History Main / Chickification

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois Lane]] was depicted as a reckless and fiery reporter throughout the late 1930s and 1940s, and then she was watered down into a comic relief who constantly needed saving in the mid 50s'. Fortunately, the late Silver Age/[[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks early Bronze Age]] restored her opinionated, smart and resourceful persona.

** Lucy Heartfilia gets this often in all sorts of fics. In canon she's a determined PluckyGirl serving as the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]] on her team while growing into a talented Celestial Spirit Mage. She had no problem CallingTheOldManOut for his actions and holds her own well. While she does have insecurities about her lack of power next to her teammates, she never gives up and has manged to survive against improbable odds while acomplishing some impressive feats. Fics turn her into a weepy mess and ExtremeDoormat who needs [[LoveInterests Natsu/Loke/Laxus/Cana/Cobra/whoever the author ships]] to save her from being abused and/or raped by [[RonTheDeathEater her father/Natsu/Lisanna/Team Natsu/Fairy Tail/whoever the writer doesn't like]]/the actual villains. A really weird genre is the fics that intially chickify her in the FandomSpecificPlot of Lucy getting kicked off her team than have her [[TookALevelInBadass take a level in badass]] and/or [[TookALevelInJerkass jerkass]] to reverse it.

* Princess Alyssa Targaryen in ''Literature/FireAndBlood'' starts out as a bold, sporty TomboyPrincess, who dresses like a man, duels with wooden swords, and is described as having the heart of a warrior. Notable actions of hers include pouring a jug of wine onto her brother Vaegon after he insults their little sister, and later dressing up in mail to beat him up at the training grounds. Marriage and family doesn't even slow her down at first; she openly brags about having ribald sex with her [[BrotherSisterIncest husband/brother]] Baelon, [[DragonRider claims the dragon Meleys,]] and takes her infant sons on dragon rides in the sky. However, the chickification occurs near the end of her life; after giving birth to her third child, she tells her husband "You were made for battles, and I was [[BabyFactory made for this]]." and goes on about how she wants to give him twenty more sons. This would end up being her last recorded words, as she [[DeathByChildbirth died soon after the birth.]] While high maternity rates are common in the pseudo-medieval setting of Westeros, it does leave a bad taste in one's mouth to have such a spirited and willful character leave the world (and therefore the narrative) expressing her greatest desire to make babies for her beloved husband.

* Arguably happens to Princess Alyssa Targaryen in ''Literature/FireAndBlood''. She starts out as a bold, sporty TomboyPrincess, who dresses like a man, duels with wooden swords, and is described as having the heart of a warrior. Notable actions of hers include pouring a jug of wine onto her brother Vaegon after he insults their little sister, and later dressing up in mail to beat him up at the training grounds. Marriage and family doesn't even slow her down at first; she openly brags about having ribald sex with her [[BrotherSisterIncest husband/brother]] Baelon, [[DragonRider claims the dragon Meleys,]] and takes her infant sons on dragon rides in the sky. However, the chickification occurs near the end of her life; after giving birth to her third child, she tells her husband "You were made for battles, and I was [[BabyFactory made for this]]." and goes on about how she wants to give him twenty more sons. This would end up being her last recorded words, as she [[DeathByChildbirth died soon after the birth.]] While high maternity rates are common in the pseudo-medieval setting of Westeros, it does leave a bad taste in one's mouth to have such a spirited and willful character leave the world (and therefore the narrative) expressing her greatest desire to make babies for her beloved husband.

* Arguably happens to Princess Alyssa Targaryen in Literature/FireAndBlood. She starts out as a bold, sporty TomboyPrincess, who dresses like a man, duels with wooden swords, and is described as having the heart of a warrior. Notable actions of hers include pouring a jug of wine onto her brother Vaegon after he insults their little sister, and later dressing up in mail to beat him up at the training grounds. Marriage and family doesn't even slow her down at first; she openly brags about having ribald sex with her [[BrotherSisterIncest husband/brother]] Baelon, [[DragonRider claims the dragon Meleys,]] and takes her infant sons on dragon rides in the sky. However, the chickification occurs near the end of her life; after giving birth to her third child, she tells her husband "You were made for battles, and I was [[BabyFactory made for this]]." and goes on about how she wants to give him twenty more sons. This would end up being her last recorded words, as she [[DeathByChildbirth died soon after the birth.]] While high maternity rates are common in the pseudo-medieval setting of Westeros, it does leave a bad taste in one's mouth to have such a spirited and willful character leave the world (and therefore the narrative) expressing her greatest desire to make babies for her beloved husband.

