#flanderization

[folks-just-call-me-orange-joe]

Wow I hope the phenomenon Flanderization doesn’t happen to my favourite character Ned Flanders

[dougielombax]

I love it when complex, complicated stories in any medium are reduced and condensed to borderline incomprehensible shitposts and memes.

This happened with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and it was hilarious.

[masterj]

Watching SLOTLT:

....Okay... we need to talk about Sodor's Legend Of The Lost Treasure. Many TTTE fans love it and call it "the best special" and "the peak of CGI Thomas." But we need to face facts. It's far from everyone's favorite and actually the Most Controversial of CGI Thomas.

My stance? I say people who don't like SLOTLT are right- just for not for the valid reasons. Prepare to be roasted.

The movie heavily flanderizes Thomas and ruins his character development throughout the series. It practically takes everything that made him unlikable in the Miller era and turned him back into a complete, 100% irresponsible idiot. Take The Great Discovery, a special VERY similar in plot for example. After his trick on Stanley that demolishes the tower, he actually shows full remorse and tries to make up for his mistake.

In Lost Treasure, that is not the case. Here at the start of the movie he's just like, "I'm number one so I can do what I want!"

And it's not until THE DAY AFTER the Dynamite Incident that it finally sinks in and he's like "Aw it was my fault..."

Plus, he would've been mature enough by now not to let Gordon's teasing get to him. In Season 5, he literally tells Percy to just ignore George's insults and simply does just that.

Why are insults such a big deal to him NOW that he has to run of with Gordon's coaches and derail them??? This doesn't make sense! Yes, he is meant to be cheeky, but how the hell do we go from how he's written in Tale Of The Brave to this?!

So much dumb shit happens that could've and should have been easily avoided. The accidents Thomas cause would've have been stopped in a heartbeat if they ACTUALLY REMEMBERED drivers and firemen exist. When Thomas falls into the cavern? HOW THE HELL are they so unaware of the workmen shouting trying to stop them?! How do they not once look where he is going and see the signs?!

They're not even trying! Look at them in the cab! Up until the accident happens they're practically just chillin'! You're not fooling anybody! Are they high on crack in there??? Are they paying rent in there??? Do they just spontaneously go blind and deaf??? Hello?!?! Wake up and control your fucking train!!!

Let's cut back to the coaches. WHY is Thomas shunting Gordon's coaches when that is NOT his job anymore now that he has his branchline?! That's the whole reason the big engines went on strike and Percy was brought to the railway! Topham has HOW many shunters now? And you're SERIOUSLY gonna tell me not a single one could've done it instead? Look how empty Knapford is!

What about the Diesel Boxcab introduced this season? Why isn't he in this movie to do that instead? Did he die?

Overall, SLOTLT is just a pointless Great Discovery rehash sprinkled with stale RWS references, (which help set up this movie's god awful plot in the first place) returned characters, and cinematic visuals and music pretending it's actually a good movie with a likeable plot. Not only does it take the three-strike formula and fail miserably at making it good, (The three accidents Thomas causes) it can't even remember the show's continuity properly for God's sake! For a what's supposed to be a tribute to the RWS, this is not a good look at all, Andrew Brenner. You did not cook.

What's even worse is that for all these years everyone in this fandom just blindly glazes over everything this movie does wrong and then act like it's illegal for someone not to like it and it's disgusting. This movie single-handedly damaged the entire TTTE fandom for 10 years. 10. FUCKING. YEARS.

We already had a special that did this kind of plot so much better in every way. WHY are we doing it AGAIN??? Why wasn't The Adventure Begins enough for this year???

We did not need this. We did not need any of this shit. Just skip to Season 20 and you are not missing too much, I promise you. Peak CGI Thomas my ass. HALF the CGI specials are the least bit more deserving than this shitshow.

This movie sucks. We do not speak of it, I'm done talking about it, it's not canon, it doesn't deserve to be, it never existed. It's dead to me.

All it's got going for it are the visuals, voice acting and music, Donald, Douglas, Alfie and Oliver, Max, Monty, and Daisy returning, and the Miniature Engines introduced. That's it.

Just because a movie looks 'cinematic' does not automatically make it good.

