A thread of how @DCTitans has consistently failed Starfire and Anna Diop let’s dive in

Anna Diop was cast in 2017 as one of @DCComics most well known characters. You may know her as Starfire, but she's also referred to as Koriand'r. From the momenrt she was cast, Anna was faced with brutal, horrid racist attacks from supposed fans.

These racist attacks, which Anna still receives to this very day, ranged from attacking the color of her skin to calling her racial slurs. These attacks only became worse as photos of Anna as Starfire leaked and when the first teaser of Titans was released. It got so bad for Anna

That she was forced to flee social media,. To this very day, she still has a very limited social media presence because of what happened to her. Cast members of the show voiced their support for their costar among these racist attacks, but the actual people in charge of the show?

They were silent. The official social media account for the show did not once post anything voicing their support and happiness towards Anna being cast. Did @22plates or @AkivaGoldsman, the showrunners, ever show their support for their supposed female lead? Unfortunately, no.

Now, going into the actual show. Starfire, going by her civilian name, Kory Anders, is the one of the main characters in the show. In the first season, her, Dick, Rachel, and Gar were the main characters, all the other characters, Jason, Hank, Dawn, and Donna

were supporting, it wasn't until Season 2 where they were promoted to series regulars mind you. Despite being a supposed main character, Kory has been relegated to having to watch the other supporting characters steal the spotlight. To begin, in Season 1, there was an episode

titled Koriand'r. Fans were promised to receive more backstory on Kory, who she is, and how she arrived on Earth. Fans were obviously excited, as the previous episodes titled after characters, such as "Jason Todd," "Hank and Dawn," "Hawk and Dove," and "Donna Troy,"

At the very least offered a moderate, and if not at times a rich amount, of backstory for the character(s) referenced. When the episode arrives, fans were disheartened, to say the very least, to find out that Kory was in the episode for no more than about 10 minutes.

Who was this episode revolved around instead? A white character who already had about twice the amount of screentime that Kory had. Why was it that in every other episode titled after a (white) character, those who were not even part of the main cast, were treated well?

Hank and Dawn are minor characters in the comics, and were supporting characters in Season 1. Why were they treated with more care and respect than characters like Kory and Garfield, who were main characters since the pilot and longstanding members of the Titans in the comics?

Let's compare the following two episodes: "Koriand'r" and "Hank and Dawn." "Hank and Dawn" is an episode that focuses on, you guessed it, Hank and Dawn, two (white) characters that I'll remind you once again have already had an episode about them earlier in Season 1.

This episode takes place entirely in the past, completely deviating away from the main storyline. It is an episode that goes deep into the meat of the characters, focusing on the loss of their loved ones, how they became heroes, the development of their relationship, and

their trauma. Now let's take a look at the "Koriand'r" episode. Is there any talk of Kory's trauma? Any scenes showing Kory how she arrived on Earth? Any flashbacks of Tamaran? Any mention that she's a princess? Any mention of her family? Nope! But I'll tell you what we did get!

Flashes of Kory looking upset driving to where her ship is and a super awesome scene of Kory being nerfed and taken down by Donna with a lasso! (Which I'll get back to later ha!) I don't know about the rest of you, but two white supporting characters receiving two episodes

revolving about them and going deep into their stories and development while the supposed black female lead of the show getting one episode of her story and receiving around 10 minutes of screentime.....has never felt right to me.

Now Jason Todd and Donna Troy also received episodes titled after them, and although they were not as heavily focused on as Hank and Dawn were in their episodes, they still received a pretty good amount of screentime, despite the fact that they are indeed supporting characters,

Not to mention Jason Todd was never a Titan in the comics and shouldn't even be in this show but we will discuss that later I promise. Now let's move on to the nerfing of Kory's character. Starfire in the comics, is a powerhouse to put it lightly. Just a couple of her powers

include superhuman strength, flight, immunity to intense temperatures, either hot or cold, starbolts, the ability to go stellar nova, etc. How does Titans adapt such a powerful character in their show? Kory on this show has been knocked out by a door and

STAYED knocked out for the remainder of that fight, and had to be saved by Dick Grayson, a human who is canonically weaker than her, and this all occurred just so the show would be able to make Dick look good. She was easily subdued in a later episode by Donna Troy

who used her lasso to bring her down. This is upsetting as Kory is canonically stronger than Donna in the comics, as shown below, but in the show, Kory once again was easily defeated just for the purpose of making our white hero look more like a badass

Now let's talk about Connor, another white character who got an entire episode centered on him that once again derailed the season's main storyline., not to mention he doesn't even belong in this Titans roster. In this episode, we got to see Connor use a multitude of powers

such as superhuman strength, a superhuman leap (basically flight,) superhuman speed, heat vision, x-ray vision , superbreath, etc. Now I could be wrong, but I've heard they even gave Connor MORE powers than his comic counterpart, and his introductory episode too!

Meanwhile Kory has been on the show since the beginning, and still is unable to fly and is nerfed nearly everytime a major fight breaks out. Not to mention how they had that ridiculous gimmick in Season 1 about how she couldn't use her powers at night.

In this recent season, Kory has now lost her powers and her strength has been severely decreased. It has been hinted that the reason behind her powers being gone is due to the stress that has come down on her from Blackfire's presence and the discovery that her parents have

been murdered, but the writers have failed to connect these dots properly, and her losing her powers rather seems to be because the writers do not want to see her outshine other characters like Dick and Connor. Characters like Donna and Connor being able to defeat someone

like Kory, who has been stated in the comics to have the capability to fight one-on-one with the likes of Wonder Woman, shows not just the incompetence of the writers, but just how dismissive they truly are towards Kory's character as a whole.

