Frances Ardmore

General Frances Ardmore is one of the main leaders of the Resources Development Administration during the Second Pandoran War.
She is a general in SecOps and the commander of the Joint Expeditionary Task Force. She is the one of the main antagonists of the Avatar series, debuting in the comic Avatar: The High Ground. She returns as the secondary antagonist in the films Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Ardmore has taken over the RDA military activity on Pandora since the RDA's return. Her duty is to do whatever she can to "tame" the frontier in order to set up humanity's future home on Pandora, including trying to "pacify" the Na'vi and the Resistance. She has authorized SecOps to kill Jake Sully due to his leadership of the strategic raids against the RDA. Known by the code name Iron Sky, Ardmore also commands a Dragon Assault Ship called the Dragonfly.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Ardmore was likely born around the year 2111 or 2117. Ardmore was young, likely only a child or a teenager, when Pandora was being colonized by the RDA. It is unknown if she was on Pandora in 2154 during the Pandoran War but it is likely she was not due to the RDA likely not needing a military strategist against the Na'vi due to how fast the Na'vi conflict broke out (Ardmore was not seen during Avatar and the RDA already had Miles Quaritch), and she was likely busy waging wars on Earth. Because a cryosleep ride to Pandora is nearly 6 years, it is likely her birth date is close to 2111.
As an adult, Ardmore has won and waged many wars during her time. At some point, she got a tattoo of an octopus on her right forearm. Ardmore eventually became a four-star general tasked with being the on-world commander and security leader of Pandora. She would be transferred with the RDA on their way to the moon, commanding the Interstellar Vehicle Manifest Destiny.
===Return of the RDA (Avatar: The High Ground)===
In 2168, 14 years after the original expulsion of the RDA, Ardmore led a fleet of 10 starships back to Pandora in order to retake Hell's Gate. Ardmore also made it one of her main goals to find and kill Jake Sully, considering him too much of a threat to the RDA's operation. Shortly after awakening from hibernation, one of her first orders to her troops is to mobilize a squad.
Once the ship was within communication range with Pandora, Ardmore, along with Charles Stringer, broadcast a communication to those in Hell's Gate, referring to them as illegal occupiers. She labels their actions as acts of terrorism under Solar Unity law and threatens death unless they agree to return the base intact, in which case they would be rewarded with amnesty and re-employment at the RDA. However, she threatens that if she encounters any resistance from them, she would kill everyone. Ardmore's words cause an uproar among the people allied with Jake, as many of them are frightened by the threat and are convinced that they could not stand against the incoming SecOps forces.
In outer space, Ardmore contacts Jake and Neytiri's Valkyrie dropship via a video message. Jake's team tries to blackmail the RDA by threatening to blast 3.2 trillion worth of unobtanium using explosives. Ardmore's team agrees they will talk physically onboard the Interstellar Vehicle Venture Star. The Na'vi meet the RDA on their ship, though interactions between the two groups prove tense. Jake and Neytiri meet with Ardmore and Jake reveals some of the unobtanium is also on a crippled ISV orbiting over Pandora, rigged with explosives.
Jake then orders his ground team to blow the unobtanium refinery on Hell's Gate, which they do. The RDA turns hostile but Jake reveals they still have some unobtanium at other sites on Pandora left. Though Jake briefly attempts a treaty, he then goes onto say that the RDA would just break it again. Ardmore does not even try to hide this, instead only replying, "We're done here." A commotion ensues and Jake ordered a Na'vi-human commando to attack. Neytiri appears to break one of the general's arms and a shooting ensued, with several of the Venture Star crew's killed. Jake and Neytiri manage to escape, but Ardmore gives chase.Avatar: the High Ground part 2 The Sully family manages to flee Ardmore's wrath with the help of Norm Spellman and Wu Mingxia.
===Tracking the Sullys (Avatar: The Way of Water)===
Ardmore resides at Bridgehead with the objective to colonize Pandora and make it a new home for humanity as Earth is dying. She commands the Recombinant squad led by Miles Quaritch to hunt down Jake Sully.
