History Main / DemotedToSatelliteLoveInterest

* Kairi in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' had limited screentime, but still managed to have her own personality and character arc concerning her anxiety and fear of change based around her DarkAndTroubledPast. In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', almost all her scenes and actions revolve around Sora and her love for him and little else (though to be fair, she does have a few short friendship moments with Riku as well.) This issue persists in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', although she does have some portions of the game that also focus on her [[FireForgedFriends fire-forged friendship]] with Axel/Lea.

''Please don't use this trope as an excuse to [[Administrivia/ComplainingAboutCharactersYouDontLike bash characters whom you dislike for X/Y/Z motives]]. Becoming a love interest doesn't immediately equal being demoted to SLI, and many accusations fit less in this trope and more in DieForOurShip.''

* Syaoran Li of ''Anime/CardcaptorSakura'' started off as TheRival and for a while had almost equal footing with Sakura, his own supporting cast and many limelight episodes (so much the English dub tried to play him as co lead with ''Cardcaptors''). After Sakura becomes Master of the Cards, the rest of the main arc must be resolved by her with the others providing marginal assistance. As such, most of Syaoran's spotlight at this point consists of one or two short scenes concerning his growing crush on Sakura (he does still get limelight episodes but they revolve entirely around being a love interest).
* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': Android 18 was introduced as an independent villain alongside her brother, but then receded into the role of Krillin's wife and more-or-less retired from fighting. She does participate in trying to stop Beerus during Bulma's birthday party, and lampshades the fact that she's still stronger than Krillin when he goes off to face Freeza's army when the villain returns to life but agrees to stay behind to protect their daughter.
** Videl was introduced as a powerful fighter and someone who was suspicious of Gohan and the other Saiyans' unusual power. But once the Buu arc got serious she was sidelined and after marrying Gohan and giving birth to Pan she seems to have retired from fighting. This is probably reasonable, since she is a BadassNormal with low-tier {{Charles Atlas Superpower}}s at best, while the other heroes throw around military-grade energy attacks, and she can't really do much on that sort of battlefield.

** [[ActionGirl Poison Scorpion Bianchi]] started off as a pretty capable [[FemmeFatale hitman]] who could turn everything into poison. But she was also the titular Hitman Tutor's lover, and by the Future Arc she is reduced to an older sister figure for the girls.

* ''Anime/SailorMoon'': Mamoru aka Tuxedo Mask suffers this in the anime, but not in the manga. In the manga Mamoru is one of the most important and developed characters: while somewhat weak on his own, the major villains are usually defeated by combining his powers with Sailor Moon's. His future as King Endymion is also of great importance. By the 4th season he becomes the character with the most focus (after Sailor Moon herself), because of [[spoiler:his connection to Pegasus/Helios, and his weak health that fuels that arc's drama]]. Compared to the manga, the anime starts forcing Mamoru out of the focus after the first season. In the first season he still has an important plot role, due to his forbidden love with Usagi/Princess Serenity. However, in the second season his importance gets considerably downplayed -- and by the third season onward he's turned into a mere extra, to the point that [[spoiler:when in the fifth season he's PutOnABus, it really lessened the impact that event had in the manga.]]

* Riku is introduced as ''Manga/WanderingSon'' as a classmate of Maho that she has a crush on. He has a crush on her little sibling at first but eventually they begin dating. By high school though he's pretty much "Maho's boyfriend" when before he had some chemistry with Nitori at least.
* ''Anime/AttackerYou'': Sho Tachiki is introduced as You's potential love interest. Like You, he's also a volleyball player and initially serves as a BigBrotherMentor for her, and also has some ShipTease with You's FriendlyRival Nami. However after the first few episodes, Sho is very soon DemotedToExtra and very rarely appears in the anime. This is a case where we don't even see a RelationshipUpgrade between the partners and the guy is only known as "the heroine's object of affection" who is completely irrelevant to the story. To make things worse, in some foreign adaptations, specifically European, the anime is known with a NameAndName title that makes it look like that You and her "boyfriend" Sho are both equally important protagonists.

