[ SECRET POST #3241 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3241 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Working late again, sorry!

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 018 secrets from Secret Submission Post #463.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Ex-Badasses

[(Anonymous)]

Characters who were really badass, but then became less so as they got older, rather than more so.

What are some examples of this being done well, in a way that doesn't make the character look bad (ex: someone who was a BAMF by being really nasty or ruthless softening up and developing into a better person, a character giving up power that had a bad effect on them, a good depiction of the effects of aging, etc)?

Examples of this being done poorly/illogically (ex: where it makes no sense, or destroys appealing character traits or abilities, or seems to be forced in order to make another character look better, or is sexist, etc)?

Re: Ex-Badasses

[(Anonymous)]

I will always hold up Spike as an example of it being done badly. They could have had him stay pleasantly immoral, but after "Fool For Love" it went all downhill.

Re: Ex-Badasses

[philstar22]

I don't know. I kind of feel like that was always who he was, though. He always seemed to take his lead from Drusilla. He was badass, but he was a romantic badass. The focus of his romantic attention shifted, but I don't think his personality shifted that much until after he got the soul.

Re: Ex-Badasses

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, I actually agree with you on something! Yeah, Spike was always, always a romantic sap whose actions were largely driven by his love for a woman, even if he was an evil romantic sap. He was never really "pleasantly immoral" in a controlled detached way and it would've been weird for him to become so. Plus I don't really think he became any less badass, just that the other characters became more so while he stayed close to the same level.

Re: Ex-Badasses

[(Anonymous)]

+1

Re: Ex-Badasses

[kaijinscendre]

Vegeta in DBGT (which I hated) as an example if badly done. It got better in movies.

Re: Ex-Badasses

[(Anonymous)]

I disliked GT mostly, but I thought Vegeta was one of the best parts of it. It just pleased me a lot to see him so radically changed by sitting around raising a family in peace without constant battles and shit for over a decade. It just makes a lot of sense I guess, it was an oddly real-world-ish touch for Dragon Ball - reminded me a bit of a great-uncle of mine who was in the army and in combat when he was young.

Well there was also some other dumb stuff with his character I guess (though I sometimes forget that given all the other stupid stuff in GT), but the dad-ification made me laugh in a very warm-heart-cockles way.

Re: Ex-Badasses

[(Anonymous)]

Dad-ification is an iffy trope because it really doesn't work for some characters, but for Vegeta I loved it, because for him it was growth and happiness, not stagnation and conformity. Not that I didn't love his villainy and selfishness, but I loved them as temporary stages, not a permanent state of affairs he was forever trapped in. And since he remained very recognizably dickish and arrogant and crazy I was totally okay with him getting soft otherwise, since GT supposedly came after years of peace.

Re: Ex-Badasses

[(Anonymous)]

A bad one would be Dax in Star Trek DS9, because it was super sexist (usually she got screwed over for Worf's benefit), and because there was nothing in-universe to make her change like that.