History Main / DestinedBystander

->''"The thing about Franchise/SpiderMan is that his enemies can't just be sociopaths who like pretty things. Some are, sure, but an astonishing number of them are his best friend from high school, or his girlfriend's father, or the cat he raised from a kitten. Something angsty. So there's the [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]], who's not really that inspiring as a villain. I mean, pumpkin bombs? But in his various incarnations the Green Goblin has been practically everyone on Peter Parker's speed dial."''

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** Spidey owns this trope in both the comics and all adaptations. It's part of what makes reading the comics (where the writers probably tried to used named characters as much as often) and watching the shows so fun. Most named characters have a destiny interlocked with the hero, either badly, or not, but they all have lives and roles before their inevitable (and part of what makes it so sad is that it is, ultimately, inevitable) destiny strikes.
** A few notable examples from the comics: nearly everyone named that Peter Parker went to high school with has had deeper involvement in his story as the years passed. Liz Allen (whose brother turns out to be the Molten Man) fell in love with Harry Osborn, whose [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn father turned out to be the Green Goblin]], and who eventually went mad and took up his father's title. Flash Thompson, Peter's bully-turned-friend, is suspected of being the Hobgoblin (whom another long time Spider-Man supporting character, Ned Leeds, is also suspected of being), becomes a target for the Green Goblin, loses his memory, etc. He's more recently known as Agent ComicBook/{{Venom}}. Even one or two appearance character Sally Avril decides to become a heroine named Bluebird (and subsequently dies). It's a big case of writers deciding to use known characters instead of spontaneously making new ones, but it often looks like [[DoomMagnet just being near Peter Parker is an invitation to be drawn in.]]

*** [[ComicBook/{{Venom}} Eddie Brock]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' as Peter's childhood fried who attends Empire state university, and in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' (and the comics) he is a rival reporter to Parker. Several other characters appear in ''The Animated Series'' before becoming their alter egos, most notably Norman and Harry Osborn, and the former appears long before his transformation into the Green Goblin.
* ComicBook/JimmyOlsen was originally made up for [[Radio/TheAdventuresOfSuperman the Superman radio show]], so that Supes could have [[TheWatson someone to discuss the plot with]]. Over half a century later, radio has all but faded away, yet Jimmy remains as Superman's Best Friend, and an inextricable part of the core cast. He was even the star of his own comic book series, for a while.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Vanessa Kapatelis was the awkward teenaged daughter of Julia Kapatelis, the archeologist Diana stayed with when she first left Themyscira. She later ended up kidnapped, tortured and forcibly transformed into the new Silver Swan, to make the villain that much more difficult for Diana to face.

* Spidey adaptations are the ''kings'' of this. Pretty much ''every'' member of his RoguesGallery is developed for a few episodes first or given a connection to him, and ''every'' series ended with at least one or two pre-super heroes or villains still in his sphere, sadly not getting that one more season to properly take the stage. It helps that their powers are given a MetaOrigin when originally it was unrelated characters having a FreakLabAccident every month because the MarvelUniverse has NoOshaCompliance. In S:TAS, it's hard to become an animal-based hero or villain without having crossed paths with the guy who invented LegoGenetics (Curt Connors) and the hero who is of course very interested in the science that altered the spider that bit him. In the ''Amazing'' movies, Oscorp is the source of everything, so a lot of names from the comics work there.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', Ethan Bennet is a long-running crusading police officer (and analogue to Harvey Dent). At the end of the first season, he got fired by Chief Rojas for his failure to apprehend Batman (and defending him), the Joker kidnaps him, [[MindRape works him over]] and accidentally turns him into Clayface.

{{Superhero}} comics tend to run a long time, with [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters large amounts of characters]] that range from the major to the minor. Thus, there is never a shortage of characters that can dynamically drive the plot, and there's always people who the hero is close to or knows that can become... something else. Sometimes, the guy who was the hero's former roommate, or an old teacher, or a neighbor, can, through what seems like destiny, become intwined into some new role, be it antagonist, love interest, mentor, or otherwise.

* Samuel Sterns, the character who will eventually become The Leader, appears pre-villainy turn being a secondary character in ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk''. Sadly, he has yet to reappear outside tie-in-comics.

* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': When Heartful Punch made her [[https://www.sleeplessdomain.com/comic/chapter-2-page-2 first appearance]], she was surrounded by a group of nameless MagicalGirl fans. Several chapters later, two of these fans would be [[https://www.sleeplessdomain.com/comic/chapter-7-page-6 introduced]] as major side characters Cassidy and Vedika, two members of Heartful Punch's training club. In preparation for this, Cassidy's design was [[OrwellianRetcon retroactively tweaked]], making her hair a brighter and more distinctive shade of [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair orange]].

* [[MeaningfulName Leslie Bean]] of ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' showed up as a random grocery store employee before Willis decided to reuse her character design, therefore making her a prominent character.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', the [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2007-02-09 Trike Girl made a cameo in one plot thread]] years before she became a major character.
* In ''WebComic/DarthsAndDroids'', Anakin Skywalker was designed by the GameMaster as a totally unimportant NonPlayerCharacter mentioned in passing. But the players thought he was important, and then Jim came up with an insane plan involving giving him a midi-chlorian transfusion and having him compete in a race, and then he became a replacement PlayerCharacter. It didn't even stop there; in the next campaign, he ended up having more of an impact on the game universe than just about anyone else.

->''"The thing about Spider-Man is that his enemies can't just be sociopaths who like pretty things. Some are, sure, but an astonishing number of them are his best friend from high school, or his girlfriend's father, or the cat he raised from a kitten. Something angsty. So there's the Green Goblin, who's not really that inspiring as a villain. I mean, pumpkin bombs? But in his various incarnations the Green Goblin has been practically everyone on Peter Parker's speed dial."''

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', Ethan Bennet is a long-running crusading police officer (and analogue to Harvey Dent). At the end of the first season, the Joker kidnaps him, [[MindRape works him over]] and accidentally turns him into Clayface.

* In ''Disney/FrozenII'', Queen Iduna, the mother of Elsa and Anna, is of much more importance than she seemed to be in ''Disney/{{Frozen}}''. Iduna's shawl is cherished by the sisters, but [[spoiler: it is not until they meet the Northuldra (Iduna's relatives) in the Enchanted Forest that they realise the spiritual significance of the shawl and of Iduna herself in the magical world of Frozen.]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Samuel Sterns, the character who will eventually become The Leader, appears pre-villainy turn being a secondary character in ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk''. Sadly, he has yet to reappear outside tie-in-comics.
* Sam Raimi's ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'', like most Spider-Man adaptations, played with this. Harry Osborn appears as one of the main supporting characters for the first two movies before moving on into a temporary villainous role as the New Goblin in the third. Curt Connors appears often throughout the second and third movies, before perhaps becoming The Lizard. (However, the movie franchise was rebooted before that could happen. ''However'', Connors does become the Lizard in the first ''Amazing Spider-Man'' film.)

* Sam Raimi's ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'', like most Spider-Man adaptations, played with this. Harry Osborn appears as one of the main supporting characters for the first two movies before moving on into a temporary villainous role as the New Goblin in the third. Curt Connors appears often throughout the second and third movies, before perhaps becoming The Lizard. (However, the movie franchise was rebooted before that could happen. ''However'' however, Connors does become the Lizard in the first ''Amazing Spider-Man'' film.)

** In the source material, Eddie Brock and his grude against Spider-Man was introduced via retcon. Here, he's present as Peter's rival at the Daily Bugle from day one, and his escalating grudge against Spider-Man is a running threat through the entire first season.

* The ''Film/TheSpiderManTrilogy'', like most Spider-Man adaptations, played with this. Harry Osborn appears as one of the main supporting characters for the first two movies before moving on into a temporary villainous role as the New Goblin in the third. Curt Connors appears often throughout the second and third movies, before perhaps becoming The Lizard. (However, the movie franchise was rebooted before that could happen. ''However'' however, Connors does become the Lizard in the first ''Amazing Spider-Man'' film.)

* Samuel Sterns, the character who will eventually become The Leader, appears pre-villainy turn being a secondary character in ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk''.

