Is Race Swapping in Fiction Wrong? My Official Position

On this video I'll address the controversial topic of blackwashing and whitewashing in fiction. I have already discussed these practices when it comes to both, historical documentaries and historical fiction. Today we'll address Pure Fiction.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is an American fantasy television series developed by J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay for the streaming service Amazon Prime Video. Based on the novel The Lord of the Rings and its appendices by J. R. R. Tolkien, the series is set thousands of years before Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and depicts the major events of Middle-earth's Second Age. It is produced by Amazon Studios in association with New Line Cinema and in consultation with the Tolkien Estate.
Amazon bought the television rights for The Lord of the Rings from the Tolkien Estate in November 2017, making a five-season production commitment worth at least US$1 billion. This would make it the most expensive television series ever made. Payne and McKay were hired in July 2018. The series is primarily based on the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, which include discussion of the Second Age. Tolkien's grandson Simon Tolkien was consulted on the development of the series. Per the requirements of Amazon's deal with the Tolkien Estate, it is not a continuation of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. Despite this, the production intended to evoke the films using similar production design, younger versions of characters from the films, and a main theme by Howard Shore who composed the music for both trilogies. Bear McCreary composed the series' score.
A large international cast was hired, and filming for the eight-episode first season took place in New Zealand, where the films were produced, from February 2020 to August 2021 (with a production break of several months during that time due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Amazon moved production for future seasons to the United Kingdom, where filming for the second season took place from October 2022 to June 2023 (finishing during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike).
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiered on September 1, 2022, with its first two episodes. The rest of the eight-episode first season ran until October 14. Amazon said the season was the most-watched of any Prime Video original series, and it received generally positive reviews from critics. The second season is expected to be released in 2024.
The Little Mermaid is a 2023 American musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall from a screenplay written by David Magee. Co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Lucamar Productions, and Marc Platt Productions, it is a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1989 animated film of the same name, itself loosely based on the 1837 fairy tale of the same title by Hans Christian Andersen. The film stars Halle Bailey in the titular role, alongside Jonah Hauer-King, Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Noma Dumezweni, Art Malik, Javier Bardem and Melissa McCarthy. The Little Mermaid follows a mermaid princess Ariel who is fascinated with the human world and makes a deal with a treacherous sea witch Ursula to trade her voice for human legs to impress Prince Eric, who she saved from a shipwreck before time runs out.
Plans for a remake of 1989's The Little Mermaid were confirmed in May 2016. In December 2017, Disney announced Marshall was being courted to direct the film. Bailey, Hauer-King, McCarthy, Bardem, Diggs, Tremblay, Awkwafina, and the rest of the cast signed on between July to November 2019. Production was expected to begin in London between late March and early April 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The beautiful and kindhearted princess Snow White charms every creature in the kingdom except one -- her jealous stepmother, the Queen. When the Magic Mirror proclaims Snow White is the fairest one of all, she must flee into the forest, where she befriends the lovable seven dwarfs -- Doc, Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, Bashful, Sleepy and Dopey. But when the Queen tricks Snow White with an enchanted apple, only the magic of true love's kiss can save her!
#metatron #blackwashing #woke

[@raudrauga]

Kinda weird how in Snowwhite, a story set in medieval Germany has such a diverse cast, while Mulan, a story set in a chinese dynasty, has a strictly chinese cast

[@ComposedSage75]

Precisely.

[@metatronyt]

Double standards

[@Player-re9mo]

The Chinese don't accept bullshit. That's the difference

[@Jiko-ryu]

Yeah, EXACTLY!

[@insertnamehere8121]

@@Player-re9mo

[@jakepistolero]

to me, as a brown mexican man, there is one more problem: by black or brown swapping these characters, we are told that the best we can do is be a generic colored placeholder for an actually interesting white character. how about producing original black and brown stories??

[@Isabelb]

This is the best point IMO, there are so many new stories and tales just waiting to be brought forth, to be watched. Old and new stories, and characters just begging to be given a chance, to be known! But no, we have to re make over and over again the same "10 tales," no chance for the new writer, or the old one, forgotten.

[@sophiemoconnell]

Couldn't agree more! What we need isn't forced diversity in casting, natural diversity through storytelling. This is how we truly move forward, because storytelling is how we have learnt about and understood the world for centuries.

[@iamtheiconoclast3]

As a white dude, I totally agree, but I think it's mostly laziness on Hollywood's part: why invest in an original story when you can make an old one for the 19th time? They of course do this serially, whether they're race-swapping or not, and I find it annoying anyway. Did we really need a remake of The Manchurian Candidate? How many Three Musketeers films will finally be enough? And aside from the debate everyone had about The Little Mermaid... did they even need to make that film again in the first place? Even when they go part way, they always seem to screw it up somehow. Message from the King was a pretty badass film with a black male lead - an original fictional story specifically about a black character. But the black character was from South Africa and they still cast a black American guy to play him, and probably hired a dialect coach to help him fake the accent. Which still left me wondering... are there no good African actors? I feel like there probably are. There's also just the Anglocentric and Eurocentric bias which I find annoying. Not because there's anything wrong with a culture like Europe or America making films about its own context or history (the Indian, Nigerian, Korean film industries of course do the same), but because they seem to be saying, with all of these remakes, that they're out of stories to tell, and meanwhile there is a wealth of stories to be told all over the world which they seem not to want to explore.

[@zekeolopwi6642]

That would require talent or skill. Something modern writers lack.

[@sanjivjhangiani3243]

Actually, Disney pulled this off some years ago with "How the Emperor got his Groove Back. " It was a magical story set in the Andes in the time of the Inca. It was pretty good.

[@SpasticSpelunker]

I think also black washing for inclusivity is just a lazy alternative. Rather than create a new, cool original character, they pull something off the shelf paint the character black and go “that’ll save us lots of money”. They hardly actually care about the fans or even the woke people they’re trying to get the support for. It’s just money. Good luck Metatron, You are our last sane hope

[@Polyphemus47]

Case in point: Johnny Storm in The Fantastic Four.

[@HeathenDance]

@@Polyphemus47 Love that character from the comics.

[@BigfoxN-A-chiccenhouse]

What does woke mean?

[@d.wayneharbison8691]

The ONLY time that has ever worked was Nick Fury.

[@michelewood925]

Not the best actor for the role just make it diverse even if it’s a medieval movie. 😊

[@sanguicidas]

I once dressed as Blade for Halloween for school. Principle and Resource Officer checked my locker because instead of looking like a vampire hunter, I looked like the Uni Bomber. The world isnt ready for White Blade I guess.

[@HeathenDance]

Dexter, the Serial Killer, makes an hilarious joke saying that same thing: "He looks like the Uni Bomber." I think I'm finally searching and get to know who that dude actually is.

[@HexenStar]

@@HeathenDance Clive Owen made a uni-bomber joke too, in the "Shoot Em Up" movie.

[@TutosViolet]

Raceswapping is wrong both ways. If you want diversity create new characters.

[@YvonneWilson312]

This!!!!

[@Unpainted_Huffhines]

They know deep down that they aren't talented or creative enough to come up with compelling original characters that people will like. That's why they're so keen on appropriating existing, popular characters and shoehorning a race swap onto it.

[@OverlordParadox]

@@Unpainted_Huffhines Basically: Evil cannot create anything new they can only corrupt and ruin good forces have invented or made

[@ComposedSage75]

🎯🎯🎯

[@jamesjeager129]

Exactly, but most of them are not talented by taking the hard work of time and effort. They rather do the easy copy cat

[@siyabongasithole6884]

As an African I would to say that I find this discussion insulting to us as black people. We have our own stories, our own mythology and it's just so easy and lazy to just change a characters race. Companies like Disney and Netflix have enough resources to hire writers and consultants from Africa or any other black group of writers to write new stories. There is a lot of data that shows that it can still be lucrative, e.g blackpanther, Scandal as well as other south african series that are doing well on Netflix internationally. We just don't need to have elves!

[@admirekashiri9879]

There are stories already written that are popular. it's just that Hollywood isn't interested. And tbh I'm fine with that. With the crap they've been releasing its best, they leave our stories to our indie studios. Like in SA they've produced a Shaka Zulu TV series recently called Shaka Ilembe, in Nigeria a small indie studio called Komotions Studios is working on a 3D motion capture film called Dawn of Thunder about the Orisha Sango. In my home country of Zimbabwe, there are indie comic and animation studios growing. We, as Afticans, can't trust Hollywood with our stories.

[@motixdiabolic8792]

They already screwed a originally black story and completely changed the roles of the characters "the woman king" (metatrons made a video about it) its just awful how they twist everything just for attention and money

[@VarunKumar-ek3kr]

They will never do a story on anansi

[@marlenehibiskus]

I would love to watch your folktales and mythology come to life in series and movies.

[@NLTops]

Even dark elves wouldn't in and of itself be unpopular. But it all depends on which fictional universe it is set in. In Tolkien's universe, orcs for example are a corrupted form of elves. But in many other fictional universes they are a separate species, with varying degrees of sentience. Warhammer, World of Warcraft, D&D. In some they're a tribal society, in others they're just violent monsters closer to animals. I agree with the sentiment that fiction should stay true to the original author. What they wrote resonated with people so that it became so widely known. It's so arrogant to change a successful story and assuming the changes are an improvement. If someone is a great author, they can write an original story on par with the story they lazily adapted. If they're not a great author, then they have no right to change the works of one.

[@ProwlingTiger1]

Along with race swapping, the other thing i hate in fiction or historical fiction (as well as in history in general) is the changing of characters view points and actions to suit 21st century values, simply because they want the characters to still be likeable and relatable. I think we learn more from showing things - right or wrong - for what they were at the time- Many authors of fantasy and fiction often still put a lot of their own views and thoughts and beliefs, or general prevailing view points of society in general at the time, - into their written works - and for me that actually gives a fascinating insight into life during their time period- how people functioned during that time, what kind of thoughts and beliefs people had- whether right or wrong, liked or disliked- much can still be learned even from fiction and just like real history thats why people who are passionate about such things- hate it being changed or messed with.

[@vksasdgaming9472]

Do you know what kills any story? Audience saying "I don't care what happens to these characters" kills every story. Being true to norms of era depicted (even when completely true) has big risk of causing that happening.

[@7stringst3r]

We live in a time of great hypocrisy, where the guilty accuse the innocent of that which they themselves are guilty.

[@KevinUchihaOG]

@@vksasdgaming9472 i disagree. Look at the tv show Vikings. The main characters pillage, rape, kill civilians, etc, and its the second most watched history show. My own mother had Rollo has her favorite character, he raped multiple women in that show. So i think people are capable of understanding that times where different back then. Not to mention Game of Thrones.

[@vksasdgaming9472]

@@KevinUchihaOG It depends on writing and characterization. Certain values resonate through the ages. Nobody wants to watch a story of quarrel between Ulf the Kindergarten-burner and Hank the Kindergarten-poison gasser who disagree on proper method of killing everyone in kindergarten. Unknown third party breaking the stalemate is Larry the Kindergarten-Shooter who has novel method.

[@HexenStar]

It's hard to say which one is worse, but both are surely spokes on the same wheel of corruption and cultural eradication.

[@Dragonfan39]

The word "fidelity" is EXACTLY the word I've been looking for for years!! I couldn't quite put my finger on it... All well said, sir.

