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"So, basically, the hero is this guy. I think it's time we faced that fact."
The term Darkhorse has its origin in horse racing. A relatively unknown horse would be risky to place bets on, compared to a horse with a known track record, because the gamblers would be "in the dark", so when an unknown horse won a race it was called a Darkhorse victory. The term is also used in politics to describe a lesser known candidate who does better than expected in an election.
Here the term can be used to refer to one of two things. Generally, it's used to describe a side character making up part of the Ensemble, either a non-lead secondary character or a mere Flat Character, who can sometimes become unexpectedly popular with the fandom (sometimes, even more than the lead characters) depending on who and where the fandom is. It can also refer to a lead character who wasn't intended to be any more noticeable, stranger, or more likable than the rest of the cast, but manages to become a clear fan favorite in any case.
The writers or producers may be tempted to Re Tool the show's premise to put them in the spotlight. Sometimes this works, but usually it's a bad idea for two reasons, both relating to what happens when you take a supporting character and move him or her into the protagonist's position. The first is that writers often "adjust" the character so that s/he can fit into a conventionally heroic role - in the process destroying the unconventional traits that made the character an Ensemble Darkhorse in the first place. The second is that if the writers don't do this, traits that were entertaining in a secondary character may become grating and unpleasant in the protagonist.
However, it's still good business to bring Darkhorse characters back, even if they were originally meant to be featured for only a short time. Thus, episodes which do not specifically require a certain character will be more likely to use the Ensemble Darkhorse.
In anime, these characters often receive elevated popularity by becoming the grain in the mill of strange Internet memes.
Examples:
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Music
- When The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson suffered an emotional breakdown in 1965 and decided to quit touring with the group, Bruce Johnston (previously of Beach Boys soundalike group the Rip Chords) was hired to take over his role playing bass onstage. By the end of the year Johnston was joining the Beach Boys in the studio and later became an integral part of their late '60s/early '70s recordings, even writing songs like "Disney Girls" for them.
- Moreso Dennis Wilson, who went from being the under-appreciated drummer to writing such classics as "Forever", to the point that his solo album, "Pacific Ocean Blue", charted higher and was more critically acclaimed than the Beach Boys album released that same year.
- The Beatles produced two possibilities:
- Ringo Starr was a late replacement into the band and widely considered (however fairly) to be their least talented member. Furthermore, he was the least conventionally handsome of the group and, as the drummer, held the least glamorous position in the band. Despite all this, his goofy charm and approachable good looks earned him the most fan mail of any Beatle.
- George Harrison was arguably the the least popular Beatle during the band's run. He was not a part of the singing/songwriting superduo of Lennon-McCartney, nor did he have the charm of Ringo. However, immediately after the band broke up he was the first of the four to score a #1 hit, and his album All Things Must Pass is to this day the top selling album by any solo Beatle. His ballad "Something" is also the second most frequently covered Beatles song after "Yesterday," and even John Lennon once remarked, "It's the best damn song on the whole album." Harrison seems to have been well aware of his dark horse status. He had a minor hit with the song "Dark Horse," and his custom record label was called Dark Horse Records.
- Bone Thugs N Harmony is a group example. As they emerged during a era of hip-hop where you had to be either from the west or the east to make it in that particular field. Not only did they not hail from either coast, but hailed from the Midwest (Cleveland to be precise), and managed to have 3 back to back multi platinum records amidst the hype and controversy of the then bi-coastal feud between the east and west.
Mythology
- Anubis in more modern times. He wasn't that central to the original canon, but he's so much more interesting than the chief gods like Ra or Osiris. Also, it's hard to find a death god who's an okay guy. Also, he appeals more to Furries.
- Heracles/Hercules too. Especially after the Disney Movie.
- Ares/Mars was a very unpopular god for the Greeks, but the Romans claimed to be his descendants. Some modern adaptations of Greek mythology also feature Ares in a much more positive light.
Newspaper Comics
- Common in long-running comics: Popeye was once a minor character in Thimble Theater.
- Much the same happened with Barney Google and Snuffy Smith where the original hero (Barney Google) was displaced by a later, initially minor, character (Snuffy Smith).
