"They Wasted A Perfectly Good Character" Cleanup

The Rise of Skywalker

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Having played a big role in the previous film including betraying the Resistance to the First Order, it's a shame that DJ never reappeared in this film to get some kind of redemption, or at the very least a comeupprance that he deserves, especially considering that every important character in the series comes Back for the Finale except him.
  • Likewise a retroactive one for Phasma. Many were hoping she would return for at least one more go and make up for her hastily written exit in The Last Jedi since that movie made it ambiguous if she died or not (and considering Palpatine's return, not out of the realm of possibility). But, like DJ, she never shows up or is mentioned at all. Some fans even note she would've filled The Dragon role much better than General Pryde and had more impact since Finn and she have history and given Poe and him more to do in the film.

I believe this trope requires they have to appear or be alluded to in-work, otherwise that crosses into the reinventing the story problem. Cut?

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: While justifiable since it would’ve been too expensive to get Uzo Aduba back, there were many who were disappointed that Queen Novo doesn’t make even a cameo in the episode. Also doubles as They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot too, as many wished that there was at least a moment where Twilight and Novo make amends after Twilight tried stealing the pearl of transformation.

How justified a reason is there for the "waste" for it not to count? To the point it's out of the creators control? The Last Jedi had examples caused by their actors passing removed.

Yeah it doesn't count if they don't ever appear or are mentioned in the work.

With that, from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:There are many fans that believe that Sunset Shimmer isn't being utilized properly by the Equestria Girls series, and that she should be transplanted to the series proper instead of Starlight Glimmer joining the main cast.^note While Word of God is that Starlight was not based on Sunset nor was she added to the cast as a result of Sunset's popularity, part of the fandom still thinks of her as a Replacement Scrappy for Sunset.

I now intend to cut as Sunset is never mentioned in the "series proper". She only cameos in its literal few seconds, but the complaints of this trope were long before that. And her becoming the main character of the EG series means she has not lacked screen time, this is complaints about hypothetical handling which isn't this. Objections?

Edited by Ferot_Dreadnaught on Feb 2nd 2020 at 11:23:09 AM

Bringing up these examples from Birds of Prey (2020):

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Harley is the only character with a full character arc. Aside from her, underused characters abound:
  • Huntress makes a great impression and arguably has the best backstory but she definitely gets the least amount of screen time of the main five characters.
  • The titular Birds of Prey in general receive very little focus compared to Harley and only band together as a team in the final act of the film. This was so apparent that the title of the film was changed post-release to Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey.
  • While Ewan McGregor has received praise for his performance as the film's Big Bad Black Mask, his overall character has been criticized by a fair number of viewers for being incredibly shallow. He lacks any complexity as a villain, existing to be a flat Straw Misogynist who spends most of the film being as dickesly sexist as possible to justify being taken down. For many, it was extremely disappointing given how great of an actor Ewan McGregor is, and how the film could have given an interesting antagonist to contrast Harley Quinn, but instead goes the route of a Hate Sink villain with no complexity at all. Though it should be pointed out that Black Mask has been a detestable HateSink in the comics for two decades.
  • Cassandra Cain in the comics has a lot of interesting parallels with the film's other characters: she has a history of abuse like Harley, is part of a legacy like Black Canary, was raised by assassins like Huntress, and her father was an alcoholic like Renee is. None of this is used in the film, and she bears no resemblance to her comic counterpart.
  • Rather than explore her angst over her mother's death or bonding with any of the women, Dinah spends much of the film as Roman Sionis' reluctant henchwoman. The mild Adaptational Villainy meant that the bulk of her character was only able to shine through small scenes, and compared to Huntress and Harley, she ended up getting saddled with largely unremarkable fight sequences, which is disapointing given her comic self is one of the top-ten best martial artists in the DC Universe, something that isn't really well-reflected.

I've noticed some misuse of the trope that boils down to 'character should have been in this work but isn't.'

