#game of thrones racebend

[laylainalaska]

I watched Foundation S1-2 this week and really enjoyed it, for certain values of enjoyed, copying over my write-up from DW, now with corrected character names since I've looked them up rather than spelling them from vague osmosis from the show.

(Blacklist the Foundation tag if you don't want to be spoiled from gifs, as I plan to promptly go seek out the least hinged gifs from this entirely unhinged show and bombard everyone with them.)

This show is a bonkers SF soap opera with gorgeous production values, Lee Pace hamming it up in crop tops, and a series of increasingly off the rails holographic versions of a dead chessmaster mathematician deploying his 9999-step plan to save the galaxy. I've literally seen nothing about this at all in my social circles, to the extent that I didn't even really know about it until the spouse started watching it. I was kind of halfway glancing at the screen now and then, if I happened to be in the room, for the first half of season one (and have only the vaguest idea what happened in the first few episodes, based on later events), then got invested and eventually completely hooked in season two, which also picks up after a 100-year timeskip so the cast has changed a lot anyway. Although between stasis pods, cloning, and holograms, it's mostly the same actors. (We have a running joke that by season 3 the cast will be at least 50% Cleons and Hari Seldons by volume.)

Anyway, so it is good? Hard to say! It's sort of like if Expanse and Game of Thrones had a (somewhat more optimistic) baby, in which the budgets are huge, the planets are beautiful, the spaceships are shiny, and lots of Big Feelings happen. The Evil Empire is run by an endless series of clone emperors played by Lee Pace in Romanesque armor and capes with massive amounts of scenery-chewing and an immortal robot bodyguard he occasionally has sex with. They have All The Clones in storage, so if he gets killed, they'll just transfer his memories and activate another one! Meanwhile the rebellion is being orchestrated as a 4000-step multi-century Xanatos gambit by a guy who started by having himself killed and activating a digital copy. Interestingly though, there is so much going on, and it's taking so much time for his plan to come to fruition, that it never really feels like the two of them directly pitted against each other (at least not that much), it's more like all of the stuff that happens along the way, the planets and the pretty spaceships and the people we meet who struggle and fight and save each other along the way.

I have to say that while I'm occasionally reminded by certain plot points and tropes that this is a series based on books from the 1970s, they did a good enough job with racebending, presumable genderbending, and so forth that it rarely feels like it. (Also, though I only know the books from general osmosis, I'm fairly confident the plot has gone way off-book anyway.) In season two there are no less than four young female characters of color in major plot-defining roles, there's a central gay couple whose loyalty to each other in the face of the Empire is a major plot point, and in general it's just a pretty, pretty show full of pretty people and pretty planets (and occasionally some really dazzling space-operatic SF stuff). It is definitely the most OTT and operatic thing I've watched since probably the MCU, and I'm really enjoying it.

Under the cut, out-of-order and largely out-of-context comments on various things I had a reaction to (mostly season 2 since that's where I got invested).

This show is an emotional roller coaster of the highest order. How many different instances of presumed dead and identity-switching can we pack into a single episode?

CONSTANT MY BELOVED. Season 2 in general gives great female characters, I already loved Salvo (;__;) and I also really enjoyed the ladies from the Cloud Dominion, but Constant!! She's just so funny and fun and so absolutely deadpan about everything from conning randos on some backwater alien planet to kidnapping a guy. I was so glad she lived through all of the half-dozen times she almost certainly should have died.

I was surprisingly upset about formerly-trapped-in-the-Radiant half-crazy Hari's death, "surprisingly" because, well, Hari being Hari, and also, it wasn't like this leaves us entirely without Hari Seldons, there's still Creepy Monolith Hari and who knows how many other copies out there. But that one had been through enough with Gaal and Salvor that he really felt like a different person. He's still a manipulative sack of dicks but I liked him! I was sad, but at least hoping he was backed up somewhere! And then two episodes later the most excellent reveal that he and Gaal faked the whole thing! I thoroughly loved all of that. Gaal hugging him! <333

"Don't trust the planet of the creepy utopian space psychics!" Orion and I were chanting at the screen, while they proceeded to not listen to us and it was, predictably, a bad idea. Seriously, when in all of sci-fi was trusting the creepy psychic utopia a good idea?

