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{{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''', ''[[
The spotlight shines brightly on one particular character, or on a select group of a particularly large cast. They take center stage, right wrongs, find stuff out, do a bit of rescuing and learn all about themselves in the process.
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Which is all well and good for those characters and their fans... but what about everyone else? Come to think of it, we haven't seen Bert in three months. Where did he go?
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.
Sometimes
Deciding if a character is
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.
If a character is absent for too long, they risk
This also often happens for optional characters, but as you'll notice; they're... well, optional, so the events are written without them.
When a sequel or adaptation shoves characters
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Anime
* In ''[[Bodacious Space Pirates]]'', Chiaki suffers from this around episode 8, when Gruier shows up. What makes it more painfully obvious is the amount of emphasis on her during the opening and closing credits, where she is seen alone, or with just Marika, the main character. She plays a very important role in the beginning of the show, and helps Marika start her space pirate career, then largely [[Demoted to Extra|vanishes]] while Gruier spends time with Marika. However, she gets more screentime again around episode 15.
* ''[[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
*** The writers unfortunately seem to have fallen back into this as of ''Black and White''. Iris and Cilan aren't as bland as Misty and Brock were back in Johto, but they don't have clearly defined goals like May and Dawn did. For the most part, Iris and Cilan are just tagging along with Ash. {{spoiler|Somewhat subverted; Iris has revealed that she wants to be a Dragon Master and Cilan a top Pokemon Connoiseur.}}
** Ash's bird Pokémon fall into this a lot. Pidgeotto for example, traveled through an entire region with Ash and barely won any battles at all. Usually it was just called out to search for/pop Team Rocket's balloon, or to blow away one of Weezing's smokescreen attacks. Swellow and Staravia have been allowed to have a little more battling prowess, but they still don't seem to get as much screentime as Ash's other team members. This is likely because there are no Flying-type attacks [[Stuff Blowing Up|that explode;]] hence no blasting off Team Rocket.
** 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.]]
* ''[[
* ''[[Kyo Kara Maoh
** 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.
* ''[[
** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in an omake at the last episode of a [[Story Arc]], where Temari and Kankuro were both pissed that they weren't going to be showing up again for a long time (they've both recently reappeared in the manga after being gone for 172 chapter which is ''over three years'' real time).
** Lampshaded ''again'' in a later omake which has Shikamaru noting that for the next [[Story Arc]] [[Character Focus|he's pretty much the main character]] and Naruto will barely do anything (to Naruto's shock). What makes it even worse is that after that Naruto ''still'' doesn't even participate in a fight that goes anywhere for over a ''year'' of manga chapters.
** Lampshaded ''[[Running Gag|again]]'' in another omake when Neji has a tough time remembering who Hanabi is.
** Poor, poor Hinata. {{spoiler|After finally getting the courage to confess her love to Naruto in the Pain arc and saving him from being captured in the process, Naruto goes berserk and transforms into his 6-tailed form, eventually defeating Pain. Her confession has yet to be directly addressed by Naruto.}}
** Iruka, Naruto's friend, first mentor, and first role model, tends to only show up whenever Naruto reaches an especially significant personal milestone (the few examples in Part II include his return to the village, {{spoiler|Jiraiya's death}}, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|being accepted by the villagers]], and {{spoiler|going off to war}}).
* During the switch from ''[[
** Side character Lunch fell through the cracks. She didn't even get [[Put
** This happened to a ''lot'' of the characters, actually. Most of the secondary characters in ''Dragon Ball Z'' were main characters in ''Dragon Ball'' who were shifted out of focus in favor of the [[
** This arguably happens with Goku himself for much of DBZ. In "Dragon Ball" he was almost always involved in whatever main actions were going on beginning to end, while most of "Dragon Ball Z" has him usually spending it either healing from some injury or unavailable at the time as he's training off world to get stronger or he's racing to join the rest of his friends in time for an important fight. As a result, most major actions are being carried out by Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks or someone else while Goku is generally only really brought into play when things truly hit the fan (and often even a little after).
* ''[[
** Tatsuki and most of the other posse associated with the high school setting were [[Shoo Out the Clowns|dropped like the first stage of a rocket]] once the story [[Cerebus Syndrome|shifted settings]].
