History Main / OCStandIn

* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'': The superheroince Mouse Protector doesn't really appear in the story proper beyond flashbacks to Miss Militia's time in the Wards, [[spoiler: having been subjected to BodyHorror by the Slaughterhouse Nine by the time she actually appears]]. All that's really known about her is that she had a gimmick of acting like a goofy Silver Age heroine, to make losing to her that much more embarassing. In fanfiction, however, she's a fairly popular character who often is made out to be a CrazyAwesome {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, or a GenreSavvy {{Badass}}, particularly in LighterAndSofter works.

* The ''Winx Club'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27805327/chapters/68073004 Amaranthine Shadows]]'' by Creator/LilaGaela has a rather particular and more fleshed-out version of Galatea, a very, very minor character in the series. In canon, she's a plot device whose only purpose was to be rescued by Musa so the latter can gain her Enchantix and use her Fairy Dust to heal the former's ripped-off wings. One might think that any fairy would suffer severe trauma after losing her wings by a witch's hands, even if said fairy later regained them. Winx Club's creators shoved aside all of this after that episode so this fanwork occupies itself on correcting the loose ends. Galatea indeed gets PTSD afterward and a real personality. She's a perfectionist, she's haughty, and since her wings don't immediately grow again after being healed by Musa, she thrives for power in order to regain control.

** The Post-Scratch Ancestors were intentionally written like this so that fanfic writers could have access to a more 'serious' Alternian setting than the setting of the modern trolls. Other than their basic appearance, most important actions, some of their {{Shipping}} proclivities and a bit of the personality of one of them (Mindfang, a sexy pirate and [[HerCodeNameWasMarySue rather a bad writer]]), we know very little about what they are like. This is lampshaded in comic where Hussie refers to Doc Scratch's exposition on them as fanfiction (and, given that they are trolls, [[JustForPun troll]] [[TrollFic fanfiction]]).

* Fanfic/VanishingAct, a VideoGame/Persona5 and Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure crossover fanfic has one in Shizuka Joestar. This is justified and done out of necessity due to the fact that Shizuka is only a baby in JJBA itself.

* The past competitors/victors in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' are often this, since few of them are given backstories. Fics about how they won their respective games are also common.
** Also, many of the other tributes from Katniss's games have be used this way. Glimmer, Marvel, Thresh, Foxface, the girl from 4, the boy from 3 who dug up the mines, and the girl from 8 whom the careers killed the first night, are all distinct enough that they aren't ''completely'' anonymous, but have almost no defined characteristics or personality.

* In ''Literature/PeterPan'', Jane appeared in only one scene and was basically a GenerationXerox of her mother, Wendy. The Disney sequel ''WesternAnimation/ReturnToNeverLand'' turned her into a highly pragmatic, disillusioned girl who grew up too fast as a result of living through the bombing in London. Margaret, the next descendant in the Wendy line (named, but never shown), gets this treatment in some fanfics.
** She also made a two episode appearance in ''WesternAnimation/PeterPanAndThePirates'' when Peter brings her to Neverland as a new Lost Boy only to find out about her being Wendy's daughter from the future.

* There are ''Series/{{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]].

* The same applies to ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' and its huge cast of characters, some of whom only appeared in a [[OneSceneWonder scene or two]] and barely get to be described (the author claims he is very bad at coming up with visual traits, for example). The developers of the beloved ''Mata Nui On-Line Game'' said that Franchise/{{LEGO}} barely gave them the most minor of side-characters to work with, and they had to develop their personalities and culture themselves. What resulted was a game teeming with characters more memorable and charming than many of the ones that the "official guys" made up. They easily became fan favorites.

* Quill-Weave in ''{{Webcomic/Prequel}}''. As par the course in [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion the source material]], she's given the slightest hint of a personality and features in the very first fighters' guild quest. She's much more fully fleshed out in the comic, especially through the scenes from her POV.
** The same goes for Sigrid, who in Oblivion is a survivor of Kvatch who sells potions. Since the comic takes place before the events of Oblivion, she's made the head of the Mage's Guild in Kvatch and her unusually high Mercantile stat is explained as her being especially beautiful and charming (as well as using some artificial enhancements like Enchantments and Alchemy, mechanics that are known to be {{Game Breaker}}s in the series).

** Sun and Neptune have characterization, but their teammates Scarlet and Sage are bit characters.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' is probably one of the most prolific work of fiction when it comes to OC Stand-ins, due to its large cast which contains a lot of {{Bit Character}}s, and named characters who are mentioned only once or twice in passing:

A SisterTrope of OriginalCharacter, and the {{fanfic}} equivalent of AscendedExtra. An OC Stand-in is a canon FlatCharacter that gets little screentime or few (if any) lines, and therefore can be molded into whoever the fan wants. Often, they may not even [[NoNameGiven have canonical names]]. Thus, an OC Stand-in is ''like'' an OC, but the fact that these characters usually have ''some'' personality (or at the very least a preset design and/or place on the setting) already means the author has some general direction to go in.

* ''Webcomic/SonicTheComicOnline'': The DistantFinale ''Exit: Sonic'' reveals that [[HasTwoMommies Tekno and Amy]] have a son named [[DeadGuyJunior Johnny Junior]]. All that's known is that he's still teething, he's Sonic's godson, and he could become a Freedom Fighter one day. This leaves everything, including his species and design, up to interpretation.

