Out of Focus: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"Hello, my name is Tedd. You may remember me; I used to be in the story comics all the time. Weren't those the days?"''|'''Tedd''', ''[[El Goonish Shive]]''}}

Webcomics are particularly prone to this. It's easy to see why - when you've got a cast of twenty characters and only four panels available, it's obvious that someone's going to lose out. If a character isn't central to the plot, with such limited space (and usually, time) available, it's probably a waste of time putting them in at all. Webcomic readers usually understand this, but even the most tolerant and faithful of readers may get a little dissatisfied if a character, who was formerly one of the main cast, has been sighted less frequently than the Loch Ness Monster.

 

 

 

Likewise, audience acceptance is proportional as well. Webcomics are free, and therefore fans are generally more accepting if their favourite hero disappears for a bit. Too long, though, and the creator risks alienating a particular protagonist's fans. When someone has to hand over money to follow a story, however, as with comic books, they may get a little annoyed when fan favourite Mr Terrific doesn't even make a cameo appearance for twenty issues.

Another good example for when this is a necessary evil is for Strategy games, in which [[Anyone Can Die]] and usually they're gone for good depending on the game. A good way to keep special characters in focus is to more or less program and write a lot of event data into the game, in the event that the player recruited the character and then still has them. But sometimes, the player may just dismiss them or let them die and they wind up [[Deader Than Dead]], so in order to save time, the games are programmed under the assumption that they could be dead and that the only NPCs that are still around are plot-crucial ones. A [[Real Time Strategy]] game would often avert this by making it crucial (They die, you fail the mission and [[Game Over]]) or they die but are resurrectable. It's also possible to get around this where if they die in battle, they're merely knocked out and come back if needed.

 

 

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]''

** The anime was infamous for this throughout Johto, causing Brock and Misty's characters to be easily summed up as "movable background". The writing staff did end up employing a variation of [[Rotating Arcs]] in later seasons, but only two characters have such arcs going at a time—leaving Brock and Max almost eternally Out of Focus and Misty [[Put on a Bus]] (and May and Dawn [[Put on a Bus]] at their arcs' conclusion). Fan reaction has been mixed, to say the least.

** And now Team Rocket. As of ''Best Wishes,'' they no longer appear in every episode, and when they do, it's for a short amount of time. Granted, there are many who actually ''prefer'' this, as the short time they spend doing important things, as opposed to the years they've been in every episode as [[The Chew Toy|chew toys.]]

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'': given the [[Loads and Loads of Characters|size of the cast]], it was inevitable that just about every character other than Negi would fall into this at some point. The most notable ones are Kaede (who after a brief [[Day in The Limelight]] chapter early on hasn't had much plot relevance outside of being additional muscle for the group), Anya (who was in focus for all of a dozen or so chapters before getting stuck as a [[Damsel in Distress]]), and Ayaka (who hasn't shown up at all since the Magic World arc started <ref>Okay, about half of the class hasn't shown up since then, but the others that got left behind were minor characters at best</ref>). There's also Zazie, who was never in focus to begin with, despite being one of the series' most mysterious characters.

** Wolfram falls victim to this periodically. Although he's physically present in every episode, in some episodes his lines consist mainly of "Yuri!" yelled at regular intervals with different vocal inflections. At the start of the show, he was the loud, over-emotional but undeniably loyal accidental fiance; by the end of the first season, he narrowly avoids becoming [[The Artifact]] when the plot hits [[Cerebus Syndrome]] and turns into a drama after {{spoiler|Conrad's apparent betrayal}}. He usually loses out to big brother Conrad, who gets quite a bit of [[Character Focus]]. Wolfram regains some ground at the end of season two, although {{spoiler|he was ''unconscious'' for most of it}}.

** The same goes for Gunter and Gwendal, although it's debatable as to whether they qualify as "main characters." At least Gunter gets the odd [[Day in The Limelight]] to show off.

* Aki from ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]''. She is the mother of the Hinata family and thus the 'highest rank' in Keroro's eyes. Of course it was obvious she would be out of focus due to her job which makes her come home rarely. But she is portrayed as a main character so having her only make an appearance in background events is kinda sad. We also know very little about her.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]''

** Later seasons do this to the Inner Senshi. In ''Super S'' and ''Stars'', they're basically one composite entity and barely exist as individuals (except in occasional powerup or focus episodes. Hell, Jupiter and Venus ''share'' some of theirs.)

