Possession Sue - Television Tropes & Idioms

Nikki Reed (Rosalie Hale): Knock it off, dad. So, Kristen, there must be something really special about you for Robert to take such a liking to you and risk the lives of his entire family. Tell us about yourself.
Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan): Me? Oh, no. I'm just a hollow placeholder for all of the teenage girls in the audience to project their personalities onto. I have none of my own whatsoever.
— Twilight: The Abridged Script

In fanfiction, it's very common for favoritism to show up. After all, everybody has their preferences and regardless of their role in the story, it's never a uniform thing. However, one frequent thing is for the author of a particular fanfic to appropriate a character. Rather than creating an original character, this author will overhaul the role, importance and personality of a particular canon character he/she likes in order to make the character "ideal" (i.e., a stereotypical Mary Sue).

It should be noted that technically, every canon character in fanfiction is an Author Avatar. They aren't the original author, after all, so they don't have first-hand knowledge of the inner mechanics beyond what is shown in the released materials. This trope refers to when a character's most basic, undeniable traits are flat out ignored in order to facilitate a particular outcome the author wants. For example, a fanfic of a Harem Anime that takes the Shrinking Violet character and has her all of the sudden grow a backbone and force her way into being the official romantic interest of the hero would definitely be a case of this trope.

Usually, it's secondary characters that get this treatment, but it's not unheard of for main characters as well. For example, if a fanfic of Inspector Gadget has the title character all of the sudden gain a near-omniscient level of detective expertise (hell, even just half-decent detective skills) and singlehandedly expose and arrest all of Dr. Claw's organization, without this being somehow subverted at the end and/or played for laughs, that would definitely be a case of this.

The traits that mark a Possession Sue are just as myriad as the ones that mark a regular old Mary Sue. As a general trend, authors that make these characters also tend to strip away much of the original characterization in the process of "idealizing" their favorite character. They might be made uber-competent, turn out to be extremely beautiful after all, outshine every other character, gain new and previously unknown powers, have a revelation of being someone's long-lost child and what have you from the Common Mary Sue Traits. Most importantly, though, is that the character is favored by the author to such a point that the same Mary Sue favoritism present in other characters and the universe come up.

As far as the Mary Sue subtypes go, any of them can apply, but the single most common is Fixer Sue. After all, the author is pretty much applying their own viewpoint on how the canon should go and hijacking a character to "fix" it is probably the single biggest inspiration for rewriting a character. Otherwise, the author might just be trying to avoid the stigma of original characters while still wanting a mask to wear as they insert themselves within the story.

The term most often used for this is actually Canon Sue, but since there's a second, very different (if related) trope also known as Canon Sue, they get their own separate pages.

When canon writers do this, it's a form of Character Derailment and often leads to the other type of Canon Sue.

Compare with the OC Stand In, which is not necessarily a Sue, but does share the characteristic of being a canon character — in this case, an underdeveloped Flat Character — overhauled to an author's liking.

Contrast Copy Cat Sue, which, rather than stripping the characterization of a canon character to make them "more appealing", instead synthesizes a blatant clone of a canon character.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

