pandorasboxoftreasures - Tumblr blog

pandorasboxoftreasures · 2 months

Text

The Emperor's New Clothes Are Broken

The pain of not being able to talk with anybody about Avatar anymore again offline because of the absolute toxic garbage show any search results for any character has become is horrendous.

I was told to just block creators. Like that would fix anything.

When I talk about the positive impact the self reflection on my past has made after watching TWOW and doing deeper character analysis and how many parallels they have with myself at various stages of my life in at least four of the main cast of characters, the curious listener will still go to look and witness chronically dehydrated hebephiles as the dominating fan voice.

I talk about going to see it and how excited I am for the next one and playing Frontiers and people's faces scrunch up in disgust now.

This wasn't the case a year ago. Now it is.

No amount of blocking I do will get rid of that.

I can't say I didn't expect it or warn about it. But there you go.

I'm still going to go through with my plan of doing cosplay this year. But I will be wearing a body cam. Innapropriate comments and actions will not be tolerated. And I sadly probably will get some.

#fandom #james camerons avatar #avatar movies #avatar frontiers of pandora #avatar 2009 #james cameron's avatar #avatar fandom #avatar the way of water #fandom nonsense #fandom bullshit #stop killing the fandom #jc avatar #avatar na'vi #na'vi avatar

5 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 3 months

Text

Yeah, it's actually insane just how The Way Of Water completely flipped the fandom on its head.

You got people saying "There's more people now, you should be glad."

But what kind of people are they? Ones that thirst over and explicitly ship, draw and write about visibly child characters (including Spider), won't accept any nuance, attack people for the characters they think are cool, don't want to learn any of the lore and will even say some of the same things as the haters like "just turn your brain off it's not that deep" and "it's just about the hot aliens".

Us in the old guard from a year and a half ago when we were all (or at least most of us) so chill and friendly and inclusive are still clinging on to debris for dear life in this tsunami of madness.

guys, I really don’t understand why Avatar fandom is so crazy? 🙃

you make edits with bad characters, and people go in the comments and start WRITING SOME SHIT, WISH DEATH TO THE CHARACTERS AND SOMETIMES TO YOU PERSONALLY AND TRY TO MAKE YOU LOOKING LIKE THE ASSHOLE ONLY BECAUSE YOU DARE TO MAKE CONTENT ABOUT THEM, ARE YOU OKEY?

I've been in many fandoms in my life, books/anime/shows/movies, whatever, BUT NO OTHER FANDOM HATED THE ANTOGONISTS SUCH HARD EXCEPT AVATAR FANDOM

any normal person understands that, firstly, THIS IS FICTION, GUYS, RELAX, secondly, the antagonists move the plot and are often more complex and deeper characters than the protagonists, and, thirdly, IF I LOVE THE CHARACTER IT DOESN'T MEAN I APPROVE THESE ACTIONS IN REAL LIFE.

I always have a clear line in my mind between reality and fiction and I don't shift the morality of fictional stories to the real world, okay?

sorry for this shitpost, just my edits with Zdinarsk and Quaritch got many views and as a present I got a huge amount of hate, these bitches just beat me till death in comments ☠️

#fandom bullshit #fandom nonsense #fandom culture #fandom things

33 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 3 months

Text

You Know That Thing I've Mentioned Before On Here? It's Back.

Finished watching the Omaticon Slang panel and after hearing him mention that in character and to get in character on set as 'Ritch he was going around giving other cast members historical military battle lessons...

Can somebody explain this to me neurotypically?

Now I can't unimagine a scene where the Recoms are all sitting casually in Bridgehead or on the spaceship and it's really quiet except for the ambiance and then suddenly a familiar voice pipes up...

"I ever tell you all 'bout the battle of the Trebia?"

And Lyle just growls in frustration because no, he hasn't been told, but he knows how long it's going to take because this is the sixth time since he got punched in the face that this has happened and he'd honestly rather just get hit with a lamp again.

