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Watching "Avatar," I felt sort of the same as when I saw "Star Wars" in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron 's film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his " Titanic " was. Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely.

"Avatar" is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It's a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war message. It is predestined to launch a cult. It contains such visual detailing that it would reward repeating viewings. It invents a new language, Na'vi, as "Lord of the Rings" did, although mercifully I doubt this one can be spoken by humans, even teenage humans. It creates new movie stars. It is an Event, one of those films you feel you must see to keep up with the conversation.

The story, set in the year 2154, involves a mission by U. S. Armed Forces to an earth-sized moon in orbit around a massive star. This new world, Pandora, is a rich source of a mineral Earth desperately needs. Pandora represents not even a remote threat to Earth, but we nevertheless send in ex-military mercenaries to attack and conquer them. Gung-ho warriors employ machine guns and pilot armored hover ships on bombing runs. You are free to find this an allegory about contemporary politics. Cameron obviously does.

Pandora harbors a planetary forest inhabited peacefully by the Na'vi, a blue-skinned, golden-eyed race of slender giants, each one perhaps 12 feet tall. The atmosphere is not breathable by humans, and the landscape makes us pygmies. To venture out of our landing craft, we use avatars--Na'vi lookalikes grown organically and mind-controlled by humans who remain wired up in a trance-like state on the ship. While acting as avatars, they see, fear, taste and feel like Na'vi, and have all the same physical adeptness.

This last quality is liberating for the hero, Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ), who is a paraplegic. He's been recruited because he's a genetic match for a dead identical twin, who an expensive avatar was created for. In avatar state he can walk again, and as his payment for this duty he will be given a very expensive operation to restore movement to his legs. In theory he's in no danger, because if his avatar is destroyed, his human form remains untouched. In theory.

On Pandora, Jake begins as a good soldier and then goes native after his life is saved by the lithe and brave Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana ). He finds it is indeed true, as the aggressive Col. Miles Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ) briefed them, that nearly every species of life here wants him for lunch. (Avatars are not be made of Na'vi flesh, but try explaining that to a charging 30-ton rhino with a snout like a hammerhead shark).

The Na'vi survive on this planet by knowing it well, living in harmony with nature, and being wise about the creatures they share with. In this and countless other ways they resemble Native Americans. Like them, they tame another species to carry them around--not horses, but graceful flying dragon-like creatures. The scene involving Jake capturing and taming one of these great beasts is one of the film's greats sequences.

Like "Star Wars" and "LOTR," "Avatar" employs a new generation of special effects. Cameron said it would, and many doubted him. It does. Pandora is very largely CGI. The Na'vi are embodied through motion capture techniques, convincingly. They look like specific, persuasive individuals, yet sidestep the eerie Uncanny Valley effect. And Cameron and his artists succeed at the difficult challenge of making Neytiri a blue-skinned giantess with golden eyes and a long, supple tail, and yet--I'll be damned. Sexy.

At 163 minutes, the film doesn't feel too long. It contains so much. The human stories. The Na'vi stories, for the Na'vi are also developed as individuals. The complexity of the planet, which harbors a global secret. The ultimate warfare, with Jake joining the resistance against his former comrades. Small graceful details like a floating creature that looks like a cross between a blowing dandelion seed and a drifting jellyfish, and embodies goodness. Or astonishing floating cloud-islands.

I've complained that many recent films abandon story telling in their third acts and go for wall-to-wall action. Cameron essentially does that here, but has invested well in establishing his characters so that it matters what they do in battle and how they do it. There are issues at stake greater than simply which side wins.

Cameron promised he'd unveil the next generation of 3-D in "Avatar." I'm a notorious skeptic about this process, a needless distraction from the perfect realism of movies in 2-D. Cameron's iteration is the best I've seen -- and more importantly, one of the most carefully-employed. The film never uses 3-D simply because it has it, and doesn't promiscuously violate the fourth wall. He also seems quite aware of 3-D's weakness for dimming the picture, and even with a film set largely in interiors and a rain forest, there's sufficient light. I saw the film in 3-D on a good screen at the AMC River East and was impressed. I might be awesome in True IMAX. Good luck in getting a ticket before February.

It takes a hell of a lot of nerve for a man to stand up at the Oscarcast and proclaim himself King of the World. James Cameron just got re-elected.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Avatar (2009)

Rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking

162 minutes

Stephen Lang as Col. Miles Quaritch

Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman

Wes Studi as Eytukan

CCH Pounder as Moat

Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel

Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge

Sam Worthington as Jake Sully

Zoe Saldana as Neytiri

Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacon

Laz Alonso as Tsu'tey

Sigourney Weaver as Grace

Matt Gerald as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet

Written and directed by

• James Cameron

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Avatar Movie Analysis Research Paper

Nowadays film production industry is one of the most profitable. Perhaps, the main reason for the success is that it provides people with what they long to have, i.e. the ability to dream creating entire new worlds in their imagination. It goes without saying that the industry has undergone many changes throughout decades.

Filmmakers try to use new techniques, develop new topics and create new fairytales. One of the most unpredictable wizards of the world of movies is James Cameron who never stops astonishing people worldwide. This is the person who manages to create something better each time. Each of his best movies is more successful than the previous one. Thus, his Terminator 2 became a sensation.

His Titanic became one of the glorious epic movies in the history of the world cinematography. Admittedly, his latest movie Avatar is a revolutionary creation which opened up new horizons for the overall industry. Moreover, it also influenced many other industries and changed people’s conventional perception of art and technology.

Reportedly, James Cameron had an idea of creating Avatar right after he completed his glorious Titanic , having written a treatment for the movie in distant 1996 (Jensen, 2007). As Cameron stated he was inspired by many science fiction writings and some non-fiction books to create the world of Pandora.

He singled out two authors whose books had the greatest impact – Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard — who can be characterized as jungle adventure writers and pointed out: “I wanted to do an old fashioned jungle adventure, just set it on another planet, and play by those rules” (Jensen, 2007).

Interestingly, James Cameron had two approximately equal projects in his mind. He had two stories to be made using the latest technology: Avatar and Battle Angels (adaptation of Japanese comics). In fact, he wanted to realize both projects and only needed to decide what story should go first (Jensen, 2007). Thus, instead of Pandora people could have admired some other world and other characters.

One of the decisive factors while picking up the story was the consistency of the script. Eventually, Cameron had to choose Avatar since he was not satisfied with Battle Angels script: “It was the kid in the candy store problem — too many good ideas and no story” (Jensen, 2007). Thus, they started working on Avatar in September 2005. It took them four years to create the film which was destined to become a breakthrough in the movie production industry.

Admittedly, Avatar was not the first film to use computer technology in film production. For instance, in one of the interviews Cameron denoted that he was sure in the success of his project since he saw what characters and settings were possible to create with the help of technology: Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, King Kong and Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean (Jensen, 2007). Thus, Cameron believed he could manage to create fully CG images.

It is necessary to point out that Cameron revolutionized the production of digital films. Thus, he did not the common practice of shooting actors and then processing those images with the help of computer technology. James Cameron had special cameras (produced by Sony) which could shoot the complete picture, i.e. the digital images (Siegel, 2010).

Actors had specific censors to capture every movement of their body, every expression of their faces. As far as facial expressions are concerned Cameron also used quite new approach using rather common technique. Apart from censors the actors had specific skull cap which had a camera which transformed every facial expression (Honthaner, 2010).

The actors were performing on the green background which was turned into the beautiful jungles of Pandora already inside Cameron’s cameras. Another peculiarity of this movie production is that two cameras were used to take the same scene creating 3D effect (“Avatar 3D Film Employs Cutting Edge Visual Effects”, 2009). Basically, there are two pictures for each eye captured by two cameras. In fact, this can be called a truly 3D movie.

Of course, it is necessary to point out that Cameron used really latest software to create the world where every leave, every vine were a realistic pieces of art. It goes without saying that such precision presupposed enormous amount of information, a petabyte (1 million gigabytes) to be stored and operated (Siegel, 2010). Cameron addressed Microsoft to handle this really serious issue which could destroy the entire work claiming:

I always have this horror that the best thing we create winds up like the Ark of the Covenant at the end of ‘Indiana Jones,’ being put away in some warehouse where we never find it (Siegel, 2010).

Fortunately, Microsoft team managed to cope with this problem and the digital world became a real one on the screens of numerous cinemas.

It is worth mentioning that at the period of the movie production there were no many theatres which had the necessary facilities to show 3D film so there was no haste in the movie production, since James Cameron understood that the more time passed the more cinemas would be available (Siegel, 2010). It was very reasonable since the film could fail to become such a success if only few cinemas could feature it.

Apart from the use of the unique cameras and software which were used to create a new world, Cameron resorted to professionals to create a new language for the people of Pandora. Thus, Paul Froemer who is “the head of the linguistics department at USC” created a new language which actors could pronounce but which at the same time sounded very exotic to viewers (Jensen, 2007). Thus, people of Pandora speak a language which is, actually, a mixture of Polynesian and African languages and dialects.

Admittedly, James Cameron remains a person faithful to details. Perhaps, this is the main secret of his success. Thus, Avatar won several Golden Globes and Oscars, and became “the fastest movie ever to achieve $1bn (£619m) in ticket sales around the world” (“Avatar Overtakes Titanic as Top-Grossing Film Ever”, 2010).

Reputedly, the movie budget is about $300 million. Admittedly, the revenues are much larger. However, it is impossible to simply state the figures to assess the production costs and evaluate the financial success of the film. First of all, according to Vanity Fair the budget of $300 million did not include marketing expenses.

The production costs were shared by Fox, Dune Capital Management and Ingenious Film Partners which was a very good option to “hedge the risk” (Keegan, 2009). Apart from this James Cameron invested quite a lot of his own money to start the production of the film. Of course, he encouraged some other investors to participate in the project.

The main focus was made on the use of revolutionary technologies. In fact, some people called it technological gambling which turned out to be success. The film gave a great push to the development of many other 3D projects and the development of 3D facilities which were beneficial for many investors and companies.

For instance, many films acquired a new life in 3D format (fiction and non-fiction), 3D technology entered many cinemas and even households. The success of the film enabled James Cameron to launch several projects concerning the film which brought additional financial benefits (for instance, 2 edition of the film with additional minutes).

Apart from wise technology use, James Cameron made other effective decisions. Thus, the live scenes shooting was mainly implemented in New Zealand which saved the filmmakers about $30 million (Keegan, 2009). Of course, there were no many stars featured (in fact, there was only one celebrated figure – Sigourney Weaver) which also enabled to save funds (there was no enormous cast salaries).

Nevertheless, the use of technology was the most important factor which led to great success of the epic film. Thus, only in the first six weeks the worldwide taking of the film reached almost $2bn ($1,859bn to be more precise) (“Avatar overtakes Titanic as top-grossing film ever”, 2010).

People wanted to see the “artificial” digital world with “digital” actors performing. The precision of filmmakers was rewarded since everyone was impressed by the film and went to cinemas several times to feel that peculiar impression of digital reality. It is necessary to add that many people were talking about rather poor story and many borrowings from other films (when speaking of Pandora world creatures). However, the visual effects were still admired.

This admiring can explain the exclusive popularity not only of the film but other products related to Pandora. In the first place, it is possible to single out several version of the film itself (first 3D version, DVD 3D version, the second 3D version, 2D blue rave version). Apart from this the official site of the movie presents Avatar games available for computers or I-pods.

The site also provides the visitors with possibility to purchase toys associated with the film (avatars, robots, machines, etc.). Of course, many other games exist. In fact, the Internet is an affluent source of various games – Avatar versions. Admittedly, the quality of those games differs. Unsurprisingly, Cameron’s Avatar game astonishes with the high quality and is, in fact, a kind of controllable film. The characters of the film should fulfill some tasks and accomplish certain missions.

Notably, it is not a repetition of the film scenes it is a completely new story, or at least some more detailed description of the life on the distant planet. Moreover, the world created by Cameron evokes many discussions and there are many books concerning Pandora and ideas articulated in the film (Mahoney and Carmine, 2010). It goes without saying that the abundance of related products brings financial benefits to the filmmakers and James Cameron, in particular.

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Avatar for the development of the cinematography industry. Before this project filmmakers only partially resorted to the latest technology.

There were some images or some parts of settings, but no one dared to make a completely digital movie. It is necessary to stress that only Cameron with his precision could become a successful pioneer. He created a completely 3D world using the latest technological facilities instead of digitizing real world setting. As Jon Landau, the film producer, claimed:

What I believe Avatar has done as much as anything is it’s opened a small crack in the door to let other filmmakers know that stories that could not be told in the past can now be told. No longer do they reside in your imagination or only in the pages of great literature, but you now have the technology to realize them (Siegel, 2010).

So, nowadays filmmakers can use the same technology in their projects. In fact, many filmmakers do use such technologies nowadays. Moreover, the majority of the most successful films are produced in 3D format. The popularity of this kind of technology and its affluent opportunities led to realization of many great projects: screening myths and favorite tales.

Of course, not only industry has benefited. Cameron gave people the opportunity to enter new reality, the reality of the genuine 3D world. Now people believe that there can be no boundaries in the fiction world. They become physical observers of events happening around them.

Thus, viewers get what they want to see and to feel: an illusion, a beautiful dream. The use of 3D technologies in Avatar made people understand that their expectations from a dream world can be met since the contemporary technology enables filmmakers to create something bigger.

Apart from the esthetic impact of the film it is possible to point out the great influence Avatar produced on the development of technology itself. Thus, nowadays companies are interested in developing facilities for 3d filmmaking and such films viewing. Thus, the development of the equipment in cinemas is astonishing.

Besides, people are eager to buy 3D equipment to watch 3D films at their homes. Of course, the development of such technology was a potent impulse for the further development of the corresponding software. So, it is possible that in the nearest future filmmakers will present some new technology.

It is also important to mention that the film evoked quite important discussion of the environmental issues. People could see the world of harmony and what can happen to it if people continue their destructive activities.

Some may argue that it is just a fictional film which cannot have great impact on people’s mind, but it is necessary to remember that these are works of art which make people think of their lives. Thus, the prospects are that Avatar has contributed greatly to the development of people’s understanding of their purpose and destination on the Earth.

In conclusion, it is necessary to point out that James Cameron created a new world which has had a great impact on the existing one. Avatar became a revolution in the industry of filmmaking which influenced the development of technology and opened up new horizons for many people. Thus, the film proved that people have many great opportunities to consider new topics and reveal new worlds which can contribute to the development of the entire humanity.

