Character Rerailment is what happens when a [[CharacterDerailment derailed character]] returns to their previous characterization. Generally this signals the end of a DorkAge. This may also follow a [[RunningTheAsylum changing of the guard at the asylum]]. May also happen repeatedly if a character bounces [[DependingOnTheWriter between writers]]. Sometimes the time spent derailed turns out to be AllJustADream.

See also, WeWantOurJerkBack, FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome.



[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* While in the past two or three volumes, she was [[AxCrazy murderously insane]] in pretty much every single chapter, in volume 8 of ''SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', Chiri returns to her original characterization as [[SuperOCD very uptight]], but still somewhat the StraightMan.
* Orihime Inoue from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is an odd case of rerailment due to CharacterDevelopment instead of undoing CharacterDerailment. She has recently gone back to being her humorous, perky self like how she was to begin with rather than the [[BrokenBird broken, emotional character]] she's been portrayed as throughout the Hueco Mundo arc as a result of a MASSIVE BreakTheCutie process that involved her being kidnapped, being mentally/physically/sexually (manga only) harrassed by the enemy, being forced to see her friends being hurt in several ways, and ultimately watching her LoveInterest being beaten to near death. This is because all her issues from said arc were wrapped up and she was free to be a content person once more, [[PluckyGirl with added life experiences and stronger determination]].
* Mamoru Chiba from ''Anime/SailorMoon'' was subjected to quite the CharacterDerailment in the R season, going from a polite young man who still [[BrutalHonesty didn't unnecessarily sugarcoat his words]] and ''did'' tell his (much-younger) girlfriend and her friends what he had in his mind, to a {{Angst}}y and broken mess who acted borderline abusive to her, badmouthing her to keep her away and safe, and caused her lots of turmoil (which once almost ''killed her'' since he would not tell her what he ''did'' have his reasons... when in fact said reasons ''did'' involve her and she had all the right to know). Fortunately, once he finally told her the truth and the arc reached its end, Mamoru's OutOfCharacter half-season was put in a shelf and he returned to be the Senshi's BigBrotherMentor and a kind yet sincere boyfriend to Usagi. [[NeverLiveItDown Too bad fandom won't let him live it down, though]]....him being put heavily OutOfFocus in the next few seasons didn't help matters either.
* The [[LongRunnerCastTurnover few constants]] among the Anime/{{Pokemon}} cast seem to be re-hitting their stride in [[Videogame/PokemonXAndY the XY saga]].
** [[TerribleTrio Jessie, James, and Meowth]] were first introduced as true members of the evil Team Rocket organization, constantly obeying their leader [[BigBad Giovanni]] all the time. But after their obsession with capturing Ash Ketchum's Pikachu began in the show's second episode, they started to ignore Giovanni and mainly went after Pikachu, which inevitably resulted in them constantly getting kicked around and "being blasted off again" every single time, even when Ash continued his journeys beyond Kanto. By Sinnoh, they had gone from their original intentions of {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}s to an outright GoldfishPoopGang with silly dances and Boss Fantasies being seen as outright detrimental to both the show in general and the Terrible [=TRio=] specifically. The writers for the ''Best Wishes'' arc made them super competent and super important; which generated (yet another) BrokenBase and was ultimately seen as [[CerebusSyndrome swinging the pendulum too far the other way]]. Early Kalos seems to have split the difference, wherein Team Rocket's plans are self-contained and usually doomed to failure, yet Pikachu is now an ''occasional'' target, giving way to the [[VictimOfTheWeek Pokemon of the Week]].[[note]]Which sometimes is not a Pokemon.[[/note]] This has struck fans early on as a "happy medium". It also helps that they're not in ''every'' episode, thus their appearances seem less forced.
