| 1 | Series with so much of CharacterDerailment that it warranted its own page. |
| 2 | * ''CharacterDerailment/GameOfThrones'' |
| 3 | ---- |
| 4 | * ''Series/TwentyFour'' gets a BrokenBase over this regarding Tony Almeida's treatment in the seventh season where he was revealed to be working to kill the mastermind of the events of the fifth season's conspiracy which resulted in the deaths of his wife and [[spoiler: unborn son]]. Its defenders state that after what happened to him Tony understandably crossed the DespairEventHorizon and had lost all meaning in life. Its detractors point out that in season 5 Tony previously couldn't even murder the man who ''directly ordered'' their murder because of his conscience, yet now was suddenly cool with masterminding the deaths of several innocent people in order to kill said mastermind. Not to mention that earlier in the season he showed genuine sorrow at having to kill someone he worked with, yet in the later episodes suddenly now has a cold "everyone is expendable" attitude. |
| 5 | ** Season 8 also suffered many examples of this, possibly as a result of the writers only getting short notice that it would be the final season. |
| 6 | *** Renee, who's a law-abiding FBI agent in Season 7 there to offset Jack's "do what it takes" mantra, becomes a borderline DeathSeeker who is now a DistaffCounterpart to Jack. While she did show signs of breaking away from the law-abiding aspect of her character at the end of the seventh season by [[spoiler:torturing Wilson]], this still doesn't explain how she's degraded to her current state by the next season. |
| 7 | *** Taylor, perhaps the first President who's not willing to break the law, even when it might be more expedient and [[spoiler:had her own daughter arrested when the latter was complicit in the murder of one of the seventh season's conspirators]], becomes completely ruthless for personal gain, including what practically amounted to taking orders from a disgraced former President whom she had previously hated. The [[MoralEventHorizon final line]] comes when she [[spoiler:threatens to ''bomb'' another country if their President doesn't cooperate with her.]] While she does finally relent by the end of the day, by then it's too little, too late. |
| 8 | *** Logan, who was very remorseful in Season 6 after [[spoiler:being the previous season's BigBad]], goes right back to being the same smug, arrogant, and evil prick he was before, if not more so. He's once again perfectly willing to murder anyone who isn't complicit with him, and this is after his previous CharacterDevelopment, basically making his entire appearance two seasons prior to be a complete waste. |
| 9 | *** Suvarov, who in Seasons 5 and 6 showed himself as an unquestionably honest-to-goodness ally to the U.S. Government [[spoiler: suddenly turns out to have been the mastermind behind all of the season's terrorist attacks in an effort to keep a peace treaty between his country, the U.S. and the Republic of Kamistan from being signed.]] |
| 10 | *** But unquestionably, the biggest case of derailment goes to Jack himself. While he had always been violent and [[IDidWhatIHadToDo willing to do whatever it took to get the job done]], he becomes completely like Tony in the second half of the season, willing to murder foreign agents who don't know anything about the conspiracy and are merely [[PunchClockVillain doing their jobs]]. In essence, he succumbs to the same HeWhoFightsMonsters derailment that Tony was subject to, [[spoiler:and only doesn't completely cross the line because he's talked down from completing his revenge, which would have resulted in a world war had he succeeded.]] And mind you, this isn't for any ideal this time around. Before, while his previous behavior could be seen as acceptable given that he was always out for justice against terrorists before they could succeed in their own schemes, this time he's motivated purely by revenge. The fact that he was slowly becoming like Tony is not mentioned by anyone, likely because the events of previous seasons are always neglected save for minor throwaway pieces of dialogue. |
| 11 | * In ''Series/AceLightning'', secondary character Heather Hoffs was, in the first series, a somewhat highly strung, but determined, hard-working, confident girl. In the final series, she became a nasty, self-centred bitch. (This was possibly done to show off how great the series new CanonSue was.) |
| 12 | * ''Series/AmericanGothic1995'' has the most obvious candidate of Gail Emory, [[{{Chickification}} Chickified]] from an ActionGirl and {{Determinator}} into a DamselInDistress, but some might term Dr. Crower's descent into madness, Merlyn's turn as an avenging angel, and Caleb's descent into darkness as examples of Character Derailment as well rather than CharacterDevelopment. At times Merlyn could also appear [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] and Selena seemed to suffer from VillainDecay. The only character who could (subjectively) be said to grow and develop normally is Ben Healy...while Buck always stayed true to his roots. |
| 13 | * ''Series/{{Angel}}'' had a lot of derailment complaints at the end, when Angel went after the Circle of The Black Thorn. Fans complained he was too preoccupied with sticking it to Wolfram and Hart to recall his original mission. Not unlike Season 2, really. |
| 14 | * ''Series/AsTheWorldTurns'' saw many instances of character derailment towards the end of its run, not coincidentally around the time Jean Passanante became head writer. Instances included the transformation of Adam Munson from a down-to-earth character with a strong moral compass into a sociopathic rapist to prop Gwen Norback; turning Dusty Donovan into a StalkerWithACrush against Emily Stewart (someone who'd kidnapped him and tried to kill him); turning Paul Ryan into a HolierThanThou MoralityPet against other characters (after he'd stolen his little sister's baby because the baby's father was his mortal enemy); and turning Carly Tenney into a manipulative, neglectful mother to her three children. |
| 15 | * On ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' Leonard started out as a likable DoggedNiceGuy who had a crush on Penny. By season 3, he's a snarky, short-tempered, horn dog. It's like the writers forgot how to properly write his character. In his defense, spending that much time around Howard and Sheldon probably played a factor. Thankfully, later seasons seemed to have [[CharacterRerailment reversed]] this for the most part. |
| 16 | * The very unpopular ''Series/BlakesSeven'' episode "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E5TheHarvestOfKairos The Harvest of Kairos]]" is partly this due to virtually none of the characters seeming like themselves. Most obviously, the geeky, but calculating and pragmatic, Avon suddenly becomes an unworldly {{Cloudcuckoolander}} MadScientist, and the BigBad Servalan, who usually sees sex as a fun but inessential distraction to conquering the galaxy and murders any guy who even hints at paying unwanted sexual attention to her, becomes a love-struck masochistic doormat to one-shot character Jarvik, even getting off on him choking her. |
| 17 | * The third season finale of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' revealed that Zack, the team's gentle, kind lab-rat was an accomplice to a serial killer with no build-up or explanation whatsoever. [[CreatorsApathy The writers admitted they wanted to make one of the main cast a killer and didn't know or care who it would be and decided at the last minute to shock people.]] |
| 18 | ** This isn't as glaring an example, but what on earth happened to the deep, emotionally intelligent Booth of earlier seasons? And why do the characters - and writers - treat Fratboy Booth the same as they did his good twin? This could be explained by his [[spoiler:brain tumor, which did cause problems with his behavior. The fifth season premiere seems to establish that, since his coma dream, he's returned to his emotionally intelligent ways.]] |
| 19 | ** Not to mention the way that Bones herself has gone from a relatively normal, if slightly socially awkward, woman into someone who is essentially socially inept. |
| 20 | * Series/TheBoldAndTheBeautiful has a tendency to do this with characters, ''especially'' under Bradley Bell's direction: |
| 21 | ** Thomas Forrester in 2019 went from being a typically flawed soap character into a psychotic madman hell bent on inflicting harm on the Logans in an attempt to make the Logans a more sympathetic family. Though he got better later on, many old-school viewers of the show have taken major issue with this writing decision [[DesignatedMonkey as they feel Brad hates the Forresters]] and get annoyed whenever any character development he has gets retconned to make him the [[DesignatedVillain to make him look like the aggressor in any situation with Brooke]]. |
| 22 | ** In the end of 2022 and early 2023, Bill Spencer went from being the strong-willed billionaire that he was known for being into an EmptyShell that blackmailed Steffy despite promising not to previously, which felt out of left field given Bill willingly went out of his way to save Li Finnegan and help save her son from Sheila just a few months ago. The problematic factor comes in when the explanation of this sudden change in attitude is over being rejected by Brooke and Katie made entire plot and reasoning seem flimsy at best, and misogynistic at worst to some. After months of frolicking between him and Sheila, it was suddenly revealed he was undercover which [[AuthorsSavingThrow many believe was an immediate backpedal on the original plans for the arc due to frequent viewer criticism]] since it differed immensely based on that Soap Opera Digest had said was planned for the upcoming weeks. |
| 23 | ** Finn suddenly feeling empathetic and forgiving towards Sheila, his biological mother, once more after recently having nothing but months of feelings of estrangement and disdain for her after being shot and held hostage with Steffy left to think he was dead, so much so that he started emotionally ''hugging'' her in his encounters with her before and during her trial in mid-2023. Viewers, especially Sinn fans, took issue with this over the lack of foreshadowing compared to Hope's escalating feelings for Thomas, and also called out the writers for [[DerailingLoveInterests intentionally making Finn unsympathetic]] to make [[CreatorsPet Liam]] look good before the big confrontation between two over the latter going behind his back with Steffy so that they can justify pairing [[CreatorsPet Liam]] back with Steffy [[TheScrappy despite how widely disliked he is by the fandom for his abusive and adulterous ways]]. It was also problematic in that it basically attempted to shy away from the fact that [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Ridge and Bill's meddling and blackmailing were the reason Sheila got off scot-free to begin with]] and especially to deflect from Liam's attempts at homewrecking where he [[ForcefulKiss surprise kissed Steffy]] ''twice'', and she pointlessly kept it a secret from Finn similar to the time she cheated on him with Liam and was potentially pregnant with the latter's child. |
| 24 | * The Magazine/{{Playboy}} TV series ''Boy Nexxt Door'' has the main character start off as a somewhat nerdy, goofy, naive guy who still had plenty of successes and quite possibly a bright future ahead of him in the adult film industry, and after a few seasons quickly derail into the biggest loser imaginable, who is going to [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption spectacularly fail at whatever he tries]] no matter what it is, and who women find laughable and pathetic pretty much automatically... nevermind that the whole catalyst for the series was the fact that he had the ability to not only attract numerous hot girls but actually convince them to let him film it. Apparently with Playboy magazine's [[MagazineDecay decay]] into a {{Maxim}} clone, the network had to [[NetworkDecay follow suit]] and make anyone even slightly uncool [[ButtMonkey objects of total derision]]. |
| 25 | * The title character of ''Series/{{Bramwell}}'' goes through this in the final season. Once a mature, intelligent, level-headed young woman, she's suddenly cheating on her fiancé, having WallBangHer sex with an army major she just met a few weeks prior, acting shocked and horrified at the things that go on in the slums of London when she's been working in this area for years and shouldn't be shocked by anything, and generally running around acting very foolish and impulsive. She may as well have been a completely different character, not just a ruined one. |
| 26 | ** Her colleague Dr. Marsham gets this too. All scenes regarding him and his wife indicate that he loves her very much. He goes berserk upon learning that she has incurable cancer and is devastated when she dies. But in the final season, we learn that he's a regular visitor to brothels and has been even before his wife died, meaning that he was cheating on the spouse that he adored so much. |
| 27 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 28 | ** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E22GraduationDayPart2 Graduation Day Part 2]]", Buffy was able to turn her graduation class into a commando squad to take down the Mayor. In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E15GetItDone Get it Done]]", she goes off about one girl who [[{{Troll}} the First Evil]] had DrivenToSuicide then chews out the rest of the potential Slayers because they don't have her powers and experience, thus are not worthy. |
| 29 | ** The entire Scooby Gang gets it in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E19EmptyPlaces Empty Places]]": |
| 30 | *** Dawn, despite being a bit naive, never showed any sign of being the sort of person to abandon someone because it was convenient, but right before the SeriesFinale she kicks Buffy out of their house. |
| 31 | *** The rest of the Scooby Gang proceed to let her. Despite the fact that Buffy saved their lives numerous times, and the fact they cared about her so much that two years ago they had brought her back from the dead. |
| 32 | *** Buffy, instead of protesting the actual kicking her out, complains about how they won't follow her on a poorly thought-out plan to get something from the place they had just been defeated. Then kicks someone else out of their house. |
| 33 | *** However, all of the Scooby Gang derailments are in order to facilitate Buffy's romantic relationship with Spike - Buffy started acting nastier to stop the others from turning completely unsympathetic when they turned against her, Giles plotted against Spike so Buffy could defend him, and the others turned away from Buffy and kicked her out in order for the writers to show her leaning on Spike and depending on him, with him as her only supporter. YMMV on whether this slightly excuses the derailment or [[StrangledByTheRedString makes it ten times worse]]. |
