I always considered them Asian because that's where the inspiration came from. I mean, the lions in Lion King are *lions* but of course they're always played by black actors on Broadway because it's of African inspiration
I always believed that the air nomads are based on Chinese people, water tribe were Inuit, and fire nation were Japanese, I could never even comprehend what earth benders were
In term of culture. Water tribe- have heavy influence of inuit and a little bit of Malaysia and Philippines. Fire nation - have heavy influence of Thailand and other indo china country with a little bit of Chinese and Korean. Earth kingdom - have heavy influence of china and a bit of Mongol, Japanese and middle Eastern. Air nomad - have heavy influence of Tibet, Bhutan and a bit of indian.
I heard an interesting theory that Ty Lee descended from Air Nomads who escaped from Sozin's genocide. Explaining her grey eyes, uniquely bubbly personality, and how during fights she seems so "flighty"? Idk really interesting theory
@@lvely4126 The theory was that she is an Air Nomad descendant, not an Air Nomad, which means she could have Air Nomad ancestry, but not necessarily be following all of the culture and stuff.
løvely The theory is that she is a descendant of Air Nomads who escaped the attack that happened... 100 years ago... she wasn’t born during that time so why would she have tattoos. And it’s not like they would still do it after they escaped cuz um, they’re supposed to be dead.
Squite I am not so sure since they live on the poles on igloos which would be indignant of Eskimos or Inuit. Since everyone is of primarily Asian-inspired origin, Inuit would be more likely than Native Americans.
It would be more of a mix of Latin Americans, Peru had some temples too, but according to the buildings and the dragons like Quetzalcoatl I totally agree
It seems like a lot of people are missing the obvious. The names are a dead giveaway people. Fire Nation : names like zuko, azula, iroh, ozai. These are very clearly Japanese and most of the names are actual japanese names and the ones that aren't common names still follow japanese orthography. Air Nomads : names like aang, afiko, laghima. These are very obviously Tibetan. I mean the dalai lama's religious name is Tenzin Gyatso. Recognize those names ? Water Tribe : katara, sokka, kota, kana. These are a little less obvious but names like Yakone and Tarloq are a bit more obvious since the q is the written latin equivalent to the voiceless uvular stop which is very common among inuit languages. I mean one of the most common is Iñupiaq, which also has the q as the final consonant. And also Inuit people ? That's just obvious, Water Tribes are centered at the poles and the Inuit people live the closes to the arctic other than maybe Swamis in Finland. Earth Kingdom : the earth kingdom is a bit different in that they are the most diverse easily, just as Iroh tells Zuko when he explains the elements/different nations. Generally, the earth Kingdom is made up of ethnically Han chinese people, especially considering names like Toph Beifong and Bo Lin, however the sandbenders who have names like Lek (common thai name for younger siblings) and Sha-mo (a chinese word for desert). These names are a bit unclear as to an obvious origin but sandbenders are most likely decendants of extinct ethnic groups who have all mixed together due to having a similar culture. Some have chinese names like Sha-mo, some have thai names, and Yulduz is clearly Uzbekistani. Also Song is Korean lmao. Remember to look at the names. Most of the time it's a dead giveaway
demrifnoC itanimullI The people of Ba sing se were most likely based off of the Manchu ethnicity or the Qing dynasty. The women’s headdress of each are quite literally the same. The clothing is also quite similar to.
It's little unclear how sandbenders even appeared in the avatar world. I mean before all that shit that happened in atla people were living in 4 cities on lion turtles. So I would say that sandbenders might be connected to people who originally got earthbending skills - the hunters/explorers. That would make sense, because when other people were in the towns they travelled and ended up in desert. At least that's my "theory" I haven't read all the comics etc. so maybe it was explained somewhere and I'm completely wrong.
@Ale Yaaj I am not a fan of Hollywood and how they intoxicate good movies, but if you're going to claim white washing is racist and point to Ghost, I could point to all the examples of black and brown washing of white people currently happening in media. Let's begin: The new Spider-Man movies they have brown washed Flash Thompson. They have black washed M. J. or at least replaced her with a black actor. Nick Fury is white in the comics yet everyone now sees him as black because in the Avengers they black washed him. Wally West in The Flash is played by a black actor, even though the character is very white. Electro, a main Spider-Man supervillain is black washed in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. In Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen is black washed. Heimdall, the one who guards the bridge between the gods of Norse Mythology and men, is both in Norse Mythology and in the Marvel comics white, but is black washed in the Marvel movies. This taken from Norse Mythology, a different culture and black washed for Hollywood's own needs. Johnny Storm is a blonde blue eyed superhero in the Fantastic 4 comics and in Fant4stic is black washed. In Death Note, the character L is 3/4ths white and 1/4th Asian and in Death Note 2017 he is played by a black guy. What about the black washing of Achilles in Troy: Fall of a City? Someone who is meant to be Greek, AKA, White? Margaret of Anjou, an English queen, is played by a black woman in The Hollow Crown. If you're going to complain about white washing you should also complain about black washing as being equally bad. It's both taking characters that are intended to be a certain ethnicity and changing it to another. I agree with you that something like Avatar should have mostly Asian actors for most of the roles as it is taking inspiration from Asian cultures. However, if we are going to make this about racism I do think you need to take into account all the above mentions of black and brown washing. I think Ziggy Wynder has a point that character should look like how they are in the medium they are adapted from, but I would say that if so it would need to applied consistently. I would rather have a white Zuko who looks like Zuko than an Asian one who does not look like him. However, I'd prefer an Asian Zuko over a white Zuko who does not look at all like he does in the show.
Water tribe: Inuit, Siberian, Native american, and Polynesians. Air nomads: Tibetan, Indian, and Chinese Earth kingdom: Manchu, Korean, Mongolian, Chinese and some middle eastern (with the sand benders). Kyoshi island is completely Japanese. Fire nation: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, some SEA in certain regions, and mesoamerican with the sun warriors. *Edit* I put Polynesian with the water tribe for their sailing. I put middle eastern in the earth kingdom for the various desert people's (like the sand benders) I've noticed the fire nation had a lot of Indochina influence. Also tbh I don't see much Japanese in the fire nation other than the imperialism and the industrial revolution
pal The eyes I think are really only based on what nation the person is from. Water tribe has mostly blue, fire nation has mostly gold, earth kingdom and air nomads mostly just have dark eyes.
@@pastelchubs960 Given that the Boulder is from the Earth Kingdom which largely represents China, I would hope that whatever casting director would give that role to a full-blooded Chinese person instead of perpetuating the erasure of my people’s culture and representation in media.
h o n e y d e w ØoF when Netflix does make a new live action ATLA movie. I wouldn’t doubt the changes they would make. These changes including diversity and sexualities. I don’t mind these at all, but in my opinion, adding those things would change the plot itself.
They even made the originally darker characters.... white, like at least with the fire nation guys it could be excused, because in the show they are all characterized for having very pale skin, however, its also freaky that Katara and Sokka are like, the only white kids and the rest of the village is like a whole different shade. And then... THEY MADE ZUKO THE ONE WITH THE DARK SKIN LIKE OMG IT'S TOTALLY BACKWARDS. It's like not even close. Aang... Okay the actor for Aang actually admittedly looked a lot like Aang. But it's like the only thing they did right.
@@varkrow Yeah I know. I never said any of the characters were white. This person just said the whole show was based on Asian culture and that they're all Asian and I was just saying no they aren't all Asian because of the sun warriors and the water tribe people.
The eye colour is interesting in Avatar since each nation has eye colours that reflect their nation. The Water Tribe have blue eyes, Earth Kingdom (more specifically earthbenders) have green eyes, Air Nomads have grey eyes and the Fire Nation (or at least the Royal Family and several firebenders) have gold eyes. I always thought that was a nice little detail they threw into the character designs. All those colours could be achieved with contact lenses (or if they have the issue Dan Radcliffe had with his in Harry Potter, just leave the actors natural eye colour in). But I also don't think there ever should have been a movie in the first place. They don't try to make The Simpsons into live action because we are so attached to those characters as they are, I feel the same way about Avatar. The animated form is their only true form (though the comics are fine since they have nearly the same art style). I anything, it should have been an animated movie made by Mike, Bryan and their team. In fact, I would still be totally on board with those guys making an animated movie, and not necessarily and Avatar one.
+hyperdeath84 yeah i've noticed the eye color thing. but, it seems to only be more of a generalization. Ty Lee for example has gray eyes. and I think I remember some earth kingdom people with brown eyes.
AvatarCritic Yeah that is true - most of the world is essentially the Earth Kingdom and most people there have brown eyes much like the vast majority of people from Asia. As I say, the eye colour is pronounced in the main characters and their relations.
Tophs eyes are Grey though that's probably because of the cause of her blindness. I'm pretty sure also that not every dai li had green eyes it's a nice touch though especially with the water tribe.
@@hyperdeath84 I totally agree with your first comment. The races in the Avatar world are incomparable to those of our world, due to it being a fictional world with its own races intertwined in it.
Its true “asian” doesnt exist in the avatar universe but if they were like “translated” into irl races all of them would be basically of asian descent. “White” doesnt exist in the hobbit but the hobbit is based off of medieval europe and so the characters are white. Its also ridiculous that people say the avatar characters dont look asian purely because of the anime art style. Are yall implying that to look asian, the creators should draw them with tiny eyes and shit like that?? bruh
Dude thank you for writing this. This is my exact opinion as well. I said this on other comment threads but the morons their yelled at me and called me racist.
They would def be Asian when translated to our world, aside from Sun Warriors and other small groups, but in the Avatar world itself they are their own races.
@@junethanoschurchill6750 ya true but it is what is correct. Some people just completely ignore the truth and try to label the characters as a certain race from our world when that doesn't completely fit
I thought I read somewhere that the creator stated white people don't even exist in the world of avatar or black people. Idk why people still debating this if the creator of the show already settled it.
the thing that most bothered me about the 2010 movie casting was that katara and sokka and their grandma were white but literally all the other southern water tribe members were poc! what kind of message does that send? it's awful
It's just Shamayalan's awful casting. I remember when I watched the movie back in 2010, when I saw Katara and Sokka are white, I was thinking, "Wait, this doesn't feel right."
In the series it was the opposite ! The mayority of the water benders, especially the main characters, have a darker skin tone and only a few were pale. (Hama and a 'background' girl from the southern water tribe also in Hamas Flashback)
The Earth Kingdom is the most diverse and it did seem like there were some people who were supposed to be white but had Asian names and the anime style made them look it too
Famous Ramus22 Bruh the Earth kingdom was based off of China and Korea. As for the anime style, not all Asians have stereotypical small eyes and their eye colors correlate with their elements, so Earth benders have green and Water Benders have blue etc. They all have Asian names because they are CLEARLY Asians
Okay so some comments were saying how "Their eyes are light so they're European..." .... The- Their eyes are based off of their element And the inscription in the intro is Mandarin. I swear someone hold me back cause with some of these comments I-
Well Asians are pretty closely related to Caucasians, so that's probably where the confusion comes from. Zhao especially looks white as hell, and people have made fan arts of Hugh Jackman as Zhao. It looks just like him. But canon wise, they're all Asian. Pretty sure Fire Nation is Imperial Japan, Water Tribes are Eskimos (or Inuit for the snowflakes out there), Earth Kingdom is 9th Century China, and Air Nomads are Buddhist and Tibetan Monks. Pretty weird. This is a tough cartoon cast to adapt, because pure Asians won't look like their characters (with exceptions for Jeong Jeong and Mai), while White actors and actresses wouldn't technically be accurate to the source material either.
bigby edwards nope, the water nation is native and the other nations are mostly East Asian, for sure not white, you can tell I’m of Native American descent I can kinda tell the water tribe is native just look at their facial feautures and their culture their mostly Inuit in my opinion
They definitely are. The people of that show said the casting will actually be accurate instead of some Whitewashed freakshow. Clearly there's nothing wrong with being white but it was horrendous to see the Avatar characters as them when they were clearly Asian.
Luckily, one of the original creators of ATLA is involved in the Netflix live action series. Obviously they will change up the casting, but also keep it closer to the animated series. Cause damn M. Night Shyamalan really screwed with the rules of the Avatar universe.
Idk why this is a debate. Everything is clearly asian. They even use Chinese characters. There’s not debate lol. The bending style is influenced by asian martial arts
Like he said in the video Asia doesn't exist in ATLA. In that world white people could have came up with a similar architecture and language. Especialy given how real the supernatural side of that culture is.
The movie was a joke. They made 2 of the whitest people on Earth play Katara and Sokka (who were supposed to be tan just like almost every water bender) and an Indian to play Zuko (who is as white as milk just like every other fire bender). How shitty it was gonna be was obvious from the casting lol. Edit: If people are gonna keep having racism themed arguments here I'm just gonna delete my comment. What I said has nothing to do with racism or "white washing" or whatever. I can't understand how people call it white washing or vise versa when they fucked up literally every race in this movie. Not everything has to end up as a racism fight. Sometimes it's just bad casting and/or stupidity. And I'm tired of getting notifications of these nonsense comments that aren't even related to the original topic 🙌🏻
@Mollusco Mollusco they could just swapped Zukos actor and Sokkas actor and it would be way better. Especially since zukos actor is used to comedic roles and Sokka is comedic relief character (not only but really often). And Aang and Katara were so wood in the movie. Just pure cringe. Aang atleast looked like aang but he didnt act like him, and katara was a joke
There's more to it than "Sokka is white, Zuko is indian." It's the fact that the entire fire nation is indian that adds to the stupidity. Or that the northern water tribe is white. There's a lot of idiocy involved in the movie.
Totally agree!! It was mundane, whitewashed, and totally missed the point of the entire show. I love how in the series-when series stuff happens it was handled with care and careful planning and the tension didn’t linger but was defused by humour. Yeh, none of that in the crap fest that is the movie. It’s sad
I always thought Water Tribe-Inuit/native people Earth kingdom-Chinese Fire nation-Japanese Air Nomads-Tibetan/monks Sand Benders-Middle eastern Hippies- mix Guru-Indian Swamp Benders-Louisiana Cajuns Sun Warriors-Mezzo-Americans Edit: Changes based on comments
How are they Buddhists, there is no buddha, they do look at spirits as gods sometimes but still, they're not Buddhist as the same way no character in the show is actually Asian/white/black/arabic/hispanic cuz none of them are from any known earth location
It seems the people in avatar believe in a mix of different kinds of eastern philosophy/religion, not just Buddhism. Btw “Eastern” is not just East Asia but also South Asia. India is considered a part of the East
amir movsho מוב Yeah but Buddha isn’t some God or deity. He is human. Buddhists follow Buddha’s teachings. Even if Buddha didn’t exist Buddhism would still stand because the teachings/philosophy would be the same. Also, how do you know an equivalent of Buddha doesn’t exist in the avatar universe? Somebody had to create the philosophy and customs the air nomads follow.
Always found it kinda funny that they cast Dev Patel for Zuko, he's a great actor but Zuko is the palest character in the cartoon LMAO. And then Jackson Rathbone that plays Sokka also played a VAMPIRE in twilight, I don't know how they figured that one out.
