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| 7 | When adapting an existing character for a new work the character is often altered in transition from the source material. They might become [[AdaptationalNiceGuy nicer]], [[AdaptationalJerkass nastier]], [[AdaptationalBadass more badass]] or [[AdaptationalWimp a lot less badass]]. Maybe even [[AdaptationalHeroism more heroic]], or [[AdaptationalVillainy more sinister]], and in other cases [[AdaptationalDumbass dumber]], if not completely [[AdaptationalNonsapience non-sapient]]. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Or they might become smarter. This trope is about taking a character who wasn't ''particularly'' smart in the source material and might even have been TheDitz and turning them into TheSmartGuy. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | There are several reasons why a character might gain IQ points in an adaptation. Some reasons include: |
| 12 | |
| 13 | * The adapted character is actually a CompositeCharacter -- Bob might have been BookDumb in the original novel but he was given traits from InsufferableGenius Steve for the movie. |
| 14 | * A more serious take might turn an IneffectualSympatheticVillain into a serious threat. |
| 15 | * ValuesDissonance. The character was originally an EthnicScrappy PluckyComicRelief and their stupidity wouldn't fly for modern audiences. |
| 16 | * Perhaps the original material only has [[TheSmurfettePrinciple one female character]] and might even come across as TheLoad or a BrainlessBeauty to modern audiences. As alternative to {{Xenafication}} she might be turned into the brains of the group instead (or she might go through both this trope and that one). |
| 17 | * Rarely, a comedy might turn a character previously portrayed as TheDitz into a genius for the sake of a joke. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | See also AdaptationPersonalityChange, AdaptationalComicRelief, AdaptationalHeroism, AdaptationalVillainy, AdaptationalBadass, AdaptationalWimp, AdaptationalSkill, and {{Xenafication}}. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Compare and contrast DumbassNoMore where a character increases their intellect inside the particular work, and AdaptationalDumbass, this trope's polar opposite. |
| 22 | ---- |
| 23 | !!Examples |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 28 | * ''Anime/AceAttorney2016'': Phoenix Wright manages to make several deductions on his own that [[VideoGame/AceAttorney in the original games]] often required other characters to give him a clue or use the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Magatama]] to break Psyche-Locks out of the witnesses. For the sake of CompressedAdaptation, nearly all of the moments where the player can make a silly mistake and get Phoenix penalized for it are also omitted from the anime. |
| 29 | * In ''Manga/AttackOnTitanJuniorHigh'' the [[Manga/AttackOnTitan titular Titans]] are no longer just lumbering, flesh-eating zombies, and actually attend school like the human children. |
| 30 | * ''Anime/ADogOfFlanders1975'': The titular dog, Patrasche, understands human language, even though he couldn't do that in the [[Literature/ADogOfFlanders original book]]. |
| 31 | * ''Literature/TheDecagonHouseMurders'': [[spoiler: Junya [[InSeriesNickname "Ellery"]] Matsuura]] is a textbook DecoyProtagonist who, despite spending the whole story trying to solve the case, draws completely the wrong conclusion and [[spoiler: is [[InTheBack backstabbed]] by the culprit immediately after blithely inviting them to go hunt for a non-existent true culprit together]]. In the book's official manga adaptation, however, [[spoiler: Ellery]] successfuly identifies the true culprit, using [[PercussivePickpocket Percussive Pickpocketing]] to take away their knife and delivering a lengthy [[TheSummation summation]] explaining how they knew that they were the true culprit and the false conclusion their novel counterpart drew was wrong. The only thing stopping them from ending the story ahead of schedule is [[spoiler: the culprit [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink drugging their coffee]] ahead of time]]. |
| 32 | * ''Franchise/DragonBall'': |
| 33 | ** Goku tends to get this in the [[NonSerialMovie Non-Serial Movies]] while always a genius at fighting, he's far more of a serious and tactical hero in the movies whom is able to strategise and plan how to win well ahead of time, his sillier IdiotHero traits are of course still present but far more downplayed compared to the manga where he wasn't portrayed as OlderAndWiser until the Buu Saga. Anime Goku also gets this as well e.g when Tao gives him some puzzle rings to solve (while he and the mob boss he's working for make a break for it) Goku is able to figure the puzzle out, manga or ''Super'' Goku likely would've just been stumped. |
| 34 | ** Broly gets this to some extent in ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'' while his [[Anime/DragonBallZBrolyTheLegendarySuperSaiyan orignal counterpart]] prior to his VillainDecay into DumbMuscle was actually was fairly smart albeit in a vile and brutish manner, canon Broly is more soft-spoken and able to have intelligent conversations with people and not act purely based on violence. This is carried over into his next appearance in ''Anime/DragonBallSuperSuperHero''. |
| 35 | * ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'': |
| 36 | ** When Ishigami first hints that he has a crush on Tsubame in the manga, Fujiwara seems completely clueless to what he's saying. The anime on the other hand has her pick up on it instantly (though Shirogane and Kaguya walking in causes the focus to shift before she can follow up on it). |
| 37 | ** Played with regarding Erika. In the manga, she is completely oblivious to Kaguya and Shirogane's obvious attraction to one another [[spoiler:prior to seeing first-hand proof of their SecretRelationship]], while in the anime she appears to be fully aware of it. On the other hand, this means that she gets caught up in the rest of the school misinterpreting Shirogane asking Kaguya to help with his re-election as a LoveConfession (something she was only able to recognize the true meaning of in the manga ''[[DumbassHasAPoint because]]'' she had no idea that they were attracted to one another). |
| 38 | * In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Luffy's generally an IdiotHero who alternates between being [[SmarterThanYouLook surprisingly intelligent]] and [[TooDumbToLive making suicidally stupid choices]] depending on the situation. The start of the Drum Kingdom arc is the latter, as during a tense standoff with some soldiers in which Vivi accidentally gets shot, Luffy nearly starts a fight with them. It takes Vivi [[AintTooProudToBeg prostrating herself before the soldiers to beg them to help the sick Nami]] and [[WhatTheHellHero calling Luffy a failure of a captain]] for letting his emotions get the best of him to get Luffy to calm down and ask for help, defusing the situation, In ''Anime/EpisodeOfChopperPlusBloomInTheWinterMiracleSakura'', Vivi is no longer around, so Luffy's the one who accidentally gets shot (which does nothing to him, thanks to his Devil Fruit) and who begs the soldiers for help without anyone telling him what to do. |
| 39 | * In the ''VideoGame/Persona5'' manga, Makoto is a downplayed example. She's one of the smartest Phantom Thieves and the group's strategist, but gets to put her intelligence on display more in the infiltration of Kaneshiro's Palace, her first mission with the Phantom Thieves. For example, she's the one who deciphers the clues in Kaneshiro's journal to find the lock codes, whereas in the game, it was up to the player to solve the puzzle, resulting in [[PlayerCharacter Joker]] inputing the code. |
| 40 | * The 20th anniversary movie ''Anime/PokemonIChooseYou'' presents an alternate continuity where Ash is just starting out. While anime Ash was dumb as a Dunsparce for much of the original series, this version is a competent hero right from the start, who knows the names of all of the Pokémon he encounters and doesn't make any rookie battling mistakes. |
| 41 | [[/folder]] |
| 42 | |
| 43 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 44 | * While definitely not stupid in the mainline continuity, the version of John Stewart from ''ComicBook/GreenLanternEarthOne'' was a brilliant physicist before getting his ring. |
| 45 | * In the DCAU, ComicBook/HarleyQuinn got her psychiatry degree through large amounts of SextraCredit. When she [[CanonImmigrant jumped into the mainstream comics]] she became legitimately intelligent, though still [[GeniusDitz ditzy enough]] that it takes other characters by surprise. [[LostInImitation Most later adaptations follow suit]]. |
| 46 | * In ''Literature/MaximumRide'' whilst Gazzy was capable of building bombs and various pyrotechnics, he otherwise came of as a typical 8-year-old. In ''ComicBook/MaxRideFirstFlight'' in addition to having manual computer skills, he's also been given an affinity with machinery and had his childishness severely downplayed. |
| 47 | * In ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' and ''ComicBook/DoubleDuck'', WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck is very intuitive, clever and able to [[XanatosSpeedChess make plans on the spot]]. |
| 48 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'', Dulcy the Dragon was ditzy with a child-like mentality and [[CaptainCrash prone to crashing whenever she took flight]]. Those qualities were lessened in the ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', where Dulcy also acquired a knowledge of Mobian legends and the ability to sense when someone is [[LivingLieDetector telling the truth]]. |
| 49 | * The Dinobots from the ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'' comics typically are portrayed as smarter and more cunning than their [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers animated counterparts]]. |
| 50 | * ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'': |
| 51 | ** While the original 60s version of ComicBook/TheWasp was first introduced as Hank Pym's flighty socialite love interest, the Ultimate version was already a scientist with two P.H.D.s before she became a costumed superhero. |
| 52 | ** Likewise, [[ComicBook/InvisibleWoman Susan Storm]] was first introduced as little more than [[ComicBook/MisterFantastic Reed Richards]]' girlfriend, and was only present at the accident that created the ComicBook/FantasticFour because she refused to be left behind. By contrast, the Ultimate version of Sue is a gifted former ChildProdigy who attended the same government think tank as Reed, and who was involved in the accident because she was actually one of the scientists working on the Negative Zone experiment in the first place. |
| 53 | ** [[ComicBook/TheFalcon Sam Wilson]] is by no means an idiot, but his Ultimate Counterpart is considered by Tony Stark to be in the top 5 smartest people list. Notably, this version of Sam built his winged flight suit on his own, while in the original comics, he was given the wings by ComicBook/BlackPanther. |
| 54 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': In [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 the Golden Age]] Millie Heyday was one of the two airheaded and irresponsible ones of the three Heyday triplets, while in ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'' Milly Heyday is the smartest and most responsible of the Heyday siblings. |
| 55 | [[/folder]] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 58 | !!General |
| 59 | * Many a rewrite in general for series featuring an IdiotHero protagonist, such as [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Ash Ketchum]] and [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Naruto Uzumaki]], tend to make them intelligent enough to be considered smart, but not geniuses. |
| 60 | * It's very common for this trope to apply to [[Manga/MyHeroAcademia Izuku Midoriya]] despite the fact that, unlike Ash and Naruto mentioned above, he's ''not'' an IdiotHero. Izuku is noted in canon to be very intelligent with a keen, analytical mind, yet there are many characters more intelligent than him (he isn't even in the Top 3 of his class' academic performance). However, many fanfics will turn him into a supergenius whose intelligence is unmatched, to the point that many people will mistakenly think he has an intelligence-enhancing Quirk like Nedzu. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | !!Specific Examples: |
| 63 | * ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': Both Mark Russell and [[spoiler:Maia Simmons]] get hit with a combination of this and AdaptationalNiceGuy by the story's end. |
