Character Exaggeration: Difference between revisions

 

Compare with [[Ascended Extra]], which is done to obscure characters to make them ostensibly prominent. Contrast [[Out of Character Moment]]. See also [[Character Check]], when the writers try to reverse this, if only momentarily.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* In the anime-first series [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]], we have Gendo. In the anime, he's morally ambiguous. In the manga, he's just plain evil.

** ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' lead character initially was described as simply ''acting'' like a boy. Later she would [[Pronoun Trouble|speak like one]], and by the time [[The Movie]] rolls around, she actually ''looks'' like one.

* The exaggeration of a [[Tsundere]]'s temper, usually for comedic purposes.

** The ''[[Love Hina]]'' anime turned this into a running gag, as Naru's simple reprimandings start becoming physically ridiculous. Her tsundere side was, basically, even MORE exaggerated than Akane Tendo's, to the point that ''[[Love Hina]] fans sometimes have to WARN newbies about her''.

*** Certain fans around the internet believe that Naru's anime incarnation actually counts as a "Failed Tsundere", or rather, [[Character Derailment|a failure at trying to be one.]] She's so overly violent to the very extreme ends of Type A, that it's almost impossible for her character to even come to terms with the fact that she has a crush on Keitaro.

** In fact, pretty much ''all'' tsundere characters suffer from [[Character Exaggeration]] in [[Fan Fiction]] to some extent. Fans will either take her 'tsun' side [[Up to Eleven]] to turn her into a [[Tsundere Sue]] (if genuinely like her character but don't seem to realize the difference between "tsundere" and "raging bitch") or an [[Ax Crazy]] psycho (if they don't like her or want her to [[Die for Our Ship]]), or take her 'dere' side to similar extremes to turn her into a complete saint (usually as a backlash against the former camp). Akane Tendo is the most famous victim of this process, but she's ''far'' from the only one.

* In the manga of ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]'' the main characters get overtaken more and more by their mental instabilities, turning them into psychiatric caricatures. This is especially poignant in the case of Satou and Misaki, who change from very disturbed but interesting and amusing personalities into lumbering, suicidal and psychotic wrecks. The anime (in case you're wondering, they're both based of a novel) has a more balanced characterization, making for a more relatable story.

* Part of the failure of the ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' [[Video Game Movies Suck|anime]] may be due to applying this to Dante's personality. In the games, Dante is playfully smug and very showy, but rarely does he cause collateral damage. In the anime, he seems to have a pathological "Need For Cool" that has to be satisfied regardless of what it costs him. For example, in the second episode, while chasing a demon, he [[Destructive Saviour|demolishes a bridge]] along the way [[Death of a Thousand Cuts|with his guns]]. The resulting repair costs cut severely from the fees he receives.

* Try to find a ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' fanfiction where Heero isn't [[Emo]], Duo isn't [[Keet|hyperactive and stupid]], Trowa isn't [[The Spock|nigh-on mute]], Quatre isn't constantly on the verge of tears, Wu Fei isn't a [[He Man Woman Hater|misogynist]], and Relena isn't an insane [[Stalker With a Crush]] who's too dumb to realize that Heero hates her. Go ahead and look, I'll wait right here for you.

* Is there a Hyoutei-centered [[The Prince of Tennis|Prince of Tennis]] fic that does ''not'' have [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold|Ryoh]] [[The Determinator|Shishido]] being turned into a whiny, self-centered, [[Wangst|wangsty]] [[Jerkass Stu]] who only lives to be an asshole to everyone and treat his partner Ohtori (often changed to a [[Love Martyr]]) like a slave, only offering a feeble and non-canon [[Freudian Excuse]] (like prostitution or [[Abusive Parents]]) as an excuse for his bitchiness and cruelty?

** To say nothing about Yuushi Oshitari, who in canon is a competitive [[Chivalrous Pervert]] and [[Deadpan Snarker]], is written in fanfics as either a [[Anything That Moves|slutty]] [[Casanova]] or a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] who views the world only through romance-tinted glasses.

* Nanoha in the ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]'' series is an ask first, shoot later type, who would sometimes attack with full power when the situation calls for it. Nanoha in fan works however, is a shoot first, don't ask later type who doesn't know the meaning of restraint even when just training [[Red Shirt|Red Shirts]], and would often blow up the area she's in while undertaking a mission since she has no sense of collateral damage. We blame the "[[Fan Nickname|White Devil]]" and "[[Catch Phrase|Maximum Power! Destroy Everything!]]" [[Memetic Mutation|memes]] for this.

** Hayate suffers from something similar. From the fact that she designed the Wolkenritter's battle armor, [[Fanon|fans have extrapolated]] an all-consuming [[Cosplay Otaku Girl|obsession with cosplay]].

