In early episodes, Finn the Human and Jake the dog had a much more parental big/little brother relationship, with Finn as a well-intentioned Blood Knight and Jake sometimes persuading him to be more cautious or moral. As the show went on, Finn quickly became The Cape, with only the odd flash of teenage recklessness, while Jake became much more morally unreliable and prone to egging Finn on to be much more reckless.
Lemongrab started off as being an obsessive Neat Freak who's Obsessively Organized and just a slightly crazy Jerkass. However, his obsessive cleanliness seems to have been abandoned, and his insanity has been amped up to absurd levels. Following Lemongrab 1 and Lemongrab 2's death and subsequent merging into Lemongrab 3, things went full-circle, with Lemongrab 3 being more of the Obsessively OrganizedNeat Freak that Lemongrab 1 began as, albeit notably nicer about it.
Marceline the Vampire Queen was much more malicious in her debut episode "Evicted", where she kicks Finn and Jake out of their home twice and at one point tries to kill Jake all for her amusement. Following appearances in the first two seasons had her as a more friendly, but still chaotic individual who acted mostly for her own amusement but wouldn't go as far as she did in her first appearance. The character would finally settle into a good-hearted Heroic Neutral role by the end of the third season, with flashbacks to her past showing her in an unquestionable heroic light where she was actively working to protect the remnants of humanity from vampires.
In the original shorts, Æon Flux was portrayed as a violently insaneBlood Knight who was as sadistic as she was incompetent and died at the end of every short. In the series proper, she was portrayed as being cold, calculating and generally good at her job. She also died less often.
In later episodes, Roger Smith has a surprisingly full, active life outside the Smith house, able to effortlessly conceal his identity as an alien through a variety of surprisingly effective, yet very obvious, disguises—which makes the early episode "All About Steve" strange to watch, where he is so desperate for human contact that the only place he can go to interact socially with others is at a sci-fi convention. A viewer coming to the series via the later episodes would no doubt be wondering why he doesn't just wear one of his 50,000+ disguises. Lampshaded in the commentary for "Roger Codger," the episode where Roger has to find his way from a landfill to home without being caught by the CIA, where they point out that the whole premise of the episode is somewhat worthless compared to his current persona. "Roger Codger" and some other earlier episodes also depict Roger as more beloved member of the family who, while with blatant Jerkass tendencies like the others, is actually willing to sacrifice himself to protect the Smiths. Compare this to later seasons which try to one up his self-obsessedComedic Sociopath persona with each episode.
Originally, Stan Smith was just a strawman political for Republicans: hotheaded, bigoted and stupid as a foil to Hayley's liberal ways (American Dad! was supposed to be All in the Family for the George W. Bush era). Once the show went through invertedIssue Drift, however, he became more well-rounded. He also became less hypocritical — while an early episode showed him casually going to a strip club, a later one had him act incredibly uncomfortable when his coworkers dragged him there, and he wound up helping some of the strippers get legitimate jobs.
Steve was considerably a lot less cool and much more geekily nerdier in earliest appearances. This was before he eventually grew into the combination of being both a wimpy geek and a charismatic "loser" he's known as today. note Reasons are speculated to make his character less comparable to Neil from Family Guy.
Klaus' perversion toward Francine in the first season was also toned down immensely in the later episodes.
Yakko, Wakko and Dot initially annoyed people who deserved it and historic people to inspire them. In later episodes, they became incredibly annoying to almost anybody.
Skippy Squirrel started out as a wide-eyed Genre Blind innocent who lived in awe of his aunt Slappy, bawled inconsolably over the death of Bumbie's mom, and seemed to be about five or six years old. This characterization didn't last long, though, as he matured into his aunt's witty, Genre Savvy, pop culture-loving sidekick whose age seemed about ten or twelve.
The Aqua Teen Hunger Force first debuted in an unaired episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast called "Baffler Meal", where they appeared as representatives of Burger Trench and their characterizations were wildly different to the way they'd be by their show's premiere:
The three also did actual detective and crime-fighting work in the very early episodes, as befitting the show's title, until quickly devolving into the trio just getting into random antics. A later episode lampshaded the change, with Frylock admitting that they don't really do detective work anymore.
The pilot treated Cheryl as a meek Extreme Doormat who was constantly being taken advantage of by Archer, and none of her ditzy, violent or perverted behavior was present. "Diversity Hire" also has her obsessed with getting pregnant with Conway Stern's baby, while later episodes would establish that Cheryl hates children and finds the idea of childbirth disgusting. Justified as starting in Season 2 it's established her to be completely mentally unhinged to the point where she spent an entire season as America's top Country Music Star and forgot about it in itsentirelythe following season.
In early episodes, Pam was a sad, pathetic HR drone who can't get laid to save her life and even manages to convince Lana to sleep with her out of sheer pity. By her first day in the limelight in the second season, she's shown to be immensely strong and assertive (even willing to beat her own boss for letting her die) and later gives Archer the best sex he's had in his life.
Sterling Archer has always been The Alcoholic, but in early episodes, his heavy drinking often caused him to slur his words to an extreme degree and show a lack of basic situational awareness. In later episodes, he's practically immune to the mental effects of alcohol, despite still being addicted to it except when he drinks in extreme excess. Justified, as any toxicologist will tell you that someone who routinely exposes themselves to toxins can build an immunity over the years.
In the first episode, Woodhouse tells him that one of his house-guests for the night had been injured by a lemur, and Archer sort of ignores it. This is the same Archer who now fawns over every animal he has the chance to see and once admitted that, were it not for grades, he'd have become a veterinarian.
Francine was a lot more of a Jerkass bully in the early Arthur episodes, and Binky was more of a straight-up bully than a sensitive boy who just acted like a jerk.
The opening sequence shows Courtney making sure exhaust from her Rolls Royce sprays in Ginger's face — something her actual character on the show would never do. While she was likely conceived as a stereotypical Alpha Bitch based on this, in-series, she's a Spoiled Sweet ditz who was more naïve than actually mean-spirited, and she actually becomes one of Ginger's closest friends over the course of the show.
Miranda goes from a manipulative, smug jerkass into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold at the end of the series, but even taking into account her Character Development, her behavior in early episodes stands out as especially cruel.
At the beginning of the series, Sokka and Katara's personalities are essentially swapped from what they eventually become. Katara is an adventurous troublemaker more in line with Aang's personality, while Sokka, still incompetent, is more of a stern wannabe-soldier who is wont to complain about how the former two's silly misadventures keep causing collateral damage to their supplies, their plan, their training, etc. Needless to say, eventually Katara becomes much more akin to the voice of reason, while Sokka gets sillier and veers towards comic relief.
"Bato of the Water Tribe" has Iroh acting like a Dirty Old Man towards June, a trait he does not display in any other episode and seems at odds with his otherwise extremely polite and respectful personality. It did receive a brief Continuity Nod when June returned in the series finale, though, with her asking Zuko where his "creepy grandpa" is.
Azula's sidekick and Zuko's Love Interest Mai comes off as way nastier in Book Two than in her later appearances. Her early appearances in the present have her both casually eat a snack right in front of victims of a plague (while her parents are visibly horrified at the sight) and blatantly risk her little brother's life (who she otherwise treats with contempt) in a scheme with no signs of remorse on her part. While the latter could be chalked to keeping up appearances around Azula, the snack eating is still rather at odds with her later portrayal having her less shamelessly callous if still grumpy. After the incident, she serves as a henchwoman following the Fire Nation princess for her amusement for the rest of Book Two. This goes even further counting the canonical comics, where she's shown as a caring big sister to Tom-Tom in contrast to how little regard she held for him back in Book Two.
