A Day in the Limelight

aka: Good Troi Episode

"You know, I've rather enjoyed having my own episode. It almost makes up for being thoroughly neglected for the past two and a half years."

— Yami Bakura, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series

A secondary or Ensemble character gets the primary focus for an episode in an atypical fashion. This can be used to either give various cast members a rest, both for the actor and for the audience or to allow different episodes to be shot simultaneously to save on time or costs. It can also be used to explore the possibility of an expanded role for a recurring or secondary character, or to set up a Spin-Off. Fans of secondary characters may explore the idea of their favourite character becoming the primary protagonist in a Fanfic.

Sometimes the limelight is given to a guest character of note, often a character so outrageous that he/she upstages the regulars, or a nobody with a touching, moving story. This is occasionally done in comedies where the focus is less on the regular characters usual antics and hijinks, and more on the guest character. In such cases, the regular characters may be temporarily demoted to Straight Man status. In some cases, the regular characters are just present either to provide moral support or to be the recipients of An Aesop. Such episodes may be of the Very Special Episode variety and may focus on a serious issue facing the guest character.

While often times this trope only applies to secondary or background characters, in an ensemble cast with fairly equitable time sharing, any episode that shines the spotlight on one particular character can be considered a Limelight Episode even if that character is top billed.

When these characters in this episode face a conflict, they may either resolve it themselves, or somebody else —frequently, the actual protagonist— will.

A number of tropes act as more specialized examples of this trope:

• A Hostile Show Takeover is the most extreme version of this trope.
• If the character or characters getting the Day In The Limelight are very minor, it's a Lower-Deck Episode.
• If the characters are villains/antagonists in the work, then it's a Villain Episode.
• For this happening within a rock band, see Step Up to the Microphone.
• When the female cast is getting a dedicated story, it is a Girl's Night Out Episode.
• A Limelight Series turns this concept into an entire show.

See also Breakout Character, Character Focus for the Super-Trope, and Adaptational Protagonist, when either minor or major characters acquire the main lead role in an adaptation. Compare Ascended Extra. If a minor mook gets a whole spinoff, that becomes Breakout Mook Character. Contrast with Day in the Life, A Death in the Limelight.

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Example Subpages:

• Anime & Manga
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You
• Live-Action TV
• Western Animation

Other Examples:

Asian Animation

• BoBoiBoy Galaxy: Cattus and Bellbot are minor characters, but they become the main stars in an exclusively online comic in 2019 when they get accidentally sent to Planet Londari, where Admiral Tarung's battle suit was sent to be cleaned. Cattus and Bellbot help save a village from giant hostile monkeys and are considered heroes among the locals. Unfortunately, when the two return to the TAPOPS station, it had already been destroyed by Retak'ka as per the events of BoBoiBoy Movie 2, which explains how the powerful Admiral Tarung lost so easily to Retak'ka in the film; because he didn't have his suit.
• Happy Heroes: Miss Peach is usually nothing more than a supporting role at best, but she gets a major focus in Season 2 episode 39, which is about her becoming a Superman.
• Paddi of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf has an entire season in the limelight. Specifically, Paddi the Amazing Chef focuses on Paddi and his cooking skills.
• The Pucca television series has several of these. The one for Santa Claus is probably the most notable, solely for establishing the... unique character history that he was a former ninja thief that, after realizing it was wrong to steal things out of people's houses, decided to use his skill in stealth and infiltration for bringing presents into people's houses instead.
• Spacetoon has animated song videos featuring sisters Mooda and Moody where their brother Moodu can sometimes be seen in the background but one video is entirely focused on him.

Audio Plays

• An interesting variation in Big Finish Doctor Who's "The Maltese Penguin", which is - on paper - a "Doctor-lite episode" featuring the Doctor only as a Drop-In Character in a few brief scenes, while most of the action centres on obscure Expanded Universe companion Frobisher trying to solve a mystery without the Doctor's help. However, one of the conceits of the story is that Frobisher has assumed the form of the Sixth Doctor for most of it, meaning that the role of Frobisher is played by Sixth Doctor actor Colin Baker, with Frobisher's usual voice actor providing Frobisher's internal monologue.

Comic Books

• Brian K. Vaughan loves this. Both Ex Machina and Y: The Last Man frequently have backstory issues for any and every recurring cast member.
• Adventure Time Graphic Novels Volume 1: Playing With Fire has Flame Princess starring main character of the graphic novel as she and Jake saves Finn from being held captive by the fortune teller.
• Archie Comics does this every now and again, given its Cast of Snowflakes. Characters like Big Moose, Dilton, Mr. Lodge, Mr. Weatherbee and Big Ethel primarily serve as Foils for more prominent characters like Archie and Jughead, but they sometimes get the focus in their own stories. These range from Big Moose learning he has dyslexia to Mr. Lodge turning a rival businessman's con game against him to Big Ethel becoming Riverdale High's Prom Queen.
• The Asterix series features four Roman camps surrounding the main character's home village; the exact legionnaries stationed in these camps varies from one storyline to another, so the camps themselves can be considered characters. While various Roman officials use those camps as a base while setting up their latest campaign against the Gauls, the camp of Laudanum is the least-used of the four. Aside from cases where all four camps have taken part in a mass attack on the village, to date Laudanum's only starring role has been in "Asterix and Caesar's Gift", where the other camps have had at least three stories each where their residents are the focus of the latest plot, as the latest campaign against the Gauls is based in one particular camp, either using the legion already stationed there or through some Roman agent attempting a new plan.
• Atari Force: except for Morphea and Martin Champion, all the other members of the team had their own stories illustrating how their lives were before the events of the main plot. Dart, Taz and Babe have one each; Packrat has two and Chris shares a a day of his childhood with Hukka, whom had at least four days in the limelight before being adopted by the first Atari Force team.
• Batman does this quite a bit:
  • An issue of Legends of the Dark Knight focused on virtually forgotten c-lister "the Spook" after his release from Blackgate penitentiary. He winds up being so paranoid that Batman is stalking him that he commits a crime just to go back to Blackgate where he has peace of mind.
  • "Mr Freeze": a retelling of his origin narrated by Freeze himself. Written by Paul Dini, who created the modern Mr. Freeze.
  • "Scarface: A Psychodrama" focuses on the Ventriloquist as he attempts to go straight and also, creepily, on the puppet that still causes death and pain even without him.
• Bill Watterson occasionally did this with Calvin's parents in Calvin and Hobbes, showing everything from Calvin's Dad's ambivalence about American consumer culture to Calvin's Mom's frustrations with shitty customer service.
• Issue #7 of the Ed Brubaker run on Captain America was based entirely around Jack Monroe (the former Bucky), with Cap only appearing in flashbacks. The issue even tied up some loose ends from Monroe's short-lived Nomad series just before he is murdered by Winter Soldier.
• During the Crisis Crossover Civil War (2006), New Avengers was temporarily retooled into a series of one-shots about the members of the team who didn't have solo books. Issue #22 was about Luke Cage, #23 about Spider-Woman, and 24 about The Sentry.
• Convergence is a day in the limelight for DC's pre-New 52 timelines and universes (in fact, DC put the main DCU comics on hold for two months, replacing them with Convergence miniseries). And much like Multiversity, the current Earth-0 and its heroes aren't the ones to save the day.
• In Creepy #39's "Where Satan Dwells...", a story deconstructing and playing with the role of the comic book Horror Host, Uncle Creepy begins to express disillusionment with simply introducing tales in morbid, pun-filled monologues, instead wishing to star in one of his own. Entering a curiously accommodating little bookstore after hours of wandering, he falls asleep reading a special tome the shopkeeper gives him, and saves the characters of the book's setting from the Evil Overlord in his dreams. Upon waking, he swears off any more adventures, thanks the clerk, and hurries home. (Said clerk happens to be Creepy's rotten relative and rival host, Cousin Eerie, in disguise, who thought it'd be nice to give him a break for once.)
• Most of Doctor Who Magazine's day in the limelight strips have typically been backup strips, focusing on the various monsters and villains the Doctor's faced, but there have been a few that fit this trope better, including several for strip-original characters, several for the Time Lords, one for Sarah Jane Smith and K9, one for K9 solo, one for young Amy and Rory, and one for the Paternoster Gang.
• Every now and then, there's an issue of Fantastic Four that focuses on Franklin Richards.
  • Several issues and stories over the years have had Doctor Doom as the focus of the story with the Fantastic Four seen only in flashbacks if seen at all.
  • One Fantastic Four story entitled "The House That Reed Built" featured The Trapster being tracked and finally apprehended by the Baxter Building's automated security.
• Frozen: Reunion Road has Kai, Arendelle Castle's head butler and trusted advisor to the royal family, given a more prominent role compared to the few minutes of screen time he had in the main film series. The comic also shed some light regarding his origins, as it is established that he was born and raised in a kingdom called Snoob along with his estranged brother Karl.
• While almost every other installation of "Golden Eyes" and Her Hero "Bill" is narrated from an omniscient, third person perspective, Uncle Sam narrates the chapter in which Golden Eyes rescues an injured Bill:
  Uncle Sam: I am only a dog who carries a little search-light on my back to help my Country and my true-loves—and cannot tell a story very well.
• While Aloy appears in both stories of Horizon Zero Dawn, the stories focus more on her allies or other characters. The Sunhawk focuses on Talanah, while most of Liberation focuses on Ersa and Avad's coup against the Mad Sun-King Jiran.
• Jim Crow received one of these in The Invisibles which also doubled as his debut appearance. Same with the Department X and most momorably, Bobby.
• Justice Society of America: One story arc in All-Stars has Cyclone, after being injured in the last arc, deal with a group of clones and someone stealing her powers at her school, while the rest of the team are away on a mission in space. The story focuses on Maxine just happily dealing with the situation on her own, while the rest of the team's epic space adventure is limited to several random snippets of different stages.
• The DVD for The Maze Runner comes with a 24 page comic told from Minho's perspective set before Thomas is sent to the maze.
• Ms. Tree: "Roger's Story" gave the spotlight (and some much needed character development) to Roger Freemont, one of Michael Tree's partners in the detective firm.
• The Multiversity:
  • This is basically the Multiverse's day in the limelight, and what makes this even more significant is that the main DC Universe (Earth-0) and its heroes are not the saviors as they were in every other Multiverse-related catastrophe. The main fighting force is comprised of heroes from different Earths, and none of them are forced to measure up to their Earth-0 counterparts.
  • The Just #1 is this for DC's Legacy Characters, especially those who suffered a legacy implosion or two.
  • The various one-shots are this for their respective universes, which are given less spotlight in the main Multiversity duology.
• The My Little Pony Micro Series issues focus on a particular pony (or group of ponies in the case of the Cutie Mark Crusaders), starting with the Mane Six and moving on from there.
  • Rarity's issue featured a short about Hayseed Turnip Truck of all ponies.
  • Similarly, My Little Pony: Friends Forever focuses on a pairing of two characters, be they from the Mane Cast (e.g., Applejack & Pinkie Pie, Applejack & Rarity, Twilight Sparkle & Pinkie Pie), a character from the Mane and Side Casts (e.g., Rainbow Dash & Trixie, Rarity & Babs Seed, Twilight Sparkle & Big McIntosh, etc.), or two characters just from the side cast (e.g., Spike & Princess Celestia, Diamond Tiara & SilverSpoon, Granny Smith & Flim and Flam, etc.)
• The "Lulu's War mini-arc of Nikolai Dante'' followed Lulu Romanov as she fought to protect Venice from an army of vampires allied to Tsar Vladimir. Dante himself only appeared in a few panels at the very beginning, talking to Lulu.
  • Similarly, "The Tsar's Daughter" concentrates on Jena Makarov.
• Red Dwarf Smegazine: Several One Shot Characters and alter egos get more spotlight than they got in the main show such as Jake Bullet, the female Dwarfers, Mr. Flibble and the characters of the "Androids" soap opera.
• Issue #25 of Gold Key's Scooby-Doo Mystery Comics centered on Daphne in "The Gorgeous Ghost." Daphne is entered in a beauty pageant held by a society of magicians where a competing contestant seeks to win the physical crown as she believes it holds mystical powers.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • In Sonic X, most of the later issues star Dr. Eggman.
  • Similarly, Sonic Universe is an entire series devoted to focusing on characters other than Sonic and his friends. Only one story involves the main comic's main cast (a continuation of a story from Sonic the Hedgehog itself).
• Spider-Man: Different characters have gotten this treatment over the years. Ordinary supporting cast members, villains, and second-tier heroes who made their debuts in the spider-comics have all been spotlighted in various one-shots and side stories.
  • Gerry Conway's late 1980s, early 1990s The Spectacular Spider-Man run was built upon the concept of "A Day In the Limelight", as far as his run centering around Joe Robertson, a longtime supporting cast member of Spider-Man. Similarly, the only Spider-Man stories by loathed writer Howard Mackie that are liked by fans are the ones that had Howard focusing on the supporting cast members.
  • The now-cancelled but very excellent Spider-Man's Tangled Web series was based on this premise. Only 2 stories actually starred Spider-Man rather than his rogues and supporting cast.
  • The Superior Foes of Spider-Man follows an iteration of the Sinister Six consisting of five C-Listers. Issue #7 in particular is focused on The Beetle's childhood and origin story.
  • The tie-ins for the Spider-Verse and Spider-Geddon events serve as this, focusing on various beings with spider-based powers from across the multiverse, some of whom became popular enough to have their own ongoing series, like Spider-Gwen.
• Star Trek (IDW):
  • Almost all of the main characters get separate issues that go into more detail about their work and backstory before they arrived on the Enterprise, including Scotty, Keenser, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov.
  • There's even an entire issue focusing solely on a Red Shirt named Hendorff, appropriately titled "The Redshirt's Tale".
  • To Boldly Go #5 is about Jaylah's family and how Krall killed them.
• Teen Titans Go!: Issue #30 has a story focused on Speedy and Aqualad.
• The IDW Transformers comics had occasional "spotlight" comics, sometimes focusing on secondary characters, though this stopped being a regular series after 2007. Spotlight: Hoist, for example, was the first time Hoist has been in the limelight in something like 20 years.
• Transmetropolitan: Mitchell Royce gets one in "Two-Fisted Editor" where, after spending two thirds of the series either being the Butt-Monkey or yelling "Where's my fucking column?!" at Spider, he gets to single-handedly save the day, and rub it in Spider's face.
• War Machine, ally of Iron Man, tends to get these whenever the latter is seriously incapacitated. His series tend to be the DEFINITION of More Dakka and Stuff Blowing Up AND Ludicrous Gibs. Showcasing what Iron Man could do if HE ever cut loose from all restraint.
• In Watchmen, each of the six main characters get an issue in the limelight, which illustrates their backstory and relations with other characters. The Comedian's is in Chapter 2, Dr. Manhattan's is in Chapter 4, Rorschach's is in Chapter 6, Nite Owl II's is in Chapter 7, Silk Spectre II's is in Chapter 9 and Ozymandias' is in Chapter 11. They vary from being an in-depth look at their origins, to showing various important events from their lives, to simply being a way of getting better to know a character. The reason for the inclusion of the issues was the fact that Alan Moore plotted the story for six issues, but was contracted for twelve. So he mixed in six character based issues.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942): While Etta Candy is a part of most Golden Age tales she's the main character of "Etta Candy and Her Holliday Girls: The Toothache" in which Diana only makes an appearance for a couple of panels and the story is focused on Etta.
  • Wonder Woman (1987): Vanessa Kapatelis was a supporting character who had a small arc, focused on the suicide of one of her friends during middle school, focused on her though Diana was still the main character of the arc. Later, after she was already rarely seen and Commuting on a Bus she got an entire issue to herself in which she fought off Dr. Psycho's invasion of her mind and corruption of her dreams and feelings.
  • After over fifty years of being in his more famous girlfriend's shadow to the point of seeminly ceasing to exist at points Steve Trevor was the featured character in the Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor Special in 2016.
  • Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons is an entire series of this for Hippolyta and the Amazons, usually supporting or background characters in Wonder Woman or DC Comics series.
• X-Men:
  • In the mid-1980s, Chris Claremont went through a Day in the Limelight phase, writing whole issues focused on a single character with only cursory appearances, or none at all, by the rest of the team. Examples include: the "Lifedeath" duology, where a depowered Storm (she gets better) travels the world; "Whatever Happened to Nightcrawler?" where the titular teleporter romances a movie starlet and battles Arcade; and "Wounded Wolf", which features a dazed Wolverine teaming up with one of the Power Pack to fight cyborgs in a blizzard.
  • Jubilee got more than a couple over the course of her original appearances.
• Wedge Antilles is always a rather major character in the X-Wing Rogue Squadron comics, but his role as The Captain and The Hero tends to give him less personal plotlines than his fellow main characters. His day in the limelight is the arc "The Phantom Affair".