- Nancy was originally a strip called Fritzie Ritz until Fritzie's niece Nancy became more popular than the title character (a typical 1920s-30s-era flapper).
- Blondie was originally about the adventures of single flapper Blondie Boopadoop, but eventually her suitor Dagwood Bumstead won her hand and became the central character.
- Snoopy of Peanuts started out as a minor character and a more ordinary dog.
- Mutts began with only Earl the dog and his owner Ozzie. Mooch the cat was supposed to appear for just one arc. Now he has at least as much importance and face time as Earl. As the cartoonist puts it, "You know how cats have a way of taking over the place."
- Dilbert has at least two cases in which one-shot characters joined the main cast by popular demand: Ratbert and Catbert. Scott Adams hadn't even named the latter when he got deluged with emails for "more Catbert."
- Dogbert once summed up this trope while discussing LOUD HOWARD:
Dogbert: A disturbing number of you have requested the return of Loud Howard. Loud Howard is one-dimensional. There is nothing clever or insightful about him. He is simply loud. It is a mystery why anyone would want more of this guy. Loud Howard: THEY LOVE ME!
- Opus, the main character of Bloom County and two other comic strips by Berke Breathed, was originally intended to appear for one week-long arc, but after an enormous amount of fanmail, the author promoted him to a recurring character. Finally, after a huge fan response to one particular
 ◊ Sunday strip featuring Opus, he became the main character of the comic.
- Several Characters from Pearls Before Swine, including Zebra, Guard Duck, the Vikings...
Tabletop Games
- Hans appeared exactly once on a single card in Magic The Gathering, and never anywhere else, but the flavor text was popular enough that he got multiple references later on including a short story in the anthology Monsters of Magic (called "Ach! Hans, Run!"). Arguably, Norin the Wary similarly qualifies, having been elevated from the voice of cowardice on a handful of cards' flavor text to eventually receiving his own (also cowardly) creature card.
- In the Legend of the Five Rings CCG, Toku was originally an unaligned, free card with no abilities and no use other than being fed to demons. Fans enjoyed the idea of Toku so much that they started the "Toku for Emperor" movement, attempting to influence the game's interactive storyline. As a result, Toku became a major player in the game's storyline, going from a peasant who stole a dead samurai's sword to a real samurai, friend of the Emperor, Captain of the Imperial Guard, founder of a Clan, and (posthumously) a minor diety.
- Dungeons And Dragons has a few examples. Inspired greatly by the example of Drizzt above, drow are a perennial favorite as Player Characters despite the race originally being Always Chaotic Evil. Future splatbooks expanded greatly on drow culture and options for drow players. They're even included as a PC race in the Fourth Edition Forgotten Realms setting.
- This is lampooned in the webcomic Order Of The Stick, where Nale's "Linear Guild" includes a Drow whose presence prompts the heroes to question, "Aren't Dark Elves evil?" Nale "explains" that that was before they were a player-character race; "The race now consists of nothing but Chaotic Good rebels struggling to throw off the reputation of their Evil brethren." "I thought you said they were all Chaotic Good?" "Details."
- Another surprisingly popular race is kobolds, of all things. Despite their status as first-level Cannon Fodder (though their affinity for traps can make them more dangerous than you'd think), they've gotten a great deal of expansion in various splatbooks, including the 3.5 Edition Races Of The Dragon. One of the more infamous Game Breaker builds for the edition, "Pun-Pun", is a kobold.
- Its kind of helped that the kobolds have been the setting's Butt Monkeys for so long that they've pretty much run all the way around on the opposite end of the sympathy scale to become woobies in their own right. Plus, nothing feels more satisfying than bringing down the BBEG with a small, scrawny lizard normally considered a CR of 1/6.
- There is also a sort of Ugly Cute factor playing.
- Which leads to then becoming utter badass Commandos.
- The Tome of Magic Binder class is surprisingly popular considering the other 2/3s of Tome of Magic are the mechanically unplayable Truenamer and the mechanically odd Shadowcaster.
