[ SECRET POST #882 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #882 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

101.
[Peanuts]


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102.
[Kamen Rider Den-O]


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103.
[Avatar]


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104. [repeat]


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105.
[Twilight/CastleVania]


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106.


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107.
[Vampire Knight, Ouran High School Host Club]


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108.


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109.
[T-mobile NBA commercials; Dwane Wade, Charles Barkley, Dwight Howard]


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110.
[Angela Aki]


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111.
[Blackadder Goes Forth, Sharpe]


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112.
[Skins]


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113.
[Gossip Girl]


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114.
[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]


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115.
[About a Boy]


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116.
[Ghost Hunt]


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117.
[Repo]


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118.
[Elite Beat Agents]


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119.


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120.
[Phantom of the Opera]


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121.


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122.
[Brian "Head" Welch - Korn]


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123.
[Storm Hawks]


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124. [repeat]


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125.


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126.


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127.


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128.


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129.


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130.


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131.
[Kavinsky/SebastiAn]


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132.
[Ronin Warriors]


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133.
[Fringe]


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134.
[Tudors]


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135.


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136.
[Kevin Barnes, Mika Penniman]


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137.


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138.


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139.
[Avatar]


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140.
[Green Lantern]


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141.
[Hollyoaks]


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142.
[Amy Winehouse/Simon Amstell]


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143.
[Charles in Charge, Eureka]


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144.
[Harriet the Spy]


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145.
[Star Trek/Dr Who]


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146.


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147.
[Russell Brand, Stephen Fry]


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148.
[iCarly]


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149.


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150.


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151.


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152.
[Jeeves and Wooster]


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153.
[The Thick of It]


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154.
[The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese / The Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice]


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155.
[Hana Yori Dango]


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156.
[American Idol / Idolatry]


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157.
[As the World Turns]


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158.
[Charlie Bartlett]


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159.


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160.
[Legend of the Seeker]


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161.


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162.
[Springwatch]


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163.
[Ted Allen]


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164.


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165.
[Animorphs]


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166.
[Avatar]


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167.


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168.
[Ace of Cakes]


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169. [SPOILERS for Mentalist]



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170.


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171.
[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.]


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172.


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173.
[BtVS]


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174.


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175. [Star Trek: Hidden Frontier/Helena Chronicles, Odyssey; possible spoilers]



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176.
[LOST]


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177.


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178.
[Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei/No Longer Human]


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179.


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180.
[When The Boat Comes In]


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181.
[Red Dwarf]



Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #126.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 3 - too big ], [ 1 - doing it wrong ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[shishiomaru.livejournal.com]

And I'm tempted not to. Anon's comments above (at least the first half) are entirely accurate. Yes, Avatar-verse is based on Asian (and Inuit, as mentioned above) cultures. But strictly speaking, there is no asian ethnicity in the show because there is no Asia. How is that not a logical argument?

On the second bit, there's a lot of us in the fandom who are genuinely angry at the race!fail, but there are also people who are only interested in the actors retaining the aesthetics of the show art. I'm not condoning anon's assumption that those fans are strictly asian, but they DO exist and they ARE annoying because they take away from the real discussion that should be going on.

[jaquenerd.livejournal.com]

I'm a little bit sick of this argument as it has been refuted and rebuffed by MANY people who can probably say this more articulately, but in short:

Aang ain't white.

The character's cultures are based off those of Asian and Inuit cultures. Their ethnicities are also based off those of Asian and Inuit ones. It's not a logical argument to say that their physical make-up is not that of an Asian/Inuit person because that's what they are! It's like, trying to say they aren't human beings because they exist in a ~*fantasy*~ world. Well, even though they are not from Earth, they are still human beings who happen to closely resemble those with Asian/Inuit ethnicity.

I don't disregard your claim that there are those types of fans, as human nature will inevitably provide said examples, but I haven't run across them yet and the majority over at [Bad username or site: aang_ain't_white @ livejournal.com] and racebending as the other non-fan people upset over the movie are not one of them.

[twelve.livejournal.com]

THIS

[(Anonymous)]

How hard is this to understand?

[(Anonymous)]

THISSSS.
Totally saved my day buddy.

[eleraix.livejournal.com]

H'okay, so how come when you translate that to a live action movie Paramount believes the kid automatically has to be white? Aang is not from this world or reality, but when you want to portray him using a real human being, why does white have to be the default? The casting directors have made it pretty clear that they were looking for caucasian actors for all four main roles from the get go.

Yup, it's totally cool to steal borrow several elements of various Asian cultures, and then leave the people who INVENTED those traditions/clothes/architecture/food/languages/weapons/etc. the hell out of it.

[snowdevil-crow.livejournal.com]

The thing is, the thing is, a character from another world having white skin doesn't make them Caucasian anymore than that character having darker skin makes them Asian or African or anything else.

It just makes them white. White isn't a culture or a race, it's a skin colour. The same is true of any other skin colour --- having brown skin doesn't make someone Indian. Having black skin doesn't make someone African. It just makes them white or brown or black.

