History AscendedExtra / WebOriginal

** [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Eric Cartman]] made his first appearance in a prototype episode as an EarlyBirdCameo and was added to the main cast immediately afterwards. Now, he is a main character who is given more prominence than Kirby. His general status as the four most prominent character has also rendered him the most frequently appearing villain.

* Shinji Ryougi, of ''Roleplay/YukariIsFree'', originally started as a one-shot gag character to insult a Supporting Character, simply being addressed as Gang Member 122. By the next season, he had elevated to a full-blown member of the Main Cast and actually being referred to by name. The same has happened to other characters, most notably Rei Kakizaki, Kasumi Chiba, and Elesia Rumiko, all of whom started out as extras and were elevated to Supporting Roles and given unique subplots.

** Bowser Junior once appeared in an episode of ''Mario and Luigi's Stupid and Dumb Adventures''. He later appeared in the "Bowser Juice" infomercial. He then appeared in "Bowser Junior's Macaroni" and is now a main character, [[UpToEleven to the point of taking over Mario's position]].
** Joseph and Cody went from appearing exclusively in the ''Bowser Junior's Summer School'' story arc to appearing in most of Junior's late 2014 and 2015 appearances to appearing in [[UpToEleven every single one of Junior's 2016 appearances]] (excluding "Bowser Junior's Cookies!" and "Bowser's Goldfish").

** [[{{Meganekko}} Lulu Altaire]] was originally just a member of a four-person posse including [[CloudCuckoolander Anna Kateridge]], [[TeamMom Amanda Redder]], and (regrettably) [[TheScrappy Liam Black]]. Three in-game days later, the death of everyone else she'd met, Lulu becomes one of the ''final characters'' alive on the island. [[spoiler:She ultimately places second overall in the season, after losing the final battle with J.R. Rizzolo.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Australian bunny girl Velvet Scarletina appeared for one short scene in Volume 1, Chapter 11, where [[TheBully Cardin]] is shown painfully tugging on her ears to demonstrate the setting's FantasticRacism against Faunus and to show [[KickTheDog what a jerk Cardin is]]. She very quickly became an [[EnsembleDarkhorse unexpected fandom favorite]] and Creator/MontyOum was so impressed by the fandom's reaction to her that he promised a larger role for her. As of Volume 3, she has had several more voiced cameos, and even had her own major setpiece solo fight [[spoiler:against Atlas Paladins during the Fall of Beacon]] She also got her own team, Team CFVY ("coffee"), who played a major role in the climax of Volume 2 [[spoiler:during the Breach]], and even got their own spin-off novel ''Literature/RWBYAfterTheFall''.
** Neopolitan. She only exists in the first place because a fan drew Volume 1 BigBad Roman Torchwick [[Rule63 as a girl]]. Then the creators saw it, and decided to use the design for Torchwick's henchgirl in Volume 2. She was added so hastily she doesn't [[TheVoiceless even have a voice]]. Though she's one of the best fighters in the series, subverting CuteMute, she was still barely above [[QuirkyMinibossSquad the Malachite Twins]] from the trailers. Then in Volume 6, she came back [[ItsPersonal seeking revenge]] [[spoiler: for Torchwick's death]] and was promoted to being one of the major antagonists.

** [[DeadpanSnarker Aston]] [[{{Asexual}} Bennett]] was originally only a supporting member of another rag-tag group of misfits. Then, after the group is unceremoniously split up when one of the members turns on the group and is accidentally killed, and the boy she ''[[UnresolvedSexualTension may]]'' have had a crush on is murdered right in front of her, she steps up to the plate and sets off on a [[ItsPersonal revenge quest]] against his killer.

* There is a Youtube user called [[https://www.youtube.com/user/WTLNetwork WTLNetwork]] who makes WebAnimation/{{YouTube Poop}}s of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine''. A lot of his poops involve the one-shot character of the Fat Controller's Butler (originally a OneSceneWonder) as a full-blown character and the Fat Controller's lover!

* One example is ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionR'', in which Maya Ibuki goes from a [[BridgeBunnies Bridge Bunny]] to a major character.

* Similarly, Drew Pickles from ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' has become the icon of the WebVideo/BarneyBunch, thanks to an AlternateCharacterInterpretation PlayedForLaughs (specifically, a closet semi-StraightGay).

