Composite Character: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Worldsfinest283 692.jpg|frame|Most of them aren't this [[Literal-Minded|literal]].]]

 

When adapting a project from either historical events or another fictional source, one may find that [[Loads and Loads of Characters|there are more individuals with significant or necessary contributions to the storyline than one has time to adequately present to the audience]].

 

Commonly involved in [[Adaptation Distillation]] and [[Adaptation Decay]]. See also [[Economy Cast]]. Sometimes a many-for-one [[Captain Ersatz]] / [[Expy]] is formed this way. Sometimes a cause of [[Adaptational Villainy]].

 

* Jou's (rarely seen) brothers Shin and Shuu became Jim in the American dub of ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' (and dubs based on it). Hilariously enough, the final episode shows the two standing side by side; this is never commented on. Whether or not this was intentional or a translation error is unknown.

* ''New [[Getter Robo]]'' has Benkei Musashiboh, the third man and [[The Big Guy]] of the Getter team. He has traits from both Musashi, the original Big Guy, and Benkei, {{spoiler|the [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|one who replaced Musashi]] after his [[Heroic Sacrifice]].}}

* Shinn Asuka from [[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny]] is prety much one to both [[Mobile Suit Gundam|Amuro]] and [[Zeta Gundam|Kamille]], his Impulse is similar to The RX-78 Gundam a [[Combining Mecha]] consisting of legs as one section, upper body as another, and [[Space Fighter]]/[[Meta Mecha]] cockpit as the torso, and a very similar red-with-gold-cross design for its shield just like Amuro even his dub voice is Amuro's Zeta dub voice and he has [[Wangst]] [[Unstoppable Rage]] due to suffering through a [[Trauma Conga Line]], and [[Love Hurts|romantic troubles]] with their [[Dating Catwoman|enemy-cum-love interest]] just like Kamille.

 

* Done with the same character in every sufficiently late adaptation of the ''[[Incredible Hulk]]'', sort of. In the comics, Bruce Banner has five different personalities and four different Hulk transformations which correspond with them. Adaptations usually shave off Joe Fixit, Green scar and Professor Hulk and make Savage Hulk the only form.

** The 1990s cartoon has his powers altered (it's complicated); he becomes Fixit at times.

* Another [[Ultimate Marvel]] example—from ''Ultimate Human'', a mini-series focusing on [[Iron Man]] and [[Incredible Hulk|the Hulk]], the Ultimate version of Hulk baddie, the Leader. The Ultimate incarnation the Leader combined elements of the Classic Leader with [[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Peter Wisdom]]. The latter should not be surprising, considering [[Warren Ellis|the creator of the original Wisdom wrote it.]]

* Yet another Ultimate Spider-Man example—the Hobgoblin in the Ultimate Universe is Harry Osborn, killing two birds of the Green Goblin's legacy (Harry following in his father's foot steps and the Hobgoblin) with one stone.

* In ''[[Daredevil]] Noir'', Elektra and Bullseye are combined as Eliza, the Bull's Eye Killer.

** Meanwhile, in ''X-Men Noir'', Anna-Marie Rankin is a composite of Rogue and the Mimic, Calvin Rankin.

* The [[Amalgam Universe]] was naturally made up entirely of these.

* In ''[[Fables]]'' several similar characters from different fairy tales are often revealed to be one person. Bigby Wolf was Big Bad Wolf in both ''[[Three Little Pigs]]'' and ''[[Little Red Riding Hood]]''. With an exception of Jack Sprat, if there was a character named Jack in any fairy tale, it was really Jack Horner, and if there was a unnamed witch, it was Frau Totenkinder.

 

* From ''[[Turnabout Storm]]'', there's the [[Original Character]] Sonata. She's [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|an unicorn]] that combines a lot of characteristics from ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' characters: Mia's [[Identical Stranger|look]], Apollo's Perceive ability, Adrian Andrew's job type, and the ruthlessness of [[Amoral Attorney|Manfred Von Karma]] and pre-[[Character Development]] Edgeworth.

 

* The live action ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' movie fused the two Piccolos (Daimaou and Ma Junior) into one. Although, technically, Ma Junior ''was'' Daimaou in the original, or at least his reincarnation.

** Goku's character also acts suspiciously like the teenaged version of his son, Gohan, from one of the later arcs of ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z''.

