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alt title(s): Spikeification 
The process by which a badass becomes less of a badass.
A belief persists among many writers that if the audience takes a liking to a real badass who fears nothing, has infinite confidence and even carries off defeat with panache, it must mean that what they most want to see is that character reveal a vulnerable side and all manner of inner demons.
It is either that belief or the natural result of Character Development, where extra dimensions are added to an existing character to flesh them out and keep them fresh. Either way, the character starts out badass, and becomes less so over time.
Most often this happens through Ensemble Darkhorse tendencies, they appear so often and are so popular that any attempt to give them greater depths results in them losing what made them so effective in the first place.
Contrast with Took A Level In Badass, compare with Menace Decay, Motive Decay, Villain Decay, and The Worf Effect. Compare and contrast Bait The Dog and Moral Event Horizon, where a Badass character loses their cool as a result of dog kicking.
Chickification is a gender-specific variant.
Also note that this trope applies when a badass decays within a single continuity. If an absolute badass in your favorite book is portrayed as somewhat less awesome in The Film Of The Book, that's Adaptation Decay, not this trope.
Examples:
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Anime
- Both Vegeta from Dragonball Z and Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho start out as evil and downright sadistic badasses but as time went on and their number of friends increased, so did their overall morality (more so with Vegeta than Hiei, even though it is arguable with both characters). Even Vegeta seemed to realize he'd been defanged and had made a much better villain than a hero, and purposefully had one of the later villains try to turn him evil again. It didn't seem to quite take; after killing a nameless crowd and brawling a little with Goku, he was back to fighting baddies and topped it off with a Heroic Sacrifice. Of course he got better. This is Dragonball Z, almost nobody of importance dies - permanently.
- Nearly the entire cast of Yu-Gi-Oh suffered from this when the eighth volume began, and the series began centering around card games. In the original seven volumes, Joey/Jonouchi and Tristan/Honda being former gang members was a lot more obvious, as they delivered quite a few beatings to kids their age and even full-grown adults. Yami Yugi himself was not someone to mess with, as he had a tendency to play shadow games with anyone who pissed him off, which usually ended with the loser insane/grievously hurt/dead. Even Tea could throw an Armor Piercing Slap once in a while, and not just for dramatic effect, either. Then the card game rolled around, and suddenly Yugi and Joey are settling all their problems with Duel Monsters, while Tristan and Tea are reduced to cheerleaders.
- This possibly happened to Tokiya Mikagami, who was at first a completely ruthless man driven for revenge, and in the Ura Butou Satsujin, he manages to give out many great performances. Come to the latter arcs of the manga, however, although time by time, he did awesomely, he also often became the recipient of Distress Ball, turning into James Bondage TWICE.
- Mikagami never really decayed, he evolved into a more interesting and complete person. His whole character arc never robbed him of his power or cool head but granted him a truely memorable opponent who actually not only defeated him but changed him. The perception of badass decay comes from the flanderization of his stoicism in the anime. In the manga he was one of the funniest characters as he was the ultimate straight man, where as the anime showed him as a personality challenged bishonen.
- Yeah... evolved to someone really vulnerable to being thrown Distress Balls at. All those unnecessary James Bondage moments began AFTER he lets go of his vengeance tendencies, which marks his decay. He may be a complete person now, but in turn, he sacrificed his Badass points.
- Quite a few members of the Ikki Tousen cast display this over the period of the third Great Guardians season. Most notably Kan'u Unchou suffers from Flanderization so badly that it cripples her Bad Ass status that she becomes mostly unrecognizable for the first few episodes. See also Ryofu Housen's display of this through Loss Of Identity. Thankfully they "get better" later in the season.
- A rare "objective" take on this in Angel Densetsu: Ogisu thinks he's suffering from this (his genresavvyness, unfortunately, is off mark, and ends there too).
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Manga Gendou makes for a debatable case, as he's much more emo and pathetic compared to his anime version but also much more cynical, cruel and insane. The same charge has been laid over his confession that he's a pile of self-hate with a social phobia in The End. Might also count as Villain Decay. Some view Asuka's descent into madness as Badass Decay too, as she was established as an incredibly assertive and combative character but is (also) one of the show's biggest Woobies.
Film
- According to Roger Ebert, all famous movie villains run the lifespan of going from scary to camp to self-parody. You name the classic to modern villain, it runs this course, from Dracula and Frankenstein meeting Abbott & Costello to Hannibal Lecter and Freddy Krueger.
- Alison Drake's (Ruth Chatterton) character towards the end of Female (1933). Sadly, this is a common set-up for Pre-Code films, mostly those featuring strong or amoral female characters. Another example would be Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck) in Baby Face (1933).
- The Star Wars prequel trilogy did this to Darth Vader, who was an iconic badass in the original trilogy. While that might be more about building a character and most of Vader's deconstruction really occurred later in the original trilogy, no one can deny the preposterous-ness of many an Ensemble Darkhorse's absurd past detailed in the EU, some of which have even managed to infect the prequel series. Boba Fett suffers from this, especially in the Legacy of the Force series. However, Karen Traviss manages to pull it off pretty well.
- General Grievous gets this in an odd way. In Star Wars Clone Wars he was a badass unstoppable Jedi killer. However, at the end of the series, his few remaining internal organs were severely mangled by Mace Windu, resulting in him gaining a chronic cough and seeming much weaker in episode three, as he was intended to become a Fallen Hero and a precursor of sorts to Vader.
- Villains are not the only ones with affected, as Antonio Banderas' Zorro in The Legend Of Zorro finds out. For some reason the scriptwriters thought what the audience really wanted to see was not Zorro as a suave swashbuckler romancing Catherine Zeta Jones' sassy heroine, but rather him being humiliatingly cuckolded by her in public, then treated by the script as a pathetic drunken loser while failing to connect with a bratty kid. At least he gets a decent Hes Back moment in the last half-hour.
- James Bond tends to attract this accusation depending on actor and audience interpretation. Let's just leave it at that.
- Godzilla went from an unstoppable force of sheer destruction to a lovable kids' hero during the 1960s-1970s.
