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Adaptation Personality Change
(aka: Adaptational Personality Change)
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Adaptation Personality Change (trope)
Dumbledore asked calmly.
Original image by soupandleaves. Used with permission.

"[We're] the type of heroes who would have their own TV show! Did you watch it, Lance? It's so cool. They got you spot-on, but Coran is like, he's all super-serious and stuff. And Allura's a little... I don't know, she's different. Keith is friendly! He's happy all the time! I mean, they got it so wrong."
— Hunk, Voltron: Legendary Defender

Often when adapting from a book or other medium, a character will be included in the adaptation but their personality will be different from the original medium. Maybe they are a Composite Character and take on the role and personality of the one they get combined with. Maybe they only have a minor role initially but it gets expanded upon in the adaptation. Or maybe in the original their role was much bigger and got cut down in the adaptation, leaving them a little one dimensional.

The changes made to a character's personality is usually done as an emphasis or toning down of certain qualities, having spawned a laundry list of different Sub-Tropes:

See also Adaptation Explanation Extrication. Also compare Alternative Character Interpretation. Character Exaggeration is this trope when it takes an existing personality trait and ramps it up even further. Dub Personality Change applies to when translations do this. Compare Same Character, But Different, when the character's personality radically changes in the same continuity without any justification (such as Character Development). Adaptational Skill can sometimes overlap, though not every character with an Adaptational Skill is an example of this trope. Adaptational Backstory Change frequently overlaps, with changes to a character's history driving or reflecting their altered personality.

In fanworks, this takes often the form of Memetic Personality Change.

Note that this is not a trope to complain about minor changes in an adaptation.

Example subpages:

