Troperville
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A character, usually the protagonist, is looking for someone, often an older, wiser character. During the search, he meets a stranger, and the conversation turns to the sought-after character. The stranger will typically either respond, "Oh, I know him well..." or else act as if he's never heard of the person. Either way, in time it is revealed that this stranger is the sought-after character.
Often, the stranger is playing dumb about their true identity in order to assess the searcher's character and intentions, the idea being that the searcher's behavior will be more genuine in the presence of someone they perceive to be just an ordinary stranger. This can lead to a painful lesson for the searcher once he learns the truth about the stranger, making this a favorite form of introduction among Trickster Mentors.
Further confusion can arise if the sought-after character is of a different gender, race, species, etc. than the searcher was expecting, such as when a sought-after "doctor" turns out to be a woman scientist. Or maybe the searcher was just Expecting Someone Taller.
Can also be Luke I Am Your Father if the sought-after character is the searcher's parent. See also You Have No Idea Who Youre Dealing With, Right In Front Of Me, King Incognito.
Given that this trope is about a plot twist, there be spoilers.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Happens at the end of the first Baccano! Light Novel, when a Japanese tourist in the frame story decides to ask the narrator (whom is assumed to be Maiza) where Firo is now, seeing as he's not present like everyone else is. "Maiza" responds...?
Isn't he right here?...Oh, That's right, I have yet to introduce myself. Well, normally with business associations, I just leave without having ever said my name...
- In a particularly funny example, in Black Cat, Train eventually acquires an imposter, who the gang meets. Sven and Eve want to smack him upside the head, but Train listens to his wild stories with a look of wonder on his face, and eventually agrees to become the imposter's apprentice. When people challenge the imposter, Train steps up the the plate, claiming that the other guys aren't "worthy for [Train's] master to spit on." THEN the imposter notices the XIII tattoo, and the unique gun...
- This is played with in Cowboy Bebop with Radical Edward, the Bebop crew expecting something like a 3-year-old, 7-foot alien genius that plays basketball. When Ed hacks into their computer and they ask who Radical Edward is, she responds in her perpetual adorable third person way of talking, "But Ed is Ed." In case it wasn't clear: Edward is very much a girl tacking on the "Assumed Wrong Gender" part of this trope.
- Death Note uses a variation, when the Yotsuba Group attempts to hire a world-famous detective to hunt down L. The police task force surveilling this is worried, but not L... because he is the detective Yotsuba is trying to hire. (Using three different names, L is the world's top three detectives.)
- A thorn in Edward's side in Fullmetal Alchemist, that people more willing to believe that Alphonse is the infamous "Fullmetal Alchemist" and not him. (To be fair, Al is a walking suit of armor...)
- Played with in Howl's Moving Castle. It's not clear when Sophie realizes the strange young wizard is Howl himself.
- Team Satomi's coach, Andre, in IGPX Immortal Grand Prix turns out to be The Rocket.
- Also, Team White Snow's captain isn't Zanak, it's Max, although it's easy to make the mistake since he's the Forward and all the other team captains are Forwards.
- In the manga adaption of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Link meets young Zelda, who has escaped from the castle and disguised herself as a commoner girl. When Link asks her about Princess Zelda's whereabouts, she tells him that she and Zelda are good friends and that she'd introduce him if he played with her for a whole day.
- Guaranteed to happen three-quarters of the time in the Pokemon anime. Hell, sometimes the leader isn't there when you get to the Gym in the games and you gotta go look for the guy.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
Marik: I am Namu.
Rishid: I am Marik.
Comic Books
- In issue #101 of the French comic book Donjon/Dungeon (Twilight, vol. 1: Dragon Cemetery, in English), when Marvin the Red meets his idol Marvin the Dragon, the latter first pretends to be someone else.
- When Bruce Banner goes looking for the Panchen Lama in Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, he is greeted at the monastery doors by a wizened old man who assures him that the Lama is inside and offers him hot cocoa. Banner shows a Genre Savvy flash by assuming the old man is the Panchen Lama, calling it "one of those Yoda things"... but nope. He's talking to Steve, who makes hot cocoa.
Film
- In American Wedding, the main characters go into a gay bar unknowingly looking for a dress designer (named Leslie, I think—a classic fictional bigender name) to design a dress for the bride and after impressing a group of gay men with their comical antics one of the members of the group finally reveals that he *is* Leslie.