| 64 | ** Mark gains Adaptational Emotional Intelligence due to CharacterDevelopment; showing signs of growing out of his initial overprotective and [[JustAKid dismissive]] tendencies towards Madison near the end, whereas his Franchise/MonsterVerse canon counterpart completely failed at both those hurdles in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong''. |
| 65 | ** This fic's version of [[spoiler:Maia]] is an IronLady who knows how to use a pleasant demeanor and other psychological tactics to get what she wants from people, and she shows explicit awareness of some of her PsychopathicManchild father's shortcomings. The canon version of her was a near-transparent RichBitch who was little more than her father's lackey and who [[spoiler:infamously [[TooDumbToLive shot at Kong]]]]. |
| 66 | * In ''Fanfic/TheAccidentalAnimagus'', Quirrell gets this by proxy. Voldemort doesn't want to bring unwanted attention by acting unusually, so ironically he becomes one of their best Defense teachers. |
| 67 | * ''Fanfic/TheAmazingSpiderLuzInAcrossTheOwlVerse'': |
| 68 | ** Downplayed. While Luz was far from unintelligent in canon, she could be somewhat naïve, headstrong, and willing to jump into situations without thinking. While she retains shades of such characterization in this story, Luz repeatedly surprises a number of characters for being wiser than they expect, and is much more willing to acknowledge her own limitations and think things through as opposed to just blindly rushing into situations. One prominent example is when she chooses to simply sign up for two magic courses in Hexside as opposed to all of them like she did in canon, acknowledging that while she would like to study as much magic as possible, it would be better to limit her focus to avoid overtaxing herself with schoolwork. The arrival of [[TheDreaded Ingrimaxus]] only highlights the difference; while in canon, Luz would almost certainly throw herself into the fray with the eager intent of fighting a dragon, in this story, she acknowledges that she would be out of her depth by blindly taking on Ingrimaxus without a plan and initially intends to simply focus on protecting and rescuing civilians, before being stopped from doing so by Eda locking down the house. She only fights Ingrimaxus directly because Lilith specifically asked for her help in doing so, following her plan to the letter once it's explained. |
| 69 | ** Grom actually displays intelligence by talking to its victims instead of just being a seemingly mindless creature reacting to the fears of those who face it. |
| 70 | * ''Fanfic/AzumangaUndPanzer'' has [[Manga/AzumangaDaioh Sakaki]]. In canon, she gets fairly good grades, far better than the "three knuckleheads," but not nearly as good as Yomi or [[ChildProdigy Chiyo]], showing that she's a surprisingly good student despite giving off the appearance of being a delinquent. In the fic, she's considerd the smartest of the "Azu" girls, and is chosen to command "Team Kitty Kat," since Chiyo, being too young for tankery[[note]]Which contradicts Little Army showing elementary schoolers playing with a tank, and Maho participating in a tournament in middle school[[/note]], is not allowed to participate in battle. |
| 71 | * ''WebVideo/TheBuggerAnthology'': Unlike [[Series/DoctorWho the series proper]], the Cybermen handily come out on top of their verbal mud-slinging matches with the Daleks. |
| 72 | ** In the original "Bitch Fight" episode, Jast has no recourse to the Cybermen taunting him about his sensor globes looking like disco balls other than [[MurderIsTheBestSolution killing them]]. Even Sec's famous "better at dying" line is reduced to a LameComeback when the Cyber-Leader mocks him for taking forever to think it up in the Void Ship. |
| 73 | ** In "Bitch Fight II", the Daleks are unable to overcome the Cyber-Master's sassisness, and try to draw more power from [[ItMakesSenseInContext their subterranean bitch pump]] - which then overloads and blows up the entire Earth. |
| 74 | * ''Fanfic/CharlesMansonVsTheTeletubbies'': The Teletubbies are capable of normal human speech (and even speak flowery, formal English), unlike in the original show where their dialogue was essentially TheUnintelligible. |
| 75 | * ''Fanfic/CheerUpEmoGirl'': Lindsay is far more competent and intelligent than her canon counterpart. |
| 76 | * ''Fanfic/ChildrenOfRemnant'': Due to not having the rage issues coming from Raven's abandonment of her, [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} Yang]] is much more tactically minded than she was in canon; while she can follow orders in canon and gets better control of her emotions later on, this Yang is able to keep an incredibly calm head during her fight with Jaune and was made the leader of her Beacon team. |
| 77 | * ''Fanfic/CodexEquus'': |
| 78 | ** Blacktip (from the IDW comics) is shown to be more intelligent with a passion for learning. Notably, he [[SuperWindowJump flew out the window with Raven Inkwell and an important document]] because he correctly guessed that Princess Celestia and Lord Gestal might be somewhere else in the Convocation of Creatures, and decided to take a shortcut. |
| 79 | ** Urtica (also from the IDW comics) is noted to be extremely intelligent, and becoming a demigoddess of Knowledge, History, and Intelligence enhanced her natural intelligence to the point where she could rival some of the younger Changeling Queens. This wasn't apparent in the IDW comics. |
| 80 | * ''Fanfic/DiaryOfAn8BitWarrior'': The hostile mobs are capable of creating their own battle strategies, like creepers exploding on slides to get them over Villagetown's wall, or witches drinking fire resistance potions to form a bridge in the lava in order to invade Steve's base. This is the reason why the Mayor decides to allow villagers to become warriors, giving [[TheHero Runt]] a chance to achieve his dream. |
| 81 | * ''Fanfic/ADivineRomanticComedy'': A minor example, but Lucifer immediately realizes Vaggie's a FallenAngel upon introduction. In ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'' proper, there's nothing to suggest he was aware of this fact at all before the finale. |
| 82 | * ''Fanfic/EchoesOfEternity'': |
| 83 | ** Maria is a ChildProdigy and is WiseBeyondTheirYears. Intelligence runs in the Robotnik family. In ''Sonic'' canon there is nothing to signify this, because Maria is a PosthumousCharacter with only so much characterization. |
| 84 | ** In ''Adventure 2'', Eggman initially confuses Shadow for Sonic despite the fact [[AllegedLookalikes they look nothing alike]]. He doesn't make this mistake in ''The Memory''. His stunned reaction is instead changed to wondering how a simple hedgehog could be the Ultimate Lifeform. |
| 85 | * ''Fanfic/EverydayCrazinessInPontypandy'': In [[WesternAnimation/FiremanSam his canonical series]], Elvis is a clumsy KindheartedSimpleton with a short attention span. This fanfic series, while keeping his goofy personality, emphasizes his emotional intelligence and makes him bilingual, speaking both English and French; something he never does in canon. |
| 86 | * ''Website/FamilyGuyFanon'': |
| 87 | ** [[DownplayedTrope While Peter is no Einstein]], and still cares his same FatIdiot traits, he does get far more moments of genuine wisdom, social awareness and insight, especially [[CallingTheOldManOut when dealing with Francis]]. |
| 88 | ** Brenda's abusive boyfriend Jeff in "Screams of Silence: Story of Brenda Q." gets some. In the original, Jeffery blatantly abused her ''in public''. Here, Jeffrey's abuse toward Brenda is made more subtle to both the characters and the audience, and only show his dark side in private, when nobody else was around. |
| 89 | * ''Fanfic/HarryIsADragonAndThatsOK'': Canon Ron wasn't anything special as a student, but in this story, he reads a book about Muggle space travel, gets absolutely enamoured with it, and throws himself headfirst into his studies to learn all he can to make his dream a reality. By the end of his Hogwarts tenure, he's learned enough about Ancient Runes and related subjects to not only build working rocket engines, [[spoiler:but a full working prototype spacecraft]]. |
| 90 | * This is the basic premise of ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality''. Petunia married a scientist instead of Vernon, and the two raised Harry with love and instilled him with a love of science and learning. While Harry being smarter is the main draw, the author made ''everyone'' more intelligent than in canon, in order to balance things out and avoid self-righteousness. A non-canon interlude aptly titled "72 Hours to Victory" explores what the story would look like if he had ''only'' boosted Harry's intelligence. |
| 91 | * While Luz in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' was clever and resourceful, she was rather BookDumb in certain STEM subjects and her {{Genre Savv|y}}iness would be more [[WrongGenreSavvy inaccurate]] than not. In ''Fanfic/AHeroForged'', she's a TeenGenius that was able to build her first solar panel at age 6, has created multiple {{Powered Armor}} and A.I., and she not only [[{{Magitek}} incorporated glyph magic into her suits]], but she managed to create a whole new power-source using Titan bone ''only a few days into her time in the Boiling Isles''. She's also shown to be less gullible than her canon-counterpart, being able to see through Adeghast's con from the start and she's quick to intervene when Edric and Emira are up to something. |
| 92 | * ''Fanfic/HorizonStarDriven'': While Izuku was no IdiotHero in his [[Manga/MyHeroAcademia home series]], here he is a GadgeteerGenius with a firm grasp on rocket science (and the wit and adaptive skills needed to achieve such things with his limited resources), law, and the various loopholes he can exploit. |
| 93 | -->'''Power Loader''': The kid, and it ''is'' a kid, is fucking insane. I saw the tech video too. The shit he's pulling off? The designs he's making? They should be ''College Thesis'' projects. For the top of the class at Tokyo Tech. He should be being ''scouted by goddamn everyone''. God, I've been trying to work out the basics of what the fuck his tech is. Ion Engines? I've been cracking open textbooks that have been sitting on my shelf for almost a decade. No one, and I mean ''no one'' I've ever seen with the possible exception of Midoriya on I-Island has energy work like this. |
| 94 | * ''Fanfic/HowFriendshipAccidentallySavedMagicalBritain'': Canon describes Fred and George Weasley as mostly BookDumb and uninterested in school once they decide to open a joke shop, but this fic makes them downright geniuses adept at research and spellcraft with Fred having a head for numbers (both arithmancy and muggle mathematics) and magical theory and George being skilled at transfiguration and potions- enough that George is one of the very few fourth-year students hand-picked by Snape to brew the Mandrake Restorative Draught that will cure his petrified classmates. They also both resolve to get good grades on their [=OWLs=] and [=NEWTs=] so that they're taken seriously after school as proper, qualified businessmen and inventors. The first time the Diary Horcrux writes back to them, they immediately stop and run a battery of diagnostic spells against it, and even remove a compulsion built into it that would've made them obsessed with writing in it before they touch it again. There's several scenes of them spending hours in the library reading up on cool spells and applications of magic that can be used or altered for pranks, and even repurposing them on occasion for legitimate non-prank products that they patent and sell while they're still in school. Fred even figures out, with the help of a muggle quantum physics textbook, how to get a spell to go through physical matter... and tests it by stunning Percy through an armchair. |
