Took A Level In Jerkass / Web Original

• Dark Secrets of Garry's Mod: Medievil used to be an everyman in early days of the series. But over time he became more of an narcissist pervert.
• In a way, The Nostalgia Chick. Back when she started, she was really just Lindsay with pigtails and a bowtie. She had a few moments of Not So Above It All but was still pretty quiet, nice and sane. Now, however, she fakes being nice and is willing to kill to get power, has a Sex Slave robot who she abuses, and treats her best friend like shit. She's much more fun this way, though.
• Foamy The Squirrel of Neurotically Yours has become much more of a completely bitter ass over the course of the series. This contrasts with his earlier portrayal as a hyper-active squirrel who makes sarcastic quips about things.
• While The Nostalgia Critic is generally kind of a jerk, he really fell into this during Kickassia, developing into The Caligula.
  • After the reboot, the Critic is now much more aggressive, self-righteous and jerkish than before in general.
• The Danish YouTube character Spørg Casper ("Ask Casper"), played by comedian Casper Harding. One can compare the two videos in which he visits his stepbrother Brian. In the first video, Spørg Casper comes off as a relatively well-meaning simpleton (except for a few comments about Brian's weight, but these are more Innocently Insensitive than anything) who adores and admires his stepbrother and is genuinely oblivious to the fact that Brian is annoyed with him. In the second video, Casper's lack of social skills is even more pronounced, but he also becomes actively mean-spirited; he constantly makes fun of Brian's weight, destroys Brian's computer and ends the video by speaking ill of Brian's deceased daughter.
• Whether or not the host of The Music Video Show is a different person each season, the trope does apply. In the first two season, he is a slight Cloudcuckoolander who befriends a Pinkie Pie plushie, smokes a lightbulb to get high but most of the time is fairly normal. Cut to season four where he makes jokes about Domestic Abuse, gets REALLY into cannibalism pulls out knives for said cannibalism and has made jokes about child murder, suicide and abuse.
  • Season five is essentially season four taken up a notch. How so? The first episode has the host wishing JonTron to be killed and shooting a woman JUST for being a woman.
• Red vs. Blue:
  • After having Taken A Level In Kindness in the last three seasons, Church is far more antagonistic and bitter in Season 10 than he was even at the start of the series, due to having Mercy Killed Tex at the end of the previous season when he thought they were both going to die when the containment unit failed.
  • The Project Freelancer Saga reveals this happened to all of the Freelancers, with the exceptions of Tex^note who stayed on roughly the same level of Jerkass, York^note who only got more cynical, and Florida^note who was always a sociopath (and maybe North, since he was only seen outside of flashbacks as a corpse).
    • South Dakota was always a Jerkass, but she legitimately cared about North and was genuinely friends with Washington and CT. By the time of Recovery One, however, she's become an ungrateful, self-centered sociopath who kills North and tries to do the same to Wash while he was trying to save her life just to save her own skin from the Meta.
    • Similarly, Wyoming was also a Jerkass to start with, but he genuinely cared about his teammates, a large contrast from the man who killed York and tried to do the same to Tex multiple times with absolutely zero remorse.
    • The biggest example happens with Washington. He started out as a Wide-Eyed Idealist Nice Guy who was one of the few Freelancers to really have his shit together, before being driven crazy after his AI Epsilon floods his mind with memories of the Alpha's torture when it tried to commit suicide while being implanted. After he recovers, he's left a cynical, bitter, and brooding Knight in Sour Armor Sociopathic Hero obsessed with getting revenge against the Director. He gets even worse after he becomes convinced the Reds and Blues betrayed him in Season 7, to the point of pulling a Face–Heel Turn. He starts getting better after they forgive him and let him join them so he won't get arrested by the UNSC.
    • Maine was always The Brute, but he was loyal to his teammates and could be surprisingly protective of them. However, Sigma corrupts him into being the Meta, a mindless attack dog bent only on aiding Sigma's plans.
    • Carolina's worst qualities were brought to the surface after being repeatedly shown up by Tex and slowly manipulated by Sigma, with her becoming increasingly selfish and competitive. The Meta trying to kill her results in her becoming Ax-Crazy by the present day, and viewing the Reds and Blues as nothing but cannon fodder. She gets better thanks to Church's influence.
  • Donut has a downplayed version in Season 17. After going through a Trauma Conga Line and becoming increasingly bitter about his status as a No-Respect Guy, he becomes much more short-tempered and starts swearing regularly.
