After taking a long hiatus/holiday from the Hearthstone Tavern RP Podcast, the cast and I finally resumed recording on January 31, 2010. Almost everyone had seen the movie Avatar, so we took a moment to discuss our thoughts about the it.

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Richard “Tharion Greyseer” (of Lorecrafted.com) was hoping that the successful visual display and story in Avatar will somehow open the way for the World of Warcraft movie. The Hearthstone Tavern Podcast cast was left wondering if the World of Warcraft movie would be fully CGI as with Beowulf or would it be a combination live-action and CGI as with Avatar?  Prior to Avatar, many fans had wondered if a World of Warcraft movie could even be done at all without looking silly.

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The Hearthstone Tavern Podcast cast couldn’t help but discuss some obvious similarities between Avatar and World of Warcraft. Michael (aka Anansi) on the Earthen Ring forums had posted a link to such an article entitled, AvatarVs. World of Warcraft .  Another humorous article swears that James Cameron Plays World of Warcraft .  After reading the article and then reflecting on my own adventures in the Warcraft universe, I came to realize that many items do indeed parallel World of Warcraft even though Cameron insists the outline for his story was written back in the 1980s. I think what troubled many gamers who saw the movie wasn’t just a single thing, such as floating islands or the Na’vi. It was the combination of them all in one story; floating islands, bluish animal-people, epic flying mounts, wisps, world trees, nature goddesses, etc.

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Some of the elements resembled Nagrand, Night Elves, and Teldrassil, so what? World of Warcraft isn’t the first place stories of floating islands and and cat-like people have ever been thought up or told. I think what James Cameron does with Avatar is show us all that a movie which encompasses these fantastic people, locales, and story can be done …and be outrageously successful.  By seeing Avatar, we can all now visiualize and comprehend that a World of Warcraft movie can happen. I think James Cameron has paved the way and proved that all our beloved science fiction/fantasy stories can come to life. Maybe that was his goal?

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The only issue I had with the Avatar film was the use of the name “Avatar.”  To me, “avatar” should have been left to the character of Aang from a beloved soulful animated adventure series entitled, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Aang, afterall, was and is the Avatar of the Elements.  There is currently a live-action movie of that series in the works. The film title had to be changed and shortened to, The Last Airbender in order to reduce any confusion with Avatar.  In light of this, and the fact that the “avatars” were only a fraction of the story, I believe that Cameron could have acquiesced and entitled his movie, “Pandora.“

Suzanna aka Stardancer/Stardancerelfstardancerelf.comSuzanna (aka Stardancer) started audio articles in the Epic Dolls Podcast in 2006. She has continued on to host Hearthstone Tavern RP Podcast with a fantastically talented and creative cast. Avid part-time gamer, musician, artist, and is someone known to philosophize. Twitter me @stardancerelf