@Ale Yaaj TBH I don't think cartoon Aang looks Asian at all but he doesn't look European either. I still think an Asian should probably play him in live action, but I don't think someone is racist for thinking he should be white. He is really racially ambiguous.
to me, Fire Nation was japanese because I thought that their conquering the other elements was a huge metaphor for Japanese imperialist colonization in other Asian countries in world War 2. Water tribes are definitely inuit/indigenous. Air nomads and the Earth Kingdom are definitely inspired by China and some southeast Asian countries. Its obviously all mixed and inspiration of every nation is intertwined but to make the characters white is so odd, Aang is literally a nomad monk who was raised in a temple.
I agree with the inspirations but for live action, the most important thing is making sure the actors look like the characters. Aang’s actor being white was fine because he honestly did look like Aang. But making the water tribe members white was weird because they are dark skinned. They could even get mixed race or black people or Polynesians to play water tribe members as long as they fit the look. You don’t have to be strictly Native American or Inuit.
I personally think we should just hope they cast good actors that can somewhat resemble the characters at hand. If they find some bald white kid that actually looks like Aang, and can act. I'm fine with it. I would also be fine if they find a bald asian kid that looks like Aang and can act as well. All I care about is that the actor looks somewhat like Aang. I'm against whitewashing, blackwashing, purplewashing, greenwashing, whatever. All I care is that Netflix actually takes the time to cast actors and actresses that both can act, and have the main features of the character. Also, please don't make it shit Netflix.
Honestly the movie sucked I get that but I do not understand why everyone is so busy making everything about race 🤦♀️ like I'm not saying that the cast in the show resembled the characters well, but honestly who really cares if some of the cast is white, black asian, native American, Indian ect...? Like just as long as it looks mostly like the character I feel like it shouldn't matter.
M Night is Indian so i always assumed he based possibly his favourite nation on his own, not sure though but seems like it to me After all fire nation is pretty cool
Fire Nation: Japanese Air Nomads: Central Asian (Tibetan and such) Earth Kingdom: Chinese Water Tribe: Native American/Inuit/etc. And I think most people would agree. Oh, and Guru Patik? Definitely Southern/South-western Asian. Maybe he comes from a culture with a similar origin to that of the Swampbenders; they split off from another culture and were lost from mainstream historical knowledge. Maybe his culture has all but died off once ATLA rolls around, and he's one of the only ones if his kind left. That's my theory, anyway.
Jalen Mays, actually, the Fire Nation is based on Japan and the Earth Kingdom is based of China. The Hundred Years War is actually based heavily on the commonly ignored Asian Front of the Second World War
Some Random Guy Dude I'm sorry to tell you but The Fire Nation is based on han dynasty & Ming dynasty China The Earth Kingdom is a hybrid it is based on 2 Chinese dynastys Kyoshi Island is based on Japan Songs village is based on Korea now the Fire Nation conquest is based on WWII Japan though.
being asian and seeing an amazing representation of asian culture, philosophy, and ideology in atla, (especially at such a young age),i was so disappointed to not see any of it in the live action. it hurt that the limited screen time asian representation has was diminished even more when they whitewashed something so blatantly rich in its culture.
The MacSo What does it matter? You’re bitching about eye color as if that’s what makes or breaks a character. I’m sorry if everything doesn’t go your entitled bratty way, but the logical solution is that a large majority of the cast is to be Asian as a result of the show taking heavy Asian-influences. The take-away from this comment? You’re a fucking idiot lmao
The MacSo i love how i specifically said asian culture first, as in non physical specifications, the movie had neither incorporated or even represented either of the two and girl, zuko had gold eyes, humans don’t have gold eyes so why does eye color matter? fire nation: gold eyes earth kingdom: green eyes air nomads: grey eyes water tribe: blue eyes they’re animated luv, none of them had almond shaped eyes!! also, i have reason to believe the way the avatar is found ( by picking a possession from a past avatar’s life) was influenced by how the next Dalai lama is discovered, which is from the same process, but obviously a lot more😂. not to mention yin and yang = tui and la.
People go through such great lengths to rationalize the movie's casting decision, refusing to see the INTENDED races/ethnicities of the original characters. *You guys need to understand that there are people who have worked on the ORIGINAL SHOW who have stated that the characters are supposed to be Asian/Inuit and have urged the movie to reflect this fact.* Such people include story director Giancarlo Volpe and animatic editor Dao Le. Even Dante Basco (the voice of Prince Zuko) spoke out, saying that he felt the main roles should have been given to Asian/ethnic actors. As if that's not enough, Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino themselves (the CREATORS of the original series) have stated "we wanted to create a mythology based on Eastern culture rather than Western culture. Although Avatar isn't based on a specific Asian myth, we were inspired by Asian mythology." When asked to briefly describe Avatar, Konietzko called it "an epic, ASIAN, martial arts fantasy/action/adventure/comedy/drama series about the four elements." The creators have also said that the Air Nomads are based on Tibetan and Buddhist culture, while Aang himself was inspired by a real-life adorable 12- year-old monk they saw in a DVD called _Shaolin: Wheel of Life._ In fact, when the creators saw the boy, they turned to each other and exclaimed, "That's Aang!" Both guys were also greatly disappointed with the movie, a project in which they had very little say in developing. Konietzko said that the project was a waste of time and money, and both creators have said that they'd rather pretend the movie never happened. *Regarding the characters, Konietzko said, "They are our children... These characters are real to us. And to watch it be dragged through the mud -- and the whole racial side of things -- was just so disheartening." And regarding skin color, Konietzko said that the characters in the movie are a "gross misinterpretation and misrepresentation of our work."* My point is, when the people who worked on the ORIGINAL show are saying that the original characters are supposed to be Asian/Inuit or that the movie misrepresented the characters' true ethnicities, then we should probably listen to them.
I explained, in elaborate detail, that Avatar’s creators, animators, and story directors, themselves, have confirmed that the main characters are supposed to be Asian/Inuit and that the creative team has expressed disapproval and disappointment with the movie because it failed to represent the characters’ true races/ethnicities. If being honest makes me mad, then I must be furious because everything I’ve said is the cold, hard truth. No matter what rationalization people try to come up with in an attempt to prove the characters aren’t Asian, they will fail 100 percent of the time because they’re arguing against the creative team itself, and that’s a debate they cannot win.
You said it!!! Yes!! I feel really bad for Bryan and Michael. I watched this interview where they said “ we tried making suggestions; maybe do this not this, etc” but everything kept being ignored. It’s so sad. And by ignoring the fact that these amazing and strong and very human characters are ethnically diverse it diminishes how awesome it is to have a show like this-for those who want to see more characters look like them or depict them in some way. We don’t always need a white character, that’s okay. This show is amazing!! All the character are non white and people just gotta deal with it.
@Eemaan Bhatia ik, i got you, despite the series is about Asian culture, this also happens a lot with "Latino" Countries, there's no such thing as "Latinoland" but a bunch of different countries with different culture. Even in Mexico there's many sub cultures (just like Earth Kingdom)
I think the meme is that we arguing what race they are supposed to be, despite the fact we literally witness in the show that Not Aztecs, with all the correct facial features, coloration and so on, direct descendants, became Japanese. If I was a betting man, I'm going to assume that racial consistency is not a priority for this universe. I think the priority should have been getting actors who can act the character, and look the part. Its not like they didn't mix and match facial features to people from "Asian cultures" that, basically don't exist in there race. Like blue eyes for example, hell, Aang has GREY eyes.
@@IRmightynoob Well yeah but they should have gotten darker skinned actors to play the Water Tribe and white actors or Asian actors to play the Fire Nation.
@@angelfish1506 I didn't deny they should have gotten actors that LOOK like the actors. Sokka and Katara are tan, they should have accurate actors. However. We also need to face the facts, this is the setting where the mayans turned into the Japanese and Deep south Louisiana folk chill out in the not China Earth kingdom swamps. This show makes a meme and, if your sensitive, a downright mockery of cultures and ethnicity from all over the world. They need to look like the characters, and be able to act like the characters. Anything else along racial lines being a factor however, is downright delusional.
@@IRmightynoob the actors should absolutely resemble the characters, but having them be the same race of at least a similar ethnicity is very important. the entire show is heavily based off of asian culture and mythology, so to have the actors as other races that don't correlate with the show wouldn't make sense. yeah, sokka and katara are tan, but they are based off of inuit people, therefore their actors should be inuit. they shouldn't cast a white person for them just because they look similar. also, i really don't see how the show is making a "downright mockery of cultures." they're showing representation of asian/inuit/aztec cultures, which many shows and movies don't have. obviously everything featured in the show isn't totally accurate to those actual cultures, but it is very much inspired by it. and the swamp people aren't even "south louisiana folk," they're supposed to be vietnamese - it's pretty clear when you look at their names.
For fire nation the sun warriors really gave me an Aztec vibe. Azula is a clever name because it means blue in Spanish (Azul) and her bending is blue 🤔
www.worldometers.info/geography/7-continents/ *Europe is a continent* , since technically all land on earth is connected in some shape or form, that is an unwise method of defining what is a continent. Check sources, Europe is indeed a continent. I do not know from what perspective you received your education, but *the majority of the world teaches 7 continents* , I am honestly unsure if you are commenting as a joke. I've never met someone with so little education as to assume so plainly that Europe is not a continent.
BlackAlpha The definition of a continent is a large landmass by itself. Europe isn't by itself. Incase u didn't notice it's connected to Asia by Russia.
they’re all asian, look at the food, the clothes, the writing, it’s all asian culture it’ll look silly if they cast black ppl or white ppl or hispanics
I think it's definitely possible to cast someone of black/brown to play Katara or Sokka honestly. Because that's what they are. And no, I'm not saying they're African American or African.
HOWTOTRAINYOURGDRAGON lOVE It wasn’t called the Mayan temple lol. But they were based on the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Realize this is not the same as Hispanic. Hispanics do live in South America and do have Native American blood but they are mostly mixed race with Spainish (colonization).
Well it’s an asian world, as the universe is heavily Asian based. I’m sure they’re all asian, with the addition of Native Americans, who still have ties to Asians from traveling from the asian continent before the Bering Strait closed. Sokka says in Chapter 1, Book 1, that they’re Humans. “Last time I checked, humans can’t fly” And they mentioned in Book 2 that the planet that they’re on is in fact called “Earth” as mentioned by Long Feng.
So I’m black and Mexican with Native American descent 100% percent. My great grandmother and father were native. I have curly hair tho. But I could wear a wig or straighten. Would it be offensive if I tried out?
stilesXnogistune Well, I don’t really think so. What do you plan on auditioning for? (What role?) Also, is that you in your Profile Pic? If so, maybe you could be a Fire bender of some sorts? Like one of the generals we see or maybe a notable officer?
When I was younger I always thought that Katara and Sokka were Inuit Native American (one reason I was learning about them in the 4th grade lol) because they has darker skin and they lived in the Artic and did things like fishing etc.
Fire Nation: Japanese and Korean (Edit: I think Tai Lee looks kinda white but apparently this is an unpopular opinion. But if any nation was to be white it would be fire) . Water Tribe: Inuit Earth Kingdom: Chinese, with other cultures as well since they are most diverse Air Nomads: Tibetan and Indian Sun warriors: Mayan Swamp: Polynesian Sand Benders: Middle Eastern
Split Haven yeah sure, that’s your opinion, I respect it. However, that claim is a big reach because the “Roman Influence” in China isn’t evident enough to say there are any characters theatre obviously Roman. The cultural environment most of the characters are in/have are primarily still Asian, Indigenous, and Polynesian. And it isn’t pointless, if these characters were to be portrayed as, say Romans (Or any European ethnicity in general), it would literally be erasing the real life cultural influence behind the show and characters. A European being in the role of a character who isn’t European (Katara for example, who is Inuit/Yupik) is derailing. Perspective dude.
@@PK-xc3qr id say the Northern Water Tribe would be more fitting for some Caucasian role along with inuit and other northern tribes, southern water tribe had more tanned people so more native american, inuit. The rest are asian for sure except for minor areas such as sand benders, etc.
@@iprobablydislikeyou2735 Fire Nation characters like Zhou are definitely White. I think the Fire Nation should be Asian and European actors. But then again it's not up to me or you it's up to the directors.
I am a few months late to this debate, but whilst you can say that the races of the Avatar world are entirely different to our own, they ARE clearly based on real world cultures, and thus the most appropriate castings would be people of the same culture as the nations are based on. So to be a bit more specific than simply saying everyone should be "East Asian". The Fire Nation is basically Japan. A very militaristic and classical "samurai and ninja" Japan. The names of the Fire Nation characters are "Japanesey". The Air Nomads are clearly "Tibetan", again they have Tibetan names in addition to Tibet-inspired clothing and architecture. The Earth Kingdom is clearly based on China, which is fitting because it is the largest and most diverse of the kingdoms. In fact the Earth Queen and her soldiers are clearly based on China in the Qing Dynasty. Technically that makes them Manchus, but Manchus were a ruling minority that conquered the other peoples of China, so it's entirely reasonable for most Earth Kingdom characters to Chinese. Many of the names are "Chinesey" too, like "Beifong", but this is less consistent than for the other nations. If anyone is White in the Avatar universe, it'd be the Northern Water Tribe, but only from a aesthetic perspective. I guess Inuit/American Indians would be more appropriate.
I agree that they are clearly based on those real cultures. Which is why I said I would cast them as people from those cultures in a live action movie.
heindrich1988 Too be honest though the Fire Nation is mostly based on Ancient China and the Northern Water Tribe is quit far from white with there dark skin.
heindrich1988 How do you explain the green eyes and blue eyes?If you look at the earth kingdom there are a lot of characters with green eyes,and ang itself looks very pale
You are correct about the comparison to our world and the avatar world. but I dont't think "races" work in Avatar like they do for us. At least they are not labeling it like we do. This can actually be seen when strangers often point out the fact someone else is dressed. So he is not looking for skin color or something like that. The people in the avatar world actually see more in the traditional clothing. Earth Kingdom = More Green Elements. Fire Nation = More Red Elements. Water Tribe = More Blue Elements. Air = More Yellow and Orange.
Yeah....people don't seem to notice racial features in Avatar. I assume this is because it is supposed to be kid friendly and they don't want any hints of racism. But like....there are obvious patterns in the Nations. Like how water tribe people are generally darker skinned.
