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I quite fancy Hufflepuff actually. I've always thought in Hufflepuff they just spend the day making stuff with safety scissors and glitter.
Some settings are richly designed, full of various colorful characters, replete with a complex social and political system where The Federation and The Empire compete for power. To spice things up, they will often include various "third side" factions to give the people in the Wardrobe department something to do.
But you can't have them be too powerful or relevant, lest they take away from the heroes' limelight. This is Hufflepuff House, an organizational equivalent to the Mauve Shirt or Redshirt Army. They help round out the setting without actually impacting much on it, save perhaps as The Cavalry. Hufflepuff House is often part of the Back Story or background of a new character for an episode; and if the character becomes popular enough their House will become patterned after them, becoming the " Race" in Proud Warrior Race Guy. Essentially, an entire group of " Sirs Not Appearing In This Film".
Named for the group in Harry Potter. See also Whats A Secret Four?
Examples
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Literature
- Harry Potter might actually have two Hufflepuff Houses if the treatment of Ravenclaw is any indication. That said, Ravenclaw has the eccentric fan favorite Luna Lovegood as its representative, leaving Hufflepuff with the dubious distinction of "most generic". Any debate on which of the two is the most neglected should be held in the discussion page.
- The (live) Southerlings in Garth Nix's Abhorsen, who border on being a Mauve Shirt Army. They are refugees from the far southern countries who are seeking asylum in the Old Kingdom, even though they don't know about the magic that inhabits it. Their main features are their blue caps and scarves and their desperate need for protection by the main characters.
- They have a significant impact on the series, since the bad guy's plan is to kill and resurrect a lot of them at once. Instant Zerg Rush. Avoiding this takes up a lot of the heroes' time. The "reason" they're even in the Old Kingdom is to give certain Ancelstierre officials political brownie points.
- Animorphs, being a story about one front in an inter-planetary war, has several. The Leeran war was originally this, but the Animorphs were transported to their world and helped end that affair in short order. But there's also the Yeerk Peace Movement, a contingent of Yeerks who believe that infesting and controlling humans (or at least humans against their will) is wrong; the Anati system of planets, where the Andalites are planning to attack the Yeerks because they feel things are more urgent there and that Earth is likely lost; and the Rakkam Garroo conflict, another something-or-other that is distracting the Andalite fleet for three years so that the Animorphs are basically left to do everything themselves.
- The entire world map of the Discworld has been laid out, and is full of places that either a) have only been mentioned occasionally or b) were never mentioned at all. However, that isn't to say they won't eventually get their own books. Borogravia did, after all. As did Xxxx and the Counterweight Continent...
- The Rimside kingdom of Krull certainly counts; visited and given a reasonably thorough description in The Colour of Magic, then it vanishes from the face of the Disc, never to be referred to again. Likely as it is so remote from the main super continent containing the Sto Plains (home of Ankh-morpork, the main setting), Klatch, Uberwald, Genua, Tsort and Ephebe and others.
- Chirm, a city sufficently close to Ankh-Morpork that it is the first destination Rincewind and Twoflower set out for after leaving the city is also never mentioned again after The Colour of Magic. The obvious solution is that it is the same place as similar sounding Quirm, a near Ankh-Morpork town that is frequently mentioned in later books... except that the Discworld map lists both.
- Krull was briefly mentioned in The Last Hero as being different after The Luggage wiped out most of the ruling class, specifically they just charged huge salvage rates for ships stopped from going over the edge instead of enslaving the survivors. The Circumfence was an obstacle that had to be defeated, and as a reference to the trope everyone but Rincewind, who was there the last time Krull was part of the story, remembered the wall around the edge of the world they built.
- In the first book of A Song Of Ice And Fire, everyone who wasn't in some way associated with Houses Stark, Targareyen or Lannister got this treatment. Later books have increased the number of featured factions greatly, with Houses Tully, Baratheon and Greyjoy brought into focus in Book II, House Arryn, House Tyrell, the Wildlings and the Brotherhood Without Banners in Book III, and House Martel in Book IV.
