Sandbox / Flanderization Wick Check

This is a collaborative Wick Check for Flanderization. It will be completed when it reaches 72 wicks. Feel free to add a wick to its corresponding folder.

Why?: Because the trope is very often misused to mean Temporarily Exaggerated Trait (for a character who's exaggerated for one episode/chapter/etc) or Character Exaggeration (for a character being an exaggerated version of themselves in an adaptation).

Wicks checked: 72/72, 68% misuse rate.

• Correct: 23 (≈32%)
• Temporarily Exaggerated Trait: 3 (≈4%)
• Character Exaggeration: 6 (≈8%)
• Other: 21 (≈29%)
• Unclear: 20 (≈28%)

Correct Use (23/72)

• Character Shilling: Once Robin met Don, Barney was flanderized into a supreme womanizer who scored with every girl he hit on... and the rest of the cast inexplicably became his enthusiastic cheerleaders, even though in earlier seasons they'd only kind of put up with it and even expressed occasional disgust at some of Barney's slimier methods. They rooted for Barney every time he hit on a girl, actively helped him out at one point, and celebrated every time he scored (which was often). It was as if the writers were desperately telling their viewers, "See? See how much better Barney is as an exaggerated caricature of himself than when he was paired with Robin?" Then it's deconstructed when Robin reveals that she was actually quite upset when Barney started chasing girls and the other started cheering him on. The others realize what a dick he was, and he eventually settles down and commits to Robin.
• FixFic.Fanfiction The Trainer from a Far-Away Land acts as a Fix Fic for Pokémon: The Series, for people frustrated with Ash's Not Allowed to Grow Up status and Flanderization into an Idiot Hero. While most Fix Fic make Ash/Satoshi into a badass uber-genius, this fic maintains Ash/Satoshi's childishness and thoughtlessness but has Satoshi learn from his past experiences. He grew as a person along with growing older with his Aura powers from the eighth movie not being forgotten.
• Characters.Sonic Zombie:
  • Originally, he simply sounded high-pitched, and was barely referred to as Mexican. In Diaries he became Mexican and the stereotype overtook his entire character for the rest of the series.
  • Amy progressively gets more Sonic-obsessed as the series goes on.
• Webcomic.Nedroid: Inverted, interestingly. Beartato's earliest appearances implies him to be dim-witted and un-popular. As time goes on, he starts seeming more like a normal person, plays the Straight Man to Reginald what with having more common sense and apparently having more friends than Reginald. A recent comic even calls Beartato cool while Reginald is uncool. Seems to correctly describe an "inverted" example.
• YMMV.King Of The Hill: Lucky, despite being voiced by Tom Petty, gets a lot of hate due to being a contributing factor to the show's Negative Continuity and very little else. The reasons being that his relationship with Luanne (combined with Luanne's Flanderization) turned her into the exact kind of person she didn't want to be in the earlier seasons, his lazy lifestyle which Hank, for some reason, mostly tolerates despite being established as treating hard work and effort seriously, and his greater importance in the show's last legs despite contributing very little to the plot and not being particularly funny.
• Series.The Thick Of It:
  • Throughout the first two series and the Specials, Terri is a reasonably motivated and competent civil servant. By the third series she becomes noticeably stupider, lazier and more useless, to the the point where even the Opposition refer to her as "the useless one". She also becomes one hell of a lot bitchier. However, it's revealed in the fourth season that she's actually trying to get out with a redundancy package.
  • Same goes for Phil. In his first appearances during the first special (and the Opposition Extra that runs concurrent with the second special), he's an inexperienced and easily-jangled but fairly savvy worker with a desire to pony up to Peter Mannion and an obsession with the 80s. However, during the third series, he starts behaving very unprofessionally in his attempts to mess with Ollie, and in the finale, he's judged useless enough to be delegated to coffee duties. By the fourth series, he's little more than a useless, immature "8-year-old trapped in the body of a 12-year-old," about whom every interaction ends with either a punchline about how much he loves sci-fi and fantasy or something about him sucking up to Peter; admittedly, the worst of his uselessness is partly due to the fact that he's no longer teamed up with Emma.
  • Glenn Cullen's age is played up more as the series progresses. He goes from being the more overtly harsh advisor to Hugh, to being an out-of-touch old man in later seasons.
• Radio.Bleak Expectations: Happens very early on with Harry Biscuit. In the first episode he is introduced as a parody of the "older student at the horrible school" and a fairly normal person (at least by Bleak Expectations standards), but from the second episode onwards he swiftly morphs into a full-fledged Cloudcuckoolander and Bungling Inventor. A very nice example of Tropes Are Not Bad. Sounds like it fits, though the link to the Administrivia page is irritating.
• Franchise.Kingdom Hearts: All of these sound like they fit.