Reference List

Avatar Movie Official Site . (2010). Web.

“ Avatar 3D Film Employs Cutting Edge Visual Effects ”. (2009). BBC. Web.

“A vatar Overtakes Titanic as Top-Grossing Film Ever ”. (2010). BBC. Web.

Honthaner, E. L. (2010). The Complete Film Production Handbook . Burlington, MA: Focal Press.

Jensen, J. (2000). Great Expectations. Entertainment Weekly . Web.

Keegan, R. (2009). How Much Did Avatar Really Cost? Vanity Fair . Web.

Mahoney, K. P. and Carmine, A. (2010). The Ultimate Fan’s Guide to Avatar, James Cameron’s Epic Movie. London: Punked Books.

Siegel, J. (2010). Cameron Says Microsoft’s Role in ‘Avatar’ Was Key . Web.

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IvyPanda. (2024, January 23). Avatar Movie Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/avatar-movie-analysis/

"Avatar Movie Analysis." IvyPanda , 23 Jan. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/avatar-movie-analysis/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Avatar Movie Analysis'. 23 January.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Avatar Movie Analysis." January 23, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/avatar-movie-analysis/.

1. IvyPanda . "Avatar Movie Analysis." January 23, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/avatar-movie-analysis/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Avatar Movie Analysis." January 23, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/avatar-movie-analysis/.

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Analyzing The Film ‘Avatar’ Essay

‘Avatar’ is a sci-fi action feature length film directed by James Cameron. It has been argued that ‘Avatar’ presents the message of the greed of capitalism against the people who want to live in peace and preserve their culture. The blockbuster hit, ‘Avatar refers to a major element in American history – the Invasion of America. The science-fiction film has relevant similarities to this historic period; in ‘Avatar’, humans from Earth go to the planet ‘Pandora’ to disrupt the peace for a rare mineral – the unobtanium. It is further suggested that the ‘unobtanium’ could symbolise oil.

In the extract, representation of disability is shown through the fictional character, Jake Sully. The beginning of the extract shows the extreme close up shot of a pair of eyes followed by a close up shot of a hand on a wheelchair wheel. It can be argued that including these shots into the trailer connotes that this particular information is important to the story. Later in the extract, the character Jake Sully converses in conversation with what the audience considers as the ‘villain’ of the film. Their dialogue consists of the ‘villain’ saying that he will get Sully his “real legs” back.

This particular language could suggest that the protagonist of the film would do anything to get his legs back. This portrays a very negative ideology onto the audience – which people are not whole without their entire body working functionally. Furthermore, it is interesting how the captain says “we’ll get you your legs back… your real legs” when he is not in his real body at all – he is in a robot suit. Perhaps he is contradicting his previous statement? During this scene, there is a sense of authority that is displayed especially in the medium long shot during the dialogue.

The audience sees that the ‘captain’ is in a tall robot suit and Jake Sully is in his wheelchair which is extremely shorter that the robot suit. This establishes dominance and power, the fact that the captain is the tallest signifies that he is the most important and the most powerful. Furthermore, the sheer fact that he is in a robot suit signifies a great level of wealth and authority over Jake Sully in his wheelchair. Overall, the captain has literally made himself bigger that Jake Sully and all the other characters.

Moreover, Jake Sully says later on in the extract that “the strong prey off the weak and no-one does a thing”. The character could be referring to himself or the Na’vi people but this is said over a shot of himself which we could argue means that he is the “weak” and the ‘villain’ is the “strong” that preyed upon him. This refers to how the captain used Jake Sully to gain information on the inhabitants of Pandora. Furthermore, this could be implying that Jake Sully is weak because he is disabled which is sociably unacceptable yet it is included in a popular film that was seen by many.

The ‘Avatar’ trailer represents humans as inconsiderate entities that would do absolutely anything for money and power. This comes across when a character says that the only reason why they are on the planet Pandora is because a piece of rare mineral is worth a great deal of money. This further signifies that the representation of humans is a negative one and that they will go to great lengths to get what they want. Additionally, the humans could be represented as disrespectful towards nature and extraordinary wildlife.

This is because during the extract the viewers see a crane shot of deforestation which further emphasises the lack of compassion in humans. Moreover, there is a lack of positive representation of ethnic minorities. During this 3 minute and 31 second long extract, there is absolutely no representation on the ‘human side’ of different races. It has been argued that this is extremely conflictual. The only representation that the ethnic minorities have in this award winning feature film is subliminally negative – the inhabitants of planet, Pandora.

The Na’vi have similar appearances and cultures as the Native Americans which has led many people to believe that the Na’vi are based on the Native Americans. This signifies that they are represented poorly in James Cameron’s film, ‘Avatar’. This can be argued because a white human character states, through a voiceover, that “those savages are threatening” their whole operation. We could argue that this character is referring to the Na’vi as during the sound bridge the camera straight cuts to a shot of the inhabitants of Pandora. The word “savages” means a group of people that are considered primitive and uncivilized.

This word could connote that the Na’vi are looked down upon and disrespected – this is further emphasised by the humans’ lack of compassion for the Na’vi as they destroy their home that they value so deeply. Additionally, the humans value the minerals of the planet, Pandora, but not the inhabitants that live there. Furthermore, the Na’vi are considered ‘aliens’ as they are from another planet which enhances the racist subtext within ‘Avatar’ especially when the majority of the Na’vi characters are voiced by black actors (Zoe Saldana, C. C. H. Pounder, Laz Alonso and Peter Mensah).

It can be argued that if one considers that the Na’vi are essentially aliens then that has an extremely racist subtext – this is because it is believed that historically in the early 1900’s and possibly earlier, black people were referred to as ‘aliens’ as they were considered ‘not human’ or ‘not equal’. This was the result of a xenophobic and racist ideology in the early 1900’s and earlier. The racist subtext in ‘Avatar’ has been argued by many and therefore not catering to the audience’s desires as people don’t tend to want to be offended whilst watching a major motion picture.

Additionally, in the extract, we see various shots of the Na’vi as they are the main characters in the film ‘Avatar’. In these shots – which include medium close ups and medium shots – we see a particular costume that the Na’vi wear. The audience assumes that this is part of their culture. Furthermore, the Na’vi’s costume is similar in some respects to the clothing from the Native American culture. This brings us back to the idea that ‘Avatar’ is loosely based around the Invasion of America. Additionally, the use of bead jewellery further refers to the Native American culture.

This could show that the ideology that James Cameron is trying to present is the idea that the Native Americans fought for their rightful country and many were massacred in the process much like the parallels in ‘Avatar’. In addition, the Na’vi’s costume consists of dreadlocked hair which is a fairly stereotypical portrayal of the black community. The character design of the Na’vi is arguably interesting as they have blue skin. This is particularly intriguing because it has connotations of the coldness, sadness, loyalty and wisdom. Moreover, the colour of their skin ties nicely into the setting and scenery.

The scenery is very natural and we see this from the beginning of the extract – we see a possible crane shot of the surrounding nature. The natural environment links to the Na’vi’s skin colour as the blue tone could represent the colour of the rivers, skies or seas. Therefore, enhancing their representation of being environmentalists, much different to the perception and representation of the humans. Furthermore, during the extract and particularly in the full length film, we see many scenes where the Na’vi connect to their planet and their wildlife and quite intimately too.

This can signify that the Na’vi are represented as highly spiritual people which further links to the idea of them being based on the Native Americans and so forth. In addition to this, their blue skin could be referring to the religion of Hinduism. This can be argued because the Na’vi are somewhat similar to the 2nd Hindu god, Vishnu. This supreme being is conceived as the ‘Preserver’ which links to how the Na’vi fight to preserve their planet rather than letting the humans destroy it for a piece of rock.

Additionally, in the extract, the audience sees a shot of a Na’vi using sign language whilst talking to try and communicate with the main character. This action signifies that the Na’vi race are very intellectual and could also reference to the idea that they are hard of hearing. One may argue that this extract, the trailer of ‘Avatar’, presents the audience with the intentional representations of ideologies and views of the director, producer, writer and co-editor – James Cameron.

This could be suggested by how Cameron is involved in most of the pre-production and production processes; this means that he controls the majority of the aspects, especially the script as he was the one that wrote it. Therefore, this suggests that Cameron had the ability and opportunity to pass his ideologies and views across to a wider audience. Furthermore, Cameron’s films are largely based on the military and ‘Avatar’ is no exception. It could be argued that Cameron presents the audience with a war based ideology that everything will result in war and destruction.

An alternative interpretation could be that ‘Avatar’ displays a constructionist approach to representation within media. This is due to the way ‘Avatar’ presents the context of society – in this case is the historical context of the Invasion of America. Adding to the fact that ‘Avatar’ is an American film further emphasises the possibility of it having context towards the Invasion of America and Native Americans. Furthermore, ‘Avatar’ shows the opinions of people who are doing the representation – for example, James Cameron. In addition, ‘Avatar’ could be an example of a reflective approach towards representation.

This is due to how similar the film is to the Invasion of America and Native Americans. ‘Avatar’ is representing this historical event and taking its true meaning (which is greed of capitalism and preserving culture) whilst trying to create a replica of the event in the mind of the audience. In this case, the replica is where the humans go to Pandora to mine for natural resources. However, the inhabitants refuse which results in a war. To conclude, it is possible to say that the majority of representations and ideologies that are presented in the trailer of ‘Avatar’ are very negative towards culture, history, society and the audience.

This can be argued as the trailer does not represent a wide range of different ethnic groups and when it does, it’s done offensively and negatively. This has a major impact on the audience watching as they would get offended if their culture/religion/ ethnicity is mocked and represented inaccurately and stereotypically. However, the negative representation is done very subliminally. As well as the unequal representation, it presents unideal ideologies that are racist and possibly displaying aspects of ableism.

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by James Cameron

Avatar study guide.

Avatar is a science-fiction movie directed and produced by James Cameron , and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was released on December 10, 2009. The film is set in the middle of the 22nd century, and follows the colonization of Pandora, a moon planet, after the depletion of Earth’s resources. It follows the struggle for resources between the human colonists and the native Na’vi population.

Creator James Cameron began developing the concept of the film in 1994. However, he did not write the screenplay until 2006. It premiered in 2009 to high praise from critics, who marveled at the innovative and impressive visual effects. The film stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. The film remains the highest grossing film of all time, and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, of which it won three.

Avatar Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Avatar is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Jake Sully is a paraplegic. Once a Marine, he enlists as a part of the Avatar Program after his twin brother is killed.

Is there a soliloquy in this movie?

Do you mean the first Avatar or second? I don't recall a soliloquy-like speech in the first one.

Why did Neytiri tell Jake he was ready?

Chapter please/

Study Guide for Avatar

Avatar study guide contains a biography of James Cameron, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Avatar
• Avatar Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for Avatar

Avatar essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Avatar by James Cameron.

• Interstellar: Visual Splendor Eclipsing Storytelling & The Assertion of Film Values

Wikipedia Entries for Avatar

• Introduction
• Themes and inspirations

Avatar Film Critique

Avatar F ilm Critique

Avatar by James Cameron blurs the lines between reality and fiction. The creators of the film, especially James Cameron, who was not only the director but also the writer of the script, have done a great job. He created fantasy mythology and even invented a special language for the Navi people. The thought-out depiction of life on the wonderful habitable planet became a complete mythological picture. The plot, ideas, and special effects of the film Avatar grab viewers’ attention and make it worth watching.

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The plot of the film may leave an ambivalent impression. Certainly, it is quite predictable. The viewer can guess what will happen next. However, this drawback fades into insignificance as skillfully executed scenes transfer the audience to the mysterious world of Pandora, to the dense forests and flying mountains.

The former Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who has been confined to a wheelchair after the accident during the war, travels in space to the planet Pandora to replace his twin brother, who was killed in a random encounter with the punks. The brother becomes a participant of the project Avatar and trains to operate the body of one of the Navi hybrids called “avatar”. Navi is a company that extracts minerals from Pandora. It is very concerned about the clashes with the local three-meter blue Indians.

Therefore, it tries to investigate their lives using state-of-the-art technology. While a man is asleep, his blue avatar rushes through the jungle. While the avatar sleeps, their matched human slurp soup in the barracks. However, as the plot develops, the scientists of this avatar program start facing some problems. No one imagined that the former paratrooper would fall in love with the jungle and decide that blue Indians are closer to him than people from Earth. When the company sends aircraft to bomb villages and groves, the blue avatar of Jake Sully decides to lead saddled Navi flying dragons into battle.

In Avatar, Cameron tells perhaps the oldest fairy tale about the lost paradise. The film, paradise is the jungle of Pandora which originates from cartoons by Miyazaki. Paradise is a simple and clear answer to questions about where the avatar wanders while a man sleeps, and which side the latter should take when human beings drop bombs on Pandora. Generally speaking, the plot of the film deserves the attention of the audience.

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The ideological component of the film does not solely lie in entertaining the audience. The main ideas are not so simple. Instead of living in spirituality and harmony with nature, humanity moves in the wrong way. Greed, pragmatism, and cynicism are the inherent features of the modern technocratic civilization and the way of thinking of modern Western scientists, politicians, and businessmen. Meanwhile, every nation has its faith, roots, traditions, and culture, and nobody has a right to impose alien values on them. Generally, environmentalists, proponents of esotericism, and everyone who is opposed to the one-sided technocratic development of modern civilization will support the main ideas of the picture.

Avatar is not the first film in which people suffer from cruel conquerors, to whom the life and feelings of other creatures mean nothing. It is another idea that the director put in Avatar. People have ceased to live in harmony with the planet, mindlessly and recklessly destroying its resources and the chances of the carefree existence of their descendants In general, people have ceased to value the lives of other creatures. Avatar is the embodiment of reconciliation between a human being and nature; it emphasizes the drawbacks of contemporary consumer society. Avatar is a deeply symbolic film, through which the director reveals his ideas.

The film describes the interaction of characters rather than physical objects. Its key symbolic moment is an episode that depicts the first night of Jake Sully in the forest. Fire is an ancient symbol of the mind that actively changes. In this context, the mind is a melting pot, the alchemical crucible, in which the natural transforms into something man-made and artificial. On the other hand, fire is also the embodiment of the creative transformative abilities of a person as a whole, a symbol of energy that is aimed at the conquest of nature, and a symbol of property, which distinguishes man from animals.

