History Headscratchers / AvatarNavi

*** I didn't say the thing about 5th grade fanfic, but I certainly understand it and agree with it. The reason I complain about a fictional utopia is because it's there solely because the plot needs to be. The Na'vi are perfect because if they weren't, the plot simply would not work. The humans would have made a deal with them and the conflict would be minimized. The story simply could not otherwise take place. That's lazy writing: rather than rewrite the story so that it could work with different, more complex, circumstances, they take the easy way out: MarySuetopia.

* The moral of the movie is "don't hate others because their cultures/beliefs are different then yours", however this does not seem to be what goes on in the movie. The Na'vi are very obviously based on Native American and African tribes, and they seem to ignore the fact that native tribes were just as brutal to each other as the humans were. It is also shown in the beginning of the film that they kill unarmed diplomats for simply not being like them. not only that, but the only "good" humans in this movie are the ones who want to abandon their cultures, families, and loved ones to become Na'vi, because apparently their culture is superior. Does anyone else see a BrokenAesop here?

[[folder: Na'vi Language.]]

[[folder: How come an alien culture, on an ENTIRE DIFFERENT PLANET, has all the same facial cues and ways of expressing emotion as humans.]]

[[folder: The Na'Vi only have one brain jack where as every other large animal analogue have two. Same for limbs. And these things, which serve any other purpose the plot calls for aren't used for reproduction. Really, movie? Did the MPAA think two jellyfish ponytails schlurping together would be too R rated?]]

[[folder: Isn't it strange that the very planet-synchronizing, tree-listening natives were caught completely off-guard and unaware by a gigantic bulldozer that couldn't have possibly gotten to it's destination in less than one day?]]

[[folder: Why do all the Na'vi look so similar?]]

[[folder: Their goddess is a bitch]]

[[folder: Do the Na'vi ever eat?]]

[[folder: What's with Neytiri's arranged marriage?]]

[[folder: So, let me summarize the conversation as the bulldozers are approaching.]]

[[folder: "They want nothing we can offer them" my ass. Bring in the drugs.]]

[[folder: We do have stuff we can offer them- not just drugs/alcohol]]

[[folder: Jake Soo Li]]

[[folder: So, are they marsupials or what?]]

[[folder: Why are the Mindlinks so under developed?]]

[[folder: What the hell do the Na'vi ''do'' all day?]]

[[folder: Another minor point, but about the Spirit Tree...]]

[[folder: Na'vi evolution.]]

[[folder: Maximum Range of an Avatar]]

[[folder: So, no one's mentioned that the Na'vi sort of mind-rape their animals into submission.]]

[[folder: Humans have red blood, therefore humans are pinkish.]]

[[folder: The Na'vi are morons.]]

[[folder: No one ever remarks on how uncannily similar the Na'vi are to humans.]]

[[folder: Where did the Na'vi get all those guns?]]

[[folder: Na'avi hairstyles]]

[[folder: If the na'avi weren't hot cat-people...]]

[[folder: Na'vi Cultural Stasis]]

[[folder: The way the Na'vi lifestyle is presented seems dishonest.]]

[[folder: The Kiss]]

[[folder: Explaining to Eywa]]

[[folder: Na'vi Strength]]

[[folder: Na'vi on Earth.]]

** While that's not an answer, I'll bite: James Cameron crafted this movie with several messages in mind. He also created the world of the movie itself. Therefore, he's responsible for deliberately using beautiful, pure {{Mary Sue}}s to transmit his messages. He could have easily created the world of Pandora with a bunch of "ugly pig people," but then Jake (and the audience) would have found it difficult to sympathize with them. So no, the point doesn't wash, and his {{Aesop}} comes off as [[BrokenAesop Broken]] because it was delivered through the Power of Lust.

** the Na'vi's super-[[OurElvesAreDifferent elfy]] MarySue-ness allows those skills to come naturally, and the edible fruits seem to be common enough for Jake to land face-first in a pile when he falls off a horse.

*** Wikileaks shows exactly how well that strategy works. RealityEnsues.

* Furthermore, when agriculture was developed there ''weren't'' so many of us. Agriculture offers a far more stable way of life, and far more people being fed. I personally would not object to the Na'vi if they were not presented as being perfection, despite a number of flaws in their thinking. Many native cultures are fairly idealised today, but not one of them was ever completely devoid of flaws. I am not claiming that human actions on their planet were justified, but this seems more a case of BlackAndBlackMorality than what Cameron may have intended.

*** It's not simply a different perspective. It's a whole new view. Other Na'vi can only offer an outside view, while Jake can specifically show Eywa WHAT humanity is, and what they do. Rather than simple "sky-people bad, probably", Jake can specifically show what humanity has done. What's been done to Earth, how humanity thinks in regards to nature and the balance, etc.

* Simply, Eywa is a TrueNeutral alien HiveMind, and acts like that with the creatures of the ecosystem it leads.

