"They Wasted A Perfectly Good Character" Cleanup

Second bullet doesn't have enough context on how Izzie and Paige were wasted as characters. Are they canonically autistic? Because otherwise that's just a What If? scenario, not a wasted aspect of their canonical characters.

Third bullet point doesn't note any specific character that was wasted.

The fourth bullet point seems to be referring to a character that doesn't exist, which doesn't fit the trope.

There is actually a support group in the show, and the bullet point is saying they should develop one of the support group members further.

And a large reason why people like the show from the second season onward is that Casey and Izzie have Belligerent Sexual Tension and fall in love, which is enough to distract away from Sam and Elsa.

Edited by ccorb on Sep 11th 2020 at 9:35:54 AM

Bringing up the following example from Doctor Who S37 E1 "The Woman Who Fell to Earth":

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Many were upset at Grace's death, saying that even with the crew understandably not wanting to squeeze five people into the TARDIS, she could have served quite well as the era's equivalent of Jackie Tyler or Wilfred Mott. Instead she'll at worst be a case of Stuffed into the Fridge and at best a case of Mentor Occupational Hazard depending on how her death continues or not to affect Graham and Ryan. That of the four humans it was a black woman who died didn't help the optics. Then again, He's Just Hiding could be in play...

From YMMV.Inazuma Eleven Ares:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Similar to the original series having half of Raimon's team being Out of Focus, some people wish more had been done with members like Michinari and Hiro.
  • Sakanoue Noboru was liked for being a unique character and having a few genuine moments, but even as a member of Inazuma Japan, he did not receive much screentime barring his contributions to Shining Satans, with many wishing he had done more.
  • A lot of characters not being picked for Inazuma Japan in 'Orion'' had fans wishing certain Ensemble Dark Horses like Nae and Midorikawa would eventually join the team.

I'm sorry of just barging here. I just want to check if it is right to just take out various potholes spread on various examples, like this from Talking the Monster to Death.

I assume They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot cleanup can also go here as well? Anyway, I was making slight changes to an entry on Captain Marvel (2019) and I noticed that the article had very bloated sections for this trope and the above. I removed most of the entries and rewrote one of the two I considered valid, but I'd like to bring it to this thread just in case:

Edited by AlleyOop on Jan 11th 2021 at 2:19:30 PM

I agree Plot should be rolled into this thread as well.

So do I have the go-ahead to clean house?

These two tropes seem to be catchalls for "This episode gave me a cool plot/character idea that it did not go for, and I want to let you know!" edits.

Plot might warrant its own separate thread in case the type of misuse is slightly different, but either way, it definitely needs one.

I updated the entry of The Scrappy from Eggman Nega, and changed it to They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character.

• Eggman Nega is not popular as a character due to him being derivative of Eggman, being a Palette Swap with the cliche "Nega" suffix, and having no particular depth to him. Considering how Sonic Rush went on to make Blaze quite unique from her "counterpart" Sonic, the same effort could have been put to her Arch-Enemy. Presumably, his lack of depth is why Takashi Iizuka retconned his backstory for him being Eggman's descendant in Sonic Rivals, and hating his ancestor constant failures, but due to the messy narrative involving both Silver and Blaze, this had the side-effect of confusing eveybody and needing Iizuka to explain the retcon and not winning the mad doctor any fan. And unlike Silver, Sega never allowed any comic book writer to flesh Nega out.

Does this entry sound fair?

From Persona 5 Strikers:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Detractors of the game's story often bring up that the original vision for the game, a Crisis Crossover with other games in the Persona series, had a lot of potential in terms of character interaction and potentially giving characters from the original Persona and the second game's duology some spotlight. Most note that even sticking to the Hashino-era Persona games had interesting opportunities to visit previous locales like Inaba and Tatsumi Port Island and interact with older party members.
    • If nothing else, the fact that Naoto and Chie don't appear at all despite being police officers seems weird in a game that's trying to show the police in a better light than Persona 5. Even just having Naoto alone would have been a massive Wham Shot for fans of 4.

While there is something to be said about people being disappointed that this wasn't a Persona Musou like the initial plan was. The second indent just seems like someone was upset they didn't shoehorn a cameo from P4 into a P5 sequel.