The director shows earthmen’s technology as deliberately crude, materialistic, and mechanistic to bring it closer to the conversion process whereby nature loses its pristine spirit and acquires artificial traits. Earthlings appear as villains that destroy everything through mechanization and modernization. The scene when the giant bulldozers with huge buckets dig furiously sloppy careers is a clear illustration of this process. However, the most shocking is the giant humanoid robots that are used in battle. Cameron contrasts these robots with nature, making them defective, grotesque, and ugly.

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Avatar is one of the few blockbusters that invoke real human emotions. The film is not just a story with pictures, but rather a startling revelation. It touches the soul through the depiction of these three-meter blue men, empathizing with the place of a human being and nature in this world. At the same time, the audience develops a feeling of hatred toward earthlings while watching the second half of the film. Nevertheless, Cameron still manages to touch viewers’ feelings and achieves the desired effect. It is advisable to watch the film to understand its messages and ideas as they have a crucial significance for every human.

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Special Effects

There are great special effects in the film. Avatar by James Cameron revolutionized cinema. Nobody has used computer graphics on such a scale before. This advanced approach helped create a beautiful world, with its extraordinary creatures, Navi, and wonderful plants as well as animals. The film is a striking example of fantasy. It shows something that was previously possible only in the human imagination.

Avatar is a symbiosis of gaming and computer cinema. A group of experts created a fundamentally new performance capture technology specialist for the filming. Another feature of the film is its three-dimensionality with its technology and special stereoscopic high-resolution cameras. Pandora's world appears almost real - bright, vibrant, and very beautiful. Landscapes, as well as flora and fauna, amaze the audience with their flamboyant colors. The pursuits in the virgin forest, flying dragons, and local battle scenes are truly breathtaking, especially in 3D, when one wants to dodge the arrows flying toward the viewer.

Music and great sound contribute to the overall audio-visual effect. Sound, special effects, the unusual nature of every living being, and the fantastical setting hold the audience spellbound until the end. Nearly three hours fly at an unexpectedly great speed. Thus, it comes as no surprise that many watched the film several times and in different formats as they were willing to immerse themselves in the mysterious world of Pandora once again.

The film Avatar is unique because the director skillfully created a separate world with its culture, history, and mythology. The plot of the film is interesting. There is a wide range of symbols that make the message of the film clearer. There are significant ideas in the film. Moreover, the special effects of the film are worth seeing. Avatars can invoke a variety of dynamic emotions. Some may admire it, while others dislike it, but everyone has to watch it. The fight for the planet, salvation in the name of betrayal, the bright colors of nature, and the history of a magical world contribute to the overall allure of Avatar.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the complete ib extended essay guide: examples, topics, and ideas.

International Baccalaureate (IB)

IB students around the globe fear writing the Extended Essay, but it doesn't have to be a source of stress! In this article, I'll get you excited about writing your Extended Essay and provide you with the resources you need to get an A on it.

If you're reading this article, I'm going to assume you're an IB student getting ready to write your Extended Essay. If you're looking at this as a potential future IB student, I recommend reading our introductory IB articles first, including our guide to what the IB program is and our full coverage of the IB curriculum .

IB Extended Essay: Why Should You Trust My Advice?

I myself am a recipient of an IB Diploma, and I happened to receive an A on my IB Extended Essay. Don't believe me? The proof is in the IBO pudding:

If you're confused by what this report means, EE is short for Extended Essay , and English A1 is the subject that my Extended Essay topic coordinated with. In layman's terms, my IB Diploma was graded in May 2010, I wrote my Extended Essay in the English A1 category, and I received an A grade on it.

What Is the Extended Essay in the IB Diploma Programme?

The IB Extended Essay, or EE , is a mini-thesis you write under the supervision of an IB advisor (an IB teacher at your school), which counts toward your IB Diploma (learn more about the major IB Diploma requirements in our guide) . I will explain exactly how the EE affects your Diploma later in this article.

For the Extended Essay, you will choose a research question as a topic, conduct the research independently, then write an essay on your findings . The essay itself is a long one—although there's a cap of 4,000 words, most successful essays get very close to this limit.

Keep in mind that the IB requires this essay to be a "formal piece of academic writing," meaning you'll have to do outside research and cite additional sources.

The IB Extended Essay must include the following:

• A title page
• Contents page
• Introduction
• Body of the essay
• References and bibliography

Additionally, your research topic must fall into one of the six approved DP categories , or IB subject groups, which are as follows:

• Group 1: Studies in Language and Literature
• Group 2: Language Acquisition
• Group 3: Individuals and Societies
• Group 4: Sciences
• Group 5: Mathematics
• Group 6: The Arts

Once you figure out your category and have identified a potential research topic, it's time to pick your advisor, who is normally an IB teacher at your school (though you can also find one online ). This person will help direct your research, and they'll conduct the reflection sessions you'll have to do as part of your Extended Essay.

As of 2018, the IB requires a "reflection process" as part of your EE supervision process. To fulfill this requirement, you have to meet at least three times with your supervisor in what the IB calls "reflection sessions." These meetings are not only mandatory but are also part of the formal assessment of the EE and your research methods.

According to the IB, the purpose of these meetings is to "provide an opportunity for students to reflect on their engagement with the research process." Basically, these meetings give your supervisor the opportunity to offer feedback, push you to think differently, and encourage you to evaluate your research process.

The final reflection session is called the viva voce, and it's a short 10- to 15-minute interview between you and your advisor. This happens at the very end of the EE process, and it's designed to help your advisor write their report, which factors into your EE grade.

Here are the topics covered in your viva voce :

• A check on plagiarism and malpractice
• Your reflection on your project's successes and difficulties
• Your reflection on what you've learned during the EE process

Your completed Extended Essay, along with your supervisor's report, will then be sent to the IB to be graded. We'll cover the assessment criteria in just a moment.

We'll help you learn how to have those "lightbulb" moments...even on test day!  

What Should You Write About in Your IB Extended Essay?

You can technically write about anything, so long as it falls within one of the approved categories listed above.

It's best to choose a topic that matches one of the IB courses , (such as Theatre, Film, Spanish, French, Math, Biology, etc.), which shouldn't be difficult because there are so many class subjects.

Here is a range of sample topics with the attached extended essay:

• Biology: The Effect of Age and Gender on the Photoreceptor Cells in the Human Retina
• Chemistry: How Does Reflux Time Affect the Yield and Purity of Ethyl Aminobenzoate (Benzocaine), and How Effective is Recrystallisation as a Purification Technique for This Compound?
• English: An Exploration of Jane Austen's Use of the Outdoors in Emma
• Geography: The Effect of Location on the Educational Attainment of Indigenous Secondary Students in Queensland, Australia
• Math: Alhazen's Billiard Problem
• Visual Arts: Can Luc Tuymans Be Classified as a Political Painter?

You can see from how varied the topics are that you have a lot of freedom when it comes to picking a topic . So how do you pick when the options are limitless?

How to Write a Stellar IB Extended Essay: 6 Essential Tips

Below are six key tips to keep in mind as you work on your Extended Essay for the IB DP. Follow these and you're sure to get an A!

#1: Write About Something You Enjoy

You can't expect to write a compelling essay if you're not a fan of the topic on which you're writing. For example, I just love British theatre and ended up writing my Extended Essay on a revolution in post-WWII British theatre. (Yes, I'm definitely a #TheatreNerd.)

I really encourage anyone who pursues an IB Diploma to take the Extended Essay seriously. I was fortunate enough to receive a full-tuition merit scholarship to USC's School of Dramatic Arts program. In my interview for the scholarship, I spoke passionately about my Extended Essay; thus, I genuinely think my Extended Essay helped me get my scholarship.

But how do you find a topic you're passionate about? Start by thinking about which classes you enjoy the most and why . Do you like math classes because you like to solve problems? Or do you enjoy English because you like to analyze literary texts?

Keep in mind that there's no right or wrong answer when it comes to choosing your Extended Essay topic. You're not more likely to get high marks because you're writing about science, just like you're not doomed to failure because you've chosen to tackle the social sciences. The quality of what you produce—not the field you choose to research within—will determine your grade.

Once you've figured out your category, you should brainstorm more specific topics by putting pen to paper . What was your favorite chapter you learned in that class? Was it astrophysics or mechanics? What did you like about that specific chapter? Is there something you want to learn more about? I recommend spending a few hours on this type of brainstorming.

One last note: if you're truly stumped on what to research, pick a topic that will help you in your future major or career . That way you can use your Extended Essay as a talking point in your college essays (and it will prepare you for your studies to come too!).

#2: Select a Topic That Is Neither Too Broad nor Too Narrow

There's a fine line between broad and narrow. You need to write about something specific, but not so specific that you can't write 4,000 words on it.

You can't write about WWII because that would be a book's worth of material. You also don't want to write about what type of soup prisoners of war received behind enemy lines, because you probably won’t be able to come up with 4,000 words of material about it. However, you could possibly write about how the conditions in German POW camps—and the rations provided—were directly affected by the Nazis' successes and failures on the front, including the use of captured factories and prison labor in Eastern Europe to increase production. WWII military history might be a little overdone, but you get my point.

If you're really stuck trying to pinpoint a not-too-broad-or-too-narrow topic, I suggest trying to brainstorm a topic that uses a comparison. Once you begin looking through the list of sample essays below, you'll notice that many use comparisons to formulate their main arguments.

I also used a comparison in my EE, contrasting Harold Pinter's Party Time with John Osborne's Look Back in Anger in order to show a transition in British theatre. Topics with comparisons of two to three plays, books, and so on tend to be the sweet spot. You can analyze each item and then compare them with one another after doing some in-depth analysis of each individually. The ways these items compare and contrast will end up forming the thesis of your essay!

When choosing a comparative topic, the key is that the comparison should be significant. I compared two plays to illustrate the transition in British theatre, but you could compare the ways different regional dialects affect people's job prospects or how different temperatures may or may not affect the mating patterns of lightning bugs. The point here is that comparisons not only help you limit your topic, but they also help you build your argument.

Comparisons are not the only way to get a grade-A EE, though. If after brainstorming, you pick a non-comparison-based topic and are still unsure whether your topic is too broad or narrow, spend about 30 minutes doing some basic research and see how much material is out there.

If there are more than 1,000 books, articles, or documentaries out there on that exact topic, it may be too broad. But if there are only two books that have any connection to your topic, it may be too narrow. If you're still unsure, ask your advisor—it's what they're there for! Speaking of advisors...

Don't get stuck with a narrow topic!

#3: Choose an Advisor Who Is Familiar With Your Topic

If you're not certain of who you would like to be your advisor, create a list of your top three choices. Next, write down the pros and cons of each possibility (I know this sounds tedious, but it really helps!).

For example, Mr. Green is my favorite teacher and we get along really well, but he teaches English. For my EE, I want to conduct an experiment that compares the efficiency of American electric cars with foreign electric cars.

I had Ms. White a year ago. She teaches physics and enjoyed having me in her class. Unlike Mr. Green, Ms. White could help me design my experiment.

Based on my topic and what I need from my advisor, Ms. White would be a better fit for me than would Mr. Green (even though I like him a lot).

The moral of my story is this: do not just ask your favorite teacher to be your advisor . They might be a hindrance to you if they teach another subject. For example, I would not recommend asking your biology teacher to guide you in writing an English literature-based EE.

There can, of course, be exceptions to this rule. If you have a teacher who's passionate and knowledgeable about your topic (as my English teacher was about my theatre topic), you could ask that instructor. Consider all your options before you do this. There was no theatre teacher at my high school, so I couldn't find a theatre-specific advisor, but I chose the next best thing.

Before you approach a teacher to serve as your advisor, check with your high school to see what requirements they have for this process. Some IB high schools require your IB Extended Essay advisor to sign an Agreement Form , for instance.

Make sure that you ask your IB coordinator whether there is any required paperwork to fill out. If your school needs a specific form signed, bring it with you when you ask your teacher to be your EE advisor.

#4: Pick an Advisor Who Will Push You to Be Your Best

Some teachers might just take on students because they have to and aren't very passionate about reading drafts, only giving you minimal feedback. Choose a teacher who will take the time to read several drafts of your essay and give you extensive notes. I would not have gotten my A without being pushed to make my Extended Essay draft better.

Ask a teacher that you have experience with through class or an extracurricular activity. Do not ask a teacher that you have absolutely no connection to. If a teacher already knows you, that means they already know your strengths and weaknesses, so they know what to look for, where you need to improve, and how to encourage your best work.

Also, don't forget that your supervisor's assessment is part of your overall EE score . If you're meeting with someone who pushes you to do better—and you actually take their advice—they'll have more impressive things to say about you than a supervisor who doesn't know you well and isn't heavily involved in your research process.

Be aware that the IB only allows advisors to make suggestions and give constructive criticism. Your teacher cannot actually help you write your EE. The IB recommends that the supervisor spends approximately two to three hours in total with the candidate discussing the EE.

#5: Make Sure Your Essay Has a Clear Structure and Flow

The IB likes structure. Your EE needs a clear introduction (which should be one to two double-spaced pages), research question/focus (i.e., what you're investigating), a body, and a conclusion (about one double-spaced page). An essay with unclear organization will be graded poorly.

The body of your EE should make up the bulk of the essay. It should be about eight to 18 pages long (again, depending on your topic). Your body can be split into multiple parts. For example, if you were doing a comparison, you might have one third of your body as Novel A Analysis, another third as Novel B Analysis, and the final third as your comparison of Novels A and B.

If you're conducting an experiment or analyzing data, such as in this EE , your EE body should have a clear structure that aligns with the scientific method ; you should state the research question, discuss your method, present the data, analyze the data, explain any uncertainties, and draw a conclusion and/or evaluate the success of the experiment.

#6: Start Writing Sooner Rather Than Later!

You will not be able to crank out a 4,000-word essay in just a week and get an A on it. You'll be reading many, many articles (and, depending on your topic, possibly books and plays as well!). As such, it's imperative that you start your research as soon as possible.

Each school has a slightly different deadline for the Extended Essay. Some schools want them as soon as November of your senior year; others will take them as late as February. Your school will tell you what your deadline is. If they haven't mentioned it by February of your junior year, ask your IB coordinator about it.

Some high schools will provide you with a timeline of when you need to come up with a topic, when you need to meet with your advisor, and when certain drafts are due. Not all schools do this. Ask your IB coordinator if you are unsure whether you are on a specific timeline.