[@Will_Parker]

"Why do you even care" is the most disgusting response. They KNOW why anybody cares, because they care enough to change it in the first place.

[@scarlett19b]

*Because they're the ones who actually ARE RACIST!* *It's basically like a thief accusing a lawyer for noticing what the thief has been doing all along!*

[@ArrakisHeir88]

I care that my race is seen as a character flaw by popular culture.

[@InqvisitorMagnvs]

⁠​⁠@@ArrakisHeir88 I care that the existence of my race is seen as a problem to be solved-starting with White Erasure in film, media, advertising designed to condition populations for real-world erasure. The same disingenuous two-faced lies are used in the real world discussing subjects such as race and immigration in White countries. Michael Anton termed it _celebration parallax_ -those who see it as a good thing are free to proudly boast of growing “diversity” (nonwhites replacing Whites), whether celebrating how “diverse” (how few Whites) in the cast of a new movie, or celebrating how a country is demographically becoming more “diverse” (less White) due to deliberate govt immigration policies. However anyone who might not be excited about such “diversity”, or even just someone neutral who happens to ask questions about it, will immediately be attacked demanding to know ‘why do you even care? why would you even notice that? you must be a crazy conspiracy theorist to think that since it’s not happening; just coincidence that all classic Disney films are being remade with nonwhite actors replacing Whites-they all just happened to be best qualified for the job…’

[@Squeaky245]

It's super disingenuous hypocrisy. They're the ones that insist on shoehorning 'race consciousness' into everything, yet will immediately resort to "why does it even matter" the second anyone else has an ethnicity-related grievance.

[@dudefrombelgium]

@@ArrakisHeir88 what race are you talking about?

[@viktortunevi]

Casting a black actress to play Snow White seems just as reasonable as casting a white actor as Black Panther.

[@cocobunitacobuni8738]

for me it's even worse because Snow White belongs to the culture of Germany and was gathered as a folk tale by the brothers Grimm. It was a collation of probably many variants of a folk tale passed on from parents to children for generations. I am as unhappy as the Greeks and Egyptians were with the Cleopatra nonsense. It makes me feel that somehow our culture is cheap and anyone can help them to it whereas other cultures are somehow sacred. As you and many others have pointed out, if I were to make a Krishna movie or a Mulan movie and European actors the world would burn. We also have culture and traditions and it is also not for sale.

[@KamikazeKatze666]

The actress is not Black but a white half-Latina.

[@exoboi6974]

​@@cocobunitacobuni8738that's how I felt when I saw black angroboda in gow Ragnarok my culture is not a costume

[@kaltaron1284]

@@cocobunitacobuni8738 Their versions of many fairy tales also changed over time. For example in the first release it was Snow White's actual mother who wanted her dead. But that was probably too morally wrong. Wanting to eat her organs was still fine.

[@KamikazeKatze666]

@@cocobunitacobuni8738The original German fairy tale is incredibly gruesome, with body parts being cut off and the stepmother having to dance in red-hot iron shoes. I guess you wouldn't insist on not changing these details in a remake.

[@hansvonhochtann2739]

Also, remembering that the little Mermaid was written by Hans Christian Andersen, who is danish, it is most likeley, that this story is taking part near the danish Country or at least the north Sea. Therefore Arielle is propably not black, but has charackteristics of scandinavian people. That would be the historical aproach to this charackter in my opinion. Thank you metatron for sanding against nonsense and remaining on a logical, objective path.

[@HexenStar]

It's way more than "most likely". Andersen often limited the stories to his home town, even cited actual historical landmarks in them. So to him, these things were just as obvious as the fact that humans have arms and not tentacles. Nevertheless, all writers took an effort to describe their characters well enough to dispel any doubt. Hans Christian included. Although, i must also mention that over the many years since his stories were published, there were numerous edits, abridges and other unnecessary modifications. If we don't intervene, then one day all that will remain - is just Andersen's name, insolently slapped on a boorish amalgamation of some revisionist rubbish aimed to spread lies and promote dictatorship. His family haven't had the luxury to copyright-protect with enough legal barriers to avoid this kind of travesty. So it falls to us, if we care about cultural legacy of the world.

[@hansvonhochtann2739]

100% agree

[@LonnieBhi]

You do realize there are black and half-black people who are Danish right??

[@jonoxes8662]

A few points. HC Andersen was supposedly inspired by Undine which is a greek myth. So based on that it could be set in and around Greece. Otherwise the actual story is likely set in and around a fictional land. And last but not least, the Little Mermaid is a Disney production, loosely based on HC Andersens work. But seeing as Triton is based on Poseidon, (only called "the Sea King" in the work by HC Andersen) that also could be greek, although I think officially this version is set in the caribbean. In conclusion, this is completely fine. She does not have to look Danish. The only time where race should matter this much, is where it can strenghten the world building to have them come from different regions of your world, like LOTR or GoT. Never the less it's not bad, it just could be better.

[@leegaul2161]

The irony is that the people deep into identity politics hate identifying terms. I once made an example of changing every ingredient in a recipe, ultimately making it an entirely different recipe, but still use the same name, and the person I was discussing his with was adamant that you could still use the same name and it would be fine. I had to point out that if two people use the same term, then - for language to have any purpose for communication - we should be imagining the relatively same thing. Instead, in his scenario, both people can be thinking of two entirely different recipes, be confused as two why they are thinking of two different recipes, and this would be completely okay. This person was ironically and genuinely advocating for the collapse of communication, because they they needed the agenda of "swapping" to be prioritized over efficacy of language. It applies to this video. They see it as totally okay to change absolutely everything about a character down to the very plot itself, and still use the same name, even though it would invoke multiple responses from different people and create confusion. All in the name of inclusivity.

[@lexievv]

Cosplay is the perfect example for the argument "you don't need to look exactly like a character to be able to imagine yourself as the character".

[@Ironica82]

Ya mean I don't have to have a high IQ and are great with riddles to be able to dress up as The Riddler? Whew, glad no one looked down on me when I did that at work ;)

[@lytsedraak]

Agreed. Cosplay, dressing up for birthday parties or halloween, go for it! Be the character you love and enjoy yourself! There is no need to look exactly like the character to dress up like them.

[@JarlBorg93]

N's are a dirty species of lesser humans, they need to be eradicated.

[@EpikStorm101]

Cosplay is different from professional casting.

[@lexievv]

@@EpikStorm101 I get that. But a big argument used for the casting is that this way people can see themselves in a character based on skin color. The fact that many cosplayers cosplay their favorite characters regardless of skin color shows that this is not necessary for a lot, if not most people.

[@Crimea_River]

The irony of making the seven dwarves more "inclusive" is that in actuality, the film is less inclusive. There isn't a high demand for dwarf casting in Hollywood so if you're taking away one of the few roles that actually demands their presence then you're committing a form of tyranny against an underrepresented community. Hollywood is a very stupid place.

[@shanillaabdul9896]

Dinklage is very keen on preventing any new talents being found that can compete.

[@Cosmopavone]

Imagine a movie about Gengis Khan but korean otherwise "mongols" may get offended

[@3nertia]

@@shanillaabdul9896 Based on what?

[@wandpj]

@@Cosmopavone What about the real depiction of Genghis Khan by John Wayne?

[@data_abort]

The underground belongs to the dwarves!

[@m.aj11]

When I was a kid I unearthed a collection of several anthology books: Stories of Asian/African/North American/South American/European/ Peoples from Australia and Oceania that belonged to my uncle and that contained stories from every corner of the planet. It was the most wonderful treasure cove that I could have imagined and I grew up reading these wonderful fables and fairy tales told by native people of Indonesia, Sudan, Hawaii, Rapa Nui etc. (fun fact: the Italian Three Oranges was one of my absolute favourites!). I cried, empathized and cheered for all the characters, them being so vastly different from me. People nowadays have almost no imagination and even less understanding for what is different from their own experience then in the past. Which is just absurd given how available information about other cultures and their trials and tribulations is... Pathetic. Even more pathetic is the laziness of today's entertainment industry.

[@sarawinardi6745]

No they don’t, hence all the race swapping, gender bending, reboots and remakes

[@manricobianchini5276]

If the characters were written one way, then they should be kept one way. And yes, even in comics, fantasy and superhero movies are included! Period!

[@FancyHatching]

Part of the irony for me is that there is a very good example of fictional race swapping done right. Princess and the Frog. The reason for that being that they in fact did not fixate on the color of their skin but instead put the whole story in a completely different setting (New Orleans in the 20s) and made the visual changes ACCORDINGLY. They did not fixate on skin, they concentrated on actual culture and telling a compelling story in a believable, unique setting. They made every necessary change to tell the story in an interesting, entertaining and believable way. NOT A SINGLE PERSON COMPLAINED ABOUT THAT. WHERE WAS THE "RACIST BACKLASH" WHEN THAT MOVIE CAME OUT??

[@qwmx]

That's not race swapping. That's an adaptation. Race swapping is when the context is set in a specific demograph, culture and they outright swapped out the character. It's like Aladdin suddenly being Italian, and all the events are still set in Arabia and arabic culture. Princess and the Frog follows that plotline at it's most basic foundation, but it's still an entirely different story. It's much like saying "Another cinderella story", starring Selena Gomez is race swapped.

[@chidmania8485]

I made this same point with Little mermaid. It would have been understandable if they'd changed EVERYTHING: Make everybody black, set the story either in the carribeans or West Africa and in the local culture. That would have been a very interesting tale to tell.

[@Draxynnic]

@@chidmania8485 Would be hard to do, since while they were downplayed in the Disney movie, some of the themes in the original were based on Christian assumptions - for instance, in the original, the reason why the mermaid getting the prince to fall in love with her would stabilise the transformation is that it would give her a human soul. So transferring The Little Mermaid into another cultural background would lose that aspect. Unless they really did their research and found a non-European culture that has a similar concept.

[@twincast2005]

That was before widespread use of social media, thus less opportunity to whip up a visible hate mob, and there very much was considerable whining on Fox Noose etc. about Tiana. And Disney's live-action The Little Mermaid did make according changes to the setting. Not all of them well, but they did at least put actual thought into it. (And the bigger problems with the writing stem from their notions that a sixteen-year-old falling in love at first sight is "problematic" and that Eric also getting a heroic moment saving Ariel is "antifeminist".) The real problem is that "Disney's The Little Mermaid" is already an established brand, and therefore people at best feel a disconnect and at worst fear that the version they have an emotional attachment to is being taking away (in promo material, theme parks, etc.). Had any other studio made this adaptation (minus the few elements that the original Disney version added - basically the animal sidekicks and the songs), it would have gotten far less complaints (but on the flip side also far less attention of any sort and thus less hype).

[@masontoy1976]

Also latina wonder woman o7 it just makes sense she's from the amazons

[@dnaseb9214]

Yes, because it is done ONLY to erase, insult and remove a group of people. Those works of fiction are also part of that groups culture, heritage and history.

[@cocobunitacobuni8738]

The world seems to forget that we even have a culture or traditions. In fact, I've heard someone say Europeans have no culture.

[@danivanbuskirkbeil2557]

@@cocobunitacobuni8738 Have you any idea the "reasons" for these thoughts, that there is no white/euro culture..What drives this so hard? There has got to be a reason but I am at a loss.

