Look, I love white people. Some of my best friends are white. But that doesn’t mean that I want to see white people in every movie, particularly if they don’t belong there. Like in The Last Airbender, which is based on a cartoon in which the characters are clearly from Inuit- and Asian-flavored cultures and yet, when we come to finished film, we find that almost everyone is Caucasian… except the villains, who are played by dark-skinned actors of Indian and Maori descent.
Shyamalan tells Sci Fi Wire:
Anime is based on ambiguous facial features. It’s part of the art form. You got a problem with that? Talk to the dudes who invented anime. It’s not my issue, OK? That girl [Katara] looks like my daughter. That boy [Aang] looks like Noah [Ringer]. There is no Inuit that looks like Katara. It’s not true. It’s just not true. She looks like my daughter. My daughter is a dupe of Katara. Our family saw ourselves in it. A Hispanic family saw themselves in it. My daughter’s best friend is Hispanic. She saw it, and their whole family thinks they’re all Hispanic, and that’s true. That’s the beauty of anime, [that] we all see ourselves as incredibly ambiguous and diverse. I wanted to be diverse. I wanted to be more diverse. I had to [build upon] whoever came in, the cultures that came in. This wasn’t an agenda for me. It was just very open to me.
He’s right, of course, about the anime original:
The characters are ethnically ambiguous in their facial features. But not in their surroundings. We can take cues from their cultures about what they would look like if they weren’t anime-style drawings. You don’t have to know a damn thing about Avatar: The Last Airbender, the source material, to intuit from this image that the two characters on the left are from an Inuit-influenced culture and that the two rightmost characters are from Asian-influenced cultures.
Shyamalan tells the Orlando Sentinel:
We wanted the Asian cultures — Indian, Thai, whatever — to be influencing the feeling and look of the movie. But it’s myth. So a building couldn’t look like a pagoda. A temple couldn’t look like Angkor Wat. Visually, and in terms of language and actors, it couldn’t be specific. I didn’t want people to know where we were in the world. I wanted this world to be to Asia what Medieval Europe was to Lord of the Rings.
That’s an excellent analogy, in fact. The vaguely medieval fantasy alt-Europe that is Middle Earth is populated, in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, with white actors of European extraction, as we might expect. And Shyamalan’s Last Airbender fantasy alt-Asia is populated by Asian actors, right?
Nope:
It cannot be coincidence that where Shyamalan saw ambiguity, he translated it into “white folk”… except for the bad-guy Fire Nation people, who are dark-skinned. It cannot be a coincidence because this is what Hollywood has almost always done: used white skin as shorthand for goodness and dark skin — or anyone non-Caucasian — as shorthand for badness. And it doesn’t matter what color Shyamalan’s skin is, because he is working within Hollywood’s dictates. It’s very easy to imagine that he would have had a helluva time convincing the Hollywood executives who financed his movie to let him cast Asian and Inuit or Native actors in sympathetic protagonist roles… assuming he even bothered to try. With his recent track record of critical and box office flops, it seems unlikely that he would have pressed his luck.
Oh, and about Dev Patel’s Prince Zuko being a villain? Shyamalan tells Rediff Movies:
The main characters of the film are Noah (Ringer as Aang) and Dev (Patel as Prince Zuko) and they are the heroes of the series.
Dev is on a darker journey that ends very heroic. He is the Shakespearean Hamlet character. And the Uncle Iroh who is basically the Yoda, the Obi-Wan Kenobi character is played by Shaun Toub. These are the most beloved characters in the series.
If this is true, if Zuko is meant to be a hero and Iroh is meant to be a beloved old philosopher warrior, someone should have told Shyamalan’s screenwriter that, because there is absolutely no hint of anything remotely like that in the film.
Oh, but wait: Shyamalan wrote the script. It’s his fault there’s nothing heroic or beloved-ering about Zuko.
And try as he might, he’s not gonna dig his way out of accusations of whitewashing his film. It’s too blatant, too obvious, too disappointing to be explained away.
