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3%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
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6
7Oh, no, your sister just died!
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9But you don't have the AppliedPhlebotinum to make a ReplacementGoldfish to remember her by. Still, [[HalfIdenticalTwins you look]] [[TwinSwitch kind of like her]], [[IdenticalStranger right]]? So she'll live on through you!
10
11The motives for this can vary a great deal. Sometimes there's a [[ElCidPloy tangible need for this level of deception]] -- the dead sibling may have been the linchpin in high-level government negotiations, and the surviving sibling is the only one who can plausibly play the role. It can also be a slightly misguided attempt to live your sister's dream's ''for'' her, since she didn't get the chance. This trope can also be exactly as disturbing as it sounds, and we end up with one AxCrazy sibling convinced [[ThoroughlyMistakenIdentity he really ''is'' her]].
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13May or may not involve a WholesomeCrossdresser, depending on the gender of the person being replaced and the person doing the replacing. May or not be related, possibly just good friends.
14
15Related to KillAndReplace. A subtrope of DeadPersonImpersonation. A somewhat limited form of BatmanGambit. May include SettleForSibling. For the literal version see TwoSiblingsInOne.
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17----
18!!Examples:
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20[[foldercontrol]]
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22[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23* In ''Anime/AngelBeats'', Ayato Naoi had this forced upon him after his twin brother, an accomplished potter, died in a fall. Ayato was told that ''he'' was the one who'd died, and ended up having to push himself to take his brother's place.
24* ''Manga/AngelSanctuary'', [[spoiler: with the brother Voice dying. His twin sister Noise later cuts her hair to better resemble him and says he'll live on through her.]]
25* This is central to the plot of the manga ''Manga/{{Basara}}''. Tatara, believed to be the ChosenOne and expected to lead a revolution against the corrupt monarchy, is killed before he does anything worth mentioning. His conveniently HalfIdenticalTwin, Sarasa, takes his place and actually leads that revolution. She ends up using "Tatara" as her public persona and "Sarasa" as her SecretIdentity.
26* ''Manga/BlackButler'' has this with [[spoiler:the main character, who is NOT Ciel Phantomhive, but his identical twin. Both boys were abducted when their parents were killed, and sold to the devil-worshipping cult that wanted to summon Sebastian; while flashbacks throughout the story had implied that Ciel just barely survived being sacrificed to make his DealWithTheDevil, in actuality he was killed on the altar and his twin contracted with Sebastian for revenge. Since [[NoNameGiven the twin]] was always sickly and self-conscious due to being the 'useless' second child, he decided it would be better if he was the one who died (that, and he needed the power of the Queen's Watchdog to hunt down their family's killers).]]
27* A variant is invoked in ''Manga/BlackJack''. When the son of the head of a major corporation is killed in a fire, the father forces his last living child to pose as said son (if his son, and only his son, doesn't inherit the company, it will be absorbed by a rival company). The trouble is, said last living child is a girl (albeit one who looks uncannily like the dead son), and the poor girl is pressured into agreeing to a sex-change operation and identity switch. [[spoiler:It turns out that the son is still alive, but was hiding because he didn't want to be his father's pawn. He helps his sister until their father dies, at which point Black Jack (the surgeon hired to do the sex-change operation) reveals that he never actually performed the operation. He just hypnotized the daughter into ''thinking'' she'd been turned into a boy. Erm...yeah.]]
28* In ''Manga/BlackClover'', after Morgen's death because of his Devil-Binding Ritual, Nacht changed his hair back to its original style to resemble his twin brother's, adopted his brother's perpetually happy demeanor, and became a Magic Knight, with Morgen having joined the Gray Deer and dreamed of the two working together as Magic Knights to protect the kingdom.
29* On ''Manga/BlackLagoon,'' 'Hansel and Gretel' are a set of identical, mentally disturbed twins [[spoiler:who switch between which one's being 'Hansel' and which one's 'Gretel' whenever the mood strikes them. When Hansel... errrr, the twin who ''at that moment'' is Hansel dies, the twin who is Gretel can't comprehend the notion that Hansel is dead and switches to Hansel (briefly) to prove it.]] Did we mention the pair are utterly mad yet?
