Hunter Zolomon in The Flash comics (left) and The Flash (2014) (right).
Sometimes in adaptations a character's physical or mental illness is removed or downplayed compared to the source. This runs the risk of the director being labelled as "ableist" due to the removal of representation, but this could be for pragmatic reasons. For example, a main character being deaf in a story that isn't mainly focused on deafness would be hard to adapt into a movie, since other characters having to talk to them several times in sign language would not be ideal. One reason for the removal is to make a character more threatening.
Sub-trope of Adaptation Deviation. Compare to Throwing Off the Disability and Adaptational Skill and contrast with Disabled in the Adaptation.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- In Ace Attorney (2016) Edgeworth's PTSD is greatly reduced, with his debilitating phobia of earthquakes being entirely absent. This is particularly strange when you consider that this particular fear was an extremely important part of Edgeworth's character in the games, and the effects of his phobia (ranging from passing out to crying curled up on the floor) were a very important plot point for at least three cases.
- Latifa from Amagi Brilliant Park was originally blind in the light novels. This was downplayed to being physically ill with no mention of blindness in the anime adaptation.
- Hikari in Digimon Adventure: (2020): shows no signs of the illness that left her unable to attend the summer camp with the other Chosen Children in the original Digimon Adventure.
- Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) anime downplayed a few from the source material. The first anime ended before the manga, however, which means the writers didn't know of the manga ending at the time:
- In the manga, Alphonse's body is extremely malnourished when it is finally restored. In the anime, it remains in the very same state (stalled aging and all) when it was taken.
- Edward zig-zags this. In the anime's Grand Finale, he briefly regains his lost arm and leg before performing a Heroic Sacrifice to bring Al back which results in Ed being sent to an Alternate Universe where he once again lost his restored limbs. The source material's Grand Finale has Ed at least getting his arm restored.
- Gate Keepers: In the original video game and light novel adaptation, Reiko Asagiri appears as an Ill Girl. The anime adaptation leaves out this element.
- Inazuma Eleven: In the game version, Giulio loses his eyesight completely after his body rejects the RH program. In the anime, his vision only blurs out.
- The Jungle Book (1989): Shere Khan doesn't have his limp like in the source material, although he does get a bite wound on the leg from the late wolf pack leader Alexander, which he claims keeps bothering him.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016):
- The Hero's Shade still has both of his eyes.
- In the original game, Rusl is severely injured fighting off Bulblins. That does not happen here.
- Lyrical Nanoha:
- Hayate was paraplegic during the events of A's due to an Artifact of Death sapping away her lifeforce and even after the cause is removed it took an additional 3 years of physical therapy to fully regain use of her legs. Each of the various alternate continuites have her back on her feet faster one way or another. The movie cuts down her recovery time to less than a year and half without explanation, the games keep her paralysed but allow her to walk while transformed due to Reinforce giving her full control of her body while Unisoned, and INNOCENT removes the paralysis altogether.
- Main series Precia was both mentally and physically ill, having been driven to madness from the death of her daughter Alicia and in the final stages of a terminal illness by the time the first season starts. Her INNOCENT counterpart on the other hand is perfectly healthy and (mostly) sane.
- The original ending of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam has Kamille Bidan defeating the Big Bad at the expense of getting brain damage. The twentieth-anniversary theatrical re-release omits this fate.
- Pokémon the Series:
- At the end of Pokémon Sun and Moon, Lusamine still suffers from the effects of Nihilego's toxins. Her daughter Lillie decides to travel to Kanto with her and see if Bill can give them advice. In the anime, she's only ill for a period before going back to normal after a few episodes. As a result, Lillie doesn't go to Kanto.
- In the games, Necrozma was "crippled" by ancient people who wanted its power for themselves, causing it immense pain and necessitating it to consume all available light that it can. It can also only transform into Ultra Necrozma if it has merged/absorbed with Solgaleo or Lunala. In the anime it manages to become "healed" of this affliction when Ash, his friends, and the people and Pokémon of the whole Alola region share their energy with it, allowing it to transform into Ultra Necrozma indefinitely and without absorbing Solgaleo or Lunala beforehand.
- It's unknown if it's an actual disability or not, but Erika randomly falls asleep mid-sentence. This element of her character is left out of her Pokémon anime, Pokémon Adventures, Pokémon Zensho and Pokémon: I Choose You! incarnations.
- Crossing over with Adaptational Intelligence, Galar Champion Leon in Pokémon Journeys lacks the No Sense of Direction problem of his counterpart from Pokémon Sword and Shield...and then implied to be subverted in the third version of the OP, visibly confused looking at his Wild Area map.
- Thankfully, Dracovish has no problem breathing out of the water. Cara Liss's theories are still completely wrong because it's two completely different ancient Pokemon fused together, but at least they excise that tidbit of its flavor text.
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades: In the original novels, Shannon Sherwood has a Speech Impediment that causes her to haltingly stammer in all her dialogue. This is kept in Sakae Esuno's manga but dropped in the anime, where she speaks normally.
- In the School-Live! manga, Team Mom Yuuri undergoes a mental breakdown in the second arc. This is foreshadowed by her two Freak Outs in the manga, first when she loses her cool when it seems like she'll have to Mercy Kill her friend Kurumi and then again when a rescue helicopter crashes. The former is toned down in the anime and the second doesn't even happen. This makes Rii a more stable character in anime canon.
Audio Play
- The Morgue Files: Unlike his inspiration, Ticci Toby, there is no indication that Tobias Adams has Tourette's.
Comic Books
- Alan Scott: The Green Lantern: In the pre-Flashpoint continuity, part of Alan Scott's origin was that his lantern was forged from the Starheart by an asylum inmate named Billings, who subsequently had his sanity restored. In this miniseries, the character is reinterpreted as a trans woman named Billie and is incarcerated at the asylum for being transgender rather than any legitimate mental illness on her part.
- In the original continuity of Hellblazer, John's father Thomas was missing an arm, having lost it in WWII. In Hellblazer: Rise and Fall he still has both of his arms.
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles features Irma from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) as one of the characters. Unlike her original incarnation, this Irma doesn't wear glasses.
- Teen Titans: Earth One:
- This continuity's Slade Wilson has both of his eyes intact.