#autistic headcanon #recom quaritch #na'vi quaritch #james camerons avatar #avatar the way of water #the way of water #avatar twow #jc avatar #avatar movies #miles quaritch #avatar 2009 #avatar quaritch #suspicious #neurodivergent headcanon #recom miles quaritch

4 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 4 months

Text

Real Talk For A Sec...

Don't get me wrong, I love seeing all the high quality artwork people make (that doesn't involve certain actions with certain characters and also particularly disturbing shippy stuff), but there's something I keep seeing in OC art that bugs me quite a bit. Because of the likely not intentional, yet if you think about it it's sort of awkward, aspects of it.

That being making Na'vi non-Avatar or Recom OC's look like Instagram models in terms of body proportions and makeup. Even when they're not supposed to be wearing makeup and clearly do not have the access to cosmetic procedures.

It gives the impression of applying Westernised Human beauty and body standards on them and it's really uncomfortable for me how common it is to see in fanart.

These characters don't look like Na'vi in their designs even through the filter of an individual artist's style. They have the skin colour and the stripes and the big eyes and the tails and the number of fingers but what else?

It's got the same feel under my skin as when I see somebody dressing up as a "Native American" on Halloween yet still dressed and wearing makeup to fit to Colonial American early 21st century standards of "sexy" with feather stuff on.

Depicting Native Na'vi like that is like making them into a costume in a similar way but obviously lessened because they're fictional peoples.

Na'vi are aesthetically interesting just as they are if you make them anatomically and culturally accurate. They don't need to be Westernised to hell to make them "pretty".

Not to say I'll rage at you for doing it or that it makes you a bad artist or a bad person for doing that, but it's disappointing not seeing enough Native Na'vi OCs that look like they grew up on Pandora as part of a clan there.

You can still get away with this (to a degree but still not that much) for Avatars and Recoms since they're culturally and physically more human (although why would the RDA bother), but why do it with Pandora-born Na'vi?

Your art is your art, but do you not see the problem here?

Maybe if you're dealing with a modern day or set in the future AU where the Na'vi have been culturally assimilated with humanity and so end up doing the same crap to themselves to the same standards we do, but if it's set during the time or world of the movies and games and comics? Why?

17 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 4 months

Text

Face stripes for forest Na'vi tutorial

Sooo my friend was struggling with na'vi stripes so I made this whole tutorial so you won't struggle anymore like he was! Excuse me for my english mistakes Let's start! Shape

Examples:

Arrangement

Examples:

Thickness and frequency

Summary!

Important! All the described rules are not axiomatic, and the structure of the stripes is very flexible and unpredictable. This tutorial isn’t intended to drive the authors of the OCs in the frame, but only to help those who have problems with this topic

Interesting Facts

Let's finish this short tutorial with a few facts about Na'vi stripes that you need to know:

- The pattern of stripes is independent of genetics. That is to say, nothing, not the shape, not the location, not the thickness, not the frequency is dependent on the parent. It's absolute randomness, just like fingerprints - The stripes don't have to be perfectly symmetrical - They can likely change with age as the skin renews itself, but not significantly (examples: Neytiri in the first and second movies; Kiri, who supposedly has stripes identical to Grace's but slightly different) - The type of stripes on the face aren’t entirely dependent on the stripes on the body. The face, for example, may have frequent stripes, while the body stripes are rare. (Should we expect a tutorial for body stripes?) - The rough type appears to be the most common, especially among male characters - The sharp type comes next, but is more common in females (from what I've noticed) - The watercolor type only appeared in The Way of Water, so we haven’t seen these characters in the first movie, however this type is also valid

Thanks for reading!

849 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 4 months

Text

I don't think it should be discounted what impact the cut discussion between Quaritch and Ardmore factors into this, too. It puts a lot more pressure on him to do more violent actions.

Because he doesn't want Spider to be sent back to Bridgehead and the scanner. You can see this when he looks over at Spider during the burning of the second village (Wainfleet too).

Quaritch going after Jake despite Ardmore's dismissal isn't just for getting back at him for the betrayal, or the Recoms lost in the forest. It's for Spider.

