Brian Griffin (seasons 8-present)

"After his book was written, they really had nothing to do with him, he had been milked dry. He's got no real meaning to search for because he was bad at everything he tried to do, he's just become so pathetic at this point, it's hard to watch at times. He just sits around the house, being an alcoholic and smoking weed. That's his character. At this point, they've just completely run out of things to do with Brian. When you chip away at everything deep and complex about his character, all that remains is a pretentious, depressive asshole. And it was completely intentional! They actively want you to think of Brian like this, they want you to hate him!"

- LS Mark, "Brian Griffin: An Icon in Ruin"

Brian Griffin is one of the main characters of the American adult animated TV series Family Guy. He is the Griffins' dog and is the voice of reason of the show. He is voiced by the series' creator Seth MacFarlane.

He was a likable character in the first seven seasons, but ever since season 8, his character suffered a notable flanderization.

Why This Dog Can't Go to Heaven

 * 1) He was flanderized in season 8; he went from being a sarcastic and snarky talking dog but a likable voice of reason to a pretentious, arrogant and narcissistic jerk who isn't above manipulating and tricking his friends and family into getting what he wants.
 * 2) He occasionally acts like a complete jerk to his family for no apparent reason, he even treats Stewie like garbage from time to time:
 * 3) *He gave Chris and Stewie herpes and treated it like it was no big deal.
 * 4) *He once chewed Stewie's teddy bear Rupert to pieces in a drunk state all because he was sick and tired of Stewie treating Rupert like a real person.
 * 5) *He not only wouldn't help with the dangerous daycare but also wouldn't let Stewie rat out Miss Emily when he was in danger and he only calls the cops when he discovers she has a boyfriend. (Not that Stewie seems to mind)
 * 6) *He was inspired by Stewie to get back into writing, but instead of being grateful, he yells at Stewie for things that were not his fault such as eating in the back of a gourmet restaurant, a pill in his baloney, and being under an air vent.
 * 7) *To cap it off, he doesn't even apologize.
 * 8) *In Brian the Closer after being heavily injured by Peter, Quagmire gives him an operation to get new teeth. He becomes an estate agent and thanks Quagmire... by making him buy a run down property! Thankfully, Quagmire revenges him by slamming his face with the lamp and making him loose his teeth again.
 * 9) He sometimes lets innocent people die over simple things, for example, when a woman was in a car about to fall into the ocean, he attempts to rescue her, but upon hearing that she has a child, instead of being encouraged to save them, he lets go of the car so they drown, it's bad enough letting a woman die, but an infant? That's way too far!
 * 10) In "Brian the Closer", he once conned Quagmire, even though Quagmire helped Brian at the beginning of the episode, and the fact he had sex with his robot duplicate.
 * 11) He has become nothing more than just the soapbox for Seth MacFarlane, as most of his lines nowadays are just him preaching Seth's beliefs.
 * 12) * Not helping is the fact that Brian's voice is basically Seth MacFarlane's own normal voice.
 * 13) In one episode, Brian invested in a company that sold protein shakes, even after Stewie showed Brian that the shakes were made of dog meat, Brian still willingly invested, making him a cannibal.
 * 14) He was infamously killed off in "Life of Brian", only to be brought back in "Christmas Guy", yet little was done to make him a better character after his resurrection.
 * 15) He has shown to be a hypocrite from time to time:
 * 16) In Brian & Stewie, in which despite being liberal, he keeps a pistol because of protective reasons and pretends to be against using a gun itself over the "national tragedy at Columbine".
 * 17) He calls himself an Atheist, despite the fact that he met Jesus Christ and God before.
 * 18) He deliberately ran over a squirrel, which, unbeknownst to him, traumatizes Stewie. He also hires a hitman to kill Quagmire's cat. These actions make him a hypocrite because in several episodes he supported animals' rights and was against violence towards animals.
 * 19) He believes that Lois having an affair with anyone other than him is morally objectionable.
 * 20) To make all of this worse, he's aware of the fact he's, in his own words, a "self-righteous liberal douchebag", showing that he doesn't care.
 * 21) Though we do get that his design is still good and nothing changes, some versions of him look very disturbing like him without fur (though it is to stop Peter from flashing him).

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Like Peter and Lois, he was way more likable in the first seven seasons.
 * 2) There are some episodes where he does get comeuppance for his actions. In fact, 5 seasons after the episode, "Brian Writes A Bestseller", he gets a VERY satisfying punishment here.
 * 3) He sometimes acts like the likable voice of reason in some episodes.
 * 4) *He was likable and sympathetic in "The D in Apartment 23", as he was getting non-stop harassed over a tweet that was supposed to be nothing more than a joke, he even stood up to everyone who was calling him a racist and called them out for bullying and harassing him 24/7.
 * 5) He does have some funny moments, such as these.
 * 6) He cares a lot about his friends and family and is one of the few characters who don't bully Meg (with the exception of the one time that he and Stewie helped with spitting on Meg).
 * 7) *He reconciled with Quagmire, being on much better terms up until Season 20 episode “Must Love Dogs”, were sadly, their rivalry was brought back.
 * 8) *He has an awesome and believable chemistry with Stewie. (The season 16 episode "Dog Bites Bear" is a good example of how awesome their chemistry really is.)
 * 9) *While not enough he was slightly more likable in Season 16 than he was in the other seasons.
 * 10) Seth MacFarlane still does a good job voicing him, with him using normal voice.

Reception

 * Along with Peter and Lois, Brian has mostly been poorly-received since Season 8; some fans still like him even after his flanderization (mainly before the Season 12 episode "Brian's a Bad Father"), and others claim him as one of the worst characters in Family Guy.

Trivia

 * Brian's dog breed is a Labrador.

Videos
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