OC Stand In / Anime & Manga

• The Bubblegum Crisis OVA series has Kate Madigan, the female Genom executive who appears in the Largo arc. The only thing known about her is she's as corrupt as the rest of Genom.
• In Code Geass, Kallen's brother Naoto Kozuki sometimes get this treatment, largely because all we know about him is that he was the leader of Ohgi's group and died sometime before the series started. By the same extent, fics that feature build upon Kallen and Lelouch's relationship will do this for the rest of the Stadtfeld family including Kallen's biological mother.
• Death Note:
  • Matt is a good example of this. He gets little time on the page in the manga, and even less time in the anime, but he has a large fan base, and thus many people end up writing about him, usually just writing him as whatever they need, within limits, for the story.
  • Also Linda, who was mentioned in the manga a grand total of twice, seen only once, and has only one line. Considering that, she is a massive Ensemble Dark Horse; if you type in "linda death note" on deviantART you get 526 results, and she has 34 fanfictions on fanfiction.net.
  • Yamamoto, Light's friend from school who later becomes Matsuda's partner at the NPA and has Ho Yay with both. He gets about as many scenes as Matt (though he's not nearly as insanely popular) and doesn't appear at all in the anime but he does show up regularly in fic.
  • Namikawa, on account of being one of the cooler members of the interim villain's Quirky Mini Boss Squad.
  • There's also Nori, Misa's punk friend.
  • There's also Misa's sister, who is mentioned in the manga and may or may not even exist.
  • The spin-off novel Another Note (which was not written by Ohba, but was approved by them) gives readers the character of "A", the first Wammy's House child who committed suicide out of pressure of being L. Unlike B/Beyond Birthday, we get nothing in the way of A's personality or backstory, leaving fans to have to fill in a lot of blanks when they utilize him in their fanfic.
• Digimon Tamers has Ruki/Rika's father, who is divorced from Rumiko and rarely gets to see Rika very often anymore, but aside from that there's next to no (intended) relevance for his character. Nothing else is known about him and his name isn't even revealed at all, so nothing about his character is truly known other than what was stated to be the case in the official media as noted above. In Citadel of the Heart, in what is perhaps that Series Fic's most Egregious example of this trope, Rika's father is hit with such a severe case of Adaptational Villainy to the point that Rika's status in Digimon Re: Tamers as a Heroic Bastard is the most tame thing to say about her backstory regarding her father's non-existence ever since she was originally conceived without getting too much into his Walking Spoiler background. A Sociopathic Soldier Professional Killer for The Mafia, and a Serial Rapist who utilizes Date Rape against teenagers while having a Perverse Sexual Lust for his own daughter makes him one of the most heinous of the human villains introduced in Citadel Of The Heart thus far.
• Dragon Ball Z:
  • Vegeta's father gets this treatment. He's been dead for years and gets three scenes total over the course of the anime. He gets another in the first Broly movie, but if you count it as canon (which requires some shoehorning) it's a Moral Event Horizon. He shows only bare hints of personality. Yet he's also the subject of fan devotion that's surprisingly intense, if small in scale. (Vegeta's Missing Mom is also the subject of much speculation.)
  • Goku's Missing Mom too. Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Minus short story formally introduced the official version — Gine, a pacifist who stayed in the kitchen because of her lack of combat ability. (Of course, this Jossed most of the concepts fans had about Bardock's mate.)
  • On a related note, the Chick of Bardock's squad, Fasha/Seripa sometimes overlapped with the "Goku's Mom" role. She, and all of Bardock's teammates, are frequently OC stand-ins in their own rights.
  • Many of the fighters from the Tournament of Power in Dragon Ball Super also get this, as they aren't explored in detail but their designs, the possible relationship with the Gods of Destruction and personalities made some fans to write about them. Examples include Universe 9 (Who are popular with the fanbase), Ganos from Universe 4, and even Cabba from Universe 6, who is a Saiyan.
• During the end of Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), and later in Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa, Edward gets sent to "our" world where everyone he knows has an Identical Stranger. Fans have a ball with the unseen ones as several fanons have popped up. Winry's alter usually portrayed as the opposite of tomboyish Winry, is often Jewish, and is usually perceived as a Replacement Goldfish. Some fans have Edward's deceased alter as related to Alfons but in canon that is unlikely.
