Demoted to Extra: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:demoted-to-
{{quote|''[[Lampshade Hanging|"Remember when we used to do stuff? You know, be out there with them and help?"]]''|'''Bulma''', ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged]]''}}
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** Usagi's original group of friends were replaced by the other sailor soldiers, although one of Naru's "final" episodes lampshades this. More inexplicable is the complete disappearance of any side characters over the course of the show. One source of occasional drama is the alleged inability of the girls to have either normal friends or boyfriends, despite them meeting dozens of [[Victim of the Week|Victims of the Week]] who they apparently become chums with.
** To a lesser degree, Sailor Venus, who had [[Codename: Sailor V|her own title]] before it was decided to make an ensemble team. Sure, she's still around, but "one of many" instead of the main character. Made worse in the anime, where she's [[The Chick]] rather than [[The Lancer]] like she was in the manga, and in the [[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon|live action series]], where she rarely fights with the others at all due to becoming partially an [[Expy]] of Uranus and Neptune.
** The Amazoness Quartet are much more important characters in the manga than the anime. Not only were they the main secondary villains of their arc, but they're among the few villains in the manga to be
* ''[[Mai-Otome]]''
** Mai , though hinted at early in the anime series, doesn't appear in person ''at all'' until the very last arc. However, this is an [[Alternate Continuity]] to ''[[Mai-HiME]]'', where she was the main character. It's worse in the manga: that world's Mai is {{spoiler|the deceased mother of Manshiro and Mashiro}} and [[Evil Counterpart|the other Mai]] only shows up {{spoiler|as the brainwashed [[The Dragon|Dragon]] to the [[Big Bad]].}}
** Her younger brother Takumi {{spoiler|and his bodyguard/girlfriend Akira}} are reduced to a two-episode arc in the middle of the series.
** Yuuichi, the male main character from ''[[Mai-HiME]]'' only makes brief appearances in the flashbacks of Mai's backstory - and said backstory {{spoiler|turned out to be fake, to boot!}} [[Word of God]] states that this is "[[Role Ending Misdemeanor|punishment]]" for [[Tomokazu Seki|his voice actor]] leaking [[
** 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.
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** In ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'', Bianca is one of the main character's friendly rivals and makes frequent appearances. In the anime, she does show up fairly often but never really rises above the level of supporting cast. She's at least luckier than Cheren, who doesn't appear at all.
* Nozomi from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' was a main character [[Title Drop|and the reason that the show's called Elfen Lied.]] However, she was written out of the anime. Towards the end of the manga, she becomes a [[Cute Mute]] due to injury, further pushing her out of the plot and turning her into background filler when she even appears at all. Arguably a good candidate for [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]].
* The ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' franchise loves [[Sixth Ranger
** While not as bad as the above example, Honoka/Cure White also suffers from this. Supposedly co-stars with Nagisa/Cure Black. Actually appears half as much as her and has less episodes and scenes focused on her, plus she has no lover (Well, there's Kiriya, but he only appears a bit in the first season and [[Everything Fades|vanishes into light]] at the end. Fuji P. is around ALL the time both seasons), has almost no friends, and her family rarely appears. The exact opposite happens for Nagisa. The second season only made things worse, for [[Sixth Ranger|Hikari]] stole most of Honoka's screentime while Nagisa held a firm grip on most of hers, leaving poor Honoka with even less importance. And yet she's the more popular of the two. Go figure.
** In the first [[Non-Serial Movie]], Nagisa ''[[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|does everything]]'': She befriends the prince who oddly looks like [[Love Interest|Fuji P]]., he gives her the [[Chekhov's Gun|trinket that saves the day later]], she has a scene where she risks her life to save one of the [[Ridiculously Cute Critter
** And then there's the [[Nintendo DS]] [[Crossover]] game, where both Honoka AND Kaoru and Michiru get
** 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.
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** The anime, while not being that much better with Tsumugi, prefers doing this to Ritsu instead, pushing her off to the side whenever it can. As an example, there's an episode with a scene taken from the manga where Azusa asks Tsumugi for help. The anime added scenes of Azusa asking for Yui and Mio's help as well, but Ritsu and just Ritsu was neglected. However, she instead got a scene of ''the other girls'' visiting her house. It seems Ritsu can't get the focus unless all the other girls are around.
* Scar's cohorts were cut out of [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime version]] of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. Dr. Marcoh and Yoki both were killed off rather unceremoniously rather than join him in his quest, though the producers probably didn't realize what it was they were doing at the time of the adaption. Alternatively, they did know, but were bound by the original author 's request to alter the anime's plot significantly from the manga's to avoid spoiling the latter.
** The relevance of Roy's [[True Companions|friends]] was also downplayed, with the guys demoted from competent secondary characters (for example Vato Falman has excellent memory allowing him to remember dates about everything) to incompetent [[Mauve Shirt
** 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.
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* Sylphiel Nels Lahda appears in the first two ''[[Slayers]]'' seasons. She is absent from the third (and they even tease the viewer about it by giving her an eyecatch). She does appear in the final couple of episodes of the fourth, but has only a cameo in the beginning of the fifth (and is part of the penultimate eyecatch).
