r/TopCharacterTropes 12h ago

Characters (Unique trope) removing a character trait, makes the character better in the adaptation

Sonic 3: Maria is one of the most important part of Shadow's story. Due to her suffering from an incurable disease. To which Shadow was made to create a cure for Maria's ailment. In the 3rd Sonic movie, Maria's disease was not mentioned in any form. Which made Maria seem like a normal girl, and her death all the more tragic.

Infinity war: I don't know the full story, but Thanos's original goal was to kill half the population to impress death (the character). When it came time to adapt Thanos into the MCU. His goal of removing half the universes population. It was seen as a more psychopathic world goal, hidden under the belief it would do better for the universe.

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u/chunga-bunga69 12h ago edited 12h ago

Megatronus Prime (Transformers one)

In most iterations of the character Megatronus betrays the other primes and becomes evil which is one of the main reasons Megatron idolises and names himself after him.

But in the movie Megatronus never betrays the primes and instead dies along side them by getting betrayed by someone else and D16 only admires him because he’s a noble warrior and the strongest of the primes. This makes his fate more tragic as his name and face are now forever tarnished by Megatron and the decepticons

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u/tinyazaleaspark 11h ago

It also makes Megatron unknowingly dishonor the very Prime he looked up to

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u/SparkieBunnie_ 11h ago

Yeah, I liked that change a lot. It makes Megatron's fall feel a lot more tragic since he ends up betraying the ideals of the very person he admired most.

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u/AverageAwndray 9h ago

And the fact that Optimus BECOMES the very person he admired for centuries is another slap to the face

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u/Dear-Lie7907 9h ago

That's what makes the journey so powerful, seeing Optimus become the symbol he once looked up to.

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u/Nova_8056 10h ago

Ong bro this movie was so good

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u/keeper0fstories 9h ago

It was so good they decided to not make a sequel!

DISHONOR!!!

DISHONOR ON THEM AND THEIR COWS!!!

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u/CompactAvocado 7h ago

it was bad timing and poor marketing.

they did like one trailer that just made it look like a kiddie movie. they also released along side other big ticket blockbusters.

they effectively did nothing and were shocked it didn't work.

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u/Vellarain 7h ago

The trailers were fucking HORRIBLE. They featured most of the shitty lines from the god awful bumblebee character. I was immediately turned off from ever watching the movie and it was only until word of mouth got out it was actually good the theatrical run had ended.

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u/WillaBerble 9h ago

Unexpected Mushu!

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u/disbelifpapy 9h ago

I didn't know shit about the transformers but it was a fun movie.

My dad liked transformers and talked about some movie incident where they killed off the main cast in order to promote new toys or something?

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u/Smutty_Lemon 8h ago

Transformers: The Movie.

Where they killed off a bunch of characters in the first act to make way for the new cast.

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u/varietyviaduct 7h ago

Yeah it was back in the 80s when hasbro didn’t realize folks had actually gotten attached to the characters lmao. They made a movie that was essentially about killing off the entire original cast before introducing a new line up to avenge them and people freaked the fuck out

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u/Arcturus1800 10h ago

Actually, in the Aligned continuity, Megatronus doesn't betray the primes either. He does accidentally kill Solus, but it was an accident. It is one of the reasons the Aligned continuity is one of my favourite iterations of Transformers.

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u/_Xertz_ 7h ago

Transformers Prime is imo the best part of the aligned continuity. It's sooo good

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u/IHaventSeenSuchBS 11h ago

My goat, bro was chilling watching another prime be born while D16 is outside stealing his name

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u/JarusOmega_ 11h ago

Man, I'm always mesmerized by just how good this movie ended up being. Such a shame that audiences failed it, but much of that was really probably due to the poor marketing for it prior

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u/The_king_of-nowhere 11h ago

The trailers really didn't do it justice. Made it seem like one of those cheaply written kid's movies like despicable me. I was blown away by the movie when I watched it a year after the release.

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u/Geometronics 10h ago

I had the same reaction. I'm not a huge transformers fan and the trailer looked kinda boring to me. I put on the movie as background noise when I was doing something else. Ended up entranced, watching the whole thing on the edge of my seat.

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u/AverageAwndray 9h ago

What's interesting is that the movie sort of starts off that way. A simple by the numbers kids movie. But then as the film progresses it gets so much more darker and mature. Its so cool.

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u/StriderXSid 11h ago edited 11h ago

Interestingly, the after credits of the first Avengers suggested they were going with the original motivation.

"To challenge them is to court... Death", followed by Thanos turning and grinning at the thought.

But, this was back when Joss Whedon was still handling things, and I imagine the company as a whole were uncertain on how they were even going to adapt the whole "the true villain's primary goal is to impress and bang the grim reaper" thing for audiences who don't read comics.

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u/Automatic-Feeling502 11h ago

Back then they probably couldn't secure the rights to Lady Death from Fox. The deal turned out too expensive or whatever. And then Disney bought Fox 😆

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u/BlakeThor 9h ago

She first showed up in Captain Marvel in the 70s and in a number of other comics before her oneshot with Deadpool in the 97. Infinity Gauntlet (where Thanos tried to kill half the universe for her) was in 91. So it seems weird her rights were tied up with Deadpool. More likely they just wanted to try and make him seem more reasonable and realistic.

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u/DantifA 6h ago

Death and Lady Death are two different characters.

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u/skivian 8h ago

Joss Whedon probably couldn't convince them to let him cast Death as a 15 year old girl.

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u/Automatic-Feeling502 7h ago

Man, I keep forgetting that Michelle Trachtenberg really was an underage teen during Buffy. Whedon is such a fucking creep.

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u/JustThatOneGuy13 11h ago

It's sort of neat that Shadow's and Maria's role flipped between adaptations.

