Character derailment

Character derailment is the opposite of character development. Instead of learning from mistakes, these characters just get worse.

It is not to be confused with flanderization, as flanderization involves over-exaggerating and amplifying a character's traits to the point that it goes too far. Character derailment, on the other hand, refers to a character's traits (flanderized or not) becoming vastly different compared to what was previously shown.

Why It's a Derailment Indeed

Alongside the negative aspects of flanderization, this makes characters who were once liked, loved, and/or adored, become a lot more unlikable or hard to tolerate than how they started off.
This trope often makes the character become poorly written on top of being unlikable due to having a lack of balance between their flaws and what makes them redeemable/likable.
Changing up the personalities of what made the character(s) originally used to be in an improper fashion tends to be executed badly by making them too out-of-character for their own good.
It often shreds apart the personality and charm of the characters, making them one-dimensional in the process.

Redeeming Qualities

When characters are given proper character development, it makes them sympathetic and likable. They can also improve with rerailments.
There are many instances when changing up the personalities of a character can be done in good light. Where it can potentially make them more entertaining to watch, this is better shown in the good aspects of flanderizing a character. The category Category:Dynamic characters on ICW can be potentially considered to be the good side of both; flanderization and this trope to an extent.
- Three examples of these include Homer Simpson from The Simpsons during the first ten seasons; where he was originally a brash, good-hearted father who was a little clumsy as of season 3 and seasons 4-7 has made him into a more of a well-written dingbat that made him more hilarious, lovable and entertaining than before, Hugh Neutron from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron; in the original movie, he was intelligent if a goofy father and the show has made him more of a lovably weird manchild whose also idiotic and hilarious in a well-written fashion, and finally, Earthworm Jim from the animated series with the same name; in the original games, he was a goofy yet diligent hero who is prone to the game's comedic moments despite being competent, the animated series made him more of an incompetent and childish goofball with a hammy dialect who's also enjoyably spunky, boisterous, talented, heroic and unpredictable.
There are viewers who can still enjoy these characters and find them entertaining despite their derailment.