* The short lived OAV series ''[[Dragon Half]]'' parodies this. The second episode (also the last- it was that short lived) introduces a character named Dug Finn, who [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|comes out of nowhere]] to fight his way through the [[Inevitable Tournament]]. Confronting the heroine Mink in the finals, he rants to her about how he will kill her for daring to oppose his father, Azatodeth, only to find that Mink has no idea what he's talking about and doesn't remember doing that. Confused, Dug Finn calls a time-out to [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|check his VHS copy of the first OAV]], and is infuriated to find out that [[Executive Meddling|the producers cut out all his scenes]].
** This is exactly what
* This trope can be applied to any character of the entire ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' franchise that isn't Goku or Vegeta, and to a lesser extent Pan in ''[[Dragon Ball GT|GT]]''.
** One of the worst cases being Lunch, who acted as the secondary heroine of the series (next to Bulma) for a time. At the beginning of the Saiyan saga (the first saga of ''Z''), her absence was [[Hand Wave|HandWaved]], and she was never mentioned again. She was planned to make one final appearance near the end of the series, but this never came to fruition, as by that point the artist had ''forgotten what she looked like''. At least she appeared on the anime.
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** On a more meta sort of way, this also happens to the last big [[Tournament Arc]], the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budoukai, when it comes to videogames, as it's rarely included and most of the games that cover it are relatively obscure, do so by demoting [[Big Bad|Piccolo]] to a [[Warmup Boss]], or both. Generally, this happens because games either cover "Kid Goku" or "Z (And maybe GT)", and this arc just so happens to be in the middle of both things. Specially bad is ''Attack of the Saiyans'', which despite being focused on the "23rd tourney to Vegeta fight" part, glosses over most of the tournament to the point there's only ONE fight, and not a hard one.
* In ''[[Bakugan|Bakugan: New Vestroia]]'', Dan, Marucho and Shun are all back as regulars, but Runo and Julie only appear in the first episode and Alice doesn't even get that much. (Seriously, the ''girls'' got phased out? What the hell type of show is this?!)
* Happened to every human character, and most of the shinigami in ''[[Bleach]].'' That includes Ichigo and Rukia, despite their official status as ''main characters,'' Ichigo went over 50 chapters without even being seen, and Rukia's gone almost 100 without a single line of dialogue. It's even worse in the anime, with ever non-shinigami, sometimes with the exception of Ichigo, having next to no role in anime original stories (with the sole exception of the Bount arc), they're hardly even featured in the merchandise. Ishida, Orihime, and Chad got [[Brother Chuck
** Part of the problem is that none of the hero characters have ever been killed off, or went away in ''Bleach'', so every single shinigami has to go through the motions before the actual characters in the story get any screen time, if they get it at all. Chad hasn't been seen in so long, he might as well have been killed, but NOBODY DIES IN BLEACH, so that'll never happen.
*** Heavily adverted in the new arc, where Shinigami seem to be getting killed off left and right.
* Tsukiyo Ooba from ''[[Sketchbook]]'' only gets a few lines of dialogue in the anime. Sure, she is an irregular cast member in the manga as well, but at least there she gets some of the funniest moments. Hopefully a second season will set this injustice straight.
* This happened to Takayanagi as the ''[[Tenjou Tenge]]'' series wore on; he went from being a core Juken member strong enough to school lead character Souichiro with one punch to an occasional appearance here and there, either for comic relief or to be pointedly ignored by Aya in her point of Souichiro. Sad indeed.
* ''[[After War Gundam X|Gundam X]]'' is a rare example of a '''series''' being
** ''[[After War Gundam X|Gundam X]]'' is also the only Gundam series not to have a Master Grade model of even one single suit from it (''V Gundam'' used to be this way too, but it's getting one soon).
* In the ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' manga, Yusuke's mother Atsuko was present for much of the early story and attended the Dark Tournament, but gradually faded away. In the anime, virtually all of her appearances after the Yukina arc were cut out, and she was removed from later versions of the opening.
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* The ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' anime hasn't quite ended yet, but a lot of fans are wondering if Poland is ''ever'' going to get more than a three-second cameo, especially considering that his partner Lithuania has actually gotten a fair amount of screen time and arguably more minor characters like Belarus and Liechtenstein have received sizeable roles in at least two episodes so far. Spain and Sweden also suffer from this to some extent, with the characters they're seen the most frequently within the webcomic (Romano and Finland, respectively) being somewhat luckier than them.
** Ah, but our prayers have been answered! Poland practically gets his own episode later, removing him from the abandonment list. [[Valley Girl|Like, that's so hot!]]
