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"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."
Our hero, while being the focus of the show's attention, is a member of a large organization. After a while, it starts to seem odd that the Enterprise is always the only ship in the sector.
A good way to combat this is to use a recurring character instead of making up a new one whenever the plot demands it. The writers give the impression that this character is having just as many adventures as the hero, only offscreen. In other words, they're the Hero of Another Story.
Such a character will come in handy to establish that the folks back at base are actually doing something when our heroes get captured. Though they will rarely actually succeed in rescuing the captured heroes, they may end up leading The Cavalry to sweep up after the Blast Out. In general, the Hero of Another Story will be a competent professional, but will lack whatever special gift or drive makes our hero so special; or else act as a Supporting Leader and occupy the enemy while the main characters go after the Golden Snitch.
Unfortunately, such characters have a bad habit of being Killed Off for Real, as they can carry some of the emotional impact of a regular character while avoiding the inconvenience of changing the cast. Of course, viewers may feel cheated if promised that Tonight Someone Dies.
The Hero of Another Story is usually someone our heroes respect and trust, and while they may enjoy some friendly competition, he is rarely a serious rival.
On occasion, we'll see one of these characters get a Day in the Limelight episode and they'll become The Hero for the episode. This often makes the real cast the Hero of Another Story for the episode, as they'll be off doing their own heroics in the meantime.
In some cases, certain series episodes may introduce a guest character where it is intentionally done as a Backdoor Pilot for a spinoff of his own series of adventures. Unfortunately, the majority of these are unsuccessful and thus he remains the Hero of Another Story.
Compare Supporting Leader. Naturally, this will result when someone encounters the main character(s) of another series via Cross Over or a Poorly Disguised Pilot. See also Little Hero, Big War, for settings that often have a bunch of heroes of other stories. Depending on how well written the character is they could become a Ensemble Dark Horse.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- In Dog Days, most of the plot involves non-fatal sports-like "war" (where literally Nobody Can Die) and the Ordinary High School Student becoming "the Hero" while Trapped in Another World. Two of the characters in that world, a samurai and ninja partner team; Lady Brioche and her subordinate Yukikaze; are hunters of monsters and demons. While 2 episodes of the plot deal with a similar entity; even the monster that main characters fight is redeemable as opposed to the untold Darker and Edgier dealings they handle. They are polite and make gestures at helping the main characters; but it's clear they normally deal with things on a totally different level; and aren't nearly using their full abilities at the games the rest of the cast are playing.
- Vyura and Chor Rubor on Simoun. And Chor Caput, and the Arcus Niger. Vyura is later promoted to the main cast.
- Major Genya Nakajima of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, commander of Ground Forces Unit 108. There to lend additional assistance when the heroes need help on an investigation, or to provide a Red Shirt Army to protect against The Siege while the heroes go off to handle the named villains.
- Chrono Harlaown becomes a stronger and stronger version of this trope as the series goes on, culiminating in his apparent leadership of a large portion of the TSAB's Navy but barely being a part of the story in StrikerS.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann example: Kittan is this, when first introduced but becomes a member of the main cast in the beginning of part two.
- In GANTZ, after following for quite a long time the adventures of a team of fighters from Tokyo, we learn that there's another team in Osaka. And then one in Rome. And in Germany, the USA, etc... Basically, there are GANTZ teams everywhere on the globe, often stronger and more experienced than the Tokyo team.
- In Kino No Tabi, Kino meets a male counterpart; an exiled prince with a talking dog. They go their separate ways after one chapter.
- In the novels that the anime is based on he is one of the main heroes as he appears in stories of his own, all of which are narrated by his dog, Riku. This trope still does apply though, in that every once in awhile he will cross paths with Kino and these stories are never narrated by Riku and are told in third person, just like all the stories that focus on Kino. The same trope also applies to Shishou (or "master"), the woman who taught Kino and used to go on travels of her own. In the anime we only see her as an old woman, once in a flashback during the main 13 episodes and during the movie ~Life Goes On~, which is set during the time Kino is living with her, but the novels include stories about the travels of a much younger Shishou and her unnamed student.
- It seems in One Piece, any D is the Hero Of Another Story. Ace is the most notable, with an arc driving about a third of the series. However, Blackbeard qualifies, from a Villain Protagonist perspective, performing feats like deposing King Wapol, breaking in to Impel Down, and joining the Battle of Marineford.
