History Main / BecomingTheMask

** The core cast of ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' (Ben Savage, Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Creator/WillFriedle) have all become TrueCompanions in RealLife, much as their characters (Cory, Topanga, Shawn, and Eric, respectively) did on the show.

* As part of Robbie's secret identity in ''VisualNovel/GrisaiaNoRakuen'', he married a storekeeper's daughter and inherited their soba shop. [[spoiler:She's actually a CIA agent who pretended to marry him as part of her cover and then grew more serious about it.]] Good thing too, otherwise [[spoiler:she might never have learned what Yuuji was like after getting out from under the thumb of Heath Oslo and simply shot him]].

* BecomingTheMask/{{Fanfic}}

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Taken to ludicrous extremes by Roger in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. Once he creates a new identity to seduce a shop girl and allow him to steal a pair of gloves he likes. Then the stress of actually caring about someone causes Roger's mind to split into two - the persona he created, and himself. Apparently his persona carries on for quite a while before Roger notices extra bills on his credit card, at which point Roger tries to destroy this man's life. Not to mention the little roleplaying activity that he and Francine improvised for themselves...
* Subverted on one season finale of ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'', where the Teens were revealed to be secret agents of some sort and Carl was a secret agent assigned to spy on them. At the end of the episode, he mixes up strip club and liquor store, implying that the real Carl does not share the *ahem* interests of the Carl we've come to know and love. Of course, given what show we're talking about, don't expect this to carry over into next season.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'', Mipsy uses her cousin, Thea, to try to influence Ginger to stay at a private boarding school. Thea spends a semester with Ginger, and during the process, warms up to her and admits she felt bad about the deception, but only did so because she [[OnlyInItForTheMoney really needed the money to fund her shopping addiction]]. It's not hard to interpret that she legitimately ''wanted'' Ginger to stay because she liked her.
* In hindsight, Azula of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' is this. With no attachment to her mother and nobody to reel in/curb the more disturbing aspects of her, she drunk down the propaganda of the Fire Nation and emulated her father. Believing herself to be Ursa's failure, she took up the mantle of the monster she believed that's what Ursa saw her as. This bits her hard at series' end; and come the tie in comic, "The Search", it's clear that the phrase "Monster" starts to hit her a lot harder than normal.
* Done dramatically in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "His Silicon Soul". An android duplicate of Batman created by the mad computer HARDAC is trying to complete its mission, breaking into the Bat-Cave to hijack control of the computers and resume HARDAC's mission, replacing all of humanity with robotic duplicates. But it seems that HARDAC [[GoneHorriblyRight duplicated Batman's personality only too well]], and it starts to develop the true Batman's sense of morals, struggling between right and wrong and whether to do as its programming commands or reject what it knows is evil. Eventually, after a fight with the real Batman where the android thinks that it has killed him, it is overcome with grief over what it has done, and destroys the computer, destroying HARDAC's program and itself in the process, ending HARDAC's threat forever. In the final scene, Alfred and Batman - who survived, naturally - inspect the androids remains, and Batman ponders if it might have had a soul. "A soul of silicon," muses the Dark Knight, "but a soul nonetheless..."
* The assassin droid Zeta in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' replaced an accountant, as he was investigating money laundering by a terrorist organization. Once he completed the mission he ended up running into the guy he was impersonating. Per protocol, he should have eliminated the man on the spot. The aforementioned time spent with the man's family affected him to the point that he could not bring himself to deprive him of that experience, and so went rogue instead (leading into his SpinOff series, ''WesternAnimation/TheZetaProject'').
* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': [[spoiler:Numbuh 274, aka Chad Dickson]]. While he remains loyal to Kids Next Door [[spoiler:as a FakeDefector, his hatred of Numbuh 1 becomes real due to a perceived slight that Nigel is completely unaware of until the GrandFinale, and he spends his last appearance in the penultimate episode trying to kill him]].
* Hopelessly averted in the ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' episode "There's a Penfold In My Suit". Penfold thinks he can be brave and heroic by putting on one of DM's white jumpsuits. Epic fail.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': Danny's mysterious 12-year old cousin Danielle, or Dani for short, turned out to be his OppositeSexClone created by his ArchEnemy, Vlad Plasmius, in a plot to use his DNA to create a clone for a son. Danielle was likely ordered to pretend to be family to make Danny trust her. However, Danny grew fond of her and didn't want to harm her, [[BigBrotherInstinct along with shielding her from Vlad]]. Even with her true identity revealed, they still see each other as family and care for each other.
* {{Discussed|Trope}} in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' TV movie "[[WesternAnimation/DariaIsItFallYet Is It Fall Yet?]]", when Daria's mom forces her to work as a counselor at a day-camp for children.
