#all the actors fancast in this either appeared with him or with each other (with the exception of Borgnine)

[doctorbluesmanreturns]

The 1980 heist comedy Wyatt was one of the first to actively reference Goncharov; director Mel Brooks was a fan and inserted a set piece where the band of thieves led by Wyatt Leigh (Burt Reynolds) and F.C. Jackson (Madeline Kahn) have to steal the priceless Portrait of Katya Goncharova so that master forger Simon Petheridge (Marty Feldman) can make a perfect copy of it to replace it with; Cybil Shepherd cameos as his assistant, whose resemblance to the painting’s subject ends up making the extremely difficult heist well-nigh pointless. Brooks had wanted to get Robert De Niro involved as well, but he was ironically enough filming his then-latest collaboration with Martin Scorsese, Raging Bull, at the time.

[serpenteve]

Hi! A lot of antis say that if the Darkling was poc, we would not love him that much. I was wondering if you could give your opinion on that please?

I don't know that I've seen "if the darkling was a poc he wouldn't be as loved" take as much as I've seen people antagonizing Darklina shippers because he's played by a white actor in the Netflix adaption and acting as if both Mal and Alina weren't both white in the books.

The first take is probably coming from a general sense of frustration that white men tend to be able to get away with a lot more compared to their POC counterparts. But I don't think this particular take has much bearing on the Grisha trilogy given all the characters were white in the books and Darklina was always the most popular ship. It's not as if the sole appeal of Darklina only comes from Ben Barnes although I know the antis like to pretend it is.

I find the anti's preoccupation with the race of the show's characters and using that as some kind of proof of their moral superiority not only incredibly exhausting but also just as superficial and performative as the way the show deals with racism itself.

Ironically, before the show racelifted the characters, literally the only character that was speculated to be a man of color was the Darkling himself. Bardugo likely *intended* for him to be perceived as white but we all know how little the fandom cares about her intentions. There's a throwaway line in Demon in the Woods that says "He spoke fluent Shu and Kerch, and could pass as either" that had fans speculating that he could be Shu or half-Shu, especially considering how little information there was about his biological father and that Baghra jumped from place to place. I remember having conversations with mutuals at the time where we all briefly wondered if he could be part Shu based on his book description. My personal headcanon was that he is not even a native Ravkan and his inexplicable love of Ravka, a country that has consistently treated him like crap, comes from desperately wanting a home and sense of belonging. His whole experience of being othered as a Grisha by the local muggles and being othered as a scary shadow summoner by the Grisha themselves lends itself to a metaphor for being a person of color or being part of any minority group. The Darkling literally makes more sense as a person of color and you can still find MOC fancasts for the Darkling under the old #alarkling tag.

But now I'm seeing people either be completely ignorant of this fandom history or pretend like racelifting Alina and Mal magically fixes the problems (and racial caricatures) of the original source material. Alina's racelift is much more organic than Mal's since Alina's parents lived close to the Shu Han-Ravka border anyway. For some reason, they changed this in the show's universe to have her parents die crossing the Fold rather than die in one of the King's border wars 🙄Just so you don't forget who the real antagonist of this show is supposed to be, I guess. Mal's racelift seems entirely superficial. I haven't looked into the background of his casting but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't originally intend for him to be a man of color and then when Archie got cast, they had to sprinkle some random lines into the script. Case in point: Mal only faces racism at the orphanage alongside with Alina. The racism of that scene literally only exists to show why Mal and Alina would be drawn to each other and then it's never brought up again. Mal doesn't face any racism in the Army like Alina does. Mal is able to be judged by other characters based on his actions, bravery, skills, and choices whereas Alina repeatedly judged and othered for her appearance. When we pan out to the other POC characters (Zoya, Inej, Jesper, Nadia, Arken) we find that either these characters also face zero racism OR the script selectively picks and chooses when a POC character will face racism and when they won't. Conveniently, when these other POC characters do face racism (like Inej when she stabs Polina), it's only to manipulate the audience.

All of this, of course, is not even touching on the fact that the main antagonist and central conflict of the series is crushing a rebellion led by the leader of a marginalized group while the heroine hitches her wagon to the imperial monarchy. There is such a massive disconnect between the plot and characters and the show racelifting the heroine and her love interest is coat of very fake woke paint over an incredibly anti-Grisha and anti-minority story.

