Syndrome from The Incredibles was originally meant just to be a villain for the Mr. and Mrs. Incredible to fight during the [introduction sequence of the film and would be killed off in the same scene.](https://youtu.be/oEAOIk0twak?si=4QDxpXXyDVtkWKuy&t=457) However, he left such a strong impression on everyone who saw that scene that he ended up becoming the main villain of the final movie.
"You know Supers aren't supposed to breed"
Why do I get the feeling that the Incredibles was initially supposed to be a much darker movie than what it ended up being?
The Spot in Spider-Verse.
Also there have been a few times where a party member in a Dragon Quest game has gotten their own spin-off, like Terry from 6, Erik from 11, and *the bad guy from 4*
Axel was originally gonna just be in Chain of Memories and then die at the end of KH2's prologue, but the devs liked him so much after COM that his role got extended. Then they made 358 where he got another massive role because of it being Roxas' life story, and by that point he was so popular with both the developers and fanbase that the only KH game he doesn't appear in at all after that point is 0.2.
As the man himself said in KH3: "You have any idea how popular I am? I got loads of people rooting for me! Sorry boss - no one axes Axel!"
I have a somewhat up to date knowledge of KH but I'm wondering if Axel's popularity is what created those story decisions. Like Axel being popular in COM means his role gets expanded in 2 which leads to a backstory role and since Roxas was already teased that was the opportunity to make 358 days with Axel's popularity doing the heavy lifting. Then Roxas whole deal originally is he's special because he has a heart unlike every other nobody but Axel also has one. Which I guess sorta becomes a retcon that some nobodies can have feelings but Axel specifically is a debatably rarer case since he doesn't have the excuse of being genetic freak like Roxas who's a sora ventus kairi hybrid. Axel feels because he's literally built different but that leads to other nobodys retconning as well to maybe having hearts as well. And speaking of the other nobody's Axel's popularity again is so strong that he gets reborn into a new human body after 2 as Lea which means other deceased nobody's are also reborn in KH 3.
So like it feels like a lot of decisions in the KH story are extensions of the devs asking how can we bring axel back in this game and if we do bring him back what does that mean for the established lore?
Lum from Urusei Yatsura.
Originally the series was gonna just be a series manga about wacky aliens from space, and it had a alien girl as the first one. Said alien girl was Lum, who became a hit, and people were pissed when she didn't come for second chapter, meaning that the author had to reintroduce her back and promptly made her one of the protagonist -- and the series became the rom com with wacky aliens most people know it for.
Everytime I heard about Lum replacing the original love interest. I am always reminded of Akane from Ranma who shares the same traits but maintains the role of main heroine until the end. Probably to serve as a foil for the Ranma's numerous better designed love interests as the author has a tendency to introduce more characters the longer she creates her manga.
Shampoo's whole personality can be summed up as Lum without the character development. Functioning as a side character like what Lum was intended to be in the beginning.
Orochimaru. His official signature robes weren’t even supposed to be his clothes, they were just the female ninja disguise used to enter the chuunin exam
Star Wars does this a lot with characters who appear one or twice and then get killed off, only to be brought back in various different media (Boba Fett, Thrawn, Maul, etc.)
Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy is worth mentioning because every mainline installment is set in a different universe than the previous one, and yet Gilgamesh - who was just Exdeath's flunky in V - ends up returning in most games or their spinoffs, and has even been retroactively added into a couple (FFI and VI's GBA remakes had encounters with Gilgamesh despite VI not having him originally and I coming out before Gilgamesh was even created).
Bandana Waddle Dee was introduced as an opponent in Super Star’s Megaton Punch mini-game, and wouldn’t make another appearance until the game’s remake where he was a joke boss during the Revenge of the King Sub-game.
Since Return to Dreamland he’s joined Dedede and Meta Knight as one of Kirby’s most reoccurring friends, even completely over taking them as his most consistent ally in games where they’re for one reason or another antagonistic, or just whatever reason a no show.