Other examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Comic Books 
  • Absolute Universe:
    • Absolute Batman:
      • Thanks to a more stable home life with a group of friends and a living mother, Batman is a bit more of a happy and jovial person than his usual depiction. That said, he also lacks his usual stoicism and poise, making him much more prone to shouting and taunting, playing up the Terror Hero aspect of the character even more than usual, and that's on top of this version of Batman being even more vicious and brutal in his tactics than his mainline self (though he still upholds his Thou Shall Not Kill rule).
      • Normally, the Joker is portrayed as a hammy and bombastic Talkative Loon. In this universe, in order to fit him taking Batman's role as a rich businessman, he's reimagined as a serious and silent character who doesn't care for theatrics, with his moniker of the Joker now being established as an ironic one.
      • This universe's version of Harley Quinn isn't the whimsical and lively Womanchild she's usually depicted as, instead coming off as an abrasive Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
      • While Joe Chill's exact personality varies Depending on the Writer, he usually ranges anywhere from a desperate street thug whose murder of the Waynes was an accident, to a cold, calculating Professional Killer who was simply doing the job he was hired for. This universe's Chill, meanwhile, is a psychotic Spree Killer who engaged in the indiscriminate murder of random people at a zoo.
    • Absolute Wonder Woman does this with Doctor Poison. Normally, Doctor Poison is a Mad Scientist whose actions are driven by pride and has a sadistic lack of care for human life. This universe's Doctor Poison, by comparison, is far less psychotic and sadistic.
    • Absolute Superman:
    • Absolute Flash does this with Wally West. Main universe Wally began his career as the Flash as a rather cocky and overconfident hero who usually manages to keep a cool head. This universe's Wally, meanwhile, has the personality of a moody teenager, and is far more of a Nervous Wreck due to his inability to fully control his powers.
    • Absolute Green Lantern:
      • Hal Jordan is depicted in the main universe as a Fearless Fool driven by his Heroic Willpower. This universe's Hal, meanwhile, is a much more dorky character who develops into a major Nervous Wreck after gaining the powers of the Black Hand.
      • This universe's version of Jonny Double, rather than the Hardboiled Detective that is his mainline self, has a rather nebbish personality that makes him quick to be put down by others.
      • Thomas Mullein, Jo Mullein's father, has a far more submissive personality compared to his mainline self.
  • Batman:
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Boom! Studios): Willow goes from Shrinking Violet in dowdy sweaters and skirts, to an extravert wearing fishnets and ripped jeans. She's also out of the closet much earlier.
  • Disney Kingdoms: Downplayed in both of the Figment series: Figment has the childlike wonder that he possesses in the original Journey into Imagination ride but also has a few traits from the version of him in the aforementioned ride's 3rd incarnation, mainly a sharp wit.
  • Jem and the Holograms (IDW):
    • In the cartoon Rio is very overprotective of Jerrica, gets jealous easily, and is in a Two-Person Love Triangle with Jem/Jerrica. In the comics he's taken a serious chill pill, doesn't even like Jem at first, and is only romantically interested in Jerrica.
    • Jerrica from the cartoon is a confident young woman but in the comics she's a Shrinking Violet with Stage Fright. The comic also puts more emphasis on how overworked she can get, something that is mostly glossed over in the cartoon.
    • Pizzazz's good qualities are more apparent in the comics. She's also more serious about music, instead of being in it simply for the fame.
    • Stormer has more bite than in the cartoon, while in turn Jetta is more tame.
  • Max Ride: First Flight:
  • Rick and Morty (Oni): The "Rick and Morty Presents" spinoff line of comics does this with many of the side characters it focuses on:
    • The All New All Different Vindicators get Adaptational Heroism and Adaptational Nice Guy, as they are a lot more heroic and considerate than the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing originals (with the exception of Noob-Noob, who becomes the Big Bad, Boon, in a case of Adaptational Villainy).
