Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Main / SocialCircleFiller

Go To

1An 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.
2
3A 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 Art/StatueOfLiberty is actually a [[HumongousMecha giant evil robot.]] Too bad those friends have ceased to exist within the plot. They are Social Circle Filler.
4
5These characters are used to avoid presenting the protagonist as a {{friendless|Background}} [[LonersAreFreaks loner]] before falling victim to ConservationOfDetail. Despite the appearance of close friendship with the protagonist, they promptly lose relevance after the hero is drawn into the Masquerade and introduced to new friends that aren't LockedOutOfTheLoop.
6
7Contrast FriendlessBackground. Compare ForgottenFallenFriend, where the death of a friend is used to set off the plot before being forgotten, and TwentyFourHourPartyPeople, where hitherto-unseen "friends" appear to make a party seem more lively. Don't confuse with ThoseTwoGuys, as they have a higher chance of coming back despite occasionally filling the same niche. See also TheFriendsWhoNeverHang, where specific characters in a friend group rarely interact.
8----
9!!Examples:
10[[foldercontrol]]
11[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
12* ''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. This at least is somewhat justified by the series leaving Okinawa behind after the first arc and Kaori does return in episode 14 when Saya briefly returns to Okinawa and later in the final episode when Kai returns to Okinawa for good.
13* {{Averted}} in ''Manga/BlueFlag''. Though childhood friends Taichi and Touma reconnect in their final year of high school while also befriending Futaba, the three still frequently hang out with their other circles of friends. And in the final chapter, [[spoiler:Taichi is unable to come to Futaba's wedding because one of his friends from high school was getting married on the same day.]]
14* 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. He at least gets more focus than most cases of this trope, showing up in the Ashford Academy subplots, at least before R2 leaves the school behind. Lampshaded in one of the final episodes, where he bemoans how he's been left behind by everybody.
15* In the early chapters of ''Manga/DeathNote'', Light Yagami hangs out with two friends, one named Yamamoto, who all but vanish afterwards. Tellingly, the anime [[AdaptedOut doesn't even include them]].
16* {{Downplayed}} in ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' with Uotani and Hanajima, who are introduced as Tohru's two closest friends who she spends the most time with at school before she becomes friends with Yuki and Kyo Sohma. While Tohru ends up spending more time with the Sohma family after discovering the secret of their HereditaryCurse (to the point that Hanajima even feels jealous of the Sohmas for taking Tohru away from her), they never completely fade in importance and they even get full backstories later on.
17* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'': Josuke is introduced with a trio of female classmates who are crushing on him. They are never seen or mentionned again, and Josuke is never portrayed a ChickMagnet again, since he's only shown hanging out with fellow Stand users Okuyasu and Koichi. This example is notable since ''Diamond is Unbreakable'' contains more slice of life moments compared to other Parts.
18* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': Itadori's friends in the Occult Club, Sasaki and Iguchi, are only relevant in the first episode. After Itadori comes in contact with Sukuna's finger and Gojo takes him under his wing, he moves to Tokyo and doesn't see them anymore (though they do appear briefly in the Culling Game arc).
19* ''Anime/APlaceFurtherThanTheUniverse'' [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zags]] this trope with Megumi, Mari's best friend, who quickly fades into the background as Mari prepares for the trip to Antarctica with the other main girls. Desperate not to lose her friend, Megumi [[spoiler:tries spreading malicious rumors in an attempt to keep Mari home]]. This fails, so she decides to formally end their friendship, only for Mari to rebuff that as well before leaving on the trip. Upon returning to Japan at the end of the series, one of the first things Mari does is to check up on Megumi, only to learn that [[spoiler:Megumi has now left her behind to go on her own journey to the Arctic.]]
20* ''Manga/{{Psyren}}'' In the beginning, Ageha is seen with two friends in class, which he seems to be on good terms with. Once he gets roped in with Amamiya into the world of Psyren, we pretty much never see them again. Instead, Amamiya and Hiryu become his closest friends.
21* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype deconstructs this kind of character]] with Utena's friend Wakaba Shinohara. 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 when the latter is brainwashed into becoming a Black Rose Duelist).
