History ChekhovsGunman / Literature

* Creator/ChinaMieville's loves this trope in his [[Literature/{{Bas-LagCycle}} Bas-Lag]] novels.

** Bellatrix Lestrange is the unnamed woman on trial with Crouch Jr. in the PensieveFlashback in ''Goblet of Fire''. By the end of the series she's the most prominent and loyal Death Eater.

** Most notable is Thomas Theisman, who shows up in ''Honor of the Queen'' and has a minor role (well, not that small, but still, he's not even a secondary character). Then he appears briefly in ''The Short Victorious War'' and ''Flag in Exile'', presumably due to the [[LawOfConservationOfDetail Law of Conservation of Detail]], and takes a gradually bigger role in the narrative, until he finally [[spoiler:overthrows the evil government of his own country, restores the truly democratic one that hadn't existed for two centuries, beats the crap out of the Royal Manticoran Navy, rides to their rescue with ''his'' navy after they've had the equivalent of Pearl Harbor pulled on them and then signs a military alliance with them, shares a flag deck with Honor Harrington herself, then does some more awesome stuff... and he probably hasn't finished, as he has ascended to one of the main characters in a WorldOfBadass]].
** Honor's mum, Allison Benton-Ramirez y Chou Harrington. Mentioned briefly at the beginning of the same book as Theisman, she becomes more and more relevant from ''In Enemy's Hands'' on. Not to mention that by ''A Rising Thunder'' we find out [[spoiler: her brother is a Very Big Fish in the Beowulfan government]]. Of course, this branch of the family was mentioned earlier, but still...

* The Literature/HonorHarrington series has some of them, most notably Thomas Theisman, who shows up in ''Honor of the Queen'' and has a small minor role (well, not that small, but still, he's not even a secondary character). Then he appears shortly in few next books, presumably due to the [[LawOfConservationOfDetail Conservation of Detail]], until he finally [[spoiler:overthrows the evil government of his own country, sets up the new, truly democratic one, beats the crap out of Manticore, then allies with them, then does some more awesome stuff... and he probably hasn't finished, as he ascended to one of the main characters in World of Badass.]]
** Honor's Mum. Mentioned briefly at the beginning of the same book as Theisman, she becomes more and more relevant from ''In Enemy's Hands'' on. Not to mention that by ''Rising Thunder'' we find out [[spoiler: her brother is Big Fish in Beowulfian government]]. Of course, this branch of family was mentioned earlier, but still...

* In HGWells' ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', an unnamed artillery gunner appears in the main character's house and informs him of the Martian fighting machines, They go to a town together which is later attacked by the Martians, and he disappears in the chaos. Later he re-appears, speaking about how they can build a whole world underground. Over the course of the chapter, this becomes pivotal to the unnamed main character's decision to kill himself by running up to the Martian fighting machine-- only to discover it dead, leading to the final chapter of the book.

** The ultimate CheckovsGunman for ''Animorphs'', though, has got to be Crayak. The [[FanNickname Big Red Eye]] first appeared to Jake as a vision at the end of ''The Capture''. For the next twenty books this goes unmentioned, and then along comes ''The Attack'' and the big reveal.

* The [[Literature/HonorHarrington]] series has some of them, most notably Thomas Theisman, who shows up in ''Honor of the Queen'' and has a small minor role (well, not that small, but still, he's not even a secondary character). Then he appears shortly in few next books, presumably due to the [[LawOfConservationOfDetail Conservation of Detail]], until he finally [[spoiler:overthrows the evil government of his own country, sets up the new, truly democratic one, beats the crap out of Manticore, then allies with them, then does some more awesome stuff... and he probably hasn't finished, as he ascended to one of the main characters in World of Badass.]]

* The [[Literature/HonorHarrington]] series has some of them, most notably Thomas Theisman, who shows up in ''Honor of the Queen'' and has a small minor role (well, not that small, but still, he's not even a secondary character). Then he appears shortly in few next books, presumably due to the [[LawOfTheConservationOfDetail Conservation of Detail]], until he finally [[spoiler:overthrows the evil government of his own country, sets up the new, truly democratic one, beats the crap out of Manticore, then allies with them, then does some more awesome stuff... and he probably hasn't finished, as he ascended to one of the main characters in World of Badass.]]

