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Impersonation-Exclusive Character

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Bob is revealed to be someone else entirely, an impostor who replaced the real Bob a long time ago. This means the real Bob is someone we barely know, and most or all of what we do know about him is known solely through the actions of his impersonator.

This trope applies to any instance when all the information about a character is revealed by the actions of their impostor and the ways the other characters interact with the impostor. If the real character is shown, it's very briefly. If the original person returns in later installments, it does not discredit that this trope was the case originally; such cases can overlap with The Real Remington Steele if the impersonator is an established character and if the disguise is subsequently retconned as a real person instead of an Invented Individual.

Often a result of Kill and Replace, Actually a Doombot, and Dead Person Impersonation; and a subtrope of Dead All Along, Posthumous Character, and often The Ghost. Contrast You Will Be Beethoven, in which the original person may have never even existed.

Being a reveal trope, unmarked spoilers lie ahead.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In the manga adaptation of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (2009), Edgeworth meets renowned art scholar Amadeus Seal when investigating the possibility that a group of gentleman art thieves will rob the Seselagi Museum. After solving the murder of a security guard, which the owner committed to cover up his selling the painting "Officers," Seal says goodbye to Edgeworth. Later, Edgeworth sees the real Seal in a newspaper article, notices that he's nothing like the one he met, and realizes that "Seal" had been one of the thieves in disguise.
  • Death Note: L, the greatest detective in the world, is also the second and third greatest detectives in the world: Eraldo Coil and Deneuve. This comes in handy for L when people try to catch him; they usually end up hiring Coil or Deneuve. Another Note reveals that Eraldo Coil (and presumably Deneuve, too,) were actually real detectives before L took their names in "detective wars".
  • Boruto: The leader of Kara, Jigen, is revealed to be a Meat Puppet to Isshiki Ōtsusuki. Amado explains that Jigen was a novice monk before Isshiki took over his body to survive, but in the present, Jigen's personality has long been suppressed and it's implied that he's been reduced to a prisoner in his own body. The real Jigen's personality is never shown and his body is killed by Koji just before Isshiki's Karma converts the corpse into his new living body, leaving it unlikely that anything else about the real Jigen’s personality will ever be revealed.
  • In the first Devilman TV series, the real Akira Fudo and his father were killed by three demons in the first episode after they accidentally step inside their lair while mountain climbing in the Himalayas... and Amon kills the other two and then uses Akira's corpse as a disguise to pass as a human and start kicking the Demon Army's plan of global conquest on gear. For the rest of the show, Akira is just a disguise that Amon wears, and not even Akira's girlfriend Miki (whom Amon falls for and protects) knows the secret.
  • In Final Fantasy: Unlimited, it's revealed that Ai and Yu aren't actually the children of the Hayakawas. They are, in fact, Chaos spawn who were adopted when the Hayakawas lost their original kids.
  • In Final Girl (2019), a salaryman spends the entire story in the body of Summer, a slasher victim from the in-universe film 18th Day Sacrifice. Since "Summer" is trying to avert her original grisly fate, we see more of a pragmatic and careful personality than the apparently careless personality of her original self.
  • In Future Diary, the current timeline's version of Yuno turns out to have been Dead All Along. After being unable to revive Yukiteru when she wins the Survival Game, she travels back in time and kills and replaces that version of herself so she can be with Yukiteru.
  • Hunter × Hunter: The true Supreme Leader of East Gorteau was not revolutionary leader Diego Masadoru/Ming Jol-ik, but a body double. Unlike other examples, the real Diego/Ming is still alive, having retired to live peacefully and anonymously shortly after the revolution, and gets a single short scene towards the end of the Chimera Ant arc.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Jujutsu Kaisen: What little is shown of Yuji's mother, Kaori Itadori, takes place in a single flashback from several years ago, where it's made abundantly clear that Kenjaku has already stolen her body for himself at this point and that she's already dead. The obvious implication is that Kenjaku stole her body for the express purpose of giving birth to Yuji in order to create the perfect vessel for Sukuna.
  • Given the title character's fondness for the Mugged for Disguise trope, this happens quite a bit in Lupin III. A few examples include:
    • Lupin spends a good chunk of "Operation Missile-Jack" disguised as the chief of a research facility. The real chief appears in exactly one scene before being taken out by Lupin offscreen, and the only other times he's seen are in brief comedic moments where he has no intelligible dialogue due to being tied up with his mouth taped shut.
    • In another Part 2 story, Lupin clashes with Patra Lawrence, the supposed daughter of T. E. Lawrence. At the very end of the episode, Lupin says that the real Patra was born in 1918, meaning the woman seated next to him is far too young to be who she claims. To nobody's surprise, it turns out "Patra" was Fujiko Mine in a mask and veil.
    • In the fourth episode of Part 6, Lupin and Jigen stop at a diner that has a redheaded waitress with a fondness for foreign films and the works of Ernest Hemingway. At the end of the second act, they find the real ginger waitress Bound and Gagged in the kitchen, and realize the "waitress" they'd been talking to for most of the episode was actually Fujiko in disguise.
    • The third episode of Lupin Zero revolves around a competition between four thieves. One of the contestants is a beautiful and mysterious female thief from India named Phoolan, who aids Lupin and seems sympathetic towards him. At the very end of the episode, Lupin finds the real Phoolan Bound and Gagged in the middle of the forest, with it being revealed that the helpful thief he bonded with was actually his father Disguised in Drag.
  • Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: Andrew Sixson, the British Interpol agent send to aid in the investigation of the murders committed by Phantom Thief Sai/X, is revealed to have been captured by the New Bloodline even before he ever arrived to Japan. After being tortured to reveal every last detail about himself, Sicks murdered the investigator, peeled his face to use it as a mask and took his identity to infiltrate the police task force and capture X.
  • In Muhyo and Roji, the eponymous duo are called to a prison for ghosts to deal with the wards failing. One of the ghosts, Face-Ripper Sophie, escapes and is able to Kill and Replace Furuya, one of the two wardens, so the Furuya the heroes met was Sophie in disguise.
  • SSSS.GRIDMɅN eventually reveals that protagonist Yuta Hibiki wasn't just made Gridman's partner, but unknowingly outright possessed by the Hyper Agent; his Amnesiac Hero status is simply because Gridman doesn't have Yuta's memories in the first place. The "real" Yuta doesn't appear until the very end of the show, though he would later get proper character focus in the finale movie, GRIDMAN UNIVERSE.
  • In the first Symphogear series Sakurai turns out to have been possessed by a villain the whole time, and we never meet her as "herself".

    Comic Books 
  • The Captain N: The Game Master Nintendo Comics System story "Breakout" has the character Judge Racklas. He briefly appears in one panel while completely bound with rope and does not have any dialogue, while the rest of the comic features Ridley impersonating him. Therefore, most of what we know about Racklas comes from the Galactic Federation, Princess Lana, and Mother Brain discussing the disguised Ridley.
  • In Marvel's Shogun Warriors series, alien antagonist the Primal One is really their old enemy Maur-Kon, the recurring Big Bad of the series. He assembles an alien army via the treaties the real Primal Ones negotiated with other races, but the real Primal Ones never appear in the series, or in the wider Marvel Universe.
  • Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures (2022) final issue reveals that the Lavalox Verzen, crazy and flamboyant member of Dank Graks, we see is actually Jedi Master Tera Sinube in disguise. According to him, he has put the real Lavalox, who is a woman, in a mental institution and decided to disquise himself as her in order to spy on the Dank Graks. While Sinube’s impersonation is implied to be spot on, real Lavalox is never seen. She eventually shows up in person in ''The High Republic Adventures (2023)'' comic series.
  • Ultimate Universe (2023): An odd example with Doom. He's Earth-6160's Reed Richards, who was abducted years ago by the Maker (Earth-1610's evil Reed Richards) and tortured into being that Earth's Doom. The Ultimates (2024) confirms there should have been a Doctor Doom more like the classical version before the Maker interfered with history, but his current condition is unknown. 6160 Reed only acts a little bit like Victor, on account of the prolonged torture.

