An expy is an unambiguous and deliberate copy of another, older character."
Note the word "another" and the words "unambiguous", "deliberate", and "copy". Those are the important words.
Here's your checklist:
- "Unambiguous": There is no doubt, there is no room for arguing that they aren't.
- "Deliberate": Done with intent.
- The resemblance is not accidental or coincidental. (For instance, being played by the same voice actor/actress is not sufficient to make an expy. Neither is a similar art style when they're both drawn by the same artist.)
- Word of God helps a lot with this point, but if the other points are present strongly enough, Word of God is not absolutely required.
- "Copy": A duplicate, an item made in imitation of another one.
- The expy came after the character they're an expy of. If they both were created at about the same time, it probably isn't an expy.
- The older character is never the expy, even if the other, later character is better known.
- Superficial traits (like a hairstyle, choice in clothing, preferred fighting method) are not sufficient to make an expy; the copy needs to also fill the same role in the work and serve the same purpose within the story.
- Major traits or characteristics being very different between the two characters is enough to make a character not an expy (for instance, the original is a demure Girl Next Door, the proposed Expy is a FemmeFatale — not an expy)
- "Another": One other. Note the singular. It doesn't say "several". If the proposed expy combines traits, characteristics, or features of two or more other characters, they are not an expy of any of them.
If an entry fails to meet even one of those criteria, it is not an expy and should be removed.. Actual expies are nowhere near as common as many editors think.
If you want to link to this post in your edit reason, please do.
Here's the link to copy and paste: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13983140170A37263400&page=1#5
edited 27th Mar '15 6:53:01 AM by Madrugada
- The Sixers sure sound a whole awful lot like The Others.
- Also, who wasn't secretly hoping that Stephen Lang's speech to the newcomers would start with, "You're not in Kansas anymore! You are on Terra Nova!"
- And the Slashers are essentially Jurassic Park Velociraptors, except they look different.
- The Shannon family has been likened to The Simpsons.
- Most of the fictional dinosaurs are expies of real dinosaurs:
- Nykoraptor: Velociraptor
- Empirosaur: Spinosaurus
- Slasher: Velociraptor again, as mentioned above, though of the fictionalized Jurassic Park variety.
- Ovosaur: Ornitholestes (or some other small, primitive coelurosaur).
- And the Ancestral Komodo Dragon, although not a dinosaur, is an expy of Dilophosaurus and Dimetrodon.
The Avatar and Simpsons ones seem too general. Not sure about the others.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Expies can only be characters, so cut everything related to the dinosaurs.
Actually, everything can get axed for being ZCE. The first is using weasel words to justify the maybe connection, the second is a rhetorical question — which is not an example, third is not a character and also straight up admits they look different which is a disqualification, fourth is too general, and fifth is also not characters, expies cannot be copies of RL "characters", and is a ZCE list.
CSP Cleanup Thread | All that I ask for ... is diamonds and dance floors
She / Her
If enough context exits, I'd give the Jurassic Park dinos their own Expy entry. Otherwise, I recommend cutting all other Expy entries.
EDIT: I fixed an issue with the wording.
Edited by RandomTroper123 on Jul 25th 2022 at 10:55:47 AM
I haven't seen the show since it aired, so I'm not sure.
I have an entry that I'm not sure about. This is in Live A Live - The Seven Heroes under the "Akira Tadokoro" folder:
- Expy: Of many super robot protagonists from the 70's, but mostly Kouji Kabuto with his Hot-Blooded nature, spiky hairdo, his (possible) perverted tendencies, the Buriki Daioh's resemblance to Mazinger Z and sharing a voice actor in the remake.
- He's also one to both Shotaro and Akira from AKIRA, with both Akiras being psychic youths with the same name, and he and Shotaro who fight against an authoritarian government in a cyberpunk setting and both being based on famous mecha protagonists.
- Of Koichi Yamano, aka Babel II, being a psychic youth who activates an ancient robot of Babylonian origin.
My understanding is that a character can only be an expy to a single character, so some of the bullet points will probably need to go. It also feels like a lot of these are more along the lines of the "has similarities, therefore expy" way of thinking.
At the very least, the "of many super robot protagonists from the 70's" probably needs to go, as that reads more like the character being an homage to a certain character archetype instead of an expy.
Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jul 26th 2022 at 9:36:16 AM
the Retromancer
The AKIRA one definitely needs to go, there are so many things wrong here, including factual. The other two probably as well if they can be condensed to "psyker mecha pilot homage".
Found this on Heizou's profile on Characters.Genshin Impact Inazuma.
- Expy: Its really difficult not to compare Heizou with the well known protagonist of Case Closed. His Windmuster Kick is even an Anemo energy ball that is literally kicked by Heizou at enemies.
Ok, as someone who hasn't watched or read Case Closed, I can tell after reading the work page from a cursory glance that Heizou is nothing like Conan Edogawa. The only similarities between the two is that they're detectives who fight crime, and that's it. Heizou is a fighter who wields Anemo powers while Conan... doesn't really have much in the way of notable abilities beyond Sherlock Scan and is an Almighty Janitor. Even though miHoYo is well-known for adding a lot of references to Genshin Impact, even I think this is a stretch. Should I remove?
Edited by CytoZytokine on Aug 4th 2022 at 8:58:28 AM
Sounds like a cut. As someone also unfamiliar with Case Closed, I have no idea how the Anemo energy ball thing relates to him being an expy. He literally kicks them at his enemies... as opposed to figuratively kicking energy balls? I don't get it. So not only does it fail the expy test, it also fails the context test.
