#diverse casts

[mourningd0ves]

Yayayayayayay. Loving this for us.

[bixels]

Reminiscing about Little Witch Academia.

[cherrybombfangirlwrites]

I’m gonna tell you about all three of my (introduced) projects if you don’t mind :3

I have three wip projects that I'm bouncing between right now- Fractured Stars Falling, The City is Ours, and Before the Stars Burn Out.

Fractured Stars Falling is my nine book series of dark and spooky fairytale retellings, with a huge and very diverse cast that includes queer rep, disabled rep (more specifically mental disabilites but there are physical ones as well), and POC rep. Each book has more specific themes, but the overall ones for the series is trauma, how we cope with it, and how we keep living when it’s so hard and painful with every step. I go into more depth in another post, but I'll give you a quick rundown here:

General Cinderella is the first book and my Cinderella retelling. It stars Tris, a black, plus sized trans woman who- instead of going to a ball- is going to a gladiator arena to fight in a tournament for the Prince's hand. Her love interest is Prince Kaye, who is bisexual, Hispanic, has OCD, and is a peacemaker born into a family of bloodthirsty warlords.

Snow Knight is the second book and my Snow White retelling. The main character, Princess Snow, is asian (specifically Chinese), AroAce, and in a QPR with her best friend Lan (who is south asian, nonbinary, and aroace-spec as well). Snow spends the entire book trying to overthrow her a abusive and tyrannic stepmother- the biggest obstacle being compassionate to a fault.

The Little Pirate is the third book and my Little Mermaid retelling. It focuses on pirate Captain Cassandra, a former mermaid who is mute, deaf, has chronic pain, and is trying to heal from the boy who broke her heart by ignoring it (plot twist, it doesn't work and only makes it worse). After her first love broke her, Cass is trying to avoid romance at all costs, and focus on her crew. Then she runs into Erica- an amputee (peg leg), Polynesian, lesbian, hopeless romantic and adventurous rookie pirate on the run with a dangerous map with an even more dangerous secret.

The Lord's Son and the Frog is the fourth book and my Frog Prince retelling. It follows Max, a son of one of Dryklan’s Councilors. He’s black, very gay but oblivious, has a severe case of genre awareness, and is a bit skiddish and avoids drama and trouble. Unfortunately for him, he gets dragged into the investigation of a mysterious and dangerous plot involving dark magic- by none other than Prince Monty, an adventurous and sauve prince who randomly turns into a frog.

Handsome and the Beast is my fifth book and my Beauty and the Beast retelling. The protagonist is Elliot, a scrawny, trans man with blonde hair, and shy bookworm from a small, superstitious village. After getting caught in a blizzard looking for his father, Elliot happens upon an abandoned castle. The castle is occupied by Princess Hestia, a plus sized, Latino mixed princess from a fallen kingdom with fire powers and anxiety.

Sleeping Beauty's Bodyguard is my sixth book, and my Sleeping Beauty retelling. It follows Princess Sapphire and her bodyguard Raven. Sapphire is a redheaded, free spirited, Demisexual, wild princess with ADHD, and no self preservation whatsoever. She’s also an adrenaline junkie. Raven, is very determined to do his job (his life and career in the army depend on it), Latino, bisexual, autistic (heavy masking), morally gray, and has an extreme soft spot for the princess- who is a danger magnet.

The last three books are where all of these stories collide and intertwine as half of the characters die before they are supposed to or fall under sleeping curses- and are trapped in the underworld and are attempting to escape as their loved ones are trying to rescue them.

The City is Ours is my low sci-fi series with (probably) five books. It features chaotic teenage superheroes, found family galore, villain arcs and redemption arcs that actually work, and domestic fluff in between the battles an spy hijinks. The main themes are: what makes good, good and bad, bad, are you the hero or villain, redemption and fixing what you’ve broken, and forgiveness. Here’s a quick rundown of the setting and main cast:

The setting is in a modern day American city I have yet to name (YES STILL. None of the names I’ve come up with are sticking or fit quite right 🤬) around 2020 or 2025, but not strictly that time frame. The city is inspired by a combination of New York, Chicago, and fictional cities like Gotham. The city is in Northern America by the Great Lakes area, and is a crime ridden city with a filthy rich mayor that doesn’t care and corrupt police department that also doesn’t care.

Nickelle is the leader of our team of superheroes, and like a big sister to a lot of the team members. She has ice powers, a punk style, is aroace, and Japanese American. She is also the lead singer in the cities most popular band and makes life in that city a little less shitty with her music. She/her pronouns.

