Ascended Extra / Fan Works

One of the rules of fanfiction is anyone can be the main character, even if they had three seconds of screentime in the source material.

The following have their own pages:

• Family Guy Fanon
• Ignited Spark
• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail

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Series (#-M)

The 100

• In Lightning Only Strikes Once, this basically applies to Wells from Lexa's perspective, considering that he died before she ever had a chance to meet him in the original timeline. In the new history created by Lexa and Clarke's actions, Wells is appointed the Skaikru ambassador to the Coalition, using his political experience from the Ark to negotiate agreements with the other ambassadors to the extent that he and Aiden briefly took charge of the whole Coalition while Lexa and Clarke were briefly absent. On a personal note, Wells and Lexa even become good friends, with such moments as Wells teaching Lexa how to play chess, to the extent that Lexa tells Wells that the other world was poorer for his absence.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

• What Leads You Here: Tamao Kurabe, who was a side character in the game, features much more prominently here as a main character, fleshing out her personality and her relationships with the other Compatibles.

Ace Attorney

• Dirty Sympathy: Plum Kitaki becomes a major character after she offers her resources to help Klavier and Apollo with their "Strangers on a Train"-Plot Murder after they save her son, Wocky.

Adventure Time

• Half Past Adventure does this with quite a few characters, making the Duke of Nuts the main character's adoptive father and Huntress Wizard her first real mentor in heroism.
• Something More (Adventure Time)
  • Shoko in the show only appeared twice in major roles and was fully gone by her second appearance. Here, Finn accesses her memories and discovers her past much earlier and she acts as a ghostly companion to Finn and is one of the fic's major characters.
  • NEPTR was constantly absent in the series and his frequent absence was made fun of throughout the series, here he is a much more recurring character and even joins Finn's group in his expedition back to Founders Island.

Amphibia

• Sasha and the Frogs: Felicia Sundew is given a backstory as a traveling maid who then learned how to cook.

Animorphs

• In the new timeline created in Animorphs Redux, events were arranged so that Melissa Chapman discovered the morphing cube rather than David, resulting in her becoming the new member of the Animorphs.
  • Also used with Loren, who goes from a minor character discovered towards the end of the war in a crippled, amnesic condition to a valuable asset and ally.
• Lourdes and the other Chee who tended to replace the Animorphs whenever the kids had to be on a prolonged mission are fully developed characters in Dæmorphing. They're not alone. The Peace Movement Yeerks (especially Aftran), the real Tom, Melissa, Arbron and the Taxxons, the various stranded Andalites, and Toby and the other Hork-Bajir are given much more focus.
• The Eleutherophobia series stars the real Tom. While he was a constant presence throughout the books and the crux of Jake's arc, he was also an Impersonation-Exclusive Character who appeared Yeerk-free a grand total of once and only had about three lines of his own. Back to the Future also focuses on the extended Berenson family, most of whom were either supporting characters or only mentioned in passing.
• In the Splash of Blue series, Loren remains part of Tobias's life and even becomes a cautious ally to the Animorphs as they swiftly realise that she knows something about Andalites even if the Ellimist erased most of her conscious memory of her time with Elfangor.
• Tom is freed early on in What Tomorrow Brings and becomes a Sixth Ranger for the Animorphs. Mertil and Gafinilan actively fight the Yeerks and become part of the resistance.

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest

• Arifureta: Similar Story, Different World: Some of the members, such as Nagayama Jugo, Nomura Kentarou, Tsuji Ayako, and Yoshino Mao get more characterization than in the canon web novel.

Arrowverse

• In Baby, Won’t You Please Come Home, Word of God suggests that this will apply (at least to a degree) to Eddie Thawne; after he was present when Laurel was giving birth, the author has stated that he will go on to become a contact between Starling and Central's vigilante teams as Laurel learns more about the consequences of her exposure to the accelerator.
• To Hell and Back (Arrowverse):
  • Samantha Arias and her daughter Ruby appear much earlier than they did in canon, and have their roles expanded by becoming the respective best friends of Kara and Kal-El. No doubt, this was to make Sam's eventual transformation into Reign all the more tragic.
  • Astra In-Ze, Kara's aunt, remains the Big Bad of the story's equivalent to Supergirl (2015)'s Season One, and even survives past her defeat at the end of the arc, leading to her seeking redemption under the codename 'Archangel'.
  • Bette Sans Souci survives past her debut episode, helps take down Eiling, and joins Task Force X.
• Wrong Road to the Right Place:
  • While Ted Grant is introduced as Laurel’s trainer mid-way through what would have been Season One, he soon takes a more active role once he learns of her association with the Hood, to the extent that he helps her in her first solo outing as a vigilante and even gives her advice on her costume and name.
  • Detective Hall is also more involved than she was in the show, largely due to avoiding a Career-Ending Injury.

Avatar: The Last Airbender:

• Deadshots
  • June goes from a one-off character to Zuko and Mai's adoptive big sister.
  • Ty Lee's sisters show up to help her with Azula and her problems and become her ladies in waiting.

BattleTech

• Along Came a Spider has Dave Jewell. In the Blood of Kerensky novels, he was a Posthumous Character, having died in the fighting at the end of the previous book, and only gets mentioned as Kai finds his body and uses his identity to hide from ComStar and the Jade Falcons. In this story, he is Kai's Aide de Camp and survives the whole story, albeit despite losing his leg twice (having had it replaced both times but was out of action while recovering).

The Black Cauldron

• Hope for the Heartless, which is set after the events of the film, has Arawn, the Death Lord of Annuvin. In the movie, he was merely implied to be the soul of the cruel king sealed in the Black Cauldron. In the fic, he's the Big Bad even though he's still sealed in the Cauldron.

Bleach

• Vow of the King:
  • Nemu, who had merely been Mayuri's assistant in canon, is Ichigo's first love interest.
  • Tatsuki gains powers of her own and thus becomes part of the True Companions.
  • Bambietta and Candice, previously just dark action girls for a single arc of the manga, join Ichigo and friends in storming Soul Society.
  • Isane gets much more focus than in canon, notably taking Hanataro's place as the shinigami who attempts to help break out Nemu.
• Winter War has a lot of these, ranging from Minor Major Characters like Sasakibe, who goes from "the Lieutenant of First Division who never does anything" to a more fleshed-out character and a mainstay of La Résistance, to characters who had brief importance in canon and haven't been seen since (Shiba Kuukaku, Rikichi, Inoue Sora) and become pivotal again in the fic, to Omake characters like Shirogane and Ogidou getting personalities and plot importance, to literal Ascended Extras like Ito- who seems to be the nameless guy with the blond mohawk in the Eleventh Division ending of the anime.

BloodRayne

• BloodRayne: Chronicles of Blood: The Antebellum Thirties: In the original game, Marassa was only mentioned as collaborating with Jürgen Wulf and never actually seen. Here, she has a more active role and physically appears, being more of a threat to Rayne.

Boy Meets World / Girl Meets World

• The Minkiad: Stuart and Jennifer Minkus are main characters. Besides them, we also get to peer into the recent lives of minor Boy Meets World characters such as Libby, Dana, Meese, Ingrid, Loni, Stuart, Sherry, and Claire, Jason and hear about T.K. and Desiree. We also get to reunite with important characters from BMW that have yet to appear in GMW, such as Morgan and Rachel, and hear about Joey. Alvin Meese’s portrayal in the Minkiad began this way. The fact that at one time he worked at Minkus International and had been fired was only meant to be a throw-away gag line in UIOW to show another BMW grad still in their universe. After a while, the author began to explore the possibilities of Alvin Meese being the type of character that would have many of Stuart Minkus’ flaws (arrogance, conceit, know-it-all attitude) but none of his virtues (loving father, hidden kindness, friendships). So she expanded Meese’s role in LOG and developed his and Minkus’ antagonistic relationship accordingly.

The Brittas Empire

• True Love Is Never A Straight Path:
  • In canon, Brittas' stepchildren only briefly appear in the first episode, are barely mentioned, and have little relevance to the point. Here, they get more attention as they plot to leave Brittas with their mother and get more distinct personalities. It's especially notable with George Brittas, who stands out as being the only Brittas stepchild to neither receive a name nor any individual moments in canon - here, he gets the most screentime out of the three stepchildren, courtesy of him being left at the airport and Brittas having to collect and watch over him, and he even gets some POV scenes in Chapter 8.
  • Whilst Michael's father is mentioned several times, he never appears in the flesh. Here, he first shows up at a business dinner with Helen and Michael, and some attention is given to the relationship between Michael and his father.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• A combination of this and Posthumous Character, in All These Things That I’ve Done, depicting a world where Angelus was never cursed, Buffy is mentioned as having dated Ben Mitchell before Angelus killed him. Ben’s only appearance in canon was to ask Buffy to a dance in "I Only Have Eyes For You", but the author felt that Ben was the better option for Buffy’s Angel-less romantic interest when the alternatives at this time were Owen and Scott, as both of them showed themselves to be a poor fit for Buffy's life where Ben seemed like a genuinely nice guy.
• Taaroko's Buffy the Vampire Slayer;
  • Oz's bandmates are all original characters, but Alex and Cole in particular become key core members of the group in Cleveland.
  • As Angel faces his final battle (as depicted in "Not Fade Away", Lorne, Connor and Dawn all pool their resources to gather some of Angel's old allies to help him against the Black Thorn, and a few more show up of their own accord.

Cardcaptor Sakura

• Shadow of the Dragon: The four classmates (Chiharu, Rika, Naoko, and Takashi) of Sakura's school are promoted into major characters as the fan fiction explores their lives as well as their own struggles.

Castlevania (2017)

• In season two, there is mention of an old village healer who was running out business from Lisa's more effective medicine, so she told the local church that she was a witch, but is otherwise never seen on-screen. In Turning Point, she was the first to suffer Dracula's rampage for his wife's near-death, being made an example of to the rest of the village.

Code Geass

• Code Geass Megiddo expands the roles of several minor characters in addition to the numerous Original Characters that flesh the story out. Of note are the Knights of the Round, particularly Dorothea Ernst, who at the most got thirty seconds of free time in the series proper. Here, she has a brother who doubles as the Knight of Two that is a very capable strategist, to the point that here, he is the only person besides Schneizel to beat Lelouch in chess (they only ever played one game, but still...). Dorothea is also the secret wife of the Knight of One, Bismarck Waldstein, and the mother of his child, Roland. She also got along with Lelouch, who was Bismarck's student during the eight years his memories were suppressed, and held him in such high esteem that she allowed him to hold their child; she's also aware that Lelouch is Zero, and like Bismarck, is conflicted knowing that they will eventually have to face him in battle.
• A Cold Calculus has Naomi Inoue, mainly notable for being voiced by Kikuko Inoue; she becomes the most prominent character of the resistance group after Kallen. She even gets a few POV chapters, doing things like taking point in the Refrain arc and reaching out to Kyoto House.
• Zero of the Black Crusade: Rivalz Cardemonde in Code Geass was Lelouch's Muggle Best Friend at Ashford Academy. Here, after being killed during the Battle of Narita, he is rebuilt by Britannian scientists as a cyborg, and once liberated by Lelouch, rises up as the nicknamed 'Blue Unicorn' (thanks to a horn-like addition to his metallic form) and becomes part of a heroic trio with Lelouch and Suzaku.

Danganronpa

• Danganronpa Class Swap:
  • Mahiru Koizumi, who was killed off fairly early on as the second victim in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is the main protagonist of Danganronpa Class Swap - Hope's Peak Academy.
  • Ryota Mitari is an active participant in the Hope's Peak Killing Game, whereas he only appeared in the DR3 anime in canon.
  • In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Mukuro Ikusaba only appeared disguised as Junko and was killed long before her true identity was revealed. In Danganronpa Class Swap 2 - Jabberwock Island, she's now not only her own character, but also the main protagonist of the story.
• Danganronpa Class Switch:
  • Rantaro Amami, who originally ended up as the first victim of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony end got even less focus there compared to the other first victims of the killing games, has been promoted in this version of the story to the protagonist of the Killing School Life.
• Killing Game Deluxe: Leon Kuwata, the first killer from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is the lead character this time.

Danny Phantom

• Danny Phantom: Stranded: Star was a minor character in the series. Here, she is the lead female and the protagonist of the fic series.
• Facing the Future Series: In one episode of Danny Phantom, Tucker's wish for a ghost half like Danny was considered as disposable as anything else Desiree conjured up, but in this story, he becomes a villain in his own right.
  • Danielle as well, who makes a few more appearances and ends up being adopted by the Fentons, joining Team Phantom.

DC Comics (General)

• In the Hellsister Trilogy, Dev-Em goes from a ridiculously minor character who made a half dozen of appearances in the 1960's - which largely consisted of pestering Superboy and becoming an occasional ally to the Legion of Super-Heroes - to co-lead and the main character's Love Interest.

Death Note

• Xanatos does this with Matt, who went from One-Scene Wonder of 16-panel and 30-second fame in canon to becoming one of the main characters. In fact, L needs him specifically to not only solve the Kira investigation, but also to resolve the tension between Near and Mello.
  • And then there's Linda^note A literal One-Scene Wonder who doesn't even appear in the anime, who also seems to be a central character. Though as of late, she's been Put on a Bus.

