Flanderization/Western Animation

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Examples of Flanderization in Western Animation include:

The Simpsons - the Trope Namer

The Simpsons, being the series which spawned this trope's very name, of course has this almost across the board. The series over the many years has in many ways become a symbol of this trope in its purest form. Some more noteworthy examples within the series:

• Naturally, Ned Flanders. Originally all around decent guy next door, he started off as a Foil for the dimwitted, short-tempered, yet hardworking Homer (who hadn't yet undergone his own Flanderization). Nowadays watches TV just to find un-Christian things to complain about. Flanders was a Sitcom Arch Nemesis who was better than Homer in every way, almost to a Parody Sue degree, and being a church-goer was simply part of that character; very little of the humor involving him was church-related in the earliest episodes.
  • Flanders is an interesting case since he was flanderized twice. At first, he went from the all around decent guy next door who enjoyed going to church on Sundays to a meek, Bible-obsessed guy, who was still a pretty decent person if also incredibly boring. However, in his second flanderization, his obsession with Christianity grew even more, and turned into an intolerant bigot who demanded a lot of respect for his religion but openly mocked others' (like Apu's Hinduism). This also turned the joke of Homer hating him for no reason into "no wonder why Homer hates him".
  • It's probably unintentional, but Ned's second flanderization coincided with the death of his wife Maude, leading to a tragic Alternate Character Interpretation that the loss of his wife and having to be a single father have led him to become bitter, depressed, and more and more hostile to anything that goes against his increasingly fundamentalist religious beliefs. Possibly this is also because it caused Ned to take over Maude's role in the show, Maude having been far more judgmental towards anyone else, but with Ned it became less funny and more annoying.
  • Recent seasons appear to be ratcheting Flanders back to his middle form, possibly after complaints of taking his character too far.
  • It is also worth pointing out that Flander's Flanderization has coincided with the changing common perception of American Christianity across the show's Long Run. Flanders was created in the late eighties as an expression of everything sterotypically "good" in a devout Christian, only taken Up to Eleven and Played for Laughs. Since then though, a Vocal Minority of American Christian groups have become increasingly politically active and partisan, often pushing for legislation on "moral issues", and getting lots of exposure on 24-Hour News Networks. This in turn has lead to a Flanderization of the popular perception of American Christianity, and Flanders himself began to reflect that.
• Flanders is not the only Simpsons character to have been flanderized multiple times; the whole cast has undergone sweeping personality changes. First was the "Golden Age" Flanderization: during seasons 2 and 3, the cast evolved into their best-known incarnations. Then came the "Zombie Age" Flanderization: a direct result of Mike Scully becoming the showrunner in season 10. Because many characters have undergone two flanderizations, character descriptions on the internet seemingly contradict one another, but are actually failing to address both personality shifts. To illustrate, one character description for Homer might say, "Homer used to be a lovable oaf, but he became meaner as the series went on." Another might say, "Homer used to be angry most of the time, but became nicer and sweeter as the series went on."
• Homer started out as a strict (though none too bright) disciplinarian, turned into a stupid yet lovable manchild, then became a moronic Jerkass (though the latter was toned down later on and, lately, depends on the writer). His intelligence drops from average to "really stupid".
  • Homer's stupidity might have been lampshaded by the writers in the 138th episode, where a supposed fan 'asks' "I think Homer gets stupider every year.", after which Troy McClure says that isn't a question, but they'll let the viewers decide for themselves, and a bunch of clips of Homer's idiocy show up. They do something similar with Smithers, a fan asking "What's the real deal with Smithers? You know what I'm talking about.", naturally showing many clips of Ho Yay after, made even funnier when afterwards, Troy declares: "As you can see, Smithers is Mr. Burns' assistant! He's in his late 40s, unmarried, and currently resides in Springfield!"
• On the subject of Smithers... he merely started out as an undeniable sycophantic assistant with a little too much admiration for his boss. Now he's out-and-out gay (and not just interested in Burns, as some scenes suggest).
• Ralph Wiggum was originally just another generic classmate of Lisa's before becoming a Cloudcuckoolander but with a hidden smart side, and then eventually the unbelievably dense collection of non-sequiturs we all know and name tropes after. Compare him moving the school with his portrayal of George Washington in season 4's "I love Lisa" to Ralph asking a wolf to be his mommy in season 14's "Bart of War".
• Other examples include Lisa's activism sporting more radical tendencies and her intelligence being more in line with a haggard old woman, Chief Wiggum's incompetence fluctuating from merely inept to Homer-like mental deficiency, the greater emphasis on Burns' elderly frailty and an increasingly ineffectual role, Moe's tendency towards suicide attempts.
  • Burns actually reversed this in one episode where he was able to break down a wooden door to save the woman he loved.
  • Lisa's strong progressive streak became activist tendencies, then full-out environmental and uber-liberal extremism; her Snark Knight view of society as uncultured, phony, pandering, and lowest-common-denominator-focused became extreme intellectual superiority and being Holier Than Thou, and her quirkiness and nerdy interests became patronizing enthusiasm for the most pretentious of vocations. Basically she went from being the voice of reason and Bart's contrast to a stuck-up genius prude.
  • This was nicely lampshaded by Mr. Burns:

My God, are you ALWAYS on?

• Marge was not always the saint that she became. In the show's fourth episode, "There's No Disgrace Like Home", it's Marge, not Homer, that gets drunk at a company picnic and embarasses the family.
  • To be fair, the punch was spiked. She didn't get drunk intentionally.
  • Marge was also more realistic in regards to Homer early on. She loved him without question and would excuse some behavior others wouldn't, but she'd also call him on his nonsense if he went too far. Of course, as Homer became more flanderized into a Jerkass idiot prone to wild acts, Marge became more of a Stepford Smiler.
  • Her somewhat no nonsense personality was also Flanderized somewhat. In early episodes she was merely Closer to Earth and something of a nag. In later episodes she is exaggeratively boring and un-impulsive by nature, getting hyped up by household chores and monotonous hobbies.
    • The flanderization has become so bad to the point of Fridge Horror, what will happen to Maggie when she gets older? Will she be traumatised by her family's behaviour? Actually if Bart and Lisa continue this downward spiral, it'll be a case of Youngest Child Wins.
• Two sets of twins became a lot meaner as the show progressed. For the first, Patty and Selma have gone from just making mean jokes about Homer (and the fact that Marge loves him and won't divorce him for someone better) at every opportunity to actually trying to kidnap and kill him as seen in the episode "Wedding For Disaster." For the second, while Sherri and Terri weren't exactly the nicest girls (even though one of them is secretly in love with Bart Simpson), nowadays they seem to pretty much hate anyone who's not them. They didn't even become suddenly afraid when Michael turned out to be the son of Fat Tony.
• Moe started out as a simple bartender who was kind of cheap, but evolved into a serial criminal whose appeal to women is revolting. In every episode with a woman showing interest in him, Moe eventually does something completely creepy. He's also often seen torching his own bar or paying someone to do something illegal and unethical, like having Homer steal and destroy his car.
• Bart simply started out as problem child who became an Ensemble Darkhorse in the 1990's. Now? His negative qualities have been exemplified to the point where he's a sociopath wanting to ruin Homer and Marge's marriage since it gets him out of homework.
  • Bart also seemed to have lost all empathy towards everyone, including his own family, if it means getting a quick laugh. In one episode, where Homer sees someone to learn how to suppress his anger towards Bart, Homer is taught to be too afraid to discipline Bart violently or he will have flashbacks towards a huge guy choking him. Bart takes advantage of this and does anything he can to cause trouble and knows he can get away with it because Homer is too scared to act out. This leads to the man who met with Homer trying to get Bart to feel empathy towards Homer, only for Bart to keep getting Homer injured and even refusing to cut the rope that was choking Homer to death. The only time Bart ever feels empathy to anyone or anything is when the story calls for it, otherwise Bart will keep making trouble just because he can.
  • Bart also endangers Principal Skinner's life with his peanut allergy, exploiting this to make Skinner do what Bart wanted. Bart is pretty much willing to kill someone just because the results amuses him.
  • When Homer is forced to go to a fathering class after accidentally making Bart pee in front of everyone when he was tickling him a bit too much, he was forced to be strangled to show what Bart experiences when he does that to him. When Homer vows not to strangle or physically punish Bart again... Bart milks it for all that it's worth. He does many blatant illegal acts since he know he won't be punished by Homer. He even tries to get his father killed during the bonding exercises. Any, and all sympathy for Bart Simpson has faded after that episode.
• Similiar to the Family Guy summation below, this Tumblr image.

