http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization

Professor Lawrence Pierce, The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular "I think Homer gets stupider every year."

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The act of taking a single (often minor) action or trait of a character within a work and exaggerating it more and more over time until it completely consumes the character. Most always, the trait/action becomes completely outlandish and it becomes their defining characteristic. Sitcoms and Sitcom characters are particularly susceptible to this, as are peripheral characters in shows with long runs.

The trope is named for one of the examples in The Simpsons, Ned Flanders, who was originally just a considerate neighbor and attentive father, with his devout nature simply being that he willingly attended and paid attention in church, all to make him a contrast to Homer, before becoming obsessively religious.

Note that the key to this trope is in how the process is a gradual thing: the character starts relatively normal with a few quirks, the quirks become more prominent, then the quirks gradually become the character. If it is simply about how the character is different early on before the writers know what to do with them, that is Characterization Marches On.

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In general, comedies, especially Sitcoms, fall into the trap of Flanderization because Character Development is far less important than Rule of Funny. Given a choice between getting a laugh or moving the story forward, getting the laugh will almost always take priority.

Flanderization doesn't have to be a bad thing — sometimes it can be used to expand on a background character's personality when they are brought to the foreground, or make an otherwise bland character stand out more. It can even be beneficial on a cast-wide scale: A comedy that has a cast full of zany, outsized personas will probably be funnier than one full of nondescript straight men.

When Flanderization occurs as the result of adaptation from one medium to another (manga to anime, for example), it's Character Exaggeration and frequently a sign of Adaptation Decay. May sometimes be related to Lost in Imitation.

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See also Never Live It Down for when the character is more associated with some action or event than the character actually changing, and Unintentionally Sympathetic, when realistic quirks are mishandled by the writers. Compare Temporarily Exaggerated Trait, which is like flanderization but only done temporarily. Compare and contrast Early Installment Weirdness (as it applies to characters), with early depictions of a character being different from later ones simply because the producers hadn't figured out what role they should play in the story. Also see Forgot Flanders Could Do That, when a story brings back pre-Flanderized aspects of the character as a reminder that these traits are still there, even if you don't see them much any more.

The opposite to this trope is Character Development, naturally.

Here's a list of cases of Flanderization:

A character does dumb things, but manages to get gradually dumber as time goes by.

A character is only slightly dumb, and is capable of doing what he/she needs to, but later becomes unable to perform even the most simple tasks like reading.

The character's stupidity is only demonstrated by him/her saying funny phrases, but later starts putting his/her and others' lives at danger.

Insanity or eccentricity is mistaken for stupidity, and a dippy or crazy character becomes a dumb character.

A character is not dumb, just lazy and/or hates studying, but is turned later into straight dumb.

Incompetence or clumsiness is mistaken for stupidity, and a character who's clumsy or bad at their job becomes a dumb character.

Intelligence

A character is intelligent, but in realistic levels, later he/she becomes extremely intelligent, being comparable to many famous scientists, or even exaggerated to the point of being able to build wondrous gadgets at his/her house.

Insanity or eccentricity is mistaken for brilliance, and a dippy or crazy character who would previously save the day through an Ass Pull once in a while for Rule of Funny now does so Once per Episode.

A character is intelligent in one or two specific areas, but more inexperienced and flawed in others. Later they are smart in every level, providing knowledge and wisdom in every possible situation.

Knowledge is conflated with intelligence, and a character who knows a lot of trivia is turned into a genius.

A greedy character has a kind side and often chooses what is more important instead of riches, but later, becomes even greedier to the point that he or she even sacrifices friends and family just for a few more pennies.

A character who is a collector who enjoys building his or her collection turns into a hoarder whose life revolves around filling his or her house with an excessive number of trivial possessions.

A Jerkass becomes much meaner and nastier, perhaps even behaving more like a villain, becoming a Designated Hero in the worst cases.

A character who is generally decent but has a mocking sense of humour turns into a true bully who greatly enjoys insulting other characters.

A Nice Guy but with human flaws becomes a Purity Sue.

Alternately, they become kind to a fault and evolve into an Extreme Doormat that is unable to be harsh whatsoever.

Villainy

Annoyance

A character is kind of annoying but only infuriates those who are especially touchy, later becomes incredibly annoying to almost anybody, to the point that the audience empathizes with those whom the character infuriates.

The creators find out that a character is very hated, and decide to make fun of it making him/her intentionally annoying, however his/her annoying traits are cranked up and/or the character shows up with scrappy traits that he/she never had, or worse, turning the character into a villain even if the fans knew the character was not evil.

The creators discover a character is not well liked by the fans, and thus decides to hurt and humiliate the character in increasingly horrifying ways, despite the fact that the character had really done nothing wrong in recent episodes.

