History CharacterDerailment / Literature

* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': Double subverted in ''Twilight'' when some of the characters are confused about how Onestar became such an ass overnight. It's at first dismissed as him asserting [=WindClan's=] independence, but it's still ongoing seven books later. In fact he's even ''worse'' now.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':
** Jacob Black is introduced in the first book as a boy with a crush on Bella, fleshed out as a nice, likable guy in ''New Moon'' who becomes Bella's best friend and [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy just wants her to be happy,]] and then derailed in ''Eclipse'' into a love-crazed person who sexually assaults Bella and breaks her hand. It's almost as if Meyer feared that she had made Jacob ''too'' sympathetic a RomanticFalseLead and did some canon DieForOurShip in the succeeding book to [[ShipSinking sink]] the Bella/Jacob ship. Jacob's characterization in ''Breaking Dawn'' is better...until he's trapped in a {{squick}}y CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds scheme.

* Natasha Rostova from ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' is generally thought of as one of the greatest characters in fiction. However, in the epilogue, Tolstoy strips her of all personality and any talents she once had in order to hammer in a moral about how woman should devote themselves entirely to motherhood and not have any life for themselves outside of child rearing.
* ''Franchise/NancyDrew'' began as a strong, capable young woman who was quite snarky and would talk back to authority among other things. She slowly became meeker and watered-down, never exhibiting any "mean" traits, always doing as told and many times becoming the damsel in distress. Strange that she was a much more of a strong, confident woman who could hold her own in the 1920s than now.
* In a 1940 essay on Creator/CharlesDickens, Creator/GeorgeOrwell noted that Dickens derailed his characters all the time, and is "never better than when he is building up some character who will later on be forced to act inconsistently."
* [[BadassNormal Roran]] from the Literature/InheritanceCycle undergoes a very sudden case of this after his slaughter of nearly 200 {{Mooks}}, wishing he could have killed more. This is nothing like how he has been previously characterized (he even angsted over the men he'd killed).
* Lise, [[PluckyComicRelief Madame Khokhlakov's]] [[DelicateAndSickly mysteriously sick daughter]] from ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'', eventually recovers from her affliction late in the book, right before [[spoiler:Dmitri's trial]]. She goes from being a perfectly happy person in love with the protagonist to contemplating [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] and murder, completely out of sync with her established character, [[DeusAngstMachina as if just to hurt the protagonist]]. Most people [[FanonDiscontinuity ignore that chapter of the book]].

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'':
** Jacob Black is introduced in the first book as a boy with a crush on Bella, fleshed out as a nice, likable guy in ''New Moon'' who becomes Bella's best friend and [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy just wants her to be happy,]] and then derailed in ''Eclipse'' into a love-crazed person who sexually assaults Bella and breaks her hand. It's almost as if Meyer feared that she had made Jacob ''too'' sympathetic a RomanticFalseLead and did some canon DieForOurShip in the succeeding book to [[ShipSinking sink]] the Bella/Jacob ship. Jacob's characterization in ''Breaking Dawn'' is better...until he's trapped in a {{squick}}y CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds scheme.
** Then there was Charlie, Bella's father and who a lot of people call the only truly likable character in the series. At first, he was an overprotective father (which seems justified considering who his daughter hangs out with and his daughter being, uh, well a little ''too'' love-obsessed). Hell, he was a police officer. Then, when the aforementioned event of Jacob assaulting her and breaking her hand happens, he brings her home basically to brag about it....which Charlie ''congratulates'' him for doing.
** In ''Eclipse'', the brief amount of time we see Bree Tanner leaves her very pitiable, between her being shanghaied into a newborn vampire army and sent as cannon fodder against the Cullens and being murdered by the Volturi. In ''The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner'', she goes on endlessly about how humanity sucks and she's so glad she left her human life to be a vampire, showing absolutely no acknowledgement or compassion towards the fact that she now survives by ''murdering people''. Because, you know, ''any'' vampire who is not with the Cullens can't possibly have their condition portrayed sympathetically.
** In ''Twilight'', Laurent is stated to only be traveling with James and Victoria for his own protection. Once the Cullens separate him from James, he shows no hostility toward anyone in particular and when we last hear of him, he's gone to live with the similarly non-murderous vampire coven in Denali, Alaska and shows interest in the "vegetarian" lifestyle that they live. When he returns in ''New Moon'', Laurent is in full CardCarryingVillain mode and tries to eat Bella just because he could and saying things about how Bella should be grateful that it's him eating her instead of Victoria.