The Fairly Oddparents

• Timmy Turner of The Fairly OddParents. During the first few seasons of the show, Timmy was portrayed as essentially a good kid who occasionally gave into his selfishness. However, he was still very likeable. By about the fourth or fifth seasons, though, he became a Jerkass along with his Fairy Godfather, Cosmo . Timmy was returned to much of his original likable characterization by the sixth season.
• Just Timmy? Every character on this show has been flanderized to some degree, to the point where it might even rival the Trope Namer if it had more characters who appeared enough. Many fans cite this as the reason it's Jumped the Shark. For example:
  • Cosmo was originally simply The Ditz, a bit dim but still relatively normal. Now he's a Too Dumb to Live The Ditz.
    • In the original pilot, he was actually a suave guy—barely resembling the character he became.
  • Wanda was originally simply the Closer to Earth one who chastised Timmy and Cosmo whenever they did something wrong. Now all her jokes tend to be that she's a total nag, to the point where the Barbarian Hero episode had her become the whip cracking Nagules.
  • Timmy's parents. They go from busy and clueless to extremely negligent parents. This was actually the plot catalyst in an episode guest starring Steve Irwin as 'The Bad Parent Hunter'.
  • Vicky was originally just a bully whose worst trick was blackmailing Timmy into doing chores by revealing false evidence that he cheated on a math test or wrecked the house while his parents were out, but otherwise was depicted as being apathetic to Timmy and more complacent with sitting around watching TV. Now, she wants to Take Over the World, is ferocious enough to intimidate and whip all the other villains into shape, and goes out of her way to harm Timmy and does little to cover up her actions because no one will stop her anyway.
    • On The Big Problem, an early episode, Vicki freaks out when Timmy goes missing under her care, though this was only out of concern for herself, but at least she intended to do her job correctly. In later episodes, she plots violence against him and doesn't care about his well-being at all.
  • Trixie Tang was always the Alpha Bitch, but her first appearance suggested she had a nice side to her. Now she's a pure Rich Bitch, Asian airhead who's into girly things.
  • While Mr. Crocker was always a bit crazy, in the earlier episodes his usual demeanor was more stoic and grouchy, only veering into maniacal insane behaviour when there were fairies at work, a lot of his insanity was perceived by the other characters due to him being The Cassandra, and his fairy hunting tools were more grounded in reality (for this show, anyway). Now he has a huge lab underneath the school (to the point where it's lampshaded) and he's every bit as crazy as everyone perceives him to be. Sometimes these days it seems like he can't even form a sentence without "FAIRY GODPARENTS!" in it somewhere. He also became MUCH more fond of giving students failing grades. In his earliest appearance, he was either snarky or silent when he gave kids F's. Now he's flat-out sadistic about it and it's one of the only things that makes him happy.
  • AJ was originally just the smartest kid in Timmy's class. Now he rivals Jimmy Neutron in terms of brains—a connection that was not lost in the third Jimmy/Timmy special.
  • Chester was originally just a lower-income kid who lived in a trailer and whose father was a disgraced baseball player. Now he eats garbage and such things with so much vigor you wonder if he would do if rich. Also, near the beginning he appeared Closer to Earth in comparison to AJ, but now he's just a Dumb Blonde.

Family Guy

Various characters of Family Guy, due to the writers usually taking one joke that was successful before and building on it in future episodes.

• Peter himself has always been a Jerkass, but in the earlier seasons he was shown with a genuine good side and actually cared a whit about his kids, even Meg. Peter's intelligence also drops from 'idiot' to 'legally mentally disabled'.
  • Well, the mentally handicapped thing is more of an explanation than Flanderisation. In the episodes it comes up it often illustrates the insanity of everyone around him, such as the doctor who is nearly infuriated when a "retard" like Peter corrects a minor mistake he made (while explaining mental retardation). He's not really dumber than before (sometimes he's smarter); how intelligent he is varies from episode to episode, and just as often from gag to gag.
• And let's not even go into what happened to her... Meg has "developed" from an ordinary, level-headed teenage girl with teen problems into an outrageously hated and despised punching bag whose desperation for happiness and love often makes her insane. At one point she even snaps and beats up a passing car driver who is picking on her, and stalks Brian after he goes to the prom with her out of pity.
• During season 2, Stewie started to become a bit effeminated and show some glimpses of homosexuality, and became more fond of Brian as time went by. From season 6 onwards, he lost all of his former Enfant Terrible traits, and started to crosdress on a daily basis, dates other guys dressed as a girl, openly wants to have sex with Brian and blatantly hints that he's gay every five seconds.
  • Stewie's act of extreme violence, plans for world domination, and attempts to kill Lois have fallen to the wayside as Stewie's personality changed to being a general jerk to everyone with a heavy dose of Deadpan Snarker and Stewie's interactions with Lois are just him complaining about her. This gets lampshaded by Brian a few times where he asks Stewie why he hasn't been trying to take over the world or why isn't saying "Damn you" every 4 sentences. In another episode, Stewie tries to return to his roots and kill Lois. He succeeds and takes over the United States, but it was revealed to be just a simulation so it never really happened.
• Lois' sexuality has become greatly Flanderized overtime. Originally she enjoyed a healthy sex life with her husband, yes, but it's gotten to the point where in at least four different episodes (when Peter became abstinent, when Peter became gay, when Peter got a vasectomy, and when "real life was censored"), she's been shown to be unable to properly live her life unless she can have sex with Peter.
  • Aside from her sexuality, Lois also started off as being a legitimately caring mother who even attacked a group of girls for making fun of Meg. Since the show's return, she's been consistently shown to be extremely abusive to Meg, even going so far as to suggest Meg commit suicide because she doesn't want to put up with her daughter's depression anymore.
    • Her callousness seems to be exaggerated outside Meg (which could have at least been excused by EVERYONE hating her). By the eight season what were merely a few out of character moments to remind she was Not So Above It All slowly eclipsed her original more logical persona to the point she was basically a Distaff Counterpart for post Flanderization Peter, a childish, self centered heckler constantly bullying her family and friends for kicks. Half the time she is shown giggling or joining in on Peter's antics, something she shown nothing but distain for early on.
• The supporting cast has fallen into this trope as well. Joe Swanson went from just a handicapped character (who in fact was greatly competent despite this and admired by everyone because of it) to everything involving him leading to a "Get it? Because he's a cripple" joke with rage tendencies, and Cleveland lost his quiet, boring personality to become the butt for black jokes.
  • Since Cleveland got his own show, he's stopped being quiet and boring period, and is now just loud and stupid (to fit in the role of leading male the way Peter and Stan Smith have before him).
  • Everybody noticed how Quagmire went from a pervert to a potential rapist, but he suffered a second flanderization much more prominent and fast: in Season 8, it was revealed that he hated Brian. Well, from that moment onwards, Quagmire's character revolved around his hate of Brian.
    • Not really, it's just when he's around Brian that it really comes out. It might be a response to Brian's growing unpopularity with the audience, and the writers wanted to show that they acknowledge it.
      • However, Quagmire's overall wackiness and perverted tendencies have been toned down in a favor of making him a Self-Deprecation avatar. Even when Brian isn't around he seems a lot more down to earth and even rather prudish and cynical on occasion. Whether this counts as Flanderization or subversion is hard to say.
        • Plus now Quagmire's hatred of Brian has vanished, possibly after a threat from Lois AND Stewie regarding possibly removing his penis and FEEDING it to him!
• In earlier episodes, Brian was cast as the intelligent, witty one in the family. When the show was uncancelled, he started to voice his left wing views and contempt for religion, and later Brian's character was totally swallowed by his political views, much to the fans' frustration.
  • Infuriating given his statement in the very first episode that he didn't vote, and in "The Thin White Line" when he thanks God for blessing him with his nose.
  • He also became a liberal strawman of sorts, with jokes revolving around his tendancy to be a complete hypocrite. For instance, he claims to be very open-minded and progressive, yet makes racist jokes about blacks in several episodes. He also campaigned for gay rights, but then became physically ill upon discovering that he had sex with a transexual woman.
  • More than his politics became Flanderized. Originally he was a very smart, and sometimes even pretty classy, character, even if he did drink from time to time and had trouble getting women to go out with him. Now, he's a full-blown alcoholic, he's not very sophisticated, and a lot of his plotlines now revolve around him trying to get a date, always one with a human woman.
    • Brian also has some knack at getting with dumb women just so he can feel smarter and have an easier time in getting into their pants. He's been called out on this at least once.
    • On top of this, Brian's flanderization when it comes to meeting women was turned up a few notches when he goes to date Stewie's preschool teacher, a woman who clearly lets the children do whatever they want and ignores the injuries and even a dead child! This is driven further when Stewie comes home with his arm out of the socket and tries to tell Lois when Brian shuts Stewie up just so Brian can keep dating the teacher. Brian eventually turns the teacher in to the police but only because the woman had a boyfriend already.
  • Lois' father, Carter, used to be an intelligent and rich businessman, even if his views are stuck from the 1950s. As the seasons went on, Carter's behavior is almost comparable to Peter's flanderization where he will say the most stupidest things or do the most ridiculous acts (mostly to Peter) just because he is rich and powerful and needed a quick giggle. The point is driven further home where Carter loses his assets a few times and it's shown that he literally cannot function in life without his fortune.
• Fandom example: The Phony Guy is nicknamed "Holden Caulfield"; as a Flanderization of the actual Holden Caulfield

