>>3844732Well, a lot of things to analyze, different thoughts come to mind and I'm afraid that I will not be able to organize them into a fluent speech.
On the fact that if the "substance" of a character is betrayed the character is betrayed I agree, about who is Rei of alternate reality and what is the alternate reality i can't disagree.
But how to quantify this "substance"? When is too little? Below what percentage is the character no longer that character?
It is not something that can be measured scientifically, and I am sorry to answer you with a banality but each spectator decides for himself if the character is misrepresented. The spectators are not a single being nor a hive mind, they cannot express a single opinion and therefore everyone will make their own.
I realize now, however, that what I have written does not answer "when a character is the same" but "who can say that a character is objectively the same?" and the answer I can give is only in the negative: not the audience.
Having established who cannot, can one establish who can? Let's see at least what figures are left: only the author (or authors) comes to my mind.
About Faramir, the situation is complicated and for this reason I said that as a comparison it is imperfect, because Jackson is the author (of the movie) and member of the "audience" (of the book). As I see it, Jackson can perfectly establish who Faramir is in the movies, but his "authority" does not extend to the book and his opinion of it counts as that of any other reader.
Perhaps a word would be needed to mean "characters-as-they-have-been-adapted-in-other-media". And then we'd probably be discussing whether the word indicates full-fledged characters or a sub-category of their respective base characters.
(continue)
