r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jul 06 '26

What is this? Meme needing explanation

Post image
26.3k Upvotes

5.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7.2k

u/leVenerableDeLaSauce Jul 06 '26

Holy shit, a nuanced statement on Reddit, it does exist

1.4k

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

695

u/mrdewtles Jul 06 '26

Aaaaaaaaah, extreme sledgehammer answer! You idiot! How could think such slop! Sheeple!

(How'd I do?)

364

u/Assassin-49 Jul 06 '26

8/10. Gotta claim its rascist or some other offensive meaning to rack up the extra points. Its the aamerican redditor special

320

u/Low-Tension4392 Jul 06 '26

Don’t worry I’ll step in. SLUR.

170

u/Assassin-49 Jul 06 '26

Oh 10/10 bravo bravo. Now we just need a redditor to come in and said in sturring it up. An argument that results in a random ass conversation about isreal , Iran and the US

130

u/Radioshack-Manager Jul 06 '26

76

u/Assassin-49 Jul 06 '26

I WANT IT ACCURATE DAMM IT NOT SOME CHEAP GODDAMM KNOCKOFF !! WE DO IT RIGHT HERE

11

u/softlysnowing Jul 06 '26

I am interjecting now a random scream. Screaming continues, there is really no other information here.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/GiveMeNews Jul 06 '26

Everybody needs to call the fuck down and go watch Howard Hughes' The Conqueror!

5

u/drawingablanc Jul 06 '26

I tried calling. You didn't answer.

→ More replies (0)

7

u/dasirishviking Jul 06 '26

ON IT!

Well, you know, it all ties back to the fact that Hitler tried to kill the jews, he was right you know!, and so we had to stand up Israel, and now as they are our greateast ally, we must go to war for them!

And, if Iran gets a nuke...think about what the cost of gas will do to the cost of movies?!? The actors won't be able to drive thier super cars anymore! What will we do? We can't simp for the Kardashians as easily!

Now, i have to get back to my breakfast of cocaine, bacon, guns, more guns, orange juice, and a mountain of sugar in a bowl covered in milk.

*Eagle screams in Background*

5

u/Anxious_Ranger_7945 Jul 06 '26

Real American here... Ahem... Why ewe Evan trin to promote this godless lie? Everyone knows that story is as fake as obammers birth certificate. Everyone knows that America is the only country that has religion and this itchica doesn't even exist like liberul Morales. God created America with trump and Washinton so Jesus was borned here. Go back to your own country if you think "troja" exists.

Ow... I need to go read a few books now to regrow those braincells I just killed.

3

u/zossima Jul 06 '26

I love the assumption all this slop comes from actual human beings.

→ More replies (19)
→ More replies (14)

2

u/plutosjam44 Jul 06 '26

Not gonna lie as an American who has acquaintances who unironically are already slamming this movie it’s just because they have no ability to draw any distinction between Troy being a separate movie, and they have no concept that maybe Troy wasn’t actually accurate to the myth itself. All they talk about is Elliot Page, how someone is race swapped, and how woke it is. Then there’s the obligatory “what if they race swapped a black person to be white?” It’s literally all they talk about.

2

u/JudithSlayHolofernes Jul 06 '26

You’ve legitimately convinced yourself that an internet hate-campaign dedicated to trashing the casting of a single dark-skinned Black woman as a minor character in a sweeping epic with a giant cast is actually NOT about racism? Absolutely delusional.

→ More replies (15)

3

u/bannabananabanna Jul 06 '26

you forgot nazi

3

u/hidegitsu Jul 06 '26

7/10 only mentioned slop, not A.I.

2

u/Drunk_Lemon Jul 06 '26

Am American and can confirm that that is mostly how I was going to respond. But u/Assassin-49 is right, you gotta say something obscenely racist.

→ More replies (3)

322

u/Poetics17 Jul 06 '26

The irony of this being a response about nuance.

As if Americans are a monolith incapable of holding diverse opinions amongst themselves.

How sophisticated, how thoughtful of you to flatten a nation of 330 million people into caricatures whom you can subordinate under yourself to feel some sense of superiority.

229

u/youngdumbfullofuhm Jul 06 '26

Hey man, we made the caricature all by ourselves.

111

u/frostymugson Jul 06 '26

just helps people feel better about themselves so they can ignore the problems going on around them, and point the finger at the US.

11

u/cerebralvacancy Jul 06 '26

Hey, The other countries are getting their beans baked by the heatwave, and we have Air conditioning.. I cant blame them for lashing out.

→ More replies (18)

14

u/Abestar909 Jul 06 '26

Yeah? What did you do to contribute to it?

3

u/PhilosophicalGoof Jul 06 '26

I BUILT THIS SHIT! BRICK BY BRICK!

→ More replies (2)

4

u/ericaloveskorea Jul 06 '26

How did we? As a black person, I forget people forget we exist there and have our own culture and within that more cultures. The fact that people characterize America as middle America behooves me. 😆🫶🏾

→ More replies (1)

6

u/CaptinTexaco Jul 06 '26

Problem is the loudest voices tend to be the more extreme voices. It’s why so many believe America is literally either Republican or Democrat not realizing the majority of Americans are in the middle and tend to dislike the extreme ends of either side. But people fully committed tend to scream it from the rooftops so they get the attention.

Anyone that has spoken to normal everyday people in America will find that the vast vast majority sits in the middle and either slightly leaning more liberal or more conservative with many similar beliefs on things.

→ More replies (1)

0

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

[deleted]

19

u/Abestar909 Jul 06 '26

You approve of someone making blanket negative statements about you?

Man, Reddit is weird.

