Badass Decay: Difference between revisions

* Lionel Luthor from ''[[Smallville]]'', who was once the [[Magnificent Bastard]].

* Arthur Fonzarelli, "[[Breakout Character|The Fonzie]]" from ''[[Happy Days]]'', is first [[Flanderization|flanderized]] and then decayed through the course of the series, but especially after it [[Jumping the Shark|Jumps The Shark]] (literally). He ends up being more like a Boys' Club leader than the aloof, antisocial cool guy he started the show as.

* Although never exactly a ''badass'', Norman Clegg from ''[[Last of the Summer Wine]]'' began the long-running series as an acerbic philosopher with a dry and pointed sense of humour (as well as functioning as the Ego of the series' [[Power Trio]]). As time has gone on, however, he has become a total wimp: scared stiff of driving cars, terrified of the various female characters (especially Auntie Wainright) and increasingly resigned to whatever madcap scheme his current "leader" has in mind. One of many ways in which the series has [[Jumping the Shark|jumped the shark]].

* Lord Zedd in ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' began life as the "Emperor Of Evil": a [[Knight of Cerebus|genuinely terrifying villain]] who [[You Have Failed Me...|quickly banished the comical Rita Repulsa]] and proved his magnificence by almost destroying the Rangers' zords, finally stripping Tommy of his Green Ranger powers, and creating his own highly kick-ass zord Serpentera, which ''towered'' above the Rangers' own Megazord. Then near the end of the 2nd season he got married to ''Rita'', becoming a more comical villain as the show went on and by the third season the transformation had become complete and he was a [[Jaded Washout]] type character. By next season in ''[[Power Rangers Zeo|Zeo]]'' he along with the rest of the Morphin baddies are run off by the Machine Empire (His voice actor confirms [[Executive Meddling|"Zedd scared small children, so they invoked this trope"]].) Ironically, he seems to do better in season three, as he pulls off more evil schemes which may convince the audience that he might even win. How? One of his plans climaxed in entering the Command Center, ''throne and all''.