Adaptation Explanation Extrication / Live-Action TV

• American Gods (2017) keeps Laura Moon's pet name "Puppy" for her husband Shadow, but doesn't explain why she calls him that. The novel explains that she always wanted a puppy, but couldn't get one because her and Shadow's apartment lease didn't allow pets; Shadow tried to cheer her up by jokingly saying that he could be her puppy, pointing out that he could do anything a puppy could. ^note  This explanation may or may not be canon in the show, since Laura is portrayed as having a cat called "Dummy". It can come off as a bit more condescending and mean-spirited in the show, since it implies that Laura sees Shadow as more of a pet than a husband.
• The pilot of Dirk Gently includes two notable scenes from the original novel: Richard Macduff stopping a message from reaching his girlfriend (by stealing her laptop rather than stealing a tape from her answering machine) and Dirk explaining about his involvement in the Schrödinger's Cat experiment. In the book, the first scene happens because Richard is unknowingly possessed, and the second is Dirk testing whether Richard is thinking logically enough to spot he's talking nonsense. Neither of these explanations come up in the series. (Although to be fair, series!Susan doesn't live in a high-rise flat, so climbing in her window isn't quite as much of an irrational action that needs explained and tested.)
• In Good Omens, it's explained that all tapes left in a car for more than a fortnight transform into Best of Queen tapes. In the show, not only does hardly anyone use cassette tapes anymore ^note Although Crowley's car is over 80 years old, and was built over 30 years before the invention of cassette tapes, it's never mentioned, so show-only viewers will just assume that Crowley really likes Queen.
• The Hexer: According to Chappelle, the head of Novigrad's secret service, no monster can even approach the Eternal Flame; thus everyone who claims they saw a monster on the city's premises is a blasphemer and heretic and needs to taken care of by the inquisition. In the books, Chappelle was himself a doppelgänger and was doing so to protect his brethren. In the series, this was cut off (although Geralt threatening Chappelle to be Killed and Replaced in order to make his own and Dudu's way out of the city was clearly a nod to the original ending) which makes Chappelle an oblivious fanatic.
• In Hogfather, the Librarian of Unseen University has written a letter to the Hogfather, with Ponder Stibbons noting that he can do this even though he's an adult because the rules are different for orang-utans. The Librarian doesn't appear in the TV adaptation, nor is his species mentioned, so it's not particularly clear why the wizards expect the Hogfather to show up in the library, or why this prompts Ridcully to wonder if he'd deliver to apes before humans.
• Legend of the Seeker: In the first book, the title of The Book of Counted Shadows^note an in-universe book that serves as the instruction manual for the Boxes of Orden refers to how the boxes each cast a different number of shadows when they're in direct sunlight. In the series, the boxes display no such quality, but the book keeps its title.
• One Piece (2023):
  • In general, the series doesn't bother to explain a large amount of the fantastical abilities that don't come from Devil Fruits, unlike the manga, which tends to have characters exposit how their or other character's abilities work. The result is that viewers who aren't familiar with the manga can easily mistake these abilities for being Devil Fruit abilities.
  • Kuro's ultimate ability, in which he moves faster than anyone (himself included) can perceive is rendered as a Flash Step type ability in this show. However, unlike the manga, in which it's explicitly explained how his ability works, this series never explains that what he's doing is moving too fast to see. From the perspective of someone who hasn't read the manga or watched the anime, one would think that he's actually teleporting.
  • In the manga, it's established in a flashback that Kuro faked his death by having Jango hypnotize Captain Morgan and one of his crew members into believing that the latter is Kuro, then allowing Morgan to take the crew member away to be executed. In this show, this flashback is never shown, and it's only stated that Kuro's supposed death was just a "clever ruse" performed by exploiting Morgan's ego.
  • In the manga, Kuina died after falling down a flight of stairs. In this series, she is just stated to have died in an accident.
  • In the manga, Sanji is established to only fight with his feet because he doesn't want to damage his hands and compromise his ability to cook, and so learned a martial arts style that's based around not using hands. The show doesn't include this information.
  • In both the manga and this show, Nojiko has a tattoo of the Arlong Pirates symbol. In the manga, she has this tattoo as a symbol of solidarity for Nami due to knowing about her plan to work for the Arlong Pirates until she's raised enough money to buy Cocoyashi Village from them. However, this show changes the story so that Nojiko doesn't know about Nami's plan, believing that she joined Arlong of her own volition and hates her for it, causing the existence of her tattoo to have no explanation.^note However, the scene in which Nami is forcibly given the tattoo could imply the idea that Arlong forced others to get the tattoo as well, Nojiko included.
• In The Screaming Staircase, Fairfax and the trio, while discussing Combe Carey Hall, bring up the "Red Room" and its many sordid theories about exactly why it was so named (including a rather nasty one about a Torture Technician English Lord). None of this is mentioned in Lockwood & Co. (2023) beyond the name of the room, although the same Bloody Horror (well, plasm horror) attack happens. As well, the story about the lord and lady who lost the favor of the King and massacred all their servants before killing themselves by (respectively) throwing themselves over the balcony and hanging themselves is left out - probably because it would be a shade too dark for an adaptation.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Luke claims that all of the demigods at camp have dyslexia and ADHD, but the series doesn't clarify why this is the case; the novels stated that the dyslexia was due to the brains of Greek demigods being 'hardwired for Ancient Greek', and the ADHD was a manifestation of battle reflexes. Ironically, the 2010 film had Grover explaining this to Percy.
• Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace: In the novel Hongli rapes Hailan then forces her to marry him. The series doesn't mention this, leaving it unclear why Hailan is so terrified of Hongli.
• In his original appearance in Silver Age Superboy, Mon-El was an amnesiac who Superboy assumed must be Kryptonian since he shared all his powers. Clark therefore named him "Mon-El" based on his own Kryptonian name. Even once he remembered he was a Daxamite named Lar Gand, he continued using Mon-El as his superhero identity in Legion of Super-Heroes. In Supergirl, Mon-El is his actual Daxamite name (Lar Gand is his father), and the fact this doesn't just sound Kryptonian but specifically like Kara's family isn't even commented upon.
• The Witcher (2019): Due to Jaskier's nickname being left untranslated, the fact that in the original Polish it means "buttercup" is left out of the show, as well as its relevance to his flamboyant personality.
• In The Worst Witch it's explained that it's tradition for the teachers and pupils to wear their hair loose at the Halloween celebrations. In season 1's Halloween Episode, this doesn't happen except for Miss Hardbroom. In season 2 it's only implied to be Halloween and there's no reason why all the girls are wearing their hair down for the celebrations. Especially since they're normally only ever shown with it down when they're in their nightgowns.

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