Derivative Works

"This might be that film you saw or the song stuck in your head.
Or this might be that novel that already read.
Well the point is that you won't have to think at all during this show
It's Something You Already Know!"

— Rob Paravonian, Something You Already Know

Nothing could be more natural than following up on a success. And sometimes, nothing could be harder. This page is for all kinds of sequels, prequels, translations, adaptations and spin-offs that attempt to do that, and the ways in which they succeed or fail.

See also Continuity Tropes and Localization Tropes.

Tropes and trivia

• The Abridged Series: A shortened adaptation with humorous dubbing.
• Adaptation Amalgamation: An adaptation that mixes two or more works.
• Adaptational Abomination: An adaptation makes a character an Eldritch Abomination.
• Actionized Adaptation: An adaptation has more action scenes than the original.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade
• Adaptational Attractiveness: An adaptation makes a character better-looking.
• Adaptational Badass: A character is more powerful or tough in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: A character is more comedic in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Context Change
• Adaptational Diversity: An adaptation alters the cast of its source material to represent more cultural groups.
• Adaptational Dumbass: A character is stupider in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Explanation: The adaptation provides an explanation for something that wasn't explained in the original.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: A character's hairstyle is noticeably changed in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Heroism: A character is more heroic in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Intelligence: A character is smarter in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Jerkass: A character is more of a jerk in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Mundanity: An adaptation is less fantastical than the source material.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: A character is nicer in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Seriousness: A character is more serious in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Sympathy: An adaptation makes a character more sympathetic.
• Adaptational Timespan Change: An adaptation changes the timeframe.
• Adaptational Ugliness: An adaptation makes a character more hideous.
• Adaptational Villainy: A character is more villainous in an adaptation.
• Adaptational Wimp: A character is weaker or less capable in an adaptation.
• Adaptation Displacement: The adaptation becomes more well-known than the source material.
• Adaptation Distillation: The adaptation omits some of the source material in order to tell the story in a more limited time frame.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: An adaptation changes a character's hair and/or eye color.
• Adaptation Expansion: An adaptation that added a lot more flesh than the source material. Tends to happen when short children's books gets remade into feature-length movies, or a film below two hours of runtime gets expanded into more than ten episodes.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The adaptation isn't going to bother explaining stuff from the source material, under the assumption that audiences would already figure out any missing pieces by themselves.
• Adaptation First: The adaptation is released first before the original came out.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: It made sense in the original source material, not so much in the adaptation.
• Adaptation Inspiration
• Adaptation Name Change: A character has a different name in an adaptation.
• Adaptation Overdosed: A source material can be adapted into plenty of different forms. Turning a comic book into a cartoon, movie, TV series, video game, graphic novel, back to a comic...
• Adaptation Personality Change: A character's personality is significantly different in an adaptation.
• Adaptation Sequence
• Adaptation Species Change: A character is a different species in an adaptation.
• Adaptation Title Change: An adaptation of a work has a different title than the source material.
• Adapted Out: A character or plot element from the original work is omitted in the adaptation.
• After Show
• Animated Adaptation: An animated remake of a non-animated work. Manga-to-Anime doesn't count.
• Ascended Extra: A minor character is given a more important role.
• Ascended Fan Fic: A work that started out as a fanfiction of another story becomes an original work.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: The adaptation greatly influences the original work in the eyes of the audience.
• Based on an Advice Book
• Canon Fodder
• Cipher Scything
• Comic-Book Adaptation: A work is adapted into a Sequential Art or Comic medium.
• Compilation Movie: Clips from a series gets edited together (may or may not include original footage) into becoming a feature-length film.
• Composite Character: Two or more characters from the original source are merged into one.
• Compressed Adaptation: Cramming a reasonably lengthy source material into a much, much shorter adaptation, like a twenty-episode TV show quashed into a movie less than two hours.
• Continuity Reboot: An installment of the franchise that ignores the canon of the previous installments in favor of establishing a new continuity.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: The main character of a sequel is a foil to the main character of the original.
• Creator-Driven Successor: A creator makes a work that shares elements of one of their previous works without being a true sequel.
• Creator-Preferred Adaptation: The creator of the original work finds the adaptation to be better than their original creation.
• Creator's Apathy: The creator admits that they didn't care about the quality of the work.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Sequels to a video game with Multiple Endings only regard one ending as canon.
• Death by Adaptation: The adaptation kills off a character who remained alive in the original work.
• Derivative Differentiation
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: The way a character dies in the adaptation is different from how they died in the original work.
• Disowned Adaptation: The creator of the original work dislikes the adaptation.
• Distaff Counterpart: The female equivalent of a pre-existing male character (the reverse of this would be a Spear Counterpart)
• Divorced Installment: A work originally planned as part of a specific franchise ends up retooled into being its own thing.
• Dolled-Up Installment: Slapping a franchise onto an initially unrelated product.
• Dramatic Reading: A recording of a written work being read dramatically.
