History Main / PlanetOfCopyhats

* Nearly every character who has ever been playable throughout the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series has shown some degree of SuperSpeed, sometimes even after they were shown to be slow runners in a previous playable appearance. Sonic himself is still regarded as being in a league of his own as far as natural running speed goes though. This has gone so far as to extend to the very few playable appearances of non-FunnyAnimal characters at times.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

* Ben Kenobi wears nondescript desert robes while in hiding on Tatooine in ''Film/ANewHope''. Yoda is portrayed wearing nearly identical robes on the swamp planet Dagobah in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. In the prequels, this becomes the Jedi uniform, [[RetCon explained]] as simple robes fitting the Jedi lifestyle of few material possessions and practicality. This creates some FridgeLogic around a supposedly undercover Jedi going around wearing... Jedi robes.

* In the early days of ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', Noxus was characterized as a nation of backstabbers and deceivers, with its primary color being [[SicklyGreenGlow green.]] Cue the release of Darius. Whose angular design, [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver red and black]] color scheme and MightMakesRight personality was a hit. As Noxus evolved, it too adopted these traits. With Noxian champs like Sion and Swain even being reworked to better fit the aesthetic.

** "The Dominators" features two Dominators who have dark hair and sideburns. All other Dominators who have appeared in the ExpandedUniverse have dark hair and sideburns, to the point of being a [[RubberForeheadAliens Rubber Forehead]], and travel around in groups of two (despite this situation being explained to be unusual in the original story).

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' initially plays this straight with the {{Tengu}} taking most of their traits from Aya, leading to a civilization filled {{Intrepid Reporter}}s, but ends up averting it as later {{Universe Compendium}}s establish [[FantasticCasteSystem the different tengu castes]] (Aya and Hatate are part of the reporter caste, [[MemeticBystander Momiji]] is part of the warrior caste, etc). The {{Kappa}} play this completely straight, being largely copies of [[GadgeteerGenius Nitori]], down to the kappa appearing in ''[[Manga/TouhouIbarakasenWildAndHornedHermit Wild and Horned Hermit]]'' and ''[[Manga/TouhouSuzunaanForbiddenScrollery Forbidden Scrollery]]'' being Nitori with slightly different hairstyles.

** While the ''first'' second lot of trolls introduced in the comic are a GenerationXerox of the first group and have similar traits as a result, Trolls introduced in later ''Homestuck'' franchise entries such as ''VideoGame/{{Hiveswap}}'', ''VisualNovel/HiveswapFriendsim'' and ''VisualNovel/{{Pesterquest}}'' also all have similar traits to whichever one of the initial group of 12 ''Homestuck'' trolls shares their blood colour. Some of this is {{Justified}} as troll society has a strict caste system which would force trolls to take their interests from their defined social role (e.g. Gamzee was introduced as having a MonsterClown Main/{{Horrorcore}} theme, which is later revealed to be because his entire social caste is made up of clown-themed murderous tyrants), but some of this involves superficial things that would have no reason to exist within a social caste. A few examples of this include:

* The first book in the ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' series is primarily about mice fighting rats, but there's a single goofy, bard-like Hare, a single brewmaster Hedgehog, and a single tough, warrior-like Badger. In later books of the series with more varying races, almost all hares are goofy bards, almost all hedgehogs are defined by making alcoholic beverages, and the badgers are a Proud Warrior Race.

* In the first ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' book, we meet two [[OurElvesAreDifferent elves]] who are cops, a [[OurDwarvesAreDifferent dwarf]] who's a thief and a [[OurCentaursAreDifferent centaur]] who's a [[ConspiracyTheorist paranoid]] scientist; in the second book, one of the villains is a [[OurPixiesAreDifferent pixie]] MadScientist. By the end of the series, and explicitly in [[AllThereInTheManual the tie-in book]]'s description of each race, we're told that all elves are noble and heroic, all dwarves are greedy criminals, all centaurs are brilliant but paranoid, and all pixies are brilliant but megalomaniacal. [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent Goblins]] are also just idiotic gangsters, but there was never an attempt to make any of them into actual characters.

* Boba Fett's armor and style became the inspiration for Mandalorians being a ProudWarriorRace full of badasses.

* The character M3 Green, from ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'', was an overly cautious coward. His race features in the Literature/StarfleetCorpsOfEngineers novels, having been named the Nasat, and their hat is indeed "being overly cautious". However, the lead Nasat character, P8 Blue, is a straight-forward case of MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch, as she loves shaking things up and taking risks.

This effect is partially justified by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle Principle of Mediocrity]], which says that if you have only one or a small number of examples of a thing, it is reasonable to assume that those examples are typical of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_population population]], because there are, by definition, a lot more typical examples than exceptions[[labelnote:e.g.]]So, for example, if you send a space probe to an alien planet and it lands in a verdant forest, it's ''possible'' you've [[MillionToOneChance hit the one and only nature preserve]] in a [[CityPlanet planet-spanning city]], but it's more likely that the world has lots of forests[[/labelnote]]. However, most fictional examples go well beyond what this principle would suggest, in that the example individuals are not merely typical of their homes, their traits are the central facets of society. The Principle of Mediocrity says that if you've only met one alien and he's proud to be a scientist, then he's probably from culture where it's normal to be a scientist (so not an [[ScienceIsBad anti-intellectual]] [[TheTheocracy theocracy]]) and to be proud of that (so not a culture where [[KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect being a scientist is a low-status occupation]]); it does ''not'' suggest that his planet is an [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien absurdly advanced]] [[OneProductPlanet giant laboratory]] [[{{Technocracy}} ruled by the smartest]], or even that being a scientist is [[ProudScholarRaceGuy the only high-status occupation]] among his people.