    • In "Auto Erotic Assimilation", the Hive Mind Unity is referred to with gender-neutral pronouns, but in its issue here, where it almost-exclusively uses its main female body from that episode, it's referred to with female pronouns and called Rick's "girlfriend". In the series, Unity is implied to have Single-Target Sexuality for Rick (calling itself "yours, and nobody else's"), but in the comic, it has at least four other ex-boyfriends. While the Unity of the TV series is actually surprisingly benevolent and well-meaning, it gets a major case of Adaptational Jerkass and Adaptational Villainy here, being very selfish and prioritizing its ambition above all else, and manipulating and coercing its ex-boyfriends to help with its plans.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
      • In the comics most of the games cast resembled their counterparts in the DiC cartoons at the time (the earliest comics mirrored Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, while the later more serious stories issues adapted their Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) counterparts). The later issues tend to keep the cast far more loyal to their games incarnations, especially following the Continuity Reboot. For example, Sonic is much sassier (fitting his "dude with a 'tude" portrayal in early American media) and he isn't a Celibate Hero.
      • Outside the games characters, Sally and Antoine lost most of the comedic pomposity of their cartoon counterparts after the early issues and became more lucid, serious minded heroes (Antoine also Took a Level in Badass and became a competent swordsman and far more intelligent).
      • In the games, while Silver is stated to be insecure and naive, it rarely ever popped up. The comics make these traits much more explicit, along with depicting Silver as socially awkward and excitable.
    • Sonic the Comic:
      • Sonic is a heroic, laidback character in the games, and at the time of the comic was written in western canon as being a Totally Radical Mascot with Attitude. Sonic in the Fleetway comics exhibits none of said traits, instead being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He is heroic and does really love his friends but he has a hard time showing his emotions and uses Trash Talk a lot.
      • Tails is usually a genius Child Prodigy but here he's a naive Cheerful Child with a cowardly streak (though he's still a good engineer).
      • Amy is a level-headed Action Girl who doesn't really resemble either the classic or post-Adventure versions of her character. It's never truly specified if she has a crush on Sonic or if she's teasing him, but either way it doesn't come up much. Early on she was closer to her game personality but Executive Meddling caused her personality change.
      • Super Sonic is altered from merely being a Super Mode for Sonic to being the Mr Hyde to Sonic's Dr Jekyll, as this continuity's version of the Chaos Emeralds were "filled with evil."
    • Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Silver's personality is a lot more excitable, optimistic, and socially awkward than his more serious portrayal in the games.
  • Spider-Man:
    • Various retellings of Peter’s days just short of becoming Spider-Man have made him a more pure hearted person from the get-go. However, in The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee & Ditko), it was quite evident Peter was more of an irritable teenager, a good guy yes but not an ideal pure hero, which gave weight to Peter’s immediate decision of trying to make money as soon as he got super powers instead of trying to be a hero right away; it was only after much hard earned experiences that Peter grew to be up a fantastic heroic person.
    • In the original comics, Mary Jane was a stereotypical party girl which was eventually revealed through several Hidden Depths to be a mask she puts on to avoid making attachments due to her bad home life. In Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, however, while it's established early on that Mary Jane hides how depressed she can sometimes be, she's far more open about her feelings especially when it comes to her best friend Liz. However she does eventually adopt a party girl facade to deal with how complicated her life has been since Homecoming and her feelings for Peter.
  • The Transformers (IDW):
  • Ultimate Marvel:
    • Ultimate Fantastic Four: Everyone of the four gets a dose. Sue is more sexually aggressive, Johnny is a Brainless Beauty, and Ben and Reed are both angstier. All of this can probably be attributed to their younger ages.
    • The Ultimates:
      • Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver go from loving siblings who were maybe a little too close to full-blown incestuous lovers. The Scarlet Witch is icy and aloof a lot of the time.
      • Captain America is no longer the Nice Guy. He's a good guy, but Good Is Not Nice.