- In similar vein, "Complete Psionic" is widely panned as the worst of the "Completes" line released for 3.5. However, one class in the book (the Ardent) is acclaimed for its balanced play, appealing flavor and unique approach to psionics.
Theater
- Perhaps one of the biggest examples in theater is William Shakespeare's Falstaff, a buffoonish companion to Prince Hal in the Henry IV plays. The plays were intended to celebrate Henry IV, while Falstaff is written as a poor influence who must be shunned once the prince matures. Despite Falstaff's negative characterization, he proved a fan favorite. The audience's sympathy for the character is evident in Henry V, where his death is described in heroic terms. Finally Shakespeare decided to fully cash in on Falstaff's popularity by ripping him out of his previous continuity and plopping him in modern day Elizabethan times to star in his very own comedy, The Merry Wives of Windsor. An apocryphal story holds that Queen Elizabeth asked Shakespeare to write a play about Falstaff in love because he was her favorite character.
- Shakespeare produced a few more darkhorses in his various plays:
- Mercutio is the darkhorse of Romeo And Juliet. As the witty comic relief, he gets the lion's share of good lines before his death marks the play's turn into tragedy.
- Hamlet features Hamlet's lover Ophelia, who has become an archetype of mad girls.
- Arthur Miller's play Death Of A Salesman is considered one of the greatest American plays — not at all for the reasons Miller intended, but he knew why. Looking back, he wished he'd focused more on the character Biff, the protagonist Willy Loman's son.
- A real-life example that catapulted the actor's fame: Miss Marmelstien, a piece of Christmas Cake who laments her lack of a beau from the little-known musical I Can Get It For You Wholesale. The character sounds like, and was intended to be, a supporting character - until they cast Barbra Streisand in that role, her first Broadway role, and she stole every scene she was in. Supposedly her last line of the show won her a standing ovation.
Toys
- Takua in Bionicle started out as the AFGNCAAP of a little-known Game Boy Advance game. After he was again the main character in an very successful online game (moving from AFGNCAAP to having his own identity only at the very end), his popularity exploded. In 2003, he was the star of his own direct-to-video movie where he became Toa Takanuva and released as a toy set twice (once as Takua and once as Takanuva). Then he and the other 2003 characters returned in 2008 (complete with new toy figures), with Takanuva being the star of the first Level 3 Readers book and having an online blog that narrates the events of the final (regular) book.
- Although it is connected to the various animated shows, most of the characters from the original G1 Transformers have been brought back in some form or another. Most notably are the "Seekers", Thundercracker and Skywarp in particular. Part of the reason for their popularity is the fact that they can be easily churned out via simply repainting a line's Starscream (which often leads to the awkward event where a line will feature all three of the original Seekers even when only Starscream appears in the actual cartoon being made to promote the line.
- The popularity of the Seekers came out at it's clearest when Hasbro, having killed the popular Transformers Classic line to focus solely on the Broken Base Transformers live action movie, dumped the remaining Seeker figures (the second wave of Seekers and Thundercracker) into an ultra-rare 2006 Botcon set. Needless to say, Transformer fans shat bricks over the fact that they were denied a chance to all the Classic versions of the Seekers, since Botcon sets are made in ultra-low quality and the massive desire for the figures ensuring that the few that made it to the secondary market would sell for $100 and up PER FIGURE.
- The Alley Viper figure from the original GI Joe line has a huge cult following amongst GI Joe fans, to such an extent that it was quickly re-released within two years of it's initial run in circulation.
- Same with the Crimson Guard figures; this was most notable during the GI Joe Vs Cobra/Valor Vs Venom years, when Hasbro built a new Crimson Guard mold and opted to not release as part of the regular series, opting to make the figure a Toys 'R Us exclusive. To ease fan anger, the figure was largely released in a series of army builder sets, meaning fans buying the figure could build their own units without having to buy multiple figures.
Web Comics
Web Animation
- In the Homestar Runner toons, Strong Bad started out as a villain who was always doomed to lose to Homestar. Now he's debatably the most popular character, and definitely one of the most recognisable.
