Adaptational Nice Guy in Fan Works.
Crossover
- All For Luz:
- Amity in the story is much nicer and less haughty than in the beginning of the show. This is due to fact she never ended her friendship with Willow and has a Quirk instead of magic.
- Surprisingly, Odalia, of all people, seems to be a much more better parent than her real life counterpart, caring for Amity’s mental health. She's also less concerned about money, as well. Its implied that this was due to her deal with All For One going wrong for her and her family that gave her a reality check.
- Downplayed with All For One. He claims he locked up his brother not out of cruelty, but to in a misguided attempt to protect him from the outside elements, due to his poor immune system. The supervillain was genuinely distraught when the La Résistance busted him not because he died not long afterwards, due to exposure to the elements and lack of blood clotting. He flat out admits to himself that he didn’t care about the power that claiming One For All would give him, only that it was his brother's Quirk. The self-proclaimed "Symbol Of Evil" also made a genuine effort to comfort Luz when she had an emotional breakdown after the Battle of Gravesfield and has demonstrated Even Evil Has Standards moments he expressed in the manga.
- Almost Psycho Chuck Chicken:
- Buford from Numb Chucks is a bitter person who doesn't like anyone except his crush Quills. However, in this fanfiction, he is still a jerk but cares for his new friends, Howie, Zack, and Chuck deep down. Meanwhile, Grandma Butternut, who isn't very nice to Buford, has more moments of caring about him in the story, even apologizing for being mean.
- Glargg from Space Chickens In Space is an evil jerk with a soft side, but here he shows he cares for the chickens and no longer pretends to dislike them.
- Amazing Fantasy: Peter suffered through many of the same pitfalls as Peter B. Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Despite being similarly bitter about how Comes Great Responsibility ran his life into the ground, he's far more mature, friendly, and open to the idea of mentoring Izuku. Part of this was pragmatism in hopes of getting a better place to stay in a country where he doesn't even speak the language. But this is also attributed to him being a father and seeking some solace while being a universe away from all of his friends and family.
- In The Amazing Spider-Luz in: Across the Owl-Verse!:
- Odalia is a downplayed version of this. She is much more accepting of Amity's friendship with Luz and even encourages Amity to learn new magic outside the bounds of the Coven system. Upon learning of Amity's crush on Luz, she actually encourages her daughter's feelings and is pleased to see the two of them get together, unlike in canon. However, her motivations are still selfish in nature, with her being accepting of Luz primarily because of her connections with Earth's superheroes and figuring out ways that connection could benefit her.
- Belos is a possible case of this. While the gist of his character remains the same (being a human named Philip Wittibane who came to the Isles 400 years ago and the current ruler of the Boiling Isles), his Fantastic Racism against witches and his Puritanical beliefs seem noticeably absent here, as while assuming that Luz is a human-witch hybrid, he openly expresses interest in seeing if this kind of hybrid can happen more often, a viewpoint that his canon counterpart would almost certainly never entertain. While it's possible that he's simply putting on appearances, a few scenes from his perspective when he's alone indicate that he genuinely worships the entity that he believes to be the Titan, unlike in canon where it was shown that he was outright lying about being the Voice of the Titan in order to manipulate the populace for his own ends. Most tellingly, one such section has him internally note that he hated having to release a deadly plague among the witches as a distraction so he could put up a barrier between the Demon Realm and Human Realm.
- Arisugawa's Locket
(Sailor Moon & Revolutionary Girl Utena): Haruka and Michiru are nicer, being best friends with Juri and being a lot nicer to the other Sailor Scouts such as taking Ami to the titular bar. - Avatar: Legend of Diamond Tiara: Silver always came off as less mean than Diamond, but here she's presented as a shy, sweet Nice Girl. It's subverted in the end, though.
- Avengers: Infinite Wars: While Peter Parker has bonded with the last Kylntar symbiote, the entity known in canon as "Venom" seems to be more benevolent than its traditional appearance so far. While Peter has been more expressive in his emotions, he hasn't become actively aggressive, and the symbiote shows no sign of its usual desire for control such as taking Peter out to fight crime in his sleep. On a personal level, it is also more open to Peter having others in his life, such as showing every sign of accepting Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee as Peter's "mates". At one point, on Peter's request, "Simby" briefly separates from him to follow the young alternate universe Spider-Man Miles Morales, temporarily bonding with Miles to protect him when the youngest Spider is attacked by the Prowler while on his own.
- BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant (BlazBlue & RWBY):
- Downplayed with Weiss. While she still has her early jerkass attitude, she's at least a little nicer towards Ruby, even showing sympathy for her despite them being on separate teams. She also lacks the original envy she had about not being selected as her team's leader, though that has more to do with Tsubaki, someone she grew up with and respects, being her leader more than anything else.
- Luna is much less of a brat than she was in the games, as a lot more focus is given to her love and care for her brother than her envy towards anyone close to Jubei.
- As Ragna explains when talking with Jaune, Jin helped in taking care of Saya whenever she got sick before he was adopted, making him much nicer than when he was a child in the games, where he was a Big Brother Bully towards her.
- Codex Equus:
- Golden Scepter is the complete opposite of his character inspiration, the Emperor of Mankind. The Emperor of Mankind was a very intelligent and well-meaning man, but was also a ruthless and hypocritical Jerkass who was a neglectful parent who more or less treated most of his Primarch sons like tools at best. Here, Golden Scepter became a genuinely nice guy and highly beloved ruler after realizing the full scope of his mistakes and becoming The Atoner, undertaking a long, arduous process of Character Development that allowed him to become much kinder.
- Meanwhile, many of Golden Scepter's sons became much kinder versions of the Emperor's Primarchs, as Golden Scepter Took a Level in Kindness that had a huge impact on how he raised his children after he decided to settle down.
- While Leman Russ was a good guy and completely loyal to his father, the Emperor of Mankind, he had an extremely combative and aggressive personality, and would come to blows with some of his brothers for not taking shit from them. He also acted like a Jerkass towards his brother, Magnus the Red, because of his deep hatred and distrust of psykers and Psychic Powers in general. Here, Fanged Paw, Russ's Codexverse counterpart, would still have an extremely strained relationship with Crimson Star, but would soon realize the error of his ways after taking his hatred too far and getting himself exiled from the Terran Empire as punishment. Once he achieved Character Development and his exile ended, Fanged Paw would come back an Alicorn and enjoy a happy (albeit vitriolic) relationship with Crimson Star after they reconciled as brothers.
- Magnus the Red was too, an Insufferable Genius who preferred to shift the blame on others instead of acknowledging his own flaws and mistakes, which is what partially and ultimately led to him turning to Chaos (among other things). Crimson Star, who was based on Magnus, was broken out of his behavior when he was completely blinded saving a classmate in a carriage accident, and ultimately became a heroic and benevolent character thanks to the positive influence of his friends and loved ones.
- Lorgar pre-Horus Heresy was a very altruistic, kind, and religiously devout man... but he also idolized the Emperor of Mankind and worshiped him as a god to excessive degrees. And at least one Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, described him as a Psychopathic Manchild whose volatile outbursts are akin to childish tantrums the moment someone offends him. Here, as Written Word, he has no such behavior, due to Golden Scepter being a good father and finding better ways to curb his son's nastier behavioral traits.
