Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Difference between revisions

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** In them both, Sophie decides to stay at her hat shop as the eldest child. In the book, it's because she's ([[Wrong Genre Savvy|Wrong]]) [[Genre Savvy]] about [[Youngest Child Wins]]. In the movie, she simply says she's staying because she's the eldest--leaving the audience to assume something involving inheritence, possibly.
** At the end of both, {{spoiler|when she has to return Howl's heart,}} she wants to know if Calcifer will still be alright. He says he will. In the book, it's explicitly because {{spoiler|Sophie can imbue things with magical powers just by talking to them, so she gave Calcifer a life of his own outside of Howl's heart.}} In the movie, it's [[Hand Wave|Hand Waved]] with Calcifer simply thinking Sophie is special somehow.
* The ''[[Negima]]: Another World'' [[OVA|OVAs]] don't even bother to explain the whole [[Thirteen13 Going Onon Thirty30|age-changing pills]] deal, confusing viewers who see Chisame and Chachamaru are now lolis... just because. To be fair, those [[OVA|OVAs]] were bundled with the current manga volumes so you'd expect viewers to know about them already.
* If you only watch the anime adaptation of ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]'', {{spoiler|you might wonder where the Snake of the Festival came from, and what motivated Yuuji to betray the Flame Hazes. This was foreshadowed early in the novels.}}
* In the manga of ''[[Yuru-Yuri (Manga)|Yuru-Yuri]]'', the girls decide to find (often silly) solutions for increasing Akari's popularity, after she had barely appeared in the last few chapters. In the anime adaptation they do this ''in the first episode already'', [[Decoy Protagonist|even though Akari appears to be the main character]], which makes it look like they are merely bullying poor Akari for no good reason.
* ''[[The Idolmaster (Animeanime)|The Idolm@ster]]'' - Some events in the anime series make a lot more sense if you've played through the game and unlocked the backstories for the idols.
* The ''[[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]]'' anime only follows the ''Fate'' route from the visual novel, which never explains the reasons behind Shirou's [[Martyr Without a Cause]] tendencies, causing him to come across as [[Too Dumb to Live|an unbelievable idiot.]]
 