MsLita Yeah in terms of look he was honestly perfect. I think they should just cast people who look like the character regardless of race, I’m not saying make them all white I’m just saying that some white people could play some of the characters and even though there aren’t any black people, some black people could play water tribe members and earth kingdom citizens
Before I begin, I'd like to preface that regardless of anyone's perception of the characters' races, there are people who have worked on the ORIGINAL SERIES who have said that the characters in Avatar are, in fact, primarily Asian and have even tried to push the movie to reflect this fact. These people include story director Volpe Giancarlo, animation editor Dao Le, and voice actor Dante Basco (among others), who all spoke out against the movie's casting decision. As if that's not enough, Avatar's creators THEMSELVES have stated that "the racial side of things" in the movie was "disheartening" and that the characters' skin colors are a "gross misinterpretation and misrepresentation of our work." So at this point, there's really no question that the characters are primarily meant to be Asian. Now on to my point. I have a hypothesis as to why so many people (not all) fail to perceive how the characters in Avatar could possibly be Asian. It's because these characters don't fit their preconceived notions of what an Asian "should" or "shouldn't" look like. You see, Avatar is a show geared primarily towards an American audience, and Asians only make up 5% of the American population. Therefore, when many American hear the word "Asian," they automatically visualize some stereotypical guy or girl with small eyes, flat noses, and an Asian accent, images which are perpetuated by mainstream American media. Since most of the characters in Avatar don't fit these descriptions, many Americans can't help but rationalize that these characters cannot be anything but white (the default race of most characters on American TV). Because of their lack of exposure to a variety of Asian faces, they do not truly realize that Asians, like all groups of people, actually come in all shapes and sizes BEYOND the limits of how they're portrayed by the mainstream American media. Let's do an experiment. I want you to take a look at the following pictures. Please do take the time to look at every single one of them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiro_Mifune www.criterion.com/explore/195-tatsuya-nakadai en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rentar%C5%8D_Mikuni en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ky%C5%8Dko_Kagawa jv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teguh_Karya www.adorocinema.com/personalidades/personalidade-573907/ spindle-spindles.blogspot.com/2011/03/legendary-actor-and-1950s-matinee-idol.html video48.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-fifties-189-fred-montilla-and-nena.html?m=1 asiamusclepicture-pela.blogspot.com/2012/01/thai-actor-chartchai-ngamsan-4.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitr_Chaibancha www.pinterest.com/pin/16184879884595613/?autologin=true www.google.com/search?q=vichara+dany&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB3r6C3s_ZAhXhzlQKHcm7C_IQ_AUICigB&biw=1536&bih=759#imgrc=gVMnxWyk4e8q3M: Finished? Good. Now, I'm willing to bet that most people who saw the pictures thought that the people in the photos "didn't look Asian" or that they looked Caucasian/partially Caucasian. I bet that most of the photos did not fit many people's preconceived notion of what an Asian "should" or "shouldn't" look like. *I assure you, every single person I showed you is 100% Asian from the Far East (East and Southeast Asia). Not a single one of them is mixed-race. I can even give you their names and country of origin, if you'd like.* Therein lies the problem in Avatar. Many people don't perceive the characters as Asian because these people simply haven't been exposed to enough Asian faces to realize that Asian people don't HAVE to look a particular way in order to be Asian. Asian people don't HAVE to have small eyes, black hair, or flat noses. Asian cartoon characters don't HAVE to speak with an Asian accent in order to be identified as Asian. The sooner we realize this, the further we can progress in terms of fair media representation.
EDIT The last link was supposed to lead to a picture of a man named Vann Vannak. He's seen standing behind a young woman with his hands on her shoulders. I'll repost his picture here since it doesn't seem to work in my previous reply. kh4cambodia.blogspot.com/2012/09/past-khmer-stars.html I also meant to add this picture of Yoko Tsukasa, as well. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Tsukasa One more thing. Like all the other Asian people I listed, Armando Goyena and Nena Cardenas are NOT of Spanish descent at all. They adopted Spanish names, but they're 100% Asian by blood (I just wanted to clear that up because there are people in the Philippines who DO have partial Spanish ancestry).
@@crups1237 _"Bro, you're not being clever. We're not blind, we can see that those people clearly are asian."_ Joke's on you because I planted some Caucasians in there. The fact that you couldn't point them out simply because I primed your brain to believe they're all Asian just goes to show that racial appearances can be fluid and ambiguous even in real life. Well, Avatar is a cartoon, so racial appearances can be even more fluid. You can argue all you want that Aang is white living in a predominantly East Asian world and culture. But you know what? You can also argue that Aang is Persian, Armenian, Parsi, or white Hispanic living in a predominantly East Asian world and culture. After all, these people are also white-skinned Caucasians and there's nothing in the show that explicitly indicates Aang is or isn't Persian, Armenian, Hispanic, etc just as there's nothing in the show that explicitly indicates Aang is or isn't white American or European. But you never hear anyone claiming Aang is Persian or Hispanic, do you? Why not? Because Aang doesn't live in a predominantly Latin or Middle Eastern world. Because he doesn't possess a Latin or Middle Eastern name, doesn't doesn't live in a Latin or Middle Eastern culture, and isn't surrounded by Latin or Middle Eastern people, architecture, food, and clothes. Instead, Aang has an Asian name, lives in a predominantly East Asian world, and follows a predominantly East Asian culture with East Asian people. Logic dictates that Aang is East Asian. But don't take my word for it. The creators, directors, and artists of the show have confirmed that Aang is, indeed, Asian.
the fact that they quit working on Avatar: The Last Airbender show to work on the movie... is just... so... UGH, like, we could’ve had WAY more seasons of the show but NOOO they just HAD to work on the HORRIBLE movie to leave behind THE BEST SHOW EVER.
4:18 is such a good point that half yall in the comments are ignoring. It doesn't matter if the anime style makes the characters "look white" to you. Yall are basically saying for cartoon characters to look 'asian' you have to give them stereotypical features just to cater to your own limited perception of how asians look? No. No one should be white in the live action
Its funny how others keep saying that they dont look asian to them, that they look more white for westerns when asians clearly says they look asian, like there is a diverse range of physical features throughout asia that isnt their stereotypical asian representation on media ( even chinese, korean and japanese have different features within its own country and isnt characterized by just one eye shape or face shape for all its citizens) The animated cast look like asians. Even katara though she's supposed to be Inuit could pass up as an Indian or Indonesian or Filipino if we're talking about either normal people, maybe even actresses that I'm not familiar with. And the eye colors! The eye coloooors are supposed to be an art choice from the creators to represent which from the 4 elemental groups a character is from. People keep on putting asians into just one category of hair color, eye shape, skin color, eye color, etc, like hellooooooo there are a lot of varieties and a lot of actual normal asian citizens that doesnt look western but looks a lot like the cast. Plus they are supposed to be kids, so the eye shape especially for Aang most definitely if you're going to have the character express different emotions from eyes closed to wide-eye gasped expressions, is the right choice, and a lot of asians have those eye shape. People keep on thinking asians only either has Zuko's narrow eyes or the other one that's popular for western people's perspective-the really small eyes. For those complaining that contacts wouldnt do specially of the water tribe since its blue and for people who regularly wear contacts that feels unnatural seeing other people use blue contacts, it could work, if people behind the scene would care and give attention to it, choose a brand that blends in nicely with the actor's or actress' original eye color, eye shape and skin undertones plus there are also special effects to smooth things out and make it look natural for the viewers.
@@annejia5382 It isn't just eye shape. it's the pointy nose from the side profiles, the angular faces, and other features. I seriously cannot ponder how anyone in this world could look like a character from the show. Their features are all over the place.
I don't know, here's what I take it as when I look for casting: Fire Nation: East Asian. They have more narrow eyes, brown/gold eyes, and black/brown hair. Water Tribe: Blue eyes and darker skin, clearly harder to cast, but with most of them having very large eyes, I'd say they are closer to Indian with contacts. Or Indonesian. Earth Kingdom: They are known for their green eyes, and brown hair, plus the pale complexion in some. If anything, I'd make them more Chinese/Thai. Air Nomad: Aang had grey eyes and black hair. Possibly Eastern Asian.
SageSeeker the blue eyes were based off of their power basically the color eyes is based of their color tribe but water tribe looks more like native Americans especially in the first episode looking at the grandma is definitely Native American features
Earth kingdom had korean characters and clothing (episodes about Haru, a common Korean name) too, and the air nomads literally look identical to real life tibetan monks, they're East Asian without a doubt
From what I read on a Nickelodeon Avatar Facts site, the four nations are each based on a different part of asia Fire Nation was China, taking heavily from their dragon myths and architecture Water Tribe was Inuit, or Eskimos. From the clothing, to the skin, to the environment, it was all Eskimo inspired. While not exactly Asian, Eskimos are descendants of Mongolians, which brings us to their neighbors, the Earth tribes Earth: Mongolia. From their architecture, facial hair, skin, and architecture, it was heavily inspired by ancient Mongolia. Even their element is a direct reference to how Mongolians built a ton of monuments Air: Tibetan. Their sacred temples, myths, and element associated with the wind was heavily inspired by the Tibetan monks, who live high up in the northern mountains, where winds are constant
@@angelfish1506 Bro everything from clothing to buildings literally architecturally and sartorially speaking screams "CHINA" with the fire nation. But at the same time it takes after Imperial Japan in other ways. You can honestly argue for either so you can't just say someone's dead wrong like thst
@@sentinal_entity Um, the creators of the show said that it was Japanese? Like it's a proven fact? Here: vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1451&context=undergrad_rev#:~:text=Avatar%3A%20The%20Last%20Airbender%2C%20commonly,Japanese%2C%20and%20Tibetan%20cultures%20respectively. You should read it.
@@angelfish1506 I'm sorry but when did the creators up and right say that the Fire Nation is Japan as a "proven" fact? Could you give me another link that confirms this because that read was really long and I didn't understand/find your claim in it. Also, writer Aaron ehasz says that the EARLY fire nation in the show was based on Japanese culture and that began to change as the show progressed. But I'm just going based off the aesthetics and the cultural similarities I see with the fire nation and China. And to be honest, I see a lot more similarities between them then I do with Japan and the fire nation from tea that we see uncle iroh drinking (which originated in China and that right there should be a big hint for you), the literal red and gold/black colors of the fire nation that also represents the country of present day China, etc. Besides honor, them being imperialists, (which was a part of China's history as well) what really connects Japan and fire nation for you? Legitimate question because I'd like to know and understand from your prospective.
I feel like in the Netflix remake, they should cast us Filipinos for the Water Tribe, Japanese for the Fire Nation, Chinese for the Earth Kingdom, and Middle Easterns for the Sandbenders
I agree except the water tribe are obviously native american/inuit people. Everything from their appearance, clothing, food, names, geographic location is modelled after inuits.
@@calicofishy It's probably easier to cast Philippinos as the water tribe instead of inuit people. But idk. Here a non inuit Sokka, who imo did a great job. ua-cam.com/video/eCGJFvK7MM0/v-deo.html
@@Cloverfr Eh, I personally disagree. I guess it seems similar to people who aren't familiar with Native Americans but as a Canadian, I don't think filipinos make a good fit at all. If not the Inuit tribes specifically, they should at least be Native American. There are plenty of great Native American actors to choose from, it's not hard to do at all.
As a European I’ve never understood why it’s so hard for Americans to find the right race for their movies. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to cast an asian actor for an Asian character. Does anyone remember when Scarlet Johansson was cast as an Asian woman in Ghost in the shell while everyone else was Japanese? And I really don’t understand why Katara and Sokka were white people while it was really obvious that they’re inspired by Inuit people. And why tf was Zuko an Indian guy while it was really obvious that the Fire Nation is based on Japan.
A lot of people in the fire nation have sharped jawlines and their skull structure doesn't look asian, some people in the fire nation have beards, it's kind of hard to see a asian man with a full beard, they also they have orange/yellow eyes,(I know they're eye color is based off their emelent, but it stills a genetic trait, zokka can't use water and he stills have blue eyes), this eye color isn't common even in europeans, middle eastern people are the ones who have it the most. The most asian thing I find about them is their hair and eye shape. I personally find the fire nation a mix between korean/japonese, caucasians and middle easterns with a strong asian culture.
@@sjsjdmjwjwjakp1884 The Fire Nation’s culture is inspired by the Korean and Japanese culture. Their facial features are different per area. In some Fire Nation cities the people look like Japanese people(Zuko’s entire family) while in some river based cities the people look more Southeast Asian like Malaysian people. The original firebenders are inspired by the Aztec civilization. So yeah, the Fire Nation really differs per region. But the main capital of the Fire Nation definitely has some Japanese influence.
mohika g Yess like for once give them the spotlight, I’m sure there’s many great Asian and Native American actors just waiting to finally have their moment
Theory: ty lee was the only chi blocker in TLAB but in TLOK there were many. What if ty lee created the art and opened a school where Amon or one of his closest friends learned chi blocking or someone related to them did.
People, Fire Nation is totally China. Look at what Azula is wearing, look at her style of combat, just look at her. Also, China was the most powerful country back in the days which basically resembles fire nation.
Here’s the thing: our world is heavily influenced by English culture. Most (especially developed) countries speak English. I definitely agree that a lot of the characters probably have Asian descent. But perhaps they live in a world that was heavily influenced by Asian culture instead of English/American culture? This would explain the writing, the house etc.
ok so my dad, a few of my friends and I are starting to try to make a live-action avatar series. I think it would be really really cool and pretty difficult to mess up with the entire avatar fanbase and media saying how the movie should have been and how to not mess it up. But nobody's made a second attempt at a live avatar anything, because of funds and other reasons, probably. But I honestly think it's possible to do this series in live action without messing it up, like Shaymalan, especially is the fans are making it. My dad is a professional cameraman and my mom is a video editor, and they've worked on plenty of things to be able to work on this. Really, though, we could all make this possible if we help each other :))
The directors said that they are based on certain races: Earth Kingdom: Chinese Fire Nation: Japanese Air nomad: Shaolin and Tibetan Water Tribe: Inuit Sand Benders: Mongolian
It's OBVIOUS the elemental regions are inspired by the regions of real life Asia. It's important to get adequate representation of the areas from which the original beings took inspiration. This is pretty much a prime example of where discourse was in 2016.
For water tribe, I kinda vibe with the possibility of Polynesian actors (cause water) or Indo-pacific actors (like Indonesia or the Philippines) considering they're just Asian people but with a sick tan
Look up Kalash tribe of India... they couldn't be asians, hair and eye colours don't match, and unlike anime it's not because of the artstyle, like you can't see people with purple/green clearly painted hair, so we can assume it's their natural hair and eyecolour. The asian narrow eye also wouldn't be present, their skincolour is mostly light, so in conclusion we have a world filled with Weebs and not Asians
@@lokij6058 um yea first of all, india is in asia bro.. south asia to be exact. Im not saying the artstyle but the writing is in chinese characters (hànzì). You know the avatar poster right? On the top there is a hanzi its this 降世神通 . And in my opinion, eye color that were given to the characters is just for making them look attractive. For example zuko has yellow/gold eyes, like fr is yellow eye color really a thing in the real world?
@@lokij6058 i've looked it up and i think there's a slight possibility but i still think that avatar is mainly influenced by east asian culture and as far as i know katara is inuit right?
Northern Water Tribe - Yup'ik Southern Water Tribe - Inuit Foggy Swamp Tribe - Asmat & Dayak Fire Nation - Japanese & Thai Sun Warriors - Aztec Jang Hui - Viet/Khmer on Tonle Sap Earth Kingdom - Han Chinese, Korean & Manchu Sandbenders - Mongolian & Turkic - Sha-Mo is 'desert' in Mandarin Chinese; Ghashiun is 'desert' in Mongolian; and Yulduz means 'star' in Turkic. Air Nomads - Tibetan and Bhutanese •••••••• Wan Si Tong Desert and Library - Gobi desert (there was actually a submerged library here called the Dunhuang library) Ba Sing Se - The Forbidden City Omashu - Gaochang Ruins
@@oliviamurphy9482 I have a theory... All of the main nations of the ATLA world are from mainland/peripheral Asia (if you consider Alaska peripheral Asian; after all, there are Inuit peoples in both sides of Beringia). If you look at the Fire Sages, their culture is starkly Aztec, everything from the dress, to sacrificing to Ran and Shaw, to the importance they give the sun. But the Aztecs are definitely not Asian; you could make the argument that all Amerindians are technically Asian as they are a subgroup of Mongoloid peoples and originally come from Asia, but their culture is vastly different. So if we operate under the same assumption, I believe that Guru Pathik comes from a South Asian/Indian nation that either lives secretly as the Sun Warriors do, has gone extinct, or has not been discovered yet by the "known world" in ATLA; and that these peoples influenced the Air Nomads (as Tibetan culture is highly influenced by Buddhism, an Indian religion, as opposed to the more Daoist and Animist traditions seen elsewhere). I also believe this is why Aang learned energybending: it can only be learned by an Air Nomad, very spiritual and innocent Avatar.
