Expy / Literature

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• Joe Abercrombie has some both within series and between series:
  • In The First Law, the King of the Union has two sons who have a Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling dynamic, Royal Brat Prince Ladisla (the heir) and The Wise Prince Raynault (the second son). In Best Served Cold, Duke Orso has two sons with the exact same dynamic, the stupid and vicious Ario (the heir) and the mild mannered and intelligent Foscar (the second son).
  • Half A King has among its characters Shadikshirram, a Large Ham merchant/pirate who is an alcoholic who constantly boasts about/laments the Glory Days of the past. She's basically the Distaff Counterpart of Nicomo Cosca from The First Law books, a Large Ham mercenary who is an alcoholic who constantly boasts about/laments the Glory Days of the past. The characterization of Shadikshirram as so egotistical and focused on her own problems that she has no empathy toward other people lines up with the direction Abercrombie took Cosca in Red Country.
• In the self-published German sci-fi adventure novel The Adventures of Stefón Rudel, Dinochen seems to have been intended as one of ALF, only female and with an extra pair of arms.
• V. C. Andrews's work has Outlived Its Creator. While fans agree Only the Creator Does It Right, the infamous ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman has continued to churn out novels under the Andrews pen-name for decades ever since her death. The ghostwriter takes characters from the real Andrews books, flanderizes them, and reuses them. The heroines, their love interests and their children seem to follow the same kind of mold, with a few deviations. So do the "evil grandmother" figures (Olivia Foxworth, Olivia Logan, Lillian Cutler ...), the "jealous sister" figures (Vera Whitefern, Fanny Casteel, Clara Sue Cutler, Allison Randolph ...), the "vain mother who doesn't care" (Corrine Dollanganger, Jillian Tatterton, Laura Sue Cutler, Haille Logan, Megan Hudson ...) and the "perverted old men" (Tony Tatterton, Octavius Tate, etc).
• Michael Grant co-wrote the Animorphs series with his wife, K. A. Applegate and transplanted the character of Marco into his new novel series Gone as Edilio. Both characters are short Hispanic youths with dry wits who are remarkably competent despite their laidback natures.
  • Not to mention Dekka is Tate from Remnants except younger. The characters of Caine and Diana are reminiscent of Yago and 2Face from the same series respectively.
  • An earlier Grant example: Senna Wales of Everworld is a more developed version of David, the Sixth Ranger from Animorphs.
• The Zodiac Sign character Shadi, sign of the basilisk from Anthologies of Ullord is an expy of the pied piper. His divine magics and M.O. are based on the tale of the pied piper, but some liberties are taken here and there.
• The whole point of the Meg Cabot novel Avalon High, where all the major characters are revealed to be reincarnations of Arthurian Legend. The main character, Ellie, is originally thought to be the reincarnation of the minor character Elaine, the Lady of Shalott but is revealed to be the much more important Lady of the Lake.
• In the Beauty Trilogy, by Anne Rice, the character of Laurent is exactly the same as Lestat, minus the vampirism.
• The Beginning After the End: The novel draws heavy inspiration from Mushoku Tensei, and as such several of its characters parallel characters from that novel.
  • The main protagonist, Arthur Leywin, is based on Rudeus Greyrat. Both are adult men who died only to Reincarnate in Another World and became an extremely talented mage and adventurer. That being said, Arthur is a Virtuous Character Copy of Rudeus due to one major difference: Where Rudeus was a Manchild consumed by his sexual urges until his Character Development, Arthur is not only more mature, but is a Celibate Hero who shuns most girls who show interest in him due to the mental age gap. However, over time Arthur undergoes Derivative Differentiation and becomes completely different from his inspiration in terms of personality, fighting style, and powers.
    • Arthur is also based on Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Both are reincarnated protagonists who wield the four classical elements and have a small pet with white and black fur who can fly. They disappeared before the start of a major war that they later returned to participate in only to lose said war and were presumed dead in the aftermath, but once again returned to bring it to an end for good.
  • By extension, the Leywins as a whole end up being ones to the Greyrats, with Reynolds being Paul, Alice being Zenith, and Eleanor being Norn. Like Arthur, they are noticeably more virtuous than their inspiration as the Greyrats, in particular Paul and the extended family, have a reputation for their sexual deviancies.
  • Regis, the manifestation of the Acclorite that Arthur receives from Wren, is one to Leo the Sacred Beast as both are supernatural Canine Companions to their respective protagonists.
  • Tessia Eralith is primarily based on Sylphiette, being an elf with Mystical White Hair who has a Childhood Friend Rescue Romance with the protagonist after he rescues her from peril, reunites with him at the Magical Academy, and confesses her feelings to him which he later reciprocates. However, the fact that she is a young noble whose family Arthur spends a portion of his youth living with is derived from Eris Boreas Greyrat, while her being a princess who becomes the Student Council President of the Magical Academy they attend is lifted from Ariel Anemoi Asura.
  • Caera Denoir is a more direct analogue of Eris, being the Tomboy to Tessia's Girly Girl. Like Eris, she is the scion of an aristocratic family who is an adventurer in her own right, and becomes the protagonist's companion after he gets separated from his loved ones and stranded in a foreign land following a tragic incident.
  • Kathyln Glayder is one to Roxy Migurdia, being a petite young woman who is a talented mage proficient in water and ice magic. However, Roxy's role as being a younger adventurer who becomes a Mentor and potential Love Interest to the protagonist and gets introduced before his Childhood Friend Love Interest is instead given to Jasmine Flamesworth.