%%* ''Literature/TheVampireDiaries: The Return: Nightfall'' by L. J. Smith was a [[CanonDefilement trainwreck]]. She [[GenreShift changed the universe]] of the story mid series, and ruined the EnsembleDarkhorse.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': Double subverted in ''Twilight'' when some of the characters are confused about how Onestar became such an ass overnight. It's at first dismissed as him asserting [=WindClan's=] independence, but it's still ongoing seven books later. In fact he's even ''worse'' now.
* Some fans may argue that there was no character there to derail, but most of the heroic female characters in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' went through this pretty heavily as the books went on. Robert Jordan wanted to portray them as strong in spirit, with Nynaeve in particular suffering from some anger issues. Later on, they all became judgmental bitches who thought all men were "woolheads" and never stopped trash-talking all men in general, particularly the men who would do things like attempt to rescue them when they're captured. And Nynaeve's anger issues spike dramatically as the series goes on. She seems to fly into a rage over the smallest things. However, much of this came while they were surrounded almost totally by women (Egwene especially). Considering that a major theme of his series was to explore a universe with an altered gender dynamic, some of their examples clearly represent the casual sexism of locker room environments.

* Remember when ''Literature/AnitaBlakeVampireHunter'' was a tough, sarcastic but interesting young woman who hunted vampires and played in the sandbox with various preternatural critters like werewolves, wereleopards and the like? Up until ''The Killing Dance'', she was also a CelibateHero. Then she slept with a vampire. And then she slept with a werewolf. No big deal, she just had to choose between the two of them and--oh no, there's this thing called "the ardeur" that means she has to have sex every few hours or she will in fact '''die'''. And then she became an insufferable, short-tempered brat who wants everything to go her way all the time or she'll kill you.

* Ford Prefect in ''Literature/AndAnotherThing''. In Adams's books, Ford is a very resourceful, streetwise researcher who [[BrilliantButLazy admittedly prefers getting blind drunk to doing work]] and is [[OnlySaneMan fairly normal compared to]] [[CrapsackWorld the rest]] [[WorldGoneMad of the universe]]. Here, he's a [[TheDitz bumbling idiot who barely seems to notice that he and Arthur are in danger throughout the book]]. This could ''theoretically'' be explained by his being stoned, if not for the fact that A), he is only seen smoking the Joystick twice, at the very beginning and end of the book, and B), his decision to do so at all is pretty out of character.

* Lise, [[PluckyComicRelief Madame Khokhlakov's]] [[IllGirl mysteriously sick daughter]] from ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'', eventually recovers from her affliction late in the book, right before [[spoiler:Dmitri's trial]]. She goes from being a perfectly happy person in love with the protagonist to contemplating [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] and murder, completely out of sync with her established character, [[DeusAngstMachina as if just to hurt the protagonist]]. Most people [[FanonDiscontinuity ignore that chapter of the book]].

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' Cersei was the primary villain in the first book, and was a noted schemer. Her plot to kill Robert Baratheon was very clever in how it came off as an accident. As the books go on, she's presented as more and more incompetent. Justified, in later books Cersei's scheming is portrayed in more than just her own viewpoint. She views herself as a brilliant manipulator, it turns out all the real players think she's a complete idiot, including her own family. At least Book 3 has her successfully twisting peoples' arms to testify against Tyrion at his trial. However, when Book 4 comes and presents her perspective, she's shown as a complete moron time and time again. Not only is she seeming to be more pathetic as a plotter, she actually comes off as ''less'' sympathetic when you see her point of view. In the past she was at least considered a devoted mother, but in Book 4 she seems awfully indifferent about her children except for how it impacts her. In fact, it's presented that since there was a prophecy that said all of her children would die before her, her concern for her children's well-being could have a much more selfish bent. In-Universe, other characters seem to note how awful she's become. Littlefinger predicted that she would ruin the realm, but not nearly as fast as she did. Her brother Jaime begins to wonder why he ever felt attracted to her once he realizes how pathetic and evil she is. Of course, a continuing theme in the stories is the difference between taking and holding power. Cersei was good at increasing her power, but the presence of her father [[BigBad Lord Tywin]] enabled efficiency in the Lannister regime. [[spoiler:After his murder]], Cersei holds complete power and refuses to let anyone reign her in.

