Why did you become a fan?

[Toruk Makto]

A part of me will always live there, although I am now in Houston.

[Atanä mungeyu]

well I've lived in California for 2 years when i was small.. so i can't remember >_<
people also seem to be surprised when i tell I'm half french XD
eywa ayngahu,
unilyu

[Aziza]

In some ways, the Na'vi way of life and their respect for their Great Mother reminds me of the Wicca religion. I don't know if anyone here is familiar with it. I bought a book on it a few months ago, and it's fascinating. I'm not a wiccan and don't plan on becoming one, it demands too much time. But I like their way of thinking. The way they think everything in nature is sacred, the way they think men can communicate with the forces of nature. It's basically what the Na'vi do every day.

That's a good point. Neytiri said that the Great Mother [Eywa] does not take sides, but acts to preserve the balance of life, which also sounds very Wicca. The difference as I see it though, is that almost all human religions and spiritual paradigms, including Wicca, depend on faith that communion with the deity is indeed occurring. Faith being defined as "belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence". The Na'vi can actually connect to the network of energy that is the presence of Eywa on their world. That would seem to make faith unnecessary for them. That has me pondering whether Eywa should really be called a "deity" at all, since some definitions of the term include the word "supernatural". On Pandora, Eywa is very much "natural". As for material evidence, the response of Eywa against the humans that were trying to destroy the Tree of Souls satisfies that nicely.

Thats a good point that you both make,
i honestly do not know anything about wicca, but i will be educating myself in that shortly

how ever i would like to comment on one thing:


"Neytiri said that the Great Mother [Eywa] does not take sides, but acts to preserve the balance of life, which also sounds very Wicca."

while it is true that neytiri said this; i believe that that neytiti also learned something from the main character, jake(as he was praying to eywa)

eywa may control the balance of life and energy, but she also is able to hear prayers and understand prayers.

which im sure many agree, that eywa is much more then a tree with a complex root system.
i mean dont us humans believe and expect the same from our god? even with out scientific or materialistic proof?

i believe  that the god in which most humans find faith in; controls the balance of life, hears our prayers, and even portects thoes with kind "energy" rather then an evil heart.

the first thing i thought of when avatar ended; was that it might be the exact same being that the Na'vi believe in , as us humans believe in(as our god)


thanks for your link fire master
i learned alot

p.s.
sorry for my bad english lol

[Aziza]

I'm a fan, simply because i like the simplicity of life that the Na'vi have.

i shouldnt get hooked on a movie, with all honesty, im not a movie person.

but for what ever reason, (as jake sully said) "things seem backwards now, as if out there was real, and here was te dream" lol

im putting alot of effort in to learn the launguage.

[Kerame Pxel Nume]

 Well, if you take away the exozoology and the giant flora from the low gravity, Pandora looks a lot like the cloud forests in Costa Rica, where I have spent a lot of time in the past. Huge trees and life everywhere you look.

 With all respect to the imagined environment of Pandora, Earth is already a beautiful place. We just need to make sure we DON'T ruin it.

QFT. Earth is a wonderfull planet with so many ecosystems each with interesting flora and fauna. It's just that we humans, especially in the "civilized" world started to segregate ourselfs from nature. Look at our cities: Every free space has been sealed by concrete walls. The parks inbetween are no match to the great feeling if you actually end up in the wilderness for some reason.

But we're raised in a constant mood of us vs. nature. Which is sad. Personally I ended up quite lucky. My mother did her best to teach me a deep respect for all living things early on. The key word is respect. It was not some esoterical, tree hugger mojo, but just the bare truth. We're part of the nature and every mistreatment of nature is actually a mistreatment of ourself.

For me the best example for this is, ironically, the secondmost worst nuclear desaster so far: Chernobyl. The off limits zone there is mostly uninhabitable for humans for the next centuries. But nature is actually thriving there. This is by no means a justification for nuclear desaster, I just wanted to point out, that we did the most damage to us.

