Line #160 Main/AffirmativeActionLegacy


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5	[[quoteright:250:[[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steve_sam_cap_vert_4.png]]]]
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7	->'''Minute Man:''' I'm black?\
8	'''Cosgro Toys Exec:''' We decided to take a multi-cultural approach.\
9	'''Minute Man:''' But, I'm not black.\
10	'''Cosgro Toys Exec:''' I think you have vaguely African features...
11	-->-- ''Film/TheSpecials''
12
13	So, the [[Creator/MarvelComics Big]] [[Creator/DCComics Two]] comic publishers have a couple of issues. The first: brand new characters not [[ContinuityPorn heavily tied to already existing characters and continuity]] have a hard time becoming popular and long-lasting. The second, the eras when characters could stick (the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver]] Ages) produced heterosexual white males almost exclusively. The solution to both? Take a preexisting character, and pass their [[LegacyCharacter superhero identity]] to a [[AffirmativeActionGirl woman]], [[TokenMinority racial minority]], or LGBT person!
14
15	Trouble is, the legacy characters, minority or not, often also don't stick very well and there is a history of them being replaced. It also doesn't help that sometimes, these new characters don't catch on and fall out of a regular role, occasionally resulting in [[CListFodder another trope entirely]]. Furthermore, UnpleasableFanbase aside, depending on how the original character is treated or how the mantle is passed to the new one the preexisting fanbase may react very badly.
16
17	This can also be very dangerous for people hoping to use this trope to promote diversity or inclusivity: should the new character be so badly received that it actually ''damages'' the name or brand, it also becomes easy for people to blame the diversity or inclusivity for the drop in quality.
18
19	That said, several of these characters have gone on to be popular and enduring heroes in their own right.
20
21	See also GenderFlip, RaceLift, ShesAManInJapan, MoreDiverseSequel.
22
23	----
24	!!Examples:
25	[[index]]
26	* AffirmativeActionLegacy/ComicBooks
27	** AffirmativeActionLegacy/TheDCU
28	** AffirmativeActionLegacy/MarvelUniverse
29	[[/index]]
30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:Anime]]
33	* ''Anime/PokemonHorizonsTheSeries'' has Liko, a girl, as a true main character of a ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' anime series, in contrast to previous female main characters in prior ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' installments who were just secondary to Ash Ketchum's journey.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Fan Works]]
37	* ''Fanfic/AmazingFantasy''
38	** Izuku, a Japanese teenager, is being tutored by a universe-displaced Peter Parker to become Spider-Man.
39	** Lampshaded by Miles, who doesn't think much of this, and is rather annoyed when cuts on his costume reveal this to the world and the internet makes a fuss about him being a "black Spider-Man".
40	* In ''Fanfic/DucktalesTwentyYearsLater'', the female Gosalyn has taken up the Darkwing Duck mantle.
41	* ''WebOriginal/{{FNAFNG}}'': The next-generation of the Fazbear Legacy is comprised of five girls: Bearennice[[note]]Freddy and Beartha's daughter[[/note]], Carol[[note]]Toy Chica's and Chica's adoptive daughter[[/note]], Sarah[[note]]Foxy's and Mangle's daughter[[/note]], Enigma[[note]]Springtrap and Marionette's daughter[[/note]], and Danielle[[note]]Brenda and Roselle's adoptive daughter[[/note]]), and two boys (Kristian[[note]]Bonnie and Toy Bonnie's adoptive son[[/note]] and Paradigma[[note]]Springtrap and Marionette's son[[/note]]). Of them all, three of them are openly LGBT, with Carol being bisexual, Enigma being pansexual, and Danielle being a lesbian, and Enigma and her twin brother Paradigma are rabbit-Slimer hybrids thanks to their mother's dark magic allowing her to conceive them as her biological children.
42	* The ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' AU fic ''Fanfic/SodorsLegendOfTheLostTreasureBadEnding'' has Sir Topham Hatt (bald, white, straight man) being replaced after his resignation by Charlene Bellis (long-black-haired, tan-skinned, lesbian woman).
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
46	* Parodied in the above quote from ''Film/TheSpecials''. Especially funny considering James Gunn, who plays Minute Man, doesn't look even ''remotely'' like anything other than white.
