They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Difference between revisions

Contrast [[CreatorsCreator's Pet]], this trope's exact opposite, where a character ''isn't'' considered good by many viewers but keeps getting exposure anyway. A subtrope of [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]], supertrope of [[Too Cool to Live]]. Nearly always an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

** The House of Kyoto, the heads of the major industries in Japan, who later assist the Black Knights by supplying them with technology after one of them, Kirihara, recognizes Zero as Lelouch who he met as a child. It would've been nice if all the members not just [[Token Mini -Moe|Kaguya]] were elaborated in character and Kirhara's relationship with Lelouch was explored more rather than executing them for being the Black Knights' supporters.

* ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]'': Yuuno Scrya. In a series so focused on how the ancient civilizations and technologies of the past are constantly unearthing themselves to cause major trouble in the present day, having an archeologist, scholar and librarian of ancient knowledge in the cast was a great idea. But despite his many virtues and all of the potential left to explore with his background and career, the writers seemed to only care about him as a [[Ship Tease|romantic possibility]] for the eponymous heroine. So when they decided not to do that any more, they took him completely out of the action and plot without a word of explanation, even when the rest of the cast should have been still looking to rely on his support in battle, or at least asking him what the heck they're dealing with ''this'' time. Yuuno even teaches magic to Nanoha's adoptive daughter, Vivio, [[Show, Don't Tell|according to]] [[All There in the Manual|the side-materials]], but we never actually see or hear them interact, even when she visits his library to do what was originally his ''role'' in the story. Also, why ''did'' Vita, who claims there isn't anything she can't break, never seek a rematch with him, to see if she could finally defeat his defenses?

* In ''[[The Riftwar Cycle]]'' the author devotes a book to novelising the plot of the insanely successful RPG ''[[Betrayal At Krondor]]'' written by Neal Hallford and set in his world. One of the characters, Owyn Beleforte, ends up as a very powerful 19-year-old magician who has become [[Fire -Forged Friends|friends]] with one of the allegedly [[Always Chaotic Evil]] dark elves and the first character to actually sympathise with the enemy. Additionally, he can understand their language due to a spell cast on him by one of their witches. He's also one of the handful in the world to be aware of the nature and location of the [[Artifact of Doom]] after helping save the world from it, as well as the super secret details of the last major war between humans and dark elves - to wit, the dark elves were manipulated by a third party into a near-suicidal invasion that killed many of them off like flies. Oh, and his dark elf friend dies through a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. The story that practically begs to be told is that of Owyn taking up his fallen friend's cause and working further toward the peace which neither of the nations really want at the moment - he is unique in having both the backstory and motivation as well as the power to make feasible progress in it. The author, however, holds no interest at all in a character he didn't come up with, so after that book Owyn allegedly gave up the life of adventure and went home to live a normal life - according to [[Word of God]] - his fate didn't even get an in-story explanation, much less an appearance on-screen.

* [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] fans will never agree on it, but it seems that the decision to kill Anakin Solo just as they'd launched three major plot arcs around him (romance, check; special abilities, check; unique connection with enemy culture, check) was a bit of a dead end. Oddly, the writers of the post-''[[New Jedi Order]]'' era seem to agree, as they keep making everyone relive his death. Oddly, Anakin bordered on [[CreatorsCreator's Pet]] in the Corellian Trilogy. According to the writers, they were going to make Anakin the hero of the [[New Jedi Order]] books, but [[George Lucas]] vetoed it because he was afraid people would mix up Anakin Skywalker and Anakin Solo.