- An argument could be made for any of the Supernovas as well.
- In the manga, the entire crew sans Luffy get demoted to heroes of other stories during the Marineford Arc as they basically each become the hero of a different island so Luffy can have an adventure with a fresh supporting cast. This differs from normal split up arcs because we don't really get to see the crews stories while they are away, it's just implied with sparse glimpses and tellings. However, in the anime, they each get episodes explaining this more in-depth every so often while the story still mainly follows Luffy. This stops at the Return to Shabody Arc.
- The forgettable mini-series Pokémon Chronicles had each episode do this with a different character in the series, be it Misty, Richie, or Brock.
- During the Chunin Exams, Naruto introduced Gaara. One can only imagine the story to how he went from the repentant Dark Magical Guy to the most loved man in his home village.
- There are also at least 3 other teams that we rarely see in the show, and they're all implied to be out fighting their own battles offscreen.
- Also Killer Bee, who was hated/feared as a child (due to having the 8-tails inside him) and is now a considered a hero in his village.
- Digimon Tamers had Ryo, a character with a fairly small role in the grand scheme of the Tamers story, but who was literally the hero of another story (a set of video games that were never released in the west)
- In the Hayate the Combat Butler manga, it seems like Hayate's older brother is shaping up to this. We haven't actually seen him yet, but we've met a few people he helped, years ago.
- The Ojou Tsuruya of Haruhi Suzumiya is implied to be this. In addition to flat-out calling Unreliable Narrator Kyon on being bad at upholding The Masquerade (but says that she's content to sit back and watch the antics), she is in possession of at least one potential plot coupon and it is known that her (apparently stupidly rich) family are one of the financial supporters of Koizumi's Organization.
- Considering that if you're a named character in the Haruhiverse and aren't one of Those Two Guys (and even that may not save Taniguchi) or Okabe-sensei the homeroom teacher, you will be revealed to be a part of the larger scheme of things eventually. Tsuruya's setup has just been longer in coming that most.
- The big sister of the main character of Mayoi Neko Overrun tends to go missing for several days and return with heroic tales to tell.
- Kirby of the Stars has Meta Knight, who took part in a resistance movement fighting the Big Bad before the series' hero, Kirby, came along.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima!, practically every other member of class 3-A counts. There's a vampire that has lost her powers and been sealed in the school, a Robot Girl who works for said vampire, a half-demon swordswoman hired to protect the heir to a magic association, said heir to the magic association who has been kept in the dark about her powers, an ex-priestess turned sniper for hire, a mysterious acrobat who isn't completely human and rarely speaks, a Mad Scientist who developed and maintains the aforementioned robot, a ninja, a Cute Ghost Girl, a martial artist who won the school's annual martial arts tournament the year before, a pair of bookworms who regularly explore a giant library filled with traps, a rumormonger who explores said giant library with the aforementioned bookworms, a net idol who keeps her pastimes secret from her classmates, and a time-traveling martian from the future who is descended from the main character. And that's not even acknowledging the more normal characters like the cheerleaders, the gymnast, or the basketball player. There's even a few chapters that focus on delivering the message that everyone is the hero of their own story.
- This occurs frequently in the works of Leiji Matsumoto: Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas occasionally have made either been referenced or made cameo appearances in Galaxy Express 999 and Galaxy Railways. The Space Battleship Yamato had a very brief cameo in Harlock Saga as well as in the Galaxy Express 999 manga. In all such cases however, the crew of the Yamato is never seen.
- Habit By Teacher/It Ejaculates In The Teacher does it with the titular cast as Teacher A will have sex with one or more students then runs into Teacher B before or after said encounter and so on in essentially one day.
- Luna Inverse, Lina's older sister in Slayers. One reason she's never shown in anything but flashbacks or cameos is she would easily solve all the problems the heroes face alone.
- Pansuto Taro in Ranma1/2 . The only character he has any connection to (or wants any connection with) in the cast is Happosai. As such whenever he appears his plot is at a right-angle to the rest of the series, and the appearance of any of the regulars seems like it's contractually mandated.
Comics
- The mysterious night shift team in the Hero Hotline mini-series in The DCU.