[margridarnauds]

Okay! This just came to mind BUT...fancast for Bres/Sreng, and your favorites of the Fomorians, TDD, and Fir Bolg, also, fan cast your favorite Ulster Cycle characters! :D

GOD I’ve thought of it a lot, and I’ve never quite come up with someone who FITS. 

Sreng-

He isn’t QUITE as beefy as Sreng should be, and I’d actually rather Sreng not be conventionally attractive. (Personally, my take on Bres/Sreng is Bres doing a Fleur Delacour and being like “I AM GOOD LOOKING ENOUGH FOR BOTH OF US, I THINK.” Personally, I’d LOVE to have it be more region-accurate, as far as getting actors from the relevant regions of Ireland to be them (so, someone from Munster for Sreng, possibly Northern Ireland for Bres, etc.) and I would genuinely love to see someone who’s not white as Sreng, provided it was done well. (Emphasis on ‘well.’) For centuries now, the Fir Bolg have been coded as POC, as writers used them and twisted them into a pro-colonization narrative (”The Tuatha dé were totally right to eradicate this primitive people”), and I would love to see a triumphant reclamation of that, especially since to this day, there’s this idea that Ireland is all white (Hint: It’s not.) But again. It’d have to be done well, and I’m not sure that would be MY take on it to tell because, as is well known and documented, I’m very, very white. 

But, Aidan Turner’s Black Irish, which fits some of the later descriptions of the Fir Bolg, I think he could do a really good job capturing the different dynamics of Sreng’s personality and his development. I think he could REALLY nail Sreng at the beginning, where he’s this young guy in a family that’s tearing itself apart but who is still devoted to his king as he develops into the king of a conquered people. 

Bres - 

I’ll be honest, I’ve NEVER seen anyone who quite fits into my image of Bres. Bres is just…TOO pretty. There’s no one who’s pretty enough to be him. Like, I’ll search for “Hollywood’s Prettiest Actors” and get “Hollywood’s handsomest actors” and see Chris Hemsworth’s face and I’m just like NO. DON’T YOU SEE? If you can picture him cutting wood outside a log cabin, that’s not BRES. 

Personally, I see Lee Pace MORE as Elatha (and again, I’d rather someone actually FROM Ireland play Bres), but he’s also the closest I can come to Bres. On one hand, he’s 40 while Bres is…young when everything begins, but I think he could really sell the snark factor, and come the actual time period for CMT…he would be about the right age, even though Tuatha dé…aging…it’s complicated. But still. Closest thing. And it wouldn’t be the first time we got someone playing a character half their age. 

Fomoire - 

Indech-

Look. I tried to resist it. I really did. Especially given that he looks next to nothing like the actress I’ve ALREADY cast as his daughter. But like. MADS MIKKELSEN AS INDECH. I REPEAT: MADS MIKKELSEN BEING PROBABLY THE MAJOR VILLAIN OF THE TEXT, NEXT TO BRES AND ELATHA.He was going to either HAVE to be either Balor or Indech, and Balor’s…actually not that bad a guy, all things taken into account. Indech, though? Holy SHIT. And he could be BONE-CHILLING. Imagine him saying Indech’s line about grinding the Tuatha dé’s bones to dust, while Bres kind of just looks at him like “This is what I signed up for.” Him killing Duirgen as in the Dindsenchas poem, but doing it almost casually, the same as him swatting a fly. 

Indech’s Daughter-

I will give you a hint to how MUCH I want Katie McGrath as Indech’s Daughter (who I have many, many feelings about at any time of the day despite her brief appearance): There have been times that the only reason I keep on with my WIP is JUST because I know she’s not getting any younger and I NEED to see her there. THE SNARK. THE SCHEMING. And, in my ideal adaption of CMT, we’d see more of her relationship with her brother(s), father, etc., and I think that she could sell it. Do I think her acting is always the best? …Not really, BUT at the same time…KATIE MCGRATH AS INDECH’S DAUGHTER. PLEASE. 

