People Explain Which Side Characters Deserved More Of The Spotlight Than The Main Character
Be it a novel, play, television show, or movie, it has a protagonist.
Because, frankly, it needs one. The main character provides the lens through which we watch the action, and their emotional journey through some conflict is what drives the whole plot.
But let's face it, the main plot isn't automatically the audience's favorite part of the story. Humans being humans, we love animated people full of relatable quirks and entertaining outbursts--true characters.
And sometimes, the creator of the story has far more freedom with side characters whose every experience won't chaotically veer the plot off into different directions every second.
Nonetheless, we often walk away most thrilled by those side characters above all else.
Necessary-Spinach 182 asked, "What side character deserved more spotlight than the main character?"
For some Redditors, they wanted more light shed on a side character's back story.
Given only a fascinating tidbit that offered a window into a whole unexplored world, they imagined entire other movies where the side character could be a star with a plot of their own.
A Cat With Plenty to Say
"This is gonna sound weird but Salem from the original Sabrina the Teenage Witch. His character was just a goofy talking cat most of the time and the few times we saw his backstory it was really interesting."
"I just feel like he was underutilized but I haven't seen the new series so they might be paying more attention to him."
-- rubicks56
Best Voice, Best Story, Biggest Snub
"Santana Lopez from Glee - she could do 'Don't Rain on my Parade' but Rachel Berry could never do 'Valerie' or 'Me against the Music'"
Also her story line was by far the most interesting, her arc was the most fully realised, and she had snark for days (RIP Naya Rivera)"
Throne Gaps
"Tormund Giantsbane" -- Aykhancho
"He was my favorite character! And he really reminds me of my brother" -- natsugrayerza
"Agreed but Brianne of Tarth has to be there absolutely. that is a loose end that's going to haunt me for the rest of my days" -- iCantliveOnCrumbsOfD
Plenty of Katniss' Out There
"I wanted to know more background info about the other tributes in the Hunger Games. It was in Katniss' POV so it wasn't that prominent, but it would still be interesting." -- GiseleDamas
"Me too. I would have loved to see stuff from Cato's perspective in the first movie. And how the kids from the higher districts where forced to train for the games ever since they where children." -- JackSparrowscompass
"I thought I was gonna hate the prequel but I actually ended up loving it. Lucy Gray Baird is an incredibly interesting character. Snow is still a psychopath but that isn't exactly shocking" -- smol_lydia
Rewarding Loyalty
"I'm not sure how many people watched Ben 10 before the reboot but I feel like Ben's cousin Gwen deserves some recognition."
"People who watched the show tend to focus more on Ben and his aliens since they are the main characters of the show, but Gwen deserves equal recognition because she's been a very loyal cousin who is willing to do everything she could to defend and fight along with his cousin at all times."
"She went through serious character development going from a kid who was jealous and liking to pick on her cousin and then grew up into this bada** who proved to be much useful whenever she's not around her cousin. Kevin and Grandpa Max deserve credit as well."
"Kevin and Ben pretty much had one of the best enemy-turned ally relationships in a show and Grandpa Max was pretty much a father and mentor to Ben who took what he learned from him in order to become a better hero."
"The thing I love most about this show is how tackles character development well and yes the side characters were very interesting and important in their own way."
The Namesake
"Zelda needs her own game about the missing years in OoT when Link is gone and she becomes Sheik and leads an insurgency with Impa as her Alfred." -- Wazula42
"I mean it is called Legend of Zelda. They should definitely make a game about her. It would be awesome!" -- Monkey6518
Probing the Depths Of Space and Time
"Doc Brown from Back to the Future. He's had much more adventures off camera than Marty did on camera. The thirty years between 1955 and 1985."
"The unknown period he was adventuring in time and space off camera between when he disappeared from the Twin Lone Pine mall and his reappearance at Marty's house at the end of the first film."
"His time in the 1880s before and after Marty's arrival and departure. His subsequent building of a new time travel machine in a locomotive and his adventures after the series finale."
"There's a lot of untold stories of Doc Brown that I'd love to see on the silver screen."
-- II_Confused
Clear Frontrunner
"Spencer from iCarly" -- Agroskater
"He was definitely the best character in the whole show. I'd probably watch a series with him and Freddie in it if they did one. The fencing episode with them was one of my favourites :)" -- ArtemisFowlbooks_07
A Small Business Spinoff
"I binged True Blood recently so it's in front of my brain: Eric Northman and Pam. Sookie got annoying. Bill was an a**hole."
"One of the plot points of the show was that they ran afoul of the vampire authority and were sentenced to run a video rental store in the 1980s and 90s. I would 100% watch Eric and Pam run a video rental store."
Others highlighted the characters who always managed to steal the hearts and laughs of viewers every time they appeared on screen.
These characters were simply so entertaining that audiences always could have used some more.
