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I was watching the newest season of a television show months ago and something was gnawing at me. It was irking me through most of the episodes I was binging. Didn’t realize what the problem was until I got halfway through. The characters kept throwing away all of their growth. What do I mean by that?
Say you have two characters who are rivals at the beginning of a story. They battle in various arenas, drag others into their issues, and even come close to killing one another at least once. Eventually, they grow out of this mentality and learn to respect each other in time to face a shared enemy. Makes for a great story and now you have a new source of tension. There may be some verbal sniping at times, but certain events have made them become friends . . . Only they will randomly start fighting due to a contrived misunderstanding and then go back to being friends after they realize the mistake. Not only once, but it happens repeatedly.
Now, I admit that heated rivalries bring a great sense of drama, especially if both characters can be seen as ‘right’. The readers will take sides and neither will be wrong because there isn’t a clear hero or villain. This tension goes away when the characters become friends, but it can still be sparked a bit at times. It really shouldn’t go back to the old ways without a really good reason though. A lot of stories use ridiculous misunderstandings that could be solved by communication. Not only with the two characters, but with those watching who would realize what’s going on. It becomes frustrating to see this happen after previous adventures and sure signs of growth.
To be clear, this is different than the ‘dumb decisions’ made in stories by characters who lack knowledge, haven’t matured, or the readers just meet. This is about established characters who we have seen grow and leave their immature natures behind, but will randomly jump backwards for drama. It’s not only teenagers too. The show that triggered the post had most of the adults doing this as well. Multiple seasons of learning to communicate and grow seemed to get junked whenever the writers wanted to throw some drama into the mix.
Years ago, I would think this type of rollback would be a big criticism, but I don’t see many people complaining about it. My best guess is that the rise in people have shorter memories allows many authors to get away with this mistake. With shows and movies, a lot of time passes between seasons, so people won’t remember the growth unless they binge from the start every time new episodes come out. That’s not helpful either because binging doesn’t guarantee a person will absorb everything that happens. So, a momentary rollback of a silly misunderstanding can go unnoticed even if such a thing occurs every other episode. Guess the days of such inconsistency is gone and people are taking advantage of it.
Personally, this drives me nuts if it happens too often. I can accept an occasional rollback to immaturity if the situation is set up correctly. A character might not be fully mature or they might have a sudden distrust due to a mistake. It’s fairly easy to set up such an event, but you can’t have it happen routinely. What’s the point of these characters growing in the first place if the maturity never completely sticks? So, I start to lose interest in a character who wants to go backwards without reason.
What do you think about sudden rollbacks of character growth?
Legends of Windemere 
Great topic. I think it’s a bigger risk if you have a longer series. Growth points mean the author has to leave behind some of what has been working or you stumble into what you observed here. A personal example was when Lizzie found a boyfriend. It worked for that story, but would be baggage in future stories. I had Ray ride off into the sunset with no explanation and she had to deal with the fallout. I may actually bring Ray back eventually, but the whole series isn’t about Ray and Lizzie taking on the supernatural and he had to go. If the MC befriends the enemy you kind of have to treat it like canon from that point on.
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Growth from outside sources seem easy to undo. Just have them lose the object or person. When a maturity or personality rollback happens, it’s a lot more damaging.
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I wonder if some of the issue is that multiple writers working on the show are responsible for part of the characters’ arcs. Maybe writers taking over for others come in and have a crisis/problem mentality about progressing the show. I never like it when growth is sacrificed in favor of a plot point. There can be benchmarks toward growth that the characters can experience. Sometimes there are setbacks. But the characters can still move forward.
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That could be part of it, especially if they’re working on different episodes in the same season. Some might have a plan and not look at the previous material to make sure it’ll work.
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I can’t help thinking of the last trilogy of Star Wars movies where the characterization was all over the place.
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Those movies were really sloppy.
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The Castle TV series, guilty as charged (and so many other issues, too). I’m with you, Charles, and despite some acceptance, it’s a big problem for novelists.
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I don’t remember when I stopped watching that show. Think it was before the rollback happened. I’ve noticed most long-running shows either have to rolls k or retire characters.
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I think this would drive me nuts too. Whatever the explanation it just seems dishonest to have continuing action on issues that have long since been resolved. You would think writers and authors could come up with a new twist other than a rollback.
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Sometimes they might run out of drama sources. Don’t understand how it might help except your average person might not notice the rollback.
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I think you are right.
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I don’t watch many drama shows lately, so I cannot speak to what you are talking about. I loved the picture though, it made me laugh.
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Glad you enjoyed the picture. I don’t watch any dramas. Mostly comedies and actions, but the issue can still pop up.
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I agree with you and everyone else! Forgetting how far the characters have come so you can make them fight is like throwing in a random car chase to kill time.
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Good analogy.
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