Demoted to Extra: Difference between revisions

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Caren, Coco and Noel in ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]''. The second arc of the manga shuffles them [[Out of Focus]], but they still maintain some importance and form a [[West Coast Team]] of [[Lovely Angels]]. The anime, though, shafts every single one of them. Noel doesn't even get [[A Day in the Limelight]] in the mountain of filler; Caren, a key figure in the first season, becomes completely useless in the second; and everything to do with Coco is cut from the plot. One episode actually reveals that Coco, Noel and Caren can't even fight off a member of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] and are now comic relief.

* All of the original main characters from the ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' manga were demoted to extras in the short-lived sequel, ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]] a la mode'', when [[Replacement Scrappy|manga-original]] [[Black Hole Sue|Shirayuki]] [[Creator's Pet|Berii]] was made the new main character. Although it is said this was due to [[Executive Meddling]], and the other Mew Mews were supposed to play a more important role, but Mia Ikumi was told not to include them very much, as she was restricted to two volumes.

** Shizuru has a significantly reduced role in the ''[[Mai-HiME (manga)|Mai-HiME]]'' manga, as the subplot of her feelings for Natsuki is largely unexplored, and she isn't even a Hime. As a result, she does not {{spoiler|turn [[Psycho Lesbian]] and kill people}}. That was probably to make up for the anime forgetting about how [[Executive Meddling|that was supposed to be a SUBplot]].

* Poor Misawa Daichi in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]''. In the first season he was one of the main character's closest friends and rivals. In the second season he was slowly ignored, and was [[Put on a Bus]] half way through. In the third season he turned up again to provide [[Expospeak]], only to disappear again for a good part of the second arc, and appeared once to provide more [[Expospeak]], then to finally disappear for good. He wasn't even ''mentioned'' in the fourth season, and was one of the few characters from the very beginning to not get any sort of closure. Being Demoted To Extra is actually cited as the reason for his [[Face Heel Turn]] in season 2.

** Jack Atlas was the main antagonist in the first season, once best friend and then arch rival of the protagonist, object of all his thoughts, a formidable opponent. Long story short: he was pretty badass. Neither did their conflict ever get solved, nor did he stay this important to the plot for long. He was taken off the beaten track via his new love interest Carly Nagisa, who occupied his sole attention throughout the whole second season. And in the third season, his only purpose seems to be used as a [[Plucky Comic Relief]] every now and then, together with and practically glued to the side of the main characters ''other'' BFF Crow, if he appears at all, holding no special importance to the plot whatsoever anymore, not to mention his former badassness.

** Depending on how you look at it, most of the cast except Yusei could fall under this trope in the 3rd season.

* There's a character in ''[[Jubei-chan]]'' who not only gets this treatment in J2 but lampshades it. Everybody from ''[[Jubei-chan]]'' get this except the main character's father.

* Those who start reading ''[[Akumetsu]]'' for the first time might think that Shinna is the main character. [[Decoy Protagonist|That only lasts for a couple chapters]] before the spotlight shifts to the title character.

* In the ''[[X 1999]]'' movie, Shiyu Kusanagi not only had his [[Gentle Giant]] and [[Friend to All Living Things]] persona stripped away to make him an explicit villain, but his relationship with Yuzuriha was left out, despite being probably ''the key'' aspect of his character, and to top it off, he was [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|killed in a very mean-spirited manner]] by ''[[Et Tu, Brute?|his own ally]]'' after only a few minutes of screen time. It could be justified as being necessary for the short length of the movie, but for fans of the character it was just ''painful''.

** Chrono suffers a similar fate thanks to his Y chromosone, but manages to stave off irrelevance until ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS|StrikerS]]'' due to playing a pretty major role in ''A's''.

** Really, even the female characters aren't immune to this, as a natural consequence of [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], and the series shifting in tone from a [[Seinen]] [[Magical Girl]] Show to a Space Military Show (with Magical Girls)

** Now thanks to the wonders of [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], ''[[Pretty Cure All Stars]] New Stage'' ends up giving this to anyone pre-''[[Fresh Pretty Cure]]'', meaning 11 heroines show up, but don't have any real purpose beyond "pounding the [[Big Bad]]'s head in in the end".

* Team Kurenai and Team Guy in ''[[Naruto]]'' [[Time Skip|post-skip]]. Team Guy did very little in the Gaara arc (though Guy himself at least got to do something), Team Kurenai's role in the Hunt for Uchiha arc came down to helping hunt down two people who both escaped quite easily. Team Asuma has mostly avoided this. Shikamaru became an [[Ascended Extra]] during the Immortals Arc and has maintained his status as an important character. Team Asuma then received development during the Fourth Ninja War with Choji this time getting the spotlight. Ino also got to shine as their battles showed how [[Badass]] the three are together.

