Copy Cat Sue

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Nar-Sue-to, Naruto's twin sister, who carries the six-tailed weasel, has all of her brother's skills, and more. Original Character! Do Not Steal![1]

Super OC: Your bloodline is very special, it is a very special doujutsu with all of the abilities of the Sharingan and the Byakugan.
Naruto: So does that make me half Hyuuga and half Uchiha?
Super OC: No, it just means that the author realized that coming up with a useful doujutsu is harder then it seems, so they copped out and combined the two given to them.

Sigried27 taking a potshot at this trend.

A lot of Fanfic writers start up because of their passion for a show. While any number of things can be the source of passion, a very common fixation is on one of the primary characters. So they start to write something because of their passion for this character, but they find something about the character that doesn't mesh well. Maybe they're the wrong gender or are otherwise not close enough to the author's expectations. (Or they want to make the character really, really cool even if they like the character as he or she is.) Or, alternatively, the author wants to pair their favorite character up with somebody, but "nobody is good enough for them". In any case, rather than put them through the Possession Sue process, they just get a Clone-O-Matic and out pops a Copy Cat Sue.

The Copy Cat Sue is a distressingly common occurrence, marked by their uncanny resemblance to a canon character. This is usually most blatant when it involves traits that are supposed to be unique in The Verse, but pretty much anything where the Backstory and key character traits of the two characters are nearly interchangable counts. The canon character is the last of their kind? Well, so is this character! Abusive Parents? This character can sympathize! The canon character has a unique Transformation Trinket? It's not unique any more! They might even have another Team Pet of the exact same species, and they get along with the canon pet absolutely fine! Naturally, they are instantly accepted into the group and have to go on a mission where they kill the Big Bad, slay The Dragon and, provided they're sexually compatible (not like it stops them from trying, though), they'll inevitably pair off while flipping the bird to the Official Couple. Or die. That happens sometimes.

A fairly common storyline that lampshades this is where the Big Bad (or, perhaps, just a neutral Mad Scientist; it's almost unheard of for anybody without a direct connection to the hero and his True Companions) makes an actual clone of the character (usually of the opposite sex, but not always). They play themselves off as family members from out of state, or exchange students from Suetopia, but they have a mission to off the main character when they get the say so. Of course, since 99% of the Copy Cat Sues out there are synthesized to allow the author to imagine being both the canon character and friends/lovers with them, they'll betray their creator and join with the heroes (who, despite the character's connection with the bad guys, will rarely question them for very long), usually proceeding to kill the Big Bad, slay The Dragon, and become best friends/lovers until the end of time. Or die. That happens... a lot really.

A telltale sign of such a character is that any "fan art" of the character will actually just be recolored images of characters from the actual show and that may or may not explain why, say, Sailor Earth has a crescent moon on her forehead. Some get more creative and edit their source image a little in an attempt to make them look a little less like the character they copied. A precious few can be bothered to actually create real art, but nine times out of ten, even that art will simply be traced from a picture of the source character.

In either case, the character might be intended as a replacement for the canon character, but without whatever icky traits the author hates. They'll then rob the spotlight, prove the canon character to be unworthy of his/her position, and either relegate the character to obsolescence or, perhaps, even remove them entirely. Sometimes, this is done because the author likes the villain and wants them to be friends/lovers with the other character, but can't find any real reason that they wouldn't kill each other. Thus, to get the ending they want, they just make somebody that practically is the other character but without the key trait of wanting the villain dead. Yay, Fanfiction!

Compare Overused Copycat Character and Fountain of Expies.

Examples of Copy Cat Sue include:

Anime and Manga

  • Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin and Ginga Densetsu Weed OCs that are just recolors of the series' protagonists are somewhat notorious among their fandom. Parodied mercilessly by this dA gallery.
  • Half of Dragonball Z fanfics deal with another surviving Saiyan suddenly being found. This is usually a teenage girl, with sudden connections to characters for shipping purposes.
    • Bonus points if the surviving Saiyan is a long lost member of the royal family.
      • Ironically, years later, a (anime original) canon royal really did come out of nowhere. However, it was a scrawny male who King Vegeta sent away for being weak and Vegeta "Jr" considered an embarrassment. He was also a pretty nice guy, and Happily Married to a Humanoid Alien (which, for some reason, seriously weirded Vegeta out).
  • Younger Sailor Earth creators in the Sailor Moon fandom have a tendency to copy a lot of traits from main character Usagi's appearance and backstory, sometimes, in worst cases, right down to being Mamoru's past-life lover. More often than not, said characters will also be Usagi's long-lost sister or cousin. More often, if the author does not want to bang Mamoru, Sailor Earth is Mamoru's sister from the Silver Millennium.
  • For the rare, well done and likable version, read the Ah! My Goddess fanfic Scordatura. You'll laugh your head off.
  • Because Tsuna of Katekyo Hitman Reborn was initially disliked for being a Butt Monkey, several stories were written with him starting out as a genius instead of an idiot, and other things that replace his imperfections. Some authors go to the point of turning Tsuna into a girl for the sake of pairing him with the rest of the characters, or, if it is a crossover, make him know certain abilities that exist from other places beforehand, which would effectively make him a complete Story-Breaker Power for most of the story.
  • The Pokémon fandom. It'd be fun to count, sometime, the number of trainers that start out late to get their Pokémon and get a non-standard starter. They'll likely be from Pallet Town as well, or even related to Ash with the writer's pairing of choice being the mother. Ash will, naturally, be a Pokémon master by then.
    • You could say this has to do with the games. If most of the people who wrote these fanfics even played the games, or if the characters were even any of the protagonists. Though whenever Brendan appears in an anime fanfic this happens.
    • Anime!Brendan is presumably Professor Birch's son, and he has a fully evolved water-type starter, which makes him remarkably similar to GARY MOTHERFUCKING OAK. He can easily be an OC Stand-In for the rival when the fic takes place during the original series (for obvious reasons, Harrison from the Johto League would represent the player character.)
    • The first season of Pokemon also had two other trainers who left Pallet town the same time as Gary and Ash. Similar to Brendan, they're OC Stand-In fodder. Also subverted at the same time, as during the series it's said that they gave up and went home.
  • Hamtaro falls to this as well. Most seem to be colorful versions of Hamtaro, Oxnard, and Bijou themselves. Most are paired up with the Ham-Hams as well. They can have a variety of other sue traits as well varying from Purity Sue to God Mode Sue.
  • The Yu Yu Hakusho fandom... dear Kami-sama, the Yu Yu Hakusho fandom. Most of the fics that aren't pairing Kurama with Hiei, have: Kurama paired with a plant-weilder, kitsune, demon trapped in a human body after "death", thief, past mate and/or partner of Youko Kurama's, or any combination thereof.
    • Hiei is often paired with fire- or ice-wielders, hybrids of some kind (usually "forbidden" or "taboo"), working for Koenma/stuck in the human world, or possibly had a very rough childhood that made them very cynical and aggressive (any combination also applies). Not to mention that they are almost guaranteed to be at least a couple of inches shorter than him (no easy task, considering he is 4 foot 10 without the hair and they would have to be a legal midget).
    • There are also numerous delinquents from broken homes who barely go to school, talk back to authority, start random fights to prove how tough they are (especially when someone accuses them of being feminine), and somehow end up working for Koenma. Surprisingly, these are not often paired with Yusuke.
  • Many fanfics in the Fullmetal Alchemist series have Ed and Al finding a lost long sister or childhood friend who they somehow forgot about. She'll often be a State Alchemist with some state name that makes no sense, be able to perform alchemy without transmutation circles, and have an automail limb just like Ed.
    • There are also tons of FMA fanfics that involve a new Homunculus character named "Jelousy" or "Desire" or "Anger". Bonus points if they're a love interest of another Homunculus and/or if they happen to have some sort of connection with the main cast.
    • Considering how many chimera fancharacters that show up who just happen to be working for Greed, it's a miracle the Devil's Nest isn't over-crowded by now.
  • Two words: Dark Yagami.
    • Likewise, there are nearly countless Death Note fanfics in which the main protagonist (or antagonist) is a genius detective with a single letter for an alias and who happen to be an orphan from Wammy's. Bonus points if they turn out to be L's, Near's, or Mello's long lost relative or their love interest.
    • Hey check out my Shinigami! It's liek big and totally awesome and eats fruit! Oh and we're liek best pals and it will gladly die for me if I asked!
  • Ouran High School Host Club OCs have a habit of being girls who, for whatever contrived reason, pose as boys and join the Host Club just like Haruhi. For bonus points, they may even be a missing Hitachiin sibling who acts remarkably like the twins.
  • Several Soul Eater related fanfics/fanart feature a female Grim Reaper-esque character that has OCD, black hair, assymetrical bangs and...Yeah, its's a Copy Cat Sue of Death The Kid. Bonus points if said Sue and Kid fall in love.
    • Or they're also scythe meisters like Maka, despite it being stated that scythes are very rare. They are also usually paired with Kid.
  • You cannot count the number of fanfics that have Ryoma's Long Lost Sibling (always female), who looks exactly like him, plays the same tennis (better than him and his father even) and joins the BOYS tennis team because she is just that "awesome". Granted he has an adopted brother he barely remembered until recently but that doesn't give an excuse for the Echizen's sister fics running around.
  • Browse through Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction. Look up stories involving OCs. If the main character has any of the following in their deck - Blue-Eyes White Dragons, Egyptian Gods, Phantom Demons, Earthbound Gods, Elemental/Destiny/Evil Heroes, Cyber Dragons, Black Feathers, Signer Dragons, or an oddly specific number of cards that happen to correspond to a popular character's style (bonus points if it's because they're related to a canon character), then close your browser, shut down your computer, and consult an exorcist. There also tends to be a large number of Kaiba clones, complete with Badass Longcoat, smug attitude, Dragon Deck, and loads of money - with the big exception being that Kaiba never beats Yugi, while these fellows usually trounce the main character by the third chapter. Or, if the writer has some restraint, at the end of the story after going something that is supposed to be character development but is more of a winlist. Of course, there are Kaiba clones in canon.
  • There are Hellsing fancharacters out there who are plucky female vampires that were bitten by Alucard himself and work for the Hellsing Organization and... yeah, they're pretty much Copy Cat Sue versions of Seras Victoria.
  • The Bleach fandom have a few characters that end up getting their powers the exact same way Kurosaki Ichigo does going through the pit and everything in the exact sequence and having the exact same reason for going in.
    • Also, when some people try pairing Hitsugaya Toshiro with someone, due to his relative age, they make yet another child genius who goes to the academy at the same time as him, despite the fact that they are supposed to be rare.
      • The second movie, The Diamond Dust Rebellion, plays with this idea somewhat. In the film's backstory, Hitsugaya is shown to have had to a childhood friend from his academy days named Sojiro Kusaka. The two were in the same class, were friendly rivals when it came to school work, and even had the same Zanpakuto spirit (Hyorinmaru) as their partner, which only caused their friendship to grow deeper. However, things go south quickly when the Central 46 rules that no two people can possess the same Zanpakuto spirit, ordering a Duel to the Death between Hitsugaya and Kusaka. Kusaka charges at Hitsugaya, claiming to want Hyorinmaru's power for himself, revealing that the duel was a Secret Test of Character meant to determine who would raise their blade first. Kusaka is executed almost immediately afterward. Cue Kusaka coming Back from the Dead and returning as a menace to the Soul Society as Hitsugaya's Rival Turned Evil years later.
  • Naruto is a natural fountain of these because ninja powers tend to run in families due to bloodline abilities or other secret clan techniques. The most common Copy Cat Sue is either:
  1. The sister of a character with the same family powers. (e.g. Sasuke's sue-tiful sister.)
  2. A sister of Naruto who is also a jinchuuriki or who takes his place as one.
  3. A child adopted by the Akatsuki or born from Mister Seahorse who inherits their powers.
    • For bonus fun, you have continuation fics or "child of Akatsuki" fics in which you get a character who is a broken Copy Cat Sue of multiple characters.

