Adaptational Villainy: Difference between revisions
→Anime and Manga: consolidated the redundant entries for Sabrina and miscellaneous Gym Leaders from Pokemon into a single entry, added a few examples
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[[File:Kaa Book vs movie 6454.jpg|frame| Kaa in Disney's [[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|Jungle Book]]: a man-eating [[Smug Snake]]. Kaa in the [[The Jungle Book (novel)|original]]: a wise [[Mentor]].]]
{{quote|''"As many people have noted throughout the years though, [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]] has been rather...[[Disneyfication|lax]] when it comes to adapting books and fairy tales into movies. [[Pragmatic Adaptation|This is understandable in some cases]]. Still, it can be a bit galling when one knows that the fire-breathing, demonic witch on the screen was a kindly old lady in the source material."''
|''[http://zelda-queen.livejournal.com/46445.html Top Five Miscast Disney Villains]''}}
The villain of an adaptation or retelling of a story is a familiar character who wasn't as bad in the source material. Sure, they may have been [[Jerkass|annoying at times]], or [[True Neutral|couldn't care less about the good guys]], but they weren't ''evil''. Maybe they were even an ally of the main characters who leaned a little too far on the [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes]], or a villain [[Even Evil Has Standards|with standards]] or who was [[Pet the Dog|known to show a softer side]]. Maybe the character rubbed the heroes the wrong way, but never caused any real harm and was otherwise a decent person.
In any case, the character '''seriously''' [[Took a Level in Jerkass]] in the [[POV Sequel]], [[The Movie]], [[The Film of the Book]], or any other
[[Tropes Are Not Bad|This is not always a bad thing]], however, and indeed some iconic villains have come about in this way, although it will probably lead to accusations of [[Adaptation Decay]] or [[Character Derailment]] from purists. Unlike [[Ron the Death Eater]], there is usually more justification for the change in the character. Sometimes Adaptational Villainy is a result of [[Composite Character]] - the composite mixes the harmless character and a more villainous one - or [[Adaptation Expansion]], when [[No Antagonist|there is no obvious villain]] in the original work, and a [[The Ghost|Ghost]] or another minor character [[Ascended Extra|gets the part]]. Sometimes it's to [[Lighter and Softer|make the moral lines of an otherwise edgy story more clear]] or to [[Adaptation Distillation|simplify]] a complex character. A [[Perspective Flip]] often uses this deliberately to subvert the audience's expectations of who the hero and villain are. If the adaptation does well, the darker incarnation of the character may become more popular and [[Adaptation Displacement|eventually overshadow the original]]. This may happen for [[Adaptation Displacement|a variety]] [[Evil Is Cool|of]] [[Draco in Leather Pants|reasons]].
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In
* To a lesser extent, King Dedede of ''[[Kirby: Right Back at Ya!]]''. While still rarely exceeding a petty comedic [[Jerkass]], his anime counterpart has far fewer [[Pet the Dog|benevolent moments]] than that of the [[Kirby|original games]] (
* Some of the Gym Leaders and Elite Four members in ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]''. While most of them (with the exception of Giovanni) are basically good guys in the games - Lance and Lorelei even helping out the player character at key points - Lt. Surge, Koga, Sabrina, Agatha, Lorelei, Lance, Karen, Will and {{spoiler|Pryce}} became villains in the manga adaptation ''[[Pokémon Special]]''. {{spoiler|To be fair, though, Pryce is a more sympathetic [[Anti-Villain]], Lance is a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], and most of the other characters listed [[Heel Face Turn|reform]] later on, with the exception of Agatha.}}
** This is utilized to a lesser extent with their anime counterparts. Sabrina is
** And occasionally some Pokémon themselves (particularly either Poison- or Dark- types) show unusually violent tendencies as well. Neither Ash nor Team Rocket ever seem to come upon a swarm of Beedrill that isn't hostile. Spearow and Fearow get this bad too. In the games, they are usually depicted as pragmatic Pokemon who flee from danger if they sense any, but in the anime, they seem malicious, prone to attack humans, and capable of holding long-standing grudges, most famously against Ash in the first episode and the incident which led to Pidgeotto's evolution into Pidgeot. There was one episode of Sun/Moon where a flock of them even attacked poor Nebby for no reason.
▲** This is utilized to a lesser extent with their anime counterparts. Sabrina is converted into something of a demonic witch who antagonizes Ash and co., while many others are egotistical [[Jerkass]]es that have a bigoted or bullying demeanor regarding how they handle Pokémon. Just about all of them [[Defeat Equals Friendship|make friends with the heroes]] in the end, however, similar to their manga counterparts (this is something of an important plot point early on, since more often Ash earns his first gym badges out of reformed kindness from the leaders rather than actually winning against them).
*** What makes this more unusual is that the games, and to a lesser extent, the anime itself, emphasize that Pokémon aren't truly evil (worrying dex entries aside), with the latter showing that Team Rocket's Pokémon in particular are friendly [[Punch Clock Villain|Punch Clock Villains]] when they aren't actively hunting down Ash and Pikachu.