** Ash ''[[IdiotHero himself]]'' seems to be undergoing this in Kalos as well. In Hoenn, he served as a BigBrotherMentor to Max and an equal to May. In Sinnoh, his {{Idiot|Hero}} traits are more pronounced, but he still comes off as somewhat capable, at least when he's not up against a CreatorsPet or a DiabolusExMachina. In Unova, he was [[IdiotBall completely rebooted into a full-fledged rookie]], [[StrongAsTheyNeedToBe except when the plot required otherwise]]. Iris's condescension didn't help matters at all. In Kalos, however, he returns to Hoenn-era form; he's still a bit wide-eyed, but most of his faux-pas early on have come from lack of knowledge of the new region's dynamics, as opposed to the outright virtual lobotomy in Unova. It helps that [[EstablishingCharacterMoment he started Kalos with a]] [[Awesome/{{Pokemon}} Moment of Awesome]][[note]]Climbing the Poke-Equivalent of the Eiffel Tower to peacefully subdue a rampaging Garchomp[[/note]].

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer: Season 8'' rerails several members of the cast after their derailment in Seasons 6 and 7, while at the same time continuing their character development. Some, however, still haven't really recovered (Giles, Amy, Buffy herself to a widly varying degree, etc.)
** With Giles, they at least took his character derailment to its logical conclusion of [[spoiler: RedemptionEqualsDeath.]]
* A number of comic book characters have gone through this. Like Franchise/{{Batman}}, who swings between {{Jerkass}} behavior and being called out on it, typically going on a trip to rediscover himself.
** ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} underwent a similar process after Devin Grayson's disastrous run on the series, which had him join Deathstroke as Renegade. The ResetButton on that one was pounded so hard it ''cracked''.
** For Nightwing, it was a case of rerailment or death. Creator/DanDiDio has stated that it was originally planned to have Nightwing die at the end of ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis (if you've read it, you can probably figure out where), and he kind of implies that Devin Grayson's handling of the character is one of the reasons.
** This seems to be a pattern with Batman characters, including the case of Cassandra Cain, the second Batgirl... for a while, at least. After she was revealed to [[FaceHeelTurn have thrown out her heroic side and become evil]], later writers retconned this by saying that she was under the control of Deathstroke through a drug, only to have her swing ''back'' to killing people again. Poor girl can't catch a break.
** After [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks years of being brought down to harmless under comic censorship]], TheJoker finally returned to the MonsterClown we all love in "''The Joker's Five-Way Revenge''".
* Hal Jordan of the {{Green Lantern}}s went through this after he [[FaceHeelTurn went insane]] and killed most of the other Lanterns. It was eventually revealed that he'd been possessed by Parallax, the embodiment of fear, and though at the time this seemed like an AssPull both Parallax and the Sinestro Corps have gone on to become an integral part of the Green Lantern mythos. Oh, and several of the dead Lanterns turn out to be alive.
* Writer PeterDavid, who wrote ''TheIncredibleHulk'' for 12 years, disliked the changes made by a subsequent writer so much that when he came back to write the title, he had the entire previous storyline revealed to have been AllJustADream.
* At this point, there are at least three different characterizations of {{Magneto}}, with authors repeatedly [[ArmedWithCanon rerailing one by derailing the others]]. Creator/ChrisClaremont's tormented WellIntentionedExtremist is the most complex, but Creator/GrantMorrison's monster is arguably closer to the character's roots. Any attempt to argue which characterization is the "true" one is [[FlameWar inadvisable]].
* Like PeterDavid, Alan Davis dismissed a later writer's run on ''Comicbook/ClanDestine'' as a dream. It was hilarious because it was just a single-line throwaway.
* ComicBook/{{Gambit}} started off as a RuleOfCool-based, MrFanservice ManipulativeBastard HandsomeLech [[DeathDealer Death Dealing]] BadassLongcoat who relished the challenge of getting his hands on the ForbiddenFruit Rogue, though stymied by his self-centered JerkAss qualities and the large number of people he pissed off in his thief career. Then, Rogue left him to die in Antarctica. After this, the result was a lot of {{Angst}} on Gambit's part, whose characterization was changed from the previously-described version to a [[{{Angst}} Self-loathing]] [[TheAtoner Atoner]] desperate to punish himself for his (morally blameless) role in the Morlock Massacre. More recent adaptations, however, have reached back to the character's roots: ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' showed Gambit as competent, charming, handsome and relatively low-angst [[TheGambler card-sharp]] who won a CoolPlane in a poker game, and ''WesternAnimation/{{Wolverine And The X-Men}}'' had Gambit as a mercenary, ruthless, charming, manipulative thief for hire (albeit in only two episodes). Whether or not this trend will continue is currently unknown.
