toni morrisson would have a field day

Some more points from Avatar:
-The tension between Science and the Military, both in the service of Business, but with Science’s appropriation/infiltration of (in the immediate physical sense)/and consequent identification with the indigenous body, and eventual rebellion. (At least one person in the military does this too, though through association with the Scientists).
-The white man leads the indigenous revolution from the outside of the colony, rather than sabotaging it from the inside, or even merely offering up the information at his disposal - this information as tactical knowledge is not the only reason he is useful. He becomes the leader by placing himself literally at the top of the food chain, by conquering the biggest and highest flying hunter from above.
-’Natural cyborgs’ - the process by which the blue folks become one with the animals they ride is still a process of domination followed by immediate domestication. The contrast between this and the human cyborg process of creating a mechanical body (or an Avatar in a vat) and interfacing with it.
-The planet as a sentient ecology and central character in the narrative. Its multiple roles, two of which are: ‘taking sides’ in the final conflict despite itself because the human colony is against life, and mediating the final transference of the white subject to the indigenous body.
-The final defeat of the human colony, by the planet, and by the individual heroic action of the white man with some human weapons (taking down the bomber and command ship). The female character’s important role is to save him, once he’s already saved the planet.
-We close with the white man’s mind being transported from the crippled white body to the otherwise-mentally-flaccid yet physically powerful, human-constructed, avatar body-of-color.
-Our villains are one dimensional charicatures that apparently embody systemic processes (business, militarized violence, and to some extent the Scientist), rather than agents that 'use and are used by' these processes. To a certain degree we end up missing the point.