* Gendo Ikari from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. In the anime, he is [[Ambiguously Evil]] and before his death he regrets having been a bad father to Shinji. In the manga adaptation, he is unquestionably evil and hates Shinji.
** To a smaller extent, Kaworu. In the original anime, he was pretty nice (outside of, you know, {{spoiler|being the seventeenth Angel}}). In the manga, he [[Kick the Dog|kick's a cat]]. This has been done to the point where fans have nicknamed him [[Fan Nickname|Evil Manga Kaworu]].
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* In the 2003 ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' anime, Basque Grand was transformed from the [[Reasonable Authority Figure]] and [[Colonel Badass]] that he was in the manga into a [[Colonel Kilgore]] and [[General Ripper]] who just can't wait to commit some more genocide. Kimblee, while an awful person in the manga, had his negative qualities cranked [[Up to Eleven]], and his good ones totally suppressed. Even Hohenheim, the [[Big Good]] in the manga, became a [[Retired Monster]] and utter [[Jerkass]]. However, all three of these cases were due to those characters not having been well established yet in the manga when the [[Overtook the Manga|anime overtook it]].
** Particularly justified in the case of Basque Grand, since Hohenheim and Kimblee had the advantage of at least having brief appearances on screen in the manga before their introduction to the anime. Basque Grand was mentioned has having been killed off screen in the manga and nothing else, so the writers of the anime had ''literally'' nothing to go on with him besides his name, appearance, and occupation.
* In the [[Howl's Moving Castle (anime)|movie adaptation]] of ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'', the main villain of the book, the Witch of the Waste, is downgraded and drained of power. Meanwhile, two of the book's nice characters, the kindly, motherly Mrs. Pentstemmon (who in the book is murdered by the Witch) and the absent and also kindly Wizard Suliman (who in the book is captured and cursed by the Witch) are combined into one character and made evil, the real villain of the movie.▼
* [[Little Red Riding Hood]] is a criminal in ''[[Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt]]'', and an accomplice of the [[The Big Bad Wolf]].
* While definitely a [[Jerkass Gods|Jerkass God]], Beerus was still very much an [[Affably Evil]] sort of antagonist in ''[[Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods]]'' who only turned hostile once Majin Buu ran afoul of his [[Hair-Trigger Temper]] and pressed several [[Berserk Button|Berserk Buttons]] in rapid succession. But in ''[[Dragon Ball Super]]'', which adapted the movie as its first story arc, Beerus is a plain-and-simple [[Jerkass]] who seems to get a sick sense of joy out of tormenting Vegeta during the party right off the bat, and ''grins'' when he slaps Bulma for standing up to him (compared to the movie, which he does out of grim, silent anger). He's also a lot more proactive when it comes to destroying planets (his duty as God of Destruction) and enjoys that as well. Thankfully, [[Character Development|he gets better.]]
** Tagoma, a minor villain from ''[[Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F']]'' (the following movie), also got hit with this trope when his film was adapted as ''Super'''s second story arc. Originally, he was [[Noble Demon|surprisingly noble]] for one of Frieza's top enforcers to the point that he was willing to spare the lives of people who interfered with Frieza's resurrection [[Even Evil Has Standards|and was wary of resurrecting that madman to begin with.]] But in ''Super'', he's a violent psychopath on par with Frieza himself, and a cackling lunatic who will gladly tear through his own subordinates to kill the heroes, unlike his film counterpart who, judging by his relationship with Sorbet, valued their lives. Though in this case, he has the excuse of being tortured into violent insanity by Frieza, instead of ''merely'' being killed after accidentally pissing him off.
* Since they have a chance to be properly fleshed out as characters thanks to having ample pagetime to explore their personalities and motivations, a few of the Maverick bosses from the ''[[Mega Man X]]'' series are a ''lot'' worse in the manga adaptations than they were as one-off bosses in the games. Boomer Kuwanger and Flame Stag, fairly standard villains in ''X1'' and ''X2'' respectively, are murderous maniacs willing to kill millions of innocent people purely because the former was bored, and the latter wanted to stick it to X for ''daring'' to discipline him during his Maverick Hunter days. Then there's Frost Walrus, already noted to have been labeled a Maverick in need of scrapping due to his obstinate, violent attitude in ''X4''. The manga adaptation, of course, takes this to its logical conclusion by making him a sick, twisted butcher of a robot with a love of torture, mutilation, and [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game]].
== Comic Books ==
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* John Rockerduck is portrayed as a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] in several stories but he was by no means this or any other kind of villain in the only story [[Carl Barks|his creator]] used him.
* Chaos in [[Sonic the Comic]]. He is depicted as a monster with no sympathetic backstory, while in the games, all of his friends were massacred by a tribe.