The RDA wouldn't need to scan him again if they have Jake (or at least "his Avatar"). Ardmore could listen to him a little bit better if he has a chance to prove himself to her after she's gradually become more impatient with him. Possibly organising a way of keeping Spider safe while he goes out on missions without him if he gets in her good books enough.

But Ardmore gives him a week and a whaling ship.

To Quaritch, that week is a ticking clock to keep Spider alive and safe. Finding and punishing Jake is a secondary motive.

And when he's got no time to play around being nice, he won't be.

ATWOW extended cut: When one’s heart is opened in the face of death (my thoughts)

.

Ok I held back long enough, I think we have to talk about the Socorro Quaritch moments the extended cut provided us, because I’m obsessed with them. The dynamic that the fandom made up turned out to be true, with Spider being enabled to do as he wants during his time with RDA and Quaritch not once scolding him for his behaviour or "putting him in his place". Captivity was undoubtedly a very stressing time for him, a very emotionally taxing one but it’s interesting to see how the chemistry between these two characters bloomed. The scene where Socorro and the recom squad moved through the forest has shown just how fond Miles is growing of the kid, to the point where he lets go of his toxic behaviours and creates and environment in which the boy feels safe enough to go as far as leading recoms into traps. Also, it’s insanely funny.

The second scene is the extended edition of the Tau’nui village raid, with more violence and more tension. I feel horrible for these poor Na’vi, and for Spider, who got a little more screen time and with that, the movie makes it abundantly clear that Quaritch only makes the decision to burn the village because Spider was begging him not to take a Na’vi life. Not that it wasn’t clear before but I saw some ppl argue that Miles just has a “kind heart” (he does not.)

And then the cherry on top, the stand-off. A scene that should logically have never been cut out because it provides large amounts of character depth to everyone involved, but we’ll finally talk in depth about Quaritch and how he changed Spider’s opinion on him in just one minute of runtime.

Miles lets go of his charade of “I don’t care about this random kid” and frees Kiri, but Neytiri does not let go of Spider, instead pulling a knife to his throat. The Sullies panic, trying to bring Neytiri out of her grief-ridden trance.

And Quaritch tries so too.

His breathing is laboured, his ears pinned back, he was panicking. He asked her, in disbelief, “You really gonna kill the kid Mrs.Sully?”, and then told her, “You’re a warrior. Your fight’s with me, not with the boy.”

And Spider heard all of it loud and clear. He saw that horrible man whom he spent months with let go of his last ticket to victory, and then try and reason with a woman who holds him at knifepoint. I’m gonna quote @/soccorism a little on this, but Miles basically asked Neytiri to re-direct her rage from Spider to him.

Miles asked her to hurt him instead.

And after all that, how could Spider possibly have left him dying?

Every horrific thing he did is not cancelled out by his fatherly behaviour, but Spider had no time to ponder on everything and put his feelings to the side on the bottom of the ocean. The woman he knew all his life almost killed him, and the man whom he spent months travelling Pandora with pleaded with her to let him go. It was a decision made in a fit of emption, in a fit of sentimentality for a monster who got so strongly attached to him, he threw his mission out the window to ensure that he gets to live.

This cut of the movie provides so much more tenderness to the tragic relationship of these two characters, and ties the arc of their growing bond into a nice bow. No longer do we have to rely on glimpses of raw emotion and facial expressions. We have definitive proof that Miles and Spider had a bond, and a very strong one, which made both of the characters go against their respective groups for the sake of each other, and in the end?

It’s just the two of them.

228 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 6 months

Text

Will they ever bring that up or will it make things too ick?

Spider: You call that speaking Na'vi? You sound like a 3 year old.

Quaritch (option 1): I'm 3 months old. That's a compliment.

Quaritch (option 2): Ain't that a coincidence. I AM a 3 year old.

#avatar the way of water #incorrect avatar quotes #the way of water #avatar twow #avatar movies #incorrect quotes #recom quaritch #na'vi quaritch #miles quaritch #james camerons avatar #spider socorro #spider avatar #avatar spider #jc avatar

54 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 6 months

Text

Imagine the drama!