- Pick a super hero. Any super hero. Odds are they have had an adventure and encountered Spider-Man, Wolverine, Superman, Batman...
- Spider-Man's first encounter with the Sinister Six had Iron Man playing this role; also subverted, when he encounters the X-Men and they turn out to be android duplicates programmed to try and kill him.
- It was once a common occurance that everytime the Sinister Six would show up, Spider-Man would call the Avengers and Fantastic Four, only to find out that they were on other missions. Other super heroes would eventually come to his aid, however.
- The first Spider-Man Annual was full of this. He couldn't go two pages without crossing paths with another super hero who was off on his own adventure (while the narrator points out that you can follow said hero's adventuers in his respective comic)
- Sin City will do this to the point where actual stories will intersect. For instance, in Yellow Bastard we see Marv in the background in the scene where Nancy runs off with Hartigan. They go off and have their own adventure. In Just Another Saturday Night, we see this scene from Marv's view point, lamenting that "Nancy ran off with some old guy" before going off to have his own adventure.
Fan Works
- Tiberium Wars features this in the form of several officers and commanders fighting other battles. As with the main characters of the story, though, Anyone Can Die is in full force.
- The Sun Soul has a few of these. Ash Ketchum leads his core party of intrepid heroes all over the place, but along they meet up with a number of recurring individuals who work towards similarly heroic ends off-screen. So far, not many of these have been Killed Off for Real, but given the author's willingness to kill anyone...
- In the Fallout 3 fan fiction Trouble, Harkness encounters the lone wanderer, the protagonist of the game, who goes through in-game quests off screen while the story takes place.
- The Hunter is one of these in With Strings Attached. The four are unfortunately sucked into some of his adventures... and he is fortunately sucked into theirs.
- "Doctor Whooves and Assistant" works a lot like this. The Doctor and Ditzy Doo's adventures run side by side with those of the mane cast. For example, while the mane cast was heading off to fight Nightmare Moon, the Doctor and Ditzy had that way first and fought the Manticore first. The mane cast are seen at some points, but only from the view of the Doctor and Ditzy.
Films — Live Action
- Nick Fury plays this role in Film.Iron Man 2.
- In the same movie, we get Black Widow and a hint of Thor, who are obviously having their own adventures.
- In the latest Incredible Hulk movie, Tony Stark briefly appears at the end, hinting at the formation of the The Avengers.
- In the first Iron Man movie, Agent Coulson mentions "This isn't my first rodeo" and Nick Fury blatantly states that there are other heroes out there.
- The recent Thor film features Nick Fury, has a cameo by Hawkeye, the aforementioned Agent Coulson, and plenty of Asgardian warriors who have had plenty of adventures off-camera. Tony Stark even gets mentioned in a throwaway line.
- The video release for Captain America: The First Avenger includes a short entitled "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer" showing one minor incident Agent Coulson was involved before getting to the hammer in Thor.
- The mysterious 008 is occasionally used for this purpose in James Bond movies, most notably Goldfinger. He never appears, but if M ever tells Bond that if he can't do the mission, someone else will, chances are 008 is that "someone else". Only thing we learn about him is when, in The Living Daylights, he is said to "obey orders, not instincts", in contrast with the more headstrong Bond.
- In The Living Daylights, the cold open has all the Double-O agents on maneuvers together in Gibraltar, being picked off one by one (that is, "picked off" by the SAS who were using paint guns; only one agent is actually murdered). All are good-looking white males, and the intention was to tease the audience as to which was Bond. Trailers Always Spoil, of course, so we already knew. And, of course, the aforementioned 008, who doesn't appear but is name dropped by M.
- Similarly, both Octopussy and A View to a Kill start with the deaths of 009 and (off-screen) 003, respectively. Agents other than Bond, with 007 picking up the cases they were working with only the cryptic clues taken off their bodies.
- Bill Fairbanks, 002, was killed before the start of The Man With the Golden Gun.
- In The World Is Not Enough it is mentioned that 009 was the one who shot the Big Bad prior to the events of the film.
- At the beginning of GoldenEye Bond goes on a mission alongside with 006, who doesn't make it out. until he does and becomes the movie's Big Bad
- In the novel Devil May Care Bond is told that a new 004 has been appointed. Turns out she's the Bond Girl.
