Secondary Characters

Continue after the Jump....

The Art of Avatar

Here are some of my favorite pictuers from behind-the-scenes art and the creation of Avatar.
Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

click thumbnails for larger images.

continue after the Jump....

Jake & Neytiri

Neytiri 
Omaticaya Clan
Mate    Jake Sully
Banshee     Seze†
Occupation    Tsahik

Family Members   

    * Jake Sully (mate)
    * Eytukan (father)†
    * Mo'at (mother)
    * Sylwanin (sister)†
    * Tom Sully (brother in law)†

Neytiri Dis'kahan Mo'at'itey (known only as Neytiri) is a Na'vi, princess of the Omaticaya Clan. She is the daughter of Eytukan and Mo'at. She will be the future tsahik of the tribe, with her mate Jake Sully becoming the Olo'eyktan (leader).

Early Life

Neytiri is born as Neytiri Dis'kahan Mo'at'itey, which means daughter of Mo'at and Eytukan. As her name tells us, she is the daughter of the Omaticaya's Clan leaders, Eytukan and Mo'at. She grows up learning through songs, as all Na'vi do, learning to love and celebrate their connection with Eywa.

She learns English from Grace Augustine's school, but it is closed down when relations between the Humans and the Na'vi become hostile. Her English is broken, and she speaks with a thick Na'vi accent.

Jake and Neytiri

Neytiri and Jake's relationship starts as a mentor and her student when Neytiri is tasked to instruct Jake in the ways of the Omaticaya. As time passes they grow closer to one another and a mutual attraction grows between them. After Jake bonds with one of the Ikran of the Hallelujah Mountains, and so finishes the final test to become one of the Omaticaya people, their relationship reaches a new level. After the night of Jake's ceremony of acceptance the two go off together to a grove of trees called the Tree of Voices where they both choose each other as life mates, and mate before Eywa. This seals their relationship for the remainder of their lives, according to the Na'vi way. During the events leading up to the final battle with RDA forces, their relationship grows tense, as Neytiri believes Jake to be a traitor and rejects him from the clan, saying he "would never be one of the people" . After Jake proves his strong connection to Eywa by becoming Toruk Makto, Neytiri accepts, loves and sees him once more. Neytiri displays her love for Jake by saving his avatar's life from an enraged Tsu'Tey and also his human body from Quaritch by not only killing the colonel but also by placing an oxygen mask on Jake's human body after he nearly suffocates in Pandora's atmosphere. They now remain together and lead the Omaticaya people.



Tsu'Tey

Neytiri and Tsu'Tey are intended to be a mated pair and rule the Omaticaya people together. The two grew up and learned together, but it is implied that Neytiri does not love Tsu'Tey as she later chooses Jake Sully as her mate. After Jake and Neytiri mate, Tsu'Tey attempts to kill Jake for stealing Neytiri away from him. Neytiri defends Jake's unconscious Avatar after he is disconnected by Quaritch. Tsu'Tey is killed in the final battle against the RDA.

Behind the Scenes

* Neytiri was originally named "Zuleika Te Kaha Polenoma" in Cameron's first concept.
* In the script, she is named "Neytiri te Ckaha Mo'at’ite".[1]
* Neytiri is stated to be roughly 18 human years old.[2]
* It is stated in the script that Neytiri is pregnant with Jake's child at the end of the film but was taken out in the final release, or was simply filmed, but deleted from the final film.

Jake Sully

Occupation   

    * Clan Leader (Olo'eyktan)
    * U.S. Marine (former)

Family Members   

    * Neytiri (mate)
    * Tom Sully (twin brother)†
    * Eytukan (father-in-law)†
    * Mo'at (mother-in-law)

Jake Sully, (born 2126), is a renegade Marine infantryman who defects to the Na'vi race. He is also one of the 20 known avatars and the sixth Toruk Makto.

Jake was part of the Avatar Program, in which humans remotely control Human/Na'vi hybrids to safely navigate the planet. He was originally assigned to gather intel that would help Colonel Quaritch discover a way to force the Na'vi to leave Hometree, or destroy it if necessary. The Na'vi occupation of Hometree was blocking the RDA's access to the very large deposit of Unobtanium, the entire reason for RDA's interest in Pandora, underneath the tree. After spending time with the Na'vi, Jake abandons his original mission and stops reporting to Quaritch. Jake learns the ways of the Na'vi hunters from Neytiri, and is eventually accepted into the Omaticaya clan. Soon after, he and Neytiri fall in love. Seeing that the Na'vi will not leave, the RDA stages its attack on Hometree, for which Jake seeks revenge. When everything seems lost to the Na'vi, Jake is able to attain Tsahaylu with a Great Leonopteryx, becoming the sixth Toruk Makto. He plays a key role in the final battle, leading the Na'vi against the RDA offensive. The Na'vi then perform a ceremony in which they ask Eywa to place Jake's mind into his Avatar body permanently.

