10 Underestimated Fictional Characters That Play Pivotal Roles In Their Stories

Jar Jar.
 
No, really, hear me out.
 
He’s nothing more than comic relief in Ep 1, he serves only to introduce the Gungans, who prove important to the final battle.
 
It’s in Ep 2 that his true purpose is revealed.
 
He’s the patsy.
 
He steps in for Amidala in the Senate, likely told “don’t DO anything, don’t SAY, anything, just SIT there”.  But he Wants To Help.  With Amidala out of the way, he’s led by the nose (“oh WHO could we get to present a motion to give the Emperor emergency powers?”) to do exactly what is needed to put Palpatine exactly in the position he needs to be in to set his plans in action.  He might as well have handed the orc army the keys to Barad-Dur.This is all connected to the fact that as much as everybody pays attention to Anakin, Palpatine is the main character of the prequel trilogy. At the end of Sith, he’s WON.  EVERY plan he set into motion worked flawlessly, he’s in charge of the republic, and NOBODY realizes until the last too-late oment that they’ve been played.And Jar-Jar is responsible for a great deal of it.

Because of the massive backlash against the character, he’s effectively written out of Ep 3, so he didn’t get the chance to have hs third act, the “redemption” sequence, where he realizes what he’s done and tries to make up for it, either dying in the process, or at least vindicating himself, like Zangeif in Street Fighter The Movie.
 
And BTW…”Tattooed Prisoner”?  That’s “Tiny” Lister, AKA Zeus and the President of the Galaxy!

Love this list!!

I dunno, Mickey and Martha made a lot of sense together, for me, even if we didn’t see it develop onscreen. The fact that they both had to learn how to step out of another’s shadow is a far more important character connection than just the fact that they’re both black. 
And about Tom Milligan- how much could Martha really share with him? Yeah, he gave his life for her during the Year That Never Was, but when that was erased he was just a normal doctor again- one who presumably didn’t know that aliens exist, thanks to the constant government cover-ups. 
Mickey, on the other hand, not only knows aliens exist but has also spent time as a valued agent in a covert alien encounters organization.

I can see that. In a certain way, I’d rather read a Mickey/Martha fanfic than see what happened in End of Time – then I could see them connect over those things and get together. I think that Martha values a lot of the traits that Mickey has, things she didn’t get from the Doctor – I think he would be very loyal to her and put her first, the way he did Rose. Mostly it was that I got to see Tom do that too in the Year That Never Ways, for Martha, but we’ve only seen Mickey do it for Rose.

I see your point about the aliens in a huge way. Especially with what Martha’s family must have been going through – it would be good for her to have a partner who could fully understand what was happening and be better able to support her.

I think it comes down to that I just don’t find End of Time’s Mickey/Martha emotionally satisfying. But you’ve helped me think it’s not as much bad writing (the first time I saw it, it felt like the writers had just forgotten Tom existed) so much as something that’s just not my cup of tea.

We named our son Xander because of Buffy, always liked him and like you said he was loyal to the core. Good choice

One does not simply underestimate Samwise Gamgee. He LITERALLY carried Frodo up Mount Doom! That’s pretty important shit.

I agree I was never a fan of the Mickey/Martha match up. I liked her with her pediatrician.

I’m..I’m sorry. I hated Dobby. I mean I nearly stopped reading book two because of him. Everytime He appeared I shuddered. I .. fistpumped when he died. I’m… I’m sorry.

Most of Joss Whedon’s characters would in a way fit here. I’d say he likes for their strength to come out of “nowhere”
To name one who shows this a lot: Simon Tam

I also join in in appraisal of Sam

i beg to differ that r2 knew about vader being lukes father and that leia was his sister. at the end of 3 r2 and 3po have a memory wipe.. it’s not like r2 suddenly remembered those facts out of no where and just kept his little bleeps to himself. 

i would also like to point out that dobby didn’t want harry to go to hogwarts because he knew it would be dangerous not because he thought harry would open the chamber. also he puts a spell on aunt petunias pudding she made for dinner, not aunt petunia herself.

Why, Sam, to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you’ve left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. “I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn’t they put in more of his talk, dad? That’s what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad?”

Uh, Gollum’s the one who finally destroyed it, though.

“He might as well have handed the orc army the keys to Barad-Dur.”
Barad-Dur is the stronghold of the orc army. Did you mean Minas Tirith?

Also, Tiny Lister is the actor, not the character.

Nope. Only C3PO had his memory wiped. 

Dobby <3

Yes but Sam always remained True. Gollum.. he didn’t mean to destroy it. That was an accident 

R2D2 was one of the only “Hey guys, look who it is?” characters that didn’t seem pointless and gimmicky in the prequels. His unassuming significance in the original trilogy suggests that of course he would be a silent witness to the whole saga. And for all of the really important stuff he does in the films, not only does he never get a serious thank you, it also seems as if our human heroes would have been cool with leaving him at Jabba’s palace if it came down to it. It’s really interesting how, not matter how much the droids become beloved characters for the audience, they still amount to little more than charming hardware, in-verse.

The spoilers are really annoying, because they’re almost impossible to read simply by highlighting them. I keep having to copy the lines and paste them into a text document. Is there an easier way I’m missing, or can the coloring be changed?

That is actually one of the things I liked about the later episodes the fact that Jar Jar is responsible for so much death and misery.