47	* ''Film/JamesBond'':
48	** M (the chief of [=MI6=]) was first played by a woman, Dame Creator/JudiDench, starting with 1995's ''Film/GoldenEye''.
49	** ''Film/NoTimeToDie'' has the title of Agent 007 being held by a black woman (played by Creator/LashanaLynch), with James Bond having retired at the end of ''Film/{{Spectre}}''. Also in ''No Time to Die'', it turns out the GadgeteerGenius Q (Creator/BenWhishaw) who's there since ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' (and mentioned having predecessors in the latter film) is either gay or bisexual.
50	* ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'': Two separate examples, one Watsonian and one Doylist:
51	** In-universe, the entire film is about Diego De La Vega, a Spanish hidalgo, passing the mantle of Zorro on to Alejandro Murietta, a Mexican peasant. While it's easy to overlook by today's standards, this would have been a ''huge'' social gap during the era in which the movie is set, when monarchy and aristocracy were still firmly entrenched in most of the western world, ideas of human equality and universal rights were only beginning to challenge them, and even societies that were moderately serious about these things were still very inconsistent in their application.
52	** Out-of-universe, Creator/AntonioBanderas was the first Hispanic actor to play the role of Zorro. This is no small irony considering that the character has always been portrayed as either a Spaniard or a Mexican (depending on exactly when a particular story is set), but his previous actors had all been Americans, of varying heritages but none of them Latino.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Literature]]
56	* In ''Literature/DevilsCape'', the male Doctor Camelot is replaced by his daughter Katie.
57	* In the last, unfinished ''Literature/{{Biggles}}'' book, the title character was going to retire from his position in the Special Air Police and be replaced by a new character, Alexander "Minnie" Mackay, who was part Native American.
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
61	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
62	** Brigadier Winifred Bambera (an African woman) to [[TheBrigadier Brigadier]] Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart in the story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E1Battlefield Battlefield]]".
63	** The revived series brought us the Brigadier's daughter, Kate, who now serves as the Doctor's contact within UNIT.
64	** Invoked in-universe by the Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife The Doctor's Wife]]" and "[[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS4E5E6DeathOfTheDoctor Death of the Doctor]]", who confirms the long-held [[AscendedFanon fan belief]] that Time Lords can indeed change [[GenderBender genders]] and [[RaceLift ethnicities]] during a regeneration, although [[TheNthDoctor his incarnations]] are all white men as of those stories. The first female (mainline) Doctor would be Creator/JodieWhittaker's Thirteenth Doctor, who debuted in the 2017 Christmas special. Later the Fifteenth Doctor would be the first non-Caucasian one to headline the series, played by Creator/NcutiGatwa.
65	** In the former episode, the Doctor mentions a friend of his named the Corsair, who was famous for changing sex in his/her regenerations, being described as a good man and a very ''[[GoodBadGirl bad]]'' girl.
66	** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E8LetsKillHitler Let's Kill Hitler]]" it's revealed that Mels, the black twenty-something childhood friend of Amy and Rory, is actually the previous incarnation of the white, middle-aged, River Song. Mels in turn regenerated from the white, seven year old Melody and was forced to grow up ''again'' after her first regeneration left her as a toddler.
67	** On the villainous side of things, Missy is a female legacy to a male character, being [[spoiler:a regenerated Master]]. WordOfGod states this was to test the audience's reaction prior to casting a female Doctor.
68	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]" has a double example of this, when the Doctor shoots the commander of Gallifrey's military forces, who promptly regenerates from a white man into a black woman.
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Radio]]
72	* A tragic but heartwarming real-life example of this occurred with the political podcast ''The Michael Brooks Show'' when the titular host passed away from a sudden health condition. The day after his passing, his sister Lisha took up the mantle as the host of the (still unchanged) show alongside its two prior hosts, Matt and David.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Roleplay]]
76	* ''My Superhero Legacy'', a LegacyCharacter-themed {{Superhero}} RP, has an example in Tae-hyun Chong, the fourth [[BlowYouAway Windwing]]. While the previous bearers were white, presumably cishet men, Tae-hyun is a queer Korean-American.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
80	* Bunker of ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'', like Captain America, both inverts and plays it straight. The current, main-timeline Bunker is white. A promo card depicts the World War II-era Bunker as a black man. And an alternate-future version of the character is also black.
