History Main / ChekhovsGunman

* ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'':
** Eugene started out as a minor character in the 1997 Camp story arc, but 3 years later, the Wus, including him, returned, but aside for one strip early on, he never appeared. That is, until [[spoiler:it turned out that he was the one who stole Phoebe's camp journal, and left a bunch of fake clues from everyone, setting up the events of the arc.]]
** It was even lampshaded in the final strip of the storyline, after everyone realized that Eugene was the innocuous secondary character who was introduced, then forgotten.

* In the ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' event, Tales of the Lantern Corps #3 gives Kilowogg some CharacterDevelopment by showing his own training as a rookie lantern by [[{{Expy}} Lantern Ermey]]. [[spoiler: In ''Green Lantern Corps'' #41, Ermeys return as a Black Lantern.]]
* The locust swarm that causes the Bone brothers to get separated in the first issue of ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'' seem like just some natural, albeit random, occurrence. After the scene where the swarm separates the Bones the locusts disappear and don't seem to have been all that important. That is until later when we learn about who the BigBad is. [[spoiler: He's called The Lord of '''Locusts''']].

* ComicBook/TheJoker during ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''. First seen torturing King and asking him why he wasn't invited to join the Society. Is told that he's considered too unpredictable, and kills King out of anger. Not seen for the next hundreds of pages or so. [[spoiler: Guess who kills Alexander Luthor Jr.?]]

* The first page of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' features a red-haired man holding a sign that reads "TheEndIsNigh." He appears a few more times and doesn't seem very important--[[spoiler: until Rorschach's mask comes off halfway through]].

** Issue 9 features a brief appearance from an incredibly minor bystander named Quark. About two dozen issues later, [[spoiler: Quark turns out to be Brainstorm's motive for his scheme to rewrite history; he was Brainstorm's unrequited love who died in the war.]]

* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': TJ sometimes makes offhand remarks concerning a new recruit under his command. In ch. 74, Asuka and Shinji get to meet this new Private. [[spoiler: ''It's Gendo''; he snuck into their unit using his birth name of Rokubungi.]]
* In ''Fanfic/{{Downfall|Bleach}}'', [[spoiler: Zommari shows up in chapter 16, casually mentioned: "The most senior of these artificial Arrancar, a bald, dark-skinned, sinister-looking man, was kneeling on one knee, silently, at the perimeter of the force."]] -he goes on to be a pivotal fighter in the subsequent battle, never mentioned by name. This is especially notable, as [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap it gives him a much needed moment of true badassery]].

* In ''Fanfic/HogyokuExMachina'', after [[Manga/{{Bleach}} Ichigo's]] [[PeggySue time traveled]], he and other characters try to avoid future crisis' by planning ahead and/or making peace with would-be enemies. This includes [[{{Filler}} anime filler arcs]] and [[NonSerialMovie movie continuities]], so it wasn't unusual to see [[spoiler: Muramasa]] involved. At the [[spoiler: final battle, though, he saves Ichigo's life which completely thwarts Aizen's plans. Without him there, [[TheBadGuyWins the bad guy would have won]]]]. Yep, a [[spoiler: [[FillerVillain former filler villain]]]] was ''that important''.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Forward}}'', Ashley Frye bumps into a drunk man in a bar while looking for information about her sister Kaylee. This later turns out to be John Garis, an agent of the Academy who's after River, and he saves Ashley from [[spoiler: Jubal Early]].
* In ''Fanfic/CalvinAtCamp'', Calvin throws a water balloon at Sally, early on in the episode "Champion Charlie Brown." [[spoiler: She comes back later and has him arrested by the Urban Rangers for it, playing right into Lucy's hands.]]
* In ''Fanfic/WhiteRain'', the kid who gets punched in the face back in Chapter 1 [[spoiler: shows up in Chapter 11 and helps out.]]

