Abled in the Adaptation

Hunter Zolomon in The Flash comics (left) and The Flash (2014) (right).

Sometimes in adaptations a character's physical or mental illness is removed or downplayed compared to the source. This could be for pragmatic reasons (such as the disability being difficult to adapt) but often times the disability is simply removed. One reason for the removal is to make a character more threatening.

Sub-trope of Adaptation Deviation. Compare to Throwing Off the Disability and Adaptational Skill and contrast with Disabled in the Adaptation.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Ace Attorney (2016) Edgeworth's PTSD is greatly reduced, with his debilitating phobia of earthquakes being entirely absent. This is particularly strange when you consider that this particular fear was an extremely important part of Edgeworth's character in the games, and the effects of his phobia (ranging from passing out to crying curled up on the floor) were a very important plot point for at least three cases.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016), the Hero's Shade still has both of his eyes.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Hayate was paraplegic as a child in the main Lyrical Nanoha continuity (though she later regained use of her legs). Her appearance in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT is capable of walking from the very beginning.
  • Also downplayed in the video games: In the primary continuity of Lyrical Nanoha, Hayate spent at least a year in rehab after Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's before she could walk again. In the Alternate Continuity of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable games, however, she is able to walk right away, thanks to Reinforce still being alive to give her full control of her body.
  • Main series Precia was both mentally and physically ill, having been driven to madness from the death of her daughter Alicia and in the final stages of a terminal illness by the time the first season starts. Her INNOCENT counterpart on the other hand is perfectly healthy and (mostly) sane.
• In Tales from Earthsea, Therru has half of her face red, like a bad sunburn. The original books had her suffer burns which burned that side to the bone, making her lose an eye. Her hand was burned to uselessness as well.
• Latifa from Amagi Brilliant Park was originally blind in the light novels. This was downplayed to being physically ill with no mention of blindness in the anime adaptation.
• Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) anime downplayed a few from the source material. The first anime ended before the manga, however, which means the writers didn't know of the manga ending at the time:
  • In the manga, Alphonse's body is extremely malnourished when it is finally restored. In the anime, it remains in the very same state (stalled aging and all) when it was taken.
  • Edward zig-zags this. In the anime's Grand Finale, he briefly regains his lost arm and leg before performing a Heroic Sacrifice to bring Al back which results in Ed being sent to an Alternate Universe where he once again lost his restored limbs. The source material's Grand Finale has Ed at least getting his arm restored.
• The original ending of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam has Kamille Bidan defeating the Big Bad at the expense of getting brain damage. The twentieth-anniversary theatrical re-release omits this fate.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • At the end of Pokémon Sun and Moon, Lusamine still suffers from the effects of Nihilego's toxins. Her daughter Lillie decides to travel to Kanto with her and see if Bill can give them advice. In the anime, she's only ill for a period before going back to normal after a few episodes. As a result, Lillie doesn't go to Kanto.
  • In the games, Necrozma was "crippled" by ancient people who wanted its power for themselves, causing it immense pain and necessitating it to consume all available light that it can. It can also only transform into Ultra Necrozma if it has merged/absorbed with Solgaleo or Lunala. In the anime it manages to become "healed" of this affliction when Ash, his friends, and the people and Pokémon of the whole Alola region share their energy with it, allowing it to transform into Ultra Necrozma indefinitely and without absorbing Solgaleo or Lunala beforehand.
  • It's unknown if it's an actual disability or not, but Erika randomly falls asleep mid-sentence. This element of her character is left out of her Pokémon anime, Pokémon Adventures, Pokémon Zensho and Pokémon: I Choose You! incarnations.
  • Crossing over with Adaptational Intelligence, Galar Champion Leon in Pokémon Journeys lacks the No Sense of Direction problem of his counterpart from Pokémon Sword and Shield...and then implied to be subverted in the third version of the OP, visibly confused looking at his Wild Area map.
  • Thankfully, Dracovish has no problem breathing out of the water. Cara Liss's theories are still completely wrong because it's two completely different ancient Pokemon fused together, but at least they excise that tidbit of its flavor text.
• In the School-Live! manga, Team Mom Yuuri undergoes a mental breakdown in the second arc. This is foreshadowed by her two Freak Outs in the manga, first when she loses her cool when it seems like she'll have to Mercy Kill her friend Kurumi and then again when a rescue helicopter crashes. The former is toned down in the anime and the second doesn't even happen. This makes Rii a more stable character in anime canon.
• Hikari in Digimon Adventure: (2020): shows no signs of the illness that left her unable to attend the summer camp with the other Chosen Children in the original Digimon Adventure.
• Shinji Ikari in Evangelion -ANIMA- was able to get three years to work on his issues after defeating the angles. By the time he is reintroduced, Shinji is far more well-adjusted to life as an Evangelion pilot.
• Inazuma Eleven: In the game version, Demonio loses his eyesight completely after his body rejects the RH program. In the anime, his vision only blurs out.
• Shere Khan in The Jungle Book anime adaptation doesn't have his limp like in the source material, although he does get a bite wound on the leg from the late wolf pack leader Alexander, which he claims keeps bothering him.

Audio Play

• The Morgue Files: Unlike his inspiration, Ticci Toby, there is no indication that Tobias Adams has Tourette's.

