History Main / AdaptationalHeroism

* ''Webcomic/BatmanWayneFamilyAdventures'': Red Hood is a murderous vigilante in the comic books, but in the webcomic he's a much nicer JerkWithAHeartOfGold who's still friends with the rest of the Batman Family and still follows Batman's ThouShallNotKill rule.

->''"Yup, the comic and movie are pretty much identical -- as long as you cut out all the 'I make this look good"s and "It just be rainin' black people in New York!"s and replace them with a whole bunch of murder."''

-->--''Website/{{Cracked}}'', [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-movies-that-got-source-materials-point-exactly-wrong/#ixzz30P6hR45A "4 Movies That Got the Source Material's Point Exactly Wrong,"]] about the ''Film/MenInBlack'' movie and the ''ComicBook/MenInBlack'' comicbook

* Fairly common in "Recut Trailers" on Website/YouTube. For example:

* ''Film/{{Heathers}}'': In the original, Veronica is an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist AntiHero, while J.D. is an AxCrazy [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] SerialKiller. In [[Theatre/{{Heathers}} the musical]], Veronica comes off more as a generally nice (if [[TheSnarkKnight snarky]]) girl who got in ''way'' over her head, and is too easily manipulated, and while J.D. is ''still'' a serial killer he's much less of a sociopath, and more of a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds that does genuinely care for Veronica. The musical also takes more time exploring the fact that J.D. [[BlueAndOrangeMorality isn't evil, exactly]].

* ''WebAnimation/{{Fanfictasia}}'': While still more violent and eager to kill than the heroes, all the villains basically renounce their evil ways after beating Oscar. Even Omnicidal Maniacs like Agent Smith, Ego and Thanos become friendly with their rivals afterwards. Voldemort is seen uncharacteristically laughing and celebrating with Harry Potter. In the sequel series, Hela is a detective and there haven't been any murders in eight years. Probably justified because, as it was established, none of them are the "real" characters but rather beings created in their likeness by Oscar, so it's safe to say they don't have faults as deep as their fictional movie character sources.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The original beastmen of ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' are irredeemable Chaos mutants who loathe mankind and shun technology. The Beastmen of ''40k'' are simply a product of evolution and can be loyal Imperial citizens if treated well.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''WebAnimation/DarkSecretsOfGarrysMod'': [[Videogame/HalfLife1 G-Man]] is AmbiguouslyEvil with [[BlueAndOrangeMorality varying degrees of morality]] in his source material. In this series however, he has the innocence of an immature child.
* ''WebAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls'' takes place in a high school for superhero trainees. Several villain characters are made into heroes, such as ComicBook/HarleyQuinn (who's simply a GenkiGirl here) and ComicBook/PoisonIvy (who's portrayed as a ShrinkingViolet). Being heroic doesn't make you nice though, as characters like Cheetah are bullies. Also, not only is Amanda Waller the head mistress, but Gorilla Grodd and Crazy Quilt are teachers.
* ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' due to [[HypotheticalFightDebate the nature of the show]], usually has the [[AdaptationalVillainy inverse]] of this with perfectly heroic and nice characters willingly to kill their opponents over minor disputes or for no reason at all, but ''[[Recap/DEATHBATTLES02E21IronManVSLexLuthor Iron Man Vs Lex Luthor]]'' has this in regard to Tony. His line ''"Being a god can't be that hard. I'm the most intelligent, capable person on the planet. I'm not playing god. All this time... I've been playing human"'' comes from ''ComicBook/SuperiorIronMan'' where Tony being a VillainProtagonist says it to Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} after curing his blindness without consent, showing how megolomania has gotten to him. In the context of the good vs evil Death Battle however, Tony says it during a HeroicSecondWind after SmugSnake Lex (thinking he's beaten Iron Man) [[EvilGloating gloats]] that ''he's'' the only human worthy of [[AGodAmI playing god]], the ''"I'm not playing god. All this time… I've been playing human"'' line instead comes off as a heroic ShutUpHannibal putting Luthor in his place.

* ''WebAnimation/HTFPlus'': [[spoiler:LG Creepybloom after her HeelFaceTurn]] in HTF+CC 2.

* ''Roleplay/ProjectionQuest'' has [[Literature/{{Worm}} Trainwreck]] never become a part of the Merchants, instead opting to join Taylor in her heroic group and eventually become second in command of the Oathbound.