Fan Works

• 6 Times Ai Protected Her Groupmates and 1 Time They Protected Her: A Zombie Land Saga fic where Ai Mizuno is the focal character. She spends the day helping her groupmates with various self contained conflicts they all find themselves in, being there to support them in difficult situations like handling intrusive fans or scaring off hecklers.
• The chapters called "One Shots" in Angel of the Bat feature different characters as the focus rather than main protagonist Cassandra Cain. "The Burning One" describes The Seraphim's[ backstory, "The Prodigal Son" and "Jael" both feature Stephanie Brown and Jason Todd heavily and Gordon is featured most of anyone in "Malachi".
• Bait and Switch:
  • The Headhunt is told from the perspective of Dul'krah, Clan Korekh, the USS Bajor's security chief, rather than its captain Kanril Eleya as is usual for the author, and highlights his psychology. Among other things his internal monologue refers to himself and the other command crew members of the Bajor as "elders" and Kanril as the "great elder".
  • "Frostbite" has Eleya leave early on and uses Tess Phohl (XO and tactical officer) and Birail Riyannis (science officer) as the viewpoint characters.
• The Bolt Chronicles:
  • Vinny, Joey, and Bobby, three New York pigeons who are minor characters in canon and minimally appear in the fanfic series, are the focus characters in "The Protection Payment." It follows the trio's quest to obtain food tribute for Mittens, aided by their canine friend Kelvin.
  • The Director, (named "James" in this series after his voice actor), is the primary character in "The Pilot," the fic serving in part as his Backstory. He otherwise appears minimally in these stories and is a minor character in canon.
• Script Fic Calvin & Hobbes: The Series has "Confessions of a Prank-Loving Tiger" for Socrates, as well as "Hypercube" and "An MTM Episode". There's also "Insanity is In The Air" for Andy.
• Larry Koopa stars in an episode called "The New Kid" in Calvin at Camp.
• Cave Story Versus I M Meen is one of these for Jack, Balrog and Misery, most notably Jack.
• A Certain Unknown Level 0: Every arc is based around a character and their interaction with Touma and learning more about what makes him, him. With those of the Science side helping or getting involved with the struggles against MINUS and those of the Magic side being more standalone.
• Code Geass: Colorless Memories has this in the form of what Word of God calls "The backstage chapters", where the POV switches from main character Rai to other characters at different points of the fic. Word of God was that this was done to address criticism of the original version of the fic of over focus on Rai's arc to the detriment of other characters.
  • "Backstage Chapter One" is entirely from the POV of Ruben Ashford, whom never appeared in canon and gives his inner thoughts to Marianne and her children, as well as why he allowed Milly to let Rai stay at Ashford.
  • "Backstage Chapter Two" gives us the POV of Guildford and Darton on recent events and fleshes out some of Dalton's past that included the Knight of Eight and why he adopts orphans.
  • "Backstage Chapter Three" is from Suzaku and Michael Steinberg's POV that goes into how Tohdoh was captured by Britannia along with their first team fight against Kallen and Rai.
  • "Backstage Chapter Four" places focus on Kaguya Sumeragi's POV within Kyoto house, gives information about her family and hints to deeper mysteries going on if the Sumeragi Legacy is anything to go by.
• Contraptionology!: The entire story focuses on Applejack, at least from her perspective, and on her frustration with having been pushed increasingly out of friend group's and town's limelight when Twilight came along.
• Conversations with a Cryptid: After spending 11 chapters on Izuku's perspective, chapter 12 brings Toshinori as the new main focus.
• Dæmorphing:
  • Welcome Home gives Tom more focus than usual; he narrates for the first time, and we get to see his positive relationships with the Hork-Bajir.
  • Remainder is told entirely from the perspective of Marco's stepmother Nora, who hasn't narrated before or since.
• Each story in Danganronpa -- Coda centers on a different character.
  • Resolve centers on Hajime, Fuyuhiko, Kazuichi, and Akane as they explore a post-tragedy Tokyo. Though most of it is told in third-person from Kazuichi's perspective.
  • Esse is all focused on Nagito and Hajime as the former is trying to sort out his place as The Friend Nobody Likes.
  • Resuscitate focuses on Peko trying to find a sense of identity and purpose after spending her whole life as a cold assassin.
  • Amacita focuses on Fuyuhiko and Kazuichi as they think about what life was like prior to the Tragedy.
• "A Day and Night in Clock Town": Someone wrote a Majora's Mask fic that follows seven NPCs around for twenty-four hours, six months before Link shows up. The group includes Kafei, Anju, Cremia, and Grog; the other three don't have names in the game itself but are recognizable by their clothing, occupation, etc.
• The Diary of Glynda Goodwitch is this for, well, Glynda Goodwitch.
• The Domino City Effect: Various characters from the Duelist Kingdom arc of the first Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and even characters from its sequel series are given more depth, both in the main story and in the various side stories, such as the various Eliminators who were mostly unnamed, like Fonda Fontaine, the nurse from the GX era of the series who appears ten years earlier than she did in canon.
• Most of the supporting characters in Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness get a few stories about them. The original novels are also this.
  • Terry Boot and Michael Corner (in various short stories)
  • Ernie Macmillan and Susan Bones (in Bittersweet and other works by Ceirdwenfc)
  • Colin Creevey and Demelza Robins (Breaking Eggs and Snapshots)
  • The various 20 Random Facts About...
• Eleutherophobia mainly focuses on Tom and his relationships with various ex-hosts and family members, with the surviving non-Jake Animorphs only appearing occasionally. A Straight Line Down Through the Heart is from Cassie's perspective, and gives insight on her home life by contrasting it with the Berensons'.
• The Ending of the End - Love and Tolerance Edition: The bulk of chapter four is devoted to Starlight, Sunburst, and Trixie's journey to recruit Equestria's allies.
• The Facing the Future Series featured Junior Hijinks, which centered mostly around Danielle and her life at Elm Street Junior High School.
• The French Mistake: Most of the fic is written from Original Character Charlotte's point of view, but chapter 5 retells Chapter 4 from Eren's point of view rather than hers.
• A Future of Friendship, a History of Hate: Episode 5 focuses on Scootaloo and her desire to be an adult and how Miserain, one of Ruinate's heralds, takes advantage of it.
• The Getting Back on Your Hooves side story sequel "Happy Mother's Day," while featuring almost the whole cast, focuses primarily on Applejack. Lampshaded by Pinkie Pie, naturally.
• The Code Lyoko AU fic Ghosts in the Machine focuses largely on background characters, and is told from Sissi's point of view.
• A Growing Affection: the last major arc of book one has a lot of these, focusing on various Leaf ninja teams as they participate in a massive battle.
  • Chapter 54 is about the first official mission of Team Yugao Kiba, Shino, Sasame Fuma, and Yugao Uzuki.
  • Chapter 61 sends Sakura and Rock Lee to rescue a weaponsmith from bandits who intend to sell him the Akatsuki, and gives Lee a chance to show off his skills as a more traditional ninja.
• The Harry Potter fandom is so large that for any significant character, there is a complete saturation of limelight fics. No one even thinks of, for example, a Ginny fic as shedding light on her character since she has already been so thoroughly explored in previous fics that every possible interpretation of her has already been used thousands of times. In fact, by now the process is mainly viewed as simply choosing your favorite preexisting interpretation (slut!Ginny, innocent!Ginny, tomboy!Ginny, etc.) and running with it. Even when all that's known about the character is a name, a house and a plot point, expect several fics focusing on them and expanding on what little canon tells us.
  • There's been fan fiction starring Caradoc Dearborn, a character who is mentioned once as an example of someone who died in the last war. That's it. Multi-chapter fiction.
  • There exist fics for characters who were never even named in story, but aren't OCs because their names can be spotted on the class list JK holds up in Harry Potter and Me. No house name, no plot point, barely exist in canon at all...
• In the HookerVerse, the Original Character club-girls have all got a fic to themselves to deepen their characters. This practice started with rachelleneveu's "the stars have all faded here", which took a look at Stacey, who had only before been a woman who had a really big crush on The Angry Video Game Nerd, and has only continued since that author left the fandom.
• Juxtapose: Class 1-B gets more focus during the Sports Festival Arc. The author even gave Monoma a backstory.
• In Keepers of the Elements, the Old Keepers get two chapters exploring their past.
• In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, Koizumi gets a boost to his powers and gets to defeat a inter-dimensional robot by himself.
• The Lion King Adventures: Haiba gets his very own story in Series Five: Haiba's Wish. Simba and Nala don't even appear. This is because Haiba runs away in the story after murdering Tama. He has no intentions of ever returning, until his perspective on things is changed by a mad scientist called Wazimu.
• In Lucky Star: After Story, original supporting characters, Mariko Aratani and Chiyoko Sakamoto, got a 3-chapter arc, showing flashbacks of how they became friends combined with scenes from the present day, which lasted from Chapters 23 through 25. At the end of Chapter 30, it was confirmed that 2 other original characters, Ayaka Suzuki and Nanami Tanaka, will also get their own arc.
• In the Mass Effect self-insert Mass Vexations, Author Avatar Art gets the entire story to himself until chapter 17, which is told entirely from the point of view of Tali, who had just become his Secret-Keeper at that point in the story.
• Manehattan's Lone Guardian has Coffee-and-Cream and Echo—one being Leviathan's liaison with the Royal Police, the other Gray's family cat, and both being supporting to minor characters at best—being given a chance to shine in "The Calmest Waters" as they deal with a major crisis in their own ways.
• In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, Episode 8 is Roll-centric; she even saves the day at the end. Episode 9 is ProtoMan-centric, as he's in command of Wily's army until the finale. Episode 12 focuses on Mr. Black.
• Mega Man Reawakened has chapters where Roll fights Robot Masters instead of Mega Man. She's taken out Hard Man and Spark Man by herself.
• The Minkiad: The first three chapters of Lives of Genius focus on Minkus’ time in elementary to high school when the canon has gone into the lives of Cory, Topanga, Shawn and their families; Of particular notice, the readers discover that the "Other Part of the School" is an area for troubled students with emotional problems.
  • In fact most of the early chapters of Lives of Genius, the events from Boy Meets World are referred to but mostly not shown; Cory, Topanga, and Shawn are hardly shown-Cory only in the Graduation Day scenes, Topanga has one scene at the Science Fair and Shawn has two scenes-at Graduation Day and at a restaurant in which he encounters the engaged Stuart and Jennifer. The gang are also seen briefly through a window after Riley is born and Minkus is contemplating his life after his grandfather’s death and wife’s pregnancy. This is intentional so the readers can focus on what Stuart Minkus was going through during this time. It’s not until their children become friends that Cory and Topanga and eventually Shawn become regular characters as they have reappeared in Stuart Minkus' life.
• The Periphery Demographic of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic loves writing fanfic about side characters (like Princess Celestia or Applejack's brother Big Macintosh), one-shot characters (like Trixie from "Boast Busters", Photo Finish from "Green Isn't Your Color", or Prince Blueblood from "The Best Night Ever") or even background characters (like Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves or Doctor Whooves). A few wiseacres have even written fics about inanimate objects, like Bloomberg the tree from "Over a Barrel" and Tom the rock from "Return of Harmony, Part 2".
• In My Little Pony Meets: Sonic heavily features Dinky Hooves in a supporting role, despite being a background character both in canon and in this series.
• Naru-Hina Chronicles: Kankuro is given the spotlight in Chapters 91-94, which focus on him fighting one of Seireiko's henchmen in Suna.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion R, Kensuke is the central character of an episode during the Prime sequence of events, in which he even gets shipped with a beautiful but blind Chinese girl. He also has the last scene at the end of the story all to himself and her.
• The New Adventures of Invader Zim:
  • Season 1:
    • Episode 4 focuses on the sidekick group of GIR, Phil, Minimoose, and MIMI.
    • Episode 8 focuses on a rivalry between Viera and Gaz, with the only other major characters to show up being Dib and Norlock, for one scene each.
    • Episode 10 focuses almost exclusively on Tenn's mission on Meekrob, acting as a springboard to introduce her into the main story.
    • Episode 14 also focuses on Tenn as she adjusts to life on Earth, with Tak alone being the only other main character to show up more than once or twice.
    • Episode 18 is entirely about Gaz, with the only other major character who shows up being Dib, and he's only in it for one scene.
  • Season 2:
    • Episode 6 is set entirely aboard the Massive, focusing on the various crew members as the Consulars search for evidence of a rebel New Order cell.
    • Episode 8 is about Nyx and Gaz going on a space road trip and hijinks ensuing. The rest of the main cast either don't show up at all or only have minimal appearances near the beginning.
• The Octonauts and the Vaquitas puts the spotlight on Professor Inkling, who did not get many focus episodes in the original series.
• The Ollivander Children gives Mr. Ollivander, the mysterious and little-seen wandmaker, more screen time — although really most of the action is taken up by OC's.
• one day at a time (Nyame): After having Jason as the main POV character for the vast majority of the story, the second flashback arc shifts the main POV to Dick, as the arc primarily centers on him and takes place during his tenure as Batman. Jason is specifically cited as a supporting, static character during these events.
• Passing Days: The entire premise revolves around this trope, as each chapter/"day" in the story focuses on a different Servant in Chaldea. Occasionally, the chapters can include the human staff of Chaldea as well, such as Dr. Roman.
• In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Reflecting Balance, Chapter 16 focuses mostly on a day in the life of supporting character Azure the Azurill, and also serves as Foreshadowing for her wanting to join the main characters' rescue team, which she ends up doing a few chapters later after evolving into a Marill off-screen.
  • Chapter 27 focuses on Blitz's mentor, Hercules the Heracross, dealing partially with the aftermath of the last few chapters.
  • Chapter 49 is the first chapter set during the present day in which none of the main characters even appear, as the chapter focuses on Blitz's family at Lightning Plateau, and the return of Blitz's father.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines does this a lot with its "Interlude" tie-in oneshots, focusing on events that happen during the main story and with characters that aren't Ash and company. Some of these have even Characters of the Day as their protagonists.
• Pokemon X Terra: Every chapter does this for some character or another. At first, Lucas was the lead, but because there are so many other characters that all have relevance to the plot somehow, and the fact that they all do different things and go at different places from each other, each chapter is split into sub-chapters, focusing on one character/group of characters. And most of the time, one of them gives a chance to the focused character to show what he/she can really do if he/she hasn't been able to prove him/herself before. Somehow subverted with Palmer, whose running gag is that he always want to be useful, but when given the occasion, fails for reasons like showing up when the emergency is already over or simply because his opponent his too powerful for him, which is easy since he himself isn't really a good fighter.
• The Pony POV Series: During the Butterflies collection, several minor characters got chapters from their POV.
  • Shining Armor, an important yet secondary character in canon, gets an entire arc dedicated to fitting him into the series.
• The Portal:
  • Chapter 3 of the sequel, Hard Choices focuses on Thomas Smith's parents looking for their son, who unbeknownst to them has entered the Dragon Realms. The chapter concludes with them finding the portal and unwittingly activating it, causing them to enter the Dragon Realms.
• Quest for the Northwest, the first fanmade animatic episode of Gravity Falls: Deep Woods, mostly focuses on Pacifica (and Jeff the Gnome).
• Rick and Morty New Drama Adventures:
  • The first part of chapter 2, “Breakfast Building Friendships”, focuses on Kitty and the relationship she has with her own group of friends at school and her family life. Kitty’s home life contrasts to the Dysfunctional Family that Morty is used to.
  • Chapter 5, “Meeting the Smiths”, focuses on Beth and her first time meeting Kitty, the first friend other than her father that Morty has made in a long time.
  • Chapter 6, “Tales of the Drunken Rick”, focuses on the characters of Bridgette and Courtney as they start hearing the rumors about Rick and Morty.
  • Chapter 7, "Summertime", focuses on Summer’s struggles with popularity as she joins Heather’s cheerleading clique.
• Seeking Sato is entirely devoted to Asami Sato's life during the three-year Time Skip.
• Sheep Go to Heaven
  • Kyoka Jirou is Izuku's partner during the Hero vs Villain Exercise.
  • Setsuna Tokage during the Work Experience arc, since she and Izuku are both working under Ryukyu.
  • Honenuki and Bakugo from Class 1-A during the Rescue Arc.
• The Turks get a chapter all to themselves in the infamous Shinra High SOLDIER.
• Solaere ssiun Hnaifv'daenn leaves the usual protagonist for ch'M'R Aen'rhien fics, the commanding officer Subadmiral Morgaiah t'Thavrau, in the background, in favor of using Lieutenant Commander Jaleh Khoroushi (operations officer and Starfleet liaison officer) and Subcommander Tovan tr'Khev (chief of security) as viewpoint characters. The fic focuses on Jaleh especially, exploring the quirks of her having to observe Ramadan on a Romulan ship.
• Star Trek: Phoenix: The second season features a number of mini-chapters, which focus on the lives and day-to-day vicissitudes of secondary and tertiary cast members.
• The Smallville fanfic Stepping Up is an example of this trope. It's part of a series of fics collectively known as the "Sheriff Kent AU" (in a nutshell, Clark Kent is a regular human and the sheriff of Smallville). Most of the fics in the series focus on Clark's adventures, except for "Stepping Up" which focuses on how Clark's deputy Whitney Fordman handles being in charge when Clark is kidnapped.
• Chapter 46 of Sucker for a Cute Face is one for Aria and Rainbow Dash while they play a MOBA.
• In The Tainted Grimoire, Clan Gully may be the main characters but they are not the only ones the story focuses on.
• Tangled Up In Blues does this for the background character Noteworthy, essentially giving an overarching story to all his appearances in the original show.
• Teachers Outside of the Classroom, focuses it on Libby and Mrs Roop with the former interviewing the latter for the school paper.
• Thanks To Her: The fic focuses on Vee and what she did while Luz and her friends were fighting Belos in the series finale.
• Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee:
  • The Side Story arcs in general give characters who don't appear that often/at all in the Main Stories or are only mentioned there, a chance to shine.
  • "The Ideal Hero", the first Side Story arc of PokéLive!, focuses on N, Hilbert, the Miyashita cosuins (Coco and Ai), Sonic and Eggman with the heroes hoping to stop the doctor from taking over a continent with Kyurem.
• In Torque (Jak and Daxter), the whole story is one for Keira with her taking on the destiny meant for Jak making her The Unchosen One.
• Happens in various chapters to various characters of ToyHammer, especially with the omake chapters and chapter 12.
• Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams takes an unusual twist with this trope in that the action has occasionally focused on Spider-Man rather than on Sleepwalker. The reason it's unusual is that subverting Popularity Power and C-List Fodder is one of the hallmarks of the series, giving second-stringers the spotlight and relegating A-listers to guest star appearances.
• Universe Falls:
  • "Revenge Trip" focuses on Stan and Amethyst, exploring their friendship and backstory as they plot a prank against Gideon Gleeful.
  • "Peridot in the Wild", as the name implies, focuses on Peridot as she explores the woods around Gravity Falls while trying to track down the Gems, and butts heads with various supernatural creatures.
• Vow of Nudity: The story Diary of a Catgirl focuses entirely on Fiora, who previously only appeared as a Guest-Star Party Member in a single story. The series protagonist, Haara, only appears in the Framing Device of witnessing it in her dreams thanks to a lingering aftereffect of the amnesid they fought together.
• What Lies Beyond the Walls will occasionally have a chapter reveal a character's backstory or focus solely on their point of view. Book II in particular has multiple chapters fully explaining many characters' Dark and Troubled Pasts via flashbacks.
• Kimidori Emiri is a minor character in Haruhi Suzumiya, and her relative unimportance is exaggerated in the fanfic You Got HaruhiRolled!, to the point where even Taniguchi and Kunikida are more important. For this reason, the fanfic eventually includes an arc focused on how Emiri reacts to being neglected.
• Happens in a Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series fanfiction, Decks Fall, Everyone Dies, where Tristan and a few other secondary characters get to be in the spotlight.

