History Main / AdaptationalSelfDefense

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': In ''[[ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied The Amazing Spider-Man]]'' #121, thanks to the much-debated "Snap!" sound effect, it appears as if Spider-Man accidentally killed Gwen Stacy when she was falling by snapping her neck because he failed to properly consider the effect of snagging a person falling from a great height with his web and just holding fast. Unsatisfied with the explanation that the Green Goblin, the villain who pushed Gwen off the bridge, was obviously the man responsible for her death in any case, fans and Marvel creators endlessly continued to discuss two explanations that would leave Spider-Man not even be technically [[ILetGwenStacyDie (co-)responsible for the killing of his girlfriend]]. One was that either Spider-Man couldn't have saved her no matter what he did, that she would have died from the fall anyway, but unfortunately that was somewhat exploded by the fact that not only did Spider-Man prove able to save Gwen's life in a ''What If'' story, but he also managed to save other people from near-identical situations in the mainstream reality. The other possible explanation used is that Gwen was already dead when her body was thrown off of a bridge. This can be seen as consistent with the evidence of ASM #121, where Gwen shows no sign of consciousness (or life?) from the beginning of the entire scene on the bridge.
** However, a later issue of Marvel Team-Up complicates the matter once more. In this issue, Spider-Man teamed up with the Black Widow to stop the Silver Samurai. In an effort to distract the heroes, the Silver Samurai damages the base of a nearby building that is under construction, causing a worker to fall off the roof. Spider-Man immediately leaps up the building to catch the man with his webbing, ''while his internal monologue is this:'' "Careful! Snag him smooth and let his momentum swing him towards me. No sudden jerks or his neck will snap like a dry twig. ''Like Gwendy's neck snapped.''"

[[caption-width-right:320:[[https://www.topatoco.com/graphics/00000001/ssc_lincoln.png It was self-defense.]]]]

A form of characterization resulting from ExecutiveMeddling used to prevent a hero character from seeming too sadistic. Normally, the original scene is a typical example of ShootTheDog; in the edited version of the scene, it's basically self-defense meets KarmicDeath, even if the original shooting was in self-defense. Some call it [[{{Bowdlerise}} Bowdlerising]], some call it necessary, and it has spawned the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_shot_first "Han Shot First"]] meme. [[labelnote:For what it's worth...]] A law professor says [[https://www.al.com/opinion/2015/12/ua_professor_han_solo_was_lega.html Han was totally within his rights to shoot first]].[[/labelnote]]

Goodie and Baddie struggle on edge of building. Goodie drops Baddie off edge of building.

Goodie and Baddie [[ClimbingClimax struggle on edge of building]]. Baddie winds up hanging from the arm of Goodie. Baddie shoots at Goodie '''[[TooDumbToLive while hanging onto his arm]]'''; Goodie, while dodging the bullet, is forced to let the Baddie fall.

Sometimes this trope comes into play without ExecutiveMeddling. The writer assumes that the audience will lose sympathy with a hero who kills preemptively (and in some case might be accurate, ''if'' the audience feels the hero was portrayed in a way that such an action would be against character).

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'', Pannacotta Fugo in the manga was expelled from university for beating his professor with a textbook, but does not elaborate. The anime makes the professor a pedophile who had been molesting him, making Fugo's act of lashing out at him more sympathetic.

* ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'': Batman is holding a gun to the head of the BigBad who has caused destruction and murder on a cosmic scale though Wonder Woman convinces him IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim. In the original release of the issue, one panel has a "CHAK" sound effect to indicate Batman chambering a round. Several fans assumed the effect indicated Batman was pulling the trigger and the villain only survived because of an empty gun, causing a small uproar. For the trade, DC opted to remove the "CHAK" entirely to avoid confusion.