* The
== Fan Works ==
* In ''[https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/troop-of-beasts-dragon-ball.6675/ Troop of Beasts]'',{{Dead link}}
== Films -- Animated ==
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* In the children's book ''[[The Brave Little Toaster]]'', the new appliances in Rob's apartment are friendly and helpful to Toaster and the other older appliances, helping them find a new owner via a radio show, and feel guilty for their role in replacing still useful appliances. In the movie, they are [[Jerkass|arrogant and cruel to them]], even tossing them into a dumpster out of jealousy.
* The three witches in ''[[The Black Cauldron]]'' are grasping and sneaky, if not evil, characters who try and trick Taman into giving up a treasure for the cauldron. In the book, they are neutral figures who bend their own rules to help Taran and the others get rid of it.
▲* In the [[Howl's Moving Castle (anime)|movie adaptation]] of ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'', the main villain of the book, the Witch of the Waste, is downgraded and drained of power. Meanwhile, two of the book's nice characters, the kindly, motherly Mrs. Pentstemmon (who in the book is murdered by the Witch) and the absent and also kindly Wizard Suliman (who in the book is captured and cursed by the Witch) are combined into one character and made evil, the real villain of the movie.
* Inverted in ''[[Rock-a-Doodle]]'' with Snipes the magpie. In ''Chantecler'', the play which the movie is loosely based on, the Blackbird is a villainous character who plots to kill Chantecler. In the movie, his counterpart Snipes is a [[Jerkass]], but is also one of Chaunticleer's allies and nowhere near as bad as the Blackbird in the play.
* Both played straight and inverted in ''[[Shrek]]'' - Prince Charming, [[Little Red Riding Hood]], and the [[Fairy Godmother]] are villains while [[The Big Bad Wolf]] is one of the heroes, along with traditionally villainous creatures like ogres and dragons.
* Bowser from ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' is a much more malevolent character in ''[[The Super Mario Bros. Movie]]'' than he is in the games he hails from. Instead of a [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]] who treats his minions well and doesn't get up to much worse than trying to take over the world, he's a [[Jerkass]] [[Bad Boss]] willing to hurt minions who annoy him, and a sadistic [[The Sociopath|sociopath]] who will gladly murder and torture people to get what he wants, as well as destroy the Mushroom Kingdom entirely. Even his obsessive crush on Peach is subject to this, with him trying to murder her when she rejects him during their forced wedding. Compare that to the games, where he's merely a pushy, immature jerk who genuinely loves her (even if he isn't considerate of her feelings).
== Films -- Live-Action ==
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** The movie of ''[[2010: The Year We Make Contact]]'' sticks more closely to the book and redeems HAL, but of course it's often regarded as a very poor relation to the original movie.
* Pius Thicknesse of the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' books is weak-willed and not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but isn't a villain until he is [[Brainwashed]] into becoming one by Voldemort through the Imperius Curse. He's presumably returned to normal after the war, although this isn't shown. In the [[Harry Potter (film)|film series]], he is implied to [[The Quisling|have joined the Death Eaters of his own free will]], as he doesn't display traits of characters under the Imperius Curse in the films and is more self-aware.
** Barty Crouch Jr. is also subjected to this. While he and his book-self share many of the same crimes (restoring Voldemort to his former glory, {{spoiler|murdering his father}}, torturing Frank and Alice Longbottom into insanity, and {{spoiler|kidnapping and impersonating Mad-Eye Moody before locking him away in a trunk for nearly a year}}), he also lacks the sympathetic qualities of his book-self. Instead of being a troubled young man-turned fanatically loyal Death Eater due to a need for a father figure and a pitiable figure in the end, he's a one-dimensional lunatic who ''hisses like a snake'' and joined Voldemort purely [[For the Evulz]].
* Hades in the ''[[Percy Jackson & the Olympians|Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'' series is imposing and menacing, described as resembling every dictator in human history, but it turns out that he [[Dark Is Not Evil|isn't one of the bad guys]], and he eventually helps fight against the Titans while his son Nico becomes an important ally of the protagonists. [[Everybody Hates Hades|Not so much in the movie.]]
*
* In the short story that ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' is based on, "The Greatest Gift", Mr. Potter is only the owner of a photography studio and doesn't meet, much less cause problems for, George Bailey. In the movie, he is a corrupt slumlord, [[Jerkass]], and all-around nasty piece of work who goes out of his way to make George's life a living hell ([[Moral Event Horizon|and almost drives him to suicide]]).
* The movie version of ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'' has Roscoe and Boss Hogg portrayed as traditional, ''competent'' evil guys instead of the [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|goofball minor incompetents]] they usually were in the TV show. While they were corrupt, greedy jerks in the show, too, they were known to [[Pet the Dog]] on occasion, were relatively [[Harmless Villain|harmless villains]], and [[Even Evil Has Standards|had lines that they wouldn't cross]] - for example, Hogg hated violence and avoided physically harming people as part of his schemes.
