Media Adaptation Tropes

When a story existing in one medium is adapted into another medium (or several) and the pitfalls within.

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Tropes about the media, format, or quantity of the sources and adaptations

• Adaptation Amalgamation: An adaptation consisting of multiple stories merged together.
• Adaptation Overdosed: The work has been given a buttload of adaptations.
• Adaptation Sequence: A work is adapted, then the adaptation is adapted, and so forth.

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• All Musicals Are Adaptations: The tendency for musicals to be adapted from pre-existing works.
• Animated Adaptation: A non-animated work is adapted into an animated media.
• The Anime of the Game: An Anime based on a Video Game.
• Audio Adaptation: Visual media is adapted to an audio play or radio program.
• The Board Game: A work is adapted into a board game.
  • Themed Stock Board Game: A pre-existing board game is given an edition tying into a specific work.
• Comic-Book Adaptation: A work is adapted into a comic book from another medium.
• Compilation Movie: A movie made by editing together several episodes of a television show.
• Divided for Adaptation: A long work has the adaptation divide it into two or more installments.
• Film Adaptation (Live-Action)
• Licensed Game: A work is adapted into a video game.
  • License-Added Game: A pre-existing video game has a version where the game is retooled to tie into a specific franchise.

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• Live-Action Adaptation: A work is given an adaptation done in live-action.
• The Movie: A work is given a film adaptation.
  • The Film of the Book: A book is given a film adaptation.
  • The Film of the Play: A play is given a film adaptation.
• Non-Serial Movie: A television series is given a movie that is not canon.
• Novelization: A work is adapted into a novel.
• Pinball Spin-Off: A video game is adapted into a pinball game.
• Recursive Adaptation: An adaptation is given its own adaptation in the medium of the original work.
• Recycled: The Series: A movie's premise is adapted into a weekly television series.
• Repurposed Pop Song: A popular song is repurposed for advertising.
• The Role-Playing Game: A work is adapted into a tabletop role-playing game.
• Screen-to-Stage Adaptation: A film is adapted into a stage play.
• Secondary Adaptation: The adaptation is given an adaptation of its own.

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• The Show of the Books: A television show adapted from a book series.
• Sound-to-Screen Adaptation: An audio play or radio show is adapted to visual media.
• Themed Tarot Deck: A tarot deck based on a specific series.
• Tie-In Novel: A work is given an out-of-continuity book adaptation.

Tropes about the details of the development and release of the adaptation

• Ability over Appearance: The adaptation's crew casts an actor who best acted the part, not who looked the part of a character from the original work.
• Adaptation First: The adaptation is localized before the original work.
• Freestyle Version: An artist uses someone else's music for a song, but sings their own lyrics.
• Hard-to-Adapt Work: A work is considered difficult to adapt into other mediums.
• No Adaptations Allowed: The creator refuses to allow adaptations of their work to be made.
• Overtook the Manga: The adaptation wraps up the story before the original work reaches its conclusion.
• Overtook the Series: The adaptation runs out of stories from the original work to keep the adaptation going, so it continues with new stories.
• Patched Together from the Headlines: Multiple news stories and hot-button issues are mingled together in an adaptation.
• Self-Adaptation: The adaptation is created by the same person who made the original work.
• Title: The Adaptation: The adaptation's title consists of the work's title, with a subtitle specifying the medium of the adaptation (e.g.: Trope Adventures: The Graphic Novel).

Tropes about the audience and critical perception of the adaptation

• Adaptation Displacement: The adaptation becomes more well-known than the original work.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: An adaptation that has a lasting effect on the opinion of the overall franchise.
• Covered Up: The cover of a song becomes more prominent than the original.
• Creator-Preferred Adaptation: The creator finds the adaptation to be superior to their original work.
• Disowned Adaptation: The creator of the original work does not like the adaptation.
• Unexpected Character: The adaptation includes a character from the source material who audiences would not expect for whatever reasons, chiefly thematic or licensing.
• Video Game Movies Suck: The opinion that film adaptations of video games are awful.
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: Shoddy video game adaptations.
  • No Problem with Licensed Games: When the licensed game actually does the source material justice.