Below is my recommended EE timeline. While it's earlier than most schools, it'll save you a ton of heartache (trust me, I remember how hard this process was!):

• January/February of Junior Year: Come up with your final research topic (or at least your top three options).
• February of Junior Year: Approach a teacher about being your EE advisor. If they decline, keep asking others until you find one. See my notes above on how to pick an EE advisor.
• April/May of Junior Year: Submit an outline of your EE and a bibliography of potential research sources (I recommend at least seven to 10) to your EE advisor. Meet with your EE advisor to discuss your outline.
• Summer Between Junior and Senior Year: Complete your first full draft over the summer between your junior and senior year. I know, I know—no one wants to work during the summer, but trust me—this will save you so much stress come fall when you are busy with college applications and other internal assessments for your IB classes. You will want to have this first full draft done because you will want to complete a couple of draft cycles as you likely won't be able to get everything you want to say into 4,000 articulate words on the first attempt. Try to get this first draft into the best possible shape so you don't have to work on too many revisions during the school year on top of your homework, college applications, and extracurriculars.
• August/September of Senior Year: Turn in your first draft of your EE to your advisor and receive feedback. Work on incorporating their feedback into your essay. If they have a lot of suggestions for improvement, ask if they will read one more draft before the final draft.
• September/October of Senior Year: Submit the second draft of your EE to your advisor (if necessary) and look at their feedback. Work on creating the best possible final draft.
• November-February of Senior Year: Schedule your viva voce. Submit two copies of your final draft to your school to be sent off to the IB. You likely will not get your grade until after you graduate.

Remember that in the middle of these milestones, you'll need to schedule two other reflection sessions with your advisor . (Your teachers will actually take notes on these sessions on a form like this one , which then gets submitted to the IB.)

I recommend doing them when you get feedback on your drafts, but these meetings will ultimately be up to your supervisor. Just don't forget to do them!

The early bird DOES get the worm!

How Is the IB Extended Essay Graded?

Extended Essays are graded by examiners appointed by the IB on a scale of 0 to 34 . You'll be graded on five criteria, each with its own set of points. You can learn more about how EE scoring works by reading the IB guide to extended essays .

• Criterion A: Focus and Method (6 points maximum)
• Criterion B: Knowledge and Understanding (6 points maximum)
• Criterion C: Critical Thinking (12 points maximum)
• Criterion D: Presentation (4 points maximum)
• Criterion E: Engagement (6 points maximum)

How well you do on each of these criteria will determine the final letter grade you get for your EE. You must earn at least a D to be eligible to receive your IB Diploma.

Although each criterion has a point value, the IB explicitly states that graders are not converting point totals into grades; instead, they're using qualitative grade descriptors to determine the final grade of your Extended Essay . Grade descriptors are on pages 102-103 of this document .

Here's a rough estimate of how these different point values translate to letter grades based on previous scoring methods for the EE. This is just an estimate —you should read and understand the grade descriptors so you know exactly what the scorers are looking for.

Here is the breakdown of EE scores (from the May 2021 bulletin):

How Does the Extended Essay Grade Affect Your IB Diploma?

The Extended Essay grade is combined with your TOK (Theory of Knowledge) grade to determine how many points you get toward your IB Diploma.

To learn about Theory of Knowledge or how many points you need to receive an IB Diploma, read our complete guide to the IB program and our guide to the IB Diploma requirements .

This diagram shows how the two scores are combined to determine how many points you receive for your IB diploma (3 being the most, 0 being the least). In order to get your IB Diploma, you have to earn 24 points across both categories (the TOK and EE). The highest score anyone can earn is 45 points.

Let's say you get an A on your EE and a B on TOK. You will get 3 points toward your Diploma. As of 2014, a student who scores an E on either the extended essay or TOK essay will not be eligible to receive an IB Diploma .

Prior to the class of 2010, a Diploma candidate could receive a failing grade in either the Extended Essay or Theory of Knowledge and still be awarded a Diploma, but this is no longer true.

Figuring out how you're assessed can be a little tricky. Luckily, the IB breaks everything down here in this document . (The assessment information begins on page 219.)

40+ Sample Extended Essays for the IB Diploma Programme

In case you want a little more guidance on how to get an A on your EE, here are over 40 excellent (grade A) sample extended essays for your reading pleasure. Essays are grouped by IB subject.

• Business Management 1
• Chemistry 1
• Chemistry 2
• Chemistry 3
• Chemistry 4
• Chemistry 5
• Chemistry 6
• Chemistry 7
• Computer Science 1
• Economics 1
• Design Technology 1
• Design Technology 2
• Environmental Systems and Societies 1
• Geography 1
• Geography 2
• Geography 3
• Geography 4
• Geography 5
• Geography 6
• Literature and Performance 1
• Mathematics 1
• Mathematics 2
• Mathematics 3
• Mathematics 4
• Mathematics 5
• Philosophy 1
• Philosophy 2
• Philosophy 3
• Philosophy 4
• Philosophy 5
• Psychology 1
• Psychology 2
• Psychology 3
• Psychology 4
• Psychology 5
• Social and Cultural Anthropology 1
• Social and Cultural Anthropology 2
• Social and Cultural Anthropology 3
• Sports, Exercise and Health Science 1
• Sports, Exercise and Health Science 2
• Visual Arts 1
• Visual Arts 2
• Visual Arts 3
• Visual Arts 4
• Visual Arts 5
• World Religion 1
• World Religion 2
• World Religion 3

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Movie Review — Review Of The Main Themes In The Film Avatar

Review of The Main Themes in The Film Avatar

• Categories: Avatar Movie Review

About this sample

Words: 723 |

Published: Jan 28, 2021

Words: 723 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Works Cited

• Cameron, J. (Director). (2009). Avatar [Film]. 20th Century Fox.
• Clarke, R. (2010). Science fiction and politics: A case study of James Cameron's Avatar. New Political Science, 32(4), 473-490.
• Dittmar, L. F., & Michaud, C. (Eds.). (2014). From the forest to the screen: Feminist readings of James Cameron's Avatar. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Dodds, K. (2010). 'Nature is our church': Discourse and power in Avatar. Environmental Politics, 19(3), 415-430.
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• Grant, B. K. (2013). Deforestation, imperialism, and James Cameron's Avatar. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 41(2), 66-75.
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• Wuestewald, T. (2012). "Pandora just ain't a planet": Avatar, Star Wars, and the geographies of science fiction cinema. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 40(3), 106-118.

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• A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
• When his brother is killed in a robbery, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns of greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge's intentions of driving off the native humanoid "Na'vi" in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, Jake gathers knowledge, of the Indigenous Race and their Culture, for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch, while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na'vi people with the use of an "avatar" identity. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand - and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora. — The Massie Twins
• On the lush alien world of Pandora live the Na'vi, beings who appear primitive but are highly evolved. Because the planet's environment is poisonous, human/Na'vi hybrids, called Avatars, must link to human minds to allow for free movement on Pandora. Jake Sully, a paralyzed former Marine, becomes mobile again through one such Avatar and falls in love with a Na'vi woman. As a bond with her grows, he is drawn into a battle for the survival of her world. — Jwelch5742
• Earth, 2154. As part of the ambitious Avatar Program, a project created to explore the hostile environment of Earth-like exomoon Pandora, Jake Sully, a 22-year-old paraplegic Marine veteran, arrives on the mysterious planet. As Sully learns to control his advanced bio-engineered avatar to infiltrate the indigenous Omatikaya clan, a race of sapient humanoids dwelling in Pandora's lush jungles, he undertakes a dangerous mission: build bridges between humans and the blue-skinned, peace-loving Na'vi giants. Sinister forces, however, threaten the verdant extrasolar planet with ulterior motives. Now, torn between two worlds, the earthling in an alien body must pick sides. Can Sully win the natives' trust and help protect the virgin green haven? — Nick Riganas
• In 2154, humans have depleted Earth's natural resources, leading to a severe energy crisis. The Resources Development Administration (RDA) mines a valuable mineral Unobtanium on Pandora, a densely forested habitable moon orbiting Polyphemus, a fictional gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system. Pandora, whose atmosphere is poisonous to humans, is inhabited by the Na'Vi, a species of 10-foot tall (3.0 m), blue-skinned, sapient humanoids that live in harmony with nature and worship a mother goddess named Eywa. It takes 6 years to get from Earth to Pandora in cryogenic sleep. To explore Pandora's biosphere, scientists use Na'Vi-human hybrids (grown from human + native DNA) called "avatars", operated by genetically matched humans. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic former Marine, replaces his deceased identical twin brother as an operator of one. Jake was leading a purposeless life on Earth and was contacted by RDA when his brother died. his brother represented a significant investment by RDA, since the avatars are linked to the human DNA/genome. Since Jake is a twin, he has the same exact DNA as his brother and can take his place in the Avatar program. Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), head of the Avatar Program, considers Sully an inadequate replacement (as she considers Jake a mere Jarhead) but accepts his assignment as a bodyguard for excursions deep into Na'Vi territory. Tracy (Michelle Rodriguez) is the pilot assigned to Grace and her team of Na'Vis. While escorting the avatars of Grace and fellow scientist Dr. Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore), Jake's avatar is attacked by a Thanator (while they were visiting the school that Grace was operating to teach the Omaticaya. She also does test on tree roots and is developing a theory that all living things on the planet are somehow attached and connected to each other) and flees into the forest, where he is rescued by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a female Na'Vi. Witnessing an auspicious sign (Seeds of the sacred tree land on Jake, covering him. Something she later calls Eywa), she takes him to her clan. The Na'Vi respect all living things and Neytiri is angry because to save Jake she had to kill many native species. Neytiri's mother Mo'At (CCH Pounder), the clan's spiritual leader, orders her daughter to initiate Jake into their society. Grace and Tracy return to base camp, as they are not allowed to run night ops as per protocol. The Omaticaya (the Na'Vi clan has its HQ in the Hometree) Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), head of RDA's private security force, promises Jake that the company will restore his legs if he gathers information about the Na'Vi and the clan's gathering place, a giant tree called Hometree, which stands above the richest deposit of Unobtanium in the area. Jake has 3 months to convince the Na'Vi to move as that's when the bulldozers get to the tree. Jake learns that Neytiri and her sister Slywanin studied at Grace's school. Sylwanin is dead. When Grace learns of Jake's work for Miles (she sees him explaining the inner structure of the Hometree to Miles and Parker), she transfers herself, Jake, and Norm to an outpost. Over the following three months, Jake and Neytiri fall in love as Jake grows to sympathize with the natives. Neytiri also teaches Jake about Eywa, the network of energy that flows through all living things. Grace also reveals that one day the Omaticaya destroyed a bulldozer and hid inside her school. Miles's troopers attacked them and Sylwanin died. The Na'Vi never returned. They wanted Grace to protect the Na'Vi. After Jake is initiated into the tribe (he even captures a banshee/Ikran (a flying predator kind of creature), after Neytiri deems him ready to be a warrior. She even takes Jake to the tree of souls, their most sacred site), he and Neytiri choose each other as mates. Jake and Neytiri escape an attack from Toruk, the biggest banshee in the sky. Rider of the Toruk is called Toruk Macto. Soon afterward, Jake reveals his change of allegiance when he attempts to disable a bulldozer that threatens to destroy a sacred Na'Vi site. When Quaritch shows a video recording of Jake's attack on the bulldozer to Administrator Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), and another in which Jake admits that the Na'Vi will never abandon Hometree, Selfridge orders Hometree destroyed (this was after the Omaticaya retaliated and destroyed the bulldozers and killed 6 humans in the process. Grace thinks the bulldozers were specifically sent to evoke a response and use that as an excuse for war) Despite Grace's argument that destroying Hometree could damage the biological neural network native to Pandora, Selfridge gives Jake and Grace one hour to convince the Na'Vi to evacuate before commencing the attack. Jake confesses to the Na'Vi that he was a spy, and they take him and Grace captive. Quaritch's men destroy Hometree, killing Neytiri's father (the clan chief) and many others. Mo'At frees Jake and Grace, but they are detached from their avatars and imprisoned by Quaritch's forces. Pilot Trudy Chacón, disgusted by Quaritch's brutality, frees Jake, Grace, and Norm, and airlifts them to Grace's outpost, but Grace is shot by Quaritch during the escape. Trudy takes the mobile station and hides it near the tree of souls where Miles cannot find it as the flux vortex scrambles all radars. To regain the Na'Vi's trust, Jake attacks and connects his mind to that of Toruk, a dragon-like predator feared and honored by the Na'Vi. Jake finds the refugees at the sacred Tree of Souls (the Omaticaya are forced to take him seriously due to the power and symbolism of the Toruk) and pleads with Mo'At to heal Grace. The clan attempts to transfer Grace from her human body into her avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls, but she dies before the process can be completed. Supported by the new chief Tsu'Tey (Laz Alonso), Jake unites the clan and tells them to gather all of the clans to battle the RDA. Quaritch organizes a preemptive strike against the Tree of Souls, believing that its destruction will demoralize the natives. On the eve of battle, Jake prays to Eywa, via a neural connection with the Tree of Souls, to intercede on behalf of the Na'Vi. During the subsequent battle, the Na'Vi suffer heavy casualties, including Tsu'Tey and Trudy, but are rescued when Pandoran wildlife unexpectedly join the attack and overwhelm the humans, which Neytiri interprets as Eywa's answer to Jake's prayer. Jake destroys a makeshift bomber before it can reach the Tree of Souls; Quaritch, wearing an AMP suit, escapes from his own damaged aircraft and breaks open the avatar link unit containing Jake's human body, exposing it to Pandora's poisonous atmosphere. Quaritch prepares to slit the throat of Jake's avatar, but Neytiri kills Quaritch and saves Jake from suffocation, seeing his human form for the first time. With the exceptions of Jake, Norm and a select few others, all humans are expelled from Pandora and sent back to Earth. Jake is permanently transferred into his avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls.

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Self-representation through avatars in digital environments

• Open access
• Published: 04 June 2022
• Volume 42 , pages 21775–21789, ( 2023 )

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• Daniel Zimmermann   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3311-4138 1 ,
• Anna Wehler 1 &
• Kai Kaspar   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5092-6798 1  

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Due to its prominent role in online social networks, avatar creation has become an important research topic in the field of computer-mediated communication. One main motive for creating avatars is the representation of one’s own identity. Previous research indicates that avatar creation depends on the activity context for which the avatar is created. Though, studies comparing avatar creation for a wide variety of activity contexts are still missing. The present study addresses this empirical gap by examining (1) the self-representation of physical, demographical, and personality characteristics through avatars, (2) differences in self-representation between various online activity contexts, and (3) between-participant variance in ascribed personality traits. Participants attributed physical, demographical, and personality characteristics to their avatar for one of six online activity contexts and indicated the same characteristics for their actual and ideal selves. We analysed the data of 568 participants and found a high level of congruence between demographical/physical characteristics of the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self. Furthermore, we found an idealised representation of the avatar’s personality traits, which was affected by the specific activity context. Last, the between-participant variance in the avatar’s personality traits was mainly larger than the variance in the ideal self but smaller than the variance in the actual self, indicating a link between avatar creation and social norms. These results deliver new insights into the strategies behind avatar creation in different contexts and build a basis for future research and practical implications for developers and designers of virtual worlds.