Futurama

Like most long-running sitcoms, Futurama ends up Flanderizing most of its cast.

• Philip J. Fry started out as just an ordinary, kinda dumb 20th-century everyman. After accidentally getting cryogenically frozen for a thousand years, he was just your average modern college dropout trying to adjust to an unrecognizable sci-fi future where everyone he ever loved was long-dead. Within a few episodes of the pilot, his below-average intelligence started getting more pronounced until he was nearly Too Dumb to Live, even by modern standards.
  • Word of God says Fry was intended to be a normal guy the audience could relate to and humor would be derived from his inability to cope with his strange new surroundings... but he ended up adapting far faster than the writers had planned, so they made him into an Idiot Hero to keep the comedy flowing.
• Amy's ditziness and shallowness was played up as the series progressed (few remember that she was originally an engineering student working with the professor), along with Leela's love of violence. Recent episodes have attempted to acknowledge Amy's stated intelligence by letting her finally earn her Ph.D.
• Bender got much wackier and gained empathy as the season progressed. Given his experience on the robot planet, that he lived with a human, cared for a race of minute aliens, grew attached to those orphans, fell in love, partly merged his programming with a female personality, and underwent a sex change and back (twice), there is totally character development and also material manipulation of his mind there. His original (or at least post-lightbulb) character of lone, hurtful, dissolute renegade with a begrudged affection for Fry and Leela has been displaced by a jokey persona.
• Perhaps the biggest victim of Flanderization in Futurama is Dr. Zoidberg. When he was first introduced, he was a one-joke character: an alien doctor who treats humans, despite being totally ignorant of their biology (and oblivious to the fact). Despite this, the rest of the cast actually treat him with the kind of respect usually accorded doctors throughout season one. But after he got his own episode in season two ("Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?") where it was revealed that Zoidberg is considered a loser by his own species' standards, he became the Butt Monkey of the series. Jokes about him tended to focus on his being poor, gross, completely unpopular with the rest of the cast, or all three, while the incompetent doctor jokes tapered off (though the writers do still crack one from time to time). His background participation in "Where the Buggalo Roam" (in which he spends the entire episode freeloading off the Wongs) just hammers the point home.
  • This may be reversing, however; a Season 6 episode ("The Tip of the Zoidberg") shows that he really is a brilliant xenobiologist and that his poverty comes from the fact that he chose to work for his friend Professor Farnsworth out of loyalty when he could have had a high-paying job under Mom.
• Hermes Conrad was an Obstructive Bureaucrat from early on, and episodes like "Lethal Inspection" deepened his characterization. His Flanderization is more to do with him being a pothead (as seen in "Bend Her," when Hermes mentioned that the Olympic limboing team from Jamaica was detained at the airport, in "The Sting," when his wife seeing him burning Fry's time card during his funeral, asks him: "Can't you go anywhere without lighting something up?", and in "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on Television," when his son found a "cigar," then tried to deny that it was his). With considerable restraint, the series went several years without any marijuana jokes for its Jamaican character; now they can't seem to get enough of them.
  • It's not so much that they completely restrained from marijuana jokes at first, more that originally they were rare and subtle, certainly nothing a child would notice. After the reboot Hermes apparently stopped being sneaky about smoking and just gave up on bureaucracy to become the resident stoner.

King of the Hill

• Hank Hill of King of the Hill is known for preferring traditional things over trendy new ones. This starts to get overdone in the later seasons; case in point, "Get Your Freak Off". In this episode, Hank is more Amish than the Amish; he's almost medieval.
  • In early episodes, Hank was often cast as a voice of reason, although often too uptight and conservative; newer episodes portray him as an naive loser who often gets into trouble because of his own whims.
  • Similarly, in early seasons Peggy seemed to have reasonable Spanish skills, but then they decide to play up her incompetence and overconfidence for laughs.
  • In the series pilot, Hank was short tempered (to the point that his other Catch Phrase was "I'm gonna kick your ass!"), yet still polite. Over time, his short temper was dropped and he slowly became a near pushover.
    • He did spend an episode in anger management. While the end of that episode implied that Hank needed his rage in certain situations, maybe it actually worked.
• In the beginning, Bobby was a late bloomer, but an otherwise ordinary kid: he was immature and impressionable, but in some ways wiser than his straitlaced family. Bobby's immaturity eventually became the entirety of his character, to the point it's difficult to believe he was ever showing any sort of character development at all.
• Luanne's shift from dim bulb to ditzy hillbilly can be blamed almost entirely on The Scrappy, Lucky. She's always been rather dim-witted and immature, but as of late she's been nothing more or less than Lucky's wife.
  • This is troubling because there were quite a few episodes where Luanne downright struggled to break free from her redneck roots. She attended college and was something of a Wrench Wench (despite Cotton Hill's sexist attitude towards a woman being little more than a housewife, mother, and sex object). Then of course, this all went out the window when they introduced Lucky, all in the matter of an episode.
    • At least this was lampshaded in the same episode. Peggy tried everything she could to stop Luanne from dating Lucky for precisely these reasons, including pointing out to Luanne how hard she had worked to escape her trailer-park background.
• Joseph Gribble started out as an average kid seemingly a little more intelligent and athletic than Bobby, sometime afterwards when he hit puberty he was a bit awkward and adjusting to his new body, in the later episodes he becomes even more awkward and seemingly loses several I.Q. points to the point where he's nothing more or less than a dumb jock.
  • And we never saw his Chosen One schtick hinted at by John Redcorn. Speaking of John Redcorn, he's a bit of a double subversion, going from being just a one-note Chick Magnet (who was having sex with Dale's wife) to a New Age healer to having some sort of Hidden Depths as a musician to, in that same episode, most likely having a mood disorder, judging by his lyrics.

