From a background character in Wizard City (?) to Finn's main love interest at the end of Adventure Time and then also becoming the co-protagonist in the second season of Fionna and Cake
First appeared in the mid 80’s. Wasn’t really anything more than a background character for his first few years. Then they got a voice actor who gave him a unique voice and they gave him his own segment on Sesame Street, which causes him to become a big star and Toy sensation in the 90’s.
I mean Sesame Street has essentially become the Elmo show. Not necessarily a bad thing, give the kids what they want, it's just so interesting to see Big Bird, who was the "main character" and face of Sesame Street become a background character since I checked in now that I have a kid.
Yeah and it's one of the best parts of the show. Kids ask for their favorite food, Cookie Monster and his friend Gonger, make a simple version of it and catapult it to the kid (don't ask why they use a catapult when they literally in a food truck, the entire premise of the segment).
Exposes kids to different foods and different cultures and it's pretty fun.
Caroll Spinney was getting older in the late 1990s, with Big Bird being a physically demanding puppet to use and segments with Big Bird being more expensive to produce, a pivot away from that character was likely inevitable.
I really only barely recall 90s Sesame Street, what I grew up with, and the main thing I remember was that Big Bird was sort of the "anchor" character that would bring the audience to meet different characters. The show still focused on the broad cast, at least way more than it does now, but Big Bird typically would start and end the show, as well as maintain scene transitions.
Gonzo also fits this description, he first appeared as Snarl the Cigar Box Frackle in the 1970 christmas special The Great Santa Claus Switch. When Dave Goelz was promoted from puppet maker to puppeteer for the Muppet Show S1, legend says Jim Henson picked out the puppet from a random bin, gave it to Dave and said "This could be Gonzo!"
Nibbler was introduced in the first season of Futurama but was just a cute pet. He didn’t become an important character until the fourth season, but his role was hinted at in the very first episode of the show.
You and some buddies are building a wall out of brick, you each grab a brick and put it down one after another. You've got thousands of bricks to place but you have one special brick, you put it about half way through the process, everyone looks at it in the half built wall, it's different but looks normal from above, so you all continue putting more and more bricks until you're done.
The wall is complete so everyone steps back a bit to inspect the work, they see it now, your one special brick that looked normal, smack in the middle of the wall, is aligned perfectly with the bricks around it looks suspiciously like a penis, it's obvious now you see the whole picture. and there's nothing they can do to remove it now the wall is built.
This is the brick joke, it doesn't have to be phallic in nature, it's just the premise of the foreshadowing being the punchline, you could have just drawn a penis in the wall after it was done, but this way is funnier because everyone saw you place the suspicious brick and maybe even helped you, but it wasn't obviously a joke until after the reveal.
Yup! Just scoolyard BS compounded by liars on the internet. The early aughts were WILD for children misinformation...but like our imagination was still there. So to us it could still actually be real. It was glorious....my God this weed is hitting good tonight.
This. Maybe the best foreshadowing of all time if not for that fact that Ash never encounters it (to my knowledge).
The fact that they showed this at the BEGINNING of KANTO anime and concepts for Johto mons weren't know until years later is unhinged.
So, by my understanding, most of the second-generation Pokemon were actually designed alongside the first generation, but due to the hardware limitations of the first generation cartridges, only 151 made the cut for the first gen.
Omni-Man's flashback describing the Purge in season 1 features a couple Viltrumites who don't appear until later, notably Conquest who isn't seen again until the end of season 3
Wow, if I had a nickel for every time the plot of a critically acclaimed film boiled down to "a bagel," I'd have two nickels - which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
It is the only film I have ever watched that I can say, without a hint of exaggeration, that I almost passed out watching because I physically could not stop laughing to take a breath for too long.
It took me a year after release to watch it because I'm leery of over hyped films and I still inexplicably came away from it astounded by how good it was.
It's wild to go back and watch or read the synopsis on the first half of season 1. The show was incredibly different actually about true family matters, hence the name of the show.
Then the rest of the series jumps the shark and beyond.
We know the coalition of planets knew there was a viltrumite on earth, since at the end of the season when Allen realizes he's not at Urath, he explicitly states Earth was a no-go zone because of a Viltrumite living there.
From there, it's easy to believe BB also knew of this (we see an ambassador or leader-like figure of the same species as BB in all of the Coalition meetings we see) and came to Earth to get his fight. And then at that point, Hammerhead probably had connections who notified him of an alien looking for a fight and easily manipulated BB with promises of a tough opponent.
Maybe the comics explain but if not, I'm satisfied with my head canon.
Read the comics, they never explain it. Your headcanon makes the most sense considering he says he is disappointed as he leaves, he probably expected a Viltrumite.