Tropes about changes to the overall tone or style within the adaptation

• Actionized Adaptation: The adaptation is more action-oriented than the original work.
• Adaptation Inspiration: The adaptation has the same premise as the original work, but not the same tone or presentation.
• Adaptational Mundanity: The adaptation tones down or even flat out discards any supernatural and fantastical elements from the source material, making the story more grounded in reality.
• Big Damn Movie: A film adaptation is more dramatic than the source material.
• Bleached Underpants: A work featuring mature content is given an adaptation that is more kid-friendly.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The adaptation is more violent than the original work.
• The Cover Changes the Meaning: The song cover plays the song in a different tone or context from the original version.
• Darker and Edgier: The adaptation is darker, grittier, and more mature than the original work.
• Denser and Wackier: The adaptation is sillier and more comedic than the source material.
• Early Adaptation Weirdness: An adaptation varies heavily from the later, more standardized canon of the source.
• Hotter and Sexier: The adaptation contains more nudity and/or sexual content than the original work.
• Human-Focused Adaptation: An adaptation reduces non-human characters' roles so the work focuses on newly-created human characters.
• Indecisive Medium: A work in one medium uses stylistic quirks from another medium.
• In Name Only: The adaptation differs so much from the original work that the shared title is the only indication that the work is an adaptation.
• Kinder and Cleaner: The adaptation uses cleaner language than the source material.
• Lighter and Softer: The adaptation is more lighthearted than the original work.
• Lost in Imitation: The adaptation is influenced more by previous adaptations than the original work.
• Recycled In Space: The adaptation is basically the original work with a gimmick added.
• Ruder and Cruder: The adaptation is more profane than the original.
• Softer and Slower Cover: A song cover that is quieter and slower than the original song.
• Tamer and Chaster: The adaptation has less sexual content than the original work.
• Truer to the Text: When an adaptation is more faithful to the source material than previous adaptations.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: A work is essentially an exaggerated account of real-life events.

Tropes about specific in-universe character or storyline changes in the adaptation

