Fanfiction is a popular medium, and thanks to the nature of Sturgeon's Law, some of it can indeed be quite good to read.
And some of that fanfiction may actually become so interesting to some readers, that those readers are inspired to write fanfiction based on those stories, despite the fact (or perhaps because of it, in some cases) that the original story is fanfiction in and of itself
This is Recursive Fanfiction.
Care should be taken with this trope, as the story that said fanfic is based on must be a fanfiction as well. If the fiction that it is based on is not itself based on another work of fiction, then thats a normal Fan Fic, and not this trope.
Or, schematically:
Original fiction → regular fanfiction → Recursive Fanfiction → still Recursive Fanfiction, but of a higher (deeper?) level.
The reaction of the author of the original Fan Fic tends to vary. Responses may range:
- At one extreme, they may outright encourage it, and even adopt some or all of it into the canon of their own continuity (creating a shared Fan Verse).
- They may have a positive reaction, but without "adopting" the new material.
- They may give it ambivalent acknowledgement or ignore it entirely.
- They may express a polite distaste or criticism of the new material.
- At the other extreme, they may, quite ironically, get upset at people for "stealing" their ideas.
- If it's Rule 34 or Squick, that's another story.
Recurring Fanon Character is when this happens to an individual character rather than an entire story. Not to be confused with Meta Fic.
Examples:
Series with their own pages:
- Neon Genesis Evangelion:
- A Crown of Stars: This fanfic is the authorized sequel to "A Throne Of Bayonets"
. After reading that fanfic Strypgia felt that Shinji and Asuka deserved a happier ending, so he asked the author of "A Throne Of Bayonets" permission to continue his story.
- Dreaming of Sunshine has a single sidestories by the same author and a lot of fanfics written by fans. There is a community in ffnet dedicated to collect the side stories.
- The Second Try and Aki-chan's Life have a fancomic based on it.
- Nobody Dies has several sidestories written by both the author and others, including Six AIs, One Continent and The Kei Files.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion R has Evangelion: Redemption
.
- A Crown of Stars: This fanfic is the authorized sequel to "A Throne Of Bayonets"
- Naruto:
- The One I Love Is...: Several fans wrote a bunch of side-stories, parodies, and even an authorized sequel.
- An Animated Adaptation of part of the Naruto comic Konoha High School has been produced. It also has some fanart.
- Haruhi Suzumiya:
- Kyon: Big Damn Hero has Traveller
.
- Meet The Suzumiyas has The Observations of Damon Rizuela
, written with permission from JonBob0008.
- Kyon: Big Damn Hero has Traveller
- The Death Note fandom has at least two fanfics that inspire recursive fanfiction:
- Poison Apple
by Robin Rocks and Narroch has five: Human
, Doom
, My love
, The End
and Broken Fairytale
.
- PITCH
by uberneko-zero has two: A Different Shade of Pitch
and Lips
.
- True Elision
very recently inspired a Kink Meme fill: The End
which in turn got its own sequel Heart
. Ironically, the first two are yaoi and the last one is Het.
- Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami has inspired several fan sequels: Returning of D'ark
, Light and Dark DEUX
, SAD GOODBYES
, and a Round Robin post game
.
- Poison Apple
- The Finale of the Ultimate Meta Mega Crossover
technically counts, since it contains references to at least four different fanworks (RE-TAKE, Thousand Shinji, Shinji And Warhammer 40 K, and Once More with Feeling). However, it's more notable for being infinitely self recursive.
- Shadow League
is a fanfic based off the infamous Dark Fic Pokémon Master, amongst countless others.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers:
- Say what you will about the infamous Hetalia: Axis Powers "Economic Crisis Gangbang" Kink Meme fill and its content, but it proved popular enough to spawn a plethora of spinoffs about America's PTSD after the event, what would have happened if the other nations had mistaken Canada for America or if America had actually put his Super Strength to good use or chewed out the other nations for their heartlessness, a consensual or at least less disturbing version of it, etc.
