Tropes that deal with identity, be it changes in identity, revelations of a character's identity, identity clash, loss of identity etc.
Tropes:
Subcategory:
- Actually, I Am Him: A character meets an individual on their quest to meet someone and ends up discovering that this person is the person they're looking for.
- Alternate Identity Amnesia: A character with an alter ego has no memory of their other self when they've changed.
- Amnesiac Costume Identity: A character with amnesia makes assumptions about their previous identity based on the costume they find when they wake up.
- Amnesiac Lover: When a person gets amnesia, the memories lost include who they are in love with.
- …And That Little Girl Was Me: A character tells another person a story that they reveal to be about themselves.
- Assimilation Plot: A type of ploy where the end goal is the elimination of all individual identity
- Becoming the Mask: What was supposed to be the infiltrator's cover ends up becoming their real personality.
- Beneath the Mask: A character's true self is very different from how they act in public.
- Bluff the Impostor: Weeding out an impersonator by tricking them into saying or doing something the real person would never say or do.
- Collective Identity: An alias is used by more than one person at the same time.
- Confronting Your Imposter: An impersonator is thwarted when they are confronted by the person they are impersonating.
- A Darker Me
- Dead Person Impersonation: Using the name of a dead person as an alias.
- Death by Secret Identity: Someone learns the superhero's secret identity, but dies before they can do anything with the information.
- Deducing the Secret Identity: Someone logically deduces a Secret Identity, using clues, process of elimination, etc.
- Delirious Misidentification
- Double Consciousness
- Dramatic Unmask
- Dr. Psych Patient
- Enemy Within
- False Innocence Trick
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Two or more characters get their minds switched with one another.
- Freaky Friday Sabotage
- Friend of Masked Self
- Fright Beside Them: A character realizes they're in danger when the friend or loved one who they thought was right next to them is actually revealed to be somewhere else.
- Future Self Reveal: A character is revealed to be another character's future self.
- Genuine Imposter
- Go-to Alias
- His Quirk Lives On
- I Am What I Am: A character learns to accept a part of their identity they previously rejected.
- I Am Who?
- Identity Absorption: Someone absorbs the personality and memories of someone else.
- Identity Amnesia: Someone ends up thinking they're someone else.
- Identity Breakdown: A character suffers a mental break because of issues or revelations regarding who or what they are.
- Identity Denial
- Identity Impersonator: The superhero protects their secret identity by appearing in public with someone pretending to be their alter ego.
- I Just Want to Be You
- Impersonation-Exclusive Character: All or almost all knowledge of a character is gained through their impersonator.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: Going undercover, but forgetting an essential part of your disguise / cover identity that gets you blown.
- Individuality Is Illegal: A society controlled by a Hive Mind is not compatible with any individualized identities.
- The Killer in Me: A character that is chasing or is chased by a rampant killer is revealed to the audience (and sometimes to themself) to be the killer in question.
- Jekyll & Hyde: A good person has an evil alter ego.
- The Jekyll Is a Jerk: The alter-ego might be bad, but the original persona isn't much better.
- Legacy Character: An identity is taken on by a new character after the original holder of the identity stops using it for whatever reason.
- Legacy Immortality: Multiple people assume the identity of one person over the years, creating the illusion of immortality.
- Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman
- Loss of Identity
- Lost in Character
- Louis Cypher: Satan disguises himself using an alias that fails to be subtle.
- Mistaken from Behind: Someone mistakes a stranger for someone they know because the stranger resembles the person they know when viewed from the back.
- Mistaken Identity
- Multilayer Façade: A person wears multiple disguises over each other.
- Multiple Identity IDs
- My Sibling Will Live Through Me: Someone takes on the identity of a deceased relative.
- Myself, My Avatar
- No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me
- No Place for a Warrior
- Not Himself
- Old Friend, New Gender
- Painful Persona: Someone is forced to adopt a personality that is at odds with their true self.
- Personal Horror
- Personality Swap: People swap personality traits, but not minds.
- Photo Doodle Recognition: Doodling details on a photograph of a person reveals the identity of said person.
- Preferable Impersonator: The imposter is more liked than the original.
- Quest for Identity
- Real Name as an Alias
- "Rediscovering Roots" Trip
- Second Super-Identity
- Secret-Identity Identity: It's called into question on whether the alias or the secret identity is the real person.
- Shared Identity: Without trying to impersonate each other multiple characters simultaneously use the same identity.
- Self-Perception Shapeshifting: Shapeshifting to match your self-identity.
- Self-Proclaimed Knight
- Shapeshifter Identity Crisis: When a character that can shapeshift loses their sense of self and thus also control of their abilities
- Split Personality
- Split-Personality Merge: When the conflicting personalities merge into a single stable personality often with traits from both
- Split-Personality Takeover: When the crazier personality either completely erases or puts into submission the weaker sane personality to become the dominant personality
- Spot the Imposter: The character is seen with their impersonator, resulting in their friends having to figure out which is the real person and which is the phony.
- Starting a New Life
- Sweet Polly Oliver: A woman disguises herself as a man.
- That Man Is Dead: Upon taking a new identity, the person regards their original identity as dead.
- Themed Aliases
- This Is My Name on Foreign: A character uses a foreign language version of their name as an alias.
- Thoroughly Mistaken Identity
- Tomato in the Mirror: A person's true nature is revealed and it turns out that even they were unaware of the secret.
- Twin Test: A character is tasked with differentiating between identical siblings by at least one of those siblings.
- Two Aliases, One Character
- Un-person: All evidence and records of a person's existence gets eliminated or revised to make it seem as if the person never did exist.
