I've read several different fics where Elsa's in the hospital, or has SOME sort of condition. Cancer, selective mutism, dissociative personality disorder, PTSD, depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar, etc.
In adaptations sometimes characters are given disabilities, both physical and mental, that were not in the original work.
The reason for this differs from work to work. One reason could be because the adaptation's writers don't believe the characters should be so unscathed from their adventures. Another reason could be in order to provoke more drama. In the case of mental illness, this often (but not always) relates to an Adaptational Angst Upgrade, though it is by no means limited to it. "Disabled AUs" are a popular type of fan-work as a result. In some rarer cases, it is due to the actor chosen for the role being disabled in real life, causing it to be written into the story.
The inversion would be Abled in the Adaptation. Sub-trope to Adaptational Diversity. Compare to Written-In Infirmity, when a character is given a specific disability because the actor portraying that character has the same condition.
Can also be as minor as wearing glasses, which is often treated as a purely aesthetic choice.
Subpages:
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Attack No. 1: Coach Daigo Inokuma can't use one of his arms in the anime adaptation since he trained way too hard in college. But in the manga, both arms are fine.
- Basilisk: Hyouma has different disabilities between the manga and the anime. In the manga, his eyes are very sensitive to light, making him practically blind during the day. In the anime, his Doujutsu is always turned on, meaning that he'll kill anyone he makes eye contact with - which is why he usually keeps his eyes closed at all times.
- Birdy the Mighty: In the original manga and OVA versions, Tsutomu didn't need glasses, even before merging with Birdy. In the remake manga and Decode, he's shown to wear glasses when not merged with Birdy. The same applied to his sister Hazumi.
- Black Lagoon: The manga sees Roberta coming out of "El Baile De La Muerte" physically intact. The anime sees the climax of its adaptation, "Roberta's Blood Trail", result in Roberta losing her right eye, the index and middle fingers of her right hand, her right leg, and left arm.
- Blood-C: The Last Dark: At the start, Saya arrives in Tokyo with her left eye, which was shot by Fumito at the end of the TV series, but was fully healed here thanks to her regenerative abilities as an Elder Bairns. However, in the manga, her eye is covered with a bandage after arriving in Tokyo and she removes it when she's in Watanuki's shop, revealing that her eye is restored.
- Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040:
- Slyia in the OVA was, for the most part, sane. Her 2040 counterpart, possibly as a result of her father using her brain in an experiment for the development of Boomer technology, is shown to suffer from mental instability.
- In the OVA, Quincy seemed to be perfectly fine (though on two occasions, he was shown using robotic doubles to avoid dangerous situations). His 2040 counterpart was hooked up to a throne with life support equipment.
- Dororo (2019): An odd case. Hyakkimaru isn't missing any more body parts than his manga counterpart. In fact, he's missing significantly fewer of them, with the number having shrunk from 47 to 12. However, he also has far less in the way of Disability Negating Superpowers, so his deafness, blindness, and muteness affect him far more than they did in previous incarnations.
- Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): A few notable ones that weren't present in the source material were added to the 2003 anime:
- In the manga, Paninya lost her legs as a child and had them replaced with automail prosthetics. In the anime, one of her arms was also replaced with a prosthetic in addition to her legs.
- The anime has Rose Thomas, as a result of being an Ascended Extra, given a storyline where she suffers from severe depression and anxiety.
- Scar loses both of his arms before performing a Heroic Sacrifice. In the source material, he survives the series with his body intact.
- Roy Mustang loses his left eye in the anime's Grand Finale. In the manga, he loses his sight for some time, but his eyes remain intact and he regains his sight. Mustang's depression and PTSD are also given more focus, which causes him to have signs of alcoholism.
- 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 loses his restored limbs. The source material's Grand Finale has Ed getting his arm restored. In the 2003 anime, Edward also has some PTSD symptoms that he mostly lacks in the manga.
- Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics: In the episode "The Coat of Many Colors", Aleia is deeply traumatized over her father trying to marry her. In the original All-Kinds-of-Fur (which is a variant on Donkeyskin), she isn't as affected.
- Japan Sinks: In the anime version, Toshio Onodera suffers from near-total paralysis that leaves him unable to communicate outside of Morse Code using his left thumb. This is in contrast to the original novel, in which Onodera is perfectly able-bodied.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016): Subverted; Link gets his left arm sliced off by King Bulblin here, but fortunately, Ordona uses her powers to heal him.
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Kushana in the original manga was able-bodied, while in the film she lost both her legs and left arm in an Ohmu attack when she was young.
- Piccolino no Bouken: To weaken Geppetto, he has the need to use a staff and he complains that he is too old to do any trick. The original Master Geppetto had no limp and better physical condition despite his extreme poverty (before being trapped in the Dogfish, that is).
- Pokémon Adventures: In Pokémon Sun and Moon Lillie has had a traumatic childhood with her emotionally abusive mother Lusamine but, aside from some anxiety, she is relatively well-adjusted. Here, Lillie suffers from PTSD regarding Lusamine's abuse, going into a Trauma Button at the thought of her mother and when Sun calls her pretty like a "doll".
- Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon: In the original Pokémon Sun and Moon games, Lillie fears seeing Pokemon be hurt and dislikes battling. Here, Lillie has a phobia of Pokémon themselves. However, her reason why is very different from in the games. She was attacked by a Pokémon when she was younger. She doesn't remember the incident but remembers the fear.
- Rurouni Kenshin: The non-canon Distant Finale OVA titled Reflections gives Kenshin a contagious Soap Opera Disease that ultimately kills him and his wife Kaoru. In the canonical manga, they lived Happily Ever After, in good health and all.
Blogs
- Despair to Future Arcs: Compared to how Class 77-B looked before and after becoming Remnants of Despair in canon, they don’t look like they’ve suffered anything drastic. Here, some of them have suffered greatly as a result of either action once they recovered.
- The Ultimate Imposter has type 2 diabetes and gallstones as a result of their love for fast food.
- Teruteru’s liver is damaged and he suffers from Hepatitis C.
- When she was a Remnant of Despair, Mahiru stole, and implanted Junko’s eye on herself, leaving her blind out of her left side after the implanted eye is extracted.
- When she was a Remnant of Despair, Hiyoko crippled her legs in an attempt to kill herself under Junko’s orders, and left herself with high blood pressure from her sweets-based diet.
- As a Remnant of Despair, Ibuki didn’t just implant Junko’s right arm on herself, but she also left herself deaf-mute from overusing her voice.
- During his time as a despair, Gundham blinded himself.
- Kazuichi suffers from Acute Mechanical Back Pain from his constant work.
Comic Books
- Absolute Universe:
- Absolute Wonder Woman: Diana in this universe lost her right arm after she gave it up as part of a sacrifice that would allow Steve Trevor to leave the Underworld. The version she has in the present is a magical construct, and she also carries around a mechanical prosthetic in the event that her magic arm gets disabled.
- Absolute Superman:
- This universe's version of Martha Kent suffers from an unnamed cancer.
- The General Sam Lane of this universe has lost both of his legs, leading him to use a high-tech wheelchair and a pair of mechanical prosthetics.
- Age of Apocalypse: The backstory involves Wolverine's counterpart Weapon X and Cyclops maiming each other during a battle, respectively losing a hand and an eye.
- Batman:
- Villain Captain Stingaree was of sound mind prior to flashpoint but the New 52 made him require psychiatric medication to keep from going into episodes where he's a danger to others and commits criminal acts.
- Batman: Earth One reveals its version of Alfred lost his right leg and replaced it with a prosthetic.
- Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam: Freddy's disability is changed so that he uses a wheelchair instead of crutches.
- Black Canary: Depending on the Writer, Black Canary's signature Canary Cry actually takes a toll on her body and is oftentimes treated as a Dangerous Forbidden Technique.
- Disney Kingdoms: In the first Figment series, Blair Mercurial wears glasses until becoming the Dreamfinder. In the original Journey into Imagination ride, he has no issues with his eyesight.
- GI Joe: The 2008 IDW Publishing continuity eventually has Joe Colton lose a hand, when other incarnations of the character remained intact to the end.
- Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy:
- In Little Women, Robert March isn't wounded in combat, but contracts pneumonia, from which he fully recovers. In the graphic novel, he loses a leg instead.
- Beth wears glasses, when she doesn't in the original.
- Oz (Marvel Comics):
- The Wizard is depicted as bespectacled, when he did not wear glasses in the original books.
- Similarly, the miniseries adapting The Marvelous Land of Oz depicts Mombi as bespectacled when she didn't wear glasses in the original book.
- RoboCop: Last Stand: Unlike how she was depicted in RoboCop 2, Juliette Faxx is shown wearing glasses. This is due to the story being based on Frank Miller's original RoboCop 3 script.
- Spider-Girl: Being set in the Marvel Comics 2 universe where Mayday Parker lived, her father Peter Parker eventually retired after losing a leg in battle. In the main series where Mayday was stillborn, this didn't happen to Peter.
- Teen Titans: Earth One: Rita Markov and Joshua Clay wear glasses in this continuity, when the standard incarnations of Rita Farr and Joshua Clay do not.
- The Ultimates: Instead of a damaged heart (a big issue back in the 1960s, but much more easily cured nowadays), Tony Stark's days are numbered because of a brain tumor.
- Ultimate Universe (2023):
- Bullseye from Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) is missing his left eye in this universe, having removed it himself as a show of loyalty to Captain Britain after he lost his own eye. Bullseye's phrasing regarding this information implies that this is also the case for the other Bullseyes serving Captain Britain.
- The Ultimates (2024):
- Issue #4 of the comic reveals that the Maker performed some form of brain surgery on Doom, this universe's Reed Richards. While what exactly he did is unclear, it's likely that the surgery is the source behind some of the obvious mental issues Doom suffers from.
