History Main / SchrodingersCast

While such DerivativeWorks generally try to follow the original material with some degree of accuracy, sometimes an adaptation writer will [[DeathByAdaptation kill someone off]] for drama, or [[SparedByTheAdaptation keep them alive]] out of sympathy, or just give a clear "alive" or "dead" to somebody whose fate wasn't really specified in the original work. Normally, this isn't a major issue.

But sometimes, the original work is ongoing (or gets a sequel), and at the time, it looked like killing that character or letting them live wasn't a major change -- but now it turns out that the character's fate is an important part of the ongoing story.

While such DerivativeWorks generally try to follow the original material with some degree of accuracy, sometimes an adaptation writer will [[DeathByAdaptation kill someone off]] for drama, or [[SparedByTheAdaptation keep them alive]] out of sympathy, or just give a clear "alive" or "dead" to somebody whose fate wasn't really specified in the original work. Normally, this isn't a major issue.

Like UsefulNotes/SchrodingersCat, the famous thought experiment in which a cat in a box can be thought of as both alive and dead, until the box is opened, the character's fate is put into an indeterminate state until the adaptation figures out what they're going to do to correct the situation.

While such DerivativeWorks generally try to follow the original material with some degree of accuracy, sometimes an adaptation writer will [[DeathByAdaptation kill someone off]] for drama, or [[SparedByTheAdaptation keep them alive]] out of sympathy. Normally, this isn't a major issue.

But sometimes, the original work left a character's fate intentionally undetermined, or didn't specify because it just wasn't that important, or just had the details of the event slightly different than the adaptation did. The problem comes when the source material is still being produced (or gets a sequel), and the fate of that character becomes important to the ongoing story.

You know that guy who TheMovie showed very clearly to be KilledOffForReal? Oops. Turns out in the comic he was OnlyMostlyDead, and now he's back.

You know that girl who the anime version [[SparedByTheAdaptation left alive]] because she's popular with the fans and her death wasn't meaningful? Her death and the characters' reactions to it are a major PlotPoint for the next {{arc}} of the manga.

Many media are often [[DerivativeWorks adapted from one form to another]]. Books, comic books, and television shows become films, cartoons/anime and NewMedia in almost any permutation you can imagine. While some try to follow the original material with some degree of accuracy, sometimes an adaptation writer will [[DeathByAdaptation kill someone off]] for drama, or [[SparedByTheAdaptation keep them alive]] out of sympathy, while the original has left their fate undetermined, or seemingly inconsequential.

This can become a problem however, if the source material is still ongoing and this character's fate in the original story becomes an important plot point in a later {{arc}}. Then the series must either do some gymnastics to get things back into synch, or just {{handwave}} the entire thing away.

Thus, the ''Schrödinger's'' in the title, after [[UsefulNotes/SchrodingersCat his famous thought experiment in which a cat in a box can be thought of as both alive and dead, until the box is opened]]. The cat's state is indeterminate. Here, the composition of the cast is indeterminate.[[note]]Also, if you think TVTropes is just going to walk away from a [[JustForPun pun like that]], you need to read some more articles.[[/note]]

Often a symptom of AdaptationDecay, this can also refer to [[CanonForeigner someone who simply does not exist in the original]]; thus, their existence is in danger of termination or [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome being erased from the plot]] if later installments have to conform. Compare OvertookTheManga and PostscriptSeason.

When the entire fictional setting is left indeterminate by the author so he can write [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants by the seat of his pants]] (which also may be indeterminately on or off), usually so as to [[{{railroading}} railroad]] players in a [[{{RPG}} game]] no matter which way they go, see SchrodingersGun.

Thus, the ''Schrödinger's'' in the title, after [[UsefulNotes/SchrodingersCat his famous thought experiment in which a cat in a box can be thought of as both alive and dead, until the box is opened]]. The cat's state is indeterminate. Here, the composition of the cast is indeterminate.[[hottip:!!:Also, if you think TVTropes is just going to walk away from a [[JustForPun pun like that]], you need to read some more articles.]]