* ''Fanfic/ThePowersOfHarmony'': Vigil at first just seems to be a SixthRanger there for no reason other than giving the group of Royal Guards enough members. Then it turns out he's [[spoiler: [[PoweredByAForsakenChild Horizon]]'s brother (last seen, unnamed, in the flashback Blair and Piro show Twilight) and linked to him the same way as the Echoes.]]
* Played with in ''Fanfic/JusticeSocietyOfJapan''. Given how [[Anime/CodeGeass Lelouch Lamperogue]] and the Black Knights appear early one, one would expect that Zero would be one of the founding members of the titular team. [[spoiler: Subverted in that he isn't. Shirley Fenette is. But double subverted in that Lelouch himself plays an important role.]]

** In chapter 4, Stella asks Santos to deliver a letter to a friend of hers who lives in Silver Woods. As Stella starts to realize what is really going on, we see her frequently communicating with said friend via letters regarding the events of the plot. Stella's pen pal is eventually revealed to be a Mismagius named Samara, [[spoiler: and she is working on a way to seal the BigBad of the story away once more.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheFifthAct'' has younger Cloud Strife, whom the elder [[PeggySue Cloud Strife]] convinced while posing as the kid's uncle to stay in Nibelheim instead of joining Shinra in the early chapters. The kid comes back [[spoiler: when he goes to Midgard with the escaped Kunsel in tow]] trying to find his "uncle" and give Zack and Genesis the means to [[SpottingTheThread find the holes]] in the elder Cloud's cover story.
** Another is Vincent, who is quickly ditched by Cloud when he doesn't support Cloud's plan to kill Sephiroth. He comes back [[spoiler: when he shoots Hojo in the head.]]

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6501165/19/Enemy-to-Love Enemy to Love]]'', Orihime doesn't have much screen time early on, but she is the one to [[spoiler: A. destroy the Hogyoku so [[BigBad Aizen]] couldn't use it, and B. use it's power to bring Ulquiorra [[BackFromTheDead back to life]], who kills Aizen himself]].

* In the earlier chapters of ''Fanfic/{{Shatterheart}}'' Syaoran is accosted by a gang, with its leader heading the fight, on his way home from the library. Syaoran has to run from the fight when he sees that he's outnumbered. Syaoran meets the gang again fifty chapters later during an outing with Fai and they turn out to be [[spoiler: {{Serial Killer}}s who kidnap and torture him ForTheEvulz.]]
* In ''[=Yu-Gi-Oh!=]: Dark Messiah'' the Mayor of New York appears in an early chapter to give some words of encouragement to the protagonist, and is stated to be a Duel Monsters fan herself. [[spoiler: She's [[TheManBehindTheMan the woman behind the man]], as well as [[TheLegionsOfHell literally demonic]]]].

* In ''{{Fanfic/Eugenesis}}'', Doubleheader is introduced as a very minor character who's only real role is to give Nightbeat minor info on the mystery at the heart of the story. A couple dozen chapters later, [[spoiler: he's revealed to be the Decepticon mole and proceeds to suicide bomb a major demonstration, critically injuring Rodimus.]]

* ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'': Scott and Barda Free, who are initially introduced during an investigation of a BoomTube sighting. Barda Free and Wonder Woman become fast friends and the possibility of them coming back to action is discussed. [[spoiler: In both the Paragon and Renegade timelines, they are recruited when the Team has to fight the Light and the mind-control League.]]
** Yao Fei AKA Accomplished Perfect Physician. He was brought up by Paragon!OL to Batman as a Justice League candidate to have a CombatMedic on board and he does join the Justice League and the Great Ten off-screen. [[spoiler: Guess who the team has to fight when the League gets mind controlled? And manages to beat the Team back into retreating?]]
** Cassie Sandsmark, the future Wonder Girl and illegitimate child by Zeus. It was mentioned that until she was found out, it was thought that Zeus had changed and was faithful to Hera. [[spoiler: She becomes one of the reasons that Hera is successfully convinced to divorce Zeus.]]

