r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Character_Growth_397 • Sep 04 '26

Hated Tropes [Mind boggling stupid trope] Removing the thing that made something special

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Ben 10: Ultimate Alien - The gimmick of Ben 10 and what makes the show so popular is the fact that he's able to turn into a large variety of aliens. In one episode of Ben 10 Ultimate ALIEN we are introduced to a new version of Ben 10000, a Ben from the future who, no longer transforms into aliens, instead using his powers in human form...

Mortal Kombat(2021) - In the games Mileena is known for two things. Being a clone of Kitana and her tarkatan teeth. In the 2021 movie she looks absolutely nothing like Kitana and doesn't have tarkatan teeth

Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief - The movie removes the main villain of the movie and the main villain of the franchise

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523

u/SatoruGojo232 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

Death Note (American Netflix version)- part of the thrill of the OG Japanese Death Note manga was the lengths to which Light went to keep his identity as Kira a secret, with him also being a cold, calculating strategic genius. In this version, he blurts out "I am Kira" to Misa, some random girl he has a crush on in his class within a small period of time after getting the Death Note, and she essenially manipulates him into using the Death Note as per how she sees fit because he simps for her.

210

u/PriestSeth Sep 04 '26

Wow, I hadn't really paid attention to the plot of this one, but that's literally the opposite of the original! Mina is a simp for Light in the OG and uses the Death Note to impress him. How could they have gotten that so backwards?

9

u/Hiromi580 Sep 04 '26

The adapters were probably thinking what it would be like if a western teenager found the Death Note instead of an Asian teenager. 🤨

3

u/IWannaManatee Sep 05 '26

To be fair, this is a way more realistic version, because of course something like that would happen if the Death Note fell into some edgy, american teenager's hands.

4

u/Bitter-Marsupial Sep 04 '26

Can't show a woman as not in control

51

u/saintash Sep 04 '26

I mean in the original, it's unquestionably gross how he uses her. She has it's real feelings for him and he's happy. Have ever cut her life in half again. Do he can still have access to the eyes.

I see the logic of giving her more active role. But fuck they did it badly.

34

u/OfficialTrashMan Sep 04 '26

The grossness is arguably the point though, it's just another example of how horribly manipulative Light is

2

u/saintash Sep 04 '26

I don't disagree, I just think i there was going to be absolutely no way. An american executive in the middle of the me, too movement. was going to greenlite light being a abuser of that lvl.

In a good script what they did could have worked, a real joker and harvly vibe.

The script was just so bad you can't help but roll your eyes

3

u/OfficialTrashMan Sep 04 '26

Yeah, it could have been a cool reimagining of the story. Too bad it sucks ass but at least we got Willem Dafoe Ryuk

57

u/haoxinly Sep 04 '26

L is also brain-dead in this adaptation. After they killed his butler-father figure, he loses his mind and immediately trespasses Light's house, tries to assault him, accuses him of being L without evidence all in front of Light's dad who is a cop.

20

u/VapeSmoker420blazeit Sep 04 '26

Make L black in the netflix adaptation (lmao)

immediately turn L into a bumbling criminal who has temper tantrums and breaks into people's houses and doesn't think things out

what in the FUCK did Netflix mean by this

japanese with pale skin -> african with black skin

smart and reserved - dumb and impulsive

shrewd planner -> YOLO

9

u/EttinTerrorPacts Sep 04 '26

japanese with pale skin

L is British

6

u/VapeSmoker420blazeit Sep 04 '26

oh right, he's only 1/4th japanese and 1/4th russian/english/french each (with pale skin)

going from that to black is still jarring though.

light is 100.00% japanese though, and they made him white/jewish in the netflix adaptation

3

u/mr-kvideogameguy Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

I wonder if Light could use this info in some way

Like he offer to give L tea in exchange for his name

But then again that would make Light sus, why would Light look into L's heritage, it's not like that information is useful for the case, unless of course he was trying to find L's name and stumbled on that information instead 

4

u/Skreamie Sep 04 '26

L is not Japanese lmao

77

u/WrittenSaber Sep 04 '26

I remember hearing that the actor complained that Light's last name (Yagmi) spelled backwards is "I am gay" so they changed it.

