(Hated)changing somenthing to be more "progressive" ends up being a bad thing

[u/Morr4Seiya]

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)

[u/CosmicWanderer2814]

Back when Dragon Age: Inquisition came out, i remember seeing some folk get really pissed at BioWare when they found out Cassandra is straight. They kept claiming she is so obviously lesbian-coded due to, y'know, short hair and other masculine features. Accused BioWare of queer-baiting because god forbid a tomboy/masculine-looking woman like men. 

[u/NoMereMage → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

This shit pissed me off. I had a friend mad about this and I was like “it’s kind of fucked of you to be mad she’s not a lesbian or LGBT just because she as a woman has masculine traits.” Plenty of cis het women have masculine traits. I appreciated them for not making her a stereotype.

[u/Separate_Business_86 → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

I read that Cassandra was based off a real woman who was always dealing with the same issue too. People kept assuming she must be gay or at the very least bi and she wasn't. She also had a thing for romance novels in real life too and the writer wanted to include those traits because people just can't seem to accept that they exist in a woman that presented more masculine for some reason.

The backlash was weird too. I respect games where characters aren't all player-sexual. It is annoying when the LI are limited (Cyberpunk) so you only have one choice, but I still respect that they have preferences and just because you think Judy Alvarez is attractive, doesn't mean she reciprocates.

[u/ironangel2k4 → u/Separate_Business_86]

Oh, I see, she was me in high school.

[u/1Kassanova → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

Yeah I remember that. Shit was so dumb.

[u/KitchenFullOfCake → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

I think everyone gets mad at Bioware for the orientation of a character no matter who they are. They're just mad that their ship isn't gonna work out.

[u/Allronix1 → u/KitchenFullOfCake]

I mean, there's always mods.

[u/JustAMinah → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

they were doing that with mizu. "Oh, they haaaas to be trans because they were raised as a boy!" with blue eyed samurai. even in the queer community, there's stereotypes and conformity which is wild, being that's what makes it polar opposite of heteronormativity (not conforming to those standards and shit) it's like, a certain culture of people still strive for some sort of boxes and labels to keep putting people in, and making them fit what they think they should fit into

[u/musclenugget92 → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

You're never enough of an Ally for the internet, remember that.

[u/ParryDotter → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

Imagine accusing Dragon Age of all franchises for not being queer friendly lol

[u/Truethrowawaychest1 → u/ParryDotter]

Isn't one of the creators of the series a very openly gay man?

[u/Allronix1 → u/Truethrowawaychest1]

Yup. And irony is he wrote both heterosexual romances in KOTOR.

[u/[deleted] → u/ParryDotter]

TBF, it got less authentic and more performative with each entry. DAO is a perfect game and it's been a steep downhill since.

[u/Truethrowawaychest1 → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

Remember, stereotypes are bad

[u/OrdinaryIntroduction → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

The biggest problem I have with "coding" characters is that it ironically forces people into stereotypes and roles for that person. It reminds me of how some people are upset that in the newest Transformers show the character Jazz is being voiced by an Asian American. Yet if Transformers is really a multiverse, why can't there be a Jazz who has an Asian American vibe, or an Ironhide who is black, an Arcee whose Columbian and so on. Is it really that hard for someone to still carry the vibes of the character, even if their a different nationality. I personally don't care who is voicing a character, so much as can they capture the vibes of said character.

[u/Allronix1 → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

They had a tantrum over Cora in ME:A as well because of The Hair, the Fighter, the Butch appearance.

But it was actually fucking brilliant that Cora WAS heterosexual. Think about it. She was surrounded by asari. She totally embraced asari culture. She was perfect wife material for an asari looking to expand the gene pool.

But...there was that one little problem that kept her from staying on Thessia and raising her own little blue commando squad. Like "sorry, I prefer the company of men" in reverse.

[u/Ok-Transition7065 → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

oh man, and with zenless zone zero with caesar been a shojo manga fan and daydreamign with the male mc in his video bruh

[u/SmoothDiscussion7763 → u/CosmicWanderer2814]

the real travesty is how you can't romance all companions no matter your PC's gender