Line #37 Main/InnocentBystanderSeries


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6	In a [[CityOfAdventure world filled with superpowered heroes and villains constantly battling overhead]], a world where property damage is common and evil minions run rampant every now and then, have you ever wondered how the [[InnocentBystander normal citizens]] ''cope'' with all that craziness? In this trope, the story focuses solely on those citizens. Often centres on a police force trying to stop normal crimes and having to put up with {{death ray}}s, or the feeling of inadequacy when the heroes catch perps before they do. FantasticRacism is also a prevalent theme.
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8	Can be seen as a subtrope of PerspectiveFlip. When it's just one episode of a larger series, it's a LowerDeckEpisode.
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10	!!Examples
11	[[foldercontrol]]
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13	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
14	* While ''Anime/KadoTheRightAnswer'' focused on the large-scale interactions with Yaha-kui [=ZaShuina=] and his gifts to mankind, the spinoff manga about two highschool students shows the audience a glimpse of how commonfolk reacted to the events of the story.
15	* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' has a mundane example with its spin-off "We Want to Talk About Kaguya'', which focuses on two {{Recurring Extra}}s from the Mass Media Club and their misinformed interpretations of Kaguya and Shirogane's BattleOfWits.
16	* ''Manga/{{Pluto}}'' is a retelling of a famous ''Manga/AstroBoy'' story arc from the perspective of supporting characters, innocent bystanders, minor villains, other robots... pretty much anybody that isn't [[TheHero Atom]] himself. [[spoiler:Poignantly {{deconstruct\|ion}}ed near the end, as almost all the viewpoint characters die or get written out, leaving Atom to save the day and get all the credit for it. Never mind that they all had lives and stories of their own, or that Atom would've never gotten the chance to save the world if not for some of them; ''he'' is the hero and they're just the supporting cast, so they all get forgotten in favor of him. [[HumbleHero He's not happy about it, either]].]]
17	* The ''Anime/ReCreators'' spinoff ''Re:CREATORS One More'' focuses on a CosplayOtakuGirl who is absolutely stoked that her town is starting to get overrun with fictional characters, and ends up catching glimpses of the main series' plot along the way.
18	* ''Anime/RollingGirls'' is about four average teenagers in a world where cities are defended by superheroes.
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21	[[folder:Comic Books]]
22	* While ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' occasionally has stories from the perspective of superheroes, it far more often explores what life is like for the average person in a superhero universe, such as a story about a comic publisher landing in hot water with a supervillain, a rookie AmoralAttorney who saved a mob boss' son from going to prison for murder by claiming it could have been his EvilTwin (an event he could not have gotten away with if the city was not collectively still telling from a hero's HeroicSacrifice) or one about an everyman who loses someone dear to him in one of the periodic {{Cosmic Retcon}}s.
23	* Since the ''ComicBook/{{Civil War\|2006}}'' event, Marvel have been using "Front Line" style tie-ins for all their recent crossover events, to show how those events are affecting the {{Innocent Bystander}}s of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse (or at least New York...).
24	* ''ComicBook/DamageControl'' is a Creator/{{Marvel\|Comics}} series following the construction company of the same name, that specializes in clean-up and general rebuilding after large cataclysmic superhero fights. A slight {{subver\|tedTrope}}sion of the trope, as the company has several superpowered employees to help with heavy lifting and such. And deconstructed during ''ComicBook/{{Civil War\|2006}}'' when this company (now led by a CorruptCorporateExecutive) is by all means and purposes the GreaterScopeVillain of the event, because the Mutant Growth Hormone that boosted Nitro's powers to the point he could perform the Stamford Massacre was secretly peddled by said executive trying to boost the company's revenue, but the only hero who cares about finding out about this [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge and doing something about it]] is ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} because literally everybody else in the superhero community is a little ''[[SkewedPriorities too]]'' concerned about beating each other up over the Superhuman Registration Act.