22* ''Manga/SailorMoon'':
23** Naru/Molly is Usagi's best friend until she meets Ami and Rei, spends much of the first season as the DesignatedVictim of monster attacks, and then as even more Senshi get introduced, proceeds to diminish in relevancy to the point of showing up in all of one episode in the third and fourth seasons each. At least she gets a few lines that lampshade the whole thing, as well as a small character arc throughout the show; her manga incarnation doesn't even get the dignity of either.
24** Even better examples are Yumiko and Kuri, two token female classmates who talk with Usagi for a few episodes until the actual main supporting cast is introduced -- at least Naru ''showed up'' again. Not to mention the poor girl who never got a name and, due to being chubby, is only known as "Usagi's fat friend" by fans.
25** In the anime, it is difficult to take the Senshi's comments on how lonely they are without Usagi around when there are so many [[{{Filler}} filler episodes]] dedicated to a senshi making friends with someone. But those friends never show up again...
26* {{Exaggerated}} in ''Anime/SSSSGridman''. Aside from Hass and Namiko, Rikka was friends with Toiko and Tonkawa among other members of the girls volleyball team. [[spoiler: Akane's first Kaiju rampage pretty much kills everyone in her circle but the first two girls off, meaning everyone aside the Gridman Alliance essentially treats them like this in-universe and forgets about them the next day. Rikka herself Subverts this, as she continually keeps in touch with everyone who's still alive while keeping her forgotten friends' deaths in her memory]].
27* ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'': Ichigo's friends [[ThoseTwoGuys Moe and Miwa]] appear in the first episode, and then once or twice afterwards, before vanishing completely.
28[[/folder]]
29
30[[folder:Comic Books]]
31* ''ComicBook/BePrepared'' has Vera's classmates Sarah and the other girls at her birthday party--who later attend Vera's [[BirthdayPartyGoesWrong much less fancy one]]--disappear after they leave by being picked up in the night. Sarah appears in silhouette just long enough to apologize for her actions [[OrderedApology when her mother makes her]] and then drops out of the story. [[LonelyAmongPeople It's not like Vera was really part of their group anyways.]]
32* ''Comicbook/{{Nova}}'': Since Nova was initially modeled on Spider-Man, he had a supporting cast with friends such as "Caps" Cooper and Ginger Jaye, who appeared fairly frequently when he had his own title. Once he moved to the New Warriors, and later outer space, they disappeared, and Nova's close friends nowadays are generally shown to be fellow members of the New Warriors, or other cosmic heroes.
33* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'': 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.
34* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Later writers seemed to forget that ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie had friends outside of the superhero community, most notably her best friend, SecretKeeper and fellow androgynous tomboy [[TomboyishName George]] Redmond. First her last name was forgotten and then she never appeared or was spoken about again in any book despite Cassie appearing all over the DCU. Like Kevin mentioned above she was a BlackAndNerdy teen friend of a teen hero from the '90s who disappeared without a trace, though in her case it likely happened because Cassie's personality was given a swift and shallow makeover in ''ComicBook/TeenTitans''.
35[[/folder]]
36
37[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
38* ''Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou'': Patrick is seen at the start of the film to hang around with a bald biker guy, who he smokes with and is his lab partner. As Patrick gets further involved with Kat, the character disappears altogether. When Patrick needs anyone to talk to later on, he goes to Cameron.
39* Dom's crew in the first film in ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' series included Leon. He had [[FlatCharacter no notable character traits]] and served no purpose beyond making Dom's gang look a little bigger. Notably, he is one of the few of the hero's associates not to return or get any real mention after his introductory film in this [[LongRunner long running film series.]] (And this is a series where even Hector, a minor character and friend of the first film's team, but not an actual member himself, was brought back for a cameo in a later film.)
40* Early in ''Film/ILoveYouMan'' we see Peter has several female co-workers who he seems to get on perfectly fine with; strangely, they are never mentioned again even though the plot revolves around Peter's lack of a close (male) friend to act as best man. The possibility of one of his female friends from work acting as his best man is never raised, even as an option to be rejected.
41* ''Film/SpiderMan1'': Mary Jane Watson is flanked by a GirlPosse for the first half of film one. However, they quickly disappear and do not reappear for the rest of that film after she graduates high school and despite seemingly being quite close, do not appear at her wedding for the second movie.
42* ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'': John Connor 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.
43* 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|2007}}'' 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.
