History Main / Expy

* ''Roleplay/MSFHighForum'':
** Word of Player, Casey comes from a world of super hero and super villain expies. Casey herself intends on becoming one of Cutey Honey
** Jax is also a completely unintentional expy of Ranma, and Tenchi, and several other well known "middle of the harem" anime characters... Only Jax might end up with the marrying them all.
** Attention everyone! She's here, she's nice, she's friendly... she's a rotten kind of cute, give it up, for the ZOMBIE ENJO KOSAI. Inspired by the song Zombie Prostitute, by Voltaire.
** Nurse Ottoshanti is an expy of Shantotto from FFXI.
** Neko was inspired by her player's cat, with a little bit of Gir (Invader Zim) thrown in.
** Apostate is very explicitly an expy of Durandal from Marathon.
** Aresu has become an Expy of Keiri.
** Shiron is an expy of the character Steffan Tommas from the game One Must Fall: 2097.
** Sony and his world is a obvious Expy of Skies Of Arcadia and he specificly is a combination of Vyse and Gilder.
** Smash is an expy of none other than Thunk. if a Distaff Counterpart. Also a Flanderization of general Orc traits. In fact, she's played as if she is mentally retarded.
** Roe is a shoutout of Doc Roe, to some degree. Her insanity and Hair-Trigger Temper have kind of clouded this.Also a shoutout to Tank Dempsey due said temper.
** Nika is both a Shoutout (See below) and Expy of Nikolai Belinski. Again, obvious.

* The ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' is full of these, particularly since it's a superhero universe with a SuperheroSchool.
** Champion is clearly an expy of Superman, down to the freezing breath and the heat vision.
** For that matter, Fantastico is an expy of Superboy, complete with the super-strength and the heat vision. Oh, and he might also be a pastiche of George W. Bush.
** Dr. Yablonski is even lampshaded as basically being Batman as a physics teacher.
** Aquerna has squirrel powers, including being able to talk to squirrels and command them. [[ComicBook/SquirrelGirl Who could that be?]]
** Tennyo is [[Anime/TenchiMuyo Ryoko]]. Period.
** Lady Hydra is TheBaroness, although in-universe it is the other way around.

* Music/NickiMinaj's Roman Zolanski alter-ego is clearly very similar to Music/{{Eminem}}'s alter-ego Slim Shady, but given more of a fairytale feel with a fantasy high-class British background (highlighted in Eminem's guest verse on "Roman's Revenge" - "''high class meets white trash''"). In particular, both alter egos have an overbearing abusive mother who tries to control their child through sinister means, but where Shady's mother is a villain (and a frequent victim of his violence), Martha is a more sympathetic and campy character who cares about her son.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':
** As the series progresses, Project Freelancer slowly turns into one for the [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Spartan programs]], being a SuperSoldier program created to help in an intergalactic war.
** According to WordOfGod, Agent Wyoming, a CombatPragmatist with a British accent, was designed under the idea of being "an evil Franchise/JamesBond".
** Agent York is one to [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]], being TheLancer of the team, as well as a DeadpanSnarker and a JerkWithAHeartOfGold. He even gets a few ShoutOut lines to his inspiration during ''[[Machinima/RedVsBlueTheProjectFreelancerSaga The Project Freelancer Saga]]''.
** Dr. Emily Grey is one to [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands}} Dr. Patrica Tannis]], being a doctor whose terrible experiences led her to becoming AxCrazy and somewhat of a {{cloudcuckoolander}}. The only difference is whereas Tannis is an introvert, Grey is more extroverted.
** According to WordOfGod, [[spoiler:Locus]]'s characterization in Season 15 was inspired by [[Film/{{Unforgiven}} William Munny]].
** All of the Cosmic Powers from ''The Shisno Paradox'' and ''Singularity'' take inspiration from other mythological gods:
*** Burnstorm, the master builder of the gods, takes inspiration from [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hephaestus]].
*** According to WordOfGod, Chrovos' personality in ''Singularity'' was inspired by "a predatory Creator/GlennClose crossed with [[Film/TheSoundOfMusic Maria]]".

When the character appears in the same series as the previous character, they're often a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute.

For specific characters that tend to inspire expies, see FountainOfExpies. For a series with numerous different expies in its cast, see CastOfExpies. When an expy and the character that inspired are both found in the same universe, then you have ExpyCoexistence.

** ''Expy/Invincible2021''

Remember that Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad; an expy can give an old character concept a new lease on life, take it in a different direction, adapt it to a new medium, or simply do something with it that's as good or better than the original. Iconic characters like WesternAnimation/YogiBear and WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse are obvious clones of [[Series/TheHoneymooners Art Carney]] and WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat, respectively, but that hasn't stopped them from being among the most acclaimed cartoon characters of all time.

