History Main / StrangerinAFamiliarLand

** ''Literature/SpaceCadet'': The protagonist, on returning from the [[SpacePolice Patrol's]] BoardingSchool on leave, has it brought home forcefully to him that his family is deeply ignorant of the realities of space travel and the [[SpacePolice Patrol]], and that they don't want to change any of their ideas.

* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica is depicted this way in modern incarnations (especially his [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate]] counterpart). He was frozen in a block of ice during WWII and was originally thawed out in the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks 1960s]]. As comics have continued, however, the gap in between when he was frozen and thawed out has grown larger, spanning decades and decades, making Cap feel even more out-of-place with the current world and, in Ultimate Cap's case, [[ValuesDissonance its sensibilities]]. [[SubvertedTrope Regardless]], he's still looked up to as the pinnacle of heroism in the MarvelUniverse, and an example for all to follow.

* This trope is very common with LGBTQ+ people who grew up in small towns then went away to The Big City, where they're able to live openly with a support network of chosen family. Whenever they return home for the holidays or what have you, they often find that they no longer fit in with the small-town attitudes of their families, neighbors, and old friends.

* In ''Film/GetCarter'', Jack Carter returns to his home town of Newcastle to investigate the murder of his brother. Since he left, he's become a big-shot LondonGangster, so his relationship with the town is quite different.

* WesternAnimation/{{Garfield|AndFriends}} once found the now abandoned restaurant where he was born and found out his mother and her family still live there but he no longer fits.

** After being an exile for the entire series, the series finale has Garak finally able to stand on Cardassia without fear of being arrested or killed. [[spoiler:Only now that the Dominion has bombed the crap out of the planet and its government is in shambles, Cardassia is no longer the Cardassia he left, and when it does get back on its feet it will be a completely new Cardassia. Garak hates the irony of it.]]

-->'''Worf:''' Klingons do ''not'' laugh.\\

--->'''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Toad]]:''' Thank you, Mario! But this is a Panera now!

* Link in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. After being in limbo for 7 years he's grown up only to find that all his friends haven't. Turns out he's a different species to them anyway. They don't recognize him and many of them actually miss the child Link that left. Link seems to decide not to tell them (though Mido might know).
** Also the start of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''. Unable to cope with the memories of his future self and saving the world after the reset, he left everything he knew in Kokiri Forest to find Navi again.

* Prince Keifer in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII''. He had a fantastic adventure TrappedInAnotherWorld in a spinoff game years earlier, and ever since then has been struck with a lust for adventure and wandering which proves quite problematic for somebody trapped in palace life in a world with only a single, perfectly peaceful and rather small island. To say that he JumpedAtTheCall is an understatement; the only reason anybody ''found'' the call is because he spent the years between the spinoff and the game proper going over the island with a fine-toothed comb for something interesting.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'', the main protagonists, after returning from a mission, encountered a different galaxy. Specifically, they saw their fellow clones acting more robotically and blindly following orders. The main protagonist weren't aware of Order 66 and the beginning of the empire. Unable to reconciliate their old ways of living with the new goverment, they essentially became outlaws.

* ''Film/LocalHero'': After spending several weeks in a charming small Scottish town, the main character comes back to his hypermodern Houston apartment and looks uncomfortable.

* Part of the {{Deconstruction}} of [[spoiler: Homura's ability to go back in time to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong]] in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''. [[spoiler: The multiple attempts to change Madoka's fate end up changing Homura's personality from a ShrinkingViolet {{Meganekko}} to a cold [[ShellShockedVeteran Shell Shocked]] [[AloofDarkHairedGirl Aloof Dark Haired]] MagicalGirl who grows more and more distant from the other four girls with each repetition of the timeline because of what she knows and what they don't. The original vulnerable Homura is kept buried deep inside, only evident in select instances such as in Episode 11, when she tearfully laments to Madoka that while to her Homura was this mysterious transfer student whom she had only known for a few weeks, to Homura Madoka was ''everything'' because she had given up so much for her sake.]]