* In [[MarioKart ''Mario Kart Wii'']], [[GoKartingWithBowser Bowser]] is actually both [[DemBones dead]] and alive at the same time!

* The character of John Hammond in ''JurassicPark'' was portrayed as a CorruptCorporateExecutive in the original novel and died. When it was later turned into a movie, he was portrayed more sympathetically and was permitted to survive. Meanwhile, the game warden, Muldoon, survived the book but died in the movie.

**** Malcolm even had to be resurrected in the book's sequel ''The Lost World'' as the character would be returning to star in the film.

* In the ''CardCaptorSakura'' anime, Mei-ling was an added character who followed Syaoran as his self-declared fiancée. Her major problem is, since Syaoran ends up with Sakura, their relationship is doomed and the plot can't accommodate her. She was PutOnABus, with the [[RetCon insinuation]] that their engagement wasn't entirely official, making fans wonder why [[{{Muggles}} someone like her]] was allowed to follow him to another country in the first place.

* ''WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' is an interesting example. The movie is very different from the book (''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'', in which the titular character [[spoiler: dies at the beginning and is represented by a "temporary stunt copy" created as an alibi for the rest of the story, and was guilty to begin with]]). The book's sequel ignores most of what happened in the first book, instead reading like a sequel to the movie. It's rather unfortunately [[{{Handwave}} handwaved]] as being [[AllJustADream Jessica Rabbit's dream]].
* Robert Crumb killed off his ''[[ComicBook/FritzTheCat Fritz The Cat]]'' character after he was disappointed with RalphBakshi's [[Film/FritzTheCat movie version]]. Steve Krantz, the producer of the first film, made a sequel anyway, without Bakshi, titling it ''The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat''; fans of the feline choose to either [[FanonDiscontinuity ignore the sequel]]... or ignore [[HesJustHiding Crumb's own final story]].

* [[WideEyedIdealist Abberlin]] of ''{{Kuroshitsuji}}'' shows you how it's done: tragic, Ciel-traumatizing HeroicSacrifice in the anime...just to drop in and say hello in the chapter that came out the month of his death.

** [[spoiler:Until she dies in Volume 9, three volumes after the arc Season Two is based on ends, after jumping in front of Marco to save him from a car-bomb. She dies having forgotten everyone and everything EXCEPT [[CrowningMomentOfHeartbreaking the Prince of Pasta story.]]]]

* In the TransformersFilmSeries, Ravage appears and dies in the second movie. However, the post-movie comics were already planned before Ravage's death was finalized. So Ravage [[IGotBetter gets better]] in ''yet another'' comic continuation of a screen story where he was intended to truly be dead. This is one cat who always lands on his feet. However, Soundwave can't sense him, and he can sense all the rest of his underlings, suggesting that Ravage perhaps CameBackWrong. [[spoiler: Turns out Ravage is being controlled]].

** Not to mention, you also get to spam attacks that were supposed to be last-ditch desperation maneuvers soaked in dramatic NothingIsTheSameAnymore. Sometimes this actually destroys the unit, like the [[MazingerZ Million Alpha]]'s self-destruct (they get [[IGotBetter repaired between missions anyway]]), but there is no excuse for being able to use [[GaoGaiGar Goldion Crusher]] repeatedly.

* In the arcade version of ''[[DoubleDragon Double Dragon II: The Revenge]]'', Marian (the [[DistressedDamsel kidnapped girl]] from the first game) [[StuffedInTheFridge is killed off]] by Machine Gun Willy in the opening sequence. [[KilledOffForReal She never comes back to life.]] In the NES version, the game is still about avenging Marian's death, but the death occurs differently (it is implied that she was stabbed by a ninja) and she [[IGotBetter gets better in the end]]. The PC Engine version has multiple endings in which Marian returns to life in the best one.

* One of the most famous examples is Professor Tomoe from ''SailorMoon'', who was originally a straightfoward CompleteMonster MadScientist. In the television series, he [[AscendedExtra was filled out]] and became a quirky and nuanced looney with a sympathetic reason for his actions. However, the later arc of both versions requires Hotaru's presence with the Outers. Since he wasn't killed off as in the original version, Sailor Pluto simply "borrows" Hotaru from him in a flashback, and he [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappears from the face of the Earth]].

