Replacement Goldfish / Fan Works

• Alicorn has a complicated example in Twilight Sparkle. Celestia considers her Like a Daughter to Me and took her on as an apprentice only a few years after having a daughter whom she gave up for adoption. Celestia loves both Twilight and her daughter, Rainbow Dash, dearly, but it's hard to deny that there was an element of this trope in her decision to take on Twilight as a student. The fact that Twilight was born with a horn while Rainbow was not does not help her case either.
• Pokéumans: Any person that transforms into a Pokeuman, whether they get rescued by the good guys or captured by the bad guys, is replaced by an identical clone with the same memories as the person they replaced, so that even they think they are the real one.
• In Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash, Hagrid apparently got a bridge dropped on him, because Dumbledore ceremoniously knights a pig with these words: "You are Hagrid now."
• In World in Pieces an alternate-universe Draco Malfoy tries to turn the Rowling-universe Harry into a replacement for his boyfriend, the late alternate-Harry. Canon Harry strongly objects.
• In A Marauder's Plan McGonagall tells Harry she'd never been suspicious about "Scabbers"' longevity because she assumed Ron's parents were carrying out this trope, admitting that her own parents did it with her.
  ..."I got a pet fish called Bubbles when I was five. I loved watching Bubbles swim around in her fish-bowl. My mother told me later in life that there were actually twenty different Bubbles until I was the one who found her dead one morning rather than my parents."
  "Oh." Harry suddenly remembered the goldfish Dudley had won one year at the town fair. It had died rather quickly and his Aunt Petunia had replaced it with an identical looking goldfish. Obviously Dudley had gotten bored soon after and when that one had died, it hadn't been replaced.
• After Fratello's death, Brain builds a replacement Fratello in My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic III.
• Ichigo from Getting it Right has a real problem with this, since he's secretly from an Alternate Universe and often feels inferior to the version of himself that he replaced, which isn't helped by how he lacks a lot of the original's experiences and personality. Everyone who's met him and knows the truth, however, is of the opinion that all of the most important things about them are the same, and that he has just as much worth as the original.
• In Fixing What Has Been Broken the real Harry Potter died at birth and a distraught James kidnapped one of a set of twins from the St. Mungo's nursery and charmed the baby to look like him and Lily.
• In The Vanishing Cabinet of Time Amelia asks Dumbledore why he was never suspicious about "Scabbers"' extra-long lifespan.
  Dumbledore: Parents have secretly replaced dead or lost pets with identical ones for many years. My brother had a goldfish when he was a young boy. He never knew that it was in fact three different fish representing the same pet.
  Amelia: That may be. But this rat had a distinct injury - a missing finger. Are you telling me Arthur and Molly were cruel enough to cut off rats' toes?
• In Accepting the Truth James and Lily tell Harry that they never had kids while they were in hiding because they felt it would have been an instance of this trope.
• Pony POV Series: Onyx Tiara/Filthy Rich started having one night stands with mares who resembled his wife Golden Tiara to ease the loneliness and depression he felt because his wife is in the insane asylum and seems incurable. He eventually realized his behavior was inappropriate and stopped. One of his one night stands, his maid Shiny Star, fell in love with him and attempted to continue the affair, but he firmly told her no and she listened.
• In Loved and Lost, Prince Jewelius intentionally sets himself up as one for Twilight Sparkle. He treats her with more kindness than everypony else and stays by her side even when she's abandoned at the wedding rehearsal, and after he has the other heroes framed for the Changeling invasion and banished away, he convinces her that they never really cared about her and offers her a new purpose in life as his apprentice and soon-to-be bride, leaving her none the wiser that he's the real manipulator who just wants a loyal broodmare and is willing to arrange for her death should he find a more powerful unicorn mare to seduce. By the time one week has passed, she has accepted his proposal to become his queen and turns hostile towards the dishonored heroes. However, she gradually stops being angry at her former loved ones and decides to mend fences with them as well as convince Jewelius to reconcile with his usurped royal family... and once she discovers for herself how much of a sociopath he actually is, she severs all ties with him and flees to Ponyville where she reconciles once and for all with her friends, brother, and mentor.
• The Time Fixers: Nicktoons of the Future story "Dayscare" has SpongeTron do this with Junior after Max goes to daycare by treating Junior like a baby that needs to be taken care of every minute of the day. Darry's analysis of the situation says it all.
  Darry: Obviously, SpongeTron misses Max, more importantly he misses the feel of being needed. Thus, he directs this behavior towards the youngest of our group, which is [Junior], to cope with his loss.