Comic Books

• In the original continuity of Hellblazer, John's father Thomas was missing an arm, having lost it in WWII. In Hellblazer: Rise and Fall he still has both of his arms.
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles features Irma from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) as one of the characters. Unlike her original incarnation, this Irma doesn't wear glasses.
• Teen Titans: Earth One:
  • This continuity's Slade Wilson has both of his eyes intact.
  • Zig-zagged with Slade's son Joseph, who is introduced as able to speak without the need to possess people first when his canon incarnation was rendered mute from getting slashed in the throat at a young age, but he later uses his body-surfing ability to stay alive after his father accidentally slashes his throat.
• Teen Titans Go!: The comic's depiction of Robby Reed doesn't wear glasses.
• The incarnation of Snake-Eyes in Transformers vs. G.I. Joe differs sharply from most incarnations of the character because he isn't mute. That being said, he still speaks significantly less frequently than the other Joes.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • Captain Marvel had all his run, including his death, without cancer being mentioned at all.
  • During her brief appearance in Ultimate Spider-Man, while still wheelchair-bound and blind, Madame Web was shown not to be on life support equipment, likely due to being significantly younger than her mainstream counterpart.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1987): Hephaestus is often seen leaning on things but by the time he participates in several story arcs it's clear he's not crippled like his mythological counterpart even if he isn't as sprightly as the other gods.
  • Wonder Woman (2011): Hephaestus is a robust muscled humanoid who is very much in shape with no physical deformities besides those that reflect his relation to volcanoes.

Fan Works

• All Assorted Animorphs AUs: In "What if Elfangor and Loren raised Tobias?", Loren was never involved in the car accident that left her blind, scarred, and with retrograde amnesia.
• In the Game of Thrones fanfic The Young Stag, Bran retains the use of his legs after recovering from his fall.
• Vale's Underground:
  • In RWBY canon, Mercury Black lost his legs and needed them replaced with robotic prosthetics. Here, he retains his legs. Justified since this is a real-world AU and he wouldn't be able to get prosthetics that would allow him to fight as well as he does in canon.
  • Volume 6 confirms that Neopolitan is mute. Nia Poletti can talk just fine.
• Also in RWBY canon, it's confirmed that Neo is mute. In Burning Coals, Neo is indeed able to speak but prefers not to due to her own inability to trust and the fact that her throat is damaged, giving her a quiet, raspy voice.
• In RWBY canon, Yang got her arm cut off by Adam. In Ruby and Nora, she was thankfully spared this.
• The Butterfly Effect (Elfen Lied): Downplayed. In the original manga/anime, Nana's arms and legs were all severed by Lucy, forcing her to use Artificial Limbs. Here, after the limb severing, Kaede and Nyu come across Nana and try to heal her, but only manage to reattach one arm and one leg before Kakuzawa's men show up and force them to flee.
• Son of the Sannin:
  • Gaara doesn't suffer from insomnia due to Jiraiya repairing his seal while he's a child.
  • Kimimaro Kaguya, who suffered from a terminal illness that ended up killing him in canon, is cured by Orochimaru using the knowledge from the Scroll of Seals. As a result, he's at full health and power when the Sound Invasion arc rolls around, and even manages to survive his first encounter with the heroes.
  • The combination of Itachi never going undercover and Tsunade and Shizune returning to Konoha much earlier means that Itachi's illness is caught as soon as its symptoms first manifest and a treatment is devised to heal him before he can get any worse.
  • Shisui lost both of his eyes before committing suicide in canon (one stolen by Danzo, and the other willingly removed to give to Itachi). Here, he only loses the first one, and ends up getting it back several years later.
  • Since neither Hiruzen nor anybody else makes an attempt to seal Orochimaru's arms, he remains able to fully use them over the course of the story.
  • The events that led to A losing an arm to Sasuke never happen, and thus by the time the Fourth Ninja War begins, he still has it.
  • Naruto and Sasuke make it all the way to the ending with both their arms intact.
• In Ariel & Belle, Ursula doesn't take away Ariel's voice when she turns her into a human.
• The DC Universe and RWBY crossover Hunters of Justice sees Yang keep her arm (along with Pyrrha, Penny's original body, and Ozma's Ozpin form still being alive) thanks to Brainiac crashing the Vytal Festival before Cinder could enact her plans.
• Angel in Boop the Snoot for Critical Damage! doesn't require being constantly injected with Eridium to stay alive like she did in canon.
