Ascended Extra / Western Animation

Fred goes from an unnamed incidental character in Season 1 to everyone in Bikini Bottom knowing his name by Season 12, and all he had to do was break HIS LEG!!!

• In Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Spike appears in exactly one scene, in which he apes Ace's movements. In the cartoon, he becomes Ace's full-on sidekick.
• Cousin Itt is a frequently recurring character in The Addams Family (1992), though he only appeared on a few occasions in the original live-action show.
• Adventure Time:
  • NEPTR, originally a one-off character from "What Is Life", becomes a recurring character when he returns in "Hot to the Touch".
  • Betty was first mentioned as Simon Petrikov's fiancée who left him after the crown made him go mad. In "Betty", she becomes a recurring cast member when she is transported to Ooo via a time portal.
  • Huntress Wizard was originally a recurring background character introduced in Season 3 until she got an entire episode focused on her in Season 7 thanks to her popularity with the fans (and storyboard artist/writer Jesse Moyniham wanting to make an episode focused on her for years before his departure from the show). Following "Flute Spell" she made some cameo appearances during Season 8 and became a recurring character during the final season and Finn's final love interest.^note But sadly, never dated. The post-finale comics shows that they're still together, though.
• The Amazing World of Gumball: Billy Parham, Felicity Parham, Louie Watterson, Marvin Finklehimer, Gary Hedges, Hot Dog Guy, Julius Oppenheimer Jr., Sarah G. Lato, Mrs. Jötunheim, Margaret Robinson, Donut Cop, Mr. Moonchild Corneille, Patrick Fitzgerald, Joanna "Granny Jojo" Watterson, Alison Sandra Gator, Harold Wilson, and Clare Cooper all started out as minor characters, then became part of the supporting casts later on.
  • Rob definitively counts as this. He started out as a background extra... and then became the main villain of the show.
• American Dad!: Principal Lewis was in the eighth season, and Klaus gets a lot more importance starting at about the twelfth season. Jeff becomes part of the main cast later on as well. Characters who appear more often now than in earlier episodes are Tuttle, Parker, Mayor Woodside (although he died in “Railroaded"), Mertz, Esther Lonstein, Hooper, McGee/Stiles, Coach Trey, and Memphis Stormfront.
  • Morning Mimosa hosts Trish and Suze "The Sizzle" first appeared in Season 9 and then became recurring characters after Terry was written off.
  • Klaus's boys, Big Ed, Courtney, and Vance, as well as Nick, Nut Butter, Troy, and Pube Face. Also, his brother from another mother Jurgen.
  • Hayley's friends Danuta and Nerfer.
  • Billy and Dr. Kalgary, to the point where Billy now joins Steve and his friends sometimes and Kalgary is now the family's go to doctor for weird or supernatural medical emergencies.
  • Mayor James A. Garfield, Joe Chandler, Nadine, A.J. Slick, Craig Robinson, Golden Girls: Blanch, Sophia and Dorothy, Dr. Weitzman, Hayley's coworkers Dino, Tommy, and Chloe, Juan "Johnny Concussion" Consuelo, Dr. Ray Petite, Del Monaco, Effeminate Southern Ferryman, Tom the grocery store manager, Sky Crooner, Superintendant Ellen Riggs, Connie and Ted Robinson, Robert Wuhl, Yoyo, Gossup E. Piye, Raymond the news station reporter, Shoshanna, Klaus' ex, Professor Elizabeth Hadley, Tyler and Marcus, Officer Black and nameless partner, Rogu, nameless brown haired doctor, Dr. Slippy.
  • In older seasons, Hiko, Akiko, and Hideki Yoshida, Lorraine, Buckle and Sharri Rothberg, Reginald, Qui-Lo, frog-loving science teacher, Robby the developmentally disabled motorcyclist, midget assassin, and Dick Reynolds.
• Arthur: George was just a largely unnoticed background character, but the writers took a shine to him, so he's also the star of a number of episodes.
• Noelle Sussman on As Told by Ginger ascended from extra in "And She Was Gone"... and was demoted back to extra after "Wicked Game", and after she and Carl part ways in "No Turning Back", she is not seen at all until the series finale.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise:
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Both Sokka and Iroh. During the show's conceptual stages, both were meant to have smaller supporting roles, with Iroh actually becoming a villain. During the course of development, the voice actors and writers did such a good job bringing them to life they got bigger roles than first intended; Iroh in particular.
    • Suki appeared in the show's fourth episode as a Girl of the Week for Sokka, but proved popular enough to be upgraded to full Love Interest, appearing in a few episodes of Season 2 and getting upgraded to "Gaang" member in the latter half of Season 3.
    • Haru originally was a minor character in the first season. However, when the videogame, Avatar: The Last Airbender came around, he became one of the playable characters. This was the only other thing he was a part of before Book 3 was released where he and his father, Tyro, returned to join the attack against the Fire Nation.
    • While Toph has always been a major character, her voice actress Jessie Flower fits this trope. Prior to Toph's introduction in season 2, Jessie Flower voiced Meng, a minor character in one episode who fell in love with Aang due to her fortune describing a soulmate with big ears like Aang.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Jinora is a minor character in Season 1, only really being one of Aang's grandkids. She serves a vitally important role in the Season 2 finale and by the end of Season 3 is an Airbending master.
    • Kuvira appears sporadically throughout Season 3 as one of the guards of Zoafu and one of Suyin's dancers. It's not until near the end of the season, after she saves Tonraq's life that she shares her name and otherwise seems like nothing more then a Mauve Shirt. Come Season 4 she is know a conquering war lord trying to unify the fractured Earth Kingdom into the Earth Empire and has been upgraded to Big Bad. Considering that both Seasons 3 and 4 where made back-to-back Kuvira was likely intentionally introduced early to set her up as the final seasons Big Bad.