- Here, Prince Blueblood is a loving family man who cherishes the mares and stallions in his life, and a beloved war hero who never abandons his fellow soldiers. The unpleasant behavior he showed towards Rarity in canon is actually the result of a facade he put up to get around Canterlot's incompetently cruel and selfish nobility and protect himself from more heartache, after being pursued by ambitious socialites who only wanted him for his money, title, and power yet turned against him for being quite not what they wanted.
- A Divine (Romantic) Comedy (Hazbin Hotel and The Owl House):
- Downplayed with Mammon, as he's still a complete and utter jackass, but he's given a couple Pet the Dog moments regarding his efforts to try and help Lucifer out of his depression alongside the rest of the Sins.
- While Lucifer's ultimately a decent, loving father in the show, he was still highly neglectful of Charlie for most of it and didn't support her until she directly confronted him on how little he believed in her. Here, thanks to a combination of his budding romance with Camila bringing him out of his depression, coupled with being forced to see just how much his neglect and actions have hurt Charlie, he's able to start supporting his daughter much earlier than he did canonically. He still doesn't believe Sinners can change, but he pushes that aside for Charlie's sake.
- A Familiar Void (The Familiar of Zero & Hollow Knight): Louise's relationship with her familiar, the Knight, is much friendlier compared to her relationship with Saito from canon. While she's a bit harsh on the Knight at first, it takes a short amount of time for her to grow a heart on it, especially after she hears how the Knight (and its "sibling") were born, where she transitions to being a protective and caring Mama Bear towards them.
- Of Gemstones and Watches (Ben 10 & RWBY): Ben's nicer because it's Ruby and he wants to be friends with her, and because Gwen isn't around to antagonize him, this makes Ben nicer all around.
- Gwen is more like her reboot self in this story.
- Raven gets a big personality change; in the DC Comics, Raven insults Summer's name. Here? She confirms everything Ruby said was true, not even daring to drag her name through the mud.
- Sienna left this universe's version of the White Fang when Ghira stepped down, and joined the Plumbers with a number of other defectors, instead of leading the more extremist version of the group.
- Albedo gets a big one; He wishes to be a peacekeeper while being curious about Ben's choice to stay on earth is very different from his prime counterpart. Also, he's not outright hateful. Cool, calm, and collected, and almost resigned to his new base body. He also seems to genuinely be friends with Neo, having apparently learned ASL to communicate with her. He's also disgusted by Servantis's hypocrisy.
- Harbinger (Finmonster) (Danny Phantom & ParaNorman):
- Mitch. While he's already a nice guy in the film, here he seems to be fine with his brother Neil's friendship with Norman. He even tells Danny personally that he appreciated him saving Norman.
- Likewise, Courtney is nicer to her brother. She's also shown to be upset when everyone, including her boyfriend Dash, ridicules Norman.
- Also Ember McClain, though she qualifies more as Adaptational Heroism.
- I'm Nobody:
- Ashley doesn't exhibit any of the Fantastic Racism she does in canon.
- Wrex warms up to the crew much faster than in canon, probably because he has taken a liking to Roxas.
- In canon, at the point of his appearance in Chain of Memories (which is when this fic takes place), Axel was The Sociopath with a complete Lack of Empathy. Here however his characterization is a mix of the classic Nobody apathy and late Days or perhaps even Dream Drop Distance where he's far more compassionate and ready to defend his friends - he's certainly angsting much less than he does in any of the games, which has a positive impact on his behaviour. Then again, the Internal Reveal that everything Xemnas and Xigbar ever told the Organization was a total lie, and the fact that there's no backstabbing or Gambit Pileups in the Normandy may have a lot to do with Axel suddenly dropping his old manipulative tendencies and just being openly friendly.
- Lord of the Castle: Death proves this to be this. In canon, Death was a gluttonous mass murderer who fed on death, and wanted to bring back Dracula in a botched resurrection that would cause him to go insane and spread death on a scale unimagined. He's also much less polite, swearing like a sailor, and disrespecting anyone like gum on his shoe. By contrast, Death takes more after his game counterpart, and is a loyal ally to Dracula, genuinely wishing to bring him back to life and serve him. He's also far more polite and soft-spoken, and also has fond memories of raising Alucard as a child.
- The Marvelous World Of DC
- Steven Strange, prior to his car accident in Marvel canon, was a rude, haughty glory-obsessed doctor. Here, we learn that he crashed his own car by accidentally-released magic fueled by anger and guilt for botching an operation and costing a little girl her legs.
- John Constantine is a lot less manipulative and untrustworthy because of his friends in the BPRD. Still pretty vindictive against evil vampires, though.
- Norman Osborn appears to be a Benevolent Boss to his employees. He's even on first-name terms with Otto Octavius' wife. Sadly, he'll most likely ditch this after becoming the Green Goblin...
- Norman's son Harry is a devoted friend to Peter and his buddies, defending them from Flash Thompson's bullying.
- Otto Octavius himself is less of a misanthrope thanks to being Happily Married and having a friend in Victor Fries. Again, that's before he loses his wife and turns into Dr. Octopus...
- In recent DC and Marvel Comics, Zeus is not the friendliest of gods, certainly not with Thor. Here, he's entirely friendly towards Thor because he's his uncle, and the worst thing he does to a mortal is electrocute Stanley Ipkiss, and that's for a good reason.
- Apart from a few snide comments from The Spectre, Bigby Wolf and Frau Totenkinder's less-than-shiny deeds are never brought up. And because he's not being written by Bill Willingham, Bigby is less of a controversial political mouthpiece.
- Metastability: Agent Maine, thanks to having been merged with Jaune Arc, is much more personable, affable, warm, and goofier than he was in canon, and his protectiveness of his comrades is emphasized. He's still a violent brute who can be absurdly brutal to his enemies and has a My Country, Right or Wrong Mentality, but he doesn't come close to the levels of amorality and near sociopath his canon counterpart displayed.
- Mœbius has the parents of Nagisa who, unlike their canon selves, are not abusive or absent (mother and father respectively. The father in partiuclar was quite miserable in worry and despair when she was Charlotte and beyond overjoyed when she was found.
- My Hero Academia Marvel-verse: Bakugou. While in the main series he was a constant jerkass towards Izuku for being Quirkless to the point he told him to go kill himself because of it and continued to antagonize him after Izuku got One For All, here his Establishing Character Moment shows that he at least has standards. When his two lackeys mock Izuku for his dad dying and insinuate that his dad died because of him, he is openly enraged and threatens them to never mess with Izuku again. After he learns how Izuku got powers from a spider bite, he is also much friendlier to him to the point they become friends again.
- The New Spider of Tokyo (Persona & Spider-Man): Ichiryuusai Madarame in Persona 5 was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who exploited his protégés for his own benefit. In this fic, he's somewhere between a Punch-Clock Villain and an Anti-Villain, who uses the money he makes as the Vulture to care for and fund his protégés' work.
