History Main / TransplantedCharacterFic

Though often a source of SnarkBait, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools it's not necessarily bad or good]]. It can be freeing to focus solely on the character dynamics, which are often some of the meatiest parts of a work, without needing to worry about mucking with worldbuilding, elaborate WhatIf scenarios, or TheStationsOfTheCanon. It can also be a creative endeavor in its own right, allowing the author to do their own worldbuilding on a large scale, or enable interesting scenarios that would be completely impossible in canon. That said, it can be a little strange to behold fandoms where the ''majority'' of works are these.

** Although, some human AU fics do qualify as victims of this trope. [[http://disney-hetalia.deviantart.com/gallery/24410267#/d53sqr3 Birdie and the Beast]], a Prussia/Canada ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' FilmFic, is basically a transcript of the movie with the names swapped and changed details, along with the [[RonTheDeathEater changing]] of Denmark to be Gaston.

* Quite a few Disney/TheLionKing "crossovers" are like this. The author simply takes the characters from another show or movie and have them run through the ''Lion King'' plot. In fact, many (if not ''all'') Disney fanmake fics are like this.

** ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' takes Baloo, King Louie and Shere Khan from ''Disney/TheJungleBook'', and places them into a 1930's aviation story featuring [[SkyPirate air pirates]] and Communist warthogs.

See also FusionFic, FilmFic, PeriodFic. Often the result of a UniversalAdaptorCast. For the inverse (different characters, same setting and premise), see ElsewhereFic.

* ''WebVideo/NoPixel'' is normally set in an alternate version of [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Los Santos]], but some of its players have done streams where their characters have been transplanted into other universes. This includes a Franchise/HarryPotter version of ''VideoGame/GarrysMod'', where GangBangers like Alabaster Slim or Dexx act like their Hogwarts houses are street gangs.
-->'''Dexx:''' My issue is, we Grove Slytherin Families, and I don't be fuckin' with the Ravenclaw, 'aight? I don't. So if I see you on the block, you goin' around that spiral staircase, [[ProtectionRacket you gon' pay me 20 Galleon every time you see my ass]], 'aight? And if you don't, it's gon' be on sight every time.

** Keep in mind also that TropesAreNotBad as well in that there are also a good deal of fics out there (whether the human or personified AU kind) which manage to pull this off fairly well at least. ''Grey Skies Over London'' for instance keeps America and England's personalities intact while building over them as the AlternateHistory surrounding them changes even further.

* ''Fanfic/ValesUnderground'' had a comment on the fic saying that it could just be made into an original story rather than a ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' fic. The writer agreed on this being the case. It takes place in a real-world setting and changes a lot. While many of the characters retain similar characterization to the canon counterparts, this could easily be considered an original story using ''RWBY'' characters.

Not necessarily a GenreShift. It can result in a comedy [[RecycledINSPACE suddenly set]] in a SciFi setting, or [[HighSchoolAU an action series having its character shoved into a high school drama.]] Superpowered characters may be BroughtDownToNormal or unpowered characters may be given new powers.

* A similar problem is omnipresent to a certain degree in the ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', ''Franchise/YuGiOh'', and ''Anime/{{Bakugan}}'' fandoms.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live-Action Television]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/AdultSwim late night "adult" programming block has a few shows wherein the entire premise is the as-blatant-as-possible application of this trope to the original source material, usually utterly forgettable and short-lived Creator/HannaBarbera cartoon shows from the AnimationAgeGhetto:

** ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2021}}'', using characters from the original ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2020}}'' to... [[TooDumbToLive continue finding new depths of human stupidity in order to bring about their own demise]].

* On the topic of DragonRider stories with SportsAnime characters, ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/8140952/chapters/18659525 A Warrior's Heart]] is an epic fantasy novel whose characters happen to share names and appearances with those of ''Anime/{{Free}}''.

* The wildly-successful ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' erotic romance trilogy was [[AscendedFanfic ascended]] from a ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' Transplanted Character Fic called "Master of the Universe", with Ana originally being Bella, and Christian originally being Edward.

See also FusionFic, FilmFic, PeriodFic. Often the result of a UniversalAdaptorCast.

* One example is the ''[[http://www.lop.shoesforindustry.net/ Lust Over Pendle]]'' series of ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfiction by A.J. Hall, a series of suspense/mystery novels using [[DracoInLeatherPants Draco]] and Neville as a [[SlashFic couple]] solving mysteries, effectively turning them into Literature/TheHardyBoys. Magic is hardly mentioned at all, everyone constantly interacts with {{Muggles}} and one climax features a "magical" nuclear device that doesn't seem very magical at all. In other words, if you changed the name and dropped what little premise of magic actually included in the story, you'd have a pretty good original novel. With the premise sticking halfway to it, readers keep on forgetting that this is supposed to be a ''Harry Potter'' fanfiction even ''with'' the names used.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' fanfiction often suffers from this, with writers sticking Twilight names into stories about everything from a Hollywood movie set to the Titanic. Most of these stories also take place in a world where vampires do not exist, oddly enough. Indeed, it's become almost commonplace for authors of well-reviewed all-human fics to [[Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey pull their stories and remove the vestigial Twilight references in hopes of publishing the stories as original fiction]].
** To put this in context, of the top twenty Twilight fanfics on fanfiction.net, '''nineteen''' involve no vampires.

** ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' also has several, generally with ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' mixed in too. One notorious one removed the character's familial ties, [[AdaptedOut got rid of Brian and Stewie]], and made the characters ''high school students''.
* This trope is particularly popular in the WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fandom, and comes in several flavors to boot. Even in the fandom's earliest days it was popular to plop the cast into strange settings, like Earth. Then [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Human in Equestria]] fics started appearing and were for a brief time loved by the fandom, until they became excuses for [[MarySue Mary Sue-esque]] self inserts. To rectify this issue, many authors starting using various characters from other media instead, going over to exclusively writing crossovers with the Human in Equestria theme. In a strange version of this trope, the main characters from ''Friendship is Magic''' might not play an incredibly important role in these stories if they play one at all, with our transplanted protagonists only dealing with living in a magical world of ponies. Instead the crossover character will bunk down with an original character created specifically for the fic, or a minor character from the show, so it becomes a My Little Pony fic without any major My Little Pony characters. Today most readers don't read Human in Equestria fics unless they are crossovers, are obviously wacky CrackFic, or star a war hero or an astronaut as the human.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': A good number of ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fanfics are this. There will usually be no robot-smashing action and the only major connection will be the cast of teenage {{Amazing Technicolor| Wildlife}} FunnyAnimals with distinct personalities that can fit them in every premise. Stories range from Sonic and company in {{Mundan|ization}}e settings and situations and BroughtDownToNormal ({{High School AU}}s are the most common type) to them as supernatural creatures such as {{Vampire}}s.

* A disturbing number of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' shipping fics include ''absolutely no Pokemon'', even in passing mention, background, or setting. Note that this completely undermines the ''entire point and title of the franchise''. A similar problem is omnipresent to a certain degree in ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', ''Franchise/YuGiOh'', and ''Anime/{{Bakugan}}''.

* In ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' fandom, the fics that fall into this trope the most frequently are...''not'' the human AU ones, the majority of which actually at least try to keep the characters IC and their relationships reminiscent of their canon ones, even in HighSchoolAU (which was actually originated by ''the author himself''!). No, the fics that most often invoke this trope are the ones that ''do'' keep the "characters are {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s of nations" premise...but completely rewrite the characters' personalities (often [[RonTheDeathEater for the worse]]) for the sake of "historical accuracy" (i.e. "fitting the fanwriters' own ideas about history, even if they directly contradict established APH canon" or even "using [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade 'history']] as an excuse to make a character DieForOurShip or become RonTheDeathEater"), to the point where the characters are essentially national {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s that were created by someone other than the series' author.

* While ''Fanfic/TheReturn'' is very well written and interesting, it has almost nothing whatsoever to do with its ostensible sources, ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' and ''Anime/SailorMoon.'' The Ranma elements suffer from changed setting and skillset, and all the characters' personalities being utterly destroyed and transformed into something [[BlueAndOrangeMorality other]] ''in-story'', while the ''Sailor Moon'' characters come out with personalities and abilities more or less intact, but story tone so dark as to make it almost unrecognizable.

* The ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' fandom has spun off all sorts of bizarre [=AUs=] with little resemblance to the original other than the names and descriptions of characters. [[HighSchoolAU High school]], [[FilmNoir noir]], [[BedlamHouse asylum]], [[FanFic/TrollCops cop drama]], you name it. A particularly bizarre example would be ''FanFic/HomestuckHigh'', which turns rapidly from a HighSchoolAU into a mishmash of battling demons and terrible porn.

* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' fanfic author [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1706782/StaraptorEmpoleon StaraptorEmpoleon]] is infamous for taking this trope to its logical extreme: it's not uncommon for her to change everything about the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' characters, often up to and including their ''names'', to the point that it often seems like the only thing they have that's connected to their canon selves is their star pokemon (if that)!

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' doujin. An example: a doujin that takes place in normal world, the main character is Youmu, and she is doing some errand for her landlady(?) Yuyuko. In doing so, she meets a lot of Touhou characters doing normal things that normal people do. For example, Eirin is running a drug store. The doujin would have made a very poignant philosophical discourse about the impermanent nature of everything. (In Japanese, they call this ''mono no aware''.) It should be noted that this is almost a ''majority'' of Touhou doujinshi.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** A good number of ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fanfics are this. There will usually be no robot-smashing action and the only major connection will be the cast of teenage {{Amazing Technicolor| Wildlife}} FunnyAnimals with distinct personalities that can fit them in every premise. Stories range from Sonic and company in {{Mundan|ization}}e settings and situations and BroughtDownToNormal ({{High School AU}}s are the most common type) to them as supernatural creatures such as {{Vampire}}s.

