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Please don't list this on a work's page as a trope.
Examples can go on the work's YMMV tab.

Following

Memetic Personality Change

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Fanon!Papyrus: I LIKE TO EAT SPAGHETTI EVERYDAY!!!
Canon!Papyrus: BUT I DON'T EAT SPAGHETTI. I ONLY GIVE IT TO MY FRIENDS.
Fanon!Papyrus: HOW DARE YOU!!! SPAGHETTI WAS MADE BY THE GODS!!!
Canon!Papyrus: LET'S NOT FIGHT, PLEASE.
— "CANON Papyrus meets FANON Papyrus" (based on Undertale) by PaperPrince

Sometimes a character is interpreted in different ways by the fandom. Maybe they're treated as more badass than they really are, or wimpier, or they're treated as a sex offender. But then other times the fandom creates an interpretation that's so far out, so completely different, that they seem to be an entirely different person.

Reasons for this vary, but it's usually an exaggeration of something that happened in the original that the fans latched on to, an influential reinterpretation by a Fandom VIP, or the simplest one, which is that it started as a meme that got spread around. This can also cover Fanon examples of Character Exaggeration, if they're widespread enough.

A milder form is giving a character a specific tic or pet-peeve that didn't exist in the original source, such as a Trademark Favorite Food. Compare O.C. Stand-in, characters whose personalities are filled in by the fans because they don't have much unique characteristics in the official story. Compare also with Alternative Character Interpretation, a more serious (and valid) version of this, as well as Out of Character and Adaptation Personality Change.

A Sub-Trope of Fanon, naturally.

A Super-Trope to:

Examples that don't belong to the sub-tropes will be listed in this page's section below.

Example subpages:

Other examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Attack on Titan: A popular joke about Zeke's "true" reasons for betraying his parents being that they didn't give him the pony he wanted has lead to Zeke being portrayed as obsessed with ponies in some circles.
  • Bleach: In fanfics set after Ichigo fights his inner hollow and gets his mask, the hollow always calls him "king." However, in canon it only calls him that once, as an intro to the king-and-horse metaphor, and otherwise calls Ichigo by name.
  • Code Geass: According to the fandom, Nunnally isn't quite as innocent as she seems. She's very similar to her brother Lelouch in terms of cunning and intellect, but she hides it behind a cheery mask.
  • Death Note:
  • Dragon Ball: A lot of fanfictions tend to have Vegeta never calling someone by their name aside from Goku and Trunks, like "Earth Woman" for Bulma, "Kakarot's Brat" for Gohan, or "The Bald One" for Krillin despite the fact that Vegeta regularly call them by their name, particularly after his Character Development. Team Four Star has stated that they can't imagine Vegeta ever calling someone by their real name, and since their show has led to a lot of Adaptation Displacement, it's no surprise this is popular. It was made Ascended Fanon in Dragon Ball Fighterz, though only for his barks when calling for an assist.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • In the original anime, the versions of the characters from our world tend to be depicted as Mirror Selves of the original characters. In the show itself, the ones we see have only minor differences in personality.
    • Envy loving chocolate parfaits or having a Sweet Tooth in general. This originates from the Dream Carnival game in the 2003 anime continuity where Lust teases Envy about liking chocolate parfaits and he blushes and denies it, insisting it's childish. It's more likely to be applied to manga/Brotherhood Envy though, since their Cute and Psycho nature would make it more appropriate.
  • Inuyasha's addiction to ramen. In the manga, he's seen eating it two times, and mentioning it tastes good. The anime shows his liking of it a little more but nothing remotely close to the “I’ll do anything for ramen” you see in fanfiction.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Big Bad Dio being a good dad to Giorno, sometimes with the help of Vanilla Ice and Pucci, his closest minions.
    • Jotaro being obsessed with dolphins and even wanting to marry one.
    • Narancia being an adorable, innocent Cheerful Child, as opposed to violent and hot-tempered.
  • Little Witch Academia:
    • While Akko does have self-esteem issues in canon, they aren't a major facet of her character and she only gets down a few times across the franchise. In fanworks on the other hand, Akko's self-esteem issues are often exaggerated to where she's sometimes a Stepford Smiler. Particularly in Dark Fic and/or Hurt/Comfort Fics.
    • Akko often has a speech tic in fanworks where she occasionally slips into her native Japanese in certain situations, often without realizing it. Oddly enough, this often only applies to Akko and not to any of the other characters from non-native English-speaking countries (such as Lotte, Sucy, Constanze or Jasminka).
    • Croix is often depicted as having a major obsession with cup noodles in fanon, to where it's considered her Trademark Favorite Food by the fandom, even though in the TV series, she's only shown eating it a couple of times.
    • While not implied in canon, Diana is often depicted as being bad and/or inexperienced with modern technology as a way to contrast with Akko's inexperience with magic.
    • Canonically speaking, while they do have a few things that separate them (such as Barbara's secret love of Night Fall), Hannah and Barbara don't have much in the way of individual personalities and both share the same role of being Diana's Girl Posse and bullies to Akko and co, however in fanon, they're generally depicted with more unique personalities, with Hannah being characterized as an aggressive and hot-headed Tsundere and the jerkass of the duo and Barbara being made the nicer one of the duo and more submissive and softhearted by comparison.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Fans will often associate Nanoha as a lover of strawberry and cream based deserts and foods even though there is little to no evidence of this matter.
    • Vivio often calls Hayate, a close friend of both of her mothers, "Aunt Hayate" in fan fiction. So far, in canon, she hasn't called her anything other than "Commander Yagami", just like Hayate's subordinates, and even Nanoha and Fate themselves do while on duty.
  • My Hero Academia:
    • Izuku Midoriya / Deku: He is frequently depicted as far more Prone to Tears and an Extreme Doormat who accepts any abuse he takes without fighting back. He is also depicted oftenly as being a Nervous Wreck, stuttering a lot, and having issues such as social anxiety or suicidal tedencies. His Awesomeness by Analysis is also bumped to Child Prodigy levels, with many people convinced he could have skipped a LOT of grades if nothing was holding him back. In canon, Izuku tends to cry only during emotional moments (such as heart-to-heart talks with his mom), his academic achievements are rivaled by quite a few people in his class, his social skills rapidly improve, and he does have a temper that comes out during intense moments. Basically, fanon latches on (parts of) his chapter 1 characterization.
    • Shoto Todoroki: As a prime example of Never Live It Down, Shoto's Memetic "Izuku is All Might's secret lovechild" theory has made fans depict him as a mildly unhinged Conspiracy Theorist, down to owning a conspiracy board, and being convinced that everyone has a secret lovechild. He is also depicted as being overly stiff and polite. In canon, Shoto only expresses a "conspiracy theory" once, and it was actually a logical conclusion based on what evidence he had available. Also, his lack of social skills means that he speaks in a rather rude and blunt tone instead of being so polite.
    • Todoroki Enji / Endeavor: While he is an Abusive Parent, fans tend to depict him far worse than he is, giving him traits that either never show up in canon or outright contradict it. According to fanon, he has absolutely no reard for civilian casualties or property damage, is prone to Fantastic Racism, incredibly sloppy in his job, has a massive ego with no respect for anyone at all, focuses on beating villains in spectacular ways instead of saving people, and wouldn't mind if any of his children other than Shoto died. In canon, he never shows any kind of Fantastic Racism (he did try to create the "perfect quirk" but he never shows any discrimination towards different types of quirks), is very intelligent to the point that he's the only character in the series to understand Izuku's Technobabble, is ironically a very good teacher, ensures that there are minimum casualties and property damage while he is around, doesn't care about his public image, and does value the lives of his family - especially after his Jerkass Realization. Part of the reason behind his fandom depiction is that his Character Development takes the course of several months In-Universe, and a few years for readers, so many of these views were established before the manga started looking deeper into his character.