** Also Usagi's ''entire family'', who in beginning were a very important emotional anchor just kind of faded away the longer the story went on. Maybe this is why so many fan writers like to ship Hotaru/Sailor Saturn with Shingo.

** One of ''The Abridged Series''' main running gags is how Bakura gets very little screen time. It's almost ''always'' his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] that shows up in the show.

* Season 3 of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh GX]]'' saw Asuka, Manjoume, and Shou become completely irrelevant as the exchange students steal what would have been their roles in the season.

* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]''

** A serious problem was that character arcs were terminated very swiftly in order to change focus to a new character. After Allelujah's enormous [[Shoot the Dog]] moment in which he wipes out a child-soldier breeding facility, he essentially stopped being in the plot in order to facilitate Setsuna.

* ''[[Digimon]]'' doesn't exactly have the best track record with this trope.

** Yamato and MetalGarurumon in the final arc, showing up for maybe a minute in the span of five episodes. It even feels sort of shoehorned it since in that sole appearance they pretty much came out of nowhere with no explanation, [[Moment of Awesome|nuked Pinocchimon]], then disappeared for the next three episodes.

** Tsukasa also fades out a bit in the last few episodes. She had only one major line in Episode 23.

** In 2010 episodes of the manga (the anime only got up to Volume 4), {{spoiler|the four main girls themselves go somewhat out of focus since they graduate high school and go on to different schools. Konata and ''Patty'' of all people are the only two who remain together. The manga has started to focus more on a "new generation" of girls at Ryooh High School.}}

* Ever since the "Black Diamond" arc, Yaya Yuiki from ''[[Shugo Chara]]'' has the sole purpose to transform into "Dear Baby" once every 3 episodes and then get her butt kicked hilariously, due to her powers being so absurdly useless (Ducks?! Seriously... DUCKS?!) that even [[Captain Planet|Ma]][[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|Ti]] would laugh. She gets almost no screentime aside from this embarrassing scenes and her lines in dialogue are limited to baby-like 3rd-person ranting about wanting something. Her guardian Chara, Pepe, is even worse, she's doing so few things that even completely determining her personality becomes challenging.

* Shouko remains Out of Focus for most of ''[[Asatte no Houkou]]''.

** The most notable occasion was during the Briggs Arc, where Mustang and his men are not seen for a while.

** In [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime version]], Winry is noticeably Out of Focus compared to in the manga; Rose has a lot of [[Character Focus]], when in the manga she's barely above a character of the day.

** They also do it [[Adaptation Explanation Extrication|from the first episode, for no reason]].

* In ''[[Bakuman｡]]'', Miho has been seen much less after {{spoiler|the news comes that PCP will not get an anime, and Mashiro and Takagi must come up with a manga that will}}, a significant setback in their promise to have Miho star in their anime. Justified in that Mashiro and Takagi have promised not to meet in person until they fulfill their promise.

* Tadakuni slipped out of presence over the run of ''[[Daily Lives of High School Boys]]'', despite being the protagonist. This has been lampshaded [[In-Universe]] in both manga and the anime adaptation; the anime even said his out of focus is because he was [[The Generic Guy|too plain]].

 

* [[Shazam|Captain Marvel]] is said to have been getting this treatment, as he's slipped into something of a [[Dork Age]] in the past few years, and has received very little attention from the DC Titles. His nemesis, Black Adam, has been given much more reception, being written with major parts into various [[Crisis Crossover|Crisis Crossovers.]] The reason given for Marvel's shoddy appearances in the DCU, according to Dan Didio, is "He doesn't fit in." This might be because DC (and Didio in particular) is pushing [[Darker and Edgier]], and Captain Marvel has always been associated with [[Lighter and Softer]]. Which would explain why Black Adam, who can best be described as "Captain Marvel as an antihero" is getting all the spotlight.

* In Volume 5 of ''[[Empowered]]'', [[Littlest Cancer Patient]] turned [[Super Villain]] Manny is conspicuous by his absence after a role in volume 4 that seemed to set him up as a recurring character.

