I was gonna make the same comment, with the caveat that Donkey Kong arguably had something similar happen, becoming the face of his _own_ franchise as well as Mario.

And Sonic was originally car air freshener!

I mean he was the main character in Donkey Kong, not just some rando. And he was envisioned by Miyamoto as a "go-to" character that could easily be placed in a wide range of games in the future (although not necessarily as the main character). So not only was he not a "rando" in Donkey Kong, he was conceived as versatile character from the start.

Jumpman, nananananananana, Jumpman, Jumpman, JUMPMAN

Popeye started as a one-off side character as well. That kind of synchronicity is nuts.

Honourable mention to Johnny Cage, as well.

I'd say Scorpion rather more than Sub Zero. There's been more than one person who's taken up the mantle of the latter, while Scorpion's "Get Over Here!" has become iconic of the Mortal Kombat series as a whole.

@@Brasc Technically now there's a new Scorpion.

Hard to call them "randos" when they are still part of the typical lineup.

Lui Kang wasn't even meant to be the main character initially, wasn't that Johnny when they wanted him to be Jaune Clad van Damme?

yeah, he has the whole Majima Saga in YK2 as well

as someone who's played yakuza 0 Majima's Combat Style has a lot more Flow than Kiryu's in my opinion

@@Mr.Brothybearwhats your favorite style for me its slugger

@@Sifi999 I'm a Fan of Breaker The Fluidity of Movement is very pleasing to my ADHD/Autistic Brain

Seiya!!

If I remember correctly Myizaki straight-up confirmed in an interview that he thinks Solaire linked the flame in his timeline.

@@colbyboucher6391 as someone who has taken the Sunbro moniker as a part of his username, this gives me a great happiness to learn

Well this is me learning that most of the NPCs in Dark Souls games are not in the world but part of a collapsing multiverse with random crossovers? Now I'm confused again...as it should be with Dark Souls lore.

@@Calekoflight I feel like it's something the games themselves chose to ignore after DS1. At least in DS1 it's relevant for Black Knight Tarkus (dead in your time but kills the Iron Golem from the past, lmao), but otherwise I can't think of any instances where it matters.

@@colbyboucher6391 Gundyr in DS3, you fight him while he’s both Decrepit and in his Prime with Iudex and Champion respectively As Solaire says, the Flow of Time is Convoluted

But that's hardly the face of the franchise, now Glados (or the cake) that something else. The cake is NOT a lie!

Actually, the companion cube was made lovable on purpose. It was actually a design method to prevent people leaving the cube behind during the puzzle it was found in. So they stuck some hearts on the normal cube, called it a companion cube and people would do anything to bring it with them. So that’s not a surprise, that was the point

@@dweebicusmaximus not me. I incinerated that thing GRATEFULLY, with Zero hesitation. I HATE weighted block Puzzles. But boy do I live that killer Robot. Yes GlaD0s, No Weighted Companion Cube.

Yeah there's no way you make a charismatic and roguish character, and expect them to not steal the show one way or another. That's basically what that type of character is for.

The same people that got Peter Dinklage for the voice of the little guy that acompany you all the game but they make him record every line without any emotional imput.

@@yotuel9064you mean the ghost?

@@leonwere3776 Don't remember the name. Been a while since I played Destiny first iteration. But it was the floating thingy that revives you at the beggining of the game and keep acompaning you for the rest of it.

@@yotuel9064 yea that’s the ghost

I'm a leaf on the wind

@@sopcannon Too soon! ;)

I personally prefer his turn as Captain Hammer...but that's more for the rest of the cast than Fillion (how can you compare when your costars are Felicia Day and Neil Patrick Harris?).

He also voiced the cowboy character in Justice League Unlimited.

I miss Firefly, the greatest sci fi show that never had its chance!

I would even go so far as to say that Boo is closer to being iconic than Minsk. So many pets have been named Boo since then. "Go for the eyes, Boo!"

20 years later and i still quote him from time to time

*cough* *Minsc.

Also, they're in BG3.

@@MyUsualComment and got a busted card in the Magic: the Gathering collaboration set.

Basically me moving from shooters like Unreal Tournament to farming sims like Stardew Valley and Rune Factory.

Didn't Doom and New Leaf also come out in the same year? Even if not on the same day

I always thought he was really cool. No idea why he's getting singled out for negativity here.

