History Main / NotHimself

* Subverted in ''Anime/MagicalProjectS'' while Misao certainly wasn't acting like herself when she tortured the main cast as the [[DarkMagicalGirl evil magical girl]] Pixy Misa (she wasn't even aware of her other side) it was revealed that it was in fact herself (the repressed aspects of her personality),

* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'': When Ben has to be in three different places at once, he becomes Echo Echo and then reverts back into 3 of his human forms, one [[{{Jerkass}} arrogant]], one "[[AmbiguouslyGay sensitive]]," and one [[ManChild immature]]. At first everyone rolls with it, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero until they find out what's really going on]], [[WhatTheHellHero to which they promptly chew him out for it]], leaving for one of the few {{Downer Ending}}s in the series.

** Natsuki doesn't change as radically, but she has moments when she comes across as even more aggressive than [[{{Tsundere}} usually]] or even just sounds downright brainwashed. [[spoiler: Somebody is crudely taking control of her at those moments to drive you away from her and Yuri.]]

** Goku when he first goes Super Saiyan, Goku goes from a peaceful, AllLovingHero, to a highly arrogant, cold-blooded, sadistic BloodKnight who wants to make Frieza suffer, physically and mentally. King Kai is outright frightened when he witnesses the change in Goku's personality.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': The Ninth Espada attempts to trick Rukia by posing as her former mentor Kaien Shiba. He betrays himself by making a request that was blatantly uncharacteristic of Kaien, suggesting that she could earn his forgiveness by killing all her friends. Rukia, enraged, says Kaien would never say that even as a joke.

* Several illnesses or psychological factors can lead to a person's behavior changing dramatically. One of the most well known examples would be Phineas Gage, a railroad worker who was said to have been honest and reliable prior to an accident which led to a metal pole being ''blasted through his head, damaging both his frontal lobes''. Afterwards, he became a much nastier person. The accident shed light on the effects that frontal lobe damage can have on personality.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'':

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', one of the sidequests you need to complete for OneHundredPercentCompletion is helping a little girl, Romani, with defending the ranch's cows from aliens on the night of the first day. If you fail, the aliens abduct the cows and Romani, since she was also in the barn. They bring her back on the third day--but she can't think straight, doesn't recognize Link, and shakes her head, trying to remember or forget things. It's assumed by the whole fandom that she was lobotomized.

* ''Series/AmazingStories2020'': In "[[Recap/AmazingStories2020SignsOfLife Signs Of Life]]" Alia and the audience quickly learn Sara is definitely different from the woman she'd once been, not even remembering that Alia's her daughter. She's now involved with a strange man named Wayne who is up to mysterious business, and has peculiar abilities. It tutns out she's not actually Sara, but an alien inhabiting her body.

->''"If I go like this, ''(touches palm to forehead)'', my wife says, 'Are you feeling all right??' But on television nobody notices, you see."''
-->-- '''Creator/TomBaker''' on ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS14E2TheHandOfFear}} "The Hand of Fear"]]

** Geordi [=LaForge=] gets one of these in the episode [[ManchurianAgent "The Mind's Eye"]]. The most disturbing thing about it being that aside from his being brainwashed and attempting to murder someone in full view, he behaves entirely and utterly ''like'' himself.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Dramatis Personae", a disagreement between Sisko and Kira rapidly turns into a multi-faction cold war running across the station. It turns out telepathic artifacts from a dead world are causing the regular characters to recreate the power struggle that destroyed that civilisation.
** In "Tribunal," Chief O'Brien is put on trial by the Cardassians for aiding the Maquis. O'Brien had been set up by Boone, a former crewmate of his. Investigating further, Sisko and Bashir note how Boone went from a model Starfleet officer to a malcontent kicked out for bad behavior and cutting off all contact with his family. His ex-wife wrote it up to him affected by being held prisoner by the Cardassians. But Bashir does a medical scan that shows "Boone" is actually a disguised Cardassian who took the place of the real Boone, who died in captivity.

** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E20SmallPotatoes Small Potatoes]]", which involves a ShapeShiftingSeducer, and in "[[Recap/TheXFilesS06E04Dreamland Dreamland]]", where Mulder switches bodies with an Area51 worker. Both Non-Mulders try their hand at seducing Scully.

* Mimi in ''Anime/PerfectBlue'' throughout the majority of the movie. Also, Rumi towards the end.

* Utena after having lost a duel in ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena''.

