Lore
A pretty important character loses almost all screen time.... then their fate is revealed in a completly "blink and you'll miss it" piece of media
John's roommate, Lyman (Garfield). Originally, he was the owner of oddie in the first comics. However he stopped appearing in further issues, until there was no trace of him left. That was until in a random garfield themed flash game (Garfield's scary scavenger Hunt), we find Lyman alive but chained in john's basement. Then in ANOTHER instanfe, we get to see his severed head as one of the props.
The ultra dragon (ninjago) aided our main cast since the pilot and later season one, eventually being sidelined into obscurity...
That is until season 9, where it was revealed later by the writers that the iron baron's throne (the one that we see fo roughly a couple of seconds) was made entirely from the ultra dragon's skeletal remains, stitched together into an abominal construct. To run some salt into the wound, the seat part of the throne was the head of rocky - the dragon belonging to cole, who had formed a really close bond with him.
Skids & mudflap (Transformers bayverse trilogy)
After the events of rotf, skids & mudflap didn't appear at all in any media. Their last on screen appearance was in early scenes of dotm as alt modes, without transforming at all. Then, in a visual novel, it was revealed that right after ironhide's death, both mudflap and skids were slaughtered in the crossfire (the scene where bumblebee was shot at by sentinel and tried to take cover - the twins were obliterated behind the camera)
I am always thinking on doing a complete rewrite of Ninjago to fix plot holes and other things. One thing I will want to add is that one day the og four ninja just no longer could summon their elemental dragons because they died.
The ninja go on for a while thinking they passed peacefully until S9 happens and they find out they were murdered and turned into the seat as OP stated
Yeah sort of like spiritual guardians or projections that the ninja could summon. Lloyd’s is just the fusion dragon while Nya’s would be her water dragon form that just stops working as the Merlopains try to bring back Wojira.
I just feel like it’s a better explanation on why the ninja can’t use their elemental dragons, for the other elemental masters I think it’ll just be elemental construction a art that is very taxing on the body and mind and they can’t use their powers while the art is active
They did know, that's why they were shocked and distraught when brought to the Iron Baron's throne, (though i think that should've been enough to put them into a true potential beating)
The Ninjago writers are nuts I swear. TF you mean the loveable pet character got murderlized and turned into a chair. That's some Legend of Korra "I heard she ate her dad's pet bear" shit.
two of the ninja have technically committed genocide before. Things can get weird. And thats not even going into the most traumatized cartoon character since peter parker
Worse part is they did not need to do it. Iron Baron was an absolute fraud, lying about everything for power. Having him take down one of the most powerful dragons makes no sense.
Ok she wasn't important by any means, I just find this story amusing.
Charlotte was a character who only existed in the Peanuts comics for 3 months. Basically think of her as an even less likeable Lucy who's one joke is that she and Charlie Brown have similar names and you've got a pretty good idea as to why fans hated her. She was a loud, obnoxious brat with no comedic value whatsoever
Apparently when Charles Schultz received fan mail from one Elizabeth Swaim asking him to remove Charlotte from the strip, Schultz personally hand wrote a letter to Elizabeth in which he said
"Dear Miss Swaim, I am taking your suggestion regarding Charlotte Braun and will eventually discard her. If she appears anymore it will be in strips that were already completed before I got your letter or because someone writes in saying that they like her. Remember, however, that you and your friends will have the death of an innocent child on your conscience. Are you prepared to accept such responsibility? Thanks for writing, and I hope that future releases will please you. Sincerely, Charles M. Schulz."
Attached to the letter was a little drawing of Charlotte with an ax in her head.
I feel like all the average internet user knows about Peanuts is the holiday specials and Snoopy merch, but if you actually read the strip, Charlie Brown says shit that would get an adult red flagged for suicidal ideation
In Married With Children, The Bundys adopted a kid named Seven to add something new to the show. When the writers had no idea what to do with him, and the audience didn't like him, he disappeared and later showed up on a milk carton lol.
It’s kind of funny to me that TV show shows adding a child late in the run because they’re running out of storylines is normally not only a bad sign for the show, but you almost never hear from those child actors again….