- Most modern interpetations try to split the difference, making Godzilla a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold. Mostly keeps to the sea or Monster Island if left alone. If humans piss him off, he will fuck up a few cities. If any other monsters step up, though, he'll gladly stomp their face into a few mountains. Basically, he's just like The Incredible Hulk, but bigger and charoal gray instead of green (Though, Godzilla is sometimes green in a few depictions).
- King Ghidorah may be one of the fastest examples of Badass Decay in film history. He went from being the ultimate evil in his film debut (Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster) to being, quite literally, The Dragon in the very next film.
- Also, he went from being a genuine threat that took three monsters to defeat and over six to kill in the Showa era to being easily dispatched by Godzilla alone with a single blast.
- Showa Ghidorah: Probably one of the toughest opponent's Godzilla ever faced. Hesei Ghidorah: Pretty tough, managed to strangle Godzilla until soap suds came out (Watch the film). GMK Ghidorah: Completely owned. Three times.
- Megatron through the Michael Bay films has gone from ripping Autobots in two to ass kissing and running away.
- Be fair. He also succeeded in killing Optimus Prime, and only ran away after half his face had been blown off, and his master—notably more powerful than he—had just gotten his ass kicked.
- Optimus just made him shoot half his own face off. It isn't badass to step up to a fight with those sorts of wounds (especially if you're the bad guy), instead you're just an eedjit.
- In the first film he completely trashed Optimus one one one. In the second film he takes on Optimus with the help of Starscream and some other dude and ALL THREE of them get owned until he stabs Optimus from behind. He also gets schooled by friggin TANKS of all things and his last "fight" with Optimus was more of a curb stomp than a battle.
- Ellen Ripley in between the second and third Alien movies.
Literature
- Happened to Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal and Hannibal Rising. It has been observed that he "wins" in Hannibal, and, of course, eats that one guy's brain, but he also falls in love and Wangsts over his newly-added Freudian Excuse in the form of a Dead Little Sister.
- Spike of BtVS was neither the first nor most famous vampire to undergo this process; Count Dracula himself has been steadily humanized since his appearance in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. In the book, he is a cold, ruthless monster with no redeeming qualities. Since then, he's been softened in each new appearance, going from a vile, diabolical arch-fiend to a Large Ham in a cape and tux, tragically searching the oceans of time for his lost love by biting the necks of fainting, gasping and all-too-willing females. Counting down...
- Nosferatu, depicted chillingly as the monstrous 'Orlok' by Max Shreck.
- Dracula with Bela Lugosi, light on the horror but still magnificently evil.
- Horror Of Dracula with Christopher Lee, perfectly vicious but now with the sexual element — his victims want him.
- The 1973 TV production of Dracula has Jack Palance as a fierce-looking vampire, but prefers to play up the "tragic figure searching for his lost love" angle.
- Dracula with Frank Langella - the start of his transformation from monster to lover, a tragic figure (with poofy 70's hair and a partly-open poet's shirt) searching for his lost love.
- Dracula: Dead and Loving It with Leslie Nielsen. Pretty much just an ordinary, irritable guy with super powers. But no angst. This one probably shouldn't count, though, since it was made by Mel Brooks and is purely a comedy.
- Same with Love at First Bite, a comedy with Dracula (played by George Hamilton, for cryin' out loud!) basically as the good guy, and the descendant of van Helsing as the antagonist.
- Bram Stoker's Dracula with Gary Oldman, does the lost love angle again and wrings every drop of blood (and Wangst) out of it...
Dracula: Nooo! I love you too much to condemn you!
- Seems to be reversing lately, with Dracula back as a full villain in Blade Trinity, the Dracula 2000 trilogy and Van Helsing, but the character's so caricatured by now that every new movie either makes him basically come off as Fabio in a black and red cape (We're looking at you, Buffy) or attempts to Re Tool him into something only barely recognisable as "Dracula". He looks like a pretty wrestler in Blade: Trinity (and in his "true form", like some sort of creature from the black lagoon). The most faithful version in modern pop culture is Castlevania, and even that still has him pining for lost love. At least he has One Winged Angel powers to replace the magnificent bastardry.
- Hellsing seems to be taking Dracula in this direction; he's still a cold, ruthless bastard with a psychotic streak a mile wide. However, he's also the good guy, and the real villains of the story are even nastier than Dracula himself. Sometimes.
- A Fred Saberhagen novel, The Dracula Tape, has the count finding the Harker's descendants on an interview tour, researching the Dracula story. He insists they record his side of the story; the book is in first person, and Dracula reveals he was entirely misunderstood, that Harker was a silly bastard who didn't appreciate all the effort Dracula went through to take care of him, Mina was actually in love with him but determined to honor her marriage vows to Jonathan, and Van Helsing was a religious zealot with a magnetic personality. It's all meant for comedy, but Dracula still manages to be more of a bad-ass than in many of the aforementioned movies.
- In the animated movie Batman vs. Dracula, Dracula has a reasonably horrifying appearance until he masks it up, and is enough of a monster that Batman has little qualms with killing him for good.
- In the World Of Darkness there are the Tzimisce, a whole clan modeled after Dracula and they're arguably the most fucked up of the bunch, as they founded the vampire sect that serve as the main antagonists for most Chronicles.
- Retooled, of course, into the Ordo Dracul in the NWOD.
- In the holiday special The Halloween That Almost Wasn't
 aka The Night Dracula Saved The World, Dracula ends up saving Halloween (what else?). To really drive the stake in further, he was played by none other than Judd Hirsch.
- Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, where he is no more menacing that Gomez Addams, The Drak Pack, where he is the creator of a group of superheroes, Los Vampiros las Prefieren Gorditas, where he has to put with Olmedo and Porcel's antics.
- Buffy's take on Dracula is perpetually dropping down the Badass scale. In his first appearance he is totally humiliated by Buffy (after terrorizing her for a while), then in the comics he reduced to little more than a powerful example of The Unfunny.
- He was great in his first appearance. He pwned Xander, showed off really cool powers, and could easily have killed Buffy more than once if he hadn't been preoccupied with turning her. And when she broke his spell, he still gave her a good fight. Remember: this isn't Season 1 Buffy, this is the Buffy who had advanced to the point that no single vampire was giving her a good fight anymore.
