Meet Xaro Xhoan Daxos

[Abaddon]

Does it matter though? They may have decided that he was black before hand or not. If the former, they may so decided because they wanted Qarth to look different from KL. Either seems a valid approach to me. They shouldn't have trouble finding a very good actor anyhow.

Not really, but we're having a huge thread and a mighty outcry about it, so apparently some people think it's a big deal. :rolleyes:

[Dalfiatach]

To be honest I always mentally pictured the Qartheen, Pyat Pyee and the other warlocks, the Pureborn and Xaro as black anyway, despite the description in the book. And the Ghiscari as the darker-skinned southern Indians or maybe the Australian Aborigines, with the Dothraki a sort of mix of Afghani/Central Asian. It's that mysterious city in the east, Yi Ti is it? that is East Asian/oriental in my head.

But why are the Asshai (apparently) caucasian, far away from the other caucasian peoples, that's the bit that doesn't make sense to me.

Qarth as an ancient advanced amazing city, an advanced black civilisation. Sure. Why not? We'll probably never visit the Summer Isles or Sothyros and neither might even get mentioned in the show so...

[Bronn Stone]

Almond eyes is commonly seen as an East Asian feature. And the nomadic Dothraki are obviously inspired by the East Asian steppe people. This has also been verified by GRRM himself, who said that the Dothraki are based on the Mongols and Huns.

Actually, you left out a key element of the Dothraki as envisioned by GRRM. They also include some physical traits of the natives of North America. And this is common in much of his borrowing - he tried to never borrow solely from one place or people or event. This makes it functionally impossible to exactly copy any of the peoples from ASOIAF without finding some extraordinarily rare actors of mixed ancestry. But it would be even a bigger mistake IMO to just turn them into a copy of the Mongols, both physically and culturally. Since changes are inevitable (there are many layers to the impossibility of filming ASOIAF as written), getting too worked up about the fact of changes is just plain silly.

[CryFenril]

I have also always seen the peoples of the Free Cities as a "mixed bag" in my mind - black white, yellow, brown, you name it. Paleness seems to be a mark of some of the nobility groups, but I have no problem seeing Xaro as black. Heck, I always pictured him as looking like the ambassador from 300 anyway.

[The Scorpion of Dorne]

I always pictured the Qartheen as pale Persian/middle eastern/Indian people, so this came as a shock that Mr. Anozie was being cast, especially since I never pictured Xaro as someone of Anozie's build.

With this casting, I hope that Qarth is mostly black then, as it'd probably be worse to have the sole black guy also be the scheming weasily guy that Xaro is, than to simply have Qarth be a "black" city, rather than a pale one.

I was more surprised with the casting of Melisandre (who I've always seen as East Asian) and Jaqen (who I imagined as more Spanish/Moorish) as explicitly "white." I do hope that Asians make it onto the screen as well, since it appears that all the significantly Asian cultures (Asshai, Dothraki, and Qartheen) have been replaced by other races (unless the TV show makes Melisandre a Asshai foreigner).

[Padraig]

I do hope that Asians make it onto the screen as well, since it appears that all the significantly Asian cultures (Asshai, Dothraki, and Qartheen) have been replaced by other races (unless the TV show makes Melisandre a Asshai foreigner).

There might be a few random characters in Meereen but we probably wouldn't see many Asians. We've run out of options really. Filming mostly in Northern Ireland doesn't make it any easier to throw them in as background characters even.

Although i've wondered what group(s) do people think the Dothraki do represent in the TV show.

[Chocolate_dream]

This is like casting a non dwarf to play Tyrion or a man to play Brienne. Really HBO?

[Padraig]

This is like casting a non dwarf to play Tyrion or a man to play Brienne. Really HBO?

Hah

[Aegnor]

This is like casting a non dwarf to play Tyrion or a man to play Brienne. Really HBO?

Yes it's exactly like that. :rolleyes:

[Asha—Not Yara!]

I'm still amazed people care about what the people of Qarth look like. Despite the fact that I actually like the Essos setting more than most people who seem to want all the action to take place in Westeros, I still thought they were a very silly, annoying and forgettable people. Anything HBO does has the potential to make them more interesting to me, so I'm looking forward to their interpretation.

[Tall Tyrion Lannister!]

It's not big deal to me. it's not like they cast a basketball player as Tyrion or a drawf as Brieene. in those cases their physical traits are a huge part of their characters, i don't even really remember what Xaro looks like.

[KindaCraven]

New reader here, and I honestly pictured this character as dark skinned as well. The climate and other physical descriptions of him conjured up someone with a lot of melanin.

[Chronicler]

I'm still amazed people care about what the people of Qarth look like. Despite the fact that I actually like the Essos setting more than most people who seem to want all the action to take place in Westeros, I still thought they were a very silly, annoying and forgettable people. Anything HBO does has the potential to make them more interesting to me, so I'm looking forward to their interpretation.

People want even imaginary universes to make sense somewhat.