• Downplayed example in The Westerosi: Jade catches Bran before he hits the ground, leaving him with a badly broken leg instead of complete paralysis.
• In Natural Selection, Nui Harime never got her left eye cut out by Isshin Matoi, so she still has both eyes in the story.
• Seras in Honey and Vinegar never lost her arm here, so she still has both rather than her replacement shadow limb.
• The Redemption of Harley Quinn: Instead of a hook hand, Aaron Cash has a prosthetic robot hand like that of Cyborg.
• Because of Ben Tennyson's interference in her fight against Adam Taurus, Yang Xiao Long retains her arm in Ben 10 RWBY Volume 1: Dimension Twist. Similarly, Pyrrha is Spared by the Adaptation when Ben gets involved in her fight against Cinder.
• Scootaloo from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic more often than not gets this treatment:
  • The Great Alicorn Hunt involves Scootaloo ascending to Alicornhood.
  • If Wishes Were Ponies has Discord use his magic to increase the size of Scootaloo's underdeveloped wings.
• BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant:
  • Ragna was never maimed in his childhood and still has both arms here, unlike the games where Jin cut his right arm off.
  • Kagura completely lacks his canon counterpart's alcoholism, largely due to him being eighteen and as such unable to legally drink.
  • Yang doesn't lose her arm during the Fall of Beacon like in canon.
• Code Prime: Since it barely factored into the anime, Xingke's disease flat out does not exist in this story.
• Diary of an Analog: In canon Digimon Adventure 02, Gatomon loses her Holy Ring, reducing her to the power of a Rookie Level, and all of the other 1999 DigiDestined had lost the ability to go Ultimate or further by giving up the Crests in the year 2000 to free the Sovereigns. However, in this fic, as the crests are still acknowledged as having been destroyed in the final battle with Apocalymon, their powers internalized by the 1999 DigiDestined, and the fact Gatomon's gloves containing SaberLeomon data being a plot point, this ultimately leads to none of the 8 DigiDestined of 1999 being Nerfed like how they were in canon 02.
• Magic By Mikaila: In her video about Ron from Harry Potter, the "Movie" version of Ron walks away from Harry and Hermione, despite his counterpart being unable to walk due to a broken leg. The "Book" version states that his leg is broken but is able to walk without difficulty.
• A New Hope (Danganronpa): Due to Fuyuhiko not being a member of Ultimate Despair as well as Peko having a different execution, he keeps both of his eyes.
• In the Animorphs fanfic What Tomorrow Brings, Elfangor reattaches Mertil's severed tail.
• Subverted, zig-zagged and otherwise played with in XCOM: RWBY Within: Yang ends up losing more limbs than canon, but the circumstances are radically different and she certainly doesn't find the loss disabling, since they were removed to create a Wetware Interface for a suit of Powered Armour. An honourable mention also goes to Pyrrha in the sequel, who is an example of the opposite trope save for the fact that in canon she was killed outright instead of merely left paralyzed.
• Lucy in Infinity Train could only see with one eye due to a harpoon-pack-related incident making her lose the other one. In Infinity Train: Crown of Thorns, she has both eyes.
• Apex Predator (MHA):
  • Izuku uses his healing quirk to cure Ingenium's spine, allowing him to walk again.
  • He also accidentally heals All Might. At first he wanted to heal a new injury left by being impaled, but he accidentally restored his lung too. Izuku wants to heal all his injuries but everyone including the person he healed turn him down hard citing the drawbacks of his quirk.
• In Liberi Fatalis The Therianthrope Chronicles, and, unlike to her original canon, Rena Hirose no longer suffers from Silverstone Disease here. Instead, as per the author, she once had another ailment that has since been cured, but the details of that undisclosed condition remain a mystery.
• Vow of the King: Ukitake has his lungs healed by Orihime, enabling him to function normally for the first time in millennia.
• In Only Blue for You (an NSFW OMORI fic), Sunny is able to see from both eyes through the canon ending because his girlfriend, Cris, stopped Basil from accidentally stabbing his right eye.
• Peculiar Parasitic Phenomenon: Justified in case of Johngalli A, because the story takes place twelve years before the events of Stone Ocean and his vision didn't deteriorate to the point he's blind yet.
• For the Honor of the Regiment: Unlike canon where she was obese and barely functioning, Emily Piggot is noticeably muscular and only has a limp. Comments by others indicate that she disobeyed orders at Elisburg which had the effect of both greatly lessoning her injury and saving over half the soldiers there, rather than only her and Calvert surviving.

