History Main / TheMainCharactersDoEverything

* Non-human example - [[WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends Thomas]] is a short-range locomotive with his own branch line to run. Yet from series 3 onwards, running his branch line was about the only thing he hardly ever seemed to do. The same could be applied to any of the main characters.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' has a hard subversion to this trope with the season three opener “Grounded”. With Captain Freeman on trial for something she didn’t do, her daughter Mariner and the other Lower Deckers try to hunt down evidence to prove her innocence with the former even attempting to hijack the ''Cerritos'' to do so. All of this was being done as Mariner believed that Starfleet would use Freeman as a scapegoat because she was a captain of a ''California''-class, a ship that’s usually seen as TheUnfavorite.[[spoiler:As it turns out, they didn’t need to as Freeman was safe and sound - it was a FalseFlagOperation in order to find out the truth by hunting down the true criminals. All that ended up happening is Mariner is now on her last chance with Starfleet and she’s on a short leash.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', the Crystal Gems have been narrowed down to only Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl (and Steven). Other members have been mentioned, and at the time of TheGreatOffscreenWar they were a sizeable group, but the main characters are currently the only ones active, [[spoiler: because Rose was only able to save Garnet and Pearl, who were right next to her, from the corruption bomb, with Amethyst emerging later]]. However, the only old Crystal Gem who actually appears is Bismuth, and arguably [[spoiler: the Cluster, formed of the shards of gems shattered in the war]]. Even in Garnet's flashback to the original rebellion in ''The Answer'', the only members shown are Rose Quartz and Pearl, although since this is a story Garnet is telling Steven, she's probably simplifying things because those are the only two he'd recognize. [[spoiler: She is not. Rose Quartz and Pearl really ''were'' the only members at that time. Garnet was the first real recruit to the cause.]]

** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/CallofDutyInfiniteWarfare''. The player character Nick Reyes's inability to delegate, despite being a starship captain, is actually pointed out and treated as a character flaw rather than a gameplay mechanic -- and it repeatedly bites him in the ass.

* A common criticism of ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' points out that it makes no sense to train a bunch of out-of-shape professional oil-rig operators to become astronauts when you can instead train the existing professional astronauts to drill. In the DVDCommentary, Creator/BenAffleck notes that he pointed this out to Creator/MichaelBay during filming, to which Bay replied "shut the fuck up."

* In ''Film/TopGunMaverick'', Maverick's friend, Warrant Officer Hondo, goes with him literally wherever he goes. At the start of the movie, he seems to be some sort of mission control chief during the Dark Star test. The plan gets canceled and Maverick is sent to North Island for a secret mission, where we see Hondo handling various aspects of the training and mission preparation. Finally, when the team ships out to the aircraft carrier for their attack, Hondo is seen wearing deck maintenance crew gear. Maverick is a Captain, and might have a Warrant Officer serving as his aide, but more as a personal assistant rather than an integral part of the action.

* Gordon Freeman of ''Machinima/FreemansMind''. Everyone else is busy dying to aliens, making Freeman's life harder, or just standing places doing nothing at all, so Freeman has to do a lot of legwork on his quest to get the hell out of Black Mesa. He's not happy about it, complaining that when people talk about being an OneManArmy, they mean that they're a badass, not that they're doing all the work one would expect from an entire army.

* Parodied by ''WebComic/SchlockMercenary'': in an arc [[AffectionateParody affectionately parodying]] ''Series/{{CSI}}'' the Grisson {{Expy}} is [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2004-05-08 told off by his supervisor]] for trying to interrogate Schlock since as a crime scene investigator he has no business interrogating suspects.

* Parodied by ''WebComic/SchlockMercenary'': in an arc [[AffectionateParody affectionately parodying]] ''Series/{{CSI}}'' the Grisson {{Expy]] is [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2004-05-08 told off by his supervisor]] for trying to interrogate Schlock since as a crime scene investigator he has no business interrogating suspects.