    • Keigo Takami / Hawks: Fandom likes to think that he would become a villain or at least turn his back to heroics given a real chance, and that he sees the world with Jade-Colored Glasses. Instead, Hawks has a self-admitted case of Chronic Hero Syndrome which started when he was still a young child, and confesses that he's an optimist. He would NEVER give up on heroics and saving people.
  • Naruto:
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
    • Homura's Verbal Tic "Homu homu", which she never ever said in the series. She's also frequently portrayed as very clingy towards Madoka, whereas during the series after a solid amount of time loops made her come to the conclusion that being close to Madoka would doom her to getting wrapped up in Kyubey's scheme she is quite distant and almost intimidating (though still protective).
    • Kyoko is often portrayed as a more light-hearted, cheerful, and somewhat stupid character than her canon cynical and bloodthirsty attitude. While this characterization is played with in Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion, as the movie continues she reverts to her series-era characterization. In contrast, Sayaka, who is a brighter and more goofy character before falling into despair, is often portrayed as much more straight-laced and uptight in order to contrast with Kyoko.
  • Ranma ½:
    • The main character Ranma is commonly depicted in various, occasionally mutually exclusive manners. These include refusing to fight women, refusing to use weapons (and being dismissive of those who do), thinking women are weak and incompetent, not caring about the sanctity of human life, caring about human life too much, being callous to people he talks to, etc. Of those only the one about his reluctance to fight women has any basis in canon, where it is just that: A reluctance. He's perfectly capable of fighting women if the need arises.
    • Kuno being a Sore Loser who does not accept his losses to Ranma. Ditto for Akane. In canon, both of them recognize Ranma's superiority, but keep trying anyway.
    • Kuno calling Ranma a sorcerer and accusing him of using sorcery to win their bouts. In canon, though Kuno believes that Ranma practices some kind of magic, he never refers to him as a sorcerer, despite doing so constantly in fan works. And he's most certainly skilled enough as a martial artist to recognize that Ranma never used any sort of magic in their duels against each other, because as stated above, Kuno is not a sore loser.
    • Ryoga challenging Ranma to duels out of nowhere by way of surprise attacks. The canon Ryoga dropped that schtick pretty quickly and now challenges others to duels exclusively with formal letters.
    • Shampoo being The Nicknamer for everyone she meets, not unlike the Vegeta example above.
    • Genma only calling Ranma "boy" is an extreme exaggeration. He's only done so a handful of times, and every other time, whether he's talking to Ranma himself or about him to other people, he's always used his real name.
    • Kasumi Tendo also has plenty of Fanon interpretations, largely due to being the main character we know least about. This includes her being a Celibate Hero, very prudish, or sexually-repressed. Given that she was seen wearing one of the most revealing bikinis in the anime's Beach Episode, it's unlikely she's a prude, but beyond that, her views on sex are a mystery that writers are glad to uncover. Outside of that, some fanfics take her characterization as The Pollyanna and turn her into a Stepford Smiler for Rule of Drama.
    • Nodoka really, really wants grandkids, apparently, even though she has never shown any interest in the subject. This one seems to exist to facilitate Harem fics or make her push Ranma toward whichever girl the writer wants him to end up with.
    • Pretty much every minor to major antagonist that stopped appearing after they were dealt with becomes a Revenge seeker in fanon, to facilitate their buses coming back.
  • Reborn! (2004): In canon, Hana is a very minor character with some pretty sarcastic lines, who is otherwise little more than Kyoko's best friend (who's a fairly minor character in her own right). Fans however like to give her a much bigger role in fanfics, often portraying her as the Only Sane Man in the insanity that is the setting, and sympathetic to Tsuna, if for the sole reason that she finds him more civil and reasonable than her other peers.
  • Sailor Moon:
    • Usagi is not a saint that refuses to kill or hurt anyone. She has killed someone or something in every canon she's been in. However, in The '90s anime, Sailor Moon kills just two characters who are neither a puppet-like Monster of the Week, nor an Eldritch Abomination — though several more die when she deflects their attacks upon them or damages power-amplifying devices — and goes to extreme lengths to avoid killing anyone remotely human during seasons three through five. So it is not hard to see where this idea comes from. However, in the manga, she toasts quite a few evildoers.
    • Mamoru breaks up with Usagi once in the anime because he had been having nightmares warning him that if they stayed together she would be in danger. This tends to be exaggerated by fans into him dumping or cheating on her all the time.
    • Nephrite is commonly portrayed as a heavy drinker in fanfics due to one scene in which he's seen drinking a beverage that may be whiskey in the original Japanese '90s anime.
    • Rei as tsundere towards everybody.
    • Outside of Sailor Uranus, Haruka is written as a Bumbling Dad/henpecked klutz who needs Michiru around to keep her in check. This exaggeration may have come from the "fun things to do as adults" and/or "Haruka doesn't like popular men" scenes from the '90s anime canon.
  • Livio the Double Fang from Trigun is occasionally portrayed as Dumb Muscle in fanworks, even though there isn't a single scene in canon that remotely hints at him being any less than average intelligence.
  • Yuri!!! on Ice: Japanese fanon tends to portray Yuko as a Yaoi Fangirl who nosebleeds over any romantic interactions between Yuri and Victor. In canon, the only times she gets a nosebleed are just over Victor, who she's a big fan of (once when he sends a smolder her way when he's demonstrating the Eros program, and again when she sees Yurio wearing one of Victor's old costumes).

