The comics do the same thing. Different writers do different things with the same characters. Even completely reinvent them.
They rarely completely swap gender, race, and background story and still try to act like it's the same character. They do it consistently in the MCU though. I don't understand why they don't make original characters like they do in the comics.
Alioth is a chick? I'm not familiar with the character or even that much w/ Kang. To me, it feels like what they did to the infinity gems and the items that led up to them.
Gender, race, age, sex orientation swaps are common across different universes in comics. Hell, everyone loves Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. The majority of the people outraged by most of these swaps barely even knew who the character was prior to the MCU using them. I do care about swaps when it's an iconic character and the swap has a huge impact on the character development (like a black Superman) but otherwise I don't get the outrage. Comics (and comic book movies) are progressive/woke, for their time. In the next decade you're going to see major characters come out as trans in both the MCU and the comics (but probably in a different universe). They still do make new characters but I think the swaps come in because it takes decades to interweave character development within these iconic story arcs. The MCU is still mostly grabbing story arcs and backstories that have proven very entertaining for the comic book audience. Making a whole new character with no rich back story would be a unnecessarily risky business decision.
I don't think arbitrarily swapping skin color, ethnicity, gender, and complete backgrounds is woke or progressive. I think it's lazy way of trying to come off as progressive or "inclusive" more than anything. I remember watching Star Trek TNG and DS9 growing up and they had excellent characters from different backgrounds with thought provoking storylines, but you didn't have agendas that felt forced. I don't see the "inclusiveness" (aka sexuality, color, and gender swapping) goal in the current phase of the MCU as thought provoking or enriching the underlying story, but it's the trend in Hollywood/entertainment. It reminds me of my friend that is an actress. She's also trans, black, and Native American. She's been offered a role in an off Broadway play where she would play Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy. That little anecdote is how the direction of the MCU feels to me. I do agree with your point that it might be too risky to make an entirely new character, but they are already kind of doing that even if they are using a name that existed before in Marvel comics. IMO having a major trans character would be another box checking activity unless they are done in a unique way rather than some cookie cutter caricature of one of the activist types. Hopefully they are actually a good nuanced character rather than the trans scientist they had lecturing on micro aggressions for a Marvel pride comic last month. Well anyhow....let's hope the finale of Loki is good.
As a fan of the angry Video Game Nerd, the Polybius machine jumped out at me. Great episode. The hatch and smoke monster gave me Lost vibes. I hope they stick the landing.
At the end of the day, I'm willing to give it a shot because any attempts at historic realism for entertainment manufactured as drama is a joke anyways. If it's not forced, and there's some message that does not comes as the expense of men or whites, then why not? We're all still trying to figure out the trans issue. Trans actors didnt even get play in the 90s unless they were cast as some pervert or serial killer like Silence of the Lambs. I don't like admitting it, but i still get weirded out if I see people swing that far out, but that's me not knowing how to react and the media i grew up in that turned them mostly as a joke or devious plot twist at their expense. As for authenticity, men and boys used to play female roles in Shakespeare plays. I still remember watching blackface actor play othello in English history class. Can you imagine Sir Lawrence Olivier winning an Oscar for that performance? Maybe he deserved it. Well people at the time didnt give a **** about him not being true to the character''s race. It wasn't "political" then! Or perhaps the issue strikes a more personal tone than a political one. Sprinkling actors with diff races shouldn't really matter. I agree it's lazy but most scripts and franchises are mostly lazy and I'm not sure why there's an expectation for the different typed actor to be unique or twice as good for the role. That's as much as I'll write for a derail heading for the other forum.
finally binged all 5 episodes. it was ok. wished female loki was actually hot. also crocki wasn't amusing. gonna go youtube easter eggs and analysis now.
This is not true they do it a good bit that's why they started the entire multiverse thing and the different earths, just look at how Spiderman has changed.
The cloud is being overlooked. If enchantment means looking into somethings past, then technically the castle is just a happy memory of the cloud. Now I have to admit that does little to further the plot or show, but that is how the enchantment works so we may be looking at the origins of the cloud.
If marvel completely ignores how tv shows work, and they come at us with a surprise suspect running the TVA, here are my upset specials. 1. Dr. Strange’s Basset Hound - Who else would want to keep all the Loki’s out of the picture other than Strange as they try to save universe. 2. Adam Warlock - The gold people may still want the guardians dead, but now they have Thor. So they gotta make this guy at some points and they said they would do it. 3 Loki’s Soul - his soul could be manifesting all these versions of loki and all of these universes. They are stronger together after all. And it might explain why a good loki would be taken for no apparent reason at all. Loki soul is pruning her. Soul stone, Seoul Korea, good and evil, all part of the show. just some wild suspects to chew on.
To be fair, the Spider-Men (people) from other multiverses tend to not be Peter Parker. Peter Parker died in his universe, so Miles Morales, the Black/Puerto Rican Spiderman took up the Mantle. In Spider-Gwen's universe, Peter Parker actually temporarily becomes the villain and dies, so she becomes the Spider-Person. They didn't make Peter Parker black, they made Spiderman black...They didn't make Peter Parker a woman, they made Spider-Man a Spider-Woman...and I think that's a subtle but important difference. Miles Morales is a completely different character than Peter Parker. He's got his own backstory, personality, morals, etc. He's not a lazy color-swap of the same character, he's a completely new and interesting character.
