I’ve noticed a habit that is common in all forms of media. There will be this character who hangs around but doesn’t really contribute much to the story. Often times, they once served an essential role in the story.
They could have been the main character’s teacher, friends, or even a family. However, with the current progression of the story, those roles don’t seem like enough to justify their screen time. Now they’re just hanging around and doesn’t really contribute to the plot.
TV Tropes has an article that is similar to this called The Artifact, but the way they talk about it doesn’t quite match what I’m talking about. The Artifact specifies that the “character or gimmick seems to no longer fit with the mood or design of a story.” What I’m talking about is more function, not form.
Mascot characters in anime are actually guilty of this a lot. Love them or hate them, Sailor Moon’s Luna and Artemis fall into this category. When the series started, their roles were to awaken and guide the Sailor Guardians. Unfortunately, by the time Rini/Chibiusa appeared, all the sailors who could be awakened had been. Whenever a new threat appeared, the cats are just as lost as the girls. By the end, they were just commenting on the action as it unfolded in front of them.
Sometimes these characters would get a spotlight story. For once, the story is entirely focused on them to highlight why the creator keeps them around. Fans would watch these episodes and get convinced that the character adds something to the cast, but after this episode, they go back to being a waste of screen time.
The more I try to articulate this problem, the more I wonder if it is a viewer specific problem. Maybe characters I think are pointless are actually very important to others. It isn’t uncommon to befriend someone and discover that they love a character/story-line from a show when you find that element lacking.
For example, I really like Ron from the Harry Potter series. I feel like he was the most relatable in the main cast, and not a lot of people agree. They think he’s rude, annoying or doesn’t contribute to the overall plot. It’s due to his habit of saying the wrong thing (which makes him so relatability for me), and he stands in the way of quite a few ships. A lot of Potterheads only see him as being there to fill the role of best friend and love-interest. It isn’t surprising that they might want to switch him out with a different, more compelling character.
While Ron was brash, ill-tempered, and insecure, but he was also caring, well-meaning, and surprisingly initiative. When he isn’t bogged down by his own personal insecurities, Ron offers Harry a lot of support and an effortless friendship. I felt that the story needed Ron’s down-to-earth problems to balance out the grand scale of the main conflict. While they where distractions to others, they were one of the things that made the story more likable to me.
Maybe Outliving-Your-Usefulness is a problem of utility. A character can have a role that is either too limiting (it gets fulfilled quickly) or vague (others can play their part). The end result being, this character gets only used sparingly. Writers need to give characters multiple characteristics that can be utilized in different ways. Like if Ron’s chess skills translated into him being an excellent strategist or if the cats were the ones who did recon when new enemies appeared.
Or the writers could just admit certain characters aren’t contributing and write them out. If a character they wrote isn’t working, they should accept it and move on. Have Ron and his family flee the country because their pro-muggle sentiments put them at risk. Have Luna and Artemis go into hibernation until Sailor Moon becomes queen.
It’s hard for writers to admit they made a mistake or something isn’t working. And when “working” is subjective, it can be even harder to see that there’s a problem. I wish more writers would listen for outside opinions tweak their works in response. They don’t have to change their story entirely to please fans or critics, but it would be nice if they at least lent an ear.
I Think Thinks 