@@deda9829 I like that theory a lot. I agree that the original Air Nomads could be East Indian. I was also going to point out that a large amount of the people shown to be from the Earth Kingdom are very dark in coloring, can those people be represented by the ethnic populations you described? Where do you suppose the refugee populations (shown in episodes where Zuko is exploring the earth kingdom) came from? I also saw another commenter draw a connection between the hippie like nomads in the "secret tunnel" episode with Romani people who were originally from India before travelling through the Middle East and settling in Europe and North America. I like that idea because there is not a lot of positive representation of Roma people in popular media, and its exciting that this show can draw inspiration from any of the hundreds of Asiatic or Asiatic-descendant cultures in our world. (Edited for grammar and spelling errors)
@@clarkdark2906 in keeping with the Avatar world culture (Indigenous Beringian, East, North, Southeast, Central Asian), it makes sense they would be a swamp dwelling people. We also have to remember that certain artistic liberties were taken to make the show more relatable. The Swamp Benders are not anymore Cajun than Aang or Katara are American. It was to add a touch of humor and relatability to a largely American audience.
According to my observations of cultural similarities with real world cultures I'd say Fire Nation is Chinese (especially China of Qing Empire since you'd see many clothes of their similar to the Qing Empire) Earth Nation is Chinese+Southeast Asian (More inspired by Han Chinese culture and has a bit of Southeast Asian and Indian cultures) Air Nation is Tibetian and Indian(Since Air Nation culture resembles a very lot with Indian Buddhist tradition and Tibetian,being an Indian myself I can confirm it) Water nation is I guess like the Creator said they're more like Eskimos or native Americanish looking That's my opinion btw which I said based on the observations I saw in this amazing show.
Great video on analyzing this big question many fans ask. I 100% agree most people should resemble in live-action East Asian people with some variety. To some other people in the comments. I hate to break it to you. But white people would be found nowhere in the Avatar world. The only argument is the blue/green/gray eye color and light skin. But both traits are not specific to white people. To think so is essentially racist. All those traits can be found in other races too. Bottom line, enjoy the show. Its amazing. Never watch the live action rendition (worst TV to film adaptation in the history of the world, even Dragon Ball Z did a better job, and that was bad too).
Racism is embedded in the ideal that certain traits (eye color, hair color, and skin color) are *genetically dominant* , which many people subconsciously relate to a sense of superiority. There is also the factor of cultural appropriation, euro-centrism, and cultural marginalization. Racism isn't simply believing you are better than another, that is what the term *prejudice* is for, instead this is factor of people assuming (for example) that there is no such thing as a red headed South American or blond haired African or even a blue eyed Asian. This is indeed racist. To assume that some traits are genetically independent to only European people disqualifies the incredible genetic variety of other races and solely applies these varieties to European people. I think many people forget that in the early 1930's-40's there was a large group of people who were committing mass genocide of other people simply for believing they did not possess certain genetic traits..and most people will say these people were incredible racists. Racism and genetic dominance perspective go hand in hand.
J.E. Razo If you wan to be technical...blue and green eyes are genetically recessive...not dominant. Brown eyes are dominant...it is rare for a child to have blue eyes when both parents have brown. Or when one parent has brown. Brown eyes (ranging from light to dark...since eye color comes from multiple genes) are the most common. Also, all people with blue or green eyes descend from the same common ancestor...it was originally a genetic mutation. so if you want to say "well, Asians also have blue and green eyes" then what you're really saying is "white people and Asian people have a common ancestor" Really, human migration is such that most people have genetic heritage from multiple races, even if they assume they are from one specific country or region.
+ShiNy ArMor Blue eyes are a recessive trait. You just need both of your parents to carry that specific recessive trait. 2% European is enough for both parents to carry that recessive trait. (Also, given migration patterns over thousands of years, I would say the majority of humans are pretty well mixed as far as ancestry...A lot of Europeans have Asian or African genetics as well) As far as green eyes are concerned, it only occurs when you have the recessive trait for blue eyes...but since eye color comes from multiple genes, not just one, green eyes occur with the combination of other genes. You can't have green eyes without carrying most of the blue eye genes (thus why many people with green eyes have blue eyed children, like my older brother's daughter. He's got green, her mom's got dark brown and she ended up with blue.) Genetics are pretty complicated. As far as the blue eyes traits...it's only a theory. (Also, albinism doesn't count when you're talking about blue eyes as a genetic trait...the cause of blue eyes in albinism IS the albinism...) It would not be surprising if eventually they discover that the mutation causing blue eyes occurred within multiple populations, resulting in blue eyes within multiple different groups. I'm certainly not an expert at genetics. I'm just stating the hypotheses presented in science classes from the time I was young. (biology and evolutionary science classes were required in high school and college. x.x) The genetics unit in biology explored eye color and discussed the hypothesis that "all people with blue eyes have a common ancestor". (please note, I am saying hypothesis...this means it's not scientifically proven...it's just an idea based on current evidence...the evidence often changes as new discoveries occur)
they couldn't be asians, hair and eye colours don't match, and unlike anime it's not because of the artstyle, like you can't see people with purple/green clearly painted hair, so we can assume it's their natural hair and eyecolour. The asian narrow eye also wouldn't be present, their skincolour is mostly light, so in conclusion we have a world filled with Weebs and not Asians
@@lokij6058 Tbh they all totally look Asian/Inuits (Water tribe). To me, the only characters that look more white/mixed are Aang, Ty Lee and Suki. Eye color is not that much of a concern as it's easily fixable.
We should just pretend the Avatar movie never existed, it's an embarrassment.
There is no avatar movie in Ba Sing Se. Here we are safe. Here we are free.
Agreed the live action movie sucked and so does the korra series its best to ignore it and forget they did that to the series and the fans
Agreed that film was an abomination and we don’t know her
Buzz Droid I think Korra is pretty nice
Troll fūck off it’s worse than ALTA
Don't forget about the Sun Warriors, they were inspired by the Mayans and Aztecs.
Yeah its wierd how
He didn't mention that especially the architecture was of Mayan reference even its even called the sun pyramid
@@theaverageguy6068 I'm not sure either. It probably slipped his mind?
@Sky Lilanoo I can actually see that now.
@Sky Lilanoo totally makes sense
Ikr, I’m Mexican, and I saw it and I was amazed at how much it looked like Mayan and Aztec temples.
I always considered them Asian because that's where the inspiration came from. I mean, the lions in Lion King are *lions* but of course they're always played by black actors on Broadway because it's of African inspiration
Mariah their definitely are characters that look Asian in the show
I always believed that the air nomads are based on Chinese people, water tribe were Inuit, and fire nation were Japanese, I could never even comprehend what earth benders were
Mariah how do they not look asian, they look like anime characters, the majority of whom are japanese.
Mariah West Asian?
are...are you serious. I didn't know they have Broadway lion king
Water tribe - Natives/Eskimos
Air Nomads - Tibetan monks
Earth Kingdom - Chinese descent (Ba Sing Se aka a the Great Wall)
Fire Nation - Japanese
In term of culture.
Water tribe- have heavy influence of inuit and a little bit of Malaysia and Philippines.
Fire nation - have heavy influence of Thailand and other indo china country with a little bit of Chinese and Korean.
Earth kingdom - have heavy influence of china and a bit of Mongol, Japanese and middle Eastern.
Air nomad - have heavy influence of Tibet, Bhutan and a bit of indian.
it's perfect!
PERFECT !!!
Eskimos is a slur and not an ethnic group
wakaka bravo the fire nation is without a doubt imperial Japan
I heard an interesting theory that Ty Lee descended from Air Nomads who escaped from Sozin's genocide. Explaining her grey eyes, uniquely bubbly personality, and how during fights she seems so "flighty"? Idk really interesting theory
I mean...you got a point
All air nomads have arrow tattoos though, how would she cover them?
@@lvely4126 The theory was that she is an Air Nomad descendant, not an Air Nomad, which means she could have Air Nomad ancestry, but not necessarily be following all of the culture and stuff.
løvely The theory is that she is a descendant of Air Nomads who escaped the attack that happened... 100 years ago... she wasn’t born during that time so why would she have tattoos. And it’s not like they would still do it after they escaped cuz um, they’re supposed to be dead.
løvely also only air bending masters got the arrows
"Their hair is usually Jet (Image of Jet appears for a split second) black."
XD
haha yep!
2:53
It took me so long to find that when I watched the video.
2:54
Water - Inuit
Fire - Japanese
Air - Tibetan
Earth - Chinese
Swamp - Florida
I feel the water tribe is more Native American
Perfect.
Squite I am not so sure since they live on the poles on igloos which would be indignant of Eskimos or Inuit. Since everyone is of primarily Asian-inspired origin, Inuit would be more likely than Native Americans.
Daniel Bauloye ik but they reallly don’t look like Inuit
I’m always very sad when everyone forgets the sun warriors, as they were so obviously inspired by mayans and I’m mexican :(
It would be more of a mix of Latin Americans, Peru had some temples too, but according to the buildings and the dragons like Quetzalcoatl I totally agree
@The MacSo they can use some effects to change the color of the eyes
@Henry Su Bro, we are talking about the sun warriors, not Aang
@@lumar2698 they would definitely not be Latin Americans they would be the indigenous people of Latin America
@@dalermehndi3366 You get the point
It seems like a lot of people are missing the obvious. The names are a dead giveaway people.
Fire Nation : names like zuko, azula, iroh, ozai. These are very clearly Japanese and most of the names are actual japanese names and the ones that aren't common names still follow japanese orthography.
Air Nomads : names like aang, afiko, laghima. These are very obviously Tibetan. I mean the dalai lama's religious name is Tenzin Gyatso. Recognize those names ?
Water Tribe : katara, sokka, kota, kana. These are a little less obvious but names like Yakone and Tarloq are a bit more obvious since the q is the written latin equivalent to the voiceless uvular stop which is very common among inuit languages. I mean one of the most common is Iñupiaq, which also has the q as the final consonant. And also Inuit people ? That's just obvious, Water Tribes are centered at the poles and the Inuit people live the closes to the arctic other than maybe Swamis in Finland.
Earth Kingdom : the earth kingdom is a bit different in that they are the most diverse easily, just as Iroh tells Zuko when he explains the elements/different nations. Generally, the earth Kingdom is made up of ethnically Han chinese people, especially considering names like Toph Beifong and Bo Lin, however the sandbenders who have names like Lek (common thai name for younger siblings) and Sha-mo (a chinese word for desert). These names are a bit unclear as to an obvious origin but sandbenders are most likely decendants of extinct ethnic groups who have all mixed together due to having a similar culture. Some have chinese names like Sha-mo, some have thai names, and Yulduz is clearly Uzbekistani. Also Song is Korean lmao.
Remember to look at the names. Most of the time it's a dead giveaway
demrifnoC itanimullI The people of Ba sing se were most likely based off of the Manchu ethnicity or the Qing dynasty. The women’s headdress of each are quite literally the same. The clothing is also quite similar to.
It's little unclear how sandbenders even appeared in the avatar world. I mean before all that shit that happened in atla people were living in 4 cities on lion turtles. So I would say that sandbenders might be connected to people who originally got earthbending skills - the hunters/explorers. That would make sense, because when other people were in the towns they travelled and ended up in desert. At least that's my "theory" I haven't read all the comics etc. so maybe it was explained somewhere and I'm completely wrong.
Literally Ty Lee is the most Chinese sounding name I've ever heard.
Bumi actually means earth in Malay
I always thought the fire nation was supposed to represent China, but this makes sense
“White Aang will not hurt you”
White Aang:
Kira Dowrick when I say I GAGGED-
HELP JSRJJDJD
4:20
@@btonyh5878 420
@@Kxssdy maybe
It's annoying when people say "race doesnt matter" when they're literally the ones being represented.
Race does matter. They are just playing the part they want to in the movie. It's not that serious.
Yeah and if they were going to whitewash the cast they may as well have picked good actors
@molly howell I agree.
doesn’t
Dude just stop
In my opinion, I think actors who look like the characters should play as the characters.
true that is how it should be.
@Ale Yaaj Calm down lol
@Ale Yaaj
I am not a fan of Hollywood and how they intoxicate good movies, but if you're going to claim white washing is racist and point to Ghost, I could point to all the examples of black and brown washing of white people currently happening in media. Let's begin:
The new Spider-Man movies they have brown washed Flash Thompson. They have black washed M. J. or at least replaced her with a black actor.
Nick Fury is white in the comics yet everyone now sees him as black because in the Avengers they black washed him.
Wally West in The Flash is played by a black actor, even though the character is very white.
Electro, a main Spider-Man supervillain is black washed in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
In Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen is black washed.
Heimdall, the one who guards the bridge between the gods of Norse Mythology and men, is both in Norse Mythology and in the Marvel comics white, but is black washed in the Marvel movies. This taken from Norse Mythology, a different culture and black washed for Hollywood's own needs.
Johnny Storm is a blonde blue eyed superhero in the Fantastic 4 comics and in Fant4stic is black washed.
In Death Note, the character L is 3/4ths white and 1/4th Asian and in Death Note 2017 he is played by a black guy.
What about the black washing of Achilles in Troy: Fall of a City? Someone who is meant to be Greek, AKA, White?
Margaret of Anjou, an English queen, is played by a black woman in The Hollow Crown.
If you're going to complain about white washing you should also complain about black washing as being equally bad. It's both taking characters that are intended to be a certain ethnicity and changing it to another. I agree with you that something like Avatar should have mostly Asian actors for most of the roles as it is taking inspiration from Asian cultures. However, if we are going to make this about racism I do think you need to take into account all the above mentions of black and brown washing.
I think Ziggy Wynder has a point that character should look like how they are in the medium they are adapted from, but I would say that if so it would need to applied consistently. I would rather have a white Zuko who looks like Zuko than an Asian one who does not look like him. However, I'd prefer an Asian Zuko over a white Zuko who does not look at all like he does in the show.
@Ale Yaaj Asian countries nowadays have more of our culture that we have from theirs, though.
@Ale Yaaj calm down loco
Water tribe: Inuit, Siberian, Native american, and Polynesians.
Air nomads: Tibetan, Indian, and Chinese
Earth kingdom: Manchu, Korean, Mongolian, Chinese and some middle eastern (with the sand benders). Kyoshi island is completely Japanese.
Fire nation: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, some SEA in certain regions, and mesoamerican with the sun warriors.
*Edit*
I put Polynesian with the water tribe for their sailing.
