Clay himself is much more proactive in the series in trying to get justice for Hannah. This is partially due to the Adaptation Expansion, as in the novel Clay listens to the tapes in one day and that is essentially the entire plot. In the series, Clay listens to the tapes over a number of weeks and even calls out the subjects of the tapes for mistreating Hannah.
In the book Hannah wakes up when the crash into the stop sign happens. In the series, she partially causes it by distracting Sherri, making the latter more sympathetic. Sherri is also shown to be deeply conflicted by it and ultimately reports it to the police.
Justin is softened slightly in the series. In the book he and Hannah dated for a while and then he abruptly broke up with her, breaking her heart. He doesn't do this in the series, and they never end up actually getting together. His abusive home life is also shown in great detail, and he's very much a pawn of the jocks he hangs around with. He also tries harder to resist Bryce's attempts to get into the room with Jessica, while in the book, even Bryce himself is surprised by how quickly he got Justin to comply.
In the Indian adaptation of the American series 24, the Nina Myers character (Nikita Rai) is loyal, stays by the cause of the show's CTU (named ATU) and does not kill this show's version of Teri (Trisha).
Accused (2023): A very mild example in "Morgan's Story". However, in the original show's episode "Kesha's Story" this is based on, the people responsible for framing the lead are worse than here. The husband in the original raped her, rather than attempting to as here and his father (not brother) showed no problem with framing her.
The sultan in Arabian Nights goes through over 1000 wives before Scheherezade comes forward to get the story going. The Hallmark Arabian Nights miniseries has Scheherezade as the first new wife he takes, thus stopping one of our protagonists from being responsible for over 1000 executions. Additionally, in the original story, he had his first wife executed for betraying him. In this adaptation, he killed her accidentally with a blow intended for his evil brother.
In the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, Gaius Baltar is significantly less villainous than his original series counterpart, Count Baltar. Count Baltar deliberately betrayed humanity to the Cylons For the Evulz, while Gaius was tricked. Subsequent actions on the behalf of the Cylons were down to cowardice, and a couple of examples of poor character judgement rather than vindictiveness.
While the Supes are still as hedonistic and depraved as the comic, unlike the comic the Supes don't just sit around collecting royalties and being little more than publicity figures with powers, they actually do help to stop crimes, even if the crimes are carefully selected by Vought for the maximum PR, unlike the comic where they were legally barred from actually doing any vigilante work.
In regards to Ezekiel, if you consider him a white version of Oh Father, the comic Supe at the center of the Believe' festival, this version isn't a pedophile at least.
Lamplighter would get the prehaps the biggest case of this. In the comics he was another evil Smug Super who killed Mallory's grandchildren before getting killed himself and being resurrected as a foul zombie covered in shit. In the show the children's deaths he caused was purely accidental and he deeply hates himself for it, Unlike the comic he actually helps The Boys, being one of the few members of The Seven besides Starlight and Mauve who has some functioning morailty.
Thanks to the Not His Sled departure from the comics Black Noir is not the disgustingly vile baby eating clone of Homelander who raped and impregnated Becca and gaslit Homelander into thinking he had done it all, rather a completely different character Earving who was an innocent man Reforged into a Minion by Vought after getting severe brain damage from Soldier Boy almost killed him. Though Black Noir getting a complete overhaul meant that Homelander got Adaptational Villainy as a result.
The famed ruda Princesa Sugey was a bodyguard to the Monterrey area talk show host La Pao on Curva Directa. Rule of Funny applied given that Monterrey was the area she worked in at the time.
Cursed (2020): Nimue and Morgana, who are usually villains, become heroes here (or anti-heroes perhaps).
Dirk Gently in the novels may sincerely believe in "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things", but he's quite happy to use it as an excuse to go on a tropical holiday and bill his clients for it because it was somehow connected to finding their cats, or to take a large sum of money to protect a man he's almost certain is delusional. Dirk in the TV series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency has his problems, but he's never been connected enough to consensus reality to even attempt being a con man, and it probably wouldn't occur to him even if he was.
In the books, Bianca is a high-ranking villainous vampire. In the show, she's much more sympathetic and she and Harry end up on the same side more often than not.