* Natasha Rostov from ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' is generally thought of as one of the greatest characters in fiction. However, in the epilogue, Tolstoy strips her of all personality and any talents she once had in order to hammer in a moral about how woman should devote themselves entirely to motherhood and not have any life for themselves outside of child rearing.

** The ''Sun in Glory'' anthology entry "Rebirth" involves the setting's powers-that-be, who have never been portrayed as anything but benevolent and non-interfering, punishing a guy by reincarnating him [[IncestIsRelative into the body of his lover's newborn child]]. Yeah. And his "crime"? Saving an innocent woman's life, the life of the queen he was pledged to protect, because for some arbitrary never-described reason she should have died. And for some reason all the other spirits of dead Heralds (who made the same pledge and in many cases died for it) refuse to help him and think letting someone die is perfectly just. How this was approved by the canon author is anyone's guess.

* [[BadassNormal Roran]] from the Literature/InheritanceCycle undergoes a very sudden case of this after his slaughter of nearly 200 {{Mooks}}, wishing he could have killed more. This is nothing like how he has been previously characterized (he even angsted over the men he had killed).

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' Cersei was the primary villain in the first book, and was a noted schemer. Her plot to kill Robert Baratheon was very clever in how it came off as an accident. As the books go on, she's presented as more and more incompetent. Justified, in later books Cercei's scheming is portrayed in more than just her own viewpoint. She views herself as a brilliant manipulator, it turns out all the real players think she's a complete idiot, including her own family. At least Book 3 has her successfully twisting peoples' arms to testify against Tyrion at his trial. However, when Book 4 comes and presents her perspective, she's shown as a complete moron time and time again. Not only is she seeming to be more pathetic as a plotter, she actually comes off as *less* sympathetic when you see her point of view. In the past she was at least considered a devoted mother, but in Book 4 she seems awfully indifferent about her children except for how it impacts her. In fact, it's presented that since there was a prophecy that said all of her children would die before her, her concern for her children's well-being could have a much more selfish bent. In-Universe, other characters seem to note how awful she has become. Littlefinger predicted that she would ruin the realm, but not nearly as fast as she did. Her brother Jaime begins to wonder why he ever felt attracted to her, once he realizes how pathetic and evil she is. Of course, a continuing theme in the stories is the difference between taking and holding power. Cersei was good at increasing her power, but the presence of her father [[BigBad Lord Tywin]] enabled efficiency in the Lannister regime. [[spoiler:After his murder]], Cersei holds complete power and refuses to let anyone reign her in.
* Remember when ''Literature/AnitaBlakeVampireHunter'' was a tough, sarcastic but interesting young woman who hunted vampires and played in the sandbox with various preternatural critters like werewolves, wereleopards and the like? Up until ''The Killing Dance'', she was also a CelibateHero. Then she slept with a vampire. And then she slept with a werewolf. No big deal, she just had to choose between the two of them and--oh no, there's this thing called "the ardeur" that means she has to have sex every few hours or she will in fact '''die'''. And then she became an insufferable, short-tempered brat who wants everything to go her way all the time or she will kill you.

* Remember when ''Literature/AnitaBlakeVampireHunter'' was a tough, sarcastic but interesting young woman who hunted vampires and played in the sandbox with various preternatural critters like werewolves, wereleopards and the like? Up until ''The Killing Dance'', she was also a CelibateHero. Then she slept with a vampire. And then she slept with a werewolf. No big deal, she just had to choose between the two of them and--oh no, there's this thing called "the ardeur" that means she has to have sex every few hours or she will in fact '''die'''. And then she began an insufferable, short-tempered brat who wants everything to go her way all the time or she'll kill you.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' Cersei was the primary villain in the first book, and was a noted schemer. Her plot to kill Robert Baratheon was very clever in how it came off as an accident. As the books go on, she's presented as more and more incompetent. Justified, in later books Cercei's scheming is portrayed in more than just her own viewpoint. She views herself as a brilliant manipulator, it turns out all the real players think she's a complete idiot, including her own family. At least Book 3 has her successfully twisting peoples' arms to testify against Tyrion at his trial. However, when Book 4 comes and presents her perspective, she's shown as a complete moron time and time again. Not only is she seeming to be more pathetic as a plotter, she actually comes off as *less* sympathetic when you see her point of view. In the past she was at least considered a devoted mother, but in Book 4 she seems awfully indifferent about her children except for how it impacts her. In fact, it's presented that since there was a prophecy that said all of her children would die before her, her concern for her children's well-being could have a much more selfish bent. In-Universe, other characters seem to note how awful she's become. Littlefinger predicted that she would ruin the realm, but not nearly as fast as she did. Her brother Jaime begins to wonder why he ever felt attracted to her once he realizes how pathetic and evil she is. Of course, a continuing theme in the stories is the difference between taking and holding power. Cersei was good at increasing her power, but the presence of her father [[BigBad Lord Tywin]] enabled efficiency in the Lannister regime. [[spoiler:After his murder]], Cersei holds complete power and refuses to let anyone reign her in.