Films — Animation

• The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild features Buck alongside Crash and Eddie as the main characters.
• Kronk's New Groove: This sequel to The Emperor's New Groove focuses primarily on the henchman of the first film's villain, Kronk, expanding his character and his relationships with the other characters.
• Open Season 2 focuses on Mr. Weenie the Dachshund, who was a minor character in the first Open Season movie.
• Patlabor 2: The Movie is very much a film about Captain Shinobu Nagumo, who is usually the Hero of Another Story since she leads Division 1 when the franchise usually focuses on Division 2. Nagumo is the viewpoint character for much of the film as well as the Big Bad's ex-lover, and gets top billing on the cover art, a spot usually taken by Noa Izumi and Alphonse.
• Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe: This film puts much more focus on Candace than the original series.
• Turning Red: The music video of 4*Town's song, "1 True Love", focuses on Tyler and his insecurities of being a secret 4*Townie, thus serving a prequel of sorts.
• Winnie the Pooh: Thanks to being a Long Runner and featuring many characters who quickly became Breakout Characters, there are three movies focusing on side characters:
  • The first is The Tigger Movie which features Tigger and his search for his family as the main focus.
  • Similar to the Tigger movie, Piglet's Big Movie focuses on Pooh's best friend Piglet who wants to prove his worth to his friends. While the main story is set in the present, the movie features three stories from the original novels which highlight Piglet's involvement far more than the books via flashbacks.
  • Other than the name suggests, the main character of Pooh's Heffalump Movie is Roo, who serves as a Kid-Appeal Character for the young audience (while Pooh himself serves as the Narrator of the story). This movie also introduces Canon Foreigner Lumpy into the franchise.

Literature

• In Anthony Price's spy thrillers, Oliver St John Latimer usually makes only small appearances, usually in a designated antagonist role that highlights his tendency to be hidebound and officious in contrast to the series leads' maverick style. In Sion Crossing, he gets his day in the limelight.
• David Eddings tends to take occasional trips back in sequel series (The Malloreon, which follows The Belgariad, and The Tamuli, which follows The Elenium). Usually just before a significant event, a chapter gets devoted to characters not currently connected with the main plot, showing the things happening to them. Such chapters are usually sectioned off to show various different subplots in the same chapter. A notable example occurs in The Tamuli. A massive order is sent out to assassinate conspirators against the Tamul Empire. One chapter is devoted to a number of those assassins carrying out the order, displaying their various styles and personalities.
• In the Age of Fire series, the first three books each focus, respectively, on the sole POV of one of the three sibling protagonists. The rest of the books continue to focus on them, but alternate between them. Then we get the final book, which also adds in POV chapters from various other, mostly minor, characters.
• Animorphs #29: The Sickness gave Cassie one of these. She gets as many POV books as the other characters, but in this one everyone but her gets sick, forcing her to go on a very dangerous mission alone. Oh, and give Ax brain surgery.
  • There are also prequel novels focused on Elfangor and the Ellimist, plus a Villain Episode about Visser One and how she began the invasion of Earth.
• The Arts of Dark and Light: Theuderic, the Savondir operative who is a minor POV character in the main storyline, stars as the Villain Protagonist in the prequel short story "A Magic Broken" (reprinted in the Summa Elvetica collection).
• Assassin's Creed: Underworld stars Henry Green, The Mentor of the Frye Twins and leader of the British Assassins, before the events of Assassin's Creed Syndicate.
• Captive Prince: Jord the Prince's Guard, Charls the cloth merchant, and Ancel the Pet each have a short story written from their perspective, providing extra detail to their backstories and to their encounters with the main characters.
• A Certain Magical Index:
  • Part of Volume 5 is focused on former villain Accelerator and his Heel–Face Turn and ascension to the status of major protagonist.
  • Volume 8 has Kuroko as the main character.
  • The Norse Mythology side story revolves around Kaori.
  • New Testament Volume 11 both explains the backstory of Misaki and details a related incident in the present.
• Dork Diaries: Tales From A Not-So-Dorky Drama Queen focuses on Alpha Bitch Mackenzie Hollister after she steal Nikki's diary and writes in said diary
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde is the second book where Rodrick takes center stage and is also the first book to properly focus on Löded Diper, with Greg observing from the sidelines for long stretches of the action and having little direct bearing on what happens.
• Discworld: Guards! Guards! was planned as one of these (not to a particular series, but to any one that plays city/palace guards as Mooks), but they proved too popular and became Ascended Extras such that a whole arc of stories were devoted to them. As Mr. Pratchett himself said:
  "I wanted to give them a spot to shine in the sun, but it turned out to be a full blown tropical vacation."
• The Dresden Files has several short stories told from the perspective of people who aren't Harry.
  • "Backup" is told by Thomas Raith, Harry's half-brother.
  • "Aftermath" stars Karrin Murphy just after the end of Changes.
  • "Even Hand" is from the POV of "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone.
  • "Bombshells" and "Cold Case" star Molly Carpenter.
  • "Day One" is about Waldo Butters and his first mission as a Knight of the Cross.
• Dr. Thorndyke series: Thorndyke's faithful assistant Polton gets the limelight in Mr. Polton Explains.
• Dr. Tomato & The Beetle: The book focuses on Dr. Tomato, a character from Taro And Jiro The Sibling Locomotives, and a medical emergency he has to help with with the help of his car, a VW Beetle.
• Ellen and Otis: Otis Spofford is the title character of the second book after having originally had a supporting role in Ellen Tebbits.
• The Empirium Trilogy: The Queen of the Blazing Throne novella focuses on Obritsa, a somewhat minor character from the main series. The novella fleshes out Obritsa's backstory and motives as well as showing some events from Kingsbane through her perspective.
• Ellis Peters' Felse novels feature police detective George Felse, with his wife Bunty and son Dominic in supporting roles. Dominic gets three novels in the limelight, in which he stumbles into mysteries while on holiday, and Bunty gets one, in which she discovers a murder while George is out of town and has to solve it herself before it's too late for the prime suspect.
• Haruhi Suzumiya's Yuki Nagato has her spotlight in the fourth book, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, which was adapted to a full-length movie. In fact, it's more of a Hostile Show Takeover, even after that arc. Also, just as the fourth book could be considered Nagato's day in the limelight, the seventh book, The Scheme of Haruhi Suzumiya, could be considered Mikuru's as well as the earlier chapter "The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina."
• The Honor Harrington novels primarily focus on the title character, but after War of Honor, the scope of the universe — and the story — expanded rather dramatically. With Honor herself too senior for front-line combat duty, her best friend, Michelle Henke, a well-liked character in the main novels, was sent off to the Talbott Quadrant to serve as the anchor character for the Saganami Island sub-series. It seems to have worked, as it's also gained her quite a number of new fans — and given readers a chance to know her quite a bit better than they had.
• The Hound of the Baskervilles focuses more on Dr. Watson than on Sherlock Holmes. This is because Holmes is busily solving the case while in disguise.
• Professor Lankford, Lenobia and Neferet from The House of Night, have their own prequel novellas. Kalona is slated to have one as well.
• Despite being part of The Legend of Drizzt series, the Paths of Darkness novel The Spine of the World doesn't follow Drizzt, but Wulfgar as he wanders along the northern Sword Coast in search for a place to stay. It details his adventures as a bouncer in Luskan and his relationship with Delly Curtie.
• Nightfall (Series): Both Franka and Tristan are side characters, but each gets a chapter on their backstory.
• The Night Huntress World books each dedicate one novel to a different supporting character from the main series.
• In The Railway Series every engine in the original ensemble had a volume to themselves. More than once in some cases, like Thomas.
• In the Rainbow Magic series, the Weather Fairies series begins with Kirsty on her own, and the series focuses on her hometown of Wetherbury.
• Remnants #13, Survival. Kinda-sorta Recurring Character Tate was friends with Jobs and Mo'Steel and had passages from her POV, but remained firmly in the background until the second-to-last book. She ends up saving the entire world, making the 're-greening' of Earth possible by going back in time and crashing Mother into the Earth, killing herself instantly. Jobs and Echo named their second daughter after her.
• Saving Charlie is a Heroes Tie-In Novel that focuses on semi-major character Hiro and his minor character Love Interest Charlie.
• Three of the Slayers Special novels (the prequel stories set before the main series) feature stand-alone stories centering around Lina's bodyguard Gourry, the princess Amelia, and the chimera Zelgadiss. The former two take place prior to Lina's adventures with them (Gourry's in particular doubles as a minor origin story insofar as to how he met Lina and why he became a wandering merc), while Zelgadiss' takes place some time after he and Amelia split up from Lina and Gourry.
• Each book in the Star Trek: Typhon Pact series focuses on one member state (sometimes two) of the titular Typhon Pact. Many of these nations were previously underexplored or left as minor players in the Star Trek Myth Arc.
• Star Wars Expanded Universe:
  • Tarkin shines a spotlight on Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Wedge Antilles is always a rather major character in the X-Wing Series. But his role as The Captain and The Hero tends to give him less personal plotlines than his fellow main characters. Elscol feels out-of-place and is reckless. Gavin Darklighter worries about living up to his cousin Biggs' reputation and has to deal with being the kid. Corran Horn handles his attraction to The Mole and the daughter of the criminal whose father was his father's enemy, as well as learning that he's a Jedi's grandson. Tycho Celchu patiently bears up under suspicion and quietly mourns a lost homeworld. Asyr wrestles with allegiance issues. Then there's the Wraiths. But most of Wedge's plotlines don't affect him very much personally. He gets determined and angry at various points, he works to improve morale, he leads and inspires them, he's unhappy when his friends die, but he's the Reasonable Authority Figure and his Character Development is assumed to have taken place beforehand. It's impersonal and he's kind of the generic Good Guy, with occasional flashes of his personality showing. Sometimes a few pages or even scenes are given over to personal things, but his real day in the limelight is the novel "Starfighters of Adumar".
  • The Tales series of books (Tales of the New Republic, Tales from Jabba's Palace, etc.) take on much of this role, fleshing out many of the minor or background characters from the films (such as Oola, the Twi'lek dancing girl Jabba feeds to the Rancor) or giving supporting EU characters like Mara Jade (pre-NJO) and Kyp Durron something to do without direct involvement of the principle cast as well. Others are unique characters invented for that particular book, but still manage to give the limelight to some aspect of the universe normally not shown in detail.
  • Mara Jade: By The Emperor's Hand is another Day in the Limelight for Mara.
  • Shadows of the Empire: Evolution was this for Guri, a Human Replica Droid assassin and The Dragon to Prince Xixor.
• The Stormlight Archive: The books shift between a fairly large number of different viewpoints, but each book has one character as the primary viewpoint character who's backstory is explored through flashbacks. Additionally a side character has their story told through multiple interlude chapters between sections. The Way of Kings (2010) has Kaladin as the flashback character and Szeth as the interlude character, Words of Radiance has Shallan as the flashback character and Eshonai as the interlude character, and Oathbringer has Dalinar as the flashback character and Venli as the interlude character. Several more minor characters also get one off point of view chapters throughout the series.
• Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note series is usually written in Aya's voice, but there are exceptions:
  • The Angel Knows is set when Uesugi seeks treatment on his eyes in Switzerland. Thus the rest of the cast doesn't appear in this novel.
  • The Blue Diamond Knows is written in Kozuka's voice.
• The Terra Ignota series is mainly narrated by Mycroft Canner, who chronicles the events of the series, with two exceptions:
  • Sniper narrates the first chapter of book two, Seven Surrenders. The Will to Battle reveals this to have been part of a deal between J.E.D.D. Mason and Sniper to convince Sniper to return Mycroft to J.E.D.D. Mason. The chapter details, from Sniper's point of view, what happened to it during it's disappearance at the end of book one.
  • The last chapter of the third book, The Will to Battle, is written by the Servicer whom Mycroft names Outis earlier in the book, after Mycroft himself is presumed to have died. In a Call-Back to the first book, where Mycroft claims the narrator should introduce himself to the reader by stating his name, background and qualifications but never reveals the later two, Outis reveals both his backstory and qualifications at length but refuses to name himself, then reveals that he's been training to become the next Anonymous behind the scenes. It would seem like Outis will be the chronicler from now on but Mycroft chimes in with a short note that he's still alive and will return after this chapter.
• The Time Quartet series is primarily about Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin, but the 4th book Many Waters gives a day in the limelight to Sandy and Dennys.
• In Twilight Dragon Princess Atoli, despite Kayari telling this story in first person, has 2 chapters dedicated to her early on in the novel.
• The Day in the Life novel, The Day Thou Gavest, in the Village Tales series, functions very much as one of these for all the secondary characters, from ducal housemaids to shopkeepers to shepherds.
• Story sections within the books of Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40,000: Gaunt's Ghosts often focus on one of the Ghosts, such as Larkin or Bragg.
• Several in Warrior Cats. The first is Moonlight, which gives spotlight to Stormfur as he journeys through the mountains. The second is Night Whispers, which is about Flametail struggling to figure out the secrets of a mysterious omen from StarClan, which foretells his death. Then there are all the novellas, which, so far, have given the spotlight to Mistystar, Cloudstar, and Tigerstar, with Mapleshade and Goosefeather novellas forthcoming.
• Whateley Universe: Every once in a while, a story is told from a minor character's point of view. One of the earliest examples is "It's Good to be the Don", following Don Sebastiano.
• Wings of Fire: The Winglets e-books are told from the perspectives of supporting characters in the main series. Legends: Dragonslayer is also this for the scavengers, several of which originally debuted as Early Bird Cameos in the first arc.
• The Interlude chapters in Worm each switch to the POV from the protagonist to some other character, with the level of relevance to the current storyline varying depending on the character, but each Interlude is woven into the overall Myth Arc of the setting. Each plot arc ends with one, but the author writes extra such as donation bonuses.
• A Wreck-It Ralph tie-in storybook set after the events of the film, titled One Sweet Race, centers on Rancis Fluggerbutter, one of the racers who bullied Vanellope in the film. The story reveals to us that Rancis has never been able to win a Sugar Rush race before, and Vanellope, having become friends with Rancis after the movie's events, helps him build a new kart for him to use in the next race.