* In ''Anime/DevilmanCrybaby'', after Akira Fudo becomes Devilman for the first time, his personality changes from a meek, kind-hearted young man who cries at news of deaths, to a debonair, devil-may-care badass who watches porn in his school's AV room with the volume cranked up without a care in the world.

* ''Fanfic/ADelicateBalance'': [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Pinkie Pie]] immediately realizes that Twilight has something on her mind when Twilight fails to be an utter perfectionist when decorating cupcakes.
* In the Music/Devo web-comic, "Tired O' Tourin'," Mark gets attacked by several stingrays after falling into a river that was infested with them. After that, the venom causes him to act a bit...different. He turns the bus into a low-rider, wears clothes from the Gap, listens to American Top 40, and [[BatmanGrabsAGun threatens the rest of the band (one of whom is his brother) with a gun]]. Luckily, General Boy puts a stop to his behaviour and he is quite horrified with his antics after going back to normal.

* In ''Fanfic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'', [=ProtoMan=] is this post episode 10; the other characters begin to notice midway through episode 11.
* The [[MutagenicGoo ponification potion]] in many ''[[Fanfic/TheConversionBureau Conversion Bureau]]'' stories often have this effect. In turning humans into ponies, some personality changes ensue. [[DeconstructionFic The deconstructions]] don't shy away from showing how this can be [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul utterly messed up and frightening]].
** In ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureauNotAlone'', one of the main human characters laments how much his friend Eddy changed after taking the potion, going so far as to call Eddy's pony self a "pleasant smiling zombie with wings." The chapter "Aftermath Part 1" reveals why - basically [[spoiler: the human convert's original personality is completely erased and overwritten by a new one provided by the potion. However, they still retain their memories, basically fooling them into thinking they're the same person who drank it]].
** ''FanFic/TheConversionBureauTheOtherSideOfTheSpectrum'' takes it further, where the potion completely destroys the victim's original personality, effectively killing them. The chapter "War March and Past Sins" explains how - [[spoiler: basically the human convert's soul is ''shattered to pieces'' and then "bound in chains" to Queen Celestia and the Bag of Tirek's will. Even worse, according to the Elder Shaman of the Zebras, it is completely impossible to repair those souls with any medicine or magic; only {{Mercy Kill}}ing them will make their souls whole again and set them free]]. To quote one ex-HLF member:
--->'''Andrew Silas''': "We expected them to just be our friends and family with hooves and fur, we expected... I don't know what. The simplest way I can put it is that we expected it to be them. That they'd be something like the people we knew. Henry, though - you've heard this description a million times, but it just wasn't him in there."
* In ''Fanfic/{{Intercom}}'', this is how Riley's parents and friends know that something is wrong. It starts with Riley acting quieter than usual, then she begins to get disinterested and detached from the world, and becomes prone to violent outbursts. [[HearingVoices Meeting your emotions]] [[LossOfIdentity will do that to you.]]
* In ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'', everyone notices that Ringo is getting a little strange and obsessed while they're at the Guardians. They assume he's going nuts because he's unable to use his mindsight while he's under the Guardians' city mask. Although this is partially true, John figures out (to his horror) that the psionics among the Guardians [[MoreThanMindControl have been subtly working on Ringo to ensure that he wants to stay with them]]. It takes [[WhamEpisode a rather shocking moment for Ringo to snap out of it]].
* Barbara Gordon in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13131858/6/A-Little-Less-Conversation-a-Little-More-Action-Please A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action Please]]'' temporarily becomes a DrillSergeantNasty to both Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown due to a number of extenuating circumstances leaving her incredibly stressed out: barely surviving the [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Imperium Invasion]], believing that all her friends are dead during said invasion, deciding to reconnect with Dick only to find Starfire wearing one of his shirts, and Batman unceremoniously dropping Cassandra and Stephanie on her to train. All things combined lead to her running Stephanie through a ''brutal'' exercises regimen and screaming at Cassandra for not reading a set of files, not knowing the girl can't read.
* ''[[Fanfic/BurnTheWitchMiraculousLadybug BURN THE WITCH]]'': Tikki gets swept up in Witch Hunter's influence, encouraging Marinette to prioritize saving the city over protecting [[LiarRevealed Lila]] from the mob. This is partly due to her having experience with past witch hunts, and feeling no small amount of satisfaction at the thought of [[AssholeVictim somebody who actually]] ''[[AssholeVictim DESERVES]]'' [[AssholeVictim to suffer]] being the target this time, as well as wanting to protect Marinette from being hurt any further by [[ManipulativeBitch Lila's manipulations]].
** This gets used for a painful little twist of DramaticIrony when Tikki tries to reassure Marinette that [[GuiltComplex she's not responsible]] for the harm Lila has caused. Marinette is so used to Tikki constantly encouraging her to be an IdealHero that she assumes Tikki would ''never'' comfort her in such a fashion.
* ''[[Fanfic/TheZeroContextSeries Zero Context: Taking Out the Trash]]'': When the main protagonists receive unexpected invitations to the wedding of "Circe and Marc Maddhouse", this immediately puts them on high alert: not only was the Circe they knew not involved in any romantic endeavors, let alone with a morally bankrupt sleazeball, she was an admitted lesbian--and thus had absolutely zero romantic interest in men. After the situation was resolved, [[spoiler:Circe confirmed that their judgments were spot on: Marc had manipulated her into drinking one of her own [[LovePotion love potions]], ensuring that she would see him as the perfect spouse for her.]]

