Why Earth should be involved in the sequels

[Rainbowhawk1993]

So here I am after being absent for so long and showing up in Estes Park for the meet and being told to not be a stranger that much. So I'm going to post my thoughts on something that I think Desperately needs to happen.

So here I go with something that's been on my mind for a long while. If you don't know, I wrote my first ever fan-fiction "Why I fight" to emphasize a theme that I felt the film lacked or didn't give proper closure to which was the fact of good sky people.

The first scene that built this up where Jake tells Tsu'tey to not attack the dozier after the Tree of Voices because he knew this was what the RDA wanted and gave them an excuse to destroy hometree. Jake knew what the RDA would do and Tsu'tey did exactly what an angry person would do.

Second scene, Jake confesses to Neytiri of his double agent work and she rejects him and he and grace say again and again, "We tried to stop them!" "RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!"

Third, when Etukan finally gives the order to retreat, Neytiri looks at Jake tied up and runs away.

Then finally my favorite scene happens, where Toruk Makto shows up and wouldn't you know it, it's the outcast, betrayer, alien who shows up to say "Howdy, I was in town so I' figure I'd fly by and see if I can do anything about your alien problem."

My thing is, that after all of that, I don't see Neytiri in a I'm sorry I doubted you and I forgive you," scene. Because wouldn't you feel just a little bad about leaving the soon to be the mythic warrior tied up where he potentially could have died and not save the planet from the corporate onslaught?
To me, just the return to the Well of souls wasn't enough.

What's more, the removal of the "Avatar's attack" scene where Max and the Avatars shred the command center made a lot of people feel polarized about the ending where the Protagonist gives everything up to become a full Na'vi. That probably gives the view the message that there are no human values worth saving and we need to be Na'vi in order to be good people.

But that is the opposite of what JC wants us to do as we've seen in this Balo Mante Dam documentary on the Special features of the DVD/BR. He said that a way is to use science and solve many of the problems that way.

So that lead me to my fiction, "A Better Tomorrow" where it shows that both Na'vi and humans aren't completely right nor completely wrong. Because if you think about it, if Jake hadn't convinced Eywa to fight to protect herself, something the Na'vi would never think of doing, then Jake and the Na'vi by themselves surly would have *humhum*...

Failed to combat the Alien Threat​

I also introduced a new character to represent the people on Earth that are fighting for it's survival and the survival of Pandora because of the amazing plants that can heal earth. What this does is give a "You can go your way and we can go our own" and gives the audience and idea of where we can go in our lives.

I just hope that the next films can show just that; a way to show there is more than one way to live and be a good person. To show that there is something good in the human way we live while taking examples of the Na'vi and putting it into our own lives.

What are your thoughts on what should be brought out in the sequels?

 

[Unknown]

Kaltxì ma Rainbowhawk, it was nice to meet you in Estes Park.

I enjoyed reading your post and think it's a valid point of view. Personally, though, I feel like there were plenty of "good sky people" moments. Trudy and Max were the leading characters here, but there were other unnamed people who were clearly against the brutish acts of Quaritch & Co (the "pull the plug" Selfridge scene, many people voiced their displeasure, and for "the aliens went back to their dying home" we saw several humans standing alongside the avatars and Na'vi while the "bad" skypeople walked single file). JC could have written a script that introduced more humans who weren't directly involved with the avatar program for the sake of emphasizing the point you're making, but when you make a story as simple as what Avatar has (regular guy falls in love with forest girl who shows him the beauty of nature, bad guys try to destroy paradise and he saves the day), you can't really afford to have frivolous characters written in. So personally, I think he did pretty well conveying that message but still keeping it somewhat in the background since it rightfully is outside the main plot.

I completely agree that the "good" humans should be present in a story like this where it's otherwise such a polarizing us against them, I just feel like the setup is wrong to focus too much on that particular aspect. Avatar is already a long movie despite its simple plot, and these things would be better covered in book format. But that's just my opinion on it.

My thing is, that after all of that, I don't see Neytiri in a I'm sorry I doubted you and I forgive you," scene. Because wouldn't you feel just a little bad about leaving the soon to be the mythic warrior tied up where he potentially could have died and not save the planet from the corporate onslaught?
To me, just the return to the Well of souls wasn't enough.

Well, she did say, "I was afraid, Jake, for my people," in a way that I at least interpreted as an explanation for her previous words and actions. To be fair, in the scene where she left him, she was acting on emotions because he lied to her about something really, really big (I would feel pretty betrayed too if some powerful stranger fell in love with me, gained my trust and then said he had known all along he knew that my home and community was going to be destroyed by his people but he had waited until the very last moment to tell me). Mo'at, being the "wise" character, had enough sense to release the people that were most likely to help the Na'vi, but Neytiri had just had her heart crushed by Jake and wasn't able to see past that. Anyway, I felt her actions were justified.

I also introduced a new character to represent the people on Earth that are fighting for it's survival and the survival of Pandora because of the amazing plants that can heal earth. What this does is give a "You can go your way and we can go our own" and gives the audience and idea of where we can go in our lives.

I just hope that the next films can show just that; a way to show there is more than one way to live and be a good person. To show that there is something good in the human way we live while taking examples of the Na'vi and putting it into our own lives.

