J.K. Rowling's "Explanation" on Claudia Kim's character in "Fantastic Beasts 2" raises controversy

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

Claudia Kim is playing Nagini in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.”

The name of the character that Claudia Kim plays in the film was first revealed in the final trailer released on September 25. Since the details of her role were not revealed anywhere until that day, fans all around the world were curious to know the secret. The final trailer and the promotion video thus shocked fans worldwide.

However, J.K Rowling’s explanation on the character and its background story is raising controversy among fans. The controversy grew bigger when Rowling replied to the tweet that pointed out that suddenly including a Korean woman in the series for the lack of representation in her books is ‘garbage.’ Her reply was that Nagini’s character derived from an Indonesian myth and Indonesia is comprised of a few hundred ethnic groups including Chinese.

The Naga are snake-like mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, hence the name ‘Nagini.’ They are sometimes depicted as winged, sometimes as half-human, half-snake. Indonesia comprises a few hundred ethnic groups, including Javanese, Chinese and Betawi. Have a lovely day 🐍

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 26, 2018

Fans were heightened over her reply. They pointed out that the word ‘Naga’ is actually from a Hindu myth, not an Indonesian one. Fans were also curious as to why Voldemort, who had an obsession for pureblood wizards and witches, would keep a female with a blood curse as his prized possession to safely hide a part of his soul. They also pointed out how problematic it is to giving the role of a white man’s passive and loyal pet to an Asian woman. Also, explaining that the role was given to a Korean woman because Indonesia comprises ethnic groups such as Chinese was seen as lack of cultural understanding and classification. The previous controversy over lack of diversity in the casting for the film also contributed to the current controversy.

Source: Naver (1, 2) via Soompi, Rowling's Twitter

I've been a fan for close to 2 decades now but I really wish Rowling would move on from Harry Potter already. I already lost interest in this film after Depp appeared and it went from finding out where these fantastic beasts came from to whatever the hell it is now.

Comments

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

Rowling epitomises all the problems with rich white cishet feminists so, unsurprised.

[binderwritings.livejournal.com]

That explanation...
She didn't address the criticism whatsoever and it just reads really dismissive to me.

I've never liked her. I thought my dislike for her was because of the annoying HP fans I knew but nope it's her. Wasn't she also dismissive when people brought up the lack of POC in the first movie and the issues with Depp?

It makes me happy to see Asian fans call her out, but people need to boycott if they want to be heard. I know I'm not watching anything that has Depp in it.

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

She just put more fuel into the fire with that "explanation" ngl. I was one of the fans who brought up the lack of diversity in the first FBAWTFT film but got hate from fans and got blocked by her lol it annoyed me to no end because I've literally been a fan since the books came out and ??? And their excuses for Depp oh my god, I just lost all reasons to watch it. I'm already boycotting the film for Depp alone but this just added to my list of why I shouldn't watch the film lmao.

[welljustguess.livejournal.com]

additional information: they ask an Indonesian actress to cast as Nagini but she got pregnant in the middle of the audition process so she left. She post the story on instagram but she deleted it, and it is also not in english..

[anonymous-loljk.livejournal.com]

Who is this 'Indonesian actress' refers to? Is it acha?

[jyusou.livejournal.com]

i was wondering whether the story would end up here lol.

i grew up with the books, and have not followed closely on what she's decided to add to the canon post book seven, but with this i'm just like...what are you doingggg. nagini should have just stayed a snake, period.

re: fantastic beasts, the first film sucked so hard, i for sure won't be seeing the second one. the pacing was horrible, the characters are so bland/one-dimensional i could barely give a two shits about them, and nobody said shit for the first 15 minutes. this is one of the few movies i wanted my money back after seeing (the other movie is suicide squad). david yates is a horrible director whose concerted effort only showed for the last two harry potter movies. and then there's johnny depp. colin farrell, sweetie, i'm so sorry.

[existingisfunny.livejournal.com]

david yates is absolutely terrible at directing!!!

and jkr has said off stuff every month on Twitter for like 3 yrs smh so watching her do more is like aren't there charities you can focus on? you were good at giving money. go do that

[fallendaydreams.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I stanned HP when I was a middle schooler and not any later. Jo really knows how to ruin a good thing

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

I hate it
I love Claudia but I fucking I hate this

[gathyou.livejournal.com]

I've stopped following her a while ago, everything she says is just frustrating and tone-deaf... And once in a while, just clearly racist like here.
I still cherish the books (while being aware of all their defaults, the lack of representation for example has always been an important issue) because they were such a huge part of my childhood. But don't pay attention to anything post HP7 (including the epilogue).
It's also really frustrating to hear her talk about social issues like she's this humanist writer, and right next to it, she don't want to listen to any criticism regarding her work. Even valuable, well-written criticism. We saw it with Depp already (btw I hope he rots from the inside) and we're seeing it again today
I really wish she would have stopped anything Potter related after HP7 and moved on.

[daceymormont.livejournal.com]

Never been the biggest harry potter fan but she's making me dislike it more and more.

[gigabytexx.livejournal.com]

This Naga is already there in ancient Indonesian folklores, but Indonesia is heavily influenced by Indian as well so it’d make sense to cast /at least/ a brown-skinned asian. Tbh i dont mind the cast, as far as i can see most indonesians dont mind about it as well, although it’d be awesome if an Indonesian made it in to the cast (better not acha septriasa tho.