There's often this talk about challanging worldwide tasks that could unite humanity. How about this: Clean up the mess we produced for the last 150 years, build a sustaning renewable energy infrastructure and for the sake of everything stop wasting our time and resources on short lived gadgets/trends/etc. This is by no way against technology. In fact I think our only way out of this mess is further development and refinement of technology. For example I'm thinking about solar powered pyrolysis to crack up toxic waste and regain the valueable materials therein. We should collect all the nuclear waste we produced so far and render it mostly inert, which can be done by targeting it with large doses of high energy proton beams. But for that a lot of energy is required, which however could be cheaply obtained from solar power with already existing and proofed technology. But there are also seemingly simple tasks, like cleaning plastic waste from the oceans, there's already more fine grained plastics than plankton swimming out there - maybe we should just genetically engineer bacteria capable of breaking the polymers. There's already a fungus capable of breaking down polycarbonate.

The irony is: The worst that we can do to nature is rendering it unsustainable for us. Then we vanish and the planet recovers over time.

Did Avatar change anything for me. No I felt this way for a long time.

If there was a Pandora and the possibility to go there, maybe even including an Avatar, would I go there. On the spot. Living as a Na'vi. Not for me please. But researching the planet, learning the culture, hell yes. Of course the very same is still possible here on Earth, but you're facing the problem, that so many habitats get destroyed by the minute, that's really depessing.

Why I really like avatar: For one ting it's a wonderful parabel to what we're doing right now, with ethnic minorites living in areas having valuable minerals. Take coltan for example. We need it for making the capacitors used in almost every modern electronics device. It's mined under inhuman conditions, there are actually wars about it in Africa. Due to the inflation of mobile technology, a new generation of cell phones each half year this is one of the most profitable minerals right now. And on every so called Tantal Capacitor you buy today there's blood.

And then there's this huge imaginative power behind it. And I don't just mean the script and idea of JC, but also of all the artists and science advisors, who did a great job. The ISVs are the most plausible space ship design seen in a movie so far. At first I was a bit sceptical about the Antimatter-/Fusion propulsion concept. Until I found this paper:
http://www.engr.psu.edu/antimatter/Papers/AIMStar_99.pdf

Last but not least it has a great story. It's neither simple nor flat. There's a huge amount of subtext for all the characters. E.g. watching the movie for the second time, not having read the scripts yet, I had the impression that there was chemistry between Norm and Trudy. Only to be confirmed later when reading the script.

[EDIT] fixed a meaning chaning typo

[Eyamsiyu]

I was taught to go to school and get a job.  I'm still in that process, but I debate whether or not finishing college is really ideal.  I mean, Becoming a touring musician doesn't require a degree in music at all: just skill and luck.

[Neytiri lu sevin]

Hi guys !! 

I actually became a fan of avatar because the first time i saw the movie i was like : OMG the human is realy the worst thing on earth!

if i could go live on pandora i would leave tomorrow morning 

now i am going for my 7th sreening next tuesday  this movie is so good its the best movie that i've seen since a long time

it make me realize that the human haven't created something who realy is useful 

now im trying to learn the na'vi language and i found that awesome forum in my seach of "trying to live like on pandora"

i think that Avatar is the thing that made me realised the most things in my live 

so thats it that's why i became a fan of Avatar 

and also
Neytiri lu sevin  that's a fact 

[jasgor9]

I became a fan because the movie was amazing. I went to see it in IMAX opening weekend and when I left the theater I thought to myself "Oh god I'm gonna end up seeing this like a million times...", and so I have .

[Kesìltsamsiyu]

A couple reasons. Number one, I'm fascinated by the way worlds work, including the real one. A movie with a well put together universe is much more appealing to me than one with a unique storyline or with all the other things that the people who think Citizen Kane didn't suck like. Pandora is, in my opinion, by quite a large margin, the coolest fictional universe ever put together.

Number two is just one word, in large capital letters: IMMERSION

[archaic]

I went to see the film partly because I was curious to see what Cameron had blown 300 mil' on, but mostly I had 4 hours to kill.
I'd seen the trailer, it didn't appeal, and I'd seen and heard way too much hype.
I half expected an awful blend of fern gully, pocahontas and dances with wolves, but 4 hours is a long time to waste.
I was bored.
I was in the right palace to see it.
I had plenty of time to get into the 2D (3D was full).
So with pretty low expectations I went in.

I watch, WOWES! Master piece, as I walked out and noticed that every 3D showing that evening was already full I was gutted, I'd have to wait to see it again, in 3D. It was then that I started to suspect I was hooked.

