Adaptational Niceness

More often than not, adaptations may deviate from the source material. Opposite to Adaptational Jerkass, a character who was unlikable in the original might be made nicer, or at least more sympathetic. For example, a Jerkass might be made a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.

Though isn't necessarily Adaptational Heroism, since a Faux Affably Evil villain might be made into an Affably Evil one, but still a villain, nonetheless. If they still have a detestable attitude, they might be given a Freudian Excuse they didn't have in the original source.

See the above Adaptational Jerkass, plus Adaptational Heroism.

Examples of Adaptational Niceness include:

Anime and Manga

• In the original Japanese dub of Transformers Cybertron, it's implied that Nitro Convoy insists on having the Planet Cup race because the drama between the Autobots and Decepticons amuses him. The English dub changes this to Override being unable to tell whether the Autobots or Decepticons are telling the truth, as neither can prove or disprove the other side's claims, and she's using the races as a decider.
• Koushi Kanda is notoriously more sympathetic in the Captain Tsubasa 2023 TV series than the original manga. The first somewhat tones down his aggressive behavior and gives him a reason beyond "she's pretty, I like her, and I must have her" to crush on Tsubasa's soon to be girlfriend Sanae.
• Ruka Tsuchiya in the Revolutionary Girl Utena TV series is a Jerkass bordering on Smug Snake who uses and humiliates Shiori, then sexually assaulting Juri when she calls him out on it as a Thanatos Gambit in order to "rescue" Juri from her troubled relationship with Shiori. In the After the Revolution manga, he's still a bit of a Jerkass but comes off as a better person who ends up sort of helping the girls resolve their issues. Granted, he's also been dead for a long time and is a ghost only they can see, but still.

Comic Books

• Both Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus in IDW Publishing's reboot of Transformers Shattered Glass.
  • In the original comic, Optimus was an Ax Crazy lunatic. In IDW's comic, Optimus believes more in Pragmatic Villainy and despite being an Orcus on His Throne is suggested to actually be the sanest of the Autobot warlords between him, Prowl and Goldbug.
  • Magnus meanwhile was actually Eviler Than Thou to Optimus in the original comic and an Omnicidal Maniac who was ready to destroy two universes because he was that insane. In IDW, Magnus seeks to overthrow Optimus because he thinks Optimus is a decadent Orcus on His Throne who is leading the Autobots to cultural decay and Magnus feels he could be a more effective ruler of Cybertron and whip the Autobots back into being a galaxy-conquering army.

Fan Works

• Rick Sanchez in Rick and The Loud House. He's still a Rick but he has more genuine love for his grandchildren, does attempt to spare other's feelings and is much more interested in invoking Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome. Though when he gets particularly annoyed, he acts more like canon counterpart.
• Onslaught in the Transformers Prime fanfic For A Sky Once Denied. While he and Starscream are in their usual state of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork, they don't have their usual undisguised hatred and contempt for each other. He also treats the Combaticons much better, commanding their loyalty through respect rather than the other four being too terrified of Onslaught to disobey.
• Cole Bourgeois (genderbent Chloe Bourgeois) in Midnight Kittens (a.k.a Various! Miraculous Ladybug Series x Genderbend Adrien Agreste! Oc Insert). With Marin (genderbent Marinette) having Adaptational Jerkass, Cole has become a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He's still quite brash but it's more well-intentioned and definitely on better terms with the class.
  • Downplayed with Sabrina. While in canon, she did eventually go to the good guys' side, it took several seasons and has shown to be a genuine Beta Bitch beforehand. Not here though, she's The Dragon to Cole and Amelie (genderbent Adrien)'s closet female friend. She's much more caring and a full on Violently Protective Friend to Amelie.

Film

Film - Animation

• In the Captain Underpants books, George and Harold were a couple tricksters who pulled pranks for their own amusement. In the movie, it's to lift their fellow students' spirits. Likewise, Principal Krupp is still a Dean Bitterman like he was in the books, but the film gives him the Freudian Excuse of having a lonely home life rather than just simply being cruel.
• Gabriel Agreste in the film adaptation of Miraculous Ladybug. Unlike his televised counterpart, this Gabriel genuinely loves Adrien and, despite being distant, shows much more concern for his son. In the episode "Cat Blanc", when Gabriel learnt that Adrien was Chat Noir, he emotionally tormented Adrien, kicked him across Paris and akumatized his son into his latest minion. In the film, Gabriel has a "My God, What Have I Done?" moment when he learns that Adrien is Chat Noir, renouncing villainy on the spot, because of how much he loves his son. The film also implies that repeated usage of the Butterfly is causing Gabriel to become Drunk on the Dark Side while in the show, he was just that much of the bastard to willingly go down the "Good Powers, Bad People" route.
  • Downplayed but present with Chloé who doesn't take her bullying to the same lengths as in the show. Though it's implied to be because Movie!Chloé knows, in the age of smartphones, that she can't get away with such overt cruelty.