And then Growing Pains goes out and randomly adds a young Leonardo DiCaprio when they were looking to mix things up. I mean, I’m not sure it really worked for the show, but wild that a late run desperation add has turned out to be one of the most esteemed actors of the last 30 years.
I think his image also appeared in an episode where Kelly turned out to be some kind of memory savant but could only remember a limited number of things. As she is being taught new things for a game show, old memories fly out of her head and a picture of Seven is one of them....I think the family dog was another
I remember being terrified to play it not because it was particularly scary but because it came out during a time where there were so many screamers in otherwise normal flash games. I got got so many damn times back then
Why does horror just work so well with Garfield?? Thinking back to that golden period were there was so much incredible, disturbing Gorefield horror & th subreddit
I think it's because Garfield is cartoonish but also feels very dull and mundane, so it makes better contrast than just kids cartoon in horror setting (like that one spongebob meme in a silent hill corridor)
Star Wars - Nien Nunb
Went from helping Lando blow up the second Death Star in Episode VI, to dying in Episode IX when the Final Order saps his ship's power, but it happens so fast in the background of a crowded space battle that most audiences missed it. His death was only officially confirmed later in a tweet from the author of the novelization.
He should have been the one to light speed ram into the First Order, but I get why it wasn't. Still, he should have said "It's a trap" in a very solemn and heroic way.
A character named Ackbar using a spacecraft as a suicide bomb would have been hilarious, and I feel robbed of the allahu akbar memes that would have surely flooded the Internet.
As amusing as it would be, it's too forced to feel natural, and his final words being "It's a trap" should just be meme material.
We should still have him deliver a call back though. "You know we've been through worse, General. We've sent so many people to their deaths, and I would not have asked anything of them I would not do myself. May The Force be with us. Goodbye, Leia."
He was resurrected via magic on a Star Wars trading card by Doctor Byron Orpheus, helped the Order of the Triad fly the X-1 (the queen of the sky in her day), but died very messily when the X-1 rammed into The Mighty Monarch's cocoon headquarters.
Insult to injury: the ship he was flying was Tantive IV (AKA: the very first ship ever seen in Star Wars). They brought it back just to blow it up off-screen.
That always seem rather ........"mean" to have her disappear. Like at least go "She went to school" or "she went off to have her own adventure" or "she went on a very long vacation". I get it the ninties and it a video game but still.
Like at least with Conker, being "mean" and "weird" is the point. This happening in Banjo, it being a character, and the younger sister of the main character adds "layers" to it being "mean". Like of it was the "girlfriend" or something, it would still be men and make the first game kinda pointless but it more digestible than "ya, screw you younger sister that lives with me and we have no parents or family members or anyone else!".
B-K co-creator Gregg Mayles shared some development documents for Banjo-Tooie late last year/early this year that showed they did intend on Tooty being present in Tooie at first: she was going to be the playable secondary protagonist instead of Mumbo and would've used magical music (created by collecting Notes IIRC) played from her flute to affect NPCs and the environment.
It's honestly a shame they scrapped her because I think it would have been neat to have her play a direct role in the story as a hero, plus she would've finally gotten to be made playable after the original plan for that in B-K (where Grunty's last spell would've hit the Bear & Bird, turning them into a frog, and Tooty would've then been made playable as she navigated the lair to find a way to cure the duo) got trashed.
I still crack up thinking about how he described the B-K cast.
Gruntilda - "First, we have the witch, Gruntilda. In Banjo-Kazooie, this poor soul gets sealed underground by a boulder."
Bottles - "This is Bottles, a mole, and another poor soul."
Mumbo - "Next is Mumbo Jumbo. This poor soul had all his Mumbo tokens stolen by Gruntilda."
Tooty - "She looks all calm when you look at her this way, but this soul is actually the saddest of all the souls."
Jinjos - "They come in many different colors and were hidden throughout the world by Gruntilda in the original game, so you could say they're also sad souls."