Removed. Thanks.
From Reign of the Seven Spellblades:
- Expy: The author has definitely read Harry Potter:
- Katie is similar to Hermione with her long curly brown hair and activism for non-humans. Though in a case of Decomposite Character, Pete Reston got Hermione's bookworm tendencies and being a Mage Born of Muggles.
- Darius Grenville is similar to Snape in both looks and antagonism towards the protagonists.
- Richard Andrews has some similarities to Malfoy, as he is from a noble family and develops a rivalry with Oliver, the protagonist.
Does any of the three exampes have enough context?
She / Her
To me, they seem coincidental or they just need more context. Also, Decomposite Character doesn't involve Expies.
From Characters.Reign Of The Seven Spellblades, about Darius Grenville:
- Expy: He's rather similar to the initial impression of Severus Snape from Harry Potter in both looks and characterization. Unlike Snape, that initial impression really is the whole story. He also has the equivalent job to Snape (potions and alchemy) but wants a different position at the school that is currently occupied (Snape wanted Defense Against the Dark Arts, Grenville wants Luther Garland's job as sword arts instructor).
I am not familiar with this work and with Harry Potter, so I honestly can't tell if any of the characters are meant to be expies, or if this is just one person reading too much into things.
Showtime!
This seems like "reading too much into things", personally. most of these are relatively common character archetypes
Absolute destiny... apeachalypse?
Regarding and x4, they all seem like a stretch, especially when examples use "unlike (old character that new character is supposedly an expy of)..." or mention any major differences between the characters. That's usually an indicator of shoehorning.
Looking closer at that page, every character in the first folder has a shoehorned comparison to the Harry Potter cast. They should all go.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Thing about Harry Potter was that the cast was hardly original or unique; you got the naive but talented Fish out of Water protag, the loyal but bumbling best friend, the smart friend, the privileged rival, the "evil teacher", etc. So yeah, none of those traits are particularly meaningful when noticed elsewhere.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
She / Her
So, someone added this example to Characters.Borderlands 3 and I don't feel it's an example. What do you all think?
I think this bit from the Expy page sums up my thoughts on that example:
There is no may; they either are or they aren't. I'd say cut it.
She / Her
Yeah, I agree. I think part of the reason I brought it up is because I find the way it was written funny. Granted, that's just me.
the Retromancer
Lovecraft is a popular reference pool. If Mancubus Bloodtooth is inspired by anything from Cthulhu Mythos ("Nyarlathotep-type" flat out means not by anything in particular), the context is rather lacking on that front, nor is it the only source of Humanoid Abominations.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
I added an Expy entry to a character in The Dragon Prince which was deleted and it was suggested
I'd bring it here to discuss whether it should be restored or not.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/article_history.php?article=Characters.TheDragonPrinceXadia#edit33992672
She / Her
Since there's Word of God, I believe you can restore it. EDT: Though, on second thought, I'd say that's a downplayed example because of the way it was worded.
Edited by RandomTroper123 on Aug 30th 2022 at 7:28:26 AM
Is this a potential entry for Kazi? If so, I'm going to vote no on expy. There is a very clear and apparent difference here just looking at their picture, and the similarities you mention in your write up are superficial traits.
I'm not familiar with this series at all, but I am familiar with Star Wars and what little I glean from Kazi's other character traits point me towards the conclusion that their (meaning they and C3PO's) backstories are different. So what I'm seeing is a failure of the "unambiguous" and "copy" categories, so I don't think Kazi is an expy of C3PO.
E: ![[nja]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/user_ninja_2074.png "[nja]"){kind=small}
Is there WOG? I didn't see it in the entry.
Edited by Hello83433 on Aug 30th 2022 at 10:22:06 AM
CSP Cleanup Thread | All that I ask for ... is diamonds and dance floors
She / Her
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=115469&type=att#comment-342558.
EDIT: Deleting an unneeded space.
Edited by RandomTroper123 on Aug 30th 2022 at 7:39:08 AM
As far as I can tell, the thing about Velvet having some relation to Milla stems from at least two interviews with Berseria's producer Yasuhiro Fukaya.
In this Gamerclick interview
he's asked if it's a coincidence that Milla and Velvet look alike.note
(I edited out some of the hesitation words and one point where the interpreter says Milla then corrects herself to Velvet):
Velvet looks a lot like Milla from Tales of Xillia. Is that a coincidence?
The last bit about Milla being "a big goal" is hard to understand but it's better explained here
:
[...] You mentioned that you were motivated by the popularity of [Tales of Xillia's] Milla Maxwell…
Now these are simply the sources I could find in English, maybe there's another Japanese source that goes into further detail, but this is basically only saying that Milla was kept in mind when it came to Velvet's superficial character design and the dev team wanted Velvet to be even more popular than Milla was.
My personal feelings:
I don't think Velvet counts as (by TV Tropes standards) an Expy of Milla. The Word of God here is solely about their visual designs and the fact that Velvet is comparative to Milla because Milla was the first female lead protagonist of the series. Their stories and characters are completely distinct spoilers . They don't really have much of anything in common besides the fact that they're both attractive determined kickass girls.
(Also I'm the one who added that Julius entry and yeah, it was misuse, I'm sorry.)
Edited by lapistier on Jun 30th 2022 at 10:58:06 AM