(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/JustSomeM0nkE]

I like how these "woke" changes seem to be done by people that don't understand these issues so they end up being un-woke.

Example 1 makes a character that illustrates gender disphoria in a clever way a nothing burger.

Example 2 needed to change a man weaker than his wife into a woman cause I guess it's unacceptable to have a strong woman weaker man couple.

Exemple 3 replaces a great male character that escapes stereotypes into a woman under the lamest excuse.

[u/ProfessionalOil2014 → u/JustSomeM0nkE]

Well yeah, because the decision is made by corporate and not the artists. 

[u/ProfessionalOil2014 → u/[deleted]]

I do, in fact, know that

[u/Volkmek → u/JustSomeM0nkE]

Unfortunately for the ideology around it, it's gone main stream enough to be progressive that you now have preformative progressives. People that do not understand or believe in the ideals trying to preform what they think those ideals are to win over people that have them.

Every group gets people like this when they become one of the main lines of thinking. This is how you get champagne socialists, millionaire capitalists claiming to be communist, rich preachers and pastors who practice every sin they claim to be against, and so on.

If you have an ideal, and that ideal gains the power to shape people's behaviors, someone -will- come along and try to turn that to their advantage without believing in that ideal. That is just human nature.

[u/Ok-Transition7065 → u/JustSomeM0nkE]

its like that critic playboy did a bout the homosexuality and some peopl got mad, yeah that was the point dude isnt that situation shit if it happen to yourself ?

[u/Gabito16118 → u/JustSomeM0nkE]

Oh, quite the opposite; I’d say that’s the very core of what truly defines "Woke." It’s not people who are knowledgeable or genuinely committed; they just want to pin the badge of social activism on themselves to score points or because management demands it.

[u/Careful-Shine8768 → u/Gabito16118]

This^{^}

I hate that “woke” has become such a hot topic word because it’s lost its true meaning. Many use it to describe anything progressive, when really something being “woke” is when creators try to force progressive values onto something not for the sake of the values, but to be “different” and have good marketing beats and get good PR. 

[u/Y1rda → u/Careful-Shine8768]

Woke means to be awake.  Awake to the social issues people are asleep to.  Being woke on the left is the same as not being a sheeple on the right in their own domains' connotations.  It is which issues they want people to wake up to, their veracity, their importance, and such that is debated.  One of the biggest problems is that it is now mainly the right that uses the word woke, but it is a loan word they don't have context for.  The left never really adopted that bit from the right (that I know of) but they have decried that crowd (namely qanon, militias, etc).

[u/TheBrewThatIsTrue → u/Y1rda]

No liberal has ever used the term woke in a positive context

[u/Y1rda → u/TheBrewThatIsTrue]

You are factually incorrect.  You are welcome to actually look into it, but it has been on use since the 60s.

[u/TheBrewThatIsTrue → u/Y1rda]

Huh, neat

[u/my-wayward-pun → u/JustSomeM0nkE]

Nah this is just an examples of liberals eating their own. Can’t let anyone outdo you in the competition. Oh you cast a black person? Actually I’m more liberal than you, because I understand it’s problematic because… Everything has to be over analyzed so that those on the sideline come out superior than people actually doing stuff