An Expy (short for "exported character") is a character from one series who is unambiguously and deliberately based on a character in another, older series. A few minor traits may change, such as age or hair color, but there's no doubt that they are almost one and the same. The two characters must be substantially similar and it must be clear that the creator intended to imitate the pre-existing character.
Note that you cannot have an Expy of a Real Life person. That would be No Celebrities Were Harmed or No Historical Figures Were Harmed, instead. Or Fictional Counterpart, if you broaden beyond just characters. An Expy is always a fictional character that was intentionally based on another fictional character, with minimal changes. Countries, companies, and other concepts cannot be an Expy because they aren't a character (well, usually).
Some creators reuse/imitate pre-existing characters because they really enjoying a certain combination of character archetypes. They like it so much that we have a number of more specific flavours of this effect:
[index]
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Two or more creators (typically rival companies) have the "same" character in ongoing stories. While one may have debuted earlier, there's so much mutual borrowing that they managed the impossible task of becoming Expies of one another. This only happens when both characters are in ongoing storylines that are published around the same time.
- Captain Ersatz: The copy isn't just inspired by the original, it's a Pastiche; there are multiple elements that reference the original version. They may even be visually identical. Most Parody Expies go here.
- Cast of Expies: At least half of the main characters are copies of characters from other works. This usually only occurs with Ensemble casts.
- Corrupted Character Copy: A character is substantially similar to a pre-existing character from another work, except they are eviler/meaner than the original.
- Virtuous Character Copy: A character is substantially similar to a pre-existing character from another work, except they are more heroic/nicer than the original.
- Distaff Counterpart: The pre-existing character is male, and the imitation is female. The reversal of this, where the original is female and the copy is male, is called Spear Counterpart and is also listed on the article. This often overlaps with Expy Coexistence.
- Expy Coexistence: An Expy and the character (including a fictionalized real person) that they're based on both exist in the same Canon.
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Copy Cat Sue: When a Mary Sue character is a Canon Sue, but the canon character is still around to interact with. Because this trope is labeled Flame Bait, we do not have examples. - Similar Squad: An Ensemble of characters that are based on another, pre-existing, ensemble within the same story. Typically this will involve the duplicates meeting one another, but not always.
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- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: An Expy with only a brief appearance in the work.
- Overused Copycat Character: There are so many Expies that this one is commenting on the phenomenon.
- Spiritual Crossover: Two intellectual properties "crossover", except that at least one of the properties is made of Expies instead of the actual characters.
Expies are always a deliberate attempt to reuse a character on the part of the author; superficial or random coincidental similarities (even very striking ones) do not qualify. Merely sharing some traits or being "inspired by" isn't enough to make two characters with the same archetypes the same character. Many trope-based characterizations that compose characters are universal, making it easy for readers to fall into the assumption that a particular character, who shares a few archetypes with another from their favorite show or novel, might be an intentional reference. Especially when Small Reference Pools lead readers to overestimate the cultural impact of their favorite characters. One character can be a reference or inspired by many other characters/people, but cannot be an intentional copy of more than one. If a character borrows traits from multiple other characters, then the influence of each source of inspiration is diluted to the point where it doesn't count as this trope anymore.
Compare to Fountain of Expies (trivia about the original character; they've spawned dozens of imitations), Mirror Character (two characters who are identical in most respects, but opposite in one or more significant details), Spiritual Successor (when the entire work is copying a pre-existing work), Suspiciously Similar Substitute and Temporary Substitute (new or existing characters replace a pre-existing character's role; the Substitute may not even be an Expy), as well as Transplanted Character Fic (basically Cast of Expies for fanfiction).
Contrast In Name Only (where the minor details are the only similarity between the two characters/story that are supposed to be the same), and Writing Around Trademarks (where a character was unintentionally similar to a pre-existing character, causing last-minute changes to emphasize that they aren't the same character).
Not to be confused with gaming XP, nor Windows XP. Perhaps you would like to Write an Expy?