Avengers Assemble began airing before the Ant-Man movie was released, and as a result, Ant-Man's characterization shifts drastically during the course of the show. The first season was apparently written before the writers knew if the movie would be using Hank Pym or Scott Lang, and as a result, the show's version of Ant-Man ended up as a Composite Character of both men, and didn't have his real name revealed. Ant-Man returned in Seasons 2 and 3, where it was confirmed that he was Scott Lang, but his characterization continued to be closer to that of Hank Pym. Scott was depicted as a brilliant scientist and engineer, and wasn't particularly jokey (at least no more so than the rest of the cast). Then came Season 4, where the character was heavily ReTooled to resemble Paul Rudd's portrayal of Scott in the live-action film. Suddenly, he went from being a fairly disciplined scientist to more of a slacker everyman, and was now much more sarcastic to boot.
First introduced in Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn was originally introduced as nothing more than a minor henchwoman working for The Joker, once muttering "Oy, beauty school is starting to look pretty good about now," after being caught by Batman. The producers envisioned her as a one-shot character, though she turned so popular that she became part of the Batman comics, which led to the comic "Mad Love", later adapted on BTAS, which revealed that she was an intern at Arkham Asylum who was seduced by the Joker during psychiatric sessions. And during her first handful of appearances on the show, she didn't have any fighting skills to speak of — her role in the gang was almost entirely about infiltration. Later episodes and especially later incarnations/adaptations would put her on par with Catwoman in gymnastics abilities, and even have her as the Joker's muscle if he doesn't have any other henchmen around.
The titular duo originally spoke with Totally RadicalSurfer Dude accents, and they were initially presented as two stereotypical metalhead teenagers who were not very bright, as opposed to the Too Dumb to Live they later became.
Butt-Head's attitude towards Beavis was also originally less casually-malicious.
Ben 10 tends to have several cases of this, due to both the characters simply aging from kids to older adults over the course to the franchise and the writerschangingbetweenthe series.
How intelligent and immature Ben Tennyson himself is tend to change between series. In the Original Series (as well as the animated movies and the Omniverse flashbacks), he appeared to be of average intelligence for his age, just very bumbling and immature due to being 10/11-years-old. In the first two seasons of Alien Force, he grew up thanks to a 4 to 5 year Time Skip and became a smarter, more responsible leader. In Season 3, his fame going over his head started inflating his ego, and from there to Ultimate Alien, he became cockier and more immature, with his earlier AF personality resurfacing only when things get serious. Omniverse then tried to get him closer to his Original Series self, and this resulted into his Flanderization into an Idiot Hero with occassional Let's Get Dangerous! moments who cracks jokes or makes stupid mistakes even in serious situations and essentially made his 10 years old self look like a genius, despite being nearly 17 at that point.
When introduced in Omniverse, Rook was shown using contractions. After a short while, he uses Spock Speak and it's later shown that Revonnahganders, Rook's species, regards contraction use as their equivalent of swearing.
Tilly started out as a silly and giggly child despite being the older sister, with very few instances than being more competent than Cricket. Later episodes make her a more responsible character who's more level-headed and serving as the voice of reason for Cricket's antics, making her a Cool Big Sis.
Bill went through sort of a reverse Flanderization, starting out as a very bumblingCloud Cuckoolander who could sometimes act just as irrational as the kids when put in situations he wasn't equipped for before becoming the still slightly bumbling but cautious and calmer Only Sane Man of the family.
Odd's Lyoko avatar had a "future-flash" ability that he suddenly stops using for no reason half way through Season 1. The writers would eventually handwave it away later on by having Odd note in Season 3 that Jérémie accidentally erased it and never bothered reprogramming it back in because he felt it was useless.
XANA's hornet monsters had the ability to spray a greenish acid-like substance on the ground that would damage the Lyoko characters if they were near it. The ability was seen in only a few episodes of Season 1 and was never used again afterwards.
William is, at first, seen to be able to swim just fine in the school's pool, yet when he's holding onto Yumi for dear life when the two are dangling off a bridge...he claims that he can't swim.
When she was just a secondary character on Beavis and Butt-Head, Daria had a wider range of expression and a less monotone voice (in the early episodes) than she later had in her Spin-Off, and participated in extracurricular activities.
In Season 1, Britney was shown as being a shallow, spoiled cheerleader who was definitely Book Dumb but not a complete ditz; later seasons upped the ditziness, probably to accentuate her moments of ingenuity.
Jake, Daria's father, pretty much went the stereotypical route of fathers in sitcoms — at first he's not that dumb, just the only man in the house full of women and trying to deal with his Hilariously Abusive Childhood (which wasn't really present until near the end of Season 1). In the later seasons, Jake is beyond Bumbling Dad territory and is borderline Too Dumb to Live.
Helen was quite bad in the first episode (yelling at Daria for supposedly having low self-esteem); even after that, her initial characterization was wanting Daria to be a more "normal" teenager like Quinn. As the show went on Helen became a better mom, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses in both of her daughters and pushing each of them to become more rounded.
In his first two appearances, Mr. O'Neill was unable to remember any of his students' names. The writers seemed to realize that there was only so much that you could do with this gag, because afterwards this was dropped. (Apparently those mnemonics he came up with in The Daria Diaries worked.)
Mr. DeMartino comes off more like a Sadist Teacher in the first episode, annoyed that Daria actually knows the answers to his questions. Later on, the idea became more that he was disillusioned by how stupid most of his students are, and Daria is thus one of the few kids who actually "make [him] want to kill himself a little less."
The DCAU is prized by fans for its subtle characterization where even when it isn't directly spelled out, characters visibly change across the entire series and develop organically from earlier interactions:
In Batman: The Animated Series, Batman was on the whole quite humanistic, friendly, and, while still a serious detective, was not above cracking some quips, sharing smiles and bonding with Alfred and Robin (Dick Grayson), and being a Big Brother Mentor to Robin. By the time of The New Batman Adventures he has become Drill Sergeant Nasty to the Bat-Family (to Batgirl and Tim Drake), very standoffish and rude (as in the case of his first meeting with Superman), and becomes a colder, and more driven hero.
In Superman: The Animated Series, Superman began as a smart, affable, somewhat smug superhero who was more or less confident and happy in both his civilian and superhero identity. However, the invasion of Apokolips by Darkseid, which leads to Dan Turpin's death and much later his brainwashing by Darkseid, leads him to lose his naivete, his idealism, and even his reputation, becoming a little more cautious, jaded, irritable, even paranoid in Justice League, with his Hot-Blooded nature making him a target for Gaslighting by Luthor and Cadmus, and his hatred for Darkseid nearly leading him to kill himself on Brainiac's asteroid before Batman comes and teleports both of them away.
Dexter's Laboratory: Dexter was quite serious and methodical, and at times a jerkass (mostly to Dee Dee), in the very early episodes. A while later he's much more full of enthusiasm, giving him a more childlike, pleasant nature, though he was still an egotist.
In Daisy Duck's first appearance she was Donald in high heels; just like Donald she would get angry easily, and they even had the exactsamevoice actor. Then she becomes the straight woman/voice of reason to Donald's temper, a Deadpan Snarker in Quack Pack, and in House of Mouse, she becomes The Ditz. In early appearances she was quite mature and lady-like. Nowadays she's wild and ditzy.
