History Main / TheBenchwarmer

->There are 22 manne, in a rugby team today;//
->1 to 8 the vories, 9 to 15 agterlyn.// [[note]] ''Vories'' - forwards; ''Agterlyn'', backs[[/note]]
->16 to 22, the manne on the bench....//

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}:'' Satoshi/Ash has a lot of Pokémon, but since he can only carry six at the same time, most of them have to stay at Professor Ookido/Oak's laboratory. They belong to the All-Star category since Satoshi tends to carry only those Pokémon he caught in the current region he's in, and they do come back at some given point. Some of them also serve as Jokers.

** Seirin High's Basketball Club has six benchwarmers, but they fall into two categories. The three second-year benchwarmers, Mitobe, Koganei and Tsuchida are the overshadowed players, who aren't bad as players, but they are not central to Seirin's strategy. However, due to Kuroko's nature as a BenchedHero and Kiyoshi being a DentedIron, those two have to leave the field very often (especially Kuroko), thus these three benchwarmers are often given the chance to play on the field until the next change. The first-year benchwarmers (Furihata, Kawahara and Fukuda) however are simply not good enough and are inexperienced and they are given little to no opportunity to play on the field and they are usually delegated as cheerleaders. It isn't until the final match of the Winter Cup where the three first-years are given the opportunity to play in the tournament. Furihata in particular is given the opportunity to shine, as his cowardly nature helps his teammates to avoid mistakes while the opponent's are caught so off-guard by his not-so-stellar plays that they lose track of the environment.

Sometimes, a character might be DemotedToExtra because a superior character has taken his place and the former main player is now degraded to a benchwarmer. However, in other cases, a character might become an AscendedExtra, ranking up from a benchwarmer to a main player.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': Aki Izayoi from Team 5D's is even titled as the "Benchwarmer" in the fifth ending. She took over for the Second Wheeler Crow when he was injured before the first match began. Aki was injured before the second match and the injured Crow had to take over his position again. Since then, Aki has never attended an official Riding Duel for Team 5D's again, being overshadowed by Yusei, Jack, and Crow in terms of dueling skills and riding skills. Notably, Team 5D's is the only team to have a benchwarmer at all, which makes Aki unique in that regard.