Character Derailment/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

*** Not to mention her behavior beforehand, which consisted of erasing then-boyfriend Jimmy's rap track from a demo they were collaborating on ''without'' his knowledge or consent--becauseconsent—because she was jealous that he had upstaged her.

** A worse derailment happened much earlier. In the very first episode, Olivia's mother appears (played by Elizabeth Ashley), and the mother and daughter seem to have a loving, complex relationship, with Olivia's mother being more at peace with the facts of Olivia's conception than Olivia is. [[Retcon|Retconning]]ning Olivia's mother into an alcoholic, who emotionally abused Olivia because she reminded her of her rape, is a lazy way the writers have capitulated to people's assumptions, with a 2-dimensional character, probably just to provide a source of easily tapped melodrama without having to work at real story-telling.

* Amy in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' went from being an everyday witch to being a [[Card -Carrying Villain|cartoonish bad girl]] for no reason at all. Shortly afterward, Willow inexplicably became addicted to magic (an effect not been shown in the series before) and started doing morally dubious things like wiping her girlfriend's memory of an argument they had had.

* In ''[[Family Matters]]'', one of [[ExtravertedExtroverted Nerd]] Steve Urkel's redeeming traits was originally that he was a personification of the [[An Aesop|aesop]] "just [[Be Yourself]]." The original appearance of his alter-ego Stefan Urquelle was merely a vehicle for [[Anvilicious]] preaching of this aesop. Unfortunately, then someone on the creative team decided that Stefan should become a regular part of Urkel's bag of [[Mad Scientist]] tricks; not only did this result in a [[Broken Aesop]], but the entire point of his character was lost.

** Not to mention that in the earlier seasons, Ray was a witty [[Deadpan Snarker]], and was quite clever (or at ''least'' possessed average intelligence), and his newspaper column actually won a national award. About halfway through the series, however, his IQ appeared to suddenly plummet. A character who had been the [[Only Sane Man]] at the beginning of the series suddenly became the [[Butt Monkey]]. This was seemingly done to make his wife Debra appear smarter so that the show could use the [[Parenting the Husband]] trope.

* In the pilot and first few seasons of ''[[ThreesThree's Company]]'', Chrissy was an innocent but reasonably savvy and intelligent young woman. By the third or fourth season, she had become the living stereotype of the [[Dumb Blonde]]--completely—completely naive and illogical, with asymmetrical platinum ponytails.

** Both characters evolutions took place over several seasons. That's realistic and hardly a short amount of time. It's FREDDY's derailment that makes no sense--oversense—over ONE season break, she goes from being a rebellious, flaky (yet, somehow, brilliant student) hippie-esque love child, to a perfectly coiffed, suit-wearing, pre-law student, fawning and gushing over Ron, who she couldn't stand. Similarly, Ron goes from adoring Kim and hating Freddie to lusting after her.

* More of a concept derailment, but you can point to the exact episode where it was decided that the Prophets in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' went from being uncaring aliens who happened to be worshipped by the Bajorans to being 'of Bajor' and caring deeply, in their own inscrutable way, about what happened.

** Jan is the best example of [[Character Derailment]] listed above, as her character was essentially so derailed that she had to be written out because there was no use for her anymore. David Wallace seems to be on the same path, as we've seen signs that he's going somewhat insane after being fired, but since he's always been a minor character we probably won't be seeing much of that. Most of the other characters have been [[Flanderization|Flanderized]] to some degree, which is a subtrope.

{{quote| '''Elliot:''' Oh my god Turk, I am so sorry, I just love babies so much.<br />

'''Keith:''' It's true. Sometimes she makes me wear a diaper.<br />

* The Doctor from ''[[Star Trek Voyager|Star Trek: Voyager]]'' started out as gruff but cool-headed and efficient, seeking ways to expand his horizons and learn about the world outside his programming. Toward the end of the series, however, he was frequently portrayed as an egotistical [[Jerkass]] so narrow-minded as to be incapable of seeing anything outside his own wants and needs. Unsure if this counts as Derailment, as there were still episodes at that point that stuck closer to his original character.