Jake Sully was born and raised on Earth, and grew up hearing about Pandora, a small moon orbiting the gas giant Polyphemus. Though nothing is known of his childhood, he joined the Marines as an adult and suffered an injury in an unspecified war while fighting in Venezuela. This left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Since his veterans benefits are not enough to pay for the surgery to repair his legs, he has no choice but to live out his life in a wheelchair.  After a night of drinking, Jake starts a bar fight with a man who strikes a woman. After breaking up the fight, the bouncers throw him out into the street where he is approached by two RDA agents. After confirming his identity, the agents inform him that his identical twin brother, Tom, had been killed in a mugging.  His brother was one of the selected few scientists chosen to participate in the Avatar Program, and one of even fewer Avatar drivers. Tom trained on Earth for three years in preparation for a tour on Pandora. He represented a significant investment on the part of the Resources Development Administration due to the inherent link between the pilot and the Avatar he controls, as well as the enormous cost of creating an Avatar. Since Jake is genetically identical to his brother, he can link with the Avatar, saving the company the cost of creating a new one.  After being offered significant compensation, he apprehensively takes over his brother's contract and is put in cryosleep for the trip to Pandora.

Jake with Neytiri.

Jake first met Neytiri when she saved him from a pack of Viperwolves. At the time she was mad at him, since the Viperwolves would not have had to die if Jake had been more careful and quiet. When Jake asks why she saved him, she says it is because he has a strong heart, no fear. Initially demanding he leave, she decides to take him to the home tree after dozens of seeds from the sacred tree land on Jake signifying that Eywa has a purpose for him. Eytukan and Mo'at, the leaders of the clan and parents of Neytiri, decided to teach Jake their ways, choosing Neytiri as his tutor. As Neytiri taught him the Na'vi culture and language, their relationship grew. Their romantic relationship began to emerge after Jake is able to tame his own Ikran. That night, with Grace and Neytiri looking on, Jake undergoes the ceremony in which Eytukan declares him as one of their own, one of the People. Later, Neytiri tells Jake that he can choose his mate, and he chooses her. She in turn chooses him and they spend the night mating and are mated to one another for life.

When they return to the clan, Jake confesses to being ordered to spy on the Na'vi, and Neytiri is distraught. When the Hometree is destroyed, Neytiri is devastated, as her father, Eytukan, was killed in the battle. When Jake tries to comfort her she tells him to leave and never come back. But when Jake is able to tame a Great Leonopteryx, making him the sixth Toruk Makto, Neytiri is convinced of his loyalties and they fight together against the RDA forces. Neytiri saves Jake's life twice in the final fight with RDA forces. The first time she saves Jake's Avatar from Quaritch's AMP suit, and the second time she places an Exo-Pack on his human body, after the module he was in was breached by Quaritch. After Jake regains consciousness, Neytiri says "I see you", the traditional Na'vi greeting meaning "I see who you truly are". These words mark the true depth of their relationship with a new meaning due to Jake being in human form.

In a confirmed deleted scene, as evidenced by the above photo and the script, Jake finds a dying Tsu'Tey with Mo'at. Lyle Wainfleet cut his queue, he gives Jake the leadership of the clan, and has a final request for Jake, to let Toruk Makto be his last shadow, Jake unwillingly agrees, and ends Tsu'Tey's suffering.

• Jake Sully was originally named "Josh Sully" in Cameron's first concept.
• After waking from cryosleep aboard the ISV Venture Star, Jake's locker can be seen still labelled as "T. Sully"; it was originally assigned to Jake's dead twin brother Tom.
• Jake Sully is 22 Earth years old before he sets off for Pandora.
• Jake Sully's Avatar body is estimated to be 17 years old. It is, however, less than six years old, being grown during the ISV Venture Star's journey to Pandora.
• In the script, Neytiri becomes pregnant with Jake's child, however the idea was scrapped, or filmed but just not in the final cut.

Na'vi Culture

The Na'vi culture is deep, beautiful, and simple thing. Their lives focus on unity, simplicity, and a strong connection to nature. Here are some insights into the lives of the Na'vi and the Omaticaya as well as the tools and rituals that make up their lives.

more after the jump...