44[[/folder]]
45
46[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
47* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'': Miles Morales is shown heavily wrestling with loneliness due to the absence of all the various Spider people he connected with. However, at the start of the previous film, ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', Miles was shown to be incredibly popular and socially outgoing in his home neighborhood, with his loneliness in that movie coming from moving to a different environment. While one can infer that Miles, after gaining his spider powers, 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 a near-empty 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 neighborhood kids may not have been anything more than casual acquaintances, Miles isn't even shown 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.
48[[/folder]]
49
50[[folder:Literature]]
51* 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 the Animorphs are shown or said to still be interacting with their old friends while at school, trying ''not'' to look like they're shutting out everyone else and forming 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.
52* 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.]]
53* Kayla is this in the ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight'' series. She appears briefly in the beginning of ''Marked'' and briefly again near the end. After that she's pretty much forgotten in favour of the FiveManBand.
54* 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. Very few ever look back when they leave.
55** In ''Literature/BardicVoices'', when Rune runs away from home she spends a year or so making ends meet by playing music in an UnproblematicProstitution brothel and is soon friends with most of the women working there, finding in them the close and supportive community she'd never had before. She's in for hard times when she leaves and encounters serious adversity, but never considers returning or contacting those friends.
56** In ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'':
57*** Early in ''Arrows of the Queen'', Talia sadly mentions that her only living friend was married off to an older man who lives too far away to visit, then doesn't think about her again in the book. In ''Arrow's Flight'' Talia actually mentions being able to make contact with her again only to find that her former friend had fully internalized Holderkin culture and regarded Talia with icy hostility, as an outsider. Talia gets over this instantly and she never comes up a third time.
58*** 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 young, scarred 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 and even become combat instructors in the school Tarma and Kethry eventually found.
59*** 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 and comes away thinking Owen is a very good friend to Lavan, who basically goes "Huh" hearing this and forgets him afterwards.
60* Early in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', Bella Swan quickly makes a bunch of friends at her new school, including Jessica, Angela, Mike, Ben, Eric...and [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Lauren]], who instantly hates her. They provide exposition to both Bella and the reader on who the Cullen family are and then swiftly become irrelevant to the story outside of a few moments, which mostly serve as stepping stones for Bella to further develop relationships with Edward Cullen or Jacob Black. Bella herself increasingly tends to hang out with the Cullens or Jacob more than her school friends and seems to find half of them irritating (especially given the implication a lot of her male friends [[DudeMagnet want to date her]], even when they're dating other girls in the same friend group). It's partly justified by the fact Bella can't talk to them about vampires or werewolves, to avoid breaking TheMasquerade.
61* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings:'' Before Frodo Baggins' journey, he has friends in the Shire aside from Merry and Pippin--friends who [[AdaptedOut who tend to get cut in adaptations]]. Fredegar "Fatty" Bolger isn't quite filler, as the main hobbits reunite with him in ''The Return of the King''. (Fatty had led the first resistance against Sharky and his ruffians, until he was captured. He's rescued from the dungeons during the Scouring of the Shire.) But ''Folco Boffin'' absolutely is filler. He shows up to some of Frodo's birthday celebrations, then helps Frodo pack his belongings to move out of Bag End... then is never mentioned again.
62[[/folder]]
63
64[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
65* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Cordelia's fellow cheerleaders or Oz's band.
66** Actually averted in the first case. One of Cordelia's background "Cordettes", Harmony, appeared as part of the ensemble across three seasons, and became a recurring character in her own right and was given her own stories. The rest, however, play it painfully straight, as they were almost always different unnamed extras.
67** Retroactively, this also applies to Buffy's very forgettable GirlPosse ([[ForgottenFallenFriend Cassandra]], Jennifer, Kimberley and Nicole [[note]] AdaptedOut in ''The Origin''[[/note]]) and her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey from Hemery High in [[Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer The Movie]] and its canon comic adaptation ''The Origin'' who are only referenced in a brief flashback in [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E21BecomingPart1 "Becoming, Part 1"]]. Heck, her love interrest Pike all but vanishes with Angel being retconned as her first love. This is partly justified because Buffy moved out to Sunnydale and it's also implied that her Slayer duties took a toll on her social life. Funnily though, Billy Fordham, Buffy's only high school friend who shows up in [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E7LieToMe "Lie To Me"]], [[RememberTheNewGuy was not in the prequel]].
68* In ''Series/{{Flash Gordon|2007}}'', Flash's TokenBlackFriend Nick appears in only 4 out of 21 episodes, one of them being the pilot.
