History EnsembleDarkhorse / WesternAnimation

*** Heh, Developed, Huge, Heh. (Sorry).

** Subverted with Captain Atom, who appeared in the first episode along with other soon-to-be-popular characters, but never managed to achieve popularity. Still, he was able to fight Superman one-on-one and almost thrash the big man, in spite of being a supporting character

** Perry the Platypus is so popular, he has a plush doll(that can make the noise he does) and other merchandise.
*** Really, almost every character could quilfy as this. Almost everyone has a small fanbase (Yes, even [[TheScrappy Irving]].

*** Sari broke tradition and became the first human character to ever be accepted by the fanbase. [[spoiler: Of course she's not really a human, but when fans accepted her they thought she was.]]

** As does Admiral Trench, the [[Chessmaster Chessmaster spider]] who turned up, much to the surprise of Admiral Wullf who [[FakingTheDead thought he was dead]], made Anakin run behind the moon for cover, then bombed the planet to draw them out and deduced who was flying the retaliating stealth ship. When he [[FakingTheDead died]] the first time it was at the hands of a special task force just for him and lead by Jedi.

* ''{{Ed Edd N Eddy}}'' has Marie, the blue-haired Kanker. She has a much larger fanbase than any other girl in the show and is often considered to be the most attractive one, even despite she wasn't created for that purpose. Furthermore, introducing the Kankers sparked a mild interest in Eddy/Lee and Ed/May, but Edd/Marie is a definite FanPreferredCouple, right next to most of the HoYay pairings. Ironically, Edd and Marie have the least in common out of the three ships - [[JerkAss Eddy]] and [[FieryRedhead Lee]] are the bossy ones, [[CloudCuckoolander Ed]] and [[TheDitz May]] are the stupid ones, while Edd and Marie seem almost like polar opposites. Edd is a weak, stuck-up neat freak and Marie is often violent, loud and not too clever. The lack of any likeness makes the couple especially hilarious - maybe that's what the shippers are attracted to, conciously or not.

* WoodyWoodpecker originally debuted as the villain of the Andy Panda cartoon short ''Knock Knock'' in an attempt to deliberately invoke this trope-WalterLantz and his cartoon studio was hitting hard times after the series OswaldTheLuckyRabbit ran out of gas, and Andy Panda wasn't the new hit star they needed badly to rejuvanate the ailing studio. Unsurprisingly, [[BreakoutCharacter Woody became an instand hit upon debut]] and went on to immediately star in his own smash hit series of short subjects.

* Brainiac 5 from the Legion of Superheroes cartoon was adored by countless fangirls. Somewhat disturbing considering he looks eleven, but still.

* The Disneyfied WinnieThePooh series has [[CloudCuckoolander Tig]][[CrazyAwesome ger]], and to a lesser degree, [[TheWoobie Eyeore and Piglet]].
* An Example of a team of Ensemble Darkhorses are the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from XMenEvolution, particulally [[JerkAss Quick]][[DracoInLeatherPants Silver]] & Toad, often getting paired off in Fanfics with a female (Somtimes even Male) character who the author relates to the most, usually with Pietro or Toad often being nothing alike the original character & instead being nice & sweet rather than a massive Jerk & a living Squick.
** CanonImmigrant X-23 is also really popular, so much so that she was brought into the comics after only two real appearances & a Cameo in the final, with a million Fanfics deal with her life, some very depressing, some comic, some just to be paired off with character's she never even interacted with, & most of the time she just becomes a MarySue.
** A Recent fanfic began to feature Heavily an Extra in the Season 2 pilot, the blond haired kid sat next to Kitty was named Doug Ramsey by the author & given the mutant power of the same Doug Ramsey from the comics & used as a computer genius, despite the fact he never said anything.
*** The same Fanfic also used X-23 & had many chapters about her.

