History WMG / Avatar

**** No one is saying he is malicious or dishonest, just...incurious about any other points of view other than his own and those of his Nakama. And Neytiri CAN be very [GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe distracting...]

[WMG: Sully was an unreliable narrator]
* Everyone who wasn't a scientist, a navi, or sympathetic to the navi was either an idiot, a psycho, or lacking in anything resembling humanity. This isn't because we were looking at people but instead were looking at how Sully remembered them. The people he liked were shown as real people rather then charactures because he liked them and would remember them more clearly then if they were people he didn't like. Since this was a narrative, it could make sense. Sully remembered the villians as stereotypes (Evil CEO, General Ripper) because he wanted these people to look bad in his narrative, while the Navi was shown as edenic because he wanted them to appear much better then they were (and maybe gloss over some... Bad cultural trappings)so that them killing so many people wouldn't be thought of as on ovverly-bad thing.

**** ...So you're saying Eywa's like the [[StarTrek Borg?]]

*** Disagreed. That's an EPIC FAIL. As someone pointed at the fanfiction.net, this presumption is easily and utterly destroyed with just one quote from Avatar stating that Eywa is "''made up of all living things''". This means ALL living things - not just trees. So Eywa's will is common concerted will of all the pandorian plants and animals ''including'' the Na'vi (and now including Jake and Grace too). Think of ''true'' democracy (or is it a biocracy?) ;)

[[WMG: The entire movie is an XanatosGambit by the hive mind, aka Eywa]]
So Eywa is a planetary brain made out of all the trees of the world. That is quite amazing, true, but not divine. However, Eywa liked being worshiped as a goddess for some reason, and chose to use her control of the world's more primitive animals to keep the Na'vi locked in scientific and technological stasis so that they would never advance enough in science to study her true nature and blow the whole thing. After all, when she provides them what they need, why would they advance? However, her plans hit a snag when humans came to Pandora. Now here was a sentient species with technology to reach the stars, and the science to figure out what she really is. These people obviously have to be gotten rid of before they could spill the big secret to the Na'vi. However, she has to do it in such a way that no curious Na'vi would ever consider talking to or learning from the humans should they return, ruling out a simple massive ZergRush of wildlife (which would also risk the humans attacking from orbit). She finds out that they are here for the {{Unobtanium}}, which is the perfect source for the conflict she needs.

So Eywa, in her role as the Na'vi goddess, tells her people to be as uncooperative as possible. She has them spurn all offers of technology or science, and utterly ignore the rather desperate need the humans have for the stuff that they're sitting on. As per her orders, some engage in low-level guerrilla warfare (such as the arrows on the truck tires) and they expel the school from their village, raising tension. When Jake Sully arrive on the planet and becomes an Avatar, she senses in him someone rather bitter at humanity and a fascination for the lushness of Pandora. She decides that these things would make him valuable as a pawn, which is why she calls off Neytiri from killing him and orders him let into the Hometree. She has him bond with the animals of Pandora (perhaps subtly messing with his brain via her control of them) until he comes to feel more Na'vi than human. This has the double effect of distracting him from his diplomatic mission, because she needs atrocities in order to be sure that the Na'vi remain anti-human and anti-science.

She allows the subsequent destruction of the Hometree in order to further galvanize the anti-human sentiments of both her pawn Jake and the Na'vi. The naive chumps proceed to make it even easier for her by bringing her Dr. Grace to heal. Grace is the top scientist on the planet and one of the most likely people to reveal her secret, which would cause her whole charade to crumble. Perfect! As a bonus, she was shot by a human, meaning that Jake's anti-human sentiments will be raised even further. Dr. Grace took wounds in the chest, which really shouldn't affect her mind. But they do give Eywa the perfect excuse after she absorbs the poor woman's mind. "Her wounds were too great", likely story. She was still alive, and her mind was intact. There was nothing stopping the transfer except for the fact that she would be far more useful to Eywa dead than alive. Also, to be sure that Jake further mystifies her, she has Grace's hollow shell say "I'm with her, Jake. She's real." That would prove very little challenge a planetary brain that can control thousands of animals at once.