Morgan in the books, while a good guy, was a Lawful StupidInspector Javert who watched Harry like a hawk waiting for the slightest excuse to chop off his head. This version doesn't trust Harry but wants to help the innocent too, which leaves them begrudgingly on the same side more often than not, while having a problem with how visible he makes himself, and the amount of kablooey his larger battles cause. Also, the not trusting him bit isn't purely because he killed Justin in self defense like in the books, but also because he was taught by Justin in the first place. This Morgan is far from Harry's biggest fan, but we go from "he broke a law, forget why he did it, Off with His Head!!" to "yeah, he mostly does what's right, but he's got no regard for the masquerade, he was the student and relative of a Big Bad, and ye gods, the property damage! Keep an eye on this one."
To readers of the novels, the show characters are quite easily identifiable as CompositeCharacters. Show!Morgan is a mix of the two sword-wielding badasses Morgan and Michael Carpenter (Michael being staunchly pro-Harry). Similarly, Show!Bianca is a combination of Book!Bianca and Lara. Apparently there is only room for one sexy lady vampire, so she got the helpfulnees and flirtiness from Lara and the job and description from Book!Bianca.
The Huang parents in the TV adaptation of Fresh Off the Boat, in comparison to the original memoir. Jessica in particular is greatly toned down from her portrayal as a borderline abusive Tiger Mom, since a more faithful depiction likely would've veered into Dude, Not Funny! territory.
Richie Gecko is still a creepy psycho, but unlike his Ax-Crazymovie counterpart, he has the excuse that supernatural forces are actively messing with his head.
The vampire Santanico Pandemonium is portrayed as a Tragic Monster in the series, whereas in the movie she had no such redeeming traits and was an unambiguous monster.
The Handmaid's Tale: At least in comparison to the original book, courtesy of character expansion, when Serena Joy affords some, even if obsolete, genuine pity for Offred at times.
Hanna: Marissa. In the original film, she's a straight villain. Here, she starts out conflicted and then ends up aiding Hanna, turning to good.
In his original portrayal Sun Wukong kills wantonly as soon as he is not within the presence of his master. This happens throughout almost the entire journey. The popular 1996 and 2002 HK adaptations had him portrayed as a more merciful character from the start. As a result, his actions of killing the robbers, hunters, and oppressors were often omitted.
Tang Sanzang's original portrayal was worse. Acts hypocritically or at best inconsistently, and seemed to treat his disciples as tools most of the time. He also wept fearfully when threatened by demons, while popular adaptations such as the HK versions (1996 and 2002) had him Face Death with Dignity and showed genuine care and concern for his disciples.
Kamen Rider Fourze's movie pulls both this trope and its opposite with characters based on Space Ironmen Kyodain, another Shotaro Ishinomori creation. Inga Blink (inspired by the villainous Goblin Queen) and her bodyguard Black Knight become heroes who help Fourze, while the Kyodain are the main antagonists of the film.
The Crossover between Fourze and Kamen Rider Wizard likewise casts the Akumaizer 3 trio as villains. It also seems to do the same to Inazuman, having a similarly-named character who turns into Sanagimannote Inazuman's pre-evolution form antagonize Fourze; in the end it turns out that he's just suffering from All of the Other Reindeer and after a heart-to-heart with Fourze pulls a Heel–Face Turn, at which point Sanagiman molts into Inazuman.
In Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, some Riders are considerably nicer than their original Kamen Rider Ryuki counterparts. Ryuki is basically Highlander as a Toku, so the main hero is the only one at first who is not just out for himself. In Dragon Knight, a lot of them remain just out for themselves, but Wing Knight (Knight) and Siren (Femme) are true heroes. When Len is training Kit early on, that's taken from a scene where Ren was trying to kill Shinji because he'd be trouble down the road. Kase fighting JTC is still Kase fighting JTC, but in Ryuki, the reason is different: Miho just wanted revenge on Asakura. Also, Mirror Kit is Adam, downgraded from evil like mirror Shinji to merely selfish and eventually making a Heel–Face Turn. But perhaps the biggest case of all is Alternative. In Ryuki, he was highly antagonistic to all the Riders and was willing to kill an innocent woman if it meant ending the Rider War. His Dragon Knight counterpart Eubulon on the other hand is the Big Good.