-->'''Daria''': And I judge myself unfit for human contact.\\
'''Helen''': That's exactly what you ''will'' be if you don't start engaging with the rest of us! [[StepfordSnarker You keep hiding your real face behind that antisocial mask]] and one day the mask will ''be'' your face. I'm not letting that happen. You're working at that camp! ''(leaves)''
* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'': Parodied in "A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special". Xandir is afraid to tell his parents that he's gay, so he and his housemates do some role-playing. [[UpToEleven It goes so far]] that the housemates start to believe they're the people they're pretending to be.
-->"Can someone explain to me why we're doing this when Xandir's not around?"
* In ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', Eddy decides to dress up as a foreign exchange student named 'Carl', to find out who wrote graffiti about him. When he introduces himself to the rest of the kids, he finds out that they all prefer him, instead of Eddy. Double D ([[spoiler:the one who wrote "Eddy is a no neck chump" in the first place]]) tells the surprised 'Carl' that it's respect, and that he hasn't done anything to provoke a negative opinion, like scamming for pocket change.
** In another episode, Edd builds a monster suit for Ed, only for Ed to start believing he actually is a monster and proceeds to go on a rampage through the neighborhood.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** Peter pretended to attend Meg's high school to discourage the students from licking toads, but he eventually started thinking he was a real teenager. "Eventually" here meaning "after about one day" ... this ''is'' Peter we're talking about.
** "Brian Writes a Bestseller": Though his original intention was to write trash out of sheer frustration, the work began to garner fame and appreciation from the looked-down-at people and he started to really believe he was a genius, and he had created a life-changing masterpiece.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'' has Ingrid going undercover in a close-knit mafia-esque Girl Scout Troop. She genuinely befriends the group, making it especially hard to go through the sting. As an added bonus, their leader was the Safety Patrol's previous undercover agent gone rogue who was much more loved and popular than Ingrid, which made them believe Ingrid could be more susceptible to this op.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Green Eggs and Ham|2019}}'': [[spoiler:Sam was the true villain the entire time, wanting to turn Mr. Jenkins in as he's actually an animal-smuggling scam artist. But his time on the run with Guy made him switch sides in the end.]]
%%* [[spoiler:Zhalia]] from ''WesternAnimation/HuntikSecretsAndSeekers'' at the end of episode 17.
* Shayera Hol aka Hawkgirl of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' joined the team as an alien spy, but then decided to help them form a counter-offensive, when she found out that her race was really planning to use the Earth as a hyperspace bypass in an interplanetary war, which would destroy it. Feeling guilty of betraying both the Justice League, and her homeworld of Thanagar, she decided to leave the team before they announced their decision on whether she can return.
* The ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' cartoon has evil shapeshifter Ron-Kar finding himself sympathizing for real with the good guys, and even willingly helping them, after his MemoryGambit infiltration as Superman is exposed.
* The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoon ''Bugs' Bonnets'' (1956) plays with this idea by casting it in the form of people taking on roles defined by the hats they wear -- and then throwing WesternAnimation/BugsBunny and Elmer Fudd into a landscape littered with hats scattered from a passing truck. How many times -- and to what degree -- can these two Become The Hat? Needless to say, it gets typically extreme.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** In the Season 3 episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E11KeepCalmAndFlutterOn Keep Calm and Flutter On]]", this happens with ''[[MadGod Discord]]'' of all villains. Princess Celestia charges Fluttershy with redeeming him, and Discord plays along while plotting to exploit Fluttershy's kind nature to ensure his freedom. However, during this, he finds out that [[spoiler:she ''genuinely'' saw him as a friend and her friendship actually means something to him. The end result is Discord reforming for real rather because he can't bring himself to lose the one genuine friend he'd ever made]].
** This later happens to Trixie as well in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E6NoSecondPrances No Second Prances]]", when she returns to Ponyville and appears to become friends with Starlight Glimmer, Twilight's new student. As it later turns out, Trixie [[spoiler:originally only made friends with Starlight to use her against Twilight by having her choose to help Trixie over Twilight]]. In doing this, she however bonded with Starlight and formed a genuine friendship with her, so much so that when Starlight runs away in tears after discovering this Trixie is heartbroken as well over losing her first real friend. Twilight is later able to talk to Starlight and get her to forgive Trixie for her deceit and become friends for real.
** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E4FakeItTilYouMakeIt Fake It 'Til You Make It]]", after Rarity asks Fluttershy to look after her boutique in Manehattan while she and her assistants are occupied with a fashion show, Fluttershy creates and acts out three personas to help herself in interacting with Rarity's numerous and hard-to-please costumers. However, she soon becomes so immersed in each of the characters that she stops acting like herself altogether, essentially splitting into three separate people depending on which mask she's wearing at a given time, each of them rude and abrasive in a different way.
* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': Implied. [[spoiler: As shown in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Mitchell fakes his jerk attitude to hide his loneliness and social insecurity. Even after he befriends the other kids in this episode, he still acts like a jerkass in some episodes of season 2, although he's mellowed out a lot more. Since he is shown acting rudely towards the other kids in many episodes of season 1, it is implied that he's been hiding behind his jerk mask for so long, that it's become a part of his personality, and its something that he can't shake off, at least for the time being]].