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', Reiner Braun states that his driving motivation is to return to his hometown. When he finally ''does'' make it home, his family cannot comprehend what he has gone through. [[spoiler: In a family that ''fiercely'' supports the regime, he is forced to toe the party line or risk being turned on by his own family. To this end, he has to parrot the government's propaganda, smile while his family grooms his cousin to follow in his footsteps for their own benefit, and pretend to hate the people he once considered his dearest friends. While he clearly doesn't fit in anymore, leaving isn't an option either because his superiors will kill him and punish his entire family]].

* In ''Fanfic/TheUndesirables'', Sonata Dusk [[spoiler: returns to Equestria after a thousand years absence and has trouble adjusting to Equestrian society]].

* ''Fanfic/TheNewRetcons'': Therese muses in ten years that [[ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse Millborough]] will become unrecognizable to people that left it, having the foresight to see that it was losing more of its identity and would eventually become just a part of the Greater Scarborough area. Therese came to Elly Patterson's funeral deliberately to invoke this trope and make a clean break before emigrating to France. [[spoiler: One of the epilogue letters reveals that Therese's prediction did indeed come true: when Elizabeth came back to attend the closing of her alma mater, it had been absorbed into Greater Scarborough and the only place she recognized was her old neighborhood.]]

* A strange case in ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'' finds elderly parolee Brooks unable to fit in outside the walls of the prison in which he's spent the better part of his life. Spotlighted when he writes to his friends on the inside, commenting on how he saw a single automobile when he was a boy... and now they're all over the place. After trying and failing to acclimate to the outside world, [[spoiler: Brooks [[DeadlyEuphemism decides not to stay]]]].

* At first this seems to be part of the CentralTheme of ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'': five friends return to the town where they grew up after being estranged from it for many years, and find it uncomfortable and hostile. They assume this trope is at hand until by accident they find that, in fact, [[spoiler: most of the townsfolk have been replaced by alien robots]].

* Steve Rogers in ''[[Film/TheAvengers2012 The Avengers]]'' and ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''. Like his comic counterpart, he wakes up in the 2010s after being frozen since WWII, and ''The Avengers'' shows him [[FishOutOfTemporalWater struggling to keep up with pop culture references, the changed values, and the overall strangeness of the world]]. While ''The Winter Soldier'' shows that Steve has started adjusting to the modern-day, we're reminded that Steve is a soldier and a combat veteran who was forcibly thrust into (relative) peacetime, and he's dealing with the plight of many returned servicemen. [[spoiler: Eventually in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' he chooses to use time travel to return to the past and live out the rest of his life with Peggy]].

* Elijah Baley at the end of Creator/IsaacAsimov's second Robot novel, ''Literature/TheNakedSun''. Partially undermined at the beginning of the third novel, as Baley realizes [[spoiler: he's not as foreign to the Cities as he had first believed]].

* In ''Literature/TheDemonata'' by Darren Shan, the second book ends with Kernel returning home...however, due to time running differently in the [[AlwaysChaoticEvil the Demonata's]] universe, his parents had accepted his and his [[spoiler: magically-transformed not-in-any-way-a]] brother's deaths years ago, and in the end he leaves again.

* Richard Mayhew in ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'', when he [[spoiler: realizes that his old job and fiance don't have any meaning to him anymore, returning below]].

** In one episode, a man takes his bride-to-be back to his hometown, which is slightly different than he remembered it. No one recognizes him. Someone else is living in the family home. He finds out he's [[spoiler: a robot]].
** In another episode, a man wakes up after a night of drinking. When the woman next to him wakes up, she has no idea who he is, although he insists he's her husband. He spends the rest of the episode trying to prove who he is. In the end, [[spoiler: he finds that he exists again, only his wife looks completely different]].

* Lucius Vorenus in ''Series/{{Rome}}'' returns to his home and his family after being away for 7 years on military service. He found it difficult to re-adjust to civilian life while kept getting in conflict with his wife. Things got better for him, [[spoiler: though not for long]].

