Death by Adaptation: Difference between revisions

{{deathtrope}}

 

* If you consider the main ''[[Death Note]]'' series as an adaptation of the pilot chapter, then both L and Light are this for their Pilot counterparts (Inspector Yamanaka and Taro Kagami, respectively)

** Taro could also be considered the Pilot counterpart for Mikami due to them looking exactly the same. Either way, the trope still applies.

 

* Dr. Robotnik in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', although he's a rather odd case: the comics treat Ivo Robotnik and Eggman Robotnik as two separate characters, then Ivo was [[Killed Off for Real]] and Eggman took his place. Splitting him into two characters is pretty much the only thing that prevents this from falling under [[Schrodinger's Cat|Schrodingers Cat]].

 

* Kurenai in ''[[Team 8]]''.

** Also Tazuna.

 

 

* Hrothgar in the 2007 ''[[Beowulf (film)|Beowulf]]''.

* Poor [[Watership Down|Blackavar]]...

 

* Gennaro and Muldoon in ''[[Jurassic Park]]''. In the former's case, it may be because he was effectively a [[Composite Character]] with someone who ''did'' die in the book. Interestingly, Gennaro is mentioned as having [[Character Outlives Actor|Died On A Bus]] in the ''The Lost World'' novel, perhaps to get things more consistent between the novels and films.

* Dr. Frock in ''Relic'', particularly jarring as he plays a central role in the novel's sequel, ''Reliquary'', {{spoiler|as the [[Big Bad]]}}.

* Anita Vanger in [[The Millennium Trilogy|The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo]] becomes a [[Posthumous Character]] in both film versions. Her cousin, Harriet, lives under her name in both of them.

 

* Everyone except the protagonist from the book adaptations of the ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldurs Gate]]'' games.

* Chief in the Disney Read-along record/picture book version of ''[[The Fox and the Hound]]'' (he is simply never seen, heard, or mentioned again after being hit by the train, which implies his death). Interestingly, he died in the [[The Fox and The Hound (novel)|original novel]] as well, making the [[Disney]] film the only adaptation where Chief survives.

 

 

* Professor Baehr in the ''Little Men'' TV series

* The Maenad and Calvin Norris in ''[[True Blood]]''

 

** The Duck in [["Weird Al" Yankovic|Weird Al Yankovic]]'s version. The original Russian folktale and most of its adaptations (including [[Make Mine Music|the Disney version]]) had the Duck survive the fight against the Wolf.

** The hunters in Neil Torbin's version, ''Peter and the Werewolf''.

 

 

* Audrey survived ''[[The Little Shop of Horrors]]''. Though she was less of a flat character in the Broadway musical, she also died. She was [[Spared by the Adaptation]] in the film musical, though.

* A notable staging of ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' had Shylock stab himself before exiting the court scene.

 

 

* Interesting case with ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]''. When the game was [[Video Game Remake|ported to PS2]], the original ending was changed into one where Hanyuu gets [[Killed Off for Real]]. Other adaptations used the original ending. Curiously, the author claims that the [[Play Station 2]] ending is the "True" ending while the "normal" ending is the "Good" ending.

** This is probably because traditional, route-based Visual Novels frequently have two endings to each route (aside from bad ends). The True ending is typically bittersweet, while the Good ending ensures everyone lives happily ever after. It's not to do with one being canon, as the [[Play Station 2]] ending certainly isn't.

 

* Captain Ginyu in ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged]]''. In the source material, Vegeta considers stepping on him after he ends up in a frog's body, but relents. In the abridged series? "Psyche! Eight for eight!" SQUISH.

** Icarus, Gohan's pet dragon from the movies / filler, suffers this in the Lord Slug movie. When Slug causes planet-wide winter, Chi-Chi ''cooks him''.

 

 

* Red Torpedo and Red Volcano in ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]''.

* Both Tom Sawyer (Bart Simpson) and Huckleberry Finn (Nelson Muntz) in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' version of [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[Tom Sawyer]]''. Their version ends with both Tom and Huck jumping into a river as an attempt to escape a mob of angry townsfolk, but they both drown in the process. A funeral is held for them, where at first we see both Tom and Huck hiding in the rafters of the church said funeral is held in, as if they had survived and [[Faking the Dead|faked their deaths]] like in the original story, but then it is revealed that they both actually died when it was time for "the lowering of the bodies into the coffins."

 

* In the ''[[Bokurano]]'' anime, the order of the main character's deaths were altered and some (such as Koyemeshi) ended up dying well before their original time of death.

* Gorobei in ''[[Samurai 7|Samurai Seven]]''

 

 

* Gríma Wormtongue and Saruman in the extended cut of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]: The Return of the King'', since the Scouring of the Shire, where they die in the books, was cut. In the theatrical cut, [[Spared by the Adaptation|they don't die at all]]... although they remain locked in a tower and their [[Schrodingers Cat|fate is ambiguous]].

* Agamemnon in the ''[[Troy]]'' is killed by [[The Cassandra|Briseis]] during the final battle in the Trojan War, whereas in the original mythology he survives. He returns home, and is [[Death by Woman Scorned|murdered by his wife]] ... thus setting off the events of ''The Oresteia''.

 

 

* ''[[Band of Brothers (TV series)|Band of Brothers]]'' has a [[Did Not Do the Research]] case with Albert Blithe, who is shot in the neck and said to have never recovered, and died a few years later. After the episode aired, his relatives revealed that he was actually hit in the shoulder and did recover, going on to serve in Korea and attain the rank of Master Sergeant before dying of peritonitis in 1967.

* ''Frank Herbert's [[Dune]]'': Thufir Hawat, while not explicitly said to have died, is notably absent after the attack on Arrakeen. This is much earlier than in the novel, where dies close to the end.

 

 

* In the Nintendo Wii ''[[GoldenEye 007 (2010 video game)|Golden Eye Wii]]'', Zukovsky is killed less than a minute after Bond meets him, instead of living until ''The World is Not Enough'' like he does in the films.

 

 

* Commander Zog from ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', the turtles' Triceraton ally in [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage|the original comics]] is sliced to pieces by the three mutant Shredder clones. In [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|the second cartoon]], he is mortally wounded by a stab to the stomach from Shredder and dies in the collapsing lair, taking Shredder with him.

* Ferro Lad in ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super Heroes]]'' was around for only three episodes before his [[Heroic Sacrifice]], staying behind to destroy the Sun-Eater machine. In the comics, he was around for about two years before this event and his character was more fleshed out.