A fascinating new behind-the-scenes revelation sheds light on the decision to portray Psylocke as Betsy Braddock in X-Men '97. During an interview with the Solving for X-Men podcast, director Emmett Yonemura revealed that the subject was debated among the show's staff.
Ultimately, Betsy's portrayal received strong support from Yonemura and assistant director David Maximo, both Asian members of the production team, who stood up for the character and recognized the narrative importance of remaining faithful to Psylocke's history during the period in which the series is set.
Solving for X-Men Podcast: Speaking of a little show called X-Men '97, I wanted to know: when you were directing Psylocke, did you know who you were directing? Did you know if it was Betsy or if it was Kwannon? Did they tell you that, or...? 'Cause there's the whole controversy.
Emmett Yonemura: Yeah, you know, there is. And at one point, the showrunner was almost making me feel a little bit token-like: "Well, how do you feel about this 'cause you're half Japanese?" And I'm like, "Oh God, I'm not that close to this character. I'm not that close to this character." But I was like, "Yeah, it does feel a little weird to have, I guess, a bit of cultural appropriation." It was also the way it was phrased to me, just, "It's offensive, right?" And I was like, "Yes, it's offensive. I'm [laughter] totally offended."
But then I asked [David] Maximo, one of Chase [Conley]'s assistant directors for his episodes, and he's a huge Psylocke fan. And as soon as he heard that there was even a debate going on, he was like, "How dare you? This is totally a part of her character. It doesn't—no one's looking at it from some sort of racist standpoint. It's just—it's what happened to these two women, and this is what's going on. And it's she's trapped in her—that it's not meant to be appropriation."
And so he was so firm about it that I was like, "No, no, no, no. This is the guy you ask. And if he says it's fine because he's the huge fan and Asian and he just—he gets it." I was like, "No, no, no. We can do it this way."
So yes, English woman trapped inside a Japanese woman's body, but it does actually matter for content and story and where you're going to take characters. So, yeah, it was a debate, but I'm glad that we just kind of stuck to the character, at least for where she is at this time period, because it just—it makes sense.
And also, who doesn't want more drama? Look, if we can add her bag of issues to the pile, let's do it. [laughter]
Solving for X-Men Podcast: I agree. I like that decision.
Emmett Yonemura: Yeah, me too. I felt comfortable once we had a fan—you know, [David] Maximo is just so close to these characters. But when he was just like, "No, no, no, no, no. To change it would be actually offensive," I was like, "Okay, cool. I like that. I dig that."
“For so long, my life has been out of control. Chaos and serendipity, wrapped in insanity. I have suffered, I have lost. Not just my life, but my very soul, my self. But no more. Now I know who I am.” – Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Braddock, daughter of Otherworld, mutant, telepath, telekinetic, defender of the realm and, above all, X-Man.
16 comments:
It’s always telling that Asian people seem to be the least offended by Asian Psylocke. And I agree with the team here, to change it would actually be offensive and untrue to the character.
It's always the white/black people worried something would be offensive, the Asian people be like 'lol not it's not a big deal' lol
Anytime I’ve seen accounts ride so hard against Betsy, from MY EXPERIENCE they’re already black gay guys lol
I’ve yet to see actual Asian fans ever complain about this ever.
As a Black person, I'll speak to why I think many Black people are affronted. Blackface was a very real part of American History and entertainment and its purpose was to dehumanize Black people to justify anti-Black laws and systemic racism and to reinforce sentiment that white Americans should feel no guilt about Black people's subjugation as we were "cartoonist" and thus sub-human. So many Black people feel stung when we see any hint of things like this, and want to call it out. It is empathy on a basic level and that is something to find humanity in. That being said... If Asian people are not offended, then I am not as neither iteration of the character is representative of anyone from my background. My issue with her being stuck for so long was about the lore and relating to a character (as I do when I read fiction and get engrossed), thinking of the dissonance a person would feel being trapped in another person's body, including if they were the same "race." I actually didn't mind as much when it actually was "Yellowface" in the original story as it was never written as derogatory dehumanization of Asian people. I still wanted her to get her original face back, due to the dissonance, but that's about it. I'm fine with her being "Asian" in the show as it's part of her story and I'd be cool with them incorporating her true origins if she becomes a main character. I have always thought that the introduction of Kwannon has served no one or the larger story. And that's no shade to Kwannon or her fans. I think the character is superfluous and would have been fine with her staying dead and it being a full circle moment if her body had died at the end of Mystery in Madripoor over the retcon of her being a silent passenger. It would have been a touching moment if Elizabeth took her body to be buried in Japan as was her plan with her own before Matsu'o destroyed it (though it was kinda shitty that the X-Men who were in that story just left what they thought were her remains unaccounted for).
