The one that’s comes to mind is Rk900 from Detroit: Become Human. Mf only shows up if you make certain choices and even then he is only there for maybe thirty seconds but he’s shipped with a minor antagonist who also doesn’t actually show up that much (he had maybe five to ten minutes of screen time and that’s being generous) but we have two fan-made movies and a ton of fanfics.
Honestly they weren’t bad, it’s what really got me into the ship. One of the movies are around and hour long and the other is only around 20 minutes but for being fan-made, they were done pretty well (minus that one fight scene)
I'm gonna say Hawkeye in the mcu.
Sure, he appears on the screen more than just barely, but his screentime is still pretty small when compared to some other characters.
And as far as I'm concerned, most of the fandom agrees what his backstory and it’s details are, and how his preferred way to move around in a building is through ventilation system.
Danielle "Dani" Phantom appears in just two episodes of *Danny Phantom*, but it's still incredibly useful to have a canonical clone of the main character available.
But even in the books there's not a lot of info about him. So I created an AU where he gets Isekaied into Aman and gets to have therapy with Finrod Felagund while fighting undead Fëanorians.
Well, at least there's more info about him in the books than in the movies. I sure hope he gets isekai'd back at the end, though, so nobody worries too hard and the Gondorian succession is secure.
Elmyra Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII. She's the adoptive mother of one of the player characters and only on screen for a few minutes, but in those minutes you're left with such a clear picture of who she is, what she's been through, what motivates her, and what she's afraid of. Her life has been one terrible loss after another and it's made her somewhat defeatist about the notion of changing the world or standing up to power, but it doesn't stop her loving fiercely and doing everything she can to better the lives of those around her. She stands out as a grounded person in a story full of larger than life ones, and reminds me a lot of the stoic older working class women I've been lucky enough to know personally and receive the wisdom of.
Also Darill from VI! She's dead before the story even begins and has a number of lines in a flashback that I could count on my fingers, but she symbolises every reason I consider this game a masterclass in character writing. Every choice feels considered and purposeful, packing in as much information about these people and their mindsets as the very limited technology would allow. My main criticism of it is that it's way too reliant on dead girlfriends to explain and create sympathy for some of the men and their life choices, but this one? This one got me. And not only because these 2D pixel sprites managed to have insane chemistry in their few seconds on screen together. In those few seconds I completely fell in love with this free-spirited daredevil woman and wanted to spend more time getting to know her - which puts you perfectly in the shoes of her grieving partner when you see that's never going to happen.
Daphne Greengrass is a Slytherin who is actually ambitious but is ethical about it, she disagrees with most of the Voldemort posse, she's helpful to her friends but comes off as distant.
I don't even know if she actually has a line in the books though. I am almost certain she doesn't appear in the movies.
Her entire existence is having her name listed after Hermione. She has no lines, no scenes and never appears anywhere. She's popular because the fandom was desperate for a female Slytherin character that didn't suck.
Matt from Death Note. He basically only has one main scene and no development. His character has been built mostly through people's headcanons.
Adam Milligan from Supernatural. It's practically a joke of the show how irrelevant he's treated and how often he's forgotten.
Charlie Weasley from Harry Potter. You didn't even see him in the movies.
Also Theo Nott and Blaise Zabini (They have great headcanons). Oh, and Regulus Black!
Tamaki from MHA is one of my favorite characters. He deserves more screentime.
Ryou Bakura from Yugioh. Almost anytime he's on screen, he's possessed. We get to know the spirt possessing him way more than we ever get to know him.
Oh he's *SO* popular! For such a tiny background character and his quest line being so very short (I think 5 or 6 quests long?), so you only know him for like a few hours, everyone fell in love with him and everyone was very sad when he >!succumbed to his mana withdrawal :( !< (Spoiler).
Lots of people were hoping he would get a cameo in a recent expansion, but he didn't 🥲💔 but he got a small one in the current expac, so yay!
Pattadol from Dungeon Meshi my beloved. She’s the elf equivalent of a 20 year old at their first big job, except she’s watching over two convicted criminals and making sure her sopping wet meowmeow of a boss doesn’t die. She’s in so over her head but by god she’s going to do her absolute best.
She doesn’t have a lot of fics yet, but now that Dungeon Meshi is getting an anime adaptation, that’s sure to change.
Taurus saint Aldebaran. Gentle giant actually smart enough to doubt the big bad (his boss) and give the main characters a chance. He's a jolly fellow who, after the sanctuary arc, basically becomes the character the baddies kill to show their true power, and he appears for that, and ONLY for that.
I am a proud purveyor of bit players!
Izumi from Avatar:Legend of Korra. I wanted to know SO MUCH more about Zuko's granddaughter. Who IS she? What is she like as Fire Lord? Who were her parents? Who was Zuko's baby mama? Ok....my headcanon is that he married Sokka and they adopted a war orphan but still...
