WoT show to begin production this Fall!

[fiddler]

Umadbro?

You have quite the bee in your bonnet over 'white people' Isabel, watch your perch there on that moral high ground you covet. Lest someone kick it out from under you.

All she is saying is that it's be nice for there to be some breaking of the standard tv fantasy mold of pretty much only white people. I dunno why you guys have to get nasty about it and idk what "lest someone kick it out from under you" is supposed to be. Gross.

Anyway yeah it'd be weird for the Aiel to be pasty and in pretty sure at least half the Southern nations are black considering Juilin is described as 'dark skinned' as are some others from that part of the world iirc.

Yeah I think the Aiel were modeled after Irish and Scottish septs/clans but it'd still be visually weird to see a bunch of pasty gingers burning in the Waste. I've always pictured them as more middle eastern myself.

No dung sherlock,of course people in shows/movies should be cast in the proper ethnicity for the roles. im gonna be a dick to someone who's being racist for no reason, which Isabel was being with her white person obviously comment. It add's nothing to the conversation for her to include that. For a person who's so sensitive about social justice, she says some pretty flagrantly ironic dung.

[hasp]

Let’s steer this back around. Away from the magic use the rest of the show should be amazing. I’m really excited for:

Rand accidentally calling lightning In WB I think.
Thom fighting off the fade.
Battle of Falme.
Dumani Wells.
Cleansing of Saidin.
The first troll attack in EF.
Perrin talking to Wolves for the first time.
Perrin fighting the Whitecloaks.

[isabel]

Hi Fiddler, are you sure you know what racism means? Here's the wiki definition:

"Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another, which often results in discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity."

In what way is it racist to call someone who is super defensive about the possibility of a non-white major character an obviously white person? What else would they be?

It won't sound so strange to you if you pay attention to the fact that they grew up in a world where they did not identity/empathise with non-white people. So the idea that a fictional character they like (in this case Aviendha) - in whose joys and sorrows they have shared in, could be so "different" from them, was threatening because they have ALREADY identified with her. This is actually a very common reaction.

Possibly it is not YOUR reaction, and you want to say that I (and other non-white people) should not generalise, but you have to not be so clueless about the fact that there IS a culture by which white people are raised to ignore and NOT identify with non-white people. There is ample evidence of this in sociological studies. It's not because they are bad people, but because of the culture they grew up in. I am sure you know all this - it's pretty common knowledge.

In contrast, non-white people are bombarded with images of white people - a white person who grew up watching Star Wars would come across ONE racially different character. A brown or black person would come across the entire cast as different, but learn to empathise with them anyway DESPITE this difference.

That's why for me it's not at all threatening to imagine that a number of WoT characters could be white, whereas for that guy it was anxiety-inducing to imagine even ONE.

(There is more to say on the problem of films like X Men and Harry Potter using the EXPERIENCES of persecution (here mutants/muggles) of racial minorities, and then depicting that with an all-white cast such that people continue to empathise in that direction, but I fear that by this point I am already just talking to myself, and not you.)

[Ashlee]

Let’s steer this back around. Away from the magic use the rest of the show should be amazing. I’m really excited for:

Rand accidentally calling lightning In WB I think.
Thom fighting off the fade.
Battle of Falme.
Dumani Wells.
Cleansing of Saidin.
The first troll attack in EF.
Perrin talking to Wolves for the first time.
Perrin fighting the Whitecloaks.

Pretty much the same things I am looking forward to! Thom and that fade...I just started re-reading the series. That scene gets me every time!

[Reyne]

No dung sherlock,of course people in shows/movies should be cast in the proper ethnicity for the roles. im gonna be a dick to someone who's being racist for no reason, which Isabel was being with her white person obviously comment. It add's nothing to the conversation for her to include that. For a person who's so sensitive about social justice, she says some pretty flagrantly ironic dung.

So sensitive

[fiddler]

Dear kettle you took the time to respond to the original troll post

[Florry]

To be fair, didn’t Jordan model the Aiel looks after the (sometimes notoriously light skinned) Irish?

Tuon was dark skinned I believe, and I remember Taraboner’s being non-light skinned I think also (though for some reason I also remember Jordan saying their appearance was more akin to some parts of Spain iirc?).

Of course, liberties of film may differ from the books.

Aiel were 100% meant to be modeled after the Irish and Scottish. Jordan has said that he thought it would be fun to have the Aiel as a desert culture but with Irish heritage, thus the Aiel are physically as a people modeled after Irish people this is evident through their pale skin, and light hair and eyes.

Aviendha was "white".

"She stood in one smooth motion, surprisingly pale where the sun had not touched her, slender and hard-muscled, yet with roundnesses and softnesses that haunted his dreams."

—The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 52, Aviendha.

In TGH, Jordan goes out of his way to point this out as well during the introduction of the Aiel the first time.

"... a tall man, with skin dark from the sun and red hair cut short except for a tail in the back that hung to his shoulders."

TGH: 28, 408, A New Thread in the Pattern

Rand, who is also described as the spitting image of Janduin, his father, is also described as being pale of skin and red of hair.

This might make some of you happy though:

[Florry]

Would also like to point out that a lot of the characters, major players in the books, were not "white".

The main cast from Two Rivers, sure. But not all of the major players.

[Florry]

Anyway yeah it'd be weird for the Aiel to be pasty and in pretty sure at least half the Southern nations are black considering Juilin is described as 'dark skinned' as are some others from that part of the world iirc.

I always thought the Southern Nations were mixed. Tear, where Juilin is from, has a lot of different colors. Siuan is described as fair skinned, whereas Tihera is described as "dark, even for a Tairen".

The only two nations I ever felt had stagnant colors were Andor and Cairhien.

[Raya]

Let’s steer this back around. Away from the magic use the rest of the show should be amazing. I’m really excited for:

Rand accidentally calling lightning In WB I think.
Thom fighting off the fade.
Battle of Falme.
Dumani Wells.
Cleansing of Saidin.
The first troll attack in EF.
Perrin talking to Wolves for the first time.
Perrin fighting the Whitecloaks.

I remember when I was not -that- into the first book... but then I reached that chapter when they were almost caught by 3 fists of trollocs, and Moiraine displays Aes Sedai power clearly for the first time to everyone, rippling the ground and making a goddamn 30 foot high fire wall. Excited to see that!