25	* ''ComicBook/GothamCentral'' was a series following the Major Crimes Unit of [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Gotham City]], and all the difficulties of corruption and supervillains in their way.
26	* ''ComicBook/{{Marvels}}'' is the early days of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse from the POV of a {{muggle\|s}} newspaper reporter. Its sequel, ''Eye of the Camera'', is much the same way. The four-issue mini-series ''Code of Honor'' also provides us with the New York City Police Department's perspective, showing us how all the wild anomalous events of Marvel's universe affect its everyday citizens and their institutions through the eyes of the lowly police officer Jeffrey Piper.
27	* Before ''ComicBook/GothamCentral'', there was ''Metropolis SCU'', a Creator/DCComics miniseries about the [[SuperCop special police squad]] trained to deal with supervillains in [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Metropolis]].
28	* ''ComicBook/{{Powers}}'' by Brian Michael Bendis is an ongoing series focusing on regular police officers trying to solve crimes when their world is literally ''stuffed'' with crazy superpowers and mad science. Investigations often revolve around the murder of a superhero.
29	* In ''ComicBook/PS238'', written by the author of ''Nodwick'', focuses on superhero children, but the closest thing to a protagonist is a non-empowered kid thrown into the middle of the rest and just trying to [[ActionSurvivor survive]]. This is a downplayed example in that the comic focuses predominantly on superheroics, and even the protagonist starts to develop into more of a BadassNormal than a bystander.
30	* ''Science Police'', a miniseries following the SpacePolice organization from ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' and showing how it feels to be an average cop while a bunch of super-powered teenagers get all the glory.
31	* ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' is told partly from the perspective of the normal police officers investigating the deeds of so-called superheroes and an ''actual'' superhero (Dr. Manhattan).
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34	[[folder:Fan Works]]
35	* ''Podcast/SporadicPhantoms'' is about three normal people in the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' universe trying to uncover the local youth club's dark secrets, and occasionally having run-ins with the Animorphs.
36	* ''Fanfic/PoundTheTable'''s main character is Noa Schaeffer, a lawyer with very, very weak mutant and mystical powers. Despite being surrounded by super-powered individuals, [[note]] Matt Murdock works as her intern, Magneto is her godfather, she was tutored by Stephen Strange, she represents Pyro in one case and goes against Norman Osborn in another, is a shareholder in Stark Industries, gives occasional lectures at the Xavier Institute, and she winds up dating [[spoiler: Psylocke]] in later chapters[[/note]] she is, in ever way that matters, still a civilian with no direct involvement in superheroics. As the author points out, she isn't even "street level" like Spider-Man and Daredevil, she's "civilian level." This becomes all the more apparent when [[spoiler: Galactus arrives]] and her entire perspective on the event consists of [[spoiler: passing out in her apartment]], and then handling the mountain of legal paperwork that resulted from [[spoiler: all the deaths]].
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39	[[folder:Literature]]
40	* ''Literature/TheExtraordinaryAdventuresOfOrdinaryBoy''. The title speaks for itself.
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43	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
44	* Starting with season three, ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' qualifies, introducing a plethora of powered individuals while Batman isn't yet Batman. Without the technology Batman uses to counter them, it's all up to James Gordon, the BadassNormal police force, and occasionally kid Bruce Wayne to save the day.
45	* {{Downplayed\|Trope}} in Marvel's ''Series/{{Jessica Jones\|2015}}'', ''Series/{{Luke Cage\|2016}}'' and ''Series/{{Daredevil\|2015}}'', which do feature powered superheroes but are set at "ground level" compared to the rest of the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] and make a point of focusing on what it's like to actually live day-to-day in a city that was nearly destroyed by [[Film/TheAvengers2012 a huge battle between superheroes and aliens]]. Most notably, a major subplot of ''Daredevil'''s first season is Kingpin's plans to capitalise on the property development opportunities of rebuilding New York.