So a week ago tropineasily added a ton of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character examples to YMMV.Steven Universe. I think some of them were on the page at one point (have no idea what happened to them), but it's still a lot, so I wanted to see what the thread thought.

• Malachite, Jasper's and Lapis' fusion. As the only named Homeworld Gem fusion in the original series, Malachite could have been an interesting parallel to the Crystal Gem fusions. While the monstrous design and multiple voices is the right direction, the fact that Malachite has no personality of her own feels a bit disappointing, especially with the implications in "Chille Tid" that Lapis is slowly losing her personality to Malachite.
• The Ruby Squad, A group of five Rubies with distinct personalities who came to Earth to rescue Jasper. They only showed up in two full episodes, and despite having an obsession with Jasper, these two parties never get to interact. Considering how Jasper's goal for Season 3 was building an army for herself, you'd think that these two characters would go together like bread and butter. This is especially frustrating for Doc and Army, the two Ruby Squad members with the least amount of personality.
• Topaz, a Tragic Villain who is forced to go on various missions by her abusive superior, Aquamarine, Topaz could've been everything from a Reverse Mole to a Minion with an F in Evil, who could've accompanied Aquamarine on other missions, only to end up betraying her and joining the supportive Crystal Gems instead. Too bad that the Gem hierarchy ends up being disassembled by the end of the series, meaning that the show only had "Stuck Together" and the ambiguously canon "Steven Universe: Harmony" to focus on Topaz's plight.
• Emerald, a high-ranked officier of Homeworld, who could've been an interesting Dragon for the Diamonds. Too bad that she only appeared in one episode and a spin-off comic, without even really being on-screen no less. Besides, Emerald has her own crew and soldiers, who were only spoken of and never appeared in person.
• Lemon Jade, a secret permafusion of two Jades who unexpectedly helps the Crystal Gems with standing up against the Diamonds' anti-fusion-prejudice. She's immediately and unceremoniously poofed by Yellow Diamond and never seen again afterwards. We never even learn their components names.
• On the human side, there's Peedee Fryman. A nice, if cynical kid Steven's age, who strikes an Odd Friendship with him. His plight about having adult responsibilities despite being just a kid and trying to be accepted by his dad are interesting character traits that could've served for quite a few arcs, and despite Steven being "friends with everyone", his only real friend his age is Connie, so Peedee could've turned these two into a Power Trio. The fanbase especially complains that Peedee gets brushed under the rug, but his obnoxious older brother Ronaldo gets three episodes focused around him.
• Nephrite XJCUT763, the gem that Yellow Diamond was shown talking to in "Jungle Moon", who voiced concerns about possibly eradicating sentient life, only to be forced into it by the threat of shattering. Not only is her general stance on her work quite unique in comparison to other Homeworld Gems, but she doesn't have any presence beyond being a name on Yellow Diamond's (or Dr. Maheswaran's) phone. To add insult to injury, the only other named Nephrite (Centipeetle) is a completely different one.

The entirety of YMMV.The Tea Dragon Society is two "Wasted a Perfectly Good X" tropes:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: There are four other tea dragon species; earl grey, hibiscus, ginger, and peppermint, but none are shown in the story.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Tea Dragon Society is mostly disbanded when the story starts, and The Tea Dragon Festival shows Hesekiel and Erik when they're both younger and in their prime as bounty hunters, there's no story that tells the origins of the first tea dragon society or showing it in its prime yet.

Are these used correctly?

(Just going to add that I have read the story, and viewed the comment sections, and haven't seen much complaining at all)

Edited by GoldenCityBird on Mar 25th 2020 at 7:46:58 PM

For the record, characters from My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) have been mentioned and made silent cameo appearances in the show since the movie's release. So it's clearly not entirely treated as Canon Discontinuity.

