S02.E02: This Year Will Be Different

[beeemkcl]

* My point about the lack of diversity in Legacies is that the school is for “young” supernatural students from around the world. Black people are actually relatively over-represented in the series—and yet people still complain about there not being more Black actors in the series.

Asians and Hispanics/Latinos/as make up a large portion of the human population.

RESPONSES TO THE THREAD:

* Iranians and Israelis are White. Landon is portrayed as White.

* I thought it was classy for ‘Old World’ hot guy to call Lizzie “Elizabeth”. Until we know more, it seems posters on this thread are too harsh on this guy.

I mean, this is the world of The Vampire Diaries, in which a Ripper who has killed at least 100s of people is portrayed as a hero, his rapist amoral brother ‘gets the girl’, etc. And the then the spin-off has Klaus and Elijah as at least somewhat heroic.

I’d argue that pre-Legacies that Hayley Marshall was the most “good”, but that’s a very low bar given her devotion to the Mikaelsons.

[ursula]

Quote

My point about the lack of diversity in Legacies is that the school is for “young” supernatural students from around the world.

If the Salvatore School was international, then white people are over-represented.

However it is not an international school. There are other magical schools all over the world, including the witch-exclusive one in Europe that Penelope went to. 

The problem isn't with the "quantity" of Black people in the show, but with the "quality" of representation. Raf is a main cast member but he's constantly sidelined and now we have this very problematic "wolf trauma" that has been inflicted on him for no discernable reason. We know that there are moonlight rings in this verse that could have given him control of his transformation and retained his consciousness. So Hope giving him something that only she could control was already problematic... but it would have paid off narratively if it would have protected him from the Malivore-mind-wipe. But it didn't. So what was the point beyond further traumatizing Raf?

1 hour ago, beeemkcl said:

Iranians and Israelis are White. Landon is portrayed as White.

Not to speak for the OP, but what is important that they cast the actor who played Landon's mother as someone of relatively similar ethnicity to Aria Shahghasemi. They didn't cast a blonde or a black woman to be his mom. So they are trying to respect his ethnicity, and not whitewashing him. (It's worth pointing out that race is a human concept, created by self-proclaimed "white " people as a tool of oppression. Irish and Italians didn't get to be white until a half century ago.)

1 hour ago, beeemkcl said:

I thought it was classy for ‘Old World’ hot guy to call Lizzie “Elizabeth”.

Yeah we dropped that "it's sexy when men infantilize women" attitude a while back. 

1 hour ago, beeemkcl said:

I’d argue that pre-Legacies that Hayley Marshall was the most “good”, but that’s a very low bar given her devotion to the Mikaelsons.

Hayley had 12 people killed for a flash drive of information that was less than what she'd have got from a PI. She got better, but she was far from a saint. The only "good" person in TO was Vincent Griffin. 

[UNOSEZ]

I know I realized that Landon is mom was euro-israeli are we sure fandom writ large realized that.. It'd be nice if the show somehow injected some more of it into the character.. Because.. While I appreciate how they casted with respect to his ethnicity... They did turn around and name him Landon Kirby and create a character with almost no visible cultural markers... Agree with @Ursula that its quality  that's the problem...  Diversity, Inclusion and representation aren't the same thing.. And this universe has a shitty track record with all three to be fair.... Vincent might be the only character that I walked away from saying he wasn't totally screwed and cheated over and over and was portrayed well

[ElectricBoogaloo]

18 hours ago, beeemkcl said:

I thought it was classy for ‘Old World’ hot guy to call Lizzie “Elizabeth”

It's never classy to call someone by a name other than the one they've used to introduce themselves. It's rude, disrespectful, and dismissive. If I tell you that my name is Princess Consuela Bananahammock, that's what you should call me no matter what your feelings are about my name.

[UNOSEZ]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

It's never classy to call someone by a name other than the one they've used to introduce themselves. It's rude, disrespectful, and dismissive. If I tell you that my name is Princess Consuela Bananahammock, that's what you should call me no matter what your feelings are about my name.

But that kinda response probably is why the character looks and acts as he does... So actions that to you and me seem rude and dismissive etc will be viewed by some as "Hot & Classy"... So I guess mission accomplished? 

[ketose]

Also, he is a VAMPIR and not a vampire. He's the character who intentionally pronounces things wrong.

[Happywatcher]

So after a while summer of intense therapy Lizzie is meaner and dumber.