** [[BigBad Ganon]] was first established as a thief in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', where the backstory makes out his attainment of the Triforce to be thievery. Come ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', and it turns out the whole Gerudo tribe, which Ganondorf belongs to, wears a Thievery Hat ([[EvenEvilHasStandards though it appears they aren't too fond of how far Ganondorf takes such tendencies]]). This hat is dropped in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', however, where they aren't portrayed as being radically different from Hylians besides the OneGenderRace rule -- [[TheOneGuy a rule Ganon himself notably breaks]] -- and the consistent DarkSkinnedRedhead look.

* Ben Kenobi wears nondescript desert robes while in hiding on Tatooine in ''Film/ANewHope''; in the prequels, this becomes the Jedi uniform, [[RetCon explained]] as simple robes fitting the Jedi lifestyle of few material possessions and practicality. This creates some FridgeLogic around a supposedly undercover Jedi going around wearing... Jedi robes.

-->'''Plankton:''' [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand I've been away from home for longer than I thought.]]

* In the early days of ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', Noxus was characterized as a nation of backstabbers and deceivers, with its primary color being [[SicklyGreenGlow green.]] Cue the release of Darius. Whose angular design, [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver red and black]] color scheme and MightMakesRight personality was a hit. As Noxus evolved, it too adopted these traits. With Noxian champs like Sion and Swain even being reworked to better fit the asthetic.

** [[BigBad Ganon]] was first established as a thief in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', where the backstory makes out his attainment of the Triforce to be thievery. Come ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', and it turns out the whole Gerudo tribe, which Ganondorf belongs to, wears a Thievery Hat ([[EvenEvilHasStandards though it appears they aren't too fond of how far Ganondorf takes such tendencies]]). This hat is dropped in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', however, where they aren't portrayed as being radically different from Hylians besides the OneGenderRace rule - [[InvertedTrope a rule Ganon himself notably breaks]] - and the consistent DarkSkinnedRedhead look.

** The Piraka gang are evil and traitorous, but since they were all part of a Dark Hunters, a mercenary organization that actively encourages evil, it made sense that they would all be this way. It is then slowly implied that their culture is cruel and backwards, with many myths created to inspire fear instead of hope. This culminates in their homeland being revealed as a war-torn wasteland thanks to their entire race being AlwaysChaoticEvil with a ChronicBackstabbingDisorder.

* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' had Roodaka, a treacherous and cruel female Vortixx, and possible the only toy whose gender you could guess [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics simply by]] [[NonMammalMammaries her looks]]. When we learn of the Vortixx culture, it turns out that every female of her race is as mean (though it is noted most are nowhere as near traitorous or ambitious), but not only that, as it's also revealed that the whole species looks ''exactly'' like her... including the males.

** The Klingons in TNG famously follow this trope-- but only to a point. In the Original Series, they were conniving bastards and Soviet standins. Enter ProudWarriorRaceGuy Worf, and ever after Klingon culture is all about honor and the warrior tradition. However, there's a degree of subversion to it. In one episode, Riker serves on a Klingon ship as part of an exchange program. He assumes that they'll all be stoic {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s just like Worf, but instead he sees them telling jokes and being casual around each-other. Then in later episodes, it turns out that their warrior code is something they often don't live up to, with a lot of conniving and even craven bastardry still going on. It turns out that Worf, because he was raised apart from Klingon society by human parents, was representing his own very highly idealized, even downright inaccurate, vision of his race with lines like "A Klingon does not laugh." There's also a subtle class contrast in the way other Klingons deviate from Worf's "proud warrior" ethos. The passionate, fun-loving Klingons who are less stoic than Worf tend to be rank-and-file soldiers. The devious, scheming Klingons who only pay lip service to honor tend to be aristocrats enmeshed in (or aspiring to join) the empire's DecadentCourt. Interestingly doule subverted by the ''very'' first Klingon in the original series Kor, who instead of the scheming traits later Klingons would show was very much the ProudWarriorRaceGuy they would become in later shows. In Deep Space Nine he becomes a recurring character where he and Worf get along famously.

** The Klingons in TNG famously follow this trope-- but only to a point. In the Original Series, they were conniving bastards and Soviet standins. Enter ProudWarriorRaceGuy Worf, and ever after Klingon culture is all about honor and the warrior tradition. However, there's a degree of subversion to it. In one episode, Riker serves on a Klingon ship as part of an exchange program. He assumes that they'll all be stoic {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s just like Worf, but instead he sees them telling jokes and being casual around each-other. Then in later episodes, it turns out that their warrior code is something they often don't live up to, with a lot of conniving and even craven bastardry still going on. It turns out that Worf, because he was raised apart from Klingon society by human parents, was representing his own very highly idealized, even downright inaccurate, vision of his race with lines like "A Klingon does not laugh." There's also a subtle class contrast in the way other Klingons deviate from Worf's "proud warrior" ethos. The passionate, fun-loving Klingons who are less stoic than Worf tend to be rank-and-file soldiers. The devious, scheming Klingons who only pay lip service to honor tend to be aristocrats enmeshed in (or aspiring to join) the empire's DecadentCourt.