    Fan Works 
  • In If Despair Never Ended, the real Celeste is kidnapped before the killing game begins, replaced by an impersonator. They are only ever seen as a corpse.
  • Rain Code: New Game Plus: Ayako Fuwa is Killed Offscreen as part of the culprit's plot to fake their own death, switching places with them and dressing up the victim's body to pass off as their own.
  • A Thing of Vikings: King Adalwin turns out to have been long dead, replaced by a man who manages to trick the king's extended family into believing he was the real deal.
  • In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Harry Potter fic “Willow’s Thief”, it is ultimately revealed that Kennedy was being impersonated by Lucius Malfoy from the beginning, allowing him to infiltrate the Scoobies in his new role as a servant of the First.
  • Vow of Nudity: In Danger at the Olympics, Spectra the changeling is sent by her warlock patron to impersonate an athlete and discover which team is attacking their competition. The athlete she disguises as is Brittany, Anchorstead’s spellcaster who was injured in one of these attacks and sent home for medical care, meaning the real Brittany never appears in the story.

    Film — Animated 
  • In Lightyear, the evil Emperor Zurg turns out to be Buzz Lightyear himself from the future, clashing with his younger past self twin. His backstory of encountering a vast robot army and armored suit that he used for his disguise imply there is a real Zurg out there, who is never truly seen in the film.
  • Megamind: Megamind takes the form of the museum worker Bernard using a version of Capture and Replicate, and he uses this form for a large portion of the film to get closer to Roxanne. The real Bernard is much lower-energy than Megamind portrays him, and he only appears in the scene before Megamind takes his form and in The Stinger.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games makes it clear that a human version of Twilight Sparkle exists alongside the pony version, and that residents of the human dimension have long since been assuming them to be the same person. However, this leaves up in the air the question of Sunset Shimmer's human counterpart, who she's been presumably attending school under the identity of. The franchise came and went without ever giving us a clue on what this Human Sunset could be like, or where she currently resides.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Ace Ventura: Pet Detective: Detective Lois Einhorn turns out to be Ray Finkle hiding under the identity of a missing hiker.
  • In The Bravados, Mr. Simms—the hangman brought in from Silver City—turns out to be an imposter who helps the outlaws escape. When the Posse goes in pusuit of the outlaws, they find the body of the real Simms on the trail.
  • Diamonds Are Forever has several "Blofelds" due to the real Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray) turning henchmen of his into 'clones' of himself via plastic surgery. Each time James Bond kills one of them he bumps into another. They all seem to have the same mannerisms. It's not even sure if the last Blofeld to be killed in the film was the real article and it fed fan theories for decades.
  • In the climax of Equilibrium, "Father" is revealed to be Vice-Counscel DuPont impersonating Father with a Holographic Disguise on a big screen to enforce his rule over Libria. The real Father was Dead All Along.
  • In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, it's revealed in the climax that the head of the American Auror office, Percival Graves, is really Gellert Grindelwald in disguise as Graves. Nothing about the real Graves is known other than the fact that he comes from a storied wizarding family in America and that he was a very powerful wizard since his skills don't surprise anyone. It's unclear how long the impersonation had been going on, if Graves is/was still alive, or if Grindelwald or Graves was the person who first met Credence so it's hard to gauge what he really was like.
  • Halfway through Glass Onion, it's revealed that Cassandra "Andi" Brand had been murdered prior to the events of the film, and that she was being impersonated by her identical twin sister Helen, who came to Miles Bron's private island to find out who killed Andi.
  • In Inception, Robert Fischer's godfather and Maurice Fischer's longtime friend and legal counsel Peter Browning (Tom Berenger) appears in one single scene. He's impersonated by Eames (still played by Berenger) in the dream the rest of the time, in order to convince Robert to dismantle the company he just inherited.
  • The in-universe avatars in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level only ever appear when the players are in their bodies. Little to no context is given to each avatar's backstory, including how they even know each other or what they'll like outside of their skills chart.
  • The Lighthouse: Ephraim Winslow has been using the name of a coworker he let die some time ago for the entirety of the film's runtime. With no flashbacks to show who the other man was, we only know of his existence through the brief silent hallucinations of Thomas Howard.
  • The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob: Despite the title, Rabbi Jacob has very limited screen-time and the adventures are actually lived by Victor Pivert, who ended up as the hostage of Slimane, an Arabic revolutionarist fleeing a manhunt. He stole Jacob's clothes and identity while meeting him at an airport, and then things get more complicated as he bumps into the Bar Mitzvah Jacob came to attend and has to play the act a lot more than he expected.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Captain Marvel (2019): We only see Fury's boss, Director Keller, once as SHIELD arrives at the Blockbuster that Carol crashed into when she arrived on Earth. For the rest of his appearances in the movie, Talos is impersonating him.
    • Retroactively in Iron Man 3. The villain at first appears to be Ben Kingsley’s character The Mandarin, but he turns out to be a patsy for the actual Big Bad Killian, who claims himself to be the Mandarin. The later short film All Hail the King then establishes the true Mandarin is out there and very displeased at both of them stealing his name. Said true Mandarin, Xu Wenwu, eventually appears in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
  • Men in Black: The Big Bad is known through the whole movie as "Edgar" because he's an alien terrorist who kills and takes over the corpse of a farmer named Edgar in a poor attempt to go unnoticed. The actual Edgar is only seen at the beginning right as the alien eats his insides and puts on his skin.
  • Orphan: First Kill: This film reveals that Leena Klammer's "Esther" persona was taken from a missing child she physically resembled, and she used it to flee to the United States by "reuniting" with Esther's family, whereupon Esther's identity is only explored through Leena's attempts to take her place. Leena learns she's been doing a Dead Person Impersonation later on, with the mother and son having covered up Esther's sororicide with a missing-persons story.
  • Remember: Dementia stricken protagonist Zev Guttman, who we've been led to believe is an Auschwitz survivor, is revealed to be Nazi war criminal Otto Wallisch, having taken the identity of Zev from a dead prisoner. The same goes for Rudy Kurlander, whose identity was taken by Wallisch's comrade Kunibert Sturm.
  • The Ritual: Gayle, Dom's wife, only appears briefly toward the end of the film in Dom's vision induced by the creature.
  • Scooby-Doo (2002): Emile Mondavarious, the Big Bad, turns out to actually be Scrappy-Doo in a robotic disguise. The real Mondavarious is found trapped under a manhole at the very end of the film, after Scrappy has been defeated and taken away, and is given just enough screentime to explain how Scrappy came to impersonate him in the first place.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024): Randall and Rachel from previous films got posters and appear in the trailers, but aren't actually in the film itself: Tom and Maddie impersonate them using Tails' gadgets to sneak into G.U.N HQ.
  • Source Code: Jake Gyllenhaal plays soldier Colter Stevens, who is tasked with repeatedly living the last eight minutes of the life of a man named Shawn Fentress who died when a train exploded. Nothing is known about Fentress besides what other people say about him, and with Gyllenhaal portraying both versions of his character, Fentress's real appearance is only seen through reflections and photos of him. Unusually for this trope, not only does the reveal occur about ten minutes in, but the film ends with Stevens surviving beyond the eight minutes and (presumably) living out the rest of his life as Fentress, with nobody in the alternate reality any the wiser.
  • Tower of Terror: The real actress Buzzy hired is scared away by the ghosts offscreen, and Claire/Carolyn assumes her identity.
  • Vertigo: It turns out that the Madeleine Elster who is a major character in the first half of the movie is really an imposter; the only time that we see her for real during the entire film is as a dead body whose neck has been broken.
  • We're No Angels (1989): Renowned theologians Fr.'s Brown and Riley never arrive for the ceremony, for unexplained reasons, allowing Ned and Jimmy to impersonate them for the whole film.
  • Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: Every time a golden ticket for a tour at Willy Wonka's chocolate factory was found, the finder was approached by a man who introduced himself as Wonka's rival Arthur Slugworth and offered lots of money in exchange for a Wonka product named Everlasting Gobstopper. In the end, "Slugworth" is revealed to be Mr. Wilkinson, who was helping Wonka to test the kids' character. The real Slugworth never appears in the movie.