  • Now, while he was always a very positive kid, Sora was much more prone to negativity, anger, and doubt in the first game and Chain of Memories compared to the rest of the series. In fact, his situation even caused him some stress in the first game. By 3D, he's gotten to the point where not even failing his mastery exam makes him even the least bit discouraged, and he very rarely if ever stays mad or sad about anything. Remember back in the first game when he and Donald had an argument and Sora actually held a grudge about it for awhile? Lampshaded by Ansem the Wise in KHII, when he's amused by Roxas's anger and tells him that he should lend Sora some of his anger, as he (Sora) is "far too nice for his own good."
  • Also concerning Sora, his messiah status was greatly exaggerated over time. With how clearly it's been made lately that the entire universe rests on him and every single character is connected to him somehow, you'd almost forget that he's not even the universe's original Chosen One (he accidentally stole the job from Riku).
  • In the first game, Xehanort was portrayed as an unethical but ultimately not malevolent researcher who slowly became power-hungry as his experiments got steadily more dangerous. By III, he is (and has almost always been) a sadistic megalomaniac set on destroying the entire universe.
  • In the first game, Kairi is the Damsel in Distress only because she lost her heart in a sudden disaster that she could not have possibly anticipated or defended herself against. In III, despite having undergone combat training, she's captured and killed during a battle she specifically trained to take part in and makes no attempt to defend herself, securing her the uncontested title of "most pathetic character."
  • The entire Re Mind expansion for KH3 seeks to subvert this, by exploring a bit more of the consequences of Sora not fully understanding his power, Riku taking more of a leadership role, Xehanort being more methodical in his technique, Kairi being an Action Girl, and showing that Sora has become more mature and intelligent as he comes to terms with his imminent death.
• VisualNovel.The Eden Of Grisaia: Michiru has almost nothing to her but being a buttmonkey. Before, her attitude was largely faked and she wasn’t quite as dumb as she acted, especially not socially. Now she’s so ditzy that she attended the wrong Mihama academy for two months despite not having a matching uniform and being surrounded by kids a few years younger than her. Apart from her, Makina is a bit more of a jerk and Sachi is a bit denser and more obsessed with sharks, but nothing special. Yumiko and Amane on the other hand have had their previous quirks toned down.
• SeinfeldIsUnfunny.Fan Works: A vast majority of Ranma ½ fanfics written after 1998 or so were built almost entirely upon Fanon established in earlier works by notable authors; the absolute worst case of this being the Flanderization of Akane into a brutally violent, abusive raging bitch with a hair trigger and no rationality whatsoever—which was given legitimacy in the very dark The Bitter End, a story which painted a darker picture of the Ranmaverse and reconstructed this portrayal, with a Freudian Excuse, in the process. After TBE, "psychotic Akane" became one of the biggest cliches in Ranma fanfiction.
• GrowingTheBeard.Live Action TV: Alice (1976): The first dozen episodes of Alice were an attempt to recycle All in the Family in a Phoenix diner (with the notable exception of "The Last Review"). The characters were more serious, and almost every single episode was a Very Special Episode dealing with a finger-wagging moral of the day. For example, one episode dealt with Adam West as a Sex Education teacher. Mel Sharples, in a stunning example of Early-Installment Weirdness, was very much opposed. He bemoaned the end of school prayer. About the fifteenth episode, "The Accident", the series turns definatively to more screwball comedy. This move was solidified in the second season, when I Love Lucy writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carol Jr. were brought in as producers. Regular customers Henry Beesmeyer and Earl Hicks were added to bring even mour humour to the series. Finally, Mel himself went through some Flanderization to become laughably cheap and short-tempered.
• NightmareFuel.Lexx: 790 became crazier and more antisocial as the show went on - Flanderization, or is Love Slave programming just that powerful? Seems like the correct definition, if 790 is a character.
• Characters.Dead Rising: In the original game, he was a pretty normal, slightly stoic guy who made the occasional quip here and there and overall just tried to keep a cool head in the situation he found himself in. He was slightly cocky and had a bit of an attitude towards the beginning, but gradually became much more serious and genuinely tried to break the story for the good of humanity instead of gaining fame, save any survivors that he found in the mall, and to get justice for the outbreak in Santa Cabeza after Carlito's death. By Dead Rising 2, he is slightly more full of himself after his fifteen minutes of fame from breaking the Willamette story and a bit snarkier, but is still fighting to expose the corruption behind the zombie outbreaks, even collaborating with a major supporting character of that game, Rebecca Chang, and eventually its protagonist, Chuck Greene. And then there's Dead Rising 4, where he's either too traumatized by the events of the 2006 Willamette outbreak to cover the new one there, completely apathetic towards it since he'll just be buried by the government anyway, or he's a complete Manchild with an obsession for mini golf. Correctly describes a character getting more exaggerated over the course of a series.
