History Main / AlternatePersonalityPunishment

* In [[Mange/TheLegendOfZelda the manga adaptation]] of ''VideoGame/TwilightPrincess'', Zelda explains that after Ganondorf's defeat at the end of ''VideoGame/OcarinaOfTime'', her previous incarnation turned back time seven years to undo all of the harm Ganondorf had caused... and when he showed up for an audience with the king as expected, had him imprisoned and executed. However, once he's dead, Ganondorf sees why he was treated this way and continues his plan of world conquest anyway.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Dax_(episode) Dax]]". The Trill are a race of humanoid aliens. Some of them have another slug-like sapient alien implanted into their bodies, with the two combined beings forming a joint consciousness. The Trill Jadzia Dax is the combination of the Trill Jadzia and the symbiont Dax. During the episode she is arrested for a murder and treason allegedly committed thirty years ago by a previous Trill/symbiont combination named Curzon Dax, a merger of the Trill Curzon and the same symbiont Dax. The extradition hearing is based on the question of whether the current Jadzia/Dax combination can be held responsible for the crimes allegedly committed by the past Curzon/Dax combination. [[spoiler: Ultimately the issue gets sidestepped when it turns out that Curzon Dax was framed in the first place.]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Wealthy people who are worried about their fate in the afterlife sometimes create Shabti, {{Golem}}-like simulacra with [[GhostMemory copies of their memories]], to suffer divine judgement in their place. {{Psychopomp}}s try to get Shabti RescuedFromTheUnderworld so they're not [[KarmicMisfire punished for their creators' misdeeds]] and can live out their own lives.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': In the episode "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS1E11JustAnotherManicMojoMimeforaChange Mime For A Change]]", Rainbow the Clown is transformed by a bleach spill into the evil Mr. Mime. The Powerpuff Girls manage to transform Mr. Mime back into Rainbow, then they beat up Rainbow and send him to jail even though he was NotHimself.

Compare RevengeByProxy and AmnesiacsAreInnocent. See also KarmaHoudini, AlternateIdentityAmnesia, PrecrimeArrest, CriminalDoppelganger, DoppelgangerGetsSameSentiment, and JekyllAndHyde.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Dax_(episode) Dax]]". The Trill are a race of humanoid aliens. Some of them have another slug-like sapient alien implanted into their bodies, with the two combined beings forming a joint consciousness. The Trill Jadzia Dax is the combination of the Trill Jadzia and the symbiont Dax. During the episode she is arrested for a murder and treason allegedly committed thirty years ago by a previous Trill/symbiont combination named Curzon Dax, a merger of the Trill Curzon and the same symbiont Dax. The extradition hearing is based on the question of whether the current Jadzia/Dax combination can be held responsible for the crimes allegedly committed by the past Curzon/Dax combination. [[spoiler: Ultimately the issue gets sidestepped when it turns out that Curzon Dax was framed in the first place]].

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': In the episode "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS1E11JustAnotherManicMojoMimeforaChange Mime For A Change]]", Rainbow the Clown is transformed by a bleach spill into the evil Mr. Mime. The Powerpuff Girls manage to transform Mr. Mime back into Rainbow, then they beat up Rainbow and send him to jail even though he was NotHimself.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut "The Impossible Astronaut"]], Amy, Rory, and River receive a mysterious summons by the Doctor to meet him in Utah, where they have a picnic by a lake. While there, someone dressed as an astronaut emerges from the lake, the Doctor goes to speak with them as if this is totally expected, and [[spoiler:he is promptly shot dead, leaving his horrified and distraught friends to witness his murder and dispose of his body]]. After this traumatic experience, the three are in a diner discussing the purpose of what just occurred when in walks the Doctor, or rather a version of himself that's 200 years younger. River promptly slaps him for what his future self just put her through, and he quickly deduces that it was for something he's going to do in the future and that he's "looking forward to it".

* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', Sarah is ''very'' hateful and distrustful of the T-800 assigned to protect John, as it looks and sounds like, and is the same model, of machine that tried to murder her and succeeded in murdering Kyle Reese, even though ''this'' T-800 has done nothing but fight tooth and nail to keep her son alive. In the extended cut she even tries to destroy it by smashing its chip, forcing John to appeal to her cold pragmatism to (just barely) convince her to spare it by pointing out they need it as proof of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Judgment Day]]. [[spoiler:By the end of the movie though, while she's not moved to tears by its HeroicSacrifice like John is, she at least has come to accept and admire it enough to give it an approving handshake and see it [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming as more than just a machine]].]]

* ''Series/BlackMirror'': In ''White Christmas'' there are things called "Cookies" where people basically make tiny clones of themselves, with their entire memory and personality, to work as a personal assistants who live in tiny little environments that can be controlled by the one using them; one Cookie was interrogated by the police over the actual person committing murder, and after confessing (to a crime they didn't commit personally, being the clone) they were punished with listening to ''Christmas Every Day'' on constant repeat... with the time slowed down so that just listening to it over Christmas break in the real world felt like over ''two million years'' in his time.

