History AdaptationalHeroism / LiveActionTV

* ''AdaptationalHeroism/{{Arrowverse}}''

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'':
** Shado in the original comics was a Japanese assassin who raped ComicBook/GreenArrow. In the show, she's a lawyer and one of Ollie's friends on the island, even training him in being an archer and developing an unrequited love for him. When she is killed, Oliver vows to honor her for the rest of his life by taking on her green hood and cloak as the Hood (later the Green Arrow).
** Anatoli Knyazev aka [=KGBeast=]. In the comics, he was usually a PsychoForHire, while on the show he's a sympathetic mobster who helps Ollie during his trip to Russia.
** Merlyn. In the comics, Merlyn is a PsychoForHire and has opposed the [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]] as a member of the League of Assassins and the [[LegionOfDoom Injustice League]], while on the show Malcolm Merlyn started out as a WellIntentionedExtremist who wants to destroy the Glades to avenge his murdered wife and simultaneously put an end to the criminal element there that was threatening the rest of the city. [[spoiler:He gets better. Merlyn gradually becomes an ally or at least a frenemy of Team Arrow, largely due to him finding out that Thea is his biological daughter as a result of a fling with Moira years ago, and stricken by guilt over the death of his son Tommy during the destruction of the Glades, vows to become a much better father for her than he was for Tommy. While he isn't winning any 'father of the year' awards due to his admittedly ruthless training of Thea and his drugging and manipulating her to kill Sara as part of a convoluted plan to get Oliver to take down Ra's al Ghul, he genuinely cares for her as is exemplified by him weeping when she almost died at the hands of Ra's himself. He was also highly hesitant in supporting Oliver and Barry's decision to not bow to Vandal Savage's demands and deliver the Hawkpeople to them (in return for him letting them, their cities and their loved ones survive) and directly threatened to come after Ollie in case Vandal ended up hurting or killing Thea. He has also come to care for Oliver in a certain way, even admitting that he now sees the latter as another son, though this again hasn't prevented him from occasionally manipulating or generally being a thorn in the side of Ollie now and then.]]
** Slade Wilson (the comics Deathstroke) in the island flashbacks completes the PowerTrio with Ollie and Shado. [[spoiler:No longer the case as of the present-day scenes in "Three Ghosts". Double subverted upon his return in the Season 5 finale, where he's pulled a HeelFaceTurn.]]
** In the comics, Ra's al Ghul's daughter Nyssa is a villain who plots revenge on her father by brainwashing her half-sister Talia, and wants to kill Superman in order to ''destroy hope''. In the series, she's got a role similar to classic Talia, torn between her loyalty to her father and her love for one of the heroes (in this case Sara Lance).