* Many, ''[[Loads and Loads of Characters|many]]'' characters at any given time in ''[[Gold Digger]].'' At least once, an entire year once went by with the main character, Gina, only appearing in occasional cameos.

* [[The Inhumans]] tend to fall into this trope in regards to their leader Black Bolt. The writers usually focus their attention on him since, not only is he their king, but he's much more powerful than the others and [[Rule of Cool|just looks really cool.]] The others usually stand in the background and look concerned.

 

== Fan Works ==

* Hana from ''[[Pretty Cure Full Color]]'', once it turned out that {{spoiler|she was just a [[Red Herring]] and the real Cure Spring was Sakura}}.

* Since Willow was based on the author's real life friend, it wouldn't be much a surprise that she dies in ''[[My Immortal]]'' when the two have a falling out. But even when the two reconcile, Willow's role as Ebony's best friend is shifted towards B'loody Mary. A lot of characters drift out of focus as the [[Love Triangle]] between Ebony, Draco and Vampire develops.

 

* Blade in ''[[Blade|Blade: Trinity]]'', thanks to The Nightstalkers.

* A common criticism of [[Michael Bay]]'s ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' films is that the Transformers ''themselves'' are Out of Focus in favor of the human and army characters. This was an issue of practicality in the first film though, as the cost of the CGI limited how much screen time the Transformers could actually have. They show up a lot more in the sequels.

* The third ''[[Asterix]]'' film gives more screentime to Lovesix and his [[Romantic Plot Tumor]] than to Asterix and Obelix, the protagonists of the series.

* In the original ''Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,'' this happened to Augustus Gloop. He barely spoke at all during the movie, disappeared after the first room, and even when they were doing the "let's meet the Golden Ticket winners" interviews, his parents did most of the speaking for him. This was mostly due to the fact that his actor didn't speak English and had to learn all of his lines phonetically, but just notice how very little you see of him.

 

== Literature ==

* In Robert Jordan's ''[[Wheel of Time]], sometimes characters are barely mentioned in a book due to the ridiculously huge cast.

* Ginny Weasley has a much reduced role in the third, fourth and seventh ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books, which contributed a lot to the view that she and Harry were [[Strangled by the Red String]].

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* Given its large ensemble cast, this easily happens on ''[[Lost]]''.

** The worst-off character is unquestionably Claire, who's only had three episodes in the limelight. This is particularly frustrating, especially in the final season when her {{spoiler|reappearance after a season long absence}} seems like a good set up for a terrific flashback episode that never really happens and the hold situation is instead [[Handwaved]] away magically.

** Hey, Veronica, where did [[Black Best Friend|Wallace]], the Watson to your snarky Holmes go for two seasons? Why'd Mac become your bestie for season 3?

** Budget cuts prevented most of the cast (other than Keith, Veronica, and Logan) from being in most episodes of that season.

** In the earlier seasons, Jenna seemed to repeatedly take several episodes off. This largely ended after her character fully [[Flanderized]] into a [[Small Name, Big Ego]] / [[Attention Whore]] type. Back when she didn't get much focus, a typical nonappearance of hers was [[Lampshaded]]:

{{quote|'''Tracy:''' Everything worked out with Jenna's dad visiting.

** Although a little more focus was placed on her at the end of season 5, when she got married, Cerie previously appeared just often enough on the show to remind you she was still there.

* Despite having a credit as a main character, Jake Sisko from ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' fell victim to this quite often, particularly in the final season of the series. This is actually a case of [[Absentee Actor]] rather than writers not spending time on Jake. Cirroc Lofton was simply unavailable for most of the final 2 seasons. A good deal of episodes were written to focus on Jake and had to be tweaked to not include him so heavily. (Ever wonder why "Far Beyond the Stars" has Sisko dreaming he's a writer? Jake was supposed to be the one it happened to.)

** The Simon (Number Four) and Doral (Number Five) model Cylons are hardly seen anymore, and certainly have had far less character development than the other models. Arguably the Fours were never prominent outside one episode, but the Fives had a fair amount of screen time in the first year of the show.