Music

• Also see Step Up to the Microphone.
• "In The Cold, Cold Night" by The White Stripes is sung by Meg instead of Jack.
• Hello! Project members sometimes only get to lead a single once. An example is Morning Musume`s Namida ga Tomaranai Houkago, but there are plenty more.
• "I Drive Myself Crazy" is one of the few *NSYNC songs where someone other than Justin or JC sings the lead-in (in this case, it's Chris.)
• Most early Queen albums had two or three songs sung by Roger Taylor or Brian May instead of Freddie Mercury. Taylor's "I'm In Love With My Car", the B-side of "Bohemian Rhapsody", is probably the most famous of the bunch. That or Brian May's "39" from the same album.
• Rammstein's cover of The Ramones' song "Pet Sematary" was sung by keyboardist Flake Lorenz instead of singer Till Lindemann.
• "Such a Shame" from The Bee Gees' 1968 album Idea, written and sung by Vince Melouney, is the only song on a Bee Gees album not written or sung by a Gibb.
• Almost all of The Beatles albums had one or two songs composed and sung by George Harrison, as well as at least one song sung by Ringo Starr.
• The Wings songs by people other than Paul McCartney. Denny Laine had a small handful of songs, Jimmy McCulloch had two ("Medicine Jar" and "Wino Junko"), and Joe English had one ("Must Do Something About It").
• "Marigold" by Nirvana has Dave Grohl (before he became a well known frontman with Foo Fighters) sing lead and take over guitar duties (and contrary to popular belief, Dave still plays drums, not Kurt Cobain.
  • And, in turn, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins sings "Cold Day in the Sun" instead of Dave Grohl.
• The Beach Boys' God Only Knows was originally A Day in the Limelight for Carl Wilson on lead vocals. Carl eventually became a much more frequent lead singer from this moment on.
• The Basics are all singers, mostly with Kris and Wally taking lead, but on their second album Stand Out/Fit In they specifically put in their cover of "Have Love Will Travel" which has Tim take lead
• The Edge has sings lead vocals on three U2 songs: "Seconds," "Van Diemen's Land," and "Numb." Bassist Adam Clayton makes a vocal appearance on b-side "Endless Deep", and recites a spoken word verse on "Your Blue Room" for the Passengers side project.
• Gene and Paul sing almost all of KISS' songs. However, one of the few songs Peter Criss sang was one of their biggest hits, "Beth".
  • He also sings such favorites as "Hard Luck Woman" and "Black Diamond"
  • Ace Frehley also had his moments in the limelight, including "Shock Me", "Rocket Ride" and "2000 Man", not to mention his solo hit, "New York Groove".
• Although KMFDM has always had multiple regular singers and sometimes a handful of guests on each of their albums, "The Problem" stands out for having backup singer Dorona Alberti sing the lead while lead singers Sascha and En Esch sing backup.
• Tom Petty, on some tours, would let one of the other Heartbreakers sing. You can see this on the 1992 VHS "Take the Highway."
• The Christian Rock group Petra has a few examples:
  • On the 1981 Never Say Die album, bass player Mark Kelly shares lead vocals with regular front man Greg X. Volz on the song "I Can Be Friends With You". Kelly sings the verses while Volz sings the chorus.
  • Petra Praise 2: We Need Jesus, released in 1997, featured rock legends John Schlitt (formerly of Head East and current Petra lead singer), John Elefante (Kansas), and Lou Gramm (Foreigner) splitting lead vocal duties on the album's title track, "We Need Jesus".
  • On Double Take released in 2000, lead guitarist Pete Orta sings "Breath In", a song he wrote.
• Waterparks' drummer, Otto Wood, occasionally gets to fill in for lead singer Awsten Knight during live shows, promo videos, and on covers. When this happens, fans refer to the act as "Ottoparks".

Print Media

• The Auto Exchange magazine did this in mid-2001, when the Northwest inc. Liverpool, Warrington, Wirral (later renamed to MERSEY EDITION) had an issue with mostly advertisers from Greater Manchester, with only pages 2-4 and the final pages and back cover being Merseyside / Cheshire advertisers - is this a Limelight Magazine?
  • Similarly, the Staffordshire, Cheshire & Shropshire had an edition in February 2008 which mainly focused on Stoke-on-Trent advertisers, in the Tunstall and Burslem areas.
  • Same for a South Yorkshire edition in mid-August 2005 which focused mainly on Barnsley and Rotherham - Sheffield, Worksop and Doncaster was Demoted to Extra and Out of Focus for this issue.
• The Auto Trader magazine (North London & East of England, now merged into Central England edition) had mainly North London advertisers (and Marlow, Buckinghamshire) with the East of England advertisers and private ads making few appearances that week in 2010. In fact, only about 10% of the magazine had adverts in East of England (Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire) with North London and Buckinghamshire making up the other 90% of them. It wasn't even promoted as a special issue, but the title's irony wasn't lost on readers.

Podcasts

• Most of Brimstone Valley Mall follows the main demons Misroch, Belzagor, Xaphan, and Asmoraius, but the sixth episode of Season One focuses almost entirely on the adventures of Trainee, a teenage girl who works under Misroch at their hot dog stand.
• Kakos Industries has fun with this. A growing collection of B-side episodes that steer away from the usual announcements to that of the leading Evil, Inc. competitor Melantha Murther act as a Distaff Counterpart to Corin's broadcasts, complete with in-universe Alternate Company Equivalent devisions, parties, even her own classical take on the show's usual score. Corin has a lot of fun interrupting her announcement. As a meta joke, the beginning monologue is spoken by Hailey Solomonari As Herself instead of Kim Aiello, and Corin reads the outro with tongue firmly in cheek.
• A bonus episode of the Live From Mount Olympus podcast focuses on Hermes and how he became one of the 12 major Olympians, retelling the story of how he stole Apollo's cows and created the first lyre.
• Red Panda Adventures introduced Harry Kelly in "When Darkness Falls" in this manner. The episode focused primarily on and his interaction with Andy Parker and Spiro Pappas, agents of the Red Panda tasked with protect Harry from thugs who think He Knows Too Much.
• Revolutions has a habit of using "supplemental" episodes to talk about people from the historical period under discussion who are interesting but whose full stories would distract from the main narrative. Particularly prominent examples include asides on Talleyrand and the Duke of Orléans/Philippe Égalité during Season 3 (on the French Revolution).
• Shannon, the GM for Sequinox, drew a series of comics highlighting the home lives of Caiden, Ethan, and Harmony. There's also Vivaldi Da Capo, which is a 30-page comic book detailing Vivaldi's origin story that can be purchased from Shannon's Gumroad store.
• Unwell Podcast:
  • Rudy has several - 'Another Form of Algebra', 'Collaboration', and 'The Lens'.
  • Abbie is the main focus in 'The Night Shift'.
  • 'Theodore' is focused on Wes.

Pro Wrestling

• Many professional wrestling promotions have events dedicated to a specific division, which can become an example of this trope when said division rarely gets much focus otherwise. Even when TNA's X division was at its most neglected, they still had Destination X, for instance. Even when a division is more appreciated, an entire event dedicated to it, such as New Japan and All Japan's World Tag Leagues, will still standout.
• Crosses into girls night out territory when a women's division is the focus of an event, such as All Pro Wrestling's ChickFight, till it became a phenomenon all its own.
• Sometimes certain members of the roster will have an event dedicated to them even when they don't have a division proper, which is often the case in the infrequent New Japan "Young Lion" Cup, to showcase Younger talent (Chikara started having this cup too). CMLL has the Torneo Gran Alternativa, La Copa Junior and Torneo Sangre Nueva, all of which feature younger talent and En Busca de un Ídolo Pequeños which features younger Mini Estrellas. The Reyes del Aire features "high fliers" and Pequeños Reyes del Aire features Mini Estrella High Fliers.
• Ring of Honor eventually started making some of its dark matches available for viewing on its YouTube channel and eventually there were enough for some to become their own series, such as Women Of Honor Wednesday and Future Of Honor Friday, though past aired matches are sometimes included as well.
• WWE Survivor Series 1988 had as its main event Team MegaPowers (Hulk Hogan/Randy Savage/Hercules/Koko B. Ware/Hillbilly Jim) defeating Team Twin Towers (The Big Bossman/Akeem the African Dream/"The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase/Haku/The Red Rooster).

