Instances of Small Role, Big Impact in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- All For Luz:
- Camila being Demoted to Extra in the story is this. She sends Luz to Summer Camp, despite the Mass Super-Empowering Event happening just yesterday... which leads to her State's Governor during the camp into a Deadly Game that Luz is forced into a kill or be killed situation.
- Darlene of Team Heaven's Devils only appears in chapters 10-12 with only a few lines but not only does she kill off Julia Wittebane, Luz's First Friend, but her "Spear Fingers" Quirk is one of Luz's most frequently used ones after she steals it from the girl before killing her in her Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Pastor Domenico only appears in the end of chapter 13 but he's the one that informs Luz about Julia's past and her Abusive Parents being involved in the creation of the Governor's Death Camp. He's also one she promises to avenge the girl death and stop the Wittebanes'.
- Jonah Smith, a Wittebane assassin, is a supporting antagonist in season 2, serving as one of the secondary antagonists (alongside Riley, Millie and Sophia) of the "Death to Normality" arc. He's most known for being the one who murders Camila. This not only shows that Anyone Can Die in the story, not just Original Characters, but takes away the last reason Luz would want to stay in the Human Realm, as she starts a new life in The Boiling Isles, after she kills him in vengeance.
- Tamashiki Shigaraki and Aiya Kagurami are both Posthumous Characters only introduced in a flashback at the beginning of Chapter 29 with former getting only one line while latter gets none at all, but Tamashiki's "actions" on Aiya lead to the birth of not only the first One For All wielder but also his brother, All For One himself, Japan's most powerful and dangerous supervillain.
- In Avengers: Infinite Wars, while the Avengers as a whole have a great impact on the Clone Wars, this trope is particularly relevant to events back on Earth, when Bucky Barnes and Jedi Shadow Celeste Morne meet Odin in Norway, as Odin effortlessly seals Karness Murr in Celeste's amulet until she and Bucky can travel to Kamar-Taj and receive better help from the Ancient One, setting Celeste on the path to become a Jedi Sorcerer.
- Code Prime:
- Makeshift only appears in one chapter of R1, where his role is posing as Wheeljack to infiltrate the Autobots and Black Knights, and being killed to keep the location of the Ark a secret. However, Megatron uses his remains to create a Pretender in Euphemia's image in order to kick off the Special Administrative Zone Massacre. This leads to Suzaku and Dreadwing defecting to the Autobots and Black Knights. And the massacre results in the Black Rebellion, which serves as a distraction that allows the Decepticons to attack Pendragon and take over Britannia.
- Joseph Fenette, Shirley's father, is possibly a major example. Unlike in canon, he survives the rockslide at Narita, but is captured by Shockwave and Soundwave, along with the other scientists from Code-R, and is presumed dead. This leads to a long chain of events:
- His supposed death causes Lelouch several problems with Shirley, which leads to Shirley finding out about Lelouch being Zero and choosing to join the Autobots and Black Knights.
- His capture along with Code-R reveals the project, and Geass, to Megatron, making the Decepticon leader suspect Charles of treachery, and that Charles' brother Victor/V.V. is not dead as he previously thought.
- Lelouch’s aforementioned problems with Shirley caused by Joseph’s capture lead to Mao making his move, forming an alliance with Megatron to capture C.C. This ends with Mao being subjected to Shockwave’s experiments to learn more on Geass after Mao fails Megatron one too many times.
- Megatron captures V.V. and learns about the Ragnarok Connection, and Shockwave’s experiments on Geass lead to Megatron gaining his Dark Geass of Absolute Terror.
- Eventually, this all leads to the Decepticons deciding to overthrow Britannia at the end of R1, with the Decepticons taking over the Geass Order and declaring themselves the new rulers of Earth.
- Doctor in the Underworld;
- From a certain perspective, this applies to the Doctor; he doesn’t have much impact on the overall plot, as Selene and Michael would have defeated Viktor and Marcus even without him, but thanks to his presence, Erika survives to learn her true identity of Reinette.
- On a wider note, it is tempting to consider that the Doctor’s aid in getting the group back to Budapest after Marcus’s death allows Selene to more effectively re-establish the coven’s human contacts in order to maintain the masquerade and prevent humanity learning about the immortals as they did between Evolution and Awakening.
