Draft:Original character

Definitions and Terminology (Finished)
The term original character varies.

It can refer to a character that was created by a fan. In fan fiction it is usually defined as a non-canonical character created by the author. An original character can also be used to refer to any fictional character.

OC is used as an acronym for the term original character. There are also acronyms like OMC (acronym for original male character) and OFC (acronym for original female character).

(The remainder of the article is gonna go by the acronyms to prevent it from being unnecessarily long and keeping it consistent.)

By subculture (Finished)
OCs are used in various subcultures from the Star Wars fandom, Harry Potter fandom, furry fandom, and other subcultures.

OCs play a big part in the Sonic fandom. There are character-designing tools on sites like Newgrounds where fans can create their own sonic OC. Takashi Iizuka said the character customization system in Sonic Forces was influenced by the Sonic community's tendency to create such characters.

Cosplayers create these characters based on their imaginations, fan fiction, and other works. For cosplayers OCs can give them a larger range of choices of characters to cosplay as. While some members of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom use MLP OCs (My Little Pony original character) as personas.

In fan fiction (Not done)
An OC can service as a protagonist or as a minor character in a story. A writer might add another author's OC into their own work.

An OC can provide a different point of view to a fictional universe. For instance, a fan fiction author can create an OC that is a student at one of Hogwarts’s rival schools.

There has been some debates online whether or not writers should make their OCs suffer or not.

Mary Sue (potential sub section, pending name)
Everything in this section is merely a potential source for now.

''potentials sources about Mary Sue and OC. ''

''(Potential claim for article. Can’t access the entire at the moment. Book is talking about Lois McMaster Bujold, the section I cited has Original character.) In fan fiction OCs particularly OFCs have been called out as being Mary Sues. But scholars like Una McCormack and Regina Yung Lee have argued that an additional character might reveal more about other characters. ''

Theft (potential section, title pending)
All the sources here are potential sources.

OC do not steal (will access full book later). Story of artist claiming Fortnite stole their OC.

Unknown section (have no idea what to do with this stuff.)
potential sources.

On forums.

OCs can also be used in fan art.