* Sagara Sousuke has this happen to him in the manga ''[[Full Metal Panic]]! Overload''. Originally, he's shown being stern, [[The Stoic|a bit emotionless]], rather socially inept, and taking [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|certain extreme measures]] to protect Kaname. In this manga, he's made out to be a complete robotic sociopath that sees nothing wrong in mass-murdering people by [[Be Careful What You Wish For|misinterpreting Kaname's wishes]]. Many times, he's even shown blowing things up and causing damage to ''Kaname herself'' without so much as a blink of the eye - something his original self would ''never'' do. In fact, Kaname and Sousuke's roles are, in a way, ''reversed'' in this, where people ''will'' feel extremely sorry for her and wonder why she puts up with the insane physical abuse Sousuke deals out to her. Sure, it's all [[Comedic Sociopathy|played out for laughs]], but the Character Exaggeration is incredible. His psychopathy is extreme to the point where he's shown [[Trigger Happy|getting]] ''[[Trigger Happy|withdrawal symptoms]]'' [[Trigger Happy|when he doesn't use his gun for a day]]. Seriously, in that adaptation, he could give Gauron a run for his money in being [[Ax Crazy]].

* The anime adaptation of ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' is a rather glaring offender. During the transition from the game to anime, many of the characters' traits were exaggerated heavily. In the game, Alicia would sometimes get frustrated at Welkin's personality quirks, but ultimately understood them, but was converted into the generic [[Tsundere]] love interest in the anime. Welkin was something of a [[Military Maverick]], with a few personality quirks, but was turned into a socially inept [[Genius Ditz]]. Faldio was turned from a [[Colonel Makepeace]] to a suave ladies man. Susie was characterized as a somewhat mellow pacifist who had a distaste for combat. In the anime, she was so afraid of violence and the prospect of fighting that she would literally just spontaneously pass out. In a rather ironic twist, the ''villains'' of the game seemed to have gotten more character development and depth than they did in the games.

** It's even worse in Susie case. She regard {{spoiler|Alica as a monster when her Valkyria power was awaken.}}

* One of the many complaints you'll hear from fans of the ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' manga about the anime adaptation. Aion goes from being unsettling and manipulative to the anti-Christ and a rapist; Joshua goes from being insane, glib and somewhat immature to so childlike he doesn't even realize he's aged beyond eleven years old; Shader goes from a [[Genki Girl|energetic]] [[Hot Scientist|scientist]] that nevertheless cares about her comrades and the children she watches to a practically sociopath [[Perky Female Minion]] who only cares to see more blood shed...nearly all of the characters get at least a little bit of this, but those are some of the worst. And that's not even ''covering'' how [[Fanfic]] exaggerates the characters even more...

* ''[[Bleach]]'' filler tends to take the distilled essence of each character and blow it up until the character is as one-dimensional as they come. For example, despite being [[Ax Crazy]], Kenpachi is actually an insightful warrior as shown numerous times throughout the series (such as when he notes that {{spoiler|Gin and Tousen}} are the only captains afraid to die and when he fights enemies whom brute force can't win against). In filler and movies, though, Kenpachi is offscreen until the fighting starts, at which point he just runs in laughing and slashing without any form of thought or development whatsoever. And if you think ''his'' portrayal is bad, don't get us started on [[Psycho Lesbian|Soifon]], [[Neutral Female|Orihime]], or [[Leeroy Jenkins|Ichigo]].

* [[Played for Laughs]] in [[FU Nimation]]'s [[Gag Dub]] of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'', which exaggerates pretty much all of the characters: Fuyuki's [[Extreme Doormat|wimpiness]], Keroro's [[With Friends Like These|abuse of his friends and comrades]], Momoka's [[Stalker With a Crush|obsessive love of Fuyuki]], etc.

** However, no one has any doubts about how different Solf J. Kimblee was in [[Chaotic Evil|the 2003 anime]] compared to what he became in [[Affably Evil|the manga]].

*** Though this was likely not an intentional choice, as manga Kimbee's character was not [[Hidden Depths|well established]] until after the anime was already over.

* ''[[Gundam Sousei]]'' takes the quirks of the staff of [[Mobile Suit Gundam]] and crank it [[Up to Eleven]].

* While Kyuuzou was still [[The Stoic]] in the original ''[[Seven Samurai]]'', this is definitely given a lot more emphasis in the anime version ''[[Samurai Seven]]'', wherein Kyuuuzou is a [[Perpetual Frowner]] who [[The Quiet One|rarely talks]] and whose emotions/motivations are hard to gauge. While the film version of the character joked with the other samurai, his anime counterpart is more like [[No Sense of Humor]] (with the other characters' reactions to him [[Played for Laughs]]).