• Roleplay.Noctur: Originally Radiatia was portrayed to have a reasonably intelligent populace with a handful of less-intelligent folk in rural areas cropping up from time to time usually Played for Laughs. At some point, rednecks became the national stereotype of Radiatia and their prominence was played up so much that Radiatia even elected an uneducated redneck as President (Jaagen Autenberg.) Assuming entire factions can be Flanderized, this counts.
• Characters.Invader Zim, regarding Dib and Gaz, respectively:
  • Notably a deliberate example of this happening. Partway through the first season, a movement known as "God Save the Dib" was started by the show's writing staff, who felt that Dib came across as boring and whiny in the early episodes, to make him more comedic and appealing. As a result, later episodes, while never dropping his status as the show's de facto Only Sane Man, feature plenty more moments of him acting like a wacky idiot, along with a much greater amount of Lampshade Hanging about his status as the resident dull Mr. Exposition. Assuming Flanderization can be done deliberately, this doesn't seem too bad.
  • In earlier episodes of the series, she was simply antisocial with the desire to be left alone. In later episodes, she gets angry much more easily, and becomes far more prone to sadistically hurting Dib or anyone else who crosses her at the slightest provocation. Her very first line in the first episode 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 later episodes like "Game Slave 2" or "Gaz, Taster of Pork". Correctly describes a character trait becoming exaggerated.
• Characters.Bewitched, regarding Endora: During the first two seasons, she's just looking out for Samantha, tolerates and actively makes the occasional attempt to get along with Darrin. During the early color seasons, she makes no secret of the fact that she hates him personally, by the final three seasons, she's an out and out racist, going as far as to refer to Darrin as 'It' on one occasion. Sounds like it fits.
• Characters.US Acres: In the comics, his appearances of early 1986 had him with a much more mellowed down Jerkass tendency and his prankster aspect merely started out with waking up other farm animals with his horn. These aspects were treated light-heartedly harmless and were not as much a core aspect of his personality. By 1988, he pretty much exists as a full on Troll for the farm.
• Anime.Pani Poni Dash: The characters were quite goofy in the original manga, but the anime exaggerates their quirks. Certain characters, such as Akira, become entirely one-note gag characters. Fortunately, the comedy is still strong and very well-executed.
• Characters.Suits: While he starts as an unsympathetic yet very competent Bad Boss-type with a few quirks (his soft spot for cats and a couple of unusual hobbies), by season three these quirks started overriding his professionalism, making him go to a mock trial for custody over a cat with an opposing (and equally eccentric) lawyer that isn't even his in the first place, and later totally flunks extremely important negotiations with said lawyer because of that cat. The other guy told him that he didn't read the cat the letters he wrote her.
• Happy Days:
  • Fonzie was initially a street-smart ex-hoodlum with a Hidden Heart of Gold. He was rough and tough, but more-or-less tolerated the main cast. Then he became The Ace, and increasingly got more friendly - eating "veggies", declaring "reading is cool", etc. - until by the end of the series he'd adopted a young boy and was essentially as friendly as any other character.
  • Potsie was originally Richie's ostensibly more wordly best friend and prone to giving advice (whether useful or not), but as Fonzie more and more took on that role, he became flanderized into a hopeless ditz.
  • Ralph's fondness for telling jokes was upped starting Season 3, along with his cowardice in more outlandish episodes following the shark jump.
  • Many characters were low-key in the early seasons. However, in the switch to filming in front of a live audience, the characters obviously (and understandably) became less so. Mr. Cunningham, for example, became more prone to over-the-top yelling. At the very least, the first three points sound correct.
• Characters.The Andy Griffith Show: Andy being the Only Sane Man in Mayberry becomes more and more obvious, especially in the last three seasons, almost to the point where it seems he harbors some contempt for the Eccentric Townsfolk around him. Doesn't necessarily sound like exaggeration, but it still sounds valid.
• Characters.Indiana Jones, regarding Prof. Marcus Brody: From a slightly absent-minded professor who was implied to have Indy-like adventures himself to someone who needed to be handheld through every situation. Somewhat justified in that, as Indy points out, he is way out of his element.

