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Young Justice: Outsiders
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Zozin writes...
Regarding the Team's spytech lenses. They all have a dedicated logo. I noticed that the heroes who have chest logos, usually have matching interface logos. But those who don't (like Spoiler and Arsenal) usually have a customized logo.
I love them.
Who came up with them and what are the criteria for them?
Greg responds...
Brandon came up with nearly everything about the AR lenses. As for the logos, as you noted, most match up with chest logos. Where those don't exist, we have short discussions about what might be used and then somebody - sometimes Brandon, but sometimes one of our designers or one of our VFX artists - comes up with something, as needed.
Anonymous writes...
It's great that you're working with the Muslim Public Affairs Council on Halo, but in the future would you consider hiring more writers of color when creating these types of characters? I think a lot of the issues with Halo could've been avoided if there was an Arab/Muslim woman in the room. Increasing diversity in entertainment needs to extend to all areas.
Greg responds...
The short answer is yes, but I do want to clarify a trio of points, just for the sake of accuracy.
1. We didn't create Halo.
2. We did consult with a Muslim woman when developing the character for our series. But she wasn't a writer on the series.
3. In season four, we did have a Muslim woman writer in the room. And more writers of color in general in both Seasons Three and Four.
Those efforts aren't enough, of course, but they're a start.
Ashanti writes...
Hey Greg! Love Young Justice. I started rewatching S3 the other day and started wondering about the construction of the team. What's the in-universe reason Dick Grayson chose Jefferson Pierce to be on his Markovia squad?
I'm assuming Dick asked the people closest to him who weren't otherwise occupied or involved in Batman's quitting drama--i.e. no Batman members, no League members, and no leader of the Team. That leaves Artemis and Conner and Will from the original team, but Will was more interested in taking care of Lian. But why Jeff? Did he and Dick develop a close relationship in-between seasons, or does Dick trust Jeff because Jeff's recent resignation was a sign that he can be trusted to care about completing the mission/helping people without stirring up unnecessary drama in the then-somewhat-fractured superhero community?
I know that Jefferson plays an important role later in the season that only he could do, and also that his role in the season is a nod to the Batman and the Outsiders storylines, but y'all are pretty good at clearly establishing cause and effect for your characters' relationships, so I wanted to know if there was anything I missed that led to Dick trusting Jefferson so much that when he recruited him for the mission, he specifically said he came for the man, not the powers.
Thanks for all you do!
Greg responds...
Jeff turned down Batman. Batman consulted with Dick. Dick approached Jeff. This is all pretty clearly spelled out by the end of the season.
Anonymous writes...
What happens to a light member’s power base after they get captured or killed? Do they just get dissolved or does the light keep control of them?
Greg responds...
One has to take everything case by case, but it's safe to assume that the Light tries to maintain its collective power base as much as possible.
Paul writes...
1) In "Elder Wisdom", Wonder Girl mentions that she's been on the Team for two years. But since she joined in Team Year Five and made this comment at the beginning of Team Year Nine, was this a mistake?
2) In "Home Fires", Ocean-Master mentions that he's been in an Atlantean prison for six years. Given that this episode takes place in Team Year Eight, can his dialogue here be taken as confirmation that he was brought to justice and locked up in Team Year Two?
Greg responds...
1. So, Wonder Girl said that on January 1st, Team Year Nine and joined the Team in October of Team Year Five. So she had (at that point) been on the Team for just over three years. So either I screwed up... or Cassie did. Let's go with Cassie.
2. That would track.
Anonymous writes...
Why do you hate Tim Drake so much, Greg? Are you getting back at the people who harassed you for using Dick instead of Tim in S1?
LOL mostly joking - I know there are lots of supporting characters that people would like to see more of. But it does kind of seem like you don't like the character too much. His appearance in that S3 episode where Nightwing is sick and he doesn't say a word still kills me.
Greg responds...
It kind of kills me too. And I feel really bad for Cameron Bowen, whom I adore as a persona and as a performer, and whom without a doubt has gotten short shrift. But we have budgets. We can't bring in every actor we'd like to. So we deal with what we have and make the best of it - or try to.
And, no, I don't hate Tim at all. But our larger story lines simply haven't involved him much in Outsiders nor in the first half - at least - of Phantoms. Give us more of Earth-16, and we'll get to him eventually, i swear.
Anonymous writes...
You have stated previously that Batwoman and Elongated Man both debuted as superheroes in Team Year Six. Who debuted earlier in that year?
Greg responds...
I haven't broken it down by month. At least not yet.
NoOneSpecial writes...
I hope this doesn't come off as a lewd sounding set of questions, but
1. Was Gabriele Daou a virgin prior to her death?
2. As of the end of Season 3, is Halo a virgin?
I understand that if the to question one is yes, then question two may seem a little redundant, but technically Halo would never have experienced sex before, even though she may a 'body' that has experienced sex before.
Greg responds...
1. I'd think so.
2. I know what I think the answer is, but I think it's best if I leave it open to interpretation.
Anonymous writes...
While I appreciate you taking feedback on Halo from us Muslim fans and trying to improve her representation, I honestly think she's too flawed to be fixed for a number of reasons:
1. Gabrielle Daou. I think this is an odd name for a Muslim Arab character. Gabrielle derives from Gabriel, which is a Biblical name. The Quranic version is Jibril (the archangel) and as far as I know there's no feminine version...plus a lot of Muslims don't like to use the names of the angels for humans in the first place. It would've been better to give her an Islamic name; there are SO many with beautiful meanings that you could've played with. And the surname Daou is not one I've seen before, so I could be wrong about this - I've tried researching and it's been hard to find information about its origins. It doesn't appear to be a very common surname, I'm curious how you guys even found it because it's not in any of the lists of most common Arab or Muslim surnames I encountered. But from what I can gather, it's mostly seen in Lebanon. I don't know exactly where Qurac is in the YJ universe, but I know in DC it's typically around Saudi Arabia and Iraq. If that's the case, there are lots of surnames more common to that area you could've used to make it more accurate or you could've used a more common Muslim surname. This may come off as nit-picky, but I think these sorts of things matter if you're going to make her ethnicity and religion a central part of her character. We're past the days of making vaguely Arab characters with traits from several different cultures like Disney's Aladdin.