Actually, the three leads of The Last Airbender look almost EXACTLY like the characters in the image you posted.
P.C. bullshit…
You must be color blind or dumb. Clearly the brother and sister in the cartoon are darker and of Inuit culture.
Do these characters look white?
And now I’m just noticing they didn’t just make the heroes whiter they made the villain darker.
http://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/airbender.jpg?w=370&h=400
Boy, you dumb as shit. I bet you’re still dumb as shit 11 years later.
The mystery of how Shyamalan’s first two films were so great keeps getting deeper and deeper. Part of me wonders if I should feel bad for a would-be auteur who, after a couple of missteps, has become a blatant lackey for Hollywood suits.
Patel looks NOTHING like Zuko. Not even remotely. Hell, as far as I can tell from that picture, he’s not even vaguely scarred, let alone horribly disfigured.
The only one who resembles his character, to my eye, is Noah Ringer as Aang. Sokka MAYBE.
But this is the thing: Anime characters are really -not- that ambiguous in their facial features. Here’s a good visual explanation as to why they are very definitely Asian and not Caucasian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8
Thanks for the link Alryssa, the video is fascinating and funny.
Kevin, if you want a better idea of why fans are so pissed off take a look at this image:
http://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/airbender.jpg?w=370&h=400
Here is a discussion from Racebending over at racialicious explaining the opposition to this casting choice:
http://www.racialicious.com/2010/07/02/an-open-letter-to-racebending-com-detractors/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Racialicious+%28Racialicious+-+the+intersection+of+race+and+pop+culture%29
Oh…and if you don’t like reading, here are some video clips:
http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/the-last-airbender-film-how-to-talk-about-it-video-series/
You beat me to the punch, Candace. I was actually going to mention that in the cartoon’s own official promotional artwork like the one posted in MaryAnn’s entry Katara herself tends to be inexplicably lightened. Perhaps an issue with Nickelodeon’s marketing team?
In the show itself she is very much brown. I would have a much easier time seeing someone with Zoe Saldana’s or Beyonce’s skin tone (but younger since the character is in her very early teens) in the role:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hIfZla1VWGI/So4chYOdGjI/AAAAAAAAE9Y/EMDGQ-n9iVQ/s400/zoe-saldana-35387.jpeg
Also, I actually don’t have a problem with Aang’s casting, I thought he looked suitably similar.
Not that I’ve seen the movie or anything.
Or plan to.
M Night is really showing how ignorant he is and how stupid he thinks we are. I always try to see both sides of an argument and I really gave him a lot of slack because I really wanted the movie to be good. But now that I have seen it I am offended on many levels. He didn’t even try to make the movie good, I enjoyed Mortal Kombat 1 AND 2 better than this, (at least those had catchy techno tunes) and I know how bad those were. I suppose he really didn’t care about race seeing as how he didn’t care about anything else in this movie.
….except he did proudly announce at the end the he wrote the thing, so I guess he is just dumb
Hilarious!
Hey, I have a question. Mr. Shyamalan and anyone else who doesn’t see this as an obvious whitewashing:
If the characters’ ethnicity is so ambiguous and open to interpretation and you wanted to be ‘diverse’, how come your interpretation was that the good guys are all white, and the bad guys are all Asian?
Oh wait, slight change… the good guys aren’t all white, just the ones who matter and actually do anything. Yay, diversity!
The kid playing live action Aang looks like animated Aang. In fact, he looks more Asian than animated Aang.
“The kid playing live action Aang looks like animated Aang. In fact, he looks more Asian than animated Aang”
In the screen shots I agree, I have even argued in favor for Noah. But after seeing it, the acting was so bad I didn’t believe I was watching “Aang” for one second. He did not protray the character very well, but that is M Nights fault more than anything for not giving the poor kid any kind of direction. Before it was released M Night’s claim was that he was the best fit for the part, but I just can’t believe that after seeing the movie. Kudos to the kid for his martial arts skills, but that really should have taken a back seat to acting ability/experience and ethnicity. CGI and a good trainer can make anybody look like they have mad fighting skills.