Films — Animation

• Ronno from Bambi is just a friendly buck who has a lame leg due to surviving a gunshot. In the Disney adaptation and its interquel Ronno's age was decreased, he became a rival to Bambi, and he lacks any disabilities.
• Cricket on the Hearth has an example of "initially abled in the adaptation": in the original story by Charles Dickens, Bertha Plummer was born blind, but here she's sighted at first, only to go blind from shock and grief at the news of her fiancé Edward's supposed death. This is because the adaptation combines her with May Fielding, Edward's fiancée in the original story. (In Dickens' version, Bertha is Edward's sister.)
• In The Hunchback of Notre Dame Quasimodo is deaf due to working with loud bells and was born with a large wart over his left eye. In the Disney adaptation he is able to hear and speak and has two functional eyes, though he retains the signature hunchback.
• Shere Khan in The Jungle Book is referred to as a "lame tiger" who was born with a crippled hind leg — he is a man-eater specifically because his disability stops him from being fast enough to catch a deer or a bull. Adaptations (including the Disney cartoon) tend to leave out this trait to make him a more threatening villain.
• In Loskutik And The Cloud, one of Barbatsutsa's eyes is blind and she wears a huge black eyepatch. Probably to avoid giving her a too villainous look (in the book, she looks like a crossover between a pirate and a witch and is really one of the nicest characters out there underneath), the creators of the animated adaptation made her short-sighted, but with both eyes seeing.
• According to religious texts, Moses was "slow of tongue", indicating a Speech Impediment or speech disorder.^note The story goes that when Moses was still a toddler, at one point he took Pharaoh's crown and placed it on his own head; Pharaoh felt this was a sign Moses wanted his throne and ordered a test, placing a piece of gold and a hot coal before him, with the orders that if he took the gold, it was again a sign he wanted the throne and thus was a threat that needed to be eliminated. The angel Gabriel pushed his hand toward the coal (since he was still a baby, he was naturally attracted to shiny things, which was why he'd originally reached for the crown and later the gold before the angel intervened), which he promptly stuck in his mouth, burning his lips and tongue and leaving him with his speech problems. In The Prince of Egypt, this is absent. Because the film is a musical, the filmmakers thought that a stuttering protagonist wouldn't work in this case. Not to mention, in the original source material, the workaround for this was that Moses' brother Aaron spoke for him, even doing most of the miracles as well. Since the film places much more focus on Moses' relationship with Rameses, this would make the story needlessly complicated, so Moses having a speech impediment was ultimately not included.
• Pinocchio (1992) has the Wolf and the Cat at the ending. The Fox and the Cat from The Adventures of Pinocchio become disabled for real after faking disabilities. That doesn't happen with the Wolf and the Cat in this version; they just get imprisoned.
• In the comics version of Big Hero 6, Hiro is shown wearing glasses. In the animated movie, it's shown that that version of Hiro doesn't.
• In the comics, Professor Pyg is one of the few enemies of Batman who actually qualifies for the legal definition of "insanity". In Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, while he still engages in twisted experiments (his introductory scene involved Two-Face's evil personality trying to get him to scar the right side of Dent), he's pretty much clear-minded enough to properly talk to others.
• In The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Dangerous Beans is almost completely blind and mostly needs to be led around by Peaches. In The Amazing Maurice, there's a single reference to him having poor eyesight, but it doesn't seem to affect him much.
• In The Tale of Despereaux, Miggery had gone partially deaf from all the times her abusive "uncle" slapped her on the ears. In the film adaptation she can hear just fine.