| 95 | * In canon, [[Manga/MyHeroAcademia Izuku Midoriya]] was near the top of his class and known for his AwesomeByAnalysis. In ''Fanfic/IfIOnlyHadAHeart'', Izuku is an absurd [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark-like]] super-genius to make up for the loss of his arm and eye as well as his damaged spine. At seven years old he was at the head of his class, finishing textbooks in a day and scoring perfectly on virtually all of his exams (to the point that [[TheBGrade a single 95 out of a 100 left him in tears]]). He also developed his own replacement prosthetic arm with a more functional four-fingered hand with an opposable thumb to replace his missing one after finding the one issued by the hospital (which amounts to a barely working appendage with a hook for a hand) with one that responds to his brainwaves with a headband with nothing but scrap parts. He was also fluent in both Japanese and English and was studying German before he met Aizawa. He also is a budding chemist who created darts loaded with his own unique blends of chemicals that can cause things they hit to spontaneously ignite, be shocked, or frozen in a device he calls "The Equalizer". Two years later, he chewed through countless neuroscience papers and books to develop a microtechnological implant that he injected directly into his own spine to directly link a new prosthetic arm he created, which has all of the functionality and fluid movement of a real arm, to his brain. Said implant was so technologically advanced and experimental that no doctor would perform the procedure for him. He also devised his own painkillers to help him deal with the transition process and said arm can be modified easily to accommodate weapons implants or simply his own growth. All of this, again, on a working-class budget and nothing but scraps for parts. He's ''still'' in elementary school at this time! |
| 96 | * ''Fanfic/ItAllStartedWithAnOSHAViolation'': Downplayed with [[WebAnimation/SpookyMonth Skid and Pump]]. In ''Spooky Month'' proper, the two are {{Fearless Fool}}s whose [[BornLucky insane luck]] is probably the only reason why they're both safe and sound. In the fanfic, they still have some sort of innocence (justified since they're both school-aged children), but they're not stupid enough to not think that Monster does not want to eat them. |
| 97 | * ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': In his [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords original appearance]], Darth Nihilus was a near-mindless HungryMenace whose every action was dictated by a OneTrackMindedHunger. This version is far more intelligent, being a patient ManipulativeBastard and a cunning warrior with goals that extend beyond merely satisfying his hunger. He's also much more knowledgeable about the Dark Side than his canon counterpart and is a BadassBookworm proficient in various fields including Sith magic, alchemy, and history. |
| 98 | * ''Fanfic/TheKarmaOfLies'': [[WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug Canonically]], Lila Rossi is a [[ManipulativeBitch Manipulative]] BitchInSheepsClothing who gets away with her BlatantLies about having [[CelebrityLie famous connections]] primarily because none of her victims bother looking into any of her claims. Here, however, Lila is much smarter. Her over-the-top lies are her way of figuring out who the most gullible victims are, while luring those who see through her charade off guard, getting them to think they already have her number and making them vulnerable to more ''subtle'' manipulations. She also recognizes the importance of [[KnowWhenToFoldEm knowing when to cut her losses]], and has [[CrazyPrepared prepared accordingly]], having done her research well ahead of time. |
| 99 | * Goku in ''Fanfic/LegendOfTheMonkeyGod'' never hit his head and got brain damage. As a result, he's more ignorant than stupid and quickly points out the flaws in Bulma's intended wish for the "perfect" boyfriend. |
| 100 | * ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfTotalDramaIsland'': Lindsay is a {{downplayed|trope}} example. Although still of [[BrainlessBeauty below-average intelligence]], she is competent in the challenges when motivated and uses her brain (as well as [[ShowSomeLeg other body parts]]) to win a challenge. She remains as LiteralMinded as her canon counterpart, but attributes her (canonically) chronic name butchery to "a [[{{Malaproper}} speech impedicure]] or something". |
| 101 | * In ''Fanfic/TheNewManAnAdamSmasherSI'', Adam Smasher is portrayed as much more intelligent than he normally is. In most portrayals, he's TheBrute and a highly unstable PsychoForHire with a canonical [[DumbMuscle below-average intelligence]]. Here, even outside of the Self Insert picking up the slack in skills he's naturally lacking in Smasher is portrayed as having the experience and tactical skills that one could reasonable expect of a near-centuries old mercenary on top of being educated in both the Japanese language and business etiquette. |
| 102 | * ''Fanfic/PennySavesPaldea'': In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', Penny is fooled by Director Clavell's PaperThinDisguise of Clive. In ''Penny Saves Paldea'', Penny instantly recognizes who "Clive" is, having paid attention to the fact that Clavell's almost always the one making announcements at the academy, listening to "Clive's" voice, and comparing the two. |
| 103 | * ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'': It's established that even before the time reset, Ash from the new timeline was less BookDumb than his canon counterpart, being one of the only two trainers of Pallet Town to qualify for a Pokédex by passing Professor Oak's test (with a 90% or higher). This was later combined with early Kalos Ash's TaughtByExperience smarts to create Reset!Ash as portrayed in the story. |
| 104 | * In his home comics, [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Electro]] is one of ''the'' premier examples of a potentially terrifying Avengers level threat who's too small-minded and stupid to use his powers for anything other than petty crime. That's not the case in ''Fanfic/{{Polarity}}'', where he makes the most out of his electric powers to help usher in [[spoiler:Dormammu's hellish reign on Earth.]] His newfound craftiness gets to the point that [[spoiler:he realizes that he could help conquer countless other dimensions, and happily murders his superior, Grim Reaper, for an enormous power boost.]] |
| 105 | * In the RecursiveFanfiction ''Fanfic/ReallyIsntYourFault'', rather than everyone blindly believing the edited photo of Lincoln & Sam kissing, the characters listen for the victims' side of the story, thus the relationships are preserved. |
| 106 | * ''Fanfic/RiseOfTheLastVillain'': In this fic, Izuku [[spoiler:convinces All for One to [[KilledOffForReal sacrifice himself at Kamino]], outplays the heroes including [[WorldsSmartestMan Nedzu]] until he achieves his goals, and ultimately succeeds in his true goal of changing society]]. |
| 107 | * In ''Fanfic/RobbReturns'', Lord Orton Merryweather, [[spoiler:the new Master of Coin]], is thought of by Jon Arryn as astute, with a good head for numbers and laws, qualities that he never displayed in the books. |
| 108 | * ''Fanfic/TheSagaOfAvatarKorra'': While Asami is far from stupid in canon and is considered TheSmartGuy, her skills in science and business are much more pronounced in this story. She is a skilled inventor (in this continuity she is the inventor of the shock glove and not just its user) and she also holds a leading position in her father's company by the time she and Korra reunite. |
| 109 | * ''Fanfic/TheSeaShadow'': Rather then everyone simply falling for [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor Lord Crump]]'s PaperThinDisguise, several of the heroes are openly suspicious of "Four Eyes". |
| 110 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10277690/1/ She Blinded Me With Science]]'': [[Anime/KillLaKill Ryuko]], thanks to being raised by her father instead of being sent to boarding school, is super intelligent with an instinctual understanding of Life Fibers. She's helped in the creation of many of Nudist Beach's most important weapons and helped her father create Senketsu. |
| 111 | * ''Fanfic/SilentPartnerUnfinishedBusiness'' [[Franchise/DeathNote Misa Amane]] goes from a BrainlessBeauty who has no goals other than dying for Light, to a GeniusDitz who uses her charisma and film studies as a full-fledged investigator. |
| 112 | * In ''Fairly Oddparents'' canon, it's never mentioned how Trixie Tang does in school. In ''Fanfic/SilentWish'', Trixie takes her schooling very seriously. |
| 113 | * ''Fanfic/StartAgain'': Ryuji displays this in ''Valor and Discretion''. He is still somewhat brash in nature (and fully aware of it), but when he discovers that he is thrust back into the past in November (before starting Shujin) without the other members of the Phantom Thieves to support or even contact, he starts thinking and planning things out more carefully, and also tries to be as discreet as possible so that he can try and save Shiho and Ann from Kamoshida while minimizing negative attention to himself. Ryuji's mother compliments him on his maturity with regards to how he's approaching the problem of Kamoshida, and [[spoiler:Futaba]] is shocked that Ryuji has known since November of the previous year and managed to avoid telling anyone else. |
| 114 | * ''Fanfic/StealTheTruthReachOutForYourHeart'': This is downplayed with Ryuji. He’s still as [[BookDumb unintelligent]] as he was in [[VideoGame/Persona5 canon]], but Nanako helps him discover why: he’s a kinesthetic learner, so he has to move, touch and interact with things to learn about them. This makes him a poor fit for school where most students learn from sitting down and studying. |
| 115 | * ''Fanfic/SupermanHouseOfEl'': Kara is a brilliant scientist in this fic, using not just her own intelligence but her early schooling on Krypton and the legacy of knowledge in the Fortress to advance science and technology to help humanity. |
| 116 | * ''Fanfic/TalesOfSonicTheHedgehog'': Taking from his [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics Archie depiction]] and his [[ComicBook/SonicTheComic Fleetway depiction]], Knuckles is a ChildProdigy and GeniusBruiser, able to pull off college-level math at age three. Furthermore, unlike the games and ''Anime/SonicX'', Knuckles is ''not'' SuperGullible or a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter. Once he learns the truth about Sonic and Robotnik during the events of ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'', he is not so easily duped by the doc again; [[spoiler:while he ''does'' end up falling for one of Robotnik's tricks again during the ''Sonic Advance 2'' adaptation, it was a much more elaborate and convincing deception]]. |
| 117 | * ''Fanfic/TheresSomethingWrongWithUs'' |
| 118 | ** Norville is depicted as possessing far more self-awareness and introspection and is able to give other characters meaningful advice. |
| 119 | ** Fred, once he gets bit of CharacterDevelopment, also starts to show more emotional intelligence. |
| 120 | * ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'': |
| 121 | ** In the films and animated series, Ruffnut is just half of the twins, both of them a certain level of ChaoticStupid with a few HiddenDepths that [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight imply that their madness and irresponsible personalities are all a part of some]] ambiguous disorder. Here, she is much less obnoxious, shown to possess skills as a skald and impressive skill in manipulating the politics of Norway as Queen, being able to undermine the politically biased system she marries into. |
| 122 | ** Tuffnut gets a similar treatment, becoming an {{Omniglot}} herald and diplomat who travels the world. |
| 123 | * ''Fanfic/ThisAndThat:'' While she was already a truly gifted GadgeteerGenius at this point in her life in [[WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}} canon]], Powder, due to being personally tutored by [[VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina Angela]] [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist herself]] over the years, not also is skilled engineering, but has vast knowledge in physics, chemistry, and biology. |
| 124 | * ''Fanfic/ToHellAndBackArrowverse'': Barry Allen. While canon!Barry was ''far'' from stupid (just a bad habit of grabbing the IdiotBall), this Barry is a confirmed genius on par with Eobard Thawne. He correctly deduced the source of Kara Zor-El's powers when he was just fifteen, managed to become a capable CombatMedic in a year at the same age thanks to Shado's tutelage, and later became the League of Assassin's go-to doctor and OmnidisciplinaryScientist after his recruitment. He's even managed to replicate the Human Target's disguising abilities and create a rudimentary version of the A.I. Gideon. |
| 125 | * ''Fanfic/TotalDramaAllStarsRewrite'': Many of Zoey's TooDumbToLive from canon are removed. |
| 126 | * ''Fanfic/TotalDramaWorldTourTheAnimatorsCut'': The show's other hot blonde, Lindsay, shows increasingly frequent moments of intellectual eloquence. They're PlayedForLaughs however. |
| 127 | * In the ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TwoIdiots,'' [[NamedByTheAdaptation Keith and Cherry]] are much more sensible compared to their [[FearlessFool canon counterparts]]. |