Seconding what stchivo said.
The acting is where his claim that he just gave the parts to the best candidates falls down. Hard.
Kevin: ”
Actually, the three leads of The Last Airbender look almost EXACTLY like the characters in the image you posted.
P.C. bullshit…”
YES, Kevin, Maryann actualy concedes that in this post. What part of:”The characters are ethnically ambiguous in their facial features.” dind’t you read? Or, more importantly, what part of: “But not in their surroundings” dind’t you get? Or where just randomly looking for something to downplay everytime someone gets their arms up about race? Because, yeah, it is easy to say words like “politicaly correct bullshit”, when, funnily enough, you never had to deal with race issues aimed at you in your entire life. Of course, while growing up, you always had white heroes who you could identify with. And now it doesn’t matter, because you have already grown up, but lots asian children were yet again deprive of heroes who they could fantasise being, FOR ABSOLUTELY NO LOGICAL REASON. The only possible economic(but never moral) justification for whitewashing is to replace non-caucasian characters with an all-star cast. If uncle Iroh had been played by, i don’t know, out of the top of my head, Tom Hanks, the studios would be financialy justified. But seriously, what difference would it have made to cast a corean, japanese or chinese boy as Aang? Seriously, are there no asian child actors available, not even if would have to go looking in other countries. Not that there aren´t enough asians who would like a better at acting in America.
You know what, just read MJ post again, pay attention to it, and if you still don’t agree,try coming up with something less cliche to say.
In most cases, I disagree with that statement. The illusion of average fighting skills maybe… barely… with the aid of epileptic editing. It’s a bit like saying that a decent script and good direction can make anybody look like they have mad acting skills. Just as you can’t fake truly awesome acting, you can’t fake physical grace in martial arts fighting scenes (with the exception of CG-ing a head on a stunt double which is usually obvious). A prime example would be the risible “I know kung-fu” action scenes in the Matrix movies; the best trainers, fight choreographers, and CGI money could buy produced nothing but a string of dull, clumsy puppet shows.
There’s nothing wrong with hiring a kid who’s got some martial arts training. With a decent script to work off of and a good director, you can coax an average (not awesome) performance out of most child actors. That’s all anyone was hoping from these kids anyway, but Shyamalan went and pulled a George Lucas. Of course no one was willing to step up and say, “you are a terrible writer and these performances don’t cut the mustard.” I feel sorry for the poor editor(s) if what ended up in the final cut was the best she and/or he had to work with. Where are your standards Shyamalan?
I agree with D – although the actors do look like their cartoon counterparts, when the universe appropriates so much from east asian and inuit cultures it’s insulting to cast all the good guys white, especially when they’re all no name actors anyway. As a kid, I was so happy to see Jonathan Ke Quan in Goonies and Temple of Doom even if he was playing to stereotypes. There are many more asian kids in America today- must they always identify with the white kid on the movie screen (or more recently, Will Smith’s privileged progeny)?
As with most of these racism/sexism in the movies complaints, it’s not that we never want to see a movie with an all white cast of good guys. It’s that this movie is part of a larger pattern. When 90+% of the “good” main characters in kids’ movies are white boys, and around 35% of the children in the audience are white boys, something ain’t right. Not only is it a disservice to imply to some kids that people who look like them can’t be the hero, it’s insulting to white boys to assume that they couldn’t (or shouldn’t) identify with non-white and/or non-male protagonists from time to time.
There seems to be a real pretension among white people (and I’m white) that race issues no longer exist, and that by bringing up the fact that they still blatantly do exist, people are being racsist. It’s crazy.
