History Main / ThoroughlyMistakenIdentity

* In PeterSBeagle's ''TheLastUnicorn'', the robber captain takes Schmederick to be "Mr. Child" (of ChildBallad fame) and tries to get him to collect the ballads he has written about himself.

** From the same series, an early sign that Barty Crouch Sr. is not quite right in the head, is his inability to place his assistant Percy Weasley's identity correctly.
*** Really? This Troper never really interpreted either as mistaken identities so much as Binns and Crouch forgetting names because the people in question didn't really matter to them that much.

A senile or crazy character has the unshakable convinction that a character is someone else they know -- a specific and actual person, frequently already dead. The most blatant symptom is calling the person by the wrong name, but other inappropriate actions may ensue.

* In [[{{hayate the combat butler}} Hayate no Gotoku]], Isumi's mother (Hatsuho) and grandmother (Kokonoe) think they're going to meet the Sanzenin's new butler (Hayate). Kokonoe sees Hatsuho and immediately thinks that Hatsuho is their butler who just happens to look like her daughter. She then realizes who it is and both wonder where the butler went.

* In Madeleine L'Engle's ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet'', Mrs. O'Keefe calls Charles Wallace "Chuck." She turns out to be [[spoiler:confusing him with her long dead brother]].

* A particularly old and addled man at a museum confuses [[StarWars Lara Notsil]] for someone else he once knew. In typical Star Wars fashion, he actually confused her ''for her mother'', [[spoiler: an Imperial Intelligence agent, like Lara/Gara/whatever-her-name-is-today herself. This confusion puts another Wraith on the trail to discovering her identity, no less.]]

* In Vivian van Velde's ''Now You See It'', the main character's senile grandmother keeps calling her by the wrong name. It turns out this is because [[spoiler: the main character traveled back in time and befriended her grandmother; her grandmother is calling her by the false name she gave]].

* Trigger, the RalphWiggum of ''OnlyFoolsAndHorses'', insists on calling Rodney "Dave"
** And it's hilariously deconstructed in a late-run episode when he mentions that the parents are considering naming a baby "Rodney, after Dave".

** But then again, ''his'' grandfather called him Billy.

* In the Madonna/Sean Penn movie ''ShanghaiSurprise'', when Penn's character, Glendon, goes to a fancy restaurant he's mistaken by all and sundry for another character named Phil -- who is never mentioned before or after this scene, nor is Glendon's resemblance. Nonetheless, the fact that Glendon looks like and is mistaken for Phil is a vital plot point without which the movie makes no sense (it's the reason Glendon was picked for the mission, it's how he gets an entree with a lady named China Doll, etc.).

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* In ''* batteries not included'', the elderly and possibly senile Faye persists in addressing one of the other characters by the name of her (dead) son.

* Professor Binns in HarryPotter is constantly mistaking everyone for the students of centuries past. It's implied that he's so out of it, he doesn't even realize he died.

* In EdgarRiceBurroughs's [[JohnCarterOfMars Swords of Mars]], he meets, while in disguise, a woman named Zanda, who comes from the city of Zodanga, destroyed because of John Carter's actions. She has sworn {{Revenge}} if she ever meets him. She therefore deliberately feigns this trope when she realizes the truth.

* RaisingHope has ClorisLeachman as Maw Maw, who thinks her grandson Jimmy is her dead husband. Traumatizing Frenching and ass-slapping ensue.

* Not quite a character, but in TalesOfSymphonia, when you meet Raine's and Genis's mother, the poor woman has deluded herself into thinking that she's still pregnant with Genis and carries around a doll that she treats as baby Raine. When the real Raine and Genis appear, she refuses to believe they're who they say they are, and she orders them out of the house.

* In NeverwinterNights, the player is mistaken for the Teller Of Places's dead lover, until the player is able to convince her that she is wrong.

* Under [[AIIsACrapshoot a different definition of senility]], 343 Guilty Spark in the first {{Halo}} game doesn't seem to see a difference between Master Chief and his long extinct creators, talking to Master Chief as if they've met before and referring to past conversations they've never had. The [[{{Precursors}} matter of who his creators]] ''[[{{Precursors}} are]]'' is one of the many hints across the lore of a connection between the two.

* In ''The Simpsons'' episode "The Principal and the Pauper", returning soldier Aarin Tamzarian visits Ma Skinner to deliver news of her son, his commander, being taken prisoner by Vietcong. She instead mistakes him for her son and he moves in, eventually becoming a school principal to honor his commander's dream. Judging from her behavior, she actually knows he's not her real son, but puts on the charade anyway. When the real Skinner returns and moves in, she doesn't like him as much.