Bioluminescence

Bioluminescence is a way of living organisms to emit light. It is employed by nearly all Pandoran animals. Even the Na'vi have patterns of glowing dots that are unique to each individual. To avoid being detected by predators or pray, animals can damp down their own light. The RDA exploited it as another resource in the form of exotic jewelry and clothing.

Complete darkness is rare on Pandora. The large moon orbits a gas giant planet that in turn orbits a star with a stellar companion. Because of this unusual arrangement, most of Pandora's nights have some illumination; fully dark nights are few and far between. Thus, there was little evolutionary pressure on Pandoran fauna to develop night vision, echolocation, infrared sensors, or other methods of "seeing" in low-light conditions.

Some scientists theorize that nature found another way for Pandoran life forms to locate and identify one another. Bioluminescence, the production of "cold light" by living organisms, is employed by  almost all Pandoran animals and plants to display their shape and location in the absence of external illumination. Even the Na'vi have patterns of glowing dots, which, like fingerprints, are unique to each individual. Anemonoid line the dense forest floors and waterways, providing the most light in the night landscape.

Bioluminescent plants

Most of Pandora's flora and fauna emits only one single color, often green, blue, indigo, or violet. There are exceptions like the Warbonnet Fern. Its leaves are illuminated by a broad band of red near their stems and by an iridescent blue near their tips. On Pandora, there is also a bioluminescent moss that is touch-sensitive. It will send out rings of blue-green light as a reaction to footsteps.

Bioluminescence is an enzymatic reaction that produces so called cold light. This reaction raises the valence electrons in the molecules of an organic compound to an orbit of higher energy. While decaying to its original state the electrons emit photons of visible light. It is a highly efficient reaction as it converts nearly all energy into light.

The reaction can occur within the metabolism of the creature or within symbiotic organisms that live inside of specialized organs, receiving food and oxygen from their host, and producing light in return.

There are several ways in which light production can be controlled:

    * Limiting the availability of the involved chemicals
    * The reaction takes place in an organ that can be moved away from the surface
    * A translucent muscle carries the light from an internal organ to the surface by expansion and contraction
    * Covering of the light producing area with dark pigment cells (melanophores)
A dark membrane that can be drawn over the light producing area

The Na'vi People

The Na'vi are the only known species outside of Earth to have human-like intelligence. Although their society is essentially Neolithic, they have developed a vibrant, complex culture based on a profound spiritual connection to their moon, to one another, and to the deity they call Eywa. They are superb artisans who celebrate the interconnectedness of nature through storytelling, song, dance and crafts. 

The Na'vi are a race of sentient extraterrestrial humanoids who inhabit the lush jungle moon of Pandora. Humans are known to refer to them as "Blues," "Savages," "the locals" or "the natives." Parker Selfridge at one point in the movie refers to them as "blue monkeys."

more after the Jump!

Avatars

Under strong pressure from the UN, scientists and the general public, the RDA agreed to set up a program to enhance communications between humans and Na’vi. At first, this consisted solely of an Indigenous Terrain program to study Na’vi culture and language and to attempt to establish communication between man and Na’vi. Practical difficulties soon showed a need for a more profound means of communication between the human and Na’vi species.

RDA research had already established the possibility of direct mental communication between humans, and RDA scientist Dr. Cordell Lovecraft was given the task of carrying his “Dark Dreamer” project, which sought to transmit mental processes – “thoughts” – to humans at a distance, to interspecies communication.

Initial dissection of Na’vi specimens found that although Na’vi show a surprising degree of external convergent evolution, internally they are quite different from humans. The Na’vi brain in particular, with its external tendrils and three-lobed structure was a daunting obstacle.

Building on work with brain-wiped primates and condemned criminals, Dr. Lovecraft was able to demonstrate that full sensory bonding could be established between human twins, human-animal hybrids that shared common DNA, and eventually human-Na’vi hybrids with common genetic blueprints.

more after the Jump

The Na'vi Language

The language of the Na'vi is a hauntingly beautiful thing, constructed by master linguist Paul Frommer of USC.  He based it off of 30 or so character, place and creature names provided by Cameron and Co.  They had some Polynesian/Maori influence because of the time Cameron has spent in New Zealond and similar places. So Frommer used Polynesian roots, with some African, Native American and Latin influences, all mixed up with German sentence construction, where the verb comes last. Frommer's next step was to create a sound system, a palette of consonant and vowel sounds in various combinations that would be unique to the Na'vi. "It's not based on any particular human language," Frommer said, "as the Na'vi live light-years away from earth and are humanoids, not humans."

