Character Derailment/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

* 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.

** It's [[Hand Wave|implied]] that Amy's delinquency was part madness from having spent so long as a rat (''really''?), and part culture shock from being four years behind everyone else. Doesn't make it any less abrupt or clumsy, though.

** Giles leaves Buffy in season 6 and goes back to England so that she can learn to cope on her own and become more responsible. When he returns full-time in season 7 he is annoyed that Buffy doesn't listen to his advice to the degree he actually plots against her - luring her away for the night so Robin Wood can try to kill Spike and then sending Spike and Andrew away so they can't defend Buffy when he leads a mutiny against her. He also completely out of character criticises the gang for having a few laughs at one funny situation for no good reason at all.

* On ''[[Lost]]'', this was the theme of Season 2. Every character, to some extent, relapsed on their character development and gave in to their darker impulses. While most of the characters (like Sayid or Locke) were handled well, some fans have singled out Charlie's [[Recap/Lost S 02 E 12|babynapping and pseudo-heroin relapse]] and Sawyer's [[Recap/Lost S 02 E 13 The Long Con|return to conning and general dickery]] as being especially contrived by the writers. The time skip for Sawyer in Season 5 has also gotten this reaction, with him going from an immensely complicated [[Deadpan Snarker]] conman with a heart of gold and tragic past to [[Ten-Minute Retirement|living a happy, content life as chief security officer for DHARMAville]] and [[Pair the Spares|hooking up with Juliet]] entirely off-screen. Where to draw the line between derailment and [[Character Development|development]] is, as always, a part of the show's enormous [[Broken Base]].