    • Jasmine herself is a dead ringer for Akatsuki from Log Horizon, being a short Aloof Dark Haired Action Girl with a long Tomboyish Ponytail whose fighting style revolves around swift and agile movements and Dual Wielding daggers.
  • The Twin Horns are based on the Fangs of the Black Wolf, being a famed adventuring party whom the protagonist's father used to be part of.
  • Kezess Indrath is analogous to Hitogami, being the enigmatic deity in white who acts as a distant ally to the protagonist and is later revealed to be Evil All Along as one of the main antagonists of the novel. In terms of appearance and background, Kezess instead resembles Hitogami's Arch-Enemy Orsted due to being a white-haired dragon god.
  • Chul can be viewed as a parallel to Ruijerd Superdia, being a martial nonhuman ally to the protagonist who hails from a group of Genocide Survivors. Aesthetically, Ruijerd's appearance was instead given to the pantheon race of Asuras, in particular Taci who resembles him as a bald Proud Warrior Race Guy wielding a spear. Unlike Ruijerd, Taci ends up becoming an enemy to Arthur as he kills several of his friends and family before Arthur puts him down.
• Laurence Kirkle in Beyond the Western Sea has a character arc that's very similar to Charlotte's in The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.
• Noah of The Bible is the exact same person as Uta-napishti of The Epic of Gilgamesh.
• Carnival in a Fix: In chapter 6, a character named Lord Krull is introduced, who bears a strong resemblance to Darth Vader. He has a big black cape, a rather imposing helmet, and an army of space commandoes working for him. He threatens to unleash said space commandoes on the park if they don't find his son, Krull-va (or Colin as he prefers to be called).
• Children's author Bill Peet started out as a Disney cartoonist and a degree of expyness can be seen between Dumbo, whom he created and the title character of Chester The Worldly Pig. Both begin lives at the circus on a bad note, mocked by the audiences and ill-treated by clowns, but later achieve happiness and success there through an extraordinary talent (flying with ears/body coloring which looks like a map of the world)
• Loren D. Estleman's Claudius Lyon invokes and parodies this trope with regards to Nero Wolfe; Lyon is a Hero-Worshipper of the more famous detective and has sought to emulate his life as closely as he can within his own abilities and without being sued. However, Lyon — while not incapable — is not quite as good as Wolfe, meaning that things frequently get a bit skewed in translation. For example, while Wolfe is famous for growing orchids in his rooftop greenhouse, Lyon lacks a green thumb and so has to make do with growing tomatoes instead, because they're easier to grow.
• Codex Alera:
  • The Vord are a race of insect-like creatures that have specialized sub-breeds for different combat roles, share a sentient hive mind, can infest humans to take over their bodies, and are dependent on a waxy substance that they smear across the ground in their nests. They also have a four letter name, the third letter of which is R, though that similarity to the Zerg was probably coincidental.
  • Lord and Lady Placida are Expys of Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan. Butcher has outright admitted this.
• The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids has a robot Mad Scientist called Frankenstein-818, who deliberately patterned himself after the original, human Baron Frankenstein and fills the role of default Mad Scientist in the series. He has his very own Haunted Castle, hunchbacked assistant, and unhealthy interest in lightning, but is actually quite friendly.
• The Culture tends to feature among its protagonist one of two types (sometimes in the same novel, often as semi-romantic interests). If female, they will be a sexy bisexual operative accompanied by a snarky Drone companion. If male, they will be a badass mercenary, who is usually from outside the culture, but ends up (sometimes reluctantly) aiding them. Given a bit of a twist in Surface Detail in which there are two male mercenary characters, one of which is a former lover of the female protagonist (of the sexy, drone-paired ilk), and the other of whom is revealed in The Stinger to be a character from a previous novel under an another alias.
• Daystar has a number of expies of Biblical characters:
  • Tiala Caldwell, of Mary, as she is the virgin mother of the promised Word to Come (Boh-Dabar), who will restore his people. The previous book in the series established her as faith-filled and devoted to the Eternal Speaker, paralleling Mary's best-known trait of faith.
  • Tavkel Caldwell, of Jesus, as he is the Boh-Dabar, living expression of the Eternal Speaker, who comes to take darkness from all people and remake and restore the world to perfection. He lived a perfect life and died to bring spiritual renewal and redemption to all.
  • Kinnor Caldwell, of Lazarus, having been raised from the dead in front of his relatives to show Boh-Dabar's power and authority over death.
  • Subverted with Kiel Caldwell, who does not, in the end, become an Expy of Caiaphas. He begins to head down the path of opposition to Boh-Dabar, trying to turn people from Boh-Dabar, but he realizes his mistake, repents, becomes a follower of Boh-Dabar himself, and tries to undo the damage he had done.
• The Discworld series rarely goes for long without a Shout-Out that might become an expy, for purposes of parody, satire, or fun, as Terry Pratchett knew his predecessors, and wrote enough books that he was full capable of expy'ing himself.
  • For example, Equal Rites has an Archchancellor of Unseen University who is clearly a first draft of the later Archchancellor Ridcully, particularly as both have somewhat romantic relationships with Granny Weatherwax.
  • We are introduced to about five suspiciously similar versions of Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, Sergeant Doppelpunkt and Corporal Knopf (Colon and Nobbs) show up in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, and Igors are Expies of each other.^note Literally, in case that wasn't clear. One of the defining characteristics of an Igor is that he has parts of several other Igors (or somebody else) stitched onto his body to replace missing/faulty parts. When an Igor says he has his father's eyes, he means it.
