Personality
Characters who get a new personality that should be a downgrade or insulting, but winds up more beloved
King Shark - The Suicide Squad (2021): King Shark by all rights should be a menacing, terrifying beast and in most media he is. His redesign in The Suicide Squad and to an extent the Harley Quinn Show feel like much better fits. He makes a lot more sense as a benevolent, kind, or even dumb character that is protective and can rage out. Like Majiin Buu
Lego Batman - The Lego Batman Movie (2017): I was one of the batman fans that was really frustrated by his portrayal in The Lego Movie. I never liked a silly Batman, but my mind was changed with The Lego Batman Movie. I think in such a silly, slapstick world I really like a pathetic, loner who is roasted by Alfred lmao. Especially because Legacy of the Dark Knight brought back the serious Lego Batman and it was a reminder he can work either way
For sure, Sonic has been one of the most reliably humiliating franchises to engage with for decades, but they accidentally hired someone fucking turbo-funny to write the Sonic Boom show.
It's up there with Phineas & Ferb when I think of children's shows where some brilliant comedy writers threw their whole ass into using absolute spit-take material on what would otherwise be a very formulaic cartoon.
One of the episodes has sonic be captured by this anteater fan that has a lot of chris chan's traits to the point the writers had to know what they were doing
They also directly reference one of chris’s more well known freak outs (over sonic’s arms changing colour for Boom) with sonic stating “They never should have changed the colour of tomato-pottamus’s legs”, they ABSOLUTELY knew what they were doing
I loved this series. I almost didn’t check it out because I wasn’t that keen on the designs and heard the script of the games weren’t great. Then on the SuperBestFriendCast Matt mentioned it being played for laughs and quoted a few of the jokes and I was sold. So glad I checked it out.
I never watched Sonic Boom, but I do like how he's portrayed in the new movies and his tv show. He's not Dumb, but he's foreign so he doesn't get our culture. It's charming and feels accurate because we know he's intelligent and a great strategist
The movies are a lot more accurate to the games than boom was. Especially in the Adventure games and games right after that he was portrayed as a really stoic and responsible tribesman to better contrast sonic, especially once shadow was around and sonic had a new foil
My favourite line is when Sonic is desperately telling Shadow that "I don't want to fight you!", and Knuckles says very seriously, "I would like to fight him very much." Idris delivered that line so sincerely it's perfect.
Everyone keeps saying Boom!Knuckles is “dumb”, while that’s not completely untrue, I feel that his defining trait is closer to being a “cloudcuckoolander”, constantly saying odd things which range from being poorly thought out (so dumb), to having clear logic but still rather odd logic.
There are different flavours of cloudcuckoolander. Sticks is the conspiracy theorist, Knuckles is the type that has out of pocket quips or solutions when faced with certain situations.
I fuckin love sonic boom.a lot of it is ugly and the animation isn't that great, and on top of that, a lot of plots aren't reliant or relevant to the sonic universe.... But damn does it have some banger jokes and I love that Eggnan's antics are just like... A hobby for both of them
I was really surprised by Drax’s story in the game. At times the characters felt like carbon copies of the films, but exploring his backstory added so much to him.
But it nailed the emotional aspects fantastically. Drax with his family, Peter with his mom, and Peter with Nikki at the end are all fantastically done scenes that are heartbreaking as hell.
I was blown away by the narrative, I picked it up because it looked like a fun shooter and thought it was going to wrap up like 10 times (literally) before it did. And then during the credits was almost a whole other chapter. It really was peak storytelling, if anyone is on the fence trying it out just do it
I was really impressed with how they did Drax in game. "Dead wife and kid" as a backstory is hardly anything new. But the execution really had me feeling for him.
Man this guy got so horrendously flanderised as the series progressed. In the first film he's smart, he just doesn't grasp subtlety or metaphor. He calls Quill an imbecile for risking his life for a casette tape (not knowing the sentimental value). By film 3 he's clinically slow and couldn't call anyone an imbecile.
Same thing happened to Thor. He was originally funny because his knowledge of culture and technology was stuck in like medieval viking times. Now, he just doesn’t understand anything in general, they made him a lil stupid
To be honest, at least from a mythological standpoint, they probably made Thor too smart in the first movie.
