Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26311512-20150512071859/@comment-25926288-20150611114403

^^^^^ You make great points, but most seem to not count the whole "Hollywood does weird logic" thing, because Once generally had belivable and wonderful casting that usually made true since and more.

Regina is played by a Latina. Cora is White, but Young Barbara Hershey really looks similar to Regina. Henry Sr is Latino, Henry Sr the younger is Latino. Xavier is close enough.

The probablem with Lily's racial/ ethnic "change" was less of there being a change, but more to poor planning. Lily was only Latina to parallel with Regina in 4x05 and then it would seem they casted older Lily to look more like Maleficent. It seems that they didn't plan on them being the same character because they probably wouldn't have casted Nicole or Agnes (though they are great). Disregarding how disproportionately minority characters are treated, it still makes little sense for Lily to have Merlin as a father before the casting call.

We already went the Sorcerer != Author, so Merlin != Father

Merlin showed no concern with Lily (even the Apprentice was more fatherly than he would ever be), plus most fans need to understand that most of these old sorcerers, Merlin, Rumple, and Apprentice don't go around fathering children across the land. Most times they are involved in magic and the other times the political affairs, and the other times asleep or menial tasks like sweeping.