Avatar (film)/Fridge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Fridge Brilliance

  • At first, it may seem like the reason why Jake Sully was screwing around on ( and even deciding to stay on) Pandora instead of doing his mission was because of Neytiri, but in reality, it's because it's the only time he ever gets to being on his own legs instead of being in a wheelchair.
    • ...Except that Quaritch promised him that he'd have his legs fixed as soon as he got back to Earth.
    • Nobody would want to return to Earth, especially as it is in Avatar, or to a weak human body after that. It probably helped that the marines were planning to commit genocide though - "All I ever wanted was a single thing worth fighting for".
    • Unless one enjoyed modern conveniences like indoor plumbing, medicine, and everyday not being a struggle to survive against neigh unstoppable predators.
    • Unfortunately, there are still trade-offs for "indoor plumbing, medicine, and survival" back on Earth, such as population crowding everywhere, nuclear terrorism, and...survival. But this time, survival against various pollutants and diseases that medicine can't even effectively combat on macro levels.
    • Jake, on Pandora, has his legs, a woman who loves him, and friends. He apparently hasn't had any of those for a while. Advantage Pandora.
      • Plus a pet dragon, clean air and, besides the damage unleashed by human weapons, a pristine eco-system with symbiotic group-consciousness to experience.

Fridge Horror

  • At the end of the movie, Jake's consciousness is permanently transferred into his Avatar. Okay, how did Eywa do that? Align all the Avatar's neurons in a way so they contained Jake's personality and memories etc.? What happened to Jake's original body then? Jake's consciousness was copied and pasted into the Avatar, so there's nothing to suggest the human couldn't have continued to live on after this was done, as a human Jake next to the Na'vi Jake. To complete the job, you essentially have to euthanize the original human body. And it leaves you wondering if the Jake in the avatar is still the same person, what with all his neurons having been replaced. A case of the Theseus Ship Problem.
    • The Avatar bodies, when unoccupied, still have autonomous nervous functions and nothing else (see the recurring "sleep" and "dreams" metaphors). If the scene with Grace was any indication, it was a Cut/Paste, not a Copy/Paste. Which means that either Jake's human body is dead, or it's just going to be lying there in a coma until it starves to death or someone kills it.
  • The humans who switched sides to help the Na'Vi? I sure hope all the air-processing technology can be worked by two people, because otherwise they're in nasty deaths once everything runs out of gas.
    • Two people? Why would the rest not do anything? You see multiple avatars in that shot; Max staying implies the possibility of other humans as well (who would not necessarily be outside, as someone needs to be in the control room, for example). The air filtration system is filtration, not some kind of active production, so you couldn't run out of air.

Fridge Logic

  • Every creature on Pandora seems to possess six limbs (or wings) and their nostrils located on their chest. The Na'vi on the other hand, possess only 4 limbs and their nostrils located on their face? Why exactly are they so physiologically different from the other lifeforms on Pandora?
    • You forgot the prolemuris, and, in addition, NOT all creatures are 6-limbed, the ikran being the prime example other than the aforementioned.
      • the creatures that showed four limbs, one set dividing at the elbow, is apparently a good picture of the evolutionary ancestor; some kept splitting for more limbs, some merged, and that one stayed the same. Or at least, there's the word of God.

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