• Jules and Verne, Doc Brown's kids in Back to the Future: The Animated Series, likely qualify for this, since their only appearance in the original films is a brief, non-speaking appearance at the end of Back to the Future Part III.
• Betty Boop was originally an extra from the Talkartoons short "Dizzy Dishes" (starring Bimbo the dog) and was even an anthropomorphic dog back then. After regular reappearances in the cartoons she was eventually turned into a human, given the starring role with her name in the title and Bimbo was demoted into a supporting extra.
• In the original 1993 Biker Mice from Mars series, Throttle's girlfriend General Carbine and the experienced Martian Freedom Fighter known as Stoker were minor characters who only appeared in a few episodes. In the 2006 revival, however, they are more prominent characters, with the Myth Arc having the Biker Mice answer to Carbine on their mission to retrieve the regenerator, a device Stoker invented that could be used to rehydrate Mars and save it from the drought it suffers.
• In Bob's Burgers, Teddy, the most loyal customer of the titular restaurant and a friend of the Belcher family, was a recurring character at first, debuting in the second episode "Crawl Space" as the local contractor. His character became much more prominent soon after, appearing in all nine episodes of Season 2. Since Season 3, Teddy is considered part of the main cast and he now appears in almost every episode, even if only in a brief scene. He is on track to appear in every episode of the current seventh season, and was only absent from one episode of Season 6 ("Wag the Hog"). Teddy has also had multiple episodes with him as the central character.
• Camp Lazlo:
  • Samson was mostly a recurring extra on the level of the Loon brothers; important enough to have a distinct voice and design but mostly background filler. In later seasons he has multiple focus episodes and even gets to have the last line of the series.
  • Harold the walrus Bean Scout got to be a semi-important character starting with "Tusk Wizard", gaining more speaking roles and even the Day in the Limelight episode "Harold and Raj".
• In Christmas Carol: The Movie Belle and Old Joe have more to do than in the book. In the present day, Belle is a nurse who helps care for the sick Tiny Tim, and Old Joe is a henchman of Scrooge's who arrests or robs people who owe Scrooge debt.
• William from Code Lyoko was only a secondary character when he appeared in Season 2. In Season 3, he became a recurring character, often helping the heroes when they are in critical situations. He later joins the team in the second-to-last episode of the season, only to be brainwashed by XANA in the season finale. In Season 4, he's Promoted to Opening Titles and became, albeit unwillingly, XANA's Dragon. His role in that last season is almost as important as Aelita's.
• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • The Toiletnator's first appearance in "Operation: N.O.-P.O.W.U.H." was originally supposed to be a one-off gag. From there, he has made multiple appearances in numerous episodes.
  • Count Spankulot first debuted as a minor villain in "Operation: C.A.N.N.O.N." with about 20 seconds of screentime. From there, he has gotten two spotlight episodes (three if you count "S.P.A.N.K.E.N.S.T.I.N.E.").
• Marylin in The Crumpets was only mentioned or appeared in pictures until his first appearance as himself in the thirty-second episode, when he friended Caprice Crumpet. After very few more appearances, he remained a minor character by the end of the show's original run. But viewer feedback was most favorable to the show's neonates and teenagers, the next fifty-two episodes (known as Teen Crumpets) was focused on them, and Marylin became one of the show's leading characters.
• Portnoy and Sasha Smithiwicks in "Camp Lakebottom",
• Valerie Grey originally appeared briefly in the second episode of Danny Phantom, but after her popular life was ruined by ghosts (or rather, unintentionally by Danny), she became one of the most badass humans in the series, as well as one of Danny's toughest antagonists. They also dated for a while, though be wasn't aware of his superhero identity.
• Daria started as a minor background character on Beavis And Butthead. She's mostly just seen in the classroom and we never meet her family (though her surname Morgendorffer is established and surprisingly remembered by the writers, even if the spelling isn't). The episodes where she speaks can be counted on one hand and even then, no episode revolved around her. Her interaction with the boys was mostly just her snarking at their stupidity and Beavis using his nickname for her, "Diarrhea," before she writes them off as morons and walks off.
• Loud Howard is a minor, one-note character in the Dilbert comic; Scott Adams was mystified as to why people demanded more of him, since he wasn't clever or interesting, he was just loud. In cartoon, he's a prominent supporting character, since the presence of sound allows for many more jokes.
• DuckTales (2017):
  • Della Duck, the twin sister of Donald and mother of Huey, Dewie and Louie, never appeared or even got mentioned in the original series or Quack Pack, and only ever made a handful of appearances in the comics, most notably a Dutch 80th anniversary comic. What happened to the character served as one of the central mysteries of the first season, with the season finale revealing that she's still alive on the moon. She's finally able to repair her rocket ship and return home by the middle of the second season, from which point she becomes a main member of the show's ensemble cast. Della was first mentioned in 1938 in the same cartoon that introduced her children, so at eighty years, she may hold the record for how long a character was kept in the background before becoming a main element of a franchise.
  • Magica's shadow was a one-shot antagonist in the original series. Here they not only have a proper name (Lena De Spell, later Lena Sabrewing), but they're a recurring member of the supporting cast.
