r/TopCharacterTropes • • 11d ago

Hated Tropes An adaptation completely botches the original theme and message

Mulan(2020)-They give Mulan superpowers which is not only lame it goes against the message of the original about equality and struggle,plus they removes Shang because apparently having Mulan date her superior was "problematic" even though Shang genuienely respected Mulan and their rank was never brought up

I am Legend(2007)-You know why the story is called "I am legend"? SPOILER ALERT the protagonist is the actual monster,humanity is gone and the vampires have a actual society and the protagonist kills and terrorize them

Animal Farm(2026)-On the very slim chance that Andy Serkis ever sees this,here's the thing Andy,Animal Farm was not a children work it was not supposed to have a happy ending,you never heard of cautionary tales before?

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u/Mordetrox 11d ago edited 11d ago

The Wheel of Time series has a complicated magic system where each gender has a  different manifestation with different specialties, and the male half of the system had been horrifically disfigured in a way that anyone who uses it will eventually go mad, leading to societies where woman hold a lot more power as they're the only ones to use magic safely.

The chosen one prophesized to save the world is specifically a man, creating an interesting contradiction where he's supposed to save everyone but is also doomed to go mad. As such people are less eagerly awaiting his coming as they are fearing the coming of this incredibly powerful wizard who might level a country when he snaps. It leads to an incredibly hostile environment for our protagonist when he learns he's the chosen one and shapes much of the series.

But in the Amazon series they throw that out the window and make the chosen one unisex so they could have their stupid mystery box plot where they tease every important character as being potentially the chosen one to generate buzz on social media. This also involves neutering great moments from our protagonist so it's not too obvious, leaving him feeling like a complete wimp even if he hadn't spent the entire first season whining about his girlfriend (which also wasn't in the book). God these books deserved better.

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u/ReReReadit 11d ago

I feel your pain. I love those books. The first tattoo I ever got was the heron mark on tams sword. I still want to get rand's dragon tattoos someday as well. I just found it by chance one day when I was young and couldn't put it down, it was the first book that really meant something to me.

I had a rough childhood and this book is in part responsible for getting me through it. To see something so incredibly special destroyed because Amazon can't be bothered to look away from their profit margines long enough to realize that staying true to the source material would ironically have made them more money just feels like witnessing a child die on the playground because they tripped and broke their neck.

There's no meaning or reason behind it, just a selfish company in a selfish world eating up everything decent that isn't left untouched.