History Main / OCStandIn

* ''SonicTheHedgehog'' has accrued several such characters, though since these often turn up [[AdaptationDistilation in the comics]], said personalities are often used. Nevertheless, Ray the Flying Squirrel, Mighty The Armadillo (though he's almost always put as the lost forth member of Team Chaotix), Bean the Dynamite, and Bark the Polar Bear (often paired together, for being introduced in the same game), often end up being OC stand-ins, as do [[GoodBadBug Ashura The Hedgehog]], [[Fan Nickname Wechnia]], [[DevelopentHell Tiara Boobowski]] and [[DummiedOut Honey The Cat]], though these four are very rare to see in fanfic, not that the first four show up often, OriginalCharacters are far more common.

* To a degree, the Eighth Doctor from the FOX ''DoctorWho'' movie, at least when compared to the rest of ''Doctor Who'' continuity. Since the movie was a failed pilot, this Doctor received nowhere near as much character development as other Doctors, and ended up becoming something of a Tabla Rasa. As a result, he has seen the most fanfics and extra media (comics, audio plays, novels) of any of the other incarnations.

* Just about any ''{{Pokemon}}'' fanfic that places characters from the games (Brendan, Lucas, Silver, etc.) into the anime's continuity will make use of this principal to some extent, since most of said characters never appeared on the show outside of 3-second cameos. There's no set pattern for what personalities writers assign them, but there's usually a good chance that they will be used for {{Shipping}} somehow.

** Occasionally the few ''Evangelion'' {{Canon Foreigner}}s (such as Mana Kirishama) can fall into this, since [[NoExportForYou not many Americans have actually played the games they appeared in]]. [[RebuildOfEvangelion Mari Illustrious Makinami]] was this for some fans before her actual personality was revealed, and even then there's still a lot about her that's completely unknown, which can make her an ''EpilepticTree'' stand in.

In video games, sometimes the ''canon protagonist'' is an OCStandIn, due to being either an {{AFGNCAAP}} or a highly customizable RPG player character.

A particularly successful [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation interpretation]] of one of these is likely to ascend into {{Fanon}} when other fans want to play with that version.

*** There's ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3175216/1/Perfect_Pair The Perfect Pair]]'', where she is nice to Naruto (It's Naru/Ino) It's more an AU Fanfic with how Naruto would have been growing up adopted by the Haruno family, on Team 10 instead of Choji, etc.

*** Similarly, tailed beast hosts number 2 and 4-7, as two and four were only seen briefly while the others were [[spoiler:all killed offscreen]]. The fact that the author made full designs of all of them (even for the three-tail host, when the three-tailed beast didn't presently have a host) for a cover as part of a MilestoneCelebration is pretty much ''asking'' for this--though ironically at least one of them has been given a plot-relevant backstory ''post-mortem'' ([[spoiler:the three-tails was the last Mizukage]]).
**** Yugito Nii (the 2-tails host) is an extremely popular OCStandIn, and is a frequent [[CrackPairing shipping target]] for Naruto.

*** Or, for that matter, sees her as a threat- the natural consequence of the prospect of one sister enslaving the other or else dying.

* Happens very often in ''AxisPowersHetalia'' fandom with [[MoeAnthropomorphism nations]] that have only appeared in profiles or on the author's blog. Norway and Denmark got a fair number of fics centered on them before their first appearances in canon, and Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Belgium, and Holland have shown up in some fanworks despite not having any lines in canon as of this writing. Then again, ''Hetalia'' is based on real world history, so fanfic writers only need to research these countries' histories and stereotypes to come up with some technical canon.

* Though they go unnamed in the manga, ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'' has Ranma's buddies Hiroshi and Daisuke, and for the girls there's Akane's friends Yuka and Sayuri. They mainly exist to be ThoseTwoGuys... Though to be honest, RumikoTakahashi seems to love this trope, especially in Ranma. Herb's got Mint and Lime. Kima has Masara and Koruma, and is herself not much developed beyond her role as Saffron's bodyguard. The Anime also gave us Kaori Daikoku, who appeared just once in the anime and yet comes up rather frequently in fanfiction.

* The unnamed girl from ''Dissociation'' can be this in [[HaruhiSuzumiya Haruhi]] fanfiction (well, until the next book comes out).
** One example of her being used like this (and as a slider, to boot) is in ''[[Fanfic/{{Ptitle0028gzjm}} Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]''.

