Death by Adaptation/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Straight: Bob survived in the original work, but gets killed by Emperor Evulz in the adaptation.

  • Exaggerated: Bob gets killed at the start, in a particularly gruesome death scene, at the hands of Emperor Evulz.
  • Justified: The author decides that the original was too unrealistic, and is editing out an Ass Pull in favour of Reality Ensues.
  • Inverted: Spared by the Adaptation.
  • Subverted: Bob's death turns out to be fake.
  • Double Subverted: As Bob explains this to Alice, Emperor Evulz leaps out of nowhere and kills him for real.
  • Parodied: The author walks onto the scene and apologises to Bob before shooting him, then walks off.
  • Deconstructed: The plot change causes other changes in the storyline of a For Want of a Nail style (usually this is very minor). For instance, Bob's death traumatizes Alice and Evulz delivers a Hannibal Lecture on why he means serious business.
  • Reconstructed:
    • The For Want of a Nail effects are replaced by carefully arranged In Spite of a Nail influences to realign the plot back to the original. For instance, Alice continues her quest but with a new motivation to avenge her fallen friend.
    • Alternatively, Alice comes to terms with the death and becomes a better character for it.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob keeps dying and coming back, which definitely doesn't happen in the original.
  • Averted: Bob survives the adaptation as expected.
  • Enforced: Executive Meddling and/or the author: "The story is good, but it's not dark enough. Let's make it Darker and Edgier by killing off Bob."
  • Lampshaded: Bob's last words to Emperor Evulz are: "How the heck did you get there?"
  • Invoked: Evulz acts differently in earlier scenes, such as avoiding a mistake he made in the original, which result in him being more likely to kill Bob, until he is then in a position to carry out the deed.
  • Exploited: The writer has Alice turns her friend's death into a call to arms for her fellow fighters.
  • Defied: Alice saves Bob just before Emperor Evulz strikes the blow. This didn't happen in the original, if only because Evulz never got the chance to strike in the first place.
  • Discussed: Alice and her friends mourn Bob's death in a scene unique to The Movie, and talk about how unexpected his death was.
  • Conversed: A Genre Savvy character moans about how the film adaptations in his world "always kill off the best characters in the books".

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