• In the Peter Parker Needs A Hug series, Peter ends up in another city that's filled with crime and supervillains (going from New York to Gotham), and is yet again taken in by a genius crime-fighting billionaire (instead of Tony Stark/Iron Man, it's Bruce Wayne/Batman). However, he tries to avoid this trope, as he's just lost everyone he's ever cared about (Tony and May are dead, everyone else doesn't remember him) and feels that trying to restart his life would mean disrespecting their memory. Bruce understands, helping him through the grieving process and bringing him into the Bat family.
• In The Powerpuff Girls Dark Fic Unstrung, Buttercup dies on a mission. Several days later, an obsessed Blossom tries to revive her in order to kill her and transplant Buttercup's memories into her. She creates a replica of Buttercup at five years old however can't bare to kill her. The girl doesn't have Buttercup's memories. Blossom decides to raise her as a little sister named Ashley. Ashley is overly violent due to being created using Buttercup's ashes and ends up killing a man on her first attempt at crime-fighting. She kills herself the same day.
• In Harry Potter: Neko's Mate Alastor Moody questions Percy about "Scabbers"' longevity.
  Moody: And this is the same rat which has been in your possession all this time? It isn't possible that your parents switched out rats to fool you, because your original rat died? Some parents do that with hamsters and goldfish.
• Fade: Beyond Birthday's desire to save Light from L (and his implied crush on him) is motivated by Light's similarities with the late A.
• Naruto fanfics that portray Kakashi as training Sasuke while ignoring Naruto and Sasuke tend to have the reason being that Kakashi sees Sasuke as and is trying to make him into his not really dead childhood friend/teammate Obito.
• In Ambience: A Fleet Symphony, Hatsuyuki's late head developer modelled her appearance after The Lost Lenore. She called him out on this, calling it pathetic and creepy, like making his own blow-up doll. These were the last words she ever got to say to him, and she wishes to present day that they could have parted on more amiable terms.
• Callaghan from Bruises decides to kidnapp Hiro Hamada to replace his daughter Abigail, forcing the kid to cut his hair like her, dress like her and pretend he enjoys the same things as her. This is just as creepy as it sounds.
• In Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, Brainy becomes this after Empath's mother loses her first son to her husband (Papa Smurf) bringing him to Psychelia only to be (supposedly) killed by the Psyche Master, though she ends up having Brainy through another Smurf that she loved. Years later, Papa Smurf adopts Brainy as his own son when his estranged wife dies.
• A wand for Steven: Hermione is somewhat this for Steven, replacing Connie after being forced to leave her behind in their home universe.
• It's explained in the Q&A for TRULY OUTRAGEOUS: A Jem Fan Film! that Emmett created Synergy in his dying wife's image because he knew he'd miss Jacqui.
• Discussed and Defied in Relight the Fire. Chapter 14 has Marshall bring up the subject of a replacement for him if he didn't return (which Rocky said would make him sick in Chapter 4). Everyone is immediately enraged at the idea of replacing Marshall, and Chase explains that no matter how hard they tried, they'd never be able to get along with a replacement for a pup that they were incredibly close to, because that same pup would be completely unable to fill the void that Marshall would have left behind.
• Discussed in the Glinda/Nessarose Wicked oneshot Trusting In Faith. Nessarose worries that Glinda is just using her as a replacement for her runaway sister Elphaba, but Glinda tells her that she can love them both without issue.
• In the Return of the Guardians trilogy, the many "knights" Mother Nature aka Empress Natellusia made her Number Two over millennia were attempts to fill the void left by her beloved father, Kozmotis. Whenever one felt short of his role, Lusie would dump him and look for a new one. The last knight, Gallant the Stag, realized this, and chose to trade his life in a Heroic Sacrifice so Kozmotis could return to his daughter.
• In Amazing Fantasy, the universe-displaced Peter Parker, the father of one Mayday Parker, wonders if he's using the newly spider-powered Izuku as this. He acts fatherly to Izuku despite knowing him for less than a day, offering an Affectionate Gesture to the Head on multiple occasions and gets his Heroic Second Wind to protect Izuku from the Prowler.
• In Forever Evil, Owlman is unable to accept his sidekick Talon's death to such a degree he abducted Dick Grayson and tried to recreate his beloved substitute son, using gaslighting, basic brainwashing and mind-wiping drugs to do so.
• In My Master Ed, after realizing how much they look alike, Hohenheim asks if Ed bought him as a stand-in for his late brother. Ed immediately denies it.
