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.
On Absentee Actor Wick Check, only 8 out of 61 examples are correctly used. Perhaps this could be split into one trope for the original definition, and another one for any episode where one of the main protagonists is absent (whether or not there's an explanation, since the protagonist being absent is noteworthy).
Edited by GastonRabbit on May 16th 2022 at 6:18:06 AM
the Retromancer
If that means a character is mute for one episode because the voice actor is unavailable, it's a trope that often happens, just not this one.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
There's the issue that it's unknown if them being silent was because the voice actors were unavailable or if it was because that the writers didn't give them any lines because the characters weren't important to the episode's plot.
Edited by costanton11 on Dec 31st 2021 at 6:44:58 AM
That one is Serendipity Writes the Plot.
Edited by nw09 on Jan 1st 2022 at 10:28:27 AM
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Does anyone have any ideas for what to do here?
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Maybe a rename to make it more clear? Like "Strangely Absent Character"?
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
I previously suggested making it YMMV because the definition sort of relies more on audience analysis rather than anything objective about the absence.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
I feel like it should be YMMV too.
Actor Existence Limbo? (Iunno why they didn't call it Voice Actor Existence Limbo)
Back to Absentee Actor...
I don't think it's YMMV. The main thrust, "episode without a/the protagonist/s" seems more like it wants to be Trivia, especially since it posits itself as Real Life Writes the Plot. The only thing YMMV would do is discuss how egregious the execution is, which doesn't seem like a useful thing to have.
On the other hand "episode without the main character" feels like it's not even tropeworthy, or at least too broad to be tropeworthy.
...Y'know, we have Written-In Absence for a flimsy in-story reason (Alice isn't in this episode because she's visiting her grandma) and a bevy of previously-mentioned tropes for out-of-story reasons (Lower-Deck Episode because the writers wanna focus on minor characters, etc). Absentee Actor feels like it's troping the absence of a reason, which, eww.
What does seem to be missing is a specific Real Life Writes the Plot page where the character is absent because their actor is (Alice isn't in this episode because her actress was sick/was filming a movie/was on maternity leave etc), but that's probably too tangential to this discussion.
Edited by Synchronicity on Jan 6th 2022 at 4:52:41 AM
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Do we have any crowner options other than renaming and making it YMMV?
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
With Synchronicity's comment, perhaps also making it trivia?
Also disambiguate to several tropes, redirect to one trope, no action except clean misuse.
Maybe it could be renamed to Inexplicably Absent Actor?
Thomas fans needed! Come join me in the the show's cleanup thread!
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
We can discuss rename options if we agree to rename in the first place. For now, here's an attempted crowner-idea compilation:
- Move to Trivia
- Move to YMMV
- Rename
- Disambiguate
- Don't alter the trope- just do cleanup
I skipped "redirect to one trope" because skimming back I don't see any suggestions for what it could be redirected to.
Edited by WarJay77 on Jan 11th 2022 at 3:52:57 PM
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Crowner hooked. I left out "Do nothing and clean up" because TRS isn't needed for that, plus "do nothing" options are redundant with simply downvoting everything.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Logic Girl
I hope I don't sound impolite, but what do you mean by "eww"? Usually, that's the noise people make when they think something is squicky or offensive, whereas you seemed to be using it to convey annoyance.
Troping absence of something is a can of worms, and making a trope specifically out of "a reason doesn't exist" even more so.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Right, I think that's why I thought it was trivia at some point; a trope that's just "actor isn't in this episode" barely qualifies as a trope at all.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
the Retromancer
Have we discussed the potential tropes to possibly disambiguate to besides maybe here
?
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
If we haven't, I think those would be sufficient for now, and more could be added later if anyone thinks of anything to add.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Calling the crowner in favor of disambiguating.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
(she/her)
Suggested disambiguation text:
Absentee Actor may refer to the following:
- 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 an 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.
- Not Important To This Episode Camp: The plot of the episode does not include an important character, 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 characters 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.
If an internal link led you here, please correct the link to point to the right page.
Edited by MacronNotes on Jan 31st 2022 at 4:53:13 AM
Macron's notes
Looks good.
I'd like to suggest amending the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome definition on there with "...and subsequent installments act as though they never existed in the first place."
(she/her)
Crown Description:
What should be done with Absentee Actor?
Edited by Infitroper on Dec 31st 2021 at 4:34:29 AM