History Main / BadassDecay

** Miles "Tails" Prower, Sonic's right-hand man. In the Classic games he was a standard TagalongKid {{Sidekick}} but he could definitely keep up with Sonic and was just as capable as him taking on Eggman. In the [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Adventure]] [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 series]] he undergoes major CharacterDevelopment to stop relying on Sonic to always have his back and the result is him beating Eggman and saving Station Square by himself, and then going on to come up with a clever plan to disable one of the most dangerous superweapons in the Sonic universe. Nowadays he hardly fights and is more than content with just standing on the sidelines while Sonic handles all of the work; tellingly he's easily frightened by some Nightmares in ''Unleashed'' when he's done far greater feats in the past. What's more, in ''Sonic Adventure'' he's fully capable of defeating the dark god Chaos after it's already absorbed four Chaos Emeralds, but in ''Sonic Forces'', he is utterly terrified of its most basic form. This actually discussed in ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'' as [[spoiler:Tails comes to realize that being in Sonic's shadow negated those awesome moments and caused him to regressed and he vows to step out and become a stronger person]].

** Miles "Tails" Prower, Sonic's right-hand man. In the Classic games he was a standard TagalongKid {{Sidekick}} but he could definitely keep up with Sonic and was just as capable as him taking on Eggman. In the [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Adventure]] [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 series]] he undergoes major CharacterDevelopment to stop relying on Sonic to always have his back and the result is him beating Eggman and saving Station Square by himself, and then going on to come up with a clever plan to disable one of the most dangerous superweapons in the Sonic universe. Nowadays he hardly fights and is more than content with just standing on the sidelines while Sonic handles all of the work; tellingly he's easily frightened by some Nightmares in ''Unleashed'' when he's done far greater feats in the past. What's more, in ''Sonic Adventure'' he's fully capable of defeating the dark god Chaos after it's already absorbed four Chaos Emeralds, but in ''Sonic Forces'', he is utterly terrified of its most basic form.

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'':
** Lina's three allies seem to get progressively weaker in later seasons, whereas she maintains her relatively powerful SquishyWizard status. Zelgadis is the worst offender, having [[MagicKnight balanced magic and swordplay]] combined with [[StoneWall stone skin]]; he's usually the one [[TheWorfEffect who gets taken down or brushed off first]] later on; earlier he was genuinely threatening. Gourry the swordsman could provide in a pinch before; later on he becomes more or less [[MacGuffin a plot coupon]] because he happens to be wielding a very powerful ForgottenSuperWeapon. The novels avert Gourry's decay by giving him a new sword and maintaining his BadassNormal status, however.

** In the original seven volumes of the manga, Jonouchi/Joey and Honda/Tristan being former gang members was a lot more obvious and only slightly less so later on, as they delivered quite a few beatings to kids their age and full-grown adults. For example, in the original manga, Jonouchi was an adept fighter, even though he wasn't a great gamer, due to living his early teen years as a gang member that had to fight to survive. He beats Bandit Keith up during Duelist Kingdom for trying to steal his cards. In the anime, Bandit Keith beats HIM up and he usually ends up looking like a wannabe thug. Dark Yugi himself was not someone to mess with, as he previously had a tendency to play Shadow Games with anyone who pissed him off, which usually ended with the loser insane, grievously hurt, or dead, that lasted until the end of Duelist Kingdom. Even Anzu/Téa could throw an ArmorPiercingSlap once in a while, and not just for dramatic effect, either. Then the anime and real life card game rolled around, and suddenly Yugi and Jonouchi are settling all their problems with Duel Monsters, while Honda and Anzu are reduced to cheerleaders.

* Without a doubt, Wrestling/{{Kane}} from Wrestling/{{WWE}}. From the very beginning, Kane made his debut in the then-WWF as an unstoppable monster who destroyed everyone in his path. His badass decay began in the early 2000s when the writers tried to lighten his character up a bit by having him do comical imitations of other wrestlers like Wrestling/HulkHogan and Wrestling/BookerT. His character became considerably lightened up when he tag-teamed with the likes of the [[Wrestling/GregoryHelms Hurricane]] and Wrestling/RobVanDam. Lightening up a wrestler in itself should not destroy their career but Kane's decline was more of a gradual process than something that happened overnight. He soon began jobbing to newly debuting monster heels like Wrestling/{{Batista}} and losing some of the menace that once made him a force to be reckoned with. Despite that, Kane still carried on as a high-ranking mid-card wrestler at worst, a powerful entity very few wrestlers could defeat without some sort of cheating tactic. Then the shit hit the fan when Triple H accused Kane of being a murderer and a necrophiliac, leading to an awkward and disgusting storyline involving Triple H in a Kane mask having sex with a mannequin corpse in a funeral home. Eventually, Kane was made to finally unmask on live-television in a second feud with Triple H and Wrestling/{{Evolution}}. It was downhill from there. Nowadays, Kane can be seen jobbing to various wrestlers that he would've demolished back in his masked Big Red Machine days (Wrestling/{{Edge}}, Wrestling/RandyOrton, Wrestling/MarkHenry, Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}}, etc.)\\

* Wrestling/ChrisJericho has undergone a lot of badass decay over the years. One may not notice nowadays with Jericho being pinned left and right by a number of younger generation superstars, but there used to be a time when Jericho was one of the most dominant wrestlers in the WWE who could take down any wrestler who stood in his path, only coming up short against the really big superstars such as The Rock, Wrestling/TheUndertaker, Kane, and Wrestling/TripleH. During the Attitude Era, he was known for his incredible mic skills and memorable feuds against Triple H, Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon, The Rock, Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, and Wrestling/KurtAngle. His badass decay most likely began after Triple H defeated him and took the Undisputed Championship away from him. These days Jericho has been toned down incredibly by both the PG Era and restrictive ringwork by the injury-conscious WWE. Even wrestlers he could defeat with no problem in the past such as Wrestling/{{Edge}} or Wrestling/{{Christian}} are now pinning him cleanly and making him look like a chump. True he's won the world title a few more times in later years but it just doesn't feel like it's as big of a deal now as opposed to if he had won them during the height of his career from 1999 to 2001.

* As ScienceMarchesOn and we understand dinosaurs better, the popular image of dinosaurs as badass giant draconic lizards with mighty roars decays in favor of what can be summed up as giant flightless birds. Somehow, we doubt ''Film/JurassicPark'' would have been as memorable if its velociraptors were silent and covered in colorful feathers.

After his [[AndTheFandomRejoiced/ProWrestling remasking]] in late 2011, he completely got better. For a few months. He gave a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to Wrestling/ZackRyder on several occasions and got in brutal feuds with Cena and Orton, even defeating Orton cleanly at Wrestlemania. Then decay quickly set in again. A plot involving a crush on Wrestling/AJLee ensured that he lost any credibility that he had got back by remasking. He lost at No Way Out, failed to win at Money in the Bank, and was defeated by [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] at Summerslam. He was next used for comedy purposes, attending anger management and eventually partnering up with the ''mega over'' Daniel Bryan to form [[Wrestling/TeamHellNo one of the most memorable tag teams]] in years.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue: Zero'' has Carolina, Washington, and Tucker, the most competent and badass members of the main cast, return just to get their asses kicked by Viper. Tucker and Washington spend the rest of the season hospitalized and not doing anything relevant, while Carolina is sidelined in a mentor role and, outside of a few badass moments, is still easily beaten by the villains.

[[/folder[[

* ''BadassDecay/HellsKitchen''