Sesshomaru from Inuyasha gets transformed and warped from his original character into some Sex-God, castle-owning, army-and-servant owning Lord who can do no wrong in the writer's eyes even as he's standing there committing mass murder for no sane reason in fanfiction. One of the worst examples of Draco In Leather Pants around.
Perhaps as payback for putting her on a bus, Misty from Pokémon has a bizarre tendency to return as a Mary Sue in fanfiction, complete with overblown description of how curvy she is — which is strange, as the character's lack of such features was close to being a Running Gag.
- Her incarnation in the Pokémon manga, which may or may not have come after the anime, had no such lack, and made it famous for pushing the limits of Fan Service in a shonen manga.
- Rocketshippers tend to do this with Jessie; instead of being tough as nails with a rarely-shown soft side, she's a soft-spoken angel whose callousness is a mask for her angst.
  - In short, they turn her into Helga. Ratings gold.
Happens all the time to Polly from Samurai Pizza Cats. They usually disguard her Tsundere personallity and portray her as a Purity Sue.
Tenchi Muyo! fandom is prone to this trope, given the Love Dodecahedron at the center of the premise. No better way to enforce an OTP than removing all the character flaws and derailing the personality.
See also a good number of Ranma ½ fanfics. Two particularly bad examples: one where Ranma was basically hooked up with damn near every non-canonically-paired anime female in existence at the time of the writing (this one was So Bad Its Good), and one where he became an immortal Vampire with the powers of a Sailor Senshi and in command of the Robotech Defense Force (this one being So Bad Its Horrible due to rampant character-bashing of nearly the entire original cast).
Naruto is often a little more low-key in this, usually enacting a single change before the start in the series or early on it that changes everything and starts Naruto on the road to early Badassedness (and getting 80% of the female cast to fall in love with him).
- Sakura Haruno. Recent trends in fanfic have her turning into a rebellious goth chick with attitude who doesn't need any of the people she normally holds as being very dear. A sentiment that is expressed through her showing the most powerful characters on the show how much better she is than them.
  - And of course there's Hinata, who more often than not gets over her Shrinking Violet nature in fanfictions and becomes an absurdly powerful ninja who can defeat members of Akatsuki with ease.
Ijuuin Enzan (Eugene Chaud) in Rockman.EXE. In the games, he's just a really good NetBattler; in the anime, he's also the VP of a company. Nevertheless, most fanfics see him fixing things and solving puzzles with ease, elegance, and coolness, even ones that, in canon, he'd usually go to a superior or the resident expert for. One fanfic even attributes to him the brainpower necessary to simulate a world.
- The ending for the sixth game does show he skipped more grades than the child genius Yai. To the point where, while he is no more than a single year older than Lan — who is going into middle school — he's going into university.
Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion is a good but spineless kid who gets in over his head. In fanfic, however, he is one badass mother, who sleeps with Asuka, Rei, Misato, Kaworu, Hikari, Ritsuko, and Pen-Pen. All at once. Several times every day. While defeating all of the Angels at once. On foot... and flipping Gendo off at the same time. It's been theorized that fans see a bit too much of themselves in him, and compensate by badassing him up.
- A good example (in all the ~~right~~ ~~right~~ RIGHT ways) is Charles Bhepin's Shinji And Warhammer 40 K, where it is looking like Shinji has been possessed by both Kamina and The Immortal God Emperor of Mankind.
  - Meanwhile, a good example in all the WRONG ways is the Shinji in Tyrenol (formerly known as Shinji The 10 o'Clock Assassin)'s King Neon Successor fanfics, who is a security guard for "Packard Bell/NERV", but manages to get out of being an EVA pilot, is also a student of Iori Yagami in martial arts, is friends with Gai Daigouji and Lucky Glauber and made a wish from Urd to frequently bang attractive women, which leads him into sexual adventures with several girls from different anime.
Happens to Tomoyo Daidouji of Card Captor Sakura quite frequently. Already possessed of several very Sueish traits, writers tend to give her a true love to make up for her "disappointing ending" in canon, make her a reincarnation to justify breaking up a canon pairing in favor of giving her a partner, give her magic, make her beloved by everyone (and lusted after by all males, despite certain factors), etc. And that's only the canon-verse fics...
Usagi and, to a lesser extent, Ami from Sailor Moon are frequent targets of this treatment.
- Seiya from the Sailor Stars season gets her role beefed up a lot too by those who despise Mamoru, who is consistently depicted as Usagi's true love, and try to make her out to be Usagi's one and only perfect savior, despite the fact that in every continuity Seiya appears in, Usagi is always completely oblivious (sometimes comically so) to the fact she is in love with her. Said authors will also often conveniently downplay the fact that Seiya is female because she physically becomes male in her civilian form in the anime and still disguises herself as a man in the manga (but never actually changes her gender). This is despite the fact that Usagi, while not minding homosexuality and lesbianism themselves, is depicted in both the anime and manga as being heterosexual and uncomfortable when girls (well okay, just Haruka...) make passes at her.