Could use a little more context, but sounds valid otherwise.

Temporarily Exaggerated Trait (3/72)

• Headscratchers.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Season 4: This is more speculative than anything else, but... was the Inspiration Manifestation inherently geared towards making things Awesome, but Impractical, or was that just because Rarity was the one using it, and it just exacerbated her personality? Like, if Pinkie Pie had gotten the book instead, would she have slowly turned into a proto-Discord? Personality being exacerbated in a single episode.
• Recap.Spongebob Squarepants S 4 E 4 Skill Crane Good Neighbors: SpongeBob and Patrick's antics are not as Innocently Insensitive as they were in "Opposite Day" (where Squidward also attempted to leave Bikini Bottom out of annoyance/hatred to the duo). They don't get a single clue that not only Squidward wholeheartedly hates them, he also wants nothing but to be left alone. Simply compares the characters' actions from one episode to a completely different episode.
• Characters.Coronation Street, regarding Tracy Barlow: Upon her return in 2002, she was more of a simple Jerkass with moments of sympathy, but for a time after her return in 2010, she had degraded into almost a cartoonish Card-Carrying Villain. She's returned to simple Jerkass behaviour currently, with moments of actually being likeable. Sounds like a brief degradation. Flanderization is supposed to be permanent.

Character Exaggeration (6/72)

• DarthWiki.Hello: Take That Me: Mike and Tom are both radical Flanderizations of both writers' most ridiculous traits. Seems to be Character Exaggeration, but for real people.
• Literature.Greyfriars: Bunter at his most exaggerated lived on alone after Greyfriars in a comic strip in Knockout from 1939 onwards. Derivative work, putting this example here.
• Characters.Harry Potter Death Eaters, regarding Bellatrix Lestrange: In the books, she only took a faux-childish facade once (in Order of Phoenix) in order to mock Harry, dropped it instantly once he used Cruciatus Curse on her and never took it again. In the movies, however, her entire personality and demeanour seem to be built around it. Even after aforementioned scene with Harry casting Cruciatus Curse, she continues to act extremely childish and goofy (for example, when Death Eaters are setting Hagrid's hut on fire in Half-Blood Prince, she spends that scene literally hopping in place and waving her arms like a clown). As a result, she is definitely less threatening in movies than she is in books. Sounds like an Adaptational Personality Change rather than this trope.
• Fanfic.Total Drama Everything: Stan goes from a savvy businessman who wants to make a quick buck and occasionally draw people over to the Mystery Shack in his home series to someone who won't shut up about the Mystery Shack and spends all his time trying to get people to visit when the game's done. This secures his early elimination. Sounds like it would count if it weren't a fanfic, but in this case it's likely a form of Character Exaggeration.
• Characters.The Stalking Zuko Series: In canon, he's a wise old man, an accomplished general and a powerful firebender whose eccentricities are partly due to Obfuscating Stupidity. Here, his eccentricities are significantly played up, often for the sake of comedy. Fanfic character exaggeration
• Junjou Romantica: Since the anime did not adapt the chapters where Hiroki's dere side show, it would seem that he is a complete "tsun" in Tsundere (until he undergoes Character Development in Season 2) towards Nowaki. The example explicitly hinges on differences in an adaptation, and it also explicitly says Hiroki went through Character Development which by definition isn't Flanderization.