* Arguably happens to Princess Alyssa Targaryen in Literature/FireAndBlood. She starts out as a bold, sporty TomboyPrincess, who dresses like a man, duels with wooden swords, and is described as having the heart of a warrior. Notable actions of hers include pouring a jug of wine onto her brother Vaegon after he insults their little sister, and later dressing up in mail to beat him up at the training grounds. Marriage and family doesn't even slow her down at first; she openly brags about having ribald sex with her [[BrotherSisterIncest husband/brother]] Baelon, [[DragonRider claims the dragon Meleys,]] and takes her infant sons on dragon rides in the sky. However, the chickification occurs near the end of her life; after giving birth to her third child, she tells her husband "You were made for battles, and I was [[BabyFactory made for this]]." and goes on about how she wants to give him more sons.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'': Characters/{{Black Cat|MarvelComics}} was awesomely awesome during the arc "Partners in Danger," which introduced her. She leaves near the end, but puts in one more guest appearance in which she's as cool as ever. Unfortunately, when she returns again for "Secret Wars," her role in the story is to fall off of things, scream, and be caught by [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]] while Petey looks on with jealousy. [[ComicBook/SecretInvasion Maybe it was a Skrull impostor...]]

* ''VideoGame/AlteredBeast'' is a meta-example; in [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]], Athena is the goddess of wisdom and [[LadyOfWar war]]. Here, she is Chickified into a standard DamselInDistress.

* Sonya Blade is chickified about half-way through ''Film/MortalKombatTheMovie''. For the first half she's tough, cold, efficient, and mercilessly kills Kano in the ring. Then [[BigBad Shang Tsung]] sneaks up and ''grabs her hair'' and she dissolves into a blubbering DamselInDistress.

* Miki Makimura in pretty much every anime, OVA and several manga other than the original ''Manga/Devilman'' manga. In the original manga, she is shown kicking ass at times (although she ends up trying to hide her tomboyishness thinking that NoGuyWantsAnAmazon) but in most adaptations, and even in the ''Amon'' manga where she keeps her original personality, her aggressive part is gone or heavily toned down to the point of only berating bad boys instead of showing why she was called 'Miki the hands', and she is instead shown in a more pure light, disliking Akira's new Bad Boy attitude.

*** Korrina's return starts off with her as a PWC opponent, but her Mienshao and Mega Lucario are thoroughly steamrolled by Ash's Dragonite, whom he had just captured recently. It gets progressively worse for her when Ash learns Bea manhandled her better than he did. Later on, she joins Ash in finding his Lucario's Lucarionite, but notably, she never does let her own Lucario help in anything during the perilous quest and behaves more like hitchhiker more than anything. And when Ash gets to see [[OhCrap Korrina showing up to see Bea]] prior his match with her, [[spoiler:the scene fakes a mood of tension that is quickly replaced by Korrina [[TheKnightsWhoSaySquee squeeing over Bea]] and giving her sweets]].
* Deedlit the elf in the original ''Roleplay/RecordOfLodossWar'' OVA series underwent this, going from a feisty, highly competent ActionGirl whose pining for TheHero Parn didn't stop her from kicking ass and taking names in the first half to a helpless DamselInDistress completely at the mercy of [[EvilSorcerer Wagnard]]'s attempt to sacrifice her to resurrect the [[GodOfEvil goddess of destruction]] Kardis in the second half; this is due to a case of CompressedAdaptation abridging and merging plot points making her a CompositeCharacter, as in the original novels and the ''Chronicles of the Heroic Knight'' TV series [[spoiler: the role of ApocalypseMaiden went to Little Neese]], so Deedlit never lost her badass elf woman warrior cred there; there's a ''reason'' she's the playable character in the recently released Lodoss War {{Metroidvania}} video game ''Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth'' ([[CaptainObvious the title should clue you in]]).

So the writers, either on their own or because of ExecutiveMeddling, soften her tough edge. Gradually, the Action Girl starts seeing significantly less ''action''. She exchanges her armor for outfits that show off her figure. Her plotlines become increasingly centered around romance, dating, and fears that she isn't married yet. The character who was once comfortable and competent has been Chickified.

* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' subverted this with a vengeance. While Rock and Revy wait together in a submarine full of corpses and relics, Rock tries to get Revy to open up and show there's a person who cares underneath her tough exterior. She reveals some of her past, and after she notices Rock's sympathy over it, she threatens him with death if he even hints at what he's seen, then goes on a rampage on the ship above.

* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': Kaoru Kamiya is accused of this, but technically speaking her case is OvershadowedByAwesome or ''at most'' FauxActionGirl: with few exceptions, she still joins the guys in fights no matter what the results for her are. The '''only''' case in this anime/manga where this trope is played straight is [[spoiler: Misanagi from the Black Knights arc]].

* The fanfic writer Of "Broken Love" does this to Hilda in her fics. Hilda is transformed into a perpetual rape victim, whether it be by Grimsley, N, or someone else. Hilda also constantly cries and angsts. (In fact, she also does this to characters from other franchises, such as Sakura Haruno.)
* ''Sea Change'', based on the Netflix version of ''Anime/{{Aggretsuko}}'', portrays Retsuko as an overly-emotional wimp who needs Haida's help to deal with anything and sees her job as "torture."

** The only character who more or less plays this straight is Videl. In both ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' and ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' she more or less completely drops the combative tomboy elements of her character after marrying Gohan, though it's more understandable than usual: her and Gohan's daughter Pan was conceived almost ''immediately'' after their marriage. [[spoiler: Somewhat lessened in episodes 73 and 74 of ''Super'', which shows that she's still a SpiritedYoungLady when confronted by a {{Jerkass}} celebrity, although she still hasn't been involved in any actual fights like she used to. And in ''GT'', there are two episodes showing that she still has her old superhero uniform and is willing to put it back on and fight if need be.]]

* This is a significant portion of why ''LightNovel/PersonaXDetectiveNaoto'' is so disliked. In ''VideoGame/Persona4'', Naoto Shirogane is a strong, self-composed woman whose CharacterDevelopment is based around realizing that being a woman doesn't mean having to abandon who she wants to be (and that this in turn means she can ditch the SweetPollyOliver). In this book... she spends most of the story being ''heavily'' objectified and forced through debasement to make her more of a GirlyGirl, and most of the combat abilities she had in the game are flushed down the toilet. Few fans mourned when ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' and its sequel effectively erased the book from continuity.

* The 1989 ShootEmUp ''Phelios'' developed by Creator/{{Namco}} does this with the goddess Artemis. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and chastity who took pride in never being with a man. In the game, she's the helpless DamselInDistress who needs to be rescued from the evil Titan Typhon. However, this actually makes a lot of sense when one considers the context the game was made in. Japan during the late 80s was in the middle of a period of rapid economic growth, and with the PopculturalOsmosis that came with being so economically involved with the West, it was seen as very "cool" to replicate Western pop culture. As a result, the aesthetics of Greek mythology were heavily present in a lot of contemporary anime and manga. The 1986 movie ''Anime/{{Arion}}'' takes a lot of names and places from Greek myths, but uses them to tell a story that didn't at all reflect any actual myths. ''Phelios'' is an just example of people putting together two things that were popular at the time--Greek mythology and 80s gaming plots about [[SaveThePrincess saving the damsel in distress]].

* The 1989 ShootEmUp ''Phelios'' developed by Creator/{{Namco}} does this with the goddess Artemis. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and chastity who took pride in never being with a man. In the game, she's the helpless DamselInDistress who needs to be rescued from the evil Titan Typhon. However, this actually makes a lot of sense when one considers the context the game was made in. Japan during the late 80s was in the middle of a period of rapid economic growth, and with the PopculturalOsmosis that came with being so economically involved with the West, it was seen as very "cool" to replicate Western pop culture. As a result, the aesthetics of Greek mythology were heavily present in a lot of contemporary anime and manga. The 1986 movie ''Anime/{{Arion}}'' takes a lot of names and places from Greek myths, but uses them to tell a story that didn't at all reflect any actual myths. ''Phelios'' is an just example of developers following contemporary trends: Greek mythology was popular in 80s Japanese media and SaveThePrincess was very prevalent in 80s gaming, so they just put those two things together.

