What Is Personality Death?

 I'm sure I've ranted before how much I hate when some "reviewer" views a story through the lens of some arbitrary rule he just made up.  Like, "All Stories Save to End Happily Ever After."  Or, "Characters Can Never Be Mean." Or, "The Character Has to Still Like the Same Sex They Did Before Gender Swapping."  It doesn't matter what else happens in the story, the only important thing is that one rule they made up.  Like this:

 

I've seen stuff like this a couple other times.  I'm not sure which books it was to know if it was the same person or not.  Anyway, it's this silly rule that the main character has to remain the same inside or it's "personality death" or "a murder."  Which seems ridiculous.

The whole point in a lot of stories is for a character to change.  Think of the classic A Christmas Carol.  The whole point of it was for Scrooge to change from a stingy old miser to a caring and giving person.  Was that "personality death" or "a murder?"  If it was, it was OK because he was bad, right?

In this case, the whole point was that the main character changes outside and inside.  Captain Amanda Harker--basically a retread of Lottie Donovan in the Scarlet Knight books--is a tough, butch, workaholic cop.  Then she gets a bunch of a drug called "Lezz" spilled on her.  In small doses, Lezz can make a woman like other women for a few hours.  In such a large dose, it starts to change Harker so that she gets incrementally less tough and butch to the point she has to leave the police force.

At the same time she's getting dull and self-centered like a lot of pretty girls.  I don't think the story works if she stays all tough and butch in a body that clearly isn't those things.  That would really be tormenting her more than this way where at least she can enjoy it.

Even in the Chances Are books, Steve didn't stay the same once he turned into Stacey.  He got softer and quieter and sweeter.  It's a byproduct not just of being in a different body but everyone treating him differently.  And also he can't solve problems the way Steve did by punching people or intimidating them physically.  Stacey isn't old enough to drink so she isn't drunk a lot of the time like Steve was and she doesn't smoke. She also hangs around a lot with Steve's daughter and other girls who are not cops whereas Steve would hang out with his partner Jake and other cops.  That would be another influence.

One thing I like to cynically think is that people who "review" with these "rules" aren't writers who have to actually write stories.  It always sounds a lot easier if you've never done it.  I mean, I just don't know how I wouldn't change the personality at least some.  If a 6-4, 250-lb 50-year-old guy suddenly turns into a 5-6, 110-lb 18-year-old girl, the world is going to be a lot different.  And the same if it happened the opposite way.  I don't think it's "death" or a "murder" so much as a journey physically and spiritually.  It's like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, creating something new from something old.  Or less romantic and destructive, a caterpillar emerging from the cocoon as a butterfly.  You can't really gauge the personality of a butterfly or Phoenix, but I bet they'd be different from a caterpillar or whatever.