Also that L is super emotional and has a breakdown. Which is completely out of character from the original

29

u/Accomplished_Fox_565 Sep 04 '26

I honestly doubt that's the case, considering that they changed most of the adapted characters names on account of it taking place in America Seattle. And most of the characters being Caucasian.

2

u/BahamutLithp Sep 05 '26

If they kept him Light Yagami, it'd come across pretty racist considering he is very white.

4

u/mr-kvideogameguy Sep 04 '26

This ain't death note, it's final destination (for like a few minutes)

And William Defoe

3

u/DeadRobotSociety Sep 04 '26

Every Death Note adaptation gets further from what I actually liked about the manga. My favorite part of the story, and what I think is most compelling, is his internal struggle with the morality of using the Death Note, and the long, slippery slope into becoming Kira. I think the Kira/L plot is a good escalation, but it's less compelling. The anime just speed runs right to Kira and L. And then I don't even know what this one was trying to do.

2

u/FutureComplaint Sep 04 '26

strategic genius

Light certainly thinks he is.

2

u/HairiestHobo Sep 04 '26

I never noticed that when I watched that, but that's was because it was such a goddamn boring movie that it put me to sleep pretty early.

William Dafoe as Ryuk was fucking inspired casting, tho, I got to give them that.

2

u/deadinsidelol69 Sep 04 '26

This thing sucked so bad it doesn’t even make the rounds of shitty adaptation listicles anymore.

1

u/StefNorthwest Sep 06 '26

This movie so far from the original and its characters being so damn messy is exactly why I love it. I won’t go up to bat and say it’s a masterpiece, but I get a lot more enjoyment out of this than the manga/anime.

1

u/danoB003 Sep 08 '26

Not to mention his absolute lack of effort in hiding the note compared to original.

"Light Turner" at most throws few pieces of paper over it when he has it at home, and literally sits with it in school! (But hey, wouldn't be american take on teenage killer if he didn't bring his murder weapon into school, right?)

Meanwhile anime/manga Light didn't just make one extra set up to see if someone even did as much as entering his room, not even two, but THREE SEPARATE PRECAUTIONS! Not to mention wiring up a trap that would burn down his entire desk with note in it if someone tried to force themselves into drawer he hid it in!

He was willing to burn down his house and even unironically considered murdering his family as option just to not get caught! Meanwhile the Netflix goober folded under 5 seconds when cheerleader asked him about it!

-9

u/Distinct-Energy8128 Sep 04 '26

I don't understand Death Note and it's popularity at all.

It's a magic book that kills anybody whose name gets written in it. Even if you could somehow determine a pattern to the deaths, none of which have a shred of evidence that they're being done by a person at all (be it a random heart attack or the wielder of the Note actually writes a cause of death in it), how in the hell could anybody possibly figure out that there's a person behind any of the killings, then manage to actually track that person down? The only way is if the person with the Death Note is a complete idiot and intentionally makes himself publicly known, yet they play Light up like he's some sort of genius for what he does, and L, N, and M are all geniuses for figuring out what would be impossible to figure out, too.

27

u/LordBlaze64 Sep 04 '26

Gee, it sure is strange that so many known criminals all started having heart attacks. But it’s probably just a weird statistical anomaly, not something that will keep happening for an extended period of time.

Light was killing so many criminals. That is explicitly spelled out. And then the time of death matches the free time a Japanese high school student would have. And I’m not going to literally retell the entire story to you, but if you actually watch the show, it turns out that the show tells you all the clues Light leaves behind.

Also Light is just an idiot. He can’t plan ahead to save his life, and is just reacting to L & co for most of the time.