- The Tear Jerker ending of the US/UK Doujin Silencer affected some readers enough to write/draw Fix Fic for it.
- The infamous Gorn fic Debt has a recursive parody fanfic written by its own authors, in which the first chapter is rewritten as a cosplay game Gone Horribly Wrong in which the China cosplayer turns out to be a psychopath and breaks out the knives. Taking this as an implication that the writers wouldn't mind it being parodied (particularly since they expressed pride that the original Debt nearly ended up on the So Bad, It's Horrible page, back when it had a section for Fanfic), someone made a fanart piece
depicting China confronting his replacement (not work safe for swearing, blood, and suggested extreme violence).
- Not to mention all the fanfics on what the ending could've been for Heta Oni...
- Human Curiosity has a prequel fic, What Curiosity Brings, which is being written with permission by the original fanfiction's author.
- Dungeon Keeper Ami has spawned several of these (though most of them are short one-shots), and there's Dungeon Keeper of Love and Justice, an AU fanfic.
- In Flight has spawned several spin-offs, most notably The Emiya Clan.
- The Dirty Pair fanfic I Am One
by Sean Gaffney is a followup to Larry Mann's influential story Experiment 101-E
. (The story covers the same basic ground as the sequel Mann co-wrote with Ryan Matthews, Reunions
, but goes in a different direction.) Gaffney's sequel to I Am One, Won't Get Fooled Again
, raises the stakes on this trope by including several other authors' Dirty Pair original characters as cameos (along with the multiple crossover characters).
- Boy Scouts ½ is a Ranma ½ Elsewhere Fic centering on a group of Self-Insert characters from Massachusetts. When three acquaintances of the creator of Boy Scouts ½ were given cameo appearances in one story, one of those acquaintances began a Spinoff series called Perspectives.
- Game Theory served as a large inspiration for Ragazza Magica Renza Veneti
, a crossover with Puella Magi Madoka Magica, though more in the way of setting than plot.
- To the Stars, a Puella Magi Madoka Magica/Hard Sci-Fi mashup set several centuries after the end of the series, has several fanfictions based on the fic's universe, which were integrated into the story canon:
- The biggest one, Solemnis
(and its sequels, Sodales and Aevitas) set a few years before the beginning of the main fic story, following an average Magical Girl as she contracts and through her military training and first battles.
- Puppets
, a spin-off set in a rogue colony hidden from everyone decades before the main story, following a Magical Girl's journey to free her world from its tyrannical regime.
- Those Who Take The Sword
, set during WWI, involving Clarisse Von Rossum, immortal Magical Girl historian and explorer and part of the supporting cast from the main story.
- It also spawned a couple of non-canon crossover fics, such as Reaching for Eternity
(crossover with Minami-ke) or L'Effecto Magico
(crossover with Mass Effect)
- The biggest one, Solemnis
- Halkegenia Online has numerous fan-made side stories. One of them, Halkegenia Online Zero Hour has grown to be a full size fanfic in its own right, for which people are starting to write fan-made side stories.
- The Elemental Chess Trilogy has a few of these.
- Yesterday Upon The Stair, a My Hero Academia fanfiction, has inspired at least 2 works, which can be found on its Fanfic Rec page.
- Light and Dark DEUX: The New Adventures of Dark Soichiro is a sequel to Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami, which utilizes For Want of a Nail to create a new timeline where Soichiro remembers that is Dark Yagami.
- THIS IS IT!
is the title of a Lucky Star fanfic of another, long-deleted one titled Cries Unheard, detailing its antagonists' demises that lead to the flash-forward prologue with Miyuki under police interrogation by Yui but never got to play out way back then. That, however, is the only thing its author meant to resolve, albeit with some actual buildup that revolves mostly around Konata and Yutaka's liberation.
- There's a lot of unofficial Calvinverse stories out there. Among them is The Pez Dispenser and the Reign of Terror.
- The well-known How to Train Your Dragon fanfiction Hitchups got one, a oneshot based off the story with the author's permission called The Elder's Prediction.