Something on one of those links really pinged, too, about non-whites in the USA (and it happens all the time here in the UK too) being asked where they’re from, even if they have an American (or some kind of English) accent. A friend of mine gets this all the time – she’s from Sheffield, and has a fairly strong Sheffield accent. Her grandmother is Grenadan and came to the UK when she was a child, and yet Charlie is always asked where she’s from, despite her regional UK accent and the fact that actually half of her family are white. The only time I’d ask where someone was from originally was if they didn’t have some kind of English accent. Otherwise, they’re English as far as I’m concerned.
I also got hugely irritated by that film (I forget the name) about Hawaii, where they had the Hawaian Princess played by someone who didn’t look even remotely polynesian (I think the actress was of South American descent). Hollywood either whitewashes (like Catherine Zeta Jones playing a Mexican woman in Zorro) or just bungs any brown person into a role, as if all ethnicities are interchangable.
when the universe appropriates so much from east asian and inuit cultures it’s insulting to cast all the good guys white
Firefly always seems to get a pass here. I watched about half the episodes and the movie, and the only Asian faces I remember seeing were comfortably in the background. Not a bad show, but for all the swearing in mangled Mandarin and Chinese writing on every surface, Grey’s Anatomy had a more Asian cast.
I have to say I was shocked by the video linked above. No, not that anime characters are Asian, but that people thought they weren’t. The video didn’t mention the most obvious bit for me: the hair on the men. I have seen men in Korea and Japan with Goku hair. And not cosplaying. That anybody over age six thinks Shampoo is white boggles my mind. I suppose I lost touch with mainstream America when I lived in Korea.
And you know something? Not a bad thing to lose touch with.
People think anime characters are based on white people because the features they draw look exactly like an asian person after double eye-lid surgery, wearing blue contacts and a blonde wig (if not dyed blonde), and possibly bleached skin since they covet bone white skin and light skin like every other dumb race who apparently has no fear of skin cancer until they have wrinkled pasty looking cancer. How many brown asian anime characters are there compared to the actual amount of brown asians in the world. There is a ton of real ones but you never see them in media, they, like others of the lightest-skin obsessed persuasion only put their whitest (tone) asians anywhere on media. Any race can be born with those features but if you look at who has been seen with them THE MOST since tv went from black and white to color, it’s been white people. It’s not farfetched to think anime is drawn based on white people. Hell, you only even see them draw the way their own eyes look, when it’s a mockery of a character most of the time, like I-Pin from Katekyo Hitman Reborn. It’s almost never a main character, no, those are always BLONDE with BLUE eyes.
Well, well, Shyamalan’s latest disaster has brought us back to this nine-year old discussion eh? You are correct that Japanese have an odd fascination with blonde hair and blue eyes in anime. Then again, they also have a strange fascination with green hair, blue hair, purple hair, green eyes, golden eyes, and red eyes too.
Part of the appeal is due to their reverence for European culture, German in particular. However, part of the appeal is that from a purely visual standpoint, brightly colored hair and large eyes are more interesting and dynamic. Large eyes also allow artists to use exaggerated shorthand for emotions and appeal to the “aww cute” switch evolution has cursed/blessed us with.
Japanese are very proud and nationalistic (as most economically powerful countries are), so the main characters of most of their shows are assumed to be Japanese, even in anime series with an international cast, but it’s understandable that some fans who primarily watch dubbed anime might assume that many of these Japanese characters are Europeans or Americans.
In the case of a character whose nationality is clearly explained in the show (like Shampoo), there is no excuse for assuming they are white. In a fictional universe like Avatar, things get a little tricky, but I think the heavily southeast asian and inuit inspired settings are strong hints as to the “race” of the characters as is the color of their skin. I can understand why many people were upset with the casting of this film, especially by a director of color.
When it comes to beauty standards always favoring fairer skinned people, and the weird Asian obsession with being bone pale (implying that one is high class and never has to work in the sun), that’s a whole separate topic that every country needs to to come to terms with. In some countries it’s primarily due to racism, in some countries it’s a class distinction, sometimes it’s both. There have always been black characters in anime here and there, but in general, Japan and Korea are still heartbreakingly racist societies, primarily due to lack of experience and interaction in the case of African Americans. As a Korean American, the huge uptick in plastic surgery among South Koreans is especially disappointing.