** Fan-beloved Victor Cachat, of course. From secondary [[BigEyedIdealist Big-Eyed Idealist]] in one short story to main character one story and one book later, [[IncrediblyLamePun this Gunman was probably the fastest to fire]].

** Fan-beloved Victor Cachat, of course. From secondary [[BigEyedIdealist Big Eyed Idealist]] in one short story to main character one story and one book later, [[IncrediblyLamePun this Gunman was probably the fastest to fire]].

* Early on in ''ATreeGrowsInBrooklyn'', Sissy chats with a nameless policeman who tells her his wife is an invalid. A few years later, her sister Katie meets a policeman named [=McShane=], whose wife has tuberculosis. [[spoiler: He keeps track of her, and they marry several years later after both their spouses have died]].
* Creator/CSLewis in the fourth volume of ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' has a particularly devious one. Jill and Eustace are sent to look for the kidnapped King Caspian's son. Halfway through their journey to the place where the prince disappeared, they find a delightful young damsel escorted by a silent knight who doesn't show his face. [[spoiler:If you haven't read the book, you have correctly guessed by now that the knight is the prince that they were looking for. However, the damsel is, in fact, the BigBad that appears to the children to point the direction of a castle inhabited by giants for whom, humans are refined cuisine delights. And the children never even suspect about the identity of the two strangers until the climax of the book.]]
* ChinaMieville's loves this trope in his [[Literature/{{Bas-LagCycle}} Bas-Lag]] novels.
* In a party scene in ''Arrows of the Queen'', the first of the ''HeraldsOfValdemar'' novels, a throwaway line mentions Queen Selenay sitting next to a Herald with streaks of white in his hair at either temple. This turns out to be Herald Eldan, who has a significant role in ''By the Sword''.

* From the {{Deryni}} novels: In what amounts to a cameo role, Bishop Henry Istelyn first appears as a previously-unnamed itinerant bishop who delivers a notice of excommunication to Kelson early in ''High Deryni''. In the sequel ''The Bishop's Heir'' (set two years later), the loyal Istelyn is elected to the episcopal See of Meara and his fate becomes a major part of the book's plot.

* In ''WhenYouReachMe'', the laughing man seems to have no purpose in the book, but in the end, we learn that [[spoiler:he's one of the main character's friends who has traveled back in time to save one of her other friend's lives]]

* In ''TheManualOfDetection'', a sleepwalking custodian named Arthur appears to be a BitCharacter. [[spoiler: Turns out he's the overseer of the Agency.]]

** The ultimate CheckovsGunman for Animorphs, though, has got to be Crayak. The [[FanNickname Big Red Eye]] first appeared to Jake as a vision at the end of ''The Capture''. For the next twenty books this goes unmentioned, and then along comes ''The Attack'' and the big reveal.

** Even Neville Longbottom could be considered one of these; even in book one, he has little to do with the overall plot, and he remains a BitCharacter until ''Order of the Phoenix''. In ''Deathly Hallows'' he [[spoiler: cuts the head off of Nagini,]] the final Horcrux. He probably could have been introduced later like Luna was and it wouldn't have made much difference to the plot.

* In SandyMitchell's first ''CiaphasCain'' short story, we are introduced to Cain's rather smelly and loyal [[SideKick aide]] Jurgen, who doesn't look like he'll have much relevance except for jokes on how he puts people off with his atrocious hygiene standards. [[spoiler: Later on, it turns out Jurgen is an ''extremely'' potent "blank," someone who negates psychic powers and harms daemons simply by being in proximity to them, and his becomes a constant and critical plot point throughout the rest of the novels.]] His absolute loyalty and obedience to Cain also play important roles.
* ''TheDresdenFiles'' is very prone to this - the main opponent of a book will almost definitely be someone who was introduced in an earlier book, quite possibly ''Grave Peril''.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book, ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'', the milkman Ronnie Soak is mentioned here and there. Later, it turns out that Soak is [[spoiler:[[SdrawkcabAlias Kaos]], the ''fifth'' horseman of the apocalypse who [[Music/TheBeatles left before they became big]].]]
** Also, in Feet of Clay, [[spoiler: we are introduced to the "The Dragon" when Vimes goes to get his coat of arms. It turns out that he manipulated the whole difficulty with the golems..]]
** There's generally about one a book, it's Simon in Discworld/EqualRites, the Fool in Discworld/WyrdSisters, Lupine Wonse in Discworld/GuardsGuards, etc.
* In TadWilliams' ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'' series, the side plot involving Olga Pirovsky is treated with a great deal of significance even though it's not initially apparent how her mysterious headaches have anything to do with the main story. Even when she's tasked by [[TheChessmaster Sellars]] to [[DressingAsTheEnemy infiltrate]] the headquarters of J Corp, it seems like her role is fairly straightforward. Then comes TheReveal, and she turns out to get the biggest CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming in the whole series.
* Ezra Jennings from Wilkie Collins' ''Literature/TheMoonstone'' is the ''assistant'' to Dr. Candy, himself a side character. [[spoiler:Both of them, but especially Jennings, are more important to the plot than the reader might first think.]]

