fancast - Trickster series (Tamora Pierce)
Jun. 7th, 2013 01:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaydeefalls
So over on Tumblr, I made a Tortall fancast for the Trickster books, because every now and then an interesting Alanna or Daine fancast pops up on my dash but I've never seen anyone care about Aly. And I care about Aly an AWFUL LOT, okay, in the realm of awesome Tamora Pierce characters she's my actualfax favorite. And I've been rereading those books again and reminded of how awesome she is.
Don't get me wrong, I imprinted hard on Alanna at like age ten, and the Song of the Lioness and Immortals quartets were foundational texts of my childhood. But Aly is a trickster and a spy and a flirt and 100% irreverent at all times, and she's kind of my favorite. And while I know there are problematic aspects of the worldbuilding in those books -- starting from the fact that the story of an enslaved race rising up against its white oppressors is told from the POV of, y'know, a WHITE character -- it also makes it very clear that Aly is NOT the hero of this story, and there are buckets and buckets of awesome, three-dimensional characters of color, as well as all different sorts of women being real people and interacting with each other in real ways and strong female friendships ALL OVER THE PLACE, and political intrigue and spying and Queen Dove of my Heart (and also the Copper Isles), and I just love those books a lot okay.
Fancast because it was fun to have to come up with all these nifty POC characters without having to resort to racebending for a change. The Copper Islanders aren't based on any one particular culture, but we know they're darker-skinned than the European-based Tortallans, but very distinct from either the African-based Carthakis or the Japanese-based Yamanis, so I went for the Indian subcontinent in terms of casting, without trying to stick to one particular region (as there's a fair bit of variety amongst the raka people themselves). The luarin characters are white. Nawat was interesting to me, since it's clearly stated in the book that he's neither raka nor luarin, so although a part of me yearns to see Dev Patel in that role, I went for a lighter-skinned British-Pakistani actor instead.
None of the actors are quite the right age -- Aly/Sarai/Dove are all too old for those roles, technically, but I don't know many talented teenage actresses, so I went for the right look instead. And, technically, Sarai and Dove should both be mixed-race actresses, but I went with actresses I was actually familiar with instead. So:
Aly of Pirate’s Swoop - Natalie Dormer
Nawat Crow - Riz Ahmed
Saraiyu Balitang - Freida Pinto
Dovasary Balitang - Amara Karan
Ulasim Dodeka - Naveen Andrews
Chenaol - Meera Syal
Fesgao Yibenu - Sendhil Ramamurthy
Duchess Winnamine Balitang - Jennifer Ehle
Duke Mequen Balitang - Paul McGann
Lady Nuritin Balitang - Helen Mirren
Honorable mentions go to Jason Isaacs as Lord Rubinyan, Dev Patel as Ysul, and Indira Varma as Pembery, but I didn't have time/space/the will to cast all the secondary characters.
No, I really don't know why I spent all evening doing this.
Don't get me wrong, I imprinted hard on Alanna at like age ten, and the Song of the Lioness and Immortals quartets were foundational texts of my childhood. But Aly is a trickster and a spy and a flirt and 100% irreverent at all times, and she's kind of my favorite. And while I know there are problematic aspects of the worldbuilding in those books -- starting from the fact that the story of an enslaved race rising up against its white oppressors is told from the POV of, y'know, a WHITE character -- it also makes it very clear that Aly is NOT the hero of this story, and there are buckets and buckets of awesome, three-dimensional characters of color, as well as all different sorts of women being real people and interacting with each other in real ways and strong female friendships ALL OVER THE PLACE, and political intrigue and spying and Queen Dove of my Heart (and also the Copper Isles), and I just love those books a lot okay.
Fancast because it was fun to have to come up with all these nifty POC characters without having to resort to racebending for a change. The Copper Islanders aren't based on any one particular culture, but we know they're darker-skinned than the European-based Tortallans, but very distinct from either the African-based Carthakis or the Japanese-based Yamanis, so I went for the Indian subcontinent in terms of casting, without trying to stick to one particular region (as there's a fair bit of variety amongst the raka people themselves). The luarin characters are white. Nawat was interesting to me, since it's clearly stated in the book that he's neither raka nor luarin, so although a part of me yearns to see Dev Patel in that role, I went for a lighter-skinned British-Pakistani actor instead.
None of the actors are quite the right age -- Aly/Sarai/Dove are all too old for those roles, technically, but I don't know many talented teenage actresses, so I went for the right look instead. And, technically, Sarai and Dove should both be mixed-race actresses, but I went with actresses I was actually familiar with instead. So:
Aly of Pirate’s Swoop - Natalie Dormer
Nawat Crow - Riz Ahmed
Saraiyu Balitang - Freida Pinto
Dovasary Balitang - Amara Karan
Ulasim Dodeka - Naveen Andrews
Chenaol - Meera Syal
Fesgao Yibenu - Sendhil Ramamurthy
Duchess Winnamine Balitang - Jennifer Ehle
Duke Mequen Balitang - Paul McGann
Lady Nuritin Balitang - Helen Mirren
Honorable mentions go to Jason Isaacs as Lord Rubinyan, Dev Patel as Ysul, and Indira Varma as Pembery, but I didn't have time/space/the will to cast all the secondary characters.
No, I really don't know why I spent all evening doing this.