| 34 | *** There is a simpler explanation - Buffy's poor leadership technique had been tolerated up until then, but near the end of Season 7 virtually everyone had had enough of her superiority complex. Buffy had continually stated the belief that being Slayer made her a) the leader and b) worth listening to, while adding a dash of 'nobody else gets to have an opinion'. Willow and Xander turned against her when it became obvious that Buffy's stubbornness was going to get people killed. Giles was very quick to see this but was also very alarmed at her blindness towards anything involving Spike (see above). |
| 35 | *** These examples actually show that it's Buffy, not anyone else, who turns into a worse and worse person as the season progresses. Her own friends end up tossing her out of the door because her sheer arrogance is going to get a lot of people killed. Buffy is always the common denominator in these Scooby 'out of character' moments, which is actually an example of the writers piling on the angst and imperfections in the character. For that matter, the rest of the group ''does not kick her out'', they just refuse to give in to her demands when she essentially tells them that "I can't stay here if you won't obey me". |
| 36 | *** All of the arguments about Buffy being kicked out of her own house miss a couple of key points: 1. Why are property rights being considered a matter of great importance in this apocalyptic scenario? 2. On the flip side of that argument, ''why'' are several dozen people sleeping in a 3-bedroom house anyway? Was there no better option for these people than to stay miserably cramped in a confined environment when it's already been established that many of the residents of Sunnydale have skipped town anyway? |
| 37 | *** It's not property rights, it's not that she was kicked out of her HOUSE, it was that she was kicked out of her HOME. Frankly, Buffy had earned a fair bit of blind faith based on her previous successes, and the Scooby Gang was so sure they couldn't survive without her, about 18 months before that they resurrected her. Buffy wanted to go out to a dangerous place, but it's not like staying in was a viable strategy. Only ordinary vampires require an invite, plenty of other demons can burst in uninvited. And being all together in one place got the Watcher's Council destroyed. Meanwhile, the crampedness was needed because the Scoobies had limited fighters capable of defending the potential Slayers. |
| 38 | ** In the [[ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Season 8 comic continuation]] [[spoiler: TheReveal that Angel was the BigBad Twilight and willing servant of the true Twilight entity]] was widely viewed by fans to be inconsistent with the CharacterDevelopment he received over the course of [[Series/{{Angel}} his spin-off series]]. |
| 39 | * ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'': |
| 40 | ** Phoebe was a little scatty but good-natured for most of the series, most importantly she was the most forgiving of all the sisters. She ended her relationship with Cole at the end of season 4 and tried to let him down gently. Fast forward to season 5 where all of a sudden she blames Cole for everything that has gone wrong in her life and is willing to try and kill him simply from a bad dream she had. On top of that, she suddenly becomes obsessed with finding a husband and getting pregnant to the degree that she uses her premonitions on the first date to see if the relationship is going anywhere. In season 8 her characterisation finally gets fixed and she's a lot closer to how she was in the beginning with a good bit of CharacterDevelopment thrown in. |
| 41 | ** Paige started out as a together and sensible enough young woman who had a social worker's job. In seasons 5 and 6 she suddenly becomes a huge ditz and is seen with a [[ReallyGetsAround different guy every episode]] (her actress even complained about this in various interviews). Plus she spends season 6 going through a whole stream of different temp jobs completely forgetting that she has a law degree. Like Phoebe, she gets fixed in later seasons. |
| 42 | * ''Series/CoronationStreet'' has had several examples: |
| 43 | ** Rosie Webster is currently a superficial ditz who can't even cook without burning the kitchen down. The writers clearly forgot that she went to a posh private school for the gifted. And about her deep and loving relationship with Craig Harris in the past, because now she's the biggest whore on the street. There was a time when she was the responsible sister who had to look out for Sophie. |
| 44 | ** David Platt went from a troubled teenager due to an overprotective mother to being a juvenile delinquent who smashes up the street, frames someone for robbery, and attempts rape. Then jumping back to JerkWithAHeartOfGold as an adult, wherein he is still rude, and selfish, but overall a moral person. Although he's devolved since his original characterisation to barely a step away from being a total sociopath. |
| 45 | ** Molly Dobbs was a capable and good-natured woman who valued trust and honesty in a relationship above anything else. Now she's had a full-blown affair with a married man who happened to be her husband's best friend. And when his wife got cancer she couldn't understand why he was finishing with her. |
| 46 | ** Sunita Alahan. She was once one of the most moral people in the show. Suddenly, she's having an affair, wearing skimpy outfits, and being plain nasty to everyone for no good reason. |
| 47 | ** Samantha Failsworth started out as a feisty and independent barmaid. She was given a backstory about being raped years before, which caused her to have difficulty trusting men. However, Samantha works through her issues and settles down into a healthy relationship. Then she abruptly cheats on her boyfriend for no reason, messes with his head by pretending to be pregnant, and not only tries to wreck his new relationship but spreads malicious lies about anyone remotely connected with him. |
| 48 | * ''Series/{{CSI}}'' has Jim Brass. A lot was made in the early seasons of how Brass was upstanding, clean, and refused to become a DirtyCop. But the end of season 11 had him covering for Ray Langston when Ray [[spoiler: killed the already handcuffed Nate Haskell. Brass pocketed the flex cuffs so it wouldn't be obvious right away that Ray killed the guy when he couldn't defend himself and was no longer a threat.]] It's true that Brass probably saw it as helping a friend who was pushed over the edge by a deranged killer, but many still see it as a derailment of Brass's character. |
| 49 | ** Some of this also got thrown at Grissom, as some fans had a hard time believing he'd risk his career for his relationship with Sara. Then, season 13 came along and fans started saying Grissom got derailed for what was said to have happened in "Forget Me Not" despite not being there anymore. |
| 50 | * ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': |
| 51 | ** They were accused of this with Danny, with fans saying pairing him up with Lindsay changed his character far too much from the earlier seasons. |
| 52 | ** Then there was the episode 'Point of No Return', with the discovery that Marty Pino, a former recurring coroner who was enjoyed by some fans, was revealed to be a serial killing drug seller grinding up body parts for dope extract--the message board lit up a lot with the yelling about character derailment and complete character trashing. |
| 53 | * ''Series/DeadLikeMe'''s TV movie ''Life After Death'' features copious amounts of this, with Daisy and Mason dealt a particularly bad hand. |
| 54 | ** In the DVD movie a lot of Daisy's character and her growing relationship with Mason was dumbed down. She's now a flat fluttery-headed drunken slut instead of just pretending to be, and she and Mason seem to be back to square one, even though [[spoiler: he gave her an engagement ring in season two, and in a very small way she accepted it.]] I guess we can only assume that something happened in the years between the show and the movie that changed them both. |
| 55 | ** Mason, the same guy who started drinking heavily upon realizing he royally fucked up the birthday party of a little girl whose father was his reap and gave a small boy about a quarter of his Halloween candy upon realizing the boy would die (and after having bragged about how big his load would be) now doesn't give two shits that a dead man's soul is trapped in his body. |
| 56 | ** George also gets this retroactively, instead of merely ignoring Reggie as a little girl she was downright abusive of her. |
| 57 | * ''Series/DegrassiHigh'' featured a pretty sudden case of this in BLT, who was shown in season 1 to be a very supportive boyfriend, while dealing with her racist father. Suddenly in the first episode of season 2, he cheating on her with another girl never seen before on the show. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Degrassi/comments/1239vvm/what_did_you_think_of_the_break_up_of_michelle/ To this day]], it is regarded as one of the biggest "what the fuck" moments in classic ''Degrassi'' history. |
| 58 | * ''Film/DegrassiSchoolsOut'', is accused of doing this to Joey, who appeared to be more mature and stable by the end of ''Degrassi High'' until he is suddenly cheating on Caitlin with Tessa, and Wheels, who appeared to be on the mend after his behavior throughout ''Degrassi High'', but in ''School's Out'' is never seen without a beer in his hand and winds up killing a child and injuring Lucy in a drunk driving accident. |
| 59 | * ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' had various degrees of character derailment in season 7. |
| 60 | ** Alex went back to being a slacker without ambition despite readmitting herself back to Degrassi to get higher marks and pursue a health profession the season before. Her lazy, judgmental, and unreliable attitude caused her second breakup with Paige as well as her character being put on a LongBusTrip to Ajax where she has "options". |
| 61 | ** Ashley wanted so badly not to be seen as Craig's sidekick but as a musician in her own light, she ended up accompanying Craig on a European tour after Spring Break. This is made worse and confusing because she wasn't there to take her final exams so it's unknown if she graduated high school. And considering that Craig now lives in Hollywood further pursuing his music career, it is unknown if Ashley even got hers off the ground during her time in Europe with Craig. Not to mention her behavior beforehand, which consisted of erasing then-boyfriend Jimmy's rap track from a demo they were collaborating on ''without'' his knowledge or consent--because she was jealous that he had upstaged her. |
| 62 | ** In some cases, this started long before season 7. For example, Ellie, from her introduction in season 2 until season 4, was a [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic]] [[{{Goth}} goth/punk]] girl who put everyone else before herself no matter how much it hurt her to do so (acting as Marco's beard, taking care of her alcoholic mother, etc.), then [[StepfordSmiler pretended to be fine when she wasn't and then vented her emotions through self-destructive behavior]]. She also hated Craig, a lot, and, despite playing a few instruments, was determined to follow her passion for journalism. In season 5, her wardrobe was radically changed, and she became a clone of Ashley- much bubblier than before, petty enough to throw a drumstick at her romantic rival, and willing (though she didn't actually end up doing so) to follow Craig, who she had inexplicably fallen for despite never resolving her relationship with Sean, to Vancouver to start a music career. By her last appearance in season 8, she was practically unrecognizable, both physically and in terms of personality. |
| 63 | * ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' featured a particularly egregious example for Carlos. Up until season 6, the worst thing Carlos has done is have an off-shore bank account. He has been one of the more sane and generally balanced characters in the show. Season six has seemingly found this depiction dull, and decided the role of Carlos will now be played by a sexist pig and world-class {{Jerkass}}. [[spoiler: He has spent the season making it clear he will not tolerate a pregnant woman on his staff; and in the last episode has harassed, insulted, and fired (after giving her a choice between work or seeing her daughter's play) Lynette.]] |
| 64 | ** It went even worse with Orson. From season 3 to the first half of season 5, despite his many secrets, he was a loving husband to Bree and an overall affable person. At some point, he turned into a whiny, insensitive kleptomaniac. Things seemed to get better after the plane crash and, even if he left Bree during the season 7 premiere, he seemed to have got back to normality. Come season 8, where it turns out of nowhere that he's still obsessed by Bree to the point of becoming a stalker and a murderer. |
| 65 | * As ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' progresses, moving away from the novels and changing many of the character details in order to be a more palatable show, the main character has taken on a family, gotten married and had a kid of his own too. Not to mention his regular "fantasy moments" where he has open conversations with his foster father Harry, as if that character now serves as the link to Dexter of the first few seasons. Although he's still dark, and still kills occasionally, he seems a lot less driven than he was in past seasons. It's almost as if he is slowly being demoted from a serial killer to a troubled sociopath to bring in a wider audience, losing the substance that makes it such a unique premise. Not just character derailment but show derailment, especially if you count the fact the show now has a MUCH bigger focus on romantic relationships than it did in the first season and the increased reliance on stock plots/characters and the odd ClicheStorm. |
| 66 | ** Some ''Dexter'' fans are more accepting of the tonal shift than others. Part of this may have to do with avoiding the ItsTheSameNowItSucks syndrome that usually applies to series during its third year. Another reason may be the TV writers dodging the supernatural bullshit that plagued the third book, Dexter in the Dark (though Dexter got married in that novel too). Still, although Dexter has come a long way from being the isolated loner he once was, his urge for killing has not waned THAT much, even though he's now a family man. And given the headaches Dexter had to endure during season two [[spoiler: after scuba divers found his submerged corpses]], and given the increased focus on his family, he needs to be less impulsive. While season four (the season criticized above) suggested that Dexter would reach a peaceful reconciliation with his murderous desires, after [[spoiler: Rita's brutal death]] during the equally polarizing ending, he might go towards a much darker road (and subsequently, the show will follow). |
| 67 | ** Not to mention Dexter used to go only after criminals that were able to get around the law. Now he goes after criminals the police are currently after, seeing as if it is a game of challenge to beat them, and has even sabotaged their investigations in order to learn from some of them like the Trinity Killer. |
