4196 réponses à ce sujet

[ladyoflate]

I don't know enough about the specifics of how Bioware cast their VAs to reason that it's something they need to improve on. I would hope they choose the VA who does the best job and is the best fit for the character regardless of what they look like. 

 

I get that, but that exact line is used to justify the whitewashed casting of so many characters tho-- see Katniss in the hunger games, where woc couldn't even audition. And for a spectacular failure of that sort of post-casting justification logic, see all the people who said the same thing about the Last Airbender after the actors were announced but before the movie actually came out.

 

Gwendoline Christie is, fortunately, definitely a good actress, but it's the pervasive restricting of roles to whites only that makes me want to have the very few characters of color we have go to actors of color. She'd be just as lovely as Sera (since Sera seems like she was meant to be white all along, although don't hold me to this) or a significant NPC a la Meredith.

[Maria Caliban]

Is voice acting restricted to whites? Off the top of my head, I know that the VA for Asheley Williams and Oracle/Barbara Gordan is a woman of color.

[Hellion Rex]

Is voice acting restricted to whites? Off the top of my head, I know that the VA for Asheley Williams and Oracle/Barbara Gordan is a woman of color.

Kimberly Brooks is her name, I believe....and I sadly can't think of any other women of color that are VAs off the top of my head.

[ladyoflate]

Kimberly Brooks is her name, I believe....and I sadly can't think of any other women of color that are VAs off the top of my head.

 

I know Nani, Mulan, Pocahontas, Kidagakash, and Tiana were voiced by WOC VAs, from the Disney canon, if we're looking outside Bioware. Lilo, Esmeralda, and a quite a few POC side characters were voiced by whites. There have been no white princesses or major side characters voiced by actresses of color. Nala had a black VA for her child voice and a white one for her adult voice.

 

In Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt, despite there being no white characters in the film, all main characters were voiced by white actors.

 

And that's the films I can think of that even have characters of color in the first place--don't get me started on Frozen, Brave, and Tangled.

[Han Shot First]

The ethnic background of a voice actor shouldn't matter unless the actor is being hired to voice a character with a specific accent. A French actor for an Orlesian, for example...

 

But other than that ethnic background shouldn't be an issue during casting decisions. Beyond that it should just be based on talent, and the skin tone of an actor should be irrelevant. 

[Hellion Rex]

I know Nani, Mulan, Pocahontas, Kidagakash, and Tiana were voiced by WOC VAs, from the Disney canon, if we're looking outside Bioware. Lilo, Esmeralda, and a quite a few POC side characters were voiced by whites. There have been no white princesses or major side characters voiced by actresses of color. Nala had a black VA for her child voice and a white one for her adult voice.

 

In Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt, despite there being no white characters in the film, all main characters were voiced by white actors.

 

And that's the films I can think of that even have characters of color in the first place--don't get me started on Frozen, Brave, and Tangled.

Yeah, I'm  aware of those people. I meant simply within the video game realm, I don't know many prominent female VAs off the top of my head.

[ladyoflate]

Yeah, I'm  aware of those people. I meant simply within the video game realm, I don't know many prominent female VAs off the top of my head.

 

Ah, yeah. I've been a Disney fan since I was a kid, so my knowledge of their statistics is a lot better than for videogames (I was deprived of them as a child. WEEP FOR ME.)

[Banxey]

I get that, but that exact line is used to justify the whitewashed casting of so many characters tho-- see Katniss in the hunger games, where woc couldn't even audition. And for a spectacular failure of that sort of post-casting justification logic, see all the people who said the same thing about the Last Airbender after the actors were announced but before the movie actually came out.

 

Gwendoline Christie is, fortunately, definitely a good actress, but it's the pervasive restricting of roles to whites only that makes me want to have the very few characters of color we have go to actors of color. She'd be just as lovely as Sera (since Sera seems like she was meant to be white all along, although don't hold me to this) or a significant NPC a la Meredith.

 

Casting a voice is a completely different situation to casting a physical actress to play a role like Katniss. If I had any reason to believe they were denying PoC opportunities to play Vivienne because of their race I would be outraged. The only evidence we have is that Bioware doesn't seem to care who the actors are as long as they sound right. And in my opinion, that is the way it should be. 