Then, in order to ensure that all the tribes of Na'vi remember the humans only as bringers of death, she gives Jake the Toruk to gain power over them. He leads them into battle, where the humans' superior technology easily slaughters them. She wants this. She needed plenty of death, to get the Na'vi to hate and distrust humans forever after. After she has judged the slaughter to be sufficient, she commands her mindless herd of slave-beasts to charge and overwhelm the humans, which she could have done at any time. Following that, she has the Na'vi "escort" the humans offworld. Note her insidious effect on her pawn Jake Sully, by this point he refers to his own species (including his own family and friends) as "aliens". Then she transfers Jake Sully's mind to his avatar form permanently (probably performing any remaining necessary mind rearranging as well).

The plan worked like a charm. The humans are gone, the Na'vi are lead by a firmly anti-human leader, that leader deifies her, the Navi are embittered towards the humans, and there is no more risk of the Navi realizing that they've been played for fools. That's right, [[TheBadGuyWins the true villain won]]. You just didn't see it.

** Agreed. That's an EPIC WIN if this troper ever saw one; it explains literally everything perfectly!
** This troper now wants to make a fanfic based on this theory.
*** If you do, be sure to give us a link. I'd like to read it.
**** I bet it would go something [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6035126/1/bEywa_b_is_ba_b_bMother_b like this.]]
* As a corollary to the above: Had the humans won and destroyed the Tree of Souls, the result would not have been {{Mordor}}. Instead, the humans would soon use the late Dr. Grace's findings to reveal the true nature of Eywa to the Navi, and they would realize how easily they had been duped. There would be a new golden age as humans and Navi worked, played, lived, advanced, and journeyed into the stars together. Instead, the Navi and Jake are now trapped forever on a deceptively lush nightmarish hell-scape full of super-predators and ruled over by an insane tree-brain thing with a [[AGodAmI goddess complex]]. Oh, and she will send thousands of super-predators to kill you dead if you ever try and advance technologically. Oh, and with the humans gone (and little chance of them coming back), there is no hope to ever overthrow the tyrant, and the Navi will be forced to eke out a meager living as hunter-gatherers in the stone age forever. Enjoy your "victory", Navi.
** This troper objects to the last part of the corollary, had the humans blown up the Tree of Souls, Ewya would have tried to take the whole planet down with her and probably would've succeeded given her exceptional control of the planets animals and other natives.
** No doubt that this is one of the best WMG entries ever, but ultimately, Avatar is a wish-fulfilling series where the good guys win and the bad guys lose...for real. If James Cameron puts out a sequel that goes along these lines, the first film would no longer be viewed with such joy, replaced with "oh wow...this all sucks. None of them even know..." And it's not the best idea to alienate 90% of the movie's demographic (which also happens to be 90% of everyone) when you're making boatloads of money with the normal non-XanatosGambit 'happy' ending.
** Amusingly, this great entry not as much ''challenges'' the Avatar plot, but rather places a matrix of a realistic conflict over it. Think, every faction in every war had perfectly good reasons to fight (only in the last few centuries anyone even expressed the doubt that war wasn't just a honorable job for males). If you read into literature concerning real-life conflicts, you'll find that from the ideological standpoint the factions were opposed, but from utilitarian perspective they'd just pursue their practical agenda (not to be confused with conscious war-mongering for profit). So a spiritual, good-willing nation can be described as striving for living space and resources (and it really is, if just to remain a nation); and a vile, chauvinist, expansionist one can be described as maintaining its security (because «lesser» nations are theoretically able to become more advanced and challenge it etc.).
** This Troper would argue that the WMG doesn't "challenge" the Avatar plot at all; it just adds one very easy to make assumption. Namely, that Eywa is not perfect good. Given [[GodIsEvil the tropes]] [[OmniscientMoralityLicense we have]] [[JerkassGods on this site]], that's not at all a hard assumption to make.
** Alternatively, with the destruction of Eywa, the Na'vi would really have gotten a hole blown into their consciousness, since there is no one really controlling them anymore. Some will fall into a depressive state, having their own "God is dead" period, others will continue to fight and lose against the humans in a futile revenge attempt. Maybe a few come over to the light of reason, but doubtful.
* A similar but theory is that Eywa is literally the Zerg Overmind. The Navi know exactly who and what Eywa is and "goddess" was just the first navi-to-english translator jumping to conclusions. The Navi appear primitive by technological standards, but like the Zerg, they're capable of anything the advanced races can do, even without technology(they steer their mounts with their minds, while terrans still have to use manual imputs to control their technology, so they might even be MORE advanced in some ways). Under this theory, if Eywa is sinister, its only a matter of time before she "evolves" some new form of life capable of carrying her minions into space, now that she knows about intelligent life and habitable planets other than herself.
** Earth invaded by the sexy blue Zerg. I'd pay to see that.
*** With Dr. Grace as the Kerrigan? Oh hellz yeah.
* Bonus points: Notice how some humans do stay? She allows some humans to stay (ones on her side) who know how to use the weapons but wouldn't dare try to study her because then if more humans come, they can easily put up a charade for a little while, allowing an ambush to get rid of the new 'guests', naturally taking in any that are clearly on her side. Now, of course, any of these human pawns she gains may figure things out, but while she has control, she can have them dismantle the more dangerous technology (such as the aircraft) that give them a huge advantage over the Na'vi, and with the humans being watched all the time, if they do rebel, then it is very easy for a Na'vi to go, "SPY!" and stab them to death
* [[{{Paranoia}} The Tree of Souls is your Friend, Citizen. Technological advancement is treason.]]
* I like this, except that I challenge the presumption that Eywa has to be suppressing technology. I think it's far more likely that she's been making Pandora into Arrakis: breeding a race of supersoldiers with a warrior race mentality. After all, the biosphere of Pandora is basically a single organism, and it wants to reproduce. In layman's terms: conquer the universe. Bonus points if some of the insane biology is the result of Eywa being an engineered lifeform in the first place, and the rest being eywa perfecting herself. When they find that the fossil record starts out of nowhere 40 million years ago and open the ancient caverns containing warship blueplints etched into stone, I will not be surprised. Assume they were created by a dying empire that wanted to leave behind a legacy: no Ozymandias for them.
EPIC FAIL. As someone pointed at the fanfiction.net, this presumption is easily and utterly destroyed with just one quote from Avatar stating that Eywa is "''made up of all living things''". This means ALL living things - not just trees. So Eywa's will is common concerted will of all the pandorian plants and animals ''including'' the Na'vi (and now including Jake and Grace too). Think of ''true'' democracy (or is it a biocracy?) ;)