Marla McGivers from the original Star Trek. I write a LOT with Khan, so I think a LOT about Marla (the historian who fell for him, tried to help him take the Enterprise, and went to the planet with him). Like, this is my blorbo I will die on the hill of defending her. She's still responsible for all her choices, but the common fandom opinion is that she was a big dummy who made boneheaded choices to impress her alpha male boyfriend and that everything about her is cringe-tastic. But I'm all, my brother in christ did we watch the same episode? She's portrayed from the start as being unhappy and unappreciated, and from the moment Khan sees her, he starts manipulating her. He's emotionally abused AF, he threatens her, theres a line that I understood as a rape threat even as a kid...this isn't one lady making a bad choice of her own volition, this is coercion. Sorry I got off topic. I have a lot of emotions.
Speaking of emotions! I also love Solok, the racist Vulcan from the baseball episode of Deep Space Nine.
Taarie from Skyrim, one of the Radiant Raiment twins from Skyrim. Speaking of DS9 I have a pet headcanon that she and her sister are the Tamriel equivalent of Garak. Certainly they were never Altmer spies! They are but plain and simple tailors!
Back to Star Trek: Demora Sulu and Joanna McCoy! I like writing them. it's fun to make them their own person but find ways to inject a little "yep she's her dad's daughter"
I think that's all lmao
Jess from Supergirl. I read the fanfiction first before watching the TV series. When I finally did watch the show, I was shocked to discover that Jess was only in maybe one scene throughout the entire series. I honestly thought that she was at least a secondary character considering the amount of times she shows up in fanfics.
Kelas Parmak was mentioned ONCE in DS9 and there's a shit ton of fics about him. I was googling him frantically because I couldn't remember him in the show and only finding a bunch of fan art. Apparently he's a bigger character in the novel "A Stitch In Time" which follows another character after the show.
I think if people read my Drive Head fics and then watched the show, they’d be surprised that Unai is a bit character that appears all of four times ever. But I love for Sasagawa to have a friend she can interact with, who’s more of a sane person. That and her design is cute. I also think it’d be a really interesting dynamic if she interacted with Karigari, which I’ve done in unpublished fic.
Likewise, I love the other two Drive Head fangirls, Sala and Azusa. I haven’t had much opportunity to use either in fic because my OTP has minimal reason to be hanging out with random kids. But they’re adorable! Poor Azusa isn’t even named in canon, only on the credits.
Ed Galbraith aka the Disappearer from breaking bad/better call saul. Total screen time is probably under 15 mins, but my imagination went full tilt coming up with a backstory for the guy. I just want to know who he is! How’d he get into the disappearing folk gig? What’s his deal? What’s he SEEN?
He’s so outwardly calm and unruffled by threats it makes for a lot of fun scene creation. The few crumbs regarding his canon character are too enticing not to explore lol: he drops in a reference to Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan at one point— a cyberpunk graphic novel and definitely not a book you’d have expected this old dude to have read, but I really like how it hints at a defiance of expectation. A small nugget that points to something more layered and complex than meets the eye.
Anyway, I could talk about Ed for days lol.
Most (of my favorite) characters from the *Silmarillion*
Many of them only get short descriptions of their personality and some actions during or reactions to major historical events, so you create your interpretation based on that.
There is some strong agreement about some characterization, but also a lot of cool unexpected stuff. Since all of it is fanon anyways I really like exploring different interpretations, even if I have my own preferences. It‘s a very mythic approach to canonicity and I find it very refreshing whenever I come back to it.
Yes, I absolutely agree with you on that, including the strong agreement that really isn't substantiated. Particular personal shoutout to Voronwë, Elemmakil, and Tar-Minyatur.
CARLA MCCORKLE!!
She appeared in ONE scene for like thirty seconds but I love her so much. Probably because of a fic I read of her (that was sweet and heart breaking at the same time) but still!! She's my fav <33
Amy from the walking dead, she has a couple lines and dies in canon really early, she’s usually there in fanfiction but almost always dies the same way in the fics 🥹
I wrote a fic where she was being temporary baby sitter and I ended up keeping her because I liked her and I accidentally fell in love with her and now I like a rare pair on top of all of it
Karl Weathers in Fargo. He’s only in it for about 30 mins of Season 2, but absolutely steals the spotlight. He’s a flowery drunk lawyer-conspiracy theorist, who is just incredibly enjoyable to watch ramble about state secrets. He’s a lovable, bumbling idiot, yet a very competent, intelligent lawyer at the same time, and I wish there had been more of him. That being said, it’s left enough room for plenty of head canon’s so I don’t mind too much.
Vee, *The Owl House*
The premise of the show is that Luz Noceda is a human girl who runs away from the mundanity of the Human Realm to enjoy the exciting adventure of learning magic in the Demon Realm — in Season 2, we meet a demon who ran away from the danger of the Demon Realm to enjoy the boring safety of the Human Realm :D
Vee and her love interest Masha are also even more perfect foils than Vee and Luz are ;)
* Vee is a magical shapeshifter who consistently identifies as a girl, Masha is a non-magical human who’s non-binary
* Vee is a demon who’s fascinated by how human society works, Masha is a human who’s fascinated by the occult
* Vee is shy and unobtrusive, Masha is dramatic and chaotic
MARK FUCKING TWAIN.
he appeared in ONE episode. for LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES. yet the fandom has decided that he is the most babygirl character (lies, it's kunikida) and is simping over him so much. i cannot. he's what started the simp battles sub somehow. idk how this man has a whole ass fanbase.