SpongeBob SquarePants

• SpongeBob SquarePants experienced massive flanderization of several characters during Seasons 6-8. The "earnest Every Man" aspect of Spongebob's personality has been completely downplayed to make him obnoxious and annoying, rather than merely naive and eccentric. He's also gone into stalker levels of creepiness at times when it comes to Squidward, spending one episode copying his entire house down to the very last detail and heavily breathing whenever he calls.
  • It's shown the most in his driving. In the first episode, he's failed the test 38 times, because he gets so damn nervous behind the wheel that he floors it, causing misery for Mrs. Puff and anyone else, despite' knowing everything (something that is actually a bit realistic). Now? He's just a cartoonishly bad driver who puts everyone in danger the second he's behind the wheel.
• Patrick went from an oddball who was slightly slow on the uptake, but well-meaning and genuinely helpful (even aiding Spongebob in almost passing his boating test), to one of the dumbest characters in television.
• Mr. Krabs went from being a typical greedy yet usually well-intentioned boss to being borderline Faux Affably Evil with an over-exaggerated Money Fetish who would go through several kinds of hell just to retrieve a single penny. Hell, one newer episode portrayed him as more obsessed with money as an object rather than for its value. While his greed was always prominant, he at least had some feasible redeeming aspects and morals to balance it out, his fatherly role with Spongebob and Pearl for example. In later episodes, aside from some Jerkass qualities, his money-lust seems to be his sole defining trait, thus it is a pretty valid example of Flanderization, albeit Depending on the Writer admittedly.
• Squidward's Butt Monkey role was exaggerated from mere Laser-Guided Karma to a mix of outright Comedic Sociopathy and Kafka Komedy, with nearly every entity in Bikini Bottom genuinely out to make him miserable. This could arguably be considered a skewed form of Character Development since it made his Jerkass demeanor far more justified.
• Sandy, originally a science geek with Only Sane Man tendencies, eventually gained a self-awareness of her many talents and evolved into a rowdy Ted Baxter.
• Plankton's Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain role, to the point where he is arguably more likeable than his nemesis. His sentient computer 'wife', Karen's Deadpan Snarker mannerisms have also been upped to eleven.
• The show itself. As its own page says, it turned from a relatively conventional kid's show with slight Gross-Out Show and Gag Series to a Dead Baby Comedy Sadist Show Gag Series that involves apocalyptically retarded/mean characters in surreal situations in a show that wouldn't be out of place in Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup.