** Even Sai has suffered from this. When introduced in the 2nd arc of Part 2 of the manga, he was one of the most important characters with plenty of time spent on [[Character Development]] and hinting at his backstory. He goes on to make minimal appearances for the rest of the series, with little to no further character development.

* In the first season of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'' Allelujah Haptism gets significantly less focus than the rest of the meisters. He has some focus in a couple of episodes early on and his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], but he gets sidelined for the rest of the time and actually isn't even present for a very significant battle and bonding scene. The second season manages to start off even worse for him, he has two scenes (each five seconds long) and a single word of speech in the first two episodes. By the end of the series while Lyle, Setsuna, and Tieria all get important plotlines Alle is on grunt duty blowing up overglorified missiles. This is heaviest emphasized by Episode 13 of the second season. All the Meisters get badass moments of awesome, including Setsuna whipping an Innovator's ass in style, Tieria placing a giant hole in the side of a space cannon, and Lyle sniping it down. Allejulah? He's stuck in Arios with it attached to Ptolemy. His ONLY PURPOSE was to say "Trans-Am" and provide Trans-Am to Ptolemy. Arios is a glorified battery.

** In the manga, Selim Bradley {{spoiler|turns out to be the homunculus Pride}}. In the 2003 anime, he only has a few scenes before he {{spoiler|gets killed by his own father- who took his role as the homunculus Pride- in a [[Moral Event Horizon]] crossing}}. Then again, this is partly due to the author not wanting later twists being spoiled.

** In the 2003 anime, Sheska got a rather significant amount of screen time and was a full-blown supporting character. In the manga, Sheska is barely in it after her introduction, with the exception of a few cameos.

** An unpleasant example is Alex Armstrong in the 2003 anime, who did very little of true importance and during the final events, [[Reassigned to Antarctica|he's reassigned to work somewhere up north and only makes a brief cameo afterward.]]

* Tetsuo Ishimaru from ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' often goes unnoticed even by his teammates. This was actually his strength; his opponents often failed to notice him, letting him gain big yards and score the occasional touchdown (which sadly, happened unceremoniously every time he managed). Poor Ishimaru....

* Reading ''[[Justice Society of America]]'' can be a bit jarring if you're a fan of ''[[Sandman Mystery Theatre]]''. After the Golden Age Sandman spent years as the hero of his own cult classic series, he's reduced to a mere scene-filler in JSA.

* Some ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' editors have been quoted saying "Spider-Man has a supporting cast?". This is because most supporting cast members are either lost in limbo or have been killed off.

** But it also happens with newer members (such as Marrow) who almost always turned out to be only temporarily popular or big-time.

** This tends to be [[Cyclic Trope|cyclical]], particularly in the X-books. Jamie Madrox, for instance, started off as a background character with little personality, became an [[Ascended Extra]] in Peter David's first ''X-Factor'' run, then spent a couple years [[Not Quite Dead]] and about a decade as a bit player until David got the opportunity to have him ''lead'' the new X-Factor. The New Warriors (the ones who got blown up right before ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'') ''started out'' as an attempt to ascend a bunch of nobodies and has-beens, with the whole team dropping [[Out of Focus]] several times.

** A lot of human allies to the X-teams disappear when their creator leaves the books. Peter Corbeau got several particularly awesome scenes in Chris Claremont's early days, now, he doesn't even get an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

* Ann Lewis from ''[[RoboCop]] 3''. Her actress, Nancy Allen, was reportedly [[Genre Savvy]] enough to notice how ''[[RoboCop]]'' was becoming a [[Cash Cow Franchise]], and thus wouldn't sign on until they promised to [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome|kill her character off.]]

* The character of Pete, the largely silent and essentially background droog in ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'', played quite a pivotal role in the last chapter of Anthony Burgess' original novel. However, since [[A Clockwork Orange (film)|Kubrick's]] [[Compressed Adaptation|adaptation]] was based on a version of the book with the final chapter excised, Pete's role was rendered largely inconsequential.

** Dan Murray, who played a large role in Clear and Present Danger and all Jack Ryan Sr. books after that, is {{spoiler|Killed in the Colomiban Cartel attack on the FBI Director, when in the book, he wasn't even there!}}

* ''[[Star Wars]]'':

** Jar Jar Binks. Clearly set up as a Chewbacca for the prequels. Given only a cursory nod in the sequel and silently allowed to attend his dear friend's funeral in ''Episode III''. No doubt resulting from [[The Scrappy|the extreme distaste much of the audience had for him]].