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* ''{{Prototype}}'': [[spoiler:the protagonist]] believes [[spoiler:he's Alex Mercer, suffering from TheCorruption. He's not; he's a strain of TheVirus, unconsciously mimicking its first meal]]. [[OrIsIt Maybe]].

* In ''The Simpsons'' episode "The Principal and the Pauper", returning soldier Aarin Tamzarian visits Ma Snyder to deliver news of her son, his commander, being taken prisoner by vietcong. She instead mistakes him for her son and he moves in, eventually becoming a school principal to honor his commander's dream. Judging from her behavior, she actually knows he's not her real son, but puts on the charade anyway. When the real Snyder returns and moves in, she doesn't like him as much.

* In ''{{Webcomic/No Rest For The Wicked}}'', the witch [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03-43.html calls the kidnapped children Hansel and Gretel]]. They explain that they are really Anna and Klaus. Later revelations show that her own children had been Hansel and Gretel.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In the western ''QuigleyDownUnder'', Crazy Cora keeps calling Matthew Quigley 'Roy', because, well..... (Roy turns out to be [[spoiler: Crazy Cora's first husband, who left her after she accidently killed their child.]])
** Which is what made it so significant [[spoiler: when she called him by his full name in the final moments of the film]]. The Roy identity also [[spoiler: came in handy when he was booking passage back to the U.S.]]
* In ''* batteries not included'', the elderly and possibly senile Faye persists in addressing one of the other characters by the name of her (dead) son.
** And in a heartbreaking scene in the end, when said character decides to play along for once and pretends that he is her son, [[spoiler: (because he set the house on fire, and is trying to save her)]] it causes her to break through her denial and realize the horrible truth...
* In the final scene of ''Smoke,'' Augie poses as a blind old lady's grandson rather than let her spend Christmas alone. Subverted in that she probably realizes that he isn't actually her grandson but goes along with the act rather than admit that she has been abandoned.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* ''InuYasha'': 'My name is NOT Kikyo. It's Kagome. KAH. GOH. MAY.' (Kikyo is InuYasha's ex-girlfriend, Kagome being her reincarnation.)
* In ''FruitsBasket'', Tohru's grandfather calls her Kyouko. Kyouko was the name of Tohru's (dead) mother.
* In an early episode of ''{{Pokemon}}'', a random woman mistakes Ash for her missing son and calls him "Arnold."
* In StarBlazers (aka SpaceBattleShipYamato), Queen Starsha initially mistakes Nova for her own sister Astra, who died in the first episode.
* In ''BlazerDrive'', this happens to the protagonist when an [[IllGirl ill mom]] mistakes him for her dead son. The protagonist, being an orphan who recently lost his older brother, goes along with it. [[spoiler: just before she dies, the mom reveals that she knew he wasn't her son, but because it made the both of them so happy she didn't want the "reunion" to end.]]
* A Manga (Manhwa?) whose name escapes me featured a girl posing as her dead ''brother'', which was pretty much the only thing keeping her very fragile mom alive.
** Probably Global Garden. An interesting case in that the girl had latent magical powers that were turning her into a boy to grant her mother's wish without the girl be aware tha she was doing it.
** Something similar to this happened in SecretPlot Deep, where the main male character's twin sister died in an accident, and his parents were so shaken up about it that they started believing he was his sister. Apparently, they got rid of all the photos of him and forgot he existed. To keep them content, he cross-dressed when at home. [[{{Hentai}} This leads to transvestite sex with a girl from school. And a female teacher.]]
* In ''KongouBanchou'', [[DeceptivelyHumanRobots Machine Banchou]] mistakes little Tsukimi for "Dr. Tsukina", whose orders supersede all others, and she unintentionally alters his personality by giving him suggestions on how to be cooler. This is played for NightmareFuel when she realizes the one thing she can't make him do is [[spoiler:not kill Kongou.]]
** Also an unusual case of it, as, being a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin machine]], it is frequently pointed out that Machine Banchou identifies people with speech and retina recognition devices instead of, [[FridgeLogic you know]], ''[[DittoAliens looking at them]]''.
* In [[{{hayate the combat butler}} Hayate no Gotoku]], Isumi's mother (Hatsuho) and grandmother (Kokonoe) think they're going to meet the Sanzenin's new butler (Hayate). Kokonoe sees Hatsuho and immediately thinks that Hatsuho is their butler who just happens to look like her daughter. She then realizes who it is and both wonder where the butler went.
** Hayate was actually visiting, he was standing off to the side during the conversation.