I had guessed/hoped that the guy with the whispership (can't remember his name) was going to warp into the plaza and save Constant from execution, but I really wasn't sure, and even with an inkling it was going to happen, that was an AMAZING entrance, A+++, no notes. Especially after Constant gave her speech and everything seemed to be setting her up to be a martyr to the Foundation, I was less and less hopeful she was going to get out of it alive somehow. Excellent rescue, very pleased.

I really enjoyed the entire subplot with the Evil Empire Honorable Space Admiral (can't remember anyone's names here either) and the scene in which he justifies his continued loyalty to the Empire is really a good scene. I mean, it's awful. But you can see his reasoning. He can't overthrow the Empire, if he refuses orders it won't change anything, he and everyone he loves will die, and someone else will be put in his place and follow the orders anyway. But then the whole thing with Constant's rescue points out that it may not be possible to change the entire Evil Empire, but you can make a lot of difference for just one person.

But I still wanted him to make better or at least different choices on the blowing up the planet sequence! I guess it all worked out according to Hari's 9999-step plan (my death is only the beginning! the death of my planet is only the beginning!) but that hurted.

Between Honorable Space Admiral and his fighter pilot husband, I was absolutely *not* expecting the husband to be the one of the two of them that survived. However, Honorable Space Admiral and whispership guy got a dynamite final episode (the fistfight with Cleon! never has a man deserved so much punching! the airlock switch!) and they both got to go out in an excellent death scene.

The entire thing with Terminus getting blown up! And then Deus Ex Monolith! And Constant's dads and Space Admiral's Space Husband are alive after the whole exploding planet fell on them! (I was SO happy Constant's family got reunited, I was so afraid she and Space Dads were going to go down each thinking the other one had died.) I think this episode gave me emotional whiplash.

SALVOR NO. WHAT WAS THAT EVEN. She just randomly died at the end there?? Come onnnnn. We already got like 12 death fake-outs in the last couple of episodes! Why'd that one have to be real?!

If time passes differently in the monolith, does that mean the entire rescued Terminus population are still going to be around after the second 150-year timeskip? I have questions!

Speaking of time passing differently in the monolith, best dialogue: Whispership guy: Whoa, it's dark. How long was I in there, anyway? Constant: Three years. Paulie: More like three hours. Constant: We agreed we weren't going to tell him! I love them. <3333

That sure was A Lot with the Cleons. And now I guess there's an entire Cleon/Cloud Dominion dynasty out there somewhere just waiting to cause trouble.

So yeah, I'm really enjoying my bombastic sci-fi soap opera! Season 3 when pls.

#foundation #foundation tv

[weclassybouquetfun]

Jacob Anderson - as his musical moniker Raleigh Ritchie (named after two characters in Wes Anderson's THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS) - has long sung about and portrayed sad bois.

No. 1 Sad Boi GAME OF THRONES' Greyworm.

Raleigh Ritchie's most recent cd "Andy".

Now he's the (un)living as one as Louis de Pointe du Lac in AMC+'s adaptation of Anne Rice's "Interview With the Vampire".

Joining Anderson is Aussie Sam Reid (THE NEWSREADER, BELLE) as his tempter and temptation Lestat de Lioncourt (with Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy and Bailey Bass as an aged up Claudia).

(Ni)Klaus Mikaelson watching Lestat being absolutely destructive and over the top.

AMC+ offered their own temptation by not making audiences wait until the listed release date of October 2nd and has dropped the first of the seven episodes. A first episode so exquisitely cinematic, beguiling and sexy it is no surprise that it has already received a renewal.