- As part of the Maker's plan to prevent Hank Pym from becoming Ant-Man like in the main universe, this version of Hank ended up in an accident caused by Nick Fury that gave him irreversible brain damage.
Films — Animation
- Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts: Both the original movie and the sequel Batman Unlimited: Mechs Vs. Mutants sees the Penguin follow in his Batman Returns counterpart's footsteps in having fused fingers.
- Big Hero 6: Honey Lemon wears glasses, something her comics counterpart doesn't need.
- Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons:
- In the comics, Deathstroke's missing eye was the result of his then soon-to-be ex-wife Adeline being sent into a murderous rage after Joey was kidnapped and rendered mute by the Jackal, an enemy of Slade. Here, Slade's already missing his eye when he underwent the procedure to gain his abilities.
- The Bronze Tiger is shown losing an arm in battle with Slade and replacing it with a cybernetic one. In the comics, he still has both arms.
- How to Train Your Dragon: Hiccup loses a foot as a parallel to Toothless, who likewise lost half his tailfin (and with it his ability to fly unassisted) in the jump from page to screen. This didn't happen in the original How to Train Your Dragon books.
- Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus: Professor Membrane wears gloves up to his elbows; early in the movie, he removes one to reveal that he has robotic arms underneath.note He also wears gloves in the original series, but you can see normal flesh between them and his sleeves, with nothing to hint at Artificial Limbs.
- In the 1996 film adaptation of James and the Giant Peach, the Glowworm is slightly deaf, unlike in the book.
Films — Live-Action
- The Amazing Spider-Man Series: The Myth Arc revolves around a terminally-ill Norman Osborn's attempts to keep himself alive, an arc not present in the comics. Additionally, one: the disease is hereditary, meaning Harry's got it, too, and two: a hologram of Norman in the first movie shows him with glasses, something he didn't need in the comics.
- Batman Film Series:
- Batman himself, when played by Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer, required glasses to see things up close.
- While not focused on, Pat Hingle, who played Commissioner Gordon throughout the movies, was missing his left little finger due to an accident he had in 1959.
- Batman Returns:
- The Penguin has severe syndactyly. While it became a case of Depending on the Artist afterward, prior to Returns, he had no such condition in the comics and most media, where he is merely a textbook Fat Bastard.
- Catwoman develops dissociative identity disorder in her Supervillain Origin and as a result becomes a Psychopathic Womanchild. While prone to crazy shenanigans in the comics and most media, Catwoman is more or less mentally stable.
- In Batman & Robin, Alfred Pennyworth develops a rare and fatal disease that becomes integral to the plot. He's always been in good health in the comics. Additionally, much like Alan Napier's version, this Alfred is shown wearing glasses.
- Child's Play (2019): Andy is partially deaf, unlike his original counterpart. This is done to add tension when Chucky talks to him through his hearing aid.
- Cyrano: Peter Dinklage again; the title character of the original play, Cyrano de Bergerac, has a normal size and his lifelong angst is solely about his big nose. That has been changed to dwarfism for The Musical this film is based on, which already starred Dinklage.
- DC Extended Universe:
- Lex Luthor clearly suffers from a form of mental disorder in addition to being a sociopath, which is traditionally what he is in the comics and most media.
- In Suicide Squad (2016) it's implied that Harley Quinn hears voices in her head. This isn't a characteristic in her comic portrayal.
- SHAZAM! (2019) makes it so the powerset doesn't cure Freddy's lame leg. Superpowered flight can't not go a long way to compensate, of course.
- Grave of the Fireflies (2008): Seita has asthma; when he was younger his father and him both believed he had grown past it, but he still suffers from it, especially when stressed.
- Green Lantern (2011): Tom Kalmaku is depicted as wearing glasses, when he never had to in the comics.
- Inspector Gadget (1999): In the original Inspector Gadget cartoon, despite his name, Dr. Claw did not have a claw in the original cartoon; he just wore spiked gauntlets on his hands. Here, the explosion Sanford Scolex set off to kill John Brown (the future Gadget) caused a bowling ball in Brown's car to fly into the air and land on Scolex's left hand, crushing it beyond repair. The hand was amputated and replaced by a large, mechanical pincer.
- Joker (2019): This film's version of the title character, real name Arthur Fleck, suffers from various psychological and neurological issues, including Pseudobulbar affect
and has hallucinations. In the comics, Depending on the Writer, the Joker is just Obfuscating Insanity to avoid actually going to prison or death row. Turns out it's a possible Double Subversion. Arthur's "hallucinations" seem to be Imagine Spots that the viewer is merely led to believe are real, and his rant before killing Murray Franklin hints that his apparent PBA might just be a bizarre and off-putting sense of humor. On the other hand, his apparent depression is never given any other explanation, and it's hinted that Arthur suffers from Childhood Brain Damage due to his mother allowing her boyfriend to beat young Arthur unconscious.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In Iron Man 3, Tony suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after the events of The Avengers (2012). Tony doesn't suffer PTSD in the comics. They allude in the first two films without mentioning it to the disability Tony has in the comics: he's an alcoholic. (Specifically, in Iron Man 2, he becomes an alcoholic because of stress from the fact that he's dying. Both problems are fixed by the climax.)
