History Main / TheRealRemingtonSteele

** ''Film/AllHailTheKing'', which sets the record straight: The Mandarin is a [[LegacyCharacter historical legacy]], he's {{real|AfterAll}}, [[OhCrap and active]], and, well:

* In an example that's like ''Remington Steele'' the series, rather than strictly this trope, Marco Denevi's noirish novel ''Rosaura at 10 O'Clock'' concerns a shy man who tells his neighbours [[GirlfriendInCanada he tells them he's having a secret affair]] with a rich woman named "Rosaura", and [[spoiler:he sends himself]] perfumed letters. Therefore, he's shocked when one day Rosaura shows up at his door.

* In ''Series/EarthFinalConflict'', when Liam is born and grows up, he decides to create himself an identity. He researchers William Boone and finds that he served with a soldier named Liam Kincaid, who is now nowhere to be found after the war. One episode has Liam encounter the real Liam Kincaid, who has joined a black ops unit after the war. Kincaid eventually says he's okay with Liam using his name.

* In the first ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'', [[spoiler:Lisa Garland]] is revealed to have been DeadAllAlong in a plot twist, the [[spoiler:Lisa]] we meet is [[spoiler:[[{{Tulpa}} a manifestation of Alessa's memories of her]]]]. We get to meet the real [[spoiler:Lisa]] for the first time in the prequel ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins''.

* In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, Franchise/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/JimmyOlsen occasionally adventured inside the shrunken Kryptonian city of Kandor where Superman's powers didn't function, and adopted the Batman-and-Robin-inspired identities of Nightwing and Flamebird. They were later replaced by Kandorian scientist Van-Zee (Superman's IdenticalStranger) and his lab assistant Ak-Var. Then Nightwing became Dick Grayson's post-Robin identity; Flamebird has also been used by established characters ComicBook/PostCrisis (including, ironically enough, Betty Kane, who in the original continuity was the overly feminine Batgirl who fought crime with ''cosmetics''). And now all of the Kandorians have been set loose. ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 There was also a brief period]]'' when ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and ComicBook/PowerGirl assumed the identities of Flamebird and Nightwing while operating inside Kandor.

* In ''Series/Snowpiercer2020'', the audience gets the revelation very early on that, unlike the original comic and [[Film/{{Snowpiercer}} film]], Mr. Wilford is not on the train -- instead, [[TheWomanBehindTheMan Melanie Cavill]] pretends to be him in between [[KingIncognito doing her own work]], and she mentions at one point that she left him behind when the train took off because the colossal {{Jerkass}} is the one who rearranged the train from TheArk to the CrapsackWorld that it is purely for the money. [[spoiler:The final minutes of the first season end with the supply train that is the prototype to Snowpiercer coupling to it after several years of trying to catch up, and the very first thing that is revealed about this train is that the survivor society in it is led by [[ChekhovsMIA the real Mr. Wilford]], who is most definitely ''not'' happy about being left to die.]] This is most probably one of the few times when this trope is PlayedForHorror (especially [[OhCrap for the people in-universe]]).

* '' ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'': Fiona Fox was originally introduced as a robot created by [[BigBad Dr. Robotnik]] to seduce Tails and ultimately roboticize him, but ended up being destroyed. A few years later, we find out that the robot was based on the real Fiona, who had been Robotnik's prisoner. The real Fiona became a recurring character, and ultimately, recurring villain, as she ended up pulling a FaceHeelTurn to be [[EvilTwin Scourge's]] girlfriend.

->''"As is the case with comic continuity, Magneto supposedly died, but then it turns out that he just faked his death by impersonating a new character, and it was all some plan to Take Over the World and engage in hypocritical acts before he's killed again, but then it turns out it's not really him and-the-character-he-made-up-was-actually-a-real-person-who's-still-alive-so-Magneto-was-actually-some-guy-impersonating-another-guy-impersonating-Magneto."''