Other Works

• Norbert and Daggett of The Angry Beavers suffered from Flanderization as well. Daggett was always the less intelligent of the two, even in season 1, but he still sometimes had moments of brilliance such as in the episode Bug-A-Boo, or Euro Beavers. However, by the show's final season, Daggett devolved into a complete hulking moron. In the episode The Loogie Hawk, he can't even locate the elusive hawk even after reading a sign that says, "LOOGIE HAWK: RIGHT THIS WAY". Norbert, on the other hand, being the older brother regularly picked on Daggett throughout the series, but usually in a playful way. By season 5, Norb had become downright MEAN towards Dag. In the episode Specs Appeal, he actually cons Dag out of his own money, even though Norb has his own stash of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in a secret vault!
• Arnold from Hey Arnold! was conspicuously Flanderized toward the end of the series. In the beginning of the series, he was an honest but down-to-earth, regular kid who did the right thing at the end despite sometimes letting himself get carried away occasionally (sometimes even to the point of being a Jerkass briefly, just like regular children). However, in later seasons he becomes a completely incorruptible real-life incarnation of Confucius (and possibly a fortune cookie), whose friends always consult his deep ethical wisdom in whatever subject was discussed and was willing to "do the right thing" no matter what the consequences would bring. Rather than being just another one of the neighborhood kids, he became the ultimate source for all children for advice, practically raising him into Jesus status with his deep, analytical advice and extreme consideration for ethics. The fact that this is a 4th grader we're talking about makes his Flanderization all the more blatant.
• While the jokes at the beginning of the series focused on his machismo and subsequent inability to attract women, Johnny's stupidity and immaturity were greatly exaggerated in seasons two and three of Johnny Bravo, to the point where he was even classified as the village idiot by his peers in at least one episode. These elements were downplayed after Van Partible (the show's creator who was absent during those seasons) came back onto the show's staff, and Johnny was returned to his more well-adjusted season 1 personality.
• Codename: Kids Next Door Flanderizes several characters.
  • Numbuh Three (Kuki Sanban)'s ditziness and obsession with Rainbow Monkey dolls
  • Numbuh Four's stupidity
    • Painfully obivious if you've seen the first few seasons of the show, in which he was slow-witted and agressive, but not dumb, and a pretty decent fighter. As the series went on, he can't even spell now and his "fighting skills are all an Informed Ability. It was thankfully reverted in the Distant Finale where he's a very successful doctor.
  • Numbuh Five went from the Only Sane Man into a borderline Canon Sue in a really ridiculous case of Positive Discrimination.
  • How did Numbuh Five become a borderline Canon Sue? She has several noticeable character flaws-she doesn't trust adults, is unforgiving (as seen in her relationship with Cree), and speaks in the third person, which is pretty vain.
• On Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, Ed went from a somewhat dim oaf with a love of comic books and horror movies to a non-sequitur-spouting Ditz who seems unable to differentiate fantasy from reality, Edd went from a somewhat obsessively organized boy genius who was the voice of reason protesting Eddy's crazier schemes to a borderline hypochondriac goody-two-shoes, and Eddy lost most of the "loveable" part of his Loveable Rogue personality and became more violent, manic, and surly. Again, that just covers the main characters.
  • The episode "All Eds Are Off!" had this exaggerated and/or played for laughs. The Eds, Kevin, Rolf and Jonny gave up their flanderized habits:
    • Ed: Obsession with gravy.
    • Edd: Vast vocabulary.
    • Eddy: SHOUTING REALLY LOUD!!!
    • Kevin: Using the word "dorks".
    • Rolf: Eating meat.
    • Jonny: Taking Plank's advice.
• In the Pilot movie for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Bloo was only slightly mischievous. As the series has progressed, some fans have complained that Bloo has become progressively more anarchic, selfish, and obnoxious, reaching Jerkass levels in recent seasons.
  • As well as Wilt being changed from an overly polite but perfectly sane and approachable nice guy to a total neurotic who's about five seconds away from a nervous breakdown, and Eduardo going from a mere scaredy-cat who can still stand up for himself at times to an extreme Cloudcuckoolander and Herriman changing from the usual "Uptight British Butler" to a friggin' sadist! And that's not even getting into his carrot addiction...
  • Cheese went from "four-year-old with special needs" to "barely sentient baby". By his second appearance.
• The entire cast of Drawn Together, especially Princess Clara. One could argue that this was on purpose.
• In the original John Kricfalusi episodes of The Ren and Stimpy Show, Ren was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who despite his greedy and egotistical behavior and physical abuse towards Stimpy, deeply cared for his best friend. The episodes produced by Games Animation after John K's firing greatly reduced Ren's most sympathetic traits, turning him into a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk with no real affection towards Stimpy. Also, while Ren in the Spumco episodes would be only driven into psychotic rage in the most mentally taxing of situations (i.e. "Space Madness"), Games Ren would yell and scream at the slightest provocation.
• Rick and Morty: Beth started out in season 1 as the only sane woman who was doing her best to restrain the dysfunction in her family, with some NotSoAboveItAll moments. In season 2, her egotism and selfishness were exaggerated to the point that she seemed to be more screwed-up than anyone else in the family apart from Rick, but still genuinely loved her family deep down. By season 3, she's become a full-blown narcissist who would literally rather die than be bored, and who seems to only care about her children insofar as it would hurt her ego to be seen as a bad mother.
  • In the first few episodes, Jerry was a pretty typical sitcom BumblingDad type character, and Rick's disdain for him had more to do with Rick's standards being impossibly high than with Jerry being significantly dumber than average. By season 2 Jerry seems to be going out of his way to prove that Rick was right all along; he's barely capable of functioning in society. Though to be scrupulously fair, we must note that the Jerry from the early episodes got left behind in the Cronenberg dimension along with Original Beth and Original Summer in Episode 6 of Season 1; from the little we see of him, he’s pretty competent.
• Grimlock and his Dinobots from Transformers Generation 1 went from being strong, but unintelligent wild cards in the first two seasons to comic relief in the movie and onward.
  • In The Movie, at least, the Dinobots were still pretty Badass, though they were suddenly happy to take orders from Optimus Prime and work with the other Autobots. In the third season their badassness evaporated entirely, and went from being Dumb Muscle to outright idiots.
  • In the 1980's Marvel Transformers comic, The Dinobots survive this, although Grimlock is written with two different personalities; in the U.S. stories written by Bob Budiansky, Grimlock is a brutish tyrant, while in the U.K. stories written by Simon Furman, Grimlock is a noble anti-hero.
• In Transformers: Beast Wars, Silverbolt began as an idealistic, over-the-top Paladin-type who followed chivalry and loyalty to often comedic extremes. His relationship with Blackarachnia nearly took over his character by the third season, though it was written with some level of competency. More egregious is Blackarachnia's overnight transformation from Dark Action Girl who, oh, had a boyfriend into a romantic who would stop at nothing, including disloyalty and downright foolishness to get her lover back in Beast Machines. For that matter everybody in Beast Machines underwent some Flanderization as compared to Beast Wars.
• In The Land Before Time, Petrie was cowardly and could be a bit of a jerk from time to time. As the series progressed, however, his cowardice has been increased to the point of full blown superstition. In the TV series he refuses to fly over a volcano based on the theory that it would make said volcano angry and cause it to erupt.
• Saranoia in Yin Yang Yo. Initially, she loathed Yang and men and loved Yin because she was The Unfavorite compared to her brother Mark, and incorrectly projected that situation onto the siblings, even calling Yang "Mark". Over the course of the series... this backstory started to fade and her already over-the-top idolization of Yin and hatred of Yang was flanderized to the point that she started to come across more like a creepy pedophiliac lesbian Stalker with a Crush, peaking in one episode where she posed as a popular girl to become "Sweat Sisters" with Yin—everyone in the show even commented on how creepy that was. Since that episode, though, she's essentially reverted to her original characterization, in an unusual reversal of a Flanderization.
  • Don't forget Master Yo himself. Around the titular rabbits, he would either be just your typical Grumpy Panda that taught them well at Woo Foo, or a lazy, selfish Jerkass.
• Panini from Chowder—yeah, you wouldn't think it judging from the short run, but... compare her actions towards Chowder in "Chowder's Girlfriend", where she was just simply clingy and overeager about her love, to the 2nd season episode "Panini for President", where she practically goes insane and flatout admits that she wanted to be president so she can pass laws making Chowder "her property."
  • This is Lampshaded by Panini saying "I need a new hobby." after being rejected by Chowder in an episode.
  • In her first appearance, she actually REJECTS Chowder when he asks her out, saying that "I need my space." Yet the Panini seen in later episodes seems determined to be around Chowder at all times.
    • Chowder himself too, having transformed from a typical naive little boy to a flat-out dumbass.
• While there were a few characters in Daria who had this happen, the two most notable were probably Jake Morgendorffer and Tiffany Blum-Deckler. Jake went from being an ineffectual, easily-confused father with clear family issues to being an obsessive, infantile rageaholic Cloudcuckoolander and the show's Butt Monkey. Tiffany, conversely, was initially portrayed as being a somewhat narcissistic yes-woman to either Sandi or Quinn, depending on which one she was speaking to at the time. By the time the third season came around, though, her self-absorbed nature and incredibly slow speech patterns has developed to the point where it's a miracle that she's even made it through elementary school without having to repeat a few grades.
  • Also subverted by the arc of Stacy Rowe, where her insecurity and panicky nature was initially Flanderized, but then over the course of the fifth season and series finale gained enough self-confidence that she became capable of standing up for herself and making her own decisions.
  • Not to mention, this was invoked in the episode "Psycho Therapy", where everyone is asked to imitate each other.
  • Ms. Barch (the man-hating science teacher) is an odd case. On the one hand, her simple hatred of men (which, in the early episodes, was just ranting about how all men are scum because of her long, loveless marriage and messy divorce) was Flanderized in later episodes (to the point that she has used violence against her students and coworkers [has locked Upchuck in a closet, made Mack a dragon for the Renaissance fair so little kids can beat him up, and has assaulted Mr. DeMartino several times]. On the other hand, she doesn't hate all men as she did in the early episodes. As of "The Daria Hunter" (from season two), Mr. O'Neill is the only man she loves (and brutally makes out with), even forgiving him when she sees him hold onto the waist of another woman (as seen in "Just Add Water"), abandoning her in the woods ("Anti-Social Climbers"), and even falling for his allegedly assertive side after Mr. O'Neill is forced to break off his engagement to her ("Is It College Yet?")
• And speaking of things involving Mike Judge, Beavis and Butt-head started out as immature, Jerkass, not-particularly-bright teenage delinquents. Eventually the "not particularly bright" part of their characters consumed them—Beavis became The Ditz, while Butt-head was only The Smart Guy compared to Beavis. They both go through life completely oblivious to the world around them and ignore important things said to them to point out sexual innuendoes. This, of course, made them much funnier.