• RWBY:
  • Weiss started off in Volume 1 as a self-entitled and arrogant bitch that felt like she deserved constant praise and recognition for her talents and status. Episode 15 has her revealed to be a racist towards Faunus and stereotyped them as degenerates and terrorists, and though partially justified due to her family's war against the White Fang she still comes off as incredibly toxic even when she helps look for Blake. Thankfully, the rest of the series ultimately has Weiss become arguably the most compassionate and level-headed of the main characters, calling out a rich couple for mocking the tragedy that fell Vale and standing up to her greedy abusive father. In Volume 8, even though her mother told her about how Whitley feels, Weiss brushes him off, doesn't acknowledge him as a victim as she claimed she was and doesn't bother to apologize or try to make amends with him.
  • Blake started off as distant and shallow but ultimately a good caring person who wants to create change. However Blake has shown to slip into this territory twice. The first time is in Volume 2 when Blake becomes so obsessed with stopping Roman Torchwick that she neglects her studies, sleeping and her friends, even coldly turning down Sun's offer to go to the Beacon Dance with him. The second and most prominent time is in Volume 4 where when she returns to her home in Menagerie with Sun after the fall of Beacon. She then spends the entire volume acting very callous and rude towards Sun despite his efforts in trying to help her, even becomes physically abusive towards him and rather than act concerned for Sun when he's injured, Blake angrily berates him for following her in the first place. It takes Sun finally standing up for himself and calling her out for Blake to finally realize how much of a bitch she had been to him.
  • Yang has shades of this starting from the end of Volume 3. After losing her arm and Blake abandoning her, Yang goes into a depression in which she acts quite cold and distant to Ruby and more or less starts to view Blake as a traitor. After Ruby and Weiss unintentionally anger her in Volume 5, Yang accuses Weiss of not knowing what it's like to suffer from domestic abuse or neglect despite being told many times beforehand how bad of a childhood Weiss actually had. Yang does get better afterwards but she becomes the most vindictive and cynical member of the team. It isn't helped by the fact that she starts developing tendencies to blame others for her actions and possesses a double standard when it comes to keeping secrets. She's proven that she is unafraid to lie, keep secrets or tell half-truths when it suits her when she harshly condemned Ozpin for doing the same. In Volume 8, Yang blames Ruby for their situation, claiming that her poor leadership put them where they are. While some of Ruby's decision were indeed reckless and needed to be addressed, Yang is ignoring the fact that she went behind everyone's back to tell Robyn about Amity Tower. This caused Ironwood to lose all trust in RWBY, so Yang deserves some blame as well.
  • Jaune is mostly the Nice Guy of the series but is mostly at the start seen as a Kindhearted Simpleton and The Ditz by most people. Jaune eventually after failing a few times to be a competent fighter develops an inferiority complex and becomes frustrated at how he has to be constantly saved and wants to be the hero, revealing he snuck into Beacon and becomes a bit self-centered in which he angrily sends Pyrrha away for trying to help him. This however leads to Cardin overhearing their conversation and using Jaune's secret as leverage to force him to do anything he wants. Jaune however finally grows a pair, refusing to do Cardin's dirty work and even saves him from an Ursa with assistance from Pyrrha. After the fall of Beacon and Pyrrha's death, Jaune grows cynical and even accuses Qrow and Ozpin of forcing Pyrrha to become the Fall Maiden (despite Pyrrha agreeing to do so freely). He becomes his worst when after Ruby reveals Ozpin's secrets to which Jaune nearly throttles Oscar, a kid who was dragged into this whole mess unwillingly, though Jaune does stop.
  • Ozpin appears to become more of a Jerkass when his true feelings about the world come out. We are lead to believe for most of the series as Ozpin is a paragon of hope, leadership and kindness who believes in teamwork and companionship though has a few skeletons in his closet. However it's revealed that deep down Ozpin is a very cynical and paranoid person, incapable of completely trusting anyone and so drowned in guilt, self-pity and fear that he is willing to lie and manipulate others around him despite not actually having a plan to stop Salem or ever thinking that he could stop her. While this is more a minor Bitch in Sheep's Clothing reveal, Ozpin does in these moments before they awaken Jinn act far more cold and bitter towards the girls than most of the series, and even tries to attack Ruby when she asks Jinn to revealed his secrets. When his lies are exposed, he seals himself away in Oscar's mind out of shame however was still willing to help out Oscar and eventually returns when Ironwood tries to shoot Oscar dead.
• Escape the Night:
  • Matthew Haag was well-meaning, if a bit insensitive at first, but as the night progresses, his frustrations grow. He also loses interest in helping out, becoming The Load when he used to be The Smart Guy. Matt decides to take his frustrations out on his teammates, insulting them at every opportunity, something he never did before.

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