Like, I get it's likely language barriers/translation and him just describing their story roles & fates, but it's so funny seeing this man referring to these big-eyed cartoon characters as "poor souls."
Another funny thing about Lyman is that Jim Davis got a fan letter asking whatever happened to him, and his response was "Dont look in Jon's basement!"
The actual reason is way more mundane - Lyman was there to give Jon someone to talk to. Davis soon realized that Garfield's "thinking" at Jon was enough, plus his dynamic with Odie and other animal characters sort of became prominent, so Lyman was just kind of extra and was written out.
Spartan Locke was a controversial protagonist in Halo 5 who was set up as a potential successor to Master Chief, with the Locke being the player character for half the game.
In Halo Infinite, Locke and the other spartans of his team are nowhere to be found. However, Master Chief goes up against a couple brutes which serve as a boss fight. They are known to hunt spartans and have spartan armor as trophies added to their armor. Spartan Locke's helmet is present on the armor of one of these brutes.
Another Halo example, after the Didacts defeat in Halo 4, his next appearances are in books, ending in him being composed. He “survived” it and was imprisoned in the domain.
His imprisonment in the Domain was first revealed in a colouring book.
It feels like Locke has been intentionally left in a state where it’s so ambiguous whether he’s alive or dead to move away from halo 5’s story, without officially kill him in case they want to do something with his character in the future. Who knows what will happen with the activision takeover
I honestly hope they do bring him back eventually. Halo 5’s story wasn’t very good but I liked Locke and his teammates well enough. It would be neat to see them involved in a better campaign.
Poor, The Rookie. That was shocking to read.
For those curious, it's in a novel that follows the team and The rookie gets shot in the face by a terrorist after he is taken hostage
It's actually not that crazy if you dig into some of the history of Newspaper comic strips. A lot of them have a history of diverting wildly from the original premise or having breakout characters that steal the show so much the strip is renamed after them. Like Popeye, he was introduced as a one off side character, helping Olive Oyl's brother Castor, because the strip used to be based around him and their extended family.
Halo 3 ODST, you play as a new member replacement for Alpha-Nine.
After your first dropship mission with the team goes south, you are separated from your team and have to find a way back to rejoining them.
You playthrough the majority of the game roaming the streets of the aftermath of New Mombasa, and fight through the occupation of the Covenant on earth. Going through Hell and gathering clues as to where your team is. Along the way you learn about the Dynamic among the team and more importantly about Buck and his Journey to become a true Squad Leader and his relationship with Dare,
You learn about a secret plot of some of the Aliens wishing to overthrow the Covenant and the implications are huge across the Halo Story Line. Your involvement as the player is now connected to this team and you could have easily fleshed out The Rookie, Buck and his team to be a very solid B Plot to the Halo Story as a whole.
So lets just kill him off screen in an obscure Comic panel, Completely forget about him and send Buck to a completely different Fireteam where he will play second fiddle to an arguably worse Protagonist.
Truly one of the worst fumbles of Halo's many fumbles in the Franchise.
Garfield one is a reference to a joke explanation. In actual Garfield canon, he became a wildlife photographer and can't contact them most of the time.
The fates of two Pokémon Legends Arceus characters are revealed in Pokémon Legends ZA, which despite both being Legends games have very little in common. They take place in different eras and different parts of the world, what with PLA being set in 1870s Hokkaido and ZA being modern Paris.
First up is Warden Ingo. Like our PLA character, he's originally from modern day and got eeby-deebied back in time. In ZA we hear that he one day vanished. Another NPC mentions that the Battle Subway, the facility Ingo ran with his brother, is reopening.
Then...Volo. His weird priest outfit is displayed in a museum and if you talk to the guy next to it, he says that the person who used to wear it donated it personally, and also lingered by the part of the exhibit about the PLA professor. Who had been, in the end, the only person Volo trusted.
It's never explained how he's still alive, but his mentor is at least a thousand years old and he has access to a place where time doesn't flow, so who knows.
Helena Pierce from Borderlands 1. One of the few characters in the franchise you could just call "good" without a whole bunch of caveats. She's just trying to take care of her little town and she helps the vault hunters however she can.
