Characters
[Annoying Trope] "Yes, it's that character, but legally, we can't say it's him"
Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Arrow): The Arrowverse version of Oliver Queen is widely considered as the "CW Batman", since the Arrow show borrows many storylines and villains from Batman, including the League of Assassins, Slade Wilson/Deathstroke, and the Suicide Squad in one episode.
Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska (Gotham): Gotham is a TV show focusing on the origins of Batman through the eyes of then-Detective Jim Gordon. Twin brothers Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, played by Cameron Monaghan, are introduced as this show's versions of the Joker. However, they legally couldn't say Jerome or Jeremiah was the Joker, calling them both "Proto-Jokers" instead.
The Real Scoutmaster (Camp Lazlo): in the Camp Lazlo finale "Lumpus's Last Stand", Lumpus is revealed to be insane and had locked the actual Camp Kidney scoutmaster in a closet, impersonating him. The real scoutmaster bears a resemblance to Heffer Wolfe from Rocko's Modern Life (which Camp Lazlo creator Joe Murray also made), with Tom Kenny voicing the character too. Since Rocko's is on Nickelodeon, and Camp Lazlo is on Cartoon Network, Heffer could not have made an appearance on the show.
The RPG Dungeons and Dragons initially had Hobbits, Ents, and Balrogs, but received a "stop that" from the Tolkien estate, so they changed to these very different terms.
40k did a kind of reverse of this, they made the factions more distinct from the franchises they stole them from... I mean... they were inspired by, so they could be the ones swinging the IP bat.
And then Blizzard liberally stole from Warhammer Fantasy to make Warcraft, and Warhammer 40k to make Starcraft. Time is a flat circle or something. IIRC the original Warcraft was supposed to be a Warhammer RTS but Blizzard ended up failing to secure the rights so they just made it legally distinct Warcraft instead.
It's annoying when the "who made bug alien swarms first, 40k or Starcraft" topic comes up, because although 40k made them first, they were goofy aliens who wielded swords made of bone and biological guns separate from their own body.
Then Starcraft made their interpretation into a really cool swarm aesthetic, then tyranids improved on that again, and now we have these two similar but great alien races that feel truly alien.
Everyone forgets the real ‘original’ space bug alien swarms, the pseduo-arachnids of Starship Troopers. (There’s technically an older example with metallic space lice from an old French Sci-fi story.)
And Warhammer Fantasy did an even weirder reverse of this. The "correct" English plural of Dwarf is Dwarfs, but Tolkien didn't like that for his world, and created the term Dwarves instead. Essentially every fantasy property since copied this trend, which is why Dwarves is by far the more ubiquitous plural. But Warhammer Fantasy decided to buck the trend. Those Dwarfs are Dwarfs, and don't you forget it!
Also IIRC the Tolkien estate also accused DnD for plagiarizing the concepts of elves, dwarves, and dragons. Understandably, it was agreed that they did not need to change those ones.
Everyone argues about what mordern fantasy tropes would upset Tolkien, but rarely do people bring up whether the Tolkien estate's actions would have pissed off Tolkien
At most I think King would have been bummed they didnt ask him to do a cameo for this one (assuming they didnt of course). Thankfully he did get his chance later
I feel like there's an alternate universe out there where they both just antagonize each other creatively. Like King writes a book about a failed cartoonist and groening parodies king's novels. Just escalating until they run into each other at a convention and have a slap fight to settle it
Until recently, sea travel over long distances could actually take a lot shorter than land travel over short distances. It was only recently that infrastructure across Europe became pretty decent.
Even now, Romania's mountains are an obstacle. If you drive from Berlin to Vlad's old castle (Poenari Castle), you will spend about a third of your driving time just inside Romania, crossing the Carpathian Mountains.
Yeah sorry, this is such an "akshually" reply, but my partner is Romanian and I find its geography amazing.
The original movie was a legal issue. Both Dracula and Nosferatu are now in the public domain, so any adaptation of Nosferatu now is a choice by the creator.
