Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.
James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.
On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie.
"I wasn't depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy ," Baghdassarian said. "But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed."
A post by a user called Elequin expresses an almost obsessive relationship with the film.
"That's all I have been doing as of late, searching the Internet for more info about 'Avatar.' I guess that helps. It's so hard I can't force myself to think that it's just a movie, and to get over it, that living like the Na'vi will never happen. I think I need a rebound movie," Elequin posted.
A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site "Naviblue" that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie.
"Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.' "
Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality.
Cameron's movie, which has pulled in more than $1.4 billion in worldwide box office sales and could be on track to be the highest grossing film of all time, is set in the future when the Earth's resources have been pillaged by the human race. A greedy corporation is trying to mine the rare mineral unobtainium from the planet Pandora, which is inhabited by a peace-loving race of 7-foot tall, blue-skinned natives called the Na'vi.
In their race to mine for Pandora's resources, the humans clash with the Na'vi, leading to casualties on both sides. The world of Pandora is reminiscent of a prehistoric fantasyland, filled with dinosaur-like creatures mixed with the kinds of fauna you may find in the deep reaches of the ocean. Compared with life on Earth, Pandora is a beautiful, glowing utopia.
Ivar Hill posts to the "Avatar" forum page under the name Eltu. He wrote about his post-"Avatar" depression after he first saw the film earlier this month.
"When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed ... gray. It was like my whole life, everything I've done and worked for, lost its meaning," Hill wrote on the forum. "It just seems so ... meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep ... doing things at all. I live in a dying world."
Reached via e-mail in Sweden where he is studying game design, Hill, 17, explained that his feelings of despair made him desperately want to escape reality.
"One can say my depression was twofold: I was depressed because I really wanted to live in Pandora, which seemed like such a perfect place, but I was also depressed and disgusted with the sight of our world, what we have done to Earth. I so much wanted to escape reality," Hill said.
Cameron's special effects masterpiece is very lifelike, and the 3-D performance capture and CGI effects essentially allow the viewer to enter the alien world of Pandora for the movie's 2½-hour running time, which only lends to the separation anxiety some individuals experience when they depart the movie theater.
"Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far," said Dr. Stephan Quentzel, psychiatrist and Medical Director for the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. "It has taken the best of our technology to create this virtual world and real life will never be as utopian as it seems onscreen. It makes real life seem more imperfect."
Fans of the movie may find actor Stephen Lang, who plays the villainous Col. Miles Quaritch in the film, an enemy of the Na'vi people and their sacred ground, an unlikely sympathizer. But Lang says he can understand the connection people are feeling with the movie.
"Pandora is a pristine world and there is the synergy between all of the creatures of the planet and I think that strikes a deep chord within people that has a wishfulness and a wistfulness to it," Lang said. "James Cameron had the technical resources to go along with this incredibly fertile imagination of his and his dream is built out of the same things that other peoples' dreams are made of."
The bright side is that for Hill and others like him -- who became dissatisfied with their own lives and with our imperfect world after enjoying the fictional creation of James Cameron -- becoming a part of a community of like-minded people on an online forum has helped them emerge from the darkness.
"After discussing on the forums for a while now, my depression is beginning to fade away. Having taken a part in many discussions concerning all this has really, really helped me," Hill said. "Before, I had lost the reason to keep on living -- but now it feels like these feelings are gradually being replaced with others."
Quentzel said creating relationships with others is one of the keys to human happiness, and that even if those connections are occurring online they are better than nothing.
"Obviously there is community building in these forums," Quentzel said. "It may be technologically different from other community building, but it serves the same purpose."
Within the fan community, suggestions for battling feelings of depression after seeing the movie include things like playing "Avatar" video games or downloading the movie soundtrack, in addition to encouraging members to relate to other people outside the virtual realm and to seek out positive and constructive activities.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2010/01/12 21:24:32
People are like dice, a certain Frenchman said that. You throw yourself in the direction of your own choosing. People are free because they can do that. Everyone's circumstances are different, but no matter how small the choice, at the very least, you can throw yourself. It's not chance or fate. It's the choice you made.
Oh, and the Na'vi were not "peace loving" (the use of the phrase 'war party' in a matter of fact way, and the fact that it took the toruk mak'to to unite the tribes are also pointers to them not being entirely like blue-skinned hippies.).
Yes, they held a reverence for life and of their places in the cycle - but so do most native cultures.
I'm OVER 50 (and so far over everyone's BS, too).
Old enough to know better, young enough to not give a ****.
That is not dead which can eternal lie ...
... and yet, with strange aeons, even death may die.
Avatar has been pictured as racist too, isn´t that fun?
M.
Jenkins: You don't have jurisdiction here!
Smith Jamison: We aren't here, which means when we open up on you and shred your bodies with automatic fire then this will never have happened.
About the Clans: "Those brief outbursts of sense can't hold back the wave of sibko bred, over hormoned sociopaths that they crank out though."
