Grace's nose
 

LOL i was watching avatar ...again.... and i looked at grace and realized she didnt have a navi nose.

every other avatar or navi have a thick wide nose except for grace

any one else see that? any reasons why?

I always notice it now. I'm sure there was a discussion on here way back where we came to the conclusion that it was because Grace's Avatar was made when the technology wasn't as great as when Jake and Norm had theirs. So basically Grace's Avatar is an earlier version.

^ This

Hers was an earlier version, thus the reason for the more human like features.

It seems to be partially based on genetics too - Norm's nose is pointy-ish, but not as much as Grace's.

Older Avatar, so more human like features.

She's very GRACEFUL! BA DUM TS!

I would think it's more genetic than anything. After all, what's the difference between an older version and a newer version? Are newer versions more athletic or practical for any reason? Is the link to the user stronger? Grace, leading the avatar program, has loads of other avatars depending on her for various reasons, lots of responsibility. If there are newer models, it seems like she'd upgrade. I know it's insanely expensive, but it's her job. :P

Newer versions probably wouldn't have the best mix of human/Na'vi DNA for the expression of Na'vi features. Here's a link to a thread I found on Avatar Forums:
Why does Grace's avatar have a human nose?
I don't think Avatar Drivers have the option to upgrade, they'd have to start over again from scratch and that would take 5-6 years.

Well, she was there for more than 5 or 6 years, so I can't say it would surprise me if she had.

At the millions of dollars that it'd cost to make a new one? I'd be really surprised if the RDA would waste that much money, given the body she has works perfectly well and the changes are purely cosmetic.

Exactly, plus the Avatar Wiki: quoting something from the Avatar game says that the costs to produce an avatar are 5 billion dollars..Not easy to justify producing.
Avatar (species) - James Cameron's Avatar Wiki - Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana

i lol'd :)

but yeah, older Avatar so the human traits were dominant. today i learnt of a thing called variable expresitivity so maybe thats what the human/na'vi features were goverend by

If it's really ONLY purely cosmetic, then I agree, but if the newer version(s) are better in any other way, it would be beneficial for her to get a new one. Even to look more like them (given, more in her past than at present) would be an advantage in trying to get them to trust her.

Personally, I think she uses the same version as everyone else; Sigourney Weaver just leaks through. :awesome:

As mentioned above it was an earlier version. They probably had to keep the Human/Na'vi mix closer to Human earlier in the game, and the more practiced they got with it the closer to Na'vi they could make the Avatars.

And if Grace could of upgraded, which would be very expensive. Would she want to? All the Na'vi she taught, she met would know her by the way she currently looked. If she got a new Avatar, all her Na'vi friends wouldn't recognize her and she might have a hard time convicing some of them it was really her.

Also she could have grown attached to it and not just throw it out when the next best one comes in.

What about the period in her life where all the na'vi she knew completely distrusted her? She could have taken on a new avatar for a new beginning. A new, new beginning :P
It's shifty, I know, but the whole operation is pretty shifty. Even Jake is shifty for most of the movie, and he brought about the end of the human occupancy.

Getting off topic here, but what I'm saying is, it's not impossible for this to have happened, and imo I think it could be genetics. That is all.

**claps**

Ohoho, that is indeed correct.

While genetic engineering allows humans to tamper with things quite a bit, variations in how genes are expressed is simply an unavoidable part of biology.

And, like others already said, she might have been a first-gen avatar driver. If there are new avatars in the sequel, I will be curious to see if the newer ones have been "improved" to make them appear more like the Na'vi cosmetically than the older ones.

While it may only be cosmetic, it might make the Na'vi feel more at ease and less "creeped out" by the Avatars, since to them they would look more like their sense of "normal".

Was anyone thinking uncanny valley? :P

Exactly. This is the entire reason for the creation of the avatar program in the first place.

There's no specific reason Grace's might be any specific generation.

The human fingers and toes are for ease of adaptation, while the general body shape and markings do seem to vary, which would not be advantageous in artificially varying.

Speaking of fingers/toes, isn't that a terrible idea? I don't think they want to give the impression of being actually alien, in such an obvious, undisguised way. (Think the six-fingered man from Princess Bride. You don't even need to know his name to identify him.)

I think the human DNA just morphed the digits to 5 instead of 4.
I don't think the scientists really had a choice.

You're implying the Na'vi are stupid. I REALLY hate that.

They are for easier acceptance at first glance, and for much freer ability to move around on Pandora, not a disguise.

I think that the scientist would choose to keep five digits per limb because our brain is designed for it. If the avatars only had four digits per limb it possibly would have introduced phantom sensations of still having the extra finger or toe. This could lead to dexterity or balance problems for the avatar.

Sounds probable, I'd hate to imagine the effects of phantom limbs or digits.

I always thought that Grace's nose was just because Grace herself has a very sharp nose, and it just translated through her Avatar...

Then again, maybe i'm wrong. :P

Did I? I might have implied they're ignorant, which is perfectly acceptable in the circumstances. I don't know how advanced Na'vi astronomy is, but it took us a very long time to even conceive of aliens from other planets.

If H.G. Wells' martians had wanted to talk to us, a comparatively gigantic red flag that said "Not normal!" would not help anything, regardless of whether the goal is actively trying to hide or just fit in.

Don't really think balance would be an issue, considering we don't have tails either. :P

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaactually, humans have conceived of aliens and other worlds like Earth for thousands of years. Imagining worlds and deducing that if we are here, then logically there must be other worlds like ours with people like us seems to be a very human thing to do.

If the Na'vi didn't have a concept of other beings, than that might have been a lack of imagination inherent in the species rather than anything else. BUT they do have a concept of 'not one of the People', and 'alien', as well as the human-specific 'Sky Person' label, so I suspect either they've had contact with other intelligent species in their past, or have the imagination and logic to think that there might be others in the universe.

Well, alien-from-other-planets only appeared in the 16th century.

And we don't know for certain if they just made up the label after we came along. We didn't have analog watches until digital ones came along, after all.

That's just splitting hairs - when people look to the stars and imagine other worlds and other people (or put it into their religious texts), I'm going to go with 'aliens'.

No, we don't know for SURE, but humans can only have been around....between thirty and fifty years (I think some of the extra material says twenty-five, which is patently ridiculous, the Avatar program wouldn't be in its current form with Grace having spent at least eleven years on Pandora if humans have only been there for twenty-five.) To me, that's not quite long enough for the three, very different, terms for 'people who are not People', particularly as they have a specific one for the humans themselves.

Exactly. People have always thought of the possibility of other lifeforms existing, even before they understood the nature of the stars, even if they didn't think about what actual form they would take. Mythology is a clear example of that, especially the older ones which are the origin of all sorts of sentient animals and nonhuman humanoids.