* ''Roleplay/WeAreOurAvatars'': Although Tim Langdon was seen in a few scenes so far, he's ''much'' nicer than both Hiromu, his Sentai counterpart criticized for his serious characterization, and reboot!Dante. For the latter, [[WordOfGod arcadiarika]] states that she's trying to make him nothing like him and attempt to be closer personality-wise to [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry classic!Dante]].
* ''WebAnimation/ZsdavAdventures'': [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Maul]] appears as the [[Literature/AChristmasCarol ghost of Christmas present]] to teach Zsdav the true meaning of Christmas in ''[[YetAnotherChristmasCarol Karácsonyi külön kiadás]]'' (''Christmas special'').

** Paragus is given a much more sympathetic treatment than his canon counterpart. He's still an antagonist, still trying to kill Vegeta for something his father did and he did enslave a race of aliens. However, the Saiyan Prince's AdaptationalVillainy in the abridged series makes him more sympathetic in his attempts to murder him, and the aliens he enslaves [[HappinessInSlavery actually enjoy their situation]] because they're all [[Main/TooKinkyToTorture extreme masochistic]]. Moreover, the most heinous action of his canon counterpart (the havoc of the South Galaxy) is here clearly presented as a horrible accident and he didn't want to lure anyone other than Vegeta onto the doomed planet. Also unlike his canon counterpart, he has no ambitions of galactic conquest. Finally, he never even tried to brainwash his son Broly or use him as a weapon.

* [[Main/DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with Jack Noir in ''Webcomic/CoolAndNewWebComic''. He's still a stab-happy {{Jerkass}}, but he is genuinely willing to work with Rose to help her, and overall is more heroic than his ''Homestuck'' counterpart, who was an OmnicidalManiac hellbent on destroying everyone and everything.

* ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' due to [[HypotheticalFightDebate the nature of the show]], usually has the [[AdaptationalVillainy inverse]] of this with perfectly heroic and nice characters willingly to kill their opponents over minor disputes or for no reason at all, but ''[[Recap/DEATHBATTLES02E21IronManVSLexLuthor Iron Man Vs Lex Luthor]]'' has this in regard to Tony. His line ''"Being a god can't be that hard. I'm the most intelligent, capable person on the planet. I'm not playing god. All this time... I've been playing human"'' comes from ''ComicBook/SuperiorIronMan'' where Tony being a VillainProtagonist says it to Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} after curing his blindness without consent, showing how megolomania has gotten to him. In the context of the good vs evil Death Battle however, Tony says it during a HeroicSecondWind after SmugSnake Lex (thinking he's beaten Iron Man) [[EvilGloating gloats]] that ''he's'' the only human worthy of [[AGodIAm playing god]], the ''"I'm not playing god. All this time... I've been playing human"'' line instead comes off as a heroic ShutUpHannibal putting Luthor in his place.

** Mr. Satan is in this seat as well. In canon, he's a GloryHound who proclaimed himself the one who defeated Perfect Cell and really wasn't believing of what the Z Warriors could do until Buu showed up years later. In ''Abridged'', Cell's threat quickly changed his worldview, revealing his personality to be that of {{Kayfabe}} and he took to title of victor against Cell because Jimmy Firecracker let him know that the people were probably rioting at this point and they needed a hero, so he took it to calm them down.

--> "As I lay there, [[BrokenPedestal betrayed by the Lord I thought on my side]], [[ThenLetMeBeEvil made a Monster in His name]]: I swore I would not allow another Monster like myself to exist in this world!"

** Played with in the case of [[BigBad Akihiko Kayaba]]. The big difference between this Kayaba and his canon counterpart is that [[spoiler:the whole [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame "death game"]] scenario was the result of a GameBreakingBug and Kayaba was so loopy from sleep deprivation that he decided to pretend IMeantToDoThat and lock everyone in ''SAO''. By the time he recovered enough to realize what a horrible idea that was, thousands of players had died, so he intervened as a {{GMPC}} to try to get the rest through the game safely, to mixed results.]] When he meets with Kirito and Asuna after their final confrontation, Kayaba insists that he never actually meant for anyone to get hurt... which they take issue with.

* ''WebVideo/MyLittlePonyTheMentallyAdvancedSeries'': Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are upgraded from {{Alpha Bitch}}es to HarmlessVillain [[FriendlyEnemy Friendly Enemies]] with Apple Bloom. Diamond Tiara even hinted that someday she may hire Apple Bloom as her enforcer.