** In the original cut of ''[[A New Hope]]'', Biggs Darklighter ([http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/2/20/Biggs.jpg this] X-wing pilot) had a much more prominent role. He's actually Luke's best friend from Tatooine who left to join the Imperial Navy, but the scenes where we learn this were deleted. In one scene, Luke meets him while on shore leave and he confesses that he's defecting to the Rebellion. In another, he and Luke get an emotional reunion before the attack on the Death Star, which makes his death in the battle a lot more tragic. The special edition restored his reunion scene with Luke, but left out the early scenes where we learn who he is.

* In ''[[Serenity]]'' the characters of Book and Inara are set up as not living on the ship anymore. Shepherd Book is an odd example as he's only in two scenes in the entire movie ({{spoiler|the second of which [[Killed Off for Real|kills him off]]}}), less than any of the other main characters from the series. However, they're both [[One-Scene Wonder|really good scenes]] that play a major part in shaping [[The Hero|Mal's]] own story arc as well as shedding some light on the film's villain, so despite his limited screentime he ends up being one of the more important characters.

* The Kevin Myers character suffers from this in the third ''[[American Pie]]'' film, commensurate with the rise of [[Breakout Character]] Stifler.

** {{spoiler|At least Arcee's first movie appearance was in Revenge}}. Ironhide and the other Autobots from the first movie, except for Bumblebee and Optimus, of course, share something of a total of 10 lines between the lot of them. Meanwhile, these [[One-Scene Wonder|memorable characters]] were replaced with [[The Scrappy|the Twins]].

* ''[[The Last Airbender]]'' naturally has this by virtue of trying to condense twenty episodes into two hours. However, it's especially noticeable with Momo, who, while admittedly a comic relief lemur, shows up just long enough to be introduced then does absolutely nothing but appear in the background of scenes for the rest of the movie. You seriously will forget he was in it at all. There's also Avatar Roku, who was a major player in the Avatar's quest in the show. In the movie, with the exception of a brief mention, he's completely removed and his mentor role to Aang is handled by a dragon...for some reason.

* In the Rankin/Bass animated version of ''[[Lord of the Rings|The Return of the King]]'', Legolas and Gimli are reduced to background characters who have a few non speaking cameos, while Saruman doesn't appear at all.

* ''[[Harry Potter]]''

** Percy Weasley. He wasn't all that big a player in the books, usually being involved in the side-plots, but his estrangement from his family was a poignant reminder of what Dumbledore always said about Voldemort's gift for dividing loyalties.

** Up until ''Deathly Hallows'', Charlie was mentioned a couple of times in the first film and Bill wasn't mentioned in the films at all. Bill and Charlie's only actual appearances in the first six films were in the photo of the Weasley family in Egypt, which was onscreen for about a second.

* In an in-universe example, this happens to a character in ''[[Mrs. Doubtfire]]''. Early in the movie, Mr. Sprinkles is the star of a children's show. At the end of the movie, he's replaced by Mrs. Doubtfire and is demoted to Mr. Mailman, a minor character.

* Randy becomes this in ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]] 2'', before [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|having a bridge dropped on him]] halfway through the film. Conversely, Cotton becomes an [[Ascended Extra]] in ''2'', only to be bridge-dropped at the beginning of ''3''.

* When ''[[M*A*S*H|Mash]]'' made it to the little screen, several characters from the movie had this happen to them (when they weren't eliminated entirely): Spearchucker, Ugly John, and Lieutenant Dish were all reduced to second-tier status, and all were gone from the show well before the end of the first season. The character of Spearchucker was supposedly written out for greater historical accuracy, as the writers claimed there was no record of African-American surgeons serving in Korea. (There were, in fact, black doctors in Korea, and Spearchucker was based on an African-American doctor Richard Hornberger heard about at the 8055.)

* In ''[[Kamen Rider Kiva]]'', Basshaa is the only character to not get a specific arc, and never gets a Fever attack when Kiva upgrades to Emperor form. In the next series, ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'', Basshaa gets his ass blown away ''effortlessly'' in each fight--in the second, he doesn't even get a single shot off!

** [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|Chuck Cunningham]], Richie's rarely seen older brother in the first two seasons. Chuck, usually seen only in transition scenes where basketball was the discussion, was eventually eliminated altogether. (At the same time, the character of The Fonz grew in popularity, and many of the storylines began focusing on him.)

** Poor Potsie is the ultimate. Initially one of the major characters as Richie's pal, he stuck around when Richie & Ralph left the series. Some weak storylines had him as a "pledge" to Howard's Men's Club, but he ultimately vanished by the last season. He's one of the only cast members not to be there for the finale!