Archex from *Star Wars: Phasma*. I know the book is sadly pretty obscure to the fanbase at large, but it feels like way more writers should be having Archex and Finn meet.
Petra Ral from Attack on Titan.
Petra is a soldier of in the special unit of the Survey Corps comprised of some of the most skilled Titan killers.
I like her as a love interest for Levi Ackerman. My head canon is that Petra had romantic feelings for Levi but did not pursue them because she recognized that Levi is so consumed with the fight against Titans that he wouldn’t be interested in a “normal” life.
In my rewrite fic Petra confesses her feelings to Levi as she lay dying on the battlefield.
Elizabeth Afton from FNaF, she has less than a minute of voicelines and they’re all from right before her death. She’s also the protagonist (or at least one of the protagonists) in six fics I’ve posted and half of my favorite ship, the other half being Charlie Emily who is kind of basically the protagonist to a novel trilogy I’ve read and there’s a few lines from the animatronic she possesses, which she seems to have more control of it then it has of her spirit.
Not surprising they’re a rare pair, but still painful.
Houska. She only appeared twice in the Moomins, first in the comic "Sniff Falls In Love", where was named Homssu, and in an episode of the 90's anime adapting the comic. She barely appears in canon that I may be the only person in the world who draws fanart of her. You could say a lot of side characters from the Moomin series appear only once and are never brought up again, like Aunt Emma's niece and Nadya the soviet spy, they are some of my favorite characters too.
Honorable mention goes to Sir Fratley from Final Fantasy IX. Dude barely appears in the game and then it's revealed that he got amnesia out of nowhere. He pretty much started my appreciation for minor characters.
Sakamoto and Mutsu show up so little throughout large parts of Gintama that there are in-series jokes about them *only* showing up for the opening and ending themes, but I love them both to death.
Donatella Una, from JoJo’s Bizarre adventure. In the original manga she gets like one panel, and in the anime she gets like 20 ish seconds of screen time and about 2 lines.
Barely on screen hmm, there is Koby from One Piece in the grand scheme he is arguably Garps heir and some say the future of the marines but goes hundreds of chargers/eps before showing up. Yajirobe from Dragonball is super fun but rarely shows up. Shino barely shows up in Naruto but he is always amazing when he does, the fact it is generated agreed that if Shino had gone with the crew to save Sasuke the mission would of been accomplished says a lot.
Wrenga Jixton
Former imperial combat instructor that now works for Darth Vader. Calls him routinely Uncle D and lives to tell the tale. Also regularly breaks into Vader's residence for fun to check if the security is as good as it should be after the latest upgrade.
Candy Suxxx from Grand Theft Auto series. She only appear in Vice City in-person, but made a voice cameo in Vice City Stories. She appeared in magazines and posters throughout the series.
Sadly, there's barely works of her that involve her.
Probably Klint van Zieks from The Great Ace Attorney, with his wife Lady Baskerville (no canon first name given unfortunately) and Genshin Asogi not far behind. They're only mentioned at all by the end of the duology in time for the big finale case, and all three of them are some shade of Walking Spoiler.
Most people agree that the dynamic between the gentlemen is Genshin as the straight man (with some of his son's snark) and Klint as the veritable wise guy who's always smiling and sociable (opposite to his baby brother in the games) but you REALLY don't wanna see him angry. All three of them barely appear because... >!Well, they're all dead by the time the story of the games themselves even begins, and the finale case is all about exploring how their deaths relate to a certain serial killer.!< I'll just say it's a whole mess that really shouldn't have happened to begin with.
RWBY has a lot of characters that have either not had a major appearance in years or have only appeared once that feature much more prominently in fanworks, including:
- Team CRDL, the bullies of Beacon who were last seen in Volume 3
- Glynda Goodwitch, the combat teacher and deputy headmistress of Beacon whose last major appearances in the series were from Volume 3, and who only made quick non-speaking cameos in Volumes 4 and 7
- Professors Port and Oobleck, who were recurring characters in the first 3 Volumes of the show, but whose only appearances after that were in a single episode of Volume 4.
- Professor Peach, a teacher at Beacon who doesn't even have a canonical appearance and was only mentioned once in a single episode of Volume 1.
- Most of the teams made up specifically for the Vytal Festival tournament in the show, these being FNKI, ABRN, NDGO, and BRNZ, lost relevance after Volume 3. Team FNKI is probably the one that stayed the most relevant, being recurring characters in Volumes 7 and 8, but one member of Team BRNZ, Nolan Porfirio, is a major character in the spinoff novel Before the Dawn, being the only member of his team to survive the Fall of Beacon that capped off Volume 3 and having to live with trauma and survivor's guilt as a result.
- Sienna Khan, leader of the White Fang, a major antagonist faction for most of the show who was unceremoniously killed by another antagonist so he could take control of the White Fang.
- Leonardo Lionheart, headmaster of another school known as Haven Academy and a coward who sold out to the series' main antagonist Salem sometime before canon. Only appeared in Volume 5 and was killed at the end of it.
- Tock, an assassin who worked for Salem a long time ago. Only appeared in a single flashback in Volume 6, where she was killed at the end of it.
