Al-1701 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 15, 2021 9:37 pm
I think I was misinterpreted as defending the fake outrage against the possibility of Sinclair/Sheridan not being white. I must ask this of those losing their shit over the very thought. What makes those characters necessarily white? Really, the only human character who was truly race-locked was Ivanova (Garibaldi and Takashima were kind of locked into place due to their names). Make Ivanova anything but a Russian Jew, and you have a completely different character. A Black Sinclair or Sheridan would only be superficially different from the white originals. If a Black actor is best suited for the role, "he originals were white" is the dumbest excuse to say no.
I do hope this is a chance for JMS to revive ideas that just couldn't be pulled off and expand on the different races. I agree with those who say we need more about the League and the EA beyond Earth and Mars.
You nailed it. There is nothing in the whole series to make Sinclair or Sheridan white. They can be easily black. Just like Steven Franklin can be a Wilhite dude too.
That's assuming this series would reuse the names. Making it a true reboot.
I am very curious in how this series would be done.
Marcus is another character where his race kind of matters, just because he's so aggressively into English poetry and literature and his whole "if I wasn't a badass space ninja I'd probably be working at a Renaissance Faire" bit.
...for space is wide, and good friends are too few.
hammerofglass wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:39 am
Marcus is another character where his race kind of matters, just because he's so aggressively into English poetry and literature and his whole "if I wasn't a badass space ninja I'd probably be working at a Renaissance Faire" bit.
I forgot about Marcus (sorry Marcus). Though, there are thoroughly British actors who are Black and South Asian as well who could play the role.
Really, it's still being written, so we haven't even gotten anywhere near casting yet. Let's wait and see where the chips fall and judge the selections on their acting ability and fit to the character instead of skin color.
Deledrius wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:29 am
The question I have is whether the reboot will be less or more blatant about the Middle-Earth-borrowing than the original B5 was.
Or the Knights of the Round Table borrowing, which was so blatant the characters noticed it.
...for space is wide, and good friends are too few.
I wish there was no reboot. My issue with race-swapping or gender-swapping any of the characters is, we already have these characters. They have canon appearances. Why can't we leave things from the past the way they are for once? If you want to visually update them and improve the story/move it into a new century for a new audience, go for it, but what's the point in changing the fundamentals of characters? Yes, there is nothing within the story that makes Sinclair, Marcus or Sheridan white, except that they were shown to be that before. What does it add to the story, if they are swapped for anything other than themselves?
And by the way, the arguement that nothing makes these characters necessarily white or black, that arguement swings both ways and thus is completely useless in this context.
"If you get shot up by an A6M Reisen and your plane splits into pieces - does that mean it's divided by Zero?
- xoxSAUERKRAUTxox
Madner Kami wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 2:14 pm
And by the way, the arguement that nothing makes these characters necessarily white or black, that arguement swings both ways and thus is completely useless in this context.
The argument is that the race of the character being irrelevant means the race of the actor is irrelevant, how does that swing both ways?
...for space is wide, and good friends are too few.
Madner Kami wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 2:14 pm
And by the way, the arguement that nothing makes these characters necessarily white or black, that arguement swings both ways and thus is completely useless in this context.
The argument is that the race of the character being irrelevant means the race of the actor is irrelevant, how does that swing both ways?
Because you know and I know that there will never be a white male Lt Uhura. It doesn't work that way. Sex and race swapping works one way and one way only.
We used to argue whether Star Trek or Star Wars was better. Now we argue which one is worse.
Madner Kami wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 2:14 pm
And by the way, the arguement that nothing makes these characters necessarily white or black, that arguement swings both ways and thus is completely useless in this context.
The argument is that the race of the character being irrelevant means the race of the actor is irrelevant, how does that swing both ways?
Because you know and I know that there will never be a white male Lt Uhura. It doesn't work that way. Sex and race swapping works one way and one way only.
That's because white cis male has long been the default for a character that doesn't fall into any particular category.
