So you chose to stay, Now what?

[Sothis]

Originally Posted by Ashen Key

...yeah, I don't know about that. But I'll just leave that there, I think.

Ahaha, you caught me before I edited it. :-p <3

There are different levels of handwaving, because you can always continue to ask "why" in response to any "science" that is offered, and if you keep digging, you will always reach a level where the answer is handwaved as "it just is." (e.g. Unobtanium's properties are explained, but it's not explained WHY it has those properties.) That level is deeper for some things than it is for others, and it's all relative. I was just saying that compared to Star Trek, Avatar doesn't hand wave much at all, in that its explanations go at least one level deeper before the handwaving starts. I'd say Avatar ranks about a 4 on the Moh scale, give or take depending on your attitude toward the psionic Link and the FTL communications. On the Kheper scale, I'd say it's a "medium," with a similar give or take. By contrast, Star Trek is a 0-1 on Moh and a "very soft" on Kheper.

Originally Posted by Ashen Key

And 4.37 years? Where did you get that? I saw somewhere instantaneous communication, but I can't remember where - so, no idea if it's accurate.

4.37 is the number of light years between Pandora and Earth, so any "normal" data transmission would take that long to reach headquarters. Faster-than-light communication is pseudo-canon and is based on quantum entanglement, but it's very low bit-rate and I don't remember if it's actually instantaneous or just... faster than light. I guess if you really wanted to compress the timeline, you could imagine that an instantaneous message is sent and headquarters responds immediately, but I feel like the low bit-rate wouldn't allow the type of media and information they would want before making such pivotal, costly strategic decisions. I imagine the message might be a simple text-encoding transmission sorta like "Evacuation underway. Total loss. Cancel all incoming."