** The entire rest of the supporting cast on SVU has fallen victim to this. Most noticeably are Munch, Fin, and Huang, who used to get entire subplots in every episode and now don't even appear in half of them. Cragen might have a scene or two, and Liz might have a line per episode. Nowhere ''near'' the screentime of Stabler, Benson, and the ADA (Alex, Casey, or whoever the rotating one may be).

* Carrie Ingalls on [[Little House on the Prairie (TV series)|Little House On The Prairie]], who went from a major character in the first four seasons, to walking scenery during the next four. She was lucky to get a line once an episode... then once a month... then once a season.

* The original version of ''[[Survivors (TV series)|Survivors]]'' did this with several characters as the focus of the show shifted from season to season. Jenny in particular started out as one of the principal characters, faded away almost completely, then came back to star in the third and final season.

* On ''[[Community]]'' John Oliver's character, Prof. Ian Duncan was initially featured in early promotional material as the main professor character in the show, but after a handful of episodes has essentially disappeared, with Senor Chang (Ken Jeong) essentially taking his place. Oliver did return in the first season finale, and took over as replacement anthropology professor in the next season. Despite being featured more than he was in the first season, he only turns up in a handful of Season 2 episodes.

** Jimmy McNulty from [[The Wire]] in season four, going from being the defacto star in the first three seasons. The actor playing McNulty wanted some time off to do film and theater and spend time with his family, this was explained in series by him deciding to leave the Major Crimes Unit after his adversary was killed before he could take him down, becoming a patrolman and mending his ways while he was at it. He got off the bus in season five, though.

** In the fifth season of HBO's , many of the supporting (and even major) characters from the previous seasons appear during several episodes of the series, largely as a reminder that life in Baltimore keeps on going, even when the major plot arcs end. {{spoiler|Roland Prezbylewski, the other three main child characters from season four, Cutty Wise, Nick Sobotka, Major Colvin}} and several others show up in different scenes. More notably, however, various characters who were glimpsed in previous seasons also return, including {{spoiler|Clay Davis' limo driver, several dock workers (who are now homeless) and former members of Avon Barksdale's gang who were prominent in the first and second seasons}}.

* Since Season 4 of ''[[iCarly]]'' started, Freddie's mom Mrs. Benson, has been used sparingly. It's possible that Gibby being promoted to the main cast is the reason for this.

* During the first season of ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]],'' Scott Scanlon is David Silvers' best friend. As David becomes accepted by Brandon and Brenda's friends, Scott is pushed into the background since he doesn't fit in with that group. He eventually develops a liking for country music and accidentally kills himself in front of David while playing with his father's gun in a second-season episode.

* With the second [[Retool]] of ''[[3-2-1 Contact]]'' in 1986, the seasons 2-4 cast was relegated to a few cameo appearances.

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': Two of the most-seen recurring villains in the first season, the [[Space Pirates|Raiders]] and the [[Fantastic Racism|Home Guard]]. The Raiders' lack of presence is due to a number of major defeats they suffered {{spoiler|in the same episode where [[The Reveal|the Shadows are seen for the first time]]}}, though they begin to appear again later on. The Home Guard get one mention in season 2 before not being seen or referred to again.

** To a lesser degree, Lou Welch, one of the low-ranking security guards on the station, gradually disappears in season 2 as [[Ascended Extra|Zack Allen]] begins to get more and more screen time.

* Especially in Season One, ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' had a habit of taking the names of reasonably significant Arthurian characters, like Pellinore, and giving them to random knights, [[Redshirt Army|who were then killed]].

** In series four, [[Canon Foreigner|Gaius]] is given virtually nothing to do except be [[Mr. Exposition]]. True, that was always his role, but he was also given several character-centric episodes in the past. This was not necessarily a bad thing, as the introduction of the knights of the Round Table at the end of series three meant that the show was juggling [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], and one of the themes of the season was passing on the torch to the younger generation.

* Keyboardist Ian Stewart was an original member of [[The Rolling Stones]], but when they began recording in 1963 their manager, Andrew "Loog" Oldham, had him officially demoted to road manager, mainly because his straitlaced, short-haired look didn't fit the image Oldham was trying to cultivate for the band. Because the band still liked him, Stewart did continue to appear on the Stones' recordings, though, and occasionally performed with them on stage until his death. He by any meaningful measure was a full member of the band, so his demotion really only was relevant in promotional material.

* [[Blues]] helped to create [[Rock and Roll]] and yet never sees much in the way of thanks or tribute from any of the sub-genres that sprouted from its existence. Blues, [[Humble Hero|being characteristically not particularly glory-seeking]] is probably okay with this.