Say what you will about the Hemsworth depiction, actual written Thor exploits include him getting into a frost giant wedding by disguising as the bride (he doesn't even shave his beard)... The sort of thing most people would think is too ridiculous to include in the movies because it would be too silly.
Star-Lord is a battle-weary war veteran. Gamorra is more aggressive. Mantis is cold and distant. Yondu shouldn't even be there for 1000 years. Groot is proud and haughty. Rocket doesn't have that tragic backstory.
But I can't deny that they all work fantastically in the films.
He was a serious strategist that had a butt ton of powers such as Energy Blasts who's only goal was to kill Thanos after he killed him and his family. He was resurrected by the Mad Titan's father, Mentor and before he died he was a human named Arthur Douglas.
At one point (post-Annihilation?) he was resurrected as a mindless berserker. He's basically bioengineered to kill specifically Thanos. I think at various times you could basically sum up his powers as being the ability to kill Thanos.
Ehhhhhh, not really? He's still wacky, only he's the only one with the protective Looney Tunes powers, meaning that an anvil dropped on another person would burst them open like a watermelon, whereas in the movie, of which I only recognize one, his powers aren't as deadly to people around him. The personality is pretty much the same, just that the consequences of the comic are darker.
yeah, the wackiness is straight outta the comic (comic gets even wackier) but they pulled back A LOT on the gore. people straight burnt to death and eyeballs flying out of their sockets in the comic. movie does the PG-13 thing of "its not that violent if there's no blood and guts."
That's a choice though, so it's still a character change. The villain has the same powers when wearing the mask and those powers are as deadly as you'd expect.
This is always how it goes. In the 40s he's Zorro and Dick Tracy and he killed bad guys. He lightens up in the 50s and 60s which the original fans didn't like. He gets more serious in the 80s and 90s which the 60s fans didn't like. He gets overly gritty in the 00s and the 90s fans didn't like that. He got silly again in the 10s and the 00s fans didn't like that.
And then when Michael Keaton was cast in Tim Burton’s Batman, as he was mainly known as a comedic actor, fans were outraged as they thought the film was going to be a comedy. By then the comics had pivoted to a darker version but the general public still thought of West’s Batman for the character.
The fans were so mad they send 50,000 letters of complaint to WB to protest the casting. It caused WB to hastily edit together a choppy trailer asap to show fans that they were taking Batman seriously again.
Adam West’s Batman is genuinely my favorite Batman. Every villain is great (seriously I still think Meredith’s Penguin and especially Gorshin’s Riddler are the best live action portrayals) and the silliness and camp means I can watch it with my toddler. Seriously, I know a lot of hardcore Batman fans don’t like how silly it is but I appreciate immensely that there’s at least one universe where Bruce isn’t a tortured soul (while still being Batman) and Gotham has sunny days.
Batman in the first Lego Movie was so unbelievably douchy. Like I know the joke is that Batman thinks too highly of himself and thinks himself more important but damn…I kinda love it tho 🤣🤣
For the most part yes. The Lego world reflects how they are being played with in real life, though they still have full sentience in their own world so stuff continues to go on even when the kids aren’t playing with them in the real world
Being fair Batman IS like this buy like not in so happy way, he literally made plans to defeat every Justice League member (what isn't totally wrong cause of the amount of evil clones and villains that control minds) and didn't told anyone, like Alfred is the one who will hit him with a cane in his head and say something like "You aren't invincible, stop believing you are allways right, also left this cave a bit more you live in a mansion with five bedrooms enjoy it a little"
Also the funniest character in that show with how unhinged she is. Girl literally falls in love with Daffy after he reads her a letter that she wrote as advice on how to talk to a girl 😂
This whole show was an underrated gem. I saw the trailers fully prepared to hate it because I was unsure of the sitcom format and am a huge fan of the classic shorts. This show is so damn funny. The episode where the turtle tries to commit insurance fraud will never get old.
Honestly I think it was way ahead of its time. It'd probably have found better success in today's market what with things like schitts creek or modern family rolling around
I saw someone else point out why it works so well. Before she was just a sexy rabbit with her main trait being that she's attractive, but in the show they made her crazy, stupid, a nutjob... a looney. Just like Bugs and Daffy and Coyote and Sylvester, she became a looney toon.