Mexican and Latin American TV programs have a similar problem.
However, I must admit that I was surprised to learn that an anime character like Speed Racer was blonde with blue eyes. He looks so different on TV…
Yeah, back then the popular art style was a bit more realistic, but even today there are plenty of anime with main characters that have naturally occurring Japanese hair colors. Although, the last sentence of Stephanie’s rant is an inaccurate exaggeration, I understand her anger and confusion. There are a ludicrously high number of blonde, pale Japanese characters in anime. Sometimes, in order to distinguish a character visually and draw the eye in a black and white manga, a main character is designed with “white” hair, which is interpreted as blonde, but that’s not the only reason it happens.
As you say, the same thing happens in telenovelas – lighter skinned stars with “European” features and lighter hair are much more common. Wealthier, lighter-skinned Argentinians and Peruvians often look down on people in South and Central America who are descended from the darker-skinned indigenous Andean tribes. Of course here, many African Americans look down on not only African immigrants who are darker, but other darker skinned African Americans. It happens in almost every country partially due to Globalization infecting the entire world with western standards of beauty, but class, race, nationality, and as un-PC as it is to say, biological preferences (which are also sensitive to socially influences) all play a role.
Thanks to all of us whiny SJWs =), the situation is slowly improving. I see a lot more variety in skin-tone, hair type/color, and facial features in models lately, and we all see that Hollywood is making efforts to be more egalitarian and representative in its casting. I don’t know if similar complaints are having any effect on beauty standards in Japan, Europe, or Latin America. You probably know the situations there much better than me.
I can say that the average K-pop star continues to be carved up and chemically altered to the point of looking absolutely nothing like an average Korean. Of course, I don’t have the right to tell people whether it’s right or wrong to alter their own bodies, but it makes me sad to see so many young Koreans decide, “this face, these eyes, this nose, these breasts, these hips, these bones, this skin I was born with – none of it is good enough.” From my perspective, it’s more than good enough. But who am I to argue with results? I just found out my mom got eyelid surgery back in the early 70’s before I was born, so it’s been going on even longer than I thought and may have been a contributing factor in my existence. Maybe it’s progress?
For all I know we’ll be selecting our daily face on a virtual touchscreen in a character builder app in a few decades. When people can choose any face imaginable, I wonder what faces will be the most popular? Will the old standards and ways maintain their grip or will imagination and variety blossom at last among this weird bunch of hominids? We’ll find out soon enough. Until then, I’m gonna keep whining and voting with my wallet. It seems to be working.
That’s highly debatable. Check out this video below of everyday Japanese being asked what ethnicity they think various anime characters are. Sure, some answer “white” or “European” for some characters, but there’s hardly any consensus. They even debate whether a blonde, big-chested character is Japanese, Vietnamese, or Taiwanese, and whether a green-eyed character is Filipino! The guy at 7:30 makes perhaps the most salient comment: “When [white people] watch anime, they identify themselves with the characters emotionally, so they project their nationality (race) into the characters. So when Japanese people watch, they see the characters as Japanese and vice versa.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Xd2xLAjDM
nyjm:
By Shyamalan’s first two films you mean these, right?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120510/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105162/
The guy’s a hack, has always been a hack, and simply got lucky once or twice (depending on which of his movies one likes). Shyamalan’s seemingly fathomless arrogance doesn’t help matters either.
I love how you try to erase Jaden Smith’s race by pointing out his class privilege, as if there aren’t black children in the audiences who are also long overdue for more black heroes and main characters.
Oh, M. Night. Can you do nothing right?
Kai, while I don’t think much of Jaden Smith’s acting, mentioning his powerful connections was not an attempt to erase his race. I wanted to draw attention to the fact that even getting an african american boy in a starring role requires that you be able to pull some important industry strings.