[seaglasswrites]

I feel like fandom tends to emphasize character traits to the point of flanderization, and it contributes to the growing trend of characters being boxed into stereotypes based on whatever’s the closest fit, even if their characterization doesn’t necessarily reflect that.

Characters who are generally kind become innocent cinnamon rolls who can do no harm, impulsive characters become brash ones who rush into danger, devoid rationality or thought, and so on. They become defined by their character trait rather than the trait contributing to them.

[animated-worlds-worst-dad]

My Short Critique of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012

My first exposure to TMNT was the 2003 series, which aired on TV. Due to my inability to navigate cable, I only saw sporadic clips and action scenes, but what I saw really interesting me.

My second exposure was the 2012 series. This was the first TMNT show where I watched the pilot and decided to watch the series in order.

It was a decent show, but after a rewatch, there were some things that bothered me, like:

April O’Neil (she was poorly written as I'll touch on down below)

Donnie x April x Casey love triangle

Mikey and Donnie not getting serious focus/growth compared to their brothers

Karai's character arc (or lack thereof)

The poorly written humor that feels a bit juvenile at times

The shipping in general (RaMona is the only good one)

The animation in certain places (Donnie retracting his limbs into his shell seems wrong, and the human mouth animations feel a bit putty-like)

Now, I can forgive animation and poor humor (it was the 2010s), but I cannot forgive poor writing.

It's not something that you would notice as a kid, but it becomes more apparent as you keep watching (and especially during a rewatch) that this show was not written cohesively.

The best analogy I can make about the viewer’s experience is this: Twelve people were baking a cake, and at first, everything seemed fine. They knew which ingredients to use, how much of each ingredient, and how to incorporate them into the mixing bowl.

But as time went on, there were arguments, and each baker tried to throw their chosen ingredients in the mixing bowl to overpower the others’. Then, they got notified that the bakery was about to open, so they baked the batter and sold the cake.

And it’s a good cake, many people love it on their first try, but as you keep eating, you bite down on bits and pieces that don’t taste right. You spit them out and examine them. You first throw them away and continue eating, but you keep finding them.

This is most obvious with April O'Neil. It feels like for every three minutes of April per episode, she was being bounced around between five separate writers.

Is she into Donnie or Casey? Is she creeped out by them and just wants to be alone? Is she a whiny brat who endangers the group with her inability to read bad situations or is she a competent fighter with good control over her powers? Is she focused on saving her dad or trying to live a normal life? Does she have good control over her powers or is she flying blind? Is she part of the family or just the resident human acquaintance that eats their food and takes up their living space?

I can't even give you a clear "I love/hate 2012!April" because I know nothing about her except "She was poorly written", and that's not something I can blame a fictional character for. That is the fault of the creator/writer.

Feel free to comment & reblog. Let me know if I got anything wrong, or what things about TMNT 2012 that bothered you.

[confessmau]

Call me twelve but I still hate how MyStreet took over and thus popularized fucking dogwater versions of characters. Himbo Garroth? Hate him. UwU soft boy Zane? Makes me gag. Werewolf Aaron? We knew like two things about him in MCD and one of them was that he was a WEREWOLF HUNTER. Short and kinda dumb Aphmau??? Literally why????? And I know they are largely kept separated nowadays and I’m glad for it but I simply will never get over it because maybe I would’ve enjoyed MyStreet enough to not grimace every time I think about it if the characters had a shred of what made them likeable and interesting and themselves in MCD

~~

[nerdy-sunflower]

Y'all can we take a minute to talk about how awful they wrote Cody to be in Suite Life on Deck.

I'm saying this as a former Cody Girl:

CODY AIN'T SHIT

Exhibit A: Personality

In the OG show, they show Cody having various interests, one being sports, like Zack. He wasn't as good at them or as knowledgeable about them as Zack, but he still took an interest in watching and even playing sports.

They BOTH liked playing video games. They BOTH liked riding bikes. They BOTH liked girls and trying to get their attention. Sure, Cody was also great at school and very book smart, but it didn't consume him.

On Deck, Cody seems to know little to nothing about sports and has no interest in them at all. In fact, he seems to have no interest in anything that isn't strictly educational. Which brings me to my next point...

Exhibit B: Cody's lack of shenanigans.

In the OG show, Zack and Cody typically engaged in various shenanigans TOGETHER.