- This occurs at times in The Lion King fandom:
- The Lion King Adventures is the most famous example, with no shortage of fan fiction being made by the fans. Even the spin-offs have fanfics.
- "Chronicles of the Pridelands" invented the character Tanabi, Simbas son. Nearly every TLK fan began using the character in their own Next Gen Fics. His popularity soon declined though, due to the release of the semi-official Six New Adventure book series, which gave Simba a different son, Kopa. The release of the second film with the arrival of Kiara made all but the oldest fans forget Tanabi.
- Joanna-TLKs fancomic
continues on from the last chapter of Savu0211s fancomic
, which by then, had almost nothing to do with the original films.
- Koda, Leah, and Asha from The Lion King: Kiara's Reign are three of the more popular Kiara and Kovu offspring characters. They have other fan-works about them.
- Kuzimu and Azola are two popular fan-characters, to the point where they're mistaken for canon by some fans. They're Zira's parents. Azola is essentially a blue-eyed, lighter furred Zira, while her mate Kuzimu is a dark furred lion. Azola is a sweet Good Parent and Kuzimu is a cruel Abusive Parent. Kuzimu's usually also presented as having killed Azola.
- Fan-artist Savu0211 is the creator of several popular fan-characters, including Azra (a Scar/Zira fan-child) and Baridi.
- ILLUMINATED is a Jane/Amelia Crossover Couple video that has led to two different novelizations: one
complete oneshot and one
unfinished Dead Fic.
- Heritage of the Wolf is a series of fan-remakes based on fanfic writer Cyberwulfe's Balto fics.
- Star Wars fanfiction author Fialleril created the Tatooine Slave Culture tag with their series The Tatooine Cycle
and Double Agent Vader, featuring unique fictional mythology and traditions of resistance. There are now many stories from several authors in this started multiverse.
- The Private Diary of Elizabeth Quatermain has some, or did at the time it was being written; at least one has since been taken down.
- The Lost in Time Series has one called Lost in Time: Destiny.
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe fanfiction series Infinite Coffee and Protection Detail is one of the highest rated MCU fanfic series on Archive of Our Own, and checking the "Works Inspired By This One" sections at the ends of the various installments will reveal that it's inspired dozens of fans to create fanfiction of the series themselves, featuring a snarky, protective Bucky Barnes who loves baking.
- Drunkard's Walk has inspired a number of fanfics, collectively known as The Drunkard's Stagger.
- Edventure Of The Thousand Year Door has As This Train Goes
, a What If? fic asking what would happen if Sarah was the legendary hero and if Edd and the others weren't charged of collecting the Crystal Stars. Sadly, it's a Dead Fic.
- Roommates: This Mega Crossover Fan Webcomic has a whole Expanded Universe worth of fanfiction based on it called the Buildingverse. With five separate spin-offs (Girls Next Door, Down the Street, Superintendent, Meanwhile Upstairs and Only A Dream) having trope pages and if we wanted to be perfectly precise Down the Street is a Girls Next Door fancomic.
- To make things even more complicated a lot of these works add even more Crossovers or take characters / concepts from yet other fanfiction creating a Tangled Family Tree that rivals the magical people'snote .
- And then there's the fact that Roommates sometimes uses ideas and OCs from Girls Next Door (and its other spin-offs), to the point where they could almost be considered fanfics for each other.
- To make it "clearer" a flowchart of the relationship between the three main troped ones (misses Meanwhile Upstairs and Only A Dream also adding all would be bad for sanity) and the world here
◊. Block arrow main relationship, normal arrow other influence / ascended fannon / etc..
- The Thor/Being Human fanfiction series, Housemates, has a few spin-offs. The first is Clean: a Housemates series story
by flutterflap
, is a rewrite Series 2 of Being Human in the "Housemates universe". Another is the one-shot The Morning After
by Mikkeneko
.