While I have seen the 1994 Neil Jordan directed film, I am not a fan of the book and its universe; but while there are some fans who are upset about the racebending or the change in history, so far, there seems to be a great many who like the changes, loves the casting and really, really like that the series is explicit about Louis' sexuality.

May all the episodes be as great as the first.

But Anderson isn't a sad boi through and through- non, he finds joy in all these geekdom.

I was so happy when he booked a DR. WHO role.

When he attended Comic Con for the first time in support of GAME OF THRONES he said he found his people there. That year he walked the floor as Miles Morales.

This year he walked as Fantastic Four's Dr. Doom and late rapper MF Doom making him Dr. MF Doom.

With Reid.

#jacob anderson #sam reid #bailey bass #eric bogosian #interview with the vampire #amc+ #tv talk #game of thrones #game of Thrones alum #streaming #iwtv 2022 #iwtv cast #louis de pointe du lac #lestat de lioncourt #raleigh ritchie #jam reiderson #iwtv #iwtv s2 #interview with the vampire s2

[aanglican]

people rarely complain about avatar: the last airbender being “too woke” compared to other projects of similar themes. and i don’t for a second think this reception has anything to do with avatar’s superior quality or subtlety compared to more recent works (example: black sails aired between 2014–2017) but rather it’s because atla was released and made a beloved pop culture staple years before the general public ever had the consciousness to complain about “wokeness.” few people had any reason to scare themselves with diversity in mainstream media and its role in their notions of tyranny of the minority because the push for diversity in mainstream media did not intensify to its current level until after atla was completed. interestingly, a good amount of the force behind this pop culture shift was aided by avatar’s very own 2010 film adaptation by m. night shyamalan with “whitewashing” having become much more commonly used jargon after the birth of racebending and aang-aint-white on livejournal, both products of the backlash against the film casting.

for sure if avatar was released for the first time sometime during or after 2016, it would be panned as another “woke” tv series lol. a sinocentric fantasy world in which there exists no white people but fictional nations based on real-world asian and indigenous arctic & american peoples with a blind little girl and a reformed teenaged misogynist as some of its heroes, airing around the same time as rings of power and the racebent game of thrones sequel? girl. we wouldn’t hear the end of forced diversity, identity politics, and gen z’s oh so degenerate tastes ruining the fantasy genre & all of pop culture with our love for pandering!

#atla #a:tla #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the last airbender #mytext

[lillydales]

Dragon Dreams

Viserys was hitting her, hurting her. She was naked, clumsy with fear. She ran from him, but her body seemed thick and ungainly. He struck her again. She stumbled and fell. He struck her again. She stumbled and fell.

“You woke the dragon,” he screamed as he kicked her. “You woke the dragon, you woke the dragon.”

The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her, she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. “... don’t want to wake the dragon".

A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. “Wake the dragon."

#daenerys targaryen #house targaryen #asoiaf #game of thrones #game of thrones racebend #racebent got #viserys targaryen #my gifs

[westerosiladies]

Daenerys Appreciation Month Day Twenty-three: Wants and needs vs. duty and sacrifices

#game of thrones #asoiaf #daenerys targaryen #danymonth2021 #book quotes #daenerys fancast #racebending #racebent daenerys #asian daenerys #sophie zhang #the house with the red door #a queen belongs to her people not to herself

[barbreypilled]

forgot about this from a while ago anyway she deserves a pre-Rebellion spin-off series why? because I love her

#also don’t tag as racebending but ppl only rly do that on like #my specifically ~Nate Of~ takes on certain characters #and all my iron islands designs are quite literally just some shit I came up with they have zero cultural significance and are only loosely #based on certain clothing styles that I’ve seen #I noticed a few ppl tagging them as ‘indigenous’ like... indigenous to where? #anyway I love alannys #asoiaf #mine #valyrianscrolls #larissa be drawing #a song of ice and fire #game of thrones #alannys harlaw #house harlaw

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Imagine:

Idris Elba as Ned Stark

Letitia Wright as Sansa Stark

John Boyega as Jon Snow

Daniel Kaluuya as Robb Stark

#game of thrones #ned stark #sansa stark #jon snow #robb stark #idris elba #letitia wright #john boyega #daniel kaluuya #got #fancast #racebend

[nooneeverlookedforagirl]

Daenerys Targaryen, from Valyria in the East.