* Parodied by ''WebComic/SchlockMercenary'' in an arc that was an AffectionateParody of ''Series/{{CSI}}''. The main character of the arc, a forensics expert charged with a scene of a crime involving sergeant Schlock, [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2004-05-08 gets told off by his supervisor for trying to interrogate Schlock]].

* ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'': Really, Bruce Banner's troubles with his Hulk condition could have been avoided from the beginning if he simply ''sent guards'' at the base to get Rick Jones out of the Gamma Bomb blast zone in the first place instead of going himself. That way, Banner could have kept an eye on the detonation process and held it until the guards and trespasser was clear.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda'', both Link and Zelda (when the latter hasn't been captured), who are apparently Hyrule's only capable fighters, set off to confront Ganon, with no escort, and leaving no one to defend the castle. It approaches the point of absurdity in "Cold Spells" and "A Hitch in the Works", when Zelda wants the castle cleaned, she personally gives the orders, and orders Link and Spryte to do the cleaning. Link is the hero, who should be guarding the Triforce and saving Zelda (although even these roles conflict at times). Spryte is a fairy princess. Aside from Doof the handyman, there is no evidence that the castle has any kind of service staff.

This trope is closely related to GhostExtras, since the two tropes are almost always played together. Expect the main character(s) to be an OmnidisciplinaryScientist, SuperDoc, or DoAnythingSoldier (it's usually an excuse to let him Do Everything). OneRiotOneRanger is an extreme application of the trope. CommandRoster practically guarantees the trope. Also connected to RedShirt; if you're in a series where The Main Characters Do Everything, and suddenly you see someone else participating in the main action, they might be there only [[SacrificialLamb for purposes of a sudden death.]]

* In Creator/TherinKnite's ''Literature/{{Echoes}}'', Adem and the rest of Night Team One are the "premier" team at EDPA, meaning they get called in to work any cases deemed high priority by the organization. Since the books revolve around a series of escalating "high priority" cases, Night Team One ends up doing everything, all the time, from things ''far'' beyond their collective skill sets to the marginally important tasks that would usually be relegated to lower-ranked agents.

Of course, one solution would be to add LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters to follow around, each with his own little job. Some writers prefer this, and some even pull it off rather well -- but the multitude of characters can still potentially confuse the audience (and it can also get expensive hiring more and more actors for bit roles). Another solution is to focus only on the most interesting jobs in the organization, and have everything else be done off-screen (as seen in the many PoliceProcedural aversions listed below) -- but again requires very good writing skills and/or very interesting stories to fit this specific format.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' plays with this over the course of the franchise, though is mostly able to avert this thanks to LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters for [[SmallRoleBigImpact small but important roles]]. For the Imperials, you never see any command officer fighting in combat, except for Vader, who is outside the normal line of authority and more often a FrontlineGeneral, and General Veers during [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack the Battle of Hoth]] (which helped point out the dangers of a frontline general when, in both old and new continuities, he's nearly killed when a damaged snowspeeder [[TakingYouWithMe kamikazes into his AT-AT's cockpit]]). With the Rebels, slightly more is done by high-level people, though again only in situations where it would be likely and many of those earned those ranks in earlier battles (Han and Lando promoted to General). For the most part, on both sides, you see admirals, generals, [[CallARabbitASmeerp moffs]], and even the Emperor only giving orders.

* Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire: Despite the books having LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, there are a few examples where there is a definite shortage of required administration. Eddard Stark is the Lord Paramount of the North, a region the size of about half of South America, yet his administration seems to be just six people: himself, his wife Catelyn, Maester Luwin, Captain of the Guards Jory Cassel, Master-Of-Arms Rodrick Cassel, and Steward Vayon Poole. For a much worse example, Varys runs a spy network of hundreds or thousands of individuals scattered all around the world and they all report directly to him. That's like having the CIA composed of the Director and a few thousand Field Agents. It's amazing he has time to get involved in all of these conspiracies personally.