She later psychologically (and perhaps physically, given a nosebleed) tortures a captive Miles Socorro using a machine called a NeuroSect which can analyze his thoughts, in order to find out where the Sullys are, but he is able to withstand it. She only stops because Quaritch tells her he wishes to try a more "personal" angle, and she tells the Recom Quaritch that the boy is not his actual son.
==Personality==
Ardmore is well-educated, intelligent and a practiced military and political strategist, making her the perfect on-world commander and security leader for the RDA. While Quaritch was obsessive and monomaniacal, Ardmore instead exhibits a detached demeanor, and she can signal she is in charge without being physically imposing. She is adept at negotiation, able to assess situations, imagine their different outcomes and create a winning strategy.
She is a military woman who justifies her actions because she believes she is doing what is necessary to protect humanity's survival. This has put her into tough positions where she uses force and violent methods in order to get her way, such as when she tortured Spider to the degree he had a nosebleed.
She is shown to be ruthless, or at least claims to be; when Jake threatened to destroy the unobtanium, Ardmore callously replied that if he did, she would not hesitate to murder pregnant women and people's grandmothers. Another example of her cruelty is that she condones and pays people to kill animals for her, specifically the tulkun, and thus their blood spilled is, metaphorically, indirectly on her hands. It was Ardmore herself who contracted Mick Scoresby to harvest the tulkun for their amrita.https://www.avatar.com/pandorapedia/captain-mick-scoresby
There are implications Ardmore is a manipulative woman. This is hinted with the descriptors "unemotional", "machine-like" and "cold-blooded" used in reference to her.Avatar: The Way of Water: The Visual Dictionary However, when she orders the occupants of Hell's Gate to leave, she also claims she "begs them with tears in her eyes" which is unfitting of these prior descriptions, suggesting they may be crocodile tears. Ardmore was also manipulative when she was secretly working with McCosker to take advantage of the Na'vi.
Like Quaritch who was seen weightlifting, Ardmore also seems to enjoy fitness herself and staying in top shape. She has a hobby of boxing workouts in her Skel Suit.
==Relationships==
* See France Ardmore/Relationships
==Trivia==
*Concept art reveals that Ardmore was envisioned as being a man. This is confirmed by an early script, mentioning Ardmore is known as Frank Ardmore.
*Ardmore is one of the first female antagonists in the Avatar franchise, along with Trinity Harper and Artsut.
*Edie Falco describes Ardmore as a villain who does not think she is one in her own mind. Ardmore believes she is doing good for Earth, but happens to oppress the Na'vi.Edie Falco on The View
*She shares the surname of James Ardmore, another member of the RDA who was previously killed in action on Pandora, although there is no known relation between the two.
*Stephen Lang has stated in an interview that Ardmore ranks higher than Miles Quaritch in SecOps.https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/avatar-the-way-of-water-stephen-lang-interview/
*Her first name means "free one" and her surname means "more zealous" in Latin.
*Her weapon is the Z-33 Pistol.
*Ardmore carries the tradition of Avatar villains casually eating and drinking during heinous events, as to convey the idea that their villainy is just another day for them. For example, Quaritch was drinking from a mug during the bombing of Hometree, while Parker was munching on food while destroying the Tree of Voices. Ardmore is seen drinking from a mug while saying she needs to "pacify" the Na'vi.
* She is mentioned in an audio log by Alma Cortez in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
==Memorable Quotes==
===Avatar: The High Ground===
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===Avatar: The Way of Water===
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==Appearances==
*Avatar: The High Ground
*Avatar: The Way of Water - Edie Falco
*Avatar: Fire and Ash - Edie Falco
*Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (mentioned only)
==References==
fr:Frances Ardmore
ru:Фрэнсис Ардмор
pl:Frances Ardmore
es:Frances Ardmore
Category:Avatar: The Way of Water
Category:Avatar: Fire and Ash
Category:Comics Characters
Category:Characters
Category:Human
Category:RDA
Category:Antagonists