Put on a Bus: Difference between revisions

** In a recent season of ''Pokémon'', {{spoiler|Ambipom}} ''is'' put on a bus.

** Though given [[Walking the Earth|the nature of the series]], it's less being put ''on'' the bus as much as being let ''off''.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' did this to Chibiusa whenever they sent her back to the future, though after the first time the reasoning was dubious. Mamoru was put on a plane for a season, and whose fate remained unknown until the final showdown with the [[Big Bad]]. The [[Sixth Ranger|Outer Senshi]] themselves have a habit of showing up for arbitrarily specific dangers, mostly so the writers can prune down the cast manageably. Sailor Senshi Placeholder Naru was continuously put on a bus after the introduction of all the actual senshi, being brought back several times until she was just written out completely in the last season.

* In ''[[Slayers]]'', [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Zelgadis]] was put on a bus after the first arc wrapped up. He reappeared 8 episodes later, and stayed a main character for the rest of the franchise. [[The Medic|Sylphiel]] was also put on a bus in ''Slayers TRY'' (season 3), being replaced by the Golden Dragon [[Tsundere|Filia]], and doesn't return until the end of season 4 (''Slayers Revolution''). Filia herself was also bussed off immediately after ''TRY'' ended, along with all of the other characters exclusive to that season.

** Finally, Zelgadis was absent without explanation in the ''Knight of the Aqualord'' manga; Lina, Gourry, and Amelia all have major roles in that story.

* Tenma went overseas and essentially out of the mainstream storyline of ''[[School Rumble]]''.

** It happened to {{spoiler|her ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' counterpart}}, as well. She disappears after the midway point of the series to run off with her {{spoiler|newfound lover}}, only to return for the final showdown.

** Mai's friends Chie and Aoi leave the school after it shuts down, and are thus absent for the climax.

** As of the new story arc, {{spoiler|nearly the entire cast of the series up to this point.}} Here's a list of characters who have appeared before and are accounted for in the most recent chapters: {{spoiler|Ichigo, his sisters, Isshin, Orihime, Chad, Ishida and Urahara.}} This out of a (formerly) main and supporting cast almost numbering on ''one hundred''. Considering {{spoiler|how Fullbring powers's connection to Soul Reaper and Hollow powers is tenous-at-best and the old-school Japan motiff has been absent since Aizen's defeat,}} it's as if Kubo wanted to write a brand new series altogether after finishing the Hueco Mundo arc.

*** Almost rectified in recent chapters, with {{spoiler|the return of a handful Shinigami, bringing with them confirmation of a whole bunch of others that end up still being relevant - at least when it comes to making Ichigo insanely powerful with the least amount of work possible.}}

** Additionally, due to the Visual Novel Origin of the series, characters will often be put on short bus trips for the story arcs that don't concern them. Examples include Sunohara's whereabouts in the Kotomi arc, Nagisa at several points in the story, Kotomi, Ryou, and Kyou in the Miyazawa arc, and Miyazawa in almost every arc besides her own and the "Absent Nagisa" storylines.

* A lot of characters in ''[[Bakugan]]'' have been loaded onto buses.

 

== Literature ==

* {{spoiler|Bean}} at the end of ''[[Ender's Game|Shadow of the Giant]]'' is put on a relativistic spaceship with {{spoiler|his genetically modified children}} so that they can live until the development of {{spoiler|a cure}}.

* Father Callahan from the [[Stephen King]] novel ''[['Salem's Lot]]'' went off on a literal bus near the end of the book, and rather unexpectedly reappeared years later in the loosely related ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series as a church pastor in another dimension. It is explained he spent a lot of the intervening time killing vampires.

* [[The Bold And The Beautiful]]: Taylor Hayes was a particularly egregious example. After being shot in 2002, and being discovered as [[Not Quite Dead]] in 2005, the character appeared in cameos as a silent ghost several times during the intervening three years.

* In "[[How I Met Your Mother]]" Victoria was put on a bus at the end of The Ducky Tie. She had been ''figuratively'' put on a bus in season 1 when she went off to Germany and became close to Klaus in her class.

* In ''[[Monk]]'', Mr. Monk's original assistant, Sharona Fleming, left Monk to re-marry her husband. She makes a guest appearance in an episode in the final season, and is mentioned once more during the series finale.

* This is the standard way for ''[[Law and Order]]'' franchises to write out characters, especially over the last several years. Dick Wolf is said to regret that Jill Hennessy's Claire Kincaid was [[Killed Off for Real]], and thus could not be brought back.

* Junito from ''[[Noah's Arc]]'', who was put on a bus at the end of season 1, but returned later.

* On ''[[Spooks]]'', Zoe Reynolds is exiled to Chile. At the beginning of the next serious, a brief mention is made of Sam Buxton "being sedated" after the death of her love interest, {{spoiler|Danny}}, and never reappears in the series. In the fifth season, Ruth is Put On A Boat when she's implicated in a murder.

* ''[[Doogie Howser, M.D.]]'': Dr. Jack McGuire, [[Hospital Hottie|the hunky (yet not too suave) doc]] played by Mitchell Anderson. Although an integral part of the show, Anderson quit the series at the end of season 2, and was subsequently written off. McGuire, after returning from a life-changing mission trip to [[Mexico]], decided to move across the border to continue pursuing his medical aspirations.