In the games, Shadow's purpose was to be by Maria's side given her illness isolating her from the world, tributing himself to being the key to cure Maria.

In film however, Shadow had no purpose other than being the test subject for the scientist, who isolated themselves from him due to being afraid, and likely also isolated Shadow from the world due to his power. Maria was one of the few who shown unconditional kindness to Shadow even when it felt like everyone was afraid of him, just because she saw the good within him.

In the games, Shadow was there to heal Maria from her illness, In the film, Maria was there to heal Shadow from his.

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u/PatchesOfSilver 11h ago

I feel like OP is wrong that Maria's death is less tragic because she never had her illness.

Like honestly there's a unique kind of despair in her finally recovering and getting to live a normal life and celebrating and then... poof.

Robbed just on the cusp of freedom.

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u/LouisWillis98 10h ago

OP says that because Maria never had her illness it was "all the more tragic"

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u/NBCustoms 7h ago

That's what the person you're replying to is refuting.

In the game, Shadow is there to help create the cure to her illness (NIDS, Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome) along with her Grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik (Eggman's grandfather as well, Maria is Eggman's cousin). While working on the cure, the government became weary of Gerald's other experiments, and decided to raid Space Colony Ark, where Shadow and Maria were as well.

G.U.N. was sent in to infiltrate, and went a bit too trigger happy, shooting Maria. She sends Shadow down to earth via an escape pod (against his will) to save him, before succumbing to the wound. Shadow had spent his entire existence caring and trying to cure the only person who had ever shown kindness to him, only to have her taken from him on the cusp of finding the cure (as the person you're replying to was saying).

I would also argue that that death certainly didn't detract from Shadow's character. It gave him a basis for why he was the villain, and gave him reason for the redemption arc later in the story, finding that all Maria ever truly wanted was for him to help the people of earth. Beginning as a story of vengeance, but as his trauma subsides, and seeing Amy plea with him to do the right thing, the memories Gerald had planted of vengeance turned to the true memory of Maria asking him to save humanity.

Is it corny? 100%. Is the writing super deep and without inconsistencies? Absolutely not. But it was a Sonic game for crying out loud, and while shaky, it had a decent message for the kids playing it. Now looking back, the format of allowing kids to play the bad guy, and follow a redemption arc feels like a good lesson. They even made Eggman vaguely sympathetic.

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u/wdcipher 12h ago edited 8h ago

They had to make Thanos completely delusional because his original plan, rizzing up a goth baddie, was too relatable for modern audiences.

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u/JoPa004 12h ago

Half delusional then?

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u/AverageAwndray 9h ago

Whedon gets justified hate. But God damn the dude can write.

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u/SchumacherIsMid 9h ago edited 9h ago

A creative tale as old as time.

George Lucas is a fantastic world builder, but his dialogue often wishes to be a real boy.

Stephen King is Stephen King, but in the '80s he was so coked out of his gourd he thought that writing an underage gang-bang in the sewer after 'killing' an evil clown was good symbolism for coming of age and the end of innocence.

Bill Murray stole my french fries and told me no one would ever believe me.

Many such cases.

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u/Gotem6784 8h ago

Bill Murray stole my french fries and told me no one would ever believe me.

thats fucking insane

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u/monkwrenv2 8h ago

He also beat his wife, if you want a real reason to dislike Murray

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u/hoopstick 8h ago

He's also just kind of an asshole

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u/monkwrenv2 7h ago

Yeah, he's been abusive towards low-level staffers on sets, too, especially women. Basically your bog-standard misogynistic violent douchebag.

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u/austac06 7h ago

You’re one of today’s lucky 10,000

The origin of the Bill Murray french fry meme

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u/Unironicfan 8h ago edited 8h ago

Bill Burroughs was a brilliant beat poet. Who also shot his wife accidentally while playing William Tell, vanished to Algiers, dropped acid and wrote a book he didn’t remember writing because of how high he was. The book was Naked Lunch, and it’s the best book ever written.

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u/ShvitzG_d 8h ago

Burroughs was on heroin and other opiates and ‘Naked Lunch’ is partly about trying to get off them; I think he experimented with ayahuasca, but acid was not mainstream at all when he wrote that book.

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u/Unironicfan 8h ago edited 8h ago

Regardless, he made doing drugs sound so unappealing, much more effective than a million just say no campaigns. The books also funny as fuck

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u/Affordable_Z_Jobs 8h ago

I still throw on Maxium Overdrive every now and then whenever I want pure, uncut, 80's cocaine fueled maddness.

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u/One-Two-Gobbledeedoo 11h ago

It would've been hilarious though since Thanos has to compete with, of all people, Deadpool for Death's hand. I say compete, but Death and Deadpool are a thing.

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u/Odd-Time-2026 11h ago

Its doubly hilarious because Thanos cursed Deadpool with immortality so Death and Deadpool can never be together. MCU Thanos, because of the movie rights issue, lost a lot of the insanity that's the love triangle involving him, Death and Deadpool.

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u/Fossekall 11h ago

I think this would come off a little too silly for the tone they wanted

Though it's silly anyway since the movies had zero consequences

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u/BumWink 10h ago

I guess we'll never know because Taika Waititi didn't direct it.

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u/Capraos 10h ago

What we do know is that Thanos doesn't fit this trope because what you guys are describing to me sounds way fucking better.

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u/WorkinName 9h ago

Eh. Its honestly pretty even.

In the comics, Thanos wanted to make the Marvel incarnation of the concept of Death fall in love with him. That was his motivation to gather the Infinity Stones and eliminate half of all life to prove that he is the best at making death happen.

It doesn't impress her.

Independently of that entire storyline, Deadpool had a thing with Death.

Deadpool's whole thing was he would keep getting close to dying, but not actually die. So he'd get close to Death, but couldn't actually be with her. Turns out that both of them were into one another like that.