Digimon

• Davis's Time Travel Adventure: Jun Motomiya from Digimon Adventure 02 was primarily known for having a rough relationship with her brother Davis and being a Stalker with a Crush to Matt before he started dating Sora. In the fanfic, she becomes more protective of her brother after he was injured by Myotismon's Nightmare Claw during the invasion. Eventually, she becomes the partner Digidestined to another Ascended Extra: Andromon.
• Zero 2: A Revision: In this remake of Digimon Adventure 02, previous villains like Devimon, Demon, and Dragomon that were shoved aside and only briefly appeared receive much more screen time and personality than their original counterparts, especially the case of the latter.

Discworld

• In the Expanded Universe of author A.A. Pessimal, Ascended Extras who may be no more than throwaway names and non-speaking one-line spear-carriers in Canon become rounded-out central characters alongside the established cast. Some, like Howondalandian Assassin Johanna Smith-Rhodes have become stars in their own right; a recurring line in reviews by fans is that they can't see the join where Pratchett ends and Pessimal begins.

Doctor Who

• In the Season 6B series beginning with "The Unwilling Volunteer", Damon- a never-before seen friend of the Doctor who appeared in "Arc of Infinity"- is revealed to have been a minor operative of the Celestial Intervention Agency who acted as the Second Doctor's companion during the period between his trial ("The War Games") and his exile ("Spearhead from Space").

Dragon Age

• Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns: Trian Aeducan does not die because of the Zero-Approval Gambit that the Guile Hero / Magnificent Bastard protagonist pulled off. He grows into a very likable Wise Prince later on, although, true enough, he goes through a several months-long Break the Haughty process first.

Dragon Ball

• Dragon Ball Z: Dynasty has many examples:
  • The biggest ones are Raditz, Bardock and Gine. The former was DBZ's Starter Villain, and never appeared again or was even mentioned after his death, while the latter two are Posthumous Characters. Here, they're brought to life at the beginning and go on to become main characters.
  • Launch. In the manga, she stopped appearing after the original Dragon Ball finished its run, with Toriyama himself admitting he forgot about her. Here, she has a much bigger role, being both Bulma's best friend and Raditz's eventual wife, whom with she has a daughter.
  • Suno was a very minor character in the original Dragon Ball. Here, she returns during the Android Saga, becoming a recurring character as well as Yamcha's love interest.
  • Same goes with Android 8/"Eighter", who only appeared in the Red Ribbon saga. Like Suno, he returns before the Cell Saga, and even strikes a friendship with Android 16 due to their similar personalities.
  • Android 17, thanks to never being absorbed by Cell has a much bigger role in the Android/Cell Saga than in canon.
• In the Dragon Ball Z fanfiction The Erased Chronicles, Erasa was given this treatment big time. In canon, she was a simple Satellite Character who had a crush on Gohan, though Gohan ended up with her Tsundere friend, Videl. In The Erased Chronicles, however, her role is elevated far beyond everyone else, becoming a strong character in her own right, up to the point where she is strong enough to stand against Super Buu. She even ends up as Gohan's wife, and the mother of his daughter, Pan (Videl, meanwhile, ends up with Trunks instead).

DuckTales (2017)

• Quite a few characters get more focus compared to canon in Ducktales Rewritten:
  • While Daisy took until season 3 to appear and has been confirmed to only be a recurring character that season, this version not only debuts Daisy earlier with more appearances but also promotes her to main cast starting with "Double Triplets" in season 2.
  • Similar to Daisy, Goofy also debuts earlier in this version and ends up becoming a supporting character rather than a so far one-time appearance in season 3.
  • Lena and Violet go from supporting characters in canon to becoming part of the main cast from mid-season 2 onward.
  • Due to the author using Legend of the Three Caballeros in the fic, Panchito and Jose make a couple more appearances.
  • Darkwing Duck is given more prominence somewhat as the TV version (Jim Starling) appears in more episodes with the kids (as well as Donald and Della) being bigger fans of it than canon.
  • While they were already part of the main cast in canon, even Donald and Della get even more focus to the point where they are even listed above Scrooge in the end credits when listing the main cast.
  • Steelbeak and Black Heron's only Season 2 roles were cameos in the finale; here, Steelbeak attacks Huey and Violet during their date, and Heron attacks Dewey and Webby likewise.

EDENS ZERO

• In the manga, Bernadette is a Recurring Extra from the Planet Norma who appears alongside the present-day Professor Weisz Steiner. My Lil Bunny, she's a major character with more exploration in her past and her work as a waitress, along with her changing view of Weisz from the scummy but troubled gang member in his youth to the more mature and compassionate professor he becomes.

Encanto

• In Sanded Down, Camilo has a brief appearance in the opening of Chapter 1, where he says exactly one word, and isn't seen for the rest of the story (safe for a mention in Chapter 2), mainly because the story's primary focus is on Bruno and his daughters. In the sequel, Reflections in a Cloudy Sky, Camilo takes on the main focus, while Bruno and his daughters (safe Sabrina) have smaller roles.

Farscape

• In Left Behind, when 'twins' of Crichton and Chiana are left behind on Rohvu, Belima, one of the Xarai, becomes a member of their new 'crew' after she helps Crichton disable Rohvu's slave-collar so he, Chiana, and Rohvu's Pilot can vent the other Xarai into space.

Fairy Tail

• Mira's demon forms in the Alternate Tail Series are this thanks to Mira becoming a main character, with each one receiving personality quirks and traits. Even her unnamed Satan Soul is given the name Beelzea, and is the most prominent with interacting with Mira.

Fate/Grand Order

• In the fifth singularity of the game, Arjuna is a minor antagonist on the Celtic Side, only for the chance of fighting Karna, who is aiding the Americans. In E Pluribus Unum: Peerless Bow, he is one of the main protagonists, and his motivation to fight Karna is examined and even challenged while the Incineration of Humanity is going on.
  • Similarly, Sita only appears in the mobile game's story to sacrifice her life to save the life of her husband Rama. In Peerless Bow, her fight against the curse that keeps her and her husband apart is explored.

Final Fantasy

• Cissnei's Path: Cissnei, Kunsel, and the Summonings are bumped up to greater roles. Cissnei is the party's tactician, Kunsel is the Sixth Ranger, and the Summonings offer wisdom and guidance.
• Fate Deceived: Fellow SeeD graduate Xu was originally a secondary character who ultimately wasn't any of the main protagonists and by Disc 2 fell off the map. She is given a much larger role to play in the story. To a lesser extent, the library girl barely mentioned in Final Fantasy VIII that Zell took a fancy to is actually given a name, Malita, and is the focus of a single chapter.
• The Fifth Act: Kunsel, the Mr. Exposition of Crisis Core, is upgraded to a Knowledge Broker and First Class candidate in his own right and becomes a close friend to Cloud.
• Us and Them: Jessie is a relatively minor character in Final Fantasy VII canon, being killed off fairly early in the game, but here she's a major character and Aeris' friend.

Fire Emblem

• A Chance for a New Dawn, a Fire Emblem: Three Houses fanfic focused on Bernadetta, has several characters gaining greater presence:
  • Monica von Ochs, who in the game is a character rescued in the second half of Part I who kills Jeralt two chapters later, reveals herself to actually be a member of "those who slither in the dark" and dies shortly afterward, shows up here moments before the mock battle due to Bernadetta transferring from the Black Eagles to the Golden Deer very early in the school year. Monica is given more dialogue and personality, interacts with various characters, and tags along with the Golden Deer on their missions. Her role is increased into being The Lancer to Bernadetta.
  • Bernadetta's parents not only have names (Allocer and Theresa) but have their own dedicated story arc where they show up in person. Count Varley's abusive parenting of Bernadetta is given particular focus, and he's also hostile toward everyone else other than his wife or his butler. Countess Varley, although portrayed as far nicer than her husband, is shown to be an Extreme Doormat who cares more about his anger issues than his mistreatment of their daughter.
• Fire Emblem Rekka No Ken: A Story Retold names the tactician character Michael and gives him a complete backstory and personality, even making him Lyn's Love Interest.
• The Ghost of Ochs: Monica, a minor character from Fire Emblem: Three Houses who spends most of her screentime hanging around Edelgard, is the main character, with the story detailing her return to the Officers Academy and becoming a full-fledged Black Eagle.

Forever Knight

• In the Continuation Fic FK4, Urs, a vampire character who appeared in four episodes of Season 3, becomes part of the main cast.

Gargoyles

• "Maggie of Manhattan" changes the circumstances of the gargoyles' first meeting with the mutates so that Maggie chooses to join the gargoyles while Derek and others stay with Xanatos in the hope of a "cure". In the course of her time with the gargoyles, Maggie not only starts to experiment with magic, but is ultimately chosen as the clan's new Second rather than Brooklyn due to her insight into the modern world (although she requests that this be treated as a trial period in case she makes a mistake).

Girls und Panzer

• Erika the Radical has the titular character Erika Itsumi elevated to protagonist and commander of the new Kuromorimine team, while Komue Akaboshi, who only gets one line in the anime Girls und Panzer becomes her second in command, with much more influence in the fic. Many unnamed background characters also get names, characterization, and a bigger spotlight.

Godzilla:

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In MonsterVerse canon, both San and Vivienne Graham had relatively minor roles — San was 1/3 of Big Bad Ghidorah's Multiple Head Case, whilst Vivienne was essentially presented as a Satellite Character to Dr. Serizawa up until her Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome — yet both characters are respectively Ensemble Darkhorses among the fandom. In this story, Viv and San are the two main protagonists, and they get characterization expansion and Character Development to go with it.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed

• In Second Chances, most minor characters who died before the the series started easily count as this. Special mention goes to Qingheng-Jun, who after getting a second chance in life decided to come out of his self-imposed seclusion to run his Sect properly in response to Wen Ruohan's burning of Cloud Recesses in the future.

Gravity Falls

• Weirder Things
  • In the canon series, Wendy was hardly involved in any of the storylines. Here, she is given a much bigger role in the story and joins Patrick and the twins on their adventures starting with Chapter 3. She even gets her own chapter where she turns into a werewolf. She also serves as Patrick's Love Interest before becoming his girlfriend.
  • Downplayed with Pacifica. The chapters in which she's the most involved are the retellings of the canon episodes in which she's featured, but she has cameo appearances (or mentions) in a couple of other chapters, such as "The Deep End" in which Dipper briefly gets distracted at the pool by the sight of a blonde girl in a swimsuit... before finding out it's his sworn enemy Pacifica. The last chapter before the final arc is also a retelling of Face It!, the story featuring her in Gravity Falls: Lost Legends.

Horizon Zero Dawn

• Choosing Life Verse:
  • In Horizon Forbidden West, Vanasha only appears in the opening, helping rebuild Meridian at the Battle of the Alight and looking after Prince Itamen as his nanny. Here, she enters into a relationship with Elisabet and tags along with them into the West.
  • AETHER in canon was perfectly willing to return to GAIA as it once was. Here, it prefers its autonomy (even in its limited capacity) and only agrees to return to GAIA and work with them if its allowed to keep its sapience.
  • While Talanah only appears in one side quest in Forbidden West, here she joins the gang as Aloy's girlfriend.
  • While ARTEMIS in canon was taken and integrated into the Zenith's version of GAIA off-screen, here they're the second AI Aloy finds, having escaped into the San Diego Holo-Zoo.

Harry Potter

• Arguably applies to Ginny in the Adam Winters series, as she goes from being the sister of Harry's best friend to being the best friend of Harry himself from the beginning of his time at Hogwarts (albeit with Harry under various disguise spells so that even he didn't know his identity at first).
• Daphne Greengrass and the Boy Who Lived;
  • The key premise of this fic is that Daphne Greengrass becomes a close friend of Harry, Ron and Hermione from the start of their time at Hogwarts, to the extent that she becomes involved in a triad relationship with Harry and Ginny. As well as this, Daphne also takes on a few of Harry's moments from canon, such as being the one to face Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest and write in Riddle’s Diary after Ginny tried to get rid of it.
  • On a minor note, one of Daphne's Slytherin friends, Elsie Hall, is Krum's Yule Ball date instead of Hermione.
• In Harry Potter: Everyone Lives AU, Neville joins the Golden Trio, making them a quartet.
• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality does this a fair bit; some characters with only background roles in the original series have much more fleshed out parts, most notably Blaise Zabini.
• Harry Potter and the Perversion of Purity;
  • With Harry being sorted into Slytherin, many of the characters sorted into that House end up having a much bigger role.
  • Cedric Diggory, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbott end up befriending Ron and Hermione at the end of Book 1, and therefore have a much bigger presence in Book 2 onwards.
• The Power of Seven:
  • Demelza Robbins, Susan Bones and Katie Bell go from peripheral acquaintances of Harry’s to part of his ‘harem’ (although the term 'coven' has also been used). In Chapter 29, Demelza admits that she would have been happy just being Harry's 'side chick' for the rest of her life before she learns about the ritual which guarantees that they'll be a permanent part of each other's lives.
  • In chapter 58, Daphne Greengrass is revealed to have become at least part-werewolf herself after an attack by Greyback, which leads to her joining the Order of the Phoenix and forming a bond with fellow part-wolf Ron.
• Seven Favours For Harry Potter:
  • Lavender Brown has a much larger role in the story than she does in canon, ending up as a major supporting character with an entire mystery plot surrounding her. Parvati and even Padma also have slightly larger roles, even if they're less involved in the plot than Lavender is. Technically, Piers Polkiss has a much larger role as well, as Lavender in this AU is actually a transformed and amnesiac Piers.
  • Mrs Figg also has a somewhat larger role here, being the one who takes Harry in after Lady Vidia has transformed the Dursleys into flitlings.
• Weasley Girl: Neville and Ginny get larger roles in the series than in canon, becoming part of Harry's inner circle of friends much earlier. The second fic in the series also gives a much larger role Colin Creevey, who gets included in "Potter's Gang" along with Ginny — and the same fic also makes Crookshanks a major presence.

