Finn Jones cast as Iron Fist, people inexplicably take offence to his race

[JimB]

Is that so, eh? I read about it a little more, and man, I gotta say; that's precarious concept for a superhero. I'm not surprised minorities would want an Asian actor for that role.

And it's not that I personally think there's anything inherently offensive about a white guy learning to adopt another ethnicity's belief system. Ideas do not belong to anyone, let alone to any race or nationality. I just wish the white guy who fell into the city on accident wasn't better at their objectively teachable skills than the people who had been living there and learning this shit all their lives. It's a little fucked up.

Notice it only became a "Generally regarded as an ethnic slur" during World War II. That's it. World War II is over.

You yourself quote the words "and after" in your post, you know. "During and after the events of World War II."

I'm not doing this shit where we dissect each other's post to the letter to avoid actually arguing the point and instead picking out any discrepancies to make the other party look like a fool as much as possible.

Then you and I will have very little to talk about, because this is a text-based medium and my understanding of the words you use is the only method I have to try to comprehend what you are communicating. To date, my understanding of your intent is, "I hate SJWs for doing things I don't hate myself for, and I hate them so much I'm going to create an account here for no other reason that to spew my hate." If you have actual points underneath all that hate, then I am not able to discern them through the vitriol, the hyperbole, and the hypocrisy; and I will not accept responsibility for not seeing past the words you choose to somehow psychically intuit the apparently ineffable truth you think you're spreading.

I don't need to be telepathic to know how you are because you have over two hand a half thousand fucking posts for me to determine it from.

I look forward to you finding and quoting the posts where I talk about cis scum or whatever else it is you think I believe.

I do contend however that most of my post was taking shots at SJWs in general and you do not fall under the usual category of such though you retain the insufferable and inflammatory snark of one, which is what set me off to begin with.

Yes, I certainly do have such a tone. If you think I have been passive-aggressive, TheJebus, then let me be as explicit as I know how: I do not respect your position. You insist no one cares in the same breath that you describe people who care, and you demonstrate your ostensible lack of interest by signing up for an account and going off on long, spiteful rants against your enemies. You act like anyone or anything is being harmed by a bunch of internet curmudgeons saying, "Boy, it sure would be nice if the kung fu master from the mystical Asian city was actually Asian himself," and then you argue that anyone arguing about it is being irresponsible by not arguing about more important things, apparently with no self-awareness that you are arguing about the same thing you're condemning everyone else for arguing about. You hold yourself to a standard far less than the people you condemn, and in the face of such hypocrisy I cannot convince myself you actually have a point beyond simple hate of your perceived oppressors, so I will not respond to an illusory point over what seems to be the real one: "You're all PC fascists, so fuck you."

 

[Areloch]

snip

The difficulty with racism is that it's not such a straight-up kinda thing. A large part of it comes from power imbalances and the idea of the "White Savior" was a very real thing with a very real impact for the last 400-500-ish years.

The problem with the "White Savior" culminated in the 19th century idea of the White Man's Burden [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man%27s_Burden], how colonial and 'new nations' treated native people in their attempts to 'civilize' them. For example how the white Canadian and Australian governments 'educated' their aboriginal populations, in the case of the latter until deep in the 20th century. Or how the English treated the Indians, how the Belgians treated the Congolese. That stuff has in many cases only ended very recently, and in most cases only the worst excesses of it.

It'd be foolish to believe that in a few short decades we've erased everything related to it from our culture. So what's left are more minor, insidious expressions of that zeitgeist. Iron Fist is like that. That's what makes it problematic and difficult to translate to this day and age. You're right that they can't just make him Asian and leave it at that. That'd simply make him another stereotype. But to play his character straight like they did in the 70's would be equally silly.

Marvel is definitely in a bit of a pickle here and they'll have to get creative if they want to save face.

Well if the character is too "problematic" then just leave them by the wayside, I guess. The fact of the matter is, if something is suddenly acceptable because they're not "Insert race here", then it's racism.

They've basically got 4 options:
1) Leave it as the original, and accept the "insidious expressions of zeitgeist"
2) Curb to racism and make it acceptable by making it any race but the problematic one
3) Make them specifically Asian, which hooks lightly to fix 2 but also introduces the probability of people whining about stereotypes
4) Drop the idea of a remake

I mean, really, if we apply the idea to the more mundane, it really feels skeevy to apply the same logic, doesn't it?