* The 1989 ShootEmUp ''Phelios'' developed by Creator/{{Namco}} does this with the goddess Artemis. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and chastity who took pride in never being with a man. In the game, she's the helpless DamselInDistress who needs to be rescued from the evil Titan Typhon. However, this actually makes a lot of sense when one considers the context the game was made in. Japan during the late 80s was in the middle of a period of rapid economic growth, and so Western-sounding stuff was very much in vogue at the time. Greek mythology was one such example. A lot of contemporary anime and manga like the 1986 movie ''Anime/{{Arion}}'' took the aesthetics of Greek mythology but told stories that were entirely disconnected from any pre-existing myths. ''Phelios'' is an just example of developers following contemporary trends: Greek mythology was popular in 80s Japanese media and SaveThePrincess was very prevalent in 80s gaming, so they just put those two things together.

* The 1989 ShootEmUp ''Phelios'' developed by Creator/{{Namco}} does this with the goddess Artemis. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and chastity who took pride in never being with a man. In the game, she's the helpless DamselInDistress who needs to be rescued from the evil Titan Typhon. However, this actually makes a lot of sense when one considers the context the game was made in. Japan during the late 80s was in the middle of a period of rapid economic growth, and so Western-sounding stuff was very much in vogue at the time. Greek mythology was one such example. A lot of contemporary anime and manga like the 1986 movie ''Anime/{{Arion}}'' took the aesthetics of Greek mythology but told stories that were entirely disconnected from any pre-existing myths. ''Phelios'' is an example of developers following contemporary trends: they took gods and goddesses from Greek mythology since that was popular at the time and, since the game is from the 80s, but them into a SaveThePrincess ExcusePlot.

* The 1989 ShootEmUp ''Phelios'' developed by ''Creator/{{Namco}}'' does this with the goddess Artemis. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and chastity who took pride in never being with a man. In the game, she's the helpless DamselInDistress who needs to be rescued by her lover [[PlayerCharacter Apollo]][[note]]Who was actually her brother in the original mythology[[/note]]. It should be noted, however, that Greek mythology was very popular in 80s anime and manga, with two examples being ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' or the 1986 movie ''Anime/{{Arion}}''. So the developers were understandably more interested in following contemporary trends than they were in being accurate to the actual myths.

* The 1989 ShootEmUp ''Phelios'' developed by ''Creator/{{Namco}}'' does this with the goddess Artemis. In Greek Mythology, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and chastity who took pride in never being with a man. In the game, she's the helpless DamselInDistress who needs to be rescued by her lover [[PlayerCharacter Apollo]][[note]]Who was actually her brother in the original mythology[[/note]]. It should be noted, however, that Greek Mythology was very popular in 80s anime and manga, with two examples being ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' or the 1986 movie ''Anime/{{Arion}}''. So in all likelihood, the developers were just following contemporary trends and weren't all too concerned about being true to the actual myths.

** In contrast, Aphrodite was based on the Phoenician Goddess Astarte, Goddess of Love, Fertility, Beauty, and oh yeah, ''[[WarGod War]]''. The Spartans, being [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy The Spartans]], fully approved. The rest of Greece did not and redefined her there as purely being the goddess of love and beauty (In ''Literature/TheIliad'', Zeus explicitly tells her she doesn't belong on the battlefield, with the fact that it needed to be stated at all implying [[WriterOnBoard it may have been a debate at the time]]). She was later ''un''-chickified by the same Romans, who rechristened her Venus, and added victory (in battle/war) tot her portfolio.

* Artemis in Greek Mythology was the goddess of the hunt and an ActionGirl who very much was [[DoesNotLikeMen not a fan of men]]. In the 1989 ShootEmUp ''Phelios'', she's the DamselInDistress, as she's more-or-less the Princess Peach of the game.

* In the late 1980s up to about 2000, many of the top women wrestlers from the continental United States Of America, such as Reggie Bennett, Bionic J, and Debbie Malenko were not known to fans in the continental USA because so many wrestled almost exclusively outside of it, often in Japan, Mexico or a territory such as Puerto Rico. It didn't help that the Wrestling/{{A|merican Wrestling Association}}WA after the nineties and WCW for almost their entire existence had nearly the entirety of their women's title defenses in Japan. Before foreigners, particularly Japanese, would often have to migrate overseas because [[Wrestling/{{A|llJapanWomensProWrestling}} Zenjo]] didn't [[ChristmasCake want anyone over 25]].