Well, I did mention in the secret how it's *almost* always a female character that's the love interest. I feel like it's just a FAR more common situation. I will say, though, that one of the reasons I never much liked Ron in the Harry Potter films (and films ONLY) is that I felt he was turned too much into pure comic relief and Hermione's love interest.
To give an example of a character I think tends to fall into "just a love interest," I think of Star Trek 2009's Uhura. I say she's just a love interest because, although she's billed as the third most important character (behind Spock and Kirk) we actually never learn anything about her specifically. And she doesn't have her own independent plot line. Does she get a few cool scenes like confronting the Klingons? Yeah. But the VAST majority of her character is spent addressing Spock's emotional issues or her relationship with him. Before that, she's just being pursued by Kirk. It's not that she does *nothing* outside of her boyfriend (she has a job and a roommate), it's that she has no story of her own to be interesting. Which is forgivable when it's a minor character (think Suki from Avatar The Last Airbender), but less so when it comes to your third most promoted character.
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Well, I did mention in the secret how it's *almost* always a female character that's the love interest. I feel like it's just a FAR more common situation. I will say, though, that one of the reasons I never much liked Ron in the Harry Potter films (and films ONLY) is that I felt he was turned too much into pure comic relief and Hermione's love interest.
To give an example of a character I think tends to fall into "just a love interest," I think of Star Trek 2009's Uhura. I say she's just a love interest because, although she's billed as the third most important character (behind Spock and Kirk) we actually never learn anything about her specifically. And she doesn't have her own independent plot line. Does she get a few cool scenes like confronting the Klingons? Yeah. But the VAST majority of her character is spent addressing Spock's emotional issues or her relationship with him. Before that, she's just being pursued by Kirk. It's not that she does *nothing* outside of her boyfriend (she has a job and a roommate), it's that she has no story of her own to be interesting. Which is forgivable when it's a minor character (think Suki from Avatar The Last Airbender), but less so when it comes to your third most promoted character.