Hero of Another Story: Difference between revisions

* The ending to ''[[Batman Returns (Film)|Batman Returns]]'' suggests Catwoman will become this. Also counts as a [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]]... [[Catwoman (Film)|sorta]].

** Also in ''[[Batman Forever (Film)|Batman Forever]]'', Metropolis is mentioned, with the implication [[Superman]] exists in this world. In ''[[Batman and Robin (Film)|Batman and Robin]]'', his name is actually brought up.

* In ''[[Harold and Kumar]] Go To White Castle'', Goldstein and Rosenberg are on their own quest for Hot Dog Heaven. Their names are an homage to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who serve this function in ''Hamlet''.

* ''Cloverfield''. The main characters end up lugging a camera about when the monsters attack and naturally start filming the weirdness. On the bridge they see another guy doing the same thing. [[Word of God]] says this is a [[Sequel Hook]].

* There are so many characters in [[Harry Potter]] that would make good protagonists, including Neville Longbottom, Severus Snape, and Albus Dumbledore.

** And Nymphadora Tonks. She's probably just slumming in this series; surely she is off having awesome Auror adventures at other times.

** Nicolas Flamel probably would have a pretty interesting story to tell, considering that he lived for more than 650 years.

** Neville is an interesting case, because it ''could'' have been his story had Voldemort made different choices. As it stands, there's an entire alternate [[Power Trio]] in ''Deathly Hallows'' (Neville, Luna and Ginny) with enough stories to take up an entire novel.

**** That just makes him a recurring character, however. Telford does not appear outside the SGU series, and isn't implied to have a significant role off-screen.

* On ''[[The 4400]]'', we have Jed Garrity, another NTAC agent who seems to be the only other person in that department. Incidentally, he's played by the same actor who played Lorne over on [[Stargate Atlantis|SGA]]

** According to the two-parter "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky", the Brigadier still takes assignments to Peru in his old age. After years of frustrated fans clamoring "Come on! Nicholas Courtney's not getting any younger!" he finally appeared on TV for the first time since 1989 in series 2 of ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures (TV)|The Sarah Jane Adventures]].''

* Captain Erika Hernandez of the ''Columbia'' in ''[[Star Trek Enterprise (TV)|Star Trek Enterprise]]''.

* The day shifts on ''[[Homicide Life On the Street (TV)|Homicide Life On the Street]]'' and ''[[CSI (TV)|CSI]]''.

* Detective Profaci on ''[[Law and Order (TV)|Law and Order]]'', who was eventually a casualty in a [[Tonight Someone Dies]] episode (not killed, but arrested for corruption, and exited stage left just the same).

* Commander Turner was the most visible of several JAG officers who served this purpose on ''[[JAG (TV)|JAG]]''.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV)|Supernatural]]'' did this in its first season, alluding to other hunters associated with the Winchesters, most notably Pastor Jim and Caleb, each mentioned in multiple episodes before a demon who was hunting down the boy's contacts killed them. This same storyline introduced [[The Cavalry|Bobby]], who they were able to warn in time, and who has become the longest-living recurring character of the show.

** Early season six has an episode focusing on Bobby, with the brothers only appearing briefly.

** E. J. Barrett.

** Special Agent Chris Pacci, before he was killed in season 1.

** And to hammer the point home, much of Maynard's time spent visiting Babylon 5 had him and Sheridan trading stories about what they'd done over the years since they last met.

* The cast of ''[[Friends (TV)|Friends]]'' includes a great number of minor characters and guest stars who serve as love interests for the main characters, but only a handful last more than an episode or two. Of all the secondary characters, only Mike (Paul Rudd) convincingly suggests a character whose life does not revolve around the main characters. Although one of the stars, Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) also repeatedly implies that she has a very strange life going on off-screen.

* ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'': [[Meta Guy]] Abed sees his life as a collection of tropes. In one episode he remarks that "we did lean on that pretty hard last week. I could lie low for an episode." He doesn't have many lines in the rest of the episode but he can be seen in the background of another scene delivering a baby, which gets a call back in the next season when Troy asks if he just always has his own little adventures, which include ticking off a list of the "quintessential list of college experiences," a list of college film tropes. In another episode we learn he [[Becoming the Mask|became the mask]] during an trip to the set of Cougar Town and had several imaginary adventures. Presumably, other characters like Annie's Boobs have active off-camera lives.

** There's another study group on campus that apparently features Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Starburns.

** The standalone features ''Razor'' and ''The Plan'' tell the other stories: in ''Razor'' the protagonist is an officer on the Pegasus, while ''The Plan'' retells events from the Cylons' viewpoint.

* In ''[[The Walking Dead (TV)|The Walking Dead]]'''s first season the protagonists meet a group of what at first they think are gangbangers who turn out to be protecting a bunch of senior citizens too fragile to be moved. We never find out what happens to them. Likewise Morgan and his son.

 

== Video Games ==

** Similarly, other games in the ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' series will have Route Splits, where the player can choose one of two or three different paths for a few missions. Whichever one the player picks, the rest of the team fulfills this trope and takes care of business on their own.

*** One such split in ''[[Super Robot Wars W|W]]'' can actually put the ''player'' into this role: {{spoiler|While trying to track down [[Full Metal Panic|Kaname and Tessa]] in [[Gundam Seed|Orb]], the [[Great Mazinger|Mycene]] [[Mazinkaiser|Empire]] attacks all over the world. After fighting off the monsters sent to attack Orb, you rush off to Paris to help your other teammates there, and arrive just in time to see Mazinkaiser, Great Mazinger, and Shin [[Getter Robo]] [[Combination Attack|finish off]] Ankoku Daishogun.}}

** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: Just as your character was being transported to the island because {{spoiler|you are the messiah-like Nerevarine}}, fate sent Jiub there to clear it of [[Goddamn Bats]].

* Crowe in [[Star Ocean the Last Hope]] is a perfect example, traveling the universe and having adventures with his own ship and later serving as [[The Cavalry]] several times for the main party.

* Both, Felix and Isaac's group in both ''[[Golden Sun (Video Game)|Golden Sun]]'' games. In the first game, Felix is on a quest with the antagonists to unleash Alchemy on the world and you hear a few people mention about him and his group as you travel. In the sequel, you take over Felix's role while occasionally hearing tales about Isaac's group as you travel. {{spoiler|Isaac and Felix's parties finally meet at one point and they team up to finish Felix's quest.}}

* Many of the characters you encounter in ''[[Time Splitters]] Future Perfect'' are this.

* When the [[Left 4 Dead 2]] group meets the [[Left 4 Dead]] group in ''The Passing'', each group is this to the other group.

* In ''[[The Trail of Anguish (Video Game)|The Trail of Anguish]]'', Chris is just a cute boy to you,, but he claims to be on some unrevealed adventure of his own.

* ''[[Fire Emblem Jugdral|Fire Emblem Thracia 776]]'' is essentially this for Leaf, a supporting character from ''Fire Emblem Seisen No Keifu'''s second half. The game takes place a year before the second half of Seisen no Keifu and follows Leaf in the Thracian Peninsula fighting against a smaller division of the evil cult that form the main enemies of Seisen no Keifu.

* This happens roughly [[Once an Episode|once per game]] in the ''[[Summon Night]]: Swordcraft Story'' series. Particulary obvious in the second, where a [[Power Trio]] seeeking out a [[MacGuffin]] of some sort briefly cross paths with you and team up to the fight the local baddie, then continue their quest. That would make you this in relation to them, for that matter.

[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]

[[Category:Hero Of Another Story]]