  • There's also the guards Vimes dubs "Nobbski" and "Colonesque" in The Fifth Elephant.
  • The non-Discworld Good Omens features a Death who is similar in many ways (though far from identical) to the Discworld's Death. For instance, he speaks all in small caps. And it's possible to see Aziraphale as something of an expy of Carrot from the Discworld "Watch" books- both are extremely idealistic characters who rather than being the Wide-Eyed Idealist, are rather clever, even cunning.
  • In Wintersmith, Anoia the Goddess of Things that Get Stuck in Drawers has exactly the same personality (and chain-smoking habit) as Adora Belle Dearheart in the books about Moist. She's also heavily implied to be the deity formerly known as Lela the Volcano Goddess ("the Storm God keeps raining on her lava"), who was explicitly compared with Adora Belle in Going Postal.
  • First Mate Cox in the non-Discworld Nation is exactly the same kind of Ax-Crazy as Carcer, down to sharing some of the same dialogue. Andy Shank is also described like this.
  • Brutha from Small Gods might be an expy (or at least extended shout-out) to Severian of Book of the New Sun. Both of them are big guys with Photographic Memory who grow up in monasteries of a weird Crystal Dragon Jesus religion. Pratchett seems to acknowledge the similarity in having one of the people Brutha meets named Severian. On the other hand, Pratchett claimed to find the New Sun series unreadable, so this may just be coincidence.
  • Mrs Tachyon in the non-Discworld Johnny and the Bomb has the same manner of speaking as Foul Ole Ron. Thankfully, the Smell of Foul Ole Ron does not get an Expy.^note It is alluded to, though: it is remarked that Mrs Tachyon when in hospital struggled magnificiently against the idea of a very necessary bath.
  • The clearest shout-out of all, though, is to an outside source, and occurs in the first chapter of the very first Discworld book, when a great fire in Ankh-Morpork is watched by Bravd and the Weasel. The series may have evolved away from genre fantasy, but Pratchett was very clear where it started.
  • The same book sees a sentient Black Sword which is capable of speech and of sucking the very soul from its victim.^note Being spoken at by a boring tinny monotone metallic voice does this to people.
• In the many, many books of the Dragonlance series, any kender characters that appear are similar to Tasselhoff Burrfoot, since most of the race's members seem to have the same (bizarre) personality.
  • Within the Dragonlance series there are also the gods Paladine and Takhisis, who serve as stand-ins for the traditional Dungeons & Dragons deities Bahamut and Tiamat, respectively.
  • The authors' next series, The Death Gate Cycle, includes a pretty blatant example of this trope in the form of bumbling would-be wizard Zifnab.
  • Zanfib, from another Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman collaboration.
    • However, it is strongly implied that Fizban, Zifnab, and Zanfib are all the same person.
• In The Dresden Files, as in earlier Warhammer Fantasy works, Heinrich Kemmler is a Long-Lived arch-Necromancer and Immortality Seeker whose dark forces threatened the world until his defeat.
• Kane in the Ea Cycle is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an expy of Kane from Karl Edward Wagner's stories.
  • Furthermore, a lot of people and things in Ea Cycle have direct counterparts in the same author's earlier sci-fi series.
• In the Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Vampire Science, the Doctor is brought into the situation by Dr Carolyn McDonnell, a highly-motivated San Francisco doctor whom he met on a previous visit to the city (as established in the prologue). Dr Grace Holloway from The Movie was Exiled from Continuity at the time.
  • A civilization known as The People, present in several Doctor Who novels, is obviously based on Iain M. Banks' The Culture.
• Given that Fangirl is a loving parody of real-life fandoms, it's not shocking that a couple of these show up. The world that Cath writes her fanfiction about is a general expy of the Wizarding World, with her favored pairing standing in for Draco/Harry.
• In the book Fat Kid Rules the World, the protagonist's friend is a punk rock guitar god named Curt Maccrae. Sounds familiar.
• A lot of characters in Fifty Shades of Grey are similar to their original Twilight templates, with some characteristic of movie actors mixed in: Ana is a clumsy virgin who bites her lip a lot and has an absent-minded mother. Christian is an orphan adopted into a rich family, one of his adoptive parents is a doctor, he plays piano and has a brother and a sister whom Kate and Ethan Kavanagh, blonde siblings, hook up with respectively. Etc ad nauseum.
• Randall Garrett's novella "The Foreign Hand Tie" is one long, beautiful Shout-Out to The Marx Brothers. Colonel Julius^note Groucho's real name T. Spaulding is in charge of "Operation Mapcase", where deaf-mute telepath Rafael Poe works as an Obfuscating Stupidity janitor in a Moscow cathedral while siphoning technological secrets from the brain of Dr. Sonja Malekrinova and transmitting them to his brother Leonard^note Chico's real name, an artist who draws them as blueprints for duplication. Harpo Marx really did travel to Moscow on a "goodwill mission" and smuggled diplomatic papers. His tour guide was a woman named Malekrinova — he referred to her as "Melachrino", a brand of cigarettes — and "Exapno Mapcase" was how his name looked to him in Cyrillic characters.
• Anthony Bourdain's Gone Bamboo features a few characters from his earlier A Bone in the Throat. In at least the first British edition of the later book, their names are the same as in A Bone in the Throat, in American editions, they have been changed, e.g. "Charlie Wagons" becomes "Donnie Wicks".
• Joel Rosenberg transplanted the characters of Durine, Kethol and Pirojil from his Guardians of the Flame series into the novel Murder in La Mut, which he co-wrote with Raymond E. Feist. The whole book is basically an excuse to put Rosenberg's characters in Feist's world for one novel and let hilarity ensue.
