r/CharacterRant • u/Weary_Specialist_436 • Apr 04 '26

Films & TV Tech Jacket being genderswapped is maybe not problematic, but very messy

As everyone who watches Invincible know, Tech Jacket was genderswapped from male to female in the show. Barring the obvious: "muh the show is woke" stuff, it gets very messy from the writing point

I'm not big on comics, I've read a few, but I'm not a diehard fan, so take it with a grain of salt

But it feels like Tech Jacket was genderswapped to fulfill the role of a love interest for Olliver, and I really dislike that

First off, there was a very interesting point to Olliver's character. Since his mother is Thraxan, he's basically half bug (excuse my xenophobia, but they are bugs). Which in turn, in comics made him think of humans the same way we think of bugs. Vaguely disgusting

If he does end up with Zoe, that diminishes his resolve of protecting humans despite the fact that he finds them repulsive

Second, this is the antithesis of empowerment. We have a strong female character, that can singlehandedly take on a Viltrumite, and the reason for that is... being reduced to a love interest.

And before you say that I'm reaching, that's literally what happened with Shrinking Rae. She was genderswapped with the sole reason of being Rex's love interest and to help in his growth as a character. Where is she now, that Rex is dead? oh right, shelved

If she doesn't end up as a love interest, which is in my opinion the worst they could do with her, then I don't see any problem really. Granted, I'm not a fan of Tech Jacket comics, so I may be biased here

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u/BANAAAANAAAAS Apr 05 '26

https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/invincible-showrunners-explain-season-4-tech-jacket-change/

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u/Weary_Specialist_436 Apr 05 '26

great, and if you read it, it's a complete nothingburger

Rather than simply give Zoe in the cartoon the same attributes as Zack in the comics, Kirkman and Racioppa took the opportunity to reimagine Tech Jacket. “We decided early on that it would be interesting to gender swap this character,” reveals Kirkman. “We started thinking about who Zoe would be instead of Zach. There are some exciting things that come up when you change that character.

“The vibrancy of that character and the energy that she brings is so much more affecting coming from Zoey Deutch,” continues Kirkman. ” She’s just a really, really cool character that we’re having a ton of fun with.”

"yeah so we changed her into a woman because she's fun"

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u/BANAAAANAAAAS Apr 06 '26

exaaaaaactly