Fountain of Expies: Difference between revisions
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''Who cuss like me; who just don't give a fuck like me''
''Who dress like me; Who walk, talk, and act like me''
''And just might be the next best thing, But not quite me!"''
|'''[[Eminem]]''', ''The Real Slim Shady''}}
A character who is so popular and impactful that many other characters created afterwards are heavily inspired by it. They share even more than its [[Character Archetype]]s, they are its [[Expies]]: basically the same old character recycled, with some minor changes, to make it fit into the new setting. The original one gives inspiration not just for their basic [[Characterization Tropes]], but for parts of their relationship dynamics, personality, and appearance.
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* [[Trenchcoat Brigade]] ([[Hellblazer|John Constantine]])
* [[Tuxedo and Martini]] ([[James Bond (film)|James Bond]])
{{examples|Other examples}}
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* While ''[[Superman]]'' could be said to be the [[Trope Codifier]] for the whole [[Superhero]] genre, he is even more directly the inspiration for every single [[The Cape (trope)|Cape]] superhero in terms of personality and outfit, and for anyone with the standard [[Flying Brick]] powers (including the aforementioned [[Dragon Ball|Goku]]!).
** Similarly, [[Batman]] (himself borrowing heavily from [[Zorro]] and [[The Shadow]]) gave rise to basically every single [[Badass Normal]] in Comics, particularly those that [[The Cowl|work during the night.]]
** If there are expies of Superman and Batman in a story there is probably an [[Wonder Woman]] expy somewhere there to complete the
** Robin as well [[Trope Codifier|set the pace]] for the [[Sidekick]] in comics. Following his creation, numerous other Kid sidekicks were created, [[Bucky Barnes|Bucky]], [[Aquaman|Aqualad]], [[Green Arrow|Speedy]], [[The Flash|Kid Flash]], the list goes on.
* ''[[Wolverine]]''. Nearly every "[[Nineties Anti-Hero|exciting new character]]" introduced in the [[Dark Age|Dark Age of Comics]] was a cheap knockoff of him.
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* Almost without exception, if a work is intended as a parody of/meditation on/deconstruction of/homage to the idea of superheroes in general, there WILL be a [[Justice League]] of Expies and/or an expy [[Fantastic Four]].
** [[Justice League]] Expies include the Champions in ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]''; the Seven Sentinels in ''[[Top Ten]]''; the Honor Guard in ''[[Astro City]]''; Marvel's [[Squadron Supreme]]; the League of Honor in ''The Pro''; The Guard of ''[[Silver Age Sentinels]]''; and the Freedon League of ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]''.
** Fantastic Four expies include the Parrs of ''[[The Incredibles]]''
== [[Film]] ==
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* ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]''. The inspiration for hundreds of [[Defective Detective|eccentric private detectives]] in all kinds of settings, many of them explicit [[Expies]], to the extent that from the time he became popular until ''Trent's Last Case'' [[Deconstruction|deconstructed]] the type in 1913, it was well-nigh impossible to find a [[Great Detective]] who ''didn't'' rip him off, or, for that matter, a crime-solver who wasn't at least a parody of a [[Great Detective]]. Several characters inspired by Holmes have become distinctive popular characters in their own right, including Gregory [[House (TV series)|House]] and [[Batman]].
* Drizzt Do'Urden, as mentioned on the [[Overused Copycat Character]] page.
* The ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' [[Big Bad]], Sauron- though the [[Evil Overlord]] archetype is almost as old as humanity itself, many modern fantasy Overlords owe quite a bit to this guy, particularly if they live in an [[Evil Tower of Ominousness]] in [[Mordor]], are [[He Who Must Not Be Seen]] for most or all of the story, are [[Tin Tyrant]]s decorated with [[Spikes of Villainy]], use an [[Artifact of Doom]], which may double as a [[Soul Jar]], and they [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|cannot comprehend good]].
** Also, Elves. Extremely common in fantasy literature, but post-Christianity and pre-Tolkien, fae in general were portrayed as small, cute, harmless, etc.
* ''[[The Wizard of Oz]]'' gave us: Cyborgs/Androids afraid of losing their humanity (the [[Tin Man]]), Cowardly Powerhouses (Cowardly Lion), the most iconic [[Wicked Witch]] of them all, and a very typical girl heroine (Dorothy).
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