• Abled in the Adaptation: A character with a disability in the original work doesn't have that disability in the adaptation.
• Accent Adaptation: A translation gives characters different accents than they had in the original language.
• Adaptational Abomination: Characters are made into Eldritch Abominations in-adaptation.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: The adaptation ends differently from the original work.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The adaptation makes a character more angst-ridden than they were in the original work.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: The adaptation makes a character more attractive than they were in the original work.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: The adaptation changes a character's origins.
• Adaptational Badass: The adaptation makes a character more impressive in terms of powers and/or combat skills.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: The adaptation makes a character serve as comic relief when they did not have that role in the original work.
• Adaptational Context Change: The adaptation has a song or piece of dialogue occur in a different context.
• Adaptational Curves: The adaptation makes a character more muscular or curvaceous than they were in the original work.
• Adaptational Diversity: The cast is more diverse than in the source.
• Adaptational Dumbass: The adaptation makes a character less intelligent than they were in the source material.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: A character appears earlier in the adaptation than in the source material.
• Adaptational Explanation: The adaptation expands on elements of the source material.
• Adaptational Intelligence: The adaptation makes a character smarter.
• Adaptational Job Change: The character has a different job in the adaptation.
• Adaptational Karma: A character who got away with their misdeeds in the original work receives punishment for their actions in the adaptation.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: The adaptation moves a character's debut to later than occurred in the source material.
• Adaptational Modesty: The adaptation has a character wear clothes that are less revealing.
• Adaptational Nationality: The adaptation changes what country the character is from.
• Adaptational Nonsapience: A character intelligent enough to speak is no longer sapient in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Self-Defense: An act of first aggression is changed to be self-defense in the adaptation.
• Adaptational Sexuality: A character's sexual orientation is changed in the adaptation.
• Adaptational Skimpiness: The adaptation has a character wear clothes that are more revealing.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: The adaptation changes what powers a character has.
• Adaptational Ugliness: The adaptation makes a character uglier than they were in the original work.
• Adaptational Wimp: The adaptation makes a character less impressive than they were in the original work.
• Adaptation Decay: An adaptation of a work is distorted between media.
• Adaptation Deviation: The adaptation makes changes to the original work.
• Adaptation Distillation: The adaptation removes or shortens elements to keep from running too long.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: The adaptation changes a character's hair and eye color.
• Adaptation Expansion: A short story is given an adaptation that's much longer due to more content added to the plot.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The adaptation keeps a plot point, but leaves out the reason behind it.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: The adaptation has a plot hole that wasn't in the original work.
• Adaptation Name Change: The adaptation gives a character a different name from the one they had in the original work.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: The adaptation makes it so that two or more characters with unrelated backstories now have connected origins or so that one character is involved with the origin of another.
• Adaptation Personality Change: The adaptation gives a character a different characterization from what they had in the original work.
  • Adaptational Heroism: A villainous character is made heroic in the adaptation.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: The adaptation makes a character meaner and less polite than they were in the original work.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: The adaptation makes a character nicer than they were in the original work.
  • Adaptational Villainy: A heroic or neutral character is made evil in the adaptation.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: The adaptation changes the relationship between two characters.
• Adaptation Species Change: The adaptation changes a character's species.
• Adapted Out: The adaptation omits a character or plot element from the source material.
• Age Lift: The adaptation changes a character's age.
• Anthropomorphic Animal Adaptation: The adaptation changes human characters into anthropomorphic animals.
• Ascended Extra: When the adaptation gives a minor character from the original work a more prominent role.
• Big Bra to Fill: The actress chosen to play a character in the adaptation has smaller breasts.
• Canon Character All Along: A character in the adaptation initially appearing to be a Canon Foreigner turns out to actually be the adaptation's interpretation of an already established character.
• Canon Foreigner: The adaptation features a character who didn't exist in the original work.
• Canon Immigrant: A character created for the adaptation ends up being added to the continuity of the original work.
• Character Exaggeration: The adaptation makes a character into a caricature of their original incarnation.
• Chickification: A female character who can do well in a fight and look after herself is made helpless in the adaptation for the sake of the plot.
• Cipher Scything: Adaptation of a video game with a featureless protagonist either gives the main character more depth and personality or leaves them out.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Adaptations of superhero comics only have heroes and/or villains addressed by their real names.
• Composite Character: The adaptation merges multiple characters into one.
• Compressed Adaptation: The adaptation leaves out some scenes in order to manage a reasonable running time.
• The Cover Changes the Gender: A song cover changes the gender of the original song's viewpoint character.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Sequels to a game with Multiple Endings only regard one ending as canon.
• Death by Adaptation: The adaptation kills off a character who remained alive in the original work.
• Decomposite Character: The adaptation splits a character into two or more characters.
• Demoted to Extra: The adaptation reduces a prominent character to having a less important role.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: A character's death differs from how they died in the original work.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: The adaptation gives a character a disability that they didn't have in the original work.
• Divergent Character Evolution: An adaptation redesigns a group of two or more identical characters and gives them differing personalities and characterizations so that they are easier to tell apart and aren't just clones of each other.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A character has a minor appearance before they are properly introduced later in the same work, in a sequel, or in their own series.
• Exiled from Continuity: An adaptation leaves out a character because of some restriction preventing the character from being used, often issues concerning potential copyright or trademark violations.
• Gender Flip: The adaptation changes a character's gender.
• God-Created Canon Foreigner: A character exclusive to the adaptation was created by the original work's creator.
• Happily Ever Before: The adaptation avoids the original work's Downer Ending by ending the story before things get sad.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: A historical figure is made more impressive than they were in real life.
• Historical Beauty Update: A historical figure is made more attractive than they were in real life.
• Historical Downgrade: A historical figure is made wimpier and more incompetent than they were in real life.
• Historical Gender Flip: A historical figure is depicted as the opposite gender.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: A historical figure is made more benevolent than they were in real life.
• Historical Villain Downgrade: A historical figure is made less evil than they were in real life, but is not necessarily portrayed as good.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: A historical figure is made more villainous than they were in real life.
• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: When characters take on their most well known traits in an adaptation.
• Marquee Alter Ego: The adaptation (specifically Live-Action Adaptation) has a character with a unique facial appearance or mask take it off to showcase the actor's face.
• Meta Origin: The adaptation makes it so that all characters' origins were tied to a single event.
• Movie Superheroes Wear Black: Film adaptations of superhero comics have the heroes wear black costumes or costumes with darker colors than what were worn in the comics.
• Named by the Adaptation: The adaptation gives a nameless character a name.
• New Rules as the Plot Demands: Established rules are broken for narrative convenience.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: A work of fiction uses a character that's an obvious stand-in for a real-life historical figure.
• Not as You Know Them: The adaptation's interpretation of a character is inconsistent with their established and generally accepted characterization.
• Not His Sled: The adaptation of a work with a well-known plot twist alters the plot twist to surprise people expecting the adaptation to be exactly like the original work.
• Not Wearing Tights: Superhero comic adaptation has the hero wear regular clothing only.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The adaptation changes or omits elements from the original work that would be difficult or impossible to leave as they were in the source material.
• Promoted to Love Interest: The adaptation makes a character into a love interest.
• Race Lift: The adaptation changes a character's ethnicity.
• Reimagining the Artifact: The adaptation takes The Artifact from the source material, and reconceptualizes it to accommodate the new medium.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: The adaptation changes how characters are related (when they were already related in the original).
• Related in the Adaptation: The adaptation makes characters who weren't related in the original work family.
• Relationship Compression: The relationship between two characters develops quicker in the adaptation.
• Rogues Gallery Transplant: The adaptation (particularly of comic books) has the hero fight a villain normally associated with a different hero in the source material.
• Schrödinger's Cast: The adaptation has to work around a plot point dependent on a character who was killed off remaining alive or a character still alive in the adaptation having to die.
• Sequel Adaptation Iconic Villain: In an adapted work, an iconic villain from the source material is saved for the sequel.
• Sliding Scale of Adaptation Modification: A five-point system rating how faithful an adaptation is to the original work.
• Spared by the Adaptation: A character who died in the original work remains alive in the adaptation.
• Superhero Movie Villains Die: In superhero comic adaptations, the villains rarely cheat death.
• Team Member in the Adaptation: In the adaptation, a character is associated with a team or organization they have little to no association with in the original work.
• Third-Option Adaptation: An adaptation of an interactive work has a third choice made to get around picking between the two choices given in the source material.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: The adaptation changes it so that characters who were relatives in the original work are now unrelated.
• Woolseyism: Translation alters the dialogue so it works better in the new language.
• Xenafication: The adaptation makes a female more action-oriented.
• You Don't Look Like You: A character's appearance in the adaptation looks nothing like how they were depicted or described in the source material.
• Younger and Hipper: The adaptation makes a character younger.

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