(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/Womblue]

Aang WAS asleep for 100 years, but instead of being because he ran away out of fear from being the avatar, it's just because he happened to be out on the day that literally every other airbender in the world was in the same building.

[u/ptype → u/Womblue]

I also haven't seen this version but ughhhhhhh that sounds like a terrible choice, why rob Aang's character development of such a pivotal source of regret? Do these writers not understand that characters need to make mistakes in order to grow into a person with the strength and wisdom to avoid those same mistakes in the future? Bizarre.

[u/Swoly_Deadlift → u/ptype]

Netflix writers aren’t capable of putting together coherent thoughts so it’s best to set expectations appropriately.

[u/Kidiri90 → u/ptype]

Not just the regret, but also Aang's entire arc in the first season. He doesn't want to be the avatar, he doesn't want that responsibility. His arc in that season is coming to terms with it.

[u/Old_Employment_1090 → u/Kidiri90]

Then they overcorrected in season 2 by just making Aang an asshole all the time

[u/Elziad_Ikkerat → u/ptype]

There is a genuinely upsetting number of writers who will look at a solid gold beloved story and think to themselves, "I could improve that". The job in that context isn't to put their stamp on it, it's to faithfully translate the story from one medium to another, in this they almost always fail. It's pure hubris.

If they want to reimagine something take something that had good potential but was squandered.

I'd love to see an adaptation of Sword Art Online where the entire life or death premise isn't resolved by episode 11.

[u/Mr_Nocturnal_Game → u/Elziad_Ikkerat]

*Insert Netflix Witcher PTSD flashbacks here.

[u/seitaer13 → u/Elziad_Ikkerat]

If the death game wasn't resolved early it wouldn't be an adaptation at all and would be an entirely different story and premise

[u/Elziad_Ikkerat → u/seitaer13]

Exactly.

It would be an interesting tale of once eager gamers working their way through a lethal world where some have even chosen to murder other players for sport.

Instead we got all stakes removed and it's jsut a bunch of edgy teens who are a little bit too involved in their video games.

[u/seitaer13 → u/Elziad_Ikkerat]

The stakes in the latter arcs of SAO are many times higher than Aincrad.

Progressive has existed for almost 15 years now anyway.

[u/Elziad_Ikkerat → u/seitaer13]

Are you telling me it eventually stopped sucking ass? Or are you trying to say that the end of the world of their game world is comparable to literal life and death?

Is "Progressive" a story that is based in the same premises without dropping it immediately?

EDIT TO ADD: So I looked up "Progressive" and found more SAO, so not a whole new story. I don't want to sound like an ungrateful ass but the first hour of that show is all before the second episode of SAO and it manages to mangle how the two main characters meet.

I was unsure how faithful it was being so took the time to watch them concurrently, the new show has them meet twice before the meeting where they're supposed to meet and even show up to it together. He already knows she's solo...

Okay I'll stop ranting and say that I'll probably keep watching but it's not been a super stong start imo.

[u/apple_of_doom → u/Womblue]

He was out because he felt the need to clear his head for a bit with a quick flight on Appa.

Which is like a normal thing to do he didn't actually seem to want to run from his problems unlike the og show. So yeah its just worse.

[u/thiswontlastlong97 → u/Womblue]

Making things up about a adaptation of a children's show is wild work