** Before that, the band did this to Syd Barrett. He only appears on a few tracks on their second album.

* Alan Myers was the drummer for [[Devo]] up until the mid-eighties, after they recorded ''Shout''. By that point Devo had made him somewhat obsolete on record, relying increasingly on drum machines rather than acoustic drums, so Myers left essentially out of creative boredom.

* This also happens to some wrestlers towards the end of their careers. They get older and/or less interesting, but still have enough respect from the company that they aren't flat out fired. Instead they slide down the card to mainly work on the opening matches and put the new guys over. Tito Santana and Val Venis are two of the best examples of this. At his high point Venis was an upper midcarder who actually tested the main event waters by feuding with [[Mick Foley]], but he spent the last 4 years of his career in WWE working opening matches, working Heat, and rarely winning.

* This happens to ''many'' women's wrestlers, especially after their Playboy pictorials come out and everybody's already seen them naked. Torrie Wilson suffered a very painful decline from "Top Tier" star to "Still on TV Every week" star to "In a stable" star to "maybe shows up on TV every once in a while" star. Candice Michelle and Maria Kanellis have similarly been released. Non-pictorial-related Divas include Victoria, who went from top-tier Women's Champion to a jobber to new girls before quitting. Molly Holly had all but vanished by the time she requested her release.

* Happen to many WCW wrestlers who joined up with the WWF/WWE following falling of the WCW. Save for [[Rey Mysterio, Jr.|Rey Mysterio]], and to a lesser degree [[Booker T]], none of them managed to find much success in the WWE. In fact, [[Booker T]] himself also happens to be a pretty egregious example since he went from being one of the top wrestlers near the end of WCW, to not receiving a decent push in the WWE for about 5 years.

 

* [[Donkey Kong]] was a main playable character in ''[[Mario Party]]'' until the fifth installment, since which he became a [[Mini Game]] sponsor. And in ''Mario Party DS'', he was just a statue adorning the third board (enchanted to be such according to the Story Mode). A Koopa Kid was a playable character for a couple games as well.

* The Arbiter from [[Halo 2]] going into [[Halo 3]] gets moved from an intriguing character to a one-line-wonder with the intelligence of a slug. Notwisthstanding that your co-op partner plays as him, meaning for such players the Arbiter is the Chief's ertswhile ally and baddass-in-arms.

{{quote|'''Gabe:''' Hey, I think you gave me Tails and Knuckles' Shitty, Stupid Adventure by mistake. I only got to play as Sonic, like four times.}}

* Strategy RPGs with [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] such as ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'' or ''[[Knights in The Nightmare]]'' do this, and they have reason for it. Due to some of them having [[Final Death]], the story is purposely written so that they could have been killed off at any point in the story after recruitment, whereas the characters whose death will result in a game over (namely the player character) will remain in the story at all times.

** A similar case can be seen with the [[Bridge Bunnies]]. Early in ''OG 1'', Rio becomes a pilot and stays that way until the end of ''OG 2''. After {{spoiler|Daitetsu's death}}, Eita and Tetsuya end up taking charge and commanding the Kurogane to the best of their abilities. And poor Eun, best friend to the Hiryu Kai's captain Lefina? She is just there to give bits of information every so often, lacking even the hint of a [[Day in The Limelight]].

* In ''[[Fire Emblem]]'', most characters cease to have dialogue by the first 1-3 chapters after you've recruited them. Although slightly subverted by the revolutionary character development advent of ''Support Conversations'' in the majority of later games (including almost every game released in English, save for a single oddity and a sequel), as well as the base conversations of FE 9 and FE 10 (which incidentally served the character development purposes in FE 10).

* In ''[[Super Robot Wars K]]'', [[Mazinger Z]] gets zero plot aside from some involvement of [[Big Bad|Dr. Hell]] in the [[Opening Scroll]], and [[Great Mazinger]] doesn't even show up despite both Mazins being always together. Probably [[Justified]] in that Mazinger and co. have been on a bajillion games already. Then again, it's the same game that gave [[Zoids|a war story anime with 50 episodes]] only 6 levels of plot, but [[Kotetsu Jeeg|a 13 episode one where half are Monster-of-the-Week format]] got 8, so maybe it's just the story wasn't K's best point (Japanese reviewers agree with this).

* [[Nippon Ichi]] has a variation of its own: In ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'', the game offered a fight against Asagi, the protagonist of their next planned game as a [[Bonus Boss]]. Unfortunately, the game got scrapped. Instead of trying again, they've left poor Asagi wandering from game to game, bemoaning her bad luck, and occasionally [[Hostile Show Takeover|trying to take over the game from the main characters]].

** [[Dirge of Cerberus]] fixed this for many characters, while Cloud and Tifa were given nary more then a cameo, Barret unfortunately was grouped with them. Red XIII meanwhile was by far the least shown named character in both installments and can barely even be called an Extra at all by now.