| 128 | * In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'', Greg accidentally drives a wedge between himself and Steven when Steven realizes that he matured very little from his teenage years, and he cites Greg never taking him to a doctor as one of his many failings. In the fanfic ''Fanfic/WeCanBeHeroesStevenUniverse'', while Greg is still a bit late to the party, he's a lot more mature, and a flashback in Chapter 7 has him preparing to take Steven in to see Dr. Maheswaran for some long-overdue vaccines. |
| 129 | * Kodachi Kuno in ''Fanfic/VoyagesOfTheWildSeaHorse'' is smarter (or, at least, more sane) than her canon self was, instantly recognizing that [[SexShifter Ranma Saotome's two forms]] are the same person after seeing the curse triggered in front of her, something she ''didn't'' do in the manga, and never engaging in some of the self-sabotaging schemes she was so fond of in canon, such as randomly paralyzing Ranma to throw him to a beast. |
| 130 | * In ''Fanfic/YouWereMyBestFriend'', Bloom is stated to have skipped two school grades, thus hinting at a superior intelligence to her canonical counterpart, at least in the BookSmart department. Other than being [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation marginalized for it]], this doesn't impact the storyline nor it's the root cause of the canon divergence. It's probably due to being a prequel. |
| 131 | * ''Fanfic/ZimTheWarlordIrkenReversion'': Zim is a bit less senseless in this fic, knowing fully well that the Tallest sent him to Earth to get him out of the way of Impending Doom II. It's stated that he's essentially decompressed, being less hurried in thought. Zim also is more capable of accepting when others are better at what he does, and he's specifically noted to know what certain Earth terms such as "Spring Break" mean; he just speaks as he usually does because it's fun. |
| 132 | * ''Fanfic/SevenFavoursForHarryPotter'': Of all characters, the troll who attacks Hermione on Halloween has been given an intelligence upgrade in this AU fanfic. He still won't win any awards for "Best Thinker," and Ron even points out to Harry how stupid trolls are -- but compared to the savage, mindless beast from canon, this version of the troll is a downright genius. He's capable of speech and at least some semblance of rational thought, meaning that he's ''just'' bright enough that Harry and Ron manage to deal with him through fast talking and trickery rather than a levitated club. |
| 133 | [[/folder]] |
| 134 | |
| 135 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 136 | * The Disney version of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'' makes Esmeralda smarter than she is in the book. In the book, she's very naive and [[TheIngenue innocent]], while in the film, she's more savvy and worldly. |
| 137 | * Among other revisioning work done in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueGodsAndMonsters'', Orion is depicted as a scientist and artist, as opposed to his warrior persona in the ''ComicBook/NewGods'' comics. |
| 138 | * Mr Clicky in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingMaurice'' is given Adaptational ''Sapience'', going from an ordinary clockwork rat in [[Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents the book]], to a clockwork rat that acts on its own initiative, refuses to go into danger, is something of a SilentSnarker, and [[spoiler: ends up having a family with an alarm clock]]. |
| 139 | * Franchise/DonkeyKong is depicted in the games as DumbMuscle only capable of HulkSpeak at best. However in ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', whilst he's a JerkJock, he's never shown to be or treated as if he is particularly stupid, and in fact is able to cleverly assess the battlefield. There's even a moment in the film where he angrily complains to Mario that he's not some "big dumb smashy ape". |
| 140 | [[/folder]] |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 143 | * In ''Film/AceAttorney2012'', Detective Gumshoe is portrayed as being much more intelligent that in the [[Franchise/AceAttorney source material]], being one of his department's leading detectives and acting like it. |
| 144 | * While Gwen Stacy has always been smart in the comics, ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' raises her to being outright brilliant, as smart or perhaps even smarter than TeenGenius Peter Parker himself. |
| 145 | * Most modern adaptations of Creator/RoaldDahl's ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' turn Mike Teavee into an InsufferableGenius, with both the 2005 film and the West End musical adaptation turning him into a jaded hacker. This is probably a combination of [[SettingUpdate modernizing]] his TV obsession from the book and an expansion of his moments holding the SmartBall. |
| 146 | * In the animated ''{{WesternAnimation/Cinderella}}'' Lady Tremaine was just a WickedStepmother who was mean to the titular heroine. In the [[{{Film/Cinderella 2015}} live-action remake]] she's shown to be far more of TheChessmaster. Ella's servant girl status comes about thanks to manipulation from her, she's smart enough to blackmail the Duke into getting advantageous marriages for her daughters and [[spoiler: discovers Ella is the girl from the ball much sooner]]. |
| 147 | * ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'': |
| 148 | ** In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', ComicBook/LoisLane figures out who Clark Kent is all on her own. |
| 149 | ** In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', ComicBook/LexLuthor is shown to be even smarter than other versions, manipulating ComicBook/{{Batman}}, [[spoiler:and figuring out who Batman and ComicBook/{{Superman}} really are]]. We're not told ''how'' he knows any of this; he just enters the scene already omniscient. |
| 150 | * In ''Film/TheDukesOfHazzard'', Boss Hogg is a great deal less stupid and childish and is presented as a serious villain rather than a comical IneffectualSympatheticVillain. Interestingly, in the initial episodes of the first season of [[Series/TheDukesOfHazzard the show]], Boss Hogg (and Roscoe as well) were competent adversaries to the Dukes. Upon learning that a large group of children enjoyed watching this show, the writers decided to make Boss Hogg (and Roscoe) an IneffectualSympatheticVillain. It was easier to write how the Dukes would triumph, and the two actors actually enjoyed partaking in the slapstick shenanigans. |
| 151 | * ''Film/FantasticFour2005'' and [[Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer its sequel]]: |
| 152 | ** Ben Grimm (also known as ComicBook/TheThing) is a lot smarter than his comic book counterpart (though even in the comic book [[DependingOnTheWriter some writers]] have explained that Ben employs ObfuscatingStupidity). For example in ''Rise of the Silver Surfer'', he instantly deduces that a picture taken of ComicBook/SilverSurfer arriving in Earth's atmosphere isn't a comet because "the trail is wrong". This is quite apt considering that Ben, like the rest of the Four, is a trained astronaut. |
| 153 | *** This is a slightly more complex example then most- even in the comics it's established from the beginning that he's had a long and distinguished military career, was a skilled enough pilot for Reed to ask him to pilot his experimental spaceship and has multiple advanced degrees. However, he's got an appearance and accent that says DumbMuscle ([[OvershadowedByAwesome and he spends his time around people like Reed Richards and Doctor Doom]]), meaning that over time he's ended up being portrayed as [[AdaptationalDumbass an idiot]] by a number of writers. Ironically, this perhaps makes the movie more of a case of TruerToTheText then anything. |
| 154 | ** Susan Storm, who in the comics got to fly into space via being Reed's girlfriend, is a scientist in this version. This aspect of Sue's backstory is retained in the [[Film/FantasticFour2015 2015 reboot]], where she's initially introduced as one of the researchers working on the ill-fated portal project alongside Reed and Victor. |
| 155 | ** Comparatively downplayed version, but [[ComicBook/HumanTorch Johnny]] also gets this, going from a hot-headed teenage [[TheCasanova Casanova]] hipster ([[FridgeLogic who really had even less of a reason to be on the original comics' version of the flight than Susan]]) to a qualified NASA astronaut... who is still a hot-headed Casanova. |
| 156 | * ''Film/GetSmart'': |
| 157 | ** In the TV series ''Series/GetSmart'' Max is a general-purpose bungling idiot who only succeeds by [[TheFool luck]] and Agent 99's competence. In the film he's genuinely a clever guy and a ''great'' analyst, just a klutz who isn't well suited to field work. This was apparently done to make a romantic relationship with 99 more believable, as a modern audience would not accept someone as buffoonish as the original Max being attractive to a woman as capable as 99. |
| 158 | ** Larrabee in the original series is even more of a dunce than Max (he has been referred to as "Max's Max" and at one point in the series the Chief says that Max has VetinariJobSecurity because if he got fired, CONTROL would need to promote ''[[WalkingDisasterArea Larrabee]]'' to Max's position, and the Chief is obviously very afraid of that), whereas in the film he's a {{Jerkass}} but competent agent. |
| 159 | * ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' / ''Franchise/KingKong'': |
| 160 | ** Godzilla's intellect can vary depending on the series, and Kong is hardly dumb in any incarnation. But the Franchise/MonsterVerse incarnations are exceptionally smart, showing intellect on par with an above-average human. [[Characters/MonsterVerseGodzilla Godzilla]] is capable of tactical thinking, baiting the MUTO to get into range of a collapsing building trap he had planned out in ''Film/Godzilla2014''. [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingKong Kong]] is able to make makeshift weapons, knows when certain individual humans aren't being a threat or trying to be one, and as revealed in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', can [[spoiler:use Human Sign Language]] (the last one is very important as it's revealed that he learned it from observing Jia and Ilene but deliberately kept it to himself). |
| 161 | ** [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah The MonsterVerse incarnation of King Ghidorah]] is exceptionally intelligent among the {{Kaiju}}. Most past incarnations had no higher strategy for achieving their OmnicidalManiac goals than "beam spam anything that moves" and/or were under the control of alien invaders. But ''this'' incarnation of Ghidorah has an actual plan in mind, to take control of the Earth's native Titans and force them to create a NaturalDisasterCascade combined with Ghidorah's WeatherManipulation which will create an extinction-level event, and it's furthermore speculated by the characters that this version of Ghidorah aims to [[HostileTerraforming xenoform]] the Earth in his own image. |
| 162 | * The titular villain in ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' is clever in both the novel and its film adaptation, but Film Goldfinger had a better EvilPlan: why steal the gold from Fort Knox outright (as originally intended in the novel) when you can nuke it and jack up the value of your personal gold way more? As he had little time, Goldfinger knew he needed more manpower to steal the gold. The "theft" was just a ruse to hide his real intent. |
| 163 | * While Hermione was already one of the smartest characters in ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', her movie version delivers exposition that was normally given by other characters, making her look more knowledgable. A good example is when Hermione was called a Mudblood in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''. In the book, she doesn't know what the term means and therefore isn't offended. In the film, she is visibly hurt, already knowing the meaning of the word. |
| 164 | * In ''Film/{{Hulk}}'' Betty is portrayed as a fellow scientist and friend-at-work of the protagonist Bruce Banner. In [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk the comic books]], she meets Bruce via her father and isn't as brilliant and educated as her future husband. |
| 165 | * ''Franchise/JurassicPark'': |