"This white person came into our monastery and learned the ways of Kung-Fu and happened to become the best there ever was!"
"This black person came into our Italian restaurant and learned the ways of our culture's cuisine and became the best there ever was!"

It just feels really weak to say "No no, you can't have a portrayal like this because people that shared the same skin tone were dicks in the past".

Besides, I just now read the summary of Iron Fist's history, and it's not even a case of 'White Savior'.
His dad was raised at the magical city as the leader's son then went back to the states. Got married, had a kid, came back and he and his wife were murdered and the son learned mystic martial arts from the Mystic society out of a desire for vengeance over his murdered parents. After all that he decides to use his training and skill to be a super hero back in the states.

He's essentially Kung-Fu batman. He's not even a case of 'White Savior', so whining about a white dude being good at martial arts feels extra stupid.

 

[SirSullymore]

Maybe it will be an interesting story with likeable characters and the race of said characters will be a non-issue.

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

I hate to break it to you, but this version of Iron Fist, isn't going to embody 70's kung fu movies. He's going to be a 2017 character. Sorry. And I'm sorry, but I've seen a lot of the 70's kung fu movies, and yeah, most of the time the acting sucked. Like REALLY sucked. To the point where we appreciate the terrible acting of those movies. And while I enjoy a good martial arts sequence as much as the next person, I don't believe that's the only thing a show has to have, simply because the main character is a martial artist. Bruce Lee was a great martial artist, he was a mediocre actor, and the other actors in his movies were mediocre at best. I'd rather have a good set of actors for the acting, and a good set of stunt actors for the stunting.

You have a point, but Finn Jones doesn't strike me as having much in the way of acting chops either.

 

[Zontar]

Yep.

Yet another thread by an anti-PC individual (I had another word in mind but the last thing I need is another strike from the Moderators), that over-exaggerates something trivial into a big deal. I don't see outrage at this casting, I see disappointment and I can see why people would be disappointed by Iron Fist not being given a race lift.

While I'll admit it was originally closed off after posting, I've found an archive of the tweet that shows that yes, there where plenty of people outraged about it. https://archive.is/Nb5hN

And while I am openly and gladly anti-PC (how can anyone from Quebec not be given we as a society and as a culture openly despise such thinking) I fail to see how that functions as a place-holder for an insult given how being anti-PC isn't an insult, and hell with the negative connotations the inverse would logically be true given how most people generally hold a negative opinion of being PC.

 

[JimB]

*slaps wrist* Bad Jim! Don't feed the thing I am not allowed to mention per the rules of this forum!

Sorry, I couldn't resist. This will be the last one.

So you're not going to argue my point because I called you out on your shit in a way you didn't like?

That is a very interesting misreading of the text, and one that I think you have to deliberately ignore several explicit parts of what I wrote to arrive at, but please, do tell yourself whatever you have to in order to believe you hold moral high ground here.

 

[happyninja42]

snip

So you're not going to argue my point because I called you out on your shit in a way you didn't like?

Wow.... I wonder what that reminds me of.

snip

As if being a snarky **** is better. I'm not playing that game.

Lol, well you're right about that. You won't be playing for very long at all with that attitude.

 

[Simonism451]

Sure, Jackie Chan movies are fun, but would you say they are "good" movies? Jackie can fight, and stunt his ass out of anything, but he isn't a great actor. I'm sorry, he's not. And if you are just wanting an "ok show, with some cool action in it", then sure, go find some crappy actor with a chiseled jawline, and smoldering eyes, that can't act for shit, but who cares, because he's hot, and looks good sweaty and shirtless, and let him martial arts his way into a mediocre show, with mediocre quality. Me personally, I want more than that. To me, fight scenes are set pieces. Like the Hallway Scene in Daredevil. It is an awesome bit of choreography, but it doesn't have as much weight to it, if we hadn't had an entire episode of the acting from Daredevil, where we learn what he cares about in life, and what he is willing to fight for, and why. If we didn't feel the amount of pain, and anguish, and exhaustion he was feeling, leading up to that climactic fight, and if the actor couldn't sell the emotional intensity of it the scene would've been far less amazing than it was. And thatrequires a good actor, who is good at acting, not fighting.

