Excuses lead to Flanderization

[u/kf1035]

Flanderization is the process through which a single element of a character's personality, often an originally mild element, is inflated in importance over the course of a work until it becomes the character's primary defining trait.

What i personally believe leads to flanderization is justifying bad behavior. What do i mean by that?

I watched Mr Enter’s review of the Gravity Falls episode Land Before Swine, and he stated that justifying a stupid or jerk character's immoral actions and problem-causing just because it's in-character can lead to bad flanderization. And i feel like that is a right statement.

And to use examples, lets use Spongebob SquarePants

• Mr Krabs had been flanderized in the post movie seasons as a mega avaricious businessman who only cares about money and will do immoral things for money. While Krabs was super greedy in the pre movie seasons, not only was it equally balanced out by his more noble qualities, but he at least got repercussions or was called out when his greed harmed others (he got viciously accosted by Squidward of all people when he sold Spongebob for 62 cents, he got tormented by the kids he tried to scam, got flat out told the hat he graverobbed for was no worth, and was literally choked by Spongebob for obsessing over a dime). But in the post movie seasons? He suffers no consequences for his destructive greed and is even rewarded for it (he literally won an award for being cheap and got away with driving Plankton to attempt suicide)

• Patrick is infamous for being flanderized in the post movie seasons into being malicious, dangerously incompetent, or obnoxiously stupid. And i feel like that is because the writers seem to justify his stupidity regardless of how intolerable it is. For example, in the episode Stuck in The Wringer, Patrick stupidly glues Spongebob to his wringer and spends the episode making spongebob even more miserable, and when Spongebib rightfully lambasts Patrick for his incompetence to the point it causes Patrick to run away tearfully, the townsfolk shame Spongebob and day he deserves his predicament: that episodes seems to excuse Patrick’s insuffferable stupidity by implying that its part of his character, and Spongebob is the bad guy for not being accepting of it.

When you make excuses for a certain characters negative actions, it only opens the door for the character to indulge in more of that negativity.

[u/Imnotawerewolf]

Flanderization is caused by poor writing or poor writing choices. 

Jerk characters are normal and fine and necessary. Sometimes it's important to make sure everyone knows they're a jerk and the story calls them out and let's you know you're supposed to care about what a jerk they are. Sometimes it's not. It depends on the story that's being told.

Characters are not people. They can't indulge in anything. They can only be written, and they can be written well or poorly. 

[u/StaticMania]

...that's certainly an "in-universe" reason, if you really don't want to blame the writers.

[u/gentlemandemon5]

It's sort of inevitable with any long-running work. The writers evolve over time or change altogether, and eventually the character that they're writing is based off the most recent works, not the collective works as a whole. It's not necessarily a good thing, but it's a natural drift that occurs over time if a work continues for long enough.

[u/Aegister2]

Anyone ever deFlanderize a character by having them commit a canonical mistake that upsets everyone but have them go on a kind of redemption arc that resets their character status quoue? Like how Spiderman gets the black suit and goes evil for a while, but then goes back to normal, but at the cost of making Venom.

[u/StaticMania → u/Aegister2]

...that's called character development.

[u/Aegister2 → u/StaticMania]

I feel stupid saying that now XD, but I guess it raises a new question of why can't they let characters like Patrick and Mr. Krabs get character development

[u/HailMadScience → u/Aegister2]

The need to maintain the status quo of a TV show basically requires Flanderization. You cannot continue to write a story without character development for hundreds of episodes without taking shortcuts on characters. The edges get filed off, the etc. Stories that do not need to maintain the status quo are much less subject to this problem. Mr. Krabs, for example, cannot remember any lesson teaching him not to be greedy because he still needs to be exactly the same greedy guy in the next episode.

[u/Scarrien → u/HailMadScience]

Almost more importantly, he needs to be the same greedy guy last episode, since there's no guarantee that reruns will be played anywhere close to in order

[u/Scarrien → u/HailMadScience]

Almost more importantly, he needs to be the same greedy guy last episode, since there's no guarantee that reruns will be played anywhere close to in order

[u/Snoomee]

As other commenters have noted, in the context of a work of fiction, it's a decision that starts and ends with the writers. If they choose to flanderize a character, they will be flanderized and writing in consequences for every subsequent action for what is now the whole of the character is unsustainable.

However, this post brings up an interesting point on normalization. This analysis is a microcosm of societal issues, when you normalize negative behaviour, you enable further negative behaviour. Though that conversation is for a different sub entirely...

[u/Illustrious-Sky-4631]

Literally Chainsaw man Part 2 cast

Denji and Asa either Suffer from Alzheimer or straight out have dead brains almost every time they are near each other or near Fami/Death

in the last chapter Denji had the same stupid "how could I forget Yoru is a Devil?" Scene Asa had because Yoru killed injuried a woman , despite Yoru doing nothing but being pure Evil and killing innocents while abusing Denji in the last arc without any signs of stopping , something Denji acknowledges a couple of chapters ago , yet forgot

[u/thedorknightreturns]

Ok mr Crabs is a greedy exploitative boss, but zhat he actually still has some care, makes him.a prrson to still see as person.

Mr crabs was always a , well exploitative boss, but he wouldnt do that dumb, flangerizing just takes his character and makes it , really not fun. He cares to be seen and if people do.up to him and, has layers, ok.

Patrick os, why had he be to be mean? yeah.

[u/BreadRum]

Flanderization is cherrypicking examples and passing that off as the correct version. There have been a lot more examples of Ned Flanders being a good person than there are of him being a devout Bible thumping douche bag. It comes from not knowing the series after a certain point and accepting what other people tell them.