sometimes i think about if shadow and bone actually cast characters like tolya and tamar and inej with actors from the kind of background that they are very clearly supposed to have from the book. i think itās great that it is such a diverse show etc but it really feels like they just cast what western audiences would perceive an āasianā character to be e.g., east or southeast asian when the characters of tolya and tamar and clearly supposed to be central asian. leigh bardugoās world building obviously isnāt exact but the same way you can gather that kaz and wylan are effectively dutch and nina is effectively russian, anyone actually paying attention would notice that inej is meant to be roma and tolya and tamar are from an unspecific central asian background (probably kazakh or kyrghyz). and literally no one is talking about this:/ like this show has such an opportunity to give representation to two groups who are almost never shown is western media except from harmful stereotypes and they really just went no we are not going to do that! and itās literally so funny because you can see that they are trying to make stuff about the characters thatās in the book (such as inej being effectively an orthodox christian) make sense with her being south asian in the show and justā¦have no idea what to do itās likes bestie u are creating ur own problems here and i think amita suman is really good and there definitely needs to be waaay more south asian rep than there is currently but just not at the expense of other marginalised groups?? like that doesnāt feel like my progress to me! and it really gives the impression that leigh bardugo has written these particular characters as being from cultures that she does not understand, taken elements from their culture and then when it comes to the huge million dollar netflix show that everyone is talking about doesnāt then know about about the people she is supposedly representing to make it clear what their backgrounds are and that they should be represented accurately! but who knows itās probably not her fault because most people watching would just accept the casting choices at face value and not this hmm wait a second so maybe none of this matters but i just think that if you write characters as central asian or roma you should cast people with central asian and roma heritage to play them on screen š
