In light of the recent casting decisions for the live action Avatar: The Last Air Bender movie, many people believe that intentions behind these choices of actors were inherently discriminatory. Nearly all the heroes of the story (Air, Water, and Earth Nations) are cast as Caucasian actors while the villains (the fire nation) consists of a combination of several minorities. What’s worse, this was does not seem to be an unintentional hiccup due to poor oversight but rather an intentional direction set by directors.

Some die hard fans of the series believe that every member of every nation should be cast as from the background that they vaguely represented in the series, with no room for exception or Caucasian/African American actors of any sort. That too, is a poor decision in my opinion. While it is true that the Aztecs inspired Ancient Firebenders, Eskimo’s inspired Water Benders, shoaling monks inspired Airbenders, and so forth, decisions in casting should not be based on this. This too would be inherently discriminatory and an equal affront to the human rights.

The Avatar cartoon was able to tastefully execute this subtle element of the series due to the fact that it occurred in animation. The art allowed for a simplification of the natural world while omitting race-based caricature of any character designs. A subtle change in how lines curved and a marginally different color palette represented the only difference in ethnicities. Voice actors were then hired not based on race but who best fitted and acted the part. Adding to the fact that the series took place not in Asia but an Asian inspired fantasy world, and one of many elements of fantasy multiculturalism was subtlety added to the series.

Live action does not have the luxury to exercise such techniques. Consequently, if race based decisions were used in casting in any direction discrimination would occur. It could occur with an actor in a main role using make up to look like another ethnicity, extras being forced to cover their faces in the background, and all other sorts of unnecessary and degrading possibilities. In short, any sort of racial motivation in casting would cause discrimination for the movie series.

Of course, in some films race based motivation in casting would obviously be necessary. Movies about World War II or biographical adaptations of civil rights leaders are prime examples. But I think every fan can agree that the Avatar series was not about china vs japan vs Aztecs vs india. It was about Fire vs Air, Earth, and Water. The story was set in a fantasy setting in a separate world. True, there were obvious inspirations from different cultures in every country, but the nations of the four elements were not those civilizations. They became their nations with their own cultures!

Fire nations had regular firework shows and loved spicy meat dishes. The air nation had sports games that involved riding around on balls of wind. The water nation sailed by controlling the waves and crafted their ships with this in mind. These are just a few examples on how the nations were their own cultures and not the ones that inspired them.

My overall point is this. I disagree with the current casting decisions for the Avatar movie wholly and completely. It has a tone that evokes, for a lack of better words, white supremacy. But to swing completely in the other direction would be equally as bad.

I propose a new casting direction for those responsible of the Avatar movie. One that will involve a small, painless departure from the original series. Make the world of Avatar multicultural, but in the sense that every nation houses people of every ethnicity. Have every nation be inhabited by people that represent different backgrounds. Instead of concentrating on race, concentrate on the cultures within the show. Delve deep into the cultures of fire and water and by having very devout prop director’s work on unique aspects of the show. Be like the people who worked on The of the Rings who saw Rohan and Gondor instead of the France and the Holy Roman Empire. They delved deep into Tolkein mythology and worked and created wonderful little details like a Rohan sword hilt being ideal for horseback fighting.

I would not care about Sokka being cast by a Caucasian, Toph being cast as an African American, and so forth as long as they truly represent the characters they play and the nations they come from. For the Avatar series, race doesn't need to be apart of that. Joss Whedon showed in Firefly that in an alternative world/future people could represent cultures they’re physical features wouldn’t normally be associated with.

In short, the world of Avatar consisted of four nations crafted after the four elements. These nations drew inspiration from several cultures but in the end were unique in among themselves. To make casting decisions based on the cultures that vaguely inspired the nations would cause unnecessary racial discrimination for an unimportant part of the series. Since the story of Avatar takes place in a fantasy world, every nation can be turned into a melting pot of sorts and story direction should concentrate on what made those nations unique. This would provide what I believe to be the ideal solution to the currently racist casting decisions behind the movie.