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[Shmunter]

Cause Poland is fucking racist.

/Signed by someone born and having spent lots of time in poland.

Yeah, but everything is racist.

Thanks for stating the obvious Einstein!

 

[IDKFA]

Why are they disgusting? What makes it disgusting? You know people would flip their shit if an Asian fantasy or Middle Eastern fantasy, for example, prominently featured white people. It would be called whitewashing. We've seen it happen time and time again. Remember Ghost in the Shell? If this is disgusting, then that outrage was disgusting.

Personally, if the show ends up being good I'll give it a watch, but this casting certainly makes me suspicious of their intent.

It's 2021 FFS. We live in diverse communities. We should be striving for more colour blind casting. Skin colour is just that. A colour of a persons skin. It shouldn't define a character. To say there are too many nonwhites in a show based in a fictional TV show based on a fantasy world with dragons, magic and witches etc is just lunacy.

To answer your other point, I must admit, I've struggled myself with this concept. Why would it be okay to have a show with all black or all Asian cast, but not be okay for an all white cast?

It took some time, some reading of certain books and speaking to minority friends, but I now understand the issue. See, for decades we've had shows and films that have been exclusively white only casts, with minority actors shunned because of the colour of their skin. Now times have changed, and it's time we now let minority races tell their stories, but at the same time not exclude them from any movie or TV show.

It's called making amends for past mistakes. Hopefully you'll understand this like I have.

LotR and GoT would never hare become global phenomena if they hadn't been so faithful to the source material and that meant an all-white cast. That's how the books described these characters and the show runners made sure that the casting reflected the authors' (and the fans') wishes. Just imagine how Netflix would fuck over a tv series based on the books with a modernized genderblind/colorblind, recasting of LotR with a black Gandalf, a few gender and race swapped members of the Fellowship of the Ring and an all-female version of the Riders of Rohan. The bad guys (Denethor , Saruman, the Nazgul, Gollum, etc) would remain white of course.

How odd. I don't remember critics praising LotR or GoT for having a pretty much all white cast?

Oh yeah. That's because they didn't.

Both of those were not successful because of the skin colour of the cast members. They were successful because the source material is fantastic and they were amazing adaptations.

 

[DevilHunterX0]

Dear Netflix,

Stop blackwashing stuff.

Ok thanks bye.

-A POC.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

It's 2021 FFS. We live in diverse communities. We should be striving for more colour blind casting. Skin colour is just that. A colour of a persons skin. It shouldn't define a character. To say there are too many nonwhites in a show based in a fictional TV show based on a fantasy world with dragons, magic and witches etc is just lunacy.

To answer your other point, I must admit, I've struggled myself with this concept. Why would it be okay to have a show with all black or all Asian cast, but not be okay for an all white cast?

It took some time, some reading of certain books and speaking to minority friends, but I now understand the issue. See, for decades we've had shows and films that have been exclusively white only casts, with minority actors shunned because of the colour of their skin. Now times have changed, and it's time we now let minority races tell their stories, but at the same time not exclude them from any movie or TV show.

It's called making amends for past mistakes. Hopefully you'll understand this like I have.

"We live in diverse communities." Who is "we?" I know I do here in America, but "diverse communities" are certainly not the norm for most of the world, and Neflix shows are made available in over 190 countries.

Lord of the Rings is a fantasy world with dragons, magic, and witches, etc. but that doesn't mean the ethnic representation of its cast should resemble that of Hollywood, California. I think people were right to rail on the casting of Ghost in the Shell, but I would hope for consistency

I have zero issue with diverse casts, but it doesn't make sense in European fantasy unless the character's setting is that they came from another land, for example. It wouldn't make sense in a Chinese fantasy for white or black dudes to be cast alongside Chinese actors with no explanation for their characters background, pretending as if they all just came from the same native land. You will never see that in a Netflix Original show not made in the west and I wouldn't want to see it. Multiculturalism, as in enjoying many different cultures, is great, but this kind of forced diversity is not in my opinion.

Both of those were not successful because of the skin colour of the cast members. They were successful because the source material is fantastic and they were amazing adaptations.

And believable casting is part of an "amazing adaptation."

 

[IDKFA]

"We live in diverse communities." Who is "we?" I know I do here in America, but "diverse communities" are certainly not the norm for most of the world, and Neflix shows are made available in over 190 countries.