[@cocobunitacobuni8738]

@@danivanbuskirkbeil2557 I have a hypothesis (totally disputable) that it has to do with Christianity. I once told my father "If it were up to you, the whole world would look like this town" he said "yes" There is this idea or feeling that the Christianised European/British/American culture is somehow the norm and that everything else is exotic (that's what attracts us to these cultures to begin with). I hypothesize that this homogenic idea of European culture is sometimes seen as a blank slate. Our culture is "every day" What they don't realize is that we might not have totem poles or ghost dances or didgeridoos or hieroglyphics but we have music, architecture, folk tales, philosophy and so on, those are our totems. Excuse my clumsiness hopefully you get the idea.

[@MW_Asura]

@@cocobunitacobuni8738 Saying Europeans have no culture is a whole new level of stupid. Europe is a continent full of countries with incredible histories and cultures, it's not a monolith that these idiots can generalise like that. Btw ask them which language they're using

[@juanjoseleonvarea2495]

@@cocobunitacobuni8738 In my opinion it is simpler than that: It is another tool to destroy the cultural identity of the West, making us doubt our shared cultural identity.

[@TheMythologyGuy1]

Very well said once again. I honestly wish I could make my points as well as this. The only part I’m not sure about is showcasing content from The Mythology Guy. That dude always rubbed me the wrong way.

[@TheMythologyGuy1]

But seriously I was very happy to see that. Thank you

[@metatronyt]

😂 thanks man I appreciate 🙏🏻 you do a great job yourself.

[@Russoswiss]

I am actually impressed this video is still on one month later. Well done on the argumentation and staying on point and professional.

[@momsnoteatingbugs1919]

It goes deeper than just contemporary nostalgia. Ariel is a Danish folklore icon that goes back over 100 years and snow white is a prominent German fairytale princess that also goes back a couple of hundred years. These two have prominent positions in their communities that have been entrenched for generations and for a studio to come along and simply snap their fingers and make a change based on politics is infuriating.

[@AlexandraM689]

Exactly, those stories are tied to German/ Danish culture

[@cocobunitacobuni8738]

correct and stealing from the German or Danish culture is as bad as stealing from the Indian culture or the Chinese culture. We have culture too and we like it's appropriation just as much as the Greeks and Egyptians like theirs being appropriated etc.

[@kaltaron1284]

@@cocobunitacobuni8738 I mean the animated versions took their fair share of liberties but at least it was in the name of entertainment and the results were good movies. The life action ones... less so.

[@kaltaron1284]

IIRC she had no name in the original version. If any it should have been Undine. Also the sea witch was no antagonist in that one and the prince married the wrong person in the end.

[@collencal4662]

@@cocobunitacobuni8738well Egyptians had no choice but to adopt Hellenic culture tbh

[@Yasemin_KS]

As a German who grew up near the black forest (where many of the Grimm's tales originate), Snow White was quite culturally significant to me. I would say she's more of a remnant of old European beauty standards (when fair skin was the ideal) than an actual heroine. So in her case I would argue that her looks are integral to the story. Being really pale myself, I never fit in with the 2000's standard of super tan skin and was even bullied for being "white as cheese", so having a fairytale princess look similar to me was kind of comforting as a child tbh. It's not like there weren't/aren't enough beautifully tan Latinas shown in most other media. Also, the dwarves are apparently a fantasy representation of miners in the black forest region, hence being short and wearing the typical pointy hats lol

[@TheRogueJedii]

Your skin is beautiful. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

[@Vee_of_the_Weald]

From what I understand, the dwarves were actually children miners as the mines tunnels were too small for adults and would have collapsed if made bigger. Aaaaah the past!

[@danaos4120]

Lmao you arent German.

[@bladerunner3314]

She has the name because of her white skin, so making her a latina is insensitive AND racist. So sehe ich das.

[@bladerunner3314]

@@danaos4120 You're an intelligence reject.

[@elwinbrake2695]

Tolkien video yes please, from a huge Tolkien fan who truly enjoys the nature of the balance of your approach.

[@david_walker_esq]

What about cultural "ownership?" To me, The Little Mermaid is a Danish story. My first introduction to it was Disney's 1989 adaptation (of course). As a child, I didn't know what a Dane looked like. I don't even recall associating them with Vikings. But, as a child, I imagined them being fair skinned like Ariel and Prince Eric. I eventually read the works of and learned about Hans Christian Andersen in high school and university. As an adult, in my mind, "the Little Mermaid" is Danish. It's not so much Ariel, the Disney character, but a character and a story of Danish culture. She is so significant to the Danish people that there is a statue of Den lille Havfrue in the harbour of Copenhagen. I think Disney took a good approach to her depiction in their 1989 adaptation. There are stories that her hair colour was made red to differentiate her from the blonde mermaid depicted by Daryl Hannah in the Touchstone (Disney) 1984 film, Splash. In my mind, I also associate Vikings with red hair. I'm sure the Disney animators had that in mind. I think what confuses audiences the most about the location of "the Kingdom of Atlantica" is Sabastian the crab. He's obviously meant to represent a Caribbean character. But, he is the only "Caribbean" character in the film. I imagine Atlantica being in the middle of the Atlantic, halfway between the Caribbean and Europe. It seems plausible that King Triton's court would consist of sea creatures from all over the Atlantic ocean, including the Caribbean, but not exclusive to the Caribbean. And being centrally located, Ariel could easily come ashore along the coast of Denmark, Bermuda, Jamaica, the Bay of Biscay, Dover, Cap-Vert, or even Newfoundland or Brasil. But, if I had to guess I would place "Prince Eric's castle" in a port city like La Rochelle and not actually Copenhagen. The Chef is obviously "French" and has an appreciation for seafood. But, Eric doesn't appear to be French. Nor does his guardian/advisor, Grimsby who is obviously English. Disney's inspiration for Eric's seaside castle was Chateau de Chillon on Lake Geneva in Switzerland (far from the Atlantic). Clearly, Disney intended for the setting to be ambiguous to appeal to a global (predominantly US) audience. (We all know that American viewers can't associate with characters living in Toronto, so a TV show or movie has to be set in Chicago or even Minneapolis over Toronto, even if it's filmed in Toronto.) But, in my mind, Eric is likely a prince of the Kingdom of Denmark. And while "his castle" isn't in Copenhagen, he probably resided in a French chateau on the Bay of Biscay for the duration of the 1989 film (even though the Danish royal family owns Chateau de Cayx in the South of France, far from the coast). On cultural ownership, though. I'm Anishinabe. The Anishinabek are one of those "underrepresented visible ethnic/racial minorities" in Hollywood. I don't particularly identify with Pocahontas, but Aladdin and The Little Mermaid were my two favourites in my childhood. I eventually came to appreciate Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, The Jungle Book, Treasure Planet and Atlantis: The Lost Empire as well. None of them feature Indigenous characters, but that's not why I'd like a film or story. In more recent years, I identified with the deity of Maui in Moana because of his similarity to Nanibijou in my culture, the ofrenda practice in Coco and even the vaguely "Sami" folklore and politics in Frozen II. I appreciate seeing Indigenous characters and actors in TV and film, but I don't seek them out. I don't need to see "Anishinabe" Ariel to identify with The Little Mermaid. I would only want an Indigenous actress to portray Ariel if she resembled Ariel or at least passed for Danish (Anishinabek aren't especially dark in complexion). A few years ago, Stumptown was adapted for TV and was broadcasted on ABC for one season. I immediately loved the series. Half of the cast consisted of Indigenous characters in and around Portland, Oregon. The entire first season revolved around a lost character, Benjamin Blackbird. Blackbird was Indigenous and when he was finally depicted on screen at the end of the season, he was depicted by an Italian-Korean actor. I was disappointed. Sure, the actor was handsome. Hot, even. But, all of the other Indigenous characters were played by Indigenous actors, including Tantoo Cardinal, as Sue Lyn Blackbird. Based on my opinion of an Indigenous actress playing Ariel, I obviously have a double standard when it comes to the depiction of Indigenous characters. Is it racist? Or is it a desire for greater, "authentic" representation? An Italian-Korean actor depicting an Indigenous character in a contemporary TV drama is one thing, but if Indigenous folklore (like Nanibijou or Haiwatha) were depicted by non-Indigenous actors or if the stories were "reimagined" as black or white, I'd be likely be quite bitter, angry even. So, if can feel so strongly about my own culture and folklore, shouldn't I have empathy for Danish and other creators of fiction and folklore? I think The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz is a good example of a racialised adaption done well. The Wizard of Oz, as originally written and then adapted to film in 1939 by MGM featured a "white" Dorothy from rural Kansas. And in the 1978 film The Wiz, the characters were black in an urban setting. They didn't set it in rural Kansas. They didn't set it in the past. They made it contemporary and most importantly, they named it The Wiz. Unlike Disney, with their 2023 adaptation, the makers of The Wiz didn't "blackwash" the story. They racially adapted it and further differentiated it from the source material by giving it a new name. Why can't Disney take a similar approach? And if Disney truly wanted to be "diverse" and "inclusive" they would have adapted the African folklore of Mami Wata to film and cast Halle Bailey as the titular African mermaid character.

[@foxman8882]

I’m just tired of every Ginger getting replaced in every single character role. The list just keeps growing.

[@gaetanhillion8342]

The ginger swaping conspiracy... I observed that, thank the world Karen Gillian should be safe ^^. But i fear for the remake of buffy the vampire slayer... Willow is doomed ^^.

[@aligmal5031]

@@gaetanhillion8342 when 20+ ginger character get replaced with black ppl it's not a conspiracy no more

[@utrock5067]

Let's call it as it is: it's GINGERPHOBIA. They wanna throw all phobias at us? So we have full right to respond in kind.

[@swissmilitischristilxxii3691]

In every ad today, it's mandatory to have blks in Europe. 🤢🤮 Like in the movie about queen Mary Stuart, suddenly out of nowhere you have blk lords. So fookn ridiculous.

[@NinjaFlibble]

@@gaetanhillion8342 nah, Willow was a lesbian. She'll be fine.

[@lytsedraak]

As a writer, if I take the time to describe what someone looks like I wouldn't appreciate it being changed by someone else. Writers tend to have reasons for what they write. If I didn't mention anything about skin colour or place of origin, by my guest, imagine my characters with any skin-colour you wish, it's not important for the story. When I do mention skin colour or place of origin, please keep them as I intended as there was a good reason to mention this.

[@holdencross5904]

THIS THIS THIS! I too am a writer. I want my characters to be respected. I go out of my way to commission artists to draw them up so there is a CONCRETE visual medium of what they look like! I have Japanese and other ethnic group characters. They should be respected as such! Obviously there are certain details like wings and her heterochromatic eyes that need coloured lenses but for the most part you will try and get the best visual comparison to her or you go for an animated. If I was an author and was approached for a movie. I want SOME control over casting and decisions.

[@TGPDrunknHick]

I'd say it depends on the emphasis and in certain cases how possible it would be to get a casting as well. Like harry potter is mostly right except the eyes. having the same colour eyes as his mother was important moreso than the colour itself though. whereas if you have an entire race of people who have ashen skin and red eyes that descriptor becomes more important.

[@verhalenvrouwe]

Oh yes, I agree. Take Snow White, the author wrote very specifically about why she was born with black hair, white skin and red lips, something like that shouldn't be changed. I don't mind any child of any colour cosplaying as Snow White and not look like she was described, but if you are making a movie based on a story, try to get the details right.

