Board 8 > Best of the Trope Day 58: Ensemble Dark Horse

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yesterday's Results
ManBearPig - 5
Minotaur - 2
Yoshi - 2
Venustoise - 2
Barf - 1
Daxter - 1
Appa - 1
Bing Bong - 1
The Ultimate Chimera - 1
Cerberus - 1
Dingodile - 1
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man - 1
Indominus rex - 1
Santnico Pandemonium - 1
Vaporeon - 1
Kirbypuff - 1
Hoppopotamus - 1
Nina (FMA) - 1
Naga - 1
Buckbeak - 1
Dentist - 1

Nominations
Iconic Sequel Character
Broken Ace
Intelligible Unintelligible
Relationship Voice Actor
Adolf Hitlarious
Disposable Intern
Uncanny Valley
The Zeppo
Vacation Episode
Tear Jerker
Body Surf
Megaton Punch
Corpsing
Artifact of Doom
Lethal Chef
One of Us

Vote for UP TO THREE CHARACTERS/ETC. you think best embody the trope of the day (or just for your favorite characters that fit the trope). Feel free to change your vote, but if you do just specify who you're changing from and changing to. Try to include the source the character's from.

Feel free to nominate tropes for future days, preferably ones that have TV Tropes pages to make it easier. Day will end in 24 hours or so.
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Full Results
Fat Best Friend - Samwise Gamgee (Lord of the Rings)
Creepy Child - Wednesday Addams (The Addams Family)
Genre Savvy - Abed Nadir (Community)
Wrong Genre Savvy - Don Quixote (Don Quixote)
Enemy Outside - Piccolo (Dragonball Z)
Ascended Extra - Harley Quinn (Batman)
Final Girl - Ellen Ripley (Aliens)
The Adjectival Man - The Illusive Man (Mass Effect)
Adaptational Hero - Bigby Wolf (The Wolf Among Us)
Adaptational Villain - The Monster (Frankenstein)
Superpowered Evil Side - Yami Bakura (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
Mad Bomber - Norman Osbourne/Green Goblin (Spider-Man)
Regretful Traitor - Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender) / Boromir (Lord of the Rings)
Bare-Fisted Monk - Captain Falcon (Smash Bros.)
Sexy Priest - Kirei Kotomine (Fate series)
Butt Monkey - Jerry Gergich (Parks & Rec) / Luigi (Mario Bros.) / Toby Flenderson (The Office)
Eldritch Abomination - Cthuhlu (The Call of Cthuhlu) / Giygas (Earthbound)
Scapegoat - Sirius Black (Harry Potter)
The Heavy - Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Gentle Giant - Rubeus Hagrid (Harry Potter) / John Coffey (The Green Mile) / Iron Giant (The Iron Giant)
Older Than They Look - Eli (Let the Right One In)
Messianic Archetype - Aslan (Chronicles of Narnia)
Invincible Hero - Saitama (One-Punch Man)
Your Size May Vary - Bowser (Mario Bros.)
Mad Artist - The Phantom (The Phantom of the Opera)
Gentleman Thief - Joker (Persona 5)
Brilliant but Lazy - Sans (Undertale)
Monster Clown - Pennywise the Dancing Clown (IT)
The Fool - Inspector Gadget (Inspector Gadget)
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap - Wesley Wyndham-Price (Buffy/Angel)
Big Bad - Light Yagami (Death Note)
Eyes Always Shut - Brock (Pokemon)
Tomboy & Girly Girl - Chie Satonaka & Yukiko Amagi (Persona 4)
The Dragon - Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Nerd - Otacon (Metal Gear)
Innocent Flower Girl - Aeris Gainsborough (Final Fantasy)
Berserker - Guts (Berserk)
Beware the Quiet Ones - Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)
Pint-Sized Powerhouse - Toph Beifong (Avatar: The Last Airbender) / Kirby (Kirby)
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment - Pink Elephants on Parade (Dumbo)
Evil All Along - Matt Engarde (Ace Attorney)
Narm - All of Tommy Wiseau's "The Room"
You Are Who You Eat - Kirby (Kirby)
Crowd Song - Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)
Unreliable Narrator - Leonard Shelby (Memento) / The Narrator (Fight Club)
Voluntary Shapeshifter - Animorphs (Animorphs)
Unexpected Character - Solid Snake (Smash Bros. Brawl)
Heterosexual Life Partners - Turk & JD (Scrubs)
And I Must Scream - Ted (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream)
Bedlam House - Arkham Asylum (Batman)
Abandoned Hospital - Brookhaven Hospital (Silent Hill)
Vacation Episode - Rugrats in Paris / Mr. Greg (Steven Universe) / Itchy and Scratchy Land (The Simpsons)
Goth Girls Know Magic - Raven (Teen Titans)
The Rival - Gary Oak (Pokemon)
Tragic Villain - The Boss (Metal Gear Solid)
Good All Along - Severus Snape (Harry Potter)
Villain Song - Be Prepared (The Lion King)
Mix & Match Critters - ManBearPig (South Park)
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Today's tropes is the Ensemble Dark Horse
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EnsembleDarkhorse

This is used to describe a side character making up part of the ensemble, either a non-lead secondary character or a mere Flat Character, who then becomes unexpectedly popular with the fandom, sometimes even more than the lead characters, depending on who and where the fandom is, as well as what the other characters are like in comparison. For example, the hero is not as popular because they're too much The Everyman. Often, this can happen because the character has very few character traits, which allows fans to imagine what they are. The dark horse can sometimes be viewed as the character equivalent of a Cult Classic.
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I can see this having a lot of different votes, like a whole lot.

