Characters who became worse later in a series?

S

Shardote

New member
I couldn't help but think about characters that got worse personality wise in a series, and I wanted to know people's opinions on this. The most obvious character I can think of is Bonnie from Family Guy, she went from a loyal wife who supported her husband in the older seasons, to a woman who doesn't really care about the state of her husband anymore in the newer seasons. Please state your reasons, don't just list the characters.
 
Getting off of Family Guy (but not MacFarlane), Roger has gone from needy and lonely to a complete psychopath who never suffers any consequences for his actions.
 
Bloo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. What started off as a slightly irritating, but fun to watch character, turned into an all out jerk by the end of the series. If I were Mac, I'd have just left his blue butt there and went on with my life, ESPECIALLY after those 'surprise' birthday parties.
 
I certainly have to agree that the MacFarlene characters really go down hill over the course of their respective series.

The only character I can think of that hasn't is Joe and I'm pretty sure he has a target on his back to pull something really asshatic by the end of this season!

I think Family Guy and American Dad are certainly the benchmarks for this thread!

In other series, I think DBZ has more then a few characters that have sadly become all but obsolete. Krillian (the strongest Human at the end of the series) has faded to barely becoming a token characters. Yamcha, another of the world's strongest Heroes, COMPLETELY retired from the "Hero gig" and Tein had one good moment since he came back to life.
 
Can anime characters go here? If so.

Naruto-Sakura: Not even in the original Naruto series did I like her, no offense to her fans but she was so stuck up and at first didn't give people a chance. On top of that they didn't let her do a single thing. I don't know how, the later series they make her even worse.
I know she was trying to save Naruto from Sasuke, but she could have thought up a much better idea than that :shrug: Saying I Love you without really meaning it, is just hurtful! Even the group that was with her was just like "What?? That was your idea??!!" Than, I love how Sakura thinks she's the only one to stop Sasuke when some of the way stronger teams couldn't, brilliant thinking here! She's supposed to be the smartest of the team right? Guess her brain went down hill some where. Now even in the War, where the heck has she been the entire time? I thought she was also being trained to fight, not just heal! I've given up on her, guess the writer wants the fans to hate her or some thing. I'm hopping she dies at the end of the series, than again if she does die, Naruto will go with Hinata cuz due to that, it'd be like how Sakura will go with Naruto cuz Sasuke went evil and died.

Lighthammer, was Chichi not the strongest human? Speaking of which, Dragon Ball Z wise she went down hill, liked her in Dragon Ball better than after that she became a jerk and really booked down on Gohan, even when he just wanted to hang out with the Z gang.

Krillin: Yah, he kind of became a joke as the series went on, poor guy.

Don't even get me started on GT, too many to name and I don't count that series at all any ways.

Phineas and Ferb: Love the show, makes me laugh but one character tends to make it less enjoyable for me. Candace, she just seemed to get more crazy as the series went on, doing more weird things to bust her brothers even when again they do some thing nice for her. In season 1 I liked her a lot, as the later half of season 2 and season 3 well that's when it started.

Yu Yu Hakusho-Kuwabara: I liked him a lot in series 1 and in the Dark Tournament saga, in the later part of the series he kind of got left behind while the others got stronger and fought more. He's kind of like the Krillin/Yamcha of the series.

Pokemon-Team Rocket: Not funny any more, not serious any more and I honestly think the Best Wish writers are slowly getting rid of them.
 
Yeah, Chi-Chi's a jerk for trying to keep her son out of mortal danger and wanting him to get an education and make something of himself rather than grow up to be a vagabond whose only 'job' is risking his neck fighting evil aliens and whatnot and occasionally competing in fighting tournaments. Burn the witch.

Honestly, I've never understood the hate for Chi-Chi. It's like when people say that Doc and Drew Saturday were 'bad parents' for not letting their son do whatever the heck he wants, no matter how dangerous or potentially life-threatening it is.




From a personal standpoint, I agree; it's high time Candace gave up this insane "gotta bust 'em!" quest and moved on with her life, since in many cases it's Candace herself who triggers the processes that flay her, but realistically, I know that's not going to happen, any more than Team Rocket will ever give up trying to capture this one Pikachu or Wile E. Coyote will ever give trying to catch and eat the Road Runner. By this time, that element has become one of the show's trademark bits, and as such, the writers aren't going to discontinue it, no matter how tired it's gotten (just like how I'd really like for the Johnny Test writers to put and end to the whole 'Susan Test/Bling-Bling Boy' shtick on that show, but I know that they never will).
 