- Jessica Stevenson's team in Shaun of the Dead appear to take part in a much more interesting adventure, ultimately joining up with the army and leading The Cavalry to defeat the zombies. However, we only see a brief glimpse of them as the plot follows Shaun's trip to the pub.
- An Officer and a Gentleman is the story of Zack Mayo (Richard Gere). Casey Seeger, the only female officer candidate, appears in a few scenes—just enough to declare her intention to be the Navy's first female fighter pilot, show her struggles on the obstacle course, reveal it's really an internal struggle with feeling like "a second class citizen," let Foley hold her up to the main character as an example of "heart! and character!" and overall give the impression that, if the camera started following her around, there'd be a damn good movie in there.
- Not so much in the comics, but in the Scott Pilgrim movie, Stephen Stills appears to be starring in his own movie, where Scott is just some weird guy who flakes out on the band and messes up their shows. Director Edgar Wright has stated that he instructed Stills' actor to pretend that the movie he's in is called Stephen Stills Is Almost Famous.
- Also one has to wonder what the Vegan Police might be doing.
- Frankie and her group from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
- The ending to Batman Returns suggests Catwoman will become this. Also counts as a Poorly Disguised Pilot... sorta.
- In Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Goldstein and Rosenberg are on their own quest for Hot Dog Heaven. Their names are an homage to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who serve this function in Hamlet.
- Cloverfield. The main characters end up lugging a camera about when the monsters attack and naturally start filming the weirdness. On the bridge they see another guy doing the same thing. Word Of God says this is a Sequel Hook.
- Lord of the Rings alludes to Bilbo's adventures, as well as adventures made by unseen heroes. See the Literature section for more info.
- Throughout Cop Out, we see an old cop-young cop pairing who appear to be acting out a more routine cop movie off-screen, only bits of which we see.
- War movies in general tend to do this. In Saving Private Ryan, for example, the soldiers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division played crucial roles which helped the landing parties on the beaches during D-Day. It was very possible that without the erratic drops, sabotaging the Germans in their own lines to confuse them and divert their resources haphazardly, the landings could've ended in failure, with the Allies being pushed back out to sea. General Eisenhower even prepared a letter of apology should the landings have failed.
- In Ed Wood, the titular character runs into Orson Welles near the end; he appears to be facing the exact same problems Edward has been facing throughout the actual film, but he appears in only one scene.
- In Satan's Playground, while Paula is freaking out in the Leeds house, there's a knock on the door. When she answers it, there's a teenage girl there who says her car broke down, and that she needs a telephone. She ends up being scared off by Paula's erratic behavior.
- The Cabin in the Woods takes this to the extreme. The titular cabin, the teenagers who visit it, and the zombies hunting them down? That's only one of dozens of other monster attacks happening all over the world on the same night. We only get to see the destructive aftermath for most of these, but we do a couple glimpses of some Japanese grade-schoolers being terrorized by a ghost and then turning the ghost into a frog with a magic spell.
Gamebooks
- Banedon the wizard in the Lone Wolf gamebooks. Pops up to help the main character at several points in the series and gains power and prestige at the same rate as Lone Wolf. He's a more prominent character in the Legend of Lone Wolf novelizations.
- In the Mongoose Publishing Remakes; each book has a 100 page mini-story about one of the characters who shaped the plot of that book; either taking place before or after said book. One character, the Noble Zombie Dire from Captives of Kaag; is also the mini-story character in "The Legacy of Vashna."
- In the Choose Your Own Adventure books by Edward Packard, one gets the impression that recurring guest character Dr. Nera Vivaldi doesn't just show up only in adventures that happen to involve you.
Literature
Live Action TV
Video Games
- The first Super Robot Wars Original Generation game gives you the choice of stoic gambler Kyosuke or Hot Blooded Ascended Fanboy Ryusei. For the first half of the game, they play this role in the other's storyline.
- Similarly, other games in the Super Robot Wars series will have Route Splits, where the player can choose one of two or three different paths for a few missions. Whichever one the player picks, the rest of the team fulfills this trope and takes care of business on their own.
- One such split in W can actually put the player into this role: While trying to track down Kaname and Tessa in Orb, the Mycene Empire attacks all over the world. After fighting off the monsters sent to attack Orb, you rush off to Paris to help your other teammates there, and arrive just in time to see Mazinkaiser, Great Mazinger, and Shin Getter Robo finish off Ankoku Daishogun.