| 68 | ** The Lieutenant of Miami Metro PD at the end of season 1 and beginning of season 2, Esme Pascal, got hit by this between seasons. She's shown to be a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, a very competent cop, and a pretty good person. While she did have Maria [=LaGuerta=] actively trying to make her look bad, it doesn't change the fact the woman became a complete idiot, falling for very plain ruses and jumping to conclusions very publicly. |
| 69 | * Dwayne Wayne from ''Series/ADifferentWorld'' went from being a nerd with a crush on Denise Huxtable to a super hip and cool teacher other students looked up to within a short period of time. Likewise with Whitley Gilbert, who was the stuck-up, snobbish, rich southern princess, and then turned into a compassionate teacher and love interest of Dwayne. This is likely due to the fact that Lisa Bonet left a huge hole in the show when she left (the show ''was'' originally built around her character), so the writers were forced to make Whitley do an unconvincing HeelFaceTurn in a short amount of time. |
| 70 | ** Speaking of Denise Huxtable, on ''Series/TheCosbyShow'', she went from spirited, spunky, funky, intelligent, and independent woman, to a flaky, clueless, free-loading, moron who dropped out of school but didn't bother to look for a job because "it's my summer vacation". Which itself may have been RealitySubtext given Bonet's appearance in ''Film/AngelHeart'', which thoroughly infuriated the show's star, Bill Cosby. (Not that it justifies doing it to the character.) |
| 71 | * On ''Series/DirtySexyMoney'', Lisa George is shown during the first season and first part of the second season to be a kind, reasonable woman -- flawed, yes, but, you know. A human being. In the show's second season, the writers seemed to realize they could hardly justify Nick just leaving her and hooking up with first love Karen Darling. Thus Lisa became an unreasonable shrew who harped on Nick at every turn. Nick also suffered slightly. |
| 72 | %%% |
| 73 | %% This is about character derailment, not "all the reasons Adric sucks that is tangentially connected to character derailment". |
| 74 | %%% |
| 75 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'' |
| 76 | ** A weird case where character development was actually happening but the effect didn't work - Season 15 was edited and aired out of order to allow K-9 to be permanently added to the cast despite many of the episodes already having been shot. This had some seriously negative effects on Leela's character, as what had been a gentle character arc about her slowly learning and growing became a bit of an inconsistent mess of AesopAmnesia. A very minor example is that the Doctor's influence was going to have caused her taste in fashion to change, from very skimpy NubileSavage wear to a mashup of it with the Doctor's Regency-influenced style (a fitted leather dress and her hair being worn curled) - this fairly significant development is reversed at the end of the episode with a short scene of her going back to her old look. |
| 77 | ** Somewhere between "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva Castrovalva]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E2FourToDoomsday Four to Doomsday]]", Adric became a gullible chauvinist (the latter is particularly odd seeing as he's spent so much time with Romana without ever commenting). |
| 78 | ** Due to the unique nature of the Time Lord characters, this trope is often directed by fans against a new incarnation of the Doctor or other Time Lords post-regeneration. Recent examples include the Twelfth Doctor, whose personality underwent a major tonal shift after the more kind and gentle Eleventh, and Missy, who underwent a GenderSwap from The Master (which in itself was seen as a derailment, especially as Missy began to refer to the Doctor as her boyfriend, etc., aspects never in evidence when she was male). Already worse in fandom following the GenderSwap of the Doctor him/herself which is complicated by decades worth of fans shipping male Doctor/female companion characters. |
| 79 | ** Creator/ColinBaker's tenure as the Doctor was doomed from the start with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E7TheTwinDilemma The Twin Dilemma]]". In an attempt to make him as different from his predecessor as possible, the creators succeeded too well and made him as thoroughly unlikeable as possible. He's a violent, narcissistic, selfish psychopath who insults, bullies, and tries to murder his companion. He acts contrary to Creator/TerranceDicks' famous "neither cruel nor cowardly" creed. And this was the lasting image fans had of the Sixth Doctor for nine months. Not only did this mischaracterization doom Baker's tenure it damaged the show. |
| 80 | ** The depiction of the First Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime Twice Upon A Time]]", during which he makes some flagrantly sexist comments towards Bill, has been accused of this by some critics. While the original character was not exactly feminist in nature, these critics argue that any sexism in his character was unfairly distorted, exaggerated, and misleadingly taken out of context in order to make him look worse. For example, his threat to give Bill "a smacked bottom" is based on a similar comment to his granddaughter Susan in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]". However, given the direct familial relationship between the two in the earlier story, in context it's clearly an out-of-touch grandfather babying his teenage granddaughter without fully realising or acknowledging that she's grown out of such treatment; still paternalistic and condescending, but hardly a fair or representative place to base a depiction of his attitudes towards all women. As the Twelfth Doctor reacts with obvious loud disapproval to all this and Creator/Steven Moffat has also been accused of having some rather sexist attitudes and tendencies in his running of the show, his detractors tend to view this as a case of him deliberately skewing and misrepresenting the First Doctor so that his own Doctor, and by extension his own writing, looks better in comparison. |
| 81 | ** Creator/ChrisChibnall and Creator/JodieWhittaker's take on the Doctor saw the character gradually devolve over two seasons from a cheery optimist who wanted to help to an arrogant, condescending, self-righteous hypocrite who committed highly questionable acts that the show mostly tried to present as being in the right and largely derivative of Creator/DavidTennant and Creator/MattSmith's incarnations, albeit without the charisma and energy of either. The character's pacifism has been flanderized to being to the point where she will chastise ''anyone'' for using violence, even if the situation justifies it, to the point where she threatened to expel Graham from the TARDIS for wanting to kill the being responsible for his wife's death, completely ignoring the fact that previous Doctors have killed in the past, plus she was perfectly okay with others making sacrifices in her place. Speaking of companions, season twelve saw her treat her "fam" quite badly, keeping things from them, lying to them, stringing them along on a personal journey, putting her own personal drama above her friends' needs, snapping at them, nearly getting them killed, letting them think she was dead for months and most infamously, completely brushing aside Graham's fears about his cancer returning. Among other questionable acts include allowing the Master (who is currently a non-white male) to be captured by the Nazis and spend years in a concentration camp and believing that allowing spiders to asphyxiate to death is more humane than shooting them. Plus, the controversial Timeless Child reveal retconned the character from a renegade among their own people who wasn't particuarly special on their terms but a genius on Earth to a cliched "chosen one" narrative combined with unnecessary mommy issues to boot. It really didn't help that when Creator/JoMartin appeared as an alternate Doctor, many fans felt that she was a far superior incarnation than the current one. |
| 82 | %%% |
| 83 | %% The Doctor, the Brigadier, and Sarah Jane Smith have ALL noted that UNIT has become darker and harsher since the time the Third Doctor worked for them. It's arguably more a case of the organisation having changed for the worse. After all, they're not an Organisation of Hats the way the emotionless and processed Daleks are...they're human. Plus 30 years, at LEAST two changes in leadership, and 9/11 can legitimately change people. Especially when you note how old the UNIT seniors are at the Doctor's "funeral" in ''The Sarah Jane Adventures''. |
| 84 | %%% |
| 85 | * ''Series/DoubleTheFist'': Why is Steve trying to take over the world? Steve who was previously willing to give his life to save EVERYONE on the planet? |
| 86 | * Early episodes of ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' had Ray simply play the kind-hearted guy who wanted to please people, while Debra was the more "real" of the two (that is, not afraid to step on a few toes). By the time the series ended, Ray was out-and-out spineless, and Debra would get onto him for the smallest thing. |
| 87 | ** Not to mention that in the earlier seasons, Ray was a witty DeadpanSnarker and was quite clever (or at ''least'' possessed average intelligence), and his newspaper column actually won a national award. About halfway through the series, however, his IQ appeared to suddenly plummet. A character who had been the OnlySaneMan at the beginning of the series suddenly became the ButtMonkey. This was seemingly done to make his wife Debra appear smarter so that the show could use the ParentingTheHusband trope. |
| 88 | ** Strangely enough, it seems to have gone the other with Ray's brother Robert. Early in the show, he was incredibly socially awkward, still living with his parents, and actually came off as mildly autistic at times. Later in the series, he seems to have taken on Ray's DeadpanSnarker characteristics, acting as the OnlySaneMan. Perhaps it's proximity to Ray's parents? |
| 89 | * Mrs. Garrett in ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'': In the episode, "The Four Musketeers," the normally fair and level-headed authority figure uses her power and influence to help the girls of Eastland out, but in this episode, when the girls have earned their freedom and no longer have to be room-mates, she's saddened by the loss of friendship, so she tricks the girls into getting themselves in trouble again to reinforce the status quo. |
| 90 | * In ''Series/FamilyMatters'', one of StereotypicalNerd Steve Urkel's redeeming traits was originally that he was a personification of the [[AnAesop aesop]] "just BeYourself." The original appearance of his alter-ego Stefan Urquelle was merely a vehicle for {{Anvilicious}} preaching of this aesop. Unfortunately, then someone on the creative team decided that Stefan should become a regular part of Urkel's bag of MadScientist tricks; not only did this result in a BrokenAesop but the entire point of his character was lost. |
| 91 | * ''Series/{{Friends}}'': |
| 92 | ** Joey started the show out as a DeadpanSnarker who was around the same level of intelligence as everyone else in the gang. In the middle of the series, he became a little BookDumb but still fairly competent - note one episode where the knob on the radiator breaks and causes the apartment to overheat, and it's Joey who thinks to turn it off from underneath. [[TookALevelInDumbass By the end of the series he is completely stupid,]] not being able to learn French properly, can't understand simple maths, believes any outrageous story one of the gang makes up, and even becomes a ManChild who refuses to share food and has to sleep with a stuffed penguin every night. |
| 93 | ** Likewise Monica was [[OnlySaneWoman the most sensible and rational member of the group]] at the start of the series. She eventually became highly neurotic, [[NeatFreak scarily obsessed with cleanliness]], overly shrill and [[CompetitionFreak competitive]] (to the point where she was in competition with ''herself''). |
| 94 | ** Ross went through this, too. At the beginning of the series, Ross was portrayed as the most grounded of the three guys. Sensitive, kind, and respectful towards women. Later in the series, he became a loud, obnoxious {{Jerkass}} who was every bit as lecherous as Joey and Chandler. [[BaseBreakingCharacter Many would argue that Ross was a possessive and lecherous dick even during the first few seasons]], only a bit more subtle about it at the time. There are ''many'' instances during the first few seasons where Ross is demonstrated to be quite possessive (witness his numerous attempts at depriving Rachel of men she was interested in before their Season 2 hook-up). |
| 95 | ** Meanwhile, Phoebe started out as a ditzy but sweet [[GranolaGirl hippie chick]] and easily the nicest of the three female leads. After her pregnancy arc in Season 4, [[TookALevelInJerkass she became a lot meaner and nastier]], often saying and doing things she would have ''never'' done during the first few seasons. At the same time, her wackiness was greatly exaggerated, crossing the line from adorably quirky to downright messed-up. |
| 96 | * ''Series/GeneralHospital'' has Damian Spinelli, who went from the pot-smoking lecherous surfer guy who happened to hack computers, to a shy, anti-social, sad little geek who had no self-confidence and acted as a prop for Maxie Jones, through massive woobification. |
| 97 | ** How about the massive character derailment in Maxie to prop Spinelli? The pairing ruined them both. Maxie went from a bitchy, snarky, basically a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who, while still sympathetic, actually enabled a married man's drug addiction by carrying on an affair with him, to a shrill-voiced, hopeless, stupid harpy who constantly spouts that Spin is her "essential person" and how OMG LOST she'd be without him. |
| 98 | * In Season 3 of ''Series/GossipGirl'', the character Damien was slowly being developed to be more than just a cardboard cut-out [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Bad Boy]]. He seemed to have genuinely developed feelings for Jenny and was understanding and caring. However, when [[spoiler:Jenny decided not to have sex with him because he thought being a virgin wasn't a big deal, he immediately left and made a comment about her being a "kid".]] This felt very abrupt and conflicted with all his previous character development. |
| 99 | ** However, no ''Series/GossipGirl'' character has been hit harder by this than Trip van der Bilt. When he first appeared he was a sweet, decent guy, one of the few people in Nate's family who actually seemed to be a genuinely good person. Then within the course of three episodes, he [[spoiler:cheated on his wife with Serena (while claiming he was in the right since his wife Maureen pulled a dirty move to help him win an election) and then got into a car accident with Serena in the car and moved her unconscious body to the driver's seat so that no blame would fall on Trip himself]]. His behavior appears to have been written in simply so that Nate would look swell in comparison. |