* Eddy Gordo from ''[[Tekken]]'' became an extra costume for Christie in Tekken 4. It's a shame because this meant that the storyline he had in Tekken 3 was cut off far too soon in favour of one which also included Christie. Many people complained and so he returned as a separate character in Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection, and later in Tekken 6.

** [[Word of God]] is Basch was supposed to be the main character, which makes more sense considering the vast majority of game events revolve around him.

* Prior to the release of the game, {{spoiler|Jihl Nabaat}} was given quite a bit of attention for an Extra from the ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' trailers and information released on them. Just when you think {{spoiler|she would play a major part in the game and fight you, she gets killed off in a rather unceremonious fashion by Galenth Dysley before she has the chance to do so. Talk about getting taken out like some punk.}}

** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' was also originally meant to have seven party members, but implementation problems led to [[Dead Little Sister|Serah]] being reduced to an NPC. This led to [[The Hero|Lightning]] becoming a more serious character which then led to [[Sixth Ranger|Fang]] [[Gender Flip|becoming a woman]].

* Namine and Axel were major characters in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]'', but their roles were greatly reduced in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'' (probably because, once Roxas was gone and Sora's memories were restored, Namine didn't have much else she could possibly do except remerge with Kairi, and Axel was ''supposed'' to die in the Prologue as a tutorial boss, but he was [[Saved by the Fans]] and his role extension had to be small or it would clash with what was already plotted out).

* Odin gets this pretty bad in ''[[Odin Sphere]]'', despite being the ''title character''! Despite making a decent role in everyone's storyline (except Cornelius', where he essentially just cameos early on), and all of the truly massive amounts of storyline hyping he gets, Odin gets {{spoiler|knocked off rather easily at the end of the game, where he gets overwhelmed by the undead and killed by a Halja.}}

* Poor, poor [[Rayman]]. Originally the star of his self titled franchise, he has slowly been getting shoved to the sides by those damned Rabbids. This hijacking has gotten to the point where the latest announced game is a Katamari-like game starring the Rabbids. Rayman is nowhere to be found, even in the title.

* Many of the PC-98 era characters in the ''[[Touhou]]'' series. [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|Where'd you go, Mima?]]

* Isn't it sad, [[Guilty Gear|Justice]]? After the first game, sure its understandable you're dead, but you barely had any lasting impact beyond {{spoiler|possibly being Dizzy's mother}}. Even this wiki has forgotten it was YOU who was the first to use the Gamma Ray move in a ''GG'' game. Also, Kliff Undersn, who after ''GG1'', story-wise, dies offscreen with barely any mention why or how. When they do appear they're probably only added due to fan demand and are usually removed due to balance issues.

* Ogres suffered this in the ''[[Warcraft]]'' series. In ''Warcraft II'' they were the most important part of the Horde next to orcs and the only non-orcs who led orc clans and there were several important ogre-mage characters. In ''Warcraft III'' they were no longer part of the Horde, and now had the small role of neutral mercenaries and hostile creeps. They were also inexplicably weaker compared to the [[Elite Mooks|powerful units]] they were in ''Warcraft II'' and resorted to using clubs rather than [[Good Old Fisticuffs]]. In the expansion pack a [[Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid|half ogre]] was introduced, and an ogre/goblin [[Hero Unit]] was introduced. Most importantly they rejoined the Horde in the story hinting at a greater role in future games. But then, in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' the ogres' home is destroyed by [[Colour-Coded for Your Convenience|black]] [[Always Chaotic Evil|dragons]] and they show up for a minor role in one zone. As of the extension ''Cataclysm'' they are the only race from ''Warcraft II'' not playable in some form.

** Happened to the Blood Elf race - except for Kael'thas - in the ''Frozen Throne'' expansion of Warcraft 3. The "human" campaign largely on the plight of Kael'thas and his Blood Elf remnants... for about two and a half missions. Then they grew [[Out of Focus]] as the story importance shifted to Illidan and his Naga (the fact that the Blood Elf forces were completely irrelevant compared to the much stronger Naga didn't help). By the middle of the Undead campaign, the Blood Elves were out-and-out [[Mook|Mooks]] with the exception of [[The Dragon|Kael'thas]] himself.

** The draenei have pulled up even with trolls in that regard. While they did get quite a bit of focus in the beginning of the Burning Crusade, they were overshadowed by the blood elves after the Black Temple. Like the trolls, they didn't do much of anything in WOTLK. And finally, in Cataclysm, they're the only race to not get a new class—despite rogue, druid, and (if you stretch a point) even warlock being at least theoretically possible. At least they make up a decent percentage of the Earthen Ring faction...but seeing as shamanism is canonically a tiny and new splinter of their culture, that's not saying much.

