History Main / SocialCircleFiller

* Justified in Brandon Mulls novel ''Literature/TheBeyonders : A World Without Heroes'', which starts off with a lot of interaction between main character Jason and his friends, the girl he likes, etc. They all become pretty irrelevant once he falls through into another world and discovers he has no way back, or even to send a message. His friends and family's reaction to his disappearance is unknown, although Jason does think about it. [[spoiler:Since Jason ends up back on Earth at the end, we'll have to see if the trope ends up being averted in the sequel.]]

* ''Series/{{Glee}}'' : In the penultimate episode, "2009", we meet Bex and Lysander, whom we've never seen before, despite it being a CallBack / OriginsEpisode to the Pilot.

* ''Series/{{IZombie}}'' : Liv starts the series with a mother and a younger brother, but one might get the impression that she's a siblingless orphan.

* Sam Witwicky has a best friend names Miles for the scene where he tries to go to a party, early in the first ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movie. The only other time we see him is when he blows Sam off when he calls to tell him [[CassandraTruth his car is alive]]. Miles is then never seen or mentioned ever again.

* Common in Creator/MercedesLackey books, as one of her {{Creator Thumbprint}}s is characters starting out in rough circumstances before catching a break of some kind and moving on to better circumstances, sometimes multiple in succession. At the start they're either friendless or have one friend or at least semi-friendly contact who helps make things bearable, and they don't look back.

*** The Vows and Honor books start off with a couple chapters on Kethry's backstory, and old enemies who make trouble for her again. These enemies aren't killed but apparently keep their heads down afterwards. The nurse who helped her escape them in the first place is spoken of, just the once, as if she's alive and someone Tarma would like. The girl who jumps to help Kethry because those old enemies have harmed her as well never returns, unlike the mercenary pair introduced at the same time, who recur repeatedly as ThoseTwoGuys.
*** In ''Brightly Burning'', Lavan starts attending a school where bullies have full rein and makes friends with other outcast kids, including Owen and a girl cruelly nicknamed "Froggy". After he kills the bullies during his TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening and is then Chosen and whisked away, an investigator interviews Owen to get more of the story

* This is the case in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}.'' The five human Animorphs know they can't trust their other friends, as [[ParanoiaFuel anyone can be]] infested with a PuppeteerParasite - even if they're clear ''now'', and determining this is a lengthy process, they may become infested later. If not the friends themselves, ''their'' friends and families. In the early books they're shown or said to still be interacting with their old friends while at school and trying not to look like all one clique. Jake particularly was a bit of a BigManOnCampus type and Rachel was fairly popular, having gymnastics friends and rejecting various boys who want to ask her out. This, and their participation in extracurriculars, falls off as the series progresses and the strain of running a secret guerilla war on the weekends and after school (and all night, a lot of the time) intensifies.

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}},'' Jake is supposed to be a BigManOnCampus type of guy, so occasionally another character will mention that he's interacting with unnamed "other friends." Rachel is also pretty popular, but this manifests as a string of one-off guys who ask her out and get rejected.

A CoolLoser OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent is shown associating with a small, presumably tight knit circle of like-minded friends. But of course, the CallToAdventure arrives in all its glory, and our intrepid hero is plucked from normalcy and told that he's TheChosenOne. Cool.

* ''Anime/BloodPlus'': Kaori Kinjo is a NiceGirl introduced as Saya's closest friend at the start of the series. After episode two, when the main plot kicks in she vanishes from the series without comment and never gets mentioned again by Saya. This at least is somewhat justified by the series leaving Okinawa behind after the first arc and Kaori does return in the final episode when Kai returns to Okinawa.

* Anime/BloodPlus: Kaori Kinjo is a NiceGirl introduced as Saya's closest friend at the start of the series. After episode two she's doesn't appear again till episode fifty after the story is over.

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'' Rivalz Cardemonde is supposedly Lelouch's best friend at the start of the series. Once the plot kicks off, he has zero relevance to the main plot and the narrative puts more emphasis on Suzaku as Lelouch's best friend. Lampshaded in one of the final episodes, where he bemoans how he's been left behind by everybody.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Sansa Stark's best friend Jeyne Poole ([[AllThereInTheScript never actually named onscreen]]) only appears brifely in the pilot at the feast and in the sewing lesson. While it's logical that Sansa stop hanging with her after her family moved to King's Landing, Jeyne all but ceases to exist barring a brief mention in "Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things".