 

Anyway, we don't even know if GC is voicing her. All I said was I hoped she was, and I still do.

[Iconic_N7]

Cree Summer is a woman of color who does many VA in all forms of entertainment. From cartoons to video games. google her name and I think everyone will be surprised how many popular video games and cartoons she has taken part in. From rugrats, to kotor to batman the animated series and much much more.

[Iconic_N7]

Heck she's even done multiple bioware games besides kotor including kotor II & Mass Effect. Maybe she'll even appear in Inquisition? To early to tell as of yet.

[Master Shiori]

Kotor II was an Obsidian game, not Bioware's.

[Ianamus]

And that's the films I can think of that even have characters of color in the first place--don't get me started on Frozen, Brave, and Tangled.

 

To be fair to movies like Brave non-white people in medieval Scotland were practically nonexistent. 

[Milan92]

I highly doubt GC is gonna voice Vivienne. As far as I know, Mary Kirby wrote Vivienne and not Patrick Weekes.

 

Anything is possible ofcourse though and I would be intriqued by the idea of GC voicing Viv since she plays a complete different character in GoT.

[ladyoflate]

To be fair to movies like Brave non-white people in medieval Scotland were practically nonexistent. 

 

Not so. There's well-documented presence of Roman soldiers during the vague time period Brave was supposed to take place in, and the Romans (esp their army) were deeply, deeply multiethnic.

 

Mostly they wrote home requesting more socks because the found Scotland ****** cold.

[Divine Justinia V]

I really hope her voice is the same from last years PAX Prime, that voice suited her sooooo well.

[Ianamus]

Not so. There's well-documented presence of Roman soldiers during the vague time period Brave was supposed to take place in, and the Romans (esp their army) were deeply, deeply multiethnic.

 

Mostly they wrote home requesting more socks because the found Scotland ****** cold.

 

The movie had absolutely nothing to do with the Romans though, so Roman soldiers walking around would have seemed really out of place.

 

Frozen had non-white foreign dignitaries, which was a sensible way to include background characters who were not white.

 

While I like to see representation I don't think non-white characters should be put in when they really don't fit with the time or setting. This only applies to places that are very obviously supposed to represent real-life times and locations though, not fantasy worlds like Thedas. 

 

As for Vivienne I care more about how she sounds than the name of her voice actress or what ethnicity her voice actress is, and I liked how she sounded in the demo. 

[AresKeith]

I really hope her voice is the same from last years PAX Prime, that voice suited her sooooo well.

 

Same

[ladyoflate]

The movie had absolutely nothing to do with the Romans though, so Roman soldiers walking around would have seemed really out of place.

 

Frozen had non-white foreign dignitaries, which was a sensible way to include background characters who were not white.

 

While I like to see representation I don't think non-white characters should be put in when they really don't fit with the time or setting. This only applies to places that are very obviously supposed to represent real-life times and locations though, not fantasy worlds like Thedas. 

 

As for Vivienne I care more about how she sounds than the name of her voice actress or what ethnicity her voice actress is, and I liked how she sounded in the demo. 

 

Having to have a reason for POC to exist, tho, is a little messed up. It would have been entirely possible to just have some members of the clans be visibly non-white. Travel did exist back then, is what I am saying. They could have been Roman soldiers who were so overcome by their love of haggis or something that they defected. There is room in any setting for POC because POC have existed everywhere in life throughout every time period. That's been proven.  So even places that are supposed to represent real-life places should have brown and black people somewhere, although more generally in the nobility than the peasantry because obviously nobles travelled around more.

 

And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that having trolls and ice-magic probably qualifies Frozen as a fantasy world, and that there should have been quite a few visibly Asian people considering the genetic history of Scandinavia.

 

I also care about how she sounds (duh), but I also care about who gets the credit and money. :/

[Gwydden]

I get that, but that exact line is used to justify the whitewashed casting of so many characters tho-- see Katniss in the hunger games, where woc couldn't even audition. And for a spectacular failure of that sort of post-casting justification logic, see all the people who said the same thing about the Last Airbender after the actors were announced but before the movie actually came out.

