Image: 20th Century Studios
The beauty of science-fiction
Slap on your tumbler seatbelts because I’m going to get  philosophical about genetically-engineered autonomous avatars.
The walking jackass now turned into Quaritch. You know, the antagonist played by Stephen Lang is back in… blue?
How?! Why?! Didn’t he take an arrow to the heart worse than a Skyrim guard who used to be an adventurer until an arrow took their knee out?
Due to the magic of sci-Fi science, he’s back and bluer than ever!!!
His return is believable. I mean, we’re already suspending our belief to accept the idea that you can link your mind to an avatar to infiltrate a sentient, civilization established alien society.
Jake Sully, the protagonist of the franchise, original body was mortally wounded. Granted, his consciousness was permanently transferred into his avatar via the Tree of Souls and not via humankind’s technology.
Yet, it was humankind’s technology that transferred Sully’s consensus over to the avatar. They just had to maintain his human body in order for the avatar to keep functioning or the connection would be lost.
So, it isn’t much of a leap to imagine that they would already have the capabilities to copy someone’s consciousness, memories and personality and hold all that biological data until they improve the technology to store that data into an avatar without needing the hosts’ original body to be maintained.
Thus I do not feel that Quaritch resurrection was cheap. I feel that it enhances the franchise moving forward on whole because it allows an intimate story to continue to be told amongst a planet-conflict between the original inhabitants and humanity.
It also plants the seeds to multiple potential plot lines that add spice to the overreaching story.
This Quaritch, isn’t the on that died because the memory was saved before the OG Quaritch died. He even says in the film that he’s not even the same guy but just has all that information stored within his now blue skull.
It’s oddly a new character while also being an old one one. His baby is now a sixteen year old who feels more connected to the indigenous community than his own species.
The boy never knew his father. Now his father is back. That internal conflict is evident. It bleeds through the 3D IMAX screen. The kid has a chance to meet his father and a possible chance at a relationship.
Spoiler apart: Quaritch survives in the sequel (his son saved him) thus that internal conflict is threaded through the franchise now.
Not to mention, Quaritch wants a relationship with his son too. He realizes that he has a second chance at life and an opportunity to maybe change.
He could’ve slaughter one of the Navi but listened to his son Spider to not proceed. He wanted his son to escape with him towards the end of the movie. He made genuine effort to bond with his son and cared for his safety.
The OG Quaritch didn’t have that capacity. Granted, Avatar Quaritch did kill Sully’s kid. So, both characters will still have serious beef and another conflict to be threaded through the franchise.
Will Quaritch evolve from a villain to an anti-hero? Will his son teach him the error of his ways and he goes out in a heroic blaze of glory? Will he just be more emboldened to become even more villainous? Would Quaritch begin to sympathize with the indigenous population due to his son?
Don’t you see? There’s an untapped potential in character growth with an avatar Quaritch than we had with the human Quaritch. This untapped potential is also beneficial to other character’s own growth.
Also, if such technology existed in the real world then it would fundamentally change society as a whole. People could change their body’s or transfer to a younger version of themselves. Maybe people would be able to transfer their consciousness before death thus a sort of cheat to immortality.
It also leads to certain questions beyond the scientific variety.
Who would have access to the technology? Will it be gatekept from underprivileged segments of society? What happens if it falls into the hands of someone that would be a  genocidal dictator that could rival the atrocities committed by some of the worst in humankind’s history?
How could the technology be abused? Rewarded? What kind of ethical dilemma could arise from its utilization?
What if such bodies, avatars or whatever form the technology takes… is viewed as not sentient when they are? Will it become a futuristic form of slavery? What happens if multiple of the same consciousness exist?
I highly doubt James Cameron would answer any of those questions in his movies. Yet, they’re questions whose potential answers could be worth pondering upon.
I don’t know if I personally would allow my consciousness to be transferred even once or continuously. I wouldn’t even behind to know how to answer those questions as the implications are massive.
Would such a technology demean the value of life? Yes… but a thing doesn’t lose its value because it lasts. It retains its value by being unique. One of a kind.
Also, how does one label or classify a body but not human, and now a memory made real? As sub-humans? Demigods? Still human in soul? Or a pale imitation? Would you still have rights?
There’s a frightening side to that possibility. Maybe it’s ethical to disallow a creation of such a thing to avoid the negative consequences.
It’s a shame we’re not going to explore any of that in the story of Sully and Quaritch. I don’t think Cameron has the foresight to explore any of that. If he did had interest in exploring that uncharted ground then we would’ve seen it by now.
Yet, it’s fun to think about all that. Run scenarios of implications within your imagination. That’s the beauty of science fiction.