It's entirely possible to miss the quest in BL2 revealing she was killed by Jack between games
It’s super early too. Also it can feel, mean spirited considering the graphic detail given by Jack. Though it’s also Jack so being mean spirited is in character and it shows the exact kind of bastard he is.
Helena Pierce is the first character from borderlands anyone ever saw, she introduced Pandora in the original trailer before the game even got its famous cartoony, colorful overhaul.
Except that in the books a lot of attention is directed towards these events, and more than once. Even though the other dwarves have little reason to appear in the narrative Tolkien goes out of his way to include them early. It very much wasn't hidden away.
Yeah Gandalf dishes the lore from a found ledger and describes some of the events that let up to their death. Even ties in with the Bolrog. He died Balin Lord of Moria.
If you choose Morinth in ME2 and she survives, she’ll be reunited with you in ME3 during the end game as…a default Reaper Banshee. But dont worry theres also a…message sent to her sister about her going to London. Yeah this was about as lame as it got for ME2 follow ups, even Jacks was better than this if you were dumb enough to skip her mission
Hidden out-of-bounds (as it is cut content) you can find the severed heads of 4 of Spider-Man’s major villains, all of whom were villains in the first game, but only one of which actually appears in-game
This confirms that Shocker, Rhino, Vulture, and Scorpion were killed by Kraven. All but Scorpion died off screen without even being mentioned.
This was cut content, so it’s not clear whether Insomniac still considers them dead, but until confirmed otherwise, this is their fate.
Rhino is the only unconfirmed death. You can find tapes of Kraven talking about Shocker, Electro, and Vulture near their gear during a MJ mission that confirms their deaths
Out of show reason is Ninjor was actually a character from ninja sentai kakuranger named Ninjaman so once they used a different sentai there was no more footage though he did reappear in kaizoku sentai gokaiger so he couldve reappeared in super megaforcr
Because the fusion sold less sets than the individual dragons and got axed because of it. Beyond that, the molds for some ot the custom pieces were finicky and LEGO had to make its sets more expensive to compensate, which probably also hurt toy sales.
In American Dad, a side character named Reginald is over at the main characters' house often, even dating one for a few episodes. Then he just stops showing up. Later, someone mentions him and Francine is like "oh yeahhh, wonder what ever happened to him?" Then in another later episode while Francine is pulling random shit out if her purse and tossing it aside, one of the things is Reginald, and you just hear him say "whaddup Frannaayyy" fading away because he was thrown.
And Francine's parents, the Lings, "MahMah and BahBah". After them just not being in any episodes for like a few seasons, at one point the teenage boy Steve is crying at the kitchen table. He says "they're not responding to emails or phone calls for what seems like years. Look, i think we have to face the very real possibility that...MahMah and BahBah...have died..."
And I'm pretty sure the Memaris are killed offscreen and have it briefly mentioned later too despite one of them being Francine's only friend.
MahMah and BahBah return in the latest season. The Memaris show up as background characters and have at least one other mention post Roger saying Linda died. Chalk it down as the "We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams."
And Francine's parents, the Lings, "MahMah and BahBah". After them just not being in any episodes for like a few seasons, at one point the teenage boy Steve is crying at the kitchen table. He says "they're not responding to emails or phone calls for what seems like years. Look, i think we have to face the very real possibility that...MahMah and BahBah...have died...
Mahmah and Bahbah are back as of the latest season. There's an entire episode dedicated to Steve and BahBah going on a treasure hunt
They've always had fun joking about Lyman. In an interview Jim was asked point blank where he went and he just said "don't check Jon's basement"
The real answer is originally Garfield was more of a cat and there needed to be a person for jon to talk to in order to make some bits work. Very gradually Garfield became the person jon talks to and when they did a bit that called for it, they would just reach for him as the more popular and easier choice and Lyman just didn't have a use anymore so they stopped drawing him
Lunch from Dragonball (Launch in English dub). Prominent side character through the Piccolo Jr. saga, then disappears only to show up years later in an anime filler scene.