Personally I think it would be really goddamn awesome (Highly unlikely in canon but used in an AU) if there was a mega twist that the Recoms’ Na’vi sources were the kids from Grace’s school.

You want those demons dead so badly, Neytiri?

What if one was Sylwanin’s son?

Contemplate that.

Why does he have her vibe...?

WHY DOES HE HAVE HER VIBE?!

GRANDSON FOR A GRANDSON FOR MO’AT!

9 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 7 months

Text

Yeah... I can do this, too. Wasn't happy just extracting and using vocals when I could probably do the accents more accurately myself.

Still working on it, but you know. Practice.

Little bit more to do for the singing pronunciations since I'm not from America. Rapping and speaking is a lot easier now. Near automatic.

Can't wait to show progress with other characters, too.

9 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 8 months

Text

He's so weirdly directly essential to the plot but he doesn't even speak and we don't see him die!

Why this poor baby, Jim?

WHY ALL THE POOR BABIES?!

Every. Single. Time.

*not my edit*

44 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 8 months

Text

Some of you never spent 13 years socially shunned for being open about your being an Avatar fan in public because of the mistaken belief that "only people that want to screw the giant furry aliens care", fighting against that awful stereotype to encourage detractors to give the franchise a fair chance and it shows.

I literally could not and can not get people to watch these movies because of that stain to this day.

21 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 8 months

Text

I need to add to this that sadly, Spider is not the only kid affected by this. Lo’ak is pushed further out of the family as the black sheep. A screw up. Can never do anything right. Spider and Lo’ak were actually closer with each other than Lo’ak and Neteyam before he was taken away. Both of them were the misfit kids that didn’t feel loved and could never do anything right.

I caught on about the 3rd watch or something that in the whole movie Neytiri only speaks to Lo’ak a small amount of times and ironically being the one to say “You are very hard on them...” she’s the one that’s the hardest on Lo’ak. She’s very forgiving and speaks gently with Neteyam even when he messes up.

In fact Lo’ak only gets treated slightly better when it’s both him and Neteyam together being spoken to.

So after Spider is taken, Lo’ak is even more isolated. Unable to do anything right and constantly berated. Thankfully he still has Neyteyam, Kiri and Tuk but he is still experiencing emotional neglect from their parents while the rest of his siblings don’t.

I can state with personal experience of this, it hurts like hell when your parents are constantly reassuring, comforting, supporting and giving affirming words to your sibling and other kids but completely withdrawing it from you when you need it. Using it as some sort of punishment. Hell, my parents did that to me as an adult and it still killed like hell.

“You’ve done enough” was like a goddamn dagger. Kid literally just saw his brother die, his sisters are still captured and could die, too. Blood is on his hands and he needed one comforting word, maybe even just a hand on the shoulder to acknowledge his pain and distress because time was still of the essence. Maybe even a “We’ll talk about this later.”

But nah. Jake had to go and say that straight to his crying son’s face. And he wasn’t even there to see or hear everything that happened but immediately went into “blame Lo’ak” mode. “I see you” is a step in the right direction, but it’s not an apology.

Spider and Lo’ak are both owed a LOT.

youtube

Spider's neglect and abuse in the movies is handled so poorly it should be criminal and that Neytiri and Jake shouldn't be judged on how they treated Spider is another dumb take but I don't think anyone's ready for that conversation yet.

(and also jake is not trustworthy is my take, do with that what you will)

192 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 8 months

Text

Well... OK, then. Gloves off.

Anyway... As I was responding and my full up to date post got ate:

Actually, I do have to make the counter Kinktober happen. Because blocking won’t fix the balance issues I stated before, will it. There will still be a heavy and growing skew towards NSFW content that will continue to make the fandom look unwelcoming to newcomers and difficult to discuss or share with people like it’s some sort of “guilty pleasure” when it’s not. And that’s at best. It could get way worse than that.