* [[spoiler: Lance M Donovan]] who had made appearances earlier in ''WebVideo/ImAMarvelAndImADC'' before his significance showed up. In literal terms, we also have [[spoiler: the Punisher]] who shot the Joker when he was [[spoiler: holding Harley hostage to use as his escape.]] You know when [[spoiler: he said "I'm waiting for an opportunity to present itself"]], it was going to be awesome.

* In chapter 8 of ''Fanfic/WhenTheBrushHitsTheCanvas'', Link is saved by [[spoiler: the [=StreetPass=] grandpa]] of all people. Before that, he was only given a throwaway line in chapter 4.
* In Chapter 2 of ''Fanfic/HalfPastAdventure'', the RedHerring FemmeFatale's {{cyborg}} [[TheJeeves valet]] Izak seems to just be a minor background character… until he [[spoiler: ends up being the one to take out Bandit Princess]].

** Chapter 17 would introduce Lyam / Chrono Rabbit, a TimeTravelingJerkass that tries to rob from the past only to be defeated and locked away, but not before finding out the heroes’ {{Secret Identit|y}}ies. [[spoiler: Chapter 24 would have the Disaster Team finding and recruiting Chrono Rabbit, then learn the heroes’ identities and broadcast them across Paris]].

* In the ''Theatre/MrsHawking'' play series: [[spoiler: Yulia Sherba in ''[[https://vimeo.com/201477887 Base Instruments]]''. She is introduced as if she is only there to fall for Justin's charm, but it's actually to seed her for her relevance to the mystery.]]

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': [[spoiler: Genocider Syo/Genocide Jack]], is brought up at the start of the game as the possible mastermind behind the cast's current predicament, and later on turns out to be Fukawa's SplitPersonality. In Chihiro's third free-time conversation, Chihiro reveals that [[spoiler:he is working on an self-aware artificial intelligence]]; later, [[spoiler:after Chihiro's death, the heroes find a laptop housing the AI (Alter Ego) and it becomes the heroes' ally]]. Finally, [[spoiler:Junko Enoshima]] is a seemingly minor character who [[spoiler:gets killed in Chapter 1]] without making much of an impact on the plot. [[spoiler:Later it turns out she is actually the mysterious sixteenth student in disguise, who was also a false gunman and was suspected of being the mastermind. So what happened to the real Junko? She's the [[BigBad mastermind]]]].

** In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', two characters introduced before your first mission suddenly become ''extremely'' important at the end game. One is the doctor you meet goofing off in your room, who ends up as the only ranked staff member at Chaldea after the bombing and becomes your MissionControl. [[spoiler: He's a Servant who won the Grail War that led to the creation of Chaldea and is key to the BigBad's existence.]] The other is [[spoiler: the RidiculouslyCuteCritter that follows Mash around. It's one of the [[GreaterScopeVillain Seven Beasts of Calamity]].]]
*** Before the bombing, the Director says that the mission to Singularity F will be carried out by Chaldea's seven best agents. After the bombing, they are presumed dead and never heard from again. [[spoiler: They become the major antagonists of Part 2, working for the Alien God. For a double example, one of them is a [[HumanoidAbomination True]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Ancestor]].]]
*** A 2021 art, voice, and animation update for the Caster Cu Chulainn met in the prologue strongly implies that [[spoiler: he's [[GodWasMyCopilot Odin, the Norse king of the gods]], disguised as Cu Chulainn]]. And that he knew and was preparing you for the Lostbelts from at ''least'' the first White Day event, if not even earlier.

** Dr. Demitri himself proves to be far more important than he seems. Aside from the novel confirming he is Krosp's creator, [[spoiler: Agatha and Krosp eventually discover that the real secret he managed to keep from the Baron creating an army of [[BearsAreBadNews Intelligent Bear-Soldiers]] for Krosp to command]]. [[OneDegreeOfSeparation He also turns out to be]] [[spoiler: Martellus's]] mentor.