I put middle eastern in the earth kingdom for the various desert people's (like the sand benders)
I've noticed the fire nation had a lot of Indochina influence. Also tbh I don't see much Japanese in the fire nation other than the imperialism and the industrial revolution
I think the water tribe people could also be indian since some indians have blue eyes.
pal The eyes I think are really only based on what nation the person is from. Water tribe has mostly blue, fire nation has mostly gold, earth kingdom and air nomads mostly just have dark eyes.
Ander Sanchez yea but if they’re casting people for a movie Indians look like the cartoon so it would be good to cast them too.
• • wow I have lots of Manchu & Mongolian in my blood, I should be earth but by zodiac sign I have Fire
I personally think water bender are southeast asian, brown colored skin and the caricature of the face
I think Rock Dwane Johnson should play as toph
Seems accurate.
I think Kevin Hart should play as, wait for it..... THE BOULDER!
God I would adore it if he got to play the boulder!!! He even looks like him!! 🤩
This is the only exception because the rock is iconic come on now
@@pastelchubs960 Given that the Boulder is from the Earth Kingdom which largely represents China, I would hope that whatever casting director would give that role to a full-blooded Chinese person instead of perpetuating the erasure of my people’s culture and representation in media.
If another movie comes, The Rock needs to cameo as The Boulder. I have spoken.
I thought this exact thing!
Oh please please please let this happen.
The only problem is that it would be hella expensive-
Someone_named _Jess Money well spent. And his gym that he needs on set? Boulders. He will lift rocks and boulders while shooting
Dudeee
I don't care what "race" they are, as long as they LOOK LIKE the characters.
THIS, that is my opinion on EVERY film/tv-series live adaptation of anything.
Preach
!!
Vlada Benzin
Well the air nomads are supposed to be based off of Tibetan Monks.
That is true however
The Avatar Movie was an embarrassment. I can’t believe they made half of the characters white. When avatar is clearly Asian cultured.
Avatar culture being based off of East Asian culture doesn't mean they're genetically asian
Jacey521 but that makes the most sense?? Why would you make a East Asian Culture show and not make the characters Asian?
MVIL there would still be exceptions anyway.
h o n e y d e w ØoF when Netflix does make a new live action ATLA movie. I wouldn’t doubt the changes they would make. These changes including diversity and sexualities. I don’t mind these at all, but in my opinion, adding those things would change the plot itself.
They even made the originally darker characters.... white, like at least with the fire nation guys it could be excused, because in the show they are all characterized for having very pale skin, however, its also freaky that Katara and Sokka are like, the only white kids and the rest of the village is like a whole different shade.
And then... THEY MADE ZUKO THE ONE WITH THE DARK SKIN LIKE OMG IT'S TOTALLY BACKWARDS. It's like not even close. Aang... Okay the actor for Aang actually admittedly looked a lot like Aang. But it's like the only thing they did right.
The water tribe could easily be played by Asian Pacific Islanders
OnceUponAPiano innit- Filipino,Indonesian etc are good options
Abram Vargas Water tribe are more based of american indian culture more like eskimos would be playing them
They're based off of Malaysia and probably Eskimo culture and parts of even native American!
OnceUponAPiano, Eskimo could work!
@@abramvargas3118 nah their eyes are split I think they should make a mix or black lightskin person
literally the entire show is heavily inspired by asian culture. they are asian
The MacSo Contact lenses, bud. 💀💀
What about the water tribe and sun warriors?
@@peepeepoopoopeepeepoopoo5164 Water would be Inuit and the Sun Warriors would probably be based on the Mayans. Still, they are not white.
@@varkrow Yeah I know. I never said any of the characters were white. This person just said the whole show was based on Asian culture and that they're all Asian and I was just saying no they aren't all Asian because of the sun warriors and the water tribe people.
The MacSo Do you think contacts don’t exist?
The eye colour is interesting in Avatar since each nation has eye colours that reflect their nation. The Water Tribe have blue eyes, Earth Kingdom (more specifically earthbenders) have green eyes, Air Nomads have grey eyes and the Fire Nation (or at least the Royal Family and several firebenders) have gold eyes. I always thought that was a nice little detail they threw into the character designs. All those colours could be achieved with contact lenses (or if they have the issue Dan Radcliffe had with his in Harry Potter, just leave the actors natural eye colour in). But I also don't think there ever should have been a movie in the first place. They don't try to make The Simpsons into live action because we are so attached to those characters as they are, I feel the same way about Avatar. The animated form is their only true form (though the comics are fine since they have nearly the same art style). I anything, it should have been an animated movie made by Mike, Bryan and their team. In fact, I would still be totally on board with those guys making an animated movie, and not necessarily and Avatar one.
+hyperdeath84 yeah i've noticed the eye color thing. but, it seems to only be more of a generalization. Ty Lee for example has gray eyes. and I think I remember some earth kingdom people with brown eyes.
AvatarCritic Yeah that is true - most of the world is essentially the Earth Kingdom and most people there have brown eyes much like the vast majority of people from Asia. As I say, the eye colour is pronounced in the main characters and their relations.
I agree, while trying to make it live action was commendable, ive yet to see an anime/cartoon series go live action that wasnt just actual garbage.
Tophs eyes are Grey though that's probably because of the cause of her blindness. I'm pretty sure also that not every dai li had green eyes it's a nice touch though especially with the water tribe.
@@hyperdeath84 I totally agree with your first comment. The races in the Avatar world are incomparable to those of our world, due to it being a fictional world with its own races intertwined in it.
5:30 how they going do Appa like that😂😂😂😂
aleena patrick exactly that shit was a mess it looked like a failed creature something you would show your younger siblings to scare them 😂
Its true “asian” doesnt exist in the avatar universe but if they were like “translated” into irl races all of them would be basically of asian descent. “White” doesnt exist in the hobbit but the hobbit is based off of medieval europe and so the characters are white. Its also ridiculous that people say the avatar characters dont look asian purely because of the anime art style. Are yall implying that to look asian, the creators should draw them with tiny eyes and shit like that?? bruh
Dude thank you for writing this. This is my exact opinion as well. I said this on other comment threads but the morons their yelled at me and called me racist.
They would def be Asian when translated to our world, aside from Sun Warriors and other small groups, but in the Avatar world itself they are their own races.
Y’all are kinda just saying what the video already said lmao
@@junethanoschurchill6750 ya true but it is what is correct. Some people just completely ignore the truth and try to label the characters as a certain race from our world when that doesn't completely fit
I thought I read somewhere that the creator stated white people don't even exist in the world of avatar or black people. Idk why people still debating this if the creator of the show already settled it.
the thing that most bothered me about the 2010 movie casting was that katara and sokka and their grandma were white but literally all the other southern water tribe members were poc! what kind of message does that send? it's awful
that was probably the worst part of it, at least with the Fire Nation they were consistent with having a generally Southern Asian casting.
Mac Li the firenation casting made me furious tho because they looked nothing like the cartoon, and they did not even have the personality I mean wot
There's no message.
It's just Shamayalan's awful casting. I remember when I watched the movie back in 2010, when I saw Katara and Sokka are white, I was thinking, "Wait, this doesn't feel right."
In the series it was the opposite !
The mayority of the water benders, especially the main characters, have a darker skin tone and only a few were pale. (Hama and a 'background' girl from the southern water tribe also in Hamas Flashback)
All i know is nobody in the show was white.....
Ik like the casting was so off for the movie
The Earth Kingdom is the most diverse and it did seem like there were some people who were supposed to be white but had Asian names and the anime style made them look it too
@@famousramus2288 The shows only had Asian decent in it no other race was in it
Famous Ramus22 Bruh the Earth kingdom was based off of China and Korea. As for the anime style, not all Asians have stereotypical small eyes and their eye colors correlate with their elements, so Earth benders have green and Water Benders have blue etc. They all have Asian names because they are CLEARLY Asians
@@1funuser you sure? The boulder was based off of The Rock and both of them don't look Asian at all.
Okay so some comments were saying how "Their eyes are light so they're European..."
....
The- Their eyes are based off of their element
And the inscription in the intro is Mandarin. I swear someone hold me back cause with some of these comments I-
Well Asians are pretty closely related to Caucasians, so that's probably where the confusion comes from. Zhao especially looks white as hell, and people have made fan arts of Hugh Jackman as Zhao. It looks just like him.
But canon wise, they're all Asian. Pretty sure Fire Nation is Imperial Japan, Water Tribes are Eskimos (or Inuit for the snowflakes out there), Earth Kingdom is 9th Century China, and Air Nomads are Buddhist and Tibetan Monks.
Pretty weird. This is a tough cartoon cast to adapt, because pure Asians won't look like their characters (with exceptions for Jeong Jeong and Mai), while White actors and actresses wouldn't technically be accurate to the source material either.
@bigby edwards they are CARTOONS inspired by the anime art style you buffoon. My God Karen.
@bigby edwards no they are not
@bigby edwards you are reaching way too hard
bigby edwards nope, the water nation is native and the other nations are mostly East Asian, for sure not white, you can tell I’m of Native American descent I can kinda tell the water tribe is native just look at their facial feautures and their culture their mostly Inuit in my opinion
Well there's a Netflix adaptation coming out soon, let's get ready for round two. Hope all that criticism landed.
They definitely are. The people of that show said the casting will actually be accurate instead of some Whitewashed freakshow. Clearly there's nothing wrong with being white but it was horrendous to see the Avatar characters as them when they were clearly Asian.
People are saying that the characters look white in the show. But last time I checked they don’t look like 4:21 😂😂😂
big nig OH MY GOD, I clicked on the time and almost shit myself
Animal finatic yup exactly, I hope they cast the characters as the actual races they were made to be.
Luckily, one of the original creators of ATLA is involved in the Netflix live action series. Obviously they will change up the casting, but also keep it closer to the animated series. Cause damn M. Night Shyamalan really screwed with the rules of the Avatar universe.
Idk why this is a debate. Everything is clearly asian. They even use Chinese characters. There’s not debate lol. The bending style is influenced by asian martial arts
exactly
Like he said in the video Asia doesn't exist in ATLA. In that world white people could have came up with a similar architecture and language. Especialy given how real the supernatural side of that culture is.
predator H2O it’s still all inspired by asia so how are you going to say white people are the ones who created asian culture?
predator H2O the show gives representation to asians and natives
@@andyvan2989 Using the same logic that's in the video.
"If Aang were white he'd look like this..."
(Dives under covers)
That thing is freaky! Take it away!
There is no white Aang in Ba Sing Se. Here we are safe. Here we are free.
DrawFoxDraw that was the best possible reply take my like
Ik wtf is that image eww xD
Funny how he uses that example after saying that using exaggerated features to represent race is wrong
well that's racist.
The movie was a joke. They made 2 of the whitest people on Earth play Katara and Sokka (who were supposed to be tan just like almost every water bender) and an Indian to play Zuko (who is as white as milk just like every other fire bender). How shitty it was gonna be was obvious from the casting lol.
Edit: If people are gonna keep having racism themed arguments here I'm just gonna delete my comment. What I said has nothing to do with racism or "white washing" or whatever. I can't understand how people call it white washing or vise versa when they fucked up literally every race in this movie. Not everything has to end up as a racism fight. Sometimes it's just bad casting and/or stupidity. And I'm tired of getting notifications of these nonsense comments that aren't even related to the original topic 🙌🏻
Because white people are bad they should have used mexicans instead
@Mollusco Mollusco they could just swapped Zukos actor and Sokkas actor and it would be way better. Especially since zukos actor is used to comedic roles and Sokka is comedic relief character (not only but really often). And Aang and Katara were so wood in the movie. Just pure cringe. Aang atleast looked like aang but he didnt act like him, and katara was a joke
There's more to it than "Sokka is white, Zuko is indian." It's the fact that the entire fire nation is indian that adds to the stupidity. Or that the northern water tribe is white. There's a lot of idiocy involved in the movie.
İsmail Sezer Bullalıoğlu They’re not tan, they’re brown. Tan is way lighter than them.
Totally agree!! It was mundane, whitewashed, and totally missed the point of the entire show. I love how in the series-when series stuff happens it was handled with care and careful planning and the tension didn’t linger but was defused by humour. Yeh, none of that in the crap fest that is the movie. It’s sad
I always thought
Water Tribe-Inuit/native people
Earth kingdom-Chinese
Fire nation-Japanese
Air Nomads-Tibetan/monks
Sand Benders-Middle eastern
Hippies- mix
Guru-Indian
Swamp Benders-Louisiana Cajuns
Sun Warriors-Mezzo-Americans
Edit: Changes based on comments
The swamp benders look more European then anything else. They were also literally inspired by Louisiana cajuns.
I always thought the Swamp Benders were supposed to be Vietnamese or Cambodian.
@@angelfish1506 well they wouldn't have banjo music and Southern accents then
@@superduperfreakyDj Dude it's just my opinion.
I was thinking the Fire nation techniques are Chinese and Korean, so more of eastern asian.
The fighting styles are based on martial arts, their characters names are Asian, and their religion is BUDDHISM. They're asian.......
How are they Buddhists, there is no buddha, they do look at spirits as gods sometimes but still, they're not Buddhist as the same way no character in the show is actually Asian/white/black/arabic/hispanic cuz none of them are from any known earth location
amir movsho מוב Air nomads are based off Buddhist monks
It seems the people in avatar believe in a mix of different kinds of eastern philosophy/religion, not just Buddhism. Btw “Eastern” is not just East Asia but also South Asia. India is considered a part of the East
@@thelegend27yes15 doesn't make them Buddhists tho, buddha ain't there
amir movsho מוב Yeah but Buddha isn’t some God or deity. He is human. Buddhists follow Buddha’s teachings. Even if Buddha didn’t exist Buddhism would still stand because the teachings/philosophy would be the same. Also, how do you know an equivalent of Buddha doesn’t exist in the avatar universe? Somebody had to create the philosophy and customs the air nomads follow.
Always found it kinda funny that they cast Dev Patel for Zuko, he's a great actor but Zuko is the palest character in the cartoon LMAO. And then Jackson Rathbone that plays Sokka also played a VAMPIRE in twilight, I don't know how they figured that one out.
I was today years old when you made me realize Jasper and Dollar store Sokka are the same person 😟
Could have switched them
Oh my gods, a white Aang looks scary, honestly.
Varkrow N. Creepy
True
avatar is definitely East Asian tho
Just Rayan Air Nomads were based on Tibetans though.
@Ale Yaaj TBH I don't think cartoon Aang looks Asian at all but he doesn't look European either. I still think an Asian should probably play him in live action, but I don't think someone is racist for thinking he should be white. He is really racially ambiguous.
@Ale Yaaj Asians can't have light eyes. So most of them are from middle east
@@Porooooooo Aang looks Asian if you actually take in the facial features besides the eyes, because that's an artistic choice.
Asians CAN HAVE light eyes, but that doesn't matter anyway because eye colour corresponds with the different elements
4:24 pls never show that again 😭
He looks like a neo nazi skinhead.
😂
Ewww that’s creepy tbh never show that again
Cursed Image
If Aang was white he'd look like Caillou
to me, Fire Nation was japanese because I thought that their conquering the other elements was a huge metaphor for Japanese imperialist colonization in other Asian countries in world War 2. Water tribes are definitely inuit/indigenous. Air nomads and the Earth Kingdom are definitely inspired by China and some southeast Asian countries. Its obviously all mixed and inspiration of every nation is intertwined but to make the characters white is so odd, Aang is literally a nomad monk who was raised in a temple.