30* ''Manga/BloomIntoYou'' has one that [[DeconstructedTrope goes into detail about the emotional and mental consequences of this]]. [[spoiler: Touko's older sister died in a traffic accident. This is what jumpstarted her desire to be like the perfect and beloved older sister Touko looked up to and to accomplish all the things her sister could not. However, this causes Touko endless self-loathing and severe self-esteem issues, to the point where she has no idea who her original self was and she has no intention of remembering because all she knows is that she hated how she used to be. Protagonist Yuu eventually realizes just how unhealthy this is not just for Touko, but everyone else around her.]]
31* Ryou from ''Manga/BokuraNoHentai'' started dressing up as his older sister after she died. His mentally unstable mother thinks he's his sister, which isn't helped by the fact he is TheUnfavorite. [[spoiler:His girlfriend eventually finds out and her parents send Ryou's mother to a hospital for mental care.]]
32* In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', Ken's parents often had the spotlight on his older brother Osamu, who was regarded as a child prodigy. Out of jealousy, Ken wished he were dead, and soon after he died in a car accident. After that, Ken took on several of his brother's attributes out of guilt, and in hopes that his parents would recognize him more. [[spoiler: When Ken stopped being the Digimon Kaiser, his worried parents apologized to him, and Ken accepted their apologies and began working on his HeelFaceTurn.]]
33* [[spoiler: Nuriko]] from ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'', [[spoiler: who is said to have started crossdressing to live the life that his little sister Kourin was "denied" to, having died when she was young]].
34* Played with in one episode of ''Anime/HellGirl'' that featured a young girl living by herself in a sanatorium. She says that "[[ThirdPersonPerson Mina's]] daddy left her" and she doesn't want Tsugumi and Hajime to ever leave. It turns out that [[spoiler:Mina isn't talking about herself in the third person. Mina died a long time ago, and the girl is actually a doll.]]
35* Ran Fujimiya in ''Anime/KnightHunters'' doesn't actually impersonate his little sister Aya (thankfully) but he does take her name in order to allow her to live through him while she's in a coma.
36* ''Anime/LeChevalierDEon'' is ''all about this''. The sister was murdered, so her soul went into her brother's body and periodically possesses it to carry out vengeance...
37** She later on lets her hair grow again,[[spoiler: after avenging his death]].
38* Following her brother's death, Teana from ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' made it her life goal to become an [[SuperCop enforcer]], just like he wanted to, using the skills that he taught her. Teana's brother had injured but failed to capture a wanted mage, thus causing his superiors to denounce him as useless, and driving Teana to prove them wrong. Teana eventually succeeds in becoming an Enforcer after outgrowing her stubbornness and obsession with proving herself.
39* In the ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' anime, [[spoiler:Sierra]] does this for her sister, [[spoiler:Presea]].
40* Subverted in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' with [[spoiler: Lyle Dylandy; when he becomes the second Lockon Stratos, he deliberately acts like a lech towards Feldt and a BrilliantButLazy jerk to everyone else to make it clear that, while he can and ''will'' be Lockon Stratos, he is ''not'' the same as his deceased twin older brother Neil, the original Lockon.]]
41* A ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' filler mission used this trope, where a country's princess took her assassinated brother's place to keep the assassination secret and root out the culprit. After the mastermind was brought to justice, she came clean and ruled as herself.
42** The entirety of the [[spoiler:Sasuke/Itachi]] conflict in was caused by this trope. [[spoiler: Everything Sasuke went through up until Itachi's death was his brother's doing, so that after Sasuke killed him Sasuke would fulfill Itachi's objective.]]
43* The real reason [[spoiler: Ringo Oginome]] from ''Anime/{{Penguindrum}}'' is so obsessed [[spoiler: with the teacher Keiju Tabuki]], because [[spoiler:her sister Momoka died the same day Ringo was born, and her death tore the Oginome family apart; young Ringo then started to aim to "become Momoka" in a heartfelt yet misguided attempt to bring her parents back together. Tabuki is also the person who taught Ringo about "destiny" as well as what Momoka meant to him and the Oginomes, so she started to follow the instructions written in Momoka's diary to further her "transformation" into her dead older sister.]]