| 100 | * ''Series/GreysAnatomy'': Dr Bailey started out as the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]] in the hospital. She was a caring yet no-nonsense DeadpanSnarker who acted on good sense rather than emotion, and frequently called the other characters out for their reckless and immature behaviour; any freakouts she displayed were regarded as OOCisSeriousBusiness. Over the seasons, however, she became increasingly weak-willed, hysterical, irrationally petty, and needlessly mean-spirited. To top it off, she began to show signs of being a CreatorsPet, with everyone constantly praising her as the best doctor in the hospital. As a result, she went from being one of the most popular characters on the show to one of the most widely disliked. |
| 101 | * ''Series/H2OJustAddWater'' had a major overhaul of characters in season 3, and then they decided to promptly throw the past two seasons of Zane's character development right out of the window, making him even more selfish and more of a jerk than he had been when the show started. |
| 102 | * ''Series/HannahMontana''. Miley started out as a kind, normal, unpopular teenage girl, and now she always has to get what she wants and assumes that everybody loves her. In the first season, Lilly was a tomboy who never wore skirts and always skateboarded with her guy friends, but now, there isn't an ounce of tomboy left in her and she always cries. Oliver's become weak and whiny, not to mention a pop sensation touring the country. Jackson can't score a date for his life now when in the beginning, he wasn't nearly that pathetic. Robbie is now a hair-obsessed freak who acts like a child. Miley, Lilly, and Oliver are all popular and famous now, which totally defeats the purpose of the show in the first place. |
| 103 | * On ''Series/HappyDays'', [[BreakoutCharacter Fonzie]] was originally a minor side character, who was a genuine juvenile delinquent. He had dropped out of school, and in one episode went back to school, before dropping out again because he decided he couldn't be bothered. He was also shown to "date" multiple women, often without them knowing about each other. Once Fonzie became a major (if not ''the'' major) character, this changed. A few years later, suddenly he is able to graduate high school with Richie and the gang after all, because he went back to school (for a second time?) and took night courses or something. He is also seen to be preaching to Chachi that he should be honest with the women he dates and let them down easy, etc. This character transformation has been referred to as "Father Knows Best in a leather jacket and sideburns". |
| 104 | * ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. Circling the drain in its third season has derailed virtually all of its characters. |
| 105 | ** Mohinder Suresh went from a curious, intellectually hopeful scientist, whose lack of conventional superpower brought complexity into his dynamics with other characters, to an aggressive superpower junkie with hardly a personality beyond his amplified ego. This is also the result of plot derailment when the show went from being an exploration of accelerated human evolution to a simple display of Mad Science. |
| 106 | ** Claire went through an interesting character arc in the beginning. She had a CursedWithAwesome phase regarding her power, found out her adoptive father, Noah, works for a secret company that hunts people like her (with abilities) and later, that her biological father, Nathan, and grandmother, Angela, were willing to let catastrophe happen so he could become president...until each dad underwent a HeelFaceTurn (for which she was instrumental in prompting) and reconciled with her. That was all good in season one, made sense. Season two onward, it seems like Claire still has the same issues over and over: she bitches about her power more than any other character and, in every volume, her story arc always boils down to a version of, "I can't trust my father!" -- especially with Noah. This is doubled in volume four when she is pissed at ''both'' her [[PapaWolf dads]], Noah and Nathan, for the same thing at the same time. |
| 107 | *** Volume One -- She finds out Noah hunts down people like her for a living but reconciles when she realizes just how much he risked to keep her and her powers safe from his bosses. |
| 108 | *** Volume Two -- She gets angry that Noah lied to her and her mother, continuing to work as a secret agent trying to bring down The Company. This was especially hypocritical since Noah was riding Claire hard about the importance of not doing anything to attract attention. So joining the cheerleaders at her new school is too risky but his globe-trotting and killing his old teachers is okay? |
| 109 | *** Volume Three -- After going through what amounted to MindRape with Sylar, Claire wants to start using her powers to fight bad powered people like Noah does. Noah wants her to live a normal life. |
| 110 | *** Volume Four -- Though her outrage is justified this time, Claire is still surprised both her fathers, Noah and Nathan, are [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well Intentioned Extremists]]. As they try sending her home to live a normal life, Claire takes her two dads to task over the government-run operation Nathan is heading and Noah is helping him run. Except for Claire, this operation allows for the imprisonment of people with superpowers while Claire is granted a free pass from it. However, both dads dismiss Claire's objections, work to protect her, and send her back home but Claire uses her free pass to rebel against her dads by secretly hiding super-powered people. When Nathan's own power is exposed, this prompts the end of Claire's free pass and Nathan rescues his daughter from his own botched operation, flying her to Mexico to keep her safe. Nathan makes amends with Claire and atones for his former operation. When the Petrelli-Bennet family reunites, Claire and Noah patch things up between them as well, ending the season with a nice reconciliation between Claire and both her fathers, wherein she finally mends her strained relationships with Noah and Nathan. |
| 111 | *** Volume Five -- Things with Claire actually seem to go pretty well at first... until she is devastated to learn [[spoiler: one of her dads (Nathan) is dead]]. This pretty much ends the peace between Claire and Noah because she is justifiably livid to discover her father and grandmother [[spoiler: covered up her other father’s murder ''and'' dressed up the killer, [[SerialKiller Sylar]], in Nathan's face, letting Claire love and hug a man she believed was her father but was actually a shape-shifted, mind-wiped Sylar, Claire's long-time tormentor and Nathan's killer -- while Noah and Angela knew ''the whole time''. Claire also thought Sylar was dead, another lie from Noah and Angela, so that really didn't help this whole blow-out]]. Things don't improve when a new BigBad tells Claire that Noah once killed a man in front of his young daughter and Claire goes back to being convinced her dad is a monster... Again. |
| 112 | ** Sylar, the original villain and recurring badass since season one, arguably got the worst treatment in season 3, which is really saying something. He turns into a good guy simply because Angela falsely told him she's his mother, which he naturally believes for no apparent reason. He dresses like a nerd and starts working for the Company, aided by Noah (the only character to actually behave in character throughout the season). That is, until Arthur tells Sylar that he's his father and Angela was an abusive mother. Again, all lies and no evidence ''at all'' to back up his claims, and Sylar believes him again, and works for Pinehearst, Arthur's company, instead. Noah finally lets the cat out of the bag and somehow this puts Sylar back on track, he no longer believes he's a Petrelli and finds a way to prove it. Of course, not before one last punch to his character, he kills Elle on the beach for no apparent reason. This was so close to adding to him being a MagnificentBastard until it was revealed it was never a trick or a trap, he truly believed all the lies. Also, throughout the entire season, he went [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor from good to bad like flipping a light switch]]. |
| 113 | ** Adam Monroe, who transforms from MagnificentBastard to sniveling coward in a ''single scene'', all as a pathetically transparent attempt to build up the new BigBad, Arthur Petrelli. And it continues to happen even AFTER he's dead. He goes from being the founder of the Company to just some guy who the founders met after it had already started up way back in 1961, completely ignoring all that stuff in season 2 about Adam being the one who brought them all together. |
| 114 | ** Maury Parkman, previously a ruthless, scummy creepy monster who cared only about himself was retconned into Arthur Petrelli's snivelling lackey and then died...demanding that Arthur not kill his son. His son who he himself tried to kill only the previous season. |
| 115 | ** As if the individuals weren't bad enough, they did an episode that derailed all the characters at once; "Villains" played like a piece of bad fanfiction by somebody who never even heard of the show. Sylar was the good guy nerd, even though this was supposed to be after his fall when he started acting like a serial killer. Elle was gentle and kind, and hated that she had to feed somebody to Sylar. Agent Thompson released Meredith out of pity that she lost her daughter, even though he was likely the same person that took her away in the first place, and is the same Agent Thompson that nearly killed Matt simply because Matt wanted to be left alone, the same Thompson who tried to take Claire away from Noah. Nathan's line in the episode, "Thank God Dad never found out that his own sons were about to stab him in the back", despite the fact he yelled precisely what he planned to do to Arthur to his face and that Nathan hates his father, all in the same damn episode. Linderman feels sorry about Angela not knowing that Arthur plans to kill Nathan, despite just coming back from trying to kill Nathan himself. Speaking of which, they turned Angela into a fucking housewife. |
| 116 | * ''Series/{{House}}'' has Cuddy, who went from a strong, sane woman (with a GuiltComplex) who could run her hospital well and still deal with House relatively well to an incompetent, baby-feverish, overly-emotional boss who acts like a child. She still has her moments but Cuddy, sweetie, when '''House''' is acting more mature than you, then I think that we've got a problem. |
| 117 | ** Not to mention the way she's morphed into a woman whose sole obsession in life is being a mother, and she seems to resent her career for pulling her away from her adopted baby. Although she's [[MyBiologicalClockIsTicking getting older]], her level of obsession is still a bit ridiculous and hard to swallow. |
| 118 | ** Then there's the entire circumstances of the House/Cuddy breakup, which involves Cuddy nearly dying. As a result, House starts taking Vicodin again because he's so emotionally strained by the thought of his girlfriend dying that he couldn't continue to function otherwise. [[DisproportionateRetribution After House inevitably cures Cuddy, she realizes that he's taking Vicodin again and dumps him right after he just saved her life.]] The CharacterDerailment comes from the fact that Cuddy has dealt with House's antics for years with relatively little difficulty, many far worse, which makes the breakup come off as petty and excessive. |
| 119 | ** Dr. Foreman was perhaps the earliest victim of CharacterDerailment. In the first season, he was ambitious and unsentimental but had several JerkWithAHeartOfGold moments to make up for it. One or two episodes into the second season, he stood back and did nothing while a patient's heart failed because he didn't like the guy. Later in that same season, he pulled a professional dick move on Cameron, then when he was mortally ill, ''stabbed her with a dirty needle'' in a desperate attempt to get her to save him. To say he TookALevelInJerkass would be an understatement. |
| 120 | ** House himself gets this. Early seasons have him much more as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, someone who genuinely cares about his patients (and his fellows), even if he didn't show it in the ways that people would expect. Later seasons increasingly downplayed the Heart Of Gold aspects, making him mostly just a JerkAss. This culminated in the season 7 finale where he shoves Cuddy against the wall in anger and drives his car into her house, coming off like a DomesticAbuser ex. A lot of fans couldn't stand him after that, so in-universe he regained some morals, suffered some HumiliationConga in a year stint in jail and, while still a manipulative jerk, acted more like season 1 than the sociopath of 6/7. |
| 121 | * ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': |
| 122 | ** Sometime between the fourth and fifth seasons, Ted went from being a hopeless romantic to somewhat of a shallow womanizer, never staying with any girl for more than one episode. This also contributes to the show's ArcFatigue, with this phase essentially putting the story on hold for (at least) a year. |
| 123 | *** He was left at the altar, and during "As Fast As She Can", he explains that his romantic side died that day. In fact, he often notes how, during that time, he was a bit of a jerk. He tends to get back on his romantic track later. |
| 124 | ** Stella's boyfriend/fiancee, Tony, had a serious, off-screen amount of derailment in "The Wedding Bride." Before the episode, he and Stella had been shown to have a relationship that went sour due to having a child and being too young. Right before getting married to Ted, though, Stella runs off with Tony. Later, though, Tony sees what this does to Ted (in the aforementioned "As Fast As She Can") and dumps Stella. Ted, however, gets Tony and Stella back together, and Tony even gets Ted his job as a college professor. Essentially, Tony is a bit of an idiot, but is wholly good-natured and is very friendly to Ted and believes that he wouldn't be happy now if it wasn't for Ted getting him back with Stella. So why would he then make a movie based on the incident where Ted is portrayed as an evil, nasty, creepy jerk-face? |
| 125 | *** It's also probable that as a first-time screenwriter, Tony encountered of few tropes on the way to getting the film made, including some ExecutiveMeddling. |
| 126 | ** Also, Ted's high school friend Punchy. In season 6, he was a NiceGuy who worried about Ted leading a sad life after being left at the altar and asked him to be his best man at his wedding. Then when the wedding happens in season 7, we found out Punchy "actually" hired Ted as his best man is because the latter always cries in the middle of a toast. He makes fun of him and even does autotuned videos. It really feels like a {{Retcon}}. |
| 127 | ** Barney's gay brother James goes from a NiceGuy who gave up the promiscuous lifestyle to marry someone he loved and have a family to a {{Jerkass}} who cheated on his husband repeatedly and worked out multiple times a ''day'' despite being married with kids that needed him, "just in case he's ever single again". Possibly justified in that we never saw much of his life on-screen, but what we did see suggested that he was happy, stable, and committed and never really foreshadowed otherwise. |