And I wasn’t hating on the prompt list. NSFW content has a place. But the issue is that things went from 3 to 11 way too fast for a previously unusually small fandom to keep a stable balance with the amount of pre-TWOW fan content in general. And so there has to be more done to keep that balance in check and stop it from not just damaging the fandom itself but tainting the franchise.

General opinions on Avatar are fragile right now. Things could very easily turn for the worse if we aren’t careful. If the NSFW to SFW fan content visibility ratio gets worse, what good exactly would that do for anyone? That potential situation has to be prevented for the health of the fandom and the franchise.

The option to do something else while still being able to be part of the general Avatar fandom and making it a more welcoming space without having to block every creator in it under the sun is a necessity.

I don’t block people anyway. Never do. And as an artist myself the idea of blocking somebody else’s high quality works simply because they made NSFW content I didn’t like once doesn’t sit right with me anyway. But there still has to be more SFW good art and with events like this that need gets even more urgent.

And yeah, you could say "this is done for other fandoms" but did those fandoms go from about 8 years generally quiet and chill to an explosion of NSFW shit in like a month or two? No.

Do those fandoms have a very, very bad problem of sexualising literal child characters? No. Dicing with danger there. Also, interesting, nothing against that in the participation rules...

The fandom is in recovery and this is not the time to be doing something like this. We need to weed out the rot and get more restablished first.

Don't rag on me for trying to set up alternatives and try to get things back to a more stable and healthier version of things and get the franchise more of the respect it actually deserves instead of actively enabling what's been hard fought to get already to go down the drain.

Also, one last thing, the whole "ha ha this is Tumblr we're all sluts"?

Where else exactly do you advise I go because this is literally everywhere with a sizeable art community. And again, running back to the whole "willfully isolating myself off from the fandom" again. Not happening. I'm staying here and doing this thing.

You guys do realise that there's a LOT of acespec people here, right?

Just because you don't want to fix the balance and give Avatar a more healthy SFW to NSFW fan content ratio, doesn't mean there aren't people here that do.

I spent 13 goddamn years being a fan and not feeling anything for a single character. It was a hard enough fight then trying to get people to stop believing that there was some sort of attraction motivation behind liking the first movie and that being the only reason I liked it.

Oh, no. You couldn't like Avatar because of the themes and the message or the craft in every frame, no. It's the blue people only.

Well, I'm still fighting against that. Even if I finally did end up getting caught by Space Wife Stars And Stripes. These movies have so much more to them and too much NSFW stuff at once will not help the fandom or the movies keeping what respect was already regained in a small amount over the years.

Concluding, anyone interested in the SFW alternative month of prompts to redress the balance of what true horrors of the storm October will bring as well as generally have fun in the arty section of the fandom anyway, It's basically done.

Has a name, too. Just need to tidy up the image with the prompts on.

1 note · View note

pandorasboxoftreasures · 8 months

Text

(Laughs in gay humanist)

I’m not trying to split the fandom (it’s already split anyway old guard from the OG movie vs new additions from TWOW, people that like TWOW more than 09, the different camps of who’s best blue boy Recom fans vs Recom haters I could keep going on).

A healthy fandom needs to be a balanced one where people aren’t put off joining or talking about being a part of it because that “90% of the NSFW creators” are like 60% of the creators and you can block as many as you want but then there’s nothing left and you’re basically drastically splitting yourself off from the fandom at large because there’s so much tied into the NSFW content and/or those that create it. That is not a healthy fandom.

It’s not the sexual content itself that’s the problem, either. It’s always been there. It’s the overwhelming amount, particularly of canon underaged and dubious aged characters, that puts a massive dark stain on something I’ve been a part of for a long, long time and struggled to defend in that whole span as worth being part of to encourage people to experience the movies, ponder their messages and participate. I will not sit by and let shit like that go unchallenged and I will not let your assumptions about who I am and why I believe this has to be done change that, either. Not that they even had a chance.

There NEEDS to be a balanced alternative and more SFW content. It’s not a case of it being opinion. The fandoms that have survived and thrived the best are the ones that keep that balance.