Wanted free bikes? Zack trains Cody to win a teen pageant. Suspect one of the rooms is haunted? Gather their friends to perform a seance. Suspect a guest of conning their mom and their friends? Spy on him and plant traps to catch him. Needed some extra money AND wanted to impress a crush? Rented out London's Suite while she was out of town.

Even Cody gets into his own shenanigans BY HIMSELF. Remember the episode where he moved into a linen closet because he got annoyed sharing a room with Zack?

Do y'all see that kind of energy from him On Deck? NO.

Well maybe in the first season, but for the most part, not really.

Most hijinks Cody finds himself in on deck, he does not take part in as willingly as he did at the hotel. Mr. Mosbey doesn't even blame Cody for anything that goes wrong on the boat! At the hotel, mosbey always came for "the boys", "you two", "the twins", etc. On Deck, he mainly goes after Zack. The only time I remember him being upset with Cody is when they both wear some "traditional" outfits to a party where everyone else is in black tie.

The adults on the show only seem to be upset with Cody when he's being a know-it-all and correcting the adults around him, or being a very pushy perfect student. Like when he and Bailey refused to take part in the senior ditch day so they made Ms Tutwiler stay with them in the classroom and only teach to them.

And when Cody DOES actually take part in any pranks or hijinks in On Deck, half the time it feels out of character for him. Like when he joined in on the prank on Mosbey that resulted in prom getting cancelled. It just doesn't make sense with the direction they took Cody's character in that he would join in on a prank that endangered Mosbey. He spends so much of On Deck sucking up to authority and teachers and never doing anything remotely wrong, to that. Sure, it's Mosbey, and Cody and Mosbey have history, but still it felt off in On Deck.

Exhibit C: Cody's treatment of women

Y'all remember this iconic line from the OG?

Yeah. A few years later, that kid's gonna become a massive incel and write a "play" demonizing his exgf and killing her off at the end.

In both versions of the show, they made Zack to be the "lady's man" and Cody was the one who had a harder time with girls. Even though Cody had his fair share of girlfriends during both shows. Two main ones we're gonna look at: Barbara and Bailey.

If y'all don't remember, Barbara was Cody's crush/friend/gf for a decent amount of the original run for Suite Life. Here's a quick little blip of a scene with them:

(taken from Google btw)

This is probably the beginning of the end for Cody. Sure by the end of the episode, he snaps out of it and accepts Barbara being stronger, and it's never really mentioned again. If you ignore this episode, Cody appears to view Barbara as an equal for a majority of their time together. And they appeared to mention a fairly amicable breakup between them once On Deck aired.

Now let's look at Cody and Bailey. On paper they seem perfect together. Both top of their class, type A personalities, straight A students. Cody was head over heels for her from the start, and when Bailey finally reciprocated those feelings all seemed well. Then the Paris incident.

But let's ignore the Paris incident for a minute. Cody was ALWAYS threatened by Bailey. It shows consistently in the show. They're always fighting to be top of the class. Well, Cody's fighting. Bailey just does it.

Let's look at when the gang gets lost at sea. London, Woody, and Zack all agree that Bailey should be captain and in charge of getting them back home, much to Cody's disapproval. When everyone goes to sleep, Cody changes course behind everyone's back because he can't handle being ignored and not being the leader. When they're on the island, Cody starts sulking because Bailey was angry that he undermined her, yet saw no reason to apologize to her.

And then with the finale, when Cody gets rejected from Yale. While Cody is wallowing in misery, he then remembers Bailey also applied. His immediate thought? If HE didn't get in, there was no way Bailey got in, right? Wrong. Bailey got accepted. Further pushing Cody into misery. Not only was he rejected from his dream school, but his girlfriend WAS accepted and HE thought he deserved admission more than she did.

Cody had a desperate need to be the smartest person in the room, and Bailey challenged him on that. Unlike Barbara, who was also a very intelligent character, Cody didn't seem to view her as equally as he viewed Barbara. Cody thought he was better than her. And when they broke up it struck a chord with him. He couldn't let the breakup, or Bailey go. The nail in the coffin for him should've been the play. After humiliating her like that, Bailey, definitely should've seen the writing on the wall that Cody did not respect her.