- In Eternals, Makkari is deaf, like her actress Lauren Ridloff. In the comics, Makkari has no disability.
- In Black Widow (2021), Taskmaster is turned from a male mercenary with photographic mimicry powers to the daughter of the Red Room's leader, who lost physical mobility when Black Widow attempted to assassinate her father. The Taskmaster suit is what allows her to move and physically mimic her opponents.
- In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ghost, instead of inventing a suit that turns them intangible, is affected with quantum instability, which causes her severe chronic pain and will eventually kill her if not cured. The suit helps her control her condition. Like Taskmaster above, this character is also gender-flipped.
- Mulan (2020): Downplayed; while Mulan's father Fa Zhou was never the most physically able person (due to being a Dented Iron Old Soldier) in the original film, he's even more crippled here, needing to wear a leg brace to walk properly.
- Power Rangers (2017): Billy is autistic, something that was not in the original series.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past: Bolivar Trask is able-bodied in the comics but played by Peter Dinklage (who has dwarfism) in the film.
Literature
- "The Doctor's Case" (a Sherlock Holmes story by Stephen King) gives Holmes a cat allergy to explain why he doesn't solve the murder of a cat owner as quickly as he otherwise would have.
- The novelization of Final Crisis shows Dan Turpin slip into a coma as a result of Darkseid possessing him and the Black Racer's subsequent exorcism of him. The expanded version of the original comics (in the later collected editions) shows Turpin not only survived, but though dazed briefly, he was still awake.
- All the child/teenage characters in Forbidden Zone (1980) are played by adults. The most egregious is Flash Hercules but the novelization says he has progeria which makes him look like an 80 year old.
Live-Action TV
- Anne with an E: Anne is depicted here as suffering from PTSD after years of childhood abuse. Her Cloud Cuckoo Lander nature is also turned into maladaptive daydreaming used to deal with her trauma. This didn't happen in the original Anne of Green Gables books
- Arrowverse:
- In contrast to many Green Arrow stories and adaptations, Oliver Queen's PTSD from his time away from home is heavily emphasized.
- Deadshot's right eye is badly damaged (if not completely blind) in this version and his advanced Eyepatch of Power essentially serves as his artificial eye. In the comics and most media, his right eye is just fine and the advanced eye patch merely serves as a gadget for his job.
- In this version, Slade Wilson kills his Evil Former Friend Billy Wintergreen by a brutal Moe Greene Special. Wintergreen never lost an eye in the comics.
- Slade also chops off Anthony Ivo's right hand. Ivo was never mutilated in the comics.
- Quentin Larry Lance suffers from a weakened heart after the battle with Deathstroke and his minions. His comic book counterpart, Larry Lance, had no such illness prior to his death (nor did he fight against Deathstroke).
- Jefferson Jackson suffers a Career-Ending Injury thanks to performing a Heroic Sacrifice. He remains a healthy high school athlete in the comics.
- Felicity Smoak requires glasses and becomes paraplegic later in the story and is only able to walk again thanks to a chip attached to her spine. She wasn't injured that way (if, at all) in the comics, nor did she have poor eyesight. (The page image shows a later comics version, who has glasses because she's based on the TV incarnation.)
- Oliver chops off Malcolm Merlyn's right hand during their Trial by Combat. In the comics and most media, Merlyn's limbs are all intact. This is mitigated with Merlyn getting an Artificial Limb shortly after.
- While Eliza Harmon/Trajectory is reliant on a speed drug in the comics, a side effect of her gaining Split Personality is added in this version.
- Subverted by Leonard Snart. Towards the end of Legends of Tomorrow Season 1, he freezes his handcuffed right hand and shatters it in order to go after the rogue Mick Rory. However, his team's futuristic Cool Airship has advanced regenerative medical facilities that is eventually used to restore his hand. Legends also gave its version of Citizen Steel hemophilia.
- In the comics' Bad Future Flash storyline, the future Wally West is dead. Here, he's Spared by the Adaptation and becomes paraplegic and shell-shocked. This storyline actually belongs to Iris in the comics, whereas here she's the one who is killed off.
- The same Bad Future Flash storyline also features Vibe losing both of his hands, and then the use of his powers since he can't channel them through his Artificial Limbs. No such storyline happens to him in the comics.
- Savitar is ultimately revealed to have suffered an Eye Scream, as shown by his right eye being discolored gray and surrounded by burnt skin. The comics Savitar never had such an injury, and neither did Future Flash, Savitar's true self.
- Batman (1966): This version of Alfred needs to wear glasses, whereas in the comics Alfred doesn't.
- Bodies (2023): Maplewood's comic counterpart is an able-bodied amnesiac. In the show, she has all her memories, but is paraplegic and relies on special spinal implants to walk.