* There is a Youtube user called [[https://www.youtube.com/user/WTLNetwork WTLNetwork]] who makes WebAnimation/{{YouTube Poop}}s of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine''. A lot of his poops involve the one-shot character of the Fat Controller's Butler (originally a OneSceneWonder) as a full-blown character and the Fat Controller's lover!
* Starting to be a regular thing in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse''. One of the campus jokes, the kid with the spirit of the squirrel, got a role in the ''Phase'' novels, and then her own story. Side character and campus nuisance Greasy is getting a Christmas special. BigBad Don Sebastiano got a point-of-view story, and has gotten more screen time. And on and on...
* Shinji Ryougi, of ''Roleplay/YukariIsFree'', originally started as a one-shot gag character to insult a Supporting Character, simply being addressed as Gang Member 122. By the next season, he had elevated to a full-blown member of the Main Cast and actually being referred to by name. The same has happened to other characters, most notably Rei Kakizaki, Kasumi Chiba, and Elesia Rumiko, all of whom started out as extras and were elevated to Supporting Roles and given unique subplots.
* Happens all too often in ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'', when characters thought only to be minor characters manage to survive to the end thanks to sheer luck, or simply becoming well-noticed. Two examples:
** [[{{Meganekko}} Lulu Altaire]] was originally just a member of a four-person posse including [[CloudCuckoolander Anna Kateridge]], [[TeamMom Amanda Redder]], and (regrettably) [[TheScrappy Liam Black]]. Three in-game days later, the death of everyone else she'd met, Lulu becomes one of the ''final characters'' alive on the island. [[spoiler:She ultimately places second overall in the season, after losing the final battle with J.R. Rizzolo.]]
** [[DeadpanSnarker Aston]] [[{{Asexual}} Bennett]] was originally only a supporting member of another rag-tag group of misfits. Then, after the group is unceremoniously split up when one of the members turns on the group and is accidentally killed, and the boy she ''[[UnresolvedSexualTension may]]'' have had a crush on is murdered right in front of her, she steps up to the plate and sets off on a [[ItsPersonal revenge quest]] against his killer.

* In the ''Fanfic/NineteenEightyThreeDoomsdayStories,'' a BroadStrokes AU of ''Literature/NineteenEightyThreeDoomsday,'' there's Sopron. Originally just a border area in the source material, she's become a veritable Survivor-Nation in her own right [[spoiler: as well as being [[Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia Austria and Hungary's daughter]]]].
* Pretty much the entirety of the cast of ''WebVideo/{{Arenas}}'', which in the Quake and Doom universes were just selectable characters for the players.

* ''Podcast/FalloutIsDragons'' is a streamed podcast of a tabletop role-playing group. As would be expected, a significant portion of the cast are [=NPCs=] the players took an unexpected interest in and adopted.

* Tim from the youtube horror series WebVideo/MarbleHornets is a huge example. He begins the series as merely one of many extra characters who are actors for the "Marble Hornets" independent film being made within the series' own universe. Others include Brian, Sarah, and Seth, and none of these are given much development. Tim only speaks a few random lines in the first few entries, such as Entry #12, and does not stand out, excepting the protagonist Jay's interviewing him of what he knows. However, he becomes even more important in the second series of entries when we find out that [[spoiler: He is The Masked Man who has been stalking Jay (presumably under possession by The Operator/The Slenderman).]] He continues to become a more prominent character in the series, eventually becoming somewhat of a sidekick to protagonist Jay. By the end of the series, following [[spoiler: Jay's death at the hands of The Hooded Man, Tim takes over his role as the series' protagonist]]

* ''Literature/EntirelyPresentingYou'': Minor side characters like Lawrence and Harrian come back in unexpected, and sometimes devastating, ways.
* ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': Robo merely made a last-minute cameo in episode 1, then became a full-fledged character.
* ''WebAnimation/TheDups'' would otherwise be totally forgotten if not for the fact that it featured [[Creator/LenstarProductions Jacob Lenard's]] WebAnimation/{{Mugman}} in his first ever appearance anywhere. In ''The Dups'', Mugman only appears in one episode as a one-shot character; didn't stop him from getting his own dedicated series later.
* ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'': In ''Depredation'' two {{Red Shirts}} briefly appear to give Hank a sword before they get crushed under a building. [[spoiler:In ''Aggregation'', they show up again as main characters Sanford and Deimos.]] Several shorts that served as {{Interquel}}s between ''Depredation'' and ''Inundation'' would show how they ended up where they were in the series.

* ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': Fire Guy is the '''biggest''' example out of the entire cast from the earlier eras, because all he did was just ''exist'' in an unknown story in the actual DSBT, as revealed in the Special Info Episode.
** Robo merely made a last-minute cameo in episode 1, then became a full-fledged character.

* Doctor Tomorrowland, currently a member of the Disney-sponsored hero team Imagination in the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'', started out as part of the team's background extras. She rose to the rank of AscendedExtra, and then supporting character, and then to featured player, all because one of the players decided to start including her more and more in the story. She later became a full-blown player character.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Australian bunny girl Velvet Scarletina appeared for one short scene in Volume 1, Chapter 11, where [[TheBully Cardin]] is shown painfully tugging on her ears to demonstrate the setting's FantasticRacism against Faunus and to show [[KickTheDog what a jerk Cardin is]]. She very quickly became an [[EnsembleDarkhorse unexpected fandom favorite]] and Creator/MontyOum was so impressed by the fandom's reaction to her that he promised a larger role for her. As of Volume 3, she has had several more voiced cameos, and even had her own major setpiece solo fight [[spoiler:against Atlas Paladins during the Fall of Beacon]] She also got her own team, Team CFVY ("coffee"), who played a major role in the climax of Volume 2 [[spoiler:during the Breach]], and even got their own spin-off novel 'After The Fall'.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Australian bunny girl Velvet appeared for one short scene in Episode 11, where [[TheBully Cardin]] is shown painfully tugging on her ears to demonstrate the setting's FantasticRacism against Faunus and to show [[KickTheDog what a jerk Cardin is]]. She very quickly became an [[EnsembleDarkhorse unexpected fandom favorite]] and Creator/MontyOum was so impressed by the fandom's reaction to her that he has promised a larger role for her in volume 2. As of that volume, she's getting her own team, Team CFVY ("coffee").

* ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'': In ''Depredation'' two {{RedShirts}} show up to give Hank a sword before they get crushed under a building. In ''Aggregation'', they show up again as main characters Sanford and Deimos. Several shorts that served as {{Interquel}}s between ''Depredation'' and ''Inundation'' would show how they ended up where they were in the series.

* ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'': In ''Depredation'' two {{RedShirts}} show up to give Hank a sword before they get crushed under a building. In ''Aggregation'', they show up again as main characters Sanford and Deimos. Several shorts that served as ({{Interquel}}s) between ''Depredation'' and ''Inundation'' would show how they ended up where they were in the series.

* ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'': In ''Depredation'' two {{RedShirts}} show up to give Hank a sword before they get crushed under a building. In ''Aggregation'', they show up again as main characters Sanford and Deimos. Several shorts that served as [={{Interquel}}=s] between ''Depredation'' and ''Inundation'' would show how they ended up where they were in the series.

* ''WebAnimation/TheDups'' would otherwise be totally forgotten if not for the fact that it featured [[Creator/LenstarProductions Jacob Lenard's]] WebAnimation/{{Mugman}} in his first ever appearance anywhere. In ''The Dups'', Mugman only appears in one episode as a one-shot character; didn't stop him from getting his own dedicated series later.

* ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'': In ''Depredation'' two {{RedShirts}} show up to give Hank a sword before they get crushed under a building. In ''Aggregation'', they show up again as main characters Sanford and Deimos. Several shorts that served as [={{Interquel}}=s] between ''Depredation'' and ''Inundation'' would show how they ended up where they were in the series.

* ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'': In ''Depredation'' two [[RedShirts Red Shirts]] show up to give Hank a sword before they get crushed under a building. In ''Aggregation'', they show up again as main characters Sanford and Deimos. Several shorts that served as {{Interquel|s}} between ''Depredation'' and ''Inundation'' would show how they ended up where they were in the series.

* ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'': In ''Depredation'' two [[Red Shirts]] show up to give Hank a sword before they get crushed under a building. In ''Aggregation'', they show up again as main characters Sanford and Deimos. Several shorts that served as {{Interquels}} between ''Depredation'' and ''Inundation'' would show how they ended up where they were in the series.

* ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'': In ''Depredation'' two Red Shirts show up to give Hank a sword before they get crushed under a building. In ''Aggregation'', they show up again as main characters Sanford and Deimos. Several shorts that served as Interquels between ''Depredation'' and ''Inundation'' would show how they ended up where they were in the series.

* ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'': In ''Depredation'' two Red Shirts show up to give Hank a sword before they get crushed under a building. In ''Aggregation'', they show up again as main characters Sanford and Deimos. Several shorts that served as Interquels between ''Depredation'' and ''Inundation'' would show how they ended up where they were in the series.

* [[SonicTheHedgehog Dr. Robotnik]] (in his ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' incarnation) has gone on to become one of the most popular WebAnimation/YouTubePoop characters, spawning hundreds of videos. This also happens with other characters from other sources, though LargeHam villains seem to get this the most.

** I.M. Meen stars in about 4 minutes of {{cutscene}}s and is somehow nearly as big as the CD-I ''Zelda'' games, despite them having at least five times more cutscenes than I. M. Meen does.
** Another notable AscendedExtra in the WebAnimation/YouTubePoop universe is Morshu the Shopkeeper, who is one of the most used characters despite having only ''two lines'' in the entire game of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCdiGames Link: The Faces of Evil]]''

** Robo merely made a last-minute cameo in episode 1, then became a full-fledged character.

* Tim from the youtube horror series WebOriginal/MarbleHornets is a huge example. He begins the series as merely one of many extra characters who are actors for the "Marble Hornets" independent film being made within the series' own universe. Others include Brian, Sarah, and Seth, and none of these are given much development. Tim only speaks a few random lines in the first few entries, such as Entry #12, and does not stand out, excepting the protagonist Jay's interviewing him of what he knows. However, he becomes even more important in the second series of entries when we find out that [[spoiler: He is The Masked Man who has been stalking Jay (presumably under possession by The Operator/The Slenderman).]] He continues to become a more prominent character in the series, eventually becoming somewhat of a sidekick to protagonist Jay. By the end of the series, following [[spoiler: Jay's death at the hands of The Hooded Man, Tim takes over his role as the series' protagonist]]