Early episodes had Foxxy Love being the most prominent housemate (as opposed to Captain Hero), as well as an antagonistic and unsympathetic Toot Braunstein. The pilot even had black and white blood for Toot, and she had a retraux vocal effect.
Foxxy and Princess Clara were both much more sympathetic in the first episode. Foxxy had a Hair-Trigger Temper and was violent but still wasn't the shifty schemer and overall Jerkass she'd eventually become, while Clara's politically incorrect opinions stemmed from being raised by her bigoted father rather than her being truly evil.
Spanky seemed to be set up as a sort of Token Evil Teammate for the first few episodes. For the rest of the series he's the incredibly crude Only Sane Man.
The Noops are often incompetent Fools in the early half of the series, always prevailing solely due to dumb luck or their more competent peers' help, and ultimately being hopeless towards a remotely real threat. In Season 4, the dynamic is reversed, with the Noops essentially being the heroes' errand-runners who do all the hard work, with Blob's army often worsening the situation. The result also makes the Noops more comedic again, showing more self-awareness and suffering slapstick more often, making them more similar to Frizz and Nug.
The heroes are a lot smarmier and more aggressive towards the Urpneys in earlier episodes, often favoring violent tricks and beatdowns (sometimes even long after they've already won). Later episodes make them more pragmatic and easy-going, with Amberley even calling off an opportunity to punish an Urpney for trying to take the Stone (something she often would have spearheaded beforehand).
In the first season, Urpgor is much more unhinged and somewhat decrepit (sort of like a traditional Igor); he also tends to be more consistently on the winning side of his rivalry with Blob, lending credence to his boasts of having higher approval from Zordrak. Compare this to later seasons, where he is somewhat more lucid and cynical, and almost more of a Butt-Monkey than the other Urpneys.
In the pilot and several early episodes, Zordrak is much more collected and genuinely sinister, and from the very first scene is shown to be perfectly willing to back up his threats of disposing of incompetent Urpneys. As the seasons progress, he evolves into more of a traditional cartoon Bad Boss, having little role outside of throwing demonic tantrums and issuing empty threats or slapstick punishments to his squad.
The Dream Maker is a more eccentric and befuddled character in early episodes, often oblivious to incoming threats, with Albert acting as his Hyper-Competent Sidekick. Along with a more elegant redesign, the second season changes him into a more dignified and all-knowing authority figure.
DuckTales (1987) has Huey, Louie, and Dewey as undisciplined troublemakers in early episodes. Later on, they're shown as quite responsible, almost never breaking the rules unless they think it's for a good cause.
Sharky the shark dog. Season 1, he's a stereotypical Angry Guard Dog whose issues with the main characters were mostly territorial or otherwise just being a mean dog. Subsequent seasons, he's given more depth, had a slight Anthropomorphic Shift, being mild-mannered, and eventually becoming the Only Sane Man of the series additionally becoming also a Butt-Monkey fallen victim into the zaniness of others. His mean-streak remains, but it's often provoked and justified.
Brave Elmo the Elk in his earliest appearances speaks with a foreign accent and was clearly implied to be the series' residential Funny Foreigner. Following appearances has him simply as the series' zany American stuntman.
Cosmo was fairly intelligent in the early Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts. While could be a tad hyper at times, he was actually depicted as being smarter than Wanda on occasion, such as needing to tell a "blind" Wanda that she doesn't need to eyepatches to dress like a pirate, or her ruining his plan to her wand back from Vicky because she thought he was cheating. Come the first season of the final show, both he and Wanda were a bit written to both be somewhat spacey, happily referring to themselves as "two halves of a whole idiot", before Cosmo settled into his role as a ditzyManchild (with the vocal performance eventually shifting from a smooth-talking game show host to a high-pitched Motor Mouth to match), while Wanda would become the Only Sane Woman.
Cosmo and Wanda were depicted as having a loving marriage in the pilot series and beginning of the show, with them constantly being affectionate towards each other like a stereotypical pair of newlyweds: constantly holding hands and kissing, and pining for the other when one has to leave for an extended period of time. There are a number of episodes that even have their love for each other as a major focus. As the show went on, they would shift to acting Like an Old Married Couple that would frequently bicker, and by the last few seasons, they were firmly an example of Awful Wedded Life, with constant jokes about how they can barely tolerate each other.
Timmy's jerkass nature was largely absent in the early shorts. This is most apparent in Scout's Honor, where his refusal to simply wish for a mythical creature to get a merit badge, purely out of principal, is quite at odds with the Timmy that would always look for shortcuts to success even in early seasons, to say nothing of latter ones.
Mr. Dinkleberg was a more genuine rival to Timmy's parents and could act like a smug Jerkass at times. In later episodes, he is a Nice Guy who is seemingly oblivious to Mr. Turner's hatred of him. The episode "Operation Dinkleberg" would reconcile this by revealing the more jerkass moments in early seasons were Dinkleberg deliberately acting like a Sitcom Arch-Nemesis because he knows Timmy's dad likes having a rival.
Jorgen Von Strangle acted far more like an antagonist in early episodes and seemed to have it out for Timmy and Cosmo and Wanda, often trying to forcibly separate them for nobody's benefit but seemingly his own ego. Eventually he settled into being the show's Big Good, acting as a goofy Jerk with a Heart of Gold who, while stern, clearly values Timmy and his godparents and wants the best for them.
In his first appearance in "The Snorkasaurus Hunter", Dino could actually talk, which never happens again in the series.
In early episodes, such as "The House Guest" for example, Barney had moments where he could be just as much of a Jerkass as Fred on his worst days. Later episodes saw Barney settle in to his more familiar role as Fred's good-natured and friendly sidekick.
In his first appearance, Mr. Panucci came off as an abusive jerk toward Fry. All future episodes portray him as one of the few people who actually cared about him (though he didn't show much concern when Fry was declared missing after getting pushed in the cryogenic freezer), seemingly retconning the first episode outburst as stress.
Kif is another notable example. In his first appearance, he was a Deadpan Snarker who was clearly disgusted with Zapp's stupidity; the creators actually came up with him based on the question "What if Spock had hated Kirk?" In subsequent episodes, he quickly evolved into being an Extreme Doormat instead, miserably suffering under his boss' idiotic commands.
The Professor is a subtler example: in original episodes, he had a sort of softspoken, kindly senility, while later he became prone to crazy outbursts and played up more Mad Scientist tendencies.
In the pilot episode, Bender Bending Rodriguez was defined by his depression, and he is first seen in line for a suicide booth, having been become suicidal when he found out that he was bending girders to make suicide booths. This is never brought up again, and in later episodes, he becomes the loud-mouthed, obnoxious, jerk out to Kill All Humans that we all know and love.
An unusual case of a one-shot gag character getting this: in an early episode, Fry meets a guy on the streets of New New York who replaces people's body parts. He is obviously a con-man, he offers to replace Fry's lungs with gills, but the gills only come a week after the lungs have been removed. Hermes meets him in "The Six Million Dollar Mon", but the man this time actually makes the trades that Hermes offers him. He is also shown to have standards when he refuses to replace Hermes’ brain with a robot brain.
In their first appearance, Lrr and Ndnd are naked in their casual living room, only getting dressed when they go to bitch to Earth about one of their favorite shows being interrupted. Later episodes, while retaining their interests in Earth media, have them in their royal garb constantly and play up their evil overlord statuses, caring about significantly more important issues.
