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.}}

* [[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.

== Comic Books ==

* Ares from [[Marvel Comics]] was portrayed as a [[Badass]] [[Papa Wolf]], [[Heel Face Turn|once villain]] of the [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]] who was recruited onto the Mighty Avengers team. However, the team itself was short lived as after only two short arcs the team was disbanded and he became a Dark Avenger instead. This led to him being [[The Worf Effect|tossed around by every other villain the team faced]] and the book focused on other characters instead. He scored a few [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|crowning moments of awesome]] while being neglected but it seems increasingly likely that he won't feature too prominently anymore seeing as {{spoiler|The Void tore him in half in an embarrassingly short [[Curb Stomp Battle]] during Siege.}}

** And ''no one cared!''

* [[Cute Mute]] and [[Body Surf|Body Surfer]] Jericho of the ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]''. After being stuck on a floppy as a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] ghost for a couple years he was finally revived and restored to his old self and with a new body... only to be shoved into limbo about ten issues later where he would turn up a in couple years [[Heel Face Revolving Door|evil again due to multiple evil personalities from his power of possession (and also possibly from being 'dead')]] and {{spoiler|ultimately suffer [[Eye Scream]]}}. What makes this even more of a waste was that during Jericho’s short time as a newly revived hero, he had hardly any interaction with any of his old friends (especially best friend/almost love interest Raven who resurrected him but insteas their relationship seemed [[Derailing Love Interests|forgotten]]) or a decent reunion with his father Deathstroke the Terminator, or really anything about the character was explored besides "mute son of Deathstroke". Now, the mute part has been taken away, thus [[DC Comics]] having one less hero with a physical disability. Besides some sweet bonding moments with his half-sister Ravager, Jericho was mostly stuck in the background and underused until he was thrown in to the mediocre and forgettable stories DCU: Decisions and the Titans/Teen Titans/Vigilante crossover Deathtrap. However, as of Blackest Night {{spoiler|Jericho seemed to have recovered from both insanity and [[Eye Scream]]... for now.}}

* [[Heroes]] had Elle played by [[Kristen Bell]]. The 7th episode of Season 3 set her up for a [[Heel Face Turn]], only to abort it and the last minute. Then she starts a relationship with Sylar which seemed to be going well until he suddenly kills her.

** An even better example is Scott the super soldier from Season 3. He's given significant screen time in ''Our Father'', up to and including an explanation of his motives for participating in the program, which is a novelty in a show where characters do things for unexplained and inexplicable reasons. He is the first recipient of the perfected formula, neatly subverts [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]], and is all set up to be a big player in the finale. {{spoiler|Then the finale comes and minor villain Knox unceremoniously snaps his neck.}}

** Then there was the 6th Doctor, who was supposed to start out as an abrasive, egotistical blowhard before softening considerably as his tenure went on. [[Executive Meddling]] cut his time short, so he never really got past being an abrasive, egotistical blowhard. Like the above example, there is [[Expanded Universe]] material that helps rectify this.

* ''[[Supernatural]]'' features at least one of these a season: there's Meg's brother Tom in Season 1, most of the psychic kids in Season 2, Bela Talbot from Season 3, and so on.

** [[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.

** Eva hasn't had much screen time either. She may not be the best character, but she deserves more screen time. Maybe she could actually help significantly in a challenge, or explain why she's so angry at everything. Ezekiel has been in the competition more than her. EZEKIEL!

** [[And the Fandom Rejoiced]] when it was retconned that he ''wasn't'' really dead after all, and Joe's casual mention of his "death" was actually because the army did a paper work mix-up {{spoiler|and Kevin had faked his death to avoid having to be in the army}}.

** [[Butt Monkey|Meg]] is an odd example: she's a major character who appears in just about every episode, but [[Word of God]] admits they have no idea what to do with a teenage girl character. Their solution is just to show her being hating by everyone for no reason, mocked for being [[Hollywood Pudgy|fat]] and [[Informed Deformity|ugly]], and showly slipping into depression/insanity. [[The Woobie|Jeez]].

[[Category:YMMV Trope]]

[[Category:They Wasted A Perfectly Good Character]]