Basic Trope: A character or plot element is at least somewhat significant in the source material, but is entirely omitted from an adaptation.
- Straight: In the novel Bob's Adventure, Bob is married to Alice. In The Film of the Book, Alice is not seen or mentioned, and Bob appears to live alone.
- Exaggerated:
- In the book, Bob is The Leader of a Five-Man Band. In the movie, he fights Emperor Evulz alone.
- In the book, Alice and Bob have fifteen children. In the movie, Bob is explicitly stated to be both a bachelor and a virgin.
- Downplayed:
- Alice suffers Death by Adaptation.
- Alice is The Ghost, a character who's mentioned but never appears.
- Alice is Demoted to Extra.
- Alice is only a minor character in the original work.
- Justified:
- The movie is set in an Alternate Universe, in which Alice and Bob never met. It is possible that Alice was never born in said universe.
- The movie can't adapt more than Chapter 1 of the Doorstopper that is Bob's Adventure, Alice didn't enter the story until Chapter 3.
- Inverted:
- Bob's wife Alice doesn't exist in the original book.
- The adaptation gives the character involvement they never had in the source material.
- Bob's Adventure: The Musical, based on the movie where Alice was absent, adds her back in.
- A scrapped character from the original work is fully integrated into the adaptation.
- Subverted: At first, it appears as if Alice was omitted. However, it turns out that "Sharon" is actually Alice.
- Double Subverted: This "Alice" is quickly revealed to be a separate character, unrelated to the original Alice. In fact, she has never met Bob.
- Parodied: Alice appears in The Stinger, ranting to the viewers about not being part of the movie's story.
- Zig Zagged: Bob is the only major character to appear in both the original work and the adaptation.
- Averted:
- No characters are omitted.
- The work has no adaptations.
- Enforced:
- "We want a considerably shorter adaptation, without all those confusing plot points. After all, we don't have time to film them, and they'd make the film longer than two hours anyway. Let's omit Alice and make Bob single."
- Alice is something other than a regular human, or is a human with very unique features. As such, adapting her into a film would be very difficult, expensive, and prone to Special Effect Failure. Altering her appearance to make her easier to film might anger some of the book's fans, potentially leading to They Changed It, Now It Sucks!. Creating her in CGI isn't an option either, due to budget constraints or the adaptation dating from the era before CGI was invented. For these reasons, the director feels it is best to simply leave her out.
- Alice is a member of a minority, but the source material was created several decades ago and portrays her in a way which would be considered offensive today. Removing the problematic elements means cutting large chunks of her storyline and making her not a member of a minority could lead to accusations of "____washing". As a result, the decision is taken to remove her from the adaptation altogether.
- Lampshaded:
- "Now, in this version of the story, Bob is single. Alice simply doesn't exist."
- "By the way, Bob, where's Alice?" "Who's Alice?" "Oh, right, she isn't in this version of your story."
- Invoked: Bob kills Alice before the film version starts.
- Exploited: Bob dates several female characters.
- Defied: Bob retains a memory of Alice from the book, and creates her using magic.
- Discussed: "Good thing I didn't mysteriously disappear now that we're in a film and everything!"
- Conversed: "What happened to Alice? It would appear that she never existed in the movie's universe."
- Implied: Alice was never seen in the original version, only implied to exist. In the film, any references to her are gone.
- Deconstructed: Alice played an important role, and without her, Bob is not able to defeat Emperor Evulz.
- Reconstructed: Multiple characters share her role and are able to carry out the same accomplishments.
- Played For Drama: Alice was originally in the timeline of the film, but was erased from existence.
The description and examples of the trope were cut from the main version.