I haven't read what you wrote, but that sounds like an intriguing character and a nice solution to your idea of introducing good humans. The tricky part with the sequels I think is tying it all in and keeping it relevant, instead of just trying to make sure every meaningful message is included. It's more powerful to have one strong message than to cover all your bases.

As for what I think should be brought out in the sequels, I don't have any deep and meaningful ideas because all I want is more Pandora and Na'vi and less Earth and humans, but that has nothing to do with the messages and everything to do with my love for Pandora.

 

[Rainbowhawk1993]

Kaltxì ma Rainbowhawk, it was nice to meet you in Estes Park.

I enjoyed reading your post and think it's a valid point of view. Personally, though, I feel like there were plenty of "good sky people" moments. Trudy and Max were the leading characters here, but there were other unnamed people who were clearly against the brutish acts of Quaritch & Co (the "pull the plug" Selfridge scene, many people voiced their displeasure, and for "the aliens went back to their dying home" we saw several humans standing alongside the avatars and Na'vi while the "bad" skypeople walked single file). JC could have written a script that introduced more humans who weren't directly involved with the avatar program for the sake of emphasizing the point you're making, but when you make a story as simple as what Avatar has (regular guy falls in love with forest girl who shows him the beauty of nature, bad guys try to destroy paradise and he saves the day), you can't really afford to have frivolous characters written in. So personally, I think he did pretty well conveying that message but still keeping it somewhat in the background since it rightfully is outside the main plot.

I completely agree that the "good" humans should be present in a story like this where it's otherwise such a polarizing us against them, I just feel like the setup is wrong to focus too much on that particular aspect. Avatar is already a long movie despite its simple plot, and these things would be better covered in book format. But that's just my opinion on it.

I just hope that the next movies can help the audience to realized that we can love ourselves no matter what we are or where we come from since many of us suffered from PAD for several years. I suffered from it until I found the talent and skills to create my story and when I got my own laptop, I got into my other favorite sci-fi world, Mass Effect, where, just like Star Trek, shows that humans are impulsive and seen to be untrustworthy some times, but throughout the story can be shown to have capacity for good and cooperation with other species.

What I hope can happen is that there can be a way where the audience can find something that is relatable and they can love themselves and not feel so uncomfortable about leaving Pandora when they exit the theater.

Well, she did say, "I was afraid, Jake, for my people," in a way that I at least interpreted as an explanation for her previous words and actions. To be fair, in the scene where she left him, she was acting on emotions because he lied to her about something really, really big (I would feel pretty betrayed too if some powerful stranger fell in love with me, gained my trust and then said he had known all along he knew that my home and community was going to be destroyed by his people but he had waited until the very last moment to tell me). Mo'at, being the "wise" character, had enough sense to release the people that were most likely to help the Na'vi, but Neytiri had just had her heart crushed by Jake and wasn't able to see past that. Anyway, I felt her actions were justified.

I haven't read what you wrote, but that sounds like an intriguing character and a nice solution to your idea of introducing good humans. The tricky part with the sequels I think is tying it all in and keeping it relevant, instead of just trying to make sure every meaningful message is included. It's more powerful to have one strong message than to cover all your bases.

As for what I think should be brought out in the sequels, I don't have any deep and meaningful ideas because all I want is more Pandora and Na'vi and less Earth and humans, but that has nothing to do with the messages and everything to do with my love for Pandora.

Here's the story if you're interested:

A Better Tomorrow


But everything else, I really hope that Jim can work his magic and bring the story to the next step and have the audience find merit in our own life style because the way we're going to save ourselves in real life is by finding the good things in our life while incorporating the new good things shown from the movie and every where else.

I guess I'm saying this because I figure that Tomorrow Land is a more practical way to live than all of us living in the rainforest. Just my opinion too.

 

[Ja'k Dawsiin]

the overpopulated and ecologically-dying Earth (very true here in 2017) in post-2154 should very much be involved in all the sequels, because it is that interaction between the pro-Pandora scientists/others and the Na'vi tribes that will bring contact between Eywa and Gaia the Earth-Mother, and perhaps a solution both peoples and planetary protective guardians can live with and benefit from long-term.

 

[SecOps]

Got no problem with Eywa. but Gaia? Come on...

 

[Ja'k Dawsiin]

Got no problem with Eywa. but Gaia? Come on...

Gaia is the earth-sister equivalent of Eywa, though considerably weakened and sickly due to hundreds of years of mining, resources removal with nothing returned, mass deforestation and clear-cutting, many years of underground nuclear test explosions, burial of nuclear wastes, planet-wide oil drilling, co2 emissions, pollution of every type, and the spread of 10billion two-legged termites who consume everything in their path. Gaia is what Eywa will become like after the rda/secops barbarians have their way with Pandora.

have you even watched the film...?! smh

 

[SnowRider]

This is the central theme of the fan novel I wrote in 2010 (and posted on FFN) after thinking about the themes present in the first film.

It will be interesting to see how JC incorporates the "good humans" into the sequel(s) if he does at all.

If there are good people on Pandora (Jake, Max, Norm, Grace, Trudy, etc.) then there must be good people back on Earth.

Let's see if these "good people" are a part of the sequel(s).