| 166 | ** In the [[Film/JurassicPark1993 movie]] and [[Literature/JurassicPark the book]] ''velociraptors'' are especially dangerous for their keen near human-like intelligence being pretty much the TropeCodifier for ItCanThink with the famous "Clever girl" moment. In RealLife ''velociraptors'' being the size of a turkey would have only been as smart as regular bird like a hawk and not nearly as smart as parrots or crows, so very unlikely to be able to figure out how to open doors or trick veteran hunters like the film portrays. Granted the movie raptors are actually based on the ''Deinonychus'' which were pack hunters and were quite smart (not quite to the same extent as the ''Troodon'', but still pretty intelligent). Ironically the ''Tyrannosaurus'' in comparsion gets AdaptationalDumbass, being more easily outwitted by the heroes while in real life they have now been estimated to be as smart as baboons. |
| 167 | ** Lex [[AgeLift is made older]] than she was in the the book and given knowledge of computer systems. By contrast, her brother Tim was made younger and loses the computer systems scene, but maintains his knowledge of dinosaurs. |
| 168 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 169 | ** ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}'' sees both Betty Ross and Samuel Stern portrayed as fellow scientists and collagues of Bruce Banner. With Betty it is probably to make the love interest more of an equal to the super genius Bruce and to keep her in check with the Betty from the unrelated first ''Hulk''-movie (see above). Stern gets more dangerous as he already is a genius able to transform Emil Blonsky into the Abomination before his transformation unlike the comics, where [[FromNobodyToNightmare Stern was a janitor before being transformed into the villainous leader]]. |
| 170 | ** In ''Film/{{Thor}}'', Jane Foster's profession is changed from a nurse to an astrophysicist with three degrees. |
| 171 | ** ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' has a {{Downplayed}} example with Flash Thompson, who goes from a JerkJock who bullies Peter to a fellow nerd. While this is largely an InformedAttribute since we first see him getting a physics question wrong, and are later told he didn't answer a single question in the quiz team, he did make it ''onto'' the quiz team in the first place, and Midtown High has been reinvented as a science school where ''all'' the students have to be pretty smart.) In ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'', Flash gets accepted to MIT, succeeding where Peter, M.J., and Ned failed due to the fallout of Spider-Man being unmasked. |
| 172 | ** In ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'', Shuri is reimagined as a [[ChildProdigy teenage]] GadgeteerGenius and the one who makes most of T'Challa's tech and weaponry. Her comic counterpart, while by no means stupid, was nowhere near that intelligent or technologically gifted, at least until [[RetCanon she was changed to match her screen counterpart following the film's massive success]]. |
| 173 | ** ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'' establishes that the original [[ComicBook/TheWasp Wasp]] was a brilliant scientist in her own right, in contrast to her comic counterpart, who was originally depicted as the girly one of ComicBook/TheAvengers. |
| 174 | ** The ComicBook/ManThing of the comics is little more than a wild animal, with whatever's left of Ted Sallis being nothing but a blurry dream. In ''Film/WerewolfByNight2022'', he's smart enough to hold a conversation ([[IntelligibleUnintelligible of sorts]]), form a friendship with Jack Russell, and respond to the name Ted. He's even seen playing Solitaire at the end of the special. |
| 175 | * When it comes to ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' and its numerous adaptations in film and on the stage Raoul loses his ManChild UpperClassTwit behaviour from the book, thanks gaining the AdaptedOut Daroga aka Persian’s competency. In the [[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera2004 2004 adaptation]] he’s able to figure his way out of one the Phantom’s traps whereas in the book he needed the Daroga’s aid to do so. Tragically though as while Raoul gets this, Christine by comparison gets the inverse with heaps of AdaptationalDumbass piled on her compared to her book counterpart. |
| 176 | * The Creator/SteveMartin reboot of ''[[Film/ThePinkPanther2006 The Pink Panther]]'' is predicated on the idea that [[spoiler:Clouseau is to some degree employing ObfuscatingStupidity]], quite unlike the book character or previous film versions. |
| 177 | * Buttercup in ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' film. In the original book she’s a hilariously ditzy BrainlessBeauty who can’t count without using her fingers and pronounces syllable as “syllable”. She’s got her brighter moments but like Fezzik is more slow witted than other characters especially Westley her OneTrueLove. In the film on the other hand Buttercup is much less foolhardy and naively dumb. Though there is some {{Chickification}} at play as the film tragically omits Buttercup’s SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfAwesome where she uses her (not quite official) status as TheHighQueen to make Yellin and his troops stand aside to let her, Westley, Inigo and Fezzik pass. |
| 178 | * The true identity of the [[BigBad Evil Masked Figure]] in ''Film/ScoobyDooMonstersUnleashed'' turns out to be [[spoiler:Dr. Jonathan Jacobo]], who originally menaced Mystery, Inc. as the Pterodactyl Ghost, a monster the gang encountered in ''WesternAnimation/TheScoobyDooShow'' episode "Hang in There, Scooby-Doo". [[SameCharacterButDifferent Among other discrepancies with the monster's true identity in the original cartoon]], [[spoiler:Dr. Jonathan Jacobo is a scientist who ends up creating technology used to bring the costumes of past villains to life when Johnny only used the Pterodactyl Ghost to assist in a music piracy scheme.]] |
| 179 | * In the Sherlock Holmes film ''[[Film/TheBakerStreetDozen Terror By Night]]'', Colonel Moran goes from Professor Moriarty's sniper henchman to his academic colleague with apparent proficiency in mathematics and criminal scheming. |
| 180 | * In the original ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', it took [[EvilSorceress Maleficent]] sixteen years to find Aurora, because she was relying on her grunts. In [[Film/{{Maleficent}} her own movie]], it takes her about a day, because she sends out [[TheDragon Diaval]] instead. Maleficent also raises Aurora herself, knowing more about taking care of human children than the three fairies -- while she never displayed any such skill in the animated version. |
| 181 | * In their brief appearance in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', [[GreenskinnedSpaceBabe Orion women]] are presented as mindless nymphomaniacs. Dialogue from the [[Recap/StarTrekS1E0TheCage original pilot]] even explicitly compares them to ''animals'', suggesting they might not even be fully sapient. The ''Film/StarTrek2009'' film gave us a sympathetic and obviously fully intelligent Orion woman as a supporting character whom writer and producer Roberto Orci theorised had escaped to the Federation via an underground railroad (apparently retconning the 'Orions as secretly matriarchal' idea mentioned below.) |
| 182 | ** Even before that, ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' showed them as the real power behind the Orion Syndicate, using the LivingAphrodisiac effect they have on male Orions to keep them in a ''permanent'' state of DistractedByTheSexy and doing what the woman wants while nominally in charge. A more downplayed version of this trope was present in the ''Star Trek'' TabletopRoleplayingGame published in the early 1980s which did give Orion women a significant intelligence penalty compared to males (or humans) but also suggested it to be cultural rather than biological with the women deliberately kept uneducated. The ''two'' Orion females we met in the ''original series'' were, in order, [[Recap/StarTrekS1E12TheMenageriePartII an illusion used to tempt Christopher Pike]] and [[Recap/StarTrekS3E14WhomGodsDestroy a criminally insane mental patient]]. Basing our idea of what Orion females are like purely on ''those'' two is probably not the best way to get a feel for Orion society. |
| 183 | ** The reboot movies also did a favor for Uhura. In ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', Uhura's attempt to speak Klingon came across as YouNoTakeCandle (which Creator/NichelleNichols was ''not'' pleased with). On the other hand, in ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', Uhura describes her Klingon as "rusty, but good," and then proceeds to speak fluent Klingon. |
| 184 | * Of all the versions of the creature, Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''Film/TheThing1982'' features by far the most devious and cunning iteration. The Thing in this version is extremely careful about who it infects, generally going for the quietest and unassuming crew members as opposed to authority figures and scientists. Instead, it puts great effort into framing those authority figures in an attempt to remove the ones who stand the best chance of exposing it. When they finally figure out a way to test who The Thing is, all of the most likely suspects turn out to be human. |
| 185 | * In ''Film/TheTimeMachine2002'' the Eloi get a lot of this. In the original novel and [[Film/TheTimeMachine1960 1960 film]] they are pointedly carefree and dim, to the extent the Eloi are practically child-like in the book in both appearance and intellect — in contrast to the Morlocks who are deviously intelligent making the Eloi’s clothing and houses while also eating them like cattle. Which can all be seen as a metaphor for the “rich and the poor”. In the 2002 and 1960 adaptations however the Eloi are essentially regular humans rather than the fae-esque creatures of Well’s book and in 2002 film they are smart enough to harvest crops and build homes on their own. |
| 186 | * ''Film/TheBlob1988'': The advanced creature effects in this version allow the Blob to use more complex tactics in the way it hunts. It's now apparently aware that it must take its victims by surprise. We frequently see it hide from and ambush its prey rather than mindlessly ooze toward its next victim. It even seems to understand firearms, purposely sabotaging a flamethrower at one point. |
| 187 | * ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga:'' In the books, geeky Eric is the class valedictorian; in the films, it's Jessica. |
| 188 | * ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'': ComicBook/JeanGrey was turned into a medical doctor. Originally, they were going to include ComicBook/{{Beast|Marvel Comics}} as the resident smart guy of the team, but when he was removed from the final script, the writers gave his job to Jean. |
| 189 | [[/folder]] |
| 190 | |
| 191 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 192 | * George Gipe's infamous EarlyDraftTieIn novelization of ''Literature/BackToTheFuture'' has Marty escaping detention by filtering sunlight through a projector lens which ignites a matchbook and sets off the sprinklers. |
| 193 | * In ''Literature/TheDarkDescentOfElizabethFrankenstein'', Elizabeth Lavenza is a calculating woman who knows how to play people very well, and who has made her personality and appearance tailor-made for Victor to ensure her safety and comfort. It is quite different from ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', where she is portrayed as a sweet, kind woman who is devoted to Victor. |
| 194 | * ''Literature/GoToSleepAJeffTheKillerRewrite'': In [[Literature/JeffTheKiller2011 the [=GameFuelTv=] version]], the doctor merely assumes Jeff's signs of insanity to be an effect of the painkillers and simply allows him to go home. Mr. Patterson, who helps Jeff's recovery at the hospital in this rewrite, books an appointment for Jeff to see a child psychiatrist out of concern of his disturbing behaviour, but he concedes to Jeff's family's wishes to not go through with it since it would be on Halloween. |
| 195 | * ''Literature/LoomingGaia'': In the original webcomic ''Webcomic/FairyTaleRejects'', some scenes indicate that Drifter's Hollow's only doctor Dr. Che is not as knowledgeable as a doctor should be, such as when he's helping Ginger give birth and doesn't know whether the baby's head or legs should come out first. In ''Looming Gaia'', he's much more competent, and him speaking broken Universa is only due to him being a foreigner. |