• ½ Prince has a rather blatant expy to Kenshin. In case the red hair, scar, expert swordsmanship, and clothes weren't a big enough giveaway, they even name the character Kenshin.
• The characters in Project Itoh's Harmony are Gender Flip versions of characters from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the novelisation of which he was writing at the time. Notably, Miach is Liquid Ocelot as a Japanese schoolgirl.
• If you click on Robert A. Heinlein you will see listed on his page his three most common character types.
• The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan:
  • Piper's father is mentioned to have played The King of Sparta and there is mention of The Poster which the two considered funny until it hit the internet.
  • There are several similarities between Annabeth and Reyna, the praetor of Camp Jupiter, in The Mark of Athena. Annabeth immediately notices some of them when she first meets her.
    • Both are considered the female leaders of their respective camps and are highly respected by their fellow campers.
    • Both have or were going to have a romantic relationship with the male leaders of their camps: Annabeth has one with Percy, while Reyna would have had one with Jason if he hadn't been kidnapped by Hera/Juno.
    • Both refuse to believe the worst has happened to their significant other. Annabeth is out searching for Percy throughout The Lost Hero, while Reyna refuses to hold an election for Jason's replacement as praetor despite others' pestering her for it, as she believes Jason is still alive.
    • Both of their love interests (Percy for Annabeth and Jason for Reyna) have a problem of being unable to pick up on Annabeth and Reyna's emotions or feelings.
    • Both of their love interests denied or deny an attraction to them. Percy doesn't realize how much he loves Annabeth until The Last Olympian, while Jason repeatedly tells his girlfriend Piper that he never was in love with Reyna. Despite Jason saying this, after he reclaims his memories in The Lost Hero, his memories of Reyna make him question his feelings toward Piper.
    • Both were involved in a love triangle with their love interest: Annabeth was in a love triangle with Percy and Rachel Elizabeth Dare in The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian, while Reyna was in a love triangle with Jason and Piper McLean in The Mark of Athena, although Jason states that he never felt that way towards Reyna, even though Piper believes otherwise.
    • Both have been on a quest with their love interest; every quest Annabeth ever went on was with Percy (with the exception of her mission to reclaim he Athena Parthenos from Arachne) while Reyna and Jason once visited Charleston, South Carolina on a quest together.
    • Both are forced to hold an expression of fearlessness in public to prevent spreading panic throughout their forces. Annabeth even notices this whenever she first meets Reyna in The Mark of Athena, and it is implied Reyna notices this as well.
    • Both are very good at reading others' emotions and deducing motivations and/or feelings, while also hiding their own.
    • Both have a fondness for architecture, as they both were seen admiring New Rome in The Mark of Athena.
    • Both have knowledge of the others' culture, and do not judge them for it.
    • Both are the children of a war goddess; Annabeth is the daughter of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, and battle strategy, while Reyna is the daughter of Bellona, the Roman goddess of war.
    • Both had a crush on Percy Jackson. Annabeth states that she has a crush on Percy since they first meet when they were twelve, while Reyna attempts to convince Percy to become praetor and become her "friend", which both Percy and Annabeth interpret as Reyna making a move on him.
    • Both visited Circe's Spa and Resort in the Sea of Monsters and met the other while they were there; Annabeth and Percy visited the Spa while looking for the Golden Fleece, and Reyna was one of Circe's assistants at the Spa and Resort. The two met while there; Reyna was one of Circe's attendants who combed Annabeth's hair and gave her a makeover.
    • Both are considered scary by a demigod of the prophecy; Hazel and Frank are both somewhat intimidated by Reyna, while Leo has been scared of Annabeth ever since they met at the Grand Canyon while wearing her "give me Percy Jackson or I'll kill you" look.
    • Both ran away from home; Annabeth ran from her father and stepmother's house in San Francisco after being attacked by spiders for three nights in a row, while Reyna and her sister Hylla ran away from San Juan and became Circe's attendants at her spa.
• All of Tom Holt's male protagonists are basically the same person. The women get a little more variety, but not that much.
• Intra-series example: In the Warhammer 40,000 Horus Heresy novels, both Saul Tarvitz and Nathaniel Garro sort of come off as expies of Garviel Loken...
• Brutus, from The Hunger Games, is essentially Cato MKII. In fact, he and Cato's final kills were the men from District 11, both were the next to die and the last in each game, and both were killed by the volunteer from District 12 for that year.
• One of the most prevalent criticisms of the Inheritance Cycle is that the characters are essentially fantasy versions of characters from Star Wars. On the Inheriwiki, the wiki for the franchise, several character pages keep dedicated lists of characters from other books and films that the characters from the Inheritance Cycle share characteristics with.
• The four children of In the Keep of Time are in many ways quite similar to the four Pevensies of Narnia. At the start, Andrew is dismissive of his younger siblings and not particularly excited about their stay in the country, and he is also the first to adapt very well to the past and become immersed in the time period and even a warrior mentality, like Peter; Elinor is the one most skeptical about the reality and acceptability of the adventure, as well as the Team Mom, like Susan; Ian is very much resentful and jealous of his youngest sister; and Ollie herself is the one whose recklessness and eager curiosity leads them into the past in the first place. However, they all eventually grow beyond these roles, with Andrew rejecting the past world for the present, Elinor becoming stronger and more willing to believe in the impossible, Ian not betraying them like Edmund did, and Ollie ends up losing herself and has to be taught and bonded with her siblings before she can recall who she is—which may perhaps be a commentary on Lucy's being thought mad and how incredibly willing she was to believe and immerse herself in Narnia.