*** At least, if [[spoiler: Amata's dad, the Overseer]] is killed. If [[spoiler: he instead is talked down, not only is the nigh-verbatim quote from the Vault Dweller's Overseer left unsaid, but Amata's phrasing indicates that she herself doesn't blame the Lone Wanderer for the civil war -- she just believes that ''others'' do, and that the Wanderer's presence will keep wounds open and increase tensions at a time when stability is critical for the Vault]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' has this as the theme of the series finale ("Things Change"). After spending most of the season on the road in a HeroesUnlimited plot, they come home to find all their favourite stores are gone and a monster the likes of which they've never seen is on the loose. Oh, and [[spoiler: there's a dead ringer for Terra wandering around who wants nothing to do with the hero life.]]

-->'''Teresa Cristina''':"I do not know how to tell what was the impression I had upon seeing again, after 28 years, my fatherland and not to find anyone for whom I cared."

-->'''Everyone''': [=SpongeBob=], the aliens would like a word with you!

* In WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch, the main protagonists, after returning from a mission, encountered a different galaxy. Specifically, they saw their fellow clones acting more robotically and blindly following orders. The main protagonist weren't aware of Order 66 and the beginning of the empire. Unable to reconciliate their old ways of living with the new goverment, they essentially became outlaws.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has Lapis, who in her debut used the world's oceans to try and build a pillar to return to her home planet. [[spoiler:After Steven heals her gem, she regains her wings and is finally able fly back to her home. But when she does, she finds that Homeworld has exponentially changed in the 5,000 years she was gone. Homeworld had advanced too far for Lapis to the point of her being unable to fit in.]]

--->'''Everyone''': [=SpongeBob=], the aliens would like a word with you

Has absolutely nothing to do with ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand.''

* By the time Pink Diamond in ''Fanfic/{{Fractures}}'' was able to return to Earth after six millennia, she finds that the Earth has long since been drained of all of its resources, now just a massive, lifeless hunk of rock orbiting the sun like all other former colonies.

* Happens to Travis Morgan whenever he returns to Earth in ''ComicBook/TheWarlord''. These visits just reinforce Morgan's belief that the LostWorld of Skartaris is where he truly belongs.

* Odo in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' - spends years trying to find the race from whom he was parted as an infant, and then when he finally does find them, they're the enemy of everything he holds dear.

* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', [[RaisedByNatives Worf]] finds that his humorless dedication to honor and duty has little to do with how Klingons in the Empire conduct themselves.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. The episode "Home" is a BreatherEpisode showing what happens after Enterprise returns from saving Earth in the previous season. Captain Archer and Subcommander T'Pol in particular find it difficult to adapt to the expected norms. Earth too has changed, with increased hostility towards aliens that becomes a plot point later in the series.

* Music/ThePretenders song "My City Was Gone" ''is'' basically this trope.

* Part of Riki's CharacterDevelopment in ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'' after he had been absent from the slums for 3 years.

* One of the In-Universe folktales from ''Literature/WatershipDown'', ''El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inle'', El-ahrairah returns from his adventure to find that full generations of rabbits have come and gone since he left and no one is left in his warren who remembers him or appreciates what his generation has done. There's a clear soldier-returning-from-the-war symbolism here as well.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1272 SCP-1272 ("Slow-Motion Catastrophe")]]. When the SCP teams that were sent inside SCP-1272 finally emerge centuries later, they are expected to experience readjustment shock, including wondering what has happened to their relatives (who are probably all long dead).

* Barbara Newhall Follett's novel ''Lost Island'' ends this way, with Jane's unwanted rescue. Follett wrote two endings, both terribly depressing, but in both Jane is determined that she will "stage another rebellion" in the future.

* Thomas Wolfe's ''You Can't Go Home Again'' has elements of both [[YouCantGoHomeAgain that trope]] and this one.