** Unfortunately, Korea gets
* In the ''[[To Love Ru]]'' anime, [[The Ojou|Saki]] and [[Gender Bender|Ren&Run]] gain plenty of screentime, and [[Hello, Nurse!|Miss Mikado]] goes from being the regular with less appearances to [[Ascended Extra|have a lot of 'em]]... yet it seems they managed this by stealing off all of [[Token Mini-Moe|Mikan]]'s screentime, despite Mikan being more popular than all of them combined. Most notable, there's one episode happening almost entirely on (And ''under'') her (And her brother [[Unwanted Harem|Rito's]]) backyard, but she doesn't get even one line. The [[OVA
** Mikan even lampshades this ''[[To Love Ru Darkness]]'', stating that she feels that she is becoming less important because Momo is taking away most of the things she used to do. However, she does get fairly good screentime so it's not a "true" example. A better example would be ''Lala'', the main heroine of the series, that has yet to get an episode truly about herself in ''Darkness'', the closest being one she shared with her sisters, but her sisters already get far more screentime anyway!
* All the main characters from ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'', except Takeru and Hikari, were demoted in ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]''. Taichi's giving his signature googles to Daisuke was almost symbolic of that transition. From there, the older kids became the younger ones' mentors and had occasional supporting roles. But their influence on the story was limited; in fact, they were hardly able to travel to the Digital World without the new Chosen Kids' help.
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* Oh, [[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni|Keiichi]]. You may be a [[Decoy Protagonist|very]] [[The Lancer|important]] character, giving {{spoiler|Rika}} hope. But unfortunately, you're also [[The One Guy]], so don't expect to show up in the official merchandise much. He ''does'' get a couple small figures, but all of the girls get at least one normal sized one.
** And don't even get me started on ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]''. [[Big Brother Mentor|George]] didn't even show up on the cover of ''his own [[Image Song|Character CD]]'', while Beatrice (who he shared the CD with and is, admittedly, probably more important) got the whole cover to herself. Meanwhile [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|the Stakes of Purgatory]] got a CD of their own, while Battler, the ''[[The Hero|main character]]'' only got one "image song" on a different CD. One that's not even performed by his [[Daisuke Ono|seiyuu]]. And the parents, my God ''the parents''...
* Loads of characters get demoted to extras in the ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'' series, starting from Johji Otomo, who can rarely be seen or heard after Hayato gets his Super Asurada 01 until the last four episodes, and eventually he [[Put on a Bus|retires from the Cyber GPX for good.]] The ''SIN'' OVA have many characters get demoted, especially [[The Ace|Randoll]], thanks to Hayato and Kaga's [[Super Mode
** This also happens in-series during the second half of the TV series when [[Tall, Dark and Snarky|Naoki Shinjyo]] is demoted after his boss [[Rich Bitch|Kyoko]] made a secondary team of Aoi Formula, Aoi ZIP Formula and made Bleed Kaga as the new team's driver. Kyoko herself gets demoted to vice president when Aoi Formula and Aoi ZIP Formula are merged into one team and the team chooses [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Kyoshiro Nagumo]] as the new president and Shinjyo was subsequently fired from the team. Needless to say, both of them are less than happy about the news.
* ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'''s titular character, Index, gets shunted off to the side pretty quick. She does have a bigger role in the last arc of the anime, but still! You'd think she'd have more screentime throughout the rest, given the series name.
** She actually gets more screen time than any other character besides Touma, she just doesn't get any action scene so many people fail to notice since that is all they pay attention to. May be part of the reason why [[Action Girl]] Mikoto is so popular.
** Index ''does'' get quite a few action scenes, just not big fights. And Mikoto doesn't get that much action anyway (In her spin-off, maybe, but in the parent series she rarely goes beyond beating [[
* After ''[[Weiss Kreuz]] Gluhen,'' Omi and Youji demote themselves by {{spoiler|taking over Kritiker and getting married after developing amnesia}}, leaving Aya and Ken to become the backbone of a new assassin team in England while they only appear in flashbacks. Frustratingly, looked about to change, what with Youji being called by his real name in a cameo and Omi keeping tabs on Aya and Ken's actions, but the series was [[Cut Short]].
* Kaorin from ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'', despite numerous attempts to avert this, falls to the wayside, despite being introduced before many of the major players.
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* It also happens a lot to the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'', given the [[Loads and Loads of Characters|sheer number of characters]], frequent [[Retcon|RetCons]] and all-out [[Multiple Choice Past|continuity reboots]], generally [[Continuity Snarl|convoluted continuity]], and the fact that the team has been in existence since the '50s, giving fans plenty of opportunity to start [[Running the Asylum]]. The most notable victim is probably Dyrk Magz aka Magno, who spent all of ten issues as a member of the Legion before getting summarily depowered, was given just enough development to be interesting, and then mostly got relegated to the background before the ''Legion Worlds'' miniseries finally managed to abandon the character in a way that gave him no resolution but also left him in a position from which it would be hard to bring him back into play. And then the Legion's continuity was rebooted entirely a few years later anyhow.