* The ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' episode "Fleeced to Meet You" had the X Agent pretend to be Sheep's friend in order to manipulate him into getting captured by the top secret military organization planning to use him in a sheep-powered ray gun. In the end, X Agent finds that he really does like Sheep and ends up helping Sheep escape.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "The Principal and the Pauper", it's revealed [[spoiler: Seymour Skinner is actually Armin Tamzarian. He served with the real Seymour Skinner in Vietnam and took over Skinner's identity when he was apparently killed. Twenty years later, the real Skinner shows up in Springfield to reclaim his identity. But the townspeople decide they prefer to keep the Skinner they're used to. The real Skinner is banished from town, Tamzarian is put back in Skinner's identity, and it's ordered that nobody will ever mention this incident again]]. Well, they ''do'' when it's either funny or to shut Skinner up.
** In "The Last Temptation of Homer", Homer's guardian angel assumes a different form, first choosing Sir Isaac Newton as someone Homer would recognize and revere, then reluctantly changing to Colonel Klink from ''Series/HogansHeroes'' when Homer has no clue who Isaac Newton is. When Homer informs him Kinch had a radio in the coffee pot, the angel reacts with genuine alarm.
** In "Donnie Fatso", Homer goes undercover to investigate Fat Tony, since he's been sentenced to ten years for trying to bribe a city official and will get a reduced sentence if he does the FBI that particular favor. However, he eventually grows to sympathize Fat Tony and eventually saves him from being shot, though he dies from a heart attack anyway and he is later replaced by a character whose essentially a duplicate of him, though he's fit instead of fat at first.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** Cartman fakes having HollywoodTourettes in order to have fun with his usual language habits, only garnering sympathy rather than derision from authority figures. He forms a plot involving this to say antisemitic things on ''Dateline'', but by that point he had spent so much time not filtering what he says that he unconsciously began blurting out personal secrets such as "I'm making all of this up!", "My cousin and I touched each other's wieners!" and "I wet the bed!"
** In "Butters' Bottom Bitch", Officer Yates assigns an undercover agent for a series of prostitution busts: himself. During the operations, he makes his arrests ''after'' performing the sex act, each one becoming more and more elaborate, to the point of gangbanging a college fraternity. He even marries the BigBad pimp at the end of the episode, living with him for months before finally deciding to place him under arrest.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':
** Terra (in the AnimatedAdaptation only) really began to feel at home with the team and fell in love with Beast Boy. She tried to compromise by saving him and letting Slade kill the others, and, well, you can guess [[RedemptionEqualsDeath how it turned out]].
** The very next episode after that arc has Cyborg infiltrate the H.I.V.E. Academy under the guise of "Stone", in order to find out the "big plan" the H.I.V.E. has in the works. While he is able to successfully resist Brother Blood's mind control, unlike the rest of the students, he at one point shows himself to actually be enjoying himself at the school and only manages to focus himself back on the mission due to Robin's insistence.
* In one of the old ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' episodes, a duckling comes to think of Tom as his mother. At first, Tom is only taking advantage of it to prepare to cook the little duckling into stew, but by the time the duckling willing decides to do it, Tom can't bring himself to cook the little guy and saves him. Also one of the few episodes that ends with Tom having a happy ending.
* [[spoiler:Knock Out]] of all bots does this in the finale movie of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', ''Predacons Rising''. While his personality and motives remain virtually unchanged up until the very end of the film, [[spoiler:his assistance (however limited) when facing Unicron's undead Predacon army and later show of genuine regret when Optimus dies seem to indicate he's truly changed]].
* Brock Samson of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' He was originally assigned to prevent Rusty Venture from ever activating the ORB and was put under the guise of the Venture family's bodyguard, but after several years of protecting them he truly began to feel like part of their family, and even purposefully refused to kill Rusty when he discovered the ORB.
** It's heavily implied that until that episode, Brock didn't know what his real mission was.
** Also his predecessor that protected Venture's ancestor. [[spoiler: He broke/damaged the ORB to the point it would never work instead of killing him.]] Leading to the events of the episode.
[[/folder]]