Line After Line
'Falstaff from Henry IV."
"Dude was putting out banger lines every scene. So interesting they had to kill him between plays because everyone was like 'IDGAF about anyone not named Falstaff.'"
"Shoutout to all the Shakespeare and literary nerds out there."
Prime Shenanigans
"Andy from Parks and Rec, his shenanigans could have easily been a spin-off series with April." -- misslemom9
"If you're going to do a Parks and Rec spinoff, and you can get Crisp Rat back for it, you have to go for the Agent Macklin: FBI feature film. Anything else is a waste." -- WhatVengeanceMeans
A Significant Late Addition
"Niles Crane. I don't know if the show would work with him as the main character without significant modifications, but he's consistently my favorite part of nearly every episode." -- merupu8352
"It's amazing to think that they had no plans for Frasier to have a brother when they were developing the show."
"It's only because someone in casting saw David Hyde Pierce's headshot and said 'hey, this guy looks like he could be Frasier's brother' and they gave him a screentest on a whim that they realised what a goldmine of a concept that was."
"I honestly doubt Frasier would have lasted more than a season if Niles wasn't a character." -- jetsam_honking
And finally, some characters only appeared for a single moment or two, but really turned heads during the brief snippet.
Sometimes it only takes one amazing joke or a heartfelt moment to leave the whole crowd wondering what could have been.
We've All Quoted It
"frozone from the incredibles" -- thatswhat_shesaid1
"Where he can find his motherfu**ing super suit" -- derthert123
"Absolutely agree with this. He had their back in both movies, a great friend to the family. They just didn't give him enough." -- makeme84
One of Many Pursuers
"James Norrington" -- myhamsterisajerk
"For anyone wondering, this is the admiral that is persuing Captain Jack Sparrow in the original movie, who is the other side of this iconic exchange" -- boopboopadoopity
"Norrington seriously had so much potential. Then he met Bootstrap Bill. We all know how that ended. I kinda wish we saw more of him when he was temporarily a pirate." -- StarWarsCrazy1
"COMMODORE Norrington, as he is now known." -- hazzzaa85
Jockeying For Position
"Sarah Lynn in Bojack Horseman."
"Plus the criminally underrated Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface."
-- ViperKira
The Promise of a Song
"I would have LOVED if Mulan 1998 focused more on the friendship between Mulan, Ling, Yao, and Chien-po. I really liked how they seemed to bond after Mulan got the arrow and the three started including her in things, like joking around each other during A Girl Worth Fighting For."
"And how they immediately followed Mulan when they said she had an idea. I wish there was more screentime for the four of them. Their dynamics are so fun."
Think back to your favorite movies and shows. Can you recall a character that really stole the show for you? For me, it's without a doubt Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
His relentless anxious fidgeting is the closest I have to a spirit animal.
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People Describe The Exact Moment They Realized Their Friends Were A-Holes
Everyone has friends who you become less and less close to with each passing year.
This isn't always by choice, though, but simply by circumstance, when your lives both take different directions.
In some cases, however, we do find ourselves making a very conscious decision to stop spending time with certain friends.
Owing to the fact that these people might not be our friends after all.
In certain cases, the communication ends as the result of one specific moment.
Redditor D1Tytos was curious to hear the triggering moment when people decided to end their friendships, leading them to ask:
"What's the moment that made you realize your so called 'friends' were really just d*cks?"
Lack of Compassion
"When I got cancer and they never checked on me."- justagirlx19
Being Taken Advantage Of
"Worked with and rented a large house with my friend group after high school."
"Dumb and inexperienced with life, I didn’t know they were lying to me about bills and making me pay more/whatever they felt like until a family member asked about it."
"Eventually they all looked at moving into a new place without telling me."
"I felt guilty and confessed they would basically steal my money to shop with and planned on moving out while I was visiting family so I came back to an empty place and responsible for everything."- dylandbloom
"I found myself getting irritated whenever they called/hit me up."
"Because every time they'd only ask for something , never just to talk to hang out."- ybbetter_ratio
Happy Birthday Indeed...
"The last time I tried throwing a birthday party for myself."
"It always seemed like the ratio of people who said they'd come to people who actually showed was...lacking."
"But my final attempt."
"I had 20+ people say they'd show."
"Exactly one actually came."
"I've never had a birthday party since."
"But I'm still good friends with the one guy who showed."- Lachwen
Unkind Exclusion
"They asked to not have one of the people in our group over."
"They didn't want to tell him there was no game, they just wanted him to knock and pretend no one was there."
"I wasn't very cool with this but they didn't want to be 'confrontational' with said person."
"Before the next week rolled around they were saying 'there wasn't going to be anything going on' that Saturday."
"I knew they were full of sh*t, but went by to confirm they were all there that Saturday, and sure enough they all were."