** Not to mention Blaise Zabini. ''Dear God'', the FanDumb when ''HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' was released. Blaise gets special mention here since from his name appearing in book one until he got a physical description in the book six, half the fanfic writers [[DidNotDoTheResearch assumed it was a girl's name]] (They've since taken to writing about Daphne Greengrass or Tracey Davis when they need a generic Slytherin girl)
*** At least one fanfic written before ''Half Blood Prince'' described Blaise as androgynous, and answering the question "Are you a boy or a girl?" with [[MathematiciansAnswer "Yes."]]

* Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's ''RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead''

** although the show itself [[{{Filler}} wasn't above doing that either]].

* ''{{iCarly}}'': Rebecca Berkowitz, seen only once, in an extended rarely seen version of ''iSaw Him First'' and usually mentioned off-handedly. In any fic with her as a character, she's basically going to be an OC with a canon name, if they even bother to develop her past the implied ReallyGetsAround.
* To a degree, the Eighth Doctor from the FOX Doctor Who movie, at least when compared to the rest of Doctor Who continuity. Since the movie was a failed pilot, this Doctor received nowhere near as much character development as other Doctors, and ended up becoming something of a Tabla Rosa. As a result, he has seen the most fanfics and extra media (comics, audio plays, novels) of any of the other incarnations.

* The Pokemon Gijinka, Aurora and Max from Roleplay/WeAreOurAvatars. Max and Aurora being based on {{Heroic Mime}} classes from the {{Diablo}} series.

* Commonly done to Dark Link from the ''LegendOfZelda''. In the video games Dark Link is a mindless, monstrous, obstacle, usually representing the evil in Link. [[SelfFanservice But fanfiction writers and fanartists tend to give him]] [[TheBlank a face]], and personality.
* ''{{Touhou}}'' has this mainly in the form of the dialogueless midbosses[[hottip:*:except Te([[SpellMyNameWithAnS w]])i, who got plenty of canonical characterization later]]. The standouts are probably Daiyousei, Koakuma, and Momiji. Daiyousei, Koakuma and Momiji have actually managed to become fairly popular. Most of the time they remain {{Satellite Character}}s to the boss whose stage they appear in.
** Daiyousei doesn't even have canonical non-danmaku powers in a series where virtually everybody has a random superpower, so fans are ''required'' to ''make up a superpower for her''. Koakuma and dosen't either, but Koakuma is usually assumed not to have one (unless being a succubus counts).

* The [[WordOfGod commentary]] on ''[=~Half-Life~=] 2'' states that this is the entire point of HeroicMime Gordon Freeman, with the player being the OC in question.

** The Rookie in ''[=Halo 3: ODST=]'' is this to a lesser degree, having no lines beyond grunts, no visible face(he always has his helmet on), and no identification beyond the initials "JD"; the designers claim this was intentional, to better allow the player to integrate with the character. Spartan-B312 in [=Halo: Reach=] is this even moreso, with male and female voice sets, and armor customization that is persistent throughout both campaign and multiplayer; this was done for the same reasons as the Rookie.

** ChrisColumbus giving his daughter Eleanor TheCameo by casting her as Susan Bones in the [[Film/HarryPotter first two movies]] might almost count as an "official" version of this. After all, Susan was a background role with no lines, so what better place would there be for the American director to slip his daughter in without effecting the all-British cast requirement? Well, true to form, Susan ended up getting developed into more than just a throwaway name in the books written after the first two movies came out. The latter films handled this by simply not including her plotline, which they likely would have done anyway considering [[DoorStopper the length of the latter books]]. In any case, if they had really wanted to include her in ''Phoenix'' or ''Prince'' with actual lines, they presumably could have just invoked TheOtherDarrin.

** ChrisColumbus giving his daughter Eleanor TheCameo by casting her as Susan Bones in the [[Film/HarryPotter first two movies]] might almost count as an "official" version of this. After all, Susan was a background role with no lines, so what better place would there be for the American director to slip his daughter in without effecting the all-British cast requirement? Well, true to form, Susan ended up getting developed into more than just than a throwaway name in the books written after the first two movies came out. The latter films handled this by simply not including her plotline, which they likely would have done anyway considering [[DoorStopper the length of the latter books]]. In any case, if they had really wanted to include her in ''Phoenix'' or ''Prince'' with actual lines, they presumably could have just invoked TheOtherDarrin.

