Why the Na'vi Had the Worst Battle Strategy EVER!

So let’s set up the end of the James Cameron’s Avatar. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has betrayed the RDA Corporation and its private military force Blackwater… er, I mean Sec-Ops. He is instead choosing to stay in his “avatar” and live among the Na’vi (blue cat people) of Pandora. He even managed to convince Michelle Rodriguez (angry Latina character) to join him and in the process steal one of their gunships. Jake rallies the Na’vi to rise up and fight Giovanni Ribisi (playing essentially the same character Paul Reiser played in Aliens), his evil space corporation and Sec-Ops’ impending military strike led by the ruthless Colonel Miles Quaritch.

So the humans have a huge technological advantage with their guns and futuristic helicopter-like gunships. However, the blue cat people have what should be a much greater advantage… home field. You see, Pandora has air that is poisonous to humans; causing paralysis and death within minutes. Plus, the humans have spent most of their time hiding from the creatures of the moon planet (that is totally not Endor despite being populated by intelligent humanoids that look like animals). The humans really don’t know the forests or more importantly the relationship that the inhabitants of Pandora have with nature. Not only do the blue cat people have an intimate connection with the plants and animals (through a strangely sexual USB hook-up that grows out of their heads) but the Na’vi are 10 freakin’ feet tall and have strength corresponding to their size!

There is an additional advantage that the blue cat people have over the Sec-Ops. The humans are blinded by their own hubris, the idea that they can easily destroy the ‘savages’ of this world with their weapons and intelligence. This is what draws the soldiers marching out into the jungle practically single file, wearing flimsy oxygen masks and carrying assault rifles. (On a side note, how come as of late are so many science fiction stories depicting mankind as having never progressed past bullets? Terra Nova’s the same way. Seriously, we can master space and time but laser guns are too complicated?)

The only part of the Na’vi strategy with any intelligence is how they lure Sec-Ops’ air forces into the Hallelujah Mountains, a series of huge rock formations that defy gravity and float in the air. More importantly to the strategy, all radar and communications within the vicinity of these mountains become jammed. Hiding among those floating mountains is Michelle Rodriguez in the stolen ship, ready to strike.

So here is how an intelligent strategy would pan out. You station the Na’vi in four prongs. One group is positioned atop the floating mountains. Another group (including Jake Sully) are riding those pterodactyl-like Mountain Banshee things, joined by the angry Latina character in her stolen ship. The third and fourth are on the ground. The third prong would be hiding amidst the trees and rocks like guerrilla fighters, waiting for the foot soldiers. The final group is the cavalry, the blue cat people on those horse things.

As the Sec-Ops warships blindly fly between the floating mountains, the Na’vi on top start throwing rocks down onto them. A large rock to a Na’vi is like a frickin’ boulder to a human!  And since the warships are propeller powered like modern helicopters, these rocks would do some serious damage to the propellers, probably causing many to crash. Plus, the blue cat people only come into range of machine gunners long enough to chuck a big rock, thus keeping casualties low.

This is where the second prong comes in. The Na’vi riding the Mountain Banshees, just like in the movie, can hurl even larger boulders at the airships. Meanwhile, the angry Latina character would keep doing hit and runs to the Sec-Ops ships, darting out from behind mountains and then hiding before they can retaliate. This would be an important tactic as that stolen airship is the only piece of advanced technology on the side of the blue cat people, making it invaluable to the cause. After hurling their boulders, some of the Banshee riding Na’vi would leap on board the open bay doors of many of the airships (where much of the machine gunners are stationed) to personally take out any soldiers and possibly attempt to commandeer the ships. Anything to disrupt Sec-Ops’ battle plans.

The third prong would wait for the humans to approach on foot. Remember, these foot soldiers are practically walking single file, armed with an assault rifle and wearing a flimsy oxygen mask. The Na’vi could snipe them with arrows and spears from the jungle. They could also jump out and attack them head on with spears, clubs or just their bodies. Again, blue cat people are larger and stronger so one club swing could take out several humans at once. If nothing else, they could jump out from the brush and yank off the breathing masks.  

The Na’vi on those horse things can play back up to the third wave guerrillas to further disorient and separate the foot soldiers. They would also be useful in dealing with any soldiers in mechs (like the one Colonel Quaritch uses at the end of the movie). If the need arose, the cavalry could be sent in like columns to attack the humans on all sides. Obviously, ten foot tall blue cat people riding equivalent sized alien horse monsters is an easy target for an assault rifle, so I would try to keep them out of danger as long as possible, preferably until the humans have been left too scattered to regroup.  

So that’s a pretty sound strategy, right? You play up your own strengths, compensate for your weaknesses and try to match up a response for every move from Sec-Ops. But that’s not what happens, does it? No, as Futurama’s Captain Zapp Brannigan would put it “…I sent wave after wave of my own men at them…”  

There were no blue cat people throwing boulders from the mountains. Michelle Rodriguez chose to take on Col. Quaritch’s main ship directly, resulting in the loss of her life and the destruction of the only advanced technology on the side of the Na’vi. Only one Mountain Banshee rider jumped onto the open bay door of an airship, Tsu’tey. And while he fought valiantly and effectively took out several soldiers (proving to me the strategy would have worked in large numbers) he too was killed. There were no guerrilla tactics used on the ground. We didn’t even see desperate blue cat people yank off the human’s breathing masks to subject them to the poisonous air. The Na’vi instead openly charged at the armed soldiers in waves and as such were mowed down by machine gun fire. In the end, the only thing that saved the blue cat people’s furry blue asses were the animals of Pandora, in a weird Deus Ex Machina ending, attacking the weakened human forces in droves.

I blame Jake Sully for this. He assumed leadership of the tribe and convinced them to mount a defensive strategy, that turned out to be about as effective as a six year old playing chess. He was a soldier, right? Shouldn’t he have known something about planning an attack? I mean, he knew what Sec-Ops had at their disposal (their ships, guns and mechs). He knew what kind of man the Colonel was and could theorize possibilities for the man’s own strategy. And due to his long tenure as a blue cat impostor, he knew what they had to offer as well as the aspects of their terrain. Instead of take on the role of military leader with the seriousness and gravity it deserves, Jake Sully was too clouded by his desire to tap that fine blue cat ass of Neytiri when it was all over. (On a side note, I have a theory that part of Avatar’s popularity came from “furries” who kept repeatedly viewing the movie. They must have been so enamored; it was like 3D CGI porn to them. But I’m getting off subject.)

I’m no tactical genius. I’m an okay chess player and I’m decent at Risk. If the Na’vi’s terrible strategy was this obvious to me, then it should have rang some warning bells to the characters involved. You don’t become a proud warrior race, as they were portended to be, by allowing yourselves to be slaughtered en masse.

Of course, the true fault of this lies with James Cameron. Avatar was his baby. He had been working on the movie for twelve years before putting it into a screenplay. Obviously he wanted the battle to be heavily lopsided to set up the “miracle” ending of the animals (or Pandora itself) making the save. I get that he wanted some sci-fi twist to an environmental message while playing up the ideas of the technologically advanced Europeans annihilating the Native Americans. But Sitting Bull wasn’t ten feet tall! The Sioux didn’t live in a magical land of giant flying reptiles and floating mountains! If you create this kind of world for your characters to live in, you have to expect the characters to really understand their home. To have them behave and fight largely like the Native Americans of Earth (or at least the stereotypes thereof) makes absolutely no sense given the unique alien environment of Pandora. In the end, was it really the characters who made the stupid decisions or was it just bad writing?