* In the book ''[[Jurassic Park]]'', Gennaro the lawyer, while a bit of a [[Jerkass]], is reasonably brave; he went on to punch out a ''Velociraptor'' and become [[The Lancer]] to Alan Grant (and survives), while fat Dennis Nedry was a programmer who got shortchanged by Hammond, which gives Nedry a more understandable, if not sympathetic, reason to betray him. In the film, Gennaro is a [[Dirty Coward]] who got eaten by a T-Rex while sitting on a toilet, and Dennis is essentially an unscrupulous backstabber who is open to bribes.
** The movie version of Gennaro inherited all his worst traits (including his depraved cowardice and his violent death) from the character Regis, who only appeared in the novel,
** Hammond is an inversion. The movie version is a relatively decent man, while novel Hammond is more of a Jerkass (the above mentioned shortchanging of Nedry being one example of his jerkassery) with traits of [[Never My Fault]], blaming everyone but himself (even his grandchildren) for everything going wrong in the end. Movie Hammond lives in the end, while novel Hammond suffers a [[Karmic Death]] when he is slowly devoured by a pack of Compies.
* Played with in the case of Emperor Palpatine of ''[[Star Wars]]''. The original novelizations portray him as an ineffective puppet ruler being manipulated by [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]s and other bad people. The original trilogy of films hint that Palpatine was likely only pretending to be a puppet, most obviously in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''. The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]] gave him some [[Bad Boss]] moments, such as [[The Callista Trilogy|dealing out]] an [[And I Must Scream]] punishment to the engineer who designed that air shaft on the Death Star. The prequel trilogy expands further on Palpatine's history, revealing that he is a [[Complete Monster]] and [[Manipulative Bastard]] who completed a 1000-year-plus [[Xanatos Gambit]] by the Sith to take over the galaxy and destroy the Jedi. This means that Palpatine as portrayed in the webcomic ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' reverted to his oldest characterization.
* Scrappy-Doo in the ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' live-action movie. While previously an ally of the good guys ([[The Scrappy|although disliked by a lot of fans]]), he has a [[Face Heel Turn]] and becomes the [[Big Bad]], trying to kill Scooby and friends by sucking out their souls.
* In the film version of ''[[The
* The [[The Lord of the Rings (film)|movie]] version of Denethor of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' has fewer redeeming features than his [[The Lord of the Rings|book]] counterpart, who leaned more as a [[Good Is Not Nice]] [[Anti-Hero]] until he [[Jumped Off the Slippery Slope|went mad]] as a result of using [[Evil Overlord|Sauron's]] seeing-stone, which Sauron used to push him over the [[Despair Event Horizon]].
** The Palantir was not Sauron's. They all rightfully belonged to Arnor/Gondor. The problem came when Sauron took the one that had been in Minas Morgul (previously the Gondorian city Minas Ithil) after he conquered it and he ultimately used the link between the stones to deceive Denethor and eventually help break him.
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* In the film adaptation of ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas (film)|How the Grinch Stole Christmas]]'', the Whos are for the most part more materialistic and unsympathetic than they were in the book, in part to make the Grinch more sympathetic.
* ''[[October Sky]]'' turns Homer's father into a [[Jerkass]], presumably because there wouldn't really be a villain otherwise. In the book it was based on, his father is much nicer and more supportive of his rocketry work.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Marvel]]'' comics,
▲* In ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man 3]]'', the main villain is {{spoiler|Aldrich Killian, a minor comics character who sold extremis to criminals, felt bad about it, and shot himself in the head. [[He's Dead, Jim|The end]]}}.
▲*In Marvel comics, Psylock, Spike, Multiple Man, and Quill are all allies of the X-Men. In [[X-Men: The Last Stand]] ''all of them'' are members of Magneto's Brotherhood.
* In Peter Jackson's ''[[The Hobbit (film)|The Hobbit]]'' the Master of Lake-town has been changed from a greedy, self-centered politician who does not figure much in the plot into an oppressive tyrant who would have already been deposed if not for the ordinary people not being allowed to bear arms.
* In ''[[Spider-Man]]'' comics, [[Venom (Comic Book)|Venom]] is often a villain, and sometimes a [[Nominal Hero]], but he’s usually considered [[Tragic Monster|a tragic one]] in either instance - formerly a journalist, the biggest story of his career was a series of interviews with a man claiming to be the murderous [[Knight Templar]] serial killer, the Sin Eater, cumulating in Brock revealing the killer’s identity. As it turned out, the man was not the Sin Eater at all, just a "compulsive confessor", which was proven when Spider-Man apprehended the true Sin Eater. The unintentionally-fraudulent story caused Brock to lose his job, his wife to divorce him, his father to disown him, and ruins his career, plunging him into madness. However, in ''[[Spider-Man 3]]'', the plot does away with all of his sympathetic qualities - the event that ruins Brock’s career is when he ''purposely'' photoshops Spider-Man into a story to depict Spidey as a criminal, simply to get on J. Jonah Jameson’s good side. When Peter exposes the ruse, Jonah isn’t amused and fires Brock. Making it worse, Brock becomes Venom not when praying for forgiveness for contemplating suicide (as he does in the comic), but praying for God to smite Peter.
