sins in blue (where avatar went wrong)

so perhaps saying it’s a sin is being a bit extreme or maybe there’s a little reaching involved but then again maybe not.  I’ll go back to the beginning . . .  Avatar is a great movie, it’s entertaining, the visuals pulled me into the world of Pandora and I truly felt for the native people.  I mean come on the corporate entities were ass holes and although the Colonel was charismatic (in a brutally honest sort of way) his mission was transparent.  the Na’vi seemed a little more hip to things than many of the indigenous people that we read about in our history books but just like the Native Americans they were going to find that their bows and arrows could do little against the fire machines of the white man.  (yes I’m about to go there)

this was yet another story of how the simple natives were saved by the white man, FROM the white man.  perhaps it stems from some underlying guilt for the reality that historically white people have had some very destructive roles in the demise of a number of cultures, many of whom were that of people of color.  in this case it’s blue.

so yeah, James Cameron set out to make the blue guys win, which is great, except that the blue guy who really tipped the scales just so happened to be white.  (on the plus side he was disabled and there’s a group rarely represented as heroes)  let’s look at Jake for a moment; he seemed to be on the lower end of the totem pole.  he was a disabled vet who’d spent more time becoming a good soldier than a scholar like his brother, his twin brother, who was taken away from him far too early in life.  so when offered this opportunity to serve once more he was greeted by the fact that he was no longer the perfect soldier and in the eyes of the scientists he was a jar head. . . I guess going to another world where you can kinda start over wouldn’t look so bad when in your reality you don’t fit in where you came from either.  when given the chance to infiltrate the Na’vi in exchange for working legs there was not a blink of hesitation, in fact it was all the information given by Jake that did in the tree house.  however; it was the spirit (literal) of the Na’vi that won the world.

does this mean that white people have no souls?  no at this point it was directed at corporations.

what stands out is that there was a young male, intelligent enough to be the future ruler of the Na’vi who could have saved the say, albeit still with Jake’s help but none the less a man who could have done more to save the people HIS people.  but Tsu’Tey’s character was kept rather two-dimensional.

so I’m kinda torn because I didn’t see the movie looking for a social message, I went to see the movie to be entertained, and I was, THROUGHLY.  but when I stop to think about it I was looking at the same story that I’ve been seeing for a long time, one that is likely not to be changing any time soon.  (I also saw the Princess and the Frog to which I had few positives to say, sure we got a black princess who was really a modern day servant and spent about 2/3 of the movie as an amphibian ~ but hey she married a no longer (now that he met her) good for nothing prince so she’s a princess that our girls should look up to).  I wasn’t so much entertained with Disney’s latest.

anywho.  in true over thinking fashion I took this conversation with my friend and my thoughts on the matter to the next level, and looked up the definition of an avatar (provided below by Merriam Webster)

Main Entry: av·a·tar Pronunciation: \ˈa-və-ˌtär\

Function: noun

Etymology: Sanskrit avatāraḥ descent, from avatarati he descends, from ava-away + tarati he crosses over — more at ukase, through

Date: 1784

1 : the incarnation of a Hindu deity (as Vishnu)
2 a : an incarnation in human form b : an embodiment (as of a concept orphilosophy) often in a person
3 : a variant phase or version of a continuing basic entity
4 : an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user (as in a computer game)

okay, so that didn’t really tell me too much more than what we all (hopefully) knew that an avatar is someone’s virtual image.

lets recap because I’ve found myself just as dizzy typing as I did having this conversation:  Jake sold out the Na’vi, hometree was killed.  Jake not only took Tsu’Tey’s future wife but he got to ride the dragon, save the day and when Tsu’Tey was killed in battle, Jake became the chief because oh yeah, he’s a real blue man now!

I’d give this more thought but I’m not looking for a movie to do more than entertain me.  I’m rather cynical in regards to race relations and this exercise wouldn’t change that; but to the man on the train:  No, he’s not reaching.  but then how could I ever expect or even hope for you to see any different when you are standing in the shoes of the entitled.  for you “the man” is corporate America but for many more that face has always been white, even when it’s blue.