If you have to be the son of Will Smith to be a non-white child movie star when african americans make up nearly 15% of the population, what does that say about the chances of an asian american child being given the chance to be the hero? I’m sorry if it sounds as if I’m entering the oppression olympics or saying that african american children aren’t just as deserving of having black heroes they can identify with in mainstream movies. That is not my intention.
I am very hopeful that Jayden’s performance will open the doors for more non-white child actors. It’s been eight years since Whale Rider (and Lilo and Stich) came out after all.
There’s a small problem with all the credit being given to Noah Ringer as a Martial artist; Most (60-70%)of his fight work was done by a Young woman named Jade Quon. The effects people used CGI to put Ringer’s face on her body. You can actually tell when she’s on screen if you look at Ringer and how he moves then compare that to the grace and polish Aang displays during fights.
If he is saying the casting was based on who looked most like the character (which is stupid because I would rather someone who was good at acting and could convey the feelings of the character a thousand times over someone who just looked similar) then he needs to get his eyes checked.
I agree that the kid does look a bit like Aang and a case could be made for him playing the part. I do not think any other the other actors look at all like their cartoon counterparts.
The real tragedy here is the story itself . So disappointing. They had so much to work with and failed so horribly.
Also yes *SSPOILERS* Zuko is ultimately more heroic and has in my opinion the greatest emotional journey in this series but that plays out in the second season so you really wouldn’t see that it this movie.
Not me. To me, it’s the single biggest flaw with the series. Joss went out of his way to create a world that was supposed to be a mix of Chinese and American, but there are no Chinese people outside of the background. I’ve heard some highly contrived explanations from fans. They just happen to be on the white half of the ‘verse; all the Chinese people are in the core (cus they obviously would stick to the Alliance being collectivists and all) even though they visit a core planet and it’s more lily-white than any of the others. Pretty weak to explain why not one character, even one who only shows up for one episode, is Chinese. Might as well have used a Trek-like “in the future humanity acts as one, but we’re all Western” universe and just come up with a different way for people to swear on TV. :P
At least he wasn’t starting from source material where the captain of Serenity was Asian and he decided to make him white. :P
Serenity gets a pass because at least all the actors are *good*. The lack of diversity is disappointing but at least every actor was really the best for the job and a joy to watch. In Avatar all the actors are terrible (except, ironically, the dark-skinned villains), so there’s really no excuse.
The racism in the casting of this film is made blatantly obvious when you look at the casting call. http://www.racebending.com/v3/background/caucasian-or-any-other-ethnicity/
For the main characters, the casting call asked for “Caucasian or any other ethnicity.” For all the secondary characters, the casting call asked for “near eastern, middle eastern, far eastern, Asian, Mediterranean and Latino ethnic groups.” The call also asked for those ethnic actors to dress in “the traditional costume of your family’s ethnic background.”
Here’s the crowning moment of *headdesk*, from the casting director:
“We want you to dress in traditional cultural ethnic attire. If you’re Korean, wear a kimono. If you’re from Belgium, wear lederhosen.”
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
Despite Noah slightly looking like aang, his acting is terrible and his personality totally different than aang… Kataras actor sucked, sokkas was ok, but I think the original voice actor wouldve been better, along with his cheesy jokes and a few SLAPPAPOW’s thrown in…
Author is a racist and he should be made an example out of. I didn’t want to see a black Honeymooners or Karate Kid. But we have to live with it. Apparently its only cool to point out if whites are the actors.
Shyamalan must think we’re stupid. Those were the dumbest explanations I have ever heard. Basically his funders wanted white actors and he had to give them what they wanted.
“The vaguely medieval fantasy alt-Europe that is Middle Earth is populated, in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, with white actors of European extraction, as we might expect. And Shyamalan’s Last Airbender fantasy alt-Asia is populated by Asian actors, right? Nope.”
