History Main / SmallRoleBigImpact

* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': The God of Love only shows up in the first chapter, and is limited to making cameos in the volume extras from that point on. Yet it's only because he got distracted by ''Anime/CastleInTheSky'' while filling out Rentarou's soulmate count that Rentarou has one hundred girlfriends.

Contrast with MinorMajorCharacter, which is a main character who has [[AllThereInTheManual little if any]] plot relevancy, or [[OutOfFocus very little screentime]].

*** The Trolls. They have just as much screen time as the parents, yet they contribute just as equally.

** Emmitt Otterton from ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' only appears a few times and doesn't even say a single word onscreen, but it's his disappearance that causes Judy to become involved in the investigation that drives much of the story, and he's also inadvertently the cause of her meeting Nick to begin with.

* Joel's daughter Sarah dies roughly 20 minutes into ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' but the trauma from it is still affecting him 20 years into the future. Over the events of the game, Joel begins to see Ellie as a ReplacementGoldfish for Sarah. It ultimately drives him to [[spoiler: essentially damn the world of its best shot to cure the virus that caused the zombie outbreak. Ellie is immune and having the surgery to get the mutated virus out of her brain will kill her. Joel rips her off the operating table before the surgery can start because he can't bear to lose another daughter.]]

* ''Literature/TheCrocodileGod's'' main antagonist is one of Mirasol's Spanish employers in the newly-colonized Philippines, and the story only refers to him as [[CaptainObvious Mirasol's master]] or [[RaceNameBasis "the Spaniard."]] His major action is [[ImperiledInPregnancy to shoot the heavily-pregnant Mirasol]] so [[RevengeByProxy her husband Haik shuts up]] about [[PhysicalGod being the Tagalog tribe's sea-god.]] This means he has committed {{Deicide}} by [[TragicStillbirth killing their unborn daughter,]] clinched the DeathOfTheOldGods in the Philippines after [[EverybodysDeadDave Haik has long assumed the rest of the pantheon is dead,]] and sent their ReincarnationRomance into a spiral of [[TraumaCongaLine trauma and separation.]]

* The ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'' fanfiction, ''Fanfic/FranchouchouFeat'', has Koji Kaneda, who is established in a few chapters to be a StalkerWithACrush who wants Yugiri for himself under the delusion she reciprocates his feelings and wants leave Idol business. He loses it when Yugiri rejects him and, blaming Sakura for this, stabs her in the chest, only to get knocked out by Yugiri and Kotaro Tatsumi before he can discover Sakura's a zombie. Koji never appears again after this, but it was because of his attack on Sakura that [[IntrepidReporter Okaba]] discovers the members of Franchouchou are zombies, leading him to tell the girls' family and friends within Saga and allowing them to discover the girls' secret.

* May and June only appear in the GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', but it's the fact that they even ''exist'' that has Webby question her origins, leading to her finding out who she really is: [[spoiler: namely, Scrooge's OppositeSexClone-slash-technical biological daughter.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Tron}}'' Dr. Lora Baines (later, Dr. Lora Baines-Bradley) is on screen for less than ten minutes in the first film, and is SequelNonEntity in both canons (VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh [[StuffedIntoTheFridge kills her off]], Film/TronLegacy canon [[PutOnABus effectively exiles her in Washington DC]]). However? ''She'' co-invented the laser that gets the protagonists to {{Cyberspace}}. She's the one who convinces Alan to warn Flynn, she's the one who solidifies them into a PowerTrio and comes up with the plan to break into Encom. Oh, and she wrote Yori, who is this trope in her own right (designing, building, and piloting the Solar Sailer, using her connection to Dumont to get Tron access to the tower, etc.)

* Meowsie, a female Meowth that Team Rocket's was smitten by only appears in person in one episode of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' (besides a handful of {{Imagine Spot}}s by the latter), though she is the entire reason that Meowth is sapient in the first place. Meowsie was unimpressed by a normal stray Meowth, so he learns to speak and act human to impress her. He didn't quite understand that Meowsie was a spoiled cat impressed by riches and spoils, and so she still only snubbed him, only acquainting with him again once in the present day because she has ended up a stray, and Meowth's talent could now be useful to her.

* Angier's wife Julia in ''Film/ThePrestige''. She only has a few scenes but it was her accidental death indirectly at the hands of Borden that st
* arted the bitter rivlary between Angier and Borden.

** As an interesting bit of trivia, for this reason Creator/JossWhedon cut down the role of the Operative as Mr Exposition, because he thought it was just far, far scarier for him to to be the ImplacableMan, and he isn't being implacable when making speeches about Mal as the [[WorthyOpponent worthy adversary]].

* Throughout the first season of ''Series/TheResident'', Olive Tan is a "frequent flyer" hypochondriac keeps showing up, complaining of illnesses she doesn't have. In her last visit, she says her latest must be connected to her cancer. Used to her antics, Devon calmly tells her she doesn't have cancer. Tan protests that she does and furthmore [[spoiler: has been receiving chemotherapy from Dr. Lane Hunter. This leads to the discovery that Hunter has been pulling a massive fraud by giving perfectly healthy patients fake cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy just to get rich on the insurance payments and make herself look like a "miracle" healer. Tan's lack of any cancer symptoms is the evidence needed to bust her.]]

*** Andy's Mother also accidentally kickstarts the events of the first three films: In the first, she buys Buzz Lightyear for Andy's birthday. In the second, she grabs Wheezy of the self and into the yard sale box and in the third, she throws out the toys who were inside the trash bag thinking they were trash and it also gives them the belief that Andy doesn't want them for much of the film.