- The titular character of Artemis Fowl. Although thankfully this one has not yet fallen into wangst. Foaly has, however, kept what badassery he did have, and has yet to be as anvilicious as any of our heroes. The elves were parodies of other rather more anvilicious interpretations of the fairy folk.
- Possibly spoofed in the most recent book, in which he travels back in time to match wits with... well.... himself. One exchange later and he's left stranded on a telephone pole with nothing more than the line "I hate me."
- Arguably Count Olaf, although not woobie-fied, is less and less scary as the books go on, and more and more ludicrous. How much of this was deliberate is unknown.
- Vampires as a whole are a victim of this. What were once seen as undead creatures who fed on the blood of the living have completely turned into wangsty, emasculated, leather pants wearing pretty-boys as the object of desire for rebellious teenage girls. Most recent examples are The Vampire Chronicles and Twilight, both of which were pure Estrogen Brigade Bait. Your Mileage May Vary, of course
- Vampires were already heading into a death they wouldn't be rising from. Now that Twilight made them sparkle, they will never be the same again.
- Kisten from the The Hollows novels suffers from a classic example of this. First presented as the scion of the most powerful vampire in Cincinnati bent on dangerously seducing the main character he decays Spike-style over the series to becoming simply her romantic interest and then he suffers Redemption Equals Death
- The made-for-TV Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula told the historical Vlad Tepes story, showing him in full Magnificent Bastard meets Complete Monster mode.
Live Action TV
- Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer became a mere shell of his former self at the end of the series so much so that this trope was once named Spikeification, but luckily regained his cool in the spin-off Angel even if he never fully regained the title of Magnificent Bastard.
- Just as a point of emphasis, let's take the fourth season episode "Pangs". By this point Spike has been implanted with a chip that causes him extreme pain whenever he tries to hurt someone. In the first half of the episode, we see him wandering around town wrapped in a shawl, looking into a warehouse window and watching vampires feed off of a helpless person while he starves. Never before has any episode made you feel sorry for the vampire for not being able to feed off a human. Bonus points for it being the Thanksgiving episode, emphasizing his desperation, and sending him into Woobie territory.
- He also had a habit of going through cycles. He'd spend several eps in Badass Decay, only to get a Crowning Moment Of Awesome that would reverse much of the damage.
- To an extent, Irina Derevko from Alias. Even Sark from that show showed hints of humanity, but Derevko was given the Villain Ball in season 5. Sark at least stayed believably unredeemed.
- Lionel Luthor from Smallville, who was once the Magnificent Bastard.
- Badass Decay of Loveable Rogue Captain Jack seems to be the entire premise of the first series of Torchwood, especially "Small Worlds" and "Captain Jack Harkness." And yet he still snaps back to Loveable Rogue whenever he makes another appearance on Doctor Who, proving that Badass Decay just can't contain him, or that Doctor Who's got a different writing staff.
- This trope is used intentionally to nearly heartbreaking extents in Children of Earth. And, yes, the decaying badass was JACK again.
- Arthur Fonzarelli, "The Fonzie" from Happy Days, is first Flanderized and then decayed through the course of the series, but especially after it Jumps The Shark (literally). He ends up being more like a Boys' Club leader than the aloof, antisocial cool guy he started the show as.
- The Cylons in general have avoided badass decay, but Caprica-Six seems to have suffered rather badly. She went from baby mercy-killing in the miniseries to pining for Baltar and desiring co-existence with humans in Downloaded, though it was clear she cared about Baltar in the miniseries and she wasn't seen again until Downloaded anyway, so its not as if we had much evidence of badassary on her part anyway. That at least led to the scary occupation of New Caprica. After that, unfortunately, she was eventually reduced to surrendering along with Baltar, and sitting in Galactica's brig getting hardly any screen time. It's well-written legitimate character development, up until late season 3 where the writers almost forgot she existed for a time.
- Although never exactly a badass, Norman Clegg from Last Of The Summer Wine began the long-running series as an acerbic philosopher with a dry and pointed sense of humour (as well as functioning as the Ego of the series' Power Trio). As time has gone on, however, he has become a total wimp: scared stiff of driving cars, terrified of the various female characters (especially Auntie Wainright) and increasingly resigned to whatever madcap scheme his current "leader" has in mind. One of many ways in which the series has jumped the shark.
- Lord Zedd in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers began life as the "Emperor Of Evil": a genuinely terrifying villain who quickly banished the comical Rita Repulsa and proved his magnificence by almost destroying the Rangers' zords, finally stripping Tommy of his Green Ranger powers and creating his own highly kick-ass mecha Serpentina, which towered above the Rangers' own Megazord. Then in the third season he got married (to Rita, of all people), became a simpering wuss of a husband and got kicked out of his tower to take up residence in a caravan. As the final nail in his villainous coffin, he gets turned into a good human when hit by Zordon's energy wave, which turned every creature of pure evil to dust. (His voice actor confirms "Zedd scared small children, so they invoked this trope.)
- Indeed, Thrax, the son of Rita and Zedd from Power Rangers Operation Overdrive is disgusted by his father not being evil enough, and strives to restore his legacy of villany and badassness.
- In the first season of Power Rangers, Goldar was The Dragon and more than a match for the entire team of 5. Then Tommy Oliver had a crowning moment of awesome when he beat Goldar one on one while unmorphed. One might expect he'd be furious and try to regain his honor, but instead he just turned into a bungling nincompoop.
- This was, though, far more due to the fact that once he became the White Ranger, the PRU began revolving around Tommy, and everybody else looked worse in comparison. Even Billy (the weak, unskilled anime super-genius) managed to beat Goldar in hand-to-hand several episodes later. Tommy's skill levels went up at the same rate that Goldar's skill levels went down.
- Don't forget that Goldar was no longer stock footage, so they could USE him!
- Sylar is in danger of suffering from this in volume 3 of Heroes. It's one thing to be a Karma Houdini. Giving him an excuse for killing people is approaching the border. Demonstrating that all he really needed was a hug in order to be a productive member of society and you're crossing the line.