In The Last Kingdom, Aldhelm does a Heel–Face Turn and protects Aethelflaed from Aethelred's plan to kill her, tells her of Aethelred's plan to divorce her by having him seduce her instead of carrying it out, and even falls in love with her, eventually prompting Aethelred to stab him, leaving his fate ambiguous as he thinks he's dying while Aethelflaed insists he'll live. In Season 3's book equivalent, Aldhelm attempts to carry out Aethelred's aforementioned divorce scheme and is killed by Uhtred.
In the Sword of Truth series, Richard's step-brother, Michael, is a villain of the first book, who's willingly in league with Darken Rahl, and executed after his treachery is found out. In this he is instead tricked into serving Rahl, and when push comes to shove he sides with his brother, dying in a Heroic Sacrifice.
James is a villain in the books who works for Queen Milena as her court artist, painting pictures of people that affect them. Here he's mostly good, though still some somewhat sketchy since his art magic creates paintings that trap people inside when he paints them into there, and he wants Livia to stay inside one with him forever so she'll be safe, but he makes a Heroic Sacrifice to get them out in the end.
Panis Rahl is dead by the time of the books (at Zedd's hand) and a brutal tyrant without any redeeming qualities. Here he's never seen to be anything but a mildly corrupt king. Zedd teaches him magic, heals his infertility, and appears to be his friend. Panis tries to stop his son Darken Rahl when he sees his evil by fathering a second son, Richard, who's prophesied to defeat Darken. Then, presumably when he hears Darken killed all newborn boys in Brennidon to kill Richard, he fathers a daughter for the same purpose, who also plays a part in Darken's defeat. The only questionable things we see him do is to kill Caracticus Zorrander, Zedd's father (which was in revenge for Caracticus' attempt to murder his son), plus seducing Richard and Jennsen's mother in the guise of another man. He later spends decades as a monk atoning for what he did wrong, helps Richard to find the Stone of Tears in the form of a scholar, and after this he sacrifices his life for Zedd's.
Let the Right One In: Håkan in the novel is a pedophile with prurient motives in serving Eli. Mark, in contrast, is trying to keep his vampire daughter alive and find a cure.
In the 2004 Marple adaptation of The Body in the Library, Mark Gaskell's role as one of the murderers was shifted Adelaide. Also, the TV version of Mark is shown to be a very kind man, even though he's really careless with his words and his money, whereas in the books he's rude, unpleasant, egotistical gambler.
The Tusken Raiders aka Sand People of Tatooine, have constantly been portrayed in both the Star Wars Legends and in canon as vicious Always Chaotic EvilDesert Bandits who are always hostile to other races and even helped kick off Anakin's Start of Darkness by torturing and murdering his mother. In The Mandalorian however as a change of pace, the Tusken Raiders are presented as more reasonable being able to be bargained and negotiated with, and as Season 2 Chapter Nine "The Marshal" shows, even willingly to help Mando and villagers against a larger threat such as the Kyrat Dragon. The titular Mandalorian explains that the Sand People are just what comes from living on a crapsack planet like Tatooine and how they're not that different from the other inhabitants.
The Mandalorians themselves get a bit of Adaptational Heroism, in the previous continuity and The Clone Wars they're far from benevolent being a brutal Proud Warrior Race and Blood Knights who warred against the Jedi and over time descended into mercenaries and bounty hunters. In the show, the Mandalorians are still very ruthless but their nicer qualities are more apparent as seen in the Flash Back where the Mandalorians rescue the protagonist Din Djarin from Separatist Battle Droids and took him under their wing, heroism that's rarely seen from them in other Star Wars media and the purging of Mandalorians by The Empire is treated as a tragedy. One Mandalorian, The Armorer, even encourages Mando to help The Child find its own kind despite the fact Force Users have been sworn enemies of the Mandalorians in the past.