  • The Headless Man-Horse is a one-off antagonist in the series premiere, but the writers were so amused by the character that they brought him back as one of Gyro's interns, featuring him prominently in several episodes and treating him as the muscle of the team in the show's Big Badass Battle Sequences, and restoring his head in the Grand Finale with a dramatic Transformation Sequence so he can become a Gargoyles reference voiced by Keith David.
  • Donald Duck of all people. While Donald is usually heart and center of the Disney Ducks Comic Universe that the show is based on, on top of being one of the most recognizable cartoon characters of all time, he was just used in guest appearances in the original 1987 series to not steal the show away from Scrooge and the nephews. The new series features Donald as part of the main cast.
• Guaca in The Emperor's New School. Originally just another of the Living Prop students that weren't named Kuzco, Kronk or Malina, ^note  And technically, Kavo or Cuxi, Cuca, & Curi, as well. he only had speaking appearances in two episodes ("Unfit to Print" & "Monster Masquerade"), being named in the latter. Come the second season he began appearing much more frequently, his personality (as a Loony Fan of Kuzco) was developed more and he even had several A Day in the Limelight episodes, including a full half hour one.
• Fudêncio e Seus Amigos:
  • Peruíbe was created as just another of many filler child characters in the school. Later in the first season, he became part of the Ensemble Cast, got an established voice, personality and catchphrases, and got his own talk show to fill time in shorter episodes. By Seasons 5 and 6, he could be considered the protagonist or deuteragonist, as he appears in all episodes, has a major role in most of them, and has lines in all but one. Even Fudêncio, and the deuteragonist Conrado (who had both appeared in every episode from Seasons 1-4, and were the centers of the show) were absent or had no lines in multiple episodes.
  • Neguinho as well, but to a lesser extent. He was originally another filler kid and existed mostly to be the center of jokes, but then he became Peruibe's Token Black Friend, and later, joined the main cast as well.
• Futurama has a few, including Roberto, Lrrr and Ndnd, Smitty and URL, and Hattie McDoogal.
  • Scruffy the Janitor. He shows up to comment on things when all other characters are used up. He's also occasionally featured as being even lazier than Fry, spending all his time in the basement reading porno magazines.
  • A strange case of this occurred with the "Number 9 Guy", who appears in many crowd shots as early as the series pilot, before finally getting a plot relevant role. The writers had always wanted to feature him, but were unable to fit him into an episode plot until "Into the Wild Green Yonder." Originally, he was to have been a part of a futuristic caste system, but this was abandoned early on.
  • The sexy young doctor named Dr. Cahill, (although Fry just called her Dr. Good and Sexy) who, after the first movie, become a regular character in the next seasons.
  • Zapp's Beleaguered Assistant Kif Kroker could also be considered one. Throughout the first two seasons of Futurama, Kif was simply a Satellite Character to Zapp. But from Season 3 onwards, his relationship with Amy gave him a more significant roles in the episodes he appeared in.
  • Hedonismbot was introduced as a throwaway gag in "Crimes of the Hot" ("I love life and its pleasures as much as anyone here, except perhaps you, Hedonismbot") but played a crucial role in the original series finale "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" and recurred frequently after the revival.
• The Archmage was introduced in a flashback of an episode of Gargoyles and was originally intended as nothing more — but series creator Greg Weisman fell in love with David Warner's remarkably sinister turn voicing the character, so he was later brought back and much of the series was tied into his master plan.
• Old Man McGucket in Gravity Falls was initially a comic relief character who popped up occasionally, but it's eventually revealed that he used to be a genius who worked on the interdimensional portal with Ford, but went insane after passing through the portal and seeing Bill Cipher, becoming a significant player in the second season.
• Cousin Mel, the money-grubbing villain of the Christmas Special Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, is a very minor character in the original song.
• H₂O: Mermaid Adventures features a minor example. Byron and Miriam do not undergo Chuck Cunningham Syndrome and are thus present the whole series.
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law gives expanded roles to several Birdman villains, including Mentok, Reducto, Birdgirl (who started off brainwashed) and X. All had originally appeared in only one episode each.
• Sir Pentious in Hazbin Hotel was originally supposed to be a one off joke character that wouldn't appear again after the pilot. However, fans and the show's creator ended up liking him so much he became a member of the main cast. Sir Pentious even becomes the first demon to ever ascend to heaven, making his arc in the first season fundamental to the show.
• Hilda: Since the show is an adaptation of the graphic novels, certain characters who only appear in a book or two become more prominent. Other times, characters in the show who have minimal appearances become more important in Season 2.
  • Alfur's sole appearance was in "Hilda and the Midnight Giant". In the animated series, he becomes her companion and moves to Trolberg with her, upgrading from being a minor character to a major character.
  • David and Frida are minor characters in the graphic novels, having small roles in "Hilda and the Black Hound". In the show, they're Hilda's friends and make up the main trio with her.
  • Trevor was a pretty minor character in the comic version of "The Bird Parade". When that comic got adapted into a full episode, he was rewritten to become the antagonist of the episode, with a larger role to boot.
  • Some of the magical creatures in the graphic novels (such as the Vittra and the weather spirits) only appear for a few panels. Their role is expanded upon more in the show, with Hilda and company interacting with them in more detail.
  • In an example that doesn't involve the graphic novels, there's the Nisse that lives in Hilda's house. He appears in the final episode of the first season, and becomes a recurring cast member in the second.
  • Like the example above, there's Kaisa the librarian. She was a minor character, but in the second season she had a whole episode dedicated to her and joins the kids on some of their adventures later on.
  • Matilda Pilqvist is a very minor character in the show's version of "The Bird Parade".^note She's the woman who Hilda tries (and fails) to ding-dong ditch. In Season 2, she ascends from being a one-off character to an important side character.
