Character Derailment

That's a good point, I didn't really think of it that way before. I guess it just makes it more confusing because there was such a big gap where we barely even saw her, and when they finally bring her back it's in a complete 180 of her previous development. But you are right that there are some people that just don't know what it is they want and are just bad with decisions. Luanne is not a person that could function properly on her own, as she has shown countless times.

I guess her lack of development could be considered natural, but I guess it's just jarring due to how stunted it was after such a long period of nothing really happening.
 
I have been reading a lot of negativity towards FoP, so before I pick a derailed character, here's my final defense of Fairly OddParents:

Like it or not, Cosmo and Vicky's from their past to their present natural progressions of their respective characters. I don't find Cosmo nearly as annoying as most; yes, he is really stupid now, but that doesn't change the fact that he was stupid to begin with. Also, this has been done with many characters: Homer, Peter (FG), Patrick (SBSP), and Fry (Fu.) all devolved into stupidity; it just happens, for better (Homer) or worse (Peter). As for Vicky, her character was always despicable; being slightly more despicable isn't really a stretch.

I'd also like to say that I enjoy the more recent seasons just as much, if not more so, than the Oh Yeah Cartoons or first few seasons. They took the original concept for the show and ran with it, changed it, evolved or devolved it to the point where you can't believe how the series got there if you put the first and latest episodes back to back. I only have two words for how Butch Hartman and crew handled this series: Well done. They didn't play it safe, they took chances with this show. From adding or changing characters, to crossovers, to musicals, and even a trilogy of made for TV movies. I could ask any creative team out there for more than what I receive for the folks at FoP. People are entitled to their opinion that FoP sucks, but when I rank this series with other cartoons I've seen over the last few years, Fairly OddParents easily makes my top 10.

Getting back to the subject of character derailment, Hayley Smith from American Dad hands down. She mean, a hypocrite, bland, and just plain unnecessary. She used to be somewhat interesting in her episodes with Stan, but she has not aged well. Her ongoing storyline this past season with Reginald was interesting, but this character is in need of a serious reboot.
 
I agree that Cosmo has always been lacking intelligence even when the series first started. Although, he came off to me as more clueless/loopy that lacking all forms of intelligence during the earlier episode. I think what bothers me more about Cosmo, and possibly others as well, is that he has unhappy reactions to his relationship with Wanda and he doesn't seem to love her like he did at the start of the series. Although I think we see him and Wanda caring more about Timmy than each other for the past few seasons, I don't feel that they have the same loving family bond that they had before. I think that they do a better job with focusing on how Timmy wants and needs his godparents in some of the TV movies than the series.
 
I agree. While I've never been a huge Fairly OddParents fan, one thing I did like about the show was the genuine love that existed between Cosmo and Wanda in the original Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts and at the beginning of the series. But as seasons progressed, Cosmo became progressively sillier and worse, Wanda became an ill-tempered shrew, and then Cosmo began acting like he only remained with Wanda because he had to. Wanda's derailment has been even worse than Cosmo's.
 
I think they've become more 2D in personality, Squidwards become just a grump, Spongeboib and Pat are both equally stupid, Krabs is just greedy, and Plankton... very repetitive.

The only derailment I can think of is Norbert, he just got weird, mean, and whiny as opposed to settle and collected like he was. Dag got both crazier and more careless but some people just loose their patience with the world, he also got more stupid for some reason.
 
You're confusing "progression" with "exaggeration". That's not progress. That, in fact, is going backwards - instead of the character growing, it becomes overly simplified, until it's just a flat one-note joke. Butch's formula is to believe that the audience is stupid, and that it takes loud voices, loud musical cues and loud sound effects to engage its attention. He made that mistake with Danny Phantom - he seemed to WANT to create a layered mythology with a heroic central character, but instead he just couldn't resist slipping in stupid humor and playing the theme song a lot during every episode. The result was pretty lame. And I disagree that the FOP took chances. In what way? They repeat the same formula with every episode, the characters do not grow, nothing changes, the same gags are recycled, and the same mistakes are made. That's why, in my opinion, FOP sucks. And given its steep drop in popularity, apparently a lot of people agree with that assessment.
 
Yeah, both characters have been handled badly. Although I can still stand Wanda way more than Cosmo. At least she still tries to do what's best for Timmy.
 
Pokemon. Misty and Brock.

What happened? Both Misty and Brock's characters were handled poorly for different reasons, with both of them losing their personalities as the show progressed.
 
I respectively disagree. Both characters still seem to have personalities to me. Misty definitely doesn't have as much of a anger problem like she did for the first couple of seasons and one could argue that she's more responsible, or at least has more responsibilities, now as a Gym leader, but she still seems like the same kind of caring, determined trainer from season one. I don't even like Misty, but I can still see some personality in her.