* In the early chapters of ''Manga/DeathNote'', Light Yagami hangs out with two unnamed friends who all but vanish afterwards. Tellingly, the anime [[AdaptedOut doesn't even include them]].

''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Kim and Bonnie's many fellow cheerleaders get along with both girls but rarely do anything more notable than practice cheering with them (as a reminder of the WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld premise of the show) or occasionally show up at other school functions or local restaurants.

* ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'': John Connors spends his introductory scene with a friend/partner-in-crime named Tim, who gives John someone to talk to before meeting the T-800 and reuniting with his mother, then never appears again.

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': While some of Tim's school friends manage to avoid this (mostly just Ives and Zo, the rest disappear over time to never be seen or spoken of again) Kevin Hudman was hit so hard that later writers forgot about him so thoroughly that he was unknowingly merged with Hudson.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'': [[spoiler:Miles Morales is shown heavily wrestling with loneliness due to the absence of all the various Spider people he connected with. However, careful viewers can observe that at the start of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse,'' Miles was shown as being incredibly popular and socially outgoing in his home neighborhood. While one can infer that Miles simply feels that he can't be himself around them, he has also been shown to willingly befriend his roommate, Ganke. Nevertheless in the sequel, Miles is shown to have an almost entirely absent social circle which raises the question of what happened to his relationship with the other teenagers in his home neighborhood whom he was shown to be extremely friendly with at the start of the first film. Even when Jefferson and Rio inquire about Miles' social circle, the latter has trouble naming even one friend that he can connect with in his neighborhood. This is in stark contrast to the socially outgoing and charismatic person that Miles was shown being during his character introduction. While the kids in his neighborhood may not have been anything more than casual acquaintances, we're not even shown Miles participating in any sort of activity with them, which seems unlikely based on his interactions with them in the first movie. One would be forgiven for questioning just why the seemingly extroverted and outgoing young man from the first film would have nobody to at least play video games with. As such, it's easy to view it as a subtle retcon of how Miles was portrayed in the first movie.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': Marco's friends Alonzo and Ferguson were written [[EnforcedTrope because the executives wanted Marco to have friends besides Star]]. They were seen in the pilot as well as earlier episodes in the series, but by the second season they're only mentioned once (in a joke [[LampshadeHanging pointing out their absence]]), and [[TheGadfly Janna]], [[MellowFellow Jackie]], and [[IntergenerationalFriendship Marco's martial arts instructor]] basically takes over their role as "Marco's other friend(s)" (until Janna, and for a while, Jackie, take on even more relevance). They ([[spoiler:and most of the show's Earth characters]]) are given a proper sendoff when [[spoiler:Marco leaves for Mewni]] early in Season 3.

* Stalkers often have a psychological filter of this nature with regards to the objects of their interest. They tend to forget or edit out the fact that those they are obsessed with have people close to them, as this interrupts or ruins their fantasies.

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' deconstructs this with Utena's friend Wakaba. At a glance, Wakaba is a classic example since she isn't involved in the Student Council and is only peripherally involved in the main story, and in the first arc she mainly serves to [[MrExposition provide exposition about who the major characters are]]. But she receives CharacterDevelopment and a pair of [[ADayInTheLimelight focus episodes]] in the Black Rose arc, and works to keep Utena grounded between duels. Moreover, Wakaba herself [[GenreSavvy seems aware of this trope]] to the point that she fears becoming irrelevant, and strongly resents that she isn't "special" like Utena or the Student Council members (despite Utena clearly valuing their friendship, to the point where she refuses to duel Wakaba).

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' deconstructs this with Utena's friend Wakaba. At a glance, Wakaba is a classic example since she isn't involved in the Student Council and is only peripherally involved in the main story, and in the first arc she mainly serves to [[MrExposition provide exposition about who the major characters are]]. But she receives CharacterDevelopment and a pair of [[ADayInTheLimelight focus episodes]] in the Black Rose arc, and works to keep Utena grounded between duels. Moreover, Wakaba herself [[GenreSavvy seems aware of this trope]] to the point that she fears becoming this, and strongly resents that she isn't "special" like Utena or the Student Council members (despite Utena clearly valuing their friendship, to the point where she refuses to duel Wakaba).

A couple training montages and plot twists later, the hero finds himself fighting against all odds and wanting for allies. Now would be a great time to call upon those friends that trust and like him enough to believe that the Statue of Liberty is actually a [[HumongousMecha giant evil robot.]] Too bad those friends have ceased to exist within the plot. They are Social Circle Filler.