Lord of the Rings is a fantasy world with dragons, magic, and witches, etc. but that doesn't mean the ethnic representation of its cast should resemble that of Hollywood, California. I think people were right to rail on the casting of Ghost in the Shell, but I would hope for consistency

I have zero issue with diverse casts, but it doesn't make sense in European fantasy unless the character's setting is that they came from another land, for example. It wouldn't make sense in a Chinese fantasy for white or black dudes to be cast alongside Chinese actors with no explanation for their characters background, pretending as if they all just came from the same native land. You will never see that in a Netflix Original show not made in the west and I wouldn't want to see it. Multiculturalism, as in enjoying many different cultures, is great, but this kind of forced diversity is not in my opinion.



And believable casting is part of an "amazing adaptation."

US, UK, hell even a lot of Europe is diverse. The world itself is thankfully becoming more diverse and multicultural. This should not only be celebrated, but also reflected in our art. Why should a minority actor be declined a role, just because the fantasy world is based on a fictional, medieval Europe?!

Lord of the Rings were made 20 years ago. Different time. If they were made today, you can bet that the cast would be a lot more diverse. Guaranteed the Amazon show will be far more diverse and inclusive than the films.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

US, UK, hell even a lot of Europe is diverse. The world itself is thankfully becoming more diverse and multicultural. This should not only be celebrated, but also reflected in our art. Why should a minority actor be declined a role, just because the fantasy world is based on a fictional, medieval Europe?!

Lord of the Rings were made 20 years ago. Different time. If they were made today, you can bet that the cast would be a lot more diverse. Guaranteed the Amazon show will be far more diverse and inclusive than the films.

Yes, just because the fantasy world is based on fictional, medieval Europe. The setting kind of matters.

Just like I would not want to see a bunch of white people milling about without explanation in a Korean fantasy drama like Kingdom, or Asians and black people popping up as Britons in a King Arthur tale or something.

 

[IDKFA]

Yes, just because the fantasy world is based on fictional, medieval Europe. The setting kind of matters.

Just like I would not want to see a bunch of white people milling about without explanation in a Korean fantasy drama like Kingdom, or Asians and black people popping up as Britons in a King Arthur tale or something.

Kingdom and anything based on King Arthur are a little different because they're fantasy set in the real world. Witcher isn't set on Earth, so no reason for it not to have a diverse cast.

However, like I stated above, we've had decades of western made, all white TV shows and films. Now our communities are more diverse, western media should reflect that. There is no reason for western made a show/film, even a historical one, to be all white in this day and age.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Any polish person that could earn money would flee there country in a second. Its very much a 3rd world country. There is absolute no reason for anybody to move to poland and that's the reality of it.

TF is this shit?

I’m a Pole living in Paris. I will never come back to Poland since France is where my life is, my kids grow up, etc.

Having said that - Poland is doing infinitely better than France, the unemployment is lower, the wages grow faster, cities develop more rapidly. You can have a very good life for yourself and your family in Poland, and many Poles do.

The reason why Poland doesn’t have many foreigners living here is due to always being on the side of things - no colonies, rather eccentric language, no social net so no benefits, etc.


Regarding the Witcher - the first story came out in the 1980s, heavily influenced by the Slav culture and history. Guess what, no black people in medieval Poland. If you want to stir shit I would say Lord of the Rings with orcs and Harad coming from the East is probably more problematic than the Witcher. Either way Zerrikania shows similar fetish with the East, but how is that different than being a Sinophile and thinking The Three Kingdoms actually shows you real life in ancient China?

Btw, after the Witcher Sapkowski wrote a trilogy called Narrenturm dealing with Hussite Wars which shows he is very heavily drawing inspiration from medieval times when writing his novels.

 

[GymWolf]

Ah yes, another show by the acclaimed writers of Iron Fist.

Exactly what Witcher IP needs.

Fucking christ there are talented people in hollywood still (looking at you, The Boys), why did my most cherished book and game IP had to get these people.

Oh well, hope dies last, maybe first season of Witcher was a fluke, miracle will happen and future seasons and this show will not suck donkey balls while butchering the source.

Oh jesus, is scott buck involved with this?!

 

[FunkMiller]

As a ethnic minority myself I don't mind this we have built communities, and not all ethcnic minorities are poor anymore we have become landlords, CEOs, lawyers and etc. We have so many mosques and temples and less churches. I'm loving this.