 
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* When [[Stanley Kubrick]] adapted ''[[The Shining]]'', he did this with several plot points. Kubrick cut out the explanation of who "Tony" is, the story of the dead lady in the bathtub, and the story of the fellow in the dog costume that Horace Derwent debases--but he left all of those moments in the movie, without explanation. He also revised the story's climax, cutting out the exploding boiler, but still took care to show the boiler in a couple of scenes.
* David Lynch's adaptation of ''[[Dune]]'' is one big mess of this. Hardly anything is given a proper explanation, and the film even features a few setups to plot threads whose payoffs are not included. From beginning to end, a textbook example of how not to make an adaptation.
* The ''[[Harry Potter (Filmfilm)|Harry Potter]]'' films from the third one onwards are full of these, thanks to the adaptations focusing more on flashy scenes and less on creating stories that make sense in their own right without reading the books.
** The movie adaptation of "Prisoner of Azkaban" never bothered to explain that the Marauders were James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. This makes Lupin's sudden knowledge of exactly what the Marauder's Map does inexplicable. (Besides, it leaves the map itself a silly unexplained plot device out of nowhere instead of something perfectly intertwined in the rest of the story.)
*** Harry dropping Sirius' nickname in the 5th film (as well as Pettigrew being called by his) also comes out of nowhere without the Marauder backstory.
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* ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' the movie is occasionally criticized for the film claiming its moral is about the unpredictability of nature, when it was really all {{spoiler|the programmer Nedry's}} fault. The book covers this by showing evidence from the park's own data that the populations were indeed out of control. {{spoiler|Nedry}} wasn't the cause of the collapse, but he was the final crack to the foundation.
** The movie ''does'' bother to show that one fairly important part of the park's control system failed for reasons entirely unrelated to {{spoiler|Nedry}}: {{spoiler|the dinosaurs are supposed to be kept from breeding on their by all being female, but evidence is found that for [[Gender Bender|one reason]] or [[Truly Single Parent|another]], that hasn't been quite as effective as thought...}}
* One scene in ''[[The Last Airbender (Film)|The Last Airbender]]'' has a bunch of imprisoned, demotivated earthbenders at a labor camp who Aang must rally to defeat their captors. In the [[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|series]], their prison was essentially a coaling station in the middle of the ocean, depriving them of earth to manipulate. In the movie, the camp is on the mainland, so the earthbenders just allow themselves to be imprisoned until Aang reminds them that [[Captain Obvious|they're standing on tons upon tons of weapons]]. Pretty much every reviewer cited this plot point as a sign of the movie's poor writing and/or inferiority to the source material.
* In ''[[Narnia|The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'', after the kids become kings and queens of Narnia, the narration tells how they ruled successfully for years and years and were given nicknames: King Peter [[The Magnificent]], Queen Susan the Gentle, King Edmund the Just, Queen Lucy the Valiant. In [[The Film of the Book]], they're crowned with these names while still kids just after winning their victory, which makes them seem slightly ridiculous and over-the-top -- especially in the case of Edmund, whose main contribution to the plot was betraying his siblings to the White Witch before he got better.
** It's also explained in the book that the White Witch's Turkish Delight [[Very Special Episode|instantly addictive]], making Edmund's betrayal over a supply of candy seem far less petty.
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* In [[The Phantom of the Opera]], Raoul is told to keep his hand up to his face, so that if the Phantom throws his lasso around Raoul's neck, it will go over his hand too, and can be pulled open before it strangles him. The reason is hinted at in the musical, and absent from the movie of the musical. Anyone who's only seen the movie wouldn't know what "keep your hand at the level of your eyes" means, and some assume that it's just a warning about the Phantom's ugliness.
** We do however see the Phantom use the lasso more than once, and our main character suffers from not having followed this advice once the Phantom is able to lasso him successfully. The savvy viewer could easily spot the connection. It comes off as if he was given good advice but without explanation, and that if he'd known why he was supposed to do it, perhaps the Phantom wouldn't have gotten his chance.
* ''[[Starship Troopers (Filmfilm)|Starship Troopers]]'', adaption of ''[[Starship Troopers (Literaturenovel)|Starship Troopers]]'' had the Mobile Infantry fighting battles that were ''extremely'' unsound tactically. Infantry, unsupported by armor or artillery, making direct frontal attacks on a numerically-superior enemy? [[Hollywood Tactics]] at their worst. ''However'', it's also true to the book... sort of. The Mobile Infantry ''did'' operate without armor or artillery support, but only because their powered armor suits let the MI itself fill the traditional roles of [[Swiss Army Weapon|armor, artillery, and even close air support (up to and including nuclear weapons.)]] When the powered armor was taken out of the movie, the justification for the MI operating unsupported went with it.
** There is artillery in the book, but it's a separate unit from the Mobile Infantry, and so gets glossed over by the narrator, who's generally more interested in describing only his small piece of the action.
** The film is a satire of patriotic propaganda, so that is most likely just a parody of [[Hollywood Tactics]].
* In ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]'', Bella runs into some nasty characters who are going to hurt and possibly rape her. In the book, she has gotten lost by this point and does not know where to run, so prepares to scream and fight. It also says that if she tried to run, she would probably trip over her own feet. In the movie, she's still clumsy, but not ''that'' clumsy, and is still in sight of a reputable book store. Why she doesn't just turn around is not addressed.
** Also in the manga: in the book and movie, it's made pretty apparent that Edward is bothered by how Bella smells in their first biology class. In the manga, we get a few panels of him glaring pissily at her, which doesn't really indicate her smell being what's causing the issues and which leaves the panel where she sniffs her hair making her look like she has some nervous tick.
* Inverted in ''[[Wicked (Theatretheatre)|Wicked]]''. The tornado that carried Dorthy to Oz is never explained in the book, but in the musical, it is stated to be the work of {{spoiler|Madam Morrible}}.
* Happens in [[The Remake]] of [[The Haunting]]. After Elenor has been thrown out of bed, she asks, "Who's holding my hand?" In the original movie, this was spoken at the end of a rather tense scene in which Elenor is convinced that Theo is holding her hand. However, it is revealed a moment later than Theo is on the other side of the room, and that no one was holding her hand. It is used out of context and without explanation in the remake, as there is no one in the room with Elenor, nor did she imply at any point that someone was holding her hand before she asked the question.
* In the third ''[[Spider -Man (Filmfilm)|Spider Man]]'' movie, Peter gains his infamous black symbiote but other than adapting to his costume and making him more hostile, the nature of the symbiote is not explained that much. When it comes time for Eddie Brock to put on the costume, there is no explanation given as to why he now has spider-powers and the audience is left to assume based on the comics.
** The movie also adapts the scene from the comics where Peter removes the symbiote in a church bell tower. In the comics, Peter did so because he knew from past experience about the symbiote's weakness to sonic vibrations and had no choice but to go to the tower. However, Peter doesn't figure out the symbiote's weakness until well-after he went to the bell tower - meaning he had no real reason to go there other than because of the comics. (The symbiote's weakness is clearly hinted at during this scene for viewers' benefit, but Peter doesn't put the pieces together until his final battle with Venom - which is several scenes after the fact.)
 
