Adaptational Sympathy in Western Animation.
- Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain
- The original show never dealt much with the Brain's motivations for taking over the world other than the occasional implication behind it—notably, one episode implied this was due to him being separated from his family, who lived in a can with a picture of the world on it—but nevertheless always kept him as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who only sought to take over the world so he could make it better. When Animaniacs, his parent show, was rebooted, the show revealed exactly why he sought to take over the world. As a young mouse, he was forced into a "learned helplessness" experiment where he was shocked every time he tried to eat a piece of cheese. He was so crushed by the experiment that he swore he would never feel helpless again, and decided to take over the world for that reason.
- The reboot also does this to, of all characters, Chicken Boo. His original skit saw him constantly wander into town in a Paper-Thin Disguise as a famous figure, get exposed as a chicken, driven out thanks to the townsfolk who once praised his name turn against him without a second thought, and he'd wander off as if nothing else happened. However, when the reboot explicitly forbade him from coming back, as he was Hated by All, he snaps and (apparently) kills all the other cast members out of revenge for being left out, as he rants about how it's not his fault that he was made such a Flat Character.
- Batman: The Animated Series probably has one of the most iconic cases of this trope. Victor Fries is revised from a standard ice-themed criminal into a scientist who is trying to cure his terminally ill wife. His transformation into Mr. Freeze was caused by a corrupted businessman and any crime he commits is only done to fund his research for a cure for his wife. After this version of Mr. Freeze debuted, subsequent appearances of Doctor Fries usually give him a backstory or base him very similarly to his Animated Series counterpart.
- Homelander's Origins Episode in The Boys: Diabolical portrays him as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds whose Start of Darkness was instigated by the trauma of his lab rat childhood and Madelyn's grooming, while in the show he's a complete narcissist with few redeeming qualities (and even less in the original comic).
- DuckTales (2017) does this to several characters from the Disney Ducks Comic Universe, the 1987 series, and Darkwing Duck:
- This includes Flintheart Glomgold, of all characters. The original Carl Barks comic treated him as an unambiguous villain right off the bat, as did the original cartoon. This show takes it one step further by showing that he was once Duke Baloney, a young shoe-shiner in Johannesburg, South Africa, who Scrooge stiffed on the job as part of an attempt to symbolically teach the young boy in the same way he was once taught to make a fortune. Baloney stole a wallet Scrooge accidentally left behind, and devoted his life to destroying him.
- Magica DeSpell, whom, unlike in the original stories where she was just a Card-Carrying Villain, has every reason to hate Scrooge, thanks to him reflecting back a spell that turned her brother Poe into a raven, causing him to fly away and never be seen again. Notably, unlike a lot of other antagonists, Scrooge actually regrets this one when he's reminded of it.
- F.O.W.L. is a typical villainous organization bent on committing acts of world larceny (hence their name being the Fiendish Organization for World Larceny) so they can enrich themselves further. When the group was added into the world of the DuckTales reboot, they still seek to enrich themselves, but their goal is to stabilize the world and rid it of constant chaos—or at least their founder, Bradford Buzzard does, as the rest of the group only seeks to act like typical supervillains and conquer everything in the most grandiose way possible. This is further hammered in the Grand Finale, where Buzzard reveals he wants to rid the world of adventure because his grandmother, Isabella Finch, took him on several daring (and highly dangerous) adventures that almost got him killed several times over, leaving him traumatized at the "chaos" he perceived, feeling the only way to rein it in is to get rid of it. This is in stark contrast to the nameless board of directors from Darkwing, who had no motivation beyond enriching themselves further.
- The Phantom Blot, usually an Arch-Enemy of Mickey Mouse instead of Scrooge McDuck is a Diabolical Mastermind who wants to Take Over the World in the comics. In this reboot however, it is revealed that he becomes a villain who Does Not Like Magic after Magica DeSpell destroyed his village For the Evulz and this made him adopt his Phantom Blot-persona and gave him an understandable reason to join the ranks of F.O.W.L.
