User:LancedSoul/sandbox/They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character

They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character is the trope and brilliant that might serve any role in the story, but no matter what trope they fall under, whether it be single trope or many, they all have one thing in common: you love them with a passion, but the writer doesn't. At least not to the same extent. For whatever reason, the work has gifted the audience with what you think is a fantastic new addition to the cast, but they just never seem to get the screentime you think they deserve. That Day in the Limelight isn't forthcoming, nor are any more hints about their mysterious past getting dropped. 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 on a Bus to Nowhereville or get a bridge dropped on them.

Often happens with characters that are introduced for a only a single episode or two, or have mere supporting roles in a work that is already juggling Loads and Loads of Characters. These are characters that have an interesting backstory or interact with the main cast in intriguing new ways, setting the stage for compelling future plots or new dynamics if made a permanent fixture, or at least a recurring character — but those things never happen because the character in question ended up underdeveloped or underutilized by the narrative. This also happens to characters who only turn up within supplementary materials or, in a video game, through sidequests (which are very likely to be skipped and ignored). This can be especially annoying if these supplementary materials were never made available in your country.

Please note that this trope is about ignored characters with good potential who never receive the spotlight (or do so just once and then get removed or forgotten). It is not about leading characters who are not used the way you would like; there are infinite alternative ways any given character could have been used. It is not either about characters who have a limited or supporting role in one work but have leading roles elsewhere in the franchise, that's a Hero of Another Story.