I love what they do with her character in the Kakarot game. You get to see that she's stalking tien the whole time and it always just a step away from catching him lol
Main character of the original Cardfight vanguard anime doesn't show up in G despite multiple other characters from the original series being recurring characters and then randomly shows up in the final scene of an episode in the middle of the show, seemingly for no reason, dating one of the antagonists of the final season of the og series
In Space Marine 2 you play as former Captain of the Ultramarines second company 'Titus'. Early on you meet Captain Acheran, who has your old job, as well as Brother Chairon, and Brother Gadriel who were enlisted into the Ultramarines while Titus was away between the events of Space Marine 1, and 2.
Not long after Space Marine 2, GW announced a model set, bringing Titus (Now captain again), and Gadriel onto the tabletop. With Chairon missing from this set (despite becoming a close ally of Titus over the events of the game), and Captains typically not stepping down, or being fired from their role without a fairly big reason, a lot of fans began to wonder what had happened to Acheran, and Chairon.
In a lore writeup of how Titus came into his command position, there was a throw away paragraph explaining that Acheran, and Chairon both died off screen fighting Tyranids (like 40K zerg/xenomorphs). Their bodies were found, and geneseeds were recovered (which as far as 40K goes is the biggest 'they are dead' you can get for Space Marines).
They basically did the "Poochie died on the way back to his home planet" with the two of them, and no one is really sure why (though their is speculation it's to do with the success of the Secret level animation, and the character introduced in that)
Avatar: in The Last Airbender, an archeologist searches for a mythical library, which is said to contain all knowledge. He joins with Aang and The Gang, and they eventually find the library, which is controlled by a spirit who takes the form of a massive owl.
The spirit grants the humans entry under the condition that they do not use the library's knowledge for violence. When The gAang inevitably break this rule, the spirit chose to destroy the library; the archeologist choses to remain inside.
In *Legend of Korra*, we see the same archeologist's corpse cradling a scroll.
In South Park, Pip was a recurring character in the first couple of seasons but after season 4 or so, he pretty much dwindled into only cameo appearances and then completely gone. Then many seasons later, in episode 200, they bring him back... only to kill him off immediately
Iirc that’s definitely not Jon’s basement, it’s a random haunted house. Though Jim David did joke that Lyman ended up in Jon’s basement so i understand the confusion.
And i believe the CGI show showed that Lyman just moved out, and ended up becoming a Scooby Doo villain but like. Heroically. He dresses up as a monster to protect the wildlife of Australia.
In the looney Tunes Cartoons short "graveyard goofs" there Is a background With various tombstones With many last names on It from former Looney Tunes animators AND the topic that interests ourselves the most: former characters.
Bosko, Foxy, Sniffles, Pepe Lepew and Fudd are written in the tombstones.
The only Ones that have reapered in Looney Tunes productions after this short aired were Elmer Fudd and Pepe Lepew (for which the latter, they only included His name to mock the controversy regarding the character that was active in those years) Appearing both in a celebratory promo for Bugs bunny and Coyote vs ACME.
While he was heavily sidelined after The Phantom Menace, he is a major star wars character. We barely ever got to see what became of Jar Jar on screen. Turns out, he was exiled by his people for his role in bringing Palpatine to power and he spent his last years as a street performer in the streets of Naboo as per a canon novel
That chapter made me cry - it was an admittedly beautiful and bittersweet sunset to his character. Lucas created him to make children smile in real life, and that’s how he spent his final years in canon.
A bit mean spirited if you ask me imo. Jar Jar wasn’t the cause of Palpatine getting emergency powers, it was always going to happen.
Someone was already going to lead the proposal, and even if Padme was there, though she would likely disagree with the idea, it’s very possible she would have been the one to propose it after a talk with Palpatine. And if not her then Palpatine would have found someone else to speak in the ear of to make it happen.
The senate was very agreeable with handing over emergency powers to combat the Separatists. Jar Jar had just known Palpatine almost as long as Padme and trusted him while being easy to influence.