- With the completely awesome and true symbol of Hot Blood, Final Dynamic Special!
- Alpha 3 has "extra stages" which are independent missions that can be accessed from the scenario chart in the options menu. These detail some of the goings on in the story that the Alpha Numbers aren't present for, specifically. 1. What the Raideen and Dancougar people were up to during Alpha 2 (which were notably absent for) 2. Ditto for Gunbuster, and Macross. 3. Ryusei getting his confidence back when he was recovering for the first half the game. 4. the Debut of Ratsel's Aussenseiter. 5. Rai Mai, Sanger and Ratsel and the Tesla lab crew hurrying to roll out Banpreios 6. The villains (now allies) of Voltes V and Daimos defending the refugees of their people from the Balmar and getting their affairs in order in prepartion for a take back of their planets.
- Flint Paper in Sam and Max. When you first meet him in "Ice Station Santa", Sam asks why he hasn't been seen all year. He replies by listing a series of adventures remarkably similar to the plots of Season One. Max then asks why can't they do "cool stuff" like that.
- The Warden of Dragon Age: Origins fills this role in Dragon Age II.
- Bethany/Carver also become this if they end up becoming Grey Wardens, or Circle-Mage/Templar. What they did in the last 6 years before Act 3 is left vague.
- Also Zevran after the end of Origins. He shows up in the sequel but only as a side quest (and can help during the final battle).
- Luigi in the second Paper Mario game. He's been going on his own adventures and getting his own party members on his own time (even getting a book series adapted). While he and the books claim to be going on a truly epic adventure, his (usually beleaguered) party members state that Luigi's exploits are just one Epic Fail to another Epic Fail and it's usually up to them to pull him out.
- Ace Combat Xi: Skies of Incursion takes place during the same war as Ace Combat X; the player character this time is the leader of Falco Squadron, another Aurelian unit.
- Dr. Marie Delacroix of System Shock 2 is another SHODAN-assisted agent aboard the Von Braun, always just one step ahead of the player. While the player doesn't interact with or even see her until you find her corpse, the player finds her audio logs throughout the game. Late in the game SHODAN abandons her and leaves her to die.
- Bioshock 2 has Mark Meltzer, the hero of the viral marketing storyline released before the game. The player can track Meltzer's progress through Rapture through audio diaries he leaves and eventually kills him without even thinking about it.
- Bianca Schuler was this in the first System Shock game. SHODAN hated her so much that she imprisoned her in a cage next to her main memory bank so she could watch her die.
- A humorous example. As of TES: Oblivion, Jiub of The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind has become known as "Saint Jiub" for clearing the cliff racers out of Vvardenfall. And there was much rejoicing!
- Fridge Brilliance: Just as your character was being transported to the island because you are the messiah-like Nerevarine, fate sent Jiub there to clear it of Goddamn Bats.
- Crowe in Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a perfect example, traveling the universe and having adventures with his own ship and later serving as The Cavalry several times for the main party.
- Near the end of Persona 3 Portable, you can talk to a man at Club Escapade in the endgame, who talks about his problems but states that they've got nothing to do with you. The man (named Vincent) is an Early-Bird Cameo from a game called Catherine, where he is a main character.
- Both, Felix and Isaac's group in both Golden Sun games. In the first game, Felix is on a quest with the antagonists to unleash Alchemy on the world and you hear a few people mention about him and his group as you travel. In the sequel, you take over Felix's role while occasionally hearing tales about Isaac's group as you travel. Isaac and Felix's parties finally meet at one point and they team up to finish Felix's quest.
- Many of the characters you encounter in TimeSplitters Future Perfect are this.
- An interesting twist occurs in some of the cutscenes, in which YOU are the aforementioned hero, thanks to a Stable Time Loop.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The protaganist, C.J. sees his insane girlfriend run off with a quiet racing competitor. Said quiet man ends up being the main character, Claude, in Grand Theft Auto 3.
- Acting Chief Engineer Jacob Temple would have made a good protagonist for a Dead Space DLC. The only real difference between him and Silent Protagonist Isaac Clarke is that Isaac's girlfriend was in Medical - Jacob's was in hydroponics. Through the game, you find logs on the same path as Isaac's, with Temple literally doing all the things that Isaac does, only failing. But, hey, at least he found his girlfriend alive.