*** Ironically, Janeway's personality changes could've been written as brilliant [[Character Development]] for someone in her situation, had the writers given her some more [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moments instead of backing her every mood swing with [[Hero Insurance]].

* ''[[American Gothic]]'' has the most obvious candidate of Gail Emory, [[Chickification|Chickified]] from an [[Action Girl]] and [[Determinator]] into a [[Distressed Damsel in Distress]], but some might term Dr. Crower's descent into madness, Merlyn's turn as an avenging angel, and Caleb's descent into darkness as examples of Character Derailment as well rather than [[Character Development]]. At times Merlyn could also appear [[Flanderization|Flanderized]] and Selena seemed to suffer from [[Villain Decay]]. The only character who could (subjectively) be said to grow and develop normally is Ben Healy...while Buck always stayed true to his roots.

* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''. Circling the drain on its third season has derailed virtually all of its characters.

** Claire went through an interesting character arc in the beginning. She had a [[Cursed Withwith Awesome]] phase, found out her dad works for a secret company. That was all good in season one, made sense. Season two onward, it seems like she never resolved any of those issues and bitches more than any other character about her power, including the ones that kill people by feeling an emotion. The details change every Volume, but Claire's story arc always basically boils down to "I can't trust my father!" regardless of whether or not it makes sense.

** Maury Parkman, previously a ruthless, scummy creepy monster who cared only about himself was retconned into Arthur Petrelli's snivelling lackey and then died...demanding that Arthur not kill his son. His son who he himself tried to kill only the previous season.

*** Most of this was positive character development. It did make a few of the characters more likeable.

* Similarly, Hawkeye of ''[[MASH|M* A* S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]'' went from being a mischievous goof-off obsessed with women to an unfailingly moral [[Marty Stu]] preaching at us.

** Hawkeye gets derailed any time the plot requires him to act differently from his normal character. In some episodes, he talks about the sacredness of his Hippocratic oath. In other episodes, he falsifies medical documents, makes a colonel think he's sicker than he is to get the colonel to go home to the states, and on several occasions, drugs patients who don't need to be drugged, including Frank. One of those times was because he wanted to throw a party and Frank was in the way.

** How about the massive character derailment in Maxie to prop Spinelli? The pairing ruined them both. Maxie went from a bitchy, snarky, basically a [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold]] who, while still sympathetic, actually enabled a married man's drug addiction by carrying on an affair with him, to a shrill-voiced, hopeless, stupid harpy who constantly spouts that Spin is her "essential person" and how OMG LOST she'd be without him.

** Then there's the entire circumstances of the House/Cuddy breakup, which involves Cuddy nearly dying, which as a result House starts taking Vicodin again, because he's so emotionally strained by the thought of his girlfriend dying that he couldn't continue to function otherwise. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DisproportionateRetribution[Disproportionate Retribution|After House inevitably cures Cuddy, she realizes that he's taking Vicodin again and dumps him right after he just saved her life.]] The [[Character Derailment]] comes from the fact that Cuddy has dealt with House's antics for years with relatively little difficulty, many far worse, which makes the breakup come off as petty and excessive. After that this troper applauded House on for his actions at the end of season seven.

** Dr. Foreman was perhaps the earliest victim of [[Character Derailment]]. In the first season, he was ambitious and unsentimental, but had several [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold]] moments to make up for it. One or two episodes into the second season, he stood back and did nothing while a patient's heart failed because he didn't like the guy. Later in that same season he pulled a professional dick move on Cameron, then when he was mortally ill, ''stabbed her with a dirty needle'' in a desperate attempt to get her to save him. To say he [[Took a Level Inin Jerkass]] would be an understatement.

* The second series of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' had character development from everyone, but most notably Guy of Gisborne, who, by the penultimate couple of episodes, is risking his own life to stand up for what he believes in and to defend others; something he would never have done back in the day. This is mostly because of his love for Marian, and he repeatedly defies the Sheriff for Marian's sake. Marian shows Guy friendship, despite working against him in secret, and is very very good at keeping her double-agent status secret. In the finale, Marian suddenly begins flailing about like a muppet, yelling "I LOVE ROBIN HOOD! I'M GOING TO MARRY ROBIN HOOD!" Guy then stabs her through the gut and rides off. ''Two'' characters derailed for the price of one!