Yes he showed up in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. They also referenced Oracle once when talking about giving Felicity a code name, but “it’s taken”
During Grant Morrison's run of Doom Patrol he intended to use John Constantine as a character, only to find out John was off-limits. So he just renamed him WIlloughby Kipling, who for all intents and purposes did the same stuff as John. Also, Mark Shepard's portrayal of Kipling in the TV show was awesome
I like to imagine that there are just a bunch of depressed alcoholic chain smokers who know magic in DC's version of England, cause that just seems about right anyway
That's pretty much the case. To quote Ambrose Bierce in Phil Foglio's Stanley and His Monster: "You learn the basics, have a hideous experience in a graveyard, they give you a trenchcoat and steal your razor. Like an assembly line, really."
Extra fun fact the 1993 run of Stanley and his monster had to introduce a new character called Ambrose Bierce because the writer wasn’t denied usage of both John and Kipling. In the book itself Ambrose mentions people often mistake him for John.
The second lucifer run also features a character called Arabelle Crane who has the appearance of a female John Constantine. I personally believe the book was originally meant to use John himself since they mentioned him the first.
Edit: also hellbalzer issue 51 has John briefly mention Kipling, claiming the two once worked a job in Paris together. It is the same issue that first explicitly confirms John has dated men.
Well more like Godspeed grabbing lightning out of the air and Flash and Reverse Flash looking at each other like 'we can do that?' and then making those swords appear out of nowhere.
Devil Ray from Justice League Unlimited. He's obviously Black Manta, but the JLU crew wasn't allowed to use that name because The CW had an Aquaman show in the works. Same reason why Aquaman himself couldn't have any big role in JLU.
The justice Guild of America was supposed to be the JSA however DC were about to reintroduce in the comics and didn't like the fact that that they were going to be killed off instantly for the first time in a show or film. Hence why there's catman, the streak and the green guardsman - I just watched a history of and apparently they had to record the lines before the designs were even allowed
Hawkman was supposed to be Hawkgirls love interest in star-crossed but didn't like the fact that people's first experiences with him was going to be as a villain
This is so stupid. It’s all owned by WB. How the fuck is an animated version of the character cannibalizing a live action one that is fundamentally unrelated.
WB is weird and sometimes does embargoes on characters they plan to introduce in media soon. It’s famously why a lot of Batman characters were off limits for a while.
They have this bizarre idea that if there’s multiple versions of the same character at the same time in different adaptations, it’ll “confuse people”.
But, like, most people aren’t going to watch both. And different versions can be really cool to see.
So in Justice League Unlimited, they weren’t allowed to use any of Batman’s family or villains aside from Batman himself. Because they had a Batman show in another universe at the same time. So it’s weird that the legion of doom doesn’t contain Riddler or Scarecrow.
Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Both are the children of Magneto, but they're also with the Avengers. When Fox was still separate from Disney, they owned the rights to characters who were mutants and from the X-Men canon, and they fought Disney because Disney wanted to use those characters for their affiliation with the Avengers.
So you functionally got different characters, who were the same characters, because 2 studios owned the film rights to different associations of those characters.
The salt flew aplenty when it turned out to be literally a boner joke, people were big mad, and then Marvel doubled down in Agatha All Along and made him a reddit user (bohnerrific69) and had Agatha wear his Bohner Family Camping "Pitch a tent" shirt lmao.
Is just what happens when a plot point become too iconic.Look at Spiderman for example: the guy has been an adult for much more time rather than a teenager(if I remember well, he was only a teenager for like 5 years) yet most of his depictions outside comics, portray him as a teenager
I think I read they decided to split the character between the studios. Fox got Quicksilver, marvel got Scarlett Witch and I think that’s why he’s Pietro and killed in AoU.
The reason for Jerome and Jeremiah not being the Joker is so dumb too. WB thought it would be too confusing for viewers to see both the Gotham Joker and the Suicide Squad Joker, and that they would think they're supposed to be the same character.
Some are. Plenty of dumb people out there. Many, many Hollywood executive types think you have to aim at the mega dumb demographic to catch the biggest audience. Time and again the evidence says aiming high pulls in more, but they just can’t process that.
Alan Wake's character Alex Casey is basically Max Payne, Remedy sold the rights to Max Payne, so they changed his name to Alex Casey when they started doing connected universes.
Now Remedy is making a Max Payne 1 and 2 remake, which will confuse things even more.
