(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/Ok-Cup9476]

You’re circling back to the point of this thread, “being more progressive” ends up just being offensive.

“He’s a bard! Clearly he must fuck everything!”

It’s offensive that the writers took Jaskir’s status as a more emotionally open, non-traditionally masculine male, and turn him into a joke whose main character trait the men he sleeps with.

[u/New_Cockroach_505 → u/Ok-Cup9476]

But it’s not more offensive unless you think being bisexual is bad. There’s nothing problematic with someone who loves “loving” to be open to loving everyone.

You’d have a point if he was made gay and not a womanizer as it changes his character. Nothing is changed here in a negative unless, again, you think men shouldn’t be allowed to be bisexual.

[u/Ok-Cup9476 → u/New_Cockroach_505]

Speaking as an actual person who is bisexual, the fact that you can’t comprehend what is wrong here, is so mindboggiling.

It’s offensive that the writer’s couldn’t comprehend of a straight man filling Dandelion’s role. They talk about in interviews how they felt that there were “subtle signs in the books” that Dandelion wasn’t just straight.

It was changed for the negative, because the writers of the Witcher show only write men as buff macho barely speaking Geralt’s, or effeminate, emotional, flamboyant Dandelions.

It would have been great to show a straight character who doesn’t fall into those patterns, who doesn’t feel the need to solve problems with violence, to be emotional, to sing, dance, smile and dress in bright colors.

But according to the Witcher, if you do all that, those are signs that you sleep with men.

[u/New_Cockroach_505 → u/Ok-Cup9476]

But that’s how adaptations work?

Dandelion is never stated to be against loving men in the book. There are hints of it in the books. Which falls into the trappings of “the character has to be straight unless stated otherwise”.

The issue isn’t that he’s bisexual / pansexual. The issue is it’s just bad writing.