- Project Bluefield: The Fire Emblem Fates: Devastation stories are set in an Alternate Continuity of fellow writer The Apocryphal One's Unexplored Chronicles series—specifically, The Invisible Princess and The Lost King. (Project Bluefield's Word of God says that Fire Emblem Fates: Aftermath may not occur—certainly not in the same way as the original.) Apocrypha's Unexplored Chronicles are in turn fanfiction of Fire Emblem Fates.
- The Maribat AU created by ozmav inspired many spinoffs and A Us based on this fic. This basically started and shaped the Damien (Robin) x Marinette (Ladybug) ship.
- The DC Universe/RWBY fanfic Hunters of Justice ended up inspiring the fanfic Remnant's Mightiest Heroes, which features a similar premise: a comic book villain attacks Remnant, and teams RWBY and JNPR end up on Earth and meeting a team of superheroes—only with the Marvel Universe instead of DC, so Brainiac's role as the one attacking Remnant and the Justice League of America's role as the first superheroes to meet RWBY and JNPR are respectively replaced with Kang the Conqueror and The Avengers.
- The Infinite Loops. It started as a collection of fanfics from Innortal revolving around seven fandoms (Ranma ½, Bleach, Harry Potter, Slayers, Naruto, Sailor Moon and Neon Genesis Evangelion). Now, it's a massive project on SpaceBattles.com with dozens upon dozens of authors, and featuring an insane amount of fandoms; from My Little Pony to Warhammer 40,000, from 1984 to Homestuck, from the Marvel Universe to Goat Simulator. Innortal has expressed his approval.
- In addition, The Infinite Loops has the possibility of loopers appearing in fanfic settings as one of its rules. For example, the Ree from Nobody Dies is looping, and The Conversion Bureau is a common MLP loops setting.
- Boldores And Boomsticks has accumulated a few series of omake that tell their own stories.
- Lazy Beacon Days
, where another version of Team RWBY comes across and reads a book containing the story, and reacts to both their counterparts' actions, and the things revealed about each other. Blake got the book for free from a bookstore run by Anna.
- Meanwhile in Mantle
, an Apocryphal story about a Leavanny, Petlil, Audino, and Elesa's Emolga that end up on Remnant and fall in with Robyn Hill and her Happy Huntresses.
- You Teach Me and I'll Teach You
is another apocryphal story set after communication and travel between Earth and Remnant has been established. It sees Weiss send Whitley on his own journey to let him grow away from Jacques.
- Lazy Beacon Days
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality has not only inspired its own fanfics, such as Once Upon a Tower and Nightmares of Azkaban, but "Rational" fics have become a kind of sub-genre. The epilog was purposely delayed a year to allow sequel fics time to get established, and examples like Ginny Weasley and the Sealed Intelligence
started popping up in less than a week.
- The most famous Rational fic beside Methods, Luminosity, has spawned several fan short stories.
- Following the Phoenix, a fan AU of Methods of Rationality, has in turn a fan sequel Squiring the Phoenix.
- The large Harry Potter projects The Shoebox Project, Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness and the Dangerverse have their own fanfic.
- All the sequels or rewrites to the infamous My Immortal.
- Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past has inspired G for Ginevra
and A Night at the Burrow
.
- The Harry Potter fanfic Make a Wish
was the inspiration for Terminal Justice
.
- Harry Potter AU The Rigel Black Chronicles has inspired multiple "gift exchanges" of authors writing spinoff stories for each other, some very short, and others approximately as long as the original series (eg the Revolutionary Arc
. The Archive of Our Own tag "Inspired by The Rigel Black Chronicles"
has over 150 stories.
- The Worm fanfic Internship
spawned the fic of the fic Deputy
which has now spawned the fic of the fic of the fic Aegis Must Die
, as well as the truly dizzying Emissary: A Deputy Recursive Crossover
, which crosses the Taylor from "Deputy Commander" with canon Worm.
- crawlersout: Two, both Harry/Grindelwald, with Grindelwald's POV. One is by the original author, called begin again
. The other is by Tsume Yuki
, called Fineshine
.
- The Fate Changed Now What?
was inspired by Fate's Favourite
, a Harry/Tom Riddle fic.