* [[BadassNormal Roran]] from the Literature/InheritanceCycle undergoes a very sudden case of this after his slaughter of nearly 200 {{Mooks}}, wishing he could have killed more. This is nothing like how he has been previously characterized (he even angsted over the men he'd killed).

* ''Franchise/NancyDrew'' began as a strong, capable young woman who was quite snarky and would talk back to authority among other things. She slowly became more of a meek, watered down MarySue, never exhibiting any "mean" traits, always doing as told and many times becoming the damsel in distress. Strange that she was a much more of a strong, confident woman who could hold her own in the 1920s than now.

** Jacob Black is introduced in the first book as a boy with a crush on Bella, fleshed out as a nice, likable guy in ''New Moon'' who becomes Bella's best friend and [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy just wants her to be happy,]] and then derailed in ''Eclipse'' into a love-crazed person who sexually assaults Bella and breaks her hand. It's almost as if Meyer feared that she had made Jacob ''too'' sympathetic a RomanticFalseLead and did some canon DieForOurShip in the succeeding book to [[ShipSinking sink]] the Bella/Jacob ship. Jacob's characterization in ''Breaking Dawn'' is better...until he's trapped in a {{squick}}y CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds [[RelationshipSue scheme.]]

* Remember when ''Literature/AnitaBlakeVampireHunter'' was a tough, sarcastic but interesting young woman who hunted vampires and played in the sandbox with various preternatural critters like werewolves, wereleopards and the like? Up until ''The Killing Dance'', she was also a CelibateHero. Then she slept with a vampire. And then she slept with a werewolf. No big deal, she just had to choose between the two of them and--oh no, there's this thing called "the ardeur" that means she has to have sex every few hours or she will in fact '''die'''. And then she began an insufferable, short-tempered GodModeSue who wants everything to go her way all the time or she'll kill you.

* Tom Sawyer started in ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer'' as a boy who was a little too interested in pirates, but yet still very smart, genre-savvy, and compassionate. But when we meet him again in the ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'' he has become a one-dimensional mockery of himself. [[PlotTumor every single one of his character traits has been jettisoned except for his obsession with swashbuckling epics, which has been cranked up to twelve.]] This led to him hiding the fact that the captured slave Jim has already been freed just so that he can live out his twisted fantasies of a proper escape (leading to Jim being imprisoned for an extra month, being shot at, and almost lynched).
** This {{Flanderization}} may be a result of Creator/MarkTwain's CreatorBacklash against Tom's popularity.

* Natasha Rostov from ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' is generally thought of as one of the greatest characters in fiction. However, in the epilogue, Tolstoy strips her of all personality and any talents she once had in order to hammer in [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop a moral about how woman should devote themselves entirely to motherhood and not have any life for themselves outside of child rearing]].

* Tom Sawyer started in ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer'' as a boy who is a little too interested in pirates, but yet still very smart, genre-savvy, and compassionate. But when we meet him again in the ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'' he becomes a one-dimensional mockery of himself; [[PlotTumor every single one of his character traits has been jettisoned except for his obsession with swashbuckling epics, which has been cranked up to twelve]]. This led to him hiding the fact that the captured slave Jim has already been freed just so that he can live out his twisted fantasies of a proper escape (leading to Jim being imprisoned for an extra month, being shot at, and almost lynched).

* In a clear case of WriterOnBoard, in ''The Land Of Mist'' Sir Creator/ArthurConanDoyle has his ultra-rationalist hero Literature/ProfessorChallenger (who has always denied the existence of the supernatural) [[EasyEvangelism convert to Spiritualism]]. The novel is an AuthorTract written following Doyle's own conversion to Spiritualism and is easily the least well-regarded (but longest) of the Challenger novels. This is a controversial example, however: For it to be true derailment, it has to be ''implausible'', and Doyle does provide a catalyst for Professor Challenger's ''volte face'' in the death of his beloved wife.

