History Main / ThirdPersonFlashback

As this is very common, only list examples that is a subversion or averted. Some of some very odd examples may be added like ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' example.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': As Bialar Crais was forced to recall events on the memory probing chair operated by Scorpius, the screen shows Caris snapping the commander's neck.

Another reason this could be an acceptable break from reality is for some nice visual cues or adding a RewatchBonus into the Third-Person Flashback. A Third-Person Flashback could be perfect for placing a ChekhovsGun of some kind, a BrickJoke, FunnyBackgroundEvent, or a bit of {{Foreshadowing}}.

* ''Series/ColdCase'', a series which uses flashbacks heavily, usually plays this straight in terms of showing it from a third-person perspective, but generally sticks to only showing the parts of the scene that the character could have witnessed. More than that, it's frequently significant that they do it that way, as there are quite a few cases where showing the entire scene would spoil a later twist.

* ''Series/ColdCase'', a series which uses flashbacks heavily, usually plays this straight in terms of showing it from a third-person perspective, but generally sticks to only showing the parts of the scene that the character could have witnessed. In many cases this ends up being an important narrative device, when showing the full scene would spoil a later twist.

** ''Series/ColdCase'', which uses flashbacks heavily, usually plays this straight in terms of showing it from a third-person perspective, but generally sticks to only showing the parts of the scene that the character could have witnessed. In many cases this ends up being an important narrative device, when showing the full scene would spoil a later twist.

* The RickAndMorty episode "Morty's Mind Blowers" has a series of short vignettes, depicted as being Morty's memories, that have been physically stored and erased. One memory cuts to another set of people, that Morty hadn't even met at that point. Morty questions this, and Rick explains that he cut some things together to make it flow better.

* ''Every'' longer ''OnePiece'' flashback has this, but in several cases, the third person scenes are really only there to enlighten the viewer with the whole picture of the past events, because the main character in the flashback often doesn't understand the whole situation, and so it would be confusing and not very good {{Exposition}} to only tell the story through his/her eyes. In most cases, it's not that noteworthy because one character is simply flashing back without any other character knowing it. However, in a few cases, like Nojiko's and Jinbe's, the trope is played straight: here, the flashback is actually one character telling his/her recollection of times past, and the flashback is a ShowDontTell method preferable in manga instead of filling page after page with long speech bubbles. Still, the flashback should logically be told from Nojiko's and Jinbe's points of view, but there are still some scenes (especially in Jinbe's flashback) that they don't take part in and shouldn't realistically know about.

* Possible aversion: In ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'', we see the movie as a 3rd person memory of the protagonists dreams. In real life he has no memory of his romantic rival's face because he didn't see it, so even though we see it in 3rd person, no matter how he moves the guy he's always TheBlank.

Another reason this could be an acceptable break from reality is for some nice visual cues or adding a RewatchBonus into the Third Person Flashback. A Third Person Flashback could be perfect for placing a ChekhovsGun of some kind, a BrickJoke, FunnyBackgroundEvent, or a bit of {{Foreshadowing}}.

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--> '''Interview question''': So there are things in there that you haven’t noticed personally, but you can go and see yourself?
--> '''Rowling''': Yes, and that’s the magic of the Pensieve, that’s what brings it alive. (…) Otherwise it really would just be like a diary, wouldn’t it? Confined to what you remember. But the Pensieve recreates a moment for you, so you could go into your own memory and relive things that you didn’t notice the time. It’s somewhere in your head, which I’m sure it is, in all of our brains. I’m sure if you could access it, things that you don’t know you remember are all in there somewhere.

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* Unintentionally hilarious in ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial'', when Chewbacca's memories are all film clips from ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]''. Noted by Rifftrax:
-->'''Kevin:''' Uh, so why are all of Chewbacca's memories from the perspective of someone ''observing'' Chewbacca?
-->'''Mike:''' Why do none of his memories involve his ''family'' in any way?

* Lampshaded in an episode of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', when, while Barney and Robin are discussing something within a closed room, Robin says how hard it is to measure any men since she and Ted broke up. Future Ted then says "I wasn't there but this is how I imagine it happened."

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* ''WebComic/TheMansionOfE'': All flashbacks are shown with all characters blackened out with, sometimes with vague background. At one point, [[WordOfGod author]] stated that it is possible that person doing flashback may have misremembered or imagines what have happened. [[http://mansionofe.comicgenesis.com/d/20050914.html Example]].
* ''WebComic/WastedAway'': Radon's memories are third-person, and represented as video tapes in his mind.