44* Lizzie attempts to do this for Ivan in ''Manhwa/{{Priest|1998}}'' since she just happens to look like his dead girlfriend for some reason. He's not very receptive, though.
45* A non-creepy version in ''Manga/PrincessJellyfish''. One of the reasons why [[AttractiveBentGender Kuranosuke]] [[WholesomeCrossdresser dresses in women's clothing]] is so the memory of his mother will live on.
46* Happens rather literally in ''Manga/PsychicAcademy''. After an incident in the backstory where Ren got killed and his sister Fafa ended up needing a heart replacement, Ren's heart was placed in Fafa. Since that point, whenever Fafa's pulse rises above a certain level, she turns ''into'' Ren. This isn't just a personality shift, her body literally changes gender.
47* Creepily and cruelly played with in ''Manga/SakuraGari''. [[spoiler: As a child, young Youya Saiki saw how his half-brother Souma was forced by his evil tutor Katsuragi into murdering Youya's mother Sakurako, as revenge for her abusing and raping Souma. Poor Youya fell into insanity, took up his mother's name and started calling himself Sakurako, wearing his mom's kimonos and tricking everyone outside the family into believing he was a girl. He ended up locked in an old warehouse for nine years, then only got out when a fire broke in.]]
48* A textbook example in the hentai comic ''Secret Plot Deep'', Imada's sister died in a car crash, which devastated his parents. After a few weeks, they convinced themselves that Imada was his sister, and that he was the one who died, not her. Imada began dressing as his sister at that point so as to not deepen his parent's misery (and because his parents had thrown out all of his clothes).
49* In humor manga ''Manga/SketDance'', [[TheSmartGuy team geek Switch's]] TearJerker BackStory turns out to be this. [[spoiler:He used to be a really normal handsome guy, before his genius little brother was killed. Something he said in a fit of jealousy put the murderer on the kid originally, so he stopped using his accidentally destructive voice, eventually replacing it with the text-to-speech program the original Switch was working on when he died, and he feels it should have been him, so once he snaps out of his HeroicBSOD he ditches his entire previous personality and takes on his brother's nickname, glasses, dress sense, and lifestyle. His mother is furious. Oddly, he appears to be completely comfortable with this identity these days and is highly popular with his classmates, despite coming off as a nut job. (He got the 'number one Otaku' and 'number one [[ChickMagnet Popular Guy]]' medals by popular vote.) It never comes up outside of {{flashback}}s, and none of the classmates who would remember what he used to be like ever bring it up, but there is a [[FridgeHorror genuine creepiness factor]] to Switch and his laptop once you know why he's doing that, especially since other character's tragic backstories are treated much differently in the story. The latter half of his backstory, published much later (and never adapted into the [[GeckoEnding anime]]), reveals that Switch himself recognized how creepy this is and he wants to eventually move on but he doesn't have the courage to do so right away and is taking one step at a time to [[ItsAllMyFault forgive himself]] while most of his classmates, his friends [[TrueCompanions Bossun and Himeko]] and at least some of his teachers are well aware of his past and reasoning behind his changed appearance and they have just accepted him, because he too wants to be a better person. The final story arc of the manga reveals that he eventually got over it and started talking with his real voice again, grew his hair out like he originally had, while [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments being grateful to all the friends he has made who helped him]]. Unfortunately, the glasses stuck, because his [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome vision worsened over time due to spending too much time in the computer and watching anime]], a habit he developed during his time as a {{hikkikomori}}.]]
50* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', shortly after [[spoiler: Kamina's death]], [[spoiler: Simon]] attempts a DeadPersonImpersonation before eventually realizing the significance of [[spoiler: Kamina's "Believe in yourself" last words]] and becoming more self-confident. When [[ShesAllGrownUp they grew up]], [[spoiler: Simon]] heavily adopted [[spoiler: Kamina]]'s manner of thinking, though tempered with more sanity and intelligence. In the final arc, [[spoiler: Simon]]'s outfit even looks like [[spoiler: Kamina]], with both of them [[spoiler: going shirtless and wearing a BadassLongcoat / BadassCape.]]