* The Banana Split Gang became this in the horror/comedy, ''[[The Banana Splits Movie]]''. Folks who grew up between 1968 and 1984 might remember ''[[The Banana Split Show]]'', a variety show produced by [[Hanna-Barbera]] that ran for two years and was then shown on syndication for 12 more years. The show featured cartoon shorts and live action scenes with a [[New Age]] band made up of four nutty [[Funny Animal]] characters, Fleegle (dog), Bingo (monkey), Drooper (lion), and Snorky (elephant). The 2019 movie, however (possibly inspired by [[Five Nights at Freddy's (franchise)|a certain successful video game]]), cast the foursome as homicidal monsters, seeking revenge against the studio for canceling their show. {{spoiler| Except Snorky - he becomes the hero.}}
* ''[[Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey]]'' was similar, it features an evil [[Winnie the Pooh|Winnie and Piglet]] seeking bloody revenge against the now adult Christopher Robin for leaving them when he grew older. Unfortunately, the film is, even by slasher standards, pretty bad.
* ''[[The Mean One]]'', an (unauthorized) retelling of ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas]]'' with the Grinch as the sociopathic killer; Cindy Lou (as an adult, the plot occurring twenty years after the incident) is the [[Final Girl]].
* The entire plot of ''[[Brightburn]]''. The movie is pretty much the origin of [[Superman]] - had he been evil.
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Slugworth is this in ''[[Wonka]]'', plus an [[Ascended Extra]]. In the [[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory|original novel]], [[Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory|1971 film]]<ref>He seemed pretty sinister in that movie, but as revealed at the end, it wasn't really him.</ref>, and [[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)|2005 film]], he is one of the legendary candymaker’s competitors, and in all these versions "only" engaged in corporate espionage. In this prequel, however, {{spoiler|Slugworth is far more evil. A mobster in all but name, he is willing to have Wonka and his allies arrested on frivolous debt claims in order to “discourage” him from opposing the Chocolate Cartel and indenture them to a laundry, resorts to sabotage and arson, and then "offers" to pay off the debts Wonka and his friends owe, so long as he leaves town and never makes chocolate again. While Wonka agrees at first, Slugworth bribes the laundry owner to keep Noodle there anyway, and then tries to kill Wonka by planting a bomb on the boat Wonka leaves on. As Wonka later uncovers, Noodle is the daughter of Slugworth’s deceased brother, Slugworth having told her mother she was dead and then sold her to Scrubitt (the [[Big Bad]] of the movie) in order to eliminate her and gain the family inheritance.}}
* While initially seeming like a straight-up case of [[Adaptational Heroism]], it becomes clear around halfway into ''[[Spider-Man: Far From Home]]'' that Mysterio is every bit the villain that he is in the comics, and so much worse than that. While he can be nasty and genuinely dangerous at times, comics!Mysterio, for the most part, skews closer to the "Affable" side of [[Affably Evil]] and is often portrayed as [[A Lighter Shade of Black]] among Spidey's rogues' gallery. Here, Mysterio is a sadistic, sociopathic [[Attention Whore]] who orchestrates disasters with massive casualties around the world so he can stop them and be hailed as a hero for it, and is perfectly willing to murder a bunch of teenagers in order to cover up his crimes.
== Literature ==
* In ''Frankenstein's Monster'', a [[POV Sequel]] to Mary Shelley's novel ''[[Frankenstein (novel)|Frankenstein]]'', Captain Robert Walton is a [[Knight Templar]] who pursues the monster according to Victor's final wishes. In the original book, although Victor does make the same request, Walton feels some sympathy for the monster and allows it to leave his ship without a fight.
** Victor Frankenstein himself gets this in many modern interpretations, in which he is a [[Mad Scientist]], [[Card-Carrying Villain]], or both. In the book, his mental instability isn't so obvious, and he is a significantly more complex character, more misguided and pathetic than villainous.
* ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'':
** The Queen of Hearts is clearly a mean woman and a blustering [[Jerkass]] type, but calling her "evil" might be stretching the definition a little; though she often calls for people to be beheaded, her husband secretly pardons most of the people she condemns, and the Gryphon tells Alice that, "It's all in [the Queen's] fancy, you know. They don't actually execute anyone." Nonetheless, you can be sure in almost any modern adaptation of the work or inspired story where Alice is portrayed as the protagonist, the Queen of Hearts [[Composite Character| (often conflated with the Red Queen)]] will be the villain, and portrayed as far more evil than Carroll could have ever imagined. One good example is [[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)| the 1951 Disney version]]; Whereas the trial scene in the original book ends with her realizing that the Queen of Hearts' threat against her is empty and dismissing the Queen's court as a pack of playing cards, the Disney version of the Queen is portrayed as a genuine threat, and the trial ends with Alice running for her life from the Queen and her soldiers before waking up.