- The Boys (2019): The Female/Kimiko had selective mutism in the comic, but in the series, it was upgraded to full mutism as a result of psychological trauma from being kidnapped by terrorists.
- Childhood's End: Milo Rodericks is in a wheelchair when introduced, though the Overlords cure that easily enough. In the original Childhood's End book, Jan never was paralyzed.
- Doom Patrol (2019):
- This continuity's interpretations of Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man and Joshua Clay wear glasses when they didn't in the comics.
- Zig-zagged with Steve Dayton/Mento, who is shown to be confined to a wheelchair since his heyday as a founding member of the Doom Patrol, when his counterpart in the source material was confined to a wheelchair for a period in New Teen Titans and has been able-bodied since then.
- Echo (2024):
- Maya is not an amputee in the comics, but is one here. This is due to her actress actually having a prosthetic leg in real life.
- In the comic books, Lopez's perfect muscle mimicry allows her to speak without any slurring or tonal issues, though she needs a conversation partner to know how loud or quiet she should be. Maya speaks at a consistently low volume on the show, and mostly communicates with sign language.
- Elementary:
- Sherlock's drug usage from the books is treated as a serious issue. He meets Joan when he's trying to get sober. Also, in a later season, Sherlock is diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome. There are some implications that Sherlock might be on the autism spectrum, but it's has been kept ambiguous (with much lampshading).
- The final episode has a Wham Line that reveals Joan has cancer, though it's gone into remission by the timeskip at the very end of the episode.
- Game of Thrones:
- Jaime Lannister is implied to have a form of dyslexia in the show, it being mentioned that the letters reversed in his head and that it took his father and presumably the Lannister Maester additional hours of lessons in order to get him to read properly. He's still slow at reading at times, and he does have the occasional misspellings in his letters. In the books, there's no mention about any possible learning disability.
- Jorah Mormont gets infected with greyscale in Season 5 after rescuing Tyrion from Stone Men. In the books, this Story Arc belongs to Jon Connington while Jorah himself remains healthy. Jorah gets cured in Season 7, however.
- House of the Dragon: While the book only has Viserys lose some of his fingers over time, here, he loses his entire left arm. This later escalates as the first season progresses, until he's barely able to so much as walk. He also loses his right eye.
- The Gifted: Polaris is depicted as suffering from bipolar disorder. While her comic book counterpart has suffered some sort of mental disorder, it hasn't been actually specified which one.
- Gotham: Unlike his comics counterpart, the Penguin walks with a limp because of an injury to his right leg and its final season sees him lose his right eye and replace it with a fake one. This doesn't slow him down in the slightest.
- The Last of Us (2023): The game's version of Sam is not deaf. Like his actor, his character is deaf in the series, forcing him to communicate by writing with anybody but Henry, since they don't know sign language. He is also a leukemia survivor, where the game's Sam had no hint of ever having any serious illness prior to the game.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Tar-Miriel never went blind in the source material, but in the show, her retina was burned while trying to save some Southlanders trapped under the flaming lumbers.
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Zack, the Black Ranger, is missing his left middle finger, though it's not focused on. Zack's counterpart Goushi from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, has a complete set of fingers.
- The Penguin (2024): Oz Cobb has an untreated club foot and a metal foot brace that gives him his penguin waddle.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- The Punisher (2017): Curtis Hoyle was an able-bodied man in the comics. In the show, however, he's lost his left leg below the knee from an IED and wears a prosthetic. It doesn't really do much to affect Curtis's contributions.
- Runaways (2017):
- Gert takes medication for anxiety, a condition that she did not have in the comics.
- The adaptation also gives Victor Stein brain cancer, whereas he was perfectly healthy in the original comics.
- In the comics, Echo is deaf but otherwise able-bodied. In Hawkeye, she also has a prosthetic leg (her actress Alaqua Cox is an amputee who uses one in real life).
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In the books, Chiron is an able-bodied centaur and uses a wheelchair to hide his centaur legs while undercover. Here, he has a brace on his left back leg, so his wheelchair isn't just a cover. The creators have confirmed this is a war injury, though it will just be a detail during Season 1.
- Spartacus:
- Oenomaus loses his left eye near the end of Season 2. No historical records prove that this also happened to his Real Life counterpart.
- Agron, who is a Decomposite Character of the historical Castus, loses the ability to clinch his hands near the end of the Finale Season due to being crucified. Like Oenomaus above, no historical records prove that this happened to the historical Castus.
- Swamp Thing (1990): This continuity's version of General Sunderland is shown using an electrolarynx, when his comic counterpart was able to speak just fine.
- The Walking Dead:
- Two surviving characters from the source material, Sophia Peletier and Carl Grimes, both die in the show by becoming walkers.
- In the source material, Hershel dies with his entire body intact. In the show, he loses his right leg in the Season 3 premiere before getting beheaded in the following season. Interestingly, both mutilations actually belonged to two different characters in the comics. The left leg amputation actually belonged to Dale (see above), while the beheading belonged to Tyreese.