- Zig-zagged with Slade's son Joseph, who is introduced as able to speak without the need to possess people first when his canon incarnation was rendered mute from getting slashed in the throat at a young age, but he later uses his body-surfing ability to stay alive after his father accidentally slashes his throat.
- Teen Titans Go! (2003): The comic's depiction of Robby Reed doesn't wear glasses.
- The incarnation of Snake-Eyes in Transformers vs. G.I. Joe differs sharply from most incarnations of the character because he isn't mute. That being said, he still speaks significantly less frequently than the other Joes.
- Ultimate Marvel:
- Captain Marvel had all his run, including his death, without cancer being mentioned at all.
- During her brief appearance in Ultimate Spider-Man (2000), while still wheelchair-bound and blind, Madame Web was shown not to be on life support equipment, likely due to being significantly younger than her mainstream counterpart.
- Iron Lad from The Ultimates (2024) doesn't have a life-threatening shrapnel injury like Earth-616 Tony did, nor does he have a brain tumor like the Earth-1610 Tony had. However, after the Curb-Stomp Battle against the Hulk in issue #6 leaves Tony near death, he ends up needing cybernetic implants in order to survive and heal.
- Warrior Cats: In The Prophecies Begin Volume 2, an adaptation of the first series, while Yellowfang does mention that Cinderpaw's leg will never be the same, it's not the crippling disability it was in the book where it was bad enough to prevent her from being a warrior and continued to pain her even years later. They suggest that she can return to warrior training if she wants - even bringing up how the WindClan deputy Deadfoot has a similar disability - but she decides to become a medicine cat because she enjoyed the work helping out Yellowfang.
- Wonder Woman:
- Wonder Woman (1987): Hephaestus is often seen leaning on things but by the time he participates in several story arcs it's clear he's not crippled like his mythological counterpart even if he isn't as sprightly as the other gods.
- Wonder Woman (2011): Hephaestus is a robust muscled humanoid who is very much in shape with no physical deformities besides those that reflect his relation to volcanoes.
Fan Works
- All Assorted Animorphs AUs: In "What if Elfangor and Loren raised Tobias?", Loren was never involved in the car accident that left her blind, scarred, and with retrograde amnesia.
- Apex Predator (MHA):
- Izuku uses his healing quirk to cure Ingenium's spine, allowing him to walk again.
- He also accidentally heals All Might. At first he wanted to heal a new injury left by being impaled, but he accidentally restored his lung too. Izuku wants to heal all his injuries but everyone including the person he healed turn him down hard citing the drawbacks of his quirk.
- Ariel & Belle: Ursula doesn't take away Ariel's voice when she turns her into a human, allowing Ariel to speak with other humans.
- Ben 10 RWBY Volume 1: Dimension Twist
: Because of Ben Tennyson's interference in her fight against Adam Taurus, Yang Xiao Long retains her arm. Similarly, Pyrrha is Spared by the Adaptation when Ben gets involved in her fight against Cinder.
- BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant:
- Ragna was never maimed in his childhood and still has both arms here, unlike the games where Jin cut his right arm off.
- Kagura completely lacks his canon counterpart's alcoholism, largely due to him being eighteen and as such unable to legally drink.
- Yang doesn't lose her arm during the Fall of Beacon like in canon.
- Boop the Snoot for Critical Damage!: Angel doesn't require being constantly injected with Eridium to stay alive like she did in canon.
- Burning Coals: Downplayed with Neo. In RWBY canon, it's confirmed that Neo is mute. Here, Neo is indeed able to speak but prefers not to due to her own inability to trust and the fact that her throat is damaged, giving her a quiet, raspy voice.
- The Butterfly Effect (Elfen Lied): Downplayed. In the original manga/anime, Nana's arms and legs were all severed by Lucy, forcing her to use Artificial Limbs. Here, after the limb severing, Kaede and Nyu come across Nana and try to heal her, but only manage to reattach one arm and one leg before Kakuzawa's men show up and force them to flee.
- Code Prime: Since it barely factored into the anime, Xingke's disease flat out does not exist in this story.
- Diary of an Analog: In canon Digimon Adventure 02, Gatomon loses her Holy Ring, reducing her to the power of a Rookie Level, and all of the other 1999 DigiDestined had lost the ability to go Ultimate or further by giving up the Crests in the year 2000 to free the Sovereigns. However, in this fic, as the crests are still acknowledged as having been destroyed in the final battle with Apocalymon, their powers internalized by the 1999 DigiDestined, and the fact Gatomon's gloves containing SaberLeomon data being a plot point, this ultimately leads to none of the 8 DigiDestined of 1999 being Nerfed like how they were in canon 02.
- For the Honor of the Regiment: Unlike Worm canon where she was obese and barely functioning, Emily Piggot is noticeably muscular and only has a limp. Comments by others indicate that she disobeyed orders at Elisburg which had the effect of both greatly lessoning her injury and saving over half the soldiers there, rather than only her and Calvert surviving.
- Honey and Vinegar: Seras never lost her arm here, so she still has both rather than her replacement shadow limb.
- Hunters of Justice: Yang keeps her arm (along with Pyrrha, Penny's original body, and Ozma's Ozpin form still being alive) thanks to Brainiac crashing the Vytal Festival before Cinder could enact her plans.
- Infinity Train: Crown of Thorns: Lucy in Infinity Train could only see with one eye due to a harpoon-pack-related incident making her lose the other one. Here, she has both eyes.
- Ignited Spark:
- All For One, surprisingly. When he finally makes his first appearance in Chapter 17, he lacks his trademark scars and appears to be in full health without the need for medical equipment to keep him alive. This is thanks to adquiring Super Regeneration before his fight against All Might.
- When Hood transforms back into Muscular, he's shown to have regrown his lost eye, albeit with yellow sclera.
- Thanks to getting hit with a wave of both Rewind and Repair, not only All Might is ten years younger, but his stomach has been completely from the injuries of his fight from six years prior.
- JoJo New Universe:
- While Iggy still fights Pet Shop and wins, he wasn't forced to bite off one of his paws when he gets stuck in ice. Instead, thanks to some quick thinking, he only ends up tearing off the skin of his paws just to escape Pet Shop's attacks in time.
