This is exactly why simply casting women and people of
color isn’t good enough, they have to be given meaningful stories and
roles. Gwendoline Christie did great with the limited material she was
given, but she would truly have soared if she had had something
substantive to work with. Is it still meaningful that there was a named
female villain in Star Wars? Yes, but it would have been awesome if she
had had more of a role within the story. Increasing her stature would
have made for a correspondingly more substantive role for Finn, too,
because she and Finn have a fraught history and overcoming her could
have been a pivotal moment for Finn. The wasted potential on both these
characters’ parts makes me so mad.
So it’s 10 more days until the TLJ premiere and I thought that’s a good moment to share my thoughts:
I was originally planning to wait for spoiler reviews before making up my mind whether or not to see the movie, but considering the entire promotional campaign so far – trailers, posters, interviews, replies on social media – I’ve decided for myself that I won’t be seeing TLJ.
I have no interest in seeing an adult man who murdered and tortured people woobified into a confused ‘adolescent’ and be expected to ‘relate’ to him; I don’t want to see Finn demoted from male lead to secondary character and his storyline to the B storyline; I don’t want to watch Rian Johnson character assassinate my childhood hero Luke Skywalker for the sake of his ~grimdarkedgy vision of SW which you apparently cannot watch with children under 13 anymore; I don’t want to support a movie whose marketing has been sidelining Finn, Poe and Rose so abominably all year; and finally, I don’t want to give money to such a greedy and bullying company.
Of course I’ll still love SW – I’ve been a fan for almost 20 years so if a meh trilogy couldn’t change that in the 00s, another meh film won’t do so now. I’ll also stay active in fandom and keep blogging and drawing, and hoping that when he returns to direct ep. IX, JJ Abrams might bring SW back on track.
And if he can’t, we’ll always have our alternative universe of fandom! 😀
… let’s talk about the complete and utter failure that is the Lucasfilm Marketing Department for a minute.
One thing that really stands out this time around – and I don’t think that ‘bait and switch’ marketing is a defense for it – is the default whiteness of marketing and promotional materials, particularly the trailers. This isn’t unique to LucasFilm; it’s a huge problem in the US. Teams that don’t take specific steps to combat that will almost certainly end up replicating that prioritization of white characters.
That same kind of default whiteness (and more specifically white male-ness) is how we got Rian Johnson as the writer/director for episode VIII. It’s an unthinking kind of racism that, by itself as a discrete act, is hard to call racism (and misogyny)… until you combine it with the many other choices that look just like it.
Johnson’s comments about Kylo Ren and his limited track record before Star Wars both display a focused interest on white male criminals. But for all the power that he has as the credited writer and director, this is a team effort, and he still has to build on the foundations that J.J. Abrams established.
And yeah, I agree that Johnson’s Star Wars debut is almost certainly going to follow the tracks that Empire Strikes Back put in place 37 years ago. So while I’m side-eyeing some of his comments, I’m still at the point of cautious optimism about TLJ. And hey, unless Johnson ends up killing her, we’ll have him to thank for bringing Rose Tico into the storyline. Even if we never get to see her in the official trailers.
(I do wonder just what kind of storyline shifts happened in that whole “Oh hey, our new lead characters were more popular than we expected, let’s make sure we give them plenty of screen time!” epiphany that we heard about shortly after TFA came out. Because at that point Rian was already at the helm.)
I think that Rian’s comments are more a reaction to the fandom/third-party obsession with Kylo Ren, an obsession that the general audience doesn’t share. It’s hard to talk about Finn, for example, when the only person anybody asks you about is Kylo Ren. And when you look at the interviews and Twitter comments, that’s mostly what he’s been asked about: Kylo Ren. It’s telling that when he had a Q&A where he got to pick and choose the questions he answered, he skipped Kylo Ren entirely. The fact that the fandom likes to twist boiler-plate villain backstory into woobification does not help in the slightest (and it’s not even backstory Rian came up with!).
The marketing department, on the other hand, has no defence. They are either deliberately choosing a strategy that pissed off everybody last time (the whole bait and switch thing) or they’re deliberately sidelining Finn in exchange for a character that the general audience has proven they don’t give much of a damn about (Kylo Ren). Either way, they fail that most basic of tests: did they succeed at what they were trying to do? The answer is no.
Kathleen Kennedy needs to fire their asses; they are costing her tons of money.
“With its colorful, quirky animation style and collection of endearingly offbeat characters, Amazon Prime’s Danger & Eggs belongs to the same kind of alternate universe as fellow animated shows Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Steven Universe. Even better, Danger is packed with queer and trans characters, voiced by queer and trans actors.
