If you're a member of a pop culture fandom (or you just enjoy wasting time on TV Tropes), you may be familiar with the term 'Flanderization'. However, if you're not, it's explained on this page on the aforementioned TV Tropes: when a character is first introduced, they'll often have some minor quirks to their personality; however, these quirks will grow and become exaggerated over time, until they completely consume the character. The term derives from Ned Flanders, who had this happen to him in The Simpsons: he started out as a relatively normal guy who happened to pay attention in church (to contrast him with Homer), but more and more attention was paid to his religiosity, until eventually, he ended up becoming an obsessively religious nutcase 
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A lot of characters in creative works are vulnerable to this (both in pop culture and in amateur hobbyists' works) - and, I'll admit I'm no exception to this. Take, for example, Nestor: he started out as a firm-but-fair father figure, who occasionally lost his concentration and got into clumsy accidents (both for comic relief and to make him seem less intimidating). However, both traits got exaggerated over time: he ended up getting needlessly strict and authoritarian (to the point of being downright abusive to his own subjects), while his clumsiness reached a point where he couldn't walk five yards without toppling over or crashing into something
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I suppose this isn't automatically a bad thing: the linked page does explain that it can work well in comedies, where a cast of goofy and exaggerated characters may be more comedically interesting than a cast of realistic and believable characters. However, if 'realistic and believable' is what the show is going for (or if it's what you're going for in your own creative work), then it's definitely an easy trap to fall into .
So, have you seen any examples of this in creative works that you're a fan of - and, in your opinion, does it make those characters more or less interesting? And if somebody does want to avoid having this happen to their own characters, then how should they go about that?
. A lot of characters in creative works are vulnerable to this (both in pop culture and in amateur hobbyists' works) - and, I'll admit I'm no exception to this. Take, for example, Nestor: he started out as a firm-but-fair father figure, who occasionally lost his concentration and got into clumsy accidents (both for comic relief and to make him seem less intimidating). However, both traits got exaggerated over time: he ended up getting needlessly strict and authoritarian (to the point of being downright abusive to his own subjects), while his clumsiness reached a point where he couldn't walk five yards without toppling over or crashing into something
. I suppose this isn't automatically a bad thing: the linked page does explain that it can work well in comedies, where a cast of goofy and exaggerated characters may be more comedically interesting than a cast of realistic and believable characters. However, if 'realistic and believable' is what the show is going for (or if it's what you're going for in your own creative work), then it's definitely an easy trap to fall into
. So, have you seen any examples of this in creative works that you're a fan of - and, in your opinion, does it make those characters more or less interesting? And if somebody does want to avoid having this happen to their own characters, then how should they go about that?
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