Asher is the Dad Friend of the team. He has power to manipulate light and shadow, is a soft nerd, Latino with a big Mexican family, and very gay with a boyfriend- who is Damian, the Chekhov’s Civilian of the cast. He/him pronouns.

Gabby is the token straight white girl who is an awesome ally and the super girly but ready to throw down best friend of Nickelle. She’s white with long blonde hair, wears lots of pink and lace, and will give you a pep talk of you need it, or punch a bigot without hesitation. She has no powers, but is the team’s fashion designer who creates their suits to be fashionable and functional. She/her pronouns.

Kylee is the youngest teammate, and everyone’s little sister. She has invisibility and superspeed powers, long red hair, loves drawing and painting, is PanAce, and is nonspeaking autistic. They/she pronouns.

Bryson is the Team Healer and the token straight that’s on thin ice of the team. He’s a skateboarder, has healing powers (but he can’t heal himself), complicated family relationships at home, diabetes, and he is African American. He is the medic of the team that will lecture you on being more careful and practicing self care, while calling you stupid for punching a wall. He/him pronouns.

Vira, or V, is the team Cool Older Sibling. They are a shapeshifter, Muslim and Pakistani American, nonbinary, always has crazy ideas and is very impulsive, and plus sized. Pronouns are they/them.

Jason is the rich white asshole of the team with fire powers that only exists to be bashed. Thinks he’s special because of his daddy’s money, and inspired by Tony Stark (sorry not sorry Tony stans 😙). Will get offended if you ask for his pronouns, saying those are for poor people.

Chase is the Team Techie and Hacker. He has no powers, but is a genius when it comes to software coding and engineering. He is academically smart, but has zero common sense, is a grumpy sarcastic and cynical night owl, Romani American, PanAro, Jewish, and he has a lot of mental health issues to deal with- including OCD, Bipolar Disorder, anxiety, depression, and a whole bunch of trauma from shitty friends and the school system. He/they pronouns.

Before the Stars Burn Out is my high sci-fi wip, with space cowboys and a chaotic morally gray cast. Like all of my wips, there’s as much diversity as I can pack in there. It has everything you could want in a space adventure: space pirates, bounty hunters, laser guns, spaceships, weird species, Earthians being space orcs, space politics in the background, cyberpunk…. All that good shit. The main cast and a little about the setting of space:

The setting is roughly a hundred years after earth became to inhabitable, and the humans migrated beyond our galaxy and met other species in the vast universe. Most of the known universe falls under the government of P.I.E. Aka the Peace Intergalactic Expansion, which is meant to let planets and species do their own thing while having some sense of order. One of the branches of this government, the scientific division, has fallen under corrupt leadership which seeks to control and micromanage the entire universe. They seem to do this through a secret, all powerful weapon. And they plan on getting it through our main cast, a bunch of morally questionable mercenaries, criminals, and other wildcards. The Black Holes, a gang of space pirates, are also after the weapon, and have some connections to members of the party.

Corie is the main POV, and a bounty hunter. She is Earthian, with blue hair, stellar aim, a prothestetic eye, arm and leg, and a resting bitch face. She is very grumpy and cynical, and sex repulsed aroace.

Lannie is the old ex mercenary, and the 1000% done and grumpy uncle who has been left in charge of these crazy kids. He’s the self proclaimed leader (no one ever listens to him) and the token straight that’s on thin ice. And he’s a purple skinned with pointy ears and half Earthian.

Nova is a smuggler an an android, who’s payment from the government for this job is having her criminal record cleared. She had dark skin, is bisexual, thinks that flesh bags are selfish and stupid, and has epilepsy due to faulty wiring in her eyes.

Astra is the smug and cocky thief, her payment will also be getting off Scott free on all charges to her record. She’s a black Earthian, plus sized, a master at espionage, and a flirty lesbian. She and Nova have a rivals/annoyances to lovers romance (it doesn’t really have much plot significance, and since the story is mostly told from Corie’s POV the romance takes a backseat)

Pandora is the shady scientist that once worked with the science division hiring them. After getting fired for unauthorized experiments, she has become a big name in the intergalactic underground, selling his work off to the highest bidder. Pandora uses he/she pronouns, is a genius in biological engineering, and is a huge plant nerd. He is pansexual, Earthian, has middle eastern heritage, uses a hovering wheelchair part time, is pansexual, and has Tourette’s, autism, adhd, and wears a hijab like hood.

