Hot take:
Avatar: Legend of Abioye is taking away from asian culture representation and shouldn't be added to the canonical #ATLA/ #LoK timeline. Here's why-
Black representation in media is a necessary thing, but taking the avatar series and making it primarily about black culture takes away from the asian representation the series offers. As it is, there's less asian representation then black representation in media-
Not to mention the representation that asians get in media is primarily chinese and japanese stereotypes, not even paying attention to other countries-
I'm not saying having black rep. in avatar is bad, or having a black avatar is bad. I'm saying making the whole cast of black descent and centering it in african culture seems more like giving a political statement and cancelling out alot of the asian representation-
It makes the series all together just feel like a media stunt and that's one of many reasons it doesn't make sense. The work is great, but it seems excessive. So how about for any type of new avatar series we focus on some more lesser known asian countries like the middle east-
We should have representation in avatar for countries like india, pakistan, and the middle eastern portion. We should also have representation for more of the south east of asia and polynesia. Let's have a team avatar with a hijabi ffs.
Don't take from other culture representation to feed black representation. Whether you genuinely want to give poc rep or just wanna jump on what some white people see as a trend. (Because let's be honest, white Hollywood sees black rep as their "I'm not racist" ticket)-
The point of the avatar series is it's supposed to be focused on asian cultures. The fire nation taking mostly from emperial china and Japanese culture, the earth kingdom taking mostly from china's mountainous region culture-
Air nomads taking mostly from tibetan, and just mainly Buddhist practice and culture, and the water tribes that are entagled in many different north asian cultures like Selkup, Evenk, Chukchi, Yakut, Tuvan, Buryat, Yukaghir...
But the water tribes are a different rant and the water tribes are indivodually culturally different.
I know someone might find this thread and label me racist just because I believe in genuine equality. Let's notice the asians for more than stereotypes, please.
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