"Avatar Has A White Savior Narrative" And What Do You Want People To Do About It? Genuinely, What Actions

"Avatar has a white savior narrative" And what do you want people to do about it? Genuinely, what actions do you want people to take? Would a boycott help indigenous people? Do you think the director would listen to what the public has to say now, when he already hasn't listened for 13 years?

Avatar is Baby's First Environmentalism, and sometimes that's just what privileged people (especially white people) need to get into the swing of things. It's by no means a perfect movie and you won't see me defending its director, ever. But it's one of the first movies to show ecological destruction on an emotional level, rather than a visual level. It's like how Ghibli tears are drawn much bigger and heavier than tears are in real life, to show how crying feels, rather than how crying looks. Not many people will understand just how devastating the destruction of Aboriginal birthing trees or O'odham sacred cacti is — but when the emotional pain is visualized as a tree the size of a skyscraper and home to hundreds of people, it resonates.

Avatar is flawed, and its creator even more so but at least it does something to people. It pushes privileged people to look around for ways to help, and to actually do something. The Na'vi language groups have had annual trash pick-ups since the first movie was released. The Avatar Podcast spends half its air time raising awareness for real life indigenous peoples in need of help. The fandom itself is mostly populated by autistic and other neurodivergent people who finally found a safe outlet to socialize and to help. How many other big budget Hollywood movies do that? Is Avatar really more flawed and harmful than other blockbusters, or are you just more aware of Avatar's flaws because it actually tries to do something?