Almost every fantasy show is trying to be D&D or Game of Thrones

[AnotherGuy]

It troubles me that you'd suggest that stalkers who dox, drug and attempt to kill Jennifer Walters are a stand-in for comic fans. You should probably find some other comics communities to be a part of.

I'm not sure how I suggested it. The podcaster described the men that were depicted on the show as nincompoops.

 

[Celebrim]

The answer to that would be, "Yes", because whitewashing a seminal representative character, from a limited number of such, does damage. Doing a different take on a character that people rightly or wrongly just assume is representative of the majority does no such damage.

Ok, push that and you'll make the world more hateful, more prejudiced, and more angry. If that is what you want, fine but even though there is a real problem I think you are trying to solve for real and good reasons, I don't think your answer here is the solution.

 

[MGibster]

I'm not, but if I had to guess it's because people are very sensitive to the hint of hypocrisy. People hate double standards. And people feel rightly or wrongly that if a historically person of color character (Uhuru, for example) was rewritten as a white character that there would be a huge uproar and that people's complaints about that would be treated as much more serious and much more worthy of consideration, than their own.

As weird as it sounds, changing things like that doesn't bother me in many contexts. If I went to see King Lear on stage, Lear could be played by a Scotsman, and if his three daughters were played by an Agentinian, a Malaysian, and an Australian Aborigine speaking English with foreign accents, it wouldn't phase me a bit. In other contexts, it'd bother me a little, but I'd probably get over it. I didn't care about the changes to color they made for the WoT adaptation, I simply refused to watch it because it looked like a crummy adaptation.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The podcaster described the men that were depicted on the show as nincompoops.

Podcast != YouTube video

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ok, push that and you'll make the world more hateful, more prejudiced, and more angry.

"The world" is doing a lot of work here.

 

[Celebrim]

As weird as it sounds, changing things like that doesn't bother me in many contexts.

It doesn't bother me either. I love Denzel Washington as an actor and I loved him in 'Much Ado About Nothing' even if a man of Washington's ethnic background probably isn't historical to the royal family of Aragon.

But that's also to some extent beside the point because the analogy here isn't a generally applicable one.

 

[wicked cool]

Of course there are. Very few adults today would be excited about a GI Joe RPG if they had first watched the cartoon as an adult.

No one would be disappointed in Willow, the TV series, if they hadn't bonded with the truly terrible movie as a child. The movie was disappointing, the TV show is disappointing, the big differences are that what one imagined seeing in their childhood is hard to compete with (I refuse to go back and see just how bad The Black Hole is, for instance, having enjoyed it as a kid) and that coming to the TV show as an adult, things look more like they are.

Everyone does it. It's not an insult to say rose-colored glasses are involved. It's a brain thing, not a personal failing.

I can sort of agree but disagree.
Empire strikes back is still my favorite Star Wars movie. It has elements that make it stand out . Now when I was young did I think Harrison ford was great but I agree I am willing to overlook its flaws due to rose colored glasses. Same wit special effects of dr who in the 70’s
The difference is for the most part I am not hearing this generation talking about this Star Wars cast like I did. They aren’t comparing the rocks black Adam to cavills Superman
What I am seeing is comparisons to the newest Batman and how all generations were captured by a strong cast in Harry Potter . Harry Potter is this generations Star Wars

 

[Ryujin]

Ok, push that and you'll make the world more hateful, more prejudiced, and more angry. If that is what you want, fine but even though there is a real problem I think you are trying to solve for real and good reasons, I don't think your answer here is the solution.

Have you every heard the expression "going backwards"?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As weird as it sounds, changing things like that doesn't bother me in many contexts. If I went to see King Lear on stage, Lear could be played by a Scotsman, and if his three daughters were played by an Agentinian, a Malaysian, and an Australian Aborigine speaking English with foreign accents, it wouldn't phase me a bit. In other contexts, it'd bother me a little, but I'd probably get over it. I didn't care about the changes to color they made for the WoT adaptation, I simply refused to watch it because it looked like a crummy adaptation.

Shakespeare's a great example, since his stories have been broken down and remixed for centuries and almost always to the better.

Making Romeo & Juliet famously about Jews and Palestinians speaks directly to the notion of ordinary people being caught up in senseless violence not of their own making.

Making King Lear a contemporary politician underscores how the vanity and ego can destroy whole nations.

Even Othello can be made to work, so long as he's an othered outsider, because that's the heart of the story.

In contrast, in no way is Ariel's hair or skin color important to her story.

 

[Celebrim]

"The world" is doing a lot of work here.

Lots of people. Point is if your goal is to make people less racist and to love one another more and see each other primarily as individuals and exercise compassion and empathy, the proposed standard will not get there but will instead I predict make things worse.