History CharacterDerailment / WebComics

** ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'' deliberately play fast and loose with established characterizations for thematic effect: partly to establish that something is very, very ''wrong'' about this new universe, and partly to establish that sometimes your friends will just grow up into shitty people.
*** Jade Harley, lovable, cheerful, BadassAdorable girl who's hiding depression and got shat on by the narrative in the latter half of Homestuck, is now a [[ExtremeLibido sex addict]] with no respect for others' boundaries. We also get to learn [[{{Squick}} more about her doggy genitalia]] than anyone asked for.
*** Jane Crocker, fledgeling businesswoman extraordinaire who cared deeply about her friends, is now a ham-fisted equivalent for UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump who [[FantasticRacism hates trolls with a passion]], [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapes]] and [[DomesticAbuse abuses]] Jake, and [[ANaziByAnyOtherName gradually institutes a fascist regime in both branches.]]

** ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'' deliberately play fast and loose with established characterizations for thematic effect: partly to establish that something is very, very *wrong* about this new universe, and partly to establish that sometimes your friends will just grow up into shitty people.

** ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'' deliberately play fast and loose with established characterizations for thematic effect: partly to establish that something is very, very *wrong* about this new universe, and partly to establish that sometimes your friends will just grow up into shitty people.
*** Jade Harley, lovable, cheerful, BadassAdorable girl who's hiding depression and got shat on by the narrative in the latter half of Homestuck, is now a [[ExtremeLibido sex addict]] with no respect for others' boundaries. We also get to learn [[{{Squick}} more about her doggy genitalia]] than anyone asked for.
*** Jane Crocker, fledgeling businesswoman extraordinaire who cared deeply about her friends, is now a ham-fisted equivalent for UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump who [[FantasticRacism hates trolls with a passion]], [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapes]] and [[DomesticAbuse abuses]] Jake, and [[ANaziByAnyOtherName gradually institutes a fascist regime in both branches.]]

* Holly Hollister of ''{{WebComic/Endtown}}''. She always had her issues, but up until the Unity arc she'd been mostly-functional, even after recovering from a suicide attempt. Her hard swerve into dysfunctional insane-{{Jerkass}} territory came shortly after a mid-arc rewrite (prompted by an illness-induced hiatus) in which the author [[{{DerailingLoveInterests}} upgraded a bit-part character (Kirbee) into a main character and new love interest while adding an event, nonexistent in the original plot outline, implied to have driven Holly off the deep end, after which she started lashing out at her companions and lover (something she'd never done before, even when she was disturbed enough to attempt suicide)]]. The creator used to produce large amounts of art of Holly (including concept art of her travelling the wastes with her lover and reaching a green and verdant place), but ceased doing so around the time of the rewrite/hiatus. In more recent times he has instead expressed great affection for Kirbee, holding her up as his favourite type of person (the [[{{PollyAnna}} eternal optimist]]).

** She is perfectly okay with killing a doomed John. Then she [[TheseHandsHaveKilled watches a doomed Dave have his throat cut]], [[HeelRealization and runs out of the room in tears]].

* Holly Hollister of ''{{WebComic/Endtown}}''. She always had her issues, but up until the Unity arc she'd been mostly-functional, even after recovering from a suicide attempt. Her hard swerve into dysfunctional insane-{{Jerkass}} territory came shortly after a mid-arc rewrite (prompted by an illness-induced hiatus) in which the author [[{{DerailingLoveInterests}} upgraded a bit-part character into a main character and new love interest while adding an event, nonexistent in the original plot outline, implied to have driven Holly off the deep end, after which she started lashing out at her companions and lover (something she'd never done before, even when she was disturbed enough to attempt suicide)]]. The creator used to produce large amounts of art of Holly (including concept art of her travelling the wastes with her lover and reaching a green and verdant place), but ceased doing so around the time of the rewrite/hiatus. In more recent times he has instead expressed great affection for Kirbee, holding her up as his favourite type of person (the [[{{PollyAnna}} eternal optimist]]).

* Holly Hollister of ''{{WebComic/Endtown}}''. She always had her issues, but her hard swerve into insane-{{Jerkass}} territory came shortly [[{{DerailingLoveInterests}} after the author introduced a new love interest]], Kirbee, for which he himself has expressed great affection, holding her up as his favourite type of person (the [[{{PollyAnna}} eternal optimist]]).

* Happens to most of the cast of Webcomic/{{Sinfest}} when [[BaseBreaker The Sisterhood]] shows up

** Then again, if Joel can [[MindControl mind-control the only wholly-good character into raping a child]], this may have been [[AllAccordingToPlan the entire plan]].