- Kaleidoscope of Magic: Machinations of Time
is a spinoff of Harry Potter fic Kaleidoscope of Magic
.
- Warrior Cats:
- The Troll Fic StarKitsProphcy has numerous reaction fics, fix fics, and parodies. It even has a few animated and comic adaptations.
- Cabinet Man [COMPLETE Evil!Spottedleaf MAP]'s popularity led to a parody MAP
with a Minecraft theme.
- Harry Potter Becomes A Communist features brief crossover appearances by rationalist!Quirrell, Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, and Rhysenn Malfoy. All are portrayed as "bourgeois" enemies, and killed off after about ten chapters.
- Goldstein has Goldstein: Shanah Bet
, featuring a few vignettes leading up to Yehudah's bar mitzvah.
- The Les Misérables fanfic Paris Burning became the seed of its own fictional universe with numerous contributors.
- There are quite a few stories written by authors other than the original CP Coulter that use original characters from the Glee fanfic Dalton.
- The Harmon Verse, a series of Glee fanfics centred around the Original Character of Jack Harmon. It includes four ongoing novelizations of Glee and over 40 stories altogether.
- The Contract has ended up spawning a number of other fanfics, forming a world known as the Contractverse. They include:
- Lifeline
, a companion piece to The Contract.
- Exigencies
, a Continuation Fic for The Contract.
- Recovery
, Where the Rails Converge
, and A Gentle Knock at the Door
, all separate sequels to Exigencies.
- PATIENT
, a sequel to A Gentle Knock At The Door.
- Creepy Pencil Story
, a short "What-If" story,
- Pencils are Dangerous
, a sequel series to Creepy Pencil Story.
- The Kindness of Strangers
, a oneshot addition to Pencils are Dangerous.
- Lifeline
- Two Two One Bravo Baker
, a military AU of the Sherlock universe, has spawned its own works of fanart and fanfic.
- The Mighty Boosh fandom has several rather famous fanfictions, notably Stockholm Syndrome, that were so popular that they spawned countless fanfictions based on it from other authors. The number of fanfictions and fanarts based on Stockholm Syndrome ballooned after it was revealed Noel Fielding himself was a fan of the fanfiction and inserted references to it into a live performance.
- DianeCastle's
The Secret Return of Alex Mack has spawned fifteen recursive fanfics, thanks in part to its epic length and regular updates, including two heartfelt tributes to Pyre after her Heroic Sacrifice in chapter 219.
- There are so many now that it has spawned the so-called "Teraverse," named after Alex's superhero secret identity Terawatt. A quick search on TTH
now gives 49 results. Two or three of these are by the original author, but everything else is fanfic of fanfic. There's more to be found on other sites as well.
- There are so many now that it has spawned the so-called "Teraverse," named after Alex's superhero secret identity Terawatt. A quick search on TTH
- There are multiple fanfics based around Act 1 and The father of Death by The Protomen. Which themselves are a set of two Dark Alternate Universe Fics based on the original Mega Man game.
- Lunarstar from Worlds Apart is one of the most popular pre-Friendship is Magic Winged Unicorn characters. She has received a lot of recursive fanart.
- There's been at least one doujin based on PatchCon! Defend the Library!.
- People seems to like the concept of Advent Cirno a lot, and there are a lot of fanarts of it in Pixiv.
- In fact, many Touhou Project doujins use personality quirks ascribed/invented/Flanderized by previous authors (such as Sakuya's A-Cup Angst, Aya's paparazzi behavior, Cirno's idiocy, etc.) that have no basis in canon, due in part to the lack of Character Development in the official games and Word of God that comes out years later people are used to the fanon personalities. For example, most doujin portray Keine as teaching human and youkai children alike despite it being official that she doesn't like youkai. Similarly, Momiji is often shown as Aya's long-suffering subordinate when they actually don't like each other very much.
- Pokémon:
- Poké Wars has spawned at least twelve fics based on Cornova's world.
- There have been multiple fanfics written based on Black Adventures.
- And a huge community based on Pokéumans, with literally hundreds of members.
