Tweaking ToD to improve its weak spots

[michael]

What I love about that whole sequence, is that Indy legit just destroys everyone. Even after Chattar Lal plays dirty with a knife, Indy still regains himself and just kicks the **** out of him.

It's like the fight with Vogel, when Vogel is not fighting dirty, Indy just kicks the living crap out of him.

 

[Ender]

Obviously that would change how Indy and Short Round run into her, but the fundamental attributes of her character (spoiled, entitled, vain, selfish, etc.) would still be there, and her character arc would remain the same as well. The only major difference is more ethnic diversity (which, for a globe-trotting adventure series, is more than appropriate).

You would lose the entire fish out of water aspect. Not worth it.

 

[The Lone Raider]

You would lose the entire fish out of water aspect. Not worth it.

That's a good point.

I could see how it could still be done with an Indian princess, though. Suppose she was attending the Obi Wan night club as part of some royal excursion. Then she gets sucked into the adventure, and she now finds herself in the destitute village of Mayapore, far removed from her typical luxurious palace lifestyle. She can still have lines like, "I can't eat this," and "I hate being outside," and she can have a condescending attitude towards the villagers and act like everything going on around her is strange, disgusting, and beneath her. Then she arrives at Pankot, feeling much more in her element again. Then when the group comes across the underground temple and she sees that all of Pankot's luxuries are a product of child slavery, she begins to have a change of heart. She no longer selfishly clings to her cushioned lifestyle, and she instead seeks to use her resources to help others.

 

[Ender]

Suppose she was attending the Obi Wan night club as part of some royal excursion.

The Indian princess in China just so happens to crash land in India? That's even worse.

 

[The Lone Raider]

The Indian princess in China just so happens to crash land in India? That's even worse.

I don't see how it's any less odd or contrived than a White American woman who just so happens to be living in Shanghai in the 1930s. If anything, it's more realistic/probable.

 

[Finn]

I don't see how it's any less odd or contrived than a White American woman who just so happens to be living in Shanghai in the 1930s.

Actually, Shanghai had a quite sizable expat community of Caucasian people that was around 50,000 strong in the 1930s. And they had extraterritoriality treaties in place that provided especially British and American inhabitants many privileges the locals didn't have. Willie being a part of that community is not so outlandish.

Of course, this doesn't mean that they couldn't have created a character of more Oriental ethnicity in her stead. The city was quite the melting pot at the time. And even if she was white, she didn't have to be American. One curiosity of that white community was that about a half of them were Russian, former supporters of the Czar who had fled the Communist revolution in the Motherland. And, coincidentally, many of them happened to find employment in music and entertainment. In fact, this is probably the story behind most of Willie's backup dancers... and I'm not talking about the blondes in the backstage fantasy sequence - if you look closely, very few of those dressed in the Chinese garb have strikingly Oriental features. The matchstick girl Indy accidentally punches doesn't look very Chinese either. (They were obviously struggling to find extras of Asian origin in England.)

 

[The Lone Raider]

Actually, Shanghai had a quite sizable expat community of Caucasian people that was around 50,000 strong in the 1930s. And they had extraterritoriality treaties in place that provided especially British and American inhabitants many privileges the locals didn't have. Willie being a part of that community is not so outlandish.

Of course, this doesn't mean that they couldn't have created a character of more Oriental ethnicity in her stead. The city was quite the melting pot at the time. And even if she was white, she didn't have to be American. One curiosity of that white community was that about a half of them were Russian, former supporters of the Czar who had fled the Communist revolution in the Motherland. And, coincidentally, many of them happened to find employment in music and entertainment. In fact, this is probably the story behind most of Willie's backup dancers... and I'm not talking about the blondes in the backstage fantasy sequence - if you look closely, very few of those dressed in the Chinese garb have strikingly Oriental features. The matchstick girl Indy accidentally punches doesn't look very Chinese either. (They were obviously struggling to find extras of Asian origin in England.)

Hmm. I stand corrected. The more you know.

Even so, I don't see why a rich Indian woman visiting Shanghai and then being pulled into an adventure that lands her in rural India wouldn't work. If it really needs tweaking, then make her a touring performer, more similar to Willie, instead of a princess on holiday. Doesn't really matter as long as it's an Indian woman who enjoys a lavish, privileged lifestyle. Having her plans delayed and being pulled unwillingly into a part of her own country that she and her caste never gave any thought to would work very well in my opinion.

 

[Finn]

Even so, I don't see why a rich Indian woman visiting Shanghai and then being pulled into an adventure that lands her in rural India wouldn't work.

Just so we're clear: "Oriental" covers everything east of the so-called "Middle East", including India. (And by some definitions, it covers the Middle East as well, as "the Orient" originally meant pretty much everything east of Europe.)

 

[The Lone Raider]

Thanks for clarifying. I did mean an Indian woman specifically though, just to balance things out with Short Round and make the Indy gang feel that much more motley/diverse. Of course, I've been thinking about how a Chinese woman would work too, even if that means Indy has two Chinese sidekicks in the same story.