** Gnomes, considering their lore, have quite the potential for sad or bittersweet storylines. Instead, they're almost strictly comic relief.

** Pang De. He debuts in DW5, and was quite the welcome addition. In DW6, he was turned into a generic officer as [[Word of God]] thinks he's not unique enough, and his weapon and personality got transferred to Zhang Liao, but then again lots of characters were cut. In DW7, most of the cut characters return... and still no Pang De in sight. [[The Bus Came Back|Although Pang De made it back for the Xtreme Legends expansion]], making the only one not yet cured from this trope being Zuo Ci.

* Lilia, the heroe's love interest in ''[[Ys]] II'', was reduced to a minor supporting character in ''[[Ys]] IV'', and [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|completely forgotten]] afterward.

** Which is really what happened to him in the games and anime series. Especially since Lucario was currently given [[Wolverine Publicity]] at the time.

* Pat Sprigs (AKA Gemini Spark), from [[Mega Man Star Force]], is a major character in the first game, to being an optional boss in the second, to only having a few references in battle cards in the third game.

* By season four of ''[[Ansem Retort]]'', Marluxia is demoted so much he's left behind with [[Star Wars|Darth Maul]] while the rest of the cast members take Red XIII with them to Hawaii. This is one of the reasons he's so keen on fighting Xemnas in season six: he gets more screen time that way.

** He seems to be re-ascending in the current season: he's one of four people traveling through time to stop Xemnas. (Apparently, Axel and Zex need him to drink the time-traveling gay drinks. [[Captain Obvious|Because he's gay.]] [[It Makes Sense in Context]].)

* Ralph and Bimbo, the original main characters of ''[[Exploitation Now]]''.

* In ''[http://www.jaydenandcrusader.com Jayden and Crusader]'' the character Hannah has often slipped into the background and mostly only exists to give Smic another character to bounce ideas off of, a roll that could be accomplished by a lamppost.

** The Poopsmith's demotion is, if possible, even more evident than Pom Pom's, as the Halloween cartoons just might be the only time he's seen ''at all'' anymore (evidently a result of the two characters being [[The Voiceless|silent]] and [[The Unintelligible|bubbly-voiced]]). Still, he didn't do too bad considering he was an [[Ascended Extra]] to begin with.

** Like Pom Pom, Homsar also didn't appear in the finale for Strong Bad's game--but he, like the Poopsmith, started out as an [[Ascended Extra]] (from a Strong Bad E-mail, no less!) and even then he was often relegated to clickable [[Easter Egg|Easter Eggs]].

* LordKat, one of the more well known and prolific contributors to [[That Guy With The Glasses]] fell into this in the second anniversary special ''[[Kickassia]]'', due to [[Reality Subtext]]: he sprained an ankle during filming.

** Handsome Tom also had this happen to him, relegated mostly to posing as Kickassia's flagpole. This was lampshaded in one of the "making of" videos, where Doug passes out the script and apologizes to Tom for having him be "an object". Tom takes it pretty well, pointing out that objects are useful. The other contributors have also said that Tom's okay being in the background becuase he doesn't think he's an especially good actor and is there mostly to have fun.

== Western Animation ==

 

** [[Flash]] had no lines in the first season because of voice actor Michael Rosenbaum's commitments on ''[[Smallville]]'' (though you may not notice simply on the basis that the cast is ''[[Loads and Loads of Characters|frickin' huge]])''. He came roaring back for the second and third seasons though (in particular the [[Season Finale]] of the second season), and even [[Lampshade Hanging|complained to a fellow Leaguer about not getting any respect despite being one of the original seven]].

** The Big 7 arguably suffers in the last season. Despite being the main characters, they only appear in less than half of the final thirteen episodes, with some episodes ("Patriot Act," "Grudge Match" and "Alive!") focusing on recurring characters instead.

** And Flounder from [[The Little Mermaid|''The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea'']], where he is also now portrayed as a father to several baby fish.

** Almost the whole cast, including Lightning McQueen, gets this treatment in [[Cars]] 2 while Tow Mater takes over as the main character.

** If your only exposure to the franchise is the coloring books, you probably don't know that there's a male fairy. According to the web game, he's a "sparrow man" despite obviously being a fairy and grouped as such before. He still gets no attention.

** Goofy's son, Max from ''[[Goof Troop]]'' appears to be focused more on than Goofy in most of Goofy's latest apperances, particularly in the 90s. While Goofy and Max get equal attention in ''[[Goof Troop]]'', both [[A Goofy Movie|"Goofy" movies]] and both Christmas movies, "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas" and "Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas", appear to be all about Max.

