What Quaritch could have done...

[Woodsprite]

Originally Posted by Advent

Well, a Dragon would be impervious to the Banshees and Toruk, but it might fall to Jake's hand grenades.

....Require better technology.....

AHA!
Launch Justin Bieber at it.

Hmm... that'd be like a new addition: Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock, Justin Bieber.

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by Aihwa

I count Eywa as part of the Na'vi's arsenal.

But that's just it; it's the other way around. The Na'vi volunteered to fight for their "overseer", which ultimately contols their survival by directly and indirectly manipulating the populations of plants and animals.

If you want to start giving names to different factions in a war though, I think
"The Na'vi" is fine, since Eywa can't really talk, and the Na'vi can control some of the animals too, via Tsaheylu.

Back on topic, yeah, the RDA was really kind of doomed. When Jake ran in the hammerhead in the beginning I actually realized that since it is bulletproof, it would make the perfect battering ram to use against the RDA.

That was what really screwed them IMO.

[Tiberius]

Originally Posted by Advent

All I could suggest personally is a guided tactical missile. Of course, you'd need an expert at the remote. And they might not have those.

A large number of people think that the battle at the end of the film was a battle between the Na'vi and the Humans; but ultimately it was never just a battle between the humans and the Na'vi, it was a battle between Eywa and the humans.

Jake did not choose himself to be Toruk Makto, Eywa chose him, it was Eywa that inspired Jake into battle and ultimately saved the Na'vi from destruction.

Guided weapons would not work because of the powerful magnetic fields, and even if the humans had guided weapons, Eywa would simply come up with something else to destroy the humans. The RDA were fighting a losing battle.

[Human No More]

Jake chose to be Toruk Makto because he realised what he needed to do, he even had the perspective on how to do it.

Originally Posted by Aihwa

Why would they be coming back?

UN's going to revoke their license. Award it to another company.

Originally Posted by Aihwa

Where is it said that?


An army of deadbeat mercs is hardly a "military".

This.

Originally Posted by Advent

Remember, everyone has their price. Besides, the RDA is said to have massive military power.

1. You do maybe, but you are by no means an example of everyone.
2. No. As aihwa said, they have a few marines. They are massively limited in what weapons they are allowed to use.


Truthfully, there's nothing Quaritch could have done. Even without Jake using their weapons against them.

[Isard]

I don't even think they deserve to be called marines.

[Woodsprite]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Truthfully, there's nothing Quaritch could have done. Even without Jake using their weapons against them.

Mmm... I dunno. Seriously, it was really just Jake who destroyed both the shuttle and the Dragon. The ikran were pretty useless against those giant ships. The tree of souls might've actually been destroyed if it wasn't for Jake.

[Advent]

Originally Posted by Woodsprite

Mmm... I dunno. Seriously, it was really just Jake who destroyed both the shuttle and the Dragon. The ikran were pretty useless against those giant ships. The tree of souls might've actually been destroyed if it wasn't for Jake.

I agree with this post.

And the RDA's mercs were previous army veterans. Jake said so himself.
I agree that they had little numbers, but they by far have superiority in technology. That's enough to destroy hometree.

And until Jake used those nades, the Dragon and Valkyrie were impervious to attack. Keep in mind that grenades are human technology.

Well, I suppose Quaritch should've thought out his plan a bit more.

Quaritch's plan:

Big preemptive attack.

Daisy cutter on tree.

Back in time for dinner.

...
Isn't much, is it?

And uh, HNM, I'm stating a point. A realistic point. We are humans after all.
What, I get attacked because I'm not a Na'vi fanatic? Original.

[Tiberius]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Jake chose to be Toruk Makto because he realised what he needed to do, he even had the perspective on how to do it.

Yes, there was an element of personal choice in Jake becoming Toruk Makto, but as Jake himself said to Eywa "you chose me for something".

1). Eywa saved Jake from death when Neytiri was about to kill him, by use of a seed from the Sacred tree.
2). Eywa made sure that Jake was taken back to the village when Neytiri told him to go back, by covering him with Atrokirina, Eywa made it clear to Neytiri that Jake was special.
3). As Neytiri told Jake, Mo'at interprets the will of Eywa - and through the blood test Eywa told Mo'at that Jake must be trained in the Na'vi ways, in preparation for his role.

Throughout the film, it is clear there is a Higher Power guiding Jake to his destiny. To say that he chose to be Toruk Makto himself is inaccurate.

[Tiberius]

Originally Posted by ISV Venture Star

The Na'vi lost. They fought well but lost. Luckily for them Pandora has a biological supercomputer that can take control of the wildlife.

Eywa is Not a Biological Supercomputer. Eywa is a type of Spirit. How else could Eywa permanently transfer Jake's soul from his human body to his avatar body if she was not a spirit? How else could Eywa answer prayers if she was not a spirit? James Cameron himself also refered to Eywa as a type of spirit.

