Discussion History Headscratchers / Avatar

(Having multiple folders glitches the discussion page :( )

[[folder: How come the Na\'vi are so strong and have their skeleton reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. ?]]
This race evolved in a low-gravity planet (low rnough to waste the muscles of humans without a physical regimen, according to the Colonel). It makes sense the humanoids would be taller, but their muscular mass and bone density should be lower than that of humans. Instead we not only get the opposite, said bones are supposedly reinforced with carbon, which is lighter than calcium? I am confused.
* Haven\'t seen the movie but if it\'s a Death World, then despite the lower gravity, a tougher race would be better for survival. And lower gravity does not necessarily mean less mass - whales after all get away with -more- mass precisely because their natural environment is suitable for supporting bigger mass.
** To \'\'humans\'\', Pandora is a DeathWorld. It\'s the exact opposite with the Na\'vi- they have things far, \'\'far\'\' easier than humanity ever did on Earth, and at times it seems like the entire planet exists to provide an idyllic hunter-gatherer lifestyle for them.
** Actually, Na\'vi have things far, \'\'far\'\' easier than MOST of humanity has it THIS VERY DAY AND AGE.
** To the humans but also to proto-life. Don\'t confuse society with biology. Evolving in an environment where danger is all around for you means life needs to be hardy and adaptive to survive. After all, life is pretty idyllic to most people in the modern 21th century but that doesn\'t mean humans aren\'t tough creatures or that our societies aren\'t highly varied.
*** The thing is, Pandora shouldn\'t have been that dangerous. Almost every vertebrate creature was a huge powerfully muscled behemoth, when in a low gravity environment there\'d be no need to be huge hulking monstrosities. Low gravity should have given rise to lots of very fast, very agile predators. Everything would have had lighter bones (as building heavy bone would be an unnecessary biological cost in that environment) and the apex predators would more than likely be small to middling pack animals (probably built along similar lines to wolves or Deinonychus). Granted, this is mostly speculation, but there is no disputing that Pandora\'s biology fails forever.
*** [[YouFailLogicForever you can\'t say FAIL FOREVER when your working on speculation]], the natural world has lots of \'Hulking Monstrosities\'. [[YourMileageMayVary Biology is a fairly Soft Science anyway so it really boils down to individual\'s]] SuspensionOfDisbelief.
**** You can if it makes no sense. Yes, there are a wide variety of creatures on earth, but earth is a middling sort of planet (at least by our standards, which are the only ones that we really have to judge by). In a lower gravity environment all those big massive frames and super-dense bones would be a biological liability, not a benefit. In gravity like that of Pandora you wouldn\'t expect to see anything more massive than creatures found on Earth. Bigger, perhaps. More massive, no.
***** Are you forgetting that earth used to have DINOSAURS? you know, those giant hulking monstrosities that used to roam the surface of this planet? gravity is not the sole selection pressure for body size.
***** Your augment is still based on assumptions, even if we accept your premise Pandora \'\'has\'\' \'wolves\', and while their bones are stronger ty are not necessarily heavier. Yes pandora\'s is far fetch but it is possible given the environment. [[YouFailBiologyFheorever FAILS FOREVER]] is for [[DidNotDoTheResearch gross disregards to science]]. Claiming it based on your own personals theories is [[TropeDecay trope]] {{Flanderization}}.
****** Based on observations made about how species evolve in a given environment. I\'m sorry, but super-mighty beasts with super-bones everywhere is just not sound in that environment. Everything their bodies do comes at a biological cost, one that wouldn\'t make their size and mass viable. It\'s just silly. And, while we\'re at it, so is the fire-wire hair, the conditions of the planet considering the amount of sulfur in the atmosphere, the vague biological links between humans and their avatars, USB hub trees that directly communicate with every living thing on the planet, and so on and so on. Any one of those is a major rub, combined into one work and it\'s a biology fail. Forever.
******* Being large and having stronger bones is obviously going to a have cost, but there\'s pay off in filling environment niches. \'\'Again\'\' megafauna exists IRL and were \'\'a lot\'\' larger in the high atmosphere prehistory of Earth that then anything shown on pandoras. No augment on hair fire-wire.
*** Adding to this, note the sorts of rituals and ceremonies that the Na\'vi use (which have less-fantastic parallels in the real world) as well as their normal habits. These are -not- habits that fragile creatures would develop. Any creature that develops into a society that scales rock faces and sheer cliffs as a rite of passage is tough because any youths that lack the physical abilities to do such things or survive the training for such things would be -dead-.
* Remember, we shouldn\'t judge what\'s \