- In the 1989 Batman film, Vicki Vale corners a man at a swish party at Wayne Manor and asks whether he's seen elusive billionaire Bruce Wayne. He says he hasn't. Later, as she and Alex Knox are in one of Wayne's rooms, making fun of the statues, the man appears behind them and informs them that the statue they're currently laughing at comes from Japan. How does he know? "Because I bought it in Japan. Bruce Wayne."
- Batman Begins. In order to get the needed training for his war on crime, Bruce seeks out Ra's Al Ghul, the head of the Asian group League of Assassins. Instead, he ends up dealing mainly with The Dragon, Ra's more Scottish-looking second in command. Ra's tends to sit in the background and be imposing while his lackey does all the work of teaching Bruce all he needs to know to be awesome. Much drama ensues and when everything explodes, Bruce explicitly saves The Dragon. Much later, of course, it's revealed The Dragon was the Big Bad all along.
- Twisted on itself in Circle Of Iron, where the hero Cord is seeking the Book of Enlightenment held by the mysterious Zetan. Along the way, he adventures with the Blind Man, a wise man and incredible martial artist who serves as a sort of informal master. David Carradine plays the Blind Man, and also the characters for several trials Cord must face. In the end, Cord thinks the Blind Man is actually Zetan, but he isn't - he's just seen the Book of Enlightenment.
- Subverted in Die Hard when the hero and the Big Bad meet. It looks like Gruber tricks McClane, but in fact McClane sees through it and gives his adversary an unloaded weapon.
- In The Distinguished Gentleman, when Eddie Murphy's love-interest-to-be enters a reception for the new Congressman Johnson (Murphy), she goes right up to him first and asks where Congressman Johnson is, then goes on to bad-mouth him a bit before he reveals his Congressman's pin (hidden behind a clipboard he's holding).
- Used in Jackie Chan's The Drunken Master, where the main character Wong Fei-Hung flees from home in fear of being sent to train with the infamous Beggar Su, master of the style of the eight drunk gods. He meets an old geezer who displays some highly unusual, but equally effective moves and they share a leg of the journey—no bonus point for guessing who this turns out to be.
- In El Diablo, Anthony Edwards' character is searching for legendary "Kid Durango" with the help of a man named Van Leek only to later discover that the exploits of Kid Durango are based on the adventures of Van Leek.
- Sort of done in Face/Off: "I am Castor Troy!"
- Dragged out to a painful degree in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 subject Giant Spider Invasion, where the leading man meets the female scientist and persists in believing he must really be meeting with some male relative of hers for some time before she explains that, no really, she's the "doctor" he has an appointment with.
- Phil in Disney's Hercules.
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Dr. Elsa Schneider.
- In Kill Bill: Volume 1, The Bride pretends to be an American tourist upon first meeting Hattori Hanzo in his Sushi restaurant.
- Hanzo himself is an attempt to play the trope: He's a legendary sword maker posing as a Sushi chef. Only the Bride knows who he is, so he can't play that trope on her.
- Done with Holly Goodhead, the Moonraker Bond Girl.
- In Kenneth Branagh's version of The Magic Flute, the Speaker and Sarastro are played by the same person, leading to this.
- The Star Wars original trilogy follows this formula perfectly in The Empire Strikes Back when Luke is looking for Yoda.
- It's also arguably an example in A New Hope when he's looking for Obi-Wan Kenobi, although in that case he's actually already an acquaintance under another name ("Old Ben" Kenobi), so it's understandable that he's not expecting him to be Obi-Wan. Plus, Ben tells him straight-out that he's Obi-Wan instead of hiding it. In addition, in The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader turns out to be Luke's father.
- Also, Queen Amidala traveled with a host of
impersonators decoys for security purposes, it seems.
- In The Usual Suspects, it turns out that Verbal Kint is Keyser Söze.
- In Vision of Escaflowne The Movie, Van and Hitomi are looking for a man named Dryden Fassa - then they meet someone who pretend not to know who Dryden Fassa is, before turning out to be actually him.
Literature
Live Action TV
- People looking for The A-Team usually found Hannibal in disguise when they met with the person who was supposed to get them in contact.
- Doctor Franklin from Babylon 5 has a reputation for taking his oath of confidentiality very seriously, so when he arrives with an offer to set up a meeting between Captain Sheridan and the man in charge of smuggling fugitive telepaths through the station nobody is surprised. You already know who the meeting turns out to be with.
