Up In the Air & Down to Earth

Everyone has a character they love or one they hate. With more than one favorite character, I love them all equally. However, in this case, I'm familiar with a confusing middle ground.

Avatar, released in 2009 and directed by James Cameron, has become one of the biggest titles in sci-fi, fantasy history. It follows Jake Sully, a paraplegic Marine veteran who took his twin brother's position to fulfill his contract as an avatar 'driver' after his passing, as he regains the ability to walk through an 8-foot-tall alien of the Na'vi race and is on a mission to go undercover to relocate them. It takes a turn for the better and for worse as Jake falls in love with Neytiri, the daughter of the clan's chief, and the organization he is under contract for grows impatient, money-hungry, and apathetic.

The visuals of this movie are beautiful. The attention to detail with the language, the environment, the creatures, and the cat-like features of the Na'vi. Everything is outstanding. Unfortunately, there's a part of me that wishes I could "argue" with Jake's character. How?

At the end of the movie, after a near-war and his human body is dying, Jake's consciousness is transferred into his avatar body, Tsyeyk Suli as he is known to the Na'vi people, permanently. I would not and do not want Jake to die, either as a human or an avatar. However, if the circumstances were not life or death, I wouldn't have permanently transferred to an avatar body.

Our forms of disability are different, Jake is paralyzed from the waist down due to an injury. On the contrary, I have never had the ability to walk, but I can move my legs with extreme limitations. He was able to walk or stand before said injury, but it's not shown in the movie unless he is controlling his avatar. I'm able to walk, in my dreams and in my mind. We're twins, but not in the way most think.

As a wheelchair user and disabled young adult, it's difficult to find representation besides Charles Xavier/Professor X from the X-Men universe. Jake is the second on my list. Maybe it's due to the fact that he had the privilege of walking and standing before, it was more than obvious throughout the movie that he would rather be Na'vi, an avatar, than human.

Maybe I'm jealous. Maybe, in some alternative universe or in the future, I can have the same opportunity. Maybe being disabled has been who I am for my entire life, so I cannot imagine myself as anything else. Maybe it's my fear of heights, especially with the avatars standing at and taller than 8 feet tall.

I'd rather stay down to Earth than closer to the sky and to who I've always been, as corny as that may sound.

Thank you for reading Sunday Soup.