** Hel, the dwarven goddess of the dead, was shown in a couple throwaway gags arguing with Thor over whether dead dwarves counted as having died in battle. [[spoiler: But then it was revealed that after being turned into a vampire, the dark spirit that now controls Durkon is a servant of Hel.]]

** Then there's [[spoiler: the alternate John who Terezi tricked into flying to his death. His death led to the Dave in his timeline going back and becoming Davesprite, but after that he was completely forgotten until dead Vriska meets him with a dream bubble, and thinking he's "her" John, takes him on a tour/date.]]

** John is described early on as having a deep-seated hatred for Betty Crocker. It's mostly played for laughs, until the Doc Scratch intermission of Act 5 Act 2, where it's revealed that [[spoiler: Betty Crocker wasn't human, and is the Troll Empress, working for Lord English.]]
*** [[spoiler: The Empress herself is also a Chekhov's Gunman, having been referred to in Feferi's introduction.]]
** In Act 6, we meet [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006015 Jane Crocker]], [[spoiler: Nanna's teenage alternate]]. Her appearance was first previewed [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003822 back in Act 4]], two thousand pages and about a year and a half prior.
** In [[spoiler: Jake]]'s letter to John, all the way back at the Act 4 epilogue, he mentions that somebody had to twist his arm to get him working on John's birthday present. Fast forward to Act 6, and [[spoiler: Jake talks to Calliope]], who mentions giving him some more arm twisting.

* Back in 2011, a character named Pete the Primid appeared in ''Webcomic/LsEmpire'' who was a member of L.E.E.T. that was fired after only a single panel. 4 years and 890 pages later [[spoiler: he turns out to be the [[TzadikimNistarim Smash Threader]].]]

* ''Webcomic/MrBoop'': [[spoiler: The divorce lawyer]] is a literal example.

** A post-mortem one. Early on, news reports talk of a superhero being murdered. The same superhero later turns out to be [[spoiler: Remi's brother Rei, whose passing motivates her to start investigating EMBER.]]

* Eric Rosethorn from ''WebVideo/TheQuestForGeekdom'' makes a brief appearance as a one shot character. Later he becomes [[spoiler: the big bad.]]

* ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'' features Hobo 1 and Hobo 2, who seem at first to just be random hobos worshipping the number four. [[spoiler:But, as revealed in the 10 Year Anniversary Special, [[ThereIsAnother they turn out to actually be SMG1 and SMG2]], and as revealed in The Other Universe, they caused [[GreaterScopeVillain SMG0]]’s crash landing in the Mushroom Kingdom, which also caused [[BigBad SMG3]]’s guardian pod to be knocked off course by him, leading to the latter antagonising the gang for the entire series]].
* ''Blog/TheRaptureLogs'': Cockroach Jesus, introduced in the introductory post in ''OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING'' was originally just a throwaway character meant to be a little warmup to all the craziness. Turns out [[spoiler:he is the BigBad, the emissary to [[GreaterScopeVillain The Rapture]], and destroyer of universes.]]
* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': As the stories center around the 600 or so students at the [[SuperHeroSchool Whateley Academy]] and their connections (plus the fact that the number of novels, novel chapters, short stories, novelettes, and vignettes now numbers over a hundred) it is sort of inevitable that characters seen in passing can become major players in later stories. Examples: Beltane (Kendall Forbes) gives the protagonists the campus tour on day one... and much later gets her own leading role in "For Whom the Belle Tolls", as well as other appearances. The Headmistress gives a speech on the first day of classes... and then turns out to also be the greatest superheroine around (in her spare time).
** One of the hot blondes that Phase sees in the cafeteria on her first day at Whateley Academy - the one who really stares angrily at her -- turns out to be an old enemy. Who then in later stories turns out to be the blackmailer. And then in a ''later'' story actually gets people to try to kill Team Kimba. And then in a '''later''' story takes over the Alpha clique and runs the student body, so she can ''really'' go after the heroes.