** And then the main characters, even Ichigo, were pushed
** Rukia, Orihime, Ishida and Chad are not even ''present'' during {{spoiler|Ichigo's fight against Aizen}}. Before, they could still cheer from the sidelines, now they're stuck in another dimension while the soul reapers and the vizards (oh yes, and Ichigo) are in the focus again.
** On the other hand, Chad has been pretty much constantly been
** The anime [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the everlovin' hell out of this tendency. In a recent two-part filler featuring the cast left behind at Karakura Town, Urahara tells them multiple times that they finally get to do something within the show after so long. Another recent omake had Ichigo pumped up at the prospect of more airtime, only for Rukia to tell him that the focus will shift to the soul reapers and that he's still stuck being the [[Butt Monkey]] in the omakes.
** At the end of the Deicide arc, we still have no earthly idea what happened to several Arrancar in Hueco Mundo, and they are seemingly completely forgotten even though many of them are still quite alive. Namely Nel, her Fraccion, Grimmjow (though hey may be dead), and Gantenbainne.
** There is the disturbing fact that resident [[Token Evil Teammate|questionable]] [[Mad Scientist|researcher]] [[Complete Monster|Mayuri Kurotsuchi]] is making frequent visits to Hueco Mundo, which has the potential for some [[And I Must Scream|very]] [[Nightmare Fuel|bad]] [[Playing
** We also haven't seen hide nor hair of Nanao, though she's at least assumed to be out of danger
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[
* Aki from ''[[
* ''[[
** Naru Osaka, ostensibly Usagi's best friend, just kinda disappeared by the time the ''[[Sailor Moon]] Classic'' season ended. It was probably because Usagi had found new friends in all the other senshi, and she had unfortunately just been a filler friend for a whole season.
** 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.
** The moon cats (Luna and Artemis) began to become out of focus in the final season.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (
** Honda/Tristan, although ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!:
** One of ''The Abridged Series''' main running gags is how Bakura gets very little screen time. It's almost ''always'' his [[Super
* Season 3 of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
* ''[[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.
** In the second season, Allelujah again finds himself having a short subplot that could not be expanded on until the later episodes (and was thin even at that). It got so bad that during a critical battle (the first offensive of the new 00-Raiser suit) that Allelujah's Arios is used solely as a battery to power the ''[[Cool Starship]]''. He gets exactly two lines in the episode, for a grand total of three words.
* ''[[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.
*** It's actually mildly symbolic, since Yamato/Matt is aligned to Friendship, and Pinocchi/Puppetmon was a narcissistic douchebag. But yeah, that was rather sudden.
** ''[[
** ''[[
** Then there's ''[[
* ''[[
** Miyuki Takara in gradually faded into the background as the show progress through its season. Although she was initially presented as a primary character, noting her prominence in the opening title sequence, by the end, Yutaka got far more screen time and dialogue. Fans speculate that Miyuki's shallow characterization of being an intelligent, friendly, [[Meganekko]] didn't mesh well with the series coming to focus more on playing with quirkier personal behaviours and banter. Despite Yoshimizu apparently has a [[Meganekko]] fetish.
*** Referenced in ''[[
** 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.}}
* In the ''[[To
* Ever since the "Black Diamond" arc, Yaya Yuiki from ''[[
* Shouko remains
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[
** To say nothing of Kaorin, who gets relegated to the secondary cast almost immediately and hardly shows up at all in the last third of the series.
* In ''[[
* During the Yotsuba arc in ''[[
* ''[[
** Also, the foreign ten-year-old Sarah MacDougal gets focused in for a part of one early volume, then is cast aside for the rest of the story.
* In episode 13 of ''[[Persona 4:
* The four major protagonists of ''[[
** Taken to an extreme when all four main characters become this in the third anime season; they're used as props to save the world, which is overshadowed by the idiotic [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]] of [[Holier Than Thou|Filia]] and [[Affably Evil|Xellos]] and the stories of the dragon race, the [[Big Bad]], and even the [[Those Two Guys|mooks that work for him.]] It wouldn't be so bad if the [[Character Development]] that the four of them were gaining was more or less gone.
