Tropescilloscope: Adaptational Villainy

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

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