I had heard of the perversion of the term tsundere but I hadn't really internalized the extent of it until reading this thread. From what some of you are saying it sounds like it used to be the case that a 'tsundere' character was a character that went through a progression from harsh and hostile towards someone to sweet and caring over the course of a story as the characters interacted and presumably realized they were in 'love'.

The first time I ever heard the term it was in reference to girls who consistently responded to their feelings for a guy by being especially violent and/or rude and/or cold to him so that's all I've ever known of the term. Since that time I've seen more and more Kugimiya style characters and they always get labeled tsundere and their core behavioral trait seems to be that they are alternatively dere and tsun toward their love interest, often depending on which way the wind is blowing at the time. I ended up under the impression that that was the reason they received the label tsundere. What I find really interesting is that this original meaning sounds more like a potential character development path than an actual character archetype. I can't help but think that maybe part of the reason the meaning of the term has shifted is that many shows with romantic subplots focus less on telling complete stories with beginning,rising action, climax, falling action, resolution) and more on milking as many 'rising action with subclimax' seasons out of the same setting as possible. Lasting character development like growing up would seemingly get in the way of such a practice as it would hasten the end of the 'conflict' and thus the excuse for the romantic subplot to exist.