* The entire purpose of ''OneMoreDay'' was to get Spider-Man single again and make him "young and fresh" again. In order to do this, he was made to [[CharacterDerailment make a deal with Mephisto to save an OLD WOMAN from dying, at the cost of his wife and unborn child]], then was reset to being single, "young and fresh", with his elderly aunt again. Safe to say, this [[ThisLoserIsYou didn't work out so well]], but later writers have done their best to salvage it.
* Shatterstar's an odd case in that the "rerailment" wasn't to his original characterization. ''{{X-Force}}'' had him slowly lose his rage, but handled it believably, and didn't give him BadassDecay. Rob Liefeld's work on the series snapped him back to his old self, but didn't do much with the possibilities involved. ''ComicBook/{{X-Factor}}'' toned him down again, and has had more of a positive reception.
* Speedball's infamous transition from wacky comic relief to self-hating [[TheAtoner atoner]] in ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' has been undone, redone, and partially undone again as different writers debate over the character. As of ''Heroic Age'', he's still haunted by his memories, but he's slowly recovering.
* In ComicBook/TransformersAllHailMegatron Prowl, the normally level-headed second in command, reveals a darker side, and shows him as a schemer doing what may be unethical but necessary to win the war (here having the mind of a respected soldier altered to serve his purposes). In ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW his personality does a 180 and he becomes a self-sacrificial maverick, tries to save a Decepticon, and acts like the kind of rule-breaker he previously hated, this carries over to Infestation, but not to the concurrent ComicBook/TransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers wherein he manipulated many events behind the story. ComicBook/TransformersRobotsInDisguise has Prowl revert to his scheming, being more irrational and hot-headed, but still bending the rules for what he feels is the greater good. He remarks that his actions in the previous series were irrational and brought on by too much trust.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* FanFic {{Spork}}ings sometimes have the characters derailed in the fic comment on what the character would have actually done in whatever situation the fic describes.
* The main aim of most [[FixFic fixfics]].

* Before ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSherlockHolmes'' (see below), the Literature/SherlockHolmes meets JackTheRipper film ''Murder by Decree'' made a good-faith effort to rescue Watson from his post-Nigel Bruce image as a dundering blockhead. James Mason's Watson is an occasional DeadpanSnarker who makes one of the biggest contributions to solving the case, when he isn't taking out a much younger man in a fistfight.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The Cybermen from ''Series/DoctorWho'' were originally an emotionless and monotone species of cyborgs. From ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E6Earthshock Earthshock]]'' onwards they turned into generic gun carrying evildoers. This was finally fixed in the New Series and AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho audio stories.
* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSherlockHolmes'' (and its successors) went to great pains to avoid the image of [[TheWatson Watson]] as a fat, blundering old moron who couldn't see that the sun had risen until Holmes point it out to him, and turned him back into the young, fit, and incredibly accomplished surgeon with military background who, while still nowhere near as bright as Holmes, was still very intelligent in his own right.
** On a related note, ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' accomplished this on more than one level. Not only is it one of the few screen adaptations to refrain from severely downplaying the title character's [[NoSocialSkills limited people skills]], but the SettingUpdate allowed the producers to carry out a ''Genre'' Rerailment from UnintentionalPeriodPiece to crime fiction.
* Television did this for both ''Franchise/PerryMason'' and ElleryQueen. In different series of movies in the 30's and 40's, Mason was depicted as a hard-living playboy with lavish offices and expensive tastes, while Queen was a comic bungler who was TooDumbToLive. It took Raymond Burr (Mason) and Jim Hutton (Queen) to bring those characters back to the authors' original characterizations (which were far more serious and sensible).
* In ''{{Charmed}}'' Phoebe's character was seriously derailed in Season 5 and remained loathed by the fanbase. But when Season 8 came along, we saw a return to a maturer version of the original Phoebe. She was a lot less self-centred and less boy crazy - her SerialRomeo lifestyle was actually Deconstructed.