* Patty Ryan in ''[[An American Crime]]'' is a composite of three real-life girls involved in the historical events - Darlene [[Mac Guire]], Anna Siscoe and Judy Duke.

* This induces [[Fridge Logic]] in ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]''. At the beginning of [[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|the book]], Dorothy meets the Good Witch of the North, who tells her to "Follow the Yellow Brick Road." At the end, she meets Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, who tells her that slippers her sister the North Witch saw her put on are the keys to get her home. In the movie, the characters are merged into Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, which leads you into thinking why she didn't mention the key in the first place. [[Older Than Television]].

*** In the film, they [[Hand Wave]] this by insinuating that the shoes, as magical articles, wouldn't work until Dorothy learned for herself that "there's no place like home." Glinda is even asked why she didn't tell Dorothy the shoes power in the beginning and she laughs "she wouldn't have believed me. She had to learn it for herself." Of course, the film ends on [[All Just a Dream]] instead of the book's It Really Happened finale, so you could say Dorothy's child mind just didn't think of it.

*** [http://www.cracked.com/article_18881_5-reasons-greatest-movie-villain-ever-good-witch.html This Cracked.com article] says that Glinda was a villain in the movie (albeit unintentionally).

** Cho Chang takes on the respective roles of Marietta Edgecombe in the fifth film.

** Bellatrix Lestrange is prominently involved in the battle at the end of the sixth film, but she was not even in the corresponding scene from the book. All her actions in the film version of the scene (coaxing Draco to kill Dumbledore, firing the Dark Mark into the sky, catching Hagrid's hut on fire) were performed by various [[Mooks]] in the book.

** In the second book, it's stated that Vernon paid someone to fit the bars on Harry's window. In the movie version, Vernon just does it himself.

* In the film adaptation of ''[[Gypsy (theatre)|Gypsy]]'', Uncle Jocko and Herbie become the same person.

* In the film adaptation of the ''[[Confessions of Georgia Nicolson]]'' series, Georgia's friends Ellen, Jools, and Mabs were initially replaced by a composite [[Token Minority]] character called Namita. Fans complained, and so Namita's scenes were [[Redubbing|redubbed]] and she became Ellen.

** Colonel William Stryker in the X-Men movies is a composite of Rev. William Stryker from ''God Loves, Man Kills'' and Professor Thornton the man who gave [[Wolverine]] his Adamantium skeleton.

** And let's face it, Wolverine in the X-Men movies is basically comic Wolverine with Cyclops's personality traits and attitudes grafted on, leaving no personality traits for Cyclops at all [[Standardized Leader|when Cyclops didn't have many to begin with.]]

** Callisto of ''[[X-Men: The Last Stand|The Last Stand]]'' merges the powers of the comic characters Caliban and Quicksilver. Her leadership role and personality (which isn't all that fleshed out in the movie, but overall it's pretty consistent with the comics) are the only traces of the comics' Callisto.

** Jean Grey and Phoenix were separate characters in the comics, but were rewritten into separate personalities in a single body for the movie. But whether Phoenix was a separate entity or just Jean's [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] depends on [[Retcon|who's writing]].

*** Although Dog was heavily implied to grow up to be Sabretooth in the original comic.

* ''[[Christine]]'' merged the LeBay brothers into one character. This also served to completely invert one brother's personality and morals.

* Based on a true story, ''[[October Sky]]'' merged Sherman Siers and Jimmy O'Dell into one character called Sherman O'Dell. (The original book, ''[[Rocket Boys]]'', did not do this.)

** Also, central character Brian Slade, while most ostensibly based on Bowie, is also a composite character and bears definite traces of Brian Eno, Marc Bolan, and Jobriath.

* Michael Merriman (John Cusack's character in ''[[Fat Man And Little Boy]]'') is a composite of two real Manhattan Project physicists, Louis Slotin and Henry K. Daghlian, Jr. {{spoiler|Both died as the result of separate criticality accidents involving the same [[Artifact of Doom|"demon" bomb core]] ''[[Did Not Do the Research|after the Hiroshima and Nakasaki bombings]]''.}}

* In ''[[Apollo 13]]'', a whole team of astronauts and engineers working to figure out how to power up the command module again was rolled into Ken Mattingly and a couple of other guys.

** Inverted with the team of engineers who figured how to make the Command Module's air filters fit the (incompatible) slots of the Lunar Module. In real life, only one engineer devised the solution, [[Eureka Moment|while driving to work]].