* In the first ''Film/JamesBond'' film, ''Film/DrNo'', Bond confronts Professor Dent. The original script called for Dent to get shot right off the bat, but execs chewed them out ("Oh, sure he has a license to kill. Just TakeOurWordForIt!") and the scene was changed so that Dent actually fires a gun's worth of missed bullets into a decoy before Bond interrogates him and picks him off. One snafu with this is that they took a line verbatim from the book for the new version of the scene, even though it made no sense anymore - in the book, the scene relied on Dent using a six-shot revolver (hence the BondOneLiner of "you've had your six"), while in the movie, he runs out after six bullets with an automatic that should have held at least seven.

* Inverted by the film adaptation of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing''. In the book, Gollum bites off Frodo's finger and takes back the Ring at Mount Doom, and he goes into an ecstatic dance and falls into the lava, destroying it by accident -- or rather destiny, since his fall into the "fires of Doom" was foreshadowed and predicted by Frodo himself not long before. In the movie, after Gollum bites off his finger, Frodo gets up and starts fighting Gollum for it, knocking them both off the edge where Sam rescues Frodo. Director Creator/PeterJackson thought it was more satisfying for the audience to see Frodo actually take part in the Ring's destruction, but it lacks some of the book's irony and downplays its theme of Providence: the Ring is destroyed not through conscious will or action, but by a factor beyond the characters' control. Frodo ultimately fails in his quest, as ''no one'' would have been able to complete it, but his uncle Bilbo's sparing Gollum's life out of pity all those years ago let Gollum live so that ''he'' would cause the Ring to be destroyed.
** For further irony: In one of [[Creator/{{JRR Tolkien}} Tolkien]]'s letters, he wrote that once Frodo was released from the burden of the Ring, it stopped being such a corrupting influence. So fighting Gollum for it at that moment would have been a MoralEventHorizon.

* Seen in ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', the film adaptation of the [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} graphic novel of the same name]]. In Chapter VI ('The Abyss Gazes Also') of the graphic novel, [[spoiler:Rorschach fatally injures a prison inmate by burning him with cooking oil. The reader is supposed to understand both that Rorschach's life is threatened and that Rorschach fatally disables his assailant pre-emptively, pre-emptively as in the inmate has his knife ready and tells him more or less that he is going to carve him up. In the film, the assailant manages to attack Rorschach first - whereupon Rorschach successfully defends himself with a metal cafeteria tray, renders the assailant senseless with the tray, and then kills him with a steam table cauldron full of deep fryer oil.]] Within the meaning of the trope, the effect is at best ambiguous. The graphic novel's Rorschach [[spoiler:reflexively attacks the Greedo analog first]], but the movie's Rorschach [[spoiler:smashes a glass window to grab the oil and deliberately kills a man whom he has already disarmed, disabled, and knocked to his knees]]. As unnecessary as the finishing move was, Rorschach did it to show the other inmates what he would do to them if they came after him.

* ''Film/WestSideStory2021'': In this version of the story, it is made clear that the Sharks were formed to stop the Jets from harassing their neighbors and messing up their stores. The stage musical and 1961 original film, the Sharks were simply encroaching on the Jets' territory.

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', the Warners would only screw with people who were mean to them first. This allowed them to be obnoxious, but still likable. However, in the original storyboard for "Plane Pals", which is available online, the Warners start messing with a guy on the plane first. The studio thought this made the Warners look needlessly cruel, and had the writers change it so the guy was antagonistic before the Warners did anything to him.

A form of characterization resulting from ExecutiveMeddling used to prevent a hero character from seeming too sadistic. Normally, the original scene is a typical example of ShootTheDog; in the edited version of the scene, it's basically self-defense meets KarmicDeath, even if the original shooting was in self-defense. Some call it [[{{Bowdlerise}} Bowdlerising]], some call it necessary, and it has spawned the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_shot_first "Han Shot First"]] meme.