Klingon, the full-fledged language developed for the fictional warrior race in the Star Trek universe, explains Frommer, is currently the gold standard by which all constructed alien languages are compared. There's a Klingon dictionary and even Hamlet has been translated into Klingonese.

But while Klingon is rough-sounding, Frommer intended his language, which is spoken by the Na'vi, the humanoid race who live on Pandora, where the action of Avatar takes place, to be "musical and mellifluous."

Frommer began working with Cameron on the language in the summer of 2005, after representatives from Cameron's production company Lightstorm Entertainment, emailed USC's linguistics department, where Frommer received his Ph.D., about developing an alien language.

Linguistics professor Edward Finegan, with whom Frommer wrote Looking at Languages: A Workbook in Elementary Linguistics, passed the request on to Frommer, who ended up meeting with Cameron and landing the job. "It's probably the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me," Frommer said.

"From an acting standpoint, the hard part was speaking English with a Na'vi accent," says Cameron, "Zoe Saldana had the most lines, so we let her create the accent, and then everybody had to match her."

Well, I give Zoe major props, because Na'vi is not exactly an easy language to learn. But if you're interested, like I am, you definatley want to go to Learnnavi.org. There's all sorts of great downloads there that can help you. For kicks, I'm going to show a few sample phrases I got from the Na'vi pocketguide.

Hello, how are you?

Kaltxi  ngaru lu fpom srak?

(Greetings. You be well.being)

I apologize for this moron.

Fi-skxawng-iri tsapxalute si oe

(this moron. apology. make I)

My nose is full of his alien smell!

Oe-ri ta peya fahew a-kewong ontu teya lu

(Me. from his smell. alien nose. full be.)

Fun Trivia: Did you know, the Na'vi do not have a word for "lie." It is a completely alien concept to them. 

And here are some great pick up lines in Na'vi:

Oel ngati kameie. (I see you.)

Nga yawne lu oer. (I love you.)

Ke lu kawtu a nulnivew oe pohu tireapivängkxo äo Vitrautral.

(There's nobody I'd rather commune with under the Tree of Souls.)

If you want a swear word, though, you could say "Pxasìk." It means, "Screw it! No way!"

Nga za'u fìtseng pxìm srak? (Do you come here often?)

Well, OK, that's a little lame.

Better, maybe: Oeyä ikran slivu nga, tsakrr oeng 'awsiteng mivakto.

(Be my ikran and let's ride together.)

[Ed. note: Only if it's the third date. Ikran are giant beasts the Na'vi like to, um, ride.]

more after the Jump....

Why Are AVATAR Aliens Blue?

Why are the Na'vi blue? James Cameron answered the question in a recent interview saying he wanted there be an "otherness" to the love story between Sully's avatar and the native alien, Neytiri. Since skin color is "such a big issue on our planet," Cameron decided to use that issue as a thematic driving point. Other skin tones were already taken by humans, while green was already a cliché in other alien movies. "We had big blue women, not little green men," Cameron said. No word on why the Na'vi's skin sparkles, but you have to admit it is a cool effect. In the film, the Na'vi still have red blood. So they still have high-oxygen carrying rates in their hemoglobin-filled blood cells. It's just a pigment in their tissue that makes them blue. Also, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cameron mentioned another reason he chose blue, was that it is reminiscent of certain Hindu deities, which he likes conceptually.

Other interesting facts of about Na'vi and Avatar bodies are the noticeable differences. Avatars have smaller eyes and generally thinner lips than the Na'vi, and their necks aren't quite as long.
Na'vi have very large eyes and very full lips, and their necks are proportionately twice as long as humans. The Na'vi can also rotate their heads at an astonishing 180 degrees, like an owl can. Also, the Na'vi have a very distinct body shape. Aside from standing 10 feet tall, their bodies are long, and streamlined. They all have very narrow waists and hips (even the females), with broad shoulders and chests. The Na'vi have very high cheekbones and more rounded faces. Avatars tend to keep their human facial structure with slightly higher cheekbones. Also, the Avatars retain a small amount of facial hair - their eyebrows - whereas the Na'vi have none!  One more very important difference that everyone should take not of is the number of digits the Avatars and the Na'vi have. The Na'vi have four fingers and toes, but eh Avatars, with their human DNA have five.... Another interesting fact; ever notice those sparkly markings on their faces, like bio luminescent freckles? Well, these markings are unique to each individual. No two are alike. Hmmm, I wonder if the Na'vi can have identical twins?