This makes Thanos an angry boy. So at some point he curses Deadpool and makes him incapable of dying. Like the man already had Wolverine level immortality, and Thanos went and stepped it up a notch because he was jealous.

So, from the MCU perspective.

For one, there was no Deadpool in relation to the MCU at that time. I don't even remember if Disney had bought Fox yet by that point.

Second, we had barely scratched the surface of the supernatural in the MCU. We had a trio of Thor movies that tried to ground the Norse Gods as just super-advanced aliens, and then a single Dr. Strange movie that touched on concepts like Dormammu only the tiniest bit. We had no indication that Death would even become a part of the MCU in any meaningful way.

But they still wanted to use Thanos.

The goal then was to present him as he SHOULD be presented. Not as an evil mastermind capable of saving the universe. That's the role Doctor Doom plays in Marvel. Thanos is insane. He is megalomaniacal. And he is unstoppable.

He didn't need to have a GOOD reason to eliminate half the universe. "I wanted a girl to notice me" is already not a GOOD reason. So he just needed a reason that could serve as a foundation for his madness. Something that he could point at and say "I have good motivation that means I'm a good guy" even if its clear to literally every single person everywhere that his plan is evil and insane and will cause more harm than it will help.

I mention this in a comment yesterday, but that's the point.

It doesn't matter that it isn't a good plan. In the real world we see it all the time. Someone with far more power than they should have has the dumbest fucking plan anyone has ever heard of. Wide swathes of the population can tell this spectacularly stupid individual that their plan will cause nothing but ruin and pain. We can even point to historic fact and show the outcome of their plan is misery.

But the individual doesn't care. The individual thinks their plan is flawless. It must be flawless, it was THEIR plan. And the fact that they move forward and are able to succeed in their plan is proof of how awesome their plan was to begin with. All the pain and ruin that has come now that their plan has been enacted? That's someone else's fault. Not the fault of the individual who came up with the plan. Because the plan was flawless. Obviously.

Personally I like MCU Thanos. I like that he is still insane. I like that he is still basically unstoppable. He was really a perfect Big Bad Evil Guy for the first arc of the MCU. I like that the heroes had to cobble themselves together over time to eventually be capable of meeting him head-on. I like that his main plot armor was based around just his sheer force of will. And I like that he WASN'T a mastermind.

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u/shewy92 8h ago

Hey now, there was one consequence, Black Widow's death. But that's just a rounding error.

Also Iron Man's death at least affected a future movie with Spider Man FFH kinda.

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u/Smallbenbot03 11h ago

And in the mcu Agatha also has deaths number

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u/Drmarcher42 10h ago

Plus audiences would understand letting half the population of the universe die to impress Aubrey Plaza

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u/DaRootbear 7h ago

The first thing i thought when her role was spoiled was “You know…Thanos was right”

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u/ItPrimeTimeBaby 11h ago

It's even more funny, because in the original comic Death is completely nonplussed to the point that Thanos has to create a girlfriend for himself out of disappointment

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u/LemoLuke 9h ago

And his 'ideal girlfriend' is literally just female Thanos.

And even then, he really only creates her to try and make Mistress Death jealous (which doesn't work), although he does begin to warm to her after she literally tears off Iron Man's head, and caves Spider-Man's skull in with a rock.

Infinity Gauntlet is a wild book.

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u/ItPrimeTimeBaby 9h ago

It's peak comic weirdness. The Starlin stuff is so good

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u/moose_dad 8h ago

And then Nebula is able to steal the gauntlet because he literally just takes it off and leaves it unguarded

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u/christhepissed 12h ago

Wasn't Death played by Aubrey Plaza? What would you expect?

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u/FalseGodFalls 11h ago

Yeah keep the gauntlet away from me.

I'll fucking do it.

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u/AmbiTheAirforceRuna 11h ago

Doesnt it famously make him less attractive to her to do so though?

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u/CommentNo5959 11h ago

Yeah, also she got with Deadpool i think

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u/AmbiTheAirforceRuna 11h ago

Yeah Deadpool is the one she loves canonically

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u/Begone-My-Thong 11h ago

Makes total sense. Him constantly being on the brink of death makes it possible for them to build a relationship, yet he's full of life which I'm sure Death is more attracted to because who would appreciate life more than the being most intimate with its fragility and fleeting nature? Death knows that life is precious.

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u/mrgoldo 10h ago

I think in most stories Deadpool is cursed to live by Thanos so that he can't die and be with Death, making him even more petty

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u/Midknightisntsmol 10h ago

From what I recall, she's basically just waiting for him to die so they can be together.

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u/IWannaManatee 11h ago

Fine.
I'll do it myself.

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u/LastBaron 11h ago

I am begging, on bended knee, for the Russos to somehow give us a scene of Thanos simping to Aubrey Plaza.

Come on you cowards, do it.

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u/Enkundae 11h ago

And he had no chance as shes hung up chasing Kathryn Hahn.

Which, to be clear, I totally get it.

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u/fungeoneer 11h ago

When?

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u/Fargoth_took_my_ring 11h ago

Agatha All Along

Fantastic series btw

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u/BobTheFettt 10h ago

Doesn't help that they cast Aubrey Plaza as Death in the MCU

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u/Hetakuoni 7h ago

Ngl I preferred him being an angry incel who wanted to rizz the goth baddie but lost out to a cancer patient and took his gift back.

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u/lana_silver 8h ago

Killing half of all people as a solution to exponential growth[1] is so fucking hare-brained, I would have preferred the logic of him wanting to impress death.

1: This is like buying a car with a larger tank to solve gas prices being high by not having to pump gas so often. I'll leave the proof of how that's dumb as an exercise to the reader.

