Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Difference between revisions

* During her first arc in ''[[The World God Only Knows]]'', Kanon Nakagawa drew a lot of hate for being a [[:Category:Yandere|Yandere]] [[Attention Whore]]. Her later role in the story shows her softer, much more likable side, and the fandom has mostly warmed up to her.

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', Chisame was fairly unpopular early in the series for her excessively abrasive personality. Then Mahorafest rolled around and [[Character Development|developed her]] into an [[Only Sane Man]] / [[Meta Guy]] / [[Audience Surrogate]], at which point she was much more well received.

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Sailor Moon]] Millenials'' gives [[Bratty Half-Pint|Chibi-Usa]] this treatment by having her come back from the future ''as a [[She's All Grown Up|teenager]]''. She isn't quite [[Future Badass]] levels, but the upgrade from Sailor Chibi Moon to Neo Sailor Moon has clearly [[Took a Level In Badass|done some good things for her]].

* ''[[Ultimate Sleepwalker|Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams]]'' and ''[[Ultimate SpiderWoman|Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With The Light]]'' both deliberately emphasize this trope. Heroes and villains alike who are typically [[C-List Fodder]] in the official comics are given the spotlight, as the author very deliberately subverts the traditional pecking order of the Marvel Universe. In this universe, characters like Sleepwalker and Darkhawk take center stage away from the likes of Wolverine and the Punisher, while villains like 8-Ball, the Dreadknight, Jack O' Lantern and Firebrand are just as dangerous as the likes of the Green Goblin or Bullseye.

* ''[[Hunting the Unicorn]]'' does this for [[Glee|Blaine Anderson]] due to the story's [[Cerebus Retcon]] fleet. Klaine is a shallow [[Fairy Tale]] romance? The story's plot parallels '''''[[The Last Unicorn]].''''' Blaine is a [[Relationship Sue]]? With his [[Lonely Rich Kid|nonexistent]] [[Dysfunction Junction|family]] and [[Break the Cutie|incredibly damaged]] [[Heroic Self-Deprecation|self-esteem]], it's no wonder [[Love Martyr|he'd latch onto Kurt so fast]]. They're [[But Not Too Gay|too chaste?]] It turns out in Blaine's last relationship, {{spoiler|''he tried to invoke '''[[Sex Equals Love]]'''.}} [[It Got Worse|At sixteen.]]'' [[Tear Jerker|And it didn't work.]] Essentially, Blaine is why an actual [[Relationship Sue]] would [[Deconstruction Fic|desperately need therapy]]<ref>which he's actually gotten</ref> [[The Woobie|and hugs]]. Most of the readers are already Klaine fans, but a few of them didn't like Blaine at all before reading the fic.

* The ''[[Pony POV Series]]'' does a combination of this and [[Alas, Poor Scrappy]] with {{spoiler|the ''entire G3 world''. The biggest complaint about G3 were the characters were bland and seemed to all have the same personality and stuck so close to the model it was hard to tell them apart.}} So how does the fic do this? {{spoiler|[[The End of the World as We Know It]]. Their universe begins to ''die'' because the spell used to make their world "perfect" violates the laws of magic and the laws of the universe to the point it begins to ''break'', and threaten to take the timeline with it. The only way to stop this is with a [[Cosmic Retcon]] by [[Physical God|the Alicorns and Draconequi]], essentially erasing the timeline, and its inhabitants, from existence so the timeline can be saved. As their world dies, the characters [[Take a Level In Badass]] and undergrow character growth in response to what they're faced with, becoming complex and likable characters...which makes it that much of a [[Tear Jerker]] when they ultimately fail to save their world in the end, resulting in the creation of the G4 timeline.}}

* Wesley was probably [[The Scrappy]] of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', and seemed to remain under this shadow at first when transferring over to ''[[Angel]]''. However, he quickly improved, and after a couple of seasons and a great deal of character development, he was one of the more fleshed out and well-rounded characters on the show.

** Connor, after the Wolfram Hart [[Deal with the Devil]] that Angel made, came out a much nicer, sane, laid-back fellow after having {{spoiler|new memories and a new upbringing put in}}. Even after he {{spoiler|got his memories back}}, he still was much improved.

** Dawn on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]].'' Her very existence was a [[Cosmic Retcon]], and many felt that she was a whiny [[Damsel Scrappy]]. In the last season she loses some of her angst issues and becomes a sort of junior Watcher, helping the rest of the team in research.

** All of Wesley's reappearances were better than almost any episode he had a major role in during the first four seasons. One of them ("The First Duty") is generally considered to be one of the show's best episodes.

*** "The Game" is another decent example. A popular episode, Wesley manages to serve as a non-irritating protagonist (aided by Ashley Judd) and isn't even the one to [[Big Damn Heroes|save the day]].

** Jake and Rom as well - to a certain extent, anyway. Jake grew up along with Nog and Rom became somewhat more likable when it turned out that he could do things besides screw up.

** Julian Bashir was ''intended'' to be a Scrappy eventually rescued by humanizing flaws.

** This was later lampshaded in the final episode of 24. In that episode, Jack actually said something along the lines of "When you first came to CTU, I never thought it was going to be you that was going to cover my back all those years." to Chloe during their final conversation. Chloe later has the final line of the series, "Shut it down" before the 24 countdown clock times out.

** Kimberly used have loads of hatred for being the [[Damsel Scrappy]] but this changed as she grew up. When this happened is debatable, though - most would argue Day 7, when she apologises to Jack for how she acted after he came back from the dead, or Day 8, when she tells him to go back to CTU regardless of whatever plans he had with her, but some say Day 3, when she was working for CTU and managed to make herself useful more often than not.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* In the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' universe, no faction was more Scrappy-ish than the Necrons. Personality-less, undying metal skeletons with living gods as their masters who were forced into the canon in one of the most awkward [[retcon]]s (with so many mysteries being solved with 'C'tan Did It!') since the Squats were made [[Ret-Gone]]. Their rules were even worse, going from brokenly overpowered in 3rd and 4th Edition to incredibly nerfed and underpowered in 5th Edition. Now with a fancy new coat of Mat Ward's signature 5th Edition paint, the Necrons have gone from a faceless, voiceless phalanx of overcosted metal zombies to a vast, balanced, undead empire lead by some of the craziest, most enigmatic overlords in 40K lore.

* The ''[[Pathfinder]]'' book ''Misfit Monsters Redeemed'' [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|attempts to do this]] for [[Reconstruction|ten of the corniest monsters]] in [[Dungeons and Dragons|D&D]] history. (Including the infamous [[Our Monsters Are Weird|flumph]], no less.)

[[Category:Index to The Rescue]]

[[Category:YMMV Trope]]

[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]

[[Category:Esoteric Trope Names]]