This is on YMMV.Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Because of the episodic nature of the series, (and Western animation in general at the time) a number of plots were never followed upon that had potential for exploration:
  • Several plot points from "To The Rescue" focused on Gadget, Monterey, and Geegaw:
    • The full story of what happened between Monterey and Geegaw in Zazibar. All that's mentioned in the episode is that it involved cheesebread.
    • Thanks to Never Say "Die" Gadget merely says she "lost" her father about a year before, but doesn't outright confirm he's dead. Many fan fic writers have picked up on this thread by revealing Geegaw actually survived, but in the show itself he ultimately goes unmentioned over the rest of the series rather than the circumstances of his death/disappearance being explored.
  • "Good Times, Bat Times" appears to set up Foxglove as a new member of the team, however she ended up as a One-Shot Character (though this eventually got a follow-up in the Boom! comics). This is especially significant, as more than any other one-shot love interest, her arrival stood to substantially alter the character dynamics, particularly the romantic triangle between Chip, Dale, and Gadget.
  • Gadget's Ambiguous Disorder bears a lot of hallmarks suggesting she could be on the Autism Spectrum, particularly a higher-functioning form such as Asperger's. The show merely presents it as the way Gadget is, but could have provided groundwork for a deeper exploration of such disorders and their effects on people and their loved ones. Especially as shows such as The Big Bang Theory and Monk have since demonstrated that it's possible to balance comedy around such characters, while still being respectful and sympathetic to the potential serious impact these disorders present.

(Sorry if this isn't the place to ask...)

Can all, or majority of these deleted "wasted character" examples run under "wasted plot" rather than "wasted character"?

Edited by Shivader on May 3rd 2020 at 7:24:36 PM

I didn't know this place existed. I'm going to put all the Dragon Ball entries. I'm starting with Z, because this is the one everyone knows and is easier to find it less complainny than the Super subpage.

I'll add a comment at the end.

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Raditz. He's the long lost brother of the main character Goku, so you would expect him to be a major part of the plot. Instead, he's killed at the beginning of DBZ and is rarely mentioned again. This has been a common criticism of the character, and many fanworks have said the same. Personally I believe his role is fine, he serves his goal and the themes the series wanted to go through.
  • You'd think that King Cold, being Frieza's father and the real leader of the Planet Trade Organization, would be an Arc Villain. Instead, he ends up getting killed off with little fanfare just to show how powerful Future Trunks is. A valid example in my opinion. King Cold feels like an afterthought, you might as well not create him and replace with a generic doctor.
  • Nappa plays a huge role in the Saiyan Saga, being the one who kills off most of the heroes. However, after being killed by Vegeta, he stays dead in a series where death is famously cheap. Any time Nappa appears again, it's just a quick cameo in Hell. Granted, he does finally get to confront Vegeta again in GT... only to be curb stomped. It could have been interesting to have seen a fight between the two with Nappa actually having a fair chance at winning, or even to have Nappa pull a Heel–Face Turn like Vegeta. Additionally, at the end of the Frieza Saga, they use the Dragon Balls to wish back everyone killed by Frieza and his men. Since Vegeta was in Frieza's command at the time, Nappa should have been revived, too, but wasn't. Vegeta wasn't a member of Freeza's army, at least by the point Shenron did his wish, this is why the Namekians he slaughtered weren't revived. Besides, this sounds more like a general example than one related to his character in the original Dragon Ball, as like with Raditz, I feel his role is absolutely fine.
  • Videl is introduced as a slightly irritating but quickly charming character who dovetails nicely with Gohan and the extended Z Fighter family, and even has early episodes dedicated to the relationship between the two... only for her to be relegated to the Kami's Lookout crew, then turned into chocolate by Super Buu and effectively written out of the story. Pretty much everything in the early high school portion of the story is unimportant, outside of establishing what's new since the Time Skip. Valid, but Videl has no way of catch up to anyone of the main characters. Then again, this relates to her being Gohan's sidekick, and we know Gohan was Demoted to Extra due to the author's indifferent to the character. I say is valid..
  • Goten and Trunks' contribution to the fight. Much like Gohan in the Cell Saga, it's implied that the pair are intended to be the saviors of the day, and hopefully the future, given how prodigious their power levels are for their age. They were absorbed by Super Buu not long after Gohan received his power up. Valid example, but in honestly I feel they would be just rehashing plot ideas, but I digress.