** ChrisColumbus giving his daughter Eleanor TheCameo by casting her as Susan Bones in the [[Film/HarryPotter first two movies]] might almost count as an "official" version of this. After all, Susan was a background role with no lines, so what better place would there be for the American director to slip his daughter in without effecting the all-British cast requirement? Well, true to form, Susan ended up getting developed into more than more just than a throwaway name in the books written after the first two movies came out. The latter films handled this by simply not including her plotline, which they likely would have done anyway considering [[DoorStopper the length of the latter books]]. In any case, if they had really wanted to include her in ''Phoenix'' or ''Prince'' with actual lines, they presumably could have just invoked TheOtherDarrin.

** Daiyousei doesn't even have canonical non-danmaku powers in a series where virtually everybody has a random superpower, so fans are ''required'' to ''make up a superpower for her''. Koakuma and Momiji don't either, but Koakuma is usually assumed not to have one (unless being a succubus counts) and Momiji can have some inferred from her species.

** Many fans were actually ''thrilled'' when this was done, en masse, in the canon comic ''TransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers.'' Japanese exclusive Overlord and toy-only characters Pyro, Ironfist, Guzzle, and Rotorstorm were assigned new, quirky personalities and [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap pretty much became fan favorites overnight]].

* The unnamed girl from ''Dissociation'' can be this in Haruhi fanfiction (well, until the next book comes out).

* Odd ''canon'' example, ''DissidiaFinalFantasy'' is a crossover that featured characters from the first 12 ''FinalFantasy'' games had to pretty much create personalities for the Warrior of Light and the Onion Knight from the wholecloth.

* ''{{Touhou}}'' has this mainly in the form of the dialogueless midbosses[[hottip:*:except Te([[SpellMyNameWithAnS w]])i, who got plenty of canonical characterization later]]. The standouts are probably Daiyousei, Koakuma, and Momiji. Koakuma and Momiji have actually managed to become fairly popular...
** At least most of the time most of them remain {{Satellite Character}}s to the boss whose stage they appear in. Most of the time. Also, how much of a blank slate is Daiyousei? She doesn't even have canonical non-danmaku powers in a series where virtually everybody has a random superpower, so fans are ''required'' to ''make up a superpower for her''. Koa and Momiji don't either, but Koa is usually assumed not to have one (unless being a succubus counts) and Momiji can have some inferred from her species.

* The ''{{Metalocalypse}}'' fandom has Klokateers. In the show, they're several legions of hooded, uniformed, fanatically loyal employees of the Dethklok company who rarely have lines and are referred to by number rather than name. Because of the extremely stringent entrance exam and its 50+% mortality rate, the recruits who survive to become Klokateers are extremely exceptional specimens, physically and intellectually. This makes them ''ripe'' for this trope. There are a few who have risen to prominence, mostly through slash fandom.

* Professor Aurora Sinistra from ''HarryPotter''.
** Not to mention Blaise Zabini. ''Dear God'', the FanDumb when ''HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' was released. Blaise gets special mention here since from his name appearing in book one until he got a physical description in the book six, half the fanfic writers [[DidNotDoTheResearch assumed it was a girl's name]] (They've since taken to writing about Daphne Greengrass or Tracey Davis when they need a generic Slytherin girl)
*** At least one fanfic written before ''Half Blood Prince'' described Blaise as androgynous, and answering the question "Are you a boy or a girl?" with [[MathematiciansAnswer "Yes."]]
** Daphne Greengrass also gets a lot of attention when authors need a sympathetic Slytherin girl, as she's rarely if ever mentioned in the same negative light as Draco or Pansy in the books. Typically she's said to come from a neutral wizarding family or otherwise isn't connected with the rest of her house, possessing the same traits that Slytherins are known for but without invoking AmbitionIsEvil.
** Really, just take any throwaway name mentioned in the series and you'll find at least a few dozen fanfics starring that character.
* Just about any ''{{Pokemon}}'' fanfic that places characters from the games (Brendan, Lucas, Silver, etc.) into the anime's continuity will make use of this principal to some extent, since most of said characters never appeared on the show outside of 3-second cameos. There's no set pattern for what personalities writers assign them, but there's usually a good chance that they will be used for {{Shipping}} somehow.
** Likewise with game fanfics themselves. No one takes account to Dawn or May's in-game personalities, being that they're technically not their canon ones though. Most NPCs get this treatment to various effects.
* Any HeroicMime character tends to be this, due to little to no characterization of them in the actual source material.
* [[http://www.alara.net/opeople/xbooks/virtuous.html This]] XMen fic is one of the rare PossessionSue cases. It takes a very obscure character (Magneto's canonically-dead wife Magda) and turns her from a meek woman whose only real moment of characterization was fleeing her husband after he accidentally killed a bunch of people into a [[FountainOfYouth de-aged]] (since, as a Holocaust survivor, she should be fairly old, even with ComicBookTime) [[GadgeteerGenius genius roboticist]] mutant with a power that's supposedly completely unique and desirable enough that people would kidnap her for it (despite there already being a canon character with the same power whom no one makes much of a fuss over).

