Solo Tetherball Champ said:
bluefire579 said:
Solo Tetherball Champ said:
On the other hand, the randomized diversity in a medieval fantasy setting like The Witcher pulled me out of the show a bit the when I first watched it. It's a bit odd to see black and asian actors wandering around what is clearly a setting inspired by medieval Europe. Contrast that to LOTR: one of the reasons it worked was that the viewer felt that they were looking through a window at long lost civilizations. One doesn't see the sort of diversity we see in major (western) cities back then. Even the big imperial centers of the past would still be overwhelmingly dominated by natives of that region.
Spain was ruled by Muslims for centuries. Poland (where the Witcher author is based, though in interviews he mentions pulling from mythologies of many different cultures) was invaded by the Mongols multiple times and had another group of Central Asian peoples called the Tartars settle there in the 1400s. Southeast Europe up through Hungary had multiple back and forths with the Ottomans which results in Muslim populations in the area to this day. Muslim artifacts have been found in Scandinavian countries dating back to the Viking times. And that's just a few examples off the top of my head.
None of which disproves anything of what I said.
Are you trying to argue that a 12th century Scandinavian village, even a capital city, would look like a modern day New York City? That is the kind of diversity I'm arguing against. It didn't exist.
This seems like a silly thing to have an issue with. It may be "inspired by" something from our history, but its still a magical realm that doesn't exist.