Radio

• In New Dynamic English, Max who usually interacts with the listener instead of interviewing guests becomes a subject of the interview on the last episode.
• Undone normally focuses on, and is narrated by, dimension-hopping journalist Edna Turner. But S2 E4 "Unaccustomed", focuses on, and is narrated by, her editor Carlo Jones.

Tabletop Games

• Ars Magica: This is a core element of troupe-based gameplay. Because Magi often need to spend seasons or years on long-term tasks like lab work, every player has at least one backup Companion to go adventuring while their Magus is tied up, and could even play as the Grogs who do the minor mundane work in Magical Society.
• Indie RPG "Primetime Adventures" (where you play as the protagonist of a TV series) plays this trope straight, even inserting it in the rules: each "Protagonist" has a "Spotlight Episode" in which he's more likely to overcome obstacles and the plot is centered on him/her.

Theatre

• In the Heights has the Piragua Guy: a man not even referred to by his real name, only known for selling shaved ice to the residents of the Barrio. However, he gets two songs all to himself, one in Act I and the other in Act II, all about how he runs the town and telling his rival, an ice cream truck run by a man named Mr. Softee, to get out of town. The first song is usually done due to the need for a major scene change, giving the audicnce something to focus on, and the one in Act II is done to raise the mood after the Act’s rather gloomy moment of Abuela Claudia’s death.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Debatable, since the whole point of the play is to show what's going on in the wings; in other words; R&G aren't in the limelight, but the audience isn't looking at what's in the limelight (that being Hamlet) either.
• Wicked is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz that gives the main focus to Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and G(a)linda, the Good Witch. Nearly every major Ozian character from the film shows up - Elphaba's sister Nessarose, who becomes the Wicked Witch of the East, the Wizard of Oz himself, Boq/the Tin Man, and Fiyero/the Scarecrow. The two most famous characters - Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion - never quite make it onstage (although the Lion can be heard in "March of the Witch Hunters") for fear that they're simply too iconic and would divert attention away from Elphaba and Galinda.

Theme Parks

• Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts at Universal Studios Florida primarily stars Bill Weasley, a character that plays an extremely minor role in the films.
• Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland is a whole ride retelling the story of Mr. Toad, who couldn't even get a whole film to himself (he shared a double feature with Ichabod Crane).

