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{{trope}}
{{quote|''I'm still not quite sure how [[Stephenie Meyer|SMeyer]] came up with her; it's like she wandered in from a better book.''|'''cmdr_zoom''', commenting on [http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/672553.html Cleolinda's LiveJournal] about [[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Alice]].}}
 
The character is brilliant. They might be any role but no matter what trope they fall under, whether a single trope or many, they all have one thing in common. You love them, but the writer doesn't.
 
It's not their fault. They do the best they can. They just never seem to get the screentime that you think they deserve. That [[A Day in Thethe Limelight|Day in the Limelight]] isn't forthcoming, the episode focusing on their mysterious past doesn't turn up, you never get to hear their snarky remarks on a situation that just calls for it and after five pages of teasing they get [[Put Onon a Bus]] to Nowhereville.
 
Often happens when a single- or few-episode character is introduced. They show great promise, with an interesting background or interaction with the main character(s), and could have led to a compelling plot or new dynamic if made a permanent fixture, or at ''least'' a recurring character -- but were underdeveloped and then discarded.
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== Anime & Manga ==
* [[Starter Villain|Raditz]] from ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]] Z''. He's Goku's ''older brother'', but after his defeat and death, he's rarely if ''ever'' brought up ever again. [[The Abridged Series]] lampoons this, with Krillin asking Raditz "You'll be involved in many future events, right?", to which Raditz responds by attacking Krillin.
** Everyone who isn't Goku (or a Saiyan, at the very least) eventually falls victim to this trope by the end of the series.
* Gai Daigoji from ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', the perfect lancer, a goofball character that was never really seen before (''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' would later base Ryusei Date off of him). His also killed in an event that seems less to show that real war isn't fun and games (the cast was full of goofballs, Gai was just the most entertaining) and more a move to piss off fans.
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** Ohgi, Diethart, Euphemia, Toudou, the Four Holy Swords, Tamaki, Rolo, V.V, Mao and oh God, {{spoiler|Shirley.}}
** The {{spoiler|Knights Of Round}} who should've been an elite [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]], but are cannon fodder to show how skilled Suzaku and Kallen are.
* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'': Naomi Misora. Competent FBI agent. Developed and multidimensional. Has a very good reason and more than enough skill to bring Kira down. [[Too Cool to Live|Dies less than three episodes after being introduced.]]
** 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 Aa 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?!''
** If Nena was given a chance to fight Ali, it would be [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap|out of the Scrappy heap for Her.]] Also, it's a better way to [[Alas, Poor Scrappy|dispose of her]] if [[Heroic Sacrifice|she lost and Setsuna saw it]]. {{spoiler|Louise}} doing her in only creates ''more'' of a [[Broken Base]].
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' is full to the brim with these, largely thanks to its [[Monster of the Week]] and Victim Of The Week format:
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** Zest. {{spoiler|The degrading clone of a deceased mage}}, he could have faced off against Erio {{spoiler|who is also a clone}} and the former's issues could have been something for the latter to struggle with.
** Jail. A [[A Father to His Men|fatherly]] (in some cases [[Truly Single Parent|literally]]) [[Phlebotinum Rebel]] fighting to defend his family and overthrow the secretly corrupt establishment with minimal collateral damage, as established when the RF6 HQ was destroyed without loss of innocent life, could have made for a great [[Hero Antagonist]]. It could have led the heroes to struggle with the ethics of their situation, fighting a good man under the orders of a diseased high command. However, the writer chickened out and tried to eliminate viewer sympathy by making him carry out stereotypically villainous behaviour such as brainwashing, torture and {{spoiler|leaving his "daughters" to die in a base self-destruct.}}
* A whole lot of characters in the ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]'' anime, many of them being characters of the day or occasionally reoccurring characters at best.
** Some of the Pokemon are also wasted. The worst example is probably Ash's Primeape, which he caught in one episode, didn't use until a few episodes later, at the end of which he gave it away, and it hasn't been heard from since.
** So far, the villainous teams get this, so much it's not funny. Crosses over with [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot]]. To elaborate:
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*** Team Plasma hasn't even ''appeared'' yet due to their debut [[Too Soon|being pulled off the air for the time being.]]
*** And of course, Team Rocket themselves haven't prominently appeared since the Kanto saga, and even then we were mostly limited to the bumbling trio. This looks to be subverted - mercifully - with [[Took a Level In Badass|greater plot and story development]] in the new ''Best Wishes'' series, however.
