History Main / DemotedToSatelliteLoveInterest

** Koyuki Ayase becomes this in the "Right Now, I'm in Love." arc 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 previous 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 pursues him unaware of his crush on another girl, and all the drama stems from her insecurities and her childhood friend Kotaro's feelings for her.

** Dan Gordon first appeared on the show as a next-door neighbor that was having trouble trying to act as a surrogate parent to his preteen sister. Then the sister was PutOnABus and he spends the rest of his time on the show in a LoveTriangle with Piper and Leo.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': Juvia from Phantom Lord falls head over heels in love with Gray almost as soon as she's introduced as an enemy of his guild, but still starts out as a prominent secondary character with other traits when she [[DefectingForLove joins Fairy Tail]], such as her awkwardness around other people, her camaraderie with her old guildmate Gajeel, and her concerns over being truly accepted by her former enemies. As time goes on, however, these other interactions become more sparse until nearly every scene she's in pertains to Gray in some way, whether it's hanging over his every word or being a ClingyJealousGirl towards any girl who so much as utters his name.

** The film's sequel ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2'' makes a conscious effort to remedy this, giving Astrid an independent solo role while still maintaining her relationship with Hiccup.

* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'':
** 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.

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'':

** Averted with the Mother's Rosario arc where Asuna is firmly the protagonist and the story focus on her friendship with Yuuki and her relationship with her mother.
** A mixed example with the ''Alicization'' arc, where she continues to be heavily involved in the plot ([[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]]), while her character still pretty much revolves around loving Kirito.[[spoiler:However in the War for the Underworld arc, she steps up as a protagonist with Kirito down for the count.]]

** Inverted with Belle, who began entirely as a love interest for Rumplestiltskin. When she was made a series regular, she started having more agency in the plots.

* ''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 to Brian.

** 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 rebound guy for 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.

** Inverted with Belle, who began entirely as a love interest for Rumpelstiltskin. When she was made a series regular, she started having more agency in the plots.

** 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.]]

* Syaoran Li of ''Manga/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).

** 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 alongside her brother, 17.

* ''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.]]
** While Umino was never a major character, after he got together with Naru his only role was being her boyfriend.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Victor was first introduced as a teenaged boy who was fated to become Gert's mortal nemesis when he grew up. He was shown to be highly intelligent and powerful enough to fight off the rest of the team. After the Runaways managed to change his fate, he ultimately became the love interest to the team leader Nico. Since then, Victor's importance and power diminished considerably: e.g. he got outwitted by Chase, the least intelligent member of the team (who had also temporarily turned against his former teammates.) And then, after Nico dumped him, he spent the rest of the series doing almost nothing except ineffectually pining after her.

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

** 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/FrozenII'' has Kristoff, who goes from ice-delivering loner who gradually falls for Princess Anna over the course of the first movie because he admires her pluck and determination while also giving her some important life lessons to spending the sequel attempting multiple times to propose to Anna and only managing to spit out out right at the end. It doesn't help Anna repeatedly ditches Kristoff to chase after Elsa and even after Elsa forces Anna to stay behind (since Anna has no powers and Elsa doesn't know if she'll come back from her voyage) to look after the people of Arendelle, Anna still barely interacts with Kristoff and remains obsessed over her sister "abandoning" her.

* ''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.
* ''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.

** 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.

** Dan Gordon first appeared on the show as a next door neighbor that was having trouble trying to act as a surrogate parent to his preteen sister. Then the sister was PutOnABus and he spends the rest of his time on the show in a LoveTriangle with Piper and Leo.

** 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.

* Once her storyline as TheMole in ''Series/PeakyBlinders'' was concluded, this happened to [[BitchInSheepsClothing Grace]], who reappeared in the second season just to make up a LoveTriangle between herself, Tommy and May and then has no purpose in the story at all after that besides being [[spoiler: Tommy's wife and mother of Charles, which is likely why she was killed off in Season Three]], since there wasn't much more they could do with her.

* Wrestling/DebraMarshall was originally a manager to multiple wrestlers, had a stint as Co-Commissioner with Mick Foley and occasionally wrestled. Her last two years in the company saw her only appearing as Stone Cold's wife. Lampshaded when she was on ''Series/TheWeakestLink''.

* Historically, productions of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' downgraded Desdemona into this. This is due to ValuesDissonance; audiences weren't sympathetic to a heroine who would disobey her father's wishes to marry a man of a different race. Thus her role was downplayed to better serve the back and forth between Othello and Iago. In the middle of the 20th Century, productions have been adding more fire and sexuality into their Desdemonas to avert this.

* In ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'', this happens to Lance in Season 8, once he and [[spoiler:Allura]] become an OfficialCouple. The team sniper, moral support and PluckyComicRelief 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"]].

* 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"]].

