Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora Proves That All Humans Talk To Na’vi Groins

Republished By Plato

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The average height of a Na’vi — the blue cat-like people of James Cameron’s Avatar movies — is around 10 feet. By comparison, average human height is well below 6 feet. That’s about waist level for our blue buddies. I vaguely understood this disparity while watching the films, but y’all, it’s inescapable when playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

The new Avatar game plops players into first-person view, so humans are always at groin level. Now I can’t stop wondering how, in-fiction, both species make this not super awkward.

For casual conversations between Na’vi and humans, the height gap must force both parties to make rapid decisions on how to respond: The human will either strain their neck and risk a lifetime of back pain, or speak directly to the Na’vi’s crotch with a confidence that says “I know this is weird, but let’s not make it weird.”

Image: Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft via Polygon

Na’vi can stand, asserting a power foreign to a short man like myself. But this too, I imagine, causes some unwanted long-term neck strain. Plus, in terms of a raw video game experience, the height divide just looks bad. Like, see how much screen real estate I’m giving to some messy bookshelves behind my human conversational partner here?

My in-game solution is the liberal use of the crouch button. When crouched, the Na’vi and human eyelines connect — zero need for ibuprofen. With their physiques, the Na’vi are naturally built for a catcher’s squat.

Image: Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft via Polygon

Don’t mistake this guidance for Na’vi pandering to humans. I’ve spoken at length about a relatively small corner of the game in which Na’vi and humans bond over woven furniture. But this is an open-world Ubisoft game, so you’ll do most of your speaking with arrows and bullets.

Outside the occasional squat, my blue buddy spends their free time turning living humans into deceased rag dolls. Having a 10-foot wingspan means Na’vi punches land with the downward impact of tank busters. The only time I crouch on the battlefield is when I want my Na’vi to be the final thing their tiny human eyes see.