Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[Gray Lensman]

If you don't like race swapping in movies that's totally fine. But people really need to stop saying, "Would you be ok with a white person playing Black Panther?" White actors playing non-white characters has happened and continues to happen even in modern times. And there is actually a white "Black Panther" in the comics...he's called the White Wolf.

Unless the character is tied to a specific racial identity I don't normally care personally. What people tend to forget is that for decades "non-specific" always defaulted to "white" and minority characters were limited, so any swap is going to favor replacing white with something else. It's a reminder of more racist times rather than anything else.

[Adam Allen]

If you don't like race swapping in movies that's totally fine. But people really need to stop saying, "Would you be ok with a white person playing Black Panther?" White actors playing non-white characters has happened and continues to happen even in modern times. And there is actually a white "Black Panther" in the comics...he's called the White Wolf.

Yup. New Mutants was released only two years ago, and from the moment casting was released, people pointed out the problems with Cecilia Reyes and Sunspot. They did not give two fucks if anyone was upset.

[ed2962]

Unless the character is tied to a specific racial identity I don't normally care personally. What people tend to forget is that for decades "non-specific" always defaulted to "white" and minority characters were limited, so any swap is going to favor replacing white with something else. It's a reminder of more racist times rather than anything else.

I don't disagree. I just think the "white Black Panther" thing is such a lazy and uninformed retort. I feel like, if black Little Mermaid or whatever upsets you please come up with a better argument.

[ed2962]

Yup. New Mutants was released only two years ago, and from the moment casting was released, people pointed out the problems with Cecilia Reyes and Sunspot. They did not give two fucks if anyone was upset.

Not to mention Ghost in the Shell with Scarlett Johanson...

But really, I think people get mad about things that other people on the internet tell them to get mad about. In the Deadpool comics, Blind Al and Domino are white women, but in the movies they were played by black actresses and none of these people who supposedly care about "accuracy" or "respecting the source material" said a word.

A lot of people ragged on the Harley Quinn movie for alleged "feminism" but none of them noticed that Black Canary was played by a black woman despite being white blonde in the comics and cartoons.

And more recently, the "Stan Lee is rolling in his grave over She-Hulk twerking" crowd didn't have a peep to say about white Thunderball.

Alot of this outrage is driven by clicks and you just aren't going to get as much engagement talking about race swapped Domino as you are claiming that Batman as supposedly gone woke.

[Catlady in training]

Here's another Little Mermaid jem: "I wouldn't care if she's black, if she only were pretty."
I'm like, dude, you're not even right, she looks fine, but why do even care how pretty she is? It's a movie for kids, not for you to project your erotic fantasies.

[Kirby101]

Here's another Little Mermaid jem: "I wouldn't care if she's black, if she only were pretty."
I'm like, dude, you're not even right, she looks fine, but why do even care how pretty she is? It's a movie for kids, not for you to project your erotic fantasies.

Huh? How is this girl not pretty? I would say beautiful.

[Adam Allen]

Not to mention Ghost in the Shell with Scarlett Johanson...

But really, I think people get mad about things that other people on the internet tell them to get mad about. In the Deadpool comics, Blind Al and Domino are white women, but in the movies they were played by black actresses and none of these people who supposedly care about "accuracy" or "respecting the source material" said a word.

A lot of people ragged on the Harley Quinn movie for alleged "feminism" but none of them noticed that Black Canary was played by a black woman despite being white blonde in the comics and cartoons.

And more recently, the "Stan Lee is rolling in his grave over She-Hulk twerking" crowd didn't have a peep to say about white Thunderball.

Alot of this outrage is driven by clicks and you just aren't going to get as much engagement talking about race swapped Domino as you are claiming that Batman as supposedly gone woke.

I think the relative importance of the character to the story matters too, though. The Wrecking Crew barely appeared and barely resembled the comics versions in any sense. Domino has been around a long time but has never been an A or I'd even say B list character, and Blind Al is more obscure ... and both were pretty incidental parts in a movie that also introduced a whole version of X-Force just to have them comically slaughtered, so I wouldn't say those roles are big enough to generate much of a fuss. I think I do recall some vague grumbling about Black Canary being black, but it was generally folded into the criticism of the movie as "woke feminism" on the whole.

Honestly though, I think the argument about a white actor playing Black Panther is in bad faith because it is based in the idea that switching a character's race in one direction or the other is somehow value-neutral; that the motivations, meanings, and effects of changing a given character's race should somehow be approximately equal. This is an unrealistic framework, given that race is not and never has been value-neutral in our society. Because of this, changing an established, popular character from white to black really is not a 1:1 to changing a character from black to white. Context matters. And we and our stories exist in a context that consistently shown a preference towards whiteness.

As you said, people can feel free to just say they don't like race swapping; everybody is entitled to their own opinions. But you don't have to pretend race is some neutral detail, like height or eye color or hair color. It would be nice if the world one day gets to a place where it really doesn't matter, but realistically, we all know we are nowhere near there yet.

[TheRay]

Chips go well with anything.

[Dalak]

Chips go well with anything.

[MajorHoy]

Chips go well with anything.

Even prune juice and oatmeal?

[useridgoeshere]

Dreams taste better than space.

[Ghost Rider TheHellfireDemon]

I'm a proud Nickleback fan, and people highly hating Nickleback is freakin ridiculous and inane because I've never heard any factual reasons that justify the hatred.
The dumbest reason in my opinion is the whole their songs are formulaic which is lame and hypocritical because that same criticism could be made about other bands, and I doubt the Nickelback haters wouldn't be able to explain why it's not hypocritical that they aren't criticizing other bands for that same factual reason.

[Kirby101]

I don't care for most of Eric Clapton's music after Derick and the Dominoes. The Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, Dominoes, just fantastic, after that....meh.

[Catlady in training]

I'm a proud Nickleback fan, and people highly hating Nickleback is freakin ridiculous and inane because I've never heard any factual reasons that justify the hatred.
The dumbest reason in my opinion is the whole their songs are formulaic which is lame and hypocritical because that same criticism could be made about other bands, and I doubt the Nickelback haters wouldn't be able to explain why it's not hypocritical that they aren't criticizing other bands for that same factual reason.

I don't get it either. I only know their famous songs and I like those. I also like for example Bon Jovi and Scorpions and don't see/hear the difference between those re: repetition or style.

I wonder if many of the haters is just people piling up once it became the cool thing to dislike.

[TheRay]

If that’s not something you can really sink your teeth into, I don’t know what is.