- In the comics, Bob is alive and well. In the show, his left leg was chopped-off by cannibals and he dies a few hours later. Much like Hershel, this arc originally belonged to Dale in the comics.
- As mentioned above, Tyreese dies in the comics by getting beheaded. While the mutilation is less severe in the show (he got his arm chopped-off instead), it was done so because he got bitten. However, said infection, in addition to the pain that was heightened by the Life-or-Limb Decision, directly led to his death.
- The show's version of Ron goes through a severe case of Sanity Slippage after Rick kills his Asshole Victim of a father. In the comics, Ron is still a Love Martyr for his father, but more-or-less remains a sane kid till his death.
- In the comics, Denise dies because she refuses to have her infected arm chopped off. In the show, she dies due to a severe Moe Greene Special.
- Denise's aforementioned death in the show actually belonged to Abraham in the source material. So how did Abraham die on the show? By getting his head repeatedly whacked by a barbwire-laced baseball bat until it's nothing more than a pile of mush.
Roleplay
- Airlocked: Junpei from Zero Escape loses an arm during the second round and has it replaced with a robotic one (an Original Character also loses an eye and later becomes a Cyborg). By extension all characters from both the Danganronpa franchise and multiple media develop moderate to severe PTSD over their experience in the Deadly Game.
Theater
- In the stage version of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo's deafness from the original novel is brought back. He speaks mostly in broken monosyllables and hand signs; only in his solo songs does he become fully articulate, because they represent his inner emotions.
- Spring Awakening: In a 2015 production, many of the major characters were played by deaf performers while hearing people would translate their sign language.
Toys
- Monster High:
- In G1 and G2, Twyla Boogeyman is a neurotypical character, while in G3, she is autistic.
- In G1, G2, and the G3 movies, Frankie Stein is depicted with both legs intact, while in the G3 cartoon and dolls, they have a metal prosthetic from the left knee down.
Video Games
- Batman: Arkham Series:
- The Penguin during the events of City and Knight features a vent in his neck and a beer bottle jammed into his left eye in place of his traditional monocle.
- The Calendar Man is an Evil Cripple, his right leg being shorter than his left and wearing a brace and elevated shoe to compensate.
- Much like Michael Gough and Alan Napier's versions, Alfred is shown wearing glasses in Knight.
- Like in Suicide Squad (2016), Harley argues with voices in her head, as shown in the bonus mission in Knight where she is playable.
- Batman: The Telltale Series: If Bruce decides to not unmask himself when asked to by Lady Arkham in the climax of Season 1, Alfred will lose an eye in the ensuing fight, which carries over to Season 2.
- Dynasty Warriors:
- Wei Yan has a speech impairment where he tends to talk in phrase. There's no evidence in the historical records and Romance of the Three Kingdoms (which the games are based on) that he suffers from a speech impairment.
- In the games, Guo Huai is portrayed as a sickly man who keeps on coughing. According to Word of God, he's very workaholic when fighting loyally for Wei that it exhausts his body. Historically, he was only sick in two major events which are the campaign in Mt. Dingjun and Cao Pi's coronation.
- Some games in the series depict Xiahou Dun as always having his Eyepatch of Power, even in events before the battle of Xiapi, where he actually lost his eye.
- Splatoon 2: In the Spanish and French versions, it's mentioned that Pearl wears contacts for her bad eyesight. This isn't mentioned in other versions.
- Spider-Man (PS4):
- Harry Osborn is shown wearing glasses in some pictures. Additionally, much like in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Harry is terminally-ill, which forms the crux of the plot (only in this case, it's the same disease his mother had, though Norman is still trying to cure it).
- Also, Doctor Octopus is suffering from a neurological disease which will eventually render his body immobile while his mind will remain functional. Which is why he's desperate to perfect his cybernetic tentacles, and why he's so horrified at the idea of being sent to jail and deprived of them, which will leave him confined to his useless body.
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales:
- Ganke Lee is shown wearing glasses, unlike his comics counterpart.
- Rick Mason is also shown needing to wear glasses, as well as being afflicted by a condition causing his bone marrow to deteriorate.
- Spyro Reignited Trilogy: A couple of the dragons from Spyro the Dragon (1998) were given prosthetic wings in the remake. One dragon also appears to be blind.
Web Animation
- ✨A Sadness Runs Through Him ✨ COMPLETE Snowtuft Warriors AU Map: In Warriors canon, Snowtuft isn't deaf, but here, he is deaf so that he can be Snowkit all grown up.
- Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City: Lime Chiffon is visually impaired and cannot see at all without her glasses, while her previous incarnations didn’t. The episode “Following The Recipe” also reveals that Blueberry Muffin is dyslexic, which she never was in her prior incarnations, due to being shown reading something (1980s) or being characterized as a Bookworm (2003 and Berry Bitty Adventures).
Webcomics
- Disney High School: A few characters, most notably Belle, wear glasses when they didn't in canon. Word of God also confirms that Adam is supposed to be dyslexic.