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: The "Mysterious Console" DLC focuses on Ayane, the deuteragonist, as she investigates a device while featuring details from her childhood.
• In general, certain Nippon Ichi Software titles have these somewhere.
  • The third Marl Kingdom title (never released in the U.S., due to the low sales of Rhapsody) was essentially a collection of different characters getting time in the limelight. One event in particular sets up one of the characters from La Pucelle Tactics.
  • Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness had "Etna Mode", where she accidentally kills Laharl and tries to cover it up.
  • Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days had Axel Mode, where he desperately tries to reclaim his stardom and get work to support his family.
  • Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice had the downloadable Raspberyl Mode, where she makes an attempt to become a teacher at Evil Academy.
  • A borderline case being the Asagi Wars mode of Prinny 2, as well as Asagi Mode in the original. While Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? is, in itself, a day in the limelight for the titular ensemble darkhorses, each of those alternate modes focus on Asagi (with Asagi Wars actually finally having her in the role of main protagonist).
• Angry Birds Go!, while the whole cast is on display and playable. Chuck is pretty much the main face of the game since he is, after all, the fastest character of the series.
• BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm is mainly told from Catie’s perspective, but Til takes over for a bit when Catie is incapacitated at the start of Chapter 8.
• Daxter focuses on the titular orange ottsel's attempts to rescue his friend Jak in Haven City, taking place between the events of the first and second games, getting a temporary job as a Metal Bug fumigator in the process.
• In a first for the series, the DLC for Dead Rising 3 lets you play as characters who only serve a minor or posthumous role in the main game.
• Several non-story modes in Dislyte give Espers more limelight:
  • Bounties can sometimes spawn special episodes for certain Espers. The game can even let the player focus on letting their Esper of choice get their episodes without waiting too long.
  • There are special limited-time events featuring ongoing stories for several Espers such as The Lone Star for Ollie and Bloody Hunt for Zora.
  • Discboom herself has her own special Rhythm Game mode where she DJs her way through the inner struggles of several Espers from the Esper Union, and even from the Shadow Decree.
• Being a Gacha Game with dozens of playable characters, it should be no surprise that Dragalia Lost has quite a few events that focus on some of the minor characters, plenty of which, don’t feature Euden at all. Probably one of the biggest examples is “Forgotten Truths”, which focuses on Zethia while she was being possessed by Morsayati, and Ilia, with Euden (and Notte) only making a small cameo. Another notable example is “Faith Forsaken,” which focuses on the apostles, with Euden being entirely absent for the first half.
• Dragon Age: Origins has the DLC "Leliana's Song'', which focuses on party member Leliana during her days as an Orlesian spy.
• Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen has 5 chapters — 4 of which are Days In the Limelight for the various henchmen and side-characters that join you in chapter 5.
• Final Fantasy series:
  • Final Fantasy VI has this in the World of Ruin - Relm's painting, Gau's father, Strago and Hidon, Cyan's Dream, Locke and Celes in the Phoenix Cave... every main character in the game gets a subquest which explores their backstory and wraps it up.
  • Final Fantasy VII gives every playable character a portion of the game that relates to their backstories, motivations, and growth. There's Red XIII's learning the true story of his father's disappearance, Barret's tragic reunion with his insane former best friend, Yuffie's Wutai Theft and her reasons to do so, Vincent's Dark and Troubled Past, and so on.
  • The first three DLC episodes for Final Fantasy XV focus on your party members Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis respectively. The fourth and final episode DLC is focused on Ardyn.
  • There's a whole series of games starring the recurring species Chocobo, including Chocobo Racing and Chocobo's Dungeon.
• Fire Emblem Fates manages to have two of these:
  • The Hidden Truths DLC is dedicated to showing why and how Owain, Inigo and Severa from Awakening reappeared as Odin, Selena and Laslow in Fates. It also showcases the Team Pet Lilith and the Avatar's father, Good Anankos aka The Man Behind the Man's Enemy Without.
  • The Second Generation group had been Demoted to Extra, but they get the Heirs of Fates DLC stages dedicted to them and their struggles in a Crapsack World version of their worlds.
• Freddi Fish and Luther's Water Worries has Freddi's sidekick Luther as the main playable character. The only way to play as Freddi is in two-player mode.
• Gears of War 3:
  • The game added Beast Mode for the Locust side of the game, since the last two games didn't feature any kind of campaign or storymode for the Locust.
  • In Raam's Shadow expansion, you get to play as Raam or any other Locust following him (If you play co-op), during his missions.
• Event plots in Granblue Fantasy usually focus on the adventures of various recruitable characters, with the main cast dragged along for the ride.
• A central premise of Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg is to give more obscure figures in history like John Reed and Boris Savinkov the chance to shape the world as opposed to leaders of World War II in our timeline.^note To wit, Stalin, Churchill, Charles De Gaulle, are Demoted to Extra and Mao doesn't even get a cameo. Hitler, Chiang Kai Shek and FDR suffer Death by Adaptation before the games' events. Mussolini meanwhile has to fight 4/5 Italian rival states under his National Syndicalist Regime to regain his prominence, thus leaving Hirohito the only one from our timeline to mirror his prominence. This even extends to nations in the game, that can capture the world's attention even though it was unremarkable during World War II in our timeline.
• Kirby:
  • In addition to being major bosses and helping during the endgames, Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot have extra modes allowing you to play the entire game as King Dedede and Meta Knight respectively complete with final bosses referencing the games they weren't in.
  • The Kirby's Adventure and Kirby Super Star remakes (Nightmare In Dream Land and Super Star Ultra respectively) started the trend with the Meta Knightmare and Meta Knightmare Ultra modes respectively.
  • In Kirby Star Allies, every playable ally (including the Dream Friends) gets their own dedicated speedrun mode called "Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go!", complete with various title blurbs for each character.
  • In Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, an unlockable campaign once the player finishes the main game focuses on Magolor attempting to escape the realm between worlds after being defeated by Kirby and friends in the game's story mode. Unlike Dededetour! and Meta Knightmare which were simply "What If" scenarios, this extra mode picks up directly after the main story's events.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Sheikah in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Originally introduced in Ocarina of Time as the tribe Zelda's nurse/ladysmaid/bodyguard Impa belonged to and being the traditional guardians of Hyrule's royal line, she remained their only representative across the subsequent games aside from the Sheikah Stones and a few miscellaneous items bearing their eye emblem. In this game, however, they collectively play a much larger role in the plot, being the creators of the diverse Magitek across the ruins of Hyrule (including the Sheikah Slate, the Guardians, and the Shrines), and having their many ancient monks provide Link with abilities for his quest. Furthermore, there is also now an entire Wutai-themed village of Sheikah of various ages.
  • For Impa herself, Hyrule Warriors splits the party into three at the beginning of the second act, allowing her and Sheik to be the main characters of the Ocarina of Time branch.
• MapleStory, the Blockbuster campaigns serve as this for numerous characters.
  • Black Heaven put the spotlight on the Resistance, which is preparing for its final battle for freedom from the Black Wings and for Maple World itself. Orchid gets similar levels of focus after getting hit with a De-power just prior to the events of the story.
  • Heroes of Maple shines the limelight on the Legends, particularly Evan, who becomes The Leader of the six Legends and is pivotal to the heroes' plans to stop Damien.
• Mass Effect 2:
  • There's a level late in the game where you control Joker.
  • The loyalty missions are limelight episodes, gaining some valuable insights and revelations from your squadmates with Shepard helping them throughout it. To have the best chance of success on the suicide mission, you must do all of them which means each one of your squad mates will have at least one episode of Character Focus.
• The fangame literally titled Mega Man: A Day in the Limelight is an alternate version of Mega Man 2 in which Mega Man has been incapacitated, leaving the Mega Man Robot Masters to take his place. The sequel puts the Mega Man 2 Robot Masters in Mega Man 3.
• In the Megadimension Neptunia VII's Hyperdimension Neptunia G - The Golden Leaders, Reconstructors of Gamindustri Arc, all four of the main CPU's (Neptune, Noire, Blanc, and Vert) are the protagonists of their own respective arcs until they solve the problems in their respective nations.
• The Japanese-exclusive GBC game Minnie & Friends: Yume no Kuni o Sagashite puts the focus on Minnie Mouse as the primary protagonist, with her boyfriend Mickey Mouse as a non-playable minor character.
• The Story Mode of Mortal Kombat 9, Mortal Kombat X, and Mortal Kombat 11 feature one fixed character per chapter, that follows their story, usually fighting four battles before control switches to another.
  • MK9 follows: Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Scorpion, Cyrax, Liu Kang, Jax Briggs, Smoke, Sub-Zero, Kitana, Jade, Kung Lao, Kurtis Stryker, Kabal Sub-Zero as a cyborg, Nightwolf, and finally Raiden.
  • MKX featured: Johnny Cage, Kotal Kahn, Sub-Zero, Kung Jin, Sonya Blade, D'Vorah, Jax Briggs, Takeda Takahashi, Hanzo Hasashi, Raiden, Jacqui Briggs and finally Cassie Cage.
  • MK11 has Cassie Cage, Kotal Kahn, Liu Kang and Kung Lao, Scorpion and Sub-Zero, Jade, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Sonya Blade, Jax and Jacqui, Scorpion again and his past self, Raiden, and finally Fire God Liu Kang. Aftermath adds Nightwolf, Sheeva, Fujin, Sindel and Shao Kahn, and finally Shang Tsung.
• Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness is the only post-arcade Pac-Man title to feature Ms. Pac-Man as the main hero instead of Pac-Man himself, who only appears as one of the playable characters in multiplayer.
• Pokémon: Magikarp Jump has this happen to Magikarp. Yes, that Magikarp, which must be bred and trained generation after generation to jump as high as possible. Ironically, evolving it into a Gyarados is something you'd want to avoid doing here.
• Portal 2 has a new DLC level editor that comes with a mini-storyline involving Cave Johnson sending you through multiple dimensions to build and test new test chambers. Cave discovers a multiverse of alternate Caves, and squares off with his Evil Twin, Dark Cave, before sending you to find a dimension of pure money.
• Putt-Putt and Pep's Dog on a Stick had you controlling Putt-Putt's dog Pep instead of the titular character.
• Rakuen: The process of learning each a part of the "Mori no Kokoro" involves using the book to summon a door that leads to the past of a patient's life. During these segments the game will let you take control of one of the patient's loved ones as the past plays out from their perspective.
• River City Girls centers around Misako and Kyoko, Kunio and Riki's on-again, off-again girlfriends in the Kunio-kun series.
• Rule of Rose:
  • The game in general focuses on Jennifer, but Eleanor, Diana, Meg and Amanda get significant focus in a chapter each, which throws their particular damage into the spotlight. Wendy receives focus as the only other character during The Gingerbread House, and then again when she outs herself as The Chessmaster.
  • The game's final chapter puts all of the leads Out of Focus, choosing instead to tell the player what was happening with the story and characters directly.
• Secret Agent Clank lets you play the sidekick from the Ratchet & Clank series of games.
• The Simpsons video games:
  • The Simpsons Hit & Run: Level 5 centers around Apu, the only playable character who is not part of the Simpson family, and a secondary character in the original show. Apart from Homer selling a required car and Bart being a companion at the end, the main characters do not appear at all in the level's main story.
  • The Simpsons: Tapped Out:
    • The 2020 event "Black History" puts Dr. Hibbert, Lou, and Carl at the fore, as the event revolves around them being asked by Mayor Quimby to speak at Springfield's first public Black History Month celebration.
    • A later 2020 event revolves around Milhouse, with the storyline about Milhouse celebrating his birthday and becoming popular by hanging out with his cousin Annika. Bart tries to sabotage his friend's popularity, but every attempt to do so ends up making Milhouse even more popular.
• Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, as its title suggests, stars Snufkin from The Moomins. While Snufkin is a major character, he usually takes a secondary role to the Moomin family.
