Discussion Main / Xenafication

I'd like to suggest changing the page image from Snow White to Alice in Wonderland. Between the LA Alice in Wonderland and Snow White and the Hunstman, Alice underwent far more drastic Xenafication to the point of being a Mary Sue. In contrast, Snow White in Snow White and the Huntsman (who unlike other characters played by Kristen Stewart was able to function without some supernatural gigolo holding her hand 24/7) was modernized while still retaining the original core essence of the character. During the final fight, she's heavily dependent on her allies to get her safely through the castle and when she fights the queen she moves and fights very much like how you'd expect an inexperienced rookie to fight.

Regarding the "Multiple Media" folder, examples should go under the proper folder for the work in which the Xenafication actually takes place, meaning that those examples that are valid need to be recategorized. As written, though, a lot of these entries are bad. Let's go through them one-by-one:

• Maid Marian from the Robin Hood legends is an odd case. She was an Action Girl in some of her original appearances (fighting Robin to a standstill while disguised as a boy in one ballad). Victorian writers turned her into The Chick. Modern writers tend to make her the Action Girl again:
• Superman's Lois Lane. In the early comics, Lois is pretty capable of taking care of herself, thanks to the wits that came with her Intrepid Reporter lifestyle. She didn't become a stock Damsel in Distress until the Silver Age. Later adaptations have increasingly toughened her back up again:

^ If she was originally an Action Girl, then making her an Action Girl isn't Xenafication; it's the works in which she's not an Action Girl that are engaging in Chickification. Not An Example.

• Marian, the ladyfriend of the Lee brothers from the Double Dragon video games who gets sucker-punched and carried off in the original arcade game, became a policewoman in the comic and animated adaptation of the series and a female gang leader (who just happens to be the daughter of a policeman) in the movie. The Neo Geo fighting game version influenced by the film followed suit and made her into one of the playable fighters in the game who can stand on her own against the likes of Abobo, Burnov and even the Lee Brothers themselves.

^ These all look like valid examples, but they should be written up separately and categorized under the Comic Book, Western Animation or Anime, and Video Game folders respectively.

• The creator of the Magical Girl genre in its initial form took inspiration from Bewitched, and the result was Slice of Life with a dose of magic (and the need to not let people know the magic hijinks are indeed magic). Pretty much the entire genre got Xenafied by Sailor Moon and the Magical Girl Warrior subgenre it inspired, which today is what most people think of when they hear the phrase "Magical Girl". Later series such as Pretty Cure and Lyrical Nanoha pumped up the action elements even further.

^ Not An Example. "Genres" can't be Xenafied, only characters.

• In Norse Mythology, Sif is Thor's quiet wife, known mainly for her beauty. In The Mighty Thor and the two film adaptations, she's a tough Lady of War and even said to be a War Goddess. She's even referred to by the SHIELD agent who sees the companions walking into town as "Xena".
  • The valkyries as a whole, while not incapable of fighting, were grim reapers in the original mythology. Nowadays they're inevitably portrayed as an Amazon brigade.

^ The first bullet is valid enough, but separate entries need to be written for the Comic Book and Film adaptations of the character. The second bullet point is a clear case of Examples Are Not General. What specific works portray the valkyries as an Amazon Brigade?

• When Lewis Carroll's heroine from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is portrayed as a teenager or adult in a work of modern fiction, she is bound to be both this and Hotter and Sexier.

^ Again, what specific works are we talking about here? There are already individual entries for Tim Burton's 2010 film, Once Upon a Time and American Mc Gee's Alice. Are there others that should be listed? If so, list them.

• In recent years, more Action Girl-style portrayals of Snow White have come to the fore. Sword and Sorceress XXVII's introduction contrasted Snow White's portrayal in the Grimm and Disney versions with that of modern versions like Snow White & the Huntsman, Mirror, Mirror, and Once Upon a Time. Anthology editor Elizabeth Waters says:
  I suspect that most modern viewers find it easier to identify with a Snow White who fights back. Spending years asleep in a glass coffin waiting to be awakend by "True Love's Kiss" is hopefully not something that girls today aspire to. We can fight for what we want, and we have a good chance of getting it.

^ There are already individual entries for Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror Mirror, and Once Upon a Time, so that much is redundant. I don't know what Sword and Sorceress XXVII is, but if it's a valid example, give it its own entry in the proper folder.

Why does Xenafication have a content warning?

I've added Tim Burton's version of Alice In Wonderland as an example, and thought that a side-by-side pic of Alice from the original Disney version and Alice in armor with vorpal sword from the Tim Burton version would be good for a page pic. Anyone with photoshop who wants to make it up?