- The Parliament of Heroes:
- Rose Worth, who ends up settling down in Gravity Falls, finds herself enjoying her work as a gofer for the Mystery Shack and is overall much nicer than she is in the comics. Of course, when she's angered, she reminds people that she is the daughter of one of DC's most infamous assassins. That said, it's also zig-zagged due to this incarnation of Rose being more in line with her pre-Infinite Crisis version, where she was a much more put-together and stable babysitter to Lian Harper.
- A downplayed case with Wendy. While she was a Nice Gal in her home series, she did have moments where she grabbed the Jerkass Ball, such as in "Boss Mabel", where she takes advantage of Mabel's generosity to let her friends trash the shack and get a paid day off. In the thread's version of the episode, she's instead worried about killing everyone's fun and promises Mabel that she'll help clean their mess when they're done.
- Prehistoric Earth: Cynthia Night was largely an Alpha Bitch type of character who largely treated the majority of her fellow park staff with indifference at best and outright hostility or suspicion at worst. In subsequent Continuity Reboot Prehistoric Park Reimagined, on the other hand, her counterpart Cynthia Knightly largely treats the majority of the park staff with respect, makes a genuine (and ultimately successful) effort at befriending a character who'd ended up her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis in Prehistoric Earth despite initial hostilities towards him on their very first rescue mission together, and her reasons behind her less pleasant behaviors and actions in this story are considerably more understandable and sympathetic compared to the reasons behind her Prehistoric Earth counterpart's own negative (and arguably even less palatable) actions.
- "A Loud Among Demons" ("The Loud House" & "Helluva Boss")
- Loona becomes a better person by virtue of character devolpment. She's still the same character as she is in canon, but she acts nicer to Lincoln after she starts seeing him as a friend
- Can also be seen with Verosika Mayday and her crew. They aren’t exactly shown to be virtuous in canon. In the story, however, they not only do they manage to get along with Lincoln (after a while at least), Verosika and her girls eventually act genuinely sweet towards him when not trying to simply sleep with him.
- Rick and The Loud House (The Loud House & Rick and Morty):
- Rick is a highly Downplayed example. He remains the snarky and cynical Mad Scientist that he is in his respective show, but some of his more overtly negative traits are lessened. For example, Rick saves Lincoln from falling off a cliff, injects Lincoln with a serum that would negate the effects of the mega seeds dissolving in his butt, and admits that the whole love potion incident was partially his fault. None of which Rick does in the original show.
- Some of the Loud siblings also have some of their negative traits lessened as well, albeit by virtue of Character Development. Lori begins genuinely connecting with Lincoln more often, Luan vows to stop with the April Fools' Day pranks, Lola's anger and bratty demeanor slowly go away, and the siblings in general begin to treat Lucy with more respect.
- Roller Brawl: The Mega Cyborg:
- To some extent, Quick Man. While he still wants his duel with Mega Man here, he has some standards, as he wouldn't have destroyed Flash Man. In canon, he's the one who destroyed Flash Man via Quick Boomerang In the Back.
- Xander proves to be this. In canon, he was a violent madman with a pathological hatred of robots and their creators, deeming any losses to destroy them as acceptable. In the fanfic, Xander is a far more affable and well-intentioned person who genuinely wishes for as little harm as possible, and his desire to slow down advancement stems from the fear of the potential for further destruction and the harm wrought on innocent people. He also proves to be much more forgiving, accepting Elec Man and Dr. Light's apology for what they did to him, and makes a Heel–Face Turn when it becomes clear the Onyx Axes are far more violent than he ever intended.
- Similarly, Simone Miller is much nicer to robots than she was in canon, where she took great delight in tormenting the robots. Here, she is more affable, and when Suna electrocutes an innocent robot that was about to leave peacefully, calling out Suna and stating she wouldn't have done it, and turns against the Onyx Axes when Suna electrocutes one of her own men, happily working alongside Elec Man to take Suna down.
- The Superheroics of Haruhi Suzumiya: While retaining most of her canon personality traits, Haruhi Suzumiya is shown to be a lot friendlier to Izuku Midoriya than she was to Kyon early on in her canon series. It's implied that being born Quirkless and living in a world where superheroes are real somewhat curbed her attitude about humans being boring in general.
- Temporal Anomaly:
- Zero heavily downplays her canon self's violent and temperamental actions and behavior, coming across as a lot more pleasant and even friendly at times to those around her, especially towards those closest to her.
- Four's canon counterpart was a Never My Fault Knight Templar who had a severe case of Green-Eyed Monster towards her own sisters. Four in this story is more of a genuinely kind and considerate Proper Lady who is more than capable of recognizing and accepting the mistakes she makes and the flaws she possesses.
- Three in canon was an unethical and unempathetic Mad Scientist who gleefully experimented on her own citizens with no regrets and only cared about satisfying her curiosity. Three in this story has a very critical My God, What Have I Done? for her past actions, leading to her regaining her morals and sanity, becoming The Atoner in the process to try and make up for what she's done to the best of her abilities.
- Sasha and the Frogs: Sasha Waybright is noticeably nicer than her cartoon counterpart and is far more understanding by learning from her mistakes despite having her moments of being a jerk.
- A Moth to a Flame: The Core treats Marcy much better than in canon. However, The Core is acting as The Corruptor to Marcy, twisting her so that she wants to join them in their dimensional conquest. At the very least, they consider her smart enough to join them and is a direct descendent of some of the Mind Hive.
- Instead of grabbing her by the face as in canon, The Core takes her by the waist and cradles her gently into the seat. It went so far as to pet her on the head afterwards.
- The petulant self-centered aspects Canon Tobias sometimes shows when talking to Hork-Bajir are absent in Dæmorphing Tobias, as is Canon Tobias's rejection of the concept that there are innocent Yeerks. In general Daemorphing Tobias is less reserved, more pro-social, and willing to reach out to people of many species, probably because he's so much less isolated in this series. For that matter, all of the Animorphs and not just Cassie are more ready to see Yeerks as people.
- The Masks we Wear (JiggleWigs): Without her upbringing as a Fire Nation princess, Azula is much, much kinder. She still has an edge to her character but isn't as violent or malicious.
- The Stalking Zuko Series tones down some of Katara's more abrasive moments in the latter half of the third season. She's significantly less hostile toward Zuko after the latter's Heel–Face Turn since while she doesn't like or trust him at first, she gradually warms up to him over time. Her hostility toward him in "The Southern Raiders" is attributed to being angry with him for putting himself in danger during Azula's attack. Katara also regrets accusing Sokka of not loving their mother, a sentiment she didn't openly show in canon.
- King's Ransom, Queen Sacrifice: Because he didn't grow up in a Decadent Court with his uncle constantly throwing him in impossible political games to ruin his reputation, Laurent is significantly less frigid than he is in canon. Having a best friend in Ancel and a supportive Parental Substitute in the Maitresse ensures that while he is jaded and a little cynical, he isn't overly cruel and is willing to show his softer and playful side more often.