- The infamous Portal fic ITS MY LIFE! has at least several. It doesn't help that one of the authors of those fics largely drew elements from another shared universe based on Portal, namely the Portal: The 4th Millennium franchise.
- Kynrind's Capture
is one based on the Porn with Plot Warcraft fic, Ethereum Gladiator.
- Subverted with Morphic, where a new author was supposedly going to write his own sequel to the original fic... only it turns out the whole thing was planned out ahead of time by the original author as part of an elaborate April Fool's prank.
- The Oolite project is a Fan Remake of Elite, so all Oolite fan works are essentially Elite fan works by proxy. Additionally, the game is also highly moddable; well-received Oolite Expansion Packs inspire authors to incorporate their features into their fics, and new ideas from fanfic writers in turn inspire new OXPS. Furthermore, developers and community regulars frequently include versions of one another's in-game personas in their own fan works.
- Dragon Age fandom has spawned Feynite
, an author whose work seems to inspire a significant amount of this.
- This is extremely prominent in Undertale fandom, which has not only a Fan Verse, but an expansive fan multiverse. Among the fanworks there is an endless tangle of Alternate Universe Fic, where there are more popular AUs than most fandoms get total AUs, and there are several AUs of AUs; for example, Flowerfell, an alternate universe of the preexisting AU Underfell, gave rise to the fanfic Overgrowth
, which itself spawned several more fics. There are also mashups of AUs, such as Swapfell, which combines the Darker and Edgier Underfell AU with the role-swapped Underswap AU. To go with all that, there are many fanfics where different versions of the characters from assorted AUs interact.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- This occasionally happens to very popular OCs and especially fan-children. For example, one artist created a Boom-verse Sonic/Amy daughter named Aurora which has received fanart and fanfics from others. It's especially impressive considering the... infamous reputation of Sonic Original Characters, even on the website where they are popular.
- A half-example of this is the Custom Hero feature from Sonic Forces. It's technically an official character who you can design to be any character you want, hence the half-example bit, but the template design of a red wolf is so popular that people are drawing it in spades, and asking SEGA to make him an actual character in and of his own right.
- Someone created a design for Shadow the Hedgehog's long-dead sister-figure Maria Robotnik as a hedgehog. Since then, Maria the Hedgehog is a mainstay of Sonic fanworks. Try to find Maria fanart or even fanfics, and you'll undeniably find Maria the Hedgehog fanworks too. Some have an Excuse Plot of "What if Maria was reincarnated or resurrected as a hedgehog?" while others just make her a hedgehog just because.
- The most current one of these comes from Sonic Mania. The boss fight of the remade Flying Battery Zone, a spider, has Eggman hung upside down within the machine. An artist by the username of Alpha Gamboa, however, saw something else entirely and created an image of what they saw. Meet Eggette (or Omelette, if you prefer)
, a fan character who is essentially to Eggman what Bowser Jr is to Bowser, and has become so popular that fan art, videos and even custom boss themes have been made for her. Not bad for a comical misinterpretation of an upside-down sprite.
- Similar to with Maria, a fan-design for Elise as a Funny Animal was created. Almost all Sonic/Elise fanart uses it instead of Elise's canon human design.
- This occasionally happens to very popular OCs and especially fan-children. For example, one artist created a Boom-verse Sonic/Amy daughter named Aurora which has received fanart and fanfics from others. It's especially impressive considering the... infamous reputation of Sonic Original Characters, even on the website where they are popular.
- Quarter-Life: Halfway To Destruction has QuarterLife: Origin of Doom
, which also ties it into Half-Life: Full Life Consequences. Notable in that it explains a number of random occurrences in the first fic, explaining the origin of the headcrab officer, the wepon John Freeman finds in Ravenholdm, who wrote "u sudnt come here" on the sign, the origins of the zombie goasts, and even goes so far as to explain where the Combine hug tower at the end of the saga comes from.' Now in machinima form
by PKMNEmerald.