* While ''Franchise/GIJoe'' had [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters hundreds of characters]] (about one per every task that might need doing), mainly due to never featuring ''all'' of the characters in any one episode, it was extremely common to see one specialist doing the job of another. In particular, nearly every member of the team was apparently qualified in flying modern jet fighters, and did so often. Perhaps this is why they ended up causing so much damage to the cities they were assigned to protect from Cobra.

Finally, note that this trope is rarely confined to a single main character. It's usually a group of characters who, between them, seem to carry out every possible task in the show. You'll never see the extras doing anything important, it's always one of the Main Characters who gets the task. Some shows make this even more complicated by having one main character doing the job of another main character, because ''that'' other main character is off doing some ''other'' job that isn't within their remit. In the worst case scenario, this cascades on and on until all of the main characters are doing something they aren't supposed to do. See also ArtisticLicenseEducation, ArtisticLicenseLawEnforcement, ArtisticLicenseMilitary, and ArtisticLicensePolitics

Contrast MinimalistCast, which is when the main characters do everything because ''there isn't anyone else''. Contrast with ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything, where characters explicitly don't do anything that ''is'' related to their job description. Also contrast with LowerDeckEpisode, where a normally-[=TMCDE=] show suddenly focuses on the people in the background, and typically has to temporarily suspend [=TMCDE=] to make it work.

Finally, note that this trope is rarely confined to a single main character. It's usually a group of characters who, between them, seem to carry out every possible task in the show. You'll never see the extras doing anything important, it's always one of the Main Characters who gets the task. Some shows make this even more complicated by having one main character doing the job of another main character, because ''that'' other main character is off doing some ''other'' job that isn't within their remit. In the worst case scenario, this cascades on and on until all of the main characters are doing something they aren't supposed to do.

* Non-human example - WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends is a short-range locomotive with his own branch line to run. Yet from series 3 onwards, running his branch line was about the only thing he hardly ever seemed to do. The same could be applied to any of the main characters.

* In ''[[Film/StarTrek2009 Star Trek]]'', the main cast does nearly everything because everyone else either doesn't show up, dies, or is incompetent. Bones is made Chief Medical Officer when his superior dies in Nero's first attack on the ''Enterprise''. "Helmsman [=McKenna=]" never shows up, thus Sulu becomes the pilot. A linguistics officer proves [[WhatAnIdiot incapable of distinguishing Romulan and Vulcan]], thus xenolinguistics expert Uhura quickly earns his job. Then, the transporter room staff prove similarly incapable of locking on to Kirk and Sulu when they're falling without a chute, and Chekhov quickly runs to the transporter room, shoves them out of the way and does their job for them. Kirk and Sulu are in that situation because they and the Chief Engineer were all chosen for a combat mission instead of ''Enterprise'' security, even though they're all bridge crew and Sulu is already the ''backup'' pilot. When Chief Engineer Olsen proves to be [[spoiler:a RedShirt]], [[spoiler:Scotty, who came aboard mid-voyage,]] ends up taking his place. Finally, Kirk winds up [[spoiler:becoming ''Acting Captain'' despite having never been meant to be on board in the first place, due to Pike being captured and Spock becoming emotionally compromised]].

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[[caption-width-right:300:He analyzes crime scenes!\\

* Averted in ''Anime/PsychoPass'' where the ones who are gathering the evidence in the crime scenes are droids while the Inspectors and Enforcers do the detective work. However this is played straight with Shion Karanamori, who seemed the only person doing the lab analysis, being the MissionControl to the PSB units and hacking. Though Jyoji Saiga did joined the bureau as an analyst in Season 2, he’s only hired for a short time by Akane and the only job that he did is interrogate those involved in the Kamui case.

* The four openly reject this trope in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone''. During the book they're expected to be spies, healers, rescuers, detectives, delivery boys, warriors... none of which they're prepared to do. George and John in particular make a point of asking “Why do ''we'' have to do this when there are guards around, or other outworlders around, who could do it?”