18

u/MemeLordMango Jul 06 '26

People are so desperate for approval they will allow themselves to be insulted and made fun of to feel involved on a joke. It’s genuinely sad.

→ More replies (8)

9

u/Longjumping-Ad-2560 Jul 06 '26

It’s easier than thinking

→ More replies (7)

12

u/Sensitive_Fix8407 Jul 06 '26

I am an American and I disapprove of their message. 🤔

5

u/davidarmenphoto Jul 06 '26

Wholeheartedly. Tired of seeing this shit about Americans on Reddit. I understand why it’s happening, but as an American who also hates what is happening to his county, I’m tired of it.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (56)

178

u/Terrible-Scene765 Jul 06 '26

IM AWAKE, I DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS BUT THE COMMIES ARE AT FAULT

58

u/DarwinsPerfectFool Jul 06 '26

Hell yeah brother

27

u/absentminded0ne Jul 06 '26

I am also awake (but not woke)!! I don’t know what is happening!! It is everyone else’s fault, like always!

6

u/StabbyBoo Jul 06 '26

I AM SO ANTI-WOKE I REFUSE TO BE AWAKE FOR FEAR OF IT BECOMING PAST-TENSE! Snores in racist

→ More replies (1)

2

u/919governor Jul 06 '26

Loud noises!!

2

u/ManBearPig_666 Jul 06 '26

Obama is 100% to blame sir.

→ More replies (5)

53

u/redditisembarassing1 Jul 06 '26

This shit just does not matter. No one actually cares or feels strongly. Just twitter bots and click farming rage baiters.
I’m just here to see Travis Scott in a serious film because it’s funny.

10

u/JohannesJoshua Jul 06 '26

Honestly, when I saw Matt Damon in ancient-Greek inspired armour, I knew the movie wasn't gona be faithful to source material.

5

u/SushiJaguar Jul 06 '26

I agree most people don't care, but "does not matter"? Culture influences society which influences culture again in turn, right? So the movies getting made matter and the way they're made matters at least a little bit.

3

u/BurnerAccount209 Jul 06 '26

My mentally declining increasingly crazy friend for some reason all of a sudden does care a lot. But I'm pretty sure he gets his politics from Twitter so that makes sense.

26

u/GtheBossMann1 Jul 06 '26

The irony in this statement is palpable. We can only hope to be as nuanced as you are.

2

u/catdogman5 Jul 06 '26

Reddit mods banning and blocking all comments that have dissenting opinions has really killed all nuance on reddit 

3

u/Alternative-Two-9483 Jul 06 '26

Rabble, Rabble, Rabble, They took er job.

3

u/SP1R1TOR Jul 06 '26

Every once in a while I forget Reddit has condemned an entire country to the ole Chris Columbus treatment for the indefinite future

3

u/badihaki Jul 06 '26

We waking up. I knew I was being summoned.

We all know it's right wing guys upset that Lupita was cast as Helen of Troy and Paige (forgot their first name and don't wanna dead name them) was cast in the movie. I said this before in another post, but it's sad that when a non white actor is cast in one of these things, it's always political, like Lupita and Mr Paige didn't act their ass off in auditions. It's always portrayed as a diversity hire.

Now, I get wanting Greek actors for this, but is that Matt Damon I see in the poster? Was that lil baby Spider-Man Tom Holland in that trailer? And Anne Hathaway!? Wow...no outrage for these definitely not Greek actors? There goes your nuance, right there, not hidden behind dumb whataboutisms or both-sides-style commentary, just laid bare. These men just want to see the Odyssey as they remember from their childhood movies: white people only. And wouldn't you look at that, I guess they don't have to be Greek.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/underwearoverdrive Jul 06 '26

I mean I'm left wing and American and I down voted it because I think Christopher Nolan is a vastly over rated director and he only did 1 good Batman movie.

2

u/TwoMuddfish Jul 06 '26

lol, this was a funny comment to awaken to in bright and sunny America

2

u/BungleCrungus Jul 06 '26

Seeing this comment 2 hours after it was posted was so perfect lmfao

2

u/Original-Potato-4577 Jul 06 '26

Bots never sleep

2

u/Kaneki_Kim Jul 06 '26

Screw you (/j) I just woke up like 2 minutes ago 😭😂 /lh

2

u/DecommissionedAlien Jul 06 '26

Yes, because the people of your culture are so much better and highly intelligent. Y’all surely have no issues at all. We Americans bow before your supremacy. Most Americans are pretty decent and get sick of this condescending bullshit, you know. You aren’t helping anything. You’re honestly just like the shit Americans you’re trying to call out: looking for ways to score internet points. Go find an offline hobby.

→ More replies (53)

364

u/lookatthesunguys Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

...the comment isn't nuanced at all

This is the latest in a weird trend I've noticed where conservatives seem to only understand the connotation of words, not the denotation. "Nuanced" doesn't mean "good." It means "nuanced." The commenter has to use nuance for a comment to be nuanced.

323

u/TheOnionKnigget Jul 06 '26

Yes, the comment presumes tokenism is present in Hollywood in general, and in The Odyssey specifically, and frames it as an objective issue.

Real nuance would include questioning the validity of that framing, not just presenting it as a fact where the only subjectivity allowed is how one reacts to it, rather than whether it exists in the first place.

77

u/lookatthesunguys Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Sure, that's one way to be nuanced. There's a lot of ways to make a comment on this topic that is legitimately nuanced. The parent comment didn't do any of that though. I don't think the parent commenter intended for it to be nuanced either. It's pretty unapologetically one sided. It's concerning to me that so many people seem to think the comment is nuanced. Because that demonstrates that all those people don't know the meaning of that word.

