Brianna Corley

Arts and Living Editor

Whether the biggest novel sensation of the year is being adapted for a screenplay or a new X-Men movie is set to premiere, critics await with snobbish distaste and fans prepare to be scorned. Some people aren’t too fond of adaptations. Yet adaptation has been important to artists from the beginning of expression.

Adaptation is not the enemy of creativity, but the embodiment of it.

After the release of “Thor: Ragnarök,” fans complained about the use of the Planet Hulk timeline while the very mythos for Thor revolves around Norse mythology. The problem was bad adaptation. Hela is Thor and Loki’s sister rather than Loki’s daughter alongside many other details which disregard the importance and prominence of adaptation.

Details taken from Greek heroic myths, fairytales and other ancient texts still touch every aspect of narrative storytelling and have come to form endless stories. Even when adaptations are completely unfaithful to the original, they add depth and distinction to the fictional world that had already been established.

No matter how horrible the adaptation may be, it can bring fans of the original story together to review it in a whole new way.

Adaptations and source material coexist to create something new and while some weren’t great, such as the infamous “Game of Thrones” ending, others have been praised for bettering the material as a whole.

One of the most incredible cases is “Ghost Stories,” a Japanese cartoon that absolutely bombed in its home country. After it was licensed to be dubbed in English for the U.S., the cast and writers were given a simple rule: Aside from reworking the story and renaming the characters, do whatever you want to make the show successful. What emerged from a bombed release was an extremely successful black comedy parody.

Adaptation is essential to the creative world. It is the reason stories such as “Little Women,” “Frankenstein” and “One Thousand and One Nights” are constantly being readapted in numerous ways.

No matter how seemingly finite, there is always more story to tell.