User blog comment:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Detective/@comment-9300845-20170617030802/@comment-9300845-20170618051932

Ah yes, she's underutilized. One of my personal gripes. There has been many times when I've mused on her character's utilization or lack of therefore. Would including her more often have improved this or that episode? Or is it better to just leave her out if she doesn't have something significant (or at least enough to advance the plot a little bit) to do or say rather than to try to shoehorn her? Heck, I even once heard somebody saying something to the effect that she was a superfluous character. (And yeah, it can seem that way at times.) But at the end of the day, I tell myself that her under-utilization or even her absence isn't always a bad thing, especially when Darwin functions sufficiently as Gumball's foil and that including her would have been a little excessive. Still, more of Anais would've been nice...

On the topic of character under-utilization, I've heard similar complaints of other supporting characters not appearing as much as one would like, most notably Nicole and Penny. Understandable, since they're among the most beloved characters of the show. Just to get this out of the way, this isn't necessarily an issue of female characters being underused or some sort of "sexist" issue from my point of view.

Among the examples of under-utilization are Nicole's absence from such episodes as "The Cycle" and "The Diet," and Penny allegedly appearing less often since breaking out of her shell despite being Gumball's significant other. Sometimes it's simply a case of a viewer loving said character so much that they wish they had a bigger role.

Why do the show writers include or not include one's favorite character? If included, is that character well, poorly, or just adequately used? Why doesn't that character appear more often? Would their inclusion have made an episode better, worse, or just the same? We can only surmise. Like it or not, it's still the writers' decision on what to do with characters in order to best serve the plot. After all, doesn't everyone have at least one favorite character who doesn't get to appear as much as one likes?