Seen it 10 times, so far...

Damn you Cameron, what have you done to me!

edit
Now seen it 11 times, so far...

[Kìte'eyä Aungia]

* Saw the trailer a few months before release. Figured it would be a plotless action movie with a bloated, ridiculous budget. I can enjoy something like that as long as it doesn't try to have a plot and fail or suffer from shaky camera syndrome or both (I'm looking at you Transformers and Die Hard 4).

* Went to see it opening weekend. Very critical immediately afterward. I thought the plot was archetypal, but obviously one that people are willing to see again and again, the acting was meh, the dialogue was cheesy at times but not quite as bad as some people have said, and obviously that the special effects were groundbreaking and the movie was great escapism/immersion.

* Read a bajillion articles about Avatar and its fans, watched the available making of material, watched various cast and crew interviews, etc.

* Went on /tv/ to argue with people on both sides. Since /tv/ is filled with trolls, the people attacking the movie far, far outnumbered those promoting it so I ended up spending most of my time defending the movie. I went and saw it another few times with various different groups of friends and family.

* One of my linguistics TAs apparently knows Frommer from somewhere and mentioned the Na'vi language in class. I'd never been interested in conlangs before, but Na'vi seemed pretty cool so I showed up here and never left.

* A few weeks ago I ran out of acquaintances to see Avatar with and ended up seeing it alone in IMAX (had only seen it in 3D before).

. . . and, I think that about sums it up.

[Txantslusam Skxawng]

Why I become and still am a fan?

Because of the language ! When I first saw Avatar, I was like. NEED.....TO....SEE....AGAIN...! And I did the week after that and also the week after that. I saw it 3 sundays in a row and 2 weeks later I saw it twice in one week and the week after that I saw it for my 6th and last time. But I had never of this site before, I even didnt know this language was in the movie ! I dont regret that I joined here.
I dont care what my friends think, cuz I love it here !

First time that I saw the movie, I also thought , THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER ! Im not so critical with movies, unless they suck ( real bad ) but I love Avatar, I even know what kind of coffin I want, one with Avatar on it, but thats like 70-80 years away, im 15. But when I was 12 I wanted to get 100 years old, then i could say that im antique.

LOL !

['Tsamsiyu]

It was not some esoterical, tree hugger mojo, but just the bare truth. We're part of the nature and every mistreatment of nature is actually a mistreatment of ourself.

It annoys me so much when people think Avatar is just some 'Hidden message about how we are all going to die' and how it is 'some tree hugger protest'. Like you said before, it is actually the bare truth.

[Rikxyu]

Yeah, a lot of times, it would be nice if most people could just enjoy a work of art without a lot of criticism. It just human nature, I guess. How ironic.

[Tsa'räni]

Nah, despite what some would have you believe, it would be pretty hard for us to wipe ourselves out totally.  We could certainly do it if we tried, but I don't think anyone feels humans, as a whole, want to wipe out our entire species.  It's probably going to take catastrophic natural disaster to do it, so take your pick - asteroid/comet, Siberian Traps waking up again, gamma ray burst, etc.

[archaic]

Yeah, but I do feel that 'civilization' is now so screwed up, that we will inevitably wipe our selves out, one way or another.

That sounds really depressing now I've said it.

Now seen it 12 times.

[Kerame Pxel Nume]

Nah, despite what some would have you believe, it would be pretty hard for us to wipe ourselves out totally.  We could certainly do it if we tried, but I don't think anyone feels humans, as a whole, want to wipe out our entire species.

Well at least a few want by ceasing to reproduce: http://www.vhemt.org/

[Kìte'eyä Aungia]

Yeah, but I do feel that 'civilization' is now so screwed up, that we will inevitably wipe our selves out, one way or another.

That sounds really depressing now I've said it.

A lot of people here feel that way, but I think there's reason to be optimistic.

In recent history, in virtually every country in the world, incidence of war has been on the decline, poverty has been decreasing, life expectancies have been increasing, and child survival rates have been increasing. The two greatest threats to our species at the moment are nuclear war and catastrophic climate change. These are problems, but we are seeing more and more work being put into research and conservation efforts all the time. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists recently turned back the doomsday clock for the first time in 20 years. Not everything is perfect, the positive changes I mentioned above are strongly linked to increasing usage of fossil fuels, but I think there's reason to expect a bright future.