Philip J. Fry shows very little sign of being attracted to Leela in the first few episodes. In "Love's Labors Lost in Space", he says that he thinks Leela is holding out to find a guy who's a cyclops like her, and doesn't seem bothered by this at all.
Libby's first appearance in "First Day Frights" shows her having a bit of a selfish streak as she goes right along with the other kids in ignoring Molly after she moves into Brighton for the sake of preserving her own reputation. Something that feels a bit at odds compared to later episodes, where Libby not only barely displays any selfish behavior (much less on a similar level) but tends to be alongside Scratch when Molly needs to be called out on her own self-centered behavior.
Andrea Davenport's own first appearance in "First Day Frights" has her as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who uses her popularity to make Molly a pariah for mispronouncing her name and is stated to have a history of using similar ostracization tactics on to others. The character would immediately become more of a Lovable Alpha Bitch after this episode, acting a bit spoiled and attention hungry, but ultimately well-meaning. While she would still have antagonist roles in episodes, they would result from her being Obliviously Evil rather than deliberately trying to ruin anyone's day.
Goofy went from a lovable klutz to a period of being The Everyman in the '50s before being reverted back to the klutz everyone knows and loves. In earlier shorts Goofy could also often could be a jerk, display a selfish streak, and be irritable, but eventually evolved into a Kindhearted Simpleton that he's much better known for being today.
Meanwhile, Pete and Goofy's sons went on a very bumpy journey before settling on the personalities (to say nothing of appearence and even names) that they ended up with in Goof Troop. In The Everyman shorts mentioned above, the character who eventually became Max first appeared, but he was far more wild and uncontrollable. He's also "Goofy Jr." and for a while was a redhead with no ears. The character who later became PJ appeared in "Bellboy Donald" and he went from having everything in common with his father except being fat to... having nothing in common with his father except being fat. And his voice couldn't be more different either, going from gravelly and moderately low as a little kid to high, whiny, and clear, even as an adult.
Gravity Falls: In Bill Cipher's debut episode, he randomly shouts a series of conspiracy theories just before he disappearsnote "REALITY IS AN ILLUSION, THE UNIVERSE IS A HOLOGRAM, BUY GOLD, BYE!". It was later explained by the creator that this was part of the character's original schtick for when he was planned to just be comic relief. This part of him was quietly dropped in Season 2, when it was decided to rework him into the Big Bad. This element of his personality was revisited and laundered in, of all things, a Simpsons cameo: Bill, identified as a form of the trickster god Loki, yells "Buy crypto, suckers!", implying that he spouts conspiracy theories as just another way to hoodwink people.
Hero: 108: Lin Chung had a passion for art from the start, but in early episodes he's a Terrible Artist, to the point his friends pretend that he's good at it so he doesn't get depressed. Starting with "Camel Castle II", he's portrayed as a talented artist.
In the first season, Stinky was a bully and sidekick to Harold who wore spiky wristbands. Later on, he's a sweet, naive Country Mouse struggling to find something he's good at, which makes it jarring to watch him in his earlier appearances.
Harold began as genuinely mean spirited and brutish. By the later episodes, he is so pitiful and sensitive that his aloof mask of jerkassery is completely transparent to the audience and characters alike.
Arnold Shortman went from being a Cloud Cuckoo LanderMr. Imagination to the Only Sane Man. One particularly notable example is an episode where Gerald and Arnold are having a sleepover, and it's Arnold who thinks his apartment is haunted while Gerald, who told and believed the stories of many of the show's urban legends, plays the skeptic.
In the first half of the first season, Helga G. Pataki more or less lacked any redeeming qualities (hearing her say she wants world domination in "Arnold's Hat" is especially jarring), her crush on Arnold was more selfish and stalker-like that was Played for Laughs, and the mistreatment she suffered (her plans backfiring and her parental neglect) was presented as a straight-up Hilariously Abusive Childhood. After that, she developed a Hidden Heart of Gold, performed several acts of true love towards Arnold and had several Pet the Dog moments with Phoebe and various others. By the end of the series, the neglect and abuse she suffered stopped being Played For Laughs.
In the first episode, GIR is essentially a two-year-old with a larger vocabulary, completely useless and unable to focus on anything. While his attachment to reality remains non-existent, he is later shown to be productive and capable, able to accomplish many things (even if it is rarely anything that Zim wants).
Gaz was always easily annoyed and prone to violent threats, but in early episodes she never really acted on them — her very first line is swearing that Dib "will pay!" for drinking the last soda, but thirty seconds later she's talking to him civilly. Compare that to her insatiable desire for painful, terrible revenge in latter episodes like "Game Slave 2" or "Gaz, Taster of Pork." The creator would eventually reveal that he disliked the way the character evolved, which resulted in the comics and Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus returning her closer to this initial characterization; still prone to violence, but much more emotive and even somewhat caring for her brother.
Similar to Gaz, Professor Membrane became much nicer with the leap to the comics and movie. He’s still a Mad Scientist and Flat-Earth Atheist, but he’s far more understanding and sympathetic towards Dib’s obsession with the paranormal (despite not approving of it), and it’s made clear that he really loves his children, even if he isn’t as involved in their lives as he should be. His mad science also comes off as more genuinely altruistic, rather than merely being done for its own sake.
In Ba Nee's first major appearance, the focus was on her love of reading and her poor eyesight. After the arc ended and her vision was fixed, instead her character became defined by her obsession with finding her Disappeared Dad. She still enjoys reading however more focus is given on her father.
When Rapture first appeared, she mentioned that she and her bandmate Riot were meant to be together. Afterwards their relationship is presented as completely platonic and Word of God is that there's no romance between any of The Stingers. Rapture is in fact the only major character to present no interest in anyone.
The original intro makes Stormer seem like the lead of The Misfits and makes her more aggressive than she normally is. Stormer is usually only mean when in the presence of her band-mates. The Misfits were originally designed as cutthroat, but that was vetoed in development.
Dr. Scientist on Jimmy Two-Shoes. In the first season, he was a rather helpful scientist who seemed rather friendly to Jimmy (even though he could feel exhausted by him) and was also established as Heloise's inferior. In Season 2, however, he suddenly Took a Level in Jerkass to become a villain, and it's stated that he won the Mad Scientist Award every year, easily beating Heloise.
The two main villains in Kim Possible. Drakken was originally a competent, and intimidating, person before turning into his typical Harmless Villain persona. Shego was just a typical mook, with few essences of her signature personality. Then they became Ensemble Dark Horses and the team noticed how well Shego's voice actress worked with sarcasm.
Peggy is almost certainly the character who the writers had the least defined an idea of at first. While she had an occasional prideful moment, in the first two seasons she was predominantly used as a strong, confident, often masculine character who somehow managed to square those traits with a largely traditionalist perspective on life. Starting in the third season, her overconfidence increasingly came to dominate and came to be far more exaggerated than it was before to the point of eclipsing her badass qualities.
Luanne has always been a tad on the ditzy and slutty side, but early episodes show her as a competent mechanic (despite Cotton's Stay in the Kitchen attitude towards women) with dreams of being better than her dysfunctional parents by first going to beauty school, then to community college. After creating the Manger Baby puppets, being shown infrequently throughout the series, becoming a born-again virgin, marrying Lucky the redneck, and having a baby, she became what she was trying to avoid: stupid trailer trash (one episode had her so dumb that the family couldn't get a high-def flatscreen TV because she would walk into it and mistake all the images as characters in a window).