* Oscar Martinez from the American ''[[The Office]]'' was put on a bus for half of season 3, given a free vacation due to Michael's handling of Oscar's homosexuality. In his reappearance later in the season, he shows up to a Christmas party, but leaves before being noticed, claiming its "too soon". He returns for good three episodes later.

* On ''[[Bonanza]]'', Adam Cartwright moved to Australia when Pernell Roberts left the show.

* On ''[[Veronica Mars]]'', Logan's girlfriend Hannah is sent to a Vermont boarding school when caught canoodling with him. This served to hit the reset button on his romance with Veronica.

* In ''[[Knots Landing]]'' Val's second (third if you count marrying the same guy twice as two marriages) husband Ben follows a woman named Jean Hackney to Central America to make her pay for threatening his family... or something... and is never heard from again. (In the next season Jill Bennett cruelly pretends to be Ben and tells Val that he's coming home.)

** Also, Karen and Mack become foster parents to a teenager named Jason in season 12. He leaves for a year studying abroad in Sweden the following season and is never seen (or even mentioned) again.

* One regular team member of BBC Radio 1's ''[[Scott Mills Show]]'', Mark Chapman, went to the toilet on Christmas Eve 2009 and hasn't been heard from since.

** He got given his own show on Radio 5.

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In [[Warhammer Fantasy]], the Dogs of War and Chaos Dwarves are former armies, with people even having the option of hiring Dogs of War units as rare choices. GW presumably realized what a [[Game Breaker]] that could be (essentially allowing you to hire units to get around your armies designated balancing weaknesses) and completely cut them from the fluff and army books. Chaos Dwarves are a little more complicated as the army is remembered fondly by veteran players and often sought after by new players, and they remain in the fluff (primarily due to the proximity of the newer Ogre Kingdoms army). Lately models and rules have begun popping up on Forge World, leading people to hope that the army might be due [[The Bus Came Back|for a revival.]]

 

* Dr. Madison Li in ''[[Fallout 3]]'' gets this treatment in the ''Broken Steel'' expansion. Once you turn on the purifier, Dr. Li leaves the Capital Wasteland for the Commonwealth, even though she just witnessed a major breakthrough in her work.

* During the [[Time Skip]] between the first two ''[[Golden Sun]]'' games and the third, six of the original eight heroes mysteriously vanish from the plot. Ivan, Mia and Jenna are seemingly just offscreen, given that their children are the new protagonists, but Piers and Felix have gone travelling and Sheba's whereabouts are not even mentioned. Since the game ends with yet another [[Sequel Hook]], we hopefully haven't heard the last of them.

** Not true. Their last appearance before that was in the first ''Mario & Luigi'' game.

** Diddy Kong, Toadette, Dry Bones, King Boo, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi share the trope in the ''[[Mario Kart]]'' series (so far).

* In the first [[.hack|.Hack://]] games for [[PlayStation 2]], in volume 2 Mistral admits she is nearing the end of her pregnancy and can't do anything stressful so she has to log off for a while. She is not seen or heard from again until she magically reappears in the 4th volume. Aura pulls this as well, appearing frequently in volumes 1 and several times in 2, but seems to have forgotten to aid you in your quest in 3 and only appears a couple times in 4.

** .Hack://GU does this with the majority of the characters in the game who are not Morganna factors or turned into Lost Ones. Although all of the characters are still selectable and can be adventured with at any time, none of the majority of them, for example Matsu, will ever have importance in the story again until the end of the 3rd game, and then it's optional.

* [[The Elder Scrolls]] IV Oblivion does this with most of the prominent figures from Morrowind, despite only taking place 6 years later. Although you couldn't possibly expect to see so many major characters when they were in a whole different province, you only hear of vague rumors that Vivec "disappeared" and the Nerevarine left on an expedition to Akavir. A former living god and a previous hero sound like exactly the kind of people you'd want to have around to help repel a demonic invasion.

** Furthermore, halfway through Morrowind, your first quest giver Caius Cosades gets reassigned... to Cyrodiil (for those who haven't played an Elder Scrolls game, the latter is where Oblivion takes place). You would ''think'' he would be in the game, considering he was a Blade that was known to be around the Emporer. Even a cameo as the [[Red Shirt]] Blade that gets cut down in your first battle would have been nice.

* Happened to {{spoiler|Zhalia}} in the end of episode 17 of ''[[Huntik Secrets and Seekers]]''. {{spoiler|She comes back in the next two episodes}}.

* Tak was a victim of a bus ride in ''[[Invader Zim]]''. She {{spoiler|was lost in space after the fight between her and Zim.}} However, in an [[What Could Have Been|unfinished episode,]] she would have returned and become Zim's secondary rival. Unfortunately, [[Too Good to Last|the series ended before that could happen.]]

* ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' did this with Harry for eight episodes. However, it wasn't so much a convenient way to get him out of the way as part of his personal [[Story Arc]], as his father took him to Europe to {{spoiler|[[Fantastic Drug|get over his addiction to]] [[Psycho Serum|Globulin Green]]}}.

* ''[[Pearlie]]'' antagonist: Moe the daisy-cutting pixie.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Tropes on a Bus]]