I've been thinking about whether 'ripping off' or taking inspiration from something can turn into its own distinct thing. I recently read Rikki-oh, which is very blatantly ripping off Fist of the North Star. The protagonist is a strong, mostly silent badass who uses ancient Chinese martial arts that gives him essentially superpowers, he has a special scar on his torso from a wound and his initial goal is to save his girlfriend. However, after reading both both Rikki-Oh and Fist of the North Star, Rikki-oh very quickly becomes its own thing. yes it took a lot, but it actually has a more concise story, in my opinion, the world is different and its gore became more creative.
Warhammer 40k is another larger example that very blatantly took inspiration from Dune (God Emperor, technological stagnation after the AI robot uprising, space feudalism and massive cultural deviation between people's), Foundation (psykers), Judge Dredd (hive cities and Arbites), and with a hint of Michael Moorcock (Chaos gods). However, after decades of what may have been copy-pasting all these element formed to become their own thing and are now distinct from their original inspirations. Take the Necrons for example; they were originally space terminators, but as their lore expanded (taking inspiration from the fantasy counterpart, the Tomb Kings), they became a tragically sort of species. born as essentially cancer-ridden humanoids with a strict social system who sought escape and were tricked by a wicked entity's to lose their flesh and personhood, with the Imperium, it's God Emeopeor relgion is more similar to the ancient Aztecs rather then anything Dune and the Eldar, went from genetic Elves in space to what were essentially a tall cat-like humanoid bioweapons that ruled the galaxy for 60 million years and fell into such extreme decadence and degeneracy that they essentially created a god of decadence and degeneracy that ultimately destroyed them all. Now, they exist as galactic nomad ninjas. There's a good chance that many of the writers for Warhammer 40k lore have not actually read any of the original material 40k took inspiration from, they perceive it as its own distinct product.
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