You honestly want Avatar fans to be branded as “That bunch of constantly horny furries that thirst over kids?” unable to talk about one of their favourite franchises in public or cosplay or wear merch or try to get other people to take part without being shunned in ways others aren’t more than they already sometimes were before Way Of Water?

You wanna die on that hill “babes”? Cause I sure don’t.

🩵 Happy Kinktober 2023 🩵

This year I actually got inspired to make my own kinktober prompt list, and I'd love for you all to participate –even if it’s just for one day/one prompt!

How to participate:

It doesn’t matter if you’re an artist or author, everyone can participate, as long as you’re +18 years old! Minors will be blocked immediately.

Write or draw as many or as few of these prompts as you want and publish them on the right day of October under the tag #LunasKinktober2023

Just a tip: write ahead of time and use the scheduling feature, it'll save you tons of stress. That's why I'm already posting this in August lol.

Have a little paragraph for warnings with every piece you publish and don’t forget to tag any dub-con, non-con, stepcest or other dark themes!

Please reblog this post so everyone has a chance to join, you can even share this on other socials like Twitter, Discord or Instagram.

If you don’t participate yourself, make sure you support all authors and artists with reblogs and positive comments on their posts. Help me keep this fandom alive!! 🩵

764 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 8 months

Text

Me slapping my monitor like Parker Selfridge slapping a massive crate of blasting compound because I know this is going to flood my and other people I know that don’t even like or haven’t seen Avatar’s feeds no matter what I do and the oversexualisation was already out of hand and endangering the fandom:

NO NO NO! NO!

Please, by Eywa, this fandom needs a SFW counter movement!

Who’s with me?

🩵 Happy Kinktober 2023 🩵

This year I actually got inspired to make my own kinktober prompt list, and I'd love for you all to participate –even if it’s just for one day/one prompt!

How to participate:

It doesn’t matter if you’re an artist or author, everyone can participate, as long as you’re +18 years old! Minors will be blocked immediately.

Write or draw as many or as few of these prompts as you want and publish them on the right day of October under the tag #LunasKinktober2023

Just a tip: write ahead of time and use the scheduling feature, it'll save you tons of stress. That's why I'm already posting this in August lol.

Have a little paragraph for warnings with every piece you publish and don’t forget to tag any dub-con, non-con, stepcest or other dark themes!

Please reblog this post so everyone has a chance to join, you can even share this on other socials like Twitter, Discord or Instagram.

If you don’t participate yourself, make sure you support all authors and artists with reblogs and positive comments on their posts. Help me keep this fandom alive!! 🩵

764 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 8 months

Text

Ain’t his kill count less than all the Sullys except Tuk?

hes the one‼️

438 notes · View notes

pandorasboxoftreasures · 8 months

Text

Rage!

Swear to Christ, I don't trust digital only anything still and I keep getting proven right. Both are supposed to be in 1080p btw. But the difference between my first digital downloaded copy and what's on my two standard blu-ray copies? Night and day. This doesn't show the colour difference but I might retake comparisons later for that now I have an actual tripod set up to take photos of my monitor.

TBH my 8 year old point and shoot camera doesn't even do the difference true justice and this wasn't even taken with that this is from my busted old phone.

Why do I have two blu-rays of Way Of Water?

I don't.

I technically have 4. The regular blu-rays are bonus copies from the 3D and 4K versions.

Highly recommended getting it on physical media because the family audio track is hilarious as a bonus as well in ways that make the TV edit of Snakes On A Plane like nothing. It has to be heard to be believed.

"They can't put babies in cryo, dummy."

"...that's your dad's actual suit." "Oh, wow, you're right!"

"Whoo, man! Sully's kids."

"I've got to keep your skxawng self here!"

"It's deader than a dung heap, Colonel!"

They kept in the deaths and blood and dismemberments and peril but oh no... Somebody said "Damn"!

Also, really interesting hearing Latin Spanish Quaritch calling Spider by his name earlier in the movie and the dub actors speaking Na'vi and sort of making the original sentences easier to hear and translate sometimes.

29 notes · View notes