Yep, and DC has struggled with this for years, to the point where they are only now retooling it all (again), when even Marvel is struggling with making people care about new superhero flicks.
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Hold on. People think Belinda didnât have a character arc??
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She had a nonconsensual one.
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Whatever character arc she originally was going to have was thrown away so they could reshoot the ending and force her to be Poppyâs mum unfortunately 
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She barely had a character past her first ep
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I do agree that she got shafted by having her last two episodes mostly be as a mind-controlled person, but in terms of character, I felt she was one of the best defined characters weâve had in Who!
Clear motivation (get me home), interesting relationship with the Doctor where she views herself as an equal and challenges him, sheâs smart and adaptable (learning about alien medicine in Robot Revolution and using those skills again in The Well), she wants to help people and will go out of the way to do so (helping patients in RR, going along with the Doctorâs mysteries even though they could go home in Lux), but she also sees her own life as having less value than others (sacrificing herself to save the rebels in RR, surrendering in Spectral Scream), and in a pinch, with no way out, she breaks down (The Well, Interstellar Song Contest, Spectral Scream), and over the course of the season, we see as their relationship changes, and she goes from viewing the Doctor as an alien to realizing he has many fears and anxieties (Lux, Story and the Engine), and while I do think her plot in WW/RW wasnât the best, her character still shines strongly through the mind-controlled version.
When I first heard the title âWish Worldâ, I was so intrigued because I thought itâd be about a world where anyone can make wishes, and I knew her first wish would be âTake me home so I can see my mom and dad again.â
In comparison, Ruby is a static character, her main motivation being âwho is my momâ and âhave fun with the Doctorâ and her relationship with 15 stays pretty flat across her series.
Once again, I do hate how she was just turned into a mom, but I still think she was a really well written character with clear motivations and personality traits that lead to interesting stories.
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no one has disagreed with me for almost half an hour so Iâm just going to take this as a W
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??? Where tho?? After RR that basically disappears and she turns into a generic companion. Juno Dawson has gone on record stating all she got character wise on Belinda was ânurse, 30sâ and wrote her like a generic companion, hence why she spent most of ISC wanting to tell the Doctor how ~wonderful~ he is, and is barely phased by him torturing Kid, like how is this the same person who said the Doctor is dangerous in her first episode???
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I had time to think about the episode and my thoughts remain somewhat the same but I will say while I still donât like the regeneration, the visual effects are stunning. Itâs one of the best regeneration effects in new who. Hearing other peopleâs thoughts on the regeneration has made me a bit more interested in seeing where itâll go but Iâm still skeptical.
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Off the top of my head, Story and the Engine âI LET him go.â, in the Well sheâs also confident enough to stay on her own and help the girl while the Doctor goes off, (and I know itâs not the TV show but) in Spectral Scream, she certainly has her moments of âIâm going to do this, and you better accept itâ, helping the mushroom people, challenging the pirates, sheâs great! Also, her main motivation means that sheâs not just going to accept landing on random planets and helping out, she WANTS TO GO HOME.
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I also feel like ISC (the story right before the finale) is a great example of how sheâs grown, she used to be more abrasive with the Doctor and now she finally feels like she enjoys being with him⌠and then he is sucked into the vacuum of space. Itâs cathartic because she can finally just enjoy being a companion, after spending all season wanting to be rid of him, and now she finally is.
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Iâm really glad you like her @mvancore, in the first couple of episodes Belinda was on target to become one of my favourite ever companions! I loved the new dynamic.
But I felt like it went downhill:
TRR: Sheâs feisty, clear motivation, doesnât listen to the Doctor, scalds him for not asking for permission to scan her, just wants to go home, excellent characterisation.
Lux: She still wants to go home but is a little curious, she sees more of the Doctor and ends up saving him, seems to have happened a bit fast.
The Well: She shows she has learnt stuff, and shows that she is clever because she understands the assignment, but then is a bit reduced to being in distress.
Lucky Day: She is barely in this.
The Story & the Engine: Again, barely in it. We see her doing her job. And she seems super chummy with the Doctor now, laughing at the bad guy. Kind of lost her motivation a bit because she lets the Doctor have his own side quest.
The Interstellar Song Contest: As has been said, she is just a generic companion here mostly. I enjoy her mini breakdown but that was very similar to Rose in The End of the World. She is far too forgiving of the Doctor doing torture. Is this the same person as TRR??
Wish World: The character of Belinda isnât in this episode, she is replaced.
The Reality War: The character of Belinda isnât in this episode, at first she is replaced, then sheâs put in a literal box, then her entire reasoning for wanting to get home is retconned (those flashbacks were filmed later - if they planned to do this from the start they would have saved money and filmed them back with the episodes) and she doesnât even complain about the Doctor doing a DNA scan on Poppy, so no callbacks to her original character. She was just overwritten with âmotherâ. I really didnât like that.
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I wish I could agree but to me it felt like she only wanted rid of him by about halfway through Lux. I just wish they were abrasive with each other on TV a bit longer
Really glad you like her though!
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I agree with @mvancore to some extent. I donât think the real damage is done to Belinda until Wish World and The Reality War. I do see the through line to the Belinda we get in ISC but I think it possibly feels unearned because thereâs too much of a jump to her suddenly enjoying being with the Doctor. I think, as with a lot of aspects of these two seasons, the character arc is rushed because of the short episode count. If weâd had 13 episodes there would have been far more stories towards the beginning in the style of Robot Revolution; a few more in the middle closer to The Story & the Engine where you can see her enjoying it despite herself and then a couple more like ISC where sheâs finally accepted this is her lot until the Doctor can actually get her home.
But what RTD did to her in The Reality War is one of the single worst narrative decisions heâs ever made.
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I canât remember if I mentioned it before on here (and not my original idea), but I think if you just made her a single mother from the get-go, a lot of the problems with what they did with her in the finale would be fixed
Sheâd not only just want to get home, but have a solidly gripping reason for wanting to do so (which they retcon was always the reason anyway), itâd give the audience much more of a reason to care about Poppy, and instead of the doctor sacrificing himself for a person that didnât exist, heâs doing so to bring back a person who did exist but got erased from existance (and isnât forcing Belinda into motherhood out of nowhere)
As for why poppy would be erased/her being the doctorâs daughter in the wish world, have Conrad think theyâre a couple when he meets them as a kid in Lucky Day, so when he makes the wish world he pairs them up, which retroactively turns Poppy into half-time lord, but because itâs such a big change, when the wish collapses it takes her with it
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Where were you when RTD wrote the episode??? This all is infinitely better and more cohesive !!!
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I think itâs because the Poppy ending was a rewrite and so it couldnât be fixed in time
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Oh no yeah, agreed, thatâs absolutely why it is the way it is, I donât think they couldâve done this in the situation they were left with⌠but it still sucks lmao
honestly half tempted to do a season rewrite using some of these ideas
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Actually, on the topic of ideas that wouldâve improved the episode, one that is my own idea, and could have been done easily, instead of wishing Conrad to be happy, have Ruby wish for him to be better
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Or just punched the shit outta him 
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