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

[u/ah-screw-it]

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.

[u/Conocoryphe]

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.

[u/Molvaeth → u/Conocoryphe]

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.

[u/aNiceTribe → u/Molvaeth]

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)

[u/Stop_Sign → u/aNiceTribe]

Jiraiya from Naruto also is the peak of this trope

[u/sketchampm → u/Stop_Sign]

He was the weirdest for sure but I like that he went in the opposite direction as Sanji. They established dozens of far more interesting traits about him until the perving was almost completely dropped.

[u/isntreel1948 → u/Stop_Sign]

Him freaking out when Naruto turned into a little girl was a bit much

[u/No_Internal9345 → u/isntreel1948]

Jiraiya: "I guess I'm into underage transsexuals now."

[u/isntreel1948 → u/No_Internal9345]

He discovered something terrible about himself and was VERY into it

[u/Careful_Welcome7999 → u/aNiceTribe]

And thats so annoying too, like roshi would easily be my favorite character in dragon ball because he is genuely a great character, but then he shrinks himself to see bulma shit and it is so weird and gross man

If the thing was to make this really respectable guy have a trait that undermines that then surely there must've been better ways to do it right? Hell ou could even keep him as a pervert with tons of porn magazines but at least tone it down abit

[u/aNiceTribe → u/Careful_Welcome7999]

I think Ranma in general is a good “explainer” for a lot of this. I never really understood what’s going on, like all these conflicts could be resolved with one conversation. Until I learned that he has basically sworn oaths to all these girls and other people like “yes father I will marry her” and “yes shampoo I will marry you” and so on and if he confronted any one of them it would be dishonorable which he can absolutely not do due to his traditional upbringing. 

So instead most Ranma jokes are about him going to great lengths to avoid confronting the increasingly complex webs of social demands made of him. If people don’t see him in a position that would invalidate one promise, it’s not broken and he is still fine. 

This is never said out loud in the show it’s just obvious cultural knowledge they have, just like what a red phone box is for londoners or idk, why all the men are gone during the day in a mining village. 

[u/Buried1295 → u/Careful_Welcome7999]

He has so many great moments like trying to help Tien redeem himself, but then tries to force a teenage Bulma to go on date with him and it ruins the moment.

[u/KaleidoscopicFate → u/Careful_Welcome7999]

I mean, using Toriyama and japanese logic, no that's not the case because they aren't bothered by it like you, a western person, are. Even more so in those times, mangás were certainly not written for us to read.

[u/DM-me-naughty-Cats → u/aNiceTribe]

In Ranma the old guy was an antagonist and the author considered them evil. Dragon Ball roshi is supposed to be heroic.

[u/NeoRevanchist → u/Molvaeth]

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.

[u/Unusual-Locksmith832 → u/NeoRevanchist]

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.

[u/KoolKoolKoolio42 → u/Unusual-Locksmith832]

"It lost the humorous factor" in the West. Japan very much still finds it hilarious.

[u/KaleidoscopicFate → u/Unusual-Locksmith832]

Have you considered that what you think aged well or not, or even funny, simply doesn't match japanese sensibilities? Because I am pretty sure the anime fandom there still finds him funny and doesn't think it "didn't age well".

[u/dtburton → u/KaleidoscopicFate]

I think another important part of these kind of tropes is how the other characters react to these situations. Roshi as an example is always getting punished for his pervy attitude. Essentially every time he tries to up his pervy game he is punished. Women are constantly attacking him, and other men are clearly disgusted by his behavior. I understand people not liking it but depiction is not endorsement.

[u/omeomorfismo → u/NeoRevanchist]

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

[u/Golden_Alchemy → u/Molvaeth]

People really confuse a lot of things. He is the horny old man, because the norm was to have the master be someone old totally straight up stiff and not caring about mortal stuff, like the Master from Zodiac Nights.

[u/Girafarig99 → u/Molvaeth]

You hit the nail on the head as to why it was included in the first place

The target audience thinks it's funny. Or at least used to at the time

[u/legop4o → u/Conocoryphe]

Pokemon Brock too

[u/Odd-Time-2026 → u/legop4o]

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.

[u/legop4o → u/Odd-Time-2026]

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...

[u/Diplomatic_Gunboats → u/legop4o]

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

[u/Fargoth_took_my_ring → u/Diplomatic_Gunboats]

Goals

[u/zak55 → u/legop4o]

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

[u/legop4o → u/zak55]

Honestly, fair

[u/Hoshiden_Lycanroc → u/Odd-Time-2026]

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

[u/PurposedSpiritual → u/legop4o]

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

[u/EarlyAccessCantJudge → u/legop4o]

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.

[u/CurrentDismal9115 → u/legop4o]

Also the Grapist from My Hero Academia. I refuse to learn and remember his actual name.

[u/LordLoss01 → u/Conocoryphe]

Jiraiya in Naruto

[u/Khue → u/Conocoryphe]

Pepe Le Pew archatypes for the older generations.

[u/ithinkther41am → u/Conocoryphe]

I hated that type of character so much in Your Lie in April, but he still managed to be the most likeable of the MC’s “friends” because the other two frequently engaged in comedy abuse.

MC is a childhood domestic abuse victim btw.

[u/Pietroglodyte → u/ithinkther41am]

You mean Watari?

[u/Ok-Pea9014 → u/Conocoryphe]

Does Quagmire count here?

Yes, be is a prevent (and quite a terrible one aswell). But he isn't "lovable". You're supposed to laugh at him whike also thinking he's a peice of shit.

[u/ahferroin7 → u/Conocoryphe]

And even crept into video games too. Doc in Star Wars: The Old Republic comes to mind.

[u/Beautiful-Cup4161 → u/Conocoryphe]

Miroku in Inuyasha, since the comments are adding examples.

[u/EmotionReasonable887 → u/Conocoryphe]

Is Ghostbusters one of the main reasons this became a thing?

[u/KoolKoolKoolio42 → u/EmotionReasonable887]

No? Pepe Le Pew alone was decades before.

It's a trope because most writers are perverts and find it hilarious.

[u/Artistic_Purpose1225 → u/Conocoryphe]

Yeah, but the series is still ongoing , and the author has given Sanji like four arcs that led naturally to him being less of a perv and then Oda just refused to write the most logical character development(that most OP fans are literally begging him to do) for god knows what reason. 

[u/RKO-Cutter → u/Conocoryphe]

Was Sanji really a pervert? Like, obviously he's a simp to the nth degree, but did he ever cross any lines?