User blog comment:TheDipDap1234/Lightning - a Good or a Bad Character?/@comment-24152851-20141110080007/@comment-24152851-20141111040205

Okay while derailment is OOC, not all OOC is derailment. Only if it's permanent (which it wasn't since he was back to normal in TDAS). An example is Nice Heather in Moon Madness, freakishly OOC but not derailment (granted it was her faking it), or Commando Zoey (once again OOC but not a permanent character change).

I get where your coming from, Lightning didn't realize Jo was being so mean to him most of the time, as comparable to Lindsay-Heather, but even considering that what Jo did to make Lightning finally snap was still far worse than what Cameron did. Lightning has lost many times before, but he never got that angry. I actually started to like Lightning in that episode, as he it felt like he was developing outside of his flat character for the first time, but then that Cam-Lightning conflict comes along which felt like a unexplained, shoved in-your-face, plot device. I sort of understand why they would try to give him a conflict, but it was done very poorly. Should not have come out of nowhere in the space of 2/3 minutes?

The reason I think Jo was better, was because Cam had a very thorough established conflict with her, and he backstabbed her 2 episodes ago anyway. Was it that hard to move it down a bit further. If Lightning reached the finale with a character he somewhat had significance with, maybe Jo or even Brick (who he had a sort-of minor conflict with which could've been explored), then fine. But that conflict literally emerged 2 episodes before the finale.