 

Gwendoline Christie is, fortunately, definitely a good actress, but it's the pervasive restricting of roles to whites only that makes me want to have the very few characters of color we have go to actors of color. She'd be just as lovely as Sera (since Sera seems like she was meant to be white all along, although don't hold me to this) or a significant NPC a la Meredith.

Katniss was never a woman of color. She had olive skin, e.g. she's white to everyone who isn't American. I think having one of the main characters be black already does an excellent job for representation. That she would be voiced by a white woman to me only reinforces the idea that skin color does not matter.

[Gwydden]

Not so. There's well-documented presence of Roman soldiers during the vague time period Brave was supposed to take place in, and the Romans (esp their army) were deeply, deeply multiethnic.

 

Mostly they wrote home requesting more socks because the found Scotland ****** cold.

So they should have forced black characters into ancient Scotland, Germany, and Scandinavia? That would feel like obvious tokenism. And blackwashing, if that's even a thing. It would be terrible if they tried to represent any race in such a forced manner, and I would personally consider it offensive to both parties involved.

 

And yes, there were black legionnaires in Britain. The movie Centurion portrays this pretty well. But that movie was about Romans at Adrian's Wall, not about Celts in the other side of it.

[ladyoflate]

So they should have forced black characters into ancient Scotland, Germany, and Scandinavia? That would feel like obvious tokenism. And blackwashing, if that's even a thing. It would be terrible if they tried to represent any race in such a forced manner, and I would personally consider it offensive to both parties involved.

 

And yes, there were black legionnaires in Britain. The movie Centurion portrays this pretty well. But that movie was about Romans at Adrian's Wall, not about Celts in the other side of it.

 

-headdesk- Literally they were there in those countries that are supposed to be represented. Literally they existed. Actual facts history and science and genetic testing and portraits from the time period they existed. Archaeological digs they existed. Why did they shoehorn in only white people, that's the bizarre and unrealistic thing. Oh wait, I know why.

 

I'm done. We're not even arguing about the VA for Vivienne anymore.

[Gwydden]

-headdesk- Literally they were there in those countries that are supposed to be represented. Literally they existed. Actual facts history and science and genetic testing and portraits from the time period they existed. Archaeological digs they existed. Why did they shoehorn in only white people, that's the bizarre and unrealistic thing. Oh wait, I know why.

 

I'm done. We're not even arguing about the VA for Vivienne anymore.

Please, relax. I know they were black people there in those time periods, but they weren't the norm, they weren't originally from those places (either they came from somewhere else or their ancestors did) and they are unlikely to have played many, if any significant roles. There's no reason to expect them being represented in any significant way, and if it was done it would likely feel forced. It wouldn't be white people who would feel forced. It would be the black German princess.

 

Think of it this way: if the started shoehorning white people in Aladdin, people would consider it racist, even if there were plenty of whites in the general area and historical period. Why is it okay to shoe horn colored people into dominantly white places and cultures?

 

But you're right, this is about Vivienne. And my point is that as long as the voice actress is good at her job (which I know Gwendoline Christie is) then there shouldn't be a problem. We shouldn't even be noticing how she looks like, and most people certainly won't, since in my experience most people don't bother to know who voices who. The only reason I know of a couple of voice actors is because I came to this forums.

 

PS: I likely wouldn't be considered white by American standards, so I'm not speaking solely from the privileged bench here.

[Dr. Doctor]

If Gwendoline Christie is voicing Vivienne, it'll be interesting to see her playing a role where she's more like Olenna Tyrell than Brienne.

[Neesa]

I feel like Vivienne's design is very much at odds with the idea of "whitewashing" (where making her more ambiguously brown might've been the safer route) which was part of why I was so pleased with her introduction. Still, I wouldn't shrug off having a black woman as her VA; I'd consider it a bonus personally. That said, I also thought the voice sample from the demo sounded like it could be Gwendoline so naturally I couldn't help hoping this was the case since I liked that voice.

[Ispan]

Wow, I can't believe I had to dig all the way back to page 3 to find this thread!  Poor thing

 

I wasn't too interested in romancing Vivienne until I drew this, now I'm definitely feeling the love bug QQ