Films — Live-Action

• Bangkok Dangerous: The Thai original revolves around its protagonist, a deaf-mute assassin. In the remake starring Nicolas Cage, the protagonist isn't handicapped in any way at all.
• The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial: In both the original novel and its adaptations, Captain Queeg was legitimately insane and unfit for duty. In this film, while he struggles with anxiety and is erratic at times, he's described as being sane by psychologists and the people who accuse him of being insane are ignorant about mental illnesses or psychology. It's also left ambiguous if the worst of his actions were true, and it's implied he's at worst guilty of being overly strict rather than genuinely unfit for duty.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In the comics Hawkeye spent a large part of his run being partially deaf, wearing a hearing aid, and is able to use American Sign Language. In the film incarnation, none of this is included. However, this element was brought into the MCU in Hawkeye, where he began using a hearing aid after years of being caught in or near loud explosions and is shown to have learned some sign language.
  • Thor: In the comics, Thor's "Donald Blake" alias on Earth is a crippled surgeon whose cane would transform into Thor's hammer, which Odin set up in order to teach him humility. Because of the circumstances of Thor's being sent to Earth being different in the MCU, "Donald Blake" is instead an incredibly buff vaguely Scandinavian guy, only used extremely briefly as an alias alibi.
  • In the comic story where Thor suffers Eye Scream while Asgard is being destroyed, he (willingly) loses both of his eyes. A similar thing happens in Thor: Ragnarok, but he only loses one (right) eye during the film's Final Battle, then gains an artificial eye in a later time anyway.
  • Razor Fist is a mild case of this: in the comics, both of his arms are replaced with blades (you might recognize him as the guy on top of the "Crippling Overspecialization" page), but in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, only his right arm is a blade, while his left arm is still intact.
• Peeta from The Hunger Games loses his leg in the books, but not in the film adaptation (similarly, Katniss' acquired hearing impairment also doesn't occur). The male tribute from District 10 in the 74th Hunger Games also doesn't appear to have a crippled leg as he does in the books, as he is seen running to the Cornucopia at the beginning of the games.
• X-Men: Days of Future Past:
  • In the comic book on which the film is based, Magneto is paraplegic by the time of the Bad Future. In the film's depiction of the future, he's up and walking around on two feet.
  • Hank invents a serum that Charles can take which allows him to regain his ability to walk at the cost of his powers. Nothing like this exists in the comics, although Xavier has come up with numerous other off-the-wall ways to regain his mobility (none of them ever stick, though).
• In What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Arnie keeps his mental retardation, but in the novel, he also was missing an eye.
• Barbarella: In the original comic books, the Black Queen wears an eye patch, and since she never takes it off, it implies she's blind in that eye. In the movie, she only has the eye patch for one scene where she's King Incognito, and both her eyes appear to be perfectly healthy.
• In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is missing an eye. Many adaptations like the 1939 movie show her as having both eyes.
• In the Batman Film Series, Commissioner Gordon is shown not to need glasses.
• Downplayed for Mason Verger in Hannibal. In the novel, he's bedridden, unable to breathe without a mechanical ventilator, and needs a special lens fitted with a spray device to keep his remaining eyeball moist. In the movie, he can get around in a wheelchair and can breathe (and see) unaided.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • Justice League sees Crispus Allen not needing to wear glasses.
  • SHAZAM! sees its version of Dr. Sivana also not wearing glasses, though he did need them before getting the Eye of Sin lodged in his right eye and needs them again after it's removed.
  • Cassandra Cain in Birds of Prey has none of the communication difficulties her comic book counterpart has. Similarly, Black Mask, instead of having a disfigured face that looks like a skull as a result of self-mutilation, wears a mask shaped like a skull instead.
  • The Suicide Squad sees Bloodsport being a genuine veteran and the Only Sane Man in the new Squad's recruits. His comic counterpart was a draft dodger who went mad with guilt and deluded himself into believing he had served in The Vietnam War when his brother went in his place and became a quadruple amputee as a result of injuries he suffered there.
• In the theatrical version of The Children's Hour and its 1960 film adaptation, Martha's gayngst leads her to be a depressed and anxious woman. In the censored These Three incarnation from the '30s, her angst is watered down and she never kills herself.
• Not "abled", but a semi-example: In Freak the Mighty, Freak's growth is extremely stunted by his Morquio Syndrome, almost to the point of dwarfism (though he hates being called a "dwarf"). In the film adaptation The Mighty, as played by Kieran Culkin, he's still severely crippled and dying, but his size is average for his age.
• A Dog's Purpose:
  • In A Dog's Purpose, Ellie is a search-and-rescue dog who loses her sense of smell after acid gets on her nose. In the film this doesn't occur because she gets shot before this happens. As a result, Ellie never retires and gets a new job where she helps teach people about safety.
  • Ellie's handler Jakob is mentioned to have been shot before. It almost ended in a Career-Ending Injury. The film doesn't mention that Carlos was ever injured.
• Rob Reiner's cinematic adaptation of Misery changed the scene of Annie lopping off Paul's foot with an axe to her breaking his ankles with a sledgehammer — though a focus group insisted on him at least walking with a cane after his injuries, in a rare example of a Focus Group Ending making a work harsher rather than softer.
• Punisher: War Zone sees a downplayed case of this. In The Punisher MAX, Don Massimo Cesare was so far gone as far as his age goes that he needed a wheelchair, spent most of his time drooling, and was Don in name only. The film sees Gaitano Cesare still using a wheelchair, but cognizant enough to still run his organization.
• In the original RoboCop trilogy, the eponymous protagonist was severely mutilated (specifically getting his right hand blown off by a shotgun, then his entire arm, then several shots to his abdomen area, and then finally the fatal headshot) before his death and eventual cyborgification. The 2014 reboot only has him die via 3rd degree burns with his limbs intact, plus he gets to keep his right hand, lungs, heart, and consciousness after his cyborgification.
• Venom (2018) shows a cancer-free Eddie Brock, a fact revealed during Paul Jenkins's time on the Spider-Man books. That said, this was at the time of the film's release; Venom (Donny Cates) retconned that Eddie never had cancer at first, the cancer Eddie did get was the symbiote screwing with his body, and the symbiote had done that and been gaslighting him to force Eddie to stay with it.
• Downplayed in Yakuza; in the original game series, Goro Majima is missing his left eye, while in the film it's his right eye that is gone. This was because of his actor being left-eye dominant.
• In the original book of Heidi, Klara has never been able to walk and is chronically ill, to the point that the possibility of her dying is sometimes alluded to until she recovers and Throws Off the Disability in the end. In the 1937 film version and 1968 TV version, she used to be able to walk but was crippled by an injury (in the 1968 version in the same boating accident that killed her Missing Mom), and it's only her fear and self-doubt that keep her from trying to walk again. And in the telenovela adaptation Heidi, bienvenida a casa, she isn't physically disabled at all but instead has severe agoraphobia.
• In the Mortal Kombat games, Nitara is shown wearing an eyepatch over her left eye. In Mortal Kombat (2021), she has both eyes.
• In the Harry Potter books, both Arthur and Percy Weasley need to wear glasses, which are absent in the films.
• In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, Felix Leiter has a Hook Hand, and in Live and Let Die he is attacked by a shark and has his leg bitten off. The James Bond film series opted not to adapt these traits, aside from the shark idea being revisited as a one-off in Licence to Kill.
• In Aquamarine, human girls Claire and Hailey borrow a wheelchair from Claire's grandfather so Aquamarine the mermaid can leave the pool and go on a date with human boy Raymond. This was absent from the adaptation, where she could grow legs.
• GoodFellas: The real Henry Hill had learning disabilities so severe that he didn't learn the alphabet until he was 20. The movie doesn't really touch on this fact, aside from him having a difficult time in school, and even then a viewer could easily get the impression that he did poorly simply because he was already uninterested in an honest living.
• In Madame Web (2024), Cassandra Webb is neither blind or paralyzed, being a young and physically fit paramedic. The final confrontation with Ezekiel leaves her in a state much closer to her comics equivalent, left both blind and in a wheelchair.
• Peter from Jumanji had glasses in the book, but not in the movie or the cartoon.
• Walter from Zathura has glasses in the book, but not the movie.

Literature

• In Gods and Monsters, the adaptation of Hephaestus' origin story features a variant of this trope. While his typical origin story involves the fact that he was deformed and that Hera, disgusted, threw him off Olympus after his birth as a result. In this, while he's born a normal baby, he loses his legs below his knees as a result of the fall.

