SO.... NOT okay to change skin color, but UTTER character assassination is okay?
So, let me get this straight...
The Human Torch is black in the new Fantastic Four movie.
Wally West, Kid Flash, will also be a person of color in The Flash TV series.
And social media is erupting with people bitching that the character is RUINED, because of a SLIGHT color change, even if the (We have yet to see) character will stay the same INSIDE and in spirit.
YET...
People have NO problem with the COMPLETE and UTTER character ASSASSINATION of Oliver Queen on Arrow.
WHAT, just because he's WHITE, it's okay to change everything else? It's okay to COMPLETELY violate every thing Green Arrow was, and stood for, but as long as he's still WHITE, welllll, gosharoonie.... THAT's okay!
So, as long as Batman stays white, it's okay to have him be a happy, loveable dude with 2 parents, and all he does is tickle his opponents into surrender?
Superman is now a member of Al Queda, and spends ALL his time trying to destroy America?
Yep, THAT's okay, just don't change his skin color!
Look, I GET it. Green Arrow was never one of the most popular comic book heroes. Who he was, and what he stood for was never burned into the pop culture mindset. (But let's face it, NEITHER was Kid Flash)
But he meant SO much to me when I was a kid.
Oliver Queen was a man who was life personified. Larger than life, with a passionate lust for life and an appetite for everything the world had to offer. He lived, loved, laughed, fought and grieved with every fiber of his being, no matter what life attacked him, or granted him with. His life was lived with unrelenting Gusto, no matter if it was blow jobs at Disneyland, or having everything taken away from him as the world tried to devour his soul.
He was who we ALL wanted to be.
He fucking ATTACKED life, no matter if it was good or bad.
So to see this larger than life character reduced to this unemotional, expressionless... CREATURE that the CW dribbles out... to see him played as a man who (literally) looks down his nose at even the ones he loves like they are shit stuck to the heel of his boot, who NEVER changes his expression, or the tone of his voice, who goes through the world as if everything and everyone is a dung beetle that he can barely acknowledge, as if their very existence is nothing more than an annoyance...
Oh, wait.
It's OKAY.
He's still WHITE.
And he has GREAT abs.
Who gives a FUCK about anything else?
It's times like this that fandom utterly exhausts me.
So, yeah, fandom, there ARE times when we fans should bitch about changes in our beloved childhood icons.
But can we, maybe, just MAYBE save it for when it's for something that's ACTUALLY worth bitching about?
The fact that SO many freak out about what is, basically, just a slight ink color variation in a comic, but we can skate past the utter violation of everything a character was and stood for...
SO, it's OKAY to *completely* change the very ESSENCE, soul, drive, personality and BEING of a character, as long as their SKIN stays the same fucking color?
It really HAS become style over substance, hasn't it?
WHEN did all of us who felt outcast from society start to demand that everyone else toe the fucking line?
Superman is going communist, and Batman is now all about giggles and ponies...
Just as long as they don't get a FUCKING tan....
The Human Torch is black in the new Fantastic Four movie.
Wally West, Kid Flash, will also be a person of color in The Flash TV series.
And social media is erupting with people bitching that the character is RUINED, because of a SLIGHT color change, even if the (We have yet to see) character will stay the same INSIDE and in spirit.
YET...
People have NO problem with the COMPLETE and UTTER character ASSASSINATION of Oliver Queen on Arrow.
WHAT, just because he's WHITE, it's okay to change everything else? It's okay to COMPLETELY violate every thing Green Arrow was, and stood for, but as long as he's still WHITE, welllll, gosharoonie.... THAT's okay!
So, as long as Batman stays white, it's okay to have him be a happy, loveable dude with 2 parents, and all he does is tickle his opponents into surrender?
Superman is now a member of Al Queda, and spends ALL his time trying to destroy America?
Yep, THAT's okay, just don't change his skin color!
Look, I GET it. Green Arrow was never one of the most popular comic book heroes. Who he was, and what he stood for was never burned into the pop culture mindset. (But let's face it, NEITHER was Kid Flash)
But he meant SO much to me when I was a kid.
Oliver Queen was a man who was life personified. Larger than life, with a passionate lust for life and an appetite for everything the world had to offer. He lived, loved, laughed, fought and grieved with every fiber of his being, no matter what life attacked him, or granted him with. His life was lived with unrelenting Gusto, no matter if it was blow jobs at Disneyland, or having everything taken away from him as the world tried to devour his soul.
He was who we ALL wanted to be.
He fucking ATTACKED life, no matter if it was good or bad.
So to see this larger than life character reduced to this unemotional, expressionless... CREATURE that the CW dribbles out... to see him played as a man who (literally) looks down his nose at even the ones he loves like they are shit stuck to the heel of his boot, who NEVER changes his expression, or the tone of his voice, who goes through the world as if everything and everyone is a dung beetle that he can barely acknowledge, as if their very existence is nothing more than an annoyance...
Oh, wait.
It's OKAY.
He's still WHITE.
And he has GREAT abs.
Who gives a FUCK about anything else?
It's times like this that fandom utterly exhausts me.
So, yeah, fandom, there ARE times when we fans should bitch about changes in our beloved childhood icons.
But can we, maybe, just MAYBE save it for when it's for something that's ACTUALLY worth bitching about?
The fact that SO many freak out about what is, basically, just a slight ink color variation in a comic, but we can skate past the utter violation of everything a character was and stood for...
SO, it's OKAY to *completely* change the very ESSENCE, soul, drive, personality and BEING of a character, as long as their SKIN stays the same fucking color?
It really HAS become style over substance, hasn't it?
WHEN did all of us who felt outcast from society start to demand that everyone else toe the fucking line?
Superman is going communist, and Batman is now all about giggles and ponies...
Just as long as they don't get a FUCKING tan....