Understanding Some of the RDA's Motives (SE Scene)

[Woodsprite]

******SE Spoilers******







I know everyone's gotta be reading this and thinking, "What the hell?!"

I've been thinking lately about the scene where Wainfleet's trudging through the destruction path left by the Na'vi after they attacked the mining crew. The death is pretty bad; pretty gruesome and merciless. Obviously, the RDA knew what was coming... or did they?

I'm assuming, from the tone given off by Selfridge, Quaritch, and Wainfleet, that such an attack hadn't ever happened before. Sure, there were conflicts happening all the time between the RDA and the Na'vi, but it seemed like everyone acted like something like this was the turning point. It seemed unprovoked. The miners had no idea the Na'vi regarded the area they destroyed as a sacred one; obviously, from the reaction given by Selfridge.

With this added scene, everything came together for me. This is why the RDA attacked Hometree at that particular time: because of the "unprovoked" mass attack from the Na'vi. In the original cut, such an attack on Hometree seemed heartless, and without much cause except to "take care of business", and rightly so. But now, it seems like the RDA had a just cause to commense the attack. Obviously, the Na'vi expected retaliation from the RDA, which is why Eytukan was speaking out to the clan.

From the damage done by the Na'vi, this extra scene also explains why the Na'vi thought they could win another skirmish. It wasn't just "mindless bravery" like the original version depicted. They really thought they could win from basing themselves off what destruction they had laid on the entire mining crew previously.

But I do understand now, why the RDA picked that time to attack Hometree without any further attempts to negotiate. Any thoughts on this? Agreements; disagreements?