Not sure who I'll pick yet.
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I love this trope but HATE the trope page

That many listings means that a ton of them are shitty examples, listing pretty much every supporting character in every film/show/game ever made

The way I think this should be interpreted is "Supporting characters (ie not top-billed) that are as popular or preferably more popular than the main cast"
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Death (Sandman)
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Wolverine (X-Men)
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Meta Knight (Kirby)
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Waluigi (Mario Bros.)
Kate Marsh (Life is Strange)
Bandana Waddle Dee (Kirby)

HM
J. Jonah Jameson (Spider-Man)
Edna Mode (The Incredibles)
Napstablook (Undertale)
E-123 Omega (Sonic the Hedgehog)

gave up trying to use the trope page; might change these as I think of more
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Death (Castlevania)
Meta Knight (Kirby)
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Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)

O-Chul (Order of the Stick)

Gundham (Danganronpa 2)

(Does the third one count?)
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Abed (Community) - does this count?
Daniel Faraday (Lost)
Jack Krauser (Resident Evil 4)
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Dark Young Link posted...

(Does the third one count?)

Probably? I'm actually currently playing through DR2 so I don't know how central of a character he'll end up being but I assume he's popular

XIII_rocks posted...

Abed (Community) - does this count?

I'd say that's probably a stretch. The Greendale Six would probably be the "main characters," though everyone else would probably be fair game

That being said:
Change Bandana Waddle Dee to Dean Pelton (Community)
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Johnbobb posted...

The way I think this should be interpreted is "Supporting characters (ie not top-billed) that are as popular or preferably more popular than the main cast"

Do you think Abed is a poor choice for this then? He's in the main 7 but the main focus was Jeff, Britta and Pierce in the original marketing, while Abed ended up being something of a breakout character

Actually, whatever, Luna Lovegood is basically the ultimate example of this so

Take out Abed (Community) and replace with Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)
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oh ok some things just resolve themselves
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I mean I'm not going to outright say "no" to any characters, especially for a trope like this where it's so open-ended, that's just my personal opinion
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Sandor Clegane (A Song of Ice and Fire)
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J. Jonah Jameson (Spider-Man)
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Video games
|__> Yandere Simulator

what the fuck
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I was thinking about it and for a character as popular as she is, I think Death showed up like three times in 75 issues
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Dr. John Zoidberg (Futurama)
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damn the hound is a good choice
also tormund

damn
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Johnbobb posted...

I love this trope but HATE the trope page

That many listings means that a ton of them are shitty examples, listing pretty much every supporting character in every film/show/game ever made

The way I think this should be interpreted is "Supporting characters (ie not top-billed) that are as popular or preferably more popular than the main cast"

To me I think of a cast with 1-3 characters who are inarguably the "leads," followed by an extraordinarily large next tier down in terms of screen time/significance, the "ensemble," among which there are a handful of standouts in terms of popularity.

Sirius Black (Harry Potter) - Pretty much any significant non-Harry/Ron/Hermione qualifies here and has a vocal fanbase. And maybe I'm biased because he is my favorite character in the series, but the Sirius fans are absolutely the most die-hard.

Kate Marsh (Life is Strange) - Again, most of the significant characters in the game has a fanbase, and again I may be biased in picking my favorite. But let's face it, many/most Kate's fans have a damn good reason for connecting with her.

Lando Calrissian (Star Wars) - Refer to Sirius.
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Underleveled posted...

Kate Marsh (Life is Strange) - Again, most of the significant characters in the game has a fanbase, and again I may be biased in picking my favorite. But let's face it, many/most Kate's fans have a damn good reason for connecting with her.

Yeah that was my same reasoning

Max and Chloe were definitely the main characters but Kate is typically on the same level of fanbase despite having like 1/20th of the screentime because of how powerful her appearances are
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The Janitor (Scrubs)
Jaune Arc (RWBY) (He became so popular he turned into a main character!)
Faust (Guilty Gear)
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The Janitor
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desmond (lost)
tony (24)
sandor clegane
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Waluigi
J Jonah Jameson
The janitor
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Johnbobb posted...

Underleveled posted...

Kate Marsh (Life is Strange) - Again, most of the significant characters in the game has a fanbase, and again I may be biased in picking my favorite. But let's face it, many/most Kate's fans have a damn good reason for connecting with her.

Yeah that was my same reasoning

Max and Chloe were definitely the main characters but Kate is typically on the same level of fanbase despite having like 1/20th of the screentime because of how powerful her appearances are

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Auron (Final Fantasy X)
Vivi (Final Fantasy IX)
Kate (Life is Strange)

Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)
Sandor Clegane (Game of Thrones)
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Sandor Clegane
The Janitor
Dr Zoidberg
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Felicity Smoak (Arrow)
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Barry Burton (Resident Evil)
The Lone Gunmen (The X-Files)
Andriy Kobin (Splinter Cell)
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Actually, seeing Felicity above reminded me of Mick Rory (Legends of Tomorrow)

I'll drop Kobin.
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Desmond (Lost)
Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)
Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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Luna Lovegood
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upp
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Fun fact: Sandor Clegane's popularity surprise GRRM so much that he intentionally tried to recreate him in an extremely shitty character later on that was literally named 'Darkstar'
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bump
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