* On ''[[Dirty Sexy Money]]'', Lisa George is shown during the first season and first part of the second season to be a kind, reasonable woman -- flawedwoman—flawed, yes, but, you know. A human being. In the show's second season, the writers seemed to realize they could hardly justify Nick just leaving her and hooking up with first love Karen Darling. Thus Lisa became an unreasonable shrew who harped on Nick at every turn. Nick also suffered slightly.

*** This particuler example actually happened during Sorkin's tenure, and was done because the actor playing Sam bolted mid season, and the character had to be [[Put Onon a Bus]]. Even so, Sorkin could have found a better way to write him off.

* As ''[[Dexter]]'' progresses, moving away from the novels and changing many of the character details in order to be a more palatable show, the main character has taken on a family, gotten married and had a kid of his own too. Not to mention his regular "fantasy moments" where he has open conversations with his foster father Harry, as if that character now serves as the link to Dexter of the first few seasons. Although he's still dark, and still kills occasionally, he seems a lot less driven than he was in past seasons. It's almost as if he is slowly being demoted from a serial killer to a troubled sociopath to bring in a wider audience, losing the substance that makes it such a unique premise. Not just character derailment but show derailment, especially if you count the fact the show now has a MUCH bigger focus on romantic relationships than it did in the first season and the increased reliance on stock plots/characters and the odd [[ClicheCliché Storm]].

** Some Dexter fans are more accepting to the tonal shift than others. Part of this may have to do with avoiding the [[ItsIt's the Same, Now It Sucks]] syndrome that usually applies to series during its third year. Another reason may be the TV writers dodging the supernatural bullshit that plagued the third book, Dexter in the Dark (though Dexter got married in that novel too). Still, although Dexter has come a long way from being the isolated loner he once was, his urge for killing has not waned THAT much, even though he's now a family man. And given the headaches Dexter had to endure during season two {{spoiler|after scuba divers found his submerged corpses}}, and given the increased focus to his family, he needs to be less impulsive. While season four (the season criticized above) suggested that Dexter would reach a peaceful reconciliation with his murderous desires, after {{spoiler|Rita's brutal death}} during the equally polarizing ending, he might go towards a much darker road (and subsequently, the show will follow).

* George the Bra from ''[[I Carly|iCarly]]'' told an actual ghost story on his first appearance. Nowadays, his ghost stories involve malfunctioning laundry machines and expired warranty. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|You're not likely to find anyone complain about the change]], [[Rule of Funny|since he's a lot funnier that way]].

* In Season 3 of [[Gossip Girl]], the character Damien was slowly being developed to be more than just a cardboard cut-out [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|Bad Boy]]. He seemed to have genuinely developed feelings for Jenny and was understanding and caring. However, when {{spoiler|Jenny decided not to have sex with him because he thought being a virgin wasn't a big deal, he immediately left and made a comment about her being a "kid".}} This felt very abrupt and conflicted with all his previous character development.

* Pretty much the ''entire frakking cast'' minus Helo was hit with this in the rebooted ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' episode "The Woman King," to the point where the series creators have [[Canon Dis ContinuityDiscontinuity|disowned it]].

** On Ben being a caring, sensitive boy. He originally asked Amy out so he could get some sexual experience before pursuing [[All Guys Want Cheerleaders|Grace]], and many think he got [[Stalker Withwith a Crush|VERY obnoxiously obsessed]] with Amy after their first date.

** Ashley, too, turned from the [[Wise Beyond Their Years|smartest]] and [[Deadpan Snarker|snarkiest]] character to a [[Hormone -Addled Teenager|stereotypical]] [[Shallow Love Interest|lovestruck]] teenager who has become everything she once loathed and derided, for the [[Conflict Ball|purpose of drama.]]

