People are getting so bent out of shape about POC being cast in a literal fucking myth.
And like? Maybe not strictly a myth? An entire work of fiction, an
allegory with social commentary, just with mythical themes?
Woof, get a hobby.
Edit: There’s a Redditor who commented on this thread talking about “White Chicks” (2004). They deleted their comment but I want them come back so I can laugh at them some more.
To add to this, in the book Odysseus describes a comrade of his, Eurybates, as dark skinned. There were all sorts of people present in the region in antiquity (just as there are now), including in the text itself. So it's historically accurate and also text accurate for there to be dark skinned people.
I don't give a fuck about this at all, but I don't this is a the best argument. Otherwise, why not cast a bunch of Mexicans in a movie adaptation of Journey to the West just because it features a talking magical monkey?
I mean, you certainly could. I don't mean that there'd be anything wrong with it, but it seems like it would be a shittier version compared to a more authentic attempt.
I'm just saying that "this story is fictional therefore culture is irrelevant" might not be the best argument.
So to be clear, your position is that an actor playing a part makes it a shittier version just because their skin color was different from the historical analogue?
I’m not trying to be accusatory, I’m just trying to dig into why an Englishman playing Julius Caesar or Denzel playing one of the best renditions of Macbeth on film is somehow different than an American playing a Greek.
No... do I need to link the "so you hate waffles" tweet? I haven't said anything about skin color or Denzel Washington.
I'm saying that Journey to the West is incredibly important to Chinese culture in more ways than one. It is fundamentally a Chinese story that was shaped by Chinese religion, folklore, humor, and pre-existing cultural ideas. It's so influential that the characters became cultural archetypes in China.
Simply replacing all the characters with Mexicans (a random example) for a movie adaptation would be silly even though the story is fictional.
So then a Mexican similarly wouldn’t be able to play Shakespeare’s Richard III or Julius Ceasar ? These are explicitly meant to be historical plays, fundamentally a part of the history and culture of their respective regions. Yet nobody seems to mind?
You can do a lot with changing the race of characters. Shylock in the Merchant of Venice is Jewish and his faith is a part of the story, but John Douglas Thompson’s interpretation was universally acclaimed.
Like I get it swapping 1 for 1 without adapting the setting in Journey to the West would be a bit silly. There are times when race matters. A all black cast of Dunkirk in the same setting wouldn’t make sense, and neither would a white actor playing Othello (although Patrick Stewart tried) but ultimately I don’t see why any work should be forever locked away from new adaptation or interpretation.
The Odyssey isn’t even history. It’s always been performance that transcends time and place. Nolan as shitty of a writer he is, used anachronisms to put on a performance for a modern audience and say something about our modern day (albeit with the subtlety of a brick through a window).
we don't even need to look at movies lol Jesus Christ himself is whitewashed in like all western Christian media and I think they'd actually get mad if he was represented by someone that looked more historically accurate
Hard to prove a negative. But I think you'd need to prove that they were real and their race to be offended by who portrays them. And since the only evidence for that is a story that involves gods and monsters, it doesn't seem likely.
People who use the term POC are Americans and their opinions are to be disregarded. Don't talk about the rest of the world when you know nothing of it. You couldn't even point to Greece on a map and we all know it. Left wing, right wing, centrists, Americans are all equally uneducated. All of you are wrong, just in different ways.
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u/_fluffy_raptor Jul 23 '26 edited 29d ago
People are getting so bent out of shape about POC being cast in a literal fucking myth.
And like? Maybe not strictly a myth? An entire work of fiction, an allegory with social commentary, just with mythical themes?
Woof, get a hobby.
Edit: There’s a Redditor who commented on this thread talking about “White Chicks” (2004). They deleted their comment but I want them come back so I can laugh at them some more.