Young Avengers appreciation 2019

[Digifiend]

Yeah, Kate's a character whose ethnicity is pretty much irrelevant. They should just cast someone who can act and handle a bow. Doesn't matter if they're white, Asian, or even black. And if she is white like the comics, that doesn't mean she has to have black hair. For example, the Langs already have different hair colours (both Scott and Cassie are brunette, instead of ginger and blonde respectively). The trope Ability Over Appearance is in play.

There are some characters where race matters (Ms. Marvel needs to be South Asian, as the character's Pakistani heritage is important). But Kate's not one of them.

[MaximoffTrash]

She should still be born and brought up in the US, just don't make Derek an actual Japanese crime lord or Yakuza leader for the sake of linking it to Clint's Ronin deal. That will be kinda weird. Just a American Corporate criminal.
About her hair color, I kinda think Kate's hair color is like Jean's red hair, Emma's blonde hair, etc that kinda bleeds into her whole character image though.

[Frontier]

I think it's a fairly important aspect of Kate's character that she comes from a privileged background, and a white upper class girl who ends a Superhero in spite of that, even when it makes her hit rock bottom.

I mean, they used the Aja design in the logo so they're probably not race-bending her.

[Drops Of Venus]

I think it's a fairly important aspect of Kate's character that she comes from a privileged background, and a white upper class girl who ends a Superhero in spite of that, even when it makes her hit rock bottom.

I mean, they used the Aja design in the logo so they're probably not race-bending her.

While being caucasian usually adds to the ''privileged'' stereotype, I think it's perfectly possible for a character of color to still be portrayed as privileged. In Kate's case, I've always read her privileged background as being mostly associated to the wealth and status her family has, and I think that could be translated into the MCU regardless of any ethnical background the Bishops have. I mean, it's no different than real life, really: POC do have some challenges for being POC, but if they're wealthy and famous, they do have privileges that a lot of other POC don't.

As for Aja, I've talked about this before, but I think he was actually the artist who made Kate look like an asian person the most, which I feel is partly where the fan desire for her to be asian comes from. So if they're taking inspiration from his visual work, I would be even less shocked to see asian Kate in the MCU.

[Wiccan]

Ngl I kinda want her to stay white just to see those ~omg MCU is gonna ruin everything people~ annoyed. I feel weird cause it feels like I'm some kind of ~anti-sjw~ dudebro but the utter ridiculousness of a huge amount of people saying the YA shouldn't be on the MCU cause they're gonna ruin everything... By doing things like "whitewashing" Kate... I'm just... lol.

I have no problems with white characters being cast as POC, and I think it totally made sense when people petitioned for it to be done with with Iron Fist, cause he's a character whose whole theme, backstory and powerset is based on chinese elements while being white. But with Kate, not only wanting her to be cast as POC, which would be fine, but being outraged if that's not the case, for no good reason?... It's bizarre.

[Ibara]

I feel like I'm on a different part of the internet. I'm not really seeing any huge outcry about Kate's ethnicity - just the regular vocal minority that rages to get what they want. Honestly, Kate and most of the YA (outside of Eli and Cassie) could really be cast as any ethnicity.

Should there be controversy if they don't cast a POC? No. Should casting be open to anyone/everyone? Hell yes. I give no clout to people who claim racism or whitewashing toward Kate's potential casting, I would have the same reaction to people crying over Kate being racebent if they cast a POC - I'm not going to let the vocal minority color my opinion here, because people are always going to find a way to have problem with something.

[Woozie]

I dunno about that. Other than Kate and Cassie, every YA has a pretty notable minority covered. (If you consider that the twins are jewish)

[Frontier]

While being caucasian usually adds to the ''privileged'' stereotype, I think it's perfectly possible for a character of color to still be portrayed as privileged. In Kate's case, I've always read her privileged background as being mostly associated to the wealth and status her family has, and I think that could be translated into the MCU regardless of any ethnical background the Bishops have. I mean, it's no different than real life, really: POC do have some challenges for being POC, but if they're wealthy and famous, they do have privileges that a lot of other POC don't.

As for Aja, I've talked about this before, but I think he was actually the artist who made Kate look like an asian person the most, which I feel is partly where the fan desire for her to be asian comes from. So if they're taking inspiration from his visual work, I would be even less shocked to see asian Kate in the MCU.

The Bishop's always felt pretty WASP-y, but that's just me.

Too be honest, I don't see the Asian element in Kate here. That's just Aja's style.

[Ibara]

I dunno about that. Other than Kate and Cassie, every YA has a pretty notable minority covered. (If you consider that the twins are jewish)

I mean within the initial roster. Nate, Kate, and Teddy could have relatively open casting.

[MaximoffTrash]

Ngl I kinda want her to stay white just to see those ~omg MCU is gonna ruin everything people~ annoyed. I feel weird cause it feels like I'm some kind of ~anti-sjw~ dudebro but the utter ridiculousness of a huge amount of people saying the YA shouldn't be on the MCU cause they're gonna ruin everything... By doing things like "whitewashing" Kate... I'm just... lol.

I have no problems with white characters being cast as POC, and I think it totally made sense when people petitioned for it to be done with with Iron Fist, cause he's a character whose whole theme, backstory and powerset is based on chinese elements while being white. But with Kate, not only wanting her to be cast as POC, which would be fine, but being outraged if that's not the case, for no good reason?... It's bizarre.

