(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/CapStar300]

Agatha Christie's Marple did this several times to the point where certain things were supposed to be modern, but it felt almost homphobic.

Just off the top of my head:

The Body in the Library: Instead of the murderers being a man who wished to inherit a fortune and was doing away with someone who threatened that chance, the killers are a lesbian couple who kill a young girl. Also as far as I remember the only LGBTQ+ characters in the episode

Nemesis: I honestly can't even begin to describe what they did with that book, but in the end, the murderer is revealed to be a nun who had feelings for the victim. Severely lesbian undertones, and she stabbed her to death.

[u/Skadibala → u/CapStar300]

Wat? I actually just finished Body in the Libary as my first Agatha Christie book, and you telling me they changed the culprit in the adaptation?

Like I’m no purist, I don’t mind most changes when they adopt from book to tv. But it feels weird of them to change the actual murder culprit since that kinda the point of a who dunnit book.

[u/CapStar300 → u/Skadibala]

Yes they did. They did like changing the murderers, if I remember correctly, and they also did put Miss Marple in stories where she didn't appear originally. That show was very... interesting.

Edit: If you want a faithful adaptation, the old series with Joan Hickson is absolutely wonderful if you have the patience for it.

[u/cadien17 → u/Skadibala]

They did that frequently. My guess is to keep it more interesting for readers, but it was mostly just disorienting.

[u/PeterAnthony_Jackson → u/Skadibala]

With some, it might be "Oh that man over there did it" so you spoil the TV show for family, but when they jazz it up and the first victim is named after the killer, then all bets are off on spoiling it and you have to think along with the characters as to who dunnit.

If James is always the killer, then you get cast and introduced as James, then book readers and people who saw the other adaptations might go "he'll never get away with it, he never does."

[u/Stripycardigans → u/CapStar300]

I just watched The Body in the Library and that swap had me so confused. 

Especially because if you want lesbian representation in Marple surely A Murder is Announced would ve the better choice?? Just lean into Amy Murgatroyd and Miss Hinchliffe

[u/CapStar300 → u/Stripycardigans]

Arguably the old adaptation of A Murder Is Announced did that because dear God, those two were very clearly dating in that version.

[u/RememberCakeFarts → u/CapStar300]

This reminds me of what they did when they adapted "The Carter Street Hangman"

They kept the murderer the same but changed the motive and I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. iIRC the murderer is a very religious woman named Martha. In the books she began strangling women because she was attracted to them. And instead of getting a 'roommate' to be a spinster with she decided that the women were temptations from the devil that had to die, so she became a spinster murderess. In the live action version she killed the women because she was in love with the priest so she killed the women whom she thought were trying to tempt him away from her. So she became a yandere spinster.

[u/CapStar300 → u/RememberCakeFarts]

So we have the choice between lesbians be crazy and we are no-homoing the murderer lmao

[u/Cyanna → u/CapStar300]

Also BBC’s Poirot has “Five Little Pigs” where Philip’s loyalty and admiration for Amyas Crayle, which are performative for the sake of optics, go from “Eh…Maaaaybe?” in the book to an explicit “Yes” in the show.

Which is…fine. People have speculated Philip was secretly bi for a while and if the show wants to explore that, that’s fine. But they also completely threw Amyas wife, Caroline, who is supposed to become increasingly sympathetic as the story progresses under the hate bus and ran her over several times.

See…Philip has very bitter feelings for Caroline because of unrequited love for her. But where is this bitterness supposed to come from if he now has the hots for her husband instead of her?

Well…the answer was to commit character assassination and rewrite Caroline, the woman who the entire story revolves around, as a surprise raging homophobe. That’s how. Couldn’t come up with literally any other reason why Philip might not like his crush’s wife while not nuking her character? Not the fact that she and Amyas appear to hate each other because they fight all the time? Couldn’t find a way to run with that instead?

In the book Caroline invites Philip to her room after a particularly rough day with her husband, only to stay loyal and back out of the cheating at the last moment. But in the show, she invites him for the sole purpose of brutally mocking him for being in love with her husband. It’s awful, completely out of nowhere, and obliterates all the sympathy that has been built up for Caroline over time.

And this is late-stage story stuff too. So there is no chance to reverse it and make her likable again. Make no mistake, Caroline is a very flawed woman, but I still liked her a character for the guilt she carried and for trying to be a better person until the end. I hate that this episode is the only exposure some people have to Caroline.