** This is also done in ''[[American McGee's Alice]]'' and ''[[The Looking Glass Wars]]''.

** In [[Disney Animated Canon]]'s ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)|Alice in Wonderland]]'', the Queen of Hearts is mainly the Queen of Hearts, but has the Duchess's bipolar personality and uses the Red Queen's line "All ways are mine". This makes less sense than it does when the Red Queen says it, since the Red Queen is a chess piece with the ability to go any way she wants on the board.

* In the [[Live Action Adaptation|live-action]] ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' movie, Shin's right-hand man Jackal takes his name from a gang leader villain in the manga, but his origin story as a villain who was disfigured by Kenshiro in the past resembles that of Kenshiro's evil adoptive brother Jagi. Neither, Jagi nor Jackal had anything to do with Shin, other than the fact that Jagi was the one who persuaded Shin to turn evil and Jackal was an underling of Shin in the TV series (but not in the manga).

* In at least the 1940 and 2005 versions of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', Mr. Bingley's two sisters Caroline and Louisa are melded into the films' version of Caroline. The same goes for the Bollywood adaptation ''[[Bride and Prejudice]]'' and its character Kiran Balraj. ''Bride And Prejudice'' also has Lakhi stand in for the two youngest Bennets, Lydia and Kitty.

* In ''[[Tintin (film)|The Adventures of Tintin]]'', this happens to several characters from the [[Tintin|original comics]]. The film's version of Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine shares the name of a minor character from ''Secret'', but his more villainous characterization is drawn from the Bird Brothers from the comic, and he also inherits some traits of the comic's Omar Ben Salaad, such as his employment of [[The Dragon|Allan]] and his taking over the ''Karaboudjan''.

* In ''[[The Muppets Wizard of Oz]]'', the Munchkins also serve the role of the Field Mice in ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'', rescuing Dotothy and friends from Poppyfields and explaining to Dorothy how the Witch's magic cap works. Which makes sense, since they're played by the rats (with Rizzo as a composite of the Mayor of Munchkinland from [[The Wizard of Oz (film)|the MGM film]] and a [[Gender Flip]]ped Queen of the Field Mice).

* In ''[[Dark Shadows (film)|Dark Shadows]]'', the characters of Victoria Winters and Maggie Evans are now one and the same. Also, Angelique, who is a combination of herself and rival fishery owner Burke Devlin.

* In the novel ''[[Fast Times at Ridgemont High]]'', the ticket-scalper character is separate from Mike Damone. The two were combined in the movie.

* In ''[[Deadpool (film)|Deadpool]]'', Negasonic Teenage Warhead -- who is a telepath/TK in the comics -- replaced Sam "Cannonball" Guthrie in the script and had a lot of his powerset grafted onto her both to match the existing story and to better fit her code name.

 

* The [[Doctor Who Novelisations|novelisation]] of the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''The Invasion of Time'' combines the characters of Jasko and Ablif into a single character. The character in the book is named, appropriately enough, "Jablif".

* Nellie Oleson in the ''[[Little House on the Prairie]]'' books was a composite of three different girls Laura Ingalls Wilder knew growing up: Nellie Owens, Genevieve Masters and Stella Gilbert. There is some speculation that Mr. Edwards was a composite, as well, since pinning down his historical personage has proved confusing.

* Sultan Mehmed of ''[[Count and Countess]]'' is a mix of the real-life Sultan Mehmed and his father.

* It's common for modern-day adaptations of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' to remove Kitty and/or Mary Bennet and transpose elements of them into Lydia, since fewer families have five children than in Austen's day, and they are the only sisters that don't end up with husbands by the end of the book.

{{quote|Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual—he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture.}}

 

** Also in The Tudors, Edward Seymour's wife Anne Stanhope has a storyline which is basically an altered (and expanded) version of his historical first wife's antics. This one doesn't have even a flimsy plot excuse, it's simply for the sake of more random sex - oh, and ensuring the complete lack of functional marriages in the show.

* ''[[Seinfeld]]'' - Elaine was a composite of various ex-girlfriends of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. (The other main characters were directly based on Seinfeld, David, and David's neighbor Kenny Kramer.)

* In the 1996 revival of ''[[The Liver Birds]]'', Polly James reprises the role of Beryl, except Beryl has become a composite of the Beryl she played in the first four seasons and Carol, Beryl's [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|replacement]] in seasons 5-9. Most notably, Beryl has somehow acquired Carol's family.