Comic Books

  • The Flash comics feature a canon example of a Copy Cat Sue (sort of). Barry Allen seemingly returned from the dead in 1993, but it turned out it was Eobard Thawne before he became Professor Zoom. Eobard Thawne was such a fan of Barry Allen, he memorized Barry's biography, spent years and his fortune to aquire the same powers, and had himself surgically altered to look exactly like Barry (using futuristic plastic surgery.) But he ended up arriving years after Barry's death and, addled from time travel, and the revelation that he would become Professor Zoom, snapped and started thinking he was Barry Allen. One can only imagine how well Barry would have reacted to the arrival of an obsessive Fan Boy who looks and dresses exactly like him and has his powers. If only DC did actual "What ifs".
  • Possibly parodied and combined with Evil Counterpart in Les Légendaires, where the Bigger Bad Anathos uses the Legendaries' blood to create evil twins of them as his personnal Five-Bad Band. The Hellions are portrayed as physically identical to the Legendaries except for their colours, having the same names except with "Dark" added to it (Dark-Jadina, Dark-Gryf...) and using enhanced version of the Legendaries' powers and abilities. When facing the heroes, they initially easily get the upper hand, Dark-Gryf even mentioning how superior he is to Gryf... then the Legendaries decide to reveal how much they have improved and beat the crap out of them.