** Similarly, her [[Love Interest]] was a very gruff Stoic. In later arcs he starts turning into a still gruff but quite kinder [[Tsundere]], and when his romantic interest for Sakura become blatant and undeniable... he's so deredere for her that he becomes a borderline [[Dogged Nice Guy]].

* The ''[[Yuru Yuri]]'' anime does this to Chinatsu, playing up her creepy and unpleasant side. This is for the best, since she didn't have much personality in the original manga.

 

== Fan Fic ==

* In ''[[Calvin and Hobbes The Series (Fanfic)|Calvin and Hobbes: The Series]]'', the titular duo become a [[Gadgeteer Genius]] and [[Cowardly Lion]], respectively.

 

 

* In the film ''[[Jurassic Park]]'', Ian Malcolm was a comical [[Deadpan Snarker]]. In the original novel, he was a much more serious character, although he did have some humorous moments -- such as dismissing the argument comparing reviving dinosaurs to using cloning to save the California Condor by pointing out the obvious fact that condors don't eat people. Although, perhaps as a nod to this change, while delirious from drugs and severe injury in the sequel novel, ''The Lost World'', he temporarily takes on a talkative, wisecracking persona similar to his movie one, although much more over-the-top.

* The trope flies both ways in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'', the film adaptation of Gary Wolf's [[Urban Fantasy]] novel ''[[Who Censored Roger Rabbit]]''. The title character went from being cunning if somewhat self-obsessed, with only a select few cartoony quirks, to being a full-blown wacky [[Cloudcuckoolander]], whereas Eddie Valiant went from being an extremely over-the-top parody of the [[Film Noir]] [[Private Detective]] to being a fairly normal guy, given the circumstances.

** In the movies, Snape is suavely and delicately malicious. The Snape of the books can be snarky at times, but he's just as likely to be loud-mouthed and unsubtle. You couldn't picture Alan Rickman's Snape throwing the fit the character throws at the end of the book version of ''[[Prisoner of Azkaban]]''. While they probably did this because a lot of shouting doesn't translate well to the screen, the change has certainly helped to increase the character's popularity.

** In the sixth movie, Jessie Cave took the [[Sickeningly Sweethearts|Sickening Sweetheart]] part of Lavender's character and played it to the hilt.

* Everyone in the ''[[Matt Helm]]'' (a.k.a. Dean Martin as proto-[[Austin Powers]]) series.

* ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' features a debatably good example of this with regards to [[The Joker]]. His more comic aspects are largely dropped in favor of playing up his psychotic and anarchistic tendencies. The end result is hardly the comic book Joker, but it clearly conveys the deep-rooted insanity and desire to lock wits with Batman that so heavily defines the character.

** It's also worth pointing out that he's much younger in this film than even at the beginning of the series. There's still time for him to mature some.

* Teatime, in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'' , is a notable example. In the book his eyes, actions, and the content of his dialogue is what makes the character disconcerting, at times terrifying, as it directly contrasts with his boyish charm, manner and appearance. In the adaptation, however, Marc Warren emphasises the character's way of speaking, in order to make his evil-ness just that bit more obvious, as well as losing the trademark 'ever present grin', which gave the original character a misplaced sense of childlike innocence. In a matter of fact, many people just think that the over-hamming of the character has meant the subtle, deep-seated sense of 'there's something not quite right' seen in the book has been lost.

* Many adaptations of the source material have taken [[The Watson|Dr. John Watson]] from simply being Holmes' chronicler who is not nearly as brilliant as his mentor but still an intelligent man and a respected physician, to a blithering idiot played up as the [[Plucky Comic Relief]]. The movies with Nigel Bruce are the poster example, although this seems to have ceased in the most recent adaptations.

* To a lesser extent, almost every adaptation or parody of ''[[Moby Dick]]'' shows an albino whale, different from Melville's description (that says that it only has a white forehead and a white hump).

 

 

 

== Theater ==

 

 

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Rekka no Ken'' fanfiction often turns [[The Wise Prince]] Eliwood into a wobbly-eyed pansy who freaks out over the very idea of fighting, [[Genius Bruiser]] Hector into a [[Jerkass]] brute, [[Shrinking Violet]] Florina into a weeping wallflower, [[Chivalrous Pervert]] Sain into a womanizing asshole all the girls hate, [[Genki Girl]] Serra into a shrieking harpy bitch, [[Mysterious Waif]] Ninian into a complete [[Distressed Damsel]] who cries at the drop of a hat, let's stop there shall we?