    Comic Books 
  • Hal Jordan, hero of the Green Lantern Corps and, if the fandom is to be believed, perpetual tryhard who feels he never gets any respect as a hero. Became an Ascended Meme as of The LEGO Batman Movie, where Hal is The Friend Nobody Likes.
  • Cyclops gets much of the same treatment as Hal by the fandom (Jerkass with an Inferiority Superiority Complex), due to being the big Scrappy for the X-Men. As of recently, however, his portrayal in Canon has blown past this step and gone straight into Face–Heel Turn territory. And then he died.
  • Superman is most famously a Memetic Troll or Memetic Psychopath, but failing that, he'll be portrayed as utterly clueless to his own Superpower Lottery and expect everyone else to have a litany of cool superpowers they can use as well. This especially frustrates Batman, for obvious reasons. In Texts from Superheroes, Supes is written as scoffing at the idea of not using his powers at every opportunity. For instance, when the Daily Planet made its employees use a step counter, he tried to give it to Batman instead because Perry would be suspicious if it showed only one or two steps. When Bruce suggested he stop flying everywhere, Clark's reaction was a grossed-out "I knew you wouldn't understand".
  • Speaking of Batman, due to the character himself being vastly dependant of the writer and medium, it's hard to call anything a Memetic Personality Change for him, since most any way you could portray him probably has been canon somewhere. That being said, one bit of Black Comedy that nearly always finds its way into comedic/satirical depictions of the Caped Crusader is his tendency to see any recently-orphaned child as a potential Robin, despite (usually) already having one. If the continuity is set before Bruce had a Robin, he'll be depicted as excited to finally try the idea out. Sometimes this can extend to even children with living parents (in the aforementioned Texts From Superheroes, he seriously considers hiring some kids he mistook for his current Robin during Halloween trick-or-reading). The canonical Bruce Wayne actually had most of his Robins foisted on him by coincidences, he never went out of his way to recruit one. In fact, in one case, it was actually the other way around, and in two others, he was basically trying to rehabilitate them... which didn't work and they died, both timesnote . Hence the Memetic Personality Change as a reckless child endangerer.
  • Moon Knight has received this as a combination of the character's canon-but-fluctuating insanity and a popular (edited) meme of him demanding money from Dracula and calling him "you big fucking nerd". This ballooned out into depictions of Moon Knight as an Ax-Crazy Cloud Cuckoolander Sir Swears-a-Lot, and also Dracula's arch nemesis (the two have barely, if ever, interacted). The "random bullshit, go!" edit◊ sums most of it up.