- Negaduck, of all characters, was given this in the reboot. The original Darkwing depicted him as being its titular lead's Evil Counterpart from an alternate dimension, a Mirror Universe of swapped moralities know as the "Negaverse", and practically everything Negaduck does is to prove himself as the ultimate bad guy. In the DuckTales reboot, he used to be Jim Starling, the actor who played Darkwing in a TV show, until its cancellation (partially brought on by his own ego) left him without work and struggling to make ends meet, until learning he was being subject to The Other Darrin In-Universe for a rebooted movie of the show drove him over the edge and caused him to try to kill his replacement outright, only to have a My God What Have I Done Moment and sacrifice himself to save Launchpad from an explosion. Said Heroic Sacrifice inspires said replacement to become Darkwing for real... only for Jim to still be alive and twisted to become Negaduck himself.
- Darkwing himself (and a heroic version at that). The original Darkwing was a glory hound who, though fighting for the good of St. Canard, was clearly in it for the fame and glory he thought it would bring him, and had become a crime fighter for... reasons that have varied from story to story. With this new iteration, which treats Darkwing as a Show Within a Show, the young Drake Mallard was personally inspired by the show on how to be a hero, and though he develops a bit of an ego himself, his motivation is to inspire others the same way the show inspired him in the first place.
- It's subtly hinted at with Bushroot, albeit in a different way. The duck/plant hybrid from the original show was socially awkward and not really a bad guy in the traditional sense that he just wanted to be left in peace most of the time, and his schemes weren't nearly as harmless as Quackerjack or Megavolt. The one from the DuckTales reboot took the And I Must Scream route by making him as a mindless, zombie-like creature whom, though intelligent, was lost to the plant monster he had become. Even Darkwing and Launchpad don't even consider him a villain.
- In an episode of The Fimbles, Roly Mo tells a story that's a version of Goldilocks. In the original story, the bears are an example of Bears Are Bad News, but in this version, they're friendly, and Baby Bear in particular wants someone to play with and ends up making friends with Goldilocks.
- Iron Man: Armored Adventures: Arthur Parks is a much more sympathetic character in this cartoon series than in the original comic. Arthur Parks in the comics became a criminal because he was obsessed with two women, The first being his former fiancé Lucy Barton, who he believes left him because he did not have enough money, and The Wasp (Janet van Dyne), who he became infatuated with when he saw her superhero identity. And outside of his obsession, he was just a ruthless criminal and mercenary. In the cartoon, he has a genuine excuse for being abused by his mother, and it’s implied that he was unpopular with his peers growing up, causing him to grow up to be a criminal to get respect for himself. And it’s clear that he’s not after money or power, just respect. And it’s also clear that Arthur is a mentally ill man who needs help and is not malicious. And unlike his comic counterpart, he is not obsessed with women. The closest he came to that type of obsession is his platonic gratitude to teenage Tony Stark for helping him, but even then, it’s clear that he genuinely cares for Tony for the kindness he showed Arthur and ultimately, unlike his counterpart, redeemed himself to save Tony‘s life and stop being a villain.
- Jellystone! has The Banana Splits appear as villains like the R-rated live-action movie but it's implied here that the main reason they're evil is that they used to be cool in order to gain some respect.
- In a rare heroic example, the 1991 animated adaption of The Little Engine That Could does this for its titular locomotive (here, named Tillie) as part of its Adaptation Expansion. The original, unnamed engine pulled the birthday train because she was the only one willing to do it. Here, Tillie is constantly put down by the Tower in charge of the rail yard where she works, as well as the snooty diesel engine Farnsworth, for being "too little" to handle trains, so she's motivated to prove herself as an engine beyond being a simple switcher.