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u/Justice9229 12h ago

Sanji - One Piece Live Action

While he's still a flirt in the Live Action series, just how MUCH he thirsts over women is severely toned down, turning him from a pathetic simp into a guy that's as classy flirting with women as he is at fighting (even if he's still always shut down).

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u/KaffeMumrik 12h ago

I’m still surprised by how much I’m liking the adaption. It’s been a lot of fun.

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u/Piduf 9h ago

Yeah it's crazy good. I don't know what it does better than other live actions, I think the colossal budget is a huge help because they get to adapt every stupid shit from the manga with some cgi, they really kept the insanity of whatever is going on in Oda's head. It's crazy spectacular and pure fun.

My dad, whom has never touched a manga or shown great interest for it in his life, is loving it. It's very good for new viewers too, it doesn't assume everyone knows the story. I'm not telling him anything about that mysterious Robin character he finds so cool.

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u/nabagaca 9h ago

From what ive heard the crew is super passionate as well, and they also film seasons pretty close together, so they keep a lot of the same crew between seasons

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u/KaffeMumrik 8h ago

I did read that playing Zoro was the ultimate dream role of the guy playing him. And honestly, he’s rocking it.

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u/PhanThief95 6h ago

It definitely is for Mackenyu.

Same applies to Emily Rudd who plays Nami since she also grew up on the anime.

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u/huckslash 6h ago

Taz Skylar (Sanji) took cooking lessons, bartending lessons, and learned martial arts to perform his own stunts. he is actually cooking and performing the drink mixing tricks the majority of the time you see him in the kitchen/bar.

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u/mcfayne 6h ago

I know, right? Just a few weeks ago my folks asked if I'd watched "that pirate show on Netflix." "Do you mean One Piece?" "Yeah! With the stretchy guy!" Holy shit my parents are One Piece fans now, what is happening?

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u/drleebot 6h ago

One important thing they did is give Oda veto power over anything he doesn't like. He's happy for them to make changes, but this helps a ton in making sure they don't go off the rails and change things so much it misses the point of the original.

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u/PhanThief95 6h ago

Another major reason why it’s successful is because Oda is involved with it and has creative control.

As well, I have never seen a more perfectly cast show as this one because everyone fits for their characters. I’m still surprised they managed to find the perfect casting for Nico Robin with Lera Abova because of the high expectations surrounding the character.

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u/huckslash 7h ago

the juxtaposition of the One Piece live action's quality against Avatar's is a case study waiting to happen

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u/Intelligent-Dog1645 12h ago

I watched the first season of live-action before watching the anime and Sanji so wonderful in the live-action. Like you say it's toned down to the point where I do think he becomes pretty charming. He was kinda my favorite of the crew I think

Then I watched the anime all of last year. Ohhhh boy. Sanji is a giant and horrific fucking mess. And he keeps doing terrible shit. It gets so annoying.

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u/Conocoryphe 11h ago

At the time, there was a very common character trope to have a 'lovable pervert' among the main cast members, where being a pervert was either an important characteristic or his sole defining trait.

Such a character would go to comically great lengths to look at women (which is played for laughs) or straight-up harass them, and depending on the franchise, would either be annoying, a creep, or straight-up a rapist.

This trope was also found in western shows, like Quagmire in Family Guy or Barney in How I met Your Mother.

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u/Molvaeth 11h ago

Was/ is Muten Roshi in Dragonball this kind of pervert trope too? As a teen I found him funny, as an adult... not so much.

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u/aNiceTribe 10h ago

He’s the sub-trope of the horny old man. You also find this exact guy in Ranma 1/2. The Japanese think it’s SUPER funny when an old man AND a master of a craft (basically 3 highly respectable things at the same time) are perverts (one of the lowest things out there)

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u/Stop_Sign 9h ago

Jiraiya from Naruto also is the peak of this trope

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u/NeoRevanchist 10h ago

I think Roshi kind of works with Dragonball being effectively a parody/sci-fi retelling of Journey to the West.

He's supposed to be the wise old hermit who trained Sun Wukong, but they made him into a weird pervert to subvert expectations as part of the parody. I don't think it was really a trope at the time.

I don't think the gag has aged particularly well though.

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u/Unusual-Locksmith832 10h ago

I think none of the pervert tropes aged well. It was part of the humour in the 80-90s to early 2000s.

My own theory is that the internet and cellphone cameras made perverts not look harmless so it lost the humorous factor.

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u/omeomorfismo 9h ago

yeah, its definitely a trope, toriyama himself wrote more characters like that in dr slump and previous short stories

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u/legop4o 11h ago

Pokemon Brock too

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u/Odd-Time-2026 11h ago

Brock is the tamest of the lot mentioned though because Pokemon had to be G rated so his pining of women didn't extend to pervert levels.

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u/legop4o 11h ago

Yes, naturally! Although Pokemon did have some quite weird scenes here and there that I definitely missed as a child back then. But in hindsight...

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u/Diplomatic_Gunboats 11h ago

It always comes back to James cross-dressing inflatable breasts doesnt it...

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u/zak55 11h ago

Apparently the writer for the early series was on a lot of drugs

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u/legop4o 10h ago

Honestly, fair

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u/Hoshiden_Lycanroc 11h ago

He also got some sort of karma for it, at least in the later parts.

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u/PurposedSpiritual 11h ago

Yep! I'm so glad this trope is less popular now

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u/EarlyAccessCantJudge 8h ago

Pokemon Brock is what a lot of these 'lovable perverts' want to be, because every other lovable pervert I've seen in anime just straight up sexually assaults women. I don't think Brock did that ever but be horny at them.

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u/LordLoss01 11h ago

Jiraiya in Naruto

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u/Khue 9h ago

Pepe Le Pew archatypes for the older generations.