** Jacob Black is introduced in the first book as a boy with a crush on Bella, fleshed out as a nice, likable guy in ''New Moon'' who becomes Bella's best friend and [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy just wants her to be happy]], and then derailed in ''Eclipse'' into a love-crazed person who sexually assaults Bella and breaks her hand. It's almost as if Meyer feared that she had made Jacob ''too'' sympathetic a RomanticFalseLead and did some canon DieForOurShip in the succeeding book to [[ShipSinking sink]] the Bella/Jacob ship. Jacob's characterization in ''Breaking Dawn'' is better... until he's trapped in a {{squick}}y CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds [[RelationshipSue scheme]].
** Then there was Charlie, Bella's father and who a lot of people call the only truly likable character in the series. At first, he was an overprotective father (which seems justified considering who his daughter hangs out with and his daughter being, uh, well a little ''too'' love-obsessed). Hell, he was a police officer. Then when the aforementioned event of Jacob assaulting her and breaking her hand happens, he brings her home basically to brag about it.... Which Charlie ''congratulates'' him for doing.

* ''Literature/ProvostsDog'': Somewhere between books two and three, [[spoiler:Tunstall]] of the [[spoiler:Provost's Guards]] went from being a friendly, widely-liked, upstanding man [[spoiler:of the law who was friends with almost everyone and was happy with his lot in life]] to a grumpy, misanthropic man who was barely civil with his [[spoiler:own partner and betrays and tries to kill her (right after he tells her she's like a daughter to him) and the young prince so he would be elevated in station]].

* Literature/{{Discworld}}'s ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' exhibits several of radical changes to several major characters.

** The follow up ''Discworld/RaisingSteam'' continues this with Vetinari, who becomes downright sadistic in forcing Moist to push a train line through to Uberwald, mostly so that Vetinari can make quicker and more comfortable journeys to visit his vampire girlfriend. And charming non-violent conman Moist himself spends most of the novel blandly negotiating right-of-way contracts for said line, before drinking a potion and killing a bunch of heavily-armed dwarvish terrorists single-handed.

** Sam Vimes, previously a simple (or so he would like you to believe) man who is thrown out of his depth and succeeds through sheer grit and determination (and not a small amount of luck) is very quick to start throwing around his station and the fact that he knows all sorts of big important people, where previously he would only do so if he were pushed to it, who wins because he's [[BoringInvincibleHero Sam Goddamn Vimes]] who has the power of an EldritchAbomination at his back.

** The book is contradicted by the show itself later on, in both Gilda's return, which is framed as the ''first time'' since her debut that any of the ponies are seeing her again, and Trixie's return where we see that while Trixie ''does'' indeed still hold resentment toward Twilight Sparkle due to jealousy, she would never actually do anything bad against her or her friends and is actually legitimately offended when Twilight suspects that she would.

* Some of the characters on the film adaptation of ''Literature/{{Inkheart}}'' are given this treatment.
** Dustfinger originally was friends with Mo and developed a close bond with Meggie. When he betrays them to Capricorn, he makes it clear that he felt awful for hid betrayal. It's also established that he is a good person, but he makes poor choices in his quest to return home. In the movie, however, he's a lot more selfish and refuses to admit that he did anything wrong. The writers definitely made him a JerkassWoobie with his treatment towards other characters, namely Meggie and her family.
** In ''Inkdeath'', Farid falls victim to this. After spending two books fawning over Meggie, he finally gets together with her. So what does he do? Flirt with other girls and try to bring [[spoiler:Dustfinger]] back to life. While the latter is an understandable motive, there's no reason for him to ignore Meggie for other girls, especially since he never did that before. [[spoiler:This leads to Meggie leaving him for another guy, one that Fenoglio created.]]

* Between literature and theater we have ''Literature/HarryPotter'''s eighth installment, ''Theater/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild,'' where a BadFuture results because [[SacrificialLion Cedric Diggory]], of all people, loses the Triwizard Tournament and is so embarrassed that he becomes a Death Eater. ''Cedric,'' the guy who offered to rematch in a Quidditch match that he won fair and square, who helped Harry figure out the Second Task, and overall the franchise's biggest NiceGuy. One of many reasons that it's a ContestedSequel.