Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Register
Advertisement
WikEd fancyquotesQuotesBug-silkHeadscratchersIcons-mini-icon extensionPlaying WithUseful NotesMagnifierAnalysisPhoto linkImage LinksHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconic

When an established character becomes largely different, exhibiting behavior contrary to what has been previously shown. This is not a matter of organic growth. Rather than gradually changing in response to events and experiences, a derailed character will exhibit shockingly unusual behavior that implies malfeasance or incompetence on the part of the writers.

Note that organic growth does not necessarily mean 'benign growth', and it is perfectly possible for a previously good-natured character to end up embittered or depressed without falling victim to this trope. This is rare however, and often unpopular.

In published fiction, derailment is usually caused by an author having a certain story idea and needing to stretch the characters' personality to fit. In the worst cases, the author may end up speaking for the character. In works with multiple authors, a new author may have a wildly different interpretation of a character, causing him to write his version of the character instead of the one established by canon.

Fans motivated by Die for Our Ship will use Character Derailment in their fanfics to remove the character from the Official Couple which is in the way of their OTP (or just because they dislike them).

It only counts as this trope if it happens in canon. Trope Decay is when this occurs for trope examples.

In the rarest of cases, this can be an example of how Tropes Are Not Bad. Previously boring or irritating characters may actually be improved if they're drastically changed. A classic example is Kelly Bundy from Married... with Children, whose transformation into The Brainless Beauty also coincided with the show's Growing the Beard.

Please check if examples fit better into subtropes before adding them here.

Specific types:


If in Fan Fics, it can involve Canon Defilement, Draco in Leather Pants and/or Ron the Death Eater. When the derailed character's characterization is fixed, it is Character Rerailment. Contrast Characterization Marches On, in which a character changes because their previous characterization was only a "work in progress".

No Real Life Examples, Please. Though how the trope can be applied to real life is anyone's guess...

Examples of Character Derailment include:


Advertisement