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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
@alliterator, Actually this occurred to a Doctor Who showrunner recently. A season or two ago he was "I'm a liberal guy, if we color-blind this everything will even out properly" and then it didn't and he finally realized "okay, that was dumb of me, diversity isn't going to happen unless we make a conscious effort. My bad"
edited 10th Dec '15 9:49:57 AM by MousaThe14
The Blog The ArtThe latest season featured a white guy regenerating into a black woman
The usual suspects got grouchy, it was great.
Forever liveblogging the Avengersit's still healthy to have them show up because it normalizes the idea that they exist for people, leading to gradually less discrimination against those groups. on top of that, it is artistically interesting because it allows writers to portray different parts of the human experience.
10% is also still a pretty big number of people, at that.
Also, what part of "the Kunlun mountains are real" don't you understand?
edited 10th Dec '15 11:09:54 AM by alliterator
The Atlantians in Atlantis The Lost Empire had a distinctly African feel to them.
Regarding Iron Fist's casting, I think this is one of those situations where we need to accept that he's going to run afoul some stereotype or generally disliked trope no matter what race the character is. They need to accept this up front, and be prepared to modify the story as needed to minimize any problems that arise. I'm not even going to begrudge someone disliking switching ethnicity in general, as long as it's purely coming from a place of favoring accuracy to the source material, and not out of a hatred for what they perceive as political correctness.
If it was up to God-Emperor Falrinn (and we probably should consider ourselves lucky that it is not, as I would make an atrocious God-Emperor), I would probably cast an Asian-American in the role, portray the character as being a minimum of 3rd generation so he considers New York to be his "homeland" more then he does anywhere in Asia, and try to blunt any stereotyping issues by having other Asian-American characters in the show who aren't skilled in Kung Fu or really connected to East Asian culture at all, but contribute to the plot in vital and significant ways.
The Kunlun mountains are a real place, but their connection to the Kunlun from mythology is pretty tangential, and the connection between the comic books' K'un L'un and the mythological version is even more tangential than that. Certainly neither the real version nor the mythological one are home to extra-dimensional aliens.
Look, the Mighty Whitey trope is a problem because of the implication that, whatever unique qualities a non-white culture might have, as soon as a white person is given the chance to practice it, they'll master it better than any non-white person ever did. If you establish that Danny Rand is far from the first outsider to seek out K'un L'un, that countless people from all nations, races, and walks of life have come there seeking martial arts training, with varying degrees of success, then the implication that Danny succeeded because of his race is no longer present.
Now, if your concern is that you just want more racial diversity in the MCU in general, that's a whole different kettle of fish. But that goal could be served by any actor of a non-European descent, not necessarily an Asian one.
edited 10th Dec '15 11:36:58 AM by RavenWilder
And if my concern is both?
Look, minimizing the Mighty Whitey trope while still keeping Danny Rand white is possible — in fact, Fraction and Brubaker did just that in Immortal Iron Fist when they introduced a whole bunch of other Immortal Weapons who were all at least as good or better than Danny. But the origin - where Danny becomes better than all of Lei Kung's other students - still smacks of Mighty Whitey, even if you make his students multicultural.
edited 10th Dec '15 11:50:03 AM by higherbrainpattern
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I think some do, but there are a lot of issues no matter what they choose to do that may outweigh any potential benefits.
Truthfully, Iron Fist is such a problem that I wonder if he's even really worth it.
edited 10th Dec '15 11:51:49 AM by HandsomeRob
One Strip! One Strip!I think if they buddy him up with Shang-Chi like the Ultimate comics did, he'll probably be fine. In the Ultimate line, Iron Fist and Shang-Chi were crime-fighting Bash Brothers.
edited 10th Dec '15 11:53:11 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

Well, Quake wasn't half-Asian originally.
They should simply do a colour-blind casting and then look for the actor who can sell the moves convincingly and clicks well with the other Defenders, especially Luke.