      • Instead of a Recovered Addict, Tony Stark fully embraces alcoholism and he's the Hard Drinking Party Guy, instead of being a mean drunk. Additionally, he's also immature and ditzy.
    • Ultimate Spider-Man (2000)
      • Mary Jane Watson goes from outgoing and flirty (with some repressed past baggage) to being somewhat nerdy and rather shy. On the flipside, Gwen Stacy becomes a rebellious punk who's quite troubled, even threatening bullies with a knife when their treatment of Peter gets out of hand.
      • Aunt May is more assertive than her mainstream counterpart. Until she learns during The Clone Saga, she's also less tolerant of stuff related to Peter hiding he's Spider-Man from her than her 616 counterpart.
    • Miles Morales was instead created in the Ultimate Marvel universe, and then transplanted to the other one. In the original run Jeffeson was the Helicopter Parent, and Rio was the oblivious parent. Here, their roles are exchanged.
    • Ultimate X-Men (2001)
      • Professor X while he's done numerous morally questionable things for sake of mutantkind is still very benevolent in the 616 universe. In Ultimate Marvel he abuses his telepathy powers, compares his love for his son David as akin to owning a pet and made a drug from Wolverine's DNA.
      • Wolverine is far more unpleasant than his mainstream counterpart as while 616 Logan is occasionally amoral he does have standards and lines he does not cross, Ultimatum Wolverine however sleeps with a 19 year old Jean Grey and worse still in Peter Parker's body pervs on cheerleaders and even tries to have sex with a 16 year old Mary Jane Watson which makes Logan an ephebophile. This Wolverine also tries to kill Cyclops over Jean, mainstream Wolverine despite his flaws would never murder a teammate.
      • While the mainstream Longshot is open and honest to fault, this Longshot is secretive, manipulative, and ultimately a violent murderer.
      • Dazzler is a bright, outgoing and positive character in the mainstream universe. In the Ultimate universe she's a foul-mouthed punk.
      • Nightcrawler is an unabashed Nice Guy in the 616 universe who doesn't judge people on their religious beliefs or sexual orientation, in the Ultimate universe Nightcrawler is homophobic to Colossus and stalks the aforementioned Dazzler.
      • Emma Frost in the Ultimate Universe is a pacifist whose willingly to teach human students, in the 616 universe Emma is often a Well-Intentioned Extremist who’s got many Anti-Human sentiments.
      • The mainstream Forge is a self-assured and assertive inventor who refuses to let his inventions be used for evil, while this Forge is insecure, passive and is all about letting his inventions be used for evil.
  • Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) does this with Madeline Watson, Mary Jane's mother. In the mainline universe, Madeline was a meek woman who tragically suffered under her abusive husband, being too emotionally dependent to leave him until it was too late, eventually passing away miserably as an example of the type of life MJ and her sister Gayle are terrified of potentially facing. This universe's Madeline is the complete opposite, being strong willed and desiring control of any situation to the point of being suffocating, as well as having already gone through several marriages and still looking for new relationships by the present.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Aphrodite's original Wonder Woman (1942) Earth-Two characterization was as the founder of the Amazons, a kind loving mother goddess figure to them who regularly walked among them and gave them help and advice, she was the Big Good of the Wonder Woman mythos. She and Mars were the most powerful of the Olympians. The following mainstream iterations of her are mostly apathetic towards the Amazons, less powerful and more interested in romancing random gods than aiding the Amazons.
    • Mars started out as a strong arrogant warrior with little to no cunning, but when renamed Ares for the Post-Crisis Wonder Woman (1987) he was re-imagined as a cunning treacherous fighter with a personality closer to a trickster.
    • Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, and far weaker than Aphrodite or Mars in the Earth-Two continuity, as the queen of some nymphs on the moon she didn't seem any more powerful than her subjects. Subsequent iterations maintain her connection to the hunt and portray her as an asexual clever plotter who cares deeply for the Amazons. In Wonder Woman (2011) she's a boneheaded cruel, violent fighting obsessed individual who is in an incestuous relationship with her brother.

