#sorry if tumblr's shitty mobile system tags the str@nger things fandom

[rainbow-whitewashing-jar]

I did plan on giving Fate a chance but the casting continues to irk me. As a black fan of winx I was thrilled when they didn’t white-wash Aisha. But I can’t celebrate now because they did Flora and Musa so dirty 🥴 like if you’re going to get rid of the only Latina winx then why not get a Latina actress to play the new character? I’m also bitter about Musa, the Asian community was very vocal about the damage erasure does after the whole Scarlet J situation. Idk what are your thoughts?

Scarlet Johansson is dying her hair black to play Musa as we speak

lol this turned out waaay longer then I expected so it’s a readmore kind of post

My feelings on Fate are complicated to say the least.  I follow almost all the cast and I really enjoy them.  They seem to have a great chemistry which should translate to film well.  I think Abbey will be great as Bloom.  I love Precious (Aisha) and Danny (Sky) and am so excited to see them in the series.

I’m kind of shocked they didn’t whitewash Aisha or cut her out entirely considering she wasn’t in S1 - I can only assume someone at Netflix sat Iginio down and told him that was a bad idea because (obligatory BOING BOING afro scene yikes here).  But that being said - why pull this shit with Flora and Musa?  Musa especially, who has never been portrayed as less Asian in promotional art or the like.  And not to be all #conspiracy, but I have to assume her agency at least knew what they were doing, considering her bio used to list her as Singaporean and now doesn’t.  That puts her in much worse light for me than Eliot, who may not have realized this was Flora because the character had a different name, meanwhile you can google Musa and clearly see she’s Asian.  Time will only tell how true that is, maybe more information will come out the closer we get to airdate (which is supposedly in January of ‘21).

I want to be clear that I’m not trying to make excuses for Eliot or Elisha (Terra and Musa, respectively), but the situation is more complicated now because we’re dealing with real people.  We can’t tell Elisha how to identify herself, and we don’t know to what extent Eliot knew her role was Flora with a new coat of paint.  Eliot especially I’m hesitant to say a lot on due to her quitting IG (apparently from harassment from Winx fandom, because let’s be honest, the Winx fandom knows how to harass people).  I don’t know why people who are so mad at them aren’t equally mad at Kate Ringsell, the casting director for the series, like I am.  Or the production crew who thought this was a good idea (IT WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA).  There’s a lot of blame pie to go around.

In the end I’m honestly confused by the decision.  So many magical girls shows (until recently) have had casts of all one race (because they’re anime) or with the Token Minority.  It’s what made Winx stand out when it was first released, and it’s what it should have done to keep up with the diverse casts that are lowkey expected in teen-aimed shows right now.  Like what, Netflix thought ‘eh there’s only 1 black kid in Stranger Things, one of our most popular shows, that should work fine for Winx too?’

I’m really disappointed in decision like so many others.  I do want to try and give them the benefit of the doubt with the Terra situation, because it honestly seems like there might be more than went into her change then they’re letting on right now (because Flora is one of the top 3 girls they market with Bloom and Stella so taking her out seems strange), but there’s not enough information right now.  I will say at this point I’m still planning on watching the series, out of morbid curiosity and to roast it more than anything else, but I totally get people who don’t want to.  And I have a feeling when the first trailers drop there is going to be a lot more uproar over Elisha playing Musa as casual fans who lost touch with the show find out what’s happened.

That is if Netflix even markets it.  Who fuckin knows with them.