Originally Posted by Woodsprite

I agree, except...

...Pandora didn't have hand grenades. Quaritch's plan was fine. Even when the Na'vi came along, he beat them. Even when Eywa stepped in, he would've beat it too. Think about it: Jake is the only reason the mission failed, because he had a couple of grenades with him to sabotage the shuttle. If no grenades were used during the entire battle (which, to our knowledge, only two were ever used), the RDA would have won.

Simple as that. The plan was fine. Their only drawback was not thinking about how Jake himself was a trained marine, who knew about technical firepower.

My poor deluded friend, Jake was not the only reason the mission failed. Had Eywa not sent the backup then Jake would have stood no chance on his own. Jake only assaulted the Valkyrie and the Dragon Gunship AFTER Eywa sent the Ikranks, the Hammerheads, viperwolves etc, the RDA were overwhelmed by the assault when Jake attacked.

[Woodsprite]

Originally Posted by Tiberius

Eywa is Not a Biological Supercomputer. Eywa is a type of Spirit. How else could Eywa permanently transfer Jake's soul from his human body to his avatar body if she was not a spirit? How else could Eywa answer prayers if she was not a spirit? James Cameron himself also refered to Eywa as a type of spirit.

I don't think he did. Maybe referred to it as "spiritual" (with which I agree), but not a spirit. This may help answer your other question, though.

Originally Posted by Tiberius

My poor deluded friend, Jake was not the only reason the mission failed. Had Eywa not sent the backup then Jake would have stood no chance on his own. Jake only assaulted the Valkyrie and the Dragon Gunship AFTER Eywa sent the Ikranks, the Hammerheads, viperwolves etc, the RDA were overwhelmed by the assault when Jake attacked.

I understand that. Jake had cover with the big ikran distraction going on which allowed him to get to both ships. But had Jake not been there when Eywa sent everything, the tree of souls would've been destroyed.

[EywaBlessMe]

No he was not an idiot; he simply discounted the existence of Eywa, and didn't anticipate the entire planet turning against them.

[Woodsprite]

And when you've got the whole planet against you... you're screwed.

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by Tiberius

Eywa is Not a Biological Supercomputer. Eywa is a type of Spirit. How else could Eywa permanently transfer Jake's soul from his human body to his avatar body if she was not a spirit? How else could Eywa answer prayers if she was not a spirit? James Cameron himself also refered to Eywa as a type of spirit.

I genuinely don't know where he said that.
Eywa is not a supercomputer in the human known sense, but is still a physical organism... The structure is how things work is exactly the same as the brain only on a larger scale and using connections between plants in place of synapses.

Originally Posted by Woodsprite

I don't think he did. Maybe referred to it as "spiritual" (with which I agree), but not a spirit. This may help answer your other question, though.

This

[Raptor]

Originally Posted by Aihwa

I don't even think they deserve to be called marines.

This.

Murderous mercenaries are not Marines. I will be joining the USMC next summer, and, as Trudy say, I wouldn't sign up if they do sh!t like what they did in the movie.

Back to the topic, there's not much that Quaritch could've done. Even if he had guided munitions, he's gonna have a tough time getting through the flux and quite frankly, it might even be possible that if Quaritch gets far enough, Eywa will just move a floating rock in the shuttle's path.

[Woodsprite]

Originally Posted by AC130StandingBy

This.

Murderous mercenaries are not Marines. I will be joining the USMC next summer, and, as Trudy say, I wouldn't sign up if they do sh!t like what they did in the movie.

Well, think about it from their perspective. Most of the marines were probably there for a decent job. Most probably had families, and saw this as a good opportunity to make good money, considering the average salary for any average marine is all-in-all pocket cash. Compare it to working effortlessly as a merc on a moon where most of the time, you're just guarding an area that is hardly attacked, and making more than you usually would. Pretty good deal, I'd say.

Now, think about the countless ways the RDA officials could use propaganda on the soldiers, to sell the idea that there were merciless, savage, humanoid beasts roaming around that cared about nothing but themselves, and loved to kill humans just because they were there. They don't know anything about the scientific investigations conducted on the na'vi. They don't know the details of their peacefulness. They don't know about the astoundingly amazing biological nature of the moon. They pretty much don't know a thing. Why? Because they aren't told, and they can't ask because it isn't any of their business.

See it from their perspective, now? I'd say most of the marines there were just honest, tough men who worked hard to gain the honor of becoming marines, and just wanted to make a little more money on the side, knowing nothing about the details of their purpose, only getting fed information from the corporation. Sure, there were people like Wainfleet and Quaritch, but those were only extreme examples of thick-headed people who were, by Grace's description, "trigger-happy morons".