* A head of one of the smuggling organizations with a subplot in ''TheThrawnTrilogy'' has bodyguard, and in one line he calls her Shada. She's good at her job. Zahn later wrote a short story called "Hammertong", in which she was an all-around agent who was one of the many people who helped get the Death Star plans to Leia. In the ''HandOfThrawn'' duology written five years after ''The Thrawn Trilogy'', Shada Du'kal accompanies Talon Karrde on his search for a certain document, and has her own Mystral subplot.
* In J.C. Hutchins' ''Literature/SeventhSon'' trilogy, characters like Special K, Peppermint Patty and Klaus Bregner get throwaway mentions only to become very important later on.

* In ''TheSilmarillion'', Lúthien Tinúviel is introduced off-hand by Tolkien simply as the daughter of Thingol and Melian, but later, as we all know, plays a major part in [[spoiler:retrieving a Silmaril]] by owning Sauron's face and tricking Morgoth himself and proving herself to be totally {{Badass}}.
* In ''RedStormRising'', the Soviet Union, suddenly faced with a crippling oil shortage, decides to conquer the Middle East for oil. To do this, they first need to eliminate the threat NATO posed to the operation. Their plan was to detonate a bomb within the Kremlin, killing several staff members and 8 children from the city of Pskov, then blame it on West Germany and invade, hoping that the other western nations would object to being bled white to defend what they would see as a terrorist regime. The funeral is described in great detail, and the viewpoint character of the segment, a non-voting politburo member named Sergetov, focuses on a grief stricken captain of paratroopers, whose daughter's body was so mutilated that her face was draped in black silk for the open-casket ceremony. Near the end of the book, the chairman of the KGB and Sergetov join up with the most senior surviving Soviet general (most of the rest had been shot for failure) in a coup to prevent the deployment of nuclear arms at the battlefront. After taking power, the general turns to the KGB man and the following conversation takes place (paraphrased):

* MatthewReilly tends to introduce these early in the book when they become useful.

* In the ''YoungWizards'' books, there are a decent number. Two of note are Ponch, who in an incidence of ChekhovsGun does indeed get stranger the more time he spends with Kit, as wizards pets do. He crosses into and even creates alternate realities and is implied [[spoiler:to maybe be God. Who apparently likes palindromes.]] The other is Biddy in ''A Wizard Abroad'' who is the local smith and farrier and [[spoiler:turns out to be one of the Powers That Be and helps reforge a powerful artifact that has been lost.]]

* A particularly impressive one from DavidEddings. In ''The Ruby Knight'', the second book of his {{Elenium}} trilogy, Zalasta is introduced in what is practically a throwaway scene; literally, he's seen for less than a page. He's not seen or mentioned again in the entire trilogy... and then he shows up in the Tamuli trilogy as one of the major characters, [[spoiler: and ultimately turns out to be the closest thing to a BigBad for ''both'' trilogies]].

* In TheChroniclesOfAncientDarkness, The Walker, a crazy old man, is introduced in the 1st book, but it isn't till the sixth that we learn [[spoiler: he is the 7th Soul Eater.]] He did give us some hints, though, like when he said that before he went insane, he was "a very wise man".

* Sarah Caudwell's HilaryTamar mysteries have a tendency to mention elderly relatives of the protagonists in passing who will become crucial to later books in the series. The first book, ''Thus Was Adonis Murdered'', mentions that Cantrip has an uncle who's a Second World War veteran; he ends up providing some crucial exposition and a BigDamnHeroes moment in the third book ''The Sirens Sang Of Murder''. ''The Sirens Sang Of Murder'' in turn mentions Julia's Aunt Regina, who narrates a sizable fraction of the fourth book, ''The Sibyl In Her Grave''.
* RobertRankin's ''[[HollowChocolateBunniesOfTheApocalypse The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse]]'' has a literal example when [[spoiler:Jill]] shows up to shoot the BigBad and rescue Jack at the very end.

