Ensemble Darkhorse: Difference between revisions

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in every masterpiece there are supporting characters who outshine the protagonist.

The term "Dark Horse" has its origin in horse racing. A relatively unknown horse would be risky to place bets on, compared to a horse with a known track record, because the gamblers would be "in the dark," so when an unknown horse won a race it was called a "Dark Horse Victory." The term is also used in politics to describe a lesser known candidate who does better than expected in an election.

Generally, it's used to describe a side character making up part of the Ensemble, either a non-lead secondary character or a mere Flat Character, who can sometimes become 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 s/he is too much The Everyman).

The writers or producers may be tempted to Retool the show's premise to put them in the spotlight. Sometimes this works, but usually it's a bad idea for two reasons, both relating to what happens when you take a supporting character and move him or her into the protagonist's position. The first is that writers often "adjust" the character so that s/he can fit into a conventionally heroic role—in the process destroying the unconventional traits that made the character an Ensemble Darkhorse in the first place. The second is that if the writers don't do this, traits that were entertaining in a secondary character may become grating and unpleasant in The Protagonist.

However, it's still good business to bring Darkhorse characters back, even if they were originally meant to be featured for only a short time. Thus, episodes which do not specifically require a certain character will be more likely to use the Ensemble Darkhorse.

Occasionally, if an antagonist becomes a Darkhorse, the writer may decide to have him perform a Heel Face Turn in situations where the only other option is being killed by the protagonists. However, if the series doesn't have an end planned, it's more likely that he'll just escape.

If the Ensemble Darkhorse becomes an important character, they're now a Breakout Character. See also Adaptational Badass, Ascended Extra, Memetic Bystander, Lower Deck Episode, A Day in the Limelight, and One-Scene Wonder. Creator's Pet is the polar opposite, a character who the writer grows fond of but the fans do not. An antagonist who becomes popular despite the author's intentions is Draco in Leather Pants—an example of Misaimed Fandom. The natural extension of this is the Spotlight-Stealing Squad.

Examples of Ensemble Darkhorse are listed on these subpages:

Examples of Ensemble Darkhorse include:

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-==  Other ==
-* Good, old [[Poor Predictable Rock|rock]], ain't nothing that can beat that.
-* Pluto, the former planet. The outrage when it was downgraded to planetoid was unprecedented.
-** Too bad the astronomers played paper.
-* [[Voice Actors]] are quite possibly the biggest example of an Ensemble Darkhorse when it comes to actors. The Animation fanbase online quite often love various Voice Actors for all the work they do in Animation (and to a lesser extent Video games) and are often guests in various conventions. Unfortunately often enough they are generally the only audience that these people truly have. Which the fact that often enough they get little pay and companies often seem to see them as nothing more than cheap disposable labor is considered all the more disheartening. But sadly if you talk about Voice actors to normal people chances are they most likely will have no idea what you're talking about. (The only exceptions are generally folks who either used to be/[[Celebrity Voice Actor|still are]] well known for screen acting.)
-** Unfortunately it doesn't help that often enough many [[Vocal Minority|vocal]] fans of Voice actors are young adults [[Periphery Demographic|who are often not the Target Demographic of the shows they watch.]]
-*** [[Mel Blanc]] came from the Golden Age of American Radio, where it was possible to become famous based solely on voice work. He also got a lot of his fame in front of the camera playing comedic characters and guest starring on variety shows. [[Lucille Ball]], Orson Welles, and Jimmy Stuart also first became famous in radio. Even voice actors who weren't able to make the leap to the camera had fans with the older generations who remember the radio era. With that last group, it's less about being an Ensemble Darkhorse, and more about being a fading star as time marches on.
-** [[Names to Know in Anime|Japanese-wise]], the darkhorse seiyuu would be [[Norio Wakamoto]]. When seiyuu these days about the younger people, especially those catering to the more [[Moe]] archetypes, there's this old school [[Cool Old Guy]] seiyuu who stockpiles about classic and awesome villain roles. Thanks to his epic hammy performance, he's still viewed as one of the greatest seiyuu in business despite being not really the norm of this age's seiyuu (a man and old), and a [[Memetic Badass]] (and Real Life [[Badass]] too).
-* From [[Disney Theme Parks]], Figment is undoubtedly the most popular character at EPCOT, and the Hitchhiking Ghosts have become the unofficial mascots of ''[[The Haunted Mansion]]'', despite only showing up near the end.
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