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Economy Cast
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When any necessary role in a series is essentially represented by only a single person, even if it would be more realistic to have several. Instead of coming across a dozen different police officers depending on the nature of the crime and who's on duty that day, our heroes always deal with the same lieutenant. Or there's one doctor who treats every injury, from broken legs to melanoma. Or why a starship captain and the main bridge crew are always the ones going on away missions. This is mostly a way to avoid having to keep track of too many characters. In adaptations, this often results from the creation of a Composite Character or characters to stand in for an entire group from the original work. Writers generally have to build up a back-story so the audience can care about a character, which has little payoff if we don't see much of them anyway. It is much easier from a director's standpoint to wrap one character in several incidental roles or just one overarching 'figurehead' role. Economy Casts are contributing factors in Unwanted Harems too, as the pretty girls invariably focus on the Loser Protagonist, for lack of any other option. Any time the story calls for a male to do something, it's him — so he ends up as the only male character the girls get a chance to pay attention to on-camera. Similarly, if the boyfriend of the lead is the only man with an important role, the secondary characters may complain about being unable to attract men who don't seem to exist. One danger of this is the marketing and executive branch of creating stories installs the Status Quo on the Economy Cast, and characters aren't allowed to develop too far out of their roles. See Ghost Extras for when the non-core cast is onscreen but living in a separate universe. See also Two-Teacher School or Omnidisciplinary Scientist. A true story or adaptation may try to whittle down the cast by combining characters. Take this trope to its logical extreme and you get a Minimalist Cast and often an Eternal Employee. The trope is not about a character who fills more than one narrative role. An Economy Cast defies real-world logic, not just storytelling guidelines. Nor is this many characters that look the same. Compare The Main Characters Do Everything. Frequently leads to the impression that the main characters are Always on Duty, or results in an Oddly Small Organization. Examples: |
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