    Literature 
  • Ghostbusters: A Paranormal Picture Book: Egon is more expressive than in the movie – he smiles widely in several illustrations, and his line “Don’t cross the streams” ends with an exclamation point.
  • In the Modesty Blaise novel The Night of Morningstar, The Dragon is Major the Earl St. Maur, who is a continuity transplant of a character who originally appeared in a story arc of the comic strip. In both versions, he's a former commando and a cunning strategist. In the comic strip arc, where he's the Big Bad, he's also got a flamboyant personality and a Complexity Addiction that leads to his downfall; in the The Night of Morningstar, he's The Dragon, and has a more pragmatic personality, becoming the underling who advocates a quick and simple death for the heroes and is ignored by the complexity-addicted Big Bad.
  • Harry Faulk is almost as mercenary when it comes to money in the short story adaptation of The Twilight Zone (1985) episode "Healer" as he is in the original but he still has a conscience. In the episode, Harry refuses to use the stone to heal Jackie Thompson's gunshot wound since he wants all of the money that they have made for himself. In the short story, Harry makes a genuine effort to heal Jackie but he becomes scared and runs away, promising to call an ambulance as he does so.
  • Star Darlings: Libby is an energetic Genki Girl in the web toon, whereas she's more intelligent and down-to-earth in the book series. The music videos seem to have Libby act close enough to her book counterpart.
  • In Will in Scarlet, an adaptation of the Robin Hood mythos:
    • The Sheriff is less villainous than most adaptations, a commoner who knows that his only chance for survival is to back the current power. he countenances the Merry Man and other bandits as long as they avoid killing people in the forest, and avoid people who have paid protection fees. When Sir Guy begins sacking the surrounding farms, he lays siege to the castle to avoid further depredation.
    • Much is a much more cynical, and less cheerful, character than in the adaptations, courtesy of having to disguise herself as a boy to survive.
    • Rob, eventually Robin Hood, is a drunkard who only becomes heroic after Will's example. His backstory is that of a common portrayal of Alan O'Dale as the common man forbidden to marry his higher-born love, except that in this case he failed, which drove him to drink.

