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Character Rerailment: Difference between revisions
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* Orihime from ''[[Bleach]]'' is an odd case of rerailment due to [[Character Development]] instead of undoing [[Character Derailment]]. She has recently gone back to being her humorous, perky self like how she was to begin with rather than the [[Broken Bird|broken, emotional character]] she's been portrayed as throughout the Hueco Mundo arc as a result of being kidnapped and watching her [[Love Interest]] being beaten to near death. This is because all her issues from said arc were wrapped up and she was free to be a content person once more.
* Mamoru Chiba from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' was subjected to quite the [[Character Derailment]] in the R season, going from a polite young man who still [[Brutal Honesty|didn't unnecessarily sugarcoat his words]] and ''did'' tell his (much-younger) girlfriend and her friends what he had in his mind, to a [[Angst|Angsty]] and broken mess who acted borderline abusive to her, badmouthing her to keep her away and safe, and caused her lots of turmoil (which once almost ''killed her'' since he would not tell her what he ''did'' have his reasons... when in fact said reasons ''did'' involve her and she had all the right to know). Fortunately, once he finally told her the truth and the arc reached its end, Mamoru's [[Out of Character]] half-season was put in a shelf and he returned to be the Senshi's [[Big Brother Mentor]] and a kind yet sincere boyfriend to Usagi. [[Never Live It Down|Too bad fandom won't let him live it down, though]]....him being put heavily [[Out of Focus]] in the next few seasons didn't help matters either.
* Jessie, James, and Meowth, the [[Terrible Trio|Team Rocket trio]] from the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime were first introduced as true members of the evil Team Rocket organization, constantly obeying their leader [[Big Bad|Giovanni]] all the time, but after their obsession with capturing Ash Ketchum's Pikachu began in the show's second episode, they started to ignore Giovanni and went after Pikachu and occasionally, some other random Pokemon instead, which inevitably resulted in them constantly getting kicked around and "being blasted off again" every single time, even when Ash continued his journeys from Kanto into Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh. However, by ''Best Wishes'', poor Jessie, James, and Meowth were eventually "rescued" by a stronger member of Team Rocket and as a result the three all [[Took a Level In Badass]] after being trained back into true Team Rocket members again. This means that they must now obey Giovanni again, they cannot steal other Pokemon again, and especially, they can't blast off again anymore (they are all given jetpacks so they can escape from an extremely dangerous situation, especially if "the twerps" are involved, which is completely against Giovanni's rules).
** That said, a lot of their fandom was gained as a result of their [[Badass Decay]] into a trio of [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|stooges]]. As always in the [[Broken Base]] of Pokemon, there are people who like them taking a level in badass and people who prefer them to be lovably pathetic.
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]: Season 8'' rerails several members of the cast after their derailment in Seasons 6 and 7, while at the same time continuing their character development. Some, however, still haven't really recovered (Giles, Amy, Buffy herself to a wildy varying degree, etc.)
** With Giles, they at least took his character derailment to it's logical conclusion of {{spoiler|[[Redemption Equals Death]].}}
* A number of comic book characters have gone through this. Notably [[Batman]], who swings between [[Jerkass]] behavior and being called out on it, typically going on a trip to rediscover himself.
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* At this point, there are at least three different characterizations of [[Magneto]], with authors repeatedly [[Armed with Canon|rerailing one by derailing the others]]. [[Chris Claremont]]'s tormented [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] is the most complex, but [[Grant Morrison]]'s [[Complete Monster]] is arguably closer to the character's roots. Any attempt to argue which characterization is the "true" one is [[Flame War|inadvisable]].
* Like [[Peter David]], Alan Davis dismissed a later writer's run on ''[[ClanDestine]]'' as a dream. It was hilarious because it was just a single-line throwaway.
* [[X-Men|Gambit]] started off as a [[Rule of Cool]]-based, [[Mr. Fanservice]] [[Manipulative Bastard]] [[Handsome Lech]] [[Death Dealer|Death Dealing]] [[Badass Longcoat]] who relished the challenge of getting his hands on the [[Forbidden Fruit]] Rogue, though stymied by his self-centered [[Jerkass]] qualities and the large number of people he pissed off in his thief career. Then, Rogue left him to die in Antarctica. After this, the result was a lot of [[Angst]] on Gambit's part, whose characterization was changed from the previously-described version to a [[Angst|Self-loathing]] [[The Atoner|Atoner]] desperate to punish himself for his (morally blameless) role in the Morlock Massacre. More recent adaptations, however, have reached back to the character's roots: ''[[X Men Origins: Wolverine|X Men Origins Wolverine]]'' showed Gambit as competent, charming, handsome and relatively low-angst [[The Gambler|card-sharp]] who won a [[Cool Plane]] in a poker game, and ''[[Wolverine and the X-Men]]'' had Gambit as a mercenary, ruthless, charming, manipulative thief for hire (albeit in only two episodes). Whether or not this trend will continue is currently unknown.