Yes, I would say Jackie Chan movies are "good" movies, just like I would say that Kadinsky made "good" paintings, even though both are maybe not that great at doing certain things that other movies or paintings are good at, namely acting (although I would argue that Chan is actually pretty good at selling the emotions his characters are feeling at almost every moment. Granted, they are usually not very complex or "deep" emotions, but his delivery is usually pretty effective (and not to mention takes a great lot of skill when he's acting with his full body instead of mostly his face) or, in the case of a Kadinsky painting depicting a recognisable object or scenery, yet, I'd say both excel at utilising the methods of their medium in other ways to evoke emotions (in specific parts of the audience at least. Sometimes things aren't just your cup of tea) that are just as valid as those evoked by pieces of another style.
The exhilarating thrill of precise movement (they're called "movies" for a reason" in an action scene or the evocative use of abstract shapes and colours on a canvas, to me, affect me just as much as Charlie Cox whinging about catholicism for 40 minutes or the careful composition of a Jacques Louis David painting.

 

[happyninja42]

snip

You have a point, but Finn Jones doesn't strike me as having much in the way of acting chops either.

Now that's a fair discussion point in my opinion. We can debate the quality of the actor's abilities all day, and that's fine. I personally think he's pretty good. I enjoyed his performances in GoT well enough, and I'm more familiar with his career than the 2 they got to captain Daredevil and JJ. But both of those actors did just fine in my opinion, so as long as he's got good direction, and a good writing team, I'm comfortable with him being able to bring a good performance to the role. Of course, your mileage may vary.

 

[Cowabungaa]

The fact of the matter is, if something is suddenly acceptable because they're not "Insert race here", then it's racism.

Well, no. That was part of my point; racism isn't so simple. It's a relativistic thing that depends a lot of context. That's why you can't simply apply the same reasoning to other situations, racism doesn't work that way.

As for the trope itself, Iron Fist definitely fits. For that to happen he doesn't have to literally be the only guy who can save insert-fake-Asian-country-here using their own cultural expressions. What does happen however, is a white guy discovering ancient kung fu magic, being 'the best evah' at the monastery he trains at and then become a superhero with those skills, surpassing all the actual Asian students on pretty much every level. That's what makes it iffy.

Now, I like to believe that there's more options than the ones you listed. They could turn the character topsy-turvy and do something interesting with it. Considering Marvel's recent track record I think it's plausible they go that way. But I can totally understand why minority folks would've liked to see this character become actually Asian.

 

[Parasondox]

snip

So you're not going to argue my point because I called you out on your shit in a way you didn't like?

Wow.... I wonder what that reminds me of.

snip

As if being a snarky **** is better. I'm not playing that game.

*Drinking a glass of milk*

A simple friendly heads up doesn't hurt but oh well. Good luck dear sir/madam.

 

[Zontar]

You found an angry person on Twitter, and in your mind, that's a movement. You must live in horror of a billion different movements.

I never used the term "movement", I called it "people", the plural of "person" and the only accurate description of the fact there is a group that is larger then a single person taking issue with the casting based only on race.

I don't see how you can see the OP and come to the conclusion there is a movement involved.

 

[SecondPrize]

Racists gonna racist, I guess. It bears noting that Rand doesn't become the best at Alien Kung Fu and also kills the Immortal Tree like a dick and fucks off and doesn't fix his shit for decades. Savior, he is not.

You found an angry person on Twitter, and in your mind, that's a movement. You must live in horror of a billion different movements.

I never used the term "movement", I called it "people", the plural of "person" and the only accurate description of the fact there is a group that is larger then a single person taking issue with the casting based only on race.

I don't see how you can see the OP and come to the conclusion there is a movement involved.

If pretty much all of the entertainment press can write stories about the internet losing its collective shit and coming out as racist after John Boyega was in the Star Wars trailer because they found some actual trolls tweeting about it then I don't see why that guy can't have this one. His post is internet journalism caliber stuff, take that as you will.

 

[tgbennett30]

Guy going to a far-off place and learning their stuff for a brief period and outdoing them at it - just to play a goofy devil's advocate, that isn't horrifically implausible - an American named BJ Penn started training Brazilian jiujitsu at age 19, moved to Brazil a few years later to train with the top competitors, got his black belt at 22 in 2000, and a few weeks later he won the world championships and defeated a fair number of Brazilians who had been doing this stuff since childhood. He was the first non-Brazilian world champ. He had no martial arts training prior to this point, either.

