Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Difference between revisions

** ''[[Digimon Frontier]]''. The last half of that show could EASILY have every title replaced with "KaiserGreymon and MagnaGarurumon get the pulp beat out of them by {{spoiler|1=LordKnightmon and Dynasmon}}, Koichi gets a little bit of plot, and Junpei, Tomoki and Izumi get to stand around and do nothing. And it's WELL KNOWN for that!

*** It's made so much worse when you realise that the one episode that all six of them got to battle {{spoiler|the Royal Knights}}, they WON. Sure, they didn't stop {{spoiler|them}} from stealing the code of the area they were in, but they still WON.

* Many people believed this to be the case with Toshiro Hitsugaya from ''[[Bleach]]'', who managed to achieve the rank as the most popular character of the series and later got to star in his own movie. On the other hand, maybe Kubo's just responding to his [[Ensemble Darkhorse|popularity with the fans]].

** Of course, The ''whole'' Gotei 13 qualify, as they've essentially stolen the spotlight from Ichigo's [[Nakama]], who are lucky to make an appearance in any of the fillers or movies.

** Special mentioning, and by far and large the best example within this series has to be given to [[The Man Behind the Man|Sosuke]] [[Xanatos Roulette|Aizen]]. Justified by a bit, since he's the [[Big Bad]], but he's been so interwoven into the plot, that he's allegedly {{spoiler|created the [[Eldritch Abomination|Hogyoku]] ''before'' ''[[Big Good|URAHARA]]'' as a prototype}}, arranged and orchestrated [[The Hero|Ichigo Kurosaki]]'s development (i.e. his biggest fights and the power-ups he needed to win said fights, and that he even became a Shinigami in the first place by {{spoiler|assigning [[The Lancer|Rukia]] to the real world}}) to work into his favor, and instigated practically every event within the series, aside from the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Quincy]] [[Shoot the Dog|genocide]], as well as the one to blame for the problems and conditions nearly every other character has in the series, all the way up to indirectly killing off [[The Lancer|Rukia Kuchiki]]'s [[The Ace|mentor]] and [[Yamato Nadeshiko|idol]] by having them fight a Hollow he experimented on, screwing up and breaking apart [[Break the Cutie|Momo Hinamori]]'s mental state, assassinating the Soul Society's feudal government, perfecting the [[Elite Mook|Arrancar]] to serve as his army, personally enlisting several [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Espada]] to work for him through added charisma (i.e. [[Lonely At the Top|"I can give you friends"]], [[Victory Is Boring|"I can help you lead a more exciting life"]], [[Mama Bear|"I can grant you the power to protect those dear to you"]], and [[Omnicidal Maniac|"I shall bestow upon you the power to fight all that oppose you until you drop dead]]), {{spoiler|Hollowfying the [[Mask Power|Vizards]], causing [[Guile Hero|Kisuke Urahara]]'s exile}}, kidnapping [[The Chick|Orihime Inoue]] and causing the start of her slow [[Heroic BSOD|breakdown]].

* The [[Alternate Universe]] series, ''[[Tenchi Muyo!|Tenchi Universe]]'', is known for its emphasis on Ryoko, as evidenced in the opening credits, which starts with a silhouette of her and ends with a zoom-in on her face.

** This is emphasized even further in the 1999 ''Tenchi Muyo!'' movie, ''Tenchi Forever!'', whose ending implies that {{spoiler|Tenchi is attracted to Ryoko, and the Tenchi/Ryoko pairing is in the cards}}, which amazingly makes this a Tenchi timeline that doesn't utilize the [[Tenchi Solution]]!

* In ''[[Berserk]]'', [[Big Bad]] [[Bishonen]] Griffith and co. have taken up about two volumes worth of material. About two volumes coe out yearlt.

* The Japanese All-Star Team in ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' includes other players besides Gaou and Agon, but they get less focus in some later chapters.

* Nagisa Misumi from ''[[Pretty Cure]]''. The series is supposed to be about [[Tomboy and Girly Girl|both her and Honoka]], but the episodes ''always'' focus more on her, depicting many scenes of her daily life and her relationship with her parents and [[Annoying Younger Sibling|brother]], her friendship with her schoolmates, and her love for ''Honoka's'' childhood friend. Honoka gets no house scenes (Except when *gasp!* Nagisa is visiting, and/or when something plot-relevant happens), no friends (except for Yuriko, who rarely shows up, and her aforementioned childhood friend, who gets more importance as Nagisa's love interest anyway) and the closest to a love interest she has quickly gets [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]]. Also, plenty of episodes and scenes revolve about Nagisa's Lacrosse club, and her [[Down to the Last Play|winning matches at the last second every time]], while Honoka gets one or maybe two episodes about her science club, and some scenes here and there. Plus on the rare episode focused on Honoka, Nagisa invariably gets a B-plot so she has something to do. However, the Nagisa-focused episodes often have Honoka as a spectator and little else. And of course, Nagisa is the one who always does the previous episode synopsis, even if it was a Honoka-focused episode. Worse, in the second season Hikari is allowed to do them sometimes, but Honoka still gets nothing.

** And the same goes for Saki from ''[[Pretty Cure Splash Star]]'', being an [[Expy]] of Nagisa even on ''this''. She's not as bad as the original, but it's clear the writers favored her more than Honoka [[Expy]] Mai.

== Live Action TV ==

* So prevalent on ''[[Glee]]'', it's actually becoming a recurring plot point (along with repeated lampshadings). Series 1 had the focus remain almost solely on [[Official Couple|Rachel and Finn]]. They were designated female and male lead both in the Glee club (despite the fact that Cory Monteith is arguably one of the weakest singers and dancers in the cast) and on the show itself, with almost every important plotline revolving around them in some way and even getting major subplots in the rest of the cast's [[A Day in the Limelight]] episodes. Season 2 reduced Rachel and Finn's screentime and spread more focus to other characters, like Brittany and Santana (who got promoted to regulars) and Mike (who had more lines in six episodes of S2 than in the whole S1), but then turned the spotlight on [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Kurt]] and his much-discussed homophobic bullying storyline, and, later, Blaine. In fact, it's Kurt lampshading this in Original Song which leads to the couple's [[Relationship Upgrade]].

** Blaine, with the Dalton Warblers, could be a better example, he sang more songs in a few episodes than some regulars did all show.

** As of Season 3, the show has become less about the group (and [[Out of Focus|Will]]) and more about [[Official Couple|Finn/Rachel]] and [[Beta Couple|Kurt/Blaine.]]

* Karol in ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' can be seen as a spotlight stealing character since he gets quite a bit of scenes showing him change from a cowardly little boy who got kicked out of every guild he tried to join to a strong hearted warrior.

** Especially since {{spoiler|Raven secretly being Schwann}} was treated as relatively minor story twist.

* ''[[Namco X Capcom]]'' was originally conceived with just the [[Namco Bandai]] characters; [[Capcom]] was brought into the picture later, and it shows. They did a good job integrating the Capcom characters into the plot, but most of the important plot points are still from the Namco side of things; the Capcom characters are just sort of... there.

* ''[[Silhouette Mirage]]'' revolves around a war between the [[Red Oni, Blue Oni|strength-based Silhouettes and the intelligence-based Mirages]]. In practice, though, the Silhouettes are pretty much background flavor in the plot. There are [[Mooks]] of both attributes, along with neutral-attribute [[Humongous Mecha]]... piloted by Mirages. There are Mirage bosses, and there are Silhouette bosses... who mostly work ''for'' the Mirages, if they aren't just [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|random]]. And the dual-attribute Guardian Angel bosses who menace you throughout the game? Yep, they're Mirage creations.