Ladies and Gentlemen, what are your guys opinions on the race or gender or the sexual orientation swap characters of today?

[FinalFantasyBro]

Ok I seriously understand this is a super controversial topic and I know the real reason on constantly swapping out straight white men considering it is difficult to market new characters plus women, people of color, and lgbt+ people didn't really had opportunities or as many original characters unlike white straight man. But I kinda agree with people who rather see new original characters over just rehearse of already established characters especially I as a black man kinda don't just want to have lazy hand me down of establish white men or women characters because us black people deserves to see our own characters like I can imagine some pretty sweet Caribbean or African style stories would be pretty interesting to discover or you know take a setting too. But that is only my personal opinion what about you men and women out there do you support idea of changing already established characters or do you prefer we get brand new characters with his or her own history and personal settings?

by the way: The original Characters doesn't have to be black or another poc just giving an example hell it could be any characters also including straight white men because yes I don't think we should immediately just take one group out of the equations of new characters. Because I personally believe in true equality so ladies and gentlemen do you want to see something like a black male version of Chun-Li or a white version of Storm or a Peruvian Superman or do you prefer that there is at least new characters to hope get a fan base and rather see original develop characters?

[richardcory]

When a race is not important to the story, I think its fine to have actors of any race play characters, but at the same time simply having a range of races is not addressing real racism.

When a story takes place in a setting where racism was very strong (say the old south), the I think ignoring that doesn't make any sense

I firmly believe that if all people had exactly the same culture and behavior, racism never would have been an issue. I think racism comes from appearance being used as a marker for "other" culture. That marker remains in people's minds even once the other racial group is culturally integrated. So a movie that really addressed racism should address people of different appearances being from different culture and the reactions to that.

So when in Lord of the Rings Rings of power, there were both white and black elves, I thought it was fine - but not interesting. It didn't address real racism.

[FinalFantasyBro]

I think the same apply with the idea of sexism and homophobia because there are still some countries where gay people or women are seriously oppressed so it be important to address those issues on what both genders deal with, because I was talking to this one she was hot and she came from Pakistan she moved now which is great and she said women and LGBT people who enjoys anything sexual in that country will be a big uproar. So with the way I see it if The story takes place in a multicultural society like Canada or United States where being straight, bisexual, women, men, black, Asian, white, muslim, or etc is equally acceptable in present time than I don't see the point in having to mention sexism, racism, and etc because everyone is equally accepted but if we are talking about like in the past like making a show based of 1940 America than yes mentioning race issues, gender issues, and sex issues is prevalent to the plot considering racism towards non-white, sexism towards female, and homophobia towards anyone who aren't exactly hetrosexual were really common around that time.

[richardcory]

Agree.
On a slightly different bent, when trying to avoid sexism, and racism, sometimes hollywood gets it right, and sometimes completely wrong. My favorite example is the 2 Disney "Mulan" movies.

In the 1st cartoon Mulan, she joins the army and initially has a terrible time because she is trying to do everything the way men do it. The big turning point is when the trainees need to try to climb a tall post - and rather than relying on upper body strenght, she figures out a better way and succeeds. Later she saves everyone by being creative and clever, not simply being strong. I though it was fantastic

But in the 2nd Mulan (live action) Mulan is simply gifted with extreme strength so she just wins fights. It teaches the wrong lesson that to be successful a woman needs to be a better man than other men. I think the right lesson is that she needs to be a better woman.

Simiarly in comics, Mystique is a fantastic character - someone who uses her fairly modest ability with extreme effectiveness. OTOH Captain Marvel is just superman in a female body - dull dull dull dull.

So I agree with your comments above -don't just change the race or gender of existing characters, invent new effective characters that are not just boring knockoffs.

[FinalFantasyBro]

In Japan most ladies of Persona series are excellent characters in their own right heck we even ended up getting three female led stories in The Persona series and it went well but hopefully if we receive a P6 or P7 the main protagonist will be a woman because while we did receive female protagonist in the past they would kinda a second thought or second story for the male protagonist. Persona 2 Tarsuya is the original protagonist while Maya became the second protagonist, Persona 3 The female protagonist is a non canon addition while Aigis is more like a successor for Makoto. Basically it kinda would be nice if we do get one woman main Persona character who actually started out as the MC and has her own team she lead's.

[boggboss]

For me aslong as the characters race is part of their identity I would have issue with it being race swapped otherwise I dont have a issue with it I will always say I would prefer original characters but in today's markets studios rarely are willing to make new content

[FinalFantasyBro]

Yep that is true Hollywood doesn't make new content these days that why there be so many reboots or remakes of their older properties.

[DizzyDesii]

Its whatever. I’m gonna watch it either way.

For example Whitney Houston is black and yea they chose someone black to play her. But The woman was hideous in terms of looking nothing like her. But I still watched 🤷‍♀️ Idc who plays what nor their race as long as the acting and storyline are on point. I’m critiquing the film as a whole and the casting in terms of if they can act but I’m not judging the character’s casting in terms of race or gender

[FinalFantasyBro]

That is actually a very good mindset and yes as long the actor or actress are actually good at playing their part I guess you can logically let it slide.

[Yucy_Gluttony]

I'm one of the peeps who hates it. They're an icon. And they changing the icon. I DONT LIKE IT. YOU WANT A BLACK OR Asian IN THE SPOTLIGHT. MAKE A NEW ICON, LEAVE THE OLD ONES ALONE.

[FinalFantasyBro]

Same, it just screams incredibly lazy and pandemic I rather see new characters take up action compared to just using the same character over and over again.

[FinalFantasyBro]

Pandering*

[7Phoenix7]

I think creating new content is better of course. Like Instead of taking every Disney princess and painting her black how about a new Disney princess that is actually black? Or Latina, or a new Asian princess that isn’t pretending to be a man the entire movie. Or a new Black princess that isn’t a frog the entire time. I don’t mind the swap every now and then but new/original content is better in my opinion.

[FinalFantasyBro]

I definitely approved sister, it just lazy writing and it's isn't like Disney hasn't done any non white princess before if they shown they could pulled off Non White Characters before why suddenly now do race swaps I don't know still prefer new characters though.

[gorydetails]

I believe it's a function of how established a character/person is in the culture. Should Melissa McCarthy play MLK in a biopic?

When Hollywood does things like making the little mermaid a black woman, it belies a few things.

1) Hollywood is out of original ideas. Everything is either a remake, a sequel, or a reboot.
2) Hollywood does not think that minorities have interesting stories to tell or mythologies to explore.

[FinalFantasyBro]

True, I generally prefer more Japanese creators because instead of constantly rebooting or remaking older things they still prove to be trying to develop new content even it is harder

[FinalFantasyBro]

I mean Japanese developers do Remake and Reboots as well but at least they are also willingly to try to content as well unfortunately most of Hollywood just immediately assumed newest content won't sell which it's fair because quite a lot don't but other original content does prove to be working like The Invincible Series From Image Comics.

[MysticDevice]

I think its dumb. I mean I really don't care cause its not hurting anyone.

I just think its a sign of creative stagnation.

There's plenty of diverse characters to enjoy out there. There's no need to swap established ones.

[FunkyMonkee]

It's one of the stupidest, pointless things I've ever heard of!!

[humanearth]

Don't care, its just another form of brainwashing