Thats what I dislike about the Bloo character, I dont understand why Mac was still friends with Bloo with the point being that Bloo is a jerk with only caring for himself.

Also, Homestar runner started out as a bit of a smarty guy to a guy who somebody who had no brain at all.
 
I agree. While Candace's determination to bust her brothers can be pretty funny at times, it's more often annoying to me nowadays. Not only does she go over the top to stop her brothers just to get them in trouble to the point where she looks crazy, but most of what Phineas and Ferb do wouldn't really get them in trouble with their Mom anyway. They're usually not putting themselves in danger, know what they're doing and are just happy about doing another project. Plus, she does seem to ignore how they do help her out and how much they care about Candace, which kind makes her annoying to me at times as well.



I'm definitely not a fan of serious Team Rocket. They just come off as completely dull and having much less screentime than they've had in the previous series really doesn't help. I can kind of see where you're coming from about the writers slowly getting rid of them, but I'm not sure if that's the case. They've never tried to slowly get rid of anyone in the main cast, regardless of how long they were there, and if they really wanted to get rid of Team Rocket, then I think that they would have done so at the beginning of BW. It would have been even more like a fresh start with Ash and Pikachu as the only returning characters and it would have emphasized how far away the Unova region is compared to the previous regions as well.



Yeah, I can see why the writers won't have Candace stop trying to bust her brothers. They do need some kind of conflict in the series and it would feel kind of weird if she stopped completely. Though, you'd probably be surprised how often in the last couple of Pokemon series where Team Rocket don't even attempt to steal Ash's Pikachu.

I also agree that Bloo became so unlikable as the series went on. I thought he was kind of okay in the first season, despite still being a selfish jerk and having a sudden personality change after the pilot movie, but he just got worse as the series began. I'm still amazed that Mac wanted to keep him after the way he treated him and the rest of their friends at Fosters. Unless there was some problem threatened to separate them, it really didn't feel like Bloo even cared about Mac by a certain point.
 
Icy, Darcy, and Stormy from Winx Club fit this well. They were semi-formidable at the beginning, and even managed to strip Bloom of her powers in the first season. Then they started relying on characters like Darkar and Baltor/Valtor (they themselves even pointed out that they were fighting over a guy). Now I'm not 100% sure on this, since I haven't seen Winx in the longest time, but that's what I remember.

Also, Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons. Starting with that MENSA episode she just started complaining about EVERYTHING.

Homer too. Professor Lawrence Pierce of the University of Chicago writes "I think Homer gets stupider every year." That's not a question, Professor, but let's let the viewers judge for themselves.

I still can't believe this same Homer wanted to pawn his TV for family therapy money...
 
That was the main reason I couldn't get into the show. I loved the pilot movie, it was great, but as soon as episode one aired, Bloo did a complete 180 with his personality. I was hoping that was a one time thing, but he only got worse as time went on, and there were several times where he just brought a whole episode down. It still baffles me to this very day why the writers decided to make such a unecessary and drastic change to Bloo's personality. He was fine as he was in the movie, so what the heck was the problem with him to warrant such a change?
 
I disliked how they dumbed Drakken down in some of the later episodes of Kim Possible. It was really odd how they did it though because it was really inconsistent. I think it started with that "Naked Genius" episode. It's not a bad episode. It's actually pretty funny, but I can't help but dislike it on some level because this was the ep where Drakken started to act uncharacteristically dumb and suddenly have a lot of grammar problems. He never had those issues before, but after that ep it became a running gag. (one that I didn't care for) Like I said, it was really inconsistent though. A couple of my favorite episodes are from season 2 after "Naked Genius". He doesn't act stupid in those episodes...


She's the strongest female human. The other characters are so insanely strong that it makes her look really weak though.