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My avatar and I. A study on avatars, personality traits, self-attributes, and their perceived importance

Emmanuel Fokides

The Association of In-world Avatar Investment with Expectations of Behavioral Change

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Introduction

Avatars have become more and more prominent in social online networks and smartphone applications. Bailenson et al. ( 2008 ) defined avatars as digital representations of their users in digital environments. Avatars enable their users to interact and communicate in shared digital worlds. An increasingly large part of computer-based communication is mediated or at least flanked by avatars. The vision of a Metaverse focusing on avatar-based interactions (Lee et al., 2021 ) also shows the importance of avatars and their representation. However, relatively little research has been conducted on how avatars should be represented depending on the communication context. This question guides the present study.

Avatars are driven by humans in real-time and even can look and behave like them. Kromand ( 2007 ) differentiates between open and closed avatars: Closed avatars are pre-generated avatars that only can transform by pre-determined narrative progression. In contrast, their users define the appearance and personality of open avatars. The way open avatars are created is thereby linked to specific motives like exploring digital worlds, finding friends, and portraying one’s own identity (Lin & Wang, 2014 ), aiming at need fulfilment, including self-expression and self-esteem (for a review, see Sibilla & Mancini 2018 ). However, avatar creation and avatar identification can also be associated with adverse outcomes such as depression (Bessière et al., 2007 ) and problematic gaming behaviour (Lemenager et al., 2020 ). Consequently, avatars as communication tools and associated strategies of avatar creation have become an important research topic in the field of computer-mediated communication. Importantly, avatar creation seems to depend on the activity context for which the avatars are created. Some previous studies indicated differences in avatar creation between different activity contexts, such as different gaming scenarios (e.g., Trepte & Reinecke 2010 ; Trepte et al., 2009 ) or social networks (e.g., Triberti et al., 2017 ). However, studies that compare a wider variety of activity contexts that differ in primary communication goals are missing so far. The present study aims to fill this empirical gap by examining strategies of self-representation via avatars while considering different online activity contexts.

Self-representation through avatars

Self-representation is one central aspect of avatar creation and avatar usage. The theory of transformed social interaction (Bailenson et al., 2008 ) highlights that the transformation of self-representation is one of the main dimensions of avatar-mediated communication. This dimension describes the ability to strategically change the appearance and behaviour of the avatar regardless of the user’s actual characteristics. Bente et al. ( 2008 ) already pointed to the strategic emphasis and suppression of avatar features as one of the central factors of avatar-mediated communication.

Indications for self-representation through an avatar are often derived from impression management theory (Mummendey, 1995 ) and self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987 ). According to impression management theory, people strive to represent themselves as idealised and positive as possible (Mummendey, 1995 ). Additionally, self-discrepancy theory differentiates between the actual self and the ideal self. While the actual self represents the current self-image, the ideal self includes the representation of how one would ideally like to be and the qualities one would like to have. Negative emotions arise from a sizeable discrepancy between the ideal self and the actual self (Higgins, 1987 ). Therefore, people strive to minimise this discrepancy via avatar creation (Bessière et al., 2007 ). The idealised virtual identity hypothesis (Manago et al., 2008 ) also states that people portray idealised characteristics of themselves in online networks and thus tend to describe how they would ideally see themselves rather than how they actually are. Hence, these theories advocate a general idealisation of avatars to achieve the most positive self-presentation possible. Most empirical findings are related to the context of video gaming: Sibilla & Mancini ( 2018 ) indicated in their review of previous research on avatar creation in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) that users generally tend to actualise and idealise their avatars in terms of physical, demographic, and personality characteristics. Furthermore, especially people with a higher discrepancy between their actual self and ideal self seem to prefer idealised avatars (Loewen et al., 2021 ). However, this contrasts with the extended real-life hypothesis (Back et al., 2010 ). This hypothesis describes that users of online social networks use their profiles to portray their real personalities. Back et al. ( 2010 ) were able to show that the data provided on profiles can be used to predict the actual personality traits of users. Consequently, these contradictory hypotheses and results raise the question of the extent to which various feature levels of avatar creation are idealised or congruent with actual user characteristics and the extent to which the specific activity context influences avatar creation. The present study tackles this question.

Self-representation of physical, demographic, and personality characteristics

Previous findings are ambiguous in the context of the avatar’s physical and demographic characteristics. On the one hand, they are idealised by the users. For example, men and women tend to choose ideal male and female bodies, respectively, when creating an avatar (Cacioli & Mussap, 2014 ; Dunn & Guadagno, 2012 ). On the other hand, there is evidence that the avatar represents aspects of the actual self at least partially (Kafai et al., 2010 ) or comprehensively represent the actual self but with specific improvements in appearance (Ducheneaut et al., 2009 ; Messinger et al., 2008 ). Also, avatars can even be detached from the offline selves for aesthetical and functional reasons (Kafai et al., 2010 ), or users play with their identity by swapping gender (Hussain & Griffiths, 2008 ). Because of these mixed findings, it is unclear whether the avatar’s physical and demographical characteristics will be based on the actual self, the ideal self, or neither. Thus, we formulated an undirected hypothesis:

H1: Physical/demographic characteristics attributed to the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self are interrelated

Regarding psychological characteristics, studies mainly examined the discrepancy between the user’s and the avatar’s personality traits (Sibilla & Mancini, 2018 ). Users seem to idealise the avatar’s personality (Ducheneaut et al., 2009 ; Bessière et al., 2007 ). This finding is especially true for negatively connoted personality traits (Dengah & Snodgrass, 2020 ). The present study focused on the Big Five personality traits encompassing extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experiences. These traits have been labelled as the basic dimensions of personality that cover many personality facets (Costa & McCrae, 1992 ). We hypothesised:

H2: Personality traits of the avatar are generally chosen by users in an idealised way

Self-representation in different online activity contexts

In addition to users’ actual and idealised self, the situational context seems to be an important determining factor of avatar creation. For example, the theory of transformed social interaction (Bailenson et al., 2008 ) highlights the transformation of the situational context of the digital world as one key factor. Bente et al. ( 2008 ) also underlined the situatedness and the co-presence of multiple users in shared virtual environments as one central aspect of avatar-mediated communication. Thus, the specific online activity context could influence avatar creation. Previous research mainly focused on video game contexts and found that avatars differed according to the demands of the specific games. Trepte & Reinecke ( 2010 ) compared avatar creation in terms of personality characteristics for video games which differed in the level of competitiveness. Their results showed that a video game’s competitiveness influenced the choice of avatar: while avatars with a similar personality to their users were created for non-competitive video games, dissimilar avatars were created for competitive video games. Also, Trepte et al. ( 2009 ) demonstrated that users tend to attribute predominantly male characteristics to their avatar for a video game which is perceived as masculine, and female characteristics to their avatar for a video game which is perceived as female. However, there was a preference for same-sex avatars as “participants rated those game descriptions and gaming scenarios more entertaining which required avatar features in line with their own sex role” (Trepte et al., 2009 , p. 52). Users also seem to accentuate specific avatar characteristics depending on the activity context and associated requirements. For example, Vasalou & Joinson ( 2009 ) compared avatar creation regarding physical appearance for the online contexts of blogging, dating, and gaming. Avatars tended to be more physically attractive in an online dating context and more intellectual in video games. At the same time, they mainly reflected the user’s actual physical appearance in the blogging context (Vasalou & Joinson, 2009 ). Furthermore, Triberti et al. ( 2017 ) compared the creation of the appearance of an avatar (body, clothes, and accessories) for video games and a job-themed social network. The authors could show that the appearance, especially clothes, was changed when the activity context switched from gaming to social networks designed for job contacts, thus matching the appearance to the context’s requirements.

Besides, avatar creation depends on the gender of the user and the audience of self-representation: Female users tended to change their avatar more often than male users when they expected to communicate with friends rather than with strangers. The authors concluded that women tend to express themselves and their gender more through avatars than men, especially when interacting with friends (Triberti et al., 2017 ). Hence, previous research revealed different strategies for avatar creation depending on the activity context and its demands. Despite this evidence, however, a comprehensive comparison of avatar creation strategies across the most common online contexts is lacking, and the question of avatar idealisation in different online contexts has, to our best knowledge, not yet been explored and compared for a wide variety of online contexts. Thus, the present study scrutinised such activity context effects concerning avatar idealisation. Specifically, we examined avatar creation for six activity contexts: dating, competitive and non-competitive gaming, and social networks for different audiences (friends, strangers, and job contacts). Besides analysing the relation between avatar, actual self, and ideal self within each activity context (H3), we hypothesised that avatar idealisation regarding personality traits would significantly differ across activity contexts (H4). Furthermore, as gender also seems to affect avatar creation, we examined if the user’s gender influences avatar idealisation regarding personality traits (H5):

H3: The physical/demographic characteristics and personality traits of the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self are chosen by users differently depending on the specific activity context

H4: There is a significant main effect of the activity context on the extent to which personality traits of the avatar are chosen by users in an idealised way

H5: There is a significant main effect of the user’s gender on the extent to which personality traits of the avatar are chosen by users in an idealised way

Between-participant variance in ascribed personality traits

Notably, the personality traits of an avatar do not necessarily have to be in the range of the actual self and the ideal self. For example, the avatar’s personality could even be worse than the user’s actual personality, allowing users to explore the effect of characteristics that are impossible or socially undesirable in the offline world (Mancini & Sibilla, 2017 ). Vasalou and Joinson ( 2009 ) found high variance in self-representation through avatars. However, it is still unclear whether users are taking advantage of these extensive possibilities. So far, research examining the personality aspects of avatar creation has mainly focused on differences between online self and offline self. However, this approach does not answer whether the diversity of possibilities offered by digital worlds is reflected in a wide variety of avatars. If this is the case, the personalities of avatars should vary more than those of offline selves, which are bound to the real possibilities and norms of the offline world. Therefore, we compared the dispersion of personality traits between avatar, actual self, and ideal self to address this issue. We hypothesised that personality traits of the avatar show higher between-participant variance than those of the actual self and the ideal self (H6). We also explored the variance patterns within each specific activity context (H7).

H6: The personality traits of the avatars chosen by users show a higher between-participant variance than those of the ideal self and actual self

H7: The between-participant variance in personality traits of the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self, indicated by users, differ between online activity contexts

We conducted an online experiment with the software Unipark (Tivian, 2017 ). Participants were recruited through a combination of convenience and snowball sampling methods via social media and e-mail distribution lists of several German universities. Inclusion criteria were a minimum age of 18 years, understanding of the German language, and informed consent. All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the German Psychological Society (DGPs) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration. At the beginning of the study, participants were informed that the data of this study will be used for research purposes only and that all data would be collected anonymously. Thus, no identifying information was collected. We also highlighted that participation is voluntary and that participants can terminate participation in this study at any time and without giving reasons. Thus, participants who prematurely stopped the survey were not included in the analyses and all of their data were deleted from the dataset. An email address of a contact person for queries of any kind was also provided. None of the participants reported technical problems or significant stress while conducting the study. Informed consent to participate in this study was provided by clicking a corresponding box.

Overall, 594 participants completed the study, but 25 of them were excluded because they interrupted the experiment in the meantime or had an implausibly long processing time, both of which counteracted the experimental manipulation. We also excluded one further participant due to implausible information about their own age. No further exclusion criteria were applied. Thus, the data of 568 participants (64.1% female, M age = 28.3, SD age = 11.63) were included in the analyses. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the six activity contexts by the survey software: dating ( n  = 89, 62.9% female; M age = 28.45, SD age = 10.86), competitive gaming ( n  = 94, 67% female; M age = 28.50, SD age = 11.93), non-competitive gaming ( n  = 93, 69.9% female, M age = 28.10, SD age = 11.53), social network with friends ( n  = 98, 57.1% female, M age = 28.83, SD age = 12.97), social network with strangers ( n  = 92, 62% female, M age = 28.26, SD age = 11.85), and social network with job contacts ( n  = 102, 65.7% female; M age = 27.72, SD age = 10.77).

All participants reported (desirable) physical and demographic characteristics and personality traits of their avatar, actual self, and ideal self.

The physical and demographic characteristics included one’s gender (single-choice: male, female, or diverse), height (in centimetres), age (in years), weight (in kilogram), hair colour (single-choice: brown, blonde, black, red, grey, bald head, or others), and physical attractiveness (10-point scale ranging from 0 = “not attractive at all” to 9 = “very attractive”).

We assessed personality traits in terms of the Big Five personality traits via the German short version of the Big Five Inventory (BFI-K; Rammstedt & John 2005 ). The factorial structure of this standardised and economical instrument designed for online contexts features good psychometric properties and has been validated in homogenous student samples and larger heterogeneous samples (Kovaleva et al., 2013 ). The BFI-K includes 21 Likert-type items (1 = “disagree strongly” to 5 = “agree strongly”), four to five items for each of the personality traits, namely extraversion (Cronbach’s α on the level of the whole sample = 0.64−0.84), agreeableness (α = 0.66−0.69), conscientiousness (α = 0.67−0.73), neuroticism (α = 0.59−0.73), and openness (α = 0.67−0.74). The present range of the scales’ internal consistencies has already been found in previous studies (e.g., Kaspar & Fuchs 2021 ; Meier et al., 2021 ; Steiner et al., 2012 ). A more detailed analysis of Cronbach’s α at the level of specific online activity contexts can be found in the Supplementary Information File, Table 1 .

