(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/TheUrbanEnigma]

Admittedly didn't watch the movie, but when I heard that I got pissed. It's more than removing story plot, it guts Holly's character. Holly is who she is because of her struggles and achievements. She was shaped by decades of training, effort, and determination in the face of discrimination and a culture of favoritism.

I can only imagine they replaced Root with Dame Judi Dench as an easy feminism inclusion card, but they completely lost Eoin Colfer's golden girl of feminism along with it. Completely missed the point and I am not interested in watching.

Then they made Butler black which... I take no issue with. I can't think of any part if his character that is drastically affected by his race, other than perhaps his "ability to blend into any crowd". I heard people calling it distasteful or racist because they "made the manservant black", but if you know the character, Butler does a service to whatever ethnicity he might be just by being a complete and utter badass.

[u/Tyrondor → u/TheUrbanEnigma]

I think the biggest issue with how they handled Butler in the movie was his name. In the books he insists that everyone calls him Butler. He doesn't want Artemis knowing his real name and he doesn't tell him his real name until he thinks he's literally on his deathbed.

In the movie he doesn't like being called Butler because it implies the black guy is nothing more than a servant so he just hands his name out right at the start and that's what they use for the rest of the movie.

It just feels really out of character. Like most other characters in the movie.

[u/TheUrbanEnigma → u/Tyrondor]

Wow, yeah, that's certainly a departure. I hadn't realized that even the script was harping on that point.

[u/DMMeThiccBiButts → u/Tyrondor]

..they made Butler black? The guy who's consistently referred to as ambiguously eurasian and able to blend in to 70% of the world's population because of it, despite being a fucking tank?

[u/Omarlel → u/Tyrondor]

Not only does it destroy the impact and incredible sentimentality of the scene in the books where he reveals his name to Artemis, but it even manages to completely fuck up the impact the meaning of the name itself is supposed to have on you.

Artemis (and the reader) don't know until the third book that the guy who's been the Fowl's nigh-omnipresent guardian angel and devoted protector, who faithfully served Artemis with almost supernatural effectiveness, is literally named Domovoi. And considering the Butler family is paired to their charges from birth, it hits that much harder.

He is his name, and the reveal where he's actively dying (and genuinely does die for a bit, tbf) is just completely gone. It just feels like a nominative determinism gag for those who know a little slavic folklore, rather than a "holy shit, this man has always been a selfless angel for Artemis, and now he's gone" moment like it was in the books.

[u/SmoothDiscussion7763 → u/TheUrbanEnigma]

to be fair his ability to blend into any crowd doesn't even really make sense when you realize he's just this huge guy that will stick out in 99% of the streets he's in.

also it's my head canon that he's basically agent 47 without the barcode

[u/DMMeThiccBiButts → u/SmoothDiscussion7763]

I always read it as he blends in racially, such that yeah you notice he's built like a brick shithouse, but you don't question that he's not from around there.

You remember seeing a great tank of a man, not that he was an outsider.

[u/Maleficent_Thought_4 → u/TheUrbanEnigma]

Then they made Butler black which... I take no issue with. I can't think of any part if his character that is drastically affected by his race, other than perhaps his "ability to blend into any crowd". I heard people calling it distasteful or racist because they "made the manservant black", but if you know the character, Butler does a service to whatever ethnicity he might be just by being a complete and utter badass.

IMO the big issue with making Butler black is that iirc it’s mentioned on at least one occasion that the Butlers have been servants for so long that it’s rumoured that the profession is named after them, which rightly or wrongly carries some very different implications if Butler is black.

[u/ElectronicPangolin96 → u/Maleficent_Thought_4]

100%, and they cast a white actor as Holly (who is described as brown-skinned in the book). Just goes to show that they care more about looking progressive than being the real thing.

[u/Ok_Ad_1232 → u/TheUrbanEnigma]

Thye cast Judi Dench because she's m in James Bond and they wanted that vibe with Holly being the rogue Jmaes bond. It didn't work but you can see the thought process.