Basic Trope: A character meets up with a friend/ex/relative/classmate/etc. that they haven't seen for a long time, to find that the person they knew has undergone a sex change, or is in the process of transitioning.
- Straight: Bob goes to his Class Reunion looking for his old friend, Albert. While waiting, he hits on a beautiful woman who introduces herself as Alice... formerly known as Albert.
- Exaggerated: Everyone from Bob's old class is now a different gender from when he knew them.
- Downplayed: Albert looks much the same as before, but requests that Bob use she/her pronouns for her, as she has just recently begun her transition.
- Justified: Alice reveals that she never felt comfortable going by Albert, and during her separation from Bob, decided to transition.
- Inverted: Barbara (formerly Bob) attends her high school reunion, and meets her former best friend Albert, who hasn't transitioned.
- Subverted:
- Bob meets a beautiful woman named Alice who looks rather like and has the same surname as his old friend Albert... and then Albert himself shows up. The woman is his cousin, and he brought her to the reunion with him because she was in town for a visit.
- Albert is wearing a skirt, but it's a kilt.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob knew Albert's cousin Alice. The three of them all used to play together in the summer. And back then, Alice was a guy.
- Albert looks more androgynous, but still goes by the same name. However, xe is nonbinary, and uses xe/xir pronouns.
- A woman's kilt.
- Parodied: After being told that Alice used to be Albert, Bob assumes that she was another Albert, and continues to look for his friend.
- Zigzagged: ???
- Averted:
- Bob goes to his Class Reunion looking for his old friend, Albert. They meet and he's the same guy.
- Albert does not attend the reunion, either as Albert or Alice.
- Enforced: "Let's include An Aesop about accepting others, not making assumptions, etc."
- Lampshaded: "You know, Alice, you remind me of someone, but I can't think where I might have seen you before..."
- Invoked: Alice schedules her surgery shortly before the reunion just to mess with people.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Alice, knowing that the gender difference will confuse her old classmates, decides to go to the reunion as Albert.
- Alice avoids attending the reunion because she's worried that her old classmates won't accept her new identity.
- Discussed: Two people watch an "old friend, new gender" moment, and talk about how it's less common to be a surprise these days, because everyone stays in touch with social media.
- Conversed: "Hey, Chris, you know how there's always that one person who comes out as trans at a class reunion, just like on TV?"
- Deconstructed: Bob is transphobic, and reacts violently to Albert becoming Alice.
- Reconstructed: Bob is transphobic, but seeing Alice's transition causes him to question his beliefs. He ultimately accepts her because he cares about his friend, regardless of her gender.
- Implied: Bob heard Albert would be at the reunion, but doesn't see him. Eventually, he meets a woman named Alice, and asks her if she's seen Albert. She offers a cryptic comment that suggests she is Albert, but it's never confirmed.
- Played for Laughs: Alice deliberately invokes an Unsettling Gender-Reveal right after Bob hits on her.
- Played for Drama:
- Bob came to the reunion after a long time away at war, and Alice's transition helps hammer in that he has missed so much of his friends' lives.
- Alice struggles with transphobia from her former classmates, who only see her as Albert.
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