Adaptational Weakling: Difference between revisions

** It's revealed that the Silver Crystal users, in general, are this in the 1990s anime. The users can do anything with the Silver Crystal in the manga and suffer little to no consequence; in fact, Sailor Moon was even able to revive the world during the Infinity Arc after Sailor Saturn had to destroy it to stop Pharaoh 90 and Mistress 9. In the anime, the crystal can grant the users' greatest wish if used at full power, but at the price of their life. Queen Serenity, Sailor Moon, and Chibi-Usa have each canonically died at least once while using this ultimate power. Sailor Moon and Chibi-Usa revived due to extraordinary circumstances, but sadly Queen Serenity did not.

** Tuxedo Kamen gets more to do in the manga, owing to receiving a special attack that allows him to even the odds. For most of the 90's anime, he's stuck with the roses, though they still are pretty dangerous to the target. Just ask Queen Beryl, who received a killing blow with a rose to the heart.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Hector Hall in the Golden Age of comics was a formidable Justice Society of America member as the Sandman, along with Fury, his wife Hippolyta Hall. In ''[[The Sandman]]'' comics from 1989, Brute and Glob revived him in Jed Walker's mind to be a "yahoo" that would help them rebuild the Dreaming. When the real Sandman, aka Morpheus the King of Dreams, saw this costumed man attempting to find off what he thinks is an invader to Jed's mindscape, Dream bursts out laughing. He has to stop and take off his helm, looking like he wants to wipe tears of laughter from his eyes. Dream also reveals to Hector that he died a long time ago, and doesn't belong in the Dreaming, sending him to Death's realm by flicking his fingers.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In the [[How to Train Your Dragon (novel)|''How to Train Your Dragon'' novels]], Snotface Snotlout is [[The Ace]] and top of the Hooligans' class, as well as Gobber's favorite student. He's a big jerk and a bully to his cousin Hiccup as a result, who {{spoiler|eventually betrays Hiccup and the tribe multiple times}}. During ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (animation)|How to Train Your Dragon]]'''s three movies, in contrast, Snotlout is probably the worst student of the Dragon Trainers excluding Hiccup before the latter starts excelling; he's full of braggadocio but can't aim, as a laughing Stormfly noted when he missed hitting her with a mace, and spends more time flirting with the ladies than focused on fighting. Even the twins are relatively better, as it's shown they figured out Stormfly's blind spot and hid it in while arguing. The first TV series showed that he does make up for it with hand-to-hand combat, which he uses to save Hiccup.

** Commissioner Gordon is shown to have ''earned'' his stripes in the comics, using Batman as an ally while fighting corruption with everything he has. He even stayed in Gotham during the No Man's Land arc to protect the civilians who could not evacuate. Here, his default solution is either pressing the button for the Bat-Signal or having Chief O'Hara dial the Bat-phone. With that said, when Batman is unavailable, he refuses to negotiate with Joker when the latter demands for the mayor to surrender and sets up a perimeter around the water plants where Joker has set up bombs to destroy Gotham city. He protests when the mayor prepares to surrender herself to the Joker. Fortunately, turns out the mayor was Batman in disguise and the real mayor is safely in hiding.

** Happens a lot with Batman's usual [[Rogues Gallery]]. The heavy-hitters like Bane, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn have a comic history of incapacitating Batman if not landing heavy blows on him. In the opening where Batman confronts them, he curbstomps them in seconds while singing a song about how awesome he is, with the Batmobile and 'Puter's help. Joker is befuddled and asks, "How is he beating all of you again?!" In fact, this realization motivates Joker to {{spoiler|find bigger Rogues in the Phantom Zone like Sauron and Lord Voldemort, who are able to beat Batman and Gotham to a standstill.}}. Quite ironically, the Rogues prove to be more useful when they {{spoiler|beat the new Rogues long enough for the Bat-family to send them back to the Phantom Zone}}.

 

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

** In the comic book ''[[The Sandman]]'', Lord Morpheus is pretty powerful even after spending seventy years in captivity. He remakes his Dream palace with a simple gesture, and only needs a few days of bed-rest. In the show, Dream doesn't even get that owing to a hundred years in captivity; he can barely move a few pieces of rubble, and refuses to rest or get food. He has to sacrifice Cain and Abel's gargoyle Gregory to receive enough power to summon the Fates and receive answers about his tools' location.

** Hector and Lyta Hall were superheroes in the Golden Age as The Sandman and Fury respectively. When Dream invades Jed's mind, where a dead Hector and living Lyta are imprisoned, Hector attacks what he thinks is the King of Nightmares and at least ''tries'' to fend off what he thinks is a supervillain. It does nothing to Dream, who bursts out laughing on hearing that Hector calls himself the Sandman, but it's implied he was formidable in life, and confirmed in the ''Justice Society of America'' series when Hector and Lyta continue their superhero work. In fact, it's implied that Lyta's hero moniker and previously rebooted backstory as Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor's daughter was what {{spoiler|allowed her to summon the Kindly Ones to avenge her son Daniel, whom she thought Dream had kidnapped}}. The series, to avoid having to explain thirty years' worth of comic continuity, makes them both ordinary architects and Hector died in a random accident. What's more, Hector is more accepting if saddened when Dream breaks it to him gently that {{spoiler|he can't stay in the Dreaming as a ghost, and Lyta can't stay with him, before sending him to Death's realm}}.

** Comic-book Gilbert realized that he couldn't take on the Corinthian after recognizing him, but realized that the latter had {{spoiler|kidnapped Rose's brother Jed and rescued the boy while the latter was doing "cereal" con activities}}. Here, Gilbert doesn't have that opportunity; Corinthian recognizes him at the Empire State Hotel when the latter is helping Rose search for Jed, and is willing to kill {{spoiler|another runaway dream to hold onto Rose}}. Realizing he has no choice, {{spoiler|Gilbert leaves a message for Rose at the hotel desk and turns himself into Dream and Lucienne, begging them to punish him if they must but please save his human friend Rose Walker and her brother.}}

 

== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==

* Depending on who is telling the story, Siddhartha Gautama aka the Buddha can fall victim to this. Buddhists and most Hindus agree that he is an avatar of Vishnu, the penultimate one before Kalki the Destroyer. Siddhartha was a virtuous prince that gave up his cushy life-- along with his wife and newborn son-- to pursue enlightenment. He proceeded to survive several assassination attempts from his cousin Devadatta, who was jealous of his growing followers. Another sect of Hinduism details in the Puranas that Vishnu became the Buddha to ensure that asuras would convert to Buddhism and forget their dharma, leading to them eventually being condemned to hell. That's a little less heroic, and not as cool as the Eightfold path.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==