- Fallout: New Vegas gives us Vulpes Incluta, a spy who manages to beat the Courier to Nipton, The Strip, and The Fort, no matter how fast the Courier travels. He is involved in many covert operations, and it's implied that when you don't see him, he's wreaking havoc in NCR territory somewhere.
- Also, any of the NCR Rangers. They have spies everywhere, even at all the Legion bases. You even meet a drug dealer who turns out to be one. Imagine how many are out there.
- Also, the Legion doesn't really know if you help the NCR in the beginning, so long as you don't go against the Legion, until you get very overt about your NCR aid, they have no idea. But if you help the Legion, Rangers WILL know, and they will find you.
- Marcus really gives this impression, being among those responsible for taking down the Enclave.
- And finally there's Ulysses, who is gradually revealed to have visited every location explored in the DLC packs and had his own adventures there before his final confrontation with the Courier in Lonesome Road.
- Wing Commander has this in the form of other pilots. Especially in Prophecy Maniac and some other pilots start as aces while the player is a green-horn. In missions they often lead different squads and are only heard over radio fulfilling their part of the plan.
- In Starlancer the player actually plays this role. Especially in the beginning, the player's team of misfits is largely unknown while established aces like Klaus Steiner are often mentioned on TV. It is not until much later in the game that the player is treated as an equal.
- The news reports certainly help to make the player feel like there's a devastating war on, instead of a series of small engagements. A war that would last another 100 years.
- In the first of the two video game prequels to the Eureka Seven anime series, Holland (Supporting Leader} in the main series) initiates his anti-government movement while main character Sumner Sturgeon is busy dealing with his own issues.
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles has the player character(s) encounter many other myrrh-gathering groups, including the real main characters. You're just there to watch.
- Remember Zack? Y'know, the guy who Cloud from Final Fantasy VII based his memories off of? He got his own game, Crisis Core .
- The Spartan Captain of God Of War 2 manages to get to the island of the Fate's and get to the phoenix puzzle, if I'm not mistaken. He does this without any sort of godly powers or assistance from them, and would have gotten further if he didn't encounter Kratos in a dark room.
- There's also the people who were once all those corpses you see lying around deep inside each of the major locations.
- The Argonauts, Perseus, and Icarus are also on their own adventures on the island.
- Captain Marcus Walker in Freelancer is the commander of the Liberty cruiser LNS Utah. Unlike the Anti-Hero Trent, Walker is a straight shooter who takes pride in his service. He even offers to help Trent join the Liberty Navy. After helping to defend the Willard Research Station and a Liberty battleship, Walker disappears for a while, before reappearing to help Trent and the others escape from a Liberty ambush in Zone-21. It's not clear what he did while Trent was out doing his thing, but given his impressive record and his Heroic Sacrifice, it was probably something awesome. Then there's Casper Orillion, the man in charge of The Order. Actually, there are plenty of characters, including Ozu, Michael King, Lord Hakkera, and Diedrich Von Claussen, who are impressive in their own right.
- The Signature Heroes of RuneScape, while still a relatively new concept as of the time of this statement, appear to be this to the player.
- Everyone else at Wigglytuff's Guilde in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers. They're on their own adventures daily, and you even hear bits and pieces about them. In Explorers Of The Sky, you get to actually step into their shoes and see some of their adventures first hands.
- The Call of Duty games often invoke this trope, particularly the ones focused on World War II. The different characters you play as, while they never meet each other in-game, help to contribute in their own way in order to defeat the Germans on vastly separated fronts.
- Mass Effect has Captain Kirrahe, a Salarian Spectial Task Group commando, who gives a rousing Patrick Stewart Speech to his squad telling them to Hold the Line and act as the distraction while Shepard and his team infiltrate the base and plant a nuke on Virmire. Throughout the mission we hear both the gunfire of their unseen battle and their radio chatter, reminding Shepard that in comparison, Shepard's mission is the easy one.
- In Mass Effect 3, this extends to every surviving member of the Suicide Mission in the last game, with the exception of Garrus and Tali, who join your squad for the third time. To wit:
- Miranda continues to fight her father.
- Jacob is protecting defecting Cerberus scientists at a safe house.