* ''Fanfic/AHappyDream'' zigzags this. The core premise of [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica the original series]] (magical girls and witches) aren't real... but they are the subject of a ton of {{Mythology Gag}}s, culminating in a circus resembling [[FinalBoss Walpurgisnacht]] and staffed by humanized versions of the [[MonsterOfTheWeek witches]]. The characters also go back and forth in terms of characterization; Homura in particular seems to be something of an unusual [[{{Kuudere}} synthesis]] of her two personalities in the original.

* Around 10% of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' fanfics on Archive of our Own are tagged as "[=human AUs=]", removing the entire Gem plotline and turning the relevant characters human. Lapis Lazuli/Peridot fics are particularly common, and usually retool them as either college students or low-wage workers dealing with [[BrokenBird prior trauma]] on one end and [[UnresolvedSexualTension an unresolved crush]] on the other. These stories often have trouble explaining why half the cast has [[ThemeNaming gem names]] - after all, someone being coincidentally named Pearl or Jasper or Rose checks out, not so much Holly Blue Agate or Rutile.

** A good number of ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fanfics are this. There will usually be no robot-smashing action and the only major connection will be the cast of teenage {{Amazing Technicolor| Wildlife}} FunnyAnimals with distinct personalities that can fit them in every premise. Stories range from Sonic and company in mundane situations and BroughtDownToNormal ({{High School AU}}s are the most common type) to them as supernatural creatures such as {{Vampire}}s.

* A good number of ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fanfics are this. There will usually be no robot-smashing action and the only major connection will be the cast of teenage {{Amazing Technicolor| Wildlife}} FunnyAnimals with distinct personalities that can fit them in every premise. Stories range from Sonic and company in mundane situations and BroughtDownToNormal ({{High School AU}}s are the most common type) to them as supernatural creatures such as {{Vampire}}s.

* This is more-or-less the point behind "Non/Disney" crossover {{fanvid}}s. Take characters from various animated films, have them meet, and usually [[CrossoverShip pair them up]]. Sometimes the setting of one of the works will stay the same and usually the names are intact, but even that's subject to change. Take [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzTvCjFkfis this]] video where Jane and John Smith have twin daughters named Alice and Alissa. Jane and Alissa are killed in a storm, but Alice's ghost keeps on haunting her sister even after death.

[[folder: Fan Fiction]]

* There's one ''StarWars'' fanfic that involves a girl from Earth (in which ''Star Wars'' does exist) finding out that she's actually a Jedi after her parents die in a car crash, so she's taken to Coruscant to be trained as a Jedi. She befriends Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and later takes them to Earth where Anakin finds out that he will become Darth Vader by looking at the box for the ''Revenge of the Sith'' Xbox game. The author later revealed that it was actually an original story that she was writing and attempting to get published about a school for magic.

* A good number of ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' are this. There will usually be no robot-smashing action and the only major connection will be the cast of teenage {{Amazing Technicolor| Wildlife}} FunnyAnimals with distinct personalities that can fit them in every premise. Stories range from Sonic and company in mundane situations and BroughtDownToNormal ({{High School AU}}s are the most common type) to them as supernatural creatures such as {{Vampire}}s.

* ''[[http://princesspandaart.deviantart.com/art/Blood-of-Beauty-Prolouge-648402186 Blood of Beauty]]'' is a ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' ParanormalRomance fanfic, in which the only things related to Sonic are the characters (in their appearances and personalities, as their backstories are changed). It takes place in [[PeriodFic 1880s America]] and focuses on Shadow the Hedgehog, a vampire hedgehog living in a vampire village deep in a cavern. He then falls in love with Blaze the Cat, a wealthy mortal living in the outside world.

* This trope is particularly popular in the WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fandom, and comes in several flavors to boot. Even in the Fandom's earliest days it was popular to plop the cast into strange settings, like Earth. Then [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Human in Equestria]] fics started appearing and were for a brief time loved by the fandom, until they became excuses for Mary Sue-esque self inserts. To rectify this issue, many authors starting putting in various Crossover characters and keeping with the Human in Equestria theme. In a strange version of this Trope, the main cast might not play an incredibly important role if they play one at all, with our transplanted Heros only dealing with living in a world of horses. Instead the Crossover Character will bunk down with an OC or a background Pony, so an MLP fic without any major MLP characters. Today most readers don't read Human in Equestria fics unless they star a Video Game character, a War Hero, or an Astronaut as the human (because Astronauts and War Heros are Cool).