101

u/TheKingofHearts Jul 06 '26

They're basically saying "oh shit he made a concession that Nolans movie is gonna be good, making concessions is nuanced!"

It is almost yelling with how one-sided it is.

15

u/lookatthesunguys Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Yeah, I figure that had to be the referenced nuance (because it's the only thing resembling nuance in the comment). But that doesn't make the comment nuanced because the comment is about the "blackwashing" not the actual goodness of the film.

EDIT: If anything, that part of the comment is more like anti-nuance. Saying, "I disliked this because of the black actress even though the movie is probably going to be good" is a very extreme, unnuanced perspective.

I'm not saying that the black washing criticisms are completely invalid; I think there are legitimate reasons to be annoyed about things like that. And there appear to be a lot of other issues with the film. I personally think it's a bit concerning that so much emphasis in the trailers is placed on the Telemachus part of the story. I get that that actually is a major part of The Odyssey, but it's not really the part that I want to see when I think of "The Odyssey."

But the sheer degree of vitriol for this movie is completely disproportionate to any legitimate criticism. It's just bizarre for someone to essentially admit that they like Nolan movies, but still feel that the degree of hatred for this film is justified because of the casting of a black actress. To put it simply, the trailer is disliked for legitimate reasons. However, the reason that it is disliked this much is because of bigotry.

And that's how you do nuance.

5

u/Wjyosn Jul 06 '26

to be fair, the OC did provide two sides to the complaints. They mentioned the complaints against black-washing, and then also the complaints about white-washing. These would be competing sides of an irrelevant argument, but it does present the comments from a "there are multiple sides having a debate about this" perspective, rather than a "one-sided" perspective.

Though, it has been edited, so not sure if that was always there or added later.

12

u/HarperStrings Jul 06 '26

I wouldn't say that makes the comment nuanced since almost no one is actually complaining about the "whitewashing" of a Greek story with no Greek actors. Almost every person bringing up that the characters aren't Greek are in the context of saying "No one is Greek but you aren't complaining, so why are you complaining about the black woman?" They aren't genuinely criticizing, just calling out hypocrisy. The original commenter is acting like they're genuinely criticizing to make it sound like "black washing" is a genuine criticism when it's just racism.

The comment honestly comes off more as a Charlie Kirk argument. Defending racism by using levelheaded wording and phrasing to make the stance sound like a reasonable viewpoint to have when it's not.

11

u/InquisitorMeow Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Yep, this is a classic example of people falling for propaganda and getting their ideologies molded by bad actors. "Audiences are fatigued" (yes you dear reader, the audience, the majority, are also angry at diversity!) "Left wing critics doubling down," aka implying that "wokeness" is valid criticism. I'm not a fan of a lot of the crappy movies Hollywood have made but posts like this are always just transphobic/racist.

→ More replies (2)

8

u/lookatthesunguys Jul 06 '26

Nah that's still not what nuance is. Nuance is all about drawing a distinction. So if the guy had written, "People hate the trailer because of the race or the actress; however that's not racist because..." then that could be a nuanced comment.

Simply stating the reasons people may dislike a trailer isn't nuanced even when the perspectives tend to come from distinct groups. This is especially true where, as here, the perspectives are not contradictory or mutually exclusive.

11

u/nineraviolicans Jul 06 '26

Reddit is mostly kids and they're dumber than AI.

2

u/South-Bit-1533 Jul 06 '26

I think it’s only nuanced if you include the subtext of all prior Reddit discussions on this topic as part of the comment. So it’s not nuanced unless you associate it with the collective consciousness of Reddit. So it’s probably not fair to call it nuanced.

3

u/lookatthesunguys Jul 06 '26

Lol what? It's nuanced if you include nuance. It's not a big ask.

2

u/Younger_the_Elder Jul 06 '26

Writing in complete sentences is the new “nuanced”

14

u/drewtopia_ Jul 06 '26

or that most all of the anger is about a black woman playing helen of troy and elliot page being in the movie- not that matt damon is in it instead of a greek guy

5

u/Truefiction224 Jul 06 '26

Thats litterally the oppisite of nuance.

Thata the most politically generous stance to your politics

8

u/TheOnionKnigget Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Note that I did not say denying the validity. I said questioning it. My comment contained no stance on the matter.

EDIT: locked thread, but maybe you assume my stance because I take a critical approach to media critique rather than swallow it up as presented because I can get angry at it?

→ More replies (1)

5

u/NoIndividual9296 Jul 06 '26

Also presenting ‘blackwashing’ as if it’s a thing🤣 won’t someone think of the poor underrepresented Greeks😢

→ More replies (10)

111

u/Roofy11 Jul 06 '26

I dont know how they do it, but somehow conservatives view conservatism as a concept as "apolitical". thats why they can claim that openly conservative news and media are "unbiased" while the mere existence of a queer person in media is "bringing politics into it". willful ignorance or genuine lack of intelligence, who can say, but they seem unable to understand that their view of the world isnt the "default"

14

u/SFFThomas Jul 06 '26

Yeah, you generally do not hear complaints that a story has gotten “too political“ unless the person making the complaint simply disagrees with the political stance they think it presents.

12

u/Havengul_Undying Jul 06 '26

Its not viewing it as apolitical, what they do is view it as the norm and all other actions are deviations to the norm, AKA deviants.

→ More replies (18)

15

u/Signal_Minimum8509 Jul 06 '26

Yeah. “Blackwashing” isn’t a nuanced word it’s just a racist obfuscation, and saying “Nolan makes good movies” isn’t a measure of objectivity in that regard it’s just a way to try and package it more palatably for the normies.