** A later episode has SpongeBob trying to cover up the fact that he got a black eye [[ItMakesSenseInContext trying to open a tube of toothpaste]] by saying he was attacked by [[DastardlyWhiplash Jack M. Crazyfish]], telling multiple conflicting stories of the encounter, until the real Jack M. Crazyfish enters the Krusty Krab looking for SpongeBob. Although SpongeBob panics and admits he made up those stories about Crazyfish, it turns out Crazyfish wasn't coming to attack SpongeBob but to get a Krabby Patty.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': Season Two features Jay Garrick arriving from Earth-2 and warning the team of the evil, demonic speedster Zoom, but being unable to help them much due to his powers being missing. However, it turns out in the second half of the season that "Jay" was actually Hunter Zolomon, Zoom's true identity, deceiving them all. Only in the season finale does he reveal that he didn't just make up the name, but rather stole it from the real Jay Garrick, the Flash of Earth-3, whom he's been keeping imprisoned behind an iron mask in his lair.

* The plot of ''VideoGame/MegaMan6'' has Dr. Wily start a Robot Master tournament under the [[PaperThinDisguise disguise]] of Mr. X. Fangame''VideoGame/MegaMan8BitDeathmatch'' starts with the real Mr. X announcing the second Robot Master tournament.

* Shortly after the Watergate scandal and resignation of [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon President Richard Nixon]], Steve Rogers abandoned the identity of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and adopted the new identity of Nomad, the man without a country. After a few months, Rogers returned to fighting crime as ComicBook/CaptainAmerica. Years later, Jack Monroe (aka ComicBook/{{Bucky|Barnes}}), formerly the {{sidekick}} of the Captain America of the 1950s, took up the mantle of Nomad. Played with in a later storyline, when the U.S. government attempts to assert control over Captain America. Steve Rogers allows them to take the name, costume and shield away from him rather than become a government lapdog, only to don a {{Palette Swap}}ped costume and fight crime as "The Captain". When Rogers eventually reclaims the Captain America identity, the individual the government had placed as Captain America was given the "Captain" uniform, but was re-dubbed "The U.S. Agent".
* Franchise/SpiderMan introduced a new heroine called Jackpot, who is probably best known so far for maybe possibly potentially being Mary Jane Watson. It wasn't, but no sooner did we find that out than the girl was killed. This girl is intended to be the "Uncle Ben" for the original Jackpot, who came up with the identity but passed it off to someone else as she didn't want the [[ComesGreatResponsibility Great Responsibility]]. The "original" Jackpot (Sara Ehret) then receives an epic chewing out by Spidey for her RefusalOfTheCall resulting in an innocent's death which prompts her to take the identity for real... and shortly afterwards a villain learns her true identity (by utter coincidence) and sends a thug to kill her husband in front of their daughter, forcing both to go into hiding under false identities. Man, Spidey's rotten luck really is contagious, huh?

* ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamTheOrigin'', an alternate retelling of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', introduces a real Char Aznable, who befriended IdenticalStranger Casval Deikun shortly before both enrolled in the Zeon military. [[spoiler:Casval then sets Char up, switching their ID papers and having Char take a shuttle he knows is rigged to explode in an assassination attempt. Following this, Casval assumes Char's identity and the rest is history.]]\\

** According to the spinoff manga ''MSV-R: The Return of Johnny Ridden'', this was also the case for [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Quattro Bajeena]]. The real Quattro Bajeena was a crewmember on a Federation ship destroyed in the One Year War. Because military regulations required [[NeverFoundTheBody physical remains to be recovered]] for a soldier to be officially declared dead, the majority of those killed in space battles were listed as MIA rather than KIA. As a result of this, some corrupt Federation bureaucrats began selling off the identity papers of soldiers who were still technically alive but almost certainly never coming back and Char was one of their customers.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Mad-Eye Moody, the [[HighTurnoverRate Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher]] in Harry's [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire fourth year]], turns out to be an impostor who's been keeping the real Moody alive in his own BagOfHolding. Early into [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix book five]], Harry finds himself in the strange position of meeting someone he thought he'd known for a year for the first time.

* ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'' has an example similar to Mad-Eye Moody from ''Literature/HarryPotter''. Aoi Meinokawa is the GirlOfTheWeek in the seventh volume. Kyousuke seeks her help in summoning an entity capable of permanently killing his nemesis, [[EldritchAbomination the White Queen]]. It turns out that the White Queen had actually taken the place of Aoi from the beginning, and (similar to Moody) deliberately helped out Kyousuke to further her own plans. This is a somewhat unusual example, because Aoi is an ArtificialHuman originally designed to resemble the White Queen, so no disguise was necessary -- the White Queen only had to get the real one out of the way and copy her behavior. [[spoiler:But it turns out that Kyousuke had actually figured out the deception before the Queen revealed herself, and was merely playing along]]. At the end of the volume, the real Aoi is found alive, having been dismembered and dumped in a lake.

So, naturally, another heretofore unknown character pops up to become the "real" bearer of that identity. Sometimes this is simply an opportunist taking up the unused mantle; sometimes, it involves a {{Retcon}} establishing the guise as a preexisting character.

* The ''Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch'' novels revisit the TV series [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E05SecondSkin episode]] in which Cardassian Legate Tekeny Ghemor]] was tricked into believing that Bajoran Major Kira was daughter Iliana, surgically altered and given FalseMemories as a SleeperAgent. It turns out that [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E19TiesOfBloodAndWater contrary to what Legate Ghemor believed for the rest of his life]], the real Iliana Ghemor was still alive the whole time. When she escapes from a secret prison, she is ''not happy'' to learn that her father "replaced" her by becoming a father figure to Kira.

See also InventedIndividual, MasqueradingAsTheUnseen, and FakeRealTurn. Result of the same motivation as the LegacyCharacter. Compare CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown. Contrast with DeadPersonImpersonation.

* In an example that's like ''Remington Steele'' the series, rather than strictly this trope, Marco Denevi's noirish novel ''Rosaura at 10 O'Clock'' concerns a young man whose neighbors get on his case about not having a girlfriend, so [[GirlfriendInCanada he tells them he's having a secret affair]] with a married woman named "Rosaura", and he sends himself perfumed letters. Therefore, he's shocked when one day his landlady tells him, "Rosaura was here this morning asking for you".

* The character of "ComicBook/WonderGirl" originally appeared as the teenaged incarnation of Franchise/WonderWoman (just as the original Superboy was the youthful identity of Franchise/{{Superman}}). When the Comicbook/TeenTitans were created in the 1960s, Wonder Girl was added to the team... but the Titans were contemporaries of the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, [[SeriesContinuityError and by extension of Wonder Woman]]. Thus the Titans' Wonder Girl was explained four years later to be Donna Troy, an orphan rescued by Wonder Woman and raised among the Amazons. (This explanation would be subjected to repeated [[{{Retcon}} further revisions]] due to Franchise/TheDCU's constant reboots and retoolings, with [[ContinuitySnarl the result being that Donna has an impossibly convoluted history even for a comic book character]]. For a while it was even said that she is left over from TheMultiverse as it existed before most dimensions were destroyed and the survivors merged during ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths,'' making her ''a walking TemporalParadox who has multiple conflicting histories by nature!'' However, DC's continued inability to leave well enough alone means that that is now no longer true and she's ''still'' getting new origins every few years - some of which are actually ''impossible'' due to the revised histories of related characters!)

* In the Imperial Agent's prologue in ''Videogame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', the Agent adopts the cover identity of a pirate known as the Red Blade, with your contact telling you that the real thing is far away. At the end, just as you're leaving, the real deal comes to Hutta and you're forced to kill him to avoid blowing your cover.

* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' featured the character Shiv Katall, a bounty hunter hired by Zurg to hunt down defectors from his organization. Unknown to him, Katall was actually Buzz in disguise (and before him, Commander Nebula), who used the identity to aid the defectors. Unfortunately the ruse was inadvertently exposed by Buzz's team. Some time after this however, Shiv Katall mysteriously reappears, his identity taken by [[spoiler:[[MirrorUniverse Evil Buzz Lightyear]]]].

See also InventedIndividual and FakeRealTurn. Result of the same motivation as the LegacyCharacter. Compare CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown. Contrast with DeadPersonImpersonation.

* The plot of ''VideoGame/MegaMan6'' has Dr. Wily start a Robot Master tournament under the [[PaperThinDisguise disguise of Mr. X. Fangame''VideoGame/MegaMan8BitDeathmatch'' starts with the real Mr. X announcing the second Robot Master tournament.