- Cross Ange The Knight Of Hilda: Hilda is depicted as being more heroic and selfless than in the canon series due to her storyline following a different path following Rio's rescue of her from the Mana police (meeting humans who are genuinely sympathetic to Norma, seeing Ange incarcerated by her family, partaking in Ange's rescue, being less antagonistic towards Tusk as they're not competitors for Ange's affections, choosing to return to Arzenal of her own volition after seeing Rio getting punished by his allies for going against orders, being part of the journey to the DRAGONs' world, as well as her growing feelings for Rio).
- Daughter of Fire and Steel: Lex Luthor is still an antagonist, but his reasons for opposing Superman are far more noble and sympathetic here than in either the comics or Batman v. Superman. In this story, his sister, Lena, was one of the victims of Metropolis' destruction during Superman's fight with Zod, so Luthor wants revenge for her death and genuinely sees Superman as a threat to the world.
- The Day After You Saved the Multiverse: Superboy-Prime behaves like the innocent, kind boy he was in his first appearance instead of the psychotic, self-centered, hypocritical monster which Infinite Crisis turned him into.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
- What If I Know Too Many Reasons I Can Be Strong?: Muzan starts out as the same monster as his canon counterpart, not only killing most of Tanjiro's family in an attempt to make more demons but also taking his eye and arm away. However, Tanjiro nearly killing him and killing most of the Upper Ranks humble him enough that he lets go of Kokushibo and Akaza, the only remaining members of the entire Twelve Kizuki, and thanks them for serving him for a long time.
- Give In, Give In [and Relish Every Minute of It] (The Hunchback of Notre Dame): In this modern AU fic, Frollo is still a conservative man who lusts for Esmeralda, but he isn't racist towards her. He also waits for her consent instead of trying to force himself onto her, making their relationship full of Belligerent Sexual Tension instead.
- Dear Journal: I'm Crazy: Judy is a lot nicer to her brother Doug than in the main series. Justified, as it's heavily implied that she was always nice to her brother, but he didn't realize that until he started the medication.
- Stars Fade
- In Dragon Age II canon, Anders is obsessively focused on mage liberation, often to the exclusion of virtually anything else — even when Justice isn't in the driver's seat. In Stars Fade, Anders' pro-mage zealotry is still present but toned down so that it isn't the sole focus of his dialog and character; instead, he's encountered mainly in his capacity as a healer, making him a much nicer character overall, as well as one of Shepard's first friends.
- Fenris is canonically a loner with extremely prejudiced views against mages due to his days as a slave in Tevinter, can only be convinced to reconsider his views in the endgame, and will not shut up about the evils of magic. In Stars Fade, Fenris is still prejudiced against mages and can still drop the odd jab against Anders, but he's convinced to keep the ranting to a minimum after Shepard loses patience with him. Plus, despite his traumas, he's a lot more social than his game counterpart, even seeking out Shepard post-"Night Terrors" and bonding with her over the horrors they've witnessed — something that his game counterpart would be too withdrawn and bitter to try. He even joins Hawke and Shepard at the Hanged Man for a game of cards!
- Ten Versus Blight
- In Dragon Age: Origins, Gorim Saelac doesn't stay faithful to the female Aeducan after she gets exiled, he marries someone else in Denerim. But in this fanfic, he doesn't do that and eventually marries Sereda.
- Legend of the Monkey God: Bulma is less of a Spoiled Brat than she was in early Dragonball canon, such as happily helping Turtle get back to the ocean rather than complaining about the detour.
- Between Dreams and Memories Universe:
- In canon, it was made abundantly clear that Technoblade was a Wild Card who only joined Pogtopia because of his anarchist views. Here, he's depicted as a well-intentioned Anti-Hero who is simply trying to help his brothers Wilbur and Tommy. Unfortunately, he eventually snaps and jumps off the slippery slope during the events of the Manberg Festival and never looks back.
- In the source material, Schlatt was a monstrously cruel, petty, and often crass tyrant with little in the way of redeeming qualities. Here, he's depicted as a Tragic Villain motivated by a deeply traumatic past, and he has several genuine Pet the Dog moments. There are times when he even almost abandons his revenge scheme against Wilbur entirely, which canon-Schlatt would never do. It probably helps in Schlatt's favour that the canonical Domestic Abuse subplot is completely thrown by the wayside.
- In canon, Tommy is depicted as the most reckless and abrasive member of L'Manburg prior to undergoing Character Development and he's prone to vandalizing people's property just for fun. Here, while he's still somewhat abrasive and blunt, he's depicted as one of the most compassionate and moral characters right out of the gate, and the worst he does is naively go along with Wilbur's orders because he took Tommy in after he spent most his life homeless and on the move.
- Here by Accident, Staying on Purpose: Vicky was Chloe's perfectly ordinary babysitter. Vicky being a Babysitter from Hell was just exaggeration.
- Francis in Family Guy Fanon. In canon, Francis was a Catholic Jerkass who really disliked Peter and was a genuinely unpleasant person to be around. Here, while he does start off the same, his devout Catholic and Jerkass nature is toned down a lot afterwards, save for a few episodes, making him more tolerated by the cast, and has a lot more Pet the Dog moments to Peter. He also changes to have a more Jerk with a Heart of Gold personality, as he shows to deeply care about Peter and Thelma.
- Five Nights At Freddy's: Lost Souls: The animatronics in this comic are far less blood-thirsty and their desire to protect others, especially children, doesn't go straight to Knight Templar - levels. They're content with just scaring intruders away and even that is done for their safety, because the entity haunting the park has proven to be extremely dangerous. Downplayed, as there are frequent implications of the animatronics having been completely different before the fire. Night 4 has it confirmed through Kelly that children under their care went missing and that they apparently killed a man, though the reason for the last one isn't given and Kelly is a more than a bit biased source.
- Springtrap and Deliah: Zig-zagged. Springtrap is still the Fazbear-killer, but in this interpretation of the character he did it out of a misguided desire to be a father and is remorseful about it in the present. He's still dangerous, but he tries to keep himself under control and be a good father to Deliah, though her actual father isn't too pleased about it.
- In the Game Mod Everywhere at the End of Funk, Daddy Dearest seems to have warmed up to Boyfriend, and his concern for Boyfriend's deteriorating mental state is genuine. This is a far cry from his personality in the original game, where he actively makes Boyfriend's life miserable.
Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire
- Of Gold and Iron:
- Even disregarding that Tywin is no longer in a setting where murdering entire families is everyday business, he is much nicer than his canon counterpart; whereas in canon even his praises masked insults, here he is genuinely capable of acknowledging other people's successes and even offering genuine comfort in his own way.
- Canon Joffrey is one of the most famous examples of Teens Are Monsters in modern literary history, with no act too evil or petty for him. Here, on his own, he's at most guilty of being a domestic abuser; he was blackmailed into killing Ned Stark, seems to regret it, and ultimately loves his sister even at his lowest.
- In A Northern Dragoness, Aegon Targaryen is still The Pornomancer who Really Gets Around, but he is far more devoted to Naerys and Daeron than his canon portrayal ever was.
- Our Blades Are Sharp: Sansa is much less of an Alpha Bitch to Arya than she was in the books and even apologizes for it.