[@lytsedraak]

@@TGPDrunknHick coloured lenses are a possibility, but I get your point. The green eyes in this case weren't important to the plot, just that he has her eyes, so that's a change of detail I can get behind.

[@TheDarkWiiPlayer]

Fwiw, iirc the obsession with white skin at the time was because of an association with nobility and not having to do any work out in the sun. So the reason why she was described that way probably comes down to "peasants ugly, nobles pretty", which is not an ideology I necessarily need Disney to endorse. But just changing the skin tone of the character and calling it a day is definitely not a good way of addressing this.

[@babisdikiozoglou5296]

It was the most complete argument that I have ever watched, thank you very much, very well said, love your selection of words and the facts. Great videos

[@Annagrefberg]

Metatron, again you hit the hammer on the nail. I love your work.

[@Meg_88]

As a little girl, I never felt the need to "relate" to any of the princesses. I loved them all, and I pretended to be every single one of them, regardless of their skin tone. I never even registered the fact that they were a different color or race or whatever. They were just pretty, and I loved their stories, so I pretended to be them when playing with my cousins, lol. The whole "I need/want to feel represented" is bullshit, and I think people need to get over themselves. Also, race-swapping has to be the most blatant slap to the face to minorities, because these studios are basically saying "sorry, your culture and your people don't have interesting stories to tell, so we will just give you a rehash with a different color, and you better eat it up!" instead of actually creating interesting new characters. To those that say "hur dur you're just racist" I say stfu. Moana is a brown girl and it was a huge hit. Milo from Spiderman as well. Tiana from Princess and the Frog. The general public doesn't hate colored characters. They hate rehashed ones that are swapped for no real reason. Make new characters. Make new stories. Stop rehashing the same old stories with the only "new" twist being "the token colored protagonist" because THAT is racist.

[@ArrakisHeir88]

You feel that way all you want. They see your race as a flaw that can be improved upon.

[@Spookatz.]

@@ArrakisHeir88 who?

[@ArrakisHeir88]

@@Spookatz. The Disney execs, for one. And most of the third world for another.

[@Spookatz.]

@@ArrakisHeir88 "the third world"? what do you mean by that?

[@ArrakisHeir88]

@Spookatz1 I mean that a large portion of the less privileged parts of the world view it as their cultural duty (a plurality even have a religious reason) to replace and displace the indigenous peoples of various foreign places, and the higher on the social totem pole the victim group is, the greater a victory is perceived.

[@WifeMadeThaStew]

Thank you Metatron for being willing to say out loud what 90% of us are all thinking.

[@metatronyt]

My pleasure. I’ll be your voice

[@zsoltbocsi7546]

@@metatronyt i think you dont understand how companies like Disney work. Companies are immoral. They don't care about who is black or white. All they care about is profit. Currently inclusivity is the hip. If something else was rad now, like being rascist, they would jump on that bandwagon to please the audience.

[@jayloncollins9681]

@@metatronytdude your just a racist who dog whistles. You said Spider-Man as if miles isn’t a separate character from Peter Parker.

[@Buddy-Dale]

I ain't afraid to say it

[@jayloncollins9681]

@@Buddy-Dale if you complained about Spider-Man being black in real life you’d get smacked

[@laceyhoward7711]

I've been watching some of your videos and I find it refreshing how you use actual facts in your presentation. Yes you might include your personal opinion on some matters but it's mainly facts. So thank you!!

[@luchoman91]

I have come back to this video to refresh myself on the points you've made on this topic. With the release of the Disney+ series adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, even though I have heard mostly good things about this series and it sounds like they are sticking pretty closely to the source material, I cannot look past the casting. They didn't even cast someone with Percy Jackson's hair and eye color! I put official artwork based off descriptions in the books next to the pictures of the actor and I do not see the same character. It is harder to point out the miscasting of the other characters because it is clearly race swapping but most people I am around do not understand the problem there and it is hard to explain that. Maybe I will use your point about Blade and apply it to Black Panther, a much-beloved character today, and see if they understand my point then. Thanks again for the super helpful videos!

[@MirZee]

I'm a Northern European, I'm as white as it gets. Out of all Disney characters, I identified myself the most was Mulan. Why? Because of the qualities of her character. I admired her loyalty and her perseverence, her bravery, and the way she got her ass handed to her in the beginning but overcame that (re: perseverence). I saw a lot of myself in her (and a lot of what I wanted to be in her), and she even inspired me in some hard spots in my life. To think that I "shouldn't" be able to relate to this character because of the differences in our ethnicity or cultural backgrounds is... mind-hobbling. The woke bigots are really erasing everything Mulan is and represents and stripping it down to her race, the way her skin and features look - and they don't even realise that they're doing it. How vapid must be the life of a person who can only relate to a shell, rather than what truly makes a person the person they are.

[@Trish.Norman]

Me too!!! I wanted to be Mulan! (I’m blond, blue eyed, the sun hates me) I also wanted to be Batman! Looks and gender had nothing to do with my ideal. It was the character.

[@MirZee]

@@Trish.Norman Precisely!

[@sweethistortea]

I’m Czech/Italian, and I love Mulan as well. Same with Tiana. They were hard working, caring, brave, and worked to get what they wanted.

[@wambokodavid7109]

Look am a stone from mars so I always saw my self as a fish

[@hammer1794]

And that's why, things are falling apart.whites are their own worst enemy, just ushering in their own demise.

[@pauloariente]

I am a writer and the protagonist of my books has brown skin (more akin to Brazilian indigenous people, a homage to my mother and my family), and if they made her white or even african black, I'd be pissed. Keep my character as I wrote it (and thus keeping the lore intact - yes, I wrote her like that for a reason) or don't portray her at all.

[@TropicalPriest]

As a fellow writer, you lyin.

[@deivytrajan]

Stop being racist. How does colour change of your main character ruin the story? There would be 0 difference?

[@grawman67]

​@@deivytrajanDo you have proof of that? The character was written to be that ethnicity and could have a big part of their character. And even if it doesn't? Doesn't make them racist. It means they want their character to be exactly as they wrote them.

[@Melodyofthesea78]

​@@deivytrajanFor one the person you're calling a "racist" is the author and you don't know the story or where the story takes place or the place in history the story takes place in.For example if Black Panther was remade and Disney decided that there was too many black people in Wakanda and decided to make it more diverse by adding Asians and hypanics that would be weird. They could remake Mulan change the country make the character black etc etc....then there's the problematic thing they're doing to historical characters....I'm still waiting for MLK the movie staring Mel Gibson. Lol

[@Melodyofthesea78]

​​@@deivytrajanBesides the word racist means nothing it has no sting to it and everyone has been called racist at this point.

[@thecascade1440]

I’ve used the same defense where I said I would be upset if Morpheus was made white just the same as I am about Aragorn being made black. They will still call you racist and tell you it’s a fallacy without any explanation.

[@vksasdgaming9472]

007 can be black woman as that is codename of one British agent. James Bond is white male.

[@kananiwolf256]

Brilliantly explained. I am of mixed ethnicity, I loved “The Little Mermaid” because of the memorable experience of taking my tiny niece to her first film. Observing her joyful reactions to the plot, made me smile. So yes, I prefer the original version. Case in point, the latest version tanked at the box office!

[@eeddieedwards3890]

@kananiwolf In other words the new "Little Mermaid" movie "fish" tanked at the box office.

[@Undedproduction]

THANK YOU. I once had a girl tell me about how horrible it was to whitewash historically black characters and 30 seconds later was praising blackwashing historically white characters. Also as you pointed out with fidelity to source material: sometimes these stories have roots in cultural legends, folklore, and stories that go back hundreds of years. If it would be silly to have white dudes acting out traditional African myths and legends, then it should be equally silly to cast a bunch of African dudes to act out traditional European myths and legends.

[@bluetooth2677]

Year's ago I had Hispanic girl tell me how fansty or Science fiction have no excuse for having mostly white poeple in there movies. Saying it was racist. I ask her one question. Isn't it's racist to be upset over a movie having white people in it. She stop talking to me after that.

[@bluetooth2677]

Just wanted to add, this girl wanted to be in politics.

[@EyeSeeThruYou]

And yet, the latter is now being done habitually under the guise of "diversity," which is meaningless. The pushy blacktivists even presume to blackwash African history when it suits them, claiming Africa is "black," a predictable assumption by people who've never set foot there, think the continent and it's people are monolithic, and are intent to engage in revisionist history to appropriate that which they covet but don't understand. The "Rules for thee but not for me!" mentality so prevalent among the blacktivist set and their white leftist enablers is meeting with resistance now. Finally.

[@ealan3694]

@@bluetooth2677 LOL, go figure. And we wonder how Politics got so screwed up. All the normal, sane people opted out of going into Politics! smh

[@bluetooth2677]

@@ealan3694 Yup, I had another admit she was pushing teenagers to vote Democrat. It's crazy how people are nowadays.

[@wyzasukitan]

The saddest thing I’ve ever seen is the furious hatred and the vile, vitriolic online attacks directed at little white boy dressing up as Black Panther for his birthday party not long after the first movie came out several years ago. T’Challa was a HERO, he was strong and noble and ANY child - boys in particular who are seeking these role models - should be allowed to love, partake in and embody these characteristics by dressing up as their idols

[@SeasideDetective2]

Since T'Challa wears a mask, how did they even know?

[@wyzasukitan]

@@SeasideDetective2 the costume did not cover his neck, hands or ankles

[@scarlett19b]

@@SeasideDetective2 *Because of the Comics and the Movie.. and well the actor who played/portrayed Him was a guest at several Talk shows such as The Graham Norton Show on the BBC!*

[@nerysghemor5781]

As a kid, I identified as a military brat with the character of Jake Sisko from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and thought Benjamin Sisko reminded me of my dad. As a white kid, my relating to the Siskos had nothing to do with skin color in any way but with personality characteristics and backstories that resonated strongly with my own personal experience. (It's been said, in fact, that military culture itself is its own identity, and that shows how STRONG it was with me!)

[@scarlett19b]

@@nerysghemor5781 *I am not British🇬🇧 or Blonde or "what is considered as White" but I have always loved Alice in Wonderland!*

[@Aine197]

You can‘t race-swap Snowwhite. She got her name because „her skin was white as snow“. In this case it doesn‘t make sense

[@Vander101]

I could talk with you all day, Nandor. Like what Marvel is doing so wrong. Like your stuff and honesty. Or how Galadriel is described in the book. And D&D talk. Great material and thoughts!

[@VitriolicThunder]

The way I see it, if you can't empathize and identify with a character (or an actual real life human being) through our shared humanity but instead need them to be exactly like you in every possible way, you've got to be a near psychopathic narcissist. Of course, most of Hollywood falls into that category, so I guess that makes sense.

[@edgarbm6407]

The idea that someone cannot relate to a character of a difference race is a completely made up. Those people are liars.

[@timriehl1500]

Excellent point. We are one race, not 4 or 5. I'm afraid people are losing sight of that.

[@Steven9567]

@@timriehl1500 no we aren't one race

[@qwmx]

​@@EliasAngelo2047We're really all like dogs. Just different breeds if the same species.

