History Main / TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter

** Most of the Trust leaders get the short end of the stick when it comes to plot relevance and character development, despite wide interest in how they operate and what kinds of dynamics they have with each other. About half of them never even get names or dialogue until the arc they die or their appearance directly preceding that one, and even the more prominent ones tend to get killed with little fanfare. Fulvio, Sigmar, and the Nagel twins might be the ones with the most wasted potential.

** ''TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter/{{Pokemon}}''

** Knives Chau was a fun, if slightly stereotypical, cute Asian teen character in the first two volumes, only to be DemotedToExtra as the less interesting GrumpyBear Kim Pine began taking her place. In the last volume, she only appears in a whopping total of ''two'', plot-unimportant scenes.

** ''TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter/DragonBallSuper''

** Few characters have been wasted worse than Ajani Goldmane. Introduced in the first batch of "neo-walkers" in 2007's ''Lorwyn'', he was a primary protagonist in the following year's ''Shards of Alara''. And...that was the extent of his use as a major character. He occasionally showed up in a supporting role after, such as in 2013's ''Theros'', but never again took on a starring role. This came to a head after the soft reboot in 2015's ''Magic Origins'' - he officially becomes a member of the "main" hero team in ''Aether Revolt'', only to vanish again in the ''very next set''. His next appearance was in ''War of the Spark'', where he plays very little role beyond being another planeswalker for the planeswalker-heavy set. This would be his last appearance until 2022's ''Dominaria United''...where he was promptly assimilated by the villains. Ajani fans were drawn in by his likable personality, sympathetic backstory, unique power suite, and cool design, and seeing him speed year after year being completely ignored before returning only to be villainised for shock value...was frustrating, to say the least.

** Few characters have been wasted worse than Ajani Goldmane. Introduced in the first batch of "neo-walkers" in 2007's ''Lorwyn'', he was a primary protagonist in the following year's ''Shards of Alara''. And...that was the extent of his use as a major character. He occasionally showed up in a supporting role after, such as in 2013's ''Theros'', but never again took on a starring role. This came to a head after the soft reboot in 2015's ''Magic Origins'' - he officially becomes a member of the "main" hero team in ''Aether Revolt'', only to vanish again in the ''very next set''. His next appearance was in ''War of the Spark'', where he plays very little rope beyond being another planeswalker for the planeswalker-heavy set. This would be his last appearance until 2022's ''Dominaria United''...where he was promptly assimilated by the villains. Ajani fans were drawn in by his likable personality, sympathetic backstory, unique power suite, and cool design, and setting him speed year after year being completely ignored before returning only to be villainised for shock value...was frustrating, to say the least.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' had Grif's Sister, Kaikaina. Once introduced in season 5, she was quickly well-liked and deemed a hilarious character, but still ends up having barely any effect on the story. Come the next season, Sister appears to show the other characters moved to other places and left her behind, despite all the fun gags or plot complications that could be built off Grif having a sibling on the other side. It would take seven seasons for Sister to appear again in a cameo, and after brief appearances in the following two, she was finally back in the main cast for season 16, which while divisive among fans, had Sister's reintroduction and usage being one of the few things no one complained about.

* ''Machinima/SBBBrothers'':

->''"Every time I watch a show, I get hooked on one particular character who isn't a main character. He or she only gets about one or two scenes per episode, and I watch while slowly and unconsciously ripping a hole out of the sofa pillow with my teeth, because it seems like only I can see the potential in this person that ISN'T being exploited!"''
-->--'''[[Website/PlatypusComix Peter Paltridge]]''', [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/fpo/survival/parker.html Oops! All Parker!]][[note]]Parker from ''Series/{{Leverage}}''.[[/note]]

** The Strongbottom Family, all of whom are royalty from the Iron Asses of Wales and are related to Chef Pee Pee. Naturally, this would raise a lot of possibilities. What sort of antics would Junior get up to with the sisters? What sort of development would Chef Pee Pee go through with his father? Where did Stacy learn [[PerfectlyCromulentWord "Queef?"]] What sort of struggles would Chef Pee Pee and Benjamin go through taking care of [[UpToEleven BOTH the Strongbottoms and Bowser's family?]] What sort of relationship would Bowser and the King have? Where is Queen Strongbottom? How did Chef Pee Pee go from royalty to a common house chef? There was a lot that could be done with this family and could have added a lot of characterization, depth, character development and even an interesting backstory to Chef Pee Pee. [[spoiler:But instead, King Strongbottom gets killed by his servant Benjamin (Even more baffling because Strongbottom says that Stacy would take the throne if he died, yet we never see Stacy again), [[FlatCharacter Stacy never goes beyond being a cheerleader who keeps saying "Queef"]] and Chef Pee Pee's big sister [[NoNameGiven is not even named]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'':