Dale Gribble was also much more mellow (but still hated the American government) in the early days. He frequently spouted bizarre conspiracy theories but rarely acted on them. Compare that to the insane, scheming, often violent nutcase in later seasons.
Even Bill was calmer and more observant and less pathetic at first.note Even though he was still treated like a loser and constantly reminded that his life went to hell when his wife left him. Case in point: "Shins of the Father," when he was actually happy at Bobby's birthday until Dooley said, "Your wife divorced you". After his habits and personality changed and years of Flanderization followed, it's hard to believe the Bill from the first episode is the same as that from later ones.
Hank Hill is actually seen eating a charcoal-grilled burger in the first season, and actually admits it was the greatest burger he's ever eaten, despite being so in love with propane that he cares about it more than his lawn, his son, his niece, or even his wife. This would be unfathomable in later seasons, with his love of propane and hatred of all other forms of grilling/heating (one episode had him refer to butane as a "bastard gas"). Granted he probably said it just to be nice to Kahn, but even with that in mind it's still bizarre to hear him say good things about any fuel other than propane.
Bobby is also much different in early episodes. In the first couple seasons, he was mainly a naive, kind of slow kid who was more a foil for Hank than a full-fledged character. By Season 3, he started getting more development as a character.
Currently: Either the Everyman and the cartoon character that everybody knows and loves, or the Keyblade-wielding badass that Kingdom Hearts fans know and love. 1928: The guy who forced Minnie to kiss him, was also a bit of a jerk, and didn't mind harming his enemies.
Although he had mellowed out considerably through the 1930s, Mickey during the Walt Disneyera was still prone to almost Bugs Bunny-levels of retribution (such as his magical pranks on Donald Duck in Magician Mickey), and had quite a low tolerance for things not going his way, notably pulling a gun on Donald in Symphony Hour when the Duck tried to ditch a Concert Gone Horribly Wrong. He only really started to lose the darker elements of his older personality after Walt's death.
Epic Mickey returns to his original characterization, sort of. Mickey's pranks set in motion the dangerous events of the game, and he has the option of either helping the inhabitants of the world he inadvertently endangered (becoming The Hero and looking more heroic), or looking out for himself and just trying to get back to his world (becoming The Scrapper and looking more sinister). Essentially, the player has the option of making Mickey like his modern self, or his original self.
Moonbeam City: Rad starts the show as a legitimate threat to Dazzle's command of the police force, being both threatening and smart. Past the pilot, however, he is shown much more as a whiny, incompetent cop who barely holds a candle to Dazzle, despite Dazzle's own incompetence.
Also overlapping with Depending on the Writer & Series Continuity Error, Elaine Setter from Mummies Alive! underwent this, despite being a Recurring Character and not appearing in too many episodes. In her first appearance in "Dog Bites Mummy" she was an Intrepid Reporter who didn't even know Presley and simply befriended him to uncover his secret about the mummies, leading to her getting kidnapped by Set & Anubis and having to be rescued by them and ended with her angrily storming out of his house after he tricked her to uphold the masquerade. Later episodes had her as one of Presley's regular group of friends note Even appearing to have something of a crush on him in "Tempting Offer," which also only lasted for that episode. with none of her aggressive reporter aspects or anger over being deceived ever being brought up again. This is strange as the show was usually good at sticking to continuity.
Compare Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's interactions in early episodes like "Dragonshy" to ones in later episodes in even the same season. In "Dragonshy", Dash pretty much seems to hate how meek and scared Fluttershy is. Later episodes have her occasionally frustrated, but more understanding of Fluttershy's cautious nature, better reflecting the fact that they've been friends since childhood.
All of the Apple family to some extent. Applejack started off as a Hot-Blooded Calamity Jane-esque figure before taming into a more laid back Team Mom. Apple Bloom, originally wise beyond her years turned into the overly excitable leader of the Cutie Mark Crusaders (this is particularly jarring in "Bridle Gossip", where Applebloom acts as the Only Sane Man to a growing paranoia that Applejack is spearheading). Big Macintosh, who originally spoke and acted fairly normally, eventually became limited to his trademark "Yep" and "Nnnnope" outside sparse occasions and usually acts as a Not So Stoic in most of his appearances. Finally, Granny Smith, originally a rambling decrepit old woman, became a still kooky but deceptively Cool Old Pony and, in opposite to Big Mac, began speaking full sentences.
Twilight Sparkle started off in the pilot (and a select few early episodes) as rather acerbic and aloof, and was thoroughly lucid outside her social ineptness. By the second season however, her more neurotic traits became more prominent and most of her spotlight episodes would go on to revolve around her status as The Finicky One. She also became a more consistently warmer and more excitable character, to the point of occasional Large Ham tendencies.
The villain King Sombra may be the most-jarring example, on part of being hit with this scenario two times!
But his return (the Season 9 premiere) inexplicably portrayed him as Hammy and Smug to a stereotypical degree, now bear-hugging the very Villain Ball he'd once avoided like the plague. And his Other Darrin just sharpened the contrast more, making him literally sound like another character entirely.
The Patrick Star Show: Squidina is way more snarky and disapproving of Patrick and his silliness in "Enemies a la Mode" than other episodes. This can be chalked up to it being the second episode produced, and it sticking closer to Squidina's pitch bible incarnation (which specifically listed her as more serious and gave her a more aged-up design). Later episodes like "Squidina's Little Helper" and "Mid-Season Finale" have her happily participating in the show with him, and "X Marks the Pot" portrays her as just as goofy and eccentric as the rest of the family, which is more in-character. By comparison, some of her dialogue in "Enemies a la Mode" comes off as downright odd:
Squidina (as Patrick): Enemies! I got 'em. You got 'em. Sometimes, I'm my own sister's enemy 'cause I go crazy and I ruin all her hard work. Now, here's a pre-recorded segment, from when I wasn't being such a stubborn jerk.
Early episodes portrayed the Penguins closer to their movie counterparts, with all of them believing Rico's doll is alive, unaware when the other animals express discomfort and being more Literal-Minded and a tendency to have Cloud Cuckoo Lander moments. As the show progressed, each of them developed their personalities, only Rico believed his doll was alive, they are more socially aware and only Skipper has bizarre thoughts mostly motivated for his paranoia.
In "Gone in a Flash", Maurice was legitimate terrified of being in the middle of the penguins operations and can barely keep up with them. Later episodes would portray him as very competent and not only completely calm when he has to help the Penguins but often delighted to have a chance to participate in the Penguins missions.
In the first episode (and more so in the pilot), Phineas seems fairly irritable and sarcastic, apparently because the creators wanted him to seem like an annoying little brother. Within a few episodes he settled into his usual personality, chipper and laid back to the point of naïveté, which also worked to highlight Candace's paranoia. Compare Phineas' reactions toward Candace saying she's in charge "conditionally" and after she runs off to the supermarket in the first episode to the remake, "Rollercoaster: The Musical!", where he's more random toward her in the latter than the former (in the former, he makes a snarky Blatant Lie of doing homework; in the latter he says, "The condition didn't have to do with the moose, did it?").
Major Monogram. In the earliest episodes he was a very formal, authoritative no-nonsense boss who behaved in a totally cold demeanor to anyone he spoke to. Over time he's become a One of the Kids eccentric whose mission briefings are never complete without at least one joke.
Norm, when he first appeared in "Greece Lightning", was a non-sentient robot who did nothing but spout non-sequiturs and attack anything that looked vaguely like a platypus. In later episodes, while he's still a Cloudcuckoolander, he's clearly sentient and in fact seems to be more intelligent than Doofenshmirtz.