* ''[[That '70s Show]]''

** After season six, Laurie Forman was never seen on-screen again but was mentioned in passing many times over the next two seasons. These ranged from explaining what she was doing at that point in time (such as moving to Canada), to her past in Point Place (such as who her godparents are). Laurie's last screen reference is in the finale, where Kitty, after stating heartfelt reasons why she loved everyone in the room, including telling Donna that she loved her like a daughter, asks "Speaking of daughters... has anyone seen Laurie?" prompting a long laugh from the studio audience.

** Fellow winners Kisha & Jen got lost behind all the big personalities in Unfinished Business, and only got snippets of airtime prior to the last four legs.

** Jeremy & Sandy (Season 19) finished in second, but didn't get much screen time until one of the late legs.

* Several characters in Season 7 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' suffered from this, Xander probably getting the worst of it, but Giles, Anya, Dawn, and to a lesser extent Willow were all massively pushed to the sidelines in order to accommodate more storylines for [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|Spike]].

* Spoofed on ''[[Community]]'', where one episode features an entire Abed subplot of befriending a pregnant classmate relegated to the background. In some scenes, Abed's plotline is shown onscreen, but literally Out of Focus.

** This becomes really noticeable when one of the three remaining characters takes time off like in "Reparations" when only two of the seven cast members appeared.

* Compared to her ''[[CSI]]'' supervisor counterparts [[CSI: Miami|Horatio Caine]] and [[CSI New York|Mac Taylor]], Catherine Willows from the mothership suffers from this, in favor of the Ray Langston Show.

* With the [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]] having a choke-hold over the entire 13th season of ''[[Big Brother]]'' US, Porsche, Adam, and Lawon have had this. Posts on Jokers Updates have even been talking about most of the newbies (Especially Porsche and Lawon) only to have numerous responses of, "Who?"

* This trope is notably [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in ''[[Friends]]''; all six main characters appear in every single episode and are involved in every episode's plot.

* [[Parenthood]] has mild examples as many characters (especially the children) simply do not exist - and are never mentioned - in episodes that do not focus on them.

* This also happens in ''[[Modern Family]]'', partly due to [[Absentee Actor|the legal limitations on the younger actors' work time]]. But during the first half of the second season, some of the adult characters barely made appearances in episodes that focused on one of the three households almost exclusively.

 

 

* This is what led up to the death of [[WCW]]. There were so many contributing factors to why WCW died, none of which should have happened. Hulk Hogan had a seven million dollar contract that gave him [[Protection From Editors|complete creative control]]. There were over 140 guys on the roster, most of whom never got used—yet they still bought plane tickets to fly them to shows. Executives from Turner Broadcasting couldn't handle the backstage politics, and the bookers they hired were happy to put themselves over at the expense of the company.

* The number of wrestlers on the roster had gotten to around 265 when the decision was made to cut costs. About 200 wrestlers were fired. Before the cuts, the roster included Lanny Poffo and Kevin "Nailz" Wacholz. Poffo was hired as a favor to his brother (Randy Savage) in 1995 and never worked a match for the company. Wacholz worked one match for the company in 1993 (as "The Prisoner" at the first Slamboreee) and signed a contract, but everyone forgot about him, so he was never pink slipped and his contract rolled over until someone realized he was paid to do nothing for 7 years and he was released. Going back even earlier, The Honky Tonk Man was working for WCW without a contract (which in WCW usually paid a weekly salary instead of per appearance), he would sign in at each TV taping. After he quit, he asked a friend to keep signing in for him so he could keep getting paid. It worked for a few months until they were caught. It's believed that there were many, many other screw-ups where wrestlers were forgotten about and paid for doing nothing.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

 

== Theater ==

** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII-2]]'' seems to have taken this to the next level in regards to Lightning. During the first trailer, we are told she is the main character (playable and otherwise). Come upon the second trailer, and we see that she now shares the spotlight with Serah and Noel. Fastfoward to today...and while she is the only character on the box art...as far as we know, she only serves as the narrator and will be sometimes playable for brief periods of time (one one time has thus far been confirmed). Yet Toriyoma still describes her as a "Major character", "the backbone of the plot", and the "driving force of the plot"...pretty good for a mostly non-playable, barely seen character, huh?