• Warriors Rewrite: Fernshade's son Badgerkit was made into an apprentice several months too early and was killed in battle. In her grief, she took in Eaglekit, a WindClan kit that ShadowClan stole, in the belief that he was a reincarnation of her son. Fernshade's Sanity Slippage is so bad that she threatens to kill anyone who gets between her and "Badgerkit", which leads to her being exiled.
• In the Pokémon one-shot Take for Granite, after Byron loses his only son Roark in a mine collapse, he uses a fossil revival machine and DNA from Roark's remains to make a genetic clone of him, a baby he names Cargan. To deflect questions about where the child came from, he raises Cargan as his grandson and makes up the story that Roark was dating some girl and got her pregnant before his death. It's implied that Riley doesn't believe him, but keeps quiet.
• The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fic "Palinopsia" analyses a variation of this when circumstances result in Jadzia Dax being brought back to life through a transporter accident months after the Dominion War. This reinforces Ezri's own feelings that she only became friends with the rest of the station crew because they were hanging on to what was left of Jadzia rather than liking her for herself, but O'Brien's first stop after trying to explain what has happened to Jadzia is to visit Ezri and assure her that he's glad to have both of the people he cares about back in his life, affirming that he considers Ezri a friend in her own right.
• The Monsters University Alternate Universe fanfic A Sinister Mind (part of a series of AU stories written by Crazybird 101) reveals that Johnny Worthington had a childhood friend named Marcus, who eventually became his lover. He was a lizard with crimson scales, red eyes, and four fronds. Marcus is forced to leave his abusive aunt and move to a different home, and Johnny doesn't see him for years. When the events of the movie come around, Johnny meets Randy Boggs, who looks almost like Marcus.
• In the Bleach fanfic series Heirverse,Orihime for Jac in Heir, Aizen attempts to invoke this with Momo in cwst it fails. Badly
• Used briefly in the Cartoon X-Over fanfic The Sinners and Their Saints. One of the main characters Steven Universe develops an unrequited love for a girl named Narine Lennox who rejects him in favor of her husband. A hundred years later he falls for vampire slayer Connie Maheswaran who returns his feelings.
• The Flower Princess and the Alchemist: Deconstructed. It becomes very apparent that Edward and Orihime have feelings for each other. However, Orihime is still in love with Ichigo, which causes a rift in their relationship with Orihime sometimes seeing Ichigo in Ed. Orihime is afraid of betraying her feelings for Ichigo and feels extremely guilty and upset when she commits an act, which she constitutes as "cheating". Orihime thinking about Ichigo makes Ed feel hurt, jealous, and insecure that he won't be able to live up to the expectations of her First Love. Overall, her indecisiveness causes both her and Ed plenty of heartbreak. Orihime needs to sort out her feelings for both Ichigo and Edward before she can properly pursue a relationship with the latter.
• In Ultra Fast Pony, Princess Celestia has a weird, one-sided crush on the purple unicorn Twilight Sparkle. In the episode "Saying Words", the purple (maned) unicorn Rarity visits the palace, and Celestia is convinced that Rarity is deliberately angling to become Twilight's replacement. Celestia is not remotely happy about this.
  Celestia: You know, you can't replace her. You're only part purple. She's purple everywhere, you're just your hair. You think that's good enough? Just the hair? It's not.
• In Shadamy Comic, Shadow plans on "reviving" his best friend and sister figure Maria into the body of an artificially created Mobian hedgehog. Maria has been dead over 50 years, but her memories and personality were stored on a disc. It wouldn't be the real Maria but it'd be a close approximation.
• In Alterity, after Bristle dies, Robin immediately catches another Pokémon of the same species and names them Bristle 2.0, claiming that they were "just sleeping!"^note ...in several pieces.
• According to Tyrion Lannister in The White Wolf of Westeros, Jamie sees Geralt as something of a replacement towards his deceased idol, Arthur Dayne.
• In In the Son's Image Harry's aunt and uncle get a divorce and his uncle gets custody of Harry's cousin Dudley. After they leave, Harry's aunt moves him into Dudley's bedroom and makes him wear Dudley's clothes and eat Dudley's favorite foods.
• Very frequent in Sakura's Glasses. The first case Uchiha elders adoring Sakura as she comes over to help them with their everyday needs as Obito had, with them giving her his orange goggle on her. While Sakura does appreciate being valued, she can't help but feel upset at the idea of being a replacement.
  • When Obito meets her in the monument, he starts to train her as his pawn due to her similarities to Rin. However, a future chapter reveals he slowly falls in love with her for real.