* Also tends to happen to the Doom Patrol. Often Lampshaded at the end of their newest guest appearance in some other hero team's series.
* Comics have their own name for this trope: [[Comic Book Limbo]]. So many characters and whole teams end up
* Rotor Walrus in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', both ''[[Sonic Sat AM|SatAM]]'' and [[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Archie Comics]] versions, have been hit hard with this; in both versions, he started out as a strong fixture in the Freedom Fighters, then got kicked into this position after a certain point (Season 2 in SatAM, issue #125 in the [[Archie Comics]]); in fact, in the comics, his jacked-up importance and [[Word of Gay]] relationship in the "Mobius: 25 Years Later" storyline was meant by previous head writer Ken Penders as a way of moving him out of extra status and giving him a much-needed jolt of [[Character Development]]. Sadly, when current head writer Ian Flynn took over, he was beaten back down to this spot ''violently'', in both the main comic and the "M:25YL" storyline.
** A group of characters called "The Substitute Freedom Fighters" that faded out of relevance soon after their introduction. Currently, they were brought back as councilors on the royal council. One of them, Hamlin, was angry enough about his treatment that he joined the council out of spite for the Freedom Fighters.
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* The Kevin Myers character suffers from this in the third ''[[American Pie]]'' film, commensurate with the rise of [[Breakout Character]] Stifler.
* Rico and Oliver were reduced to a few lines at the beginning of the ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' movie.
* The ''[[Resident Evil (film)|Resident Evil]]'' movies, based loosely off of the video game series of the same name, end up doing this to most canon characters in favor of [[God Mode Sue|their own]]. At best, they end up as sidekicks (Jill Valentine is still a semi-main character in ''[[Resident Evil: Apocalypse|Resident Evil Apocalypse]]'') and at worst, they're truly reduced to extras ([[Badass Normal
* LAPD officer Sergeant Al Powell is a big part of ''[[Die Hard]]'', but none of the other films take place in Los Angeles. The second film offers him a gratuitous cameo, and the rest leave him out all together. Possibly justified in that Al had a family and was working the beat again by the second movie, so he wouldn't have been able to join John for more adventures.
* Bagheera in Disney's ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'' had a big role. In the sequel "The Jungle Book 2" he falls in the trope
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* This started happening to Kimberly in season three of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]].'' Notably, she didn't even appear in the season premiere (AKA the [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]] for ''[[Kamen Rider|Saban's Masked Rider]]''), and had her powers drained halfway through after being captured by Kat Hillard. Since [[Amy Jo Johnson]] actually told Saban she was going to quit beforehand, instead of clumsy camera tricks and an abrupt [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]], half the season was spent slowly easing her character out of the Pink Ranger position and setting up her successor.
** After Skull was Demoted To Extra in ''Lost Galaxy'', the writers apparently had trouble coming up with material for Bulk on his own. He only appears in a few episodes despite being in the opening credits.
* In the seventh season of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', Arnold Rimmer only appeared in person in two episodes, then was relegated to flashbacks, dream sequences
* On ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', Doctors Cameron and Chase were fired from the title character's team at the end of Season 3. In Season 4 they were shown to have taken new jobs at the hospital, while House recruited a new team.
** Season 6 has a lot of demotions: Cameron becomes a long-distance extra, while Chase found his way back into the cast.
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** ''[[Stargate SG-1]]: Continuum'' opens with an over-the-shoulder shot of Pentagon liaison Major Davis walking down the corridors of Stargate Command. He was a fairly major recurring character in the earlier seasons of the TV series, so you might expect him to have at least one scene, but nope, the camera quickly cuts to the main characters, and all you see of Davis in the movie is the back of his head for several seconds. The director did this as a joke, according to the DVD commentary.
** Teal'c is the only member of the original SG-1 to not appear in ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' so far.
** Meanwhile, of all the characters who survived the original movie, Feretti is the one the writers forget exists. In fact, despite ''dying'' in the first regular episode of SG-1, Kawalsky makes ''far'' more appearances than Feretti (Kawalsky gets [[Time Travel]], [[Alternate Timeline
** * On ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' Weir and Ford did this before being dropped entirely Weir's actress could not return to do any more episodes (despite the writers having plans for a longer arc involving her), so they pulled (another) [[The Other Darrin]] on her (the character's 2nd time) before having her [[Put on a Bus]]. Ford just wasn't very interesting to them, so despite bringing him back several times he was eventually dropped.
* ''[[Family Matters]]'': The character of Judy Winslow, especially in Season 3 until she was [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|eliminated without explanation]] completely in Season 4; she usually appeared only in scenes involving the entire family or to move a plot along. To a lesser extent, this also happened with Rachel Crawford (Thelma Hopkins, who was involved with other projects), despite making several bit appearances from Season 6 onward.