* The TV adaptations of ''[[Sharpe]]'' have a tendency to do this, in order to avoid [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], with many recurring characters from the books becoming one-off characters and/or suffering [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]. For instance, the company of men that follow Sharpe in the books are reduced to half a dozen key characters. Two specific examples occur in ''Sharpe's Revenge'' to avoid bringing back characters from ''Sharpe's Siege'': Maillot is a composite of Maillot (the officer guarding Napoleon's treasure) and Lassan (Lucille's brother), while Wigram is a composite of Wigram (the officer in charge of Sharpe's court martial) and Bampfylde (the officer Sharpe fights a duel with).

* Done, kind of, in ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]''. At the end of Season Two, Marian, Will Scarlett, and Djaq the Saracen are written permanently out of the show. The next season introduces Kate, who fills all their niches in the group and show, as well as aspects of their personalities. She takes the place of Marian as [[Love Interest]] and [[Tsundere]], Djaq as [[The Smurfette Principle|Token Girl]], and Will as the representative of the suffering peasantry. She also experiences the murder of her brother (like Allan), has a tempestuous relationship with her parent (like Marian) and is separated from her family (like Little John). Naturally, she was considered an instant [[Replacement Scrappy]] and ended up a [[Creator's Pet]] in record time.

** Inverted in ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': The normal version of [[Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger|Zyuranger's]] [[Monster of the Week|Dora Franke]] became the Frankenstein monster, while his second and third forms Zombie Franke and Satan Franke became two different forms of the same character, Mutitus.

** [[Power Rangers in Space|Astronema]] melds together two villains from [[Denji Sentai Megaranger|Megaranger]]: Dr. Hinelar ([[The Dragon]] and [[The Starscream]], creator of [[The Psycho Rangers]] plot) and Shibolena (cyborg [[Dark Magical Girl]], surrogate daughter of a villain). Her brother, Andros, melds Mega Red together with Dr. Kubota ([[The Mentor]], had prior history with [[Dragon-in-Chief]]).

** Inverted once more in the conversion of [[Seijuu Sentai Gingaman|Gingaman]] to [[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy|Lost Galaxy]]. The [[Big Bad]] Captain Zahab was split off into Scorpius and his more direct counterpart, Captain Mutiny.

*** And then there's borderline example Furio: He has the costume of Dr. Hinelar's final form, but Sanbash's role in the story. (Sanbash's costume, not available at the time, was later used for a new character named Villamax.)

*** Another borderline example comes in Trakeena: She fills in the role of Shelinda, but also has traits of Illies (her successful plot against Treacheron, using many of the monsters Illies used). Her accidental [[One-Winged Angel]] form in the [[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue|the next season's]] Crossover Special was originally the Infernal Dark Hell Beast summoned by [[Rescue Sentai Go Go Five|Gil.]]

*** Also done semi-straight: Lucas melds the ex-racer backstory of his Sentai counterpart, Ayase, with the womanizer side of Katie's [[She's a Man In Japan|Sentai counterpart]], Domon.

** [[Power Rangers Wild Force|Princess Shayla]] is a composite of [[Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger|Gaoranger's]] Priestess Tetomu and her grandmother, Murasaki.

*** Mora/Morgana owes as much to Abaranger's Rije/Rijewel as she does to Succubus, the villainness her sentai footage comes from.

** [[Power Rangers Mystic Force|Mystic Mother]] is a composite of [[Mahou Sentai Magiranger|Magiel]] and Bandora (aka Rita Repulsa) from ''Zyuranger'', by virtue of being said to have once been referred to as Rita. Both of these characters were played in [[Super Sentai]] by the late Machiko Soga.

*** Tyzonn, the Mercury Ranger, mixes in [[Sixth Ranger|Bouken Silver]] ([[It's Personal]] against the Ashu/Fear Cats), one-shot guest star Ragi (human transformed into [[Lego Genetics|dragonman]]), and even Bouken Red (backstory with deaths of former team).

*** Kamdor directly parallels Yami no Yaiba, and Maboroshi no Gekkou (the latter being the [[Big Bad]] of the third faction and the monster maker and [[Make My Monster Grow|enlarger]]). Also, Miratrix mostly has Shizuka's role, but her monster form is Gekkou's. Shizuka's monster form becomes a one-off monster earlier in the series.

