Poor Character Development or No Character Development?

[Burnouts3s3]

Lately, I've been noticing a trend lately where many screenwriters tend to insert characterization and character development into figures that never really had them. For example, in the recent James Bond movie, Skyfall, the filmmakers attempt to give James a backstory and motivation. In the latest Tomb Raider reboot, Lara goes through character development where she starts out meek but gains confidence.

At the same time, I've seen this done badly. For example, Other M. I think it begs the question: should movies/books/tv/videogames/etc. attempt to bring in character development and human drama, even if it's not good? For example, when I started reading 'Bleach', I liked Ichigo Kurosaki, mainly because he didn't mope around or cry (at least not in adulthood but in his childhood) but started out as a badass. But after the start of the Hueco Mundo arc, Ichigo began to be more contemplative, ponderous and, in my opinion, mopey. Same thing with Naruto. In the beginning, Naruto rarely cried and just attacked without thinking. But in Shippuden, Naruto had lots of panels of him making frustrated faces and at times crying.

Now, I'm not saying that characters are not allowed to cry or have moments of weakness. Certainly after something dramatic (character death), a character should be allowed to grieve. But, part of me thinks this is becoming too maudlin.

But the question remains: do main characters need to have tragic moments or moments of grief in order to develop into confident heroes or would you rather have the main character start out as a confident hero and stay there?

 

[scorptatious]

I think it depends on the kind of story really. Both approaches to character development aren't inherently bad. They're just handled poorly in a lot of cases.

Personally, I like my main characters to display certain emotions when it's appropriate. Not to the point of being completely out of character of course. Then again, how far does a character have to go to be considered "out of character"? Besides to the point of turning against his friends for no reason.

 

[leberkaese]

It's really up to the character.

I was surprised how well the development of Bond worked in Skyfall (even if the movie had some other major flaws). After all these decades of being the same character it really worked well in that one. But I can expect that many people were upset by seeing Bond being something else than the professional, smooth and flawless Womanizer/agent.

It's a matter of how many emotions the character showed in his previous installments. Didn't play that game, but from what I heard, Samus was really whiny in Other M. But she's the last character you would expect to be something else than a perfect bounty hunter.

Tomb Raider wouldn't have worked that well if it wouldn't have been a reboot. The Lara Croft from the first four Tomb Raider games behaving like the Lara from the reboot? No way.
Making 'new' characters show emotions and development doesn't lead to problems like fans being upset because their idol behaving different.

 

[tippy2k2]

I would rather have a show/film/book/erotic fanfic attempt to have character development and fail than for it to just play it safe and keep your super sexy and confident hero be constantly super sexy and confident (though this does NOT have to be through tragedy, there are plenty of ways to do character development without the main characters puppy dying).

I think the show that I'm watching now (but may stop) would provide a good example. Keep in mind that I'm only 1/3 of the way through Season 2 so this may change and I will be a happy tippy2k2 again. There will be no spoilers here:

Spartacus (The Starz TV Show)

In Blood and Sands (season 1), he is a real character. He has a real motivation for what he does and he goes through trials and tribulations. He wins some and he loses some. He gets kicked off the horse but gets back up again. He begins as a slave who slowly builds his skills into a real hero.

Contrast this with "Vengeance" (Season 2) and so far, he might as well be Jesus. He doesn't seem to be able to do anything wrong. He is constantly surrounded by enemies and takes on groups of bad guys at one time. The "troops" around him fight and die against a few enemies but Spartacus in the same situation has no problem killing the hell out of anyone that gets in his way. Frankly, he's freaking boring now as he's untouchable. Again, I'm only a few episodes in so I really hope this changes as he's gone from a human to an all-powerful demi-God between seasons (Tasteless joke incoming: Maybe it's cause the first actor died and this is actually Jesus playing him now?). To bring the nerd back into the room, he's become Goku in DragonBall Z where he could probably just be dropped off in the middle of Rome and overthrow everything all on his own.