 
== Live-Action TV ==
* In the book ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire|A Game of Thrones]]'', {{spoiler|Khal Drogo removes Mirri Maz Dur's poultice, relies on the Dothraki healers instead, and the wound gets infected. This leads some credibility to Mirri, who criticized the Dothraki methods.}} In the [[Game of Thrones (TV)|TV series]], {{spoiler|they use her method, Khal Drogo gets infected anyway, and Danaerys still trusts her to heal him. It's even heavily hinted that Mirri wanted him to die}}. It all makes Dany seem naive and oddly trusting of someone she knows little about.
** In the second season, The Hound offers to {{spoiler|help Sansa escape while he's fleeing the city. She refuses, as she does in the books.}} This makes sense in the books, as, despite [[Pet the Dog|the occasional act of kindness]], he does make some sexual comments to her, and {{spoiler|[[Near-Rape Experience|the threat of rape in their last meeting was pretty strongly implied]]}}. However, in the TV series, he's been nothing but kind to her. It makes sense on some level, as {{spoiler|running through a war zone with a drunken [[Blood Knight]]}} isn't exactly easy, but, considering her alternatives, it still seems rather odd that she didn't at least consider.
 
 
== Videogames ==
* ''[[Jump Start Adventures 3rd Grade Mystery Mountain]]'s'' [[Prolonged Prologue]] was edited down in later releases. However, the line in the beginning of the game spoken by Polly, "There's still an extra credit question, an it's super hard" went down along with it. This now means that at the end of the game, her demand for the extra credit question seemingly comes out of left field.
* The [[Play Station]] port of ''[[LEGOLego Island]] 2'' had a few minigames removed due to space issues. One of these was a [[Fishing Minigame]], which is forgivable due to being boring beyond words. However, all mentions of it were inexplicably left in. This means that the minigame preceding it still has the pond at the end, and Pepper still tells Johnny, Pippin Reed, and Kilroy that he had caught a big fish.
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* Early episodes of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Batman the Animated Series]]'' show a giant penny on display in the Bat Cave, purely because he has one in the comics, which he got during his one and only encounter with Joe Coyne, aka The Penny Plunderer. The Penny Plunderer never appears in the cartoon, but a later episode averts the trope by giving a new explanation: Two-Face had tried to kill Batman by tying Batman to the penny and then launching it into the air, and "they let him keep it."
** The "sequel" series ''[[Batman: The Animated Series (Animation)|The New Batman Adventures]]'' had a variation where certain stories from the tie-in comic ''[[Batman Adventures]]'' were treated as canon for adapting into subsequent episodes, resulting in plot elements being established as "already happened" without prior explanation like Robin having split from Batman to pursue a solo career as the superhero Nightwing and Bruce Wayne's first encounter with Jason Blood/The Demon Etrigan before "The Demon Within", where he and Jason already know each-other. The series did adapt the Robin/Batman split in "Old Wounds" but that was only an adaptation of first 2 issues of "The Lost Years" which also detailed Dick's journey to Nightwing, including where he got the winged glider costume.
* ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' inverted this with the "Transmetal 2" toy line, so named because they were the 2nd wave of Transmetal action figures. In the cartoon, they give this an explanation: the [[Plot Device]] of the Transmetal Driver is what creates the Transmetal 2 upgrades. However, some of the transformers adopted from the T2 line received their transmetal forms without the driver; thus they're not technically Transmetal 2's even though they're part of the same toy line.
* ''[[X-Men (Animationanimation)|X-Men]]:'' Cyclops and Havok being immune to each-other's powers. While it was evident the writers were laying the groundwork for a reveal down the line of them discovering they were long lost brothers, they never got around to putting it in the series.
* ''[[Superman: theThe Animated Series]]:'' Sinestro's yellow ring: since the [[Green Lantern Ring]] was not stated to be weak to yellow, it's not clear what exactly makes Sinestro so fearsome to other [[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Green Lanterns]] that he could defeat so many and steal their rings.
** To be fair, the yellow ring's powers were shown to be pretty much equal to the green rings and it can be assumed that Sinestro is just the superior wielder of a [[Green Lantern Ring]]-type weapon.
** It was also stated that Sinestro became more powerful with every Green Lantern ring he destroyed (probably a great many), implying that he could have been much stronger than any Green Lantern.
* The animated adaptation of ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Soul Music|Soul Music]]'' keeps the highly symbolic scene at the beginning when Imp has to choose between going to Ankh-Morpork or going to Quirm. However, it then moves the Quirm College for Young Ladies to Ankh, thereby seperating this choice from the fact that, once things have happened differently, he's working near the College.
 
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