Ensemble Dark Horse Cleanup

Under "is this an example" or a different forum?

You'd have to make a thread.

Found these at YMMV.The Legend Of Heroes Kuro No Kiseki

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • After the first game's initial trailer revealed her to be playable, Shizuna completely overshadowed the rest of the girls in sheer amount of fanart. She was also ranked as the #1 "most popular character among male players" in the first popularity poll, and managed to stay at the #3 spot for "most popular female character" in the second poll. from what I can tell Shizuna is fairly major character in the game and straight up Promoted to Playable in the second, so she can left out
  • Dingo ends up becoming a fan favorite after the release of the first game for his Dying Moment of Awesome by being a normal journalist exposing a superpowered madman by taking a bunch of pictures to expose his crimes when Gerard nukes Creil Village. I really can't tell if Dingo is a supporting character or a minor character, but judging from the fact he gets a focus in Renne's side story in Reverie, I think it's safe to assume he has a fairly large role and doesn't count for this trope

So at YMMV.The Legend Of Heroes Trails Of Cold Steel I removed the entries for Towa, Olivie, Aurielia and Altina (since they are way too major to count as the trope) but I'm very unsure with the other entries (Mint, Becky and Jessica) because they are supporting characters and in the case of Mint and Becky, they become reacurring character in the third and fourth game.

What do?

I asked this a while back, but do I have permission or agreement to carry out major cleanup on the King of Fighters Ensemble Darkhorse page for the reasons provided in the link made earlier?

Now that The Mandalorian Season 3 has promoted the Armorer and Paz Vizsla to major characters, should we remove their entries from EnsembleDarkhorse.The Mandalorian?

IMO it makes more sense to treat them as historical examples, since the seasons were not written with a particular endgoal in mind and thus their increased prominence is likely the result of being Breakout Characters rather than something that was planned.

This one's from YMMV.Rain 2010. To anyone who isn't familiar with the comic, I'll just give context:

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Out of the secondary student characters that appeared in Chapter Two, Holly was the most popular. This was lampshaded in Rain Delay 3.
  • The waiter at Chanel and Maria's date is shaping up as this as well.
  • Vincent, Rain's therapist and Fara's old boyfriend (girlfriend back in their day), is adored by many, especially trans people who wish more therapists were like him.
  • Maria and Ruby's grandmother has gained a very sizable fan base as soon as an excerpt from Chapter C was posted.
  • Ky is a fan favorite. Jocelyn regularly points out that she gets asked about them all the time.
  • Ana was introduced as a somewhat late addition to the main cast but was instantly liked due to her sweet and lovable personality. Her tragic past and backstory made her even more popular. With some even considering her one of the comic's most interesting characters.

A lot of the examples here either list some major supporting characters, or characters who only appear in one page/panel/chapter and never appear again.

The first example, Holly, doesn't actually have that big an impact on the story as a whole and exists purely for comic relief.

The second is the waiter from Maria and Chanel's Valentine's date. He only appears in one chapter and is liked by fans, but not to an outrageous extent.

Third is Vincent and this one scratches my head. He's a major supporting character. It's in his character description. Rain's therapist. Plus, he appears plenty of times and is well, obviously has a major impact on the story and its characters. He even gave therapy to Kellen, who btw gave Rain a Traumatic Haircut. So yeah he likely doesn't count.

Fourth is Granny Strongwell. She literally appears in two panels from one chapter. And it's from a print-only bonus chapter too.

Ky. Well, honestly I don't know why they're listed here. Ky is given plenty of focus in the story. Even when they become slightly Out of Focus in the later chapters, I'd barely call their presence minor.

And then we get Ana (She's the entry I added btw). She exists to serve as sort of a Foil to Rain and her struggles are given plenty of focus. She even joins the main gang later.

I feel like only a few of these characters feel like actual Ensemble Dark Horses. Others feel like they should be either removed or, in the case of the ones who only appear in one chapter, moved to One-Scene Wonder.

Edited by AudioSpeaks2 on Apr 2nd 2023 at 2:02:14 AM

I found this entry on YMMV.Scream VI

• Danny Brackett managed to quickly stand out in a positive way to fans - both thanks to Josh Segarra's charismatic and charming performance, Danny's own Mr. Fanservice status, and role of being a good, understanding boyfriend who not only isn't a killer, but brings back the cops to help and survives the entire movie.

I have seen the movie and I am unsure in him. He has a lot of plot relevance as both the love interest and red hairing. Still I want some more opinions.

Edited by Bullman on Apr 22nd 2023 at 7:17:54 AM

I think Molly plus the grandmother count because they seem popular and plot-insignificant enough. I also feel that Vincent, Ana, and to a lesser extent Ky are too important to count imo. I'm not sure about the waiter, though.

While he sounds popular enough, it sounds like he's too plot-important to qualify to me, so I'd cut him.

The waiter sounds like a One-Scene Wonder. Same with the Granny Strongwell, because we never see her again besides that one panel. Neither is she mentioned.

Okay removed it.

Ky has the conundrum in that they eventually become a tad Out of Focus in later chapters. Mainly because they're from a different school.