* ''Series/{{Constantine}}'':
** One of the big complaints about the series by fans is the titular ComicBook/JohnConstantine, himself, is this. His addiction to magic and meddling with forces mankind was not meant to know is downplayed to, instead, focus exclusively on the Newcastle Incident as his motivation. This version of John is TheAtoner and wants to make up for his crimes (as well as avoid damnation) versus the John who is a rebel without a cause. This isn't that far from some comic portrayals of John, albeit significantly LighterAndSofter. [[spoiler:Constantine also comes off better in dealing with the below mentioned Gary Lister; in the comic, he doesn't sit by Gary's side so he wouldn't have to be alone while being eaten alive, either.]]
** Chas has an active role in Constantine's good deeds and is fairly competent at helping out even besides his immortality. In the source material, he is more often then not simply roped into the insane things that go on around Constantine, often only to the extent of being press-ganged into being John's driver, and is ill-equipped to handle the supernatural. His wife Rene also gets an upgrade, going from extremely abrasive, controlling and rarely sympathetic to being generally unsupportive but understandably so, considering how things look from her perspective.
** Gary Lester is made more sympathetic than his comic counterpart, [[spoiler:who was much less accepting of being the host for binding Mnemoth inside of]]
** It's easy to imagine the comic version of Papa Midnite working to fix things when his magic goes off the rails [[spoiler:and brings the dead back as ghosts who cause havoc]] for practical reasons. When this actually happens in the show, however, he seems to have at least some genuine concern for the people who are caught in the middle. Further, in "Waiting for the Man," while he uses his dead sister for information, he also seems to be actively trying to bring her back. In the comics, he not only would never willingly give up her use as a tool, she has to team up with Constantine to escape him.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'':
** Gorilla Grodd is a violent sociopathic gorilla who [[FantasticRacism despises humans]] and attempts to make apes rulers of the Earth with him as leader. While this version still hates humans, two in particular [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe not withstanding]], he has an actual reason due to being a guinea pig for psychic experiments and suffered abuse.
** Plastique. In the comics, she was a villain of Captain Atom and a convicted terrorist before making a HeelFaceTurn. Bette here is portrayed as, at worst, an AntiVillain who fears her powers and wants to get rid of them. The worst thing she does is attempt to kill General Eiling, a KnightTemplar who would come after any and all meta-humans to turn them into weapons for the Army, and had to be convinced into doing so by Dr. Wells.
** [[spoiler:Dr. Harrison Wells, who is secretly the Reverse Flash in disguise and the main antagonist of the first season -- is primarily motivated as a villain not so much by his desire to destroy the Flash like in the comics, but by his desire to return to his time and place in the future and reunite with his loved ones -- albeit at any costs. In spite of also initially hating and seeing Barry as an enemy to be destroyed in his origin story, he grows to become genuinely fond of the young man and [[LikeASonToMe comes to see him as a son]], even admitting that it was not his version of Barry he hated but his future self, and that they were never enemies in the first place. Thawne [[DeathEqualsRedemption even goes as far as passing S.T.A.R. Labs down to Barry as part of his will in addition to giving him a video-taped confession about his role in murdering Nora Allen, exonerating Henry who was unjustly imprisoned for the murder and whom Barry had till then dedicated his entire life to get justice for]]. While Thawne is still the man who murdered Nora in the first place, the one who was responsible for framing Henry in the first place and still the monster of the Flash's childhood -- it shows that on the show even the Reverse Flash has a heart, at the end of it all. However, later stories would double down on his evil qualities, as he becomes consumed in hatred when Barry destroys his time machine to prevent him from going to the future, and during ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'', joined the [[PuttingOnTheReich Fourth Reich]].]]
** [[spoiler:Hunter Zolomon from the main universe is a normal civilian and is not a super villain unlike the comics. On Earth-2, [[AdaptationalVillainy however...]]]]
** In the New 52 comics, the Future Flash has been driven mad in a BadFuture with crippled and deceased loved ones, and plans on murdering anyone who wronged him in the past. The Future Flash of the show is morose and depressed, but is convinced to return to heroism by his younger self. This is because [[spoiler:all of Future Flash's negative traits [[DecompositeCharacter have been transferred to Savitar]], who turns out to be his time remnant.]]
** Oddly enough, Savitar is a retroactive case of this. The comics Savitar was a straight-up supervillain who turned to destruction and crime as soon as he got his speed. The show's version was [[spoiler:a genuine hero when he was still Barry Allen. It took losing his parents, watching the love of his life die, and getting ostracized from his friends for him to finally make a FaceHeelTurn.]]

* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'':
** While still a crime boss, Carmine Falcone is trying to keep Gotham from falling apart, was friends with Jim Gordon's father, [[spoiler:and even concedes that Gotham needs an honest cop like Gordon instead of someone like him, and even helps Gordon after Nygma frames him]].
** Falcone's son Mario takes after his debut in ''ComicBook/DarkVictory'' in trying to be a good person, as opposed to his post-''Battle of the Cowl'' appearances, where he succeeded his father and sister Sofia as the head of the Falcone family. [[spoiler:At least until Alice's blood kicks in...]] However, then with that in mind, he's still this, as Carmine in the series considers him the WhiteSheep of the family and part of ''Dark Victory''[='=]s backstory involved Mario getting arrested as a teenager.