* The protagonist of the webcomic ''TheLounge'', Italy Ishida, seems to get a pretty large dose of this, cross pollinated with NoBisexuals.
* Matt in {{Concession}} went from being a shy and polite virgin Christian boy who happened to be bisexual into a sex obsessed, diaper wearing, cross dressing, BDSM junkie who has sex with transvestites behind his boyfriends back and uses dark magic to fight priests who are trying to save the world.

* In ''RedString'', the author suddenly fell in love with a different love interest for the main character, Miharu, and had a problem in that she'd invested a lot of time in the ''original'' male lead, Kazuo, and how they were destined to be (as in the red string of the title). Near the end of the comic, Kazuo suddenly devolved into a creepy, awkward loser that "couldn't let go" - but as he rightfully points out, Makoto is a terrible person and in the very scene where he says this, Makoto has literally yanked Miharu away from him and yelled at her for continuing to associate with him. Naturally, as people still persisted in hating the CreatorsPet that was Makoto and still expected her to give Kazuo a fair shake, Gina portrayed Kazuo as forcing himself on Miharu as a last ditch effort to appeal to her. She wrote in an author's note on the original page that she did so to portray the scene as having "consequences" for him. He had never been portrayed as being this desperate and the act was clearly intended to contrast negatively to Makoto. The backlash from the original page (which showed Miharu actually wiping the kiss off) was so powerful that Gina eventually tried to redraw the page, but most of the fans still saw it as the JumpTheShark moment it was. Note that Makoto, despite constantly forcing himself on Miharu while she was dating Kazuo, is brushed off even by the woman he cheated on for Miharu as him just being a "flirty goofball." And in the final slapped together epilog that the author only wrote to get people to stop bugging her about what happened to Kazuo? Oh, she shows him as ''happy'' that Miharu has completely blown him off...when mere hours earlier, he was declaring that he still loved her.

* ''Marauder Shields'' hinges on the indoctrination of [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard]], despite the third game making it perfectly clear that Shepard is not indoctrinated at any point. All this only serves to remove Commander Shepard as the protagonist in favour of [[FixerSue a non-controlled Marauder out of nowhere.]]

* ''MarauderShields'' makes frequent use of indoctrination to derail characters. Most prominent is [[spoiler:Commander Shepard]], despite how [[spoiler:Shepard]] not being indoctrinated is not only asserted in a scene prior to the final mission but a major part of the ending of ''MassEffect3''.
** Harbinger gets it even worse. Despite trying to have Shepard killed or kill Shepard personally in all of its appearances, Harbinger suddenly wants to use Shepard as its "Catalyst"—despite it or any of the Reapers ever using the word. This random obsession with capturing Shepard [[spoiler:even ends up getting Harbinger killed]].

* Dark Elf Drizz'l of ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater''. In his very first appearance, he was stupider than [[HarmlessVillain Garland]]. By his second appearance, he'd already started drifting into his current OnlySaneMan and DeadpanSnarker characterization. As with most such things in 8 Bit Theater, author Brian Clevinger did it because it would be funnier - having one completely sane character was funnier than one more complete idiot in a cast full of complete idiots.* The protagonist of the webcomic ''TheLounge'', Italy Ishida, seems to get a pretty large dose of this, cross pollinated with NoBisexuals.

* Dark Elf Drizz'l of ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' fame went from TheDitz who got outwitted by even ''[[DumbMuscle Fighter]]'' of all people to a competent DeadpanSnarker with no reason or justification whatsoever, just so the author could shoehorn in humor that required the necessity of an OnlySaneMan.
** No reason? He lost his [[IdiotBall swords]]!!
*** Only in 8BT do swords function like [[Webcomic/GirlGenius Agatha's locket]].
** Unlike most examples here quite a few people prefer the later characterization of Drizz'l.
** Part of this was that he seemed reasonable by comparison because he was SurroundedByIdiots
** To be fair, he was only outwitted by Fighter because talking to Fighter had temporarily drained his intelligence. This effect was strong enough that the other light warriors were going to try to use it to defeat Chaos.
* The protagonist of the webcomic ''TheLounge'', Italy Ishida, seems to get a pretty large dose of this, cross pollinated with NoBisexuals.

*** Only in 8BT do swords function like [[GirlGenius Agatha's locket]].

** Part of this was that he seemed reasonable by comparison because he was {{surrounded by idiots}}

* Dark Elf Drizz'l of ''EightBitTheater'' fame went from TheDitz who got outwitted by even ''[[DumbMuscle Fighter]]'' of all people to a competent DeadpanSnarker with no reason or justification whatsoever, just so the author could shoehorn in humor that required the necessity of an OnlySaneMan.

* Dark Elf Drizz'l of ''EightBitTheater'' fame went from a RalphWiggum who got outwitted by even ''[[DumbMuscle Fighter]]'' of all people to a competent DeadpanSnarker with no reason or justification whatsoever, just so the author could shoehorn in humor that required the necessity of an OnlySaneMan.