Ascended Extras in webcomics.
- 8-Bit Theater gives the Adaptation Expansion treatment to Final Fantasy, thus resulting in characters who have only a few lines of dialogue being given fleshed out personalities, but Sarda is the biggest example. In the game, Sarda only has a single line of dialogue in which he gives the Light Warriors a cane that allows them to proceed further into the Earth Cave and confront the Lich for the first crystal. In the webcomic, his role is greatly expanded, and he ultimately ends up as the Big Bad.
- In the comments on this page
of 151 Hidden Depths."And Hitmonchan is definitely his own character now. Seems like just yesterday I only used him to fill out a bully spot with no future plans on what to do with him..." - In the sprite comic Ansem Retort, Red XIII was initially a member of the replacement cast while the main cast went missing. Thanks to some manipulation by Darth Maul, he became evil enough to fit in with the main cast. His ascension was complete when the rest of the cast picked him over Marluxia to come along on a trip to Hawaii.
- And in the newest season, Marluxia is actually trying to reverse his demotion to extra. This is why he won't let Sora be taken hostage: he gets more screen time this way.
- Ganondorf from Brawl in the Family had no important roles with the exeption of one single strip where he appeared as Affably Evil Joke Character. Surprising for one of the most popular villains in Nintendo history, right? Well, Cocoon Academy revealed that back when he was a nice guy he was the teacher of Dedede and Bowser...
- In-Universe in Darths & Droids: Anakin was originally just an NPC that the Gamemaster threw in to be Watto's assistant, but random events kept making him more important to the plot. Notably, Shmi was originally a PC (created when Annie joined the game), and Anakin only graduated to PC when Shmi pulled a Heroic Sacrifice to give him freedom (with Annie transferring to him in the process).
- Debugging Destiny has this In-Universe with Morton. He is one of only a few pawns to have speaking lines, and the only one to have a name and a role in the comic. Most characters still treat him as an extra.
- Jason Porter from Domain Tnemrot. In volume one he's just the guy who riles up the crowd during the titular stadium's matches and wasn't even important enough to get a name beyond 'Ref' but then in volume two was upgraded to be a major antagonist. His tag is still 'ref' though.
- El Goonish Shive has a subtle theme of Hidden Depths, and its author has a fondness for designing interesting background characters, which combine to produce a number of instances of this trope.
- Rhoda was previously just another of Diane's lackeys and not more than a minor character. After her character was merged with that of an extra, she became more of a supporting character and her actions kicked off a major storyline albeit without her knowledge.
- Susan was also just going to be Sarah's friend and head of Moperville North's Feminist Club, but not much else. Fans declared that she looked perpetually bored, but Dan said that, as he fleshed out Susan's character, the half-lidded eyes that Susan sported reminded him of something other than boredom. By the time of Grace's Birthday she's a part of the main cast.
- Sam goes from a background gaming nerd with "too many pockets to be wrong" to dating Sarah and being part of the comic's growing focus on transgender people in a world where transformation magic exists.
- Rich and Larry started out as "the space alien jerks", two guys who believed in aliens and made sexist comments. They were then used to make up the numbers in the Magickal Cards tournament, where the alien thing got downplayed and the sexist comments got examined, with Larry at least reconsidering his behaviour.
- Ennui GO!: Max Pritchard, nephew to main protagonist Izzy was a supporting character throughout the first half of the comic, developing his own crew and having adventures outside the main story. In the second half right after his aunt gets married, Max and his friends take over as main characters.
- The Fourth, the demon minion Davis, fist appearing in a shoddy dungeon Lord Skava the Fourth joins Skava Manor after his dungeon is put out of business.
- Homestuck:
- The Trolls. Andrew planned for them to have minor roles at best and never planned to introduce them all. That changed and they became the Ensemble Dark Horse to beat all others of the series, so much so that to many they are what the series is about.
- MS. Paint starts as a one-off joke on the name of the website that originally hosted the comic, MS Paint Adventures. She later becomes a minor character in her own right, first appearing the meta segments and then joining the main continuity as part of Spades Slick's entourage.
- When Andrew was working on Problem Sleuth, he was accepting donations for non-canon fan commands in the secrets page. One of those commands was Problem Sleuth summoning the Midnight Crew. A few more commands later each member was given actual names. They then became a recurring canon element of Homestuck before later properly debuting as full-fledged characters in an intermission, and remained recurring characters afterwards. In fact, a direct Alternate Universe Expy of the Crew's leader is the Big Bad of Homestuck's first arc, and alternate versions of them in general are important parts of the in-universe cosmic game of Sburb.