* ''[[Step by Step]]'': The character of Brendan Lambert, the youngest son of family patriarch Frank Lambert, was given fewer plots and lines before [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|being eliminated completely]] by the sixth season. To a lesser extent, this was also the case with Mark (the nerdy middle son of Carol Foster), although Mark would continue to appear sporactically until the series ended, usually given one-liners or in family scenes whereby his absence would be conspicuous. These reduced appearances were perhaps in part due to the shift in focus on the female siblings, especially one-time tomboy Al (after Christine Lakin grew in desirability as she became an adult); while many of the remaining stories were 5-year-old Lily (who was born in 1995 and was age-advanced to create "little girl" stories).
* When ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|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
* ''[[Happy Days]]'':
** [[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.)
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* Leoben, in the last half season of ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]''. He wasn't even used when they needed background Cylons.
** He does get a larger role in ''The Plan,'' the feature length episode produced after the main series had finished. It was, however, set before the end of season 2, so quite what happened to Leoben (and the other Twos) is never addressed.
* Once Yutaka Ishinabe, Roksaburo Michiba, and Koumei Nakamura retired from their positions as [[Iron Chef
* {{spoiler|Micah}} in Season 3 of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''. He goes from being a series regular to only appearing in a few episodes of Season 3 after his storyline was dumped from most of the show.
** Since ''Heroes'' has [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], every single series has demoted at least one of them to extra so far. And completely written out a couple of others.
** The Haitian in particular suffered badly from this. Never a prominent character, by the final season most of his appearances were reduced to a single scene every few episodes. On at least one occasion he didn't even get a line - rather, he simply stood in the background to imply that the good guys would use his power in some way (not that they ever actually showed it happening).
* Kim Bauer after Season 3 of ''[[24]]'', although as she was [[The Scrappy]] in the first three seasons most fans didn't seem to mind.
* Much of the main cast from the first 4 seasons of ''[[The West Wing]]'' were
* Kay Howard on ''[[Series/Homicide|Homicide]]'' after her promotion to Sergeant, especially in Season 5 where she does nothing until the season finale, after which she's [[Put on a Bus]]. To a lesser extent, Munch from Season 4-on and Bayliss for most of Season 7.
* Jack McCoy on ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'' after getting promoted to DA. Interestingly, this was at Sam Waterston's
* In the first half of the first season of ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' Eliot Stabler's four children were regular characters, however after that they became infrequent recurrers showing up about once season. Two of his daughters have not even been seen since the seventh season and between that and the first they had about 3 appearances each. This oldest son (who is the twin of one of the daughters) has remained showing up about once a year and later had a [[Day in The Limelight]], and his middle daughter had a subplot about her being a bipolar thieving drug addict.
** 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).
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* This happened to a number of ''[[Peanuts]]'' characters: Shermy, Patty, Violet, Freida, Pig-Pen. For example, in the 1980's and 1990's, Patty (not to be confused with the more prominent ''Peppermint'' Patty) appeared in a total of ''three'' comic strips. [[Word of God]] said Patty and Violet got the shaft because Lucy worked better as a female bully character, so it would be too redundant to have all three of them featured prominently.
** In the latter half of the 1990s this had happened to nearly the ''entire cast''. By the end of the strip's run, [[Out of Focus|the focus had boiled down to four major story lines]]: the misadventures of [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|Rerun]] (with Snoopy or Lucy acting as the [[Straight Man]] depending on the plot), the day-to-day life of Snoopy's desert-dwelling brother [[Ascended Extra|Spike]], the travels of Snoopy's other brothers [[Those Two Guys|Andy and Olaf]], and Charlie Brown and Franklin (who had essentially replaced Linus) talking about life while leaning on a brick wall. Charlie Brown's sister Sally would [[A Day in the Limelight|occasionally get her own Sunday strip]], but the other characters (particularly Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and the already-mentioned Linus) rarely appeared.
* ''On The Fastrack'' used to star Bob Shirt, but compared to the other characters, he was boring. For many years now, he has appeared almost exclusively in
* After the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, ''Boondocks'' became less of a life comedy strip and commented more on world news. It takes few to commentate so the strip neglected everyone except Huey, Riley, Granddad, Tom and Caesar. Eventually a few characters were brought back though, Jazmin was mad that Huey wasn't worried about her while she was gone.
* The London ''Evening Standard'' used to run a cartoon called ''Clive'' about a boy of 17-18 and his various escapades. However, the strip began focusing less on him and more on his ten-year-old sister Augusta, until he was such a minor character that the strip was renamed ''Augusta''. It was recognisably the same strip, especially since it still had all the [[Running Gag
* This happens all the time in [[Newspaper Comics]] - the long running American strip ''Nancy'' was initially based around the title character's aunt Fritzi (the original title was ''Fritzi Ritz'').
* This eventually happened to Cutter John in ''[[Bloom County]]''. Though he didn't disappear like the scores of other characters [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|who were dropped]] from the comic, his role was dramatically reduced by the strip's end ([[Word of God]] being that wheelchairs are difficult to draw within the confines of a comic strip panel).
