Basic Trope: A character is much more heroic in an adaptation than in the source material.
- Straight:
- Bob, originally an Anti-Hero, becomes an Ideal Hero in the adaptation.
- Bob, originally a straight villain, becomes an Anti-Villain in the adaptation.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob was an evil psycho in the original, but the adaptation makes him practically a saint.
- Bob was the original's Big Bad. In the adaptation, he is The Hero.
- Bob was a Complete Monster in the original, but is an incorruptible All-Loving Hero in the adaptation.
- Draco in Leather Pants
- Downplayed:
- Adaptational Nice Guy
- Bob is almost the same character in The Film of the Book that he was in the original story, but he gets a few added Pet the Dog moments.
- Bob is still evil in the adaptation, but he's not absolute pure evil like in the original.
- Bob is still evil in the adaptation, but circumstances place him on the good guy's team as their Token Evil Teammate.
- In the original, Bob was a well-intended Hero Antagonist who just happened to be opposing the other heroes who were trying to stop the same villain. In the adaptation, he's a full-time ally to the heroes and works with them to stop the villain.
- Bob tries to outright kill the heroes in the original. In the adaptation, while he's still not on the heroes' side, he's simply a Jerkass who doesn't do worse than insult the heroes.
- In the original, Bob was a villain who later made a Heel–Face Turn. In the adaptation, he's a hero from the start.
- Adaptational Sympathy
- Justified:
- Due to the changes in the story Bob's Start of Darkness never happens and he remains a good guy.
- Bob was Unintentionally Sympathetic in the original, so the story was rewritten to make it an intentional aspect of his character.
- Bob was Unintentionally Unsympathetic and came off as a Designated Hero in the original, so the story was rewritten to give him more sympathetic and redeemable qualities as part of an Improved Second Attempt or an Author's Saving Throw if done intentionally.
- Bob underwent a Heel–Face Turn in the original, so he is rewritten as a good guy.
- The adaptation takes place after the original and Bob has gone through In-Universe Historical Hero Upgrade.
- Inverted:
- Adaptational Villainy.
- A hero is given Darker and Edgier qualities that he or she didn't have originally to make their character more complex than in the original work.
- Subverted:
- While it looks like Bob is the hero, it later turns out that he isn't, and he takes on his original role in the story...
- Double Subverted: ... until it turns out that Bob really is the hero.
- Parodied: Bob's motives for being a Jerkass is that he hates being a comic book character and always wanted to star in a movie. Now that he is a movie character, he has little reason to be a jerk (and now that the movie is over, he goes back to being a Jerkass comic book character until a sequel is made).
- Zig-Zagged: Bob's actions are much more honorable than his original counterpart's, but some of the hardships that would have made his actions shine were omitted.
- Averted: Bob's personality and role in the story are the same in the movie as they are in the original.
- Enforced:
- The original source had only anti-heroes, or followed Black-and-Grey Morality. The adaptation is trying to be Lighter and Softer, making it more clear who the hero is.
- Bob is too unlikable to be a sympathetic hero, and the adaptation gives him likable qualities so that the audience can emotionally invest in him.
- Bob is an immensely popular villain, and the adaptation wants to focus on him, but to do that, they need to make him a a hero.
- Bob is minority( e.g. non-straight or non-white)and the adaptation is trying to be progressive and to avoid the accusations of negative representation without being less diverse than source material( which is why they didn't turn him into majority).
- Lampshaded: Random Bystander: "Wasn't he supposed to be a bad guy just like in the comics?".
- Invoked: The director is a Bob fangirl.
- Exploited: Alice wants to hook up with Bob, but knows that she won't be able to do that as long as Bob remains a Jerkass, so she decides to wait for the eventual movie adaptation to make a move.
- Defied: The director shoots down any ideas that involve making Bob a more sympathetic character.
- Discussed:Comic Book Alice: Hey, did you hear? There's gonna be a movie adaptation of this comic!
Comic Book Bob: Oh, Goddammit! I really hope they don't invent some crap about me being nice or something. - Conversed: "I think Bob's a bit too unsympathetic." "We could make him more heroic then."
- Implied: Robert is a hero who appears to be a Canon Foreigner. However, there is a Mythology Gag that suggests he may actually be the adaptation's version of Bob.
- Plotted A Good Waste: Bob in the adaptation is actually based on how he was originally introduced, making him even closer to the source material than what most people know him for.
Go back to Adaptational Heroism.
