Media Characters that got a glow-up

[Yung Dramps]

This is something I've been thinking of recently and I finally figured "eh, why not, make it a thread".

I don't know about anyone else, but one of my favorite tropes in any ongoing franchise is when the writers suddenly decide "Hey, yknow that one forgotten character that was abandoned years ago, was never even important to begin with or just wasn't that great? Let's bring them back and make them absolutely sick for no reason at all!" If you agree with me even a little, then post your favorite examples from your favorite pieces of media. Spoiler tag stuff where appropriate!

Tournament of Power Android 17 and Clone Wars Darth Maul are my favorite examples of this. I had full write-ups with images planned for them but it's late and I'm tired lol.

 

[dreepy]

Hermione in the movies wasn't really abandoned nor forgotten but whatever it works.

 

[bdt2002]

This is a bit of an obscure example outside of the Nintendo fandom, but I’d like to think that Pit, the main character of the “Kid Icarus” franchise, absolutely qualifies for this thread. The I.P. initially started as an 8-bit NES classic with a surprising amount of similarity to the Legend of Zelda franchise at points, but didn’t see long-term recognition due to other NES era games performing better, further exaggerated by a lack of sequels outside of the 1991 Game Boy installment.

But out of nowhere in 2006, things quickly changed. Pit was one of the first newcomers announced to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, alongside Meta Knight, Zero Suit Samus, Wario, and Snake. His new design was leaps ahead of his few previous appearances across older Nintendo systems, and he ended up as a noteworthy character both in the game’s adventure mode and Brawl’s admittedly small competitive seen as an upper-mid-tier character. Kid Icarus’s inclusion in Smash was met with universal praise, especially in Japan where Pit was ranked substantially higher in the country’s local competitive scenes for a long time.

Four years after Brawl’s release on the Wii alongside the advent of Virtual Console for the Wii and the 3DS, hardcore fans were treated to the release of Kid Icarus: Uprising. This was the first main series Kid Icarus game to be released in over 20 years, and went on to be one of the most cherished titles of the 3DS’s heyday. The game itself served as both a revival for the franchise and as a sort of bridge between Brawl and Super Smash Bros.’s 3DS and Wii U games, which would later be released in late 2014.