    Fan Works 
  • Parodied in Those Lacking Spines, which sees Vexen, Lexaeus, and Xaldin of Organization XIII (as it was in Kingdom Hearts II) gallivanting around the worlds of Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. Along the way, they encounter exaggerations of each of their Nobody comrades, as commonly portrayed in Kingdom Hearts fiction, and they routinely make fun of them.

    Films — Animation 
  • Frozen (2013): Because of the ambiguous nature of a lot of the plot points in the movie, fans like to extrapolate things about the lore and the characters.
    • Anna only refers to Elsa as a "stinker" once in the film when she is talking to herself in the middle of the Endless Winter, complaining Elsa never told her that she's secretly An Ice Person. Despite this, the fandom frequently has Anna calling her sister every time she gets mildly frustrated at her, although not when she is really angry at her sister.
    • Anna being a Hero Worshipper towards Joan of Arc, which is only implied in the film by a throwaway line.
    • Elsa is often portrayed as Deadpan Snarker in fanfiction. She's usually polite and subtle about it and targets herself as much as other people.
    • It's somewhat less common for Anna but she, too, usually can hold her own in a friendly Snark-to-Snark Combat with her sister or fiancé.
    • Some fanworks also portray Elsa as a Neat Freak because she's always wearing gloves, as well as the fact she's a shut-in and probably has little else to do in her free time except tidy up.
    • Extrapolating from her introverted nature, Elsa is portrayed as a Lethal Chef whenever she has to cook. Anna, on the other hand... is also a Lethal Chef, to enhance her Cute Clumsy Girl appeal. Anna's cooking skills are given a Fandom Nod in one of the comic book stories, where she flips dozens of pancakes into the roof.
    • Kristoff not knowing how to read. This is extrapolating from him being Raised by Trolls, but there's no reason why they wouldn't have taught him to read. In fact, he is shown to at least know how to write "Happy Birthday" in Frozen Fever, though admittedly that's not the same thing as knowing how to read, and he could have learned to write between Frozen and Frozen Fever since the latter takes place almost a year after the former.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Fate/Apocrypha: Astolfo in canon is a Wholesome Crossdresser who picks his attire because he likes cute things and is often oblivious (or at least apathetic) to how he is viewed by people around him (mainly a scene where Jeanne is shocked that Astolfo is a guy and he finds it hilarious that she didn't know). In many fan works, Astolfo a Shameless Fanservice Guy who delights in making people question their sexuality by acting far more effeminate while also throwing in more reminders that he is, in fact, male.
  • Harry Potter:
    • Lupin having an obsession with chocolate is total Fanon. The real reason he carries it around is to ward off dementors, after which he is never seen with the food again. The series actually implies werewolves in general tend to prefer more meaty flavors.
    • The entire goblin race got Adaptational Nice Guy on the fandom's part. The fans had quite a vision of goblin culture as a very strict society with an almost feudal Japan-like fixation on honor, partly to avert the Unfortunate Implications of a race of untrustworthy hook-nosed individuals running banks. Even today, it's still common to see goblins portrayed this way, both for the mentioned reason as well as out of habit.
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    • Boromir is a He-Man Woman Hater or even a Straw Misogynist. He thinks that women can't do anything. In fan fiction, Boromir acts rude to any woman he meets; and if the woman offers to help the group, Boromir argues against her. Fans usually seem to do this to make their female characters seem more special.
    • Elladan and Elrohir are troublemakers. Elrohir is the more sensitive of the two, and Elladan has more of a temper. None of that is in the books. By extension, Amrod and Amras, another pair of barely-characterized twins two Ages earlier, are the same.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Sherlock Kink Meme has spawned the idea that Anderson has a dinosaur fetish. John also seems to have a jam fetish.