Films -- Live Action

  • There are Copy Cat Sue kaiju that basically rip-off Godzilla. If you thought the canon giant rampaging dinosaurs/reptiles that attack a major city—i.e. Yonggary, Gorgo, Gappa, Gamera (though, he's actually rather good) -- were bad enough....
  • Star Wars fanfics often give Han Solo a sister (or brother?) who falls in love with Luke. A variant is to have Obi-Wan take a padawan on Tatooine, who then falls in love with Luke. These characters are very much Copycat Sues, usually a Distaff Counterpart of their relative, or a clone if male.
  • Lately[when?] on Deviant ART, there's been a massive Na'vi invasion going on. Doesn't really help that they all look nearly the same on first glance, and that tribal outfits are similar...

Literature

  • In Harry Potter fanfiction, Harry often gets a twin brother who is in fact the "Boy Who Lived". That, or he gets sent to a dimension with a Rose Potter as the Girl Who Lived.
    • Gryffindor has won every single match since 1997 because it has 20,000,000 Seekers -- all as good as or better than Harry -- on its team.
  • Minerva from Artemis Fowl is bashed for this. She's not too bad a character and Artemis beats her almost easily but she was too similar to the eponymous character and the author was trying to ship the two a little too much.
  • A lot of protagonists from the Star Trek franchise's Expanded Universe and Fanfic titles have beaten the designed-to-be-unbeatable Kobayashi Maru test, something in canon originally only Captain James T. Kirk had managed (and that by cheating), making this seemingly impossible and impressive feat in fact depressingly mundane.

Live Action TV

  • A lot of Doctor Who fanfics involve The Doctor running into a surviving Time Lord who just happens to have a TARDIS as well and travels across time and space with a companion. Bonus points for if said Time Lord is either The Doctor's long-lost relative or becomes his love interest.

Newspaper Comics

  • A parody example comes from FoxTrot: one series of strips had Jason suggest to Lucasfilm that they spice up the Star Wars Special Editions by adding a new character: Jason Skywalker, Luke's younger brother who follows Luke's character arc up to the end of Empire, at which point he joins the Dark Side (and of course, lives to fight another day).