* They were sufficiently different, particularly in the way they moved (Jake excepted, obviously). [[HateDumb Particularly since the acting is FAR better than any other non-human species.]]

*** Not to mention that Pandora is ''not'' pure green and that greens and blues actually blend relatively well. Either way, the intention WAS for the plants to be more of a mixture of blue and green, but it reduced familiarity for humans and would have lead to 'lol not real' from the HateDumb. As for skin colour, they have red blood but a blue pigment in their skin in the same way that humans have varying shades of pink or brown with dark red blood (yes, it is '''dark''' red when not exposed to air).

[[folder: People calling the Na'vi "catpeople"]]
* This is something that's bugged me for a while since after seeing the movie and looking it up everywhere. Maybe it's just me and my seeing things from different angles, but I never got any distinctly feline impressions from looking at the Na'vi (though don't get me wrong, I understand where people could, and I'm certainly not saying that people have to adopt my view). Sure, they have dark colored noses, tails, and ears slightly higher on the head, but to me they just looked like modded humans. I guess the main reason it bugs me is because now people will brand you as a furry for liking the movie when the characters have skin and hair and not fur/scales/feathers. That and they're aliens, not specifically anthropomorphic animals. (I also hold a xeno =/= furry mindset, too, but to each his own.) No need to start a war about this either, just putting it out there that it bugs me.
** It's because some people need an easy outlet for their HateDumb. Granted, the Na'vi do look more similar to cats than any other animal, so the comparison was made.
** It hast probably more to do with the anime, not the furry fandom. Kemonomimi, or rather their subtype Nekomimi (aka catgirls), are just that: Humans with cat-ears and tails. So, what do you call a species consisting of catgirls of both genders? (By the way, thanks for that "Eww, people will think I was a furry", really nice of you. Not starting a war or anything, just putting it out there because it bugs me)
*** '''CatFolk''' are a species consisting of feline humanoids. However, the Na'vi are closer to '''RubberForeheadAliens'''.

[[/folder]]

* And your point being...what? I don't see anything to discuss here that would merit this subject being in the JustBugsMe page for Avatar (as compared to stuff like "Why didn't the RDA kill all the Na'vi?). The Na'vi mind-rape banshees as one of their rites of passage. Weird, but there's nothing to go on from that for discussion.

[[Headscratchers/{{Avatar}} Click here]] to return to the main JustBugsMe page.

*** Ah okey, that does make sense. I guess my main issue is more of a plot device issue than a plot issue. I don't have an issue with the Na'vi and how they are currently handling their lifestyles, I have an issue with how James Cameron handled the USB!braids. TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot and what else have you. Of course, complaining about that for anymore than I have would just be unnecessary and I'm pretty sure it would contradict the purpose if ItJustBugsMe.

* Just watched the extended BluRay, and Jake and Neytiri do indeed connect their queues at the start of their consummation scene under the Soul Tree. It seems to allow them to feel each others' bodies from the inside as well as the outside, similar to feeling the body of their, er, mount, when they ride a banshee.

*** I think some people underestimates the power of religion and the concept of "sacred land were our God lives", imagine the US going to the Arab world and saying: Hey guys, here you have this Ipods, we find oil under Mecca, we need to destroy the whole place to drill in it, is ok?

*** [[YouFailBiologyForever ...because every single part of a plant has the exact same properties, right]]? Oh, wait, no.\\

*** YouFailBiologyForever. Lower gravity means LESS energy to support a larger mass.

** YouFailBiologyForever. Blood is never blue. Oxygenated blood is bright red, dexoygenated blood is dark red. You can test this by dissecting an animal, as I have- veins are red, everything is red even inside the body. Diagrams show dexoygenated blood as blue due to tradition. Veins on your skin look blue because your skin reflects blue and your blood reflects red. The skin reflects some blue, and the blood reflects some red, in a roughly 5:3 ratio. You can confirm this on your own body. The skin is actually red, as there's more red light than blue, but our brains look for differences, and emphasize the blue aspect- it still looks red if you look closely.

** And with that [[YouFailLogicForever circular reasoning]], you've sealed the deal on the legitimacy of your stance...in that it isn't.

* So far as we know, the Na'vi don't actually ''use'' the hydrogen sulfide in Pandora's atmosphere, so they should be fine breathing Earth's mix of atmospheric gases. Some Pandoran life forms might have difficulty, if there are any which utilize the sulfide for their metabolism (as some RealLife deep-sea hydrothermal vent organisms do).

* So far as we know, the Na'vi don't actually ''use'' the hydrogen sulfide in Pandora's atmosphere, so they should be fine breathing Earth's atmosphere. Some Pandoran life forms might have difficulty, if there are any which utilize the sulfide for their metabolism (as some RealLife deep-sea hydrothermal vent organisms do).