* Djaq from ''[[Robin Hood (TV)|Robin Hood]]'' was a [[Sweet Polly Oliver]] who played the [[Gender Flip|Gender Flipped]] role of the Saracen, brought from Jerusalem to England as a slave. She disguises herself as a boy, takes her twin brother's persona, and decides to join Robin and his outlaws as [[The Medic]]. The potential here was breathtaking - not only could it been a great [[Fish Out of Water]] story, but Djaq effortlessly took the place as [[The Heart]] of the group, had an intriguing dynamic with all her fellow outlaws (including a [[Love Triangle]] that was vastly more interesting than [[Romantic Plot Tumor|Robin, Marian and Guy forever whinging at each other]]) and an endearing superiority complex that was completely at odds with the actress's tiny stature. She almost instantly become the show's [[Ensemble Darkhorse]], only for the writers to completely ignore her, throw her into an [[Strangled By the Red String|abrupt relationship]] with Will Scarlett, write her out of the show, and [[Replacement Scrappy|replace her]] with a [[Jerkass Sue]] who was [[CreatorsCreator's Pet|hated by all and sundry]], but who got twice as much screentime in one season than Djaq did in two.

** Some might think they wasted Tren Krom too. Sure, he had a great impact on the story already, and was a very interestingly developed character (some sort of a benevolent but still mean-spirited [[Eldritch Abomination]] who's terrified to see what the world he was once appointed to rule had come to), but he was bound to his island prison, which limited his use greatly. Then, he became free, and when we next see him... [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|his pieces are all over the scenery]]. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that killing off powerful characters was the ''point'' of this story, but still. There was great potential in the guy.

** And now Telluris. A crazed and evil [[Gadgeteer Genius]] who does have a good side, but this is usually overshadowed by his mighty mechanical scorpion-war machine, the Skopio XV-1. The Skopio only ever appeared in [[One -Scene Wonder|one scene]] (not counting its animation model appearing in ''The Legend Reborn''), in a difficult-to-get side story, and got trashed. Thus, the most defining aspect of Telluris' character was gone. Telluris also received an in-depth history, and even seemed like an actual likable character, only to be killed off later for no reason whatsoever, before he could do anything that had an impact on the plot.

*** Reala herself suffers from this even as she's the [[Spot Light 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.

* The majority of ''[[Touhou]]'' characters ([[Loads and Loads of Characters|and there are a lot]]) still manage to be interesting despite their brief appearance, and even ones with multiple appearances have large chunks of their personality and past underutilised or just unexplored. [[Small Name, Big Ego|Mima]], [[Hot As Hell|Shinki]], [[Person of Mass Destruction|Flandre]], [[Kitsune|Ran]], [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|Mokou]], [[Don't Fear the Reaper|Komachi]], [[Gadgeteer Genius|Nitori]], [[Jerkass Woobie|Parsee]], and [[Cute Ghost Girl|Minamitsu]] are merely a small list of the characters fans became enamored with and speculate about constantly despite their small roles. Indeed this is part of the reason for the truly gargantuan [[Doujin]] community that arose around the games, fans exploring every aspect they can imagine, and even the fighting [[Gaiden Game|Gaiden Games]] and [[Expanded Universe]] manga (given input from ZUN but mostly made by other people) take the opportunity to expand upon the characters in more detail and attention.

** [[Canada, Eh?|Ezekiel]]'s situation deserves special mention. He was the first contestant voted off in season one and was left out of season two, but got quite a sizable fan base anyway, perhaps especially due to the extremely popular ''[[Total Drama Comeback Series]]''. There was a whole mini-mystery about whether or not he would be in season three, and when it turned out he ''was,'' fans got really excited... and then he got voted off first ''again''. And then, just so his fans ''really'' understood [[Take That|how much the show's writers hated them]], he devolved into an [[Expy]] of [[The Lord of the Rings|Gollum]] for no logical reason, and got to "come back" as a [[Running Gag]] before falling into a volcano in the finale. Needless to say, many of his fans have been crying this trope.

* General Immortus from the fifth season of ''[[Teen Titans (Animation)|Teen Titans]]''. He's one of the core members of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] and he's a military genius with ''milennia'' of experience, but at the end of the day he appears in only a handful of episodes, in only one of which he has lines, and does little but boss the [[Mooks]] around. In the [[Final Battle]], he gets an ignominious curbstomp where his three companions all go down fighting hard (or at least [[BraininaBrain In A Jar|the Brain]] has a [[The Dragon|Dragon]] fight hard and leaves a booby-trap himself).