* Ogawa of ''[[Bakuman｡ (Manga)|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 Onon a Bus|forgotten]]. {{spoiler|It's especially problematic when two such characters ''are the season's [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]''.}}
* ''[[Digimon Adventure 02 (Anime)|Digimon Adventure 02]]'' had numerous examples of wasted plots, but two infamous ones were the aborted Dagomon arc and later the Daemon Corps. Both characters could also count as wasted.
 
 
== 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.}}
* [[wikipedia:Shamrock (comics)#Fictional character biography|Shamrock]], Marvel's [[Captain Ethnic|Captain Irish]] heroine. She's possessed by the spirits of dead Irish soldiers who have unfinished business. When they possess her they give her the speed, strength and martial skill of a thousand dead warriors... oh sorry, they actually made her ''really, really lucky''. But wait, [[It Got Worse|it gets better]]; she retired from superhero-ing to become... ''[[Stay in Thethe Kitchen|a hairdresser]]''.
** 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.}}
* In general, both Marvel and DC Comics have countless characters who may have had intriguing concepts or personalities, but after their first appearances or the cancellation of their series, they're rarely seen again. When they do appear, they're usually killed as throwaway [[C -List Fodder]] or serve as second-rate [[Mooks]], in the case of many supervillains. Sadly, these characters might have had a lot of creative potential, but more often than not fans and writers alike ignore them in favour of long-established characters and [[Expy|Expys]] of these long-standing characters.
 
 
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== Film ==
* Colossus in the ''[[X-Men (Filmfilm)|X-Men]]'' films, and he's only the most [[Egregious]] example. The third film is lousy with this, wasting not only Colossus, but Psylocke and Multiple Man as well. Even Callisto could have gotten more characterisation mileage than simply being another of Magneto's lackies. Basically, there are two kinds of characters in the third film: on one hand, you have the characters who could all be the poster children for this trope. On the other hand, you have [[Canon Sue|Wolverine]].
* For people who never delve into the [[Expanded Universe]] of ''[[Star Wars]]'', General Grievous. He gets name-dropped in the opening crawl, shares several qualities with the original trilogy's Darth Vader and appears for just a few minutes total in the film {{spoiler|before Obi-Wan pwns him}}.
** From the first prequel movie we have Darth Maul. He was dark, energetic, had strange markings and gave ''two'' Jedi an even fight, managing to kill the more experienced of the two. He got two or three lines<ref> many ''droids'' got more lines than he did</ref> in the entire movie, no characterization except for a brief mention of wanting revenge on the Jedi and then got killed because he apparently couldn't believe that Obi-wan could make that jump. It's a slight consolation that Star Wars: The Clone Wars spent a few episodes on his origin and gave him another chance.
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* In the third ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' film there are two young Asian women (possibly sisters) as part of Sao Feng's court. When the fighting begins one of them takes a bullet to the forehead and the other catches her with a look of devastation on her face. She turns to the camera with RAGEFACE and it looks like everyone is about to get their asses handed back to them...but she is shot dead just a few minutes later. She could have made a fantastic [[Chekhov's Gunman]] to take out Gilette.
** Also Anamaria, the [[Pirate Girl]] in the first movie, who never appeared again afterward.
* Mikaela Banes in ''[[Transformers (Filmfilm)|Transformers]]''. She surprisingly has more characterization than just being the [[Designated Love Interest]], [[Action Girl|holds her own fairly well against smaller Decepticons]], and is overall an intriguing character. Then the second movie tosses most of that aside to focus on her relationship with Sam (and gratutious [[Fan Service]]), and then she barely even gets a mention in the third.
** The actress badmouthing Michael Bay (the reason she doesn't appear in the third film) has also made her a bit more popular.
 
 
== Literature ==
* ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]''
** Alice, in spades. Reasons range from her being the [[Badass Adorable]] [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] to some people just enjoying the [[Les Yay]] between her and Bella and fans finding that [[Die for Our Ship|this Edward fellow just keeps getting in the way]].
** Carlisle is also a favorite among people who find the books otherwise horrific, mainly due to the way he actually makes good use of his condition. He's not used so much in the plot.
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** A lot of the supporting characters seem to be this. It helps that most of them have much more interesting backstories and personalities than the [[Mary Sue|main]] [[Jerk Sue|characters]].
** Some people believe that the side characters became just as [[Flat Character|flat]] and/or boring as the main characters ''after'' they got fleshed out more, so sometimes wasting characters might be for the best.