High School D×D

• In Rude Awakening Redux, several characters who were only mentioned or have very few appearances in canon are full-blown main characters, including Bafeel Furcas, Alivian, and Seekvaira Agares who has only appeared sporadically in the light novels and anime.

How to Train Your Dragon

• In The Blacksmith's Apprentice, Gustav goes from trying to imitate Snotlout as a Dragon Rider in canon to becoming one of Hiccup's first group of Dragon Riders, training Fanghook before one of the new Riders train Hookfang.

Invader Zim

• Invader Zim: A Bad Thing Never Ends:
  • Bob featured in only one episode of canon, but becomes a major character here as one of Zim's henchmen.
  • The Announcer is an even bigger example, being just a prominent background character in a couple of episodes, but like Bob becomes one of Zim's minions.
  • Fizzmitz was an ally of Dib's in one two-part story in the comics, then never appeared again. Here, he joins up with Dib and Gaz after they cross paths at NASAPlace and he finds out about the threat posed by the Irkens and Aldrich, agreeing to help them and even becoming their mentor in learning Poop Soda magic.
• In canon, the Almighty Tallest were supporting characters who rarely had a direct role in the show's episodes, which were mostly about the conflict between Zim and Dib. In the fan-made web series Invader Zim: A Very Tall Problem, the Tallest are the Villain Protagonists and the plot centers around them getting stuck on Earth.
• The New Adventures of Invader Zim does this with Invader Tenn. In canon, she had a silent cameo in the pilot and a couple of scenes in one other episode. Here, her presence helps give a massive boost to the Story Arc, and the Tallest end up ordering her to be Tak's partner in conquering Earth.
• Ruby Pair, by the same author as The New Adventures above, similarly makes Tenn a main character, being the dual protagonist alongside Zim as they team up to conquer Earth.
• The Tenn Duology:
  • Canonically, Tenn only had a couple of speaking scenes in one episode and background appearances in a few others. Here, as indicated by the series title, she's the main character.
  • The Resisty only showed up in one episode of canon, but become central characters in The Rise of Tallest Tenn.
  • Similarly Tak, who despite her immense popularity only has one in-person appearance in canon (the rest being vocal cameos via her ship's AI), but becomes the main antagonist of The Rise of Tallest Tenn.

Jackie Chan Adventures

• Jackie Chan Adventures: Olympian Journey: Vanessa Barone, Kuniko Kasahara/Origami and the old monk from the episode "The Lotus Temple" were originally one-shot villains that only appeared in filler episodes. Here, they fill the (now post-Heel–Face Turn) Enforcers' usual role of the Big Bad's main henchmen. The monk even gets a name (Zhixin), which he lacked in canon.
• Queen of All Oni: Verde was originally only created for two scenes, but the author liked him enough to expand him to recurring villain.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

• from porcelain to ivory to steel:
  • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Sherry Polnareff was a Posthumous Character whose death by J. Geil was the initial motivation of her brother Jean-Pierre that lead him to joining the Crusders and stopping Dio. In the fic, Jean-Pierre dies protecting Sherry from J. Geil, and Sherry inherited his Stand Silver Chariot and his will to fight J. Geil and later join the Joestars in fighting Dio.
  • Anne in the manga was the Tagalong Kid for the Crusders for a few arcs before being Put on a Bus for her own safety after the fight with ZZ^note In the manga, she didn't even have a name until the anime adaptation. Here, she ends up staying with the Crusaders longer (especially bonding with Sherry, viewing her as her Cool Big Sis) and later develops her own Stand.
• A Peaceful Afterlife: Many of DIO's men go from one-off villains to members of his elite gang. The biggest examples are Gray Fly and the fake Captain Tennille, who are recurring antagonists and much more powerful than in canon.

Jurassic World

• Due to its Adaptation Expansion nature, The Geeky Zoologist's reimagining of Jurassic World has several minor or unnamed characters from the film going through varying levels of this.
  • In the film, the trio made by Hal Osterly, Erica Brand and Jim Drucker appears only in one scene. Here, these characters are part of the group that goes to the Indominus' coliseum in the context of a preview visit and are given more lines.
  • Leon, the young man who falls in the raptor paddock in the film, is promoted to the status of secondary character once the story reaches the achillobators' arc.
  • The unnamed Ingen contractor with whom Hoskins talks on the beach and who is seen evacuating Wu in the film is given here a name and more lines. He also has been promoted to the role of Ingen Security's number two.

Kamen Rider

• Horseshoes and Hand Grenades: Every named character from Kamen Rider Fourze has appeared and each of them has been capable of kicking ass. They each have their own backgrounds and relationships, and multiple stories that explain the fights they get involved in.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Tempest Rewrite: Greta Mors, Dennis the Menace (UK), Lara Croft, Dan Dare, Mysta of the Moon, and the Cthulhu Mythos all have much more pivotal roles in the story.

The Legend of Zelda

• Zelda's Honor: Non-player characters that appeared in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time such as Malon, Ruto, Nabooru, and others get promoted from video game extra to co-protagonists with Link.
  • Ruto even becomes a Femme Fatale much to the surprise of many Ruto-lovers.

Lilo & Stitch

• The Fire of Futures Past has Bonnie (Experiment 149) as a main character, providing a lot more dialogue than in her three episodes of Lilo & Stitch: The Series combined. Nani, who tells the first campfire story of the fic, uses the thieving experiment as the villain of her story, while Bonnie herself gets to tell the second story. Heckler (Experiment 322), who only appeared in one episode of The Series, gets more dialogue than before as well, and also tells the sixth story of the night. However, the biggest example in this fic would have to be Leroy. After crashing the family fun night and telling a campfire story (the third one, in fact), the main plot shifts to the Pelekai 'ohana trying to convince the Grand Councilwoman that Leroy has reformed and he should not be sent back to Galactic Prison.

Looney Tunes

• Several examples in Space Jam 2 Across The Serververse, including:
  • An interesting example is Marvin the Martian. While Marvin was heavily advertised in Space Jam: A New Legacy's promotional material including wearing the Tune Squad uniform, he was only in a couple of scenes during the beginning and near the climax. Yet, he doesn't participate in the basketball game and only plays a minor role. The fanfic changes this by having him be a main character this time, is a major contribution in helping search for the other Tunes, and joins the rest of them in their final battle against Al-G in the climax.
  • Likewise, Penelope Pussycat, who also was heavily advertised, but unlike Marvin, didn't even make an appearance in the film. Now, she, along with her husband Pepé, is part of the mission to rescue the other Tunes.
  • In a lesser example, Witch Hazel, who was briefly seen boarding Al-G's rocket in the film, without any dialogue. Here, while not a major character, does still play a prominent role in a few chapters with several lines.

The Lord of the Rings

• The beacon guard had only a few seconds of screentime in the movie. In Misplaced Blame, he's the protagonist, and has been given a name - Tarannon.

The Loud House

• Flowing Star: Stella is the protagonist from this story rather than being a secondary character, with Lincoln as the co-protagonist.
• Reacting to The Loud House: A small portion of the reactors are very minor characters in the show. Most notably, Francisco, Rocky, Skippy, Winston, and David, love interests of the Loud sisters who seemingly vanished after their debut episodes, are amongst them. Rocky's absence following "Back in Black" is also explained.

Luca

• The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy: Giulia's mother (named Caterina in this fanfic) has a more prominent role than in the original movie.

Lyrical Nanoha

• Game Theory has quite a few. Tiida Lanster, Quint Nakajima, Megane Alpine, Linith, and Nanoha's mother were all fairly minor characters in canon, but they've been given significantly expanded roles in this story. But the most prominent example is Vesta, who was just a nameless kitten in the original work. In Game Theory she becomes Nanoha's familiar.
  • Not to mention Alicia Testarossa in the sequel.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

• Rain Code: New Game Plus:
  • The Master Detectives Yuma meets on the Amaterasu Express are all killed by the hitman impersonating Zilch before they reach Kanai Ward. Here, they survive thanks to Yuma's role as a Spanner in the Works and manage to make it to Kanai Ward, allowing them to become major characters alongside the Master Detectives at the Nocturnal Detective Agency.
    • To a lesser extent, the real Zilch Alexander ends up getting a bigger role in the mystery of Chapter 0 despite still being a Posthumous Character, as his corpse is used by the hitman posing as him to stage a fake murder. In canon, it's mentioned that the real Zilch's corpse is hidden in the spare first car at the Kanai Ward station, but neither Yuma nor the player ever gets to see the body.
  • The named Peacekeepers get more prominence here than in canon. Swaink is mentioned getting involved in incidents involving the Master Detectives from the Amaterasu Express, and Seth becomes a major character after Martina convinces Yomi to spare his life and demote him instead of executing him.
  • Although Kurane was already important in Chapter 2 due to being one of the killers in canon, here, she actually becomes a major character and ally of Yuma as she enlists him to investigate Aiko's death. Yoshiko and Waruna also become major supporting characters after the events of Chapter 2.
  • Karen goes from the victim of Chapter 2 to the culprit, having killed a student named Ayako in order to fake her death and get out of Kanai Ward.

The Matrix

• In What If?, in the absence of the Oracle, Neo and ‘Thalia’ are aided by Natalie, one of the Oracle’s potentials and the only one to survive the attack on her apartment.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• letmetellyouaboutmyfeels' MCU Rewrites has several examples:
  • Age of Ultron: Redux: As opposed to just being mentioned in a throwaway line in the film, Jane Foster and Pepper Potts appear in the story (the former having a cameo and the latter having a role in the story). Betty Ross and Darcy Lewis are also added to the story.
  • New Avengers: More focus is given to Sam Wilson/Falcon, James "Rhodey" Rhodes/War Machine, Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, and Vision as they become the new Avengers team and face off against Sinthea Shmidt/Sin and Viper/Madame Hydra and the remnants of the HYDRA organization.
  • Black Widow is intended to be the solo film of Natasha Romanov/Black Widow and details her origins: from her training in the Red Room to meeting Clint Barton/Hawkeye and joining SHIELD and redeeming herself.
  • Captain America: Ghosts of HYDRA: As this story is part of the author's Adaptation Expansion of Captain America: Civil War, numerous characters are given more attention and development. Sharon Carter is given more focus as she helps Steve Rogers/Captain America find James "Bucky" Barnes/The Winter Soldier and take down what's left of HYDRA. Brock Rumlow/Crossbones serves as the Big Bad of the installment. Pepper Potts also appears at Tony Stark's presentation at MIT and comforts him after Tony discovers that Bucky killed his parents under the control of HYDRA.
  • Avengers: Civil War: As this story is another part of the author's Adaptation Expansion of Captain America: Civil War, numerous characters are given more attention and development. Scott Lang appears near the start of the story rather than showing up in the middle of it. Nick Fury and Maria Hill also make appearances in the story and are respectively on the anti- and pro-registration sides. Pepper Potts also appears and is mentioned to be Tony's fiancée. Sharon and Maria are the ones who assist in breaking some of the anti-registration members out of the Raft Prison and blow it up. The final scene of the story shows Thor and Heimdall observing these events with Thor declaring that the Avengers will be reunited after their disbandment.

Medaka Box

• World as Myth: Probably half of the canon cast (protagonists and villains alike) are shuffled out for characters who only had bit parts in the original manga. Yet surprisingly, everyone stays in character. Most of the time.

Mega Man

• Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race:
  • Doc the Metool, who only appeared in the first episode of the show, is here a more prominent character who bonds deeply with Roll. And then he dies.
  • Newswoman Bree Ricotta gets a lot more screentime, as do other cartoon-exclusive humans.
  • Oneshot crook Ms. Lapierre returns in episode 7, having stolen Knight Man.
  • In a non-show example, the Mad Grinder from Mega Man 7 appeared only in the game's intro, serving as a Warm-Up Boss. In the fanfic, the Mad Grinder is Project G-2, and is as tall as he was in the intro cutscene.
• Mega Man Recut: Doc the Metool, referred to in this story simply as Met, becomes a recurring character rather than a one-shot character like in the show. Additionally, many guest Robot Masters gain more screentime, and thus more personality, as do many cartoon-exclusive humans.
• Mega Man ZX Enforcers: Biometal Model O, a non-canon "bonus" Biometal in the first ZX game, is stated as having been stolen from the Guardians alongside Models F, L, H, and P (thus technically making Vent and Aile's acquisition of it canon by this story's standards), but had no Biomatch and was thrown out. Model O is now used by Taylor, a new main character. Model O actually speaks in this story, but is FAR calmer than the Reploid he's based on.
• Rise of the Chosen: In Mega Man Zero, Colbor originally existed to be rescued from Harpuia. In this story, he is one of the Guardians' best commanders, second only to Prairie.

Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch

• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Duo: Meru, who only appeared in two episodes of the original anime, becomes a recurring character, even moving into the Pearl Piari.
  • The cosmetics robot from "Electric Nightmare" is slated for future appearances.