  • Following the Uchiha Massacre, Sakura starts to help Sasuke with everyday things such as lunch or even given her own test answers as his, as a way of coping without the elders or Tobi. After Sasuke yells at her, thinking she is pitying him for the death of his clan, Sakura's Inner confronts her about her actions, making her realize she's been treating him the same way the Elders and Obito have been treating her. This leads her to lose her crush on Sasuke and treat him as a close friend like Naruto.
• Shards of a Memory: Karai seems to have this opinion of April, recognizing the mother/daughter relationship Shard has with her and resenting her after a lifetime of thinking that Tang Shen willfully abandoned her.
• to love another (and to learn yourself) has Luo Binghe abducting Shen Yuan because he cannot have Shen Qingqiu and thinks his alternate counterpart would do as a substitute. Part of his Character Development includes understanding and accepting that Shen Yuan is a different individual and that's not a bad thing.
• In A Small Thing Harry, Ron and Hermione take turns replacing Neville's toad Trevor with a brand new one whenever the previous toad expires.
• In The Concubine Mo Chronicles, Lan Xichen and Nie Huaisang are shown believing Lan Wangji took a concubine because he saw Wei Wuxian in Mo Xuanyu and is now trying to recreate his Lost Lenore through a perfected substitute. Nie Huaisang openly (if shyly) expresses how unhealthy this is, while Lan Xichen acknowledges forcing Mo Xuanyu to live as someone else is unfair and borderline abusive. Lan Wangji doesn't correct them, as explaining that 'Mo Xuanyu' actually is Wei Wuxian returned to life would just start a war.
• Defied in BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant. Ragna is completely aware of Noel's resemblance to Saya, but he chooses to ignore it and keep his distance, as he wants to see Noel as her own person and not a copy of the sister he hasn't seen in years and likely won't see again.
• Heroic Myth: Gilgamesh meets alternate universe versions of his parents Ninsun and Lugalbanda. Though they are different in looks and experiences and don't have children, he becomes very fond of them and all three of them end up bonding.
• In Hermione's choice Amelia Bones comments that when she was a child she had a pet snail called Slimy which was actually several different snails.
• Deconstructed in Later, Traitor. It ends up getting revealed that Pepper's puppet Salty Sally is this, made as a replacement for her young daughter who drowned a long time ago. Pepper refused to move on from the original Sally's death and treated the puppet like it was her own daughter. Only when Frazie opens her eyes to how unhealthy this coping mechanism is, Pepper puts Sally away and begins to move on.
• P1 Crypter: During the Epic of Remnant section from Kadoc's series, Kadoc tries to partner with the other Caster servants contracted to Ritsuka in an effort to overcome the Heroic Sacrifice of his original Servant Mephistopheles.
• Deconstructed in A wish for a different life, where Lila's wish to swap her and Adrien's lives has the additional effect of Luka and Juleka being choosen for the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses. Plagg, who remembers the old timeline and missed his old holder, initially tries to act like he does with Adrien when it came to Juleka. The problem is that Juleka and Adrien have entirely different personalities and childhood, which put a strain on Juleka and Plagg's dynamic and at one point leads Juleka to get akumatized as Refleckta when Plagg was acting callous to her photo-curse plight. After Luka as Scarlet Beetle manages to save his sister, Plagg starts to open up to Juleka and be more cordial as her partner.
• Cross Ange The Knight Of Hilda: Defied and averted by Rio. After finding out his friend Sarah died years before he could come to rescue her from Arzenal, Rio is hesitant to pursue a relationship with Hilda because he doesn't want to see her as a replacement and feels she deserves better. Later, by the time they have their Relationship Upgrade proper, he realizes just how different the two of them are from each other and makes it clear that he does indeed love Hilda as her own person.
• Anderson Quest: Killing Vampires and Werewolves and Leprechauns, after metting Lady Maria, Alexander Anderson confronts Gehrman and forces him to explain his reasons for creating the Plain Doll. Breaking and sobbing, Gehrman admits he wanted a replacement for Maria, to the point of spending weeks making what should be a perfect double, but when bringing her to life, the result was a meek, quiet copy with only some passing resemblance in her mannerisms, keeping Gehrman in the horrible limbo of hating her for being so different from what he hoped/expected, his own self-loathing at what he wanted to get, and his elation at the brief moments when he sees something of Lady Maria in her.
• A particularly disturbing example in the Death Note fanfic "Frankenstein Smiles, Only Once": L is a robot built to replace Lawliet, who committed suicide because of Watari's sexual abuse