• Erwin from Girls und Panzer. Due to both her attire, which includes a German general's peaked hat and jacket from WW2, and her personality, of a history geek who has even borrowed Rommel's name (to the point she verges on expy status), she's quite popular with the fans, and as a result features in a relatively large number of fanfics with a greatly increased role, even in the relatively small fandom of this anime.
• There are a few other cyborgs in Gunslinger Girl besides the main girls however they're not given significant screentime.
• The unnamed girl from The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya was often used as this in Haruhi Suzumiya fanfiction until the release of The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya, where she was given a name, Watahashi Yasumi, and a backstory which Jossed pretty much all interpretations of the character overnight. Less commonly, the unnamed boy with glasses whose life Kyon saves in The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya, as well as Kyon's sister's friend Yoshimura Miyoko^note who only appears in an autobiographical story told by Kyon, though she does make an appearance in the manga adaptation are used for authors who want to write about Kyon's sister's age group.
• Happens very often in Hetalia: Axis Powers fandom with nations that have only appeared in profiles or on the author's blog, especially since fanfic writers can research these nations' histories and stereotypes to come up with some technical canon. Some of these common fan characterizations are:
  • Denmark as a Boisterous Bruiser and Norway as Tsundere for him because of their long history together; the former turned out to be pretty spot-on with canon, while the latter is still up in the air (though Norway did strangle Denmark with his tie in one strip).
  • Belgium as a sassy, fearless Shorttank who enjoys waffles and chocolate and can drink anyone under the table; this turned out to be fairly accurate to canon (although she's more cheerful than sassy) with the Hard-Drinking Party Girl part being the only one left unconfirmed.
  • Netherlands as similar to Denmark in personality with a pot-smoking habit; this was one of the fanon characterizations that ended up Jossed by canon when Netherlands was revealed to be a mainly blunt and stoic Perpetual Frowner, though the smoking habit was pretty much confirmed.
  • Hong Kong as an Emotionless Boy with a penchant for pranks and snarkiness; this was mostly confirmed by canon, although he doesn't seem to be quite as emotionless as fanon loved making him out to be.
  • Taiwan as a Yamato Nadeshiko with romantic feelings for Japan; the Yamato Nadeshiko part was Jossed with the Drama CD (and more recently, the fourth manga volume) showing her to be a Plucky Genki Girl, and she doesn't seem to act differently with Japan than she does with her other Asian siblings.
  • Vietnam as a Tsundere tomboy who uses her rice paddle as a weapon or a Broken Bird emotionally scarred by her wars; it looks like her canon self will be more subdued than either of these characterizations.
  • Thailand as a Nice Guy who also happens to be a Bare-Fisted Monk that sometimes uses a Cool Sword as a weapon. He cooks well and loves spicy food, and lastly, no matter how nice a guy he is, he is ALWAYS portrayed as Cute and Psycho. A few times, he's a Wholesome Crossdresser (thanks to RL Thailand's kathoey, or ladyboys).
  • Romania was almost always depicted by fans as a female (probably because of the potential Les Yay between her and Hungary), only to have canon Joss that with the fourth manga volume establishing him as male. With the canon Romania appearing to have red eyes and Cute Little Fangs, it's becoming common to depict him as either a vampire or an ordinary human who pretends to be a vampire for the lulz. It also helps that most of Transylvania has mostly has been part of Rumania since they conquered it from Communist Hungary in 1919.
  • New Zealand is almost always depicted as either having a Vitriolic Best Buds or True Companions type relationship with Australia.
  • India, like Romania, was almost always depicted as female in fanworks only to be established as male later on in canon. No one seems to really care, though, probably because of his awesome Bollywood entrance in Hetaween 2011.
  • The Philippines was almost always depicted as female in fanfics and a Shrinking Violet; when the Philippines was later to be revealed to be a male and a Selfie Fiend, that characterization was eventually scrapped or retooled instead as a genderbend.
  • For a long time, Bulgaria's only canon scene was him hitting Italy with his stick and the most common fanon depiction of him was as a Jerkass with a Hair-Trigger Temper. This seems to have been Jossed, however, with him being shown in Hetaween 2011 and Hetalia Bloodbath 2011 as a fairly nice guy who's good friends with Romania.
• Shizuka from Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Diamond Is Unbreakable often gets hit with this. Due to her appearance in canon being as a literal infant, most fanworks of her age up to be a teenager or young adult and make her The Protagonist of her own JJBA "part". She's an especially popular candidate for this since she's the youngest character in the Joestar family, blood related or otherwise, before the universe reset of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean, and notably one of the only members of the family to not get her own part in canon.