[@johnsarkissian5519]

I read Tolstoy’s War and Peace when I was 14 years old (I’m 60 now). One of the book’s characters which captivated me most was Countess Helen Bezukhova. On the whole, she was one of the negative characters in the book. But she was also described as a great beauty with “plump white shoulders” and “luscious black hair”. You cannot imagine my disappointment when some years later I saw both the Hollywood and Soviet movie versions of War and Peace! In both cases, Helen was portrayed by a “blond” woman and who was also decidedly “un-plump” (to adhere to the beauty standards of the 50’s and 60’s when the two movies were made). 45 years later, I have not changed my opinion, I still believe that the directors had no right to make such changes.

[@MirZee]

Same with Anna Karenina. She is supposed to be on the round, plump side - definitely not the extremely thin build of Keira Knightly. There is nothing wrong with Keira's body. But she is not Karenina.

[@Izka3gChupaChups]

there's a mini series out about war and peace with Lily James now too. check it out, it inspired me to buy the book and read it

[@johnsarkissian5519]

@@amandak.4246 Plump does not mean fat. It’s only in today’s politically correct English that in order to avoid saying fat we say plump. Tolstoy did not have that problem.

[@BlacksmithTWD]

I've had a similar dissappointment when I read a book in which the best friend of the main protagonist was consistently referred to as "the guy with the red beard" and then saw the movie adaptation where the friend was cleanly shaven. I mean, how hard would it have been to just glue a red beard onto him? Even a minor red goaty would have sufficed.

[@BlacksmithTWD]

@@johnsarkissian5519 When referring to shoulders, then what do you suppose Tolstoy meant with the word 'plump'? And did Tolstoy even write in English? if not, then what was the word he used and how does that translate into english? If you can't come up with a better idea, then don't dismiss the existing idea.

[@rednaskela4830]

Another point to make is how fiction is often not supposed to reflect the real world or the human race to begin with, turning elves in Lord of the Rings universe black would be like turning the aliens from the Alien franchise white.

[@leighjones8255]

Absolutely love your content mate so good and it's refreshing to find someone I actually agree with in general but this is so brilliant the more we make differences a thing the less inclusive we become and a warhammer reference too😀

[@JoeBlowUK]

Snow White: "The fairest in the land, with lips red as a rose, hair black as ebony, and skin white as snow." Yes, sounds like it's describing a brown person. 👀 Personally, I think Metatron is a closer match to Snow White than Rachel Zegler. 🤣

[@missanne2908]

The confusion that the little mermaid had green skin comes from her description as having a 'rose leaf' complexion. That is an old fashioned term that denotes white skin with pink cheeks, not green skin. The literal translation from the Danish would be 'rose petal' complexion.

[@SombreroPharoah]

The fact that likely referred to wild roses, not domestic cultivars too. Wild roses are very white (extremely light pink) with a tinged pink end th petals. Literally white with rosey glow.

[@adambielen8996]

Who thinks rose petals are green? The most common types of rose are red or white.

[@victoriazero8869]

@@adambielen8996 The confusion is mistranslation from petal to leaf. Petal is correct, leaf is not.

[@simonspacek3670]

"Little mermaid" is described as having green skin, but in Witcher.

[@rhinoutopia]

Thanks or this video Metatron! I feel so much better about my own reasoned opinions regarding this topic. I got into a really nasty argument with someone over this exact issue and all got as the presumption of racism. You laid out everything I have tired to articulate about this issue perfectly.

[@kevinroselli7173]

Like my arguments on history, there are so many amazing black historical figures that deserve a movie, there is so much open territory to create new characters that are diverse.

[@kevwhufc8640]

Parents ( both black) videoed their daughter's reaction to the new little mermaid video ( guessing shes about 6/7 , she loved the characters, she had her bedroom wallpapered with LM , she had duvet LM , curtains, books etc . So when she saw new Ariel she was horrified , she turns to her parents "what's this , Ariel isn't black Ariel is white " this cute lil girl had proper rant about new Ariel , Even though its fiction , it's a character everyone knows , I'm sure that little girl wasn't the only child to feel the same way.

[@roygbiv8226]

I've never seen a bigger cope in my life. There are thousands of videos with little girls not no concerned with her color. Old white people seem to have an issue.

[@malacostracus3663]

Yet, there have also been a couple of reaction videos showing little black girls being amazed with this new Ariel that is (in their words) " like me!". I understand Metatrons argument that kids can project themselfs into every character no matter how similar or not - I think it definitely holds truth. But on the other end of the spectrum there's also truth in "representation matters". Of course you can always create a new cool representative character. But the same argument about nostalgia (at least similarly) applies here as well. Changing a well known and beloved character into a version more representative of yourself can (as shown by those reaction videos) be amazing, too. So I think there's truth to both perspectives and as Metatron very well said both are fine and can be liked or not by various individuals. We don't need to fight about which new version is right or wrong. Because none is either. Its just a new version of a fictional character and based on one's background and personal preferences and biases one may well like one version more than another. And in the end "your" original version is still out there. It's not "erased" (the only big mistake I could find in Metatrons wording). So let's just give people with a historical background of oppression and underrepresentation the joy of this new versions.

[@virikn]

@@malacostracus3663 No.

[@roddo1955]

the child will get over it.

[@kevwhufc8640]

Of course she will

[@Gliese380]

Sing your own song, write your own story. No need to remake everything in your own image.

[@albertoftw]

White people have been appropriating other cultures works for years and literally nobody had a problem ... and when the people in power won't invest on anything that isn't a sequel/already stablish work we get shit like Puerto Rican aragon and black elves

[@jbownik]

Like Jesus as a blue eyed euorpean?

[@TheDarkWiiPlayer]

​@@jbownik There's also black Jesus, Han Jesus, and probably a whole lot more Jesuses.

[@Ironica82]

@@jbownik Meh. I'm against all images of Jesus so I'm with ya there :)

[@xavi_6767]

You think they have the braincells to be creative?

[@MrPrice2U]

We black people have our own stories and mythologies. As well as being lazy, race swapping reveals Hollywood's lack of interest in actually investing in diversity. This is just a cosmetic issue, which is superficial.

[@adriennedunne1748]

I wish I could give you a million thumbs up. You're videos are always very welcome.

[@sicnic666]

We should respect the authors who created these characters and leave them the way they wrote them

[@colinharbinson8284]

very well put.

[@swagromancer]

Yeah, but folktales don't have an author. They grow and change through generations of retelling.

[@ronald3836]

Someone mentioned Morgan Freeman playing the role of an originally white character in The Shawshank Redemption. I think that falls well within the normal liberties that a movie adaptation should be allowed to take. It is a minor change that does not impact the story, and it is entirely believable. Also, there was probably no widespread "attachment" of a portion of the target audience to the originally white character. But in the end it is a decision for the entertainment company to make. If the public does not like it, the movie or tv series will probably not do too well, and the company will either learn or go bankrupt.

[@minime7375]

@@swagromancerFolktales are set in a certain space and time, even if they don’t have a known author. The screens are full of race swapping for characters from Norse or Celtic mythology and folktale. Moreso when the author IS known, look at TV series like The Last Kingdom and then explain please why do they have a black bishop with a Jamaican accent and Chinese defenders of Northumbria.

[@Lucivius27]

Tom Cruise replaced the Japanese main character in Edge of Tomorrow and no one complain about it.

[@CheddarGetter]

The gingercide of Hollywood is unacceptable Its not just the characters, the stories are changed as well. They eliminate all of the purpose of the stories. Look at little mermaid.

[@MorinehtarTheBlue]

I tend to tread carefully with the Little Mermaid. Her hair colour isn't mentioned by Hans Christian Andersen in the story. However some of his books were illustrated and the artist depicts her as blonde. That being said it's quite cool that the classic Disney red hair is such a deal breaker for fans. And I absolutely agree with you regarding the gingercide. It's as if they target the characters with the most strong characteristics that they are trying to erase. And that falls hard on gingers who usually have blue eyes and fair skin (albeit with freckles in less northern climates). Being a superhero fan my poster child for this is Wally West.

[@Nonamearisto]

LARPing is a bit different because it's not pretending to make a canon claim to what a character is or isn't, and a group of LARPers usually has a much more limited racial pool than the general population of the world. In other words, if a white guy is pretending to be Goku, it's not the same as a company which is authorized to say what is official lore making him white.

[@theycallmejodamo]

I don’t think either camp is inherently good. I think it all depends on the writers/directors/cast. Like using The Little Mermaid as an example, I enjoyed the movie in both iterations. I grew up with the first and I thought the new one did some interesting things, like making each of the seven sisters represent and look like a different sea. I thought that was neat. I think Halle Bailey in this new iteration is spot on, being so beautiful and having such a lovely voice that even though it’s a kid’s movie, I could definitely see why fishermen would ground their ships to be closer to her (because that’s what mermaids are supposed to do) However, most of the underwater scenes were way too dark for me with the lighting, which was realistic, but doesn’t really work if I can’t see anything. (Think Deathly Hallows) Then we’ve got things like the live action Ghost in the Shell where she’s played by a white lady when the character is supposed to be Japanese. I think it’s all up to interpretation if it’s done well and not just for the sake of it basically 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

[@brianwaithe5618]

I have been wondering why Disney does not just get the old stories from Africa if they want to be inclusive. Africa is a whole continent with loads of stories of its own that Disney or any entertainment company can use. In my opinion this race swapping just making things worst, while using African stories would be more inclusive. Just my opinion, love your work Metatron.

[@aleisterlavey9716]

Yeah, you are right. I am sick of Shakespeare played by blacks. I want true African Stories played by African Actors recorded in Africa. For God's sake, Africa is a Continent as big as Russia, China, India and the USA combined. Give me Authenticity and I am even willing to pay for it.

[@VarenRoth]

Cause they need to renew their IP by using it, otherwise they have issues with losing it.

[@SyamDaRos-EndoManno]

​​@@aleisterlavey9716to be fair, there are some black characters in Shakespeare's stories. But probably not as black as sub-Saharian ones, more likely North African or Arabian

[@kittehgo]

It is to much work to make original stuff, it's way easier to just rehash stuff and just make small changes.

[@irena4545]

Because don't actually care about black people or black culture, all they do is just empty and lazy lip service.

[@leohalivan861]

The question that I always pose to this is, "If representation is the issue, then why don't these production companies make movies from African and other black heritage stories?" The answer is that they don't really care about representation. They are blackwashing these characters because it's easy and it shuts up the woke with minimal effort on their part.

[@nessi777]

Exactly! I would love to see more original African stories and myths, but because I don’t like black Anne Boylein I will be called a racist.

[@holdencross5904]

THIS! I even said I would not have complained if the new TLM was a NEW PRINCESS and no one else would’ve really complained! We would’ve LOVED a new black princess. Tiana became one of the most beloved characters of all the princesses.

[@Ironica82]

It's all about the ESG score. I wonder how many black washing would never have happened if the academy didn't push the ESG score as well as made rules that you must have a diverse cast.