• Early Adaptation Weirdness: Related to Early-Installment Weirdness, something seems a little off regarding the character as portrayed in their debuts compared to later installments.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A character makes a brief appearance before being properly introduced later within the work or within their own story.
• Era-Specific Personality
• External Retcon
• Fairy Tale Episode
• Fan Fic: A story based on a work of fiction written by a fan of the work and posted online.
• Fan Music
• Fan Verse
• Fanon: Fans' interpretations of what isn't confirmed within the work or by the work's creators.
• Fan-Work Ban: Fan-made content is forbidden.
• Fiction Science: Real Life science is used to examine fictional works.
• Filk Song
• Film Comic: Photo Comic based on some other media.
• The Film of the Series: A film adaptation of a television series.
• Follow the Leader: A successful work inspires numerous similar works (end results vary).
• Foreign Remake: A remake of the source material... in another country. May or may not violate copyright.
• Franchise Killer: A poorly-received adaptation or sequel prevents any further installments from being made.
• Frankenslation
• From the Ashes: A fictional work's ending is the starting point of a Spin-Off.
• Gag Dub
• Gag Sub
• Game Mod
• The Game of the Book: An adaptation of a book in game-form.
• Gendered Outfit
• Gender Flip: An adaptation changes the gender of a character.
• Genre-Killer
• God Created Canon Foreigner: An adaptation features a new character created by the creator of the original work.
• Human-Focused Adaptation: Source materials that focused on the cute animals/mons/critters are now shifted to focus on the human characters instead.
• Humble Beginnings
• Indecisive Medium
• In the Style of
• Inspired by…: A work that draws influence from another work in terms of plot, characters, themes etc. but isn't a direct adaptation.
• Literary Mash-Ups
• Live-Action Adaptation: A live-action adaptation of a non-live-action work.
• Live on Stage!: A show, often temporary in nature with a small budget, adapting a work.
• Lost in Imitation: An adaptation is influenced more by previous adaptations than the original work.
• Mission-Pack Sequel
• More Popular Spin Off: The spinoff becomes more successful than the show it is derived from.
• Movie Bonus Song
• Non-Linear Sequel: A sequel that doesn't directly take place after the previous entry of the series.
• On Ice
• Original Generation
• The Original Series
• Pacified Adaptation: An adaptation is less action-filled than the original.
• Parody
• Pastiche
• Patchwork Story
• Perspective Flip: An adaptation that tells the story from perspective of a different character than the original.
• Plot Tumor: A sub-plot that takes up way too much away from the main plot.
• P.O.V. Sequel: An episode is given a follow-up where the episode's events are shown from another character's perspective.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The adaptation changes or omits elements from the original story that would be difficult or impossible to leave as they were in the source material.
• Prequel: A series installment that takes place before the first installment.
• Quietly Performing Sister Show
• Reboot Snark: Making fun of the abundance of derivative works, especially remakes or reboots.
• Recurring Fanon Character
• Recursive Adaptation: An adaptation is given its own adaptation in the medium of the original work.
• Recursive Import
• Recycled: The Series
• Recycled with a Gimmick
• Redubbing
• Reimagining the Artifact
• Remade and Improved: A remake that is considered better than the original.
• Remade for the Export: A game that never got an overseas release gets a remake that actually does get released internationally.
• The Remake: Because audiences like the original, why not give it another stab?
• Remake Cameo: The reboot features a cameo by one of the actors from the original version of the work.
• Remix Comic
• Revival: A show that ended its run some time ago is renewed for more episodes.
• The Role-Playing Game: An RPG inspired by a specific fictional work.
• Running the Asylum
• Same Story, Different Names
• Sequel in Another Medium: The Sequel Hook of this movie is followed up on in a TV show. Can apply for all mediums, of course.
• Setting Update: Same story, different era. Usually by moving an older source material to the present time of the adaptation.
• Shot for Shot Remake: Compare the adaptation with the source material. What do you mean, they didn't change a damn thing?
• Soft Reboot: A series installment that has the aesthetic of a reboot, but still regards older installments as canon.
• Spared by the Adaptation: A character who died in the original work remains alive in the adaptation.
• Spinoff: A show that exists in the same continuity of an older show and often shares some characters with it.
• Spinoff Babies: An adaptation starring younger versions of the original show's cast.
• Spin-Off Cookbook: A cook book consisting of recipes for food used in the work the cook book is based on.
• Spin-Offspring: The show gets a sequel starring the children of the characters from the original show.
• Spinoff Sendoff: A character in the original show who is to star in the spinoff gets one last time to shine before the spinoff starts.
• Spiritual Antithesis: A work that is basically the polar opposite of another work, sometimes intentionally.
• Spiritual Successor: A work that isn't a direct continuation of a previous work, but still has enough similarities that it can be taken as a continuation of the original work in spirit.
• Stations of the Canon: Anchor points that are consistent across different continuities, fanfic or official.
• Stealth Sequel: A work that appears to be a new continuity turns out to be a subtle prequel or sequel to the original version.
• Stillborn Franchise: A work is intended to start a franchise, but isn't successful enough to warrant further installments.
• Suggested by...
• The Theme Park Version
• Third-Option Adaptation: An adaptation of an interactive work has a new choice made to go around deciding which of the choices the protagonist makes in the adaptation.
• Twice-Told Tale: You think you know this very well-known story... but you've never heard it told like this.
• Two-Part Trilogy: The first part tells its own story, and audiences liked it. So let's turn the whole thing into a trilogy by making the second and third installments interconnected.
• Whole-Plot Reference
• Xenafication: Let's inject some testosterone into a Girly Girl in the source material and turn her into an ass-kicking Action Girl in the adaptation.
• You Don't Look Like You: An adaptation has a character look drastically different from the appearance they are normally depicted with.
• Younger and Hipper