- There are also all the countries on the other continent that's not Westeros. We've seen Braavos, Quarth, and the three Ghiscari cities, as well as the lands of Dothraki. Everywhere else has pretty much been relegated to mentions in the backstory or various individual members of those countries who for whatever reason live in Westeros (Varys, Thoros, and Melisandre, for example). They're not part of the main story, and so we probably won't learn much more about them
- Dune has this with pretty much any house that isn't Atreides or Harkonnen - House Richese in particular, which is essentially "like Ix, but not quite as much".
- Nineteen Eighty Four takes place in Oceania, but between that, Eurasia, and Eastasia, they control all the world. Eurasia and Eastasia are only there to have wars with each other, while repeatedly changing alliances. They are all even described as using political systems functionally identical to each other.
Anime and Manga
- Every ninja village that isn't the Leaf, Sound, or Sand is like this in Naruto. Rain may become more important since Pain took over and later Konan, the de facto leader, pulled a Heel Face Turn in response to Nagato's last-minute redemption. Likewise, the Cloud village has had several characters introduced recently and it's leader decided to call a meeting of the Kages, which can mean a lot for the villages in general.
- The Mist village occupies an unusual space here. Ninjas from it show up rarely, and so far none of them have had a large effect on the plot of the series. But the ones that do show up are all sorts of awesome.
- Besides villages, you could also count the nine tailed beasts besides the one and nine-tailed ones. The second was caught by Akatsuki easily, the three-tails was defeated off-screen, and we don't even see 4-7, and the eight-tails appears to be nothing more than a Monster Of The Week.
- However, to his credit Killerbee's pretty much exceeded those expectations by managing to humiliate Sasuke repeatedly, first by initially punking him out in a one-on-one fight and then by tricking him into thinking that he'd defeated him while in reality simply bailing out on the fight. He then tells no one he's alive and goes off on vacation, since he wasn't allowed to travel because they needed him for defence.
- Also, the three-tail's host is shown to have been a fairly important character namely the previous Mizukage, who is largely responsible for the "bloody mist" reputation the village has and may have been under the control of a still-living villain.
- For a series that takes Everythings Better With Princesses to the highest level (besides maybe Fushigiboshi No Futago Hime), Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch certainly doesn't care much about what the princesses are ruling. Most of the countries exist only as Doomed Hometowns, and, besides random extras in one or two chapters, only three servants and one civilian ever appear in the whole thing. Only one of those four is plot-relevant in the manga, and she was cut from the anime entirely.
- The EU in Code Geass is the largest of the three superpowers (the other two being Britannia and China), but much to the annoyance of the show's European fans, they don't really do anything other than get parts of it conquered by Britannia in series 2 - and the war mostly takes place off-screen. Australia gets this even worse - Mao mentions he has a house there, but that's all we ever find out about it.
- The "Special Abilities" class in Gakuen Alice is something like this, but it's also the class that the main heroine belongs to.
- Similar to Code Geass, Gundam 00 has the AEU. While the two other world powers (the Union and HRL) have important characters with who act as The Rival to the Gundam pilots and contribute to the plot, the AEU's only real contribution for the first part of the series is Patrick Colasour, a Ted Baxter Ensemble Darkhorse. The only time the AEU's Humongous Mecha come off as any kind of threat is when they're piloted by Blood Knight Ali al-Saachez. Slightly mitigated later in the first season with the introduction of the competent, take-no-crap Katie Mannequin, but overall the AEU is still the weakest and least important of the show's factions.
- Bleach has this with many of the Shinigami squads are like this as well. 2 is the assassin squad, 4 is the medic squad, 11 is physical combat specialists and 12 is scientific research. The other nine squads have no specialty or their specialties haven't been mentioned yet, and there are relatively few members that he been introduced.
- Based on Rukia's descriptions the 13th squad seems to be the opposite of the 11th, focusing primarily on Kido-based combat.
- According to Word Of God for Gundam SEED, Orb is ruled by a collective of five prominent families, who between themselves select a chief representative. Over the course of the two TV series and the spinoff manga Gundam SEED Astray we meet three of the families, the Attha, Seiran, and Sahaku. The other two are non-entities, even in critical moments such as when their allies in the Earth Alliance start bulldozing Europe with a walking WMD. The Sahaku are a partial example, as their actions have zero impact on the anime, mattering only within the context of Astray.
- The Ra Yellow house from Yugioh GX. We don't meet the Ra housemaster for one and a half seasons, and of the 3 recurring characters who are in Ra Yellow at some point, one gets Put On A Bus, and another only stays in Ra for one year.