I agree, although I'd say that the air nomads were inspired by Tibet.
I agree with the inspirations but for live action, the most important thing is making sure the actors look like the characters. Aang’s actor being white was fine because he honestly did look like Aang. But making the water tribe members white was weird because they are dark skinned. They could even get mixed race or black people or Polynesians to play water tribe members as long as they fit the look. You don’t have to be strictly Native American or Inuit.
u r smart
@@ReblazeGaming Agreed
Air Nomads is Tibetan
3:28 "If anyone is white it's them... I mean, they are the ones who wanted to conqure the world... Just kidding" XD XD LOL
Dang you beat me lol 😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 i laughed like hell😂😂😂😂😂😂
Lololol he got jokes
i laughed so hard at this😂😂😂
I've been searching the comment section for someone who's butthurt about that joke 😂
I never thought the avatar characters were white. Never even crossed my mind lol.
I was never even bothered by race until I saw so many people arguing over it
I thought they were Asians. It was weird watching the movie.
vedran yeah cause theirs legit less then 1 percent Asians holywood actors Asians want spotlight to
@@Kim-ej5ww actually if you googled it it's 5.3% which isn't even a small percentage since it's the 3rd highest after white and black
vedran true but plus theirs so many yellow face not just in avatar the last air bender movie but in other movies
Honestly, Im really surprised this is even an argument. Clearly, the Avatar characters are of Asian descent. 😒
The MacSo their eyes match the elements 😒
I personally think we should just hope they cast good actors that can somewhat resemble the characters at hand. If they find some bald white kid that actually looks like Aang, and can act. I'm fine with it. I would also be fine if they find a bald asian kid that looks like Aang and can act as well. All I care about is that the actor looks somewhat like Aang. I'm against whitewashing, blackwashing, purplewashing, greenwashing, whatever. All I care is that Netflix actually takes the time to cast actors and actresses that both can act, and have the main features of the character. Also, please don't make it shit Netflix.
Also, they have to cast the Rock as the Boulder, and John Cena as Ember Islands Toph. The only two musts.
The MacSo you are aware that eye contacts are a thing? also I know asians with blue eyes so grey isn’t even impossible to find smh
@The MacSo huh? It s a cartoon lmao. In animes ppl have crazy hair and eyes color and they are still asian and no one questions that
I love how everybody just agrees that the fire nation is Japanese
i mean its really obvious with the attacks and rebels
Their clothing, names, building etc makes it really obvious
@@juheepark7123 zhao aint a Chinese name and I am Chinese and I have zhao in it
Pretty obvious bro
Is it only me who portrayed them as South East Asian like from Thailand or Cambodia 😅😅😅
The fact that they made the “good” characters white bothered the heck out of me.
Hamilton did the exact opposite and most people thought that was fine
T Payne True ig
Honestly the movie sucked I get that but I do not understand why everyone is so busy making everything about race 🤦♀️ like I'm not saying that the cast in the show resembled the characters well, but honestly who really cares if some of the cast is white, black asian, native American, Indian ect...? Like just as long as it looks mostly like the character I feel like it shouldn't matter.
Idk about you but uncle Iroh wasn’t white in the movie
M Night is Indian so i always assumed he based possibly his favourite nation on his own, not sure though but seems like it to me
After all fire nation is pretty cool
Fire Nation: Japanese
Air Nomads: Central Asian (Tibetan and such)
Earth Kingdom: Chinese
Water Tribe: Native American/Inuit/etc.
And I think most people would agree.
Oh, and Guru Patik? Definitely Southern/South-western Asian. Maybe he comes from a culture with a similar origin to that of the Swampbenders; they split off from another culture and were lost from mainstream historical knowledge. Maybe his culture has all but died off once ATLA rolls around, and he's one of the only ones if his kind left. That's my theory, anyway.
Mephostopheles Well the Fire Nation is based on China too so.....
Jalen Mays, actually, the Fire Nation is based on Japan and the Earth Kingdom is based of China. The Hundred Years War is actually based heavily on the commonly ignored Asian Front of the Second World War
Some Random Guy Dude I'm sorry to tell you but The Fire Nation is based on han dynasty & Ming dynasty China The Earth Kingdom is a hybrid it is based on 2 Chinese dynastys Kyoshi Island is based on Japan Songs village is based on Korea now the Fire Nation conquest is based on WWII Japan though.
Mephostopheles guru patik had indian accent and his name is clearly is indian
Well, yeah he was Indian.
*see white Aang*
Ah! Ah! Get it away! Burn it! No Zuko I didn't mean literally.
being asian and seeing an amazing representation of asian culture, philosophy, and ideology in atla, (especially at such a young age),i was so disappointed to not see any of it in the live action. it hurt that the limited screen time asian representation has was diminished even more when they whitewashed something so blatantly rich in its culture.
The MacSo What does it matter? You’re bitching about eye color as if that’s what makes or breaks a character. I’m sorry if everything doesn’t go your entitled bratty way, but the logical solution is that a large majority of the cast is to be Asian as a result of the show taking heavy Asian-influences. The take-away from this comment? You’re a fucking idiot lmao
@The MacSo ever heard of contact lenses?
The MacSo i love how i specifically said asian culture first, as in non physical specifications, the movie had neither incorporated or even represented either of the two and girl, zuko had gold eyes, humans don’t have gold eyes so why does eye color matter?
fire nation: gold eyes
earth kingdom: green eyes
air nomads: grey eyes
water tribe: blue eyes
they’re animated luv, none of them had almond shaped eyes!! also, i have reason to believe the way the avatar is found ( by picking a possession from a past avatar’s life) was influenced by how the next Dalai lama is discovered, which is from the same process, but obviously a lot more😂. not to mention yin and yang = tui and la.
gretchen reyes we like to pretend the live action movie does not exist.
A tarantula wearing a hat we love to see it🙈😔
People go through such great lengths to rationalize the movie's casting decision, refusing to see the INTENDED races/ethnicities of the original characters. *You guys need to understand that there are people who have worked on the ORIGINAL SHOW who have stated that the characters are supposed to be Asian/Inuit and have urged the movie to reflect this fact.* Such people include story director Giancarlo Volpe and animatic editor Dao Le. Even Dante Basco (the voice of Prince Zuko) spoke out, saying that he felt the main roles should have been given to Asian/ethnic actors.
As if that's not enough, Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino themselves (the CREATORS of the original series) have stated "we wanted to create a mythology based on Eastern culture rather than Western culture. Although Avatar isn't based on a specific Asian myth, we were inspired by Asian mythology." When asked to briefly describe Avatar, Konietzko called it "an epic, ASIAN, martial arts fantasy/action/adventure/comedy/drama series about the four elements."
The creators have also said that the Air Nomads are based on Tibetan and Buddhist culture, while Aang himself was inspired by a real-life adorable 12- year-old monk they saw in a DVD called _Shaolin: Wheel of Life._ In fact, when the creators saw the boy, they turned to each other and exclaimed, "That's Aang!"
Both guys were also greatly disappointed with the movie, a project in which they had very little say in developing. Konietzko said that the project was a waste of time and money, and both creators have said that they'd rather pretend the movie never happened. *Regarding the characters, Konietzko said, "They are our children... These characters are real to us. And to watch it be dragged through the mud -- and the whole racial side of things -- was just so disheartening." And regarding skin color, Konietzko said that the characters in the movie are a "gross misinterpretation and misrepresentation of our work."*
My point is, when the people who worked on the ORIGINAL show are saying that the original characters are supposed to be Asian/Inuit or that the movie misrepresented the characters' true ethnicities, then we should probably listen to them.
u mad bro?
I explained, in elaborate detail, that Avatar’s creators, animators, and story directors, themselves, have confirmed that the main characters are supposed to be Asian/Inuit and that the creative team has expressed disapproval and disappointment with the movie because it failed to represent the characters’ true races/ethnicities.
If being honest makes me mad, then I must be furious because everything I’ve said is the cold, hard truth. No matter what rationalization people try to come up with in an attempt to prove the characters aren’t Asian, they will fail 100 percent of the time because they’re arguing against the creative team itself, and that’s a debate they cannot win.
Blue Bird Completely agree!
You said it!!! Yes!! I feel really bad for Bryan and Michael. I watched this interview where they said “ we tried making suggestions; maybe do this not this, etc” but everything kept being ignored. It’s so sad. And by ignoring the fact that these amazing and strong and very human characters are ethnically diverse it diminishes how awesome it is to have a show like this-for those who want to see more characters look like them or depict them in some way. We don’t always need a white character, that’s okay. This show is amazing!! All the character are non white and people just gotta deal with it.
Blue Bird I JUST AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOURE SAYING!!
Air Nomads = Tibet
Water Tribe = Inuit
Earth Kingdome = China
Fire Nation = Japan
@Eemaan Bhatia ik, i got you, despite the series is about Asian culture, this also happens a lot with "Latino" Countries, there's no such thing as "Latinoland" but a bunch of different countries with different culture. Even in Mexico there's many sub cultures (just like Earth Kingdom)
Yall, the real question is....
Gay or European
This is the conversation no one is ready for
@@SerratedMouth ok
What???
Or is he just fashionable?
Both
For anyone who's confused:
Fire Nation: Japanese
Earth Kingdom: Chinese
Air Nomads: Tibetan
Water Tribes: Inuit
Alison Brown this needs to be pinned so all these knuckleheads arguing that they’re white can stfu
I think the meme is that we arguing what race they are supposed to be, despite the fact we literally witness in the show that Not Aztecs, with all the correct facial features, coloration and so on, direct descendants, became Japanese.
If I was a betting man, I'm going to assume that racial consistency is not a priority for this universe.
I think the priority should have been getting actors who can act the character, and look the part. Its not like they didn't mix and match facial features to people from "Asian cultures" that, basically don't exist in there race.
Like blue eyes for example, hell, Aang has GREY eyes.
@@IRmightynoob Well yeah but they should have gotten darker skinned actors to play the Water Tribe and white actors or Asian actors to play the Fire Nation.
@@angelfish1506
I didn't deny they should have gotten actors that LOOK like the actors. Sokka and Katara are tan, they should have accurate actors.
However. We also need to face the facts, this is the setting where the mayans turned into the Japanese and Deep south Louisiana folk chill out in the not China Earth kingdom swamps. This show makes a meme and, if your sensitive, a downright mockery of cultures and ethnicity from all over the world.
They need to look like the characters, and be able to act like the characters. Anything else along racial lines being a factor however, is downright delusional.
@@IRmightynoob the actors should absolutely resemble the characters, but having them be the same race of at least a similar ethnicity is very important. the entire show is heavily based off of asian culture and mythology, so to have the actors as other races that don't correlate with the show wouldn't make sense. yeah, sokka and katara are tan, but they are based off of inuit people, therefore their actors should be inuit. they shouldn't cast a white person for them just because they look similar.
also, i really don't see how the show is making a "downright mockery of cultures." they're showing representation of asian/inuit/aztec cultures, which many shows and movies don't have. obviously everything featured in the show isn't totally accurate to those actual cultures, but it is very much inspired by it. and the swamp people aren't even "south louisiana folk," they're supposed to be vietnamese - it's pretty clear when you look at their names.
Well put, they have their own races ant fictional nationalities
Exactly, some characters can look white, some look asian, ultimately they are their own ethnicities...
Here’s how I see it:
Fire Nation: Japanese
Air Nomads: Chinese
Water Nation: Native Americans
Earth Nation: Combination of All
For fire nation the sun warriors really gave me an Aztec vibe. Azula is a clever name because it means blue in Spanish (Azul) and her bending is blue 🤔
I would personally say that aid nomads are more Tibetan or Bhutanese
Water nation was more inut
@@Nada-ux4we agreed
@@gabynicole0184 agreed
Even tho you were joking about white ppl trying conquering the world it was true
funny thing is both the Fire Nation and Europe are both small continents.
J.E. Razo Europe isn't a continent.
www.worldometers.info/geography/7-continents/ *Europe is a continent* , since technically all land on earth is connected in some shape or form, that is an unwise method of defining what is a continent. Check sources, Europe is indeed a continent. I do not know from what perspective you received your education, but *the majority of the world teaches 7 continents* , I am honestly unsure if you are commenting as a joke. I've never met someone with so little education as to assume so plainly that Europe is not a continent.
Apex Devil How do you mean Europe is not a continent? As far as I know it is.
BlackAlpha The definition of a continent is a large landmass by itself. Europe isn't by itself. Incase u didn't notice it's connected to Asia by Russia.
they’re all asian, look at the food, the clothes, the writing, it’s all asian culture it’ll look silly if they cast black ppl or white ppl or hispanics
They can cast hispanic dont forget the scene when they went mayan temple to visit the dragons
I think it's definitely possible to cast someone of black/brown to play Katara or Sokka honestly. Because that's what they are. And no, I'm not saying they're African American or African.
The sun warriors are like the Aztecs/Mayans
HOWTOTRAINYOURGDRAGON lOVE It wasn’t called the Mayan temple lol. But they were based on the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Realize this is not the same as Hispanic. Hispanics do live in South America and do have Native American blood but they are mostly mixed race with Spainish (colonization).
@@jadonmesfun6479 oh my bad thanks for tell me .
Bro... it’s definitely Asian 😂
You forgot the sun warriors which are either Aztec or Mayans
Oreo S water tribe= Inuit
Fire nation= Japanese
Earth kingdom= (Han) Chinese
Air nomad Tibetan
Well it’s an asian world, as the universe is heavily Asian based.
I’m sure they’re all asian, with the addition of Native Americans, who still have ties to Asians from traveling from the asian continent before the Bering Strait closed.
Sokka says in Chapter 1, Book 1, that they’re Humans.
“Last time I checked, humans can’t fly”
And they mentioned in Book 2 that the planet that they’re on is in fact called “Earth” as mentioned by Long Feng.
I thought it was in a different world
@@bronteking4480
Well, technically it is. But for simplicity sake, consider it as a theoretical "Alternate Universe".
So I’m black and Mexican with Native American descent 100% percent. My great grandmother and father were native. I have curly hair tho. But I could wear a wig or straighten. Would it be offensive if I tried out?
stilesXnogistune
Well, I don’t really think so. What do you plan on auditioning for? (What role?) Also, is that you in your Profile Pic? If so, maybe you could be a Fire bender of some sorts? Like one of the generals we see or maybe a notable officer?
Fire Nation Soldier haha no this is not my picture. But I’d like to audition for Katara or just to be in the water bending tribe.
2:53 when he says jet black hair, Jet flashes on the screen
*_HAH._*
When I was younger I always thought that Katara and Sokka were Inuit Native American (one reason I was learning about them in the 4th grade lol) because they has darker skin and they lived in the Artic and did things like fishing etc.
Jet black
hahahaha!
lol, I think you are the first to comment about that.
In LOK detective Gang is black ...lol.....Gazan from New Zealand
the characters in the intro are literally characters from an asian country...so yeah...they’re south and east asian
jokes on you, there will be another live action of atla. Let's just all hope that it won't destroy the animated atla's image once more
source?