* In ''[[The Riftwar Cycle]]'' the author devotes a book to novelising the plot of the insanely successful RPG ''[[Betrayal Atat 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 [[Creator'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.
** Jaina Solo as well, since the writers turned her into a [[Flat Character]].
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* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' does such a good job of creating fascinating characters, even ones that play very small roles, [[Anyone Can Die|that it's inevitable to be upset at the horrible fates of at least one.]]
* Did anyone else plod through ''[[The Inheritance Cycle|Brisingr]]'' just hoping that [[God Mode Sue|Eragon]] and [[Supporting Leader|Roran]] will go away so we can have more [[Badass Normal|Nas]][[Lady of War|ua]][[Rebel Leader|da]] chapters? It's amazing how awesome and realistic she becomes, probably because Paolini makes her problems ''practical'' concerns rather than the philosophical, "deep" issues he tries to have the others grapple with.
* The sardonic, tragic, cheerful Lenox from [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie's]] ''Mystery of the Blue Train''. Admittedly, it wasn't her best novel anyway, but Lenox was infinitely preferable to the rather prissy Katherine.
* For some, Peter Pettigew in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books. He's a central figure in ''[[Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban]]'', but we never really learn anything more about him - not his motivations in betraying the Potters, not his family or personal history, and not much about what he was up to in books five to seven. Despite setting up a [[Chekhov's Gun]] in the third book about how he owes Harry a life debt, this comes to a {{spoiler|rather lackluster conclusion in which he spares Harry's life (and this seems to be less his own choice as it is the "magical rules" that surround the life debt) and is promptly strangled by the silver hand Voldemort gave him - which doesn't make much sense anyway considering all the Death Eaters were under strict instructions ''not'' to kill Harry}}.
** It's mentioned a few times that Peter Pettigrew was the type of person who was concerned for keeping his own skin safe. His spying and betraying was because he wanted Voldemort's protection by being on his side, rather than running risk of being killed. The part about his {{spoiler|magical hand choking him to death}} stems from Voldemort's warning to not let his ''loyalty'' waver. And he hesitated a tiny moment, where he probably questioned his actions, that caused his death.
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** Nor does Prim. As the sister of the main character, and a huge motivation of Katniss' actions in the first book, you'd think some insight into her personality and their relationship would be shown.
** Lavinia, the red-headed avox girl who Katniss and Gale saw escaping from the capitol. We're never told why they were running, how they got to district 12, or anything of the like, and she's promptly killed off with almost no part to play at all.
* In Perry Moore's ''[[Hero (Literaturenovel)|Hero]]'', the protagonist Thom gets picked up at a gay bar by a slightly older young man and has his first kiss with him. Later, {{spoiler|it's revealed that Thom's would-be beau is the supervillain Ssnake, who stands accused of murdering a beloved superhero at the time this was happening}}. When Thom reveals this to the public, it sets in motion a series of events that lead to the real villain's downfall and saves the planet from destruction. But sadly, we never see {{spoiler|Ssnake}} again, even though he could have been a much more interesting love interest than Goran.
* There were a few of these types in ''[[Animorphs]]'', most notably [[Man of Wealth and Taste|Joe Bob Fenestre]] from ''The Warning'' and [[Knight Templar|Arbat-Elivat-Estoni]] from ''The Arrival''. {{spoiler|David}} might count as well, given his much-anticipated return to the series was much less climatic than the fans were hoping for.
 
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** Aside from [[Magnificent Bastard|Baal]], Yu was by far the most interesting of the System Lords. He was the only one that was openly against Anubis from the beginning, was nice enough that his worshipers seemed to genuinely respect him instead of following out of fear, like Baal he recognised the value of not obliterating Earth, and was so old even by [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Goa'uld standards]] he was actually ''going senile''. And yet with the exception of during a brief [[Enemy Mine]] situation none of this was really explored, and he went the way of all the other System Lords after the Replicators arrived.
* A case where it was not the fault of the writers was Eko on ''[[Lost]]'', likely the most interesting of the tail section survivors who is {{spoiler|unceremoniously beaten to death by the smoke monster with plenty of interesting story left in him}}. This was mostly due to the actor wishing to back out, despite a large character arc having been planned by the writers.
** Could be said of some of the short-termers on ''[[Lost]]'': Libby, Charlotte, Ilana, etc. Shannon [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|got the bridge]] when she was just starting to develop.