• The Last Adventure of Constance Verity: One of Connie's allies, Doctor Dynasty, is a "Master of Mystic Arts" who spends his days fighting Eldritch Abominations. Sound familiar?
• Almost every protagonist of Louis L'Amour's hundred-or-so-books is pretty much one of two guys:
  • A badass white guy from some place east of where the book is set.
  • An Indian Brave who is just like the Badass White Guy except that a big deal is made about his race.
• Legacy of the Dragokin: Benji is like version 2.0 of the previous Draconica protagonist, Ben. He's a supporting protagonist without combat skills that follows the heroes and gets an 11th-Hour Superpower. The key difference between them is Benji doesn't say Shout Outs to real world products.
• While H. P. Lovecraft himself largely avoided this (indeed, he's on record as wanting to break free of the tired old horror clichés that were en vogue in his time, as well as a confirmed materialist), later Theme Park Versions of the Cthulhu Mythos frequently end up looking rather like straight-up expies of the literal forces of Hell. Forbidden pacts, supernatural corruption, Things Man Was Not Meant To Traffic With Lest He Lose His .
• The Lunar Chronicles draws visible influence from Sailor Moon, and while most of the details of characterization have been mixed up and blended with other elements, there are a couple of characters who are pretty much direct exports:
  • Prince Kaito of Earth's Eastern Commonwealth, handsome and charming yet dorky and prone to playfully teasing the object of his affections, is recognizably based on Mamoru Chiba and Mamoru's past life Prince Endymion, a prince of Earth who forms a star-crossed romance with a princess of the Moon while being targeted by a malevolent, mind-controlling sorceress-queen.
  • Scarlet Benoit, meanwhile, is an expy of Makoto Kino: curly-haired, statuesque, fierce and almost suicidally brave when her strong sense of justice is provoked or her loved ones are threatened. She and Wolf also bond over food on a couple of occasions.
• In Matilda, Bruce Bogtrotter and Michael Wormwood are expies of Augustus Gloop (both chocolate-loving gluttons) and Mike Teavee (both television addicts), respectively, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Miss Trunchbull was based on Roald Dahl's real life boarding school matron, described in his memoir Boy Tales Of Childhood.
• Most of the characters in The Mortal Instruments are expies of Harry Potter characters as interpreted by Cassandra Clare's old fanfic The Draco Trilogy:
  • Clary Fray is Ginny Weasley.
  • Jace Wayland is Draco Malfoy.
  • Simon Lewis is a Composite Character of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnigan.
    
    In universe he starts to take on many aspects of the biblical Cain thanks to Clary inscribing His mark onto him.
  • Isabelle Lightwood is Blaise Zabini.
  • Alec Lightwood is Harry Potter.
  • Valentine Morgenstern is a Composite Character of Lord Voldemort and Lucius Malfoy.
  • Luke Garroway is Sirius Black.
  • Jocelyn Fray is Narcissa Malfoy.
  • Hodge Starkweather is Peter Pettigrew.
  • Sebastian is Tom Riddle.
• Mrs. Smith's Spy School For Girls: Power Play: A new game called "Monster Mayhem" has debuted in this book, and has taken the world by storm. The game is basically Pokémon GO, in that it involves traveling to various locations to capture monsters and level up. It also requires capturing monsters regularly to keep your health up, as running out will drop you back down to level 0.
• William of Baskerville, the monastic sleuth from The Name of the Rose is an expy of Sherlock Holmes — English, preternaturally observant, phlegmatic, calculating, occasionally conceited, and he even chews a mysterious 'herb' to help him concentrate. His name is a clear reference to The Hound of the Baskervilles. His protegé, Adso of Fulk (the narrator) is the Watson of the relationship.
• Onimi from the New Jedi Order series of Star Wars, is essentially the Star Wars incarnation of Kefka Palazzo from Final Fantasy VI, in personality, position, as well as backstory. Essentially, before the events of the book started, Onimi used to be a mere shaper, like how Kefka originally was an average human being. However, both characters did a ritual/experiment that greatly deformed them, and yet at the same time resulted in being infused with the ability to utilize magic/the Force. It is also heavily implied that the same thing that resulted in their deformation and the origin of their powers also resulted in them becoming insane and being demoted to being a court jester. Likewise, both also desired to become a god for no reason outside of just out due to their insanity, and also manipulated their ruler and the empire into helping them.
  • Speaking of the New Jedi Order series, the Yuuzhan Vong bear more than a few similarities with the Imperium from Warhammer 40,000. Their society is defined by religious fanaticism. Their technology is thousands of years old and designing anything new is heresy (but that may be overlooked if it's effective). Their religion is rather sadomasochistic. Their religion commands them to commit genocide against the rest of the galaxy.
  • For the new Star Wars continuity, Rae Sloane is shaping up to be an expy of Gilad Pellaeon. It's now established that she was the ranking Imperial officer who ordered the retreat from Endor, and now that the Empire is collapsing around them, she is becoming the trusted subordinate to a mysterious fleet admiral who has an appreciation for classical music. Interesting enough, Pellaeon is called by Thrawn during the finale of Rebels.
• Newsflesh: Blackout by Mira Grant, the character Dr. Kimberley, who uses the alias Dr. Shaw for a while, is pretty clearly based on Dr. Liz Shaw from Doctor Who.
• In Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, Macavity is written as the cat version of Professor James Moriarty, as T. S. Eliot was a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the last line of the poem, Macavity is even explicitly called "The Napoleon of Crime".