I am both selfish and chaotic. I value self-gratification and control; I want to have things my way, preferably now. At best, I'm entertaining and surprising; at worst, I'm hedonistic and violent.
"This is the first community on the internet for Na'vi 'Kin - those who are Na'vi in human form. Be it reincarnated Na'vi, Na'vi on a mental level, or spiritual Na'vi, we have one thing in common - we are Na'vi, truly, in our hearts and at our cores.
The aim of We Are Na'vi is to provide a safe environment for Na'vi 'Kin to gather and talk. I am the first, but undoubtedly not the last. When more Awaken to their true selves and have the Realization they will doubtless seek out a place to call home and be themselves. We Are Na'vi is that place."
My favourite bit is when the guy who identifies himself as a wolk/mantaray otherkin comes in to them they're being silly. Seriously, when the otherkin think you're being silly its time for a serious rethink about your spirituality.
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Lol yeah I read about this at work. Some people need a serious reality check. About on the same level of insanity as those Edward Cullen-worshipping nutcases who think that Stephanie Meyer is a prophet and that the "Twilight" saga are holy books.
"Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes." - Robert A. Heinlein
Acheron Tomb Legion (shelved until codex update)
Revenants of Khaine Corsair Fleet (2000 and growing)
Blood Reapers Chaos Warband (World Eaters, Iron Warriors, and Death Guard) The only army I actually win games with!
random internet personality wrote:I'm sad to see a bipedalwolfmantaray (read: a seriously deranged individual) telling others not to pretend they're something they're not.
Intriguing, please continue... .
Corvus wrote:Lol yeah I read about this at work. Some people need a serious reality check. About on the same level of insanity as those Edward Cullen-worshipping nutcases who think that Stephanie Meyer is a prophet and that the "Twilight" saga are holy books.
There is a never-ending list of strange, cultish communities. Furries are simply the tip of that twisted iceberg....
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2010/01/13 02:23:30
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2010/01/13 03:40:08
95% of teens would go into a panic attack if the jonas brothers were about to jump off the empire state building copy and paste this if you are the 5% who would pull up a lawn chair grab some popcorn and yell JUMP BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mekboy wrote:Tzeentch: Full house! Yay!
Deciver: Straight Flush! Yay!
Eldrad: Four of a kind! Awww!
Creed: Warhound titan. Die, xenos scum!
I could at first understand this. There is a deep sadness at the finale of J.R.R.Tolkien's masterpiece Lord of the Rings. The elves are departing the world leaving it a duller mundane place.
Now avatar ties into the epic in a similar way, its big its vibrant its appealing. Its also a deathworld.
At least you can breath on Catachan.
Because of grimdark and overused cliches 40K doesnt have the heartrend appeal and I doubt Ultramarine the Movie will fix that. but I digress still anyone who actually sees the film should not see Pandora as a nice place to go.
Still people are homesick for this poster paint paradise. Ok, fine, go and live in the jungle then.
Ok..
..
..
But
..
The jungle is wet, hot and full of spiders and mud crawling in bugs and mosquitos. They would complain.
Sure, but at least mosquitos are not 30 foot long, so whats the problem I reply.
Avatar is not just escapism its unnecessary escapism, we have the paradise right here and you can buy your way in with an adventure tourist holiday to Hawaii or Thailand. There are 'safe' guerilla free tourist jungles to roam in that you don't need 6 months hypersleep to get to. Reality FTW.
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
Orlanth wrote:The jungle is wet, hot and full of spiders and mud crawling in bugs and mosquitos. They would complain.
Sure, but at least mosquitos are not 30 foot long, so whats the problem I reply.
Avatar is not just escapism its unnecessary escapism, we have the paradise right here and you can buy your way in with an adventure tourist holiday to Hawaii or Thailand. There are 'safe' guerilla free tourist jungles to roam in that you don't need 6 months hypersleep to get to. Reality FTW.
I was thinking the same thing. The Earth is still a beautiful place.
Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
Don't they even mention in the movie that almost everything on Pandora can kill you?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2010/01/13 04:22:24
You know you're really doing something when you can make strangers hate you over the Internet. - Mauleed
Just remember folks. Panic. Panic all the time. It's the only way to survive, other than just being mindful, of course-but geez, that's so friggin' boring. - Aegis Grimm
Hallowed is the All Pie The Before Times: A Place That Celebrates The World That Was
fire4effekt wrote:What a bunch of fags!
Now hand me my chainsword, i must slay heretics!
cwatteyedidtheyre?
I think what you did there was try and equate just having a hobby to claiming clinical being depression because you don't live in a fictional world from a movie that just came out.
Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
Acheron Tomb Legion (shelved until codex update)
Revenants of Khaine Corsair Fleet (2000 and growing)
Blood Reapers Chaos Warband (World Eaters, Iron Warriors, and Death Guard) The only army I actually win games with! 
The Emperor protects. 
-to many points to bother to count.