* Definitely seen a lot in ''Film/FaceOff'', when plastic surgery for an undercover operation results in Sean Archer (Creator/JohnTravolta) getting the face of Castor Troy (Creator/NicolasCage), and subsequently, Castor retaliates upon finding out his face has been stolen by stealing Archer's face for himself. By having Cage and Travolta swap roles, one sees how the two characters react differently when in the company of the other's inner circle. One contrast is how they take victory celebrations: when Archer gets his for putting Castor into a coma, he looks depressed and turns down a bottle of champagne, then decides to remind them of the agents killed by Castor in the shootout. When Castor is being congratulated for "locating" and disarming his own bomb, he wears his sunglasses and seems unusually chipper. Elsewhere, when Castor gets his first glimpse of Archer's daughter Jamie, he inadvertently calls her "Janie", and also lights up a cigarette, two things the real Archer would never do, but which are glossed over.

* ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'': Lukas is uncharacteristically vitriolic during the first half of ''The Last Place You Look'' [[spoiler: because he knows that Jesse is withholding information from the rest of the group.]]
--> '''Jesse:''' What's up with Lukas?\\
'''Axel:''' Well, as a long time observer of human behaviour--\\
'''Oliva:''' We have no idea.

* In ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'', the fact that many of the characters are nothing like they were in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' is actually an early clue that something's wrong with this reality besides the whole GroundhogDayLoop thing.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': While Ozpin gives his induction speech to Beacon Academy's new students, Ruby and Yang quickly note how troubled he seems, instead of his usual lively self. Ruby even comments that it's as if he's not even present. This is played for mystery, as the girls have no answers to why he's behaving so oddly and the next time he appears he's his normal self again. [[spoiler:Later in the series, Ozpin is revealed to be just one of many reincarnations of the legendary hero Ozma who fell in love with BigBad Salem. His reincarnations eventually merge with Ozma and become indistinguishable from the person they were before. It's implied that the version of Ozpin that everyone in-universe is familiar with at that point was actually Ozma himself while the original Professor Ozpin was the one that actually gave the speech at the time.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': When Professor Ozpin gives the induction speech to the academy's new students, his speech is oddly clipped, one-note and lifeless. He also cuts the speech very short, leaving Glynda to complete the speech. Ruby and Yang both notice something seems to be wrong and that he doesn't seem to sound or act like himself. Ruby even exclaims "It's like he's not even there!". Played for mystery, as the girls have no answers to why he's behaving so oddly and the next time he appears he's his normal self again. [[spoiler:Later in the series, Ozpin is revealed to be just one of many reincarnations of the legendary hero Ozma who fell in love with BigBad Salem. All of his reincarnations eventually merge with Ozma and become indistinguishable from the person they were before. It's implied that the version of Ozpin that everyone in-universe is familiar with at that point was actually Ozma himself while the original Professor Ozpin was the one that actually gave the speech at the time.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': When Professor Ozpin gives the induction speech to the academy's new students, his speech is oddly clipped, one-note and lifeless. He also cuts the speech very short, leaving Glynda to complete the speech. Ruby and Yang both notice something seems to be wrong and that he doesn't seem to sound or act like himself. Ruby even exclaims "It's like he's not even there!". Played for mystery, as the girls have no answers to why he's behaving so oddly and the next time he appears he's his normal self again. [[spoiler:Later in the series, Ozpin is revealed to be just one of many reincarnations of the legendary hero Ozma who fell in love with BigBad Salem. All of his reincarnations eventually merge with Ozma and become indistinguishable from the person they were before. It's implied that the version of Ozpin that everyone in-universe is familiar with at that point was actually Ozma himself while the original Professor Ozpin was the one that actually have the speech at the time.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': When Professor Ozpin gives the induction speech to the academy's new students, his speech is oddly clipped, one-note and lifeless. He also cuts the speech very short, leaving Glynda to complete the speech. Ruby and Yang both notice something seems to be wrong and that he doesn't seem to sound or act like himself. Ruby even exclaims "It's like he's not even there!". Played for mystery, as the girls have no answers to why he's behaving so oddly and the next time he appears he's his normal self again.

* ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'': A bit more complicated in "The Immortal King". Aylee seems to be mad at Torg for some understandable reasons, but her behaviour turns out to be due to [[spoiler: DemonicPossession]], and it's also revealed retroactively Torg had noticed Aylee wasn't herself because she [[spoiler: "would never put Zoë and Gwynn in danger to spite me."]] None of this was made particularly obvious to the reader until it was spelled out like that, however.

* In one ''Manga/ToLoveRu'' story, Haruna suddenly became an evil sadist, which was hilarious. It became a FunnyAneurysmMoment when the artist's wife, who Haruna's design was based on, turned out to be a crazy psychopath who kidnapped their daughter, among other demented things.

* Dr. Lancaster from ''Podcast/FindUsAlive'' is ordinarily upbeat, supportive, and selfless, befitting of his position as Head Psychiatrist. However, after [[spoiler: a Dash Two bites him during the Night Game]], he becomes increasingly paranoid, neurotic, obsessive, and secretive. Whatever he's working on in his office, he does ''not'' want to tell anyone about it, and uncharacteristically snaps harshly at anyone who asks. In Episode 26, where he spends the majority of the episode sweating profusely, spacing out while scribbling on paper, repeatedly excusing himself, and [[AmbiguousSituation maybe-accidentally]] stabbing Agent Love with a pencil. Raddagher is the only one who notices that something is severely wrong until Episode 27, where [[spoiler:it's revealed that he's been making an anamorphic Dash One in his office, and he tries to ''carve a rift into Harley's leg.'']]

* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' had an episode where orders come through that Dick is to be replaced as mission commander. After the replacement shows up (looking exactly like Dick, and imprisons Dick instead of sending him home) an emergency message comes through that the previous orders were faked and the 'replacement' is actually a renegade who wants to conquer Earth. Unfortunately, the only people around when the warning comes through are New Dick and Harry (who channels the messages and thus can't actually hear them). Much hilarity ensures until the problem is corrected.

* Dr. Lancaster from ''Podcast/FindUsAlive'' is ordinarily upbeat, supportive, and selfless, befitting of his position as Head Psychiatrist. However, after [[spoiler: a Dash Two bites him during the Night Game]], he becomes increasingly paranoid, neurotic, obsessive, and secretive. Whatever he's working on in his office, he does ''not'' want to tell anyone about it, and uncharacteristically snaps harshly at anyone who asks. It comes to a head in Episode 26, where he spends the majority of the episode sweating profusely, spacing out while scribbling on paper, repeatedly excusing himself, and [[AmbiguousSituation maybe-accidentally]] stabbing Agent Love with a pencil. Up until Episode 26, Raddagher is the only one who notices that something is severely wrong. It all comes to a head in Episode 27, where [[spoiler:it's revealed that he's been making an anamorphic Dash One in his office, and he tries to ''carve a rift into Harley's leg.'']]

* Dr. Lancaster from ''Podcast/FindUsAlive'' is ordinarily upbeat, supportive, and selfless, befitting of his position as Head Psychiatrist. However, after [[spoiler: a Dash Two bites him during the Night Game]], he becomes increasingly paranoid, neurotic, obsessive, and secretive. Whatever he's working on in his office, he does ''not'' want to tell anyone about it, and uncharacteristically snaps harshly at anyone who asks. It comes to a head in Episode 26, where he spends the majority of the episode sweating profusely, spacing out while scribbling on paper, repeatedly excusing himself, and [[AmbiguousSituation maybe-accidentally]] stabbing Agent Love with a pencil. So far, Raddagher is the only one who seems to have noticed that something is severely off.