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BECAUSE I WANTED TO.
We're going to divide this answer into various sections, because this has been a very heated topic when it comes to my stories, and after a fair number of arguments in the comments as a result of rude people not being willing to listen, and ignorant people not willing to learn, I've decided to clear up any and all questions here once and for all.
WHY DID I RECAST THIS MCU CHARACTER?
Because the casting makes me more comfortable, not only in terms of how the character is canonly meant to look or their background and ethnicity that have been erased, but also in relation to the person portraying the character, because while the actor is not the character, it's difficult to disassociate characters with their actors entirely
WHY DID I CAST THIS POC FOR THIS WHITE CHARACTER?
If you look at my fics, you'll see I casted Lana Condor and Liza Soberano for Gwen Stacy ( Hero of Heroes Series & Spider-Gwen respectively) and Victoria Moroles and Becky G as MJ Watson ( Hero of Heroes Series & draftedMJ² respectively ) which raised many eyebrows because, as you all know, these two are white in the comics and, most importantly, have different hair colors. I swear, it's like none of you have ever heard of hair dye.
In the MCU, many of the characters in the Spider-Man franchise have been switched to PoC because their race is not an inherent part of their character. Unlike Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray who needs to be white in order to fully tell her story, none of these characters need to be white, they just so happen to be. So them being a PoC doesn't change anything, except, possibly, a cultural lens on their situation, which adds more dimension to them, which is the opposite of a problem.
Not to mention, I don't need anyone's 'Comic Reader Seal of Approval' to cast them; if I did, I'd stamp my own seal. I had a comment where someone told me, "Well I like the actress and I don't care much for the comics, so I don't mind the change," as if that means anything to me. I'm not trying to be rude, your thoughts matter, but I don't need anyone's permission to do this, and I certainly don't need someone reminding me about a fact as simple as what color hair MJ Watson has.
It doesn't matter about whether or not you like the comics, what matters is you respect and understand my choices, I know what the comics say, and if their hair color is so important to you, reevaluate your perception of the character.
TLDR; Who cares what their hair color is, diversity is realistic and important
WHY RECAST AT ALL?
Because it makes me more comfortable. In the case of recasting already casted characters, it's because I see them as being portrayed by another actor or because the actor in question makes me far too uncomfortable to be able to separate them from the character even though they are two separate entities and I write them as such.
In the sense of using PoC, it's also not simply the act of adding more diversity, but because, in the sense of adding characters to the Spider-Man franchise of the MCU, I'm simply doing what the MCU would do if they did take in these characters. They would change the race/ethnicities of these characters in order to portray a more realistic dimension of the world. All I'm doing is what the MCU would do.
DO YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR IMAGE OF THE CHARACTER?
No. I'm not telling you what to do by any means, do what you want. But I don't appreciate comments telling me that you won't imagine the person I casted to their respective character. It's rude and unnecessary, if you disagree with me, there is no need to tell me that I'm going overboard by recasting or that you think my choices are wrong. I don't care. Imagine who you want, but I don't need to hear about it. Because it always comes out to seem as though you don't have any respect for me, and you are, essentially, changing my story to be your own, which isn't okay.
So, no, you don't have to change how you imagine the character, but if you think that commenting saying that you're "still gonna imagine Scarlet sorry XD" or "well yeah but she's supposed to be a redhead so I'm gonna imagine Holland Rodent" or something to that effect is going to be fine, it won't. Because that's rude.
IN CONCLUSION:
I chose to recast them, and I have my reasons as to why, which you need to respect. I'm not trying to start an argument or a dialogue on whether or not recasting is overreacting or if my casting is valid or not within the comments of my stories. I casted them for my own sake, and if people are happy as a result, I'm glad. If people are upset, I really don't care. Because I don't write for those people.
If you have any more questions, just let me know and I'll respond to them in the comments where you can also check to see if your comment has already been answered!
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