* ''[[Luann]]'' was initially a comic largely about the titular character and her classmates and family. Once [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|Brad]], her brother, started becoming more and more important to the strip, gaining his ''own'' storylines, most of the teenage cast was downgraded significantly. Even Luann's best friends Bernice and Delta rarely appear, to say nothing of poor Knute and Crystal, themselves [[Satellite Character
** They seem to have moved into a pattern: Brad and Luann alternate focus each week. Luann's storylines tend to alternate between using her parents and using her friends. Every other month we usually get a week focusing on Gunther and Knute.
* Once upon a time, back in 1919, there was a comic called "Take Barney Google f'rinstance". The titular character was a diminutive gambler with a gigantic angry wife. The wife was written out, and Barney got himself a horse named Spark plug, and the strip was renamed "Barney Google and Spark Plug". In 1934, Barney found himself deep in the Appalachians, where he met a hill-billy named "Snuffy Smith". And the strip was renamed, again, "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith". Here Barney would live for 20 years, until he left in 1954... But the comic stayed with Snuffy, and Barney became a rare guest in the comic carrying his name, his last two appearances being in 1997 and 2012.
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* ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' demotes the protagonist of the previous arc for the following arc. Kyo's importance to the plot during the Orochi saga was downgraded to make room for K' in the NESTS saga and then K' himself moved down to make way for Ash Crimson in the Tales of Ash arc. After being demoted the character continues to add to the story (Kyo was used as a base for a series of clones in the NESTS arc and K' got to fight Mukai in ''2003'') but it's the current main character who gets the spotlight and wraps up the saga.
* The American Sports Team from ''[[King of Fighters|The King of Fighters '94]]'', only returned as playable characters in one game and that was ''KOF '98''. Their other appearances in the series were mostly just background and ending cameos.
* Every character in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' who isn't Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, or Eggman had this happen to them. Lately even some of these characters are being pushed to the background. Knuckles and Shadow were not even in ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]''. The two and Amy also didn't even appear in ''[[Sonic Colors]]''.<ref>At least, not in the [[Wii]] version, anyway.</ref>
* ''[[Super Robot Wars]] OG Gaiden'' hammers this trope to one of Duminuss' Homunculi, Laliar, [[The One Guy|the only male]]. In his origin game (''[[Super Robot Wars Reversal|SRW R]]''), at least he gets to get involved in the grand schemes along with his siblings, joining some factions to screw them up. But in ''OG Gaiden''... Tis gets to deal with the Wendigo and G Thunder Gate, Despinis gets to guard a [[Brainwashed]] Lamia, {{spoiler|and later ends up surviving, unlike in the original series}}... and Laliar? He's relegated into just contacting Tis and Despinis from afar in case they're about to screw up, and doesn't do much in the grander scheme (obviously, he had a bigger role in his original game). Makes this editor wonder if Duminuss prefers an [[Fundamentally Female Cast]] for her main Homunculus.
** 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]].
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** In the sequal, the entire original cast suffers from this, but especially Sazh. While the others make either physical appearences (Hope, Snow, Lightning) or are significant to the backstory {{spoiler|(Fang and Vannile)}} Sazh is only reffernced a few times in passing, last being seen flying an airship and disappearing mysteriously. (Though one of Snow's temporal messages implies he say him floating around in the [[Time Travel|Historia Crux...]])
* 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).
** After ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', Donald and Goofy, who were consistent main characters alongside Sora, have been put more and more [[Out of Focus]], amounting to cameos in ''Birth by Sleep'', unlockable multiplayer mode characters in ''358/2 Days'', [[Guest Star Party Member
* 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.
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* This happens ''mid-game'' for everybody but the main protagonist of ''[[Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume]]''. Characters are given compelling, interesting motivations and backstories, but the minute they decide to join the party as anything other than guest characters, the only time they say a word or even show up outside of battles is [[Explosive Overclocking|when you decide to sacrifice them to your Plume]].
* About half the cast of playable characters in ''[[Star Ocean]]: [[Star Ocean 3|Till The End of Time]]'' falls into this. Nel, Albel, and Mirage are fairly important characters in disk 1, then in disk 2 fade into obscurity. Adray, Peppita and Roger do this as well, though they never had a particularly major hand in the plot to begin with (Roger being the only 100% optional character). Since you are only allowed to bring along two characters out of Nel, Albel, Roger, and Peppita, the game has to fit their dialogue in rather awkwardly, and the other characters rarely if ever acknowledge their presence. Mirage is perhaps the most painful example, however - she doesn't even get this courtesy, since she was added in a version after the original released in Japan, and as such essentially gets no dialogue at all after she joins the party!