[@TheDarkWiiPlayer]

My whole internet friend-group is essentially one big woke bubble and we all agree that these companies will do anything for money and would just as well throw POC under the bus and make movies about how good the KKK is if they thought it would make them richer. So I really don't know what "woke mob" they're even trying to shut up here; everyone hates them anyway and will watch their stuff regardless. I think they're really just farming outrage at the race-swapping, more than actually trying to honestly appeal to anyone. From what I can tell, the plan looks somewhat like this: 1. Make some dumb changes that nobody asked for that conservatives will be butthurt about 2. Make a big deal about how progressive they are being, and make sure everyone hears about how they're doing this for the woke mob 3. Hope that at least a bunch of dumb 14yos on twitter will defend their bullshit simply because the evil right is complaining about it 4. Wait for yet another cycle of "they are erasing our culture" - "if you think that you're literally hitler" that gives them free exposure Disney wins, online content creators feast on the scrapes and POC and other minorities get hate for stuff they never asked for.

[@simianlife5949]

It would be very cool to see a movie about Mansa Musa and his pilgrimage to Mecca.

[@marchionessamoretto7326]

The word "Desperate" springs to my mind when it comes to race swapping movie role characters.

[@VisibletoanyoneonYoutubes]

We’re going to look back on this time in 300 years and laugh. Like always

[@petrmaly9087]

I'm a man of Slav ethnicity and my ancestors were Slavs as far back into the past as I could trace them (several centuries at least). Yet I never had any problem, not even as a kid, seeing myself represented by fictional characters like Blade (black) or Daria (woman). Because these characters did represent me, my morals, my worldview, my beliefs. All the important things. Their skin color or sex were irrelevant compared to that. Only an extremist racist and sexist can say "you are not represented because that character doesn't share your skin shade or genitals". I guess modern Hollywood writers are such racists and sexists.

[@nerysghemor5781]

Bingo!

[@Sandwich13455]

Yahoos

[@HusZat]

100 % agree!

[@genzi78514]

It's more about narcissistic behavior. Because these characters don't only need to look like them (by race, sex, sexual orientation...) they need to be ideal versions of them. Flawless and perfect characters that can't do no wrong and are always right, for their egos! Funny thing, I remember identified with Ikari Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle. I'm Latina woman. No one would say these characters are their favourites because they are terrible in many ways, but they were good call outs of my own behavior and I appreciate them for that. That's another problem I have with diversity and representation. They don't allow minorities being human.

[@simonspacek3670]

Same here. Blade? Great, I want to be like him (just different sword). And one of my most beloved characters is Red from Shawshank. Portrayed by Morgan Freeman. When I was... 15? I realized that there are no vampires, but being "the one that can get anything" is great position in the life.

[@SEB1991SEB]

I wouldn't mind the Little Mermaid character being black if this was a brand new interpretation of the story, one with a new version of the character and that diverged from the original story (and from the 1989 film) in many different ways. That's why I didn't mind Princess Tiana in the Princess and the Frog being black, because it was a whole new interpretation of the original story with a different version of the main character. But this was a direct remake of the 1989 film, with the exact same story and the exact same character, Ariel. So literally one of the only things they changed about it was Ariel's skin colour, so they just blackwashed her.

[@Divig]

They could *dramatic pause* use the real storyline for the little mermaid instead of the happy-go-lucky Disney version.

[@terryr7622]

Never thought of it that way. Very good point

[@captainvanisher988]

The problem is also that in one case, Ariel aka Little Mermaid was a widely watched movie which is still watched by millions of kids but the folk story that the princess and the frog was based on was not as widely known hence why they could somewhat change the character and they definitely deviated from the original folk story a lot so no one really minded that.

[@chriswest8389]

I have an idea I really like, in keeping with your notion of changing the setting time and place, thus the ethnicity. We had An Xmas Carol, in jolly old England. Next we had an American Xmas Carol. Why can't we have An African American Xmas Carol?In addition to socio, economic commentary, add race to the mix. A new element. This Scrooge is even worse as he's exploiting an exploited people. His own . This worked for the Wiz anyway. Less of a reboot, though more fantasy , lending itself to a different treatment too

[@man-yp1gb]

They made a Cinderella movie back in the 90s with Toni Braxton. And now you complain because you're conservative snowflakes want you to....

[@sparking023]

I remember a few years ago when the color of the character didn't really matter. The important thing was that the story and the characters were cool, compelling, interesting. To this day characters like Peter Parker are massively popular and beloved by people all all ethinicities. Shit, here in Brazil Goku is a fan favorite across the board and nobody is fixated on his skin tone, or the fact he's an alien. I, too, didn't care much about characters being raceswapped up to a few years ago, but it was after that trend of "whitewashing" started, and after the accusations of racism and bigotry started to fly around like bullets in a warzone, that I got to step back and think things through. After all, we're constantly requested to justify why we want X character to stay the way we remember them. These people made it about race.

[@mds_main]

Beautiful video that sums up my thoughts perfectly. I would very much watch a Tolkien video by yourself, since you've asked about our opinion.

[@lapisinfernalis9052]

I'm a woman. One of my early teenage heroes was Athos from the Three Musketeers novels. Yes, my favourite character was a severe alcoholic with a troubled past of betrayal and guilt. And I definitely had more characters who I could identify with even if they weren't a woman nor white (or even not human): Tabaluga (a Dragon from a german cartoon), Ahsoka, Mulan, Pochahontas, Winnetou & Old Shatterhand, Richard Sharpe, Hornblower and more.

[@TheWatch85]

Same! For me is it more the charakter and behavior and not the ethnicity or gender. If it a interessting charakter, i am on XD Do you know the mole (Henk de Mol) from Alfred J. Kwak? XD

[@lapisinfernalis9052]

@@TheWatch85 Same. With Athos it has always been his strong believe in friendship, staying strong against all odds and his very own way of portraying nobility. Sadly I do not know who you speak of.

[@roboparks]

Three Musketeers should always be French period. Either a Black Frenchmen or WHite Frenchmen Because the story is a French story .

[@JoJo-vg8dz]

The woke have no arguments. It's just excuses. They are just cultural terrorists. They want to piss off 80% of Americans. That's their main goal.

[@brotherandythesage]

Sean Bean is a little small to be Sharpe and yet now I can't picture Sharpe as anyone else!

[@z2ei]

My view is "if you can't stick to the source material, do something else." I accept changes for the sake of medium, but not characters. Fellowship of the Ring cut the Old Forest and Barrow Downs because there's just too much stuff to fit in a two hour movie. But making Aragorn black not at all, because we know what he looks like, and we know his entire genealogy and it sure isn't sub-Saharan African.

[@Soulwhistle]

To be fair PJ did change Aragorns, Faramirs, Frodos and a bunch of others in smaller or larger ways. Which is also bad in its own way. Personally really hate how he changed Faramir

[@z2ei]

@@Soulwhistle Oh I have my complaints there, but at least he can explain them. Faramir, in particular, was changed to throw some drama into Frodo's story, which he felt needed some conflict. I don't like it but I can at least understand his mentality.

[@peaceonmars]

By that logic it's not English/European/whatever real life equivalent, either. I agree race-swapping is silly, but at least use a decent argument.

[@bigguy7353]

​@peaceonmars9163 But you're being disingenuous in bad faith because you know exactly what he means and you are being pedantic to prove what exactly? Get off your high horse, please.

[@bigguy7353]

​@@peaceonmarsAlso Aragorn, and all other men in the book, was EXPRESSLY, by the author, inspired by Caucasian and Caucasian-only mythology. So yes, English/European/whatever, as you say.

[@N.M.E.]

I love you, Pasta-Sonic! You keep at it!

[@travellas]

Thank you for having the courage and common sense to make this video.

[@Dalthos2]

If a fictional character is written as Chinese and he is turned white in a later adaptation, there is an implication that the Chinese features needed to be "corrected." The same principle applies if he roles are reversed. The argument "your reluctance to accept the new portrayal of the character implies bigotry" also implies that the change in portrayal was rooted in bigotry.

[@jmgonzales7701]

true, Thou i think more people need to actually know that despite the overwhelming majority of the han Chinese, china in itself is home to 56 ethnic groups which would have varying attires, cultures and honestly even Facial features. But yes if the character is written to be Chinese the character should at least be one of the 56 ethnic groups.

[@SirAtesh]

LOTR is a bit different in this context imo, it isn't just "fantasy", Tolkien's work is imagined and written as a mythology of creation, as if the events told has happened in far past. Also characters in LOTR are usually described very thoroughly, for example we know Aragorn is taller than Boromir yet Boromir has stronger stature. Edit: i would love to watch anything from you that is related to Tolkien's world.

[@edgarbm6407]

And Merry was the tallest hobbit, being a Brandybuck.

[@Apollo1989V]

The part of Arda that we see in the stories is Europe in a fictional mythology. Harad is North Africa. Far Harad is subsaharan Africa. The lands to the east are the steppe.

[@magister343]

We get fairly through descriptions of significant characters, and we know how the Vanyar, Noldor, and Sindarin elves, the Longbeard (Durin's Folk) dwarves, and different kinds of Hobbits usually looked, but Tolkien never describes any Avari elves or the dwarves of the other 6 clans. There is plenty of room for racial diversity if telling stories set further to the south or to the east of the areas on which the tales were focused.

[@SirAtesh]

@@magister343 was there any significant stories about avari elves? I can't recall any.

[@IMBlakeley]

There was a kerfuffle as I recall with the recent TV bore-off that some hobbits were dark skinned, whereas Tolkien described one branch of hobbits as nut brown in colour.

[@RedneckRepairs]

I find myself in full agreement with this video, both in your opinions on the matter, and your reasoning.

[@jimbexli599]

As always a fair and balanced analysis. But I'm not gonna lie id totally watch the vikings with uzis movie 😂

[@Dowlphin]

Yeah, that movie concept sounded awesome. 😁 There seems to be a lack of wacky movies, which is strange considering (but maybe also the reason for) the lack of ideas and thus regurgitation of old material and concepts. What is also lacking is trope-mocking movies. SO much fun can be had. - Take the uzi viking etc. concept and add movie trope mockery and you got a timeless masterpiece to tell your grandkids about. 😄

[@thesisypheanjournal1271]

It's not even the "But I always pictured her as a Caucasian!" factor. It's erasing Danish culture. A non-Caucasian Snow White is erasing German culture. Changing races of Tolkien characters is erasing British culture. It's also dissing other ethnicities by implying that they don't have any interesting stories to be told.

[@ominous-omnipresent-they]

Are there no black British people?

[@Taiko206]

Agreed, the whole "Black Cleopatra " thing is a good example of that. Okay , the director already admitted that she made a "political statement " with that one, but fact is that there's plenty of African queens worthy of having a documentary or even a movie made of them. One good example might be the Nigerian queen Amina who waged a 34 year long campaign to expand her territory. Would definitely be interested to watch something like that.

[@nikoc8968]

@@ominous-omnipresent-they they are less than 4% of the modern British population, so it would actually make more sense(nearly 4x more sense) to make the characters Asian, since they represent about 14% of the modern British population. but thats all beside the point: yes, there were virtually no black people living in Britain during the middle ages, or any time similar to whats depicted in Tolkiens universe. leave British culture alone.

[@weberman173]

im a german, and no a non caucasian snow hite is not "erasing german culture". Snowwhite has the special situation where her Skincolor actually matters to the degree she is NAMED BECAUSE HER SKIN WAS WHITE AS SNOW. Thats the only reasson why a non caucasian snow white would not work. her story does not inherently have to be about a caucasian outside of her skin being described as such.

