Ubisoft has announced an epic narrative extension for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora called ‘From the Ashes’ with a release date of December 19, 2025. The DLC players will assume the role of a new Na’vi warrior, So’lek, who struggles to save his family from both the RDA and the hostile Na’vi clan known as the Ash Clan. This revelation has made the players very excited, and they are not only discussing the fresh content but also which faction they would like to be a part of in the conflict.
The official statement is essentially a reiteration of my previous point. The communication about ‘From the Ashes’ being released at the end of next year has been established and it is possible to pre-order. The visual representation shows extreme confrontation between So’lek who has a very personal reason for his struggle. Not only is it a classic setup for a DLC—an extra hero, new foes, and a bigger Pandora to take over—but also the date of release is not the key story here. It is the feedback. And it is chaotic.
The Avatar Frontiers account’s tweet, without further ado, received a massive number of responses that were almost similar in their essence: ‘Nice, but let me play as the others.’ The user ‘The watcher’ said it very clearly: ‘Let me play as the marines.’ Another user, ehren urzu, was even more direct: ‘But I want to play as RDA.’ This sentiment was very common. Capta1nMorgan not only agreed but even went further by saying, ‘how about a game where we play as the RDA and crush the spear chucking tree fuckers?’
This is a very intriguing split. One group is made up of players who are fully immersed in the Pandora universe and want to help it. They are pumped up. Already, user ‘M🥷 from the ashes era’ was making fun of the character relationships and noting ‘Wukula infatuated with So’Lek oooooo,’ signaling that the community is deeply engaged with the mythology. Others, like the ‘Rogue Agent,’ were just happy to have more third-person action in a Ubisoft universe and dubbed the perspective a ‘game changer.’
At the same time, there is the other, loud group of players who are a little bit over the noble savior role? They see the human RDA forces’ superior technology and vastness and think, ‘Why do we always have to be the underdogs?’ User ‘Johnm1291’ highlighted an argument that was more than just logical: ‘The scale and tech just shows humanity can’t really lose. They have defeated death.’ For these players, the fantasy of being the technological dominant power, the ‘villain’ from the film’s point of view, is more irresistible. It is pure, uncomplicated escapism. As later put by ehren urzu in a comment about him not wanting real-world parallels in games, ‘I do not want that in my escapism. I already have enough real world to deal with.’
This resulted in a mini-debate within the comments section. User flamegirl71394 tried to bring up themes and issues while ehren urzu even intensified the attack: ‘I am not an Amerikan. This story has little revelence to my ancestry. I don’t carry generational guilt. Nor do I want to experience it while playing. This game is not for me then.’ It is a vivid perspective that highlights how gamers impose their own desires and burdens upon a game’s story. A segment of the audience is expecting to have a superpower fantasy devoid of moral complexity while another group is willing to follow the Avatar’s specific environment and anti-colonial story for which it is well-known.
Then there are the ones who simply and wildly enjoy the chaotic fun that gaming Twitter brings. While some players were arguing about the sides, others were heavily discussing the minutiae of the gameplay features. Jacquesdrums1 wanted a first-person view while riding the Ikran because he wanted to experience that stomach-dropping dive sensation. flamegirl71394 responded that it would be pointless, he would just be ‘seeing wide open sky.’ Simultaneously, XOLEKYZ and flamegirl71394 were talking about whether a specific Ash Clan character was a love interest or just a murderous enemy, with XOLEKYZ declaring ‘Still ship 😭’ even after being told the character is literally trying to kill the hero. It is this amazing blend of heavy-duty debate and completely unserious fandom that makes these announcement threads so fun to read.
So, what does all that mean for ‘From the Ashes’? The new characters, setting and story that the DLC will continue to carry on and the narrative of the main game, along with new internal conflict and a new warrior among the Na’vi people in the form of the Ash Clan, will allow for some nice moral ambiguity. The game is also available on PlayStation and Xbox.
