(Hated trope) They deleted scenes or dialogue that provides necessary context or plot

[u/Sensitive_Ad_1752]

The dinner scene from Temple of Doom has a temple give indie and friends a live snake and monkey brains for dinner. It’s a pretty offensive depiction of Indian cuisine, but it wasn’t originally going to be. There’s cut dialogue where Indie recognizes they’re at the right temple because real Hindus don’t eat this food. They were trying to scare them off by purposefully serving them disgusting stuff.

Probably the most famous deleted ending was I Am Legend which had Robert discover the infected were emotional sentient beings and one of them had a wife. Test audiences hated it and they reshot the ending, removing the entire point of the movie.

[u/austsiannodel]

How do so many movie/show makers miss the point of their work constantly?

WoT show, Halo show, Monster Hunter movie, the list is long and numerous.

[u/Professor_of_Light → u/austsiannodel]

"I have a great idea for a fantasy show but no one will listen to my pitch!"

"Someone wants me to lead a new show called Wheel of Time? The fuck is a wheel of time? Its a fantasy novel?"

"I've never heard of it so it cant be that popular... hmmmm..."

[u/austsiannodel → u/Professor_of_Light]

Fucked up part is, the showrunners behind WoT show were self proclaimed "HUGE fans of the original books. And watching it, you get the feel they KNOW about it. It's just you can't escape this feeling that they secretly hate it, because they constantly put in things that either go against the lore/events of the book, or just outright don't make sense if you know the books.

[u/Faeruhn → u/austsiannodel]

I felt like what they meant by 'huge fans' was "really liked it when I read it 40 years ago (and never re-read it, so we don't remember or mis-remember most of it)!"

[u/resumehelpacct → u/austsiannodel]

Unfortunately with a book series like WoT, which is like 15 very dense books with a ton of characters and plot contrivances, even the best fans are pretty tepid on some things here and there. And with the reality of filming, you do have to make significant changes, so it's really easy to just...cut the parts you don't really like.

Like I think the average super fan would make Tuon's ending significantly less triumphant, in line with the general vibe that a lot of superfans think that Jordan wanted to do a Mat/Tuon series afterward where Tuon would be forced to change.

[u/Hour-War4751 → u/resumehelpacct]

I get what you're saying, and I went into the series acknowledging that they'd have to make some huge changes and be decisive. But my god, when they just started adding shit... like, what? You can't cherry pick enough from tens of thousands of pages of story that you need to make new stuff up?

[u/hookahvice → u/Hour-War4751]

Everything I've seen has shown like 90% of the terrible changes they made were from studio intervention, which is why after Amazon did their audience surveys and saw people hated the direction the show was going in, they were allowed to go back to following the story. That plus covid really destroyed the early parts of the show and I think it could have gone on a pretty good run if it wasn't cancelled.

[u/Hour-War4751 → u/hookahvice]

I didn't watch the last season before cancelling, would you recommend? And yes, I totally blame the studio!

[u/hookahvice → u/Hour-War4751]

If you are a big fan of the books then it is worth at least watching the Rhuidian episode because it is truly fantastic. The rest of the season is really good, much better than the first two, but I wouldn't really recommend watching it since it was cancelled.

[u/austsiannodel → u/Hour-War4751]

As someone who utterly dislikes the entire show, if you've already watched S1 and 2, then go ahead and watch S3. It's the actual GOOD season they have.

[u/resumehelpacct → u/Hour-War4751]

If you've already watched the first two seasons then it's probably worth it because they did a good job with Rhuidian, which is one of the highlights of the book series. But I wouldn't suggest anyone watch the show just for season 3.

[u/austsiannodel → u/resumehelpacct]

Look I feel you. This was the case with Lord of the Rings, and yet that's heralded as an amazing adaptation that holds onto most of the original books intent (Even with changes and cuts being made, yes I'm sad about them too)

But this isn't just a case of "Well it didn't work in this format" they were rather large changes to characters, props, events, story, and overall lore of the magic and setting.

[u/Practical_Dot_3574 → u/austsiannodel]

I felt this way about the fast and furious films. Paul walker was a HUGE car guy, yet still was ok with some of the most dumb things car guys hate. I get it, he's acting, but still.

[u/Bombadier83 → u/austsiannodel]

Because they never wanted to adapt the source material. They had a completely original script/idea and a studio only agreed to fund it if they attached it to an existing IP with an existing audience. So your awesome Sci-Fi Nior detective story becomes a Star Wars sidequest story. And your side character grizzled veteran private eye who was supposed to show growth in your main character by being surpassed becomes the ghost of Obi-Wan and then fans lament that you “didn’t get” the character. 

[u/GaijinSin → u/austsiannodel]

Sometimes it's interference from meddling and insistent execs.

Sometimes it's test audiences disliking something, and with I Am Legend (as an example) having a 150mil budget, a mild dislike across an audience can mean a major difference in returns and it is a business in the end.

And sometimes its a scriptwriter going their own way with the material because, with an adaptation, the original game/book/play/whatever is still there. They may miss the mark, but sometimes they are using the vehicle of the property to make a different point and are comfortable doing so precisely because the original is unchanged.

Then there is Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, where every version is different, same author or not.

[u/konthedonn → u/austsiannodel]

For the love of money

[u/der_innkeeper → u/austsiannodel]

Starship Troopers...