[[AC: VideoGames]]
* [[PhoenixWrightAceAttorney "Keith, Meg, I'll need you to take over the Wet Noodle when I'm gone!"]] [[spoiler: That's actually an act.]]
* In ''{{The Legend of Zelda}}: Majora's Mask'', Anju's grandmother mistakes Link for her son, Anju's dead father. [[spoiler: This is an act too.]]
** Then again, the Legend of Zelda timeline(s) are so screwy that god knows how many Links there have actually ''been.''
** Mistaking Link might be a genuine accident, but she definitely uses this to trick her daughter into thinking she's senile as Anju is a terrible cook.
* Not quite a character, but in TalesOfSymphonia, when you meet Raine's and Genis's mother, the poor woman has deluded herself into thinking that she's still pregnant with Genis and carries around a doll that she treats as baby Raine. When the real Raine and Genis appear, she refuses to believe they're who they say they are, and she orders them out of the house.
** What makes her especially deluded is that given the difference in her two children's ages, Raine would've been ten or eleven when their mother was still pregnant with Genis.
* The player in ''VampireBloodlines'' is approached by someone is certain that they recognize you, so certain that they suspect you of being on drugs when you don't recognize them. The only clue that they might actually know who you were is that [[StoryAndGameplaySegregation if you let her phone other friends about you, you lose Masquerade points]].
** To be fair the dialogue options are ambiguous about whether the player did know the person. An alternate interpretation is that the PC only denies knowing the person because they don't wish to associate with their old life now that their vampire form demands a very different lifestyle. The game does make the point that people who associate with vampires often meet misfortune of one kind or another.
* In NeverwinterNights, the player is mistaken for the Teller Of Places's dead lover, until the player is able to convince her that she is wrong.
* In ''{{Xenogears}}'', the two main protagonists, Fei and Elly [[spoiler:have been re-incarnating since the dawn of "history" 10,000~ years before the start of the game]]. As such there are several characters (such as [[BigBad Krelian]]) who are functionally immortal who [[spoiler:knew their previous incarnations]]. Emerelda was [[spoiler:also created by one of their past incarnations as a ReplacementGoldfish for the child Elly was incapable of having at that point in history]]. Emerelda refers to Fei as "Kim" [[spoiler:because she actually believes that Fei is Kim]] and is a legitimate case of this trope in action. Krelian meanwhile [[spoiler:knows full well that these are seperate people from the ones he was friends with 500 years ago, but calls them Lacan and Sophia anyway because its his way of keeping their memory alive]].
* ''{{Prototype}}'': [[spoiler:the protagonist]] believes [[spoiler:he's Alex Mercer, suffering from TheCorruption. He's not; he's a strain of TheVirus, unconsciously mimicking its first meal]]. [[OrIsIt Maybe]].
* Under [[AIIsACrapshoot a different definition of senility]], 343 Guilty Spark in the first {{Halo}} game doesn't seem to see a difference between Master Chief and his long extinct creators, talking to Master Chief as if they've met before and referring to past conversations they've never had. The [[{{Precursors}} matter of who his creators]] ''[[{{Precursors}} are]]'' is one of the many hints across the lore of a connection between the two.

[[AC: ComicBooks]]
* ''TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' has what appears to be an explicit tribute to ''OnlyFoolsAndHorses'' by not only using this trope, but also reusing the name "Dave".
* The Queen of Fables, an evil sorceress [[RefugeeFromTVLand from a story book]] believes that WonderWoman is her arch enemy, SnowWhite. No matter what evidence is presented to her, she refuses to believe otherwise, and seems completely unaware of the passage of time, as the ''real'' Snow White would have died of old age by now.
** She also mistakes {{Superman}} for PrinceCharming.
* Effie in the ''Ernie/Piranha Club'' newspaper comic regularly mistakes people for one of her many ex-husbands. (Except [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Arnold]], which she thinks is one of her ''old dogs''.)

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*''TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' has what appears to be an explicit tribute to ''OnlyFoolsAndHorses'' by not only using this trope, but also reusing the name "Dave".
* Played straight to the hilt in ''SwampThing'', with everyone being dead wrong about a key player's identity. [[spoiler: Swamp Thing's spent his life trying to turn back into his human state, Dr. Alec Holland, and indeed this quest is the only thing keeping him sane. Too bad that, as another character put it, "He isn't Alec Holland. He never will be Alec Holland. He never was Alec Holland."]]
** Does that make him a TomatoInTheMirror?