Mortal Kombat

• Mortal Kombat Khronicles:
  • Chow, Liu Kang's brother that was only mentioned in canon by his bio for the first game^note Not counting the first film, where his death drives Liu's desire to face Shang Tsung, is the protagonist of chapter 30.
    • In the same chapter, Earthrealm's fire God, Kojin, who only appeared in Mythologies and mentioned in MK4, is there to pretty much serve as the Raiden to Chow's Liu Kang.
  • Master Wen, a name mentioned among the casualties in the Wu Shi Academy Massacre in MK9, has an appearance in an earlier chapter.
  • Sonya's father, Colonel Herman Blade, whose biggest role in the games was being brought up in one of her arcade endings. Here, he's revealed to have personally led the raid that resulted in Kano losing his eye, in addition to killing his mentor Trev, as well as being a mentor figure to Jax, who helped him get on the path to becoming the man he is.
  • Kuai Liang and Bi-Han's sister who was only mentioned in a bio from Mythologies, is revealed to be Frost.

My Hero Academia

• Emerald Furnace - Path Of Storms: Nine, Mummy, Slice and Chimera are affected by this, due to them being Izuku's newfound friends.
• Emerald Furnace - Path of Waves: Ryukyu, Nejire, Mirio, Tamaki and Class 1B are affected by this. For the latter, it's justified, as putting Izuku with Bakugou will go poorly.
• The Emerald Phoenix has Inasa and Camie join U.A. in Class 1-A in place of Mashirao and Rikido due to the author finding the former pair much more interesting than the latter. Inasa also befriends Izuku while the latter is training under All Might.
• A Green Dragon's Hoard:
  • Nemuri is Izuku's stepmother, having married Inko, and the Class-1A homeroom teacher rather than just their art history teacher.
  • Mitsuki Bakugou is changed from a minor character to Izuku's best friend and one of his girlfriends, due to having swapped places with Katsuki.
  • Similarly, Manami Aiba was a one-off Anti-Villain in canon. Here, she's an online friend of Inko's whom she hires to look after Izuku. Manami later becomes Izuku's and Mitsuki's girlfriend.
  • Melissa Shield is the ninth holder of One For All instead of a movie-only character.
  • Rumi Usagiyama is nearly a decade younger and a member of Class 1A as opposed to an established hero that doesn't debut until season four.
• Green Tea Rescue:
  • In canon, Shinso is a secondary character that was only prominent in two arcs. Here, not only is he part of 1-A class from the very beginning but one of Izuku's closest friends.
  • In the same vein, Toga is also a member of class 1-A and close friend of Izuku rather than being a member of the League of Villains.
• Frequent in the For the Want of a Nail Series:
  • Mastermind: Strategist for Hire has Detective Tsukauchi as the Hero Antagonist trying to find and capture Izuku (aka Mastermind), rather than a Recurring Extra.
  • Amplifier plays a much larger role in the story in Viridian: The Green Guide, being the first Pro Hero Izuku comes across in his vigilante career and the reason the local Pro Heroes know about him and treat him as an early-warning system for nearby crimes, rather than making a one-scene appearance in My Hero Academia: Two Heroes.
  • Cheat Code: Support Strategist features multiple:
    • Mei goes from being an occasional comic relief character who appears whenever the hero students need something from the support course to being Izuku's first friend (and eventual love interest, according to the tags).
    • Power Loader also becomes much more important, being one of Izuku's main teachers, along with the head of the course that he's in.
    • Nedzu becomes Izuku's primary teacher for the Analysis course, with Izuku being his personal student.
    • Hitoshi Shinsou was originally a minor character from the Sports Festival Arc, while here, Izuku decides to take him on as a student of his own.
• My Hero Playthrough has Mindy and Stheno, two unnamed villains from the USJ arc, who escape and become full fledged League members, and Advisory, an unnamed background Pro Hero from the USJ and Heroes Rising who is the UA Hero History teacher.
• Yesterday Upon The Stair has Iida Tensei, whose death means that he has a more prominent role in Izuku's story and Ochako, who is included in the Kamino Ward arc due to Izuku being kidnapped along with Bakugou.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/My Little Pony: Equestria Girls''

• The Eclipseverse has Mr. Trick/Tirek. In both G1 and G4, he was "just" an Arc Villain. Here, however, his role is far grander: He not only plays a role in the Creation Myth, he somehow manages to be both the Big Bad and the Greater-Scope Villain at the same time, and he seems to have some form of connection with one of the main characters.
• The Elements of Friendship: Moondancer, who had not yet appeared on the show proper, is onscreen and even travels with the Mane Six a bit in Book I. She's secretly evil.
• More Than Meets the Ear: Vinyl and Flash, two supporting characters, and the Human CMC and Octavia, two minor characters, are central to the story.
• My Little Mages: The Nightmare's Return: Nightshade is, according to Word of God, based on the lead illusionary Shadowbolt created by Nightmare Moon in the second part of the show's pilot. Said character had less than half-a-dozen lines and was only around for less than two minutes in the show; here, she's a member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad.
• Rainbooms and Royalty: Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves ends up playing a major role in the story, and becomes a prominent secondary character in the sequels.
  • Zecora, while not an extra on the show, gets a much-expanded role in the story.
• The Undesirables: The lead characters all hold relatively minor roles in the show itself, with some only having one appearance in total. Here they're the entire focus of the story.
• The Vinyl Scratch Tapes turns the spotlight on DJ-P0n3 and Octavia. In canon, these characters have had only brief Continuity Cameos with no dialogue, and they haven't even met. In the fic, they become Vitriolic Best Buds...and eventually move in together.

Series (N-Z)

Naruto

• A Growing Affection makes Yugao Uzuki a major supporting character. She has a romantic subplot, gets her own team, and gets a Backstory linking her to Anko and Iruka, who also appear in a more pivotal role in this story.
• Legend of the Blind Ninja
  • Yamato becomes a major supporting character and is Naruto’s main mentor figure because the latter has Wood Release in this fic.
  • Asura Ōtsutsuki of all people gets this treatment, as he goes from simply being a Posthumous Character to becoming Naruto's Spirit Advisor.
• Son of the Sannin: Some examples include:
  • Hinata's mother, who was only shown in a brief scene of the anime and not even given a proper name, in this story becomes head of the Hyuga Clan after her husband Hiashi is killed during the Uchiha Insurrection.
  • Shisui Uchiha, who was a Posthumous Character in canon, becomes a major supporting character as well as Shizune's love interest.
  • The aforementioned Shizune, who in canon was little more than Tsunade's assistant, goes on to become a very important influence in Naruto's life as his Cool Big Sis. In addition to having Shisui as a love interest, she even becomes the jonin sensei of a medical genin team.
  • In the manga, Haku dies relatively early. Here, he becomes Naruto’s teammate.
  • Speaking of Naruto's team, Kurenai replaces Kakashi as his Jonin instructor.
  • In canon, Tamaki is a very minor character, her only appearances in the manga being in the Itachi Pursuit Mission arc and in the Distant Finale. Here, she becomes a supporting character due to moving to Konoha and joining Naruto’s class after the Uchiha Coup.
  • Fu the Nanabi Jinchuriki. In canon, she is a posthumous character whose only role is an Edo Tensei zombie during the Fourth World War arc. Here, she appears as early as the Chunin Exams, and even though she leaves the story as soon as they end, she later returns during the Hidan and Kakuzu arc, and becomes a mainstay of the story from that point onwards.
  • For a villainous example, Toneri. His only notable role is that of a one-time movie villain. Here, while his goal from his movie is the same, he has a much more active role in story, from being the true mastermind of the Hyuga Affair to later being inducted into the Akatsuki in Shippuden.
• True Potential is famous for this trope. The most prominent examples are Anko, who becomes Naruto's Jonin-sensei, and Hinata and Shikamaru, who become Naruto's new teammates, but there are also characters who were hardly featured in the manga that get much bigger roles here, such as the Jinchuriki (Han, Roshi, Utakata, and Yagura. Fuu, Yugito Ni, and Killer B have made their appearances in the Shippuden timeframe), the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist other than Zabuza, Kisame, and Chojuro, and Kurotsuchi (who becomes Shikamaru's love interest).

Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Rise of the Minisukas: Kotone Suzunami, who is a minor character exclusive to the Evangelion: Battlefields mobile game, is given main character status.

Numberjacks

• In Numberjacks Advanced, Two has a much larger role than he did in the original series. He's a part of the Core Four who go on missions.

Omen IV: The Awakening

• In Always Visible, Jordan Thurlow and Galbraith are based on Josephine Thueson and Earl Knight, who were minor characters in the film (albeit with significant screen time)

One Piece

• Brother on Board:
  • After Little Garden, the Straw Hats recruit Ayako (a.k.a. Miss Goldenweek) to join the crew.
  • Galdino (a.k.a. Mr. 3) is brought along with the Straw Hats as Ayako's 'baggage'.
  • Miss Valentine is brought along with the Straw Hats to deal with the amnesia she got when Sabo used her as a battering ram to escape Mr. 3's Candle Service Set. She elects to stay on Drum Island as Kureha's new assistant, as much to hide from Baroque Works as to atone for what she did as part of it.
• A Crew for a King:
  • Nojiko, Johnny and Yosaku all decide to travel on with the Straw Hats after Arlong's defeat.
  • Marianne aka Miss Golden Week defects to the Straw Hats and travels with them as a way of getting home to Water 7.
  • Vivi ends up joining the Straw Hats when they leave Alabasta.
• The Logia Brothers:
  • Unlike canon where she was a minor Arc Villain, Mikita (Miss Valentine) has a Heel–Face Turn and becomes a member of the Straw Hats.
  • Rather than staying in Alabasta, Vivi decides to continue sailing with the Straw Hat crew.
• This Bites!: The Cross-Brain seems to enjoy taking seemingly insignificant characters and expanding on them.
  • Some cases are as simple as them joining the Straw Hats unexpectedly, such as Lassoo in Chapter 22 at Mr. 4's request, Conis and Su in Chapter 31, and Funkfreed in Chapter 43.
  • Others get more screen time simply because of the SBS cutting the viewpoint to their location, often overlapping with Early-Bird Cameo.
  • Then we have the New World Masons. Whether they're recurring characters who showed up now and then, one-shot characters, filler characters, or yet-to-be-expanded-upon characters, they're all fleshed out more.

The Owl House

• Luz Belos: Princess of the Boiling Isles: Amelia Bellflower — the green-haired girl in Boscha's grudgby team — is one of Luz's friends and the first among them to learn that Luz is the princess.

Pacific Rim

• Domovoi does this not only with its main characters — Team Cherno Alpha, considered Ensemble Darkhorses at best in the original film — but with Dr. Caitlyn Lightcap, a character not even mentioned in the film and who only shows up in Expanded Universe material.

Persona

• Hours 'Verse: While still having no substantial relevance to the story, the boy who sits behind Akira in class has been given a name and some actual lines, including being one of class members who ask Ann about Akira after his staged suicide.
• In Persona 5, Shiho was Driven to Suicide, with her suicide attempt being one of the catalysts for Ren Amamiya forming the Phantom Thieves of Heart. Persona 5 New Game Plus, Joker's Second Chance has Ren intervene before things can get that bad, allowing her to become a member of said Phantom Thieves.
• Royalty-free Rerun grants extra screentime and development to several underutilised characters:
  • While Sumire's storyline did have some prominence in Royal's third semester, she was ultimately a comparatively minor character who only joined the thieves near the end of the game and hardly interacted with anyone besides Joker and Akechi. Here, she's the main character, becomes a Phantom Thief early on and has much more detailed interactions with the other thieves.
  • Since Shiho isn't Driven to Suicide by Kamoshida, she stays at Shujin and gets to interact with characters like Ryuji and Haru.
  • Haru not only debuts much earlier than in canon, she's also granted additional relevance as a Secret-Keeper for the Phantom Thieves and gains some Ship Tease with Ryuji.

Pokémon

• As Fate Would Have It, a Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 fanfiction, has Yancy, a Secret Character in the original games, become Nate's Love Interest and The Heroine of the story. As the story goes on, she also begins receiving equal amounts of focus, namely relating to her backstory.
• The Greatest There Was or Ever Will Be has Giselle. In canon, she was an antagonist who appeared in only one episode and was never mentioned again. Here, she becomes enamored with Ash's training skills, and decides to join him and his friends on his Pokémon journey. Within a few chapters, she's even become his Love Interest.
• A New Chance Series: Latios and Latias, two legendary Pokémon who played a central role in Pokémon Heroes, join Ash's team for the rest of Johto and then to Hoenn.
  • Bianca, the girl who played a minor role in Pokémon Heroes as well as the girl whom Latias based her human form on becomes a recurring character in the first story in the series, and goes on to join Ash on his journey to Hoenn in the second story.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Reflecting Balance: Kala the Abra was introduced as a Pokémon working at the Rescue Team HQ, serving the purpose of teleporting rescue teams to far-away dungeons. While this was originally going to be her only role, the writer ended up expanding Kala's role in the story once another character needed someone who could teach them how to use their telepathy to communicate, and Kala happened to be the perfect character for the part.
  • There's also Hercules the Heracross, who had this happen to him before his debut chapter was even written, due to the writer having the idea of making him Blitz's mentor and confidant when she was working on the first few chapters, which ended up promoting him from minor character to major supporting character.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Silver Resistance: Lily. First she was submitted as a potential character for the prequel, Emerald Chronicles. After that, she starts appearing in the main story, eventually joining the main characters on their quest.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines and its growing Expanded Universe do this a lot. Several characters of the day from Pokémon: The Series, such as A.J. and Jeanette Fisher, have become recurring characters in the main story and even starred in their own tie-in one-shots, delving more into their personalities and backgrounds, as well as Anabel becomes a regular travelling companion and future love interest of Ash's.
• Pokemon Secret Journeys features Angie, a minor character from Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, as a main character and an eventual love interest to Ash.