* ''{{Ed Edd N Eddy}}'' has Marie, the blue-haired Kanker. She has a much larger fanbase than any other girl in the show and is often considered to be the most attractive one, even despite she wasn't created for that purpose. Furthermore, introducing the Kankers sparked a mild interest in Eddy/Lee and Ed/May, but Edd/Marie is a definite FanPreferredCouple, right next to most of the HoYay pairings. Ironically, Edd and Marie have the least in common out of the three ships - [[JerkAss Eddy]] and [[TheLeader Lee]] are the bossy ones, [[CloudCuckoolander Ed]] and [[TheDitz May]] are the stupid ones, while Edd and Marie seem almost like polar opposites. Edd is a weak, stuck-up neat freak and Marie is often violent, loud and not too clever. The lack of any likeness makes the couple especially hilarious - maybe that's what the shippers are attracted to, conciously or not.

*** Actually, due to overuse, not to mention being ASpannerInTheWorks one too many times, Cheese quickly became TheWesley. [[IncrediblyLamePun One can only have so much Cheese.]]

* Robert Mandell stated that he had set up the pilot episode and the inital story arc around [[TheHero Zachary]], but then "Along came [[TheLancer Goose]]"

* Robert Mandell stated that he had set up the pilot episode and the inital story arch around [[TheHero Zachary]], but then "Along came [[TheLancer Goose]]"

** Panchito Pistoles and José Carioca, Donald's fellow [[Disney/TheThreeCaballeros Caballeros]], are well-liked among the fanbase as well. I mean, how else did they get a guest appearance on ''Disney's HouseOfMouse'' as well as their own ride (''Gran Fiesta Tour [[SpotlightStealingTitle Starring The Three Caballeros]]'') in the Mexico Pavilion of [[DisneyThemeParks Epcot]]'s World Showcase? Ditto for the Aracuan Bird, who was popular enough to torment Donald in future shorts.

** Panchito Pistoles and José Carioca, Donald's fellow [[Disney/TheThreeCaballeros Caballeros]], are well-liked among the fanbase as well. I mean, how else did they get a guest appearance on ''Disney's HouseOfMouse'' as well as their own ride (''Gran Fiesta Tour [[SpotlightStealingTitle Starring The Three Caballeros]]'') in the Mexico Pavilion of [[DisneyThemeParks Epcot]]'s World Showcase? Ditto for the Aracuan Bird, who was popular to torment Donald in future shorts.

* [[OldestOnesInTheBook A classic example]]: [[ClassicDisneyShorts Donald Duck]] arguably fits the bill (if you'll mind the pun). After Mickey Mouse [[TheEveryman became much more relaxed and "boring"]] (an attempt to make him a better role model for the kids who liked him) a character was needed to [[{{Foil}} embody the more negative qualities]] that made the cartoons fun. Donald's bad temper and [[SpeechImpediment amusing speech patterns]] made him a hit and he is usually at the center of most of the big laughs in the cartoons he is featured (or, as his popularity has grown, starring) in.

**And while not every fan likes pairing her with Ferb, Vanessa herself is quite popular.

** Plus she's a girl. A girl who was ''technically'' dating Zim and was apparently friendly with Dib, in a show where [[NoHuggingNoKissing virtually no other romance is allowed.]] SoYeah.

* [[KungFuPanda Tai Lung]]. My God, [[DracoInLeatherPants Tai]] [[EvilIsSexy Lung]]. Ostensibly the villain, he ends up dominating the fandom for a variety of reasons: he's a [[StupidSexyFlanders disturbingly attractive]] and utterly BadAss [[FurryFandom anthropomorphic snow-leopard]] whose every ''scene'' is a CrowningMomentOfAwesome, with a gradually-revealed FreudianExcuse that turns this [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain terrifying threat]] into a total [[TheWoobie woobie]]. Did I mention he's [[BritishAccents voiced by]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadwood_(TV_series) Ian McShane]]? [[SoYeah Yeah.]]

**Possibly...likely...due to the fact that, basically, Brainiac 5 was pretty much ''actively shipped'' with Superman. No seriously, in fact an early episode of the second season has him playing through a holodeck fanfic of himself and Superman, and other characters comment on the HoYay. They even bring it up in the comics. So yeah, for all practical purposes Braniac 5 and Superman were supposed to be a couple. ''Seriously''.

**And while not every fan likes pairing her with Ferb, Vanessa herself is quite popular.