If we're checking plot examples in here now, here's some South Park stuff. I'm assuming that concepts that were never in the plot to begin with and are just listed as "missed opportunities" are misuse here (though I still think there's a place for fan opinions like that somewhere. Fanfic Fuel, maybe?)

Double post, but here's more South Park entries from South ParQ Vaccination Special that just seem like "here's what I would have done" misuse (or at least not episode-specific). Also some Big-Lipped Alligator Moment misuse for extra measure.

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Considering that Donald Trump was infected with COVID-19 and Mr. Garrison was a stand-in for him in South Park, it would have been amusing subplot for Mr. Garrison to have to cope with having COVID-19 (not to mention cathartic after the previous episode had him kill the pangolin that could provide a vaccine sooner just so more Mexicans would die)
  • The reason why Garrison became President in the first place was because of the influence of the Member Berries and the build up of those little bastards might have a huge part of the plot throughout season 20. By the time of this special they were never seen and mentioned at all. The build up went nowhere and if the Member Berries don’t show up in the next season then their appearances will end up becoming a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.
    • Member Berries could have tied in very well with the QAnon subplot, as the Mr. Harrison loving group could be still supporting him due to their consumption of Member Berries.

Edited by mightymewtron on Mar 12th 2021 at 10:41:56 AM

The following examples from Criminal Case seems to boil down to "these characters don't get as much Character Development as I want them to":

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Many fans were disappointed that Roxie never got her own character arc in Pacific Bay, especially when every other member of the PBPD are given individual character arcs. Paradise City was a very good opportunity for her to finally get into the limelight, especially since she seemed very familiar with the district and her affair with the heist leader, Louis de Rico, could potentially add her character depth, but no such thing ever happened.
  • Lily Karam, Jonah's half-sister, was introduced as a suspect in Chapter 41. And though she wasn't the murderer, she was certainly behaving suspiciously, even after being cleared of the charges. Her remark that she's planning to leave for Brazil seem to indicate that she's going to play a major role in future events. But when the player did finally arrive in Brazil, not only was Lily nowhere to be seen, she was never even mentioned again since. She did end up appearing in Season 7, but she doesn't recognize the player at all.
  • Jack is the only Bureau member whose past profession is unknown, but other than a few small mentions, nothing is ever revealed about his past, and he only has pure intentions throughout the series, which disappointed some fans. Not helping matters is the Ship Tease between him and Lars after Angela's arrest, which didn't have much of a resolution by the end of the season and isn't expanded on during Travel In Time.
  • Elliot had a lot of potential as a main character, since he was shown slowly warming up to the rest of the team and implied that he came from a rich, neglectful family. But other than some character development and being held hostage in Case 32, he only gets some small cameos outside of analyses, and some of his fans are disappointed that his past wasn't explored more. Even the aforementioned hostage situation was forgotten about shortly after it happened.
  • A few fans feel that Marina becomes this in Travel In Time, having less analyses in comparison to World Edition and only really having a prominent role in The '60s. And unlike most of the team-mates, she hasn't been featured in any of the Additional Investigation arcs.
  • Quite a few characters got this reaction from fans in the finale of Supernatural Investigations, including George Mathison, Chief Arrow, Arthur Darkwood and The Demon Queen. Many agreed that their last appearances could've been handled better.
  • Some fans feel this way about Luke, who has a rough family history and issues with Fabien de la Mort as well as being the youngest and most inexperienced of the Supernatural Hunters. While any of those things could've provided him with some Character Development like the rest of the team, they aren't expanded on, and while he's still enjoyable, he remains underdeveloped compared to characters like Gwen, Priya, and Hope.

Cut?

Yeah, it doesn't sound like there were many implications that could happen in the episodes to count as the plot being wasted. I would say cut them.