* ''Literature/DaughterOfTheCyberDragons'': G AKA Case Gordon was the protagonist of the ''Literature/AgentG'' series but becomes Keiko "Kei" Springs' boyfriend and partner in the Cyber Dragons series. Somewhat of a DownplayedTrope because he remains a SixthRanger to their party.

* ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2'' has Kristoff, who goes from ice-delivering loner who gradually falls for Princess Anna over the course of the first movie because he admires her pluck and determination while also giving her some important life lessons to spending the sequel attempting multiple times to propose to Anna and only managing to spit out out right at the end. It doesn't help Anna repeatedly ditches Kristoff to chase after Elsa and even after Elsa forces Anna to stay behind (since Anna has no powers and Elsa doesn't know if she'll come back from her voyage) to look after the people of Arendelle, Anna still barely interacts with Kristoff and remains obsessed over her sister "abandoning" her.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': Juvia from Phantom Lord falls head over heels in love with Gray almost as soon as she's introduced as an enemy of his guild, but still starts out with other character traits when she [[DefectingForLove joins Fairy Tail]], such as her awkwardness around other people, her camaraderie with her old guildmate Gajeel, and her concerns over being truly accepted by her former enemies. As time goes on, however, these other interactions become more sparse until nearly every scene she's in pertains to Gray in some way, whether it's hanging over his every word or being a ClingyJealousGirl towards any girl who so much as utters his name.

->'''Epic Voice Guy''': Creator/NataliePortman is back. And she’s … just kinda there. Weep as this once proud queen, senator, and warrior spends the whole movie barefoot and pregnant.\\

** Koyuki Ayase becomes this in the "Right Now, I'm in Love." arc 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 previous 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 her childhood friend Kotaro's feelings for her.

** The more time progresses, the more Midori Hamanaka from the same series fals under this bracket. His debut song, "Friday's Good Mornings", had him in the starring role and his love interest Sena Narumi created to be his ideal love interest. As time went on, it was ''Sena'' who received further characterization away from their romance and has plenty of stories and songs about her relationships with her family and inner feelings. Midori, however, only gets content related to Sena, and his non-singing cameos only have him interacting with her despite small hints at a social life beyond his love.

* Koyuki Ayase from ''Music/ConfessionExecutiveCommittee'' becomes this in the "Right Now, I'm in Love." arc 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 previous 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 her childhood friend Kotaro's feelings for her.

* In the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', Mirai Yashima takes on the important role of first mate and helmsman of the [[SuperPrototype White Base]], but when she reappears in ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', we find that she married Mr. Bright and started a family with him. And even though her husband soon becomes one of the key figures of [[LaResistance AEUG]], she makes very few appearances, instead staying on Earth to take care of her children. That said, most fans remember Mirai more for being able to get a huge spaceship to dodge laser blasts than for starting a family.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Marla Madison was a scientist who built a Spider-Slayer for J. Jonah Jameson. He subsequently fell in love with her and they eventually married. Since Dr. Madison stopped building Spider-Slayers, she gradually settled down into the position of Jonah's wife as few writers seemed to be interested in developing her as a character (while JJJ continued being important). As she was StuffedIntoTheFridge, there is little chance of that being ever rectified.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Marla Madison was a scientist who built a Spider-Slayer for J. Jonah Jameson. He subsequently fell in love with her and they eventually married. Since Dr. Madison stopped building Spider-Slayers, she gradually settled down into the position of Jonah's wife as few writers seemed to be interested in developing her as a character (while JJJ continued being important). As she was StuffedIntoTheFridge in a recent story, there is now little chance of that being ever rectified.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Fleur Delacour is introduced as the champion for Beauxbatons academy in the Triwizard Tournament. Between books four and five, she gets together with Bill Weasley and when she returns it's as his fiancé and eventual wife.
** Tonks likewise was an independent member of the Order of the Phoenix when introduced but after hooking up with Remus Lupin, she tends to be defined as his wife due to Remus having a closer connection to the main characters.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': ComicBook/SteveTrevor started out as an integral part of Diana's team. Not only was he perfectly ok with doing things she could not as an Amazon, like kill, he also had experience in spy craft and a military position that made him very useful. Writers following Marston's death quickly turned him into the poster boy of UselessBoyfriend and he only mattered because he and Diana were in love, seemingly having nothing else to really offer.

** Fleur Delacour is introduced as the champion for Beauxbatons academy in the Triwizard Tournament. Between books four and five, she gets together with Bill Weasley and when she returns it's as his fiance and eventual wife.

* ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'': There are examples of this in both the anime and manga:
** [[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.
** [[ActionGirl Lal Mirch]] is probably the most badass character in the series, she has strength, agility, incredible weapons and she even trained one of the Strongest Seven, being chosen for his position initially. And yet everyone just recognized her as one of the Arcobaleno's [[LoveInterest Love Interests]] and as one half of the token het couple.