Why Humans in AVATAR are the Good Guys

hi friends welcome back to another episode of generation films my name is alan and today i want to finally talk about something i've been meaning to talk to you guys about for a very long time it's the movie avatar while i always appreciate a good sci-fi movie especially one with a deep and profound message about the state of mankind avatar while cinematically one of the most beautiful pictures of its time was also one of the cringiest with very lazy and blunt one-liners like our only security lies in preemptive attack we will fight terror with terror i mean the movie even pissed off native americans who thought that james cameron just ripped off their culture and turned native americans into giant blue aliens who still need a white guy to turn into one of them in order to save them for many it's just the last of the mohicans dancing with the wolves or the last samurai all over again but with giant blue aliens now i'm not against messaging in movies especially when it comes to anti-war messaging i think it's important to remind people that warfare represents the ultimate failure of our species and it's really a last resort weapon that should not be carelessly wielded but making a movie is a craft and when you completely abandon your story in favor of regurgitating cliche slogans that are completely immersion shattering you'll lose me and that's how i really consume media whenever i feel the artist actively pushing me in one direction very curious of what's going on in the other direction which is why i began realizing that all of the humans that james cameron was demonizing in the movie were not actually the bad guys in the movie they're actually the heroes and here are some reasons why by 2129 the majority of earth's wildlife and forests have been destroyed as a result of human overpopulation and massive worldwide urbanization the resource development administration which started up as a humble silicon valley startup tech company first made a global impact by building a worldwide monorail system to allow cheap safe and quick transportation for everyone and as the world's natural resources dried up the rda created massive algae farms in the oceans to create the necessary sustenance for sustaining the life of 20 billion humans on the planet a global war in the 22nd century further strained the resources of the planet and more importantly the energy on the planet was almost completely depleted humanity had colonized mars for more space but still our species was on the verge of dying we needed more energy to fuel our expansion across the galaxy by this point the rda was as powerful as most governments on earth they launched a desperate and costly mission to the nearest star system of alpha centauri to the moon of pantora in order to gather a resource that is named unobtainium unoptanium is a mineral that was a room-temperature superconductor that produced an incredibly strong magnetic field which is why there are floating mountains all over the place on pantora unobtainium was a crucial component of the anti-matter reactors used by human starships at the time and with enough unobtainium humanity could become a true space-faring race the mission to pantora was in many ways humanity's last hope without more resources massive famines and infighting between the different nations would destroy what's left of the planet pantoro was a strange new world for humanity although there was oxygen in the atmosphere high levels of carbon dioxide made the air toxic for humans to breathe in the moon was covered in massive jungles full of all sorts of exotic and dangerous flora and fauna a large percentage of the species were bioluminescent and created light far more intense than anything we have here on earth the rda first encountered the locals known as the na'vi these were extremely tall humanoids that lived in hunter-gatherer communities their tech level was equivalent to the earth's paleolithic epoch initially the rda attempted to communicate with the na'vi but the cultural and language differences made this almost impossible eventually the avatar program was created which allowed humans to pilot navi bodies and live and walk amongst the navi without endangering humans to hostile environments and occasionally hostile navi the rda even set up schools to teach navi about human culture and language varying degrees of success but ultimately this exchange of ideas ended up in failure as the navy continued attacking rda outposts and vehicles this unfortunately led to the massacre of several young navi hunters at one of the schoolhouses after they had torched several bulldozers the rda had hoped by being able to communicate with the na'vi they would be able to negotiate terms and peacefully mine on the planet now the na'vi are often portrayed as beautiful peace-loving species but like most generalizations they were far more complicated than the public's romanticization of them for one the na'vi were massive compared to human beings as adults they grew up to 12 feet tall and were extremely strong in limber a grown navi could easily throw a human far enough to kill them the iconic image of a noble savage with a bone arrow facing against evil humans with firearms is also a bit misleading the bows and arrows they used were closer in size to the ballistas used by ancient roman armies as siege weapons these weapons they used easily dwarfed even the tallest longbows and the arrows were more like giant spears many humans lost their lives in horrific ways because they were unawarenessly of the navi's customs and boundaries while the na'vi were very in tune with their planet and all the wildlife around it they were also very territorial and extremely adept hunters and their society had a very vibrant and proud warrior culture and as the rda and the na'vi had more encounters it was only inevitable for more bloodshed to occur by the time jake sully had arrived the na'vi were firing on human vehicles without warning heavily increasing the need for security on the planet in truth there was a lot that humanity could learn from navi about their moon we could have learned about the complicated bio network that linked all life on pantora together but the navi could have learned even more from us their society was extremely primitive and although they had amazing rituals that could even transfer consciousness from one being to another then have a process like the scientific method to figure out and record their findings it was for this reason why the na'vi were still hunters and gatherers without the ability to grow food and develop agriculture the majority of their people's energy was spent on obtaining food agriculture allows communities to have free time during which new ideas and inventions can be created this is how humanity formed things like laws or science and art without progress the na'vi would have been doomed one way or another from some celestial event or natural disaster what the humans had to offer was enlightenment but the na'vi rejected any exchange in culture because of the structure of their society the na'vi warriors and hunters were valued above everyone else in the tribe this meant the strong young males could choose whatever women they wanted to be with this was a society that valued strength and power above intellect and progress the fact that there were very few elderly and sick people in their population goes to show you how hard life was life expectancy for the navi was needlessly short in comparison to more developed societies and again this is because in permanent societies where physicality is more important than intelligence oftentimes weaker and smarter individuals are not allowed to contribute to the tribe and let's also not forget that the same tale neural network they use during mating sessions with each other they also use unsuspecting animals we have a name for that on earth it's called bestiality and although not enough areas of the world outlaw this it's generally frowned upon but for the na'vi it's a rite of passage was a massive moon closer in size to a planet than our own moon the earth has a diameter of twelve thousand seven hundred kilometers while pandora has a diameter of eleven thousand four hundred and forty seven kilometers but the navi population couldn't have numbered more than a few million this was rumored to be because of a sentient intelligence worshipped by the navi called iwa iwa maintained a careful ecological balance on the planet and cold the navi population if they grew too large in numbers so this actually meant that there was plenty of room for the rda and humans to settle and mine unobtainium remember the entire human race was dependent on this resource for its survival now the fact that some large sentient being was basically playing god and controlling all life on pantora is actually quite terrifying if the rda scientists and xenobiologists have been allowed into the so-called sacred pandora neural network areas they could have examined how it worked they would have been able to expose their god as some very complex and perhaps malevolent creature and although i understand the importance of creating a balanced ecosystem i believe that no sentient beings should get to decide whether another sentient being should or should not live a lot of people who grew up in suburbs or in cities have a very romantic idea of what nature is the idea of a pantoran-like society where we all live at the mercy of nature or some god-like entity like iwa might sound appealing to them but the reality is quite different while i agree what humanity has done to the earth and its natural beauty is horrific and one of our greatest failures our scientific achievements cannot be overlooked we as a species were born frail and without physical advantages that would help us survive the only thing we ever had was a brain and some thumbs which allowed us to build create and innovate to not pursue the gifts that evolution has bestowed on us would be a great loss of potential the na'vi were also born with this ability of higher thinking and function but they instead succumb to the authority of some supreme alien entity that carelessly cut them down like blades of grass without reason or empathy nature is a beautiful thing and i love it i spent a third of my year traveling trekking and camping and getting as much outdoor experience as possible but nature is also chaos and brutal in the wild animals eat their young killed the weak and the kind only humans have been able to rise above the chaos and establish structure morality innovation movies like avatar with their narrow focus forget that aspect of humanity completely ultimately the na'vi were able to outnumber and overwhelm the rda forces on the planet to their credit they did not massacre the humans that surrendered but they did send them back home on the starships perhaps dooming human civilization maybe if the rda arrived with more scientists and anthropologists things would have happened differently perhaps if the rda's corporate leaders were under less pressure and had more time to gather the resources they needed a war could have been averted i think it's always hard to judge other people's intention and so whenever i suspect that someone is evil i also consider the fact that they might just be incompetent and usually that's a lot closer to the truth ultimately the rda's expedition was full of humans who wanted to create a better future for their people and many members of the rda expedition had children and family back home that were suffocating on earth and before you judge the actions of the rda let me ask you this question if your children or your loved ones or your family members were stuck on a dying planet how far would you go to save them anyway let me know in the comment section below what you think also let me know what you think about the rda maybe you like the navi you're entitled to your opinions anyway don't forget to subscribe hit that notification button down below so you don't miss out on the rest of our awesome content we'll probably do a little more avatar coverage it's a franchise that i'm definitely interested in and i'll definitely have more videos and content about it anyway guys my name is alan reminding you that life is a movie and you are the protagonist