"Just dropped them like a sack of potatoes and never spoke to them again, no reason to."- MickCollins
True Colors
"Had 3 friends."
"2 I liked and 1 I didn't really like at all."
"Turns out they had a secret group chat where they just called me slurs and talked about me behind my back."
"The guy I didn't like sent me screenshots of this and me and him have been friends 3 years now."- c_a_t2·
Blurred Perceptions
"When I stopped drinking and realized that’s all we had holding our friendship together."- BillieBoJangers·
Unreliable
"I remember I was severely depressed and I called someone I thought was my friend."
"When he realized I wanted to talk about real sh*t he made up an excuse to hang up."
"After that he kept ignoring my calls."
"What's crazy is I was there for that dude when his wife left him for another guy."
"There were times where I wanted to escape his depressing stories, but sat there and listened because he was my friend."- horsetoothjack@ss119
Ungrateful
"Couples retreat of 3 pairs, other 2 girlfriends flaked last minute, leaving mine."
"They still came, then had the nerve to tell mine the trip would’ve been better without her right to her face when I was out surfing."
"This was never established as a guys trip at any point."
"She fed them, organized the trip as a whole, etc."
"Losers."- SwingmanSealegz
Provoking Others
"Guy lies about his well-being being bad cus he loves how worried someone reacts."
"I called him out on it when he lied to someone else and he literally said 'I enjoy winding people up, I love how they react when I say x'."
"That's gross to me."- PastaNotFound
Ending a friendship is never pleasant.
But time heals everything, and over the course of a couple months, it might become evidently clear how much better off your life is without certain people in it.
We all have songs that we can't get out of our heads, resulting in our randomly humming them while walking down the street.
Among the most infectious songs are theme songs to TV shows.
Be it from tuning in every week to catch up with Friends who will always" be there for [us]", or being "stuck in the middle" of a Grace And Frankie binge, we often find ourselves humming the theme songs of our favorite shows more often than we find ourselves quoting the best lines.
Even if it means humming an infectious melody to a wordless piece of music (Will & Grace or Seinfeld anyone?)
Redditor LinksOtherUncle was curious to hear what people considered the all time greatest theme song to a TV show, leading them to ask:
"What is the greatest TV Show theme song of all-time?"
"Whoo-oo"...
"Duck Tales, of course."- Beautiful-Stranger20
"Believe It Or Not It's Just Me!"
"Greatest American Hero!"- GayHole
"Bum Bum BUM bum...bum bum BUM BUM bum bum bum..."
"Sanford and Son"- jkulpa
The Original MCU
"90s X-Men."- Ourobius
"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale..."
"Gilligan's Island"- Cantbetoobad1953
Bored Gilligans Island GIF by TV Land ClassicGiphy"It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights..."
"The Muppet Show theme song!"- Poorkiddonegood8541
"A World Of Criminals Who Operate Above The Law"
"Knight Rider!"- BladeBronson
"Heroes in a half-shell, TURTLE POWER!"
"The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon theme."- Petulant_Platypus
ninja turtles GIF by Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesGiphy"You want to go where everybody knows your name."
"Cheers."- Big-Significance3604
The only thing more comforting than turning on our TVs to revisit a familiar town with familiar characters, is the comforting familiar music which greets us on our return.
People Explain Which Bits Of Common Knowledge They Learned Way Too Late In Life
Who hasn't had a moment when they learned what they thought was a revelatory piece of information, ran to share it with their friends, and were then greeted by a barrage of stone faces?
Owing to the fact that what we only just learned a few minutes ago, was apparently common knowledge.
These include your favorite movie star was in fact the offspring of another movie star, what gelatin is actually made of, or little tricks and strategies which make certain experiences so much more pleasurable.
For no particular reason, some people learn these things far later than just about everyone else.
Redditor Big_Piccolo_8369 was curious to learn which bits of common knowledge people were late to the party in knowing, leading them to ask:
"What is common knowledge that you found out way too late?"
Strategic Planning
"Always eat before shopping at Costco."- mtl_jim
Sometimes Silence Is Golden
"Just because I hold an opinion on something doesn't mean that I need to share it."
"I spent WAY too much of my early adulthood inserting my viewpoint into discussions that I wasn't really a part of."- xjuggernaughtx
How To Keep Friendships Strong
"Simply asking 'how are you' once in awhile is all it takes to not fall apart from old friends."- a_burdie_from_hell
Know Your Worth
"Hard work isn’t always the answer."
"When I worked a minimum wage job, I would work hard and not take breaks, so a great job, and always finish early."
"I just then got told to pick up the slack for the employees who spent their time goofing off."
