A Fool's Hope

I've watched/listened to like a dozen adaptations of "The Idiot" by now (I just watched that funky 1994 Japanese-Polish one tonight!) and I find it utterly CRIMINAL how much my boy Kolya Ivolgin is short-changed. Out of the like 3 or 4 that think he's important enough to be a character at all -- absolutely NONE of them - not even the famously meticulously faithful 2003 miniseries - feature either a) him being the one to check in on Myshkin after The Slap, b) him being the one to find Myshkin and get him help after the Attempted Murder/Seizure. OK, I guess the Italian miniseries had Kolya come into frame for one second to cradle Myshkin in his arms after he falls down the stairs. (Kolya was the best thing about that miniseries, IMO.) But still!! I understand from a logistical standpoint, ending the episode with the drama of the Attempted Murder/Seizure and then opening the next episode with Myshkin already in Pavlovsk makes sense, and makes an intermediate scene awkward and difficult to place. But still!! Even the 2002 BBC audio drama!! Which makes Kolya a MUCH more prominent character than most adaptations - though there are some funky characterization choices that go with that, I will admit (frankly I'm just happy he's there so much and he and Myshkin's bond actually seems important)!! It doesn't even feature The Slap or the Attempted Murder at all!! Neither Ganya nor Rogozhin try any actual physical violence against Myshkin, and in fact, Rogozhin is the one who looks after Myshkin in the latter case, after NOT attempting murder, which is certainly a CHOICE - but with the side effect of watering down Kolya's role and characterization. And yeah, it's not like they're long, prominent scenes in the book, but idk, somehow it was really poignant to me that this poor unfairly-burdened 14-year-old kid was doing the most in helping and looking after him.