(On the other hand, the female assistant set off some gender-stereotypes-icky warning bells in me. Despite your obvious attempts at avoiding this. I’m probably just projecting some unfavourable impressions of the source material on your adaptation, but you may still want to be aware of this possibility.)
Oddly, I made the assistant female partially because having a mad scientist with a male assistant (Igor fetch brains, master...) felt too stereotypical.
I also considered making Dr. Zany himself female, but there the character felt so strongly male that my brain just wouldn’t go along with it.
Strongly agreed. That aspect also seemed bad because the assistant being labeled like a robot while funny sounded almost like some form of symbolic objectification. And the fact that her main talent she’s valued for is the ability to make sandwiches rather than say help tweak the ray guns or Tesla coils strongly didn’t help matters.
But note that her being valued mostly for the sandwiches says more about Dr. Zany’s attitude than about how things really are, and she’s strongly implied to be the more competent of the two...
Slightly distracting, but worth it.
(On the other hand, the female assistant set off some gender-stereotypes-icky warning bells in me. Despite your obvious attempts at avoiding this. I’m probably just projecting some unfavourable impressions of the source material on your adaptation, but you may still want to be aware of this possibility.)
Oddly, I made the assistant female partially because having a mad scientist with a male assistant (Igor fetch brains, master...) felt too stereotypical.
I also considered making Dr. Zany himself female, but there the character felt so strongly male that my brain just wouldn’t go along with it.
Strongly agreed. That aspect also seemed bad because the assistant being labeled like a robot while funny sounded almost like some form of symbolic objectification. And the fact that her main talent she’s valued for is the ability to make sandwiches rather than say help tweak the ray guns or Tesla coils strongly didn’t help matters.
But note that her being valued mostly for the sandwiches says more about Dr. Zany’s attitude than about how things really are, and she’s strongly implied to be the more competent of the two...