[Jake_Sully_1]

Boy, where DO you keep all the goodies such as threads like this one hidden?
This thread is so good I vote for making it a sticky!
I think it sums up the most important aspects of Avatar and our fandom!

I would not have expected to find a thread with so many really intelligent (= philosophical) and cool posts! A lot of people have made some really great posts here. Very cool!

Why have I become an Avatar fan?
Because of the messages of Avatar.

I will put everything else in Spoiler tags, it'd be page-filling otherwise.

Best regards to all here,
Mark


Hufwe Tsamsiyu:

Spoiler

It annoys me so much when people think Avatar is just some 'Hidden message about how we are all going to die' and how it is 'some tree hugger protest'. Like you said before, it is actually the bare truth.

That sums it up. Avatar is both "a tree hugger protest" and "the bare truth". And someone (Cameron) paid 300 million dollars to tell it to us and a lot of other people. Cameron thereby has broken the speed of light. Figuratively speaking. He has proven, that you actually CAN make money, WHILE protesting for the environment and for more respect for the Other, etc. He has proven that good medicine must not taste bad. That's Cameron's real achievement. What makes him a genius. I hated Titanic, but boy, Avatar was / IS something else.

I am a "treehugger" myself, and a fantasy and science fiction fan. Obviously I must like the movie. I am active in animal and human rights and while watching Avatar I thought right away... but... but... that's not what Hollywood usually does... Isn't Hollywood supposed to defend and justify American Imperialism with subliminal (or sometimes VERY obvious) messages?
HEY! That's EXACTLY what we / western civilization are doing to animals, to Palestinians, to Native Americans, to other species, forests, etc.! Hey! That is pretty darn cool! This movie is ACTUALLY portraying that kind of behavior as bad!
Now that's just gotta be *awesome*!
(I like how the movie starts, with all those technological impressive machines, space ships, mining tractors, robot-suits, etc., pulls all those tech-loving "boys" on the side of the imperialists... to then open their eyes when that tech power is unleashed against the innocent... wooo Cameron! :-)

I was indeed surprised very positively be the messages of Avatar. I heard all about everything else, flat story, multimillion dollar special effects, etc. and went to see it anyway because I love sci-fi and because I like making my own judgment. All the more was I surprised to see a multimillion dollar movie bring themes up which are the domain of... of... well, not of Hollywood, that's for sure. I still can't quite fathom the miracle which Avatar is.
I really think it is a miracle. Coming from Hollywood, costing that much and reaching so many people. Unbelievable!

I have been trying to give people "good medicine" for a big part of my own life. Trying to make them respect animals and "the Other" as much as I do. And guess what, people have always spat out my medicine right back into my face, no matter how hard I try. – And believe me, I DO try very hard.
So doing what Cameron is doing, giving people good medicine (or morals / themes), without people spitting it out (well, some did, because it is a little too obvious / strong for some), I know just what kind of achievement, what kind of miracle that is.

In fact, all this makes me not only an Avatar fan, but also a James Cameron fan. I feel "akin" to him because I feel I share just so many of his views. He is a genius for making the first tree-hugging morals movie people actually go pay to see. At least on such a scale.
He deserves a lot of respect, for Avatar that is (not for Titanic in my view because that had none of those morals but was only about making money as far as I could see).

Txepsiyu:

Spoiler

I am a fan because of the staggering concept of a whole world of living things that can communicate with each other without regard to species boundaries and of the quality of that world as a result. I am not drawn to the tired "green" and "anti-industry" themes that have been so derided by the over-analyzing and critical nattering nabobs in the popular press. Yes, those are in the movie, but I am talking about the concept of an entire world without the stress and violence that is created by overpopulation, fear and ignorance that so characterizes the mess of our own world. How can we possibly begin to take care of our own Great Mother if we can't get past killing each other over things as stupid as religious or philosophical differences or corrosive greed?

As to your second point, the sequence in the film of Jake at the Tree of Souls just before the big battle is possibly one of the scariest things I have ever seen and heard on film. Not horror film BOO scary, I mean this-might-just-happen scary.