Power Rangers

• They don't exactly become 'main' characters, but in Crimson Rising, when circumstances prompt the Rangers to reacquire the Zeo Crystal and create a new team of Zeo Rangers (the original Zeo team all using new power sources), long-time supporting character Skull is chosen as the new Green Zeo Ranger while former Ninja Storm foes Marah and Kapri are the new Yellow and Pink Zeo Rangers (ex-Rangers Justin and Zack become the new Blue and Red Zeos).

The Railway Series

• The Extended Railway Series: The series gives more stories to little-used characters like, Bear, Ivo Hugh, Jinty, and Pug. I also introduces characters that were All There in the Manual but never appeared in the books.

Ranma ½

• In canon, Natsume and Kurumi only appeared in one OVA. In Ranma Restart: Bid for Freedom, they've become part of Ranma's group, and have just as much screentime as Ukyo and Ranma himself.

Revolutionary Girl Utena

• Seinen Kakumei Utena has Tokiko and Mrs. Ohtori, Mamiya, Tatsuya, Keiko, Mr. Ohtori and Mr. Kaoru all getting big roles.

Rizzoli & Isles

• Calamity Jane Meets Doctor Isles features an OC 'ascended extra' in the form of Adelaide Johns, the town seamstress, and the only female company in the village that Jane could tolerate growing up aside from Angela.

RWBY

• Can One Change Fix All of RWBY?: Compared to their canon selves, Team CFVY have a much more prominent role in the Beacon arc and they don't exit the main story entirely after the Fall of Beacon.
• One of the main fan complaints against the canon show is that it has such a bloated cast of minor and side characters whom it never does anything meaningful with. Fixing RWBY, per the title, aims to amend this by giving a lot of the canon side characters throughout the volumes more expanded roles. To name just some examples: Yang's "shadow people" friends from Volume 1 have full designs and characterizations, Cardin and Team CFVY's roles during and after the fall of Beacon are explored and the former's given some character development, Roman and Neo join the main cast of heroes from the fifth volume onwards, and the bandits Mann and Vernal end up a lot more prominent as the former is Raven's lover and the latter is the daughter they had in this version.
• A Rabbit Among Wolves:
  • The White Fang goons who don't do much but get beat up becoming prominent characters in the story. Ilia Amitola also becomes prominent as Jaune's advisor.
  • Lisa Lavender goes from being a minor reporter character to a prominent role as Jaune's PR person.
• Ripples: In the original web show, Vernal was simply the decoy for the Spring Maiden. Here she is the adoptive sister of Ruby and Yang and plays a major role from late season 2 onwards.
• Ruby and Nora: Shay D. Mann is given much more importance than his Butt-Monkey canon self.

SHARE MY STORY

• Light Illuminates Darkness: The boy that Sara was interested in only appeared in the the My Sister Is Jealous Because I Am Prettier Than Her animated video only appeared in a few seconds to explain why Sara gave up on her sister Selena; Selena stole and sold her sister’s phone just as she gotten his number. Here in this story it’s revealed that his name is Jasper and Sara ran into him at her job again, with him providing the necessary info to find Wade the drug dealer.

Sherlock Holmes

• The Deliver Us from Evil Series gives a veritable host of Ascended Extras from the Sherlock Holmes Canon. The first novel alone has Inspector Patterson, from one mention in "The Final Problem" to full supporting character status; Wiggins, from two brief scenes in the first two Sherlock Holmes novels to another supporting character; Inspector Lestrade, from recurring character to Deuteragonist (one of the leading points-of-view in the novel); Mary Watson and Mrs. Hudson, from recurring extras to supporting characters. Moriarty and Moran also get a lot of screen-time, and Culverton Smith has a bigger status as the villain for the first quarter of the novel.
  • The Road to Reichenbach is meant to be starring several Scotland Yarders from the Canon, and these characters should maintain their prominent status throughout the rest of the series.
  • To Take Up the Pen, the future third novel in the series, will up the ante further with Colonel Moriarty, a character who receives only one clear mention in the Canon, and Colonel Hayter, a One-Scene Wonder from one of the short stories. Also, Colonel Moran (yes, that's a lot of colonels, but they're all canonical) ascends to Big Bad status as he chases Holmes across Europe and Asia.

Shin Megami Tensei

• The Second-Hand Fool may be a Troll Fic, but it has the Weather Girl from the roof in P4G. In that game, she doesn't even have a name; in the fanfic, she not only gains a name, but she becomes the Sun Social Link for the main character, basically the most important secondary character in the fic. This doesn't mean she becomes a Sue herself; in fact, the author uses her for RP's outside of the fic, and she's basically the Only Sane Man.

A Song of Ice and Fire

• My Father's Son, befitting an alternate universe fic, has quite a few ascended from the background of westeros.
  • Elia Martell, a little-known character, is a lead character.
  • Dacey Mormont, a minor book character, becomes Lyanna's lady in waiting, and serves as a character connecting Arthur Dayne to the romance part of the fic.
  • Benjen Stark, youngest Stark whose main claim to fame is bringing Jon Snow to the Wall, becomes a Kingsguard as part of the deal for Lyanna, and remains part of the supporting cast from thereon out.
  • House Dayne all have larger roles in the story, with Arthur, Ashara and the rest of Starfall playing strong supporting roles in the story.
  • Septon Meribald, a minor character in the Riverlands, has a chance meeting with Rhaegar during the rebellion, and as a result gets a royal push to take some political power as an Internal Reformist.
• The Continuation Fic The North Remembers contains most of the familiar POV characters from previous books in the series, but adds in some new ones to give a viewpoint at certain places where no other existing POV could be at.
  • Val for The Wall after Jon Snow's death at the hands of his brothers.
  • Jeyne Westerling for Greywater Watch and eventually White Harbour.
  • Sandor Clegane for the Riverlands and King's Landing where he hopes to kill off his undead brother.
  • Ramsay Bolton for Winterfell after Theon Greyjoy escaped with Jeyne Poole.
  • Willas Tyrell for Highgarden.
• Robb Returns: Stannis, Jon Arryn, Brynden, Benjen, and Domeric become important POV characters.
• To Forge an Heir: The main POV character is Master of Coin Lyman Beesbury, who finds himself in the unlikely position of mentor to Rhaenyra Targaryen, the heir to the Iron Throne.

Sonic the Hedgehog

• Little Hands, Big Attitude:
  • In the first fic, Allison is only introduced as one of Maddie's cowokers. In the second fic, she becomes a major character after she adopts Silver and Blaze, and has much more screentime and an actual importance to the plot.
  • Overlapping with Chekhov's Gunman, Agent Abraham Tower the Third is introduced as one of the random G.U.N. Agents that Commander Walters brings along to inspect the Wachowski house, and his future importance is only indicated when he subtly calls out the Commander on a secret that Sonic and the others don't know. In the next fic, he becomes a major character when it's revealed that he knows about the top secret Project Shadow and gets himself assigned on a permanent posting in Green Hills, where he allies with Sonic and his family despite the orders he was given to report everything that happens there.
• Sally Acorn is a minor character in Sonic the Comic who acts as a news reporter. In the fan sequel Sonic the Continuation, she has more screentime.

South Park

• Dead Man Walking: Kenny's siblings, Keven and Karen, are given more development than in the show, thanks to their brother being the main character and all. Especially the latter, who in the show, had little role beyond serving as an occasional Morality Pet for her big brother. Here, Karen is a prominent supporting character, who has shown to have picked up Kenny's Dirty Kid tendencies and has started affiliating with the goth kids.

Soul Eater

• Soul Eater: Troubled Souls: After a certain point, Kilik, Ox, Kim, and Crona become pretty much just as important as Maka, Black☆Star, and Kid.

Spyro the Dragon

• The Portal had Thomas' parents, John and Sarah, only appear in 2 chapters. In the sequel, Hard Choices, they wind up becoming much more prominent characters.

Star Trek

• Bait and Switch borrows the names and faces of some of its Red Shirts and Mauve Shirts from Star Trek Online's list of randomly generated duty officers, the Red Shirt Army that run your lower decks and have even less characterization than your bridge officers generally do.
• In "Big Doors", while the main focus is Tasha Yar's survival, her subsequent relationship with Data changes the fates of quite a few other characters. Most notably, Lal- Data's android daughter, with Tasha now acting as her mother- is spared the cascade failure that killed her because Tasha decides to call in a favour from Q to save Lal. While Lal's survival doesn't change many subsequent details, she does inspire Doctor Soong to accept medical treatment after Lore's attack, allowing him to spend a month on the Enterprise getting to know his "granddaughter".

Steven Universe

• Gift of A Diamond has Carnelian - a character that had only a single line in one episode - ends up becoming Steven’s trainer, helping him learn about his various powers and, with the help of the other zoo quartz, becomes a formidable fighter. She is treated as being like a big sister to Steven, and even accompanies him on his mission to Earth.
• How I Wonder What You Are features Blue Pearl (Blue Diamond's personal Pearl) much more prominently than the canon series, making her Steven’s mother-figure as the final request of her former master.

The Suite Life of Zack & Cody

• Life Unexpected, a The Suite Life on Deck fic, does this with Reina, who appeared in exactly one episode as the antagonist. Here, she becomes Bailey's best friend and even given a developed backstory making her the child of a Teen Pregnancy. This was the main driving force behind their friendship, as she sympathized was Bailey, who was pregnant.

Super Mario Bros.

• Super Mario World (Max Landis) gives major roles to Funky Kong, Chet Rippo, and Chuck Quizmo, all of whom were tertiary characters in the greater Mario franchise.

Supernatural

• The Corrupted Innocent;
  • Deanna Campbell only appeared in one episode before being killed off, but here she is brought into the present to become a recurring ally of the Winchesters and basically Bela's official hunting partner.
  • Where Bela's father was just a Posthumous Character who she killed years ago, here he returns as a demon to torment the Winchesters and their allies.
  • In the epilogue, Sarah Blake has married Sam and the two have a one-year-old son.
• It's All in the Details sees FBI Agent Viktor Henriksen survive his death in canon to become a new hunter.
• Straight Trade opens with Sam Winchester essentially sacrificing himself to save Jess from her canonical death, prompting Jess to join Dean to get revenge for the man they both loved.

Sword Art Online

• Blazing Revolution: In the original light novels, Sugou Nobuyuki essentially disappears from the story after his defeat in the Fairy Dance arc. Here, he makes multiple comebacks, first by helping Gabriel Miller in his plot for world domination, and then by kidnapping Ren to use him as bait for a revenge scheme against Kirito.
• The Kirita Chronicles: In this semi-genderbent Sword Art Online fan fiction, numerous characters in receive this treatment.
  • Argo - In canon, Argo is a female Beta Tester who only appears in one episode of the anime and a few side stories in the Light Novels. In this story, Argo is gender-bent into a male player, and he is a main character. He receives numerous scenes that go into his information broker business.
  • Beta Testers - In canon, there are only a few Beta Testers that are named, but several of the original characters introduced in the story are Beta Testers and have played a role in the story.
  • Coper - He only appears in one chapter of the Light Novel in canon, but he appears in more than one chapter in this story. While he does die in the same fashion in this story, it has been confirmed that his death will provide a Small Role, Big Impact.
  • Griselda - In canon, she never has any lines, but she has appeared in several chapters in this story and has received a few lines, and her relationship with her husband Grimlock is given screentime unlike canon.
  • Kuradeel - In canon, he only appears in two episodes of the anime that take place during 2024, but he is introduced during the first month of the Death Game which is late 2022. His personality and relationships are expanded upon.
  • Sasha - She only appears in three episodes in canon, and her role is minimal at best. In Chapter Six, she is recruited by Argo to become his assistant.
• SAO: Mother's Reconciliation: Asuna's brother Kouichirou has a far larger role in this fic, whereas he was The Ghost in the original material, with his only role being to let Asuna use his NerveGear to play SAO the day of the launch.

Tales of Arcadia

• Zoe — the pink-haired hedgewitch Douxie knows in Wizards — makes a much more prominent role in The Wizard and the Huntress, making her an unofficial member of the Trollhunters.

Teen Titans (2003)

• In New Tamaran, Cheshire is given a speaking role in the main story, and her origin ends with her playing a big role in future villainy.
• In the Teen Titans Saga, General Immortus — who did practically nothing in canon — is made the Big Bad of the second story, The Art of War. The author has said that this is directly in response to the show wasting him.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

• In the 2014 film, April's friend Taylor was onscreen for less than a minute. In the fanfic Raphael's Big Mistake and the sequel, she's the main POV character.

Thomas & Friends

• Class 40, or "the Diesel", only showed up in two stories of the pre-CGI Thomas seasons and hasn't appeared in canon since. In O Mother, Where Are Thou?, he becomes Diesel 10's henchman.
• In The Brother's Grimm, the Grumpy Passenger, who has never been more than a minor character in both canon and the author's other fanfics, becomes one of the recurring antagonists.