51* In ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'', this is part of the reason [[spoiler: Fai]] is so messed up. [[spoiler:His true name is actually Yuui but uses his dead twin brother's name ever since the latter died. Yuui!Fai believes this to be his fault, and wants to bring his twin {{back from the dead}} to give him back his name.]]
52* The manga ''Manga/YubisakiMilkTea'' does this. The original reason the male main character crossdresses was to pretend to be his big sister in photo shoots, though the sister is still alive, just on a date.
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55[[folder:Comic Books]]
56* In the one-shot ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}: Jekyll and Hyde'', Harvey Dent somehow absorbs the personality of his dead brother Murray, which becomes Two-Face. This version of the origin has had criticisms.
57* Inverted, then played straight in Franchise/TheDCU by the Crimson Fox.
58** The inversion: Upon gaining their superpowers, identical twins Constance and Vivian D'aramis, co-owners of a Parisian perfume company, arranged to fake Constance's death, so each of them could go back and forth playing Vivian and the Crimson Fox.
59** Played straight: When Vivian was actually killed in action, Constance assumed both roles.
60* Zandale Randolph, better known as Bulletproof and ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'', got his superpowers in an accident that killed his twin brother. Knowing that his brother was the favorite son and that losing him would be the death of his parents, he took on his brother's identity. Like the ''Secret Plot Deep'' example above, this was ''only'' when he was around his parents -- and in this case, a little less than half the time, as his brother didn't live all that close to their parents and would only visit occasionally.
61* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' stoyr arc "ComicBook/TheDeathOfLightningLad": When the eponymous character is killed, his previously unmentioned twin sister with the same powers shows up at Legion headquarters and pretends to be her brother, back from the dead, until the deception is exposed and she joins the Legion under her own identity.
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64[[folder:Fan Works]]
65* ''Manga/LuckyStar'' Challenge Fic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6652434/1/What_It_Takes "What It Takes"]] has Tsukasa, as the "something she did to make someone mad" for the challenge, [[spoiler:kill her parents and wound her older sister (Matsuri) so that she can resurrect Kagami by having (Kagami) live through (Tsukasa's) body. She succeeds, but due to interference, Kagami ends up sharing bodies with Inori, who was fighting Tsukasa earlier.]]
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68[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
69* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' requires Jake Sully to go to Pandora after his brother is killed, because his identical twin brother had an Avatar exclusively created to work with ''his'' DNA, and ''only'' Jake Sully will be able to operate that Avatar now.
70* The convoluted mystery that is central to the erotic thriller ''Film/ColorOfNight'' is that [[spoiler:Rose is being forced by her psychotic older brother to impersonate their deceased younger brother.]]
71* The Masked Bandit in ''Film/TheFall'' indirectly does this by adopting the mask of his dead brother, the Blue Bandit.
72* ''Film/TheHouseOfYes'' has a dark example. [[spoiler: AxCrazy Jackie kills her brother Marty and implies that he'll live through her.]]
73* ''Film/AnOfficerAndAGentleman'': Turns out [[spoiler: Sid only wanted to be a naval officer to live for his brother who died in Vietnam.]]
74* An unwilling variant shows up in the ''Film/SleepawayCamp'' franchise. In the beginning of the first movie, an accident that results in the death of a father and one of his twin children is shown. Its ambiguous as to whether the brother or sister survived at first, though the movie leads you to believe it was the sister, Angela. In actuality, it was the brother, Peter. Angela/Peter's aunt Martha, who took her/him in after the accident, already had a son, and wanted to have a daughter, so she made Peter become Angela.
75* The indie drama ''Split Decisions'' features two brothers who grew up in a working class family in New York City with a passion for boxing. However, the older brother became a professional early on, wrecking his relationship with their father, and is hounded (and later murdered) by gangsters who want him to take a dive to prop up their new ArrogantKungFuGuy champion. The younger brother, who is planning on going to college rather than going pro, is witness to his brother's death and joins the championship to avenge him.
76* ''Film/{{Tootsie}}'': Michael Dorsey (as Dorothy Michaels) reveals on live TV that he is actually his character's twin-brother out to honor his sister's memory. The rest of the production is forced to [[TheShowMustGoOn run with it]], despite the fact that the cast and crew are just as shocked by TheReveal as the viewers are.
