Adapting a video game for television or a film is a balancing act. Writers have to introduce familiar characters and worlds to audiences while making it simple for people who are new to the franchise to understand. But sometimes, in an effort to put a new spin on an established title, adaptations change the things that made audiences fall in love with them in the first place.
Netflix’s “Devil May Cry“ is an interesting example. To be very clear, Season 2 was actually phenomenal. The soundtrack was great, the action delivered and there was absolutely plenty about this season to enjoy. However, there is one creative route that continued to bother me as a hardcore fan: the toxic romantic relationship between Dante and Lady.
In the games, their relationship is largely platonic, almost sibling-like, built on banter, rivalry but with a slight touch of flirtation. The series pushes them towards romance very quickly. Despite their hostility, Lady previously called Dante a hellborn and used “it” as a pronoun for him instead of referring to him as a person. The story seems to skip the whole trust-building process, even after she drugged him and put him in a cryotube. The emotional groundwork that should have made their relationship believable went out the window.
Chemistry doesn’t automatically mean romance and changing the way that characters see each other doesn’t always require a romantic storyline. The fandom joke of “Lady May Cry” is absolutely hilarious, but it also captures my frustration. One baffling choice this season could end up ruining the entire thing. Not every meaningful relationship needs to become a romance.
That doesn’t mean that adaptations should be carbon copies. “The Resident Evil” animated films, including “Degeneration,” “Damnation,” “Vendetta” and “Death Island“ offer another approach. They bring back iconic characters such as Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield and Chris Redfield for new stories and new adventures, while keeping the franchises almost iconic world and bioterrorism conflicts. Darkness also returns to Leon and Claire, these adaptations show that creators can expand a game universe without throwing the already established lore.
“Castlevania” offers a different example of creative reinterpretation. The Netflix animated series takes the characters, conflicts and atmosphere of the games and develops them into a story that can stand on its own without confusing newcomers to the franchise. The goal was not simply to make something only existing fans could follow but to build a compelling story around the dynamics of the characters. That is the kind of creative freedom I can get behind: Change the format, expand the world and give characters room to breathe. Just whatever you do, make choices count.
But how much freedom should creators have when it comes to changes?
Dr. Jeff Longacre professor of English and chair of UT Martin’s department of English and Modern Foreign Languages said, “I believe they should have absolute freedom to do so” but he added “to make any kinds of changes based on character and narrative believable, they need to be motivated by the story.”
Dr. Kelle Alden, associate professor of English and director of UT Martin’s Writing Center also welcomes experimentation. “I like seeing people mess with the canon,” she said but she emphasized, “The character is still who we know but there’s a lot more about them to tell.” In other words, expand the character, don’t erase what makes them recognizable. Dr. Alden also added “There’s a certain responsibility to the people that care about your work and care about these characters that you need to make what they are imagining and either expand on it, but not crush it.”
This distinction is very important. Adaptations can introduce new interpretations, twist the lore and explore previously untouched parts of a character’s story without what makes the character recognizable.
Sophomore Ava Taylor, a wildlife biology and conservation major from Memphis, Tennessee, is a hardcore “Silent Hill” fan with much experience in the franchise. Her advice to creators was straightforward: “My advice would it be to just don’t mess with the plot and the lore and the relationships of characters. Other than that, have your creative liberty.”
Discussing “Silent Hill 2,” Taylor also explained “You can’t have James without guilt. You can’t have Pyramid Head without James.” for Taylor, the connections between characters and their underlying stories are essential to understanding what makes the franchise work.
Her frustration was also apparent when discussing “Return to Silent Hill” which came out in 2026. Describing the film Taylor said, “This really feels like somebody’s Wattpad fan fiction that they wrote as soon as they got done playing the games.”
While the comparison is absolutely hilarious, it points to a larger concern: when creative changes feel disconnected from the source material audiences may struggle to recognize the story they originally connected with.
Of course, no adaptation is gonna satisfy every fan. Longacre explained that audiences develop a preference for whichever version of the story they experience first. He described as “priority bias”.
Still, calling something an adaptation doesn’t give writers a free pass to throw established characters into completely different situations they would never be in otherwise and expect fans to applaud. Fans aren’t necessarily asking for a carbon copy sometimes they’re asking for characters they recognize to actually behave like themselves instead of your original characters.
At some point, creative freedom stops being an excuse for storytelling decisions that don’t work. If audiences wanted fan fiction with familiar character names, they could find plenty of those online for free. They don’t need Netflix’s production budget to get it, either.