- A group of Japanese wizards in training in Eternal Fantasy
set up a spell to make their favorite RPG come to life inside the building they're playing in. One of them accidentally inverted part of the boundary field, marking the building's interior as the outside of the field, and causing the entirety of Earth to fuse with the videogame. - Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters: A minor background character, who shows up in a single flashback and isn't even named, ends up shaping a lot of the backstory. One of Julian's men convinces him to destroy Carhaiz, which leads to Julian being captured, Caleb having the responsibility of leading the Rebellion forced onto him, and laying the groundwork for Tristan becoming a servant of Phobos.
- In an Instant: Suitcase Sam, a background character in Steven Universe, is among those to vanish in the first chapter thanks to Thanos's snap. His true identity is Barney Barton, Hawkeye AKA Clint Barton's estranged brother that was under hiding. The surviving Avengers on Earth go to Beach City to recruit him, but instead encounter Steven and the other surviving Crystal Gems.
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail:
- Chloe's classmate Akemi becomes an Unwitting Instigator of Doom when she discusses the Alola League with her at lunch. This leads to Chloe learning that Ash is the Alola Champion, and several other classmates who overhear this harass her into challenging him, setting off a cascade of events that push Chloe past her Rage Breaking Point and culminate in her boarding the Train.
- Leon innocently telling his little brother Hop about Ash potentially being the one to fight him causes Hop — reeling from Bede's Breaking Speech — to fall into a Heroic BSoD that causes the Infinity Train to take him away.
- Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily:
- Margaret from the Pearl Gates Car, had a son named Dar. He was killed off by the Apex with a sledgehammer. Gladion learning about this fact has him decide to stop the Apex before they cause anymore trouble, setting off the plot of the story.
- Utahoshi shows off in a flashback, but his kindness towards Tokio, closeness to Kisaragi and his subsequent death by Grace's knife, plays a big part in the two factions named Solitaire and White Gestalt.
- Lampetia gets a few scenes that explain who she is, her relationship to Larkspur and that she's Specter's denizen partner. Her death — a request from her to London — will end up shaping Specter's personal arc.
- The Legendary Spider Man actually has two.
- Johnathan Drew usually only appears once or twice a season, but he's essentially the man who enabled the creation of The Web Warriors. He created the special spiders which would give superpowers to every spider hero/heroine to arise from his partner Jessica Carpenter to his daughter to the many teens who got powers accidentally in one way or another. Which in turn would prompt interest from the various evil organizations around the world to take those powers, and thus making the spiders people of interest worldwide.
- Spider Queen is only around for the first 3 chapters of year 4 before dying. However, her actions lead to the creation of the 4th spider hero, and is Peter's first introduction to Mutants, who would become a serious part of the year going forward.
- A Man of Iron has Renly Baratheon. He's very much on the periphery in Book 1, but Book 2 reveals that he was responsible for Tony's kidnapping by those bandits. Which makes him indirectly responsible for the existence of Iron Man, who emboldened other mystics and metahumans to make themselves known.
- In Star Wars: Arda Unleashed - part of a series where Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi joined the War of the Ring during the Clone Wars- this comparatively applies to the role the residents of Arda have on the Clone Wars. While the campaign on Arda only lasted a few months and involved one isolated, primitive world, the friends and allies Anakin and Obi-Wan made there lead to Anakin rejecting any thought that he might turn to the Dark Side, even as Palpatine learns some of Sauron's tricks to increase his own power.
- The Victorious fic "Unfairly Judged" includes a minor crossover with Dynasty (2017) where Jade West is a relative of the Carringtons, with Fallon Carrington her distant cousin. At one point, to pay Fallon back for bullying Jade in the past, Tori (who is now dating Jade) sets up a situation where the staff of a restaurant announce that Fallon and Steven Carrington are expecting a baby even though they're siblings, with Tori's video of the event causing a serious dip in the Carrington company's stock as Fallon was in isolation at a spa afterwards and wasn't available to respond to the criticism. When Fallon goes back to work, the news of these events, coupled with a call to her husband that reveals he is having an affair, cause Fallon to suffer a Villainous Breakdown.
- In Vanishing Act, Kira Yoshikage is long dead, but is still plot-relevant as it's revealed that he was the one who killed Shizuka's biological parents.
- The Weaver Option:
- The Last Ultramarine appears for only the final part of the first scene in the story, but in that brief appearance he disrupts Tzeentch's ritual. This ensures that Taylor and the other parahumans arrive in the 35th Millennium free from Chaos, setting in motion the plot.
- Nostradomus Vandire has only a handful of appearances during which he is easily deposed by Taylor and sent to an abrupt death in a Penal Legion. However, his death infuriates his father, Xerxes Vandire, who uses his position to turn the Adeptus Administratum against Taylor.