*** Kalirama takes inspiration from [[Myth/HinduMythology Kali]], both in her name and status as the goddess of death, and [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hera]], in her status as queen of the gods.
*** Atlus Arcadium Rex, the TopGod, is clearly inspired by [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Zeus]], though his role in the pantheon seems to take more inspiration from [[Myth/NorseMythology Odin]].
*** Genkins, the [[TricksterGod god of trickery]], is an obvious allusion to [[Myth/NorseMythology Loki]]. On another note, in ''Singularity'', he starts to take on traits from [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Mark Hamill's Joker]].

*** ''At first'', Chrovos seems to be inspired by a combination of [[Literature/TheBible Yahweh]] and [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Kronos]]. However, as the story progresses, Chrovos [[SubvertedTrope turns out to be a very different character from the two]]. Though, according to WordOfGod, Chrovos' personality in ''Singularity'' was inspired by "a predatory Creator/GlennClose crossed with [[Film/TheSoundOfMusic Maria]]".
*** Despite their title, the Fates are actually ''not'' this to the Fates from ''Myth/ClassicalMythology'', with their role actually being more similar to [[Myth/NorseMythology the Norns]].

** C.T., both in her character as well as the role she plays, seems to be inspired by [[VideoGame/Halo2 Sesa 'Refumee]].

** Siris from [[Machinima/RedVsBlueSeason14 Season 14]]'s "Merc trilogy" seems to be inspired by [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} James Ironwood]], being an AntiHero with an [[ArtificialLimbs artificial arm]].

** Expy/Invincible2021

*** Genkins, the [[TheTrickster god of trickery]], is an obvious allusion to [[Myth/NorseMythology Loki]]. On another note, in ''Singularity'', he starts to take on traits from [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Mark Hamill's Joker]].

** Siris from ''[[Machinima/RedVsBlueSeason14 Season 14]]'''s "Merc trilogy" seems to be inspired by [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} James Ironwood]], being an AntiHero with an [[ArtificialLimbs artificial arm]].
** According to WordOfGod, [[spoiler:Locus]]'s characterization in ''[[Machinima/RedVsBlueTheShisnoTrilogy Season 15]]'' was inspired by [[Film/{{Unforgiven}} William Munny]].

Compare to BleachedUnderpants, AlternateCompanyEquivalent, NamesTheSame, RomanAClef, SimilarSquad, SameStoryDifferentNames, SuspiciouslySimilarSong, DistaffCounterpart, JustForFun/SurprisinglySimilarStories, EvilCounterpart, WholePlotReference, WritingAroundTrademarks and ProductDisplacement. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] [[ExperiencePoints XP]], nor [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows XP]].

The [[CanonicalListOfSubtleTropeDistinctions key difference]] between this and CaptainErsatz is that an Expy uses the other character as a starting point before ''going in their own direction,'' while CaptainErsatz is obviously the same character but with the SerialNumbersFiledOff. Please keep this distinction in mind before adding an example here. Also note that a fictional counterpart to a real-life person would be either NoCelebritiesWereHarmed or a ShoutOut, depending on the intent. A quick glance around Wiki/TVTropes will reveal just how often these mistakes are made on this very wiki.

** According to WordOfGod, [[spoiler:Locus]]'s characterization in ''[[Machinima/RedVsBlueSeason15 Season 15]]'' was inspired by [[Film/{{Unforgiven}} William Munny]].

An expy (short "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, such as age or hair color, may change, but there's no doubt that they are almost one and the same. They often turn up in different works by the same writer(s) or production team.

Remember that Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad; an expy can give an old character concept a new lease on life, take it in a different direction, adapt it to a new medium, or simply do something with it that's as good or better than the original. Iconic characters like WesternAnimation/YogiBear and WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse are obvious clones of [[Series/TheHoneymooners Art Carney]] and WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat respectively, but that hasn't stopped them from being among the most acclaimed cartoon characters of all time.

Compare to BleachedUnderpants, AlternateCompanyEquivalent, NamesTheSame, RomanAClef, SimilarSquad, SameStoryDifferentNames, SuspiciouslySimilarSong, DistaffCounterpart, JustForFun/SurprisinglySimilarStories, EvilCounterpart, WholePlotReference. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] [[ExperiencePoints XP]], nor [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows XP]].

* The two main characters from ''Lonely and Horny,'' Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld's SpiritualSuccessor to popular ''Website/CollegeHumor'' series ''WebVideo/JakeAndAmir,'' bear a strong resemblance to [[TheDanza the fictional versions of Jake and Amir]] from that series. Blumenfeld's character, Ruby Jade, has a similar personality to the fictional Amir and is similarly a HeroWorshipper of Hurwitz's character, Josh Rice (Amir's dating "guru" rather than his coworker).

* The Website/{{Deviantart}} group ''Website/EarthG'' is made of these who are DC superhero [[{{Expy}} expies]].