* ''[[Street Fighter]]''

** Many of the new characters in ''[[Street Fighter III]]'' have yet to make an appearance outside the ''[[Street Fighter III]]'' games. Though this is slowly being rectified, as Alex, Yun and Yang, Ibuki, Makoto and Dudley have since made appearances in other Capcom games. Also a partial justification, as ''[[Street Fighter III]]'' is currently at the end of the ''[[Street Fighter]]'' timeline, and some characters' stories, such as Necro, Urien and Twelve, are based around the game's [[Big Bad]], making it hard to find a good reason to put them in other ''[[Street Fighter]]'' games..

* Another fighting game example: Cham Cham in ''[[Samurai Shodown]]'', although popular, has only appeared in a few games. Earthquake and Gen-an from the same series.

* In ''[[Tales of Graces]]'', this is pretty much why everyone hates Cheria Barnes in the story. She starts off being a deconstruction of the [[I Will Wait for You]] trope but otherwise, seems only to be put in for a [[Token Romance]].

* Maderas and Hoggmeiser don't get any lines after they've been defeated and joined your party in ''[[Disgaea]]''. They're not even shown in cutscenes.

* Two noteworthy examples from the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series:

** [[The Lancer|Riku]] and [[The Chick|Kairi]], who both played major roles in the original game, don't really do anything of high importance in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'' until the very last world, despite still being technically main characters. Riku has since become the [[Deuteragonist]] of the series, but Kairi has remained Out of Focus for four whole games straight, [[Broken Base|further breaking the base on a subject.]]

** Donald Duck and Goofy were Sora's constant companions in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]'', and ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]''. After that, they've fallen by the wayside. They only had brief cameos in ''Birth By Sleep'', were just unlockable multiplayer mode characters in ''358/2 Days'', and their biggest role in ''Coded'' was reminding Data Sora about what they and the ''real'' Sora did together in the past. In the upcoming ''3D'', "dream" versions of them are set to appear in a ''Three Muskateers''-based world, but the real things still aren't up to much.

* ''[[Mega Man X]]'' himself gets Out of Focus once the plot starts picking up from the second game onwards. The spot that was [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|stolen from him]] by ''[[Ensemble Darkhorse|Zero]]''. This is what [[Writer Revolt|Inafune originally intended the series to be]], since ''Zero is supposed to be the '''real''' main character of the X series''. A [[Take That]] against [[Executive Meddling]] that made X in the first place.

** This backfired a good deal with X7, where at the start of the game, you're given Zero and [[The Scrappy|Axl]], with X going into a pacifistic role. X7 isn't liked very much.

* In ''[[Xenogears]]'', pretty much everyone who joins the party after Bart doesn't get much of the spotlight after the plotline where they're introduced. Rico, in particular, is given nothing unique to do after the party leaves Kislev.

* As of the past few years, most [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] regulars are being pushed to the side... in favor of developing new relationships between Sonic and one-shot characters such as Shahra in ''[[Sonic and The Secret Rings]]'', Merlina and Caliburn in ''[[Sonic and The Black Knight]]'', and Chip and Professor Pickle in ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'', or more recently, [[Sonic the Hedgehog 4|only having Sonic and Robotnik]].

* Probably the most extreme example is Eiji Kisaragi. He burst onto ''[[Art of Fighting]] 2'' as a mysterious stranger with a tenuous connection to Ryo Sakazaki, and it's strongly hinted that he's going to be a major player for years to come. In SNK's ''very next'' fighting game, King of Fighters '95, he's reduced to a bit player who gets bushwhacked by Iori Yagami. Then in Art of Fighting 3, he's mentioned all over the place (largely in connection with exile Jin Fuha) but not seen even once. And that's the last we see or hear of him for nearly a ''decade'', finally resurfacing in KOF XI (where he's a bit player in a throwaway joke plot).

* This certainly happens with [[Pokémon]]'s titular monsters. Every time a new generation of Pokémon is introduced, alot of the Pokémon end up becoming out of focus and usually are only available to the player after they've beaten the main storyline and obtained the national pokédex. [[Pokémon Black and White]] was especially bad with this since ''none'' of the older Pokémon weren't available to the player until the national dex upgrade is obtained.

* A common complaint about ''[[World of Warcraft]]: Cataclysm'' was that the Alliance and it's leaders got very little story and character development compared to the Horde. A few members of Blizzard's staff have even admitted they dropped the ball here, but hope to do better keeping both factions interesting in future expansions.

