D'aww.

I always liked Jin though. Heck, I found all of Zuko's almost-girl-of-the-week amusing. Especially the one he stole the horsestriches from.

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I am apparently the only one who simply does not care about the 'racefail' of Avatar: The Motion Picture. IMHO anime characters often skew Caucasian in their design, and Aang at least did, at least to my perspective. I agree it could've been handled much better, and there were other distinctly Asian characters who were not necessarily cast well.

That said, that picture of the kid is awkward as hell.

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Avatar (from what I've seen; I never watched it; after my time) was something of an exception, though, definitely, the characters on Pokemon and Digimon never looked remotely Japanese to me.

On the casting issue, I tend toward giving M. Night Shyamalan the benefit of the doubt there (not that the movie won't probably suck, though, based on his track record).

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Anime characters don't "skew white" unless you take the default to be white.

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Uh...huh. Sorry, but that's just ignorance. Anime characters are not skewed Caucasian in their design unless they are deliberately Caucasian. You have to have a very limited knowledge of Asian features to believe that squinty eyes are the norm. As in comics, animation depends on open facial expressions, especially for the hero. Round eyes and an open face give the hero emotional availability - the emotions are clearly expressed and also allows the viewer to put their own self onto that tabula rasa.

I would rage a bit more but instead I'll point you to a helpful source:
http://www.matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/faceoftheother.html

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But your perspective is not the only perspective!

Taking the time to specifically say you don't care seems a little.. mean.


OP: Despite having seen only the first.. two? episodes of Avatar, I still ship that. So thanks for the awh!

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Yeah, you definitely are the only one who doesn't care.

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I wish I could be excited about the movie, but I'm very bothered by the casting choices (see Racebending.com as to why).

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This was so awesome. It took me a while to fin the magazine that told the story inbetween Book 2 and Book 3 of Avatar. And the art makes the Fire Nation kids look ...younger. More their age.

Much love to Ty Lee.
***
So what's this I hear about to link to pics from the Avatar movie? I saw no such thing.
Nope.
Nuh uh.

Just some wanna be fanboy stuff.

Where are the Avatar pics? Fer real.

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Meh. I decided awhile ago that I'm not seeing the movie and ever since everything that's come out has only helped me be okay with that. Although I may have to start taking avatar comms off my flist on LJ because I'm sick of hearing about it. :\

Though, oddly, I will throw some defense in saying that the Zuko one could be pre-scarring which would also be why his head isn't bald.

Now to comment on the comic. Always awesome! Mai rules!

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Awww. I loved this comic. Nice to wash the whitewash taste out of my mouth from the picture. Yup, I am totally bothered by the racebending.

Also, as much as I like Dev Patel (who I assume will just be the villain here as we're far from the book of fire), he seems to have no scar.

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I don't want to complain because I'm reminded of how the X-Men movies changed their outfits and those were fine. But seeing these do not fill me with confidence.

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I try not to be too judgemental but this movie is probably going to blow a whole crop of dicks.

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The way his face is in profile in that picture, you honestly can't tell if the actor for Zuko has makeup for the scar on or not. I think it's too distinctive a feature to be left out, might even watch the scar being born, so to speak.

I'm 35 yrs old and I probably enjoy this show way more than what's healthy for me. =p

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I see they're still going with a white kid for Aang rather than casting a pale-skinned Asian kid.

*cranks sarcasm to max*

Charming.

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Discuss: What do you think of the first photos?

Haaaaaaaaaaate.

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Mai putting an icicle through a fish on Zuko's head in front of his giggling ex.

FIRST DATES DO NOT GET COOLER THAN THAT.

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I'm going to amend myself from my first post which got me in the shit. Looking at what I wrote again, I was in a foul mood and tired of having to explain why I was trying to keep an open mind about the film after trawling through a lot of understandable anger about the predominantly white casting of the film. After what I wrote later to rabican above, I realize that reflects how I feel a lot more accurately. In brief, I don't think Avatar's characters skew Caucasian in appearance; I do think there is a fusion of different races and ethnicities apparent in many of their appearances, to enhance identification for kids of all race, color and creed in the audience. I also think anime in general tends to sidestep ethnicity a lot, but I may be wrong about that too.

I don't know if I'm wrong to feel as I do about Avatar's cultural makeup, but that's how I take it and that's why I was open to the casting of a white kid for Aang. I do find it very fucked up that the other protagonists are all white, while antihero Zuko is the only one of a different ethnicity. In that respect, I totally agree that Shyamalan and co. seriously screwed the pooch by not making the cast as multi-culti as the original Avatar itself is. If you're gonna cast a white Aang, you better make sure the rest of the cast is a great mix of people from all corners of the globe. They didn't do that, and shit looks goofy.

In any event, I fucked up on my first post. I was irritable, I didn't express myself properly and saying the character appearances skews Caucasian is wrong. Rather, I think their appearances skew towards EVERYBODY. I hope the film works out, but after "The Happening" and "Lady In The Water," uh...well, we'll see.

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Love the comic, hate the pictures.

God that movie is going to suck. Anyone want to take a bet on whether or not it will be worse than Dragonball: Evolution? My money's on yes, it will.

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Still looks better than what they had for Dragonball.

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Behold, the cast of Avatar!


...No, really.

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And I also note a distinct lack of red in the Fire nation costuming...

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The racebending site is pretty damning. I think the actor playing Aang looks like him (the ears) The tattoo looks fucked up though.

I don't quite what to think anymore because it's not as high-octane as the old thread was.

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The whole casting buisness must've pissed everyone off pretty badly. So many replies, and not one person to jump on Azula and Ty Lee "messing around in the bushes"?

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