    Literature 
  • Agatha Christie was fond of the trope. From the Hercule Poirot novels:
    • In After the Funeral, Cora Lansquenet is never seen alive. None of the family having seen the real Cora in over twenty years, the "Cora" who appears at the titular funeral of her brother Richard is revealed to actually have been her lady-in-waiting Miss Gilchrist, who then went on to murder her mistress the following day. Gilchrist drugged the real Cora the morning of the funeral and attended in her place; that evening she murdered Cora in her bed, making sure to disfigure her face beyond recognition. Her impersonation was almost perfect, deliberately seeding doubt about whether Richard did in fact die of natural causes and even mimicking Cora's painting style to cover over the one painting Cora owned that was actually worth anything. Making off with the painting proves to be the motive behind the entire plot. Miss Gilchrist's three mistakes: practicing Cora's trademark Quizzical Tilt in a mirror causes it to appear reversed, so that her relatives knew something was off but not quite what; remarking on a vase of wax flowers which she could only have seen on the day of the funeral, as the vase was later broken; and painting her forgery from a postcard, when the real Cora always painted from life.
    • In Cat Among the Pigeons, it is discovered that Princess Shaista was kidnapped in Switzerland before she could arrive at Meadowbank School, and the character believed to be her throughout the book is an actress specializing in Dawson Casting parts. The reader never gets to know the real Shaista at all.
    • In The Clocks, the weak hypochondriac Mrs. Valerie Bland is revealed to be Mrs. Hilda Bland, her husband's second wife, posing as the first one to get her inheritance. The only things we therefore know about the real Valerie was that she came from a rich Canadian family and had really poor judgment of men, considering her choice of husband.
    • In Hercule Poirot's Christmas, two coincidental, unrelated cases: among the guests who come to visit elderly Simeon Lee for the holidays are Stephen Farr, son of Lee's old business partner in South Africa whom he betrayed; and Pilar Estravados, Lee's Spanish-born granddaughter, on her first visit to England as civil war breaks out in Spain. Simeon is murdered, but both impostors end up being Red Herrings. A telegraph reveals that the real Stephen Farr is dead — Stephen's real name is Stephen Grant, a friend of the real Farr but also, as he explains, the illegitimate son of Lee himself, who came to England intending to confront his father not only for what he did to the Grants but for his own abandonment. Pilar, meanwhile, is actually Conchita Lopez, the real Pilar's friend, traveling with Pilar through wartorn Spain when the latter was killed by a bomb. Conchita seized on the opportunity to masquerade as Pilar, enjoying a brief respite in a wealthy home far from the war — only to find herself trapped by her own deceit, unable to reveal the truth without making herself even more of a suspect in the murder. In the end, both are cleared of suspicion, and Stephen asks Conchita to come back with him to South Africa so that the two of them can be married.
    • In Murder in Mesopotamia, we really never learn anything about Eric Leidner, besides that he was a Swedish archeologist. That's because it's revealed he died decades ago in a train crash, and his identity was stolen by German spy Frederick Bosner. Likewise, we never find out what sort of person Father Lavigny is. All the time in the book, he has been impersonated by a jewel thief, as the real Father Lavigny fell sick and was unable to accompany the expedition at all.
    • In A Murder Is Announced, two characters turn out to be imposters, with the real articles never actually appearing in the story: Emma Stamfordis pretends to be Julia Simmons who is really abroad, while Charlotte Blacklock pretends to be her deceased sister Letitia in order to inherit the money that the latter was in line for.
  • Tom is a constant presence throughout Animorphs, but the only time he's seen without a Puppeteer Parasite controlling him is at the climax of the first book. Most of his characterisation comes from Jake comparing his Yeerks' impersonations to the real Tom he knew.
  • Ascendance of a Bookworm: Urano deduces that her soul took over Myne's body when the latter died to the Devouring. While she manages to fool pretty much everyone around her into thinking they are the same person, Lutz eventually realizes that the "Myne" he knows is an impostor and privately confronts her about it. When Urano admits that she's not the real Myne and Lutz demands that she give Myne's body back, Urano replies that the only thing she can return is Myne's corpse since she died at the start of the story, and that Lutz will have to deliver it to Myne's family and explain everything to them. Lutz takes some time to ponder on the situation and decides that he never knew the real Myne that well in the first place since she was always bedridden, and that the two only began to interact after Urano reincarnated in her body. As far as Lutz is concerned, Urano is the real Myne because she's the only "Myne" that he knows.
  • Beware of Chicken: Shortly after Zang Li of the Shrouded Mountain Sect appears, a brief segment from his POV reveals him to be a demonic cultivator named Lu Ban who killed the real Zang Li and stole his body to infiltrate the Shrouded Mountain sect. Lu Ban goes on to be one of the major antagonists for the first few books, but we never see the real Zang Li.
  • Jason Bourne, the protagonist of The Bourne Series. The Bourne that we follow is actually a CIA operative named David Webb, who assumed the identity of an assassin called Jason Bourne in order to go undercover. The real Bourne was executed by Webb years ago and never appears in the series.
  • Codex Alera:
    • Gaelle; at first, she seems to be an ordinary student at the Academy, but she is eventually revealed to be Rook, one of High Lord Kalarus's top spies who killed and replaced the real Gaelle some time before the character first appears.
    • Also, Marcus Valiar. It's known that he is a real person, but we never see him, as he died before the events of the books, and is instead portrayed entirely by Fidelius.
  • Cthulhu Mythos:
  • In The Dark Profit Saga, we learn that Gaist, whom Gorm recognizes as Iheen the Red, is not that man (the real Iheen died on the same quest that Gorm ran away from). He's not human at all but a Doppelganger. Gorm realizes that Gaist was Iheen the Red's close friend and companion. They would often have Gaist pose as Iheen in order to make Iheen appear in two places at once. The reason why Gaist doesn't talk is because he's forgotten what Iheen is supposed to sound like and doesn't want to tip anyone off.
  • The climax of The Grimrose Girls reveals that, prior to the start of the book, Penelope was killed and replaced in accordance with her assigned fairy tale. The replacement is the main villain of the first novel.
  • Harry Potter:
    • Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody is this through most of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We get to know him extensively throughout the book, but at the end, he turns out to have been an impostor using a humanshifting potion. The real guy is found alive at the end of the book and shows up from time to time in subsequent installments, but none of his mannerisms come off as surprising, given how good the impersonation was. In the final book, the main trio quote Moody's catchphrase ("Constant vigilance!"), even though we only ever encountered the impostor actually saying that.
    • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Pius Thicknesse is an even more drastic example, being placed under the Imperius Curse off-screen and only appearing under its influence. The Imperius Curse essentially turns the victim into a mindless puppet of another man, and that means that the only canonical portrayals we have of the man that should have been the legal Minister of Magic is essentially Yaxley speaking through another man's lips. We know very little about the man himself, but we can guess he was not a Death Eater.
  • Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu: It's revealed in book three that the real Ming Yi is dead. The man who's pretending to be him is really He Xuan, one of the Four Calamities, who infiltrated the heavens partly to be a spy for Hua Cheng and mostly to get revenge on Shi Wudu.
  • In Heretical Edge, several characters have been possessed by Seosten since before their first introduction, including Pace (the insane behavior previously seen from Pace was entirely that of her possessor). Subverted by Jophiel and Elisabet; in the same chapter where it is discovered that Jophiel has been possessing Elisabet for centuries, it is revealed that Elisabet has been a Willing Channeler the entire time.
  • In the Allan Vaughan Elston Western Hit the Saddle, Chuck Bantra was murdered by his greedy traveling companions while riding to collect an Unexpected Inheritance from an uncle he had never met, and is only seen while being impersonated by his killer.
  • Jaine Austen Mysteries: The woman Jaine knows as Daisy Kincaid in Death of a Gigolo is a somewhat dotty, but kind older woman who is very generous to her staff until Tommy weasels his way into her life. Now, Emma Shimmel, the woman who killed her and took over her identity, called the real one "a sour old fossil of a boss" who made her life miserable, so it appears the image Emma puts on is in contrast to the real one's personality. Of course, given that Emma is, y'know, a murderer, you could probably take this description with a grain of salt.
  • Isaac Asimov's "Let's Get Together": One of the characters, Breckenridge, was replaced with a robot duplicate before the events of the story. They use Breckenridge's position to drive the events of the story, trying to eliminate "Our" experts.
  • The Locked Tomb: Gideon the Ninth: It's revealed late in the book that the Seventh House's Sword and Sorcerer duo were murdered soon before the start of the plot by the rogue Lyctor Cytherea, who took Dulcinea's identity and necromantically puppeted Protesilaus' corpse. The ruse only works because none of the other characters had met them in person beforehand, and when Harrowhark meets the real people's spirits in Harrow the Ninth, she notes that the impersonation was insultingly bad.
    Dulcinea: She asked me so many questions. Who I had talked to, if I had ever left the House before. I knew she was going to kill me. I fed her a load of bullshit. I had hoped someone might figure her out. No such luck.
  • In the Lord Darcy novel Ten Little Wizards, the first scene is of the person being impersonated being murdered, but the reader does not find out their identity (and, thus, the identity that the impostor is hiding under) until the climax.