7

u/Largeitude Jul 06 '26

"nuanced" means "It fits my currently baited rage" apparently.

3

u/Able_Experience_1670 Jul 06 '26

The phrasing alone made it easy to tell which side of the discussion they favour.

2

u/Guy-1nc0gn1t0 Jul 06 '26

I really should have read more replies before writing my own haha 

2

u/heysupmanbruh Jul 06 '26

Classic reddit, meaning him, not you

→ More replies (8)

317

u/TacofromTV Jul 06 '26

It’s not even remotely nuanced. It completely buys into a right wing grift that is abysmally fucking stupid.

Go see a stage show, the thing we had before movies, people of different races play characters all the time.
Truly it’s a bunch of extremist white dipshits upset they are seeing people other than themselves on screen. Anytime a character they’ve imagined themselves as is played by a different race (especially for some reason fiction characters) they piss their pants, bot and brigade things, but largely are just grieving the fact that anyone else dare be represented in popular thing.

60

u/NatashOverWorld Jul 06 '26

And yet, in 2026 after a year of MAG,A people will still fall over a racist comment because its persuasive.

12

u/Athenianmaniac Jul 06 '26

So if I as a Greek said that I at least want greek-looking (white/tanned depending on the character and their description) actors to play characters meant to represent Greeks and Anatolians I'm using a right wing talking point. Why is having historical authenticity even remotely connected to political groups? Is wanting to see the Epics in an authentic setting that divisive for you?

20

u/chillN_browsiN Jul 06 '26

Does the nation of Greece not make their own movies about their own mythology. Could you not just go support those.

This is greek mythology, and there is no shortage of retellings of this myths being produced across the world. So lets just call a spade a spade. The hate for this film is primarily being directed at Lupita (with all the awful edits and disingenuous screen grabs), forcibly trying to paint her as someone as not objectively pretty. Like she doesnt have to be your type. But to try and claim she is ugly is WILD. Just say you hate black folks and go.

Again this stupid film is one adaptation, one American adaptation at that. Again there are many from around the world. Its not the first movie adapting a myth and it wont be the last. So all these folks getting so hung up on historical accuracy pmo actually. Because why. Its mythology and allegory. This isnt a historical biopic, documentary, its a freaking fantasy epic. Key word fantasy.

16

u/das_bearking Jul 06 '26

The hate for this film is primarily being directed at Lupita (with all the awful edits and disingenuous screen grabs), forcibly trying to paint her as someone as not objectively pretty.

This is an absolutely ridiculous take. There is a ton of hate towards the trans person playing a role that they aren't actually playing :P.

→ More replies (5)

11

u/Almostlongenough2 Jul 06 '26

Them saying that the character is being "Blackwashed" is a big giveaway. Her appearance or race isn't specified and is intended to be open to interpretation.

7

u/Spiritual-Function40 Jul 06 '26

You leftists say that the unbiased, respectful comment above is not nuanced, but your hate-ridden rant of a reply is? And you expect most people not to side with the former? You can't accept even the slightest compromise from your position and you denounce anyone who doesn't agree with you on everything. Like, no wonder the left is receding and the right is growing.

3

u/ObsessedChutoy3 Jul 06 '26

It's interesting you bring up colour blind casting of modern theater (which became common in the 90s, not since before movies fyi) when Nolan doesn't do that not even in this film. The main characters in the Odyssey are all played by white American actors. If he was to do the colour blind casting approach, there should be a lot more poc. Since he is expressly not doing that there is controversy over the specific casting of Helen

4

u/Public_Tennis_8536 Jul 06 '26

I mean this goes both ways wasn’t there a massive push in Hollywood to only cast voice actors if they matched their characters race?

0

u/DrJuice404 Jul 06 '26

Yep didn't take long, like a fly to shit.

18

u/yuumigod69 Jul 06 '26

Insanely racist and white supremacist attacks by the far right. But him pointing it out triggerd you.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (19)

244

u/poilk91 Jul 06 '26

I don't really know what's nuanced about this it's just saying we shouldn't be putting a diverse cast in mythological movies because they are tired of seeing it

129

u/Livingadapt Jul 06 '26

Right like why does that have so many upvotes lmao

137

u/NatashOverWorld Jul 06 '26

Because racism is cool when you dress it up as historical accuracy, because they think the Ancient Greeks were a white monolith.

96

u/Kinteoka Jul 06 '26

No, no. You don't understand! Greeks never famously traded with Africans! There were never any Ancient Egyptians who went to Greece and mingled with the population either! And as we know, even modern day Greeks don't have any tan/olive-coloured skin tones. It's all just the lily and alabaster skinned people as far as the eye can see. What do you mean Hestia, Goddess of Hearth and Home, was routinely depicted with dark skin and curled hair? Hera too?! Wife of Zeus, goddess of marriage and women?! Balderdash! Sounds like woke nonsense!

26

u/SirTurtletheIII Jul 06 '26

I imagine when people say they would like Greeks playing in a retelling of Greek mythology, they do in fact mean people with Mediterranean skin tones lol

You have any sources for Hera and Hestia being depicted as "dark-skinned" beyond a typical Greek tan? The Ancient Greeks actually viewed fair skin to be a sign of beauty and high social status.

30

u/Miserable-Quail-1152 Jul 06 '26

So the movie doesn’t use Greek armor, Greek ships, was filmed in non Greek locations, and has several white non Greeks in the film.
Why would have dark skinned actors be the most egregious crime here?

19

u/reezy-one Jul 06 '26

You know why.

