hot take but… i’m not happy with vivi’s casting in the one piece live action.
and before anyone starts—this isn’t about “race” in the shallow sense, and it’s not a personal attack on the actress. this is about cultural erasure and orientalism, and i’m saying this as an egyptian and a middle eastern person who’s tired of seeing this exact pattern in hollywood.
alabasta in one piece is very clearly inspired by middle eastern and north african cultures—from the desert kingdom setting, to the architecture that echoes egypt and mesopotamia, to the clothing and even the political history woven into the arc. when a live action adaptation chooses not to reflect that heritage in its casting, it’s not just “creative liberty.” it’s part of a bigger, exhausting trend where mena cultures are mined for aesthetics and “exotic” vibes, but mena people themselves are erased from the story.
it’s not about “matching appearance”—it’s about opportunity. roles that are openly inspired by middle eastern culture are rare in mainstream media. and when they do exist, they often go to non-mena actors, while actual middle eastern and north african actors are rarely considered for anything outside of stereotypes: terrorists, background merchants, nameless “exotic” figures.
this is what orientalism looks like in modern media: take the architecture, the clothes, the sand dunes, the political drama—but strip away the people it came from. and when those people ask why, they get told they’re overreacting.
i don’t blame the actress. i blame the industry that continues to borrow from my culture while making it clear it doesn’t actually want us in the picture.