  • The Lost Clan had one episode dedicated to them in the show. In Season 2, they show up a bit more.
• Infinity Train had this with Atticus. The creator had no plans to make him a main character should the pilot get picked up for a full series, intending him to be one of the many one-off train denizens Tulip would encounter on her travels. However, the fanbase that grew out of said pilot became too attached to the talking corgi for him to ignore, leading him to incorporate him as a second companion for Tulip alongside One-One when the show got greenlit.
• Ivanhoe: The King's Knight features the mentioned Edwin Turneham as Edwin of Gordale as a one-shot character.
• Jimmy Two-Shoes:
  • Saffi began as one of the show's stock background characters before being promoted to the role of Beezy's girlfriend in "Jimmy Matchmaker" early on in the series. However, she quickly fell Out of Focus afterwards, especially in Season 2 when Beezy breaks up with her to chase after a Girl of the Week.
  • Rudolpho the conman was a One-Shot Character in the first season, only appearing with a small role in the episode "Jimmy Gets a 'Stache". But in the second season, he became a recurring character that Jimmy and his friends usually went to when they had to buy something quickly. He also got a son named Peep, who had a crush on Heloise and assisted his dad in swindling Miseryville.
• Professor Dementor from Kim Possible. He went from the subject of Cryptic Background References and Noodle Incidents that established him as Drakken's rival in villainy to appearing in episodes where Kim fought him. When the show was uncancelled, he was used as a reason to retire Kim's supersuit and prevent her becoming overpowered.
• Angel (a.k.a. Experiment 624) from the Lilo & Stitch franchise. Initially meant to be a One-Shot Character in Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Stitch's Distaff Counterpart and Love Interest proved to be so popular that she got another major appearance in the last episode that aired before the finale film Leroy & Stitch, which gave her a small scene. She was later established as one of the major characters of the franchise thanks to the Stitch! anime in Japan giving her a recurring role. Since then, Disney has sold merchandise of her globally, including in the United States where Disney only aired the few first episodes of the anime's English dub very briefly in October 2011 (not even getting to her first major appearance in that show), and she has also made appearances in mobile games such as Disney Tsum Tsum, Disney Magic Kingdoms, and Disney Heroes: Battle Mode.
• In Littlest Pet Shop (2012), Youngmee Song was originally just one of Blythe's friends, but was soon promoted to her best friend when her Aunt Christie opened up Sweet Delights next to Littlest Pet Shop, and became much more involved in her adventures. She's also the only one of Blythe's friends who knows she can talk to animals.
• The Loud House has five examples:
  • In the first season, Lynn Sr. and Rita Loud were only there to show that the eleven Loud siblings were not Free-Range Children, had their faces obscured, and generally only filled supportive roles in the episodes that featured them. Beginning in the second season, their faces were revealed, played a more central role to the show, and even have several episodes that revolve around them, with their kids serving a support role.
  • Ronnie Anne is an even bigger example. She started as a lovable bully who only made a few sporadic appearances in Season 1 and early Season 2. Then "The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos" came around, which focused on her and her family. She then made more appearances, and eventually got to be the lead in her own show, The Casagrandes .
  • Lincoln and Clyde's classmates Rusty, Liam and Zach were minor recurring extra in the first two seasons but starting from season three onwards they've had major roles and episodes focused on them.
  • Stella appeared in three episodes of season 3 while she began appearing more often in season 4 onwards.
  • Luna's girlfriend Sam was a pretty minor character in the early season but she appeared more often in the later seasons.
  • Filp was a minor character in season 1-2 but he became one of the main supporting characters as of season 3.
• Metalocalypse:
  • Charles Foster Ofdensen was just the routinely ignored voice of reason, and general straight man during early episodes. Then came the Season 1 finale, where we learn he's a secret asskicker. Since then, he's become one of, it not, the most popular character on the show.
  • Edgar Jomfru initially appeared in one episode and was believed to had been killed offscreen. Season 2 saw him still alive, undergoing a Face–Heel Turn, and joining the Revengencers to get revenge for his brother's death. After being Put on a Bus, he's eventually revealed to have gone back to a Heel–Face Turn, helping Ofdensen find out more about the prophecy, and later tries to convince the rest of Dethklok to go save a kidnapped Toki.
• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • In the first season, Alix Kubdel received very little screentime outside of "Timebreaker", in which she got akumatized. From Season 2 onward, she's established friendships with Marinette and Nathaniel, has more lines (allowing her to show off a serious Deadpan Snarker streak), and is the first classmate outside of the main cluster^note meaning Marinette, Adrien, Alya, Nino, and Chloé shown to be a Miraculous wielder, albeit in the future.
  • Nooroo (the Butterfly Kwami) and Wayzz (the Turtle Kwami) both got hit with this in Season 2 after only having appeared in the 2-part Origins episode.^note Nooroo only appeared at the very beginning of Part 1 and Wayzz was only shown in a very few scenes in the special. They have since become recurring characters.
  • Kagami and Luka, too have since developed into recurring characters as of Season 3.
  • The remainder of the kwamis introduced in season 2 have become this in season 4.
• In Moral Orel, there's a fat woman who's often seen at church as well as in the background in many other scenes (including being picketed by Miss Censordoll's group of protesters). One of the last episodes, "Sundays" is all about her (spread out chronologically over the course of the show), revealing that her name is Florence, she's Officer Papermouth's ex-wife and that she has a crush on Reverend Putty.