** Then there's [[Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)| Tim Burton's movie]] and the [[American McGee's Alice| popular video game]]. Then Queen of Hearts is a mad tyrant in the first, and an [[Eldritch Abomination]] in the second.
** [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons| The Jabberwock]] is often both this and an [[Ascended Extra]] in such works, seeing as the evil beast wasn't even an antagonist for Alice in ''[[Through the Looking Glass]]'', only appearing in the now-famous poem that she read. The poem became so popular that most modern adaptations include the creature as an adversary for Alice and the heroes in general.
* Mr. Rochester is much less sympathetic in Jean Rhys's ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' than he is in ''[[Jane Eyre]]''.
* The [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novel ''The Resurrection Casket'' is ''[[Treasure Island]] [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]]!'' Drel McCavity (the Squire Trelawney character) turns out to be a villain, but not ''quite'' as much of one as Salvo (the John Silver character) who's been "upgraded" to a [[Faux Affably Evil]] [[Complete Monster]].
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* [[Dumbo|The Ringmaster]] in Disney's ''[[Disney's Villains' Revenge]]''.
* [[Casting a Shadow|Darkrai]] is portrayed as a [[Dark Is Not Evil]] Pokemon in the [[Pokémon]] games, hiding itself away voluntarily to try and prevent its power to trap other creatures in nightmares from afflicting others. In the [[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon|Mystery Dungeon]] series, it is a much more malicious character who plots to plunge the world into eternal darkness [[For the Evulz]]. However, this Darkrai eventually loses its memory and can be recruited postgame.
* ''[[The Simpsons Arcade|The Simpsons Mobile Arcade Game]]''; Many characters who [[Jerkass| are simply jerks]] in the cartoon are bosses trying to impede Homer, such as Chief Wiggum, Mayor Quimby, Jimmy Freedman (aka The Pimple Faced Kid), Kent Brockman, Krusty, and more.
* Unlike his comic book counterpart who would rather control New York than destroy it, Kingpin in ''Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin'' is cut from an entirely different cloth. Instead of the de-facto top dog of NYC's criminal underground, he's practically a Bond villain who seeks to nuke the city as part of his greater plan to take over the world, and will happily force Spider-Man to watch as he dunks Mary Jane in a vat of acid in one of the game's bad endings.
* Mysterio tends to bounce between being an ineffective goofball and a genuinely terrifying lunatic depending on who's writing him in the comics, but he's a full-on [[Omnicidal Maniac]] in ''[[Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions]]'' who's willing to destroy the multiverse itself so he can reshape it into something that's more to his liking.
* Hammerhead was always a bad guy in the original ''[[Spider-Man]]'' comics, but he was no worse than your average mobster and had his fair share of redeeming qualities, such as being against hurting women and children. His incarnation in [[Spider-Man (2018 video game)|the PS4 ''Spider-Man'' game]], however, is a nasty piece of work. Not only does he ''happily'' [[Would Hit a Girl|subject Yuri Watanabe to emotional torture and have Silver Sable physically tortured by his men]], but he's a prolific cop killer, tries to execute his rival Maggia dons by drowning them in cement, and couldn't care less that arming his men with Sable International's dangerous tech will kill plenty of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire of his brutal turf wars.
* Aran Ryan is this in the Wii version of ''[[Punch Out]]''. When he appears in ''[[Super Punch Out]]'', he fights perfectly clean; even when the game is analyzed using the rules of the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combat Sports, he doesn't cheat at all. In the Wii game, however, he is a ''blatant'' cheater, and worse than any other opponent, going so far as to put horseshoes in his gloves and using one of them like a flail.
== Web Originals ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130621053829/http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/blogs/write/entry/top-five-miscast-disney-villains This page] lists five well-known characters who were reimagined into villains through Disney movies in this way.
* The ''[[Day of the Barney Trilogy]]'' takes Barney and Baby Bop, who are portrayed as sincere and good friends to the kids on ''[[Barney and Friends]]'', and portrays them as [[Complete Monster]]s who successfully get the world's children to kill any adult they come across,
* In the movie [[Downfall (film)|Downfall]], [[wikipedia:Hermann Fegelein|Hermann Fegelein]] is simply Heinrich Himmler's Number Two man who Hitler killed for trying to leave the Bunker and flee Berlin. In [[Hitler Rants]], however, he's portrayed as a malicious [[Trickster Archetype]] and [[Screwy Squirrel]] whose "antics" constantly bamboozle [[Butt Monkey|Hitler]] at the drop of a hat, making Fegelein the [[Big Bad]]. Granted, this stuff is [[Poke the Poodle]] compared to the [[Real Life]] [[Complete Monster|Fegelein's]] "[[Moral Event Horizon|antics]]" in Russia.
