(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/tenaciousghost]

i cant believe no one mentioned Heathers the show. well i can believe nobody watched it but holy shit. making the queen bees of high school diverse totally destroys the entire point of heathers.

[u/Bolt_Fried_Bird → u/tenaciousghost]

Notably, the girl furthest to the left in this image is their Veronica. And their JD is an equally milquetoast white boy. We've turned Heathers from outsider's revenge taken way too far into "two straight white kids pick off the queer people at school"

[u/StanleyKapop → u/tenaciousghost]

It seemed to be deliberately designed to appeal to conservatives who genuinely think that being trans is something people do to become popular.

[u/Carvinesire → u/tenaciousghost]

Honestly, I was mad that they made the Musical because it felt like they were downplaying the themes of the movie and just making it standard 'catchy-music omg' slop and you can't fucking prove that I sing along to Beautiful everytime I listen to it fuck you

But this is just funny.

Recess literally did a better job of representing the Heathers as bitchy insular pretty popular girls who only care about their looks, money, influence, and social status, and that was a kid's show in the 90s.

Hell, Recess even had an episode where Spinelli is forced to be an Ashley for a while because of her name. That's actually more en point to the themes of Heathers and their toxic social hierarchy than whatever this is.

[u/tenaciousghost → u/Carvinesire]

yea, when the musical came out i wrinkled my nose at it bc, heathers of all things? but i actually really liked the things that they amplified through the sets and costumes and the songs arent cheap or shallow theyre very well done. the musical is different in a lot of ways but its still very heathers, it lost none of the heathers energy.

when this show was announced i was fed up lol. makes no sense, no one asked, + does more harm than good. and its got no heathers energy !! its like all those modernized carrie remakes.

[u/religion_slayer → u/tenaciousghost]

Oh also if Im remembering right, they tried to give Heather Chandler a tragic backstory where she was forced to sexualize herself during pageant shows as a kid...and they decided to show this to the audience by making a child actor dance sexually in slow motion right in front of the camera.

[u/tenaciousghost → u/religion_slayer]

omfg !!!! 🤬

[u/Player_Slayer_7 → u/tenaciousghost]

Holy shit, in trying to be woke and inclusive, they turned it into a hate crime. I'm actually in tears, man. How did not a single person notice this in the writer's room? This is like a liberal equivalent to making something have depictions of masculine men, only for it to just be incredibly homoerotic.

[u/Spider_kitten13 → u/Player_Slayer_7]

I am reasonably certain they were Not trying to be woke or inclusive. There's an incredibly awkward line from Veronica to the guidance counselor about how she wonders if the next revolutionary or interesting thing someone can be will be 'normal'

[u/Nickolas314 → u/tenaciousghost]

I completely forgot about that. Where can you even watch that?

[u/tenaciousghost → u/Nickolas314]

i think its a paramount show

[u/CJCroen1393 → u/tenaciousghost]

I think nobody mentioned it because nobody cared about that show enough to remember it.

[u/Jodie7Vester5Orr → u/tenaciousghost]

Is that Negasonic Teenage Warhead?