Honestly, he is also my favorite, and this game had such unique characters that darkstalkers should be revived for at least one more game or their characters should appear in street fighter (playable fighters not costumes). It kinda sucks that Morrigan was one of the only darkstalkers other then jeddah to get a recent playable appearance, and that kinda sucks because in my opinion I felt like she was one of my least favorite characters in the roster.

Good call. Who better to mention in the comments of an Outside Xtra video looking for... STARS?

Wouldnt really call him a "rando" though, since he is at least partially the main focus in his original game.

@@fendelphi true but there wasn't any indication at the time that he would become as popular as he did.

He also made an appearance in another game about an alien pranking humans. I forget what it's called, but it was mentioned in their "7 villains in the wrong game" video.

You could just as easily mention Wesker himself... when the mascot was SUPPOSED to be the T-mutate, originally. Then the Tyrant... not ANY of the human characters. Until 2. Because Leon was DESIGNED to become the face of the series, and Never really succeeded. Iconic, sure, but when folks hear Resident Evil, Their first thought usually isn't Leon. Or Chris, Jill, Claire, etc... no, most folks immediately think of one of these Four: Albert Wesker, Ada Wong, Nemesis, or, surprisingly, The Licker. But can you Blake them? All those characters just ooze Cool. Heck, Wesker was Supposed to be a One-off Villain, in a One-off Game, But The Fans liked him so much They decided to bring him back... which is why I don't think Wesker actually Died I'm that Volcano, and will be back whenever they get around to RE9. Also, we need remakes of Zero(with online AND offline co-op replacing the Zapping system) and Code:Veronica... they just did 4, so now is the perfect time.

Definitely didn't become a face over other characters, but it's a good shout. He was even made playable in the Warriors spinoff game Three Hopes.

I have him(or at least one of his variants) in Fire Emblem Heroes. A very cool character for sure.@@DWFTW

The closest we can get as the face of the FE franchise is Anna, however she's never the most popular character in any game, but she's in almost every game

That's a good call. I think they knew they had to make one cool recognizable team member for his death to have more emotional impact. But I suspect they didn't think he'd be more iconic than Captain Price.

Claptrap as well

He he ho!

Jack Frost, Pikachu and Agumon all basically pulled the same trick, fitting since Pokémon is basically running SMT through a Nintendo Late-90s Collectathon filter and Digimon is running SMT through a Bandai Late-90s V-Pet filter. Tyrannomon was the mascot for the original Digital Monster V-Pet... then about two years later they got a console game with its pre-evolution Agumon as one of the starters... ... and just over half a year later they got a promotional anime mini-series with the main characters Agumon evolving to its other Champion, Greymon... ... and then said Anime was so popular it stopped being a mini-series, pretty much sealing Tyrannomon's fate.

...Considering he's practically become a mascot not just to SMT but for Atlus, yeah...

@@Twilord_ Agumon/Greymon/Metal Greymon was always the default mascot. The version1 V-pet (there were 6 versions released in the beginning) had Agumon->Greymon->Metal Greymon as the "perfect" raising path. Tyranomon was the almost completely fail raising Agumon result (you needed to make lots of care mistakes, under train, overfeed while letting it sleep as it wants).

@@ultimatecalibur But Tyrannomon was used more in the advertising. He was the Adult on the original box art, not Greymon, and in line with Tamagotchi's mascot being Mametchi the Adult phase was the one inclined to get promotion. Remember Kabuterimon was the perfect-care line for Gabumon with Garurumon in the same slot as Tyrannomon... ... unless you want to argue THAT was the change? That Matt having a Garurumon was a sort of retcon of Gabumon's healthiest line? Or, perhaps more interestingly, that Matt's character development was so badly needed that Gabumon didn't get his healthiest evolution of that synergy? But then where would that leave Izzy, unless his heartbreak over being adopted had a similar impact... after-all their scans that had their perfect partners made for them were based on versions of them from before their family dramas... But that gets waaaay into fan theory.

Mimikyu is still the best

Mimikyu is so sad and pathetic in its attempts to be the next Pikachu that it wraps back around to the positive end of the scale. And I'm not a big fan of it, but I have to give the design points for honesty: "we keep trying to make a Pokemon as loved as Pikachu, and they're all sad and neglected, so here's a Pokemon that just embodies that energy."

