside and connects with his internal neural queue, which allows him to see Payakan's memories. He witnesses Payakan's mother dying, him leading the charge against the RDA, and the death of the tulkun and Na'vi. Tsireya watches on in amazement that Lo'ak has been chosen by a tulkun, but Lo'ak was ended up being scolded afterwards along with Tsireya by Tonowari and Ronal for doing so.
Battling the SeaDragon[]
After Mick Scoresby, by at the order of Miles Quaritch, leads a hunt against a pod of tulkun, they tag Payakan with a tracking beacon as their next target. Lo'ak, unaware of the approaching RDA forces, rushes to find Payakan to warn him of the oncoming hunters. Lo'ak, along with his friends and siblings, struggle to pull the tracking device out of Payakan. They eventually succeed and swim away, but Lo'ak, Tsireya, and Tuktirey are captured and brought aboard the SeaDragon.
Payakan attacks the SeaDragon.
Payakan swims after the Sea Dragon and is enraged to see Lo'ak and the others kidnapped. He stirs up sand with his head crest and then breaches, landing on the deck of the ship and crushing several Cet-Ops soldiers and Skel Suit drivers. He then escapes back into the water and is pursued by Mick Scoresby and his crew on the Matador. Mick tries to harpoon Payakan, but Payakan maneuvers past it and deliberately wraps himself in the connecting cable of the harpoon. Payakan pulls the Matador aground, then wraps the Matador in the cord of the harpoon and pulls on it, nearly cleaving the ship in half. Scoresby's arm is caught under the cable and severed when Payakan yanks the cable free.
Payakan taking Jake and Lo'ak to the surface.
Payakan later returns to find Lo'ak and his father struggling to swim to the surface after escaping the sinking Sea Dragon, and he propels them upwards with his fin. The entire Sully family gather near Payakan to mourn their losses. After Neteyam's funeral, Payakan swims with Lo'ak around the Spirit Tree.
Personality and Traits[]
Payakan looking at Lo'ak.
Payakan cares greatly for his loved ones, so much so that he went against the Tulkun Way in order to seek revenge against his mother's killers, and later continued to violate his species' ways to save the life of Lo'ak. Despite apparently not agreeing with the Tulkun Way, Payakan shows immense guilt over his previous actions that led to the deaths of many tulkun and Na'vi and struggles to speak about it with Lo'ak.
Payakan is very playful, teasing Lo'ak upon their first meeting by lowering his fin to submerge him into the water without warning. He and Lo'ak spend much of their time together frolicking in the ocean. He is also very emotionally expressive; when he sees that Lo'ak has been captured by the RDA, he kicks up sand and smashes coral outcroppings with his head crests in rage. He appears comforted when hugged by Lo'ak.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Payakan's Mother[]
Payakan's mother was killed by the tulkun hunters in front of him. Payakan loved his mother very much. He was so devastated by her death that he gathered the tulkuns and Na'vi against the Sky People to avenge her death and they were all killed. Although Payakan violated the Tulkun Way, he felt very guilty about their deaths.
Friends and Allies[]
Lo'ak[]
Lo'ak saving Payakan from slaughter.
Payakan found and saved Lo'ak's life from an akula who nearly killed him. Payakan and Lo'ak quickly formed a close bond and friendship during their time together. Curious as to why he became an outcast, Lo'ak eventually convinced Payakan to tell him what happened, even though Payakan refused to show him at first, saying that it is too painful. Payakan's status as an outsider resonates with how misunderstood Lo'ak feels within his family unit. Payakan and Lo'ak save one another's lives during the Skirmish at the Three Brothers.
Trivia[]
Even as a juvenile tulkun, Payakan is about 98 feet (29.9 meters) long and weighs 15 tons.
Payakan's name resembles a portmanteau of the Na'vi words for "water" (pay) and "brother" (tsmukan).
Payakan is similar to the sperm whale Moby Dick from Herman Melville's novel, Moby-Dick/The Whale. Both characters are reclusive, have violent reputations, disfigured appearances as a result of whaling attempts, and seek vengeance against whalers.
In the original script, Payakan tries to change the subject by teasing Lo'ak, pushing him underwater, when Lo'ak asks Payakan why he is outcast. Lo'ak says, "No, play later! Talk now!"
The concept of letting Payakan express himself through his eyes was inspired by Mike Wazowski, the green one-eyed walking eyeball from Monsters, Inc. The idea originally started as a joke, but the production designers around Dylan Cole soon realized that Payakan poses the same problem of conveying expressions through only one eye.[3]
Kevin Dorman took on the role of Payakan when Britain Dalton (Lo'ak) was talking to Payakan's eye. Dorman was seated behind a screen covered with a piece of red tape where Payakan's red eye would be and was tasked to create some vocalizations (which are different from the vocalizations in the final film).[4]
As Payakan is said to have been exiled by the Metkayina clan, it can be theorized that Payakan's mother must have been spirit sister of some member of the Metkayina clan.
Payakan has been stated to be the "breakout character" of The Way of Water.[6] Due to the positive reception, his role was expanded in Avatar: Fire and Ash.[7]
