User blog comment:TheDipDap1234/Lightning - a Good or a Bad Character?/@comment-24152851-20141110080007

Here’s why I can’t bring myself to like Lightning, though I remain mostly neutral about him.

He is one of the biggest examples of wasted potential. He could’ve been so heavily involved in the plot and other characters, but he spends the whole season doing jack-s*** except being a SHA-moron and mistaking Jo for a guy. That indeed was the moment I started hating Lightning. not because he suddenly became cruel, but because it was for completely no reason at all. While he was fine in the first half due to his floating not being immensely unrealistic, and was just your typical comic relief character, what really wrecked Lightning for me is out-of-the-blue they had to pin some random non-sensical plot thrown together last minute, to justify his place in the finale. The Cam-Lightning conflict came out of no where, Cam became his arch-nemesis because he rode on his back? He didn't even become enemies with Jo that fast, and what she did was far worse than the Cameron thing. If you were going to make Lightning a jerk, that make him a jerk the whole time (like Jo), and throw in that random characterization out of nowhere just to get him to the finale (which was apparently because a writer liked his necklace).

Owen is hated enough as it is, but he had some justification of how he made it far (friends, being on the winning team, and helping out in eating challenges). Lightning on the other hand has some last-minute plot lazily thrown together. While I acknowledge he can be entertaining at times, he is still one of the most poorly executed comic-relief characters. Needless to say his best moment was when he didn't float and got booted second, even Lightning fans admit he was at his best in that episode. One of the best characters in TDAS, because it was the one bloody time in the season when they were realistic.

My view on Lightning has changed a fair bit, largely due to all these Lightning-fans rubbing off on me, and I've put a lot of thought into analyzing his character. I acknowledge he can be very funny at times, and can understand that people love him as a comic-relief character, but I cannot appreciate him as a finalist. He could've been a great character, and it's almost a shame I have to feel this way, but I just can't forgive the characterization screwing just to give him an excuse to get him further.

People say they hate derailment so much, but I would say that was a pretty clear-cut moment of OOC right there, even though it seems to have been dismissed by most since they were too busy laughing at him falling off the cliff.