- In canon, Polnareff loses two fingers to Vanilla Ice in Stardust Crusaders. He later tried taking on Diavolo by himself in Golden Wind, which cost him his legs, his right eye, and his right arm, requiring him to wear prosthetics and use a wheelchair. Here, Polnareff's injuries didn't happen due to his teammates surviving and being smart enough to have backup; when Diavolo tried fighting Polnareff, Avdol, and Kakyoin at the same time, he ended up fleeing France.
- The students of Hope's Peak Academy are much less dysfunctional in this setting, with many of their canon issues and traumas nonexistent thanks to factors like Kakyoin taking control of the school away from the Steering Committee, the presence of Stands, and the students themselves making different choices.
- Ryuji Sakamoto in Persona 5 had a bad leg thanks to Kamoshida breaking it to provide an excuse to disband the track team, leaving him unable to run as well as he used to. Here, it never happens; when another teacher tried doing the same thing and framing the incident on Kamoshida, the school intervened and blamed said teacher, as Ryuji was deliberately provoked while Kamoshida didn't do anything.
- LIBERI FATALIS: The Therianthrope Chronicles: Unlike canon, Rena Hirose no longer suffers from Silverstone Disease here. Instead, as per the author, she once had another ailment that has since been cured, but the details of that undisclosed condition remain a mystery.
- Magic By Mikaila: In her video about Ron from Harry Potter, the "Movie" version of Ron walks away from Harry and Hermione, despite his counterpart being unable to walk due to a broken leg. The "Book" version states that his leg is broken but is able to walk without difficulty.
- A Monster's Marriage: As it wasn't known about at the time, Adam doesn't have his SDC burn on his face, so he can see out of his left eye and is described by many as quite handsome.
- Scootaloo from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic more often than not gets this treatment:
- The Great Alicorn Hunt involves Scootaloo ascending to Alicornhood.
- If Wishes Were Ponies... has Discord use his magic to increase the size of Scootaloo's underdeveloped wings.
- Natural Selection: Nui Harime never got her left eye cut out by Isshin Matoi, so she still has both eyes in the story.
- A New Hope (Danganronpa): Due to Fuyuhiko not being a member of Ultimate Despair as well as Peko having a different execution, he keeps both of his eyes.
- In Only Blue for You (an NSFW OMORI fic), Sunny is able to see from both eyes through the canon ending because his girlfriend, Cris, stopped Basil from accidentally stabbing his right eye.
- Peculiar Parasitic Phenomenon: Justified in case of Johngalli A, because the story takes place twelve years before the events of Stone Ocean and his vision didn't deteriorate to the point he's blind yet.
- In Power Rangers Zodiac Force, a Kim Possible/Power Rangers fusion Alternate Universe story, Ron's friend Felix Renton, who is bound to a wheelchair in canon, is capable of walking, allowing him to act as the Black Horse Zodiac Ranger.
- The Redemption of Harley Quinn: Instead of a hook hand, Aaron Cash has a prosthetic robot hand like that of Cyborg.
- Ruby and Nora: In RWBY canon, Yang got her arm cut off by Adam. Here, she was thankfully spared this fate.
- Son of the Sannin:
- Gaara doesn't suffer from insomnia due to Jiraiya repairing his seal while he's a child.
- Kimimaro Kaguya, who suffered from a terminal illness that ended up killing him in canon, is cured by Orochimaru using the knowledge from the Scroll of Seals. As a result, he's at full health and power when the Sound Invasion arc rolls around, and even manages to survive his first encounter with the heroes.
- The combination of Itachi never going undercover and Tsunade and Shizune returning to Konoha much earlier means that Itachi's illness is caught as soon as its symptoms first manifest and a treatment is devised to heal him before he can get any worse.
- Shisui lost both of his eyes before committing suicide in canon (one stolen by Danzo, and the other willingly removed to give to Itachi). Here, he only loses the first one, and ends up getting it back several years later.
- Since neither Hiruzen nor anybody else makes an attempt to seal Orochimaru's arms, he remains able to fully use them over the course of the story.
- The events that led to A losing an arm to Sasuke never happen, and thus by the time the Fourth Ninja War begins, he still has it.
- Naruto and Sasuke make it all the way to the ending with both their arms intact.
- True Potential: Unlike in canon, Orochimaru doesn't get his arms sealed by Hiruzen Sarutobi.
- Untethered: In canon, No Significant Harassment (a supercomputer) mentions that his facilities are eroding. In the fic, he has the best-maintained facilities on the planet and goes to great measures to ensure he keeps them in top condition, something he frequently brags about.
- Vale's Underground:
- In RWBY canon, Mercury Black lost his legs and needed them replaced with robotic prosthetics. Here, he retains his legs. Justified since this is a real-world AU and he wouldn't be able to get prosthetics that would allow him to fight as well as he does in canon.
- Volume 6 confirms that Neopolitan is mute. Nia Poletti can talk just fine.
- Vow of the King: Ukitake has his lungs healed by Orihime, enabling him to function normally for the first time in millennia.
- The Westerosi: Downplayed; Jade catches Bran before he hits the ground, leaving him with a badly broken leg instead of complete paralysis.
- What Tomorrow Brings: Elfangor reattaches Mertil's severed tail.
- XCOM: RWBY Within:Subverted, zig-zagged and otherwise played with. Yang ends up losing more limbs than canon, but the circumstances are radically different and she certainly doesn't find the loss disabling, since they were removed to create a Wetware Interface for a suit of Powered Armour. An honourable mention also goes to Pyrrha in the sequel, who is an example of the opposite trope save for the fact that in canon she was killed outright instead of merely left paralyzed.
- The Young Stag: Bran retains the use of his legs after recovering from his fall.
Films — Animation
- In The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Dangerous Beans is almost completely blind and mostly needs to be led around by Peaches. In The Amazing Maurice, there's a single reference to him having poor eyesight, but it doesn't seem to affect him much.
- Ronno from Bambi is just a friendly buck who has a lame leg due to surviving a gunshot. In the Disney adaptation and its interquel Ronno's age was decreased, he became a rival to Bambi, and he lacks any disabilities.
