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]]''}}

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

This also often happens for optional characters, but as you'll notice; they're...well, optional, so the events are written without them.

 

{{examples}}

 

* 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 (anime)|Pokémon]]''

*** 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!|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}}.

* ''[[Bleach]]''

** 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]].

** 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.

** 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.

* In the ''[[To Love Ru]]'' manga, Ren appears less and less as the series goes on. Mainly because his [[Gender Bender|female alter ego]], Run, gets more screentime. Though even Run doesn't get that much anyway.

* 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.

* In ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' [[Otaku|otaku girl]] Renge had a whole chapter dedicated to her in the manga, but then she fell into the background. She does still make quite a few cameo appearances such as during the Halloween chapter, and is said to be one of Haruhi's customers. The mangaka, Bisco Hatori, said she had intended to make Renge a more frequent character, but for whatever reason she never went through with. On the flip side, the anime adaptation turned Renge into an [[Ascended Extra]] and the [[As You Know]], [[Genre Savvy]] [[Fan Girl]]. Bisco-sensei was happy to see Renge get more screentime, even if it did become less frequent toward the anime's finale.

* ''[[Soul Eater]]'' does this on and off with its characters, shifting the focus frequently. Not so much in the anime, but the manga sometimes has even some of the main protagonists absent for three or more chapters except maybe in a panel or two. It seems more apparent in the manga since it's updated monthly which can cause slower plot progression depending on what's happening (despite the fact the chapters are generally 30+ pages long).

* ''[[Love Hina]]'' gives us five initial potential love interests, with three more later on, {{spoiler|[[Foregone Conclusion|although it's fairly evident that the main character Keitarô gets with Naru in the end]]}}. All but one, Mitsune "Kitsune" Konno, get fairly detailed backstories, growth, and [[Character Development]]. Kitsune plays a [[Cool Big Sis]] role to Keitarô and was a student with Naru, but little else is known about her.

** 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.

* The four major protagonists of ''[[Slayers]]'' have only so much of their histories covered (and the importance of said histories only go so far), but virtually nothing is known about [[Idiot Hero|Gourry Gabriev]], the swordsman of the group. The only thing known about him for sure is that an ancestor of his wielded [[Sword Beam|the Sword of Light]] and defeated a beast named [[Eldritch Abomination|Zanaffar]] with it. He has an established backstory, but it's only availible via [[Word of God|interviews]]. When a potential story involving said ancestor falling for an elf girl popped up in a [[Non-Serial Movie]], [[Word of God|Haijime Kanzaka]] [[Jossed]] it.

** 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 (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. Story arcs tend rotate focus amongst the main cast.

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

* In the ''[[Anime/Yuru Yuri|Yuru Yuri]]'' manga, Akari, the supposed protagonist, loses focus to her wacky friends. The anime turns this into a horribly cruel joke, to the point that the camera drifts away from her in the middle of a monologue to focus on something more interesting, and her friends need to write her name on their hands to remember who she is.

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

* 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]]''

** 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.

== Films -- Live-Action ==

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

* ''[[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.

** 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 on Him|unceremonious death]] turns out to be a subversion and he pulls off a final [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] by successfully getting the survivors off the island.}}

* "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 [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|taking up all the airtime]] that year. A lampshade was hilariously hung on this at [[Fan Convention|Power Morphicon]], when Nick and Maddie's actors mentioned he continually lobbied to get Madison a bigger role on the series. This finally led to an incredibly awkward "come back for me" moment in the season finale after they'd spent almost no time interacting all season. [[Reality Subtext|The fact their actors happened to be a couple]] didn't hurt...

*** Likewise, Aisha had similar treatment in her tenure on [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]].

* ''[[Veronica Mars]]''

* 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.

* 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]].

* ''[[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 [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|stealing the spotlight]] and Takeru Satoh, Ryotaro's original actor, leaving the franchise to pursue other roles after the third (and supposedly [[Grand Finale]]) movie. The character was [[The Nth Doctor|Nth Doctor'd]] for his next few appearances, but won't be showing up at all in the upcoming ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' 40th anniversary movie.

* 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.

* 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.

 

== Pro Wrestling ==

* 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]].

** ''[[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:

** 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.

*** This arguably started happening as early as ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]''. They were very major characters in the first game, as their search for King Mickey is one of the driving forces of the plot, but as more original characters, such as Roxas, Naminé, and Organization XIII, were introduced and [[Character Focus|focused on]], Donald and Goofy ended up losing quite a bit of limelight. Come ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', their only role is to pretty much just be... there, the two are no longer essential to the story, and they aren't even present during the final battle.

** 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 ''[[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.

** 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 Positive]]'' features such a massive cast, with many people living in different parts of the country, that formerly major characters like Jhim & Kim (the former of whom was easily in the Top Five most important characters in Year One) will disappear for an entire ''year'' before being seen again.

** 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.

* ''[[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).

** 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 ''[[South Park]]'''s oldest supporting characters either became rarely seen, or just [[Living Prop|shoved into the background]]. At least two of them were [[Killed Off for Real]]. Officer Barbrady, formerly a major character and the only cop in town, is now basically unseen, while a whole police force is now regularly shown.

* 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.

* Coco, from ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends|Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', was absent for almost all of Season 5 of the show, most likely due to her being the [[The Unintelligible]], and therefore very difficult to characterise.

* 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 ''[[Mad]]'''s [http://johnglenntaylor.blogspot.com/2009/01/mickey-rodent-mad-19.html parody story from issue 19], [[Parody Names|Darnold Duck]] keeps complaining that [[Parody Names|Mickey Rodent]] is still around while Darnold himself is more popular. At the end of the story, Mickey traps Darnold in a realistic zoo, an act he planned for years to regain his popularity.

* One of the many things that went wrong with ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'''s movie was the fact that, while the series gave many background characters their [[Day in The Limelight]] (one of its notable strengths), only Arnold and Gerald {{spoiler|(and Helga)}} get much action in the movie. None of the background students get any lines, and Phoebe (a regular student) gets only one line. Heck, Arnold's grandparents, Helga's dad, and the Sunset Arms boarders, get more time than most of the other students.

* In the early days of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', Bart had his best friend, Milhouse, and a second-best friend, a kid named Lewis. As Milhouse, Nelson, Martin Prince and Ralph Wiggum got [[Character Focus]], Lewis never developed any of the quirks that made the other four interesting, and so he was [[Demoted to Extra|demoted to background character]].

*** 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 ''[[Total Drama Island]]'' fans dislike the [[Seasonal Rot|second season]] was that almost half the contestants from Season One were cut out. What makes it worse is that the neglected campers were mostly the ones who hadn't gotten very far originally, and thus missed a chance for greater [[Character Development]] even though some of them (Cody, Noah and Ezekiel, for example) have [[Ensemble Darkhorse|surprisingly large fanbases]].

** 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.

** 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.