* Morgana from ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]''. Her turning evil was always a [[Foregone Conclusion]], but the way the writers decided to go about it has been baffling. After a year in the company of her half-sister Morgause, Morgana returns to Camelot and tries to assassinate King Uther. Her resentment toward ''him'' at least has been built up properly, but why the writers felt the need to have her spitefully goad Gwen over her relationship with Arthur (the former being her dearest friend who has never done anything to her and the latter being someone she loves as a brother), plot to deprive Arthur of his throne (who in the past she's recognised as "a better man than your father" and recently discovered is her {{spoiler|half-brother}}) and stab a knight of Camelot when on the brink of being discovered, throw his body from the parapets, ''cold-bloodedly finish him off with poison'' on discovering he survived the fall, and all with a perpetual Evil Smirk on her face is completely at odds with the Morgana of the first two seasons.

* Many thought that Davis Bloome's sudden last minute [[Face Heel Turn]] into being unrepentant murderer at the end of the 8th season of [[Smallville]] was this. Starting out as the Doctor Jekyll of a Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde character, Davis was progressively forced to do more and more extreme and immoral things to keep his Mr. Hyde monster side (Doomsday) under control. He had been abandoned on the streets has a child and had grown up in foster care and become an EMT where he met and fell in love with Chloe Sullivan. The attraction between them was mutual despite her engaged to be married at the time. As his condition worsened he finds out to his horror that his purpose in life is destroy the world. Davis is shown again and again as a good man by himself but constantly plagued with the destruction his alternate personality causes and being forced to cover it up turning more into an [[Anti -Villain]] or [[Anti -Hero]] type. So what happens when they finally manage to separate the human Davis from the alien monster of Doomsday? Oh guess what? Despite his anguish over Doomsdays' murders and even two past attempts to kill himself to prevent it, it turns out Davis is just as much a psychopathic murderer as Doomsday and he tries to kill ''Chloe'' of all people. To say that this sudden [[Face Heel Turn]] (literally in the last five minutes of the last episode of the season!) didn't make any sense in the context of Davis' entire characterization up to that point would be a gross understatement.

** Chloe Sullivan went from being a [[Nice Girl]] and [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]] to Clark to a morally ambiguous [[Manipulative Bitch]] who cheerfully did "the right thing" and blamed Clark for all her mistakes. When did it happen? Season 8, Episode 20. By the start of the next season she's gotten her husband killed through a series of magnificently stupid decisions, put all the blame for it on Clark, and decided that murder and endangering her friends are okay if they get the job done, something she ''never'' would have done before. Essentially the show took one of its most likeable characters, and turned her into [[CreatorsCreator's Pet|Lana Lang]] 2.0. Maybe they thought people actually missed Lana?

*** With regards to Chloe, while her Season 8 behavior is definitely [[Character Derailment]], one could argue that the manipulative, paranoid, and anti-social behavior she displayed in Season 9 were a form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, manifesting as a direct result of Chloe witnessing her husband's gruesome death. Throughout this season, Chloe becomes so obsessed with "protecting" Metropolis that she starts installing hidden cameras everywhere (including in Clark's house!) and casually reveals that she spends large chunks of the day surfing through everyone in Metropolis's cell phone conversations.

* ''[[Dead Like Me]]'''s TV movie ''Life After Death'' features copious amounts of this, with Daisy and Mason dealt a particularly bad hand.

** Mason, the same guy who started drinking heavily upon realizing he royally fucked up the birthday party of a little girl whose father was his reap and gave a small boy about a quarter of his Halloween candy upon realizing the boy would die (and after having bragged about how big his load would be) now doesn't give two shits that a dead man's soul is trapped in his body.

* Phoebe from ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' was a little scatty but good natured for most of the series, most importantly she was the most forgiving of all the sisters. She ended her relationship with Cole at the end of season 4 and tried to let him down gently. Fast forward to season 5 where all of a sudden she blames Cole for everything that has gone wrong in her life and is willing to try and kill him simply from a bad dream she had. On top of that she suddenly becomes obsessed with finding a husband and getting pregnant to the degree where she uses her premonitions on the first date to see if the relationship is going anywhere. In season 8 her characterisation finally gets fixed and she's a lot closer to how she was in the beginning with a good bit of [[Character Development]] thrown in.