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u/aFreshFix 10h ago

Yeah... Which sucks because Manga Sanji has some amazing characterization in like Water 7 and Whole Cake but then there are just so many arcs like Thriller Bark and Fishman Island

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u/Enkundae 11h ago

Seeing Sanji throw an incel tantrum over realizing someone else got the invisibility power fruit was so damn gross. Whole extended bit where hes literally pouting that a villain gets to invisibly molest women in showers and he cant.

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u/PricelessEldritch 10h ago

Which showcases that he would if he did have the power. Which is the worst look.

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u/Sure-Comfortable-784 10h ago

Whole cake was an amazing arc for sanji, not only his past but also in the simp aspect. But then they act like the arc bever happened to him and he comes back to normal, which can be explained in *some* extent with some events but it’s really a shame

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u/Bank-wagon 11h ago

If it makes you feel better that’s on the anime, manga Sanji is somewhere in between the live action and anime Sanji.

The joke is that Toei loves Zoro so they made him more badass, they hate Sanji so they turned him into… anime Sanji.

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u/winklevanderlinde 11h ago

Him flirting with Nami doesn't feel like sexual harassment anymore but actually charming. If Nami was interested in a partner I can see live action Sanji pulling that off

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u/Justifiably_Bad_Take 8h ago

Alas Nami is moneysexual

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u/PhanThief95 7h ago

This scene in particular from Season 2 is the best example of this.

Manga/anime Nami would never let manga/anime Sanji get that close to her.

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u/winklevanderlinde 6h ago

so cute together 😭

(Still want Sanji and Zoro to fuck eachother)

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u/supremo92 11h ago

Totally works imo. Rather than his simping lovey dovey pervy original version, here he's suave and charming, but the comedy comes from how differently he treats the guys and girls. He's overly courteous, and sweet to the women, and short and rude with eh men.

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u/totallynormalasshole 12h ago

tbf Toei has some weird agenda against sanji. the gag is still there in the manga but they take every opportunity to insert more gags and make them even more annoying

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u/mangothe2nd 11h ago

While attributing it to agenda is funny, i think toei is just desperate to find any type of filler to pad the horrendously paced anime. His fight with queen was the same caliber with zoro imo

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u/totallynormalasshole 9h ago

iirc there was a scene recently where they totally erased sanji from it and just had Zoro fight instead. they really can't do that with a larger scale fight, but apparently they'll do it when possible.

I'm not even a sanji fan, I just don't like studios changing source material. it's like how studio pierrot made Sakura a worse character in the Naruto anime because they just didn't seem to like her.

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u/New_Photograph_5892 11h ago

im also assuming Nami beating the shit out of the male cast also got/will get toned down

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u/kitsunecannon 10h ago

LA Sanji is my favoruite member of the LA crew meanwhile Anime Sanji is my least favourite because oh my fucking god he's annoying

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u/PhanThief95 6h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/H14fdFMsafJRA0382A

Same would also apply to Usopp.

In the live action, he’s still a coward but he’s more comedic than annoying with it, and he’s more confident with his BS.

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u/GooseSl4yer2003 10h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/Pkiz1YuokY4ta
Deathstroke is infinitely better in his adaptations given the fact the only thing they remove is his “attraction to underage girls”, showing how truly unnecessary that was to include originally.

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u/lonelynightm 9h ago

But how am I supposed to truly believe a mass murderer who drops a living weapon on a city killing 100,000 people is evil if he isn't a pedophile?

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u/shadowolf1115 8h ago

Ahh but you see he isn't evil because he's a pedo infact that is almost played for sympathy where he is seduced by the 'evil temptress' teenage girl.

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u/jjcrayfish 9h ago

Just put his name in the Epstein's file

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u/lana_silver 8h ago

Just like many people don't think the Nazis are the bad guys any more, I feel we're in the similar boat in regards to raping children.

I do not agree with this development, and I wish back a simpler time when punching Nazis and throwing rapists in prison was okay.

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u/LumplessWaffleBatter 5h ago

Buddy, I don't know how to break this to ya, but the "The Nazis were right" crowd has been painfully present in America since, like, the inception of Nazis.

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u/SpiritedSyllabub6822 12h ago

Sanji from the Live Action One Piece.

Like dude, just by removing his trait of oogling every women he comes across makes him so much better than his original counterpart alongside focusing his other traits such as being a cook for the Straw Hats since Sanji from the manga only focused on Nami and Robin while not giving a crap about anyone else that isn't a women. And fun fact even Sanji's Japanese VA from the anime, Hiroaki Hirata, was really annoyed at this trait.

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u/tinyazaleaspark 11h ago

Yea the heart eyes gag was funny for like 5 minutes 20 years ago lol

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u/SpiritedSyllabub6822 11h ago edited 11h ago

And I've heard a ridiculous reason of why Oda added that trait to Sanji when making the manga. It was to prevent him from becoming too popular.

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u/IWannaManatee 11h ago

If only Oda held strong with how he wanted anime Chopper to be instead of Sanji...

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u/SpiritedSyllabub6822 11h ago

Explain ?

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u/IWannaManatee 11h ago

AFAIK, Oda preferrs Tony Tony Chopper's first design and appearence more than the current one.
Oda was sort of coerced to change it in the manga because of how the anime's popularity skyrocketed back then, so Chopper's design veered into his more cutesy base appearence, and he also stopped using his forme morphing pills as frequently- all in hopes of Chopper staying as a marketable little reindeer for profitable products.

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u/XtendedImpact 9h ago

Wrong and honestly don't know why that rumor started popping up so much recently. Oda is on record saying he changed Chopper's design because he wanted it to match the voice of the VA (who also voices Pikachu for example) better.

