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Overused Copycat Character (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:all_drow_are_drizzt_1654.jpg|link=The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|frame|<small>[[Forgotten Realms|Drizzt]]: Just admit that's who you're actually playing.</small> ]]
 
{{quote|''"I am the result of [[Hideaki Anno]] [[Uncanny Valley|failing to make my character unsettling]], and [[Rei Ayanami Expy|instead my very archetype was copied repeatedly.]]"''|'''Rei''', ''[[Evangelion Abridged]]''}}
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*** In an issue of ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]'', the team travels to a dimension that's basically the Marvel Universe with the craziness turned up to 11, and at one point see a line of different versions of Wolverine practicing his catch phrase while waiting to audition to be the "real" Wolverine.
*** Later, in an issue of ''[[Exiles]]'', a book about a rotating cast of characters from different dimensions being assembled to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]] throughout [[The Multiverse]], the only information available about a particular "what went wrong" is that only Wolverine could solve it, so an entire team is assembled consisting of different versions of Wolverine. During the mission, they discover that they are not even the first such team, and encounter the remains of dozens of other versions of Wolverine from teams that failed.
* [[Phil Foglio]] mocks the [[Trenchcoat Brigade]] in ''Stanley and his Monster'', by having the latest [[Hellblazer (Comic Book)|John Constantine]] expy claim it's like an assembly line.
 
 
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* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' had (has?) a problem with this. It's [http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2005/02/01/city_of_copies_marvel_vs_nc_soft.html very easy] to make an obvious [[Captain Ersatz]] with it, and [[Marvel Comics]] sued them over it once.
* When the first expansion for [[WoW]] hit, giving the Horde blond elves, in the first hours there were literally ''thousands'' of variations of [[The Lord of the Rings|Legolas]], most of them hunters with bows, as well as hundreds of [[Final Fantasy VII|Sephiroths]].
* The ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' series had, by the point of ''[[Mortal Kombat 3 (Video Game)|Trilogy]]'', seven "ninjas" using the same sprite, four female "ninjas" using the same sprite, three robot "ninjas" using the same sprite (each differently colored). This depends on the version of the game, of course, but people made fun of it so much that when the series made a jump to 3D for ''[[Mortal Kombat 4 (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat 4]]'', the programmers made sure that each character would have their own unique appearance.
* Rather humorously [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in ''[[BaldursBaldur's Gate|Baldur's Gate II]]'', where your party will eventually run into Drizzt himself. Generally, you can use the opportunity to either ask for his aid on your assault on a vampire compound or just murder him and his party for their awesome gear. If you're playing an elf named Drizzt and have a low enough [[Karma Meter|reputation]], however, you never get the chance -- [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|he'll simply challenge you to a duel for the honor of his name]].
 
 
== Web Comics ==
* A Drizzt [[Expy]], aptly named Zz'dtri, shows up in ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' as a member of the Linear Guild. Vaarsuvius points this out during a battle, and lawyers drag the copycat off screen. Nale earlier [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0044.html claims] that now ''all'' Drow became [[Chaotic Good]] rebels, "[[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|yearning to throw off the reputation of their evil kin]]". It gets lampshaded when one of the characters asks how the Drow can throw off their 'evil' kin if 'all' of them are Chaotic Good. It's also subverted, since he actually ''does'' turn out to be a [[Always Chaotic Evil|normal drow]]. {{spoiler|Of course, Zz'dtri later got off scot-free by [[Parody Retcon|declaring himself a parody of Drizz't]] and went back to secretly work for Nale.}}
* ''[[Goblins]]'' [http://www.goblinscomic.com/07102005 also skewers] [http://www.goblinscomic.com/07112005/ the idea]. Gleefully.
* ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' also has an evil dual-wielding drow ranger called Drizz'l, though he moved away from this after his first appearance.
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== Web Original ==
* This phenomenon became so prevalent in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' that the various game masters would issue a moratorium on certain character concepts. Almost always, the sudden rush of copycat characters would be in result to outside stimuli. For example, when ''[[X -Men]] 2'' came out, there was a sudden rush of teleporting martial artist characters. When ''[[The Incredibles]]'' was released, there was a sudden flood of [[Rubber Man|stretchable characters]], and so on.
* [[Zero Punctuation|Yahtzee]] ridicules the overuse of the humorless, hard-ass [[Space Marine]] archetype for [[First-Person Shooter]] protagonists. While Master Chief of ''[[Halo]]'' isn't the ''direct'' source from which the character type is derived, he is held out as the most obvious and recognizable example of the archetype.
* Parodied in one chapter of the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' [[Fanfic]] ''[[Those Lacking Spines (Fanfic)|Those Lacking Spines]]'', where the "Heroes" fight a guy named "Jeffiroth", with the implication that he to be the first of many similar [[Copy Cat Sue|Copycat Sues]].
* "Clichequest", the MMORPG in ''[[The Noob]]'', has several dozen players named various variations of the different members of the fellowship. At one point, we see Elfboro, where almost everyone is named Legolas one way or the other ("Oh, you're looking for Leg0las"). Even the [[Idiot Hero]] tried to name his character "Aragorn" in the first strip.
 
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