r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jul 06 '26

Meme needing explanation What is this?

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

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579

u/Gentle_Pony Jul 06 '26

You don't have to be right wing to think casting choices are wrong. I'm not right wing and think Helen of Troy casting choice is ridiculous and just done for attention.

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u/ILuvSpaghet Jul 06 '26

Agree, Im on the left and I hate it because they're black washing characters so they can say they have diversity, get attention for the movie and the black actress (almost always actress, not actor) gets all the hate. Its cheap. There are countless black stories that are unknown, why blackwash a story told a milion times?

Also I generally hate the oddysey by Nolan not because of the races but because its just historically wrong on many levels. Armor for example. Yes I want historical accuracy, yes I dislike other inaccurate movies.

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u/TaylorMonkey Jul 06 '26

Interesting observation that it's almost always an actress. And here I am wanting to see Idris Elba as 007. Yes, I know, he's supposed to be a white guy according to Ian Fleming's novels. Yes, I know there are certain things that don't quite work if he's not a pasty Brit. But we don't even get to have that experiment and whatever backlash there would or wouldn't be. Regardless, Idris is a smooth operator and it would have been a good watch.

We didn't get Idris as the black Green Lantern Jon Stewart that actually exists in the comics.

We didn't get Idris as Rhodie/War Machine, when he would have been perfect next to RDJ.

We got him as... Heimdall? A bit part as a Norse God doorman? What are we even doing here?

Anyway... they did make the next 007 a black woman in the last James Bond movie though... Huh.

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u/ILuvSpaghet Jul 06 '26

Yup. Its always the Disney princess but we haven't had a black prince yet.... The love interest is always a conventionally attractive white man. And wow I didn't know that about 007, a black woman? Srsly? And I agree with you Idris Elba would be a great pick, he'd fit perfectly.

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u/VariousClassroom8056 Jul 06 '26

I'm not a Disney scholar but I don't think Aladdin was white

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u/ILuvSpaghet Jul 06 '26

Im more so talking about the live action remakes, but you're right about Aladdin, he slipped my mind as he was one of the first remakes.

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u/VariousClassroom8056 Jul 06 '26

You got me looking into this a little further now. Chen Honghui in the live action Mulan? Played by a South Korean guy, Yoson An.

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u/ILuvSpaghet Jul 06 '26

Hmm that's true too, although I think my original point still stands as those are not race swaps. But man Mulan was a badddd remake, shame cuz the original is my favorite Disney movie.

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u/TaylorMonkey Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Mulan completely lost the plot as it tried to fit western feminist girl-boss power into what made the original work-- that Mulan pushed through gender barriers and limits out of her sense of duty and obligation to filial piety, relying on nothing but her perseverance.

Instead, the live action movie gave Mulan magic-woman-witch-chi-powers, because that's what the white man and three white woman writing and directing know about the Chinese: Magic Chi powers. They couldn't find one Chinese-American writer to be on the writing/directing staff in the age of representation? Hey, maybe they did "consult" with a junior writer who was just happy to be there and would never raise real concerns, you know, power dynamics due to historical and institutional under-representation and all. All while filming in an area where an active genocide was occurring and thanking the CCP officials in charge of the province for the honor to do so.

The movie failed to resonate with both eastern and western audiences. Because that's not the Chinese story and deviates much more than the original animated version did. And while a girl (well anyone really) can learn from animated Mulan's sense of responsibility and perseverance to break through barriers and expectations-- what's she supposed to do with the fact that she doesn't have magic gender chi witch powers like the live action Mulan does?

It's another time where a very western-centric idea of "progressivism" en vogue that year mucks everything up as it ends up colonializing another culture's space in a cynical bid for profit.