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A fan character (sometimes called "original characters" or "OCs") is a character that is based off of a franchise, series, or other piece of existing media property, but is not a canon character. Fan characters are usually of a species unique to that property's universe, and/or they may be designed in a way that is similar to canonical characters, or drawn in a style specific to that media.

Tagging Notes

• Important: "Original Character" is aliased to this tag, which may create some confusion:
• Wholly original characters — that is, most "traditional" furry characters that are not explicitly linked to an existing piece of media, should NOT be tagged as fan_character. Even if a "traditional" original character is interacting with characters of a media property, they should not be tagged as a fan character.
• A post containing a fan character should always include the franchise they are based off of.
• A character cosplaying as a character from a media property (and is not intended to be a character in that property's universe), should not be tagged as fan_character.

Fan characters can range in how "close" to the source material they are — they may be characters that are very faithful to the visual style of the media, they may be explicitly shown inhabiting the setting of the world they are based off of, possibly drawn interacting with canonical characters, and/or engaging in activities that are part of that media (e.g. a Pokémon fan character who engages in battles similar to that of the Pokémon franchise).

In other cases, fan characters may have designs or be drawn in styles that diverge from the source material (this is especially the case with fan characters who are anthrofied versions of canonically feral species), and of be shown in settings entirely unrelated to the canon material while still clearly appearing to be a fan character.

Fan characters may be fandom interpretations of canonical characters (fan canon, or "fanon" characters), or fan characters that have taken on a life beyond their initial creator and become a popular subject of fan art and media (this is especially common within the My Little Pony fandom).

Popular Sources of Fan Characters

^{Fan characters are commonly based on these popular media properties}

• My Little Pony
• While most MLP fan characters are specifically based off of Friendship is Magic, that tag is reserved for canon characters
• Pokémon
• See Fakemon for entirely fan made Pokémon species that are designed to resemble canonical Pokémon
• Animal Crossing
• Digimon
• Lilo & Stitch
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Splatoon
• Undertale
• Warriors
• Often go untagged due to the characters being feral cats, check the tags on the source when uploading!
• Most recognizable by the compound naming system used in the series.
• Zootopia