penguinfaery | (no subject)

Ok, I'm trying to get a solid post together on this and have been researching it, BUT can someone tell me, besides the siblings, what other characters are white in Avatar: The last Airbender?

I've found a Maori, someone from India, a mixed girl, and Noah Ringer, who's ethnicity is unknown but doesn't really look particularly white to me (Although I feel if he is Asian/Hispanic, they have the worst PR people on Earth to not just...point that out. But it also could be a personal preference of the actor, and seem a dicey conclusion to jump to). But I also don't super know Avatar, and I know the argument has been very for Asian people, and the sibling are from the Inuit/Eskimo based tribe, so wouldn't be Asian cast anyway (not that...looking over Native American actors is awesome either). I do know Dev Patel replaced some white pop star (who was just badly cast all around), but who else is there?

Can someone link me to (or link me to a post) that lays out who was Asian inspired and cast with white actors?

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None of the characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender are white. In The Last Airbender, the movie, they're still not really white, but they're being played by white actors.

I think people are saying Asian for everything because most the show is Asian-based, but there is Inuit too. The writers say it's most heavily based in Chinese culture (everything uses Chinese writing, for example), even for the non-Chinese-inspired people.

Racebending has a really good post about it.

It looks like, to me, the three main hero characters are white (Noah looks pretty white in every picture but the ones you linked, IMO). Then you've got Zuko, the main villain (who, yes, turns good, but he's still a bad guy for a lot of it), whose culture was based off of Meiji-era Japan, who is now Indian. The rest of the characters are secondary or just background, and that's where minorities are being cast.

I'll check it out! Thanks. I know they're all just asian based not actually Asian I'm just trying to find the casting issues (besides the obviouse siblings)

do you have any Caucasian looking pics of him? Everything I found was similar to that or movie shots (which don't look very white either) like... His ethnicity is pointedly not offcially known but of the 30-40 pics I've seen he's looks remarkably not what I would ever assume was a white kid. I'm on my iPod so if the pics are in your link just leave it to that

A big part of it is that you've got Sokka and Katara, who are white, but their tribe is all PoC. Then there's the fact that after people complained, they recast the villain as a PoC. Because heroes can't be PoC or something. And people are extra upset because it's one of the first and only series without a single white person, and then there are white people everywhere and M Night Shyamalan saying that Asian kids should be able to sympathize with white kids just fine.

If you've looked at a lot of pictures I guess it's just a YMMV thing.

The Brother and sister, Katara and Sokka are technically Inuit, but were cast as white. Aang, the main character isn't actually Chinese, though he was, and Zuko, who is Indian is technically supposed to be Japanese.

But... You can't tell with Aang because the kid LOOKS Chinese enough for my tastes.

I'm not actually peode enough about the casting to be that well-versed on it. I was just irritated that they cast a whole shitload of nobodies when I had envisioned other actors playing the roles. So... I dunno.

Also, a lot of the fandom rage came from the fact that Zuko was originally cast as Jesse Mccartney. The FUCK?

Oh man, I'm trying to care, but I just can't make myself.

I am interested, however, in figuring out who the hell the people are that do care about the ethnicities of actors in a fantasy movie.

That's simple. Minorities. Minorities who are keen to Hollywood whitewashing over the past...forever. Minorities who are constantly told by Hollywood that the race of actors doesn't matter. But then, 95% of movies feature white leads...when whites are clearly not 95% of the movie viewing audience.

So the one time, the source material has plenty of opportunities to cast asians...we get...white leads.

But I guess it's easy not to care when you aren't a person of color who is constantly reminded of your second class status by white society in nearly every facet of your life.

i don't know if this is what your looking for but this entry (http://ssj10.livejournal.com/131146.html) is pretty good.