Wick check for Fountain of Expies:
Wicks checked: 0/52
Wicks to check:
- Characters.James Bond Blofeld: Inspired many villains such as Dr. Claw, Giovanni, and Dr. Evil. Even within the Bond film series, many villains were created as stands-in for Blofeld after a legal dispute left him Exiled from Continuity; Karl Stromberg and Hugo Drax, for instance, each wore variations of Blofeld's Iconic Outfit and their plots were very similar to his plan from You Only Live Twice.
- Stereotype Flip: It should be noted that Drizzt's popularity has induced a slew of stereotype-flipped drow characters, turning the character into a Fountain of Expies and the race into an Ensemble Dark Horse for D&D players.
- YMMV.Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: And that's not even getting into her spawning many close copies (and not just in Gundam either).
- Pantheon.Beast Other: Being a Sonic clone that actually works
- Trivia.The Testament Of Dr Mabuse
- Christopher Nolan has said that this film partially inspired his characterization of The Joker in The Dark Knight. Mabuse's speeches about sowing chaos certainly could come from The Joker's mouth, and vice versa.
- Mabuse-Baum's Organisation with its grandiose schemes of a reign of crime and terror over entire countries, which involves targeting the monetary and banking system and involves weapons of mass destruction (poison gas) is also a worthy uncle to outfits like S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and so on.
- YMMV.Edge Wrestler: Edge codified the sneaky, opportunistic heel for the modern era, especially after his Money In The Bank wins. Subsequent younger Money In The Bank winners have often taken on elements of his "Ultimate Opportunist" personality during their runs with the briefcase, with CM Punk doing it twice (both as a face and as a heel, and ironically the first time to Edge himself). Also, curiously enough, each of the three members of The Shield is somewhat a snapshot of Edge at various points in his career.
- Characters.Fate Stay Night Saber: It's since become one of her two primary character traits along with her more conventional knightly nobility, and the one that's most often used to differentiate her from her clones.
- UnbuiltTrope.Live Action Film: Romero zombies were capable of wielding guns, feeling emotions, and remembering their old lives, all of which make them more similar to the intelligent Elite Zombies than to the mindless zombies that they inspired.
- Trivia.Dirty Harry: Harry, being the Trope Codifier for the Cowboy Cop, is the starting point for many Anti-Hero police characters.
- Trivia.The Slender Man Mythos: To the point where expies of Slender Man used to have their own trope.
- Creator.Kenji Sawada: Unlike the numerous hide clones however, the trend of Kenji Sawada emulators in the late 70s quickly died overnight.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII has waist-length silvery hair, and is the cloth from which many of these examples were cut.
- Characters.Digimon Rookie Digimon A To M: The template for every draconic Rookie that usually serves as the lead.
- Psycho Sidekick: the Trope Codifier in the hard-boiled crime genre and one of the first to appear, resulting in a Fountain of Expies.
- Characters.Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Titans: Expy: There's the aforementioned resemblance to Feyd-Rautha, but he has his own Fountain of Expies in Rakan Dahkaran, Ash Grey, Ali Al-Saachez, Decil Galette, and Luciano Bradley
- Trivia.Gundam: Char Aznable has been so oft-imitated, both in the Gundam franchise itself and in other shows, as to warrant its own trope.
- Great Detective: Anyone in detective fiction from the time of Sherlock Holmes until the type was deconstructed in Trent's Last Case in 1913. Furthermore, in a genre-wide example of Fountain of Expies, such characters tended to be thinly veiled copies of Holmes.
- Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats: (after the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles spawned a crop of imitators)
- Trivia.Randy Savage: His colourful appearance and distinctive voice make him easily recognisable. Hell, just look under Affectionate Parody on the main section of his page to see just how many characters he's inspired.
- DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu.Literature: Homeland gives the original drow turncoat a badass Establishing Character Moment when he calls Lolth a lying bitch to his sister Vierna's face (Vierna being a high-ranking Priestess of Lolth).
- SelfDemonstrating.The Joker Tropes O To Y: All those Joker wannabes up there under Fountain of Expies - bleh! Corpses and Mind Rape may be incredible goldmines of comedy, but if those second-stringers don't get the basics of showbiz (even, or should I say, especially the cheap jokes), they're never gonna get their Walk of Fame star!
- Characters.Tekken Kazuya Mishima: His standard fighting outfit is deliberately emotive of Ryu from Street Fighter and the Fountain of Expies spawned from him.
- Characters.Yokai Watch Prominent Yokai: His popularity has inspired a number of other "-nyan" suffixed nekomata characters. To the point of being a borderline Fountain of Expies.
Results:
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Character inspires a lot of other similar characters
- Trivia.Pippi Longstocking: Pippi has served as the inspiration for a lot of spunky red-haired heroines over the years. One notable modern example is Lisbeth Salander of The Millennium Trilogy (although she dyes her hair jet black), and it's even lampshaded in one of the books.