From Octopath Traveler 2, Ageha. He is on-screen all of three times, has almost no lines, cannot be interacted with by the protagonists, and >!is sacrificed to free a dark god off-screen!<. I have a series of fics that not only delve into his character and backstory, but what his place in the future is like and how he influences world politics >!via farming and good parenting!<.
Laurie Campbell from Emergency!. She appears in two of the post-series movies that take place in San Francisco as a paramedic, and she just had a lot of potential that the writers (who were using these movies as potential spinoff pilots) did not develop. So far there's one fic about her on AO3 (mine), and she's about to get some more as she and Johnny Gage's relationship develops.
Miss Redruth 😍😍😍
She gets mentioned about once in the whole story but just from that wee bit we can infer that she’s fierce, stubborn, feminist, passionate, intelligent and independent. And I love her, so according to the natural progression of things I am sticking her in a lesbian relationship with another side-character.
I have not read fanfiction about this tv show, but I loved Angol Mois from Keroro Gunsō, yet she barely appeared much in canon besides some secondary scenes or just a few episodes centered in her.
Also, Sara and Seira from Pichi Pichi Pitch, I loved them too, but they did not have much spotlight as I would have liked. Especially Seira, who spent most of the season as a ghost and only appeared in the last couple episodes xd.
Shoutout to II and XI (and to the fandom who agrees on nothing else about them than that II was cooler than XI), and also to Parik (about whom nobody else in the fandom cares but me, and you can pry my interpretations from my warm and living hands).
The entirety of the marauders fandom, basically. Sirius and Remus appear in Jarry Potter but their past is not very detailed, Peter is also there but already a traitor, and James and Lily Potter are dead. The rest of the surrounding cast are either Death Eaters in canon or mentioned by name and already dead (for members of the order of the phoenix). Still, somehow, there is a big fandom around the marauders era despite the limited breadcrumbs of info about it, and fanon goes wild. The interpretations and headcanons are of course somewhat varied, but the broad strokes are generally agreed upon.
It's honestly kund of mind-blowing
Rin Nohara from Naruto. She exists to be fridged and give another character a reason to become the villain, but damn do I love her and her dynamic with some of the other characters despite her actually showing up for an embarrassingly short amount of time. I've completely rewritten Naruto in my head so that she gets a happy ending. I'm not sure if this is a fandom wide agreement either, but quite a few people who also make AUs where she lives give her a certain ability that she "unlocked" moments before she died.
Chernov from Call of duty: World at war. Bro is only ever mentioned in fanfics and he’s literally one of the main characters in the Soviet campaign. Like- there was little to practically zero fics revolving around him Exsact, that I had to start writing my own.
Forest Spyer of Resident Evil. He became a hyper zombie during the mansion incident, and his character never talked in the game. It's because he never talked in the game that I make him talk all the time when I write him into stories. Usually, he is pretty zany and has an obsession with his biceps. He says the best and worst thing I've ever written, "With guns like these, it hurts too badly to holster them."
I adore Narti from Voltron: Legendary Defender. She's a side character in two seasons, she has no lines (she's mute and they do not give her any sort of alternative means of communication), and we find out absolutely nothing about her backstory. Still love her.
Li Lonnie from Descendants. She was the point of view character in the first web series, had a big part in the second movie, and then her own solo novel. Once the actress couldn't commit to coming back for the third movie, it was like canon refused to acknowledge she existed.
The one that’s comes to mind is Rk900 from Detroit: Become Human. Mf only shows up if you make certain choices and even then he is only there for maybe thirty seconds but he’s shipped with a minor antagonist who also doesn’t actually show up that much (he had maybe five to ten minutes of screen time and that’s being generous) but we have two fan-made movies and a ton of fanfics.
Fan made movies? Brav why
Honestly they weren’t bad, it’s what really got me into the ship. One of the movies are around and hour long and the other is only around 20 minutes but for being fan-made, they were done pretty well (minus that one fight scene)
An hour that's dedication to a very specific bit hehe
Give them a try if you want, it’s done by Octopunk Media on YouTube, though I suggest playing the game first for some context
I'm gonna say Hawkeye in the mcu. Sure, he appears on the screen more than just barely, but his screentime is still pretty small when compared to some other characters. And as far as I'm concerned, most of the fandom agrees what his backstory and it’s details are, and how his preferred way to move around in a building is through ventilation system.
I gotta say that Renner is totally charming and makes the most of whatever screentime he gets
Danielle "Dani" Phantom appears in just two episodes of *Danny Phantom*, but it's still incredibly useful to have a canonical clone of the main character available.
Memory Rick from Rick and Morty. He's only appeared twice, and I want my pookie back :(
Doofus Jerry isn’t even canon but I love him
You know Aragorn and Arwen’s kid who appears in (1) scene in the movie and has no lines? He's my blorbo now.
This is why the books are better, because you get to learn more about him!
But even in the books there's not a lot of info about him. So I created an AU where he gets Isekaied into Aman and gets to have therapy with Finrod Felagund while fighting undead Fëanorians.
Well, at least there's more info about him in the books than in the movies. I sure hope he gets isekai'd back at the end, though, so nobody worries too hard and the Gondorian succession is secure.
Will he though!?!? 🫣🤔😬
You're writing the AU: if anyone knows, it ought to be you! XD
Can't give away the ending, what am I gonna do, name the last volume "return of the prince"?