Arya Stark, of the blood of the First Men.

Margaery Tyrell, of Andal blood.

Arianne Martell, daughter of the Rhoynar and the Andals.

Part Two

#daenerys targaryen #arya stark #margaery tyrell #arianne martell #asoiaf racebend #asoiaf #game of thrones #Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Margaery Tyrell

[neechees]

CHARACTERS OF COLOR MEME: Racebends [2/10] ↳ House Stark (Game of Thrones)

“ The winters are hard, but the Starks will endure. We always have.”

#asoiaf #got #asoifedit #gotedit #game of thrones #a song of ice and fire #cocmeme #coc meme #characters of color meme #justin's edits #i'm still not necessarily a got fan but... the starks are native

[koeii]

Mun Information.

Repost rather than reblog, thanks!

Basics

name (or preferred online name): Arya.

age: 26

birthday: may 23rd

country: usa.

fluent in: english, sarcasm, romanian ( written), spanish  ( written )  Writing details:

preferred genres/tropes/aus: horror, angst, psychological, thriller, dark genres in general, romance, I prefer slow burn plotted threads over fast burn out ones. i also love anything related to god lore, it’s something i love and i love worldbuilding for that reason. 

disliked genres/tropes/aus:  A/B/O related themes as a whole due to the content and nature of that given nature, it doesn’t mesh well with me because of the implications of shit in verses like that. Cancer related plotting is a really sore spot for me, and drug use for a plot is a flat out no, weed is fine but hard drugs is a big no. 

preferred writing styles: i prefer plotted and muilt para as far as writing goes, i can do shorter thingd but prefer long plots / threads. it’s a lot easier for me and it gives me more of a feel for you muse. 

personal icon preferences (do you use them? do you prefer certain sizes? ect.): i do use them, but i have no issue with not using them. sometimes you just don’t have the resource available and with this blog is a main issue due to me wanting to avoid racebending. my icons tend to be 85 /85 only because thats what i crop at but i try not to go smaller than that.

partners icon preferences (do you prefer your partners to have certain icon styles or not care?): i dont care what they use as long as i can see what they’re trying to get across. any other details about your writing preferences you want to include: i prefer for you not to have small assed font, i mean double small font, its really hard for me to read it and a hassle.  Get to know me:

what fandoms do you consider yourself a part of, even outside of this blog?: honestly, anything? supernatural, the witcher, marval, the mortal instruments, the dark materials, naruto, avatar the last airbender, inheritance cycle, game of thrones, kingdom hearts, ect, there’s a lot i know outside of overwatch, im willing to adapt my muse to it.

what fandoms are you entirely uninterested in?: stranger things, riverdale, once upon a time. teen wolf, there’s others i can’t remember at the moment.

favourite foods: anything that is under indian culture, to be frank, it’s s real soft spot for me. 

favourite drinks: tea, water, sake from time to time.

hobbies: writing, video games, character development, sleep, being bad at art and photoshop.

list ten things you want to do in the future: be healthy, get a place with my better half, finish school, i actually like, be financially stable, get myself to fucking learn to drive, pay off my debt but yah.

what do you wish would change in the rp community?: just fucking block if someone makes you uncomfortable or does shit, dont call it out on the dash, its no ones buisness but your own. its just annoying as shit seeing callouts, i literally have a zero tolerence, like if you post any i unfollow, i dont need a reason, keep that shit off the dash. people like sticking their noses in shit on this hellsite.

what are some of the things you love about the rp community?: these amazing people @adversitybloomed​ @huckleberrytm​ @affcgato​ @dissolvedshadows​ @daniwrit​ @omniphrenia​  i’ve known a lot of people within my time here and just its good to make people that support you and see you grow as a whole. <3

anything else you’d like to add?:nah but read this and consider yourself tagged.

