History Main / Xenafication

* While Irene Adler has [[MoriartyEffect gotten an expanded role]] in SherlockHolmes adaptations for a long while, in ''Film/SherlockHolmes'', she becomes a definite ActionGirl, which is showcased in a MuggingTheMonster scene. This probably has to do with the fact that the film also emphasizes Holmes and Watson's (canonical) fighting prowess.

* Susan in the ChroniclesOfNarnia series of movies. In ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'', she has a scene devoted to training, while she's never seen fighting in the book. In fact, when she is given her bow by Santa Clause in the book, she is expressly told not to use it, because "'' battles are ugly when women fight''". Also, in the scene when the wolf attacks, she gives herself and Lucy time to escape by throwing a blanket at it. In the book, she just climbed up a tree and nearly fainted.

* Disney turned ''{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame}}'''s [[TheIngenue Esmeralda]] into a street-smart CombatPragmatist ActionGirl who fights with Frollo's {{mooks}} on a regular basis, but she still ends up being the DistressedDamsel in the climactic battle.
** To be fair, [[spoiler:she just nearly died from smoke inhalation in the scene prior.]]

* Keira Knightley plays a scantily clad sharp-shooting Guinevere in ''KingArthur''.
** [[JustifiedTrope Arguably partially justified]] in this case, as the Celtic peoples from which the Arthur legend is derived were known to occasionally have female warriors (as well as much freer notions of sexuality), in contrast to the later Saxons and Romans. Roman historians were known to use this an example of how [[ValuesDissonance "barbaric"]] Celtic culture was. Battle dress from the period, however, typically consisted of a simple belted tunic.

* Elizabeth Swann from ''{{Pirates of the Caribbean}}'' was never [[PluckyGirl actually weak or passive]] in the first movie, and even fought alongside Will in the final battle. However, in the sequels she [[RealWomenNeverWearDresses ditched the dress]], [[HotChickWithASword grabbed a sword]], and TookALevelInBadass.

* The ''DynastyWarriors'' series does this for Zhen Ji, Yue Ying, and Diao Chan. Sun Shang Xiang is a borderline example as she was known as something of an ActionGirl by the standards of her time.
* [[TheKingOfFighters Yuri Sakazaki]] spends her entire [[ArtOfFighting first appearance]] as a DistressedDamsel, but in all subsequent games she demands martial arts training from her father so that it cannot happen again, and ends up becoming almost as powerful as he and her brother.

** [[JustifiedTrope Arguably partially justified]] in this case, as the Celtic peoples from which the Arthur legend is derived were known to have a long tradition of female warriors (as well as a good deal of female equality), in contrast to the later Saxons and Romans. Roman historians were known to use this an example of how [[ValuesDissonance "barbaric"]] Celtic culture was. Battle dress from the period, however, typically consisted of a simple belted tunic.

* Susan in the ChroniclesOfNarnia series of movies. In ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'', she has a scene devoted to training, while she's never seen fighting in the book. In fact, when she is given her bow by Santa Clause in the book, she is expressly told not to use it, because '' batlles are ugly when women fight''. Also, in the scene when the wolf attacks, she gives herself and Lucy time to escape by throwing a blanket at it. In the book, she just climbed up a tree and nearly fainted.

* Susan in the ''[[ChroniclesOfNarnia Prince Caspian]]'' movie. Once again, we have a horseback scene, though that is just a sample of her badassitude, as she was basically transformed into a brunette [[LordOfTheRings Legolas]]. Although Susan was an archer ActionGirl in the books, too, it wouldn't have been as visually impressive because she [[ActualPacifist disliked fighting]], while the movie character [[LadyOfWar didn't have a problem with it]].
** This is foreshadowed in ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'', with Susan having a scene devoted to training, while she's never seen fighting in the book. Also, in the scene when the wolf attacks, she gives herself and Lucy time to escape by throwing a blanket at it. In the book, she just climbed up a tree and nearly fainted.

** Not all of us are opposed to this development. Arwen at Helm's Deep would have been a serious mistake but making her something other than a passive lady-love was a definite improvement.

* {{Superman}}'s Lois Lane gets more and more able to [[MemeticMutation KILL YOU TO DEATH]] with each adaptation. She's not bulletproof or able to go toe-to-toe with most supervillains for long so she still needs Supes in the end, but where once, "Superman, heeeeeeeelp!" would have been immediate, now... well, if the BigBad sends five {{Mooks}} after her, you don't wanna be {{Mook}} one, two, or three.

The polar opposite of {{Chickification}} and a subtrope of AdaptationalBadass. We all know GirlsNeedRoleModels and RealWomenNeverWearDresses, so what do you do when you're adapting or sequelizing a work from a "less enlightened" time? Make your female lead into an ActionGirl! If you don't feel comfortable putting her in hand-to-hand combat, give her a chase scene on [[HorsebackHeroism horseback]] or hand her a [[TheArcher warbow]], because even a 90-pound waif can [[CriticalResearchFailure easily fire one of those]]. Her fighting prowess [[FauxActionGirl doesn't even have to last the whole movie]]; one scene will suffice. You don't even have to bother with intelligence or CharacterDevelopment, everyone knows that ActionGirl automatically equals one of those [[TradeSnark Strong Female Characters™]] you've heard so much about.

