r/TopCharacterTropes • • Aug 21 '26

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

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/kironex Aug 22 '26

You are the absolute minority here. The last of us went over great because it stayed true to the source as did fallout.

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u/broken_conures Aug 22 '26

The last of us was also a very story driven game with a lot of room to flesh out their ideas. A big part of its success was that it was a really good story already, halo was heavily carried by it's combat providing a lot of the excitement too, the kind of stuff that's a nightmare for putting on the screen without spending a fortune

The story of the original halo is good, but pretty threadbare if you strip out the filler that would be boring to watch

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u/kironex Aug 22 '26

There are 30 book. "Threadbare" is not the words i would use.

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u/broken_conures Aug 22 '26

I'm talking specifically the original, the first book as a retelling of the game is a really good example of why it wouldn't work to adapt. Ultimately though I just don't think it's a very interesting story to retell one we all know so well already and the more character driven parts like reach really don't come into their own until the universe is already established

Take the first game, strip out the bulk of the combat because it's expensive to make and would get old fast. What actually happens? Escape pod, gather the boys, fight onto the truth and reconciliation, fight to get the cartographer, fight to the control room, oh shit it's not a weapon, flood reveal, follow guilty for a bit, oh shit it's halo, smashy smashy, blow up the ring.

There's really not much there especially for a show that needs more than a couple of characters

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u/kironex Aug 22 '26

Literally the creation of the spartans. The fact that they were ment for pirates. That whole section is interpersonal relations and character development.

Halseys being a greater good type would have made for some great drama. Build up to the "halo" section.

You have first contact, reach, THEN halo. If the shows a hit the budget will follow. Being expensive doesnt qualify as a good reason to butcher a story.

Look at the short series foward until dawn. Absolutely phenomenal.

People asked for a halo series. Not a halo inspired story.

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u/broken_conures Aug 22 '26

Think about that for a TV series though, set up all those characters and then they're dead by the time we even see a halo

Dunno, I simply don't see the appeal of a series that shows us story we already know so well, it's boring going into every big moment with zero tension or intrigue because you've known what will happen for decades already

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u/kironex Aug 22 '26

Thats literally game of thrones. Attack on titan did the same thing. Big setup just to kill them off later.

I really loved the last of us series and i played the games all the way through. You take creative freedoms with the offscreen stuff like what was cheif up to inbetween fights.

It may not be for you but alienating all the established fans by character assassination is definitely not a great choice. Sounds to me youd rather just watch a different series all together.

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u/broken_conures Aug 22 '26

Both those had a lot more characters survive though, reach killed all but like 3. Not to mention the last of us is a very narrative driven game with a lot of dialogue and downtime

And what the chief did between fights in the story of halo 1 is basically everything, 95% of that game is fights. And no I liked the idea of a halo show, just thought it was more interesting to do something novel than tell a story with no surprises, so many of the big moments are undercut by us already knowing what halo is and what the flood do