Puss In Boots - He's more cocky/arrogant in The Last Wish compared to his appearance in the previous Shrek movies, but this plays well into TLW's themes of being humble with your life
Her original character was more assertive and intelligent. She physically threatens Cotton when he touches her inappropriately and fixes a truck that Hank and the boys couldn't fix. She gets dumbed way down and seems unable to stand up for herself but she's still a beloved King of the Hill character. Also RIP to her voice actress, Brittany Murphy
I think Luanne continues to be endearing because her character is all sincerity and heart. Even though she can’t rely on her intelligence she is able to navigate through a lot of her life successfully through being kind and sincere in her efforts.
Her introduction was fixing hanks truck. I cant fathom hank letting anyone touch his truck, let alone the Luanne. I wish her plotline was trying and failing in feminine jobs, but effortlessly succeed in masculine jobs. Mechanic Luanne would still be great with Lucky, fixing his trucks for him.
Yeah, I just rewatched season 1 and 2 recently, and it stuck out to methat she was--maybe not a lot--but more intelligent and assertive than later seasons.
Pretty sure he's less of an Irish stereotype (although definitely still has Irish stereotypes) and more-so just a walking stereotype of the dirty boxer turned to 11. Everything from cheating to even attempting to throw the match by giving little Mac free shots
I like Thor as kind of a frat sport guy. He's in it for the love of the game, doesn't take things too seriously, and he'll throw down when necessary. Ragnarok was so relatively unserious that his personality fit better
Going back to the old movies is a shock after getting used to modern Thor. There are scenes in Ultron where he's treated as the tactician of the group, which makes sense with him having fought in- or even led more battles than Earth has probably seen.
Infinity War Thor was perfectly balanced, as all things should be. He still retained some of the goofball himbo energy, but he was taking things more seriously. Which is understandable; seeing as how he lost his father, his home, most of his people, and saw his brother die (again) all in the space of like, a couple of days? Maybe a week?
Straight fire writing. Every dialogue he had with the Guardians (which is like most of his dialogue now that I think about it, goddamn, all characters truly interacted with Thanos for just few minutes each) is gold but his break down is a golden mix of goofball himbo and vengeful warrior
Rocket Raccoon: This is Thanos we're talking about. He's the toughest there is.
Thor: Well, he's never fought me.
Rocket Raccoon: Yeah, he has.
Thor: He's never fought me twice.
Rocket: Better be some hammer.
Thor: You know, I'm 1500 years old. I've killed twice as many enemies as that. And every one of them would have rather killed me than not succeeded. I'm only alive because fate wants me alive. Thanos is just the latest of a long line of bastards, and he'll be the latest to feel my vengeance - fate wills it so.
Rocket Raccoon: Mm-hmm. And what if you're wrong?
Thor: Well, if I'm wrong, then... what more could I lose?
Rocket: I could lose a lot. Me personally. I could lose a lot.
He is like the superman of marvel in that other worldly symbol of hope and not just physically strong but mentally strong to deal with what comes. It is why fat thor was supposed to be a big impact to the character.
I far prefer Thor in Endgame to Ragnarok. Seeing him so utterly broken and lost endeared me to him far more than seeing him crack dumb jokes and goof around on some garbage heap planet.
Love and Thunder is obviously the worst but people act like it's that much worse than Ragnarok when it really isn't. Ragnarok just felt fresher at the time.
Endgame Thor by himself isn’t that great but in the context of the story it makes sense. Thor was literally just starting his reign as king, only to get jumped and saw half of his people get killed, along with his brother and heimdall. Then after he goes on a quest to stop Thanos he ends up being to late. And on top of all that when he does kill Thanos, the fact that he can’t undo the snap makes the kill meaningless. His depression crash out makes very complete sense
John Hammond has a big personality shift between the novel and the film. Arguably, his character became a bit paradoxical, but is certainly more beloved. In the book, he's colder, a more shrewd businessman. Lord Richard Attenborough made him softer and kinder. He now has a big heart.
Why is this sort of a downgrade? Well, it makes less sense narrative-wise. It's odd that he'd lie about cutting corners or putting money first, and it's a bit odd that he's some cooperate head honcho. He feels like a naive Santa Claus, but he somehow made his own wealth enough to partially finance this park's creation.
I prefer the film, and would have hated book Hammond's fate to fall on the film's version. It now hurts a bit to see his dream crash and burn.