• Muppet Babies (1984): While Rowlf, Scooter, and Animal were hardly nobodies in The Muppet Show or any of the original three Muppet movies, for many, it was this show that firmly put them into core character territory with Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie and Gonzo.
• Muppet Babies (2018): In the original 1984 series, Camilla was a stuffed toy owned by Gonzo. In this series, she's a live chicken and the focus of one or two episodes.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Derpy Hooves/Ditzy Hooves/Muffins is one of the most interesting examples of this, as she was so unimportant that she almost didn't exist all together. She was nothing more than an unnamed background extra in the first episode, only getting attention due an animation error or a gag by a bored artist (Word of God is unsure which) briefly giving her a wall-eyed and goofy grinned appearance in a "blink and you'll miss it" cutaway shot. Either way, the fans loved her. No, that's an understatement. They adored her, fleshing out her job, her personality, and even how she talked through a slew of fan works.
    Eventually, the show's creators caught on. Derpy slowly gained more acknowledgement throughout Season 1 and the first half of Season 2, first by the animators going back and intentionally derping her eyes in every scene she was in, then by placing her somewhere in the background of every new episode, then by giving her her own Funny Background Events, until finally it climaxed in the fourteenth episode of Season 2, where she was referred to by her invokedFan Nickname, given a voice actor, and interacted with a main character.^note This didn't go smoothly though, with her portrayal being seen as highly offensive to the mentally disabled by some, leading to episode receiving a number of edits and the character briefly going unacknowledged until the following season. The character has been a regular background staple of the series since. Not bad for a animation error.
  • Applejack's brother Big Macintosh was a fairly minor character who rarely spoke more than a simple "Eeyup!" or "Nnnope!" and appeared in only a handful of episodes in Season 1, usually as just a cameo whenever Applejack was involved. Once the second season came around, he was given more to do (although he still rarely spoke). By the fifth season, a number episodes had been written with him as the central character.
  • Bulk Biceps went from a brief gag that may or may not have been a stab at steroid users in "Hurricane Fluttershy" to a supporting character and part of Rainbow Dash's team in "Rainbow Falls". Oh, and he gets a name, too.
  • Cross-generation, there's Applejack. G1 Applejack was the one who happened to be on the rickety bridge when it broke so the Sea Ponies could be introduced. Appeared once. Was more important in the comics, with her clumsiness and greed for apples giving us the "Who's A Silly Pony" song (and therefore meme), but except for one A Day in the Limelight story, had nothing to her but being a pony who really, really liked apples, at least in the issues currently available online. G3 Applejack was nothing more than a background pony. Being colored lighter than her better-known toy color scheme means you'll have a hard time spotting her few blink-and-miss-it moments. G4 Applejack, however? One of the main characters, part of a huge extended family, and makes the second most episode appearances after series protagonist Twilight Sparkle. Speaking of...
  • Twilight, too, though to a lesser degree than AJ. In the G1 cartoon, she only appeared once, and only had a few moments, but those moments were memorable and one was very important. In the comics, this is magnified: her appearances are not the most frequent, but when she does appear, you remember it.^note In this case, she's insanely overpowered, and only appears at night, most often hiding herself in a magical fog when she must travel during the day. She's one of the most memorable things about the comic. But in terms of screentime, there are several downright "Who's that, again? Are you sure she was in the comics?" characters who actually got more. There was another Twilight, a pegasus who also appeared once.^note How much of Twilight Sparkle is owed to her is unknown. Pegasus Twilight is purple, but so is the G3 earth pony Twilight Twinkle, who really looks like the inspiration for Twilight Sparkle in terms of design. Pegasus Twilight's cutie mark is a candle; an identical one adorns the door of Twilight Sparkle's library. Twilight Sparkle is, of course, the main character of the FIM series, and eventually goes on to become the fourth alicorn princess.
• Oggy and the Cockroaches: Bob, by Season 4, where he shows up even more frequently than the last three seasons.
• The Owl House: Camila Noceda, Luz's mother, naturally has few appearances during the first two seasons due to being on Earth, and that number gets cut in half if you only include speaking ones. She goes on to become a constant presence in Season 3, after she becomes the primary caretaker of the Hexsquad, both after they get stranded on Earth and when they successfully return to the Boiling Isles, and her character and relationship with Luz is given ample focus.
• Pet Alien: In the original toyline, Tommy Cadle was a minor character who appeared in some of the web shorts as the kid who'd eventually adopt Dinko and the aliens, but was secondary to the aliens themselves and lacked a toy of his own. In the animated series, he's the main character and appears in every episode, with many of them dedicated to his relationships with the aliens and other people in his life.
• In the Nickelodeon series Peter Rabbit, Cottentail is a main character and even has a major role in a few episodes.
  • Mittens also becomes a recurring in the series despite her getting the least focus in The Tale of Tom Kitten while her mother and her other siblings (most notably Tom Kitten) aren't seen in the series itself.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • Stacy Hirano, Candace's best friend. In the early episodes, she appeared only infrequently, if at all (she was originally just an unheard voice on the other end of Candace's cell phone conversations). As the series progressed, she appeared much more often, and actually played a role in the plot of some episodes ("Put that Putter Away", "Elementary my Dear Stacy", "Phineas & Ferb-busters", "The Lemonade Stand", etc.). By the end of the show, it was almost rare to see an episode where she doesn't appear, even if it's only for a scene or two, and she even became the only one of the main gang to know about Perry's secret life.
  • Norm. Started out as one of Doof's inventions (after learning "the enemy of the platypus is man", he built a robot man), and then began making more appearances as Doof's lovable but bungling henchman, and even had three episodes centered around him ("A Real Boy", "Norm Unleashed", and "Love At First Byte").