I was thinking of him too. They literally brought him back to life for Halo 2 and built extensive lore in the books to explain how he survived and why he's such a badass.

Everyone stans Larry.

@@SirStanleytheStumbler you might want to remove the d in stans.

​@@paulstephens2861Is this the work of an enemy Larry?!

@@lnsflare1 what?

I was ready to agree until I realized you weren't talking about Larry Laffer.

a normal adult man

Nah, it’s Ellen.

​@@Broll00Ellen is no rando. No offence, Luke...

Lord Raptor makes a surprisingly large number of cameos as a background character in Capcom's other fighting games. Well, mostly in the MvC series.

Fr I think he’s so cool, I must be missing something because I don’t get the criticism

I’m a big fan of Cullen, but I get your perspective for sure. I see it as character growth! Personally, I like to pair him with a mage in Inquisition as a sort of closure to his arc.

@@Brittanysplittany yeah, i absolutely see it, redemption arcs can be great! my issue is kinda that he doesn't really have a redemption arc written in dai - he just shows up and we just have to take their word that he was redeemed offscreen and is now a good guy. it bothers me, bcos if they never wanted to write him a proper redemption arc on screen, why pick cullen instead of a new character, and if they wanted it, they never wrote it properly, there's no way to call him out or argue about what happened the way you can with for example blackwall. there are good fics that get into great detail about it, but in the actual game i feel like he, ironically, got a short end of a stick when it comes to actual character development. my issue is more with inconsistent writing than character idea per se.

I always took it as him seeing what the path he'd been on would lead to with Meredith at the end of DA2 and rethinking a LOT of his life.

Vampire Savior / Darkstalkers, is her origin tale sort of. The games have a mini story, but Morrigan also has another part of herself, getting into hijinx, Lilith. When she crosses into other realms, it is mostly for fun. Especially Capcom vs SNK. But she also has a thing for Spidey in MvC. Plus SNK vs Capcom: Chaos, where she is rendered in an SNK sprite. The only times she was not stuck in her old sprite form: Tatsunoko vs Capcom, MVC3, Namco x Capcom, and that function vs function: infinite

I think most people are surprised to learn she's from some other fighting game that mostly only gets remembered as her place of origin.

I honestly hate that this video used footage from Marvel Infinite. Hearing Morgan with a Scottish accent is just wrong. I don't care that Capcom made it, Morgan should not sound like that.

@@Chris_Sizemore do you know what her country of origin is? Because I know a lot of Street Fighter characters are like that where they have their country of origin. Is it scotland? Because even the Capcom says that decapre and Cammy are related, Decapre is from Russia

@@shadowsilvertailsfan Morgan is a succubus. A Demon from Hell. I'd say its possible for all demons to be Scottish, but Jedah doesn't talk like that. And he is also from that same Hell. And the Darkstalkers series. And both are in MvC Infinite.

I remember being absolutely mindblown watching Totalbiscuit, may he rest in eternal peace, introduce Far Cry 3 way back when. Vaas was the character that made a great and innovative game iconic and unforgettable.

Pretty sure it was planned. He's on the cover of the game, and they even ran a promotion where they gave away free copies of the game to people that got a Vaas hair shave.

Honestly as the game went on I liked Karlach less and less. She is to "good". With most characters you can measure their responses along theyr own personality. But Karlach can completely be measured with the Lawfull-Good alignment. Same goes for Wyll. They both are just to uncompromisingly good. No grey in there.

@@JBasilix And Astarion is too 'chaotic evil.' ESPECIALLY if you play Durge.

With my irl friends it is unquestionably true the Karlach is the fave by a mile. Also none of us touched it till launch.

Sounds like the Morrigan thing from Dragon Age. Pretty much the face from the first game, yet I (and no doubt many others) really disliked her in the game because if you dare do anything above "complete asshole" she whines and complains about it. There was a "Morrigan disapproves -5" or something like that meme for a while. Funny how characters like this keep recurring. I haven't played BG3 yet but I can hardly ever play Evil characters, much less full Chaotic, so sounds like it's a character I just won't be able to appreciate.

