No, she DOESN’T need to be a specific race to tell that story - but for some reasons studios felt that the story would best be told by a white person even when the character in the original is Japanese. Because the racist dynamic where white = neutral/default/universal.

So long as we use the “putting butts in the seats” argument, we will never get new super stars who will be able to put butts in the seats. That’s the self-fulfilling prophecy part that I mentioned. Congrats on missing that obvious flaw.

How is intentionally casting a white person over a person of color when the role is for a person of color not racism? It is preferring one race over another. That is literally what racism is.

No, directors aren’t “obligated to diversify their casts” but they’re also not obligated to ERASE DIVERSITY BY MAKING A JAPANESE CHARACTER WHITE.

“Racism” = the institutional pattern of one race getting preference over another. I don’t see how that isn’t what this is. The persistent pattern of whitewashing Asian characters that is a very real thing in Hollywood is a form of institutional racism.

I agree that the books needed to be streamlined for television, and the show did a good job of that...for the first 2.5 seasons. Then they stopped caring and just focused on the “interesting” parts, i.e. giant set pieces, sex, and ensuring that characters don’t change/grow/act outside of the narrow little box the show…

How dare only Americans care passionately about an American film! Also, this is only something that bothers “SJWs”! Definitely not the Asian-American acting community who are repeatedly denied opportunities to have starring roles because they’re not “well-known” enough (see if you can find the self-fulfilling prophecy…

“vein” wasn’t clear to me is all. But yes, there is a pattern of swapping out plot for sex/nudity/sexual dialog. I knew we were in for that early on when Sallador Sahn’s important world-building speech ahout Azor Ahai and Nissa Nissa was traded in for a long ramble on how he wants to have sex with Cersei (such a…

I don’t know what you mean by that exactly, but the show’s adoration of parading naked women’s bodies in front of the camera is another issue; I tend not to bring it up as much because the books have their own set of issues in that regard too.

How do you know the plotlines aren’t going anywhere? You are literally making assumptions based on books that have not been written yet. Hell, the pretender plot is probably going to be what gets Tommen and Myrcella killed, since his army is currently approaching King’s Landing. Quentyn may have made for a poor POV…

Ah yes, seasons 6, where everything happened in the last two episodes and basically just finished with where we at in the finale of season 5. The seasons where Arya learned to change her face and traveled all the way to the Crossing in a jump cut. Where literally everyone traveled at the speed of light. Where Jaime…

I think Dorne needed a rewrite as well, and that ADWD had too much padding, but that’s not the same as “throw out everyone’s character arcs to get the big set pieces faster.” And believe me, I am eminently frustrated with how much his books have slowed down. I have waited for over 5 years to know what happens to…

And I’m saying that the show writers have ignored so much of the plot - have in fact taken it in the completely opposite direction of what it was intended in many case (see: Jaime) - that I don’t actually trust them to be headed in even remotely the same place anymore. Or at least, if they wind up in the same place,…

It’s about how the pissing contests for power effect the smallfolk, though. No, there are no smallfolk POV characters, but the show has cut most of the smallfolk characters and scenes. The Brotherhood without Banners is a big deal, and Arya spends a fairly long time with them defending smallfolk, most of which was cut…

FYI, this and none of my posts here do not preclude me being intensely frustrated with how long it is taking Martin to finish the next book. You can think the books are vastly superior to the show without being a “GRMM White Knight” as someone put it above.

A yes, AFFC, the book so many fans hate that I absolutely adore because it has his best character development arcs ever. Don’t get me wrong, Dorne would definitely have benefited from (1) making Arianne the only POV character and (2) introducing her in the previous book, but otherwise I loved it.

So, more set pieces, which is the only thing the show does well? I’m okay with that.

...in what possible way has the show been “better”? Yes, there have been great moments in the show, some of which are not, or have not yet been in the book, but the shows’ been suffering for ages in want of cohesive narrative and characters acting in a way that makes sense. Also, themes: the series is really big about…

Please. The show already didn’t care about Catelyn before she died, cutting out all her political dialog to just emphasize her motherhood, why would they care about her after she died? And do you trust them to adapt Jon Connington after how they turned Loras into a cartoon?

Soooooo much padding. Season 5 was basically all padding. They completely cut multiple arcs, which you have no idea are red herrings or not because the books aren’t finished yet.