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Dan: We've been through a lot together.
A character whose motivations and overall personality essentially revolve around their interaction with another, possibly more interesting, character with whom they really should be on an equal standing. Without this interaction, they would otherwise be pretty bland.
Sometimes a series will remove that "central" person from the equation somehow, and the Satellite Character has to establish their own motives. This is a common way to make a Battle Butler more interesting. On the other hand, a Spin Off can fail entirely if the star is a Satellite Character whose character can't support their own stories.
Contributing to their poor image in some circles, badly-written Magical Girlfriends become Satellite Characters if not outright Shallow Love Interests with disturbing frequency.
Note that not all satellite characters are friendly, though... Some satellites are the exact opposite, full of all-consuming jealousy, rage, bitterness, vengefulness, or outright hatred, orbiting until the time is right to crash violently into the character they circle. This is EXCEEDINGLY rare, though.
Compare Female Success Is Family, where the women who are supposed to be independent characters ends up being this.
Examples:
- Sakuya in Shin Tenchi Muyo / Tenchi In Tokyo, who was also a Magical Girlfriend. This was, however, deliberately built up for The Reveal.
- In Sailor Moon, the original author admitted Michiru was so unlike her she was difficult to write for, a trait carried over to the television show. The otherwise cryptic girl is largely defined by her interactions with Haruka, who she usually appears alongside. In contrast, the fans liked Haruka's personality enough she got her own mini-arc and Back Story episode.
- Mamoru was always like this in the anime. The writers ran out of anything to do with him once he hit the Relationship Ceiling, and he promptly became The Artifact.
- Cromartie High School lampshades this with "You", the toady of the requisite snobby rich guy. Not even his boss knows his name, and the character has made numerous attempts to say it. Of course, all of them are interrupted by myriad events, from spilling juice to a meteor hitting the school.
- Asuka in Yu-Gi-Oh GX grew to serve less and less purpose over the course of the series outside her interest in the protagonist and The Rival's interest in her.
- Hazel in Degrassi The Next Generation became the butt of constant jokes among the fandom over how little she did. Depending on the episode, she's either a Spear Carrier or the Idiot Of The Week. The problem was that she started out as a Recurring Character, received a Promotion To Opening Titles — and then received the exact same amount of screen time and plot relevance as before.
- In Boston Public, the school coach was billed as a main character in the opening credits, but his entire role seemed to be commenting on other people's plotlines. The Television Without Pity recaps dubbed him "Coach Lamphrey the Plot Parasite."
- Quite common in kids' shows, where writers try to portray duos, cliques, entourages, and other groups of background characters. In the all-too-common worst case, a character can go throughout the entire series without ever speaking, let alone being given a first name, despite appearing in almost every episode.
- This is spoofed with the character "Star" on Danny Phantom, a preppy blonde who Tucker nicknames "Satellite," because she is "the marginally attractive girl who always orbits around the popular girl". Before this, she'd received a few solo cameos, but ever since the joke, her appearances have almost always been beside Paulina, the popular girl in question.
- Michal, Lucia's love rival from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, revolves almost completely around Kaito until she becomes Michel's mana battery. In fact, she does this intentionally, thinking that being completely devoted to Kaito in every way will help her steal him from Lucia before he gets his memory back, while her brother Rihito worries about her well-being for it.
- Angry variant: Depth Charge, from Transformers: Beast Wars, is an Ahab-esque satellite character defined by his all-consuming hatred for the monstrous Rampage. It's implied that Rampage set this up intentionally.
- Also played straight on Beast Wars by Inferno, a Predacon pyromaniac with the mindset of a real ant, who considers Megatron to be "The Royalty".
- Tenten from Naruto, who seems to have no purpose other than to fill up a slot in Lee's team and to lose to Temari in the Chuunin Exam arc.
- Tenten does have a personality!
 Admittedly, though, it's rather hard to find...
- After reading the study, all of the things that the author tries to point out pretty much proves that she's there just to be there. Tenten is a Satellite Character because she's so underdeveloped. There's nothing about her personality that makes her pop out. Her fighting style and weaponry are basics for the ninja in their world. Then the fact that we know absolutely nothing about her background or how her life was like before she appeared in the story solidifies it all. And as the author of the study stated, all of the character development she received happened off-screen (And it doesn't do a good job explaining how Tenten developed as a character, seeing how it was more about her opinions about Lee and Neji being proven wrong than anything else).
- Additionally, Ino hasn't done a whole lot other than be a foil for Sakura.
- Shizune is this to Tsunade.