- Cricket on the Hearth has an example of "initially abled in the adaptation": in the original story by Charles Dickens, Bertha Plummer was born blind, but here she's sighted at first, only to go blind from shock and grief at the news of her fiancé Edward's supposed death. This is because the adaptation combines her with May Fielding, Edward's fiancée in the original story. (In Dickens' version, Bertha is Edward's sister.)
- In The Hunchback of Notre Dame Quasimodo is deaf due to working with loud bells and was born with a large wart over his left eye. In the Disney adaptation he is able to hear and speak and has two functional eyes (he still has the wart over his left eye, but it only partly covers it), though he retains the signature hunchback.
- Shere Khan in The Jungle Book is referred to as a "lame tiger" who was born with a crippled hind leg — he is a man-eater specifically because his disability stops him from being fast enough to catch a deer or a bull. Adaptations (including the Disney cartoon) tend to leave out this trait to make him a more threatening villain.
- In Loskutik and the Cloud, one of Barbatsutsa's eyes is blind and she wears a huge black eyepatch. Probably to avoid giving her a too villainous look (in the book, she looks like a crossover between a pirate and a witch and is really one of the nicest characters out there underneath), the creators of the animated adaptation made her short-sighted, but with both eyes seeing.
- According to religious texts, Moses was "slow of tongue", indicating a Speech Impediment or speech disorder.note In The Prince of Egypt, this is absent. Because the film is a musical, the filmmakers thought that a stuttering protagonist wouldn't work in this case. Not to mention, in the original source material, the workaround for this was that Moses' brother Aaron spoke for him, even doing most of the miracles as well. Since the film places much more focus on Moses' relationship with Rameses, this would make the story needlessly complicated, so Moses having a speech impediment was ultimately not included.
- Pinocchio (1992) has the Wolf and the Cat at the ending. The Fox and the Cat from The Adventures of Pinocchio become disabled for real after faking disabilities. That doesn't happen with the Wolf and the Cat in this version; they just get imprisoned.
- In the comics version of Big Hero 6, Hiro is shown wearing glasses. In the animated movie, it's shown that that version of Hiro doesn't.
- In the comics, Professor Pyg is one of the few enemies of Batman who actually qualifies for the legal definition of "insanity" and not just Hollywood Psychology. In Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, while he still engages in twisted experiments (his introductory scene involved Two-Face's evil personality trying to get him to scar the right side of Dent), he's pretty much clear-minded enough to properly talk to others.
- In The Tale of Despereaux, Miggery had gone partially deaf from all the times her abusive "uncle" slapped her on the ears. In the film adaptation she can hear just fine.
- In Tales from Earthsea, Therru has half of her face red, like a bad sunburn. The original books had her suffer burns which burned that side to the bone, making her lose an eye. Her hand was burned to uselessness as well.
Films — Live-Action
- Aquamarine: In Aquamarine, human girls Claire and Hailey borrow a wheelchair from Claire's grandfather so Aquamarine the mermaid can leave the pool and go on a date with human boy Raymond. This was absent from the adaptation, where she could grow legs.
- Bangkok Dangerous (2008): In the Thai original, Professional Killer Kong, the protagonist, is deaf and mute. In the Western remake, Kong is replaced by Joe, who isn't handicapped in any way at all; instead his Love Interest Fon is made deaf-mute, where she was previously the able one.
- Barbarella: In the original comic books, the Black Queen wears an eye patch, and since she never takes it off, it implies she's blind in that eye. In the movie, she only has the eye patch for one scene where she's King Incognito, and both her eyes appear to be perfectly healthy.
- In the Batman Film Series, Commissioner Gordon is shown not to need glasses.
- The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial: In both the original novel and its adaptations, Captain Queeg was legitimately insane and unfit for duty. In this film, while he struggles with anxiety and is erratic at times, he's described as being sane by psychologists and the people who accuse him of being insane are ignorant about mental illnesses or psychology. It's also left ambiguous if the worst of his actions were true, and it's implied he's at worst guilty of being overly strict rather than genuinely unfit for duty.
- In the theatrical version of The Children's Hour and its 1960 film adaptation, Martha's gayngst leads her to be a depressed and anxious woman. In the censored These Three incarnation from the '30s, her angst is watered down and she never kills herself.
- DC Extended Universe:
- Justice League: Crispus Allen does not need to wear glasses.
- SHAZAM! sees its version of Dr. Sivana also not wearing glasses, though he did need them before getting the Eye of Sin lodged in his right eye and needs them again after it's removed.
- Birds of Prey:
- Cassandra Cain in has none of the communication difficulties her comic book counterpart has.
- Black Mask, instead of having a disfigured face that looks like a skull as a result of self-mutilation, wears a mask shaped like a skull instead.
- The Suicide Squad sees Bloodsport being a genuine veteran and the Only Sane Man in the new Squad's recruits. His comic counterpart was a draft dodger who went mad with guilt and deluded himself into believing he had served in The Vietnam War when his brother went in his place and became a quadruple amputee as a result of injuries he suffered there.
- A Dog's Purpose:
- In A Dog's Purpose, Ellie is a search-and-rescue dog who loses her sense of smell after acid gets on her nose. In the film this doesn't occur because she gets shot before this happens. As a result, Ellie never retires and gets a new job where she helps teach people about safety.
- Ellie's handler Jakob is mentioned to have been shot before. It almost ended in a Career-Ending Injury. The film doesn't mention that Carlos was ever injured.
- GoodFellas: The real Henry Hill had learning disabilities so severe that he didn't learn the alphabet until he was 20. The movie doesn't really touch on this fact, aside from him having a difficult time in school, and even then a viewer could easily get the impression that he did poorly simply because he was already uninterested in an honest living.
- Hannibal: Downplayed for Mason Verger. In the novel, he's bedridden, unable to breathe without a mechanical ventilator, and needs a special lens fitted with a spray device to keep his remaining eyeball moist. In the movie, he can get around in a wheelchair and can breathe (and see) unaided.
- Harry Potter: In the Harry Potter books, both Arthur and Percy Weasley need to wear glasses, which are absent in the films (and the Walking Techbane nature of wizards makes contact lenses unlikely).