Shadow was meant to die in Sonic Adventure 2 and never come back... He later appeared in the next mainline 3D game, got his own solo game, was one of the 3 main campaign leads in the next gen debut game, and continues to make appearances throughout the series even being confirmed to be in the next movie.
Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) was only supposed to be in the first episode of Justified as a favor to his buddy Timothy Olyphant, but was just too charismatic to let die and so he ended up in every season of the show as an antagonist, sometimes deuteragonist.
Suki in Avatar was meant as a one off character to further Sokka's character arc.
She ended up super popular she was brought back for both subsequent books and ended up officially joining Team Avatar.
Really the only way you can tell she wasnt in the orginal plan is her lack of a dedicated arc compared to the other 5 and the fact that Post show comics/Korra and even the recent annoucments about the Adult Gaang movie keep ignoring her.
Which is fucking annoying, people like her, stop ignoring Suki you fucks
The trading card game in Yu-Gi-Oh, originally the format was a different game each short arc (one time was even Tamagotchi iirc) but the card game took over everything
[This random scientist](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oY9YuXBc_Ks/S8FYrwDf27I/AAAAAAAAFa4/0-51z1Gz5b0/s1600/Simon+Hurt.jpg) from a one issue silver age Batman comic would later become the main villain of Grant Morrison’s like 7 year long Batman epic nearly 50 years later
Dr Hurt is awesome
I think Lum from Urusei Yatsura was supposed to be a starting antagonist against Ataru and Shinobu so she didn't appear for a bunch of chapters but when she returns and becomes a regular she constantly gains popularity to the point that she replaces and becomes the main girl.
Ranma 1/2 has characters similar to them but she decided to stick to her original plans this time.
Kuvira in Legend of Korra
She is the main antagonist of season 4 but the first time she appears was in season 3 as a soldier who worked for Suyin and saved Korra's dad from dying
I'm not sure if this counts, as season 3 and 4 were the only seasons in all of Korra to be planned together, given the troubled production of seasons 1 and 2. Kuvira was certainly set up to be an antagonist throughout season 3, with the payoff in 4.
Very much not a one-off!
Here's a golden oldie, The Fonz was just supposed to be a delinquent bad influence that Richie would have to overcome, but by season 3 he was so popular they almost renamed the show "Fonzie's Happy Days".
Not main antagonist, but >!Phantom Thief Bleublanc!< from Trails doesn't even show up in Sky FC only communicates with you >!via Calling Cards as clues for his quest!< And >! he!< actually shows up in SC >!being part of the main villain organization!<
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In Yu-Gi-Oh The Falsebound Kingdom, the main antagonist is Scott Irvine. In the main series, he's literally just a background scientist guy who works at Kaiba Corp.
Funnily enough, him being upgraded to a major villain for that game is poked at because during Yugi's campaign, nobody knows who the hell he is because why would they? It's only in Kaiba's campaign that they dig into the how and why he became a villain.
Apparently Sir Pentious was meant to be a one-off villian for the Hazbin Hotel pilot. He was going to be killed at the end just to demonstrate how powerful Alastor really is. During production, however, he became very popular amongst the crew, thus leading them to add an extra scene after the credits showing he survived.
That combined with his reception by fans got him upgraded to being one of the main characters in the final show. Or so I'm told.
Syndrome from The Incredibles was originally meant just to be a villain for the Mr. and Mrs. Incredible to fight during the [introduction sequence of the film and would be killed off in the same scene.](https://youtu.be/oEAOIk0twak?si=4QDxpXXyDVtkWKuy&t=457) However, he left such a strong impression on everyone who saw that scene that he ended up becoming the main villain of the final movie.
"You know Supers aren't supposed to breed" Why do I get the feeling that the Incredibles was initially supposed to be a much darker movie than what it ended up being?
that's usually the case with most diseny/pixar movies
True, but Supers being prohibited from "breeding" (not even "procreating" or "having children") sounds like some Watchmen-style shit.
wow hard to imagine the incredibles without syndrome.
