What Blue things did you learn??

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Well, even if they were real Military, there's a reason that acronyms like "SNAFU", "FUBAR", "TARFU" & "DEH" were invented there.

"There's the right way, the wrong way and the Military way."

[Relaxing Dragon]

According to an unofficial wiki, it is actually NOT a government military force on Pandora but some sort of combat/security force that was part of the big bad corporation. So it's not military as much as it is more like security guys that just have robots and guns.

Yea, Scully says in the narration right after they land on Pandora.

This is true, but I'm sure most of them where at least ex-military. Isn't that the same case with mercenary companies they have on this planet right now?

[Darth Geek]

Well, even if they were real Military, there's a reason that acronyms like "SNAFU", "FUBAR", "TARFU" & "DEH" were invented there.

"There's the right way, the wrong way and the Military way."

Isn't that just the wrong way?
Yeah, but it's causes more damage.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

According to an unofficial wiki, it is actually NOT a government military force on Pandora but some sort of combat/security force that was part of the big bad corporation. So it's not military as much as it is more like security guys that just have robots and guns.

Yea, Scully says in the narration right after they land on Pandora.

This is true, but I'm sure most of them where at least ex-military. Isn't that the same case with mercenary companies they have on this planet right now?

And many people will tell you that if the military still wanted these guys, they would have kept them.

[RoninFox]

According to an unofficial wiki, it is actually NOT a government military force on Pandora but some sort of combat/security force that was part of the big bad corporation. So it's not military as much as it is more like security guys that just have robots and guns.

Yea, Scully says in the narration right after they land on Pandora.

So pretty similar to how the "Corporation" worked in the Alien series?  Could we cross over those movies next, I want to see a big blue cat-eared Xenomorph tear some people apart.

[Relaxing Dragon]

According to an unofficial wiki, it is actually NOT a government military force on Pandora but some sort of combat/security force that was part of the big bad corporation. So it's not military as much as it is more like security guys that just have robots and guns.

Yea, Scully says in the narration right after they land on Pandora.

So pretty similar to how the "Corporation" worked in the Alien series?  Could we cross over those movies next, I want to see a big blue cat-eared Xenomorph tear some people apart.

Not exactly that, but pretty close (semi NSFW): http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x207/RelaxingDragon1/NaviXenomorphCrossover.jpg 

[TTYT]

To be fair, I did find an answer to all the military talk.

http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/RDA

Ah, they had to abide by a treaty forbidding weapons of mass destruction in space. Guess that's why they didn't just orbitally bomb the place...

[RobtheBarbarian]

I learned that someone on the concept art team plays Command and Conquer:

Spoiler

A lot of the vehicles in Avatar are eerily similar to stuff from the C&C series. Not close enough to scream "Rip-off!", but close enough for my cousin, who doesn't really play the games, to tap me on the shoulder and whisper "It looks just like those Orca gunship things."

[Compound]

No, it's probably C & C borrowing ideas from Cameron, who then borrowed ideas from himself.

Here's the drop ship from 1986's Aliens:


That's the most likely inspiration for the helicoptergunshipthingees.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

There's also the fact that laws of physics and aerodynamics make it possible that there are just so many possible designs that make sense out there....

And you're talking about two ships that operate within the planet's atmosphere.

[cfkane]

I learned that the Na'vi can listen to their ancestors via a USB connection to Pandora's RAM, and the ancestors are stored there when the Na'vi's minds are copied from the ROM of their bodies in a backup zip file. And if the planet was in fact connection on an internal network, the only reason the Na'vi would have been so upset about losing that one tree to the bulldozer was because it had been having server problems, and couldn't save its data onto a backup harddrive.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I learned that the Na'vi can listen to their ancestors via a USB connection to Pandora's RAM, and the ancestors are stored there when the Na'vi's minds are copied from the ROM of their bodies in a backup zip file. And if the planet was in fact connection on an internal network, the only reason the Na'vi would have been so upset about losing that one tree to the bulldozer was because it had been having server problems, and couldn't save its data onto a backup harddrive.

I think they lost more than one tree, looked like there were 2 or 3 dozers and Jake only took out one of them.

But on the idea of backups, I guess it depends on how often natural disasters take place.

Let's say each tree is like a disk drive, with an estimated usable lifespan, you would develop a system of backups based on that, and let's say this has worked for millions of years.  Would you plan for entire banks of drives that were working perfectly and only partially into their expected lifespan to suddenly be damaged?   If this has never happened before then there's probably not enough "bandwidth" to transfer all the data quickly enough to save it.  If there have been forest fires or tornadoes or other natural events that occasionally come along you would think there would be some redundancy that would have evolved to deal with them.

[Indomitus]

Geez, that planet's I.T. department must be HUGE.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

I learned that the Na'vi can listen to their ancestors via a USB connection to Pandora's RAM, and the ancestors are stored there when the Na'vi's minds are copied from the ROM of their bodies in a backup zip file. And if the planet was in fact connection on an internal network, the only reason the Na'vi would have been so upset about losing that one tree to the bulldozer was because it had been having server problems, and couldn't save its data onto a backup harddrive.

Which I guess makes the Na'vi trees the equivilant of Mount Seleya on Vulcan?

[Indomitus]

One thing that I actually did learn:  After watching the movie and hitting Google, I learned what "VFR" means.  ("Visual Flight Rules" which is kind of the polar opposite of being Instrument Rated.)  It won't do me any good for anything, but I did learn it.

I also learned that, so far in the future, basic battle strategy consists mostly of "run headlong into the gun barrels of the enemy."