Ambiguous Name: Absentee Actor

To-do list:

• Move examples that fit one of the tropes on the Absentee Actor disambiguation page and remove ones that don't. For reference purposes, here's a list of the tropes on the disambiguation page:
  • Adapted Out: A character with some significance to the original story is written out of an adaptation.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: A character disappears suddenly from a work with no in-universe explanation and subsequent installments act as though they never existed in the first place.
  • A Day in the Limelight: A secondary character gets featured in an episode where they are the main focus.
  • Demoted to Extra: When a character gets a less important role in a sequel or in an adaptation of the original work.
  • Deus Exit Machina: When the most powerful character is written out for a portion of the story as to prolong it.
  • Green Rooming: Introducing a new character who is then inexplicably ignored for a few episodes.
  • Not Important To This Episode Camp: The plot of the episode does not include kid characters who are important to the plot, so their absence is quickly explained.
  • Out of Focus: When certain characters are given significantly less spotlight than others.
  • Put on a Bus: A character is written out of a work in a way that makes it easy for them to return later on.
  • Ret-Gone: When all signs of a character's existence have been wiped out in-universe.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: When a minor plot element or character is dropped from the story with no explanation.
  • Written-In Absence: When a character should be in the events of the story, but a few lines give a quick explanation of their absence.

Edited by GastonRabbit on May 16th 2022 at 6:18:06 AM

Opening.

This trope feels redundant to chuck cunningham syndrome. Is there any difference between the tropes?

Edited by namra on Dec 27th 2021 at 3:47:39 AM

Absentee Actor is when a character is inexplicably gone for like, an episode.

That sounds like the same but more specific

Except it's not. In Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, a character is basically erased entirely, leaving no trace, and none of the other characters acknowledged they ever existed. Absentee Actor is "Weird, Bob should've been in this episode..."

It's apparent that it's often being used as a case of "character billed as main is not there", which might be a separate trope that doesn't exist yet.

I've noticed it being used on the episode recap pages for The Loud House for whenever any of the dozen or so main characters are absent from an episode even when the episode's plot focuses on a specific character(s) and there's no reason the absent characters would factor into the plot.

Maybe we could do a Trope Transplant with Absentee Actor being redefined that way with the original definition being moved to a new name.

The word "actor" doesn't imply a main character, so it would be better renamed to "Absent Protagonist".

Edited by nw09 on Dec 28th 2021 at 11:54:07 AM

I'll admit I might've added some misuse myself to Trivia.The Weather, regarding certain crew members not being in specific episodes. The Weather had no plot, and while it did have some recurring characters and an eventual continuity, it was a sketch comedy that bounced from scenario to scenario. It was always very noticeable when one of the main four Wham City members didn't make an appearance, because the cast was already very small. One episode in particular lampshaded this hilariously by having the missing cast member appear at the end as an image of themselves photoshopped into the scene where all four of them appeared "together". Obviously with no actual plot there was no saying "Oh, this actor should've been in this episode because X Y Z", so I'm sure the examples aren't actually used correctly, but I thought I should bring them up because it explains what I used the trope for once upon a time.

That makes this trope sound more like an audience reaction to me. Does anyone else think that? If so, then perhaps the original definition could be split off into a YMMV entry? Or would that be redundant to They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character?

I'll be the first to admit that I don't actually know the proper definition of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character so I'm not sure how redundant it'd be.

Absentee Actor isn't trivia though, is it?

I could've sworn it was when I added those examples Or someone told me it was.

I’d be honestly OK if this gets moved to Trivia. I’ve added at least one example that’s just “main character(s) don’t appear in an episode”, and judging by the page quote, so have many others.

Isn't the idea "character logically ought to appear, but doesn't, for no in-universe reason"? That's not trivia.

The out-of-universe reason, if it's known, would be trivia, but the character's absence isn't.

There is a rather odd example of this trope that I am not sure how it would apply with this idea. In Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge one actor is credited as voting Shinnok in the credits but he never shows up in the actual film.

That's probably why I put my example in trivia for some reason (well, that and the fact that I'm certain someone told me it belongs there at some point). I took it as a trope about "Actor missing from episode 4".

If it is indeed an actual trope, it's one of those "lack of X is a trope" tropes that are occasionally problematic. I can't think of much of a way to justify the logic behind why Character X should be in the plot that doesn't end up overlapping with something like They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character. Something about it feels subjective, maybe because instead of just troping the absence we're troping the fact that the character "should" have been there, which is a value judgement.

How much is there overlap between this and Lower-Deck Episode? At least I think Absentee Actor is mostly used for "one of the protagonists of an episodic series doesn't appear because the episode focuses on a minor character".

The name is kinda odd, it has nothing to do with actors besides "one of the explanations", which fits more with Written-In Absence.

One way to fix this trope to be in line with its description is to rename it into something like Missing Party Member and require exposition that someone with a Chekhov's Skill through some coincidence isn't present when the skill would be pretty helpful. The other is just point how a character appeared in 95% of episodes and isn't present in just one-two of them.

Hmm, y'know, maybe it is an Audience Reaction. We have a vague impression that examples tend to come off as "but why wasn't X in this episode?"

That sounds too rare to trope. I can't think of any examples of that off the top of my head.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, that's practically the definition of Deus Exit Machina.

Edited by Infitroper on Dec 30th 2021 at 7:19:58 AM

Yeah, there's other "missing character" tropes that are either plot relevant or are notable for being especially egregious. Off the top of my head:

• Put on a Bus
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
• What Happened to the Mouse?
• Ret-Gone
• Adapted Out
• Out of Focus
• Demoted to Extra

In these tropes, the missing character is either plot relevant, or their absence leaves a Plot Hole / appears to retcon their very existence, or they're otherwise written out completely. Absentee Actor doesn't have that going for it.

I think it really only works for a work with a 'core' cast, like the friend group of a sitcom like Friends that lives and dies on the main six's shenanigans and dynamics, or something like the Star Trek shows where they're all on a ship together. It's not really worth noting for shows with Three Lines, Some Waiting and upwards (eg. Jon Snow doesn't have to appear in every Game of Thrones episode, because the cast and plot are ginormous.)

And even then I don't know how to define a 'plausible' reason for them being there. If the episode is centered around Rachel's niece's birthday*, does she have to bring Phoebe? etc.

*this is a hypothetical example; I don't watch ''Friends''.

I've also seen examples of the trope being use on animated show episode recap pages where the characters appear but don't speak.