Perhaps understandably, a fair number of Brazilian folks were perturbed by this....

Anyway, carry on with the political sniping ;-)

 

[happyninja42]

Sure, Jackie Chan movies are fun, but would you say they are "good" movies? Jackie can fight, and stunt his ass out of anything, but he isn't a great actor. I'm sorry, he's not. And if you are just wanting an "ok show, with some cool action in it", then sure, go find some crappy actor with a chiseled jawline, and smoldering eyes, that can't act for shit, but who cares, because he's hot, and looks good sweaty and shirtless, and let him martial arts his way into a mediocre show, with mediocre quality. Me personally, I want more than that. To me, fight scenes are set pieces. Like the Hallway Scene in Daredevil. It is an awesome bit of choreography, but it doesn't have as much weight to it, if we hadn't had an entire episode of the acting from Daredevil, where we learn what he cares about in life, and what he is willing to fight for, and why. If we didn't feel the amount of pain, and anguish, and exhaustion he was feeling, leading up to that climactic fight, and if the actor couldn't sell the emotional intensity of it the scene would've been far less amazing than it was. And thatrequires a good actor, who is good at acting, not fighting.

Yes, I would say Jackie Chan movies are "good" movies, just like I would say that Kadinsky made "good" paintings, even though both are maybe not that great at doing certain things that other movies or paintings are good at, namely acting (although I would argue that Chan is actually pretty good at selling the emotions his characters are feeling at almost every moment. Granted, they are usually not very complex or "deep" emotions, but his delivery is usually pretty effective (and not to mention takes a great lot of skill when he's acting with his full body instead of mostly his face) or, in the case of a Kadinsky painting depicting a recognisable object or scenery, yet, I'd say both excel at utilising the methods of their medium in other ways to evoke emotions (in specific parts of the audience at least. Sometimes things aren't just your cup of tea) that are just as valid as those evoked by pieces of another style.
The exhilarating thrill of precise movement (they're called "movies" for a reason" in an action scene or the evocative use of abstract shapes and colours on a canvas, to me, affect me just as much as Charlie Cox whinging about catholicism for 40 minutes or the careful composition of a Jacques Louis David painting.

Since I have no frame of reference regarding the painters you've mentioned, I'll just take your word on that.

I never said Jackie Chan was a bad actor, I said he wasn't a great actor. To clarify, the set of skills that man has focused his life towards, has been his martial arts work. It's very apparent, given the skill with which his fight scenes go. But his acting is not his greatest trait. Sure he's good, he's been doing movies for decades, so just by simple experience and repetition, he's likely improved, but I still wouldn't say he's an actor first, and a martial artist second. He's had some great roles, don't get me wrong. I fucking loved him in the remake of The Karate Kid. He really sold that role of the broken man, but I think, part of that was that his character was basically a variation on himself. An old martial arts expert. It's not like he had to stretch out of his comfort zone too much to play that character. xD But for the most part, he does ok roles in ok movies, that never really get touted as huge icons of acting brilliance. And that's fine, they don't have to be.

But given what the Netflix Marvel franchise seems to be pushing for. "Serious, Dramatic, Heroic characters", and not just "lots of flashy bang and pow", then I still stand by the emphasis on finding a good actorfirst, and martial artist second. If they can find a person who can do both, great! But I think we can all agree that finding someone who is both a high quality actor, capable of captaining their own show, and also be as equally good at martial arts, is very rare. In fact, the only person I can think of that comes close, is Adrian Paul, from the Highlander series. And as much as I love that show, he wasn't a great actor. He was better than most, and got better over time as he settled into the character, but he wasn't great.

Now I don't know if Finn will be "great" either, but I do think that given his profession is acting, that he will be more likely to sell me on the emotional struggle, and mental hurdles the character has to deal with, which is honestly what will keep me watching. If you can't make me empathize, and root for your hero, because I feel his/her struggles, and want to see him/her overcome them, then I'm not going to watch your show, no matter how much flashy martial arts you have, or scantily clad babes.

 

[Areloch]

The fact of the matter is, if something is suddenly acceptable because they're not "Insert race here", then it's racism.

Well, no. That was part of my point; racism isn't so simple. It's a relativistic thing that depends a lot of context. That's why you can't simply apply the same reasoning to other situations, racism doesn't work that way.

