Thread:Sonofaphrodite/@comment-4839682-20120909071940/@comment-3393671-20120909213710

Usually, a major character is somebody who is in a main, prominent role, somebody who the show usually revolves around and their conflicts are usually th biggest driving point of the show. It doesn't matter if they are in all of the episodes, like the protaganist, or just in a handful of episodes, like Graham. Characters like Graham are what tvtropes.org would call a sacrificial lamb (or lion if he is a powerful character). They are dubbed as somebody who is introduced in a main role, kept around for a while to be liked, and then killed just to show how serious the show can be. Also, characters like Archie can be out of focus due to the writers not knowing what to do with them, but they are still billed as a main character. They can sometimes be written off or demoted to a recurring role as a result, but not always. This happens plenty of times in the Vampire Diaries, actually, and they have loads of main characters.

Recurring characters are basically secondary characters, like Kathryn Nolan or Sidney Glass The Blue Fairy. They can appear as prominently as the main characters, but they aren't as important, and they usually appear to serve as plot points for the main characters. Some recurring characters may have their own individual storyline. Recurring characters can appear as much as the main characters or they can only appear in a handful of episodes, (ex. 12 out of 22.)

Minor characters are usually characters who appear who appears in a handful of episodes to very few or just for one episode. I'm not sure if these include guest stars or not, but they probably do. Cinderella would be a minor character, not a recurring one, because she barely has anything to do with the show other than serve as a teenage version of Emma, reveal some backstory for her, and then get engaged to Sean and and she only appeared in two episodes for season one. Nothing about her really drives the plot except for her pregnancy episode. Belle would be one too for season onebecause she only appears in three episodes. Usually, minor characters are characters who appears only for the tiniest spark of time and disappears immediately.

I don't know if any of this makes sense, but I tried my best at explaining, lol.