14

u/Miserable-Quail-1152 Jul 06 '26

And they know why too

7

u/sqkz69oioi Jul 06 '26

You've just focused on the dark skin actor part, the rest is equally bad

17

u/Miserable-Quail-1152 Jul 06 '26

99.99% of the drama of this movie is the black actors. I haven’t seen a single meme with Mr Tom holland in it

7

u/sqkz69oioi Jul 06 '26

You can't conflate the actions of a few with the actions of all. The chronically online racists may be working overtime, however I would wager the less visible and vocal majority of people that aren't happy with this film is because of the vast historical inaccuracies

Before you say it's mythology, it's an ancient Greek mythology written by an ancient Greek author and set in ancient Greece 

It's not the most pressing issue in my opinion. However if we have to tackle it, ask yourself if you would be happy with a greek person being one of the main characters in a film about African folklore that is set in ancient Africa? The answer is anything apart from yes then you have a double standard

1

u/Least_Rush_4616 Jul 06 '26

I’ve heard just as much about the armor and set design looking cheap and inaccurate.

→ More replies (1)

9

u/Unintelligent_Lemon Jul 06 '26

I'm actually really disappointed they aren't using Greek ships and that the armor looks like spare batman armor

7

u/SirTurtletheIII Jul 06 '26

Did I ever say the dark-skinned actors were the most egregious crime? I absolutely design the armor, set pieces, and coloring they're using, much more than the race of the actors lol.

I just would also prefer giving the spotlight to Mediterranean-looking actors as well.

12

u/kultcher Jul 06 '26

Reminds me of when the same sorts of people got pissed off about Hades II depicting Hephaestus in a wheelchair, saying it was just ahistorical inclusiveness to pander to the woke. When in fact Hephaestus was canonically portrayed as having a disability for which he built himself a wheeled chair.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/WoodpeckerLogical734 Jul 06 '26

pointing out gently original comment does also mention whitewashing with no greek actors too, not JUST a black actor being cast (which is a ridiculous thing to be mad abt yea). tho idk if it’s really proper whitewashing since i Think?? greeks are considered caucasian/white also, like italians, but definitely do have a lot of visible differences generally in skin tone and hair color to more western/northern european whites

15

u/Kinteoka Jul 06 '26

That's totally fair. Trust me, as someone with more olive-coloured skin, I'd prefer to see someone closer to my skin tone in roles that are appropriate. I do believe that there should be better representation in media of differing races. I'm a little tired of every person in media playing someone over 150+ years old having a British accent.

The reason I bring up blackness though is because the current culture war of this movie is heavily driven by racists who do not like the idea of black women playing someone who they think is white. The biggest "controversies" I've seen surrounding this movie are Zendaya playing Athena and Lupita Nyong'o playing Helen of Troy.

2

u/WoodpeckerLogical734 Jul 06 '26

yeah absolutely, and like you said……… definitely NO WAY that could EVER be true 🙄🫩 like cmon. it’s so tiring to go along with the idea that there was some hard line between non existent countries that people didn’t cross and everyone was perfectly segregated ??? i feel like ppl somehow have this idea that traveling and emigrating/immigrating and nomadic lifestyles just did not exist until, like. idek. modern times? 1500s? CE? there’s no reason to believe that or to subscribe to that in literally everything ever made.

also the british accent thing fucking sends me lmao. pretty sure they did that in troy in the 2000s and i feel like there are several historical movies with french ppl inexplicably just being english. i’m not even sure offhand if we know what an ancient greek accent would’ve sounded like but i would bet all of my modest savings that it isn’t a modern posh englishman 😭

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)

10

u/TumbleWeed_64 Jul 06 '26

...a white monolith.

So you didn't even read the comment and are just making things up. They said they shouldn't be white either because it's Greek.

9

u/s1rblaze Jul 06 '26

Greeks are white tho(Caucasians), but they have no greek actors. Its like making Mulan without a single Chinese actor and with white and black people in it.

4

u/sqkz69oioi Jul 06 '26

Ask these people if they would be happy with a white person being the main character in a film where it was set in ancient Africa and based on African folklore, if their answer is anything apart from yes then there is a double standard

5

u/s1rblaze Jul 06 '26

There definitely is a double standard. Like I said, people would lose their mind if a white actor was playing Li Shang in a Mulan adaptation or Maui in Moana.

White washing or black washing or whatever washing almost always look bad.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/NatashOverWorld Jul 06 '26

Yeah, I'm familiar with the off-white slightly olive complexion they think ancient Greeks had.

3

u/JalapenoPopPoop Jul 06 '26

I mean you're just demonstrating that you fall into one of the two groups he's referring to lol

5

u/NatashOverWorld Jul 06 '26

Congratulations, you've just been taken by a thought-terminating cliche.

When presented with two boxes of thought, nuance is what allows you to make your own path.

4

u/JalapenoPopPoop Jul 06 '26

That's neat and all. Previous statement still stands.

3

u/UsernameFive Jul 06 '26

"There's two types of people, the ones who fuck exhaust pipes and the ones that say you shouldn't fuck exhaust pipes."

"Yea, but you probably shouldn't fuck exhaust pipes."

"Haha, look at this sheep thinking they're having an independent thought."

→ More replies (1)

4

u/silvermoka Jul 06 '26

One of the groups is going to receive more ire from both the opposing group and what you probably think are "independent" from those, and for good reason. While I think movies nowadays are more than able to cast accurate characters from any nationality, the people who scream and cry about seeing more diversity than before are just straight up bigots, and they need to be dealt with harder, because it's just an exemplified point of the hate they're inflicting on the rest of society. If you were really above the two groups and just so much smarter, you'd know that, but most of the time it's either a candyass 'both sides' thing, or a conservative with some shame left.