[@informationgatherer4970]

​@@ominous-omnipresent-they it was based on HIS experience in life and WW1 so just maybe he didn't have enough experience to add. 🤷 Books tent to be written by said person, just like if I was to pick up books from different cultures I'm not sitting there excepting to see my culture in someone else's experience.

[@TheChooseAName123]

"Defeat us with your intellect!.. if you can" - Metatron, 2023 That one goes into my collection.

[@zelts]

"I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you came unarmed."

[@VampireNoblesse]

how did i miss this channel?.. got my sub!

[@acadian71]

Thank the GODS i found your channel!! You rock!

[@emanymton713]

In a lot of cases swapping the characters race or gender shouldn’t impact the story to a great degree. However in Snow White’s case she is literally named for her physical appearance. She has to be fair skinned, it is integral to her character.

[@NemisCassander]

For the Aragorn controversy, he isn't named for his physical appearance, but there is a cultural element that suggests that you should avoid possible confusion by depicting Aragorn as Black. In the Legendarium, the Corsair city of Umbar is ruled by Black Numenoreans: ethnically white, but they were so-called (at least by Gondor) because they represented, at least ultimately, the other side of the Numenorean divide from the Second Age (the King's Men). They also served Sauron. (The Mouth of Sauron is, I believe, a Black Numenorian.)

[@paulinequinton1478]

Have you read the original versions of these tales? They are very different from the ones we were brought up with.

[@icecell]

Or maybe just stop swapping and respect the material you're adapting since its audience already has expectations. If you don't want to, you're free to create your own.

[@Armoless]

​@@NemisCassander the term "Dark" was used for Aragorn and people assume it could be for skin... like idiots. Not "dark in nature" or grim, a brooding soul.

[@felderup]

@@Armoless dark is also used for grumpy, dark mooded. cranky, angry all the time, very unlike the welsh.

[@mailthedragon]

I keep saying this: if there is a lack of specific characters in fiction, create them, don't alter existing characters to match your worldview! Marvel has been doing some top work on this in comics.

[@arkenarikson2481]

I totally agree. You'd completely forgo annoying people who are attached to an existing character/world/cultural goods... and we'd be spared the whole sorry discussion.

[@johanmetreus1268]

"Marvel has been doing some top work on this in comics" So, what does the Nick Fury looks like in the comics these days? The one I grew up with in the 1980's-1990's, when I could cite every detail about every generation of the X-MEN, or does he look like Samuel L. Jackson? Is Kurt Wagner still the charming gentleman melting women's hearts, or is he out of the closet he never was in before the "inclusive" re-writes began?

[@stevenscott2136]

​@@johanmetreus1268 My position is that since the ideal "white Nick Fury" (Charlton Heston) was dead, they went with the next best choice, who happened to be black. Seriously. Watch "True Lies" -- the man NAILS the character of the tough old spy-master with an eyepatch.

[@johanmetreus1268]

@@stevenscott2136 Heston never played Nick Fury regardless where he got the inspiration from. If Marvel simply wanted Jackson as the leader of SHIELD (which acronym appears in least two versions) to cash in on the white screen, they could have retired Fury and make Samuel the successor instead of the blackwash retcon.

[@mailthedragon]

@@johanmetreus1268 the black Nick Fury was introduced in the Ultimate universe, a separate time line that seemed to be the inspiration to the mcu. In mainstream marvel black Nick is actually Nick jr. Nightcrawler is not gay. I don't think he was ever meant to be. He's gotten a lot more spiritual, and is going to be a 'spiderman' according to previews. Iceman is, and that makes sense somehow, if you look back at his life story. The main thing is: Marvel is still making new characters. Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, Ironheart, a whole generation of new mutants. Not all of it equally successful, but at least they're trying.

[@kesava89]

Non credo di averti mai lasciato un commento prima, ma per favore, ti prego, Fai un video in cui parli di Tolkien! Sarebbe fantastico sentirne parlare da te. Tra l'altro ne approfitto per farti i complimenti per tutto il contenuto che porti!

[@user-nz1eu8cz1d]

WOW!WARHAMMER?D&D? You never stopped surprising me Metatron with the variety of your interests.

[@brandotheone]

We really needed this video. I was called racist multiple times on Reddit when I was questioning the Aragorn race swap in mtg. Thank you.

[@marthabenner6528]

He's definitely implied as a white person.

[@jinxhead4182]

Reddit is a cesspool, so hardly surprising.

[@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong]

@@jinxhead4182It's actually amazing how: no matter where you are on the political compass. Redditors will fucking hate you.

[@brandotheone]

@@jinxhead4182 To be fair, it depends on the subred, there are a few smaller ones in which you can have honest conversations. The bigger ones are run by nazi mods that will ban you if you express an opinion that slightly go against the woke ideology.

[@Lora_Beolab]

@@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong nah, reddit is almost entierly left nowadays. All right subreddits have been banned, and neutral political subreddits are always under threat

[@MFC343]

If race wasn't important - they wouldnt of changed it in the first place.

[@Player-re9mo]

Nailed it!

[@bigguy7353]

It's very important to race hustlers.

[@edgarbm6407]

Exactly

[@doctorsketch7476]

IMPOSSIBLE! (im jk)

[@oyoo3323]

*wouldn't've

[@EwanMarshall]

The simple fact is, paying people to come up with new settings and new characters in new stories seems to be beyond someone with as deep a pockets as Disney, maybe this is what we should be questioning.

[@rodrigorafael.9645]

Exactly Disney wants to see this stupid "Muh Culture". We need to Ignore those stupid reebots, they cannot keep making them forever.

[@Mickeymouse7727]

Thank you for putting into words what all of us are feeling but we're usually too angry when it happens to us to say it the way you do

[@christianbjorck816]

The cultural aspect is important too. Many of these stories are European, for the European people, reflecting a specific time in history. By race-swapping and putting in every other ethnicity under the sun, you falisfy the stories origin. It’s just like they just want to erase European heritage completly because ”white man bad”.

[@cryptic1999]

That's why I don't really like raceswapping. I don't outright hate but I do find it ironic that people are preaching about representing different cultures and ethnicities but instead of I don't know, taking characters and stories from the native folklore and mythologies, they just do a raceswap of a preexisting story and call it a day. And it's insulting to both parties by trying to rewrite another's culture to appease some twisted diverse narrative.

[@nikolaykaradzhiev1889]

They are not just falsifying the stories origin, it's plain bad storytelling and world building which ironically serves to create negative sentiment towards that "race" because people will now associate it with ruining their favorite story. It's not actually the race that is the problem, it's that it's out of place in that story, but very few people have studied storytelling and they just make the surface association.

[@j.a4196]

You know, they do want to erase Europeans' heritage. I think it's pretty obvious at this point, I can't deny it anymore. Nowadays even ballet and classical music is considered RaCisT.

[@PhattyBolger]

I remember learning that Angrboda in God of War: Ragnarok is a black girl. I searched online to see if there were any mods to change her character model to a more appropriate depiction, but all I saw was woke outrage that someone dare depict a Scandinavian mythological character as Scandinavian.

[@Smokey348]

@@PhattyBolger oh no don't remind me of that, that just reminds of what the writer of GOWR tweeted lol. That guy is so delusional, basically saying it doesn't matter what the Jotnar look like because they can shapeshift into anything.

[@sagethegreat4680]

There is absolutely no real need for swapping because you can always just make a new story . Snow white is a perfect example too , snow white isn't snow white , the dwarves aren't dwarves, there is no prince charming. Everything is changed so they could easily make a brand new princess , with a new story. The problem is the studios have gotten seriously lazy and greedy

[@VitalVampyr]

@jackjones4824 The point of Veggie Tales is that all the characters are vegetables (because that's cheaper to animate than humans). The variety of vegetable they are also has no correlation to ethnicity. If it did and the Biblical characters weren't represented as Middle Eastern coded vegetables you might have a point.

[@Ironica82]

@jackjones4824 WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!! Ya telling me...Goliath was not a giant cucumber?!?! My life is a lie!!!

[@VitalVampyr]

@jackjones4824 How you could your point about race-swapping characters not being a problem because it's done in Veggie Tales possibly "still stand" when you yourself would concede that the vegetables the characters were portrayed as do not correspond to race?

[@VitalVampyr]

@jackjones4824 I see. You seem to have overlooked an important reason why people wouldn’t care in the case of changing to non-human characters though. Non-humans do not have human ethnicities. So a tomato (or whatever, I haven’t watched Veggie Tales) portraying Jesus *isn’t* portraying Jesus as not being a Levantine Jew. However a Latina portraying Snow White *is* portraying Snow White as not being a Northern European.

[@sagethegreat4680]

@jackjones4824 you have no clue what a race swap is my friend is what the problem is. Your examples are allegories not race swaps . In the lion the the witch and wardrobe is an allegory for Jesus . That doesn't mean they swapped a human for a lion . A race swap would be if they took aslan and made him a fly instead of a lion . Race swaps can mess with the stories it depends on the world they are based in . Veggie tales is in based in a world where veggies are sentient so it makes sense. Take rings of power Arondir, all other elves are written as being fair skin and long hair and ethereal glow . Arondir doesn't have fair skin and he actually has short hair ( don't know where he plugged in the electric clippers to get that hair in a time with no electricity) and he isn't ethereal. So it is no where near anything Tolkien wrote about . Now Amazon could have easily made it's own unique fantasy and made all the elves black wouldn't have mattered because you create the rules when you create the world . Veggie tales when the creators created it they created a world where veggies are sentient. It isn't a race swapped anything it is it's own thing it may be based on something else but it isn't that something else.

[@marcelocamargo5602]

Metraron Nice to meet you and thanks for the material i learn alot, How did you learn english and get so clear pronunciation? By the way I am from Argentina

[@Theresa-Lottodo]

I love this channel.❤ May l say that you are the thinking woman's crumpet?

[@renehuff6524]

As a place-skinned redhead growing up in the 80s and 90s, bullied for skin and red hair it was awesome that Ariel was pale-skinned with red hair! It was very underrepresented before Julia Roberts became famous!

[@NotThisShipSister1]

Well your opinion just perpetuates the problem- although ❤ I understand it and agree with it- but now you understand the black persons problem with all white casts. And, according to your comment, at least you SHOULD. Nothing to see here folks, no opinions either way, just stating facts.😊

[@LockerHider]

​@@NotThisShipSister1So all redheads should be replaced by black people? Black people already have way more characters than redheads do

[@OvalRock]

When the new Ariel was being revealed, Black girls were shown the character and encouraged to celebrate. My thought was, what about the red-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed girls? What are they meant to think or feel?

[@HeathenDance]

@@OvalRock Those poor red-haired, pale-skinned blue eyed girls! They are now traumatized for life! Ahah. As a 39 year old man, I think it's disturbing how people, particularly ADULTS, are susceptible to shit like "how the modern little fucking mermaid looks like." LOL. But it's hilarious through a computer screen. Just don't want those decadent freaks near me.

[@privateinformation2960]

Same issue. By that measure some moron in the UK about 12 years ago decided redhead jokes on greeting cards were offensive and tried to have them banned. It didn't work (thankfully) Seems to be a thing where liberals pick and choose which minority is offended and which isn't based on their own feelings or usually racist tendencies rather than any reality based offense. It's racist progressives that believe in the fragility of black people to the point of bending rules and pandering to them rather than conservatives who regard a hard working non white person as just as worthy of their achievements than anyone else.