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 
  • Devil May Cry:
    • Dante is often hit with two wildly contrasting yet equally extreme fanon portrayals. He is either clueless about sex to the point of being childlike or a horndog that goes after any remotely attractive woman. In the games, Dante has really only shown major interest in the opposite sex once but is far from naïve about sex.
    • Due to her being something of a blank slate, fans tend to make Kyrie, Nero's love interest, a Covert Pervert who particularly fetishizes Nero's Devil Trigger form.
  • Widespread Dragon Age II fanon has it that Anders is claustrophobic due to having spent a year locked in solitary confinement (he does comment in a frightened voice "I really need to stay out of the Deep Roads" if clicked there, though there might be other reasons for that). Another bit of fanon is that Fenris is an alcoholic.
  • Fear & Hunger: Termina:
    • Portrayals of Marina as an extreme Manic Pixie Dream Girl perfectly willing to reciprocate Samarie's feelings for her are common in the fandom, despite her in-game behavior being quite subdued in comparison, and her reaction to Samarie being an impulsively violent Yandere and Stalker with a Crush is mild disapproval at best.
    • Karin is, in canon, an Intrepid Reporter, albeit one with a Hair-Trigger Temper who frequently argues with Daan due to her Flat-Earth Atheist beliefs. Fanon, on the other hand, usually treats her as a blatant Tsundere who secretly likes him.
  • Fire Emblem:
  • A Hat in Time:
    • In canon, Bow Kid doesn't have much of a distinctive personality of her own (being only a clone of Hat Kid). In fanon however, Bow Kid is often portrayed as being a Foil to Hat Kid, being more soft-spoken, serious and cautious in contrast with Hat Kid's more upfront, mischievous and occasionally reckless personality. Her cat themed attire has also led fans to give her a massive love of cats.
    • Timmy's official personality is largely unknown due to him being scrapped early on, however he is largely depicted in fanon as being a borderline Surfer Dude and thrill junkie who speaks in Totally Radical slang.
    • Like with Timmy, not much is known about Moonjumper due to him getting scrapped early on, however Moonjumper is almost always portrayed in fanworks as being more soft-spoken and charming yet sinisterly manipulative, as a way to contrast him with the Snatcher's more upfront and boisterous personality.
  • KanColle: Note that the anime version of the game makes some of these official.
    • Akagi became known as a Big Eater after a bug that caused her to consume more resources than intended.
    • Nagato (not-so) secretly has a less "dignified" side, like having a Cuteness Proximity towards small animals or destroyer ships (i.e little kids).
    • Ashigara being an Old Maid. There's this idea that her attributes (i.e her name, her history, etc) gives off an aura of an "unmarried virgin" despite looking like she could be older than 25.
    • Ryuujou having an A-Cup Angst when she actually prides on her "unique silhouette".
  • Common for the original set of Nobodies in the days following the release of Kingdom Hearts II, with the exception of Roxas.
  • League of Legends:
    • First, there's the obvious ones based on jokes/skins. Pantheon is actually a baker when not fighting, there's also some circles which have Pantheon and Morgana running a bakery together, and Pantheon is the more consistently successful one, while Morgana flip-flops between a competent baker or an incompetent one; Fiora is a painter in her spare time (or a fan or artwork in general). Ahri is a part-time Idol Singer with a penchant for backstage antics. Akali is actually a trained nurse (to a lesser extent, also Shen and Kennen being a surgeon and doctor, a small circle believes Surgeon Shen is the one responsible of visual updates). Alistair having a milking fetish. Taric being taken from his Ambiguously Gay in canon and just being full-blown camp, and often being The Bear to Ezreal's twink. Darius being the Only Sane Man in the upper echelons of the Noxian command hierarchy, though this might be because of his brother and the other.... colorful personalities there. Evelynn being a bigger vamp than even Ahri (Which has actually been confirmed with Evelynn's VGU making her a straight succubus, while toning down Ahri's vampy nature in her lore). Tryndamere having a bad habit with his right arm. Xerath is a fan of/interested in LARPing. Valor being a really naughty bird or a mini-Troll to Quinn.
    • Then there are the ones that spawned from forum jokes. Talon is an alcoholic and a Dogged Nice Guy towards Cassiopeianote . Vladamir's Pungeon Master status is exaggerated, with some comics/fanfics existing where he can't go a single sentence without a pun being somewhere in there, there's also a Running Gag with him being an excellent sower because of his pants looking like they were made from a Circus tent. Gangplank's Bad Boss tendencies are also exaggerated; sometimes he goes out on a raid and needs to hire an entirely new crew because all of them died; either from enemies or by him killing them. Wukong mustn't run away. Xin Zhao will make a man out of you. Mordekaiser cannot laugh normally, but instead his laugh is always going to be "Huehuehuehuehuehuehue". A fan idea for a skin created the meme of Yasuo being a Sashimi chef.
    • It's also popular to portray Garen as excessively overprotective of his little sister, to the point of scaring Ezreal away from pursuing a serious relationship with her. Not much has been officially revealed on how Garen feels towards Lux, except as a stoically understanding big brother that believes she is a strong girl on her own and has enough willpower to make her own decision. He may even welcome Ezreal's companionship with Lux. Garen in general is mainly depicted as a professional Demacian soldier whose attraction to Katarina is an interesting conflict of interest.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III and IV has fans depict Juna as bisexual due to the numerous amount of times she sees a member of old Class VII, a Thors graduate, or characters from previous arcs and calls them beautiful or pretty and yet still crushes on Rean.
    • The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie: The entire Magical Alisa minigame turns out to be nothing more than just a dream where she sleeps on her desk inside her dorm room. Considering the Magical Girl outfits of some of those women in her dream plus her instructor and fans had a field day.
  • Left 4 Dead: Zoey is a Nightmare Fetishist who likes to get it on with the undead. It was even acknowledged by Valve in an interview about the franchise.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: To go along with her Tomboy Princess traits and time as Sheik, Zelda is portrayed as an Outdoorsy Gal who enjoys traveling.
  • Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS: Fans of the Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee fanfic series tend to portray Shizuku Osaka as being a Genki Girl outside the songs she sings with the other members of A•ZU•NA though she's still calm and mature like her SIF ALL STARS counterpart, though officially, she's only excitable during the songs sung by A•ZU•NA.
  • Metal Gear:
  • Overwatch: The gruff, world-weary Soldier: 76 is often characterized by fans as a grumpy Team Dad for the younger members of Overwatch (particularly D.Va), which naturally led to his Fan Nickname of "Dad: 76."
  • Persona:
    • Persona 4: Adachi has a mild case of this with his love of cabbages. A line from him in the original indicates that he only buys them because they're cheap, but the fandom thinks he can't get enough of them.
    • Persona 5: Thanks to Sae taking the revelation that Makoto is part of the Phantom Thieves rather bad, fans have taken to portraying her as something of a Knight Templar Big Sister, often doubling humorously with My Sister Is Off-Limits since Joker and Makoto is such a popular ship. To the surprise of absolutely no one, this gave rise to stuff like this and this. Hilariously enough, this was partially confirmed in the fan data book released after the game. Another one is that, much like Makoto, Sae also practices martial arts as a hobby, in her case kickboxing.
    • Yusuke succeeds Adachi in regards to being given a Trademark Favorite Food, albeit with slight more justification this time: He at one point purchases some lobster and claims it's "for appreciation's sake". The fandom suspects otherwise. Nowadays, Yusuke is very very attached to his beloved lobsters.note 
  • Professor Layton fans commonly believe that Clive Dove, villain of Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, develops a Big Brother Instinct towards Luke and Flora, in stark contrast to his canon manipulation of the former and kidnapping of the latter. Though since it's heavily implied he's a decent sort once the Professor snaps him out of his madness, it's not totally out there.