* After a bout of serious {{Flanderization}} and CharacterDerailment in the previous seasons, the characters in ''Series/{{Community}}'' are returned to their original personalities in the fifth season, particularly Chang and Dean Pelton, who had become obnoxious cartoon characters by the fourth season.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' this seems to be happening slightly to [[BloodKnight Khorne]]. In recent fluff, he has been going back to his older self, his hounds are stated to be sent to hunt down any of his Champions who kill an innocent (or at least offer them to [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Khrone]]). Not much, but hey. Progress.
** Those hounds also sent to hunt down those who run away from battle and abandons their fellow warriors.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns,'' Cranky Kong is cranky again (Yeah, how THAT CharacterDerailment ever managed to happen in the first place we'll never know...)
* Sonic in ''VideoGame/SonicColors''. After a few years of being portrayed in the games as something of a goody-goody, teamwork-obsessed {{invincible hero}}, he's back to being a slightly more nuanced version of the snarky MascotWithAttitude that he was supposed to be from the [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog start]].
** Before that, ''Anime/SonicX'' was able to strike somewhat of a middle point, giving him a personality that could be described as a combination between his friendly and optimist portrayal from the then current games and his dismissive self from the [[Main/SonicTheMovie OVAs]].
** Earlier in the series, Knuckles went from a [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles smug echidna who laughed at being able to outwit Sonic]] to a [[SonicAdventureSeries completely serious guardian who is a bit bumbling]]. ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' attempted to combine the two portrayals into a bumbling [[TheLancer Lancer]] who is smug at getting one over Sonic.
** After that, however, Knuckles' HotBlooded nature and bumbling naivete was [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] [[TookALevelInDumbass further]] in a case of BadassDecay. His role as guardian of Angel Island is also frequently neglected in favor of being another generic associate of Sonic.
** Tails as well. For a few games, he simply became a walking toolkit for the team, losing the childlike and friendly aspects that made him interesting and likable in the first place (and that his character was built from). VideoGame/SonicColors undoes some of the damage, especially that done to his friendship with Sonic.
** [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 Some]] [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 games]] tried to make [[BigBad Eggman]] a more serious villain and downplay his comedic attributes, only for the [[VideoGame/SonicHeroes next]] [[VideoGame/SonicUnleashed game]] to backpedal and revert him back to comedy relief self. As with Knuckles, latest games flanderized his goofy traits and behavior.
* Axel from ''KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'' underwent massive characterization changes and BadassDecay in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'', set between the two games, attempts to explain how this happened; he had been friends and co-conspirators with Saix, but gradually ended up bonding with Roxas and Xion instead, and using manipulative and underhanded means for what [[PoisonousFriend he at least claims is their own good]], leading Roxas to leave the Organization [[spoiler:and Xion to die fighting Roxas and be erased from everyone's memory]].
* In ''The Sands of Time'', the PrinceOfPersia was a snarky, slightly naive teenager ([[VagueAge possibly]]) fresh from his first battle. In ''[[RatedMForMoney Warrior Within]]'', he became dark, brooding, and occasionally yelled obscenities at his enemies. ''The Two Thrones'' backpedaled to the characterization from ''Sands'', but [[AuthorsSavingThrow justified]] his attitude in ''Warrior Within'' as the Prince's darker side - who manifests in ''The Two Thrones'' as the Prince's SuperpoweredEvilSide.
* In ''BackyardSports: Sandlot Sluggers'', every character from the original games (except Pablo) went back to their original characterization (though not their look), winning huge applause in the process.
* ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'' did this for the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' cast, particularly Cloud, Aerith and Yuffie. They weren't exactly the same as before, but this was {{justified|Trope}} by the game being set five years before the original game, and they were a lot closer to their original counterparts than they were in ''Advent Children'' and ''Dirge of Cerberus''. Aerith got her flirtiness and PluckyGirl traits back, Cloud regained his sense of humour and realistic levels of {{Angst}}, and Yuffie regained her snarkiness and manipulativeness.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Cataclysm'' turned Sylvanas back into her old bitchy, vengeful, bitter, snide, condescending, determined, manipulative self that had been gone since ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', motivated now with self-preservation rather than revenge.