  • Of the Fireside Girls, Ginger has had noticeably more focus than the others starting in Season 4, probably because her relationships with Stacy and Baljeet provide additional dynamics beyond simply being backup support for the title characters.
  • In-Universe(ish?) example: in "Wizard of Odd," the talking tree (played by Jeremy) becomes a major character while the Tin Man is ignored.
• In 1932, E.C. Segar created a character named "Bluto the Terrible" to serve as Popeye's adversary for a single storyline in the Thimble Theatre strip. After the story ended, Segar discarded the character and never used him again... but when Popeye was adapted to animation a year later, Bluto became the series' main villain.
  • Rumor has it Segar created Bluto at the request of Fleischer Studios so that they'd have a recurring villain to use in the cartoons. And evidently, when creating him, Segar decided he may as well do a story with the character.
  • Popeye himself is perhaps the greatest example of this, actually. The comic strips he starred in began with chronicling the adventures of the Oyl family. Popeye was going to be a one arc gag, but became so popular that he ascended to the main character of the franchise.
• Purno de Purno has two characters that became Ascended Extras: Sjakie and Kiet. For the show's first three seasons, these two characters would be nothing more than characters that appeared in episodes as either supporting characters or background characters. When the show got Un-Canceled in 2006, however, they became main characters alongside Purno.
• Dr. Skelley, Sydney's mom in Ready Jet Go!. She was only ever mentioned by Sydney during some episodes of Season 1, and appears in the very last episode of said season, but Season 2 gives her a lot more screentime and focus.
• Janine in The Real Ghostbusters. She had several episodes centered around her.
• Cornchip Girl from Recess started out as a nameless background character. Around Season 4 or 5, she became a more prominent member of the cast, and became the unnoficial seventh member of the gang.
  • Miss Grotke, the gang's fourth grade teacher, was only in a few episodes of the first season. Come Season 2 and she's in almost every episode of the season. Though by Season 5, she got Demoted to Extra and suffered from Chuck Cunningham Syndrome in the final season.
• Regular Show:
  • Muscle Man was a recurring character in the first season. Then in the second season, he was promoted to being a main character who steadily started getting more episodes that were focused on him.
  • CJ also applies. She began as a one-off character who Mordecai spent time with in Season 3's "Yes Dude Yes" when he mistakenly thought his love interest Margaret had become engaged to another guy. After Margaret left to go to college at the end of Season 4, CJ was reintroduced as a supporting character and became Mordecai's on-and-off girlfriend and Eileen's friend.
  • Eileen definitely applies, as she goes from a minor character whose only real trait was having a crush on Rigby, to a supporting character around the show's fifth season (with her and Rigby silently getting together by the end of the season), and finally a main character in the show's eighth and final season.
• In The Ren & Stimpy Show, George Liquor only appeared in the episodes "Man's Best Friend" (kept off of Nickelodeon) and "Dog Show", as well as a few cameo appearances. After Nickelodeon gave the rights to the character to series creator John Kricfalusi, he ended up getting his own web series, The Goddamn George Liquor Program, as well as the short Cans Without Labels.
• The title character of Rex the Runt first appeared as an unnamed dog in the surreal Aardman Animations short Ident.
• Filburt the turtle was initially a minor recurring character in Rocko's Modern Life who served as a nerdy employee for various jobs. He would go on to become one of Rocko's friends and have larger roles later on in the cartoon.
• Rugrats:
  • Harold appeared in only three episodes of the original series ("Preschool Daze", "Hello Dilly" and "Angelica's Assistant"), while the All Grown Up! spin-off cements him as one of Angelica's closest friends alongside Susie.
  • Josh only made one appearance in the original series as the main antagonist of "New Kid In Town". In the 2021 reboot, he makes recurring appearances as one of Angelica's preschool classmates.
• Scooby-Doo: The Hex Girls were originally created for Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost, but became recurring characters in the franchise, appearing in every modern incarnation.
• In Scream Street, Luella is a minor character who occasionally plays an important role as a supporting character in each episode. However, she got more focus as the show progressed, to the point that there was a few episodes of Series 1 and an episode of Series 2 focusing on her.
• The Simpsons:
  • Downplayed example with Homer Simpson: While Homer was part of the main cast of the series, the main character and Audience Surrogate of the series was Bart. From season 5 onwards the creators chose to shift focus to Homer, who is the main character and heart of the family ever since.
  • Gil Gunderson, who started off as a one-off gag parody of Glengarry Glen Ross, eventually got his own starring episode.
  • This actually applies to many characters on the show. Groundskeeper Willie for example was planned to just be used for a single joke. But Dan Castellaneta gave him such an amusing Scottish accent that he was brought back.
  • Others notable Simpsons promotions include Disco Stu, the Sea Captain, Hans Moleman, and many others. Disco Stu is a particularly obvious case, as he was only introduced for the sake of a single joke, but still pops up every so often.
  • Apu Nahasapeemapetilon started off as a character whose only role was being the local convenience store owner, with little characterisation beyond that. It stayed like this for a bit, being little more than an extra, but soon changed. He's now become one of the most iconic secondary characters, receiving several focus episodes, becoming the only non-Simpsons player character in The Simpsons Hit & Run, and becoming far more rounded and deep.
  • Bart's best friend Milhouse wasn't even an extra on the show — he was first seen as an unnamed kid on a Simpsons "Butterfinger" commercial.
  • Comic Book Guy first appeared in the late-Season 2 episode "Three Men and a Comic Book," as a one off character, then briefly reappeared (with a slightly different design) in the late-Season 3 episode "The Otto Show". He would become much more prominent after Season 5.