- Averted in Purple Days. Joffrey Baratheon starts as the same asshole he was in canon, and his evolution into a better person is triggered by repeated suffering and mistakes, time after time, until he finally gives up on most of what he thought he knew and starts listening to others, starting with Ned Stark. Even then, this does not stop him from sliding back and fighting to claw his way out of the monster he remembers being.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Both Mark Russell and Maia Simmons get this alongside a dose of Adaptational Intelligence:
- Mark starts the story as the same short-tempered, stubborn, and judgemental asshole he persistently is in MonsterVerse canon, but the story's events (namely Vivienne Graham's return after she was believed to have died as a result of saving Mark's life) help him to put more of his inner demons behind him. In the final chapter, it's heavily implied Mark is now going to be a more flexible and considerate father to Madison than the egocentric My Beloved Smother and Fantasy-Forbidding Father that Godzilla vs. Kong portrayed him as.
- This continuity's version of Maia Simmons knows how to be amicable on business even if she is still secretly involved in some very illegal stuff for dubiously sinister reasons, compared to the smug, through-and-through Rich Bitch that MonsterVerse canon portrayed her as.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- In A Matter Of Age, Nie Mingjue is much more willing to forgive Jin Guangyao for his actions than in canon, giving him a gentler side.
- The Red Earth, Wen Chao is far pleasanter than he is in canon by the time he's an adult due to having an older brother who's been instructing him on how to behave. He's admittedly a bit bratty as a child, though.
- Barok van Zieks in canon showed strong contempt for the Japanese when he is introduced and often rebukes Ryunosuke, though he grows out of this trait at the end of the second game. In The Great Ace Detective, he is more respectful to the Japanese and more cordial to Ryunosuke and his friends. This is because his canon Freudian Excuse, his older brother being killed by a Japanese man and being tricked into believing the latter was a serial killer, never occurred.
- The Child of Azkaban:
- The various Death Eaters in Azkaban, while established as being fully loyal to their Dark Lord at first and making attempts at Harry's life, slowly grow to be fond of the boy and wind up becoming a Family of Choice to him and Sirius. It is revealed later that this is because Harry possesses a rare magical ability that causes him to emit an aura of reason, causing those around him for long periods of time to think rationally and heals mental trauma, as well as providing an immunity to the Dementor's psychovoric presence.
- While he was at first dismissive and hostile to Harry, Snape backs off and starts treating him better when Harry prevents serious injury from a botched potion mixture in class. This is also implies to be a side-effect of Harry's aura.
- While Minister Fudge in-canon is an opportunistic politician who would go to great lengths to secure the public's faith in the Ministry, here he seems more interested in doing the right thing, allowing Sirius to have a real trial and willingly reimburses him when he is found innocent despite how it may reflect on the Ministry's track record.
- How Friendship Accidentally Saved Magical Britain: The Tom Riddle who emerges from the Diary following months of influence from the Weasley twins is for the most part harmless and just a regular run-of-the-mill arrogant Slytherin whose idea of revenge is mostly restricted to childish hexes and hiding somebody's shoes, even if he does also regularly (jokingly?) threaten people who annoy him with death and the twins are pretty sure he'd be able to get away with it. It's hard to be afraid of Tom when he spends most of his time fussing over his pet snakes or cocooned in blankets doing his best impression of a caterpillar in a pupa. With no access to (or regard) for Voldemort's memories of the prophecy or the Boy Who Lived, Tom holds no quarrel, hatred, or obsession for Harry Potter. They even become casual friends, with Tom sneaking Harry groceries during the summer holidays so he doesn't starve when he's with the Dursleys and even taking Harry on a few excursions to get him out of the house.
- Choosing Life Verse: Aloy always was The Hero, but in the games she's The Stoic and The Aloner compared to some of the more lively personalities she encounters along her journey, having developed this kind of outlook due to her upbringing. Here, she is a little more lively and more willing to accept help, even if she has to be convinced, after spending enough time with her biological mother Elisabet.
- In The Home We Built Together, Astrid learns to like Hiccup long before she discovers Toothless, is dedicated to being his wife (even if they just start out learning to like each other platonically), her anger is based more out of worry and she is more willing to give Toothless a chance when she finds out about him.
- Lost Boy:
- In the film, Astrid does not officially become anything to Hiccup other than an unrequited crush who is apathetic to him until she discovers Toothless, and Fishlegs does not officially become his friend until Dragons: Riders of Berk. Here, they become his friend as soon as they meet him and become two of the few people in the village who see him as more than just a bed-slave.
- On top of the many Pet the Dog moments they give to Hiccup, Stoick and Gobber seem much more willing to listen to himnote , even finding his uncanny skills at pacifying dragons without hurting them something that could be useful in their war against them. Mulch and Bucket seem to side with them on this as well, rebuking all of Mildew's claims against Hiccup along with Stoick and Gobber.
- Mildew in Dragons: Riders of Berk was a Hate Sink who was so unlikable, his house was built outside of the village because nobody could stand him, and he later sells out Hiccup to the Outcasts. In What Lies Beneath when Jerrik implies that Hiccup and Zephyr's death was a net gain for the village, Mildew pitches in when villagers start responding with kind words about them, saying how Hiccup volunteered to help Fungus when he was stuck in the well and Zephyr would keep him company.
- Bonds Through Time: The Adventures of Inuyasha and Kagome: While he still has his angry and rude side, Inuyasha reaches an understanding with Kagome much quicker than in the manga and anime, and even becomes a Friend to All Children in Kaede's village.
- Natural Selection:
- Mako has the same living conditions as she did when her family hit Fiction 500 levels of rich in the anime, but unlike canon, where she became just as self-absorbed as the rest of them, in this fic, she remains a complete Nice Gal throughout and decries her family's descent into greed and self-indulgence.
- Nui, while still a total psychopath, has more affability and redeeming values than she did in the anime, such as her genuine love for her sister (even if it is twisted thanks to the Kiryuin upbringing) and her cherishing Soroi against her mother's desires.
- Destiny Intertwined: In canon, Malefor is a scheming, merciless, and cruel megalomaniac. In the comic, which is set a long time before his fall to darkness, the then-adolescent Malefor is, while decidedly odd in personality, a cheerful, friendly, and outgoing child.
- Fur And Photography: Nathan is still an unstable Jerkass, but here he seems to be more self-aware and is genuinely looking for help. He even apologizes to Kate for feeding off of her when he finds out that she knew he was a vampire and didn't begrudge him for it.
- Flowing Star:
- The worst traits from Lincoln's original incarnation such as his self-destructive selfishness are gone, with him being shown to be a consistent nice boy.
- Downplayed with Girl Jordan. While this version lacks most of her negative qualities from canon, she can be pissed off if you push her buttons too far.
- The basic premise of Game Theory (Lyrical Nanoha) is that, while her goals remain unchanged, Precia is no longer an Abusive Parent to Fate, regarding her not as a mere failed Replacement Goldfish to Alicia, but as a second daughter and a person in her own right.