  • Resident Evil 2 (Remake): While this game makes Leon a bit more oblivious to Ada and Claire's attraction to him, fans take this to a whole new level by making him utterly clueless about sex to a childlike degree.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apparently the whole fandom has decided that Flynn is a Kleptomaniac Hero who will beg anyone for money at any given opportunity. That probably stems from the fact that demons don't drop money upon defeat, which means that you'll actually have to beg them if you want sufficient funds.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Everybody knows Sonic's hydrophobic... except he isn't; hydrophobia is defined as the irrational fear of any body of water, which Sonic doesn't have. In fact, he loves taking long walks on the beach and every game has at least one seaside level for him to play on, with no indication that it makes him scared. It's drowning that he's afraid of (since he can't swim).
    • Even though Shadow's personality ranges from a Stock Shōnen Rival to Sonic to an Anti-Heroic Jerkass, much of the fandom portrays him as a memetic edgelord based on his gun-toting, PG-swearingnote  '90s Anti-Hero personality in his self-titled spinoff, even giving him the nickname "Ow the Edge". This became an Ascended Meme in the various Twitter Takeovers, where, among other things, he says he likes to eat whole coffee beans for breakfast and his favorite anime is Kill la Kill, which, like his memetic personality, has an edgy, weapon-toting protagonist who has alien DNA. In less serious works it's also popular to portray him as trying to be edgy without actually knowing what that is, in a dig at some of his fanbase.
    • Before said game, most fans assumed Shadow would never use a gun because his best friend died by being shot with one. This has been jossed, but there are still some who reject that detail, especially since he stopped using guns by Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Alternately, Shadow will not use guns because he sees that as beneath him.
    • Shadow as a Disco Dan due to him having spent 50 years in suspended animation. In reality, there's no indication of Shadow being particularly outdated in his tastes in any official continuity.
    • Amy using "Sonikku" as an Affectionate Nickname is near-omnipresent in fan works. This comes from the Japanese pronounciation of Sonic's name.
    • Maria Robotnik was a Child Prodigy. This is due to her being from a family of super-geniuses, so fans believe it runs in the family.
    • There's a belief that Maria was a bit of a trouble-maker due to being the only child on ARK, with her sweetness being somewhat deliberate.
    • Maria being fond of music, in particular 1940s-1950s jazz such as Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. This might also rub off onto Shadow depending on the fan work.
    • Sally Acorn, of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) fame, is widely known as one of the very few female characters whose design averted the standard Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females design scheme, with her clothes consisting of nothing but boots and (later on) a vest much like the male characters in the franchise. Despite the show and the follow-up comics never exploring or even calling attention to this aspect, fans often portray Sally as a Cultural Rebel and a Shameless Fanservice Girl who refuses to play along with the setting's "dress code," going around "naked" in the same manner as someone who prefers walking barefooted.
    • While naive, Silver the Hedgehog was originally portrayed in canon as a serious and aloof individual. In fanon however, Sliver's naïveté tends to be flanderized and is often portrayed as being cheerful, dorky and an occasional Butt-Monkey. This portrayal became so popular and ingrained amongst the fandom that it became Ascended Fanon in the comics and eventually, the games starting with Team Sonic Racing.
    • Also, due to Silver being a time traveler, many fan works depict him as being hesitant to do things due to worries that it might change the timeline. In canon, his goal in every appearance is to change the timeline, to the extent that he was willing to murder to do so in his debut.
  • Street Fighter:
    • While Ken is still rather upbeat despite the drastic downward turn his life went in Street Fighter 6, a lot of memes depict him as far more depressed about it, sometimes to the point that he's suicidal.
    • Sakura is sometimes portrayed, for Black Comedy reasons, as a Politically Incorrect Hero who is casually ableist, stemming from her calling Dan's fighting style "retarded" in Super Gem Fighter. This is despite the fact that this is only one line from a non-canon Spin-Off.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Robot Wars: The fact he has an unnatural streak of luck has made the fandom believe Kyosuke is an avid poker player, given his bad gambling habits, compounded with "I don't mind betting on tough odds". There are indeed other ways to gamble besides poker, people.
  • Super Smash Bros.: Thanks to certain characters debuting here or not having much of a personality in their home series, Smash Bros. is more than responsible for causing this trope for several characters.
  • Team Fortress 2:
  • Touhou Project:
    • The fans have almost unanimously turned several characters into chew toys (Alice Margatroid, Hong Meiling, Reisen, Youmu...) regardless of whether or not anything in the official works points to such a fate. In Alice's case, the fanon version is almost the complete opposite of the canon version.
    • Fanon often posits Yuuka and Flandre to be insane mass murderers (or at least, the latter would be if unleashed), from Yuuka's genocide jokes in Mystic Square, to Flandre's stated-but-nebulous insanity and destructive power. Koishi also gets this treatment on occasion from doujin artists who believe reading a subconscious can drive one to insanity.
  • Undertale:
    • Sans will usually be portrayed as much more Wangst prone in Fan Works (he's popular with female fans, you see). The real Sans shows some depressive traits, but they're more based on just plain not caring about anything because he knows it'll just reset again and they'll never get a happy ending. In a more minor case, he apparently likes snapping his fingers.
    • Sans calling Papyrus 'pap' or 'paps'.
    • Sans never paying his tab at Grillby's. He was only seen putting a meal on his tab once, but fans think it fits well with his slacker image.
    • Sans will often be depicted as really liking ketchup. While he does take a swig from a ketchup bottle during his boss battle, there's no indication that he's especially fond of it; some can be found at his guard station, but it's implied he uses it on the hot dogs he sells rather than consuming it himself.
    • Papyrus hating puns, which is utterly contradicted by his portrayal in the game. He only groans at Sans' puns (most of which are acknowledged as cringeworthy in-universe) and even then, it's implied that he's less annoyed by the puns themselves than by Sans not taking his guard duties seriously. Heck, not only does he manage to smile at one of Sans' puns (with his response to Sans pointing this out naturally being "I AM AND I HATE IT!"), but he actually makes a number of puns himself throughout the game— even more than Sans does, actually!
    • Spaghetti as Papyrus' Trademark Favorite Food. While it's true that he makes it a lot, it's for his friends; there's no indication that he eats it himself.
    • The Fallen Child is, Depending on the Writer, a Tragic Villain or a Complete Monster. In canon, all we have to base their personality on is what little of their actions and words we see, and Asriel saying that they weren't a very nice person. Complicating things further is the other bit of fanon that they're either the narrator or a representation of the player's actions, so whether they have a canon personality at all is a matter of debate. There is one thing that all members of the fandom can agree on, however: they definitely love chocolate. It's also popular to portray them as hating white chocolate.
    • W.D. Gaster is typically portrayed by the fandom as the man who put the "mad" in Mad Scientist. While the extremely short bits we learn about him do indicate that the things he was researching are pretty out there, there is absolutely no indication of him being the mentally unstable and apathetic or even sadistic guy he is so frequently depicted as.
  • The World Ends with You: Neku is often given a talent for drawing, even though all we actually know of his art sensibility is that he likes CAT — who is a tag artist, but also a designer and makes... ads about... stuff.