- It's also worth noting that Sylar's decay is unique because it is not self-inflicted. All of his 'good' moments seem to be the result of systematic brainwashing by Angela Petrelli, who needs Sylar to behave himself so that she can use him as her morally gray world-saving tool (as she did with Nathan Petrelli in Season 1.) Angela Petrelli is a renowned Manipulative Bitch and Magnificent Bitch, after all; perhaps Sylar is simply being out-badassed rather than in active decay.
- Sylar is the new Spike. Though honestly, this happens because characters like this become so popular that they outlive their runs as villains, so they have to go good; otherwise, their villainy will get boring and predictable.
- Definitely reached, however the end of "The Eclipse: Part 2" had an Authors Saving Throw in which the writers may have effectively Retconned Sylar's whole redemption arc by creating plausible doubt that the Petrellis are not his biological parents and having him admit to Elle that he can never truly change before killing her. Seeming? The very next episode we see him spreading lighter fluid over her and setting her on fire. That's a Deader Than Dead moment there in a series where regeneraters have made death cheap. Then he picks up where he left off, with a whole new list of people to hunt down for their powers, even after learning how to gain powers without opening their skulls.
- Effectively destroyed in the Volume 3 finale "Dual" where the writers end the redemption arc by making Sylar more psychotic than ever. Trapping Noah, Claire, Meredith, and Angela at The Company, slaughtering all the security guards, giving Hannibal Lectures over the intercom, attempting to make Claire commit a Sadistic Choice, saying how they and he are Not So Different, how Noah is responsible for his creation, among other things. And his confrontation with Angela revealed that while he's not a real Petrelli, his previous parents were still his adoptive parents and his real folks are out there somewhere, giving new directions to give take his character still. Sylar is a certified badass again.
- When the Time Lords first showed up at the end of the second doctor's run, they were mysterious, powerful, and threatening to the Doctor. They forced him to regenerate and banished his regenerated self to Earth. Eventually, they became a society of Col. Blimps U half-wits who had evidently gained their powers as a result of winning a Galactic Funny Hat Contest, and were Put On a Short Bus by the (literally) stupid Daleks. It has been suggested that later appearances of the Time Lords tended to be set during a period in which Gallifreyan civilisation was declining. Which makes sense, since they greatly risk overshadowing the titular character otherwise.
- The downgrading of the Time Lords happened first accidentally and then deliberately. In "The Three Doctors" they appeared as more Human Alien than god-like. Then when they re-appeared in "The Deadly Assassin" they fell prey to deliberate Take That Retcon by writer/script editor Robert Holmes, Armed With Canon.
- They seem to have regained some of their badassery in the new series, despite being all but extinct.
- Similarly, the Brigadier, when he first appeared in the late 1960s (real time) took no guff from anyone and the stories portrayed UNIT, the force he led, as an elite team of defenders against Alien Invasion. He got gradually more comedic and less impressive, though he would regain his reputation later. As did UNIT itself.
- Might possibly explain why the good Doctor decided to sacrifice them to annihilate the Daleks in the moments preceding the new series. Though, that remains vague at this point...
- In the fourth season of 24 Curtis was a pure badass, so much that he was called Black Bauer. In the fifth season he was mostly a doormat compared to Bauer, in the sixth season he was ineffectual until he got killed by Bauer.
- Tyr Anasazi of Andromeda went from being one of the show's best Magnificent Bastards and the only mortal being in the universe that Dylan Hunt couldn't take in a fight to a driveling short-sighted idiot that ended up losing fights to all and sundry, and was ignominiously shot in the back and dropped off a cliff. Some viewers believe that Kevin Sorbo (who played Dylan Hunt) becoming executive producer might have had something to do with this.
- Dexter of Dexter Almost succumbed to this in season two, even going so far as planning to turn himself in as the Bay Harbour Butcher, but thankfully changed his mind.
- The Borg from Star Trek. In their first appearance they started carving the Enterprise like a turkey and Borg drones had a personal energy shield that would adapt to enemy weapons fire after other drones would fall. . A single Borg ship (with Picard assimilated) was powerful enough to destroy 39 Federation spaceships in the battle at Wolf 359, break through the Solar System's defense grid and reach Earth orbit. Early on, writers realized that because the original Borg concept was so single-minded they needed to modify some concepts to make for more story potential. The Borg turned to assimilating both people and technology, instead of being their own unique race. Star Trek First Contact introduced the concept of Borg "queens," which while effective for that movie the Queen inherently humanized them, making it capable of deceiving them.
- By the time the crew of Star Trek Voyager met the Borg, Voyager and crew could go toe-to-toe with them and occassionally win, partially by virtue of acquired local and future technology.
- By the time of Star Trek Enterprise (a prequel series set two centuries prior, appearing because of the Time Travel of First Contact.) the Borg were scary but not nearly as malevolent.
- However, the Borg did roar back to badass level in the post-Nemesis novel continuity. How badass? Well, let's just say eating fucking Pluto was just the beginning.
- Also, much of what makes the Borg fearsome is their appearance, which developed considerably from one series (and movie) to the next with better graphics and set designs (consider the nanotubes, which weren't present in their original incarnation).
- As Deadwood went on Al Swearengen felt less badass and scary, though that was kind of the point.
- It's worth noting that one of the first things we see Swearengen do in the series is order the murder of a young girl (who he had just orphaned). He couldn't do anything but get more cuddly from there.
Newspaper Comics
- Lucy van Pelt of Peanuts, who went from an ebullient ball of aggressive energy to a rather neutered figure in the later years. The biography Schulz and Peanuts claims that Lucy was largely based on the author's first wife Joyce; after they divorced, Lucy lost her powers.