Other Misuse (21/72)

• Metallica: James' memetic "Something-AHHH" Verbal Tic became much more pronounced after the "Black Album". "Verbal Tic becomes more common" does not mean "Flanderized".
• Series.Reba:
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The first season was noticeably different from the rest of the series in both tone and structure. The fact that it was set in Texas was regularly part of the episodes' plots, with all the actors at least attempting a Southern regional accent. Van was more dumb than crazy. Barbra Jean (frequently referred to by her initials) was also a huge Jesus Freak. Cheyenne was more Alpha Bitch than The Ditz, with Kyra even mentioning that she gets good grades. Brock wasn't nearly as vain. Reba was much more the Only Sane Man instead of a Control Freak. Though the show never fully abandoned plot and Character Development, Cheyenne and Barbara Jean's pregnancies gave the season a strong, contained Story Arc rather than the more episodic nature of the later seasons. Finally, the show was generally much more serious and grounded, as the Hart family tried to navigate through Cheyenne's pregnancy and the Harts' divorce around ultra-conservative neighbors, school principals, etc. Much like Married... with Children, the show kind of Flanderized into more of a live-action cartoon and chose to emphasize comedy over drama. Isn't used to describe a character.
• Peppa Pig: Mr Potato started off as a character from a ordinary kids show^note It is shown that the they spoke through Pokémon Speak. Since "Mr. Potato Comes to Town", he has become the local celebrity of Peppa's hometown from opening a theme park, hosting a Christmas stage show, getting a superhero movie, hosting a muddy puddle jumping competition and his show, well it transformed to a educational one (as he was once shown acknowledging Ms. Rabbit's jobs on TV). Seems to be describing the exact opposite of Flanderization.
• TabletopGame.Eberron: Some writers and fans have focused disproportionately on the Church of the Silver Flame's corruption, while it's no more corrupt than any other religion in the setting. Also, the Blood of Vol is often portrayed by fans as a religion of evil that worships undead - the religion is closer to The Bleak Cabal in Planescape than anything else (charity, focus on community, focus on making the world a better place), and Seekers do not worship the undead, they see FAITHFUL intelligent undead as martyrs for sacrificing their spark of divinity, intelligent undead that aren't members of the Church as threats like everyone else, and simply see mindless undead as tools to be taken advantage of, like fire. Might just be Depending on the Writer or Adaptational Villainy / Ron the Death Eater. This is complaining more about inaccuracies than anything.
• Characters.Knights In The Nightmare:
  • Mildly implied in-game; often Flanderized in fandom.
  • During the tutorials, she has a lot of disparaging stuff to say about Maria, complaining that heroines without catchphrases are lame, and that heroines who aren't also the protagonist like Yggdra herself are out-of-date. This seems to be around for the sake of Rule of Funny; much Flanderization has since occurred within the fandom. Why are these about fandom??
• Laconic.Its Always Mardi Gras In New Orleans: Certain cities are always depicted celebrating their signature festivals regardless of the actual date. Having / Celebrating a signature festival isn't "Flanderization".
• Literature.Bridget Jones: In the first movie, Cleaver's a womaniser who shows some remorse for his ways and seems to genuinely love Bridget in spite of his promiscuous nature. In the sequel he just comes across as a narcissistic Jerkass who only wants to get into Bridget's pants and literally could not care less about anyone but himself. Not a gradual change, but rather a shift.
• Characters.Lucky Star: Konata likes to flanderize her as one, but she's just not as good as Tsukasa. Pothole bolded. In-universe misuse, as this trope is about a character getting more exaggerated over the course of a series, not one character exaggerating another.
• Music.ACDC: They became known strictly for one specific sound, but their earliest albums occasionally had mellower blues-rock songs such as "The Jack" and "Little Lover". A band being known for something isn't Flanderization.