* In ''[[Mega Man X Command Mission]]'', Massimo, Marino, and Cinnamon have introduction levels, but that's it. After that, they're just cast-filler who tag along with X, Zero, and Axl for the sake of it. Had Capcom at least given them more missions that reveal more about their backstories and personal reasons for joining X's group, Massimo, Marino, and Cinnamon would've been decent at best.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Vashiel from ''[[Misfile]]'' frequently falls victim to this trope, last seen [[Walking the Earth|wandering the earth]] looking for a missing angel.

** Has now reappeared and, shock horror, appears to even have his own story arc. It shan't last you know.

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', the character arc involving 'Lord Tedd' has been rather Out of Focus, but at least a Lampshade or two has been hung. Specifically, that YES Normal Tedd's father HAS been doing things in the background.

** This has also happened to two of the eight main characters, Justin and Sarah, a good deal. Both of them are usually lucky to get to be the chorus, while all of the other principle characters usually have a storyline in progress for them; interestingly during the party Justin sort of swapped roles with Elliot, with Elliot and Sarah's main lot in things during the period of crises everyone else was having seeing the two of them make out on the couch.

* In ''[[Ctrl+Alt+Del]]'', Scott the Linux guy and his penguin Ted disappeared without a trace for several years, despite an upcoming plot point about him being announced once and several hints being dropped that they were to be part of a major storyline. In a bizarre move, fans who questioned his absence were actually ''banned'' from the comics forums over it. The promised storyline ''finally'' came to fruition in August 2011.

** The Chef Brian and Players strips have almost entirely vanished, though as strips featuring them are intended to be non-sequitors, it's nowhere near as distressing as the Scott and Ted absence was.

** This trope is essentially why the creator has the "Old Familiar Faces" series every January---because he realizes a lot of characters have vanished but he ''does'' want readers to remember they still exist somewhere in S* P-world.

* ''[[Friendly Hostility]]'' employs [[Rotating Arcs]] to give its cast equal air time, and the creator of the series keeps readers ahead of what's happening (especially regarding who's not around for this plotline and when they'll be back). However, Bootsie and The Demon are still prone to disappear. More surprisingly, Collin, one of the two main cast members, is totally absent for an extended period of time in both 2005 and 2007, as the "Big Summer Storylines"—An Arc that lasts for the summer holidays—in those particular years focused on his boyfriend, Fox, and characters who had far more to do with Fox's storyline than Collin's (Fox's sister in 2005, and his workmates in 2007). When Collin is the focus of the arc, however, Fox will at least be mentioned, or given a one shot "Meanwhile..." comic to update the reader on what he's up to.

** Raven was once one of the most prominent characters at the start, but went out of focus for months and wasn't mentioned. Her role as the other point of the barista had been mostly taken over by Penelope. Eventually, she was [[Put on a Bus]], and shown to have left for college.

** There was quite a gap where Pintsize and Winslow went unseen, and secondary characters like Penelope and Tai went out of focus during dramatic arcs for others. They all came back later, though.

* ''[[Goblins]]'' has this with the character Dies Horribly, due to his story being a subplot, and the infrequent update schedule.

* Boo, the conscience-hamster and the [[Mascot]] for ''[[Megatokyo]]'' has perfected his vanishing act to magician-worthy standards. On one hand, this makes sense, as ''Megatokyo'' has been [[Cerebus Syndrome|leaning towards]] [[Sick Sad World|the melancholy side of life]] lately, and fuzzy, incompetent hamsters may jar the mood. On the other hand, with all the angst that's been heaped on Largo lately, you'd think now would be a good time for his conscience to lend a hand.

*** This might also be a demonstration of how much Boo is out of his league, and how little influence he has on people. Remember the comics with him just trying to ''find'' Largo?

** The comic's basic set up is very conductive to this, as [[Webcomic Time|one day in-universe equals approximately a year's worth of strips]]. Yuki and Ping have both been known to disappeared for years on end, with the in-universe explanation being that they were just doing something else on those days.