** Astrid is initially set up as a competitive student who's determined to ace Gobber's training and become a fully fledged viking. Hiccup's aversion to fighting irritates her and his sudden improvement makes her suspect foul play, resulting in her following him into the forest to find out what his secret is. After their first romantic encounter she becomes much more subdued, existing solely to provide Hiccup with support and advice.

* In ''Disney/TheLionKing'', Nala plays a significant role in getting Simba to return to Pride Rock and face his past, not to mention being a fierce and determined character in her own right. In the sequel, however, she has a maximum of 20-ish lines, and hardly does anything to contribute to the plot besides fighting in the pride-on-pride battle near the end. What makes it worse is that there were ''many'' opportunities and times that she could've said or done something of importance, but she still hardly affected a thing through the whole movie.

* Koyuki Ayase from the ''Music/ConfessionExecutiveCommitteeLoveSeries'' becomes this in the adaptations of "Right Now, I'm in Love." and ''The Moment You Fall in Love'', its animated counterpart. Just before, he played a huge role in "Confession Rehearsal"/''I've Always Liked You'' as the active rival in a LoveTriangle, and showed how he came to the decision to pursue Natsuki. Now just contrast that here; he's practically defined by Hina's crush on him, having little else to do in the story than call out to her or say hi while she fruitlessly pursues him, and all the drama stems from her insecurities and Kotarou's feelings for her.

* {{Invoked}} in the ''Literature/{{Robotech}}'' ExpandedUniverse. Miriya was the greatest Zentraedi female ace, and when she got her HighHeelFaceTurn and [[BestHerToBedHer married Max Sterling]], for the rest of the original series she was his counterpart and got equal screentime with him. Then during the Malcontent Uprisings, the brass made the official decision to turn her into a propaganda piece; "homemaker, mother, ''former'' freedom fighter." Miriya abided by it, but still played an important role in the finale (and returned to badass status during the Sentinels series).

--> One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell... I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. (From "The Man with the Twisted Lip")

** Oz was introduced as a werewolf character who had an interest in Willow, but still a role in the plot. Around mid Season 3 he was defined more by his status as Willow's boyfriend. Seth Green ultimately left the show over this.

** Anya first played it straight and then subverted it. She was introduced as a vengeance demon, playing the antagonist for two episodes. Then in Season 4 she became Xander's love interest there to provide comic relief and rarely get episodes of her own. When Xander left her at the altar, she became a demon again and still had a role in the plot beyond their relationship.

* ''Franchise/PerryMason'': {{Defied}}. Della Street turned down several proposals of marriage by Perry, because she wanted to be a part of his life and she knew that meant being a part of his work -- and she expected that to [[QuittingToGetMarried end after marriage]].

** Will Scarlet was a main character in ''Series/OnceUponATimeInWonderland''. When he shows up in season four he's credited as part of the main cast, but is quickly demoted to the love interest of Belle. Sometimes his only appearances are holding her hand in the background, and he only has a quick, blink-and-you'll-miss-it, unspoken cameo in the finale. To make things worse for him, Belle herself has rarely been more than the love interest of Rumpelstiltskin in the series, making Will Scarlet demoted to the satellite love interest of a satellite love interest.
** Robin Hood also gets this treatment big time. In his initial appearance he was a fully independent character, but upon his return (and recasting) he became not a lot more than Regina's true love. This progressively gets worse and worse, until Season Five (ironically the season he got a {{Promotion to Opening Titles}}) where he is basically a shadow/occasional {{Dude in Distress}} until [[spoiler:he is killed off towards the end of the season, probably at the actor's request.]]

* ''Series/NYPDBlue'': Once Andy and Sylvia get married and have a baby, Sylvia is relegated to one scene every few episodes at home with Andy and their son Theo. She decides to quit her job in order to stay at home with their son so Andy gets a second job working airport security, meaning we see her even less. Eventually she goes back to work as an Assistant District Attorney just in time to get killed off.
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': This happened to Julian Albert after he started dating Caitlin about halfway through the show's third season. As she [[spoiler: became Killer Frost]], his role was reduced to [[spoiler: trying to find her a cure, and acting excessively overprotective of her to the point of risking his own life.]]

* Inverted with Wrestling/VickieGuerrero. Originally only appearing in segments as Eddie Guerrero's wife, after his death she became an onscreen character and eventually evolved into her own entity.

* ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'' plays this trope straight, twice, by reversing the roles of the characters involved:
** In the initial ''Sword Art Online'' arc, Asuna is a badass, give-no-fucks ActionGirl who carries her weight as one of the most powerful and well-known players in the [[EliteArmy lead group]]. When the game is shut down, though, she's one of the players who is "captured" and prevented from logging out. Immediately after this, during the ''[=ALFheim=] Online'' arc, she is a textbook GirlInTheTower held prisoner by the BigBad (who plans on marrying her in the real world despite the fact that [[DudeShesLikeInAComa she's comatose]], and [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty sexually harasses and/or assaults her]] on numerous occasions in the game), giving TheHero Kirito all the motivation he needs to beat the game and rescue her. Finally, in the ''Gun Gale Online'' arc, she's... Kirito's girlfriend. She has almost no plot significance whatsoever, and does not appear in GGO's game world; all of her scenes are either milling about in ALO wondering what Kirito is doing, or having conversations with him in the real world.
** In the fourth and final arc of the anime, which returns to ALO, Asuna becomes TheProtagonist and is finally relevant again, for the first time since the SAO Incident--only to swap roles with Kirito. In this arc, ''he's'' the barely-present love interest who has little relevance to the plot.

* In ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender, this happens to Lance in Season 8, once he and [[spoiler:Allura]] become an OfficialCouple. The team sniper, moral support and ComicRelief with HiddenDepths in previous seasons, Lance spends Season 8 as "[[spoiler:Allura]]'s concerned boyfriend." If he's not in a fight, he's with her, talking about her, or worrying about her. Even when the current Paladins meet their predecessors, while all the other Paladins are told what worthy and talented warriors they are, all Alfor tells Lance is basically that he's a good boyfriend. Even when [[spoiler: Allura dies]], Lance's entire epilogue is about how he dedicates himself to her [[spoiler:memory -- basically becoming an evangelist for Allura's "message]].

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': Juvia Lockser (just like Android 18 of DBZ) was initially introduced as an very powerful antagonistic character to the protagonists, however after meeting Gray, her character begins inexorably to turn exclusively around his after the Fighting Festival Arc.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' Amidala is the ruler of Naboo who fights bravely for her people. By ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' she's given up the throne and married Anakin, and while she's still a Senator it's all about Anakin becoming Darth Vader because the scene where she planted the seeds that would later become the Rebel Alliance was left on the cutting room floor for some bizarre reason.

* Kairi in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' had limited screentime, but still managed to have her own personality and character arc concerning her anxiety and fear of change based around her DarkAndTroubledPast. In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', almost all her scenes and actions revolve around Sora and her love for him and little else (though to be fair, she does have a few short friendship moments with Riku as well.) Though by ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', she's back to being a major supporting character, and her portions of the game focus on her [[FireForgedFriends fire-forged friendship]] with Axel/Lea.

* Kairi in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' had limited screentime, but still managed to have her own personality and character arc concerning her anxiety and fear of change based around her DarkAndTroubledPast. In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', almost all her scenes and actions revolve around Sora and her love for him and little else (though to be fair, she does have a few short friendship moments with Riku as well.)

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse: This happened to Claire Temple over the course of the Marvel Netflix shows. At the start of ''Series/Daredevil2015'' season 1, she was initially emphasized as an outsider, the audience stand-in, the mortal in a world of gods and monsters. By the time ''Series/IronFist2017'' and ''Series/TheDefenders2017'' come around, Claire has become a part of the strangeness now. And while that is a major development, it also means she loses the key elements that made her such a compelling character in the first place. This change is particularly obvious in ''The Defenders'', in which Claire is actually one of the most informed, well-connected, least fazed characters in the show, and thus one of the least interesting. She is no longer the funny, baffled, exasperated, badass civilian. She’s now just one of a large crowd of side characters, and the narrative actually regards her more like a ''Series/LukeCage2016'' side character than a crossover character, with the show barely even acknowledging her past connection with Matt. The second season of ''Luke Cage'' reduces her even further to being merely Luke’s girlfriend, thus placing her firmly in a secondary role.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': While she was never a main character to start, Marci Stahl to some extent is subject to this trope. In season 1, while she's still Foggy's ex-girlfriend, she plays an integral role in Nelson & Murdock's takedown of Wilson Fisk by supplying them with documents that allow them to find a key witness with the goods on Fisk. After Nelson & Murdock's breakup in season 2, Foggy joins Marci at Jeri Hogarth's law firm and they move in together. In season 3, Marci is very clearly an independent character with her own stuff going on, and is the one to encourage Foggy to run against Blake Tower as a write-in candidate for District Attorney to condemn Tower's inaction against Fisk, but her screentime in the story is relegated to her being Foggy's girlfriend.