Professional Wrestling
- Professional Wrestling has a most bizarre example in John Cena. In 2004, he was a street-wise thug (who happened to be a white rapper) who never backed down from a challenge, and fought rich bastard John Bradshaw Layfield while espousing "battle raps" which basically mocked anyone in a 15-mile radius. In 2005 and 2006, his overwhelming popularity led the writers to turn him into a Hoganesque superhuman with an inferiority complex who openly admitted he was inferior as a technical wrestler, therefore taking away everything that made him popular in the first place. It eventually got to the point where fans would cheer his opponent out of spite, no matter how evil that person was. Fortunately, the release of his movie The Marine allowed him to get back his never-say-die attitude, and he appears to be recovering from the setback. Slowly. The fact that WWE seems to be implying that he really is a marine based on his role in the movie doesn't help matters. In fact, most heels who became anti-heroic faces in the Attitude era generally fall under this trope.
- Moreso when you consider said anti-heroes tended to have their most popular traits exaggerated when they become faces (Stone Cold wasn't a full-blown redneck until his turn, and the Rock didn't rely as much on his "sing-along" catchphrases).
- Note that Cena's Self Deprecation was largely a very mishandled attempt to appeal to the fans who had turned on him; additionally, it was mostly during his feud with Triple H, who is the head writer's husband and has had many feuds in which his opponent has sung his praises. Thankfully, this aspect of his character was dropped after Cena was given a clean victory over Trips.
- WCW 2001. Hulk Hogan was put in a feud with midcard wrestler Billy Kidman. Their matches usually consisted of Hogan whaling on Kidman to the point that it resembled child abuse, then something happening to enable Kidman to pick up a fluke win. This was badass decay for BOTH men. Kidman previously was a very popular midcard wrestler, and Hogan was of course Hogan. Now Kidman resembeled a whipping boy, and the Boring Invincible Hero Hogan became a boring almost invincible hero.
- Without a doubt, Kane from the WWE. From the very beginning, Kane made his debut in the then-WWF as an unstoppable monster who destroyed everyone in his path. His badass decay arguably began in the early 2000s when the writers tried to lighten his character up a bit by having him do comical imitations of other wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Booker T. His character became considerably lightened up when he tag-teamed with the likes of the Hurricane and Rob Van Dam. Lightening up a wrestler in itself should not destroy their career but Kane's decline was more of a gradual process than something that happened overnight. He soon began jobbing to newly debuting monster heels like Batista and losing some of the menace that once made him a force to be reckoned with. Despite that, Kane still carried on as a high-ranking mid-card wrestler at worst, a powerful entity very few wrestlers could defeat without some sort of cheating tactic. Then the shit hit the fan when Triple H accused Kane of being a murderer and a necrophiliac, leading to an awkward and disgusting storyline involving Triple H in a Kane mask having sex with a mannequin corpse in a funeral home. Eventually, Kane was made to finally unmask on live-television in a second feud with Triple H and Evolution. It was downhill from there. Nowadays, Kane can be seen jobbing to various wrestlers that he would've demolished back in his masked Big Red Machine days(Edge, Randy Orton, Mark Henry, Rey Mysterio Jr., etc.).
- As well as having gained a lot of weight, losing his natural-looking muscle mass and looking very tubby for a guy his size. He also tends to resemble a penis, as noted by Jim Ross's Freudian Slip one night in calling him, "The one-eyed monster, Kane!"
- When he was first unmasked, Kane did gain a bit of badass back. He was pretty goddamn brutal (a series of matches he had against Rob Van Dam included him tossing RVD through a steel cage). After the rather awful Wrestlemania match between Kane and the Undertaker, that's when the decay really started. Now he's picking fights with the Great Khali's interpreter, because he's too scared to actually confront Khali.
- Badass Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo. Both were mid-card wrestlers with a decent amount of charisma and skills. That is until they both got involved in a gay marriage angle together. After a botched wedding, both wrestlers lost all credibility and their careers spiralled into oblivion.
- Tazz (or Taz). Initially one of the toughest, most brutal wrestlers in ECW, Tazz made his debut in the then-WWF choking out Kurt Angle. Very soon, however, Tazz's badass decay began when he began feuding with the announcers, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. After that was over, he became a glorified jobber. Though he did make a small comeback later on by winning the tag team titles with Spike Dudley, it was a little too late by then. After losing the tag team titles, Tazz pretty much stopped wrestling and joined the announce team with Michael Cole.
- As a general trend, the WWE's decision to rebrand their TV shows from TV-14 to PG in order to add family appeal has unfortunately resulted in some of this. In order to reach a PG rating, the WWE had to cut back on mature content: scanty clothing, innuendo, weapon use, blood, and especially swearing. Since there are fewer options available for faces and heels to emphasize Badass characteristics during a feud, decay is more likely to happen across the board.
- Ring Of Honor had a rather abominable case of this with BJ Whitmer. He spent 2006 on the cusp of stardom, proving himself as a Badass Determinator who bled for ROH and stood victorious after a barbed wire match with the infamous Necro Butcher. But then, after losing to his longtime archenemy Jimmy Jacobs, Whitmer went on a losing streak that completely nullified the entire year of Badass cred that he had acquired. It didn't help that he came out of the losing streak by aligning with Smug Snake Adam Pearce, who nobody bought as a major threat; thus, Whitmer went from an independent and awesome hero to the thug of a weak and cowardly villain.
Close Professional Wrestling
Tabletop Games
- The entire drow race in the Dungeons And Dragons Forgotten Realms setting. First they were sexy, intelligent, heavily matriarchal and Always Chaotic Evil insane badasses with a small pantheon. Then we got the hero Drizzt (a fugitive from his culture). Due to the Dungeons and Dragons rules discouraging evil players, some players want to be drow because they're cool... but good-aligned and without the severe social stigma, despite drow being nearly always evil and Drizzt being a considerably-developed unique example of a good-aligned drow. Then we got the good aligned deity Eilistraee, and her entire clutch of (mostly) female drow worshippers who, naturally, danced naked at night. (Their chief priestess, Qilue, has a magic dress of invisibility. No, it doesn't make Qilue herself invisible...)
- Drizzt himself in the 2nd edition had rules written solely to make him more dangerous, such as, despite being in a Critical Existence Failure based combat system, having a flat chance of killing anyone in a single shot. It was a low chance, but he had a better chance of killing someone with a normal attack than he did of scoring a critrical hit. In 3rd edition, he is a less then optimal build with very few special rules. This may or may not be a good thing.