- The Mandela Magazine: In Mandela Catalogue, the Alternates are malevolent and wish to kill off humans by driving them to suicide. Here, they just want to throw a party with Mark, with "Gabriel" introducing himself stating as much. Notably, the events of "Overthrone" are skipped, summarized with two shepherds stating that they love Jesus, then being vaporized by Gabriel arriving. It's entirely possible that the events of "Overthrone" outright didn't happen in this timeline outside of Gabriel's initial appearance.
- Crimson and Noire
- While showing some of the same Knight Templar Parent tendencies as canon, Gabriel slowly becomes more open and connected with his son, likely since he is not active as Hawkmoth here.
- Subverted with Lila. While they are acting nicer to Marinette than in canon, it’s frequently hinted that they are the same Bitch in Sheep's Clothing they were in canon. It’s also implied that Lila wants to have Marinette for herself.
- In Fox Rain, Lila goes exactly the inverse character development than in canon, becoming nicer rather than a villain, owed to Trixx' influence keeping her more rational and from being manipulated by Papillon and getting her closer to Marinette and Ladybug.
Music
- Jonathan Coulton's song "The Future Soon" is narrated by a student with a pathetic unrequited crush on his classmate Laura, who clearly doesn't care for him and tells the whole class when he leaves her a love note. He fantasizes about growing up to be a Mad Scientist, launching a Robot War, and pulling an I Have You Now, My Pretty on her. Sarah Fernandez' AMV keeps the original audio but shows through imagery that Laura didn't intend to tell anyone else about the love note and regrets hurting the narrator's feelings, the narrator didn't mean to start the robot war, the relationship he fantasizes about having with her is more playful than stalkerish, and ends with the daydream ending, and the narrator finding a love note from Laura to him
- The Norse Hero: Fenrir: Monoma in My Hero Academia was a conceited jerk who spends all of his free time mocking 1A out of envy for their in-story fame. In this story, he possesses a hatred for people who pretend to be good, only to act on the contrary out of spite, his best friend having died when a hero ignored him because he had a "villainous" quirk.
- Waiting is worth it: While still more pragmatic than likable like his canon counterpart, Aizawa goes easy on Izuku for not having records, sympathizing with him since he too was a student with physical disabilities.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles: Sasuke managed to let go of his rage and hate after killing Itachi, and realized that he wanted to return to Konoha, the only place he was ever happy. This was aided by a botched resurrection - he was not quite dead when Seireiko tried to revive him, resulting in his survival while his most negative traits being siphoned off into Evil Sasuke.
- Son of the Sannin has a couple of examples, justified in-story:
- While Neji retains his initial fatalist philosophy from canon, he no longer uses it to put others down. This is due to the fact that his father Hizashi isn't killed in the Hyuga affair, instead bearing witness to the death of Hinata's father Hiashi during the Uchiha's Insurrection.
- Sasuke retains much of his Part I personality from canon, but the major factor that keeps him firmly on the side of good is the fact that he has Itachi around to act as his Morality Chain and is fully aware of his clan's intentions to take Konoha over by force. By the time Part II rolls around, his animosity with Naruto is virtually non-existent, having a more traditional Friendly Rivalry with him.
- Mr and Mrs Gold: In the series, Gaston was a minor character that was unceremoniously disposed of (later revealed to be a real jackass many seasons later). Here, he is portrayed as being an understanding and compassionate man, having seen how much Belle and Rumpelstiltskin care for one another and holding no ill will even after Rumpel turned him into a rose and him losing his legs after Belle trimmed the stem. The same applies to his Storybook counterpart Gaspard.
- While Eda in her "Owl Beast" form was nothing more than a feral animal in canon, in An Odd Little Family she's much more docile, recognizing Camilla, Luz, and King as Eda's "mate" and "chicks."
- Luz Belos: Princess of the Boiling Isles:
- While Amity starts as a former friend-turned-bully to Willow and Malfoy-esque rival to Luz before becoming her friend and potential love-interest in The Owl House, here she never broke off her friendship with Willow and the story starts with her and Luz being girlfriends.
- In the original series, Boscha is an Alpha Bitch who genuinely believed herself superior to Luz, Willow, and Gus. Here, she is friends with them and even develops a crush on Willow.
- Hours 'Verse: Instead of believing that the Thieves killed Okumura and turning against them, Class 2-D are still firm believers in them. They ask Ann about Akira when the latter stops attending class after the news about the leader of the Phantom Thieves suicide, revealing them as Secret Secret-Keepers and justifying their niceness as care and concern for their classmates.
- In the Persona 4 fanfiction Into the Fog, Ai is far less of a jerk than she is in canon.
- Celadon's New Blossom:
- Erika's Adaptational Jerkass behavior is treated as an Out-of-Character Moment. She's written more in line with her game persona.
- Charmander evolves into Charmeleon, but he keeps his nice personality. He trusts Ash too much to treat him badly.
- Guys Being Dudes: Arlo maintains his canonical arrogance and displays more Card-Carrying Villain tendencies, but is revealed to be a nice, Endearingly Dorky person underneath with most of his arrogance being a facade.
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines:
- Unlike in the anime, Lt. Surge doesn't get his jollies from "beating up babies", bringing him more in line with his in-game portrayal.
- Misty lacks the short temper and large ego that was responsible for most of her arguments with Ash in the first seasons, making them start their relationship on a better foot.
- Iris is nowhere near as bratty or condescending as she was in the Black & White anime.
- Burgundy, instead of being an antagonistic, Small Name, Big Ego wannabe, is a full-fledged, much calmer Connaisseuse.
- Blake, compared to his Adventures counterpart, is more considerate of Yancy's feelings and more honest about his reasons not to pursue a relationship with her, admitting that he does like her, instead of dating her just to investigate if she was a member of Team Plasma and dumping her once he learns she isn't.
- In The Road to be a Pokemon Master, Charmander never stops obeying Ash after it evolves all the way to Charizard. Though as a Charizard, it will sometimes refuse to fight if it doesn't consider its opponent worthy.
- While Norma was a Hate Sink in Psychonauts 2, in Razputin Vodello AU she has taken the role of "big sister" to Raz, still the type to tease him but otherwise better.
- Children of Remnant:
- Jacques is a much better person than he was in canon because Weiss's capture and Willow's death made him realize just how much he was throwing away for the sake of profit. He thus resolved to be a much better person to his remaining daughter.
- Cinder is far from the selfish, manipulative, controlling psychopath that she is in canon, showing a much wider and nicer variety of emotions than indiscriminate hatred.
- Coeur Al'Aran:
- Several of the villains from canon get hit with this in Coeur's works, often to make them more three-dimensional and fleshed-out, or to make them more sympathetic:
- It varies from work to work, but Adam Taurus, far from his canon portrayal as a Psycho Ex-Boyfriend and bloodthirsty Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist who was just as dangerous to his fellow Faunus as to humans; is instead portrayed in almost any work where he has a non-minor role as a ruthless but genuine Well-Intentioned Extremist who raises valid points about the institutional mistreatment of Faunus, and a Father to His Men who doesn't let his personal quarrel with Blake completely eclipse the White Fang's mission.