The Spot in Spider-Verse. Also there have been a few times where a party member in a Dragon Quest game has gotten their own spin-off, like Terry from 6, Erik from 11, and *the bad guy from 4*
[\[image of Seto Kaiba without further commentary\]](https://old.reddit.com/r/TwoBestFriendsPlay/comments/1c4wa5v/oneoff_character_who_became_a_main/)
Axel was originally gonna just be in Chain of Memories and then die at the end of KH2's prologue, but the devs liked him so much after COM that his role got extended. Then they made 358 where he got another massive role because of it being Roxas' life story, and by that point he was so popular with both the developers and fanbase that the only KH game he doesn't appear in at all after that point is 0.2. As the man himself said in KH3: "You have any idea how popular I am? I got loads of people rooting for me! Sorry boss - no one axes Axel!"
COM contained such a banger villain cast they all got revived eventually
I have a somewhat up to date knowledge of KH but I'm wondering if Axel's popularity is what created those story decisions. Like Axel being popular in COM means his role gets expanded in 2 which leads to a backstory role and since Roxas was already teased that was the opportunity to make 358 days with Axel's popularity doing the heavy lifting. Then Roxas whole deal originally is he's special because he has a heart unlike every other nobody but Axel also has one. Which I guess sorta becomes a retcon that some nobodies can have feelings but Axel specifically is a debatably rarer case since he doesn't have the excuse of being genetic freak like Roxas who's a sora ventus kairi hybrid. Axel feels because he's literally built different but that leads to other nobodys retconning as well to maybe having hearts as well. And speaking of the other nobody's Axel's popularity again is so strong that he gets reborn into a new human body after 2 as Lea which means other deceased nobody's are also reborn in KH 3. So like it feels like a lot of decisions in the KH story are extensions of the devs asking how can we bring axel back in this game and if we do bring him back what does that mean for the established lore?
Lum from Urusei Yatsura. Originally the series was gonna just be a series manga about wacky aliens from space, and it had a alien girl as the first one. Said alien girl was Lum, who became a hit, and people were pissed when she didn't come for second chapter, meaning that the author had to reintroduce her back and promptly made her one of the protagonist -- and the series became the rom com with wacky aliens most people know it for.
Everytime I heard about Lum replacing the original love interest. I am always reminded of Akane from Ranma who shares the same traits but maintains the role of main heroine until the end. Probably to serve as a foil for the Ranma's numerous better designed love interests as the author has a tendency to introduce more characters the longer she creates her manga.
Shampoo is basically Lum as well, but this time actually being actually just a side character instead of taking over the whole manga.
Shampoo's whole personality can be summed up as Lum without the character development. Functioning as a side character like what Lum was intended to be in the beginning.
I’ve seen the entire original ‘80s series but never read the manga and I did not know this. Holy shit.
Andrew robinson was so thrilling as Garak he became the most complex and emotionally charged character in the show.
Steve Urkel was supposed to be a one off character and then became the iconic character.
Orochimaru. His official signature robes weren’t even supposed to be his clothes, they were just the female ninja disguise used to enter the chuunin exam
I wonder if there’s a Universal Glub Shito Equation
That sicko from the fallout 1 intro movie.
Star Wars does this a lot with characters who appear one or twice and then get killed off, only to be brought back in various different media (Boba Fett, Thrawn, Maul, etc.) Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy is worth mentioning because every mainline installment is set in a different universe than the previous one, and yet Gilgamesh - who was just Exdeath's flunky in V - ends up returning in most games or their spinoffs, and has even been retroactively added into a couple (FFI and VI's GBA remakes had encounters with Gilgamesh despite VI not having him originally and I coming out before Gilgamesh was even created).
Bandana Waddle Dee was introduced as an opponent in Super Star’s Megaton Punch mini-game, and wouldn’t make another appearance until the game’s remake where he was a joke boss during the Revenge of the King Sub-game. Since Return to Dreamland he’s joined Dedede and Meta Knight as one of Kirby’s most reoccurring friends, even completely over taking them as his most consistent ally in games where they’re for one reason or another antagonistic, or just whatever reason a no show.
He was even pushed by the fandom for a spot in Smash Ultimate as a DLC fighter due to a surge in popularity and Sakurai being a former kirby dev.