• Radio.New Dynamic English: Max was called "Mr. Steak" (implying that he's obsessed with steak) because he once said he liked steak in a courseware unit. Then again he did say it about twice. Doesn't sound like the right trope to me. More like Once Done, Never Forgotten.
• Characters.Golden Sun Protagonists: Tyrell's personality is largely an exaggeration of Garet's as he appeared the first game. He's even more Hot-Blooded, even more fiery, and has a touch of Power Incontinence to match his Hair-Trigger Temper. A character can't be a Flanderization of a different character.
• Characters.Paw Patrol, regarding Mayor Humdinger: He started out as simply The Rival to Mayor Goodway. But over time, he has become a full-fledged Dastardly Whiplash-style villain, with his plans descending into petty and childish goals, such as stealing a pinata, or entering a pie swap just so he can steal them all. Sounds more like the opposite of what the trope is.
• Characters.Sos Mi Vida: He had some beard early on, and in time it grew and grew... as if he had not shaved it in the whole year yeah this isn't flanderization. Beards aren't personality traits.
• Film.Hardware Wars: For Rule of Funny....The Luke Expy is even more dorky, whiny, naive and goofy and he talks like a 50's sitcom kid (see the Gosh Dang It to Heck! entry). Sounds like a parody more than anything.
• ComicBook.Secret Six: Based on Bane's comments on the subject, fans have Flanderized Scandal into being an ice-cream addict. This is Never Live It Down.
• ComicBook.Moon Knight: Due to many unfamiliar writers knowing nothing about Moon Knight besides his insanity, many of his brief appearances where he doesn't play much of a role results in him being shown as an almost complete joke whose mental illness turns him into a goofy Cloudcuckoolander. Doctor Strange: Damnation for instance has him acting suspiciously more like Deadpool than anything. Seems like Depending on the Writer
• Characters.The Flash The Flashes: While Wallace is still as much of a Wide-Eyed Idealist as the other Flashes, he has gotten really cocky and self-absorbed ever since joining the newest incarnation of the Teen Titans. He now devotes half of his attention recording himself during missions to post online. Wallace gets a What the Hell, Hero? from Red Arrow, but he just brushes her off. Whether this irresponsible behavior is a Freudian Excuse for realizing the nature of his existence or a case of Depending on the Writer remains to be seen. Doesn't seem to have the "minor trait" aspect.
• Characters.Spore: In “Clark and Stanley go Swimming” they chum the water to attract dolphins, only to get eaten by hungry sharks. This was the only Maxis adventure where their deaths were their own fault, though most fans still like to portray them as total idiots. Never Live It Down
• Characters.Golden Sun Protagonists: Tyrell's personality is largely an exaggeration of Garet's as he appeared the first game. He's even more Hot-Blooded, even more fiery, and has a touch of Power Incontinence to match his Hair-Trigger Temper. A character can't be a flanderization of another...
• DemotedToExtra.Western Animation, in an entry for American Dad!: Principal Brian Lewis is an odd example. For the first five seasons, he was more of an incidental character. But starting in Season 6, he became an Ascended Extra to the point where two back to back episodes of Season 7 had him as the driving force for the main plot. However, it didn't take long for people to grow tired of him especially since he also underwent Flanderization by further emphasizing his complete recklessness and over time seemed to slowly become less of a character and more of an excuse to get his voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson to say the most asinine crap the writers could think of. So by the time of the show's final FOX season (where he only appeared twice in contrast to the previous three seasons which had him appearing a minimum of five times), Lewis essentially went back to being the incidental character he started off as while retaining his post-Flanderization "personality". Hard to tell if it's correct, but it sounds more like it's just being used to bash the character.
• Please Twins!: Matagu. He was a pretty normal guy in Please Teacher! but has been flanderized into an incestuous creepy paedophile in this. I don't know what he was like in the original show, but it sounds like he wasn't Flanderized.