* ''InDeath'': At one point in ''Loyalty In Death'', an old man mentions how he has met with two guys with dead eyes who are just the muscle and working for terrorist organization Cassandra. [[spoiler: The two guys become the murderers to hunt down in the ''Survivor In Death'' story]]. In ''Judgment In Death'', a blonde-haired assassin working for Max Ricker kills off a mook who was going to reveal a lot of details. [[spoiler: The blonde-haired assassin turns out to be Max Ricker's daughter and she becomes the murderer to hunt down in the ''Promises In Death'' story]].
* The first ''{{Dinotopia}}'' book featured a minor character named Lee Crabb. He ends up becoming the antagonist in all the subsequent books (barring ''First Flight'', which is a prequel).

* In ShatterMe PluckyComicRelief Kenji is heard but not seen talking to Adam a few chapters before he makes an appearance in chapter 35.

* In ''LunarChronicles'' by Marissa Meyer, it is mentioned that Princess Selene of the moon had died in a fire- but that no body had been found, just some pieces of burnt flesh. Turns out that Cinder- the cyborg protagonist- was really [[spoiler: Princess Selene, who had been rescued successfully and had been given artificial replacement parts!]]

* Literature/TrappedOnDraconica: [[spoiler: Subverted.]] Daniar busts a drug runner early on in the narrative and he shows up later working for the BigBad and out for revenge. [[spoiler: Daniar busts him again without any trouble then or later.]]

* In ''TheHungerGames'', after Katniss shot an arrow at the Gamemakers she said that one of them tripped backwards into a punch bowl. She has a little interaction with him during her pre-Games interview, then he is never mentioned again. Until the next book, ''Catching Fire'', when she formally meets him and finds out that his name is Plutarch Heavensbee and he is now the Head Gamemaker. At the end of ''Catching Fire'', she finds out that he is ''also'' [[spoiler: part of a Capitol rebel group, and helped orchestrate the plan to break the victor-tributes out of the Quartel Quell arena.]] He then becomes a major character in ''Mockingjay'' and a significant player in the [[spoiler: war effort for the rebels.]]

* [[Literature/HonorHarrington Honor Harrington]] has some of them, most notably Thomas Theisman, who shows up in ''Honor of the Queen'' and has a small minor role (well, not that small, but still, he's not even a secondary character). Then he appears shortly in few next books, presumably due to the [[LawOfTheConservationOfDetail Conservation of Detail]], until he finally [[spoiler:overthrows the evil government of his own country, sets up the new, truly democratic one, beats the crap out of Manticore, then allies with them, then does some more awesome stuff... and he probably hasn't finished, as he ascended to one of the main characters in World of Badass.]]
** Honor's Mum. Mentioned briefly at the beginning of the same book as Theisman, she becomes more and more relevant from ''In Enemy's Hands'' on. Not to mention that by ''Rising Thunder'' we find out [[spoiler: her brother is Big Fish in Beowulfian gonverment]]. Of course, this branch of family was mentioned earlier, but still...

* ChinaMieville's loves this trope in his [[Literature/{{Bas-LagCycle}} Bas-Lag]] novels.
* In a party scene in ''Arrows of the Queen'', the first of the ''HeraldsOfValdemar'' novels, a throwaway line mentions Queen Selenay sitting next to a Herald with streaks of white in his hair at either temple. This turns out to be Herald Eldan, who has a significant role in ''By the Sword''.
** Similarly, both Herald Lavan Firestarter (''Brightly Burning'') and Herald Vanyel (''The Last Herald-Mage'') are mentioned as historical personages long before MercedesLackey wrote a book/trilogy about them.
* In HGWells' ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', an unnamed artillery gunner appears in the main character's house and informs him of the Martian fighting machines, They go to a town together which is later attacked by the Martians, and he disappears in the chaos. Later he re-appears, speaking about how they can build a whole world underground. Over the course of the chapter, this becomes pivotal to the unnamed main character's decision to kill himself by running up to the Martian fighting machine-- only to discover it dead, leading to the final chapter of the book.
* Also done in books two and three of Cinda Williams Chima's HighFantasy smash hit, Literature/TheSevenRealmsSeries. In book two, [[TheHero Han]] convinces ActionGirl Catarina to study at the temple school at [[AcademyOfAdventure Oden's Ford]], an area of the school known for producing the most refined maidservants in all of the Seven Realms. In book three, Han needs someone he can trust near [[RebelliousPrincess Raisa]], but someone that can also defend her. Turns out those skills Cat got came in handy.

