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This trope is for characters who become unimportant to the story, but are still seen or mentioned occasionally; for characters who disappear completely from the story as if they had never existed, see [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]].
Compare [[Shoo Out the Clowns]], [[Sir Not
There were more examples to this trope, but we [[Self-Demonstrating Article|had them cut out to save time.]] If you can see them, feel free to put them back on.
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* 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''.
* Poor Yuuno. Once the partner to the title character of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', his status rapidly degrades with each passing season thanks to the growing [[Improbably
** 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)
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** In ''[[Pokémon Black and White (Video Game)|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|Sixth Rangers]]... unless they're Michiru and Kaoru, the [[Dark Magical Girl]] twins from ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star (Anime)|Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star]]'', who share the dubious title of [[Sir Not
** 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
** And then there's the [[Nintendo DS]] [[Crossover]] game, where both Honoka AND Kaoru and Michiru get [[Demoted to Extra]]! Well, fine, Kaoru and Michiru have it MUCH worse, since they ''don't even appear'' (again). Honoka does appear but she's the ONLY ONE out of the 11 PCs who [[And Now for Someone Completely Different|never gets to be the main character of a chapter]]. Yes, even her [[Expy]] Mai and [[Sixth Ranger|Sixth Rangers]] Hikari and Kurumi get to star in one chapter, and Kurumi stars in TWO. The game's about ''[[Yes Pretty Cure 5]]'' with the older series tacked in so this is not a surprise, but still.
** 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".
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** 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 [[Demoted to Extra]] as well as been hinted to be erased from the manga altogether. It doesn't make his fans happy.
* 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|OVAs]] and second season avert this, but still.
** 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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* Kaorin from ''[[Azumanga Daioh (Manga)|Azumanga Daioh]]'', despite numerous attempts to avert this, falls to the wayside, despite being introduced before many of the major players.
* Hanai in ''[[School Rumble]]''. He was a main character is season one, but in season two was used less and less, until the extent of his appearances were {{spoiler|a running gag about how he was stuck on a kite for several episodes.}} His role as the [[Large Ham]] seemed to have been usurped by Togou.
* ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]'' does this to Momoko, who is a key character in her introductory season, but by the next one is shafted in favor of [[Plot
* In the ''[[Tokko]]'' manga, Itto and Mayu become the main characters in their own dedicated arc, but in the anime they only make a few cameo appearences, and their arc is rewritten with them removed from it and are replaced by Ranmaru.
* As ''[[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|Ah My Goddess]]'' goes on, the importance of Keichii's non-supernatural acquaintances gradually decreases.
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* In ''[[Persona 4 (Anime)|Persona 4: The Animation]]'', Igor - he has one or two lines an episode. This is because Igor's seiyuu passed away prior to the anime's production, and rather than recast the role the producers decided to only use archived dialogue from the game itself.
** Also amongst the S-Links, since the two possible Sun S-Links are separate stories, they chose Ayane's S-Link. As a result, the only time we see Yumi is when she's silently annoyed at Kou hamming it up in the Cultural Festival drama play.
* In the anime adaptation of ''[[Sengoku Basara (Video Game)|Sengoku Basara]]'', this hits several less popular characters like Honganji Kennyo, whose sole appearance is just to get sliced to death by Mitsuhide; or Hojo Ujimasa, who immediately got snuffed out by Shingen's [[Hot
** The second season has this hit Takeda Shingen (though justified since he had to protect his region while Yukimura led the troops).
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* Emily Prentiss got Demoted To Extra only for season six of ''[[Criminal Minds (TV)|Criminal Minds]]'', as a result of some extraordinarily ill-advised [[Executive Meddling]].
* After Katey Segal's tragic miscarriage on ''[[Married With Children (TV)|Married With Children]]'', where [[Real Life Writes the Plot|the producers had written her pregnancy into the storyline]] before being [[All Just a Dream|being forced to backtrack]], the character of Peg Bundy was instead subjected to this trope during the second and third times Segal became pregnant during the show's run. Both times, Peggy was sent out in search of her missing father, and was only shown in voiceovers talking to her family on the telephone, or only shown in scenes where she didn't have to do anything strenuous and the viewers couldn't see her pregnancy. Happily, Segal's later two pregnancies were both successful, and when she was ready to return to work the producers brought Peggy home, much to Al's chagrin.
