Riven Armor said:
No, each nation in Avatar is a clear representation of a real Asian country. (Water tribals are the Inuits, the Air Nomads are the Tibetans, etc) Real Chinese is used in all depicted script in the series. An Asian American advisory group was brought on board by the screenwriters to make sure customs used were rendered accurately.
As for the movie, the casting called for "Caucasian or any other ethnicity" for the "good" protagonists and then casted most of the extras as people of color. The casting director herself was so ignorant of racial tradition that she associated kimonos with Koreans. (Do you really want to bring the argument that all Asian actors and actresses in that age group are WORSE than the Caucasians casted??)
Please read the material on www.racebending.com if you want to learn more. Attempting to equivocate on this issue is frankly wrong.
No, from what I have read from many different sources, the influences (dress, art, some religions, etc.) were from many different asian or Eastern/Middle Eastern countries but the races of the characters in question had never really been expanded upon or said to be of any particular people. Their looks (dress, architecture, etc) have been, but their race has never been linked.
Yes, they all had a certain dress style and some of them could be said to have certain racial traits, but that is all. I did read about the group you were referring to, but again that was used more for customs and dress style than it was for what race the characters were.
As for the casting director, the earliest article I read about the incident (sometime last year, perhaps even the year before that) made it seem like Shyamalan himself ordered it to be done like that, which is why it seemed odd to me.
Also, I'm not trying to equivocate on the issue. Fact is, the races of the characters had never been explained or really touched upon in the cartoon. Most of it was assumed because of the art styles or influences people could identify.
However, the writers can use all the influence in their cartoon that they want, but that doesn't mean the characters will be of that race unless the writers say so (which, they never did). So no, they don't have to be of any one particular race since it's an imaginary setting (keep in mind I'm not for racism, I'm just trying to argue that the actors in the live action movie could have been any race so long as they made a passable character).
Please don't assume someone knows nothing about these incidents just because they don't agree with you.
EDIT: As it is, I thought Aang looked mixed and the only main 'not supposed to be' Caucasian characters were Sokka, Katara, and Iroh (though I liked Iroh). I'm not counting the Ice princess Yue as a main character, but she was also Caucasian.
Riven Armor said:
(Do you really want to bring the argument that all Asian actors and actresses in that age group are WORSE than the Caucasians casted??)
I'm not saying that they are, or were.
My point is, we don't know how many people auditioned, what they looked like, how they portrayed the character, or anything pertaining to the casting process (aside from the 'racist' claim).
I don't want to follow or pass judgment until I know more.
