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{{trope}}
Memories of families and friends are a wonderful thing, though there are times when a character is missing or rather forgotten. At times, even the whole world, universe, or [[Alternate Universe|alternate reality]]'s characters forgets that a certain character exists as though he (or she) in question wasn't born: when this happens, we have a '''Forgettable Character'''.
Sometimes [[The Hero]], [[Anti-Hero]], or (rarely) the [[Big Bad]] wants to be forgotten to [[It's Not You, It's My Enemies|not imperil others]], so his or her foes would not harm those in any way shape or form. Usually, he leaves his family and friends. An [[Up to Eleven]] example is when the character in question didn't exist at all, which does not explain all the interactions and "stopping the fate of the world ending" earlier.
The milder examples are
In fantasy and [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] settings, a character's existence gets erased by very [[A Wizard Did It| powerful spells]] or [[Weird Science|technobabble gadgets]] that have [[Gone Horribly Wrong]] ... or [[Gone Horribly Right|Horribly Right]].
The only way to prevent family, friends, and the heroes to fool-proof this trope from happening is to have backup spells, artifacts, clues, and even [[Note to Self:|self notes]] to prevent this from happening.
Compare and contrast with [[Ret-Gone]], [[Who Is This Guy Again?]], [[Ghost Memory]], [[Unperson]], [[I Was Never Here]], [[Laser
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* [[Shrinking Violet|Canada]] of the ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' series, the interactions that he had with other characters usually involved them forgetting who he was, his existence, or worst, mistaking him for [[Boisterous Bruiser|North America]].
* ''[[Jewelpet]]'': Jewelpet Sunshine had three examples, Nejikawa who was forgotten by his classmates at least once. Yaginuma was a debatable case, because of his limited screen time. And Katori, whose peers keep on forgetting that she's there, because she's tiny.
* [[The Generic Guy|Tetsuo Ishimaru]] of ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'', where his teammates keep on forgetting that he exists. Tetsuo even breaks the fourth wall just to comment on this.
* In [[Saki (manga)|''Saki'']], this trope was nearly a superpower to Momoko Touyoko. She's invisible to anyone in the vicinity, since she barely leaves an impression. There's was even an incident when she was playing Mahjong with three players, but they've forgotten that she's there despite that she is ''sitting next to her''.
* In ''[[Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei]]'', despite being the [[Class Representative]], Kagero Usui had a property to just slip away from the other characters' memories. Just because his [[Prematurely Bald]] head was his only distinctive feature. - He takes great pains to hide most of the time.
* Akari Akaza of ''[[Yuru-Yuri]]''.{{context}}
== Comic Books ==
* [[The Flash]] managed to do this once, so that his girlfriend wouldn't be put at risk by everybody knowing his secret identity. Alas, the magic that made him a Forgettable Character was too powerful, and even he forgot about himself.
== Film ==
* In ''[[Office Space]]'', no one
* Randy from ''[[Liar Liar]]'', whom Fletcher Reede doesn't even bother to try remembering.
== Literature ==
* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series, Peter Pettigrew (aka Wormtail) was known as the quiet yet unassuming guy in the Marauders
* In ''[[Blindsight]]'', the Captain
* In ''[[Dragaera|Vlad Taltos]]'', Kragar is
* In the novel
== Live-Action
* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''{{'}}s sixth season, there's the [[Terrible Trio]]
*
** ''[[Torchwood]]'' had a similar villain who was in real danger of dying if they were forgotten, so they did everything they could do to avert this trope by forcing people to remember them. {{spoiler|the character in question, Adam, he basically was a nondescript self insert fanfic character parody, the episode was spoofing and deconstructing the trope}}.
* In ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', not one of the Bluth family (except for George-Michal, the sometimes boyfriend) remembers Ann Veal's real name; they usually refer to her as "Bland," "Egg," "Annabell," "Yam," or "Her?" It's not done out of malice, it's just that Ann Veal was so forgettable.
* In ''[[Friends]]'', both of Ross's parents
== Tabletop Games ==
* Inverted in ''[[Star Wars]]'' d20's "[[Living Force]]" campaign. The recurring character spacer playboy Zav Zerivax can never remember the heroes, regardless of their renown stats or previous interactions with him. The meta reason for this is due to how the campaign was set up, since tracking NPC relations took a lot of effort (as the player characters may have run each scenario under a different [[Game Master|judge]] and/or the same scenario in a separate session, experiencing mutually exclusive interactions as a result) and Zav is ultimately a minor (albeit recurring) background character.<ref>Most recurring characters either had their relationship marked on the character sheet, or were written in a way that the scenario was impossible to win if they were enemies or dead and assumed any PC who played the preceding module was friendly with them.</ref>
== Theatre ==
* In ''[[Of Thee I Sing]]''{{'}}s Alexander Throttlebottom, the Vice Presidential nominee, who was running with John P. Wintergreen. The fact that Alex was so forgettable to the point, that he had to sneak into the White House while a tour was going on, since no one remembered him. (Back then when the play was written in 1930s, the VP position was infamous for its lack of notability.) Though he's remembered in the grand finale, mainly for [[Pair the Spares]] reasons.
== Video Games ==
* The Princess from ''[[Sakura Samurai]]''
* In some of the ''[[Super
* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' games
* In ''[[Fire Emblem Awakening]]'', there's [[Mighty Glacier|Kellam]] and this trope was [[Lampshaded]] in his support conversations constantly and showing up in the gameplay: one would've never guessed that he'd be reclass into an Assassin.
== Web Comics ==
* This trope happens often in ''[[Scandinavia and The World]]
** Denmark always forgets about the Faroe Islands, his own room mate. The guy owes him money.
** Norway is apparently oblivious to Kven, even if the guy is right in front of him.
* In ''[[70-Seas]]'', a side-story was centered around a "forgettable" character. During a bid for attention, he committed burglary and was arrested; even doing that doesn't work, and to top it all off, he was released. Never mind that he ''dropped" a stolen diamond in front of the police.
== Western Animation ==
* [[The Simpsons (animation)|''The Simpsons'']]:
** The [[Running Gag]] which had Mr. Burns forgetting who Homer was, though this was [[Characterisation Marches On|mostly dropped]] in later seasons.
** Homer just as often forgetting about Maggie, sometimes referring her just as "the baby", other times forgetting about her completely.
* In ''[[Futurama]]'', the running gag was that Scruffy had to reintroducing himself to people, to the point that "I'm Scruffy, the Janitor" became his [[Catch Phrase]]. The other characters are just as forgettable to him: he doesn't remember them, either.
* In ''[[South Park]]''{{'}}s "The Last of the Meheecans" episode, the boys play a Border Control RPG, and the Mexican side won. It takes a long time, until Cartman realizes they had forgotten about Butters (and even then only because he can win as the Texan side). The others wonder how this happened; Craig [[Lampshaded|reminds them]] that Butters is easily forgettable.
* In ''[[As Told by Ginger]]'', Noelle was chosen to test the vanishing powder, mainly because she was not significant to miss. This was subverted later on, when it's reveal that Noelle is a cool [[Cloudcuckooland|cloudcuckoolander]] (by [[Freaky Is Cool|their standards]]) and became an [[Ascended Extra]] with more substance.
== Real Life ==
* Too many historical figures are lost to history's pages, since they're not named, recorded, and such – even though a few managed to do something the current day remembers.
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