| 128 | ** Most of the main cast has gone through their own form of Derailment, but the most prominent of them is Robin. She began the series as a young independent woman who had tomboyish tendencies that set her apart from Lily and other female characters but was still not afraid to show her feminine side. We even learn later on that she was raised as a boy by her strict father, so when she moved in with her mother she started embracing her feminine side because that's what she wanted. All of these aspects of her personality are suddenly forgotten or exaggerated in Season 9, where Robin is suddenly so much like a boy that she doesn't understand the concept of crying, or having empathy in general. One notable episode in the season focused on the problem that Robin's boyish personality was the reason why she doesn't have any female friends, even though in every season before she was shown interacting with other females outside the group with no issues. |
| 129 | ** Barney got hit with this in the series finale. [[spoiler: After several seasons of CharacterDevelopment and maturing from a serial womanizer to a (mostly) mature man marrying the woman he loves, it's revealed that he and Robin got divorced three years after marrying because she was too devoted to her career. After this happens, he goes back to his old self, creating a new Playbook and trying to have sex with a different woman each day for a month. Though he apparently grew out of it when his daughter was born (as a result of one of his one-night stands)]], this SnapBack was one of the many reasons most fans despised the show's ending. |
| 130 | *** It wasn't just Barney; Ted got hit ''hard'' in the finale. So Barney and Robin get married, he gives them his blessing, he realizes that love simply isn't enough between them and finally meets the mother. [[spoiler:Then everything goes off the rails as the mother dies about ten minutes after her appearance, Barney and Robin get divorced, and it turns out the whole thing was [[ShaggyDogStory a roundabout way for future!Ted to ask his kids if he can date Robin again.]]]] They managed to roll back almost eight seasons of development just to bring back the pairing that everyone, even ''in''-universe, was sick of. |
| 131 | *** Even Marshall and Robin also had this problem, though to a lesser extent. Marshall went back to a horrible corporate job he hated after staying in Rome for a year with Lily. It was a complete regression to the character he was in the first few seasons. Robin likewise became so committed to work that she [[spoiler: divorced Barney, committing even more after her divorce]]. In general the reason the finale had this problem is that it was written before the end of season two given that the kids had to have filmed their reactions before the actors aged too much. Thus the characters, who had matured a great deal in the meantime, had to end up back as their season two selves. The larger problem is that they did so without enough foreshadowing and it thus came across as a complete derailment rather than a logical ending. |
| 132 | * The ''Series/ICarly'' episode "I Date A Bad Boy" derails the titular bad boy in record time. At the start of the episode, he is a punk kid criminal who seduces Carly. Halfway through the episode and without any warning, he is derailed with the introduction of his shameful (to the main characters, but not to him) collection of beanie babies and is immediately reduced to an obsessed man-child. |
| 133 | ** George the Bra told an actual ghost story on his first appearance. Nowadays, his ghost stories involve malfunctioning laundry machines and expired warranties. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools You're not likely to find anyone complain about the change]], [[RuleOfFunny since he's a lot funnier that way]]. [[FridgeBrilliance After all, if you were a bra, a malfunctioning laundry machine would be pretty freaking scary.]] |
| 134 | ** Sam. Looked like growing up a little in Season 3. Turned into a sociopath with no redeeming qualities in Season 4. She also falls 'in love' with main character Freddie (who she has spent 4 seasons beating on) in the final episode. |
| 135 | * Adam's decay from gentle, caring, and "all about" Joan, to just another horny teenage boy, in the second season of ''Series/JoanOfArcadia''. Actually, "decay" would suggest there was some time between "gentle, caring" and "horny". TheReveal was literally dropped in out of nowhere in the middle of an episode. |
| 136 | * In the earlier seasons of ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'', Doug wouldn't hesitate to call on Carrie for her underhanded antics, and she would learn her lesson. Doug himself also enjoyed his job in addition to having a good work ethic. As the show went on and [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism slid down the cynical end of the scale]], Doug became a gutless complainer, and Carrie's short fuse and [[SmallNameBigEgo superiority complex]] got worse. |
| 137 | ** Doug even stumbled into a self-help group of battered husbands once and had a realization about Carrie's behavior. |
| 138 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': |
| 139 | ** The arc dealing with Olivia's discovery of her half-brother, which on an until-then realistic show with realistically sensible characters, reduced Olivia to possessing all the common sense of your average soap opera character. She and Cragen even note later that she was [[NotHimself Not Herself]]. |
| 140 | *** Olivia's brother then gets this himself. Initially, Simon is portrayed as an ordinary family man pushed too far by a DirtyCop. Years later he returns as an impulsive idiot who jumps straight to crime the second things don't go his way in court. Years after that, he returns again as a down-and-out heroin addict. The show acts as though he had always been this way, even though his only previous established drug use was medicinal marijuana. |
| 141 | ** Even before Olivia lost her common sense to [[spoiler: her brother possibly being a rapist [[VillainousLineage like their dad]]]], Elliot had gone from a more or less badass cop to a whiny, creepy psycho who's this close to [[AbusiveParents keeping his daughters locked at home so they don't fool around]] and is a big fan of the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique. |
| 142 | ** Poor Nick Amaro. Following Stabler's departure, he was introduced as a very effective ContrastingSequelMainCharacter. Amaro's first season saw him use charm, guile, and cold-blooded manipulation to break down suspects, rather than [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique Stabler's usual methods]]. Apparently SVU couldn't survive without a Catholic family man to take it personally and rage out, though, so as time went on Amaro's unique personality was dropped in favor of increasing violence, anger, and damage to his personal life. It finally got to the point where he was no longer the anti-Stabler but a Stabler ''clone'' (not to mention that, unlike Stabler, he kept getting disciplined and demoted for his actions). |
| 143 | * ''Series/LifeWithBoys'': Tess begins dating her wrestling rival Bobby when it turns out they have a lot in common. He couldn't stay with her friend Allie because they couldn't deny their feelings for each other. Also, when Tess breaks up with Bobby to spare Allie's feelings after they dated in secret, an understanding Bobby takes her back no problem. When Tess pretends to be sick to get out of spending time with Allie so she can go to a playoffs game, it turns out Bobby pretended to be sick so he could go to the game too. Tess breaks up with him for lying but then realizes the hypocrisy when Allie catches her and decides since Allie forgave her, Tess can forgive him too. Then [[AssPull Bobby gets another girl's number immediately]] at the end of the episode, the two stay broken up and just like that, the whole arc is pointless. |
| 144 | * On ''Series/{{Lost}}'', this was the theme of Season 2. Every character, to some extent, relapsed on their character development and gave in to their darker impulses. While most of the characters (like Sayid or Locke) were handled well, some fans have singled out Charlie's [[Recap/LostS02E12FireWater babynapping and pseudo-heroin relapse]] and Sawyer's [[Recap/LostS02E13TheLongCon return to conning and general dickery]] as being especially contrived by the writers. The time skip for Sawyer in Season 5 has also gotten this reaction, with him going from an immensely complicated DeadpanSnarker conman with a heart of gold and tragic past to [[TenMinuteRetirement living a happy, content life as chief security officer for DHARMAville]] and [[PairTheSpares hooking up with Juliet]] entirely off-screen. Where to draw the line between derailment and [[CharacterDevelopment development]] is, as always, a part of the show's enormous BrokenBase. |
| 145 | * Not that [[CampStraight Lowell's]] wife Jen was exactly a major character on ''Series/ManWithAPlan'' (in fact, she was TheGhost until season 2) but the two episodes she appeared in showed her to be at least a decent wife & mother. Come season three and she cheats on Lowell with her riding instructor, kicks him out of their house and refuses to allow him to see his kids, and generally acts like a mean bitch (and all offscreen). Admittedly, there are probably some outside factors for this [[note]] Her character is essentially superfluous and the show crew probably ran out of things for her to do, plus she was played by Jenna Dewan, so they might not have had enough money to afford any more appearances.[[/note]] but it's still a kick to the cornflakes. |
| 146 | * Kelly Bundy on ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' began the show as a [[SpoiledBrat bratty teen]] who [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys dated boys her father didn't approve of]], dressed like a normal teenaged girl, did fair-to-middling in school, and sometimes committed petty crimes (stealing Al's money, coming in after curfew, speeding, etc). Halfway through the second season, her IQ inexplicably plunges and she suddenly turns into a [[ReallyGetsAround hyper-slutty]], [[TheBrainlessBeauty air-headed bimbo]] who [[{{Stripperific}} dresses like a three-dollar hooker]], an abrupt character change that [[{{Flanderization}} gets more extreme as time goes on]]. One episode showed that Kelly used to be intelligent but became stupid when she hit her head as a child, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness which still doesn't explain why she was of average intelligence in the early episodes]]). |
| 147 | ** In an odd example where adding ''positive'' traits constitutes CharacterDerailment, Peggy Bundy, during the mercifully short time when [[CousinOliver Seven]] appeared on the show. Whereas before Peg didn't give a rat's ass about her children, and cheerfully left them to starve while she scarfed down Bon Bons (and occasionally went out to eat with the money she stole from Al), Peg somehow acts as a responsible parent to that little rat Seven, feeding him and taking him to the doctor. Fortunately, once Seven disappeared, Peg went back to the lazy, self-centered, nagging shrew and negligent mother the fans knew and loved. |
| 148 | * Hawkeye of ''Series/{{MASH}}'' went from being a mischievous goof-off obsessed with women to an unfailingly moral MartyStu preaching at us. |
| 149 | ** Hawkeye gets derailed any time the plot requires him to act differently from his normal character. In some episodes, he talks about the sacredness of his Hippocratic oath. In other episodes, he falsifies medical documents, makes a colonel think he's sicker than he is to get the colonel to go home to the states, performs unnecessary surgery (even BJ got mad at him for doing this), and on several occasions, drugs patients who don't need to be drugged, including Frank. One of those times was because he wanted to throw a party and Frank was in the way. Mind you, this was [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness in the pilot]]. |
| 150 | ** In some of those, Hawkeye does what he does because he thinks it's for the greater good, that getting a callous CO removed from command by performing an unnecessary appendectomy will save lives in the long run. He gaslit the colonel in "The Ringbanger" because said colonel on average had twice the casualties but only gained half the ground as others in his position. Also, the party was a fundraiser to send a Korean kid to college. |
| 151 | * Morgana from ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}''. Her turning evil was always a ForegoneConclusion (unless they had paid attention to the earliest versions in which Morgana was not evil), but the way the writers decided to go about it has been baffling. After a year in the company of her half-sister Morgause, Morgana returns to Camelot and tries to assassinate King Uther. Her resentment toward ''him'' at least has been built up properly, but why the writers felt the need to have her spitefully goad Gwen over her relationship with Arthur (the former being her dearest friend who has never done anything to her and the latter being someone she loves as a brother), plot to deprive Arthur of his throne (whom in the past she's recognised as "a better man than your father" and recently discovered is her [[spoiler:half-brother]]) and stab a knight of Camelot when on the brink of being discovered, throw his body from the parapets, ''cold-bloodedly finish him off with poison'' on discovering he survived the fall, and all with a perpetual Evil Smirk on her face is completely at odds with the Morgana of the first two seasons. |
| 152 | ** To make things worse, when she was finally crowned Queen of Camelot, her punishment for the citizens not pledging allegiance to her was to burn their crops, and she took pleasure in the idea of their children starving. From this point on, there was not a hint of the old Morgana again. She had completely become the man she was fighting against or even worse, but perhaps that was the point? |
| 153 | ** Uther himself when his spirit returns in ''The Death Song of Uther Pendragon''. He coldly dismisses Arthur as a weak and foolish king before attempting to kill him "for the good of Camelot". While it's true Uther often criticized Arthur as being a naive WideEyedIdealist, his unconditional love for Arthur and Morgana -often to the point of blinding him to reason- was by far his biggest redeeming quality in life. The idea that he would knowingly try to kill his own son was ludicrous. Some try to FanWank this as Uther having [[CameBackWrong Come Back Wrong]], but this is never indicated in the episode itself. |
| 154 | ** Sometime between seasons three and four, Gwaine went from a wise rogue to a complete buffoon. His close friendship with Merlin has also seemed to have gone missing. |
| 155 | * On ''Series/TheMindyProject'', Danny started out as a DeadpanSnarker (who at worst would be considered a JerkWithAHeartOfGold) with CommitmentIssues. This changes in season 4, when [[spoiler: he and Mindy are engaged and living together after the birth of their son Leo. He then gets into an ongoing argument with Mindy over her choice to not be a stay-at-home mom and refuses to see her side of things, instead viewing all of Mindy's life decisions as wrong. This leads to the break-up of their relationship. Cut to less than a year later, and he's already engaged to someone else.]] |
