Tropescilloscope: Adaptational Heroism

A character is more of a hero in an adaptation than they were in the original material. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Beta Couple Stuff Blowing Up Destination Defenestration Book-Ends Index of Film Westerns Chase Scene Four-Temperament Ensemble Nothing Is Scarier Made of Iron Decoy Protagonist Make It Look Like an Accident Anti-Hero Blackmail Implacable Man Parental Substitute Action Girl Parental Neglect Jerkass Would Hit a Girl Sci-Fi Horror Informed Ability The Casanova Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold In Name Only Attempted Rape Cool Shades Death by Sex How We Got Here Fantasy Films The Great Depression Combat Pragmatist Only in It for the Money Demonic Possession Rule of Funny Deus ex Machina Random Events Plot Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Arc Words French Films Car Fu In the Back Blood from the Mouth As You Know A Father to His Men Serious Business Artistic License – History All There in the Manual Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? All Girls Want Bad Boys Badass Bookworm Revenge Japanese Films Dying Moment of Awesome Match Cut Sole Survivor Unspoken Plan Guarantee Undying Loyalty Be Careful What You Wish For Large Ham The '90s Insult Backfire She's Got Legs Slasher Movie Parental Abandonment Hidden Depths It Will Never Catch On Disproportionate Retribution Boom, Headshot! Even Evil Has Loved Ones Depraved Bisexual Last-Name Basis Big Fancy House Morality Pet No Antagonist After the End Adaptation Name Change Naked People Are Funny Does Not Like Shoes Humiliation Conga Shower Scene The Faceless All for Nothing Frame-Up Character Development 20 Minutes into the Future Big-Bad Ensemble Groin Attack Not So Above It All Anti-Villain Humans Are Bastards Vampire Fiction Market-Based Title Slashed Throat Villain Protagonist The Dreaded Pragmatic Villainy Green-Eyed Monster Spared by the Adaptation The Alcoholic Jump Scare Broken Aesop Works Set in World War II The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Gorn Corrupt Corporate Executive Wounded Gazelle Gambit Hollywood Law Adaptation Expansion And Starring Mighty Whitey Dual Wielding Chekhov's Skill Curb-Stomp Battle Call-Back Fingore What Happened to the Mouse? More Dakka Fiery Redhead Loophole Abuse Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Madness Mantra My God, What Have I Done? Rule of Cool Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Kill It with Fire Abhorrent Admirer Taking the Bullet The Ditz Adaptational Attractiveness Offscreen Moment of Awesome Your Head A-Splode World of Ham Outrun the Fireball Blood Knight Retcon Meet Cute Mundane Made Awesome Adaptation Dye-Job Handicapped Badass Camera Abuse An Arm and a Leg Very Loosely Based on a True Story Silence Is Golden Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Sinister Minister Animated Credits Opening Artistic License – Military Face–Heel Turn Insistent Terminology Adaptation Distillation Corpsing Non-Indicative Name Amoral Attorney Establishing Character Moment Those Wacky Nazis The Alleged Car Dull Surprise Married to the Job The Smart Guy Celebrity Paradox Aside Glance Homage Crazy-Prepared Bavarian Fire Drill B-Movie Creepy Child Hooker with a Heart of Gold Becoming the Mask Psychopathic Manchild Freeze-Frame Bonus Sexy Discretion Shot Casting Gag Bottomless Magazines Bad "Bad Acting" Narrator Early Installment Weirdness Heroes Want Redheads Woman Scorned For Want of a Nail Running Gag Grey and Gray Morality A.I. Is a Crapshoot Motor Mouth BFG Translation Convention Historical Villain Upgrade The Cavalry Suspiciously Similar Substitute Hope Spot Dirty Coward Stealth Hi/Bye Grievous Bottley Harm Affectionate Parody Military and Warfare Films Early-Bird Cameo Kick the Son of a Bitch Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Henpecked Husband NO INDOOR VOICE Dramatic Irony Drowning My Sorrows Disguised in Drag Black Comedy Rape No OSHA Compliance Cool Guns Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Curse Cut Short The Ace Man on Fire No Celebrities Were Harmed The End... Or Is It? Beware the Nice Ones Cowboy Cop Defiant to the End Small Name, Big Ego Alliterative Name Authority Equals Asskicking Honor Before Reason Leave the Camera Running Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Villain with Good Publicity Storming the Castle Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Hate Sink Killed Mid-Sentence Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism And I Must Scream Rewatch Bonus Evil Is Hammy