* In ''VideoGame/TwistedWonderland'', [[PlayerCharacter Yuu]], [[ThoseTwoGuys Ace, Deuce]] and [[TalkingAnimal Grim]] are usually the ones that help solve the problems of each dorm in the main story with the assistance of the previous [[spoiler:overblot victims]] and their respective dorm members. The only exception so far has been Chapter 4, as Deuce and Ace are PutOnABus for a majority of the story and only return after the problem has been dealt with. In their place, [[BigDamnHero the Octavinelle trio]] step up to the plate to solve the Scarabia dorm issue after their curiousity toward the [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Kalim situation]] is drawn. And it turns out that it’s a good thing that they did decide to help as [[{{Unsorcerer}} Yuu]] and [[DistressedDude Grim]] prove to be helpless on their own.

* In ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'', the protagonist is the one who both retrieves Dennis’s portable hard drive, and finds an unencrypted video that reveals part of the truth about his former summer school class.

** While this problem was slightly alleviated in Seasons 17-21, it resurged in Season 22 onwards due to the Steam Team overhaul. The special “Steam Team to the Rescue” shows how much seems to now rely on the seven. Despite the numerous count of engines, the majority of the workload is shown to be done by the seven Steam Team engines, especially during the final scene at Brendam Docks. There are engines who work the Brendam Branch Line, but they’re never shown helping there. Only when the Steam Team gets involved does the pile-up get resolved.

[[quoteright:300:[[Series/{{CSINY}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/csi_mac_multitask_6492.jpg]]]]

->''"Ramirez, use the remote controlled Predator missiles!"''\\

* A common criticism of ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' points out that it makes no sense to train a bunch of out-of-shape professional oil-rig operators to become astronauts when you can instead train the existing professional astronauts to drill. In the DVDCommentary, Creator/BenAffleck notes that he pointed this out to Creator/MichaelBay during filming, to which Bay replied "shut the fuck up."* ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'': Played for ridiculousness. College student from TheNineties Ash Williams leads all aspects of the castle's defense from an undead siege, right down to training the villagers to fight with polearms.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Team Avatar (plus Iroh) become the only game-changers in the Hundred-Year War. Even more in the finale, when [[spoiler: Aang stops Ozai from destroying Ba Sing Se and then rest of the Earth Kingdom ({{Justified|Trope}} because he's the [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Avatar]]); Zuko and Katara are the only ones who wrest Azula from becoming Fire Lord despite her becoming increasingly unpopular in the Fire Nation; Sokka, Toph and Suki are the only ones putting any effort neutralizing the ''rest'' of the airships attempting to raze the Earth Kingdom; and Iroh is the only one who can assemble the White Lotus to take back Ba Sing Se from the Fire Nation.]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/InsideJob2021'', the main characters are constantly doing field operations to maintain the [[ConspiracyKitchenSink various conspiracies they're in charge of keeping in place), despite the fact that most of them are departmental heads at Cognito Inc. who have countless people under them who they can order to do these tasks instead; Ridley in particular is high enough on the corporate leader than she reports directly to the CEO, which her goal throughout the series being to become CEO herself.

** Slightly harder to explain, however, is the ever-present role of Dr. Catherine Halsey, OmnidisciplinaryScientist extraordinaire of the Halo universe. Not only did she personally oversee every aspect of the SPARTAN-II project, from deciding on their physical augmentations down to interviewing psychologically profiling the candidates; she also did the bulk of the design work for their incredibly advanced PoweredArmor, then developed a revolutionary new AI system based on scanning cloned human brains, ''then'' became humanity's foremost expert on Covenant and Forerunner technology, and became personally involved with several other main characters such as Captain Keyes to boot. She seems to be pretty much the only reason the UNSC has any working technology or understanding of their enemies at all.

* Justified in the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series, as the Master Chief has spent years undergoing TrainingFromHell to handle every weapon and vehicle used by both humanity and the Covenant. Being a SPARTAN supersoldier, he is often the only consistent game changer on the battlefield. He also has the benefit of a highly advanced AI capable of single-handedly operating huge battleships running in his suit. She typically takes over the tasks he cannot, such as hacking, exposition, and troubleshooting.