- Daffy Duck is famed as the Looney Tunes No-Respect Guy performer-wise, getting Chirping Crickets and pelting to the face from his audience simply for not being Bugs Bunny. Pretty much any work where his audience consists of franchise mainstays however makes their snubbing of Daffy feel far more justified, simply by virtue that most of them have dealt with Daffy's Jerkass behaviour and have a legit bone to pick with him. In The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie especially, Daffy spends the entire film leading up to his performance acting like a boorish Entitled Bastard, with most of the other irritated members being vocally clear he's doing no favours for himself popularity-wise.
- Masters of the Universe: Revelation:
- Skeletor wasn't given much of a backstory in the original animated series, and most iterations are usually He-Man's treacherous Uncle Keldor. This iteration claims he's this, as he reveals to Andra that nobody cared for him, even when he was a man. The tie-in prequel comic also claims that he was tricked into the service of the evil Hordak to try and bring back his dead wife and daughter, only for Hordak to give him a Sadistic Choice and only lets him bring back one. However, as this version is Practically Joker (complete with Mark Hamill voicing him), it's very likely he's lying. Well, perhaps not about Hordak at least, as the season finale reveals the hard way.
- Evil-Lyn is a more straight example of this trope. Her previous iterations had no backstory to speak of, but this one grew up as a street urchin when her parents tried to eat her on her birthday.
- Prince Adam, alias He-Man, is this to an extent as well. His past versions are always on the giving end of Keeping Secrets Sucks, not able to reveal his secret as Eternia's defender to his best friend Teela, or his father King Randor, who constantly puts him down for not being "man" enough. As this series serves as a Deconstruction of the mythos, it showcases how badly it affected Adam to hide this—when he dies fighting Skeletor, Teela and Randor are furious at having been kept in the dark like that, with the former quitting the Royal Guard and wandering Eternia to foreswear magic forever, while the latter exiles Man-At-Arms and practically destroys his marriage by blaming Queen Marla (who had figured it out long ago) from hiding it from him. Poor Adam is crushed to see how him hiding the truth affected things, but his brief transformation into Savage He-Man reveals he has a very deep hatred for how his father kept putting him down, as Teela bringing up the man's name sends him into a frenzy until Randor apologizes for his actions.
- Orko is perhaps the Trope Codifier for the Inept Mage, unable to cast the simplest of spells and making a fool of himself every time he tries. The original series showed he made up for this by having a good heart and being loyal to the people who took him in, but this show gave him crippling self-esteem issues from being such a constant screw-up
- Rankin/Bass Productions would do this with several icons of the holidays.
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The original story and song merely depicted Rudolph as a target of mockery for his usual nose, whereas the special showed the deep psychological effects of being mistreated in such a manner, not just by the other reindeer, but by his own father, and even Santa Claus himself. Several other figures in his position, notably Hermey The Elf and the residents of the Island Of Misfit Toys, were shown to help further Rudolph's plight.
- Frosty the Snowman: The original song didn't refer much to Frosty's plight other than his being threatened with melting in the heat. The special shows Frosty as being terrified of such a fate, his friends' efforts to help him get to the North Pole in time, and an evil magician who tries his damndest to steal Frosty's hat—the only thing keeping him alive—so he can enrich himself. It also helps that Frosty is aware that others still have to be warm, as in spite of his own nature to remain frozen, he tries to help Karen stay warm, even if it means he does melt after all.
- Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town: Most stories involving Santa Claus depict him as a saintly figure who goes out of his way to make children happy (barring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, where he was a jerk to the poor reindeer). This special depicts his origin story, showing him as a good-hearted man trying to do the right thing for a miserable town under the cruel thumb of the greedy Burgermeister Meisterburger, who wants to make everyone as glum as possible simply because a toy broke his foot—and it just so happens Kris Kringle wants to deliver them to the good little children. It also shows that his kind heart does in fact have an impact on others, as he got both Ms. Jessica and the misery Winter Warlock to make a Heel–Face Turn and help him out, simply because he acted from the goodness of his heart.
- The titular lead from The Little Drummer Boy didn't have much backstory in the original song other than going to Bethlehem the night of Jesus Christ's birth to play his drums for him in tribute. This version, named Aaron, lost his parents to bandits when he was a boy, and developed a hatred for humanity as a result. It takes him winding up at Christ's birth and playing his drums in tribute to help heal his heart.