  • Moonraker: Hugo Drax is actually a Nazi saboteur who masquerades as a war hero for the past several years after he was "rescued" in his British military disguise, stole the identity of a missing soldier, and faked amnesia to justify not remembering his pre-WWII life. By sheer coincidence, the "Hugo Drax" name he adopted happens to be surprisingly close to his real one (Graf Hugo von der Drache). The only things known about the real Hugo Drax was that he was an orphan with no close friends or relatives, and was MIA during World War II. Drax/Drache remains a dedicated Nazi, bent on revenge against Britain for the wartime defeat of his Fatherland and the social slights he received as a youth growing up in an English boarding school before the war.
  • In The Mortal Instruments, Sebastian Verlac is revealed to actually be Jonathan Morganstern, the son of Valentine, who killed the real Sebastian and stole his identity. In later books, other characters continue to refer to him as Sebastian even though they know that's not his real name.
  • A late twist in Volume 2 of Murdle reveals Viscount Eminence, one of the many recurring suspects who's been around since Volume 1, to be this. Namely, he is the supposedly-dead former Iron Tsar of Drakonia, who was overthrown in a revolution by Major Red and the Free Drakonian Army. Major Red took credit for killing him to secure his own rule, but the Iron Tsar actually fled to the palace of his old friend, the real Viscount Eminence, only to find that he had long since died of old age, so the Tsar adopted the Viscount's identity to hide his own.
  • The Secret Files of Dakota King: Several letters from Professor Wallach are read in The Haunted City of Gold, but his one apparent in-person scene has his assistant Patchin impersonate him (which Patchin claims to do habitually yet harmlessly due to his own bad reputation making visitors wary to entrust things to the museum).
  • Tom Swift: In "The Space Hotel", a scientist invited to the eponymous location is kidnapped and replaced by an Eco-Terrorist. While the real scientist is rescued, this happens off-screen, and he never meets Tom.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Agatha All Along episode "Familiar by Thy Side" reveals that "Teen" is really Billy Maximoff, whose soul inhabited the body of a Jewish boy named William Kaplan after the latter was killed in a car accident during WandaVision. The real William Kaplan only appeared in flashbacks explaining the events leading up to his death and Billy's resurrection.
  • In the Angel episode "Lineage", Wesley runs into his estranged father Roger Wyndam-Pryce who claims to have come to assess whether Wesley should be invited back to the Watcher Council. At the end of the episode, he turns out to be actually a robotic replica working for a mysterious organisation. The real Roger never appears in the series but Wesley indicates that the cyborg did a convincing impression of him.
  • Arrowverse:
    • The Flash (2014):
      • Episode 17 reveals that Harrison Wells is really another person entirely (the time-traveling Eobard Thawne) who stole Wells's appearance, killing him and his wife in the process. Despite being a very important figure (along with his wife Tess Morgan) in the original timeline Thawne came from, almost nothing besides this is known (other than he used to be warmer and more open with people "before the accident"). The real Wells only appears in three scenes: the first is an Establishing Character Moment which shows us he is passionate about science and his brilliant wife, and the second two where he is killed and has his identity stolen by Thawne. This is the case until he's resurrected at the beginning of season 7.
      • A more minor example is with Randolf Morgan, whose appearance is used via holographic device as a disguise for various reasons, first by H.R. Wells (Harrison Wells's doppelgänger) and later by Barry Allen. Nothing is really known besides what he looks like and what H.R (his former business partner) says about him.
    • Supergirl (2015): The character initially known as Hank Henshaw, the director of the DEO, turns out to really be the shapeshifting Green Martian, J'onn J'onzz, who took over the form from the real Hank Henshaw who was presumed dead after he attempted to murder J'onn. However, Hank Henshaw returned years later, having been turned into Cyborg Superman.
    • Batwoman (2019):
      • In season 2 premiere, escaped prisoner Tommy Elliot (a.k.a "Hush") briefly impersonates Bruce Wayne, who left Gotham City before the series even began and never appears onscreen except in flashbacks.
      • Later in the same season, we have Roman Sionis/Black Mask's daughter Circe, who died in Arkham during a prison riot. However, her face was transplanted onto a Brainwashed and Crazy Kate Kane, who thinks she is Circe Sionis.
  • The Blacklist has a major example that becomes a significant part of the Myth Arc. The man we've been following as Raymond Reddington may not actually be the original Raymond Reddington, finding out exactly who he is and why he has this identity takes up a lot of Elizabeth's focus in the later seasons. Eventually taken to absurd extremes as possible identities are raised for his origin only for them to turn out to also be borrowed from other people, making him a sort of nesting doll of impersonation. Maybe.
  • Cold Case: Noah Pool died in Auschwitz 60 years ago. The man using his name in "The Hen House" is a Nazi collaborator.
  • Doctor Who: The man introduced as O in Spyfall was not the real O. The Master killed the real O before showed up to work at MI6 and took his place.
  • Firefly: We never know who the real Derrial Book was. The man using that name killed him and took the name in order to enlist in the Alliance military in order to infiltrate it and subvert it from within. The Shepherd's real name is Henry Evans.
  • Jungle Nest: The real Clodomiro Montalbán was among the several people killed by a volcano eruption almost 20 before the beginning of the series. The character using his name through the series is a diamond thief who stole Montalbán's identity to hide from the authorities. He never parted with the stolen diamond and that's how he was exposed.
  • Kamen Rider:
    • Kamen Rider Build: #30 reveals that Team Mom Soichi Isurugi is not only The Mole, but possessed by a malevolent Puppeteer Parasite since before the show began. And when Evolt finally leaves his body, he's left in a coma. It takes the very end of the show for his real personality to be shown.
    • Kamen Rider Revice: Yujiro Wakabayashi, commander of Fenix, was revealed to have been murdered by the Chameleon Deadman in the first episode of the series. The Monster of the Week went on to impersonate him until his cover was blown in episode 14. The real Yujiro's only appearance is also his death scene.
  • An episode of Law & Order called "Nowhere Man" starts with the investigation of the murder of ADA Dan Tenofsky, only for the police and the DA to discover "Dan Tenofsky" was an imposter named Jacob Dieter. The real Dan Tenofskie was a law school dropout, whose identity the imposter stole and fabricated his entire career off of. At the end of the episode, Serena asks Jack what they should do with "Dan's" personal effects and Jack says "What personal effects? Those were more like props."
  • Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger: Boshimar, Racules Husty's chief advisor, was revealed to have been killed and replaced by Prime Minister Kamejim, right-hand man of King Dethnaarok VIII, years prior to the events of the series. What little we know about the real Boshimar is through Kamejin's impersonation.
  • In Once Upon a Time (2011) season 2, Emma and Snow White are transported to the Enchanted Forest and receive help from "Sir Lancelot"; they find out eventually that they've been dealing with Cora in disguise all along, and the original Sir Lancelot has died. He does appear in flashbacks, but plays no part in the present-day storyline until seasons later, when he is revealed to have survived.
  • Silverpoint:
    • Despite being fairly important to the plot in the form of the mermaid imagined by Glen and later as the preferred form taken by the Alien, the real Sarah only actually appears twice, without really impacting the plot either time.
    • Meg's older sister Grace only appears in the form of an imaginary version of her created by Meg, while inside Landslide's Alternate.
  • The Spiderwick Chronicles (2024): Prior to the series, Mulgarath abducts and possibly kills the real Calliope Brauer, and the audience only knows her through her father's reminisces and Mulgarath's Perky Female Minion impersonating her.
  • In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of" our heroes are searching for the scientist Roger Korby. The Korby that they encounter is actually an android that's been imprinted with the real Korby's memories and personality. Over the course of the episode it's made clear that the duplication wasn't perfect (certain personality traits have been warped and twisted), so we don't have a complete picture of what the real one was like.
  • In the third season Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Adversary", Ambassador Krajensky was discovered to have been replaced by a changeling and never visited the station.
    • Zigzagged with General Martok. When Martok is exposed as a Changeling in the Season 5 premiere, it's explained that he was a Changeling imposter from his first appearance. However, the real Martok turns up in a Dominion prison camp later in the season and becomes a significant character for the next two seasons.
  • A number of examples in Star Trek: Discovery:
    • The Ash Tyler we know eventually turns out to be the original Ash Tyler's personality grafted onto a Klingon sleeper agent. The only time we see the original Tyler is in a photograph, after L'Rell has been forced to purge Voq's personality from this Tyler, leaving Tyler in control, to stop an awakened Voq from tearing himself apart.
    • Captain Lorca turns out to be his Mirror Universe counterpart. The only time Prime!Lorca is alluded to after The Reveal is a devastated Admiral Cornwell coming to the conclusion that, given the Terran Empire's barbarism, he's likely been dead long before she suggested he command Discovery. In Star Trek Online, we do encounter Prime!Lorca just before the incident that results in the Lorcas swapping places. We then encounter Mirror!Lorca, although his sudden personality change is made to look as PTSD and Survivor Guilt after being forced to destroy the USS Buran (which Mirror!Lorca likely did to reduce the number of people who know his double well).
    • The Admiral Patar we see on screen turns out to be a holographic construct created by Control after it went Skynet and wiped out Section 31's leadership.

