Other Examples of Characters Changing Gender And Nobody Caring

I was just thinking about how ironic it is that Pre Jodie Whitaker and Pre Missy there have actually been a few examples of characters changing gender and nobody even noticing.

This to me highlights how changing a longstanding characters gender in principle is not a bad idea. Its just that like any other big change has to make sense, and that's why people hate Missy and the idea of a female Doctor, or any gender bending timelord because they don't for many reasons (which I won't go into now, as I've been over them before as have others).

Here are a couple of other gender bending characters who passed without comment in sci fi and fantasy that I could think of off the top of my head but if you have anymore please post them here.

Brainiac: Smallville

One of Superman's archenemies. Brainiac is a rogue super computer who assumes the form of a man played by James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) for season 5 and 7. However his body is destroyed, but his mind survives and takes over Chloe, Clarks female friend. Thus for Season 8 Brainiac is played by Chloe's actress, Alison Mack.

Nobody even commented on "OH MY GOD BRAINIAC IS NOW A WOMAN!" because it made sense. Brainiac unlike the Doctor or the Master or Romana was a genuinely genderless character. He had no emotions, relied on logic and looked down on puny humans. Most important of all however there was a fucking reason for it in the fucking story. Brainiac needed a new body and he chose Clark's friend as Clark would never hurt her to stop him. So it flowed perfectly.

The Demons and Angels: Supernatural

Anybody here watch Supernatural? In its lore Demons are big black clouds of smoke who can possess any human they want. Angels meanwhile are gigantic all powerful beings who can posses any human they want as long as the human consents.

They regularly jump from male hosts to female hosts and no mention was ever made of it by fans. The reason for that again was because it made sense within the show. It was established from the start that they could be anyone they wanted, and whilst they did still have a preference their gender didn't really matter.

Eldrad: Doctor Who

Ironically we've already had a gender bending alien. Eldrad who went from a man to a woman in the story The Hand of Fear. Again there was a proper reason in the story as to why Eldrad went from being a woman to a man, and nobody ever mentioned it.

There's also an Adrien Brody film that deals with a plant creature I think that starts out as a female but then morphs into a man. It has sex with Brody when its a woman, and then rapes his girlfriend when its a man. A stupid as it sounds its actually quite an effective film in some ways.

burrunjor wrote:There's also an Adrien Brody film that deals with a plant creature I think that starts out as a female but then morphs into a man. It has sex with Brody when its a woman, and then rapes his girlfriend when its a man. A stupid as it sounds its actually quite an effective film in some ways.

Splice.

You forgot Holly in Red Dwarf and Watson in Elementary

The latter doesn't really count, though. It's not like she's meant to be Doctor Watson from the old stories.

I don't think Brianiac counts cos it sounds like possession rather than a gender change. Besides, computers are genderless aside from the voice/face you give them which would discount Holly. I also don't think a minor character from the seventies, Eldrad, is really comparable with the Doctor. Having never seen Supernaturals I can't comment on that one.

Mr. Happy wrote:You forgot Holly in Red Dwarf and Watson in Elementary

Holly in Red Dwarf is a good one. I can't believe I forgot about that LOL. Nobody gave a shit about that. The only way people complained was in a "I don't think one Holly is as funny as the other" but there was never a "OH MY GOD SHE IS A WOMAN NOW!" type reaction.

I wouldn't count Watson though as that's not the same thing. That's a remake.

I honestly don't give a shit to them doing an all female remake of something that once starred men. For instance I wouldn't have cared about Ghostbusters 2016 if it had been good. It was the fact that it was shit and Paul Feig was such a smug virtue signalling cunt that bothered me.

I will say though if you care about representation (which I don't) then it would be better to create a new female character as ultimately people are always going to view a character like say Spider-Man or Batman as a man, as that's what they have been in popular culture for decades. So creating a new character like Xena who can be an icon in her own right is better for that.

However Doctor Who is unique. All of the different Doctors are the SAME character so IMO you have to take more care with it.

When you look at Lucy Liu then you don't have to actually think she is any of her male predecessors so really who cares? However as we have been over its shit watching Michelle Gomez snog Peter Capaldi because they are meant to be Tom Baker and Peter Pratt underneath.

So I'm looking for more examples of a character actually changing gender within the narrative and it being well received as that IMO shows that its for narrative reasons people hate the female Doctor and Master. They can rewrite Time Lords as being non binary in Capaldi's time as much as they want but its bullshit that doesn't mesh with what came before.

I wonder if we still will see Brian Blessed as Susan? I can imagine David's reaction when Brian Blessed Susan says he's still the woman David fell in love with and hoists him over his shoulder to take him upstairs for some crazy love.

I don't think Brianiac counts cos it sounds like possession rather than a gender change. Besides, computers are genderless aside from the voice/face you give them which would discount Holly.

It doesn't matter. At the end of the day we had a character played by a man who was now played by a woman. By that logic we can dismiss time lords as they have been rewritten to aliens who have no true gender.

So what Brainiac is a machine and possessed her? Again that's why its better, because it makes sense. They aren't suddenly coming in after 50 years and saying "Oh no actually all of these characters are genderless. When they have specifically written it in that they are not."

The point is that Brainiac shows people will accept a woman playing a male role as long as it makes sense. That's why Missy was utterly reviled IMO whilst Alison Mack was praised. You only have to look at these clips (I know I have posted these before but what the hell LOL I can't make my point any better than to show you these clips.)





Nobody cares





Just about everybody fucking hates the gender change, I wonder why?

Whether or not you agree with me that a time lord changing gender can work from a story point of view is another matter, but again I think this goes to show that what the papers have been saying of "OH MEN CAN'T STAND THE IDEA OF A WOMAN PLAYING A MAN" is bullshit as when done right like Brainiac no one even notices!

Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica.

http://ew.com/tv/2017/06/22/battlestar-galactica-ron-moore-starbuck-female/