Split BadassDecay: Badass Decay

Okay, I've been meaning to do this one for a while, ever since Spikeification was renamed, but, well, y'know....

Anyway, this is a case of a trope losing something it had before a rename due to a rename and rewrite. Basically, Spikeification was an odd mix of two tropes: Badass Decay, about badass characters becoming much less effective as badasses as time went on, and Evil Decay, about villainous characters becoming less cruel and sociopathic. Since the rename the second one has pretty much been only vaguely implicit in the trope and not actually the point, but it's still very valid as an actual trope and needs to be shown, especially since occasionally I see people using Badass Decay to refer to characters becoming less cruel even though that's not what the trope is about anymore.

So, basically, we should split out Evil Decay, about characters becoming less cruel and vindictive as time goes on, regardless of whether they actually switch sides or whether they actually lose some effectiveness, making it a supertrope of Heel–Face Turn, where most characters undergo this, much as they also undergo Badass Decay.

A good example of what I'm talking about is, say, Mandy from The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Many, who by the end of the show was a lot less cruel and evil as she was in her first few appearances, and seemed more like an extremely intelligent Jerk with a Heart of Gold.

Another good example would be Carmen Sandiego from Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego.

But we have Villain Decay.

Villain Decay is about villains being less of a threat. Not about them getting nicer.

Exactly.

So... what should the split off trope be called, then?

Villain Melioration? Technical but completely apposite (melioration is "the linguistic process in which over a period of time a word grows more positive in connotation or more elevated in meaning").

Cruelly Crippling? Diabolical Decay? Nefariousness Nerfing? Reprehensibility Reduction? Depravity Decline?

Definitely didn't just use thesaurus.com to come up with a bunch of alliterative titles for "villainous" and "weakening". Nope.

edited 24th Feb '10 9:11:16 PM by deathjavu

I think Evil Decay gets the point across pretty well.

I support this. Evil Decay is the simplest and gets the job done.

Boy, sounds like the trope should've been split even back when it was Spikefication (Spikeification? Spikification? How the heck do you spell that anyway?). Bet you got a LOT of examples that were either one or the other, but not both.

Sooo...did this ever get done?

Apologies for the thread necro, but I didn't see any results anywhere.

edited 3rd Mar '10 10:47:42 AM by deathjavu

I'll do it as soon as I think of a good description. Recently my descriptions... haven't been great.

So...*coughs into fist* Evil Decay. *sneaks away*

So... um... still going to do this... I swear. Just making sure it's still ok.

After all, it's been like four months since I last said I'd do it... opinions might have changed.

edited 2nd Nov '10 1:10:34 PM by KnownUnknown

For consistency's sake, I linked this thread to the article.

Kinda getting the feeling this is a case of renaming for the sake of renaming. Just keep the title

No offense, but did you read the thread? There's nothing in here about renaming Badass Decay.

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