- When starting a new job at a publishing company, the main character of Being Erica strikes up a conversation with an assistant and a young woman, and ends up insulting a book called The Secret of Now. The woman turns out to be her new boss, recently promoted due to her success with that same book. Her assumption is understandable, as she expected the man who interviewed her to be her boss, but he was fired in the interim.
- In the "Thanks for the Memories" episode of Grey's Anatomy, a doctor filling in on Thanksgiving Day is dismissive of Dr. Bailey, saying he's only interested in meeting and working with The Nazi, an incredibly talented doctor he's heard about. Dr. Bailey pretends at times not to know who The Nazi is and at other times claims that The Nazi is busy nearby. At the end of the episode, the visiting doctor discovers that Dr. Bailey is The Nazi.
- Used in the very first episode of Power Rangers Jungle Fury when the Pai Zhua syudents are looking for RJ.
- Some versions of Robin Hood have this with King Richard.
- Used hilariously on Neighbours when Steph is annoyed with her mother for wanting her to talk to the new local priest, and starts complaining about her, and the priesthood in general, to a stranger she meets outside the church. The man then joins in complaining, leading Steph to figure it out quickly.
Tabletop Games
- Subverted in a vignette of a third party Dungeons And Dragons supplement, where a warrior seeking a martial arts teacher is first greeted by a humble, chuckling old man who claims he knows the teacher very well—only to step aside as the actual teacher, a large, muscular warrior tells him to be quiet and welcomes the would-be student.
Theater
- She Stoops To Conquer takes place almost entirely within the space between the deceit and the revelation. Charles Marlow, on the way to a blind date, stops at what he thinks is an inn and flirts with the barmaid. He's actually at the manor he was traveling to, and the barmaid is his date.
Video Games
- Seiken Densetsu 3 has a sequence in which the party needs to find a legendary (and tiny) strategist. The old man in town tells them that he's not in this place, and suggests they ask around. After a long fruitless search, they come back only to be told that the old man is the strategist. Justified with "I was walking around at the time, so I wasn't in any place". And then the town mocks them for their gullibility. *grumble*
- Secret Of Mana: "Go away! The sage is out!"
- Also in Final Fantasy Tactics A2, the mage in the mountains (Lezaford) pulls this on Luso.
- Suikoden pulls this trick when you're first looking for The Strategist. It's sort of given away by the fact that his name is in the textbox when you're asking him where he lives.
- And in Suikoden IV, this happens when you're looking for Lino En Kuldes. Who apparently makes a habit of it.
- In what appears to be a similar example to the Secret Of Mana example above, Mario comes back to town from Shooting Star Summit and told that Merlon is looking for him. When he knocks on the door, he'd told that Merlon is out. If he tries again, he is again told that Merlon is out, but the door opens, knocking him down. A man in a robe comes out, and when Mario gets up, they go inside, he reveals himself to be Merlon.
- Mario is trying to get to Dry Dry Ruins. He meets with a mouse called Sheik. Mario may part with an item to be told that Moustafa knows how to get there. If Mario gives him the right item, he'll be able to tell Mario how to see Moustafa: by buying items in the correct order, which is a sign to the shopkeeper. Upon following these directions, Mario arrives to find... Sheik! And he was Moustafa all along!
- Chrono Trigger does this with Gaspar, the Guru of Time. When told to search for him, the party discovers that he's someone they already met much, much earlier in the game.
- Also done when you are rescuing the Guru of Life from Mt. Woe, who turns out to be Melchior, the swordsmith you met in the very first scene of the game and who helped you reforge the Masamune earlier. He doesn't remember this, though, because of time travel (it hasn't happened to him yet).
- Shenmue 2: Ryo is looking for the leader of a Shaolin monostary and is told by a girl that he should look around the place for clues to understand the monks' beliefs and that only then will the master reveal himself. After that nonsense an old man shows up; Ryo assuming this must be the master tries to talk to him shushing the girl but in the process it turns out that the girl is the actual master and the old guy is just the janitor.
- In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the protagonist is assigned to kill a Jedi. Later on in the game, it's revealed that the Jedi survived, but lost his sight as a result of the battle. In a twist on this trope, the protagonist now needs the Jedi's help and so pretends to be a stranger, hoping the Jedi won't find him out. At the end of the game we find out the Jedi suspected it was the protagonist but chose to help him anyway.