* In the ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #121, thanks to the much-debated "Snap!" sound effect, it appears as if Franchise/SpiderMan accidentally killed Gwen Stacy when she was falling by snapping her neck because he failed to properly consider the effect of snagging a person falling from a great height with his web and just holding fast. Unsatisfied with the explanation that the Green Goblin, the villain who pushed Gwen off the bridge, was obviously the man responsible for her death in any case, fans and Marvel creators endlessly continued to discuss two explanations that would leave Spider-Man not even be technically [[ILetGwenStacyDie (co-)responsible for the killing of his girlfriend]]. One was that either Spider-Man couldn't have saved her no matter what he did, that she would have died from the fall anyway, but unfortunately that was somewhat exploded by the fact that not only did Spider-Man prove able to save Gwen's life in a ''What If'' story, but he also managed to save other people from near-identical situations in the mainstream reality. The other possible explanation used is that Gwen was already dead when her body was thrown off of a bridge. This can be seen as consistent with the evidence of ASM #121, where Gwen shows no sign of consciousness (or life?) from the beginning of the entire scene on the bridge.

* In ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Batman is holding a gun to the head of the BigBad who has caused destruction and murder on a cosmic scale though Wonder Woman convinces him IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim. In the original release of the issue, one panel has a "CHAK" sound effect to indicate Batman chambering a round. Several fans assumed the effect indicated Batman was pulling the trigger and the villain only survived because of an empty gun, causing a small uproar. For the trade, DC opted to remove the "CHAK" entirely to avoid confusion.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]

* ''Blog/BetterBonesAU'': A rare case where it is not used to make a hero purer but make a villain more nuanced and less purely evil: in canon ''Literature/WarriorCats'', Darktail attacks Mistfeather first and kills him out of something like sadism. Here, Mistfeather now attacks Darktail first in revenge for the death of his mate Cloudmist, with Darktail coldly killing him while lamenting how he didn't want to do this but he was forced to.

[[/folder]]

* In the original LightNovel of ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'', Raphtalia is confronted with the noble who had tortured and enslaved her. She stabs him and throws him out a window. In the anime adaptation, she instead chooses to spare him, claiming that [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim killing him would make her no better than him]]. The noble then pulls out a sword and tries to kill Raphtalia, prompting her to fight back (albeit with a non-lethal sword that drains mana instead of causing physical wounds), culminating in the noble [[SelfDisposingVillain tripping over his own whip, which he dropped earlier, and falling out the window]].

* In the ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #121, thanks to the much-debated "Snap!" sound-effect, it appears as if Franchise/SpiderMan accidentally killed Gwen Stacy when she was falling by snapping her neck because he failed to properly consider the effect of snagging a person falling from a great height with his web and just holding fast. Unsatisfied with the explanation that the Green Goblin, the villain who pushed Gwen of the bridge, was obviously the man responsible for her death in any case, fans and Marvel creators endlessly continued to discuss two explanations that would leave Spider-Man not even be technically [[ILetGwenStacyDie (co-)responsible for the killing of his girlfriend]]. One was that either Spider-Man couldn't have saved her no matter what he did, that she would have died from the fall anyway, but unfortunately that was somewhat exploded by the fact that not only did Spider-Man prove able to save Gwen's life in a ''What If'' story, but he also managed to save other people from near-identical situations in the mainstream reality. The other possible explanation used is that Gwen was already dead when her body was thrown off of a bridge. This can be seen as consistent with the evidence of ASM #121, where Gwen shows no sign of consciousness (or life?) from the beginning of the entire scene on the bridge.
** However, a later issue of Marvel Team-Up complicates the matter once more. In this issue, Spider-Man is teamed up with the Black Widow to stop the Silver Samurai. In an effort to distract the heroes, the Silver Samurai damages the base of a nearby building that is under construction, causing a worker to fall off the roof. Spider-Man immediately leaps up the building to catch the man with his webbing, ''while his internal monologue is this:'' "Careful! Snag him smooth and let his momentum swing him towards me. No sudden jerks or his neck will snap like a dry twig. ''Like Gwendy's neck snapped.''"
* In ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Batman is holding a gun to the head of the BigBad who has caused destruction and murder on a cosmic scale though Wonder Woman convinces him IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim. In the original release of the issue, one panel has a "CHAK" sound effect to indicate Batman chambering a round. Several fans assumed the effect indicated Batman was pulling the trigger and the villain only survived because of an empty gun, causing a small uproar. For the trade, DC opted to remove the "CHAK" entirely to avoid the confusion.