    Video Games 
  • In the first A Certain Scientific Railgun PSP game, one segment sees the girls working with an elite Judgement member named Atatsu Chiyo to protect a researcher from a terrorist known as Grim Reaper Kakiko. It isn't until the end of the chapter that the girls learn that the real Chiyo has been found tied up, and that the "Chiyo" who'd been communicating with them the entire time was actually Kakiko (real name Aizono Mio) in disguise.
  • Baldur's Gate III: Dribbles the Clown gets murdered by Bhaal's cultists shortly before the player reaches Rivington, meaning the Dribbles that the player meets is a Doppelganger assassin ready to kill them. The player is then tasked by Dribbles's boss to find his body so she can use necromancy to bring him back as a zombie, but the circus leaves before the player can see the results.
  • In BoxxyQuest: The Shifted Spires, Intrepid, Catie's mysterious hooded ally and the head of the /c/ council, does not actually appear in the game. The Intrepid we meet is actually Rcoastee, having killed him and taking on his form, while the real Intrepid never appears physically, only being described by Rcoastee.
  • Chrono Trigger: Twice in the game, the Chancellor of Guardia is kidnapped and impersonated (first by Yakra, later by his descendant). The real chancellors are rescued at the end of these arcs, but have little to no screen time.
  • In the second Chzo Mythos installment, 7 Days a Skeptic, the protagonist, Dr. John Somerset, is actually Dr. Somerset's son who killed his father and stole his identity.
  • Cyberpunk 2077 features an interesting example where the impersonation is carried out by none other than V, the Player Character. After Kurt Hansen's death, Mr. Hands tasks V with helping him install a Puppet King as a successor. To that end, Mr. Hands gives V a personality imprint of a legendary Cuban assassin known as Aguilar, and V-as-Aguilar proceeds to intimidate and/or murder everyone standing in the way of Mr. Hands's schemes. The real Aguilar never sets foot in Dogtown or appears onscreen, though they will send a text message to V after the quest is complete, indicating they're not amused about the impersonation.
  • Dark Souls has a variant; by either shooting Gwynevere when you meet her or reading the description of the Sun Princess ring, it'll be revealed that the "Gwynevere" you met was an illusion created by Gwyndolin, with the real deal having left Anor Londo some time ago alongside the other gods. The real Gwynevere's fate is left a Riddle for the Ages.
  • In Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth:
    • The Kyoko we know for a majority of the game is actually Alphamon possessing her body in order to integrate with humans. The real Kyoko suffered from EDEN Syndrome, and by sheer coincidence Alphamon came across her comatose body just as it arrived to the human world. The real Kyoko is only seen in a flashback scene and in the epilogue.
    • The same thing happens with Rie and Crusadermon. In fact, both Rie and Kyoko fell victim to EDEN Syndrome at the same time and place, with Crusadermon and Alphamon possessing their bodies separately afterwards. We never see the real Rie directly, only hearing some snippets.
  • Disgaea 2: The heroes set off on a quest to defeat Overlord Zenon. But later in the game, we find out that he is actually a usurper who has taken over Overlord Zenon's palace, identity, and reputation. The real Overlord Zenon has long since reincarnated, with his memories repressed, and is now known as Rozalin.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition:
    • In Josephine Montilyet's personal quest, she and the Inquisitor receive an invitation to meet with a noble named Comte Boivert, who claims to have information as to why Josephine's couriers delivering an important message were murdered. They meet the comte, who turns out to be very knowledgeable — too knowledgeable, as Josephine deduces. The "comte" is actually an impersonator from the assassins' guild hired to kill the couriers; the situation is so unusual the guild felt Josephine was owed a direct explanation. The real comte turns out to be locked in a closet, and we never see him on screen.
    • We never meet the real Warden-Constable Gordon Blackwall, who has been dead for years by the time the game begins. The person claiming to be "Blackwall" is a fugitive war criminal named Thom Rainier, a former Orlesian army captain who took gold to assassinate a prominent nobleman and ended up killing his wife, children, and entourage along with him. The real Blackwall did recruit Rainier into the Grey Wardens, but was killed by Darkspawn before he could fully induct him into the order. Rainier wanted to continue to Val Chevin to be inducted, but believed that he had no proof of conscription and was afraid that the Wardens would accuse him of killing Blackwall, so he instead decided to assume his identity and roam the land as a Knight Errant, trying to make up for his crime. The only direct words from the real Blackwall that are encountered in the game come from a transcript of a speech he gave ten years prior (around the events of the first game), and the speech pokes a lot of holes in "Blackwall's" story.
  • Final Fantasy XIV
    • The Legate of the VIIth Imperial Legion Nael van Darnus died before the events of the game, the "Nael van Darnus" you meet is actually his sister Eula Darnus. This is a case of Real Life Writes the Plot; Nael was supposed to be a woman, but this was not communicated properly to the English writing team, and they wrote him as male while the Japanese team went on with the original plans. Eula is the end result of several hasty retcons intended to wrangle the resulting plotholes back into a coherent narrative.
    • The Scion Yda Hext is revealed to have died about a year prior to the events of Legacy. The character that players knew as "Yda" is revealed to have been her younger sister, Lyse. While a fair amount of information concerning the real Yda's personality and achievements is known, she is never featured in any content where she is still alive.
  • Fire Emblem
    • In Fire Emblem Fates: It's revealed later on the Garon that we know for the duration of the story is ultimately a puppet controlled by Anankos; any traces of the good man that he was died during the Concubine Wars that scarred the surviving royals and left them trapped in a cycle of abuse they have no control under. Much of the story of Conquest consists of trying to convince the Nohrian royals their father is long dead without having to kill their siblings in return or risk the world in the process, which is why Corrin had to engage in Realpolitik for the sake of saving both kingdoms. Ultimately, Garon being Obviously Evil was arguably the point, given Anankos himself was completely lacking in mental faculties beyond a seething hatred for the humanity he felt abandoned by, and with their only goals being the destruction of both kingdoms, Garon was little more than an empty shell in the service of such. Part of the story ultimately laments Garon as a rather tragic character who the cast never got to meet despite being responsible for so much suffering.
    • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses the missing student Monica von Ochs, the Monastery's librarian Tomas, Edelgard's uncle Volkhard von Arundel, and Faerghus' court magician Cornelia Arnimnote  are all revealed to be impostors from Those Who Slither In The Dark. The characters themselves are never seen, even in flashbacks, and are implied to have been killed long before the game's events. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, however, introduces the real Monica as the game is an Alternate Timeline where she is rescued before being killed and impersonated. She even gets Promoted to Playable in one of the routes.
      • Three Hopes also explicitly confirms that Cornelia was indeed an Agarthan impostor by having the other Agarthans mention her Agarthan name - Cleobulus.
    • Fire Emblem Engage: During the Fell Xenologue, Alear meets with two Fell Dragon allies- siblings Nel and Nil- along with their retainers, who are Alternate Universe versions of the Four Hounds. It is revealed late in the campaign that the real Nil is long dead, and the person you were interacting with is actually a Fell Dragon named Rafal, who turns out to be the main antagonist.
  • Shortly before the climax of God of War Ragnarök it's revealed that Týr, the Norse God that you rescued early in the game and has been your friend and ally since then, was Odin impersonating him all along. You can rescue the real Týr in the postgame, but by that point he will barely get any focus. Rectified in the Valhalla DLC where he is a very prominent character.
  • The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-: The pro wrestler Moko Mojiro first appears on Day 50 after being captured by invaders, but it's later revealed that the real Moko was killed after a commander copied her appearance; "Moko" was actually the commander all along. However, it's possible to recruit the real Moko in subsequent playthroughs.
  • In Kingdom Hearts II, we learn that the "Ansem", the presumed Big Bad of the previous game, was never actually Ansem at all, but the real Ansem's apprentice, Xehanort. The real Ansem does appear in this game, going by the name "DiZ". But so thorough is Xehanort's attempted deception that his Nobody takes the name "Xemnas" (most Nobodies form their names as an anagram of their original name with an "X" added; "Xemnas" is, appropriately, an anagram of "Ansem-X".)
  • The King of Fighters 2000: Ling has not only one, but two impersonators, both a regular clone of himself and Zero, both introduced before the real Ling. Practically all that's known about him is that he was the man Vanessa and Seth were working under and that he had a nice mustache.
  • In the second Laura Bow game, the eponymous protagonist meets Dr. Archibald Carrington, an Englishman who had recently travelled to New York as the newly appointed president of the Leyendecker Museum, before both find themselves embroiled in the murder mystery that takes place there during the night. Over the course of the game, a clever enough player will find enough evidence to figure out that the 'Carrington' that Laura met is actually Watney Little, an escaped English convict who stowed away on the ship that was taking Carrington to New York, where he murdered and impersonated him. His ability to keep up the masquerade is Hand Waved by how new Carrington was to his role and that it involved him moving to an unfamiliar place (and a period appropriate lack of readily available means to get more information on the real guy), but this also ties into how Detective O'Riley, the ultimate Big Bad of the story, ended up recognizing and blackmailing him into orchestrating the artifact heist that drives the plot.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II's Wham Episode reveals that the Gardenmaster is Swin's supposedly-dead brother figure, Ace Rayne. Except he actually isn't, since he's really the spirit of Auguste Aldan, who's simply using a clone of Ace's body as a vessel. The real Ace only shows up briefly after Auguste's defeat.
  • Halfway through The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom it's revealed that Ganon isn't the Big Bad, but rather just a copy created by Null. The real Ganon's whereabouts during the events of the game are unknown, but given his track record he was probably either sealed away or killed by a previous incarnation of Link.
  • Live A Live: In the Distant Future chapter, Captain Hor was killed by OD-10, the main computer of the Cogito Ergo Sum. Then OD-10 went to impersonate the captain for the rest of the chapter via pre-recorded messages. The only appearance of the real Hor is his first meeting with the crew at the very begining.
  • In Canto VI of Limbus Company, several characters turn out to have been hiding their identities to sneak under the radar of the Sinners.
    • The Oufi Association members turn out to have been members of the Ring disguised as Oufi members to throw off suspicion.
    • At Catherine's funeral, Heathcliff meets the Dead Rabbits, a Syndicate he used to run with when he was younger. As it turns out, the Dead Rabbits were wiped out years ago and their "members" are really just Identities transposed onto the missing T Corp. civilians. Not only that, but their boss Matthew turns out to have been Heathcliff's evil Alternate Self wearing a disguise as to not be recognized in the current universe.
  • Magic: The Gathering – Battlegrounds: According to Word Of God the Mishra faced in this game wasn't actually the real Mishra, but rather a rogue sleeper agent. Since the real Mishra is nowhere to be found, the Mishra in the game is this.
  • Mega Man X: Command Mission: At the very end of the game, it's revealed that Spider, the suave bounty hunter that joined X's crew, is actually Colonel Redips, the leader of the Far East HQ and main antagonist of the game. Given that Spider was already well-known in Gigacity Island and Wild Jango implied he had already ran into the bounty hunter in the past, it seems that the original Spider was victim of a Kill and Replace scheme orchestrated by the military villain prior to the events of the game.
  • Metal Gear:
    • Master Miller in Metal Gear Solid plays with the concept, in that the real Miller had already been introduced in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (and would show up again in prequels), but his much more well-known appearance in MGS1 turns out to have been Liquid Snake in disguise, with Liquid having killed the real Miller shortly before the game began.
    • The Naomi Hunter we're familiar with is actually impersonating an individual who went missing years before the events of the game. All we learn about the original is that she was also a doctor.
    • The DARPA Chief that Snake meets at the beginning of the game is a more traditional example, as he's actually the enemy spy Decoy Octopus in disguise (the real chief has been literally rotting in a cell the whole time), and while the real Chief also appears in a prequel, that's set well before he even joined DARPA, so we never get to see what he was really like in that role.
    • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain retcons in another instance similar to Master Miller, with the reveal that the Big Boss who was the Big Bad of the original game was an impersonator, Venom Snake. Like Miller, though, it's downplayed in that Metal Gear 2 showed the real Big Boss in the same role before the impersonation was revealed.
  • Minecraft: Story Mode: In Season 2, when Jesse and the gang visit a Sea Temple that Jack lost two of his friends in years ago, they discover that one of them, Vos, is somehow still alive after all these years. The ending of Episode 2 reveals that "Vos" was actually The Admin in disguise and that the real Vos really did die in the Sea Temple years ago.
  • In Monster Sanctuary, it turns out that "Eric" was Marduk all along, being the victim of a Kill and Replace.
  • In OFF, it is eventually revealed that Valerie is dead and the bird Japhet has been puppeteering the body from inside after being eaten, meaning that the player never gets to meet the real Valerie. Anything the player learns about Valerie is told through Japhet (who mocks him) and his brother, the Judge, who undergoes a Heroic BSoD after the reveal.
  • Ōkami has Rao, a priestess who turns out to have been dead long before Amaterasu and Issun got to Ryoshima Coast. All we see of the real Rao is a vision of her being chased down and cornered by Ninetails, her ghost guiding the two to a secret passage, and her corpse within said passage. Indeed, the Rao they know for the whole game turns out to actually be Ninetails copying her body for their own nefarious ends.
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has minor character Zip Toad, who turns out to have been chapter 4's boss Doopliss in disguise all along. The original Zip T. does not actually feature in the game besides a written e-mail from him.
  • Persona 5:
    • Right before The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, it's revealed that the Igor that's been helping you with Persona fusions all throughout the game is a fake. He's actually Big Bad Yaldabaoth, who's been manipulating Joker the entire time. But once the ruse is seen through and Joker rejects his deal, the real Igor returns from his imprisonment. But by that point, the game is just about over.
    • In Royal, it turns out that Kasumi Yoshizawa, one of the new additions to the cast, is long dead, and the Kasumi the player's been getting to know for the entire game is actually her sister Sumire, who had her cognition altered to the point where she believed herself to be Kasumi. Given that the process is imperfect and Sumire-as-Kasumi is shown to differ from the real Kasumi in various ways, it's unclear how much of the former's behaviour can be considered to be an accurate representation of the latter and how much is simply Sumire acting how she thinks Kasumi would act. The real Kasumi is only shown in a short video in Maruki's Palace depicting her final moments, which only gives a small amount of insight about who she is.
  • In Pikmin 3, there's a downplayed example. In the Formidable Oak, the player will encounter Watery Blowhogs and Shearwigs for the first and last time in the story mode. However, every enemy in the level is a construct formed by the Plasm Wraith as part of its security system to protect Olimar. The reason this trope is downplayed is because they do appear as proper enemies in Mission Mode.
  • In Pink Panther's Passport to Peril, you only see the real children at the very beginning and the very end. The rest of the game you'll be unknowingly dealing with robotic duplicates, whose nature becomes more and more obvious with each time you return to the camp as they keep malfunctioning, until they finally break down and fall apart on their own just before the game's climax.
  • In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, it turns out that Professor Sada/Turo were Dead All Along, so we only get to meet their AI duplicates. Later subverted in the Indigo Disk DLC, in which an optional cutscene has Terapagos summon the real professors from the past, thereby starting a Stable Time Loop.
  • Professor Layton and the Curious Village: Chelmey was being impersonated by Don Paulo. The real deal shows up in later games.
  • In Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, the Abercrombie Fizzwidget who appears during most of the game is actually Captain Qwark in disguise. The real Fizzwidget appears briefly at the end of the game, and while the fake Fizzwidget was a Malaproper, the real one is perfectly articulate, suggesting that Captain Qwark was trying to imitate Fizzwidget's vocabulary but lacked the intelligence to do so properly.
  • In Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel, the Pope of the Orthodox Church who serves as the Big Bad is actually a homunculus copy controlled by previous villain Iris Zeppelin, who killed the real Pope before the game began. Though it is played with as we never see even the imposter Pope, let alone the real one, though he is repeatedly mentioned by other characters.
  • Soul Hackers 2: The Iron Mask we meet in the game is actually Raven, Arrow's suposedly retired mentor, who killed the original half a year prior to the events of the game. The real Iron Mask, a man called Paul Taylor, was romantically involved with Milady and what we know about him comes entirely of the soul summoner's memories of her former lover.
  • Tales of Kenzera: Zau:
    • In Act 2, Sabulana is long dead and the real one is never met onscreen. Zau only ever meets Kikiyaon disguised as Sabulana.
    • In the Realm of the Dead, it turns out the Death God Kalunga was actually the ghost of Zau's father all along. The real Kalunga never actually meets Zau.
  • Toonstruck: King Hugh is kidnapped and locked away by Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun before the events of the game. Fluffy dresses up as King Hugh and somehow replicates his voice to fool all of Hugh's subjects, along with the protagonist, Drew.
  • Weird and Unfortunate Things Are Happening has two of the Inner Evocation hosts:
    • We only see Mayor Bryan Trautman as himself in the intro doing the Inner Evocation summoning ritual and in a flashback that Miriam has of him firing her. Every other time we see "him", it's Chagora the Enraged possessing his body and speaking through him.
    • Unlike Trautman, who at least got two scenes as himself, Sadie Walters is only encountered while being possessed by Phritotch the Unknowable, so everything we know about her comes from Phritotch herself.