• Luigi gets the starring role in Something Else because the elder bear accidentally summoned him to his world.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Knuckles got his own game called Knuckles Chaotix, which was also a day in the limelight for the eponymous Chaotix group. Interestingly, despite Metal Sonic's presence in the game, Sonic does not appear until the very end.
  • Tails has also gotten two games of his own: Tails Adventure and Tails Skypatrol, but the second was a very obscure Game Gear game only released in Japan (at least until Sonic Adventure DX).
  • Dr. Robotnik gets his own game called Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine which was actually a cleverly-hidden clone of the Japanese-only Puyo Puyo (1992) (likewise, Kirby's Avalanche is just a Kirby-fied version of Puyo Puyo).
  • Shadow also got his own game, which went in a different direction by being primarily a Third-Person Shooter with only some of the more familiar Sonic elements mixed in.
    • In Sonic Forces, he also gets a DLC titled "Episode Shadow", taking place before the events of the main game. It follows Shadow infiltrating Eggman's base and also exploring the origins of Infinite; as well as him being playable in Modern Sonic's stages.
  • In Sonic Heroes, each of the four teams gets an arc, so many of the characters (notably all of Team Chaotix, who hadn't been seen since Chaotix, mentioned above) get far more focus than in their other appearances.
  • If you purchase both episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 on the same device, a bonus episode will be unlocked that features Metal Sonic as the main character. The episode itself follows what happened after his defeat in Sonic CD.
  • Cream the Rabbit, first introduced in Sonic Advance 2 is not only a playable character, but is a key part of Sonic Dream Team's narrative, being Eggman's "filter" to access the Reverie and developing a close friendship with Ariem, the Reverie's guardian. Cream and Cheese even get to deliver the finishing blow to Eggman in the ending.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Luigi is usually Player Two or absent completely, but he's actually been the main character quite a few times:
    • The first was an educational game Mario Is Missing!.
    • Luigi's Mansion gave him his first canonical starring role as the main character.
    • In observance of the 30th anniversary of Luigi's debut, Satoru Iwata himself put on a Luigi cap and declared 2013 The Year of Luigi. In this year, a sequel to the original Luigi's Mansion (Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon), Luigi-centered DLC for New Super Mario Bros. U, a Dr. Mario game that stars Luigi instead, and a fourth Mario & Luigi title centered around commanding an army of Luigis were released.
    • The Nintendo Adventure Books, Leaping Lizards and Koopa Capers had Luigi on a solo adventure.
  • Being a long-time character commonly known for being the Damsel in Distress, Princess Peach has her fair share of her own adventures where she is the main protagonist.
    • She first gets one in Super Princess Peach, where she gets to turn the tables and rescue Mario and Luigi from Bowser.
    • She gets another in Princess Peach: Showtime! where she has to save a theater from the Sour Bunch led by the evil Grape with the help of the theater's guardian Stella.
  • Yoshi spun off into his own series starting with Yoshi's Island.
  • Wario actually has two spinoff franchises starring him; the Wario series and the WarioWare series.
  • After getting tired of throwing barrels at plumbers, Donkey Kong branched off into the Donkey Kong Country series.
  • In turn Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest stars his sidekick, Diddy Kong (often considered the most popular game in the series). And Diddy Kong got another Day In The Limelight with Diddy Kong Racing.
  • Diddy's sidekick, Dixie Kong, got her own game in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!.
  • Even Bowser gets in on the action. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story has Bowser as the main protagonist. He's forced to take back the Mushroom Kingdom from Fawful (with aid from the Mario Brothers, who spend most of the game inside his body futzing around with his internal systems to occasionally power up the big lug) and takes a massive Level In Badass as he reluctantly becomes the hero. Mario Party 10 puts him into the spotlight again, with him receiving focus on the cover, the Mario Party mode giving him more presence than usual, and the Bowser Party mode featuring him as the main playable character for the first time in a Mario Party game.
  • Toad has Wario's Woods and an episode in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. And the main mode of Mario Party: Star Rush places the spotlight on the different colored Toads who serve as the default playable characters, and are treated as the leaders of their teams at the end of each game.
  • Waluigi, while not having any game to his name, only appearing in spinoffs, had a couple of great moments and stages to himself. In the Mario Tennis series and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, he and Wario are featured the most in the games intro scenes, and he appeared without Wario in the GBA game (considering that both Mario Golf and the Mario Tennis series are developed by Camelot, this makes sense). In Mario Party 3, he is a Climax Boss of sorts, hijacking the villain spot from Bowser and being battled on his own board, and had some great themes in addition. In Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix, while only serving as the first boss, he had one of the best musics to dance to, and in Mario Kart DS, he had Waluigi Pinball, an entire track dedicated to him. In Mario Sports Mix, he again has a pinball stage. Super Mario Party gives him the aptly named rhythm minigame "Time To Shine", in which he takes center stage and dances while the players mimic his poses. And he gets one of the major recurring roles in Golf Adventure in Mario Golf: Super Rush.
  • In New Super Mario Bros. 2, The Koopalings act as the main antagonists for the entire game. Even though Bowser acts as the final boss, he does not appear at all before then, and the Koopalings enchant him in order to actually kick things off.
  • Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker gives the spotlight to Captain Toad, previously a bit character in Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World along with Toadette, who previously mostly appeared in spinoffs. Mario and friends only appear at the very end of the game in a surprising twist.
  • Whilst Princess Daisy is seen as one of the most neglected characters in Mario history, she does have some time in the spotlight. In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, there is a course dedicated to her and her cruiser. This cruiser is seen throughout the game. Mario Kart Wii continues this further, with references to Sarasaland and her palace plus the introduction of Baby Daisy. There's even a statue of Luigi and Daisy dancing together, confirming previous fan speculation about her relationship with him.
  • Bowser's son, Bowser Jr. takes the role of central villain for most of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle for the first time since New Super Mario Bros. Wii. And unlike that game, Bowser is on vacation and has nothing to do with the events of the game until the end.
  • Thanks to the Superstar Saga remake, the entire Koopa Troop gets one in the form of Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser. The Bowser's Inside Story remake features a sequel starring Bowser Jr.
  • The quest for the fifth streamer in Paper Mario: The Origami King features Kamek as a Guest-Star Party Member in addition to Bowser Jr.
• Super Mario World: Piranha Island focuses on the Piranha Plant mook and the major antagonist is even the leader of a type of Piranha Plant.
• Super Robot Wars GC is this for the One Year War and the Neo Zeon movement - you jump from one to the other, and there is no Titans force to worry about. The main OYW pilots all live (so no, Slegger and Ryu DON'T die) and stay on your side through the entire game, the White Base is your main ride (even after getting the Gundor), and Bright Noa is always important to the plot. Plus, you can recruit Lalah Sune WITHOUT A SECRET.
• Third Super Robot Wars Z: Jigoku-hen: Downloadable Content scenario focuses on a flashback of the destruction of Gadlight and Annalotta's home planet.
• Tokyo Xanadu often takes this approach when it's time for the party to gain a new member, giving them the main focus during the chapter they join. The biggest exception to this is with Mitsuki, who joins in a chapter mostly focused on Asuka (one of the party's founding members).
• Touhou Hisoutensoku ~ Choudokyuu Ginyoru no Nazo o Oe has three main characters, each with individual stories. Sanae had previously been both a major character and a playable character, but until then Cirno and Hong Meiling were insignificant minor characters, surprising everyone with their presence. And then with Yousei Daisensou ~ Touhou Sangetsusei Cirno got her own game!
• Trails Series:
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, instead of starting the game as Rean, players start the game as Juna, one of Rean's students. This is because at the climax of Cold Steel III, Rean is captured by Osborne and is taken to the Black Workshop due to him losing control of his Superpowered Evil Side. Act 1 is dedicated to Juna and Class VII figuring out where Rean and the Black Workshop are at and infiltrated the place to rescue their instructor and friend.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak has the first, second, and fourth chapters primarily focus on Feri, Aaron, and Quatre respectively, showing the events that lead to each of them joining the Arkride Solutions Office.
• Ultra X Weapons is an arcade shooter from the Ultra Series, where players get to play as... the earth defense forces instead of the Ultramen. Choosing between the various factions of the defense forces, including the SSP, TDF, MAT, TAC, ZAT, MAT and UGM, the player gets to control one of their jets to blast through alien invaders, with the Ultramen of each faction serving as an Assist Character - an Action Bomb that launches a special attack destroying most enemies on the screen, before leaving.
• Valkyria Chronicles:
  • The first game has a DLC where the story focuses on 6 of the minor characters in the game. It focuses primarily on Edy, a very popular character in Japan.
  • Valkyria Chronicles II and Valkyria Chronicles III have squad missions for each member of The Squad who aren't the main cast. While Valkyria Chronicles 4 has squad missions focusing on groups of three squad members after one of the three gets promoted. In all three of these sequels, these missions replace or unlock potentials in those in focus, that can dramatically increase their performance.
• The Witches' Tea Party: This game is focused on her, in comparison to the prequel that is set in its future, Trick & Treat, which was focused on her familiar, Amelia.
• Xenoblade Chronicles:
  • Each of the rare Blades that you're fortunate enough to draw in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has a couple of Heart-to-Heart scenes specific to them, and a sidequest where they and their ideals or goals are the focus. These are usually required to unlock a particular node on their Affinity Charts, which confer bonuses to their native abilities.
  • Similarly, each of the Hero characters in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 have unique questlines and discussion topics that focus on them and their aspirations. For instance, Riku and Manana are initially unlocked as Hero characters via their Hero Quest in which Riku seeks a particular kind of gemstone from the Urayan mines for crafting purposes, and are further upgraded after their Ascension Quest where Manana attempts to become apprentice to a famous Nopon chef.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, you can invoke this by playing as a minor duelist like Weevil, Rex, or Mako.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations, Edgeworth serves as the Player Character for 30%-40% of Case 5. He also shows up in Case 4, but as an NPC. His role outside playability isn't that great either in this game compared to the previous ones.
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice:
    • After being Demoted to Extra in Dual Destinies, Trucy becomes the focus in Case 2 as the defendant. She gets some Character Development, which was due since Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
    • After her backstory and Character Development in the previous game, Athena is left behind in terms of plot relevance and limelight... but then she gets all Case 4 to herself, along with Simon Blackquill, who was not heard of since Dual Destinies.
• "Riding the Waves", the interlude which opens Season 3 of Being A ΔΙΚ, focuses directly on Zoey, the MC's best friend with whom he was in a Friends with Benefits relationship, looking at their relationship from her perspective as well as her time in San Diego.
• Cooking Companions: The "Chompettes Origins" story that was added in an update to the game is mostly from the perspective of Raspberry, at least when she was alive, wandering into the main character's cabin along with her friends to eventually be eaten and brought back as spirits.
• Each chapter of don't take it personally babe, it just ain't your story focuses on the drama of one of your students, though chapter 6 will focus on either Kendall or Akira depending on the choices made up to that point. Chapter 7 focuses on Mr. Rook himself.
• Harvest December is broken up into different chapters with a story for each month over the course of a year. The character whose point of view the chapter is told through is also the central character for that one.