Live-Action TV

• Arrowverse:
  • In the comics, Mia Dearden is HIV positive. Thea Dearden Queen displays no such illness.
  • In many stories, Dinah Drake Lance succumbs to cancer long after passing her Black Canary mantle to her daughter Dinah Laurel Lance. Here, the elder Dinah is in good health and even outlives her daughter.
  • Hunter Zolomon is a paraplegic in the comics. Here, he is just fine and is instead Secretly Dying from a speed drug overdose. However, Eobard Thawne pretends to be when posing as Harrison Wells.
  • In the comics, Roy Harper loses his right arm during the battle with Prometheus. That did not happen here due to Roy being absent during the adaptation of the Prometheus arc. Subverted later when he does lose his arm in the prelude to Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019), albeit in different circumstances.
  • In the comics' Bad Future Flash storyline, the future Iris West becomes paraplegic. Here, she isn't due to her being long dead in that Bad Future. The disability was given to Wally instead.
  • In the comics, Nathaniel Heywood has an amputated leg thanks to an undiagnosed infection. Here, all his limbs are intact and his only disability is hemophilia.
• Downplayed in Bad Sisters. Bibi is never described as autistic, unlike her counterpart in the Belgian series Clan, which Bad Sisters is a Foreign Remake of. However, she does retain her original incarnation's other disability (having one eye as the result of a car accident involving Jean-Claude/John Paul) as well as many of her autistic traits.
• Batman (1966) with Adam West notably lacks the PTSD the character is known for. Commissioner Gordon is also shown not to need glasses.
• In Catch-22, Major —— de Coverley wears an eyepatch as the result of an eye injury. In the miniseries, both eyes are working fine.
• Doctor Who: "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" has a downplayed version: in real life, Lord Byron had a deformed foot that caused him to walk with a limp. Byron as portrayed in the episode walks normally.
• Game of Thrones:
  • The show downplayed Doran Martell's gout to the point where he is able to move around without his wheelchair while when leaning on Ellaria's arm he's able to walk around for a bit. In the books, his gout is already so severe that his legs are deformed, which crippled him and gave him constant pain.
  • In the books, Tyrion actually lost his nose in the assassination attempt on him during the Battle of Blackwater. In the show, it's only a typical facial scar. He's also more generally able due to having a different variety of dwarfism that doesn't affect his proportions — the book Tyrion has exceptionally short legs even for his height, rendering him unable to walk for long distances without pain.
  • In the books, Ramsay chops off some of Theon's toes and fingers and even plucks out most of his teeth. Theon lacks these injuries in the show, though he does limp around for a while after Ramsey's tortures.
  • The show's version of Euron has both of his eyes on display. In the source material, he is wearing an eye patch on his left eye, and it's vague what's wrong with it. The difference is mostly due to the character in the show being a composite of Euron and Victarion.
  • In the books, Myrcella Baratheon loses an ear and gets her face heavily scarred. This is omitted in the show.
  • In the books, Gregor Clegane's undead corpse is missing his head due to it being sent to the Martells to appease them for Gregor's role in the deaths of many of their family members (Ellia, her children, and Oberyn who in turn was the one who caused Gregor's death). The show's version of the undead Gregor has his entire body intact. Furthermore, when he was alive Gregor suffered from headaches due to his gigantism that even milk of poppy can't numb. In the show, no mention is made of his opiates consumption and there are no effects to make him look like an inhumanly huge brute except for the camera angles.
  • In the books, Walder Frey is in his 90s and needs to be carried in a litter to get around. In the show, he's a few decades younger and has no difficulty walking.
• Gotham:
  • Jim Gordon and Crispus Allen aren't shown to wear glasses.
  • Professor Pyg is actually clear-headed in the show.
• How I Met Your Mother originally concludes with the titular mother dying from an unknown illness some time before the Distant Finale. The Finale Season DVD release features an alternate ending where she is still alive during that time, heavily implying (since there was no new footage) that she was eventually cured at best, or just prolonged her life and is still going to die but in a much later time at worst.
• Legion: Harry Lloyd's version of Charles Xavier (who's a paraplegic in the comics) lacks any disability and is always seen walking.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Gabriel Reyes in the comics was born with an unspecified neurological disorder (the result of his mother having been pushed down the stairs while pregnant), which left him unable to walk and mentally and developmentally slow. In the show, he's a normal 14-year-old who's left paraplegic after the attack that gave his brother, Robbie Reyes, his superhero origin story. In fact, it's indicated he's a very intelligent young man who quickly pieces together who Daisy is after spending a few hours with her during a blackout, which the comics version would most likely not be able to do.
  • Iron Fist (2017): Harold Meachum in the comics had his legs amputated. Harold Meachum in the show still has his legs.
  • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Isaiah Bradley in the comics is reduced to a mute, childlike state due to the side effects of the super soldier serum. In the show, Bradley's mind remains fully intact and shows no other ill effects of the serum.
• Orphan Black: 7 Genes omits two disabilities from the series it was based on:
  • Nagase never loses his left pinky finger unlike his counterpart Vic Schmidt due to the characters and Story Arc responsible for it being Adapted Out.
  • The original series' Season 1 finale shows Cosima Niehaus developing the respiratory illness that plagued most of the clones. In the remake, the first season concludes with her counterpart Izumi Odagiri in good health.
• Power Rangers: The Blue Ranger from Mirai Sentai Timeranger has an Incurable Cough of Death. His counterpart in Power Rangers Time Force is in good health.
• The Return of the Condor Heroes has The Hero Yang Guo losing his right arm third quarter into the story, requiring him to both re-purpose his fighting style and learn new ones to accommodate his now handicapped condition. Several live action adaptations (except the one in 2006) have swapped it due to Yang Guo being played by right-handed actors.
• The Roman Mysteries: In the original books, Lucius was subject to Tongue Trauma rendering him mute. Here, he still has his tongue, albeit he is still selectively mute.
• Stargirl: Beth Chapel isn't blinded before becoming the second Dr Mid-Nite (although she does wear glasses).
• While the Gizmo in Titans (2018) is an adult as in the comics (as opposed to the child of Teen Titans (2003) and Teen Titans Go!), he also doesn't have dwarfism like in the comics.
• The Umbrella Academy (2019): In the original comics, Diego has his right eye missing for some unknown reason, and Allison has a cybernetic left hand because the villain Dr. Terminal ate her real one when she was young. In the series, Diego and Allison have both their eyes and hands intact.
• The Walking Dead (2010):
  • In the source material, Rick loses his right hand after the Governor chops it off. This was omitted in the show. Likewise, comic Rick is partly crippled after Negan breaks his leg, but this doesn't happen on the show either.
  • In the comics, Dale loses both of his legs before dying. This is omitted in the show due to him dying much earlier in the timeline, though these storylines were distributed to different characters.
  • Andrea got some nasty facial scars in the comics. It was omitted in the show.
  • In the comics, Carol's mental illness becomes so out of hand that she commits suicide. In the show, it is more subdued and she is Spared by the Adaptation (for now).
  • Maggie and Michonne's mental illness from the comics are Adapted Out from the show.
  • The Governor is severely mutilated by Michonne in the comics, namely: having his left eye gouged out, and both his right arm and penis chopped off. In the show, Michonne only took out his eye, and it's the right one at that.
  • Carl's Moe Greene Special is much more severe in the comics, as the injury also took out his right ear and causes him brain damage. In the show, it is a traditional Eye Scream. Likewise, his Creepy Child tendencies from the source material are greatly toned down.
  • In the comics, Morgan never really got back from his Sanity Slippage after his son's death. In the show, he got his act together, and like Carol, he is Spared by the Adaptation (again, for now).
• The White Queen: The real King Richard III had severe scoliosis which caused his shoulders to be uneven, although the deformity wouldn't be noticed under clothing. Aneurin Barnard's portrayal of the character includes a couple of Shirtless Scenes which demonstrate that Richard is devoid of a physical handicap.
• Wire in the Blood:
  • In the book of The Wire in the Blood, Jacko Vance had one arm due to a car accident decades previously, and he crushed the right arms of his victims as a result. This doesn't happen in the series, and he has both arms.
  • Tony is impotent in ''The Mermaids Singing'', and his struggle with erectile dysfunction gets mentioned occasionally in later books, but is completely Adapted Out of the series.

