Out of Focus: Difference between revisions

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* 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]]''

** 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.~~<br~~ />Lampshaded and played with in fanworks and extra materials not done by Naoko herself. Fans postulated Naru was some sort of living mana battery (and it even led to a few fics where [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|she became the newest and most powerful senshi]]) and when the seasonal villains stopped collecting energy, her interaction with them stopped as well.

** 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. Lampshaded and played with in fanworks and extra materials not done by Naoko herself. Fans postulated Naru was some sort of living mana battery (and it even led to a few fics where [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|she became the newest and most powerful senshi]]) and when the seasonal villains stopped collecting energy, her interaction with them stopped as well.

** 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.

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* ''[[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.~~<br~~ />The main problem is that Allelujah's whole role in the plot revolves his super solider past and Soma/Marie that has absolutely nothing to do with any of the other main characters or the main plot of Innovators Terrorism and Celestial being. So basically whichever the plot is focusing on means he's either getting all of the focus or none at all.

** 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. The main problem is that Allelujah's whole role in the plot revolves his super solider past and Soma/Marie that has absolutely nothing to do with any of the other main characters or the main plot of Innovators Terrorism and Celestial being. So basically whichever the plot is focusing on means he's either getting all of the focus or none at all.

* ''[[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.

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* In ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]] 90210'', Navid, in theory one of the main characters and appearing in the opening credits, barely appeared in the first eight episodes and after the pilot had no plot of consequence for a third of the season. Ironically this only changed when his character was tied in with a ''guest'' character who had been far more visible and important (she was promoted to the credits soon after and they are now the [[Official Couple]]).

* This happened to Potsie on ''[[Happy Days]]'' after Richie and Ralph left the show.

* 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.~~<br~~ />Ryan has a get-out-of-jail-free card, because the actor who plays him also happens to be one of the executive producers of the show. Well, he's a writer who got promoted to executive producer. It isn't like he pitched a hissy fit.

* 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. Ryan has a get-out-of-jail-free card, because the actor who plays him also happens to be one of the executive producers of the show. Well, he's a writer who got promoted to executive producer. It isn't like he pitched a hissy fit.

* 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.

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** ''[[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]]''

** Guile; being a rather popular character during the time of ''[[Street Fighter II]]'', it was rather odd that he wouldn't appear for the next several years. He finally returned in the home console version of ''[[Street Fighter Alpha]] 3'', the arcade version of which featured every other character from the original World Warrior except for him.~~<br~~ />Guile going Out of Focus makes plot sense, however, as his entire character motivation was to avenge the death of his friend Charlie. In the ''Alpha'' series Charlie is still alive, and in ''[[Street Fighter III]]'' the murderer is long dead. The games where Guile does appear -- ''EX'' and ''[[Street Fighter IV]]''—have Bison alive, giving him a reason to be there.

** Guile; being a rather popular character during the time of ''[[Street Fighter II]]'', it was rather odd that he wouldn't appear for the next several years. He finally returned in the home console version of ''[[Street Fighter Alpha]] 3'', the arcade version of which featured every other character from the original World Warrior except for him. Guile going Out of Focus makes plot sense, however, as his entire character motivation was to avenge the death of his friend Charlie. In the ''Alpha'' series Charlie is still alive, and in ''[[Street Fighter III]]'' the murderer is long dead. The games where Guile does appear -- ''EX'' and ''[[Street Fighter IV]]''—have Bison alive, giving him a reason to be there.

** 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.