- 4th edition seems to have taken steps to undo this Badass Decay. Qilue and Eilistraee are both dead, and Lolth has pretty much reestablished herself as the undisputed patron of the Drow.
- The Necrons of Warhammer 40000 and their C'Tan gods began as a supremely engimatic group of Eldritch Abominations with ultimately unknown designs for the galaxy in general and mankind in particular. They had few unit selections and no real characters because the vast majority of their forces simply had not awakened yet, or at least had left no survivors to report their existence, and ended up with a reputation for being The Wesley due to their implication of being ultimately unstoppable, despite two other major factions being just as doomsday-ish. Then, starting with the Fifth Edition, they started getting development and have been subjected to a nonstop Worf effect by everyone with no end in sight.
- Wait until the new Codex, plus: 1) they were God Mode Sues. 2) They were the reason why the Old Ones created the Eldar and the Orks (and maybe Humans). 3) They Worfed everyone during 4th ed while the two other doomsday-ish factions (Chaos and Tyranids) could be beaten, and 4) In fact, major losses are part of their fluff. Still, nothing stopped the Necrons short of a Blackstone Fortress (which, of course, was made to fight them) which is why you don't see fans complaining. Plus fluff-wise when they first showed up no one knew how to deal with them (minus Eldar), however by 5th everyone now has developed anti-Necron tactics; the Necrons on the other hand can't change theirs that easily (due to their programming), hence the Worfing.
Videogames
- In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Naesala takes advantage of the Begnion senators' greed by looting their ships and selling the swag to the others. He also sells his best friend for a nice sum. Whether or not he's being truthful when he says he planned to rescue him is up to you. In the sequel Radiant Dawn, it turns out Naesala is just the poor victim of the blood pact. It is never explained how he was able to swindle the senators while being forced to obey their will. Notably, he gets ordered around by a thirteen-year-old girl.
- Bowser has gotten a bit of this over the years, turning from the regular villain in every Mario game, to being a hero-helping turtle who worries about his image and really only wants a little Princess lovin' is all. Some people prefer this image of Bowser.
- Bowser tends to flip from one to the other almost every game. He goes from aspiring to marriage in Super Paper Mario to attempting to remake the universe in his own image in just one game. Generally it seems like the RPGs show his less villainous side. Not to mention the spinoffs...
- However, he recovers a lot of his badassness when he becomes a playable character in Bowser's Inside Story. Apparently Mao's idea that taking a hero role in the story makes you stronger wasn't so far off the mark. He isn't less of an idiot, but man does he kick ass. And he gets the best lines, too.
- Axel and Riku from the Kingdom Hearts series.
- In the first game his ambition, Riku's independence and pro-activity firmly cast him as an awesome Anti Hero/Villain dedicated to saving Kairi no matter what the cost. That doesn't really work out. Thanks also in due part by the Reverse/Rebirth mode of Chain of Memories, in which he is pressured by an enigmatic and morally ambigious Stealth Mentor into accepting the darkness in his heart, his independent spirit is all but absent in the sequel, where for the vast majority of the game he is content to play the role of the Black Cloak-wearing Mysterious Protector and wait for Sora to do the real hero work. He fully regains his badassness along with his righful body at the end of the game...too bad it took him this long, though.
- Axel was a cocky Manipulative, Magnificent Bastard in Chain of Memories and in Kingdom Hearts II, became a wimp who got his ass handed to him easily, failed to really think things through despite previously showcased to be capable of extensive planning, and had an unhealthy obsession with a fifteen-year-old boy. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days thankfully helps justify alot of this behavior and showcases geunine Character Development for Axel, but prior to this game, fans were wondering what the heck happened to him.
- Agrael from Heroes of Might and Magic V. He looks like a scary and wicked demon lord, but almost immediately he degenerates into sweet and cuddly and "I never meant to hurt anyone".
- Mannimarco from The Elder Scrolls is a particularily tragic example. When you first meet him in Daggerfall, he's a fierce and powerful lich lord of no small ability who commands armies of necromancers and is a strong political power, not to mention becomes godlike in the end and is still badass despite being an Expy of Kyuss from World of Greyhawk. Fast forward two games, and we arrive at Oblivion, where Mannimarco returns as...a skinny, wrinkly old man who sits around in a cave in the middle of nowhere and doesn't look menacing at all. He may still be a worthy opponent, but anyone who goes from this◊ to this◊ isn't going to be taken seriously any more.
- The Elder Scrolls wiki attempts to justify this by making mention of a Timey Wimey Ball that happened in Daggerfall...apparently it split Mannimarco into two beings: the King of Worms from Oblivion and the God of Worms from the previous game.
- Plus you weaken him by using the soul of the arch mage
- To elaborate, the leader of the Mages' Guild rips out his own soul and puts it inside a colossal black soul gem, functioning as a protective talisman against Mannimarco's enthrall spell, which instantly turns whatever it hits into a mindless zombie under his control. All he had as a backup plan was a silver dagger, mages in general are horrible melee combatants, and it's very hard to cast spells when someone is hacking you to pieces with a longsword.
- Still, you'd think that one of the world's most powerful wizards would have something powerful up his sleeves, no matter what the situation...
- Not to be confused with the Death Knights in World Of Warcraft, each one of which was a Badass DK.
- In the original Backyard Sports games, Pete Wheeler could master everything with his blazing speed. He eventually degraded into being the same as the other characters, thanks to the pros. He also Took A Level In Dumbass.
Western Animation
- Stewie from Family Guy started the series as an aggressive, psychotic, evil genius plotting to take over the world and kill his mother, but by the fourth season, he inexplicably became much more effeminate, petty, occasionally overly naive, and immature, seemingly abandoning his evil ways. Now his evil-ness is only occasionally mentioned, for a quick joke. Though this is unlike most examples, as this was probably because they didn't think it would be funny for much longer.
- The two-parter "Stewie Kills Lois"/"Lois Kills Stewie" addresses this Failure Is The Only Option issue. The ending reveals most of it was a virtual reality simulation he was viewing to see what things would be like if he did decide to commit himself to his ambitions right now. It turns out that though he could pull off world domination, in the end he'd be killed. (There's some funny Lampshade Hanging with Brian's comments on this story thus being a big tease.)