• Jamie Fraser, the hero of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels, has been acknowledged by Gabaldon herself as being based on Doctor Who companion Jamie McCrimmon, who was played by the actor Frazer Hines.
• The ‘’System Divine’’ characters and their ‘’Les Misérables’’ counterparts:
  • Chatine = Eponine
  • Marcellus = Marius
  • Alouette = Cosette
  • Hugo Taureau = Jean Valjean
  • Inspecteur Limier = Inspector Javert
• The Pantheon Saga has numerous ones for many heroes:
  • Geist is one for Batman. He is an urban legend that targets serial killers, pedophiles, and other individuals with his "two strike" rule where he executes you if you get out and commit a second crime.
  • Titan is obviously one for Superman but has elements of the Hulk (gaining powers due to a nuclear bomb exploding). He is an Inuit who lost his family and tribe in the 1991 attack.
  • Lady Liberty is one for Wonder Woman. She is the leader of the Vanguard and apparently gained her powers from a gemstone in the Amazon.
  • Sentinel is one for Captain America. The co-leader of the Vanguard and peak human potential, he is The Paragon and a hero 24-7. He is also dating Seraph and the darling of the conservative community.
  • Seraph is one for Supergirl. Mikaela Guerrero possesses light based wings and is a Catholic heroine with heavy religious emphasis on her powers as well as personal faith. She is also a habitual cheater on her boyfriend.
  • Robbie Rocket is one for the Flash. Robert Geoffrey Gilford is a outspoken jerkass from Canada.
  • Vulcan is one for Thor, being a man who claims to be the Greek God of Smiths.
  • Dynamo is a sentient android and a stand-in for the Vision. He turns out to be actually be one for Iron Man, being a Teen Genius inside a suit of armor.
  • Wyldcat is a heroic version of Catwoman named Dannel Winchester with a British accent and an Even the Girls Want Her vibe.
  • The Hurricane is this for Iron Man. Richard Saint Pierre is a therapist by day and an armored vigilante by night. He has the help of a tech genius and partner to protect Saint Louis.
  • Lord Borealis is a stand-in for both Lex Luthor and Magneto with the former's intellect as well as the latter's powers.
• The Perfect Run: One of the Killer Seven, Fortuna, shares the same name and power as Fortune from Metal Gear Solid 2.
• Parellity: Valentich is Malcolm Reynolds, Archer is a smart, loyal Jayne Cobb, and Amelia Earhart is Wash.
• Jodi Picoult has many of these throughout her stories, especially after the popularity of My Sister's Keeper. There is the mother of a sick child who means well but focuses on the child to the point of ignoring everyone else (Sara, Charlotte, Emma), the husband who feels that what the mother is doing is wrong but won't do anything about it (Brian, Sean), the sick child who is always wiser than their years and who often has little character development until the last chapter (Kate, Willow, Claire Nealon), the ignored child (Anna and Jesse, Amelia) and the lawyer with personal problems (Campbell, Jordan, Marin).
• Pink Carnation: Turnip Fitzhugh series resembles Bertie Wooster.
• Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: From Princesses Don't Play Nice, Princess Isabel Cœur de Lion Solaire, who, before a few edits, is effectively Wonder Woman, just swapping the flying jet for a unicorn:
  celestial heritage [...] flying unicorn mount, the bridle of invisibility, the lasso of truth
• Captain Arthur Hastings from Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series is obviously based on Dr John Watson. Both serve as the First-Person Peripheral Narrator to their Great Detective companions, both were had military backgrounds and got injured at some point, both have exceedingly transparent countenances and thus cannot be trusted with discretion, both are weak to the female charms, both are highly imaginative and cannot properly connect the dots when they find clues to the mysteries.
• In the Raffles stories, Raffles is an Evil Counterpart to Sherlock Holmes, his sidekick Bunny a Watson stand-in, and Inspector Mackenzie of Scotland Yard a (more capable) version of Inspector Lestrade.
• Redwall frequently reused character types and plots. The most obvious, however, may be Gabool the Wild, Big Bad of Mariel of Redwall and Emperor Ublaz "Mad Eyes", Big Bad of The Pearls of Lutra. Both are pirate kings who rule an island (Terramort, Sampetra) far away from Mossflower. Both command the loyalty of all the pirates of their respective seas (northern, southern). Both open their book by killing one of their captains (Bluddrigg, Conva), and then face a rebellion from said captain's brother and fellow captain (Saltar, Barranca). Both are betrayed by their trusted right hand rat (Greypatch, Sagitar) and both have a venomous tropical animal as their personal pet and secret weapon (Skrabblag the Scorpion, an unnamed coral snake). Both have little to do with the main plot, both alienate their subordinates, and both and sit on their island going mad and surrounded by a dwindling number of retainers until the heroes arrive, at which point both are killed by their respective secret weapons. The only real differences are their species and Ublaz's greater veneer of sanity.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades draws heavy inspiration from the Harry Potter franchise. The True Companions of the series map conveniently as Decomposite Characters of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but the most obvious example is Professor Darius Grenville, who is very like Severus Snape: he's a thoroughly unpleasant Sadist Teacher with long dark hair, is the alchemy instructor and covets another teacher's job (Luther Garland's sword arts position), and was connected to the primary protagonist's Missing Mom. Only instead of having been in love with her, he helped murder her.
• The three major characters of Roz Kaveney's Rhapsody of Blood Urban Fantasy series, Emma, Caroline, and Mara, are at their first introduction blatantly inspired by Cassie, Thelma, and Ella of HEX. They quickly diverge from this, however, thanks to getting older than (apparently) teenage, being all three of them lesbians, and being actually good at the whole "fighting supernatural evil" thing.