I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Fire-Forged Friends Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Historical-Domain Character Didn't Think This Through Villain Ball Disney Villain Death Title Drop Hypocritical Humor Composite Character No Name Given Adaptational Badass You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Asshole Victim Those Two Guys Toplessness from the Back Noodle Incident Dirty Old Man Cruel and Unusual Death Actor Allusion Expy Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Eiffel Tower Effect Big Applesauce As the Good Book Says... Visual Pun Five-Man Band Hero Antagonist Hair-Trigger Temper Tagline Does This Remind You of Anything? Mad Scientist Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Psychological Thriller Every Car Is a Pinto Manly Tears Pretty in Mink timeperiod Not Using the "Z" Word The Voiceless Soundtrack Dissonance Gainax Ending Ascended Extra Deliberate Values Dissonance Ghost Fiction "Well Done, Son!" Guy Smug Snake Reasonable Authority Figure Worthy Opponent Star-Crossed Lovers Spanner in the Works Ugly Guy, Hot Wife The Mole Black and Gray Morality Moment Killer Race Lift Body Horror Animal Motifs Guile Hero Coming-of-Age Story Empathic Environment One-Man Army Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Big Eater Immune to Bullets Ax-Crazy The '70s Funny Background Event Major Injury Underreaction Due to the Dead Villainous Breakdown Dwindling Party Offscreen Teleportation Well-Intentioned Extremist Action Survivor Missing Mom Shown Their Work Batman Gambit Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Loads and Loads of Characters Mind Screw Anguished Declaration of Love Action Genre Red Shirt Sadistic Choice The Load Arranged Marriage Kill 'em All Knife Nut Improvised Weapon Defrosting Ice Queen Advertised Extra Punch-Clock Villain Fourth Date Marriage Pragmatic Adaptation Jerk Jock Woman in White La Résistance Shipper on Deck Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Imagine Spot Ungrateful Bastard Fun with Acronyms Brick Joke Only Sane Man Rule of Symbolism Guns Akimbo Tap on the Head Armor-Piercing Question It Can Think Scenery Gorn The '50s The '80s Catapult Nightmare Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Badass in a Nice Suit You Killed My Father Stock Footage Biopic Villain Song Anachronic Order "Awesome McCool" Name Retired Badass The Place Genre Throwback Fatal Flaw This Is Gonna Suck Actually Pretty Funny Adorkable Fish out of Water Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds A God Am I Funny Foreigner Crazy Jealous Guy For the Evulz Downer Ending Captain Ersatz Catch-Phrase Girl-on-Girl Is Hot '80s Hair Darker and Edgier Shout-Out Rule of Three Eyepatch of Power I Need a Freaking Drink Mexican Standoff Developing Doomed Characters Villain Opening Scene The Stinger Heel–Face Turn Canon Foreigner Hero of Another Story Berserk Button Cat Fight Twist Ending Product Placement Break the Cutie There Is No Kill Like Overkill Reality Has No Subtitles Self-Deprecation Wham Shot Silent Movie Bittersweet Ending Redshirt Army Face Death with Dignity Trailers Always Spoil Love Triangle War Is Hell Fanservice Extra Cat Scare Time Skip Central Theme Not So Different Malevolent Masked Men Up to Eleven Science Fiction Films Dark Is Not Evil Fan Disservice Red Herring Public Domain Feature Films Off-into-the-Distance Ending Suddenly SHOUTING! N-Word Privileges Needs Wiki Magic Love No-Sell Let's Get Dangerous! As Long as It Sounds Foreign Evil Is Petty Epic Fail Friend to All Children Genre Savvy Ass Shove Hollywood Darkness Oh, Crap! Expository Hairstyle Change Brainless Beauty Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Greater-Scope Villain It's All About Me Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Faking the Dead "Shaggy Dog" Story Bond Villain Stupidity Double-Meaning Title Lock and Load Montage Serial Killer Christmas Movies Index Awesome, but Impractical Bring My Brown Pants Unresolved Sexual Tension Author Appeal Gratuitous English Really Gets Around Camp Gay Determinator May–December Romance The Hero Sequel Escalation Film Noir Index Line-of-Sight Name Mood Whiplash Hong Kong Films The Big Guy Real Life Deconstruction Pet the Dog Hell Is That Noise Scary Black Man Super Strength Double Entendre Hoist by His Own Petard Artistic License – Gun Safety The Film of the Book Fatal Family Photo Obstructive Bureaucrat Important Haircut Word of God Peek-a-Boo Corpse Jerkass Has a Point Amusing Injuries Fanservice Heel Realization Neck Snap Manipulative Bastard Spell My Name with an "S" Plot Hole Film Series Police