Avatar

Watching Avatar with this LDS literature lens opened my eyes to the similarities. The plurality of worlds, superior beings, the supernatural, progression of the body and mentality, the search for the rational were all evident within Avatar. The main character goes to a "new world" and people keep saying things like "you aren't in Kanas anymore." Thats like what happened when we went from our premarital world to earth. His brother and him were part of the same genome so when he died it was like he was resurrected with his brother taking his place. There was also the belief in having the ancestors looking after us. How they link us together. The concept of praying over someone when they aren't well and in need of a miracle to survive is evident. Praying together is another thing they did that we believe.

Burton had me thinking about deity how each Avatar was almost as if they were immortal and God-like. Hadn't thought about the digital world as a second life before connecting that to how the main character felt. At one point he says that waking up from being an Avatar was like the dream rather than the reality being the other way around. The thought and belief that earth has a spirit is a good reminder and is very evident within the movie. Kinda like Jake Sully became a new creature with his body, we did the same thing when we came to earth and obtained bodies. We too had a new range of being and function. This has taught us things that we couldn't possibly learn without them.

Avatar and Eywa

The film Avatar’s overarching LDS themes are found in the Na’vi people’s worship of Eywa, the sacred tree that connects the Na’vi to their ancestors. It’s discovered by Jake and Dr. Grace Augustine that the tree is connected to everything on the planet, even those who have died. Jake Sully and the others begin to understand the sacredness of the Na’vi people’s belief, and Jake even seems to begin to believe in it himself. Jake prays to the tree, asking for help against the sky people –those in the world whose desire money and are willing to commit genocide to get it. At one point, Neytiri finds Jake praying, and her response is that Eywa isn’t interested in taking sides, but in protecting the balance of life. This response to Jake’s prayer grapples with the idea: why does God let bad things happen to good people, yet occasionally intervene?  Later, Neytiri, a believer in Eywa her entire life, is surprised when Jake’s prayer is answered by Eywa, and all the creatures work together to fight against the sky people. Grace winds-up sacrificing herself help Jake and the Na’vi people protect their way of life, choosing to serve Eywa and renounce the world, choosing a higher, holier path.

As mentioned in Burton’s essay, Latter-day Avatars for Mormon Expression, the avatar body itself can be seen as a skin for Jake’s true body. His limited paraplegic body is set free in his Avatar body, but his Avatar body is limited when not controlled by the technology. Burton states that, “For Jake, an avatar is not simply a new body; it gives him an important social identity and purpose.” This got me thinking about how humans can get lost in their avatars. At one scene in the movie, Jake begins to lose himself in the avatar. His real body gets skinnier, he doesn’t eat, doesn’t shave. He becomes so engrossed in his identity as one of the Na’vi, that when the time goes to change allegiances, he turns on his own people. As Burton mentions, LDS theology believes that our bodies are in a sense, avatars for our spirits. It made me think of how many people come to earth and get lost in the things of the world, completely forgetting that humankind must have existed before birth. But in Jake’s case, the full acceptance of the Avatar body can symbolize a new body, maybe even a resurrected body that doesn’t have the limitations of an earthly body.

Avatar and the Atonement

Movie Interpretation:

I largest connection that I made with LDS culture and the movie Avatar was the interconnection between the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement with the main character, Jake Sully. For example, the plot seemed to go along the lines of Jake (a spirit) coming down from heaven (outer space) to a world (Pandora) and gaining a body (his avatar), learning how the body works and learning of its connection within the world and its creator or spirit (Eywa). Another perspective is seeing Jake Sully with his broken body being restored into a whole and new body with his avatar (resurrection) or Dr. Grace Augustine dying and being received by Eywa.

Article Interpretation:

The article seemed to go along the same lines as my thought process and I enjoyed the connection of the veil; being able to experience both sides of the veil as a spirit (human form) and as body (avatar form). The bit about resurrection and the permanent embodiment I agreed with as this was the most prominent aspect of the movie for myself. I thought it was interesting the Professor Burton made stab at “avatars of experience”. I find it interesting that the things that we interact with could also be considered avatars – that which “stretch our souls to find their truest form.”

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.

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. 

Our own Avatars

In the film Avatar, there is a tree called the Tree of Souls. The tree has a spiritual connection, as it deals with ancestors. In Mormon culture, ancestors play a huge role (as we focus on families being eternal). The film makes illustrates the tree as large and bright, drawing the audience’s attention to it. The tree fills the entire screen, so there is no way the audience can miss it, and it enables significance. Then, when we hear the ancestors, it’s happy (there’s laughter and happy tones), which allows the audience to also think about their own memories of their ancestors.

A theme I also found in the film, which the essay touched on, is the Plan of Salvation. Something that stuck out to me from the very beginning of the film is that Jake Sully came to the planet from a different one (earth) so he could basically have a second chance. Something the article brought up that I didn’t think of before, though, is the connection of how our bodies are avatars of our spirits. In the film, Jake is able to use “his” legs in the other world, of which was restricted in earth. Another aspect of avatars which the article brought up was technological avatars we use on a regular basis through social media. I had never connected those to the meaning of avatar, but it definitely makes sense after reading the article. The “avatars” we use regularly through social media aren’t us, but they are somewhat linked to us.