- The famous Meiser Brothers from The Year Without a Santa Claus are depicted as a pair of bickering brothers—one driven to make the world warmer and the other to cover it in ice and snow—who have no backstories beyond hating each other's guts. The sequel, A Miser Brothers Christmas (made years after the company folded), shows that their mutual dislike of each other stemmed from constant childhood squabbles, and it was this that caused Santa to always stick them on the Naughty List, thus never earning them any Christmas presents. It's this revelation, combined with their bickering seemingly injuring Santa in a sleigh accident and their mother forcing them to make up for it by taking over from him, that causes the two to finally reconcile.
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series did this a fair bit:
- J. Jonah Jameson gets one of his nicest incarnations. He's still a sensationalist blowhard who runs a smear campaign against Spidey, but he does care about the truth and quickly issues retractions when presented with contrary evidence. He himself lost his wife to a masked shooter and targets Spidey as part of a personal campaign to prevent anyone else suffering the same fate.
- In the comics, Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, is a deranged sociopath. In the cartoon, due to behind-the-scenes issues, he couldn't become the Green Goblin until some ways into season 4, which means we get three seasons in which he is a sane man who has gotten in over his head in working with the Kingpin but sees no way out without putting his son in danger.
- Even the Kingpin himself is shown to genuinely love his wife and son, and to be truly devastated when his life of crime costs him his family.
- Spencer Smythe is only working for Norman Osborn to help his paralyzed son Alistair.
- Star Wars: The Bad Batch does this for the entire clone army. In Legends continuity, the clones were rewarded for their services to the Republic by being transitioned into the Empire, aside from those that rebelled on Kamino and saw their homeworld destroyed as punishment. In canon, the clones are pretty much tossed aside in favor of conscripted troops—which can be hired for twice as many clones at half the cost—with only those remaining continuing to serve in their positions until they end up being phased out, and the Empire destroys the entire Kamino cloning facility to keep the technology exclusively in their hands. Tellingly, while the inhibitor chip is canon to both continuities, the effects of it were never explored that deeply in Legends due to its discontinuation, while canon shows that the clones that did have it were deeply horrified at what they had done when it was removed, in contrast to the clones who followed Order 66 willingly and continued to serve the Empire without question—much like Crosshair ultimately does in canon without his chip later in the show.
- Star Wars Rebels, along with the aforementioned Bad Batch and the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars gives Captain Rex a more sympathetic outlook. In Legends continuity, he had relinquished his command of the 501st Legion to Appo before Revenge of the Sith, with no mention to his post-Republic fate. All three shows reveal exactly that—and the trauma that resulted in his Character Development—by revealing he did stay on as a Captain, only for Order 66 to go online, which resulted in him nearly killing Ahsoka while under the control chip's influence. Though freed, he was forced to kill the entire battalion of clones trying to kill them during the duo's escape. Once back in the galaxy, he initially fought against the Empire, until an as-yet-revealed incident led him to retire to the Outer Rim with fellow clones Wolfe and Gregor. He initially declines to aid Phoenix Squadron until the Empire drags him back into things, at which point he takes up arms again. After that, he has to deal with the Fantastic Racism of Kanan (who rightfully distrusts clones after Order 66 cost him his master) until the two become Fire-Forged Friends, and then supposedly the death of his old friend Ahsoka Tano, and later Gregor during their war.
- Terra from Teen Titans was a psychopath who was the partner/lover of Deathstroke and had no regrets betraying the Titans. Because of the bad implication of putting the blame on a young girl being manipulated by an older guy, adaptations have portrayed Terra much more sympathetically.
- In Teen Titans (2003), Terra is a runaway with zero control over her powers. While she does become friends with the Titans, she leaves when she thinks Beast Boy told them of her powers. Afterwards, Slade takes advantage of her and she becomes The Mole. And while she does betray the team, she is shown having some regrets and later performs a Heroic Sacrifice. Also, her romance with Beast Boy is shown to be genuine and not fake.
