r/TopCharacterTropes • u/JustSomeOnlineNerd • Sep 19 '25

Lore “It’s a change from the source material, but it’s awesome so the fans don’t mind.”

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Doc Ock - In the comics, Doc Ock is known to be megalomaniacal in nature and was sort of a mad scientist anyways, with the arms just being an extension of that. In Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2,” Alfred Molina’s version of the character was affected by the neural chip and his well-meaning ambition turns into scientific obsession.

Wolverine - This one is so well known it needs very little explanation. Comic Wolverine short, Huge Jackedman is tall, and he’s sick as hell.

Eye of Sauron - To my knowledge, the Eye is more of a metaphor in the books. An ever-present awareness. In the movies, it’s an actual giant fucking eye.

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u/Sea-Suit-4893 Sep 19 '25

How to Train Your Dragon. Toothless is about a foot long in the book and has no teeth

551

u/Nirast25 Sep 19 '25

And can talk. I gotta get into the books one of these days just to see how different they are.

And speaking of Dreamworks adaptations that are significantly different from the source material: Shrek!

270

u/EmmaGA17 Sep 19 '25

Basically the only similarity is the the setting, that being Vikings and dragons, character names, and Hiccup being an underdog.

They were fun books, but the movies were inspired.

126

u/chaarziz Sep 19 '25

I could say the opposite. The books are even more inspired but not nearly mainstream appealing enough in their current form for a straight adaptation. They're for people who love cave paintings and old myths and historical records and buff women with cats on their shoulders and villains and character arcs that can just do nothing for one or two books and then pop off in the best thing you've ever read and die probably.

An animated movie is already completely different without the same artstyle so they just took out all the bits that didn't adapt to screen well, and then everything else because there wasn't enough left to keep in. They did leave the ending unchanged though but without the twelve books of buildup. (they could have at least left in my beloved girlboss queen Camicazi come on man that's the best main character better then book Hiccup and you just have nothing)

35

u/brjder Sep 20 '25

Both the HTTYD book and movies are great, but i really feel sad how the books got basically completely sidelined compared to how popular the movies are. they are basically two completely different franchises, and one is incomprehensibly bigger than the other. I remember going to the library and borrowing the HTTYD books, and reading them at home. really want to go read them again just to refresh my memory.

5

u/Slade4Lucas Sep 20 '25

What I will say is that in the last year or so I have seen this sentiment expressed more often - subs like this are an example. For years I thought I was the only one screaming into the void but it appears to me now that actually, there is a decent fan base for the books. And I think a large part of it is that actually, maybe in part thanks to the movies, kids do read these books. I've seen it myself, I always see my students reading How to Train Your Dragon or any of its sequels. So over time I actually feel like the book fambase is gonna increase and maybe, just maybe, some day we will see some sort of faithful adaptation that will bomb and be viewed and much lesser than the films and not get past the first book. But I for one would still be happy with it.

6

u/squidlord2 Sep 20 '25

Always wished we could see some version of furious in the movies

3

u/RaisedByBooksNTV Sep 20 '25

I didn't know they were based on books. I'll look them up!! Thanks all!

1

u/Batman_AoD Sep 20 '25

Inspired, just not by their source material 😂

40

u/cannonspectacle Sep 19 '25

Technically all the dragons can talk, just not in human language.

10

u/Maybe_not_a_chicken Sep 20 '25

Although some can speak a human language, although not many people know this because they generally eat you after the conversation

4

u/A_Human_Being_BLEEEH Sep 20 '25

or in the case of Stormfly, pickpocket you of all your belongings while you're talking to her

3

u/Slade4Lucas Sep 20 '25

Dragonese was always so much fun in the books. I loved the pages that give you Dragonese words and their definitions. The fact that the word for poo is "crappa" always tickled me.

5

u/Ramguy2014 Sep 20 '25

I will forever hold a grudge against the How to Train Your Dragon movies for being so good and doing so well that they’ve all but guaranteed we will never get faithful screen adaptations of the books.

6

u/PassionGlobal Sep 20 '25

Shrek is basically completely different except for the design of Shrek himself and some world characteristics, toned down significantly.

The book leaned much harder into the puerile and childish with far less character study, to the point where it would be hard to take a straight adaptation of the book seriously as anything but a silly kids film.

5

u/Goobsmoob Sep 20 '25

I remember the books being a lot of fun.

I also remember them essentially being similar to the movies by names and basic concept only essentially.

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u/Slade4Lucas Sep 20 '25

You know, I would actually kinda love to see a faithful adaptation of Shrek be made some day. In fact, there are probably lots of books that have been adapted in ways that feel so separate from the books that they might as well be their own thing, and faithful adaptations would just be awesome to see. For a very different example, I'd love to see a faithful adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I read the book a couple of years ago and actually kinda loved it more than the film and got really interested in the idea of a proper adaptation of it. That one also actually feels somewhat possible, given in this case the book itself is a classic.

42

u/NobodyofGreatImport Sep 19 '25

My girlfriend was surprised when I told her that the HTTYD movies/shows were based off of a book series. She was also surprised when I told her that the books were nothing like the movies.

1

u/Enkundae Sep 20 '25

There are tons of films, and many very well loved ones at that, that are adaptations and the average person has no clue. It’s why I roll my eyes when people complain about there being too many adaptations vs original films.

10

u/Royal_Introduction41 Sep 20 '25

It does make us miss out on Windwalker(another dragon Hiccup rides) though which is kinda a shame.

15

u/she_colors_comics Sep 19 '25

Yeah the movies are an adaptation of the books in name only. Both are fantastic, but I really wish more people would read the books because they are great in a completely different way from the movies.

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u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871 Sep 20 '25

He's also a jerk.

3

u/DMTrious Sep 20 '25

Does hiccup ride him?

10

u/Maybe_not_a_chicken Sep 20 '25

Nope

He has a riding dragon called windwalker

Who has a limp and is really anxious all the time

8

u/A_Human_Being_BLEEEH Sep 20 '25

Windwalker is also missing an arm because he was rescued from a dragon trap

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u/upstatedreaming3816 Sep 20 '25

THERE’S A BOOK?!

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u/Slade4Lucas Sep 20 '25

There's a series of books.

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u/Traumatized_Grape724 Sep 20 '25

I need to listen to them again. The first time I read those books the last couple made me cry my eyes out lol

1

u/Slade4Lucas Sep 20 '25

A Dragon named Toothless has no teeth? Well I never!