Total Drama

• A BFG's World Tour
  • DJ, as the title character in A BFG's World Tour, goes from being the last member of the Team Victory Cannon Fodder to be eliminated to lasting past his canon elimination and playing a large role in the second half of the season and eventually becoming the official winner.
  • Noah and Tyler also last longer than in canon, the former getting more focus on his rivalry with Alejandro, while the latter takes up Owen and Courtney's role as Alejandro's Unwitting Pawn.
  • Downplayed with Gwen given her status as part of the Spotlight-Stealing Squad, but she goes from being the only member of Team Amazon eliminated pre-merge in canon to finishing in fourth place here.
  • Rock and Spud manage to last longer than they did in the canon Ridonculous Race.
• In Cast Swap, Beardo ascends from being the first one eliminated in the canon version of Total Drama Pahkitew Island to becoming a merger in the fic's version of Revenge of the Island and even qualifying for the fic's version of All-Stars.
• A Codette World Tour: Team Victory becomes this for the story's version of Total Drama World Tour, going from existing purely as early eliminations to being the focus of the story. Bridgette in particular goes from being the third eliminated from the game to the winner of the season.
• For Want of a Mohawk
  • Since Duncan is now the contestant eliminated in "Dodgebrawl", Noah naturally ends up lasting longer than he did in canon.
  • In terms of contestants who were eliminated pre-merge in canon, Noah, Courtney, Beth, and Katie all end up making the merge here.
  • Eziekiel is one of the contestants who are brought back at the merge.
  • Downplayed with Lindsay, who ends up eliminated one episode later than in canon.
• Noah, the Schemer: Noah himself is bumped up to the main protagonist of the season, instead of being eliminated halfway through as he was in canon. This also extends to Tyler and Ezekiel, both of whom get to last longer as a result of Noah's actions.
• Total Drama Do Over: Excluding Staci and Beardo, players who only played once and didn't make merge get two seasons in this timeline. Special mention goes to Dawn, four time contestant and winner of Action. In-Universe, Eva, Justin, Robert, and Randy all get a chance to shine after short runs on their debut seasons.
• Total Drama Generations: Beardo gets considerably more focus here compared to canon where he only made one appearance in Pahkitew Island.
• Total Drama: Unfinished Business: Many contestants who received little focus in the canon seasons are given so here, such as Ezekiel, Katie and Sadie, Noah, Eva, and Dawn.
• Total Drama World Tour Deluxe
  • The contestants who did not compete in canon season 3 get this due to all of them competing with Eva and Trent being the most notable examples.
  • Although Duncan is a part of the Spotlight-Stealing Squad, he also counts as this since he doesn't quit at the beginning of the season and ends up competing in more episodes in season 3 as a result.
  • Ezekiel, DJ, Lindsay, and Noah also last longer than in canon.
• Total Reordered Series
  • Both Trent and Noah last much longer than in canon Island, the former in particular being the runner-up.
  • In-Universe, Gwen and Topher go from interns working for Chris in Season 1 to full-on cast members in Action.
• Twinning With a Twist: Beardo, who in the original show lasted one episode and was a Flat Character who only made sound effects, is expanded on as a character to the point that he becomes one of Sammy's closest friends.

The Twilight Saga

• "Careful What You Wish For", the sequel to "A Different Kind of Moon", focuses on Angela's new life as a Cullen, after Victoria and the turned Mike Newton used her as bait to lure Bella out in Moon and Edward had to turn Angela to save her life.
• "Give Her Some Credit" does a subtle version of this to Angela. With the Cullens having left unaware of Bella's pregnancy, Bella has to call Angela for help in injecting herself with the venom samples Alice left behind so that she will survive giving birth. Bella later affirms that Angela is her daughter's godmother, and the sequel, "Where Credit is Due", establishes Angela's son as part of a potential love triangle with Renesmee and Jacob.
• "Roses in Winter" has Angela become a greater part of the Cullens’ lives after she and Emmett are paired for a class project and Emmett starts to realise the extent of her unhappy family. As the Cullens bring Angela further into their lives to protect her from her borderline abusive parents, they form such a strong bond that even the Volturi are introduced to Angela, observing that Angela's compassion makes her so much like Carlisle that she might as well be his biological daughter.
• Luminosity diverges from the plot of the Twilight novels radically enough that it's unsurprising that we get multiple examples of this:
  • Twilight fans might remember Gianna as that human woman in the Volturi's waiting room who says a couple of pleasantries and is never seen again. In Luminosity, she gets a lot more characterization, including her reason for working for the Volturi (to save her brother Ilario, who's dying of cancer), and even her own romance arc. Hell, Elspeth wouldn't even exist if Gianna hadn't agreed to risk a half-vampire pregnancy as a surrogate.
  • In canon, Chelsea appears only briefly in Breaking Dawn and has no major effect on the plot. In Luminosity, she's one of the main villains, particularly in the second book, where much of the plot hinges on the threat her power poses. Many a Luminosity fan who isn't familiar with canon has been shocked to learn that Chelsea doesn't appear in the movies at all.

The Vampire Diaries

• Love Bites, So Do I does this with Tina and Blair, two minor characters from one episode who had one line a piece. Although recasted, they are made into the main character's older sisters while Tina dates Damon before having a baby with Matt and Blair is actually a werewolf. Later chapters use Valerie Fell, who has NO lines and appeared for all of 3 seconds at most.

Warhammer 40,000

• The Legacy of the Blood Ravens expands the roles of characters that are only mentioned or have few lines. Oddly enough, this is even the case for the Force Commander Aramus, who has no lines in the games themselves.

The World Ends with You

• Eri's Game makes Eri, Shiki's best friend, the main character and narrator.

Worm

• Atonement: Canon Rune was a minor character whose only real traits were being a teenage Empire 88 member and her power. She wasn't even given a civilian name, and certainly didn't join the Wards.
• Recoil: In canon, Mrs. Knott is a bit-part player. In this story, she gets given a first name (Gladys), a maiden name (Harvey), and goes through JROTC and ROTC with her friend Taylor Snow. This gives her certain skillsets, as well as a good deal more confidence.
• Taylor Hebert, Medhall Intern: Greg Veder goes from being a timid side character to effectively Taylor's sidekick and co-worker.

X-Men

• Mutatis Mutandis: The author mentions that initially Jean-Paul was supposed to be Rogue's snarky best friend and moral compass but realized he was described in a way that did not lend himself to such a role. Thus, Victor (Anole) became the blue oni to Anna's red.

X-Men: Evolution

• In The SuperStarr Chronicles, the Brotherhood gain a new mentor in Clara Creed, who first appeared in Origin II #2 (January 2014) after the events of the episode "The Cauldron". Like in the comics, she's Sabertooth's sister. She's not a very well-known character, and the author is a fan of obscure and lesser-known Marvel characters.
  • The first chapter also featured a flashforward that had a cameo by Gabriel the Devil-Hunter, who first appeared in Haunt of Horror #2 (July 1974).
  • In the second chapter, the story mentions Tobias Messenger, who first appeared in X-Men: The Hidden Years #17 (April 2001), and was retconned to have appeared in Amazing Adult Fantasy #14 (July 1962). The story reveals that The mutant archive Cerebro was established to have in the episode "Survival of the Fittest" was derived from Messenger's own files on mutants.
  • The third chapter sets up the threat of Bounty, who first appeared in Silver Surfer #123 (December 1996). In that same chapter, Clara reveals that she was a member of a team of superheroes that protected Canada during WWII, which included Louis Sadler, the original Major Mapleleaf, and Nelvana of the Northern Lights. Major Mapleleaf first appeared in Alpha Flight #106 (March 1992). Nelvanna is not a Marvel character, having first appeared in Hillborough Studios' Triumph-Adventure Comics #1 (August 1941).
  • In the fourth chapter, during the battle against Bounty, Principal Kelly mentions the First Line, a team of superheroes that first appeared in Marvel: The Lost Generation #12 (March 2000). Clara Creed would also imply in the chapter that First Liner Black Fox was an old friend of hers.
  • In the sixth chapter, Xavier mentions a certain vigilante who was active during World War II. Said vigilante first appeared in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939). The chapter also ends with an appearance by a girl named Eileen Harsaw, who debuted in X-Force #6 (January 1992). Also, Paul Starr sees footage of Iron Man battling Milos Masaryk, the original Unicorn. Masaryk debuted in Tales of Suspense #56 (August 1964).
  • In the seventh chapter, Clara Creed reveals that she was a member of the Avengers Initiative, which debuted in New Avengers #10 (March 2011). She also claims to have fought Plan Chu, the Golden Claw alongside the Agents of Atlas. Plan Chu debuted in Yellow Claw #1 (October 1956), and the Agents of Atlas debuted What If #9 (June 1978). She also claimed to have fought monsters alongside the 1950s-era team known as the Monster Hunters, who debuted in Marvel Universe #4 (September 1998).
  • In the eighth chapter, Sam Guthrie claims to have heard of a supervillain called Electro who was active in the 1950s. This is a reference to the Ivan Kronov Electro, who debuted in Captain America Comics #78 (September 1954). Later in the chapter, Evan mentions Daredevil battling Leland Owlsley, aka the Owl. The Owl debuted in Daredevil #3 (August 1964).
  • The ninth chapter has a couple of flashbacks to 1981, which feature First Line members Black Fox, Mr. Justice, Firefall, and Positron. Like Black Fox, these characters debuted in Marvel: The Lost Generation #12 (March 2000).

XCOM

• XCOM: The Hades Contingency does this to both Zhang and Van Doorn:
  • Instead of becoming just another soldier in XCOM's ranks, the Commander decides to put Zhang's experience to much better use by putting him in charge of XCOM's intelligence division, making him part of the Internal Council alongside Bradford, Vahlen and Shen, and subsequently a major secondary character.
  • Similarly, Van Doorn is immediately brought into the Internal Council's fold as Deputy Commander, being expanded on as one of NATO's single finest strategists. In addition, his experience during the War on Terror also contrast the Commander's own, which sets him up as a Foil to XCOM's leader, and as an even more prominent character in his own right.
• XSGCOM does this a lot. For example, central character Commander Russell Sharp was merely a throwaway mention in a X-COM manual.

Young Justice (2010)

• Young Justice: Darkness Falls gives us several ascended characters:
  • The Kents both have a minor role in the fic.
  • Jason Todd comes Back from the Dead, and even has a central role in stopping the apocalypse.
  • Beast Boy gets his own character arc and a much larger part in the story overall.
  • Darkseid only appears in the last episode of the show, but in this fic, he takes over as Big Bad as his actions are much more important than anything the Light is doing.
  • Wonder Girl wasn't exactly central to the show except as "general muscle". Here, her relationship with Robin is expanded on from the Last Minute Hook Up, and we get to see her in action more.
  • For that matter, the Justice League features much more prominently overall. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman get back in the spotlight, Zatanna gets some more things to do both alone and in connection to Dr. Fate, Martian Manhunter takes up a role of mentor, and even the Green Lanterns, perhaps the least seen of the heroes, get screen time and action.
  • Namely, Cissie King-Jones. According to Greg Weisman, Cissie's father was saved by Green and Red Arrow back in Season 1. Yet in this season, after a small role in a Bad Future last season, she now steps in as the new archer Arrowette with the Titans.
  • Going off the previous fic, Raven goes from a minor character to the backbone of the entire season, as she's a Living MacGuffin.
• Young Justice Titans continues the trends of Darkness falls, but also includes at least one cameo that's ascended.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

• A Mother's Touch has Yoko Sakaki, Yuya's mother. She's mostly a secondary character for Season 1 but becomes the main character of the story in which she goes to You Show on the day Reiji wants to buy it out, revealing herself as co-owner of the school and forces Reiji to tell the truth on everything in regards to Reiji asking Sylvio to steal his cards, falsely accuse Yuya for attacking Sylvio, and how Reiji is responsible for Yusho's disappearance.
• Hecate: Cadeline was a character who, in canon, only appeared in flashbacks. In the fic, she’s a principal character.
• The Princess and the Dragon has Jean Claude, a one-shot character from the "Battle City" arc who dueled Joey over Mai. He is cast as the main villain in this story, teaming up with Yami Marik and Dartz in order to steal the throne of Hermos and marry Mai.
• In YU-GI-OH! 8th millennium item, while Tea was always a main character, this fic gives her a greater role by making her the owner of the titular eighth Millennium Item in the form of the Millennium Star, which contains the soul of Atem's queen, Mana. Combined with Tea having received training in Duel Monsters from Yugi's mother (who is not only still part of his life but whose soul is also taken by Pegasus), she becomes an active participant in the Duellist Kingdom as opposed to just being part of Yugi's group, occasionally transforming into "Hikari Tea", characters noting that her transformed self is also more openly affectionate towards Yugi than the more reserved Tea (such as literally jumping onto Yugi after they defeat the Paradox Brothers in a tag duel).
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Forever gives us Gozaburo Kaiba, Seto and Mokuba's adopted father. In the original manga, he was an extremely minor character who's revealed to be the reason Seto's such a colossal Jerkass, and who's briefly shown as having been Driven to Suicide following a hostile takeover of Kaiba Corporation by Seto. In the anime, his role was expanded upon somewhat in the filler Virtual World arc where he proved to be the Man Behind the Man for his biological son Noah, but even then he was still a relatively minor character compared to the heavier hitters in the non-filler episodes. In this fanfic, however, he gets a significant boost in importance: he's the Big Bad for the entire story, with chessmaster skills that incorporated even the possibility of his defeat in the aforementioned Virtual World arc into his plans, where in the story's timeline he reveals himself to have been Not Quite Dead after all.

