Why I Love Avatar

Txonä Unil Stä'nìyu Rolyusì · March 17, 2011, 04:24:58 AM

I do believe this is the right thread for this. Anyway, I know I've mentioned a couple times that I've written my college application essay on why I love Avatar so much and (for my 800th post!) I want to share it with you all

It's already been edited and sent, but I still want to hear your thoughts. This is the unedited original version

Let me know if you have trouble viewing the document and I can PM it to you or something

-Txonä Rolyu

'Oma Tirea · March 17, 2011, 05:08:00 AM

Since apparently not everyone can read .docx format, I'm going to repost it here if you don't mind

Spoiler

QuoteMarch 23, 2010 was indeed an interesting in my life. I had heard very few things about a movie called Avatar but knew that I wanted to see it. I hadn't planned anything for the March 23rd, so I set out for the theater and my bus arrived 15 minutes before a showing was going to start. The movie began at 4:15pm. When it was done, I had no idea what had just hit me. I literally had to catch my breath because it felt like I had been holding it through the entire movie. I was so dazed I could barely walk. It was on that day that my life took a very sharp turn. I entered the world of Pandora.

Avatar gave me a chance to leave Earth and enter this world where everything is pure and pristine, world where everything is literally connected to each other. Seeing the way the Na'vi lived; closely connected, respecting their land, and taking only that which they need from it; really made me think about how humans are living currently. Avatar really shed a light on this, a light that is brighter than some would like it to be. Whether we want to face it or not, we are killing our planet. With our constant pollution, exploiting of Earth's natural resources, and our land development, it's no wonder the planet is almost dead in 2154. One of my favorite lines from the movie is "All energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back." –Neytiri <3 If we don't give back to our planet that which we take, one day, there will be nothing left.

The thing I love most about the Na'vi is the fact they are able to literally connect to each other and their world through direct neural interface, something that humans can never achieve. At least not without the aid of some kind of technology. This is evidenced in the final battle scene between Neytiri and Quaritch. While Neytiri is able to fight freely from the back of her thanator, Quaritch must remain ensheathed in his giant metal AMP suit without which he wouldn't stand a chance. He wouldn't even be able to breathe the air of Pandora. Even with the technological advances we've made 150 years in the future, we are still only able to interact with the outside world through physical manipulation.

The thing I love most about the movie as a whole is the concept of the Avatar Program. Writer Nicholas T. Cox sums this up perfectly in his essay If I Could Just Leave My Body For a Night. He writes, "That line ['If I could just leave my body for a night'] expresses in the simplest terms possible what may well be the deepest, strongest, most tragically impossible desire a human being can have, and Avatar dares to let us see that desire gratified. That, above all else, is perhaps the secret of the movie's appeal: it shows us a world in which technology has made it possible, at least to an extent, for human beings to leave their bodies and enter into an existence that, unlike ours, is truly worthy of its bearers. Beneath all our idealistic fantasies of a perfect world, it is ultimately the inescapable limitations of our own bodies, our hated corporeal frailty—signified just as much by Dr. Grace's smoking habit as by Jake's disability—that is the source of our pain, and from that pain we will never be free. Avatar, though, lets us almost believe, if only for a few hours, that someday we might be."

I think the thing that has affected me the most from seeing Avatar isn't something in the movie, but what happened after the movie. As I said earlier, at the end of the movie, I literally had to catch my breath because it felt like I had been holding it through the entire movie. No movie has ever had that effect on me. I saw it for a 2nd time in less than 24 hours and it had the same effect, which still hasn't worn off. After seeing Avatar (a few times), I immediately visited the movie's website and found out that there was a whole language involved with the movie. Being as enamored as I was, I had to learn it. Shortly after I began studying, I began meeting people online who had been studying since December '09 who helped me with it. They quickly became good friends of mine and I am still in regular contact with them. We are planning to meet in spring and summer. I think this is the greatest thing Avatar has done for me is brought me these new, amazing friends. I love you all!

...ulte wou fì'u lu txantsan

.: Neytiri :. · March 17, 2011, 06:24:26 AM

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I read with much pleasure and I also identify with everything you said.

Avatar changed my life in a way that I could not even think! I did know a lot of new people, some known personally.

The people who understood this film is not much but if we unite, we can really change anything in this world.