* Inverted by the film adaptation of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing''. In the book, Gollum bites off Frodo's finger and takes back the Ring at Mount Doom, and he goes into a ecstatic dance and falls into the lava, destroying it by accident -- or rather destiny, since his fall into the "fires of Doom" was foreshadowed and predicted by Frodo himself not long before. In the movie, after Gollum bites off his finger, Frodo gets up and starts fighting Gollum for it, knocking them both off the edge where Sam rescues Frodo. Director Creator/PeterJackson thought it was more satisfying for the audience to see Frodo actually take part in the Ring's destruction, but it lacks some of the book's irony and downplays its theme of Providence: the Ring is destroyed not through conscious will or action, but by a factor beyond the characters' control. Frodo ultimately fails in his quest, as ''no one'' would have been able to complete it, but his uncle Bilbo's sparing Gollum's life out of pity all those years ago let Gollum live so that ''he'' would cause the Ring to be destroyed.

* In live action version of ''[[Literature/{{Discworld}} Hogfather]]'', Mr. Teatime grabs Susan's sleeve, which tears and sends him falling down the tower. In the original, she briefly wonders whether he's crazy enough to try and kill the person he's holding onto, probably lampshading how this usually goes, decides he would be, and kicks him. Presumably this was changed because [[PragmaticAdaptation viewers couldn't read her thoughts in the live-action version]], so they wouldn't have known her justification.

* Seen in ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', the film adaptation of the [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} graphic novel of the same name]]. In Chapter VI ('The Abyss Gazes Also') of the graphic novel, [[spoiler:Rorschach fatally injures a prison inmate by burning him with cooking oil. The reader is supposed to understand both that Rorschach's life is threatened and that Rorschach fatally disables his assailant pre-emptively, pre-emptively as in the inmate has his knife ready and tells him more or less that he is going to carve him up. In the film, the assailant manages to attack Rorschach first - whereupon Rorschach successfully defends himself with a metal cafeteria tray, renders the assailant senseless with the tray and then kills him with a steam table cauldron full of deep fryer oil.]] Within the meaning of the trope, the effect is at best ambiguous. The graphic novel's Rorschach [[spoiler:reflexively attacks the Greedo analog first]], but the movie's Rorschach [[spoiler:smashes a glass window to grab the oil and deliberately kills a man whom he has already disarmed, disabled and knocked to his knees]]. As unnecessary as the finishing move was, Rorschach did it to show the other inmates what he would do to them if they came after him.
--> "None of you seem to understand. ''I'm'' not locked in here with ''you''. '''''You're''''' ''locked in here with'' '''''me!'''''"

* In the theatrical release of ''Film/DirtyHarry'', Harry fired five shots during the bank robbery, then cocks the hammer when confronting the surviving bank robber, but lowers the hammer when the robber backs down. When he's told "I got's to know", he cocks the hammer - rotating the cylinder to an already fired chamber - then pulls the trigger, clicking the hammer against a spent round. In the DVD release, he fires six shots - an additional, offscreen shot is added when the getaway car pulls away - thus making his confrontation of the robber an empty threat.
* Both film versions of ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' change some of the main character's killings to be more justified. Towards the end of the films, Carrie causes Chris and Billy's car to crash when they try to run her over. She also only reluctantly kills her mother Margaret after she attacks Carrie with a knife. In the novel, Carrie deliberately seeks out Chris, Billie and Margaret to kill them after the prom disaster.
* ''Film/ChaosWalking2021'': In [[Literature/ChaosWalking the book]] Todd attacks and kills the [[HumanoidAlien Spackle]] in the river in cold-blood, assuming it would attack them. In the film the Spackle attacks Todd first, dragging him from his hiding spot and he fights back with his knife; he also ends up [[SparedByTheAdaptation sparing the Spackle]] at Viola's pleading.