  - It also seems that writers miss that, at least at first, Seiya seems to be projecting feelings for Princess Kakyuu on Usagi. This seems to be the case in both manga and anime, though in both it is subtle.
In The Prince of Tennis, Keigo Atobe gets this a lot in yaoi and Sue-fics, where he's portrayed as a perfect little creature who embodies everything that's holy, pure and rich. Same goes to Sakuno Ryuzaki, especially in fics that are "replies" to the Die For Our Ship syndrome she's often a victim of, or in Ryoma/Sakuno fics where he won't pay attention to her if she doesn't get her Sue points up.
Due in large part to the long wait time for a local release of Tokyo Mew Mew a la mode, the enticement of a new, more powerful, and instantly attention-grabbing character that no English-speaking fan knew very much about was too much, and Shirayuki Berii found herself as a Possession Sue. Half of the fanfiction.net section was devoted to Sue fics using Berii as their mask. Sadly enough, when the manga came out, it turned out that all these fanfics were in character.
One of the best examples this troper has seen (both in being rather obvious what the creator was going for, as well as being remarkably original and not badly edited at all) is an AMV using footage from Princess Tutu. The creator filmed live action footage of himself and edited it to look as though he turned into one of the characters (they look pretty similar) and then proceeds to have a romance-based AMV with himself and Rue. You can see it here.
Happens rather frequently in the Ichigo/Rukia corner of the Bleach fandom. Rukia Kuchiki is a quirkly, lovable, tomboyish ex-Distressed Damsel who is gradually growing from a Faux Action Girl to a Lady Of War and would be Slap Slap Kiss-y towards Ichigo if they hooked up... but in fanfiction, you'd never know that, since some of her more... vocal, rabid fangirls twist her into a super-kickass Boring Invincible Heroine who has everyone caught painfully by the balls and keeps showing off how much of a "strong woman", sex goddess and much more deserving of Ichigo's True Love than the softer-spoken Orihime is.
Aya Fujimiya from Weiss Kreuz, in the hands of some of his more ardent fans, is transformed from an angry, antisocial guy with a sword, regrettable taste in sweaters and serious sister issues into a gorgeous, saintly demi-god who is effortlessly awesome at everything, and whose every utterance is treated as a revelation of profound truth. Oh, and everyone else suddenly wants to get him into bed, regardless of how they felt about him before they ended up in the fic.
Lots of romance fic with Nami from One Piece tends to reduce her character to a 'beautiful generic spunky girl who is so in love with Luffy/Sanji/Zoro/other One Piece guy the author has a crush on)'.
- Sanji gets this often too. When the author basically reduces his character to "smoking hot cook who likes the female Possession Sue of the writer's choice", you know you're in for a painfully boring fan fic.
- Actually, a lot of OP characters in fan fic period are terribly toned down and their most glaring flaws (AKA, what makes their personalities warm and interesting) are ironed out. It's like the writers totally miss that One Piece is a World Of Ham.
A truly scary number of Gundam Wing fanfics turn Duo Maxwell into the author's avatar so they can chase after Heero Yuy. For those of you who somehow avoided all knowledge of Wing, Duo is male, meaning...
Almost the entirety of the works of Fred Herriot (also known as "Gorgo" on the Anime Addventure) is based around turning Ataru Moroboshi into one of these. One of the most egregious offences is Urusei Yatsura The Senior Year, where Ataru's canon personality is revealed to be the work of an ancient ninja database in his head that has gained sentience, gaining power from feeding off negative emotions. Because he's a member of an ancient ninja clan. And he's also heir to a fortune that eclipses Mendou's. And he's prophesied to be the leader/patriarch/alpha male for a new alien race. And then come the crossovers...
Apparently a small portion of Code Geass fanfic writers think that being a (canonical) Magnificent Bastard with an Unwanted Harem isn't good enough for Lelouch, and proceed to write fanfic in which he becomes so (physically) badass he can beat the best fighters in the show one-on-one, as well as deciding to hook up with ALL of his harem.
- It doesn't seem that bad until you remember that Lelouch's lack of physical prowess is a Running Gag. Funny thing is that, barring that last part, he actually does become that physically Bad Ass in the spinoff manga Nightmare Of Nunnally.
- Also the Tenchi Solution is mentioned in the original canon, but considering who mentioned it (Kaguya), it is dismissed by C.C. and Kallen as impossible. Which is fairly logical, given Lelouch is a Celibate Hero who is far more interested in his rebellion than any romance.
Part of the Japanese fandom for Axis Powers Hetalia has a tendency to do this to Japan, turning him from the emotionally reserved and somewhat socially awkward guy who nonetheless has bouts of Not So Above It All from canon into a perfect Moe creature who has the entire cast fawning over him (incidentally making him extremely boring and flat in the process). The Western fandom, on the other hand, is guilty of doing something similar to Canada; he often goes from a Nice Guy who fails to capture anyone's attention for long and is capable of the occasional bout of snarkiness in canon to either a weepy, horribly victimized Moeblob or a Badass Deadpan Snarker Marty Stu who bitches out everyone else every other line for overlooking him until they've realized how much better he is from that unfairly more popular brother of his.
- To say nothing of Ame rica.

