r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Chill0000 • Aug 21 '26

Hated Tropes [HATED] Adaptations done intentionally without help from the source

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Halo TV show: Before the show came out, the writers were praising their decision to not look to the games for inspiration when making the show

God Of War TV show: Chris Judge, the actor of Kratos in the games from 2018-Now, spoke up about his dislike on the show not hiring anyone who worked on any of the previous games. One of the original creators of Kratos also spoke up about them not having faith in the adaptation.

Supergirl 2026 film: the director for the film not only said he decided to not read Woman Of Tomorrow, the comic the film is adapting, because he wanted to do his own thing, he also didn’t look at comic art for inspiration to design Lobo and instead used an AI image generator to design Lobo’s look for the film

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u/AcceptableEgg5741 Aug 21 '26

The Halo show felt like i was watching a crime being comitted, its absurd that they thought that show was good enough to be released

215

u/starshad0w Aug 21 '26

Having MC with his helmet off during the show is one thing, but doing it in marketing material was definitely a statement by the creators that they didn't care about the source material and that fans would just have to suck it up and watch what they were given.

Except they didn't, and now the show is toast.

128

u/AznOmega Aug 21 '26

Didn't the actor say it is difficult or impossible to act with a helmet?

Did he hear about Darth Vader/James Earl Jones? Or Judge Dredd? Or Din Djarin/Pedro Pascal? Their faces or head were covered and they acted fine. The few moments Din had his helmet off were tense and fit with the show's plot.

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u/informalmo0se3 Aug 21 '26

i mean chief literally does it in the games all the time. the developers are able to have him give off emotions without removing the helmet

that said, removing the helmet was somehow near the bottom of the list of this shows problems 

10

u/atuck217 Aug 21 '26

What makes MC so likable to begin with is that he is an extremely stoic, duty first soldier. He doesn't even have much emotional range. It's the subtle moments that he does show some emotion in slight tone change or a prolonged pause that really makes it so compelling.

The whole point is that he is a faceless soldier, a relatively emotionless killing machine designed to be weapon, and seeing those cracks of humanity shine through. That's what chief is.

And then the show throws that away entirely.

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u/ABG-56 Aug 21 '26

Yeah at the end of the day, if it's a TV show, it would be difficult to justify keeping the helmet on. In the games your always in a situation where that makes sense to, for a TV show trying to do that would be heavily restrictive.

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u/Mr_Supotco Aug 21 '26

Well tbf James Earl Jones was just the voice explicitly because they weren’t really happy with David Prowse’s line delivery, but he fit the build they wanted and could do the physical stuff well but they dubbed over with James. Pedro Pascal also does mostly voice work for helmeted scenes as Mando because it is hard to deliver lines helmeted, and they’d end up having to dub over it anyways since the audio would suck.

All that being said, you don’t hear either of them complaining about it. You signed up to play a character famous for never taking off his helmet, you don’t get pity from me for having to either act with a helmet on or end up just being the voice

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u/DurgeDidNothingWrong Aug 21 '26

Its all bullshit anyway, Halo 4 (for all its faults) did a bloody fantastic job of humanising Chief, and between the scene of Cortana sacrificing herself and Chief on the ships deck with Lasky immediately after, you can do emotional scenes without even a human in a suit. They just fucking sucked at directing, and the show proves that it wasn't a face reveal they needed.

11

u/Th3_Hegemon Aug 21 '26

I don't think Lucas ever intended to use the on-set voice for Vader no matter what, much easier and better to ADR it later. Plus it's hard to take your villain seriously when he sounds like a Hobbit.

1

u/Matrix010 Aug 21 '26

David always sounded like Darth Helmet to me.

11

u/A_Drop_of_Colour Aug 21 '26

Karl Urban showed that it can be done and done very well (though to be fair his half helmet allowed for emoting with his mouth and no obstruction to speaking). This actor just wanted to get face time which is understandable for someone trying to make a name for themselves unlike the other examples where most were well established already but, as you said, this was the wrong project to accept if he wasn't okay with his face not being associated with show.

5

u/Suspicious_Radio_848 Aug 21 '26

This is a common complaint but people rightfully point out that in the books he takes his helmet off all the time and has conversations with people. The games obviously want him to be a player stand in, but the expanded lore goes far beyond that so I’m willing to accept he takes it off in certain circumstances. There were a ton of other issues though.

1

u/FlyingBishop Aug 21 '26

Pretty sure David Prowse did in fact complain.

1

u/Cato_Writes Aug 21 '26

There is also one little trick, mastered near a decade and a half ago yet forgotten: Iron Man's helmet internal scenes.

Like, it's that easy! Show the actor's face inside the helmet! Sci-fi even has Huds and lights to make it more dynamic/visible!

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u/gareth_e_morris Aug 21 '26

Karl Urban gives a masterclass in how to do this in Dredd.

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u/king_john651 Aug 21 '26

Dredd is straight up a masterclass

7

u/gareth_e_morris Aug 21 '26

I'd not watched it in years but saw that it on Prime a couple of months back and hit play. It's a fantastic film.

2

u/QuantumTunnels Aug 21 '26

You can find it on YouTube movies with ads (use adblocker).

6

u/myLongjohnsonsilver Aug 21 '26

Pisses me off to no end that it was put out to die like it was. Such a good movie and no chance of a follow up.

3

u/BoyWonder343 Aug 21 '26

Yes, but also half your face being visible is a pretty different situation.

2

u/BeneficialTrash6 Aug 21 '26

I am the law.

Such a beautiful delivery. So much better than Stallone's delivery - although both were great. The pure force and certainty with how it was said.

What an absolute shame they didn't milk that and turn it into multiple sequels.