** According to all the information found within [=WoW=] and the official site, the Stormpike dwarves went into Alterac Valley, disregarded pleas to go away and started digging the local orcs' graveyards for archeological treasures, which spawns a small war in the area. The RPG book tries to make this BlackAndWhiteMorality by saying the Stormpikes have lived practically three miles away for hundreds of years and the Frostwolf clan (who are typically portrayed by Blizzard as quite peaceful) invaded for [[ForTheEvulz no apparent reason]]. In this case, no explanation really makes sense. It seems that the orcs (who have only been on the planet for a couple of decades at that point), settled an area that was ''once'' dwarven, but abandoned for quite some time, only for the dwarves to return after it had been resettled and expecting to have a claim. The thing is, while it's out of character for the Frostwolves to invade an ancestral area, it was equally out of character for the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Ironforge Dwarves]] to start such a needless war (that was more of a Dark Iron thing).
** The original story of Anduin Lothar's death is that Doomhammer ambushed him while the later was on its way for negotiations. This is later {{retcon}}ned into Doomhammer challenging him to honorable combat and winning. Blizzard in general is fairly liberal in changing their lore as they see fit.

* Parodied in ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'' where Han and Greedo's identity are swapped... until "Greedo" shoots and kills Han and steals his identity. So "Han" shot first (and only), but he was calling himself "Greedo" at the time.

** The various [[ReCut Re-Cuts]] of ''Film/ANewHope'' provide one of the most infamous examples. Shortly after the smuggler Han Solo's introduction, the bounty hunter Greedo confronts him and holds him at gunpoint. They sit down at a nearby table to discuss the money Han owes to crime lord Jabba the Hutt, while Han surreptitiously unholsters his own gun. As the conversation breaks down, it becomes clear things won't end peacefully--but the exact ending depends on which version you're watching. In the original 1977 release, Han guns down Greedo preemptively. In the 1997 Special Edition, Greedo shoots first, [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy missing from point blank range]], and Han returns fire in self-defense. For the 2004 DVD and 2011 Blu-Ray releases, Han and Greedo both shoot near-simultaneously: Greedo is still slightly quicker on the draw, but Han is already preparing to shoot rather than just reacting. (Also, instead of Greedo missing from two feet away, Han dodges Greedo's shot thanks to [[SpecialEffectsFailure some questionable Photoshop editing]].) Finally, in the 2019 streaming version released on Creator/DisneyPlus, Han and Greedo shoot on exactly the same frame.\\

For other ways to accomplish something unpleasant while keeping the hero's hands clean, see BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork or PoisonousFriend.

* In the original LightNovel of ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'', Raphtalia is confronted with the noble who had tortured and enslaved her. She stabs him and throws him out a window. In the anime adaptation, she instead chooses to spare him, claiming that [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim killing him would make her no better than him]]. The noble then pulls out a sword and tries to kill Raphtalia, prompting her to fight back (albeit with a non-lethal sword that drains mana instead of causing physical wounds), culminating in the noble [[SelfDisposingVillain tripping over his own whip, which he dropped earlier, and falling out the window]].

*** It's turned on its head in the first encounter with the Infinite Dragonflight, when Arthas spots some non-infected citizens and attacks them [[NoSell to no effect]], before realizing that they're in disguise. Arthas essentially shoots first without realizing that "the dog" has a gun trained on him.