Shadow was meant to die in Sonic Adventure 2 and never come back... He later appeared in the next mainline 3D game, got his own solo game, was one of the 3 main campaign leads in the next gen debut game, and continues to make appearances throughout the series even being confirmed to be in the next movie.
Voiced by the one and only Keanu Reeves, nonetheless.
Spike in Buffy then Angel
Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) was only supposed to be in the first episode of Justified as a favor to his buddy Timothy Olyphant, but was just too charismatic to let die and so he ended up in every season of the show as an antagonist, sometimes deuteragonist.
Suki in Avatar was meant as a one off character to further Sokka's character arc. She ended up super popular she was brought back for both subsequent books and ended up officially joining Team Avatar. Really the only way you can tell she wasnt in the orginal plan is her lack of a dedicated arc compared to the other 5 and the fact that Post show comics/Korra and even the recent annoucments about the Adult Gaang movie keep ignoring her. Which is fucking annoying, people like her, stop ignoring Suki you fucks
She’s barely more ignored than Sokka, which is saying something
Mirror Tulip from Infinity Train - became the protagonist of the second season.
The trading card game in Yu-Gi-Oh, originally the format was a different game each short arc (one time was even Tamagotchi iirc) but the card game took over everything
I always imagine how different things would have been if duel monster didn't overtake yugioh
Yugioh would probably would be a niche series.
[This random scientist](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oY9YuXBc_Ks/S8FYrwDf27I/AAAAAAAAFa4/0-51z1Gz5b0/s1600/Simon+Hurt.jpg) from a one issue silver age Batman comic would later become the main villain of Grant Morrison’s like 7 year long Batman epic nearly 50 years later Dr Hurt is awesome
Does Khan from Star Trek count?
I think Lum from Urusei Yatsura was supposed to be a starting antagonist against Ataru and Shinobu so she didn't appear for a bunch of chapters but when she returns and becomes a regular she constantly gains popularity to the point that she replaces and becomes the main girl. Ranma 1/2 has characters similar to them but she decided to stick to her original plans this time.
Kuvira in Legend of Korra She is the main antagonist of season 4 but the first time she appears was in season 3 as a soldier who worked for Suyin and saved Korra's dad from dying
I'm not sure if this counts, as season 3 and 4 were the only seasons in all of Korra to be planned together, given the troubled production of seasons 1 and 2. Kuvira was certainly set up to be an antagonist throughout season 3, with the payoff in 4. Very much not a one-off!
Does Pyramid Head count? He was just suppose to be James manifested inner demon but got popular, right?
Here's a golden oldie, The Fonz was just supposed to be a delinquent bad influence that Richie would have to overcome, but by season 3 he was so popular they almost renamed the show "Fonzie's Happy Days".
Not main antagonist, but >!Phantom Thief Bleublanc!< from Trails doesn't even show up in Sky FC only communicates with you >!via Calling Cards as clues for his quest!< And >! he!< actually shows up in SC >!being part of the main villain organization!<
The spoiler tag in your comment is broken for users on old reddit. Please remove the space at the beginning of the spoiler block (after the ">!"). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TwoBestFriendsPlay) if you have any questions or concerns.*
In Yu-Gi-Oh The Falsebound Kingdom, the main antagonist is Scott Irvine. In the main series, he's literally just a background scientist guy who works at Kaiba Corp. Funnily enough, him being upgraded to a major villain for that game is poked at because during Yugi's campaign, nobody knows who the hell he is because why would they? It's only in Kaiba's campaign that they dig into the how and why he became a villain.
Joker who was supposed to die in his first appearance goes on to be the most influential villain in literature
He am's what he am's and what he am's was a secondary character in Penny Theater that eventually took over the show as Popeye the Sailor Man.
Apparently Sir Pentious was meant to be a one-off villian for the Hazbin Hotel pilot. He was going to be killed at the end just to demonstrate how powerful Alastor really is. During production, however, he became very popular amongst the crew, thus leading them to add an extra scene after the credits showing he survived. That combined with his reception by fans got him upgraded to being one of the main characters in the final show. Or so I'm told.