    Radio 
  • In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel And Another Thing..., Left Brain (Zaphod Beeblebrox's detached second head) is The Spock and resents all the time he's been subsumed by Zaphod's wild and often stupid primary personality. In the Hexagonal Phase of the radio series, while still more intelligent than the remaining head, he's a lot more Zaphod-like. Presumably because if you cast Mitch Benn because of how he played Zaphod in the stage show, you want him to actually play the character that way.

    Theatre 
  • In real life, Thomas Jefferson was extremely socially awkward and introverted (with many historians believing he’d be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder if he were alive today) but in Hamilton, he’s charming and gregarious.
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera does this to the three main characters from Gaston Leroux’s original novel, which thanks to the Broadway musical’s immense popularity has led to some Pop Culture Osmosis.
    • The Phantom (named Erik in the book) is the most blatant, in the novel he’s a Tragic Monster with the emphasis on the “monster” part and his behaviour makes him out to be a Psychotic Manchild even regarding his obsession with Christine. In the musical The Phantom is ridiculously sensual and is far less malicious than his book counterpart, who was willingly to blow up half of Paris if Christine refuses his Scarpia Ultimatum. The musical version limits himself to just strangling Christine’s Love Interest Raoul instead. Webber even makes The Phantom the hero in the sequel which ironically was treated with Canon Discontinuity by even diehard fans of the musical.
    • Christine is a textbook case of The Ingenue in the musical and her passive Stockholm Syndrome concerning her abduction at The Phantom’s hands is exaggerated to the point where she hardly resists to his machinations and emotional manipulation. This is in contrast to the book where Christine is a Plucky Girl who’s described as “strong” in the text and whom does her best to not only escape from The Phantom but protect Raoul from him as well. Her relationship with The Phantom is also more consensual in the musical with Christine being utterly captivated by his countenance as well as his music. In the book she trusts him at first when he thinks he’s the Angel of Music sent by her dead father but is completely horrified at learning the truth and while Christine does pity him she still tries to kill herself when faced the prospect of marrying him.
    • Raoul in the book is quite a complicated character. He struggles in the first half of the book to be a polite gentleman when Christine repeatedly keeps him at arms distance and is reluctant to tell him anything about her mysterious tutor or rekindle their childhood romance. This results in Raoul following Christine around, jump to jealous conclusions and generally be a whiny and possessive brat about her. He only simmers down when Christine tells him everything. The musical version? He’s a Nice Guy who cares about Christine... that’s it.
  • In Waitress, Jenna is a lot quicker to accept her pregnancy, whereas she spent most of the film acting as if her unborn child was another hardship in her awful life, rather than someone stuck along side her.
    Film Jenna: Dear damn baby - If you ever want to know the story of how we bought your damn crib, I will tell you. You crib was bought with the money that was supposed to buy me a new life. Every time I lay you down in that damn crib, I'm gonna think "Damn baby, damn crib. Me stuck like a pin in this damn life"

    Theatre Jenna: Dear baby. If you ever wanna know the story of how we bought your crib, I’ll tell you. Your crib was bought with the money I was gonna use to buy us a new life. The Springfield Pie Contest is starting next week! And you and I will not be in attendance.
  • Wicked:
    • Nessarose is portrayed differently between the book and the musical. Nessarose's father Frexspar is a religious man and he passed on his beliefs to his youngest daughter. Nessarose is a rather preachy woman who's always talking about the Unnamed God. Her religious views are a large element of her character. The musical Adapted Out everything about Lurline and the Unnamed God (to the point where the characters swear to Oz). This means the religious foundation of Nessa's personality was scrapped, putting more emphasis on her jealousy streak.
    • Glinda's Dumb Blonde elements are more emphasised early on in the musical.
    • Fiyero is a Composite Character of Fiyero and Avaric. As a result, he's much more flamboyant and free-spirited than his book incarnation.
  • The Great Gatsby (2023): As the onstage events are no longer limited to Nick's narration, Daisy is a much less ambiguous character than she is from his perspective in the novel. We get scenes with her and Jordan lamenting her unhappy marriage, she does seem to truly want to run away with Gatsby in their private conversations, and the line that most strongly implied she was a Stepford Smiler (wishing her daughter would be a "beautiful little fool") gets an entire song making it explicit.
  • Anastasia: Anya, in the film version (which the stage version is a loose adaptation of), is a Deadpan Snarker Fiery Redhead who was proactive in the story and even takes out Rasputin in the end. Anya, in the stage version, is more meeker and has a bit of Adaptational Seriousness; acting more like a typical Ingenue type, becoming a bit of a Pinball Protagonist as a result. Outside of going along with Dimitry and Vlad's scheme, she doesn't really do much except provide the rest of the travel funds and prove that she's the real deal to the Dowager Empress. Even in the climax of the show, she doesn't really do anything to stop Gleb from holding her at gunpoint; Gleb goes through a Heel–Face Turn at the last possible second and joins the heroes.