Conclusion

There's a lot that I don't like very much about Suite Life on Deck. The worst thing is the general flanderization of all the characters, but with Cody, it just feels like it's on another level, like they're not even the same person. Z&C Zack and On Deck Zack, okay makes sense how we got here, even London somehow losing more braincells in On Deck feels more in character than whatever tf they did with Cody.

[glamnessaaumisc]

I just realized a stupid detail about DDLC

In Doki Doki Literature Club, Monika kills all the other characters by flanderizing them to death.

[chemyaart]

It just saddens me how fandoms tend to portray nice characters. Just because they're nice, doesn't mean they're innocent, and should be protected at all costs.

It's also crazy because a lot of people might say the character is child-coded or something, and they're like 35. It's okay to be childish, but don't simplify them to just one trait.

Famous characters like SpongeBob, Papyrus, etc... They're nice characters, but people tend to woobify and flanderizing them. Yikes.

I feel bad for PV. He's suffered long enough.

For the people that can't read my horrible handwriting : "Is this how people see me ? Wow...", "How the fandom portrays him : bottom, soft, shy, sensitive, gay", "He's an OLD MAN. Just because he's nice doesn't he's a submissive, soft 'boy'. He's a MAN."

"Daddy alpha top man", "Ew." "Gets shipped with him" "It's just sad how fandoms treat nice characters."

[still-trans-gwender]

Out of all of the characters who were flanderized in Spongebob Sandy's flanderization was probably the weirdest. Not the worst just the weirdest.

In the first 3 seasons she was an athletic tomboy that was a bit reckless but could still be the voice of reason.

After that she's defined mainly as being a scientist even though in the first 3 seasons the only scientific things she did was have a suit and dome that allowed her to live underwater and built a spaceship once.

I understand from a writing stand point that having a scientist character whose not a villain like Plankton helped with episode plots but it's still jarring.

[themightyhumanbroom]

The webcomic The Order of the Stick is a marvel for avoiding the flanderization of the main cast for two decades. I think this is because the the main cast starts out as one dimensional caricatures of their respective archetypes. Because of this they had a lot more avenues and opportunities for character growth and STILL haven't stagnated or relapsed after, again, two decades. Whereas characters that enter a story with a good amount of character depth are more prone to coming down with flanderization.

I'm really talking about this trope like it's a disease aren't I?

Hell, it's the only peice of media I can think of that actually reversed a case flanderization. I am talking about the case of Belkar Bitterleaf. Belkar is the sole evil member of the Order of the Stick. He's kept in line by Roy the leader of the party but despite this he still manages to cause trouble. While everyone else is slowly developing their characters, he stays the same and becomes a little one note. But at one point the party is split and Roy isn't around to keep him in check. He ends up activating a curse that was placed on him and proceeds to nearly vomit himself to death. But during this Belkar has a trippy vision quest guided by a hallucination of one of the very few people that earned his respect; a crafty politician that played an entire order of paladins for fools. An hallucination that proceeds to tell him how to stay in the game without truly changing themselves.

This is such a brilliant solution to reversing flanderization. A solution that maybe only a meta, fourth wall breaking dnd comic can do. Pretend to have character growth so the people around you don't kill you.

Funny thing about faking it though is that sometimes you make it without knowing it. In the process of faking character growth he is unknowingly undergoing ACTUAL character growth. Makes it all the more funny when he himself says this much later on.

Dead on like a punch to the nose.

[billyblaze]

I *still* can't think of a worse example of Flanderization, including Ned Flanders. OG Peridot was one of the most interesting characters on the show by far, and they did us Peridot fans dirty.

LMAO how am I still bitter about this it's been years.

[problems-with-botsandcons]

Finally gonna say my piece on how feel about a certain character from IDW 1, mainly for MTMTE and TLL.

It’s not okay the treatment of Getaway and how his character is now treated by the whole fandom/fanon to the point where it becomes uncomfortable for me to share that I like them.

This may be a long post so all my thoughts will be down below.