* The entire purpose of ''[[One More Day]]'' was to get Spider-Man single again and make him "young and fresh" again. In order to do this, he was made to [[Character Derailment|make a deal with Mephisto to save an OLD WOMAN from dying, at the cost of his wife and unborn child]], then was reset to being single, "young and fresh", and....living with his elderly aunt again. Safe to say, this [[This Loser Is You|didn't work out so well]], but later writers have done their best to salvage it.
* Shatterstar's an odd case in that the "rerailment" wasn't to his original characterization. ''[[X-Force]]'' had him slowly lose his rage, but handled it believably, and didn't give him [[Badass Decay]]. Rob Liefeld's work on the series snapped him back to his old self, but didn't do much with the possibilities involved. ''[[X-Factor]]'' toned him down again, and has had more of a positive reception.
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** After that, however, Knuckles' [[Hot-Blooded]] nature and bumbling naivete was [[Flanderization|Flanderized]] further in a case of [[Characterization Marches On]].
** Tails as well. For a few games, he simply became a walking toolkit for the team, losing the childlike and friendly aspects that made him interesting and likable in the first place (and that his character was built from). [[Sonic Colors]] undoes some of the damage, especially that done to his friendship with Sonic.
* Axel from ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]'' underwent massive characterization changes and [[Badass Decay]] in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]''. ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
* In ''The Sands of Time'', the [[Prince of Persia]] was a snarky, slightly naive teenager ([[Vague Age|possibly]]) fresh from his first battle. In ''[[Rated "M" for Money|Warrior Within]]'', he became dark, brooding, and occasionally yelled obscenities at his enemies. ''The Two Thrones'' backpedaled to the characterization from ''Sands'', but [[Author's Saving Throw|justified]] his attitude in ''Warrior Within'' as the Prince's darker side - who manifests in ''The Two Thrones'' as the Prince's [[Super-Powered Evil Side]].
* In ''[[Backyard Sports]]: Sandlot Sluggers'', every character from the original games (except Pablo) went back to their original characterization (though not their look), winning [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|huge applause]] in the process.
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* Most of the [[Character Derailment]] in ''[[Total Drama Action]]'' was reverted in ''[[Total Drama World Tour]]''. Trent (although only a minor character) was back to being normal, Courtney stopped being evil and started being the [[Soapbox Sadie|holier-than-thou]] [[Ted Baxter]] she was in season one. Most of the characters who were [[Flanderization|flanderized]] like Owen and Bridgette returned to having multiple dimensions.
* The DCAU team has admitted that Superman got [[The Worf Effect|derailed into a punching bag]] during the early days of ''[[Justice League]]'' and took steps in further episodes to remind viewers why he's, well, ''Superman''.
* Recent characterizations of [[Daffy Duck]] have attempted, with varying levels of success, to get him back to his [[Cloudcuckoolander|daffier]] roots. ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]'', latest in the line of reboots, has [[Flanderization|flanderized]] him to the point of [[Ambiguous Disorder]].
* Although unintentional, the real reason why [[Beast Wars|Waspinator]] was portrayed as the [[Butt Monkey]] of the ''[[Transformers]]'' franchise is because Hasbro actually found his cartoon voice extremely stupid. As a result he ended up getting kicked around and being blown up every single time, while muttering to himself "Waspinator has plansssss..." as he tries to put himself back together again. At the end of ''Beast Wars''' final episode, poor Waspinator is rescued by tribe of natives and crowned their leader, causing him to finally become "happy at last", but in ''[[Beast Machines]]'', he for some reason returned to Cybertron where he is immediately rehired by [[Big Bad|Megatron]], who then wipes his memory clean and transfers his spark into that of the Vehicon Thrust's (who is smarter, stronger, and more dangerous than Waspinator). When Waspinator-as-Thrust finally gets his memories back, he eventually starts to get kicked around and being blown up again, and when the Maximals {{spoiler|turn Cybertron into a second Earth}}, they also transfer Waspinator's spark back into his original (but smaller) wasp mode again. In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', Waspinator returns, but is now known as Wasp instead, and he is changed into an extremely terrifying and powerful villain.
* Zigzagged with [[Mickey Mouse]]: He was originally depicted as a brave action hero, but later shorts changed him into a laid-back slacker while [[Donald Duck]] took the spotlight. Now, he's either back to being an action hero [[Epic Mickey|in several]] [[Kingdom Hearts|video games]], is [[House of Mouse|the owner of a nightclub for other Disney characters]], or a lame [[Dora the Explorer]]-esque kids' show host.
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