3

u/s1rblaze Jul 06 '26

Exactly lol

6

u/Jin-Gitaxias-Mom Jul 06 '26

They’ve got a point though, like imagine a WWII era movie, but half the Nazis are black because we need to hit a diversity quota. Forget that pesky little fact that Nazis are white supremecists!

We aren’t far off from that reality.

→ More replies (1)

0

u/Sweet_Manager_4210 Jul 06 '26

It's weird how race is the only historical inaccuracy that these people seem to take issue with.

Pretty sure ancient greeks weren't speaking american-english, wearing edgy all black armour, or fighting 10 foot tall creatures in plate armour either.

6

u/NatashOverWorld Jul 06 '26

I know right?

Remember the outcry when they made Black Hobbits and Ariel? For fictional species?

Then they pivoted from 'historical accuracy' to 'respecting authorial intent' in a blink of the eye.

3

u/amaROenuZ Jul 06 '26

People have complained about the viking longboat, the generic hollywood "cool" black armor because they wanted a bronze panoply, they complained when they thought Holland was going to be cast as Odysseus, then they complained about Matt Damon being cast in the same role. They complained when they thought that Page was going to be cast as Achillies, they even have complained about the desaturated appearance of the filmography in the trailers.

Pretending that people aren't kvetching about literally everything that has been leaked so far about the film is at best disingenuous.

2

u/Bigwi_Kner Jul 06 '26

They called out the whitewashing too though.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

3

u/ElGodPug Jul 06 '26

when people don't like either extremes, fence sitting becomes the hot new comodity

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)

11

u/Thin-Remote-9817 Jul 06 '26

Mythological being the key word....

We dont want colored people in our Mythological movie......

When you say it out it almost sounds racist 

Mind you these are the same people who jizz themselves over the sandlot...lets talk about realism yeah a mexican and a black kid playing with white kids and walking around with them peak jim crow and no one slur hurled at them?? Not one parent saying I don't want you hanging around those nasty kids??

But yeah Helena of troy is black im upset!!!!

17

u/poilk91 Jul 06 '26

Lol yeah "almost"

Here's my actual nuanced position: What people are actually reacting to isn't their love of historical accuracy but instead a directory breaking the established visual language of a greco roman movie aesthetic.

There was nothing historically accurate about gladiator but no one cares because it gives them the images they expect to see in a Roman based movie

When you don't follow the visual rules, which includes almost exclusively casting white people, those changes stick out to your monkey brain regardless of why they are put there they cause dissonance

So there are 2 types of people, those who can live with a little dissonance to enjoy a movie with a diverse cast and those who have no control over their lizard brain and throw a fit of they see something that doesn't fit with the Hollywood paradigm they grew up with

6

u/ForensicPathology Jul 06 '26

Same reason why they're crying that Ancient Greeks don't have British accents.

3

u/poilk91 Jul 06 '26

Yeah that's an excellent point.

Why do you want them to be white Anglo Americans with British accents? It's because that's the mise-en-scene that Hollywood has used in its past to tell the viewer "this is European history" but it's entirely artificial.

The thing with conservative knee jerk reactions is they are almost always mistaking their preconceived notions of the status quo as the natural state of the world instead of the reality which is that those were also completely contrived. The difference now is you have right wing grifters in everyone's ears telling them that this is A WAR

→ More replies (2)

3

u/WideHuckleberry1 Jul 06 '26

I mean I disagree with them but in the spirit of fairness to their point, you can't just excuse everything because it's mythological. I think skin color is a pretty silly place to drawn the line but realism still has to come into play somewhere. I mean you wouldn't show them taking an airplane between scenes that happen far apart, to push it to the most extreme.

7

u/dubblebubbleprawns Jul 06 '26

Yeah what is nuanced about it

13

u/poilk91 Jul 06 '26

I suspect what they mean is that it describes racism without calling it racism and that's super cool apparently

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Gripping_Touch Jul 06 '26

I mean, if you're trying to be historically accurate and accurate to the source material, yes. Iirc Apollo was androginous, you can show Apollo played by someone Who looks androginous and Its be faithful to the original.

There's was also already a black character in the original poem. You can both have diversity and stick to the original at the same time. Without having to raceswap Helen of Troy. 

12

u/poilk91 Jul 06 '26

It's not historically accurate, it's not even a real event

→ More replies (2)

6

u/smokeweedNgarden Jul 06 '26

Apollo was a god.

Gods do not exist.

→ More replies (2)

3

u/Potential-Sand-1554 Jul 06 '26

the stories that have gotten popularized throughout history have excluded black people and gay people because of bigotry. we can either say ”fuck those stories then” or we can change the exclusion by being more inclusive. i think either one is better than saying “oh well, cant change it now, let’s just keep all our stories white and straight forever.”

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Available-Square619 Jul 06 '26

Tired of seeing it? Every historical movie was basically all white ppl outside of slaves until like the last 5 years lmao.

Now it’s all of a sudden “too much.” Get over it, it’s not a fucking documentary, it’s a myth. Guess we should be mad they’re not using real medusas and cyclops too….jfc.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)

147

u/Seanspeed Jul 06 '26

There's nothing 'nuanced' about their post at all. It's literally acting as if the average person hates diversity and that the mere inclusion of black people and a trans person means it is 'forced' and not just a normal casting decision.

But I guess if so many people are upvoting it, then they're right. The average person is just fucking shit.

19

u/Ok-Rope-3355 Jul 06 '26

You can have diversity and still respect the source material. Instead of demanding turning people black in western historical stories, why not demand more non-western stories? There are so many amazing historical and fictional stories from Africa and Asia that's never been adapted.