Film - Live Action

• Child's Play (2019) - "Niceness" is a bit of a stretch, but rather than being a serial killer-possessed False Friend doll like in the 80's film, Chucky is depicted as an AI based doll who genuinely wants to be Andy's friend. Though due to his safety protocol being shut off by a disgruntled factory worker, the robot is unable to tell right from wrong.
• The Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Thanos in Earth-616 of Marvel Comics is an absolute nihilist. Avengers: Infinity War makes him more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wishes to prevent overpopulation in the universe. Though Avengers: Endgame shows that he has more in common with his Earth-616 self than he'd like to admit.
  • Tony Stark is much more affable than his Earth-616 self, the films placing more emphasis on his Hidden Heart of Gold and showing that he has lines and standards that his mainline self lacks.
  • Peter Parker is introduced to the MCU as a stand-up guy and a Friend to All Living Things who only wants to help out however he can. The original run of comics had Peter as much more an angsty, hell even wangsty, teenager who initially thought to use his powers for profit before he became a hero. The overwhelming majority of adaptations invoke this trope for Peter, but the MCU is probably where it's most keenly felt.
• Mirage in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. In Transformers Generation 1, Mirage was the Cybertronian equivalent of old money and rather elitist. This Mirage is more of a working class Humble Hero, having no classist attitudes and is the most outgoing of the Autobots.
• Most heroic characters in the Harry Potter films, the Golden Trio in particular. The books cast them more as Anti-Heroes who were willing to lie, had several biases and moments of Hair-Trigger Temper and Protagonist-Centered Morality. In the films, the three are much nicer people. For example, Order of the Phoenix had Hermione's hex disfigure Marietta Edgecombe for life with Harry's reaction to Cho calling out Hermione's actions being largely to say that Marietta brought it on herself. In the film, even though Marietta and the hex are Adapted Out, there's no mention that Hermione thought to disfigure someone. Heck Movie!Hermione even defends Movie!Cho's angst using the same logic that Book!Harry refused to hear from Book!Cho.
• Leonard McCoy in the Kelvin-verse of Star Trek. The original McCoy seen in Star Trek: The Original Series was very much a Politically Incorrect Hero who had lots of Fantastic Racism towards non-human species, particularly Vulcans. As shown in the films, and tie-in comics, this McCoy has none of these traits, being interested in meeting new alien species, even if he bellyaches about Blue and Orange Morality every now and then, and although he insults Spock, Star Trek Beyond reveals that he does so because he genuinely thought Spock didn't like him, not out of any hatred towards Vulcans. He also complains far less.
• With the exception of Cassandra Webb, the leads in Sony's Spider-Man Universe benefit from this, being Anti-Heroes rather than villains. And the only reason Cassandra Webb is the exception is because she's a heroic person in both comic and film (if somewhat anti-social and rather blunt).
• The lead character of Dr. Who and the Daleks is much more an outright heroic and noble character than the First Doctor was in "The Daleks" or "The Dalek Invasion of Earth".

Literature

• Megatron in Beast Wars: Uprising. Though he's still an absolute bastard whose supposed benevolence is entirely an act to accumulate soft power in the new Cybertronian government, it's not a scratch on the level of moral apathy his cartoon counterpart reached in Beast Wars and Beast Machines. For all his flaws, Uprising!Megatron isn't putting the fabric of space/time at risk or trying to assimilate his whole species into a Mind Hive to sate his god complex.

Live-Action TV

• The title character of Sherlock. While he's in many ways one of the most accurate depictions of the original character, even taking the Setting Update into account, he treats his supporting cast much better, the series showing many times how much he cherishes Mrs. Hudson and John Watson.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

• Greek Mythology: This case is overlapped with Adaptation Species Change, since Medusa and Scylla were introduced as having been born monsters, whereas later writers added them being formerly beautiful women who were cursed.

Video Games

• The 2016 reimagining of the first Ratchet & Clank game, thanks to their more heroic portrayal in the PlayStation 3 era, casts Ratchet, Qwark and even Chairman Drek (thanks to Nefarious being the real Big Bad) as much kinder people than they were depicted in 2002. Insomniac justifies this as Qwark simply being an Unreliable Narrator.
• Most of the leads in the Nicktoons Unite! series have their egos toned down and more straight-laced good guys while they could sometimes be Anti-Heroes in the cartoons they originated from.
• Kunihiro "Kinoko" Nasu, the creator of the Nasuverse, has been accused of doing this to some of the heroes and heroines thhat become Servants in Fate stay night and other affiliated works. The character who's mostly cited as an example is Karna from Fate Extra CCC, Fate Extella Link, Fate:Apocrypha and especially, Fate: Grand Order: many of his more dickish moments in the Mahabharata (like him outright loathing his half-brother and destined rival Arjuna after the other insulted him, or him not doing anything to stop Draupandi's Shameful Strip in the infamous dice game due to his personal hatred of her [even when, in some versions, he later regrets it]) are not alluded to and he's shown as an almost perfect, albeit sharp-tongued and sometimes awkward Ideal Hero. The fact that Arjuna is seen as being subjected to Adaptational Jerkass does NOT help.