And to be clear, this is my assumption. Black people aren't a monolith, so I don't speak for every other Black comic book reader.
Thanks for the history lesson, but like you said you can't speak for anyone and to me the ones that are witch hunting Betsy are just doing it to allow themselves to love Psylocke but to make it clear they aren't associated with the fabricated racism attached to the character.
Again, this is my experience and observation. It's not meant to rile anyone up, it's just what I have seen and one of the reasons I can't take Betsy/Psylocke as "racially sensitive" backstory when it's all just fucking comic books. Literally no one alive and who will live will ever be, will ever truly be deeply, seriously hurt by the body swap story.
As a fellow Black man, I agree with @Rahsaan on basically all points,
But I also agree with @Randybear as well.
A lot Black people definitely have a problem with Blackface with it basically dehumanizing our people to humiliate them & viewed as less than human.
But the majority of us are also capable of complex situations & critical thinking.
I'm not a fan or Blackface or Yellowcard, I definitely wanted Betsy back in her own body because it gave me the movie "Get Out" vibes,
but I also could clearly see that Betsy was a victim in this particular situation & her being stuck was a cruel act that characters mocked her with over & over.
To blame Betsy would be victim blaming & I'm not a fan of that as much as I'm not a fan of Blackface or Yellowface.
What I do disagree with you on @Randybear is I think your giving too much credit or grace to those individuals imho,
I don't think they are looking for a Psylocke to love without being associated with racial controversy,
I think they are pretending that's the case, & being willfully ignorant under the guise of that.
All one has to do is just read the recent Kwannon & Betsy solo books. It literally shows that They swapped bodies & Kwannon was in Betsy's body as the ninja Revanche, that Kwannon's life was "stolen" because she was so braindead that it took technology, magic & Betsy's telepathy to revive Kwannon, Betsy was violated by people Kwannon associated with all for Kwannon's benefit not Betsy's benefit.
That is a lot to ignore.
Imo those people are being willfully ignorant so they have an excuse to be hateful (even if the character is fictional), to a white woman, just for the fact she is a white woman.
No person black or otherwise with common sense would ever do that.
They aren't debating the facts they have always just blatantly ignored them to fit their narrative.
& the majority of black people who understand the complexity of something like blackface would never blame Betsy just for the sheer fact of her race & her wealth.
The people we have seen are just ones that want an excuse to be hateful imo & tptb at the time didn't help either,
I'm glad to see this tptb are seemingly fixing that:)
Jmo.
It’s a sensitive topic - especially for me, as a Caucasian, blue-eyed blonde, to speak on - but I agree with the team’s decision.
It’s no secret, though, that I prefer Betsy in her original body and *abhor* the body swap storyline, but a different decision would be erasing both women’s history and experiences. This was done *to* them. And it wasn’t pleasant for either woman.
Which is what the Krakoa retcon sought out to do, kinda. But it’s not Betsy’s fault that (during different times, granted) Marvel allowed the body swap to go through, and remain, for so long. It confused and pissed me off BEYOND, to watch Betsy act all guilty, like “take my name, take my everything because I owe it all to you, and I only became popular because your body allowed me so”, like, WHAT???
And to watch Kwannon act all offended also, when they’d sort of squashed the issues between them, already. To hear the writer of Fallen Angels be like: “Oh, well, but she thrived in that body. And isn’t it only fair that she claims Betsy’s butterfly and name, like Betsy claimed her body? - like, Mister, are you on drugs? Are you crazy???
Look. All of us who’ve read the comics and own half a brain cell at minimum, know what the deal is: money. Marvel allowed the body swap to remain so they could sell toys and games; and they brought Kwannon back and gave Betsy’s codename and psionic signature (complete with a ridiculous story about a dead daughter and a f—king tattoo) so they could continue to make money, just without getting in trouble for it. It was never about Betsy OR Kwannon for them. It was never about making things right. It’s about the bottom line. And guess what else, they’d do it again, too. PERIOD. Dot.
"Which is what the Krakoa retcon sought out to do, kinda"
And the funny thing is, while the Disassembled story had several issues, it did provide cool versions of BOTH Betsy and Kwannon (I thought the reimagined 1990s leotard with the ninja mask looked great for her). Had the Fallen Angels creative team kept that look for Kwannon and kept her codename as Revanche (which, let's be honest, is a cool codename), things would have likely been much better for both women and Betsy wouldn't have to lose the codename she used for DECADES.