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

Or they could've cast Pryanka Chopra's flop ass lmao

[baekpedaling.livejournal.com]

And people ask me why I don't really fuck with Harry Potter but love magic.

Also, trying to make me believe that Jamie Campbell Bower grew up to look like Johnny Depp's busted ass is a stretch even for white people aging

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

Also, trying to make me believe that Jamie Campbell Bower grew up to look like Johnny Depp's busted ass is a stretch even for white people aging

Must be all those magic mushrooms or idk idk

[the3rdjester.livejournal.com]

Yesterday, I found a text post (http://azqaban.tumblr.com/post/170495015576/the-saddest-death-in-harry-potter-is-my-respect) on tumblr that perfectly describes my sentiments about this woman and what comes out of her mouth/fingers:
'the saddest death in harry potter is my respect for jk rowling'

She keeps adding things into something that is already published and done for ~10 years, in order to look more progressing and it's aggravating. Like, stop, you didn't write it like this. If you want to be inclusive then create something new from scratch and add all those things you should have in the Harry Potter series. And also do it correctly, ffs. But we all know that this series is still a $$$$ cow so she'll keep milking it for as long as she can.
And one of the things that annoy me is that she says that those things have been planned for years. BS.
Sure, Harry Potter is her creation, but I hate seeing it getting re-fucking-edited all the time. You made those choices, STICK WITH THEM.
Honestly, she lost my respect the moment she said that Snape should be forgiven for the things he's done, but not Draco (paraphrasing, but this is the main point).

At this point, I'm not even sorry I have yet to watch the first Fantastic Beasts movie and, obviously, not even gonna bother with this one either.

[countthesaints.livejournal.com]

Nah, this ain't it.

She stays being absolutely tone deaf.

[damascus-127.livejournal.com]

This is so messed up, I can't believe she managed to come up with something so offensive. And on top of this there's gonna be that douchebag playing Grindelwald. I hate that its pretty much guaranteed to be super successful :(

[pepsi-twist9.livejournal.com]

If she'd stayed silent it'd be better. What a stupid explanation.

[921227.livejournal.com]

As far as Im concerned HP ended at book7 minus epilogue. JKR hasnt added any value to the series since

[rockerista03.livejournal.com]

The epilogue was so off-putting lol easily the worst part of the 7 books.

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

K nets are also hella mad at the implied racism here. JKR just rly needs to stop trying to shoehorn in progressive ideologies into a world where none existed. Just admit it was shit to do it and do other work instead or something.

I feel bad for the actress playing Nagini because she’s right in her comment that a role like Nagini’s within just the single film itself would be super interesting to play but it’s when paired with the decades of canon material that it gets rly marred and ruins the whole character. :/

[evilcoc0nut.livejournal.com]

[ashdevilrun23.livejournal.com]

I've been over her for a while now and it makes me sad because I grew up on the Harry Potter books and I loved the movies. Ever since she defended Johnny Depp she's been dead to me. She's become so money hungry and biased, she's made it very clear she doesn't give a crap about diversity and representation. Making an Asian woman into a snake and being the slave for an insane white man?? She thinks all Asians are interchangeable wtf Who told her that shit was okay, And she doesn't even understand why people are mad 🙄🙄 I'm so done with her

[jaequeeragenda.livejournal.com]

lol JKR died to me ages ago but i adoreee harry potter that i just threw myself into fandom and fanfiction to fix all her shit writing choices and it has been the best thing ever. i will continue to do it too

also fanmade hp merch is always superior to her crap anyway so that's definitely a bonus 👍🏽

[myungung.livejournal.com]

I really hate how she’s ruining the franchise by shooting her mouth and blocking people. This social media thing is a mistake for her. I rather she just continued building pottermore and stop fueling those fanfiction realness

[rainstormraider.livejournal.com]

Uh, Naga is a word origin from Sanskrit. And Nagini is a direct origin from Nagin which means snake in Hindi and in legend, a female snake specifically. So not only does JKR not realize that it originates from India (as well as from Indonesian lore) but also that while it is represented in other cultures it’s mythos has been made into many films in Bollywood as well.

This woman is so fake it’s not even funny.

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

THIS

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

She is so tone deaf. The whole explanation doesn't make sense when the actress is Korean.

And even she had gotten a South Asian, Javanese etc actress, the fact that Nagini is a WOC turned slave by Voldemort is sickening

[softboys.livejournal.com]

I grew up with Harry Potter, started to read the books at the age of 11, and they absolutely fueled my love for reading and writing. and even now, 16 years later I still re-read the books (and listen to the audio books as well). The book series is such an important part of my childhood, but i wish JKR had stopped after book 7 (minus the epilogue). Like people already mentioned: i'd rather she continued to expand pottermore than... fantastic beasts and cursed child. She clearly doesn't know when to let go. This is just a whole mess.

[leavesabound.livejournal.com]

Will she never stop? Trying to explain to people why I enjoy Harry Potter, but can’t stand J.K. Rowling is always so very frustrating.
I debated so much on whether I was going to buy the illustrated versions of Harry Potter, didn’t want to give her any more of my money, finally cracked and bought them with the intention to give them to my niece when she’s old enough. Definitely have some regrets.

[shawarmafordays.livejournal.com]

This annoying old bitch.

I am so annoyed by how much she's ruined the series for me. Did no one tell her that casting an East Asian woman to play a snake lady would be a bad move given the dragon lady stereotype???

I'm just so exhausted by her having social media. That was the worst thing to happen for her.