*** You could argue that they had a third example: the Sentinel Knight is a counterpart to one of the [[McGuffin|Precious]], but has the traits of [[Original Generation|Aka RED (film)]], since they're both borderline-[[Physical God]]s who are important players in the [[Milestone Celebration]] crossover.

*** Also, RJ takes two roles. As the Rangers' mentor, he's part Sha-fu. As the accidental [[Wolf Man]] and later Wolf Ranger, he's part Gou.

** Although original to [[Power Rangers RPM|RPM]], [[Big Bad]] Venjix uses battle bodies that in [[Engine Sentai Go-onger|Go-onger]] were the characters Hiramechimedes and Yogoshimacritein.

** Dark Heart is directly based on Top Gunder of ''[[Choujinki Metalder]]'', but his backstory as {{spoiler|Ryan Steele's father, Tyler}} also merges not only Dr. Koga from ''Metalder'', but Dr. Bio from ''[[Jikuu Senshi Spielban]]''.

** Grimlord, while directly based on God Neros from ''Metalder'', effectively supplants [[Jikuu Senshi Spielban|Queen Pandora]] and [[Space Sheriff Shaider|Kubilai]] as the [[Big Bad|main villain]] of [[Cut and Paste Translation|the entire conglomerate]]. Slightly subverted in that counterparts for both villains did appear, but were [[Demoted to Extra]], Kubilai (aka Oraclon) becoming Grimlord's monster-maker and Pandora (aka Desponda, [[The Dragon|Despera's]] sister) becoming a one-shot guest villain.

** J.B. Reese and Kaitlin Starr were composites of [[Jikuu Senshi Spielban|Spielban and Diana Lady]], as well as Metalder's two human friends, [[Choujinki Metalder|Hakko and Mai]] (despite the fact that Spielban was the hero of his own show, J.B. was more of a sidekick to Ryan like Hakko was to Ryusei, while Kaitlin was a reporter like Mai). When footage of Spielban's sister Helen Lady (who wore the same suit as Diana Lady) was adapted into ''VR Troopers'', she became a mirror image of Kaitlin who could be summoned in battle, essentially making Kaitlin a composite of three characters.

*** Meanwhile, Hellvira, Helen Lady's [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] form, became the separate one-off character Red Python.

** Also [[Kamen Rider Ryuki|Ryuki's]] two main females, Reiko Momoi, [[Intrepid Reporter]] and senior to [[The Hero|Shinji]], and Yui Kanzaki, the only non-rider who could see the mirror world were combined into one character in Maya Young.

** Our hero himself is an example and an inversion at once. We have Kit as Dragon Knight (aka Ryuki, Shinji's shiny suit) until his {{spoiler|disloyal}} alternate self takes over after his [[Disney Death]]. Kit becomes Onyx (aka Ryuga, evil alternate Shinji's shiny suit.) However, we first saw Onyx in a ''dream'' of Kit's involving him taking Xaviax's lure. This means Dragon Knight is a composite of Ryuki and Ryuga, but Onyx is splitting Ryuga into two guys.

** In the Kabuto arc, Tendou's {{spoiler|two sisters}} are combined into one character, Mayu. To get her, we combine Hiyori's {{spoiler|turning out to be a Worm with Jyuka's being an adorable teenage girl who idolizes her bro.}} The storyline happens in a much more satisfying way than it did in ''Kabuto'' due to the lack of sudden actor departures.

* The 1998 ''[[Merlin (TV miniseries)|Merlin]]'' series does this at least twice, combining Morgan le Fay with Morgause into a single character that isn't much like either of them simply called Morgan le Fay, and also combining two different Elaines (there's a lot in Arthurian Mythology) into a single character of that name.

* Believe it or not, Robert Barone from ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'' is one of these. His main mannerisms (being a cop, being divorced, jealous of his brother, doing "crazy chin", etc.) are taken from Ray's brother Richard, but his name is taken from Ray's ''other'' brother Robert. (When asked why the TV Ray didn't have two brothers like the real one, Ray claimed the real Robert was "the normal one" in his family, and therefore felt he wasn't interesting enough for the show).

* The made-for-tv adaptation of [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Stand]]'' merges Nadine Cross and Rita Blakemoor into one character. In the book, it was Rita who Larry Underwood met in New York, who was somewhat older than him. He only met Nadine later.