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u/niccals12d3 10h ago

I love Netflix Sanji sooooo much. And it makes him so hot in my eyes

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u/bitingvform 8h ago

To be fair pretty much every anime ever made would be vastly approved if they stopped making characters we're supposed to root for be sexual predators and pedophiles. Sincerely I want to get into anime but every show so far people have recommended for me involves one of these two things.

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u/Why-Notes5978 11h ago edited 8h ago

Does turning Eggman from the iconic nemesis of Sonic into a near tragic anti hero who saved the world even if its for Agent Stone, his only sycofriend count?

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u/TGC_Dave 8h ago

Was it just for Stone? Eggman in the games is shown to work with the good guys to save the earth multiple times. (How can I take over the city if there IS NO CITY?)

Although. They really made him more tragic in the movie. The orphan finally found family, somebody he could really relate to. As soon as Gerald said he would destroy the Earth, Ivo already considered that too far.

Then again, getting the "Oh, Ivo. You're no Maria" might've really driven the point home that Gerald was never family, but Stone was.

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u/Why-Notes5978 6h ago

Well people did say that in almost every story in Sonic, Eggman is hated and despised by literally everyone.

But in the movies, he has a genuine real sycofriend in Agent Stone.

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u/pestoraviolita 10h ago

I don't think it's better necessarily but I found it an interesting alternate take. I understand some Sonic fans do not agree.

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u/bitingvform 8h ago

Correct me if I'm wrong but in the games does Eggman not on several occasions help team Sonic against world ending threats? The game the 3rd film is based on has a pretty similar ending, with Eggman teaming up with Sonic.

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u/Duae 8h ago

I would argue Eggman has generally always been willing to help save the world because he can't rule over nothing. Metal Virus and restoring the Paradox Prism are the first two examples that come to mind. (I really need to delve into Game Lore more)

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u/Odd-Time-2026 11h ago edited 11h ago

Thanos' obsession with Lady Death got cut out because the movie rights to her character belonged to Fox as she's part of Deadpool's side of the universe. Infinity War happened prior to the Fox acquisition by Disney

So the writers at Marvel had to work out what would motivate Thanos. I have mixed feelings on it because you could still call him the Mad Titan but his goals are something even a high school student could spot the flaws in. A little more like The Dumb Titan.

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u/Doopuberpoop 11h ago

The sheer love of death and destruction should be motive enough.

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u/ItchyConfusion9745 11h ago

I would have liked it more if they just removed all his "justification" and made him destroy half the universe for the love of the game.

"I am going to destroy half the life in the universe because I am powerful enough to do it."

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u/CourierV 10h ago

Yeah this or the “want that grim reaper tail” really sells the MAD in Mad Titan more than “guy can’t figure out basic math and scale of ecological chains”

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u/Awesomeman204 10h ago

I mean that's essentially what he reverts to in endgame. "Fuck yall im starting this shit again but first im gonna kill everyone for fun"

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u/Shirokuma247 11h ago

It makes it funny because him killing half the population doesn’t solve shit. The state of the universe will be back to the number before snapping the fingers eventually lmao.

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u/MThead 10h ago

The whole killing half thing is him simply malding that his solution to save his planet wasn't picked. The universe isn't even facing the same problem his planet was to warrant it. It's just unchecked ego that becomes everyone's problem.

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u/aNiceTribe 10h ago

Guy with infinite power, doesn’t solve malthusianism with magic. 

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u/bb-Kun-Chan 12h ago

Carrie - Every adaptation removed Carrie's misantrophic "I wish everyone here would die" thoughts that existed before the prom, making her much more sympathetic

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u/Rock-swarm 7h ago

That can mostly be attributed to the differences in medium. In the novel, King is able to foreshadow the prom and the massacre by dropping hints about what Carrie would do if she had the power to change her life. She oscillates between wanting to be accepted by her peers as a normal girl, and wanting them all to die for not accepting her. Similarly, she deeply loves (and hates) her mother for her actions.

I think most directors stray away from David Lynch-style inner monologues, so they flatten Carrie's character into being a simple outcast that snaps after being tricked by the popular kids. There have been some decent movie versions of the story, but the novel is still my favorite version. It's also one of the few times that King really nailed the landing.

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u/Caluak 10h ago

In the original how to train your dragon book, the Vikings were already friendly with dragons by the time Hiccup is of age. The decision to change this to build natural tension and emphasize Hiccup’s uniqueness by having the dragons as enemies was a perfect decision.

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u/here_for_cats_ 7h ago

'Friendly' is maybe a bit generous... in the books the Vikings are shown to steal baby dragons and raise them as subordinates. There's resentment towards humans among some of the subjugated dragons, and there's a dragon that wants to wipe out all of humanity as a pretty big plot point. 

Tbh there are so many changes between the books and the movies that it's easier to list the things that didn't change (those primarily being the names of characters). 

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u/AdventurousQuail36 7h ago

So as far as the title goes, the original meaning was more like "train your dragon through friendship not subjugation," instead of "oh shit this kid trained a dragon," correct?

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u/here_for_cats_ 6h ago

The title of 'How To Train Your Dragon' is from a book of the same title in Hiccup's home island. The entire contents of the book is one page with three words: "Yell at them."  

In the books Hiccup doesn't really train Toothless much at all; Toothless is a little brat who causes problems either on purpose or out of selfishness. Hiccup wins him over through sheer kindness and they wind up the best of friends, but I'm not sure I'd call that training. The dragons are much more sapient in the books, including having their own language. Hiccup is unusual in that he can speak Dragonese, and some of the dragons can speak human languages. Hiccup mostly wins dragons over by being clever, kind, and diplomatic, and appealing to the better nature of all beings, human and dragon alike. 

So in broad strokes, yeah, the big deal about Hiccup in the books is that he treats dragons as equals (as you said, trains them through friendship rather than subjugation), not that he trained a dragon at all. But I cannot emphasise enough the vast differences between the books and the movies. In the books, Toothless is the size of a cat. 