- The Crown Atomic is a fan fiction written for the Game Mod Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg, specifically a version of the mod ported over to Darkest Hour, which itself started life as a fan-made overhaul of Hearts of Iron II. In other words, this is a fan work of a fan work of a fan work — four layers deep.
- Link and Mipha's triplets from Offspring have some fanart based off of them.
- The fan game Danganronpa Another and its sequel Super Danganronpa Another 2 have spawned quite a few fan works of their own, including the ongoing Nextgenronpa, which stars the children of several members of the cast.
- Beyond Skyrim, a massive multi-team Game Mod project for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, have always cited Tamriel Rebuilt, a similarly ambitious modding project for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind as one of its main inspirations. In the case of Beyond Skyrim's own Morrowind project, the close relationship between the two projects are taken it a bit further, as the team have stated that they will at least partially share their in-house lore with Tamriel Rebuild's team.
- Homestuck out the wastechute. Fans will create alternate universes, the alternate universes will become popular, people will write fanfics set in the alternative universes... and then there's the fanart of alternative universes.
- The Grand Battle is the most notorious in having fanart and other fan stuff based on itself.
- There is genderbent fanart of a cosplay of a fanart of a memetic guy who randomly got into a picture of cosplay.
- Unwanted Free Ugly Troll gets one in Loophole.
- The greater Replay Value Universe currently includes at least one roleplay that draws from a roleplaying-game handbook, which itself was written as a recap of the original freeform roleplay, which in turn is based on Sburb Glitch FAQ. The author of the Glitch FAQ was apparently so intimidated by the size of his accidental subfandom that he evaporated.
- Girls Next Door to Roommates
- There is a whole community
of people writing fanfiction based on Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series.
- Vaguely Recalling JoJo
- Much, if not most, of the fanworks surrounding Don't Hug Me I'm Scared are based on a particular piece of fanart depicting the Clock and the Notepad in humanoid form, and center around their flanderized fanon personalities, which really have nothing much to do with the original videos.
- A Scotsman in Egypt (a Total War campaign where Scotland takes over the world) has a prequel by a different author in which Egyptian refugees make their new home in Scotland.
- Adventure Time has an In-Universe example. Ice King wrote a Rule 63 fanfic of the show, in the episode "Fionna and Cake." The episode "Bad Little Boy" has Marceline then writing her own continuation of it, followed by LSP in "The Prince Who Wanted Everything". Taken to its logical conclusion in "Five Short Tables". At the end of the episode the Ice Queen, Ice King's Author Avatar, tells how the Ice President is orating a fanfic to Flynn and Jacques about Lynn the Person's adventures. That's at least four layers of story right there.
- Danny Phantom has some of these, which are often Dark Fic. These include, among others, assorted variations on "ghost hunger" (an idea which started with a series of fanfics called "Ghosts Must Dine"), and several stories based on Lab Rat (including a crossover where Dr. House patches up Danny after the fact).
- Daria:
- The fanfic God Save the Esteem has spawned a prequel, Moving Pictures, as well as numerous other stories up to and including the obligatory lesbian Slash Fic. Subverted as they both started being written at around the same time, so it's more likely that it's two different, but similar series that ended up sharing their continuity.
- The Daria fandom also has a lot of Original Characters who pop up in other people's stories, even if the fanfics aren't supposed to share continuity; usually their creators give the green light for their use, or they're included as an in-joke. Popular ones include Veronica, a hypothetical third Morgendorffer sister, and Danielle Todds, a female lover interest for Quinn if you don't want to use a canon character.
- The Kim Possible fanfic A Small Possibility, with the author's given permission, has spawned many a Kim/Shego fanfic featuring their spawn from the original, Kasy Ann and Sheki Go.
- The fanfic Strays, hosted in the Young Justice Kink Meme, has several future-fics set to it and attached its thread despite the story still being in its early stages and in the process of being fleshed out. There is also fanart for it, featuring the costume designs for the Batkids' new hero identities.
- This
Superjail! one-shot fic is actually a sequel/epilogue to Fix You
, written with the original author's given permission of course.