Research design and procedure

We employed a 6 (online activity context: dating, competitive gaming, non-competitive gaming, social network with friends, social network with strangers, social network with job contacts) × 3 (evaluation subject: avatar, actual self, ideal self) design with online activity context as between-participant factor and evaluation subject as within-participant factor. After providing informed consent, participants were randomly assigned to one of the six online activity contexts. A context-specific instruction was presented, serving as the experimental manipulation: First, it was explained to all participants that the purpose of this study was to investigate the criteria for creating avatars in online worlds and networks, defined as artificial persons or graphic figures. Participants were then instructed to create an avatar which should represent themselves for one of the following activity contexts: (1) a dating website where they can make contact with strangers in order to meet them in real life ( dating ); (2) an online videogame where they compete with other players in order to win the game on their own ( competitive gaming ); (3) an online videogame where they cooperate with other players in order to win the game as a team ( non-competitive gaming ); (4) a digital social network where they can connect and chat with friends as well as comment on their posts in order to stay in contact ( social network with friends ); (5) a digital social network where they can connect and chat with strangers as well as comment on their posts in order to make new contacts ( social network with strangers ); (6) a digital social job network where they make new and maintain current business contacts in order to improve networking and to get job offers ( social network with job contacts ). Furthermore, we specified that the avatar should represent a whole human with specific physical and demographic characteristics, respectively, and personality traits, which would also be displayed like skill points and, in turn, would be viewable by other users. For example, the participants who were assigned to the dating context received the following instruction:

In online worlds and networks, avatars (i.e., artificial persons or graphical characters) are increasingly used to represent users instead of actual photos of the respective persons (e.g., Second Life, BitMoji, MeMojis). Therefore, we would like to capture the criteria by which users create avatars in online environments. Imagine you are signing up for a dating website where you can contact and write to strangers to meet them in real life subsequently. At the beginning of the sign-up process, you must create a personal avatar that represents yourself to the other users of the dating site. This avatar should represent a person holistically. Therefore, you should now assign characteristics and physical features to your avatar that will be visible to the other users. For this purpose, you will be asked to answer some questions about your avatar.

Only the descriptions of the activity context and the purpose of registration differed between the experimental groups. After the instruction, the participants filled out several questionnaires in the following order: We initially asked them to think of their avatar and its characteristics. Participants provided their virtual avatar’s physical characteristics, demographic characteristics, and personality traits. In the second step, we asked participants to think about how they really are, thus indicating their actual physical characteristics, demographic characteristics, and personality traits (actual self). Finally, we asked the participants to think about how they ideally would like to be if they could freely choose, thus indicating their ideal self’s physical characteristics, demographic characteristics, and personality traits. After that, participants were discharged.

All analyses were conducted using SPSS 27. To analyse the relations between avatar, actual self, and ideal self concerning physical and demographic characteristics (H1, H3), we calculated Spearman correlations regarding height, weight, age, and physical attractiveness. We quantitatively examined gender and hair colour via cross tables.

To examine avatar idealisation (i.e., avatar characteristics are closer to the ideal self than to the actual self) on the level of personality traits, we first computed differences of the Big Five trait scores between the ideal self and the avatar (= avatar-discrepancy, ideal self minus avatar) and between the ideal self and the actual self (= self-discrepancy, ideal self minus actual self) as proposed by Bessière et al. ( 2007 ). We then computed the difference between avatar-discrepancy and self-discrepancy (avatar-discrepancy minus self-discrepancy) as the extent of avatar idealisation. We then used this extent of avatar idealisation as the dependent variable for one-sample t -tests (H2, H3) and a two-way ANOVA (H4, H5).

Finally, we analysed the between-participant variance in the Big Five trait scores. We statistically compared this variance between the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self through Pitman-Morgan tests (Kauttonen, 2021 ). This analysis was done for the whole sample (H6) and individually for each online activity context (H7).

Physical and demographic characteristics of avatar, actual self, and avatar (H1, H3)

At the level of the total sample, we consistently found significant positive correlations between avatar, actual self, and ideal self with respect to age (all r s ≥ 0.685, p s < 0.001), height (all r s ≥ 0.773, p s < 0.001), weight (all r s ≥ 0.810, p s < 0.001), and physical attractiveness (all r s ≥ 0.345, p s < 0.001). Results are depicted in Table  1 . More fine-grained correlation analyses for each activity context revealed that this result pattern was comparable across activity contexts (see Supplementary Information File ). Furthermore, most participants attributed the identical gender to their avatar, actual self, and ideal self (Table  2 ). Regarding hair colour, Table  3 shows that the reported hair colour mostly matched between avatar, actual self, and ideal self. This analysis was limited to blonde and brown hair colour as additional hair colours showed overall very low frequencies (3.2% black, 3.0% red, 3.3% grey, 1.1% bald head, 1.9% others). However, most participants generally selected their actual hair colour for their avatar and ideal self. A more detailed analysis of attributed gender and hair colour at the level of specific online activity contexts can be found in the Supplementary Information File . Overall, and as expected (H1), we found high congruence between avatar, actual self, and ideal self for physical and demographic characteristics. In contrast to our expectation (H3), this pattern was relatively stable in all online activity contexts.

Idealisation of personality traits in general (H2) and within activity contexts (H3)

We initially analysed the extent of the self-idealisation of personality traits. For this purpose, one-sample t -tests compared the mean extent of avatar idealisation with zero for the whole sample and each activity context separately. In the case of neuroticism, it must be considered that a significant positive difference between avatar-discrepancy (ideal self minus avatar) and self-discrepancy (ideal self minus actual self) indicates avatar idealisation due to the negative connotation of neuroticism. In contrast, avatar idealisation is reflected by a negative difference between avatar-discrepancy and self-discrepancy regarding extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. For a more intuitive presentation, we therefore reversed the signs of the latter four personality traits. Thus, positive values always indicate avatar idealisation, and if the avatar idealisation was significantly above zero, we considered the avatar idealised.

With respect to the whole sample, we found that avatars were idealised regarding extraversion, t (567) = 8.26, p  < 0.001, d  = 0.35, agreeableness, t (567) = 6.65, p  < 0.001, d  = 0.28, conscientiousness, t (567) = 9.13, p  < 0.001, d  = 0.38, and neuroticism, t (567) = 18.70, p  < 0.001, d  = 0.78, but not regarding openness, t (567) = 0.07, p  = 0.943, d  = 0.003. Overall, this result supports H2.

Figure  1 shows the extent of avatar idealisation regarding the Big Five personality traits for each activity context (H3). In all activity contexts, avatars were idealised regarding extraversion, all t s ≥ 2.08, p s ≤ 0.040, d min = 0.22, d max = 0.55, and neuroticism, all t s ≥ 6.27, p s < 0.001, d min = 0.66, d max = 1.00. Avatars were also idealised regarding agreeableness in most activity contexts, all t s ≥ 2.61, p s ≤ 0.011, d min = 0.27, d max = 0.50, except for competitive gaming, t  = 0.20, p  = 0.842, d = –0.02. Moreover, avatars were idealised regarding conscientiousness in most contexts, all t s ≥ 2.94, p s ≤ 0.004, d min = 0.31, d max = 0.69, apart from dating, t  = 1.85, p  = 0.067, d  = 0.20, and social network with friends, t  = 1.39, p  = 0.169, d  = 0.14. Surprisingly, avatars were significantly closer to the actual self than to the ideal self regarding openness in the context of competitive gaming, t = − 3.07, p  = 0.003, d = –0.32. There were no other significant results regarding openness, all t s ≤ 1.73, p s ≥ 0.086, d min = –0.06, d max = 0.18. In summary, we found the expected idealised representation of avatars in almost every activity context, but also some notable exceptions, partly supporting our expectations (H3).

Extent of avatar idealisation. Positive values indicate avatar idealisation. Vertical lines indicate the standard error of the mean. Asterisks mark the results of one-sample t -tests against 0. Brackets indicate significant results of the pairwise comparisons (Bonferroni-corrected familywise error rate). * p  < 0.05, ** p  < 0.01, *** p  < 0.001. Numerical values below and above, respectively, the horizontal x-axis represent effect sizes (Cohen’s d )

Idealisation of avatar’s personality traits across activity contexts (H4) and as a function of participant’s gender (H5)

Next, for each personality trait, we calculated a two-way ANOVA with activity context and the participants’ gender as independent variables, and the extent of avatar idealisation as dependent variable to test for differences between activity contexts and gender effects. In case of a significant main effect of the activity context, we further performed pairwise comparisons. We found a main effect of the activity context on the extent of avatar idealisation for conscientiousness, F (5, 556) = 4.43, p  < 0.001, η p 2   =  0.038, and openness, F (5, 556) = 3.45, p  = 0.004, η p 2   =  0.030. There were no other significant main effects of the activity context on personality traits, all F s(5, 556) ≤ 1.94, p s ≥ 0.086, η p 2 ≤ 0.017. Thus, H4 was partly supported by the data. Interestingly, only few pairwise comparisons met the Bonferroni-adjusted significance level (see Fig.  1 ): The extent of avatar idealisation regarding conscientiousness was lower in dating compared to competitive gaming, p  = 0.010, M Diff = 0.34, 95%-CI [0.05, 0.63], and non-competitive gaming, p  = 0.004, M Diff = 0.36, 95%-CI [0.07, 0.66], and lower in social network with friends than in competitive gaming, p  = 0.010, M Diff = 0.33, 95%-CI [0.47, 0.62], and non-competitive gaming, p  = 0.004, M Diff = 0.36, 95%-CI [0.07, 0.64]. Besides, avatar idealisation regarding openness was lower in competitive gaming than in social network with friends, p  = 0.005, M Diff = 0.30, 95%-CI [0.06, 0.55]. Furthermore, we found significant main effects of gender on the avatar idealisation regarding conscientiousness, F (1, 556) = 6.347, p  = 0.012, η p 2  = 0.011, and neuroticism, F (1, 556) = 6.347, p  < 0.001, η p 2  = 0.027. Males ( M ideal = 0.34, SD ideal = 0.74) idealised their avatar more strongly than females ( M ideal = 0.22, SD ideal = 0.56) regarding conscientiousness, females ( M ideal = 0.88, SD ideal = 0.97) idealised their avatars more strongly regarding neuroticism than males ( M ideal = 0.53, SD ideal = 0.89). So, H5 was partly supported. There were no significant interaction effects on the extent of avatar creation for any of the personality traits, all F s(5, 556) ≤ 1.199, p s ≥ 0.308, η p 2 ≤ 0.011.

Between-participant variance in personality traits of avatar, actual self, and ideal self (H6, H7)

Next, we analysed the between-subject variance in personality ratings attributed to the avatar, the ideal self, and the actual self. This analysis was conducted at the level of the whole sample and separately for the six activity contexts. Significance testing was done via Pitman-Morgan tests (Kauttonen, 2021 ).

Figure  2 shows the variances of the whole sample regarding personality traits. For all personality traits, we found that the variance in the actual self scores was higher than the variance in the avatar scores, all Pitman’s T s(566) ≥ 2.35, p s ≤ 0.019, except for openness, Pitman’s T (566) = 0.86, p  = 0.388. Also, for all personality traits, the variance in actual self scores was higher than the variance in ideal self scores, all Pitman’s T s(566) ≥ 2.85, p s ≤ 0.005. Finally, we found higher variances in avatar scores compared to ideal self scores for all personality traits, all Pitman’s T s(566) ≥ 4.88, p s < 0.001, except agreeableness, Pitman’s T (566) = 0.86, p  = 0.388. Thus, personality scores generally varied most when participants rated their actual selves, personality scores varied less when they rated the avatar, and variance in personality scores was again significantly lower for the ideal self. This result pattern partially contradicts our H6, stating that avatar scores should show a higher variance than the ideal self and the actual self.

Variances of (desirable) personality trait scores participants ascribed to their avatar, actual self, and ideal self. Data are based on the whole sample

Table  4 shows the results of the Pitman-Morgan tests separately for each activity context (H7). Regarding differences in variance between the avatar’s and the actual self’s personality scores, the variance in the actual self was significantly higher than the avatar’s variance regarding several activity contexts: This was true for openness in the context of dating, Pitman’s T (87) = 2.24, p  = 0.028, neuroticism in competitive gaming, Pitman’s T (92) = 3.40, p  = 0.001, conscientiousness in non-competitive gaming, Pitman’s T (91) = 2.42, p  = 0.017, and neuroticism in non-competitive gaming, Pitman’s T (91) = 2.21, p  = 0.030, neuroticism in social networking with friends, Pitman’s T (96) = 2.15, p  = 0.034, as well as with job contacts, Pitman’s T (100) = 3.17, p  = 0.002, extraversion in social network with job contacts, Pitman’s T (100) = 3.00, p  = 0.003, and agreeableness in social network with job contacts, Pitman’s T (100) = 2.93, p  = 0.005.

Next, we compared the variances in the avatar’s and the ideal self’s personality scores. The variance in the avatar was significantly higher than the variance in the ideal self for conscientiousness, all Pitman’s T s ≥ 2.65, p s ≤ 0.009, and neuroticism, all Pitman’s T s ≥ 3.08, p s ≤ 0.003, in all activity contexts. This was also true for extraversion in the activity contexts dating, Pitman’s T (87) = 2.20, p  = 0.030, competitive gaming, Pitman’s T (92) = 4.52, p  < 0.001, and non-competitive gaming, Pitman’s T (91) = 4.85, p  < 0.001, as well as for openness in the activity contexts competitive gaming, Pitman’s T (92) = 2.28, p  = 0.025, non-competitive gaming, Pitman’s T (91) = 2.14, p  = 0.035, and social network with friends, Pitman’s T (96) = 4.11, p  < 0.001. No significant difference between avatar and ideal self was found for agreeableness, all Pitman’s T s ≤ 1.84, p s ≥ 0.069.

Looking at the differences in variances between the actual self and the ideal self, the variance in the actual self was significantly higher than the variance in the ideal self regarding extraversion, all Pitman’s T s ≥ 2.16, p s ≤ 0.034, conscientiousness, all Pitman’s T s ≥ 4.21, p s  <  0.001, and neuroticism, all Pitman’s T s ≥ 4.54, p s < 0.001, in all activity contexts. This was also true for agreeableness in the activity contexts social network with friends, Pitman’s T (96) = 2.14, p  = 0.035, and social network with strangers, Pitman’s T (90) = 2.32, p  = 0.023, as well as for openness in the activity contexts dating, Pitman’s T (87) = 4.22, p  < 0.001, competitive gaming, Pitman’s T (92) = 2.99, p  = 0.004, social network with friends, Pitman’s T (96) = 4.62, p  < 0.001, and social network with job contacts, Pitman’s T (100) = 2.57, p  = 0.012.

The present study investigated the preferences of self-presentation through avatars compared to actual self-presentation and an idealised self-presentation depending on several online activity contexts.