@@kaaluha search on google "netlix live action of atla" and you'll get all the answers
Bless you thanks bro
Bless you hopefully they'll get it right this time
As long as it's good and the characters look remotely similar to the actual cast, I will be happy.
"hair is usually *jet* black" 😂
Fire Nation: Japanese and Korean (Edit: I think Tai Lee looks kinda white but apparently this is an unpopular opinion. But if any nation was to be white it would be fire) .
Water Tribe: Inuit
Earth Kingdom: Chinese, with other cultures as well since they are most diverse
Air Nomads: Tibetan and Indian
Sun warriors: Mayan
Swamp: Polynesian
Sand Benders: Middle Eastern
Blah Fire nation doesn’t have any European background it’s literally East Asian with some Thai
Split Haven yeah sure, that’s your opinion, I respect it. However, that claim is a big reach because the “Roman Influence” in China isn’t evident enough to say there are any characters theatre obviously Roman. The cultural environment most of the characters are in/have are primarily still Asian, Indigenous, and Polynesian. And it isn’t pointless, if these characters were to be portrayed as, say Romans (Or any European ethnicity in general), it would literally be erasing the real life cultural influence behind the show and characters. A European being in the role of a character who isn’t European (Katara for example, who is Inuit/Yupik) is derailing. Perspective dude.
Blah no fucking Caucasians. Wtf
@@PK-xc3qr id say the Northern Water Tribe would be more fitting for some Caucasian role along with inuit and other northern tribes, southern water tribe had more tanned people so more native american, inuit. The rest are asian for sure except for minor areas such as sand benders, etc.
@@iprobablydislikeyou2735 Fire Nation characters like Zhou are definitely White. I think the Fire Nation should be Asian and European actors. But then again it's not up to me or you it's up to the directors.
I am a few months late to this debate, but whilst you can say that the races of the Avatar world are entirely different to our own, they ARE clearly based on real world cultures, and thus the most appropriate castings would be people of the same culture as the nations are based on. So to be a bit more specific than simply saying everyone should be "East Asian".
The Fire Nation is basically Japan. A very militaristic and classical "samurai and ninja" Japan. The names of the Fire Nation characters are "Japanesey".
The Air Nomads are clearly "Tibetan", again they have Tibetan names in addition to Tibet-inspired clothing and architecture.
The Earth Kingdom is clearly based on China, which is fitting because it is the largest and most diverse of the kingdoms. In fact the Earth Queen and her soldiers are clearly based on China in the Qing Dynasty. Technically that makes them Manchus, but Manchus were a ruling minority that conquered the other peoples of China, so it's entirely reasonable for most Earth Kingdom characters to Chinese. Many of the names are "Chinesey" too, like "Beifong", but this is less consistent than for the other nations.
If anyone is White in the Avatar universe, it'd be the Northern Water Tribe, but only from a aesthetic perspective. I guess Inuit/American Indians would be more appropriate.
I agree that they are clearly based on those real cultures. Which is why I said I would cast them as people from those cultures in a live action movie.
heindrich1988 Fire Nation is based on China and the armor weapons ECT prove this And most not all but most of the FN names are Chinese.
heindrich1988 Too be honest though the Fire Nation is mostly based on Ancient China and the Northern Water Tribe is quit far from white with there dark skin.
heindrich1988 Yeah, the Earth QUEEN is clearly Chinese.
heindrich1988 How do you explain the green eyes and blue eyes?If you look at the earth kingdom there are a lot of characters with green eyes,and ang itself looks very pale
You are correct about the comparison to our world and the avatar world. but I dont't think "races" work in Avatar like they do for us. At least they are not labeling it like we do. This can actually be seen when strangers often point out the fact someone else is dressed. So he is not looking for skin color or something like that. The people in the avatar world actually see more in the traditional clothing. Earth Kingdom = More Green Elements. Fire Nation = More Red Elements. Water Tribe = More Blue Elements. Air = More Yellow and Orange.
Yeah....people don't seem to notice racial features in Avatar. I assume this is because it is supposed to be kid friendly and they don't want any hints of racism. But like....there are obvious patterns in the Nations. Like how water tribe people are generally darker skinned.
exactly!
"races" don't work here either...
@ they're inspired by inuits and other Native Americans which are brown. Even calling them the Water TRIBE is clearly hinting at that
Yes but they are still supposed to be portrayed by Asian and non white people because it is based on an Asian inspired fantasy world.
How about they don’t make a live action series and just make a season 4
Of all nations, the Fire Nation looks definitely the most East Asian. They have the thinnest eyes and the darkest hair.
They should look like the character. Simple.
Yeah, but in the movie the cast didn't look like the characters at all. They made all the heroes white and pale and made the villians people of color.
@@linettexie2373 Actually the kid that played aang did look exactly like him, people were just trippin because he was white.
MsLita Yeah in terms of look he was honestly perfect. I think they should just cast people who look like the character regardless of race, I’m not saying make them all white I’m just saying that some white people could play some of the characters and even though there aren’t any black people, some black people could play water tribe members and earth kingdom citizens
Before I begin, I'd like to preface that regardless of anyone's perception of the characters' races, there are people who have worked on the ORIGINAL SERIES who have said that the characters in Avatar are, in fact, primarily Asian and have even tried to push the movie to reflect this fact. These people include story director Volpe Giancarlo, animation editor Dao Le, and voice actor Dante Basco (among others), who all spoke out against the movie's casting decision. As if that's not enough, Avatar's creators THEMSELVES have stated that "the racial side of things" in the movie was "disheartening" and that the characters' skin colors are a "gross misinterpretation and misrepresentation of our work."
So at this point, there's really no question that the characters are primarily meant to be Asian.
Now on to my point. I have a hypothesis as to why so many people (not all) fail to perceive how the characters in Avatar could possibly be Asian. It's because these characters don't fit their preconceived notions of what an Asian "should" or "shouldn't" look like. You see, Avatar is a show geared primarily towards an American audience, and Asians only make up 5% of the American population. Therefore, when many American hear the word "Asian," they automatically visualize some stereotypical guy or girl with small eyes, flat noses, and an Asian accent, images which are perpetuated by mainstream American media. Since most of the characters in Avatar don't fit these descriptions, many Americans can't help but rationalize that these characters cannot be anything but white (the default race of most characters on American TV). Because of their lack of exposure to a variety of Asian faces, they do not truly realize that Asians, like all groups of people, actually come in all shapes and sizes BEYOND the limits of how they're portrayed by the mainstream American media.
Let's do an experiment. I want you to take a look at the following pictures. Please do take the time to look at every single one of them.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiro_Mifune
www.criterion.com/explore/195-tatsuya-nakadai
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rentar%C5%8D_Mikuni
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ky%C5%8Dko_Kagawa
jv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teguh_Karya
www.adorocinema.com/personalidades/personalidade-573907/
spindle-spindles.blogspot.com/2011/03/legendary-actor-and-1950s-matinee-idol.html
video48.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-fifties-189-fred-montilla-and-nena.html?m=1
asiamusclepicture-pela.blogspot.com/2012/01/thai-actor-chartchai-ngamsan-4.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitr_Chaibancha
www.pinterest.com/pin/16184879884595613/?autologin=true
www.google.com/search?q=vichara+dany&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB3r6C3s_ZAhXhzlQKHcm7C_IQ_AUICigB&biw=1536&bih=759#imgrc=gVMnxWyk4e8q3M:
Finished? Good. Now, I'm willing to bet that most people who saw the pictures thought that the people in the photos "didn't look Asian" or that they looked Caucasian/partially Caucasian. I bet that most of the photos did not fit many people's preconceived notion of what an Asian "should" or "shouldn't" look like. *I assure you, every single person I showed you is 100% Asian from the Far East (East and Southeast Asia). Not a single one of them is mixed-race. I can even give you their names and country of origin, if you'd like.*
Therein lies the problem in Avatar. Many people don't perceive the characters as Asian because these people simply haven't been exposed to enough Asian faces to realize that Asian people don't HAVE to look a particular way in order to be Asian. Asian people don't HAVE to have small eyes, black hair, or flat noses. Asian cartoon characters don't HAVE to speak with an Asian accent in order to be identified as Asian. The sooner we realize this, the further we can progress in terms of fair media representation.
EDIT The last link was supposed to lead to a picture of a man named Vann Vannak. He's seen standing behind a young woman with his hands on her shoulders. I'll repost his picture here since it doesn't seem to work in my previous reply.
kh4cambodia.blogspot.com/2012/09/past-khmer-stars.html
I also meant to add this picture of Yoko Tsukasa, as well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Tsukasa
One more thing. Like all the other Asian people I listed, Armando Goyena and Nena Cardenas are NOT of Spanish descent at all. They adopted Spanish names, but they're 100% Asian by blood (I just wanted to clear that up because there are people in the Philippines who DO have partial Spanish ancestry).
Bro, you're not being clever. We're not blind, we can see that those people clearly are asian.
@@crups1237 _"Bro, you're not being clever. We're not blind, we can see that those people clearly are asian."_
Joke's on you because I planted some Caucasians in there. The fact that you couldn't point them out simply because I primed your brain to believe they're all Asian just goes to show that racial appearances can be fluid and ambiguous even in real life.
Well, Avatar is a cartoon, so racial appearances can be even more fluid. You can argue all you want that Aang is white living in a predominantly East Asian world and culture. But you know what? You can also argue that Aang is Persian, Armenian, Parsi, or white Hispanic living in a predominantly East Asian world and culture. After all, these people are also white-skinned Caucasians and there's nothing in the show that explicitly indicates Aang is or isn't Persian, Armenian, Hispanic, etc just as there's nothing in the show that explicitly indicates Aang is or isn't white American or European.
But you never hear anyone claiming Aang is Persian or Hispanic, do you? Why not? Because Aang doesn't live in a predominantly Latin or Middle Eastern world. Because he doesn't possess a Latin or Middle Eastern name, doesn't doesn't live in a Latin or Middle Eastern culture, and isn't surrounded by Latin or Middle Eastern people, architecture, food, and clothes.
Instead, Aang has an Asian name, lives in a predominantly East Asian world, and follows a predominantly East Asian culture with East Asian people. Logic dictates that Aang is East Asian. But don't take my word for it. The creators, directors, and artists of the show have confirmed that Aang is, indeed, Asian.
job Good
That got switched around
I don’t understand how this is a debate. It’s so clearly a world heavily based on asian culture.
IKR
I love this joke about Fire Nation being the most white because they wanted to conquer the world. And I'm white.
same here!
the fact that they quit working on Avatar: The Last Airbender show to work on the movie... is just... so... UGH, like, we could’ve had WAY more seasons of the show but NOOO they just HAD to work on the HORRIBLE movie to leave behind THE BEST SHOW EVER.
Haha I really enjoy your dry sense of humor. It's funny
Thanks!
🍚🍞🥔
4:18 is such a good point that half yall in the comments are ignoring. It doesn't matter if the anime style makes the characters "look white" to you. Yall are basically saying for cartoon characters to look 'asian' you have to give them stereotypical features just to cater to your own limited perception of how asians look? No. No one should be white in the live action
Its funny how others keep saying that they dont look asian to them, that they look more white for westerns when asians clearly says they look asian, like there is a diverse range of physical features throughout asia that isnt their stereotypical asian representation on media ( even chinese, korean and japanese have different features within its own country and isnt characterized by just one eye shape or face shape for all its citizens)
The animated cast look like asians. Even katara though she's supposed to be Inuit could pass up as an Indian or Indonesian or Filipino if we're talking about either normal people, maybe even actresses that I'm not familiar with. And the eye colors! The eye coloooors are supposed to be an art choice from the creators to represent which from the 4 elemental groups a character is from.
People keep on putting asians into just one category of hair color, eye shape, skin color, eye color, etc, like hellooooooo there are a lot of varieties and a lot of actual normal asian citizens that doesnt look western but looks a lot like the cast. Plus they are supposed to be kids, so the eye shape especially for Aang most definitely if you're going to have the character express different emotions from eyes closed to wide-eye gasped expressions, is the right choice, and a lot of asians have those eye shape. People keep on thinking asians only either has Zuko's narrow eyes or the other one that's popular for western people's perspective-the really small eyes.
For those complaining that contacts wouldnt do specially of the water tribe since its blue and for people who regularly wear contacts that feels unnatural seeing other people use blue contacts, it could work, if people behind the scene would care and give attention to it, choose a brand that blends in nicely with the actor's or actress' original eye color, eye shape and skin undertones plus there are also special effects to smooth things out and make it look natural for the viewers.
@@annejia5382 It isn't just eye shape. it's the pointy nose from the side profiles, the angular faces, and other features. I seriously cannot ponder how anyone in this world could look like a character from the show. Their features are all over the place.
Earth kingdom: Chinese
Water tribe: Inuit
Fire nation: Japanese
Air nomads: Tibetan
I don't know, here's what I take it as when I look for casting:
Fire Nation: East Asian. They have more narrow eyes, brown/gold eyes, and black/brown hair.
Water Tribe: Blue eyes and darker skin, clearly harder to cast, but with most of them having very large eyes, I'd say they are closer to Indian with contacts. Or Indonesian.
Earth Kingdom: They are known for their green eyes, and brown hair, plus the pale complexion in some. If anything, I'd make them more Chinese/Thai.
Air Nomad: Aang had grey eyes and black hair. Possibly Eastern Asian.
SageSeeker the blue eyes were based off of their power basically the color eyes is based of their color tribe but water tribe looks more like native Americans especially in the first episode looking at the grandma is definitely Native American features
Not Indian (India). Most of us, south Asian have dark brown eyes.
SageSeeker Indians from India? Or Native Americans?
YES YOU ARE SO RIGHT. and considering martial art techniques used in fire nation.
Earth kingdom had korean characters and clothing (episodes about Haru, a common Korean name) too, and the air nomads literally look identical to real life tibetan monks, they're East Asian without a doubt
From what I read on a Nickelodeon Avatar Facts site, the four nations are each based on a different part of asia
Fire Nation was China, taking heavily from their dragon myths and architecture
Water Tribe was Inuit, or Eskimos. From the clothing, to the skin, to the environment, it was all Eskimo inspired. While not exactly Asian, Eskimos are descendants of Mongolians, which brings us to their neighbors, the Earth tribes
Earth: Mongolia. From their architecture, facial hair, skin, and architecture, it was heavily inspired by ancient Mongolia. Even their element is a direct reference to how Mongolians built a ton of monuments
Air: Tibetan. Their sacred temples, myths, and element associated with the wind was heavily inspired by the Tibetan monks, who live high up in the northern mountains, where winds are constant
Sorry you're a bit wrong.
Fire Nation: Japanese
Earth Kingdom: Chinese
@@angelfish1506
Bro everything from clothing to buildings literally architecturally and sartorially speaking screams "CHINA" with the fire nation. But at the same time it takes after Imperial Japan in other ways. You can honestly argue for either so you can't just say someone's dead wrong like thst
@@sentinal_entity Um, the creators of the show said that it was Japanese? Like it's a proven fact? Here: vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1451&context=undergrad_rev#:~:text=Avatar%3A%20The%20Last%20Airbender%2C%20commonly,Japanese%2C%20and%20Tibetan%20cultures%20respectively.