- Konan is one as well, as we don't know anything about her other than she uses paper as a weapon, likes to do origami, and that she followed Yahiko and Nagato around, fighting for the same goal as them. It pretty much becomes confirmed around chapter 449 when she calmly tells Naruto that since Nagato believed in him, she'll also believe in him. Without showing any emotion whatsoever towards the person who made her friend kill himself. She's more like a lost puppy trying to find a master than an actual person.
- Hinata is this as well, her entire character revolves around Naruto. She based her entire growth by admiring Naruto. Lampshaded in an Omake where the other characters trick Hinata into saying the only line she utters: "Naruto-Kun" It's safe to say she fits the definition.
- Jealous variant: Veronica Star from The Fairly Odd Parents, is Trixie Tang's satellite. She is in love with Timmy, and wishes that she could be Trixie, because Timmy likes Trixie.
- Due to limits on how much story time there is to develop characters with, non-RPG videogames have far too many examples of this to list, mostly in the form of rivals, love interests, parents, slain mentors and other already-cliched roles.
- Angry variant: While Wario's main characteristic is his greed, Waluigi seems to be defined entirely by his hatred of Luigi.
- This also had to do with Waluigi being too perfect a pun in Japanese to pass up.
- Nintendo seems to be fond of introducing these characters in the Mario games; Waluigi exists solely so that Luigi can have a "rival" (though this rivalry is never shown anywhere in a game), while Princess Daisy seems to exist solely to provide the series with a second female character other than Princess Peach. Characters like Toadsworth and Baby Bowser probably fall under this trope as well.
- Actually, Toadsworth has been pretty well developed since his appearance in Super Mario Sunshine. True, he's always this overprotective royal advisor, but Partners in Time shows that it's mostly because of his old age.
- Kaorin of Azumanga Daioh exists mainly to be Twice Shy about expressing her feelings towards Sakaki.
- And Chihiro has even less to call her own than Kaorin, being defined almost entirely as part of a pair with Kaorin herself. Kaorin at least is defined around Sakaki, Chihiro, and Kimura.
- Real Life example, Ant and Dec. As The Now Show once said, "You can have one without the other but what would be the point."
- Sakura Kakei, the Team Mom of Get Backers, is largely defined by her relationship with Makubex, and rarely appears without him. And he's a minor supporting character himself (a Non Action Guy unable to exist outside of Mugenjou), So Yeah.
- A lot of Shakesperian love interests fall into this category, making this Older Than Steam.
- Although Vala is more than capable of standing on her own feet as a character in Stargate SG 1, she is noticebly much more interesting and funny when she's teasing Daniel.
- Gretchen from Mean Girls, toady in chief to Regina, who is possibly a Deconstruction in that she may actually be a more developed character than Regina herself; despite being beautiful and rich she is such an insecure mess that she is willing to put up with any amount of crap just to be follow Regina (seething bitterly all the while). At the end of the film it is revealed that she actually learns Cantonese just so she can join the new top clique.
- Disney sidekicks by their very nature, whether good or bad characters. Possibly the most glaring (and inexplicable) example is Lefou, Gaston's little stooge in Beauty and the Beast. Lefou spends most of his time running errands for his 'friend', only to be constantly abused and beaten up for his pains. And yet still he insists he thinks Gaston's wonderful. If Lefou was a girl the implications would be very disturbing.
- No one knows what's up with Emiri Kimidori from Suzumiya Haruhi. The only things she ever does is have "silent conversations" with Yuki and play the nice girl for other people.
- Also a Satellite Character is Kyon's Other Friend (Kunikida, accordign to The Other Wiki), at least in the anime series, who is mostly characterized as "That guy who hangs out with Kyon and Taniguchi" (to the point that in the novels he says he mostly hangs out with Taniguchi so he will have some in-universe characterization). Taniguchi is a lesser example, beign Kyon's Only Sane Friend.
- Rivalz Cardemonde from Code Geass is Lelouch's friend, member of the Ashford Student Council, and not much else beyond that. He doesn't really have a stake in the central conflict, relegating him to the status of background character, if that. Shirley, Milly and Kallen have more plot relevance than he does. Even Nina, who may as well have been invisible for the first eleven (no pun intended) episodes, has a bigger stake in the plot...though saying fan reaction to that has been "less than kind" would be a massive understatement.
- Rivalz lampshades his status in the penultimate episode with Milly, lamenting that his friends are out there fighting for the fate of the world while he sits on his duff doing nothing but feeling sorry for himself.
- Even though she sets up plot-important gatherings and events at her school, Milly doesn't do much at all after she graduates from Ashford Academy.