| 156 | * Arnold Spivak from ''Series/MurderOne'' was portrayed in the first season as a somewhat socially awkward but skilled and mature lawyer. In season two, he becomes a whiny brat and approaches full-on ButtMonkey-dom in the final episode when he completely blows a job interview. |
| 157 | * Series/{{NCIS}}'s Jake Malloy, husband of Ellie Bishop. In his first appearance, it's established that he absolutely adores his wife and seems to become even more enamored of her after watching her in action. A year later, he admits that he's been having an affair with a coworker. The show even seemed to lampshade this abrupt 180 when Ellie tells [=DiNozzo=] and [=McGee=] about this and they ask "Are you sure?", as if they find this as inexplicable as the viewer. |
| 158 | * ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' came close to this trope in the fourth season, making previously sympathetic characters much less likable. Ryan's change from average guy to suave douchebag is at least a somewhat believable CharacterDevelopment, resulting from his huge promotion. Although Jan was exasperated and irritable with Michael, she was professional, reasonable, rational, and about as pleasant as you could expect anyone having to deal with Michael Scott to be. After being fired, she transforms into the opposite of this -- a total bitch who becomes more and more crazy. Toby was originally just a mellow, soft-spoken NiceGuy who got picked on excessively by Michael, but it seems now he's jealous of Jim's relationship with Pam, and passive-aggressively takes his resentment out on Jim. |
| 159 | ** In the Final season, this happened to Andy. His CharacterDevelopment is undone and he becomes an unrepentant Jerkass. This also doubled with DesignatedVillain, as he was turned into a villain for two reasons: give his girlfriend Erin a new LoveInterest in TheScrappy Pete (who also was hated for undoing the two seasons of Erin/Andy well-liked romance) and make the CreatorsPet Nellie more sympathetic as he would often pick on her. |
| 160 | * ''Series/OnceUponATime'': |
| 161 | ** Rumplestiltskin in Season 4 gets a bad case of {{Flanderization}}. He's a villain again, and all character development he gained is lost. Even his villainous motivations aren't noble in motive anymore. It gets worse when he allies with [[spoiler: Zelena, the one who killed his son whose death partially motivated his return to villainy.]]. Eventually it was {{handwave}}d that the darkness of the Dark One had been corrupting him but this came out as an AssPull. |
| 162 | ** Charming and Snow White, of all characters, in Season 4B. Their story involves them spinning one lie after another and blackmailing Ursula and Cruella to cover up a dark misdeed from their past [[spoiler: They caused Maleficient to lose her unborn child in order to keep their daughter Emma from becoming evil]]. Many fans are accusing the writers of being so desperate to prop up Regina's DracoInLeatherPants treatment that they're forcibly dragging the show's two most heroic characters down into the mud with her. |
| 163 | * ''Series/{{Primeval}}'' - Helen Cutter: Gruff loner who mostly just wants to be left in peace to enjoy touring through prehistory (Season 1)? Amoral scientist willing to work with anyone to get the resources she needs for her work (Season 2)? Or crazed eco-zealot seeking to destroy all humankind (Season 3)? It's like she was a different person each season. |
| 164 | * T-Bag. Oh T-Bag. Throughout ''Series/PrisonBreak'''s first three seasons, he was a MagnificentBastard who knew how to manipulate every part of his environment, whether in Fox River prison, a well-known fugitive, or in Sona. Unfortunately, on the ''first'' episode of season 4, T-Bag made many really dumb mistakes. Like, for one, pursuing revenge against Michael Scofield for the hell he put him through. It's kind of understandable, considering that T-Bag didn't have it easy, but extremely stupid when you realize Michael's also the reason he's out of prison AND has millions of dollars, courtesy of Westmoreland's stache. To top it off, he had like three hot-ass Latino chicks in his bed. And, to make matters worse, soon after T-Bag hires a guy to transport him to the US, he and his buddies seize the opportunity to steal all of his money and throw him into the desert. And as a result, T-Bag had to resort to cannibalism with his [[Series/{{Lost}} Hurley-sized partner]] to survive. Sigh, To be fair, when the writers had to gather every major character ''again'' to start the Scylla hunt by arresting them, they did it in a pretty unconvincing way, seeing as they all successfully dodged police for most of season 2. But with T-Bag, it was so blatantly out of character, it ruined him the entire season. His de-evolution only gets worse from here. |
| 165 | * The second series of ''Series/RobinHood'' had character development from everyone, but most notably Guy of Gisborne, who, by the penultimate couple of episodes, is risking his own life to stand up for what he believes in and to defend others; something he would never have done back in the day. This is mostly because of his love for Marian, and he repeatedly defies the Sheriff for Marian's sake. Marian shows Guy friendship, despite working against him in secret, and is very very good at keeping her double-agent status secret. In the finale, Marian suddenly begins flailing about like a muppet, yelling "I LOVE ROBIN HOOD! I'M GOING TO MARRY ROBIN HOOD!" Guy then stabs her through the gut and rides off. ''Two'' characters derailed for the price of one! |
| 166 | ** It seems to run in the family. The third season introduces Guy's sister Isabella, who seems intelligent, helpful, and rational. Robin begins a relationship with her, but when she encourages him to run away with her, he tells her that his loyalties lie with England and the mission. She responds by [[DerailingLoveInterests picking up the nearest sword]] and [[{{Yandere}} trying to kill him.]] As you do. |
| 167 | * ''Series/{{Roseanne}}''/''Series/TheConners'': |
| 168 | ** Can anyone who watched the original show, with David's background, his desire for family, and his painful devotion to Darlene and their baby, really believe that he would simply ''walk out on his kids'' and disappear? For ''years''? Even the handwaving that Mark's death damaged him doesn't really hold up. Obviously, this all came about because the actor didn't wish to be a full-time regular so the marriage couldn't continue, but the end result is a slap in the face to those who'd been fans of a beloved pairing for over twenty years, especially when they attempt to retroactively declare that their entire relationship was 100% toxic, ignoring all of their CharacterDevelopment. |
| 169 | ** Having grown up in an abusive household, Roseanne was vehemently opposed to corporal punishment in the original run of the show. When Roseanne spanked her son one time, it was out of reflex and she [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone immediately broke down into tears upon realizing what she had done]]. In contrast, the 2018 revival has Rosanne '''gleefully''' force her granddaughter’s head under a running sink, [[DisproportionateRetribution simply for acting fresh to her]]. |
| 170 | * ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' |
| 171 | ** JD started the series as a nervous, somewhat needy young doctor who also displays genuine wit, intelligence, charm, and sensitivity. At this point, he's something of a second ButtMonkey, has had his emotional neediness become a classic example of {{Flanderization}} and has, quite frankly, degenerated into something of an [[IdiotHero idiot]]. An inability to locate Iraq on a map or explain the difference between a Senator and a Congressman are the two most flagrant examples of that but are far from the only ones. |
| 172 | ** The sixth season wreaks havoc with other established characters as well, going even so far as to have Turk state that he finds all women JD sleeps with automatically disgusting (and this is confirmed with a brief [[ImagineSpot POV shot]]), when this is not only contradicted in previous seasons by various moments he shares with Elliot (including a sex dream that provides the crux of an entire episode) but just a few episodes later when JD makes a big deal of Turk sleeping with one of his former college girlfriends. Of course, this inconsistency is just for a throwaway joke that's never followed through on, while JD's behavior with Kim [[spoiler: concerning her pregnancy and his brief flirtation at infidelity with an engaged Elliot]] completely rewrites his character to provide fodder for a seventh season that almost didn't happen. |
| 173 | ** Between the first season and later seasons, one aspect of Elliot's character was noticeably changed as well; early on in the series, Elliot is not particularly fond of children or babies and shows little to no desire to interact with them. For example, in the first Christmas episode, Dr. Kelso makes a very sexist remark to her about how almost all female doctors end up in women's specialty, and she later tells him that she is completely uninterested in babies, doesn't coo when she's around them or melt when she sees them, and has no desire to make them her life's work. By the end of the episode, she does feel some affection toward a baby born to a teenager in the care of her hospital, but it seems clear, and it would make sense, that she still has not completely changed her views. Contrast this against the Elliot of later seasons, who is extremely jealous of any pregnant woman around her and wants her boyfriend Keith to pretend they're not wearing a condom while they're having sex so that she can fantasize about getting pregnant. |
| 174 | --->'''Elliot:''' Oh my god Turk, I am so sorry, I just love babies so much.\ |
| 175 | '''Keith:''' It's true. Sometimes she makes me wear a diaper.\ |
| 176 | '''Elliot:''' Keith, private! |
| 177 | ** A far more serious derailment regarding Elliot is the fact that she goes from believably insecure to insanely neurotic and shrill. She also becomes thoroughly insensitive to other people's feelings for a couple of seasons (until Carla finally calls her on it after breaking up with Keith.) |
| 178 | ** Early seasons have Jordan as a bitch, but still undoubtedly a good mother who is very concerned about her son's safety and spends most of her time taking care of him and making sure he and Dr Cox have a good relationship. In later seasons, she's completely neglectful of her children and wants them to despise Cox, a complete 180 of before, just to exaggerate her vindictiveness. She and Cox also started out nose-to-nose in nastiness, but now she's kilonazis more evil than him. |
| 179 | * Ben from ''Series/TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager''. He went from a caring, sensitive boy that helped/supported his bitchy jerk-sue girlfriend throughout her pregnancy (a baby he was NOT the father of, to boot; she got knocked up before she met Ben) to an obsessive, sex-crazed jerk who, when he got another girl pregnant, all he cared about was Amy and seemed to partially not care that she wanted to get an abortion. Even after she dumps him, all Ben seems to care about is Amy. Though, he has gotten better and seems to care more about being a dad now. Some fans believe this was so "Ramy" would seem responsible. You know, switch their personalities and make Ben more horrible by comparison. |
| 180 | ** Ashley, too, turned from the [[WiseBeyondTheirYears smartest]] and [[DeadpanSnarker snarkiest]] character to a [[HormoneAddledTeenager stereotypical]] [[SatelliteLoveInterest lovestruck]] teenager who has become everything she once loathed and derided, for the [[ConflictBall purpose of drama.]] |
| 181 | * Quinn Mallory on ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' went from being a likable boy genius in the first two seasons to a cardboard action hero who had a [[GirlOfTheWeek different girl each week]] from Season 3 onward. He also didn't seem particularly concerned that Arturo (a father figure) was killed in front of him or Wade (his best friend) had been kidnapped by the Kromaggs. |
| 182 | * ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' |
| 183 | ** Bizarro, a rare evil to (relatively) good example. In his first appearance, he takes lives with psychopathic delight, but in his second appearance he [[spoiler:[[PetTheDog saves Chloe and Jimmy from a bomb]] and his LastWords to Lana before she killed him with blue kryptonite is "[[DyingDeclarationOfLove I love you]]", which makes him a little ''too'' sympathetic.]] Although it might be an effort to reverse the AdaptationalVillainy he had in his first appearance, as Bizarro is traditionally confused but not irredeemably evil. |
| 184 | ** Many thought that Davis Bloome's sudden last-minute FaceHeelTurn into being an unrepentant murderer at the end of the 8th season of ''Smallville'' was this. Starting out as the Doctor Jekyll of a Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde character, Davis was progressively forced to do more and more extreme and immoral things to keep his Mr. Hyde monster side (Doomsday) under control. He had been abandoned on the streets has a child and had grown up in foster care and become an EMT where he met and fell in love with Chloe Sullivan. The attraction between them was mutual despite her being engaged to be married at the time. As his condition worsened he finds out to his horror that his purpose in life is destroy the world. Davis is shown again and again as a good man by himself but constantly plagued with the destruction his alternate personality causes and being forced to cover it up turning more into an AntiVillain or AntiHero type. So what happens when they finally manage to separate the human Davis from the alien monster of Doomsday? Oh, guess what? Despite his anguish over Doomsday's murders and even two past attempts to kill himself to prevent it, it turns out Davis is just as much a psychopathic murderer as Doomsday, and he [[spoiler:kills Jimmy when he hears that Chloe loves him instead]] and then tries to kill her. To say that this sudden FaceHeelTurn (literally in the last five minutes of the last episode of the season!) didn't make any sense in the context of Davis' entire characterization up to that point would be a gross understatement. |
| 185 | ** Chloe Sullivan arguably has some of this around season six, from being the determined and independent girl whose only weakness is Clark Kent. Who could blame her for being soft towards the '''Man of Steel'''? But then [[spoiler:Jimmy]] pops up and she rolls right over for him. Like the starting scene of [[spoiler:''Quest'']] - it just comes out too mushy for her character. Later, [[FromBadToWorse she went from being]] a NiceGirl and UnluckyChildhoodFriend to Clark to a morally ambiguous ManipulativeBitch who cheerfully did "the right thing" and blamed Clark for all her mistakes. When did it happen? Season 8, Episode 20. By the start of the next season she's gotten her husband killed through a series of magnificently stupid decisions, put all the blame for it on Clark, and decided that murder and endangering her friends are okay if they get the job done, something she ''never'' would have done before. |