- In Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Terra is portrayed much closer to her comic counterpart but has a Dark and Troubled Past of being hunted down by a mob afraid of her powers. She then gets saved by Slade moments before getting shot. And while she does snark about the Titan gang, she is shown having genuine fun with them and also developing feelings for Beast Boy. And when she does betray the team, she herself is betrayed by Slade to Brother Blood.
- Young Justice (2010) goes in a similar direction to Teen Titans 2003 to show that Terra was trafficked from her family at a young age and forced to do work for the League of Shadows, who then install her among the heroes as a spy. As she had a far healthier family life here compared to her comic counterpart, she is shown to have had family who cared for her, most notably her brother Geo-Force. Other heroes, like Tigress (who was once in a similar position to her as the daughter of Sportsmaster), also try to help her out, and ultimately, it's revealed many heroes knew all along she was a mole, and letting her know this allows her to perform a genuine Heel–Face Turn her other counterparts attempted but never survived.
- Young Justice (2010) also depicts Cheshire in a more sympathetic light. In the comics, Jade is often portrayed as a sociopathic, untrustworthy murderer who cares for no one but herself. This show gives Jade a genuinely loving relationship with her sister Artemis and her husband Will. The show also delves into how Jade's abuse shaped her and shows her more vulnerable side.
- Transformers: Animated
- Optimus Prime, who in most versions before and after this show is depicted as The Stoic, A Father to His Men, and The Comically Serious most of the time, due in part to having undergone Flanderization during the course of the third season of the original series—a take of which almost every Optimus has been depicted as since. While most other stories usually give Prime sympathy by having him be allies and friends with Megatron until their inevitable ideological clashes drove them apart, with a lot of the consequences of the war weighing heavily on him, this Prime had the makings to be a hero, until he was drummed out of the Autobot Academy for an incident that apparently killed a fellow cadet—an incident of which his "buddy" Sentinel Prime let him take the fall for. This leaves Prime, who's now in charge of a ragtag bunch of misfits acting as protectors of the future Detroit, with doubts about his leadership capabilities and whether or not he has what it takes to truly be a hero. Over the course of the series, he would prove this to himself and to others by growing into the hero the world knows him as.
- This also applies to the show's version of Ratchet, a grizzled war veteran who's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and suffers from a seriously bad case of PTSD for having fought in a horrific war, lost a patient to seemingly permanent Laser-Guided Amnesia, and essentially being forced to use a Tyke Bomb version of a WMD to end the conflict for good. His grouchy demeanor hides the scars of having gone through all that pain, but he's able to warm up and let go of his demons.
- Waspinator, in a more traditional villainous example, gets hit with this to a very small extent. The original was a Butt-Monkey and a Cosmic Plaything who existed solely to get blown up, squished, trampled, or otherwise harmed in such horrific ways that he eventually up and quit. This Waspinator, once an Autobot named "Wasp", was framed for being a Decepticon spy, spent 50 years in the stockade going insane, and eventually was mutated into a techno-organic Wasp by Blackarachnia so he could get his revenge on the bot who put him there, Bumblebee. However, while he has a more tragic backstory than the original, some of the others (most notably Bulkhead) refuse to give him any sympathy, since he was a Jerk Jock back in Bootcamp that always picked on Bumblebee and Bulkhead for no good reason (even removing Bee's limbs for fun one time), so he's not entirely innocent.
- Blackarachia of Beast Wars fame was The Vamp, a keen example of Spiders Are Scary, had a Dating Catwoman style romance with Silverbolt, and only made a Heel–Face Turn because Megatron almost killed Optimus Prime as he lay in stasis on The Ark and nearly altered history, which would have killed her in the process. This version used to be Elita-1, a fellow cadet of Optimus and Sentinel's who apparently died on an unauthorized mission led by the latter to an energon-filled planet full of giant spiders. Her mutation into this form came about from trying to copy the spider's abilities and threw her lot in with the Decepticons because her "comrades" would have dissected her, and is shown to have a similar dynamic with Optimus like the original did with Silverbolt, only with more of a tragic connection between the two.