* ''Series/Legion2017'': The titular character a.k.a. David Haller receives this treatment. In the [[ComicBook/LegionMarvelComics comics]], David only barely counts as a AntiHero, as he's frequently a PersonOfMassDestruction due to his severe and unstable SplitPersonality, with some of his evil alternate personalities making him lash out and kill people with his PsychicPowers. Almost every attempt at heroism from David backfires hard, like when he went back in time to kill ComicBook/{{Magneto}} to "help" his father [[ComicBook/ProfessorX Charles Xavier]] and accidentally created the entire ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' BadFuture. In the TV show, David -- while obviously not the picture of good mental welfare or above [[AmbiguouslyEvil morally ambiguous]] actions -- is still not nearly as unhinged as he in the comics, being much [[AdaptationalNiceGuy nicer and calmer]]. In fact, when David does learn to control his abilities [[spoiler:by locking the Shadow King away in his head]], David follows his father's footsteps by protecting his friends and loved ones from TheGovernment [[spoiler:and fights off the Shadow King himself]]. Additionally, most of David's extreme actions are attributed to Shadow King's [[MindRape influence]] in the show, whilst in the comics, David is just as dangerous even when the Shadow King isn't controlling him.

* ''Series/{{The Sandman|2022}}'', "[[Recap/TheSandman2022S01E08PlayingHouse Playing House]]": The rogue nightmare who's built a secret dreamscape inside Jed Walker's mind is suspected by Morpheus of aspiring to control the Dreaming, but really she's grown tired of being a monster and is just trying to give Jed somewhere he can escape from his terrible waking life with his abusive foster parents. Her counterparts in the original comic book story the episode is based on were a pair of rogue nightmares who absolutely were trying to gain power for themselves, had trapped several people in their dreamscape, and were suggested to have encouraged Jed's foster parents to be abusive so he would retreat into his dreams more often.

* In ''Series/{{Supergirl}}'' episode "Rebirth", J'onn briefly mentions his former partner in the Martian police, N'or Cott, describing her as a loyal and vigilant officer. In the comics, [[GenderFlip he]] was a military officer on Mars II, who conspired to seize control of a hidden city occupied by the planet's natives, and attempted to kill J'onn because he would object, before eventually suffering DeathEqualsRedemption when he realised the atmosphere of the city was fatal to Martians.

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' saw [[spoiler:Hooded Justice as a Nazi sympathizer.]] ''Series/Watchmen2019'' sees [[spoiler:Hooded Justice be revealed as a black man named Will Reeves who sought to fight against the injustices of his day, with [[WordOfGod Damon Lindelof]] later saying in an [[https://decider.com/2019/11/24/watchmen-episode-6-damon-lindelof-talks-hooded-justice-retcon/ interview]] that Will only made statements "supporting" the Nazis as part of his ruse to hide his true ethnicity. Additionally, the comic Hooded Justice was originally speculated to only be doing the hero thing to get his rocks off, whereas in the series, Will is sincere in his efforts against injustice.]]

** [[spoiler: Thanks to the NotHisSled departure from the comics Black Noir is ''not'' the disgustingly vile baby eating clone of Homelander who raped and impregnated Becca and gaslit Homelander into thinking he had done it all, rather a completely different character Earving who was an innocent man ReforgedIntoAMinion by Vought after getting severe brain damage fro Soldier Boy almost killed him. Though Black Noir getting a complete overhaul meant that Homelander got AdaptationalVillainy as a result.]]

* AttemptedRape: Jason tries to rape Morgan after she learning she's begun seeing another man (and had asked for a divorce). Thankfully, she throws him off.

* ''{{Series/Cursed}}'': Nimue and Morgana, who are usually villains, become heroes here (or anti-heroes perhaps).

* The 1990 miniseries of ''Series/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' featured Charles Dance as a gentler, kinder and more sympathetic Phantom than his counterpart in the original novel.

* ''Series/SleuthOfTheMingDynasty'' gives [[spoiler: Zheng Zhi]] a more sympathetic reason to commit fratricide than he had in ''Literature/TheFourteenthYearOfChenghua''. In the show, he wants to restore his family's honor after his brother has besmirched it, as opposed to his desire to be named heir in the book.

* ''Series/Accused2023'': A very mild example. However, in the [[Series/{{Accused}} original show's]] episode "Kesha's Story" this is based on, the people responsible for framing the lead are worse than here. The husband in the original raped her, rather than attempting to as here and his father (not brother) showed no problem with framing her.