- To a lesser extent, there's Homsar. He first appeared as a one-shot gag to make fun of a typo, and over time, has been promoted up the ranks to become part of the main cast. HR's creators have joked about avoiding giving Homsar his own cartoon since they would never need to use him again.
- Same goes for Senor Cardgage.
- Trogdor and Stinkoman (Strong Bad's blue-haired anime counterpart) are also very popular with the fans. They even appear together in the fifth episode of SBCG4AP!
- Also Eh! Steve from the Show Within A Show Sweet Cuppin' Cakes. Strong Bad insists that the main character is Sherlock, some kind of "mix between a cow and a helicopter" who is constantly trying (and failing) to get a worm out of the ground, and that Eh! Steve is a background character who delivers his Catch Phrase once an episode. Nevertheless, Eh! Steve is vastly more popular and a much more recognizable symbol of the show.
- Teen Girl Squad is another good example.
- Strong Bad Lampshades this, along with The Other Darrin in the email original. After the departure of "Original Bubs," his temporary replacement "Onion Bubs" became a fan favorite.
- Played with in-universe in Strong Bad's commentary for an old King of Town toon. He hates every single thing about it except for the Blacksmith.
Strong Bad: Oh, now this guy had some class. The Blacksmith, that guy was a good guy. I hung out with him after the cartoon; yeah, we had some good times...
- Red Vs Blue has Caboose for whom the writers originally had no real plans other than for him to be a catalyst to annoy Church. Once he devolved into the Ralph Wiggum of the group, he became very popular with the fandom however.
Web Original
- There is a fine literal example of this in Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog: Bad Horse, who gets only a couple of songs and a brief cameo at the end. Nonetheless, he's become quite popular in the fandom.
- Bad Horse, Bad Horse! He rides across the nation, the Thoroughbred of Sin!
- In the Loading Ready Run fandom, Andrew Cownden is extremely popular despite not being a member of the core Loading Ready Run crew. The reasons for this are most likely his acting ability, the infrequency with which he appears, and his awesome accent.
- Dad from Awesome Video Games is very big with the show's fandom, to the point where they requested he get an episode all to himself. He eventually did get one with a larger focus on him, where he transformed the show into "Computer Entertainment Related Programming" to review a golf game on the NES.
- Originally just a mention in the Whateley Universe, Aquerna has become this trope. She's one of the least powerful students at Whateley Academy, and became popular enough that one of the Canon authors is now writing Aquerna stories too.
Other
- Good, old rock, ain't nothing that can beat that.
- Pluto, the former planet. The outrage when it was downgraded to planetoid was unprecedented.
- Voice Actors are quite possibly the biggest example of an Ensemble Darkhorse when it comes to actors. The Animation fanbase online quite often love various Voice Actors for all the work they do in Animation (and to a lesser extent Video games) and are often guests in various conventions. Unfortunately often enough they are generally the only audience that these people truly have. Which the fact that often enough they get little pay and companies often seem to see them as nothing more than cheap disposable labor is considered all the more disheartening. But sadly if you talk about Voice actors to normal people chances are they most likely will have no idea what your talking about. (The only exceptions are generally folks who either used to be/still are well known for screen acting.)
- Unfortunately it doesn't help that often enough many vocal fans of Voice actors are young adults who are often not the Target Demographic of the shows they watch.
- Though to be fair certain Voice Actors have made good efforts in trying to give Voice Actors more credit and exposure in the Mainstream Media so more people will know who they are. Mel Blanc is easily the first and most prominent example here (though he is not the only one.) Not too mention on how there have been stories of Voice Actors who are glad they have a fairly anonymous appearance in the industry. (It might seem strange but then again considering how horrifically exploitative the media can be about certain other types of performers you probably couldn't blame them.)
- A rather meta example is Wikipe-tan being mentioned as one in TV Tropes The Webcomic.
- If you remember the old commercials for Cinnamon Toast Crunch, you'd remember three bakers...but if you saw any now you'd see only one. Guess who was the most popular and soon became the Spotlight Stealing Squad?
- Some people speculate that Bob and Quienno aren't around anymore because Wendell killed them.
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