Confident and been flirty is not attributed to being black or even a character, however we are using it in context here of star trek established canon legacy characters from TOS they have chosen to re-imagine in SNW.
1) "Flirty" is not the same thing as "flirts."
2) Even in that context, "confident and flirts" is not a personality. It's the barest hint of a personality, because TOS characters other than the Big Three were cardboard cut-outs and extremely shallowly written.
we know in TOS that Uhura was always more confident and flirty, Chapel was not.
No. We saw Uhura flirt every now and then; she didn't flirt regularly. We saw Chapel flirt with Spock now and then; she didn't flirt regularly. Both of them were extremely shallowly-written, which is why SNW's decision to reinvent both characters is a good thing. Uhura and Chapel in SNW are actual characters; Uhura and Chapel in TOS were cardboard cut-outs.
so the fact that it is has been switched here in SNW can be argued as appropriation
Not credibly. It is not "appropriation," and it is certainly not "cultural appropriation." Those words have actual meanings, and SNW's decision to reinvent the character of Chapel absolutely does not meet that definition.
What SNW should have done is merge TOS/JJ Uhura into one not re-imagine her to who Celia Gooding plays now on the show.
Yes, you have made your fixation on Celia Gooding very clear, what with your nine-page screeds about how much you want to dictate what kind of hair she grows.
Also
Ethan Peck is 36
Jess Bush is 30
Christina Chong is 38
Celia Gooding is 22.
So those are huge age gaps compared to their tos/aos characters counterparts
From a real-life POV: We don't know how old Spock, Chapel, or Uhura were supposed to be according to the producers of TOS at the time TOS was in production. We know that Spock appeared very young in "The Cage," which was 11 years before TOS S1; from this, we could maybe infer he was supposed to be in his mid-to-late 30s. Nichelle Nichols was in her mid-30s, but we don't know how old Uhura was supposed to be. Same with Chapel.
But, again, we know that in ST09, they established that in the late 2250s, Uhura was a cadet and Spock was a fully-commissioned officer teaching at the Academy. So right off the bat, prior canon had already established that Spock is significantly older than Uhura. And "The Cage" had already established that Pike and Una were older than Spock. ST09 also established that Chapel was already a practicing nurse. So, yes, for Uhura to appear in SNW and remain consistent with prior canon, she had to be younger than Spock and Chapel.
From an in-universe POV:
Spock was born in 2230. He is 29 at the time of SNW and 36 in TOS S1.
We do not know how old Uhura is. We know that her Kelvin Timeline self is a cadet in 2258, and that her Prime Timeline self is a cadet in 2259. That she is given field postings in both timelines strongly suggests that she is in her third or fourth years, implying that she entered the Academy circa 2255. We know that her Prime Timeline self attended the University of Nairobi before joining the Academy; ergo it is possible that she is at least a year older than most cadets in their fourth year. All in all, I would say we can reasonably conjecture that Uhura is about 23 years old in SNW S1, putting her birth circa 2236, making her six years younger than Spock. This is relatively close to the real-life age difference between Nimoy and Nichols, and it is broadly consistent with Kelvin-Spock being old enough to teach at the Academy while Kelvin-Uhura was a cadet.
even a new character like Laan. I think Laan should have been the young actress of 22 and they should have gotten an actress in her mid 30s to play Uhura.
If they had portrayed Uhura in 2259 as being in her mid-30s, that would conflict with ST09's depiction of Uhura as a cadet in her 20s at the same time Spock was an instructor.
This age ratings of the actors makes it very clear that the writers intended to downplay uhura into a child
"Child?" She is a young officer at the start of her career. She is not a child. She is a fully-grown adult, and her arc is very much about her learning to embrace her power, not about her being inferior to anyone else.
and yes the age comes into play because we cant even think of Uhura as anything but a kid
I don't think of her as a kid. She is not. She is an adult. A young adult? Sure. Still an adult.
and if you are a star trek shipper. especially a spock/uhura shipper from TOS/AOS. this is actually another evidence that the show may also have downplayed Uhura into a child so she does not distract from Tpring and Chapel
Shockingly, not everyone ships the same characters. Doesn't make it some kind of conspiracy.
I do think this is why they also downplayed uhura this much in SNW and at the same time re-imagines Chapel to more of the bold confident girl in SNW.
"The bold confident girl?" Like only one woman at a time is allowed to be confident?
They did not need to do that. Uhura does not even need to be a love interest for spock in SNW,
Literally no one else is talking about that.
what she needed was to be in the same level plain field as Chapel and Tpring with experience and maturity and she is not and I dont think this is a coincidence.
Or maybe the writers looked at Uhura's age in ST09, said, "Oh, hey, she was a cadet in her early 20s at the time our show is set, so this is an opportunity to tell a story about how a TOS character became this mature and powerful presence we later saw in TOS."
Saldana Uhura was not presented as a kid
She was literally a cadet in ST09.
so why is SNW doing that when they are not doing the same with other legacy characters like Spock and Chapel.
Kelvin-Spock and Kelvin-Chapel were both further into their careers than Kelvin-Uhura was in ST09.
I have no issue with uhura having the rank of Cadet. My issue is with her been the baby of the series and to see another TOS character (Chapel) have what we have seen with Uhura in the past
We don't. You just imagine that Chapel "has what Uhura had" because to you only one woman at a time can be confident and occasionally flirt.
Lastly there is a difference between focused episode and reoccurring. Chapel from episode 5 is more of a stronger reoccurring character on the show and is tied to one of the central ongoing storyline which is the triangle between Spock/Tpring and herself.
This is a fair point, but you're downplaying the significance of Uhura's recurring character arcs, particularly her relationship with Hemmer. Uhura and Hemmer were important subplots in three episodes -- just like Chapel and Spock were important subplots in three episodes.
You can have loss and still not be the child like
Uhura in SNW is not "child-like." She is a young woman at the very start of her career who is coming into her own power. That's not being "child-like," and I don't see how anyone who has ever either been around children or been around young adults at the start of their careers could reasonably make such a claim.
EDITED TO ADD:
There is a difference between cadet and age. cadet is not attributed to age. In JJ Trek Karl Urban Bones is clearly older than Kirk and was already a doctor but he joined star fleet as a cadet.
It is true that they could have chosen to depict Uhura as a cadet who was significantly older than most cadets. But to what purpose? It would have risked come across as hitting the same character notes that Saldana already hit in the Kelvin Timeline films. I for one
like seeing a story about a young woman coming into her own power and grace. It's an opportunity to honor the way Nichols elevated her character above the cardboard cut-out that she was on the page by constructing a character arc around how Uhura gained the majesty that Nichols imbued the character with via her acting choices and screen presence. If the SNW version of Uhura already
has that majesty and presence, then what's there to do with her that's new and interesting?