2. Going off that, you've got an American South Asian woman voicing her doing a generic "brown voice"...I'm an American South Asian woman myself and that does not feel right to me. South Asian and Arab cultures are often blended together in Western media (Aladdin again) and they're very different. Why not make Halo Pakistani since the voice actor knows Urdu or use a voice actor who speaks Arabic to create a more accurate accent?
3. What is the reason Violet continues to wear the hijab? She just says it "feels right." One of my biggest pet peeves with how Muslims are portrayed in Western media is thinking that every Muslim woman wears a head scarf because the Quran says so. It's actually a huge source of debate within the religion, people have different interpretations of what modesty means, and many of us do not believe in wearing it. Then on top of that, there's the politics surrounding it. Of course I respect the women who do choose to wear it and the ones who do have a variety of reasons why. If Halo is supposed to be hijabi representation, it'd be great to know why she chooses to continue to wear it and maybe help dispel some of the stereotypes around it. As of now, it kind of seems like she only wears it because Gabrielle was a Muslim and that's what she thinks Muslims do.
4. The whole concept of the motherbox occupying the body of a dead Muslim girl. It almost feels like whitewashing in a way - you've got a character who's coded as Muslim but really isn't one. I don't know if that's the best way to describe it, but it just feels icky to me.
I'm sorry for the length and I know none of this was intentional. But it just feels like there was not enough research done when creating this character and it would've been better to have an Arab Muslim writer help create her. I do not like her as Muslim representation and I'd really like to see less emphasis on that aspect of her character. In my opinion, "Gabrielle Daou" died and her identity as a Muslim died with her. Violet Harper is a different person who simply occupies her body, so Islam does not need to continue to be a central part of Halo's character.
Greg responds...
1. You have a good point here. But the name didn't come from us, it came from the original comics (with a slight adjustment). Sometimes, we compromise/split the difference to honor our source material. It is, perhaps, a flawed approach, and in the future we'll think twice about it. But I don't agree that Gabrielle's name, which may not be perfect, is SO wrong that it invalidates her as a character. And in any case, Gabrielle is gone. So her name is moot.
2. I won't pretend I'm an expert, but we asked the voice actor to do an Arabic accent. This is what she gave us. Again, given that Qurac is a fictional country with intentionally vague geography, I don't think we're so off the mark here that it invalidates the character.
3. By now, I'm hoping you've seen why Violet continues to wear the hijab. They are on a journey of discovery. Sometimes, you just need to have a little patience with us. We can't always address everything instantaneously. We have a lot of balls in the air and many, many characters.
4. I think the point you're missing is that Violet WASN'T Muslim. Gabrielle was. Violet stated that they weren't a Muslim. Out loud. Clearly. Now, they're wondering if Islam has meaning for them. Nothing's been decided yet. But they're interested in learning. And I don't know why we'd want to discourage that. I mean if ANY non-Muslim character - whether from Qurac, Happy Harbor or New Genesis - decided they were interested in exploring Islam, you wouldn't discourage them, would you?
(Sidenote: Jews do discourage conversion. It's possible, but we don't encourage it. But Islam and Christianity are two religions that seek out converts.)
5. We probably should've involved a Muslim writer early on. And we probably should've consulted with MPAC much sooner than we did. I won't deny that. Although we DID consult with individual Muslims and got feedback. You may not like the answers they gave us, but to paraphrase Madia from this past week, no major religion is a monolith. You can no more claim to speak for all Muslims than the Muslims that we talked to.
Here's where I disagree with you. (I respect your opinion, but I do disagree with your conclusion.) We now have other Muslim characters, such as Khalid Nassour and Madia Daou, so Violet is not in the show to BE our Muslim representation. They are there to be Violet Harper/Halo. Their interest in Islam is, we believe, an important part of their character, and I have no interest in taking that away from them. But Violet doesn't have to carry a flag for Islam either. And to be clear, neither Khalid nor Madia nor Samad nor Muhammed nor Jane - all Muslims - are in the show to be REPRESENTATION. They are characters. But the more Muslims we have in the show, the less any one character has to carry the weight of being THE Muslim in the show.
In any case, I truly hope you've been watching this week. I'm hoping that the scenes between Madia and Violet have given you a new perspective. If not, well... so be it. We can't please everyone. But in general, I've gotten a tremendous amount of positive feedback from the Muslim community on those scenes, and so we're staying the course. And this time out, at least, the course was set with the help of MPAC, a Muslim writer and a Muslim voice actor. That's really the best we can do.
Anonymous writes...
Does the UN know about the light? If so how much do they know
Greg responds...
The U.N. has offered a membership to the Light, complete with all the perks, including unlimited access to free smoothies at the smoothie bar on the fifth floor.
APRIL FOOLS'!
There's no smoothie bar on the fifth floor. It's on the third floor, and everyone has to pay their own way.
STILL APRIL FOOLS!
The U.N. has been briefed on its existence, but the League has only presented what it could prove.
STILL STILL APRIL FOOLS!
No, wait. That last one's right.
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