Web Animation

• Happens two times in Bowser's Kingdom:
  • In Episode 3, Lemmy Koopa and a few other minions were the stars.
  • In Episode 9, The Karate Duo #1 are the stars.
• In Camp Camp all the characters at the camp, not a main character, get some time in the spotlight at some point or another:
  • Ered has "Camp Cool Kidz".
  • Dolph has "Reigny Day".
  • Preston has "Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected".
  • Nurf has "David Gets Hard".
  • Harrison has "Mind Freakers" and shares "Quest to Sleepy Peak Peak" with Nerris.
  • Nerris, as mentioned above, has "Quest to Sleepy Peak Peak" together with Harrison.
  • The Quartermaster has "Quartermaster Appreciation Day".
  • Gwen has "Gwen Gets a Job".
  • Space Kid has "Space Camp was a Hoax"
  • The Flower Scouts have "Cookin' Cookies".
• The Nephew Arc (Episodes 4, 5 and 6) of Ducktalez focus on the nephews and puts Vegeta and Scrooge Out of Focus.
• Given its a Massive Multiplayer Crossover, Gory Toons has a few, such as "You're Too Slow!" (which was about Sonic) and "Blind Mistake" (an episode focusing on Chef Pee Pee that doesn't even star SpongeBob).
• Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures: Nearly every character gets at least one episode to shine and show what they can do.
• Homestar Runner:
  • "The King of Town's Very Own Quite Popular Cartoon Show". Initially subverted in that when it was originally released, it was just a well-disguised Strong Bad Email, but they actually released one a year later.
  • "No Hands on Deck" is the first Homestar-centered cartoon since the 2005 Halloween Episode "Halloween Potion-Ma-Jig" (not counting puppet stuff like "Homestar vs. Other Little Girl" or the "Puppet Jam" sessions with They Might Be Giants). It's also one of the few Homestar shorts where Strong Bad doesn't appear at all.
  • "A Folky Tale" is the only story centered around Strong Sad and Coach Z (who rarely have anything to do with each other). It's one of the very few toons on the site where neither Homestar Runner nor Strong Bad shows up anywhere.
  • "Where U Going 2?" is a short cartoon that revolves around a day in the life of The Cheat, which apparently involves singing in Marzipan's choir, doing freelance animation work, and practicing flaming lay-up drills.
• Madness Combat:
  • "Madness Combat 6.5" is the first episode of Madness Combat that does not center around Hank, and instead focuses on the deuteragonists, Deimos and Sanford.
  • "Madness Combat Inundation" presents Jebediah Christoff/Jebus as the protagonist.
• The Most Epic Story Ever Told in All of Human History: Some of the minor characters get an episode dedicated to them every now and again, such as Epically Avoids You in “The Most Epic Day in the Life at a Soul-Sucking Job” and the Epic Skatepark Owner in “The Most Epic Mystical Quest”.
• The ONE episode "Rhetorical Molds" puts a major focus on one of the contestants, Moldy, and explains a little more about her. Most of the challenge portion of the episode was spent on Moldy explaining her past to her three teammates as she does the challenge, and The Stinger (which is surprisingly long) shows a Flashback of her arguing with a former friend prior to her getting teleported into the Plane by Airy.
• Sonic for Hire: In Season 4, Tails gets his own episode to talk about his rising success with Cash Explosion and mocking Sonic by sending him a bomb.
• Spooky Month: "Unwanted Guest" has an extended segment focusing on Kevin dealing with Skid and Pump dropping off a bar of "sugar" when they leave the candy store.

Web Comics

• Big Break (2019): A crossover with Bible Black (of all things) has supporting character Joseph take over as main protagonist. When Troy is absent, he offers to take over his delivery duties. Unfortunately for him, his costumers are Reika and Imari and they decide to use him to complete the spell and slowly drain him of his "essence". He encounters more characters from the hentai and they drain more and more of his essence until Yazmin comes and foils their attempt to finish the spell.
• In Bittersweet Candy Bowl, secondary character David has his own birthday chapter.
• The Dreamer has short stories which serves as these, with two revolving around Nathan Hale and Freddy Knowlton, respectively.
• In El Goonish Shive, the Bringing Silly Back arc seems to be his for secondary character Noah. Also, Justin gets a lot more attention in this arc than previous ones.
  • The EGS:NP side strips do this sometimes, notably the canon arcs "Marker", focusing on Pandora, and "Escape from the Mall", which centers on Rhoda and Catalina.
• A Girl Genius side story involved Maxim acquiring a new hat.
• Gunnerkrigg Court had the chapter "A Week for Kat" fairly early in the comic's run, while Kat's main role was still as "Annie's best friend" rather than the Deuteragonist that she develops into later. There are also a few other chapters given to robots, forest creatures, and Jones.
• Homestuck's Act 5 Act 1 focused exclusively on the trolls, who up until that point had been heard from a fair bit but rarely seen.
  • After Scratch smashes his scrap-book, each of the sprites get a little focus, Nannasprite finds Dad's bloody hat and relates her backstory, Davesprite and Jadesprite meet up and deploy a sword, and Jaspersprite talks to Nepeta about love and foreshadows the Alpha session.
  • Expanded in the new Paradox Space site, where everyone seems to be getting their day to shine.
• Klunscomic: The entirety of "Toona's Spotlight" features Toona getting a chance to discover herself.
• Mieruko-chan: Chapter 10 focuses on Miko's friend Hana as she goes looking for a boy's lost dog in an abandoned storefront that, unbeknownst to her, is infested with ghosts.
• NEXT!!! Sound of the Future: Side character Bright gets an entire interlude chapter focused on her after only a few brief appearances on some albums in the main protagonist's room and in an idol photocard. The chapter explores her disappointment at her first album's poor sales and worry that her fans only support her because she's hardworking and not because they actually like her music.
• The Order of the Stick released a side story about half-orc ninja Therkla trying to get through one assignment from her boss Kubota that featured none of the heroes or other villains of the main story. Interestingly, this was done specifically at the request of one fan, who had pledged a good deal of money to the author's Kickstarter to see it happen.
• Questionable Content had two weeks (starting here) detailing a day in the life of Momo, the Robot Buddy of a secondary character.
• Rain (2010): Chapter 38 focuses on Heather and Jess getting closure on the latter's situation with Aiken. It’s also happening concurrently to Rain’s prom night.
• In Rascals, Nick and Lionna get their own arc for the arrival of their newborn children at the start of this page .
• The Skin Horse arcs "Choose" and "Grillo Parlante" are about Jonah and Nera, two hapless investigators of the weird. The first has them stumble into something that involves Skin Horse, the second features none of the regular team, and is about them investigating what happens once Skin Horse is closed down.
• Sluggy Freelance has done this several times. Zoe got the "28 GEEKS LATER" storyline all to herself, as well as most of "Fire and Rain." Bun-Bun took center stage for the epic "Holiday Wars" and "Oceans Unmoving" arcs. Oasis went from being an occasional guest star to the focal character during the "Phoenix Rising" arc. And the B-Side Comics "Meanwhile in the Dimension of Pain" and "No Content On Saturdays" focused on the adventures of the Dimension of Pain demons and Kiki, respectively. Oddly enough Sasha did not get one of these, even in the "Bikini Suicide Sasha Days" arc.
• Stand Still, Stay Silent: A flashback to the events that forced Lalli and his older cousins to leave their hometown as children also gave a lot of development to their shared grandmother, who had already garned some attention due to being The Constant between the Distant Prologue and the comic's main timeframe.
• Til Debt Do Us Part: The second side story focuses on the love lives of Yejun's younger siblings, Yena and Yehun, who have been minor characters for the duration of the webcomic.
• Two Evil Scientists does this occasionally.
• Unsounded:
  • Vienne is years dead by the time of the story, only brought up in reference to her husband's guilt over her death and her surviving work, but she's the main character of the side story Vienne of Seferpine.
  • Sarthos has been missing for decades by the time Unsounded starts, but gets obliquely referenced by Lemuel and Duane. They're one of the main characters of the side story "Interior Emanations".
• The Wotch had an arc focusing on Ally Taverner, the centaur shopkeeper.

Websites

• TV Tropes: This trope is pretty much the whole point of Minor Character, Major Song.

Web Videos

• In Arenas, some episodes are centered on characters which aren't called Doom:
  • The introduction of both Ranger and Grunt, in "Warriors of Slipgate". There's no Doom in here.
  • Also, the story of Sarge. In "Last Stand", Doom and Visor are talking about him in the resting area, while Sarge's regenerating. Cue flashback scenes about Sarge and Visor's previous fights in the Human-Strogg war.
  • The S2E1 reel finally shows Bitterman.
• Brave Wilderness is normally hosted by Coyote Peterson, but whenever an episode deals with ocean life, Coyote's cameraman Mark Vins will take the helm, since that's his personal specialty. The Mark-centric episodes even have their own logo: the Brave Wilderness logo colored in blue instead of orange and yellow.
• Crossed Lines: The Christmas Episode "The Long Journey Home" stars Marisa and Tamarind, the diesel engines who work for Mr. Traverse's company, Synergy.
• Ferr of the Freelance Astronauts recently got to do a live webcast all by himself on the day of his birthday, choosing to deliver a very surreal LP of Civilization IV, in a narration style bordering on that of Bob Ross.
• Hobo Bros: The "Hobo Theatre" episode The Untold Story of FISHY BOOPKINS is all about the minor character Fishy Boopkins from Luke's other channel.
• In The Most Stupid Deaths in Super Mario 64, The Clone Stories are very much A Day In the Limelight for the Clones.
• In The Nostalgia Critic's reboot, while he mostly gets more time, there are the rare episodes where other characters get more focus than the show. The Hyper vlogs are from the perspective of the titular stalker, Rachel got both abused and got to give the speech in The Shining review, Tamara had The Monster Squad where she was trying to impress the boy squad, and Rob got to be the voice of reason in Fantastic Four (2005).
• After getting terribly mistreated in "Jesse's Master Plan" on Sky Williams' channel, fans complained about how mean everyone has been getting toward Jesse. As a reaction to this, Sky and co. gave Jesse the spotlight and let him call all the shots in their League of Legends session — where normally nobody would exactly "call the shots" — in the video titled "Jesse's Game." Of course, he abused his new leadership role and put everyone in team roles they didn't enjoy. The group horribly lost their match.
• StacheBros: The Mushroom Kingdom Storybook video series consists of stories from the supporting cast of the channel's videos.
• Super Carlin Brothers: Occasionally, the brothers will have Tyler, their other brother, in the video. In fact, after Ben took a break after the original project, Tyler took over.

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