* Valka in ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2''. She's shown to be an incredible character with a connection to dragons, a sympathetic backstory, and a ''very'' spooky design aesthetic that is great to look at. But then she gets pushed to the sidelines for the sake of Hiccup's character development, and in a situation where you'd think she'd do great, she ends up being pushed down almost immediately. WordOfGod says that she was originally conceived as the BigBad, which does explain it somewhat.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamrock_(comics)#Fictional_character_biography Shamrock]], Marvel's [[CaptainEthnic Captain Irish]] heroine. Debuting in ''ComicBook/ContestOfChampions'', she's possessed by the spirits of dead Irish soldiers who have unfinished business. When they possess her they give her the speed, strength and martial skill of a thousand dead warriors... oh sorry, they actually made her ''really, really lucky''. But wait, it gets better; she retired from superhero-ing to become... ''[[StayInTheKitchen a hairdresser]]''. And ''no one cared!''

Often happens with characters that are introduced for only a single episode or two, or have mere supporting roles in a work that is already juggling LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. These are characters that have an interesting backstory or interact with the main cast in intriguing new ways, setting the stage for compelling future plots or new dynamics if made a permanent fixture, or at ''least'' a recurring character -- but those things never happen because the character in question ended up underdeveloped or underutilized by the narrative. This also happens to characters who only turn up within [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary materials]] or, in a video game, through sidequests (which are [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory very likely to be skipped and ignored]]). This can be especially annoying if [[NoExportForYou these supplementary materials were never made available in your country]].

** Other Dark Hunters might also count, such as Guardian, who only ever appeared in ''one scene'' before being killed by the BigBad ForTheEvulz, even though they had an [[AllThereInTheManual in-depth backstory written for him]]. {{Toyless Toyline Character}}s are prone to this, as a lot of them come off as more interesting than the main characters, but are always forced to the back because [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters there's too many of them]].

* ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, each with detailed backstories, characterizations, and other information [[AllThereInTheManual inside their profiles]]. It also happens to be a DeadlyGame in which characters die regularly. As you might expect, many characters die early on, or without reaching their full potential.

* This is pretty much the premise of ''Comicbook/AvengersArena'', killing off [[KidHero teenaged heroes]] with cult followings in a [[Literature/TheHungerGames Hunger Games]] style fight to the death. Because the characters originated in series that had been cancelled though, they fall into CListFodder box described above. Detractors' reactions have pretty much unanimously been "You could have brought the characters back another way and considered reviving their series instead of killing them in cold blood, damn it!"

** Wildstreak was a paraplegic young African American woman whose father designed a powered exoskeleton granting her not just freedom of movement but superhuman speed and agility. She had a fun and eager but very earnest personality, and had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, like Tracer listed above, she had the misfortune to debut in an otherwise mediocre Comicbook/FantasticFour story about Ben and Psi-Lord fighting a [[Comicbook/{{Venom}} Venom]] [[{{Expy}} knock-off]] called "Dreadface." She's spent most of the last twenty years in comic book limbo.

* The otherwise pretty forgettable ''Comicbook/{{Quasar}}'' spinoff ''Star Blasters'' introduced an alien robot villain named Skeletron. He claimed to be the sole survivor of an ancient race of robots called the Turgentine Technenium, who had dominated a huge swath of the Marvel Universe eons ago, only to finally be destroyed in a tremendous war with the organic races of that era. He got killed, and the Turgentine Techenium hasn't been mentioned since.