  • Shauna was originally a briefly appearing one-off character in the episode "The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly". Since then, however, she had made frequent appearances on the show, including major roles in "Beware My Cheating Bart" and "Girls Just Shauna Have Fun" and an instigator of the plot of "What To Expect When Bart's Expecting" (which also established her as the daughter of Superintendent Chalmers).
  • Cletus showed up in one episode of season 5 ("Bart Gets an Elephant") an an unnamed extra, just a hick designed to laugh at Lisa for one line. He's then absent for a season before becoming a recurring character. Cletus and his family even have a few spotlight episodes, such as "Yokel Chords", "Pretty Whittle Liar", and "Yokel Hero".
• South Park has many instances of this, and the show is fairly notable for promoting far more background characters into prominence than introducing new ones altogether. Virtually every member of the boys' class now has an established personality to some degree.
  • Butters in particular started off as a Living Prop before being increasingly used as a supporting background character in Seasons 3-5 and eventually becoming the Fifth Ranger. He is now pretty much a main character with more focus than Kenny. This happened around the same time Kenny was more or less Demoted to Extra, though it's hard to say if Butters' rise is the cause or effect of that. Maybe it's just that Butters is capable of talking. Official sources generally list him as a main character with the other four these days, even though he's not usually depicted hanging out with them as a group.
  • Randy Marsh has been promoted to the most prominent adult character, with many episodes dedicated to him whenever he does something stupid. Like Butters he's now listed as a "main character" by the show's website. As time went on, Randy gained more and more prominence in the show, to the point in which it appears that he is now the main character.
  • Jimmy was originally just supposed to be a one-episode rival for Timmy; in his first appearance he wasn't even depicted as a South Park resident. As with Butters, the fact that he can talk normally (m-m-more or less) seems to have helped him pass Timmy in prominence.
  • The girls in particular have been really underdeveloped over the show's run, even as the boys get distinctive personalities; Season 20, however, suddenly makes Heidi Turner, who had no real distinguishing characteristics before this, into a major character as she begins a relationship with Cartman. She turns into a background character again starting with Season 22, however.
  • Scott Malkinson, whose only major role was in Season 12's "Elementary School Musical" and was used almost exclusively as a background character from that point onwards, got many prominent roles in Seasons 17, 18, and 23, with season 23 in particular having him show up much more often and even giving him his own episode. He even gets a major role in the Vaccination Special, in which he is the leader of a group known as 'Lil' Qties', and is a party member in South Park: The Fractured but Whole.
• Spider-Man: Spider-Verse: Jonathan Ohnn, a five second extra that got hit by a bagel in Into the Spider-Verse, becomes the Spot, the Big Bad in Across the Spider-Verse.
• SpongeBob SquarePants appears to be wanting to bring back old characters:
  • Plankton and Karen the Computer Wife. In seasons 1-3, Plankton would get two or three episodes a season; Karen had five appearances total. They were officially promoted to members of the "Main Cast" in the credits of the 2004 movie and have been increasingly important ever since.
  • Fred the Fish. For the first ten seasons, he's been little more than an incidental character with only one consistent trait. It wasn't his colour, or even his name, but his tendency to get injured, resulting in him screaming "MY LEG!". Then in Season 11, he got A Day in the Limelight in the episode entitled "My Leg!", where he had a central role and his leg injuries became the focus of the plot. Since then, he's been a recurring character, and whenever he's around, legs are likely going to be either mentioned or injured.
  • Bubble Bass was an antagonist in a very early episode ("Pickles"). After this, his further appearances in Season 1 largely amounted to occasional cameos. He then went completely absent before making an unexpected return in the Season 8 episode "Plankton's Good Eye". He then went absent again until Season 9, and from then on became a recurring character, usually playing the same role he had in "Pickles". He's even had a few spotlight episodes after season 10: "Moving Bubble Bass", "Swamp Mates", "Bubble Bass's Tab", "The Big Bad Bubble Bass". He also makes frequent appearances on The Patrick Star Show and Kamp Koral.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil has Janna. The character was originally created to serve as a minor obstacle for Marco to deal with in "Mewberty", but the crew liked her enough to give her a more prominent role in the second season, having her befriend Star and serve as a flirtatious trickster towards Marco. In the last two seasons, when the show shifts location from Earth to Mewni, she is the only human character besides Marco that continues to serve a prominent role in the series, with the new intro upgrading her to main character status.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars gives fleshed out expanded roles to a significant amount of peripheral characters that are featured in the theatrical Star Wars films (particularly the Prequel Trilogy and the Original Trilogy).
  • The members of the Jedi Order who received a small amount of screen time and barely any lines in the Prequel Trilogy are fleshed out and shown to be great and noble warriors with brilliant skills and personalities as a result of result of receiving expanded roles along with a lot more screen time and lines in the installment.
  • The Clone Troopers get names, personalities, and relationships they never had before as a result of receiving expanded roles in the installment. All of this makes the execution of Order 66 a genuine tear-jerker in a way that isn't presented during the third theatrical film in the Prequel Trilogy (Revenge of the Sith) by itself since we have to watch people we care about be forced to kill people we care about. Literally forced, as it turns out that the clones have a device implanted in their brain that forces them to obey Order 66, rather than it just being a matter of them being trained from birth for obedience.
  • In The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul was just The Brute who had maybe two sentences and only really existed to have an epic lightsaber duel and kill off Qui-Gon. After turning out to be Not Quite Dead in The Clone Wars, he returns to the galaxy and becomes a major villain in his own right and a personal enemy to Obi-Wan.
