History Main / CharacterRerailment

CharacterRerailment is what happens when a [[CharacterDerailment derailed character]] returns to their previous characterization. Generally this signals the end of a [[DorkAge Dork Age]]. This may also follow a [[RunningTheAsylum changing of the guard at the asylum]]. May also happen repeatedly if a character bounces [[DependingOnTheWriter between writers]]. Sometimes the time spent derailed turns out to be [[DisContinuity just a dream]].

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer: Season 8'' rerails much of the cast after their derailment in Season 7 while at the same time continuing their character development. Some, however, still haven't really recovered (Giles, Amy, etc.) YourMileageMayVary, all in all.

** People easily forget that several years of stories immediately before Morrison's run had taken Magneto from WellIntentionedExtremist to CompleteMonster, and the man had crossed the MoralEventHorizon more than once. In fact, Magneto's first appearance in Morrison's run showed him in a wheelchair. How did he get there? He held the world hostage in exchange for a mutant homeland, sided in a mutant/human civil war against humanity, set forth to exterminate all of the humans on the island, [[CrucifiedHeroShot crucified Professor Xavier to intimidate the opposition]], and was only stopped when, depowered, he found Wolverine's claws in his stomach in an act of revenge for having previously [[MoralEventHorizon ripped the metal from his bones through every pore in his body]]. Part of the reason Cassandra Nova was working with Trask at the beginning of New X-Men was because Magneto had just been gathering a mutant army to attack the world. But as we all know, it's only evil if you kill humans in America.

* GrantMorrison and ChrisClaremont both have ''[[{{Understatement}} very different ideas]]'' on the character of [[{{X-Men}} Magneto]]. During Claremont's first run on ''Uncanny X-Men,'' he spent years turning the character from a somewhat one-dimensional CardCarryingVillain into a [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-Intentioned]] AntiVillain, and finally gave him a full HeelFaceTurn before being forced to return him to villainy. Subsequent writers tried, with [[YourMileageMayVary varying degrees of success]], to keep Magneto in the second stage of development, as a complex 3-dimensional character with sympathetic motives who was still a persistent adversary to the X-Men. The "Planet X" arc of Morrison's run returned him to the CompleteMonster status he had possessed in the 1960s: Morrison's idea of rerailing the character, [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killing him off]] in the process. As a [[AuthorsSavingThrow counterattack,]] Claremont brought back Magneto in a newly-launched title, restoring him to his [[HeelFaceTurn former heroic status]] and teaming him up with Professor X. He even went so far as to affirm that he would ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards never]]'' act the way Morrison's Magneto had (and that the Magneto in the "Planet X" arc was an impostor). Despite the ContinuitySnarl surrounding [[TheRealRemingtonSteele the true identity of Morrison's Magneto,]] the writers so far seem to be keeping Magneto in WellIntentionedExtremist territory, even going so far as to [[spoiler: put him back on the X-Men]] in the most recent books. YourMileageMayVary on whether Morrison or Claremont were responsible for "rerailing" the character.

* When we last saw Marvel's Shatterstar in X-Force, he'd calmed down a significant amount from his first days on the title. The next time readers saw him was in RobLiefeld's X-Force miniseries and Shatterstar's own miniseries, where he magically resorted back to his "GRRR I AM AN EMOTIONLESS WARRIOR" personality. While fans have found a way to fanwank it, many were grateful to see him return to his previous emotional state in X-Factor v3.

* Like PeterDavid, Alan Davis dismissed a later writer's run on Clan-Destine as a dream. It was hilarious because it was just a single-line throwaway.

* In Fanfic/NarutoVeanganceRevelaitons, this happens to an extent with Sasuke. Initially, his only noteworthy characteristic is not liking it when Ronan sucks his own dick, and then he gets killed off in the temple bombing. Then, it's revealed that he survived and, due to some reasons related to time travel, is now evil like in canon. It's unclear whether he's working with Madara or Madara's [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness employers]], though.

* Axel from ''KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'' underwent massive characterization changes and BadassDecay in ''KingdomHeartsII''. ''KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'', set between the two games, attempts to explain how this happened. YourMileageMayVary (as with most things regarding [[BaseBreaker Axel]]) whether or not this ended up being successful.

** Earlier in the series, Knuckles went from a [[Sonic3AndKnuckles smug echidna who laughed at being able to outwit Sonic]] to a [[SonicAdventureSeries completely serious guardian who is a bit bumbling]]. ''SonicHeroes'' was able to balance the two portrayals into a bumbling [[TheLancer Lancer]] who is smug at getting one over Sonic.