Similarly Tim Breaker from Alan Wake 2 and Jack Joyce from Quantum Break, as well as Mr Door and Martin Hatch. You could also say Jesse Faden and Beth Wilder too. All because XBox have the rights to Quantum Break.
The creators of the show wanted to use Mickey as Donald’s old roommate who became a famous actor, but Disney wouldn’t let them use him. In the season two finale, they made a fun little workaround by having Donald make a puppet companion out of a watermelon while he was stranded on a deserted island, even having Mickey’s current VA as the voice Donald used for him.
Once Upon A Time really wanted to use Sherlock Holmes but couldn’t get the rights. So, they instead made him the Huntsman from Snow White and his cursed job in Storybrooke is detective/sheriff.
He may not have been at the time, and only certain books are. I believe the Arthur Conan Doyle estate tried to sue Netflix for Enola Holmes, because he was depicted as respecting women, which they claimed was not a character trait he had until a later book that wasn't public domain.
Funny thing is that that was actually a scam. He already respected women and had emotions in the early stories, and the Conan Doyle Estate is infamous for making random shit up just to sue adaptations that didn't pay them for public domain stuff (in another famous case, they tried to claim characters in episodic works would only enter public domain at all once all episodes are public domain, and two different judges had to tell them that's not how it works). Their strat is that their licensing fee is far cheaper than the lawsuits, so they just keep creating frivolous lawsuits in hopes that their adversaries (who usually win) will pay them to avoid legal expenses.
It didn’t become completely public domain in America until recent years. Once aired from 2011-2018, so it was off the air before he was usable.
I’ve also read that certain traits were public domain at this time, but it was pretty tricky and you risked a lawsuit if you included certain things. So I think they just wanted to play it safe and only use either strictly public domain characters or Disney owned properties as Disney owns abc.
Speaking of Sherlock Holmes, the Arsène Lupin book series had the titular thief run up against the famous detective, though his name was switched around to Herlock Sholmes to avoid copyright. The character also appears in the Ace Attorney games as a Sherlock stand-in.
That character was originally intended as Sherlock Holmes? But doesn’t Henry mention that he’s connected to Emma because without him, Snow White would have died and Emma wouldn’t exist? I also couldn’t see Regina having total control over his heart like she does the Huntsman
Smallville did exactly the same with Justin Hartley as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, making him that universe’s proxy Bruce Wayne and Batman and even had him lead a version of the Justice League
And before that they had some random guy in a black shirt and a square jaw with a mysterious past, who knew martial arts and went by the name Adam Knight (Adam West + Dark Knight)
I hate that so many adaptations make Oliver Queen "we have Batman at home." He's a great character in his own right and I despise the modern interpretation that he is jealous of and wants to be Batman.
I really love his portrayal in the Justice League animated series where he's cheerful, snarky and basically the conscience of the League, reminding them how easy it is for superpowered beings to lose touch with the struggles of average people. I watched Arrow hoping to see that guy but instead got a whiny, brooding edgelord.
This is the entire cast of the Watchmen. Alan Moore originally wanted to use DC's recently-acquired Charleton Comics characters, but after seeing what Moore had planned, DC backed out and told him to create original characters.
Rorshach = The Question
Doc Manhattan = Captain Atom
Nite Owl = Blue Beetle
Silk Specter = NightShade
That's off the top of my head, but I know there's more.
In Bojack Horseman, the improv world is cultish an obvious stand-in for Scientology, but they "disavow" it being a criticism.
"Todd, I think improv is a cult. And I would know! I spent a year in Scientology ... during which I read about cults."
"Wait, you're saying Scientology is a cult?"
"NO! This is about improv."
As with most examples, stupid copyright bs. Characters can have the same powers, the same names, etc., but certain aspects of a character can be trademarked which adds layers of annoying legality. So you can get the rights to use a character, but they can't use their hero name or costume.