* ''Literature/TheQuestportChronicles'': So, that mage who shows up in the first quest of the third year? Yeah, turns out that [[spoiler:he was responsible for the destruction of Questport.]]

* ''Literature/TheTimTebowCFLChronicles:''
** In the first chapter, Tebow pauses to sign an autograph for a young fan in Toronto. Chapters later, that same kid (now a young teen) shows up again, this time as a player for the Atlantic Schooners.
** In the wilderness of Quebec, the Toronto Argonauts start getting supply drops from bizarre, futuristic aircraft. This is their first contact with their fans from Greenland City, who they don't meet properly until the final chapter.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeqZ6yMCZUM&feature=rec-HM-fresh+ div This]] five minute skit uses it twice! (Pay attention to the chaos that effects 2 characters...)

* Two in ''WebVideo/ThereWillBeBrawl''.
** [[spoiler: Game and Watch]] had been seen around the city doing various tasks. [[spoiler: He actually is an EldritchAbomination, and is the "End of Days" meant to bring about the end of the world.]]
** [[spoiler: Ness and Lucas]] were seen playing in an alley, and served to remind Luigi of his motivation for fighting. [[spoiler: Then it gets turned on his head when he discovers ''[[CreepyChild they]]'' are the murderers. And that feeling of hope Luigi got from seeing them was artificially planted by their telepathy to keep Luigi fighting -- which they found entertaining.]]
* Eric Rosethorn from ''WebVideo/TheQuestForGeekdom'' makes a brief appearance as a one shot character. Later he becomes [[spoiler: the big bad.]]
* Early in ''Film/ProjectMillion'', WebVideo/{{Diamanda|Hagan}} pops the balling of a little boy at Disneyland, then steals his lollipop. [[spoiler: He later shows up to club her over the head and save Robert. Though he's really only after his lolly.]]

* This happens a lot in [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos Slender Man stories.]] Notable examples include [[spoiler:[[WebVideo/MarbleHornets Brian,]] who makes about eight appearances, maximum, who turns out to be the Hooded Man/totheark and [[WebVideo/TribeTwelve Kevin,]] who was mentioned exactly once as the translator for Noah's uncle's German, who is eventually revealed to be the Observer, ''[[ExaggeratedTrope essentially the series's primary selling point outside of amazing visual effects.'']]
* Kynan from ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' was introduced in Episode 23 as an InUniverse FanBoy of Vox Machina whose dreams of joining the group were crushed by Vax. He returns in Episode 67 [[spoiler:[[FaceHeelTurn as one of]] [[MadScientist Dr. Ripley]][[FaceHeelTurn 's henchmen]].]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/{{mothy}}:
** The ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'' song "Daughter of Evil" (sung by Kagamine Rin) gives us this example: Early on, the song mentions that the princess has a "servant with a like face". In the sequel, "Servant of Evil" sung Kagamine Len, it turns out that [[spoiler:the servant in question, the princess's twin brother, changed clothes with her so he could die in his sister's place.]]
** Fans waited years for the song representing [[SevenDeadlySins Wrath]] to come out, which was commonly (and wrongly) believed to be "The Last Revolver". Come 2014, and "The Last Revolver" turns out to be the backstory for the Wrath song, "The Muzzle of Nemesis". The Wrath sinner was staring everyone in the face for four years and no one knew it. Bonus points for being an actual gunman.
* ''Music/RedHotChiliPeppers'' released "Dani California" in 2006. The title character was soon revealed to be the same "Dani the girl" from the chorus of "By the Way" (2002) and also the "teenage bride with a baby inside" from "Californication" (1999).