** ''Mists of Pandaria'' tried this with Tyrande. It didn't work.
* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' does this to most of its cast. Johnny Cage is shown as being a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Hollywood douchebag with a heroic spirit]], instead of the ButtMonkey who serves no purpose aside from being killed off as a gag. Likewise, Jax goes from being a stereotypical Blaxploitation hero back to his role as the {{badass}} StraightMan of the cast. And [[BigBad Shao Kahn]] finally stops being a regular playable character, and returns to his spot as the overpowered FinalBoss.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland'' rerailed arguably the entire Monkey Island franchise, but ESPECIALLY [[spoiler: [=LeChuck=], turning him truly evil and threatening again after his disappointing appearance subservient to Ozzie in ''VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland''.]]
* This was one of the selling points of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies''. After the loss of his badge and his subsequent [[CharacterDerailment derailment]] into a ManipulativeBastard in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'', a lot of people wanted the old {{Adorkable}} Phoenix back. So in ''Dual Destinies'', he's back to being a lawyer again, and he's not half as much of a jerk - although he's kept a few of the Apollo Justice-era mannerisms, and he acts a little more like a TeamDad TricksterMentor, so his character in ''Dual Destinies'' is closer to a combination of this and CharacterDevelopment.

* One of the darker arcs (Dark!Jareth arc) of the MegaCrossover FanWebcomic ''Webcomic/{{Roommates}}'' [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this in-universe mixed with a liberal dose of [[YouCantFightFate You Can't Fight Your Canon]]: After trying to be the hero (and failing) for 150 or so pages [[spoiler: Jareth]] snaps and reverts back to his original characterization and this SuperpoweredEvilSide of his tries to force the others back too. It's heartbreaking and asks the highly meta question: "Is it even possible for a fictional character to change or redeem himself? Or does the story define everything he can ever be?"

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': After two seasons of CharacterDerailment, first into an unpleasable harpy, and then into a doormat, Dana Tan is finally restored to her original sweet and supportive characterization... in the {{Fully Absorbed|Finale}} DistantFinale.
* One of the main points to the first season of ''Ben10UltimateAlien'' is to '''finally''' mend Kevin's abrupt, unexplained shift in characterization and powers that occurred in ''Alien Force'', ultimately culminating in [[spoiler: using his old, sanity-warping powers as a means to save the world, and becoming evil again as a side-effect.]]
** Mileages vary as to how well this worked out in the end though, as some feel that this effort to connect his original series characterization with his new one only succeeded in derailing ''both'' of them, with [[spoiler: his old one being retconned from truly sociopathic to a result of alien heritage, and his new one treated so seriously that his sudden change back to comic relief after the first season finale, with no more mention of what transpired before, was not taken well.]]
** Kevin's rerailment is being tried ''again'' in ''Omniverse'', with [[TookALevelInJerkass even]] ''[[TookALevelInDumbass more]]'' [[ArtShift mixed]] results.
** Vilgax's characterization and vocals[[note]]Though rather than Creator/SteveBlum, he's voiced by JohnDimaggio.[[/note]] in one of the ''Alien Force'' video games, ''Vilgax Attacks!'', was much closer to how he was portrayed in the first series. He also regained his original series personality in the GrandFinale of ''Ben10UltimateAlien'', what with [[spoiler: [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu outsmarting a]] EldritchAbomination '''God''']] and what not.
** Zombozo, in the first series, was an undead, supernatural MonsterClown who was rather dangerous. ''Ultimate Alien'' seemed to remove the supernatural aspects in favor of a much more Joker-like character. ''Omniverse'' reworks the character to showcase him as more of a walking corpse who can stretch his arms, bringing the supernatural aspect of the character back. [[VillainDecay He's a little less effective]] and [[DenserAndWackier a little more comical]], though.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Homer goes from {{Jerkass}} to the original Homer sometimes at will. Flanders was de-{{Flanderized}} in TheMovie.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' horribly subverted this trope with Stewie: in the season 9 premiere, he killed a character for first time in years and revealed that he still wanted to kill Lois. Fans cheered upon seeing this, thinking that the old Stewie was back. Three episodes later, it was shown that Stewie wasn't going back to his old self, much to the fans' disappointment.
