(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/Silent_Biscotti_9832]

Severus Snape being black in the new Harry Potter tv show

Could have been anyone else. But they had to choose the guy who got hung from a tree, and was bullied by James, Peter, Sirius and Remus in the 1950s ish

[u/ViperKira → u/Silent_Biscotti_9832]

The greatest problem with Snape being black is all the implications it has.

Harry, Ron and Hermione hate the only black teacher in school, the Order of the Phoenix loathe Snape and want him out, but Dumbledore protects him,there is the angle of the Marauders bullying him without reason, Lily cutting ties with him and going with her bully, etc.

Of course, all these things are explained (very well, in fact) in the books. But it's the implications that they're getting to themselves that are of very bad taste, to say the least. Snape was the worst character to race-swap, Harry wouldn't be this bad.

[u/22plus → u/ViperKira]

I still believe that it was partially done as a lightning rod for all of the other valid criticisms of the show, so it's defenders could say "You just don't like it because Snape is Black"

[u/ViperKira → u/22plus]

I can see that happening, unfortunately.

[u/DarthMelsie → u/22plus]

I firmly believe this is what happened when Amazon added non-white dwarves and elves to the cast of Rings of Power to direct criticism away from how far they deviated from Tolkien's lore in general. There is no possible way that it was done in ANY attempt at good faith and diversity.

[u/havoc1428 → u/22plus]

The bog standard argument for defenders of the all female Ghostbusters movie. "This movie sucks" was often met with "you just hate women" lol

[u/UnquestionabIe → u/havoc1428]

Ugh I lost a lot of respect for Patton Oswald because he pulled that shit. He was mega defensive because some of his friends were in it/involved. Made him look like a disconnected asshole compared to his prior public persona

[u/Swift_Achilles → u/UnquestionabIe]

I lost all respect for Patton Oswald when he was making that weird sexual joke about Finn Wolfhard (a literal child at the time) from stranger things.

[u/Rock_Strongo → u/Swift_Achilles]

I find it suspicious that his wife overdosed and died and yet he claims he never knew of her addiction. Either he's not a very observant husband or... something else.

[u/Swift_Achilles → u/Rock_Strongo]

Dang I didn't know that. Suspicious if nothing else. To be fair, drug addicts can be pretty hidden so not completely unbelievable.

[u/ipeedinthetoothpaste → u/havoc1428]

This happened with the videogame Dragon Age Veilguard. The writing on that game is catastrophically awful, but there's a trans chracter and internet bigots obviously threw a hissy fit over that. As a result anyone who criticized the game for its many, numerous, immense flaws got automatically lumped in with the bigots.

[u/Mr_Nocturnal_Game → u/ipeedinthetoothpaste]

In fairness, it was a lot less effective in that case, considering a lot of trans people seemed to hate how they portrayed that character.

[u/bobboman → u/ipeedinthetoothpaste]

inquisition already had a trans masc that kinda sorta played into Iron Bulls story, he was well done taash was a trainwreck at best, and much gnashing of teeth was done over Rook Possibly being trans, and that was something you had to choose

[u/Youutternincompoop → u/havoc1428]

tbh the movie did kinda suck but it was nowhere near as bad as all the people online make it out to be, it's a mid comedy movie the same rough quality as most Adam Sandler slop.

[u/PablomentFanquedelic → u/havoc1428]

Unironically the nostalgic '80s movie they should've genderbent was Labyrinth.

A vaguely-autistic seeming loner who gets isekaid into his favorite LARP setting and obsessively pursued by Lady Gaga would make bank with a certain type of nerdy audience.

[u/CJCroen1393 → u/22plus]

Honestly, I think it's more simple than that. I think Rowling was desperate to get the woke crowd to like her again. Clearly it failed.

[u/ERedfieldh → u/22plus]

I'm going to say you just don't like it because Snape is black because that's the only thing you guys whine about when there ARE plenty of other valid criticisms of the show.

Start talking about the other valid criticisms, which I agree are many, and we'll stop saying "stop being a racist tool."

[u/22plus → u/ERedfieldh]

So like the fact that it's lit and color graded so much worse than the original? Or JKR's stances on hot button social issues?

[u/psychoenoshima → u/ViperKira]

Also the fact that after Lily cut ties with him (after he called her a slur) he pretty much IMMEDIATELY joins the wizard nazis.

[u/Maguc → u/ViperKira]

Also Neville's biggest fear being Snape.

Normally, sure, Snape is a giant asshole.

When your biggest fear is the only black teacher in the school? Kind of weird, dude.

[u/Ramekink → u/ViperKira]

They had to be doing it on purpose. Never forget that the main reason behind the series was never about the money. It was made so Rowling can disown all the progressive actors from the original films

[u/WeevilWeedWizard → u/ViperKira]

I just don't see why any of this is problematic. Are black characters just not allowed to be evil?

[u/ViperKira → u/WeevilWeedWizard]

It's not problematic at all, however, the implications that are now a problem.

All that, plus the trio made plenty of comments on Snape's appearance and behavior, this can be interpreted of extreme bad taste if the character is black, when you ignore the context.

[u/CJCroen1393 → u/ViperKira]

Also, there's a lot of references to Snape being rather unhygienic (sallow skin, bad teeth, ESPECIALLY mention of his hair being "greasy", etc.) which uh... is not a good look when you're casting a black man in the role, since a common racist stereotype against black people is calling them "dirty".

[u/ViperKira → u/CJCroen1393]

There's a greasyness on book Snape that handsome men like Alan Rickman and Paapa Essiedu cannot portray properly, I believe.

They just ignored this specific part of Snape's character on the movies, besides his hair being greasy, he's most often perfectly put together. However the TVC show's idea is to be more book correct, I wonder if they'll tackle this angle with Snape.

[u/Fidges87 → u/WeevilWeedWizard]

Is not that there is an evil black character. Is that white kids distrust him from second 1. He was hanged from trees. He was bullied by a group of white kids back at school

A book can have this themes, but it should aboslutely accept the racism angle it is bringing. So either they do fundamentally changing Snape's motivations as a character, or they don't which will leave a bad taste in many people's mouths

[u/CJCroen1393 → u/Fidges87]

*hanged next to a tree but the imagery is the same either way.

[u/WeevilWeedWizard → u/Fidges87]

They distrust him because he's an asshole who immediately starts bullying them.

[u/Grosbie → u/ViperKira]

In the show, Snape is not the only black professor. I see a female black professor in the trailer.

[u/CJCroen1393 → u/Grosbie]

And does she have a prominent role or is she just a background character?

[u/crisisbattl → u/ViperKira]

Don't forget that this also means that Neville's biggest fear is going to be the one black teacher in Hogwarts