Video Games

  • Kingdom Hearts has quite a number of Sues which claim to be Sora's sister, given a mysterious-but-very-Keyblade-like magical weapon (usually when Sora receives the real Keyblade) and journey along with their "brother." Usually, they get shipped with Riku. Then 358/2 Days came out, which introduced Xion, who fit quite a few of these traits—spitting image of Kairi, fourteenth member of Organization XIII, a Keyblade user, and ends up being close friends of Roxas and Axel to boot. However, this ends up being deconstructed when it is revealed that she is an imperfect Replica of Sora created by Organization XIII to absorb memories from Roxas and eventually absorb him completely in case the real Sora was useless to their plans. She knows none of this, but when she does find out, the results are...unpleasant as she frantically tries to become a "whole" being instead of a mere Opposite Gender Clone, while desperately trying to avoid having this goal hurt her friends in any way (this fails... miserably).
    • They seem to love to destroy this trope. They had Namine, who looks just like Kairi with blonde hair and was a friend of Sora who he forgot about. Later it turns out that none of that is true. She's a Nobody created when Kairi's heart left Sora's body and she has the power to change his memories due to her origins. The Organization then forces her to do so. They even go so far to try to completely replace Kairi with her.
    • Also in Chain of Memories there is Replica Riku who is brainwashed into believing that he's the real Riku. When he finds out he's not too pleased.
  • Spyro the Dragon has a lot of this, regardless of whether it's the originals or legends that are involved. Seems like most dragon characters that get made almost always resemble Spyro, Flame, Ember, Cynder, Malefor, or Red. Of course, the throw on of manes, extra spikes, wings, and tails really doesn't help out much, and recolor never seems to work. Of course, you'd figure that that with the whole 1 in 10 generations of purple dragons thing that Sierra did with the legends would prevent an over-flow of purple dragon characters with legendary status... well, guess how often a purple dragon who comes along that can outdo Spryo?
    • Generally speaking, it seems that anybody who makes a dragon character (especially female) uses Spyro & Cynder's design.
    • And if that wasn't enough, some of these characters break up the romance between characters. A lot. Did I also mention that most of the creators also pass them off as Original Characters as well, in which they have their own universe and storyline, but still look an awful lot like a Spyro or Cynder recolor. They even use The Legend of in their titles to add to the confusion!
  • Christian Weston Chandler's Sonichu is, predictably, a combination of Sonic the Hedgehog and Pikachu with super-speed and electricity attacks. Then Christian copycatted his copycat by powering up Chris-chan, his Author Avatar, by allowing him to transform into an "electric hedgehog Pokemon" with all the powers of Sonichu (and then some). Poor Sonichu has since been all but forgotten, even though the comic still bears his name.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog fandom is notorious for this. Recolours and sprite edits make up most of the fan characters, and the availability of character creators and paper doll programs to facilitate this have worsened the issue. Seems to be a fully Discredited Trope at this point, not that it's gonna stop a lot of people.
    • Though Jazz Jackrabbit is not one of these, there is a boss in the first game that looks like a terribly recolored Sonic/Tails/Zool mix.
  • The number of Distaff Counterparts to Link popping up in The Legend of Zelda Fanfictions is... immense...
  • A few exist for the Star Fox series. A lot of them are very similar to the main hero, Fox McCloud, have a similar level of skill as a pilot, or as an added option can be Spear Counterparts to Krystal, who prove to be even better love interests for her than Fox is (because y'know, Fox totally sucks).
  • Final Fantasy Tactics Advance intentionally invokes this trope with Llednar Twem, Mewt's totally badass Marty Stu Dragon/friend, who bears a suspicious obvious resemblance to Marche. While Marche is fighting to destroy the fantasy world Mewt created, Llednar is there to oppose him.
  • Albert Wesker sure does have a lot of clones running around in the fandom, doesn't he?
  • Many a Pokémon game fanfic stars trainers from small towns who defeat evil teams, defeat everyone in sight, become the champion, beat the game protagonists, and typically have either a Starter or an Eevee. They're often also a love interest to a game character.
  • Some people doing fan art from the Final Fantasy series draw their own flavors of the moogles, chocobos, or any other race/critters that pops up in the series. These aren't as bad as the Sonic or Spyro examples above since characters like the moogles are usually generic and implied to be more than one of them running around, so the characters the artists use for their own characters aren't unique or special.

Western Animation

  • In Avatar: The Last Airbender, many a fic revolves around the group finding an Airbender out in the middle of the woods, raised by themselves, abandoned by the world. They get free lessons from Aang, just because he cares. Lessons for other Avatars cost extra, presumably for breaking the one avatar a generation rule. It's worth a mention that there is a (presumably non-canon) character from the Collectible Card Game that is, in fact, an airbender who had survived the genocide. This character, known as Malu the Ghost Witch, was hidden by her parents inside a cave, and quickly became a legend among the Avatar world for attacking Fire Nation soldiers.
  • Ben 10: Even though it is confirmed that the Omnitrix is the only one in existence, in Fanfic, every other kid has one or a mystical transformation artifact shaped like one. Word of God quickly jossed every single one of them in the episode Good Copy Bad Copy, going so far as to say that more than one Omnitrix at a time would be The End of the World as We Know It.
    • Albedo himself, who appeared in the episode, also appears to be a parody of the idea, who helped assist in creating the Omnitrix, came back with a better version, and his current design is just a mere recolor of Ben (amusingly, Albedo has since become quite popular amongst the fans).
  • If it's a Transformers Sue, there's a good chance that they share a vehicle mode with their romantic target of choice. Especially annoying given the potential for creativity in the premise...
    • Somewhat more excusable here than in other fandoms, due to Hasbro's hard-on for Palette Swapping that just won't go away.
  • David Gonterman's prized Johnathan Brisby is, perhaps, the most blatant example of this trope in action. In his original incarnation in The Rangers of NIMH (a Crossover fanfic of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers and The Secret of NIMH), he's essentially a Generation Xerox of the canon Jonathan Brisby (but spunkier!). Then he undergoes Canon Migration (so to speak) to become a shameless ripoff of the character in Fauna Force. This will no doubt be the case for whatever upcoming story Gonterman has planned for the re-envisioned "Johnny Briz".
  • Danny Phantom: You would be surprised how many teenage runaways end up in Amity Park, walk into FentonWorks right as the Ghost Portal resets, and come out with ghostly superpowers and control of at least one element of nature. The fact that Danny has an Opposite Gender Clone in canon really doesn't help.
  • Many "Chipmunk Bands" on Youtube are like this. Basically they're just the Chipmunks and Chipettes with a different color scheme and (most of the time) some random word in place of "Chip" on the band name (ex.: the Popettes, the Crystamunks, etc.). Also, Alvin colorovers are usually given some random "A" name (like Andrew or AJ) and most of the Brittany colorovers around are friends. Also, they have the tendency to Jump the Shark in many ways, such as getting married, having kids, or even having a member nearly die (like with the Omegamunks (Tim Ronald Jake) and the Pinkettes). Nearly. Most of the time they survive.
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends lampshades the trope during the pilot episode when Wilt introduces the types of imaginary friends that live there. The friend introduced as an "unimaginative one" looks exactly like Mojo Jojo.