Channel: Generation Films

Views: 1,366,960

Keywords: Avatar, Humans Good in Avatar, Na'vi, Humans vs Navi, Marines Avatar, Pandora, Marines good in Avatar, Avatar 2, Avatar message, Avatar II, Avatar III, Avatar 3, Jake Sully, Avatar battle, Avatar tree battle, Avatar fight scene, Avatar mechs, Marines in Avatar, earth in avatar, Humanity first

Id: HnqPMtoL7Ng

Length: 11min 23sec (683 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

the alternative scene in which he flies with trudy to the shack convinced me that he's not only on the 'wrong' side but he's also reckless and doesn't give a shit about his soldiers after all. with him it's 'you keep track with me or you're going to die'. in the beginning he says he will not succeed in keeping all of his people alive, but i never fully realized that this is not only due to the 'dangers' of pandora but also due to his own cruelty. just observe closely how he behaves. when the dragon is hit by the missile, he grabs the oxygen mask before anyone else, inhales and drops it without even looking at the pilots. this behaviour is shown repeatedly troughout the film. when he storms out of the tower gate to shoot at the escaping prisoners, sure he yells 'masks on!' but still, isn't it kinda ruthless to risk all of your staffs lives in an instant of a second without even blinking? and finally when flying with trudy, he enters and leaves the cockpit without warning her to put her mask on. i'm sure there's even more tiny bits that show that quarritch is in fact, as trudy calls him, a brutal "asshole".