Castor is an acquaintance of Nova’s, and another smuggler, who also used to be member of the space pirates that call themselves The Black Holes. He's plus size, a redhead, quiet and closed off, a trans man, short king, and surprises everyone with how good he is with a sword.

Aries is a former member of The Black Holes, and a fugitive from the government while on the run from the Black Holes. They are agender with they/xem pronouns, a stellar pilot, and half human with pointy ears. Xey also fall in love with Pandora and they have a cute little romance in the background.

Then there's the "weapon", Hades. An infant of a race that has blue skin and horns, he has telekenetic powers, and was accidentally adopted by our ragtag group of space criminals.

FSF Taglist: @rose-bookblood @chalcid @evethenovicewriter @writing-is-a-martial-art @thatprolificauthor @mjjune

TCIO Taglist: @friendlyneighborhood-writer @jessica-writes22 @rose-bookblood @thatprolificauthor

BSBO Taglist: @fiercely-raging-writer @aesa @thatprolificauthor @writeouswriter @rose-bookblood

If you see this, tell me about your book

Whether it's a published book, a wip, or just something you're imagining for now, I want to hear about it! Share some art, too, if you have some!

Tagging a few people who I don't think would mind, but lemme know if you don't want to be tagged in the future! Fyi, to anyone seeing this, you can always tag me <3

@valeriestorm @rosantha-tindall @kittensartswriting

[many-shades-of-violence]

To all the fellas having a problem with the diverse cast of the One Piece Live Action here’s a quick reminder that Oda has always been experimental with his character’s nationalities.

[gean-grey-blog]

What makes White Collar hold up so much better than other police procedurals:

It was part of the "pretty happy shows with gorgeous ensemble casts and a charismatic weird guy" USA network era but it somehow used that to be about stuff that is so REAL

What is justice? Is our system fair? Can you be a criminal and still be a good man? Can you be a good man and still work for the system?

The bad guys are rich assholes, and people defrauding families out of their homes, and unethical pharmaceutical companies. People manipulating energy supply out of greed resulting in blackouts which are showing *harming a dog,* aka how to show something is monstrous in a pg show written by a white person. Class exists in this universe in more ways than having a cardboard concept of a "rich guy."

The bad guys include police, FBI agents, prison staff, judges, senators. Those people cause real harm, obstruct justice, plant evidence, kill people. It's shown how the system protects them and harms regular people.

The harm that causes the main character to go from wanting to be part of the system, to subverting and working against it, is him finding out about an act of police corruption, brutality, and murder--and what's more, that if he became a cop, that's what he could become.

The harm that causes the main character to be outside the white picket fence is that the system failed his family after that act. What happened to Neal's mom? Why did nobody besides Helen step in? They had to check in with US Marshals, did nobody notice this kid didn't have an adult fit to parent?

So Neal turns to found family. And let's be real, heavily polyamory coded found family at that. But he keeps chasing the idea of a girl who will be everything. But he's got all this attachment trauma so he never does. But because found family is real family, even the people who freaking played the characters are still connected a decade later

[aevris]

doodle of a bat/myotis sonar operator for a setting i'm rotating in my brain

[jackie4dinner]

I’m not usually someone who likes when fanon claims every character to be some form of minority or another bc to me it feels quite forced. however my one exception to this is Harry Potter bc fuck ofc Remus has dyslexia and was disabled. Ron Weasley?? I’m sorry do you mean Ronnie Weasley?? The trans woman??? What do you mean James potters white??? Ginny and Harry? I think you’re mistaken Ginny’s a lesbian and in a relationship with Luna and Harry and Draco have been pining over each other since the philosophers stone.

[kirk]

LOVE IS DUMB (VISUALISER)

[performing-personhood]

Oh man someone on reddit just made a really good point that I hadn't considered: Dot and Bubble is a story that could not be told without diverse casting.

In the past, this episode would have been impossible. The predominance of white casting would have required exhaustingly obvious exposition and would have ruined the brick-wallesque impact of the ending.

The only way this story can be told the way it is, is if you have a main cast that's diverse enough for a casting decision like "hey wait everyone here is white" to become obvious.

My gratitude for this story is going to continue growing and unfolding. I am so, so thankful that Doctor Who went so out of its way to give me such a really explicit demonstration of what racism looks like, so that my sheltered white ass knows for the very first time exactly how much I don't see.

[unworldlycreature]

Hmm, anyways I'd love actually if White Man Obsession would pause for a bit for other things of equal if not more quality and worth.

...in other words, Dropout if you're out there please bring Aabria back to the dome?