- The Warhammer Of Zillyhoo also came from the secrets page during Problem Sleuth, and eventually became one of John's Infinity Plus One Hammers in Homestuck.
- After the Scratch, the kids' various ancestors step into the spotlight and join the main cast. Pretty good for faceless characters that Hussie didn't even originally know would all be ancestors.
- Lil' Cal goes from being a creepy joke prop to being the ectobiological father of Doc Scratch to being Lord English's host. It's later revealed that he's something called a "juju", which apparently brings calamity to all universes it has ever existed in.
- Gamzee Makara was one of the least notable trolls... until he ran out of sopor pie and went Ax-Crazy. Also, he created Lil' Cal, and was the surrogate father to the Big Bad.
- The Beforan trolls were basically there to deliver exposition and parody various tumblr subcultures, until Aranea decided she'd like to try her hand at taking over the comic by a) helping with Vriska's plan to find a cool thing by feeding ghosts into the meat grinder, b) stealing the Life Ring, and c) proceeding to screw everyone over in elaborate ways. Then John applies Retconjuration, recovers the Life Ring before she could take it, and proceeds to revise the entire Act just to prevent her from doing that again; at present, she isn't even an extra.
- In the Hivebent segment, Eridan's introduction shows him shooting down a flying whale. This beast serves simply as an example of the creatures that Eridan hunts, but became notable among the fandom and later becomes the only lusus other than the main characters' seen living on Jake's island after the Scratch.
- The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: The origin of a large part of the cast; many characters originally appeared purely as background filler are likely to reappear years later with names and personalities. Mr. Bystander, Floyd Fitznewski, Heywood J. Lookathat, Ms. Hatbrim, and Herb Gardner all started out as literal crowd filler; and Rocko Sasquatch, Officer Krelch, Akbar Kohlrabi, and the Rogue Canadian Scientists all started as incredible minor, seemingly one-shot characters.
- Kiley Shefford entered Ménage à 3 as a one-panel gag; a nameless sufferer from the A-Cup Angst so often induced in other women by the sight of DiDi. She subsequently reappeared looking after a magazine stand visited by Yuki, who vandalised some of the stock. Kiley promptly volunteered to act as Yuki's psychotherapist, with some mixed success — which in turn led to her deflowering Gary, the comic's original protagonist, whose virginity was widely assumed to be the comic's prime concern. Kiley later returned as Matt's lover, friend, and therapist, and continued to work with Yuki. And she's still working on the A-Cup Angst.
- Peggy may also have the look of a former extra, although her ascension was meteoric, from panel-side joke to only (relatively) sane woman in half-a-dozen strips.
- Modern MoGal:
- Levia the Dragon Judge was initially a secondary character from Jennifer the Werewolf Mom's backstory. She was so popular with readers that she eventually starred in a bunch of pages, introducing in one of them her father Dino who, in turn, had his own backstory expanded with job and family.
- Baffy, the sheep familiar, has become rather popular, following his introduction as part of the succubus sisters' story.
- MS Paint Masterpieces:
AllMost of the Robot Masters get bigger roles than they did in the original games, but Electric Man got this the most. - The Order of the Stick:
- Daigo and Kazumi Kato. Their progression from Red Shirts to Mauve Shirts is lampshaded when they invoke the trope Nominal Importance, and they continue to gain importance from there, both in-universe (being risen to nobility) and in the narrative.
- Celia's case is especially glorious, beginning as a mere gate guardian NPC and ending up as the main character's girlfriend.
- V's Familiar, Blackwing, started as a minor character who only appeared in order to be involved in jokes about spellcasters who neglected or misused their familiars. Then he became a Chekhov's Gunman when he played a crucial role in a plan cooked up by O-Chul and V, and has since become a member of the main cast.
- Lila (Snoopy's former owner) in Peanuts is a rather minor character who only appeared once in the entire strip run. In Peanuts Untold she becomes a major protagonist and is also Promoted to Love Interest for Charlie Brown.
- Precocious:
- Kaitlyn Hu was referred to by Chrispy as the central character of another strip. That other strip (Copper Road), featuring her and the other side of the class, was eventually made.
- Expanding on this, Kaitlyn and her Copper Road friends (Yvette Nutley, Quincy Wozwax and Vincent Iddenstein, plus one of Yvette's moms, Candy), have all risen in prominence in the main strip.
