Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

**Sharpandpointies** · 11-27-2018, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by FistofIron

Those are some good points. Michelle Yeoh would’ve been awesome but I did love Tilda. I didn’t mind Mordo simply because I love when that actor plays villains.

Originally Posted by Lord Falcon

No dispute that making a character of a non-Caucasian race Caucasian is whitewashing, just that I don't think that should be a blanket bar to casting white actors in roles that would otherwise have a minority actor. If there's sufficient merit to the casting, I'm cool with it.

The point of being against whitewashing is promoting diversity in casting (thus giving minority actors a chance to break through) and presenting diversity to the public to help social progress along in an increasingly global, multi-ethnic world. If diversity is still being helped (or at least not hurt) in a film, then there's no harm in whitewashing a particular role in that film.

Mordo was a multi-faceted character with a strong (if tragic) character arc and a good guy until the post-credits scene. Chiwetel Ejiofor played Mordo well, showing us his fire, faith, gratitude, black and white morality and slowly revealing how fragile his worldview was. MCU Mordo is a far more entertaining and deep character than any other depiction I've seen (which tend to make Mordo a simple eeeeevvviiiiilllll villain).

The way I see it personally, Dr. Strange is an exception to the rule: The superficial warning signs are strong, but a deeper look shows that the movie does diversity just fine.

So we get a one for one on the ethnic front, and a one for nothing on the gender front. Both actors do phenomenal jobs with their complex roles (though I find Tilda Swinton's a touch more memorable). Taken as part of the whole film, this instance of whitewashing seems like a good decision for the sake of casting.

Michelle Yeoh would have done a good job, I'm sure. But her air of mystery and regality is much more grounded than Tilda Swinton's. If I wanted someone with a floating, almost alien-like feel to go along with the regality (which this depiction of The Ancient One wanted), then I can think of no better choice than Tilda Swinton.

I can understand why you guys see it that way. I don't, myself, but mileage varies, etc. ^_^

In other news, Anima post coming tonight. It's written out and everything, I'll post it when I come home from class.

**FistofIron** · 11-27-2018, 07:30 AM

Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies

I can understand why you guys see it that way. I don't, myself, but mileage varies, etc. ^_^

In other news, Anima post coming tonight. It's written out and everything, I'll post it when I come home from class.

What are you studying?

**Cleric of Hell’s Brigade** · 11-27-2018, 07:51 AM

Originally Posted by Hazard

Yep. She's a white, blue-eyed blonde. Stuff like X-Men Evolution made her skin darker because she's supposed to be Brazilian, but then again that show never really touched the whole part of her coming from a Roman Colony lead by an immortal sorceress.

Edit: Damn, that's a small Ultraman.

Yeah, that’s what I thought. She’s supposed to be Caucasian (Roman) who has hidden herself amidst Brazilian people before. That’s what I knew her as at least.

**Sub-Zero MKA** · 11-27-2018, 07:59 AM

Originally Posted by Hazard

Yep. She's a white, blue-eyed blonde. Stuff like X-Men Evolution made her skin darker because she's supposed to be Brazilian, but then again that show never really touched the whole part of her coming from a Roman Colony lead by an immortal sorceress.

Edit: Damn, that's a small Ultraman.

Huh, I stand corrected. My first intro to the character was in fact Evolution, with was why I was so confused.

**Sharpandpointies** · 11-27-2018, 07:59 AM

Originally Posted by FistofIron

What are you studying?

For the last...ugh, close to ten years now, I've been studying Xingyi with a guy who is more interested in results than form or 'specific techniques' (Tim Cartmell was one of his big influences). I've branched into learning Yang Taiji from this dude as well as Sun Taiji. We do a lot of resistance training, freeplay, and weapon work (also including resistance training and freeplay in the weapon work, necessitating some protective gear...).

Getting a little creaky for the full-contact fighting and grappling, but this training has rounded a lot of stuff out, and I'm finding the biomechanic-orientation of it to be really interesting. Nothing of what I learned before paid quite so particular attention to biomechanics and such. Ironing those things in isn't easy, and we all know that under stress we lose a fair percentage of the picky stuff, but the more that gets ironed in, the more we retain when the fecal matter hits the fan.

Anywhoo, the dude has given up on class teaching, but retains five of his former private students for a 'group' class every week. I guess that has become the private student class. I never actually TOOK any of his regular classes, as I was more interested in the Xingyi than what he taught in them.