Crossovers

• In Amazing Fantasy, Jirou and Sero become Izuku's first and closest friends at U.A., in contrast to their roles as background characters in the original series.
• Amelie in Amity: Amelie was just a one-shot character in the cartoon she was from that served as a temporary love interest of one of the main characters and was never seen again. Here she is one of the main characters, and while she again serves as a love interest to the main character in this story, her role and character have been expanded.
• Glynda Goodwitch in BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant gets far more attention than she did in RWBY, even having a storyline alongside Litchi in trying to find a cure for Roy as well as delving into her past with Sector Seven.
• Blood That Flows, a Lyrical Nanoha/Slayers crossover, gives a few little-seen Nanoha characters more time to shine:
  • Yunno, of course. So much so that he becomes an Adaptational Badass.
  • Shiro, who manages to hold his own when traveling with his family and friends through Lina's homeworld. It helps him temporally wielded the magic absorbing Blast Blade before relinquishing it to Gourry.
  • The Shine arc tosses in Miyuki as the new owner of Gorun Nova and Suzuka and Arisa, who finds themselves drawing the attention of Riksfalto.
• Child of the Storm and its sequel, Ghosts of the Past, have a few examples:
  • Jean-Paul Beaubier is transformed from B-List member of the X-Men, largely famous just because he was one of the first out gay characters in comics, to a charming teenager who affects a harmless, flighty facade, but is in fact pragmatic, ruthless, observant, and with the elevation of his powers to Flash level following chapter 60, arguably the most dangerous of the junior cast (he generally prefers to avoid fights, but when he does fight, he goes to the wall), being one of the good guys, but somewhat more reserved than most.
  • Carol Danvers, both in and out of universe. In-Universe because she starts as a minor supporting character added in chapter 20 on what Word of God admits was a whim, a new teenage muggle friend for Harry, before steadily evolving into a major supporting character and by Ghosts, arguably a fully-fledged Deuteragonist. Out of universe because, while she was added just as her canon counterpart was being pushed by Marvel, she was still relatively obscure.
  • Wanda Maximoff, while a long-standing Avenger in the comics, was still relatively obscure pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron when she was introduced to the story. She became an important supporting character, getting far more Character Development than she's generally given in the comics, cast as the former apprentice of Doctor Strange, Harry's godmother (who couldn't take him in because of the large number of Eldritch Abominations she fights on a regular basis), and Hermione Granger's biological mother by John Constantine, who becomes a substitute mother to Harry and an important supporting character.
• Children of Time, a Sherlock Holmes/Doctor Who Crossover, features Sally Sparrow, the heroine of "Blink" in a prominent role. After the series' AU of "Blink", she marries Dr. Watson (her co-star in said AU) and becomes the Cool Big Sis to Beth Lestrade as well as the Team Mom to the Irregulars. And that's not even mentioning the baby...!
• Cinders and Ashes: the Chronicles of Kamen Rider Dante does this in droves due to adding an arc in the middle of Re:CREATORS. Most noticable of all are Melt and Shimashima, who have extremely minor appearences in the form of a background appearence in the first opening (and who is pointed out and named in a Recap Episode) and a faceless character who is only namedropped in an episode repesctively, in which they both become the Sixth Ranger to the heroes.
• Code Prime does this for several characters:
  • Shirley Fenette, originally a supporting character, becomes a part of the main cast when she decides to join the Autobots and the Black Knights in Chapter 20 of R1. The author has also made it clear that he does not plan to kill off Shirley at all.
  • While Euphemia was given a prominent role in Season 1 of Code Geass before dying, she will be given more focus due to the author sparing her as well with Shirley.
  • Tatewaki Katase, leader of the Japan Liberation Front who was killed off near the first half of Season 1, survives the Battle of Port Yokosuka and joins the Black Knights, along with the rest of the JLF.
  • The author intends to do this as well for Nonette Enneagram and Monica Krushevsky.
  • Kallen's mother is also given more of a role as well as a supporting character.
  • As opposed to being killed off a few seconds after making her debut, Knight of Four Dorothea Ernst receives more focus as well.
  • At the end of R1, Milly, Rivalz and Nina all join the Black Knights.
• Comic Book SNAFU:
  • Aki Izayoi was a major supporting character who was infamously Demoted to Extra in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. She is one of the most prominent characters in Comic Book SNAFU.
  • Gajeel Redfox also goes from a major supporting character in Fairy Tail to a central hero in SNAFU.
  • Crossfire, Hawkeye's infrequently-appearing nemesis, is one of the main villains here, and leads other major villains like Baron Zemo and Bane.
• In The Confectionary Chronicles, Millicent Bulstrode goes from being an ugly, brutish Slytherin girl to having a tragic background where she's been rejected by her family due to her mother being a hag, which leads to Hermione (also sorted into Slytherin in this continuity) swiftly claiming 'Millie' as her only true friend in Slytherin house itself.
• Crazy Irken and ? (Invader Zim-based crossover fic anthology by D_rissing and nightmaster000. ^note Unable to link due to violating Content Policy, but it can be found on their Archive of Our Own pages.): Zita is a minor Invader Zim character with few speaking appearances in canon. Here, she gets a whole chapter dedicated to her, in what is Zim’s most genuine and loving relationship to date.
• Death Note Equestria has Straw Bolt — originally created for filler dialogue, he becomes a POV character.
• Demented Verse;
  • Kevin Tran becomes the Men of Letters’ representative to the wizarding world after he is saved from his death, with his mother encouraging him to think of this as him being elected to the role of ‘president’ of the Men of Letters now that his old ambitions are impossible.
  • Charlie Bradbury becomes an official representative of the Men of Letters when characters are attempting to translate the Book of the Damned, Charlie retaining custody of the Codex needed to translate the Book while the Ministry are represented by Malfoy.
• In Dedicated Hearts made Fullmetal, Mina Carolina and Petra Ral are saved from their deaths in canon by the intervention of the Elric brothers and become major supporting characters. Mina becomes Alphonse's Love Interest as well as inheriting the Female Titan, and Petra gets promoted to lead her own squad. Sadly, Petra ends up being shot by Gabi in the attack on Liberio while protecting Sasha, and dies from blood loss shortly after.
• In Doctor in the Underworld, from the perspective of Underworld fans, Erika goes from being the servant trying to win Kraven’s affection to an ally in Selene’s efforts and a love interest for the Doctor, to the extent that once the crisis is over, Selene makes Reinette a shareholder in Ziodex so that she has access to money for later even as Reinette starts travelling with the Doctor.
• The Lyrical Nanoha/Negima! Magister Negi Magi crossover Equal & Opposite Attraction has Arisa and Suzuka, originally Those Two Guys from Nanoha. Now they are taking magic lessons from Negi.
• Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls: While the Grand Fisher was introduced as a major foe to Ichigo in Bleach canon, it went unresolved and was subjected to an Aborted Arc as he was unceremoniously killed by Isshin and forgotten about by Ichigo. In this fic he acts as the story's first Arc Villain and was used by Soul Society to attack women to create Fullbringers for Project Xcution that would lead to the Humane Five developing their own Fullbrings from their mothers.
  • Di Roy was Grimmjow's weakest Fraccion and killed off with minimal sceentime. Here, he causes the heroes' lots of trouble as "Sharkface" and latter joins Adagio's Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits in Hueco Mundo.
  • Roka had it even worse than Di Roy. She was a nameless Arrancar with few scenes, no speaking lines, and offhandedly killed. Here she's an adopted daughter of Fourth Espada, acting as a caretaker of her siblings and taking the role of the smart girl of Adagio's group. She had more prominent role in Spirits are Forever With You, though.
• The Equestrian Wind Mage: Both Nigellas the Wizzrobe and Maulgrim the Darknut, who the author only intended to appear once in the first season. But then they became so popular with the fanbase that the author began to include them in more escapades, eventually making them solid secondary characters.
• Fairy May Cry:
  • In Fairy Tail canon, Lisanna Strauss was a textbook case of Out of Focus, even in her debut in the Edolas Arc. Here, she joins the main group from the beginning of said arc. After returning to Earthland, she frequently accompanies Natsu on jobs, participates in the S-Class Trials, and is instrumental in several arcs.
  • Modeus was a one-off character in the Devil May Cry animated series, dying in his debut episode. Here he avoids the events leading to his death and joins Fairy Tail, becoming The Mentor and a father figure to Wendy.
  • After the seven-year Time Skip, Romeo becomes more involved in missions with the guild.
• The Fanmake Blooper Series has this twofold with Van Helsing. The first fold is that the role he had in a Sleeping Beauty Film Fic was a nameless guard, but decided to bump his significance up by shooting Queen Chrysalis (who was playing Maleficent) and the second fold because from there, he turned from a guy who did one action and only said one line to becoming the closest thing any of the main characters has to The Mentor as well as a recurring character for the rest of the series.
• Gory Toons:
  • Eric Cartman made his debut in "Road Rage" as the minor antagonist after being completely absent in Season One. He is now pretty much a main character with more focus than Kirby. Official sources always list him as a main character with the other three, and he's usually depicted hanging out with them as a group.
  • Pop has been promoted to the most prominent adult character, with many episodes dedicated to him whenever he does something stupid. Like Cartman he's now considered as a "main character" by most fans. As time went on, Pop gained more and more prominence in the show, to the point in which it appears that he is now the main character.
  • Plankton and Karen the Computer Wife. In Season One, both were entirely absent, Plankton began with sporadic appearances, and Karen hadn't shown up at in Season Two. They were officially promoted to members of the "Main Cast" in the Season Three and have been increasingly important ever since.
  • Kenny McCormick made his brief debut in the Season Finale of 2021. After a while, he disappeared until the episode "Jelly Tales". As with Cartman, Kenny's prominence borderline rivals Kirby, where he seems to replace Kirby's role as the Butt-Monkey in much of the later episodes.
  • Like Cartman, Wario made his debut in "Road Rage" as a minor antagonist. Shortly after this role, he become the lead character or antagonist in several episodes afterward. As with Cartman, he had become a major antagonist since then.
• Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters has several examples, from both Jackie Chan Adventures and W.I.T.C.H.:
  • On the W.I.T.C.H. show, Lothar was an incredibly minor character who only had a couple of speaking appearances. Here, he has a significantly larger role, serving as a major POV character among the antagonists.
  • The Mantis Khan barely showed up at the end of JCA's fourth season's Story Arc. They're given much more to do here, effectively serving as the Dark Hand's Elite Mooks.
  • Alchemy, little better than a bit character in the source material, discovers W.I.T.C.H.'s secrets alongside Matt.
• Honoka's Bizarre Adventure: Fumiko in Love Live! was just one of Honoka's classmates and usually just appeared alongside Hideko and Mika. In the story, she becomes a Stand user alongside her classmates and becomes a Guest-Star Party Member in the "To Omine" arc for Maki and Nozomi, along with having her life outside of school expanded such as her parents' divorce. She ends up getting A Death in the Limelight in chapter 28 during her fight against Yoshikage Kira.
• In Unwelcome Storm's Worm x Bloodborne crossover Hunter, Taylor's interactions with the characters have expanded their roles, such as Djura helping her develop a weapon capable of killing Hookwolf using his knowledge as a former member of the Powder Kegs.
• The Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Stargate SG-1/Battlestar Galactica (2003) crossover An Extraordinary Journey features a few of these, with the most notable being Major Lauren Satterfield of Stargate Command; after she is promoted to SG-2, Satterfield participates in the initial mission to Kobol, where she witnesses the Cylons and acts as translator when Sharon requests asylum to escape her treatment by Admiral Cain. Other characters speculate that the reason for Satterfield's resemblance to the Eights is that a distant ancestor of hers was abducted from Earth as part of the experiment that led to the creation of Kobol, with the result that the Eights are based on the genetic template of that descendant, giving Satterfield a particularly personal stake in the conflict as she simultaneously gives Sharon a friendly face and is unnerved at the notion that machines with her face took part in a near-genocide.
• The Infinite Loops: Lavinia from the Fate/Grand Order is probably the ultimate example. In the original game, she is a side character that's not even obligatory to play through before being Killed Off for Real. In the loops, due to the absolute chaos that was the Grand Order Branch's activation, Abigail managed to revive her from the dead and turn her into a Looper with Yog-Sothoth's help.
• Infinity Train: Boiling Point:
  • Skara is Boscha's friend and the Beta Bitch of her posse in The Owl House, but there's very little to her besides that. She's pretty much the second most important character in the Boiling Isles side of the story, with her arc driving as much conflict as Boscha's.
  • On the Infinity Train side of things, outside of Lucy, none of the Apex kids get to do much, even the named ones. In this story, she and a few other named kids (Lindsay, Todd, and Alex) join up with Simon and Grace and form the group known as Zenith Fantasy.
• Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily gives this to Specter. Throughout the entire series, he only gets five duels — 3 on-screen, two off-screen — and despite being part of the Lost Incident and a member of the Knight of the Hanoi, he doesn't get any character development or focus and Season 3 has him with no speaking lines until the final 3 minutes of the show (because his seiyuu was busy to record lines). Here, he is partnered with Gladion and Tokio on their quest to stop the Apex and it turns out that he's hiding a Split Personality on him.
• Infinity Train: Star Finder: Stella Zhau was merely a supporting character in canon. Here, she becomes the protagonist of the story.
• In Pursuit of a Single Ideal:
  • Shirou has been elevated from the completely uninvolved and clueless civilian that he was in Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA to the protagonist.
  • In the Prisma Illya manga, Kiritsugu never once shows up in person. Here, he and Irisviel return home as soon as the maids tell them that something is wrong with their children.
  • Leysrit becomes a Guest-Star Party Member against Artoria Alter, while in the original she was simply a background element.
• It's Always Spooky Month:
  • Kevin, a side character in Spooky Month, plays a major role in chapter 5 of It's Always Spooky Month and becomes a semi-reoccurring character afterwards. In You Can't Escape Spooky Month, he's forced to move into Monster's house after being evicted from his apartment and becomes a major character.
  • After being demoted to The Cameo, Boyfriend and Girlfriend appear prominently in chapter 11 of It's Always Spooky Month.
• JoJo New Universe:
  • Sadao Kujo in Stardust Crusaders was Jotaro Kujo's Disappeared Dad and was unseen during the manga. In the 20th-century adaptation of Steel Ball Run, which also acts as an interquel between the Jojo New Universe editions of Battle Tendency and Stardust Crusaders, he's one of the protagonists with his own Stand, Gotta Keep It Real.
  • Stardust Crusaders: At most, Giorno's unnamed mother was just the source of his neglected and tragic childhood and just one of the few women DIO had bedded. In New Universe, now with the name Tomomi Shiobana, she's one of DIO's Ten Glory Gods with the Stand Nut. She would return in Stone Ocean killing off the remaining members of DIO's brides.
  • Diamond is Unbreakable: Kosaku Kawajiri's only appearance in the manga was as a corpse after Yoshikage Kira killed and took his identity to escape the heroes. Here, he avoids his deadly fate thanks to his stand Under Pressure.
  • Stone Ocean: Gwess in the manga was Jolyne's Starter Villain and went out of focus after the heroes leave the prison to stop Pucci. Here she has more screen time alongside time, especially in the final fight against Pucci.
  • Speaking of Stone Ocean, Atroe in the manga was the unlucky girl that is killed by Foo Fighter and her body becomes their host after they joins the heroes. In New Universe, she not only survives the encounter thanks to Rainbow Dash, she fuses with Foo Fighter to become the Stand's new weilder.
  • As in the manga, Holly Kujo initially has a supporting role in both Steel Ball Run and Stardust Crusaders. She would take up a more prominent role as a Stand User in Spirit Tracks, fighting alongside her younger brother George III.
• In Justice League: The Spider, this arguably applies to Spider-Man from the perspective of most people in his new world; having been transferred from the Ultimate Marvel universe to the DC Animated Universe, he landed by sheer chance in the middle of the Justice League's conference table as the original seven were planning to expand the League. As a result, they helped Peter establish a life in his new universe and officially offered him membership before their mass recruitment drive, leaving quite a few people wondering how they’ve never heard of this new hero who has the trust of some of the world’s most powerful individuals.
• The J-WITCH Series:
  • Alchemy was a Bit Character in the first season of the W.I.T.C.H. cartoon (and to a slightly lesser extent in the second season). In this fic, she gets more minor appearances and lines before she eventually learns about the Guardians and the Chan Clan's magic adventures, even taking part in them.
  • The Enforcers' nephews Frank, Charlie, and Rocko transfer to Sheffield in "Seeds of Doubt", and the chapter notes make it clear that they're going to have a semi-major role in the story instead of being one-shot characters like in canon. This is shown in "A Demon's Wings in the Witches' Town" when the three of them learn about the Guardians' and Elyon's powers, joining the team as a result.
  • Martin, a significant but nonetheless supporting character throughout canon, learns about the Guardians' powers in "Down to Earth" and like the above examples joins the main group.
• "Kim Possible: The Next Generation" opens with Kim Possible a new ensign on the Enterprise-D (Star Trek: The Next Generation) who just won a contest that allowed her childhood friend Ron Stoppable to visit for a couple of weeks. As a result of Ron's visit, he and Kim become a key part of subsequent events involving an investigation into stolen technology and the recovery of a Klingon artefact, culminating in Kim and Ron saving the entire Federation from Lore acquiring the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer.
• In Martian Manhunter, when Veronica Mars and her supporting cast become part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica's first major impact on events is when she saves Sheila, a troubled girl who was killed by Spike in his first appearance ("School Hard"), with Sheila going on to become a practicing witch and a loyal ally to Veronica.
• Alyssa Anderson, Stella Hill, and Courtney Wagner were all minor characters from Life Is Strange. In The Matrix Rewinds, they're red-pills — Maniac, Astra, and Elle respectively — pretending to be Blackwell students to help Max/Noir undermine the Arcadia Bay program.
• Mirai SMP features an example completely disconnected from the character's relevance in the source material, rather relating to their in-fic role: For the first half of the fic, Ryan seems to be a largely unimportant character who rarely comes up. That is, until we are suddenly thrust into his perspective and he becomes a major character in the plot.
• The Moon's Flash Princess:
  • In Sword Art Online canon, Lux was a very minor character who only appeared in Girl Ops. Here, because Kirito prevented her from being forcibly recruited into Laughing Coffin, she is a member of the main cast.
  • Where Koichirou Yuuki, Asuna's brother, was The Ghost in canon, here, he meets Suguha while they're both visiting the hospital where their siblings are kept. He even is the one who convinces Suguha to try out Alfheim Online.
• My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator: In canon, Curator and the Volcano Thieves are not related to the League of Villains and have no affiliation with them. Here, Curator is All for One's second in command after All for One busted him out of being transferred to Tartarus and the Volcano Thieves joined All for One after Eusha City, and are deployed to I-Island after the Slayer's presence derails the main plan entirely.
• Hisashi Midoriya gets this treatment in Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!. In My Hero Academia, he's The Ghost, having been mentioned exactly once in-story and never making an on-screen appearance in over 190 chapters due to working overseas. Here, he's significantly more involved in Izuku's life, coming home once or twice a month as his job allows and speaking with his wife over the phone when Izuku is diagnosed as Quirkless. He also rushes to his defense when police officers come to interrogate him at the hospital after Izuku's disastrous brawl with Katsuki. On top of all this, he's stated to be a nuclear physicist working on projects that could change the world, using his connections to forge Izuku's adoption papers. He's also one-half of the superhero Firestorm.
• The Ninth Fantasy - Gaia and The Ninth Fantasy - Equestria has Deathguise. In Final Fantasy IX, he's just some monster Kuja summons to fight the party. Here, however, he's a major villain, although he hasn't had much in the way of appearances yet.
• In the Death Note and The House of Night crossover NoHoper, Kayla becomes a proper character again. Also Yamamoto - Light's friend from school who appears in a few pages of the manga and doesn't appear in the anime - is one of the few other characters that makes a showing from Death Note canon. As for from The House of Night canon, Drew Partain - who'd only gotten a couple of mentions as Stevie Rae's maybe boyfriend in the books - and 'Amanda', who only ever had one mention in the first book.
• Once Upon a Studio: Version 2.0: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Moana and their respective Princes all fall into this category, as they're shown to have an increased role in lifting everyone else's spirits back up after Goofy's failed first attempt at taking the group picture.
• Pokémon Crossing: Most Animal Crossing fics focus on important town residents like Tom Nook, Isabelle, the player character, or a popular villager like Raymond or Rosie. Here, the main protagonists are the lazy chicken Benedict, smug goat Kidd, and jock rhino Tank.
• The Reactsverse contains several examples of these.
  • Weiss Reacts: Team CRDL is given more characterisation than 'generic Jerk Jock bullies' and team CFVY are given quirks and personalities. Later, Winter, Weiss' older sister, becomes a recurring character. Original Character Professor Faust herself was only an off-hand mention before she shot up in popularity due to her antics in The Diary of Glynda Goodwitch and Weiss Reacts revealing her crush on the freaking The Slender Man.
  • Lucina Reacts: Kellam, while not exactly an extra, lacked any story significance in canon. In the story, however, he becomes The Ace and the right-hand man to Robin in stopping the antics of the Justice Cabal. Similarly, the Village Maiden - Chrom's default wife should he not marry any of his potential love interests - is given the name of Gerda and runs a tavern in Ylisstol.
• Re:Zero - The Princess and the Spider: In the MCU, Uncle Ben was just The Ghost. During the fic's version of Season 2, he made a full appearance when Peter Parker went through the first of the Sanctuary's trials that had him relived his past.
• Shadows over Meridian:
  • Jax, one of the guards at Cavigor who happily goes along with the Warden's orders to kill all the prisoners so that Frost can't free them, is revealed to be one of the three unnamed guards from the original fic whom Caleb ordered to take Jade to the Infinite City dungeon when she first arrived on Meridian. He reveals this while fighting Drake and Vathek when they try to stop him slaughtering the prisoners, in the process exposing Caleb as the one who went against Elyon's orders at the time regarding Jade.
  • The main Mogriff, named Windblade, turns out to be one of the Mogriffs who impersonated the Guardians to fool Elyon on Phobos' orders, more specifically the one who assumed Will's appearance.
  • The Mogriffs as a whole qualify for this status, as canonically they only appeared in one episode.
• The Silver Raven:
  • Edric and Emira, due to having been Nero's friends (of the tsundere variety) since childhood, are given more presence than they had in the main show. They even help Nero rescue Amity and Luz from Otabin where as in the canon episode, they had already left the library beforehand.
  • Eda's living graffiti was just a one time joke in canon. Here, they're named Graff and end up becoming friends with Nero.
• Slightly Altered has Samantha Kailum and Toby, who barely get any screen time in canon, promoted to main character status with Buwaro.
• Sonic Generations: Friendship Is Timeless : Several characters that were hardly featured in the original game play important roles, such as Big, Chaos, Tikal and Omega in chapter 10 and Marine in chapter 14.
• Super Milestone Wars: The Supetastic 6 were just in an animated special of the same name in The Naked Brothers Band. Here, they're recurring characters with Captain Music as the Supporting Leader. In its sequel, they're the main protagonists.
• Tales of Bleach: Unreal Society: Not only does Virginia, Raine and Genis' mother, get her memories back she is later revealed in the sequel Return of the Samurai as the Emerald Witch of Ymir, an actual folklore hero. She also assists in rescuing Regal from Brute and against Talbumosuke's forces in Blades of Destiny.
• Tangled Adventures in Arendelle has several.
  • Since the first 8 chapters write around the plot of Frozen from the Tangled cast's POV, Kai and Gerda (the family servants/majordomos) get a bit more of a role since they're the ones helping out around the castle during the big freeze/blizzard brought on by Elsa. They also act as the storytellers to Rapunzel and Eugene, telling the story of Elsa and Anna's childhood, and Kai gets to help out with Elsa's PR runs as well.
  • The woman who screamed, "It's Alive!" off-screen on seeing Olaf not only gets a name (Rose Caumont), but also a family and a connection to the supporting cast (she's Oaken's younger sister).
• Thieves Can Be Heroes!, a My Hero Academia / Persona 5 crossover with Izuku in place of the game's protagonist:
  • Following her recovery, Shiho joins Mishima in setting up the Phan-Site and shares his role as Izuku's Moon Confidant.
  • Compared to the canon game's protagonist's parents, Inko Midoriya remains very active in her son's life during his probation.
• Kyoka Jiro is the Deuteragonist of Transformers: MHA as opposed to being just a background character in canon. She plays a major role to the story and even becomes Izuku's love interest.
  • There's also Mei Hatsume, who usually only shows up in canon whenever Izuku or his classmates need costume upgrades. Here she becomes a main character due to being one of the first to find out about the Cybertronians, and helps out in situations regarding not only Hero work, but the Decepticons as well.
  • Momo Yaoyorozu becomes a part of the main cast following the USJ Incident, providing the Autobots with a base of operations at one of her family's old warehouses, and joining Izuku and Kyoka's friend group.
  • Kaminari, Kirishima and Ashido end up being a part of Izuku's friend group after learning about the Cybertronians themselves, joining in the war.
  • From Class B, Kendo, Tetsutetsu, Shiozaki and Tokage get caught up in the Cybertronian War themselves after the Sports Festival arc.
  • Starscream's crew on the Darksyde has quite a few of these. While there are recognizable Decepticons like Thundercracker, Skywarp and Barricade, there are also minor Decepticons from the comics and cartoons that are part of the main Decepticon forces the Autobots and heroes face in the story, such as Flatline, Blastwave, Swift, Nightra, and Shadow Striker.
• A Triangle in the Stars:
  • All of Bill's friends get more attention and are fleshed out more albeit with the authors' interpretations of their characters. Kryptos and Hectorgon especially, since they're said to have been Bill's friends years ago, long before the rest, and had been spared from dying in their dimension when the fated day came.
  • Lapis also counts, since she has a lot more screentime to allow for her full personality to shine, and also details what happened between her and Jasper when she was captured in Chapter Forty.
• The Tree of Liberty makes Cray, who's just the head Peacekeeper of District Twelve in canon, the leader of a group known as the 'Knights of Destiny', who have guarded the communication stones needed to get in touch with Destiny for eight hundred years until they found people they believed would be worthy to get in touch with the ship.
• In Twice Chosen, "Foxface", never named in the book or film adaptations of The Hunger Games, joins Katniss, Peeta, Thresh, Glimmer and Rue to become Power Rangers, and is named Olivia (although she prefers 'Liv', as in "livewire").
• The Wedding Crashers: Claire, who was just a baby in the original Twilight books, gets an expanded role here — and despite her young age, manages to be one of the few sane people on the Twilight side of the crossover.

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