Favorite characters, and beyond....

[downbeatplumb]

Although the series was excellent I just could not stomach Thomas Covenant.

One of the most annoyingly wishy washy characters of all time.

I read every one of those books, can't for the life of me remember why.

[Angrboda]

Minor quibble, but Michelle Yeoh is actually Malaysian, not Chinese, though she was more or less based in China. As a result, for a number of movies, she had to learn her lines phonetically as she was not sufficiently familiar with the language. (Though I'm not altogether clear how much of this was due to there being two main Chinese languages, Mandarin and Cantonese, nor what her current linguistic competence is. I've studied some Mandarin, and I have an early Yeoh film that is dubbed in both Mandarin and Cantonese, but I can't tell which is the original language it was filmed in. I guess I should have studied harder.)

[Anomalocaris]

I am told she speaks mandarin with a noticeable cantonese accent, and her parents are ethnic chinese of cantonese extraction.

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@Kichi: I just wish she could have been portrayed by a Japanese woman instead of a Chinese..

Why is it that no one quibbles when a German is played by an Englishmen, nor a Frenchmen by an American, nor Russian by a Egyptian, a Jew by an Indian, nor even a very distinguished Arab by none other than a real young Obiwan Kanobe?

[Angrboda]

I am told she speaks mandarin with a noticeable cantonese accent, and her parents are ethnic chinese of cantonese extraction.

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@Kichi: I just wish she could have been portrayed by a Japanese woman instead of a Chinese..

Why is it that no one quibbles when a German is played by an Englishmen, nor a Frenchmen by an American, nor Russian by a Egyptian, a Jew by an Indian, nor even a very distinguished Arab by none other than a real young Obiwan Kanobe?

The naturalness of Hugh Laurie and Simon Baker's American accents absolutely floors me.

I've got a Nat Geo poster of the different Chinese ethnicities, and there's a lot of variation. On the one hand, you have "all look same" where westerners can't tell Korean, Chinese and Japanese apart, and yet complaints about Chinese actors playing Japanese. Suspension of disbelief is an ill-behaved beast. Still, I'd have trouble watching a black actor play Margaret Thatcher, especially a black man. Raises a whole host of questions about the nature of art and theatrical representation. Like why do we find songs with nonsensical lyrics as meaningful as others. I'm rambling. I'll stop.

[Annik]

I'm really digging the B5 reference, Kay. : D


My favorite character of all time is one Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden (from the books, not that horrible show):

From The Dresden Files

[Autumnlicious]

Armed with but a crowbar and a pheropod, he can take down entire platoons using the world around him as a weapon without a word.

[Zen Badger]

And of course

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Although the series was excellent I just could not stomach Thomas Covenant.

One of the most annoyingly wishy washy characters of all time.

I read every one of those books, can't for the life of me remember why.

The world he wrote about was magnificent, but Covenant????

What a whiney little bitch he was.

[KichigaiNeko]

And of course

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DEATH and Binky!! FTW

My favourite Pratchett characters!

[Napoléon]

Pai Mai from Kill Bill.

[Angrboda]

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse