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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 (novel)|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
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
Occasionally this happens to someone whose backstory is [[All There in the Manual|revealed in supplementary materials]] or in a video game, are filled through sidequests. Players are [[Waste of Time Story|very likely to skip sidequests and ignore these things]], although it's especially annoying if [[No Export for You|these supplementary materials were never available in your country]].
Contrast [[
At least we'll always have [[Fan Fiction]]...
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime
* [[Starter Villain|Raditz]] from ''[[
** 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.
* Very prevalent in ''[[Naruto]]''. Considering the [[Loads and Loads of Characters|number of characters,]] [[Out of Focus|their limited screen time]] and [[Broken Base|the fandom]], it's really not surprising. Special mention goes to the Jinchuuriki since all of them except Naruto, Killer Bee and Gaara were killed and captured off-screen. However, Utakata was given [[Adaptation Expansion|his own filler arc in the anime]].
** Some fans feel this way about various Akatsuki members who were killed off, {{spoiler|at least before those who were resurrected by Kabuto's Edo Tensei spell returned}}. Notable examples include Hidan and Kakuzu.
* This is all over the place in ''[[Bleach]]'', especially in more recent arcs. It's incredibly common for a new character with a unique and interesting power to show up, and then get killed in short order without actually using their unique and interesting powers for anything.
** Some subversions occurred in the anime, however. For example, Harribel was given a plausible backstory and explanation for why she didn't seem as powerful as she was reputed to be. Also, Loly gets some redemption rather than just staying a [[Flat Character]], actually defending Orihime from Yammy.
*** However, Harribel appeared to have been given some more screentime before [[Damsel in Distress|getting imprisoned by the Vandenreich]]. I mean, she [[Badass|not only survived the Fake Karakura town arc]], but [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome|became the ruler of Hueco Mundo while everyone was fighting Xcution]]
** A weird example is Rudobon (officially romanized as "Rudbornn Chelute"). He's a rather mysterious character who strangely has a fully intact mask unlike every other Arrancar, is the leader of the equally mysterious Exequias group of completely identical soldiers. He apparently kills off a few minor antagonists once they've [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|outlived their usefulness]]. He then sort of disappears for a little while. Toward the end of the Hueco Mundo arc, he has a brief fight with Rukia in the manga, a full-episode fight against Rukia, Renji, and Chad in the anime... Until he's smashed to pieces by Yammy before we find out anything really significant about him.
** The fullbringers earned some time in the arc, but in the large scheme of things, the arc seems to merely be treated as a canon filler, serving as little more than to have Ichigo get his powers back. While their arc avoids [[Arc Fatigue]], they seemed to have been quickly written off, possibly never to return. Especially as the hollows came back in the following arc.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' is extremely guilty of this even in the first season, only for it to be even ''worse'' in the second.
** [[Smug Snake|Prince Clovis]], despite being a prejudicial sibling of Lelouch who killed him for his racist views on Elevens/Japanese, he [[Hidden Depths|actually cared for his sister, painted a portrait of Lelouch's mother and children and actually made some good contributions to Area 11]]. He was killed off to to show that Lelouch was ruthless and to show that even ZERO had guilt for his actions. He would've been a nice [[Recurring Boss]] that would eventually get [[Character Development]] to actually get over his bigot pride and do some good for the Japanese.
** 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
** 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.
* ''[[
** 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
** If Nena was given a chance to fight Ali, it would be [[Rescued
* ''[[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.
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** Although she has a much bigger role than the above examples, Naru herself qualifies. After two seasons of being just Usagi's "normal" friend, it seems for a moment she's going to discover (or reveal that she knows) the truth about the Senshi and so transition into a new role. Instead, from this moment on she disappears from the plot almost completely.
** Pretty much ''all'' of Sailor Galaxia's minions qualify as wasted, especially compared to past [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] members. Also, three out of five of the Witches 5 from ''Sailor Moon S'', who only got one episode each to themselves whereas the first two had at least around fifteen each.
* ''[[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?
** 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 (
** 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 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.]]
*** 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
* Ogawa of ''[[
* [[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
* ''[[
== 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
* 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
==
* Most writers for ''[[Camp Rock]]'' fanfiction completely waste all potential of Caitlyn and Tess (arguably played best by the two best actors in the teen cast) by pairing them with the [[The Jonas Brothers]] [[Expy|Expies]] (who seem to suck at [[As Himself|playing themselves]])
== Film ==
* Colossus in the ''[[X-Men (
* 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>
* 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 (
** 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 (
** 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.
** Seth and Leah of the Quileute Tribe/Werewolf Pack, and Jacob (generally before ''Eclipse'' and/or ''[[Base Breaker|Breaking Dawn]]'').
** Rosalie Hale, [[Rich Bitch]] vampire with a distaste for Bella that many readers can sympathize with.
** 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
* [[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 [[
** Jaina Solo as well, since the writers turned her into a [[Flat Character]].
** Also, Anakin's girlfriend, Tahiri Veila, gets this; while she was important for much of the ''[[New Jedi Order]]'', she got [[Demoted to Extra]] in the last book and then hovered around in the background for a while, as if the writers were unsure what to do with her - and then brought her back into the spotlight only to have a lot of her [[Character Development]] undone so she could be derailed into a villain.
* Brian Jacques is guilty of this quite often in the ''[[Redwall]]'' series, introducing a charismatic, kickass new character and then killing them off within two chapters. Has overlap with [[Too Cool to Live]].
* ''[[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
* For some, Peter Pettigew in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books. He's a central figure in ''[[Harry Potter and
** 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.
** Rowling's writing is ''made'' of this, unfortunately - with [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] and a very protagonist-centralised focus, it stands to reason that at least a ''number'' of characters would feel like they were wasted in the long run. Some people have similar feelings about ones such as Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Luna Lovegood, Mad-Eye Moody, the Hogwarts professors besides Dumbledore & Snape (not to mention the trope namer for [[Hufflepuff House]], and Ravenclaw doesn't get much more exposure)... if we all thought up a character whose development we might consider to be short-changed and compiled them in one place, we'd probably have enough guests to hire out an entire restaurant for.
*** Rowling has lamented this - she had a lot more that she wanted to include in the books that she couldn't due to [[Executive Meddling]].
* With the exception of Spink, all of Nevare's academy classmates completely disappear from the story after the first book of ''[[The Soldier Son]]''. Especially Gord and his troubled relation to Trist seemed to have loads of potential, but they are never seen again.
* Shannon Killbourne, to a lot of ''[[Babysitters Club]]'' readers.
* Mary Watson, ''née'' Morstan, in ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]''. Despite playing a major role in ''The Sign of Four'', having quite a bit of genuine detective skill herself, and ending up married to Dr. Watson, she's never used again except in cameos, and during the [[Time Skip]] between "The Final Problem" and "The Empty House", {{spoiler|[[Bus Crash|she's killed off]]}}.
* A few of the characters from [[The Hunger Games]] don't have much light shed on their motives, histories, etc..
** A good example is Cinna. It is established immediately that he chose to style the District 12 tributes this time, despite them being so unpopular, but we never find out why. Or why he doesn't have a Capitol accent, or why his fashion isn't as extravaggant, or... anything about him really.
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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 (
* 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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** She's hardly the only wasted female character in ''Sherlock'': there's Mycroft's mysterious and snarky assistant "Anthea", there's John's [[Action Girl]] girlfriend Sarah Sawyer, and there's DS Sally Donovan. The first two are nowhere to be found in season 2, the latter seems to only be there to criticize Sherlock and be yelled at by Lestrade.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': Whistler, the mysterious agent of the [[Powers That Be]]. Like the Doyle example below, the writers did have further plans for the character (in fact, Doyle was originally supposed to ''be'' Whistler), but the drug problems of the actor made this impossible.
* ''[[Angel]]'': The fifth season [[Big Bad
** From the same show, Doyle. Arguably he ''needed'' to die in order to {{spoiler|give Cordelia her powers as a seeress}}, but watching [[Power Trio|the dynamic]] between Angel, Doyle and Cordelia in those first few episodes... ''damn'' it makes you wish that they'd kept him around.
*** This is a case of [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]. He was supposed to stick around but the producers were getting increasingly worried about his drug problems.
* A lot of early boots on Reality TV shows, game shows or otherwise come off as this way. See also [[Shocking Elimination]]; some people who seem genuinely good at the game or are actually good in talent shows wind up eliminated early, sometimes for the wrong reasons, sometimes for being the low-man on the totem pole.
** Brian and Annie in the American version of ''Big Brother''. Season 12 (where Annie was from) is probably one of the smartest players in a season full of already-educated and genre savvy players. (Even if some players were [[Genre Blind]]; they ''were'' pretty booksmart.) Brian meanwhile was actually considered a legit threat; there's a ''reason'' Julie Chen spoke to him more than she did the ''other'' early boots. Alex and Parker from season 9, too, were booted mostly for the wrong reasons.
** From ''[[Survivor]]'', we had Dolly from Vanuatu, Marisa and Betsy from Samoa (Russell actually voted them out because he said that those two could have beaten him), then Sugar, Stephanie, Tom, and Cirie in ''Heroes Vs. Villains''.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': Linea, the genocidal maniac who could effortlessly hack computers, cure the blind, and make diseases that destroy planets, who had a complete understanding of how the Stargate worked, and was an old lady, seemed like such a cool villain for SG-1 to face. It was their fault she was loose in the first place, which adds drama. On top of that, she is obviously smarter than them, and how often do you see a quiet old lady as a villain anyway? Instead, she came back a year later; younger, mindwiped, and redeemed so Daniel could have a rebound girl, and then was completely forgotten about all over again.
** 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
** 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 ''[[
* Djaq from ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' was a [[Sweet Polly Oliver]] who played the [[Gender Flip
* 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 ''[[
** 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
* Curtis from ''[[
* 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
* [[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.}}
* In ''[[
** 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.
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* In the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]], Muhammad Hassan was original portrayed as an Arab-American [[Mistaken for Terrorist|suffering from racism in a post-9/11 world]]. Judging by his character alone, he had the potential of becoming one of the biggest [[The Woobie|woobies]] ever. However, he was treated as a typical [[Foreign Wrestling Heel]] by the fans despite being billed from ''Detroit, Michigan'' to the point where he eventually became the very thing he was stereotyped as.
== Toys ==
* [[Code Name|Dark Hunter Ancient]] of ''[[Bionicle]]''. [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot/Toys|See here]] as to why. Other Dark Hunters might also count, such as Guardian, who only ever appeared in ''one scene'' before being killed by the [[Big Bad]] [[For the Evulz]], even though they had an [[All There in the Manual|in-depth backstory written for him]]. [[Toyless Toyline Character
** 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
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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.]]}}
* ''[[
* Cheria in ''[[
** [[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 ''[[
*** Reala herself suffers from this even as she's the [[
*** Although the Reala issue can be justified that TOD2 was one of the earlier titles of [[Tales
** 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
* A good quarter of the playable cast of ''[[
* 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.
* ''[[Dead to Rights]]'' has several characters die after appearing in just a few chapters (if they're lucky), but the clearest example of this trope is Patch, a suave assassin who is introduced in a cutscene getting the drop on Jack Slate, killing the villain he was chasing for most of the chapter, and framing Jack for his murder, leading to the [[Prison Episode|prison level]]. Making the scene memorable is that he has a distinct design from the other villains (dyed hair, the eponymous [[Eyepatch of Power|eyepatch]], and a [[Bling Bling Bang|gold Luger]]), speaks with a subtle accent (unlike some other characters), and treats his hits as if he were an artist, complete with discussing his hit on the phone as if negotiating an art commission. He does not get ''a single line'' for the rest of the game, and does not appear again until four chapters later, where he dies anticlimactically in a [[Car Chase]] boss fight.
* Sarah from ''[[Lost Odyssey]]'' seems to be the one party member who has little to no character development in the game. Her purpose seems to be to look after the kids and give Kaim an opportunity to show his softer side. She's also the only immortal who doesn't have an entry in the 1000 Years Of Dreams.
* Adam from the first ''[[Shining Force]]'' is the token robot in a mostly fantasy setting. He is introduced alongside Chaos, who was his ally until Darksol reprogrammed him. The main problem with Adam: he's dangerously underleveled for how late in the game he joins (within the last seven battles). Even with a Power Ring, he's lucky to even scratch the softer enemies for more than one hit point of damage, and God forbid the enemy AI ever targets him in his currently fragile state. [[Magikarp Power|While he can be one of the best tanks with enough training,]] even people who like him find him to be a waste of time to bother training.
* From the ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' franchise, Moloch and Drahmin (from ''[[Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance]]'', and Meat (from ''[[Mortal Kombat 4]]''. These characters had pretty cool designs and were interesting concepts, but they had awful move sets that them jobbers, and had no real place in the stories of their respective games. They could have been decent characters had the developers worked on them some more.
== Web Original ==
* Presumably; this was what the producer of ''Sims Big Brother'' thought about Kristen and Roscoe. Before he canceled the original ''Sims Big Brother 7'', the two were brought back as the guest star players. Both were evicted second and didn't have a chance to develop (That and SRN admits that he had almost ''no'' creativity while working on ''Sims Big Brother 4'' anyways; and [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|it shows]].) However when the viewers chose the cast of ''All stars'', Roscoe sadly didn't make the cut (He ''did'' have several amusing moments; though, more than can be said for Kristen) but Kristen was one of two people from season 4 that made it in - the other was Johnny. Kristen wasn't even a ''producer's choice''!
** Unfortunately; the same could be said about a lot of the big brother 4 cast. CJ seemed almost a background prop despite being popular enough to win (Viewers voted on the winner) Brian and Sam seemed to be in control of the game, heck, Sam is the only player who was ''never nominated''.
** The viewers also thought this about Dana, too. Dana was another early boot from Big Brother season 2 but was voted in as well.
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[King of the Hill]]'' featured one episode with a cross dressing character known as Carolyn/Jamie. In the episode she became close friends with Peggy, and her male persona Jamie even got along well with Hank and the rest of the gang. After she taught Peggy about how it's okay to be different she was never seen again to the dismay of many fans.
* ''[[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...
* ''[[
* ''[[The Fairly
** 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.
** [[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!
* Kevin from ''[[Family Guy]]'' was generally liked by the fandom, mostly as a love interest for [[The Chew Toy|Meg]]. He was hardly ever seen,
** [[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]].
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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
* It seems the ''[[
* 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 ''[[
** 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 (
* Koh the Face-Stealer from ''[[
* Of all the complaints frequently lobbied by ''[[
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