Opinions.

1. Racebending

So there's been a recent discussion online about a potential Live Action of Tangled, and an actress who I believe is Indian was fan-casted for the role of Rapunzel. The fan cast went viral and escalated into rumors that she was actually being considered for the role. The internet went batshit as it always does and started sending her loads of hate.

I just wanna say make this clear: Under no circumstance is sending hate OK. Civilly disagreeing with a potential casting is so very different from flat out vitriol. I don't know why some idiots don't understand that.No matter what you think of the situation, you gotta remember that actors are PEOPLE too!! Like WTF! And they didn't force the producers to racebend the role so its not even their fault whatsoever. This applies heavily to the new Percy Jackson live action. I disagree with the casting but does that mean i'm out here hating on kids? NO! And I'll touch on PJO a little later.

Back to Rapunzel. So, setting the unnecessary hate-train aside, you also had a lot of people arguing that Rapunzel could be made into another race and that her race does not matter to her story. That's where I disagree.

Its not because Rapunzel is a German fairytale. I think we've proved time and again that stories can transcend border. The tales Princess & The Frog and Aladdin were based on did not originate from their racial group (The frog prince is German and Aladdin is Chinese i think), but they worked because the setting was changed to reflect the characters' background. Rapunzel's race does not directly inform the plot the way Tiana's does, but it still matters. Why? Because it is clear as day that the setting tangled pulls from is inspired by Renaissance Europe type stuff. To just plop a person of another race in that setting and write it off as natural is not ok, because its not.

To counter this, some people bring up the "oh well there were black people in europe" argument. Yes, there were. But it was an incredibly miniscule number. There were white people all over the world, too. Marco Polo lived and traveled in China for 12 years. Does that mean Marco Polo is obligated to make an appearance in Mulan? I think not.

If you think about it, Jasmine from Aladdin's race really does not matter to her story either. Outside the story it matters because she represents a scarcely seen in hollywood racial group. But inside the story and the land of Agrabah, her race matters about as much as Rapunzel's or Belle's do. Why? Because all the above are set in monoracial societies. Their race/culture has nothing to do with the plot unlike Tiana or Moana or Merida. Their race matters, however, because it reflects the inspirations behind the story's setting.

Why are we fighting so hard to put POC in white stories? Wouldn't centering actual POC stories have much more value?

Race-bending is not always horrible. Because its true that racial representation was sorely lacking on screen for many years. Its true that white roles dominate roles available and that POC actors have a smaller selection available to them. Race-bending can end up OK if the story at least changes to accommodate a character's racial change. I initially disagreed with Halle Bailey's casting as Ariel in the little mermaid, but after finding out the setting was changed to the Caribbean to reflect her race a little more, I was OK with it.

If the racebending happens in a show/movie that takes place in the modern day, that can also usually be made acceptable because of globalization and societies growing multiracial. But the trend of casting a whole plethora of colors in clearly Medieval European English Lord Duchess Viscount crap (no offense these types of dramas just arent my thing) is a trend I really dislike. Because why. Whats the point. Why cant we see non-white/english historical dramas instead?

And race-bending real people? why? I get Hamilton because it was making a political statement. But suddenly that multi-racial casting became industry standard for stories where there is no political statement. There was an Anne-Boleyn Show where Jodie Turner Smith (BEAUTIFUL black actress) played her. A netflix show with a half black Cleopatra. (Cleopatra was Greek.) Its kind of...incredibly disrespectful??

ADDITIONALLY: People are allowed to dislike racebending simply because its not faithful to the OG material. It can be that simple. When you grow up with a certain image of a character in mind, and then that image is tossed aside, its ok to not like it. That does not warrant sending hate OF COURSE. This is how I feel about the Percy Jackson Show. I grew up reading PJO as many others of our generation and I was pretty attached to the characters and how they looked. Leah and Walker did a good job in the show, but they were different from how I imagined them so there was just a natural disconnect.

Some people brought up how people care less about Grover/Aryan's race change and its true, its a little fucked up that people are more receptive to the sidekick character being race-swapped. But think of it this way: Percy is the MC and Annabeth is the girl MC. I know way more people whose favorite characters are Percy and Annabeth as opposed to Grover (not that he isnt great!), which could explain the different reactions.

And i wanna add - its not just a race thing. I didn't looove the casting for Percy either. Walker looked more like a young Luke rather than the lightning thief.

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So, final thoughts: Racebending is not meaningful representation. If a character is racebended, particularly in historical stories, the story should be altered to match their new race. If they make an Indian Rapunzel, thats totally fine, but it better take place in Calcutta instead of Corona. While Racebending is not as bad as Whitewashing, people are still allowed to be upset about it. Not to sound like a snarky asshole but these things have nuance. Just cuz they dont like racebending does not mean they're a bigoted racist asshole in need of crucification.

Thats all.

Thanks for coming to my Tedtalk. Hope yall have a nice day.

Question of the day: favorite candy?

my answer - Smarties. They hit different.