Found these at YMMV.Trails Series

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The poster boy for the series without a doubt is Olivier Lenheim, wandering musician and poet who gets into several misadventures, particularly in the Liberl arc. With his antics, Purple Prose, and inflated opinion of his abilities with occasionally questionable sanity, he remains the only character in the series to make a significant appearance across every game. He has been consistently the second most popular character of the franchise, only beaten by Estelle. He's still this in the polls of Cold Steel IV where he manages to tie with Millium and Duvalie, placing the three at twelfth place while Lloyd is at a respectful 17th and Estelle barely didn't get to break top 20, placing 21 herself. Olivier is an extremely major character in the Liberl and Erebonia arc, so I don't think he qualifies
  • For the Sky games, there's Anelace, resident girly girl and goofball who manages to out ditz the already ditzy Estelle as she matures over the course of SC to give her a counterpart to bounce off of. Despite her weirdness, she's a practitioner of the Eight Leaves like Rean, and remains a fairly accomplished swordsman in her own right. unsure if she's major enough to not account
  • Loewe died back in SC, and his last appearance (The 3rd) is over a decade old. In spite of this, he managed to place in top 20 of the latest Falcom 40th anniversary poll. Loewe is a fairly major antagonist; so I would cut him

I agree that Loewe and Olivier don't count because I feel they're too important. I'm not too sure about Anelace, though, sorry.

Removed the two entries, while commenting out Anelice due to her unsure nature.

Anelace is a party member in 3rd. If that alone is enough, then she doesn't count. But if just being a party member isn't necessarily enough to restrict you, I would argue that she isn't. She appears in a minor role in FC and SC, only really taking up a major role in 3rd as a party member and even then, not a very large one. She has never appeared again after that. While it is very likely she will be more important later, due to being the granddaughter of one of the most important people in the world who we have yet to meet, as of right now she doesn't have a very large role in the series.

Edited by TaylorHyuuga on May 6th 2023 at 8:51:02 AM

Hey, so I wanna resurface a potential entry from a while back for YMMV.The Boys 2019:

• The soldier who kickstarts the "you don't speak for us" chant against Homelander is beloved by fans for having the absolute audacity to flip off someone who could exterminate the human race if he felt like it.

I added it, then it got deleted with no edit reason, and pinging that user to this thread and sending a separate PM didn't begin a discussion. Aegis thinks it fits, but I don't wanna re-add it with only one person agreeing with me - does anyone see any issues with me re-adding it?

It may better go in One-Scene Wonder if this is the character's only scene.

I know you mean well but this makes me realize its a bit confusing as to what exactly fits Ensemble Dark Horse, if they get too much screentime they dont count and if they get too little it fits another trope instead.

From EnsembleDarkHorse.Marvel Universe:

• Kid Loki from Journey into Mystery is pretty popular. Even after it's revealed that his entire life was essentially a "Shaggy Dog" Story, and his older self takes control of his body, he remained a very popular character. This lead to Loki gaining a role in Young Avengers, where the Kid Loki persona haunts Loki's subconscious. This, combined with MCU Loki's popularity, led to Loki getting his own ongoing series, Loki: Agent of Asgard.

The Journey Into Mystery link should actually be for the Journey into Mystery (Gillen) revival - and Loki was the lead for the first two years of that book.

He'd appeared elsewhere beforehand, after the original adult Loki died and was reborn. But there's just over six months between Kid Loki's first appearance in Thor (end of 2010) and publication of Gillen's first Journey Into Mystery issue - so, given comic lead times, it doesn't seem likely that he got the solo series due to an Ensemble Dark Horse audience reaction to Thor.

(He remained very popular, yes - and that, along with Hiddlestone's film portrayal, overcame Status Quo Is God... but that's not this trope)

Cut?

I was reminded on Is This An Example that this thread exists.

Are main characters eligible for Ensemble Dark Horse entries?

YMMV.Justice League XRWBY Super Heroes And Huntsmen

• Ensemble Dark Horse: The movie's incarnation of Jessica Cruz is one of its most lauded elements, with many citing her interactions with Jaune as the highlight and emotional core of the film, and her struggles with anxiety as its most profound subplot. Her performance from Jeannie Tirado has been similarly lauded as one of the production's best.

The crossover has the main characters from RWBY (Teams RWBY and JNR) and the main characters from Justice League, although they're using the Jessica Cruz Green Lantern for this film. So, both Jaune and Jessica are main characters.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Jun 18th 2023 at 6:57:48 PM

If they're main characters, I don't think it's this trope.

Okay, thanks.

Found this in YMMV.Yakuza Like A Dragon

• Zhao is popular because he's a gangster who has an insanely stylish moveset and design, is similar to fan-favourite Goro Majima (being a Crazy Is Cool guy with surprising depth and a suggestive dynamic with the protagonist), and is voiced by a popular voice actor in both English and Japanese. This all despite him being the last party member to join and one of the most likely to be Out of Focus.

I'm unsure of Zhao cause he is already a party member and I don't know if being playable makes a character disqualified from EDH. I think it's also worth mentioning that "JRPG party members getting Out of Focus" is fairly common (and sometimes inevetiable) especially in an ensemble cast. Any other thoughts?