- Megatron is a downplayed example. He is still a ruthless dictator, though to some degree a Knight Templar who believes he is leading his Decepticons against "Autobot oppression" and is respectful or at least pragmatic enough to inflict sincere loyalty into his troops (or at least ones that don't betray him), while most other versions of Megatron are Card Carrying Villains who make as many enemies on their own side due to acting like petty volatile Bad Bosses. That and he gets slightly irritated at Lugnut's Undying Loyalty from time to time.
- Prowl, for another heroic example, is better known as The Stoic in most iterations (aside from his IDW Counterpart, who's a Well-Intentioned Extremist on a good day and a Straw Vulcan who can rival Shockwave on a bad day). He's still a stoic bot here, but he was changed to a draft dodger taught the ways of the Cyber Ninja by Yoketron, only to lose his master to the bounty hunter Lockdown before he could obtain total enlightenment, and spent years wandering the stars until Optimus Prime's crew found him and gave him a place he could call home. Prowl spends much of the series with an I Work Alone attitude before he slowly warms up to his teammates and obtains the inner peace he long sought by the time the series ends, although it tragically comes with him giving his life to ensure victory against Megatron.
- Zig-Zagged with Sentinel Prime. In all other continues, he's Optimus Prime's predecessor, with most media not giving him much of a backstory prior to this series. This Sentinel is...well, a Jerkass to the extreme, a Miles Gloriosus, The Neidermeyer, and an organic-hating racist who takes every opportunity he can to kick Optimus Prime when he's down. So what gives him any sympathy? His Freudian Excuse came from taking Optimus and Elita-1 on an unauthorized mission to an organic planet to snag some Energon, only for the three to be attacked by giant spiders. Elita apparently died on mission, haunting Sentinel and driving his actions from that point forward. Where he loses any sympathy is that he let Optimus take the fall for it, and he's still a jerk. Still, compared to other Sentinels, like his Hate Sink IDW-1 counterpart, or his Well-Intentioned Extremist Face–Heel Turn iteration from Transformers: Dark of the Moon, he's a bit more sympathetic here.
- Omega Supreme, the ultimate Autobot Weapon, existed in previous stories as either an ancient being or as a creation of the Quintessons who gained sentience—the original series notably showed that he was a happy bot until Megatron corrupted his friends, the Constructicons, into the villains we know them as today, and drained his emotions trying to do the same to him. This Omega is a Tyke Bomb the Autobots built when the war dragged out too long, and assigned Ratchet to guide him when Arcee was rendered comatose. The poor guy did his job, confused as to why he must destroy like a Decepticon even though Ratchet taught him to think like an Autobot, and wound up being placed in stasis for centuries when his injuries sustained in the final battle proved too much for his systems.
- Transformers: Cyberverse:
- Astrotrain is best known as a getaway driver for the Decepticons, with the original cartoon having given him a bit of a power-hungry streak. Here, he was a victim of Megatron-X, a much more monstrous version of Megatron who not only won the war, but replaced all his Decepticons with Tarn-eqsue clones to serve as his foot soldiers when the rest of his troops were no longer of use to him. Kept imprisoned and tortured, he willingly flees with the original Megatron to another dimension so he can flee from his master's wrath, and gladly takes his revenge on Megatron-X when Optimus Prime bests him. Tragically, he winds up being slaughtered in the end.
- Clobber, a Gender Flipped versioned of Animated Lugnut, undergoes this. The original Lugnut was a Boisterous Bruiser known for his Undying Loyalty to the Decepticon cause, a Battle Butler for an oft-exasperated Megatron, and gloriously destroying his enemies with his Punch Of Kill Everything. Clobber is more of a Butt-Monkey who gets caught between the aspirations of Soundwave and Shockwave, treated as little more than a goon to be disposed of, and genuinely fears for her life. It's no surprise that, when Season 3's Quintesson arc has Hot Rod bring her into the fold to take them down, she defects to the Autobots when they don't treat her like crap.
