They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Difference between revisions

** According to [[Word of God]], she ''was'' meant to last a while longer and have a lasting impact on the plot, but she was far too clever and would have figured Light out before long, bringing the story to a quick end. Perhaps in compensation, the live action movie sees her role expanded from the manga, {{spoiler|although she still does die.}}

* [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Nena Trinity.]] She's introduced, like her brothers, as an unsettling figure and later crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]] by {{spoiler|killing all of Louise's family.}} Then the show's resident [[Complete Monster]], Ali Al-Saachez, unknowingly gives her a taste of her own medicine by killing her brothers and leaving her all alone. Now in the second season, this seems to have affected her and she's slightly less batshit insane and more thoughtful. She also has to work with an even bigger spoiled, sociopathic villainess, giving her someone to reflect on. She later helps out the cause of good, not due to a [[Heel Face Turn]], but because [[Even Evil Has Standards|her side isn't living up to her standards.]] All the while, {{spoiler|Louise}} is becoming a [[Dark Action Girl]] and out for revenge against Nena. This would be a great plot: have {{spoiler|Louise}} face Nena now that Nena has somewhat redeemed herself and is beginning to change for the better. It would be a fasicnating conflict of [[Grey and Gray Morality]]: does the change in Nena mean {{spoiler|Louise}} shouldn't take vengenace on her, or does the [[Moral Event Horizon]] still stand and {{spoiler|Louise}} is justified? So what happens? A [[Time Skip]] occurs, Nena is suddenly as much of a psychotic bitch as before, she discards her standards, and, though she does [[Kick the Son of a Bitch|awesomely get rid of Wang Lui Mei]], nothing really happens to even out the conflict between her and {{spoiler|Louise.}}Aside from the whole [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him|vengeance is wrong]] shtick, nothing is done to convince you that perhaps {{spoiler|Louise}} isn't justified, and it winds up a [[Black and Gray Morality]] issue instead of a [[Gray and Gray Morality]] one. Which leaves the question: ''What was the POINT of trying to develop Nena's character if the staff was just going to end her THIS way?!''

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' is full to the brim with these, largely thanks to its [[Monster of the Week]] and Victim Of The Week format:

** Thetis, perhaps the only MotW to show something like human emotion, and hints of a backstory connecting her with Jadeite. None of this ever gets developed, as she's only in one episode. And Jadeite himself, who also got some hints of character in that episode, is done away with in the very ''next'' one.

*** Team Galactic fares a little better, but still only get 10 episodes out of well ''over'' 100.

*** Team Plasma hasn't even ''appeared'' yet due to their debut [[Too Soon|being pulled off the air for the time being.]]

* Ogawa of ''[[Bakuman｡]]''. He's incredibly knowledgeable about manga, from his prediction that {{spoiler|Detective Trap wouldn't last long in Jump}} to knowing how to set up an office and manage assistants. Despite his talent, he doesn't try to become an mangaka, not even trying to pair up with a writer to offset his weaknesses as a storyteller, and is never seen again after {{spoiler|Trap gets canceled}}. Even having him as an assistant might have been a good way to contrast him with assistants driven to get a series, such as Nakai and Takahama.

* [[Black Butler]]: Despite an [[Loads and Loads of Characters|impressive cast]], most characters who aren't Sebastian or Ciel become dead weight pretty quickly. Not to say that many aren't [[Flat Character|Flat]], but many others showed serious promise before being unceremoniously [[Killed Off for Real|killed]] or [[Put on a Bus|forgotten]]. {{spoiler|It's especially problematic when two such characters ''are the season's [[Big Bad]]s''.}}

* Cheria in ''[[Tales of Graces]]'' had much ''much'' more room to develop. Heck, this is a ''[[Tales (series)]]'' game! They have all ''sorts'' of nice character development in there yet Cheria seems almost put in there just to be the Token Love Interest. Unfortunately; she turns out to be a stereotypical [[Damsel in Distress]], and violates many beliefs that [[Real Women Never Wear Dresses]]. Kind of sad though; she's kind of a Woobie, too.

** [[Namco Bandai]] does seem to have realized this, as Cheria becomes more developed in ''Tales of Graces f''. Still not nearly as much as she should be though.

*** Reala herself suffers from this even as she's the [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]]. Namco-Bandai can be pretty brutal about deconstructing [[Common Mary Sue Traits]]. Reala however, plays them all perfectly straight with no new interpretations or real negative consequences for her.

*** Although the Reala issue can be justified that TOD2 was one of the earlier titles of [[Tales (series)]] before Namco arguably [[Growing the Beard|grow some beard]] in terms of writing a balanced love story, other character focus or totally deconstructing [[Common Mary Sue Traits]], so they make mistakes in the first go, and learn on how to deconstruct after their experience with Reala.

* ''[[Rocket Power]]'' introduced a potential love interest for Reggie, in an ep that shows her being afraid to show her real sports skills. Total episode count? ''Two'', with his only other episode centering around Reggie feeling offended that she wasn't invited to play rugby like her fellow friends. At least with Breezy (who was similarly introduced for Reggie's dad and got the same episode count), she had the excuse of being a traveling saleswoman...

* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'': Bubble Bass could be a good [[Arch Enemy]] to SpongeBob, but he has not made ​​an appearance since the ''first season''.

** Remember that [[Hidden Depths|Trixie Tang]] is actually a tomboy scared of alienating her 'friends' if she behaved anyway that she wasn't expected to? And even ''before'' that, in her first appearance, she showed that [[Pet the Dog|she was nice deep down]], rather than just a spoiled [[Jerkass]]? The writers sure don't...

* Because of the setup of ''[[Total Drama Island]],'' all of the cast members are theoretically equal in standing, and as a result, just about ''everyone'' became an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] to a particular fan base. During the second season, however, only some of them won a chance to compete, and most of them were the characters who had already gotten far in the first season. Many fans disapproved, and season three gave more attention to some of the less-used characters, though disagreements arose about whether it was enough after Duncan returned.

** Gary Harrison the Mormon kid was fairly popular during his debut and seemed like he would become a recurring character, but alas he never appeared again aside from a brief non-speaking cameo.

** Similarly, the new characters from [[The Movie]] such as The Mole, Gregory and Dr. Vosknocker never appeared again (outside of a ''very'' brief cameo from the Mole).

* It seems the ''[[Adventure Time]]'' writers did this with {{spoiler|13-year old Princess Bubblegum. She}} has only a little over an episode before {{spoiler|being changed back to normal.}}

* The majority of the villains in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' never get used for more than three episodes before getting dropped for no apparent reason.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:YMMV Trope]]