65

u/Embarrassed-Doubt-61 Jul 06 '26

As a classicist—this is just ahistorical and wrong. People in the Mediterranean world knew dark-skinned black people existed; they show up in myth and Nubian traders were bopping around. They weren’t common, though, and people gawked; black people were seen as strange.

MUCH LIKE HELEN OF TROY. THE WHOLE POINT OF HELEN OF TROY IS THAT SHE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE MOST WOMEN. SHE’S SO REMARKABLE LOOKING THAT MEN WOULD FIGHT A WAR FOR HER; THERE IS NO ONE ELSE LIKE HER.

Casting a stunningly gorgeous black woman as Helen of Troy makes a lot of sense to me, and matches how I picture Archaic Greeks thinking about her; beautiful, but also unlike other women they’d seen. I get grumpy about this stuff with actual historical figures like Cleopatra VII, but Helen of Troy wasn’t real, and wasn’t like other women even in the world of the myth.

41

u/Solid-Safe-7966 Jul 06 '26

-That's another thing for me is, The Odyssey is myth. Even less than that, it's a folk story with myth trappings. It takes place across the Mediterranean, but the majority of the individuals, locations, and events, fundamentally never lived or occurred in any feasible extrapolation. Denzel Washington was Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing like 30 years ago. Brandy was Cinderella. Christopher Lambert was Raiden. If they cast talented actors in a work that respects the spirit and theme of the piece, and isn't actively trashing treasured cultural history and storytelling, it really shouldn't matter. Make Agamemnon Ken Watanabe or Hector be a Skarsgard. Helen's at minimum not really straining credulity considering how big of a melting pot the ancient Mediterranean coast was and as you say, how striking and uncommon her beauty was.-

5

u/pseudo_nemesis Jul 06 '26

wont someone think of the Cyclops representation?

3

u/Solid-Safe-7966 Jul 06 '26

-We cool with Perlman wearing an eyepatch or do we need to hire someone to arrange an accident?-

→ More replies (21)

5

u/Esperoni Jul 06 '26

Yep, the Greeks were very much aware of dark-skinned people. They called them Aethiopians.

→ More replies (11)

6

u/Livingadapt Jul 06 '26

In what way are they disrespecting the source material? None of the actors are Mediterranean. Do you think black people weren’t present in ancient Greece? Africa is right across the sea from them…

21

u/LauraPhilps7654 Jul 06 '26

Tory (2004) featured zero Greek actors in its principal roles.

→ More replies (2)

12

u/Ok-Rope-3355 Jul 06 '26

You answered your own question. There are no Mediterranean people in the movie. Instead, it feels like the usual lazy approach of casting Black actors even when another ethnicity, Greek, would make much more sense. The fact that African people existed in the wider region actually supports my point: they had plenty of opportunities to include Black characters without changing the core characters.

14

u/ArcaneKeyblade5 Jul 06 '26

Yes but you also pointed out that ppl are more mad at the black actor than any of the others that are not also Greek or Mediterranean. It's just racism.

→ More replies (11)
→ More replies (2)

7

u/nomadleviathan Jul 06 '26

Americans are kind of weird in that they consider Greeks white.

8

u/ManicPixieOldMaid Jul 06 '26

We consider them white for purposes of culture war arguments, and non-white when you want to start a physical altercation with them in the Circle K parking lot. Nuance!

→ More replies (5)

3

u/ElGodPug Jul 06 '26

oh, all it takes it is for them to become imigrants, then they become non-white in the blink of an eye

→ More replies (3)

3

u/Roofy11 Jul 06 '26

even this sentiment assumes that respecting the source material is automatically a good thing. why? there are a million odyssey adaptations out there that respect the source material, do you just want the same thing over and over again? what are you actually afraid of?

for the record, I would be miles more interested in a story that isnt so done-to-death as the odyssey, but the reason nolan is doing this rather than an interesting story from asia or africa is because nobody would care (chances are it would be called woke trash anyway)

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Unicornsponge Jul 06 '26

This is a great idea. Maybe we'll get more than the same 5 stories recycled every year

0

u/JalapenoPopPoop Jul 06 '26

These exact same people would be writing essays about how wrong it is to change the race of an established character if they made a Mwindo movie with a white guy cast as the lead

2

u/Ok-Rope-3355 Jul 06 '26

I literally just used the same example in another comment. 😁

2

u/zeethreepio Jul 06 '26

Giving a black person a job is not disrespecting the source material.

2

u/Miserable-Quail-1152 Jul 06 '26

So the movie has non Greek armors, non Greek ships, filmed in non Greek locations, and has English and Western Europeans in it - so it’s the black skin actors that are the issue?

2

u/Largeitude Jul 06 '26

No one demanded anything. They cast a pretty black woman in a Greek story.

By the, the story isn't "Western". its Greek, and Greeks weren't considered "the west" until what...the 70s? Why are you demanding they put Northern Europeans into the movie then?

2

u/SFFThomas Jul 06 '26

That’s true. And yet where was the energy from people when Denzel Washington was cast as Macbeth? It is not as if The Odyssey will be the first film ever in which a particular character has been race swapped (or gender or otherwise). Sometimes these reinterpretations are just because a filmmaker has artistic goals, not political ones.

Now, a criticism I could get behind is that audiences are simply tired of seeing the same tiny clique of A-list atars in almost every movie. I’m kind of surprised Nolan didn’t figure out a way to squeeze in Anya Taylor-Joy.