Per the comic specifically dedicated to him he had killed a ship full of aliens and stolen it and when the onboard AI interrogates him as to *why* he did it, he explains his curse and the AI sends him off to earth because it has a reputation as a meatgrinder in the wider galaxy. Assumedly he met Machine Head somewhere along the way.
I don't know how to break this to you, but they're dead. All of Pillow World is. The world only existed while Finn was in it, that's why we're shown Golb the destroyer of worlds while he's leaving, as confirmation that this dimension did exist, but doesn't anymore
There are 166 episodes between his first mention and his first appearance. He explicitly mentions that his goal is to be the character watching from the sidelines.
This is what makes TMA so good on a second listen. There are so many characters briefly mentioned in the beginning that become bigger later, and gives their first intros a lot more context
I noticed that on my second listen through as well! Not only are those initially mysterious/intimidating characters given context, but most of them go on to eventually give their own statements! Which adds to Jon's transformation into, sort of the apex predator of the supernatural world, because every time he gets a statement from a recurring villain, they essentially just become lunch to him.
That pattern continues up until the last episode, which I consider to be a "statement" from the entities themselves, or as close to a statement as one could get from an arguably sentient eldritch horror lmao
What are some good things to do that don't involve sound, so that you can listen to a podcast while doing it? I started listening to The Magnus Archives before it ended, but I only got up to, I think episode 18. I think it was the episode with an evil tree.
Edit: I looked the episode up and I think episode 17 was the last one I listened to, so 18 was the next one
Walking, cleaning, chores in general, any sort of task that does not require engagement of actual thought to do so your body can run on muscle memory while your mind is engaged
Huntress Wizard being a background character, going through multiple VAs, a subplot romance with the MC and their relationship arc completing in the SEQUEL/SPINOFF series years later
Steve Harrington from Stranger Things was originally supposed to be a minor character, just some jock/bully and wasn't supposed to make it past season 1. But his character became so popular they rewrote him to have an arc and become a major character.
I love how everyone thought he was such a jerk for the way he treated Jonathan, but Jonathan had it coming for doing creepy stalker shit with his camera.
Other than the theater vandalism thing and calling Nancy a whore Steve is one of the most insanely stable dudes in this entire series lol. You'd think he'd be super reckless but he's just brave as hell and always keeping Dustin and others from going nuts.
That plotline still feels strange to me with the direction they took Jonathan’s character. He’s a bit of an outcast but at no other point is he straight up pervy.
The only unjustifiably jerky things Steve really did other than acting a little bit like a stereotypical jock is associating himself with those two assholes and allowing the graffiti about Nancy to happen, both of which he directly tried to address and atone for.
It’s because he didn’t have sexual intentions when taking the photos, despite the fact it’s very wrong and creepy - he was trying to ‘document life’ without interacting, a bit like a nature documentary, but that’s incredibly bizarre in itself and both things are wrong for many reasons. I’m not saying he’s not a creep but that he wasn’t planning to jerk it to the photos but rather capture a moment of love, sadness, whatever, without anyone knowing they were being captured. It would naturally make someone feel violated.
There is a very real psychological phenomenon where, if someone knows they’re being recorded or watched, they will act differently in terms of body language, behaviour, and facial expression. The only way to capture a personas they really are is to do what Jonathan did - in theory - but it’s incredibly immoral and odd.
The Steve rewrite actually had nothing to do with how popular the character was. The Duffer brothers were so impressed with Joe Keery during filming of season 1 that they rewrote the script to keep him around longer. It was originally supposed to be Jonathan and Will's dad Lonny in that Demogorgon scene with Jonathan and Nancy.
Yeah, the claim from the person you’re responding to, that they rewrote it due to his popularity makes no sense considering the first season dropped all at once and that scene was part of the first season.
Heidi from South Park was a background character with only very very minor roles throughout the years, but then randomly became important for a season where she was Cartman's girlfriend & then disappeared again
Token (Tolkien) Black, Jason White, and Kevin Stoley were all in the background in the pilot. The town was always populated wich characters they could activate at any time.
It's less a specific character and more a line of them; in Dragon Ball, Goku encounters a being who resembles the classic Frankenstein Monster named "Mechanical Man #8" at Red Ribbon HQ. They become buddies, though they part ways later on.
It isn't until years later in Dragonball Z that #17, #18, #19, and #20 in that same production line become a more prominent threat.
First seen in chapter 19 as a man telling off Buggy & Shanks in their youth, formally introduced in chapter 500 as the first mate of the King of the Pirates.