... does that make sense? :S

[eleraix.livejournal.com]

Very good point. However, the complexions of the paler, "whiter" characters in the series are achievable and not at all rare in the Asian/Asian American population. Looking over that, though, there's still the matter of Sokka and Katara. There wasn't a single brown kid, be they Inuit, Native American, Indian, Pakistani, Israeli, Mexican, Puerto Rican, of African descent, etc. who couldn't fit the bill?

In this situation I don't think the importance of the skin tone of those two characters is a matter of the superficial. Because the way Western society is built right now, the society that this movie will have an impact (of whatever size) on, it has some relevance. There are too few non-white ethnicities represented in the positive, strong light that Katara and Sokka were in the animated series. Having the evil, genocidal, tyrannical, conflicted side of this fictional war represented by people of brown skin, whilst the oppressed heroes are all white, may have very little relevance in this fictional, alien universe the Avatar world is set in...but to the people watching it in this decade, in the paranoid, xenophobic West, skin tones are going to mean something.

[eleraix.livejournal.com]

*ack, that's could fit the bill

[snowdevil-crow.livejournal.com]

True. Honestly, the only character I would say it doesn't make sense to get upset about being played by a Caucasian actor is Aang --- the others certainly don't have the complexion at all.

Having the evil, genocidal, tyrannical, conflicted side of this fictional war represented by people of brown skin, whilst the oppressed heroes are all white,

... are they honestly doing that? Dear gawd.

[(Anonymous)]

I think I'm going to go to China for a fire bending festival!

[(Anonymous)]

Seeing as how Avatar was also based on Indian culture, casting Patel as Zuko is not racist. Oh, let's not forget that the water tribe is based off of INUIT culture. Inuit=/=Asian.

[eleraix.livejournal.com]

I didn't even mention my position on Patel's casting in my post, nor did I say anything about India's relation to Avatar and the implications of casting people of Indian descent. But since you mention it, I personally don't think casting Patel as Zuko was a bad decision...in theory. Zuko is a strong character who experiences quite probably the most dramatic, profound character arc in the whole series. Patel is obviously a skilled actor and supposedly a talented martial artist, so it makes sense. And, as you said, there are plenty hints of Indian culture in Avatar...the titular element of the show being an Indian concept for one.

What's upsetting people, though, is that by casting Patel as Zuko, his entire family, the core of a hateful, genocidal, murderous, tyrannical nation, has to be then casted with people who are of a similar skin tone and supposed "ethnic look." The casting directors have chosen people of Indian and Middle Eastern descent...in a time when the US and other western countries have been projecting great paranoia and exercising discrimination and prejudice against various peoples hailing from this area. It's worrisome.

And as far as your Inuit comment, you do know that the Native people of uppermost North America travelled from Asia before the continents split and therefore share a similar genetic code, right? Of course Inuits and Yupik =/= Asia. In these debates though, Asian seems to be a blanket term for all sorts of ethnicities, and it's hard to tell who's talking about what. I do apologize if I've come across as insensitive in that area.

[shishiomaru.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I neglected to exclude the "Aang is white" portion from my blanket assertion that anon's comments were accurate. If Aang can't be asian by the argument mentioned, he can't be white either. It's like, trying to say they aren't human beings because they exist in a ~*fantasy*~ world. Again, I think this is a valid argument. The universe is not Earth, it runs on some fundamentally different principles, and you could argue that the characters aren't human. But that's sort of a moot point.

The problem with the casting, in my mind, is not that the characters don't resemble the ethnicity of their cartoon counterparts, but WHY they don't. The film makers chose white leads to be "safe". Because they had this bizarre notion that fans would not come to see the film if the heroes were played by asian actors. As a caucasian woman, I say that's BS; I'm no more likely to watch the film because Whitey McWhitebread got cast, and I don't think anyone else is, either. I think the filmmakers made a huge mistake and they'll pay for it.

But at the same time, I think the show and the fandom encompasses more than just this argument, and that's getting overshadowed now by all the race!fail discourse. The show itself was respectful in its portrayals of the cultures and didn't stereotype or marginalize them. Why can't we focus on that, instead of going on about the movie? I mean, it's Hollywood. Hollywood fucks everything up.

[snowdevil-crow.livejournal.com]

If Aang can't be asian by the argument mentioned, he can't be white either.

I think you mean he can't be Caucasian. Because he can certainly be white. White is really just a skin colour, not a race.

As far as I understand it...?

[jaquenerd.livejournal.com]

lol I think we agree then? I don;t know, I know that Avatar isn't Earth but it's the defaulting to white that Hollywood does and Western society in general that I find offensive. So, when people claim, "Aang isn't Asian either." I guess I don't really see what they are trying to say? Yeah, he isn't technically Asian as in he's from Tibet or something, but his culture/ethnicity is based off Tibet and I feel like Hollywood failed when they didn't cast someone to portray that.

And people are focusing on that issue, but some people are angry that Hollywood keeps pulling this crap and wanting to take a stand.