In the first episode, Heinz Doofenshmirtz seems to just be randomly evil for no reason, to the point that he admits to not understanding his own motivations. Later episodes establish that he's had an absurdly miserable life starting from the day of his birth, and his evil plans are an attempt to get back at the people responsible.
In early episodes, Candace Flynn was much more of a killjoy and could sometimes come off as an outright Big Sister Bully toward Phineas and Ferb. As the series went on, though, Candace's motives for busting and her overall attitude toward her brothers became more developed and she gained more redeeming qualities. She also sometimes pined after boys other than Jeremy (such as Charles in "A Hard Day's Knight"), but fairly quickly Jeremy became the only boy whom Candace ever crushes on.
Early in the show's run, there would be the odd episode where Candace would play the Straight Man to Stacy instead of the other way around like what would become the norm in most later episodes. A good example of this is "Ready for the Bettys", wherein Stacy remains completely oblivious to the fact that the Bettys essentially hired Candace and her to do all of their chores for them, while Candace catches on quickly and eventually calls the Bettys out on it.
In "A Hard Day's Knight", Perry is shown sweating in seemingly genuine anxiety from having to pose as Dr. Wexler at the Evil-Con in front of Doof, as though he is sincerely worried that he'll be in danger if he gives himself away. In subsequent episodes, Perry is completely unflappable whether he's disguised or not (often bordering on The Comically Serious), and any time he isn't usually means that something is horribly wrong, whether in a dramatic sense (such as when he is sadly leaving the Flynn-Fletcher house in "Oh, There You Are Perry"), or in a humorous sense (like him being genuinely scared for his life, to the point of writing out his will, throughout Doof's disastrous driver's test in "The Doonkelberry Imperative").
In "Monkey See, Doggy Do" the museum curator tells Blossom that he didn’t want the police trouncing around looking for clues. Blossom finds the idea silly and she and her sisters conduct a reckless investigation. The curator faints after seeing the resulting damage to which Blossom fails to react. In later appearances she does all she can to preserve the arts and is horrified by any damage done to such institutions.
T.J. started out as an average student but eventually became much more Book Dumb, Vince was originally more of a Sour Supporter, and Gretchen wasn't quite the Child Prodigy she would become: notably, in "The Experiment," she's just as dumbfounded as the others at the idea that teens and adults enjoy kissing.
In Season 1, Miss Finster was much more of a Sadist Teacher who relished psychologically breaking the kids. In later episodes, her meanness was toned down slightly and she became a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, who really did care about the kids and just had to be tough to keep the playground in order.
Principle Prickly was also a Sadist Teacher at the beginning of the series, but soon became apathetic instead, and eventually he also gained some Jerk with a Heart of Gold traits.
The kindergarteners started out as joke characters who just acted like savage Hollywood Natives. Later episodes let some of them become friends with the main cast (e.g. Hector with Gus, Tubby with Mikey) and fleshed them out as individuals with Hidden Depths.
Season 1 depicted Mordecai as a vindictive and at times bullying jerk, albeit more responsible and selfless than Rigby. Season 2 and beyond made him more amiable and had most of his worst moments come from being Innocently Insensitive instead.
Muscle Man also started off as a lot more mean-spirited and immature, and was disliked by Mordecai and Rigby. The two quickly become some of his closest friends and Muscle Man gradually matures throughout the series.
Bev Bighead was a Dirty Old Woman to the extreme, attempting to cheat on her husband with Rocko and spying on a nudist party, clearly enjoying herself. This was toned down heavily in later seasons, leaving her more or less as an amicable housewife.
In her first couple of appearances, Susie was shown as something of a crybaby and was even more naive and boisterous as Tommy (her opening scene has her running into the room crying for her sucker, and then instantly forgetting all her sorrow to happily greet Tommy). Even in the early season(s), she begins to mature, and in most episodes after she acts as a Cool Big Sis and a more moralistic foil for Angelica.
Chuckie's fear of clowns is now legendary and one of his defining character traits. In the early Season 1 episodes it was Didi who was afraid of clowns. The episode "Reptar's Revenge" has her freaking out when a clown sneaks up on her and Chuckie doesn't even bat an eyelid. Maybe he picked it up from her? Similarly later episodes demonstrated Chuckie's fear of spiders, despite acting rather nonchalantly towards Tommy's giant pet tarantula in "Spike Runs Away". All around Chuckie in early episodes was more a neurotic, curmudgeonly kid who was merely cynical to Tommy's adventures. It was only later on that was exaggerated into making him a paranoid Lovable Coward who feared anything and everything. On that note, Chuckie is quite argumentative and disagreeable in the first season. From the second season onward, his character sweetens up quite a bit.
Phil and Lil didn't develop their Running Gag of frequently fighting over toys until the second season. Additionally, their parents didn't settle into their more well known personalities until a few episodes in (Betty being The Lad-ette and Howard being a rather feminine man). Notably, Howard is happily watching football with the other dads in "Touchdown Tommy".
In the first season, Angelica would put on a sweet smile for the adults and have them fooled into thinking she was a well-behaved girl. She was also shown to have a low opinion of her father. Later episodes have the adults clearly not fooled by her schemes. Additionally she becomes a Daddy's Girl and it's shown that her parents are the ones she unambiguously cares for most.
Rotor was a lot goofier and awkward in the pilot episode. As Antoine and later Dulcy took over as comic relief, his dorky aspects were downplayed in favor of a more laid back and competent personality.
Princess Sally was a fair bit brattier and rivalistic towards Sonic in early episodes, even having her own share of Idiot Ball moments, making them more similar. While still very snarky and argumentative in Season 2, it is from being the clear voice of reason of the team.
Before Revenge of the Sith premiered, General Grievous made his first appearance one year earlier in the Genndy Tartakovsky produced Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. It is a very different characterization than what would end up in the live action movie; Grievous in the animated series is a scary, unstoppable killing machine that singlehandedly defeats a number of Jedi. In the movie, Grievous is less formidable adversary and who runs when he knows he cannot defeat an opponent. This characterization has continued into the CGI Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Grievous tends to follow Dooku's advice in most of his later characterizations:
Dooku: Don't let your pursuit of trinkets cloud your reality. Remember what I taught you, General. If you're to succeed in combat against the best of the Jedi, you must have fear, surprise, and intimidation on your side. But if any one element is lacking, it would be best for you to retreat. You must break them before you engage them. Only then will you ensure victory and have your trophy.
Lucas hadn't decided at the time whether Grevious was going to be a warrior or a schemer. The Clone Wars team made him a badass for the first season, then were told that Lucas was going for the sneaky coward for the movies. Dooku's lecture and Windu crushing his chest were put into the second season specifically to bridge the gap between the two interpretations.
The main trio's dialogue in very early episodes is very stilted and awkward, in reference to how they spoke in the source material. In later episodes their dialogue would become a lot more casual.
During Judy Tenuta's first appearance, Space Ghost is very smitten with her. When she returns later in "Reunion", Space Ghost is instead irritated by her and eventually tells Moltar to cut off her feed mid-interview.
Various members of the Council of Doom had wildly different personalities in their very first appearance. Brak simply performed a Beavis and Butt-Head impersonation with Sisto, compared to the loud Manchild he became afterwards. Tansit had a completely different voice actor, and was more menacing and less of a meek Butt-Monkey, and Mettalus actually spoke comprehensible English instead of incomprehensible mettalic droning.