Films

Literature

In the Harry Potter fandom, you can find Fanfics in which Hermione comes back all grown up from summer, with curves in "all the right places" (famously parodied by Lindsay Lohan in Saturday Night Live), finds out she's really the long lost daughter of fill in the blank and no longer Muggle-born, then proceeds to outwit Death Eaters, discover old powerful magic, and slay Voldemort single-handedly, while Harry, Ron, Draco, Snape, and Lucius all watch and swoon, mesmerized by her beauty and intelligence. (Ironically, in The Deathly Hallows, Hermione is actually wolf-whistled. It was a drunk guy who did it, though. Not to mention she was all dolled up for a wedding at the time.)
- It also happens to Harry quite frequently, with a number of specific sub-genres about it. Two that stick out are: those in which — similar to the Naruto examples above — one small change leads to Harry becoming a badass, and, with his training, all of the kids turn into human weapons before they become teenagers; and stories which see Harry framed for a crime he did not commit and sent to Azkaban, which somehow allows him to gain dark superpowers and seek his vengeance both upon Voldemort and his former friends.
- Not to mention the fanfics where all the main characters' IQ raises by 200%. Of course, this is only good for deducing the author's plot twists and instantly solving mysteries from no information, and never manifests itself in such a way that they actually seem convincingly smart.
- Harry also is often to revealed to be half-something (dragon, elf, vampire, angel, demon, unicorn, veela, etc), often inexplicably from his mothers side (how an alleged muggleborn turns out to be of magical creature stock is never actually explained), and now has unstoppable powers, which he could use to kill Voldemort in an instant, if he wasn't too busy lusting after Hermione/Ginny/Cho/Draco.
- A good example: White Knight, Grey Queen by Jeconais, in which Pansy Parkinson turns out, in a post-Order of the Phoenix story, to be quite a different person than she had appeared to be up to that point.
- The fic My Immortal has six Possession Sues: Draco, Harry, Hermione, Neville, Tom Riddle (who is a different person from Voldemort), and Ron all become "goffs". And not the fun kind.
  - ... Please say there's a fanfic in which Harry Potter does indeed become the fun kind.
- A particularly overblown example of this trope was a hilarious story at Fanfiction.Net (that it would be nice to find again) where Darth Vader (yes) becomes a teacher at Hogwarts. Then it turns out Harry is his half-elven son, naturally Force-sensitive as well. Harry changes name and visibly transforms so much that even Snape starts to like him (the surest sign he's become a different character)... and Draco Malfoy becomes so jealous that he stabs him with some kind of a Dementor Morgul knife, the end result being that Harry ends up being a blonde half-elven Jedi Dementor Ringwraith.
The Alternate History novel A Damned Fine War features General George Patton as a nigh-invincible tactician and warrior able to do no wrong. Throughout the course of the book he is promoted to the rank of five-star general, made Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, and is singlehandedly responsible for annihilating the creme of the Red Army and overthrowing the communist regime in a matter of months without the slightest hint of a setback, obstacle, or impediment. To top it all off, he personally shoots Josef Stalin in a western-style shootout. The two warning signs before even reading the first page were that the author was a member of the George Patton Historical Society, and that the rear cover blurb included the phrase, "His [Patton's] only fear was that the Allies would negotiate a peace settlement before he could destroy the Red Army forever...". It tends to remove any sort of dramatic tension to know that Patton's crushing victory is inevitable before walking out of the store.
- Part of the problem is that Patton earned a very good reputation as a tactician, strategist, and (for that matter) pistol marksman. It's quite possible that if he weren't such a thoroughgoing Jerkass toward his allies he would have ended up in a very high position of command. And he actually did want to go on and attack the Soviets, to put the icing on the cake...