- Lockdown, another TFA veteran, has this to a similar degree as Clobber. His original iteration was a No-Nonsense Nemesis to Prowl and Ratchet, acting as a Bounty Hunter who gleefully took trophies from his captures and added them to his own body. Given that he's an Adaptational Dumbass who's just another one of Megatron's goons this time, like with Clobber, he's caught between Soundwave and Shockwave's aspirations for command and is scared he's going to be disposed of easily.
- Subverted with Tarn, the antagonist of The Perfect Decepticon. His IDW iteration was originally an old friend of Optimus Prime's named "Glitch", who was corrupted by Megatron into serving as the head of the infamous Decepticon Justice Division so the Decepticon leader could spite his foe, and was a vile and ruthless bot that devoted himself to the cause fanatically. It seems like this iteration is portrayed as being Forced into Evil when he and his brethren were created by the insane Megatron-X of another dimension to act as his mindless foot soldiers, and came to Optimus for help in wanting to choose his own path. It turns out to be a trick set by the crafty Tarn to place all the other drones under his control, forcing Soundwave to make a Heroic Sacrifice to stop him for good.
- Transformers Earthspark: Starscream undergoes this regarding his abuse at Megatron's hands. Normally, it's Played for Laughs and he would usually deserve it given how much of a backstabber he is. This time, his abuse is played for pure terror at how badly Megatron treated him, even when he didn't deserve it, leaving him with severe trauma over the ordeal. Even though this Megatron has undergone a Heel–Face Turn, Starscream can't bring himself to forgive the former Decepticon leader for all that he did.
- Transformers: Prime: Another heroic example, this show's version of Arcee, who, in the original series, largely benefited from The Smurfette Principle as the only Action Girl amongst a cast of almost entirely male robots, was shown to be a mix of Adaptational Badass, Composite Character with the Animated iteration of Prowl, and with a Dark and Troubled Past of losing both her partners (Tailgate and then Cliffjumper) to the war, causing her to develop an I Work Alone tendency in fear of losing anyone else. It takes the efforts of her human charge Jack to help her heal and open up once again.
- Ratchet, again, gets this case in this series, shown as having harbored a great deal of guilt for failing to fix the damaged Bumblebee's voice box, and his eventual feeling of uselessness that culminates in him testing synthetic Energon on himself, causing him to become much more abrasive until he's convinced to flush it out of his system.
- Megatron, as in the comics example, was once a gladiator and miner who was trying to overthrow an oppressive caste system that forced Cybertronians into roles based on their alt-mode, and worked with the young Orion Pax to accomplish it. But when the High Council granted the more peacefully-minded Orion the right to be the next Prime after Megatron flat-out threatened to overturn the government, he swore off all ties with his former friend and waged a war that destroyed their home. There are some hints he regrets fighting against his former friend (now Optimus Prime), and has regretted their war has ravaged Cybertron to an uninhabitable wasteland, but still blindly believes his way of thinking is right, and goes to many monstrous actions to prove it. In the end, it takes death, resurrection at the hands of Unicron himself, and realizing what tyranny truly feels like does he renounce his ways and goes into a self-imposed exile.
- Rabbit is a downplayed case in the Disney adaptation of Winnie the Pooh. In the original books, Rabbit was generally portrayed as a prying Jerkass who would at whim decide he didn't like newcomers like Kanga, Roo, and Tigger and try to force them to leave or traumatise them into not acting so out of place. This is kept in the Disney adaptations, however in those Rabbit is treated as far more of a neurotic Butt-Monkey, who either has a genuine qualm with their behaviour (such as Tigger) or is paranoid they are something far more belligerent (such as Kanga and Roo). In all cases, he admits he was wrong and becomes friends with them.