• Total Drama Island Flanderized several cast members as it transitioned into sequel series Total Drama Action and Total Drama World Tour.
  • In Total Drama Island, Courtney was bossy and uptight, but still one of the more moral characters, and only threatened to sue when she was unfairly kicked off the show. In Total Drama Action, she's become a control-freak bitch who threatens to "call her lawyers" at any opportunity.
  • DJ starts as a genuinely nice guy and sensitive soul in season one; he was slow to anger, but could be mischievous (helping to prank Harold) or tough (throwing Owen off the cliff in the hunting challenge). By season three, he has become a complete Momma's Boy who is reduced to a blubbering wreck because the tundra reminds him of his mama's freezer!
  • Cody was originally a Casanova Wannabe who flirted with all the girls when he arrived on the island; he just eventually settled on Gwen as his preferred girlfriend. By season three, he's a Gwen-sexual who never seems to consider dating someone else as she continually rebuffs him.
  • Justin is a weird example: first he was a Flat Character who apparently was really hot, but during the TDI special he suddenly showed a sneaky side, and the first few episodes of TDA hinted that he would be the new villain. However, that arc was aborted, and soon he was just too concerned about every split end or bruise on his precious face to possibly think about any schemes or trickery.
  • Duncan, arguably. In TDI he was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, with Courtney as his Morality Pet. By season three he suddenly is able to cheat on her without a single twinge of his conscience and acts like a Jerkass when she finds out and breaks up with him.
• Pete in Disney's cartoons: from the mere pursuer of a typical cartoon pursuer-pursuee relationship with Mickey to a criminal mastermind.
  • This was parodied in Kingdom Hearts II when he time traveled and met his former self.
• Fred of Scooby Doo used to be somewhat intelligent (though not as much as Velma) and serious about the mysteries. However, beginning with A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Fred was "dumbed down", and thus began to constantly use the "Let's split up gang!" catchphrase, believe in wild crazy theories about aliens and monsters, and blame the neighborhood bully Red Herring at the end of each mystery for being the monster (99% of the time, it wasn't Red.) This also carried over to What's New, Scooby-Doo?, when in addition to his trademark ascot, his seriousness and intelligence had also disappeared, and was now in love with the Mystery Machine, and was somewhat not very cool anymore (any attempts to impress the others usually failed miserably). Daphne wasn't immune to this either; she changed from the sexy "danger-prone" eye candy she originally was into a rich valley girl that was paranoid about messing up her hair and clothes, and would often be the one to get the gang out of trouble when Fred would fail to do so.
  • In the 1980s series "New Scooby Doo Mysteries" and the "13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo" Fred and Velma were gone and Daphne became the leader of the Scooby Gang and was more intelligent and the one solving the mysteries. She basically retained her original hotness with Velma's brains added in.
  • While Daphne Took a Level in Badass in the live-action movies and is usually considered to have been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, the same films arguably flanderized Velma from being "the smart one" into being a one-dimensional stereotype of intelligence, swapping actual characterization out for supplying whatever obscure knowledge was necessary to make a given puzzle click.
  • Scooby Doo himself was originally just scared easily but ever since What's New, Scooby-Doo?? he has been looked upon as a full blown coward to the point just uttering the words haunted and place in the same sentence will make him run and hied for cover. The same with Shaggy as well.
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated leaves Scooby and Shaggy largely intact, but has taken a lot of flak for its alterations to everyone else. Fred's predominant trait has gone from choosing to be with the girls when the gang splits up to being obsessed with making traps, a small part of older Scooby plots, to the point that, quite contrary to his older role, he often ignores Daphne. Daphne herself has largely undergone re-Chickification thus far not displaying any Action Girl tendencies and being primarily focused on regaining Fred's attention. Velma, alas, may not be an exageration of her past persona but a completely changed character, having become a Clingy Jealous Girl to Shaggy to the point of being a Jerkass, and many viewers are coming to consider her the new Scrappy.
• Dr. Drakken from Kim Possible was introduced in the first season as a super villain underdog who, despite some quirks, was threatening to the world and Kim. From Season 2 and onwards, the creators took his quirks and made him a full-blown General Failure.
  • And yet, he was still able to seriously threaten Kim and, indeed, the world, in The Movie.
• Batman: The Animated Series: Somewhere between the early seasons and the later "new look" seasons, Batman went from a caring and compassionate man with some anger issues to the mostly cold grim vigilante most people recognize. It works mostly (unless he goes the full Jerkass route) but its a bit odd when you're rewatching the series. Some of the villains go from conflicted neurotics who seemed like they could be saved to simpler hardened criminals although this is usually justified as them giving up on a normal life after failed attempts at reform.
  • This could be attributed to the growing number of youthful, idealistic foils introduced by Executive Meddling. The higher-ups became increasingly convinced that Batman was too old for the Target Audience to relate to, hence the addition of Robin, Batgirl, the other Robin and very nearly Creeper. Some of Batman's worst Jerkass moments resulted from his use as a foil for the sidekicks, as seen in the episodes "Old Wounds", "Never Fear" and "Growing Pains". This had the effect of making Batman considerably less likable and, ironically, less relatable, although it worked in Batman Beyond when he was 80.
• South Park has altered character personalities over time, with some becoming severely Flanderized.
  • Stan's father Randy started out as one of the smartest characters on the show, but he did have a bit of a wild side. In the later episodes, he became a hyperactive, extremely paranoid, and idiotic Man Child.
  • Early on, Cartman he was a jerk with a slight anti-Semitic streak (which really was nothing more than making fun of Kyle not celebrating Christmas). In more recent episodes he's close to a Complete Monster who tries to instigate his own Holocaust.
    • You could say YMMV, but it's easier to demonstrate the opposite of Flanderization: He was originally a fat, unlikable idiot with no reason to like anyone else. He's still that, but he's revealed a cruel streak with the determination and cunning to act on it.
    • Cartman has also gotten more intelligent over the years. Originally, his selfish, impulsive behavior stemmed from his absolute inability to think beyond his momentary desires. Now, however, he's usually running mental circles around Stan and Kyle and his evilness is premeditated and reveals him as an absolute villain. His whining used to only sway his mother and leave everybody else absolutely unmoved, but now he's a master of manipulation and can play people like a fiddle. Given that South Park has Flanderized its characters mainly to allow them to fit into the increasing "Plot of the Week" format, Cartman's role has often been repurposed to that of villain and instigator.
  • Kyle went from being the voice of reason and Cartman's contrast to a stuck-up genius prude and flak magnet.
  • Stan's maturity and intelligence over most of the adult cast has been exaggerated more in the show's run (initially he was far more child-like and mean spirited. Compare the gang's treatment of Butters in earlier and later seasons for example).
    • Look at Butters himself. He started out as one of the 'weird' kids but otherwise normal. Now he's an Unpopular Popular Character with occasional moments of brilliance.
• Rico and Mort's one scene moments in the first Madagascar movie have been cranked up to 11 in the spin-off. In one scene in the first movie, the penguins were trapped in a cage, so Skipper commands Rico to break them out. Rico coughs up a hairpin and sets them free. This has been completely flanderized into making Rico regurgitate anything when given the chance. In another scene, the lemurs were hiding in the shrubbery, and at one point, Mort touches King Julien's feet. This evolves into a running gag, and even an obsession. In fact, there was even an episode where Julien had it up to his crown with Mort's obsession of touching the former's feet that the latter was banished temporarily. Also Julien's selfishness, incompetence, ego and stupidity (not to mention his weird accent, although this could be chalked up to Danny Jacobs replacing Sacha Baron Cohen), Kowalski's intelligence and Skipper's paranoia. basically everyone bar Private and Maurice was Flanderized.
• Haley Long in American Dragon: Jake Long went from being a slightly above average intelligence, slightly precocious, generally well behaved 8 year old girl in season one, to an absolute Child Prodigy Attention Whore Annoying Younger Sibling who loves rubbing her brother's nose in her achievements. She also has almost physical revolution to the idea of misbehavior in season two where as by contrast in season one she didn't bat a eye lid at sneaking out with Jake to go to a rock concert
• The characters in An American Tail don't get too flanderized in the movies, except maybe for Tiger becoming a dim-witted coward throughout the sequels, but this may be forgiven because he wasn't given much screentime to develop in the first movie. However in the TV series Fievel's American Tails, flanderization affects nearly all of the characters. Fievel's fascination with the wild west becomes a complete obsession that nearly defines his entire character, Tiger becomes cowardly and a complete imbecile (amped up much further than in any of the movies), Cat R. Waul goes from being Affably Evil to the Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, the list goes on.
• In the original Lilo and Stitch movie, after seeing Stitch build a model of San Francisco out of bits and bobs from Lilo's room and then proceeding to wreck it, she tells him she's never going to give him any more caffeine. The later animated series amplifies this side note into "give Stitch coffee, and he goes completely berserk".
  • They did this to Pleakly as well. There was a short joke in the original movie about him secretly putting on his wig when he was alone "because it made him feel pretty", but in the series, he basically lost all pretense of masculinity and was even called "Aunt Pleakly".
• Many characters on Thomas the Tank Engine have been hit hard with this trope, but special mention goes to Percy and James. Percy was initially intelligent and mischievous, if a bit naive. Since season 7, he has been smacked upside the head with Flanderization, becoming incredibly clueless and naive, and always needs help from someone else. James, similarly, started off the series as a cheerful and hard-working (if somewhat snobbish and conceited). As time went by, he gradually became a lazy, spoilt narcissist.
  • Don't forget Gordon and Henry. In the earlier seasons, Gordon was somewhat pompous and would only occasionally brag about his importance. However, as the series went on, his ego increased to the point where he couldn't go for one minute without bragging about how great he is. Henry, on another note, used to be somewhat depressed and timid, but could still stand up for himself. Since Season 8, he became an incredibly neurotic and miserable coward.
  • Edward started out as an old, sensible, and friendly engine. Around Series 6 the others suddenly lost all respect for him, and his old age led to him being portrayed as just feeble. More recently he's turned into sort of an attention whore who tries in vain to keep the others' respect. Toby's followed a similar trend.