77* Halfway through ''Film/GlassOnion'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:Cassandra "Andi" Brand had been murdered prior to the events of the film, and that she was being impersonated by her identical twin sister Helen, who came to Miles Bron's private island to find out who killed Andi.]]
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80[[folder:Literature]]
81* In ''Literature/AmongOthers'', Mori is the surviving one of a pair of identical twins, Morwenna and Morganna. It gradually becomes apparent that the name she supplies when people ask her what "Mori" is short for is the name of the sister who died.
82* In the Creator/VCAndrews novel ''Literature/{{Celeste}}'', Celeste has a brother named Noble, who is the favorite of her New Agey, spirit-obsessed mother. When Noble drowns to death, the mom forces Celeste to dress like and act like Noble, in the hopes of having Noble's spirit live on through her. She even dresses up Noble's corpse like Celeste and tells the whole town that it was Celeste who died, not Noble. Needless to say, the whole thing comes off as downright creepy.
83* Played rather literally in ''The Constant Princess'' by Creator/PhilippaGregory, in which Prince Arthur, on his deathbed, made his wife Katherine of Aragon promise to marry [[UsefulNotes/HenryVIII his brother]], have their children and become queen. [[HollywoodHistory May or may not have actually happened this way,]] but [[ChekhovsGun became something of an important point]] when Henry decided to have the marriage annulled.
84* In the Creator/VCAndrews Literature/LandrySeries, when one of Ruby's twin sons dies, the surviving twin announces his intention to do this. Ruby and her daughter both realize it's not good for him, and try to discourage him from it.
85* Creator/AgathaChristie did this in ''Literature/AMurderIsAnnounced''. [[spoiler:The dead sister was the heir to a large fortune, and by impersonating her, the other sister hoped to get the money.]]
86* In ''Literature/{{Newsflesh}}'', [[spoiler:after Georgia's death, the only thing that keeps Shaun going throughout ''Deadline'' is the desire to finish what Georgia started by exposing her killers]].
87* In ''Literature/PirateLatitudes'' by Michael Crichton, the pirate Lazoo has an older brother who died in infancy. She was born shortly afterward after her father had been away at war for over a year and raised as her brother to hide her mother's infidelity.
88* In ''Possessing Jessie'' by Nancy Springer, the titular character starts dressing up as her younger brother after he dies, as a way to cheer up her mother who had [[ParentalFavoritism clearly favored him over her.]] Except then she starts acting more and more like him, to the point that the book ends with [[spoiler: a CosmicRetcon in which ''she'' was the one who died instead of him.]]
89* In the ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'' books, would-be NonActionGuy Neal starts training for his knighthood at fifteen (a late age) because his older brothers have all died,[[note]]during the events of ''Literature/TheImmortals'', in fact[[/note]] and his family/house is a pillar of the kingdom that's supposed to always have at least one knight serving the crown. Notably, no one's forcing him into this - in fact his father, hearing him complain about a fellow page, asks if this means he's come back to his senses and will return to academia - but he believes strongly in continuing the tradition.
90* Happens in the ''Sign of the Zodiac'' series. After Olivia's murder, her sister Joanna needs a new identity, and those doing the plastic surgery on her decide to disguise her as Olivia.
91* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': In ''Mirror Dance'', after Miles is killed (temporarily it turns out) the Dendarii want his clone-brother, Mark, to impersonate him. Mark is horrified by the thought, largely because rescuing Mark from a disastrous previous attempt to impersonate him got Miles killed in the first place. Mark responds by gaining enough weight that he no longer resembles Miles.
92* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' has Vandene, who starts wearing the clothes that used to belong to her sister Adealas after Adealas is murdered.
93* Creator/KateRoss uses this in ''Whom the Gods Love'' in which one of the murder suspects [[spoiler: turns out to be actually the sister taking her dead brother's place as a law student. She ends up getting engaged to the murder victim's father after resuming her own identity.]]
