Out of Focus: Difference between revisions
Tell me again: is repeated bold better or worse than self-demonstrating?
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(Tell me again: is repeated bold better or worse than self-demonstrating?) |
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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.
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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 becoming the [[Brother Chuck]], dropping off the face of the Earth, never to be seen again. Alternatively, they may be [[Put on a Bus]] or [[Killed Off for Real]] when the creator decides (s)he has no further use for them. If they return after the nature of the story has changed in their absence—for example, the plot has come down with a nasty case of [[Cerebus Syndrome]]—and they don't seem to fit in with the tone any more, they may become [[The Artifact]].
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
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