The name of this trophy is terrible, doesn't make any sense. T He concept of affirmative action has nothing to do with a legacy character who happens to be a different race, gender, or sexual identity. It comes off more like a dig at the both concepts, actual affirmative action and the trope, than a description of what's happening.
Am I the only one bothered by this article and others like this?
IT seems more like a way for those aforementioned "heterosexual white guys" to complain that they have to expand their sand box than to really make a point. Maybe it has to do with the meaning of the term "affirmative action" versus how it's applied, but maybe that's the wrong way to word it.
Affirmative action usually is criticized (by heterosexual white men and sometimes women) for taking minorities and putting them into positions that should go to "more qualified" white people. So it seems rather problematic to apply that sort of sketchy concept to this, and it's hardly clever.
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No, I'm incredibly irritated by it too. There's a frightening lack of diversity in media in general, so any trope page created to point out attempts at diversifying character line-ups is just a magnet for tropers to complain about ~political correctness~.
As long as "attempts at diversifying character line-ups" is a trope or tropeable I couldn't justify striking this article.
Though looking at the examples, I can see what you mean. It seems to me that for a lot of examples it is impossible to know if it was a conscious attempt to diversify line-ups, or if someone just felt like writing about someone with a different background. Granted, I'm not an expert, but I imagine that many writers and artists can and would do that on occasion without any thoughts of widening market appeal or appeasing certain interest groups.
Edited by illegalcheese
Well Tropes are Tools and I think it is difficult to deny that it does not happen at all. It is effectively a subtrope of Legacy Character. I do not believe that Tropes are to be judged on any other criteria than 1) they exist and 2) they are notable (ie used often enough). If the examples are a problem, then clean them up to meet community standards.
I don't think the issue is with the Trope existing, because yeah, intentionally diversifying characters who have been around for a while is absolutely a thing. But I also think calling it "Affirmative Action Legacy" implies that there was a strong push from above to make the changes/the phenomenon is not something that happened organically/an idea the writers themselves wanted to make. So by calling the trope that, we're making an assumption about how these characters got to be here, something we can't really know without Word of God.
Something like "Diversity Legacy" I think both gets across the meaning of the trope (a straight white male character being succeeded by someone who diversifies at least one of thost characteristics), without the implications that "Affirmative Action Legacy."
Several examples listed here were not Affirmative Action Legacies. Changing a character's race when introducing them to an alternate continuity is a Race Lift. This section also listed some distaff counterparts that don't qualify.
Example that does qualify: Supergirl. She arrived after Superman and adopted his costume and a version of his name for that reason. Too, she was introduced to try to bring in a female character on the strength of her male counterpart's popularity.
Example that does not qualify: Hawkgirl. She and Hawkman have always been a duo. She wasn't introduced to capitalize on his popularity, nor did she adopt the identity in universe to honor Hawkman's legacy. Now, Kendra Saunders could be said to be a legacy character of Shiera Hall (If a strange one given that Kendra was a reincarnation of Shiera.)
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It occurs to me that my original objection might get into some blurry territory so here's a good way to tell the difference and we'll use my favorite character Superman as an example.
If Superman's origin was redone for a new continuity and he was introduced as Clark Kent who grew up on the farm in Kansas and went to Metropolis to be a reporter, only they made him Asian-American in this continuity, its a Race Lift. (Exception might be if white the original Superman already exists in the continuity this new character is being introduced to.)
If a new character is introduced with important differences in his origin story (he grew up on the streets of New York, or he's not an alien but instead a human given powers from experiments etc) he might be a legacy. Superboy in the Kurt Busiek story (I forget the name right now) could be considered a Legacy because he lives in a universe where Superman is a comic book character and he clearly based his identity off of that (though he wouldn't be an Affirmative-Action Legacy since he is a white male.)
Of course, any character who comes into a universe where Superman already exists (or existed), and takes up his identity and powers is a Legacy.
I think the important thing is, if its clearly a different character using the original characters motif and powers, its a Legacy, if its a version of the original character, its not a Legacy.
Edited by gibberingtroper
Quick question as to how would JoJo's Bizarre Adventure apply before I add it Would it be played straight with half-Japanese, half-American Jotaro Kujo suceeding his white British predecessors Joseph and Jonathan, or would it be inverted as JoJo is a Japanese manga and thus white would be the minority I at least know Jolyne would play this trope straight.
Edited by DigiXBot