69* ''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 stopped 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".
70* ''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.
71* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Robin in the very first episode is shown to laughing and joking with a few girls who are presumably her friends or co-workers. Once Ted is in her life and she joins the main cast, no mention of who they were is ever given.
72** An episode towards the end of the series even has a B-plot about her inability to get along with other women, except for Lily.
73* ''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.
74* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': Dr Cox is implied to actually have a circle of friends outside of the Hospital in season one. Shown in one episode, they are not used again and [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness later episodes establish him as friendless and lonely]].
75* ''Series/{{Shadowhunters}}'' has Maureen, a mundane close friend of Clary and Simon, who pins on the latter but unceremoniously vanishes halfway season 1. Aftewards, Clary and Simon exclusively hang out with their supernatural friends.
76* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': Mike Stamford is introduced at the start of the first episode as an old friend of John and one of the only people who can stand Sherlock for any length of time. He kicks off the plot by setting Sherlock and John up as flatmates, and is never seen again onscreen. However, he does receive occasional slight references in later episodes and is a frequent commentator on John's CharacterBlog.
77* ''Series/TeenWolf'': Rebecca "Harley" Harlowe shows up in the pilot as a friend of Scott and Stiles (who [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness otherwise]] only have [[OnlyFriend each others as friends]]). She briefly returns in briefs cameos in episode 3 and the season 2 premiere before [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome vanishing entirely]].
78[[/folder]]
79
80[[folder:Visual Novels]]
81* In ''Yume Miru Kusuri'', Takeshi and Misaki are the main character Kohei's better friends. But once one of the three routes have been picked, they are completely forgotten.
82[[/folder]]
83
84[[folder:Web Animation]]
85* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':
86** On Ruby's first day at Beacon Academy, her sister Yang encourages her to make friends of her own (so she doesn't have to hang out with Yang all the time) before running off with a [[FacelessMasses nondescript]] group of friends. Said friends are never seen or mentioned again, though [[ComicBook/RWBY2019 the comics]] did attempt an AuthorsSavingThrow to explain why the titular team immediately became Yang's main social circle instead.
87** For her part, later in that same episode, Ruby writes a letter to her friends at her old school, who are also never brought up again.
88[[/folder]]
89
90[[folder:Western Animation]]
91* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': In the episode "Earth Mover," Dana is shown to be close friends with a girl named Jackie, close enough that both she and Terry spent the evening studying at her house and and hung out repeatedly over the course of the episode. Then Jackie promptly disappeared, not even getting any background appearances in episodes like "Revenant," "Eggbaby," or "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot" despite those episodes showing many school characters.
92* ''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.
93* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
94** Early on, Apple Bloom was shown to be friends with a filly named Twist. Once the Cutie Mark Crusaders were formed, Twist was DemotedToExtra, and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle seem to be Apple Bloom's only friends. [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]] by [[RealLifeWritesThePlot real-life events]]: the character's voice actress, Alexandra Carter, left Vancouver for Philadelphia during production and became unavailable to record any further dialogue.
95** Deconstructed with the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E12AmendingFences Amending Fences]]", as Twilight Sparkle is reminded of her old friends from [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E1MareInTheMoon the pilot episode]] and their birthday party for Moondancer which she had skipped in order to study more about the Mare in the Moon. Most of the Social Circle Filler accept her back without much trouble, but the birthday pony has become a bitter recluse; the event was put together as her big chance to overcome her own social difficulties and open up around others, and [[WhatTheHellHero Twilight's absence deeply hurt her feelings.]] The episode centers on Twilight's efforts to apologize and [[MustMakeAmends make up for her past actions]].
96* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Originally, Bart was friends with Milhouse, Lewis, and Richard. Around Season 2, Lewis and Richard began to drift away as Milhouse was cemented as Bart's best ([[OnlyFriend and often only]]) friend. Nowadays, Lewis and Richard are {{Living Prop}}s.
97* ''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 take 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.
98[[/folder]]
99
100[[folder:Real Life]]
101* This is a common issue with the biographies of historical figures and famous people. The world at large is mostly interested in the impressive things they have done, or the roles they have played in notable events, so superfluous details like friends or family are often downplayed or left out of the narratives entirely. This, in turn, can give a skewed picture of what the person was actually like and who/what they were interested in.
102[[/folder]]

Top