Ochtriallach - 

It is surprisingly hard to find a Scandinavian actor under 40. HOWEVER, I think he could do a good job, even if most of the Vikings style decisions make me want to pull my hair out. We KNOW he can play brutal characters, and Och is…brutal, though I would also want to show a softer side when it comes to his sister/Ruadan. I’m just going to have to accept that the Indechson family is one of those families where no one looks like each other (and where one of them is slightly more…Irish than the other two).

Tethra- Gerard Butler 

Tfw your sister wants to marry some random ass mortal from Ireland, aka the country that you tried to invade, like, two thousand years ago, and Bres is on his bullshit and all you want to do is go fishing. 

Balor - 

Because redheaded Balor IS a hill I’m willing to die on. Just give Kristofer Hivjuan eyepatch and we’re good to go. 

Cethlenn -  

Look, I KNOW “I think you’d do a good job playing a character named ‘Cethlenn of the Crooked Teeth’ who is also the grandmother of one of the main characters in the story” isn’t what EVERYONE would want to hear, especially when she’s not THAT much older than her prospective grandson, but…I think Myanna Buring could do it. (And anyway, aging is fucky with immortals, so)

Indusa - 

Can anyone ELSE play Bres’ only daughter? 

Ruadan - 

Because I’m almost out of young, ginger Irish actors. 

TDD - 

Eriu- 

Alyssa Sutherland. I could REALLY see her rocking it, just from what I’ve seen in Vikings. Eriu’s an interesting figure, and I don’t think she gets enough credit for being the equivalent of a single mother in a society that…while you have different types of marriage, so Bres STILL has inheritance rights with Elatha…there was definitely a stigma. Especially for raising a son who NO ONE knew the father to. (It’s left ambiguous, but my personal read on the text is that Bres was raised by all the women and that Bres was kept out of the loop as far as who his real father was, hence why he asks Eriu later on.) I also would LOVE to see her as the years go on, watching as Bres and Elatha’s relationship breaks down and being in the state of not being able to help her son, because it seems like any choice she makes just drags him closer to his doom, and I think she could really show that, and really give us an Eriu with spirit. 

Bríg-

Look, I’ll be honest here: Bríg is NOT my favorite character. It’s not that I HATE her per se, it’s just that I get rather sick of hearing about her all the time and about how she was SO OPPRESSED by her TERRIBLE ARRANGED MARRIAGE to Bres. (Note: We have NO IDEA why they married, when they married, or how long they were married. There’s a LOT of info you can fill in the blanks on. People take a lot for granted, not least being that Bríg would be the ONLY one who hated being married to someone she didn’t love and was vastly incompatible with.) Like, she has VERY LITTLE to do in terms of the actual myths, she’s not as well-documented as Bres, she doesn’t have as much of a PERSONALITY as Bres, and yet I have to hear about the self-insert version of her 24/7 while people trash my son. 

BUT MY BITTERNESS ASIDE: Bríg…we get very little on her, and so I’m not going to fill in more than needed, but she’s highly associated with the aristocracy of skill. Think of it: Doctors, poets, smiths, ALL of them are the top, top, top of the social ladder in terms of skills, and she’s patroness of all of them. It’s not said whether she dabbles in them herself or not, but she’s obviously interested, and I think Eleanor Tomlinson is very good at being upperclass when needed, even though people most know her as Demelza from Poldark. I also think that, judging from the rest of her career, she could do a very good job showing that kind of gut wrenching grief she shows at Ruadan’s death. (The way I picture that scene going down, it’s BRUTAL, with Bríg being devastated for this boy she’s never really known and furious at Bres for his role in it, furious at the Tuatha dé and the Fomoire alike for their role in bringing it about.) She wouldn’t be a passive Bríg, I think she’d play a Bríg with a little more agency and spark while hopefully not veering into anachronistic territory. 

I don’t necessarily like casting Bríg in particular with an English actress, but…well…she’s a good fit. 

Airmed - 

HELL YEAH SARAH BOLGER. Airmed is…a delicate figure. Like, think of it: She loses two brothers close together (Cian and Miach), the latter of whom she was prevented from even MOURNING because her father was still so insecure and bitter. She’s as brilliant as anyone in her family (keeping in mind that she’s the aunt of LUGH), but…realistically, you’d have to be TERRIFIED of being too smart, after seeing what happened to Miach. Like, the text itself doesn’t do much in terms of giving her a sense of interiority, but I like to imagine that, when her father says “And Airmed shall remain,” he leans over, gives her a fatherly kiss on the forehead, and she tries to repress a shudder. And Sarah Bolger is very, very good at playing aristocratic ladies with that sense of vulnerability while still being poised and elegant. 