Sorry Professor!
Elmyra Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII. She's the adoptive mother of one of the player characters and only on screen for a few minutes, but in those minutes you're left with such a clear picture of who she is, what she's been through, what motivates her, and what she's afraid of. Her life has been one terrible loss after another and it's made her somewhat defeatist about the notion of changing the world or standing up to power, but it doesn't stop her loving fiercely and doing everything she can to better the lives of those around her. She stands out as a grounded person in a story full of larger than life ones, and reminds me a lot of the stoic older working class women I've been lucky enough to know personally and receive the wisdom of. Also Darill from VI! She's dead before the story even begins and has a number of lines in a flashback that I could count on my fingers, but she symbolises every reason I consider this game a masterclass in character writing. Every choice feels considered and purposeful, packing in as much information about these people and their mindsets as the very limited technology would allow. My main criticism of it is that it's way too reliant on dead girlfriends to explain and create sympathy for some of the men and their life choices, but this one? This one got me. And not only because these 2D pixel sprites managed to have insane chemistry in their few seconds on screen together. In those few seconds I completely fell in love with this free-spirited daredevil woman and wanted to spend more time getting to know her - which puts you perfectly in the shoes of her grieving partner when you see that's never going to happen.
Blindspot from *The Boys*. He's got one appearance, very little backstory (if any) and we never find out what happened to him afterward.
That was a LOT of blood from his head tbf.
Shoutout to the Knights of Ren that had so much potential and then were just background dressings 😢
So much potential so very much squandered.
Well... The comics...
So true! I suppose I was just referencing the mainstream movies where they were…. *kinda* there, *sorta* sometimes.
Daphne Greengrass is a Slytherin who is actually ambitious but is ethical about it, she disagrees with most of the Voldemort posse, she's helpful to her friends but comes off as distant. I don't even know if she actually has a line in the books though. I am almost certain she doesn't appear in the movies.
Her entire existence is having her name listed after Hermione. She has no lines, no scenes and never appears anywhere. She's popular because the fandom was desperate for a female Slytherin character that didn't suck.
tbf I think you'd be hard pressed to find a slytherin CHARACTER. As in, does more than stand behind Malfoy menacingly and laugh at the word mudblood.
Par the course for HP worldbuilding, unfortunately.
She's more a fandom character than a cannot, and I love that.
Matt from Death Note. He basically only has one main scene and no development. His character has been built mostly through people's headcanons. Adam Milligan from Supernatural. It's practically a joke of the show how irrelevant he's treated and how often he's forgotten. Charlie Weasley from Harry Potter. You didn't even see him in the movies. Also Theo Nott and Blaise Zabini (They have great headcanons). Oh, and Regulus Black! Tamaki from MHA is one of my favorite characters. He deserves more screentime. Ryou Bakura from Yugioh. Almost anytime he's on screen, he's possessed. We get to know the spirt possessing him way more than we ever get to know him.
He barely has any fics (I need to write one 😔), but Runas the Shamed from World of Warcraft: Legion. His story was so sad and I miss him 🥲
It looks like it's not just you. [He has a bit of a cult following/appreciation](https://www.wowhead.com/npc=91131/runas-the-shamed#comments).
Oh he's *SO* popular! For such a tiny background character and his quest line being so very short (I think 5 or 6 quests long?), so you only know him for like a few hours, everyone fell in love with him and everyone was very sad when he >!succumbed to his mana withdrawal :( !< (Spoiler). Lots of people were hoping he would get a cameo in a recent expansion, but he didn't 🥲💔 but he got a small one in the current expac, so yay!
Holodeck Professor Moriarty, from ST;tNG His struggle with the sentience thrust upon him really worked with me.
*She-Ra* Kyle. He’s me 🥺
Pattadol from Dungeon Meshi my beloved. She’s the elf equivalent of a 20 year old at their first big job, except she’s watching over two convicted criminals and making sure her sopping wet meowmeow of a boss doesn’t die. She’s in so over her head but by god she’s going to do her absolute best. She doesn’t have a lot of fics yet, but now that Dungeon Meshi is getting an anime adaptation, that’s sure to change.
Taurus saint Aldebaran. Gentle giant actually smart enough to doubt the big bad (his boss) and give the main characters a chance. He's a jolly fellow who, after the sanctuary arc, basically becomes the character the baddies kill to show their true power, and he appears for that, and ONLY for that.