The polar opposite of {{Chickification}} and a subtrope of AdaptationalBadass. We all know GirlsNeedRoleModels and RealWomenNeverWearDresses, so what do you do when you're adapting or sequelizing a work from a "less enlightened" time? Make your female lead into an ActionGirl! If you don't feel comfortable putting her in hand-to-hand combat, give her a chase scene on [[HorsebackHeroism horseback]] or hand her a [[TheArcher warbow]], because even a 90-pound waif can [[CriticalResearchFailure easily fire one of those]]. Her fighting prowess [[FauxActionGirl doesn't even have to last the whole movie]]; one scene will suffice. You don't even have to bother with intelligence or CharacterDevelopment, everyone knows that ActionGirl automatically equals one of those [[TradeSnark Strong Female Characters™]] you've heard so much about.

** [[NostalgiaCritic "Role reversal doesn't work when the roles are already reversed!"]]

** Much, much more than the trope would imply, there's a strongly argued psychological build-up for her arse-kickery.

** ''SpiritTracks'' did raised it to the next level, by having her run around in a knight's armor for about half of the game and become a pretty awesome combination of the StaffChick and TheArcher for the last battle. Oh, and did we mention that she is, for some reason, ''invincible'' at any point of the game? [[spoiler:She and Link share the Health Bar for the final battle.]] And that while she was originally trying ''hard'' not to slip out of her PrincessClassic role.

* In ''TheTerminator'', Sarah Connor is just an ordinary waitress who just happens to be the mother of the future savior of the world. By the time of ''Terminator 2'', she'd learned how to kick ass. Unusually for this trope, this is both [[JustifiedTrope explained]] and [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]], as her knowledge of the future apocalypse seems to have driven her over the edge and she has become almost like a human terminator as a result. This even gets some {{foreshadowing}} at the end of the first film, as, after the terminator is defeated, she drives down to Mexico to hook up with a gun runner.

* [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Shrek Fiona]]. Just Fiona.
** Slightly averted in that she was always that badass.

* In an attempt to make her an actual character (and cut down on the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters), Arwen from ''{{The Lord of the Rings}}'' was given a big chase scene on horseback. She was originally intended to fight at Helm's Deep as well, in order to allow her and Aragorn to actually interact. But that was cut in favor of sticking closer to the books. By that point, however, concerned fans had already dubbed her Xenarwen.

* Daphne was played by [[BuffyTheVampireslayer Sarah Michelle Gellar]] in the ''ScoobyDoo'' movie. That just about says it all.
** Though that was given some reason (she was sick of being a DID) and years passed while she gained her skills. Plus, she retained a lot of her valley girl ways.

* Fiona, in Shrek.

* [[Shrek Fiona]]. Just Fiona.

* Marian from the ''{{Double Dragon}}'' video game series didn't do much in the original games other than [[DistressedDamsel getting kidnapped]] or even [[DisposableWoman killed off]] at one point. But then she was turned into a policewoman for the comic and animated TV versions, and into a streetwise female gang leader in the film. The gang leader version of the character was then [[RecursiveAdaptation adapted]] into a fighting game based on the film. The Neo-Geo fighting game of ''Double Dragon'' also turns her into one of the playable fighters (and not the only female fighter either).

* Elizabeth Swann from ''{{Pirates of the Caribbean}}'' was never [[PluckyGirl actually weak or passive]] in the first movie, and even fought alongside Will in the final battle. However, in the sequels she [[RealWomenNeverWearDresses ditched the dress]], grabbed a sword, and TookALevelInBadass.

* Hermione Granger was plenty proactive in the ''HarryPotter'' books, but a lot of it was mental work that apparently doesn't "count". The films, ''{{Prisoner of Azkaban}}'' especially, have made her into what fans call the "Pink Power Granger", thanks to the infamous pink hoodie she was wearing as she demonstrated this trope.

* Besides within the AnimatedAdaptation of ''{{The Legend of Zelda}}'' (see below), Zelda has been Xenafied in most of the later games, too. Zelda secretly being Sheik was a genuine surprise for a lot of gamers, as before ''{{Ocarina of Time}}'' she was a passive DistressedDamsel whose most physically challenging moment in any prior game is helping Link move a piece of furniture in ''{{A Link to the Past}}''. In almost every post-''Ocarina'' game, Zelda's had some type of combat role in some plot-important fight.

* Disney turned ''{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame}}'''s [[TheIngenue Esmeralda]] into a street-smart CombatPragmatist ActionGirl who fights with Frollo's {{mooks}} on a regular basis, but she still ends up being the DistressedDamsel in the climactic battle.

* The ''DynastyWarriors'' series does this for Zhen Ji, Yue Ying, and Diao Chan. Sun Shang Xiang is a borderline example as she was known as something of an ActionGirl by the standards of her time.

* [[SonicTheHedgehog Amy Rose]] was kidnapped in her first video game appearance in Sonic CD. She was given a [[DropTheHammer Piko Piko Hammer]] in Sonic Adventure (well...Sonic Fighters)and was more than capable of taking care of herself.

* [[TheKingOfFighters Yuri Sakazaki]] spends her entire [[ArtOfFighting first appearance]] as a DistressedDamsel, but in all subsequent games she demands martial arts training from her father so that it cannot happen again, and ends up becoming almost as powerful as he and her brother.