Ooh. Somebody’s accidentally showing their true colours, eh?

The cultural problem in the UK isn’t with race, it‘s with backwards fucking religions (Whatever the colour of the indoctrinated).

On Witcher: never read the books, only played the games, loved season one, don’t give a fuck about what skin colour anyone is, but never agree with colour or gender changes for no other reason that a political agenda.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

There is no reason for western made a show/film, even a historical one, to be all white in this day and age.

I disagree. I think if it's a historical show or based on source material that has a clearly defined setting, the adaptation should try to accurately represent it with its casting, too. Now if you want to call it "alternate history" like Bridgerton, which is Netflix's original setting, then sure, have a ball. I've got no problem with that, just like I wouldn't have any problem with a modern city setting, for example, featuring a cast that represents, or at least is believable, within its setting.

It all comes down to the ability to suspend disbelief. In that sense, Scarlett Johanson playing a character named Motoko Kusanagi in a fantasy future Japan setting is just as ridiculous as the casting we're talking about here.

 

[Azurro]

Now times have changed, and it's time we now let minority races tell their stories, but at the same time not exclude them from any movie or TV show.

It's called making amends for past mistakes. Hopefully you'll understand this like I have.

White people haven't done anything to me. If anything, they have been extremely nice to me, whether it was in Canada or Europe, even in Eastern Europe, where some people with two neurons in their minds think everyone is really racist. They simply don't subscribe to this insane ideology that white people are somehow the cause of the world's evil.

Fuck off with this bs rhetoric, it's ignorance to the highest degree, as if us "minorities" haven't also done our own horrid shit, we are also human and also have done fucked up shit in our history.

The Witcher is based on Eastern European myths, let me watch that fucking world instead of making a character I love like Triss Merigold be replaced by some random black character. Create new worlds if you want your checklist production, let great existing worlds be brought to live as they were written.

 

[e&e]

Why not just live in a country with people just like you instead of demanding that everything around you change?

“If you don’t like it, leave”!

Fuck outta here with that disgusting talking point…

Netflix acting like they already have a Game of Thrones when the first season sucked hard.

76 million views in just 2019…

 

[Azurro]

“If you don’t like it, leave”!

Fuck outta here with that disgusting talking point…

"Subscribe to my ideology or you are a horrible person that deserves to lose everything" - How is this pseudo facist mentality any less disgusting?

 

[Atrus]

It's 2021 FFS. We live in diverse communities. We should be striving for more colour blind casting. Skin colour is just that. A colour of a persons skin. It shouldn't define a character. To say there are too many nonwhites in a show based in a fictional TV show based on a fantasy world with dragons, magic and witches etc is just lunacy.

To answer your other point, I must admit, I've struggled myself with this concept. Why would it be okay to have a show with all black or all Asian cast, but not be okay for an all white cast?

It took some time, some reading of certain books and speaking to minority friends, but I now understand the issue. See, for decades we've had shows and films that have been exclusively white only casts, with minority actors shunned because of the colour of their skin. Now times have changed, and it's time we now let minority races tell their stories, but at the same time not exclude them from any movie or TV show.

It's called making amends for past mistakes. Hopefully you'll understand this like I have.



How odd. I don't remember critics praising LotR or GoT for having a pretty much all white cast?

Oh yeah. That's because they didn't.

Both of those were not successful because of the skin colour of the cast members. They were successful because the source material is fantastic and they were amazing adaptations.

As a minority, I'd say that people should keep their anglocentric white guilt to themselves. Casting should be contextual to the plot and story elements that it is trying to convey.

A multiracial casting makes sense when the plot reflects a multiracial setting or when the underlying historicity is completely unimportant to the performance but there are stories that are presented in context of specific culture or historicity that do not avail themselves to multiracial casts.

I do not want to see a Black Adolf Hitler or a Chinese William Wallace or a multiracial Lord of the Rings that is clearly inspired by European history any more than I want a multiracial Romance of the Three Kingdoms story. Just as there are stories where the casts will reflect actors resembling the stories setting, there will in fact be all-white casts for stories originating out of Europe. Some incongruities can naturally arise out of talent where an individual is so amazing at their work, it eclipses any inaccuracy or inconsistency but these are rare. Alternatively, some people are racially ambigious enough to seamlessly fit into the plot. Instead we just have white people trying to make a name for themselves out of how sorry they are by placing non-white people in European histories and stories.