I interpreted film Hammond as a former cunning businessman who has since mellowed out and decided he was in a position where he could take a huge risk and fulfill a lifelong, but impractical, dream. Someone who had mellowed out with age. Even if the park was well-intentioned, his cutting corners was simply how he knew how to run a business, not being intentionally malicious.
I think of him as a "kinder" version of the idiot billionaire that died in the sub because he thought he knew better. The past successes let him convince himself he knows better. Because he is "kind*" and "successful*", he can just ignore criticism and concerns that are raised.
But the kindness is an excuse to keep the blinders, and people being unwilling to push uncomfortable questions because of it also enables the issues to escalate.
And the "success" is measured by money, which can be influenced by other things, including just being the lucky businessman that constantly cut corners but didn't get the bad luck. Like how lotto tickets are a bad financial plan, except for the guy who won. Maybe he made his money cutting corners on construction so it was a bit under spec, but no earthquakes happened so it never came up (yet).
After the crisis passes he's out barking at people during the clean up (he's a LOT less nice in the book). The kids are playing with the PA system and play a T-Rex roar. Everyone runs away in a panic and Hammond falls and messes up his leg, cursing his grandkids the whole time. The compys find him soon after and his death is pretty much this scene.
Book Hammond didn't even get it as bad as poor Dieter.
"But he knew they were poisonous. Their bites had a slow-acting poison that they used to kill crippled animals."
"Lying on his back on the hillside, he began to feel strangely relaxed, detached from himself. But he realized that nothing was wrong. No error had been made. Malcolm was quite incorrect in his analysis. Hammond lay very still, as still as a child in its crib, and he felt wonderfully peaceful."
I spare no expense. No Newman, i wont get you more money, or manpower cause i picked the lowest bidder who didn’t know the scale of the project he took up. Also these plants are poisonous besides the herbavors, and there are not sufficient backup generators, and also also i wont help the family of the guy who was mauled by a raptor.
He gives off the energy of a great man, but its all an act. Hes terrible, but he looks and acts like a sweet grandparent.
Btw I HIGHLY recommend listening to his dialog in the Tresspasser game, it's voiced wonderfully by Richard Attenborough and kinda does a blend of book and movie version in a fun way
He feels like a naive Santa Claus, but he somehow made his own wealth enough to partially finance this park's creation.
I think it's weird you find this unusual. Do you think there aren't TONS and TONS of rich people who are happy and seem kind because they have massive blinders to how they acquired their wealth? Rich people who have fully convinced themselves of how they obtained their wealth was solely for the greater good are hardly rare.
I like that he's low-key evil. That all this crap happens because he just jovially handwaves away concerns. That the low-key evil is the being so 'kind' that it's bad to bring up concerns and focus on them. We need more of that. It's not a paradox at all, it's basic humanity. People are multifaceted and lie to themselves is the default state of humans. Abusing "kindness" to shut down criticism is one of the things constantly abused today.
In my head it goes from a shrewd, greedy businessman failing because of his arrogance and avarice to a misguided dreamer failing for underestimating what he had done
Lola Bunny-The Looney Tunes Show. Her personality is changed from being an attractive and competent character into an optimistic and idiotic character.
Tobey McGuire’s portrayal of SpiderMan downgrades a lot of what SpiderMan is known for, like his goofy jokes and scientific mind. But he’s one of the most beloved portrayals of the character
Eh. I know I'll get crucified for this, but he's boring. He barely shows any emotion at all. This is just another example, like the Star Wars prequels, of how the memification of a franchise alters the public perception of that piece of media. People conflate their love of the meme culture tied to an IP with the IP itself. It's almost like revisionist history. JJJ and the villain cast carried those movies, and I'll die on that hill.
JJJ and the villain cast carried those movies, and I'll die on that hill.
While this is true the love of the Spider-man movies is due to a lot of factors not just the memery. It came out post 9-11 right when America was feeling vulnerable and it showed that even after getting hit you could stand back up and make something important and meaningful of yourself.
Yes Toby isn't a generational actor, but he brought what was needed for the time, mostly through luck that it needed a more every man blank slate take.
MJ is a straight downgrade IMO, but again female characters didn't get treated great 20-25 years ago. At least she wasn't barely legal 18 to a main lead that was 40 playing 18. She was 19-20 and he was 26.