Main findings

First, we examined the relations between the physical/demographical characteristics attributed to the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self. We consistently found high positive correlations or high degrees of congruence between the respective characteristics of the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self. These findings were confirmed for the whole sample (i.e., context-independent) and each online activity context. Hence, the avatar’s physical and demographic characteristics generally appear to be based on the characteristics of the actual self, with some enhancements and improvements, as also indicated by previous research (Cacioli & Mussap, 2014 ; Ducheneaut et al., 2009 ; Messinger et al., 2008 ) and the extended real-life hypothesis (Back et al., 2010 ). The present data do not support a complete decoupling of avatar characteristics from the offline self or a tendency to try out different identities oriented towards fictional characters.

Second, we found an idealised representation of avatar personality traits in almost every activity context. An idealised avatar was confirmed for extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness regarding the whole sample. Interestingly, the extent of idealisation was most pronounced for neuroticism, extending previous findings that especially negatively connoted personality traits are presented in an improved way (e.g., Dengah & Snodgrass 2020 ). In the case of openness, no significant extent of idealisation was found. These results can be generalised to the individual activity contexts with few exceptions. When focusing on a direct comparison of activity contexts, we found significant differences regarding the idealisation of the avatar’s personality traits for conscientiousness and openness. So, avatar creation partly depends on the activity context and the corresponding purpose of the avatar (Triberti et al., 2017 ; Trepte & Reinecke, 2010 ; Trepte et al., 2009 ; Vasalou & Joinson, 2009 ). Additionally, we found significant gender effects on avatar idealisation regarding conscientiousness and neuroticism. For conscientiousness, male participants idealised their avatar more strongly than female participants, whereas female participants idealised their avatars more than males concerning neuroticism. Our results align with Triberti et al. ( 2017 ) and Trepte et al. ( 2009 ), who also found gender effects on avatar design, and underline the importance of considering differential effects when investigating avatar creation.

Last, we hypothesised that the personality traits of the avatar would vary more than those of the actual self and the ideal self. At the level of the whole sample, the results only partly support this expectation. The variance in the avatar’s personality traits in terms of the Big Five was larger than the variance in trait scores attributed to the ideal self, except for agreeableness. Contrary to our expectation, however, the variance in the avatar’s personality scores was mainly lower than the variance found for the actual self, with the exception of openness. Thus, the comparison of variances could shed new light on the strategies of avatar creation, underlining the potential benefits of this analysis method.

Implications for research and practice

In general, our results regarding the idealisation of the avatar’s personality traits are in line with impression management theory (Mummendey, 1995 ), self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987 ), and idealised virtual identity hypothesis (Manago et al., 2008 ), according to which people tend to present themselves as positively as possible. This tendency also seems to be remarkably robust across different activity contexts for which the avatar is created. In this sense, our results also replicated previous research stating that personality traits are mainly actualised or idealised (Sibilla & Mancini, 2018 ; Ducheneaut et al., 2009 ; Bessière et al., 2007 ). Our relatively robust results on avatar idealisation support the assumption that people create avatars with the intention of minimizing their self-discrepancy (cf. Bessière et al., 2007 ). In practice, it remains to be shown whether the overreporting of positive personality characteristics leads to far-reaching consequences in the respective activity context. On the one hand, research regarding avatar creation in video games found short-term positive effects via reduction of self-discrepancy by identifying with the avatar and by adopting its desired characteristics during gameplay (Klimmt et al., 2009 ). On the other hand, previous studies could show that the identification with and the use of an excessively idealised avatar can be related to low self-esteem and game addiction (Lemenager et al., 2020 ), depression and depressive symptoms (You et al., 2017 ; Bessière et al., 2007 ), and internet gaming disorder (T’ng & Pau, 2020 ). Furthermore, gaming disorder is linked to negative self-concepts, which might be compensated through the excessive use of and identification with an idealised avatar (Lemenager et al., 2020 ). These relationships between low self-esteem, self-discrepancy, identification with an idealised avatar, and excessive media use have mainly been studied in the context of video games and gaming disorder. The present results now also bring other contexts into focus such as dating platforms and social networking sites. In this context, Brunskill ( 2013 ) already highlighted the effects of avatars and their idealisation on social media on users’ psychopathology. Furthermore, idealised avatars on social media could negatively affect upward social comparisons by providing unrealistic comparative images. Social comparisons can negatively affect self-image and mental health, as previous research has already shown (e.g., Robinson et al., 2019 ; Fardouly et al., 2015 ). Some work also stressed the negative effect of idealised avatars on body image and body satisfaction (Park, 2018 ; Cacioli & Mussap, 2014 ). Consequently, further research on the impact of creating and using idealised avatars on users’ mental health in digital contexts other than gaming is generally essential.

Interestingly, avatars seem to be more idealised in gaming contexts than in dating or some social network contexts regarding the personality trait conscientiousness. This result exemplarily highlights the strategic properties in avatar creation. People can represent themselves as more idealised in more anonymous video gaming contexts, whereas in the contexts of dating or social networking, where personal contact outside the virtual world is more likely, a more balanced self-representation appears to be appropriate. On the one hand, this underlines that avatars can be idealised in video games more extensively, shifting the research focus to potential side effects on players’ well-being and mental health as well as potential transfer effects from the online to the offline world (cf. Kaspar, 2017 ). On the other hand, it becomes clear that findings about the extent of avatar idealisation in one activity context cannot simply be generalised to other contexts. In general, however, we found that participants portrayed idealised personality traits via the avatar, supporting the virtual identity hypothesis (Manago et al., 2008 ). In contrast, most participants portrayed their actual physical and demographic characteristics via the avatar, supporting the extended real-life hypothesis (Back et al., 2010 ). Hence, avatar creation seems to be highly variable across online activity contexts and it strongly depends on the type of avatar characteristics.

Regarding the found effects of the participant’s gender on avatar idealisation, we can only speculate why men idealised their avatars in terms of conscientiousness and women idealised their avatars in terms of neuroticism more compared to the respective opposite gender. This finding may be related to different motives of men and women for using internet-based communication environments. Previous research has shown that men tend to be more task- and achievement-oriented in social media and video games, while women tend to use the internet for relationship-oriented goals instead (Guadagno et al., 2011 ; Williams et al., 2009 ). Since conscientiousness is positively related to task performance (Bakker et al., 2012 ) and neuroticism is negatively related to relationship commitment (Kurdek, 1997 ), the respective idealisation of these personality traits might reflect different communication goals of men and women. This result opens exciting perspectives for future research on the different goal-oriented aspects of avatar usage in virtual environments.

Last, the analysis of dispersion measures, which has rarely been done, suggest interesting implications. The lower variance in avatar’s personality scores compared to those of the actual self pinpoints that users do not fully explore all possibilities of avatar creation across online activity contexts. Instead, users all seem to have a relatively similar idea of what a suitable avatar for self-representation should look like. This could be based on social ideas that do not reflect the variance in the actual selves. At the same time, however, we observed more variance in the avatar’s personality traits compared to the ideal self. Although our results suggest a general idealisation of avatars, some traits are allowed to vary more than others and are somewhat closer to the ideal self. As some previous studies indicated (Vasalou & Joinson, 2009 ; Vasalou et al., 2008 ), this could present a partly balanced and strategic representation of users’ own personalities through avatars. Remarkably, variances in the avatar’s and the actual self’s personality traits did not differ significantly in most cases when analysing individual activity contexts, which was paralleled by a decrease of sample size and consequently test power. If they did differ significantly, the variance in the avatar was always smaller than the variance in the actual self. In contrast, the variance in the avatar’s personality traits was larger than the variance in the ideal self’s personality traits in most activity contexts. Interestingly, the activity contexts differed in which of the avatar’s personality traits varied more and which varied less. This could indicate that, depending on the activity context and the associated purpose of avatar creation, there is a more or less shared understanding of the permissible scope for avatar design. From a practical point of view, these results provide preliminary information for digital media developers. Examining the variances in avatar creation can give developers a sense of the scope of possible avatar characteristics that a video game or social networking site has to offer to be inclusive. This study is only a first step in this direction, in any case. Future research should investigate what other features of an avatar, including those specific to the platform, should be customisable and to what extent.

Strengths and limitations

This study has a number of strengths and innovations: First, we studied the creation of avatars in a wide range of different online contexts. To our knowledge, such a wide range has not been realised before. Second, by comparing the variances between the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self, we used a statistical approach that is novel in the field. This approach has provided new insights and a deeper understanding of avatar creation strategies. Third, we obtained a large sample with a reasonably high test power to determine the existence of relevant effects. Finally, although we could not consider all potential characteristics of an avatar in our study, we captured both key physical/demographic and psychological variables, whereas previous studies have often focused on one of the two dimensions.

In terms of limitations, we asked about hypothetical avatar creation for different activity contexts via vignettes. Most previous studies of avatar creation used avatars created for a specific situation (e.g., for specific video games, cf. Trepte & Reinecke, 2010 ), allowing participants to see their avatar and interact with them in the specific activity context. So, seeing how the avatar is built could influence the physical characteristics attributed to the avatar, just as the possibility of interacting with the avatar could influence the evaluation of the psychological variables. It has been shown that, for example, the style of visualisation (Yoon et al., 2019 ) and the visual similarity of the avatar with the user (Mansour et al., 2006 ) can have effects on behaviour in and perception of social interactions in collaborative digital environments. Schuurink & Toet ( 2010 ) also found that acting with an avatar in a third-person perspective in which the avatar is visible (versus first-person perspective from the avatar’s point of view) has positive effects on engagement and viewing strategies in digital environments. Therefore, the visualisation of avatars can impact people’s behaviour and perceptions in digital environments. However, since our study had a strong focus on the psychological characteristics of avatars, the lack of visualisation may have had only a minor influence on the corresponding results. The effect of (non-)visualisation on physiological and demographic characteristics may be more pronounced. Indeed, we would argue that the hypothesised engagement with an avatar’s personality traits realised here was an ideal first step, as a concrete form of visualisation could severely limit the generalizability of trait attribution.

Furthermore, we did not track actual behaviour in the different activity contexts. In fact, actions via an avatar can influence real-life behaviour and behaviour change (Yoon & Vargas, 2014 ; Yee & Bailenson 2007 ). It would be interesting to investigate whether and to what extent avatar idealisation and differences in avatar idealisation across activity contexts are associated with concrete behaviour and how the users’ personality traits are manifested in their behaviour in the digital environments. For example, video games such as Little Big Planet (Media Molecule, 2008 ) already allow different facial expressions and gestures by pressing a button and tilting the joystick. So, different levels of the Big Five could be represented by the avatar’s non-verbal behaviour, which the real person could control. Of course, the possibilities also depend on technological progress. It is generally possible to track avatar and user behaviour in digital environments. For example, a high level of extraversion in an online dating context could be related to the frequency of initiating contacts, or a high level of openness could be related to the amount and type of personal information one discloses in specific digital environments. There is also the option to use virtual reality headsets, special suits, and cameras to directly map users’ gestures and facial expressions onto avatars. It is already feasible to study users’ behaviour in the digital context and its relationships to their personality profiles based on nonverbal behaviour, text- and audio-based conversation protocols, and via analyses of avatar-avatar-interactions within virtual environments.

Although we covered the most common avatar characteristics, others may still be idealised to a different extent or would be even more appropriate for identity play. Video games provide extensive opportunities to specify even more specific details in the avatar’s appearance (e.g., tattoos), ethnicity, abilities, skills, status (e.g., feared or famous), and even species (human and non-human). Other extensive options might be more motivating for trying different identities than the characteristics examined in the present study, which would lead to a higher variance in avatars than that found here. The study of such extensive possibilities would be fascinating in other contexts.

General conclusion

All in all, we have begun to fill a major empirical gap with the present study. With the emergence and discussion of the avatar-based Metaverse, avatar creation will become an increasingly important topic in the context of diverse virtual environments that focus on tools for self-representation. In this context, we found a strong tendency to create avatars with an idealised personality. We also found significant differences in the extent of idealisation between online activity contexts. This and differences in avatar variances across contexts also point to strategic properties of avatar creation and the role of social norms. Furthermore, there were gender effects on the idealisation of the avatar’s conscientiousness and neuroticism, highlighting the relevance of differential effects on avatar creation. Moreover, the demographic and physical characteristics of the avatar, the actual self, and the ideal self showed high congruence. Thus, the strategies of avatar creation also seem to differ between the characteristics to be assigned. Hence, this study helps to understand basic strategies behind avatar creation in different contexts and provides a fruitful basis for future research and practice, particularly research on potential problems with self-image and excessive media use as well as practical implications for developers and designers of virtual worlds.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study, as well as the used materials, are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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36 Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)

Restoring Honor to the Avatar: an Appreciation of Representation in Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)

By Haley Daarstad

Avatar: The Last Airbender ​is an animated children’s show that has totaled three seasons and a sequel series, and defined a whole generation of animation for children. Produced by the studio Nickelodeon and running between the years 2005 to 2008, ​ Avatar: The Last Airbender won a total of five awards for its soundtrack, humor, themes, art direction, characters, and cultural references. These awards include a Primetime Emmy Award, Kids Choice Award, Annie Awards, a Genesis Award, and a Peabody Award (Wikipedia). To this day, critics and audiences still consider it one of the best-animated television shows of all time. The show was a masterpiece with representation of Asian culture, strong female characters, and people with disabilities. Through the devastations of war, the story of ​Avatar: The Last Airbender​provided representation in ways still felt in 2020 with its addition to Netflix. Built upon the themes of love, duty, redemption, and honor, ​ Avatar: The Last Airbender revolutionized what children’s television could be, and few shows have been able to capture what it was able to do.

The series takes place in a fictional world with four nations that are defined by the four elements: The Water tribes, The Earth Kingdom, The Fire Nation, and The Air Nomads. In this world, certain people hold the ability to control the elements and are called “benders”. One person holds the ability to control all four, the Avatar. There can only be one Avatar and are the connection between the real world and the spirit world “reincarnated” into a cycle between the nations. The cycle follows the seasons of which the first avatar learned to master the elements: fire, air, water, and earth. A hundred years before the series begins, the leader of the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Sozin, begins a war to conquer the three other nations and rebuild the world in the vision of the Fire Nation. However, during the beginning of the war, the avatar at the time, Roku, disappears. After his disappearance, the Fire Nations hoping to break the Avatar cycle, committee genocide against the air nomads. A 100 years later, Katara, a Southern Water Tribe waterbender, and her older brother, Sokka, discover Aang the new avatar dormant within an iceberg at the South pole with his air Bison, Appa. From there the three of them begin their journey to help Aang master all four elements, stop the fire lord and bring peace, while being tracked down by the exiled son of the current fire lord, Zuko, to return his honor and reclaim the throne. ​Avatar: The Last Airbender​was a children’s animation show that dealt with deep and traumatizing themes, like genocide, but the most lasting impact is its representation of Asian cultures, people with disabilities, and feminist ideals.