 

* [[The Bangles]] created "Anna Lee" as a composite character on their 2011 album ''Sweetheart of the Sun'', for the song "Anna Lee (Sweetheart of the Sun)":

{{quote|'''Susanna Hoffs''': Interestingly, a character sort of developed in the song. We had all just read ''Girls Like Us'', the book about Carly Simon, Carole King and Joni Mitchell, and we were inspired by it. We sort of made up a portrait of a person based around those women -- it's kind of mythical.}}

 

* This is done often in mythology and its various adaptations as a result of both time constraints and general mixing of the stories. For example, in [[King Arthur|Arthurian Literature]], the role of the mother of Mordred (who may or may not be [[Brother-Sister Incest|Arthur's son]]) is frequently given to Morgan Le Fay; the original mother (Morgause) is either absent or given a different role.

** Morgan is also often mixed with [[Merlin and Nimue|Nimue]]. Also the various Elaines are often combined, and may be further combined with the relatively more modern Lady of Shalott.

* The American [[Santa Claus]] is a composite of several European myths and folk lore.

 

* The WWE's [[Randy Orton]] is a strange example. He has the snake motif of [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]], with a similar fighting style and devil-may-care whoop-your-ass attitude, but he's also the youngest world champion in WWE history and a third-generation superstar. [[Dwayne Johnson|Sound familiar?]]

 

* In the Quintessential Stage of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', Van Harl, the Vogon who's taken over the Guide in ''Mostly Harmless'', is combined with Zarniwoop, who was the editor-in-chief in the Secondary Phase and ''The Restaurant at the End of the Universe''. This does not appear to have been done to simplify the story (it doesn't); they simply liked Jonathan Pryce's portrayal of Zarniwoop and wanted him back.

 

 

* In productions of the opera ''[[The Magic Flute]]'', the role of the Speaker has been merged with that of the old priest Tamino encounters in the first act finale for so long that few people know that they originally may not have been the same character.

* In Bernard Pomerance's ''[[The Elephant Man]]'', Ross is a composite of Tom Norman (Merrick's manager when Treves met him, and a fairly decent guy as far as P.T. Barnum types go) and the Belgian showman who abandoned him and robbed him of his life's savings.

* Inverted in the video production of ''[[Cats]]''; on stage, the character of Gus is usually depicted as a young cat but becomes an older cat for his big number. This number usually segues into another number with the younger version, "Growltiger's Last Stand". The older version was played by Sir John Mills, who was far too old, and blind, to do the required singing and dancing. So, they split both versions into two characters, with the younger Gus now named Asparagus.

* In Frank Wildhorn's musical of ''[[The Scarlet Pimpernel (theatre)|The Scarlet Pimpernel]]'', Percy's eighteen strong League of The Scarlet Pimpernel (aside from Percy himself and brother-in-law Armand), was folded up into nine men: Dewhurst,<ref>Who also inherits the novel's Ffoulkes position as [[The Lancer]]</ref> Elton, Farleigh, Ben, Hal, Ozzy, Hastings, Neville, and Leggett. Later revisions cut the later three men out and give their lines to the first six.

* Almost every adaptation of ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'' transplants most aspects of the Daroga's character into Madame Giry.

* Anthony Burgess combines Cyrano's best friend Le Bret with his Captain Carbon de Jaloux in his adaptation of ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]''.

* [[Cirque Du Soleil]]'s Japan-only tour ''[[Fascination]]'' combined acts from ''[[Le Cirque Reinvente]]'' and ''[[Nouvelle Experience]]''; appropriately, the Ringmaster here was a composite of the ''Reinvente'' Ringmaster and the Great Chamberlain of ''Nouvelle'', who served similar emcee functions in their source shows. This Ringmaster had the ''Reinvente'' costume and backstory of a transformed "Ordinary Person", but was played by ''Nouvelle'''s actor (Brian Dewhurst) and from there participated in the latter show's slackwire act.

* ''[[Shadowlands]]'' combines Joy Gresham's two sons into one. This is also done for the film version; the original teleplay kept both sons.

* The musical ''[[Show Boat]]'' combined two characters from Edna Ferber's novel, the heavy Frank and the juvenile lead and Elly's husband Schultzy, into Frank Schultz. Ike Keener, the sheriff of Lemonye, and Vallon, the police chief of New Orleans, were similarly combined into Ike Vallon. The 1929 film version of ''[[Show Boat]]'' made Hetty Chilson, a character from Ferber's novel that was eliminated from the musical, an alternate identity of Julie.