* This fate eventually befalls most of the secondary playable characters in ''[[Xenogears]]'', but a notable example involves the NPC Hammer. During the Kislev story arc, Hammer is almost omni-present. His network of black-market goods, information, and mechanical skill are vital in eventually helping the main character escape imprisonment. After the escape, Hammer virtually disappears for twenty-odd game hours, only re-appearing near the end of the Solaris arc. [[Genre Savvy|He understands]] that he has been
* ''[[Xenosaga]]'' has MOMO Mizrahi, a little Realian girl. In the first two games she was one of the most important characters because her father/creator Joachim placed the "Y-Data" (which included coordinates to a planet that EVERYBODY wanted to get to) inside her mind. One of the main points of the first game is to get MOMO to a research facility where this data can be analyzed, and in the second game that actually occurs. She also serves as a foil and love interest for Junior (she was modeled after his old romantic interest, Sakura, who happened to be Joachim's biological daughter, effectively making MOMO her sister). And...then the third game comes, and she has very few lines and one or maybe two scenes that actually give her any real attention. It's as if she lost any real importance once they got the Y-Data out of her and just stayed on as a playable character because people were used to her being around.
* Many of the PC-98 era characters in the ''[[Touhou]]'' series. [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|Where'd you go, Mima?]]
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* Victor Sullivan in ''[[Uncharted]] 2: Among Thieves'', who was a major character in the first game but only accompanies you for two chapters of the second before deciding he wants out. In "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception," Sullivan becomes a main character once again, only for the main female leads of 2, Elena and Chloe, to be demoted to extras.
* 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]] [[Exclusively 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
** While trolls in general seem to be the go-to race for evil mooks, troll heroes tend to either vanish into obscurity or be [[Driven to Villainy]]. And the playable Darkspear tribe—a late (and somewhat rushed) addition to the baseline game to begin with—have been largely sidelined.
** 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.
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* Motaro is the only character from ''[[Mortal Kombat]] 3'' who is not a fighter in ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]''. {{spoiler|[[Plotline Death|He is killed by Raiden in a cut-scene and later appears as a dead body]].}}
* A common complaint about ''[[Golden Sun|Golden Sun: The Lost Age]]'' was that this happened to everyone but Isaac, Felix and Kraden once the two parties met up. The sequel, ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'', attempted to fix this, but that ended up causing [[Mandatory Line|another problem]].
* [[Wrench Wench|Keira]] in ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'': [[Love Interest]] and fixer of [[Broken Bridge
* Luciana Rune Artwaltz is ''very'' important in [[Yggdra Union]] (although she appears under [[Tag-Team Twins|her sister]]'s name for most of her appearances), but does almost nothing in its prequel, [[Blaze Union]], instead shifting the focus onto the aforementioned twin sister Aegina. Then again, you can't do all that much on an injured leg. Aegina herself falls out of the spotlight in two of the three [[Multiple Endings]] - but in the third one, Luciana dies.
* The Grey Wardens in [[Dragon Age II]]. While some of the fandom complained, this was actually justified. With the Blight defeated in the first game and the Darkspawn driven back into the Deep Roads, what exactly was there left for the Grey Wardens to actually ''do?''
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== Visual Novels ==
* Satsuki Yumizuka a.k.a. "Sacchin" from ''[[Tsukihime]]''. She quickly disappears on each route of the game despite being set up as another possible heroine, and in some branches {{spoiler|she is quickly and cruelly dispatched by Shiki Tohno after becoming a vampire and declaring her admiration for him in a truly [[Tear Jerker]] moment}}. The anime lets her {{spoiler|survive unvampirized}}, but other than that it didn't treat her much better; the manga, more of the same.
In ''[[Melty Blood]]'' she re-appears, but {{spoiler|as an enemy, in her vampire form. She is quite real (and dangerous) in the game, but in its manga adaptation she is the form that Tatari took after discovering Shiki's guilt for having had to kill her, and then he has to dispatches her ''again''}}.
She is more famous for how she ''doesn't'' appear that much on the other semi-official games, and the unreleased "Satsuki route" (which was supposedly planned and written but cut out, and is allegedly the one where the events of ''[[Melty Blood]]'' happen) is one of the running jokes of the franchise and the fandom. Within some fandoms (including this very wiki; see Meta below) she became ''the'' poster girl of the phenomenon (and former [[Trope Namer]] for this very trope) due to a [[Memetic Mutation|meme]] based on the phrase "Isn't it sad, Satsuki."
* Assassin, Shinji and Zouken in ''[[Fate/hollow ataraxia]]'' get much smaller roles than they did in ''[[Fate/stay night]].'' Well, Assassin had a small role anyway. The latter two probably get smaller roles because the game as a whole is lighter in tone and they were two of the darkest characters.
* Good luck finding a decent Shiori figure from ''[[Kanon]]''. At least [[Kyoto Animation]] did her arc justice, and her falling out of the public eye might be because she doesn't have a "seven years ago" connection and is just a normal [[Ill Girl]]. In the 2002 anime, she, Makoto and Mai all fell victim to this, having their arcs squished into one episode each [[All There in the Manual|with key portions removed]].