Theatre

• Fun Home: The musical does not mention Alison's OCD despite the fact that in the graphic novel her OCD is very disruptive to her life, especially when she was a teenager.
• Newsies: In the original movie, Crutchie walks with a limp and is also implied to have some type of mental handicap. In the stage version, he's still crippled but doesn't appear to have any mental disability whatsoever.
• Wicked:
  • In the original Wicked book Elphaba has an allergy to water. She bathes using oils, avoids water in all forms, and as in the original Oz story, her death involves Dorothy splashing water on her. In the theatrical adaptation there are rumors that water can melt her—and in the song "Thank Goodness" Fiyero gets upset at the absurdity of the idea—but it's not true. Elphaba ends up Spared by the Adaptation when she fakes her death. Also, as Elphaba's design is based on the MGM Witch and not the original book one, she has both eyes intact.
  • In a case of Pragmatic Adaptation, Elphaba's sister's disability was changed for the musical. Nessarose was born with no arms in the books; however, due to the difficulty of representing that in a play, she was changed to using a wheelchair.
• The real Blanche Barrow- a member of Bonnie and Clyde's infamous Barrow Gang- was left blinded in one eye during the same incident that killed her husband Buck. In Frank Wildhorn's stage musical Bonnie and Clyde, no mention is made of her sustaining such an injury.

Video Games

• Onmyōji (2016): Hangan is apparently blind in the original game, but this is made even more of an Informed Deformity in the MOBA game adaptation where he still says his eyes can't see, but a stock animation sequence has him looking around in search of an object.
• Dynasty Warriors:
  • Deng Ai was historically someone who had a notable stutter that wasn't taken seriously until his talents were exploited by Sima Yi via a fateful encounter; his portrayal in the game series makes no mention of his stutter at all.
• Marauder In the novel, Akhmet loses some fingers to an explosion which doesn't happen in the game.
• Samurai Warriors:
  • Historically, Kanbei Kuroda was imprisoned by the rebellious Oda vassal, Araki Murashige, but he escaped at the cost of an injury that left him with a pronounced limp. In the game itself, he doesn't have a leg injury and is able to move just fine.
  • In the games, Yoshitsugu Otani has his whole body covered except his eyes and nose which is a nod to his historical counterpart who is a leper. However, the game downplays his leprosy as he is able to move freely.
• The version of Axel in Twisted Metal: Black is physically able to enter and exit his machine^note in this version he built it and drives it by choice as a self-inflicted punishment. Unlike in 2, where it was his father who built the machine and forced Axel into it., unlike his mainline counterpart, who was stuck inside for 20 years and finally had to tear off all his limbs to exit the vehicle in 2, needing to get mechanical limbs to replace them in Head-On.
• Lusamine in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon isn't Brainwashed and Crazy like in the original Pokémon Sun and Moon. Due to this, she doesn't end up hospitalized after being defeated. Instead, Cosmog ends up injured. This difference means that Lillie stays in Alola, while Gladion is the one that runs off.
• Calvina Coulange from Super Robot Wars Judgment suffered nerve damage to her arms during the Lunar Furies' first attack on the Moon in the backstory and is unable to pilot until she gains control of one of the Furies' Cytron-equipped machines. She still has full use of her arms in the Super Robot Wars: Original Generation continuity, however. This is presumably for gameplay purposes, as the mainline SRW games restrict pilots to units from their own series while OG lets any character use any mech with a few exceptions, and making just one character who's completely restricted to Fury units would have been a hassle to program.
• In Deltarune, Undyne has both eyes, unlike in Undertale, where she's missing one.
• Downplayed in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle. Neo from RWBY is completely mute in her home series but can giggle, grunt, and such in BlazBlue.