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* In the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' games, and most cartoon adaptations, Dr. "Eggman" Robotnik is villainous, but with a highly [[Affably Evil|affable]] and clownish demeanor, and in some cases leans into [[Anti-Villain]] territory. The Robotnik of ''[[Sonic Sat AM]]'' and [[Sonic Underground]], however, is a monstrous (and far less humorous) dictator that not only has taken over most of the planet, but thrives almost lustfully on having any remaining civilians [[Transformation Trauma|painfully]] [[Unwilling Roboticisation|robotocized]]. This depiction is drifted in and out for both comic adaptations (although they refer to his more petty, comical personality a lot more).
** Inverted in ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', where Robotnik is instead portrayed as an oafish, cowardly buffoon who does nothing but get kicked around by not only Sonic and Tails, but also his own cronies Scratch and Grounder as well.
*** The same applies for his outing in ''[[Sonic Boom]]''. Not only are his [[Affably Evil]] [[Manchild]] tendencies ramped [[Up to Eleven]], but he has his fair share of nice and genuinely ''heroic'' moments. He wants his prison cells for his enemies to be ''comfy'', for crying out loud!
* In the song ''[[Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer]]'', Cousin Mel is mentioned a grand total of once, playing cards with Grandpa after Grandma's death. In the [[Christmas Special]] based on the song, she is a [[The Grinch|Christmas-hating]] [[Gold Digger]] and wannabe [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] who [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|sings one of the]] [[Disney Acid Sequence|oddest]] [[Villain Song]]s [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|ever written]].
* In the book ''[[Cranberry Christmas]]'', Cyrus Grape is a [[Grumpy Old Man|curmudgeonly old man]] who refuses to let anyone skate on his pond, but gets his comeuppance when Mr. Whiskers finds a deed that proves the lake is actually on his property. In the animated special, Cyrus is a much more active antagonist, sneaking around and messing up Mr. Whiskers's house in order to keep Mr. Whiskers from finding that deed (whereas in the book he had no idea it existed).
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* Tublat the gorilla from ''[[Tarzan]]'' by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]. In Disney's ''[[The Legend of Tarzan]]'', his character is [[Composite Character|merged rather confusingly]] with another, Kerchak. Since Disney decided to make their version of Kerchak (who is ironically more similar to Burroughs's Tublat in personality) more sympathetic, as a consequence they ended up making their version of Tublat more sinister, like the novel's Kerchak.
* In the TV show ''[[Mega Man (animation)|Mega Man]]'', Proto Man is one of the major villains. In the games, while he did work for [[Big Bad|Dr. Wily]] [[Mega Man 3|at first]], he had a [[Heel Face Turn]] and became an ally to Mega Man, if a [[Aloof Ally|distant one]].
** The same also goes for Dr. Wily himself. While a dangerous and manipulative man in the games, his villainy amounts to little more than trying to take over the world and kidnapping the occasional innocent person (at least, before the ''[[Mega Man X]]'' series, where he's taken the plunge into [[Omnicidal Maniac]] territory). Here, he's an unhinged lunatic willing to kill countless innocent people, level entire cities, and even destroy most of the world and rule over the remains all out of petty spite towards Dr. Light. While not ''quite'' as dark, he's basically the show's equivalent to [[Sonic Sat AM|Sat AM Robotnik.]]
* In the ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' comics [[Silver Sable]] is an [[Anti-Hero|anti-heroic]] mercenary. While she sometimes fights [[Spider-Man]], they usually team up to fight the real villain. In ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', Silver Sable is a [[Mafia Princess]] and a straight up villain, since she's the [[Daddy's Little Villain|daughter]] of the mob boss Silvermane in the show.
** [[Word of God]] says that had the show continued, she would have [[Heel Face Turn|evolved]] into her usual anti-heroic persona.
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** Ammit, on the other hand, is portrayed as a pet of the [[Big Bad]]. In Egyptian mythology she was a neutral enforcer of order and punisher of evil, although this quality made her feared by the ancient Egyptians.
* The ''[[Street Fighter (animation)|Street Fighter]]'' animated series made Zangief into one of M. Bison's lackeys, despite the fact that Zangief actually opposed Shadaloo in the games.
* In
** Oh, and Gambit, you know, ''the'' X-Man? He's a member of the Thieves' Guild who only cares about the money, to the point where he'll steal a weapon for the MRD, who he knows will use it against mutants, '''his own kind''', for money. Man, what a [[Jerkass]].▼
▲**Oh, and Gambit, you know, the X-Man? He's a member of the Thieves' Guild who only cares about the money, to the point where he'll steal a weapon for the MRD, who he knows will use it against mutants, '''his own kind''', for money. Man, what a [[Jerkass]]
* From ''[[The Smurfs]]'':
▲**Oh, yeah. Another good guy, Multiple Man, works for Sinister.