** The Sam Raimi movies have been playing with this as well. Harry Osborn appears as one of the main supporting characters for the first two movies before moving on into a temporary villainous role as the New Goblin in the third. Curt Connors appears often throughout the second and third movies, before perhaps becoming The Lizard. (However, the movie franchise was rebooted before that could happen. ''However'' however, Connors does become the Lizard in the first ''Amazing Spider-Man'' film.)

** In the source material, Eddie Brock and his grude against Spider-Man was introduced via retcon. Here, he's introduced as Peter's rival at the Daily Bugle from day one, and his escalating grudge against Spider-Man is a running threat through the entire first season.

* Franchise/SpiderMan owns this trope in both the comics and all adaptations. It's part of what makes reading the comics (where the writers probably tried to used named characters as much as often) and watching the shows so fun. Most named characters have a destiny interlocked with the hero, either badly, or not, but they all have lives and roles before their inevitable (and part of what makes it so sad is that it is, ultimately, inevitable) destiny strikes.
** A few notable examples from the comics: Nearly everyone named that Peter Parker went to high school with has had deeper involvement in his story as the years passed. Liz Allen (whose brother turns out to be the Molten Man) fell in love with Harry Osborn, whose [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn father turned out to be the Green Goblin]], and who eventually went mad and took up his father's title. Flash Thompson, Peter's bully-turned-friend, is suspected of being the Hobgoblin (whom another long time Spider-Man supporting character, Ned Leeds, is also suspected of being), becomes a target for the Green Goblin, loses his memory, etc. He's more recently known as Agent ComicBook/{{Venom}}. Even one or two appearance character Sally Avril decides to become a heroine named Bluebird (and subsequently dies). It's a big case of writers deciding to use known characters instead of spontaneously making new ones, but it often looks like [[DoomMagnet just being near Peter Parker is an invitation to be drawn in.]]
** This is also often used in adaptations:
*** [[ComicBook/{{Venom}} Eddie Brock]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' as Peter's childhood fried who attends Empire state university, and in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' (and the comics) he is a rival reporter to Parker. Several other characters appear in ''The Animated Series'' before becoming their alter egos, most notably Norman and Harry Osborn, and the former appears long before his transformation into the Green Goblin. Other examples include Felicia Hardy, who takes several seasons to become her comics identity of [[DatingCatwoman The Black Cat]], and Michael Morbius, who has several appearances before becoming ComicBook/{{Morbius}} the Living Vampire.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', as noted before, not only gives Eddie Brock an extensive role (influenced by his role in ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan''), but also has Norman and Harry Osborn(as usual), The Sandman, The Rhino, The Shocker, Doctor Octopus, and Curt Connors, as supporting characters or minor villains before their inevitable darker turns, as well as, as said before, every named schoolmate Peter had in the comics, as well as (again, as noted above) Gwen Stacy, [[KilledOffForReal whose fate is well known.]]

*** Spidey adaptations are the ''kings'' of this. Pretty much ''every'' member of his RoguesGallery is developed for a few episodes first or given a connection to him, and ''every'' series ended with at least one or two pre-super heroes or villains still in his sphere, sadly not getting that one more season to properly take the stage. It helps that their powers are given a MetaOrigin when originally it was unrelated characters having a FreakLabAccident every month because the MarvelUniverse has NoOshaCompliance. In S:TAS, it's hard to become an animal-based hero or villain without having crossed paths with the guy who invented LegoGenetics (Curt Connors) and the hero who is of course very interested in the science that altered the spider that bit him. In the ''Amazing'' movies, Oscorp is the source of everything, so a lot of names from the comics work there.

{{Superhero}} comics are [[LongRunner long runners]], with [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters large amounts of characters]] that range from the major to the minor. Thus, there is never a shortage of characters that can dynamically drive the plot, and there's always people who the hero is close to or knows that can become... something else. Sometimes, the guy who was the hero's former roommate, or an old teacher, or a neighbor, can, through what seems like destiny, become intwined into some new role, be it antagonist, love interest, mentor, or otherwise.