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* [[spoiler:Chad]] from ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale''. Mentioned once in episode 3, [[spoiler:then he's revealed to have summoned a [[EldritchAbomination Beagle]] (ItMakesSenseInContext) in The April Monologues, about three and a half years worth of episodes later.]]
* [[spoiler:Barry Bluejeans]] from ''Podcast/TheAdventureZone''. He's just a throwaway joke character who dies in the very first mission... [[spoiler:until he returns much, much later as the true identity of the mysterious Red Robe, a member of the IPRE, and ''Taako's brother-in-law''.]]

* In the ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' event, Tales of the Lantern Corps #3 gives Kilowogg some CharacterDevelopment by showing his own training as a rookie lantern by [[{{Expy}} Lantern Ermey]]. [[spoiler: In ''Green Lantern Corps'' #41, we see Ermey return as a Black Lantern.]]

* In ''Franchise/SpiderMan'', ComicBook/NormanOsborn was originally introduced as a nameless member of Mr. Jameson's club, and got upgraded to nameless friend of Jameson a while later. While he got a good deal of mostly non-speaking background appearances, he was barely noticed until he was revealed to be Harry Osborn's father about 2 years after his first appearance. 2 issues later he was revealed as the Green Goblin, who had been an active villain in the series for years.

* ''WebOriginal/{{Serina}}'': The fireslime lumpus, a froglike animals that secrets a potent neurotoxin in its skin, is first mentioned in the Cactaiga entry as simply one example of the environment's fauna, without receiving any more focus than any of the many other animal species in the project. Some entries later, its toxin is used by the gravediggers to help the fisher and pastoralist daydreamers turn the tide against their warmonger foes by arming them with poisoned spears.

* ''Fanfic/AllAmericanGirl'': Screwball and Barking Mad/Screw Loose are casually mentioned in an early chapter. At first it looks like yet another background character cameo which are common in ''My Little Pony'' fanfics. Later, however, [[spoiler:they re-appear and are revealed to be subordinates of Faust herself, one being a Discord cultist with chaos magic and the other a supernatural being of chaos, who play a role in the plot.]]

* Chapter 1 of ''[[Fanfic/TheZeroContextSeries Zero Context: Taking Out the Trash]]'' has a background character named Mini-Lina referred to briefly in a throwaway line, playing video games somewhere in the near distance. After she's apologized to for being interrupted, she disappears from the story [[spoiler:until the second-to-last chapter, at which point Mini-Lina ''[[LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Inverse]]'' pops up to annihilate a magic-proofed mecha that had been giving the protagonists trouble.]]

** In ''ComicBook/SupermanSpaceAge'', Brainiac shows our Superman a world that had already destroyed itself, leaving only its Superman, in an attempt to get him to join him. As the end of his own world approaches, Superman decides to give that world renewed hope by transporting its inhabitants' DNA structures there.

* ''The Manhua/RavagesOfTime'' uses this trope so, ''so'' much: For example, the little kid who made a one-page appearance alongside Shan Wuling and some shady types at the end of a chapter in Volume 6 but who's quickly forgettable once the rest all take up much more prominent roles? When he appears as a grown up in Volume 33 and moves out, his identity is hinted at by his new traveling companions are identified as Xu Sheng and Pan Zhang[[note]]officers of the future "kingdom" of Wu[[/note]], then confirmed when he identifies himself as [[spoiler:Zhongmou]], the courtesy name of [[spoiler:Sun Quan]].
* ''ComicBook/RickAndMortyOni'': A few people from the series or from previous issues of the comics make unexpected reappearances later on:

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

** In ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl1982 Supergirl Volume 2]]'' #4, Linda's tenant Mrs. Berkowitz observes an old picture of her missing daughter Rachel and cries. In Supergirl #13, Supergirl meets and fights super-villain Blackstarr... as well known as ''Rachel Berkowitz''.
** At the beginning of ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2011 Post-Flashpoint Supergirl book]]'', some aliens are seen floating in several pods in the background. In later story ''ComicBook/LastDaughterOfKrypton'', ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} meets and fights four of those aliens -who were called worldkillers-, and her leader reveals that there is a fifth worldkiller. Guess who fights Supergirl at the climax of the ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' arc, almost thirty issues later?