** Videl was introduced as a powerful fighter and someone who was suspicious of Gohan and the other Saiyans' unusual power. But once the Buu arc got serious she was sidelined and after marrying Gohan and giving birth to Pan she seems to have retired from fighting.

* ''Manga/FairyTail: Juvia Lockser (just like Android 18 of DBZ) was initially introduced as an very powerful antagonistic character to the protagonists, however after meeting Gray, her character begins inexorably to turn exclusively around his after the Fighting Festival Arc.

* In the ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon'' comic strip, [[DaddysLittleVillain Princess Aura]] began as a fairly important character who drove several plots. After her BettyAndVeronica love triangle with Dale over Flash was resolved (in Dale's favor), she was [[PairTheSpares married off to Prince Barin]] and lost most of her agency and narrative importance, becoming a much more domestic and pacific love interest than [[DarkActionGirl her previous characterization]].

* ''Manga/FairyTail: Juvia Lockser (just like Android 18 of DBZ) was initially introduced as an antagonistic character to the protagonists, however after meeting Gray, her character begins inexorably to turn exclusively around his after the Fighting Festival Arc.

** Even Levy's character follows the same process, falling in love with Gajeel (someone who at first did not have any qualms to impale her to a tree and to torture her and her friends for an entire night) to the point of making us forget that she had started as a potential best friend of Lucy and not one of the cleverest wizards of the guild.

** Even Levy McGarden follows the same process, falling in love with Gajeel (someone who at first did not have any qualms to impale her to a tree and to torture her and her friends for an entire night) to the point of making us forget that she had started as a potential best friend of Lucy and not one of the cleverest wizards of the guild.

* In a few ''VideoGame/{{Harvest Moon}}'' games such as [[VideoGame/HarvestMoon1 the original game]], ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonTheTaleOfTwoTowns Tale of Two Towns]], and ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonGrandBazaar Grand Bazaar]]'' all the love interests have hopes and ambitions of their own...until they marry you. It's especially true of some of the women in ''Tale of Two Towns''. For a female main character, the guys will continue to run their businesses and go travelling after they marry. When a male main character marries, the female love interest will not leave your farmhouse. So, Laney gives up on moving to the city and Georgia stops working at her father's stable.

** While the romantic part of the attachment is underplayed, Naminée in the same game is DemotedToExtra and, beyond [[MrExposition plot exposition]], her role is to care about Roxas and want to help him / reunite with him.

* ''Anime/AttackerYou'': Sho Tachiki is introduced as You's potential love interest. Like You, he's also a volleyball player and initially serves as a BigBrotherMentor for her, and also has some ShipTease with You's FriendlyRival Nami. However after the first episodes, Sho is very soon DemotedToExtra and very rarely appears in the anime. This is a case where we don't even see a RelationshipUpgrade between the partners and the guy is only known as "the heroine's object of affection" who is completely irrelevant to the story. To make things worse, in some foreign adaptations, specifically European, the anime is known with a NameAndName title that makes it look like that You and her "boyfriend" Sho are both equally important protagonists.

* Koyuki Ayase from the ''Music/ConfessionExecutiveCommitteeLoveSeries'' becomes this in the "The Moment You Fall in Love" arc's adaptations. Just before, he played a huge role in "Confession Rehearsal"/''I've Always Liked You'' as the active rival in a LoveTriangle, and showed how he came to the decision to pursue Natsuki. Now just contrast that here; he's practically defined by Hina's crush on him, having little else to do in the story than call out to her or say hi while she fruitlessly pursues him, and all the drama stems from her insecurities and Kotarou's feelings for her.