History Main / ReplacementFlatCharacter

* In ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', Ryan Evans is pretty firmly characterised as a total idiot (he's unable to read the word 'Drama' despite being in the Drama club), but in the sequels, as his role in the narrative grows, he grows in intelligence, and is replaced with Jason as TheDitz whose role never really extends beyond being the one who makes stupid comments.

* In the first season of ''Series/StrangerThings'', Steve Harrington is a JerkJock who's disliked by most of the main cast. But Joe Keery's portrayal led him to be percieved as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, and the character was rewritten to be friendlier and see his misoginy and bullying as an OldShame. The following season introduced Billy Hargrove, Steve's rival in the basketball court, all around JerkAss and BigBrotherBully to Max. Billy is not without redeeming qualities, since his violent behavior is a consequence of the abuse he suffers in the hands of his homophobic father, with the implication his macho persona is a case of being ArmoredClosetGay.

* Initially, Chad of the WebOriginal/VirginVsChad memes was rude, obnoxious, and deliberately did everything the Virgin wasn't doing because cool people don't act like virgins. When his character was made more into a general BigManOnCampus and the memes posited him as unironically cool, Reddit quickly made a replacement: enter Brad, an even more obnoxious, rude bully that's never as cool as he thinks he is.

* Frasier Crane was introduced in ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' as an uptight, prissy intellectual who was usually the butt of jokes. Over time, he developed and even had his [[DayInTheLimelight days in the limelight]]; for example, the episode "Love Is a Lonely Snipe-Hunter". Once he was given [[Series/{{Frasier}} his own show]] and became the central character, he had to become more complex and well-rounded, and his prissiness and bluster were slightly toned down (though still a frequent subject of jokes at his expense). Cue the appearance of his brother Niles, who was everything Frasier used to be and more -- geeky, neurotic, and the butt of (almost) every joke. David Hyde Pierce even described Niles as "what Frasier would be if he had never gone to Boston and never been exposed to the people at Cheers."

** In a slightly meta sense Cordelia herself was this for Buffy in the earliest episodes. The shallow, fashion obsessed, airheaded ([[HiddenDepths at least on the surface]]) Cordelia as first introduced closely resembles Buffy as she was in the [[Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer movie]] and in a couple of flashbacks to her Hemry high days in the show proper.

** Giles became steadily more relaxed, funny, confident, modern and so on, so in time, Wesley was brought in with the intention of being worse than Giles ever was. (He was named after Wesley Crusher, for the record.) Interestingly, Wesley then underwent a [[BadassNormal similar]] [[TookALevelInBadass transformation]] as he transitioned from ''Series/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}}'' to ''Series/{{Angel}}'', becoming a fully rounded character in time.

* ''Series/LeverageRedemption'': Breanna, Hardison's foster sister who takes his place as the resident PlayfulHacker, is a mild one. She's cocky and out of her depth, much like [[Series/{{Leverage}} early seasons Hardison]], as opposed to Hardison now, who runs charities in his spare time.

* After six books of being a one-dimensional {{Jerkass}}, [[Literature/HarryPotter Draco Malfoy]] starts to partake in more dangerous activities then simply school bullying. Since Malfoy no longer has the time to act as a {{Jerkass}}, Zacharias Smith takes over. Zacharias becomes a JerkJock ButtMonkey similar to Malfoy in the earlier books and reveals himself to be a DirtyCoward in the final battle, a trait that is usually associated with Malfoy.

* In ''FanFic/MarijuanaSimpson'' Maggie replaces Lisa as the conscientious daughter, while Lisa focuses almost entirely on smoking pot.

* In ''Film/TheSantaClause,'' the focus is on the relationship between the main character and his eight-year-old son, Charlie. In the sequels Charlie is a teenager, but don't worry, now he has a younger half-sister named Lucy to fit the "cute child" role.
* In ''Film/HighSchoolMusical,'' Ryan Evans is pretty firmly characterised as a total idiot (he's unable to read the word 'Drama' despite being in the Drama club), but in the sequels, as his role in the narrative grows, he grows in intelligence, and is replaced with Jason as TheDitz whose role never really extends beyond being the one who makes stupid comments.

* In ''Series/{{Victorious}},'' [[TheDitz Cat]] was largely the dumb one of the group. When she got her own show, ''Series/SamAndCat'', she took a more central role. While she was still unintelligent, she was given more to do. As such, [[DumbMuscle Goomer]] was introduced to take over her role as the dumb one.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' game ''VideoGame/SaveTheLight,'' one of the villains is a square-haired Peridot ("[[InSeriesNickname Squaridot]]"). WordOfGod describes her as being [[TheEvilGenius quite similar]] to Peridot before her HeelFaceTurn and says that it was fun to revisit Peridot as a villain.

* Minor example in ''WebComic/SomethingPositive:'' Mike originally represented all the worst aspects of a geek, like being whiny, misogynistic and annoying, but underwent a lot of character development over the years. In the 2016 and 2017 [[TheBusCameBack "Old Familiar Faces"]] weeks, the comic brought back a very minor character named [[DarknessVonGothickname Bloodthorn]] who acted the same way. The AltText even quipped that he was "doing [an] early Mike impression".
* When his AxCrazy antics started to get him in trouble and after adopting a cat as his animal companion, Belkar Bitterleaf from ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' was forced to undergo CharacterDevelopment and become more likely to work with the rest of the party and show he actually cares about anything but killing. When the Order fought [[PsychoRangers the Linear Guild]] again, Belkar's new EvilCounterpart (after he killed the previous two) was a Kobold named Yukyuk, who was a Kobold Ranger with all of Belkar's old sadistic and murderous tendencies (in fact, he also seems SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute of Linear Guild's first Kobold, whose personality was exactly like old Belkar's), riding a wolf, which was Belkar's original idea for an animal companion and tries to murder Belkar's cat out of sheer cruelty. [[spoiler:Belkar's biggest show of growth comes when he decides to ''not'' kill Yukyuk, who ends mind-controlled by V, though he's made to [[{{Squick}} use his mouth as the cat's litter box]] as punishment for hurting him and later dies when V sends him to trigger some traps.]]