** ''Superman'' villains and AbusiveParents Zod and Ursa had their young child end up on Earth, where Superman and Lois Lane adopted him under the name Christopher Kent. The CharacterDevelopment and story potential opened up by Clark and Lois finally becoming parents was then wasted when Christopher got sucked into a YearInsideHourOutside dimension for a PlotRelevantAgeUp and wound up becoming just another minor character by the "New Krypton" arc. (He ''did'' get some further development during ''New Krypton'', though). Especially sad as the ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'' reboot came not too long after all this, so Christopher's change to the status quo would not have been permanent in any case. Chris eventually showed up at the end of Dan Jurgens' Rebirth run - as OverlordJr, with no one remembering the time when he lived with Clark and Lois anymore thanks to the events of ''ComicBook/SupermanReborn''.

** Creator/ElliotSMaggin invented a character named Superwoman who had a lot of potential. Kristin Wells was a time traveler from the distant future who used then-commonplace technologies to be a superhero in the present day (she actually first appeared in non-superhero form in Maggin's Franchise/{{Superman}} novel ''Literature/MiracleMonday.)'' Superwoman only received a handful of appearances before Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths erased her from history. She's probably best known these days for having a non-speaking cameo in ''Comicbook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'' Half her shtick, meanwhile, got appropriated by the Comicbook/PostCrisis character Comicbook/BoosterGold (a time traveler who uses his era's tech to be a superhero).

* ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'':

** Several fans of the Kon-El Comicbook/{{Superboy|1994}}, disappointed at his editorially mandated shock death in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', were perked up by the reveal that his evil yet sophisticated clone Match would finally be made part of a teen villain team alongside fellow evil clone Inertia. Since Match had previously infiltrated Superboy's close circle of friends and had successfully manipulated them and even gained a villainous crush on Wondergirl thanks to his high degree of intelligence, it was hoped he'd be an epic villain and we'd get to here some great monologues. Then the team finally appeared. Match was a carbon copy of Bizarro. No real characterization. Weaker power level. And redundant; a Superboy Bizarro had already been done. He was eventually murdered by Superboy-Prime ''offscreen'' just prior to the reboot.

** During the 90s ComicBook/EmmaFrost was given an extended family, consisting of sisters Adrienne and Cordelia Frost and brother Christian Frost. All three of these characters were introduced with great promise -- Adrienne was the eldest sister who had dedicated her life to [[TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry out]]-[[CorruptCorporateExecutive Emmaing]] [[ManipulativeBitch Emma]], Cordelia was the youngest sibling who, true to her Shakespearen name, had a [[BlitheSpirit somewhat]] [[TheTrickster impish]] personality, and Christian was a tragic victim of the Frost trio's AbusiveParents. While Christian never made an appearance beyond flashbacks, both Adrienne and Cordelia were put to great use in ''ComicBook/GenerationX'' only for both of their stories to be cut short thanks to a switch of creative teams. Adrienne was KilledOffForReal whole Christian and Cordelia were PutOnABus, and for quite a long time they vanished... until the era of ''ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen'', when writers finally saw fit to bring back Cordelia and elevate Christian because there's no better time for an LGBT character with a tragic backstory to be featured. With this, Adrienne is now the only one of the Frost siblings who truly qualifies for this trope.

* This happens pretty often in [[WebComic/NuzlockeComics Nuzlocke]] stories due to RealLifeWritesThePlot. A writer can come up with an interesting and complex personality for a Pokemon... only for it to die to a fluke critical hit before they can fully develop. One notable example is Vinny the Magneton in Petty's Nuzlocke Challenge, who developed a huge fan following when he was introduced due to his interesting personality and good performance in battle... and he unceremoniously died to a critical in the next chapter.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''WebComic/CheckPlease'':

** David Haller, aka ComicBook/{{Legion|MarvelComics}}, is a rare case of a character being ''recognized'' as one of these. The son of ComicBook/ProfessorX, David was cursed with a tragic union of SplitPersonalityTakeOver and WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity. For the first twenty years of his existence he was used as much more of a PlotDevice than a character, being the ForWantOfANail instigator that ushered in the ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse. But as stigma against mental illness lessened in the 2010s and Legion came back into the spotlight following his use as TheHeavy for another alternate universe story (''Age of X''), his potential was finally recognized, leading to his grand promotion as the star of the live-action television series Series/{{Legion}}.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':
** Penny Polendina, an Android, [[spoiler: was turned fully human in RWBYV8E12Creation, only to be killed two episodes later in RWBYV8E14TheFinalWord. She could have stayed an android and everything would have stayed the same plotwise.]]