I have a few quibbles and observations:

R2-D2:  I’ll grant your point for the original trilogy, but, for most of the prequels his and C-3PO’s presence always felt rather clumsily shoehorned in for no real reason beyond Lucas’ fondness for the characters and some ill-defined desire for an arbitrary throughput.  Maybe that doesn’t undermine your point, but I don’t know how “underestimated” he (she?  it?) can be when the plot has been deliberately bent to keep him relevant.

Samwise Gamgee:  To my way of thinking, he’s not a minor character with a major role.  He flat out takes over the role of protagonist somewhere in Two Towers as Frodo’s Ring addiction renders him pretty much useless (at least on their side of the big fence between the two plotlines).  Again, important, but I don’t quite see “underestimated”.  Unless you mean “you underestimate him at first and then he comes into his own during the story” and not “Oh, total fridge brilliance!  The plot would’ve fallen apart without him!”

The boat sequence in The Dark Knight:  I had a completely different take on the actions of the civilians.  I guess the whole “They did the right thing for the wrong reasons” is totally valid interpretation, but I read it is, “while they may be willing to talk about cold-blooded murder to save their own skins, none of them is so terribly depraved that they can actually bring themselves to do it.  Admittedly, less badass than the prisoner throwing the trigger out the window, but a slightly more positive spin on it, I guess.

Airbender:  To me, one of the great things about the way the series plays out is just how important EVERYONE ends up being.  Even relatively minor characters like Toph’s Earthbending “teacher” and the guy who ran the pro-Earthbending championships:  without them Toph would never have discovered how to Metalbend and taking down those airships in the finale would’ve been a hell of a lot tougher.  I love that series precisely because there’s so much nuance and depth to ALL the characters, and it’s very seldom that any of them reads as superfluous.

Sorry I’m totally confused about the Sokka page..It was Ang that was the Avatar not Sokka. Sokka out of the 4 main charactors had no bending power. So…please fix? Cause I am confuzzed.  

Honestly I don’t think any of these characters are underestimated. I’m pretty sure everyone knows how important Sam Gamgee is (in fact, he’s essentially a second protagonist, and he’s LITERALLY THE PERSON WHO DESTROYS THE RING AND SAVES THE WORLD). Everyone knows that R2-D2 saves the day dozens of times throughout all the Star Wars movies. I’m sure everyone knows that some prisoner would have pressed the button if the one hadn’t tossed it out the window. These are not subtle nuances that people miss, these are huge moments that are necessary to their respective stories.

some how I feel Naru Osaka from sailor moon should be here I mean she never question where Usagi went and I think later on she suspected Usagi of being sailor moon and telling her to be careful

 After ep 3 I wished I could have had my memory wiped. *rimshot*

 Massive agreement on the prisoner from Dark Knight, I always found that scene inspirational. Everyone else is tearing their hair out over their moral quandry and this guy just makes the decision in one easy motion, because ultimately it really is that simple.

 And I know this isn’t strictly canon, but he becomes commander of the Slayers in the sequel comics that Wheddon oversaw.  Completely with the Nick Fury eyepatch and everything.  It’s probably my favorite part.

 The pivotal minor characters in Star Wars; A New Hope are the Imperial Star Destroyer gunnery crew that decide not to shoot down C-3PO and R2-D2′s escape pod. If they had fired, no plans make it to the rebellion, Luke maybe never leaves the farm (or goes to the academy and winds up in the Imperial military!), Leia gets executed, Han maybe gets fed to the rancor or sarlacc.

Maybe Xander is underestimated in story, but the fact that he’s clearly Joss’ author avatar/pet takes away the “unsung” part of his character for me. And his unrelentingly sexism (slut-shaming Cordelia constantly through the first three seasons, sexualizing Willow and Tara in ‘Restless,’ using Buffy’s near-rape by Spike as a bargaining chip with a teenage girl that is also BUFFY’S SISTER, patronizing and lying to Buffy about the Angel/Angelus affair) and NEVER being called out on it is a blight on a series that posits itself as uber-feminist, and also on the man who created it.

tl;dr: I have a lot of Xander feelings. 

I never forgave Xander for lying to Buffy and telling her that Willow said to kick Angelus’ ass, rather than that she was in the process of restoring his soul.  And for what a jerk he was to Buffy when she came back after running away from home.

Exept for the part where Luke tell the techs on Yavin to repair R2 in the first one, the part where Luke nearly has a nervous breakdown when the swamp creature eats him in the second, and when he explicitly says “dont forget the droids” in the third, yeah I see what you mean…..

Lest we forget, my man Xander also saved Buffy’s life after the Master drowned her in a pool of water by giving her CPR, which led to the Calling of Kendra. Without that one act, there wouldn’t have been a Buffy around for any of the above to have even occured.

Perhaps Helms Deep? or Osgiliath

it was only C3P0 who got wiped, R2 retained his memories

I alway thought of Xander as being the resident conservative.  There are both good and bad aspects to that.

R2!! Seriously, know one ever tells him thanks or mentions him but he was there at the beginning and was there till the end. A true friend and more of a hero than many others! A real hero, who does what he does because its the right thing to do :)

And my heart, too, belongs to Sokka ♥He doesnt think he has the power to affect the elements, but he does – he affects not Air, Fire, Earth, or Water, but PEOPLE.

It is a fantastic list, and props for R2D2, but the most important underrated character in the original Star Wars films was the officer who decided not to shoot down the escape pod that had the droids in it.  Yes, I will admit I didn’t realize this either until I watched Spaced, but Simon Pegg is dead right.  If they had decided to shoot down the escape pod R2D2 would have been destroyed and…