* Saber in ''[[Fate Stay Night]]'' went from someone who enjoyed food a great deal and ate a surprising amount for her size, about five feet tall, and weighsing less than 100lbs. That's comparable to Shirou and probably slightly more, but less than Sakura, who eats twice as much as a normal person and tries to hide it. However, in the anime adaptation people stop and stare as she eats as much as any two or three of them and does so with extreme speed. Possibly [[Pragmatic Adaptation|the best way]] they could show how important food is to her within the time frame available.

* In [[Final Fantasy VII]] spinoffs and in fan portrayals, Cloud is turned into [[The Woobie]] or a weepy emopants. This has gone so far that many people automatically think of Cloud as an emo. A playthrough, however, reveals a Cloud whose only "emoments" are during moments of extreme stress, EG, the death of a friend.

** It's hard to imagine the Cloud from [[Advent Children]], [[Kingdom Hearts]] or [[Dissidia Final Fantasy]] saying silly things like "Let's mosey!" or "You look like a bear wearing a marshmallow" or "That flame would make crispy critters out of us", but [[Final Fantasy VII]] is filled with such silly lines.

 

== Web Original ==

* [[Youtube Poop]] is all about this. For example, the King from ''[[The Legend of Zelda CDi Games]]'' is always portrayed as an always hungry glutton for dinner solely for saying "I wonder what's for dinner" in ''Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon''.

* This trope is one of the few staples of [[The Abridged Series]] in regards to the original shows.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** Even though the flag outside his door is from Montenegro.

* In the very first episodes after ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' became its own series, after just being one feature of an anthology series, Cosmo turned from being a bit dense and bumbling, but largely intelligent and reliable, to being a complete idiot. To parallel the change, his [[Vocal Evolution|voice]] drastically went from suave and somewhat charming to high-pitched and prone to squealing. Strangely, even that level of idiocy apparently wasn't enough, and the later [[Flanderization]] made him even dumber.

* In the Korean-American flash animation ''[[Pucca]]'', the title character was a naïve pre-teen [[Cute Bruiser]] who wanted to steal kisses from her [[Heroic Mime]] boyfriend Garu. When a TV series was made, Pucca became a selfish and spoiled [[Clingy Jealous Girl]] with a psychotic fixation on Garu, and Garu's [[Girls Have Cooties|cooties]] went from "I like her and she's sweet, but she just doesn't let me train" to a borderline "I HATE THE BITCH I HOPE SHE DIES." Guess the [[Running Gag]] got old after the first episode...

** And such [[Running Gag]] was little more than a [[Gender Flip]] of the classic [[Looney Tunes|Pepe LePew cartoons]], with Pucca playing Pepe and Garu playing Penelope the Pussycat.

* In ''[[Spongebob SquarePants]]'', the title character has gone through some of the most extreme character exaggerations, in the first three seasons and movie he was intelligent but naive, only occasionally goofy and somewhat hyper, he had a low nasally voice, he bothered Squidward when he had something to ask him or if he wanted try something with him, and he only crossed dressed or acted effeminate in throw away gags, in the later episodes he is a complete idiot, he's incredibly hyperactive all the time, he has a high pitched whiny voice, he won't ever leave Squidward alone to the point where it seems he has an unhealthy obsession with him, and he very often cross dresses to the point where he says he enjoys it and he acts effeminate all the time.

** Another extreme example is his pal Patrick who was merely a bit slow witted and [[Book Dumb]] and he was prone to extreme fits of rage when he had his feelings hurt, but in the later episodes he is just about the stupidest cartoon character you would see on tv and he often has fits of rage attacking things and people for no particular reason.

* In the duration of the first season of ''[[The Dreamstone]]'' Rufus and Amberley slowly devolved from somewhat endearing [[Badass Adorable|Badass Adorables]] into a [[Tastes Like Diabetes|Diabetes-inducing]] [[The Meddling Kids Are Useless|Useless Meddling Kids]]. It's hard to believe the two actually had any shred of abrasive qualities in the pilot (eg. Rufus' [[Cloudcuckoolander]] tendancies or Amberley's occasionally violent temper).

** Both Frizz and Nug had different aspects of their [[Cowardly Sidekick]] role with Sgt Blob exagerrated as part of their [[Divergent Character Evolution]]. Frizz had his cowardice exagerrated to the point of being a highly cynical [[Nervous Wreck]] prone to relentless moaning or breakdowns. Meanwhile Nug became slightly less fearful and became more dopey and upbeat. This often [[Vitriolic Best Buds|played into their interaction]], leading to frequent [[Characterization Marches On]] moments.

 

 

[[Category:Abridged Series Tropes]]

[[Category:Media Adaptation Tropes]]

[[Category:Character Exaggeration]]