- Looks Like Orlok: Orlok, played by scary-ass stage actor Max Schreck, has become one of the most iconic vampires ever, and has spawned a flock of imitators
- Stock Shoujo Heroine: Usagi Tsukino (herself an Affectionate Parody of Magical Girl heroines) from Sailor Moon is a common inspiration for modern Shoujo protagonists. Simply the Trope Codifier for Stock Shojo Heroine, since most Shoujo protagonist aren't direct references to the character.
- Trivia.Kid Rock: If any show needs a white hip-hop artist, it will either be a clone of him or Eminem.
Not specific characters
- Trivia.Of Mice And Men: You'll probably notice how popular the small, smart guy / big, strong doofus dynamic got after this novel. Talking about the character's dynamics and not the character themselves.
- Devilman: The premise of the manga, that of a loser protagonist in a world inhabited by monsters, who finds himself turned into some unusual kind of hybrid and uses this condition to fight the rest of monsters, often in partnership with some kind of association related to the topic, is still consistently homaged half a century after the manga's release. Inspired a story premise rather than a character.
- Trivia.The Angry Video Game Nerd: Since James kicked off the whole "angry video game reviewer" trend, dozens if not hundreds of people attempted to follow in his footsteps. The fad died out around 2010 when online game review shows became less about swearing and Toilet Humour and more about reviewing the game more thoroughly. Inspired a reviewing style/format rather than character.
- Trivia.Lenny Bruce: So, so much. George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks and so many more would not have become what they did without Lenny Bruce breaking down the door. Inspired comedy style rather than character.
- Top Ten Jingle: The songs haven't quite made it to the radio, but they're incredibly popular, especially as fuel for reworded versions and other fanwork Songs that are parodied a lot.
- Music.Ronnie Spector: Sported it all the way until her death, though in fairness, she was wearing big hair before it was cool. Her hairstyle became a trend?
ZCE/PCE
- Wolverine Wannabe: His immense Popularity Power ended up laying the groundwork for many superhero tropes, with some works going further and basing whole characters off him.
- Wrestling.CAW Leagues: Danny Jackpot.
- Trivia.Jim Fullington: For hardcore wrestlers, at that.
- Trivia.Dooly The Little Dinosaur: Dooly is one of the most popular characters in Korea. Only states that character is popular, with no mention of the character's influence.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED ZAFT: Relena Darlian, Lacus's source character, was also inspired by Hepburn.
- Actual Pacifist: Relena Darlian / Peacecraft from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (technically the source character for the aforementioned Marina)
Unclear
- Trivia.Breakfast At Tiffanys: Any "hip" store is likely to have a poster or a painting of Holly alongside those of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, etc.
- ShapedLikeItself.Real Life: Boaty McBoatface
, a name suggested for a polar research ship in an online naming poll, describes well the ship's most iconic feature in a lighthearted piece of self-referential humor, and to this day has anchored itself firmly in the internet culture, creating a Fountain of Expies to accentuate this very trait of the things they name. I'm not sure what this is trying to say. What's being copied here?
Misuse
- Creator.Alice Soft: They do this to themselves. Several character designs and personalities have been recycled in other games. This probably should be on Reused Character Design instead of this trope.
- Trivia.Ruby Quest: All of Ruby Quest's characters are based on/named after characters from Animal Crossing. This is just Shout-Out, or Whole Cast Reference.
In-Universe example
- Characters.Durarara Izaya Orihara: In-universe. Izaya's manipulative ways and distinct personality have inspired multiple people to emulate him for various reasons. However, his copycats tend to do a poor job, with Kuon in particular failing to effectively imitate him due to lacking Izaya's love for humans, causing him to fixate on specific outcomes for his plans in a way Izaya did not. Copycat criminals.
- Characters.Dragon Ball Frieza: In-Universe, as other members of his small race (all of whom bar Cold have similar personalities, abilities, and, in the Japanese anime, the same voice actor) are often confused for him and play his role in later arcs. Bardock thought Chilled was Freeza, Goku thought Cooler was Freeza, and Vegeta calls Frost U6's Freeza. A race of beings all have the same appearances and are mistaken for one another.
Unsortable (Indices, Subtropes/Supertropes, etc.)
- This Index Is Copypasted: There are a whole bunch of characters who are imitations of this specific fictional character.
- Stock Shout-Outs
- Fanfic.Smorgasboard: At first glance, it just seems like a low quality member of Storyshift's Fountain of Expies with the creator not taking it seriously.
- Captain Ersatz: For common types of Captain Ersatzes, see Fountain of Expies.
- Jack the Ripoff: No, this is not a page about expies of Jack the Ripper.
- Bruce Lee Clone
- Char Clone: A Char Clone is a character who is based on Char Aznable from the Gundam franchise, a Fountain of Expies