- Et Mundus Eos
is a sequel to Extended Stay, written with the original author's consent.
- Et Mundus Eos
- Phineas and Ferb fandom has a Next-Gen Fic pairing for which many people have taken to writing fanfic, Thomas Fletcher (son of Ferb and Vanessa) and Marie Garcia-Shapiro Flynn (daughter of Phineas and Isabella). They have their own Portmanteau Couple Name (Thomarie) and a ton of art for them on DeviantArt. There's even artwork of them signed by the Latin-American voice actors for the show.
- In the Goof Troop fandom, there are several stories based on one fan's extensive mythos surrounding an Alternative Character Interpretation of Bradley Uppercrust's backstory (specifically one that makes him a Jerkass Woobie); Turning Back Time
and Vying For Your Affection
are stories that seem to be better-known than anything the original author did.
- Gravity Falls has the "Reverse Falls AU". What started as just a What If? has turned into dozens of fanfics, fanarts, and fanvids. The concept revolves around a role reversal where the Pine twins are in Gideon's role, while Gideon and Pacifica trade places with Dipper and Mabel.
- The Misfits Series, a Fusion Fic of X-Men: Evolution and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, has inspired many spin-offs, some of which crossover with other series.
- Universe Falls, a Fusion Fic of Gravity Falls and Steven Universe, has inspired a few fanfics of its own, based on fan AUs from both franchises, such as Reverse Pines/Steven Diamond, Gravity Rises/Momswap, or the original author's own "UF Swap" alternate universe where Steven is a normal kid and Dipper and Mabel are the human/gem hybrids.
- Shadow of the Guardian by Conveyus-Prime is based on Shebakoby's Fan Fic, notably Prisoner of Destiny and The Big Capture of 1999-2006, and it has become a shared Fan Verse.
- This has happened a number of times in the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers fandom.
- Rachel's Caretaker
is a sequel to Matt Plotecher's movie script Somemouse to Watch Over Me
.
- The instant popularity of The Nowakverse and its main original character, starting with Under the Bridge already, has led to a whole number of fics by different authors set in the same universe.
- The J.A.M. liked The Enduring Man-Child's Consummation
, itself a sequel to the same author's Home Is Where You Hang Upside Down
, so much that he wrote a tangent with two alternative endings
and a highly-acclaimed sequel to each of these, Death of a Comedian
and I Dream of the New Ranger
.
- The Midnightverse got one big fan named RR-Crusader who not only joined the forum where it was posted to tell the author how much he liked it, but even wrote a fic in the same universe, Knight Rangers, a Crossover with Knight Rider.
- Midnight Man himself included the two main original characters from BOC42's Closer Than a Brother
in the Dinner for One parody Dinner For One Mouse
. From the idea to getting BOC42's consent to publishing the finished work, this project took only a few hours on New Year's Eve, 2006.
- Rachel's Caretaker
- Super Edventure Tale of the Prognosticus
(created by the author of Ed Abuse) is advertised as a sequel to Edventure Of The Thousand Year Door. The author claims that he created this fanfic in support of the original, and is not claiming to steal anything. He even claims that if the author of the original asks for him to take the story down, he would do so. So far, nothing's happened.
- Cat-Ra: Prank Buddies
is a side-story for the She-Ra and the Princesses of Power AU fic Cat-Ra
, taking place during the latter's second season. The writer was a reviewer who wanted to see a story in which Catra and Frosta bond over their shared love of pranking, as the fic only mentions the duo doing so in passing; the original author liked the idea and suggested they write it themselves.
- An Ideal Gift is centered around Irrilia, a popular fanmade Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) character created by Myrling
.
- In the Grand Finale "Graduation, Part 2", Warhok intending to mount Kim Possible as a trophy for Warmonnga. This inspired a fanart
of Kim's head mounted on Warmonga's wall. Which itself inspired this fanfic For the Pride of Lorwardia
, which birthed a few fanfics involving Kim becoming a Lorwardian trophy, usually by Public Execution. Notable stories are Midnight Savior, Nightmare, and Dead Man Switch.