* Happens from time to time in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
** The most notable occasion was during the Briggs Arc, where Mustang and his men are not seen for a while.
** In [[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* In the ''[[
** They also do it [[Adaptation Explanation Extrication|from the first episode, for no reason]].
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Ranma
* Tadakuni slipped out of presence over the run of ''[[
▲== Comics -- Books ==
* [[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 ''[[
* 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.
== Comics -- Newspaper ==▼
* Milo Bloom, the eponymous star of ''[[Bloom County]]'', gradually disappeared from the comic after Opus the penguin came to dominate. ▼
* Jazmine didn't appear in ''[[The Boondocks]]'' comic for two years when the focus shifted more politically after 9/11. Then she shows up, revealing that she had been in hiding all that time, and chews Huey out for not noticing (Yes, for two whole years. [[Not Allowed to Grow Up|Yes, they were both still ten years old]].)▼
* ''[[Zits]]''▼
** Chad, the older brother of main character Jeremy, has almost never appeared again since going off to college. Possibly, this has been [[Lampshaded]] -- in one strip, Jeremy's mother Connie says, "Wasn't it nice seeing your brother again for a whole week?", but Jeremy simply hadn't noticed he was there; in another, Connie laments Chad's lack of communication.▼
** Lately, ''Zits'' has nearly completely taken on the perspective of the parents, in order to make more jokes about teenage behavior, and many of Jeremy's friends have been sidelined (or [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|have disappeared completely]]) from the comic as a result.▼
* Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Schroeder are the only characters from the original cast of ''[[Peanuts]]'' that lasted. There are even some indications in very early strips that Shermy may have been intended as the main character. Remember Shermy? Exactly.▼
* Bob Shirt used to be the star of ''[[On the Fastrack]]''. Now he appears only in ensembles, because he was too boring, by [[Word of God]].▼
* Nermal from [[Garfield]] was missing for three years until he reappeared.▼
== Fan Works ==
* In ''[[
* Hana from ''[[
* 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.
* Sakura has fallen out of focus in ''[[
== Film ==
* Blade in ''[[Blade|Blade: Trinity]]'', thanks to The Nightstalkers.
* A common criticism of [[Michael Bay]]'s ''[[Transformers (
* ''[[Almost Famous]]'' arguably has an in-universe example. In the middle of the movie, Stillwater receives a new batch of t-shirts from the record label - which are quickly discovered to have Russell front and center, with the rest of the band in the back, out of focus. This sets off an argument between Russell and Jeff Bebe on the way Russell has increasingly become the public face of the band, with everyone else fading away. At one point, Jeff Bebe even shouts, "I'm just one of the out of focus guys!"
* 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 ==
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* The ''title character'' of the ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' novels has greatly reduced role in the later books, with Yuki and then Mikuru taking a more prominent place. This is possibly [[Justified Trope|justified]] because the title character isn't the main character. That role falls to our [[Narrator]], Kyon. Given Kyon's notorious status as an [[Unreliable Narrator]], the titles themselves may be [[Epileptic Trees|intentionally misleading]].
* 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
== Live-Action TV ==
* It's become something of a standard rule in Dom Coms that the protagonist couple have three children (see ''[[Full House]],'' ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]],'' ''[[The Nanny]],'' etc.) as a quick and easy way to have an entire childhood's worth of plot lines very quickly (the oldest has teen problems, such as dating and driving, the middle child has kid problems, such as first day of school, and the youngest gets to sit there and either look cute, or get an occasional one-liner.) Often, the youngest of the three children will have to go out of focus, usually because very young kids simply can't act that well and are subject to stricter child labor laws.) D.J. from ''Roseanne'' and Jake from ''Reba'' are two notable examples.
* 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.