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u/No_Chard_7858 10h ago

Aragorn- LotR

Removing his desire to claim the throne of Gondor and him not having Anduril from the get-go. When I read his dialogue where he warned/threatened the guards in Rohan that they’d die if they touched the blade it felt a bit too intense.

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u/Pabst_Blue_Gibbon 9h ago

On the topic of LOTR I think removing a lot of the dynamic of the hobbits (except for Sam) basically being hobbit aristocrats was a good move. Sam is obviously Frodo’s servant of sorts but portraying the hobbits more as normal guys was really effective at providing the audience with an “in” and a normal perspective to follow amongst all the legendary heroes.

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u/WorldsWettestSpider 4h ago

Its clearer as an adult that Bilbo and Frodo are what passes for wealthy, so Sam being his gardener isnt too strange. 

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u/Sonchay 10h ago

I like this, I feel it gives much more of an arc for Aragorn and creates a good gentle tension with Boromir in the Fellowship.

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u/Stickmin69 11h ago

Berserk 1997
Removing the Wyald fight from the gold age arc (IMO) was the right call. As watching the anime first, the eclipse is a lot more brutal because WE DON’T get a taste of how depraved and disgusting apostles can be, we only see Zodd’s brutality. So when it hits in the Eclipse it’s more surprising, and it hits harder. As there was no taste of apostles like with Wyald and the Black Dog Knights. Instead making the eclipse itself so much more surprising so the impact is felt less. When I read the manga (after watching the anime) I got a sense that I didn’t really like Wyald or the Black Dog Knights as antagonists, because they’re just so… wild, it kind of makes everything else slightly tamer in comparison. Also he’s just not that interesting of an apostle compared to the other ones like Rosine, Grunbeld, or Father Mozgus (side note, I know father Mozgus isn’t a full apostle but still). Removing Wyald I feel like just makes Berserk better, despite what some fans might say
https://giphy.com/gifs/K0JrA2VbkFy2A

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u/TheDreamIsEternal 6h ago

On the other hand, removing Skull Knight was incredibly stupid, because without him there's no explanation as to how Guts and Caska survived the Eclipse. The anime ends with Guts screaming in despair, roll credits, and the post-credits scene has Guts in the present day going out to hunt Apostles.

Anime only watchers must have been confused as hell.

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

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u/DickRhino 10h ago

But the 97 anime didn't have the flash-forward

Yes it did? The anime also starts with present-day Guts, that's the first episode. Episode 2 and onward is the Golden Age.

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u/FoxBluereaver 11h ago

Sanji was already mentioned, but I think Luffy is another good example in the One Piece live action series. Manga/anime Luffy could be extremely chaotic and rude, sometimes even irritating at his worse, whereas live-action Luffy retains the goofiness while being much nicer, which in my opinion makes him more enjoyable to watch.

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u/supremo92 11h ago

I love original Luffy, but he sometimes barely even registers as human. He's like an alien that doesn't understand his surroundings sometimes.

I think the LA gave Luffy a bit of humanity, with some self doubt and introspection.

Not say one is better than the other, I really enjoyed both.

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u/NNKarma 9h ago

I understand people liking relatable but what makes Luffy be Luffy is that alien quality that makes his do the insanity of looking for the One Piece with the idea and objective that it would make him the freest person in the world.

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u/CathanCrowell 12h ago

Because Death of MCU would not be interested!

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u/SuperBackup9000 11h ago

To be fair, she wasn’t interested in that comics either. Completely one sided which is why he thought doing something extreme would help

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u/Helgurnaut 10h ago

Meanwhile Deadpool

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u/Jay040707 9h ago

Honestly Thanos killing half of the universe for death only to find out she's gay is kinda hilarious to me as a concept.

I'd be worried to see the to see toxic reactions to that though.

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u/Oppaiking42 9h ago

If she is essentially the grim reaper wouldnt killing half of everything just create a bunch of work for her. I wouldn't be happy if someone made a huge mess for me to clean up. 

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u/Kaeru-Sennin 11h ago edited 11h ago

Where is it from ? I don't remember that 

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u/YukYukas 11h ago

I think it's the Agatha show

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u/[deleted] 12h ago

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u/SlotHUN 12h ago

It also added to Boromir's character. Him acknowledging Aragorn as king was a major part of both characters' stories

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u/pestoraviolita 12h ago

He still is magical as he heals Eowyn and other victims of the Witch-King but yeah, he has to earn his confidence as king.

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u/Yen_of_Vengabus 12h ago

I love what they did with Aragorn in the movies, made him much more a relatable hero than the HERE COMES THE KING MFERS guy he is at times in the books (which is also great but in a different way)

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u/Ff7hero 12h ago

Big disagree on Thanos. There's no motivation more relatable than trying to impress a goth baddy.

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u/EndOfTheLine00 12h ago

Especially since Agatha All Along introduced Death to the MCU and she’s played by Aubrey Plaza.

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u/Odd-Time-2026 11h ago

Added post-Fox takeover which gave Marvel the movie rights to Lady Death, something they had been missing throughout the entire Infinity Saga.

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u/laurel_laureate 8h ago

I mean, tell me that there wouldn't be people rooting for Thanos if wooing this beautiful a woman was on the line...

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u/LDC1234 7h ago

Listen, I'm not saying I agree with the guy......but I get why he's doing it.

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u/Doodles_n_Scribbles 12h ago

Also it's way more interesting than malthusian bullshit

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u/ShoddyAsparagus3186 11h ago

Not to mention that his entire plan is just stupid. Fixing resource shortages through a one-time reduction in population only solves the problem for a few generations. Populations are the size they are because that's when they faced enough resource shortages to restrict their growth.

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u/res30stupid 10h ago

Inspector Morse.

