Characters who lost their edge.

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Melody C

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In early episodes of a show, a character was known for his odd or funny behavior, but now its rarely shown. Here are some examples

In American Dad, Stan was an over-the-top sociopath who often misinterprets (or even rewrites) history and concocts insane schemes to support his ideas (like in "Widowmaker"). Everyone in town even pays for going against him (ex. "Homeland Insecurity" and "I Can't Stan You"). Now, he tries to do these so they can benefit his family and he can be friends with those who are aften against him. The original trait made a brief reprise in "A Jones For A Smith".

From South Park, Shelley is now a generic sister character, despite once having a hair-trigger temper and the strength to lift a piano to squash Stan and Kyle! This behavior briefly reappeared in "Over Logging".

Also from South Park, Sheila was took "Moral Guardian" up to eleven, staring wars and mass suicides to support her views. Now, she is mellow and often protests over somethings that really are threatening (like in "South Park Is Gay"). She must have learned her lesson from the movie.

Lastly, from Family Guy, Lois was caring, down to earth, and supported all her children, even beating the crap out of Peter when he refused to go to Meg's play. Now, she's just as much of an ass as Peter is (if not, more so!).

Any more?
 
One character that comes to mind is:

Bloo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends where he started as a trouble maker yet good friend until he started to act a selfish jerk and doesn't care much that his friends get hurt or something.
 
Squidward at first was an artsy guy who was annoyed by his neighbor Spongebob, but cared for him, now he downright hates them and wants to see them dead.

And while we are on Spongebob, Mr. Krabs. He used to enjoy earing money and only attacked Plankton when needed. Now he is a greedy jerk who doesn't cre about anything except money.

And on FOP, almost everyone. Vicky went from bad babysitter to evil psychopath, Cosmo from lovable silly dude to jerk and braindead and Timmy gt more bratty and selfish with time.
 
In a similar vein, Hayley was originally a very vocal liberal activist, constantly at odds with Stan's undying support of George W. Bush's conservative America. Now that Bush's administration is over, we don't hear from Hayley nearly as much as we used to.
 
Ed from Ed, Edd, n' Eddy started out as a dim character but still aware of his surroundings around the first (and second maybe?) season of the show. He was still able to function, he wouldn't walk into a door several times over until someone opened the door for him, but he would rather open the door and then trip over his shoe lace or something, showing his clumsiness. He would then attempt to tie his shoes only to get tangled up, showing his dimwittedness.

But he then became a full-blown moron as the show progressed and stayed that way.
 
.... Uh, what? Isn't the title of this thread "characters who lost their edge?" Shouldn't that mean we're talking about characters who use to be tough, bad, offfensive or confrontational, And then they lost that certain spark that made us like or appreciate that character more, and wonder why they are nicer or more gentle then we remember them being? I mean Stan, Sheila and Shelly fit that bill, but Lois's character technically gained more edge over time, not less. So really you should change this thread to "Characters whose changes we haven't liked over time" if you want to talk about that, not say "lost their edge" when you aren't just talking about characters who lost their edge.



I think it's not just that as even during Bush's run there was a dwindle on Hayley's character. I just think that the staff ran out of ideas of what to do with her for the most part (besides marrying Jeff, a dynamic they only played with a couple of times since the actual couple joined) since she could still have tension with Stan if they you know thought of a plot for that. But don't since quite frankly I don't think they really care about writing for teenage/young adult females anymore. And I mean the entire MacFarlane team. It's still sort of in Family Guy due to them making Meg a punching bag, but Hayeley of AD and Robert of the Cleveland show barley have any presence on their shows anymore since apparently no one can really write for their characters for... some reason.

But that's getting off topic (though in truth I think this topic's title should still be changed if it's not just about characters who lost their edge) so I'll get us on topic. And by on topic I mean the original topic of characters who just lost their edge.

If we're talking MacFarlane shows, then the most natural would be Stewie. Who as noted by many went from a manaical baby genius intending to take over the world and Kill Lois to a somewhat flamboyant intellectual wise cracking baby who at times hints at being malicious, but dosen't really act on it. This was even noted in a recent epsiode of him going soft, but even after the "twist" in that episode he still hasn't become as full on devious as he originally was.