- Heidi 1937: In the original book of Heidi, Klara has never been able to walk and is chronically ill, to the point that the possibility of her dying is sometimes alluded to until she recovers and Throws Off The Disability in the end. In this film, she used to be able to walk but was crippled by an injury, and it's only her fear and self-doubt that keep her from trying to walk again.
- The Hunger Games: Peeta loses his leg in the books, but not in the film adaptation; similarly, Katniss' acquired hearing impairment also doesn't occur. The male tribute from District 10 in the 74th Hunger Games also doesn't appear to have a crippled leg as he does in the books, as he is seen running to the Cornucopia at the beginning of the games.
- James Bond: In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, Felix Leiter loses his hand and his leg to a shark in his second appearance, Live and Let Die. Because the movies adapted the books out of order, they opted not to adapt these traits. The shark attack was cut from the movie adaptation of Live and Let Die, but was eventually repurposed for Licence to Kill, which ended up being Leiter's last appearance pre-reboot. (And incidentally he only lost his leg in the movie.)
- Jumanji: Peter had glasses in the book, but not in the movie.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In the comics Hawkeye is partially deaf, wearing a hearing aid, and speaks American Sign Language. In the film incarnation, none of this was initially included. However, this element was brought into the MCU in Hawkeye, where he began using a hearing aid after years of being caught in or near loud explosions (featuring a montage of all those incidents in previous movies), and he is learning ASL.
- Thor: In the comics, Thor's "Donald Blake" alias on Earth is a crippled surgeon whose cane would transform into Thor's hammer, which Odin set up in order to teach him humility. Because of the circumstances of Thor's being sent to Earth being different in the MCU, "Donald Blake" is instead an incredibly buff vaguely Scandinavian guy, only used briefly as a Mythology Gag alias.
- In the comic story where Thor suffers Eye Scream while Asgard is being destroyed, he (willingly) loses both of his eyes. A similar thing happens in Thor: Ragnarok, but he only loses one (right) eye during the film's Final Battle, then gains an artificial eye in a later time anyway.
- Razor Fist is a mild case of this: in the comics, both of his arms are replaced with blades, but in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, only his right arm is a blade, while his left arm is still intact.
- Madame Web: Cassandra Webb is neither blind or paralyzed, being a young and physically fit paramedic. The final confrontation with Ezekiel leaves her in a state much closer to her comics equivalent, left both blind and in a wheelchair.
- The Mighty: Downplayed compared to the source material, Freak the Mighty. In the book, Freak has dwarfism (though he hates being called a "dwarf") because his growth is stunted by his Morquio Syndrome: at age thirteen he's the size of a five-year-old. In the film, as played by Kieran Culkin, he's still severely crippled and dying, but his size is average for his age.
- Rob Reiner's cinematic adaptation of Misery changed the scene of Annie lopping off Paul's foot with an axe to her breaking his ankles with a sledgehammer — though a focus group insisted on him at least walking with a cane after his injuries, in a rare example of a Focus Group Ending making a work harsher rather than softer.
- Mortal Kombat (2021): In the Mortal Kombat games, Nitara is shown wearing an eyepatch over her left eye. In the film, she has both eyes.
- In The Phantom of the Opera book the titular antagonist doesn’t have a nose since his entire head looks like a skull, and has wear a prosthetic nose in public. In The Phantom of the Opera (1925) for practical reasons Lon Chaney’s Phantom had a nose, and every subsequent live-action portrayal has given the Phantom a nose.
- Punisher: War Zone sees a downplayed case of this. In The Punisher MAX, Don Massimo Cesare was so far gone as far as his age goes that he needed a wheelchair, spent most of his time drooling, and was Don in name only. The film sees Gaitano Cesare still using a wheelchair, but he was also cognizant enough to still run his organization.
- In the original RoboCop trilogy, the eponymous protagonist was severely mutilated (specifically getting his right hand blown off by a shotgun, then his entire arm, then several shots to his abdomen area, and then finally the fatal headshot) before his death and eventual cyborgification. The 2014 reboot only has him die via 3rd degree burns with his limbs intact, plus he gets to keep his right hand, lungs, heart, and consciousness after his cyborgification.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024): Unlike her game counterpart, Maria Robotnik here doesn’t seem to have any signs of N.I.D.S., as she seems pretty healthy and active, likely because the disease was 100% fictional and trying to recreate and justify its effects would have pushed the bounds of realism in the film setting.
- Venom (2018) shows a cancer-free Eddie Brock, a fact revealed during Paul Jenkins's time on the Spider-Man books. That said, this was at the time of the film's release; Venom (Donny Cates) retconned that Eddie never had cancer at first, the cancer Eddie did get was the symbiote screwing with his body, and the symbiote had done that and been gaslighting him to force Eddie to stay with it.
- In What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Arnie keeps his mental retardation, but in the novel, he also was missing an eye.
- In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is missing an eye. Many adaptations like the 1939 movie show her as having both eyes.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past:
- In the comic book on which the film is based, Magneto is paraplegic by the time of the Bad Future. In the film's depiction of the future, he's up and walking around on two feet.
- Hank invents a serum that Charles can take which allows him to regain his ability to walk at the cost of his powers. Nothing like this exists in the comics, although Xavier has come up with numerous other off-the-wall ways to regain his mobility (none of them ever stick, though).
- Downplayed in Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2007); in the original game series, Goro Majima is missing his left eye, while in the film it's his right eye that is gone. This was because of his actor being left-eye dominant.
- Zathura: Walter had glasses in the book, but not the movie.
Literature
- Gods And Monsters 2017: The adaptation of Hephaestus' origin story features a variant of this trope. His typical origin story in Classical Mythology involves the fact that he was deformed and that Hera, disgusted, threw him off Olympus after his birth as a result. In this, while he's born a normal baby, he loses his legs below his knees as a result of the fall.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari's mental health issues are the stuff of legends and very important to the main Evangelion story. In the Alternate Continuity of Evangelion -ANIMA-, however, he was able to get three years to work on his issues after defeating the angels. By the time he is reintroduced, Shinji is far more well-adjusted to life as an Evangelion pilot.
Live-Action TV
- Arrowverse:
- In the comics, Mia Dearden is HIV positive. Thea Dearden Queen displays no such illness.