** People easily forget that several years of stories immediately before Morrison's run had taken Magneto from WellIntentionedExtremist to CompleteMonster, and the man had crossed the MoralEventHorizon more than once. In fact, Magneto's first appearance in Morrison's run showed him in a wheelchair. How did he get there? He held the world hostage in exchange for a mutant homeland, sided in a mutant/human civil war against humanity, set forth to exterminate all of the humans on the island, [[CrucifiedHeroShot crucified Professor Xavier to intimidate the opposition]], and was only stopped when, depowered, he found Wolverine's claws in his stomach in an act of revenge for having previously [[CrowningMomentOfVillainy ripped the metal from his bones through every pore in his body]]. Part of the reason Cassandra Nova was working with Trask at the beginning of New X-Men was because Magneto had just been gathering a mutant army to attack the world. But as we all know, it's only evil if you kill humans in America.

* Sonic in ''SonicColors''. After a few years of being portrayed in the games as something of a goody-goody, teamwork-obsessed {{invincible hero}}, he's back to being a slightly more nuanced version of the snarky MascotWithAttitude that he was supposed to be from the [[Game/SonicTheHedgehog start]].

** For Nightwing, it was a case of rerailment or death. Dan Didio has stated that it was originally planned to have Nightwing die at the end of InfiniteCrisis (if you've read it, you can probably figure out where), and he kind of implies that Devin Grayson's handling of the character is one of the reasons.

* ''FinalFantasyVII: Crisis Core'' did this for the ''FinalFantasyVII'' cast, particularly Cloud, Aerith and Yuffie. They weren't exactly the same as before, but this was {{Justified}} by the game being set five years before the original game, and they were a lot closer to their original counterparts than they were in ''Advent Children'' and ''Dirge of Cerberus''. Aerith got her flirtiness and PluckyGirl traits back, Cloud regained his sense of humour and realistic levels of {{Angst}}, and Yuffie regained her snarkiness and manipulativeness.

* BatmanBeyond: After two seasons of CharacterDerailment, first into an unpleasable harpy, and then into a doormat, Dana Tan is finally restored to her original sweet and supportive characterization...in the [[FullyAbsorbedFinale Fully Absorbed]] DistantFinale.

* During season two of ''XMenEvolution'' Avalanche changed from a JerkAss with anger issues who couldn't stop antagonizing everyone and tried to kill Kitty twice to a hero on the wrong team who just wants Kitty to like him, Season 3 he reverted back to TheDragon to no master with a hair rigger temper (althought with a HiddenHeartOfGold now). YMMV on which depiction is better.

* The Cybermen from DoctorWho were originally emotionless and monotone species of cyborgs. From Earthshock onwards they turned into generic gun carrying evildoers. This was finally fixed in the New Series and BigFinish audio stories.

* The main aim of most [[FixFic fixfics]].

* During season two of ''XMenEvolution'' Avalanche changed from a JerkAss with anger issues who couldn't stop antagonizing everyone and tried to Kill Kitty twice to a hero on the wrong team who just wants Kitty to like him, Season 3 he reverted back to TheDragon to no master with a Hair rigger temper (althought with a HiddenHeartOfGold now). YMMV on which depiction is better.

* During season two of ''XMenEvolution'' Avalanche changed from a JerkAss with anger issues who couldn't stop antagonizing everyone and tried to Kill Kitty twice to a hero on the wrong team who just wants Kitty to like him, Season 3 he reverted back to TheDragon to no master with a Hair rigger temper. YMMV on which depiction is better.

* [[{{X-Men}} Gambit]] started off as a RuleOfCool-based, EstrogenBrigadeBait ManipulativeBastard HandsomeLech [[DeathDealer DeathDealing]] BadassLongcoat who relished the challenge of [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean getting his hands]] on the ForbiddenFruit Rogue, though stymied by his self-centered JerkAss qualities and the large number of people he pissed off in his thief career. Then, Rogue left him to die in Antarctica. After this, the result was a lot of {{Angst}} on Gambit's part, whose characterization was changed from the previously-described version to a [[{{Angst}} Self-loathing]] [[TheAtoner Atoner]] desperate to punish himself for his (morally blameless) role in the Morlock Massacre. More recent adaptations, however, have reached back to the character's roots: [[Film/{{X-Men}} ''X Men Origins: Wolverine'']] showed Gambit as competent, charming, handsome and relatively low-angst [[TheGambler card-sharp]] who won a CoolPlane in a poker game, and ''WolverineAndTheXMen'' had Gambit as a mercenary, ruthless, charming, manipulative thief for hire (albeit in only two episodes). Whether or not this trend will continue is currently unknown.