Ogma - 

Doesn’t look QUITE as strong as Ogma needs to be, but I think he could sell it. He tends to do a really good job with the “second in command standing loyally by” type of roles, and I think that works really well with what we get of Ogma. 

Lugh - 

Look….Jamie Campbell Bower could rock it. I know, ANOTHER Brit, BUT…he could rock it. He has that kind of androgynous pretty boyness that’s kind of a main thing with Bres, Lugh, and Cú Chulainn, and I think he could portray Lugh as the bitch that he needs to be. Someone dedicated to the Tuatha dé, yes, but also brutally determined to do whatever it takes to make sure that he ends up on top. (Personally, I think he could be utterly terrifying during the scene at Carn úi Neit with Bres.) 

Nuada - 

I’ll be honest, my gut response was “Colin Farrell” but…I already called him for King Eochaid. And John Lynch is a good actor with a long filmography under his belt. And Nuada…he’s a tragic character, but there’s also a dark edge to him. A dark edge to all the TDD, really, and I think he could do it, as well as show Nuada’s vulnerabilities after losing the arm. (Though I’d also be willing to switch Nuada and Eochaid out.)

Uaithne, the Dagda’s harper- 

Look, it was only a matter of time before I cast Hozier as ONE of the immortals; I just thought it would be HILARIOUS if, after the battle, the Dagda is FREAKING OUT because his harpist has been stolen, and then we cut to fucking Hozier strumming out a song while even Bres looks to be having a good time, and then the Dagda, Ogma, and Lugh BURST in and there’s this “Oh shit” moment. I for one think Hozier would make a very good damsel in distress. 

Fir Bolg - 

On one hand, it would almost be a waste given how little he actually gets, but Colin Farrell would make a DEVASTATING King Eochaid. 

Tfw the TDD arrive out of nowhere and try to threaten you at swordpoint and you probably spent your younger days/your father DEFINITELY spent his younger days enslaved in Greece and so you’re sick to death of colonizers and their bullshit and then they kill you in a three on one battle but not before you leave the throne to your cousin whose brother you killed as part of a generations long feud and who is also disturbingly hot for the champion on the other side and OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE YOU DONE. 

Tailtiu- 

Actually had a devil of a time, coming down to Marie Doyle Kennedy or Elena Anaya (the latter of whom had a slight leg up for actually being Spanish), and then I remembered Ruth Negga’s existence and I was like “OH.” I’m not AS familiar with her work on other things, but from what I’ve seen, I think she could do a really dignified take on Tailtiu, where she mourns, but she has to pick herself up off the ground. Tailtiu is a survivor, she’s a woman who left Spain to be with the Fir Bolg (and Eochaid), and then was left a widow, yet managed to become a fixture by being the foster mother to Lugh. (And, ultimately, by marrying Bres’ grandson, which never ceases to be hilarious to me.) I think that we could get a multi-facetted side to her, dealing with her in issues of state as well as her personal life. (I would KILL for some Tailtiu VS Sreng arguments when they’re making the decision to leave or stay.) 

Ulster Cycle:

This will be considerably quicker given I’m not as attached to it as my mythological peeps. 

Blathnat - Evanna Lynch 

My girl. My angel who deserved so much better. Personally, I think Evanna has this…kind of distant, “out there” vibe, which is probably mostly because of knowing her as Luna, and I think that really suits Blathnat. 

Emer- Tamsin Egerton

And yes, ANOTHER English actress. For an Irish/distantly Scandinavian noblewoman. know. I know. But LOOK, she looks very…Emer-ish to me.  

Aiden Gillan - Bricrui or Forgal the Wily 

The man’s made a career being devious and cunning on TV. This is perfect. 

Uathach - Freya Mavor

Aífe - Eva Green

In all fairness, THIS time I didn’t cast an Irish character with a Brit. I just…cast a Scottish character with a French actress. But look, my girl deserves JUSTICE. And I believe Eva Green could give it to her.