#ooc / dead dove do not eat #long post

[transformativeworksandcultures]

TWC No.29: Fans of Color, Fandoms of Color

Vol 29 (2019): Fans of Color, Fandoms of Color, Edited by Abigail DeKosnik & andré carrington

Editorial Abigail DeKosnik & andré carrington, Fans of Color, Fandoms of Color    

Theory Abigail De Kosnik, Relationshipping Nation: Philippines/US fan art and fan fiction Ellen Kirkpatrick, On [dis]play: Outlier resistance and the matter of racebending superhero cosplay Megan Justine Fowler, Rewriting the school story through racebending in the Harry Potter and Raven Cycle fandoms Sarah Florini, Enclaving and cultural resonance in Black "Game of Thrones" fandom      

Praxis James Rendell, Black (anti)fandom's intersectional politicization of "The Walking Dead" as a transmedia franchise Nicholas-Brie Guarriello, Affective racial politics in "How to Get Away with Murder" fan fiction Shan Mu Zhao, How the Green Hornet became Chinese: Cross-racial mimicry and superhero localization in Hong Kong    

Symposium Poe Johnson, Transformative racism: The black body in fan works Yessica Garcia Hernandez, Latina fans agitate respectability: Rethinking antifans and antifandom Ebony Elizabeth Thomas & Amy Stornaiuolo, Race, storying, and restorying: What can we learn from black fans? Sarah Christina Villanueva Ganzon, Fandom, the Filipino diaspora, and media convergence in the Philippine context Tracy Deonn Walker,Narrative extraction, #BlackPantherSoLit, and signifyin': "Black Panther" fandom and transformative social practices Sascha Buchanan, Competition and controlling images as the fuel igniting Beyoncé and Rihanna fandom fights Miyoko Conley, Transnational audiences and Asian American performance in the musical "KPOP" JSA Lowe, Approaching whiteness in slash via Marvel Cinematic Universe's Sam Wilson

Interview Mel Stanfill, Fans of Color in Femslash

Review Regina Yung Lee, "Squee from the margins: Race and fandom" by Rukmini Pande Alexis Lothian, "Bodyminds reimagined: (Dis)ability, race, and gender in Black women's speculative fiction," by Sami Schalk Erika Junhui Yi, "Boys' love, cosplay, and androgynous idols," edited by Maud Lavin, Ling Yang, and Jing Jamie Zhao Jungmin Kwon, "Seeing fans: Representations of fandom in media and popular culture," edited by Lucy Bennett and Paul Booth Susana Morris, "Speculative blackness: The future of race in science fiction," by andré m. carrington

#twc #otw #race #FOC #Fans of Color #Fandoms of Color #new issue

[thornfield13713]

What is the number one overarching change you would make to any Lovestruck series?

Okay, there are a few series where I'd make big changes, but here's the biggest one, and it's for the Astoria games - Fate's Kiss primarily, but this applies to Lost Kisses too.

Ahem.

The natural Big Bad for this series in every route is Zeus.

There, I said it.

The central conflict of the game as a whole - the heroine carrying the potential to become the goddess Hera - only exists because Zeus forced Hera into marriage against her will, was an appalling husband to her (the adultery is the main point made in-game, but I am going to guess it extends beyond that, as, if she didn't want to marry him, I'm going to guess she didn't want to sleep with him either), and finally exiled her from Olympus for standing up to him. He made her so miserable that the only way out she could see involved asking one of her best friends to kill her and ensure that she never returned to Olympus and, when attempts are made to force her return, she always resists them. This whole situation is all Zeus's fault, and yet he never seems to suffer lasting consequences. The nearest we come to it is in Hydra's route, which is...nice, but doesn't go far enough.