Minorities don't need to be assimilated into European settings out of misguided pity. We can tell, create or portray our own in due time. For actors, I can understsnd these may represent more paycheques but these "dancing monkey" roles are not favorable to ones career or to minorities in general.

 

[Edokataki]

Yeah, where in the world would a black person be the primordial of anyone, amirite?

So the black exist for 100.000 years and they still live in fucking straw homes in shity villages and they are still stuck 100 years behind any first world country?

 

[Edokataki]

As a minority, I'd say that people should keep their anglocentric white guilt to themselves. Casting should be contextual to the plot and story elements that it is trying to convey.

A multiracial casting makes sense when the plot reflects a multiracial setting or when the underlying historicity is completely unimportant to the performance but there are stories that are presented in context of specific culture or historicity that do not avail themselves to multiracial casts.

I do not want to see a Black Adolf Hitler or a Chinese William Wallace or a multiracial Lord of the Rings that is clearly inspired by European history any more than I want a multiracial Romance of the Three Kingdoms story. Just as there are stories where the casts will reflect actors resembling the stories setting, there will in fact be all-white casts for stories originating out of Europe. Some incongruities can naturally arise out of talent where an individual is so amazing at their work, it eclipses any inaccuracy or inconsistency but these are rare. Alternatively, some people are racially ambigious enough to seamlessly fit into the plot. Instead we just have white people trying to make a name for themselves out of how sorry they are by placing non-white people in European histories and stories.

Minorities don't need to be assimilated into European settings out of misguided pity. We can tell, create or portray our own in due time. For actors, I can understsnd these may represent more paycheques but these "dancing monkey" roles are not favorable to ones career or to minorities in general.

This is one very reasonable and intelligent take on a issue that's getting out of hand. I love some black actors more than any other and I don't see them as black but like a normal person, their traits are not their color but their skills. Saying that it's stupid to make a movie about a established story and shoehorn a black actor just so you can have a black actor and virtue signal and except no backlash.

 

[Edokataki]

Why not just live in a country with people just like you instead of demanding that everything around you change?

Because there is no country in this small planet that is led by black people and it's not backward filled with wars.

 

[Toons]

Because there is no country in this small planet that is led by black people and it's not backward filled with wars.

Glad youre banned. Scumbag.

 

[Nobody_Important]

Why not just live in a country with people just like you instead of demanding that everything around you change?

Why not just accept that the world is constantly changing instead of demanding that everything stay the same?

 

[Lone Wolf]

Why not just accept that the world is constantly changing instead of demanding that everything stay the same?

I’ve demanded no such thing.

 

[Nobody_Important]

I’ve demanded no such thing.

It wasn't directed at you specifically. Mainly at your comment. At the idea that people who want change should have to go anywhere. Which is obviously ridiculous.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

It wasn't directed at you specifically. Mainly at your comment. At the idea that people who want change should have to go anywhere. Which is obviously ridiculous.

Agreed but the same way that you are ok with people trying to change the place they live in, one should also give a right to other people to want to keep things the same way.

indont say it’s the right thing to do (it’s not) but we can try and be fair.

 

[Boss Mog]

Why not just accept that the world is constantly changing instead of demanding that everything stay the same?

Accepting change is great when said change is beneficial to the majority or at the very least something that doesn't negatively impact them. A change that negatively impacts the majority is not a change that should be accepted.

 

[Nobody_Important]

Accepting change is great when said change is beneficial to the majority or at the very least something that doesn't negatively impact them. A change that negatively impacts the majority is not a change that should be accepted.

I agree entirely.

 

[Halo is Back]

Because there is no country in this small planet that is led by black people and it's not backward filled with wars.

 

[Fuz]

Lord of the Rings were made 20 years ago. Different time. If they were made today, you can bet that the cast would be a lot more diverse.

And that's why they're so good. They mostly stuck to the books.

 

[Kimahri]

I want diversity of everything, not in everything. It's kinda odd, but more and more, no matter how thematically different things might be, I just feel like I'm watching the same shit over and over because the same token characters of representation show up almost everywhere.

It's boring, and I'm losing interest.

Netflix should stop dicking around, and go back to making stuff like Marco Polo. I wonder how that show would have been received today. That was a show of actual, good diversity, not just another hollywoodization of old Europe.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I want diversity of everything, not in everything. It's kinda odd, but more and more, no matter how thematically different things might be, I just feel like I'm watching the same shit over and over because the same token characters of representation show up almost everywhere.

