Joss Wheden answers question about the lack of Asians in Firefly

[james_davis_nicoll]

Recently someone asked Whedon about the whole "no Asians in a setting supposedly heavily influenced by China" thing:

The questioner's account of the encounter

The questioner knew they'd have to be careful about the phrasing of any follow up question lest irate Firefly fans tear him limb from limb, like an Orpheus confronted by stars-and-bars waving Maenads, which sadly precluded a follow-up question from being asked at all.

In Whedon's defense, when you're making a thinly veiled tribute to the degenerates of the failed slaver rebellion in the form of a hack Bat Durston TV show and movie, it's hard to remember to polish the patina of one's supposed liberalism with a more inclusive casting policy.

Comments

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

I vaguely recall that Whedon avoided the FTL handwave by falling back on the terraforming handwave. And the whole idea of the Reivers is just hilarious.

My general impression of Whedon's settings is that he's good at broad B-movie-style metaphors that viewers can invest with their own interpretation, and he's bad at settings that actually require consistent detail. And subtlety, he's bad at subtlety.