But it is not done enough, otherwide there probably wouldnt have been such a stink, these things must be semi-consistant, not just once in a blue moon. I think they did a good jub with the vong, but its is clear their is a certain expectation amongst the general fan base. Good or Evil and nothing in between.
All this talk of genetic and racial traits reminds of something I said on here years ago. It's usually a waste of time trying to use real world genetics to explain various human traits and characteristics in the gffa.
I can almost certainly guarantee that they did not think through the implications, because the implications probably never even crossed their mind. No one in charge seems to fathom the great big middle finger they're giving to these groups by deciding that all it takes to be an alien race is to appear "traditionally" Asian, or in Adi Gallia's case of late, it only takes being black with an odd-looking hat.
I was more disturbed by the fact the Mandalorians very explicitly took the women and women alone. Yeah, that was totally about them being waitresses. As for the fact they enslaved Space Mongolians, I'm not so sure about the direct offensiveness.
Regarding the Ming Po, Tholothians, and other Near-Human species of seemingly limited differentiation from baseline humanity, two things. First, not all, or even most, speciation events produce obvious cosmetic differences. For every weird looking Near-Human there ought to be just as many with minimal external changes but internalized variations instead. Cases do exist in Star Wars, the Epicanthix, for example, appear outwadly to be East Asian humans, but have a longer lifespan, so there must be some sort of metabolic difference. Second, species determination is an inexact science, dependent on taxonomic value judgments regarding the variable importance of characters both internal and external and macroscopic and microscopic. The line being 'divergent population' and 'new species' isn't really a line at all, but a gradual continuum, and species determinations are largely dependent upon taxonomic opinion. This is known as the splitters vs. lumpers argument, and there's plenty of infighting regarding the species composition of the genus Homo going on right now, on Earth, based on various human ancestor species. Star Wars seems rather clearly to sit on the splitter side of the equation. This is, from an in-universe perspective quite logical given both the extreme nature of geographic isolation (individual planets) present in the galaxy, and the history of speciesist conflict that makes identity into a weapon. All of the above is not to say, however, that some of these choices have not been made in a rather unenlightened fashion regarding the out-of-universe reaction by actual minority viewers. This is especially true in TCW, which has a younger target audience who cannot be reasonably expected to understand the scientific justification for such labels.
To add on to this, in Earth's distant past there were other, fully separate species of humans that would most likely be indistinguishable from a modern human except for one or two minor differences. In particular, looking at the Ming Po's height and odd proportions, I cannot help but think of the recently discovered "Hobbit" species of human. Though still an odd choice....especially since the Kage from the same season are also alien Asians.
The diversity on Onderon in TCW has been much better than we have seen in the past. The world seems to have white, Mediterranean, black and even some vaguely Indian/Middle Eastern people as well. Much better than, say, Mandalore in TCW. --Adm. Nick
That's because Onderon is a loyal ally to the Republic, and the Mandalorians derive their culture from the monstrous Taung who are the ancestral enemies of galactic civilization.
I miss the Taung. They should reintroduce an armada of them into the "modern era", Crosscurrent style. It'd be nice to have the real, true Mandalorians back. EDIT: Come to think of it, you'd think we'd get more exiles from the past busting through to the future by doing away with their relativistic shields. On the run from the authorities? JUMP TO THE FUTURE! Need to fake your death? JUMP TO THE FUTURE! Want your mother-in-law dead? JUMP TO THE FUTURE!
To be fair, the presence of white blue-eyed blond Aryans in Mandalore is kind of deliberate. You might even argue it explains why they're so nasty to the True Mandalorians.
New Mandalorians - True ones are dead and all and I don’t really think that it was what they were getting at with making some of the people blond and blue eyed. Though yes it is a little iffy.
No, I meant the ones who looked like Maori. The Death Watch in the larger EU was menacing Mandalorian civilians before this anyway. I believe the Nazi allusions are deliberate in TCL primarily because it's not just the blond and blue eyes but also the haircuts, the rhetoric, and the fact the series is ridiculously fond of allusions.
Maybe they do. Entirely possible that Bosbit Matarcher was a lucky (unlucky?) one, and they usually end up much farther ahead.
I think the relativistic shield business is kind of silly. Still, I'll just pretend most people get atomized or dumped into Otherspace.
Mandalorians where always menacing civilians in general as it seems, though the people from Concord don’t seem to share “looks”, neither does the True Mando gang, though granted we see most of those only with helmets on. Isn't at least one of the Death Watch a red head? Could also easily just be a style thing where they dye their hair, plus we get several New Mandos that are not blond.
It could easily be coincidence if you argue about sharing models but I think the idea they're making a deliberate artistic choice makes sense as well. It also nicely fits the story they're trying to tell. Which is a largely peaceful society subverted by people promising a return to military glory.