* Tessa and Rachel from ''[[Scary Go Round]]'' were the main protagonists of the first chapter then were slowly replaced during the happenings of the next couple by Shelley Winters, the main protagonist of the webcomic ''[[Scary Go Round]]'' followed up. In later chapters they would rarely show up except for a few special Tessa and Rachel adventures chapters (was there one or two of those?). Eventually, they vanished for a while before their last appearance {{spoiler|as villains, leading a group of evil nuns.}}

** This also happened to plenty of others, as there were [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], and often ones that had spent two chapters in the limelight would rotate out to for new ones. Even Shelley, who became the more or less the centre of the ensemble and [[Series Mascot]], was [[Put on a Bus]] for a few months at one point.

** The Author is taking his sweet candy coated time to properly explain a plot point through a series of one on one conversations between two characters

** The Author is trolling the readers

** To be fair, any conversation that Fighter becomes a part of would be sidetracked by his [[The Ditz|low]] mental abilities. If they wanted to get any exposition done at all, his silence was the only option. Depending on the current story arc, said exposition would be about magic or the elf kingdom, with the mages and Thief trading roles as [[The Watson]]. Poor Fighter was left out of pretty much all story-important conversations by necessity.

* Slick in [[Sinfest]] starting around 2011, which was amplified by the birth of one of the more notorious plot tumors (The Sisterhood sub-plot) and [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]] in the strips history. Lampshaded in 1/3/2012.

 

== Web Original ==

** Ever since coming back from the dead for supposedly the last time, Kenny rarely has anything to do—he either just stands there and doesn't say anything, or he doesn't appear at all. This is lampshaded quite a few times, and occasionally he will have his time in the spotlight.

* As ''[[Drawn Together]]'' came to focus more and more on Captain Hero, formerly important characters such as Foxxy Love and Princess Clara were reduced almost to background roles while supporting characters such as Ling-Ling seemed to barely be in the show at all anymore.

** Goo as well. Though this probably had more to do with the fact that she was a [[Sixth Ranger]] in a show that was already [[Loads and Loads of Characters|overcrowded with characters]].

* All too prominent with [[Butt Monkey]] Tucker in ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. By season three, he's either ignored, downplayed, or disappears to make room for Sam and her growing romance with Danny.

** Of the 22 original cast members, [[Vasquez Always Dies|Eva]], [[Single-Minded Twins|Katie and Sadie]] are the least focused on characters in the series, [[Demoted to Extra|not competing in either of the two later seasons]].

* In the early episodes of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', Django seemed to be at least a semi-regular member of the main characters' group. Unfortunately he never developed much of a personality and kind of fell by the wayside; in season two he's only gotten two voiceless cameos.

* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'': Nowadays, Gary only gets a few lines per episode, and Sandy appears 1 to 4 times a season, and Mrs. Puff and Larry only appear once in a blue moon. Spongebob, Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs and Plankton are the only regulars now.

** It's gotten so bad that at one point Sandy Cheeks was referred to as Sandy Squirrel. That's right, ''the writers have literally forgotten her name.''

* ''[[Thomas and Friends]]'' suffers from this, largely due to the fact that several new characters are introduced per series. As a result, formerly major characters like Duck, Oliver, Bill and Ben, Donald and Douglas and Terence haven't appeared in years. Hasn't stopped them [[Merchandise-Driven|appearing in multiple toy ranges]], though.

** This may have to do with controversey over using a real person's life as a fairytale in the former's case, and the fact that Mulan is not actually a princess.

** Recently, both Jasmine and ''especially'' Snow White, probably for the better, are also starting to suffer from this, in order to make room for Tiana and Rapunzel.

** Applejack has suffered a little from her family becoming important supporting characters, in that her scenes are often hijacked by her supporting cast, and she spent a good half of her spotlight episode missing.

** Scootaloo is currently the only Cutie Mark Crusader that hasn't had her own spotlight episode, and Sweetie Belle's sole spotlight episode so far was shared with Rarity. Apple Bloom on the other hand...

* Most of ''[[Tom and Jerry: The Movie]]'' isn't actually about [[Tom and Jerry]]. Because of this, along with them being [[Suddenly Voiced]], the movie really didn't go well with Tom And Jerry fans.

 

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[[Category:Real Life Writes the Plot]]

[[Category:Script Speak]]