Certain fanfics and "sequels by other hands" tend to fall into this trap with Sherlock Holmes, portraying him as absolutely omniscient. In the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes is, in addition to brilliant, short-tempered, self-centered, and has a number of gaps in his knowledge (exactly how much the last item applies vary from story to story; he becomes much better-read between the first and second novels, for example). Fans (amateur and professional) tend to discard everything that made Holmes more than a walking brain.
- Don't forget his cocaine addiction. Watson cured him of it, though, at a time when the dangers of cocaine were not fully realized.
- By contrast, there's a Sherlock Holmes novel where Holmes had lost all ability for diplomacy — to the point where a security guard whom Holmes was interviewing complained how badly he was paid, and Holmes said that if the guard wanted to be a Socialist, he could do it on his own time.
  - House, a walking homage to Sherlock Holmes, goes in the exact opposite in terms of Sueing. Most authors totally omitting the fact he's a medical genius for the sake of casting him as a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold in a Fix Fic. This generally stems from fanfiction writers not having anywhere near enough understanding of medicine to even try to write a decent medical mystery, and being aware enough not to bother.
- The cartoon series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century actually managed to retain some of Holmes' misogyny by making him bring up his new 22nd century partner's (Beth Lestrade) gender infrequently, especially in the first episode; he gets better over time. Let's not get started on Watson being a robot...
- This fanfic has Sherlock Holmes halfway through the story, after Dr. Watson noticed back in the second chapter, finally admit it... he's got a drug problem. In fact, he admits that "in a disturbingly large number of instances when I had turned to cocaine when I was truly baffled, I had still failed." It's his recognition of the problem, as well as a conversation with Qui-Gon Jinn (yup, it's that kind of fanfic) that helps him figure out what's going on.
In one of the rare cases of male characters becoming posession Mary-Sues (as opposed to Marty-Stus), Legolas regularly loses every scrap of characterization and winds up fawning on Aragorn/Haldir in The Lord of the Rings fanfic.
- Which is especially funny since the only person he has any real interaction with in the books is Gimli.
- Erestor in The Lord of the Rings, a very, very minor character, frequently becomes a Marty Stu, especially in Slashfic, being often described as extremely attractive and/or with a very prestigious ancestry and/or with a very dark past, etc. though of course none of this is canon.
S.D. Perry's novelizations of the Resident Evil series go all out to improve the image of Rebecca Chambers, otherwise regarded in the fandom as something of The Scrappy. Rebecca is given a much larger role in the story than she has in the games, other characters devote gushing internal monologues to talking about how smart and clever and pretty Rebecca is, and damn it all, Perry went and wrote entirely original storylines just to make Rebecca the star.
Christine in The Phantom of the Opera gets this a lot. The ostensible justification is usually that the author wants to give the Distressed Damsel "a bit more backbone," but somehow this always seems to translate as "turn her into someone who would jump in bed with the Phantom at the first available opportunity."
- A variant occurs to the Phantom, as well. Any adaptation, amateur or professional, since the 1925 Lon Chaney film will inevitably soften his character, improve his sense of hygiene, make him basically sane, and basically turn him into a sexy, brooding hero. In the original, he was a somewhat pitiable psycho, more like Gollum than Mr. Darcy.
- If the author is someone who dislikes Christine she will instead have the Phantom get over her and move onto Meg Giry.