The cartoon centers on a spunky little girl named D.D. Danger (Saturday Night Live’s Aidy Bryant) and her best friend, Phillip (Eric Knobel) — a large, talking humanoid egg — and their adventures together in Chickenpaw Park. Until now, Steven Universe (which features several queerish and nonbinary characters) was leading the pack as the LGBT-friendliest mainstream kids cartoon, but Danger & Eggs goes a few steps further.
What makes this animated series so groundbreaking is the casual openness of its LGBT characters — which include a lesbian folk duo, a couple of gay dads, a young trans girl (voiced by teenage trans activist Jazz Jennings), and a nonbinary band member who uses they/them pronouns.”
btw that adorable couple holding hands in the screencap, one wearing the trans pride colors and the other in bi pride colors? That’s me and Gaby Dunn. Shadi surprised me with that little Easter egg. 🙂
It’s the fact that he’s such a fanboy for Black heroes.
I remember the episode where he meets Anansi, and he blatantly states that it was nice to see a hero who looked like him doing good. Because there wasn’t a lot of them where he came from.
Here’s the dialog:
Static to Anansi in “Static In Africa”
Virgil: I never knew how important it was to meet a role model like you.”
Anansi: “Role Model?”
Virgil: “Yeah, a Black superhero. I dunno, it validates me somehow.”
Anansi: “Heroes come in every color my friend.”
Virgil: “I know, it’s just sometimes I wish there was a Black superhero back home for folks to look up to.”
Anansi: “Oh but there is, and he is my hero too.”
Notice how Virgil said “Validates”
I remember the episode where Static not only admitted to being a Green Lantern fan (which was Fallen Hero) but he also admitted that sometimes he pretends to be Green Lantern when no one was around (and this episode was called “Jump”)
And then there was “Blast From the Past” where he met Soul Power and gained a huge respect for a Black hero (and his sidekick) who came before him.
I know we all say “Representation Matters” but Static Shock actually showed why it matters, and showed it through the eyes of a superhero less.
And Dwayne McDuffie didn’t bother to mince words, or downplay Virgil’s blackness, or his need for validation through positive representation, for the sake of “colorblindess.” And it’s so nice to see that, especially now when we we’re older and more consciously aware of racial issues.
imagine having THREE whole ass latino cast members who speak spanish and not sending them to do press in fucken mexico bc you’re dedicated to letting folks know in these movies only white characters matter
Not that I have seen but what do you expect the diversity is window dressing…Force is for the White Characters only under RJ
Also I find it quite appalling that characters who don’t have superpowers seem to be considered less interesting than those who do… and when these characters who aren’t Force sensitive also happen to be played by actors of colour, it becomes all the more shitty. I wonder if Rian would still claim he has no idea why people would think Finn is being sidelined…. like if I hand him every single one of his quotes about this movie that I have… he literally can’t pretend like he cares about him equally.
Daredevil, aka Matt Murdock, should be either Latinx or Filipino in all modern incarnations of the character and them’s the facts
I don’t disagree, but I’m wondering if you have specific reasoning?
Oh yes, yes I do.
Daredevil the show is full of anachronisms that come with being a fairly direct modern adaptation of a piece of work from the 1960′s, most notably the fact that Hell’s Kitchen has gentrified. IMO, though, the biggest anachronism, is Matt’s ethnicity.
In the original comics, Matt is Irish American. Being a second generation Irish-American in the 1960′s meant was a LOT different than being a second-generation Irish American in 2017, and a lot of the things that were important about Matt being Irish in the originals are better represented if he were
Because Matt IS an immigrants story- the story of being the 2nd generation (his mother immigrated young in one of the comics I read? IDK, his dad is really Irish-AMERICAN, but the point still stands.) The one who actually “makes it” to fully blend into American culture, the one who lives goes to a fancy university and works a white-collar job in a suit. That divide between the way he was raised, and the circles he works in now, still as a hero for the working person but surrounded by wealth and the upper class- that makes up a really interesting segment of his character.
Matt’s mother was a young woman who slipped through the medical industries cracks and suffered from acute postpartum depression. He’s raised by a single father who makes ends meet by boxing, who instills a strong work ethic in him but dreams of him “rising above.” He has a chance to become very wealthy and both literally and figuratively move from where he was raised, but he chooses to stay and fight for it, because of what a formative place it is for him.
He’s also super Catholic. (Made even more Catholic, I would argue as a practicing one, by how generally mediocre he is at being Catholic.) And that’s really tied into his Dad and his family and were they’re from.