Eh? Racism is hatred or prejudice based on race. Going '_____ race can't do it because they're that race' is a prejudice(or hatred) based purely on their race and not other factors, which fits the definition.

As for the trope itself, Iron Fist definitely fits. For that to happen he doesn't have to literally be the only guy who can save insert-fake-Asian-country-here using their own cultural expressions. What does happen however, is a white guy discovering ancient kung fu magic, being 'the best evah' at the monastery he trains at and then become a superhero with those skills, surpassing all the actual Asian students on pretty much every level. That's what makes it iffy.

So a character of any race that comes in and happens to be the best at ______ would fall to the 'Outsider savior' trope, even if they don't actually save or command or lead the culture at all still falls to the 'Outsider savior' trope?

From wikipedia:

In film, the white savior is a narrative trope in which a white character rescues people of color from their plight.[1] The trope has an extensive history in cinema of the United States.[2] The white savior is portrayed as messianic and often learns something about himself or herself in the process of rescuing

Because definitions I'm finding of the trope seem to require that they have to rescue or 'save' the non-white culture. By the broader "white guy happens to be the best" definition, that means that a movie where a white guy shows up and plays better basketball than the black guys on his team is an example of the 'White Savior' trope, which hopefully we'll agree is kind of silly.

And my point is, if White Savior is bad, but say, Black Savior is fine or Asian Savior is fine, then that implies that ONLY white people helping a culture(or apparently being better at something than the culture) is problematic. Which falls back to the definition of racism.

Now, I like to believe that there's more options than the ones you listed. They could turn the character topsy-turvy and do something interesting with it. Considering Marvel's recent track record I think it's plausible they go that way. But I can totally understand why minority folks would've liked to see this character become actually Asian.

Yeah, it's entirely probable they'll come up with a 5th option. I'm of the opinion that either a) they stick with the story as-is, or b) they come up with whatever option 5 is and it's a interesting twist as opposed to a lazy 'If we make him not-white it's no longer problematic'.

 

[The Jovian]

snip

While I'll admit it was originally closed off after posting, I've found an archive of the tweet that shows that yes, there where plenty of people outraged about it. https://archive.is/Nb5hN

And while I am openly and gladly anti-PC (how can anyone from Quebec not be given we as a society and as a culture openly despise such thinking) I fail to see how that functions as a place-holder for an insult given how being anti-PC isn't an insult, and hell with the negative connotations the inverse would logically be true given how most people generally hold a negative opinion of being PC.

It wasn't meant to be an insult, if you don't like political correctness you're more than welcome to not like it, the word "individual" was meant as a placeholder (because I would've said something much more impolite than "individual"), sorry if I didn't made it clear. What I have a problem with is the attitude of anti-PC individuals like yourself, you are making a big deal out of nothing. I checked the twitter conversation and, once again, I don't see outrage, I see exasperated disappointment, outrage would've been her outright calling Marvel racist for not making Iron Fist Asian. It gives me the impression that you think that any negative opinion, that you don't agree with, counts as outrage. Also the article you gave a link to, lists much better and more understandable reasons for why Iron Fist should be Asian than the standard "more diversity" argument given by PC individuals (although that argument is still present).

For example:

What does change, however, in making Danny non-white is that it removes the white savior syndrome of the original story. In the comics, it turns out Danny is the most gifted student Lei Kung had ever trained. Because of course he is. For all the fans who might decry an Iron Fist racebend, do you really want yet another white-guy-is-better-at-being-Asian-than-the-Asians story? But if Danny is Asian American, the scenes of him embracing the ways of K?un-L?un can be viewed through the lens of cultural re-connection. In fact, I?d play up Danny?s rejection of his Asian heritage prior to venturing to China. I know as someone who similarly connected to my cultural heritage later in life, that story would be deeply resonant to me. And you know what would be really dope? If the writers also played up the actual Kunlun Mountains of Chinese mythology on the show.

Getting back to the twitter conversation, if you look at it closely you'll notice that the only people who sound legitimately angry are the anti-PC people. So again, I have to ask: How is this outrage? It sounds more like mild exasperation to me.

 

[Something Amyss]

Oh I got that, I was just commenting what my brain thought when I first read it. I have no doubt people have said those things, it was more shock to hear them from you, and for that split second, thought you were being serious.

Just saying where the verisimilitude came from. I'm a method actress. It takes me to dark places.