* In ''ComicBook/WhiteSand'':
** Aarik is first introduced as a mysterious stranger who lends a hand to Ais in beating up a thug she's chasing. Few chapters later, he turns out to be Kenton's childhood friend and joins the character rooster.
** Drije is mentioned in passing as a Sand Master who tried to sell his skills for money, and is later stripped of his Mastrell's sash for this. Later it turns out that [[spoiler:he was responsible for slaughter of his fellow Sand Masters.]]
* ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' introduces Xadhoom this way, having her clouded in shadow as she screams a BigNo after witnessing the end of the Evronian invasion of Xerba (her homeworld). She reappears two issues later as Evron's worst enemy.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' has three gunmen. The first is [[spoiler: Genocider Syo/Genocide Jack]], who is brought up at the start of the game as the possible mastermind behind the cast's current predicament, and who later on turns out to be Fukawa's SplitPersonality. The second one is first mentioned during Chihiro's third free-time conversation, where Chihiro reveals that [[spoiler:he is working on an self-aware artificial intelligence]]; later, [[spoiler:after Chihiro's death, the heroes find a laptop housing the AI (Alter Ego) and it becomes the heroes' ally]]. Finally, [[spoiler: Junko Enoshima]] is a seemingly minor character who [[spoiler:gets killed in Chapter 1]] without making much of an impact on the plot. [[spoiler:Later it turns out she is actually the mysterious sixteenth student in disguise, who was also a false gunman and was suspected of being the mastermind. So what happened to the real Junko? She's the [[BigBad mastermind]]]].

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' has three gunmen. The first is [[spoiler: Genocider Syo/Genocide Jack]], who is brought up at the start of the game as the possible mastermind behind the cast's current predicament, and who later on turns out to be Fukawa's SplitPersonality. The second one is first mentioned during Chihiro's third free-time conversation, where Chihiro reveals that [[spoiler:he is working on an self-aware artificial intelligence]]; later, [[spoiler:after Chihiro's death, the heroes find a laptop housing the AI (Alter Ego) and it becomes the heroes' ally]]. Finally, [[spoiler: Junko Enoshima]] is a seemingly minor character who [[spoiler:gets killed in Chapter 1]] without making much of an impact on the plot. [[spoiler:Later it turns out she is actually the mysterious sixteenth student in disguise. So what happened to the real Junko? She's the [[BigBad mastermind]]]].

* ''Machinima/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'' features Hobo 1 and Hobo 2, who seem at first to just be random hobos worshipping the number four. [[spoiler:But, as revealed in the 10 Year Anniversary Special, [[ThereIsAnother they turn out to actually be SMG1 and SMG2]], and as revealed in The Other Universe, they caused [[GreaterScopeVillain SMG0]]’s crash landing in the Mushroom Kingdom, which also caused [[BigBad SMG3]]’s guardian pod to be knocked off course by him, leading to the latter antagonising the gang for the entire series]].

* ''Wrestling/WrestleMania VI'' had three: Wrestling/{{Edge}} and Wrestling/{{Christian}} were audience members while a pre-fame Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage was Wrestling/HonkyTonkMan's driver.

* Wrestling/CharlotteFlair made her very first WWE appearance in a January 2006 episode of Wrestling/WWERaw watching [[Wrestling/RicFlair her father]] fight Wrestling/{{Edge}} for the WWE Title in a Ladder Match, and again in 2008 during Ric's "retirement", years before officially joining the WWE in 2012. Chronologically, her very first appearance in the wrestling world was during a 1999 episode of Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro, which infamously aired the same time Wrestling/MickFoley won his very first WWE Title. Even before she made the main roster, she had a cameo at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania XXX'' as one of the women accompanying Wrestling/TripleH to the ring; the other two were fellow NXT stars Wrestling/SashaBanks and Wrestling/AlexaBliss.