Long-Lost Uncle Aesop: Difference between revisions

 

Please keep in mind that this trope isn't just the sudden appearance and disappearance of characters who would logically be significant, but when they appear, drop their Aesop, then go back into the aether. See also [[Compressed Vice]] (when the issue is inflicted on a regular for one episode), [[Remember the New Guy?]], [[Forgotten Fallen Friend]], [[New Neighbours as the Plot Demands]]. [[Gay Aesop]]s tend to be this as well.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' did this a lot, since the characters often doubled as a [[Victim of the Week]]. Was especially jarring as it was occasionally suggested the leads have trouble making friends and seemed to have no real social life outside their small group, despite meeting and getting along with people fairly quickly each episode.

* A staple of the YA girls' series popular in the 1990s—not surprising, considering these books were sitcom episodes in print form. A typical example from the ''[[Babysitters Club]]'' series: Amelia, suddenly introduced as a close friend of Mary Anne, who had never been mentioned before and was killed by a drunk driver about ten pages in to teach the moral of the story.

* Surprisingly averted with the character of Regina in ''[[Sweet Valley High]]''. She dies as the result of a drug overdose, but up until then she had been a reoccurring character for several books.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Matthew Perry's appearances as "Sandy" on ''[[Growing Pains]]''.

* ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' has an episode about Charlie's best friend (played by Charlie Sheen's real life brother) dying from having a similar lifestyle to his. What's interesting is that such best friend had never been mentioned before and would never been mentioned since. In fact, Alan didn't even know him in spite of having lived at Charlie's house for quite some time by then.

* In the episode "Lie To Me" from season two of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', there is Ford, Buffy's "best friend" from her old high school in L.A. Ford is dying of a brain tumor, and bargains with Spike to be turned into a vampire in exchange for Buffy. Justified in that Buffy had moved a year ago, presumably leaving some her friends behind, and she'd spent the summer break back there, offscreen.

** Another Buffy example is in "Killed By Death," when Buffy exhibits a phobic reaction to being in the hospital, and we learn that it's because of her cousin Celia's death when they were kids. They were close, and Buffy was traumatized as a result of watching her die. While some of this trauma is legitimately resolved in the episode, the lack of mention of Celia before or after makes the whole thing seem to come out of nowhere. It is particularly jarring because Buffy spends a great deal of time visiting the hospital in Season Five, and shows no phobia beyond an appropriate reaction to the immediate circumstances. Nor does the First Evil ever manifest in Celia's form, which would seem an obvious way to get under Buffy's skin if the writers still remembered the character. Granted, the actress playing Celia - a long-deceased ''child'' character - could not concievably return, since the First Evil was only prominent ''five years later''. It might've worked in the Season 3 episode "Ammends", but then the First was focusing more on Angel than Buffy.

[[Category:An Aesop]]

[[Category:Long-Lost Uncle Aesop]]