** One episode had Stewie attempt to make himself evil again after Brian called him out on how soft he had gotten. [[GoneHorriblyRight It worked]]. Unfortunately, the writers dialed this new evil Stewie's ChaoticEvil UpToEleven, turning him into a ChaoticStupid character, while completely discarding his mastermind-style LawfulEvil from the original characterization. [[TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste But then, that was the whole point.]]
** Joe was originally a HandicappedBadass cop who became an excuse to make cripple jokes after the show got UnCancelled. The previous characterization returned around season 9.
* Most of the CharacterDerailment in ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Action'' was reverted in ''Total Drama World Tour''. Trent (although only a minor character) was back to being normal, Courtney stopped being evil and started being the [[SoapboxSadie holier-than-thou]] SmallNameBigEgo she was in season 1. Most of the characters who were {{flanderiz|ation}}ed like Owen and Bridgette returned to having multiple dimensions.
* The {{Franchise/DCAU}} team has admitted that Superman got [[TheWorfEffect derailed into a punching bag]] during the early days of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' and took steps in later episodes to remind viewers why he's, well, ''{{Franchise/Superman}}''.
* Recent characterizations of WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck have attempted, with varying levels of success, to get him back to his [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} daffier]] roots.
* Although unintentional, the real reason why [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Waspinator]] was portrayed as the ButtMonkey of the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' franchise is because Hasbro actually found his cartoon voice extremely stupid. As a result he ended up getting kicked around and being blown up every single time, while muttering to himself "Waspinator has plansssss..." as he tries to put himself back together again. At the end of ''Beast Wars''' final episode, poor Waspinator is rescued by tribe of natives and crowned their leader, causing him to finally become "happy at last", but in ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', he for some reason returned to Cybertron where he is immediately rehired by [[BigBad Megatron]], who then wipes his memory clean and transfers his spark into that of the Vehicon Thrust's (who is smarter, stronger, and more dangerous than Waspinator). When Waspinator-as-Thrust finally gets his memories back, he eventually starts to get kicked around and being blown up again, and when the Maximals [[spoiler: turn Cybertron into a second Earth]], they also transfer Waspinator's spark back into his original (but smaller) wasp mode again. In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' Waspinator returns, but is now known as Wasp instead, and he is changed into an extremely terrifying and powerful villain.
* Zigzagged with WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse: He was originally depicted as a brave action hero, but later shorts changed him into a laid-back slacker while WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck took the spotlight. Now, he's either back to being an action hero [[VideoGame/EpicMickey in several]] [[Franchise/KingdomHearts video games]], is [[WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse the owner of a nightclub for other Disney characters]], or a ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer''-esque kids' show host.
* After suffering BadassDecay throughout most of ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'', Agent ComicBook/PhilCoulson reminds us that he is a [[BadassNormal SHIELD agent]] by fighting off a trio of Asgardians mounted on fire breathing wolves using a pair of {{BFG}}s that are almost as big as him.
--> '''Coulson''': No running in the halls.
** Not to mention holding his own against the Beetle (who in this version [[AdaptationalBadass has nearly Iron Man-grade]] PoweredArmor and previously was a difficult enemy for Spidey, Iron Fist, Power Man, Nova and White Tiger as a team) using nothing but a steel pipe he found lying around.
* Rufus and Amberley of ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'' started off as {{Badass Normal}}s with distinctive personalities in the pilot, before quickly downgrading into [[TheGenericGuy generic]] incompetent {{Hero Antagonist}}s afterwards. Season 3 onward gradually reverts back to their original personalities and level of competence ([[TookALevelInBadass if not higher]]). Their UnscrupulousHero tendencies were also dialed back by the start of season 4, making them look more sympathetic and provoked against the Urpneys.
* Many of the engines' slowly waxed and waned in the long run of ''ThomasTheTankEngine'', some becoming almost polar opposites of their former selves. From Season 17 onward however, a new writing team was brought on board, reverting back many of the engines to their original personalities and refreshing it's roots to ''TheRailwaySeries''. Some traits introduced in the TV show remain, albeit more as HiddenDepths.