- Dumbing of Age: Joyce, who didn't wear glasses in the Walkyverse, ends up getting glasses in the second semester, to her anguish. Presumably in the Walkyverse the Head Alien corrected her eyesight before it got bad enough to merit glasses.
- Evil Luz: Both Boscha and Hunter wear glasses, while their canon counterparts both had good eyesight.
- Litterbox Comics: Vincent is a calico, even though calicos in real life are exclusively female unless the male has Klinefelter Syndrome (XXY chromosomes, which leads to infertility, lower testosterone, and mild intersex traits). Chesca Hause simply established that the boy has this condition even though her real-life son does not.
- Lonely Kagamin: Konata inherited her mother's mysterious illness and she also has depression, which she didn't have in canon.
- The Powerpuff Girls Reimagined: Professor Utonium is seeing a therapist for Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. This isn't in the original Powerpuff Girls canon. His mental illness plays a huge role in the Powerpuff Girl's and Mojo Jojo's origin stories.
- Sonic the Comic – Online!: In the games, Tikal ascended with Chaos at the end of Adventure and hasn't appeared since. In Sonic the Comic Online, Tikal survives to the present day and has her body restored, but she is so traumatized by 8000 straight years of mental torture that Ebony has to mind-wipe her.
- What If I Know Too Many Reasons I Can Be Strong?: Tanjiro loses his right eye and left forearm earlier than in the original manga.
Web Videos
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged: Android 16 is autistic (or whatever you'd call the robotic equivalent) as a result of 17 and 18 activating him before all of his updates could be installed.
- Fixing RWBY: Unlike his canon self, Fox here loses some of his fingers during the attack on Beacon.
- I Rewrote RWBY Volume 8: Near the end, Mega-Salem severs Harriet's leg, which also effectively disables her super-speed Semblance. She also disables Marrow's Semblance by blasting him in the eyes, and it's ambiguous whether or not he's been blinded permanently.
- The Lizzie Bennet Diaries: Due to her having a drastically different final Story Arc from the source material, Lydia Bennet suffers from severe depression by the end of the series. Word of God even says that she still needed to go to therapy for a few more years after the incident, though she eventually got better.
- My Little Pony in a Nutshell: This version of "Student Counsel" portrays Starlight (or Stoplight) as suffering from memory loss caused by constant teleporting. In the original version of the episode, she was simply distracted by her responsibilities and becoming forgetful in a more mundane manner.
- Sword Art Online Abridged: It's mentioned in Episode 17 that Kirito suffers from asthma, which is implied to be the reason why his mom took him out of kendo practice to focus on coding instead. He also ended up ripping half his penis off when he accidentially pulled out his catheter in the hospital, with Word of God saying that it was reattached but now resembles something out of a Frankenstein movie.
Western Animation
- Arcane: By the end of the series, Jinx loses a finger and wears a prosthetic, while Caitlyn loses an eye. Strangely enough, their original models in League of Legends weren’t updated to include these disabilities, with Jinx’s Fractured Skin being regulated to a skin as opposed to replacing the mainline skin, which still has all fingers intact, despite the show’s canonicity towards the game’s lore.
- The Batman:
- Much like in Batman Returns and Batman: The Animated Series, the Penguin is shown with fused fingers. He is also criminally insane and imprisoned in Arkham Asylum, unlike comics Penguin, who is perfectly sane.
- The Cluemaster is so obese that he used a motorized platform to help himself get around.
- Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix: Both Sam Fisher and Marcus Holloway sport disabilities that they never had in their home franchises. Sam Fisher is a double amputee missing both legs below the knee, while Marcus Holloway is blind in his left eye.
- DC Animated Universe:
- Batman: The Animated Series:
- The Penguin takes after his Batman Returns incarnation in having syndactyly (fused fingers). While the Art Evolution in TNBA would see the Penguin have normal hands again, it's unclear if it's just an artistic choice or if the Penguin had corrective surgery at some point.
- While the B: TAS Mr. Freeze suffers the same condition his comic counterpart had that results in him needing a suit to keep himself below zero to survive, in The New Batman Adventures, it's shown to have taken a toll on his body, resulting in him becoming a disembodied head with robotic legs. In the comics, Freeze's body is still intact.
- In the Superman comics, both General Zod and Jax-Ur have the use of both eyes. When both were fused into the Jax-Ur of Superman: The Animated Series, his design included a patch over his right eye.
- Justice League would see the Trickster as having a mental illness, being so out of touch with reality, he didn't realize he was in costume until it was pointed out to him.
- Batman: The Animated Series:
- DuckTales (2017): Della Duck had their left leg amputated and replaced with a prosthetic, something that never happened to their comic counterpart. The producers stated a major reason for their inclusion is to raise awareness of amputees.
- G.I. Joe:
- G.I. Joe: Renegades:
- Most versions of General Hawk give him the use of both eyes. In Renegades, General Abernathy is shown wearing a patch over his right eye, suggesting at the least that he's lost the vision in it.