ZCE, or Otherwise Unclear (20/72)

• Series.Full House:
  • Jesse's obsession with his hair and Elvis.
  • Danny's obsession with cleaning. Both ZCE's
• Series.Reba
  • Flanderization: The entire cast except for Van, who became less stupid and more mature as the show progressed. Doesn't explain how anyone changed except for Van, who seemingly went the other way.
• EarlyInstallmentWeirdness.Animated Films: In the first film, Melman the giraffe is slightly less neurotic than he is in later installments. He also speaks with a slight Brooklyn accent, and in some scenes even shows hints of a Brooklyn attitude. Might count, but if the first movie is EIW, then maybe it doesn't count.
• ProtagonistCenteredMorality.Live Action TV: Family Matters did this in its last season, when Steve and Laura suddenly hooked up with each other. The problem is that they were both dating other people, who suddenly became their Romantic Runner-Ups. And to make things even worse, the writers thought it was a good idea to turn Myra, Steve's ex-girlfriend, into a Designated Villain. It might be true that Myra already had shown signs of being unhinged and morally ambiguous. But still, she had mostly been a good girlfriend to Steve, and she and Laura had even become friends. But in an attempt to make us root for Steve and Laura, who were the Designated Heroes, she suddenly was flanderized into an Ax-Crazy Stalker with a Crush, who couldn't bear seeing her ex-boyfriend with another woman. And still, you have to feel sorry for her. After all, she had been Steve's girlfriend for the last four seasons, even when other people often bullied him.
  • As well, there is Steve's virtual stalking and harassment of Laura—refusing to accept that she's not interested, pursuing her even though she practically begs him to leave her alone, taking even the most minutely nice thing that she said or did as a sign that she did return his feelings—all of which is portrayed as perfectly okay. Yet in an episode where a gang member makes advances to Laura, trying to touch her even though she's told him not to, it's rightfully portrayed as dangerous. Steve even slaps the guy's hand away, saying "The lady asked not to be touched", completely forgetting that he himself has been ignoring Laura's numerous refusals. Apparently, it's only harassment when others do it, not him. Potholed into an extremely long complaining entry, but given the context, it sounds valid enough.
• Characters.Book Of Kings: Her name is associated with the flanderization.
• Series.Stargate Universe: O'Neill seems to have cast off most of the Flanderization he acquired in the last few seasons of Stargate SG-1, generally limiting his silliness to a one-liner or two per appearance, but otherwise getting down to business.
• YMMV.Sponge Bob Square Pants S 7 E 14 Yours Mine And Mine Kracked Krabs: Never Live It Down: Patrick's attitude in this episode will not be forgotten amongst fans, especially the ones who already hate him due to his Flanderization. Especially helped by the moment Mr. Krabs is summoned and punishes the two for their argument. ZCE mention
• He Who Fights Monsters: The eponymous villain of the Batman: The Animated Series episode Lockup was a fairly obvious GOP pundit parody. Lyle Bolton constantly says that the "liberal media," "coddling doctors," and "gutless police" are responsible for supercrime in Gotham. He believes that the criminals at Arkham don't deserve privileges or even the most basic humane treatment. A point that is not, objectively speaking, necessarily wrong given that those criminals include the likes of the Joker, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and plenty of more public threats. Obviously, he's hyperbolized, but it's still pretty severe for a kids' show. ???????
• Series.Frankie Boyles Tramado Nights: As opposed to Mock the Week, Frankie's act here is almost entirely offensive for the sake of being offensive. Not enough context, and if Frankie is a real person, then...
• According to accounts by artists and voice actor Bob Bergen, the Larry Doyle-produced Looney Tunes shorts greenlit as a tie-in to Looney Tunes: Back in Action went through a lot of trouble for what ultimately amounted to nothing. Production on the shorts was marked by in-fighting between the writers and artists, and Doyle's insistence on pitching up voices like the old days led to issues with voice actors (including Bergen, who was planning on quitting out of frustration, only to learn he was being fired anyway; the role of Porky Pig went to a voice-pitched Billy West). When Warner Bros. executives saw what was being produced, they were appalled at what was being made, especially with the overbearing amount of blatant Demographically Inappropriate Humor in the shorts. They fired Doyle, re-edited the six finished shorts, and shelved everything else, leaving most of them unreleased after the commercial failure of Looney Tunes: Back in Action. When they finally did get released to the public (with Australia getting most of them long before the rest of the world), critics and fans took them to task for, among other things, simplifying the characters to a fault and relying too much on slapstick violence, including some of the family-unfriendly variety, and those who worked on them don't like talking about the experience. Seems correct, though it's unclear if the simplification happened over time or not.