• Intra-universe example: Terry Brooks's Shannara books. Essentially each set of main characters, as they are successively descended from each other, differ little from their ancestors. (The plot lines are even more similar than the characters.)
• Sisterhood Series by Fern Michaels: Charles Martin is totally an Expy of James Bond. He is British, he spent time working for MI6, and is definitely a spook. Unlike Mr. Bond, however, Charles mostly does the planning and pulling various strings. That, and he is at least 60-years-old.
• The Supervillainy Saga has its own page of these and Composite Character types due to being a parody of the last hundred years of superhero fiction.
• Zilpha Keatley Snyder keeps doing this. Several of her books after The Changeling feature characters who, while not literal transpositions of Ivy Carson and Martha Abbott, are certainly close relatives. Look for them in the Green-Sky Trilogy (Teera and Pomma), The Unseen (Belinda and Xandra), and The Treasures of Weatherby (Allegra and Harleigh). She even puts an interracial cast a la The Egypt Game into Martha's upper-crust Castle Court residence in a later series, and re-uses the name Abbott in The Bronze Pen. She is also fond of the Big Fancy House (often ancient, abandoned, falling to pieces, and in one case so horribly burned that the little girls make up a Ghost Story about it).
• Noel Streatfeild often does this with a character who is a nanny or nurse to the protagonist(s). Hannah in Thursdays Child, Nana in Ballet Shoes, Hannah in Theater Shoes, Nana in Skating Shoes, and Pursey in Dancing Shoes all have essentially the same personality (and nearly the same name—even Pursey was once a nanny, although she isn't during the book) but are not the same person.
• The Supervillainy Saga: Many examples of this with Ultragod (Superman/Grene Lantern), The Nightwalker (Batman/Doctor Strange), Ultragoddess (Supergirl), Tom Terror (Lex Luthor/Red Skull), and so on. Tales Of Supervillainy: Cindy's Seven has Red Sindi. She s one for Red Sonja to the point she verges on a Captain Ersatz. She is a red-headed Barbarian Hero from Hyrkania who has a Chainmail Bikini. Cindy even makes several jokes she's verging on plagarism and mistakes her Bridgitte Neilson.
• In Tales of an Mazing Girl there are plenty and it is lampshaded, as they exist in a world with comicbooks.
  • The Flame is an example of The Shadow
  • Nighthawk is Batman
  • Knife Girl is Green Arrow
  • Mazing Girl is Superman
• Half the main cast of These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer are Expys of the main characters in The Black Moth. They even have the events of TBM as backstory, and the Dukes of Andover and Avon have similar nicknames, "Satanas" and "Devil".
• This is lampshaded (as so many tropes are) in the Thursday Next books; a minor character mentions offhand that two literary characters seem very similar. In fact, they are the same character, but Thursday doesn't try to enlighten the speaker on the "economies of the Book World."
• Emily Rodda's The Three Doors trilogy, which takes place in the same universe as Deltora Quest, takes the trio from the original series and pretty much recycles them in the trilogy.
  • Rye is an expy of Lief - both characters are 16 year old boys who are given a magical object to help them on a quest but don't know precisely how the magic works. Both have speed and agility as one of their main traits.
  • Sonia for Jasmine - Wild girl orphans who are the same age as their companion. A lot is made of their hair colour (Jasmine's black hair and Sonia's red hair are constantly being mentioned) and both tend to speak their mind even when those around them do not approve (although Sonia is more refined than Jasmine, on the whole).
  • Dirk for Barda — an older male who is strong and heroic, feels responsible for the younger people and tends to favour brute force if it is an option. Both have a habit of being knocked out or seperated from the group since their strength and bravery would solve many situations that the younger two could not solve on their own. Both like to be in charge and are natural leaders, but end up deferring to the younger male against their better judgement.
  • The Bag of Nine Powers for The Belt of Deltora — each is given to the hero of the story without any real guidance on how to use it, the hero can use it the best while others tend to only experience the powers through the hero.
• Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe contains a god named Gainel the Dream King, whose visual description is pretty much identical to Dream. The name "Gainel" may be a play on Neil Gaiman.
• Among criticisms of the Colleen McCullough novel The Touch is that the character of Eleanor "Nell" Kinross is this of Justine O'Neill from The Thorn Birds, given their many similarities—an abrasive personality, unconventional, but not necessarily unattractive looks, a thorny relationship with her mother, etc.
• Toy Academy: Many of the characters are parodies of real toys:
  • Omnibus Squared is based on Optimus Prime. They're both toy robots that transform into vehicles.
  • Margie is based on Barbie. They're both world-famous dolls with hundreds of different iterations and seemingly no end to their different talents.
  • Chancellor Thornbones is based on Skeletor. Both are evil, skeletal humanoids who lead an army of monsters.
• The Traitor Son Cycle contains so many Arthurian references, it can't be coincidental.
  • The Red Knight is a lot like Mordred, born from the king's rape of his mother and intended to lead the Wild to slay his own father.
  • Ghause Muriens is very much Morgan Le Fay, being a powerful sorceress who conspires against the King.
  • Jean de Vrailly is a darker version of Sir Lancelot. He's a giant of a man who's being manipulated by "an angel" and proves himself to be the greatest knight in the world, he comes from an expy of France and has designs on the Queen.
  • The Queen is Guinevere expy, being World's Most Beautiful Woman, married to the King and accused of a romance with a Galle.
