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Characters Who Were Introduced Early Into a Series & You Expected to be More Important Than They Ended Up Being

Maximum Spider

Maximum Spider

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Oct 25, 2017
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Whether it seems intentional or not, there's characters who'll appear early on in a series and give you the impression that you'll be seeing a lot more of them.

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One example of this is from Naruto. I remember watching the first few episodes of the anime and thinking that Naruto and Iruka's relationship felt particularly special and heartfelt, so it was a little shocking when I found out that Iruka didn't play much of a role in the series. He's still my favorite character and my main in all the Naruto games based on these early impressions of Iruka and the series.
 
Mekanos

Mekanos

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Not "early," per se, but I remember watching the Wire and when Brother Mouzone showed up in season 2 I thought he was gonna stick around as a major player:

brothermouzone.jpg


He came back for a few episodes in season 3 and that was it. It's too bad although I can see complaints that the character came off as kind of gimmicky and cartoonish compared to the rest of the show.
 
dougie4306

dougie4306

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Jul 15, 2021
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not a show but this dude in the karate kid

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first guy we meet that aint a larusso and he is in the movie for all of 5 minutes
 
DiipuSurotu

DiipuSurotu

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53,148
Jack's wife in Stargate

stargate.fandom.com

Sara O'Neill

Sara O'Neill was a female Tau'ri and the ex-wife of Colonel Jack O'Neill. After their son Charlie accidentally killed himself with Jack's gun, her relationship with Jack fell apart. After Jack returned from the first Abydos mission, she left, and their marriage ended. (Stargate) Two years after...
stargate.fandom.com stargate.fandom.com
 
Skel1ingt0n

Skel1ingt0n

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Oct 28, 2017
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Mekanos said:
Not "early," per se, but I remember watching the Wire and when Brother Mouzone showed up in season 2 I thought he was gonna stick around as a major player:

brothermouzone.jpg


He came back for a few episodes in season 3 and that was it. It's too bad although I can see complaints that the character came off as kind of gimmicky and cartoonish compared to the rest of the show.
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this is a great choice. Agreed.
 
RochHoch

RochHoch

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May 22, 2018
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Jujutsu Kaisen has a good one
For a little while, it seemed like Junpei would be an important character, the anime even teased it in the OP

Then he dies in a really depressing manner, and that's it, he's just gone
 
chiller

chiller

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Apr 23, 2021
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Babylon_5_1x11_22.jpg


N'Grath, the weird criminal underworld mantis-man alien from the 1st season of Babylon 5. What people need, he always seemed to have.
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

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Oct 25, 2017
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White Walkers in Game of Thrones. Did a twist where humanity's evils are the ultimate enemy.
 
Dark Knight

Dark Knight

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In retrospect, you'd think Vaati would be appearing more in Zelda. But nope, only Ganon constantly reincarnates.
 
y2kyle89

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The one I'm thinking of would be to big a spoiler to even hint at...

So to answer your question:
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Yes. I know how you feel OP,
 
UnluckyKate

UnluckyKate

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Oct 25, 2017
10,627
I'm just getting into the demon slayer train and this guy

1920

wow cool, an intense, cool looking, character with obvious ties with the hero's past and probable secret abilities, can't wait to see the interact together soon.

Well...
 
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King Alamat

King Alamat

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Nov 22, 2017
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Tatsuki from Bleach. She's Ichigo's oldest friend, Orihime's best friend, can sense ghosts, is a champion martial artist and contributes jack shit to the plot.
 
Altazor

Altazor

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Oct 25, 2017
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Chile
A lot, I mean *A LOT* of characters from LOST.

Libby, Eko, Ana Lucía, "Mr. Friendly", "Ms. Klugh", Mr. Abaddon, Cesar (was that his name? The one from the Ajira flight), Ilana, the fuckers from the Temple...

edit: I realize not all of them were introduced early but all of them had "significant"/"eerie" presences and ended up being... well, nothing.
 
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Cvie

Cvie

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Oct 25, 2017
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RochHoch said:
Jujutsu Kaisen has a good one
For a little while, it seemed like Junpei would be an important character, the anime even teased it in the OP

Then he dies in a really depressing manner, and that's it, he's just gone
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good one i never read the manga
Seeing him in the OP i was like way to spoil how this works out lol
 
Dreamwriter

Dreamwriter

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Oct 27, 2017
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Neville Longbottom. When I read the first book, I thought there were four main characters in the series. Then he kinda got sidelined until the end.
 