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has Spike.
** He began the series as a straight villain who was set up to be killed off. Prior to this, he did things like kill the Annointed One, lead three powerful demon bounty hunters, and (once it was decided not to kill him off) betray Angelus behind his back and help save the world for his own selfish benefit. [[EnsembleDarkhorse/LiveActionTV As the character became popular and got strung along throughout the rest of the show's run]], he gradually became more and more sympathetic and cuddly. The change was so infamous that this trope [[Administrivia/RenamedTropes was once called]] Spikeification. Despite his decay, the character would occasionally receive a few awesome moments to keep him interesting, and he wound up becoming somewhat badass again on ''Series/{{Angel}}''. The decay probably began around the season three episode when he stumbles back to town a heartbroken drunk after Drusilla broke up with him for not being evil enough. Thankfully, by the end of the episode, he realizes that all he needs to do to win her back is go back to being the person he was, i.e. a complete badass with a healthy dose of sociopathy.
** The decay hit the ground running in season 4 when he is captured by the Initiative (a government paramilitary group studying demons) and has [[RestrainingBolt a chip installed in his head that prevents him from hurting humans]]. With the ability to cause harm removed, he is forced to become Angel-like: drinking blood obtained from butchers or blood banks, helping the Scoobies because he is so raring for a fight that he chose to attack other demons, and generally becoming angsty about his inabilities. However, it is when he falls in love with Buffy that he dives face-first into the realm of decayed.
** This decay is {{justified|Trope}} out-of-universe, because to keep Spike on the show past his time as a villain, he would have to be rendered a non-threat, so the audience wouldn't be wondering why [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Buffy didn't just stake him]]. Subsequent episodes where he proved that he was ''still'' a threat - either indirectly (e.g. setting her up to be killed by Drusilla in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E14Crush Crush]]") or directly (e.g. ''that'' scene in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E19SeeingRed Seeing Red]]") - but still didn't get staked [[BrokenBase left the base permanently broken]].
** Also, the Turok-Han. When it was first introduced, the "ubervamp" was so powerful that it just couldn't be stopped by ''any'' member of the Scooby gang and it almost killed Buffy. ''Twice''. On the third try, Buffy kills it while giving a speech to all the Potentials and the Scoobies [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Andrew]] in a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, but just barely. In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E22Chosen Chosen]]", after Willow [[spoiler:turns all Potentials into Slayers,]] you can see [[ConservationOfNinjutsu a whole army of ubervamps go down like flies]], as Buffy's army kill them as if they weren't stronger than regular vampires. And it's not only the power of a slayer; Robin and Giles and even Anya are seen killing a few of them!
* Irina Derevko from ''Series/{{Alias}}''. Even Sark showed hints of humanity, but Derevko was given the VillainBall in season 5. Sark at least stayed believably unredeemed.
* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'': To an extent, Shaw. He started off as a super spy - smart, tough, and skilled. All those skills were enhanced even further when he got the Intersect. However, after he lost the Intersect, Chuck managed to hold his own in a fight against him for a while. This could be partially attributed to Chuck's [[TookALevelInBadass increased skills]], but Shaw should have been able to do better.
* An InUniverse example from ''Series/BrooklynNineNine''. [[ThoseTwoGuys Hitchcock and Scully]] are a pair of lazy, incompetent slobs who are basically just riding it out until retirement. However the season six episode "Hitchcock and Scully" showed that, back in the eighties, they were known as "The Studs of the Nine-Nine," and were a pair of handsome, intelligent, athletic supercops. They were known as "Flat Top and the Freak" and were so well-respected that they'd walk into the precinct after a major bust, fire off a snappy one-liner, and get applause from the other officers and detectives.
-->'''Young Scully:''' Hey! Anybody have a trash can? Because Flat Top and the Freak are bringing in some garbage!\\
'''Nine Nine officers and detectives:''' ''[applause]''\\
'''Jake:''' You guys had badass entrance lines and people cheered?! What ''happened''?! Where'd it all go wrong?
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** {{Invoked|Trope}} about the Night's Watch, which has fallen on hard times. It was once a highly-regarded order on par with the Order of Maesters, attracting the best and most elite of Westeros. However, in later centuries, of the veritable army that once existed to safeguard the realm, only a token militia of less than a thousand men remains, who are mostly the bastard or unfit sons of Lords, along with various criminals, rapists, or those who fought on the wrong side in a war, who join in order to receive a full pardon. They are also severely under-equipped and can only afford to keep ''three'' of their nineteen castles along the Wall manned and maintained.
** Evoked and {{discussed|Trope}} in-universe with Robert Baratheon, who was a mighty warrior. When the series begins he's living on past glories, is too fat for his armor, and spends his days partying and trying not to piss himself.
** The Kingsguard was once admired as the finest examples of chivalry and combat skill in the realm. Now they are mostly comprised of mediocre fighters and unchivalrous brutes.
** Jaime goes through this InUniverse as from the beginning of the series onwards he is captured, out-fought by a woman, and finally crippled, losing ''all'' of his prodigious skill as a swordsman. By Season 4, even his own father and Cersei regard his career as a Knight as over and Joffrey essentially calls him a has-been.
** Invoked by Littlefinger regarding the Lannisters; with Tywin and the sheer power of his will gone, all that remains is one-handed Jaime, weak-willed Tommen, and dowager queen Cersei.
** In-universe with the people from the Iron Islands. Once, they had been the most feared people in Westeros. They had basically conquered the entire Riverlands, which involved beating the shit out of the ''Stormlords''. Then they successfully defeated and drove back the Andals, eventually subsuming ''them'' into ''their'' society and not the other way around as in the rest of Westeros (even the North's been affected to a certain extent by Andal culture in a way the Iron Islands never have), and built the single strongest fortress in the continent that was only brought low because of fucking '''dragons'''! And according to legend one of their ancient kings slew a sea dragon. Things went downhill after Aegon the Conqueror burned Harrenhal and helped the river lords drive their ironborn overlords back into the sea. Balon Greyjoy tried to reverse this by seceding from the Seven Kingdoms, but this backfired spectacularly when the Baratheons and their allies beat them into submission.
** Varys. At the beginning of the show, he was a [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] and [[TheSpymaster spymaster]] ''par excellence''. By Season 7, however, he's just...there. His intelligence network must either be composed of amateurs or just nonexistent, because it failed to notice tiny little details like [[BloodKnight Euron Greyjoy]]'s fleet attacking Yara and Theon's ships, and then also slipping up on the fact that House Lannister had abandoned Casterly Rock and was marching on Highgarden, the seat of Targaryen ally House Tyrell, and also the aforemntioned Euron sailing to Casterly Rock to cut off Dany's forces there. Possibly justified, given that [[TheDragon Qyburn]] might have taken over Varys' spy network. On the other hand, that shows a very dangerous lack of foresight on Varys' part. Also a case of AdaptationalWimp, given that, in the books, [[spoiler:Varys still has his "little birds", and uses them to kill [[TheGoodChancellor Kevan Lannister]]]].
** Fellow genius and master of intrigue Tyrion has much the same problem of having to be a smart character in an increasingly grand IdiotPlot. In the first few seasons, he adroitly handled himself in a DecadentCourt despite being viewed as an invalid and displayed excellent prowess on the battlefield, as well as a cynical awareness of how cruel the world could be. Starting around the seventh season, it seems like the easiest way to determine whether a plan is going to fail is to check and see if Tyrion was involved in its conception. Nearly every battle he's put in charge of is a PyrrhicVictory at best, despite the strength of his army, and his attempts to guess Cersei's moves are repeatedly, ridiculously off.
%%* Lionel Luthor from ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', who was once the MagnificentBastard.
* Arthur Fonzarelli, "[[BreakoutCharacter The Fonzie]]" from ''Series/HappyDays'', is first {{flanderiz|ation}}ed and then decayed through the course of the series, but especially after it [[JumpingTheShark jumps the shark]]. He ends up being more like a Boys' Club leader than the aloof, antisocial cool guy he started the show as.
* ''{{Series/Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'':
** Cylons in general have avoided badass decay, but Caprica-Six seems to have suffered rather badly. She went from baby mercy-killing in the miniseries to pining for Baltar and [[HeelFaceTurn desiring co-existence with humans]] in ''Downloaded'', though it was clear she cared about Baltar in the miniseries and she wasn't seen again until ''Downloaded'' anyway, so its not as if we had much evidence of badassery on her part anyway. That at least led to the scary occupation of New Caprica. After that, unfortunately, she was eventually reduced to surrendering along with Baltar, and sitting in Galactica's brig getting hardly any screen time. It's well-written legitimate character development, up until late season 3 where the writers almost forgot she existed for a time.
** Starbuck goes through is a little bit in the later seasons, especially when [[spoiler:she dies and comes back]]. She goes from being the badass Viper pilot to captain of a reconnaissance mission. The biggest sign of this is when she slaps Baltar for revealing a secret about her. In previous seasons she sucker-punched both Tigh and Apollo when provoked, but here she fights like TheChick.
** Arguably done in ''The Plan'', so as to humanize or explain the motives behind the Cylons' titular plot to destroy Galactica. Instead of resorting to outright warfare, the few human Cylons left in the fleet have to resort to cloak-and-dagger tactics while re-evaluating their role as villains. Simon goes from the scheming, mastermind doctor in "The Farm" to a loving family man who would rather kill himself than blow up a ship with his human family on it. Cavil becomes an IronWoobie who laments the continuous failure of his plans, while the Caprican variant of himself eventually becomes disenchanted with their actions, preaches harmony and unity and gets boxed by his fellow model.
* Although never exactly a ''badass'', Norman Clegg from ''Series/LastOfTheSummerWine'' began the long-running series as an acerbic philosopher with a dry and pointed sense of humour (as well as functioning as the Ego of the series' PowerTrio). As time has gone on, however, he has become a total wimp: scared stiff of driving cars, terrified of the various female characters (especially Auntie Wainright) and increasingly resigned to whatever madcap scheme his current "leader" has in mind.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
** Lord Zedd in ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' began life as the "Emperor Of Evil": a [[KnightOfCerebus genuinely terrifying villain]] who [[MakeWayForTheNewVillains quickly banished the comical Rita Repulsa]] and proved his magnificence by almost destroying the Rangers' zords, finally stripping Tommy of his Green Ranger powers, and creating his own highly kick-ass zord Serpentera, which ''towered'' above the Rangers' own Megazord. Then near the end of the 2nd season he got married to ''Rita'', becoming a more comical villain as the show went on and by the third season the transformation had become complete and he was a JadedWashout type character. By next season in ''[[Series/PowerRangersZeo Zeo]]'' he along with the rest of the Morphin baddies are run off by the Machine Empire (His voice actor confirms [[ExecutiveMeddling "Zedd scared small children, so they invoked this trope"]].) Ironically, he seems to do better in season three, as he pulls off more evil schemes which may convince the audience that he might even win. How? One of his plans climaxed in entering the Command Center, ''throne and all''.
** In the first season, Goldar was TheDragon and more than a match for the entire team of 5. Jason was capable of trading blows with Goldar, but that was it. But with season two [[SpotlightStealingSquad more about Tommy than any other cast member]], Goldar's character suffered dreadfully. Tommy began to defeat Goldar singlehandedly, but it wasn't just that Tommy's skills were growing. In one episode, ''[[TheSmartGuy Billy]]'' was able to kick Goldar around, ''unmorphed'', and that's when it got depressing. One might expect he'd be furious and try to regain his honor, but instead he just turned into a bungling nincompoop.
** {{Sixth Ranger}}s tend to decay in time to being [[TheWorfEffect jobbers for the villains]].
* Toyed with and retconned several times in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' with Sylar. Several storylines make it look like he's becoming a more sympathetic character until the arc is {{aborted|Arc}} and he snaps back to being a psychopath.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** When the Time Lords first show up at the end of the Second Doctor's run, they were mysterious, [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien powerful]], and threatening to the Doctor. They forced him to regenerate and banished his regenerated self to Earth. Over time, the portrayal of Time Lords changed into that of a stagnant society in decline, who had largely forgotten much of their former power and morality. The downgrading of the Time Lords happened first accidentally and then deliberately. In "The Three Doctors" they appeared as more {{Human Alien|s}} than god-like. Then when they re-appeared in "The Deadly Assassin" they fell prey to deliberate TakeThat {{Retcon}} by writer/script editor Robert Holmes, ArmedWithCanon. Fandom at the time complained about Holmes' story, but it established the trend which later writers took and ran with.
** The Brigadier, when he first appeared in the late 1960s (real time) took no guff from anyone and the stories portrayed UNIT, the force he led, as an elite team of defenders against AlienInvasion. He got gradually more comedic and less impressive, though he would regain his reputation later. As did UNIT itself.
** The Cybermen in the classic era were infamously subject to this. By the time 80's Who rolled around, the Cybermen were routinely being killed with solvents, concentrated fire from Human weapons and most infamously, anything made of gold, from gold dust to gold coins. This appeared to have been rectified in the New Who era. However, later on, they are defeated by [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E12NightmareInSilver a golden ticket]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E12ClosingTime a father's love for his son]].
** The Sontarans suffered a minor version of this-they were almost unarguably more dangerous in the 1970s and 1980s, at one point ''invading Gallifrey itself,'' but become a little less badass and rather more comic in stories such as "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "Time of the Doctor." However, they're still quite dangerous, so it's more of a downplayed trope.
* In the fourth season of ''Series/TwentyFour'' Curtis Manning was a pure badass, so much that he was called [[FanNickname Black Bauer]]. In the fifth season he was mostly a doormat compared to Bauer, in the sixth season [[spoiler:he was ineffectual until he got killed by Bauer]].
* Tyr Anasazi of ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' went from being one of the show's best {{Magnificent Bastard}}s and the only mortal being in the universe that Dylan Hunt couldn't take in a fight to a driveling short-sighted idiot that ended up losing fights to all and sundry, and was ignominiously shot in the back and dropped off a cliff. Some viewers believe that Kevin Sorbo (who played Dylan Hunt) becoming executive producer ''might'' have had something to do with this.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'':
** The main character almost succumbed to this in season two, even going so far as planning to turn himself in as the Bay Harbor Butcher, but thankfully changed his mind. As the series went on, Dexter has suffered from Badass Decay anyway. After all, each season charts a new step of emotional development for Dexter, as he discovers that he's not quite as inhuman as his adoptive father led him to believe. As a result, the Dexter at the end of Season 5 is not nearly as dark as his Season 1 counterpart. The series veered in a new direction in Season 7, with Dexter willfully rejecting the Code of Harry and becoming more of a Badass.
** Hannah suffered from this between season 7 and 8. Initially, she was a DarkActionGirl whose MO was to [[FemmeFatale seduce victims into lowering their guard]] before poisoning them with rare poisonous plants she breeds in her garden. One of season 7's best moments has to be her murder of [[spoiler:Sal Price]] in this fashion. She then gets PutOnABus until mid-season 8; upon her return, the audience was disappointed as she was reduced to a weak woman who apparently couldn't take care of herself anymore (which she had been doing since she was 14) and needed Dexter for ''everything'', resulting in her being too dependent of him and eventually leading to a RomanticPlotTumor. And the showrunners just [[CreatorsPet couldn't get enough of her]].
* The Borg from ''Franchise/StarTrek''. In their first appearance they started carving the Enterprise like a turkey, Borg drones had a personal energy shield that would adapt to enemy weapons fire after other drones would fall, the Picard needed to beg Q for help just to let the ship escape. A single Borg ship (with Picard assimilated) was powerful enough to destroy 39 Federation spaceships in the battle at Wolf 359, break through the Solar System's defense grid and reach Earth orbit. Early on, writers realized that because the original Borg concept was so single-minded they needed to modify some concepts to make for more story potential. The Borg turned to assimilating both people and technology, instead of being their own unique race. ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' introduced the concept of Borg "queens," which while effective for that movie, the Queen inherently humanized them, making simple deception a viable option to deal with them. By the end of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', the Borg's bad-assness had decayed so badly that Janeway routinely blew up whole Borg cubes with just a mean stare. However, the Borg did roar back to badass level in the post-''Nemesis'' novel continuity and ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''. How badass? Well, let's just say [[spoiler:[[PlutoIsExpendable eating fucking Pluto]]]] was just the beginning.
* In the '60s spy series ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'', heroes Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin are sometimes subject to plot dependent Badass Decay. E.g., in the third act of the third season episode, "The Five Daughters Affair, Part II", Solo and Kuryakin fight THRUSH's "karate killers" ([[spoiler:who despite that name (as given in the credits) do very little actual killing in the episode]]) for about the sixth time in the two-part adventure. Despite holding their own in several earlier fights with the karate killers, Solo and Kuryakin lose whatever fighting skills they've demonstrated, and are straightway handed their asses by the THRUSH "killers". This is necessary to set up the fourth act's climax and resolution (therefore "plot dependent").
* Michael Caffee of ''Series/{{Brotherhood}}'' goes from Badass Punisher-like Ear-cutting Irish Mob vigilante to [[spoiler:brain damaged bagman then paranoid drugged mob-boss]].
* The titular Series/{{House}} suffered from this in Season 6. Where once there was a badass, sarcastic, biting floating brain, there now stands a love-sick puppy that spouts "emotionally healthy" psychobabble. Most notable in his relationship with Cuddy, which went from mutual messing to confessions of love. Confessions. Of love. From ''House''.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' had some serious decay with the Others. What started as a mysterious group of rogue jungle ninjas was soon revealed to be little more than a bunch of [[spoiler:commune dwelling nobodies that played football and had a flare for the dramatic]]. Although shining the spotlight on anything scary will quickly reveal that it's just a branch scratching against a window. See NothingIsScarier.
* Morgause from ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' was simply too intelligent for her own good. In her first appearance she storms into Camelot, takes down several guards, challenges Prince Arthur to a duel, ''beats him'', drops a bombshell about his mother, makes him chase her across the countryside for answers, shows him what may or may not be a real apparition of his mother who tells him that his father was responsible for her death, and then watches from a crystal as he goes storming back to Camelot to kill King Uther in a fit of rage. However, in a show that seems almost pathologically dependent on StatusQuoIsGod and pressing the ResetButton, Morgause is reduced in season three to a completely ineffectual and one-dimensional villain who plots to overthrow the kingdom with a range of increasingly convoluted plans. If she had been allowed to retain the intelligence and subtlety she had displayed in the second season, she would have been running the place in two seconds flat.
* Barnabas Collins of the original ''Series/DarkShadows'' was intended to be the latest villain when he first appeared. His first victim was Willie Loomis (who was looking for jewels supposedly buried in the family crypt), turned into his slave. Jason [=McGuire=], who had come to Collinwood to blackmail Elizabeth Stoddard, was one of his first on-screen kills (Jason had brought Loomis with him, and become interested in the jewels Willie sold for Barnabas). He kidnapped and tormented Maggie Evans in an effort to make her into a version of his first love, Josette; killed anyone who got in his way; manipulated Dr. Hoffmann's affection for him, and generally caused mayhem. Then audiences fell in love with him, leading to his transformation into a heroic character.
* Eric of ''Series/TrueBlood'' started as a fetishy ruthless powerful vampire with a certain human streak. Badass Decay was predetermined. He stayed Badass three seasons. At season 4 he's been cursed by a group of hobby esoterics, lost his memory along with his personality and has taken to making angsty confessions to Sookie. He seems to have gotten back his badassery by the end of the season, when he decapitates three heavily-armed guards in the space of a second, while Bill [[spoiler:stakes the vamp who put him in power]].
* ''Series/YoungBlades'': Pointed out in-universe when D'Artagnan discovers that his [[Literature/TheThreeMusketeers famous Musketeer father]] has been reduced to performing for money and selling action figures of himself.
* ''Series/{{Entourage}}'' had Ari Gold go from a hyper-ambitious, foul-mouthed, ruthless agent for Hollywood's A-list to a guy whose main accomplishment was securing a Hallmark movie-of-the-week role for a washed up TV actor.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Castiel made his debut as a badass Angel of the Lord who dragged Dean out of Hell, slaughtered an entire group of demons single-handedly, [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm burned out Pamela's eyes when she saw his true form]], caused a lightning storm just by appearing, and [[NoSell No Sell'd]] [[OneHitKill Ruby's Knife]]. Fast forward a couple seasons, and he's been flanderized into a socially awkward, klutzy virgin. Justified in-universe for various reasons; Season 5 saw him lose a significant portion of his power due to his rebellion against Heaven, Season 6 saw him distracted by a civil war with the archangel Raphael, Season 7 rendered him briefly amnesic and subsequently insane, Season 8 had him torn between loyalties as his mind was manipulated while he recovered from being trapped in Purgatory, Season 9 and 10 saw him stripped of his powers and reduced to repowering himself by taking the power from other angels until his own was restored, and subsequent seasons pitted him against a range of powerful threats that limited what he could do against them.
* Dr. Zachary Smith from ''Series/LostInSpace'', started as a cold, cruel, traitorous villain, to became the main comic relief as a cowardly, incompetent even effeminate burden.
* Often in ''Series/RobotWars'':
** After reaching three consecutive grand finals (being the only robot ever to do so), Hypnodisc fared dismally, knocked out in a Series 6 semi-final and defeating only fragile opponents in Extreme II.
** Chaos 2 spent Series 3 and 4 {{Curbstomp|Battle}}ing all its opponents. Never upgraded or re-designed by engineer George Francis despite new weight allowances for Series 5, Chaos 2 was subsequently defeated by a newcomer in a Series 6 heat final and was thrashed in Extreme II.
** Pussycat, possessing a powerful spinning blade and guided by David Gribble, considered by [[LovelyAssistant Julia Reed]] to be the most talented driver to have ever graced the show, was formidable enough to come second in Series 4 and [[DefeatingTheUndefeatable even defeated]] [[TheAce Razer]] ''twice''. Tragically however David Gribble was killed in a motorcycle accident between Series 4 and Series 5 and Pussycat just couldn't quite deliver a repeat performance. Pussycat at least went out on a high note, beating three American robots to win in the War of Independence special.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'' gives us the Harsesis -- a child born with all of the knowledge of the Goa'uld's advanced technology. So much of a potential asset/threat was he, that an ascended being with powers approaching that of a god eventually had to take him under her wing for everyone's protection. The thing to note about Goa'uld tech though is that whilst it is hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years ahead of our own, it all amounts to the equivalent of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries stone knives and bearskins]] when put up against the technology of the Ancients and the Asgard. Thus when the Earth eventually gained a fleet of space ships powered by Asgard tech, and a [[Series/StargateAtlantis flying Ancient city,]] and an Ancient ship [[Series/StargateUniverse that can jump whole galaxies in weeks,]] and complete databases of all of said races latest technology... lets just say that the Harsesis child is actually a bit underwhelming now.
* Both Darlene and Dom suffer from this in ''Series/MrRobot''. Darlene starts off as a no nonsense and hardcore hacker who is Elliot's sister and seems to be brave at dealing with everything and Dom is a determined and confident FBI agent who despite her social anxiety manages to use her talents and intelligence as an FBI agent to take down criminal. The Dark Army machinations against them ends up turning both the women more broken and weak in Season 4 and leaving them unable to defend themselves against them. Though Dom manages to take down her psychotic handler and Darlene manages to take down the Deus Group who handled them.
[[/folder]]