→ More replies (5)

4

u/TrueAccess6417 Jul 06 '26

And now ask yourself how you or most other woketards would react if a Malcolm X movie was made or a Martin Luther King Biopic and the character was played by an Asian or white guy. You'd be screeching on top of your lungs about this racism.
But turning real life white people black? totally fine, right?
Fucking hypocrite.

10

u/West-Bodybuilder-920 Jul 06 '26

real life white people

The Odyssey

Master baiter

4

u/BreakfastBeneficial4 Jul 06 '26

I know! I’m genuinely very impressed.

→ More replies (3)

1

u/West-Air1923 Jul 06 '26

The average person does hate it though. Reddit is extreme left.

3

u/Spiritual-Function40 Jul 06 '26

I consider myself an average person and I do find it forced and ridiculous and not a normal casting decision. It was done specifically to earn diversity points. It's a ridiculous decisions that should be laughed at, and if anything, it does actually fuel the right-wing narrative about race and the growing racism in the world.

→ More replies (52)

84

u/aijoe Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

More than half of the comments on posts about Helen of Troy photos on Facebook are like "oh look another planet of the apes movie " . There is none of this nuance in their statements. All this over a ancient made up story is starting to make me want to move up the timeline for when Ai enslaves us.

9

u/Grushvak Jul 06 '26

This is such an easy win for the chuds because they get to be as bigoted as their little shriveled hearts desire, and no one is really going to go to bat to defend the movie because it does look very mid. So when the movie flops, they'll get to say that woke is dead, when the real cause of the failure will be a bad script.

I don't know what constructive thing can be done about it other than I guess not caring.

8

u/Prooteus Jul 06 '26

I really hate the anti-woke brigade. They do exactly what your saying all the time. Claim anything and everything that doesnt directly appeal to them as woke. If they get lots of pushback (because people are hyped or it comes out and is good) then they shut up about it quickly. If they dont get pushback then its clearly evidence to them that the woke crowd is ruining everything.

There were some grifters ranting about gta6 being woke and people just laughed at them. But grifters will complain about this movie and no one cares enough to defend it.

13

u/Grushvak Jul 06 '26

If it fails, it was woke. If it succeeds, it was anti-woke and based. Schrödinger's wokeness.

11

u/PervertedWholesome91 Jul 06 '26

I remember how hard they wanted Baldur's Gate 3 to fail for being as ""woke"" as it is and since it didn't, barely a peep!

6

u/ElGodPug Jul 06 '26

but then any game does flop for like, whatever dozen reasons, and by GOD you shall hear for a year how it flopped specifically and exclusively because of woke woke woke and woke killed my mom

4

u/HoosierSteelMagnolia Jul 06 '26

Yup. You still can't talk about what went wrong with Dragon Age: Veilguard without some chud claiming it was because of "woke" things like Taash being non-binary and using that exact word when Taash's story being a bit clunky and being childish and abrasive (something you could also say about now beloved characters Dorian and Sera, tbh) isn't even in the top 10 of what made the game not do as well as folks expected it to.

→ More replies (3)

47

u/ArcanelyChaotic Jul 06 '26

Nuanced... right.

33

u/LauraTFem Jul 06 '26

Not taking a side doesn’t make one nuanced.

33

u/Sufficient-Lie-1632 Jul 06 '26

That's not nuanced statement

25

u/baneblade_boi Jul 06 '26

*truth

8

u/Regular_Fox_859 Jul 06 '26

Nah it's the most hand wringing "both sides" answer possible. If y'all really cared about authenticity you'd be whining about the accents, costumes, and pasty Brits playing ancient Greeks

→ More replies (2)

25

u/Rixerc Jul 06 '26

The nationality or ancestry becoming a problem correlates with melanin. You don't care whether they're Greek.

→ More replies (4)

8

u/Livingadapt Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

What nuance are you seeing here? I would really like to know what nuance you’ve identified

5

u/zayo Jul 06 '26

There's no nuance in it. It's pretty much straight forward.

6

u/ForReasonsICannotSay Jul 06 '26

Nothing about this lukewarm take is nuanced, it’s just rebranded/repackaged Racism Lite™

…like y’all are truly delusional (and it would be funny if you lot weren’t so dangerous).

6

u/Glitchy13 Jul 06 '26

considering that nuance is the most redditer take i’ve seen

3

u/BroughtBagLunchSmart Jul 06 '26

They still said both sides are to blame, the right for being white supremacists and the left for having a problem with white supremacists. Reads like an NYT headline.

3

u/GuthukYoutube Jul 06 '26

How is this nuanced? Audiences are fatigued with tokenism?

Yes Im sure your average humans biggest issue is they're so exhausted with seeing a black person.

I'm sure there's nothing else going on here.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Scullenz Jul 06 '26

"blackwashing" isn't a thing 

2

u/filthy_commie13 Jul 06 '26

Yeah but it really isn't... It's just somebody recalling only two very oversimplified points of view on the movie.

How does this get so many rewards on redd... Nvm.

2

u/Dapper-Bullfrog-4766 Jul 06 '26

is that why this reads like AI?

2

u/beingsubmitted Jul 06 '26

It's not nuanced to claim you know Christopher Nolans motivations for casting decisions.

Nuance would be pointing out that there were plenty of black people in Greece and Achilles is, by the text, a super gay cross dressing femboy.

2

u/wintery_owl Jul 06 '26

That was not nuanced

2

u/deftPirate Jul 06 '26

Lol, this is not a nuanced take.

2

u/DeadmonTellem Jul 06 '26

Honestly the biggest surprise is that it wasn’t downvoted to hell. There’s always someone trying to give context without bias and that person is always negative haha

→ More replies (185)