**
** More a case of "Not the Hero By Adaptation", Brainy's role in "The Weather Smurfing Machine". In the original, he was the one who saved the day by tying his kite to the out-of-control Machine in order to draw lighting to it and blow it to pieces. In the animated version, Handy thinks this up, crafting the kite from Brainy's umbrella. Whether this change of plot was good or not is debatable; one could say that forcing Handy to destroy his own machine was a nice touch.
* [[Harley Quinn]] is a character who has gone all the way up and down the [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains]], often into true villain territory, but most of the time, she’s regarded as a tragic figure corrupted by the Joker, who in [[New 52]], went so far as to dunk her in the same vat of chemicals that drove him mad. In the 2019 series, however, this origin is changed. Harley’s backstory reveals that she was likely [[Evil All Along]], having been a [[Yandere]] towards a boy as early as age 11 (having spent time in juvie for it) and possibly having killed her [[Alpha Bitch]] rival in high school. This is finally cinched by [[Repressed Memories]] that shows the Joker did ''not'' push her into that vat of chemicals - she willingly ''jumped'' in, and later rationalized that Joker pushed her in to absolve herself of any responsibility for it. This revelation causes Harley to embrace her dark side and plot to outshine the Joker in notoriety, which has been a major part of the ongoing plot.
* [[Mad Scientist|Professor Piddy P. Poopypants]] from ''[[Captain Underpants|Captain Underpants: The Epic First Movie]]''. In the original book, he seems to be a somewhat decent fellow until he snaps after George and Harold write a comic book that makes his [[Unfortunate Name]] the butt of a lot of jokes. In a lot of ways, his anger could even be justified; after all, he didn't choose such a ridiculous name, even if silly names are common in New Swissland. In the movie, however (where his name is stated to be P.P. Diarrheastein Poopypants Esquire, making it even more ridiculous) he really isn’t a nice guy to begin with. The movie portrays him as selfish and egotistical, not even interested in reforming (something he does in the original story) and flat-out rejecting the heroes’ attempts to make peace.
* From ''[[Justice League: Gods and Monsters]]'':<ref>Designed as a [[Darker and Edgier]] alternate universe to begin with, so these are far from the only changes to mainstream versions.</ref>
** Doc Magnus and the [[Metal Men]] are the main antagonists in the initial movie.
** Zigzagged with [[Batman]]. He is the [[Token Evil Teammate]] among the heroes here, being a vampire who will not hesitate to kill criminals. However, this version of Batman is not Bruce Wayne, but Kirk Langstrom, (as in the Man-Bat in the mainstream comic) so he can also count as [[Adaptational Heroism]].
** [[The New Gods| Highfather]] is just as treacherous as [[Darkseid]] is in the mainstream universe, if not moreso.
** Dear lord, '''Harley Quinn'''. Clearly the most evil version of Harley to date, she's a chainsaw wielding [[Serial Killer]] who keeps the rotting corpses of her family like trophies. Even worse, the Joker is nowhere to be seen, implying she wound up like this on her own.
* Many non-evil characters who were originally introduced in the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures]]'' comic got this Trope applied in the animated series - Leatherhead, Wingnut & Screwloose, and Mondo Gecko. In fact, the writers had planned to have Ray Fillet be the antagonist in “Rebel Without a Fin”; he was changed to an unrelated [[Fish Person]] simply called Ray because writer Stephen Murphy objected to the character being used as a villain. Didn’t stop a lot of fans from referring to him as “Ray Fillet”, though.
* ''[[Velma]]'' does this to the title character, Velma Dinkley; while not nearly as evil as the true antagonist, this version of Velma is far removed from the lovable nerd most fans of ''[[Scooby-Doo]]'' are familiar with, the show making her an arrogant, narcissistic, selfish bigot, with no genuine concern for anyone but herself. Possibly her defining moment comes after Daphne gets into a fight with a student named Krista over sex and nudity on television (she opposes it and Krista is in favor of it), Velma assaults Daphne with a hockey stick, before asking her opinion of race-blind casting. When Daphne yells at Velma that she could have killed her, Velma replies “guess I didn’t try hard enough”. While pivotal parts of the story involves Velma clearing Fred and Daphne of murder, she only does so to help her father, who is their lawyer, and for the record, not a very good one.
** Daphne is little better than Velma, being both an [[Alpha Bitch]] and a true [[Bully]]. The aforementioned fight with Krista (which starts with choking her and ends with slamming her head to the floor) isn’t the only time she shows a violent streak; in fact, while she isn’t guilty of murder, she comes very close to being so more than once. Naturally, she and Velma are hated rivals during the series, Daphne going so far as to blackmail Velma into dealing narcotics for her in exchange for convincing her own parents (both of whom are police officers) into letting Velma see police records.
** The adaptation doesn’t truly make Fred a villain, though it does make him a complete jerk, and as for Shaggy, he has the opposite problem, being a [[Dogged Nice Guy]] who is far too trusting and forgiving, causing the other protagonists to take advantage of him at every opportunity.
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