94* ''Literature/WindOnFire'' in ''Firesong'' when [[spoiler: Kestrel]] dies and [[spoiler:Bowman]] is still seeing her in his head 8 years later, living the life she would want.
95** Furthermore [[spoiler: Kestrel]] bids little sister Pinto to [[spoiler: love Mumpo for both of them. Pinto already loves Mumpo, but he has always been in love with Kestrel. In the DistantEpilogue Mumpo and Pinto are betrothed]]
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98[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
99* Parodied in ''Series/AlloAllo''. Rene is sentenced to death by the Germans for working with the [[LaResistance French resistance]], but is able to fake his death (with a lot of help). He covers his reappearance by claiming to be his own identical twin brother for the rest of the show's run.
100* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Just before jumping to her death, Buffy tells Dawn to "live ... for me." However, because [[BackFromTheDead nobody in the Buffyverse stays dead for long]], we never find out if Dawn would have adopted this trope.
101* Actually doubled up on in an episode of ''Series/{{House}}''. Count 1: The PatientOfTheWeek is a teenage girl with a sick brother who seems driven to live the life he'd be living if he weren't sick, so that he can experience it vicariously through her. Count 2: Eventually, through some [[AppliedPhlebotinum Medical Phlebotinum]], it turns out the only way to save her is a [[spoiler: treatment that will shorten his life significantly. She first tries to kill herself when she realizes what her parents are arguing about, but then her brother tells her he wants to live on through her continuing to live.]]
102* In the HBO series ''Series/InTreatment'', one of the patients was treated by his parents as a replacement for his older brother, who died young and was the favorite child.
103* One episode of ''Series/JonathanCreek'' had a plot point of woman whose identical twin had been killed while attempting a dangerous stage-magic trick, and she took on her identity to avoid grief for her sister's family.
104* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'':
105** One episode featured a doctor who was the PosthumousSibling of her parents' beloved son, on a timeline that makes it pretty clear they conceived her for the sole purpose of having a ReplacementGoldfish for her brother. Literally from the day she was born, her parents dictated every aspect of her life to make it mirror the life her brother had desired (for example, she was forced to go to medical school because her brother had wanted to be a doctor), with no consideration for what ''she'' wanted. Even after she's arrested for fraud and murder, all they care about is that she brought shame upon her brother by setting up a phony charitable foundation named after him.
106* ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'':
107** It inevitably had the creepy parents-replace-dead-child-with-her-sister version.
108** Another episode had a pair of parents who adopted a foster child after their biological child went missing -- only their adoption took the form of specifically cherry-picking an orphan who resembled her to let her live in her room and wear her clothes, even giving the poor kid a nose job to make her look more like their biological child. (And just to really hammer it home, they actually ''get their daughter back'' at the end of the episode, as it turns out she's still alive -- and promptly seem to forget the existence of their adopted child.)
109* An episode of ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' featured a rock star that was eventually revealed to be her twin sister switching back and forth between both identities: the real rock star had died during a climbing accident involving the two sisters. This caused the surviving sister to take both identities to "keep her sister alive" and grow increasingly unstable.
110* One episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' featured a pair of twin aliens. When one was killed, the other explained that twins in his species are essentially one being (leaving him as only half a person). Referring to his deceased brother as the only thing that made life enjoyable he asserts that the only joy he will ever feel again will be from taking his revenge PERSONALLY on the killer. He explains that letting the local law or even the killer's home planet (where he is slated to be executed) deal with him is not good enough.
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113[[folder:Theatre]]
114* Shakespeare's ''Theatre/TwelfthNight,'' as Viola takes on the role of her brother Sebastian. She pulls it off because the people she's impersonating him to don't know Sebastian, and she doesn't use his name, so it's an entirely private tribute on her part out of practicality because she doesn't have a man to represent her interests. Then there is a lot of falling in love, gender-bending and clever wordplay.
115** This also features one of two of Shakespeare's uses of tragic [[HoYay Antonio]], two guys with the same name who in ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' and ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' appear to be desperately in love (platonically or not) with younger male friends who marry others, because Sebastian isn't really dead. When Antonio mistakes the cross-dressing Viola for Sebastian, he gets his heart totally broken.
