History Main / DemotedToSatelliteLoveInterest

* Koyuki Ayase from ''Music/ConfessionExecutiveCommittee'' 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, the first movie's heroine. Now just contrast that here; he's practically defined by Hina (''Moment's'' heroine)'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.

A subtrope of DemotedToExtra and SatelliteLoveInterest. Not to be confused with PromotedToLoveInterest, which is about a character who's turned into a LoveInterest (but not necessarily a SatelliteLoveInterest) in an adaptation of the original work. See also CareerVersusMan, FamilyVersusCareer, QuittingToGetMarried [[note]]Note: if a female character quits her career to be with her man, it doesn't necessarily mean she gets Demoted to Satellite Love Interest. She could still continue being a prominent and important character in her new status.[[/note]]

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** Hook as well in Season 4. He gets defined almost entirely by his status as Emma's boyfriend, and all his storylines revolve around his relationship with Emma. Season 5, however, reversed this by giving Hook a character arc that, while Emma heavily factored into it, spanned other elements and relationships with other characters as well.

* 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/SwordArtOnline'' 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.

* ''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.

* ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier2'': The Knights family gets a bad case of this. Cordelia (assuming she marries Wil Knights) and Diana are both exceptional fighters (in Diana's case, [[MasterSwordsman more than exceptional]]), but once they get pregnant, both retire from the battlefield, settle down and raise their children. Even when Wil Knights returns to the battlefield (with his granddaughter as the party leader!), neither his wife nor Diana are there with him.

* Jude in ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'' gets this treatment, with most of his sidequests being focused on his relationship with Mila. Unusually for this trope, this may have been an attempt at an AuthorsSavingThrow, as Jude and Mila's relationship was considered StrangledByTheRedString in the first game due to their interactions not being all that romantic.

* Anna from ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight''. Despite her hostility from the beginning towards Artyom, and insignificance later in the game, she suddenly falls in love with him with absolutely no build-up whatsoever, and solely exists as his love interest alone from this point and an [[FauxActionGirl incapable solo combatant]] into the next game, ''VideoGame/MetroExodus''.

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* Literally ''any'' female character in a romantic relationship in ''WebComic/{{Sonichu}}''. Not that any of the characters have particularly deep personalities to begin with, but once a woman gets a boyfriend here, she immediately turns into a submissive, stereotypically feminine FlatCharacter who does nothing except gush over her boyfriend and fulfill his sexual desires. Probably the most tragic victim is Megagi [=LaSkunk=], who, over the course of three appearances, [[CharacterDerailment transforms from an aggressive "butch" archetype into Punchy's personal cheerleader.]]
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** 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. This would be {{averted|Trope}} come ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', where she is one of the ten representatives for Universe 7, and not only lasts longer than her husband, but takes down several opponents on her own and alongsider her brother 17.

* ''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.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': Juvia Lockser (just like Android 18 of DBZ) was initially introduced as a 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.
** 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 one of the cleverest mages of her guild.

* 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.
* ''Disney/TheLittleMermaidIIReturnToTheSea'' demotes Eric to a sounding board for Ariel's worries about their daughter's future. Once Ariel turns back into a mermaid he disappears until the climax - attempting an (unsuccessful) BigDamnHeroes moment.

* Film/TheFastAndTheFurious: Mia is downgraded into a dutiful housewife and mother starting on ''Fast & Furious 6'', being absent for most of the film until the climax, where she serves as a DamselInDistress. In the seventh, she is taken out of the main action plot and doesn't even do anything other than giving some moral support for Brian.

* TheFastAndTheFurious: Mia is downgraded into a dutiful housewife and mother starting on ''Fast & Furious 6'', being absent for most of the film until the climax, where she serves as a DamselInDistress. In the seventh, she is taken out of the main action plot and doesn't even do anything other than giving some moral support for Brian.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Padme 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 thanks to the audience's anger over the prequel trilogy's focus on politics.

* {{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).

* Wrestling/MariaKanellis was an independent presence for the first few years of her career. But showing that TropesAreNotBad, she became a manager to her husband Mike Bennett - and that was seen as a real GrowingTheBeard moment for her (as beforehand she'd just been a FauxActionGirl who provided {{Fanservice}} in the ring).

* Koyuki Ayase from ''Music/ConfessionExecutiveCommittee'' 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, the first movie's heroine. Now just contrast that here; he's practically defined by Hina (''Moment's'' heroine)'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.

* In later strips of ''ComicStrip/Peanuts'' Schroeder only appeared whenever Lucy was leaning on his piano.

* 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.

* 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.

* ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'' 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. Even in the ''Alicization'' arc, where she actually gets to do some things again ([[spoiler:including the rather awesome feat of tricking a GovernmentConspiracy into bringing her into their secret base, when she was somebody they were specifically on alert for]]), her character still pretty much revolves around loving Kirito.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Padme 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.

* ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'' 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.