Brock pretty much has the same personality he's had from the start to me as well, but it might help that he's been in the same role as the oldest mentor/comedy relief of the group from the start too. I do agree that both characters could have been handled better during the original series with more development and focus. Though, I think that Brock has gotten better development during AG and DP than in the original Pocket Monsters series. It still isn't a lot, but I think that it's a good improvement. I think that a person could make a better argument that these characters don't have enough personality or enough development than that they don't have any personality at all.
 
Thinking about it, has Ash really learned from his battles? Or does he forget in every arc?

Also, Jessie, James, and Meowth were better and more of a threat in the first season. What happened? Wait, let me guess. The Wile E.Coyote effect, right?
 
So far, I'm thinking of 4 characters:
Peter Griffin
Homor Simpson
Spongebob Squarepants
Cosmo

I remember when Peter, Humor, Spongebob and Cosmo used to be fun, easy going characters you want to hang with; NOT some idiotic man-child that ppl have to tolerate. Really, what happen to them? Yeah, back then they did acted as a kid time to time, but at least they "had" some decent morals here and there, and they know when to stop and so on. But now, I can't stand them.

Peter wasn't the brightest one around, but he knows when to be fun and acted like a dad. At times I mean, but now...He's a man-child. And its ok.
There was one episode (Where the family left Stwie at home alone) in family guy where Peter acted, through out the show, AS A MAN-CHILD. And when Lois "FINALLY" stund up and told Peter off, Peter throws a stupid guilt card at Lois, and Lois FORGIVES HIM!
WOW! Really, even though through out the whole episode, where PETER MADE ALL THE PROBLEMS, he's the victim and Lois is the bad-guy. WOW!

Same goes for Homor. Back then, when Homor makes a mess, he trys to fix it and make sure his family doesn't get involve with "HIS" problem. NOW, when Homor makes a mess, EVERYONE IS INVOLVE AND IT BECOMES WROSE, and WROSE! And everyone forgives him. WOW!

Spongebob "USED" to be a lovable guy, Yeah, he did acted foolish at times, but he knows when to stop. And at times, he helps out. BUT NOW, Spongebob can make a HUGE mess, and nothing bad happens to him. Its ok, its Spongebob, so what he brun the town down, its Spongebob.

Cosmo is just like Peter and humor. He started out being fun and just like that...A MAN-CHILD!

All of them just became mad-childs. And we all have to tolerate them, its ok. They were always like that...No, they were not. Not in this level.
 
I wondered by curiosity if there any character derailment in South Park? Chef could have technically derailed when he joined the Super Adventure Club but that was due to the departure of Isaac Hayes.
 
I think that he has learned from his battles. He doesn't make the same kind of rookie mistakes that he did during the his first journey through Kanto, he won the Orange Island League, defeated all seven Frontier brains in the Kanto Battle Frontier and has improved in each of the major game-related region tournaments. Even when he came in the Top eight again in the Hoenn League, he did so with only the Pokemon he caught in Hoenn, instead of using mostly his older Kanto Pokemon like he did during the Johto League.

Plus, during DP, he has learned different battle strategies in order to take on different Gym leaders. He doesn't forget this in every saga. He just has to do it all over again with a new batch of Pokemon.



I'm not sure about that. Granted, Team Rocket did look more threatening, design wise, during their first appearance, up until they were defeated by Pikachu at the end of that same episode. Jessie, James and Meowth didn't really look as comedy-relief like they do now, but they were always meant to be comedy-relief villains. Considering that in their first four appearances, they were defeated by Pikachu, a Caterpie, put to sleep by Butterfree's Sleep Power, stung by Beedrill and then tried to capture Ash and his Pikachu by digging a pit-fall trap, in which they got stuck in themselves, I don't think that they were that much of a threat in the first season.
 
I agree with what is in bold. DP could have been so much more than what it was, but there was too much stupid humor and filler in it. The first episode villain was also very weak (A lunch lady? come on.) I really likede gems of potential that were in there, ebcause there were many things that stood out about it, but he's just couldn`t stop putting inappropriate jokes in. It's the Digimon dub problem, only this time it wasn`t due to intervening dubbers but the creator himself.


HOWEVER, I disagree with one point that keeps beign made on FOP, and that is that Vicky was ever nice or fair. The entire pilot was about vicky being mean to him for no reason whatsoever. She was NEVER nice. Yes, cosmo and timmy turned into jerks, but Vicky always WAS. Tell me ONE episode when vicky showed even a single instace of fairness or kindness besides when timmy wished her to be nice or saved her life. ONE.
 
Spongebob.
Over the years his character has gotten...more and more annoying.
At the beginning of the series, he seemed almost normal. Well, not really, but he could fit in okay. Now he is just wacky, annoying, and inconsiderate. They exaggerated every single aspect of his character to the point where I really find it hard to like him.
 
Pretty much any episode where Spongebob torments Squidward for 10 straight minutes is extremely painful for me to sit through. It makes me want to reach through my television screen and throttle the yellow pest. :shrug:
 
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