But the movie landed at a time we as a country needed something like it. Peter does the right things even when it's hard after learning that doing the wrong things causes more pain. (Sadly this doesn't seem to have resonated with those that really needed to hear it.) But it also walked that campy earnest line pretty damn well. Rami got some of his whacky bits in but we had real pain and emotion like Uncle Ben dying.
I will 100% agree though that 3 only really exists as a fond memory because of the memes. It was an unliked film by the public at large due to being over stuffed.
I think it's fair to say that Tobey is people's favorites strictly because of nostalgia, but it's helped by the fact that those movies are genuinely great. He's arguably the worst part of the entire franchise lol but I recently rewatched all 3 and was pleasantly surprised how amazing they still hold up
the movie came about in a time where superhero films were starting to find their more grounded representations. Xmen came out in 2000, and this was in 2002. After a bunch of misfires in the 90's, i dont know if goofier superhero films would have had as much success at the time. you were already taking a big risk with effects-heavy films trying to create enough suspension of disbelief and get the public to accept superhero films on a massive scale.
I mean the prequels had defenders before the memes and the raimi trilogy was mostly well received and created iconic ideas that would bleed into the source material like the Burton movies for Batman. It's like claming Shrek was made popular by memes did it help them have a longer shelf life and stay relevant but its not like people will watch three movies because of a handful of meme moments.
I think King Shark can work both ways, like starts naive, kind and dumb but once he becomes a villain he acts menacing and agressive until he eventually get to the Suicide Squad that is a place where he feels comfortable enough to be kind, silly and his own slow self
Also Lego Batman is perfect, perfect as Batman movie and perfect as a romance movie between Batman and Joker
The seawater-bit is how its explained in the comics. Maybe it's sort of a time-thing. Like not being able to solve someone's dehydration by giving them 1 cup of water. They'd need a lot more over a long period of time. Same idea.
All the movie Guardians of the Galaxy were dumbed down from their comics versions, and all for the better. Drax is arguably my favorite MCU character for being as dumb as a box of bricks but he’s also got a big heart.
Palpatine's portrayal in the Robot Chicken Star Wars specials as a high-strung bureaucrat was brilliant and endearing. He comes across so relatable throughout the special.
Going from a stoic, Shakespearean Norse god to a goofy, self-deprecating comedy character should have ruined his epic hero aura. Instead, Taika Waititi’s comedic pivot gave Thor actual personality, made him infinitely more relatable, and turned him into an absolute fan favorite.
I don’t have anything against chris Pratt but wish literally anyone else could play starlord .
Chris pine would have been perfect if a tad bit too old for what they had in mind.
Hell even Ryan Reynolds could bring a bit more range that Pratt and he literally just plays himself z
But Chris’s Pratt was gonna always bring that loveable doofus thing to it which is what marvel wanted at the time.
I'd argue he was fine, even great, as Starlord in the first movie, possibly even second.
The problem was that Pratt basically played that same character across literally everything else. Mario, Jurassic Park, etc.
I can't even say "oh he had no range" because I honestly don't know if that's him or the direction he's given. Even RDJ & Will Smith were allowed to show depth beyond the "loveable goof" they're known for.
I'll be honest. There was a reason the Guardians were a D-Tier team before the movie came out. They struggled with a constantly changing roster, filled with characters that suffered from comic book bullshit, combined with a cosmic setting that meant they were pretty much divorced from most of the other characters.
Gunn streamlined the characters, gave them a consistent team and dynamic and made people care for them enough that they began featuring in media outside of the comics. Before Gunn, Drax was not a good character. After Gunn, he's a fan favourite.
I get why fans of the Guardians from the comics would find the movie depictions weird but, honestly, I think what they did with them was fine.
It's an alternate universe version of the same character, but the Rick dubbed "Doofus Rick" by his counterparts is exceptionally kind and compassionate (compared to your average version, who is an emotionally volatile alcoholic).
In the film she’s not a “surrogate daughter” at all, she’s becoming the chief of police when Batman sees her for the very first time which is where we obviously get this:
It's another reference! In The Killing Joke Animated version, Batman and Batgirl boink. It doesn't happen in the O.G. comics or almost any other version of Batman that I know of.
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u/JuiceOfTheElderToad 12h ago edited 12h ago
Knuckles being dumb as a rock with rare flashes of intelligence and insight in Sonic Boom.
The canon game version was naive and gullible, but not stupid.
Sonic Boom made him almost completely brainless, but he was viewed by many as the funniest character in the show.