** Still better off than {{spoiler|Libby}}, who got no limelight episodes before [[Dropped a Bridge
** Ilana was the same in the sixth season.
** Jin and Sun got a pretty bad case of this in several seasons. In the first season they both appear in most of the episodes and get their own centric episodes but after that all of their centrics get lumped together as one and their role in the plot diminishes considerably. For starters, in season 3 they both disappear for about six episodes in a row and have no dialogue in several others. Its also around this time that they start to just sort of follow other characters around for want of something to do other than the occasional [[Character Focus]]. Luckily they both get some decent character development in seasons 4 and 6 which keeps them from being completely useless. {{spoiler|It also helps that their death scene was probably the show's biggest all time [[Tear Jerker]].}}
** All 3 non Daniel Faraday freighters after season 4. Charlotte never got much love for the writers {{spoiler|and then she dies.}} Miles pretty much just becomes a two man comedy team with Hurley and doesn't get a season 6 centric episode. Season 5 sets Lapidus up as important, with Bram thinking he may be a candidate he becomes a regular and then goes out of focus with the candidate story shifting focus to other characters with nary a mention of Frank. Poor guy doesn't even get flash sideways cameo and is basically just comic relief. {{spoiler|Until the finale when his [[Dropped a Bridge
* "Who's Madison?" was a fairly popular [[Memetic Mutation|meme]] while ''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]]'' was airing. Even Madison herself [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] her own lack of focus. Among other reasons, it could be that Nick was [[
** The year before in ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'', Disney didn't want to hire yet another regular actor to play Sam the [[Sixth Ranger|Omega Ranger]]. Since the showrunners were kind of stuck with him thanks to [[Stock Footage]], they resorted to [[Fake Shemp
*** Likewise, Aisha had similar treatment in her tenure on [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]].
* ''[[Veronica Mars]]''
** 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 [[
{{quote|
'''Liz:''' What?
'''Tracy:''' Oh, you weren't really around for any of that. }}
** Josh, meanwhile, disappeared from the show for so long that it looked for all the world as if he'd become a [[Brother Chuck]]. He eventually showed up again after having been absent for ''over half of the season''. In the next season, he was [[Put
** 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.)
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
** 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.
** And then there's D'Anna, who {{spoiler|opts to stay behind on Earth after everyone else leaves}}, and Leoben, who
* ''[[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.
* ''[[Survivor]]''
** The players from the range of third-voted out to right before the merge are pretty much living props at the reunion. Yve perhaps got this the worst in ''Nicaragua'', literally ''never'' getting a question directed at her. Jill supposedly wasn't even ''at'' the reunion.
** Other than Shambo and Russell Swan, the ''entire'' Galu tribe in ''Samoa'' was out of focus, as well as Mick in the Foa Foa tribe. You can actually cut out ''every'' shot of the Galu Tribe with the exception of Russell Swan being evacuated and you wouldn't miss anything important - heck you probably wouldn't even change the length of the episode.
** A few people in Tocantins when the Camera wasn't focused on Coach.
* Particularly bad on the first few legs of each season of ''[[The Amazing Race]]'', when some teams can go entire episodes getting only one or two lines, though these are [[Spoiled
** Brennan from Season 1 was almost never shown talking in the interview segments; all the talking came from his partner Rob. He later explained in an interview that this was probably due to his tendency to ramble on compared to his partner's terser, and hence more editing-friendly, talking.
** Derek got pushed into the background in Season 3's later episodes in favor of his brother's [[Love Triangle]] with Flo & Zach.
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** 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.
* In ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]
* This happened to Potsie on ''[[Happy Days]]'' after Richie and Ralph left the show and the writes focused on the younger characters.
* Ryan is still listed as a main character in the credits of ''[[The Office]]'' (USA) but it has been a long time since he has had a plot of consequence. At this point Andy is clearly the ''de facto'' most prominent character after the main four and Ryan lags behind most of the supposedly secondary cast.
* Several characters in Season 7 of ''[[
* Spoofed on ''[[
* ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]'' does it to its own main character, Ryotaro, as time goes on. This is presumably due to a combination of the Imaging [[
* Kyra Rockmore, Kenan's sister in ''[[Kenan and Kel]]''. After Season 2, she rarely ever appears in the show. She doesn't even appear in episodes with the rest of her family or The Chicago Witch Trials episode which would have been a perfect opportunity to bring up her crush on Kel. She does, however, appear in the series finale movie as well as the graduation episode.
* Came up in the 8th season of ''[[Scrubs]]'' due to budget cuts; every member of the main cast was
* On ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'', this has happened to every main character that does not have the title detective in front of their name.
** Dr. Warner and Dr. Huang were never really in focus and have always missed several episodes a season.
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** As of season 12, Captain Cragen has also gone 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.