- Roman Torchwick, though still a ruthless thief, is given more explicit moral standards than in canon; including but not limited to the confirmation that knowing he can't outpower Cinder is the only reason why he obeys her (whereas such was only implied in canon), and he's always quite happy to abandon Cinder's plans to decimate Vale with Grimm in the AUs where a good opportunity for him to do so presents itself.
- Jacques Schnee, though still a ruthless Corrupt Corporate Executive and an Abusive Dad who left all his children with a lot of lasting baggage; is explicitly shown to be motivated more by pragmatism than outright cruelty in his vilest acts. The workplace abuses of Faunus which his company is infamous for are institutional problems that fall beneath his active notice rather than something he intentionally enforces, and his own motivations for using Faunus as cheap labor are entirely business-oriented. He also delivers some valid critiques when disapproving of Weiss's ambitions to become a huntress and take over the Schnee Dust Company.
- Whereas Volume 8 of the show would reveal that Tyrian Callows only supports Salem because he sees her as destruction incarnate on account of her Grimm nature and world-threatening end-goals; Tyrian in Coeur's fics, though still a nightmarish Serial Killer, has more of a My Master, Right or Wrong mentality, and Salem giving up her crusade against humanity in the fics White Sheep, Professor Arc and Knight of Salem doesn't dent Tyrian's loyalty to her in the slightest.
- In Your Wildest Dreams: Cardin's father Alabaster was portrayed in an earlier Coeur fic, Relic of the Future, as being at least as openly racist against the Faunus as his son was. In this fic, Alabaster is portrayed in Cardin's nightmare as much more complex and human: though the nightmare all but confirms him to be a war criminal during the Faunus Revolution who went unpunished, he expressed understanding of why local Faunus in particular hated him so, and he explicitly wanted Cardin to grow up to be a better man than himself, enrolling him in an elementary school with a high proportion of Faunus students to that end.
- Null: James Ironwood is even more virtuous than his canon counterpart. He's one of the few people who are sympathetic to the Arc family's horrible plight, and he's horrified by the depths of the corruption in Atlas' military-industrial complex and government. Ironwood refuses to put the so-called needs of the many ahead of the Arcs' situation and eliminating the corruption in Atlas, which is the polar opposite of what the canon Ironwood would have done.
- Service with a Smile: Vale's criminal underground as a whole is portrayed as Affably Evil people who respect those on their turf, compared to how the show portrays most of them as little more than brutes and villains for the protagonists to fight.
- White Sheep:
- In an AU where she found love again and had children years before the start of the show, Salem is still a brutal ruler who has underlings ranging from manipulators and sociopaths to outright psychopaths, but she's a doting parent to her children, loves her husband, and is a lot more emotionally stable and grounded for it. Gets progressively played up as the story progresses, until she executes a near-complete Heel–Face Turn when Jaune and his friends convince her of the feasibility of their goal for peace; she decides to give up on her own to take over the world, simply live a peaceful life with her family instead, and find a way to die so that she can be buried beside her husband.
- Cinder is still Salem's ruthless minion, but far from the pure sociopath she was in canon on account of the impact that the presence of Salem's husband and children had on Cinder's own upbringing in this timeline. Cinder has hints of genuine affection for Jaune and his family (good luck spotting it through her usual treatment of him, though).
- Through Character Development, Mercury actually becomes a better person, even getting a girlfriend.
- Several of the villains from canon get hit with this in Coeur's works, often to make them more three-dimensional and fleshed-out, or to make them more sympathetic:
- Ruby and Nora has several examples, the most prominent being Winter. While a good person in canon, this version is an openly affectionate and loving sister to Weiss (who was also given this treatment).
- RWBY Alternate: Weiss is changed from a Lovable Alpha Bitch to a Nice Girl who isn't particularly fond of her social class. She's also less snippy than in canon.
- Through Her Eyes:
- Downplayed. In the original fic, Weiss threatens to kill Ruby or leave her to die because she doesn't want to be partners with her. The rewrite only has Weiss scream that she hates Ruby and would rather die than accept her help.
- Downplayed, again with White Fang as a whole. On one hand, they're still presented as an antagonistic terrorist group, as they were in canon. Blake often recalls the horrible things they had done. On the other hand, the story presents a much nicer part of White Fang. They exposed corruption, defilement, and exploitation, they actually got high-class lawyers to help them sue the people taking advantage of them. Velvet is one of the people they helped. It's thanks to them she could eat proper meals. It's often discussed if White Fang is really evil, and if they are, if it isn't understandable, why turned violent. All in all the Faunus group is much more complex than in canon.
- In Vale's chapter, at one point, Blake created a Cherry Initiative, which consisted of giving free books to children, despite Adam's insistence that it was a pointless waste of resources.
- After Yang saved a random Faunus from racist thugs, a member of the Fang called their medical division to get him checked, even if he was just a pamphlet distributor. He was nice enough to buy them dinner. Which he used as an opportunity to poison Weiss...
- A Magical Evening:
- Princess Amber lacks the mean streak that she had in the series until Character Development set in and she is nothing but a supportive sister and friend.
- Princess Hildegard in canon, was an Alpha Bitch who was quite nasty to Sofia until she humbled out later on. In the fic, she is a good person who is stuck in a bad situation as a Closet Gay who has homophobic parents. When she becomes Queen, she tries to help her subjects and give more power to them, which ends with her getting outed by the people who lost that power.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows: While still a villain and taking after her 2012 incarnation, Karai nonetheless gets this treatment. She's appalled and disgusted when she discovers what Krang's men did to Hisako for the first ten years of her life, and horrified when Shredder considers an Enemy Mine with them.
- A BFG's World Tour: Following her Heel Realization, Courtney begins focusing more on being a team player rather than winning and being the best, helping Gwen and Cody to eliminate Sierra and trying to make things right between her and Duncan. Upon her elimination, she even manages to apologize for being such a jerk to everyone and promises to start acting more like the honorable and integrity-filled person she initially presented herself as.
- Despair Island
- Geoff was already a Nice Guy in canon, though he picked on Harold on two occasions and temporarily behaved like a bully during the Aftermath show in the second season. Here, Geoff never mistreats Harold and doesn't behave like a jerk even once.
- Compared to his canon self, Duncan is nicer here, as he doesn't pick on nor try to humiliate Harold despite teasing him a little, mostly treats his teammates with respect even when voting them off, like he did with DJ and Tyler, and never creates a romantic triangle between himself, Courtney and Gwen, despite having feelings for Courtney. Justified and Played With given the situation in the story, Duncan knows that causing trouble with the other players will just put a target on his back to get him voted off and killed. So Duncan decides that he needs to be a little nicer if he is going to survive this game. Privately Duncan admits that it is killing him being this nice and that he is not a nice guy. To his credit, Duncan shows genuine compassion for both the people who lost their lives to the game and the people who suffered.
- Canon Ezekiel's cluelessness and poor social skills made him prone to rudeness and jerkassery, especially later on. Here, he's got much stronger social skills, which combined with his religious upbringing, makes him surprisingly compassionate towards everyone and one of the story's most moral characters.
