BUT SERIOUSLY, AASIF MANDVI AS ZHAO. WAS IM HIMMEL? (I.. I guess I'm sort of relieved that Shyamalan didn't just cast himself as Iroh. Which I was convinced he would.)
So, I think the idea must be to retool Avatar as some alternate universe of ours, where instead it's the pacifist nations of indigenous white people who are victims of genocide by evil megalomaniacal brown people with their ever-expanding kingdom and pre-industrial- OH OH IT'S THE RETELLING OF THE ENGLISH COLONIZATION OF INDIA! IN REVERSE.
The sinister brown Fire Nation is also being assisted by the secretly!corrupt yellow Earth Nation. Which, if we go by Ba Sing Se, is filled with non-individualistic, sort of identical/interchangeable brainwashed citizens. LOL WAIT THAT ISN'T AN "ALTERNATE" WORLD AT ALL! Help us, Caucasian!Aang, you're our only hope against the Ethnic Invasion! (Man, I'm pretty sure this was supposed to be them trying to fix the problem, only they totally made it worse...)
I... I CAN'T HELP THINKING THAT AASIF WILL BE TOTALLY AMAZING.
Watch him be the best part of the whole damned movie. YOU JUST WAIT.
Oh my god, if he had cast himself as Iroh, I might have vomited. I'm still holding out for M. Night as the Cabbage Merchant. *crosses fingers*
To be honest, I think Shaun Toub actually -will- be AMAZING. I can hope for a fat suit buuut.... *shrugs*
And I know it reads as 'evil browns', but... it's really only the leaders of the FN that are 'evil', right? I mean... over the course of the series they show that everyone's opinions about Sozin/Azulon/Ozai and the awful things they did can't be applied to the FN as a whole? I think this is why the ep with Jet was so important.
It will still be kind of awkward if Aang is white... but maybe will be better if Avatar Roku and the other past Avatars who really help him figure out who he is/show him what to do/pick him up when he falls/etc. are PoCs? We can only hope, I guess.
HE'D BETTER BE SPORTING SOME DAMN AMAZING MUTTON CHOPS. Or whatever you'd call that growth Zhao sports on his face..
Considering that they originally wanted an all Caucasian leading cast and only recently popped Patel in there (only because their cash cow McCartney dropped out) this whole reinterpretation of select nations to be represented with POC has me eyeing their choices very critically. Like, I know they're casting entire nations to suit the ethnic backgrounds (well, skin color) of the leading actors they've already picked, which is an.. interesting route to take. It's just that if they meant for this to be the way to smooth over concerns raised by fans and MANAA and the EWP and production staff on the original series, the result is pretty unfortunate. (I mean, they introduced a load of Western-based cultural baggage that might've been otherwise absent if they'd just gone by the source material!)
And I know it reads as 'evil browns', but... it's really only the leaders of the FN that are 'evil', right?Indeedy, though the
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I SMELL SOME BLATANT CULTURAL IGNORANCE AND INSENSITIVITY UP IN HURR
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So, I think the idea must be to retool Avatar as some alternate universe of ours, where instead it's the pacifist nations of indigenous white people who are victims of genocide by evil megalomaniacal brown people with their ever-expanding kingdom and pre-industrial- OH OH IT'S THE RETELLING OF THE ENGLISH COLONIZATION OF INDIA! IN REVERSE.
The sinister brown Fire Nation is also being assisted by the secretly!corrupt yellow Earth Nation. Which, if we go by Ba Sing Se, is filled with non-individualistic, sort of identical/interchangeable brainwashed citizens. LOL WAIT THAT ISN'T AN "ALTERNATE" WORLD AT ALL! Help us, Caucasian!Aang, you're our only hope against the Ethnic Invasion! (Man, I'm pretty sure this was supposed to be them trying to fix the problem, only they totally made it worse...)
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Watch him be the best part of the whole damned movie. YOU JUST WAIT.
Oh my god, if he had cast himself as Iroh, I might have vomited. I'm still holding out for M. Night as the Cabbage Merchant. *crosses fingers*
To be honest, I think Shaun Toub actually -will- be AMAZING. I can hope for a fat suit buuut.... *shrugs*
And I know it reads as 'evil browns', but... it's really only the leaders of the FN that are 'evil', right? I mean... over the course of the series they show that everyone's opinions about Sozin/Azulon/Ozai and the awful things they did can't be applied to the FN as a whole? I think this is why the ep with Jet was so important.
It will still be kind of awkward if Aang is white... but maybe will be better if Avatar Roku and the other past Avatars who really help him figure out who he is/show him what to do/pick him up when he falls/etc. are PoCs? We can only hope, I guess.
Reply
Considering that they originally wanted an all Caucasian leading cast and only recently popped Patel in there (only because their cash cow McCartney dropped out) this whole reinterpretation of select nations to be represented with POC has me eyeing their choices very critically. Like, I know they're casting entire nations to suit the ethnic backgrounds (well, skin color) of the leading actors they've already picked, which is an.. interesting route to take. It's just that if they meant for this to be the way to smooth over concerns raised by fans and MANAA and the EWP and production staff on the original series, the result is pretty unfortunate. (I mean, they introduced a load of Western-based cultural baggage that might've been otherwise absent if they'd just gone by the source material!)
And I know it reads as 'evil browns', but... it's really only the leaders of the FN that are 'evil', right?Indeedy, though the ( ... )
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