* There are ''{{Lost}}'' fanfics that takes the minor survivors, including ''extras'', and gives them the full on Lost treatment, with flashbacks and their own sideplots.
** although the show itself [[{{Filler}} wasn't above doing that either]].
* Commonly done to Dark Link from the ''LegendOfZelda''. In the video games Dark Link is a mindless, monstrous, obstacle, usually representing the evil in Link. [[SelfFanservice But fanfiction writers and fanartists tend to give him]] [[TheBlank a face]], and personality.
* This trope is all over the place in {{Transformers}}. The franchise is filled with characters who only appear as toys with bio notes of varying character depth. It has even happened in canon on a few occasions - the profile book ''More Than Meets The Eye'' required the authors to invent personalities for the Micromasters out of whole cloth, since those characters did not have bio notes.
** Many fans were actually ''thrilled'' when this was done, en masse, in the canon comic ''TransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers.'' Japanese exclusive Overlord and toy-only characters Pyro, Ironfist, Guzzle, and Rotorstorm were assigned new, quirky personalities and [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap pretty much became fan favorites overnight]].
* ''PhineasAndFerb'': Until episodes such as "Isabella and the Temple of Sap", the [[ScoutOut Fireside Girls]] had close to no lines and no characterization, other than Gretchen, who even then only spoke once or twice.
** ''Especially'' Gretchen, who in {{fanon}} is often paired with Ferb, apparently just because she's the first girl his age (other than Isabella) to get a name.
* Aeneas has a very minor role in ''TheIliad'', but Virgil made him the protagonist of his Aenead, partly because he was such a blank slate and partly because he was one of the few Trojans to survive the sack of Troy. This makes this trope, [[OlderThanFeudalism you guessed it]]...
* Ezekiel from ''TotalDramaIsland'' gets this fairly often; he got very little development because he was the first character to get voted off, an event that some viewers thought was unfair since he had completed the episode's challenge while other characters didn't. To a lesser extent Katie and Sadie also get this, since in canon aside from their co-dependency they have very little that seperates them from the more developed and funnier Lindsay.
* ''{{Touhou}}'' has this mainly in the form of the dialogueless midbosses[[hottip:*:except Te([[SpellMyNameWithAnS w]])i, who got plenty of canonical characterization later]]. The standouts are probably Daiyousei, Koakuma, and Momiji. Koakuma and Momiji have actually managed to become fairly popular...
** At least most of the time most of them remain SatelliteCharacters to the boss whose stage they appear in. Most of the time. Also, how much of a blank slate is Daiyousei? She doesn't even have canonical non-danmaku powers in a series where virtually everybody has a random superpower, so fans are ''required'' to ''make up a superpower for her''. Koa and Momiji don't either, but Koa is usually assumed not to have one (unless being a succubus counts) and Momiji can have some inferred from her species.
* Matt from ''DeathNote'' is a good example of this. He gets little time on the page in the manga, and even less time in the anime, but he has a large fan base, and thus many people end up writing about him, usually just writing him as whatever they need, within limits, for the story.
** Also Linda, who was mentioned in the manga a grand total of twice, seen only once, and has only one line. Considering that, she is a ''massive'' EnsembleDarkhorse; if you type in "linda death note" on deviantART you get 526 results, and she has 34 fanfictions on fanfiction.net.
* The ''{{Metalocalypse}}'' fandom has Klokateers. In the show, they're several legions of hooded, uniformed, fanatically loyal employees of the Dethklok company who rarely have lines and are referred to by number rather than name. Because of the extremely stringent entrance exam and its 50+% mortality rate, the recruits who survive to become Klokateers are extremely exceptional specimens, physically and intellectually. This makes them ''ripe'' for this trope. There are a few who have risen to prominence, mostly through slash fandom.