** Media relating to the bookd likes to do this with the Nazgûl, since they're clearly important figures, but the only ones to be even slightly fleshed out are the Witch-King, whose life prior to becoming a wraith is still a complete mystery, and Khamûl the Easterling, whose character consists of his name and ethnicity. Any media not wanting to simply name them "Nazgûl three through nine" (which, funnily, [[YouAreNumberSix was the solution one of the card games went with]]) will usually give them backstories or personalities of some kind.
** Gothmog is the second-in-command of Minas Morgul who took over the army at Pelennor after the Witch-King died. This is the entire extent of what we know about him, with even his species being indeterminate, as he's mentioned once in the entire series, not even being filled out in the appendices. However, given that there are relatively few named villains in the books, especially high-ranking ones, quite a few derivative works have ended up filling him out more. [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Peter Jackson films]] made him into a severely disfigured orc general, ''VideoGame/LordOfTheRingsOnline'' turned him into the lost king Eärnur, having been transformed into a wraith, and the ''War of the Ring'' tabletop game depicted him as [[TheFaceless a humanoid warrior in heavy concealing armor.]]

* Media relating to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' likes to do this with the Nazgûl, since they're clearly important figures, but the only ones to be even slightly fleshed out are the Witch-King, whose life prior to becoming a wraith is still a complete mystery, and Khamûl the Easterling, whose character consists of his name and ethnicity. Any media not wanting to simply name them "Nazgûl three through nine" (which, funnily, [[YouAreNumberSix was the solution one of the card games went with]]) will usually give them backstories or personalities of some kind.

* The ''Winx Club'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27805327/chapters/68073004 Amaranthine Shadows]]'' by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilaGaela/pseuds/LilaGaela Lila Gaela]] has a rather particular and more fleshed-out version of Galatea, a very, very minor character in the series. In canon, she's a plot device whose only purpose was to be rescued by Musa so the latter can gain her Enchantix and use her Fairy Dust to heal the former's ripped-off wings. One might think that any fairy would suffer severe trauma after losing her wings by a witch's hands, even if said fairy later regained them. Winx Club's creators shoved aside all of this after that episode so this fanwork occupies itself on correcting the loose ends. Galatea indeed gets PTSD afterward and a real personality. She's a perfectionist, she's haughty, and since her wings don't immediately grow again after being healed by Musa, she thrives for power in order to regain control.

** Daphne Greengrass also gets a lot of attention when authors need a sympathetic Slytherin girl, as she's mentioned just once in the books and therefore escapes the inevitable Slytherin fate of being described as ugly and/or mean (and probably because later material revealed that Draco Malfoy hooks up with her sister Astoria after his HeelFaceTurn). 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. Tracey Davis (who's not even mentioned in the books, appearing only in an early draft list of students in Harry's year) also gets this to a lesser extent.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':

* ''Fanfic/LuckyNumberThirteen'' has Sharon Leibowitz. She's an actual character in ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'', but is only vaguely alluded to and [[NamedByTheAdaptation doesn't have a name]]. Here she's [[AscendedExtra a main character]] and given a surprising amount of characterisation and backstory, considering the fic is only 10,201 words long.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' has Erestor--the only things we really know about him is that he's the chief counselor of Elrond's household, and that, based on his very few lines of dialogue, he was in favor of trying to hide the ring rather than destroy it. Fanon ran away with the guy, since he's apparently a somewhat important elf, but everything else about him is very uncertain, meaning basically anything you could write about the guy would probably be true. Notably, this is common enough that Erestor/Glorfindel is, statistically, [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight one of the most popular pairings on Archive of our Own]].

* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' fanfic series ''Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}}'', the girl who Tom followed into a Sharing meeting, who was only mentioned in passing in ''The Capture'', is fleshed out into a character named Bonnie Park.

* Zagreus, the main character of ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'', is this trope by necessity. The game revolves around [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek mythology]], and the original Zagreus from Greek myth is [[MinorlyMentionedMythsAndMonsters a very minor and obscure deity]] with hardly any surviving records about him, typically being part of Dionysus' MultipleChoicePast whenever he's mentioned at all. As a result, the game's interpretation of Zagreus (mainly inspired by the Greek playwright Aeschylus' mention of him as the son of Hades) is an entirely new character who's [[DecompositeCharacter separate from Dionysus]].

* ''Fanfic/AdventureTimeFrozenHearts'': Thanks to the fic being made before we had any idea of what she was like, Betty is this.

* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainTeslaStar'': Aimee never appeared in the show, and it is only known that she tinkers with Stella and reads tea leaves. In ''Tesla Star'', she play as a investigator of the Train.

* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'' has Chloe Cerise from ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries''. When the author began writing, the canon Chloe had little in the way of characterization beyond "dislikes Pokémon" and "hates being seen as 'the Professor's daughter'", so she was made into a NightmareFetishist and aspiring horror writer. While both versions of Chloe would slowly become more accepting of Pokémon in their lives, the canon Chloe seems to be pursuing archaeology as a major interest instead.

** Team CVFY are a large example. Originally Velvet was only supposed to appear in one scene, but her popularity amongst fans led to more cameos and an entire team being created for her. Out of her team, only Velvet and Coco have the bare minimum characterization in volume 2. Later on, the team were the stars of a book.
** Weiss' mother was the only member of her family that doesn't appear in volume 4. Her design was known from a painting seen that season, but until she formally debuted in Volume 7, all that was known about her character was that she's a distant AlcoholicParent in a bad relationship with her husband.

** Neo has only had a few scenes and she's TheSpeechless in all of them. She's very expressive so it's easy to tell that she's at least SilentSnarker that likes fighting, but her backstory and personality beyond that is unknown. Her relationship with Roman is especially vague, resulting in fans depicting them as being anywhere from a ParentChildTeam (with Neo usually, but not always, being adopted), to LikeBrotherAndSister, to being lovers.