Web Comics

• The Miraculous Ladybug webcomic Scarlet Lady:
  • Played with for Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir. Being partnered with Chloé as Scarlet Lady instead of Marinette as Ladybug, has caused Adrien to be much less of an Extreme Doormat in his civilian persona, being much snarkier at his father and Chloé's cruelty. On the flipside though, since Chloé as Scarlet Lady is the same type of Alpha Bitch that she normally is, Chat Noir does not display any sort of Entitled to Have You attitudes like he does towards Ladybug in canon, even when he later begins to fall for Marinette's hero persona, the worst being some Crazy Jealous Guy moments whenever someone else spends too long looking at Marinette.
  • Zig-zagged for Gabriel Agreste/Hawk Moth. He more often slides into Adaptational Jerkass but he treats Noroo much better than his canon self (better even than Chloé treats Tikki) and is generally implied to have a few more standards than he does in canon, frequently rolling his eyes at some of the Akumas' more petty motivations (most notably Gamer's I Was Beaten by a Girl attitudes) and allowing the (many) who want revenge on Chloé some time to indulge themselves before sending them after the Miraculous. Though as "Hawkmoth: Tales of Gabriel the Butterfly (Heroes Day Part 2)" shows, being more polite does not make you a good person.
  • Downplayed as far as it can possibly go for Audrey Bourgeois/Style Queen. She's still the same Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up that she is in canon and a horrible mother to Chloé... but she does appear to have a better relationship with Zoé than in canon. Notably while Audrey was still a raging bitch to Chloé when she was turned into Style Queen, in the webcomic she is visibly uncomfortable by how much her akumatized behaviour is scaring Zoé and attempts to reassure her daughter. It's a token move, especially since Zoé later confirms that Audrey is still quite neglectful to the point of leaving Zoé with an identity crisis, but leagues above anything she did in the show. That said, when Zoé calls out her mother, Audrey seems genuinely stunned by the accusation that she doesn't love her daughters and is a fair bit more chastised and shaken by Zoé's words, instead of bonding with Chloé over how cruel both of them are. And in the epilogue, it's unambiguously shown that, unlike Gabriel, Audrey genuinely does love her children and sincerely wants to make up for how she neglected them and the mental problems this has caused her daughters. Even if she's a Yandere when it comes to expressing affection for Chloé and Zoé.

Western Animation

• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
  • Scorpia was changed from the simple Brute she was in She-Ra: Princess of Power to a Bruiser with a Soft Center, not to mention a chronic Cuddle Bug.
  • Entrapta, while still aligned with the Horde for most of the show, is now Obliviously Evil and is unfailingly polite to everyone. She eventually defects to the Rebellion and even manages to invoke Love Redeems for Hordak.
  • Zig-zagged with Sea Hawk. Compared to his original self, he's a lot more immature and more of a Man Child but this is largely something he does to rile people up and mask his Inferiority Superiority Complex. In most other aspects, he's far more affable than he was in the 1980s, being willing to work with any members of the Rebellion and never dabbled with the Horde, unlike the original show where he was originally a privateer for the Horde and only worked with Adora.
• Transformers:
  • Megatron in Transformers Animated. While still a Galactic Conqueror, his Blood Knight tendencies are toned down and he's far more Affably Evil than the average Megatron.
  • Most Autobots in Transformers: Cyberverse have their egos or Anti-Hero qualities toned down but the standout has to be Whirl. Usually an Ax Crazy Blood Knight, this Whirl is a cheerful fellow who helps out whomever he can.
  • Many Decepticons in Transformers: EarthSpark, the show choosing to emphasize their Affably Evil nature. Though some, like Shockwave, are still Complete Monsters.
• Henry in Thomas the Tank Engine. In The Railway Series, Henry was largely an interchangeable character with Gordon. He had a few distinguishing characteristics but his major difference from Gordon was that he was painted green. In the television show, while Henry started out as he did in the books, he began to get Hidden Depths in Season 3, showing that he was the Token Good Teammate of the big engines and a nature lover.
• The titular character of Hilda is far more courteous and affable than she was in the graphic novels the series was inspired by. Though she gets some Character Checks in Season 2, such attitudes are framed as being of a "Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right" mindset than a reckless ego.