| 186 | ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. |
| 187 | ** Odo. He went from someone who abhorred injustice and the Occupation, argued passionately against destroying a proto-universe that threatened the station, and even got snarky about ''cutting flowers'' for bouquets, to having a future version who wiped 3,000 people out of existence to save Kira and give his past self a chance with her. Then the writers decided that the ''only'' reason that he didn't join the rest of the Changelings--rulers of the Dominion who happily practiced genocide--was because of Kira. You could do some AlternativeCharacterInterpretation with the fact that the people who insisted this the loudest were other Changelings, but WordOfGod says no, that's really the reason. Never mind all the important relationships he has with Sisko, Quark, and Garak, or his previously-established sense[[note]]albeit an unorthodox one[[/note]] of justice and morality. |
| 188 | ** Gowron. He goes from a canny politician who became Chancellor of the Klingon Empire by curbstomping the Duras once deprived of Romulan support to a bumbling oaf who nearly gets the Alpha Quadrant conquered by the Dominion on three separate occasions. Once by starting a war with the Cardassians, which drove them into the arms of said Dominion, once by trying to withhold critical support for the attempt to retake [=DS9=], and once by deliberately sabotaging the Klingon fleet when the Romulan and Federation fleets were sidelined by the Breen energy dampening weapon, in order to humiliate one of his generals. |
| 189 | * Captain Janeway of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' suffered constant inconsistent characterization for much of the series, due to a disorganized writing staff. |
| 190 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'': |
| 191 | ** Karen Wheeler. In season one, she shows great concern for her children's whereabouts and safety after both Will and Barb go missing, is constantly trying to reach out to her kids and get them to confide in her, and at least suspects that ''something'' is going on with them, even if she has no idea of the truth. In Season 2, she is suddenly just as detached and clueless as her husband Ted - by the final episode both her kids have been away from home for nearly 48 hours, but Karen is too busy chatting to her friends on the phone and reading romance novels in the bath to notice. |
| 192 | ** In the eyes of a number of fans, a lot of characters fell into this in season 3 due to the stronger emphasis on comedy. But none more so than [[https://screenrant.com/stranger-things-season-3-billy-redemption-hopper-worse/ Hopper]]. |
| 193 | -->The show's main adult character after Creator/WinonaRyder's harried single mum Joyce Byers, Hopper was introduced as a troubled, taciturn detective who was harsh and clumsy when interacting with the public and wasn't above using his fists to get to the bottom of a mystery. [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold But he was an ultimately well-meaning character]], endlessly committed to fighting for what's right and uncovering the truth, as well as saving his violent side for shadowy, murderous government agents of Hawkins Lab who were far more dangerous than him. Yet, in season 3, [[RabidCop the character is a drunk-driving cop who abused his authority to flout the law]], beating up suspects, threatening Mike (who is a snotty kid, but a kid nonetheless) instead of having a heart-to-heart with his adoptive daughter El, and even trying to force Joyce to date him. |
| 194 | -->This belligerent machismo is new to season 3 Hopper, even prompting high-profile fan Creator/EvanRachelWood to publicly question whether the character shift glorified abusive behavior. At a time when police conduct has been protested the world over for some time now, there's a place for complex corrupt cops to be depicted on TV as evidenced by the likes of ''Series/TheShield'' and ''Series/TheWire''. But Hopper is portrayed as an unambiguous hero, and his inability to communicate with El as well as his attempts to woo Joyce despite her obvious discomfort is played for laughs rather than anything more subversive. The shift is never explained in-story so it would be a serious stretch to claim that season 3 is attempting a deconstruction of the "{{cowboy cop}}" archetype, particularly when the season ends on his heroic (if temporary) sacrifice. Instead, the show plays into the most destructive cliches of the eighties staple, encouraging the audience to side with this unstable figure instead of questioning his conduct. |
| 195 | ** While Hopper thankfully got CharacterRerailment in Season 4, the aforementioned Mike dropped off so hard a lot fans (to the cast’s surprise) consider him TheScrappy — entirely because of how his character was introduced compared to who he is now. In Season 1, Mike is TheLeader of the kids, the one leading the mission to find Will and shows himself to be deeply caring to his friends as well as his love interest Eleven. In Season 2, he’s a little more selfish in his pining for Eleven and antagonism towards Hopper for keeping her from him but is still shown to be a caring friend to Will, Dustin and Lucas, even if his leadership role has now gotten downplayed. In Season 3 and 4 however Mike has become a jerk who treats Will (who nurses a crush on him) poorly and worse still hypocritically gives Will a speech about growing up and not playing [=DND=] anymore whilst dating Eleven but as soon as El moves to California what does Mike do? Go back to [=DND=]. This wouldn’t be so bad if the whole first season wasn’t about Mike going above and beyond to find Will, so the fact he now treats one of his dearest friends with borderline apathy is too much for some fans. Not to mention his integral role among the kids has been effectively swapped out for Dustin with Mike getting degraded to Eleven’s cheerleader, making fans believe the Duffer Brothers simply don’t know what to do with him. Even Mike’s touted role as TheHeart can be considered an InformedAttribute in the later seasons. |
| 196 | ** Joyce gets this in Season 3 and 4 as well. In the first two seasons she distinguishes herself as the best parent and a touching MamaBear who is always looking out for her sons. In Season 3 and 4 she’s suddenly got SkewedPriorities (e.g being concerned why magnets are falling off fridges in S3 and reuniting with Hopper in S4) to the point where she’s become neglectful towards Will, Jonathan and her newly adopted daughter Eleven, not being able to see or realise that they’ve got problems (El being bullied, Will struggling with his sexuality and Jonathan becoming a pot head). While obviously it’s good to have Joyce be more as a character than just a concerned mother, some feel the Duffer Brothers have swayed too far in the other direction and made Joyce closer to a UselessBystanderParent like many of the other parents in Hawkins — something she certainly '''wasn’t''' in the first two seasons. |
| 197 | * ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'': In her first appearance, Max was a NiceGirl who [[EasilyForgiven forgave]] the twins for abandoning her and Tapeworm for the Drew Crew. In later appearances, she was much harsher and while never exactly became a {{Jerkass}}, had a few moments of genuine nastiness towards Cody in "Election". |
| 198 | ** Cody himself in Suite Life on Deck. In Season 1 he was a likable nerd, but in Season 2 he was arrogant, oblivious that he was hurting Bailey, and tended to look down on everyone, including Bailey. |
| 199 | * In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': |
| 200 | ** The demon Meg. A major antagonist in season 1, and a minor antagonist in seasons 2 and 5, the writers decided to turn her into a "good" guy in season 7 by means of EnemyMine and even teased a relationship between her and Castiel. What the writers seemed to forget was the absolute mutual hatred that already existed between Meg and the Winchesters -Meg had, in the past, kidnapped and tortured their father, possessed Sam, and was indirectly responsible for the deaths of Jo and Ellen Harvelle, two of the Winchesters closest allies. The Winchesters, meanwhile, had killed Meg's "brother" Tom and "father" Azazel, and locked Lucifer -who Meg practically worshipped- back in Hell. This was all discarded so that they could team up against Crowley... Who, in season 7, wasn't even openly antagonistic to the Winchesters and arguably helped them more against the Leviathans than Meg herself did. The result was that Meg went from being a relatively popular character to TheScrappy, and the Winchesters looked like raging hypocrites for condemning Castiel's similar alliance with Crowley in season 6. |
| 201 | ** ''Sam'' got one of these in early Season 8 when it was revealed that he didn't even try to look for/rescue Dean, who had just spent a year in Purgatory. The same man who researched non-stop for days to save Dean's life in Season 1, insisted he was going to find a way to save Dean in the first episode of Season 2, was flat-out obsessed with getting Dean out of his deal in Season 3, turned into an emotionless terminator in "Mystery Spot," tried absolutely everything he could think of to get Dean out of Hell prior to Season 4, ultimately allied with a demon and developed a demon blood addiction to avenge him that season, and ''rescued Dean after he'd vanished into thin air earlier in Season 7''. There was some lip service to a HeroicBSOD, but it was only briefly referenced and never shown in the various flashbacks that season. Between the "didn't try to look" in Season 8, a major lack of explanation beyond "thinking Dean was dead/we agreed to go on with our lives" (because they'd always done that before?), his [[IJustWantToBeNormal reluctance to hunt again]] and his RomanticPlotTumor subplot flashbacks, many fans, even two seasons later, are absolutely flummoxed as to what the writers were trying to do other than manufacture conflict between the brothers or make Sam out to be an uncaring asshole. WordOfGod assertions that Sam made the "mature" decision in going on with his life didn't help matters. |
| 202 | ** John Winchester has had his character assassinated ''in absentia'' following his death at the beginning of Season 2. Until that point, he was portrayed as a bad father but a good man who wanted above all to protect his sons and keep them safe, even if he didn't always go about that in the best of ways. Later seasons have turned him into a [[TheAlcoholic violent raging alcoholic]] who is implied to have [[AbusiveParents physically abused his sons]] - a depiction completely at odds with the flawed, stern yet caring man introduced in Season 1. |
| 203 | ** Castiel gets this in Season 6 when he works with Crowley (something the Winchesters themselves did in Season 5) and eventually becomes power-mad as the new God. This villainization involves him killing thousands of angels before dying in an attempted heroic sacrifice. In previous seasons, while he was always a soldier, he was also the sensitive, humanity-loving angel that worked with Sam and Dean to stop the Apocalypse and seemed horrified by the death of any angel, even one doing wrong. Fans didn't react well, so they brought him back and gave him a long redemption arc with much suffering, but his villainization never made sense in light of his previous behavior. |
| 204 | ** Mary Winchester served as the LostLenore for both John Winchester and her son Dean, and whenever she did appear by various flashbacks or supernatural means, she was singularly devoted to protecting John and her sons. Additionally, the young Mary was shown to be an ActionGirl with equal measures of spunk and idealism. When she is resurrected from the dead, she turns cold, distant and starts working with her son's enemies, and generally functions as the complicated and misguided parent that John was in early seasons. Fans did not react well. |
| 205 | ** God gets this in the final season. God had always been portrayed as a loving creator who was disappointed by how petty, selfish, and cruel his children turned out to be. He abandoned the angels and humanity believing that the responsible thing to do was to let them figure things out for themselves. When his sister returned and threatened to destroy everything, he was prepared to sacrifice himself in the hopes that she would spare his creations. Then in the season 14 finale, the show threw all that out and made him into a cruel sadistic JerkassGod who casually destroyed entire universes when they stopped amusing him. |
| 206 | * ''Series/That70sShow'': Jackie went through some character regression in season 7 when she tried to force Hyde into marrying her. In the final season's premiere, she learns that Hyde intended to propose to her, only for both of them to discover Hyde actually "married" a stripper while in Las Vegas, ending their relationship forever. It turns out that even though they made each other better, with Hyde learning to appreciate some of the things Jackie did for him and Jackie learning to cool off, the final season's writers never liked their relationship. Throughout the season, their behavior towards each other regresses to how they were back in season 1. |
| 207 | ** Donna also gets excited about committing a crime in the episode "Fun it". Ironically that role was meant for Eric before Topher Grace left the series. |
| 208 | * ''Series/That90sShow''. Eric is even more of a Star Wars nerd to the point he teaches it professionally, Jackie snapped back to her early season ControlFreak abusive habits & was unfaithful to Fez by leaving him for Kelso. And Kelso went back to Jackie despite realising in Season 4 of Series/That70sShow that they weren't right for each other because of her abusive tendencies. |
| 209 | * In the pilot and first few seasons of ''Series/ThreesCompany'', Chrissy was an innocent but reasonably savvy and intelligent young woman. By the third or fourth season, she had become the living stereotype of the DumbBlonde--completely naive and illogical, with asymmetrical platinum ponytails. |
| 210 | * Dan Moroboshi in ''Series/UltramanLeo''. In [[Series/UltraSeven his own series]], he was an extremely compassionate and determined figure who wholeheartedly dedicated himself to protecting humanity and was quite competent against the weekly aliens and monsters. In ''Leo'' however, he's an abusive and bitter {{jerkass}} who regularly puts down Gen for things like protecting humans over killing monsters and seems to constantly lose MAC officers to the bad guys (the ''only'' Ultra Series team captain to do so). Not surprisingly, many fans despise this version of Dan and were much relieved by the CharacterRerailment of later series. |
| 211 | * ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' has had so many that it is hard to count. |
