r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Morr4Seiya • 3d ago
Hated Tropes (Hated)changing somenthing to be more "progressive" ends up being a bad thing
Now to be clear,i am not one of these "anti-woke" losers that complain some people exist,and i am also not the type to complain about changing somenthing in a new version or adaptation,however there are cases where it did ended up being a bad idea.
-In the anime of Cowboy Bebop there is the character Gren,despite being short lived the character is very memorable specially thanks to his tragic story.Basically his story was that he was a soldier from the titan war who was a great friend with Vicious(the main bad guy)after the war he was emprisioned thanks to Vicious who testified against him and he was forced to take a experimental drug that caused him hormonal problems,giving him a feminine appearence and even breasts.
In the Netflix live action,for some reasons they decided Gren was going to be non-binary,which wouldn't be a problem(some people believe he was gay in the anime)if it wasn't for the fact that they also removed all the nuances and complexities that made the character memorable and interesting,instead of a tragic war veteran that was betrayed and had his body changed against his will,Gren is just kinda there.
-The original Rugrats cartoon had the couple Betty and Howard,Betty was a big and masculine woman while Howard was a smaller and nervous man,it was a genuine interesting relationship that stood out from the other couples who were the standard straight couple.
In the new series however they replaced Howard with a woman named Trish,two things,first off why?What was the problem with having a woman being the stronger in a straight relationship?Second why does Hollywood seem to think that every tomboy or masculine woman is a lesbian?
Overall not the worst thing but it is jarring that they had a gender reverse roled that was progressive and decided that wasn't enough.
-Oh man,this one pisses me off the most so i am gonna have to break it down
So back in the late 80s and 90s there was this anime called Saint Seiya also knows as Knights of the zodiac,it tells the story of knights who fight for the Goddess Athena to protect earth,being divided in the golden,silver and bronze knights,the anime was a huge hit in latin america and Europe and while it floped in the US it still has a loyal fanbase.
Being a fan myself i can't recommend it enough,now granted the story does have a fair share of flaws,and that's because the author was honestly just making stuff up as he went along(also a lot of side characters are poorly used or even forgotten about)still it is a great story you should check out
But then a couple of years back Netflix got the rights and decided to a 3D reboot,in this reboot they decided to make the story more "american" to try to bring more american viewers,now i could go on and on a big rant about how that was a bad idea and the execution was so terrible that it made me want to strangle someone but this post is about one specific change.
So Saint Seiya has five main characters,those are Pegasus Seiya,Dragon Shiryu,Cygnus Hyoga,Phoenix Ikki and finally Andromeda Shun.
While the other four characters were the standard masculine and brute male characters who were always ready to throw punches,Shun was smaller,more sensitive and even feminine looking,a pacifist who didn't liked fighting,but don't mistake that for weakness because Shun was loyal to his friends and was extremely powerful.
Then Netflix decided to change Shun into a girl named Shaun.
So wait,you have a male character who goes against every male stereotype and you turn him into just another generic female character?
When asked about it,the showrunner Eugene Son said he made that change because there was no girl in the group and having a all boys group wouldn't be acceptable nowadays
First off that's not true because Athena was also part of the main cast,yeah she wasn't the fighting type but she still helped quite a lot in the story even saving the knights on several occasions,second if you wanted to add a girl to the main group why not use Marin or Shaina?Hell,if you were going to change the story anyway why not turn Seiya sister into a knight?
Thankfully this monstrosity was cancelled(so much for trying to bring more fans)
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u/GammaDie345 3d ago edited 3d ago
A lot of cis people in this comment section are missing just how much Netflix betrayed trans people with Gren.
The gren in the classic cowboy bebop was *already progressive *. What i mean by this is that his unique backstory made him perfect representation for intersex, trans, and nonbinary people who all bonded over how his story was relatable to them. He was a man who had his body altered against his will but the only outward change was his sex organs. This was not played for comedy, he was not being mocked or depicted as a freak. None of that "Bob has bitch tits" shit. It was 100% sympathetic. He's shown with textbook signs of gender dysphoria and the narrative sympathizes with him. In the FUCKING NINETIES.
Netflix's version of gren took a heartfelt, sympathetic depiction of the struggles trans people and intersex people face and murdered it by turning all of that realistic, messy queer suffering into YASSSS KAWWWEEEEEEN SLAYYY. Instead of a soldier who has actual desires and hobbies like playing the saxophone, he's an ex prostitute who runs a whorehouse. No other characterization.
his is insanely common. Trans characters who are meant to appeal to cis audiences are always happy 100% of the time, they look like drag queens. They never try to pass or question their station in life. They always are sexualized or work in sex work. They die, a lot. Gren was none of those things. Classic Gren is closer to a real trans person than anyone Netflix could have hired to consult them on that show, and he wasnt even trans.
hollywood and big studios do this so fucking often, but its always insidious and low key. they never give away the game, 'yes we don't like honest depictions of trans people, we only like stereotypes' .Here is fuckin proof. They TOOK an honest depiction and TURNED it into a stereotype. Side by side the two Grens look like a photo from a medical study where one identical twin is healthy and the other's a meth addict, that's how big the difference is.