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It's interesting that you reference the Mahabharata, because I've seen different adaptations of it and I have noticed that the character is made more heroic or a champion of the underclass or what have you, but they've been building him up since at least movies in the 60s.
So that's organic.
Do I care that Marvel movies made Heimdall black? For about three seconds, then I went 'well the comics version of Thor is so different from the mythological original, why not?'
Now, if they made Thor black... but Marvel do squeak past this with the multiverse notion of all kinds of variations on our Earth so that heroes here may be completely different on other planes or not even exist.
Yes I do, but I also understand the political reasoning behind it.
I think the white version of Black Panther is The Phantom, but okay. Give me white Black Panther and Asian John Henry.
Except we won't get them, and you know why as well as I do. So your coyness about "why shouldn't Aragorn be black?" isn't simply "times change, peoples change, we adapt to our own local circumstances the legends we inherit from other cultures". Aragorn should be black! But John Henry should never be anything other than what he is! White Aragorn is racist, but black John Henry is just the way things should be.
"Organic" is not "hey, we need more Purples in this movie. Focus groups show that Purple Representation is the hot new topic. Just write in a few Purples, doesn't matter if it makes any sense or not".
As big Hollywood movies, maybe not. But even I am sometimes surprised at what people are able to come up with.
Miku Binder Thomas Jefferson might have been super cringe, but I also think it was 100% sincere and "organic", even by your own standards. Some Gen Z artist saw Hamilton, and liked that depiction of Thomas Jefferson by a black actor in a play enough to take it one level further. That's just how people interact with media in this day and age.
Look at this list of Undertale AU's. All of that seems completely organic to me. Some people just like imagining their favorite video game characters in a cozy coffee shop, or as vampires, or whatever. This is only even scratching the surface - there are Undertale AU's that have their own Undertale AU's that have their own Undertale AU's with videos on Youtube that have thousands of views. It's a wild rabbit hole.
If I never have to read another! god! damn! coffeeshop! AU! I'll be a happy camper 😀
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Sure. Many changes from the original in fanfiction are organic.
That doesn't mean the same is true for changes in published works.
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While generally disliking random swapping, I really enjoyed the Loki variants, which were absolutely in line with the theme of the character and show.
What I'm finding really odd is that Loki season one was all over my dashboard on Tumblr (and yeah, the variants were indeed funny). But season two? Not a sausage. I'm very curious as to why that is, but nobody seems to be talking about it and I have no idea why.
Just another victim of the general burnout on Marvel?
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