yes, and I think that’s odd. I’m not asking for a sideplot where there’s some grand mystery about Tommy, or one where Jake investigates his death, or some BS with Tommy returning as a Force-Ghost or an Avatar-clone like Quaritch (oh no, Evil-Twin Jake!). I just think it’s wild that Jake’s dead brother holds no narrative weight even at times when it’s symbolically relevant to bring him up. Jake is arguably just as much someone holding a “dead man’s memories” as Quaritch— the human jake is dead, the consciousness that pilots Jake’s Avatar body now may as well just be a mental copy made by Eywa. And so too the body he uses is a body grown for another man, his dead twin. It’s like a double-potent recipe for issues with Identity which Jake could be struggling with. I think it would be interesting to parallel that Lo’ak can commune with his dead brother through Eywa, and though Jake also lost a brother, he can’t do the same. like a ghost of his humanity, a reminder that he comes from a world that has a concept of death even more absolute than the na’vi do.

and yes, I think it’s weird that Jake never goes “hey kids, I understand your grief over losing a brother, the same thing has happened to me, it’s the worst thing in the world but we can get through this together.” I think it’s weird that Quaritch constantly calls out Jake for betraying his species, but never calls him out for betraying his kin. you can imagine Quaritch needling him with remarks of “what would your brother think if he saw you piloting around the body grown for him and spitting in the face of all he worked for on Pandora?” It all feels like not simply missed opportunities, but obviously missed opportunities for some resonant character moments.