    Web Animation 
  • 13 Cards:
    • In the comics, Kuromaku is quite arrogant and much more irritable than he is in the cartoon. In the cartoon, he lacks the arrogance and has a more mellow personality, though he is still somewhat annoyed by the antics of his fellow clones.
    • Although Romeo is still a Lovable Sex Maniac in the cartoon, he isn't as much of an Attention Whore as he is in the comics. His horniness is also significantly downplayed, and instead he's mostly focused on self-improvement.
  • Dark Secrets of Garry's Mod: G-Man has an innocent and childish personality. Unlike in his source material with his stoic personality.
  • Fazbear and Friends (ZAMination): In the games Circus Baby was calm and manipulated Michael Afton and helped him every night whenever he got into danger, here Circus Baby is much more attractive and sensual who wants to be the center of attention in the series and joins with the other girls to enjoy a good time.
  • The OMORIBOY Chronicles: You won't really get the impression that Omoriboy is a depressed loner in this series, unlike the original comic.
  • Sonic In X Minutes: Infinite in the Forces series. His personality is almost a complete reversal of his portrayal in Sonic Forces. In the game, he was basically just a bully who relied almost entirely on the Phantom Ruby's brute strength to hurt people, making him Unskilled, but Strong. He was also The Dreaded because of his sheer power. Here, he starts out as a stoic, perpetually bored minion who does very little, but later episodes give him more depth. In the series, Infinite uses his powers in much more creative, clever ways, like helping him and Eggman infiltrate the rebel base, manipulating Eggman into not firing him, and more. On the flipside, everyone sees him as a joke despite his skill. It's established that in this series, everyone knows that Infinite's illusions really are illusions, so nobody takes the illusions seriously. Infinite has to really concentrate to produce something (the sun) that will actually harm people. Basically, here he's Weak, but Skilled. Also, instead of turning evil because of one bad incident with Shadow like in the original game, here it's shown that Infinite has been bullied for presumably most of his life, and that's what drove him to villainy. When Cream shows him sympathy, Infinite makes a Heel–Face Turn, unlike in the original game, where he stays evil to the end and has an Uncertain Doom.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • Anakin Shrugged does this to pretty much everyone, but especially Yoda, who becomes a nerd-bullying drug addict.
  • Atop the Fourth Wall: Linkara likes to do this with characters' Never Live It Down moments, in particular Superman, who simply will not budge to help 'Over There', as 'Over There' needs to take care of itself.
  • Dragon Ball Z Abridged:
    • Popo goes from a genial nice guy to the most terrifying thing in the universe.
    • Guru goes from a wise and benevolent leader to a genocidal Cloudcuckoo Lander.
    • Most famously, Nappa goes from a fairly bland Brute to a Chaotic Stupid Psychopathic Manchild Ditz who drives Vegeta crazy with his nonsense. Hilariously, this made him much more popular than he was in the real series.
  • Poison Ivy in DC Super Hero Girls is the polar-opposite of her comic persona. She's a somewhat socially awkward Shrinking Violet and is a superhero. It could be Justified in that Ivy's significantly younger in this series and thus hasn't become as confident or villainous.
  • In her source material, Chiaki Nanami is openly sweet, dorky, optimistic to a fault and The Heart. In Danganronpa 3 Abridged, she's a foul-mouthed, aloof Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and thus far lacks any optimism whatsoever.
  • Danganronpa Abridged Thing changes a few characters' personalities when they're not exaggerated for comic effect.
    • Naegi's significantly more snarky and cynical than in canon, and is noticeably less affected by what's going on (apart from screaming and passing out after finding Maizono's body).
    • Kirigiri's significantly more snide and impatient with others for their less than intelligent behavior, such as failing to pay attention during the investigation, compared to her somewhat more polite, if cold and brutally honest canon self.
    • Fukawa has an obsession with social justice and hatred for "cis white males," in contrast to her apolitical canon self.
  • Notably King Sombra, who in the source material is a villain of very few words, is much more talkative in Fall of the Crystal Empire. Arguably justified, since Fall is a prequel and spending over a thousand years trapped in a glacier probably didn't do his mind any favors.
  • Magic By Mikaila comments on this in the Harry Potter books and movies, though being a parody she indulges in this herself:
    • Her Ginny video demonstrates movie Ginny's shyness versus book Ginny's sassiness.
    • In this video she compares the gentle dreamy Luna from the movies to the spouting nonsense Luna from the books, but makes Luna more loud and obvious deranged.
    • In this video not only does Ron not stand up to Sirius Black, who is still thought to be a murderer, but he walks away from Harry and Hermione while munching on Cheetos.
    • Her video about Snape shows how he demonstrates concern for the Potter family in the movies but only Lily in the books, but also gives Snape a nervous giggly demeanor while admitting to Dumbledore that he wanted James Potter dead. In the following video she she demonstrates Snape's bullying of students which gives him a mean-girly vibe.
    • This video compares Dumbledore's reaction to Harry accidentally joining the Triwizard Tournament, calmly asking him in the book and slammming him and shouting in anger in the movie. Her version of Dumbldedore goes further than the Anger Born of Worry in the movie and goes as far to threaten Harry and insult him for his parents dying.
  • Creator/Lindsay Ellis' series Loose Canon is largely about this trope: an episode will be focused on a certain character and explore how they were portrayed in various adaptations, and what those changes say about their creators, the time period that they were made, etc.
  • Robin and Zephyr: Can You Beat SMT Nocturne Hardtype Without Using Any Demons? rewrites the Demi-Fiend and his relationship with the other Reason makers by replacing the Demi-Fiend with Robin and Isamu and Chiaki with fellow challenge runners Nyarly and Deus.
    • Isamu's rage against the world and resulting Reason to create a world where no one else exists becomes Nyarly learning about the endless cycle of Nocturne challenge runs and becoming determined to destroy Nocturne to stop challenge running forever.
    • Chiaki's hatred for Manikins is reversed, instead of becoming bitter towards the Manikins and attempting to genocide them after losing her arm to one, Deus instantly becomes fond of them and appoints himself their champion after the Manikin genocide (performed by the Demi-Fiend in this version of events).
    • Hikawa, rather than being The Stoic who believes Ambition Is Evil, is a joke villain trying to become a Shin Megami Tensei protagonist while Robin takes pity and gives advice. After being told SMT main characters betray their friends, he goes on to try and befriend Robin for most of his appearances because he doesn't have any friends to backstab.
  • The Spider (Just Preston): While Spider-Man is a Genius Bruiser famous for cracking one-liners, The Spider rarely speaks at all, his mutations altering his mind to the point where he behaves more like a savage animal.
  • Super Mario Bros. Z turned Shadow from a low-key, brooding, level-headed character into a hot-tempered, angry character to better mirror Vegeta.

 
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Princess Saya

An in-universe example. Akane discusses how her role, Princess Saya, is different from the manga in which she goes from a meek girl in the manga to a stereotypical cruel leader in the stage play.

Book Hades vs F...

Alternative Title(s): Adaptational Personality Change

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Princess Saya

An in-universe example. Akane discusses how her role, Princess Saya, is different from the manga in which she goes from a meek girl in the manga to a stereotypical cruel leader in the stage play.

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Princess Saya

Book Hades vs F...
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