• DarthWiki.Hypecastr: Almost all of the characters undergo a sort of reverse flanderization as they distance themselves from their original tropes. Characters such as Devilz Advkat take flanderization traditionally, to the point where Devilz starts to murder people. I'm not even sure what this is trying to say.
• Characters.Alice Girl From The Future: Jolly U is enormously obese. Rat is rather skinny (and he isn't a human at all). Rat is also usually the mastermind in their operations (in the retellings for younger readers, it gets flanderized to the point that Jolly U is a Dumb Muscle idiot who can hardly add two and two together). It never mentions that Jolly is stupid or strong, so this doesn't seem right.
• UsefulNotes.Asperger Syndrome: AS is unfortunately still in the Hollywood stage where, when a character has it, it will be his defining characteristic or even his full personality. Flanderization is a process, not just any time a character as a single defining characteristic.
• Characters.Psych regarding Gus and Lassie respectively:
  • Big Eater: Reaching Flanderization levels in season six. Though the season finale drops a line about Gus trying to do a cleanse so it may have been the result of an unsuccessful lifestyle change.
  • Definitely a case of Tropes Are Not Bad, but he does go through this over time. Neither example explain how they fit either trope.
• Characters.Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, regarding Sten:
  • Flanderization / Once Done, Never Forgotten:
    • Discussed. He's getting really tired of everyone thinking he's all about the baked goods.
    • Of course, this doesn't stop him from being obsessed with Cookie Clicker. Slashed example, hardly explains anything and the second point is just natter.
• Characters.Zoey 101: Lola is introduced in season 2 as an independent, trendy girl with an unique style and personality, as well as an original different hairstyle (and sometimes, different hair color) in every episode. By season 3 her unique style is gone, she's fashionable in a more conventional way, and also has stereotypical personality traits of a boy-crazy shallow girl (more or less replacing Nicole, after the latter is Put on a Bus). Having a hard time seeing what traits are exaggerated here.
• Characters.Care Bears1980s: Was at first a nice bear with a love for athletics before becoming a bear version of a mean gym teacher. Maybe a valid example, but the link between "nice athlete" and "mean coach" should be explained more.
• Characters.MASH Main Cast:
  • Regarding Frank Burns: Particularly in the fifth season, which led to Linville leaving the show when his contract expired, as there was no further development possible for Burns. (And the fact that even Linville was starting to hate Frank.) While other characters got better, Frank got worse. Doesn't explain how he was Flanderized.
  • Regarding Radar: Grew increasingly more childlike and naive as the show went along. Until Pierce got mad at him for his foolishness, which is where Radar began to snap back and mature in indignant response, before finally outgrowing all this in his departure episode. Sounds valid except for the part where Radar realized this and essentially un-Flanderized himself.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends:
  • Bloo wasn't nearly as much of a jerk in the early seasons.
  • The whole series could actually count in regards to how nastier it got in tone in the later seasons. While the first two seasons had their share of sadistic and mean-spirited moments (such as the infamous "Everyone Knows It's Bendy"), it was still a mostly lighthearted show. By the third season, while there are still some lighthearted episodes, there are far more moments of sadism and cruelty with even the most good-natured characters like Mac and Wilt suddenly turning into a jackass if the plot demands it. The first point is a ZCE, and the second point is misuse because entire series can't be Flanderized.
• Characters.What Remains Of Edith Finch: One possible interpretation of Edie, tying into the Ambiguously Evil entry, is that Edie, In-Universe, became consumed by her idea of a family curse, to the point that it became all that was important to her. Things like the rooms being perfectly maintained, the wood carvings, and her fictional recount of her husband's death by a dragon, paint Edie as someone who became obsessed with the idea of a family curse, and adjusted her life around it. Can Flanderization even happen in-universe?
• Characters.Planet Sheen, about Sheen himself:
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: His Flanderization puts him into this category perfectly. Doesn't give any context for how he fits either trope.