I did not think about the avatar being an earthly body and then later becoming a resurrected body. That was really cool to me, because it makes the contrast with the humans and the Na'vi more poignant to me. Jake had people who were trying to get him to turn away from what was real and true. Those that cared about him and wanted him to succeed, took him away from those bad influences. Which then allowed him to flourish and to accept his true identity. I feel like the world and Satan influence was well illustrated, in the sense that it lines up with how the scriptures talk about it. The focus being on money, power, and violence.
Monday, December 2, 2019
Avatar....the Blue People
Looking at this movie through an LDS lense, my first thought was Jake was like a convert to the gospel. Before he was a man of the world, not a bad guy, but also didn't really have much of a purpose. Then he gets in with the locals, he thinks they are weird at first and doesn't really believe what they are saying about their gods and feeling something. Eventually he is able to feel things as well, he is able to connect to their god. He is converted and then participates in a ritual to become like them. Sounds very much like an LDS conversion story to me. Also one of the things that was really important to them was their ancestors. That is also very latter-day saint.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I hadn't thought about Jake being a convert, but that's interesting! I also thought it was interesting to think about the avatar as being an earthly body then becoming a resurrected body. My perspective definitely changed when I learned about the various ways we can see the avatar.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar thought, relating Jake to a convert in the LDS faith. That's cool that you noticed that too! And let's be honest, women are crucial in helping male converts join the church. Just kidding, but sometimes it seems that way.
ReplyDeleteAlso that the world, or in this case the military, was very much in line with focusing on money, power, and violence. I noticed that it was the spiritual bond with humans versus the materialistic world which we live and in the end the spiritual world prevailed.
I think "the world of Satan" is always an ironic character feature in movies, because violent people going after money, power, are easy to demonize but often is just how a lot of people work. It's hard to find that purified leader in D&C 121 in the real world, but the world knows it's bad.
ReplyDelete