Here's another one I just thought of actually: Huey Freeman of the Boondocks. Remember back in season one where a good amount of plots were about him trying to fight his own revolution or think of extreme plans (like "The Story Of Reverend Ruckus" where he had this scheme to get an innocent man out of prision) to fight the power. That... kind of petered out when the show decided to get more sitcomy and more on Grandad and Riley then about Huey. This was even acknowledged in the third season as Huey Freeman retired even though he obviously still had problems even with Obama as president.

And to speak of webtoons for a moment, what about Strong Bad of Homestar Runner (you know back when Homestar Runner actally updated). Once again this was mentioned in the actual series that he was losing his edge as his character acted nicer or seemed to tolerate others more then his original full on anaganiost side.


In truth I kind of like the character evolutions (except Huey who like Hayley was just taken more out of the equation due to writer stagnation. Though it's more noticable in the Boondocks since he was the central character of the comics and the original first season) but those are some examples of characters losing their edge, not just characters who changed we don't really like.
 
If we can count characters from a series of movies, Shrek went from humorously cantankerous ogre bachelor in the first movie to bland suburban dad by the fourth.
 
Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2K3: He started out as a crazed maniac with a temper to match and as each season went it was filed off. By the time Back to the Sewer happened he was a pure comic relief.

The Turtles themselves in 2K3. Pretty much Fast Forward season reset there personalities and took away any depth any of them had. Raph got hit the most with the series dumbing down. He lost all the brooding and anger and even the rivalry with Leo. He became an annoying mach sterotype who did nothing but whine about how lame the future is because wrestling wasn't fun or because his bathroom had a computer in it.

Everybody who rivaled Son Goku or was a villain to hero in Dragonball and Dragonball Z. Yamcha, Krillin, Tien, Piccolo and Vegeta all had hard edges to them when they first encountered Goku. Althought these edges were mostly taken off not because of bad writing or lack of know what to do with the character but because of character devloptment (Vegeta Piccolo and Tein beign handled the best). Well maybe except 18 who went domesticative way to easly got really bad when the original series ended. She had to be saved from falling rocks by her husband krillin in the Jump special and later in a Videogame intro she was shown cleaning dishes instead of doing something cool like everyone else.
 
Why is this thread so vague and poorly explained? Everyone just seems to be listing characters who changed, regardless of whether it was for better (Stan) or worse (Lois, Bloo, everyone on SpongeBob).

As for someone who actually lost their edge, Van Rook from The Secret Saturdays. He was introduced as a ruthless masked mercenary working for the main villain. He remained one of the main villains of the first season even after his original apprentice Doyle (the long-lost brother of Drew Saturday) leaves him, replacing him with a female apprentice who betrayed the titular family (after being initially introduced as a heroine).

Then he gets swindled by his new apprentice and in season two, he's re-introduced as a incompetent, overweight homeless bum. He reunites with his former apprentice and becomes sidekick comic relief for the rest of the season, as they work to uncover the secrets of the main villain they once worked for.

Then he sacrifices himself to save Drew in the final episode, therefore becoming a hero.
 
I think that Valmont from Jackie Chan Adventures lost his edge over the course of the series. During the first season, he seemed like a pretty cool villain, especially when he got the Dragon Talisman and started to attack people. Even though he was mainly just helping out Shendu, he still seemed like a pretty competent villain and actually could fight pretty well on his own if I remember correctly. He was a bit more comic relief during the second season when Shendu took control of his body, but he still seemed fairly threatening and a decent villain. I think it was during the remainder of the series where he really lost his edge. He became more of a common thief due to losing money in the previous seasons and there was a stronger emphasis on his character being more comedy relief than in the second season. By the end of the series, he had become a bus driver, which was kind of a shame considering how intimidating and collected I thought he was back when the series started.
 
Bloo. What else is needed to be said? I liked his character when he started out as a trouble maker when he was still helpful to his friends. But as the series went on, he just became an unlikable character in my book.

I should mention that there is a strong bad email that parodys this btw. I think Daffy Duck deserves a mention. He lost his edge when he became a greedy bum who was rather selfish to himself(Although this worked sometimes, but not a whole lot). I just prefer the screwy Daffy over jerky daffy.
 