- Now, he's pretty much full-on gay. He practically openly admits to Brian on several quick occasions of his homosexuality, and his lisp has taken on such epic proportions that it makes me gag on my tongue. You can NOT go through a piece of Stewie dialogue without mocking him out loud.
- And now, a recent Adult Swim bumper revealed it: in a Playboy magazine issue, the series creator confirmed Stewie is officially a homosexual. I don't have the time to look up said bumper on You Tube, though.
- Gorgonzola from Chowder. At the beginning, he was more sarcastic and intimidating (to Chowder at least). Now he's a bit of a punching bag for the other characters, frequently getting his ass handed to him. People have said this happened when his master, Stilton, was introduced. To be fair, he wasn't seen in many episodes before that point.
- Mandy from The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy doesn't become less Bad Ass per se, but she does become less villainous, shifting from a not-so-secretly evil Infante Terrible to a manipulative but ambivalent Only Sane Man Daria who doesn't really care about anything, fights evil merely because she has nothing else to do, and isn't really vindictive unless someone disrespects her first. Of course, like Stewie, she still has her evil moments every once in a while, but it's no longer her defining character trait.
- Skeletor, a classic two-dimensional villain with no previous redeeming qualities whatsoever, abruptly turns good for no apparent reason other than "the Spirit of Christmas" in the He-Man and She-Ra Holiday Special. This had no bearing on later evil; it was just something the eighties did, apparently.
- In Ben 10, the titular hero's nemesis and Evil Counterpart is Kevin 11, an 11 year old with superpowers who was never portrayed as anything other than a murderous sociopath (with a degree of moderate genre-savviness, the show and characters even treated him as irredeemably evil instead of trying to redeem him due to his young age, since two early attempts to resulted in Kevin backstabbing them). In the new series, Ben 10 Alien Force, after a 5 year Time Skip Kevin is one of the 3 main heroes, and has inexplicably calmed down to a level somewhere between Anti Hero and Loveable Rogue, going so far as to have his own attempted Heroic Sacrifice / Redemption Equals Death moment by the 3rd episode.
- They were trying to do a spot of Ship Sinking for the Kissing Cousins pair of Ben/Gwen, by turning Kevin into Gwen's ideal man so fans would think they did belong together. It didn't work, and instead had the reverse effect of increasing the number of Ho Yay ship Ben/Kevin.
- Valtor (or Baltor, depending on the version you get), from season 3 of Winx Club, was a magnitude better Big Bad than his ridiculous predecessor Lord Darkar. Suave, fascinating, cool, powerful, and when he didn't use Mind Control for his deeds, he fought the heroines in first person (also since the Trix were quite ineffective). He blinded Layla, transformed Faragonda into a tree, made Tecna disappear in a black hole - even if all these events were resolved after a few episodes, they showed he was serious menace. At some point, the authors must have realized he was too powerful, and the fairies had to defeat him sooner or later; so, in the last episodes he became an increasingly stupid cardboard villain and, finally, his handsome appearance was revealed to be the disguise of his true form, a big ugly demon. One of the many wasted opportunities of season 3.
- If you ask me, Valtor was pretty much the only thing in S3 that wasn't a waste. His defeat can be chalked up more to the Winx tapping in to their fairy dust powers than Badass Decay. You want waste? Try Chimera.
- Skulker in Danny Phantom (Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter) is able to take down nearly any ghostly beast—big or small—without any fear. He hunts for sports and Danny Phantom is his only real challenge, otherwise, he's competent. Then by the last season, in one episode, it's spurred away: his motivation to hunt Danny is just to impress his one-time girlfriend (who points out how horrible he does said job despite no evidence of such), and despite handling a giant ghost monster in the same episode, is unable to fight back against a regular teeny bird! A latter episode had him running away from mutant unicorns instead of combating. Other episodes seem to depict him back to his Bad Ass self, but they're often minor.
- Captain Gantu from Lilo & Stitch suffers from this. In the original movie, Gantu was a respected captain in the Galactic Federation. He stood 20 feet tall and was trained well in alien martial arts (and to a lesser extent, hula-dancing). Although he ultimately failed his mission to bring Stitch back to the Federation, he came particularly close, and generally left us with the impression that he was an overall competent, and badass character. Fastforward to later sequels and the cartoon series, where he becomes a one-man Team Rocket. Gantu has since been fired, works under the employ of an anthropomorphic hamster, and is foiled on repeated occasions by the titular duo. On one occasion, he failed to succeed in an episode's mission when Stitch was incapacitated. He was foiled by a 6-year old child. You suck, Gantu.
- Although, it can be argued that he's a generally competent comedic villain, and the chief reason for his repeated failures was a combination of Stitch's overpowered abilities, his own arrogance, or horribly bad luck. He also redeemed himself in the movie sequel "Leroy and Stitch", where he helps the good side disable the clone army, and is reinstated as a captain in the Galactic Federation.
Music
- Rise Against, one of the most hard-edged, rage filled bands made entirely of vegan socialists working today, covering "Making Christmas" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Oh so hilarious.
- Metallica was generally accused of this starting with The Black Album, although it wasn't very common until St. Anger - it was even complete with a documentary showing the previously badass kings of heavy metal going into therapy, and even trying to bury the hatchet with their BigBad.
- Said BigBad, Dave Mustaine, lead singer of Megadeth, goes through pretty serious Badass Decay as well, bursting into tears and talking about how much it "hurts his feelings" when fans come up to him on the street supporting Metallica.
- Pretty much any hip-hop artist who started as a Bad Ass gangsta rapper and transitioned into mainstream film & TV work gets accused of this, whether accurate or not.
GANGSTALICIOUS: You know who my favorite rapper was when I was your age? Ice Cube.
RILEY: The dude that makes family movies? He was a gangsta rapper?
GANGSTALICIOUS: He was so gangsta. I used to have dreams that Ice Cube came to my house and killed my whole family.