[[WMG: Avatar is {{DwarfFortress}} set {{RecycledInSpace in space.}}]]

*One. The humans are digging for Unobtanium and don't give a damn what they kill in the way.0.

After millennia of warfare, everybody who knows the true history of the universe is dead, and the next best theory is... the {{Warhammer 40000}} fluff. [[spoiler: Also, Colenol Quaritch's DNA is used to create the Space Marines.]]

After millennia of warfare, everybody who know the true history of the universe is dead, and the next best theory is... the {{Warhammer 40000}} fluff. [[spoiler: Also, Colenol Quaritch's DNA is used to create the Space Marines.]]

[[WMG: Avatar is a prequel to {{Warhammer40000}}]]

The animals of Pandora, usually maintained by Eywa, will find themselves neglected, and in her/his absence, develop their own hive mind. Almost all of them being predatory, the soul focus of their hivemind becomes hunger. After literally devouring the planet, they take to the stars, and become the Tyranids.
After millennia of warfare, everybody who know the true history of the universe is dead, and the next best theory is... the {{Warhammer40000}} fluff. [[spoiler: Also, Colenol Quaritch's DNA is used to create the Space Marines.]]

In Avatar, humans [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous value their own surivial more than that of aliens]], In the grim dark future, this will have progressed to outright genocidal madness (because they were almost driven to extinction without {{Unobtainium}} because of aliens).