• Kirby: Right Back at Ya!:
  • A lot of the Posthumous Characters get this treatment in fanfiction, most commonly Silica's mother Garlude and Knuckle Joe's father "Jecra". Note that most of them are only named in fanon, Jecra included.
  • Sword Knight and Blade Knight get this a lot, too.
  • The Star Warriors who only appear in the finale do as well.
• Whenever Tiida Lanster, Quint Nakajima, Alicia Testarossa, or Olivie Segbrecht- aka the Sankt Kaiser- shows up in a Lyrical Nanoha fanfic they'll probably be this, since they were Posthumous Characters in canon.
  • Game Theory gets bonus points for it's use of the giant cat from Episode 3 (yes, the trope image). In the fic, she's named Vesta and after a series of events she becomes Nanoha's familiar. After being shrunken down, of course.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Hisashi Midoriya, Izuku’s father, has never appeared in canon and we know very little about him. He has made many appearances in fanfics despite this, where he is usually fits into a few interpretations, commonly depicted as a Disappeared Dad who left Izuku and Inko because Izuku was Quirkless. Sometimes he is a hero, villain, or vigilante who often uses the name "Dragon" because of his fire-breathing quirk. In many works and theories, he is secretly All For One.
  • The Takami Thief, a.k.a. Hawks's father, is also a very popular character to be used in fanfiction focusing on Hawks, as for the longest time the only information we had on him was that he was a murderer and a thief - not even his name or appearance was known. The greatest influence on his fanon depiction is the fanfic Fear of You, which is so popular that other artists based their characterization of Hawks's father on this fic even after the manga revealed additional information (which contradicts the popular depiction at almost every point).
• Naruto:
  • Tenten is an archetypical example. Her brief appearances in canon provide enough character elements for fanfic writers to build upon, and yet she never even got a formal introduction. Being beaten by Temari—off-panel in the manga—is her most memorable scene. Naruto author Kishimoto admitted that she was created simply to fill in the spot of token female on Team Guy. Kishimoto, oddly enough, said he likes her design most out of the female ninja. This becomes even more embarrassing when you see the number of fanfics. She has much more fics than any other secondary characters with little to none screen time, like Choji, Shizune and Shino together, and more than other characters with full-fleshed personalities, like Rock Lee or Kiba, and even Kabuto, who is a major character. Her personality varies with the author, but you got to admit, it's quite impressive for a character who doesn't even have a full name.
  • Sakura's parents, particularly her mother, are common fanfic characters. Sakura's mother is heard off-camera in the anime, but she only seems to exist to prove that Sakura, unlike Naruto and Sasuke, had a normal childhood. In fan works, she is usually both a Straw Civilian and a total bitch to Naruto. Both of Sakura's parents finally appeared and received names in the movie Road to Ninja.
  • Other members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist show up often as oneshot villains. They're not even real characters to stand in for, so much as placeholders where characters presumably go.
  • Similarly, tailed beast hosts number 2 and 4-7, as two and four were only seen briefly while the others were all killed offscreen. The fact that the author made full designs of all of them (even for the three-tail host, when the three-tailed beast didn't presently have a host) for a cover as part of a Milestone Celebration is pretty much asking for this — though ironically at least one of them has been given a plot-relevant backstory post-mortem (the three-tails was the last Mizukage).
    • Yugito Nii (the 2-tails host) is an extremely popular OC Stand-in, and is a frequent shipping target for Naruto. Fuu (the 7-tails) is also becoming popular in this way after her design was revealed.
  • Also, Hanabi Hyuga, Hinata's sister, who only speaks in one Part 1 scene and primarily only asks questions of her father. Fans tend to differ on whether she would become the heir or a branch house member (and how well she would accept either), and whether she loves Hinata or sees her as worthless. Or, for that matter, sees her as a threat - the natural consequence of the prospect of one sister enslaving the other or else dying. Ironically when Hanabi got some spotlight in the anime she clearly loves Hinata, to the degree of admiring her. Hanabi was given a bigger role in Boruto, where she's Boruto's spunky aunt.
  • Naruto's mother also got this treatment - either as a placeholder (like the swordsmen), or a true example once Kushina was first seen, even though we only got to see her when she was pregnant and hear her say one line in her first appearance. One popular characterization is that she was a tomboy in her youth - which turned out to be dead accurate when her soul appeared to help Naruto gain control over the Kyuubi's chakra.
