Author Rick Riordan made Zeus and Annebethe black
Not Disney! Must have felt bad about portraying Greeks as whites.
shareYears ago I was really hyped because I heard of making of Troy tv-series. I was disappointed of the Troy movie, because ten year long war was shown as two week long and no gods at all. When the series came out, I checked the reviews and had to skip the whole series, because of the blackwashing. Achilles was black and some other greeks.
Unfortunately I have to skip this one too, despite I like the actor who plays Zeus.
Your loss. That Troy mini-series was really good and much more accurate to the Iliad. Also, the guy who played Achilles was the best actor on the show!
shareIf the guy who played Achilles was the best actor, then I watch something else with him, but not Troy. It's like casting a Meryl Streep for playing young Martin Luther King. Despite Meryl Streep is a great actress, I don't want to see a movie that is historically in accurate. Or in Troy case, not true to the resource material. It's butchering greek culture. Achilles was white and strait. It doesn't matter if Achilles is played by Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman. I don't watch raceswapped and genderswapped or whateverswapped movies. Factswapping included. When I heard that they are making The Woman King, then I was hyped. Not many big budget movies about African history (excluding Egypt), but when the movie came out, I heard that they did factswapping. In real history those female fighters fought for slavery, in a movie against slavery. Again, hard pass.
I guess I made my point clear. No swapping anything. Not stealing from other cultures and not butchering other cultures. If there are not enough good parts for black actors, then somebody should write them.
About that how that Troy mini-series was really good :) 4.1/10 with some rating-pumping by clearly fake accounts, most likely made by actors themselves and their family members. First reviews that got most upvotes and were most useful, according to others:
1/10
Offensive
Athanatos17313 February 2020
Why such a title for my review you may ask.
Well I am Greek and apparently it's only racist and deemed to be cultural appropriation when you switch the color of a historic character if he's not white. Never mind the fact that the whole thing was horrible in every way possible.
The Iliad is a historic masterpiece, and with the story fully laid out for them, the writers managed to butcher it.
NOT RECOMMENDED.
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1/10
What in the world is this???
ScottM275325 September 2018
Did the writers and producers ever read the Iliad? One of the most iconic and important stories of love and war in ALL written history? Terrible terrible writing, wooden acting, historical facts all wrong, inventions being portrayed that were CENTURIES away from being invented... Horrible!
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2/10
Most horrible..
dim4045 March 2019
Laghfably anacronistic, badly directed, badly played. What a mess; and yet it was made by professionals who should have known better..It's a mystery. Easily one of the worst flicks in recent filn history.
Achilles was a fictional character, so I couldn't care less about the skin color of who plays him.
As far as the Troy rating goes, half the people gave it 1 star, which is just silly. Without even looking because I have no desire to wade through all that toxicity, i'm guessing a huge chunk of those 1 star reviews are from people like yourself who never actually saw the show, but saw multiple black characters and decided to let their racist fingers go to work.
Like I said, your loss, and you'll definitely keep losing out on quality content given the way the world is going and your stringent requirements.
I doesn't matter that Achilles is a fictional character. He's one of the most important character in greek mythology and how he looks is described in the Iliad.
I totally agree about racism and toxicity. It's huge when it comes to Troy mini-series. The hate is unbelievable. So the tv-series producers hate white people and greek so much, that they totally butcher one of the most beloved characters. Where that kind of toxicity and hatred comes from, is beyond me. Greeks are white. So, if some black actor plays Achilles, then it's basically saying that his not actually greek, but from sub-Saharan Africa, because that's where black people are from. It's like a slap to all greeks' faces, like saying "ha-ha, your national hero isn't even a greek, he's african and he's gay". Changing his orientation also changes the source material in very signifant way. One of the very important story-line was Achilles and Agamemnon's fight over a woman named Briseis whom Achilles is in love with. Agamemnon stole Briseis for himself and Achilles refused to fight and greeks started to lose the war. If Achilles was/is gay then it renders this very important storyline to meaningless.
So yes, I don't find those 1-star reviews odd at all. That racist and toxic tv-series totally deserves 1 point. Those showrunners should be banned to make another tv-show ever again.
"guessing a huge chunk of those 1 star reviews are from people like yourself who never actually saw the show, but saw multiple black characters and decided to let their racist fingers go to work"
Based on these reviews I read, those people had watched, because they gave very detailed descriptions about the show, it wasn't a guesswork. And again you and that racism. Like I said before, yes, there was racism. Tv-runners were unbelievable racist. They just hate greeks and white people so much that they couldn't help themselves and they had to butcher one of the most important characters.
" you'll definitely keep losing out on quality content given the way the world is going and your stringent requirements."
No, I don't have any "stringent requirements". It's actually easier to make movies with staying with the source material. Iliad is one of the best and most important stories in the history and those silly showrunners thought they improve it by changing the key elements? Like I said before, changing Achilles race, it implies that he's not greek, it changes totally his origin story, that has to be rewritten then. Changing his orientation from straight to gay, changes one of the most important storylines in Iliad.
It's easier to make a tv-series by staying loyal to the source material. But I guess some people are so racist and toxic that they just can't help themselves.
There were dark skinned Greeks back then as well as now. Mediterranean countries have always had immigrants from North Africa.
shareNo there weren't any black Greeks. Black people are from sub-Saharan Africa. Northern Africa has pretty light skinned people. If you watch some Olympic games long or middle distant races, there are often runners from Algeria, Morocco or Tunesia. Their skin is so light, that sometimes it's even in lighter tone than actual white people. Egyptians also have lighter skin. Rami Malek (born in USA) who played Freddie Mercury, has egyptian parents. I didn't even know that, because he looks like just another white guy.
So no, let's not start re-writing history like "Greeks were black or some Greeks were black". No they weren't. Light or olive skin and Homer described Achilles as blond. So let's stop the silly talk to justify showrunners racism and toxicity. They are evil people and there is no justification for butchering Achilles character.