are Useless Kids Are Cruel Bald of Evil Covers Always Lie Naïve Newcomer Final Girl Redemption Equals Death Dumb Blonde Age Lift Gone Horribly Right The Remake Drugs Are Bad Danny Peary Cult Movies List Knight Templar Dark and Troubled Past True Companions Eldritch Abomination Manic Pixie Dream Girl Martial Arts Movie Superhero The Vamp Shoot the Shaggy Dog Exact Words The Lancer Rousing Speech Bilingual Bonus Mythology Gag Dogged Nice Guy I Have Your Wife Off with His Head! Cluster F-Bomb Would Hurt a Child Jitter Cam Instant Death Bullet Training Montage Exactly What It Says on the Tin The Dog Bites Back Totally Radical Big Bad Credits Gag The Ghost Deadpan Snarker Pre-Mortem One-Liner Pimped-Out Dress Here We Go Again! Punny Name Light Is Not Good "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Irony Novelization Enemy Mine Mr. Fanservice Sassy Black Woman Manchild Idiot Ball Interrupted Suicide Re-Cut Meaningful Name Butt-Monkey Properly Paranoid Put on a Bus A Minor Kidroduction Those Two Bad Guys Wretched Hive Mugging the Monster Bi the Way The Dragon Death Glare Monumental Damage All Just a Dream Made of Explodium Costume Porn Room Full of Crazy Obviously Evil No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Not So Stoic Romantic Comedy O.O.C. Is Serious Business Air-Vent Passageway Only a Flesh Wound Sports Stories Male Gaze The Stoic Bound and Gagged British Films Even Evil Has Standards Blatant Lies Femme Fatale Mistaken for Gay Karmic Death Bloodier and Gorier Too Dumb to Live Artistic License – Biology Only One Name Badass Boast Leitmotif Have a Gay Old Time Famous Last Words Red Eyes, Take Warning Jerk with a Heart of Gold Posthumous Character Russian Films Dropped a Bridge on Him Based on a True Story Stylistic Suck Historical In-Joke What the Hell, Hero? Race Against the Clock Older Than They Look Slap-Slap-Kiss Documentary Love at First Sight Same Language Dub Sealed Evil in a Can Cassandra Truth Took a Level in Badass Retirony Domestic Abuse Captain Obvious Conspicuous CG Dutch Angle Bullying a Dragon Distracted by the Sexy Author Avatar The Cameo Show Within a Show Canadian Movies Overly Long Gag Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Fate Worse than Death Soft Glass Bunny-Ears Lawyer Leaning on the Fourth Wall Get Out! Taking You with Me The Starscream Almost Kiss No Ending Scenery Porn Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Ambiguous Ending Black Comedy Australian Movies Skewed Priorities Playing Gertrude The '60s Bare Your Midriff Genre Shift Darkest Hour Never Trust a Trailer Ripped from the Headlines Bloodless Carnage "The Reason You Suck" Speech Red Oni, Blue Oni Dark Reprise Dramedy Drill Sergeant Nasty Karma Houdini Pretty Little Headshots Artistic License – Physics Precision F-Strike Easily Forgiven Laser-Guided Karma Ominous Latin Chanting The Mafia Reality Is Unrealistic Tranquil Fury Reckless Gun Usage Brother–Sister Incest Drives Like Crazy Fat Bastard Vitriolic Best Buds The Bully Flashback Vomit Indiscretion Shot Slasher Smile Protagonist Title Bland-Name Product Bolivian Army Ending Chewing the Scenery Your Cheating Heart Gold Digger Victoria's Secret Compartment Truth in Television Animal Title Index I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Accidental Murder Stealth Pun Gender Flip Insane Troll Logic Beard of Evil Dirty Cop The Sociopath Names to Run Away from Really Fast Romantic False Lead Adaptational Villainy Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other I'm a Humanitarian Together in Death Intergenerational Friendship Paper-Thin Disguise Not Even Bothering with the Accent Action Prologue Wrong Genre Savvy Deal with the Devil Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Chiaroscuro folderlabel Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun MacGuffin Creator Cameo Took a Level in Jerkass Bait-and-Switch Riddle for the Ages Abusive Parents Evil Laugh The Chick Plucky Comic Relief Cool Old Lady Driven to Suicide Alas, Poor Villain Arch-Enemy Refuge in Audacity Mooks My Greatest Failure Adult Fear Beauty Is Never Tarnished Shut Up, Hannibal! The Power of Love Babies Ever After Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Brutal Honesty Anyone Can Die Neck Lift Our Vampires Are Different My Beloved Smother The Stoner She Cleans Up Nicely Vacation Films Belligerent Sexual Tension Zombie Stories All There in the Script The Musical Eye Scream Ship Tease Failed a Spot Check Comically Missing the Point Back from the Dead Recycled IN SPACE! Adapted Out The Bad Guy Wins Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Real