Max Headroom: In the original TV film, Bryce Lynch hires thugs to kill the hero, Edison Carter. Lynch's boss reacts angrily when he hears the news, saying "I run a television network, not a goddamn hit squad!" but Lynch defends his brutal tactics as rational. In the show, Lynch's boss is the one who tries to have Carter killed. Lynch is a morally neutral character who will occasionally work with Carter, rather than the clear villain he is in the film.
Rumplestilskin constantly changes sides and time will tell on which one he'll end but he has a sympathetic backstory and motivates (at first) and he's not an unrepentant baby eater like in the original tale.
Hansel and Gretel's father is shown to be loving parent who didn't abandon them, but was kidnapped by the Evil Queen so she could both manipulate the twins into killing the Witch for her, and so she could adopt them as part of her endless quest to find unconditional love.
The Wicked Witch of the East in the original Oz books was...well, wicked. In her brief appearance, she is one of three good witches — and Zelena, who is the Wicked Witch of the West in this series, is the only Wicked Witch there. She undergoes a Heel–Face Turn at the end of Season 5.
The Little Mermaid (1989): Ursula is reimagined as an ancient sea goddess, who is implied to be benevolent (granting mermaids the power to walk on land once a year). An evil sea witch called Ursula appears in Season 4 — but this one is named after the goddess and also pulls off a Heel–Face Turn. This is slightly more in line with the original story, where the sea witch wasn't evil but neutral. (There's technically three Ursulas — the goddess, the sea witch/former mermaid, and Regina impersonating Ursula. The third is actually the closest to the Disney version's appearance, as well as the one who's completely evil — she took Ursula's form to trap Snow White, who'd become friends with Ariel.)
The Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood in a sense as Red, herself, is really the wolf.
The Knave of Hearts is one of Robin Hood's Merry Men who was manipulated into serving the Queen of Hearts.
The Phantom of the Opera (1990) featured Charles Dance as a gentler, kinder and more sympathetic Phantom than his counterpart in the original novel.
The Big Four turns Li Chang Yen, Régine Olivier and Abe Ryland, three of the titular characters of the so-called "Big Four", from megalomaniacal leaders bent on world domination in the novel, into pacifist members of the Peace Party who have been framed for a string of murders by Number Four (who here has been named Albert Whalley, a.k.a. Claud Darrell, a.k.a. Dr. Quentin), whose usage of the title "Big Four" into scaring the world is all just a figment of Whalley's imagination.
Cards on the Table clears Anne Meredith from the murders she committed in the book and moves the guilt to her friend/house mate, Rhoda Dawes.
Power Rangers in Space does this with Astronema, her equivalents in Megaranger (Dr. Hinlear and Shibolena) are straight villains who outside of a few Even Evil Has Loved Ones moments don't show any signs of good. Astronema is the Brainwashed and CrazyBig Bad sister of the Red Ranger who shows some Pet the Dog moments before doing a Heel–Face Turn. Neither Dr. Hinlear nor Shibolena join the side of good or become Power Rangers.
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy takes Gingaman's Sambash, a nasty cruel piece of work, and changes him into Villamax, a noble Anti-Villain whose only act of evil is being loyal to Trakeena (he even takes a stand against her displays of wonton cruelty at the end). Sambash's despicable personality is transferred over to Deviot and Furio.
Power Rangers Samurai does this in adapting Samurai Sentai Shinkenger's Fuwa Juzo into Deker. Both of them are Blood Knights, but while Juzo is a remorseless killer, Deker was made into an Anti-Villain by making his battle-lust a curse placed on him that he hates. Basically, Deker is what Juzo led us to think he was before The Reveal that he wasn't misunderstood, just evil. However, this makes Deker's death in a manner similar to Juzo'sever so tragic.
Dayu is made more sympathetic, especially back during her human days, even if in the end she does just as much bad stuff in both versions.
In Tensou Sentai Goseiger, Gosei Knight starts out largely indifferent to helping humans, only incidentally helping them because of his mission protecting the planet itself, and often doesn't care if they get hurt in fights at least until the Goseigers make him see the worth of protecting human lives. In Power Rangers Megaforce, Robo Knight is exactly the same, but stops short of destroying a factory to stop its pollution as a way of protecting the environment.
