ElJuski
Staff member
Says the guy that made a joke about an actress OD'ing how many pages ago?
[Movies] Avengers
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Charlie meant it ironically, Juski, Gawl! 
Seriously, though, I thought the joke there was more making fun of Thor for backtracking so precipitously in the face of his righteous declaration that he would take responsibility for Loki only to be confronted with Loki's crimes. Whedon could have made it a dramatic, tension-filled, super-awkward conversation scene that stretched out over a minute, but he instead he accomplished it (IMO) by making it a joke and having Thor looking ashamed of himself.
Seriously, though, I thought the joke there was more making fun of Thor for backtracking so precipitously in the face of his righteous declaration that he would take responsibility for Loki only to be confronted with Loki's crimes. Whedon could have made it a dramatic, tension-filled, super-awkward conversation scene that stretched out over a minute, but he instead he accomplished it (IMO) by making it a joke and having Thor looking ashamed of himself.
Do we actually have any adopted people that found it offensive to them? I don't think Charlie is adopted, though maybe I am wrong.
This got me so curious that I talked with my father a bit ago, who adopted my newest brother three years ago (he is 9 now), and neither him or my adopted brother even really paid attention to it, let alone took offense by it.
This got me so curious that I talked with my father a bit ago, who adopted my newest brother three years ago (he is 9 now), and neither him or my adopted brother even really paid attention to it, let alone took offense by it.
I'm not adopted, but I'm going to adopt 99% if I ever have kids. So I guess it slightly rankled me more than normal.
And this isn't a reason the movie sucks. It's not any monumentally worse than "I hope none of you tried to kiss me". It's just another dumb thing
And this isn't a reason the movie sucks. It's not any monumentally worse than "I hope none of you tried to kiss me". It's just another dumb thing
I don't really agree. I found it honestly pretty harmless, though I am not adopted. That is why I would like to hear from actual people that are adopted around here to see if it's actually offensive, otherwise I think people are just trying to create a problem where one does not really exist, a "biological born guilt", or something.
The idea that we have to get an actual adopted person to sign off on if something is offensive or not is ludicrous. A black person could think ~~~"the n word"~~~ is not offensive, but that doesn't mean it's cool to throw around. If something is offensive to 39% of the people, does that mean, oh who cares, fuck 'em?
GasBandit
Staff member
Where is the magic number? How low does it have to be before something is allowed?
ElJuski
Staff member
Obviously adopted people aren't rioting in the streets over it. And I don't necessarily the film, or the joke, really deserves complete scrutiny over the matter. What I'm saying is the joke seemed out of place enough where I recognized it for what it was. And I think that's really all there is to it.
ElJuski
Staff member
Link to a page linking to an interview Whedon did:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/joss-whedon-avows-he-isnt-gonna-stop-being-joss-wh,73782/
http://www.avclub.com/articles/joss-whedon-avows-he-isnt-gonna-stop-being-joss-wh,73782/
Take it as a life-lesson. If you adopt the son of a man whose people you just trounced in bloody almost-genocidal war, tell him before he gets passed over for your biological son to run the family business.
I don't really think planning to adopt is what creates that opinion, otherwise I would be just as rankled, since my wife and I are going to adopt our next child. It didn't really register as insulting. Again, the whole point of Thor was that he loved his brother, regardless of the fact he was adopted or even the fact he turned stone-cold evil. One line does not negate the entire point of his story.
If it ended with Thor saying something like "You are just adopted, you are not even real family" then we would have problem.
The "n word" became offensive because the people it was targeting found it offensive, due to the negative methods from which the word was used. If they never found it offensive, the word would have just gone on to become just another word. My question is to better get a sample of if this is actually offensive to adopted people. If it's not offensive to adopted people, then we, the ones that were not adopted, are turning into an offense for them, and that is ludicrous.
That is my point, I wanted to see what the people that have a right to be offended say about it, not the people who took offense for them. If people took more offense to the line then I think it deserves to be looked into for the future, but I don't trust you to be the voice of reason in this.
I asked my wife, who is adopted, whether she would have been offended by the joke. She would not have been, though she thinks she may be a special case because she "knows the truth that the adoptee is almost always better behaved than the biological kid, because the adoptee spends their entire life being inordinately grateful and afraid that they'll be sent away if they misbehave," and because "Loki IS a problem child because he's adopted. It's a nature vs. nurture question. Really, Odin's just an abusive father and Thor's a kiss-ass."
FWIW
FWIW
My wife and I are pagans and we laughed at the "only one God" line.
BananaHands
Staff member
Everyone is going to be offended by everything. Let's all just agree it was a fun movie.
It's one thing to be offended and it's another thing to look at a line in a movie and say, "Well, that MIGHT be offensive to someone...I dunno, but it might, and if it might offend someone, then it compounds the douchery of the movie, which makes the movie suck because the movie sucks and I have to find every reason to think that the movie sucks, forever and ever, amen." (The run on sentence was a subtle attempt to show how incredibly banal and borderline stupid that way of thinking is. If someone is going to get their knickers in a twist over something that CLEARLY wasn't meant to be derogatory or offensive, then boo effing hoo. I'm offended that they are offended. And so it begins.
I find it offensive that you just called me fat, and I'm going to comfort myself with a few bacon cheeseburgers.
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