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* {{Website/Cracked}} mocked ''TheEternalMind'' usage of this trope.
** "We're not entirely sure why all the happy memories in "The Eternal Mind" are from someone else's perspective, though."

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* A frequently mocked in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''.
--> "How do you remember the parts you weren't there for?"
* ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' lampshades this trope occasionally, even making fun of how Tèa was somehow able to remember something when she was unconscious.

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* {{Lampshaded}} on ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim''. When Zim is captured by Sizz-Lor, we get a flashback to when Zim used to work for him and then escaped; it ends with Sizz-Lor seeing that Zim is missing and vowing to bring him back. When the flashback ends, Sizz-Lor wonders how Zim could remember the part that happened ''after'' he left. Zim has no answer.
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* [[RealityIsUnrealistic It's generally accepted by psychologists that, when people recall episodic memories, they can experience them either in a field perspective (1st person) or in an observer perspective (3rd person)]]. The latter is possible because memories are reconstructed upon retrieval rather than preserved exactly how they were experienced.
** Especially if they were preserved in photographs or video tapes, mostly the latter. When you reconstruct it upon retrieval through the tape, you remember it through the camera's perspective.
* Real Life/Literature example: In his memoir, ''My Mother's Sabbath Days,'' Chaim Grade begins with his mother having a conversation with another woman. A few pages later, Chaim Grade enters the room. (And it's in first person.)

* This is one function of a PensieveFlashback in ''Literature/HarryPotter''. The most obvious example is in book five, when Harry sneaks a look at one of Snape's school memories and spends more time following his teenaged father than Snape himself. He does worry that if they get ''too'' far apart he won't be able to keep following James, but it never happens.

* ''Film/PulpFiction'''s flashback to when Butch is given his father's watch, with ChristopherWalken telling him the story, starts in first-person but then goes third.

* A frequently mocked in DragonBallZAbridged.

* In an episode of the anime ''SchoolRumble'', Yakumo has a flashback/dream to when she was a little kid that is from the first person perspective. Up to and including when the camera shakes up and down to indicate her nodding her head.

* Unintentionally hilarious in ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial'', when Chewbacca's memories are all film clips from ''[[ANewHope Star Wars]]''. Noted by Rifftrax:

** During his quest for a perfect week(7 women in 7 nights), Barney is largely narrating by being interviewed by Jim Nantz. During this he does exactly the same thing assuming that each of his friends were in love with him in various ways.

* {{Lampshaded}} on ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim''. Zim remembers escaping from Frycourtia, and Sizz-Lor coming in and swearing to recapture him. Back in the present, Sizz-lor asks how he can remember that last part if he already left. Zim doesn't have an answer.

* In ''Film/FlashGordon'', as Doctor Klytus and General Kala are draining Hans Zarkov's mind, historical events are seen in third person (things Zarkov watched on television, for example), but his ''personal'' memories (like when he was fired from the university, or meeting and marrying his wife) are all shot from first person.

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* Possible aversion: In ''EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'', we see the movie as a 3rd person memory of the protagonists dreams. In real life he has no memory of his romantic rival's face because he didn't see it, so even though we see it in 3rd person, no matter how he moves the guy he's always TheBlank.

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* PlayedForLaughs in ''ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' in the UnreliableNarrator episode.
* An episode in ''TouchedByAnAngel'' used this in the episode where a student was accused of plagiarizing. The flashback started with what the person remembered, and it was then extended to include something the person didn't see (his own submission being modified by a person he helped). That caused a negative reaction from the person, who wasn't present during the extended portion.

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* ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' lampshades this trope occasionally, even making fun of how Tèa was somehow able to remember something when she was unconscious.

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* ''Cartoon/ManWithTheScreamingBrain'': William had memories of himself being murdered, not surprising since half of brain was from someone witnessing his own murder.

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* Cartoon/''ManWithTheScreamingBrain'': William had memories of himself being murdered, not surprising since half of brain was from someone witnessing his own murder.

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* The Rifftrax gang also mocked this back in ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'':

* ''TheWitcher3WildHunt'': As Geralt follows in Ciri's footsteps, he has witnesses recount when they last saw her, which the player experiences as gameplay in control of Ciri during the events.