Overly literal image: Commuting On A Bus

The image on Commuting on a Bus, while amusing, doesn't actually illustrate the trope. It's about characters who are reduced from major status to merely recurring, not literally commuting on a bus. I'm kind of at a loss for how to actually illustrate it, though.

edited 7th Feb '12 2:22:57 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Maybe compare two different openings from the same show with the first showing a character front and center and the second showing them in the background?

Wouldn't that be Demoted to Extra?

Edit: In fact, you just described the image that's already on that page.

edited 7th Feb '12 12:17:11 PM by abk0100

That was the main reason I couldn't think of anything good to suggest as a replacement; anything that looks like this trope is always going to look like that. We need a comic or something that actually talks about it explicitly.

What is this trope anyway? Reading the description, it sounds like The Same But Less in relation to Demoted to Extra

Best I can tell, demoted to extra is when a character is demoted basically to the background; they're still technically on the show, but they aren't really relevant at all. This is when the character still appears on a regular basis, just not as often as they used to; like maybe every 2-4 episodes instead of every episode.

Demoted to background character instead of demoted to minor character? How is that not exactly The Same But Less? Not to mention the former is precisely what is described by Demoted to Extra; the "to extra/irrelevant" only comes from a literal interpretation of the title. It is more important to the plot -> less important to the plot.

Yeah this article seems really redundant. If the only difference is the degree of demotion then everything on this page can be added to Demoted to Extra.

I never said it wasn't, I was just explaining the rationale behind the page. I agree that we could probably fold the pages together, but that's not really a matter for this thread. I'm guessing what happened is that somebody had some characters who had been diminished in importance, but not enough to qualify for Demoted to Extra, so they made this trope to make up for it.

"...diminished in importance, but not enough to qualify..."

Diminished at all is enough to qualify I think. As far as I can tell it is 100% redundant.

Take it to TRS, then. I pretty much agree with you.

Just based on the names, it seems like the difference should be that Demoted to Extra is when the character is still around, but not very important or not seen very enough, and Commuting on a Bus is when the character really isn't even there, but visits every so often. But I guess that's for the repair shop.

So occasionally makes an appearance but even then they are still not important? (like Kicked Up Stairs and such)

Not picturable IMO if that is the case.

Should we pull the current image, especially since Iron Man's going to be in the Avengers and Spider-Man's getting a reboot?

Clock is set. Still supporting pulling the current.

Hearing nothing, let's lock up and move on.