- In many stories, Dinah Drake Lance succumbs to cancer long after passing her Black Canary mantle to her daughter Dinah Laurel Lance. Here, the elder Dinah is in good health and even outlives her daughter.
- Hunter Zolomon is a paraplegic in the comics. Here, he is just fine and is instead Secretly Dying from a speed drug overdose. However, Eobard Thawne pretends to be when posing as Harrison Wells.
- In the comics, Roy Harper loses his right arm during the battle with Prometheus. That did not happen here due to Roy being absent during the adaptation of the Prometheus arc. Subverted later when he does lose his arm in the prelude to Crisis on Infinite Earths, albeit in different circumstances.
- In the comics' Bad Future Flash storyline, the future Iris West becomes paraplegic. Here, she isn't due to her being long dead in that Bad Future. The disability was given to Wally instead.
- In the comics, Nathaniel Heywood has an amputated leg thanks to an undiagnosed infection. Here, all his limbs are intact and his only disability is hemophilia.
- Downplayed in Bad Sisters. Bibi is never described as autistic, unlike her counterpart in the Belgian series Clan, which Bad Sisters is a Foreign Remake of. However, she does retain her original incarnation's other disability (having one eye as the result of a car accident involving Jean-Claude/John Paul) as well as many of her autistic traits.
- The 1966 Batman series notably lacks the PTSD the character is known for. Commissioner Gordon is also shown not to need glasses.
- In Catch-22, Major —— de Coverley wears an eyepatch as the result of an eye injury. In the miniseries, both eyes are working fine.
- Doctor Who: "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" has a downplayed version: in real life, Lord Byron had a deformed foot that caused him to walk with a limp. Byron as portrayed in the episode walks normally.
- Game of Thrones:
- The show downplayed Doran Martell's gout to the point where he is able to move around without his wheelchair while when leaning on Ellaria's arm he's able to walk around for a bit. In the books, his gout is already so severe that his legs are deformed, which crippled him and gave him constant pain.
- In the books, Tyrion actually lost his nose in the assassination attempt on him during the Battle of Blackwater. In the show, it's only a typical facial scar. He's also more generally able due to having a different variety of dwarfism that doesn't affect his proportions — the book Tyrion has exceptionally short legs even for his height, rendering him unable to walk for long distances without pain.
- In the books, Ramsay chops off some of Theon's toes and fingers and even plucks out most of his teeth. Theon lacks these injuries in the show, though he does limp around for a while after Ramsey's tortures.
- The show's version of Euron has both of his eyes on display. In the source material, he is wearing an eye patch on his left eye, and it's vague what's wrong with it. The difference is mostly due to the character in the show being a composite of Euron and Victarion.
- In the books, Myrcella Baratheon loses an ear and gets her face heavily scarred. This is omitted in the show.
- In the books, Gregor Clegane's undead corpse is missing his head due to it being sent to the Martells to appease them for Gregor's role in the deaths of many of their family members (Ellia, her children, and Oberyn who in turn was the one who caused Gregor's death). The show's version of the undead Gregor has his entire body intact. Furthermore, when he was alive Gregor suffered from headaches due to his gigantism that even milk of poppy can't numb. In the show, no mention is made of his opiates consumption and there are no effects to make him look like an inhumanly huge brute except for the camera angles.
- In the books, Walder Frey is in his 90s and needs to be carried in a litter to get around. In the show, he's a few decades younger and has no difficulty walking.
- Gotham:
- Jim Gordon and Crispus Allen aren't shown to wear glasses.
- Professor Pyg is actually clear-headed and malicious in the show.
- Heidi 1968: In the original book of Heidi, Klara has never been able to walk and is chronically ill, to the point that the possibility of her dying is sometimes alluded to until she recovers and Throws Off The Disability in the end. In this series, she used to be able to walk but was crippled by an injury in the same boating accident that killed her Missing Mom, and it's only her fear and self-doubt that keep her from trying to walk again.
- Heidi, bienvenida a casa: Where Klara is unable to walk in the original Heidi novel, in this telenovela she isn't physically disabled at all but instead has severe agoraphobia.
- How I Met Your Mother originally concludes with the titular mother dying from an unknown illness some time before the Distant Finale. The Finale Season DVD release features an alternate ending where she is still alive during that time, heavily implying (since there was no new footage) that she was eventually cured at best, or just prolonged her life and is still going to die but in a much later time at worst.
- Legion: Harry Lloyd's version of Charles Xavier (who's a paraplegic in the comics) lacks any disability and is always seen walking.
- Maniac Mansion: Dr. Fred Edison and his wife Nurse Edna were clearly depicted as bespectacled in the original game, while the television series depicts Fred and Casey as not needing glasses.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Gabriel Reyes in the comics was born with an unspecified neurological disorder (the result of his mother having been pushed down the stairs while pregnant), which left him unable to walk and mentally and developmentally slow. In the show, he's a normal 14-year-old who's left paraplegic after the attack that gave his brother, Robbie Reyes, his superhero origin story. In fact, it's indicated he's a very intelligent young man who quickly pieces together who Daisy is after spending a few hours with her during a blackout, which the comics version would most likely not be able to do.
- Iron Fist: Harold Meachum in the comics had his legs amputated. Harold Meachum in the show still has his legs.
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Isaiah Bradley in the comics is reduced to a mute, childlike state due to the side effects of the super soldier serum. In the show, Bradley's mind remains fully intact and shows no other ill effects of the serum: he appears to have developed arthritis and walks with a hunch due to old age, but retains much of the strength of the other super soldiers.
- Hawkeye: Inverted with the title character, who is deaf and uses ASL in the comics but had previously been portrayed in the MCU fully hearing. The series shows Clint Barton having developed severe hearing loss due to proximity to multiple large explosions (complete with a montage from previous MCU works): he's now learning ASL and has problems for an entire episode due to his hearing aid getting broken in an altercation.
- One Piece (2023): Kaya in the manga has an unspecified illness brought about by her parents’ death that makes her incredibly weak and sickly. In the show however Kaya was being poisoned by Kuro.
- Orphan Black: 7 Genes omits two disabilities from the series it was based on:
- Nagase never loses his left pinky finger unlike his counterpart Vic Schmidt due to the characters and Story Arc responsible for it being Adapted Out.