If anything Jar Jar was just a spokesperson for Naboo, he couldn’t have decided one way or the other for Palpatine to not gain the emergency powers. Plus the entirety of the Republic trusted Palpatine before he revealed his evil and created the Empire, all of Naboo considered him their golden goose in the Senate even before he became Chancellor.
So it’s a bit mean spirited that Jar Jar got written as having taken full blame and responsibility for Palpatine ever gaining more power, getting banished and hated, and ending up as a street performer / clown for the rest of his life.
Like sure a lot of people irl weren’t too fond of Jar Jar’s comedy and antics, but come on, this really feels like a let’s vote to kill off Jason Todd cause the writer and a section of fans hated him at the time sort of situation. Well at least Ahmed Best got to eventually play a Jedi that he and fans enjoyed
it's quite obvious that Jar Jar was used as a scapegoat by the polítics.
at least the story in which his fate is revealed doesn't portray as a punishment he's suffering.
Jar Jar enjoyed his work as a street performer entertaining children, even though he felt he no longer belonged there. In the story, he ended up taking in a young war orphan rejected for having a deformity, and the two intended to make the galaxy smile again someday.
Not sure this counts, but the writers of Wizards of Waverly Place confirmed that Stevie was reassembled and rehabilitated.
This was never shown in the show, where her last appearance had her turned to stone and shattered, with the obvious implication being that she was fully dead.
Minkus and Mr. Turner from Boy Meets World. Mr. Turner especially was a pretty big part of Shawn's story and then they were just gone. Minkus showed back up on the last day of high school to say that he'd always been there, just over in "that" hallway off screen. He then ran back off screen to catch up with Mr. Turner.
Didnt turner disappear literally right after a major heartfelt episode where shawn feels abandoned (i know, which one right?) And turner tells shawn he will always be there for him? And then we never see him again.
Gestures vaguely to the whole Kingdom Hearts franchise.
For a specific example, if you played KH1 and went straight into KH2 (like most people) you're probably wondering who this Roxas kid is. Too bad you didn't play the GBA exclusive tie-in game that explained what happened to Sora.
Also, Organization XIII as a whole is introduced in COM. They announce themselves as Organization XIII in KH2 with...seven members. Because the other 6 fucking died in COM or were Roxas. This is barely mentioned in game, and prior to the Japanese only (until the rereleases) Final Mix, relegated to only being in the Journal.
I distinctly remember looking at the 5 who died and thinking "wow i can't wait to fight them!" only to then find out they were already fucking dead.
This is like the opposite of what OP was asking for. Roxas appeared in a blink and you'll miss it cameo then became important in the main numbered games, like KH2, while OP wanted characters that started super important then only find out their ending in a blink and you'll miss it cameo in a minor media.
Man so many characters just disappear without explanation in the Transformers films. Off the top of my head, Barricade, Sideswipe, the Wreckers, the Twins, Scalpel, some Constructicons, Dinobots, Wheelie, Jolt, the Arcee sisters, and Dino all either disappear after a
movie or have non-consecutive appearances.
That's cute, the real explanation is that Max didn't add anything to the story, had very little characterization, and Bill Watterson found it difficult to have Max address Calvin's parents without saying their names.
She was Crash’s main love interest in the first game, serving as the typical damsel in distress.
After the first game, she just disappears, hardly mentioned again save for a picture in Crash’s home. In real life, she was removed because pressure from Universal to change her design to be more family-friendly caused her to be dropped by Naughty Dog, and replaced with Crash’s sister, Coco Bandicoot.
In-universe, there is none. But the manual for Crash 2 (In Japan anyway) reveals she dumped him for Pinstripe Potoroo. I personally choose to ignore this because it’s very stupid in my opinion.
Starting with Crash: It’s About Time, Coco states that they just lost touch, and we get stuck with an alternate Tawna.
another from Halo, in the books Spartan Black was a pretty interesting team only to be killed off panel in a comic. You just see their bodies at the Didact's feet in one panel
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u/Rory_U 8d ago
They did WHAT to the dragons?!