A character that is intelligent and sometimes accidentally patronizes or confuses laymen, later becomes an Insufferable Genius and may even lose the genius part.

Likes/dislikes

A character has a favorite food like many people have, but later the love for that food is brought up all the time and the character becomes enamored with it to the point of addiction.

Conversely, if there is a food or something else that the character doesn't like, their distaste for it will increase over time, and the character will become more and more of a magnet for improbable situations in which the disliked thing cannot be avoided.

A character has an interest, that gradually turns into an obsession.

Sexuality

Others

Example Subpages

Other Examples:

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Advertising

Billy Mays had gotten a lot louder over the years. Compare his earlier ads to the later ones.

to the later ones. Regis Philbin in ads for TDA Bank. At first he started off as a person who would question what the bank offers. Now? He doesn't know what electronic banking is and calls Kelly every hour about his balance.

Comic Strips

Fan Works

Actually invoked by the Aperture Scientists in Blue Sky. In their Brain Uploading of Wheatley , they deliberately messed with his personality so that the part of him that produced terrible ideas would be dominant and would override other aspects of his personality in a crisis.

, they deliberately messed with his personality so that the part of him that produced terrible ideas would be dominant and would override other aspects of his personality in a crisis. Invoked in Eugenesis by Sygnet, a Decepticon scientist, who sees Galvatron as having the worst parts of Megatron's personality amplified a thousand-fold.

Estee's Triptych Continuum features a kind of In-Universe version of this with falling into the mark, an extremely common psychological disorder among ponies where the pony allows their special talent to dominate their lives to the point where there is nothing outside the mark. And turned horrifyingly Up to Eleven in A Mark Of Appeal, with the discovery of a disease that amplifies the mark magic until it renders the pony unable to do or think of anything that is not the exercise of their talent.



Films — Live-Action

Literature

Music

Mythology and Religion

News Media

Sports broadcasters and a lot of radio personalities do this to themselves as time goes on. Chris Berman, Tony Kornheiser, Dick Vitale, Jim Rome all immediately come to mind as people that have particular quirks that are used more in more as they continue and their knowledge hasn't grown so they cover it up with their personality.

Canadian hockey broadcasting legend Don Cherry certainly qualifies. Originally a serious, though outspoken, broadcaster noted for wearing occasionally over the top suits, he has since morphed into a loudmouthed cranky old man who wears the most garish suits known to man.

Podcasts

When the Interstitial Actual Play party encounters Captain America, he has been boiled down to two character aspects: an amicable fellow and a plucky fighter.

Professional Wrestling

Radio

Birdie in The Great Gildersleeve has more nuanced characterization in early seasons, even the occasional subplot about her life outside of her job, such as the episode where she enlists Gildersleeve's help with an auction at her church. Over the years she devolves into a one-note Mammy stereotype, who only drops in to make sardonic comments on Gildersleeve's absurdity-of-the-week.

Roleplay

Tabletop Games

Visual Novels

Happens to a number of recurring characters in Ace Attorney. The Judge seems to get dumber and become more of a Cloudcuckoolander every game, as does Gumshoe (though Dual Destinies dialed the Judge's ditziness back a little). Additionally, Larry progressively becomes more of a loser, and Wendy Oldbag becomes more of a jerkass unrepentant stalker with every appearance. Winston Payne, a prosecutor who is meek and easily intimidated, became much more arrogant while also becoming a lot more spineless in later games. His brother, Gaspen Payne, takes these traits Up to Eleven with a mix of Jerkass in the 3D installments. Pearl Fey went from being a child who thinks Maya and Phoenix are a couple and gets mad whenever Phoenix is talking to another woman to being a child that outright slaps Phoenix for even being near another woman in front of Maya. Maya explains that the reason Pearl behaves that way is due to her seeing her hometown's sky high divorce rate, ergo she wants to make sure Maya and Phoenix never separate or see other people. Pearl would ditch this trait once she got older.

In Grisaia no Kajitsu Michiru started off fairly dumb and intentionally obnoxious but had both a serious side and played a rather crucial role in making everyone get along without either killing each other or collapsing from overwork. By Grisaia no Rakuen this aspect of her has almost entirely disappeared, leaving her as nothing but the butt of jokes or someone that has no clue what's going on.

The Sakura series by Winged Cloud went from two kinds of flanderization. One, it went from having fairly tame fanservice to having graphic sexual content. Starting from Sakura Maid, the series ends up gradually refusing to make an All Ages version. Two, the series ends up from having a male main character falling in love with the female characters, who also have feelings to each other, to having only a female main character falling in love with other female characters.

Web Animation

Web Comics

Web Original

Web Videos