Alex in Power Rangers Time Force. While he is still a massive Jerkass, he's ultimately well meaning and trying to save the world. His counterpart in Mirai Sentai Time Ranger, on the other hand was downright evil, having been responsible for the events of the series occurring in the first place, and despite making efforts to save the future, he was willing to allow mass destruction to be wrought in the present. Furthermore, saving the future was a secondary goal, his primary being ensuring his own survival, at the cost of having someone else die in his place.
The Monster of the Week Notacon in Time Force and his Timeranger counterpart, D.D. Ladis, are both sympathetic characters in their respective series. However, D.D. Ladis was initially arrested for bombmaking, unaware his creations were used to kill people. Notacon's crime was stealing vegetables.
Tommy in the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers series. While he was an enemy during the "Green with Evil" arc, he's shown as being a good person who was brainwashed into becoming evil against his will by Rita, as opposed to his counterpart Burai in Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger who hated the Zyurangers due to being jealous of his brother, the team's leader Geki, and had to be talked out of being an enemy rather than have a spell on him broken.
Similar to Tommy, Trent in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder is a good person who ended up being brainwashed by the evil White Dino Gem and forced to fight the other Dino Thunder rangers. Once the gem's evil encoding was destroyed midway through the show, Trent immediately switched over to the good guys. His counterpart, Mikoto Nakadai in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, is an amoral Jerkass who became evil by his own admission simply to alleviate his boredom after spending his entire life succeeding at everything. Unlike Trent, Nakadai only becomes good at the very tail end of the show.
In the [Preacher comics]], Cassidy's always looking out for himself, but most people enjoy his company enough that they overlook this. Here, Cassidy's willing to commit suicide to try to force Jesse to quit rationalizing and save "Arseface" (Eugene), a character he clearly otherwise cares little about.
Also in the comics, Cassidy's attraction to Tulip leads him to initially act like the creepy, unsympathetic version of the Dogged Nice Guy, and later behave outright abusively towards her. In the TV show, he is honest about his feelings for her right from the start.
Unlike in the manga, in this adaptation Zoicite retained his memories of his past and flat out refused to work with Queen Beryl, instead becoming a Well-Intentioned Extremist trying to keep Endymion from Serenity (as Serenity destroyed the world due to his death before).
After Nephrite is killed, he's reincarnated as a normal human and has some Ship Tease with Ami, who was kind to him while she was Brainwashed and Crazy as Dark Mercury.
In Pretty Little Liars, Alison DiLaurentis is quite the Alpha Bitch but not nearly as a horrible person as she is in the novels. Unlike her book counterpart, she never tried to kill anyone and after coming back to Rosewood, is trying to shed her more nasty traits and become a better person and fix her relationship with her friends.
Raffles: the titular character was a Villain Protagonist in the original stories, albeit of the sympathetic Lovable Rogue variety; in the (more light-hearted) TV show based on the books, he is a straight-up Anti-Hero who never flirts with the idea of more serious crimes and is much nicer and less manipulative towards his sidekick Bunny.
RoboCop: The Series does this with the Old Man's counterpart, the Chairman. Whereas, even barring his Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome in RoboCop 2, the Old Man was apathetic towards people in the first movie (his anger at the ED-209 screw up was more about the product malfunctioning, not the fact that the malfunction got an employee killed), the Chairman, while still greedy, does indeed care about people, willing to help them out and make things right when he finds out his company did something bad.
A Series of Unfortunate Events: Double Subverted with Aunt Josephine. The series has the characters first learn about her in the episode previous to her first appearance. Another character describes her as "fierce and formidable", a term which would never describe the Aunt Josephine from the books. However, when we meet her in the next episode, Josephine is every bit as cowardly and terrified as her literary counterpart. We later learn, though, that this version of Josephine in fact *had been* fierce and formidable, prior to the loss of her husband.
Sherlock exploits this in "The Hound of Baskerville" in the form of Dr. Stapleton, who shares the name of the villain of the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. The culprit turns out to be a completely different character.