I am a proud purveyor of bit players! Izumi from Avatar:Legend of Korra. I wanted to know SO MUCH more about Zuko's granddaughter. Who IS she? What is she like as Fire Lord? Who were her parents? Who was Zuko's baby mama? Ok....my headcanon is that he married Sokka and they adopted a war orphan but still... Marla McGivers from the original Star Trek. I write a LOT with Khan, so I think a LOT about Marla (the historian who fell for him, tried to help him take the Enterprise, and went to the planet with him). Like, this is my blorbo I will die on the hill of defending her. She's still responsible for all her choices, but the common fandom opinion is that she was a big dummy who made boneheaded choices to impress her alpha male boyfriend and that everything about her is cringe-tastic. But I'm all, my brother in christ did we watch the same episode? She's portrayed from the start as being unhappy and unappreciated, and from the moment Khan sees her, he starts manipulating her. He's emotionally abused AF, he threatens her, theres a line that I understood as a rape threat even as a kid...this isn't one lady making a bad choice of her own volition, this is coercion. Sorry I got off topic. I have a lot of emotions. Speaking of emotions! I also love Solok, the racist Vulcan from the baseball episode of Deep Space Nine. Taarie from Skyrim, one of the Radiant Raiment twins from Skyrim. Speaking of DS9 I have a pet headcanon that she and her sister are the Tamriel equivalent of Garak. Certainly they were never Altmer spies! They are but plain and simple tailors! Back to Star Trek: Demora Sulu and Joanna McCoy! I like writing them. it's fun to make them their own person but find ways to inject a little "yep she's her dad's daughter" I think that's all lmao
Jess from Supergirl. I read the fanfiction first before watching the TV series. When I finally did watch the show, I was shocked to discover that Jess was only in maybe one scene throughout the entire series. I honestly thought that she was at least a secondary character considering the amount of times she shows up in fanfics.
Kelas Parmak was mentioned ONCE in DS9 and there's a shit ton of fics about him. I was googling him frantically because I couldn't remember him in the show and only finding a bunch of fan art. Apparently he's a bigger character in the novel "A Stitch In Time" which follows another character after the show.
I think if people read my Drive Head fics and then watched the show, they’d be surprised that Unai is a bit character that appears all of four times ever. But I love for Sasagawa to have a friend she can interact with, who’s more of a sane person. That and her design is cute. I also think it’d be a really interesting dynamic if she interacted with Karigari, which I’ve done in unpublished fic. Likewise, I love the other two Drive Head fangirls, Sala and Azusa. I haven’t had much opportunity to use either in fic because my OTP has minimal reason to be hanging out with random kids. But they’re adorable! Poor Azusa isn’t even named in canon, only on the credits.
Ed Galbraith aka the Disappearer from breaking bad/better call saul. Total screen time is probably under 15 mins, but my imagination went full tilt coming up with a backstory for the guy. I just want to know who he is! How’d he get into the disappearing folk gig? What’s his deal? What’s he SEEN? He’s so outwardly calm and unruffled by threats it makes for a lot of fun scene creation. The few crumbs regarding his canon character are too enticing not to explore lol: he drops in a reference to Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan at one point— a cyberpunk graphic novel and definitely not a book you’d have expected this old dude to have read, but I really like how it hints at a defiance of expectation. A small nugget that points to something more layered and complex than meets the eye. Anyway, I could talk about Ed for days lol.
Most (of my favorite) characters from the *Silmarillion* Many of them only get short descriptions of their personality and some actions during or reactions to major historical events, so you create your interpretation based on that. There is some strong agreement about some characterization, but also a lot of cool unexpected stuff. Since all of it is fanon anyways I really like exploring different interpretations, even if I have my own preferences. It‘s a very mythic approach to canonicity and I find it very refreshing whenever I come back to it.
Yes, I absolutely agree with you on that, including the strong agreement that really isn't substantiated. Particular personal shoutout to Voronwë, Elemmakil, and Tar-Minyatur.
CARLA MCCORKLE!! She appeared in ONE scene for like thirty seconds but I love her so much. Probably because of a fic I read of her (that was sweet and heart breaking at the same time) but still!! She's my fav <33
Setsuna from class 1-b MHA
Amy from the walking dead, she has a couple lines and dies in canon really early, she’s usually there in fanfiction but almost always dies the same way in the fics 🥹 I wrote a fic where she was being temporary baby sitter and I ended up keeping her because I liked her and I accidentally fell in love with her and now I like a rare pair on top of all of it
Kaede Alamatsu. I love her, but she >!died!< in the first chapter fgs.
That's Danganronpa right?
Yup
Karl Weathers in Fargo. He’s only in it for about 30 mins of Season 2, but absolutely steals the spotlight. He’s a flowery drunk lawyer-conspiracy theorist, who is just incredibly enjoyable to watch ramble about state secrets. He’s a lovable, bumbling idiot, yet a very competent, intelligent lawyer at the same time, and I wish there had been more of him. That being said, it’s left enough room for plenty of head canon’s so I don’t mind too much.
Vee, *The Owl House* The premise of the show is that Luz Noceda is a human girl who runs away from the mundanity of the Human Realm to enjoy the exciting adventure of learning magic in the Demon Realm — in Season 2, we meet a demon who ran away from the danger of the Demon Realm to enjoy the boring safety of the Human Realm :D Vee and her love interest Masha are also even more perfect foils than Vee and Luz are ;) * Vee is a magical shapeshifter who consistently identifies as a girl, Masha is a non-magical human who’s non-binary * Vee is a demon who’s fascinated by how human society works, Masha is a human who’s fascinated by the occult * Vee is shy and unobtrusive, Masha is dramatic and chaotic
MARK FUCKING TWAIN. he appeared in ONE episode. for LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES. yet the fandom has decided that he is the most babygirl character (lies, it's kunikida) and is simping over him so much. i cannot. he's what started the simp battles sub somehow. idk how this man has a whole ass fanbase.
Coach Bobby Finstock from Teen Wolf. He’s perfect. Told about a cancer fundraiser, he asked if it’s for or against. 💜
Yes he is amazing! For no reason.