* Pseudolus from ''[[A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]'', an amalgam of various [[The Trickster|trickster servant]] characters from the works of Roman playwright [[Plautus]].

** Rodolfo from the same Opera merges the novel's Rodolfo and Jacques.

* The stage version of ''[[Newsies]]'' replaces reporter Brian Denton and Jack's love interest Sarah with Katharine Plummer, a reporter who becomes Jack's love interest.

* In ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'', Fiyero and Boq, via spells by Elphaba and Nessarose, are transformed into the Scarecrow and the Tinman. In the original novel, they were all separate characters.

 

** Meanwhile, Zero is {{spoiler|the carrier of the [[The Virus|Maverick Virus]], the real cause of the war}} in the ''[[Mega Man X]]'' series. When a version of Zero actually appears in ''Battle Network'', {{spoiler|he ''is'' [[The Virus]] himself.}}

* In the first ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom Clash of the Superheroes|Marvel vs. Capcom]]'', Ryu could change his fighting style and palette mid-fight to match those of Ken's and Akuma's. This is because he is not meant to be a standard incarnation of Ryu, but a combination of himself, Ken, and Akuma representing the entire ''[[Street Fighter]]'' series. This is why his theme music in the game is the ''[[Street Fighter II]]'' title tune instead of his usual theme and why he is labelled as "Complete Change Ryu" in the PS1 version. A more subtle example is Zangief, who can switch between his regular self and his alternate Mecha-Zangief form, who was originally an alternate character in ''[[Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter|Marvel vs. Street Fighter]]''.

* The unmasked version of Sub-Zero was among the list casualties that were cut out from the [[Nintendo 64]] version of ''[[Mortal Kombat 3|Mortal Kombat Trilogy]]''. However, most of his Special Moves and Finishing Moves were instead given to the masked Sub-Zero.

* ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'':

** It's been suggested that Saika Magoichi is a combination of Suzuki Shigehide (Who sided with Hideyoshi in SW1-2) and Suzuki Shigetomo (Who sided with Masamune in the latter half of SW2 and SW3), both men who held the title of "Saika Magoichi".

** Kotaro Fuma may also be a composite character for the Fuma ninja clan, and Kunoichi one for the Sanada Ten.

* Mr. Game and Watch from the ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' series primarily looks like the random jumping civilians from the Game and Watch game "Fire", but he has many weapons based on many other [[Game and Watch]] games.

** This also applies to most of the characters that appear in the game, as they appear with their mainstream "Earth 616" personalities and backstories, but start by default with their Ultimate appearances. The sequel also adds ''[[Age of Apocalypse]]'' into the mix.

* When the ''[[Touhou]]'' game moved from the PC-98 to Windows things ''changed''. One of the striking examples is Marisa, who really only kept the basic theme and appearance of the PC-98 character of that name. Her new personality is much more similar to (the now absent) Mima's.

* The [[Master System]] version of ''[[Golden Axe]]'' ditched the three main characters from the arcade game and introduced a new one named Tarik, who is a renamed Ax Battler with the abilities to use the magic powers from all three of the arcade game's heroes.

 

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' merged a background character unofficially called Shy Girl with a minor character named Rhoda who then became more of a supporting character.

 

* A variation occurred in ''[[There Will Be Brawl]]'': While fans were still awaiting [[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Young Link]] and [[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|Toon Link]] to finally show up or be mentioned, like every other character in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'', it's eventually revealed that [[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Link]] also ''is'' Young Link and Toon Link. They were compressed into one character.

** To clarify, Link looks at a photo of his younger self. This photo includes both, Young Link/Toon Link, implying that they are both the same guy during the same period of time. Link is just their grown-up version.

 

* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' when Bart claims his comic character "Angry Dad" is not based purely on one person, but is a composite of his dad, [[Shaped Like Itself|Lisa's dad, and Maggie's dad]].

* [[Disney Animated Canon]] does this frequently.

*** Disney's Clopin is a combination of two characters from [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (novel)|Victor Hugo's original novel]]: Gringoire, the goofy troubadour, and Clopin, the psychotic King of the Gypsies.

*** [[Inverted Trope|The trope is inverted]] in the case of Frollo. In the novel, Archdeacon Claude Frollo is a tragic [[Anti-Villain]]. The film basically splits him into "good" and "evil" halves: the sympathetic unnamed Archdeacon, and the thoroughly evil Judge Claude Frollo. (Just for fun, rewatch the movie and imagine that [[Epileptic Trees|Frollo and the Archdeacon are actually one and the same]].)