** For similar reasons, Lunchlady Doris stopped appearing after the death of her VA, Doris Grau. This lasted about a decade, until someone noticed [[Tress MacNeille]] does a rather good impression.

** Marge's mother has also largely vanished. This is a matter of the stress on Julie Kavner's voice; whenever Mrs. Bouvier appears, so do Selma and Patty, and Kavner's voice takes a beating.

** Guest characters voiced by celebrities sometimes stick around as mute extras. This especially common for classmates of Bart and Lisa like Alex (voiced by Lisa Kudrow), Allison (voiced by Winona Ryder) and Jessica Lovejoy (voiced by Meryl Streep.)

* The Riddler rarely appeared much in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', but what episodes he did get were quite excellent and put a refreshing spin on the character. When the sequel series ''The New Batman Adventures'' rolled over, however, ol' Eddie got the shaft, despite getting an entirely new character design more faithful to Frank Gorshin's take on the character. You know that things are bad when the new Riddler's biggest role was in a ''Superman'' episode.

* Hayley from ''[[American Dad]]'', particularly from Season 3 on. Compare her screen time with Francine's, Steve's, or Roger's. Arguably because the show switched from politics driven to character/story emphasis, and her personality wasn't much developed other than as the [[Strawman Political|strawman liberal]].

** Also, some say Klaus has had very little screentime or lines in later years, but he still appears about the same, and has about the same number of lines he always has had (albeit both have always been very brief). One could argue he was, and always has been an extra.

** Timmy Turner's best friends, Chester and A.J. In the beginning, both of the boys were major characters; including early episodes that centered on Timmy's friendship with these two, but they now appear very sporadically, often in non speaking roles. A.J. seems to have suffered the worst from this trope.

** It's most evident with Veronica, Trixie's "best friend", after season five.

* Every character in the ''[[X-Men (animation)|X-Men]]'' animated series had this happen to them. [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|With the obvious]] [[Wolverine|exception...]]

* Many major characters from the show ''[[Recess]]'' appear in the movie version...but most of them appear very briefly, with absolutely no lines. Notably, TJ's arch-rival Lawson shows up for two seconds and gives a mere thumbs up with no dialogue, but he's listed as a speaking role in the credits. Erik Von Detten's OTHER character, Captain Brad (who appeared in one episode of the show) has numerous lines. Some major recurring characters, like Cornchip Girl, don't show up at all.

* Tony Toponi and Bridget get demoted to background characters with a couple blink-and-you-miss-it cameos in ''[[An American Tail]]: Fievel Goes West'' after having played a pretty large role in the first film.

* In ''[[Total Drama Action]]'', the second season of ''[[Total Drama Island]]'', Ezekiel, Eva, Noah, Katie, Tyler, Cody and Sadie were reduced to this (though arguably Ezekiel was barely more than an extra to begin with.)

* Pluto. But it got its own spin off, ''Solar System: The Dwarf Planets Saga''

* This even happens to some countries in the course of history. Spain and Portugal used to be major world colonial empires - not so much nowadays. And Germany and Japan used to be major world military powers in the first half of the 20th century, while nowadays they just follow their [[Overshadowed by Awesome|much more powerful allies]]. (Though we used to think that they would conquer the world [[Japan Takes Over the World|by buying it.]])

*** [[The Roman Empire]], not so much. [[The Holy Roman Empire]] still wields a disproportionate amount of power, however.

* Most of the world's remaining monarchies are now constitutional monarchies within a parliamentary system. In such cases, the real power resides in the Parliament (and in the person of the Prime Minister.) The monarch's position becomes largely, and often entirely, ceremonial. Even in cases where the constitutional monarch has considerable residual or theoretical power (e.g., [[The House of Windsor|Great Britain]]), the power is seldom ''exercised''.

** Reptiles, as a whole, exemplify this trope even if they still play a big role in our ecosystem. Long ago, they ruled the Earth for more than 185 million years during the Mesozoic Era (compare the Cenozoic Era, which is barely a third in length) and were ''very'' diverse in their respective area. Some scientists believe that if the K-T extinction event never happened, the smaller theropods might have achieved an intelligence similar to ''humans''.

* Your parents. When you're a kid, they are the most important people in your life. However, as you get older and have a spouse, children, friends, co-workers, employers, and the like, your parents eventually become secondary or even tertiary people in your life (and some don't take this too well.)

* The 25 models on ''[[Deal or No Deal]]'' were the main attraction of the game show, but when the show became syndicated and the prize money was reduced, all but 2 of the models were replaced with contestants hoping their number would be picked so they can play the game, and if not, the contestants would open the cases during the game. The two models used in this version were for only spinning the wheel to see who can play and removing cases that were picked.