Remember the dialog? "I may just be talking to a tree here, but if you're there, I need to give you a heads' up. If Grace is with you, look into her memories. See the world we come from. There's no green there. They killed their mother and they're gonna do the same here."

This is a human that has achieved an outsider's viewpoint on how humans destroyed their world. Sam Worthington's powerful delivery of those lines as a Na'vi through the enhanced CG motion capture of the film, should freeze the blood of anyone living on Earth. I am not ashamed to admit that I can't even think through that part without getting seriously emotional. It is a simple concept, but more important than most people can imagine.

Awesomely said Txepsiyu.
This line here alone is worth your weight in gold: " I am a fan because of the staggering concept of a whole world of living things that can communicate with each other without regard to species boundaries and of the quality of that world as a result."
I couldn't agree more man! Imagine the respect between species and its consequences!

The symbolism you show is indeed very clear. Sometimes almost too much so. "Fight terror with terror" and the reference Trudy made to "martyrdom" show a rather strong slant against US imperialism. The critics are swinging from heels about it, but frankly, it's pretty accurate, IMO.

YES! US imperialism in the middle east I dare top that off.
It's not only accurate, it's the DAMN TRUTH which got us all in this situation of Islamic terrorism which we are all in now. I couldn't agree more!

Novelistgirl:

Spoiler

I agree, our attitude, the attitude of the worldwide population could probably change the way I feel about overpopulation.
But the more the planet is overpopulated, the more we can see the problems of the planet and of our societies, because it's difficult for our governments to take care of this ever growing population.
And when too many people live too close to each other, a lot of problems appear. The resources are lacking (in poor countries), diseases multiply faster and farther, cities are not big enough for every one to have a decent place to live, etc... The list is long.
I don't know, maybe - just maybe - one of the reasons the Na'vi are at peace with each other is that they don't know and experience the problems we have.

Yes, indeed. They are not overpopulated because they live as natives and thus have a high mortality rate. Besides, I assume they breed a lot less than we humans do, making life-long bonds and needing the permission of Eywa to mate etc.

Pxi-Swizaw:

Spoiler

In America especially (as I don't have any experience anywhere else; barely left the state of Texas: I am only 16  Tongue), our lives were sold from birth to the large corporations that run everything. We spend all of our time here working to earn the money with which we use to buy back a piece of our life. Yet, we can never reach that true ownership again (unless we somehow managed to all work towards helping our fellow man --- Like that will ever happen!).

Wow! Awesome man! And that coming from a 16-year old?! Extremely cool!
Which totally reminds me of "The Matrix" again! That was a good movie as well (aside the extremely problematic references to a city called "Zion"...).
Wow man, if people really see this at your age already, I have hope. Hope that someday they will be more and then find a way to change it!!!

MOUNTAINBANSHEE:

Spoiler

the cool thing about the story (and sad is) the creatures on pandora reperesent the animals on earth, unobtainium is oil and the sky people are (sorry, i know you an't all the same) the usa and the industres. The huge army represents the us arimed forces right down to the last point. also unobtainoun is used for trainsport, medicen, light cheep materials and isn't that just like oil.

Exactly. Those people who said the film has a flat story are right. It does. But only when you can't see the hidden pattern in the picture. – You know those pictures where it seems like it's just dots or a pattern and when you squeeze your eyes you see a shape?
Well, that's how Avatar is! Don't let yourself be blinded by the special effects!
The only difference is, you mustn't squeeze your eyes to see the picture in the picture, you must be aware of at least some of the problems the world is in.
If you're totally disinterested in ANY politics, environmentalism, human or animal rights, overpopulation, imperialism, etc. you will NOT see the awesome picture in the picture of Avatar. – I have a friend like that. He found the film totally boring and went to see it just for the special effects. I feel sorry for him. He's like those movie critiques who can't see the picture in the picture.
I'm glad to have found a place where people DO "See".

fkeua vrrtep:

Spoiler

I understand what you mean and I'm not about to flame on you because of your personal oppinion , the fact is that "being hardcore about nature" how you call it isn't as easy as it was once , humanity has become addicted to false ideals and its own corruption , besides the so called society doesn't want you to be autarkic because they want to keep the cogwheel oiled and running to keep the machinery alive humanity set up so it's hard to stand against this force , if you try to do so you'll be a savage in your own peoples manipulated eyes , the most sad thing is that people are made to believe that being part of this machinery is the only way to survive and being hold tight by false promises .
You are being chained to the machinery from the very first beginning of your life and some day you are hopefully going to ask yourself if it's right the way it is, it is not .