* For the first three decades of publication history, the Characters/{{Juggernaut}} was a physically unstoppable villain empowered by the deity Cyttorak. Some of the notable feats include withstanding [[Characters/TheMightyThorThorOdinson Thor's]] "godforce" unharmed, an attack that was earlier shown capable of severely injuring [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]]. Then during ComicBook/{{Onslaught}} the Juggernaut gets a taste of TheWorfEffect, as he is knocked clean across two states and ends up comatose for several days just to show how badass Onslaught is. [[RedemptionDemotion Things went further downhill as Chuck Austen wrote him as part of the]] Comicbook/XMen. Juggernaut, who before had been capable of going for weeks if not years without air, food, or water, can suddenly drown in Austen's first story featuring him. There was absolutely no explanation for why the Juggernaut was suddenly very stoppable, and later authors have scrambled for a {{Retcon}} to explain that. The latest line comes from ''Comicbook/FearItself: The Worthy'', which says that Juggernaut's power goes "up and down on Cyttorak's whim". That is something that has never happened before, even when the Juggernaut went dimension-hopping with Comicbook/DoctorStrange and tried to kill Cyttorak when coming face to face with him.[[note]]Though in the latter case Cyttorak might've just been [[VillainRespect impressed enough with Juggy having the balls to fight him]] to not punish him with a depower.[[/note]] Or when the Juggernaut screwed up a bet between Cyttorak and other deities in The Eighth Day, he was confirmed to still possess unstoppable strength from Cyttorak's enchantments in the follow-up story The Ninth Day.