Vee

Vee

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Oct 27, 2017
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I'm cheating a bit because she's not introduced early but in hitman reborn:
katekyo_hitman_reborn_khr_chrome_dokuro_cosplay_costume_1521980312_4ccd21b3.jpg

Miss wasted potential herself, the only female member of the Vongola family and the only thing she trys hard at is rivaling Tsuna in how pathetic a character can be written. Sakura in naruto is a prodigy compared to her.

This pic sums up Chromes entire character in Reborn:
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Mekanos

Mekanos

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Altazor said:
A lot, I mean *A LOT* of characters from LOST.

Libby, Eko, Ana Lucía, "Mr. Friendly", "Ms. Klugh", Mr. Abaddon, Cesar (was that his name? The one from the Ajira flight), Ilana, the fuckers from the Temple...
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Yeah you could fill a whole show with LOST characters that stuck around for just a season or two. I feel like that was kinda by design and we also lucked out with the reverse happening; Michael Emerson was gonna be a low level Others spy that gets killed off before the producers loved his performance and turned him into the leader, rest is history.
 
Altazor

Altazor

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Mekanos said:
Yeah you could fill a whole show with LOST characters that stuck around for just a season or two. I feel like that was kinda by design and we also lucked out with the reverse happening; Michael Emerson was gonna be a low level Others spy that gets killed off before the producers loved his performance and turned him into the leader, rest is history.
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yeah, he was absolutely great. Whatever my gripes with LOST are (and they are *plenty*), Michael Emerson is not one of them.
 
deimosmasque

deimosmasque

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DiipuSurotu said:
Jack's wife in Stargate

stargate.fandom.com

Sara O'Neill

Sara O'Neill was a female Tau'ri and the ex-wife of Colonel Jack O'Neill. After their son Charlie accidentally killed himself with Jack's gun, her relationship with Jack fell apart. After Jack returned from the first Abydos mission, she left, and their marriage ended. (Stargate) Two years after...
stargate.fandom.com stargate.fandom.com
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Why? They were already stared to be divorced in the first episode of SG1 and there relationship was obviously on its last legs in the movie.
 
Lowblood

Lowblood

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Oct 30, 2017
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King Alamat said:
491


Tatsuki from Bleach. She's Ichigo's oldest friend, Orihime's best friend, can sense ghosts, is a champion martial artist and contributes jack shit to the plot.
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It's been a while since I read Bleach, but I feel like there was a chapter that implied Tatsuki (and maybe Ichigo's two idiot friends) might develop powers of their own at some point, just from being around Ichigo and all the spiritual events and such.

Guess not, though. Instead, meet these eight brand new characters who will never contribute to the plot, ever!
 
SatoAilDarko

SatoAilDarko

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Oct 25, 2017
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Absolutely agree about Iruka OP. It was always weird that perhaps the character closest to Naruto for years barely appears.
 
Joshua

Joshua

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Oct 27, 2017
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Meghan Markle appeared as a new FBI character in the first 2 episodes of Fringe Season 2. Her role was as a new audience surrogate, seemed to carry a bit of weight, and they seemed to be setting her up to figure out the weird shit that the Fringe team were up to. But after those two eps she is never heard from again.
 
HustleBun

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Nov 12, 2017
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UnluckyKate said:
I'm just getting into the demon slayer train and this guy

1920


wow cool, an intense, cool looking, character with obvious ties with the hero's past and probable secret abilities, can't wait to see the interact together soon.

Well...
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Uh....

Watching this movie tonight. Really hope you didn't just drop a massive spoiler.
 

pdog128

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Dec 16, 2017
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I guess if you didn't read the books.
350
 
ClearMetal

ClearMetal

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Oct 25, 2017
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Red-Haired Shanks from One Piece. As huge as an influence as he was on Luffy and as important as he is in the setting as one of the Four Emperors, we haven't seen much at all of him after the first chapters. Seeing his portrait reappear in the short character profiles section of each volume, where only the important characters for that arc are listed, was getting a bit silly after ~400 chapters of him doing absolutely jack shit.

And when he finally appeared and shit got real, he was gone as quick as he arrived. Which was... 500 chapters ago by now?*

Now it should be noted One Piece is of course still ongoing and he will have his role to play eventually... But boy does Oda take his time with him.

* I haven't read the current Wano arc yet, so I happily stand corrected if it turns out he actually plays a role in it. Though from what I've seen and read about the current arc... that doesn't seem likely.
 
BossAttack

BossAttack

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Oct 27, 2017
43,254
Furio.

Dude shows up as the Italian Terminator but then very quickly is pushed more and more into the background until he has to just disappear off the planet.

01-Furio-Giunta-Federico-Castelluccio-The-Sopranos-party-shirts.jpg
 
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