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty gives Zheng Zhi a more sympathetic reason to commit fratricide than he had in The Fourteenth Year Of Chenghua. In the show, he wants to restore his family's honor after his brother has besmirched it, as opposed to his desire to be named heir in the book.
The Prophet is still a dangerous Cult leader, but he isn't a pedophile and he's portrayed as more conflicted and redeemable than his novel counterpart.
Elizabeth and Arthur don't have an affair while Arthur is still married to Miranda, unlike in the book (although Miranda still suspects them of it).
Supernatural features a twist on the Biblical story of Cain and Abel that paints Cain in a much better light: Cain killed Abel because Abel believed he was talking to God, but was actually talking to Lucifer, who intended to trick Abel into giving up his soul. Cain offered his own soul in exchange for Abel going to Heaven, and Lucifer accepted on the condition that Cain kill Abel himself.
Tales from the Crypt: In "The Man Who Was Death" Niles is much less evil than his comics counterpart Edgar Bowman, going after those criminals let off who are clearly guilty, while his comics self went after people who had just been found not guilty, with at least one victim implied to have been innocent.
In the novel on which The Time In Between is based, Ignacio harasses Sira as long as possible, while in the adaptation, he has a Heel–Face Turn and helps her help Paquita.
Gomora from the Ultra Series. Introduced in the original Ultraman as a ferocious rampaging dinosaur kaiju who proved to be one of Ultraman's most powerful foes, Gomora proved to be so popular with fans that in Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, he was made the giant hero of the show, battling other rampaging kaiju under the command of a superpowered human named Rei. The trend was continued in Ultraman X, in which Gomora is Daichi's longtime companion (usually at Sleep-Mode Size though) and can be summoned in a digital form called Cyber Gomora to help XIO battle the Monster of the Week.
Ultraseven's most famous foe Eleking received similar treatment in Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle as well, though he was initially an enemy that Gomora fought when ZAP SPACY encountered him. Unlike Gomora, this has remained his only heroic appearance to date, though a very popular one.
Vanya. In the comics, she is a willing participant in the apocalypse, joining the Apocalypse Suite in order to destroy the world after being rebuked and disrespected by her siblings one too many times. In the show, she goes through a Trauma Conga Line of epic proportions, still being disrespected by her siblings, but now piling up an abusive boyfriend, repressed memories from her traumatic past coming to her, being locked in a cell by her brother and finally snapping, making her much more innocent and sympathetic about eventually causing the apocalypse (which happens more or less by accident). By the second season, Vanya has become an outright hero the same as her siblings.
Five. The series add an inordinate amount of focus on the fact he does care for his siblings and loves them dearly, instead of his pragmatic Anti-Hero nature like he is in the comics. He even goes on to explain how unpleasant it is to kill someone innocent, even when he knows it will help save the entire world.
Hazel. In the comic, he is a sugar-addicted psychopath who gleefully beats down a waitress and tears off another man's arms, in the series, he is a Hitman with a Heart that confesses that finds his job really unpleasant and no longer wants to kill, seeking to run away and starts a peaceful, idyllic life with Agnes, the waitress he killed in the comics, now his Love Interest.
Diego. While still a heroic vigilante in the comics, is still far less noble and more of a jackass who actively antagonizes his teammates and has a big Kick the Dog moment to his robotic mother who he doesn’t treat as human. In the show while Diego has occasionally dickish moments early on, he loves his family greatly and actually encourages them to come together as a team, Diego also adores his robo-mom in the show and would never debase her like he did in the comic.
Allison. In the comics she was much more flawed and troubled character who actually uses her Compelling Voice to make Luther kiss her in some Questionable Consent. In show she never uses her powers like that and her relationship with Luther is more genuine albeit tragic, in the show the worst thing Allison does is make Vanya forget that she has powers as a kid, which Allison deeply regrets. This pales in comparison to the comic where Allison uses her power to assassinate JFK while disguised as his wife Jacqueline: “I heard a rumor the back of your head is about to explode”. Inverted in Season 3, where Allison has a Sanity Slippage at losing both her daughter and husband from The '60s and does almost rape Luther with her power before killing Harlan in cold blood and working with Hargreeves to betray the rest of her siblings, actions way more morally bankrupt than her comic counterpart.
