#puppet whumpees my beloved

[albino-whumpee]

Finished watching the space kitties movie and I got thoughts.

I hate the story of avatar. It doesn’t make sense! Compels me tho.

I have said this since I watched it the first time. What I liked about the movie was the world. I guess that’s the only thing the narrative did for me. (Think that the world was that captivating)

Anyways, I watched this movie last time when I was like 15? 13? However, don’t be fooled. By then I had already watched it more than 50 times. 50 of those from a terribly recorded pirated movie my parents bought me. So I know the story inside and out, but I was a kid and holy fuck, I would throw that kid off a cliff anytime. I wanna think my critical thinking has improved since then.

The Pocahontas storyline is absolutely true, in the same amount that it is a fantasy for the main character. New world, new body, new people to make an impression on. Kinda isekai ahahah.

The way things fall in the best course of events to have a dramatic twist later is like patchwork for a story full of holes. I mean, the movie has the “i see you” and “open your eyes” motif all throughout it, but what do they mean inside the story itself?

Connection.

This is so blatant in everything from the way the protagonist gets into the program, the function of everything in the planet, to how the avatars work. To how the protagonist, an alien puppet, becomes a part of their people.

That is the dream of one Jake Sully. His dreams of flying were about fleeing? About being free to do as he pleased? About stopping being “himself” and be something else entirely and yet be seen as who he was?

It’s funny a story that is about connection relies heavily in the question of “who are you really?” And runs with the option “I wanna be the second version of myself that’s completely fake”

Escapism.

No wonder I loved this movie when I was young.

To me, the story is one big beautiful dream that has the potential to become a nightmare.

But if we kinda dig deeper into some things, there was so much wasted potential.

- The avatars are created using dna from humans and the kitties. But there’s really never information that talks about the avatars state when not in use. It’s taking a big ass leap to say “neural connections is what makes a consciousness a person. How that synapses happens is unique to each individual and can be recreated even in another brain”. But running with it…

- Avatars are an incredible project if thinking about permanently switching the brain where the connection happens. Imagine that. A new body to transfer your consciousness to. Forever. Blue kitties is just a form you could have.

- Avatars are incapable of forming their own consciousness? Can they wake up from their dream? The movie shows the death of an avatar controller but doesn’t show what happens to the avatar. Did it die of natural causes a few days later? Or did it die alongside its controller? It’s so creepy to think it’s a biological suit.

- That brings me to another thing. The native kitties knew about the puppets and were disgusted by them, butttt, they don’t really act logically when the protagonist says “I wanna learn” because they go “…we wanna learn from you too. Come! Be part of our tribe! :)” like..??? Where is the hostility??? It pops on and off as the story sees fit and that’s so annoying. (And the trying to upload all of someone into another body? I mean, I would have loved to see the thought process for that)

- It’s kinda awkward to see the “let’s learn from you” phase of the story be written like that after so much whump reading. As if the character was trusted from the beginning, he wasn’t observed. He was literally pulled to learn from them rather than them learn from him. It’s such a big loophole and I think if it had been exploited a bit more, giving time and more thought to the protagonist actions to get their trust, it would have been great. Maybe even showing more than a one second attempt to reach by some random kiddo being intercepted by her parents would have been amazing to show this. (I’m aware that this was supposed to be shown with the other guy, but the lack of solitary moments because the girl was always with him muddled it up)

- People don’t blend in into the culture like that and I hate there was no cultural shock shown in order to keep the escapism motif. Like damn, that’s the best nonverbal way to show someone has to wake up!!!

- Also, the protagonist is supposed to be no much brain only brawn and with a big need to escape his life. So his actions make sense, but in a way, gah, an smarter protagonist would have been cool to see. Our regular guy trope is not so fun when our regular guy is modeled after a mediocre white man.

- No, but the fact that the guy’s personality was a big part of the conflict pisses me off. If you wanna show there’s an amazing world you wanna and should protect that’s ~real~ then why cater to this specific dude’s fantasy? Because he is owed that much? Because he is the protagonist?? His problems got solved too easy to be satisfactory. (Even in the war?!)

Sorry for the word vomiting but if anything this movie has left me with yet another great idea for a puppet whumpee horror story. :D