Book 1: Asian American Representation

The genre of ​Animation has been a central tool in redefining Asian images in film and television in terms of representation (Keramitas, 50). ​ Avatar: The Last Airbender is based in a fictional world influenced by Asian cultures and the creators put the work in to make sure it was done correctly. What made the series so compelling was the care taken to develop the characters and the world around them. The series is considered to be a series that will be solidified in Asian American history for its blending of the Eastern and Western cultures. The author of the comic series of Avatar, Gene Luen Yang, stated that the creators must have done their research because it is rare to have a show so nuanced and well-constructed represent Asian culture as well as it did (Costa). Representation on television matters because it affects what is known as cultural citizenship, according to Lori Kido Lopez. Cultural Citizenship is the feeling of how much a group belongs to the common understanding of ‘American’ and if their own cultural identities and practices are respected by those within this larger society (DuCros). Within contemporary film and Television, Asian American actors tend to only be cast within supporting or stereotypical roles with a pressure to conform to American ideals.

A current pressing issue is the use of white voice actors playing non-white characters. It is important to note that the series creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender ​,​Michael Dante DiMartino​, and ​Bryan ​Konietzko, are white and that 14 out of the 17 voice actors were white as well, even though the show was based upon Asian cultures and characters (Costa). Avatar: The Last Airbender ​was not perfect, as seen by issues such as above, however, to make sure that the show didn’t disrespect any Asian culture and treated everything in a sensitive matter they hired Edwin Zane who was the then VP of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans to consult on the show (Watson). ​DiMartino and Konietzko, the creators, did their research on the world, clothing, food, architecture, and customs to successfully achieve what Avatar: The Last Airbender ​did.

Avatar: The Last Airbender ’s ​nuanced​​ blend of Eastern Asian cultures into the show, is seen through its visual and literary design, such as the design of the four nations. The Northern and Southern water tribes are similar to that of the Inuit-Yupik culture scene in the design of clothing and food and have some aspects of Chinese culture within their architecture ​(Avatar Wiki)​. The Earth Kingdom’s architecture is also very similar to that found within the Ming and Qing dynasties of China, within the buildings such as Ba Sing Se looking like that of the Forbidden City in China. Even the king of the earth kingdom wore clothing similar to that of the last Chinese Emperor in the Qing Dynasty ​(Avatar Wiki)​.

The Air Nomads are heavily based upon Tibet and Hindu culture, which is seen through the design of clothing and spiritual culture ​(Avatar Wiki). ​The Fire Nation holds a lot of similarities to that of Japan, seen through its emphasis on family honor and shame as well as the symbolism of the sun: firebenders obtain their bending from the sun, and the idea of honor ​(Avatar [Avatar Wiki])​. The whole world of ​Avatar: The Last Airbender​is the blend of Asian cultures to create this fictional world that allows audiences to construct a diegetic world which is an apparition of East Asian culture. In the end, Avatar: The Last Airbender ​was a show that created a world all on its own, but also was a show built to show cultural appreciation to that of Asian culture.

Book 2: The Power of Toph

Avatar didn’t just provide a representation of Asian American culture, but a representation of those who have (dis)abilities and illustrated the power of people who have disabilities. Within prime time television in 2018-2019 only 2.1 percent of characters have a disability even though according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 and 4 adults have a disability (Ruiz-Grossman). People with disabilities, especially visible disabilities are shown in a positive and powerful light, such as Toph. Toph Beifong has been blind since birth and was born within a wealthy family. She is also an earthbender, who learned earthbending from the first earthbenders, badgermoles (who are blind), and uses her ability of earth bending to see with her feet. Toph is one of the toughest, most powerful, and strongest characters on the show, however,  she was constantly treated differently because of being blind by her parents. She was thought that she was fragile and had to be dependent on others because of this disability. Although, as she began to learn earthbending, she learned more about herself and she began to realize that she was strong and could be independent.

Toph is a dynamic character, who goes from her parents’ views of fragile to a powerful earthbending master. While she is blind she doesn’t let her blindness define her or let her be treated as weaker. The word disability, with ‘dis’ attached to ‘ability’ creates an “immediate hierarchy constructed by this line of thinking — some people are ‘above normal’ while others are ‘below,’ terms that tend to suggest class standing” (Benshoff and Griffin). For Toph, she doesn’t let people believe that people are above her just because she is blind. She fights and is strong. The flashbacks of Toph and her learning to earthbend with the badger moles to her entering into underground earthbending tournaments illustrates her strength and her lack of fragility that has been placed upon her by her parents. She entered under the name the Blind Bandit and was a champion multiple times of those tournaments. Toph became the first earthbender to discover the subset of earthbending, metalbending, as well.  The show didn’t write Toph as an innocent and fragile character, they wrote her as a strong independent female character who didn’t let her blindness define her.

Book 3: Strong Female Warriors against Discrimination

Along with its Asian influence and depiction of people who have disabilities, Avatar: The Last Airbender ’s ​female cast was full of strong independent warriors who fought to show their ability as fighters and leaders in the war. This is important because around 90% of women in the world believe that having a strong female role model within the film and/or television is important in a study done by the J. Walter Thompson’s Female Tribes project (Female Characters in Film). Media images affect people’s perceptions, of the people, survey in that study 61% stated that a female role model within the film and/or television had an influence on their life, and another 58% said that it helped them become more assertive and ambitious (Female Characters in Film). ​Avatar: The Last Airbender ​provided a variety of strong female characters, from past Avatars to a band of non-bending female warriors that protect a whole island. Within the main protagonists, there are two main female characters, Toph and Katara. Katara is considered the last water bender of the southern water tribe, so she had no mentor to teach her. It’s her goal to travel with Aang to the Northern Water Tribe to learn water bending. However, when they get there she is met with scrutiny and sexism by the water benders of the Northern Tribe, females are only taught healing not to fight. After trying to secretly learn through Aang and the master waterbender finding out and refusing to teach Aang further, she decides to challenge him in a fight after refusing to apologize for her actions. Katara standing up and fighting against the elder male in this episode goes against the patriarchal ideals seen in early film and television and illustrates a strong female character speaking up against an oppressive tradition.

Early film and television tended to illustrate women as submission and beautiful people, that are not warriors and needed men to protect them. By showing the scene of Katara standing up to the elder challenging these traditional roles, symbolized this strong female character that fights for her rights. The camera shot of Katara standing there in front of the Northern Water Tribe Leaders, stating that if she wins, the master has to teach her waterbending. While she doesn’t win in the end, he still agrees to teach her after realizing how the costumes of the Northern Water Tribe have been detrimental. Katara’s strength and tenacity to challenge the status quo resulted in her being able to become a master waterbender, and later in the series learning the second subset of water bending besides healing, bloodbending. The series depicts her as a strong female character that fights for respect and her spot as a leader. Female characters on the show continually have to fight and prove their worth as warriors in the war. However, each fight results in another person changing in their views of females within that world. The depiction of female characters who never stop fighting for their rights is needed in a world that has shown to make sexist and misogynistic comments about women. Avatar: The Last Airbender ​showed strong female characters fighting against discrimination within their world, which studies have shown shaped people’s perspectives and provided strong female role models for children.

Revolutionizing Children’s Television

T​he world of Avatar captivated audiences and continues to captivate audiences today as it tells the story of a young boy trying to save the world. The creators of Avatar developed a show that respectfully appreciated east Asian cultures by blending eastern Asian influences into the fictional world. Its blend of Asian cultures was substantial because it became a show known for its Asian American representation. Furthermore, it showed people with disabilities as people who are strong, independent, and capable people. The strong female cast who also fought against discrimination throughout the series spoke up and fought for their ability and leadership. The representation of these things is essential, and providing them for children is significant. Representation on television is vital because it impacts how much people feel connected within the larger culture, their perception so people, and provides them with role models to look up to. As a children’s television show, this has a significant impact because it shows children that are young that they are represented and are powerful, strong, and capable no matter what stands in their path. DiMartino and Nonietzko’s work on ​Avatar: The Last Airbender ​provided them with five awards and continues to influence new generations, and few shows have been able to replicate the vision, themes, and characters that this show provided.

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Difference, Power, and Discrimination in Film and Media: Student Essays Copyright © by Students at Linn-Benton Community College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Understanding Culture Through "Avatar: The Last Airbender"

As society approaches an era of total globalization and interconnectivity, the degree to which different cultures encounter others’ ideologies is ever increasing. Thus, it is important for us, as citizens of the world, to embrace and understand the ideologies from other cultures in a constructive and encouraging environment—it is through cultural awareness that we can broaden our perspectives. With contemporary media being so impactful to the members of society, it makes sense that the expression of ideology in media can have direct influences over our experience with others’ cultures.

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Zişan Cihangir Işın

Avatar: The Last Airbender is an Emmy award-winning American animated television series that aired for three seasons from 2005 to 2008. Avatar is based on a culturally Asian-influenced world of elemental manipulation, called bending, and martial arts. Both Western and Asian cultures have a massive influence on the show. Millions of fans of all ages around the world consider Avatar “more than just a kid show”. The series goes around the protagonist Avatar Aang and his friends who must bring peace back to the world, and end the war that has been going on for hundred years by defeating the imperial Fire Nation and the Fire Lord Ozai, who is the main antagonist of the show. The World of Avatar is divided into four nations: Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, and the Air Nomads. Each nation has unique cultures, social worlds, and theological beliefs. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze Avatar: The Last Airbender show from social, cultural, and theological perspectives both in-show and with real-life equivalents. Topics analyzed with cultural perspectives are the real-life cultural representations of the nations in the World of Avatar, architectural differences, and unique cuisines of all the nations. The social details in the World of Avatar are analyzed through the education, government, and politics of each of the four nations. The most trending issue concerning the show is the theological details. This thesis dives deep into the Islamic, Christian, and Judaist similarities, in-show spiritual beliefs, real equivalents, and the Buddhist philosophy effects.

International Res Jour Managt Socio Human

The 19th century has seen the emergence of a new genre in literature in the form of science-fiction with philosophical undertones. Space-oriented sci-fi has always attempted to prophesize conflict between mankind and extra terrestrial race, be it in War of the Worlds in the 19th century, Foundation in 20th or the Oscar winning movie Avatar in the 21st century. Today, with science and technology regulating every sphere of life, man realizes the need to save humanity from the murderous clutches of scientific advancements. The same need to save humanity is visible in Avatar when the inhabitants of Earth go to colonise the world of Pandora (for materialistic gains just as Britishers came to India) but, instead, are awed by the spiritual superiority of Pandorans and their harmony with nature.

Tim Gruenewald

From 2005 to 2008, three seasons of the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender were first broadcast on Nickelodeon. Although the show premiered on a children’s channel, its reach extended far beyond that demographic. It became a global hit and spawned a vast fandom in the United States and beyond. Among the fans were graphic novelists Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim. This chapter analyzes Yang's adaptation of the Avatar franchize to the graphic novel with a particular focus on the fan activism (including Yang's) in protest of Hollywood's adaptation Airbender (2010).

Ansor Putra

This research investigated Avatar movie by James Cameron to show the symbolic expresses of white supremacy towards Native American. Theory of hegemony by Gramsci is used as the tool of analysis. This research used qualitative research method. The result of the study shows that there are two ways of supremacy in Avatar movie, domination and intellectual and moral leadership. The domination leadership was carried out by Europeanthat is represented by military department while intellectual and moral leadership or hegemony was carried out by European in scientific department that is represented Jake, Grace, Norm and Dr. Max Petel. European carry out hegemony and domination to Native American who become the subordinate class. The purpose of European in doing hegemony and domination is based on the desire to take on the natural wealth in Pandora. In carrying out the hegemony, the scientist department opposes the European and defends the Native American, this process is called opposition. ...

Integral Cinematic Arts Journal

Mark Allan Kaplan

An exploration of the Co-Evolutionary relationship of consciousness, cultural worldviews and societal structures and how it is reflected in "Avatar."

Thomas Van Hoey

Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) and Avatar: Legend of Korra (LOK) have made a considerable impact since they have been released, more than a decade ago. One of the most fascinating elements is the world in which the story is set—it integrates both low-level elements from various Eastern as well as Western cultures. In this intertextual tapestry a huge correlative network is identified, which rests on the conceptual blending of PEOPLE and NATURE, similar to correlative networks in Chinese five-elemental theory and Western humourism. Similar cognitive blending processes are then identified for the hybrid animals in the series. A third example is the blending of modern elements into the previously established world of ATLA during LOK. These underlying blends and low-level intertextual blends are greatly responsible for the success of both series.

Vesna Madzoski

key words: "Avatar", (miss)use of anthropology; disciplinary cannibalism; otherness in contemporary Hollywood films; mimesis"

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Art Studies: Science, Experience, Education (ICASSEE 2019)

Violetta Evallyo

Avatar is the phenomenon, which in its essence is the "representative" of the user the virtual environment. The avatar phenomenon contains the duality of its perception and its role in the sociocultural space. This ambivalence is clearly manifests in the positioning of the avatar in the visual arts and its “real” life in a virtual environment. In this article an attempt to understand the term "avatar" are taken. The historical insight allowed to outline the evolution of discourse and to draw conclusions about the fundamental difference between understanding the avatar features in the visual arts and in the sociocultural space. It was concluded that in a broad sense, an avatar realizes the need to “editting” the user's identity in the network and creates the illusion of superhuman, divine possibilities of influencing a character on a virtual network.

Martin Lepage, PhD

In 2005, the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) attracted the attention of a very wide audience. In 2012, its sequel, The Legend of Korra (TLOK) invited growing audiences to follow an increasingly complex story, from Aang to Korra, two consecutive incarnations of the Avatar, a spiritual leader who can “bend” of all four elements. Whereas Aang’s quest is quite clear, Korra’s journey is much more taxing. In fact, a major part of Korra's struggles is concerned with matters of identity, freedom, social justice and power. But how exactly does representation of these issues evolve from one show to another? Through a queer analytical lens, this chapter explores the many ways in which TLOK’s narrative delves deeper than ATLA’s into matters of life changes, healing, power and negotiation with cultural norms and traditions. More precisely, it looks at the many loci of normativity around each incarnation of the Avatar, and shows how the central characters of ATLA and TLOK depict transformations in terms of growth and struggle towards notions of power, healing and negotiating with trauma.

Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Naamleela F Jones

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