History Main / NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe

* In the Music/TanyaTucker song "No Man's Land", Molly Marlo and Barney Dawson meet again years after Barney had raped Molly. Molly has since become a beautiful nurse, and Barney has since been sent to prison and is a suffering shell of a man. Barney is at first glad to see the nurse - up until he [[OhCrap realizes]] just ''who'' the nurse truly is.

* The source of the title is taken from a quote from Theatre/SweeneyTodd to Judge Turpin directly before he finally kills him in ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet''.

* One notable real life example: Syd Barrett, after being apart from his bandmates in Music/PinkFloyd for a number of years, walked anonymously into the mixing room during one of their recording sessions. The formerly lithe and wavy-haired pop idol had become quite overweight and shaved his head, and was not recognized by his old friends for the better part of an hour. Reportedly, the song being recorded when Syd walked in happened to be about him (the most common story goes that it was "Wish You Were Here", with the second most being "Shine on, You Crazy Diamond")

* One notable real life example: Syd Barrett, after being apart from his bandmates in Music/PinkFloyd for a number of years, walked anonymously into the mixing room during one of their recording sessions. The formerly lithe and wavy-haired pop idol had become quite overweight and shaved his head, and was not recognized by his old friends for the better part of an hour. Reportedly, the song being recorded when Syd walked in happened to be about him (the most common story goes that it was "Wish You Were Here").

* In the Creator/TanyaTucker song "No Man's Land", Molly Marlo and Barney Dawson meet again years after Barney had raped Molly. Molly has since become a beautiful nurse, and Barney has since been sent to prison and is a suffering shell of a man. Barney is at first glad to see the nurse - up until he [[OhCrap realizes]] just ''who'' the nurse truly is.

* ''WesternAnimation/Gargoyles'': In part 5 of the series premiere, Demona opines that "The centuries have made [Goliath] weak." Later in the episode, Goliath throws this back at her when she reveals the full extent of her hatred of humans.

* In part 5 of the series premiere of ''WesternAnimation/Gargoyles'', Demona opines that "The centuries have made [Goliath] weak." Later in the episode, Goliath throws this back at her when she reveals the full extent of her hatred of humans.

* In part 5 of the series premier of ''WesternAnimation/Gargoyles'', Demona opines that Goliath has grown soft after the thousand years he spent cursed in stone sleep. Later, when she refuses to accept that not all humans are evil, he throws it back at her.
--> ''' You said the centuries have changed me. They have changed you, too. You have become hard, unforgiving... You're not as I remember you.'''

* In part 5 of the series premier of ''WesternAnimation/ Gargoyles'', Demona opines that Goliath has grown soft after the thousand years he spent cursed in stone sleep. Later, when she refuses to accept that not all humans are evil, he throws it back at her.

* '' WesternAnimation/ Gargoyles:'' In part 5 of "Awakening", Demona opines that Goliath has grown soft after the thousand years he spent cursed in stone sleep. Later, when she refuses to accept that not all humans are evil, he throws it back at her.

* ''WesternAnimation/ Gargoyles:'' In part 5 of "Awakening", Demona opines that Goliath has grown soft after the thousand years he spent cursed in stone sleep. Later, when she refuses to accept that not all humans are evil, he throws it back at her.

* ''WesternAnimation/Gargoyles:'' In part 5 of "Awakening", Demona opines that Goliath has grown soft after the thousand years he spent cursed in stone sleep. Later, when she refuses to accept that not all humans are evil, he throws it back at her.

'''Sweeney Todd:''' '''''BENJAMIN!!! BARKER!!!'''''

One specific case of this is OldFriendNewGender. Compare SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay. When removing a mask, it overlaps with a DramaticUnmask.

-->-- ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', just before the title character's final vengeance

* In ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', which was an influence on the ''Sweeney Todd'' musical, Dantes does this type of reveal to each of his enemies.

* Parodied in the second series of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' with TheEvilPrince [[Creator/HughLaurie Ludwig the Indestructible]]: His previous interactions with Blackadder and Lord Melchett were in sexual encounters as a tavern wench and ''a sheep'', respectively. The first reveal is most clearly a subversion of the trope, as Ludwig initially makes reference to a BadGuyBar at when Blackadder knew a certain criminal, raising the expectation that he would be that criminal.
** A similiar setup is given when he reveals to Queen Elizabeth that when she used to go riding on her magnificent pony, that ''he'' was actually [[spoiler: the German stable boy with whom she ''didn't'' sleep, which isn't]] another of Ludwig's terribly impressive costumes.

* The US ''Series/DealOrNoDeal'' once [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGR7hh0se2k attempted to reunite a contestant with her sister by disguising the sister as one of the models]]. This led to an unintended SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} as Howie Mandel tries to give increasingly obvious clues, and not only does the contestant fail to recognize her sister for over a minute, but so does their ''mother''.