Film
- The other Greek soldiers in 300 who weren't from Sparta. They do basically zip and leave frightened so the Spartans can die in a Heroic Sacrifice.
- The graphic novel has several more factions of Greeks helping in Thermopylae, with the Thespians dying to defend the goat path once its location is betrayed.
- One problem with the graphic novel is that they have Athenians at Thermopylae. Most historians believe that Athens had all its hoplites serving with their fleet. Historically, the Thespians and a party of Thebans stayed behind with the 300 (some of the Thebans survived to be captured).
- The Thebans were forced to stay behind. Everyone hated the Thebans in that time period. They would have their vengeance one hundred years later when they became the Spartans of their days, until Philip of Macedon crushed all Greece and Alexander the Great destroyed Thebes.
- The other pirate captains from Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End. Smoke-trails in the background imply a huge battle, but we never get to see any ships but the main characters'.
- To avoid the Elves becoming this in Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers Peter Jackson had a contingent of Elves show up to help the heroes. In the books, the Elves and Dwarves are absent because they are fighting Sauron's other armies on their own home fronts. One line reveals this is likely true of the dwarves in the films as well, but I guess the extra trouble in making people dwarf sized on screen in large numbers prevented them playing a visible role. The videogame Lord of the Rings 2: Battle for Middle-earth and the Games Workshop tabletop game expand the scope to show some of the Elves' and Dwarves' perspective.
Live Action TV
- Battlestar Galactica has quite a few. On the human side, there's every colony except Caprica, Gemenon, and Sagitaron. That leaves the other nine colonies little to no fluff. There's also the Quorum of Twelve, which is pretty powerless and ineffectual comparred to President Roslin and Admiral Adama. However; it's averted in Season four where the Quorum's feelings of impotence and irrelevance are explored. On the Cylon side, there are models Four and Five, the Simons and the Dorals, who have no "unique" members or much established personality/screen time. Even the Raiders had Scar, and the Centurions are moving out of this territory slowly.
- In fact, the colony corresponding to Libra has never even been given a name on-screen. We only know its Libris from other materials.
- Picon is given some background importance, as it was the Headquarters of the Colonial Navy before its utter destruction. Admiral Cain was Piconese too, if I recall, so that counts for something as well.
- Cain was not from Picon, she was from Tauron which was also briefly seen in a flashback during "Razor". The episode "Hero" also mentions Tauronians being somewhat troublesome with their relation to the military. If previews of the spinoff series "Caprica" is any indicator, we will see some major Tauronians, perhaps taking Tauron out of the Hufflepuff territory. Picon, however, has only that reporter, Playa who so far only asked a few questions to Roslin and had sex with Baltar.
- In 'The Plan', the last bit of the show released (showing the destruciton of the colonies from the C Ylon perspective), we see some lovely cgi shots of each colony as they are destroyed, and they all get their names said on screen.
- Stargate SG-1 had the Tollan, a planet of humans who had technology beyond that of the Goa'uld but neither the intent nor the brains to use them. While they did help out in small ways on occasion, the Tollan were eventually wiped out to make things harder for SG-1.
- Their isolationism made the Tollan much more of a Hidden Elf Village, really.
- Much more Hufflepuff-ish were the Serrakin, an advanced species that had mass-produced faster-than-light starships and had managed to defeat the Goa'uld in their sector of space. Somehow, despite all this AND a capitalistic social structure with no real problems with trading technology with the less-developed Tau'ri, the Serrakin never bothered to help Earth in the war with the Goa'uld or even give them anything useful, and their sole use in the show was inviting SG-1 to take part in their version of Whacky Races... In Space!.
- Of course, they did get taken over by the Ori about two years later. And in those two years, the reigning Goa'uld were Anubis and Ba'al, who had vastly more powerful fleets than the ones the Serrakin had defeated.
- The Asgard and Tok'ra are this trope, thematically. They're always out there, and occasionally drop in to help, but don't get all that much focus unless they're doing something important with our heroes.
- On Greek, the focus is on Zeta Beta, Omega Chi, and Kappa Tau...and every other of the approximately 30 houses gets shunted to the side unless they're needed for a plot.