46	* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' takes place in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' Reboot universe but completely outside of the Skywalker Saga ethos. Instead it focuses on the titular bounty hunter trying to make ends meet in the Outer Rim five years after the Galactic Civil War ended. The main character knows nothing about Jedi or the Force, being more preoccupied with the setting's economic depression. The show repeatedly hints at vast galaxy-shaping machinations going on in the background, such as the [[RisingEmpire rising First Order]], the [[RightfulKingReturns reclamation of Mandalore]], and [[BackFromTheDead the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn]], and the Mandalorian himself ends up brushing shoulders with the main characters of multiple previous ''Star Wars'' sagas, but none of this has any bearing on the Mandalorian’s far smaller and far more personally important mission. He’d be the HeroOfAnotherStory if it wasn’t his story being told.
47	* ''Series/{{Powerless}}'' is a [[WorkCom workplace sitcom]] about ordinary people in the DC superhero universe.
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50	[[folder:Toys]]
51	* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'''s ''Mata Nui On-Line Game'' and the following web episodes, as well as ''MNOG II'' followed the adventures of the normal islanders while the comics kept tabs on the heroes. Occasionally, the two story threads still crossed paths, like when the 2001 movie and video game got canceled, and ''MNOG'' had to tie up the main plot along with its own.
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54	[[folder:Video Games]]
55	* ''VideoGame/CityShroudedInShadow'' has you playing as a salaryman/woman who ends up getting caught in the middle of various {{kaiju}} attacks (with a few HumongousMecha thrown in for good measure), all the while trying to escape from the Yakuza for accidentally [[HeKnowsTooMuch witnessing a confidential job]]. The game's {{tagline}} is even, "This is not the story of some hero. This is your story."
56	* ''VideoGame/YouAreNotTheHero'': [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As the title suggests]], you are not the hero of this world. You play as a random woman in a village. The game {{lampshade\|Hanging}}s the KleptomaniacHero as the game's plot revolves around trying to get your necklace back from the hero who took it from your dresser.
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59	[[folder:Web Comics]]
60	* ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}'' is a quasi-example of this. While the webcomic has a fully empowered team of main characters, the protagonist of the series is their lackey. Part of the fun of the comic is showing how he deals with being the {{Mook\|s}} in a team of heroes.
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63	[[folder:Web Original]]
64	* ''Dental Repair'' in ''[[https://www.reddit.com/r/CapesAndCowls/ Capes and Cowls]]'' is the story of a dental hygienist in a world full of vigilante superheroes.
65	* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/kokarorloli Karl the Deranged]]'s series "Chaos Descends" occurs in the same universe as ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'', and focuses on a handful of ordinary human [[ReligionOfEvil chaos worshippers]] living on a backwater desert planet.
66	* The ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' story "Crime and Chaos" is a ''Series/LawAndOrder'' pastiche where New York cops investigate the murder of a retired (and less than loved) superhero.
67	* The podcasts on ''Violent Life'', all set in the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' universe, seem to like playing with this concept, focusing more on the non-Shadowrunning side of life.
68	** ''Redmond Born'' starts as this, with the protagonist being an anonymous denizen of the [[TheCityNarrows Redmond Barrens]] just trying to get by. [[spoiler:Ultimately {{averted\|Trope}}; her eyes get forcibly replaced with [[ElectronicEyes Deltaware]] and she realizes she's had a free spirit tagging along with her since childhood.]]
69	** ''Tales from the Stuffer Shack'' plays this completely straight. It's an actual-play Shadowrun podcast, but the players are a pair of employees at a Stuffer Shack in the [[TheCityNarrows Barrens]]. Not that this stops catastrophic things from happening to them anyway.
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72	[[folder:Western Animation]]
73	* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' follows a low rank crew on the USS Ceritos, a ship tasked with unimportant duties like making "second contact" with alien civilizations, while other ships in-universe make new discoveries and fight aliens.
74	[[/folder]]

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