- The original series' Season 1 finale shows Cosima Niehaus developing the respiratory illness that plagued most of the clones. In the remake, the first season concludes with her counterpart Izumi Odagiri in good health.
- Power Rangers: The Blue Ranger from Mirai Sentai Timeranger has an Incurable Cough of Death. His counterpart in Power Rangers Time Force is in good health.
- The Return of the Condor Heroes has The Hero Yang Guo losing his right arm third quarter into the story, requiring him to both re-purpose his fighting style and learn new ones to accommodate his now handicapped condition. Several live action adaptations (except the one in 2006) have swapped it due to Yang Guo being played by right-handed actors.
- The Roman Mysteries: In the original books, Lucius was subject to Tongue Trauma rendering him mute. Here, he still has his tongue, albeit he is still selectively mute.
- Stargirl (2020): Beth Chapel isn't blinded before becoming the second Dr Mid-Nite (although she does wear glasses).
- While the Gizmo in Titans is an adult as in the comics (as opposed to the child of the 2003 Teen Titans series and Teen Titans Go!), he also doesn't have dwarfism like in the comics.
- The Umbrella Academy: In the original comics, Diego has his right eye missing for some unknown reason, and Allison has a cybernetic left hand because the villain Dr. Terminal ate her real one when she was young. In the series, Diego and Allison have both their eyes and hands intact.
- The Walking Dead:
- In the source material, Rick loses his right hand after the Governor chops it off. This was omitted in the show. Likewise, comic Rick is partly crippled after Negan breaks his leg, but this doesn't happen on the show either.
- In the comics, Dale loses both of his legs before dying. This is omitted in the show due to him dying much earlier in the timeline, though these storylines were distributed to different characters.
- Andrea got some nasty facial scars in the comics. It was omitted in the show.
- In the comics, Carol's mental illness becomes so out of hand that she commits suicide. In the show, it is more subdued and she is Spared by the Adaptation (for now).
- Maggie and Michonne's mental illness from the comics are Adapted Out from the show.
- The Governor is severely mutilated by Michonne in the comics, namely: having his left eye gouged out, and both his right arm and penis chopped off. In the show, Michonne only took out his eye, and it's the right one at that.
- Carl's Moe Greene Special is much more severe in the comics, as the injury also took out his right ear and causes him brain damage. In the show, it is a traditional Eye Scream. Likewise, his Creepy Child tendencies from the source material are greatly toned down.
- In the comics, Morgan never really got back from his Sanity Slippage after his son's death. In the show, he got his act together, and like Carol, he is Spared by the Adaptation (again, for now).
- The White Queen: The real King Richard III had severe scoliosis which caused his shoulders to be uneven, although the deformity wouldn't be noticed under clothing. Aneurin Barnard's portrayal of the character includes a couple of Shirtless Scenes which demonstrate that Richard is devoid of a physical handicap.
- Wire in the Blood:
- In the book of The Wire in the Blood, Jacko Vance had one arm due to a car accident decades previously, and he crushed the right arms of his victims as a result. This doesn't happen in the series, and he has both arms.
- Tony is impotent in ''The Mermaids Singing'', and his struggle with erectile dysfunction gets mentioned occasionally in later books, but is completely Adapted Out of the series.
Theatre
- The real Blanche Barrow—a member of Bonnie and Clyde's infamous Barrow Gang—was left blinded in one eye during the same incident that killed her husband Buck. In Frank Wildhorn's stage musical Bonnie and Clyde, no mention is made of her sustaining such an injury.
- Fun Home: The musical does not mention Alison's OCD despite the fact that in the graphic novel her OCD is very disruptive to her life, especially when she was a teenager.
- Newsies: In the original movie, Crutchie walks with a limp and is also implied to have some type of mental handicap. In the stage version, he's still crippled but doesn't appear to have any mental disability whatsoever.
- Wicked:
- In the original Wicked book Elphaba has an allergy to water. She bathes using oils, avoids water in all forms, and as in the original Oz story, her death involves Dorothy splashing water on her. In the theatrical adaptation there are rumors that water can melt her—and in the song "Thank Goodness" Fiyero gets upset at the absurdity of the idea—but it's not true. Elphaba ends up Spared by the Adaptation when she fakes her death. Also, as Elphaba's design is based on the MGM Witch and not the original book one, she has both eyes intact.
- In a case of Pragmatic Adaptation, Elphaba's sister's disability was changed for the musical. Nessarose was born with no arms in the books; however, due to the difficulty of representing that in a play, she was changed to using a wheelchair.
Video Games
- Downplayed in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle. Neo from RWBY is completely mute in her home series but can giggle, grunt, and such in BlazBlue.
- In Deltarune, Undyne has both eyes, unlike in Undertale, where she's missing one.
- Dynasty Warriors: Deng Ai was historically someone who had a notable stutter that wasn't taken seriously until his talents were exploited by Sima Yi via a fateful encounter; his portrayal in the game series makes no mention of his stutter at all.
- Last Battle (1989): One of the characters who lost a leg in the original Japanese release instead retains it in the localization. It does however make more sense to stand up if you have both legs.
- Marauder In the novel, Akhmet loses some fingers to an explosion which doesn't happen in the game.
- Unlike in canon, Rock Lee's left arm and leg aren't crippled by Gaara in Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm.
- Onmyōji (2016): Hangan is apparently blind in the original game, but this is made even more of an Informed Deformity in the MOBA game adaptation where he still says his eyes can't see, but a stock animation sequence has him looking around in search of an object.
- Lusamine in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon isn't Brainwashed and Crazy like in the original Pokémon Sun and Moon. Due to this, she doesn't end up hospitalized after being defeated. Instead, Cosmog ends up injured. This difference means that Lillie stays in Alola, while Gladion is the one that runs off.
- Samurai Warriors:
- Historically, Kanbei Kuroda was imprisoned by the rebellious Oda vassal, Araki Murashige, but he escaped at the cost of an injury that left him with a pronounced limp. In the game itself, he doesn't have a leg injury and is able to move just fine.
- In the games, Yoshitsugu Otani has his whole body covered except his eyes and nose which is a nod to his historical counterpart who is a leper. However, the game downplays his leprosy as he is able to move freely.