In Season 1, Patrick Star was slightly less ditzy and more competent (it's most noticeable in the first episode "Help Wanted"), compared to the bumbling idiot he becomes in later seasons.
Season 1 showed Mr. Krabs to be good at culinary skills, like when he was able to turn Krabby Patties into a pizza in seconds. Later seasons depict Mr. Krabs as a Lethal Chef who is even worse than Squidward. Mr. Krabs would also sometimes send SpongeBob home if the sponge was overworked or sick, most notably in "Pickles" where he (gently, no less) tells SpongeBob to take the rest of the day off when it's clear just how badly the pickle incident with Bubble Bass has affected SpongeBob. In later episodes, Mr. Krabs reacts in horror to the words "day off" and "work vacation" and often will actively drag his employees to work whether they are in a condition to work to or not.
When Patchy the Pirate and Potty the Parrot debuted in "Christmas Who?", Potty behaved more like a traditional parrot, specifically repeating minimal phrases and single words. All of Potty's later appearances make him more vocal and talk human-like, and soon enough he becomes the snarky straight man to Patchy's antics.
Bubble Bass was introduced in "Pickles" as a sadistic, cruel bully who was implied to be a longtime nemesis of SpongeBob and tries to ruin his life, work, and mental health all in one episode. He made two more cameos in the first season, one of which continued this characterization, before virtually disappearing from the show. He was brought back to become a supporting regular in Season 9 and has been adjusted; while he's still a pretty sadistic, cruel jerk, SpongeBob is no longer his primary target, and he makes everyone around him miserable. He even joins a club whose motto is that while they can't stand the sponge, they don't actually want something bad to happen to him. Bubble Bass is also rewritten to be the show's Comic Book Guy, a fat, lazy Basement-Dweller who frequently causes trouble thanks to his obsessions with nerd culture. His guest appearance on The Patrick Star Show even developed him further into a snobby Caustic Critic as an Affectionate Parody of online critics like The Nostalgia Critic.
The non-canon pilot has Pearl being less motherly toward Steven, with all the Gems serving as older sister figures rather than just Amethyst, and Steven having a mutually antagonistic relationship with Lars, while in the series proper, he usually seems oblivious to Lars not liking him.
Garnet is introduced as completely stoic and emotionally closed off, but becomes more friendly, snarky and open with her emotions as the show goes on. Later on, flashbacks from before Steven was born continue portraying her as friendly and laid back. Many fans took this to imply that she was hardened after the death of Rose Quartz. But then the episode "Three Gems and a Baby" (which takes place shortly after Rose's death) was released and Garnet is once again warm and maternal, seemingly retconning away her original cold persona.
In early episodes, Pearl doesn't seem to show any sign of disliking food: she seems to have an interest in tea in "Serious Steven" and says she likes pie in "So Many Birthdays". Later in the series — once gems have been established as The Needless — she's utterly disgusted by eating. In the pilot, all the gems seem to be fine with eating, but in the series, only Amethyst regularly does. When asked about this, one of the head writers handwaves Pearl's earlier interest in food as her just liking the act of cooking and baking.
Overlapping with Early-Installment Weirdness, the first season generally characterized Gems as more like The Fair Folk than mineral-based, vaguely robotic aliens. Their Magitek is much more explicitly mystical and less defined (an early episode has a Magic Wand that can duplicate anything, whereas later episodes rarely go further than stuff like teleporters and spaceships). Mentally, they come off as slightly inscrutable and kind of scary at times, with even the Crystal Gems being dismissive or callous towards most humans, to the point that they seem to tolerate the Beach City residents at best. By the halfway point of Season 1, Gems are depicted as more human in overall mindset, while the Crystal Gems are on decently familiar terms with most of Beach City, as well as being merely ambivalent towards human culture and quickly growing to like it more.
Steven Quartz Universe is known for being The Heart and being extremely pacifistic. This trait, however, wasn't concrete until the third season. Steven in early seasons was much more fight happy and offensive in his abilities.
The Warden was introduced as a quirky yet sadistic type who gained entertainment from his inmates dying in gruesome ways, and that was said by the creators to be a super-genius that wasn't good with people. Compare the early characterization to the more outgoing Manchild who's willing to make friends, and that gets beat up and injured easily by his own inmates or others.
The Twins actually directly interact with the Warden in the pilot, and are shown to fear the possibility of being killed from the chaos they started. In later episodes of the series, they rarely mention him or are noticed by him. Their general personalities also shifted from being colder, a bit more callous and less verbose, to being more awkward and vulnerable. Their early meddling with the jail was also more often destructive.
Alice was much less verbal and more to-the-point with her dialogue, and seemed to be more threatening.
In Slade's first appearance he was a Card-Carrying Villain who spouted cliched dialogue ("Next time my planswill succeed — and the Titans will pay!"), smashed teacups when he got angry, and employed a butler. Later episodes turned him into the creepily emotionless Manipulative BastardTitans fandom loves to hate, gave his immediate Evil Plan a definite focus (though we never learned what his ultimate goal was), made his dialogue into what amounted to a series of very nasty Breaking Speeches and the butler was never seen with him again.note The Butler is named Wintergreen, and he was Slade's regular sidekick in the comics. He was most likely added to the first episode with the intention of developing into the same role in the cartoon, but was then dropped in favor of Slade working alone.
This happened to the third season's Big Bad, Brother Blood. In his first appearance he was hammy and egotistical, true, but he mostly overacted only when playing to an audience and could be quite calm and suave when he wanted to, and took his defeat at the end of the episode quite calmly. Later episodes made him into a much more hotheaded villain prone to outbursts of temper whenever things went wrong, and he largely lost his "Evil Professor X" shtick to become a much more straightforward Diabolical Mastermind. Also crosses over with Flanderization, as his obsession with Cyborg slowly ate up his entire character, to the point that his last appearance was entirely centered on stealing Cyborg's tech and upgrading his minions (and himself) with it.
The second episode, "Sisters", has Beast Boy saying he wants to watch a comedy movie, while Raven wants to watch a horror film. Later episodes would establish Beast Boy as a horror and sci-fi junkie, while an entire episode is based around Raven refusing to admit that a horror film terrified her.
In the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, April's co-worker at Channel 6, Vernon Fenwick, was originally part of her news crew who even helped her defy their boss in order to help her get an exclusive story on the Dimension X invasion. One season later, he's now a cowardly reporter who always tries to steal April's stories from her and is a gigantic suck-up and Yes-Man that would never dream of going against his boss. One possible thing that could have led to this evolution was his change in voice actors, the second one who notably gave him much more of a whinier voice than the original.
Thomas & Friends has taken a few directions within the show's heavy run, starting off as an egotistical Bratty Half-Pint in Season 1, before gradually maturing into a more responsible Nice Guy by Season 3. The HIT Entertainment seasons kept up the more altruistic image of Thomas, but granted back some of his childishness and naivete, and by the time of the CGI transition he has become something of a well-intentionedCloud Cuckoo Lander.
Paxton in his earliest appearances was a background associate of the other troublemaking Diesels, and usually shown heckling the steam engines along with them. Blue Mountain Mystery gives him his first key role and thus establishes his individual personality, as a meek Kindhearted Simpleton who is friends to Thomas and the others and only turns on them out of convincing of a greater good byDiesel.
