Basic Trope: A character changes during the events of a story.
- Straight: Bob is a Jerkass at the start of the story. However, events in the course of the story cause him to become a Nice Guy by the time the story is over.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob starts off as a Villain. He ends the story as someone who is so nice that he ended up being made a Saint by the pope once he dies.
- Every single one of Bob's personality traits has been replaced with an opposite one. He lost all of his skills and acquired new ones, changed his stances on pretty much everything, switched to opposite side of Morality Kitchen Sink etc.
- Downplayed: Bob, a Jerkass, becomes a Jerk with a Heart of Gold as a result of being surrounded by kind people.
- Justified: Bob belongs to a minority of Jerkasses (or is the only one) in a town of kindness. He is eventually influenced by them.
- Inverted:
- Character Derailment
- Bob is introduced as a Nice Guy. Then a prequel is released showing him in his Jerkass phase.
- Static Character
- Subverted: Bob seems to be getting nicer, but quickly returns to his jerkish ways.
- Double Subverted: However, he did become a much more reliable person. People are willing to put up with his attitude just because of how good of a worker he is.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob inconsistently alternates between getting nicer and meaner throughout the story.
- Averted: Bob doesn't appear enough in the story for his character to change, and when he does appear, it's in situations that won't change him as a person.
- Invoked: Bob, a Jerkass is not The Chosen One, but really wants to be, and the prophecy states that the chosen one is a very kind soul.
- Enforced:
- Bob was a character created by a writer with the intent of being a Jerkass, but one of the execs thinks he's too much of a buzzkill, so the writers make him a nicer person.
- Audiences complain about Bob because he is a jerk, but the writers cannot kill him off.
- Can't have a growing up story without the kid …well, growing up.
- Lampshaded:
- Bob: "Have I actually progressed my life?"
- Alice: "Of course, who would want to say they haven't?"
- Discussed: "Did Bob just congratulate Hiro? Wasn't he the only one who hated him?"
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