Astarion got almost all us gaming girlies. Let's just say there's a reason it's called fangirling and not fanboying. 😂❤

And his ranger companion Minsc lol. We know who the REAL celebrity is here.

IIRC, Boo and Minsc were the first Baldur's Gate characters to end up featured in official D&D material.

Or Thomas the Tank Engining, or Darth Vadering

The (Un)Holy Triumvirate of our time.

I miss the Randy Savaging.

More games should have the Tommy Wiseau-ening, best part of Skyrim and not even made by Bethesda.

Only if they start counting player-made characters... he might have been a meme, but he didn't take over being the face of a game/series anywhere near as much as any of the characters mentioned in the video, since he was never encountered in-game by anyone but the player who created him.

Am I glad the Legendary Edition not only included that face for the entire trilogy, but even our custom faces are now consistent. In the original, custom faces weren't importing well for me

Ah yes... that guy I killed. Screw the Sun, Praise The MOON! Honestly, I didn't even use the item he dropped. It did get me some Profit when sold, though.

​@@matthewrowlett1564you didn't manage to save him? Shame

@@VetrDraugr Didn't. Even. Try. I honestly disliked the character. Too... Sunny. I prefer my Grimdark Fantasy games to be Grim and Dark. There's no place for THOSE TYPES in the setting, except as Cannon Fodder and Living Shields... and Solaire was Useless, and couldn't be used for either of those. Its Like Sticking A Paw Patrol character In A Devil May Cry game... Humorous? Absolutely, But it wouldn't be Alive very long.(though personally, those mods for certain games that turn enemies into cartoon characters make me laugh like a maniac... Halo, but all the Enemies are Toy-story characters is a good one, though its been taken down because DISNEY... Walk into a room full of Brutes... but they're all Woody and Buzz... Plasma grenade. Ah... the Therapeutic Carnage...) BUT YEAH... I hated Solaire. Almost as much as the Swamp... ALMOST. God, do I hate FromSoftware and their obsession with poison swamps...

He even got voted into FE heroes (mobile gacha game)

@@SSJ3CyLink Heck, not just that, he got inserted into the next Fire Emblem Warriors game as the ultimate hidden playable character to unlock. Again, despite being a completely minor NPC in the original game it was based around. People just liked him and his positive attitude that much!

his voice actor (Kyle McCarley) is 100% aware of this, btw. His discord has a bunch of v cute Gatekeeper emotes (along with Nines, of course) and he's leaned into the mem himself wor a while. Great dude, highly suggest supporting him.

Not a "rando" if he is the main villain. Also, not the "face" of the franchise either.

​@fendelphi technically he's not the main villain, though the actual Big Bad is so forgettable that I can't be bothered to remember his name.

Heck, by the second game the final boss is inspired by him. He's also a secret character, for whatever reason. He's not OP like Minion; he's not super weak like Grasshopper or Twister; he's just meh.

Shadowheart's pretty popular too. And personally my favourite is Gale. And Wyll is tragically underrated. Honestly all the companions in that game are incredibly good characters.

Shadowheart is leading most of the most useful companion, most beloved character AND favourite love interest lists I've seen.

@LuriTV I mean no disrespect to the others. They are quite fantastic and charming.

Karlach is the unquestioned fave in my friend group so much that I was shocked when Astarion was brought up at all.

ASS-tarion never even gets an invite to my camp. He is a completely forgotten character in my dozen playthroughs.

Is Leon a Gary Stu?

cos we keep hearing someone shout LEEEEON! it's embedded in our brain😂

Yeah, but Astarion's perfomance is phenomenal. He is just very sassy and fun asa character. I personally don't like him, but all his little interjections or optional dialogue is hilarious. Additionally,Karlach wasn't even available as a character throughout early access. She is best girl, tho.

@@yarion4774 I’m playing through with my friend at the moment. And almost every decision I make has me thinking before hand “what will make Karlach happy”. I love the times she just hums to herself. If only there was an option to use all that other kind of infernal iron to permanently fix her engine.

Tiny Tina from Borderlands and Cricket from Fallout 4 stand testament that Ashly Burch should voice more manic unhinged characters. Manic Pixie Nightmare Girls, if you will. Contrast Horizon (Zero Dawn and Forbidden West), where Burch's performance just comes off as flat in some places and overly earnest in others and seems a waste of her talents.