...I guess I'm also studying the Japanese language, but not in class.

I'll never be fluent, but it's fun, and keeps the brain working.

**FistofIron** · 11-27-2018, 08:51 AM

Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies

For the last...ugh, close to ten years now, I've been studying Xingyi with a guy who is more interested in results than form or 'specific techniques' (Tim Cartmell was one of his big influences). I've branched into learning Yang Taiji from this dude as well as Sun Taiji. We do a lot of resistance training, freeplay, and weapon work (also including resistance training and freeplay in the weapon work, necessitating some protective gear...).

Getting a little creaky for the full-contact fighting and grappling, but this training has rounded a lot of stuff out, and I'm finding the biomechanic-orientation of it to be really interesting. Nothing of what I learned before paid quite so particular attention to biomechanics and such. Ironing those things in isn't easy, and we all know that under stress we lose a fair percentage of the picky stuff, but the more that gets ironed in, the more we retain when the fecal matter hits the fan.

Anywhoo, the dude has given up on class teaching, but retains five of his former private students for a 'group' class every week. I guess that has become the private student class. I never actually TOOK any of his regular classes, as I was more interested in the Xingyi than what he taught in them.

...I guess I'm also studying the Japanese language, but not in class.

I'll never be fluent, but it's fun, and keeps the brain working.

That’s some cool stuff that you’re learning. I haven’t learned much in the way of Chinese martial arts. I learned a little Wing Chun years ago but I haven’t kept up with it. I’ve been interested in Xingyi for a while.

I should look into learning Japanese. I plan to go to Japan at some point.

**Sharpandpointies** · 11-27-2018, 09:05 AM

Originally Posted by FistofIron

That’s some cool stuff that you’re learning. I haven’t learned much in the way of Chinese martial arts. I learned a little Wing Chun years ago but I haven’t kept up with it. I’ve been interested in Xingyi for a while.

Thanks, man. I love it. I mean, there's a lot of Taiji out there that's purely for stretching and health with zero martial application, and a lot more that gets into the mystical stuff (which, honestly, is not my interest and I have little belief in that part of it). This is more old-school stuff (without any mysticism), with less emphasis on rehearsed things or static play, and more unrehearsed, resisting, and fluid free-practice.

The Xingyi? Same. None of the vibrating arm qi mysticism, just a different way of hitting.

I got lucky with the Xingyi. My old school had changed drastically and become intolerable for me; after 12 years of practice, I quit there. Didn't know what I was going to do, was totally despondent. Another dude who quit the school at the same time as me had gone to this guy for Taiji. So I sent him an email. His grumpy response was basically 'I'm not interested in any more beginners. Meh, unless you were interested in learning Xingyi or something like that.'

[me] Erk. Really? Xingyi is something that I've been interested in learning for about ten years now, but never had the opportunity. If I had to pick one thing to learn, this would be it. <- This was all true, ^_^

[Him] Oh. [grumpy again] But I don't have any classes for that, so unless you could take time Friday mornings for a private class, I'm not interested in teaching.

[Me] Actually, I work a four-day week and have Fridays off. So, I would love to come on Friday mornings for a private class.

[Him] ...okay, we'll see how it works out.

The stars aligned.

I should look into learning Japanese. I plan to go to Japan at some point.

I'm currently using Duolingo and Lingodeer. After 135 days of learning, I've got the Hirigana and Katakana alphabets memorized, and I'm starting on Kanji (waiting for a special dictionary with mnemonics to arrive). Vocabulary is coming along, and I'm starting into grammar. Again, I'll never be fluent, but it's fun. And it'll help when we go back to Japan. We have two more visits to do, according to my wife.

I cannot say how enjoyable I found our time in Japan -- if you can get there, GO. And stay for a while. It's not hard, even without any Japanese language skills.

**Hiromi** · 11-27-2018, 09:43 AM

And DBS manga wraps up it's tournament, eh, as per usual I like some of how it did it more than the anime and like how the anime did other things better

Wrap up to the Jiren fight was obviously better in the anime, honestly it would have been difficult to surpass that

But 17's wish was handled better, for start the whole "we knew you'd wish them back" sub plot was left out entirely, and the result was simply Universe 7's ranking amongst the universes improving

but now we get to the real treat, the manga continuing(skipping all the movie stuff) and it looks like our first completely new arc in a while will be Galactic patrol stuff, and Buu and his accompanying lore finally getting some use