History Main / ReplacementGoldfish

Compare BabyDollBaby and DoppelgangerGetsSameSentiment. For the OutOfUniverse version, see SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute. See OnTheRebound for a more adult version. Not to be confused with the DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest.

Compare BabyDollBaby and DoppelgangerGetsSameSentiment. See OnTheRebound for a more adult version. Not to be confused with the DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest.

* Due to Elsa's apparent abandonment of her sister in ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', Anna seeks to fill the void left behind by her and find someone who truly loved her. And she found one in the form of Hans, who promised to her that he would never shut her out, and afterwards, she immediately agreed to marry him after getting to know each other for a while. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it is later revealed that said man only used her for his own goals and when her usefulness is up, he callously abandons her to die. But then later she gets informed that there is someone who actually loved her and that is Kristoff whom Anna just realized.]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12795131/1/Palinopsia Palinopsia]]" analyses a variation of this when circumstances result in Jadzia Dax being brought back to life through a transporter accident months after the Dominion War. This reinforces Ezri's own feelings that she only became friends with the rest of the station crew because they were hanging on to what was left of Jadzia rather than liking her for herself, but O'Brien's first stop after trying to explain what has happened to Jadzia is to visit Ezri and assure her that he's glad to have ''both'' of the people he cares about back in his life, affirming that he considers Ezri a friend in her own right.
[[/folder]]

[[quoteright:220:[[Anime/AstroBoy https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/astroboy_39.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:220:[[ParentalAbandonment This does not end well.]]]]

[[quoteright:219:[[Anime/AstroBoy https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/astroboy_0.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:219:[[ParentalAbandonment This does not end well.]]]]

* ''LetsPlay/WitchCraftSMP'': A textbook {{deconstruct|edTrope}}ion. [[spoiler:As revealed in her biography in the Enchanted Library, Prismarina is born as one for her older sister of the same name, such that her parents can try to move on from her passing in a boating accident. However, her parents resented that Pris was her own person and never lived up to the golden child status of her namesake, causing Pris to grow up with many issues with self-worth. Meanwhile, the spirit of the first Prismarina despises that her parents tried to replace her and has been trying to seek out a body-vessel for her soul to come back in.]]

* Averted in ''Literature/CharlottesWeb''. It's stated that while Charlotte's daughters do become Wilbur's new friends and help soothe the pain of her death, they can't replace her.

* Due to Elsa's apparent abandonment of her sister in ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', Anna seeks to fill the void left behind by her and find someone who truly loved her. And she found one in the form of Hans, who promised to her that he would never shut her out, and afterwards, she immediately agreed to marry him after getting to know each other for a while. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it is later revealed that said man only used her for his own goals and when her usefulness is up, he callously abandons her to die. But then later she gets informed that there is someone who actually loved her and that is Kristoff whom Anna just realized.]]

[[quoteright:219:[[Manga/AstroBoy https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/astroboy_0.png]]]]

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1570281573028940900
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

* Averted in ''Literature/CharlottesWeb''. It's stated that while Charlotte's daughters do become Wilbur's new friends and help soothe the pain of her death, they can't replace her.

* In the first ''ComicBook/MonicasGang'' films, one of the stories involves Monica, who is dressed as a mouse for Franklin's costume party, getting hit by his shrinking ray and saving several mice from a group of [[CatsAreMean hungry and apparently malevolent cats]]. One of the mice ends up falling for her, but when he kisses her, she grows back to her usual size and is escorted back to the party by Maggy. After an extended sequence in which he silently mopes about losing her, he saves a female mouse who looks remarkably similar to Monica, complete with a red dress, from a mouse trap, she kisses him, and [[RidingIntoTheSunset they prance into the sunset together]], as the [[RogerRabbitEffect live-action]] [[CreatorCameo Mauricio de Sousa]] watches them from nearby. The entire final part can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bMTuZk_6fg here]].
* In the animated movie ''WesternAnimation/StarchaserTheLegendOfOrin'' the original love interest [[spoiler: is strangled in front of the hero]] but no worries, in his adventures he'll soon find a princess on another planet to fall instantly in love with, voiced by the same actress.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' has an interesting variation on this; after the movie's namesake supervillain apparently manages to defeat his longtime archnemesis Metro Man, he quickly finds his victory to be completely meaningless (since he had no other purpose in life beyond that and being [[CardCarryingVillain over-the-top villainous]]), and ends up mourning the death. Using leftover DNA, Megamind decides to create a new superhero that can stop him and maintain the status quo. [[spoiler:Averted, as the replacement ends up being ''even more'' evil than him.]]