(I’m not saying that there still aren’t Irish Americans that fit this profile. I’m just saying that there are currently a lot more Latinx and Filipinos who do, and that it would provide amazing representation and breathe new life into the character in a way that’s really fitting with his original. Probability wise, if you were to find a young, Catholic, working class lawyer with a background in boxing, he wouldn’t be white. )
The reason I suggested he be either Filipino or Latinx is because they are the some of the largest groups of recent immigrant Catholics, and have strong boxing cultures. Matt could technically be Syrian Catholic or Samoan or Indian or Rwandan. Personally, my grandfather was a Filipino boxer, so I have some skin in this game.
Long story short, I think race bending Matt actually brings him closer to his Irish origins and honors them more, and I am ready to welcome the age of Mateo Miguel Munoz!
That’s so true! I’m so down with that!!! And the world would also have one less white saviour.
I was thinking more Italian, myself, based on immigration patterns of my own family. I was thinking a darker Italian though.
But yes!!! Thank you for taking the time to explain your reasoning. Hopefully marvel will adapt this at some point.
❤ ❤ ❤
In their effort to modernize and diversify the show to match modern NYC w/out doing the same to Matt they’ve made SUCH a white savior complex, that and the Hand Plotline that I will Not Mention BEcause I Hate It with the Fire of A Thousand Suns and the Only Good THing It Brought Us was Elektra.
They’ve started race bending characters, which is nice, but they’ve yet to do it to any main characters so even though it would make all practical sense I think we’ve got white Matt for the foreseeable future
Ohhh, if you haven’t hear of her you might really like Helena Bertinelli, the Black-Sicillian Catholic vigilante queen of my heart. Truly she is #everything and if DC wanted to give us nice things she’d have a full series
I love this, so much!!! ❤ My only criticism is that it should be Muñoz, instead of Munoz (the ñ is so pretty and has such a nice ring). Also, you can bet he is all the time correcting the mispelling, especially when done in any kind of official records, and he doesn’t let anyone say “can I call you Matt? is easier to pronounce?” And he’s there like “my name’s Mateo” (and his friends would call him Mati, like isn’t that cute? *3*)
But it’s never been suggested that Matt is a second generation immigrant. Both of his parents were likely born in NYC (and their parents probably were as well).
The Irish settlement in New York started in the mid-1800s. Having grown up as a member of an identifiable and distinct minority (Irish-American) is not the same as having an experience of recent immigration. It may be for a lot of people, but not in this case.
IDK, I’m not nearly as well versed in the comics canon as you are, but I think I do remember immigration being mentioned in one of the arcs with Maggie.
The point still stands that:
1. Being Irish-American in the 1960′s is a very different pie than being Irish American in the 2010′s. Irish Catholic Americans in 2010 are in every way dominant in the American social structure, and mostly very assimilated. (I don’t think I know a “pure” Irish person- most Irish Americans I know are mixed, not white, and like ½ to an 1/8 Irish. Which is definitely an aside, but having, say, Matt be part Irish, part Mexican, part Filipino? VERY realistic.)
2. There is an absolute dearth of Latinx characters in the MCU, considering that Latinx people make up around 17% percent of the US population and 27% of NYC’s population. Following the general statistics of the city, over 1 in 4 of the characters in the Netflix MCU should be Latinx. This is clearly not the case- Latinx people still remain under-represented in the MCU. (Filipino people are a different story- we’re the 2nd largest Asian nationality in the US but still a relatively small group. Nevertheless, the Netflix MCU is also lacking in Asian representation and having Matt be an Asian protagonist would help with some of the show’s “yellow peril” and “white savior” issues.
3. Matt makes just as much sense in modern NYC as a Latinx and/or Filipino character. He’s still a blind, Catholic lawyer and vigilante. But he provides representation that is desperately needed. There still aren’t any superhero shows aside from Agents of Shield were the front-and-center lead is Asian or Latinx.
4. It’s a more minor point but Matt’s fighting style is quite Filipino as well. As well as having elements of boxing (extremely popular in the Philippines and sections of Latin America!), it’s got a clear visual parallel to arnis and some of the other Filipino martial arts. A quick google search informed me of styles of stick fighting exist all of the world, from South Africa to Afro-Brasillian communities, and I’m up to pretty much every interpretation of Matt’s ethnicity, but it’s something I associate with him.
5. The MCU has no issue race-bending secondary characters- Ned Leeds and Elektra Natchios are now both Southeast Asian! There’s no reasons that main characters like Matt can’t be as well!
In conclusion, making Matt Latinx/Filipino is true to the character AND modern America, and provides important representation!
L.J.'s Obsessions 