*** They also merged Hades with Hera, and Hera with Alcmene.

** Also done in ''[[Treasure Planet]]''; Squire Trelawney and Doctor Livesey of the original ''[[Treasure Island]]'' are combined into [[Alliteration|Doctor Delbert Doppler.]]

* The 1990s ''[[Discworld]]'' animated series replaces the unnamed Mended Drum barman in ''Wyrd Sisters'' with Hibiscus Dunelm, the new proprietor in ''Soul Music''. ''Soul Music'' also gives Adrian "Big Mad Drongo" Turnipseed all the lines belonging to the other two students at the High Energy Magic Building, Skazz and Tez the Terrible.

* In the [[Direct to Video]] movie ''[[Superman: Doomsday]]'', there's only one replacement Superman, who has elements of three of the replacements in the original ''[[The Death of Superman]]'' arc: he's a clone like [[Superboy]], he has a zero-tolerance approach to crimefighting like the Eradicator, and he's {{spoiler|secretly working for a villain}} like the Cyborg.

** Not to mention the spikes on him, which are reminiscent of Doomsday. The pale skin may be a shout out to Bizarro as well.

* Robin from the ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' is an amalgam of the first three characters who went by that name, although he is mainly implied to be Dick Grayson.

*** In ''[[Turtles Forever]]'', one could argue that the movie Shredder was added to the mix (In his insanity to take revenge on the Turtles to the point of Murder Suicide).

* In ''[[X-Men: Evolution|X-Men Evolution]]'', Avalanche seems to be a combination of the comic book Avalanche (name, role with the Brotherhood) and Rictor of the New Mutants (appearance, the details of how his powers work, occasional consideration of a [[Heel Face Turn]]). The hotheadedness comes from both of them.

** And the Cat, Black Cat's [[Gentleman Thief]] father, is combined with {{spoiler|the burglar who killed Uncle Ben.}}

** There's also Sable Manfredi. Her role as the loyal daughter of the elderly crimelord Silvio "Silvermane" Manfredi comes from Alisha Silver in ''[[Spider-Man: The Animated Series]]''. Her name and appearance are clearly based on Nazi-hunter and occasional Spidey ally [[Silver Sable]] (Silver Sablinova).

* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' has Artemis, who shares the name and backstory of her counterpart, but also has elements of Arrowette and Mia Dearden thrown in. Notably, the chest emblem on Artemis' costume comes from Mia's Speedy costume.

** Match is also given elements from various Bizarros (backwards S, insanity due to the difficulty of copying kryptonian DNA) and Superboy-Prime (carving an S-symbol into his own chest, having black eyes, status as the "original" Superboy).

* In ''[[Transformers Prime]]'', Airachnid at first appears to be an [[Expy]] of Blackarachnia. However, personality-wise, she appears to be more a combination of [[Transformers Animated|Lockdown]] and [[Beast Wars|Tarantulus]], with just a little bit of the [[Predator]] thrown in.

** Arcee looks and acts more like Chromia than her G1 counterpart, who was pink, [[Team Mom]] and [[The Chick]] rather than being blue, an [[Action Girl]] and [[Lady of War]].

* [[The Flash]] in ''[[Justice League]]'' and ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' was the Wally West incarnation, but also had elements of his predecessor Barry Allen (such as being a police scientist rather than a mechanic). His foe Mirror Master was the Sam Scudder version but possessed the amped up, supernatural abilities of his successor.

** Baron Zemo is another one, mixing first Zemo (fought wih Cap during [[World War II]] and leads Masters Of Evil) with his son, second Zemo (costume and personality).

** Viper combines her comics namesake with {{spoiler|Skrull Elektra}}.

* In ''[[WITCH]]'' comics Nerissa's [[The Dragon|Dragon]] Shagon and bestial Kor were random man and his dog turned into her servants. In the cartoon this fate is given to Will's boyfriend Matt and his pet rat.

* ''[[Batman: Mask of the Phantasm]]'' was adapted from the ''Batman: Year Two'' storyline. In the comic, the Reaper was Judson Caspian, whose daughter Rachael was in a budding relationship with Bruce Wayne. In the movie, {{spoiler|Andrea Beaumont}} was both the Phantasm and the love interest.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters and Casting]]