Often happens with characters that are introduced for a only a single episode or two, or have mere supporting roles in a work that is already juggling LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. These are characters that have an interesting backstory or interact with the main cast in intriguing new ways, setting the stage for compelling future plots or new dynamics if made a permanent fixture, or at ''least'' a recurring character -- but those things never happen because the character in question ended up underdeveloped or underutilized by the narrative. This also happens to characters who only turn up within [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary materials]] or, in a video game, through sidequests (which are [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory very likely to be skipped and ignored]]). This can be especially annoying if [[NoExportForYou these supplementary materials were never made available in your country]].

** The Strongbottom Family, all of whom are royalty from the Iron Asses of Wales and are related to Chef Pee Pee. Naturally, this would raise a lot of possibilities. What sort of antics would Junior get up to with the sisters? What sort of development would Chef Pee Pee go through with his father? Where did Stacy learn [[PerfectlyCromulentWord "Queef?"]] What sort of struggles would Chef Pee Pee and Benjamin go through taking care of [[UpToEleven BOTH the Strongbottoms and Bowser's family?]] What sort of relationship would Bowser and the King have? Where is Queen Strongbottom? How did Chef Pee Pee go from royalty to a common house chef? There was a lot that could be done with this family and could of added a lot of characterization, depth, character development and even an interesting backstory to Chef Pee Pee. [[spoiler:But instead, King Strongbottom gets killed by his servant Benjamin (Even more baffling because Strongbottom says that Stacy would take the throne if he died, yet we never see Stacy again), [[FlatCharacter Stacy never goes beyond being a cheerleader who keeps saying "Queef"]] and Chef Pee Pee's big sister [[NoNameGiven is not even named]].]]

** ''TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter/TheWalkingDead''

** Exodus, aka Bennet du Paris, was one of many promising characters who saw his potential squandered. Introduced as a MysteriousWatcher and TheDragon of Magneto, Exodus became the DragonAscendant after Magneto was incapacitated following the ''ComicBook/FatalAttractions'' event. This was intended to set the stage for a new generation of the Brotherhood in their successors, the Acolytes, with Exodus assuming Magneto's role as the preeminent enemy of the X-Men. But after the lackluster reception of the ''ComicBook/BloodTiesMarvelComics'' story which was grooming him for BigBad status, this plan was shelved and the Acolytes and Exodus were both moved OutOfFocus, leading to them being offered up at TheWorfEffect altar to build up new villain Holocaust. Later stories would give Exodus more depth, showing him as more conflicted about his master's mission of mutant supremacy than earlier stories indicated, but this too was wasted thanks to the constant changing hands of writers. Consequently, the character has never lived up to his full potential and remains a second-string character doomed to stand in Magneto's shadow.

** Exodus, aka Bennet du Paris, was one of many promising characters who saw his potential squandered. Introduced as a MysteriousWatcher and TheDragon of Magneto, Exodus became the DragonAscendant after Magneto was incapacitated following the ''ComicBook/FatalAttractions'' event. This was intended to set the stage for a new generation of the Brotherhood in their successors, the Acolytes, with Exodus assuming Magneto's role as the preeminent enemy of the X-Men. But after the lackluster reception of the ''ComicBook/BloodTies'' story which was grooming him for BigBad status, this plan was shelved and the Acolytes and Exodus were both moved OutOfFocus, leading to them being offered up at TheWorfEffect altar to build up new villain Holocaust. Later stories would give Exodus more depth, showing him as more conflicted about his master's mission of mutant supremacy than earlier stories indicated, but this too was wasted thanks to the constant changing hands of writers. Consequently, the character has never lived up to his full potential and remains a second-string character doomed to stand in Magneto's shadow.

* ComicBook/DarkAvengers: ComicBook/{{Ares}} was portrayed as a PapaWolf, [[HeelFaceTurn once villain]] of ComicBook/TheAvengers who was recruited onto the Mighty Avengers team. However, the team itself was short-lived as after only two short arcs the team was disbanded and he became a Dark Avenger instead. This led to him being [[TheWorfEffect tossed around by every other villain the team faced]] and the book focused on other characters instead. He scored a few crowning moments of awesome while being neglected but it seems increasingly likely that he won't feature too prominently anymore seeing as [[spoiler:The Void tore him in half in an embarrassingly short CurbStompBattle during Siege.]]