  • The Rikudo Sennin is this when he's used in a fanfic. We have virtually nothing, and authors can turn him into anything from a more powerful Naruto, to a guy with a god complex.
  • Between Chapter 700 and Boruto's release, many of the Next Generation were this. Everyone but Boruto, Sarada, and Chocho were given limited personality so fans worked from there. Most fanon ended up accurate, some didn't.
  • Hinata's mother has not appeared in manga canon. She's only appeared in an anime-only photo from when Hanabi was a baby. She's not seen in anime filler of Hanabi as a toddler, or even in manga flashbacks of Hinata when she was kidnapped, suggesting that she died when her kids were very young. As a result, her character and the reason why she isn't in the main story are up to fan interpretation.
  • Boruto has a lot of, predominantly unnamed, background characters with eye-catching designs, such as an Elegant Gothic Lolita girl named Hako, a Japanese Delinquent-looking boy, and a dark-skinned girl with curly hair. Most don't even have names, nevermind characterizations or backstories, so fans have free range with them.
  • The third Hokage had two children, Asuma and an unnamed child. Almost nothing is known about either one of Konohamaru's parents asides from being ANBU, so they're up to fan interpretation.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • We have Kyoko Soryu. We have no idea what she was like before the incident, or even what the woman looks like (other than some brief, blurry flashes). On the non-canon Shinji Ikari Raising Project manga she is given a personality that fits the overall comedic narrative, that of an Amazingly Embarrassing Parent to balance out (or maybe even justify) Asuka's Tsundere-ness.
  • Confrontations/reunions between Asuka and her father are common in fanworks (if for no other reason that it usually needs to be addressed why minor Asuka isn't living with him outside the canon series events), with his personality ranging from outright abusive to merely indifferent to well-meaning-but-inept. Even his most positive portrayals generally have him admit he made some serious mistakes, but it's not uncommon to have him reference adult relationship issues with Kyoko that would have gone well over Asuka's head at the age of four. Asuka's stepmother also tends to show up in these stories; all we know from canon is that she at least tries to communicate with Asuka sometimes and Asuka grudgingly admits she doesn't hate the woman.
  • To a lesser extent, due to having somewhat of a discernible canon characterization, Yui Ikari. Things that are canon include her being a top-notch Mama Bear (courtesy of her being inside Unit-01), but what varies among writers is details like how much actual control she had in the Gambit Pileup the whole series revolves around and thus whether or not she is no different (or in some extreme cases Eviler than Thou) from Gendo or even Keel.
  • Also, Class Representative Hikari Horaki's sisters, Kodama and Nozomi; they never appear on-screen in any Evangelion media (up until 2018, that is, and it was in a Crossover episode of Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion of all places) and the only known facts about them are that they're older and younger (respectively) than Hikari and that the three of them have a Missing Mom like the rest of their class. To a lesser extent, Hikari herself.
  • Touji's little sister sometimes got used this way even before her first onscreen appearance in the second Rebuild movie. She became even more important in the third movie, finally being named onscreen (Sakura Suzuhara).
  • Occasionally the few Evangelion Canon Foreigners (such as Mana Kirishima) can fall into this, since not many Americans have actually played the games they appeared in. Mari Illustrious Makinami was this for some fans before her actual personality was revealed, and even then there's still a lot about her that's completely unknown.
  • Rise of the Minisukas: Nene Matsuzake is a minor character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion Gaiden mobile game, where she is a redhead with a teddy bear that she proclaims is possessed by a spirit named Sandy... and that is the entirety of her character, so the author has given her a "ditzy airhead" personality. And "Sandy" is an Angel, but Nene does not obey his attempts at subverting her.