I think it's more the way that she goes about trying to protect Gohan. (screaming, insulting others, being extremely controlling) It wasn't just that she didn't want Gohan to fight either. (which is understandable) I remember an episode where she wouldn't even let him take a break from studying to attend a get together, and there was a scene in the Cell Saga where she just went on and on about how the Z fighters were all delinquents. That is kind of a jerky attitude to have towards people who regularly try to save the planet. There's nothing wrong with having high expectations for your kid education-wise or being concerned about his safety, but she didn't have to be so stuck-up and mean about it. That was what annoyed me.
 
How about Master Shake. In the early episodes he was just a jerk, but later he became a sociopathic bully toward meatwad, and didnt care about how his actions affected others, even when they were clearly dangerous.
 
I know a bunch of characters that have gotten worse later in certain series:

Daffy Duck(Looney Tunes) - Daffy was wacky/zany/crazy way back in the old school shorts, but now he's become a greedy/selfish jerk along with his rivalry with Bugs Bunny.

Lois/Brian(Family Guy) - She was a sweet/caring mother, but now she became terrible and a bigger jerk than Peter on bashing Meg, Brian, and poor Joyce.Brian was great/the voice of reason, but he went downhill on being an annoying liberal and having bad luck with women, but his moments with Stewie were the best though.

Bloo(Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends) - He was great in the pilot movie, but he became a humongous jerk for poor Mac and his friends throughout the series which made me stop watching the show.

Candace(Phineas And Ferb) - Agreeing with RonDrakenfan17, she may be hot/funny at season 1, but further on seasons 2/3, she became more annoying/crazy on always wanting to bust poor Phineas & Ferb especially when her brothers help her out, she still wants to bust them.

Misty/Team Rocket:Jessie,James,& Meowth/Ash's Charizard/Max/Iris(Pokemon/Black & White) - Both Misty/Ash's Charizard/Max were so annoying/terrible to poor Ash, but at least they became soft at the end though.The three losers were funny comic relief villains way back, but further on they became unfunny/dull/boring now and didn't care about their serious personalities.Iris may become worse further on being annoying/smug/obnoxious, always using her annoying "you're such a kid" crap, but I still like her despite her lousy attitude and has her funny/great moments at times.

Tyson(Beyblade:V. Force/G. Revolution) - He was awesome/likable for caring for his friends in season 1, but further on seasons 2/3, he became so unlikable/awful on being a gigantic butthead towards his friends at times along with his major hard-headed stubbornness as much as I feel sorry for poor Kenny/Max/Ray/Kai to put up with him.Especially with Max/Ray leaving him, he was still terrible which makes me wanna punch him in the face, but I'm glad Ray/Lee kicked his butt at the end since Ray was so awesome.

Sasuke/Sakura(Naruto/Shippuden) - He was great in the beginning, but further on becoming a vengeance-loving jerk and not caring about your comrades totally made him went downhill.I used to like her, but not anymore when she became the biggest jerk ever in the original series along with making her useless, but in the next series with her lying to poor Naruto on loving him was really hurtful/not cool, but I pity her because of Sasuke becoming a vengeance-loving criminal.

Kiyomi/Ray/Naomi/Misa/Namikawa/Aiber and Wedy/Matt(Death Note) - Don't know if they count but Kiyomi, Misa, and Mikami were awesome, but sad that they're Light's servants with no respect to the end.Ray/Naomi/Namikawa/Aiber and Wedy/Matt were such awesome minor characters until they became Light's victims to be killed off which is so horrible/not cool, I'm so happy Light got his butt kicked at the end.

Madarao/Tokine(Kekkaishi) - They were pretty cool at the beginning, but they became such awful/unlikable jerks being a pain for poor Yoshimori, but yet I still like Tokine because of her great skills and funny fear of bugs like Misty, hahahahaha.

Mepple(Pretty Cure/Max Heart) - He was pretty cute/funny at the start of the series, but further on he became so terrible/unlikable on being a huge jerk for poor Natalie.Natalie putting him in his place was awesome, but Mepple doesn't know when to quit on always bashing on her which he irritates me:mad::mad:!!!!!For some reason Mepple so reminds me and acts like Bloo on the whole "making your owners' life miserable" formula.
 
It may be considered out of character if your first exposure to the Simpsons was their own TV show. However, since this is stil early Simpsons, the family were still in character when compared to the Simpsons shorts that appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show.
 
Back
Top