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500 Manga Creatures, a book that purported to provide manga clipart, might as well have been named "300 Manga Creatures Plus 200 Potential Lawsuits from Game Freak" thanks to its inclusion of somewhat obvious examples of this trope applied to the Pokémon franchise.Asuka herself is a Tetsuya Tsurugi Captain Ersatz. There also are several Asuka Langley Soryu knockoffs (such like Dancougar Nova main character).There's so many Rei Ayanami knockoffs, tropes sites had to make a trope out of it.The Bombadier, a Large Ham Napoleonic Wars soldier played by Rik Mayall in adverts for Bombadier Real Ale, is what Lord Flashheart would have been if he'd appeared in Blackadder the Third, except he says "Bang on!" rather than "Woof!" Mayall even uses the same voice.
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The Kroffts (who had turned down an earlier request from McDonald's to license the Pufnstuf characters for advertising) sued and won, forcing McDonald's to not only pay damages, but to dramatically retool McDonaldLand.

If this happens enough, it can result in an extremely obvious variation of a Fountain of Expies. May be a result of having someone Exiled From Continuity, though it has to be a formal exile. The same doesn't hold true for Anime & Manga parodies though, which often resort to Captain Ersatzes when the parody character is more than a background cameo.Ĭontrast Writing Around Trademarks, where the similarity was unplanned and unwanted Expy, where a character is very similar to but not obviously supposed to be another character, and Suspiciously Similar Substitute, who replaces an existing original in the same continuity. Sometimes multiple characters will be distilled into one, creating a Composite Character. They also (usually) aren't found in Fanfic: that Sailor Earth is a Copy Cat Sue (and they can just outright use a Crossover). This character tends to evolve into their own direction if they make later appearances.Ĭaptain Ersatzes are somewhat rare in American parody, as their copyright law allows use of the original characters in parody.


At other times, they are used as parodies or Take Thats against the original characters they're based on (and possibly the company who owns them).ĭone when an artist or writer wants to use a character but for whatever reason isn't allowed to at the present time, especially due to uncertainty of ownership, or else certainty that that character is trademarked into someone else's continuity and isn't going to be loaned out.
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Sometimes, these characters are used as affectionate Shout-Outs to a series or creator that may have inspired them. Just as someone who wants to incorporate a Wal-Mart into a story but can't manage the Product Placement might use " Box Mart," a person who wants to write Captain Original, but can't because a rival comic company owns the trademark, will create Captain Ersatz. This character's design is a mix of legal issues and homage. The character equivalent of a Bland-Name Product.