* ''[[{{Xenosaga}} Xenosaga: The Animation]]'' kept Lieutenant Virgil alive through most of the series, while he had died in the first segment of the game. Oddly, the manner of his death was unchanged, just the timing of it.

* Notably averted in ''TalesOfDestiny'', in the case of [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favorite]] Leon Magnus, who dies in ''every'' adaptation of the game, whether it's the Drama CD, the manga, [[VideoGame/NamcoXCapcom a part in a crossover game]], [[VideoGameRemake the remake]] or even the UpdatedRerelease of thge remake that features [[AnotherSideAnotherStory his own story mode.]] He ends up dying without fail ''every single time'', even though you'd expect with his huge fan following that he'd get a [[SavedByTheFans break at least once.]]

Many media are often [[DerivativeWorks adapted from one form to another]]. Books, comic books, and television shows become films, cartoons/anime and NewMedia in almost any permutation you can imagine. While some try to follow the original material with some degree of accuracy, sometimes an adaptation writer will kill someone off for drama, or keep them alive out of sympathy, while the original has left their fate undetermined, or seemingly inconsequential.

* Similarly, the ''{{Mai-Otome Zwei}}'' manga ignores the preceding ''{{Mai-Otome}}'' manga, instead being a sequel to the anime. This is presumably because the Mai franchise is one big example of AnimeFirst.

* Asuna from MahouSenseiNegima is alive all throughout the manga. In the anime, she dies towards the end of the story.

* Interesting, the [[Film/HarryPotter film version]] of ''HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Part 1'' omits the death of [[spoiler: Peter Pettigrew. And he doesn't return in Part 2, so he presumably survives instead of suffering his KarmicDeath.]] There's also the case of [[spoiler:Barty Crouch Jr., which suffers a FateWorseThanDeath in the book, but in the film it's only mentioned that he goes arrested.]]
** Bill Weasley and Mundungus Fletcher ''were'' this, until Deathly Hallows. The scene where they were introduced came across as something like, "Oh, hey, this is Bill Weasley, Ron's brother who's never been mentioned before. He's engaged to Fleur, who hasn't featured at all since the fourth film. Oh, and he got mauled by a werewolf offscreen. And here's Mundungus Fletcher; he's a bit of a coward. Oh yeah, and Lupin's dating Tonks." It should be noted that Bill and Fleur were mentioned as dating in book 5, and announced their engagement at the start of book 6; Bill getting mauled by Greyback was seen at the end of book 6; Mundungus Fletcher has been a minor character since book 5 with a well established personality (and was, in fact, mentioned in passing even before that); and Lupin and Tonks... [[StrangledByTheRedString weren't much better]] even in the books, although introducing them at the end of Half Blood Prince might've mitigated the sheer awkwardness of the infodump in that scene.

* In the first ''Series/KamenRider'' TV series, the original protagonist Takeshi Hongo himself was [[PutOnABuss written off]] and replaced with Hayato Ichimonji after his actor HiroshiFujioka broke his leg in an accident. Since Fujioka's return to the TV series was still uncertain at the time, so ShotaroIshinomori decided to kill off Hongo in his tie-in manga version by leaving him as a disembodied brain on life support who communicated with Ichimonji via telepathy. When Fujioka returned to the show completely fine, Ishinomori was forced to bring back Hongo in the manga by giving him a robotic body.

* In ''OliverTwist'', Fagin is more or less a CompleteMonster and gets arrested and executed at the end of the book. In ''Oliver!'', he's upgraded to AffablyEvil and acts as a father figure to the gang of pickpockets. Consequently, he gets to escape and do a HeelFaceTurn at the end.

* The Game/GalaxyAngel gameverse killed off [[spoiler:Eonia at the end of the first game. However, the manga kept him around and made him the BigBad of the next arc, possibly to avoid dedicating any more plot space to the conspiracy that unfolded in the games.]]

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