->''It matters not if she is the reincarnation! She was to be crucified! To slowly and painfully rot away!''
-->-'''Chirizuka Kaiou''', ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle''

* A double variant in the seventh ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' book: Melvin and Mr. Krupp have switched bodies, meaning that when Melvin hears finger snapping, he [[HypnoFool turns into Captain Underpants]] and flies away. After spending the next few days being a general nuisance to everyone in town, Melvin and Mr. Krupp's brains are switched back into the right bodies, and suddenly all the angry people see a kid who looks just like the guy who ruined their skateboarding/football game/[[ItMakesSenseInContext left them in a tree]]. [[AssholeVictim Melvin]] deserves what he gets, though not for the things they're mad about.

A character does something worthy of punishment, but an alternate version, personality, clone or even past self (usually innocent or ignorant of the other's crimes) gets punished for it. BewilderingPunishment may ensue if the alternate self truly has no idea what they're being blamed for. Don't count on them causing the DeathOfPersonality for the guilty one, because that may not always be possible.

-->'''Chirizuka Kaiou''', ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle''

* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'': Chirizuka Kaiou initially mistakes [[spoiler:Suzu]] for their previous life who sealed them away, not realizing it took over a hundred years for them to break out. When Garaku points out the difference, Kaiou considers them both equivalent.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' the Earth Alliance's standard method of capital punishment is DeathOfPersonality. In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E04PassingThroughGethsemane Passing Through Gethsemane]]", a group of people related to a serial killer's victims attempts to take revenge on the person he's become post-mind wipe, a Trappist monk. They, however, hire a telepath to bring back the monk's memories of his crimes in an attempt at defying this trope, but only partially succeed -- nothing of the monk's previous personality returns and, [[IHatePastMe horrified at who he used to be]], he accepts his upcoming death as proper punishment (at least he gets the answer to the question he was seeking for spiritual enlightenment right before they pull the trigger).

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' the Earth Alliance's standard method of capital punishment is DeathOfPersonality. In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E04PassingThroughGethsemane Passing Through Gethsemane]]", a group of people related to a serial killer's victims attempts to take revenge on the person he's become post-mind wipe, a Trappist monk.

* An odd version in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': In the aftermath of Thanos ending half of all life in existence, the heroes manage to assemble what's left of the team and beat the crap out of Thanos... who has taken up the CallToAgriculture and barely puts up any resistance. [[spoiler:He doesn't even have the Infinity Stones anymore, having used their own power to destroy them,]] greatly weakening himself in the process. The Avengers kill him anyway, but it's obvious they feel no satisfaction or justice from doing so. Fortunately, [[spoiler:they go back in time to retrieve the stones to undo the damage and are followed by pre-snap Thanos,]] resulting in a Thanos who is very much satisfying to kill, even if he technically hadn't killed half of all life ([[spoiler:it helps that having seen the results of only killing half of it, he decides to kill the ''entire'' Universe and start over so no one will remember his role]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': In "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderAvatarDay Avatar Day]]", Aang finds out too late that the titular Avatar Day is, for the local people he just stumbled upon, the day to desecrate the Avatar's image because of what the past Avatar (Kyoshi) did to their greatest king in the past. Upon finding out Aang is the current Avatar, they capture and immediately try to execute him. Played with in that all Avatars are the reincarnations of the previous one, and upon the execution, Kyoshi's soul briefly takes over Aang's body to... admit that she did kill the king, because said king was [[AssholeVictim a tyrant conqueror who threatened her group.]] This just makes the villagers even angrier until Fire Nation thugs raid the village, forcing them to rely on Aang and friends to fend them off.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'', Agnes' more vicious personality Perdita makes a nasty comment about Granny Weatherwax and gets slapped by Nanny Ogg for it... or rather, Agnes gets slapped for it since they share a body.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* An odd version in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': In the aftermath of Thanos ending half of all life in existence, the heroes manage to assemble what's left of the team and beat the crap out of Thanos... who has taken up the CallToAgriculture and barely puts up any resistance. [[spoiler:He doesn't even have the Infinity Stones anymore, having used their own power to destroy them,]] greatly weakening himself in the process. The Avengers kill him anyway, but it's obvious they feel no satisfaction or justice from doing so. Fortunately, [[spoiler:they go back in time to retrieve the stones to undo the damage and are followed by pre-snap Thanos,]] resulting in a Thanos who is very much satisfying to kill, even if he technically hadn't killed half of all life ([[spoiler:it helps that having seen the results of only killing half of it, he decides to kill the ''entire'' Universe and start over so no one will remember his role]]).

* ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'': Agnes' more vicious personality Perdita makes a nasty comment about Granny Weatherwax and gets slapped by Nanny Ogg for it... or rather, Agnes gets slapped for it since they share a body.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' the Earth Alliance's standard method of capital punishment is DeathOfPersonality. In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E04PassingThroughGethsemane Passing Through Gethsemane]]", a group of people related to a serial killer's victims attempts to take revenge on the person he's become post-mind wipe, a Trappist monk.

* {{Series/Doctor Who}} has an episode where Amy, Rory, and River receive a mysterious summons by the Doctor to meet him in Utah, where they have a picnic by a lake. While there, someone dressed as an astronaut emerges from the lake, the Doctor goes to speak with them as if this is totally expected, and [[spoiler:he is promptly shot dead, leaving his horrified and distraught friends to witness his murder and dispose of his body]]. After this traumatic experience, the three are in a cafe discussing the purpose of what just occurred when in walks the Doctor, or rather a version of himself that's 200 years younger. River promptly slaps him for what his future self just put her through, and he quickly deduces that it was for something he's going to do in the future and that he's "looking forward to it".

[[folder:Web Comics]]