Scans_Daily

1. Tilda Swinton's Ancient One? If they completely reworked the concept of Kamar-Taj from the ground up and moved the location so that it wasn't in the Himalayas and they didn't rely on Oriental mysticism when teaching Strange, then it would be a completely different situation. And at the very least it would be far less exploitative.

There'd still be controversy but personally I'd respect the adaptation more.

2. Erik Killmonger is an African man whose motivations have included "removing white colonialist cultural influences from Wakanda". Making him a Jewish man wouldn't make sense.



Meanwhile Fred was from Hokkaido but raised by Americans and was valuable to their mission in America because he could assimilate and act like a regular American. I've already said that it was unfortunate that they erased his Ainu heritage and that they should have done better.

But you know what, you got me, I concede. I do think sometimes it is okay to erase an Asian character. In this case where the characters are completely unrecognizable from their origins as 2 dimensional caricatures. In this case where the main protagonist is still Japanese. In this case where there is a great deal of representation for a number of other minority groups because intersectionality matters too. You have an African American male and two women of color all in STEM fields, they are all incredibly smart and responsible and capable of disagreeing with the protagonist when he goes too far.

3. So you're complaining that people aren't as offended by a feel good children's movie. People hold multimillion dollar Summer blockbusters that are intended for a wider and more mature audience to a higher standard, go figure. Doctor Strange had a larger target demographic. And with that larger audience of people who watch MCU movies comes the potential for a larger blowup.
And at the end of the day, Big Hero 6 still had better representation than Doctor Strange. It was still an opportunity for Asian American voice actors to be in the starring roles.

Yes I agree the name San Fransokyo could be better.
Are you Asian? Because like I said, I am and this movie didn't feel like appropriation. Maybe these people on tumblr have a different perspective, like I said earlier ymmv. But to me this didn't seem like a whitewashing of Japan, it was combining elements of San Francisco with elements of Japanese culture. There is a difference between sharing culture and stealing it or wearing it like a costume. This is a story of immigrants allowing their culture to evolve in a new country, and sharing it with their new neighbors.