- Vyrion Kaeran does little beyond picking a fight with Taylor and getting himself killed. His death infruiates his home craftworld, whose quest to gain revenge on the Mon-Keigh who dared to kill an Eldar Farseer turns Biel-Tan into one of her more persistent enemies. This also means Vyrion is indirectly responsible for Biel-Tan's destruction for interfering with the Mark of Commorragh.
- A few characters in Angel of the Bat appear to be this, but have actually had large roles, just off-camera. (Deacon Blackfire only appears in a flashback but did a lot to create the Big Bad The Seraphim, Joshua Lebowitz only has a few scenes but has spent years in defiance for The Seraphim etc.). But Jason Todd/ Red Hood's role in the story is simply acting as a hired killer for a few scenes. Despite this, defeating him helps bring closure to Stephanie's story arc and his knowledge of infiltrating The Seraphim's base is what leads to one of the two climaxes.
- A Carnal Mistake: Two events at once that affected Lelouch. First was C.C. remove all Geass commands from Lelouch, with the intent of removing the Geass he put on himself for fighting Mao and make him able to use Geass again. The second was a Sex-Ed at Ashford, which leads to a discussion about sex history among the student council. This leads Lelouch to recall seeing his parents having sex, which he couldn't remember before because his father used his Geass to erase that memory. It now means Lelouch knows his father's power.
- Alternative Class Despair: While they don't have much of a role in the stories, Fukawa Toko served as the Spanner in the Works that led to Junko changing targets. Namely, they accidentally walked in on Mukuro kidnapping Mikan. This resulted in Mukuro grabbing Toko instead, forcing Junko to change her plans on the fly.
- Danganronpa: Memento Mori: Arisu Edogawa is a Posthumous Character who's only mentioned in a newspaper article in the prologue, and then in the final chapter much later. She turns out to be one of the main reasons why both the current and the previous Killing Game happened — as attempts by her younger brother Naoya to avenge her death and to impress her.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
- Blade of Demon Salvation: Two Original Characters in this story play small, but crucial roles in how the plot diverges from canon.
- Miko, the Arc Villain of chapters 7-10, ends up fighting both Tanjiro and Genya, which leads to the two becoming Fire-Forged Friends after they discover the other's secret in the fight against hernote . Genya becomes nicer person earlier than in canon as a result, and their secrets would lead to them being paired up in the same team.
- Soda Shohei, a Demon Slayer who was meant supervise Tanjiro in Asakusa, ends up accidentally crossing paths with Muzan and is forcefully turned into a demon by him. The demonized Soda ends up interfering with Tamayo's attempt to make Susamaro invoke Muzan's curse, allowing her to escape and genuinely become one of the Twelve Demon Moons by replacing Rui after the latter is killed by Sabito. Tanjiro being forced to Mercy Kill Soda gives him the motivation to give repentant demons a chance to live and atone for their sins, leading him to ask Tamayo to take in repentant demons he sends over to her clinic, starting with the Spider Demon Mother (who is given the name Ito by Genya).
- The Color of the World: Yahaba lasts just as long as he does in canon, but his act of noticing Tanjiro's Hanafuda earringsnote is what leads Muzan to take an interest in Tanjiro's potential as a demon and seek to capture him so he can turn him into a new minion under his control.
- Zero 2: A Revision, Demon from the original timeline only appeared in one chapter explaining Shaun's backstory but it is ultimately his manipulations and genocide of the Digidestined that drove Shaun into trying to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, and subsequently starts the whole Zero 2 universe.
- In the Aladdin fanfic Opposites Destroy, Nada only appears in the first chapter and the end of the last chapter, but it's only because she rubbed the necklace containing Djinn that the evil genie was freed.
- The Fifth Act:
- Yuffie is only present for a few scenes and is only there as the Plucky Comic Relief. But she makes a huge impact as Cloud rescuing her gets him an audience with the Emperor of Wutai, her father. Her habit of stealing materia saves her father's life and forces Cloud to work a diplomatic solution when assassinating her father for his Honor Before Reason stubbornness was not an option. Cloud manages to convince Lord Kisaragi to surrender to Shin-Ra on his own terms which in turn attracts further attention from Shin-Ra. Further attention from Shin-Ra gets him recruited into the company in turn has major consequences in the latter half of the story.
- Young Cloud is only present for two chapters but he's pivotal in getting the elder Cloud's cover to fall apart and his rescue of Kunsel tells the rest of the cast where Cloud is being held.