• Pretty much any male character who isn't Tomoki in No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! is either a Living Prop, a Satellite Character or a Recurring Extra, leading to tons of otherwise irrelevant or minor characters getting more relevance and defined personalities in fanfic and fanart every time someone wants to write a male character in the setting, but by far the most prominents are Wada and Kakinuma, the former for being the very first male character Tomoko could talk regulary with (and therefore the easiest way to ship Tomoko with a male character) and the latter for being the closest thing to a male Otaku Surrogate the series has and because on his latter appearences he was commonly bickering with Minami (and therefore the easiest way to ship Minami with a male character)
• Overlord (2012) has the Supreme Beings, Ainz/Momonga's former guildmates. There are 40 of them, but only about half of them are named, and only Touch Me, Ulbert, Tabula Smaragdina, Peroronchino and Bukubukuchagama are given some semblance of personality. Fanfic writers wanting to write an AU where some of the other Supreme Beings are also transported to the New World (which is a rather common Fandom-Specific Plot) are allowed to pretty much create their own character from scratch.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Amber Fuji is the protagonist of quite a lot of fanfics for a character who appears for less than ten minutes in a single movie^note albeit with slightly more presence in the radio drama version (in an anime whose movies are only tenuously tied to the series to begin with at that), has been dead for years before the series even begins and whose existence is known to precisely none of the main characters at any point. Yet when she appears, it's inevitably an AU in which she either is successfully resurrected or never died to begin with, goes on her own journey. Strange how this never happens with most other movie-only characters...
  • In the earlier days of the fandom Mondo was a popular character in Team Rocket themed fics. He only appeared in one Japanese-only radio drama, so we only know so much about him.
  • There are dozens of active Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys. While most canonically share basic traits like being nice, everything else is up in the air.
  • Pokémon Reset Bloodlines has become a particularly prominent example of this. With the author opening the doors for others to write sidestories in the same continuity, many canon characters have gone on to have larger roles in them. Thing is, many of them were such blank slates in the first place that Cross and the other writers can choose how to develop them. Some of the characters they choose to flesh out didn't even get a single line of dialogue in canon.
  • Ash's dad is a huge example. We know he is alive and that he's on a journey... That's it. His relationship (or lack thereof) with his family, his personality, what he is doing, or even his name and design are all up to fan interpretation. The most common consensus is either that he's a deadbeat who ran off when Ash was little or that he's Giovanni (or alternatively a man named "Silver"), but there are other takes on him as well.
• When Super Dimension Fortress Macross became the first segment of Robotech, a nameless scientist character with only two brief appearances in the series became Emil Lang, Earth's greatest expert on alien technology. The Expanded Universe of the Robotech novels and comics just ran with him, and he became one of the most important characters in the franchise.
• Maka's mother from Soul Eater. The information about her is few and far between. All we know is that she was at the top of her class, became Spirit Albarn's partner to make him into a Death Scythe, married him when they were young (about 18-19) and divorced him about a few months before the start of the series. Her personality and her physical appearance are both anyone's guesses. You'd be hard-pressed to find even two fanfics that use the same characterization for her. Even her name, Kami, long thought to be the only bit of solid evidence, came about from a mistranslation in regards to how Spirit referred to her as his ex-wife. The anime adaptation has expanded her personality, namely in much like her daughter, albeit more temperamental.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • Writers who want to focus on Kyoko will frequently depict her dead family members from her life before she became a magical girl, if they don't bring them Back from the Dead altogether. Of the three, we know only that her sister was named Momo and that her father was a priest who (according to his daughter) was Too Good for This Sinful Earth until he Went Mad From the Revelation and killed himself, his wife, and Momo because of Kyoko's wish inadvertently giving him a Compelling Voice. Despite only existing to facilitate a Dark Magical Girl's Dark and Troubled Past and Freudian Excuse, Kyoko's father is even listed on FanFiction.Net's character filter! In contrast, Mami's dead parents almost never appear in fanfic, not even in flashbacks. (They do appear a bit in one of the spinoffs, which helps.)
  • The magical girl forms of the various witches that appear in the series all fall into this, as there's just enough there in various supplementary material to guess about their designs and personalities. Charlotte was a particularly popular choice, owing to being an Ensemble Dark Horse already and having a design that lended itself very well to humanization: so much so that the series even introduced a canon version later on, and she was surprisingly close to the common fanon portrayal.
• Though they go unnamed in the manga, Ranma ½ has Ranma's buddies Hiroshi and Daisuke, and for the girls there's Akane's friends Yuka and Sayuri. They mainly exist to be Those Two Guys. Rumiko Takahashi seems to love this trope, especially in Ranma. Herb's got Mint and Lime. Kima has Masara and Koruma, and is herself not much developed beyond her role as Saffron's bodyguard. The Anime also gave us Kaori Daikoku, who appeared just once in the anime and yet comes up rather frequently in fanfiction.