Live Action TV

Happens a lot to Xander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfics, to the point that making him ridiculously powered-up is a subgenre in and of itself.
- It's so common that the particular method by which he gains his abilities can be recognised and classified, with one of the most popular being known as YAHF, or Yet Another Halloween Fic. This refers to a certain episode where the characters were transformed into their costumes; in canon, Xander dresses as a soldier and gains a little military knowledge that occasionally reappears. But what if he'd gone as... Superman! Or a Jedi!
- It's also fairly common for Willow as well, despite her already possessing very powerful magic in canon. She gains different powers instead, or her already potent magic is taken to absurd levels.
- Parodied in the Buffy episode "Superstar" in which Jonathan makes a wish and is made into the quintessential Gary Stu or Marty Stu. Allegedly a jab at fanfic writers by Joss Whedon. The terms -Stu are never used, but it's pretty clear-cut just from watching the intro.
Star Trek The Next Generation: The infamous Marrissa fics by Stephen Ratliff (most popular in their misted versions) pick up a minor one-shot preteen character and... well, by the end of the series, she's twenty-one, pregnant, and in charge of Starfleet. Also, a princess and Captain Picard's adopted daughter. Nope, sorry, not making this up..
- Ironically, the canon character was created by Ron Moore, who is one of the best examples of a Promoted Fanboy in Star Trek.
- She's so unlike the character she's based off of, it actually makes more sense to imagine that this character is a doppelganger that killed the canon character and took her place.
Out of all the Supernatural fanfiction set around Season One, this happens to Dean the most. Add some tragic event to make his life even worse (which is usually rape or sexual abuse), up the prettiness, sexual appeal and the martyrdom/selflessness and you have the perfect recipe for a Sue. Luckily, the real Dean has enough deep-seated flaws to prevent this from ever happening on the actual show. And in RPS fic, this can also be applied to his actor as well, making the whole thing more than a little disturbing.
- This can also happen to Sam. Fanfic writers often forget that he can be a massive badass when he thinks Dean's in trouble — beheading with barbed wire, anyone? - and instead just focus on the prettiness, angst and vulnerability.
- If you think that's bad, try Dodger-Winslow's stuff. Or better yet: Don't. Obviously, John had no choice but to parentify Dean (instead of treating him like the five year old child he actually was) because without it, Dean would have fallen apart. And Dean spends paragraphs in one story musing about how John goes out of his way to make sure Dean never doubts himself, or gets an inferiority complex. Wait a minute... WHAT?!
Tommy Oliver suffers a lot from this in Power Rangers, both in the show and in the fandom. He started out as a flawed young man, and has since become something of an uber-Stu, with even other Rangers calling him "legendary".
- In-show, this is somewhat justified; for any person, their legend tends to quickly overshadow their actual personality.
  - As for outside of the show, well, everyone knows the original Green Ranger was the best Power Ranger ever.
  - Justified? He jumpkicked a Tyrannosaurus. While untransformed. In the nose.
One troper has seen a lot of this regarding Firefly's River Tam. Even though he's a die-hard River fan himself, he's seen waaaaaaaay too many fanfics focusing on her overwhelmingly incredible intellect and hidden beauty and phenominal psychic powers and innate goodness and....
- That is because they never got the film all of mankind needs. Read, and weep at the beauty you will never see.
Similar to the Sherlock Holmes example above, the Doctor is repeatedly portrayed as a walking Deus Ex Machina/ Monster Of The Week exterminator and nothing else, not only in fanfiction but occasionally in the series itself. The portrayal is nowhere near as endemic among the fandom as other examples, but it's still unerringly present.
This troper admits to having written many Brady Bunch fics as a teenager in which Jan was actually just as, if not more, beautiful and talented as Golden Girl Marcia, just in different ways.
Ianto Jones of Torchwood fame suffers this fate many a time, having been transformed into The Master's son, The Doctor's son and, in one memorable fanfic, the perfect human host for an alien entity who happens to get resurrected by Jack. There's many versions of all of these. And most stories tend to end up with him being perfect. It's a shame.
This is so common with Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1 fanfiction that it has its own name: Saint Daniel fic. The hallmarks of a Saint Daniel story are 1) Daniel Jackson is always right 2) anyone who disagrees with Daniel is Wrong (and also a big fat meanyhead) 3) everyone loves Daniel OR everyone is dismissive of Daniel and takes him for granted until they realize how wonderful he is and fall at his feet asking forgiveness for not showering him with praise earlier. Ironically, in the season 10 episode The Quest, Daniel is mistaken for Galahad (who is himself something of a Canon Sue in Arthurian Legends) by Merlin.
Rachel on Glee gets this treatment a lot, mainly due to her A) being the biggest female character and B) as wannabe-Broadway actress who gets bullied, she's probably the closest to what a majority of Glee fans are. However most writers take this to extremes you would not believe. The Most Disgusting Example is several stories where Rachel gets pregnant by either Puck or Finn and then gets involved in a Love Triangle between the two...even though that exact same stroryline is happening on the show with Quinn! (But Quinn, of course, is The Libby and therefore not relatable to the writers)
Stella and Macy on Jonas as Jonas Brothers fan girls use them as Wish Fulfillment.

