Racebending and All of It's Trivialities

by The Plaid Hatter

I wishwishwish that Shamalayn's directing skills were the only things in question when concerning the new A:TLA movies. Sadly, we fans are in a situation deeper than we've ever been in before...

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT own Avatar: the Last Airbender (and after visiting the angry fansites, i really, reeeeeeeeeeally wouldn't want to right now)

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Okay, you guys. Lets take our anger down a notch...or twelve, and look at the argument we A:TLA fans now have on our hands. No, this isn't a silly ship war, or a secret "4th book" debate. This is something of the upmost importance to anyone who walks this earth and dares to call themselves an Avatar fangirl/boy. This is, as it is being referred to on several sites, an instance of "racebending".

Fans all over are upset because of the all Caucasian cast. In my opinion, yes, it is wrong to "whitewash" one of the few television shows that have a variety of different races for something other than keeping the equal-rights activists off their backs. And yes, there are many talented actors and actresses that fit the role racially, and would probably pull it off well. Why would they do this?! Were all of the Asian actors having lunch while auditions were taking placed or were they turned away from the door?!? As you can probably guess, I was extremely upset.

That is until I saw photos of the actors-to-be. My anger fumed when I saw the porcelain skinned brunette playing Katara (Nicola Peltz). It kind of settled to a simmer a bit when I saw the man playing Zuko (Dev Patel). His skin is dark(ish), which contrasts to the character's completely. My only other complaint is that he looks a few decades older than Zuko should, but he wasn't...white. Then I saw the teen playing Sokka (Jackson Rathbone, he played Jasper in Twilight). He had a goofy smile and a hairstyle that reminded me of "Bitter Work". I kind of quit being mad then and went on to Aang (Noah Ringer). He had wide, childish eyes, a bit of baby fat on his cheeks, and this look in his eyes that I once thought only the real Aang could pull off.

I still stand against the whole whites-only-stay-on-your-side-of-the-bus deal, but isn't there a middle ground somewhere we can meet on? My chorus teacher once explained to my class, after a trip to an opera, that operas transcend race and ethnicity. That, even in a piece that is set in times before segregation, African-American singers played the parts of Caucasian characters without causing any sort of dispute or ruckus.

I'm not saying that Shamalayn trying to revolutionize the film industry (I doubt he could pull it off), but maybe we can put our anger aside and remember that Caucasian is a race too and negative feelings against it is just more racism.

I don't mean to offend anyone or downsize the fact that The Last Airbender film is overlooking Asian actors. I just wanted to open your eyes a little bit wider.

Now that I've said my two cents, feel free to say yours. I don't have my profanity block on and I promise on Jet's grave that I will not report any offensive or disgruntle reviews.

Thanks for listening to me.

--PlaidHatter Out