Some TLA linkblogging, and an open letter

[soc_puppet]

Well. I guess my previous post was perhaps slightly less last-ish than I thought? Or rather, that was my last attempt to keep people from going out to the movie; it was far from my last word on the subject. So, sorry if you're tired of hearing about it, but I'm not tired of talking about it.

Three responses to read, even if you skip everything else ever:
Roger Ebert's review (and possibly also FacePainting)
io9: M. Night Shyamalan Finally Made A Comedy
Dante Basco: The Last Airbender: To Boycott or Not?

Oh, and here's M. Night's response* to Parties Unnamed, AKA anyone who has a beef with the racial aspect of TLA's casting, AKA Racebending.com and supporters.

...Yeah, okay, I am definitely doing this.

Dear M. Night,

No. You don't get to claim that "I’m casting this entire movie in this color blind way where everyone is represented," when you also say, in the same interview, that "[W]hen Dev was cast as Zuko, I said, OK, I have to cast an Uncle Iroh that looks like his uncle."

That isn't how colorblindness works. That's how color-sightedness works. I may not be literally colorblind myself, but my brother and maternal grandfather are, and I've got a fifty percent chance of being a carrier myself (I think that's how statistics work here?). Possibly worse, I'm the one who told my parents that my brother thought the sky was purple. I think I've learned a teensy bit about the condition by now. Enough to be able to tell people when they're using the term incorrectly, at least.

And trying to cast a unit of people as all the same color? Not colorblind; color-sighted. It's not that you can't tell the difference between racial white, yellow, red, brown, black; you clearly can. It's that you're either ignorant about the larger social implications (which I could forgive at the outset, but after all our efforts it's just willful) or you just. Don't. Care.

Oh, and by the way? I think you've conveniently forgotten about how you'd originally cast Jesse McCartney as Zuko. Which makes both the Water Tribe and the Fire Nation white - and that's if you ignore the fact that Noah Ringer isn't actually Asian, but just "[feels] mixed race with an Asian quality to him." Try chewing on that for a while.

Unamused and tired of your fucking bullshit,
Me


* For those who don't want to read unadulterated M. Night, M. Night vs. The Internet: The Airbender Mash-up is basically anti-casters vs M. Night point-by-point. It's pretty wicked, IMO.

Comments

[dogmatix]

...wooooow. I really just. Man. That's...

Okay, first off, I didn't go see the movie. Not that I go see a lot of movies, but even if I got the opportunity to go see this, I wouldn't.

From all reviews, it's not just a well-made movie with the exception of the race issues, it's actively a ~bad~ movie. Like, a really, really bad movie. And M(Minoj? Really? That's what the whole fuss is about? I mean, people can't say my name right and it's a dang common name, so I guess.. but.. geez, it's not like his name's thirteen syllables long with more consonants than the alphabet) Night's (very defensive) interview thing about the casting is just insane. First, as people keep pointing out, Sokka and Katara were cast first, not last. Also, if, as he claims, the Water Tribe 'turned out' caucasian... then why is the entire rest of the tribe Inuit???? *FACEPALM* And it's not because they're Northern Water Tribe descended, because the Northern Water Tribe is also Inuit.

*sigh* That interview did not raise my opinion of M. Night.

And if he didn't notice that the entire freaking cartoon(it is ~not~ anime, it's that rarest of all things, a wonderful, deeply thought out, well plotted cartoon, right up there with Gargoyles.) is based in Asian and Inuit cultures, then he hasn't been watching the show.

And for the love of the gods I do not want white and/or black actors/extras in the movie, because it's jarring and innacurate.

...I'll just be over here re-reading all the best Avatar fic I can get my hands on. XD;;

[soc_puppet]

Y-yeah. Shyamalan is really just not doing well here.

First, as people keep pointing out, Sokka and Katara were cast first, not last.
I think I missed people pointing this part out somehow, but can I just say YES? Also, re: the rest of the tribe being Inuit: Even if it were because they're descended [more directly?] from the NWT, unless both Gran-Gran and their mother conceived by someone equally NWT/white, they should be three-quarters SWT/Inuit. Even if it was just Gran-Gran, which I could maybe picture if pressed, they'd still be half.

And yeah, basically yes to everything else you said as well. RAGE, M. NIGHT. RAGE. (In fact, in this case, I think the "mad" in this icon should be interpreted as "angry".)

[kaitodoushi.livejournal.com]

...Dante Basco WANTED to play Zuko and they didn't...?!

At this point I'm hoping it goes like the Hulk movie and in a few years they remake it with a more capable director. And hopefully that time they cast him as Zuko since there's no way he could mess up the character or anything XD Though Dev Patel has been getting mixed reviews which is making him one of the better reviewed people in the cast...


And you should send that letter verbatim. Just saying.

[soc_puppet]

I know, right? He even had some people pushing for him, apparently! *rages a little more*

We can only hope. Most of us over at Racebending could see him as a nice Sokka :Db I mean, Inuit or otherwise native would be awesome, but I can't imagine we'd turn him down. (Also, in my fantasy world, not only did they get a competent director and writer the first time around, and actually work closely with Bryke on everything, but Mako would still be alive to play Iroh side-by-side with him. I figure, as long as I'm dreaming...)


XD I'm sorely tempted!

[semiramis.livejournal.com]

If your brother--full blooded?--is affected, then that means your mother is a carrier, which means you have a 50/50 chance of being a carrier as well thanks to the gene being on the X chromosome. If your father were affected, then you'd have a 100% chance of being a carrier. If it wasn't a sex-linked trait and your brother was affected but your parents weren't, then you'd have a 1/3 chance of not being a carrier, given the assumption you weren't affected yourself.