"Do you want to know WHAT IT IS???
If you take the red pill..." - Morpheus, The Matrix
It's called Capitalism. It enslaves all except the very rich. And even they are slaves of their money, albeit happy ones, as opposing to those without money.
Awesomly said fkeua vrrtep!

Atanä mungeyu:

Spoiler

and it showed me the truth, about our world, and ourselves..., because we are destroying our world...

well, of course, it isn't happening now, but we are heading towards it faster than anyone would predict.
man, i'd kill someone for a live on pandora, the beauty of the world, and everything in it, is so wonderful, and after seeing the movie each time, i feel like a part of me is crushed under the reality of what earth is/is becoming, in comparison to pandora, cause pandora is everything the earth might have been, if not for the greed, and people always wanting ''more''...
i just wish for that morning which will be different to all others, waking up somewhere else(hopefully pandora XD)
but we'll see if earth will change into something better, or just get destroyed by humanity..

Imagine to simple little things:
1.) We could succeed at managing our numbers / reproduction.
2.) We could succeed at managing the distribution of (our) wealth fairly.

Now, reading these two simple sentences, this doesn't sound soooo difficult or even impossible, does it?
The thing is, if we do, we have Pandora...

The human creature is so smart, it can go to the moon and build atomic bombs, but it cannot handle coming up with a good solution for the two simply stated problems above.

Kerame Pxel Nume:

Spoiler

But we're raised in a constant mood of us vs. nature. Which is sad. Personally I ended up quite lucky. My mother did her best to teach me a deep respect for all living things early on. The key word is respect. It was not some esoterical, tree hugger mojo, but just the bare truth. We're part of the nature and every mistreatment of nature is actually a mistreatment of ourself.

Why I really like avatar: For one ting it's a wonderful parabel to what we're doing right now, with ethnic minorites living in areas having valuable minerals. Take coltan for example. We need it for making the capacitors used in almost every modern electronics device. It's mined under inhuman conditions, there are actually wars about it in Africa. Due to the inflation of mobile technology, a new generation of cell phones each half year this is one of the most profitable minerals right now. And on every so called Tantal Capacitor you buy today there's blood.

Man! What you said about respect is totally friggin awesome! It's what my Organization for Animal Dignity is all about. About respecting animals more. About mistreatment of nature and animals in the end resulting in the mistreatment of ourselves. It ALWAYS does come back at us. Perhaps not at the particular individual doing the mistreatment him or herself, but certainly at us as a society and as a species. And since we are not connected with others like they are on Pandora, we simply don't care about what comes back at our society or species through our own actions. That might be part of the whole problem. We need an Eywa that clashes our heads together once in a while when we misbehave or over-reproduce.
Perhaps the internet can be something like that some day, given the similarities to the data exchange featured in Pandora life.

Neytiri lu sevin:

Spoiler

I actually became a fan of avatar because the first time i saw the movie i was like : OMG the human is realy the worst thing on earth!

YES! Indeed!
And you know what's crazy?
Not all humans alike. The quest is to find out which ones more and which ones less, why, and what to do about it!

Kerame Pxel Nume:

Spoiler

Well at least a few want by ceasing to reproduce: http://www.vhemt.org/

Woooaaahh!
That totally blasts me awaayyyy!
Awesome! This link alone made it worth all my time on this forum already!
Incredible! That's exactly what I've been looking for for a long time!
I'm not quite sure yet if I REALLY want the human race to become extinct, but demanding it, just as a counter-balance to all the ignorance, as an expression of urgency and radicalism, that we need to at least drastically reduce our numbers, is exactly what I have been looking for. They have AWESOME cartoon videos on the bottom of their page. I recommend everyone who liked Avatar: GO SEE THAT SITE! ... I'm gonna have to link to them from my project. Thanks a million (or two million ) for that link!

[Niwantaw]

I really don't know....
something about it just pulled me in.