| 196 | * In the pilot episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'', there's no reason to think Lister isn't, as Captain Hollister believes, "so stupid you bring aboard an unquarantined animal and jeopardise every man and woman on this ship -- not only that, but you take a photograph of yourself ''with'' the cat and send it to be processed in the ship's lab." In the book ''Literature/RedDwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'', Lister ''wants'' to be put in stasis until they arrive on Earth after breaking up with Kochanski, and developed a very convoluted plan to do so. The photo was an important part of that; he wanted to get caught with the cat, but he didn't want the cat to get caught and dissected. It's also established that Frankenstein was actually an expensive pet-shop cat that was inoculated against everything, although he told the captain she was a stray with an unspecified illness. |
| 197 | * Some ''Franchise/StarWars'' novels show spaceships to have an intelligent A.I. that were never noticed in the movies because they can't talk: |
| 198 | ** The novelization to ''Film/TheLastJedi'' says that Poe's ''Black One'' fighter has an intelligent computer with its own personality that can only communicate with BB-8. |
| 199 | ** ''Film/{{Solo}}'' has the droid, [=L3=] [[BrainUploading uploading her consciousness]] into the Millennium Falcon (apparently being the computer that [=C3PO=] talked to in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'') but the novelization shows that she talks to and merges with an onboard computer that's already there. |
| 200 | * ''Planet Of The Apes: The Fall'', William Thomas Quick's prequel novel to the 2001 ''[[Film/PlanetOfTheApes2001 Planet of the Apes]]'' remake says that the NegativeSpaceWedgie that transported Leo through time and space was actually a sentient BenevolentAbomination that was trying to save him by sending him to an inhabitable planet. |
| 201 | [[/folder]] |
| 202 | |
| 203 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 204 | * ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': |
| 205 | ** Malcolm Merlyn is a clever schemer with shades of CorruptCorporateExecutive; in the comics, Merlyn is merely a ProfessionalKiller with archery skills that rival those of Green Arrow. |
| 206 | ** Similarly, Solomon Grundy goes from the HulkSpeak zombie of the comics to a much more articulate PsychoForHire with regenerative powers thanks to PragmaticAdaptation. |
| 207 | ** The Clock King goes from the doofy version of the comics to a skilled hacker and computer expert. |
| 208 | * ''Series/AvatarTheLastAirbender2024'': Ozai in the original series was an overgrown bully who used his natural power to have his way and otherwise was content to sit around and let those under him handle matters of their own accord. This Ozai actually displays a degree of cunning, deliberately pitting his two children against each other with his conditional favoritism in order to get them to accomplish his goals without revealing his involvement, something his animated incarnation never thought to do. He also has a network of spies and saboteurs to quash dissent, again something that his animated counterpart never considered needing due to his arrogant assurance in his own authority. While his original counterpart was well known for being a master of manipulation, much of these traits were only in passing. |
| 209 | * ''Series/TheBoys2019'': |
| 210 | ** While [[Characters/TheBoys2019Homelander Homelander]] was still a selfish, self-absorbed asshole in the original comics, it was also alongside his confidence issues and lack of real planning skills. This Homelander is more proactive, smarter, and worst/best of all, more ''creative'' -- one of the weaknesses of the comic version is that he was incapable of being anything but a blunt instrument, whereas here he has long-term plans. He manages to achieve what comics Vought never did; [[spoiler: get superheroes involved in national defense]]. |
| 211 | ** In the original comic, [[PresidentEvil Vice President "Vic the Veep"]] was a LethallyStupid PuppetKing who could barely form complete sentences. [[spoiler:His show counterpart [[GenderFlip Victoria Neuman]] is the complete opposite, being a cunning MoleInCharge who manages to deceive everyone she comes across with ease.]] |
| 212 | * In the original film version of ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' Buffy started as a BrainlessBeauty who turned out to have HiddenDepths and went through some serious CharacterDevelopment, leaving her pretty smart by the end of the movie. Not nearly as smart as she was in the first season of the [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer television show]] however. TV Buffy, especially in the first few episodes was whip-smart, extremely perceptive, a better researcher than Giles, and explicitly singled out as having a first-class mind by one of her teachers. In fact, her brilliance was subtly downplayed in the second season to make Giles look less useless. The Season 2 finale had a flashback to Buffy's first days as a Slayer, which confirms that she was previously a ditz who underwent the same CharacterDevelopment as her film counterpart. |
| 213 | * Raye Penber of all people is this in the live-adaptation of ''Series/DeathNote''. [[spoiler:The original manga and anime had the FBI agent, after deciding Light Yagami wasn't Kira due to seeing a busjacker not dying from a heart attack, show his ID to Light, then [[ItsProbablyNothing dismiss Naomi's perfectly valid concerns about the busjacking incident he and Light were involved in]], which gets himself, his fellow FBI agents, and Naomi killed. Here, he is not so easily convinced during the busjacking incident, so he never gives his real name to Light and only becomes more suspicious of him. During Light's plan to kill him, he has their conversation wiretapped to figure out how Light kills people, quickly catches on to Light's ploy with the FBI files, and comes dangerously close to killing him, only failing due to Misa's intervention with her own Death Note]]. |
| 214 | * The 2013 ''Series/{{Dracula|2013}}'' television series upgraded Mina Harker from a reasonably smart school teacher to a brilliant medical student who's ahead of her time. |
| 215 | * In the 2000 miniseries ''Series/FrankHerbertsDune'', Irulan is far more clever than she is in [[Franchise/{{Dune}} the books]] (in which she's still fairly intelligent -- she becomes a respected historian, after all -- but otherwise just a typical princess.) In the mini-series, she quickly figures out that her father aided House Harkonnen in its violent overthrow of House Atreides, and actively works to spy on the Harkonnens by sending one of her servants to seduce Feyd. |
| 216 | * Joan Watson in ''Series/{{Elementary}}''. Watson in the Doyle stories was competent enough, but as a normal person working with Literature/SherlockHolmes, he frequently found himself OvershadowedByAwesome. In ''Elementary'' Joan shows above-average observational skills from the start, and she becomes a competent detective in her own right over the course of the series. Probably to the point where she doesn't need Sherlock's help. By at least the third season, she's definitely graduated to Sherlock's apprentice, no longer just tagging along. Holmes even once sent her to get his dry cleaning, never even hinting that something was amiss at the place he sent her to, knowing she'd be able to work out what was really going on there. With ''no'' help, she did. |
| 217 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 218 | ** Daario proves thoughtful and intelligent despite his poor upbringing and violent past, providing Dany with sound political advice several times. In [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire the books]], he's a simple brute who always advocates AttackAttackAttack or MurderIsTheBestSolution because he's interested in little outside his chosen skill set of fighting and fucking. |
| 219 | ** Renly Baratheon in the books is a BookDumb JerkJock who dislikes reading, while here he takes his brother Stannis' role as the most well-read and the intellectual of the Baratheons. Both his relationship with Robert and his role in the Small Council are changed from being a YesMan who goes along with whatever his brother wants to a genuinely savvy and competent politician who seems to be ashamed of Robert's mismanagement of the kingdom. Renly's part in the assassination attempt on Daenerys is changed from an act to please his brother into an act done to protect his house from its enemies. |
| 220 | ** A side-effect of Cersei's AdaptationalHeroism is that her mind is less clouded by spite and narcissism, leaving her able to actually think instead of assuming everything's personal and she's always right. In particular, a couple of her StupidEvil schemes are transferred to Joffrey and she wisely sends someone to negotiate with the Iron Bank instead of plunging the kingdom into debt and bad credit by essentially telling them to screw themselves. |
| 221 | ** Qyburn gets a small upgrade to his OmnidisciplinaryScientist license in the show, perhaps because he's less obsessed with torturing people, and he's actually in control of the "little birds" while in the books they're just pretending to be his. |
| 222 | * ''Series/{{Gotham}}'': |
| 223 | ** Professor Pyg is a skilled strategist and actor, skills he doesn't have in the comics due to his mental instability. |
| 224 | ** Solomon Grundy is the expected HulkSpeak dullard soon after transformation, but once his memories are restored, he acts like his pre-transformation self thereafter. |
| 225 | * ''{{Series/Merlin 2008}}'' depicts Morgause as a cunning LadyMacbeth-like sorceress who is far more than simply King Lot's wife in the original mythology. |
| 226 | * ''Series/OnePiece2023'' has its hero Luffy be much, much smarter than he is in the source material. He’s still not exceptionally bright but here Luffy is smart enough to hide the Grand Line map from the Buggy pirates by swallowing it using his stretchiness, he’s also able to maturely comprehend complex situations and emotions far more consistently than his manga/anime counterpart. This Luffy is closer to the BookDumb LovableRogue he originally was at the series rather than the utter IdiotHero he evolved into. |
| 227 | * ''Series/{{Percy Jackson and the Olympians|2023}}'': The trio is overall much, much more GenreSavvy than in the books, showing far more familiarity with Greek myths and seeing through traps that they cluelessly stumbled into in the original novels. |
| 228 | ** Annabeth figures out that Percy is Poseidon's son much quicker than she does in the books. Here, she shoves him into the river because she's seemingly riddled out that he's Poseidon's son before anyone else at camp has figured it out, after seeing him demonstrate MakingASplash powers in a prior scuffle with Clarisse. In the books, she only realizes it after she sees Percy's wounds heal from being in the water after the game of Capture the Flag ends. |
| 229 | ** In the books, Auntie Em is only revealed as Medusa after Grover recognizes a satyr statue as being his Uncle Ferdinand. In the show, Annabeth figures this out immediately -- "'Auntie Em' has a garden full of stone statues!" -- and Medusa never attempts to conceal her identity. |
| 230 | ** The trio enters the Lotus Hotel and Casino entirely unsuspectingly in the books -- they only make the connection to the lotus eaters of ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' after some time inside, realizing that [[YearOutsideHourInside the hotel essentially makes time freeze for all patrons]]. In the show, Grover reminds the group of the lotus incident before they even enter. However, they're still kept inside because they think you have to eat the lotus flowers to be affected -- instead lotus mist is pumped into the air, meaning they are all affected to some degree. |
| 231 | ** In the book, the trio is forced to take refuge in a mattress store to get away from some hooligans, which turns out to be owned by Procrustes, a demigod who tricks unsuspecting travelers into lying on his beds and then stretches or cuts them up to make them exactly fit the bed. The show changes the encounter from random happenstance to the heroes' destination by making Procrustes' shop an entrance to the Underworld; Percy knows who Procrustes is, and what his plans are, before even entering the store, and the trio easily dispatches him. |
| 232 | * ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' to ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': |
| 233 | ** Dan, the blue ranger of ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' is a goofball who often slacks around. His ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' counterpart Billy is TheSmartGuy of his team, who saves the day with his inventions on multiple occasions. |