[alwaysbewoke]

[maelancoli]

i'm kind of late to this but i just finished reading the scholomance trilogy by naomi novik and i feel like it is such an underrated urban fantasy?? taking the chosen one trope and turning it on its head with a fmc who has been prophesied to bring death and destruction, who is imbued with terrible power, but cannot even properly use said power to solve any of her obstacles because it would obliterate them and her soul. it takes a tired trope and the idea of an 'overpowered mary sue' and throws it back in your face by showing how all the power and destiny in the world is useless against a system filled with corruption that has burdened you with an easy way out (evil/destructive magic) that you can't take so now you have to work twice as hard as everyone else just to do simple, constructive spells instead of flicking your wrist and being done with it.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i'm so happy you brought back up the topic of rick's shitty writing of anyone even remotely non white / "white passing"

with that being said, do you think the shitty script he gave to annabeth in the show has to do with him just being deeply uninterested in adapting his story to include characters of color? bc it seems like once rick encounters a character that cannot be easily erased all ethnic or racial identity of to fit them into an usamerican specifically white ass narrative, he gets lost.

i just keep thinking how the only thing that "changed" about annabeth as presented in the show was her race but her plot relevance and her characterization got downgraded severely. meanwhile percy, whiter than before (wheres the mediterranean god look......................................), got half her functions. like i just look at rick in context and i wonder if he just gives so little fuck about characters of color he cant even write a decent character arc for an adaptation of a very established persona

thoughts? thank u!

I wouldn't be surprised if it's Rick (and the writer's room, since it actually seems Rick isn't all that heavily involved if much at all with the script itself based on some interviews) just has internal biases that he refuses to reflect on. It would be a consistent trend with the uptick in offensive writing in the books themselves (see: the troglodytes in general, all the Jewish kids in CHB being in Hermes cabin, etc etc). Rick seems to want to engage with these topics but refuses to actually assess how he's approaching it and his own biases while also overemphasizing his engagement with the topics. It's a kind of big talk/words vs actions type thing to me.

[this got a wee bit long so throwing it under a cut]

I was having a couple of conversations about this topic recently - one being group reading/discussion of WottG and how, allegedly, the slightly different characterizations in that book are inspired by the actors in the show. Annabeth is repeatedly and frequently described as motherly and maternal in the book, plus some other misc characterizations that make you tilt your head and go "Wait, what about Leah made you want to write Annabeth this way?" and concerns about it leaning into stereotypes. (It's also strange, because in the show Sally is MUCH more aggressive and less maternal, and this is painted like it's supposed to be a girlboss thing cause her being too soft and motherly was too weak or something? But now book Annabeth is now being described as all soft and maternal??? What. What is happening.)

Another conversation that i had with my therapist (cause we talk about pjo a lot lol) and later repeated and discussed more with other folks on discord more specifically regarding the show was a lot of discussion about the casting. Particularly casting choices and how the writing either is refusing to take casting into consideration to respectfully approach how things would be changed to avoid problems or are actively changing the script for characters in a way that is potentially if not downright offensive. Clarisse is the number one example i bring up because a lot of people say that the reason a plus sized actress wasn't cast for her was to avoid the "fat bully" trope. The thing is, there is ALSO a POC bully trope that is just as bad if not worse, so if they were actually taking offensive tropes into consideration one would expect them to avoid that too (especially since Percy was cast as a pasty white boy - which just makes it all look worse)? (Also other plus-sized characters like Dionysus and Gabe were also cast as skinny, same with Tyson. So it just seems like they don't want to cast plus-sized actors either.)

But also they're rewriting stuff that actively puts the casting decisions into worse tropes. Like hey, why is Percy (a white guy) the one who knows the "real" versions of all these myths and is expositioning them to Annabeth (a black girl), who in the books is supposed to know more than him? Why does he know better than her for some reason and have to guide her? Why is Percy teaching Annabeth about pop culture and how to be a kid? Not to mention stuff like the show constantly encouraging the viewer to doubt or distrust characters like Grover and Clarisse and Annabeth as red herrings as to who the traitor is. Plus there's no adjustments to stuff from the books like Annabeth initially being somewhat aggressive/antagonistic towards Percy, or Clarisse's aggression and bullying towards Percy to try and circumvent those being bad tropes in the contexts of the casting.