  • Thomas himself started out as a snarky trickster in the first two series. In Series 3 he started becoming more friendly, but still thick-skinned. Starting around Series 8, his universally good-natured side took over, and he suddenly needed validation every time another character said something mean to him. By Series 13, he's become a Stepford Smiler who leaves disaster in his wake as he tries to do something he thinks will benefit someone else.
  • The Fat Controller was originally a firm-but-fair authoritarian who was coyly aware of what his engines were up to most of the time. Later he became more of a background figure who only appears to give engines jobs and to tell them when they've done something wrong.
  • 'Arry and Bert, the steelworks diesels, had an almost nightmarish first appearance, but by the time they showed up again, they were minor nuisances.
  • The narrow gauge engines have changed pretty drastically. Skarloey and Rheneas went from old and wise to a couple of juvenile pranksters. Sir Handel went from snobbish and self-centered to wise and helpful.
  • Rusty, who started off as a kind helpful engine who rarely let personal gripes get in the way of work, turned much more careless later on. Duncan started off rude and obstinate, but started to calm down. Then they made him rude again, and worse yet, always forgets everything he's supposed to learn. What were they thinking?!
• Gaz on Invader Zim was originally just a Creepy Child who would occasionally act overly-dramatic over minor inconveniences: for example, in the first episode she declares that her brother "will pay!" for drinking the last soda, but then gets some orange juice and acts perfectly calm when he enters the room a moment later. Later episodes make her far more violent, beating him up numerous times for perceived slights. And that's not even going into how creepy the fanfiction can make her.
  • Also Dib, who was always something of the Straight Man (at least compared to Zim) but who still seemed a bit manic and gullible in early episodes. By the end he seemed far saner (though still a bit naive), as well as far less optimistic that anyone will ever believe him about Zim. Arguably counts as Character Development, however, since a lot of this would fit with his experiences fighting Zim throughout the series.
    • As well as Dib's (an everyone else's) awareness/obsession/neurosis about the size of his head.
• Ben 10 has an unusual case of an inanimate object being Flanderized over the course of the show's run. The Omnitrix's tendency to turn Ben into the wrong alien or time out at exactly the wrong moment is slowly exaggerated over the course of the show's run; in early episodes, it's fairly reliable, only doing this once every few episodes, with the implication being that Ben's inexperience with and ignorance of a mysterious and complex alien device is the culprit. In later seasons, the watch screws him over so many times in a single episode that one can't help but wonder if it hasn't developed both sentience and a malicious sense of humor.
  • It could even be a case of Fridge Brilliance if the device has indeed gained a mind of its own. The Omnitrix could be subtly training him, thinking "Yes, I'm sure that powerset would be the perfect way to get you out of this mess. However, let's see how creative you can be if I instead, hand you this powerset." Doesn't hurt for Ben to not become too set in his ways of thinking how to use these powers, after all.
  • The Omnitrix also went through a physical Flanderization. When Ben first found it, it was a gauntlet that took the majority of his forearm. He just called it a watch because he didn't know its name and needed an excuse to always have it on in public. By the time he became a teenager, it now looks just like a watch.
    • That could have been justified,in that Ben has undoubtedly grown in five years. What is NOT justified, is the extent to which the Omnitrix has gone from simply being able to transform the wearer, can somehow now "cure" inbreeding, and basically do whatever crap the writers need done in that episode.
  • It comes as no surprise to find out the device for Voluntary Shapeshifting can do some genetic modification for the better. It does have the power to rip apart the universe.
  • Ben himself was Flanderized in an Ultimate Alien episode where his ten year old self appeared.
  • Indeed, in recent episode of Ultimate Alien, he has turned into a Brilliant but Lazy, Attention Whore, It's All About Me Jerkass, who only gets serious in the last ten minutes of the episode.
• While the 1980's animated version of the Ninja Turtles were always wisecracking heroes who would occasionally break the fourth wall, they overdid it a bit in Turtles Forever, much to the chagrin of their 2k3 counterparts. The movie even goes as far as to Lampshade their version of April O'Neil's habit of getting kidnapped a lot to point that one of the turtles make the claim that they "save April at least once a day".
  • Hell, Turtles Forever managed to flanderize 80's Shredder and Krang in just a couple of scenes. In the first half when the 80's Shredder is seen, he seems to genuinly want to kill the Turtles and isn't afraid to use deadly force (incompent maybe but still deadly in intent), and in frustration to kill them he summons his 2k3 counterpart. But by the second half he is whining over petty things and devolved into a Harmless Villain.
  • Baxter Stockman's amalgamation with a fly in the episode "Enter: The Fly" lowered his intelligence and put holes in his memory, but he was still able to perform fairly complex tasks, and put one of his previous inventions to use. Towards the end of the following season in "Bye Bye, Fly," he was even able to set an elaborate trap for Krang and Shredder. But his intelligence dropped in each of his appearances in Seasons 4-7. In "Son of Return of the Fly, Part II," he was easily distracted from his villainous plans by things like sugar. In "Landlord of the Flies," he sent a swarm of flies to engulf the Technodrome in Antarctica with obvious results. In his final appearance, "Revenge of the Fly," his distractions were so bad that he couldn't carry out the steps of his revenge scheme without getting constant reminders and pointers.
    • This is actually Truth in Television when you realize that Baxter was part fly, and most insects have bad focus and terrible memories, so his extreme personification as an Absent-Minded Professor makes perfect sense when you think about it.
  • Slash also got stupider over time. Ironically, the first episode to do this, "Donatello Trashes Slash," was about him becoming a supergenius. It makes Slash's normal state noticeably stupider than in his début episode. His third and final appearance, as a supporting character in "Night of the Rogues," shows him barely even able to speak.
    • Justified somewhat, because of the fact that he was a baby before he was mutated. Doesn't really explain his getting stupider, though.
  • Michealangelo himself. When the series began, he was an incredibly ditzy and childish (but still likable) surfer boy who loved pizza with weird toppings. As the series continued, he became Too Dumb to Live, his love for pizza became outright SEXUAL, his taste in toppings became more and more disgusting and inedible, and his valley boy speak bordered on incomprehensible.
  • Raphael went from a grumpy Deadpan Snarker to a Jerkass Pungeon Master.
• In Teen Titans, the HIVE kids were initially a competent villain team and the collective Evil Counterparts of the Titans, sliding into infighting and immaturity only when not "working". Later season flanderized them into being all incompetents (except for Jinx) who only won because they got lucky.
  • Their boss, Brother Blood, was in his first appearance a cool-headed, charismatic leader who only overacted when playing to an audience; later appearances made him a straight Large Ham.
  • Notably, the Titans themselves and Big Bad Slade inverted this trope; in the first few appearances they were defined by one or two traits (ie Robin was serious, Raven was a Goth, Beast Boy was an immature jokester, Slade was a Card-Carrying Villain, etc.), but later appearances added a lot more depth to all of them.
• In Xiaolin Showdown, Jack Spicer started off as a legit bad guy and an intelligent one at that. He built his own robots, and on several occasions kicks ass and takes names. By the final two episodes, he's portrayed as so stupid he has to write "This way up" on his underwear. See Villain Decay.
  • The other villains were no stranger to this either. Chase Young was introduced as a crafty, cunning character until he devolved into being evil for evil's sake.
  • The protagonits had their fair share,too. Omi began with an arrogance typical of a kid his age, but eventually it grew so disproportionate it literally inflated his head in one episode. Dojo's close relationship with Master Fung started going in the direction of his being a servant of the latter until it grew almost to the point of Ho Yay.
• Inspector Gadget, mainly his intelligence. It's different in each episode (for example, he's smarter than usual in 'Haunted Castle', and his main problem in 'The Boat', where he actually almost pulled off an Obfuscating Stupidity-esque stunt but got caught at the last second, was that he suspected EVERYONE and thus didn't find the real bad guys in time), but the trend is as follows: He started off as Inspector Oblivious, progressing to The Ditz and then Too Dumb to Live. His pride and vanity are exaggerated as the series progresses, too.
  • Gadget's stupidity and obliviousness were taken Up to Eleven where spin offs like Gadget and the Gadgetinis were concerned.
• Bugs Bunny in The Looney Tunes Show seemed to go through some reverse Flanderization, as he is now usually more down to earth to the point of sometimes being the Only Sane Man.
  • • But that got somewhat flanderized too, to the point of almost becoming the show's Purity Sue.
  • Lola has been flanderized (some would say for the better) from her debut in Space Jam due to complaints her of her being a Mary Sue, to the point now where, depending on the episode, she's either a Cloudcuckoolander or The Ditz, she's still a Stalker with a Crush in either form.
  • Played sadly straight wih Daffy Duck, who took levels in stupidity and jerkiness to the point of having almost no truly redeeming aspects (except for a very rare Jerk with a Heart of Gold moment every now and then), also being made the Straw Loser compared to Bugs. And he's getting WORSE.
• Roger's affinity for costumes and dress up acts in American Dad, to the point some literally take over his personality. His Jerkass traits also initially just came with the quirkiness of his personality and were much more toned down. As time progressed, his callousness is canonically accepted as his defining trait (to the point he'll actually die without acting consistantly cruel). Most of his complexities from early episodes such as his loneliness and even the fact he is an extra terrestrial are barely refered to in favor of making him essentially a cross dressing version of Peter Griffin.
  • Klaus while somewhat pitful at first due to his transformation, was more upbeat and even quite the Jerkass at times. As episodes progressed, his depression and loneliness kicked in more and more, along with becoming more and more a consistant Butt Monkey from the Smith's neglect and abuse.
  • Early episodes have brief scenes that imply Principal Lewis had a checkered past, but overall he was shown as a responsible and respectable educator. Later episodes make him a wildly irresponsible drug addict who could never behave in an appropriate manner, even around students. Your Mileage May Vary, but some see it as a good thing, as he was a fairly generic character.
  • Steve's obsession with losing his virginity.
• The Ember Island Players from Avatar: The Last Airbender specialize in this trope, which we get to see in their theatrical version of Team Avatar's adventures. For example:
  • Aang is one of the younger and more energetic members of Team Avatar, and is somewhat less manly than the other male member (Sokka). In the play, he gets portrayed as a mischievous Perpetual Smiler, but the worst part is that the actor playing him is a woman in a bald cap (a Shout-Out to how Peter Pan has traditionally been played by a woman on stage).
  • Katara is the Team Mom, and she often manages to lift her friends' spirits with motivational speeches. So she gets portrayed as a fat, matronly woman who's always tearfully preaching about hope. She also seems to have more of an open attraction for bad boys, especially Jet and Zuko.
  • Toph (a tomboyish Little Miss Badass) is played by a huge muscleman.
  • Sokka goes from being a goofy but still valuable team member with surprising tactical skill to being nothing more than the "meat and lame jokes" Comic Relief. His relationship with Yue is particularly bad.
    • Though it still moves Sokka to tears.

