The image that has most stuck with me since seeing Avatar\u201d\u201dand there are a lot of amazing visuals\u201d\u201dis one of a human\u2019s weak and broken body cradled in the arms of a giant, strong and healthy alien. It\u2019s a stirring and powerful juxtaposition. Struggling to breathe and crippled from the waist down, this body is the model of human frailty\u201d\u201duseless, expiring and fragile\u201d\u201dheld in the powerful arms of a 9-foot Na\u2019vi like a diminutive child.<\/p>\n
This moment highlighted for me how inadequate, brittle and broken the humans are in Avatar. They bleed. They die. Almost every main human faces some physical limitation in the movie\u2019s runtime. But what is fascinating is how they all compensate for their bodily deficiencies and mortality by hiding within other bodies: giant metal attack ships, robot suits and even genetically-altered Na\u2019vi bodies. These examples are just the physical ways in which Avatar\u2019s humans compensate for their frailty. They also compensate with insatiable needs to possess more, know more, gain more and mean more. Ironically, it seems to be this reaction to weakness that spurs their violent aggression.<\/p>\n