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney:
    • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All: The Ini Miney we meet during the case turns out to actually be her older sister Mimi, Dr. Grey's nurse who caused the deaths of 14 patients in a malpractice incident and then supposedly died in a car crash. In truth, it was Ini who died, but Mimi's face was so horribly disfigured that nobody could recognize her, so Mimi took the chance to take her sister's place and leave her old life behind.
      • The game also introduces "Director Hotti" of the Hotti Clinic, who is quickly revealed to be one of the patients who stole the real director's coat in order to impersonate him so he can get closer to the women. He appears again in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney as "Director Hickfield". Neither the real Director Hotti nor Hickfield ever make an appearance.
    • Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit: President Di-Jun Wang of Zheng Fa was assassinated 12 years before the events of the game, being replaced by his body double- the body double is the one we actually meet during the first case of the game and the one who becomes the Asshole Victim of the final case, while the real one remains unseen.
    • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies: Detective Bobby Fulbright was being impersonated by an international spy called "the phantom" for the entire game, having been dead since before the game began. Though the phantom is supposedly a master of impersonation, the audience knows next to nothing about the real Fulbright.
  • Boyfriend to Death: The second game introduces as one of the potential "boyfriends" Vincent Metzger, who doesn't remember a lot about his past. As it turns out according to a tie-in story, Vincent has been dead for years - the "Vincent" you interact with is actually side character Akira Kojima from the first game. Little is known about him except his profession (soldier) and his murderer (a werewolf).
  • CLANNAD: In Misae's backstory, she formed a relationship with a boy named Katsuki Shima. At one point, her friends visit Shima's house, and are confused when his mother tells them he is dead. The truth that eventually emerges is that Shima's dying wish was to grant a wish for Misae, and because of this, his cat was able to take on his form for a while. We never get to meet the real Shima.
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair has an odd example with the Ultimate Impostor, who spends his time on the island impersonating Byakuya Togami. The audience knows the real Byakuya quite well from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, but the characters don't have that context (and the protagonists only find out that "Byakuya" was an impostor late in the game), so to them it's this trope as they never get to know the real deal. At least, not until the surviving students end up talking to the real Byakuya, along with Makoto and Kyoko, towards the end of the last chapter.
  • Evelyn Fischer is a variation on this trope in Heart of the Woods. While no one is impersonating her, per se, it is eventually revealed that a fairy known as The Moonsick One is possessing her body, and that since the Moonsick One forced Evelyn's soul out of her body and destroyed itnote , the real Evelyn has been dead since long before the start of the story.
  • Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II: Himeko Douryou and Michiho Kinukawa spend almost the entire game being impersonated by the Departed and only occasionally interact with Kazuo in the form of the Female Doll, or as themselves in the true ending. Otherwise, most of the information about them comes from the Departed's impersonation, which is spot-on enough to fool everyone at Konoehara Academy.
  • In Your Turn to Die Chapter 3-1A, the remaining survivors meet Ridiculously Human Robot versions of the candidates who didn't make it to the first trial. When one of them, Hinako, dies in a coffin that was supposed to be occupied by a human, the survivors realize that she was an imposter for the real Hinako, who died in the First Trial as a result of Alice leaving during it. Because there was technically a connection between the two (as the only candidates to be made into Dummies are the ones who had no previous connection to any of the others), she was not made into a Dummy, and we never meet her.