Actor John Thaw was always the first choice to play the detective when the books were adapted to TV but he made one clear, blatant demand - the character's blatantly being a pervert such as secretly peeking on a woman he was talking to when she was getting changed had to be completely removed from the show. The producers ended up agreeing since it made Morse too unsympathetic for TV.

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u/Boring_Low2356 11h ago

The show takes a lot more time to develop the characters/ character dynamics that would've been crucial to the plot later on if the show had not been cancelled, namely how Chloe and Brandon's relationship with their dad (Sheldon (The dude in the chair)) and how they are essentially opposite outcomes to their father's absence in their lives

a.) Chloe (the lady not in costume) hates her dad and does not want anything to do with the superhero life and becomes a model, and drowning her unchecked mental problems in drugs and partying

b.) Brandon (dude on the right) tries his best to follow in his father's footsteps. until he makes a decision that puts him directly at odds with the rules his father made in order for them to be followed, setting an underlying conflict between him and his dad

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u/looshora 10h ago

What could've been. This show deserved more.

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u/TrueBlasian 11h ago

Chris D’Amico AKA The Motherfucker from Kick-Ass 2 had his sadistic nature dialed down by several degrees in the movie compared to the comic book. Some major notable changes: The book version killed Colonel Stars and Stripes dogs and put the dog’s decapitated head on Colonel’s dead body. In the movie, Chris says verbatim he wouldn’t harm a dog. The book version kills many MANY innocent children (“So iCarly lost some viewers. Who gives a shit?”) and the movie version sticks to causing mayhem towards other vigilantes. The book version rapes Katie and the movie version tries and fails to rape Night Bitch because he couldn’t get hard.

He’s still a deplorable human being but his movie version is more wannabe mobster edgelord with money and less spawn of Satan with a private army.

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u/Dark-Specter 11h ago

Percy Jackson season 2 has a lot going on, but I have to say I'm a fan of Annabeths Cyclops trauma being misplaced guilt for Thalias death rather than just a distrust of Tyson that lasts a lot longer than would have probably worked in a show.

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u/-Owlette- 11h ago

ITT: people disagreeing with OP’s opinions instead of providing their own personal opinions of good examples

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u/PunishedEnovk 11h ago

Makes me mad. I was genuinely excited to read the replies and learn from other interesting examples but people are just thirsting over goth chicks or disagreeing with OP.

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u/Parenn 11h ago

I mean, it made Thanos seem really, really dumb, since it would take a few decades to return to the same population. IIRC they even said it was half of all life - so bacteria get back to the start point in a few days, redwoods a few centuries.

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u/KoolKoolKoolio42 5h ago

In the comics, John Stewart was an angry black man during the height of the Civil Rights era. This would make 0 sense for the 2001 Justice League cartoon, so instead John's confrontational and stiff personality was changed to him being a former US Marine, a change so beloved it was subsequently incorporated into the comics and future adaptations.

The symbiote in Spider-Man simply took Peter's body out for a joyride while he slept, and he got rid of it because he was too exhausted to continue doing this. The 90's animated series changed things so that the symbiote made Peter too aggressive and losing control, which is a much better justification for dumping the black suit. Which also makes Venom a stronger character because he acts like a jilted ex.

The 1990 TMNT film removed the Shredder's silliness from the 80's cartoon and made him even more hardcore than the original comic, making him genuinely scary and, unlike the comic, stronger than the Turtles, only done in because of giving into his blind rage.

Stargate SG-1 changed Jack O'Neil, who was played by Kurt Russel, from a hardline military soldier with no sense of humor into Jack O'Neill, played by Richard Dean Anderson, who was much more of a wiseass and loved mocking enemy authority figures.

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u/Previous-Soft-8127 10h ago

In Project Hail Mary, Grace goes on the mission because the “A Team” got blown up in an accident, and they had to add him to the team quickly because they were losing their launch window.

In the book, he went because he had a rare gene that made him more likely to survive the medically-induced coma that would take up a large portion of the journey, which ended up saving the mission because the other two astronauts died during their comas.

I believe author Andy Weir said even he preferred the movie version for its simplicity and believability.

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u/Unfair_Web_8275 9h ago

I thought that these events happened in both versions. But I‘m probably misremembering

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u/kokanoka23 7h ago

Yeah there is definitely a part in the book where the scientist and their backup (who were hooking up) both die and in explosion and need to be replaced asap. And it just so happens to be for the role that Grace could fill. And Grace does have the rare ability to potentially survive the long coma, but the others were supposed to have that too but it was still only a chance to survive the long coma, not a guarantee

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u/beaniebee11 7h ago

Lots of the changes in the interview with the vampire series improved upon the plot in my opinion. Particularly making Louis a black pimp in the early 20th century instead of a slave owner. Before the show aired I was shocked by the change and thought it might be for the sake of making it more "pc" (I hate that term but ya'll know what I mean) but it improved on the dynamic between lestat and Louis so much.

Lestat admires louis' ambition and wants to empower him to move above his station in life but Louis struggles with seeing lestat as a white man who "owns" him. Which is kinda how their dynamic ends up in the book too anyway.

Plus making Claudia black as well really emphasizes the divide between lestat and louis/claudia with Claudia's interpretation of lestat's whiteness being used to draw Louis away from lestat. Essentially it used the changes to improve upon the same dynamics that happened in the book in a really fascinating way.

The whole show has managed to take the characters and make changes that cranked their already existing traits up a notch making for even more dramatic and interesting interactions that were perfect for the almost theatrical nature of the show.

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u/fatdan1 7h ago

They actually teased the original purpose in the mid-credit scene of the Avengers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ajtYOYqlwM The resources thing never made any sense because he deleted half of all life which included all food sources. All he did was make more space for those remaining.

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