An adaptation completely botches the original theme and message

[u/Morr4Seiya]

Mulan(2020)-They give Mulan superpowers which is not only lame it goes against the message of the original about equality and struggle,plus they removes Shang because apparently having Mulan date her superior was "problematic" even though Shang genuienely respected Mulan and their rank was never brought up

I am Legend(2007)-You know why the story is called "I am legend"? SPOILER ALERT the protagonist is the actual monster,humanity is gone and the vampires have a actual society and the protagonist kills and terrorize them

Animal Farm(2026)-On the very slim chance that Andy Serkis ever sees this,here's the thing Andy,Animal Farm was not a children work it was not supposed to have a happy ending,you never heard of cautionary tales before?

[u/kisamasochist]

It also just kinda pushes stereotypes; Oh the loud deep voicied woman with short hair and broad shoulders, let's make her specifically a lesbian.

It's like the Velma series where they made the smart and unattractive (in that version) character indian, made the exotic and beautiful character east asian, and kept the leader white. They tried to be inclusive but just conformed to stereotypes

[u/-Release-The-Bats- → u/kisamasochist]

Or when they released the first look at the cast for the new Harry Potter series: the only black person (hell, the only dark-skinned black person) in the new cast announcement was Snape, the child-abusing wizard nazi.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/-Release-The-Bats-]

It's gonna be so awful cause Harry gonna be suspicious of Snape in first season cause in the books he found Snape creepy. In the TV show its gonna come off hella racist. "ITS SNAPE TRYING TO KILL ME! HES WORKING FOR VOLDEMORT!" bro gonna accused the sole black teacher as being an agent for wizard world's HITLER.

[u/fresh-dork → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

well, he's a known consort. also, they hang him from a tree

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/fresh-dork]

YEAH its questionable at best, cause this is gonna be the first time watching Harry Potter for some people, and Harry is gonna be suspicious of the ONLY BLACK TEACHER, claiming he's a Wizarding World equal to a Nazi. AND then if we finally get to Snape flashback, suddenly James is as bad for bullying a black student and HANGING HIM.

[u/fresh-dork → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

of course, this makes no sense as a trope, because it's british and they didn't go around lynching black people.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/fresh-dork]

Still gonna look horrible, I mean, that's always what the bullying was meant to be awful, BUT bullying the sole black kid, OOF! even british people didn't lynch black people, seeing a black person get hanged no matter what ethnicity they are, is still bad.

[u/fresh-dork → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

so we're back to questioning this absolutely baffling casting choice.

imagine casting dumbledore as a black guy (since we are apparently obligated). works fine, he's an authority figure and well respected. get avery brooks - done.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/fresh-dork]

simple answer is brownie points. They made Snape and Hermione black cause. "IT'S REPRESENTATION!" don't get me wrong, representation is good; give minorities a character who's their race to look up to, BUT my entire problem with this is these characters existed before and weren't that race; changing their race has 0 narrative reason and is basically hand-me-downs.

"Oh, you want an original character who is your race to look up to? All we can afford is a pre-existing character who was originally white, but we made the same race as you, just for you!" The only time I swear this worked was Miles Morales. 1 success vs. 1,000 failures isn't a good track record.

[u/fresh-dork → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

Miles is black spiderman - JustSomeGuy refers to him as that - he isn't spiderman, he's the black version.

Herms is a mousy haired bunette white chick - she's described broadly as such. why even race swap anyone? but if you're going to do that, exercise some common sense.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/fresh-dork]

Miles is the only one who did it successfully enough that everyone can now know him as "Oh, that's Miles Morales, he's the black Spider-Man," and he has enough unique powers that people don't solely compare him to Peter and view him as his own separate person.

Rest of these attempts. feels like the creator is going. "OKAY what if we made Iron-man but hes a black girl and stole her tech from Iron-Man and actively refuses to give it back. EVEN though she shouldn't have such a weapon," and got shocked when folks didn't like Ironheart.

I find the biggest issue with these race swaps is that the creators just claim the haters are racist. Like, "NO, we aren't racist!, instead of giving the minorities their own individual role model figures. YOU took a fan-favorite character, changed their skin tone, and called it a day and GOT shocked when people didn't like it!"

I understand wanting to seprete yourselves from the movie, BUT turning Heromine black is abit odd, cause one of her subplots in the books is basically "Freeing" the house-elves, which everyone mocks and finds dumb. ONE OF THE BLACK CHARACTER SUBPLOTS IS GONNA BE THEM ATTEMPTING TO ABOLISH SLAVERY WHICH EVERYONE MOCKS. That's akin to making Hermione get a subplot where she becomes obsessed with rapping and tries to rap spells.

[u/fresh-dork → u/Scared-Jacket-6965]

Rest of these attempts. feels like the creator is going. "OKAY what if we made Iron-man but hes a black girl and stole her tech from Iron-Man and actively refuses to give it back. EVEN though she shouldn't have such a weapon," and got shocked when folks didn't like Ironheart.

we made a bitchy supervillain thief with minimal talent who threw away a massive opportunity. why don't people like her?

I find the biggest issue with these race swaps is that the creators just claim the haters are racist.

that's just strategy for the past decade. look at house of the dragon - they prepped the racism narrative ahead of episode one, but shelved it when the shitty race swap was popular. it's built in excuses for bad writing.

YOU took a fan-favorite character, changed their skin tone, and called it a day and GOT shocked when people didn't like it!"

let's make ariel, the face of 90s disney animation, a black woman and then argue with people who object to it.

[u/Scared-Jacket-6965 → u/fresh-dork]

God I hate the "Your Insert BAD term" as defense for hating horrible things. Cause it's deflection at its finest, look at Iron heart, her whole character is she STOLE Ironman's tech. A black character who is stole her way to fame.

Like every time they have that same defense pre-made and pre armed. It's kind of sad, cause this is funny! It's idiots not understand why the hatred is valid and it's sad cause they blame everyone else. Pattern recognition 101 and these people failed that course. Sorry if I devolved into frustration.