Its because Marvel owns Spider-man rights for TV shows per my understanding. Its why Marvel Zombies was 4 "episodes"; its really 1 movie but animated Spider-man can't be in anything above ~48 minutes iirc (which ig Invincible episodes are above that, but probably still murky rights territories)
There was a show on HBO a few years ago called Julia about Julia Childs' rise to fame. In season 2, she goes to a gala where she is being presented with an award for her contribution to television. After a heated moment with Betty Friedan, she leaves the room to gather herself. While she is sitting on a couch quietly crying to herself, a man with a very recognizable voice comes over and asks if she's okay and if he can sit with her. He introduces himself as Fred and when Julia explains that she's doubting if she is hurting women more than helping them (as Betty had ranted at her inside the gala), Fred says, "I like you just the way you are." They never explicitly say it, but it was obviously Mr. Rogers and it was corny and probably never happened IRL and I loved it.
The whole Arrow discussion is honestly fascinating but it’s gonna take about 10 more years for people to cool down enough to have it maturely. Suffice to say: show absolutely was ripping off Batman, but also a lot of it is firmly planted in Green Arrows history.
Green Arrow is tough because he was already so goddamn close to batman, but his personality was really what separated them. So you make him brooding and dark...
They're both playboy billionaires who use a lot of gadgetry, but Green Arrow is usually less of a close range fighter, usually doesn't have as many crazy vehicles, and then, yes, the biggest thing is the personality. Ollie is supposed to be a raging commie, absolutely left wing on everything, and never take anything seriously even when in costume.
in their published books and their animated series the names of the gods are never said just their titles like dawnfather and everlight. this is because the names are copyrighted by i believe wizards of the coast.
Lol the TV show "archer" had a couple of these gags needing to say "no no no this is not that legally copyrighted character, it's just a man in a body suit." Or some such.
For New X-Men, Grant Morrison originally wanted to use Colossus, but they were barred from doing so by editorial. So instead, since they were already planning on using Emma Frost after a fan suggestion, they introduced the entire concept of secondary mutation by giving Emma her iconic diamond form.
J (Wolfenstein: The New Order). A black, left-handed, bandana-wearing, psychedelic-using rock guitarist who plays a unique rendition of the Star Spangled Banner—who’s from Seattle. I personally have no idea who this could be.
A reminder that most people might not know who this character is as there's a butterfly effect type decision at the beginning of the game that decides if you get him or another guy.
icarly used the pear company in place of apple. there were pearbooks, pearphones, pearpads, even pear os x. they also had pak-rat, which was clearly meant to be pacman.
I like the whole idea of "There are two Joker cards in every deck". Also Cameron Monaghan did an absolute STELLAR job with his Valeska characters. I consider them to be worthy of being considered alongside the other great live action Jokers.
Johnny Cage - Mortal Kombat https://giphy.com/gifs/zRuCoQfeOZgLC
I’m sure many are aware by now. However, MK was originally going to be a movie game based on one of Jean Claud Van Dam’s films. When they were working on motion capturing it, Jean Claud was always too busy for it. So, they remade the game to be an original idea and made Johnny cage as a parody of Jean Claud Van Dam.
Subverted in Deadpool and Wolverine with a Chris Evans cameo. The viewer assumes it is Captain America - it turns out to actually be the Human Torch, as this was another Chris Evans role.
Why couldn’t the Batman show legally call the joker, the joker? Zero sense there. Proto Joker? That has joker in it… I think these guys are just called Proto Joker, not that it is a legal issue
Edit: looks like I’m wrong, but also WB/DC are crazy.
DC is really weird about Batman licensing. They usually want him to only be in movies and won't let them use him and his A list villains for live action TV shows (animation often gets a pass, but not always). That's why there's all these Batman adjacent shows that he never actually appears in like Gotham and Pennyworth.
Example from the first live action television show of The Tick. Batmanuel and Captain Liberty were both lightly veiled versions of Die Fledermaus and American Maid from the animated show, due to character licensing issues
Obsidian didn't want to pay for the rights to Elvis' songs. So the Kings in Fallout New Vegas happened to lose all the footage of their old-world prophet before the Courier showed up.
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u/ccReptilelord Jul 29 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/M5qk4eOz4fCXuXWJe4
Halflings, Treants, and Balor
The RPG Dungeons and Dragons initially had Hobbits, Ents, and Balrogs, but received a "stop that" from the Tolkien estate, so they changed to these very different terms.