* Probably the worst case of this in comics comes from ComicBook/{{Batman}} baddie Killer Moth. When he was created, he was built up to be the "anti-Batman" and he was genuinely a credible threat to the Caped Crusader. However, his threat level fell apart when he became the target for Characters/{{Batgirl}}'s first appearance. After that, he was considered a joke and not even his transformation into Charaxas during ''ComicBook/UnderworldUnleashed'' could help save him. About the closest Killer Moth had been in any media to being a credible threat was during ''WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans|2003}}'', and even then he got pushed around by his spoiled teenage daughter Kitten.

** Cersei is a specific example as well. She was the primary villain in the first book, and was a noted schemer. Her plot to kill Robert Baratheon was very clever in how it came off as an accident. As the books go on, she's presented as more and more incompetent. At least Book 3 has her successfully twisting peoples' arms to testify against Tyrion at his trial. However, when Book 4 comes and presents her perspective, she's shown as a complete moron time and time again. Not only is she seeming to be more pathetic as a plotter, she actually comes off as *less* sympathetic when you see her point of view. In the past she was at least considered a devoted mother, but in Book 4 she seems awfully indifferent about her children except for how it impacts her. In fact, it's presented that since there was a prophecy that said all of her children would die before her, her concern for her children's well-being could have a much more selfish bent. In-Universe, other characters seem to note how awful she's become. Littlefinger predicted that she would ruin the realm, but not nearly as fast as she did. Her brother Jaime begins to wonder why he ever felt attracted to her once he realizes how pathetic and evil she is.

* Nala in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'', probably in order to make the protagonists look better. She fought off a group of hyenas easily in the first film, but needed Kion to save her from three hyenas in the show.

** Alain stands out as the only rival Ash never beat at any point, and is, fittingly, one of the trainers in the Masters 8. Sadly, his match with Leon proves just how outclassed he is by the other characters (all but him and Ash are Champions), as Leon completely destroys his team, including his seemingly invincible Mega Charizard X, without much of a problem. He doesn’t even have to use Dynamax to defeat his Charizard!

** In ''Diamond/Pearl'', Regigigas is fought at Level 70, making it a challenging battle. In ''Platinum'', for whatever reason, it was lowered to ''Level 1'', making it far less challenging to fight (but harder to capture... unless you have [[HPToOne False Swipe]]).

-->-- '''[[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Spike]]''', ''Series/{{Angel}}''

** This is actually evident with many reformed villains in {{Shonen|Demographic}} series. Sticking with ''Manga/DragonBall'', Yamcha was once a feared bandit who rivaled Goku in martial arts prowess. He then spends the rest of the series doing absolutely nothing of importance. Unlike the other heroes below, Yamcha actually up and retires after getting a hole in his chest courtesy of Android #20/Dr. Gero. This is telling that, by ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', he's become a baseball player full-time and is the only Z Fighter not to participate in the Universal Survival arc, replaced by Android #17.

** Mokuba. Again, the franchise from before and after the universe revolved around Duel Monsters can be considered two different series with [[InNameOnly curious name similarities]]. The ''old'' Mokuba was an EnfantTerrible and wanted to kill Yugi, being one of the better villains in the series, being a '''KnightOfCerebus''' in the manga. In the''Duel Monsters anime'', he mostly exists as a [[MoralityPet to Kaiba.

** The title character is a complicated case. At the very start of [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks the Golden Age]], Superman was a smug, hot-headed vigilante who bullied crooks and corrupt authority constantly. Gradually, though, his attitude mellowed down -he was nicer but was still a paranoid jerkass- as his powers increased steadily until becoming a planet-destroyer before the beginning of [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks the Silver Age]]. Then, the 1986 reboot both nerfed his powers and softened his personality until turning him into Mr. Nice Guy.
** Pre-Crisis ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} was one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy, as well as mature, experienced and self-assured hero because she was allowed to grow up. Then DC [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths killed her off]], and when [[ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004 she was reinstated in the main continuity]], [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Kara was an insecure teenager girl]] who was definitely less powerful than her previous, godlike incarnation.
** Golden Age [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois Lane]] was an intelligent IntrepidReporter who was often able to [[DamselOutOfDistress save herself]] -- though she (understandably) often needed Superman's help when dealing with superhuman-level problems and other things a normal human couldn't be expected to deal with single-handedly. In the Silver Age, she was watered down into a reckless, somewhat ditzy woman who frequently needed to be rescued and was obsessed with getting Superman to marry her. However, the Bronze Age would mostly restored her old badassery.

** Doomsday was [[GenericDoomsdayVillain a villain created with the sole purpose of defeating the hero]] to raise sales. The problem with this kind of villain is that the fans will want to get more stories with him, and writers have to depower him so that the stories are not prone to FridgeLogic (if he could kill Superman once, why can't he do it again?)

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsExodus Exodus]] was originally created to be [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]]'s successor as the top mutant threat to the X-Men and throughout the first half of the '90s he more than lived up to his lofty claim of being "[[BadassBoast Magneto's heir in spirit and in power]]", flattening all of X-Force in just his second appearance before starring as the BigBad of the ''ComicBook/BloodTiesMarvelComics'' crossover in which he effortlessly defeated a fully-armored War Machine, matched and overcame [[ComicBook/TheEternals the Eternal]] Sersi, and in the story's climax fought off virtually the entirety of both the Avengers and X-Men teams singlehandedly while ''also'' crushing the entire island of Genosha beneath the force of his telekinesis. Then he succumbed th OrcusOnHisThrone and spent a few years just sort of sitting around, until the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' villain Holocaust was transported over to the regular timeline and the decision was made to have him fight Exodus sans his PoweredArmor to [[TheWorfEffect show how strong he was]] (despite Exodus logically being able to defeat him with his telepathy [[ForgotAboutHisPowers if he'd just bothered to use it]]). Much like Juggernaut above, Exodus would be further dragged downhill by Chuck Austen, who wrote him as a very generic sort of baddie who struggled to match Havok and got told off by one of his own lackies, a teenage elephant boy. Unlike Juggernaut, this bizarre dip in competence has never been addressed, and later appearances only dragged him down further, with ''Messiah Complex'' using him as a victim of TheWorfEffect (again) to build up [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]] and Characters/{{Emma Frost|WhiteQueen}}. He's been handled with more respect since then, but is still written as being below Magneto in power, despite ''Bloodties'' establishing him as Magneto's equal if not superior.
* Surpassing both Juggernaut and Exodus in the Badass Decay awards is [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]]. Originally TheDreaded to ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, Sabretooth first started falling from grace in the mid '90s when Wolvie gave him a forcible lobotomy. He spent some time in the X-Men's care due to this before regaining his original bloodthirsty personality, but the Sabretooth who was AlwaysSomeoneBetter to Logan was effectively gone. His next appearance had him being pitted against Wolverine by [[Characters/MarvelComicsApocalypse Apocalypse]] to see which of them was more fit to be his horseman and being decisively beaten. But then along came (you guessed it) ''Chuck Austen'', who dragged Sabretooth down further into the depths of HarmlessVillain territory. How harmless? Wolverine and the X-Men ''laugh at him'' when he invades the X-Mansion alongside Exodus and Juggernaut above, and a teenage mutant girl with no SuperStrength at all punches him out. For whatever reason, Chuck Austen seemed to be set on dragging as many Badass X-Men villains down into this as he could before leaving the X-books.