- Vincent has very few scenes but he turns the Turks against Hojo and is the one who kills him.
- In True Heroes, Mighty Mom and Dyno Dad are never seen, and if the author had plans to reveal what happened (outside of a throwaway line where the Nega-Chin implies he killed them), the author quit writing before they came to fruition. It's their disappearance that leads to the Crimson Chin to take Timmy in as Cleft, which leads to the events of the series proper.
- The One Where Heckles Has An Existential Crisis reveals that the gang's downstairs neighbour in the first season, Mr Heckles, was actually Chandler's future self from a timeline where Chandler's commitment issues eventually ended his relationship with Monica as she got back together with Richard. As a result of Heckles arranging for the gang to get all his personal possessions after his death (taking out everything that identifies him specifically as Chandler's future self), he creates the canon timeline where Chandler marries Monica and the gang all stay closer friends, where it's implied that Heckles' timeline saw Rachel move to Paris, the rest of the gang all move away from Chandler, and Ross lost Marcel for good when he ran out of the apartment while Rachel was looking after him.
- In Fidget, You Are a Mystery, the witch only appears briefly in the first and fourth chapters (and is killed off in her second appearance), but it's only because of her (or rather, her potions) that Milo's soul ended up in Fidget's body.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Madison Russell is somewhat Demoted to Extra compared to her roles in her MonsterVerse appearances, but she's responsible for the human cast working out where the battle to rescue Monster X is going to take place. Without her, Monarch wouldn't have been present at the battle to stir Monster X and hasten its rebirth using the Argo's Titan bio-acoustics speakers, and then the Final Battle would've likely gone quite differently.
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality:
- Bahry One-Hand. He is only present in half a dozen chapters, but his impact of the story is undeniable. If not for the scientific upbringing he gave to his son, Harry would be a completely different person and the story would look quite differently.
- Aunt Petunia. Her decision in this fic's timeline to marry a scientist instead of Vernon and her resolve to raise Harry as her own is one of the main divergence points from the canon storyline and the basis of the whole story. In spite of that major impact, Petunia doesn't appear all that often.
- Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: The homophobe and the bully appear in one chapter each and weren't given actual names. However, their actions make Germany and Japan all the more protective and possessive over Italy in addition to heightening their jealousy over each other, culminating in a massive Cock Fight which pushed Italy to confess to both of them.
- A Thing of Vikings:
- A villager in Glenfinnan asks Hiccup to deliver a package to her daughter, giving Hiccup the idea to set up the Dragon Mail, a massive communication network that invokes Easy Communication in medieval times that massively impacted the world.
- Vlademar, Oddmund and Mikael are some of Magnus' thanes, and they played very minor roles in the story, but they're the ones that told Snotlout about and inspired him to join the Varangian Guard.
- Fishlegs' great-grandfather, Dror ben Ezra. A Jewish ex-thrall who taught the Hooligans how to read and write. Thanks to his efforts, Hooligan culture adapted to literacy, with books being part of Hooligan culture (as shown by the Book of Dragons in the first film). This makes him responsible for saving the Hooligans from being wiped out from dragon raids and creating the educational background that resulted in Hiccup!
- A Pecheneg trader who was not even named got some scales from Snotlout as payment for some goods. Through him, news of it being possible to tame dragons reaches Drago, which inspires him to try it out instead of just killing the dragon he beat. When it worked, he offers his services as a warlord to the Pechenegs, and with his help, the dragons they ride helped them conquer large territories.
- An unnamed merchant in Turpan only appeared in a single scene in a single chapter, and his brother is only mentioned. And yet, their effect on the story is huge. The brother trying to assault Drago for being a cripple and the merchant then arranging for Drago to be abandoned for dead eventually led to Drago finding a place among the Pechenegs.
- Cheating Death Those Who Lived: Magnus Sterlingshire, Victor of the 73rd games, only appears in one chapter, besides a brief mention of his death in the Rebellion. He also sponsored Katniss during her games by sending her the burn cream, because he really didn't want Cato or Clove to win.
- Checkmate (Anla'Shok): Twelve-year-old District 4 volunteer Petrel only appears in three chapters out of over a hundred, but a young Capitol boy who sponsors him takes his death badly enough to develop the seeds of rebellion in his mind. That boy is named Plutarch Heavensbee, and his involvement with the Rebellion plays a very big role in it succeeding in both canon and this story.