'''Judge Turpin:''' [[OhCrap Benjamin...Barker!]]\\

* In the Tanya Tucker song "No Man's Land", Molly Marlo and Barney Dawson meet again years after Barney had raped Molly. Molly has since become a beautiful nurse, and Barney has since been sent to prison and is a suffering shell of a man. Barney is at first glad to see the nurse - up until he [[OhCrap realizes]] just ''who'' the nurse truly is.

-> '''Sweeney Todd:''' The years, no doubt, have changed me, sir. But I suppose the face of a barber...the face of a prisoner in the dock...is not particularly memorable.\\

* How Kakashi recognizes [[spoiler:Obito]] in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''.

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

* See the ''ComicBook/SinCity'' example in film, as it was word-for-word (and shot-for-shot) for the comic that preceded it.

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''The Irony of Fate 2'', a 2007 Russian sequel to 1976 film ''Film/TheIronyOfFate'', lovers Zhenya and Nadya meet again after 30 years apart. She asks "Have I changed a lot?", he says she's just the same, and she thinks he's just flattering her.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'':
** Parodied when Doc Brown returns from the future to pick up Marty in the beginning, he's wearing a latex mask of himself so Marty will recognize him, as he's received rejuvenation treatments. When he takes off the mask, telling Marty to brace himself for a surprise, he looks pretty much the same, just minus a few wrinkles. In real life this was for a few reasons: first, [[RuleOfFunny it's funny]]; second, it was so Creator/ChristopherLloyd wouldn't have to wear makeup to play Doc anymore; and finally, [[{{Foreshadowing}} to ensure that Doc can start a family and live long enough and see his sons grow up]], making it a parody ''and'' a HandWave.
* The revenge variant appears in ''Film/KillBill'', when O-Ren Ishii kills Yakuza boss Matsumoto on behalf of her parents. Partial example, as Matsumoto only recognized her because she resembled her mother. She is only eleven years old when she takes her revenge, which makes it all the more chilling. "Do I look familiar? Do I look like somebody...YOU MURDERED?!"

* In ''Film/{{Sin City}}'', the "Yellow Bastard" uses this to reveal himself to Detective Hartigan as Roarke Jr.
-->'''Yellow Bastard''': Recognize my voice, Hartigan? Recognize my voice, you piece of shit cop? I look different, but I bet you can recognize my voice! I'd be really fucking insulted if you didn't recognize my voice!
-->'''Hartigan''': Yeah, I recognize your voice, Junior.
* In ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' Rugen is surprised to recognize [[MyNameIsInigoMontoya Inigo Montoya]] as the young boy whose father he killed.
** Earlier, Westley does a similar reveal for Buttercup. Pleasant surprise.
* Inverted in the 1960 version of ''Film/TheTimeMachine1960''. During his trip through time, George stops briefly in the year 1917 and meets James Filby, son of his good friend David Filby. When George meets James a second time during a stop in the 1960s, James is visibly shocked by the realization that George's appearance -- [[OutdatedOutfit including his outfit]] -- hasn't changed at all in the 45 or so years since the two last met.
** Likewise played with previously, when George initially reacted with atonishment that Filby hasn't aged a day since 1899, only to be corrected that he's mistaken James for his father, David.
* Played for laughs in ''Film/{{Sabrina|1954}}'' when the title character returns from two years in [[GayParee Paris]] and is met at the train by her lifelong crush, over whom she tried to [[DrivenToSuicide kill herself previously.]] He doesn't recognize her for a ''long'' time because she's [[SheCleansUpNicely gotten so elegant and lovely]] over there.

* In the short film ''The Stranger Left No Card'' (later remade as the ''Series/TalesOfTheUnexpected'' episode "Stranger in Town"), a man shows up in a small town dressed in flamboyant rags, and quickly becomes known as a lovable loon due to his clever magic tricks, kindness to children, and harmless eccentric antics. He then goes to see a prominent businessman who is about to leave work and after performing a couple of tricks handcuffs the man (with cuffs he was able to escape but the man cannot). At this point, he drops his ObfuscatingInsanity and takes off his flamboyant disguise, and as he does so, inquires if the businessman recognizes him- eventually revealing that the man framed him for murder, causing him to have been imprisoned for the past 15 years. After killing the businessman, he calmly leaves town, having committed ThePerfectCrime, as no one connects his nondescript true appearance with that of the Stranger.
* 1980 Russian film ''Film/MoscowDoesNotBelieveInTears''. In 1958, Rudolf the TV cameraman films Katya at the factory for state TV, knocks her up, and dumps her. 20 years later Rudolf re-enters Katya's life when he is once again called to the factory to film her for TV, now as the plant director rather than an ambitious Wrench Wench. He thinks she looks familiar but doesn't realize who she is until someone else calls her by name. When he finally figures it out, a bitter Katya says "Have I changed so much?".
* Parodied in ''Franchise/StarWars Episode VII:'' ''Film/TheForceAwakens''. C-3PO meets Han Solo for the first time in many years, and Threepio ecstatically asks Han if he still recognizes him, even though he's gotten a red arm by this time. Han just [[DeathGlare glares at him]], leading him to shut up and walk away.
* Pops up a bit in ''WesternAnimation/TheBreadwinner.'' Idrees recognizes Nurallah, though can't put a name to the face. Idrees himself acts like he's doing this though Nurallah recognized him right away. [[SweetPollyOliver Shauzia]] pulls a rare cheerful example of this when she recognizes Parvana also disguising herself as a boy.
-->"Remember? From school? My hair was long then, but so was yours."