Notable Characters Who Suffered Character Derailment

Shows

Fonzie (Happy Days; seasons 4-11; He is the trope namer for jumping the shark, which he literally did in the episode "Hollywood Part 3". This is considered the first known case of character derailment because in season 2 he got hurt for a horrible reason)
Thomas the Tank Engine (Sharon Miller era)
Skarloey (Thomas and Friends; During seasons 9-12, he acts like a child. Thankfully, in the movie "Blue Mountain Mystery", he is back to being portrayed as an old grandfather.)
Optimus Prime (War for Cybertron trilogy) (Became an egotistical, incompetent, delusional, narcissistic, selfish, and petty psychopath.)
Beast Megatron (War For Cybertron Trilogy) (Became too much of a fanboy to the original Megatron.)
Ironhide (Transformers: Energon) (Became an immature crybaby.)
SwaySway and Buhdeuce (As the series went on, they began to treat each other like crap, especially in "Wolf Head Bread" and "Unlucky Duckies")
The Titans (Teen Titans Go!; Becoming manchildish goofball shells of their former shelves, with the slight exception of Raven)
The Powerpuff Girls (2016; Similar to TTG, becoming childish and annoying shells of their former selves)
Henry Danger (Becoming more and more of a jerk in the first 3 seasons, but got a rerailment as of season 4)
Ray Manchester/Captain Man (Henry Danger; Became more and more of a reckless jerk in the first 3 seasons, but got a rerailment as of season 4)
Charlotte Page (Henry Danger)
Jasper Dunlop (Henry Danger)
Piper Hart (Henry Danger)
Dawn Harper (Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, & Dawn)
Danger Mouse (2015)
The Thunderman Family
Daffy Duck (DePatie Freleng/Seven-Arts era) (Becoming more of a ruthless psychopath that resembles a off-putting version of Yosemite Sam)
SpongeBob SquarePants (seasons 6b & 7) (Became more of a obliviously joyful manchild than ever).
Patrick Star (seasons 6-9a) (Becoming an reckless sociopath and a bigger jerk to SpongeBob)
Mr. Krabs (Becoming more of a villain than a anti-hero)
Cosmo Cosma (seasons 9 & 10) (Becoming "comedic" protagonists with extremely shrill voices)
Blooregard Q. Kazoo (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends; seasons 2-6) (Becoming the show's "Flanderized Patrick Star" in a more extreme way)
Carl Wheezer (He had shades of this in season 3, one moment being the episode "Carl Wheezer, Boy Genius", but he was still a decent character despite this)
Hugh Neutron (Became much less intelligent in the TV show than in the movie, at least he is a very redeemable version of the typical "dumb dad".)
Sheen Estevez (Planet Sheen) (Becoming a very irreverent, blaze idiot who doesn't care about returning to Earth.)
Seymour Skinner (seasons 9-30)
Homer Simpson (seasons 11-30) (Becoming more of a jerk than ever before)
Marge Simpson (seasons 16-30) (Becoming more of a nagger and more of a killjoy)
Bart Simpson (seasons 16-30) (Becoming more and more of a psychopath who enjoys torturing his father)
Lisa Simpson (seasons 7-30) (Becoming too much of a smart-aleck with a superiority complex)
Ned Flanders (seasons 11-31) (Becoming the pure definition and trope namer of the term flanderization.)
Peter Griffin (season 8-present) (Becoming a complete idiotic sociopath who ruins the lives of others and doesn't care about the murderous actions he causes, with a hateful streak).
Lois Griffin (season 8-present) (Becoming as much of a subpar parent and more of a degenerate)
Brian Griffin (season 8-present) (Becoming a political soapbox and more of a ruthless jerk to Stewie)
Roger Smith (season 8-present) (Ever since season 8's "Love, AD Style", Roger has become a massive sociopath)
Stan Smith (season 10-present) (Became more of a horrible father, husband, and a complete idiotic sociopath to the point where he had Francine sent to an insane asylum just because he forgot his wife's anniversary, as well as well as not caring about the reckless actions he did and put every people in Langley Falls in jeopardy, with a paranoid streak.
Francine Smith (season 10-13) She became a more neglectful mother and almost a full Lois Griffin clone, but not as bad.
Discord (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic; season 9) He had a chance of becoming a good guy, until it was revealed that he was Grogar all along. He then put the whole world in danger as he made the terrible trio so powerful that even he couldn't deal with them, which just goes against his whole development)
Stella (Winx Club; seasons 5-9; Her childishness got much worse, with her throwing actual fits over not getting her way.
Diaspro (Winx Club; seasons 3-8; Was derailed into a Miss "Jerkass Yandere" who eagerly brainwashed Sky in order to marry him, she also had random appearance in the newer seasons and have pointless drama with Bloom and Sky.
Bloom (Winx Club) She was also made a Karma Houdini because she wasn't punished for what she had done at Domino, she becomes a mary-sue during these seasons.)