• Sailor Moon: Whenever a civilian character becomes an Ascended Extra or Sixth Ranger in fanfiction, this is what happens. There are tons of them to choose from, but a few stand out:
  • Naru, Usagi's best friend at the start, is probably the biggest example. A lot of fans think she should have been a Sailor Senshi, but she ended up being Social Circle Filler and the Designated Victim, and by the Black Moon arc, you were lucky to see her at all. Fanfics abound with Sailor Earths of every kind, but if an author doesn't want to use an OC for that, chances are they'll pick Naru. Other minor female characters are occasionally used for the same purpose, but not nearly as often.
  • Usagi's brother Shingo. Little is known about him because he doesn't appear much, especially in the manga and Crystal. The closest thing Hotaru/Sailor Saturn has to a love interest is a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with Chibi-Usa, but Chibi-Usa finds her own prince in the form of Helios. So Shingo became many fanfic writers' go-to choice for Hotaru's boyfriend and male counterpart because he's the only male character her age, because it gets his crush on Ami out of the way, and because of Best Friends-in-Law.
  • Motoki appears even less in the anime than Naru or Shingo, doesn't even get A Day in the Limelight, and his personality is kind of flat and generic. This means that fanfic writers are free to do whatever they want with him. Interestingly, he seems to have been a canon example in the live-action where he got more screen time and a different but more defined personality.
  • If an author wants to create male equivalents of the Senshi without using the Shitennou, this can happen. The lineup varies by fic, but expect Yuuichirou to be included. That's because he doesn't have much competition for being Rei/Sailor Mars' counterpart and because he's already a bit of a Badass Normal.
  • The original anime has loads of Canon Foreigners who only appear once or twice (Ami's friend Ryo, Makoto's friend Shinozaki, etc) and some of them are pretty popular with fanfic writers. Most of them have just enough traits to build on while leaving everything else up to the fandom.
• In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann there are a few characters that had little timescreen and characterization:
  • Nakim is one of Miss Yomako's pupils during the timeskip. The fanfic The World Tree takes him as the protagonist, as a pilot against the Ymir.
  • Tsuuma, who appeared as Viral's wife in his dream in the Antispiral Labirynth is also used in some fanfics. One particular example is Tengen Toppa Gurren Solvernia, in which she's Viral's sarcastic mechanic that may or may not have feelings for him.
• Smile Pretty Cure!: Many minor characters only have one episode to themselves before they're Put on a Bus. There are several to choose from, so take your pick:
  • Brian, the young man from Great Britain and whom Akane Hino fell in love with. He's depicted as a charming man who means well.
  • The Bad End Pretty Cures. They're introduced at the end of episode 45 and are Killed Off for Real during episode 46. Yet, their status as Ensemble Dark Horses means they've received a lot of love from fans, having had fanart a week before they even debuted. Many Smile Precure fanfics involve the Bad Ends in some way both to fill in their characterization and to avoid using potential Original Characters.
• We knew Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode was coming long before we saw it, so a lot of fanfic authors pounced on the new team member who was, for the nonce, a blank slate. Unfortunately, this meant the name "Berii" (and several spelling variants) appeared on a lot of such characters in hopes of giving them legitimacy.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • In the fandom, there was a brief period of time during which people knew about the Toei series, but had no fansub available. Cue Miho, who was a one-shot character in the manga and had a prominent role in the anime, becoming an OC Stand-in, though her personality did often overlap with the one she had in the manga.
  • Yugi's parents are also frequently subject to this in fanfiction. In canon, Yugi's father never appears, and the most known about him is that he's a traveling salesman who's always away on work, while Yugi's mother appears only twice in the manga and once in the anime. Her anime appearance is cut entirely from the dubbed version, however, hence she isn't really remembered. Fanon characterizations of them vary between abusive, deadbeat, Good Parents, or dead.
  • Bakura's father and deceased sister and mother are subject to this for the same reasons as Yugi's parents; their roles were only talked about, not seen, and while Yu Gi Oh The Darkside Of Dimensions finally showed Bakura's father he wasn't given much personality or backstory.
  • Pegasus's lost love Cyndia/Cecelia is also subject to this, as she died 7 years before the story began and little is known of her life or interests.
  • The protagonist of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Tag Force Series (referred to as "Hat Guy", "Konami-kun", or "Red Hat", depending on your take) is a weird case of this, in that he was a Featureless Protagonist and Heroic Mime who functioned as an avatar for the player. There are countless fanfics dealing with him getting involved in canon, usually interacting with the characters in the same fashion he did in his home games.

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