** Also played in-universe within episodes a few times, such as Homer becoming smart after removing a crayon in his brain, and then having it [[StatusQuoIsGod re-inserted later in the episode]].

* Orihime has recently gone back to being her humorous, perky self like how she was to begin with in ''{{Bleach}}'' rather than the [[BrokenBird broken, emotional character]] she's been portrayed as for a while now. Orihime ''looked'' perky and humorous, and in a sense she ''was'', but she [[StepfordSmiler used it to hide]] [[HiddenDepths her more angsty issues.]] Now that she had to face said issues through the whole Arrancar/HM arc, she just started being ''genuinely'' happy and comfy with herself and there's no real need to hide her thoughts, since she knows she can rely on others instead of keeping them bottled.

** Considering that the 60s Mags was ''generically'' evil as opposed to an OmnicidalManiac who killed indiscriminately ForTheEvulz, and Claremont's Magneto (followed by the Magneto of the other writers who keep him at WellIntentionedExtremist level) persisted from the 70s to the 2000s, the derailment was clearly defined. Magneto had never been anything like Morrison's version before or since. GrantMorrison considers Magneto a CompleteMonster who is just making excuses and deliberately wrote Magneto the way ''he'' saw him (he has admitted as much in interviews.) Begging the question, "if you have to write a character in a way he's never been written before to show how he "truly" is... isn't it time to rethink your idea of how he "truly" is?"
** That's... not entirely true. While 60s Magneto wasn't an OmnicidalManiac, in terms of personality he was pretty much a G-Rated version of [[CompleteMonster Apocalypse]] seeking to TakeOverTheWorld simply [[{{Ubermensch}} because he was the most powerful in it]] and mistreated even his own underlings. Later in a "Fatal Attractions" crossover, after Claremont left Marvel, Magneto sent a powerful magnetic impulse to Earth, disabling almost every electronic device in the world and killing by proxy god knows how many people. On a more personal level he murdered one of his ''loyal'' henchmen in the same story. So Morrison is in no way the only writer who views Magneto as an unapologetic villain but his Mags really is [[CompleteMonster the worst]].
** Grant Morrison's interpretation is really more a case of taking a step back and really looking at what Magneto's philosophy is: an ideology that believes he and everyone like him are by nature superior to all else and has no problem destroying anyone else that isn't in his race in the name of genetic purity. Regardless of how well-mannered he is to the X-Men or how many times he plays chess with Xavier, he's still a racist psychopath killer.

** The simple answer is that Grant Morrison's interpretation is a {{Deconstruction}} of his character, and ChrisClaremont's view, as well as the post-Morrison writers', largely revolve around an attempt at [[{{Reconstruction}} Reconstructing]] him.

* [[{{X-Men}} Gambit]] started off as a RuleOfCool-based, EstrogenBrigadeBait ManipulativeBastard HandsomeLech [[DeathDealer DeathDealing]] BadassLongcoat who relished the challenge of [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean getting his hands]] on the ForbiddenFruit Rogue, though stymied by his self-centered JerkAss qualities and the large number of people he pissed off in his thief career. Then, Rogue left him to die in Antarctica. After this, the result was a lot of {{Angst}} on Gambit's part, whose characterization was changed from the previously-described version to a [[{{Angst}} Self-loathing]] [[TheAtoner Atoner]] desperate to ''punish himself'' for his ''morally blameless'' role in the Morlock Massacre. Pile on the Catholic Guilt in order to make him hate himself for something that isn't his fault! Oh, and his relationship with Rogue was {{Retcon}}ned into "I'm dating you to punish myself." Naturally, the [[MostFanficWritersAreGirls fanfic writers]], ''especially'' [[SlashFic the slash fic writers]], absolutely lapped this up. Cue {{Ukefication}} beyond belief, either via HurtComfortFic or having someone else (usually {{Wolverine}}) [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean become Gambit's punisher]]. Regardless, it seems that (thankfully) Marvel are attempting to return Gambit to his former glory. [[Film/{{X-Men}} ''X Men Origins: Wolverine'']] showed Gambit as competent, charming, handsome and relatively low-angst [[TheGambler card-shark]] that won a CoolPlane in a poker game, and ''WolverineAndTheXMen'' had Gambit as a mercenary, ruthless, charming, manipulative thief for hire (albeit in only two episodes). Whether or not this trend will continue is currently unknown.