- Requiem for a Loud has Adrien, a boy slightly older than Lincoln, who suffers from an advanced form of Leukemia. He only appears in chapter 5, but both this meeting and the letter he writes Lincoln later mark a turning point for Lincoln, and the story as a whole, since it causes Lincoln to accept his fate and try to make the most of the time he has left.
- A Real Chance opens with Uatu visiting He Who Remains, which reveals that the TVA has pruned 137 different timelines where someone reached out to Wanda before or after Westview to offer her an alternative source of support than the Darkhold and her obsession with her children. Witnessing the final divergence where Wanda meets Peter Parker in London after the battle on London Bridge, Uatu discreetly gives Wanda a brief moment of insight into those other possibilities, giving her sufficient advance notice to force the TVA to leave Peter alone and thus let this timeline continue, allowing her to prevent Peter's identity being exposed after she destroys the Darkhold.
- Essentially applies to Peter and Wanda in What If... Wanda Didn't Mourn Alone?, which sees Peter joining Wanda when she goes to Westview and Wanda later joining Peter in New York as Strange casts the spell. While neither can stop the larger-scale threat, culminating in Wanda's memory of Peter being erased just like the rest of the world, during a demon-induced breakdown Wanda regains her memory of Peter and is inspired to stop her current actions before going on to meet with him. After the two reunite, Wanda helps Peter get back in touch with the other Avengers, who help him gain confidence to properly rebuild his life; Kate Bishop even uses her position at Bishop Securities to give Peter a job in the company's R&D department, giving him a job that lets him use his full potential and an employer who doesn't mind if he has to leave during the day for his superhero activities.
- The Babysitting Fiasco is kicked off by an offscreen battle with an unnamed akuma. This fight took so long that Marinette realizes afterwards that she won't be able to look after Alya and Nino's younger siblings, as she's been babysitting the trio so much that she's fallen behind on her studies and won't be able to finish her homework otherwise. Fortunately, she spots Alya's mother and races to let her know what's going on, unaware that Marlena hasn't been privy to how her daughter has been taking advantage of Marinette's kindness...
- Cheshire: While cleaning the Agreste Estate, Jacob finds a copy of the Miraculous Grimoire, one of the two copies made by Bella Blue, and a journal with Marinette's original partial translation. Nathalie gets her hands on the journal with its translation, while Jacob gives the book to Adrien, who passes it over to Master Fu.
- Though only appearing in one chapter Julian from Miraculous: The Phoenix Rises quickly earns his rank as the biggest Hate Sink of the entire fic. After Morgan overheard him giving a threatening call, she catches him in the act of attempting to kidnap a girl only to bungle her attempt at stopping him. he then proceeds to have her framed for stalking and assault, ruining her life. He makes no other appearances besides the opening flashback.
- Telling Lies? No, Mama: Aurore and Mirelle only make a brief appearance in the first chapter, which isn’t even at the school where 90% of the story takes place. However, they are the ones who set the story in motion. When they overhear that Lila’s mother at the bakery, saying who she is related to, they get excited and show her the interviews of Lila on the Ladyblog lying her butt off about saving a rockstar’s cat and being besties with Ladybug, unwittingly exposing her lies to her mother. With that revealed, Madame Rossi goes digging and finds out that the school had not been closed like her daughter said, and storms over there to confront Lila and confirm to her classmates that she is a liar.
- In Fear No Evil, Katsuki Bakugou only has an offscreen role until the last chapter. However, he sets off Izuku's kidnapping by Humarise by signing him up for the Humarise's mailing list.
- Mastermind: Strategist for Hire: A forum poster going by Whyher0es301 appears in only the first two chapters of the fic: his use of the plan Izuku gave him to murder Mt. Lady and get away with it, along with him telling his friends about Izuku's account, M4sterM1nd404, plants the seeds for Izuku becoming the villain Mastermind.
- With Confidence has Amida Nakamura, who doesn't appear past the first chapter, but whose interaction with Izuku ends up being the nail which causes the fic to diverge significantly from canon.
- Tazuna's presence in Son of the Sannin is almost completely glossed over due to the events of the Wave mission not being handled by Naruto's team and taking place offscreen, yet his actions directly lead to Mei Terumi seeking Konoha's help in the Kirigakure civil war (and by extention, the formation of the Konoha/Suna/Kiri alliance) due to Zabuza being the one assigned to protect him as part of his parole.