In The Vampire Diaries, Caroline goes from a vicious bitch who tries her utmost to ruin Elena's life to a sympathetic character. She becomes outright heroic after becoming a vampire.
Trampas was the villain in the original novel and film adaptations of The Virginian. On the TV show, he's the titular character's right hand man and essentially a co-lead since the show tended to rotate the focus between several characters.
The show sees Geralt get a heroic makeover. In the short stories the episodes are based on (and their previous adaptation, The Hexer), Geralt is shown to be wrong about his worldview, particularly where other people/races factor in, more than a few times, but that never happens in the show. Another stark contrast is him invoking the Law of Surprise: in the short story he does so specifically to take a child from its mother because that's the only way more Witchers can be created, and he is rightly hated for it because it's a dick move. In the TV show, it happens by accident when he jokingly invokes it. Additionally in the Blood of Elves Geralt along the other Witchers was totally okay with giving Ciri harmful hormone changes with potions to make her Witcher-like and was only stopped by the intervention of Triss. In contrast to the show, where Geralt is the one who is the most opposed to magically enhancing Ciri, and personally prevents Vesemir from giving her Super Serum that would turn her into a Witcher like him.
Vereena, the Bruxa lover of Nivellen gets this. In The Last Wish as a monster she doesn't speak and only giving a nod or a shake of her head in response to Geralt interrogating her, and the Witcher deduces she was planning to enslave Nivellen to her will. Her death at Geralt's hands has the positive result in freeing Nivellen of his beast-like appearance that he was cursed with. In the show, Vereena can speak and shows compassion to Ciri, giving her a beautiful dress and not killing her even when given the chance, instead just tucking her into bed and kissing her hand. While she does kill villagers and briefly hold Ciri hostage, the former was due to insatible hunger and in the latter she only did so to forcefully negotiate Geralt to leave her and Nivellen alone. Her death that is treated with more tragedy than in the book, especially since she was the only who could love Nivellen after he raped the priestess, unlike the book where he was forced into the act by his boyhood gang.
Lambert would get a ton of this, in the books he's a straight up Jerkass who frequently insults Triss (and even pervs on her breasts at one point) and is callously harsh while giving Ciri Training from Hell. In the show he's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who doesn't actually mean any harm, being Vitriolic Best Buds with Triss and is much more caring to Ciri despite the harsh training, acting as her Big Brother Mentor alongside Coën. When Triss calls him and the other Witchers out for not acknowledging Ciri's feminine needs, he seems geuinely regretful unlike in the book where he didn't much care. This likely a result of swapping his role with other Witcher Eskel, who was a big brothely role model to Ciri in the books but turns into a Leshy tree monster and dies in the show.
Triss get a bit of this as well. In the book out of jealously of Yennefer whom is Geralt's One True Love, Triss seduces the Witcher using her magic (after he was just recovering from Yennefer leaving him) and essentially tries to supplant Yennefer, before eventually stopping herself out of guilt. The show removes this subplot with Triss not using her magic in such manner, and while she does have feeling for Geralt, they never escalate that far. On the other hand Triss does get some Adaptational Jerkass in withholding knowedge of Yennefer's survival of Sodden from the grieving Geralt, something she doesn't do in the books.
The Worst Witch did this with a lot of characters who mostly made one or two appearances in the books but had their roles expanded on the series.
Miss Drill was a strict Drill Sergeant Nasty who becomes the teacher the girls can confide in the most.
Miss Bat similarly was your average strict teacher as well but got changed to a quirky and lovable Cloudcuckoolander that was always friendly to the girls.
Ethel herself gets a few Hidden Depths and becomes a sort of friend to Mildred in the spin-off Weirdsister College.
Miss Hardbroom was a Sadist Teacher that got maybe one Pet the Dog moment in the books. She is still a bit of a Sadist Teacher in the series but is much more sympathetic and is shown to genuinely care for the girls and the welfare of the school.
In the live-action drama based on Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Rika is not an enforcer of Big Bad Haruma Yamazaki like she is in the manga and anime — instead, she's a neutral character strolling around on her own until persuaded to join Yamada's side.