* Likewise, ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', as noted before, not only gives Eddie Brock an extensive role (influenced by his role in ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan''), but also has Norman and Harry Osborn(as usual), The Sandman, The Rhino, The Shocker, Doctor Octopus, and Curt Connors, as supporting characters or minor villains before their inevitable darker turns, as well as, as said before, every named schoolmate Peter had in the comics, as well as (again, as noted above) Gwen Stacy, [[KilledOffForReal whose fate is well known.]]
** The Sam Raimi movies have been playing with this as well. Harry Osborn appears as one of the main supporting characters for the first two movies before moving on into a temporary villainous role as the New Goblin in the third. Curt Connors appears often throughout the second and third movies, before perhaps becoming The Lizard. (However, the movie franchise was rebooted before that could happen. ''However'' however, Connors does become the Lizard in the first ''Amazing Spider-Man'' film.)
*** Spidey adaptations are the ''kings'' of this. Pretty much ''every'' member of his RoguesGallery is developed for a few episodes first or given a connection to him, and ''every'' series ended with at least one or two pre-super heroes or villains still in his sphere, sadly not getting that one more season to properly take the stage. It helps that their powers are given a MetaOrigin when originally it was unrelated characters having a FreakLabAccident every month because the MarvelUniverse has NoOshaCompliance. In S:TAS, it's hard to become an animal-based hero or villain without having crossed paths with the guy who invented LegoGenetics (Curt Connors) and the hero who is of course very interested in the science that altered the spider that bit him. In the ''Amazing'' movies, Oscorp is the source of everything, so a lot of names from the comics work there.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', Ethan Bennet is a long-running crusading police officer (and analogue to Harvey Dent). At the end of the first season, the Joker kidnaps him, [[MindRape works him over]] and accidentally turns him into Clayface.
* Samuel Sterns, the character who will eventually become The Leader, appears pre-villainy turn being a secondary character in Film/TheIncredibleHulk.
* In the Literature/{{Deryni}} novels by Creator/KatherineKurtz, keep an eye on the extras, especially if they have rank:
** Archbishop Loris has a relatively minor role in ''Deryni Rising''; aside from leading the troops who arrest Morgan for treason and heresy, he's generally shown in tandem with Archbishop Corrigan and has little to do aside from official functions (sitting in Corrigan's support in the Regency Council, aiding in Kelson's coronation). In the next four books, he's a major antagonist.
** Prince Conall Haldane spends a good deal of time at his father Nigel's side in ''The Chronicles of the Deryni'' trilogy, and has little to do other than help out, in part because he's only about fourteen at the time. Look out when he grows older though...
** There are other characters who are either not explicitly mentioned as being present at Kelson's coronation in the text of ''Deryni Rising'', or who are mentioned only in passing. They make bigger impressions later in the series, either because the action shifts to their homes (like Duke Jared [=McLain=] and Caulay [=MacArdry=], Earl of Transha), or because other characters are absent or dead (such as Nigel's wife Meraude, who fills Jehana's place at court, and to some extent her brother, Saer de Traherne).
* Tabletop example: in WhiteWolf's roleplaying game TabletopGame/{{Scion}}, characters who exercise their proto-godly nature around humans have a chance to Fatebind those humans to the scions themselves, essentially forcing them to serve as potential love interests (regardless of whether either party in the matter is actually attracted to the other), rivals, accidental victims, or pawns in the scions' enemies' schemes.
* On the anime/manga side of things, Manga/{{Bleach}} actually gives us a reason for this. Ichigo [[spoiler: and his father]] is causing the latent abilities of his friends to manifest. Only Orihime and Chad are anywhere near the power level of Ichigo, but Tatsuki, Keigo and Chizuru are given a filler episode two-partner to show off their powers beginning to appear, and even Ichigo's sisters are caught up in it.
* [[MeaningfulName Leslie Bean]] of ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' showed up as a random grocery store employee before Willis decided to reuse her character design, therefore making her a prominent character.

* Introduced as a (subverted) [[MonsterOfTheWeek demon of the day]], or at most, demon of the month, Spike of [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] fame endured as a character throughout the TV series' seven seasons [[spoiler:and the fifth season of Angel's spin-off [[Series/{{Angel}} series]]]]. Series creator Joss Whedon has said numerous times that he did not mean for [[BigBad Spike]] to be anything more than a minor character and planned to kill him off not long after his first appearance.

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-->-- Lore Sjoberg, '''[[http://www.bookofratings.com/archive.html The Book of Ratings]]'''