| 234 | ** Ninjaman in ''Series/NinjaSentaiKakuranger'' is an impulsive HotBlooded warrior who is easily fooled by his enemies and was even a SealedGoodInACan as his impulsiveness caused too much collateral damage. Ninjor, his counterpart in the third ''Mighty Morphin'' season is revealed to be the creator of the ranger powers and acts more like a secondary mentor to the rangers. |
| 235 | ** The entire team of ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'' seems to be more intelligent compared to their counterparts from ''Series/DenjiSentaiMegaranger''. They are, for example, able to maintain a space ship/HumongousMecha on their own, while the Megarangers need a full maintenance team to do this. This is because the Power Rangers are already experienced heroes by the series' start, while the Megarangers are [[RecruitTeenagersWithAttitude still in high school when recruited]]. |
| 236 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'' has a strange example in the form of Zeltrax. Zeltrax is a cyborg who used to be a scientist named Smitty. His counterpart in ''Series/BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger'' isn't a character at all, but rather a cursed suit of armor that turns its wearer into a BloodKnight. |
| 237 | ** The [[MonsterOfTheWeek Hades Beasts]] in ''Series/MahouSentaiMagiranger'' are animalistic in nature and aren't able to speak. Their counterparts in ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce'' are able to speak. |
| 238 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersDinoFury'' |
| 239 | *** The Sporix beasts are capable of speech, while their Minosaur counterparts from ''Series/KishiryuSentaiRyusoulger'' were mindless beasts who had an OneWordVocabulary at best. |
| 240 | *** ''Dino Fury's'' BigBad, Void Knight, is a BadassBookworm who can both combat the heroes and [[MacGyvering make]] ingenious devices (like robotic henchmen and an energy transfer device) out of old scrap. His ''Ryusoulger'' equivalent Gaisoulg was more of a straightforward BloodKnight. |
| 241 | * ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': The Governor is a ManipulativeBastard who knows how to [[AffablyEvil charm his way through people]]. It helps that he also underwent AdaptationalAttractiveness. |
| 242 | [[/folder]] |
| 243 | |
| 244 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 245 | * Jason in the original ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster'' series was just some kid who got hold of a tank and weapons and ended up saving the world from the mutants at least a few times. In ''VideoGame/BlasterMasterZero'', he's a renowned GadgeteerGenius with a DesignerBaby background. Over the sequels, he and Eve were able to create all kinds of improvements to their equipment, which translates to new gameplay mechanics. |
| 246 | * ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'' presents Lucifer as a suave, intelligent schemer who manipulates Dante into freeing him, even though [[Literature/TheDivineComedy the epic]] shows his true self as a slobbering, self-destructive monster who's too consumed by hatred to even speak. |
| 247 | * ''VideoGame/DrRobotniksMeanBeanMachine:'' Scratch and Grounder, and frankly all of the briefly seen Badniks, in the original ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'', were completely stupid and often ruined every plan they came across. Here they seem to have gotten a huge AI boost, as they're actually formidable opponents and play ''Puyo Puyo'' quite well; Grounder is a difficult boss and Scratch is second only to Robotnik himself in skill. GameplayAndStorySegregation likely comes into play here. |
| 248 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' Barret Wallace very much gets this treatment compared to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII the original]] where he was a HotBlooded BigScaryBlackMan who acted impulsively and wasn't a particularly good leader compared to Cloud. Here Barret is much more methodical and wise, even showing excitment at the Shinra library. He's still agressive and violent but thinks with his brain rather than his muscles and gun arm. |
| 249 | * In ''VideoGame/JumpForce'', Light Yagami (the VillainProtagonist of ''Manga/DeathNote'') is surprisingly smarter, calm, collected, and fully capable of orchestrating successful plans. Sure, he is still as arrogant as ever, but also manages to lack the more [[{{jerkass}} obnoxious]] and [[PsychopathicManchild childish]] traits the canon version of him was best known for. |
| 250 | * ''VideoGame/{{Madagascar}}'': Downplayed with Mort. He's still quite dimwitted, but is slightly smarter than he was in the movies, helping the player out at times and teaching the Tiki Minigolf mini-game. |
| 251 | * ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'' gives Leon Kennedy a good dose of this. In the original game FemmeFatale Ada duped him completely and utterly and Leon doesn't discover she's really an OnlyInItForTheMoney mercenary sometime before ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4''. Here Leon while still having feelings for Ada, outright admits (after Annette told him the truth about Ada) he’s actually known all along that he couldn't trust her and didn't really believe her cover story about being a FBI agent at all. This carried over to ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4Remake'' as Leon actively treats Ada like a rattlesnake and pretty much doesn't trust anything she says, unlike the original where while more wary he was still caught up in her wiles and Ada didn't have to try nearly as hard to get on his good side again. |
| 252 | * ''VideoGame/SoulCaliburVI'': Astaroth is given this treatment. As this version of Astaroth has the knowledge of hundreds of slain warriors, he's much more articulate than he was in previous games in the series. He's also much more cunning, and mentions how much he loves taking advantage of foes who ''think'' that' he's DumbMuscle because of his appearance only to realize how smart he really is after it's far too late. |
| 253 | * Hammerhead was hardly an idiot in [[ComicBook/SpiderMan the comics]], but he also wasn't particularly brilliant either. That changes in ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'', where he's a frighteningly devious tactician who runs circles around Spider-Man during the DLC side-stories. He regularly outsmarts him with carefully-applied diversion tactics, sticks to the shadows until he can level the playing field against Spidey's strength with a powerful suit of cybernetic armor, and [[spoiler:does his homework on the Maggia-hating Yuri Watanabe and goes out of his way to anger her by horribly murdering her fellow police officers until she snaps and gets kicked off the force by going over the line with her revenge.]] |
| 254 | * In both versions of ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' (i.e. Platform/Nintendo64 and the [[Platform/NintendoDS DS]] remake), Bowser successfully invades Princess Peach's castle, steals the Power Stars, and imprisons Peach and the retainers within the castle walls. In the original, Bowser [[IdiotBall leaves the front door to Peach's castle unlocked]]. In the DS version, the front door ''is'' locked and Yoshi must nearly eat a rabbit (named Mips) to take the key off him. [[DownplayedTrope However, the door to Bob-omb Battlefield is still unsealed]]. |
| 255 | * ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': In ''Warlords'', the Ogres are significantly smarter than their previous DumbMuscle depictions. There are still bits of HulkSpeak amongst the single-headed Ogres, but some are as intelligent as any other race, while the two-headed Ogres are as clever as ever. The expansion added Ogron as the new DumbMuscle race. In fact, this has been a general trend of the Ogres throughout the franchise's history. They were depicted (briefly) as bestial in ''Warcraft: Orcs and Humans''. In ''Warcraft II'', they became dumb but clearly sapient. The Ogre-Magi were smarter, but still kind of dim. Burning Crusade was the first big step up for them in intelligence (the second being in Warlords, as noted above). The Ogres in Outland were depicted as being dull, but they lost much of their deep, "moron" voice and their HulkSpeak tenancies. The leaders and casters among them (both one- and two-headed variants) were nearly on par with the player races in terms of intelligence. There was even a small society of highly advanced and intelligent Ogres who gave out end-game daily quests. |
| 256 | [[/folder]] |
| 257 | |
| 258 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 259 | * The "Here's a Bright Idea..." guy in ''WebAnimation/HowItShouldHaveEnded'' is based one of the scientists in ''Film/SpiderMan3'' who ran the experiment that created the Sandman -- except that unlike his canon counterpart, he had the good sense ''not'' to continue the experiment and tell his co-workers to check after a change has been noted, not wanting to "mutate the crap out of something" because of their laziness. |
| 260 | [[/folder]] |
| 261 | |
| 262 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 263 | * ''Webcomic/InvertedFate'': [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Undyne and Papyrus]] are the Royal Scientist and lab assistant, respectively. Their inventions show this, including Papyrus inventing teleportation pads and Undyne creating Mettaton. |
| 264 | * ''Webcomic/ScoobAndShag'': |
| 265 | ** In [[WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory the original cartoon]], Dee-Dee is a complete ditz who fools around with her brother's machines on a regular basis with absolutely no understanding of what she's doing. Here, she's a canny and resourceful fighter capable of handily thinking her way through tense combat situations. |
| 266 | ** WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget is normally a bumbling buffoon who only shows his (admittedly massive) competence when he knows the people he cares about are in danger. Here, he's a no-nonsense badass capable of quick and precise pre- and mid-combat analysis of his foes. |
| 267 | ** [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants Patrick]] is a bumbling oaf in his home series, but here is able to keep his mind wrapped around the intricacies of his incredibly complicated time travel-based powers and flawlessly carry out orders given to him decades in the past. |
| 268 | ** [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]], who is typically a dumb oaf at the best of times, is a respected military commander, raising valid concerns about communicating with the Martians. He also takes action to have Bugs arrested when it turns out Bugs is working with the Martians, though this doesn't amount to much. |
| 269 | [[/folder]] |
| 270 | |
| 271 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 272 | * ''WebVideo/AngelartsVALetsPlayEarthbound'': [[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 Giygas]] in the game becomes an AlmightyIdiot the minute he breaks through the Devil's Machine, and he stays that way until he is defeated. Here, the minute Pokey [[DirtyCoward flees]], Giygas manages to form one last coherent thought, swearing revenge on Pokey. |
| 273 | -->"[[IShallReturn I... will return...]] And when I do... Pokey... [[IWillFindYou I will find you...]] '''[[IllKillYou AND I WILL KILL YOU, YOU TRAITOR!]]''' |
| 274 | * ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'': Tons of examples abounds. |
| 275 | ** In the original ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', minor character Maron is just Krillin's ditzy girlfriend, while in this series [[spoiler:the ditziness is [[ObfuscatingStupidity really an act]], since she works for the government to investigate and reveal Krillin's InsuranceFraud while pretending to be in love with him]]. |
| 276 | ** While the original Piccolo wasn't a pure DumbMuscle, he tended to hold the IdiotBall a lot, or have his emotions cloud his judgment. Abridged Piccolo is subtly portrayed as far smarter, partly because Kaiser Neko and Lanipator are self-admitted Piccolo fans. |
| 277 | *** In the original manga, Piccolo ''orders'' Gohan and Krillin to bring him back to Namek so he could fight Freeza, despite the latter's protests. This was [[IdiotBall monumentally boneheaded]], as the whole reason they were there was to revive him (if he dies, the Dragon Balls disappear and the whole trip is pointless), and Nail outright confirms that he completely overestimated his power and never would have had the slightest chance against even first form Freeza. Here it's the opposite: Piccolo tells them ''not'' to bring him back to Namek, only for Krillin to do it anyway. |
| 278 | *** Instead of just letting Freeza transform, Piccolo [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets distracted by Nail talking about the lack of apps in his brain.]] |