** Richard, the mysterious immortal agent of Jacob, gained a lot of [[Memetic Badass]] points with fans due to his mysterious immortalness, as well as his actor Nestor Carbonell's incredibly badass eyelashes. A lot of people wanted to see more of him doing many badass things, however the timing of the unveiling of the background and the fact that mysterious characters don't stay mysterious for that long if you spend too much time on them, meant that he only got the one focus episode and some side character action in the final season.
** Frank Lapidus. Brief dialogue painted him as something of a conspiracy theorist (on a mysterious island with time travel and reality-bending numbers and polar bears! Imagine the possibilities!), yet he was never given his own flashback episode (yeah, he shared one with the other freighter people, but that hardly counts). His upgrade to full-time status in season 6 was also wasted, as he didn't really have anything to do until the very end: {{spoiler|''somebody'' needed to fly that plane off the island}}.
* Victor of ''[[Burn Notice]]'' started out as a cool recurring villain. He was an excellent [[Shadow Archetype]] to Michael, he and Michael shared loads of [[Ho Yay]], he was an awesome [[Deadpan Snarker]], and he was played by [[Stargate SG-1|Michael Shanks]]. Naturally, when Victor and Michael teamed up, {{spoiler|he died.}}
** Tricia Helfer's fantastic villain Carla - another one who is offed way too soon.
* Gillina on ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' - a fan favorite who appeared in four episodes {{spoiler|then fell victim to [[Death of the Hypotenuse]].}}
* Djaq from ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|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 Byby 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 [[Creator's Pet|hated by all and sundry]], but who got twice as much screentime in one season than Djaq did in two.
* The sorceress Nimeuh from ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'': an interesting villain with plenty of justification for her crimes against Camelot, an intriguing backstory with Uther and Gaius, and plenty of mileage left in her as a character before she is killed off at the end of the first season.
** The show also had Aglain, a wise Druid who rescues Morgana and helps her come to terms with her magical powers, only to be unceremoniously killed off by Arthur's men when they mistakenly think he's kidnapped her. Of course, this was entirely intentional - the character was designed in order to show Morgana that her magic was not to be feared and that (at the same time) men like Uther are to be pitied for their stance on magic. Given how Morgana eventually turns out, one can only mourn [[What Might Have Been]] had Aglain lived to be her mentor.
* In ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'', Gwen was largely meant to be a [[Girl Next Door]] who ended up on the team, proved to be its 'Heart', and become Jack's second despite being less experienced than the rest. She only sometimes acting as 'Police Liaison' (for which she was originally hired in the ''first place'') - they seemed to have realised their mistake since then the character has improved massively.
** More like wasting a relationship, but the build-up between Jack and Ianto was underdeveloped. Ianto went from thinking Jack was a [[Complete Monster]] to completely deveoted to him in four episodes without any character development.
* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' features the tragically underutilised ship pilot Ensign Mayweather. Born and raised on a space freighter, he had the most practical space experience of the entire crew, despite his relative youth and low rank in Starfleet. The writers never seemed to grasp the inherent hooks of this however, and the poor ensign had more or less nothing significant to do during the show's entire run.
* In ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'', Lynette's horrible mother marries a wealthy but bad tempered, elderly racist. Normally the viewers would be eager to see the back of him except for two things: he was hinted to have [[Hidden Depths]] during the lead up to the wedding ''and'' he was played by [[Dallas|Larry Hagman]]. He dies less than halfway through his second episode without the writers doing ''anything'' with him - the writers simply wanted an excuse to make Lynette's mother rich, ignoring the potential the character had in his own right.
* The eponymous "Angel of Death" from the episode of the same name in the 80's ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]'' series. The Blackwood Project (a group of researchers and a military colonel who are fighting extraterrestrial invaders looking to conquer Earth) find out that there's a rogue assassin running around the city, interrogating and killing scores of aliens. The Blackwood team learn that this assassin (an ''android'' from another world) wants to [[Sixth Ranger|help them]] save Earth, and eventually leads the team in a battle royale with a horde of invaders (during which she demonstrates that she has the ability to bring people back from death). Then, she just up and decides to [[Put Onon a Bus|go back to her homeworld for reinforcements]], and is never seen again for the rest of the series.
* Curtis from ''[[Twenty Four|24]]''.
