Have you ever read a novel, comic, manga, watched a movie, play, TV show etc., and you found yourself invested in a side character? Ever cared for and felt more intrigued by that side character than the mains? If so, what character was it and what are some.things that make you so interested in them?
When I was playing Resident Evil 2 as a kid, I was really invested in Sherry, the kind of annoying, little girl side character that you have to escort around.
The fact that this zombie apocalypse game trojan-horsed a family drama into its plot was fun, and 12 year old me, who always picked the boy character when playing Pokemon, because I felt like I had to, was confronted with a lot of confusing feelings when RE2 made me play as Sherry.
Anyway, I’m Transgender now.
Alex Louis Armstrong in Full Metal Alchemist. He was such a kind soul in a cruel world. He gets treated like shit fairly often and he is very earnest in his affection towards Elric Brothers, maybe too earnest.
I’ll keep an eye for him. I just started FMA last night. I’m a whopping two episodes in.
It’s an incredible anime. One of the best, imo.
Hell yeah - FMA has so many good side characters!
My username is actually from a side character in Terry Gilliam’s first non-Python movie - Jabberwocky.
The protagonist, Dennis, is a cooper - a barrelmaker (actually he’s a tedious putz who can’t even manage to make a barrel, but that’s another story). Early on, he goes to make his fortune in the big city, where he meets a legendary cooper - “The Wat Dabney?! The inventor of the inverted firkin?!” - who has been reduced to begging because all of the business in the city is controlled by the guilds and they’ve shut him out.
Curiously, many years later I ran across a somewhat similar character in an entirely different medium who appealed to me the same way. This one is in a manga - The Voynich Hotel, by Dowman Sayman. They have a serious problem with the boiler in the eponymous hotel, so the protagonist sets out on a quest to track down a hermit who’s reputed to be able to fix anything - Tepes, the legendary second-rate boiler engineer.
I’m not sure what appeals to me about second-rate legendary craftsmen, but…
Four Weddings and a Funeral is a movie I adore entirely for the side characters, and pretty much ignore the two main characters and storyline completely.
The main friend group feels so real and alive and lovely, they’re charming and funny, and watching them be friends at their weddings and funeral feels like optimistic slice-of-life escapism. And beyond that, pretty much every other side character is memorable and funny and a joy to watch, especially Rowan Atkinson as the anxious priest. Great movie, 10/10, can’t remember the main characters at all.deleted by creator
At the moment I am hard pressed to think of a minor character who’s story arc has hit me as hard as My Hero Academia’s Jin Bubaigawara, also known as Twice. It’s probably because I wasn’t paying attention to him, his screw ups, and how those mistakes must have been affecting him. Selfless through and through.
Sad man’s parade.
