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Basic Trope: A character suddenly changes with no explanation whatsoever.
- Straight: Bob, formerly a Nice Guy, suddenly starts kicking the dog and becomes a huge Jerkass.
- Exaggerated: Bob, formerly Incorruptible Pure Pureness, becomes an absolute psychopath.
- Justified:
- Bob was The Scrappy, so the writers change his character in an attempt to make him more popular.
- Alternatively, Bob has a split personality disorder.
- Inverted: Static Character
- Subverted:
- Bob, the resident Nice Guy, seems to have become a Jerkass. However, it turns out that it's actually Bob's identical twin brother berating everyone - Bob himself is just as nice as ever.
- Character Rerailment
- Double Subverted: However, it turns out that Bob has secret evil plans, and his kindness is merely a facade.
- Parodied: Bob constantly switches between The Hero, Big Bad, Anti-Hero, Anti-Villain and various other roles in the course of a single episode/book/game.
- Deconstructed: Fans who liked Bob's previous characterisation resent his changes so much that they abandon the show entirely.
- Reconstructed:
- The writers decide to return Bob to his previous characterisation, thus restoring the work to its former glory.
- Alternatively, fans begin to see the merits of Bob's new personality as well, and thus start watching again.
- Zig Zagged:
- Bob was previously a Nice Guy, then he acts like a Jerkass. But it turns out to be someone else. But they're covering up for his secret evil plans, which turn out to be well-intentioned but extreme.
- Bob's personality varies by episode.
- Averted: Logical Character Development takes place in the course of the work.
- Enforced: The new writing team wants to establish that all good-hearted people have no problem with X. Since jerkish but otherwise helpful sidekick Bob mentioned two years ago in passing that he has a problem with X, he joins forces with all other characters who dislike X and crusades ceaselessly for all X to be destroyed forever.
- Lampshaded: "Bob isn't how he used to be, is he?"
- Invoked: "I'm going to be a changed man!"
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Character Derailment