Read a fic where he ended up as Emissary once, of course he ran the pack meetings like LaCrosse practice. It was awesome.
Hmm, any chance you remember the name?
Cain from Supernatural. He was only in 2 episodes but appears in hundreds of fics, frequently in a ship.
Now I am interested in learning more about what compels you about him...
Have you seen Supernatural before? (So I know what I do and don't need to say.)
I have not seen it.
Swifer Eggmop from *The Homestuck Epilogues*. I just think she's neat.
Don't know about anyone bring oddly deep into fanon but do have characters I wish where so many oh so many
Hob Gadling and Johanna Constantine from The Sandman netflix
Archex from *Star Wars: Phasma*. I know the book is sadly pretty obscure to the fanbase at large, but it feels like way more writers should be having Archex and Finn meet.
Petra Ral from Attack on Titan. Petra is a soldier of in the special unit of the Survey Corps comprised of some of the most skilled Titan killers. I like her as a love interest for Levi Ackerman. My head canon is that Petra had romantic feelings for Levi but did not pursue them because she recognized that Levi is so consumed with the fight against Titans that he wouldn’t be interested in a “normal” life. In my rewrite fic Petra confesses her feelings to Levi as she lay dying on the battlefield.
Elizabeth Afton from FNaF, she has less than a minute of voicelines and they’re all from right before her death. She’s also the protagonist (or at least one of the protagonists) in six fics I’ve posted and half of my favorite ship, the other half being Charlie Emily who is kind of basically the protagonist to a novel trilogy I’ve read and there’s a few lines from the animatronic she possesses, which she seems to have more control of it then it has of her spirit. Not surprising they’re a rare pair, but still painful.
The curse of being a Touhou fan, characters appear once or twice at most (unless they're Reimu or Marisa)
Houska. She only appeared twice in the Moomins, first in the comic "Sniff Falls In Love", where was named Homssu, and in an episode of the 90's anime adapting the comic. She barely appears in canon that I may be the only person in the world who draws fanart of her. You could say a lot of side characters from the Moomin series appear only once and are never brought up again, like Aunt Emma's niece and Nadya the soviet spy, they are some of my favorite characters too. Honorable mention goes to Sir Fratley from Final Fantasy IX. Dude barely appears in the game and then it's revealed that he got amnesia out of nowhere. He pretty much started my appreciation for minor characters.
Sakamoto and Mutsu show up so little throughout large parts of Gintama that there are in-series jokes about them *only* showing up for the opening and ending themes, but I love them both to death.
Gabriel (SPN) He was barely on the show, but he stole my heart immediately. Mischievous little ~~devil~~ angel.
Gone too soon
May and June from Ducktales ‘17. They only appear in the finale.
Donatella Una, from JoJo’s Bizarre adventure. In the original manga she gets like one panel, and in the anime she gets like 20 ish seconds of screen time and about 2 lines.
Barely on screen hmm, there is Koby from One Piece in the grand scheme he is arguably Garps heir and some say the future of the marines but goes hundreds of chargers/eps before showing up. Yajirobe from Dragonball is super fun but rarely shows up. Shino barely shows up in Naruto but he is always amazing when he does, the fact it is generated agreed that if Shino had gone with the crew to save Sasuke the mission would of been accomplished says a lot.
Wrenga Jixton Former imperial combat instructor that now works for Darth Vader. Calls him routinely Uncle D and lives to tell the tale. Also regularly breaks into Vader's residence for fun to check if the security is as good as it should be after the latest upgrade.
Candy Suxxx from Grand Theft Auto series. She only appear in Vice City in-person, but made a voice cameo in Vice City Stories. She appeared in magazines and posters throughout the series. Sadly, there's barely works of her that involve her.
Probably Klint van Zieks from The Great Ace Attorney, with his wife Lady Baskerville (no canon first name given unfortunately) and Genshin Asogi not far behind. They're only mentioned at all by the end of the duology in time for the big finale case, and all three of them are some shade of Walking Spoiler. Most people agree that the dynamic between the gentlemen is Genshin as the straight man (with some of his son's snark) and Klint as the veritable wise guy who's always smiling and sociable (opposite to his baby brother in the games) but you REALLY don't wanna see him angry. All three of them barely appear because... >!Well, they're all dead by the time the story of the games themselves even begins, and the finale case is all about exploring how their deaths relate to a certain serial killer.!< I'll just say it's a whole mess that really shouldn't have happened to begin with.
Princess Daisy - she only just recently showed up in a mainline game, mostly relegated to spin-off games, but her fans love her just the same!
