r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Morr4Seiya • 21h ago
Hated Tropes (Hated)changing somenthing to be more "progressive" ends up being a bad thing
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)
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u/Ok_Somewhere1236 18h ago edited 18h ago
Yes, Sybil was actually my second biggest issue with the show.
As far as I remember, the books never explicitly establish her race, or at least I can't recall any particular description of her skin tone. But what the books are very clear about is that Sybil is an absolute bear of a woman.
She's supposed to be extremely tall, probably around 6'3" or even taller, broad, heavyset, and physically very strong. She's an imposing woman, both in size and personality. And then the show casts a skinny actress to play her.
But the physical appearance is only part of my problem with the adaptation. What really bothers me is how they changed her personality and character. One of my favorite things about Sybil is that she could practically rule Ankh-Morpork if she wanted to.
She's one of the wealthiest people in the city, incredibly intelligent, highly educated, socially influential, and remarkably competent in a dozen different areas. She has the money, connections, intelligence, and skills to become one of the most powerful people in the city. But she simply doesn't want to.
Sybil is one of the best examples of "spoiled but not rotten" I've ever seen in fiction.
She was born into extraordinary wealth and privilege, but instead of becoming arrogant, selfish, or obsessed with power, she's a genuinely kind, generous, and down-to-earth person.
All she really wants is to be a good wife, help people through charity, and spend her free time taking care of her beloved dragons at her sanctuary. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
That's part of what makes her such a wonderful character: she has the ability to be almost anything she wants, and she chooses a relatively simple, domestic life because that's what makes her happy.
She doesn't need some tragic backstory to explain her personality, either. As far as we know, Sybil doesn't have some deep childhood trauma driving her actions. Her father was not killed by the assassin guilt; for what I know, he died after drinking something like twenty bottles of whisky and deciding to challenge a bull to a one-on-one, head-to-head fight. The man was described as an absolute crazy beast.
She doesn't live in a mansion filled with elaborate traps, either. Well, she eventually does have some security measures, but those come from Vimes after they get married.
Sybil is a fantastic example of both body positivity and the idea that a woman can be incredibly strong and capable without needing to be an action hero. ( i love how she is the only person in the whole city who calls Veterinari by his first name, the most feared man in the whole city and she talks to him like he is her little brother)