Tecna (Winx Club; seasons 5-9; Losing a lot of the development she got in seasons 1-4)
Chloe Bourgeois (Miraculous Ladybug; season 3-present)
Eddy (seasons 5 & 6; Becoming a bigger jerk to Ed and Edd than ever before)
Ed (seasons 5 & 6; Becoming too much of a overly emotional, mindless idiot who doesn't know any better, and sometimes becomes a punching bag)
Sarah (Ed, Edd, n Eddy; seasons 5-6)
Jimmy (Ed, Edd, n Eddy; seasons 2-6; Became more of a crybaby.)
Kevin (Ed, Edd, n Eddy; seasons 5-6)
Rolf (Ed, Edd, n Eddy; seasons 5-6)
Johnny 2x4 (Ed, Edd, n Eddy; seasons 5-6)
Lee Kanker (Ed, Edd, n Eddy; seasons 5-6)
Marie Kanker (Ed, Edd, n Eddy; seasons 5-6)
Numbah Four (Codename: Kids Next Door)
Hot Shot (Transformers: Cybertron)
Gumball Watterson (seasons 2, 5-present; Went from a naïve, good-hearted, and friendly protagonist into a really big cynical jerk in season 2, his jerkish behavior is toned down in the recent episodes though)
Danny Phantom (season 3)
Inferno/Roadblock (Transformers Energon season 3?)
Bumblebee (Transformers: Robots in Disguise 2015)
Lynn Loud Jr
Waldek Kiepski (Świat Według Kiepskich)
All of the main characters (Game Shakers)
Johnny Test (2005; usually seen as selfish, disrespectful, immature, gross, and narcissistic. While he was slightly tolerable in the first three seasons, he got flanderized by the fourth season and started to mess up his sisters' inventions for his own self-serving purposes, which resulted in him causing trouble for himself and the whole city.)
Lincoln Loud (seasons 4 and 5; he did very stupid and selfish things in those seasons.)
Any character from Sunny Bunnies (season 4-present)
Courtney (Total Drama)
Mike (Total Drama All-Stars)
Zoey (Total Drama All-Stars)
Duncan (Total Drama)
Sky (Total Drama Pahkitew Island)
Dave (Total Drama Pahkitew Island)
Gwen (Total Drama)
Earthworm Jim (TV series; became goofier and more incompetent, all in a good way. However, despite this, his creators Doug TenNapel and David Perry both disliked this change of his character in comparison to the public's view of Jim.)
Franklin The Turtle (later episodes of Franklin and Franklin and Friends; He is less bratty in the later episodes than he was in earlier ones.)
Blinky, Clyde and Pinky (1982 TV series; Specifically Blinky and Clyde swapped personalities, as the former became the coward with a lack of self-esteem and the latter the grumpy determined leader, and finally, Pinky went from a cunning female to a male "more brawns than brains" ghost)
Lord Betrayus (Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures; Treated more like an annoying comic-relief nuisance than a threatening villain)
Lucas Bishop/Bishop (Marvel Comics: Messiah Wars; Went from a well-respected member of the X-Men who is loyal and loves children to a crazy, psychotic, dumb, childish monster who falsely believed the birth of a baby mutant, Hope Summers will ruin his life and soughts out to kill her but instead, ruins Cable’s life, makes it so Hope will not grow up to have a normal childhood, and killed many people in the process. His ways to meet his goal come off as immature and stupid because he did it in ways that harms other people and Cable is too smart for Bishop’s “strategies”, if you can call it that, his attempts are idiotic. To make matters worse, Bishop got away with his horrific actions and Cable and Hope forgave him after he just apologized, he should’ve never been forgiven because ruining someone’s life and putting others in danger just to kill a baby is a very disastrous deed that “sorry” will not fix. This eventually caused major backlash from fans and fans grew to dislike Bishop and as a result, he was relegated to the shadows and Marvel decided to pretend he doesn’t exist instead of bringing his old personality back. It’s very detrimental and disrespectful to once well-loved Marvel hero)
Lucas Bishop/Bishop (Marvel Comics. Messiah Wars; He completely lost his original likable personality and intelligence and became a sadistic, psychopathic, infanticidal maniac who is very dumb. This new lack of intelligence is displayed by the schemes he has to try to kill Baby Hope as these schemes will not only likely kill Hope but also harm/kill many people around him, he killed millions trying to kill a baby he thought was going to make his life miserable)
The Cockroaches (Oggy and the Cockroaches, seasons 4-5; in these seasons the episodes were heavily skewed in Oggy's favor, resulting in a two-seasons-long butt-monkey treatment for the former, especially Joey.)
- Marky (Oggy and the Cockroaches, seasons 3-4; He lost his suitor trait and here he is just Joey's second bumbling and clumsy follower next to Dee Dee, with the exception of him having a smaller appetite and, somehow, behaving with more or less common sense, depending on the episode. Thankfully, he came back to his original personality in season 5, while still retaining the cheerful and laid-back aspect he got from these seasons.)

