Ensemble Darkhorse/Fan Works

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Ensemble Darkhorses in Fan Works include:

  • Yawning Squirtle and Boulder-Dropping Whale in Sonichu, and Mary Lee Walsh, who is frequently the protagonist in various fanworks, and is drawn deliberately with a different design. This is mainly because many find that her real-life basis is actually pretty awesome. Plus, it ticks CWC off.
    • Bill the Scientist also qualifies for this, since he's also one of the Moon Pals.
  • Most Metal Gear fans who've seen Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy report little interest in Solid Snake's mildly Out of Character behaviour, but absolutely love Pierre Leclerc. He has a decent-sized Estrogen Brigade, is popular with Journal Roleplay, and gets fanfic written about him.
  • Brother-Captain Allen of Tiberium Wars - stoic, calm, quiet, efficient, scary, and perfectly willing to mutilate rapists and then hurl them out windows. Its no surprise that such a bit character has become so liked.
  • Harry Potter and the Guardian's Light gives us THE INDOMITABLE ARGUS FILCH. In the novels, he's a slightly scary background character. In the movies, he ranges from creepy to disgusting or comic relief. But in this fanfic, his first scene involves him arming himself alongside Hellboy and John Constantine to go into the black forest and fight an army of trolls. Turns out, while he's not a janitor he turns a profit selling enchanted weapons. After he helps demolish the trolls with ease, we next see him tracking Harry down in his invisibility cloak despite not knowing it's Harry, or that he's in an invisibility cloak. Recently, Voldemort invaded the castle with an army of trolls and Filch was first on scene. His response was to ask them for a hall pass. He then ducked around a corner and they traded some fire. He was ordered BY VOLDEMORT to surrender. His response to that was to blow a troll's brains out, and say; "Alright, I surrender, now come a little closer!" It's easy to see why Dumbledore trusts this man to clean his school's floors.
  • Dragonball Z Abridged has Nappa. In the actual series he was a bland Giant Mook that was killed relatively expediently, but in Abridged he is quite possibly the funniest character in the series, and the fans loved him for it, to the point where he got to reappear several times as a ghost. What's particularly funny is that Abridged!Nappa seems to be at least partially responsible for the actual Nappa becoming more popular over the years, with fans starting to appreciate him more thanks to TFS affiliate MasakoX's "What if Nappa Turned Good" series pointing out the surprising amount of potential he had as a character, among other things.
    • There is also popularity upon Super Kami Guru, Nail, Dodoria, Zarbon and The Ginyu Force (Specifically Recoome - these guys even got their own opening between Episodes 19 and 23.).
  • The moment Rocky and Adam stepped foot into Of Love and Bunnies, the story became almost as much about them as it did the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Power Rangers Dino Thunder.
  • Warriors the Abridged Series (the abriged series of Warrior Cats, not something else), the most popular characters are Bluestar, Redtail, Matthias and Rainstorm. Redtail and Matthias ech only appear in one scene. Well, there is Ghost Redtail, but then again, Redtail gained his popularity before that segment. And Ghost Redtail leaves when he realizes Tigerclaw doesn't like him.
  • While she was included mainly to intentionally avert the Ron the Death Eater treatment the character often gets, Ember in The Legend of Spyro: A New Dawn has been very well recieved by readers for being a kindhearted, friendly version of the character. This is part of the reason she ended up having a Day in The Limelight chapter were she defeated The Dragon of Empresss Tyrania, the Big Bad of the Gargoyle Story Arc, to save her father herself, instead of ending up a team boss fight as originally intended. This also enabled the writer to give her more character growth and an excuse to Take a Level In Badass, so it worked out in more ways than one.
  • Edfred in Naruto Veangance Revelaitons, who stands up to God Mode and Jerk Sue main character Ronan when he causes trouble in his store, making it clear he doesn't like him.
  • Brian Hahnel and Joan's dad (named Hugo by those on Twilight Sucks) were originally minor characters in Brewdening Love, a Twilight fanfic. Then the TS snarkers started shipping them, and the rest is history.
  • This Troper has inadvertently created his own Ensemble Darkhorse within his own fan fiction. In the story Memories, a minor character is introduced, the AI Cassandra, as little more than s ide character and plot device. Now, before the story has even been finished, this troper has accidentally developed the story to revolve around Cassandra's descent into rampancy, and is already planning further supplementary material based on the character and the consequences of her actions...
  • Then there's Pauline from the Tamers Forever Series Want to know how popular she is? There are Takari Fan Girls who ship Pauline and Takeru together. seriously
  • Three background ponies from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - Lightning Bolt, Cloud Kicker and Medley - had little screen time and almost no lines in the show. In Ace Combat: The Equestrian War, they are a part of a heroic squadron and become a Communications Officer, Plucky Girl and Little Miss Badass respectively.
  • Friendship Is Witchcraft gives us Sweetie Bot, who has become one of the most recognizable characters and even has her own Tumblr.