Zeus is the natural endgame antagonist, and is repeatedly shown to be entirely unfit for his position as King of the Gods. As such, it is hard to swallow as happy any ending in which he remains in power. He is, admittedly, usually the final antagonist, or at least the source of the final conflict in every route...but he never seems to suffer any serious consequences for that, and that is a shame. My suggestion would be that any ending featuring the MC assuming the power (if not necessarily the memories) of Hera would feature her taking the throne of Olympus and all others give the throne to the most reasonable Top Tier God we meet in the series - Hades. While Zeus suffers some punishment or other for all the shit he gets up to because while his utter disregard for consent is entirely myth-compliant, it is still absolutely sickening to see go unpunished. Yes, okay, I know powerful men don’t get punished for this shit every day, but...a little wish-fulfilment in my romance games would be nice?

...I am aware that the fact that Zeus is black in these games gives a certain amount of Unfortunate Implications to all this, but- frankly, that is the fault of the writers for giving the role of Zeus - sexually rapacious, irresponsible and arbitrary in his use of power, unfit to so much as run a lemonade stand and just an asshole besides, with a really, really awful temper - to a black man, thus leaning into all manner of negative stereotypes. I, personally, have been an advocate of overthrowing Zeus and replacing him with someone better-qualified for the job of ruler of Olympus ever since I learnt that Disney’s Hercules was not an accurate portrayal of Greek myth. Like...all of those things I just mentioned are aspects of Zeus’s character in the original myths too, as is the so-very-non-consensual nature of his marriage to Hera. Lovestruck has always had some racism/colourism issues, sad to say, but Zeus is one of the more obvious examples of this. I get what they thought they were going for by making the King of the Gods a black man, but...well, that only works if the king of the gods in question is not Zeus, who is infamous for being The Actual Worst, and being so in ways that play into a lot of very ugly stereotypes when you racebend him.

I mean, other than that, I’d want to make the lore a bit more consistent about what exactly is required for the heroine to become Hera, and maybe a bit more leaning into the original myths for ideas, because I have some really fun ideas about how the reincarnation process works that borrow from the original myths and the game is a bit inconsistent, but...yeah, this is my main gripe. 

#astoria #astoria: fate's kiss

[westerosiladies]

#game of thrones #asoiaf #valyrianscrolls #arya stark #east asian arya stark #arya fancast #suzuka ohgo #fancasting #racebending #book quotes

[barbreypilled]

I have zero energy to draw so I fed the worm in my brain some alcohol and let it abuse artbreeder for an hour so this is what Sansa, Arya, Jeyne P and Dany look like in my whacky little mind’s eye 🤪

#it’s not technically my art but if u tag it as racebending I will judge u #I also did Asha Theon Cersei Cat and Margaery but they were very....uncanny valley I didn’t enjoy #asoiaf #mine #valyrianscrolls #Sansa Stark #Arya stark #Jeyne Poole #daenerys targaryen #a song of ice and fire #got #game of thrones

[the-desolated-quill]

A White Actor Grows Some Bollocks - Quill’s Scribbles

You may recall that movie studio Lionsgate got themselves into a bit of hot water last week when they announced the casting of Ed Skrein as Major Ben Daimio in their upcoming Hellboy reboot. The problem was Major Ben Daimio is a Japanese character in the source material, making Hellboy the latest of numerous sci-fi and/or comic book adaptations to whitewash a prominent Asian character. I and many others made our views heard, voicing our strongest and angriest objections to this blatant bit of racist erasure (for whitewashing is objectively racist and totally inexcusable) just as we did with the likes of Doctor Strange, Death Note and Ghost In The Shell. But unlike those projects I just listed, the most extraordinary thing happened. Somebody listened.

