Diversity and Representation in Media

Considering shows like Voltron are geared more towards escapism than character study, there's always the risk of shitty romantic subplots.

BSG had such a great example for showrunners not caring about specific romance plots, but doing them anyway because they have to be there (or in case of the decahexagon of love, because they needed a reason for Apollo and Starbuck to be unavailable for each other from both sides) - Lee and poor Dualla, whose budding relationship was literally always cut out, until she suddenly seemed to ditch her erstwhile boyfriend because Lee... was hot I guess? It was such a mess. Didn't help that ex-bf then went and basically got himself killed over it. Made Dee really popular.

Exactly.

edited 21st Oct '16 8:46:54 AM by hollygoolightly

Echoing the dislike for Love-Triangles...I HATE those with a passion. As well as unnecessary drama. I actually celebrated when Agents of Shield sidestepped a "misunderstanding leads to jealousy" plot every other show would have dragged out over half of the season and then went and teased something way more interesting with the set-up.

to be fair that only happen thanks to fritz being such a good guy, even Jemma was freak out by him being so cool about it

I was actually talking about last episode.

Yeah, the thing that happened last season was not sidestepping drama in any way.

The thing about most TV and movie references is that they all go to the exact same place— we met, you're not the kind of person I'd have normally be attracted to because reasons but you proved yourself or I saw something in you, then you nearly died let's have sex. Then they keep being pulled apart by circumstance, by danger or the call of adventure or by their work, for the sake of creating conflict and feeding the fires or romance.

Except it's only ever about being 'in love', never a healthy ongoing relationship, never two friends who just decide to give this thing a try, and never even acknowledging that not all attraction leads to a lifelong commitment, and that can be okay, too. Not all breakups are acrimonious. Love polygons happen, they can still work, but they don't have to be so soapy and tragic.

edited 21st Oct '16 12:36:38 PM by Unsung

Again, I was talking about the last episode, not about season 3. Which, btw, was more a subversion of the usual tropes...the whole Fitzsimmons relationship is. IE a major point in season 2 was that "nearly dying for someone" doesn't entitle you to get romantic love. Which I adored, because "hero kills dragon and gets princess" has been a trope for way too long.

Right, I was agreeing with you.

Sorry, I read your first line as sarcastic....no idea why....

No problem, it's just the internet. The line covering lies, sarcasm, irony, qualified statement, and truth is wide and blurry.

edited 21st Oct '16 1:00:43 PM by Unsung

???????

This thread got dropped from my watchlist????????

Also, I came to talk about the upcoming Assassin's Creed, which is about white assassins hunting white Templars. While I understand that religious war in the Middle East is a little sensititve right now, climbing walls in Aleppo, Damascus, and Acre was the raison d'etre for Assassin's Creed. Maybe they've mixed the plots for the first and second games, having the modern captured Assassin jump directly in to Ezio's mind, skipping Altair entirely?

I don't know much about the AC movie other than many people think it looks above-average as far as vidya gaem adaptations go. I don't find that very surprising given that the material is fairly easy to adapt to a big blockbuster action movie format.

The original game deeeeeeeeeefinitely had some racial tensions going on. The mostly middle-eastern Assassins vs. the mostly White European Teutons, Templars, and other crusaders? Demagogues preaching against the "Christian King and his army of infidels"? The Assassins actually explicitly had no racial motivations, and hunted people of any race given that they were harmful to the concept of free will, but still.

Yeesh.

That sounds like a tricky landscape to traverse but not necessarily one that would result in a "lose-lose" situation if that makes any sense.

I'm not exactly expecting a sensitive portrayal of race conflicts from this movie but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Fassbender's character, the Desmond expy, is British (I think, he whispers a lot during the trailer), but his ancestor is Spanish. The movie is set during the Inquisition, while a lot of the cast listings so far seem to suggest that a lot of time will be spent in the present, with most of the assassins playing both their ancestors as well as their descendants. Marion Cotillard is playing the Abstergo nurse, but seemingly not listed as anyone else. So far, at least.

Michael K. Williams plays a Haitian voodoo assassin named Baptiste, in 16th Century Spain (which doesn't actually make historical sense, since it was the French who brought slaves to Haiti in the 17th Century, and that was after the Spanish left). And the one Middle Eastern character is played by a Spanish-born actor who grew up in Sweden. So I guess we'll see how they do with that racial sensitivity thing.

This is a pretty blockbuster-worthy cast, though. The aforementioned Fassbender, Cotillard, and Williams, plus Brendan Gleeson and Jeremy Irons. That's a lot of solid actors, and they do seem to want it to be more of a medieval epic than just another video game movie.

edited 21st Oct '16 3:56:35 PM by Unsung

http://www.starwars.com/news/donald-glover-cast-as-young-lando-calrissian-in-upcoming-han-solo-star-wars-stand-alone-film

Donald Glover!

I feel like the AC games always had a certain "blockbuster" quality to them, if it makes any sense. The AAA videogame industry has been trying to emulate Hollywood for a while now, and the AC franchise is a symptom of that.

So it makes sense to adapt it to a film, and it also makes sense that the transition wouldn't actually be that difficult.

edited 21st Oct '16 3:15:12 PM by Draghinazzo

I'm frankly glad the religio-racial tension is greatly reduced. Even if it means less racial diversity, because that is a bed of white hot coals. A video game that needs months to beat can more intricately explore something as delicate as racial relations between massive groups of people than a single action blockbuster can, I feel.

Not really related, but I find it amusing that we were talking about the masculinity/femininity of female heroes in the MCU earlier, and then, just now, I saw this post on my dash talking about a similar subject.

And, yay for Donald Glover playing a young Lando! ^_^ I'm definitely more excited for the Han Solo movie than I was when it was first announced.

Sounds like a problem easily solved by having more women in the creative/writing process (well, "easily" in a manner of speaking - creating stuff is hard work), like many other things.

Honestly, diversity behind the camera would solve a lot of media problems. But, like you said, getting that is hard.

I think that the movie makers look in the wrong place concerning video game adaptations...they always pick either those "some guy explores the world with some sort of weapon" games which always end up kind of generic on screen or they go for something really idiotic, like Tetris. You know what would really be a good game to adapt? Carmen Sandiego! Think about it, in terms of brand recognition, you can't do much better, considering that even those who haven played the game might have seen the TV series or at least heard the catchy theme song. Her look is absolutely iconic (and considering her look and her name, you could put a light-skinned Hispanic in the role). The only thing you would have to do is switching it around a little bit, meaning instead of creating a generic "player hero" who tries to outfox her, make her the protagonist of the movie. Can you imagine a movie about someone trying to steal famous art? Perhaps not even for money? She could be a female Thomas Crown, just much flashier.

Whatever you do with her, it would be certainly way more interesting than another "hero explores land with orcs and elves" plot.

The AC movie went the smart route and isn't trying to adapt any of the games. Instead it went its own way, following a historical period previously mentioned but not explored in AC lore: The Spanish Inquisition.

Also: The Haitian Voodoo Assassin Baptiste does not appear to share to be in the Spanish Inquisition. A movie character is said to descend from him, but when and if his ancestor will show up is unclear. It's unlikely they'll show him in the Inquisition alongside Miguel because previous AC lore had firmly established Baptiste as living in the 18th century.

Something tells me his sole purpose is to give Fassbender the berserk/sleep darts and a lecture or two.

edited 22nd Oct '16 7:34:21 AM by nervmeister