Now, while the Gargoyles comics avoid the mistake, the televised version of Season 3 (The Goliath Chronicles) really takes the edge away from Xanatos and Fox.

Xanatos basically becomes the clan's friend and no longer has any ulterior motive. And Fox really shows her lack of edge when Alex is kidnapped in Ransom.

Now she did cry shortly after Oberon declared that he would take Alexander to Avalon, but soon after she was prepared to fire at him. Now applying this to Ransom, a brief moment of distress would be plausible, but afterwards it would be more in character for her to arm herself like crazy and search for her son rather than just waiting for someone else to do so.
 
Definitely. It started when Daolon Wong took away his enforcers. I still remember Drago wouldn't even give him a chance during henchman auditions. However, given that both his roles in Season 5 were non-speaking, it's possible his VA quit and the writers didn't want to completely write him out.

I'm shocked no one's said Lisa Simpson yet. I had been giving the series a rewatch and I think her turning point (her starting to complain more) was the one with MENSA. Also, IDK if this is what we're talking about, but Nelson was a real bully in the beginning, and I think when he dated Lisa, he developed a kinder side. I mean, he still liked Bart for killing a bird, but he's been showing his feelings more and more, and even crying several times.
 
Chowder and Mung Daal from Chowder. Chowder was a cute, slightly timid and naive kid who messed things up on accident. As the series progressed he became just another loud and obnoxious kid who seemed to be on a sugar rush more than half the time he was on screen.

Mung started off as a quirky yet shrewd adult character who, while he had his funny moments, stayed composed and held an air of intelligence about him. As the series progressed he became the butt of more and more jokes and became more of an egotist.
 
Yeah, I still remember the scene where he's easily overpowered by Daolon Wong, given that he does have magical powers and all, and was stuck on the sidewalk as he took his enforcers away. I'm pretty sure that they replaced his original voice actor for season three since he sounded completely different when that happened. I'm not sure if his second voice actor quit was the reason he had two non-speaking appearances in the last season. I think it might have been more that they were just using him for comedy relief for when he applied to be Drago's henchman and showing him as a bus driver in the series finale showed where he ended up to bring a sense of closure for his character. It might have also shown that he wouldn't be a threat again, even though his previous appearance already made that clear to me.
 
Yeah, and I'm sure the creators caught wind of that, given this extreme meta-reference in the second-to-last episode.

Mung: I'm making bread today!
Chowder: Just bread?
Mung: Fine then, I will put something made-up in it. *puts in a "toot fruit"*
Chowder: What's that?
Mung: Toot fruit. It makes the dough rise.
Chowder: Why not just use yeast?
Mung: Because this is Chowder.
Chowder: But I'm Chowder.
Mung: It's ready!
Chowder: Now here's the part where you tell me not to eat it, right?
Mung: Yes, and I know you're not going to listen, so I'm going to turn around and pretend to be oblivious.
 
I'm amazed no one's named Mickey Mouse, because in his early years he was a bit of a prankster and had alot of the traits that would still be used with Donald Duck. But, even though I still love the character, he became pretty vanilla in terms of character later on.
 
Probably due to 'Lost in Adaptation', but General Grievous went from a fairly terrifying individual/competent general in the Tartakovsky SW toons to a Snively Whiplash-esque incompetent villain who failed every single time he showed up in 'Clone Wars'. Got so bad to the point where he barely appeared in Season 2 (save for 2-3 episodes of 22) and Season 3.
 
On the flip side Mac's attitude towards Bloo seemed to change throughout the series. It's hard to believe that Mac was heartbroken to give Bloo away.



As a long time Spongebob fan I'm afraid I have to respectfully disagree. Squidward has always hated Spongebob.



This doesn't sound like a personality change. Valmont went from being on top of the crime ladder and fell from grace.
 
I agree. Given Bloo's extremely selfish behavior and how often he annoyed Mac, I couldn't understand why he would want to keep Bloo, let alone feel heartbroken over giving him away.



It's true that he did fall down from the top, but it still kind of felt like a personality change to me. Instead of being as intimidating as he was during the first season or two, he was treated like a joke. At the very least, it did feel like he lost his villainous edge as he became more like a comedy gag than an actual villain over the course of the series.
 
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