Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26174543-20181006151501/@comment-73.144.231.176-20181006181106

I'm going to be honest, Octo. It feels like you're playing it safe because you might ruffle feathers in this case. As it is, Michaela is the only one who has chosen, and continues to choose to, identify differently from their previous incarnation--and given everyone else shapeshifting willy nilly in Heavenly, I doubt it's a case of "oh, well, she just CAN'T be Michael again." She's the form she's most comfortable as in Heavenly--like how Venomania retains his brother's face despite it not being actually his. (And in fact, the text seems to display Lich's continued referral to Michaela as his brother and not his sister as an extremely negative thing.)

Also, I'm calling bull on "but this is a fantasy, it's not applicable to real people." The same stuff is used to defend continued lack of diversity in a lot of fantasy, up to and including whitewashing of characters in adaptations (see: the ATLA movie--casting decisions were defended with "BUT IT'S FANTASY THEY AREN'T ACTUALLY THOSE RACES THIS DOESN'T APPLY"). So needless to say, as an LGBT individual, that is a very uncomfortable line of reasoning when it's been repeatedly used to bludgeon minorities. (Not an accusation, just more of a, "Okay, bit of a heads up that this is headed into very uncomfortable territory from a minority perspective and you might not be aware of it.")