* Genelle Williams' character Leena on ''[[Warehouse 13]]''. Although Williams is a main contracted actor, she's actually not in very many episodes, and her character Leena has little screen time in episodes she is in
* With the [[
* 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.
* In ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', Sulu was a major supporting character in the first and third seasons, but received very little screen time in the second season. (This was a case of [[Absentee Actor]] - George Takei was off making a movie.)
▲* Milo Bloom, the eponymous star of ''[[Bloom County]]'', gradually disappeared from the comic after Opus the penguin came to dominate.
▲* Jazmine didn't appear in ''[[The Boondocks]]'' comic for two years when the focus shifted more politically after 9/11. Then she shows up, revealing that she had been in hiding all that time, and chews Huey out for not noticing (Yes, for two whole years.
▲* ''[[Zits]]''
▲** Chad, the older brother of main character Jeremy, has almost never appeared again since going off to college. Possibly, this has been [[Lampshaded]]
▲** Lately, ''Zits'' has nearly completely taken on the perspective of the parents, in order to make more jokes about teenage behavior, and many of Jeremy's friends have been sidelined (or [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|have disappeared completely]]) from the comic as a result.
▲* Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Schroeder are the only characters from the original cast of ''[[Peanuts]]'' that lasted. There are even some indications in very early strips that Shermy may have been intended as the main character. [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|Remember Shermy? Exactly.]]
▲* Bob Shirt used to be the star of ''[[On the Fastrack]]''. Now he appears only in ensembles, because he was too boring, by [[Word of God]].
▲* Nermal from ''[[Garfield]]'' was missing for three years until he reappeared.
==
* 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
* 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.
* Anyone on Raw ''not'' named [[John Cena]], [[Randy Orton]], or [[Triple H]].
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== Tabletop Games ==
* A similar variant happens in Pen and Paper [[Role
== Theater ==
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== [[Toys]] ==
* Many ''[[Bionicle]]'' characters fell victim to this phenomenon, as the story always had to focus on [[Merchandise
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* There's always lots of characters, and you can do the support conversations any time you like, but in a ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' games, you're lucky if you get a single line more than two missions after you're introduced, as the developers don't want to rest anything plot-significant on the shoulders of someone who might be dead by that point.
** Recent games have been getting clever about this with optional "Info" conversations, allowing a good fourth of the cast to get decent story-relevant characterization.
** Some other games also have natter between enemies they state they are out to get or know somehow. For example; Nino, Jaffar, and Renault actually have a few things to say to Nergal instead of ''just'' of Athos and the lords in ''Rekka'', In ''Path of Radiance'', Ashnard will have a conversation with Ike, Mist, Elincia, Tauroneno, Haar, Jill, Reysa, Esa, Nasir, Tibarn, Naesala, and Giffca if they attack him. He also says something to any laguz if he fights him.
* In ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'' as well as its spinoff, any of the special named characters with custom portraits who join you will ''rarely'' get a word of dialogue after their story arc is over. Some like Kachua, Canopus, Guildus, and Mildain play relevant parts in the story in ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'' if they're still alive. However; the ending certainly doesn't forget that they joined you at all, oh ''noo'' - So if you kept ''all'' the named characters who joined you through the story alive and didn't dismiss or let anyone die, be prepared for a ''long'' ending! And some of these characters even join in groups, too - so as you can bet, there's a ''LOT'' of possible variations!
* ''Knight of Lodis'' has a smaller cast in general than ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'', so it's a lot easier to keep the special characters like Ivanna, Orson, Shiven, etc in focus after they joined your party. Like with ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'', you get variations on the ending depending on who survives. And to a greater extent, you see more characters talking against an enemy who [[
** Orson and Shiven deserve special mention. Depending on which path you took, one will join your party, and the other will simply vanish from the storyline. If you took path A, Orson will be a boss because he's still with Rictor's Army. If you took Path B, Orson will join you because he was dismissed from Rictor's troops and Shiven will actually...vanish into the shadows until a good part into chapter three when {{spoiler|Cybil is nearly killed by Alphonse}} and he shows up out of almost ''nowhere'', However this is actually justifiable; [[Fridge Brilliance|Shiven is actually a ninja who was hired to spy for Cybil - he was off in the shadows]].
