Basic Trope: Character becomes more of a jerk over time.
- Straight: Alice starts out as an Aloof Ally, but she still clearly respects her True Companions. However, over time, she turns into an Insufferable Jerkass.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice starts out as a shrinking violet with a touch of cynicism wearing Jade-Colored Glasses. Near the end, she went Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
- Face–Heel Turn
- Downplayed:
- Alice goes from a Nice Girl to a slightly irritable jerk.
- Alice has always been a jerkass, but becomes more of a jerk than she usually is.
- Alice goes from a Nice Girl to a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Alternatively: Alice goes from a Jerk with a Heart of Gold to a straight up Jerkass.
- Jerkass Ball
- Took a Level in Cynic
- Alice goes from an Affably Evil Worthy Opponent to a pointlessly mean one.
- Took a Level in Smartass
- Broken Bird
- Justified:
- Alice's life has been falling apart and she's just stressed.
- Alice's friends are so much like idiots that this becomes too much for her to handle.
- Alice no longer trusts anybody after so many weeks of betrayal.
- Alice suffered a terrible trauma and is overwhelmed by PTSD.
- Alice's friends are constantly mean to her, so she slowly acts the same as them.
- Alice took a severe blow to the head and suffered brain damage, resulting in increased aggression and decreased impulse control.
- Alice is suicidal or planning to do a Heroic Sacrifice and she's deliberately trying to push her friends and family away, in order to make it easier.
- Alice's change in behavior is a sign that she's Not Herself.
- Alice is extremely miserable due to some sort of ailment she was afflicted with and starts lashing out at people because of it.
- Inverted: Took a Level in Kindness.
- Subverted:
- Alice suddenly acts like a total jerkass, but in reality it's a defense mechanism because she's stressed out. She's a nice girl underneath.
- Alice was always a jerkass. But she wasn't a jerk to her True Companions or people they're close with, so they didn't really notice it at first.
- Alice was always a jerkass, but she wasn't given enough screen time to show her rotten personality before.
- Double Subverted:
- ...but then flips around and becomes a total douchebag.
- ...but even though Alice was always a jerkass, she has gotten worse. And when she was a jerk to people in the past, those people were being jerks to her, and she was just standing up for herself.
- Parodied: Everyone refers to Alice being unusually nice while she's running around kicking hobos in the face For the Evulz. They keep on acting like she's being nice even when she sets a guy on fire for no reason.
- Zig Zagged: Depending on her mood, she's either a jerk or kind.
- Averted: Alice's characterization remains about the same. While she's still snarky, any time she goes too far such as making a crack about Bob's Doomed Hometown, she apologizes.
- Enforced:
- The creator of the series wants the fans to focus more on other characters, so they make Alice just unlikable.
- The creator notices that the fans hate Alice for her nice personality, so they decide to change her character into a jerkass.
- The creator is basing Alice off of someone they knew who became a jerkass over time.
- The creator is building towards a moment where Alice has a Jerkass Realization and has to deal with the consequences of what she's done when she became a jerkass.
- The creator wants to make a point about how people can sometimes change for the worse.
- Lampshaded: Someone notes that Alice wasn't always this much of a jerk.
- Invoked: Jerkass Ball.
- Exploited: The Big Bad knows Alice is The Chosen One and wants to make sure she stays a jerk so no one will support her on her journey.
- Defied: Even though Alice has some stress in her life, she makes sure not to take her anger out on anyone.
- Discussed: "Man, Alice's really turned into something else."
- Conversed: "Remember when Alice was a Nice Girl? No, neither do I."
- Deconstructed:
- Alice has been through things worse than death while fighting things that should not exist. This transition is showing how she is falling apart and may end up switching sides.
- Alice became such a jerkass, her friends and family no longer want anything to do with her.
- Reconstructed: Alice's friends help her get through these traumatizing experiences, letting her know that she isn't alone. This helps Alice pull herself back together.
- Untwisted:
- A prequel introduces a kind young woman, who is slowly revealed to be Alice, a foul-mouthed Jerkass in the main series.
- Alice a jerkass is revealed to have being Cruel to Be Kind. At least she used to believe that, now she does not care at all.
- Alice was always a douchebag to begin with but she is more meaner than her true colors as a nasty individual back then.
- Alice turns out to have a few redeeming qualities despite being turned into a jerk, but is still a lot more ruder than how she really was before than.
- Implied: People are shocked by Alice's mean behavior, because it takes them by surprise. When Bob acts mean they roll their eyes as such behavior is typical of him.
Back to Took a Level in Jerkass.