Pro Wrestling

Video Games

Used in canon itself in Fate/hollow ataraxia, where it turns out that "Shirou" is actually Avenger, using his subconscious control over the time loop to impose his new characterizations on everyone else. You go around saving the world and having threesomes with Rider and Sakura before you even realize this.
Shadow the goddamn Hedgehog. Darker And Edgier and seemingly Bad Ass, he's pretty much the designated recipient of this in the Sonic fandom, typically defeating, killing or dominating Sonic just to prove how Bad Ass he is, hooking up with the latest Relationship Sue and generally taking over the world. Since he got his own game, the fanbase has become split between wishing he never existed and those who still adore him anyway. The second most likely is Amy Rose, and heaven help you if it's both at the same time.
- Tails gets this treatment quite a bit too. Mostly in the infamous Hero Fox fanfic series which not only portrayed him as a God Mode Sue, but also had a short arc where he became a Villain Sue.
Cloud Strife is pretty much the Dean Winchester of Final Fantasy VII. Much more attention is given to his prettiness and angst than it is to his actual canon personality (which is actually rather optimistic and humorous, in contrary to the popular belief), and the fact his angst in the game was perfectly reasonable due to the severe identity issues he had gets ignored in favor of making wangst a constant state of mind for him. This usually comes with suicidal tendencies that were never present in the game nor even in Advent Children. The rest of his strengths tend get downplayed to zero when it's time to make him a passive lover to other male characters (usually smug, patronizing versions of Sephiroth and Zack). Bastardized Cloud often tends to go hand in hand (literally) with Sephiroth in leather pants.
- It doesn't help much that later portrayals, like in Dissidia, he's pretty much nothing but Emo. All that optimism and humor? Seems to have died long ago.
  - Except two : in Crisis Core, he's pretty much Zack, but calmer and a bit more naive. And at the end of Advent Children, he finally reverts to his smiling self. So, it goes pretty well with the theory saying that heroes and villains in Dissidia were gathered before the end of their own games.
Because Namine of the Kingdom Hearts series spends most of her screentime drawing, many yaoi fangirls have assumed that she is drawing yaoi, and thus she is often made a yaoi supporter/enabler in many fanfictions, often regarding the various members of Organization XIII. Poor Kairi and Xion don't get so lucky.
Wolf O' Freakin' Donnell. It isn't bad enough that Nintendo gave this guy a clothing makeover and better teammate, remixed his main theme, and make him trek near Marty Stu territory, it seems like the fandom can't get enough of this smelly wolf to the point in which you're bound to expect team Starfox wield the Idiot Ball and all of Corneria actually suddenly like the convict.
Kratos Aurion, probably the only character that isn't at all bashed in the fandom. He's the plain old awesome mercenary that's common in JRP Gs, and like all of the characters when written into fanfiction, he sometimes goes through a bit of alteration. Most tend to toss his stoic attitude for a softer, yet angsty one. And while that's common, they tend to exaggerate his rare acts of kindness, and parental abilities, or lack thereof. Heck, father-son fluff is popular due to this guy.
The Zelda franchise falls prey to this ever so frequently. Some turn Ganondorf into a Draco In Leather Pants. Some people think 'Hey, Zelda is wise and benevolent? Can't have that! Let's make her angsty and gag over Link/Vaati/Ganondof!"
- In short, the only person fans don't project themselves onto is the one they're supposed to: Link.
- Because they need him to be the Launcher Of A Thousand Ships.
Marth from Fire Emblem is always portrayed out of character in fanfiction, fanart and even Smash Bros.