It's boring, and I'm losing interest.

Netflix should stop dicking around, and go back to making stuff like Marco Polo. I wonder how that show would have been received today. That was a show of actual, good diversity, not just another hollywoodization of old Europe.

100% this. I like multiculturalism as in "a multitude of different cultures" not some US/UK-centric global monoculture with representation quotas.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Explore the Continent as you've never seen it before. Welcome to the world of our prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin, guided by showrunner Declan de Barra.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

The Witcher Showrunner Shares New Details on Blood Origin

While the six-part, live-action prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin might not yet have a release date, information appears to be coming sooner rather than later with the impending release of The Witcher Season 2 on Netflix on December 17th. Case in point: a new interview with The Witcher...

comicbook.com

A new interview with The Witcher showrunner and The Witcher: Blood Origin executive producer Lauren S. Hissrich offers some new details on what to expect from the show set over a thousand years prior to The Witcher.

"We have obviously heard in the Witcher show that humans brought civilization to the elves. They're the ones who showed them what it was like to be civilized. And in fact, what we're seeing in Blood Origin is that's exactly opposite of the truth," Hissrich told EW. "The world was much more of a Golden Age than what we see in The Witcher years later."

 

[SenjutsuSage]

I was legit just thinking jokingly to myself when I clicked on this thread a moment ago... how will they somehow manage to shoehorn a black women into the main role and now she could possibly be the very first Witcher considering the hack writers involved...

Why does anybody black, be it a black man or a black woman, bother you so much? Seriously, get help.

 

[KingGhidorah]

‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’: Jodie Turner-Smith To Star In Netflix’s ‘Witcher’ Prequel Series

Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim, Nightflyers) has been tapped as a lead in Netflix‘s six-part, live-action limited series The Witcher: Blood Origin, a prequel to the streamer’s hit series The Witcher. Primetime-Panic Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders See All Set in an...

deadline.com

yeah....pass

thank goodness i haven't re-subscribed back, fuck!! I'm just gonna have to boycott the entire fucking Western media

 

[Shmunter]

Why does anybody black, be it a black man or a black woman, bother you so much? Seriously, get help.

Pretty sure it’s not the race but more the cynical pandering to woke awards and mobs.

A Euro centric medieval setting despite being fantasy still needs some grounding to sell itself and not feel disjointed. In those times people were not jet setting across continents so racial diversity like it’s 2021 seems out of place.

Same applies to any other region in the world back when horseback was the prime mode of transport - the inhabitants would have been most certainly native.

Any notion of “its fantasy anyway” so there are no boundaries is not a defence. The inhabitants using mobile phones or sporting light sabres would not enhance this particular brand of fantasy.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[Simpkin92]

Hard pass with the pandering. Love the Witcher universe tho!

 

[DAHGAMING]

Toss 1 out for these snitchers

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[Big Baller]

Not a single white Witcher in sight.

 

[Fuz]

Ahahahaha get fucked netflix

 

[Fuz]

I like The Witcher universe quite a bit.

You don't, if you want to watch this.

 

[Fbh]

Smart, 3 main characters so they can potentially replace them with the Hemsworth brothers at some point

 

[Big Baller]

Smart, 3 main characters so they can potentially replace them with the Hemsworth brothers at some point

Only in the multiverse.

 

[Bragr]

CD Projekt Red needs to step in and stop this, the main show was problematic enough, but this looks so cheap I am shocked Netflix would back this, god have mercy. It's like a student film.

And I don't like to cry woke, but this is WOOOOKE. People are gonna HATE this.

 

[Big Baller]

CDPR doesnt own the Witcher IP

 

[Bragr]

CDPR doesnt own the Witcher IP

I know. But they can still step in and stop this.

They can get some tanks from Ukraine.

 

[Big Baller]

Nah, they want the buzz. Witcher 4, Witcher 3 remaster and Witcher remake are coming.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

In the opening scene of The Witcher: Blood Origin, everyone's favourite bard Jaskier has been caught up in a conflict between the Temerian army and the Scoia'tael. Suddenly, the battlefield is magically frozen in time by a mysterious stranger masquerading as Jaskier himself... Find out what happens next when this four-part prequel comes to Netflix on December 25th.

 

[Azurro]

The 100 lbs tiny asian lady is such a great warrior. LOL.