| 279 | *** In the original manga, Piccolo loudly agreed with Vegeta that they should let Gero create his androids [[BloodKnight for the challenge of it]], which ultimately turned out to be a terrible decision. This scene is pointedly excluded in TFS's version and emphasis is put solely on Vegeta and Goku. Piccolo just stands in the background looking annoyed. |
| 280 | *** In the original manga, Piccolo freaked out and instantly assumed Cell killed Gohan after the first blow, [[ForgotAboutHisPowers not bothering to use his ki sensing abilities]] to confirm that Gohan was A. much stronger than Goku and thus able to take a punch, and B. completely undamaged bar a superficial cut. [[IdiotHero Goku]] had to be the rational one and point it out to him. Here, Goku has a line about Gohan intentionally hiding his power level, so Piccolo doesn't look too dumb for not even trying that method. |
| 281 | [[/folder]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 284 | * In ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'', ComicBook/TheFalcon is a GadgeteerGenius nearly on par with ComicBook/IronMan. His comic counterpart, while certainly not stupid, is more of a relatable everyman who had his wings built by ComicBook/BlackPanther. Here, he built the wings himself despite only being 18 years old, taking after his aforementioned Ultimate counterpart, who likewise built the wings himself. |
| 285 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' and every animation since it, ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk is able to speak full sentences and stay in Hulk mode for extended periods while being much more than a mindless smasher. Comics fans know that the Hulk's intelligence and mindset are malleable things due to alterations to his powers (and Banner's own issues). The way it works these days is that he's TheBigGuy and a BoisterousBruiser who would rather smash than strategize, but is no dummy when forced to use his head. However, the madder he gets, the stronger he gets, as ever before... and as his anger and power increase, his mind begins to revert back to the "classic savage hulk" state and his rage increases too. Worst case scenario is that he could enter "world-breaker" mode, becoming strong enough to move continents, while in a state of UnstoppableRage that leaves him unable to distinguish friend from foe. |
| 286 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Bunnicula}}'': In the books, Chester the cat was TheDitz, while in the TV series, became an IntellectualAnimal bordering on InsufferableGenius. Downplayed with the title character, who also became more competent. |
| 287 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Curbside}}'', an unsuccessful pilot consisting of an AnimatedAnthology starring revamped versions of Creator/{{Terrytoons}} characters, gave this treatment to Deputy Dawg. He's nowhere near as incompetent and gullible as he was in ''WesternAnimation/TheDeputyDawgShow''. To compensate, Muskie Muskrat, a troublemaker who outsmarted him regularly in the original cartoons, is made his bumbling sidekick. |
| 288 | * Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse: |
| 289 | ** In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', several villains receive intelligence upgrades: |
| 290 | *** The Riddler is reinvented as a GadgeteerGenius, capable of creating advanced VirtualReality devices and inventing best-selling, sophisticated toys. He even manages to accomplish all of his goals in [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE40IfYoureSoSmartWhyArentYouRich his first appearance]] and [[KarmaHoudini get away scot-free!]] |
| 291 | *** The aforementioned Clock King becomes [[ClockKing a true example of the trope that bears his name]], and, like the Riddler, is one of the few villains to escape Batman in their first encounter. |
| 292 | *** In the original comics, The Ventriloquist act is mediocre, because Scarface has a SpeechImpediment (he substitutes the letter ''"B"'' for a letter ''"G"'', an unfortunate fact when you are going to fight ''"The Gatman"'') that is a common problem with {{Ventriloquism}}. WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries upgrades the Ventriloquist’s skills to ridiculous levels: Scarface not only can perfectly pronounce the letter ''"B"'', but ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE64ReadMyLips "Read My Lips"]]'' shows the batcomputer analyzing The Ventriloquist and Scarface's voices like ''two different people''. Also, Batman knew the greatest ventriloquist of his time, recognized as the world's best StageMagician, Zatara (Zatanna's father), and believes the Ventriloquist ''could teach him lessons''. |
| 293 | ** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': |
| 294 | *** While the Wally West of the comics is by no means an idiot, this version of him is depicted as a scientist (more specifically, due to being a CompositeCharacter with his uncle, Barry Allen, a forensic scientist). |
| 295 | *** Doomsday is fully sentient and capable of speech, in contrast to his comic book counterpart, who is traditionally depicted as little more than a mindless, feral brute.[[note]]Though the comic version of Doomsday did briefly gain sentience, an increased intellect, and the ability to speak, the ''DCAU'' version had these qualities from the very beginning.[[/note]] He's also fully aware that his singleminded obsession with killing Superman is pointless, but chooses to act on it anyway: |
| 296 | ---->'''Doomsday:''' Superman is Superman, and I ''will'' kill you. |
| 297 | ---->'''Superman:''' Why? |
| 298 | ---->'''Doomsday:''' [[IAmWhatIAm It's what I am. I don't care why.]] |
| 299 | * In ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'', Trap Jaw was merely one of Skeletor's henchmen of average intelligence. In ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2021'', Trap Jaw is an EvilGenius and GadgeteerGenius specialized in weapons development. |
| 300 | * ''WesternAnimation/MarvelsSpiderMan'': |
| 301 | ** The show depicts Horizon Labs from ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManDanSlott'' as a high school for geniuses with several characters going there, including Harry Osborn, [[Characters/MarvelComicsMilesMorales Miles Morales]], and a pre-Rhino Aleksei Sytsevich. In the comics, while the former two aren't dumb, Harry wasn't as enthusiastic about science as Peter, and Miles was admitted to a STEM school via lottery; and before becoming the Rhino, Sytsevich was DumbMuscle incarnate. Likewise, John Jameson, while himself not an idiot, is also a TeenGenius. |
| 302 | ** Though she was never portrayed as an idiot, and after the Amazing Spider-Man saga it's not ''unprecedented,'' it's almost surreal to see OhCrap reactions to the idea of going up against the nigh-legendary intellect that is ''Gwen Stacy.'' |
| 303 | ** Most of his supporting cast and rogues' gallery appear as students or staff members of this school for geniuses or its rival school Osborn Academy, so you can say that the only characters not affected by this are Aunt May and Norman Osborn (Norman is, as always, a highly intelligent DiabolicalMastermind and EvilGenius, but that is not something limited to this series.) |
| 304 | ** And it's not just a FridgeLogic thing -- "huh, all of Peter's usual classmates and a couple of pre-evil bad guys are here, but since it's ''this'' school it means they're all geniuses, right? Even the Rhino?" No, science plays a much bigger role in this series than most, so you see them all putting those brains to work. |
| 305 | ** Flash Thompson is a ''heavily'' downplayed example of this trope. While not a genius by any means, he's shown to have some skill in science, can build a working baking soda volcano, and used his football knowledge to help Spider-Man [[spoiler: stop the V-252 -- which will come to be known as the Venom Symbiote.]] |
| 306 | * In ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies2018'', the Swedish Chef is not only more coherent, but a much more competent cook compared to his adult counterpart seen in ''Series/TheMuppetShow''. For instance, when making meatballs, Baby Chef, while needing some redirection after a bad first batch, made a delicious meal; adult Chef ended up with meatballs so rubbery, they could double as tennis balls. |
| 307 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyAdventuresWithSuperman'': |
| 308 | ** [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in regards to Lois Lane, as while she's never been a particularly dumb character, when it comes to figuring out that Clark and Superman are the same person, it usually takes her quite a bit of time before piecing things together despite the fact that she interacts with both of them on a regular basis. In this show, meanwhile, she's able to figure this information out by the end of the 4th episode, which is incredibly quick compared to most other versions of her. |
| 309 | ** Jimmy Olsen in the comics [[spoiler:wasn't able to figure out that Clark is Superman until a quite a while after they met]]. In this show, meanwhile, [[spoiler:Jimmy was able to figure out that Clark has superpowers from the moment they first met, and so knew that Clark and Superman were one and the same from the moment Superman first arrived on the scene]]. |
| 310 | * In ''WesternAnimation/PeterPanAndThePirates'': |
| 311 | ** Peter is considerably much more cunning and mature than most of his representations in other media. He still has bad memory and is impulsive, but not to the level of sociopathy shown in some versions, and is presented as a pretty competent leader and strategist and with much more social skills. |
| 312 | ** Tinkerbell is no longer an unintelligible fairy incapable of showing more than one basic emotion at the time; instead she is an intelligent mature woman well-versed in magic and a DeadpanSnarker. |
| 313 | ** Captain Hook is changed from the IneffectualSympatheticVillain he is in the original play to a WickedCultured intellectual. |
| 314 | * In the 1980s version of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'', Hordak was a boorish idiot. In the 2018 reboot, ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', he's highly intelligent, articulate, and proficient in multiple sciences. |
| 315 | ** Similarly, the 1985 version of Catra was a run-of-the-mill henchwoman of the aforementioned boorish idiot; while the 2018 version schemes[=/=]works her way up from ordinary trooper, to field commander, to Hordak's second-in-command, to the functional power behind the throne in turn despite being barely out of her teens and skirting a nervous breakdown for the latter bit. |
| 316 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'': In [[ComicBook/SpiderMan the comics]], Tombstone was a thug who dropped out of high school and became a leg breaker for the mob. In the series, he's the head of a major crime organization and posing as a legitimate businessman. |
| 317 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', Debra Whitman went from a ShrinkingViolet in the comics to an intellectual rival to Peter Parker. |
| 318 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends,'' Bizarro and Solomon Grundy keep their HulkSpeak but are as able to come up with the EvilPlan of the week and take the lead in it as anyone else in the Legion of Doom. |
| 319 | * [[ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} Slade]] from ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' is by no means stupid in the comics, but he is more of a {{Hired Gun|s}} and mercenary more comfortable on the field, and while he can be good at manipulation, there are plenty of villains more competent than him. In the Teen Titans cartoon, he is portrayed as a criminal mastermind and the show's biggest {{Chessmaster}}. |
| 320 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'', [[BumblingHenchmenDuo Bebop and Rocksteady]] were, to put it bluntly, [[DumbMuscle dumb as bricks]]. In ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'', while they're not ''geniuses'', they're much more competent and intelligent. |
| 321 | * In the original ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' books Kanga is just as stupid as the other residents of Hundred Acre Wood, but Disney's adaptations tend to make her smarter, acting as the TeamMom of the cast. |
| 322 | * Much like in the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse, Wally West is depicted with knowledge in science in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''. |
| 323 | [[/folder]] |
| 324 |
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