Edited by Tomodachi on Jul 19th 2020 at 7:52:31 AM

From YMMV.The Nostalgia Critic. Keep in mind several of these are one-off sketch characters who only really functioned as part of a brief gag.

• Brentalfloss in the Les Misérables review. He's undeniably hilarious, but he gets very little screen time, and he doesn't even get to show off his impressive singing due to forcing his voice to resemble Russell Crowe's. This seems valid.
• A lot of people thought that Greg Sestero in Dawn of the Commercials was wasted as just being a punchline to a sexual harassment joke that got a ton of backlash. Can a celebrity cameo count as a wasted character?
• Not that there weren't interesting or good things (the meta section especially) about the plot in “Top 11 Best Avatar Episodes”, but according to Doug, there were a few complaints from people who wanted more discussion from Dante about the show he was on than just fighting for most of the episode. He complains about this while somehow comparing himself to Batman.

Doug: When you get Superman and Batman together, you don't want to see them discuss what it's like to be a superhero. You want to see them fight.

• The witch in "Dawn of the Commercials" and the Happy Madison audience in the Eight Crazy Nights review could have become reoccuring characters, but they were only used in those reviews, and since Rachel left the Nostalgia Critic and the Happy Madison audience were killed off in the Eight Crazy Nights review, is very unlikely that those characters will ever appear again. Not a lot of context on what makes them so interesting.
• Malice in Alice in Wonderland (2010) was Cute and Psycho, had What Beautiful Eyes!, held a knife up to Critic whenever he annoyed her, called him out on his insanity and was with him in the studio at the end, but never appeared again. She comes back for a quick cameo in "Freddy vs Jason" (in a Dorothy vs Alice imagining), to the happiness of a lot of people. She did come back for a major role in Alice Through the Looking Glass, though that review was topped off with a Gainax Ending and she hasn't been seen since (unlike her companion Carrotjuice who returned for Hop). Malice is pretty much an Ensemble Dark Horse, but she does get more screentime than many characters.
• Getting JonTron in the intro for 2014's Nostalgia-Ween to say just one line. Despite using the intro for every video that month. It could have been a Couch Gag where Jon saids something different each time but nope, Jon just attacks Critic every week for reviewing Foodfight!. No mention was made of the fact Jon had also reviewed The Lost World either. Reads more like a Plot example, and even then I don't know if it fits.
• Tamara's Cruella De Ville looked and sounded far too perfect just to have a five second cameo in the Jupiter Ascending review. Second link is broken, and even then seems more like a way to gush about her cosplay, because I don't see many people rallying for this particular parody character to get fleshed out over all the dozens of other parody characters that show up for quick gags in these episodes.
• Sadness in the Inside Out parody parts of the Osmosis Jones review. Critic's version of sad really should be able to say more related to him than two comments about people who complain about the wall and Jupiter Ascending fans. None of the emotions had much character or purpose other than to set up the review, so I don't know if Sadness needs to be singled out except that people wanting Critic to angst in every review. But it might be fitting, more generally.
• People like them, but the Aw Girls are intentionally wasted, as Critic calls them "underrused cameos" in the Alvin sequel. Not enough context on whether they have potential, especially because they're intended as deliberate Flat Characters.

YMMV.Why Charlie Brown Why

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: In a wider Peanuts sense. By the end of their trials and travails, Linus and Janice have basically become a Puppy Love couple; if not an actual "item", at the very least they should remain an incredibly important part of each others' lives, right? Unfortunately, in future Peanuts works Janice basically vanished entirely; she didn't become a regular at all in the strip's final years, and she didn't even really cameo in the later Peanuts specials. This really felt weird to 90s Peanuts fans, who figured Janice was going to become a regular on at least the level of someone like Pigpen or Schroeder and they could add more to her character. This also had the unfortunate effect of codifying another aspect of the Very Special Episode that people find annoying: the tendency for the character in question to fall off the face of the earth after the episode is done.