Suki: *giggles* You never told me you made out with the Moon Spirit! Sokka: *teary-eyed* Shhh! I'm trying to watch.

• • Zuko's quest to regain his father's approval, which he's gotten over already by this point, becomes him going around shouting "HONOR!!" all the time, his Important Haircut (or perhaps lack of haircut) got flanderized to the point where his hair was flowing down to his shoulders.
• In the earlier Making Fiends original web cartoon, Charlotte was a very optimistic Naive Newcomer who tried to see the best in everything and everyone, albeit with a scant sense of logic and a few realistic dislikes every little girl would have. Later in the web series and in the TV series, she is a virtually indestructible PollyAnna Idiot Houdini, and "Tee hee!" with other exclaimations of joy have become her Verbal Tics instead of her catchphrases. The only thing that shuts off her smile is when she hears a poem about a cat in danger, for no reason other than to the inconvenience of Vendetta. Vendetta, the Villain Protagonist, had less of this than Charlotte, but she went from a narcissistic card-carrying bully with supernatural abilities to a stereotypical Complete Monster who abuses the Evil Laugh (which was originally an occasional giggle), and her obsession with clams goes all the way to the name of the town. However, this was probably all deliberate to make the girls bigger foils of each other.
• While Rufus and Amberley of The Dreamstone were always cutesy protagonists, they at least had some boisterous and abrasive qualities in the pilot (as well as similar slapstick or snarky tendancies as the villains), not to mention defeated the villains by genuine competance and skill. In later episodes they are softened immensely and often act little past generic Useless Meddling Kids. Their original wackier personas do reappear on sparse occasions, however.
  • Zordrak, while always an iconic Bad Boss, was at least somewhat reserved and calculating early on. As seasons progressed his temper and hamminess increased, leading him to act as something of a demonic Pointy-Haired Boss.
  • In contrast, the Urpneys actually became slightly more laid back and competant.
• Inverted on Regular Show, which has actually downplayed some of the cast's defining traits. Benson and Muscle Man have grown increasingly kind to Mordecai and Rigby (and have abandoned their respective Catch Phrases of "You're fired!" and "You know who else ____? MY MOM!"); Skips has gone from a stoic The Ace to showing actual emotion; and Margaret has evolved from the token female to a caring Closer to Earth type.
• While it's still a relatively new show, this has already happened to Big Macintosh from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. In "Applebuck Season" and "Winter Wrap-Up" he has actual dialogue. In every appearance since, most of his lines have been "Eeyup", and occasionally "Nope."
  • Then there's Rarity, who goes from a generous and occasional melodramatic Large Ham, to still being generous, but much more melodramatic.
  • Don't forget Rainbow Dash too. Originally a brash but loyal and friendly pegasus, has been losing a bit of her "heart of gold" part. Her love of pranks (initially only seen in Episode 5 of Season 1) sprang up in Season 2, and that's not to mention her ego and pride. Thankfully the show revolves around Aesops and The Power of Friendship, which keeps her mostly in check.
    • On the other hand, Season Two did develop Rainbow Dash into a Cool Big Sis for Fluttershy and gave her some more pronounced Smart Ball moments. When not exagerrated into a narcissistic jerk, she is actually more rounded than in Season One.
  • Fluttershy has gotten even more meek and easily frightened in the second season, originally only being shy and a little anxious.
    • This is debatable; she was scared of her own shadow in Dragonshy, one of the first episodes.
    • In addition, Fluttershy was initially meek to the point of being somewhat aloof and barely able to conjure up sentences to even her closest friends. Her later appearances, though more cowardly, make her more cheerful and sociable. She was exagerrated in one area and rounded out in another.
• Phineas went from being an occasionally-snarky genius Everykid trying to have some fun during summer vacation to being optimism and enthusiasm personified. It's gotten to the point that if the writers want to pull some OOC Is Serious Business, all they have to do is have him act mildly irritated.
  • YMMV; Phineas was really only particularly snarky in the pilot episode, and the writers didn't want him to be mean, so it was more of a sudden change of characterisation.
  • Also happens In-Universe in "Split Personality", where Candace becomes split into two selves representing he biggest obsessions: busting Phineas and Ferb and Jeremy.
• The Mayor went through this on The Powerpuff Girls. In the first season he was more absent-minded than anything else, they then switched to make him more stupid after that and continued doing increasing his stupidity in subsequent seasons. By the final two he'd become Too Dumb to Live. Additionally, his love for pickles went overboard in future episodes.

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