* Creator/CSLewis in the fourth volume of ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' has a particularly devious one. Jill and Eustace are sent to look for the kidnapped King Caspian's son. Halfway through their journey to the place where the prince disappeared, they find a delightful young damsel escorted by a silent knight who doesn't show his face. [[spoiler:If you haven't read the book, you have correctly guessed by now that the knight is the prince that they were looking for. However, the damsel is, in fact, the BigBad that appears to the children to point the direction of a castle inhabited by giants for whom, humans are refined cuisine delights. And the children never even suspect about the identity of the two strangers until the climax of the book.]]

* Early on in ''ATreeGrowsInBrooklyn'', Sissy chats with a nameless policeman who tells her his wife is an invalid. A few years later, her sister Katie meets a policeman named [=McShane=], whose wife has tuberculosis. [[spoiler: He keeps track of her, and they marry several years later after both their spouses have died]].

* In the Legends trilogy of the ''Literature/GuardiansofGaHoole'' series (books 9-11), a character named Theo is introduced midway through book 9, and he becomes the first blacksmith and creates the first battleclaws, but that's about it. However, later on, in book 13, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Theo wrote the holy scriptures of the Middle Kingdom, and as such is directly responsible for the pacifist lifestyle of the owls of the Middle Kingdom, as well as being indirectly responsible for all the events involving the Striga, an escaped Dragon Owl who allies himself with [[BigBad Nyra]] and the Pure Ones in book 15.]]

** Molly Carpenter. Initially just one of Michael's many kids, she briefly appeared in ''Death Masks'' as a background character. She becomes a major player in later books when she [[spoiler: begins to manifest magical abilities and Harry takes her as an apprentice]]. At the end of ''[[Literature/ColdDays Cold Days]]'', [[spoiler: she becomes the new Winter Lady]].

* In TadWilliams' ''{{Otherland}}'' series, the side plot involving Olga Pirovsky is treated with a great deal of significance even though it's not initially apparent how her mysterious headaches have anything to do with the main story. Even when she's tasked by [[TheChessmaster Sellars]] to [[DressingAsTheEnemy infiltrate]] the headquarters of J Corp, it seems like her role is fairly straightforward. Then comes TheReveal, and she turns out to get the biggest CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming in the whole series.

* In ''TheHungerGames, after Katniss shot an arrow at the Gamemakers she said that one of them tripped backwards into a punch bowl. She has a little interaction with him during her pre-Games interview, then he is never mentioned again. Until the next book, ''Catching Fire'', when she formally meets him and finds out that his name is Plutarch Heavensbee and he is now the Head Gamemaker. At the end of ''Catching Fire'', she finds out that he is ''also'' [[spoiler: part of a Capitol rebel group, and helped orchestrate the plan to break the victor-tributes out of the Quartel Quell arena.]] He then becomes a major character in Mockingjay and a significant player in the [[spoiler: war effort for the rebels.]]

** ''TurnCoat'' has another major one: [[spoiler:The obnoxious little secretary wizard who tries to get Harry to sign for a folder he was getting off the record turns out to be (one of) the traitor(s) on the Council. And he was actually trying to get Harry to sign because he was using special ink for signatures to screw with the wizards' minds.]]

* In DangerousFugitives, Wilson appears to just be a deputy to the BigBad. [[spoiler: He ends up saving the day.]]

** Gandalf mentions Aragorn and the Nazgul in the second chapter. Gandalf even [[LampshadeHanging points out]] the fact that he mentioned the Nazgul to Frodo before any of the characters even met them.

* ''AtlasShrugged'': Who is John Galt? The unnamed minor character standing in plain sight for six hundred pages, rather than a rhetorical question.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book, ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'', the milkman Ronnie Soak is mentioned here and there. Later, it turns out that Soak is [[spoiler:[[SdrawkcabName Kaos]], the ''fifth'' horseman of the apocalypse who [[Music/TheBeatles left before they became big]].]]