- Prequel takes Quill Weave, an NPC from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with a handful of lines and makes her crucial to the protagonist's life and journey, giving her ten times the personality the original ever could have with such a bit character.
- Rain (2010): Chanel started out as a minor character until she joined the main cast by getting together with Maria.
- ReBoot: Code of Honor: Lens the Code Master only appeared once in the original series, here he's been promoted to Supporting Protagonist.
- Loopy church-girl Joyce stole the spotlight in Roomies!, with most storylines centering around her. Willis tried to write her out by having her inducted into secret alien-fighting organisation SEMME, but it backfired. Once SEMME was in the picture, Willis found it more interesting than the college life premise, and It's Walky! was the result. She then stole the spotlight again in It's Walky!, as the strip mutated from being primarily about Walky to being primarily about Walky and Joyce's relationship. When Willis rebooted the Walkyverse and made Dumbing of Age, he decided to stop fighting Joyce's spotlight-stealing tendency and made her the protagonist from the start.
- Landon from Sandra and Woo has two small appearances early on in the series (once being saved from a bully by Cloud, and once when Larisa is teasing a bunch of boys). Then he ends up helping Larisa study for a test and the two of them end up becoming the series' Beta Couple.
- Kathryn in Schlock Mercenary. In Book 11, she started out as just the infiltrator-in-chief for a group of free-runners whose greatest misdeed was hacking a few cameras and backstabbing Nick by faking interest in him, then got dragged on an op because Schlock commandeered her bus at gunpoint. Book 12 had her start out as the Toughs' driver, then take on a major role when she stumbled on the main bad guy. She hangs out in the B-plot during Book 13, helping General Tagon work through his issues with his son. In Book 14, she's basically dragooned as an intel specialist because the UNS suddenly had a pressing interest in everyone with connections to the Toughs, and by book 15 she's for all intents and purposes a full employee. Murtagh has a similar arc, starting as an antagonist (albeit a relatively nice one) in Book 12, getting fired by her employers at the end, signing on with the Toughs in Book 14, and moving from NCO to an officer spot by Book 15; for 15 and the opening of 16 we see a lot more of her than we do of Tagon.
- In Sinfest, the anonymous succubi who hung onto Satan's arms turned into Fuchsia, a Love Interest and immensely popular character, and Baby Blue, who got less development but did acquire a name and a friendship with Fuchsia, fueling conflicting loyalties for her. Even the green succubus, introduced after Fuchsia left Satan's employment, has more characterization that the masses of succubi before.
- Dr. Schlock entered Sluggy Freelance as a one-off Chew Toy for Bun-bun's ire. His time-travel counterpart became involved in more and more major story arcs, until he got one of his own arc plus a major hand every other.
- Stand Still, Stay Silent: Reynir came into the cast as a Little Stowaway, resulting in him being mostly The Load in early chapters. However, the rise of of the first Arc Villain results in all possible magic ressources being needed to keep it at bay, down to Reynir's own just recently discovered powers. After this lets him get as much focus as the other members of the Ensemble Cast, the beginning of the second story arc takes place in his home country, resulting in him getting even more focus and development.
- In Suppression, Kirk started out as a random mook that got punched in the face by Sally.
- in Voodoo Walrus a couple of lowly union ninjas by the name of Phil and Dave go from being sources of amusing random conversation (usually regarding one's problematic ex-girlfriend)to Mac's personal right-hand men in the Infernum slaughter. Though the ex-girlfriend commentary still lingers.
- NUXXOR! also went from being a random, expendable extra to a prominent villain later on.
- In Wapsi Square, Tina was originally a minor, recurring character who ran the coffee shop the main characters frequented. However, once the strip's supernatural elements started to become more prominent, she developed a bizarre backstory and effectively became a main character in her own right.
- Hwangmo from Weak Hero was originally an unnamed mook for Wolf and his gang. He rises in prominence after Jared is rousted from his position and becomes the closest thing to Wolf's right-hand man, even receiving his own little subplot where he has to pry out a favour from the Naksung Fam.
- White Dark Life takes Galaxina from a few appearances in flashbacks into an integral part of the backstory.
- Once a minor character in The Word Weary, Mona Byrnewald has ingratiated herself into the main story and become one of its most integral parts.
- YU+ME: dream has Lia, who pretty much intruded into Fi's dreamspace. Also, from a slightly more straightforward perspective, Lia's "cousin" Sadako.