  • For an internal example, Jesse is introduced as a random Red Shirt of the week in "The Deserter", becomes one of the main heroes of the Umbara Arc, and eventually ends up as the Final Boss of the series.
• Hotstreak only appeared in several issues of the original Static comics, and was defeated pretty easily due to his Weaksauce Weakness. Static Shock removed said weakness and gave him a much larger role, effectively making him Static's Arch-Enemy.
  • Several minor one-off villains from the comics like Rubberband Man and Puff also had much larger roles in the cartoon than they ever did in the source material.
• The inmates in Superjail! were mostly interchangeable minor characters, aside from a few that were given distinct designs or personalities. With the second season, some of these inmates had their roles greatly expanded, speaking more often and having more to do with the plots. The third season continued this sort of development. The creators have stated that if they come to like a particular inmate design, they'll do what they can to reuse them.
• Team Umizoomi's Umi Car started out as just transportation for the team that eventually disappears for the rest of the story. Midway through Season 1, he gained a face but still didn't ascend from his role as an extra until Season 2, where he has gotten several major roles.
• Leatherhead in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012). After being a guest character for the majority of the first and second seasons, he takes on a pivotal role in the second season finale and becomes a recurring character in the third.
• Tiny Toon Adventures:
  • The "Two-Tone Town" episode reintroduced a trio of obscure Merrie Melodies characters from the black-and-white 1930s shorts: Foxy and Roxy (obvious Mickey and Minnie Mouse ripoffs) and Goopy Geer (who would be an obvious Goofy ripoff if he didn't predate Goofy). They were modernized and given more distinct personalities for their Tiny Toons appearance; most viewers were probably unaware that they were actual characters from the black-and-white era and not just Retraux imitations like the subsequent Warner siblings.
  • Gogo Dodo and his residence of Wackyland are a large part of the show, to the point that Gogo appears in the opening theme. He is based on a character from a single 1938 Porky Pig short, not counting the color remake.
  • In the original series, Sweetie Bird was a supporting character with one A Day in the Limelight episode; "How Sweetie It Is". In the Tiny Toons Looniversity reboot, she's Babs' roommate and part of the central cast alongside Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton.
• ThunderCats (1985):
  • Grune was a minor, though popular, villain, only appearing in three episodes as a ghost. In Thunder Cats 2011 he is Spared by the Adaptation, made more attractive, given an expanded Backstory and promoted to The Dragon for the series Big Bad.
  • Likewise Pumyra was a secondary character the writers of the old show just didn't know what to do with most of the time. In the remake she's confirmed to have an expanded role and even has multiple episodes dedicated to her development.
• Billy Kincaid in Todd McFarlane's Spawn. In the original comics, Kincaid was killed off at the end of his very first appearance, while the TV show made him the center of a major subplot that ran throughout the first season.
• In the original U.S. Acres comic strip, Orson's nasty brothers only briefly appeared in the first three weeks, and they didn't have names then. Garfield and Friends turned them into recurring villains and gave them the names Mort, Gort, and Wart.
  • Similarly, Binky the Clown only appeared and/or was referenced in a handful of Garfield comics, but was given a much larger role in the cartoon show.
• 21 and 24 from The Venture Bros. were minor characters early on in the first season, but became a bit more important as the season went on, and then starting with Season 2 they were part of the main cast. Same could probably be said of the Monarch who went from a recurring character to getting equal screen time to the Venture family.
  • 21 and 24's ascension is actually lampshaded a couple times, once by 21 himself ("We're like main characters!") and later by the Monarch ("They have that weird mix of expendable and invulnerable that makes for a perfect henchman."). Later on in the latter episode, 21 and 24 reiterate their status to a new character, claiming he's the Red Shirt on their mission.
  • The creators often mention looking over crowd scenes and attributing characterization to whoever catches their eye, many showing up later in the show as actual characters.
    • Such as Sgt. Hatred. He was initially a throwaway off-screen villain that the 21 & 24 stole equipment from, to being one of the many unnamed villains who became excited at Dr. Venture's Walking Eye in Season 2, he eventually got a big plot upgrade in Season 3 where he eventually became Venture's new Guild arch and became tied to the backstory of why Brock was assigned to the Venture family. As of Season 4, he's become one of the main characters, becoming the new Venture bodyguard!
• Despite only showing up in one chapter in the books, Sammy gets a much larger role in the Wayside School Animated Adaptation Wayside.
• Elyon in the animated version of W.I.T.C.H. is an interesting example. While the original comics have her importance clear from the beginning, the adaptation deliberately downplays her role in the story and has her gradually "ascend" to major character status over a dozen or so episodes.
  • Truth be told, a lot of characters in WITCH become ascended extras in the adaptation, the biggest ones being the previous Guardians minus Nerissa — in the comics, Hay Lin's grandmother Yan Lin died halfway through the second issue and becomes a member of the Council, Halinor's been dead, Cassidy was just an exposition ghost and Kadma was just a bitter old lady. In the cartoon, Yan Lin's alive and The Mentor, Halinor's alive and part of the Council, Cassidy actually comes back to life and Kadma becomes ruler of another world.
• Woody Woodpecker's girlfriend Winnie Woodpecker was only shown in one classic Woody Woodpecker cartoon called Real Gone Woody, but she was mainly shown in comic books as a recurring character. It wasn't until later in The New Woody Woodpecker Show that she became an active member of the series, with a personality similar in silliness to Woody, though showing a more developed sense of dignity.

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