* In ''[[
** A similar thing happened to Roger Delgado's incarnation of the Master. In his first season of ''Doctor Who'', the character turned up in every single serial, from ''Terror of the Autons'' to ''The Daemons.'' Then, Delgado, while enjoying the show, became concerned that while officially a guest star, many casting directors considered him a ''de facto'' regular cast member of ''Doctor Who'' and therefore unavailable for other work. So in the next season dramatically scaled back his appearances, with an eye to making a splashy departure the following season. Due to his untimely death in Turkey, the character was quietly retired for a time.
* After Don Knotts' departure from ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'' as a regular, his character of Barney Fife was brought back as a guest for at least one episode in each of the remaining seasons.
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** 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!
** Also poor Lori-Beth, who is a minor recurring character who later becomes Richie's steady girl. When Richie left, she stuck around, getting married to him over the phone, and giving birth to Richie's son when he was away. Eventually, she just stopped appearing entirely unless it was a special occasion, having little way to play off the others.
* Leoben, in the last half season of ''[[
** 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|Iron Chefs]], they were demoted to extras, only appearing for specials.
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* During the first season of ''[[Beverly Hills 90210|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.
* Happened to a lot of characters on ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'', because the show has [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] (and they can only focus on so many of them). The most notable example would probably have to be Toby Issacs. He was a major character in the first 2 seasons. Come season 3, he became more of a background character and his screen time was significantly reduced (only getting a total of two major story lines from seasons 3-7 while it seemed like some characters would have a new story line every other episode). He was even removed from the opening credits during his final 2 seasons, before being [[Put On a Bus]] for good in season 8.
* With the second [[Retool]] of ''[[
* ''[[
** 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.
* ''[[Space: 1999]]'': In season 2, Sandra Benes went from being one of the senior staff to barely having any lines when she appeared. That is, if she was even supposed to be the same character. Oddly, she was called Sahn during season 2. Her original role seemed to be given to another Asian characeter named Yasko.
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* The Pro Wrestling industry term for this trope is "getting buried." It refers to the worked lowering (relegation) of a popular wrestler's status in the eyes of the fans. It is [[Executive Meddling|the act of a promoter or booker]] causing a wrestler to lose popularity by forcing him to lose in [[Squash Match|squash matches]], continuously, and/or participate in unentertaining or degrading storylines. It can be a form of punishment for [[Real Life Writes the Plot|real-life]] backstage disagreements or feuds between the wrestler and the booker, the wrestler falling out of favor with the company, or the wrestler receiving an unpopular gimmick that causes him to lose credibility regardless of win-loss record. It is also a result of a company seeing a wrestler as having no potential or charisma. The term can also be applied to a wrestling company that [[Jump the Shark|jumps the shark]], rapidly loses ratings, fans, and finally becomes bankrupt. According to many critics, the most infamous burial of a company was The [[Finger
* 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.
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* 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 (Video Game)|Sonic Unleashed]]''. The two and Amy also didn't even appear in ''[[Sonic Colors (Video Game)|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 [[Improbably
** 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).
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* A common complaint about ''[[Golden Sun (Video Game)|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 (Video Game)|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|Broken Bridges]]. Keira in ''Jak II'': [[Love Interest]] and source of a few bits and pieces (one of which, yes, fixed a [[Broken Bridge]]). Keira in ''Jak III'': appears in a few scenes doing exaggerated facial expressions and gets somewhere in the neighbourhood of one line (seriously, ''Tess'' had more importance to the plot). Thankfully, she was re-promoted in time for ''Jak X''.
* Luciana Rune Artwaltz is ''very'' important in [[Yggdra Union]] (although she appears under [[Tag
* 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?''
* [[Soul Series|Soul Calibur V]]'s redesigned Story Mode [[Contested Sequel|received criticism]] because only the main characters, Patroklos and Pyrrha receive any kind of backstory and characterization. Most of the new characters have an average of only five lines and contribute minimally to the advancement of the plot. Two returning characters actually have NO dialogue and leap out of nowhere in order to be fought. Nine of the returning characters don't make a single appearance in the game's story.
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[[Category:Characters and Casting]]
[[Category:Demoted To Extra]]
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