Now let’s talk about the relationship between Dick and Kory. Dick and Kory are one of DC’s most famous couples. Despite no longer being together in the comics, they are still heavily featured in other mediums that focus on the Titans.

A couple examples of this include the DC Animated Universe, where it portrays Dick and Kory as being both in a long-standing relationship and co-leaders to the Titans, the Injustice universe where prior to the events of the game and before Dick’s death,

the two were mentioned to be in a committed relationship, and even the widely popular 2003 animated show, (that horribly characterized and butchered Starfire but that’s an argument for another time,) where the two are the main couple for the entirety of the show.

The point is, in every medium thus far, having to do even partially with the Titans, Dick and Kory’s relationship is touched upon. Now let’s take a look at the live-action, a show that is SUPPOSEDLY about the Titans, shall we?

In the first season, as soon as Dick and Kory meet, although they butt heads, there is a clear physical attraction between them. As the show progresses, not only do the two sleep together, the two begin to grow closer and Kory attempts to break down Dick’s walls and help him

overcome all his past trauma. To make a long story short, a romance between the two was clearly blossoming in Season 1. The trouble begins in Season 2, where the romance story between them is completely nonexistent. This wouldn’t be a big deal, as Titans

is not marketed as a romance show in the slightest, and if they wanted to veer away from romantic elements all together for this season to focus on the main story, that is completely understandable. However, the show decided while ignoring the relationship between these two,

they would focus on another relationship that Dick had. This would be the relationship between Dick and Dawn, a white woman who has no relationship with him in the comics. This relationship has been present since Season 1 and has taken up a large chunk of screentime,

more screentime than Dick and Kory together have ever received, despite the fact that Dawn is currently in another relationship and everything that happens between her and Dick takes place in the past, or in a very special case, a dream world conjured up by one of the villains.

Why is this relevant? It is the simple fact that instead of choosing to develop the romance that had already begun in Season 1 between these two characters, the writers chose instead to focus on a past relationship that offers nothing in terms of moving the plot along.

This is the first adaption that portrays Kory as a black woman, in every other medium concerning the Titans, where Kory's skin color is either orange or a light tan, the Dick and Kory relationship gets explored. Why is it that in the live action, the writers are now dragging

their feet, and refusing to give this relationship the focus it usually gets in other adaptions? Why does the relationship between Dick and Dawn, a relationship between two white people, get so much more screentime and romantic moments then the couple including a black woman?

It comes across as if the writers do not want to place their male lead in a relationship with a black woman, and the placing of Barbara in the third season only fuels this suspicion, as it has already been confirmed that not only will she be played by a Caucasian woman, but

will also be introduced as Dick's ex-lover. The writers show so much hesitation when it comes to moving the Dick and Kory relationship forward, but seem to have a certain eagerness to place Dick with whatever white woman in his vicinity. And if you notice, the writers have no

issue offering screentime to other white couples; Hank and Dawn received plenty of screentime concerning their relationship drama and the relationship between Donna and Garth received a whole episode that revolved around whether or not they would become romantic.

Now the final point that I want to discuss is the upcoming season. Season 2 ended with a shot of Blackfire arriving on Earth. Fans immediately took this as a sign of Season 3 being centered on Kory, and it is only logical to think that, as Season 1 was centered on Rachel and

Season 2 was centered on Dick, so Kory would be the one to follow. This seemed to be confirmed, as news came shortly after that Damaris Lewis, the actress playing Blackfire, was upgraded to a series regular. https://twitter.com/TVLine/status/1201641714512990208?s=20

......and then this was announced https://twitter.com/IGN/status/1297307828345069570?s=20

Since the announcement of Red Hood appearing, every single news source, and even some major players behind the scenes of the show, such as the showrunner @22plates, the costume designers, and one of the directors, have spoken about Red Hood and Red Hood only.

What should have been a season dedicated finally to the female black lead and her story, will instead be a season where Kory will once again be pushed to the side in favor of Batman-related storylines and, you guessed it, a white character who shouldn't

have been included in a Titans show to begin with. The story of Red Hood has nothing to do with the Titans, and is instead deeply ingrained in Batman storylines. Blackfire, on the other hand, was one of the Titans' biggest adversities in the comics. Based on that, which of the

two should be the main villain of this show, a TITANS show? I could make this thread even longer, I could talk in extensive detail about how Anna is the female lead of the show, but is missing from multiple episodes in Season 2, but I will just end with this;

It is not enough to simply cast people of color in your show or film. If you are not giving them screentime, or aren't giving them any storylines, you have failed your actors and their characters. You have to put in as much effort into their characters, their development, and

their stories as you would with your white characters, if not more. @22plates and @AkivaGoldsman have failed to do this. Anna Diop is your female lead, and you have practically given her nothing

to work with in these past 2 seasons. The way these writers have treated characters like Dick, Hank, Dawn, and Jason versus how they have treated characters like Kory, Garfield, and Rose are not equivalent, there is a clear preference for the former mentioned and a certain air

of indifference towards the latter mentioned. This wasn't okay before, it's not okay now, and it'll never be okay. Do better. @TheAnnaDiop has been phenomenal, despite the little screentime she gets, and all the grief she has received from "fans" regarding her portrayal, she has

always deserved better than what she has received in this show, and has done a stellar job of portraying Kory for the complex character she is. No matter what happens, so many, including myself, will always support and stand by Anna, and follow whatever she decides to do next.