- Sherlock Holmes (Frogwares) doesn't acknowledge Homes' drug addiction from the books.
- Calvina Coulange from Super Robot Wars J suffered nerve damage to her arms during the Lunar Furies' first attack on the Moon in the backstory and is unable to pilot until she gains control of one of the Furies' Cytron-equipped machines. She still has full use of her arms in the Super Robot Wars: Original Generation continuity, however. This is presumably for gameplay purposes, as the mainline SRW games restrict pilots to units from their own series while OG lets any character use any mech with a few exceptions, and making just one character who's completely restricted to Fury units would have been a hassle to program.
- The version of Axel in Twisted Metal: Black is physically able to enter and exit his machinenote , unlike his mainline counterpart, who was stuck inside for 20 years and finally had to tear off all his limbs to exit the vehicle in 2, needing to get mechanical limbs to replace them in Head-On.
Web Animation
- DC Super Hero Girls combines pre-52 elements and post-52 elements of Barbara Gordon. She's actually made a Decomposite Character, where she becomes Batgirl in the series and is never paralyzed, while Oracle is her AI assistant. The Joker, who is the reason Babs became paralyzed, is only mentioned once in a side comic — to develop Harley's character, with no mention of Batgirl ever having encountered him.
- RWBY Chibi: Because nothing bad ever happened, Yang doesn't lose her right arm.
Web Comics
- Batman: Wayne Family Adventures: In the comics, Cassandra had a learning disability that made her illiterate, making it difficult for her to learn a language. She could rarely speak more than a few words at a time in the comics. Here, Cass is The Quiet One but otherwise doesn't seem to have difficulty speaking, and she's been shown to be capable of reading.
Western Animation
- The Batman:
- Ellen Yindel in The Dark Knight Strikes Again wore glasses. Possibly due to her Age Lift, Ellen Yin doesn't.
- This version of Mr. Freeze can survive unharmed in normal temperatures without his suit and has actual ice-based superpowers instead of relying on a freezing gun. The suit merely helps him keep his powers under control. It should be noted that excessive heat will temporarily disable his powers so that weakness is still present to an extent. And like in Batman: The Animated Series, his body starts deteriorating as he gets older and he uses a spider-like machine to replace the lower portion of his body (though the BTAS version lost everything except his head).
- In the comics, Dr. Kirk Langstrom developed the Man-Bat formula as a cure for his own growing deafness. In The Batman, Langstrom isn't going deaf and is creating the formula purely to terrorize others (though curing deafness is his cover story).
- Maxie Zeus, while still crazy, isn't so crazy that he suffers from delusions that he's really his namesake like the comics character does.
- Batwheels depicts a Cassandra Cain without her learning disability or speaking difficulty from the comics.
- Beware the Batman:
- Barbara Gordon skips becoming Batgirl and goes straight to Oracle without being paralyzed.
- Much like in the aforementioned Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, Professor Pyg, while eccentric, is pretty clear-headed and lacks the actual insanity of the comics Pyg.
- While he still loses his right eye in his final battle with Batman, Deathstroke still has both eyes throughout most of the series. In the comics and other continuities, Slade already lost it long before he started going against superheroes.
- The Boondocks: Fleece Johnson doesn't need glasses like his real-life counterpart.
- DC Animated Universe:
- In The Killing Joke, the second Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, was shot by the Joker. She became paralyzed due to the incident but later became the Handicapped Badass "Oracle", until the New 52 reboot retconned her to having recovered the use of her legs after the shooting. In this continuity, she is able-bodied throughout the entire run of Batman: The Animated Series and there are no signs of Batgirl ever having used a wheelchair. In Batman Beyond, she is shown as a senior, but her legs work perfectly fine.
- The Batman: The Animated Series episode "Sideshow", a loose adaptation of the comic story "A Vow from the Grave" from Detective Comics #410, depicts Billy the Seal Boy as able to talk, when his comic counterpart Flippy was silent and explicitly stated to be incapable of speech.
- Static Shock: Unlike his counterpart in the original Milestone continuity, Edwin Alva, Sr. doesn't wear glasses.
- DC Super Hero Girls (2019): This continuity's interpretation of Deathstroke's daughter Rose Wilson has both of her eyes intact, when in the comics she cut out her own eye as a testament to her initial loyalty to her father.
- Geronimo Stilton: Geronimo in the cartoon doesn't need to wear glasses like in the books.
- Jumanji: Peter had glasses in the book, but not in the cartoon.
- In the comics, Deathstroke is missing his right eye after he was shot by his wife. In My Adventures with Superman, both of Slade's eyes are still intact. That is, until the episode "Zero Day, Part 2", where he ends up losing the eye to an attack from Livewire.
- Spider-Man:
- Spider-Man (1967): The comic book version of supporting character Dr. Curt Connors is missing an arm, which is his motivation for coming up with the serum that turns him into the feral, monstrous "Lizard". In this cartoon, he has both arms, with the serum that turns him into the Lizard is instead developed as a cure for "swamp fever".
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series: In the comics, Morbius was trying to cure a disease he was suffering from when he got turned into a vampire. While he's still trying to cure a disease in the series, his counterpart isn't afflicted with it.
- Marvel's Spider-Man: In the comics, Flash Thompson was an adult soldier who lost the lower part of his legs in battle before becoming Agent Venom. This series, focused on Peter's time starting out as Spidey and thus set in high school, sees its version of Flash still has his legs intact when he bonds with the Venom symbiote.
- Ultimate Spider-Man:
- Like in Marvel's Spider-Man, Flash still has his legs intact when he bonds with the Venom symbiote. Though he is significantly younger in the show than he was when he lost his legs.
- Like in the '90s show, Morbius wasn't sick before becoming a vampire.
- Teen Titans: In the comics, Starfire's sister Blackfire can't fly due to a childhood illness. She can't absorb ultraviolet radiation like others of her species. In the 2003 Teen Titans series and Teen Titans Go! Blackfire shows no signs of disability. She is adept at flying and can fly faster than the speed of light.
- In ThunderCats (1985), Lion-O's father Claudus (seen once via Time Travel and once as a ghost) was blind (he somehow lost his sight in the war with the mutants). He's not blind at all in the 2011 reboot or ThunderCats Roar.