Anyways bringing these up from YMMV.Yu Gi Oh VRAINS:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Aoi's Blue Girl persona is heavily underutilized, only appearing in a couple of episodes before the transformation to Blue Maiden and only dueled once against Soulburner, which ended in her loss. But people wouldn't really know that with the huge amount of focus she has on the opening and endings. And it is not helped at all by the Off-Model problems with Blue Maiden that her previous appearances didn't have. I think most of this entry can count, but the last sentence confuses me. How does her next persona being Off-Model tie into Blue Girl being wasted?
  • Believe it or not in Season 3, Yusaku and Revolver of all characters. They don't get a proper duel until fifteen episodes into the season, having only each had an offscreen duel with one of the Ai clones, and each only get one onscreen duel. Soulburner fares better than them, receiving two lengthy duels against Roboppi and Revolver. It's true that they only get one onscreen duel, but I'd hardly call them wasted? They're still important to the story, with Yusaku being the one to defeat the final villain, and Revolver being the one to build Pandor and working actively in other ways to take down Ai. Feels like this is more focused on number of duels than their actual importance. And Yusaku is literally the main character, I don't think he's allowed to count for this?
  • Pandor is introduced with a ton of red flags surrounding her, particularly Revolver's claim that any thoughts of opposing humanity would be erased from her, which just screams to be bypassed. In the end, other than telling Ai to flee rather than taking him in, she never displays any signs of rebellion, and is dismissed until the end of the series after Ai takes over SOL Tech, serving little purpose in the scheme of things. I do think she can count, but I'm pretty sure her telling Ai to flee as going by a technicality in her programming since she was expected to kill him was supposed to be her rebellion. That specific part sounds more like people just didn't like how it was handled.

And we're allowed to bring up plot here as well, right?

Edited by Oshawott337 on Mar 30th 2021 at 3:50:59 AM

Does this thread deal with They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot as well?

Bringing these two up from YMMV.RWBY (there are several on the page, but I think these are the only three questionable ones):

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Despite being the main protagonist, Ruby receives far less character development or back story exploration than the other main characters, and even some minor characters. For example, her complicated family situation is only discussed whenever Yang's character is being explored and her goals and drives in life usually only get mentioned by proxy when other characters are discussing their own life goals. With only a few exceptions, her feelings and thoughts about even traumatic events tend to only be hinted at, or speculated about by other characters. As a result, Ruby's role in the story is passive, acting as a lens for the characters around her to be explored and as a pivot around which the plot occurs, rather than contributing to, or driving, the plot in more a active fashion. It took until Volume 6 for her to finally become more assertive.
    • The complaint is valid. Although the main character, Ruby had no real exploration. Everything happened around her, everyone else discussed her bar her. Volume 5 was the show's Seasonal Rot, which resulted in the creators taking on a lot of critical feedback from the fandom. They made a lot of changes, one of which was transforming Ruby into a much more dynamic, assertive character. She's listed as an Author's Saving Throw entry as a result. So... does she count as this for Volumes 1-5? Or is she just an Author's Saving Throw example that should basically say she would have been this but for the creators taking the criticism on board?
  • While Adam's death was certainly welcome, some felt that it occurring immediately after the revelation of his Facial Horror, the implications, and how the show basically brushed it off, was a poor decision because it could have been used to add depth to a character many felt was too one-dimensional, and ends up unexplained. In particular, that Adam had no conflict with Weiss despite the built-up war between the SDC and White Fang was seen as a particular disappointment.
    • I'm not sure this is an example. There's consensus in the fandom that he's been badly handled, and it's part of the criticism of how the Fantastic Racism storyline as a whole has been badly handled. However, I'm not sure if he's a case of being under-utilised for his role so much as not being used the way people wanted him to be used. He feels borderline. I don't know which way this should go.
  • Penny's development in Volume 8 had a great deal of potential that was never realized thanks to "The Final Word". Using the Staff of Creation to remove Penny's artificial body and the life-threatening virus inside, Penny is made a pure human. The series could have explored Penny's feelings with the transformation and how she had to learn to adapt to being biological with needs like eating or sleeping. Instead, Penny is fatally wounded by Cinder in less than an hour and has to convince Jaune to kill her so she could pass the Winter Maiden powers to Winter Shnee and keep them from Cinder.
    • This has only just been added. I don't think it's an example. She had such a significant role in the Atlas Arc she was practically a main character. People didn't like the way her storyline ended. I've spoiler tagged the rest in case there's anyone here does watch the show and hasn't seen how Volume 8 ends. Robot Girl based on Pinocchio finally becomes a real girl, the nature of which was emphasised in the show as being mysterious. Shortly after becoming a real girl, she sacrifices that life for the greater good. The fandom had been hoping to explore exactly what kind of living being Penny had become, so wasn't expecting her to be killed off.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Apr 11th 2021 at 7:48:30 PM

Mortal Kombat (2021) appears to have the unreasonable complains about a single 110 minutes minutes long movie not giving every single characters as much focus and development than in a long running video game franchise...