Agreed @Fsaker.
I liked them both like that too.
Dissasembled was the perfect combo of classic & ninja Betsy
& the outfit Kwannon had was obviously inspired by the Psylocke ninja costume,
but had her own inspiration to it so you clearly knew it wasn't Ninja Betsy only by haircolor.
The problem with the stories they have is they try to write that both women were trying to find their individuality, but at the same time took on "identities" that was associated with someone else trying to prove themselves worthy of those same codenames/identities.
So it ended up with them not showing their individuality smh lol & they came off to me as illogical.
Looking forward to the upcoming books :)
I was interested in Kwannon during disassembled because I thought she would just join like that, the silent ninja named Kwannon showing signs of Psylocke but not entirely Psylocke. But as soon as I saw the announcement of Betsy as CB and K in full 90s Psylocke I was out. It was so bad I couldn’t believe they did that shit and still can’t.
Giving Kwannon the 90s look for several years made the body swap even more confusing for casuals because now both women shared the iconic 90 design and the codename.
Whatever it’s done now and Kwannon has a big loyal fan base now at the expense of Betsy. Just wish those assholes could admit it.
Yeah that’s just my logic because outside of that why would people make their entire goal and personality around hating Betsy it’s fucking weird as hell
I agree with you both. Disassembled was the best, yet so quickly taken away from us. I suspect the editorial mandate to rewrite history came after.
@Randybear I think she has a fanbase, but its more loyal to hating Betsy than it actually is to her lol.
She's just the excuse they use to hate Betsy smh.
I also don't believe the fan base is big at all lol.
I think that's why Betsy is poised to either share the Psylocke name or reclaim it soon.
Tptb tried to really push Kwannon as Psylocke over & over, not because she's actually that popular, but because they wanted people to just accept her as the new Psylocke & some have, but a lot have not either.
I think she may have fans on Twitter with multiple accounts to try to make it seem like she has a bigger fan base,
But that can't be faked in fan letters or sales.
I think they underestimated the size and loyalty of Betsy's fan base (which legitimately is huge), we are loyal to the character in either body, because not to sound cliche, but its what is inside that always counted & made Betsy who she is, not how she looks.
Thats why I just purchased both Psylocke ninja #5 & Outback #2.
Because we have the brain capacity to recognize both books contain the same character despite her looking different in both.
I always found it ironic that the stories were about the women trying to find themselves & figure who they were, but yet marketing just saw them as bodies as well smh.
Talk about missing the point lol.
But I'm seeing the change in marketing now, imo they have seen CB was an epic fail & Kwannon is not as popular as Betsy (despite their best efforts to do so, including being willing to diminish Betsy's popularity)
& now suddenly the books being released have Betsy as both ninja Psylocke & Outback Psylocke,
Then the CB anniversary cover has her as Dissasembled Psylocke, & the TV series has chosen her version of Psylocke.
I definitely think the signs look good at her reclaiming her codename in this upcoming book :)
I also hope Kwannon gets another name & they don't share it, I think her becoming her own unique character would be good.
Like you said, what's done is done, but it seems like for once in a very long time, Betsy's future appears to be finally looking up :)
Whether the Betsy Braddock mind-swap is problematic for Asian people isn't for me to say, since I'm not Asian. But the mind-swap itself concept is nothing new. It's an old sci-fi/fantasy trope, basically Freaky Friday stuff, and has been used countless times.
That said, I agree that the Betsy/Kwannon swap went on far too long. The problem, to me, was less the concept and more how Marvel handled it afterwords. It felt like a lazy solution to the Psylocke situation that ultimately created even more complications.
There were so many opportunities to resolve it, too. When Betsy entered the psychic plane, she was still depicted as Asian, when arguably she should have appeared as her original self. Then she was dropped back into reality after Vargas killed her, with little explanation for how that even happened (maybe I missed something) she was still Asian. And later, her brother offered to reconstruct her original body, but she refused. Honestly, I find that more problematic than the mind-swap itself.
So I don't think mind-swapping was inherently the problem. Keeping it going for years and continually finding ways to avoid resolving it or trying to resolve it and making it worse was the bigger issue.
And I also roll my eyes when people say the body swap is impossibly confusing. The basic concept really isn't that complicated, and there are plenty of explanations online. If someone asks, "Can someone explain the Betsy Braddock body swap?" the answer is basically: yes—look it up it a two minute read.
Post a Comment