* Similarly, Kano and Minagi in ''[[AIR]]''. Everything from merchandise to posters to, well, the backstory of the game makes it clear that this is Misuzu's story. Therefore, their routes are just there so the game can't be accused of having no
* From the original [[Clannad]] game we have Yukine, who, much like poor Sacchin, was originally planned to be one of the main heroines.
** And in After Story, anyone whose last name isn't Okazaki or Furukawa gets shafted in terms of the spotlight halfway.
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* Thanks to having [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], this happens frequently in the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' world. Inexplicably, Pom Pom (one of the original main characters) did not appear in the season finale of Strong Bad's game, despite Pom Pom being in every other episode up to that point. In fact, Pom Pom used to be one of the three main characters along with Homestar and Strong Bad, although now, his appearances are rare, and the annual Christmas/Halloween cartoons are the only times he'll be seen consistently.
** 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
* Kit-chan's ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/user/FMAVidsummaries#p/c/2487281DE1784051 abridged series] parodies this with Alphonse's lines being cut mid-sentence in order to support Ed's status as the main character.
* 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.
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* [[Disney]] related material
** Several [[The Lion King|Lion King]] spin-offs have Simba suffering from this, in favour of Timon and Pumbaa, such as in the aminated series, in which Simba only appeared a couple of times, and the third Lion King movie which is all about Timon and Pumbaa stealing scenes from the first movie. This was eventually lampshaded in an episode of ''[[House of Mouse]]'', when Timon and Pumbaa are introduced by Mickey Mouse, Simba moans "[[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|Those guys always get all the attention!]]"
** The entire cast of ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', including the titular character, suffered this fate as the later merchandise based on the film now focus on [[Disney Princess|Jasmine.]] Considering that The Disney Princess line of merchandising is quite profitable and has become in an odd way, it's OWN spinoff from the various Disney films that each princess comes from, this may not be the case with
** 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.
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** ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' isn't innocent on this by a long shot. It introduced [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], one set after another, [[Merchandise-Driven|to sell toys]], and some had more staying power than others. Many characters' roles went by this formula: 1: [[Remember the New Guy?|Show up one day without comment]]. 2: Have [[A Day in the Limelight|one really good episode of focus]] later. 3: Be occasionally seen in the background or fights. 4: [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|Disappear mysteriously]].
** As an example, Jazz, who was a major character in the first two seasons of G1, had a supporting role in [[Transformers: The Movie|the movie]], but when Scatman Crothers died shortly afterwards, Jazz's later appearances were non-speaking cameos.
** And speaking of the movie, several characters had this happen to them. Bluestreak, Sunstreaker, Huffer, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Bombshell appear in cameos with no lines, Shockwave appears in two scenes and is implied to die, Shrapnel and Kickback are reduced to [[Butt Monkey
* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''
** Sandy Cheeks, a major character, only has a few lines in [[The Movie]], and no importance to the plot, and rarely appears in the later seasons, to the point where she is forgotten. They even forgot her ''name'' in one episode (she was called "Sandy Squirrel" in a later episode).
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** Paul Dini admitted in the "Art of..." book that they didn't use the Riddler often because his gimmick of using riddles was pretty hard to pull off in an action cartoon such as theirs. On the other hand, he had some truly spectacular moments in ''[[The Batman Adventures]]'' comic, set in the same universe.
* Terrance and Mac's mom had very few appearances in the fifth and sixth season of ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]''. Goo had very little screen time in the later seasons too.
* Connie (a.k.a. Kahn Jr.) from ''[[King of the Hill]]'' was a fairly important character early on and a love interest for Bobby, however they broke up in the sixth season, but she still had major roles from time to time, but starting with season 9, her role was greatly diminished and wasn't seen very often. In several later episodes where her parents were the main focus, she was nowhere to be seen, and when she ''did'' show up, her role was very
** What made this really odd is that Lauren Tom voiced both Connie and her mother Minh, so it wouldn't have been much of a hassle to toss Connie into a scene with her parents.
* One might forget that the Griffins ''[[Family Guy]]'' even have a daughter, with as little screen-time as Meg gets these days. This is even parodied in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' specials, where she's in a couple of seconds of the special, tops, and as a giant space worm.
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== Meta ==
* When a character-named trope has its name changed here on [[TV Tropes]], it can end up demoting that character from star to being just another example. For instance, Spike is now just one more instance of [[Badass Decay]] instead of being the defining instance of "Spikeification".
* Satsuki from [[Tsukihime]] is the center of [[Memetic Mutation|the meme]] "Isn't it Sad, Sacchin". What makes Satsuki's lucklessness worth a section here, is that it even extends ''here,'' on TV Tropes. This trope was originally named "Isn't It Sad", [http://www.lurkmore.com/wiki/Tsukihime after the meme in question.] With the wiki's shift to less esoteric titles, Sacchin
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