* The ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "Avatar Day" has something of an InUniverse example. A group of villagers insists that Avatar Kyoshi murdered their leader Chin several hundred years in the past. In reality, while Kyoshi admits she ''would'' have killed Chin if necessary, that's not how it played out. Chin was actually a warmongering imperialist whose forces were closing in on Kyoshi's peninsula, so Kyoshi separated the peninsula from the mainland (via ElementalPowers) to create Kyoshi Island. As the earth beneath his feet crumbled, Chin refused to accept failure, so he stayed on the collapsing ground and [[DisneyVillainDeath fell to his doom]] (and Kyoshi didn't raise a finger to save him). While what Kyoshi did was a far cry from what the pacifistic Aang would have done (and as Kyoshi herself points out, dead is dead), it was also a far cry from the cold-blooded murder she was accused of, and ultimately no worse than Han shooting Greedo.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker''. In the uncut original, [[spoiler:Tim Drake shoots ComicBook/TheJoker with a BangFlagGun while BrainwashedAndCrazy, visibly impaling him. The {{Bowdlerise}}d television broadcast turns this into the Joker being attacked by Tim instead and, after a brief struggle, slipping backwards and being electrocuted by some nearby exposed electrical wiring after getting entangled in them, dosed with water from a shattered container, grabbing a lever connected to the wires.

* The film version of ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' replaced the original Invisible Man -- a serial rapist and murderer, which only differs from Wells' original novel character in that the first is confirmed rather than implied -- with a burglar who'd stolen some of the first Invisible Man's potion. Granted, this was one of the film's ''lesser'' outrages, was due in part to some legal wranglings, and, in any case, asking mainstream moviegoers to accept a sex offender as a PG-13 hero wouldn't have gone over well.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker''. In the uncut original, [[spoiler:Tim Drake shoots ComicBook/TheJoker with a BangFlagGun while BrainwashedAndCrazy, visibly impaling him. The {{Bowdlerise}}d television broadcast turns this into the Joker being attacked by Tim instead and, after a brief struggle, slipping backwards and being electrocuted by some nearby exposed electrical wiring after getting entangled in them, dosed with water from a shattered container, grabbing a lever connected to the wires. Ironically, while the latter version is technically an accident and happens off-screen, the silhouette and scream make it even more gruesome.]] It's been said this is the recurring method the DCAU writers used to avoid censorship from Standards and Practices. "If you order us to change something, we will follow your orders [[LiteralGenie to the letter]] while making it [[NightmareFuel substantially more horrific".]] Though the edited scene also removes [[spoiler:some of the KarmicDeath feel and what is probably the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse's best last words ever]].
-->[[spoiler:'''The Joker:''' That's not funny... That's not--]]

** In the next TV adaption, ''Series/{{Nikita}}'', a corrupt cop kills a friend of Nikita's and then she takes the cop's gun and shoots him dead. Her actions are more justified then in the film but it is still murder.

-->-- [[http://boards.theforce.net/literature/b10003/26869763/p1/?17 [=TheForce.Net=] forums]] (referring to the destruction of Alderaan in ''Film/ANewHope'')

** The various {{Re Cut}}s of ''Film/ANewHope'' provide one of the most infamous examples. Shortly after the smuggler Han Solo's introduction, the bounty hunter Greedo confronts him and holds him at gunpoint. They sit down at a nearby table to discuss the money Han owes to crime lord Jabba the Hutt, while Han surreptitiously unholsters his own gun. As the conversation breaks down, it becomes clear things won't end peacefully--but the exact ending depends on which version you're watching. In the original 1977 release, Han guns down Greedo preemptively. In the 1997 Special Edition, Greedo shoots first, [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy missing from point blank range]], and Han returns fire in self-defense. For the 2004 DVD and 2011 Blu-Ray releases, Han and Greedo both shoot near-simultaneously: Greedo is still slightly quicker on the draw, but Han is already preparing to shoot rather than just reacting. (Also, instead of Greedo missing from two feet away, Han dodges Greedo's shot thanks to [[SpecialEffectsFailure some questionable Photoshop editing]].) Finally, in the 2019 streaming version released on Creator/DisneyPlus, Han and Greedo shoot on exactly the same frame.\\

-->-- [[http://boards.theforce.net/literature/b10003/26869763/p1/?17 [=TheForce.Net=] forums]] (referring to the destruction of Alderaan in ''Film/ANewHope''

-->-- [[http://boards.theforce.net/literature/b10003/26869763/p1/?17 [=TheForce.Net=] forums]]