Basic Trope: A character makes a cameo in a work prior to their first official appearance.
- Straight: Alice doesn't appear until the 4th episode of "The Adventures of Bob", but a picture of her can be seen in the first episode.
- Exaggerated:
- Every new character makes a cameo early in the work prior to their first actual appearance.
- Alice makes a cameo in the first episode of "The Adventures of Bob", but doesn't make an official appearance until the series finale.
- Downplayed:
- A picture of Alice is shown, and a few minutes later she makes her first official appearance.
- Alice was already an important character in the comic book version of "The Adventures of Bob".
- Justified:
- Alice, who is friends with Bob and is always there in his pictures, was in another country away from the one the events of the series takes place on, and her official appearance means she finally came back and will now join Bob in his adventures.
- Or, she's a student who was temporarily suspended from school off-screen and the evidence of her presence is still there in her class, for example, her photos in yearbooks, a drawing of her on her desk, etc. When her suspension period ends, she officially comes back to school starting from the second episode.
- Alice is a Recurring Character, episode 4 was just the first episode where she had more than indirect prominence.
- Inverted: A character that has officially left the main cast makes a background appearance in a later episode.
- Averted: Alice's whole existence isn't acknowledged or even hinted at prior to her first-ever appearance.
- Subverted: The trope is played straight, but it turns out that it wasn't Alice in that picture but her twin... (or maybe a Doppelgänger?) and the actual Alice hasn't made a cameo yet.
- Double Subverted:
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged:
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "Hey, I saw a picture of her earlier!"
- Invoked: Alice keeps little pieces of herself (be it voice notes, videos, mini sculptures, and whatnot) everywhere as souvenirs so that her friends would still feel and be reminded of her presence every day till she comes back again.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: ???
- Deconstucted: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
