You're watching your favorite adventure series. A group of plucky kids snoop around the place, get into exciting situations, and even get into danger and need to be rescued. And in the end, a cop arrests the criminal the kids were trying to catch. The kids didn't even help the police at all.

Suddenly it dawns on you. The main characters aren't that useful! They did all the cool stuff and got into all the danger, yet someone else ultimately stopped the bad guy and saved the day. What the heck? Why even bother with these "heroes" and their adventures?

Because this is a story where the main attraction, if not the very point, is to watch ordinary people get into all sorts of excitement and danger. Yet they can't ultimately thwart the villain or solve the problem, because, well, that's not their job, nor do they have the actual skills to do it.

This is a way to get kid characters (or average, non-professional adult characters) into an exciting adventure while providing the realism of showing the real police or other professionals doing their jobs and saving the day. Note that despite the title, this doesn't have to be about kid characters specifically; this is about when the ''main'' characters, regardless of who they are, are not the ones who save the day.

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You're watching your favorite adventure series. A group of plucky kids snoop around the place, get into exciting situations, and even get into danger and need to be rescued. And in the end, a cop arrests the criminal the kids were after.  Supposedly, the kids didn't even help the police at all.

Suddenly it dawns on you.  The main characters aren't that useful!  They did all the cool stuff (basically into all the danger), yet someone else ultimately stopped the bad guy and saved the day. [[WhatTheHellHero What the heck?]] Why even bother with these "heroes" and their adventures?

Because this is a story where the main attraction, if not the very point, is to watch ordinary people get into all sorts of excitement and danger.  Yet they can't ultimately thwart the villain or solve the problem, because, well, that's not their job, nor do they have the actual skills for it.

This is a way to get kid characters (or average, non-professional adult characters) into an exciting adventure while providing the realism of showing the real police or other professionals doing their jobs and saving the day.  Note that despite the title, this doesn't have to be about young characters specifically; this is about when the ''main'' characters, regardless of who they are, are not the ones who save the day (though CharacterDevelopment does happen).

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21st Jan '13 2:16:39 PM ANTMuddle

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6th Nov '12 6:50:00 PM Megafierce

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6th Nov '12 6:47:30 PM Megafierce

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Left Behind book series: "the main characters did nothing" THEY KILLED THE DRAGON HALFWAY THROUGH THE STORYLINE. NO.

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6th Nov '12 11:36:24 AM TelephoneMan

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15th Sep '12 12:10:02 AM Merlock

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9th Sep '12 1:25:06 PM MarkLungo

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* ''TheVentureBrothers'', who were based on the ''HardyBoys'' and ''JonnyQuest'' both, really did nothing in the show during the first season, but are the main characters nonetheless. This changed in later seasons.
* In the original 1960s series, ''JonnyQuest'' basically just hung around while his dad and Race dealt with all the dangerous stuff. Ocassionally, he, Hadji and Bandit would need rescuing, and would even take down a mook or two, but otherwise did little but comment on the action.
** This was realized when ''WesternAnimation/TheRealAdventuresOfJonnyQuest'' was made, resulting in the younger cast members being much more capable of fighting and getting out of trouble, not to mention being aged up a bit.
* [[ScoobyDoo The Scooby Gang]], the [[TropeNamer meddling kids]] themselves, are an odd case, as they actually ''do'' manage to solve mysteries...or rather, Velma does, with a little help from Freddy and occasionally Daphne. Our main heroes, Scooby and Shaggy, on the other hand, mostly just have exciting {{chase scene}}s and [[BigEater eat lots]], while Daphne is kidnapped by the villain ("[[DamselInDistress Danger-prone Daphne]]", indeed) and Freddy makes traps that invariably fail but somehow manage to [[AccidentalHero accidentally capture the villain anyway]]. In the end, it's Velma who figures out who the villain is and explains the mystery to the others.

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* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', who were based on the ''HardyBoys'' and ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' both, really did nothing in the show during the first season, but are the main characters nonetheless. This changed in later seasons.
* In the original 1960s series, ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' basically just hung around while his dad and Race dealt with all the dangerous stuff. Ocassionally, he, Hadji and Bandit would need rescuing, and would even take down a mook or two, but otherwise did little but comment on the action.
** This was realized when ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures'' was made, resulting in the younger cast members being much more capable of fighting and getting out of trouble, not to mention being aged up a bit.
* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'''s Scooby Gang, the [[TropeNamer meddling kids]] themselves, are an odd case, as they actually ''do'' manage to solve mysteries...or rather, Velma does, with a little help from Freddy and occasionally Daphne. Our main heroes, Scooby and Shaggy, on the other hand, mostly just have exciting {{chase scene}}s and [[BigEater eat lots]], while Daphne is kidnapped by the villain ("[[DamselInDistress Danger-prone Daphne]]", indeed) and Freddy makes traps that invariably fail but somehow manage to [[AccidentalHero accidentally capture the villain anyway]]. In the end, it's Velma who figures out who the villain is and explains the mystery to the others.

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* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' is sort of like this. The Planeteers are the real main characters, with Captain Planet himself usually only getting about two minutes of screen time per episode. He ''is,'' however, the DeusExMachina that solves all the major problems, while the heroes are mostly there to just [[AllYourPowersCombined summon him]] and learn the {{Aesop}} ([[GreenAesop green]] or otherwise) ''du jour,'' after getting into a lot of danger and adventurous situations, of course.
* The children in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingChanAndTheChanClan'' try their hardest, but it's always their dad who ends up solving the mystery in the end.
* Rufus and Amberley of ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'' are usually ineffective against even [[HarmlessVillain the Urpneys]], though usually come out fine anyway due to the assistance of the Wuts, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain the Urpneys screwing up the plan]] or [[TheFool just pure dumb luck]]. In earlier episodes they are slightly more competent.

This list shows the last 10 events of 48. Show all.

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