As for the race stuff--if Avatar: The Last Airbender is supposed to be all Asian, Asgard is supposed to be all white.

There weren't any Asians at all in the original casting of Airbender.

Even Othello?

I think interesting things can be done by manipulating the race of the casting of Othello.

There weren't any Asians at all in the original casting of Airbender.

I know. It's why I brought racebending up in the first place.

I think I'm just now realizing that Avatar the James Cameron movie and Avatar: The Last Airbender that had the problem with controversial casting are not the same thing.

I knew I shouldn't have let my Entertainment Weekly subscription lapse! I don't know anything anymore.

I've just been cranky about casting in The Lightning Thief.

I mean, one way to look at it is "this kid wears a hoodie and magic athletic shoes, let's make him black!" And another way to look at it is "this kid's a satyr, and closer to nature...let's make him black!" And a third way to look at it is "this kid's a coward, let's make him black!"

Why couldn't Athena's daughter be the one they cast black?

(Except yes, I realize that the satyr was probably black in the books, what with the rasta hat and all).

Raq, I prefer to think of the casting from the actor's perspective.

They want more opportunities and to play a variety of roles, including cowardly villains.

That seems better than to try and control all the positive role models aspects.

It's sort of like the old complaint that minorities only got cast as aliens in science fiction series. Maybe so, and that's problematic, however from the actor's POV it's better to be able to play Worf and that character's story. Especially since a lot of the options for minority actors range from whore to gangster.

I mean, one way to look at it is "this kid wears a hoodie and magic athletic shoes, let's make him black!" And another way to look at it is "this kid's a satyr, and closer to nature...let's make him black!" And a third way to look at it is "this kid's a coward, let's make him black!"

Couldn't there also be a fourth way to look at it? Like, "Hi kid - which role do you want to play?" "This one." "Ok, audition for it." and then he does and he gets it?

That's not to say that sometimes there aren't nefarious things going on, but couldn't there also NOT be?

Maybe so, and that's problematic, however from the actor's POV it's better to be able to play Worf and that character's story.

Better to be able to play Worf than Picard? Or Crusher? Why?

That's not to say that sometimes there aren't nefarious things going on, but couldn't there also NOT be?

I wouldn't necessarily say "nefarious" but my understanding is that there is almost ALWAYS a "we need a minority - which characters can we make the black guy?" meeting.

Better to be able to play Worf than Picard? Or Crusher? Why?

Because Picard and Crusher were boring and Worf had a far richer character history?

Because Picard and Crusher were boring and Worf had a far richer character history?

Worf had one, very guttural, note. Crusher, yeah, boring, but I don't think she was more boring than Worf, save he got fight scenes.

Picard, OTOH, got screen time. He got to count lights, and play the flute. Data got to explore the nature of humanity. I hated Data, but he definitely had "stuff" to work with. Worf, not much of a challenge.