* In the second Series/RedDwarf novel, this occurs when the crew reunites with Lister after some time dilation with a black hole, who at this point [[spoiler:has spent several years on a ruined Earth trying to make a new life for himself.]]
* In Creator/DamonRunyon's story "Dream Street Rose," the protagonist is ruined by her good-for-nothing husband as a young girl. She waits a couple of decades, when he's remarried and is on top of the world, and confronts him as her wrecked old gin-soaked self:
-->'Well, Frank,' she says, 'do you know me?'
-->'Yes,' he says, after a while, 'I know you. At first I think maybe you are a ghost, as I once hear something about your being dead. But,' he says, 'I see now the report is a canard. You are too fat to be a ghost.'
* In ''Literature/EnochArden,'' after being shipwrecked on a DesertedIsland for ten-plus years, Enoch is "so brown, so bow'd, so broken" (and prematurely gray-haired) that no one recognizes him when he returns.
* In ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', which was an influence on the ''Sweeney Todd'' musical, Dantes does this type of reveal to each of his enemies.

* Another variant is in Creator/GuyDeMaupassant's story "Literature/TheNecklace", where a woman who borrowed some jewelry from a rich friend lost it and had to take menial and laborious jobs to secretly buy a replacement for it. The story explicitly states that the years of hard work are not kind to the lady, and when she eventually runs into the rich friend she is not recognized, whereas the rich friend looks exactly the same.
** It's worse than that; [[spoiler: at the end of the story, when the woman reveals to her friend what had happened, it's revealed that the friend had given her little more than costume jewelry; she had toiled away for all those years for nothing.]]

* The {{Literature/Flashman}} novel ''Flashman and the Redskins'' starts out with Flashman as a young man in America under an assumed identity and then has a second part in which he returns several years later under his own identity, as a person of importance. In the first part, he betrays a woman and sells her into sexual slavery, and she returns in the second part to take revenge in this style.
** Also, in a rather bizarre example, ''Flashman and the Tiger'' reveals that a cabin boy Flashman met in ''Flash for Freedom'', who offered him his [[HelloSailor sexual services]] grew up to be SherlockHolmes villain Sebastian Moran. Moran saved Flashman's life in battle and seemed to be a friend, but was actually plotting revenge the whole time.
* A very unusual example: in Andrzej Sapkowski's ''[[Franchise/TheWitcher Witcher]]'' Cycle: Emhyr var Emereis, [[EvilOverlord Emperor of Nilfgaard]] and one of the main antagonists from the second book onwards, turns out to have been [[spoiler: Duny, a fairly likable cursed prince whom Geralt, the main character, helped during one of the early stories. What's more, Duny didn't seek revenge at all; rather, he just happened to be the exiled prince of [[TheEmpire Nilfgaard]] rather than a more innocuous kingdom, not to mention enough of a {{Magnificent Bastard}} to reclaim his throne and launch an EvilPlan to [[TakeOverTheWorld take over]]/[[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans save the world]].]] Not too long after the Reveal (Geralt actually somehow recognising him when they finally meet face to face), the Emperor [[spoiler:pretty much abandons his pursuit of the heroes and also signs peace with the Northern Kingdoms, ceasing to be an antagonist (it's not nearly as absurd or anticlimactic as it sounds, mind you)]].

* In one of the TravisMcGee mysteries by John D. Macdonald, a woman fails to recognize a man as someone she had known years earlier (and who had a reason to want to kill her) because he had contracted cancer since she had last seen him. This resulted in him losing vast amounts of weight and shaving his head.
* At the beginning of ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'', dashing soldier [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil turned]] deformed torturer Glokta interrogates his former army buddy Salem Rews, a BigFun merchant regarding financial impropriety, and under threat of torture, forces him to implicate other merchants in a conspiracy. Following his confession, Rews is to be sent to a penal colony in the far North. At the very end of the trilogy, it is revealed that the hideously burned convict Pike, who had befriended Colonel West (another friend of Glokta from his army days) [[TwoAliasesOneCharacter is Rews]], who had an accident in the forge on his first day in. Pike reveals himself to Glokta and goes to kill him, but is persuaded to instead become his partner.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]
* Parodied in the second series of ''Series/BlackAdder'' with TheEvilPrince [[Creator/HughLaurie Ludwig the Indestructible]]: His previous interactions with Blackadder and Lord Melchett were in sexual encounters as a tavern wench and ''a sheep'', respectively. The first reveal is most clearly a subversion of the trope, as Ludwig initially makes reference to a BadGuyBar at when Blackadder knew a certain criminal, raising the expectation that he would be that criminal.

