I mean, I'll be the first to admit it, loud and clear, that I [i]do[/i] re-use and tweak and continuously re-work characters from one setting/RP to another. Okay, so maybe it's cheap and lazy, but guess what? So am I. Sue me.

But the thing is, I've found that a character highkey copy-pasted from one RP to another usually ends up taking a life of their own, if that makes sense? Like, I made a steampunk version of a character I've used [i]many[/i] times a few years ago, and she's really just...become almost an entirely new character, in a sense, barring FC similarities. In my mind, although the 2 characters came from the same place, they are pretty distinct [s]even though I'm a lazy POS and their personality write-ups are probably 80% the same[/s]. Point is-recycling characters doesn't necessarily mean that they end up being carbon copies of each other, and can lead to greater development and understanding of [i]both[/i] versions in the process (the scenario I've given being a prime example, for me)

Also, I think that character "categories", "templates", "tropes" are 100% valid. Case in point: I write a lot of femme fatale-esque characters. But only one of them is straight-up, stereotypical textbook definition femme fatale. The others are femme fatale subversions, femme fatale spin-offs, etc etc etc, that I don't feel like I can comfortably call 100% femme fatale, but they're not quite close to any other trope/category/whatever either. 

I write a lot of girly-girls, too. But some are nice, some not so much. Some are there because I thought it'd be funny. Some are there because I just really like Elle Woods-y vibes. If you look at their personality write-ups and/or likes/dislikes [sub][s]and also my super fucking disorganized Pinterest boards for them[/s][/sub], maybe you'd be like- "whoa they're the same character!!!11!!!!1!!!" but I can confidently say that I can clearly differentiate them in my head (and in writing if we really wanna be extra like that), even if they all spawned off of one character in the beginning

anyway idk where I was going with this but I think recycling characters can be a helpful way to add complexity to all the "versions", since I've found that diff aspects of diff characters will naturally change/evolve through the course of diff RPs. maybe it's cheap and lazy, but maaaaan I do not have the time nor energy to make a completely distinct, influenced by nothing I've ever written ever, character for every RP I end up joining