Oe ayngahu ma oeyä nawma smuk.. Eywa ayngahu!

Eyawng te Klltepayu · March 17, 2011, 06:45:29 AM

Txantsan nìtxan lu fwa faylì'uri pamrel soli nga! Fìrelä arusikx tìyawnìri oeyä trro zene pamrel sivi oe.

Nyx · March 17, 2011, 11:08:39 AM

Fì'u lu txantsan

and etrìpa syayvi with college!

Txonä Unil Stä'nìyu Rolyusì · March 17, 2011, 03:46:21 PM

Irayo seiyi ma oeyä eylan! Fwa oeyä pamrel ayngaru sunu 'efu oe nitram

[Glad you all like my essay]

Quote from: Sxkxawng alu 'Oma Tirea on March 17, 2011, 05:08:00 AM
Since apparently not everyone can read .docx format, I'm going to repost it here if you don't mind

Spoiler
QuoteMarch 23, 2010 was indeed an interesting in my life. I had heard very few things about a movie called Avatar but knew that I wanted to see it. I hadn't planned anything for the March 23rd, so I set out for the theater and my bus arrived 15 minutes before a showing was going to start. The movie began at 4:15pm. When it was done, I had no idea what had just hit me. I literally had to catch my breath because it felt like I had been holding it through the entire movie. I was so dazed I could barely walk. It was on that day that my life took a very sharp turn. I entered the world of Pandora.

Avatar gave me a chance to leave Earth and enter this world where everything is pure and pristine, world where everything is literally connected to each other. Seeing the way the Na'vi lived; closely connected, respecting their land, and taking only that which they need from it; really made me think about how humans are living currently. Avatar really shed a light on this, a light that is brighter than some would like it to be. Whether we want to face it or not, we are killing our planet. With our constant pollution, exploiting of Earth's natural resources, and our land development, it's no wonder the planet is almost dead in 2154. One of my favorite lines from the movie is "All energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back." –Neytiri <3 If we don't give back to our planet that which we take, one day, there will be nothing left.

The thing I love most about the Na'vi is the fact they are able to literally connect to each other and their world through direct neural interface, something that humans can never achieve. At least not without the aid of some kind of technology. This is evidenced in the final battle scene between Neytiri and Quaritch. While Neytiri is able to fight freely from the back of her thanator, Quaritch must remain ensheathed in his giant metal AMP suit without which he wouldn't stand a chance. He wouldn't even be able to breathe the air of Pandora. Even with the technological advances we've made 150 years in the future, we are still only able to interact with the outside world through physical manipulation.

The thing I love most about the movie as a whole is the concept of the Avatar Program. Writer Nicholas T. Cox sums this up perfectly in his essay If I Could Just Leave My Body For a Night. He writes, "That line ['If I could just leave my body for a night'] expresses in the simplest terms possible what may well be the deepest, strongest, most tragically impossible desire a human being can have, and Avatar dares to let us see that desire gratified. That, above all else, is perhaps the secret of the movie's appeal: it shows us a world in which technology has made it possible, at least to an extent, for human beings to leave their bodies and enter into an existence that, unlike ours, is truly worthy of its bearers. Beneath all our idealistic fantasies of a perfect world, it is ultimately the inescapable limitations of our own bodies, our hated corporeal frailty—signified just as much by Dr. Grace's smoking habit as by Jake's disability—that is the source of our pain, and from that pain we will never be free. Avatar, though, lets us almost believe, if only for a few hours, that someday we might be."

I think the thing that has affected me the most from seeing Avatar isn't something in the movie, but what happened after the movie. As I said earlier, at the end of the movie, I literally had to catch my breath because it felt like I had been holding it through the entire movie. No movie has ever had that effect on me. I saw it for a 2nd time in less than 24 hours and it had the same effect, which still hasn't worn off. After seeing Avatar (a few times), I immediately visited the movie's website and found out that there was a whole language involved with the movie. Being as enamored as I was, I had to learn it. Shortly after I began studying, I began meeting people online who had been studying since December '09 who helped me with it. They quickly became good friends of mine and I am still in regular contact with them. We are planning to meet in spring and summer. I think this is the greatest thing Avatar has done for me is brought me these new, amazing friends. I love you all!

...ulte wou fì'u lu txantsan