* ''[[
** [[Word of God]] is that Vaan was never intended to be the main character. He was a last minute addition to satisfy a request from marketing for a more traditional main character.
** This is reversed in ''[[Revenant Wings]]'' where Vaan becomes not only the main character, but the savior of the world. To the point where many of the other characters become window dressing.
* Most ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games have this, except the characters other than the main three (hero, lancer and love interest) tend to drop in and out of focus. List of examples follows:
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** Penelo in ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[Street Fighter]]''
** Guile; being a rather popular character during the time of ''[[
** Many of the new characters in ''[[
* 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.
* Regal from ''[[
* In ''[[
* 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.
* In ''[[Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume]]'', every character other than Wylfred goes
* 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 ''[[
** Donald Duck and Goofy were Sora's constant companions in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]'', and ''[[
* ''[[Mega Man X]]'' himself gets
▲* ''[[Mega Man X]]'' himself gets [[Out of Focus]] once the plot starts picking up from the second game onwards. The spot that was [[Spot Light 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 the ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' DLC expansion ''Crash Course'', Bill has no new lines, and uses earlier lines when they aren't quite appropriate. This is because his voice actor, Jim French, was busy with his other jobs and Valve couldn't get in touch with him in time to record lines.
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'' Midna steals a lot of Princess Zelda's spotlight, who is pretty much demoted to an Exposition-giving [[Princess Classic]]... however, she returns to the focus in the end of the game, where she turns into a [[Lady of War]] (and to her credit, most of the time she's out of focus is because of something she did that ''saved Midna's life''.)
** The Zelda team have actually been gradually [[Averted Trope|averting this trope]] in regards to Zelda; with her being a cross-dressing [[Stealth Mentor]] in ''Ocarina of Time'', then an [[Action Girl]] / [[Pirate Girl]] in ''Wind Waker'' and recently the always-present [[Exposition Fairy]] in ''Spirit Tracks.'' The only other situation like the Midna one above was in ''Phantom Hourglass'', where her spotlight is stolen again, this time by Linebeck.
* In ''[[
* As of the past few years, most [[
* Jim Raynor for a great deal of ''[[
* 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.
* Mario/Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and Bowser Jr. in ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]''. It looks like the game is about Bowser and Bowser Jr. kidnapping Peach and carrying her into outer space and Mario/Luigi having to travel from one planet to another to save her, but in the actual game, that's not even the main plot. ''This'' is the main plot.
* [[Apollo Justice]] was meant to become the new protagonist of the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series when his game was released back in 2007. Jump forward five years, and fan-favorite Miles Edgeworth has gotten [[Ace Attorney Investigations|two games of his own]], while original protagonist Phoenix Wright has appeared in [[
* 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 ''[[
== 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.
* The characters from the first three books of ''[[Girl Genius]]'', except for Agatha and Krosp, are almost entirely replaced with a new cast of characters at the start of book 4; Gil (pictured), Klaus, and their inner circles slowly weave their way back into the story over the course of book 6, and Vonn Pinn and the students return toward the end of book 8, bringing the Castle Heterodyne arc into full swing.
** Then, after the [[Time Skip]], the familiar supporting characters go Out of Focus again. They don't take quite as long to return to the story this time, though.
* In ''[[
** 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
** 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.
* ''[[Something
** 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"
* ''[[Questionable Content]]'' has a few examples:
** Steve was absent for a while. [[Lampshaded]] several times, where often one character will mention "We haven't seen Steve in awhile." cutting to said character drinking. He even spent an, alluded to, stint as a government agent taking out some nameless [[Big Bad]] to explain his absence (though it may or may not have all been a drunken dream).
*** A later strip showing a chance encounter between him, Marten and said [[Big Bad]]'s [[The Baroness|Baroness]] [[Torture Technician]] seems to indicate that it wasn't.
** 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
** 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.
** It's been indicated that [[
* ''[[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.
** {{spoiler|Boo has shown up again, though Largo seems to have lent him to Ping. Or something...}}
*** 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.
* Happens to just about everyone at one point or another in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''. Usually occurs when one or two characters get [[Trapped in Another World]], causing the strip to focus almost solely on their efforts to get home for the next few months, with only token appearances from the non-dimensionally displaced characters. (The "Oceans Unmoving" storyline is a particularly [[egregious]] example of this.)