Sure, Jackie Chan movies are fun, but would you say they are "good" movies? Jackie can fight, and stunt his ass out of anything, but he isn't a great actor. I'm sorry, he's not.

It really comes down to what you're looking for, too. Chan has incredible action scenes. He's fun and fairly charming. If that's what you're looking for, hire a Jackie Chan. However, yeah, he's a shit actor. And I'm not going to knock anyone who likes that. Hell, I watch Power Rangers unironically. And I enjoy it. But if I heard Wes from Time Force or Noah from Megaforce wre going to be cast in a Marvel series, I'd do a double take. Hell, not to make this about Power Rangers, but people did do a double-take when a named actress was announced for the 2017 movie. We have differing expectations for different levels of entertainment.

With Marvel, I want them to be able to do more than just be servicable in their attempts to go from fight scene A to fight scene B.

I have to say, they got themselves into a bit of a pickle yes by even making Iron Fist the way he is. Considering he was conceived in the 1970's I'm not very surprised, when the kung fu hype was at its peak and giving a damn about representing minorities wasn't a thing yet.

And when people started trying to filter it for a white audience.

 

[ThatOtherGirl]

Casting: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/25/finn-jones-iron-fist

Offence: https://twitter.com/skrishna/status/702944933284593664 (EDIT: the status has been changes from public to private)
EDIT II: found an archive to the tweet: https://archive.is/Nb5hN)
https://archive.is/aU3L1

So it seems Finn Jones has been cast as Iron Fist after quite a bit of time of us all wondering who would get the gig. I personally like it, the actor has shown he can pull it off and he'd got the appearance the role requires for the in-between of John Everyman and Kong Fu master the role would logically require.

However, in an act I can only call race based stereotyping (because if we're being honest that is the entire logic behind it) people are genuinely taking offence to the fact that a white character in the comics is being played by a white man in television. Because apparently only Asians can learn Kong Fu and segregating our society on cultural lines is good in their minds.

If someone can find a rational explanation for why casting a white guy for the role of a fictional character who not only is white but had his race be a part of his story, I'd like to hear it, because no one I've seen has yet stated one good reason outside of tokenism based on stereotypes.

The case of Iron Fist is actually really difficult for marvel.

The character is actually a case of white washing, it just happened 40 years ago in the comic industry. You see, the author wanted to create an Asian stereotype, but didn't want to actually have the comic be about an Asian. There is legitimate reason for people to call out the casting decision, but it might be a bit unintuitive. The real argument is about an instance of racism that occurred 40 years ago. So do we correct that racism now? Does that make sense? Some people think it does.

But there are an additional few considerations to make. Even if we correct the instance of white washing, we still have a problem, because the whole basis of the comic was to create a ridiculous Asian stereotype that was popular at the time. So do we cast an Asian guy as an Asian stereotype? That wouldn't be good.

But this is also a case of another anti-minority stereotype, commonly known as the mighty white. Danny is the white guy who comes in and learns the mystical way of the minority stereotype only to find he is the best at it, among other problematic elements.

But there is also the fact that interesting and good things have been done with his race and his cross race perspective since the characters inception. His relationship with Luke Cage holds special significance because of his race, for example. This is a character who has learned through personal experience that race simply does not matter. Do we want to lose that?

But then we have another factor, which is, for me, the overriding concern here. Danny is not actually an outsider to the community. His father was adopted into the community and so was he. By complaining about his race we draw rigid social and cultural lines purely on skin color. Danny's father was raised in an Asian community, Danny was raised in an Asian community. For all practical intents and purposes Danny is Asian except for his skin color. The question: Is it reasonable to claim that a person raised in a culture has no right of claim on that culture simply because of the color of their skin? I don't think that is fair. There are real people who cross racial and cultural lines in this way, I don't think it is fair that we erase any claim they have to the culture in which they were raised.

It is a complex and muddied issue, one that has no clear answer. I have my conclusion, but I don't pretend that it is the only reasonable one.

Edit 1: To be clear I am saying "Asian" here because the culture in which Danny was raised in not reflective of actual real world cultures, but of an Asian stereotype a white guy came up with. Which is yet another problem with the character.

There are layers and layers of complication here.

Edit 2: Upon reading Gorrath's comment, I think they are right about the white savior vs mighty white reading of the character. I have modified my post to reflect this.