A more cynical subtrope is when the person is actually the TheMole, but the temptation of TheDarkSide gradually causes them to discard their initial good cause and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters become everything they originally despised]]. Or they grow to believe their own {{Masquerade}} a little ''too'' much and become a StepfordSmiler. Can be the result of a SecretIdentityIdentity crisis.

Contrast BeneathTheMask where the audience is only given a peek. Similar in style to AmnesiacDissonance, but without amnesia. May involve ObliviousGuiltSlinging. Compare SecretIdentityIdentity, FakeRealTurn, RomanticFakeRealTurn and GoingNative. If the character does not even respond to his old name anymore, that is ThatManIsDead. When a ''literal'' mask starts to change someone's personality, it's EvilMask. Contrast LostInCharacter, where a character who is a professional actor lives and breathes a role. Do not confuse with BecomingTheCostume or BecomingTheBoast. Some spoilers ahead. Has overlap with TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask because the woman's true personality be influenced or be absorbed into the queen personality, and consider as well ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim when people try to figure out how someone by thinking like them. Compare and contrast CopiedTheMoralsToo, where some kind of magical or sci-fi copy of a hero turns out to also have the hero's moral code.

TheMole or the ConMan takes on a fake identity in order to gain something: information, money, a safe place, trust. As time progresses, he grows to love his new identity and the way people treat him. His new friends prove reliable and he is struck by the contrast. He might even fall in love with another person whom he is explicitly supposed to be taking advantage of. Either way, he wants to remain in his new identity forever.

** Cartman fakes having HollywoodTourettes in order to have fun with his usual language habits, only garnering sympathy rather than derision from authority figures. He forms a plot involving this to say antisemitic things on ''Dateline'', but by that point he unconsciously began blurting out personal secrets such as "I'm making all of this up!", "My cousin and I touched each other's wieners!" and "I wet the bed!"