* The Creator/MarvelComics version of the MultiversalConqueror [[ComicBook/DoctorStrange Dormammu]] has been subjected to this to a more ridiculous degree than any other Marvel character over the years. In the old days he was able to one-shot the [[ComicBook/XMen Phoenix Force]], absorb many universes into his own realm that he rules as a [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans god-tyrant]], defeat the multiversal incarnation of [[CosmicEntity Eternity]] (with help from his sister Umar), and likely killed [[EldritchAbomination The Trinity of Ashes and Slorioth]], who threatened Eternity just by existing. He was also more than a match for several [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Hell-lords]] combined during a campaign to conquer their realms, and they had to use a specific weakness of his as a cheat in order to prevail. All of this outside of his own realm, wherein he is far more powerful. However from 2007 or so and onwards, he has been treated as a pushover that has been defeated or severely damaged by objectively enormously less powerful characters, such as [[WeakButSkilled Cyclops and the Howling Commandos]].
* In his original appearance, [[Franchise/{{Tintin}} Roberto Rastapopoulos]] was portrayed as an actually threatening villain, being a MagnificentBastard who led a whole drug traffic in the first story arc in the whole series, almost succeeded in killing Tintin at several points. In ''Fly 714 for Sydney'', he is turned into a comical villain who ends up accidentally revealing his whole plan under the effect of a truth serum and get heavily ridiculized, even failing to crush a ''spider''. Might be intentional, however, as Hergé's purpose when writing this book was to {{deconstruct|ion}} the adventure genre.

* Probably the worst case of this in comics comes from ComicBook/{{Batman}} baddie Killer Moth. When he was created, he was built up to be the "anti-Batman" and he was genuinely a credible threat to the Caped Crusader. However, his threat level fell apart when he became the target for ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'s first appearance. After that, he was considered a joke and not even his transformation into Charaxas during ''ComicBook/UnderworldUnleashed'' could help save him. About the closest Killer Moth had been in any media to being a credible threat was during ''WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans|2003}}'', and even then he got pushed around by his spoiled teenage daughter Kitten.

* Arthur Fonzarelli, "[[BreakoutCharacter The Fonzie]]" from ''Series/HappyDays'', is first {{flanderiz|ation}}ed and then decayed through the course of the series, but especially after it [[JumpingTheShark Jumps The Shark]]. He ends up being more like a Boys' Club leader than the aloof, antisocial cool guy he started the show as.

** Hannah suffered from this between season 7 and 8. Initially, she was a DarkActionGirl whose MO was to [[FemmeFatale seduce victims into lowering their guard]] before poisoning them with rare poisonous plants she breeds in her garden. One of season 7's best moments has to be her murder of [[spoiler:Sal Price]] in this fashion. She then gets PutOnABus until mid-season 8; upon her return, the audience was disappointed as she was reduced to a weak woman who apparently couldn't take care of herself anymore (which she had been doing since she was 14) and needed Dexter for ''everything'', resulting in her being too dependant of him and eventually leading to a RomanticPlotTumor. And the showrunners just [[CreatorsPet couldn't get enough of her]].

** Wrestling/SamoaJoe, twice. The first was after losing to Wrestling/KurtAngle at Hard Justice 2007 when Karen Angle predictably turned on Joe. The fans saw that turn two miles away, so they cheered for Kurt and Karen and booed Joe. The real damage didn't come until Joe cut a promo on Wrestling/ScottHall at Turning Point, leading to his rebellion against TNA management. Unfortunately, he came off as whiny, leading the fans to boo him even more. He was losing left and right. Eventually, at Lockdown 2008, he got his badass cred back after beating Angle for the TNA Title.
** Alas, that didn't last long, did it? After losing the title to Wrestling/{{Sting}} (when Nash turned on him), Joe formed the TNA Front Line along with Wrestling/AJStyles to counter Sting's new group: the Main Event Mafia. During that feud, the Front Line lost nearly EVERY SINGLE MATCH against the Mafia, with the exception of Lethal Lockdown. It was also during this feud where Joe became a member of the "Nation of Violence," which saw him torture [[Wrestling/ShawnDaivari Sheik Abdul Bashir]] for no reason whatsoever and threaten to kill Wrestling/ScottSteiner. Again, the fans looked at Joe as a complete psychopath, and not the badass he once was. Then, he turned on the Front Line and became just another lackey for Wrestling/KurtAngle.

* When Albert/A-Train returned to the WWE as Lord Tensai he was a mysterious and intimidating monster heel. It only took a few months before he was dancing the robot in a basque and thong...

* Crossed with DorkAge. [[Wrestling/RubyRiott Heidi Lovelace]] was a Champion and main eventer in several promotions. Ruby Riott is lucky if she wins a match.

** Axel was a cocky {{Manipulative|Bastard}}, MagnificentBastard in ''Chain of Memories'' and in ''Kingdom Hearts II'', became a wimp who got his ass handed to him easily, failed to really think things through despite previously showcased to be capable of [[GambitRoulette extensive planning]], and had an unhealthy obsession with a fifteen-year-old boy. Hell in ''III'' despite becomeing a Keyblade wielder, his performance was even worse then the previous games as he was easily dispached by Terranort and lost to Saix & Xion before Xemnas destroys his Keyblade, requiring Sora to save him.

** Chris Redfield also had it bad for good time, despite being the frigging TheHero of franchise, when ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' introduced Leon S. Kennedy as the new protagonist Chris seriously degraded in popularity. Though Leon being a rookie cop and Chris being a trained veteran you’d think would seemly qualify Leon for TheScrappy inferior status, thanks the sheer coolness of Leon and quality of the games he stared in (''Resident Evil 2'' and the record breaking ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'') Leon [[BreakoutCharacter far surpassed]] Chris, who was left looking like a stock extra in ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'' in comparison.

** You can make a good argument for Jill Valentine succumbing to this. Like Chris, she’s an absolute badass in the first game and even more so in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'', where she’s a OneWomanArmy who defeats TheDreaded ImplacableMan all by herself. In the following games she’s regulated to being just Chris’s hot partner such as ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations'' where she eventually gets captured and worse still in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' she seemingly killed off in a FlashBack before the game even starts and used as source of {{Angst}} for Chris and replaced with Sheva. [[spoiler: TheReveal that’s she the puppet of Wesker in what basically is a HypnotizeTheCaptive situation and has to be saved by Chris again isn’t satisfying in the slightest nor the fact she doesn’t get to kill Wesker alongside Chris and is only playable in the DLC]]. Even ''[=RE3=]'' [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Remake remake]] had Jill [[AdaptationalWimp get clobbered around]] by Nemesis in cutscenes for the sake of drama forcing Carlos to save her butt ''five times'' unlike the 1999 version, where she’s the one who saved Carlos (while infected) and only succumbed her wound after kicking Nemesis’s ass. Creator/{{Capcom}} putting Jill OutOfFocus in the series after ''[=RE5=]'' also didn’t help matters.

** Once considered Sonic's equal and the respected guardian of a powerful artifact, Knuckles the Echidna has now devolved into a ButtMonkey who always gets tricked by an outside party and is the embodiment of DumbMuscle. [[DemotedToExtra He's hardly even an important character anymore]], either. The FanDumb was getting tired of playing multiple characters and wanted to go back to ''just'' Sonic. Tails has gotten better since ''VideoGame/SonicColors''; meanwhile, Knuckles is still a butt monkey, but ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' turns him into the funniest and most likable character, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA1dtqyTRAI seen here]]. Of course, he stills suffers of {{flanderization}} and [[AdaptationalDumbass became]] nothing more than a piece of DumbMuscle.

* The animated incarnation of WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}} goes through this something awful. In the Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer cartoons, he's truly {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le like his comic strip counterpart, to the point where bullets will ''bounce off him'' (''without having eaten spinach first''). By the time Creator/FamousStudios starts making the cartoons, Popeye requires spinach to perform even the most mundane feats of strength.

* It says something when you were more badass as a ''baby'' than you are after hitting puberty, as is the case with Tommy Pickles of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}''. With a [[BadassCreed declaration of]] [[CatchPhrase "A baby's got to do what a baby's got to do,"]] even when he was ''aware'' [[TheFool of the danger]] such as dealing with [[TheDreaded "The Junkfood Kid,"]] he never failed to pull out his trusty screwdriver and lead [[TrueCompanions his fellow babies]] to fun and adventure. Then came ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' where he's now just another kid with crippling fears, awkwardness and just being well, [[BroughtDownToNormal normal.]]

* Nala in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'', probably in order to make the protagonists look better. She fought off a group of hyenas easily in the first film, but needed Kion to save her in from three hyenas in the show.