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', the Celestial Exalted get reborn after they die. The Exalted part goes on into a new person, retaining some small bits of its memories and personality traits, while the human part dies. Most new Exalts are treated by their peers that remember their previous lives as being the same person, even though they are not and have personalities of their own. (Swan was Desus, Contentious Sword etc)
* In the storyline for the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' set ''Planeshift'', Yawgmoth (the Big Bad) grants Crovax (the Dragon) a Replacement Goldfish for his lost love, Selenia. Later Crovax lures Gerrard (the main protagonist) to the dark side with false promises of a Replacement Goldfish of his own, though Gerrard sees through the ruse in time. It is unclear whether Crovax realizes that his Selenia Mark II is not the genuine article.

* In the Offenbach opera ''Tales of Hoffmann'', Dr. Coppelius makes a clockwork image of his dead daughter, whom he passes off as the original. Hoffmann falls in love with her and this makes the clockwork go haywire.
* Invoked unsuccessfully in ''Theatre/{{Pippin}}'': when Pippin is trying to cheer up Theo after his duck gets sick and dies, he brings him a lamb (or, in one production, a puppy). Theo takes one look at it, says, "That's not a duck, dummy!" and runs off.
* In ''Theatre/PokemonLive'', Giovanni made [=MechaMew2=] to replace Mewtwo, who escaped from him.
* ''Theatre/LittleEyolf'', Asta Allmers is considered this by Rita and Alfred after the death of the eponymous character (their son). The fact that Alfred and Asta grew up as siblings and he repeatedly treated her like a brother and called her "Eyolf" doesn´t help - and Asta is pretty creeped out when both Rita and Alfred clings to her for support. She [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere takes another option]] and leaves quickly.
* ''Theatre/MissSaigon'': After losing his Vietnamese bride Kim during the fall of Saigon, American soldier Chris reluctantly decides to get on with his life and finds new love with a woman named Ellen, not realizing that Kim survived and gave birth to his son. Typically, Ellen is played by a white woman with blonde or red hair, but towards the end of the show's first Broadway run, she was played by an Asian actress. Suddenly, it seemed very likely that Chris married Ellen not to get on with his life, but because she reminded him of his lost love Kim.
* In ''Theatre/OneTouchOfVenus'', Rodney Hatch is promised by Venus (his divine MagicalGirlfriend) he'll never be lonely for the rest of his life, but being the 1940s housewife he sees her as doesn't appeal to her. So she goes back to her ancient homeland [[NeverGotToSayGoodbye without saying goodbye]]. He's wondering about her promise when he suddenly meets a CountryMouse with a familiar face (since she's played by the same actress) who's willing to settle in the suburbs with him.
* As a method of apologizing to his roommate Rod for having an IncompatibleOrientation, Nicky in ''Theatre/AvenueQ'' [[spoiler: finds a boyfriend for Rod. Ricky, who other than being muscle-bound, is an exact copy of Nicky. Rod is thrilled.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'', [[spoiler:whenever Komari witnesses blood or death, her repressed memories of her dead older brother resurface and force her into a HeroicBSOD. The only way she can wrench herself out of that state is to pretend that some kind of appropriate nearby person is actually her brother and act like nothing is wrong as a StepfordSmiler until she can push her negative feelings back down enough again. In the good end Riki manages to break her out of the cycle and force her to accept reality, but in the bad end he agrees to pretend to be her brother and they stay that way.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', [[spoiler:Kinzo Ushiromiya's secret lover, Beatrice Castiglioni, [[DeathByChildbirth died from giving birth]] to their daughter. This drove him into such grief that he essentially groomed their daughter into becoming a replacement for her; not only did he name her Beatrice as well, but as she grew older she began to look so much like her deceased mother that Kinzo deluded himself into believing she was her mother's reincarnation. This would eventually result in him [[ParentalIncest raping her and getting her pregnant]].]]

* As we find out, [[spoiler: Marena]] from ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' is actually [[spoiler: Misho's lover in his past life and he remembers her as such, not as the current-day Marena.]] This causes a lot of frustration.

* [[http://xkcd.com/299/ This]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip has one character describe doing this in [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII a video game]], and then start to evoke a "troubling" extension of the concept to real life.

* Used very literally in the beginning of ''Webcomic/AbeKroenen'' where Kroenen's initial interest in Abe came because Abe reminded him of his dead goldfish Wolfram.
* The episode "[[http://www.alessonislearned.com/index.php?comic=37 Caroline's Doppelganger]]" from ''Webcomic/ALessonIsLearnedButTheDamageIsIrreversible'' uses this trope heartbreakingly.
-->'''Father:''' Darling, you can't spend every day searching for your real self. You'll waste living the pale reflection of her life!

* Done [[DudeNotFunny horrifyingly]] in ''Webcomic/DubiousCompany'', when Raque [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale realizes]] Elly looks like a [[IdenticalStranger younger version]] of her beloved king.

%% * ''WebComic/{{Precocious}}'': Ursula Xane replaced Xander Upton.
* Inverted in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'': George Fennec falls in love with Kevin's sister Danielle, who dies helping the main cast defeat a rabbit terrorist group. Shortly afterward, her double from the human world gets trapped on 'Furth', and due to the nature of the portal between worlds, becomes Danielle in appearance.