Yeah, I will respect Marvel Studios's choice but I will have my guilty pleasure if they **** over those Twitter/Tumblt mob who have YA/Champions for icons yet spread misconcept of them for their own agenda.

[MaximoffTrash]

I feel like I'm on a different part of the internet. I'm not really seeing any huge outcry about Kate's ethnicity - just the regular vocal minority that rages to get what they want. Honestly, Kate and most of the YA (outside of Eli and Cassie) could really be cast as any ethnicity.

Should there be controversy if they don't cast a POC? No. Should casting be open to anyone/everyone? Hell yes. I give no clout to people who claim racism or whitewashing toward Kate's potential casting, I would have the same reaction to people crying over Kate being racebent if they cast a POC - I'm not going to let the vocal minority color my opinion here, because people are always going to find a way to have problem with something.

Yeah, I mostly come from "give any capable actor/actress equal job opportunity" aspect.
I just kinda hate them so dead sure the characters should be a certain way for their liking and anyone who point out it's not in the canon got burnt for that.

[MaximoffTrash]

I dunno about that. Other than Kate and Cassie, every YA has a pretty notable minority covered. (If you consider that the twins are jewish)

Tommy isn't really Jewish right? As brought up recently, he is not Billy's biological brother.
How does realworld Jewish heritage work exactly? My limited knowledge tells me it's "maternal/religious" one.
So would even OG Thomas/Williams be considered Jewish since Wanda's only Jewish connection is like Magneto and she was never brought up in that cultural background nor is she religiously Jewish?

[Digifiend]

Yeah, Wanda's Romani, so shouldn't her religion be pagan?

[Drops Of Venus]

I dunno about that. Other than Kate and Cassie, every YA has a pretty notable minority covered. (If you consider that the twins are jewish)

I wouldn't classify Tommy as jewish just because of his spiritual connection to Billy.

Too be honest, I don't see the Asian element in Kate here. That's just Aja's style.

I agree that that's just his style and he probably didn't intend for her to look asian, but I've seen some confusion around the fandom because of his art, specially coming from people who only knew Kate through that book and assumed she was supposed to be asian because of it.

I mean within the initial roster. Nate, Kate, and Teddy could have relatively open casting.

I think Billy could have a relative open casting too. I mean, even if they specifically look for jewish actors, Billy's ethnic background has never been truly specified (besides the fact that he ''looks white''). All we know for sure is that he is a Kaplan, which is historically a family name associated with Ashkenazi Jews, who are a part of a diaspora population, meaning you can't pin one specific race or ethnicity on them, because they dispersed and mixed a lot over the years. So Billy could look like anything if they want to, and it wouldn't necessarily erase his jewish background.

As for Teddy, his race is an interesting discussion, because we know he was born looking like a White Kree thanks to his paternal heritage. In the MCU, Mar-Vell was also portrayed as a White Kree, but we don't know if there's gonna be any familiar connection between him and this version of Mar-Vell. So as far as MCU canon goes, and assuming he is going to be a Kree, he could be either ''white'', ''black'' or ''blue''. It seems like those are the three kind of races that the Kree have in the MCU, with blue being the predominant one. My guess, though, is that if he is written in the MCU as a descendant of the Vell family, and if Phyla is portrayed as a White Kree ('cause I really think she's gonna show up in GOTG3), odds are he's going to be white too. That, of course, is only taking his biological heritage into consideration... as a shapeshifter, he could really look like anything he wants too.

Tommy isn't really Jewish right? As brought up recently, he is not Billy's biological brother.
How does realworld Jewish heritage work exactly? My limited knowledge tells me it's "maternal/religious" one.
So would even OG Thomas/Williams be considered Jewish since Wanda's only Jewish connection is like Magneto and she was never brought up in that cultural background nor is she religiously Jewish?

Jewish definition is.... complicated. Some segments really do consider that you can only be born jewish if you inherit that through your mother, BUT other segments disagree. Billy, for instance, is a reform jew, which is a more liberal/progressive version of the classic judaism, and from my research, they do consider that people can be born jewish through paternal heritage as well. And then there's the people who are not born jewish but convert to that religion/culture. Or the people who are ethnically/biologically jewish but don't identify as such because of a lack of association to that particular culture and/or religion. There's really not one universal law of what it means to be jewish, so a lot of that discussion comes down to individual perspective.

So, from my point of view: Billy is the ''full package'' jew, although a more modern one when it comes to socio-cultural-religious ideas. Tommy could be anything, as we don't know much about his biological family or his upbringing. Wanda could've been considered an ethnical jew at best, but now not even that anymore after the retcon. Same goes for Pietro. Erik seems to be written as a secular jew these days, specially after House Of X.

[MaximoffTrash]

Yeah, Wanda's Romani, so shouldn't her religion be pagan?

Her religious status is kinda set before her ethnic right?
She became an actual witch and adopt Wicca as her religion with Agatha in 1974 before her Romani half of heritage is established in 1979 with Magda being their new mom. Those two aren't really connected, Wanda's religion is more of a choice when she was already an adult than a family heritage.