The author hit it on the nail. I now we have a writer saying there’s too many minorities on TV. WTF?
http://deadline.com/2015/03/tv-pilots-ethnic-casting-trend-backlash-1201386511/
Just because a culture is Asian influenced does not mean everyone in that culture is Asian. Especially not in a fantasy world where four nations make up the whole planet. Yes, of course Katara and Soka are meant to be Inuit because their geography is the same as where real Inuits live. And that’s what determines it; geography, not culture. The Earth benders are clearly Chinese, and some middle eastern, because of the geography that tells us it’s just like that of ancient china and some parts like the desert look like the middle east. The fire nation geographically looks like Japan and thus the people in the nation are mostly Japanese, with some being closer to Polynesian due to some of the islands displaying the traits. Same with Kyoshi Island. The Air Nomads, however, are most likely Caucasian, Indian, or Caucasian Indian mixed. Why? Because they live on top of mountains that the four corners of the world with men living at the north and south and women living at the east and west. And if living on mountain tops wasn’t enough, each temple has been shown with unique living conditions that reflect the climate, with the western air temple seemingly displaying more of a climate and geography to the western United States. From what we see with the Eastern Air Temple there are many women that display Indian characteristics, and Yang Chen seems like she’s been influenced by an almost native american climate mixed with that of the Japanese. The northern air temple we never see, but the southern we see a lot of and, while many can argue that they look Indian, a lot of the features of the characters and the precision in the tone chosen for their skin seems to relay many mixed features with Aang predominantly displaying Caucasian features. Watching the show you find that Aang has always been drawn differently which makes sense since he’s the last survivor of the Air Nomads; a group that not only lived across all corners of the globe, but were known to consistently travel the world. Since most of their time was spent either on a cliff or on top of mountains, however, geography and climate would suggest half generating more European environments as the north and south temples have features that better portray it, and the other half would develop Indian and Japanese traits due to the environments of the East and West Air temples. This would support that many air nomads were a Japanese-European mix or even a European-Indian mix. And if that doesn’t get you, look at Aang as an adult when he was drawn with more definitive features and you will find that he is designed with more American type traits. Still need more? Looking at Aang’s children, specifically Tenzin, you will find that even the distinguishing traits that would make him stand out towards one nationality actually share more feature similarities to his grandfather Hakoda and his skin is more Caucasian. Despite the fact that genetics may argue how they did his skin, his design seems more common of a European-Inuit mix or even possible a euro-Asian/Inuit mix. Remember, the Avatar Universe takes up an entire world so we can’t just limit the nationalities based on culture. Additionally, the Air Nomads have a monk culture and Monks existed in Europe and in East Asia. Plus, Europe did have a bustling trade with East Asia as well throughout a large period in history and there were even colonies established in East Asia by places like Britain. And one final point, while the movie was terrible, the only characters who were white washed were Soka and Katara. Their village was primarily Inuit. The earth kingdom seemed to have nothing but Chinese. The Fire Nation was filled with East Asians. Soka and Katara were also only white washed because it’s not exactly easy to find Inuit actors with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Was it a questionable move? Yes. Should it consume someone’s life worrying about two characters being misrepresented due to fictitious genetics that could never exist in our world? Especially since it’s in a movie that sucked at everything except costume design and scenery? No.
We can all agree. The anime series is great. The movie completely sucks, one of the worst films ever. Shyamalan is a terrible director who did not know what he was doing with this “adaptation”. And yes, the film totally whitewashes and is racist. I mean, you have Katara and Sokka’s village featuring actual people of Eskimo descent, but then not cast the two main characters of the tribe of Eskimo descent. This is whitewashing.
You must be new here. The TV series may be the single most contentious topic in the history of this website. There were threats of violence. For some reason, stories about tolerance and peaceful coexistence bring out violence and bigotry. You can look up the discussion thread, if you have nothing else to do for the next several weeks. I do not recommend this.