[@gecko6872]

Well said. What additionally bothers me in regard to blatant race (and gender) swapping in fiction, is the disrespect it shows towards the authors and how they imagined their characters.

[@gecko6872]

​@@jackjones4824 No, because it is not done for the sake of turning them into vegetables, but to make the life lessons taught in biblical stories more digestible for children... it also does not try to shoehorn in personal or political ideologies by doing so. Do you know a reason to make Aragorn, Belle, or Snow White black? Do you apply that reason equally to argue for making Blade, or Black Panther, or Joe Gardner (Soul), white?

[@gecko6872]

@@jackjones4824 In my response, I clearly stated that Veggie Tales does have a sensible a reason to turn biblical characters into vegetables -- to make it appropriate, and the lessons it teaches digestible, for its target audience of young children. Nonetheless, I do mostly agree with your second paragraph. As a counter-example to what many modern remakes do (especially live-action ones), I'd like to also point out "The Princess and the Frog" (the Disney movie). I personally find that to be a brilliant, romanticized, re-imagining of the original. They changed premise of the story with a fun twist, modified the story, pulled it into Orleans, gave it soul, and made the entire thing match in style, while reflecting the time and location it is set in. That is what I consider a brilliant re-imagining of a classic fairytale, not just a re-make. However, they've announced a Snow White live action re-make. If we're re-telling an original story, why can't we stay true to that original imagining of it? As you said, the changes we've seen so far don't appear to have any bearing on the story itself. So why spit on the author's imagining of it? And even if there is a brilliant twist in this particular plot to justify deviating from the well-known original, what could it possibly bring to even that modified story to represent the dwarves as a variety of ethnicities and genders? To be very clear, the reason this change troubles me is not because they swapped out the classic European dwarf in this particular movie, but because it has become a trend across movies in general, and is now spilling into re-tellings of popular fairytales. For no apparent reason, every story HAS to have a strong woman with incredible combat skills, at least three different ethnicities in leading roles, ideally a homosexual couple, etc. regardless of whether or not it makes sense in the setting (including the era) of the story. That, combined with the current political and social climate I observe in western nations, leads me to believe that this trend is motivated by personal and political ideologies, or maybe a fear of harassment over not bowing to those ideologies, rather than a genuine desire to tell a good story. Furthermore, the problem with intentionally and continuously putting emphasis on changing popular characters to the "right" skin color (in your opinion), is that you're implying that there are "wrong" skin colors, and demonstrating your own personal bias to be acceptable and superior to how the author imagined it. And the above is what makes me react adversely to this movie, among others, and choose to not show my support. I never argued that any movie in itself would or could not be good as a result of changing key elements.

[@werrkowalski2985]

@@jackjones4824 You don't understand, Bible is different. Let's take the example of Mary, Mary has been portrayed as white, as black, as Chinese, you can portray her as whatever ethnicity you want, why? Because the believers are supposed to relate to these characters and see them as the race they are used to seeing. Such Biblical characters like Jesus or Mary, or possibly also some other characters are supposed to be the everyman. The characters in Snow White are not the same, they are not the everyman, they are a concrete vision some author had. Also, is your point some kind of deluded "Race doesn't matter at all"? Races are not fungible to people, people very much notice race, it's one of the first things they notice. Case in point my Biblical example above. Therefore that means that swapping races is one of the most jarring changes you can make to some story, compared to how it was envisioned by the author.

[@gecko6872]

"What additionally bothers me in regard to [blatant] race [and gender] swapping in fiction, is the disrespect it shows towards the authors and how they imagined their characters." That is my original statement, with a few clarifying words, which I will promptly amend. I am not going around, pointing my finger at every movie, and condemning it for any little change. As in both my previous responses, re-imagining or re-telling or any changes in themselves do not bother me. A well-told story is a well-told story. I am bothered by the current trend of [blatant] race (and gender) swapping, which does very often lie in dissonance with the time and setting and action of the story being told, and which is usually done without any apparent justification within the storyline, and which cannot be attributed to limitations in the production of the movie, becoming a requirement for publication. That, and I stand to my opinion until convinced otherwise, is disrespectful first and foremost to the author. I, as a potential viewer, also feel disrespected by what I perceive as a pandering and often lazy approach to storytelling, but have the choice simply not to support a movie I suspect of such behavior.

[@lytsedraak]

@@anni.68 That's not the only change. Her goal in the fairy tale is to gain a soul because mermaids don't have that and she'll need to marry the human she loves to get one. When she dies after refusing to kill her prince and his bride, she turns into seafoam, but the story doesn't end there. She joins the daughters of the air and gets the opportunity to still get her soul by providing the service of providing cooling breezes. When she comes across children who are good, it will take one year of the time she has to serve to get her soul. While the fairy tale teaches us about doing the right thing (like not killing the man you love), chasing your dreams (although they may fail), another moral of the original fairy tale is "be good kids, you'll help the lovely mermaid get her soul".

[@timothywilliams2252]

More than two years ago, myself, and my coworkers, were totally lampooning woke culture in just a small workshop environment. And the most fervent instigator was a Native-American! He had his tribal ID card, that he called his "race-card" that he would play at any moment! It became a gag in the shop that brought us together, made us laugh, and almost made us enjoy our labors. This ongoing gag would go into the realms of the ridiculous... Like, if you didn't have a specific tool or material on your bench, and asked your coworker for it, the common response was, "Dude... that's totally racist!"

[@amberlong3942]

I would love to hear more about Lord of the Rings! Thank you for your videos very interesting!

[@M.Norton]

The swap in the little mermaid really got to me. I grew up 40 minutes from where the book was written and grew up reading the original story long before I saw the Disney version. I remember being so disappointed in the shift of tone in the movie compared to the book, but I could UNDERSTAND that the book is quite dark for some children. I was gutted when I heard about the live action race swap. I had been hoping for sooooo many years for Disney to make the story justice. Denmark, where the book was written, has a majority of white people. I grew up KNOWING that the little mermaid was definitely white - there was no other possibility. But sure, let's erase my childhood hopes to pacify some i****s in the USA. (And btw, I'm still hoping and waiting for stories from Africa to be made into movies, I grew up reading some of those as well and have yet to hear anything about it)

[@jasongarcia2140]

Everything that could be said, you have said it. At least it seems like many more of us agree about this than disagree. There still is no way to tell because these people don't engage in fair conversation.

[@birbdad1842]

You're not getting why they race swap. It's not to pacify someone. It's to make viewers of minorities identify with figures of majorities to make more money, because they stories of majorities attract more viewers in general. Really this shouldn't get to you in the way that it does. Be mad at the companies, led by mighty managers pushing these woke agendas to make more money.

[@dragonstooth4223]

Yeah it's sad eh ... to me it says to the race swapped race "your stories aren't good enough to make an original movie we believe will make money so here's one from another culture for you." That's pretty disgusting if you ask me. It's saying those stories aren't important... only European ones

[@joshmoonXY]

" stories from Africa" such as....?

[@catherinearangie2311]

​@@joshmoonXYcontact the South African department of Arts and Culture. There are whole storybooks. You speak as though Africans did not know what a story was until an American corporation enlightened them.

[@workingmothercatlover6699]

One time on Facebook, I was called a bigot for trying to be heard. So I looked up what the word even meant. Basically, a bigot is a person who insists on being heard who silences anyone with a different opinion. I replied to my accuser that they should really look up a word before throwing it around. As usual, well said, Metatron.

[@SplotPublishing]

big·ot noun a person who is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group. "don't let a few small-minded bigots destroy the good image of the city" Are you seriously rewriting definitions just so you can tell a "everyone clapped" story?

[@virtualatheist]

These are the same people who cancelled a Hawaian actress to stop her playing a Hawaian character because she wasn't Hawian ENOUGH! Make it make sense!

[@roykliffen9674]

Rachel Zegler - who's playing Snow White - has stated she has always hated the story and has said the Prince is a stalker. I'm amazed she hasn't called him a sexual predator and/or pedophile yet for kissing a underage girl while she was asleep.

[@k0lpA]

Imagine if all this ends up having them create actual new characters with original stories ! We can dream right ?

[@marcogenovesi8570]

haha that's hard they are not going to do that

[@Anjiiq]

Yes dream

[@louisxii3482]

as seen by Super Drag and Q-Force, its absolutely not a guarantee of seeing any quality

[@LaNoir.]

With all the changes they did to The Little Mermaid, they should just have done that. Most movies weren't a big franchise until they became one through good writing and acting, so the "we need a big name" shit doesn't really count. Also lets not forget that The Little Mermaid is a danish story - how much danish representation do you see in media? Oh wait white is a race, every white person in Europe is basically the same (someone should've told Putin) I didn't mind the skin tone of the actress but the lore is simply not theirs, it felt disconnected and forced. At least I did have a good laugh when they tried to make it kids-friendly by explaining that King Triton only had one wife yet a dozen of daughters from different ethnicities - I wish I would've met that mother, she must've been a rainbow fish

[@ArisEmriis]

It's a beautiful dream, I agree. But doing that would require hard work and higher intelligence levels, and creativity.

[@theredheadwiththread1275]

My biggest gripe with Snow White (besides the dwarves) is that she is described as "lips red as the rose, hair black as ebony, and skin WHITE as snow". Though to be fair, if my memory is correct, in the Grimm brothers version of the fairy tale (the one most people in the US probably know), her mother wished for a child "as red as blood, as white as snow, and as black as the wood of the window". For context, the queen pricked her finger while sewing and some of her blood fell onto the snow on the window frame (which was made of ebony wood) and she thought it looked beautiful so wished for a child as beautiful as that.

[@Gabi_Citterio]

Ummm, so they could actually make her black and color her hair white, and it would be correct. A bit creepy, but correct.

[@mandowarrior123]

​@@Gabi_Citterionot in the spirit of it, no. Black skin was so rare that hair was the assumed colour descriptor. Black/raven, blonde, ginger, brunette, etc. When I was a lad I can still remember the switchover.

[@ravanpee1325]

It's a German fairy tale, so please no cultural appropriation from othe cultures

[@Gabi_Citterio]

@@mandowarrior123 I know I know, it was a joke. I do not support in any way race swapping

[@Schnittertm1]

@@Gabi_Citterio The snow is framed by the window frame, just as the face is framed by the hair, at least when you have long hair. The red is the blush on the cheeks or at least a healthy color of those that are active. Besides, it was a German queen. Last I looked, people here in Germany back then weren't really black. I also don't think a German queen would have born a black child, at best a mixed race. But knowing the intermarriage of noble houses up to fairly recently and looking at the skin color of all European noble houses, there isn't much black in there either. So, yes, the Grimm brothers and everyone else in Germany reading this folk tale would have gotten no wrong ideas and Snow White would be white and Germanic.

[@drag0ngam31ng6]

I've been subscribed to people like you and Shadiversity for years now and PLEASE do a video on Tolkein. A big reason why I love your videos and most historical channels is because y'all are able to do all the reserch and packeage it in an entertaining format. I dont have time to reserach Tolkien myself but I'd watch a 5 hour video of your findings

[@akashajones6079]

Oof...This guy actually uses facts and logics, Shadiversity is an embarassing man child.

[@nerotomosoy482]

Awesome video!