Web Animation

• DC Super Hero Girls combines pre-52 elements and post-52 elements of Barbara Gordon. She's actually made a Decomposite Character, where she becomes Batgirl in the series and is never paralyzed, while Oracle is her AI assistant. The Joker, who is the reason Babs became paralyzed, is only mentioned once in a side comic — to develop Harley's character, with no mention of Batgirl ever having encountered him.
• RWBY Chibi: Because nothing bad ever happened, Yang doesn't lose her right arm.

Web Comics

• Batman: Wayne Family Adventures: In the comics, Cassandra had a learning disability that made her illiterate, making it difficult for her to learn a language. She could rarely speak more than a few words at a time in the comics. Here, Cass is The Quiet One but otherwise doesn't seem to have difficulty speaking, and she's been shown to be capable of reading.

Western Animation

• In The Killing Joke, the second Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, was shot by The Joker. She became paralyzed due to the incident but later became the Handicapped Badass "Oracle", until the New 52 reboot retconned her to having recovered the use of her legs after the shooting. In the DC Animated Universe, there are no signs of Batgirl ever having used a wheelchair. In Batman Beyond, she is shown as a senior but her legs work perfectly fine.
• The Batman:
  • Ellen Yindel in The Dark Knight Strikes Again wore glasses. Possibly due to her Age Lift, Ellen Yin doesn't.
  • This version of Mr. Freeze can survive unharmed in normal temperatures without his suit and has actual ice-based superpowers instead of relying on a freezing gun. The suit merely helps him keep his powers under control. It should be noted that excessive heat will temporarily disable his powers so that weakness is still present to an extent. And like in Batman: The Animated Series, his body starts deteriorating as he gets older and he uses a spider-like machine to replace the lower portion of his body (though the BTAS version lost everything except his head).
  • In the comics, Dr. Kirk Langstrom developed the Man-Bat formula as a cure for his own growing deafness. In The Batman, Langstrom isn't going deaf and is creating the formula purely to terrorize others (though curing deafness is his cover story).
  • Maxie Zeus, while still crazy, isn't so crazy that he suffers from delusions that he's really his namesake like the comics character does.
• Batwheels depicts a Cassandra Cain without her learning disability or speaking difficulty from the comics.
• Beware the Batman:
  • Barbara Gordon skips becoming Batgirl and goes straight to Oracle without being paralyzed.
  • Much like in the aforementioned Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, Professor Pyg is pretty clear-headed and lacks the actual insanity of the comics Pyg.
  • While he still loses his right eye in his final battle with Batman, Deathstroke still has both eyes throughout most of the series. In the comics and other continuities, Slade already lost it long before he started going against superheroes.
• DC Super Hero Girls (2019): This continuity's interpretation of Deathstroke's daughter Rose Wilson has both of her eyes intact, when in the comics she cut out her own eye as a testament to her initial loyalty to her father.
• In the comics, Deathstroke is missing his right eye after he was shot by his wife. In My Adventures with Superman, both of Slade's eyes are still intact. That is, until the episode "Zero Day, Part 2", where he ends up losing the eye to an attack from Livewire.
• In the comics, Starfire's sister Blackfire can't fly due to a childhood illness. She can't absorb ultraviolet radiation like others of her species. In Teen Titans (2003) and Teen Titans Go! Blackfire shows no signs of disability. She is adept at flying and can fly faster than the speed of light.
• In ThunderCats (1985), Lion-O's father Claudus (seen once via Time Travel and once as a ghost) was blind (he somehow lost his sight in the war with the mutants). He's not blind at all in the 2011 reboot or ThunderCats Roar.
• In the comics, Flash Thompson was an adult soldier who lost the lower part of his legs in battle before becoming Agent Venom. Marvel's Spider-Man, focused on Peter's time starting out as Spidey and thus set in high school, sees its version of Flash still has his legs intact when he bonds with the Venom symbiote.
• The comic book version of Spider-Man supporting character Dr. Curt Connors is missing an arm, which is his motivation for coming up with the serum that turns him into the feral, monstrous "Lizard". In Spider-Man (1967), he has both arms, with the serum that turns him into the Lizard is instead developed as a cure for "swamp fever".
• In the comics, Morbius was trying to cure a disease he was suffering from when he got turned into a vampire. While he's still trying to cure a disease, his Spider-Man: The Animated Series counterpart isn't afflicted with it.
• Ultimate Spider-Man (2012):
  • Like in Marvel's Spider-Man, Flash still has his legs intact when he bonds with the Venom symbiote. Though he is significantly younger in the show than he was when he lost his legs.
  • Like in the '90s show, Morbius wasn't sick before becoming a vampire.
• Static Shock: Unlike his counterpart in the original Milestone continuity, Edwin Alva, Sr. doesn't wear glasses.

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