* 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
* ''[[Homestuck]]'': Despite its rapid update rate, [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] and limited page sizes mean several characters are out of the limelight for any amount of time spanning anywhere between days and weeks becase:
** The author is taking his sweet candy coated time to properly flesh out a character through a series of one on one conversations between two characters
** 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
* Done intentionally in ''[[Fite!]]'', where Gorgado's face actually replaces Guz's in the header for a while.
* During ''[[
** 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 [[
== Web Original ==
* Kit-chan's ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' [http://inulovinkit.livejournal.com/tag/capsummary capsummaries] and [http://www.youtube.com/user/FMAVidsummaries#p/c/2487281DE1784051 abridged series] parody this, with Edward stealing the screentime often forcing other characters (mainly Al) to have their lines cut mid-sentence just to keep the spotlight on him.
* Pom Pom of ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' fame was once one of the core characters, Homestar's best friend, and the [[Straight Man]] of the group. Once Strong Bad became the ''de facto'' main character, the humor became more wacky and surreal, and Pom Pom's role gradually faded until he could only be seen in brief cameos or holiday toons.
* [[Equestria Chronicles]] has this problem, occasionally.
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== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[
** Come Season 3 Sokka's doing better (gets a [[Day in The Limelight]] and costars in at least one episode), but Toph averages about four lines per episode with one [[Breather Episode]] centered on her, and by the end she's the only one in the main cast with a major part of her personal arc unresolved. This does end up lampshaded on at least two occasions.
* Brock Samson in the fourth season of ''[[
** The whole family to some extent in season 3. According to the writers, it's sometimes hard to write an episode because they have to find something to do for each of the four main characters while the main story is happening. It quite to the point where they just said "to hell with it".
* Some time around season five, many of ''[[
** Ever since coming back from the dead for supposedly the last time, Kenny rarely has anything to
* As ''[[
* Coco, from ''[[
** 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 ''[[
* This is a natural consequence of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] in [[Merchandise
* In the third and last season of ''[[
** Mostly because the unmade ''Academy'' seasons were supposed to focus on their studies there.
* Since ''[[
* A number of fairly well-defined characters of ''[[
* In [[Classic Disney Shorts|Disney's classic shorts]], the calmer, more genteel [[Mickey Mouse]] gradually lost top billing to hot-tempered [[Jerkass]] [[Donald Duck]]. Mickey appeared in barely any cartoons during [[World War Two]], and eventually had to wait ''30 years'' from his last classic appearance in ''The Simple Things'' until ''Mickey's Christmas Carol''.
** In ''[[
* ''[[
* One of the many things that went wrong with ''[[Hey Arnold
* In the early days of ''[[The Simpsons (
** In Season One, Bart had another friend named Richard who went the same way, finally being doomed to spend eternity as a background extra. In a DVD commentary, the show's staff liken Richard and Lewis to Shermy from ''Peanuts''
*** Richard was always a background character, though, his role was "kid that Lewis hangs with when he's not with Bart and Milhouse". Actually in recent seasons he's been getting lots of random speaking lines. The first step towards [[Ascended Extra]]?
* One of the reasons (but hardly the only one) that ''[[
** Season three also left some characters out of the game, though most of the season two rejects got in, and some of the "bigger" characters from past seasons (like [[Sassy Black Woman|Leshawna]] and [[Dumb Blonde|Lindsay]]) were voted off fairly early. Still, [[Your Mileage May Vary]] whether the others got enough
** Of the 22 original cast members, [[Vasquez Always Dies|Eva]], [[Single
* In the early episodes of ''[[
* By the mid 1960's most of the recurring characters from ''
* ''[[
** 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
* Both [[
** 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.
* Saffi on ''[[Jimmy Two
* Fifi LaFume from ''[[
* Dana Tan, Terry's girlfriend from ''[[
* Happened to several characters in season 2 of ''[[My Little Pony
** 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...
* Roberta of ''[[The Cleveland Show]]'' has such a minor role in the series you'll often forget she's even on the show, despite technically being one of the five main characters. [[Family Guy
* Most of ''[[Tom and Jerry: The Movie]]'' isn't actually about [[
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Real Life Writes the Plot]]
[[Category:Script Speak]]
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