You should read it.
@@angelfish1506
I'm sorry but when did the creators up and right say that the Fire Nation is Japan as a "proven" fact? Could you give me another link that confirms this because that read was really long and I didn't understand/find your claim in it.
Also, writer Aaron ehasz says that the EARLY fire nation in the show was based on Japanese culture and that began to change as the show progressed. But I'm just going based off the aesthetics and the cultural similarities I see with the fire nation and China. And to be honest, I see a lot more similarities between them then I do with Japan and the fire nation from tea that we see uncle iroh drinking (which originated in China and that right there should be a big hint for you), the literal red and gold/black colors of the fire nation that also represents the country of present day China, etc. Besides honor, them being imperialists, (which was a part of China's history as well) what really connects Japan and fire nation for you? Legitimate question because I'd like to know and understand from your prospective.
Water tribe could be considered Inuit Russian. Keep in mind, the asian part of Russia does have a lot of people that look Asian.
I always saw them as Asian, simply by clothes and the architecture of the the buildings.
You deserve alot of more subscribers, you're videos are interesting and cool!
+Tursa Well help me out! Share my videos with friends!
Sure!
one thing tho get a better mic it would probably help you out a whole lot more its a turn off when the first thing you hear is bad mic
I feel like in the Netflix remake, they should cast us Filipinos for the Water Tribe, Japanese for the Fire Nation, Chinese for the Earth Kingdom, and Middle Easterns for the Sandbenders
I agree except the water tribe are obviously native american/inuit people. Everything from their appearance, clothing, food, names, geographic location is modelled after inuits.
@@calicofishy It's probably easier to cast Philippinos as the water tribe instead of inuit people.
But idk.
Here a non inuit Sokka, who imo did a great job.
ua-cam.com/video/eCGJFvK7MM0/v-deo.html
@@Cloverfr Eh, I personally disagree. I guess it seems similar to people who aren't familiar with Native Americans but as a Canadian, I don't think filipinos make a good fit at all. If not the Inuit tribes specifically, they should at least be Native American. There are plenty of great Native American actors to choose from, it's not hard to do at all.
@@calicofishy As a Filipino, I agree. We should not starve Native Americans of their deserved representation in media.
As a European I’ve never understood why it’s so hard for Americans to find the right race for their movies. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to cast an asian actor for an Asian character. Does anyone remember when Scarlet Johansson was cast as an Asian woman in Ghost in the shell while everyone else was Japanese? And I really don’t understand why Katara and Sokka were white people while it was really obvious that they’re inspired by Inuit people. And why tf was Zuko an Indian guy while it was really obvious that the Fire Nation is based on Japan.
True
A lot of people in the fire nation have sharped jawlines and their skull structure doesn't look asian, some people in the fire nation have beards, it's kind of hard to see a asian man with a full beard, they also they have orange/yellow eyes,(I know they're eye color is based off their emelent, but it stills a genetic trait, zokka can't use water and he stills have blue eyes), this eye color isn't common even in europeans, middle eastern people are the ones who have it the most. The most asian thing I find about them is their hair and eye shape. I personally find the fire nation a mix between korean/japonese, caucasians and middle easterns with a strong asian culture.
@@sjsjdmjwjwjakp1884 The Fire Nation’s culture is inspired by the Korean and Japanese culture. Their facial features are different per area. In some Fire Nation cities the people look like Japanese people(Zuko’s entire family) while in some river based cities the people look more Southeast Asian like Malaysian people. The original firebenders are inspired by the Aztec civilization. So yeah, the Fire Nation really differs per region. But the main capital of the Fire Nation definitely has some Japanese influence.
fr how hard is it for asians and natives to just have accurate representation in american media. this shouldn’t be debatable
mohika g Yess like for once give them the spotlight, I’m sure there’s many great Asian and Native American actors just waiting to finally have their moment
Ikr
Dont u love how in the movie they double fucked us by casting indians for the fire nation who are so very clearly japanese
Ryan Ryan LITERALLY
ikr, as a West Asian i legit HATE how the American media portrays us
Theory: ty lee was the only chi blocker in TLAB but in TLOK there were many. What if ty lee created the art and opened a school where Amon or one of his closest friends learned chi blocking or someone related to them did.
People, Fire Nation is totally China. Look at what Azula is wearing, look at her style of combat, just look at her. Also, China was the most powerful country back in the days which basically resembles fire nation.
"so, what race are you actually?"
"no!"
I found this random video with only one thought in my head:
HOW ABOUT THE CABBBAGE MERCHANT!!!!!!
SPOILER
“You has a great day. Unless you deserve to have a bad day. Have the day you deserve.”
How this video ends ^
Here’s the thing: our world is heavily influenced by English culture. Most (especially developed) countries speak English. I definitely agree that a lot of the characters probably have Asian descent. But perhaps they live in a world that was heavily influenced by Asian culture instead of English/American culture? This would explain the writing, the house etc.
ok so my dad, a few of my friends and I are starting to try to make a live-action avatar series. I think it would be really really cool and pretty difficult to mess up with the entire avatar fanbase and media saying how the movie should have been and how to not mess it up. But nobody's made a second attempt at a live avatar anything, because of funds and other reasons, probably. But I honestly think it's possible to do this series in live action without messing it up, like Shaymalan, especially is the fans are making it. My dad is a professional cameraman and my mom is a video editor, and they've worked on plenty of things to be able to work on this. Really, though, we could all make this possible if we help each other :))
Fun fact: The Dalai Lama's name is actually *Tenzin Gyatso* so he can play Monk Gyatso
The directors said that they are based on certain races:
Earth Kingdom: Chinese
Fire Nation: Japanese
Air nomad: Shaolin and Tibetan
Water Tribe: Inuit
Sand Benders: Mongolian
What about cabbage man
lee from tea shop I’m pretty sure he’s from the earth kingdom bc of his clothes
Don't you see it? They obviously are all from Attack Helicopter descent.
le unfunny joke has arrived
It's OBVIOUS the elemental regions are inspired by the regions of real life Asia. It's important to get adequate representation of the areas from which the original beings took inspiration. This is pretty much a prime example of where discourse was in 2016.
For water tribe, I kinda vibe with the possibility of Polynesian actors (cause water) or Indo-pacific actors (like Indonesia or the Philippines) considering they're just Asian people but with a sick tan
If someone says that the avatar is not based in asia, you must be blind. Even the writing in the wanted poster is in chinese.
Look up Kalash tribe of India... they couldn't be asians, hair and eye colours don't match, and unlike anime it's not because of the artstyle, like you can't see people with purple/green clearly painted hair, so we can assume it's their natural hair and eyecolour. The asian narrow eye also wouldn't be present, their skincolour is mostly light, so in conclusion we have a world filled with Weebs and not Asians
@@lokij6058 um yea first of all, india is in asia bro.. south asia to be exact. Im not saying the artstyle but the writing is in chinese characters (hànzì). You know the avatar poster right? On the top there is a hanzi its this 降世神通 . And in my opinion, eye color that were given to the characters is just for making them look attractive. For example zuko has yellow/gold eyes, like fr is yellow eye color really a thing in the real world?
@@lonelydays9463 you didn't look it up did you? I know that india is asia, but the Kalash people are whites
@@lokij6058 i've looked it up and i think there's a slight possibility but i still think that avatar is mainly influenced by east asian culture and as far as i know katara is inuit right?
Northern Water Tribe - Yup'ik
Southern Water Tribe - Inuit
Foggy Swamp Tribe - Asmat & Dayak
Fire Nation - Japanese & Thai
Sun Warriors - Aztec
Jang Hui - Viet/Khmer on Tonle Sap
Earth Kingdom - Han Chinese, Korean & Manchu
Sandbenders - Mongolian & Turkic - Sha-Mo is 'desert' in Mandarin Chinese; Ghashiun is 'desert' in Mongolian; and Yulduz means 'star' in Turkic.
Air Nomads - Tibetan and Bhutanese
••••••••
Wan Si Tong Desert and Library - Gobi desert (there was actually a submerged library here called the Dunhuang library)
Ba Sing Se - The Forbidden City
Omashu - Gaochang Ruins
I love this a lot, you've really done a lot of research. What about Guru Pathik?
@@oliviamurphy9482 I have a theory...
All of the main nations of the ATLA world are from mainland/peripheral Asia (if you consider Alaska peripheral Asian; after all, there are Inuit peoples in both sides of Beringia).
If you look at the Fire Sages, their culture is starkly Aztec, everything from the dress, to sacrificing to Ran and Shaw, to the importance they give the sun.
But the Aztecs are definitely not Asian; you could make the argument that all Amerindians are technically Asian as they are a subgroup of Mongoloid peoples and originally come from Asia, but their culture is vastly different.
So if we operate under the same assumption, I believe that Guru Pathik comes from a South Asian/Indian nation that either lives secretly as the Sun Warriors do, has gone extinct, or has not been discovered yet by the "known world" in ATLA; and that these peoples influenced the Air Nomads (as Tibetan culture is highly influenced by Buddhism, an Indian religion, as opposed to the more Daoist and Animist traditions seen elsewhere). I also believe this is why Aang learned energybending: it can only be learned by an Air Nomad, very spiritual and innocent Avatar.
@@deda9829 I like that theory a lot. I agree that the original Air Nomads could be East Indian. I was also going to point out that a large amount of the people shown to be from the Earth Kingdom are very dark in coloring, can those people be represented by the ethnic populations you described? Where do you suppose the refugee populations (shown in episodes where Zuko is exploring the earth kingdom) came from? I also saw another commenter draw a connection between the hippie like nomads in the "secret tunnel" episode with Romani people who were originally from India before travelling through the Middle East and settling in Europe and North America. I like that idea because there is not a lot of positive representation of Roma people in popular media, and its exciting that this show can draw inspiration from any of the hundreds of Asiatic or Asiatic-descendant cultures in our world. (Edited for grammar and spelling errors)
There’s no way that the swamp Benders are from Papua New Guinea. They look more Samoan but their accents and personalities scream Louisiana Cajuns
@@clarkdark2906 in keeping with the Avatar world culture (Indigenous Beringian, East, North, Southeast, Central Asian), it makes sense they would be a swamp dwelling people.
We also have to remember that certain artistic liberties were taken to make the show more relatable. The Swamp Benders are not anymore Cajun than Aang or Katara are American. It was to add a touch of humor and relatability to a largely American audience.
Wow... look at all these folks categorizing the casting like as if they’re the experts on Asian races and their cultural influences...
According to my observations of cultural similarities with real world cultures I'd say
Fire Nation is Chinese (especially China of Qing Empire since you'd see many clothes of their similar to the Qing Empire)
Earth Nation is Chinese+Southeast Asian (More inspired by Han Chinese culture and has a bit of Southeast Asian and Indian cultures)
Air Nation is Tibetian and Indian(Since Air Nation culture resembles a very lot with Indian Buddhist tradition and Tibetian,being an Indian myself I can confirm it)
Water nation is I guess like the Creator said they're more like Eskimos or native Americanish looking
That's my opinion btw which I said based on the observations I saw in this amazing show.
Great video on analyzing this big question many fans ask. I 100% agree most people should resemble in live-action East Asian people with some variety. To some other people in the comments. I hate to break it to you. But white people would be found nowhere in the Avatar world. The only argument is the blue/green/gray eye color and light skin. But both traits are not specific to white people. To think so is essentially racist. All those traits can be found in other races too. Bottom line, enjoy the show. Its amazing. Never watch the live action rendition (worst TV to film adaptation in the history of the world, even Dragon Ball Z did a better job, and that was bad too).
J.E. Razo racist = the belief that one race is superior to another and in turn, another race is inferior. that's not racist
Racism is embedded in the ideal that certain traits (eye color, hair color, and skin color) are *genetically dominant* , which many people subconsciously relate to a sense of superiority. There is also the factor of cultural appropriation, euro-centrism, and cultural marginalization. Racism isn't simply believing you are better than another, that is what the term *prejudice* is for, instead this is factor of people assuming (for example) that there is no such thing as a red headed South American or blond haired African or even a blue eyed Asian. This is indeed racist. To assume that some traits are genetically independent to only European people disqualifies the incredible genetic variety of other races and solely applies these varieties to European people. I think many people forget that in the early 1930's-40's there was a large group of people who were committing mass genocide of other people simply for believing they did not possess certain genetic traits..and most people will say these people were incredible racists. Racism and genetic dominance perspective go hand in hand.
Uranus racism is more complex then the definition Google says it is
J.E. Razo If you wan to be technical...blue and green eyes are genetically recessive...not dominant. Brown eyes are dominant...it is rare for a child to have blue eyes when both parents have brown. Or when one parent has brown. Brown eyes (ranging from light to dark...since eye color comes from multiple genes) are the most common. Also, all people with blue or green eyes descend from the same common ancestor...it was originally a genetic mutation. so if you want to say "well, Asians also have blue and green eyes" then what you're really saying is "white people and Asian people have a common ancestor"
Really, human migration is such that most people have genetic heritage from multiple races, even if they assume they are from one specific country or region.
+ShiNy ArMor Blue eyes are a recessive trait. You just need both of your parents to carry that specific recessive trait. 2% European is enough for both parents to carry that recessive trait. (Also, given migration patterns over thousands of years, I would say the majority of humans are pretty well mixed as far as ancestry...A lot of Europeans have Asian or African genetics as well)
As far as green eyes are concerned, it only occurs when you have the recessive trait for blue eyes...but since eye color comes from multiple genes, not just one, green eyes occur with the combination of other genes. You can't have green eyes without carrying most of the blue eye genes (thus why many people with green eyes have blue eyed children, like my older brother's daughter. He's got green, her mom's got dark brown and she ended up with blue.)
Genetics are pretty complicated. As far as the blue eyes traits...it's only a theory. (Also, albinism doesn't count when you're talking about blue eyes as a genetic trait...the cause of blue eyes in albinism IS the albinism...) It would not be surprising if eventually they discover that the mutation causing blue eyes occurred within multiple populations, resulting in blue eyes within multiple different groups. I'm certainly not an expert at genetics. I'm just stating the hypotheses presented in science classes from the time I was young. (biology and evolutionary science classes were required in high school and college. x.x) The genetics unit in biology explored eye color and discussed the hypothesis that "all people with blue eyes have a common ancestor". (please note, I am saying hypothesis...this means it's not scientifically proven...it's just an idea based on current evidence...the evidence often changes as new discoveries occur)
Now that Avatar is on Netflix and I can watch it, let’s just act like this “avatar movie” doesn’t exist 🤢
Avatar is mainly based on Asian culture... Even,avatar creators says that avatar not western culture ,it is purely Asian culture
Lots of POC cultures are literally represented in the show. So it makes a lot of sense for POC to play the characters.
they couldn't be asians, hair and eye colours don't match, and unlike anime it's not because of the artstyle, like you can't see people with purple/green clearly painted hair, so we can assume it's their natural hair and eyecolour. The asian narrow eye also wouldn't be present, their skincolour is mostly light, so in conclusion we have a world filled with Weebs and not Asians
@@lokij6058 Tbh they all totally look Asian/Inuits (Water tribe). To me, the only characters that look more white/mixed are Aang, Ty Lee and Suki. Eye color is not that much of a concern as it's easily fixable.