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118[[folder:Video Games]]
119* Parodied, sort of, in ''VideoGame/AeroFighters'': when you finish the first run with Keaton, he dies in space, and you play the second run with his kid brother, who looks just like him.
120* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
121** Cloud's way of repaying BigBrotherMentor Zack's HeroicSacrifice in ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'', which leads to his LossOfIdentity existential crisis in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''.
122** At the end of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', [[spoiler:Basch takes over the position of Judge-Magister Gabranth, who was formerly his twin brother. Especially ironic in this case, as his brother had used their identical appearance to frame Basch as a king-slayer in the prologue]].
123** Near the end of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV: Heavensward'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:Yda died long before we ever met her, and the "Yda" we've been allies with since joining the Scions is actually her younger sister, Lyse, who took on her role and identity so that her death wasn't for nothing.]]
124** ''Final Fantasy XIV'' has another case that was [[AllThereInTheManual mostly explained in the bonus material]]: Nael van Darnus, main villain of the 1.0 game and recurring boss afterwards, [[spoiler:has been dead for decades. The Garlean legatus you've been fighting is Nael's sister Eula, who decided to take over her brother's life after he died.]]
125* Done in a roundabout way in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening''. [[spoiler: A young man named Gregor died saving his younger brother from bandits. The surviving younger brother then [[MeaningfulRename renamed himself Gregor]] to honor his brother's sacrifice, and ultimately became the rather famed mercenary that the Chrom's Shepherds recruit.]]
126* ''VideoGame/DotHackGU'' '''implies''' that the "Saku" half of the player "Sakubo" is in fact the user's stillborn older sister. Given the nature of this series, it would not be a surprise if "Saku" really was [[TwoSiblingsInOne Sakura Nakanishi given a second chance at life in her younger brother's body]].
127* ''VideoGame/HonkaiImpact3rd'': Seele Vollerei's second personality, "Seele", ties her whole existence up to protecting the former. It goes to such an extreme that one potential future seemingly shows Seele living her life, until it's revealed that it's actually "Seele", grown so distraught at the other's death that she's deluded herself into thinking she's the original personality and that it was "Seele" who sacrificed herself.
128* ''VideoGame/Persona5 [[UpdatedRerelease Royal]]'' introduces a new character named Kasumi Yoshizawa, a NewTransferStudent that's also an accomplished gymnast. Kasumi has a younger sister named Sumire who died before the protagonist moved in. Saying that both of them has dream of becoming the best gymnastic champions. [[spoiler: It turns out that the "Kasumi" you know was actually Sumire, the younger sister. The real Kasumi died protecting her. Sumire took on her sister Kasumi's identity after her death thanks to Maruki's cognitive therapy. She still takes this trope after the cognitive overlay's gone, but in a healthier way by living up to Kasumi's optimism and believing in her faith towards her.]]
129* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': In the Bounty Hunter's Alderaan world quest, your target is the "Durasteel Duke," a Republic-allied Alderaan noble with a reputation for being a tough fighter, resourceful, and otherwise hard to kill. By the time you find him, he is in a kolto tank on life support, his luck finally run out in a transport crash. His sister (who had a very masculine appearance and voice) has been impersonating the Duke for several weeks.
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132[[folder:Visual Novels]]
133* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
134** In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'', [[spoiler: the Miney sisters. The two got into a car accident, killing Ini Miney and leaving Mimi Miney severely burned. Mimi underwent plastic surgery and her face was rebuilt as her sister's, due to a photo of her sister being in her pocket. Turns out Mimi deliberately did this to hide from her past failures as a nurse and get revenge for her sister's death]].
135** And a bit literally with spirit medium Maya Fey. Her sister Mia lives on through her... because Maya occasionally channels her.
136** Averted (thankfully) with [[spoiler: Dahlia Hawthorne and her unwitting half-sister Pearl. If Pearl had succeeded in channeling Dahlia, the vengeful spirit would have used her body to murder Maya.]]
137* An intriguing example in ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' happens in the [[spoiler:Watanagashi and Meakashi]] arcs, where [[spoiler:Shion seems to have been taken captive and [[TwinSwitch impersonated]] by Mion in the former arc, but [[SwitchingPOV the latter arc]] [[TheUntwist reveals it to be]] [[HeroOfAnotherStory the other]] [[EvilTwin way around]]]].