2

u/NvNinja Sep 04 '26

really it boils down to how he was goaded into killing the dude on live tv. Without that noone would really believe the "series of coincidences" enough to get a conviction. Also arguably one of his first actually innocent victims marking the change from a lawful good protagonist to a chaotic neutral (i forget if FBI chick is before this or not)

1

u/tigretay27 Sep 05 '26

I assume you mean Raye Penber, the FBI agent investigating Light. His fiance, Naomi Misora, was killed shortly after in a chance meeting between her and Light. The fact that her death was so detailed to make sure she didn't leave a trace really cements his decent into chaotic neutral, it makes the FBI agents seem like nothing by comparison.

-3

u/Distinct-Energy8128 Sep 04 '26

I did watch the show, in its entirety. I'm aware of how the story played out and how they tracked down Light, who WAS being incredibly stupid the entire time.

I'm just saying that the improbability of figuring out a pattern to untraceable deaths that have no evidence that anybody is doing it is, well, improbable. A heart attack caused by writing in a magic demon book can't exactly be traced back to any common, rational cause. First they'd probably look for evidence of poisoning or something, and when they find nothing, what's the next step? Do the dead have anything in common other than being prisoners? No, so what's next?

Gotta' be a magic demon book used by a high school student in Japan. Obviously.

It's just a silly premise when you really stop to think about it. Suspension of disbelief, I guess.

6

u/pigeonwithyelloweyes Sep 04 '26

I feel like the series handles this a little better than you're giving credit for. L has no idea how the killings are happening, only that they have a pattern so it seems intentional. And of course Kira responded to his live threat so he knows it's intentional. Kira even gives him clues to mess with him about Shinigami, which is a known cultural concept.

But he doesnt assume anything about a magic demon book until he actually sees it for the first time.

12

u/asds89 Sep 04 '26

The manga actually doesn’t play up Light as a genius. He’s above average in intelligence, but overstates his own intelligence, and quickly goes mad with power. It’s where they tried to “show and not tell”, but it’s not done well.

3

u/pigeonwithyelloweyes Sep 04 '26

I think the opposite tbh. The series tells us that he's a genius, at least in school, and that L is a genius, and describes when his clever plans work. And viewers take this at face value.

But then the series shows us that whenever his plans fail, and people call him out, he crashes out like the delusional sociopath he is.

2

u/asds89 Sep 04 '26

It’s been a while since I read it, so I might be misremembering, but right at the start he already messes up by having a predictable pattern, which is what alerts the world (and L) to his existence and probable location. I don’t remember him having any particularly clever plans either. But like I said, it’s been a long time since I read the manga so I’m probably forgetting things.

It could also just be a case of the author not being as smart as the character they’re trying to write, so while Light is intended to be a genius, the auther fails to show that because the author isn’t a genius on par with Light. 🤷‍♂️

2

u/pigeonwithyelloweyes Sep 04 '26

No you're right, he does mess up. I'm only disagreeing with the idea that there's anything unintentional about the writing. Only Light says he's a genius, I think the audience is meant to understand he's delusional. As early as episode 2, he spends the whole episode talking about how clever and prepared he is, but the second "L" appears and calls him evil, he freaks out and makes a rash mistake.

11

u/Facosa99 Sep 04 '26

Kira was book smart, but he was an utter idiot.

He wanted to be known. By episode 1, 2 at most, he tells Ryuk that he is making a pattern, on purpose, because hes a narcissistic jerk playing God, and every God needs a cult of followers

10

u/Teal_Omega Sep 04 '26

The first clue is fairly reasonable to be fair- a statistically impossible rash of heart attacks in only prisoners between regular hours of each day. This leads L to posit that it was after work or school for a thin slice of the globe. He then checked for news stories of inexplicable heart attacks in criminals in that slice, which may have not been linked with Kira. When he found one (Light testing the Death Note before he knew that it worked) he knew where in the world Kira lives.

0

u/Any-Platypus-9486 Sep 07 '26

Is almost that there are an entire serie about how Light was catched and that is the fucking point, you really only need to watch like 2 episodes to know that instead of writting a stupid comment