    Webcomics 
  • Linked Universe:
    • Despite never seeing Wind swearing in the comics, it's extremely popular to see him swearing heavily in Fan Works and fan interpretations. Mostly stems from him being an actual pirate for a little while. Plus, there is a certain attraction with having a seemingly nice and innocent little blond kid who also just happened to have stabbed Ganon in the head, swear like it's nobody else's business.
    • While it's not canon, it's really not that uncommon to see Four as a more outlier in his world that the villagers are wary of. This is especially prevalent in Fan Works that have Four's "siblings" stuck in his head giving him a poor reputation of someone who constantly talks to himself, tends to space out at random times, and suffers from mood swings.

    Western Animation 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • More and more fanfic writers are portraying Ozai as a coffee aficionado, in contrast to Iroh's famous love of tea.
    • Not surprisingly the fandom has a lot of ideas about Azula, like that she bullied Zuko because she wanted to take the throne from him, that she'd be a terrible mother (really just an extrapolation from canon, honestly) and that she was a Fille Fatale as a child (which the one time we see her as a child is not shown to be the case. Also, ew.)
    • There's also Avatar Kyoshi, which the fandom portrays as a bloodthirsty psychopath that loves violence, which is nothing like the actual character, whose acts of violence are merely a case of I Did What I Had to Do.
  • Big Hero 6: The Series: Obake was seen eating a scone once and yet is portrayed by the fandom as having a borderline sexual fixation on them. They call him Scone Daddy.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • The Legend of Korra:
  • The Loud House:
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Lyra Heartstrings is characterized as obsessed with humans, most specifically hands, due to a Funny Background Event in "Dragonshy" where she sits on a bench like a human. Sometimes she's simply fascinated by humans, and sometimes she wants to be a human. While most personalities assigned to background ponies became Ascended Fanon, the lack of humans in the show's main universe (EQUESTRIA GIRLS notwithstanding) left the human-loving Lyra exclusive to fandom memes.
    • Bon Bon/Sweetie Drops is sometimes characterized as a voice actress or impressionist due to her voice changing frequently between episodes. This phased out with episode 100 revealing her as a secret agent.
  • South Park: In the show, Craig's bedroom is often shown with space-themed decorations. Fanart sometimes adds to this (giving him those glow-in-the-dark stars on the wall seems pretty popular) while fanfic may portray him fascinated by space, dreaming of being an astronaut or astronomer, etc.
  • Steven Universe:
    • There's a surprising amount of "Lars is depressed" fics, some of which involve him self-harming or attempting suicide. In addition, some of those same fics feature the idea that Lars Used to Be a Sweet Kid, a lot like Steven actually, and Sadie was a Bully Hunter for his sake.
    • Food preferences:
      • Pearl normally hates food, however, people often depict her as fond of tea (stemming from a scene in Episode 8 where Pearl holds a teapot). In contrast, Garnet is depicted as a coffee person and Amethyst likes soda.
      • Pearl mentioned she liked pie in an early episode, and this has been handwaved as her enjoying making pie instead of eating it. However, fans sometimes depict eating pie as being a guilty pleasure of hers.
      • Peridot being fond of Doritos or maple syrup. This is due to memes surrounding both her design and a debunked theory that she fell into Canada. The show itself implies neither she nor Lapis enjoy eating.note 
      • Blue Diamond is comically portrayed as drowning her sorrows in ice cream.
      • Spinel being fond of donuts in general ever since The Movie portrayed her eating one.
      • Similarly to Peridot's love for Doritos, Jasper is often depicted as enjoying Cheeto Puffs.
    • Until her character was expanded upon, Lapis was usually depicted as either very depressed or as a Genki Girl. In canon, while she does display a cheerful side around Steven, Lapis is a Deadpan Snarker under most circumstances. A compromise between the two is that Lapis used to be happy and excitable but her trauma has worn her down into a far more sarcastic and apathetic person.
    • Sir Swears-a-Lot Amethyst, due to her crass personality combined with the fact she's the most street-smart gem. In one episode she almost said "badass", which helps support the fanon.
    • Blue Diamond's quiet, demure Pearl can become Cute, but Cacophonic if she is sufficiently pissed off enough.
    • Greg Universe often gets flanderized in media into being an Amazon Chaser for alien women due to his romance with Rose and surpisingly effective rappport with Blue Diamond. In more memetic contexts, this gets flanderized even moreso into him being lethally good in bed with a killstreak measured in notches on his bedpost.
    • Within a large part of the fandom, Steven himself often gets flanderized into an emotionally damaged crybaby. Often this is done in a Dark Fic to play up the trauma he's implied to have been experiencing on his adventures or in more normal fics just because it makes him fit into a more submissive and sensitive role when paired with other characters.
    • While Rose Quartz in-series is depicted as being a good person who's made a lot of mistakes and hurt a lot of people in the process of learning how to be a good person, fandom interpretations interpret her more as a callous, bratty asshole who's simply trying to save face and doesn't care who gets swept up in her web of lies.
  • Teen Titans:
    • A lot of fanfiction has Starfire referring to all her friends as "Friend *insert name here*" despite her never having that particular Verbal Tic in the show. (It's from the comics.)
    • Raven as an Emotionless Girl, or on the exact opposite direction, having a Hair-Trigger Temper. Also, her being a Goth.
  • Transformers:
    • Ratchet being an easily annoyed mech who can work miracles, throws wrenches at everybody that annoys him and, this can vary, a party animal. He also makes really good high-grade and is pretty much the only creature in existence that the Lambo twins fear.
    • Prowl's battle computer will glitch out at illogical situations and he'll pass out. Also, he's a logical, emotionless, workaholic who really needs to chill out.
    • Many fanfics depict Swoop of the Dinobots training to be a medic, even though he never showed such an interest in the cartoon.
    • Sideswipe is an indomitable prankster and loves to pull practical jokes on anyone and everyone he can find. Sunstreaker is not nearly so enthusiastic, but helps his twin anyway out of a sense of brotherly duty. He's also a highly skilled artist, able to paint and sculpt things almost as beautiful as he is. Almost. Also, he's usually portrayed as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
    • On the Decepticons' side, Skywarp, Rumble and Frenzy are the resident pranksters.
    • Continuing from above, TFWiki.net's belief that Skywarp enjoys pushing other bots down stairs. This has zero basis in canon, but as the wiki puts it, he seems like the kind of bot who'd enjoy doing so.
    • There are a great many fanfics where emotionless, monotone Soundwave is portrayed as a loving and caring father to his cassettes.
  • Voltron: Legendary Defender:
    • Though Word of God on Keith's attempted Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Naxzela explosion from wiping out the Voltron fleet in the Season 4 finale is that he's the type of person who prioritizes the mission over himself, it's popular for Keith fans to interpret him as secretly suicidal.
    • Keith is sometimes characterized as a having an interest in conspiracy theories and cryptozoology, especially Mothman.
    • In canon, Lance has a few moments of self-doubt due to feeling Overshadowed by Awesome but he otherwise has a pretty chipper and laid-backed attitude, being at most a Sad Clown about his emotions openly and gets snarky when insulted. Fandom portrayals, however, play this up to the point where Lance always acts depressed and mopey about his self-worth, is in constant need of reassurance, and can be very Prone to Tears and breakdowns upon receiving any insult.

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