Oh not the studio obviously. No, it was Ed Skrein himself. Realising the hornet’s nest he had kicked, Skrein actually announced via his social media accounts that he was dropping out of the role.

This open letter has received a positive response from fans and readers. Hellboy producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin made a joint statement in support saying:

“Ed came to us and felt very strongly about this. We fully support his unselfish decision. It was not our intent to be insensitive to issues of authenticity and ethnicity, and we will look to recast the part with an actor more consistent with the character in the source material.”

Even Hellboy creator Mike Mignola chipped in to offer his praise for Skrein’s decision to step down.

Now it would be easy to take a very cynical approach to all of this. Perhaps claim that Skrein only stepped down because he realised the damage all of this backlash could do to his career, but for once I’m willing to put aside my cynicism. I do actually believe Ed Skrein’s sincerity here. He seems to be genuinely apologetic, initially not realising the implications of what he was doing and now seems determined to make amends.

However I’m not exactly willing to praise him for his decision. At least not to the same extent others are. I can understand why people are praising him so heavily. This is an almost unprecedented move. Having put up with loads of A list white actors giving the weakest and most pathetic excuses to justify their own racist bullshit, the idea of a white actor growing some bollocks and actually stepping down from a whitewashed role purely on moral grounds is a novelty. He quit a tentpole movie purely because it was the right thing to do, and I am grateful for that. But can we try and keep this in perspective? This decision wasn’t courageous or brave. It’s just an actor turning down a role. A role that should never have been offered to him in the first place. While I’m pleased that Ed Skrein did the decent thing in the end, the fact is this entire situation should never have happened in the first place. Asian characters should be played by Asian actors. That should not be a difficult concept for filmmakers to wrap their heads around, and I feel I should point out I still don’t trust Lionsgate in the fucking slightest. Oh they’re going to cast a Japanese actor as Ben Daimio now if they know what’s good for them, but if Ed Skrein didn’t take the moral high ground, they wouldn’t have learnt a damn thing. Let’s not forget the studio’s initial response to the controversy came from this now deleted tweet from Hellboy executive producer Christa Campbell:

We don’t see colours or race. The slogan for closet racists the world over. 

See this is what so many white people in positions of power and authority within the industry need to understand when it comes to POC presentation. Being colourblind sounds good in theory, but in practice it can be very dangerous. When you make an actor’s performance or marketability the only criteria, you end up making stupid mistakes like this. When you racebend a white character, it’s fine. We already have plenty of representation, plus 9 times out of 10 being white isn’t actually integral to the character. For characters of colour on the other hand, you’ve got to take these other factors into consideration. Usually the culture of said character is integral plus it’s important for non white characters to be portrayed on screen not just for equality, but also for variety.

Recently I finally got to watch the Disney movie Moana, and I’m currently slightly obsessed with it. Not just because it’s a fun, smartly written musical with a great female protagonist, lovable characters, funny jokes and a heartwarming message behind it. It’s also because it explores myths and cultures I’ve never got to experience before.

Moana takes a lot of influence and inspiration from Polynesian culture and mythology, most notably adapting the stories of the demigod Maui (played by Dwayne Johnson). I have no idea how accurate this is, but I still loved it because it was something different. After seeing so many fantasy stuff like Lord Of The Rings and Game Of Thrones, which are essentially variations on Norse mythology, as well as the trillions of Christian inspired fantasy stories, Moana feels incredibly fresh and unique. I found all the stuff about Maui and Te Fiti fascinating, and I would love to see more movies exploring these Polynesian myths and legends. There’s such an incredibly rich vein of creativity you could tap into here.