...also I think M. Night is just kind of. Trying to get metaphorical N-word privileges to go further than they can reasonably go. Just because you're part of the group in question doesn't mean that being ignorant about it is acceptable. Particularly if you're doing it in such a public way, cripes.

Also also, I didn't want to say this in racebending for fear of being skewered, but I still think Dante Basco, awesome as he is, is a bit old to play Zuko by now. He's, what, 35ish?

[soc_puppet]

Yes, full-blooded. I'm nearly positive that it's the X-linked one, since it does go Maternal Grandfather → Mother → Son, Dad isn't affected, and, to the best of my knowledge, I'm not either. Individually, that puts me at 50/50 chances, but I thought it was a little different for if there was another individual in the mix? IDK, it's been too long since I've taken any statistics.

Exactly! Being a member of a marginalized group does not give you a free pass for shitting on said marginalized group.

If he can still pass as a teenager when you squint, I'm sure Hollywood doesn't care ^^a That said, I certainly wouldn't mind if the role went to a different up-and-coming young Asian American actor - though it would be cool if he could still get some role on the show. Someone in the comments of his post suggested young!Roku, for example.

[lightbird777.livejournal.com]

Check out this (http://community.livejournal.com/capslock_atla/985111.html?thread=28559383#t28559383) macro at CAPSLOCK ATLA if you haven't already.

[semiramis.livejournal.com]

Another person? Do you mean your brother? Because if so, it's not--the two events of inheritance are independent from one another. But since your brother is color-blind, that means your mom has at least one color-blind gene, but since she isn't color-blind herself, that means she also has a sighted gene, which means, when your mother has a child, that child has a 1/2 probability of inheriting either the color-blind or the color-sighted copy. Since your father is color-sighted, this means he doesn't have the blind variant, his children all have a 1/1 chance of inheriting the sighted gene from him, assuming they're girls. 1/1 * 1/2 = 1/2, so all of your parents' real or theoretical female children (do you have sisters?) have 1/2 chance of being a carrier.

...he doesn't at all to me :|a I almost think he looks older than he actually is from some angles. But young Roku would be a good fit for him! I would buy him as Ozai, too, although he's a touch young for that role.

[soc_puppet]

Yes, my brother. And that's what I thought, except someone else once told me 25%, and I got all confused and also I have low self-esteem. But yeah, I figured it was the sex-linked one. (Only the one brother.) ANYWAY, from now on, I'm sticking to my 50% guns.

*shrugs?* Hollywood tries to sell a lot of shit; I think it's commendable that you are less prone to buying. I'd also buy him as a particularly ambitious Zhao, I think - a little young for original!Zhao, but pump up the already pumped ambition a little more, and I could see it. Plus, no kids to worry about :3b It would limit his appearances somewhat, but since we didn't really get a good look at Ozai until, what, the third season? I don't think it would be that big a difference.

[soc_puppet]

XD I hadn't, thank you! I think that could be the next "in your base".

[semiramis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the other person was confused. Wikipedia has useful infographics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:X_recessive_carrier_mother.svg).

Alas, what could have been!

[soc_puppet]

Perhaps they were thinking, "When you were conceived, you had a one-in-four chance of being a female carrier, as opposed to anything else".

I'm still hoping somewhat weakly for a reboot in which they get things right.

[semiramis.livejournal.com]

M-maybe? WHO KNOWS

Yeah I hope so. At the very least, though, this thing is clearly tanking spectacularly with the race issue very visible among the complaints, so hopefully Hollywood will get a clue.

[candy--chan.livejournal.com]

You are my hero for these links ♥ I spent some quality time last night reading the reviews for the movie on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, and they are hilarious and awful...I think M. Night has officially finished his career. I hope he has, at least. There is no excuse - you'd think that given his heritage in particular, he'd want to AVOID marginalizing Asians, Asian-Americans, and Asian culture.

And to add insult to injury, I see parents talking about how their kids (or other kids in the theater) left looking absolutely crushed because those weren't their characters. Hope he's proud of himself.

[soc_puppet]

I should stop here, or I'll "Maybe they were thinking" myself to death ^^a

So true ♥ I hope a lot of films and stuff get really diverse casting as a result. And then I will spend money on them, and hopefully Hollywood will get the @#$%@#$%# message already.

[soc_puppet]

Absitively :Db I hope more that he learns from it than that he's finished (it would be all too easy for Paramount to make him a scapegoat and take none of the blame itself), but I wouldn't mind seeing him go too much at this point. He's eaten enough shoe stores to leave the state of California barefoot, methinks.

And that's just other people's kids. You recall how he talked about how he was introduced to the show - by his daughter, whose favorite character was Katara, almost certainly because there was finally someone on TV who looked like her? I don't know how he sleeps at night, quite frankly.

[candy--chan.livejournal.com]

Part of me holds out hope that this will go the way of the whole Hulk thing, where they remake it because the first one was so bad, but...then realism sets in and reminds me that I'm stupid D: If the reviews are any indication, I can't see the movie making enough to warrant those sequels.

I saw that! How can he do that to his daughter? And don't even get me started on what I'm hearing about what they've done to Katara's character - she was tough, probably ANOTHER reason his daughter looked up to her. Katara kicked ass. I'm to understand that she is now...wimpy.

And on a totally shallow, unimportant note, WHERE THE HELL IS THE CABBAGE MAN?