The butt especially because I could NEVER imagine later gumball actually helping someone out of the goodness of his heart unless it's actively annoying him. I wonder if these were lost episodes ideas finally delivered or some early writers coming back.
The writing staff is pretty different from what even S6 was (even a few people who were there from the start like Mic Graces, Anthony Hull, and Richard Overall are gone). Ben and a few others are still there but everyone else is new to Gumball.
That makes way more sense then
Gumball is still generally selfish and narcissistic but I do notice he does have less of a tendency to diss or insult others unless provoked. I'm personally of the belief that Gumball began a decline in the second half of S5 and continuing into S6.
A lot of that felt like the show becoming too overbearing with its cynicism, meta humor, and constant snarkiness. All of that is still there in S7 but reduced to tolerable or even enjoyable levels for the most part.
Also, there is a risk new writers can derail a reboot/revival. The Animaniacs reboot from a few years ago didn't see back any of the writers or even the OG series creator, Tom Ruegger. Plus, a key head on the reboot downright said they weren't much of a fan of the OG
In that show, while Pinky and the Brain were mostly handled fine, it felt like the Warner Siblings were fundamentally mis-characterized which seeped into how episodes were plotted and progressed. In the new Gumball, while there are changes, the fundamentals are still there, working as they should.