Something else I loved about Moana was they actually cast Polynesian actors as the characters. I’ve already mentioned Dwayne Johnson as Maui. There’s also Jemaine Clement as Tamatoa the crab, Nicole Scherzinger as Moana’s mum, Jango Fett himself Temuera Morrison as Moana’s dad, Rachel House as Moana’s granny, and newcomer Auli’i Cravalho as Moana herself. This is why diversity is so important in films. Not only does it give actors of colour more exposure and allow new talents like Cravalho to emerge and flourish, but it also exposes general movie going audiences to stories and cultures we wouldn’t normally get to see. And that’s why whitewashing is so offensive. It takes job opportunities away from actors of colour and also causes creativity to stagnate. When it’s an Asian character in an Asian inspired story, there’s lots of different directions you can go. When it’s a white character in an Asian inspired story, there’s only one story you can tell. The outsider. The stranger. The foreigner to their ways. That’s not interesting. We’ve seen that done loads of times. Plus if you truly want to immerse the audience in another culture, isn’t it better to have a character that actually represents that culture rather than some white dweeb who knows jackshit about it?

Basically what I’m saying is we need more movies like Moana and less movies like...

No I’m never dropping this. Fuck this movie and all who support it.

So while I’m pleased that Ed Skrein decided to do the right thing in the end, I’m still going to judge this Hellboy reboot with the suspicion and scorn it deserves. Sure they’re probably going to cast a Japanese actor as Ben Daimio, but only because they have to now to save themselves from further embarrassment. It’s not because they want to. If it was someone like Scarlett Johansson or Tilda Swinton, the studio would still be sticking to their guns and trying to justify their racist bullshit. 

I’m glad Skrein managed to fix things and reveal A list white actors like Swinton and Johansson for the selfish, racist, privileged pricks that they are through his own selfless actions, but until the industry properly recognises that whitewashing is NEVER a good idea, nothing has actually changed as far as I’m concerned.

#ed skrein #hellboy #hellboy reboot #whitewashing #quill's scribbles

[diversityinfilmtv]

 Asian American actor and filmmaker John Brougher produced a short film in response  to the “outsider” argument used in defense of a white actor (Finn Jones) portraying Iron Fist.

 As many may or may not know, on Friday, March 17, 2017, the long awaited Marvel series, Iron Fist will debut on Netflix. 

Marvel was criticized for creating two features in a row (Doctor Strange included), about a white man in an “exotic” Asian locale. On the heels of the whitewashing controversy surrounding Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One character in Doctor Strange, a petition went out asking Marvel to cast Danny Rand aka Iron Fist, as Asian. It was the best solution to an otherwise stubborn problem. Marvel chose to stay "true to the character,” by hiring Game of Thrones alum, Finn Jones (aka Loras Tyrell).

Sometime in the last week, Jones abruptly quit Twitter after an enthused debate against Nerds of Color writer,  Asyiqin Haron regarding whitewashing. You can read about here.

The argument for keeping Danny Rand white centers around the “fish out of water” story; that is, Rand is an outsider in an Asian society. While on the surface this seems credible, it makes presumptions about Asians. It assumes Asians are perpetual foreigners, that Asians cannot be outsiders in Asian societies. See the Korean Adoptees in Korea story as an example of how erroneous this belief is.There are many multi-generational Asian Americans with little ties to the land and culture of their ancestors,  so this argument does not sell.

On top of Marvel’s ‘white-man-in exotic locale,’ insult comes news that actor and part-time stuntman, Lewis Tan, auditioned for the role of Rand, but was given the role of the villain instead.

See Tan in action here: https://twitter.com/TheLewisTan/status/824322020049457152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Anyway, enjoy John Brougher’s subversive work as he racebends Rand and show the possible in the impossible.

 See also:  Meet Lewis Tan, the Asian-American Actor Who Could Have Been Iron Fist

 UPDATE: Finn Jones responds to Iron Fist’s bad reviews

"I think the world has changed a lot since we were filming that television show. I'm playing a white American billionaire superhero, at a time when the white American billionaire archetype is public enemy number one, especially in the U.S."

#iron fist #netflix #Marvel Studios #MCU #finn jones #nerds of color