- Jack is mentoring biotic students at the Ascension Project.
- Grunt is leading a crack team of krogan commandos.
- Mordin plays a pivotal role in curing the genophage.
- Kasumi is being tracked by a Salarian Spectre, whom she helps on a different investigation.
- Zaeed is messing with Cerberus.
- Thane dies of a combination of a stab wound by Kai Leng (incurred while protecting the Salarian Councillor) and Kepral's.
- Samara is investigating an Ardat-Yakshi monastery that went dark.
- Legion plays a pivotal role in dealing with the geth.
- TRON: Evolution has the protagonist Anon, a newly rezzed Security Monitor who starts his function just as CLU triggers The Purge in the backstory of TRON: Legacy. Anon goes through all kinds of troubles to keep CLU from finishing off the last ISO, Quorra. And by the end of the game, he dies saving her.
- When the Left 4 Dead 2 group meets the Left 4 Dead group in The Passing, each group is this to the other group.
- In The Trail Of Anguish, Chris is just a cute boy to you,, but he claims to be on some unrevealed adventure of his own.
- Banjo's appearance in Diddy Kong Racing, according to the game's instructions manual.
- Fire Emblem Thracia 776 is essentially this for Leaf, a supporting character from Fire Emblem Seisen No Keifu's second half. The game takes place a year before the second half of Seisen no Keifu and follows Leaf in the Thracian Peninsula fighting against a smaller division of the evil cult that form the main enemies of Seisen no Keifu.
- This happens roughly once per game in the Summon Night: Swordcraft Story series. Particulary obvious in the second, where a Power Trio seeeking out a MacGuffin of some sort briefly cross paths with you and team up to the fight the local baddie, then continue their quest. That would make you this in relation to them, for that matter.
- In Silent Hill Downpour, the Full Circle ending implies that Howard Blackwood, JP Sater, and DJ Bobby Ricks were all Heroes of their own stories, but failed and became stuck in Silent Hill limbo as a result.
- In Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir, the player characters are this in relation to the Knight-Captain, the PC from the first two campaigns. (SoZ takes place during or after Mask of the Betrayer, on the opposite side of the continent.)
Webcomics
- Homestuck has the kid's Guardians, who, though often ignored or avoided by the main characters, show up all over the place, occasionally helping the kids from the background while engaging in their own adventures.
- Not to mention fedorafreak, who only ever appears on a Twitter expy for three frames, and provides regular updates about, respectively, his choice of hats, his house burning down, The End of the World as We Know It, and finally, his own journey through another session of Sburb and, finally, his death, possibly on a Quest Bed (which would allow his ascension to God Tier). The forums make him a Memetic Badass.
- The trolls' ancestors played an unsuccessful session that resulting in the Scratch, resetting their universe so our trolls could have another chance.
- On the cast page of the webcomic Precocious, Kaitlyn is described as "the central character in another strip". She literally became the Hero of Another Story later, with the introduction of the Precocious spinoff strip, Copper Road
 .
- Othar Trygvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!) is this for much of the comic (as chronicled on his Twitter feed) until his story crosses with the main plot. And in his mind, he's still The Hero even when it does.
Web Original
- Not an example in and of itself, but Cracked lists Six Movie/Tv Universes That Overlap.
- SF Debris gives us "Lieutenant Nobody" from Star Trek: First Contact; his take on the unseen original chief of security of the Enterprise-E before Worf, who repeatedly demonstrates he's the Hyper Competent Sidekick developing new tactics to fight the Borg on the fly, keeps his team fighting against impossible odds, and who of course, is completely ignored by the Enterprise crew.
- In Pay Me, Bug!, there's some kind of coup in progress against Baron Minerva Tyrelos. Grif stumbles into the middle of it, and nearly gets himself killed. We never find out who's behind it, what their ultimate plan is, or whether the Baron's plan to have her brother publicly take the blame ever worked.
Western Animation
- Fitting for a show with a frequent Villain Protagonist, The Venture Bros. originally had Sargent Hatred as the Villain of Another Story. He started as a catch-all for any time the writers needed to reference a villain for the Monarch's henchmen to steal from, or someone else that the Venture twins had encountered in the past. He eventually joined the show as a regular.
- A similar situation occurred with Captain Sunshine, a supposed hero. He does appear later on.