- As part of the rather lax dress code of the original team, Airtight wore a hazmat suit to protect himself. In Renegades, he's infected with an infectious disease by Cobra and wear the suit to protect others from his condition.
- Most of the time, Cobra Commander is in good health. In Renegades, some of his actions are motivated by the fact he's shown as dealing with a disease and when it's introduced, the series version of his iconic silver faceplate is reimagined as a breathing mask.
- In G.I. Joe Extreme, Lt. Stone had both arms. In G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, his left arm, lost in battle with Cobra, was replaced with a cybernetic one.
- G.I. Joe: Renegades:
- Goldie: Petey here uses a wheelchair, unlike in the original short where he can stand and walk on his own.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): Leonardo here loses a chunk of his shell after he is accidentally stabbed by Karai, a wound that never happens to him in the original comics. This is a metaphor for the PTSD he developed- after all, the original name for PTSD was "shell shock".
- Jellystone!: Minor example. Magilla Gorilla and Bobbie (Baba) Looey wear glasses now.
- Justice League Action: While less extreme than other examples (more Four-Fingered Hands in this case), the Penguin is depicted here with fused fingers like in Batman Returns.
- The Mr. Men Show: Miss Whoops, Mr. Nervous, and Mr. Persnickety/Pernickety/Fussy wear glasses here, unlike in the book; though in the latter's case, he can still see sometimes without them). There was an entire episode dedicated to them ("Eyeglasses") due to them being the only ones wearing permanent glasses. This is likely done to show some characters with glasses as the characters brought from the books don't wear them.
- My Adventures with Superman:
- The show depicts Jor-El with an eyepatch, a trait that he's never had in other variations.
- Alex, the show's version of Lex Luthor, wears glasses, something his comic self has never been portrayed as needing.
- Vicki Vale wears glasses in this series, despite having never worn glasses in the comics.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Scootaloo, despite being a pegasus, is unable to fly, even though it's stated in-show that most pegasi around her age can fly (with her idol, Rainbow Dash, having even performed a sonic rainboom around Scoot's age or maybe even younger), with the show indicating that this is due to some disability. In My Little Pony (G3), Scootaloo, who's an earth pony, was not shown to have any disabilities.
- Polly Pocket: Lila Draper has diabetes , which was not the case in her previous times in the wider Polly Pocket franchise. It's first mentioned in the episode "Jumping Jumpsuit".
- Princess Power: Bea is depicted here as having a leg brace, something her book counterpart doesn't have.
- Rugrats (2021):
- Chuckie Finster already had a few disabilities in the original 1991 series, such as being nearsighted and having hay fever. However, he was never stated to have any food sensitivities. In the 2021 series episode "Little Daddy", he seems to have some kind of sensitivity (suspected to be lactose intolerance by Chas) since he gets stomach issues after eating a cheese sandwich.
- Chas Finster already had a few disabilities in the 1991 series, such as being nearsighted, asthmatic, and allergic to cats. He still has all these disabilities in the 2021 series, but now he's also lactose intolerant, as revealed in "Little Daddy".
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Entrapta, as depicted here, was revealed to be autistic after the series concluded. This was not the case in the original She-Ra: Princess of Power.
- Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon: The failed pilot put Sailor Mercury in a wheelchair. In the original anime and manga, she is able-bodied.
- Ultimate Spider-Man (2012): In the comics, the accident that turned Otto Octavius into Doctor Octopus only resulted in the grafting of a harness with four robotic tentacles to him and only becoming an Evil Cripple through years of battle. Here, the accident itself is the cause for Octavius becoming paralyzed, needing his tentacles just for the sake of moving until season 4, where Ock injects himself with nanites to rebuild his body.
- Voltron: Legendary Defender: Shiro has a bionic right arm, along with suffering from PTSD in comparison to his original series counterpart Sven and his anime counterpart having neither.
- Young Justice (2010):
- In the comics, Paula Crook, the original Huntress/Tigress, was able-bodied her whole life. In the show, an unspecified event in the backstory led to her being confined to a wheelchair and ending up in prison, which also caused her to give up her life of crime.
- Downplayed with Cassandra Cain. In the Batman comics, her initial inability to talk was the result of her father David Cain refusing to teach her how to do so, but she was still capable of learning and doing so. In the show, Lady Shiva mutilated Cassandra's vocal cords just to ensure she couldn't talk.
- Similarly downplayed with Jason Bard. In the comics, he had a bad knee due to his time as a soldier. In the show's fourth season, he's an amputee who's missing the lower half of his right leg and replaced it with a prosthetic.
- Roy Harper is another downplayed example, albeit different from Cassandra Cain and Jason Bard. Roy's arm was cut off by the villain Prometheus in the Justice League: Cry for Justice storyline, leading him to replace it with a cybernetic arm. In the show, Roy does lose his arm but under different circumstances — it was cut off to create his clone, Will Harper — but by the time the show had gotten to this arc, the comics had been rebooted and Roy was back to having both his original arms.
