Daily Show/Colbert Report fanfic to follow eventually?

[soc_puppet]

Here we are, Wednesday, March 18th, and once again I have gone an entire week without posting. GO ME.

Someone remind me tomorrow to talk about giant squid and intelligent design. 'Cuz I stayed up late last night to watch a special about colossal squid which had some incidental giant squid info that was somewhat hilarious when I thought about it. (Also, Humboldt squid are awesome.)

MORE IMPORTANTLY! For those of you not following the news as closely as I am (which, admittedly, I am not following as closely as I could be, either), there have been more casting choices announced for the Avatar live action fail fest adaptation. I have... mixed feelings. I mean, on the one hand, the color/race-as-nation line has been more blatantly drawn now, which is more depressing the longer I think about it. On the other hand, at least the rumors that Shyamalan had been planning to cast himself as Iroh have now been thoroughly shot down. Gotta take the small comforts where you can, I guess.

In light of the recent casting announcement, of course, I have decided that it is finally time I put pencil to paper and attempt to write a short Daily Show fan segment (and get that Colbert Report fic out of my head while I'm at it ^^a). Because clearly, this is bigger than a Back in Black short now.

Comments

[soc_puppet]

WARNING: The entirety of this reply is acting under the assumption that you would like to not walk around without pants.


Okay, for a start, I'd like to point you to the Aang Ain't White/Racebending press release. Next, just about any of the "Why We're Doing This" links here would be good (I've even used several in my bullet points).

In no particular order:

* In the casting call for the leads, the descriptions specified a preference for Caucasian actors. Frankly, in the movie business (and Hollywood acting in general), unless race is specified, actors of color have learned to assume the call is going out to white actors.

* Because the setting of the source material is about as blatantly Asian/Inuit as you can get, it would make sense to cast the characters accordingly.

* Between the first two points, this makes it an even bigger deal when roles that should logically go to actors of color, who would have trouble finding other parts, especially if they don't want to be horribly troped or stereotyped, have been largely given to white actors, who would likely have no trouble getting similar roles in other venues.

* There are, in fact, plenty of competent Asian American actors in the US. I'm more willing to compromise on the Water Tribe casting, since I'm pretty sure Inuit actors are a little bit harder to find, let alone transport to Texas for the initial casting call, but I'm sure we still have a descent number of Native American actors in the US - or at least actors who are something other than white. (I'd prefer medium brown, but I'd gladly go darker if it meant we eliminated lighter as an option.)

* Quoting Ciderpress for the emotional point: "During our early Christmas dinner this weekend, the oldest of the nephews, who is 13, brought up the subject of the incredibly white child actors that had been picked for the film version. The three of them were confused and disappointed but unable to articulate exactly why. Then the youngest, all of 7 years old, asked me whether this meant that he couldn't be Aang when he played Avatar with his friends from now on."
I find it extremely difficult to justify robbing children of heroes they can sympathize with, especially when they have so few to start with.

* To quote Rathbone: "I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan. It's one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit."
Translation: a white boy can play the part of a person of color better than a person of color can.

* Paraphrasing Yuki-onna: Stories teach us to survive. In writing us (the women, GLBT, people of color - basically anyone not a heterosexual white male) out of the stories, society is telling us that we have no place in the world, that we have no right to live here.


The TL;DR version: Yeah, I'm sorry I'm not going to enjoy the movie, too. And I hope you'll consider sticking to a pirated version if you feel like watching it yourself.