Wilt: Some kids aren't that creative and just copy what they see on TV. What're you gonna do?

  • It is common in Teen Titans fanfiction to have a Raven/Terra clone join the Titans for various reasons. Raven is usually bitchy to this newcomer, but slowly warms to her. Or Raven may be completely Out of Character and not do much of anything. She usually has the same powers as Raven, complete with the emotional tie-ins. The clone will usually fall in love with Beast Boy. Right after the season where Terra betrayed the Titans for Slade, it was especially common for said clone to be Slade's replacement for Terra.
  • Thomas the Tank Engine fanfictions have a lot of this. There are a lot of Thomas, Emily, and Rosie lookalikes running around on the Island of Sodor, it seems...
  • Oh gosh, the Code Lyoko fanfiction. So many stories revolve around these things:
    • An Original Character (or the author) comes to Kadic, befriends the Lyoko Gang, and becomes a Lyoko warrior
    • An Original Character is found on Lyoko, and has similarities to some new student at the school.
    • A group of original characters, either the original gang's kids, or some new kids who discover the factory and some wise guy pulls the lever and discovers Lyoko.
    • The Warriors fighting a brand-new supervirus that acts like XANA, but clearly isn't, really.
    • Bonus points if any of these characters (including the supervirus) fall in love with a Lyoko Warrior. Further bonus points of it's Odd.
    • In fact, if a story's main plot doesn't fall into any of these categories, it usually falls into the remaining 10% of Sturgeon's Law by default.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has this. If a Sue is in the fic, they'll probably be a turtle, and wield weapons identical to the ones their favorite character does, and probably have a similarly coloured bandana too.
  • Fan fictions of The Powerpuff Girls became littered with specially created Puffs (whose named begin with "B," of course). Lampshaded in comic book issue #50's Deja View (originally a season 5 episode that didn't get made) which features alternate universe versions of the girls with the names Berserk, Brat and Brute. Also with the Micro-Puffs (issue #65 and others), tiny versions of the girls from another dimension.
  • Invader Zim‍'‍s Tak doesn't seem to be the only Irken female to wind up disguised as a human in Ms. Bitters' class, at least if you go by fanfic portrayals. There are also a fair number of Distaff Counterparts for Dib, random new girls who quickly see through Zim's disguise and either help Dib fight him or help Zim change through The Power of Love.
  • My Little Pony isn't exempt from this, with its open world and large number of ponies. Thanks to the huge Internet fandom for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, this has downright exploded, with added twists like a Seventh Element of Harmony thrown into the mix.
    • The original series were just as bad, mainly My Little Pony N Friends and the G1 toys. It's hard to find any fanart or fanfiction pony related that wasn't based around a ponification or OC.
    • Interestingly, the background ponies in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic have no canon personalities or even canon names (toy names aside), but the fans as a whole seem to agree on certain names and personalities.
    • With the introduction of Discord, there have been tons of Draconequis fancharacters that all seem to have a name that relates to "chaos" in some way (IE: Disorder, Eris, Anarchy, etc.). Bonus points if they end up being Discord's love interest.
    • Despite Word of God stating that there are only two Alicorns (IE: Luna and Celestia) in Equestria, that hasn't stopped fans from creating their own Alicorn fan characters.
      • It also hasn't stopped the show's producers from adding a third canon Alicorn, Cadance.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants has a surprising amount of these. Some even claim to know everything about the Krusty Krab even if they've never been there before or have never even been in Bikini Bottom up until that point! Usually they're copies of either Spongebob, Patrick, Squidward or Sandy, but Plankton and even Gary lookalikes aren't unheard of. They all are either somehow related to them or get paired with them eventually.
  1. "Who'd want to?"