Good and Bad Alternate Interpretations of Popular Characters
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on May 6, 2022, 11:40 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
If a fictional character remains popular for a sufficient length of time, writers will likely wish to try something new with that character, to prevent that character from becoming stale and dull, and a common tactic is to portray that character in a manner that is different from how they are usually portrayed. Sometimes, audiences like such alternate portrayals of popular characters, welcoming a new idea, but, at other times, the audiences do not like such portrayals, considering them to be a betrayal of that character, so I wish to discuss both good and bad alternate portrayals of popular characters.
One well-known example of an alternate interpretation that was not well-received was the portrayal of Wade Wilson/Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine; in that film, Wilson was very different from how he is usually portrayed in most media, so the fans were very upset by that, which meant that they were very pleased when a Deadpool movie was made, many years later.
On the other side, The Batman animated series in the early-to-mid 2000’s featured portrayals of classic Batman villains that were quite different from how those characters were traditionally portrayed, especially the Joker and Riddler, and, as far as I know, most viewers liked those alternate portrayals.
Then, there is the example of the Mandarin, a classic Iron Man villain whose portrayal in Iron Man 3 was also radically different from his normal portrayal, but viewers had very mixed opinions about that; on one hand, many viewers were displeased at the radical difference from tradition, but others reminded them that the character was originally a "yellow peril" character, so it was nice to see him distanced from that. Of course, Marvel attempted a saving throw by saying that there was an actual Mandarin, whose identity the false Mandarin had "borrowed," and that the real Mandarin was not pleased about that, but that was clearly an attempt to please the fans who were complaining.
What does everyone else say about this? What are some good and bad alternate interpretations of popular characters?
DemonDragonJ marvel did a short that's on you tube and disney plus called hail the king that shows the iron man mandarin is an impostor
JANKYARD_DOG stone cold had a match a few weeks ago at this past wrestlemania.
May 7, 2022 8:48 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #5
I think the outrage/bad feelings are inversely proportional to how stale/boring the character actually is to the fan. The challenge comes from balancing the “FormOverFunction is only 25% bored with The Punisher” against the “Upper management needs another reboot and we haven’t done anything with The Punisher for a while. Has there been a male/female twin-siblings Punisher yet?” And then all the dorks who would have been totally content with another The Punisher book/show/movie are now put out because the execs thought that they had actually disappeared from the viewing audience (or, more likely, that most of them would watch it anyways regardless of what it is).
May 7, 2022 10:17 a.m.
FormOverFunction This doesn't have a ton to do with the point, but have you seen the short film Punisher Dirty Laundy? It came out after the it's-so-weird early 2000s film, and it's graphic for sure, but it's very good. Easily my favorite Punisher ever : )
May 7, 2022 5:19 p.m.
But to the original topic, yes, for legacy characters the idea of change is a double edged sword, with a much bigger "this is a bad thing" edge : ) When you have a popular character, so many fans will love them for so many different reasons, and change will inevitably displease some of them.
One way to skirt this kind of situation is to adapt the story to be fresh rather than the character. One that comes to mind is Batman Assault on Arkhym, that used the villains as the main characters and batman was actually in the role of almost a slasher villain who would come in, be unstoppable, and then disappear for a little while, only to come back and track them down again. The characters were exactly why they always were, but it felt so fresh in execution.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #2
WWE (acting, ergo fictional) comes to mind regarding Stone Cold Steve Austin. When they tried to turn him into a good guy it was just like.. "Please! STAWP ITTT!!!" Sure it had some comedic value, but Stone Cold was the equivalent of an Anti Hero in the world of wrestling. He was on no ones side and on a whim would decide to fuck up your day. It was great!. Sadly he's now retired and I don't follow any of it any more. Too much story/talk, not enough wrestling. They tend to do the Good/Bad flip with a majority of the characters though I think, or create feuds where there was once partnership.
Another that was a good switch was in the Dragonlance book series I read long ago. (Life Lesson: If a SO tells you to get rid of your books, get rid of the SO. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.) ANYWAY! Kitiara Uth Matar, was a morally ambiguous character who grew with the party over the course of the series but eventually joined the bad guys and..
Spoiler Alert!!! Show
Ahem... So it isn't a far stretch seeing as she wasn't exactly 'good' per say, but the evolution of the character was interesting to say the least. Ambitious to a fault to obtain more power, not unlike her younger half brother Raistlin Majere.... before I starting writing the books out, if you like fantasy books... give them a shot. Well that's all for tonight... hopefully a reader is inspired here, becomes addicted and tries to get though the 30+ books there must be now. Was almost caught up too at that time... it is what it is.
May 7, 2022 12:37 a.m.