Web Comics
- Kevin and Kell's uber-wolf R.L. [1]. R.L. begins the strip as the most fearsome predator at Heard Thinners, Inc. He does not lose his hunting skills, but after his medical domestication and marriage to Kevin's ex-wife Angelique, R.L now allows his rabbit wife to keep him collared and leashed. He fears smelly retribution if he fails to be a good father to his twenty skunk step-children.
Exceptions:
Comic Books
- Alan Moore's Batman story The Killing Joke could be seen as a cruel parody of this. We are privy to a tragic backstory for the Joker revealed in flashbacks as he tries to drive Commissioner Gordon mad by brutally shooting Barbara and then tormenting him with photos of her suffering. Near the end of the story, however, the Joker says that he doesn't clearly or consistently remember the events that made him what he is, naming the trope Multiple Choice Past in the process. (This story was an inspiration to certain filmmakers.)
- The same can be said of Going Sane in which the Joker, thinking he killed Batman, regains his sanity, becomes an upstanding citizen, and becomes engaged to a woman, only to return to his old self when Batman is revealed to be alive. Amazingly this story made him even more terrifying. If the Joker's insanity isn't an unchangeable absolute in the DC Universe, nothing is certain.
Live Action TV
- On Deadwood the Magnificent Bastard, Al Swearengen, did (in a series of scenes fans christened the "Blowjob Monologues") reveal a vulnerable side and all manner of inner demons (as a child, he was abandoned by his mother, and apparently pimped out by an orphanage keeper)... and, incredibly, remained a badass.
- Shark does everything they can to avoid having this happen to their badass protagonist, like the time he framed a Serial Killer. On the other hand, he gets to Pet The Dog by having meaningful conversations with his teenage daughter. Then again, the first episode showed that he believed in his methods, just that he realized the wrong people were benefiting from them.
- Inverted with Lilah Morgan on Angel. She started off as a fairly spineless villain, constantly showing fear regarding her superiors as opposed to her counterpart Lindsey McDonald who was calm and casual even when there was a good chance his bosses were going to kill him. When he was put on a bus, Lilah stepped up and became a scheming and manipulative bitch who rarely took insults lying down. At the end of her run on the series she was still scheming and manipulating, despite being dead. The audience sees her more human side through her growing relationship with Wesley and even earns some sympathy when she is brutally and shockingly murdered, while remaining whole-heartedly evil.
- Subverted in one episode of Law And Order: SVU where the Villain Of The Week was played by Robin Williams - not angsty, dramatic Robin Williams, but goofy Robin Williams, complete with funny voices, which he used to pretend to be "Det. Milgram" and talk a woman's male boss into violating her, then got the jury to laugh him back onto the street. At the climax he tries a version of the Milgram experiment with Elliot and Olivia, and when Elliot won't press the button, breaks down crying at how unfair his life is and how "sheep" killed his wife...then he "reveals" it was a Secret Test Of Character and goes back to his goofy self. This was played straight many, many times in the Law And Order franchise, however.
- Subverted awesomely in Primeval. The Gorgonopsid is an incredibly powerful Permian carnivore, serving as the main threat in the first episode and only going down after being hit by a SUV and shot repeatedly with an automatic rifle. In episode 6, the new human-hunting, intelligent baddie, the Future Predator, ends up following our heroes through a Time Portal and into the Permian. A Gorgonopsid appears, and we all wait for the old, outmoded creature to be killed by the new monster...except that doesn't happen. Instead, the Gorgonopsid proceeds to teach this future-spawned upstart just what throwing down, Old School really means.
- Arguably averted by Romana on Doctor Who, who even left on a high note. You might say the same of Donna Noble, too, despite her abrupt and cruel departure.
- Lost is extremely good at averting this, with badass characters remaining as such after we learn about their Freudian Excuse backstory. Especially Benjamin Linus, whose tragic childhood was sort of balanced out by him commiting mass murder because of it.
Mythology
- In contrast to Kitsune, Japanese fox spirits, the Korean Kumiho went from benign and even beneficial to vicious to finally Always Chaotic Evil (always).
Web Comics
- Author of The Order Of The Stick, Rich Burlew, specifically mentions this as a problem he faced when writing the Start Of Darkness prequel. Here's the full quote:
"Writing a story centered around your main antagonist is sort of difficult, because you risk "devillainifying" them. Yes, I just made that word up. What I mean though, is that once an audience has read all about a character's life, with all of their personal struggles and trials and tribulations and such, it's more difficult to see the character as the Big Bad. My challenge here was to tell the story of Xykon's life without making Xykon even slightly sympathetic. I mean, he's wholly and unapologetically Evil, but more to the point, he's kind of a dick."
- ...And he certainly succeeded. Xykon is not decayed; quite the contrary...
- Rich has a similar discussion about Belkar in the foreword for On the Origin of PCs, and states this is one of the reasons why Belkar's backstory pretty much picks up a few hours before the party forms. Although in this case it's more about that giving Belkar a sad backstory would make him rather a sad figure than being a comical one.
- More recently, Belkar has completely turned this trope on its head by learning that he can garner sympathy and influence by pretending to have a case of Badass Decay, after a vivid delusional debate with the only character in the series he's ever given much respect. Pretending to turn over a new (Bitter)leaf, Belkar has risked his life to save Haley Starshine—even though she abandoned him when he was in a similar situation—but only so that he could mock her about it afterward. He also selflessly refused to kill Haley's treacherous former friend, and convinced his companion to do it instead.
- Parodied with Aram in Men In Hats. (Aram's more of a Jerkass than a Badass, though.)
- Reynardine from Gunnerkrigg Court was introduced by betraying and nearly killing the protagonist, Antimony. By his very next appearance, he was trapped in a toy, under the thumb of the girl he tried to kill, and unable to do anything more evil than being annoying. At which point, Rey's cuteness and snarkiness made him more popular with the fans than before. And as Rey began (arguably) drifting towards the light side, he's begun showing himself more badass than before, in the service of protecting Antimony.
Web Original
- Paul Smith of Survival Of The Fittest fell victim of this towards the end of his run, pretty much laying down and dying and exhibiting little of his former spirit and in general, what made him entertaining. Jarringly, for the rest of his death, he was very in character. However, this is, at least in part, justified - another handler took over Paul for his death.
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