This seems really complainy, and long.

A repeated concern about this thread is that the issue is so pervasive that it would be better fit for TRS. Should a TRS thread be opened?

Depends on if there's a solution you think would solve the problem that can only be implemented with TRS approval.

TRS can't make cleanup faster or easier. It can cut, rename, redefine, move to Darth Wiki, etc.

Edited by HighCrate on Sep 3rd 2020 at 9:44:32 AM

Some people think that this trope needs a better definition or should be cut as pure complaining. I presume They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot should be included as well?

Yes.

TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter.Star Wars has an odd example in the ROTJ folder:

" One reason why many feel that the film is a weak climax is that there is very little for Han and Leia to do in the climax of the story; Lando is the one who flies the Millennium Falcon whilst leading the Rebels against Death Star II, while Han, Leia, Chewie, and Ewoks fight a land battle entirely separate from Luke's confrontation with Vader and Palpatine in the throne room."

It was because of said land battle that the Death Star 2's shields went down, allowing for Lando and the others to fly in—without that there would be no hope for the rebels, and I can't really find any evidence of "many" thinking the film has a weak climax.

Edited by lalalei2001 on Sep 5th 2020 at 6:26:44 AM

YMMV.Crazy Ex Girlfriend has this bit, which explicitly says it's about a wasted actor (or singer, really) rather than a wasted character. This feels like it fits some other trope but I can't place which one it would be...

• Jarl. This isn't so much about the character himself (unless you buy into the theory that he wasn't real and made up by Rebecca's unstable psyche at the time, which could have been interesting). Rather, it's because his actor, Rory O'Malley, is an acclaimed Broadway performer, having had large roles in musicals like The Book of Mormon and Hamilton - but here, in a show that has songs in every episode and that takes a significant amount of inspiration from musical theatre, he doesn't sing so much as a note.

In any event, I've begun a wick check at Sandbox.They Wasted A Perfectly Good Character Wick Check and Sandbox.They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot Wick Check.

One thing that sort of concerns me about doing a wick check for things like this where the underlying tropeworthiness is open to debate: how do you determine if an example is misuse or not?

Like, I'm explicitly of the opinion that these "tropes" are essentially just fanfiction (or at least Fanfic Fodder prompts) in every case except maybe those citing someone specifically having this opinion, so I'm not even sure what I'd consider a "good" example to look like.

Rather than categorize it by misuse, categorize it by the way it's being used. That's how the Moral Event Horizon wick check is being done because people can't decide exactly what the trope means anymore.

Wick Checks (or on-page example checks) are required to demonstrate misuse, not to demonstrate other problems, no matter how many people claim otherwise. A wick check can be used to demonstrate that all the examples are poorly written/ranty/editorializing but it's not a requirement there.

From YMMV.Atypical:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • One reason Elsa is so hated among the fanbase is that she is said to be in the right, no matter what she does. It would have made more sense to actually present her as a Big Bad. Sounds more like Designated Hero than this trope.
  • Both Izzie and Paige are generally considered to be much more interesting characters than Sam. Many would have liked to see them as the autistic protagonists, especially since there is disappointingly little female autistic representation in the media at the moment.
  • Sam going to college in Season 3 would have been the perfect opportunity to focus on one of the autistic side characters.
  • The fact that Sam lacks a proper autistic Foil has been a major criticism since the first season. Giving Sam a proper counterpart to balance him out, such as turning one of the support group members into an Ascended Extra, would have created a more accurate representation of autism. It is a spectrum after all, so not all real life autistic people are like Sam.

Any thoughts?