* Burai from ''[[Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger]]''. Super-cool [[Sixth Ranger]], the first real Sixth Ranger in ''[[Super Sentai]]'' in fact. Fan-loved and wildly popular, but after his initial arc he gets no development and very little interaction with his team-mates due to [[Living Onon Borrowed Time]] and having to spend most of the series offscreen in a [[Place Beyond Time]]. He was eventually killed after it looked like they'd be able to restore his lifespan, in order to generate cheap pathos and to give Geki, the red ranger, his [[Bling of War]].
* [[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.}}
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* Darth Nihilus in the second ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' game is a mysterious [[Humanoid Abomination]] who communicates exclusively in [[The Unintelligible|the untranslated language]] used by Atris' Sith Holocrons, can destroy planets using the power of the Force and was featured very prominently on the cover of the game. Judging from cut content {{spoiler|he is also substantially more powerful than undead [[Implacable Man]] Darth Sion}}. However, when you confront him he's easily beaten and turns out to have been a pawn of {{spoiler|Kreia/Darth Traya}} all along and he isn't even named in the game. He gives the impression of being [[Too Powerful to Live]] more than anything.
** The real problem with Nihilus was more tied to [[Executive Meddling|the cut content of the game]] and because much of his character is fleshed out through two characters it is entirely possible to kill instead of conversing with. He isn't really that easy to kill either-again, the player has to interrogate characters and read between the lines to see that {{spoiler|[[Only I Can Kill Him|the Jedi Exile was the only one Nihilus couldn't devour.]]}}
* ''[[Psychonauts (Video Game)|Psychonauts]]'' develops even the random NPCs with their own back stories and personalities, so you could say this for just about any of them. [[Mad Scientist|Dr. Loboto]] may be the best example, though---a [[Depraved Dentist]], [[Crazy Awesome|one of the funniest characters]] and set up as the [[Big Bad]] (or at least [[The Dragon]] to him), he turns out to be an [[Anticlimax Boss]] you don't even really fight.
* Cheria in ''[[Tales of Graces (Video Game)|Tales of Graces]]'' had much ''much'' more room to develop. Heck, this is a ''[[Tales Series(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.
** Cheria was lucky compared to many of ''[[Tales of Destiny (Video Game)|Tales of Destiny]] 2'' characters. Most of the story focuses so much on Kyle and Reala that there's only a handful scenes for other members, especially so for Loni Dunamis (Kyle's best bud) and Nanaly Fletch (Loni's would-be girlfriend) who, after joining, seemed to exist only to 'tag along'. At least Judas and Harold got things to do in the past arc, what with {{spoiler|the first being Leon Magnus [[Back From the Dead]], the other is a historical person.}} And once the past arc is done, it's back to Kyle-Reala getting most focus again, and they're just 'tagging along'.
*** 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(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.
** Yeager from [[Tales of Vesperia]] doesn't get a lot of light shed on his motives, despite being a main villain. What little we find out is pieced together through sidequests, and still leaves a lot unsaid.
* Himi from ''[[Golden Sun Dark Dawn]]'', introduced maybe an hour before the end of the game. There are ''nameless NPCs'' with more screen time than she gets.
* The Shadow Triad from ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' are introduced as the most loyal servants of Team Plasma's boss. They have cool teleporting powers unlike anything seen in a ''Pokémon'' villain before. They are introduced really late into the game, are never fought and their only purpose seems to be passing down messages and items from their boss. In other words, any regular grunt could have filled in their role without any effort whatsoever. It's for this reason that some fans think that the Triad may have an expanded role in ''Black2'' and ''White2'', though we'll see when we see.
* Hammer from the ''[[Castlevania]] Sorrow'' games, big time. As a former military member who provides a lot of the games' humor, he sure doesn't get a lot of attention, made worse by the fact that he was [[Dummied Out]] of ''Dawn of Sorrow'' from the extra Julius Mode as well as not appearing in [[Castlevania: Harmony of Despair|Harmony of Despair]] when voice clips indicated that he was planned. Worse still, according to [http://news.dengeki.com/elem/000/000/350/350684/index-3.html this] interview, Iga also likes the character.
* 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 Asas 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.
* A good quarter of the playable cast of ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]'' has absolutely fantastic storytelling potential, including one that was originally intended to be a returning character from the previous game and one that was intended to be the son of two chracters from the previous game, not to mention the horde of characters with interesting and engaging introductions. Then, because the herd of characters is so vast, they all effectively cease to exist once they join the party, ensuring that aside from the male and female protagonists, '''nobody''' recieves any characterization or development over the course of the game past their introduction. The connections to the previous game were dropped entirely to make room for more undeveloped roster-filler.
* Many [[Fire Emblem]] characters suffer from the same problems, but they (usually) get [[Relationship Values|Support Conversations]] to make up for it. Renault in the 7th game though plays this trope straight: he has one of the most deep and complex backstories in the entire series... but he joins right before the final chapter, meaning it'll take about 10 playthroughs for you to actually realise this.
** In the same game, [[Does Not Like Men|Florina]] and [[Chivalrous Pervert|Sain]] ''do'' interact once or twice throughout the game<ref>by virtue of both appearing in the tutorial and remaining with Lyn at its end, as no characters under the player's control die when defeated until the [[Time Skip]]</ref> but generally not for anything more than a gag. What's particularly wasteful about it is that you have a perfect relationship to base Support Conversations on (where the meat of the game's characterisations occur with non-Lord units), and yet it doesn't ever happen.
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* ''[[Winx Club]]'': Chimera. Her introduction showed quite some promise, but then she got saddled with a [[Guess Who I'm Marrying]] plot, which went in a completely predictable direction... that is, except for a couple things that viewers totally expected to happen: the plot taking a trip to her school, Stella having to make a truce with her, and Stella having a decent final battle with her.
* ''[[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...
* ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]'': Bubble Bass could be a good [[Arch Enemy]] to SpongeBob, but he has not made ​​an appearance since the ''first season''.
* ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' gives us an example of a character saved from the waste heap: Remy Buxaplenty (and his fairy godparent) made such an impression on the fans in one appearance that they clamored for more, and they eventually got another episode. However, Remy then stopped appearing after his fourth episode while his godparent still got to make more appearances without him.
** 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...
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** 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).
* Leroy of ''[[Lilo and Stitch: The Series]]'' was billed as one of the main antagonists of ''Leroy & Stitch''. He was Stitch's [[Evil Counterpart]], was stronger and more dangerous than Stitch and would have made a good villain. However, in the movie he is little more than an [[Elite Mook]] for [[Smug Snake|Hamsterviel]] and didn't receive any [[Character Development]] or anything. He contributes very little to the film and you can practically edit him out and replace him with clones of Stitch instead.
* It seems the ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|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.
** ''Blight'' is the biggest offender. He was the [[Big Bad]] of the first season and set up as the [[Big Bad]] of the series ''period''....but nope, he never returned after the first season's finale.
*** The character did reappear in the comics, however - to elaborate, his body survived, but he doesn't seem to remember anything about his past life outside of hatred and a desire for vengeance for Batman and Paxton Powers, and was eventually made into a target for the Stalker, and was eventually {{spoiler|killed by being caught in a blast furnace.}}
* Bane in ''[[The Batman (Animation)|The Batman]]''. He gets used for one episode, and the next time Batman has to face a huge muscular villain capable of breaking his back, it ends up being Joker using Bane's venom. Seriously? He then showed up in a few other episodes...with no lines, and being now able to be [[Villain Decay|brought down easily.]]
** Also, while not really ''badly'' used, Poison Ivy showed alot more potential that was realized in the spin-off comic series ''far'' more than it ever was in the show. "The Batman/Superman Story" two-parter is the biggest example of the show's wasting of her.
* Bunnie Rabbot of ''[[Sonic Sat AM]]'' made interesting use of the show's robotocization concept and had kickass cyborg powers to boot. However she had a supporting role in the majority of the first season and was [[Demoted to Extra]] in the second, arguably getting the least amount of development time out of the rest of the Freedom Fighters (keeping in mind Rotor and Tails were also heavily [[Out of Focus]] for most of the show's later run). The comics adapted from the show utilize her a bit more, but still play her as one of the more minor leads.
* General Immortus from the fifth season of ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|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 [[Brain In Aa Jar|the Brain]] has a [[The Dragon|Dragon]] fight hard and leaves a booby-trap himself).
* Koh the Face-Stealer from ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', a fascinatingly creepy spirit who looks like a giant centipede and can steal the faces of victims to wear as his own. With tantalizing hints that he has dealt with the Avatar in the past and will do so again in the future, he never reappeared in the show. Hopefully he'll turn up in [[Sequel Series]] ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]''.
* Of all the complaints frequently lobbied by ''[[My Life Me (Animation)|My Life Me]]'''s immense hatedom, one of the most common is "Why is this show about an annoying weeaboo bitch and ''not'' [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Mr. Towes?]]"
 
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