- your move, instigator (draw your weapon and hold your tongue): Neji is a Posthumous Character who's Killed Offscreen before the story proper begins; however, prior to his death, he taught the five-year-old Sakura how to read. This enabled her to fall in love with the Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja, learning a lot from how the book's protagonist challenges many of the less pleasant aspects of the shinobi world. In addition, despite their superior encouraging him to run, Neji effectively chose to sacrifice himself in an effort to save his supposedly less valuable teammates. This decision directly led to Sakura's survival.
- Mrs Horaki has very little in the way of characterization and only appears in a few scenes of Advice and Trust, but she was single handedly responsible for keeping Kaworu from crossing the Despair Event Horizon and causing The End of the World as We Know It after Rei's Heroic Sacrifice.
- Shiji and Asuka's daughter Aki is only physically present for two chapters in The Second Try (technically four, but they only show up in two of them at the very end), yet they shaped the entire course of the story since she formed the bulk of Asuka and Shinji's Character Development, was the entire reason for Kaworu sending them back in time in the first place, and was the one who convinced Rei not to initiate Third Impact.
- Always Visible: To be honest, Delia does absolutely nothing to develop the plot - but as soon as this girl died, events immediately began to move at a waltz pace.
- Mr and Mrs Gold: Belle's release from Regina’'s torture was done when the Genie of the Mirror grew a conscience and told Rumpel about it.
- Junior Officers has Zulimar Zebra. She was only mentioned once in The Undersea Twister, but her quitting the team years ago was the first of several events that led to Barnacles becoming captain.
- In This Bites!, Nero is an unremarkable member of CP9 that is unceremoniously pushed off of the Puffing Tom by Boss. However, his presence meant that the organization had three Devil Fruits in reserve instead of just the two that Kaku and Kalifa ate in canon. This leads to Cross finding the spare Devil Fruit in Spandam's office, which turns out to be the Human-Human Fruit: Model Child that Merry eats to avoid dying like in canon.
- The first Wham Episode of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines happened because of a guy named Tokiomi Borealis, who is only mentioned in passing to be a Wealthy Philanthropist who helped revive Gringy City and make it a nice place to live. As it turns out, his disowning of his daughter Aurora for being a bloodliner led the story's Knight of Cerebus Belladonna Tyrian to cross paths with Ash, and gave the revelation that our hero's look-alikes all over Kanto and abroad aren't pure coincidence.
- Always a Ranger- an AU of the confrontation with Thrax where he attacked the SPD B-Squad rather than the Operation Overdrive team- features Jen Scotts as part of the Legacy Rangers assembled by the Sentinel Knight to oppose Thrax. When talking with the SPD Rangers, she notes that the Omega Ranger was a key inspiration for Time Force; him travelling back in time to make a better future confirmed the value of time travel, but also demonstrated the dangers if it wasn't properly controlled.
- Ma Fille has Colette. She only has about two appearances, but a remark she made in high school about toughening up is what eventually led Glass Joe to enter the ring.
- The Makings of Team CRME: Brigit Stark from My Name Is Cinder only shows up in two chapters of the whole story. However, she ends up being an insanely important character in retrospect. Brigit abusing Cinder and killing her father is what drove Cinder to become a sociopath.note Cinder killing her left her on her own where she was picked up by bandits and Salem took interest in how damaged she was. In turn, Salem raised Cinder into becoming the power-hungry egomaniac she is in the show. Cinder assembling the team helped Emerald get off the streets and ended up being the reason Mercury is still alive. If Cinder weren't looking for Marcus when she did, Mercury would've bled out and died shortly after killing him. And then, Cinder hired Roman to commit the Dust robberies, including the one Ruby stopped in the pilot of the show. Had that robbery not gone on, Ozpin wouldn't have noticed Ruby's abilities and Ruby wouldn't have been accepted into Beacon early. Thus removing the catalyst for the whole show in the first place! Basically (as far as the CRME-verse is concerned), without the actions of Brigit Stark, RWBY would have never happened.
- In Birth Of An Abomination (here), the canon Ruby only appears in one scene after she is shattered, so she doesn't even have lines, but it's because of her that another Ruby joins the Crystal Gems and a third Ruby is motivated to get revenge on Sapphire and kills Greg, essentially starting the rest of the series.
- Franchouchou feat. has Koji Kaneda, who is established in a few chapters to be a Stalker with a Crush who wants Yugiri for himself under the delusion she reciprocates his feelings and wants to leave Idol business. He loses it when Yugiri rejects him and, blaming Sakura for this, stabs the latter 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 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.