Anime/Manga

Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto Shippuden)
Madara Uchiha (Naruto)
Son Goku (Manga only)
Light Yagami (Death Note)
Jaden Yuki (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, season 4; althrough he's still likable, he suffered from massive PTSD in the arc as he became very brooding and cynical and lost his enjoyment in having fun in dueling)
Aya Asagiri (Magical Girl Site; second half-became a muted girl after Yatsumura lost her lifespan and vanished)
Memetchi (Tamagotchi! season 1b)
Suzaku Kururugi (Code Geass)
Nana (Elfen Lied)
Mizuki Himeji (Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts; The second season where she was reduced to a yandere who does nothing but torture Akihisa as she and Minami make Akihisa's life a living hell to the point where she actually becomes a nuisance and a disgrace to Akihisa.)
Nino Arizugawa (Anonymous Noise; Had been forming a relationship with Yuzu (even being kissed by him very often), only for her to turn him down and go back together with Momo.)

Movies

Bella Swan (Twilight)
Mushu (Mulan 2)
Scrat (Ice Age; Continental Drift and Collision Course): He became a destructive character bordering on villainy just to get the acorn, he has also worsened as comic relief.

Video Games

Ellie (The Last of Us Part II)
Jax (Mortal Kombat 11)
Shao Khan (Mortal Kombat 11)
Sindel (Mortal Kombat 11)
Jin Kazama (Tekken 6)
Yuuki Terumi (BlazBlue series)
Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Free Riders - Team Sonic Racing; Sonic Colors Ultimate)
Jet the Hawk (Sonic Free Riders)
Wave the Swallow (Sonic Free Riders; She had shades of this in this game since she went from a sly, sassy and responsible tech wizard of the Babylon Rogues in the first two Sonic Riders games to another butt-monkey who's also Team Babylon's scapegoat. But was still a decent character since she was mostly one of the least unlikeable (or at least most tolerable) characters in this game for the most part.)
Penelope (Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time)
Bridget (Guilty Gear -Strive- (international versions))

Web Series

Mr. Goodman (late-2016-present) (Becoming a ruthless businessmen who antagonizes Mario for money)
Rosalina (SuperMarioLogan) (Becoming more of a idiot and less of a nice person to Mario)
Four (Battle for BFDI; Almost to the highest degree possible. He was once a caring number in XFOHV and 9 years later became a selfish, sociopathic jerk who abuses nearly everyone and everything around them.)
Gelatin (Battle for BFDI; While he has always been impulsive to some extent, this is cranked up to 10 in this season where he makes mistakes and acts reckless even more often.)
Firey (Battle for BFDI; Went from being the main protagonist of BFDI to a selfish jerk who only cares about himself and his own reputation.)
Ice Cube (Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two; Became a bland and boring robotic filler character that not only abandoned Book to join another team but also went to back to constantly reusing lines.)

K-Toons

Dongtae (DICE: The Dice That Changes Everything; season 4)

Unknown

Wesley (season 11-present) (Becoming more of an idiotic, cruel, and annoying jerk who bullies The Wetlands Gang and treats them like they’re a Butt-Monkey.
Earl (seasons 11-19) (Becoming an arrogant and lazy hypocrite who torments the other members of The Wetlands Gang)
Samson (seasons 11-15; 26-29) (Becoming a dumb psychopath who tortures almost all of the animals)
Noah (seasons 11-15; 27-29) (Becoming a mean-spirited know-it-all who torments everyone around him)
Mr. Teeven (season 11-present) (Being a bitchy mean popular jerk who likes to pick on everyone)
Alva (seasons 11-15; 36-present) (Being a mean popular girl who refuses to share all the time)

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