** Also parodied in the first season episode , ''The Black Seal,'' when the old man that had been traveling alongside Edmund for much of the episode reveals himself to be "The Hawk", a childhood enemy. Is subverted when Edmund fails to recognize "The Hawk" because the latter is still wearing the bushy eyebrows from his old man disguise. It's only after he tears them off ''and reveals a set of identical bushy eyebrows'' that Edmund is able to recognize him.
* Daniel Meade's [[spoiler:brother]] on ''Series/UglyBetty'' was presumed dead at the beginning of the series. It's eventually revealed that [[spoiler: he had only faked his death so that he could get a sex change]]. When "Alexis" finally reveals herself to Daniel after claiming to be one of Daniel's brother's exes, she says "Take a good look at my eyes; that's about the only thing they couldn't change."
* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Hell's Bells", a future Xander shows up at Xander and Anya's wedding and has to perform this trope to himself, convincing present Xander of his identity. [[spoiler:This is actually a subversion as the "Future Xander" is one of Anya's previous victims from her time as a vengeance demon who has come to try and break up their wedding to spite her]]. And [[spoiler:it works]].
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': "Your voice is different, and yet... its arrogance is unchanged."
* The US ''Series/DealOrNoDeal'' once [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGR7hh0se2k attempted to reunite a contestant with her sister by disguising the sister as one of the models]]. This led to an unintended SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} as Howie Mandel tries to give increasingly obvious clues, and not only does the contestant fail to recognize her sister for over a minute, but so does their ''mother''.

[[folder:Theater]]

* In ''Theatre/ArsenicAndOldLace'', Jonathan Brewster who has been away for years and had multiple, disastrous plastic surgeries, so it's understandable that his aunts fail to recognize him.

[[folder:Visual Novel]]

* Inverted between Shayera Hol and Hro Talek in "Starcrossed", when she tries to convince Hro to relocate the hyperspace generator:

* When Goku shows up for the tournament after the ''big'' timeskip in the original ''{{Dragonball}}'', no one recognizes him because his hair's wrapped in a turban to protect from the rain. Krillin is also shocked at Goku's huge growth spurt.

* Reversed and parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', in the episode [[TheSimpsonsS9E17LisaTheSimpsons "Lisa the Simpsons"]], in which Jasper attempts to [[HumanPopsicle freeze himself]] in the Kwik-E-Mart freezer, in a bit to behold the wonders of the future. He defrosts and reanimates within a few days of his hibernation, and, assuming that he had indeed been frozen for many years, gazes in amazement around him. Upon encountering Apu, Jasper laments to him that "time has ravaged [Apu's] once youthful looks".

[[folder:Religion and Mythology]]
* In the Literature/BookOfGenesis, Joseph's brothers are unable to recognize him after twenty years of separation. It's not surprising, considering that they last saw him as the AnnoyingYoungerSibling whom they sold to slavery, and now he's the Vizier of Egypt and Pharaoh's NumberTwo.
* In Creator/{{Homer}}'s ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', Athena uses magic to make Odysseus appear as an old beggar when he finally returns home, and after defeating his wife's suitors in an archery contest, reveals his identity and kills them all.
[[/folder]]

* The US ''Series/DealOrNoDeal'' once [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGR7hh0se2k attempted to reunite a contestant with her sister by disguising the sister as one of the models]]. This led to an unintended CrowningMomentOfFunny as Howie Mandel tries to give increasingly obvious clues, and not only does the contestant fail to recognize her sister for over a minute, but so does their ''mother''.

* Attempted by Edmond in the 2002 film ''Film/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' (based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas) after his time in prison when he meets his old employer. He leans in close and pushes the hair from his face, but the old man does not recognize him. Apparently, the years had changed him a little too much.
** The original novel, at least, justifies this by mentioning all the ways Dantes has changed during his imprisonment, including losing a lot of weight and his skin going pale white due to lack of sunlight (he was previously a sailor and therefore would have been quite tanned originally).
*** Played straight, however, when Edmond reveals his identity to the various targets of his revenge plot. [[OhCrap His victims don't take it well.]]

'''Sweeney Todd:''' BENJAMIN!!! BARKER!!!