"Never got a promotion, raise, or even a 'hey, good job'."- Disco-Onion
Think Twice Before Lending Money
"That when people ask to borrow money especially if it's a friend or family just expect to never see it again."- Different-Chest-5716
Loan Borrow GIFGiphySpotting Charlatans
Being well-educated in one area doesn't mean that a person can't be a total idiot in other areas."- Red-belliedOrator
Never Make Decisions When Angry
"'Every action made in anger ends in sorrow'."
"An attorney, when I was 24."- yours121110
"Don't make permanent decisions based on temporary feelings."- Yoschnitzel
Angry Inside Out GIF by Disney PixarGiphyThe Importance Of Sleep
"Going too long without sleep can impair your ability to drive the same way as drinking too much alcohol."- SuvenPan
We're all bound to be looked down upon every now and then for just learning something everyone else already knows.
Though always remember, the wisest ones are those who never want to stop learning.
I'm a simple person when it comes to video games.
I prefer to go with nostalgia.
All of these fancy deals put me on sensory overload.
But my goodness the technology really has come a long way.
And there are actual storylines and drama.
Good for y'all gamers.
Redditor TolisKoutrowanted everyone to list their thoughts on the greatest of the great.
"What video game do you consider a masterpiece?"
I love you Ms. Pac-Man. Always and forever.
It's a Ride
video game physics jet GIFGiphy"Roller Coaster Tycoon 2."
Icy_Entrepreneur_859
"Loved RCT2. The canned child laughing sound and the chain lifts noise are permanently burned into my brain."
Career-Known
my whole childhood...
"Man I miss Valve... Their games were designed in a way many developers could only dream of, they were revolutionary in almost everything they laid their hands on."
johnbacosta
"Yeah that’s my whole childhood, still some of the best games… and actually playing HL- alyx for my very first VR experience was nuts. Loved it."
dub3ra
"They made a new game based in the Portal universe. It’s really short but it’s free and funny."
Advanced_Position_25
Better than Perfect
"Portal 2."
Natural-School5690
For real. The first one was absolutely perfect and then they somehow managed to make the second one even better."
Jack_Mackerel
"Portal 1's only fault is that it's very short. I just replayed it a decade since I last touched it and I cleared it in under 2 hours. Portal 2 had so much more room to add more mechanics, more puzzles, and more story. It's the perfect sequel."
YossarianWWII
Classic
"Half Life 2 was brilliant. After that I'd call out WoW Classic. It's hated now, but the first couple of years it was magic. It was a completely new experience exploring such a massive open world and nobody knew anything. So much fun on Ventrilo. Will remember forever. Championship manager in the early 90s. Maybe what I have played the most. I'll mention Fallout series, Witcher and Skyrim as well."
Joppe84
Simply the Best
Movie Raise The Roof GIF by Star WarsGiphy"Star Wars knights of the old Republic. KOTOR. Surprised it hasn’t been said."
gerbs650
"Absolutely! I played it as a kid and it practically taught me life lessons. KOTOR 2 is a little darker but quite good also."
Lensk
How can you even tell any of the Star Wars games apart?
FAVE!!
Episode 8 Mario GIF by Paramount+Giphy"Super Mario World. It’s perfect. I don’t think there’s a single thing about it that I would change."
AdevilSboyU
"That game is awesome. That and Mario 64. But I love the soundtrack from Yoshi’s Island."
HmGrwnSnc1984
Options
"Deus Ex the first one."
Funkyouup82
"At the time the open ended options and story presentation were both really impressive. You could really appreciate that the developer committed to that (e.g. you could physically destroy most locked doors). I think a lot of games stop short of doing that because they don’t want to allow brute force solutions in addition to more elegant ones."
NewKitchenFixtures
"Journey. Not as long and vast as many games here but an artistic masterpiece in my books. It’ll age much better than most games too because of the simplicity."
justthisones
"I absolutely love journey; the music mixed with the visual story telling is absolutely stunning. Also it has, imo, one of the most interesting multiplayer experiences of any game."
"It’s def one of my top three games, but Gris’ artwork and music are peak for me. Also if you really enjoyed the exploration of Journey, you’ll probably love Outer Wilds. Great game, it’ll leave you wishing you could forget it and play it all again."
SynnamonSunset
Play NOW!
"Chrono Trigger, if you know you know, and if you don't, go play it immediately."
sketchypoutine
"Definitely, I feel like some of the best RPGs came from the SNES and Sega era. Chrono Trigger, FF 6, Secret of Mana, super Mario RPG, Earthbound, shining force 2, Phantasy Star 4. Still some of my favorites that i try to revisit every year or so."
chrono_bound20xx
"Came here for Chrono. Time travel just makes for amazing stories, and I love how you can make the game different each play through."
anna1781
i can see your...
Master Chief Game GIF by HaloGiphy"Halo 3. Incredible story and thrilling gameplay. Hilariously fun multiplayer. Fantastic community. Nostalgia."
Current-Ad1250
Video games have surely come a long way from Atari.
What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.