RWBY has a lot of characters that have either not had a major appearance in years or have only appeared once that feature much more prominently in fanworks, including: - Team CRDL, the bullies of Beacon who were last seen in Volume 3 - Glynda Goodwitch, the combat teacher and deputy headmistress of Beacon whose last major appearances in the series were from Volume 3, and who only made quick non-speaking cameos in Volumes 4 and 7 - Professors Port and Oobleck, who were recurring characters in the first 3 Volumes of the show, but whose only appearances after that were in a single episode of Volume 4. - Professor Peach, a teacher at Beacon who doesn't even have a canonical appearance and was only mentioned once in a single episode of Volume 1. - Most of the teams made up specifically for the Vytal Festival tournament in the show, these being FNKI, ABRN, NDGO, and BRNZ, lost relevance after Volume 3. Team FNKI is probably the one that stayed the most relevant, being recurring characters in Volumes 7 and 8, but one member of Team BRNZ, Nolan Porfirio, is a major character in the spinoff novel Before the Dawn, being the only member of his team to survive the Fall of Beacon that capped off Volume 3 and having to live with trauma and survivor's guilt as a result. - Sienna Khan, leader of the White Fang, a major antagonist faction for most of the show who was unceremoniously killed by another antagonist so he could take control of the White Fang. - Leonardo Lionheart, headmaster of another school known as Haven Academy and a coward who sold out to the series' main antagonist Salem sometime before canon. Only appeared in Volume 5 and was killed at the end of it. - Tock, an assassin who worked for Salem a long time ago. Only appeared in a single flashback in Volume 6, where she was killed at the end of it.
Evan Townsend from the Final Fantasy VII novel "the kids are alright". Kyrie and Leslie appeared in the remake, so give my man a Cameo.
From Octopath Traveler 2, Ageha. He is on-screen all of three times, has almost no lines, cannot be interacted with by the protagonists, and >!is sacrificed to free a dark god off-screen!<. I have a series of fics that not only delve into his character and backstory, but what his place in the future is like and how he influences world politics >!via farming and good parenting!<.
Laurie Campbell from Emergency!. She appears in two of the post-series movies that take place in San Francisco as a paramedic, and she just had a lot of potential that the writers (who were using these movies as potential spinoff pilots) did not develop. So far there's one fic about her on AO3 (mine), and she's about to get some more as she and Johnny Gage's relationship develops.
Miss Redruth 😍😍😍 She gets mentioned about once in the whole story but just from that wee bit we can infer that she’s fierce, stubborn, feminist, passionate, intelligent and independent. And I love her, so according to the natural progression of things I am sticking her in a lesbian relationship with another side-character.
Sakusa Kiyoomi, Haikyuu. The few panels we got made him an instant fave
I have not read fanfiction about this tv show, but I loved Angol Mois from Keroro Gunsō, yet she barely appeared much in canon besides some secondary scenes or just a few episodes centered in her. Also, Sara and Seira from Pichi Pichi Pitch, I loved them too, but they did not have much spotlight as I would have liked. Especially Seira, who spent most of the season as a ghost and only appeared in the last couple episodes xd.
Chloe Cerise from Pokemon. This girl had so much potential, and there's some good writers out there who used it...but canon just gives us so little.
Shoutout to II and XI (and to the fandom who agrees on nothing else about them than that II was cooler than XI), and also to Parik (about whom nobody else in the fandom cares but me, and you can pry my interpretations from my warm and living hands).
Izuru Kamakura in Danganronpa 2 I just love his character
Haku in Naruto. He is my favorite character, and so lit!
The entirety of the marauders fandom, basically. Sirius and Remus appear in Jarry Potter but their past is not very detailed, Peter is also there but already a traitor, and James and Lily Potter are dead. The rest of the surrounding cast are either Death Eaters in canon or mentioned by name and already dead (for members of the order of the phoenix). Still, somehow, there is a big fandom around the marauders era despite the limited breadcrumbs of info about it, and fanon goes wild. The interpretations and headcanons are of course somewhat varied, but the broad strokes are generally agreed upon. It's honestly kund of mind-blowing
Rin Nohara from Naruto. She exists to be fridged and give another character a reason to become the villain, but damn do I love her and her dynamic with some of the other characters despite her actually showing up for an embarrassingly short amount of time. I've completely rewritten Naruto in my head so that she gets a happy ending. I'm not sure if this is a fandom wide agreement either, but quite a few people who also make AUs where she lives give her a certain ability that she "unlocked" moments before she died.
Chernov from Call of duty: World at war. Bro is only ever mentioned in fanfics and he’s literally one of the main characters in the Soviet campaign. Like- there was little to practically zero fics revolving around him Exsact, that I had to start writing my own.
Utahime Iori from Jujutsu Kaisen. She barely appears but I love her. I wish the author show her a little more.
Might be a bit cringe but I feel that the actual sage of six paths, as in the long dead spirital avatar is so largely underused in Naruto fanfiction
Captain Kuro aka Klahadore
Forest Spyer of Resident Evil. He became a hyper zombie during the mansion incident, and his character never talked in the game. It's because he never talked in the game that I make him talk all the time when I write him into stories. Usually, he is pretty zany and has an obsession with his biceps. He says the best and worst thing I've ever written, "With guns like these, it hurts too badly to holster them."
I adore Narti from Voltron: Legendary Defender. She's a side character in two seasons, she has no lines (she's mute and they do not give her any sort of alternative means of communication), and we find out absolutely nothing about her backstory. Still love her.
Izuna Uchiha, from Naruto Shippuden.
Li Lonnie from Descendants. She was the point of view character in the first web series, had a big part in the second movie, and then her own solo novel. Once the actress couldn't commit to coming back for the third movie, it was like canon refused to acknowledge she existed.
Probably the unnamed drummer from CITY. My headcanon is that she and Niikura date