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsExodus Exodus]] was originally created to be [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]]'s successor as the top mutant threat to the X-Men and throughout the first half of the '90s he more than lived up to his lofty claim of being "[[BadassBoast Magneto's heir in spirit and in power]]", flattening all of X-Force in just his second appearance before starring as the BigBad of the ''ComicBook/BloodTiesMarvelComics'' crossover in which he effortlessly defeated a fully-armored War Machine, matched and overcame [[ComicBook/TheEternals the Eternal]] Sersi, and in the story's climax fought off virtually the entirety of both the Avengers and X-Men teams singlehandedly while ''also'' crushing the entire island of Genosha beneath the force of his telekinesis. Then he succumbed th OrcusOnHisThrone and spent a few years just sort of sitting around, until the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' villain Holocaust was transported over to the regular timeline and the decision was made to have him fight Exodus sans his PoweredArmor to [[TheWorfEffect show how strong he was]] (despite Exodus logically being able to defeat him with his telepathy [[ForgotAboutHisPowers if he'd just bothered to use it]]). Much like Juggernaut above, Exodus would be further dragged downhill by Chuck Austen, who wrote him as a very generic sort of baddie who struggled to match Havok and got told off by one of his own lackies, a teenage elephant boy. Unlike Juggernaut, this bizarre dip in competence has never been addressed, and later appearances only dragged him down further, with ''Messiah Complex'' using him as a victim of TheWorfEffect (again) to build up [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Nightcrawler]] and Characters/{{Emma Frost|WhiteQueen}}. He's been handled with more respect since then, but is still written as being below Magneto in power, despite ''Bloodties'' establishing him as Magneto's equal if not superior.

** Sakura Haruno starts off the TimeSkip as the first member of Team 7 to go up against an Akatsuki, Sasori. She was hailed as the second coming of Tsunade, who'd she'd eventually surpass with her talent. Come next arc...she's knocked out at the starting bell after Four-Tailed Naruto smacks her hard enough that he almost kills her. {{Subverted|Trope}} in the Invasion of Pain arc, where she knocks out one of Pain's summons with [[OneHitKill one blow]] and organizes the survivors while Naruto fights Pain one on one. THEN in the next arc [[NeverLiveItDown she hits her lowest low]]: First she's treated as a ragdoll by Karui and Omoi, getting knocked out. Then she delivers a [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim fake]] [[FalseConfession love confession]] to Naruto to get him off Sasuke's trail, and [[ShipSinking it does not work at all]]. Then [[KillTheOnesYouLove she decides to kill Sasuke on her own]]...but thanks to her hesitation, she gets strangled by Sasuke, who had been fighting Samurai, the Five Kage’s and their attendants, and Danzo nearly back to back, and needs Naruto to save her from the stab of her own kunai...but because of that, he ends up getting cut by ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero that very same kunai]]''. This gets subverted again in the Fourth Shinobi War Arc.

** [[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds Jack Atlas]] zigzags this in the second season. He started out the series as the serious [[TheRival Rival]] but deteriorated to the point in which he contributed little more to the series than to provide PluckyComicRelief with his incessant bickering with Crow and with his suddenly acquired love for cup ramen that he [[OutOfCharacterMoment cried over]]. However, his skills from the first season are still present, and he ends up averting this trope in the WRGP finals and becomes even more badass as ever.

** The prequel trilogy did this to Darth Vader... sort of. He only shows up properly at the very end of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', once "Anakin Skywalker" is done and over with, but the one time he's there features [[BigNo one of the most infamous]] {{Narm}} [[BigNo moments ever]] that really makes him seem less impressive. However, ''Film/RogueOne'' subverts this, with a MookHorrorShow that reminds the audience just why he's TheDreaded as he slices through a whole corridor of random soldiers.

!!Exceptions:

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]]:
** Creator/AlanMoore's ComicBook/{{Batman}} story ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' could be seen as a cruel parody of this. We are privy to his tragic backstory revealed in flashbacks as he tries to drive Commissioner Gordon mad by brutally shooting Barbara and then tormenting him with photos of her suffering. Near the end of the story, however, the Joker says that he doesn't clearly or consistently remember the events that made him what he is, naming the trope MultipleChoicePast in the process. (This story was an inspiration to [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy certain filmmakers]].)
** The same can be said of ''Going Sane'' in which the Joker, thinking he killed Batman, regains his sanity, becomes an upstanding citizen, and becomes engaged to a woman, only to return to his old self when Batman is revealed to be alive after all. Amazingly this story actually made him even more terrifying. If the Joker's insanity isn't an unchangeable absolute in Franchise/TheDCU, nothing is certain. The Joker truly puts the "chaotic" in "choatic evil". He'd never be as consistent as to be evil ''all'' the time. [[note]]YMMV, since if the Joker's madness hinges on Batman being alive as this story seems to indicate, then there really is some consistency to his insanity[[/note]]
* The ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} story "Fall of [[Characters/MarvelComicsTheKingpin The Kingpin]]" is an interesting study of this. The story starts out with Daredevil reminding Kingpin of his lost wife, who he genuinely loved but who left him because she didn't approve of his criminal lifestyle. Daredevil then takes down his top enforcer Typhoid Mary and things get worse from there. Fisk ends up running afoul of ComicBook/{{HYDRA}}, who blow up all of his business holdings in New York City and drain his financial accounts. Meanwhile, Daredevil has used ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'s database to acquire enormous amounts of evidence of Kingpin's crimes, and turns them over to a federal prosecutor. Normally Kingpin's a man who'd be able to call in favors, but with the loss of his holdings and his current indictment, nobody wants to risk working with him. To top it all of, Daredevil tricks him into having a FreakOut in public, destroying any doubt of his true character and making it clear that nothing is going to save him from his problems. Kingpin has his bail paid by an old lackey of his, and at first he's grateful. Then he finds out that the only reason he got him out of jail was so the Kingpin could be HIS lickspittle for awhile, and tells him to go pick up his laundry. [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen A pretty sad end for a man who once owned New York City]] and [[ComicBook/DaredevilBornAgain tore Daredevil's life apart]], huh? Except...that last insult was one too many. Kingpin smashes his cane into the guy's skull so hard the head breaks off. He then impales him with the broken end and lifts him into the air. As his blood runs down the Kingpin's arms, he thanks him, saying that he reminded him of a part of him that he had thought lost forever, remarking that he now feels [[TitleDrop ...Born again]]. He walks off with the intent to reclaim everything he had, and Daredevil feels guilty at how far he went to take him down. It could be argued that this storyline is a deconstruction of VillainDecay and Badass Decay: the Kingpin's efforts to become a true DiabolicalMastermind by creating a legal media empire so he can be a VillainWithGoodPublicity are the reason HYDRA could blow all his business holdings in New York. Kingpin’s ability to be TheDon really depends on other corrupt people believing he has enough power to return their favors. Everyone else (his wife, Daredevil, HYDRA) believes he’s not much more than TheBrute and TheBully. The storyline shows him slowly getting more desperate, stupid, and weaker… also becoming much more dangerous each time. [[CorneredRattlesnake When he is truly desperate]], he embraces being TheBrute and TheBully again...
* Under the pen of Creator/ChrisClaremont, ComicBook/{{Magneto}} lost his worse qualities and gained a tragic backstory... but at the same time became far more of a threat and a far more interesting character than before. To this day, this take on him is [[MyRealDaddy considered the definitive one]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/CiaphasCain'':
** The book manages to convincingly portray every ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' army featured (excluding only the Eldar and Dark Eldar as of last publishing, and Cain still alludes to traumatic memories of being tortured by the latter) as skilled and lethal combatants. In particular, the novel series is virtually the only 40k media that ''convincingly'' continues to portray Necrons as horrific monstrosities to be feared. Cain has only pulled off one win out of three encounters with the Necrons (and then only by blowing up a promethium refinery from orbit, turning it into a ''gigaton-range fuel-air bomb''), as opposed to his constant success against just about everything else. They are also the one threat thus far that he has adamantly refused to stand and confront, reputation be damned.
** The Orks are a mixed case. While they are more often than not the "Original Antagonists" that Cain is sent in to fight only to later stumble upon the real threat (Necrons or Tyranids, depending on the book), the Valhallan regiments with whom Cain serves most of his career are considered experts at fighting Orks in particular, and out-of-universe the Orks ''are'' considered the comic relief army. They get ADayInTheLimelight in ''Death or Glory'', however, and in the beginning of that book Cain mentions that Orks are considered a bit of a joke in-universe, but that the veterans are taking the threat very seriously indeed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* On ''Series/{{Deadwood}}'' the MagnificentBastard Al Swearengen starts off the series by stepping on a woman's throat and ordering the deaths of a family of travelers. Throughout the show, however, he reveals a vulnerable side, all manner of inner demons, and develops into something of an anti-hero as he works to build the community, fight the destructive influence of George Hearst, and occasionally PetTheDog. However, every once in a while a scene pops up to remind the audience what a brutal bastard he is. In one particular scene that seems specifically created to combat the trope, he takes his time torturing a mook and mocking him for shooting at an unarmed woman... then admitting to the mook as Swearengen is about to murder him that it was just another kind of torment, and Swearengen has and would kill women and children without hesitation.
* ''Series/{{Shark}}'' does everything they can to avoid having this happen to their badass protagonist, like [[KickTheDog the time]] he framed a SerialKiller. On the other hand, he gets to PetTheDog by having meaningful conversations with his teenage daughter. Then again, the first episode showed that he believed in his methods, just that he realized the wrong people were benefiting from them.
* Subverted in one episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' where the [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain of the week]] was played by Creator/RobinWilliams - not angsty, dramatic Robin Williams, but [[AffablyEvil goofy Robin Williams]], complete with funny voices, which he used to pretend to be "Det. Milgram" and talk a woman's male boss into violating her, then got the jury to laugh him back onto the street. At the climax he tries a version of the Milgram experiment with Elliot and Olivia, and when Elliot won't press the button, breaks down crying at how unfair his life is and how "sheep" killed his wife... then he "reveals" it was a SecretTestOfCharacter and goes back to his goofy self. This was played straight many, ''many'' times in the ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' franchise, however.
* Subverted awesomely in ''Series/{{Primeval}}''. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgonops Gorgonopsid]] is an incredibly powerful Permian carnivore, serving as the main threat in the first episode and only going down after being hit by a SUV and shot repeatedly with an automatic rifle. In episode 6, the new human-hunting, intelligent baddie, the Future Predator, ends up following our heroes through a TimePortal and into the Permian. A Gorgonopsid appears, and we all wait for the [[GoalOrientedEvolution old, "outmoded" creature]] to be [[TheWorfEffect killed by the new monster]]...except that doesn't happen. Instead, the Gorgonopsid proceeds to teach this future-spawned upstart just what ''throwing down, '''Old School''''' really means. Gorgonopsids didn't become extinct because of the evolution of other better predators, but because of the Permian extinction event which also killed almost everything else.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' is extremely good at averting this, with badass characters remaining as such after we learn about their FreudianExcuse backstory. Especially Benjamin Linus, whose tragic childhood was sort of balanced out by him committing mass murder because of it. It plays with the concept with Locke. When we first see him, he's got an awesome Obi-Wan sage thing going on, throwing knives at boars and such. In episode three, we discover he was a rather pathetic and needy guy before the crash, and that he was in a wheelchair before the crash. Episodes starring him only went further as the audience discovers exactly how pathetic and needy he is and why he's that pathetic, as his apparent destiny as someone 'special' is {{foreshadow|ing}}ed more and more. In season six, we discover [[spoiler:that in the end, Locke was a pathetic failure who was used by everyone for their own ends, up to and including the BigBad of the whole show. Huh]].
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'':
** Damon Salvatore spends all of Season 1 slowly becoming more human and less evil vampire. By Season 2 he is unquestionably an anti-hero but he has become even more of a badass than before, if that is even possible, [[spoiler:such as when he tortured and then killed Mason Lockwood]].
** Katherine was introduced as the BigBad of season 2, and suffered some decay when Klaus supplanted her in that role. But come season 3, she quite unexpectedly gets back to her MagnificentBastard self via HeelFaceTurn.
* Over the course of Season 5 of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the angel Castiel slowly lost his powers as he was [[FallenAngel cut off from Heaven.]] Though the loss of his abilities to heal and smite demons made him a lot less handy in a fight, he simply became a BadassNormal. Season 6 [[TookALevelInBadass restored him to full strength]], and even took the time to remind the audience how strong he actually is by basically dedicating its third episode to Cas kicking ass.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* In contrast to ''[[AsianFoxSpirit Kitsune]]'', Japanese fox spirits, the Korean ''[[AsianFoxSpirit Kumiho]]'' went from benign and beneficial to vicious to finally AlwaysChaoticEvil (''always'').
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, aside from a title win in his second back match in 2002, lost the vast majority of his PPV matches for the rest of his career, particularly at Wrestling/WrestleMania (his trademark show), where he went 3-5 in his final eight years (and two of his three wins came against opponents on the other side of 60). But, he's Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, so his mic skills and ring-work were still so good that nobody cared. It also helped that he had a habit of getting his wins back sooner or later on regular TV, and dominated the tag-team division as part of DX. He generally did get a big win or two every year (against guys as big as Wrestling/JohnCena, even!), but compared to his complete dominance in the late 90s (he lost about three times total between 1996 and 1998, if that)...
* Wrestling/MickFoley became known as the violent daredevil Cactus Jack and the insane Mankind. After an injury, he took time off from wrestling matches and became known as commissioner under his real name. He then wrote his autobiography by himself (followed by several other books), as well as raising a young family and is now known as the nicest guy in wrestling.
* Wrestling/KurtAngle has remained very much a badass through his entire career, going on to cleanly defeat some of the biggest names in the industry, including Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, and Shawn Michaels. He's also one of the very few pro-wrestlers out there who can claim that they've beaten both Cena and Orton cleanly. Even when he's putting others over, he usually bounces back the next week and carries on with all the finesse of a main event top guy.
* Wrestling/RandyOrton remains, if not excelled in viciousness despite the PG Era since he was simply about being brutal, Wrestling/TheMiz [[LetsGetDangerous got serious]] as a credible champion instead of another David Arquette/Pacman Jones, and obviously there's The Undertaker, who after twenty years of competing, is still regarded as one of the top men on the WWE roster. Orton was, at one point, the spitting image of this trope. Shortly after his departure from Evolution, Orton was placed in a romantic plot in which he played a significantly softer, baby {{face}} [[TheGimmick gimmick]]. Fortunately, he got better. When he made another face turn in 2010, he didn't lose any of his ruthlessness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* Paul Smith of ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' fell victim of this towards the end of his run, laying down and dying and exhibiting little of his former spirit and in general, what made him entertaining. Jarringly, for the rest of his death, he was very in character. However, this is, at least in part, {{justified|Trope}} - another handler took over Paul for his death.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Agrael in ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic 5'', starts off as a badass demon lord with a red armor and SpikesOfVillainy, although he's clearly a Noble demon from the start, but it didn't stop him from being one of the most badass characters, and the OnlySaneMan. He retained this trait even after [[spoiler:he reformed and dumped his old armor, revealing him to be quite the {{Bishonen}}]]. He's still the one with the most badass comebacks and {{Pre Ass Kicking One Liner}}s. In this case, the character was also a powerful warlock even before becoming a demon lord.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': While Ganondorf doesn't have the same resources at his disposal and is portrayed in a much more sympathetic light than before, even heading into outright TragicVillain territory... he's still a very dangerous individual who learns from previous mistakes, comes within mere ''seconds'' of victory and gives a legitimately epic LastVillainStand.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
** Author Rich Burlew specifically mentions this as a problem he faced when writing ''Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickStartOfDarkness'' prequel. Here's the full quote:
--->"Writing a story centered around your main antagonist is sort of difficult, because you risk "devillainifying" them. Yes, I just made that word up. What I mean though, is that once an audience has read all about a character's life, with all of their personal struggles and trials and tribulations and such, it's more difficult to see the character as the BigBad. My challenge here was to tell the story of Xykon's life without making Xykon even slightly sympathetic. I mean, he's wholly and unapologetically Evil, but more to the point, he's kind of a dick."
** Rich has a similar discussion about Belkar in the foreword for ''On the Origin of [=PCs=]'', and states this is one of the reasons why Belkar's backstory picks up just a few hours before the party forms. Although in this case it's more about that giving Belkar a sad backstory would make him rather a sad figure than being a comical one.
** Belkar has completely turned this trope on its head by learning that he can garner sympathy and influence by ''pretending'' to have a case of Badass Decay, after a vivid fever-dream debate with the only character in the series he's ever given much respect. Pretending to turn over a new (Bitter)leaf, Belkar has risked his life to save Haley Starshine -- even though she abandoned him when he was in a similar situation -- but only so that he could mock her about it afterward. He also ''selflessly'' refused to kill Haley's treacherous former friend, and convinced his companion to do it instead.
** Occurred in-story with Vaarsuvius, who finally got the long-desired ultimate arcane power... [[spoiler:at the cost of alienating V's spouse, frightening V's children, getting partially damned, AND being utterly ineffectual. Nothing V did after [[TookALevelInBadass Taking a Level in Badass]] changed a thing, other than indirectly freeing O-Chul and giving V's familiar a look at the world of the Snarl]]... and giving V some overdue humility. Just to drive the point home, despite absolute superiority in terms of raw power in [[spoiler:the battle against Xykon, V still loses because Xykon uses his powers with more cleverness. Conversely, by using V's pre-existing powers (namely, V's familiar and the ''explosive runes'' spell), O-Chul and V manage to deal a significant blow to Xykon before escaping by dropping Xykon's phylactery into the sewers]].
* [[http://www.meninhats.com/d/20031022.html Parodied]] with Aram in ''Webcomic/MenInHats''. (Aram's more of a {{Jerkass}} than a badass, though.)
* Reynardine from ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' was introduced by betraying and nearly killing the protagonist, Antimony. By his very next appearance, he was trapped in a toy, [[KidWithTheLeash under the thumb of the girl he tried to kill]], and [[RestrainingBolt unable to do anything more evil than being annoying]]. At which point, Rey's cuteness and [[DeadpanSnarker snarkiness]] made him more popular with the fans than before. And as Rey began ([[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation arguably]]) [[HeelFaceTurn drifting towards the light side]], he's begun showing himself ''more'' badass than before, in the service of protecting Annie.
%%* ''Webcomic/WastelandersAnonymous'': Benjamin, a loner, comes to town and starts making connections that slowly soften him up despite all his efforts to resist.
[[/folder]]