I don't now what's worth saving.

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Unfortunately to be expected of a franchise with Loads And Loads Of Characters that need to be violently killed off.
  • Many of the villains, barring Sub-Zero, Kano, and to a lesser extent Mileena and Kabal, get significantly less screentime than the heroes, usually only getting one or two lines. Most of them are all introduced at once just past the half-way point. In particular:
    • Goro, champion of Mortal Kombat and Prince of the Shokan, serves as a glorified assassin, only appearing fully for one fight scene. Thankfully, it's a memorable one.
    • Reptile (if that even is him), an Ensemble Dark Horse and The Chew Toy of the franchise, is killed off fairly early (less than thirty minutes into the film) in his first fight against the heroes, leaving out much of his extensive background and sympathetic qualities in exchange for simply being a mindless Starter Villain.
    • Reiko, a general among Shang Tsung's forces, has little characterization beyond The Brute.
    • Nitara seems favored by Shang amongst his henchmen, but is killed by the heroes shortly after being introduced.
  • Liu Kang, often the protagonist of the franchise, is demoted to The Lancer for Cole, who essentially takes his role as Chosen One.
  • Kung Lao, who in the games serves as The Lancer to Liu Kang, gets killed by Shang Tsung and ends up being the only casualty among the heroes. This didn't sit well with fans of the character who have waited 26 years to see him finally appear in a Mortal Kombat movie after having been absent from every Mortal Kombat movie prior to this.
  • Sonya Blade's arc is arguably more fitting for a protagonist's than Cole's. She and Jax spent years trying to learn about Mortal Kombat, meaning she has a lot more personal investment in getting involved in the tournament. She is also seen as a liability by Raiden and the other heroes for not having an arcana despite being a better fighter, and being far more loyal, than Kano and is dismissed by the villains as Not Worth Killing so she has a lot more to prove.
  • Scorpion's daughter was set up to be an important character, but she doesn't have any appearances, let alone a name. Her only scenes is her being comforted by her brother and mother, being hidden from Bi-Han, and taken by Raiden to be raised by monks. Raiden only tells Cole of her importance and his lineage from her, but we never see her reach adulthood or whether or not she wants to avenge her family and clan. Especially jarring, since her own father was already set up as an important character in a Big Damn Heroes way.

This is on Hotel Transylvania: Transformania:

They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: This is how many fans feel about the human versions of monsters, especially Griffin fans, who were hoping for him to be a Mr. Fanservice.

Edited by fragglelover on May 24th 2021 at 8:30:03 AM

Given that we only have a trailer, we can't really say that the characters were wasted just because their designs aren't very well liked. Tainted by the Preview is the closest call for now.

Also, isn't the trope supposed to be an interesting character who is underutilized, not fans complaining about how a character is portrayed.

Bringing up the following example from Infinity Wars (2018)

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: No one considered bringing back Cerebro's X-Men, combinations of different X-Men, as part of the Warps' world.

Bringing up the following example from Skyfall:

• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Séverine is presented as a prostitute who has been trapped in the trade since she was a child and Bond rescues her and even develops a slight relationship with her. Sadly she gets killed off the following morning, and in the second act no less. As such we never got to see their relationship and her character as a whole fully developed.

I don't see much wrong with that entry. It could use more elaboration on her worth as a character but her backstory seems to imply the interesting aspects of her.

Edited by mightymewtron on Jun 11th 2021 at 1:29:22 PM

It's legitimately been a fairly common complaint about the movie whenever I've talked to people about it, so I think it's justified.