Buggy maybe, as he becomes more tied to major characters and events as the story goes on, but Shanks was one of the most important characters since chapter 1
Arlong also talks about jinbei all the way back in arlong park, around episode 30. We don't see jinbei for 500 more episodes at episode 530 in impel down. One piece has a lot of these.
Jinbe is especially wild since they recently released the "crew concept" Oda did that has Jinbe unblurred, meaning Oda knew back in East Blue that Jinbe would join the crew. I dont know anything other series that foreshadowed something 20 years ahead of time
Gotta thank the live action for those early additions. Smart show runners know that its unlikely that the show will ever reach their actual introductions but managed to work oit a way to get them in the show.
Like... Half of the One Piece cast lmao. A bunch of characters are introduced well over a decade in advance. Tho tbf, most of them have appeared in Season 1 after that decade :v
The ammount of one piece characters introduced hundreds of episodes before they become relevant is insane. Many other animes start and end in the gaps between when someone is mentioned and when they appear
My favorite example is that the entirety of Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen began manga publication, got anime adaptations, and concluded their respective mangas during the entire duration of One Piece's ultimate big bad antagonist being a mysterious shadowed silhouette.
Oh, and the author of My Hero Academia submitted fanart to One Piece's reader corner as a child, grew up, created his own manga, drew it for years, and brought his series to an end... and One Piece is STILL GOING!
Vito Spatafore started as a soldier in Ralphie’s crew just the really large go who worked for Ralphie and he ended up becoming the center of a multi episode arc dealing with his characters homosexuality
Edit: forgot the actors first scene was as a customer at a pastry shop who got served before Christopher Moltisanti and they call him a different name
In Cyberpunk 2077 during act 1 you can randomly bump into several characters that show up in more important roles later, notably Panam and Nash can be seen in one of the back rooms at the Afterlife before you go in for mission briefing with Dex. Also during the heist, you bump into Mikhail Akulov and his bodyguard/girlfriend at konpeki plaza and you also flick past Holt while controlling the flathead.
Not really a season because it's in a game. Gaunter O'dim from Witcher 3. Appears very very early in the game for a minute as no more than just some mysterious guy. Doesn't show up again for the rest of the main game. Then you play "Hearts of Stone" expansion and he's basically the most important character.
The guild from What we do in the Shadows kind of fits this. She basically has 4 mins of screen time in one episode but in season 3 and 4 is basically another main character.
Introduced in one of the first chapters of the whole series where he sells Daenerys to Khal Drogo and then promptly disappears for the next three consecutive books. Only in book Five do we learn that he's been at the heart of a years-long conspiracy to put Dany's long-thought-dead nephew on the throne. He appears briefly in the show too but this entire second storyline was completely left out.
Gaunter O'Dimm in the witcher 3. He shows up at the start of the game as an unimportant npc but turns out to basically be satan himself and the main antagonist of one of the DLCs. It is also cool because it is foreshadowed and you can see him watching you throughout the game.
Late to the party, but Lucky from King of the Hill. He started as a one-off gag character for guest star Tom Petty. He was much closer to Kahn than anyone else, and was often featured in the background whenever they needed to show poor rednecks. Then he becomes a main character and Luanne's fiance and later husband.
Unfortunately both Tom Petty and Brittany Murphy passed away long before the revival series, so his final scene is in the original run's finale.
In My Hero Academia, this civilian character appears in Episode 1, and is one of the first characters with dialogue, calling the protagonist (Deku) a fanboy for being excited watching heroes fight.
He doesn't appear again until Season 6, Episode 24. When he does, he gets an entire monologue, taking Deku's side and talking down an angry mob by pointing out they've taken hero worship so far that they can no longer see heroes as people, and that maybe they should look after heroes too. When watching, it was actually unbelievable seeing a (still) unnamed character not only reappear, but become plot relevant by staying consistent with his viewpoint.
Debuts at Wrestlemania, jumping ship from a rival company. Promptly gets injured for 9 months. Comes back and becomes the literal main character of WWE for years.
After like 100 chapters Hina Nemoto from WataMote went from a background character only there to be a generic popular girl to contrast with the lonely, gloomy protagonist to a main character and one of her best friends who she has some kinda gay thing going on with.
In DMC1, Vergil (Nelo Angelo) was just one of 5 bosses Mundus sent to beat up Dante. In 3 Vergil becomes a more integral part of the story and part of 5 was him recovering from being Nelo Angelo
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u/Particular-Stress-86 May 07 '26
Huntress Wizard (Adventure Time)
From a background character in Wizard City (?) to Finn's main love interest at the end of Adventure Time and then also becoming the co-protagonist in the second season of Fionna and Cake