    Web Animation 
  • In the second episode of gen:LOCK, Robert Sinclair, one the six gen:LOCK recruits, is revealed to be a Union spy. Dr. Weller, guessing correctly that the spy isn't actually Sinclair and therefore isn't gen:LOCK compatible, allows the spy to use the gen:LOCK technology, resulting in his horrible death. The real Sinclair is presumed to have been killed by his impersonator, but his whereabouts are discovered in the post-credits scene of the first season finale.

    Webcomics 
  • Early on in Dominic Deegan, Jacob infiltrates a group of Chosen members by killing their mentor Vilrath and disguising himself as him. Vilrath is never spoken of or seen again aside from a brief cameo in a vision a few arcs later.
  • Kaiten Mutenmaru: Granchio only appears as a silhouette in a flashback, saying that he would become a chef and make everyone smile before he went to war. His role in the story is to provide the impetus for Tetsujin Unit No. 1 to reinvent himself as Tetsujin Granchio in honor of Granchio's mother who mistook the war robot for her son and ended up teaching him love.
  • The Order of the Stick: Malack is revealed to be a vampire, which in this universe is a spirit that takes over a body and represses the previous owner's consciousness until they cease to exist. The real Malack died centuries before the story begins (and according to the vampire, wasn't named Malack).
  • Surviving the Game as a Barbarian: The protagonist Hansu is transmigrated into an RPG Mechanics 'Verse in the body of the Barbarian Hero Bjorn. Luckily for him, he can hide that fact — the new world knows of such cases as body-stealing Evil Spirits and kills them on sight. Almost nothing is known of the original Bjorn other than that he was 20 years old, he's Conveniently an Orphan, and his father's name was Yandel.