I agree the animated series is great, but not everyone here agrees. The problem is, a lot of the Avatar fans who come here are total jerks to the people who just honestly didn’t like the show. Aang would not approve.
HAHAHA LOL no.
Yeaaaaaah, you see, the problem with people saying that is that when they say “ambiguous facial features”, in their hearts what they’re REALLY saying is “white facial features”. They’re the type of people who think anime characters are meant to be drawn as white, just because a few like Sailor Moon and Lucy Heartfilia have blonde hair and blue eyes, all the while ignoring the fact that anime characters ALSO have pink hair and green eyes, purple hair and yellow eyes, blue hair and orange eyes, in favor of claiming that the Japanese worship white people and want to look like them.
There are actually tons of videos and articles explaining how anime characters in fact DO NOT look white and that their appearance is actually the result of Japanese people projecting their features on the characters, just made cuter and more cartoonish with bigger eyes and smaller mouths(which no people have, just like nobody has pink hair, but I guess only white people are allowed to take creative liberties with their character designs). They see their features as normal because they’re the bloody majority of their country, not the minority. In fact, Japanese cosplayers actually resemble their characters more than people of other races(especially white people), because anime characters literally have the facial features of the Japanese people who are drawing them. NOT white people(which isn’t to say that black, white, Hispanic, etc. people should just stop cosplaying as anime characters, but you can’t deny that this is the truth!).
The only real reason white people see anime characters as white is because, to them, white is the default, and their point of view is the only point of view, thus, Japanese people must also see themselves through white people’s egocentric lens: their characters aren’t drawn with yellow skin and slits for eyes, so by default they must be white, right?! I mean, obviously! I’m so sick of these ethnocentrists whining that Naruto is white because of his blonde hair and blue eyes while ignoring the existence of Sakura and the fact that he, as well as almost all the characters, possess Japanese names, eat Japanese food, and are clearly part of a Japanese culture. And let’s not forget the fact that they literally speak Japanese.
So, if you want to look stupid, selfish, and ignorant by claiming an entire other country even gives a flying crap about your useless eurocentric ideals about their cartoon characters, then feel free to go on claiming that anime characters are white because the Japanese are just so self-loathing, while ignoring who really looks like a self-loathing piece of work. But anybody with more brainpower than a rock will be able to figure out for themselves what race anime characters REALLY are. And the truth is, unless they’re specifically stated to be white(hailing from a European country, possessing a European name, speaking a European language, and even these things aren’t absolute!), just shut up and assume they’re Japanese; that way, you don’t have to be embarrassed and laughed at by people who are smarter and less racist than you. Unless you like being laughed at, that is. In which case, you do you, I guess.
(Also, nice job assuming that women didn’t have a hand at all in the development of anime. Idiot.)
I haven’t even seen a discussion on here about “ohng” and “soaka”
Like, shyamalan tried to say” It’S mOrE aCcUrAtE aSiAn NaMeS”
If that’s true, and it isn’t, then why the hell did you white wash them?..
Shyamalan is a moron, I heard how apparently he “cried” due to the bad reviews on “Glass”.. maybe if he actually put effort into making a movie, we’d like it. Jumping from plot point to plot point, without showing how they get there, literally makes the entire story turn to ash
He’s not a good director, and the movie industries need to stop hiring him, he’s ruining everything.
Dammit this makes my blood boil. That his family saw themselves in it is not an excuse. Is he being paid to be an average joe lunchbucket or an educated and informed director/scriptwriter? The characters were supposed to be all Chinese or Inuit. Might have been acceptable if a white kid was cast as Aang just to give it a karate kid flavor. But obviously in Shyamalan’s mind there are only two races : a superior indian race and a more superior white race. That’s why the main characters and tribes are either white or indian – EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE CHINESE SURNAMES. General Zhao is an indian? Are you shitting me? A fan of Night Shyamalan, I WAS. But I’m going to boycott his movies from now on. Not interested in what comes out from the mind of a bigot. I rather spent the time in the zoo visiting monkeys!