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' Qrow and Raven Branwen were originally sent to Beacon to learn how to kill Huntsmen and return to their Tribe to serve as a counter-force against Huntsmen. At some point, Qrow disassociated from the tribe and fully embraced the Huntsmen lifestyle. Raven, however, returned to their tribe, later becoming its leader.

A more cynical subtrope is when the person is actually the ReverseMole, but the temptation of TheDarkSide gradually causes them to discard their initial good cause and [[HeWhoFightsMonsters become everything they originally despised]]. Or they grow to believe their own {{Masquerade}} a little ''too'' much and become a StepfordSmiler. Can be the result of a SecretIdentityIdentity crisis.

* The chorus of "Give It a Name" by Creator/JerryCantrell:

** Creator/WilliamShatner and Creator/LeonardNimoy were almost as close as Captain Kirk and Commander Spock are. They were both close with Creator/DeForestKelley.

Contrast BeneathTheMask where the audience is only given a peek. Similar in style to AmnesiacDissonance, but without amnesia. May involve ObliviousGuiltSlinging. Compare SecretIdentityIdentity, FakeRealTurn, RomanticFakeRealTurn and GoingNative. If the character does not even respond to his old name anymore, that is ThatManIsDead. When a ''literal'' mask starts to change someone's personality, it's EvilMask. Contrast LostInCharacter, where a character who is a professional actor lives and breathes a role. Do not confuse with BecomingTheCostume or BecomingTheBoast. Some spoilers ahead. Has overlap with TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask because the woman's true personality be influenced or be absorbed into the queen personality, and consider as well ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim when people try to figure out how someone by thinking like them.

** Creator/RobinWilliams stays in character off set until the film is done. When he performed the chilling lead role in ''Film/OneHourPhoto'', his wife was so upset she told him she would divorce him if he took another role like that.

** Amusingly, a number of fans joke that Creator/RyanReynolds no longer exists, and he should now be regarded as {{SelfDemonstrating/Deadpool}}.

* While everybody in ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights'' is trying to stay in-character, several of them do so with more...commitment than others. Creator/AllisonPregler claims that she should be useless in battle because of [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs her character choice]], WebVideo/PawDugan tries to [[Film/DungeonsAndDragons gather rage]] from everybody (including the trees), and WebVideo/{{Phelous}} seems to have gone right off the deep end. WebVideo/MarzGurl also seems to be joining the throng, what with speaking only in Japanese, scenting the air and biting the Critic on various portions of his anatomy.

* In ''Webcomic/StickyDillyBuns'', [[TheIngenue Ruby]] disguises herself as the rather "sketchy" [[SweetPollyOliver guy]] "Rudy" while helping Dillon with a ZanyScheme. It soon seems to do her confidence some good, and she specifically claims that "Rudy" is rubbing off on her. Even if it merely serves as an excuse for her snarking at Dillon, she perhaps manages more and sharper snarking than usual -- and then [[http://www.stickydillybuns.com/strips-sdb/what_kind_of_boyfriend_are_you she uses that confidence]] to save a distressed Dillon from an annoying guy, at a little personal risk and despite the fact that she doesn't especially like Dillon.

** In "The Last Temptation of Homer", Homer's guardian angel assumes a different form, first choosing Sir Isaac Newton as someone Homer would respect and revere, then reluctantly changing to Colonel Klink from ''Series/HogansHeroes'' when Homer has no clue who Isaac Newton is. When Homer informs him Hogan had tunnels around the camp, the angel reacts with genuine alarm.

** Creator/ChristopherReeve became to be considered as noble a man as Film/{{Superman}} - first when he went to Chile under the tyranny of Augusto Pinochet to help some arrested actors despite the obvious risk to his life, and after he became a crusader for the disabled after his riding accident.

* On the internet, it has been said that many edgelord trolls who've pretended to be racists for the "lulz" have ended up actually becoming one.