    Web Original 
  • I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC: In the Meanwhile series, The Question makes his debut to help the heroes restore the timeline. After they succeed in fixing it, The Question reveals he lied about who he is. He isn't actually Vic Sage, but Walter Kovacs, the version of Rorschach from the past who changed the timeline in the first place. He took on The Question's identity to help Deadpool and the others fix the mess he caused by changing the timeline, because he knew they wouldn't trust him as Rorschach.
  • Oxventure:
    • In the episode "Out of Order", Corazón infiltrates Egbert's former paladin headquarters by disguising himself as Egbert's old friend, a squeaky-voiced young paladin named Chauncey. Even though the heroes never meet Chauncey in person, Corazón's impression of him has the paladins fooled. Chauncey does appear much, much later in the "Legacy of Dragons" arc, but gets impersonated again.
    • Corazón again disguises himself in the same episode as The Grim Reaper, who hasn't been seen so far except for that impersonation. It can be safely assumed from Jacques Darkfall's reaction, and Corazón's choice of disguise, that Death does exist, however.
  • Mandela Catalogue: Cesar Torres, labeled as "Victim Two", is replaced by a Alternate before the events of Mark Heathcliff's death, which the alternate of Cesar had a major part in. According to the creator though, Cesar may still be alive.

    Western Animation 
  • Ben 10: The majority of the many alien species whose DNA is stored within the Omnitrix are only seen through Ben Tennyson, a young human being, morphing into them. As a result, it's unknown how most of these aliens typically behave, since Ben usually retains his own personality in alien form, save for special circumstances. Justified in the case of Cannonbolt, since it's mentioned in his debut episode that his species' home planet was destroyed.
  • Love, Death & Robots: "Beyond the Aquila Rift": With the reveal that everything's a simulation, the only things we know about the real Greta are what she looked like and what Thom and fake Greta said about her.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • In "Viva Las Pegasus", Fluttershy, Applejack and the Flim-Flam Brothers try to trick the resort owner Gladmane into revealing his shady dealings through a ruse involving Fluttershy impersonating a businesswoman named Impossibly Rich. The Riches are an established family in the show, and Gladmane and the resort-goers all react to her as if she were someone real and well-known, but the real Impossibly Rich is never seen.
    • The series' Grand Finale villain Grogarnote  ultimately turns out to have been Discord in disguise all along; the real one did exist some millennia ago, and his signature weapon is dangerous as ever, but whether he ever recovered from his defeat is not known.
  • The Raccoons: In "Simon Says", Cyril Sneer's long-lost brother Simon shows up to claim his inheritance, which means half of Sneer Industries. While Cyril suspected from the beginning that "Simon" was an impostor, the truth is only confirmed when the impostor (whose real name is Sid Leech)is shown to be afraid of worms as a result of a revenge prank the real Simon pulled on Leech and wrote about in a diary.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
    • Possibly the case with Double Trouble's "Flutterina" disguise. It's somewhat ambiguous if the first time we meet Flutterina she is already Double Trouble's latest disguise or herself, but shortly thereafter it's clearly Double Trouble from then on. It's also unclear if Flutterina was a real person and if that was even her real name.
    • Season 5 has Peekablue, who we know is a peacock-themed prince with the power of far sight. Despite being said to be something of a recluse (though Adora had mentioned him and his girlfriend Sweet Bee when talking about the Princess Prom), Mermista heard a rumor he had been frequenting a shady bar scene recently, so the princesses would need to go "undercover" to try and meet with him. Needless to say, the character we see using Peekablue's name and bragging about his clairvoyant abilities as part of a flashy show isn't the real one, but Double Trouble again, milking Peekablue's "brand" for all it's worth.
  • W.I.T.C.H.: The heroes are aided during the first season by an enigmatic mystic known as the Mage who guards the Infinite City and has connections to Kandrakar. Midway the second season, Nerissa, the Big Bad of said season, is revealed to have been glamouring herself as the Mage all along. According to herself, she escaped her solitary confinement years ago and was taken in by the real Mage, who wanted to help the corrupted Guardian reform. Nerissa repaid her kindness by stealing her identity after she died (possibly by her hand) and using her influence and resources for her Evil Plan, even going so far as to give birth to Caleb while posing as the Mage. After her identity is exposed, Nerissa directs Caleb's father to the real Mage's grave and the date on it to prove both that the Mage is truly dead and that it was Nerissa who gave birth to Caleb. The flashback in "The Stone of Threbe" that depicts a younger Mage is the only instance we see the real her.
  • The Super Hero Squad Show has Black Widow’s sole appearance be via impersonation from Mystique. The real Black Widow is mentioned as having been captured and rescued at two separate points in the episode, but never appears beyond a photo on a screen.
  • Winx Club: Season 2 introduces Professor Avalon, a paladin who is hired to teach at Alfea. He's revealed near the end of the season to actually be an impostor magically created by Darkar, who kidnapped the real Avalon and imprisoned him, to serve as his spy. The real Avalon has very little screen time; he only appears after he escapes and proves his identity to Faragonda, who recognizes her signature on his letter of recommendation, and makes minor cameos in season 3. The Nickelodeon special that retold season 2, "The Shadow Phoenix", notably cut out the middleman by having Darkar simply pose as Avalon himself.
  • Young Justice: The finale of season 1 reveals that Red Arrow had been replaced with a sleeper agent clone since before the show even began. This gets lampshaded in season 2. Following a timeskip we see that The Reveal that they are a clone has sent Red Arrow into a downward spiral and they are tearing themselves apart trying to find the original. Their friends stage an intervention, which Red Arrow tries to dismiss by claiming that since they aren't the original they aren't their real friend so they shouldn't care what happens to them. Their friends point out that the switch happened many years ago, so they actually barely know the original. The original is eventually recovered and even becomes a recurring character themself but they become so harsh and changed by their experience of being replaced and forgotten that their personality is now drastically different and they're not shown to be particularly close to the others at all. It is implied the original Speedy had he not been replaced would have joined the team with no issues, and become pals with Robin and the others since Red Arrow's programming is what made him aloof because it was subconsiously pushing him into wanting to join the Justice League instead. But that never was to be. So we'll truely never know how the original Roy Harper would have been had he never been cloned and replaced.

 
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Tricking the Captain

Suspecting that Captain Tennille (or Captain Dragon in the Crunchyroll and English Dub) is actually an enemy Stand User, Jotaro comes up with a bluff by claiming that Stand Users have a vein that pops up on their nose when they inhale cigarette smoke, and has his suspicions confirmed when the captain proceeds to touch his nose in response to this claim. Now exposed, the Dark Blue Moon Stand User reveals that he killed and impersonated the captain.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (17 votes)

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Main / BluffTheImpostor

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