Western Animation

Ron Stoppable, for the male half of the Kim Possible fandom, and a fair chunk of the women, too. He's easy to identify with, which is why he's canonically the hero of many stories on a show named after someone else. But, in the fanfic world, his goofy foibles and good nature are subsumed by his badassery, his seldom-useful "Mystical Monkey Powers" become mystical nigh-omnipotence, his week at ninja school becomes a 256th Dan black belt in awesomesauce, and the temporary wealth he gained in a single episode becomes a massive trust fund. Either Kim will leave him and he'll figure out he's better off, or she'll become useless (or pregnant) and leave all the world-saving to him. And he manages to do all this from under a pile of almost every female character in the series: Kim (if she's not dead or evil), her friends, her enemies, that hot Japanese girl who had a crush on him, Kim's mom, etc.
- It should be noted that canonically Ron is very competent when he's working alone instead of being Kim's sidekick.
  - Also of note is that, canonically, by the last episode, Ron is arguably The Hero and is most certainly a certifiable Badass once he comes into his own as the Mystical Monkey Master.
  - One wonders if the show's creators were aware of this and had some spare lampshades...
Invader Zim often goes from a tiny alien with several mental problems to a tall, mysterious, hot rebel in high school (who usually seems to be completely human in every way apart from the green skin), who usually sweeps Gaz (also tall, mysterious, and good-looking) off her feet and takes her to the prom. And then knocks her up. ...Zim.
- Applies to Dib as well, with almost the same frequency. Attention fanfiction writers: wearing a trenchcoat does not make one a Badass Longcoat. And being proficient with machinery and electronics does not make one a Gadgeteer Genius/ Mad Scientist. And just because he's right doesn't mean he isn't insane. And... no, let's stop there.
Most Thomas the Tank Engine fanfic authors insist that Edward is authoritive, Godly, pure, strong, and a super brain, who is loved and respected by all, despite that in canon, he is considered one of the least popular engines. Even by the Fat Controller!
- Actually, he really is the engine with the least foibles of all the main ones. Yes, that's probably why he's one of the least popular, but the shoe does fit.
A lot of Drawn Together fanfiction is mindlessly worshipful of the Xandir character, either making him into a Woobie that the other characters fawn endlessly over (whereas in canon, he tends to be ignored or dismissed by the others), or by casting him as the bravest warrior on the planet (whereas in canon, he's a huge puss — the "brave warrior" label is applied ironically).
Starscream from Transformers Armada is all too often possessed. People forget he was only an Autobot for like, three episodes, and only that for the purpose of pissing off Megatron, is at best a Noble Demon and people turn him into the NICEST GUY who'll be an Autobot forever, with tons of beautiful angst leaking from every orifice.
- To be fair, canon Starscream had angst leaking from at least three orifices and was a reasonably nice guy (by Decepticon standards) to begin with. That does not, however, justify turning the woobie up to 11.
  - This often goes hand-in-hand (yes, literally) with Alexis, who seems tailor-made to be a fangirl surrogate fawning over Starscream... when he's not paired with Jetfire anyway. Thankfully in the first case, authors seem keen to turn Alexis into a Transformer, because otherwise... y'know...
- Generation One Starscream also gets possessed regularly, as many of his fans feel he is the rightful leader of the Decepticons. Or because he looks great in leather pants.
- Likewise, anyone gunning for a female character in Transformers Generation One without the trouble of making their own Sue will have a good chance of picking Elita One (Optimus Prime's..female romantic partner), Arcee (usually for romance or sex), or one of the named or unnamed one-shot Autobot females. Oddly enough, almost none of the female characters in Transformers Animated have fallen victim to this, the exception being Femme Fatale Blackarachnia.
  - The really weird part is that absolutely nobody (as far as this troper knows) has used Slipstream, Starscream's female clone. You would think she was tailor-made for this part, but it's rare she even shows up in fanfics.
It's not uncommon to see Jérémie from Code Lyoko going to fight on Lyoko and turn out to be better at it than all the other characters combined... despite the fact that his canon version claimed to be so horrible at it he swore to never go back.
Zutarians have a reputation for doing this to Katara, derailing her from a competent waterbender and Team Mom into a Distressed Damsel who falls in love with Zuko after he kidnaps her, or after he recsued her from Attempted Rape by Zhao. Conversely, there are plenty where she's pratically Aang + healing power (frequently taken to a much greater level than is normally shown to be possible in the series) with one of the more extreme cases being the infamous How I Became Yours.
- Or for that matter, Zuko, with many fan works making him out to be a smooth ladies' man, completely removing the general social ineptitude (especially when it comes to most women) and all-around dorkiness that was his primary character flaw.
Some Teen Titans fic writers play up Starfire's naivete and Action Girl status, twisting her into some sort of ingenue/Broken Cutie/Sympathetic Sue nightmare who is continually hurt by Robin's Determinator tendencies that had somehow been flanderized into pure jerkassery and Kick The Dog acts.
- And of course Raven, being the most abused character when it comes to Teen Titans fanfic, frequently and inexplicably turns into a lonely Shrinking Violet or a whiny emo crybaby pining for love, usually from Robin or Red X or an OC.
Believe it or not, Dr. Jacques von Hamsterviel often finds himself turned into some sort of Complete Monster Villain Sue, intent on abusing the Experiments for no apparent reason (keep in mind that the reason he kidnaps them is that they are his own financial property, and thus he would gain nothing from damaging them). While he, like any other Disney villain, is certainly capable of Nightmare Fuel, it's not uncommon to see his actions in fanfiction go right into the realm of Squick. In the most extreme case this editor has found, he manages to control an ancient war god, manifest control over electricity and magnetism for no explained reason, and, in the sequel, mutates into a thinly veiled pastiche of the final boss from Sonic Heroes.