- Likewise, whenever Kim Possible mentioned her exploits thwarting a different villain to the one she was this episode, it would always be Professor Dementor, who was originally He Who Must Not Be Seen, but was developed into Always Someone Better for Dr Drakken.
- The DCAU was fond of this, especially when it entered the Justice League Unlimited era.
- The pilot for JLU, Initiation, sets the stage as Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Supergirl and Captain Atom go on a mission to China. Green Arrow just wanted to go home but got dragged into the story because all the other heroes were off doing other missions. Subsequent episodes would often include J'onn J'onzz or Mister Terrific at the monitor watching and directing various heroes around the globe doingg all sorts of hero stuff that has nothing to do with that episodes plot, especially if said plot was set predominately on the Watchtower itself.
- The Greatest Story Never Told focuses on the glory hog Booster Gold who is busted down to directing pedestrians to safety while the rest of the League fight the Dark Lord Mordru, who is strong enough to take them all and an obviously awesomely powerful villain, and the first "Omega-Level" threat the League comes up against. We hardly get to see any of it. Booster's own story however ends up seeing him saving the world from a black hole and getting the girl while the other heroes are too busy fighting. He gets berated by an injured Batman at the end for abandoning his post.
- Patriot Act involves a crazed general giving himself super-powers to battle the League because he sees this group of superhumans, lording over them in a space station, as a potential threat to national security. He calls out Superman for a fight but he, and all the other genuine superhumans, are all out doing other stuff, so he ends up having to face Green Arrow and an assortment of lesser known "normal" heroes, eventually including reserve members the Crimson Avenger (who, basically, just has a gun) and Arrow's ex-sidekick Speedy (who, naturally, is just an expy of GA himself), the only back-up available. This is the closest either two get to spending a day in the limelight, and Avenger doesn't even get dialogue while Speedy is never seen again, and that was his debut.
- In the pilot to Superman: The Animated Series, Martha Kent mentions "that nut in Gotham City". The two heroes met later, setting the stage for the DCAU.
- Teen Titans: Speedy might've gotten the shaft (no pun intended) on Justice League Unlimited but he was set up as a recurring hero on Teen Titans as a rival for Robin, eventually forming Titans East along with other heroes who had previous appearances.
- At the start of The Incredibles we see Frozone fighting a villain in a helicopter as main character Mr Incredible carries out his own string of heroic deeds.
- ''Air Mater''
- In Darkwing Duck, DuckTales' Gizmo Duck made many appearances as a hero who had much better adventures and publicity. There were other heroes introduced in the show, including his mystical girlfriend Morgana and the aquatic Neptuna. Eventually, they formed the Justice Ducks.
- American Dad has had a couple appearances by John Mind, a quadruple amputee whose limbs weren't blown off, but "blown in, into his mind," giving him telekinetic powers. He never has more than the most minimal effect on an episode's plot, but he apparently walks the Earth, having adventures as "Mind Quad."
Real Life
- Strictly speaking, anybody you run into is likely the Hero of Another Story. Assuming that they (or you) aren't in fact the villain, or even worse, a Red Shirt. Then again, it's very possible that many folks you run into will just be the Butt Monkey.
- Well, most people you meet are a Hero of Another Story: their own. They'd have to have pretty low opinions of themselves to be the the villains or red shirts of their own stories, and we all are probably the butt monkeys at some point or another.
- It can be quite disconcerting to look around yourself in a public place and think how everyone else is also seeing themselves as "the person looking around themselves at a bunch of strangers"
- Which is perfectly demonstrated by this xkcd comic.
- And this SMBC one.
- This really depends on your point of view. Someone who may be the Hero of Another Story to one person may be the villain in yours or their own. Likewise, you may consider yourself the villain, and thus the Hero of Another Story the only hero there is, and only the one story - theirs.
- The scientists working on Ultra (the Enigma code breakers during World War II) were this for a long time to the scientists working on the Manhattan project (development of the atomic bomb). While the latter were widely recognized for their work, Ultra was kept officially secret until 1974.
- This trope was invoked by practically everyone, on all sides of the fight during World War II (and any other war if you think about it). In their own version of this trope, both sides (Axis/Allies) were doing what they felt was right, while twisting the other side's words/actions against them as much as possible to justify their actions.
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