* Count {{Dracula}} has been steadily humanized since his appearance in Creator/BramStoker's 1897 [[Literature/{{Dracula}} novel]]. In the book, he is a cold, ruthless monster with no redeeming qualities. Since then, he's been softened in each new appearance, going from a vile, diabolical arch-fiend to a LargeHam in a cape and tux, tragically searching the oceans of time for his lost love by biting the necks of fainting, gasping, and all-too-willing females. Counting down...
** ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'', depicted chillingly as the monstrous 'Orlok' by Max Shreck.
** ''Film/{{Dracula|1931}}'' with Creator/BelaLugosi, relatively light on the horror but still magnificently evil.
** ''Film/HorrorOfDracula'' with Creator/ChristopherLee, perfectly vicious but now with [[VampiresAreSexGods a more overt sexual element]] -- his victims ''[[UnfortunateImplications want]]'' him.
** The 1973 TV production of ''Dracula'' has Jack Palance as a fierce-looking vampire, but prefers to play up the "tragic figure searching for his lost love" angle.
** ''Film/{{Dracula 1979}}'' with Frank Langella, continuing his transformation from monster to lover, a tragic figure with poofy 70's hair and a partly-open poet's shirt.
** ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' with Creator/GaryOldman starts with Dracula's tragic history to create sympathy. Though he spends most of the film as a monstrous villain, all of his scenes with Mina heavily characterize him as a tragic romantic.
** Comedies such as ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt'' with Creator/LeslieNielsen and ''Film/LoveAtFirstBite'' play Dracula purely for comedy, and sometimes even as the hero.
** ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' takes an interesting route in making Dracula an anti-hero who is thoroughly evil and yet fighting for the good guys. Alucard is characterized as a fairly honorable BloodKnight who is more interested in finding challenging opponents to fight than doing harm to regular people.
** A Creator/FredSaberhagen novel, ''Literature/TheDraculaTape'', comically subverts the Dracula story by having the Count show up and insist that he was the good guy all along and everyone else in the classic tale was a nut or actually in love with him.
** In the holiday special ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Halloween_That_Almost_Wasn%27t The Halloween That Almost Wasn't]]'' aka ''The Night Dracula Saved The World'', Dracula ends up saving Halloween (what else?). To ''really'' drive the stake in further, he was played by none other than ''[[WTHCastingAgency Judd Hirsch]]''.
** ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheReluctantWerewolf'', where he is no more menacing that Gomez Addams; ''WesternAnimation/DrakPack'', where he is the creator of a group of superheroes; and ''Los Vampiros las Prefieren Gorditas'', where he has to put up with Olmedo and Porcel's antics.
** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' plays it both ways by lampooning Dracula's cliche mannerisms, but still making him far more powerful than the typical vampire. In the comics, Dracula becomes pathetic and keeps Xander brainwashed for a while because he is lonely. Then he reminds the audience with a terrifying BadassBoast of what he is capable of.
** ''Film/BladeTrinity'' plays Dracula as a straight villain as well as the first and more powerful vampire. However, he's much less evil than the other modern vampires. Rather than a sadistic monster, he's an honorable warrior who prizes strength and is driven to create a powerful bloodline. Ultimately [[spoiler:before he dies he sees Blade as a worthy descendant and helps him escape capture]].
** In ''Comicbook/{{Planetary}}'', [[AnIcePerson Elijah Snow]] freezes Dracula completely in a matter of seconds and proceeds to ''[[GroinAttack kick out his entire crotch]]''.
** That said, trope ''is'' still plenty averted in modern fiction, with Dracula still played as a powerful, menacing villain with no redeeming characteristics (see, for one, ''WesternAnimation/TheBatmanVsDracula''). [[MonsterMash When teamed up with other classic monsters]], Dracula is often one of the most dangerous of the bunch.

* In contrast to ''{{Kitsune}}'', Japanese fox spirits, the Korean ''Kumiho'' went from benign and beneficial to vicious to finally AlwaysChaoticEvil (''always'').

** The girls have taken a huge blow to their power due to the emphasis on comedy and the lower violence levels compared to [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls original cartoon]]. Bubbles has gotten her arm easily broken and her eye bruised by things that wouldn't even scratch her in the original continuity. The girls in general also tend to get more overwhelmed than before during fights and even get defeated by stuff they originally could beat more easily.

* Characters/{{Ba|tmanRoguesGalleryPart1}}ne went through a lot of this. After ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'', he went from defeating Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}} to losing to everyone from Azrael to Judomaster's SON. Most significantly, his SuperSerum venom quickly shifted to a WeaksauceWeakness where he was almost instantly disabled without a constant supply. Creator/GailSimone has been reversing most of this in ''ComicBook/SecretSix''.

** The same can be said of ''Going Sane'' in which the Joker, thinking he killed Batman, regains his sanity, becomes an upstanding citizen, and becomes engaged to a woman, only to return to his old self when Batman is revealed to be alive after all. Amazingly this story actually made him even more terrifying. If the Joker's insanity isn't an unchangeable absolute in Franchise/TheDCU, nothing is certain. The Joker truly puts the "chaotic" in ChaoticEvil. He'd never be as consistent as to be evil ''all'' the time. [[note]]YMMV, since if the Joker's madness hinges on Batman being alive as this story seems to indicate, then there really is some consistency to his insanity[[/note]]

** Jessie's Lickitung. It was one of the most powerful Pokémon they ever owned; it easily defeated Ash's Bulbasaur, Brock's Vulpix, and Pikachu, before it was eventually defeated by Misty's Psyduck. In later appearances it was defeated easily by Ash's Pokémon, especially Pikachu, who previously couldn't even harm it. The only time it came close to the power of it's original appearance was when it took down a Nidoking (Though it needed Team Rocket's other Pokémon to slow it down first).

** After the five-year timeskip, Thor spirals into a bout of depression, alcoholism, junk food, and lack of exercise. By the time the heroes recruit him for their mission, he's developed a giant beer gut, and Tony doesn't believe he can wield [[spoiler:their new Infinity Gauntlet]] in his current state.

* The same can be said about [[OurElvesAreDifferent elves]]. Norse mythology described them as peerless demigodly creatures, living in a world of their own. In Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium, they were a race of infinitely living people that surpassed every other race both physically and mystically while also being genuinely good people. They had some spectacular screwups, but still firmly remained the BigGood of Middle-Earth. They left the world to humanity of their own will as they still had their own heavenly realm to leave for. Oh, and they were pretty much the most badass warriors of the world, fighting armies of not just orcs and trolls but dragons and demons. One of them even crippled the resident GodOfEvil in single combat, who was scared to even leave his citadel afterwards. These days, elves usually portrayed as a good-looking and long-lived but frail and often physically weak DyingRace of [[SmugSnake delusionaly arrogant]] {{pretty boy}}s and scantily clad girls, clinging to their past, obsessed with nature and being outshined by evolving humanity. Their divine connection became pretty much non-existent - video games, in particular, pretty much always assoсiate themes of angels and/or THE God with humans while elves worship nature or some kind of lesser vaguely pagan deities. In strategy games, they are also known to depend on various allies and fantastic creatures to fight for them, with actual elves being support and commanders.

** Mara Jade gets this too. There are some who didn’t like her going from DarkActionGirl ex-assassin wanting to kill Luke to bring a Jedi Master and marrying Luke.

** Skinner. Early on his characterization revolves heavily around the fact that he's a veteran. He's seen being the {{Determinator}} NonGivingUpSchoolGuy pursuing Bart. He also intimidates and then beats up two lawyers sent by Disney to close a fair at the school. Modern day Skinner is mostly defined by how he's bossed around by his mom, and his boring outlook on life.

** Number 4 started out as a competent badass who enjoyed a good fight every now and then and had some brilliant tactics to his plans, in later episodes he became very whiny, a lot less intelligent, and lost nearly every fight he was involved in.

** [[BigGood Princess Celestia]] also gets increasingly hit by this trope in later seasons. As a millenia-old PhysicalGod, [[TheGoodKing ruler of her own nation,]] and [[FamedInStory universally renowned]] hero with numerous EldritchAbomination battle victories under her belt, you would expect her to effortlessly dominate virtually all threats the show's protagonists face. In the show's early run, she almost always had a good reason for why she didn't. Later on, however, she starts getting defeated for increasingly less convincing reasons -- after all, [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption there wouldn't be much of a story if she solved all of their problems effortlessly.]] This reached its head in [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 the movie]] where [[spoiler:she seems to just stand there and let herself get turned to stone whereas Cadance and Luna at least make attempts to fight back]].

* Starscream of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', so very, very much. In the pilot, he was a genuinely frightening, comparatively cool-headed bastardly second in command unrivaled by any other Starscream to date [[spoiler:as Cliffjumper found out]]. Later episodes have seen him as a sniveling coward whose fighting style is roughly 90% cheap shots and beating up badly weakened opponents, when he's not getting his ass kicked. Also, he's consistently upstaged and humiliated by Airachnid, and ruined in "Rock Bottom". Though to be fair [[spoiler:he does pretty well in the second half of "Partners," the episode detailing his desertion. He plays Arcee so she doesn't consider him a threat before beating the scrap out of her. Too bad for him she got a HeroicSecondWind.]] Cementing his downfall, seasons 2 and 3 rather consistently portray him as bumbling comic relief. Although he does get very brief moments to shine, when RuleOfCool calls for it, these happen rarely and he tends to get outdone quickly. In one episode, even his own men call him out briefly on his cowardly attitude.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'': The title character started out with about average intelligence, and was a skilled enough martial artist to subdue a crocodile with his bare hands. While he was overconfident, reckless and socially inept, he was far from a complete punching bag. But in later seasons, he degenerated into a stupid, sexist, immature meathead who got repeatedly humiliated by six year olds. The final season, however, would make efforts to return him to his earlier characterization, undoing some of the decay he suffered.

* Under the pen of Creator/ChrisClaremont, ComicBook/{{Magneto}} lost his worse qualities and gained a tragic backstory... but at the same time became far more of a threat and a far more interesting character than before. To this day, This take on him is [[MyRealDaddy considered the definitive one]].

** ws First they were [[EvilIsSexy sexy]], intelligent, [[TheBaroness heavily matriarchal]], and AlwaysChaoticEvil insane badasses with a small pantheon. Then we got the hero Drizzt (a fugitive from his culture). Due to the Dungeons and Dragons rules discouraging evil players, some players want to be drow because they're cool... but good-aligned and without the severe social stigma, despite drow being nearly always evil and Drizzt being a considerably-developed unique example of a good-aligned drow. Then we got the good aligned deity Eilistraee, and her entire clutch of (mostly) female drow worshippers who, naturally, danced naked at night. (Their chief priestess, Qilue, has a magic dress of invisibility.

* Music/RogerWaters was one of the major components of one of the greatest/scariest/craziest [[Music/PinkFloyd bands]] of all time. In the 12/12/12 concert, he spent the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI2zEN7gbbA entire first song]] [[LargeHam clapping]] his hands over his head and playing for the audience. He also had a bunch of preppy, ''[[TastesLikeDiabetes smiling]]'' girls singing the second verse of "Another Brick in the Wall: Part II," and they weren't even supposed to be ironic.