- The parents and of every companion on Doctor Who become recurring satellite characters of one form or another for as long as that companion remains on the show (and not an episode longer). Occasionally more than just the parents are added; for instance, Rose's old boyfriend Mickey constantly pops up during her time on the show.
- Well, on the new series. And Mickey was eventually promoted to a (rather useless) full companion briefly before going back to being a Satellite Character. The old series had all the minor UNIT people who were satellites to the Brigadier.
- Stacy and Tiffany from Daria were this in the first season, they essentially filled up the fashion club and served to either converse with Quinn or Sandy, the characters of real importance about matters related to their feelings or the plot. However, season two onwards saw more characterization with respects to Stacy, actually making her highly sympathetic. Tiffany, however, stayed flat.
- On Lost, there's Niki and Paulo. When alone, Paulo stood up better than Niki did. And in season four Charlotte is a Satellite Character who is best when interacting with Daniel. Though, this may be put down to the former not getting very much plot relevance yet.
- The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. had an episode featuring the nototious (and entirely fictional) Utah Johnny Montana, a master duelist and bounty hunter. He was unable to speak due to a bullet wound to the throat, so the man he kept with him at all times said everything for him, fully aware of his intent despite never recieving any cues. When Montana is defeated, he even collapses as though he was the one defeated.
- In Chrono Crusade, Mary Magdalene's character mostly revolves around her interactions with Chrono. However, she's a creepier version than what's typical, particularly in the manga version (and in fact seems to have been meant to be slightly disturbing)—She's a seer that is so overwhelmed by the visions she has that she can't remember her own childhood or even her real name. There's only one piece of herself she clings onto—a dream she's had since she was a child of Chrono being the one to take her life. When she meets him, she willingly allows him to take her away from the safety of the religious order that guarded her because she wanted to get to know him before he killed her.
- Those two boys from Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni who fawn over Rika and Satoko...whatever their names are.
- Another angry variant: in the Whateley Universe, Tempest is pretty much defined by her massive hatred of Chaka (and by extension, all of Chaka's friends).
- Mahou Sensei Negima has a few. Understandable in a series with Loads And Loads Of Characters that some may be less noticeable than others, such as Yue's magic school class-mates or some of the mage teachers to the headmaster or eachother. Interestingly, Setsuna views herself as one of these to Konoka.
- Arguably, Tomoyo is a Satellite Character to Sakura in Card Captor Sakura. Almost everything she does centers around what Sakura wants (or what Tomoyo thinks Sakura should have), only rarely using her insight for anyone else's benefit.
- Survival Of The Fittest has Elizabeth Priestly, who plays the satellite to her twin brother, Lenny. Most of what she does consists of following Lenny around and angsting about his psychotic behavior.
- Sette of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, whose entire personality revolved around her loyalty to her older sister Tre. This led to her becoming the only one of the younger Numbers to be imprisoned along with Jail and the older Numbers.
- Similar to the Haruhi Suzumiya example, Ayano from Lucky Star is pretty much characterized as "That one girl who hangs out with Kagami and Misao". In fact, she's so non-present, she's the only one of the ten main girls to have a boyfriend!
- Mizuiro in Bleach is one for Keigo, as his only real personality is his attraction to older women, and he tends to only show up in Keigo's presence. In the Arrancar arc, Tatsuki is reduced to spending nearly all of her time worrying about Ichigo and Orihime.
- Matt in Death Note is an orphan at Wammy's house, but all we know about him apart from his loyalty to Mello is that he likes video games and cigarettes, and is gunned down while trying to get away from Takada's bodyguards.
- Lt. Zakki Bronco in Overman King Gainer has little else in the way of characterization than being Asuham Boone's sidekick.
- Billy and Dan of Fugitive Alien, per the page quote from the MS T3k version.
- Penelo's official character description says it all: "Vaan's friend."
- Fleshed out in succeeding Ivalice games, thankfully. It's sort of sad to have a Satellite Character being the satellite to, well... Vaan.
- Sanjay from The Simpsons is this for Apu.
- Luxord of Organization XIII's claim to fame is being able to insert the word "game" into any sentence. And that's it for characterization.
- Amir Khan, for Achmed.
- In the webcomic Achewood, Roast Beef originally just exists as a third character to fill out a clique, and is only given a name later as a joke. He goes on to be one of the most fleshed out characters in the strip.
- Aigis is defined entirely by her relationship to the protagonist, with any goal or desire of her own all being based on him.
- Babus is mainly defined by his loyalty to Mewt in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
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