(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/CivilChampionship810]

No it wouldn’t though. Again, yall are all showing your stripes here. Theres really nothing wrong with this casting. 

[u/-FriON → u/CivilChampionship810]

Yeah, nothing wrong casting black actor to play a "sallow skin" guy

[u/CivilChampionship810 → u/-FriON]

I don’t think there is. I think characters can be race swapped and adaptions can have changes. 

The word adaption implies changes to begin with. You don’t actually want a page for page remake. 

If they thought he was the best actor, I’m happy they cast him. That’s the whole point of open audition processes. 

The story has a lot of room for interpretation in some of these roles and I think you need to zag from the rickman portrayal. So yeah, change it up. 

Telling me all the stereotypes that you think this is gonna bring up that your little racist head put together like everyone in here is doing is just fucking insane to me. 

[u/nxxwhere → u/CivilChampionship810]

Characters they could have cast with a black actor instead of Snape, who is specifically described as having pale skin, straight hair and a hooked nose: Hermione. Hagrid. Literally any one (or more) of the original founders of Hogwarts. Even Dumbledore. Literally anyone else besides Snape would have been a better pick. They're just making James look like a massive racist for bullying this dude because of how he looks. THEY HUNG HIM FROM A TREE FFS

[u/CivilChampionship810 → u/nxxwhere]

They didn’t hang him from a tree 

[u/nxxwhere → u/CivilChampionship810]

Alright, not from a tree, you're right. But they did hang him upside down with magic, and in the movie they're right next to a tree while they do it. And still my other points stand

[u/CivilChampionship810 → u/nxxwhere]

No they don’t. You’re shoehorning racist sterotypes into a children’s book as well. Have some shame 

[u/nxxwhere → u/CivilChampionship810]

They do. Especially the one about almost every other character being a better pick for a black actor than Snape.

[u/CivilChampionship810 → u/nxxwhere]

if a black actor outperforms a white actor in a series that has nothing to do with race, like the fucking harry potter books, they should get that part.

i thought we covered this ground with all the hysterics about black hermione in the play? it doesn't fucking matter. making it matter is actually racist and shoehorning racist stereotypes to prove your point is actually fucking racist as fuck.

[u/nxxwhere → u/CivilChampionship810]

You really don't see how it could be perceived as problematic for James Potter to make fun and bully the only black main character in the series?

[u/CivilChampionship810 → u/nxxwhere]

no. i don't. i don't think a black person having something negative happen to them is inherently racist.

[u/nxxwhere → u/CivilChampionship810]

It'll depend on how exactly they handle it, but I'll never know because I won't support JK Rowling

[u/nxxwhere → u/CivilChampionship810]

Btw Hermione should've been black or mixed from the beginning, there was just less of an outcry because it was the early 2000s and also because she did end up doing a great job portraying her. I've seen people argue that Hermione should have been played by a black actor for way over a decade

[u/CivilChampionship810 → u/nxxwhere]

the whole point should be that it does not fucking matter. cause it does not fucking matter.

[u/nxxwhere → u/CivilChampionship810]

I wish this was true, but unfortunately in the world we live, it does matter