And there's an ongoing trend of characters who are antagonistic towards Percy in the books being divided into two groups: those who continue to be antagonistic towards Percy in the show, or those who are tweaked to suddenly become kinda silly-goofy and significantly less threatening. Gabe, Dionysus, Ares, and Hades are all examples of characters that should be antagonistic towards Percy but are softened SIGNIFICANTLY and played for laughs in the show. Echidna is played as a twist antagonist because she initially because she approaches the kids as very sweet and helpful. And they're all cast as white! Meanwhile other characters like Clarisse, Luke, Zeus, etc, are still antagonistic towards Percy (plus also like Annabeth initially and again, Grover being painted as a major red herring). Plus some new additions like Hermes, Mr. Lin Manuel Miranda himself, being wholly introduced into the plot when he's not supposed to appear until book 2, and all he does is sabotage the quest. Like, it's weird! That's a weird writing decision!!!! I get wanting to get that sweet sweet LMM cameo money, but, why is Hermes an antagonist here???????? he's not even supposed to be here yet!.

We also have stuff like Poseidon (who, like many of the god/major kid pairings so far seems to have been cast to match each other appearance-wise) saving the day for Percy and being this weirdly good dad, versus the books where we get the iconic "I am sorry you were born" line and Percy and Poseidon's tension is part of their arcs. Notably, Poseidon does this by ceding to Zeus, who is actively about to start a war. While Gabe is rewritten to be a total loser, Sally is MUCH more aggressive and her yelling and screaming at young Percy is supposed to be sympathetic for some reason? If Gabe were acting like Sally does in the show, he would actually be significantly more like his book counterpart! The show is making active decisions to paint these characters the way they do!

Admittedly, part of it may just be they got overzealous with their casting (not inherently a bad thing! diverse casting is good!) and then proceeded to not consider how that casting affects the way the characters are perceived. It also doesn't bode well for certain guesses we can make going further into the show - Thalia is very at odds with Percy initially. She's a very aggressive character. They fight a lot! Also Annabeth's description already implies that they're tweaking Thalia's character to be more "tough love" versus the books where she's significantly more of a bleeding heart when she first meets Annabeth. Like, I'm very happy about Thalia's casting, her actress seems amazing, but also I'm VERY concerned with how they're going to approach her character to make sure it doesn't end up wildly offensive. Athena is similar - we can guess based on casting decisions so far that they're going to try and cast Athena as similar in appearance to Annabeth/Leah. The show has already painted Athena has antagonistic and uncaring towards her daughter. If projected trends continue, these things are not gonna be great.

And the show does seem to rarely want to engage with these topics - like the scene with the cop in the train. You can tell what they wanted to address by having Annabeth be the one to confront him. The thing is they were too cowardly to actually have that conversation! They paint the kids as being unreasonable and getting unnecessarily upset when they aren't directly being accused of destroying a room, therein painting the cop as the one in the right in that situation. The implication seems to be a little bit they were going for "Oh, this is Annabeth's hubris getting them into trouble" but. that's such a bad way to do it! That's like the worst way you could have done it! (This is also a trend in books from HoO onwards, more or less - Rick tries to engage with certain topics, often using characters of specific demographics, and then proceeds to do a really bad job of it.)

There are also some aspects that are just like - in the books, Luke being a middle-class blond-haired blue-eyed pretty white boy is relevant! Because the fact that he has privilege from that particularly in how he's perceived is part of how he came to where he is and why he acts the way he does. Percy not having those same privileges, and having aspects like constantly inherently being labeled as a trouble-maker just based on his atypical (neurodivergent) behavior and coming from a lower socioeconomical background play heavily into his character!!! Percy being both a poor and disabled kid (and implied potentially POC) plays DIRECTLY into why he feels so strongly about standing up for other disenfranchised kids (in SoM, explicitly including other disabled kids and kids of color). It directly relates to his experiences and standing up for kids who are like him because he didn't have that, versus Luke whose perceptions and goals are very self-oriented. Now, in the show, we've essentially swapped Percy and Luke's appearances, and that paints a very different narrative. And that's important to acknowledge!

[6vaguebook]

After watching this first two episodes of the Percy Jackson Disney+ show, my main takeaway (outside of Percy taking on THREE Ares kids with no training and not even being wet) is that Luke was done so, so well.

The actor EMBODIES him. Even before I saw him acting, one picture was enough to convince me that this man WAS Luke, despite looking nothing like him. His friendship with Percy feels so much stronger. I'm already feeling the devastation from the inevitable betrayal. Just. He's so well done.

[chickenscratchstudios]

Yeah okay I think I'm a little obsessed

[griem]

ijbol idk man releasing screenshots of very polarizing things said in a private discord server between friends in a public "callout" post is #the most #tumblrific thing ive ever seen LOL.

#opinion 😱 in tags