Warning for mentions of NSFW content and mentions of abuse/trauma

So right off the bat, the fandom’s treatment honestly makes me mad and so fucking uncomfortable that it has made me question if I should even bring this all up. How Getaway went from an MTO, which is basically a cybertronian's version of a child soldier, who struggled with the fact that the person responsible for his creation and trauma was not only NOT punished for their crimes, aka Megatron the genocidal warlord who nearly wiped out his whole race, with a slap on the wrist. A mech who was angry, a mech who was hurting, and not everyone on the ship agreed on giving Megatron a chance. Some of the mechs fought against Megatron’s army, most likely losing people they cared about or just the fact they may also have trauma but nothing as serious because they’re much older then Getaway.

But then his character was turned into a one-note, blood crazy, villain because of two things:

- shipping (tailgate/getaway and cyclonus/tailgate)

- because people agreed that Getawat was right about Megatron, with not only a majority of The Lost Light agreeing but the audience as well

The shipping is obviously a major point of how people view Getaway for manipulating Tailgate into trying to get Megs to nearly kill him. I can protest that it was indeed wrong but giving him small slide, a very tiny one, he might have thought that Tailgate could survive but even then he would’ve been in trouble. I get it, Tailgate is a sweet but naive character that people can't see him with an abusive character like Getaway.

Now to state, I came late into MTMTE and haven't read issues 40 and onwards.

But I can state wholeheartedly that what Getaway got as a punishment was fucking extreme that one would think he was a war criminal. He had his arms, legs, jaw, and voice box removed and was put into a device similar to what Overlord was placed in earlier in the comic’s run.

Sure, he nearly got Tailgate killed but one has to think that MAYBE the punishment was a bit too far.

Now then the shipping can sometimes be the toxic part of a fandom, I get it. I want to state I have no problems with the fandoms’ shipping of Cyclonus/Tailgate since it’s one of the popular ships. Shipping is usually one of the main forces for drama and this is one of them.

But now comes the part that makes my blood boil:

Getaway has his character assassinated then has said character reanimated into a zombie for their creator to control.

Now his character is portrayed as an abuser, a manipulator, or a straight up the most evilest being in IDW, and now Transformers in general, when there are more characters that are deserving of that. Can’t even look towards ao3 for him because it always one or more of these things below:

- abusive and manipulative partner

- rapist

- just pure evil

Getaway had depth to him just like every other character but as soon as it was hinted that Tailgate, whose a fan favorite during MTMTE and TLL, was in danger people were unsure how to feel about Getaway.

I’m also aware that the deal with IDW and Hasbro was slowly ending so the stories had to be wrapped up. So they just had to make him one note. They didn’t have enough time but they could have tired.

I’m gonna end this all off here.

I just want to see content that isn’t just ‘GeTaWaY iS pUrE eViL’ or ‘GeTaWaY tHe AbUsIvE PaRtNeR’ or some other crap.

Because people avoid talking about Getaway after his character was assassinated. People who are fans of him I don’t see speak about him or if they do it can rarely find them.

But I’ve been aware that a of lot people are starting to speak out about Getaway’s mistreatment in the fandom. Which is better than having to stay quiet.

[miasma-my-asthma]

I find it really interesting how some horny or outright nsfw artists flanderize their artstyle to accentuate traits they find appealing that you can see they slowly twist their overall anatomy untill it looks like it was done by a completely different person.

This one piece meme completely encapsulate this phenomena

Nami looks like a completely different person when compared to the starting point, hell it doesnt even look like its from the same piece of media.

I've seen this happening with a lot of artists online, and its extra easy to spot if the artist has an specific kink, that I kinda find it funny. But I think the funnier cases are basic straight men artists that start with some pretty well done realistic women porportions that end up drawing shit like this

[wayne-bruces-artblog]

If Flanderization is like the sunken place, then can the person whose self is trapped within themselves be brought out like in Get Out? Then again, even if that is possible, would they even want out? I mean, when Walter, the groundskeeper in Get Out, is brought back from the sunken place, he shoots himself, so would someone brought back from Flanderization even want to be back?

You pose an interesting question!

As far as anyone knows, there's no way to unflanderize someone. And there's no way to "rewrite" their personality. That would require a reboot.

But IF a person would want to return is a whole other can of worms. Because what would they be returning to? The same hell they were stuck in? The same endless loop? Knowing if they resist and pine for the "old days" again they'll be put right back to the inner recesses of their mind?

Perhaps it's easier to just watch your life play before you. Like a show that never ends. It's much easier to be the audience than the actor. Besides, the couch is too comfy to move off of.