Toby started off a fairly confident Big Brother Mentor, even being a tad snarky and acerbic with other more arrogant engines. As the series started branching from the books, Toby started gaining a meek, under confident side, and by the time of the CGI series is an almost childlike Lovable Coward that engines he previously tutored such as Thomas and Percy often end up soothing.
Similar to Toby, Edward started off as a Cool Old Guy and almost infallible Only Sane Man as in the books. Likely to avoid the same demotion he got later in them, the show's original stories made more attempts to give Edward a flawed side to enable more plots. These tended to be inconsistent for a while, in some he would be well meaning but insecure, while in others he would be arrogant and rude. By the time of the CGI transition he seems to have stuck as a toned-down version of the former.
Season 17 seems to be reverting back a lot of the personalities for the classic cast (though Thomas still flip flops between characterizations Depending on the Writer).
Bridgette is characterized as an easy-going, understanding pacifist. That said, the second episode "Not So Happy Campers — Part 2" had her as one of the two girls to aggressively confront Zeke about his Innocently Insensitive sexist commentsnote The other being Eva, who's Hair-Trigger Temper makes this moment in character for her.
After Island, Gwen's love for art is never acknowledged again outside of online bios.
In early episodes, Heather would take almost every opportunity to mess with her teammates even if it risked making her team lose, like reading Gwen's diary out loud to the whole world or making Leshawna chop pineapples (which she's allergic to) during a cooking competition. This habit seems to have disappeared by the middle of Island, as she became more focused on winning. She even gets mad at Courtney in World Tour for trying to lose the Area 51 challenge on purpose so they could vote out Gwen. She doesn't even like Gwen, but it seems she draws the line at bringing the whole team down for the purpose of single-minded revenge.
Halfway into World Tour, Sierra using her uber-knowledge of the show to her advantage competition wise is completely dropped to focus purely on her obsession towards Cody. While her knowledge of the show is still present, it becomes more Cody centric and she no longer uses it to win. (This comes back a little in "Rapa-Phooey," but even then she seems more interested in getting Alejandro away from Cody then winning the game.)
In her debut during "Celebrity Manhunt's Total Drama Action Reunion Special", Blaineley was an affable (if gossip-obsessed) TV show host who even rooted for the Total Drama cast to make their return to reality TV. In World Tour however, she becomes co-host of the Aftermath and is transformed into the Distaff Counterpart of Chris, sharing his narcissistic selfishness and immorality; his vapid obsession with causing conflict and being in the spotlight; and his sadistic and bullying attitude towards the contestants (especially Bridgette).
In Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race, the Ice Dancers were Olympians who only got silver because Jacques dropped Josee during their performance. In the first episode, she calmly relays this backstory while he's the one acting distraught; later on, however, she's far more crazed about winning than he is and only recalls the incident with extreme bitterness.
The original Generation One cartoon was basically the experimental first step for the whole franchise, so a lot of characterizations were still being figured out. Optimus Prime is a lot more jovial and laidback, Megatron comes off like more of a barbarian king than a Knight Templar who believes he's doing what's best for Cybertron, Ratchet is a chill guy who likes to party instead of a grouchyJerk with a Heart of Gold, Shockwave is undyingly loyal to Megatron instead of a sociopathic Spock who doesn't really care about the Decepticon cause, and so on.
In the first few episodes of Beast Wars, the writers were still deciding where they wanted to take the characters. As a result, many of them only faintly resemble the more complex personalities they developed later on. Tarantulas acts like a gibbering lunatic rather than a Manipulative Bastard with a sadistic streak, Rhinox comes off as nature loving hippy, Rattrap is a Dirty Coward and borderline Token Evil Teammate instead of a pragmaticBoisterous Bruiser, Cheetor seems outright stupid rather than merely young and naive, and Blackarachnia lacks all of her sympathetic traits. There's also some weird details that would get contradicted by later backstory and reveals, such as Optimus being described as a bit of a rookie who's new to commanding even though later episodes and supplemental materials make clear that Rattrap has been serving under him for years.
Another notable difference is how Waspinator is written. Despite his reputation as the chew toy, in the first episode he's introduced by pinning Cheetor down in a firefight for several minutes, and his dialogue reflects his name (which of course, references the Terminator, a cold, menacing Killer Robot)
Waspinator: Waspinator under attack. Waspinator engage enemy. Waspinator Terrorize.
In later episodes Waspinator does indeed get blown up or otherwise defeated in a humiliating way, but doesn't actively complain about it nearly as much until Season 2.
For the first four episodes or so, Pizza Steve was actually a nice guy despite his narcissism. In later episodes, his behavior borders on Token Evil Teammate.
In the pilot, the kid of the week initially has no idea who Uncle Grandpa is, and when he tells his mom about Uncle Grandpa at the end, she clearly doesn't believe him. In all later episodes, Uncle Grandpa's existence and Reality Warper powers are portrayed as common knowledge.
In the pilot, Dr. Rusty Venture is a legitimately successful and well-respected scientist who is completely blind (or at the very least, playing dumb) to the military applications of his work. Compare that to the cynical laughingstock of the series proper, whose inventions frequently go horribly/hilariously wrong and get happily sold off to whatever organization will take them, armies included.
The first episode has Rusty give a lecture about how the Chupacabra is "total crap", and end up shocked when he discovers they're fairly common in Mexico. Later seasons establish that Rusty has Seen It All as a result of a lifetime of adventure, and is, if anything, Super Gullible as a result.
While Brock's womanizing and love of fighting never went away completely, it did get toned down significantly. Early Brock was a borderline psychotic Blood Knight and Handsome Lech who was willing to kill at the slightest provocation, gleefully ditch the boys to have sex, and act like a major Jerkass in general. He quickly began to be softened and by the end of season one, Brock was cemented as a fatherly, laidback Boisterous Bruiser and Chivalrous Pervert who is generally one of the sanest people in the show. A good example of how Brock was reworked as a character is his treatment of minor character Bud Manstrong; when Manstrong first appears in the second episode, Brock acts like a total prick and views him with nothing but contempt, sleeping with his girlfriend and beating him up just for touching his shoulder. When Manstrong reappears in season two — less then a dozen episodes later — Brock views him sympathetically as a pitiable loser at worst, and makes a sincere apology to him for having sex with his girlfriend, saying he had no idea they were in a serious relationship and that he would not have made a move on her if he had.
The titular brothers, Hank and Dean, were interchangeable for much of the show's early stages and portrayed uniformly as naive and sheltered morons. Around season three or so, they began diverging pretty radically from one another; Hank became a confident, lovable Dumb Jock always ready to jump into an adventure, while Dean became a meek but down-to-earth nerd growing progressively more disillusioned with the adventuring lifestyle.
In X-Men: Evolution, Lance was originally a jerk ass with a known hair trigger temper and even a manipulative side, and was to some extent a dark mirror version of Cyclops. In Season 2, however, they then established he had a crush on Kitty and pretended to be nice to get to her. After they broke up, he became a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who, while willing to plot against the X-Men, was also unable to leave a helpless old woman to die, and teamed up with them to stop an explosion. Pietro, originally a Smug Snake, took over as the Brotherhood's leader and a BIG Manipulative Bastard, basically being the exact opposite of Cyclops. Only Blob and Toad really retained much of their original personalities, and even there, Blob lost his anger, and Toad lost any competence he had (originally being able to hold his own against Nightcrawler).
forcing himself and Morty to abandon their family for another reality. In later seasons, he gradually became a dangerously competent Anti-Hero, and Crazy Is Cool besides.