• Yoruka in Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle is practically the spitting image of Kurumi from Date A Live. Appearance-wise, they both have black hair in twintails, unnatural heterochromia^note Yoruka's left eye is purple due to receiving Baptism; Kurumi's left eye is a clock due to being a Spirit and wear shoulder-bearing outfits with the colors red and black. They're both Yandere for the main character (though Yoruka ceases to be one a book after her introduction). They're both the most sensual and the most lethal out of the main cast.
• Universal Monsters: Invoked and discussed — the monsters tend to find or merge with people whom they'll make fill in the roles of other characters from their movies, which the heroes figure out late in the main events of book 1.
  • In book 1, the band member Slice ended up as Renfield, his girlfriend Devin can be inferred to have filled in for Lucy Weston (as Dracula's first female victim), and her sister Angela fills in for Mina Seward.
  • In book 2, Don Earl Abernathy ends up in the role of Lawrence Talbot, being bitten by a werewolf under similar circumstances and becoming Talbot's Wolf Man. His girlfriend Gayle fills the basic role of Larry Talbot's love interest Gwen but adds in a partial werewolf transformation, while Wilma Winokea ends up possessed by, and in the role of, the gypsy Maleva. In addition, her son John becomes the first expy of Maleva's son Bela, and her older son Chad — John's half-brother — becomes the second.
  • Subverted in book 3 — none of the normal human characters end up filling the roles of characters from the films.
  • In book 4, Nina ends up in the role of Helen Grosvenor, whom Imhotep believes is the reincarnation of Anck-Su-Namun, leading him to and sacrifice her to revive his love.
  • In book 5, Rita Crockett ends up in the role of Kay Lawrence, as the Gill Man's love interest. At least, until he somehow creates a Gill Woman to fill the role.
  • In book 6, Megan McMahan ends up as one for the unknown woman whose corpse was used for the Bride, as she dies and gets remade into the Bride's new incarnation.
• Vampire Hunter D was based on Phil Collins. No, really.
• Roddy Doyle's The Van mostly features the same cast of characters as his earlier The Snapper; the film versions of the two books were made by different production companies, the makers of The Snapper had the rights to use them, so the names were changed in the second film.
• Villains Don't Date Heroes!: Fialux is an obvious one for Supergirl, with an identical powerset and origin. Shadow Wing initially appears to be an expy of Batman, but turns out to be a serial mind-control rapist like the Purple Man. He stole the name from the original Shadow Wing, who he brainwashed into fighting a giant monster that killed her.
• Brandon Sanderson says that Warbreaker's Siri and Vivenna were exported from a novel that he never finished writing. Additionally, he mentions that Denth is heavily based on La Résistance leader Kelsier from his previous Mistborn series in part to make the reveal that he's actually evil all the more unexpected.
• Dennis Howl, the aging rock star/hermit in Paul Quarrington's Whale Music, is based on Brian Wilson.
• P. G. Wodehouse lampshaded this in the preface to Summer Lightning, where he mentions a critic who claimed his last novel recycled "all the old Wodehouse characters under different names." Summer Lightning itself, the preface notes, neatly averts this by including all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names.
• Worm, as a deliberate deconstruction of the superhero genre, includes a number of characters who are clearly meant to be seen as references to popular supers in other works.
  • Armsmaster is the Wormverse's version of Batman- someone with no exceptional physical powers who relies on gadgetry (his tinker specialty is the ability to miniaturize so much that he can carry a ridiculous breadth of gear at once), extreme physical training and martial arts, being Crazy-Prepared (again, see his specialty) and on predicting the moves of his opponents (though using tactical software rather than intuition) to make himself the 7th-most influential cape in the setting's equivalent of the Justice League. He also has the dark, ruthless, unfettered Anti-Hero thing down pat along with a major injection of Jerkass.
  • Mannequin is inspired by Mister Freeze - a visionary scientist who turns to evil because of an attack on his family and now requires a sealed suit in order to survive. Snowmann, one of the hybrid villains Bonesaw created before Slaughterhouse Nine Thousand arc, even uses ice-based technology.
  • Alexandria's basic powerset mirrors that of Superman with the addition of superintelligence. She also shares his vulnerability to suffocation. In terms of personality however, she seems to be inspired by Ozymandias from Watchmen- A physically and mentally superior Uber Mensch who becomes convinced that they alone know how to save to world and whose unfettered pursuit of that goal causes them to become a monster. Her name may be a Shout-Out (Ozymandias mentions the Library of Alexandria in his Character Focus episode near the climax of Watchmen).
  • Legend is quite like Apollo from The Authority. A fast flyer with laser beams, is gay and Happily Married, and later adopts a child. They are also the respective Token Good Teammate of their teams.
  • Ms. Militia is a reconstruction of the Captain Patriotic.
  • Dragon is initially framed as an answer to Iron Man, but ultimately turns out to be a lot like a good version of Ultron.
    • Piggot is a rotund normal in charge of supers who doesn't like her charges. In other words, a Race Lift of Amanda Waller.
  • Velocity is a vastly scaled-down version of the Flash, complete with the predominantly red color scheme.
  • Jack Slash is pretty clearly inspired by The Joker, especially The Dark Knight Trilogy version. Bonesaw's relationship with him in some ways mirrors Harley Quinn, though Bonesaw herself takes after Franken Fran. He also has literal Joker Immunity in the form of a secondary power that simultaneously feeds him information about the psychology of his parahuman opponents, and influences the decisions of capes who are opposed to him so that they never quite manage to follow through and kill him for good.

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