2

u/SugarmanTreacle Aug 22 '26

Urban did have the benefit of a half helmet though. Not to defend the guy who played master Chief though cause that was a bullshit excuse. Dunno if he truly felt that way or if that was just a press spin thing to justify why they had him out of armour.

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u/Skkruff Aug 21 '26

Hugo Weaving in V for Vendetta

3

u/Wasabi_Toothpaste Aug 21 '26

Fuckin classic. He's so good.

11

u/cpMetis Aug 21 '26

The most famous Halo content of all time consists almost exclusively of characters wearing helmets at all time and conveying their acting through body movements and dialogue.

Like there isn't a single example in all of media more opposed to what the Halo show guy said, than Halo.

I mean for fuck's sake spartans communicating with each other with subtle body language and their DESPISING having to have their helmets off are both EXPLICIT AND FOUNDATIONAL aspects of the lore.

4

u/Downtown_Injury_3415 Aug 21 '26

In Halo: Reach they remove their helmets frequently but not the chief. I remember Jorge removing it to console the little girl and Kat about to give him shit for it

6

u/RipComfortable7989 Aug 21 '26

Didn't the actor say it is difficult or impossible to act with a helmet?

That was bullshit. He wanted to be the face of the franchise and thought his face would carry the series and his career into the future if it succeeded.

4

u/IronIrma93 Aug 21 '26

I'd have gotten a big burly actor for the suit and brought in Steve Downes to record voice lines

3

u/uncensored_opinions Aug 21 '26

We've seen Mando's face what, 3 times? That's more than enough.

Every other scene in Halo had him take off the helmet just for expressions. Lazy writing and bad acting if you ask me.

2

u/MaXimillion_Zero Aug 21 '26

To be fair Dredd mask is only a half cover, you can emote plenty with just half your face.

2

u/Gicaldo Aug 21 '26

Hey you know what other IP was based off Halo, that someone working on a Halo show should definitely be familiar with? Red vs Blue. A show that got a ton of acting mileage out of the characters bobbing their heads up and down

2

u/HotMachine9 Aug 21 '26

Or how about Spiderman.

Sure he takes the mask of. And a lot of it is done by stuntment. But cmon man. Some of the most famous characters in media are played by actors whose face is usually covered

2

u/Downtown_Injury_3415 Aug 21 '26

Have you seen the show? The primary issue is that John (hes not my Master chief) is seen around the city interacting with characters in the down-time. The halo missions were always go-go-go and he had no time to remove his helmet in the games but in the show hes just not actively doing anything that requires it. The show should’ve had him in the field for 90% of the runtime to keep him helmet-ed

I haven’t seen the mandalorian show so idk how they handle it and I don’t think movies should be referenced in this conversation because the movies are like 2 hours vs this show being 10ish hours

1

u/drafan5 Aug 21 '26

Or pretty much any tokusatsu ever for that matter

1

u/yojimboftw Aug 21 '26

Nathan Mitchell was phenomenal as Black Noir in The Boys and we literally never see his face, and as others mentioned Karl Urban as Dredd. Sounds like a skill issue for the dude who played Chief.

1

u/FezCool Aug 21 '26

dredd isn't a very good example since you can still see his mouth

1

u/Ikacprzak Aug 21 '26

Or V for vendetta or vairous toku heroes

3

u/Northernreach Aug 21 '26

Refused to watch it once I found out that you saw his face. In the books you can count on your hand the number of times he took his helmet off willingly.

3

u/Weakonomics Aug 21 '26

Tom Hardy never had trouble with that. Played a great name. They just needed to get a better man

1

u/Lootthatbody Aug 21 '26

The trouble is there is lore in both the books and from the devs as to why MC doesn’t take off his helmet. The lore in the books is incredible, because it’s so full of emotion that sort of underpins everything he does and makes the games that much more fun and interesting, beyond just another FPS.

I get the concept of ‘we like the universe and want to tell our own story,’ but I also think it’s so irresponsible to not even familiarize yourself with the characters, backstory, or motivations. I only watched like half the first season, and it just felt so bland and generic. And, I honestly think the guy playing MC would have been great at it, though I do have some nerdy, overly specific, nitpicky issues (MC in Halo is like 14 years old, so it’s hard to see a 40 year old guy playing him).

When I think of video game shows, I think of 2 recent examples. The Last of Us was mostly shot for shot from the game, but that one episode of the backstory of SIDE CHARACTERS was the best episode of the series. On the other end of the spectrum, Fallout was basically 99% new stuff, I don’t know if there are any named major characters (aside from the big spoiler character in Season 2) from the games, but everything still feels 100% fallout. They absolutely nailed the setting, the props, the outfits, and the feel of fallout. And, that’s a game where you pause time to line up your shots, but they still made the action feel awesome without that.

1

u/ReadingRainbowRocket Aug 21 '26

I couldn't have cared less about MC taking his helmet off. Would it have been better if they didn't? Probably. But I get it. Even Mando takes off his helmet. They weren't gonna cast an even semi-name and never show his face. I wasn't offended at Master Cheeks either. I'm a gay dude and it was a nice butt. Kinda stupid and against the spirit of MC's character, but whatever, people do get nude and I imagine even MC did a bunch too.

I wasn't offended by the female human Covenant character. Something new. Adaptations always add new things. Weird to ignore so many interesting plots and focus on an original one, but whatever, I'm here for something new too, not just to whine it wasn't a 1-1 recreation of the games and books I liked.

I was offended it was bad, and that they seemed to actively try to avoid making it good.

1

u/broken_conures Aug 22 '26

I don't really buy this, having his helmet on all the time wasn't a core part of the chief. He takes it off plenty in the books and when he's outside of combat it would be weird to keep it on.