Is it just me or is there sometimes character double standards on this show?

So, yesterday I rewatched the scene where Artie and Sam almost shame Ryder for what happened to him and the way it’s made into a joke. It hasn’t watched it in a long time because I don’t love season 5 but it opened my eyes to the way characters change at the flip of a hat.

Sam and Artie did that, yet they were still considered favorites throughout the show, and it was such a character flip for Sam that didn’t match up with the sam we previous knew. And yet, a lot of people don’t even bring up that scene for Sam and it’s not ever used in his character the way his relationships are and him not getting the “love” he deserved.

But then you might take a different character who had an awful change of personality, which I’m finding literally was almost every character at some point and it’s either used to show why people don’t like or it’s never talked about. I don’t see it used towards Artie either the way I see his relationships used to try and explain the character.

It seems like the writers loved to pull bad character choices from seemingly nowhere and expect us to just go with it. They wouldn’t lead up to it, explain it or try to justify it. It just happened.

You could even say Rachel leaving Broadway was a bad character decision if you go that route. I know that’s a little more explained but it was still out of character for the Rachel we previously knew.

The jarring change from s3-4 and then to 5 is truly one of the reasons I don’t love s4-5 because it lost that “glee” feel. I think they started to maybe find it again in season 6 but by that point the damage was done. They lose to the feel of underdogs finding their place in the word and instead went this route of bad character decisions and not keeping characters true to their original selves.