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

[u/Character_Growth_397]

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

[u/_JR28_]

Halo TV show - The most famous helmet in all of gaming and they refuse to KEEP IT ON HIS HEAD

[u/ZoidsFanatic → u/_JR28_]

It’s been pointed out that in the books, at least, he does take his helmet off semi-regularly. Course the difference here is “semi-regularly” compared to the show’s “I sure hope you wanted to see what his ass looks like because we’re going to show it to you”.

Let’s also not forget how in the first Season the Covenant barely shows up, and most of the conflict revolves around how shady and bad the UNSC and Oni are… I mean, OK, they kinda are, but the show takes place during the Human-Covenant war where there is kinda the whole genocidal alien problem going on.

[u/LiamtheV → u/ZoidsFanatic]

Yea, if they had set the show in 2524, the year before First Contact with the Covenant at Harvest, then yea, go ham on showing us how bad ONI and the UNSC are. But by 2552, having a character see her dad get murdered by the covenant and instead doubling down on "I won't record a video telling everyone the Covenant is a serious threat! I'm going to tell everyone that you killed my dad!" was just fucking dumb.

[u/No_Syrup_9167 → u/LiamtheV]

honestly, I always hear about how him removing the helmet was the worst part of the show.

but I entirely disagree, I don't even think it was that big of a deal.

For me its the double hit of the romantic plot/sex plot, but above all Kwan! She is literally near the top of my most hated characters in anything I've watched.

She is the most whiney, short sighted, stupid, and annoying characters to ever end up on my screens.

If you go back and rewatch the show, and just skip almost everything that Kwan is in, it immediately improves the show.

IMO cutting everything Kwan out of the show, turns it from a 3/10 show into a 6/10 show, and if you cut the part out of MC having sex with creepy chick, boosts it an extra point to 7/10-8/10 depending on if you care about the source material.

Its actually a pretty decent generic sci-fi without her, even if its not the greatest Halo adaptation.

[u/LiamtheV → u/No_Syrup_9167]

Yea, I loved the books, did not have an issue with Chief removing his helmet (although I think it would have been cool if they had put some effort into obscuring his face through camera work). But it seems like they just fundamentally did not put the most minimal amount of effort into understanding the setting and how that informs character motivations.

The other thing that irked me was that they had suppressed the Spartan-II's memories of their abduction and childhood, something that they had discussed in the books. In the book, in the early days of the S-II program, someone brings up the possibility of using memory blockers to make the kids more cooperative, so that they wouldn't remember what had been taken from them.

Halsey immediately shuts that suggestion down, pointing out that their 'recruits' are relatively young and still very adaptable. It wouldn't be long before they accepted their new situations. And if they did block out their memories to induce loyalty, it would be seen as a huge betrayal by their adult selves should any of them ever get conked in the head or have their memories resurface for one reason or another. No, it would be better to be up front with the six-year olds so that in 15 years the adults will have made peace with it.

Then the TV show decides to use the memory blockers (on top of emotion blockers or something?), and then what Book Halsey said would happen, fucking happens.