81	** Played straight with (aheh) Legacy, whose [[SuperpowerfulGenetics inherited abilities]] are passed down only to the first child in each generation. Said firstborn has been a son for long enough that the primary Legacy, the third to bear the identity, is Paul Parsons ''VIII''; his successor in the role is his daughter Pauline.
82	* In ''TabletopGame/FreedomCity'', Raven II was the daughter of the original male Raven, and Johnny Rocket II is the original's gay grandson. The third edition, among other changes, introduces a new Lady Liberty; while the first three were white cis women, Sonja Gutierrez is Hispanic and trans.
83	* In the 9th edition of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', the title of [[FourStarBadass Lord Castellan of Cadia]] passes down from Ursarkar E. Creed (a man) to his daughter Ursula Creed, Ursarkar himself having been abducted by the Necron Lord [[CollectorOfTheStrange Trazyn the Infinite]] at the tail end of 7th edition.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Video Games]]
87	* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'' standard LegacyCharacter Cid has a granddaughter named Cidney in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV''.
88	* ''VideoGame/StreetFighter6'' newcomer, Kimberly, is the pupil of the ways of Bushin-ryu, who follows the steps of ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' protagonist Guy, and his mentor, Zeku, before her.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Webcomics]]
92	* In ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'', [[http://www.shortpacked.com/comic/mammobombs Amber created]] the non-{{stripperiffic}} persona of '''AMAZI-GIRL''' in order to provide an actual female superhero role model, both for herself and others. When Lucy (who is black) was hired to the store, she bonded with Amber over the lack of female role models in comics. Later, after Amber has left the store, a thief is in the stockroom, and Robin [[http://www.shortpacked.com/comic/ready unveils the Amazi-Girl outfit]] for Lucy.
93	-->'''Schtick-Shift:''' ...the hell do you think ''you'' are?\
94	'''Lucy:''' I'm the new Amazi-Girl.\
95	'''Robin:''' ''[from off-panel]'' [-psst, say it like it's a logo-]\
96	'''Lucy:''' What?\
97	'''Robin:''' [-like in comic books. say it like it's a logo-]\
98	'''Lucy:''' Robin, this ''isn't'' a comic book. You can tell because I'm a woman with agency.\
99	'''Robin:''' [-doooo eeeet-]\
100	'''Lucy:''' ...I'm the new [[AC:AMAZI-GIRL?]]\
101	'''Robin:''' [-muy bueno-]\
102	'''Lucy:''' I said it the ''same way''.
103	** In the end, Lucy decides Amazi-Girl brings out a side of her she doesn't like and decides not to take up the mantle. [[spoiler:But she does put the cape back on when the Soggies invade in the GrandFinale.]]
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Web Original]]
107	* ComicBook/LessThanThreeComics' Brat Pack had mention of the future descendants of Uncle Sam (II). Sam married the daughter of black superheroine, Talon, and their children went on to become Uncle Sam III, and Miss Liberty II (after Uncle Sam II's mother (The original Uncle Sam was his grandfather, a UsefulNotes/{{W\|orldWarII}}WII hero, and the <3-Verse's Captain America analog, a power which continued along the family line)).
108	* Parodied in [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/marvel-reimagines-green-goblin-as-lefthanded,36507/ this]] article from Website/TheOnion, which announces Marvel is making a new version of the Green Goblin...left-handed.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Western Animation]]
112	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra,'' a SequelSeries to ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender,'' has Korra as the new Avatar. This is more of a meta example--Aang was not the first Avatar, and successors are always from a different nation and often opposite gender to their immediate forebears. Aang is male and from a Tibetan FantasyCounterpartCulture, but could pass for European in [[{{Animesque}} the show's art style]]; Korra is female, darker-skinned (being from a fantastical EskimoLand equivalent) and [[spoiler:bisexual]].
113	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}},'' the Hunters are a group of humans (eventually all part of the Canmore family) who hunt gargoyles, particularly [[BigBad Demona]]. While all the earliest one whom we've seen were male, there was a female Hunter (Fiona Canmore) as early as 1920; the modern age saw the title shared by Robyn Canmore and her two brothers.
114	[[/folder]]

Context Main / AffirmativeActionLegacy