Life Writes the Plot Thriller The Atoner The Chessmaster Unwitting Instigator of Doom Happily Married Fainting Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Bowdlerise From Nobody to Nightmare All Men Are Perverts Throwing Your Sword Always Works Broken Bird Mr. Exposition Apocalypse How Sacrificial Lion Creative Closing Credits Big Brother Instinct Bond One-Liner Children Are Innocent Mama Bear Bad Boss Yandere Nice Hat Unusual Euphemism Damsel in Distress Spiritual Successor Accidental Misnaming Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Freudian Excuse Papa Wolf Artistic License – Law Hypocrite Continuity Nod Say My Name Not What It Looks Like Sequel Hook Badass Longcoat The X of Y One Steve Limit Rape as Drama Rich Bitch Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Big Damn Heroes Calling the Old Man Out Big Bad Duumvirate Earn Your Happy Ending No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Heroic BSoD And the Adventure Continues Did Not Get the Girl The Lost Lenore Auto Erotica Evil Brit Only Known by Their Nickname Cain and Abel Evil Sounds Deep German Films Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Dies Wide Open Breaking the Fourth Wall Death Seeker Deliberately Monochrome Parental Incest Evil vs. Evil You Have Failed Me Half the Man He Used to Be Wicked Cultured Determinator aka: The Determinator Alpha Bitch Vomit Discretion Shot Once More, with Clarity! Meaningful Background Event Heroic Sacrifice Tempting Fate Suspiciously Specific Denial Never Found the Body Sir Swears-a-Lot Badass Grandpa Historical Hero Upgrade Police Brutality Faux Affably Evil The Quiet One Cold-Blooded Torture Getting Crap Past the Radar Poor Communication Kills Epic Movie Unreliable Narrator Television Movie Index Not Quite Dead Anachronism Stew An Axe to Grind As Himself Psycho for Hire Death of a Child Chekhov's Gun Kubrick Stare Affably Evil Bar Brawl Cloudcuckoolander The Oner Shirtless Scene Red Right Hand Flipping the Bird Shell-Shocked Veteran The Reveal Horror Films Everyone Has Standards Laughing Mad An Aesop Demoted to Extra Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Gory Discretion Shot Evil-Detecting Dog Call-Forward Sanity Slippage A Date with Rosie Palms Politically Incorrect Villain Crapsack World Rated M for Manly Intrepid Reporter Lampshade Hanging Dark Action Girl From Bad to Worse You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Improbable Aiming Skills Ambiguously Gay Scare Chord Fake Shemp Award-Bait Song Bloody Hilarious I Did What I Had to Do Overprotective Dad Extremely Short Timespan It's Personal Gilligan Cut Stalker with a Crush Mystery and Detective Films Evil Counterpart Ambiguous Disorder Department of Redundancy Department Pay Evil unto Evil Diabolus ex Machina Break the Haughty Smoking Is Cool Eagleland The Brute Whole Plot Reference Bury Your Gays Facial Horror Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Wham Line Obfuscating Stupidity Agony of the Feet Never My Fault Framing Device Adaptational Heroism Male Frontal Nudity He Knows Too Much Death by Irony Stepford Smiler Crucified Hero Shot In Medias Res Italian Films Closed Circle Take a Third Option Heterosexual Life-Partners Death by Adaptation Adults Are Useless Unusually Uninteresting Sight Broken Pedestal Card-Carrying Villain Dissonant Serenity Our Zombies Are Different Chekhov's Gunman Badass Normal Disappeared Dad Evil Plan Pyrrhic Victory Foil Logo Joke Nice Guy Black Dude Dies First Roaring Rampage of Revenge Straight Gay The Hero Dies Black Best Friend Daylight Horror One-Word Title Extreme Doormat Ironic Echo Reality Ensues Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Mercy Kill Rasputinian Death Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Big "NO!" Meaningful Echo Annoying Younger Sibling Despair Event Horizon Token Minority Antagonist Title Artistic License – Geography Take That! Foreshadowing Lighter and Softer Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Music Stories The Smurfette Principle Aluminum Christmas Trees Setting Update Good Is Not Nice Ms. Fanservice Better to Die than Be Killed The Un-Reveal Video Credits Foregone Conclusion Disney Death Country Matters Daddy's Girl Kick the Dog What You Are in the Dark Horror Comedy He Who Fights Monsters Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Contrived Coincidence Cool Car Betty and Veronica Fantastic Racism Improbable Weapon User Cool Old Guy Maybe Ever After Film Noir Men Are the Expendable Gender Spiteful Spit Dressing as the Enemy Left the Background Music On Eureka Moment Dramatic Gun Cock