- At one point in Deus Ex, JC Denton is sent to look for a young woman named Nicolette Duclare. He meets a girl in a French club that promises to take him to see her. When he meets up with Nicolette, it turns out that she is the same woman he met in the club earlier.
Web Comics
- Inverloch gets insidious with this, between Silvah/Kayn'dar —and Acheron/Kayn'dar.
Western Animation
- Aang in the first episode and a half of Avatar The Last Airbender.
- Master Dashi in Xiaolin Showdown.
- The True Master in the Teen Titans episode "The Quest" has a Lampshade Hanging at the end of it. Robin wanted to do things the hard way, so she let him.
- From The Wild Hare:
Elmer Fudd: Shh... There's a wabbit down there, and I'm trying to catch him.
Bugs: What do you mean a "wabbit?"
Elmer: Wabbits! Wabbits! You know, with big wong ears!
Bugs: Oh, like these? (shows his ears)
Elmer: Yeah, and a little white fwuffy tail!
Bugs: Like this? (shows off his tail)
Elmer: Yeah, and he hops awound and awound.
Bugs: Like this? (hops around)
Elmer: (to the audience) You know I bewieve this fella is an R. A. B. B. I. T. (to Bugs) Pardon me, but you know, you look just wike a wabbit.
Bugs: Ehhh, c'mere. Now listen, Doc, now don't spread this around, but... uhhh... confidentially... I AM A WABBIT!!!
- In the first Pirates Of Dark Water, Ren seeks out the wise man Alomar in the Abby of Galdebar. First he meets an imposing man, who he assumes is Alomar, but he's just a servant. Next he encounters a fearsome dragon, who it turns out is Alomar.
- Somewhat inverted in the Justice League episode "A better world"; the Batman who saves the League from an army ambush seems to be "their" Batman at first, and when Superman says in astonishment "You fooled them! Even I thought you were him! (the evil Batman)" Batman deadpan replies "I AM him". The inversion comes as the League was trying to avoid this Batman.
- In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), Leo's first meeting with The Ancient One is a textbook example of the trope.
Real Life
- Nestor Makhno, the great Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary, caught a group of German officers going to a party held in their honour by Ukrainian landlords, who had welcomed the invading Germans. After executing the officers, Makhno and his men dressed in the German army uniforms and attended the party in their stead. Much of the conversation at the dinner party circled around Makhno. At the end of the meal, a toast was offered to the capture of the dreaded anarchist Nestor Makhno. Makhno drank off the toast and announced, "I am Nestor Makhno." In the silence and horror which followed, Makhno tossed a bomb into the room as he and his men leaped out the windows and escaped.
- Truth In Television, sort of: A president-elect, governor, business leader, etc., initiates a search committee to fill an appointed position, but ends up picking someone on the committee or the person who had already been helping him in that area anyway.
- In 2000, presidential candidate George W. Bush appointed one Richard Cheney as the head of his running mate search committee. The person who he ended up suggesting to Mr. Bush is, of course, recorded in the annals of history.
- The 2005 papal conclave following the death of Pope John Paul II was presided over by one Joseph Ratzinger, then Dean of the College of Cardinals, and shortly thereafter was elected Pope Benedict XVI.
- Though the Cardinal was leader of the enclave ex officio, and was considered, as it were, the frontrunner even before John Paul II was dead.
- Subverted in Real Life: Dr. Livingstone, I presume?
- Retail employees live for saying or hearing the phrase 'I AM the manager' in response to a customer being argumentive. Subverted in that the customer tends to demand the next person up the line.
- Tends to happen a lot when someone asks for a Transsexual person's old name.
- There's an Italian joke subverting this trope: Jesus walks along the street when he sees a sad old man sitting on a bench. He stops and asks him what his name is and why he is sad. He says his name is Joseph and he has lost his son. "How do you recognise your son?" "He has nails in his hands and feet." "Father!" "Pinocchio!"
- Gepetto is an Italian diminuitive for Giuseppe - Joseph.
- Rorschach's Journal. October 16th, 1985: Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says "But, doctor... I am Pagliacci."
- At one point right after confederation, Sir John A Macdonald, (the first Prime Minister of Canada) was at a diplomatic reception in Washington D.C. where he struck of a conversation with an American senator's wife. When he revealed he was from Canada, she began asking about his Prime Minister, stating she had heard stories that he was a drunk and a rogue. Sir John A agreed with her on both points, at which point the senator himself wandered over and fully introduced him.
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