- In Dads Army, anyone not in the 'first section', i.e. anyone who's not a main character, is generally part of 'Private Sponge and the others'.
- Subverted in the fourth season of Babylon 5, when Delenn rebuilds her people's ruling council and gives the Worker Caste the majority.
- And not so subverted with the Pak'mara, Hyach, and various other members of the League of Non-Alligned Worlds who aren't Drazi or (later) Brakiri. Except for one episode featuring each in the entire series and their Ambassadors occasionally saying something at a meeting, they're pretty much relegated to the background. There's at least one race whose name is never said aloud, whose sole notable presence which wasn't just an extra walking around in the background was one scene where a Llort is receiving medical treatment and Stephen can't understand it.
Tabletop Games
- In Magic The Gathering, there are seven ruling clans in Benalia. The only notable one is Capashen, which is the clan Gerrard belongs to. The other six are never mentioned on any cards and most players have never heard of them.
- There's also Orvada, supposedly a powerful merchant empire that rivals Benalia, but never mentioned on any cards or in any post-revision novels. Yeah, Magic is full of Hufflepuff Houses, along with Whats A Secret Four.
- In Battletech the Free Worlds League in essence did nothing for some thirty years of in-world time apart from a leadership change and slowly building up the universe's biggest economy and arms industry. Subverted - It turned out that during that time they were being subverted by an army of evil toaster-worshiping fanatics with an apocalyptic agenda, and nobody noticed because the rest of the state was so dull and peaceful.
- Any Skaven clan in Warhammer that isn't Eshin, Pestilens, Skryre, or Moulder doesn't really matter in the greater scheme of things. Hell, when was the last time Pestilens or Moulder really did anything?
- In Warhammer40000 we have the Dark Eldar who are a race of evil torture obsessed sociopaths who torture people, and that's about it. Famously their codex spent several editions without being updated and even many Dark Eldar players admit that they kind of suck.
Toys
- Bionicle's Matoran/Toa come in all sorts of colors and elements, though the primary focus is spent on the main six (Fire, Water, Ice, Air, Earth and Stone) and Light. This results in a whole group of Hufflepuffs including Sonics, Electricity, The Green, Iron, Plasma, Magnetism and Gravity.
Video Games
- Trabia Garden in Final Fantasy VIII is given off-hand references in Disc 1, but never seen until after its destruction. Though one of the party (Selphie) is a transfer student from Trabia.
- Yokuda in The Elder Scrolls. Until Elder Scrolls IV, Akavir fit this trope as well. And even then, the Akaviri are only involved in one quest.
- Every continent other than Tamriel gets this treatment: Pyadonia, Atmora, Thras...
- In Morrowind the character can only interact with Houses Telvanni, Redoran Hlaalu, and Indoril. There is mention of the another house, Dres, but it apparently has no holdings or representatives on Vvardenfell Island.
- All of Etruria, the Western Isles, and perhaps the greater part of Sacae are entirely ignored in Fire Emblem Blazing Sword.
- Ilia, too. At least there's one level set in the Western Isles (Hector's Story only—The Berserker.)
- Sword of Seals came out first, but only in Japan. Blazing Sword is a prequel. Sword of Seals uses the entire world map it created, but Blazing Sword keeps the action more local. The fact that the rest of the world even exists in Blazing Sword is an artifact of the game that came before it.
- In Eternal Darkness, word of God has said there's a fifth, yellow ancient. Since the relationship between the ancients is rock-paper-scissors with a gun in the middle, it'll be interesting to see what a fifth does to the dynamic.
- In the Suikoden series, there are quite a few countries that seem to be Hufflepuff House, generally the homeland of foreign characters. Subverted in that they tend to become the primary setting of later games while what used to be The Federation and The Empire become HufflepuffHouses.
- Even though Ace Combat Zero was the prequel released after 5, Ustio and Sapin are treated like this to Osea and Yuktobania.
Web Original
Western Animation
- Six words: Winx Club, season 3, Beta Academy. Introduced as where Chimera comes from, never seen period. Not the only major complaint about this season, though...
Real Life
- Both World Wars saw the involvement of many countries beyond those which are commonly thought of as Axis, Allies, or Central Powers. The Other Wiki provides comprehensive lists for World War I
 and World War II.
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