138* At the end of Hisui's True End in ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'', [[spoiler:Kohaku dies, so Hisui decides she will live life loving Shiki, like she wanted to. She already loves Shiki fortunately.]]
139[[/folder]]
140
141[[folder:Webcomics]]
142* In ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'', taken to a dark extreme. Yaeminira was an adopted sister and "Protector Twin" to the original Vy'chriel Val'Sharen. When Vy'chriel showed disregard and disobedience to their mother's orders, Yaeminira slew her in single combat, turned her body into a golem and switched their names around, [[ReplacementSibling making herself Vy'Chriel Vel'Sharen]] and the living corpse of her sister Yaeminira. Zala'ess Vel'Sharen, who loved her trueborn daughter deeply despite her disobedience, absolutely despised Yaeminira for her actions and eventually [[spoiler: sent her on a suicide run on their enemies the Val'Sarghress, seeing her death as vengeance for the true Vy'chriel's death.]]
143[[/folder]]
144
145[[folder:Western Animation]]
146* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Timmy's Mom gets a job as a weather girl, so his dad gets out a puppet of her to be a mother to Timmy. He takes it a little too far.
147-->'''Mom Puppet''': I think you're being too hard on Timmy.\
148'''Dad''': (spits out water) Oh, sure, take his side!\
149'''Timmy''': No amount of therapy will ever make this moment okay.
150* Done in a WholePlotReference to ''Film/{{Tootsie}}'' in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy.'' In that episode, Stewie pretends to be a girl named Karina Smirnoff in order to land a part on the American adaptation of his favorite television show -- the only part available was playing a little girl named Mary. He then falls in love with one of his (female) costars, but the costar explains to her/him that she's not a lesbian... so Stewie marches into the (conveniently live) taping of the episode, and in character (as Mary, not Karina/Stewie) explains that Karina was actually his sister who died, and he was Desmond -- a perfectly normal little boy transvestite -- who was trying to carry on her memory.
151* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', [[spoiler: Stanford Pines was lost to an alien dimension in a fight with his twin brother Stanley in 1982. Stanley proceeded to spend the next 30 years of his life attempting to rescue him, including taking on his name and identity to avoid suspicion and keep his activities a secret. As of the real Stanford's return, he's allowed Stanley to keep up the charade in public until the end of the summer.]]
152* A ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' sketch had Scooter of ''Franchise/TheMuppets'' murder Gonzo and Fozzie as well as attempt to kill Kermit and Miss Piggy while impersonating his twin sister [[WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984 Skeeter]], who is established to have been drowned by the other four when they were children in retaliation to her beating up Fozzie and insulting Piggy.
153* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS22E9DonnieFatso Donnie Fatso]]'', Fat Tony is killed and his identical (except for the eponymous) cousin Fit Tony comes to take his place in Springfield. Eventually the attempts on his life cause him to stress eat to the point that he becomes Fat Tony as well.
154[[/folder]]
155
156[[folder:Real Life]]
157* Author [[Theatre/PeterPan1904 James M. Barrie]] was one of ten children. His older brother David was their mother's favorite, and after David was killed in a skating accident, six-year-old James began trying to ease his mother's grief by taking on David's mannerisms and dressing in his clothes.
158* It used to be fairly common that if a child died in infancy or childhood the parents would give a subsequent sibling the deceased's name.
159* Creator/PeterSellers had an older, deceased brother named Peter. Which is what his parents always called him. Eventually the boy molded himself after his dead brother, and Sellers's infamous lack of a true identity began to rear its head.
160* After Creator/KatharineHepburn found her older brother dead of an apparent suicide (Miss Hepburn always maintained it was an accident), she swore, "I pledged to Tom and myself that he would live in my heart and mind as long as I lived . . . The real date of his death would not be until the day I died." She told people that his birthday was her own for years.
161* Creator/SalvadorDali was named after his older brother, who died (at age two) before he was born; when he was a child, his parents convinced him that he was the reincarnation of his dead brother.
162[[/folder]]

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