| 212 | ** Elena is probably the biggest example. Elena went from being a likable and relatable protagonist and heroine to someone who was selfish, unrecognizable, and unlikeable. From seasons 1 to 3, Elena was a vulnerable human girl but at the same time, she was also rather strong, considering all of the pain, grief, and loss that was constantly thrown her way. Elena was someone that the audience could relate to and could root for. Personality-wise, Elena was seen to be kind, caring, selfless, understanding, empathetic, and compassionate. She was always willing to put her loved ones, including her family and her friends, before herself. She would never hesitate to die or put her life in harm's way to save someone that she loves. There's also the fact that Elena was in love and in a romantic relationship with Stefan. It was very clear that Elena was in love with Stefan during the time when she was a human and that her love for him was selfless and pure and Stefan showed that he brought out the best in Elena. However, this all changed in season 4. Elena died and became a vampire and from there, her entire personality and her character changed for the negative. Elena's feelings for Damon were also becoming more obvious and she was drifting away from Stefan. Elena then gave into her feelings for Damon and slept with him ''only 24 hours after she had broken up with Stefan''. This enraged a large portion of the fandom and the audience all but turned on her and viewed her unsympathetically. It was discovered that Elena was sired to Damon, hence why her feelings for Damon were magnified and why she had slept with Damon right away. However, even with the excuse of the sire bond, it did not stop the audience/fandom from intensely disliking her and turning on her. It seems that ever since season 4, Elena's character never recovered both within the story and with the audience. Elena's character became even worse in season 5. Many fans found Elena extremely unlikeable and many of them wished for her to die or be killed off and for Katherine to take Elena's place as the protagonist of the show. By season 5, Elena officially became the biggest BaseBreakingCharacter of the show. Elena became the opposite of what or who she was as a human when she became a vampire: selfish, self-absorbed, jealous, weak, clingy, needy, dependent, whiny, and unlikeable. Many characters in the series such as Stefan, Jeremy, Matt, Bonnie, Caroline, etc, and even villains such as Klaus for example, have all made comments about how much Elena had changed for the worst or the negative since she became a vampire and since she got into a relationship with Damon. Although the unfortunate part of all this is how much self-awareness Elena really lacks and that Elena herself doesn't actually realize just how badly she had changed for the worst. |
| 213 | ** Caroline has been one of the strongest characters on the show. However, in season five, she spent most of it complaining about, well, everything. If that wasn't enough, she had a one-night stand with Klaus, someone she hates, mere hours after celebrating Damon and Elena's breakup (Klaus is 20 times worse than Damon), and begged Tyler, Klaus's biggest victim, to forgive her only twice before yelling at him for being mad at her. Meanwhile, she wished that Stefan and Elena would reunite but then got jealous when she mistakenly assumed that they were doing so. Before that, she stated to Enzo that she doesn't go around killing people, yet she got over her killing Twelve witches in the previous season. Also, she brutally murdered another witch to force his twin sister to do what she wanted. |
| 214 | ** In season six, she spent more time moping over Stefan ignoring her, to the point where she blithely ignored most of Enzo's crimes (like eating waitresses). When her mother died, she willingly turned off her humanity to avoid dealing with the grief, not only bringing harm to innocents and her own friends but becoming a big hypocrite in the process (see her complaints about Elena and Damon in the previous two seasons.) She also got Stefan to turn off his own. Nowadays, she is too busy feeling insecure about an old relationship Stefan had before he turned into a vampire. [[spoiler: That last one is justified as of this week, however, when Stefan lies to her and spends time with his ex after learning of his baby being killed.]] |
| 215 | ** Tyler was even worse. He dumped Caroline for virtually no reason after ditching her for months, went to New Orleans to murder a pregnant woman (in order to get to Klaus), tried to get a group of vampires to kill a child, and then came back home like nothing happened. |
| 216 | ** Damon is another example. In season five, it looked as though he was actually redeeming himself. Then, it was suddenly revealed that he spent decades ritually killing off an entire family without anyone noticing. Then, when Katherine ruined his reunion with Elena, he flipped out and killed an innocent person and attacked two of his friends. |
| 217 | ** But the worst one is Katherine. First off, she got so desperate that she sacrificed Jeremy in order to get the cure, raising Silas in the process. Then, she blamed Elena for all of her problems and what she lost, using that as an excuse to kill her. After being cured, she looked to be redeeming herself, only to possess Elena, and do such a poor job being her that nobody noticing at all is a testament to their lack of intelligence. She does a bunch of catty/dangerous things just to hurt people for no reason, culminating in her attempts to seduce (re: rape) Stefan while in Elena's body and leading to her getting caught. Finally, in a fit of rage and seeing Elena as having the life she thinks she should have had, she gives Elena a deadly poison so that she won't have Stefan and attack her friends in the process. Remember when Katherine was a fun villain? |
| 218 | * Cat on ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' used to be a ditzy, sweet, and childlike girl who always tried to find a bright spot in bad situations. But come season 4, she became more negative and violent. This continued into ''Series/SamAndCat''. |
| 219 | * Nearly all the characters on ''Series/TheWestWing'' got derailed after John Wells took over from Creator/AaronSorkin. Examples include: |
| 220 | ** Bartlet started as a kindhearted, twinkling-eyed, fatherly hero with a bit of a temper and ego problem, who valued people who disagreed with him, loved his friends and staff, and was quite the rebel when it came to political etiquette and tradition. He was even given nice character development, becoming darker, sadder, wearier, and given a tiny touch of KnightTemplar, which he dealt with by being even funnier and more off-the-wall than before. After season 4, he became a weak, doddering, cold-hearted, indifferent, rigidly by-the-book [[strike: president]] political hack who was obsessed with legacy, isolated himself from his staff, and fired friends for disagreeing with him. And even ''that'' was inconsistent, with the writers constantly attempting to give this new, bitter, flaccid character [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome moments of awesome]] that never rang true. |
| 221 | ** Leo going from the President's wise, gruff-but-kind, compassionate right-hand man to useless, trigger-happy old goon who acts like a complete {{Jerkass}} towards the staff, bullies and rejects Josh (who thinks of Leo like a father), spouts jingoistic, morally indifferent bullcrap at all possible opportunities and once advocated planting false evidence to start a war. This from the guy who used to be the moral center of the White House... |
| 222 | ** CJ going from sassy, suave, pragmatic, razor-tongued goofball with a streak of TheLadette and total cluelessness with romantic relationships to drab, bitter, morally-superior, constantly nagging woman-in-charge who hated politics. There's a vague attempt to present this as a [[LogicalFallacies "logical"]] result of her promotion to Chief of Staff, which makes no sense because Leo was certainly never a bitter man who hated politics. Prime example of a DoubleStandard � a woman can't handle authority unless she's a JerkAss, and god forbid she enjoy politics, which is a ''man's'' arena. While CJ's promotion was off-key, her derailment began with the rest of the characters - at the beginning of season 5, long before her new job. |
| 223 | ** Josh losing his humor and sweetness to be shoehorned into the de facto lead character of the show, who happened to be deeply screwed up and cruel instead of TroubledButCute. |
| 224 | ** Sam, who left a miserable plush existence and a six-figure salary at a prestigious corporate law firm in order to campaign for Bartlet, vanishing and ''going back'' to corporate law after losing a House election, effectively canceling out everything that had defined his character up to that point. While, in fairness, the election subplot was set up during the Sorkin era due to RealLifeWritesThePlot (Rob Lowe decided to leave during the fourth season, which also happened to be Sorkin's last), what happened to him after the election wasn't revealed until Wells was in charge. |
| 225 | *** This is particularly glaring considering that the fourth season had been largely building to a perfectly natural way to both get Sam out of the show and keep in line with his character's political interests and leanings; namely, the congressional seat he'd been running for all that season. |
| 226 | ** Toby turning traitor on the White House and [[spoiler: leaking the existence of a top-secret military shuttle.]] And this was after his relationship with Bartlet, which had always been one of UndyingLoyalty and SarcasticDevotee, became practically toxic (although given Bartlet's own derailment, it's hard to blame Toby too much). Richard Schiff, the actor who played Toby, actually called this out as an example of Character Derailment after the show's run was over. |
| 227 | ** Even Donna got this, though less so than most other characters. After steadily developing maturity, charisma, self-confidence, contentment, and political savvy for four seasons straight (while the {{UST}} between her and Josh ramped up to the breaking point), Donna quickly began to lose nearly every quirk she possessed one by one and for some reason became very unhappy. |
| 228 | ** Vice-President John Hoynes essentially got two doses of this, beginning from the end of Season 4. He starts the show as a rather cynical and self-serving political opportunist who is somewhat hostile and antagonistic to the main characters, but who nevertheless is ultimately an honourable and decent man in his own right and who is even given several JerkassHasAPoint moments where he is positioned as being correct regarding the issue of the episode. However, this all started changing towards the end of Season 4: |
| 229 | *** "Life on Mars" depicts him as being the kind of person who would recklessly boast about state secrets to his mistress in order to impress her, leading to his resignation from the office. This was largely viewed as being a NecessaryWeasel on Aaron Sorkin's part to get Hoynes out of the way so as to set up a cliffhanger ending (and, depending on how unfavourably you view the situation, to write John Wells into a corner after Sorkin was fired from the show). |
| 230 | *** While the latter is perhaps not quite as egregious and is somewhat debated by viewers since it doesn't completely contradict how he was previously depicted (barring a Season 1 exchange when he reacts with offence when C.J accuses him of leaking privileged details of a Cabinet meeting for personal gain), Season 5 fully tilts, most infamously in "Full Disclosure" where he is writing a tell-all book wherein he smears the current administration and turns out to have had an affair with C.J. While he gets ''somewhat'' better, the "Democratic primaries" arc basically turns him into a SleazyPolitician with no real ideals who ends up utterly derailing his own campaign with yet another sex scandal. |
| 231 | ** Will Bailey. As Sorkin wrote him, Will is a deeply committed, passionate idealist who's in it because he genuinely wants to make a difference. During the election in season 4, he continues campaigning in earnest even after the candidate he represents has died. For everybody else, the campaign is over. There is absolutely no way that the Democrats can win this particular district, and the fact that Will's still out there trying to win votes has made him the laughing stock of the entire party, but he pushes on despite it all and in the end, he very nearly succeeds. He's then offered a job at the White House as a speechwriter for the President. It's his dream job. This is where he wants to be, and because of that, he'll endure hazing, bullying, and the entire speechwriting staff ''quitting'' and leaving him with an impossible amount of work. Will is not a quitter. Not, at least, until John Wells takes over the show and Will receives a plush job offer from the Vice President - which he accepts, leaving his self-described dream job because he's decided that Toby is a bit of a difficult boss to work under. |
| 232 | * ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': CharacterDerailment gets taken to the Nth degree when the ''TwilightOfTheGods'' arc comes into play, with all the Olympian Gods being so ridiculously out of character (''all'' of them except Aphrodite, who absolutely ''no one'' would be able to swallow turning evil) that it ''would'' be funny... if it wasn't actually just a ploy for the writers to completely write-off an entire spectrum of characters just for the sake of pushing forward the HijackedByJesus plot points: |
| 233 | ** When Ares first appeared, it was shown how the God of War fights. And that standard has basically stayed the same - with the exception that when he spars one-on-one with Xena in front of the Furies he doesn't use any godly powers - however, when the 'Twilight of the Gods' arc arrived, ''all Gods'' were reduced to idiotic morons with the God and Goddess of War (''and wisdom'') being taken down easier than the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Warlord Of The Week]]. Ares gets the WorfEffect and all the Gods' powers, abilities, and intelligence is taken down to the proficiency of mortals with pyrotechnics who have no idea how to use their powers or how to fight so that Xena can [[spoiler:kill them all]]. Every single God gets vilified, with their characters so skewed that everyone except [[spoiler:Athena, Aphrodite, and Ares]] becomes a stock moronic evil henchman no matter ''who'' they are, so that Xena can retain the moral high ground (y'know, so the audience can try to forget that she is committing what amounts to genocide and that if ''she'' was in the position where someone was trying to [[spoiler:kill her and everyone she loved]], she would have been much ''much'' worse). Lucky that in previous episodes the show hadn't demonstrated that the Gods embody different aspects of humanity and the loss of godhood results in humanity going insane... oh, wait. |
| 234 | ** The very ''idea'' that the God of Love, the being who is the source of all Light, and who has love and compassion for all beings - who is the ''source'' of the Way of Love - wants ''another creature'' - i.e. Xena - to '''''kill''''' someone, and in fact ''murder all the Olympian Gods'' is such a severe case of CharacterDerailment that it borders on insulting. How ''stupid'' do you have to be to write in the plot point: "the source of all Love and compassion orders the wholesale murder of the Olympian Gods"? Bad writing at its finest. |
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