* Gretchen on ''InvaderZim.'' In canon, she was strongly hinted (and then confirmed by WordOfGod) to have a crush on [[HeroAntagonist Dib]] in one episode. The pairing is not widely popular (despite being the ''only'' romance in an otherwise NoHuggingNoKissing series), but even those who don't use her as a main character often elevate her to "[[MauveShirt Most Important Random Skoolkid]]" or mention her and Dib's "romance" in passing.
* Doctor Cain usually gets this treatment in ''MegaManX''. Despite being a pretty important canon character in regards to the backstory, he barely gets a few lines in the games before vanishing. Most fanfic writers characterize him as a kooky old man and a father figure to X and Zero. Lots of other characters could also qualify, since the MMX games were very sparse on characterization until the later games.
* The Guardian Spirit from the first ''BatenKaitos'' game is supposed to be [[AnyoneYouKnow you]], and is therefore a sort of {{AFGNCAAP}}. Naturally, there have been several fanfics written about the this character. Unfortunately, too many of these fics end up making the Spirit a female MarySue with a crush on Kalas. The term "Spirit Sue" was created by the fanbase to describe this particular interpretation of the character.
** [[spoiler: Marno]] from the prequel doesn't get this to the same degree, since he has an actual role in the plot. However, he could still work for this trope, since his actual personality is never shown.
* The [[WordOfGod commentary]] on ''[=~Half-Life~=] 2'' states that this is the entire point of HeroicMime Gordon Freeman, with the player being the OC in question.
* Decoy Octopus from ''MetalGearSolid'' is one of these, especially since it's part of his job description. He literally can adopt the personality of whoever he's disguised as.]

* The [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] from ''{{Halo}}'' are practically an entire species (or group of specieses) of OC Stand-Ins. The upcoming trilogy of novels should shed come canon light on them, though. Til then, fanfic portrayals of them remain wildly varied.
** The Rookie in [=Halo 3: ODST=] is this to a lesser degree, having no lines beyond grunts, no visible face(he always has his helmet on), and no identification beyond the initials "JD"; the designers claim this was intentional, to better allow the player to integrate with the character. Spartan-B312 in [=Halo: Reach=] is this even moreso, with male and female voice sets, and armor customization that is persistent throughout both campaign and multiplayer; this was done for the same reasons as the Rookie.
* The Library Girl with a Pigtail in ''FinalFantasyVIII'', who crushes on Zell and seems to have his interest by the end of the game, yet who remains nameless and without any personality beyond "bookish and shy" in canon. Begs for PossessionSue treatment by any Zell fangirl.
* Ronnie Gardocki from TheShield qualifies as a major example of a live action version, as fans of the character have largely grafted onto him the personality of good guy nerd/geek who fell in with the wrong crowd as far as personality goes. Ironically, David Rees Snell (the actor playing Ronnie) has joked that had the writers fleshed out Ronnie and explored the character's dark side in relations to him being just like Lem, Shane, and Vic as far as being a JerkJock, that he probably would have lost all of his fans.
* ''{{iCarly}}'': Rebecca Berkowitz, seen only once, in an extended rarely seen version of ''iSaw Him First'' and usually mentioned off-handedly. In any fic with her as a character, she's basically going to be an OC with a canon name, if they even bother to develop her past the implied ReallyGetsAround.

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* Ezekiel from ''TotalDramaIsland'' gets this fairly often; he got very little development because he was the first character to get voted off, an event that some viewers thought was unfair since he had completed the episode's challenge while other characters didn't.

** One example of her being used like this (and as a slider, to boot) is in [[KyonBigDamnHero Kyon: Big Damn Hero]].

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<<|FanficTropes|>>

** Likewise with game fanfics themselves. No one takes account to Dawn or May's in-game personalities being that they're technically not their canon ones though.