Gameify scientific development funding; let waifus cure cancer.
There will be NO Peeves in my backyard! They’ll spoil the view. Spend millions on making a tunnel to hold them in under instead.
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Seal the evil in the deep, that always works out.
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And seal it under a mountain.
I love penglings.
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Stonetower’s theme, also known as “Shatter the Empires.” :
United Socialist States of America has joined the Comintern
Rest of the world: “Oh no…”
USSR: “Oh yes!”
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The weird thing about Avatar is that i heard someone in quite a thorough analysis call it out for a cheap pochahontas fantasy story.
The weird thing is, It wad really written and I couldn’t say I disagreed with any of their points, right.
Yet still, I enjoy the movies. Both of them. Despite the valid criticism I just really enjoy both of them. I enjoy the speculative zoology. I enjoy the worldbuilding. I enjoy how both sides are portrayed. I enjoy the link the navi can use to link with literally anything and everything. I enjoy Quarich (he’s omega cool).
Cameron’s just a really good director.
Anyway, apparently the Na’vi enthusiasts are in for a rude surprise in the 3rd movie. Cameron confirmed in an interview it will explore a dark side of the na’vi.
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It’s silly to proclaim superiority over a species that doesn’t exist, anyway.
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That’s entirely valid.
But some people do it anyway, because they felt genuinely offended by the pro-Na’vi narrative.
Posted this example of someone’s anti-Na’vi screed before, but it’s still relevant today. A whole lot of cope.
https://imgur.com/IWduZv0
Personally when I saw the movie, I felt it was Pocahontas-story but in a sci-fi setting.
Yes, James Cameron stacked the deck in favor of his pet species that he invented to deliver a shallow environmentalist moral that is utterly hamstrung by the execution.
I think the anger of Na’vi haters is misplaced. Don’t blame the abortive little secondary world. Blame the shallow worldbuilder.
the tvtropes forums are wild
It very much feels like it’s based on Dances With Wolves, but the Pocahontas comparison isn’t far off either.
That said, I loved the first movie. Haven’t watched the second, but the OG was visually spectacular and sometimes I just need to watch 10ft alien gfs beat up the military-industrial complex and capitalism.
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I don’t think it’s a particularly hot take for me to say but when I see people going really hard on fictional races - trolls in WoW, for example - I just kind of assume they have at least some IRL problems with those different from themselves in some way or another. Not in-character remarks, I mean the weirdos you’ll find who talk nearly endlessly about how they’d love to cause violence or harm to a fictional race, but then get surprisingly uptight and say things like “bro why are you upset, it’s fiction, you’re not that character lol”
Like yeah, it is fiction - and you’re not your character either so why are you doing this weird human supremacy LARP?
I guess if anything it kinda proves the narrative’s point in whatever piece of media it is - like yeah, of course discriminatory characters can exist in this setting when people are so eager to prove that they hold those views towards those characters outside of that universe too.
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Seen this one before- And while I think I agree with some of the sentiments of the author, I do think that the callous disregard of the way of life of another intelligent species out of contempt/spite doesn’t resonate with me.
In comparison, in the Three Body Problem, the Trisolerans and later the cosmic giants don’t treat humans with that kind of attitude in the end. It’s more along the lines of “We don’t hate you, we just like ourselves better.”
And indeed, the greatest form of contempt across the stars isn’t calling your opponent a soyjak to their face, it’s silence. The deafening, cold and careless silence, followed by a strike from the shadows potent enough to lay low not just entire species and star systems, but entire sections of the milky way galaxy.
“Weird human supremacy LARP” is a great expression.
Also, why would you, as a real-life human, take the in-universe position (and biases) of in-universe humans in a world where humans are just one race of many?
Like, the reason fantasy features different races (in the fantasy sense) in the first place is to explore different sides of the real-life human condition!
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Good luck trying that in my setting, humans are a footnote (never the main character, nearly always antagonistic)
… NVM these people will do it anyway.
EDIT: I remembered my humans are in a capitalist hellscape like 1984, people eat that crap up.
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I kind of almost got that vibe out of the Mass Effect games - the other species in that setting already know each other, humans are the new species on the block and I wish they leaned a bit more into having humanity be the underdogs in that setting.
Also the quarians are called quarians because they’re in quarantine, a naming convention so obvious that i’m shocked I only realised it in the middle of the pandemic.
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I just sort of get tired with fantasy’s focus on humanity when you have other intelligent species out there in the setting. So I will focus on my other species instead.
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