* After the HeelRealization and HeelFaceTurn of Anxiety in the season 1 finale of ''WebVideo/SandersSides'', his former role as the scary and unwanted side is often taken by the [[InSeriesNickname Dark Sides]] that were introduced in season 2. For that reason, most viewers were not surprised when [[spoiler:he confessed to have formerly been a Dark Side himself]]. Deceit also received the same treatment to a lesser extent (as of mid-2023, anyway), and around the same time, the irredeemably {{flat|Character}} of Remus was introduced.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRacoons'': Cyril Sneer started out as an abrasive, money-grubbing CorruptCorporateExecutive who frequently played an antagonistic role. Over time, however, he gradually [[TookALevelInKindness became a better person]], eventually settling into a sometimes ruthless and underhanded but not malicious JerkWithAHeartOfGold who, [[ReformedButNotTamed while still avaricious]], had more lines he wouldn't cross in pursuit of wealth. Not coincidentally, at around the same time this was happening, the show introduced a new villainous businessman named Milton Midas, who had all of Cyril's worst traits and then some while lacking his redeeming qualities.

* In ''Manga/{{Genshiken}}'', Madarame is the resident {{Straw|Character}} {{Otaku}}, uninterested in any friendships or interests outside of his otaku niche and utterly shameless about his obsessive {{fandom}} ([[{{Foil}} in contrast with]] main character Sasahara, who is more balanced and unsure just how deep down the otaku rabbit hole he wants to go). CharacterizationMarchesOn, however, and as Madarame becomes a more well-rounded person, Kuchiki is introduced. Kuchiki suffers from an AmbiguousDisorder and is seemingly incapable of relating to anyone or anything except through the lens of otaku culture.

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* Amity from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' starts off as an AcademicAlphaBitch, but as the audience gets to see more of her hidden sweet side her BetaBitch Boscha picks up the slack and proves to be an even more shallow bully than Amity was initially presented as. Amity lampshades this dynamic when Boscha starts expressing jealousy over Willow's rising popularity.

* After six books of being a one-dimensional {{Jerkass}}, [[''Literature/HarryPotter'' Draco Malfoy]] starts to partake in more dangerous activities then simply school bullying. Since Malfoy no longer has the time to act as a {{Jerkass}}, Zacharias Smith takes over. Zacharias becomes a JerkJock ButtMonkey similar to Malfoy in the earlier books and reveals himself to be a DirtyCoward in the final battle, a trait that is usually associated with Malfoy.

* After the HeelRealization and HeelFaceTurn of Anxiety in the season 1 finale of ''WebVideo/SandersSides'', his former role as the scary and unwanted side is often taken by the [[InSeriesNickname Dark Sides]] that were introduced in season 2. For that reason, most viewers were not surprised when [[spoiler:he confessed to have formerly been a Dark Side himself]].

** Minerva Paradizo in book five is a ChildProdigy attempting to capture a magical being -- in this case a demon rather than an elf. The similarities are all there between her and Artemis, down to the [[ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming mythological names]]. WordOfGod says that her book was actually a DolledUpInstallment -- he had originally written it with Minerva as the protagonist, but then realized that he was basically writing a book about Artemis and just decided to bring him back as the lead character, while also establishing demons as another subspecies of fairy.

** Archeologist Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) becomes steadily more physical and cool as ''Series/StargateSG1'' goes on (and the writers run out of allergy and geek jokes). During the episode "Meridian", he is [[spoiler:rendered unavailable/thought to be dead and is]] temporarily replaced by an anthropologist, Jonas Quinn who is essentially the big geek Daniel used to be, and remains an ongoing (intermittent) figure of fun.
** In one episode Robert Rothman was a geekier archeologist when Daniel was temporarily unavailable.

* Early episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'' played up Doctor Venture's status as a JadedWashout who deals with his childhood trauma through overuse of prescription medications. This aspect of the character was downplayed after the first season, as his childhood trauma was replaced with feelings of jealousy towards his brother. In comes Action Johnny, a ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' parody who's always heavily drugged out and breaks down crying whenever some aspect of his childhood comes up.

* Throughout Season 3 of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', the mission to stop the Xindi from destroying Earth turns [[TheCaptain Captain Archer]] into a grittier, more battle-hardened man who has to compromise his ethics more than once. The episode that celebrates our heroes' homecoming after saving the day introduces another captain, Erika Hernandez, who's an idealistic explorer like Archer used to be. He is ''not'' happy at seeing her and dwelling on what he's become.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRacoons'': Cyril Sneer started out as an abrasive, money-grubbing CorruptCorporateExecutive who frequently played an antagonistic role. Over time, however, he gradually [[TookALevelInKindness became a better person]], eventually settling into a sometimes ruthless and underhanded but not malicious JerkWithAHeartOfGold who, [[ReformedButNotTamed while still avaricious], had more lines he wouldn't cross in pursuit of wealth. Not coincidentally, at around the same time this was happening, the show introduced a new villainous businessman named Milton Midas, who had all of Cyril's worst traits and then some while lacking his redeeming qualities.

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' has Cherry Blossom, who was introduced as a MsFanservice-type, but also as a contrast to Veronica, who had undergone enough character development that there was some need for a new version of her. Cheryl is [[RichBitch bitchier, richer]] and skankier than Veronica ever was. Veronica, although certainly being rich, bitchy, and seductive, was never outright ''skanky'', but Cheryl clearly was.