- Compared to her canon self, who became progressively far worse after the first season, here Courtney is mostly cordial to her teammates in general, befriending people like Duncan, Geoff, and Bridgette in the process. While she votes off all of her non-alliance teammates, she deadens her emotions to not feel the blame for causing their deaths and expresses huge remorse after eliminating Sadie. Though she justifiably bullies Harold after he tries to get her eliminated, she later realizes why he did it and stops antagonizing him, even expressing comfort that he got to die on his own terms.
- Mike's alternate personality Mal. Whereas the canon Mal is a full-blown Hate Sink, here he takes over Mike's mind after he suffers a mental breakdown due to Zoey's execution, targeting B, Scott, and Sam because of their role in voting Zoey off and making Mike miserable.
- A Dramatic Ridonculous Race:
- Downplayed with Don. He was already a miles-less sadistic host than Chris was in canon, but some of his more apathetic and Deadpan Snarker moments towards the contestants are removed here. One example being upon the Father and Son team being eliminated, rather than talking down to them for interrupting him and leaving what he was going to say a mystery, here he tells them that the contract they signed mentions the show will cover the bill so Dwayne can afford to get his Embarrassing Tattoo removed.
- Lightning goes through Character Development during his time in the race with Cameron. He admits he actually hates doing sports now due to the constant pressure to be the best by his father and get him to notice him. He ends up letting go of his grudge toward Cameron and befriending him. In canon, Lightning never had any of this development and remained a Jerk Jock.
- From Surfboards to Diapers: Courtney maintains her canonical professionalism and bossiness, but her arrogance and temper are toned down to make her into a much more supportive friend towards the pregnant Bridgette.
- Predator and Prey: In canon, the little we saw of Blaineley's co-host Josh suggested he was every bit as sleazy and shameless as her. In this story, he's an Ascended Extra who is much friendlier towards the contestants and despises Blaineley as much as they do.
- Random Drama Series
- The show had Dave be annoyed by all his teammates and slowly goes insane due to Sky rejecting his feelings. Here because he falls for someone just as into him and befriends Geoff, who knows how to "bring out the party in people", he becomes much more optimistic.
- Duncan is also noticeably nicer than he is in canon, mostly due to the fact he and Courtney never so much as meet and he falls for Kitsune instead of her or Gwen, preventing the Love Triangle from ever happening.
- Total Drama All-Stars Rewrite: While Duncan had several Pet the Dog moments in canon as well, here, he's much more considerate of Gwen. Rather than frequently neglecting Gwen's feelings and using her as a way to make Courtney jealous, here, he tries to help Gwen whenever he can, not wanting Gwen to feel burdened by the issue. He also stops the fight between Courtney and Gwen as opposed to in canon, where he happily claimed they were fighting over him to make himself look like a bad boy.
- Total Drama Do Over
- Courtney, while maintaining many of her negative traits from canon, doesn't become as rude and abrasive as she did in canon after Island.
- Zig Zagging with Duncan. While largely maintaining his canon characterization, has the decency to break things off with Courtney on his own rather than cheat on her. However, his time on the Ridonculous Race paints him as little more than a sleazy, unlikable criminal.
- Total Drama Pahkitew Island Reordered
- Dave slowly becomes more accepting of his teammates' quirks and nicer to them as a result than he was in canon. The biggest example to contrast this Dave with the canon one can be seen during Beardo's elimination in "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems". Dave ends up giving the same lines he did when Beardo was eliminated in the canon premiere, but whereas there he said them in sarcasm, here he's genuinely honest in his regret.
- Downplayed with Scarlett. While she's still the main villain of the season, she never tries to kill anybody in this version, and even helps Dave when he chooses her as a helper in the finale.
- Total Drama Superstars: Sugar, whose villainy and arrogance are entirely forgotten, and she’s even shaping up to be Noah’s main love interest. Never mind that he has a girlfriend at this point in the timeline.
- Total Drama What If Series Scott. Although he's still a jerk, he's not as nasty as he was in canon Revenge of the Island and is capable of being nice. He was even disgusted with Sugar's sabotage in Action.
- Total Reordered Series
- Believe it or not, Alejandro. While he remains one of the most cunning and strategic contestants with numerous enemies, his feelings for Amber cause him to hold back against her. In Season 2, Topher tries to negate this by eliminating Amber so Alejandro will become the season's villain, but even after he succeeds, Sammy is tasked by Amber to keep Alejandro from going full villain.
- Geoff when hosting the Aftermath. Unlike in canon, where his Took a Level in Jerkass was strongly implied to be a result of the fame going to his head, here it's made clear that he's only doing it because the producers have threatened to replace him and Kitty if they don't go along with it, and even manages to put his foot down when they try to get him to do stuff that hasn't been cleared with legal.
- Total Shuffled Island Series:
- Duncan is much kinder in Pahkitew Island than he ever was in canon, as his Hidden Heart of Gold shines through much more often. This is due to his frequent bullying targets (Harold and Cody) participating in a different season, meaning there isn't as much opportunity for him to be a bullying jerkass as there was in canon.
- Thanks to Character Development, Jo also acts much kinder in Action than she was in canon, in an attempt to lose her negative reputation from Island, while in canon she simply doubled down on her jerkass attitude in her second appearance.
- This also applied to Lightning in All-Stars, who, unlike his canon counterpart, receives substantial Character Development. He acts supportive and nice in order to prove his role to the Heroic Hamsters. Good karma hits him and he wins the season.
- Canon Courtney started out as a competitive perfectionist who became progressively worse after the first season. She ended up leaving the show with no money or friends. Here, she is insufferable and villainous in her debut season, but by the time she returns in All-Stars, she has realized her mistakes and gets to apologize to Gwen for real, something her canon self never did.
- Sky's canon self never revealed her boyfriend's existence until the season finale and made some questionable decisions to get further into the game such as manipulating or mistreating Dave, while here Sky reveals Keith's existence much earlier to avoid any problems like in canon. Sky also doesn't manipulate or mistreat Dave, who in turn is far nastier here.
- There's Something Wrong With Us: Downplayed but present. This version of Velma is just as selfish, racist, hypocritical, cynical, and unpleasant as her canon counterpart, but this version has some depth and kindness; when Norville asks for a serious conversation, she agrees to a two-minute conversation where she admits that she's the kind of person who turns a love confession into a joke but does care about Norville as a friend. And by the end of the story, when Norville and Fred are in the hospital and Velma calls him, she generally apologizes to Norville and admits that she is both a toxic person and he is better off without her in his life, implying that she wants to better herself, something her canon counterpart did not do at the end of the first season where she was happy with herself as a person.
- The Domino City Effect: Several of the Eliminators are shown to be not all raging psychopaths. For example, The Clown from canon was depicted as a sadist who was willing to mock the "dead" Seto Kaiba without complaint, but in this fic, it's shown that he has morals and even pride as a duelist that Yami Yugi acknowledges in their duel. The only reason he acts like he doesn't is that his boss gave him a specific job to do and orders to follow, which he does, though he doesn't enjoy it.
