Dressing as the Enemy: Difference between revisions

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*** And later in the same story when Luthien disguises herself as a bat and Beren as a werewolf to infiltrate Morgoth's citadel
* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''Death Or Glory'', Cain and his group travel in stolen ork vehicles. This does distract the orks, but when they come into firing range of an Imperial force, they nearly get fired on before they manage vox communication, and even then the force demands proof.
** In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] [[Ultramarines (novel)|Ultramarines]] novel ''Nightbringer'', an eldar [[Pirate]] approaches an Imperial vessel broadcasting that it was the ''Gallant'', an Imperial ship. {{spoiler|Unfortunately for him, someone onboard knew that particular ship had been destroyed five years earlier.}}
** In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] [[Blood Angels]] novel ''Deus Encarmine'', Blood Angels steal a tank and use it to mask their approach to the Word Bearers camp.
* Subverted in "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" by Roald Dahl. The titular main character has found a way to beat the casinos, but he gets cocky one night and the owners send goons to his hotel. The bellboy comes to warn him (not out of altruism, but in the belief that it doesn't hurt to have the gratitude of a man who just won a stack of money) and offers to pretend that Henry overwhelmed him and stole his uniform to sneak out of the hotel.
* The Wraiths of the ''[[Star Wars]]: [[X Wing Series]]'' have reason to do this a few times - dressing as [[Space Pirates]] in some situations, stormtroopers in others. As pirates they need no ID, but they run into some trouble as stormtroopers without the proper passwords.
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** Another example from ''MST3K'': The episode ''[[Samson vs. the Vampire Women]]'' features a mook trying to disguise himself as a wrestler that the titular hero is about to fight—only the mook has a substantially different body shape from that of the wrestler. (This fact is painfully obvious since the wrestler—and the mook who takes over for him—wears nothing but tights and a mask.)
* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'' the attempt to free Sheridan on Mars is blown when one of the infiltrators is seen to have fresh blood on his uniform (leaking from a bandaged stab wound obtained previously).
* The rebels often borrow the Visitors' uniforms in the miniseries and series ''[[V (TV series)|V]]''. In the original miniseries, Donovan takes the uniform of a much smaller, female Visitor, who explains that it will stretch to fit him. Apparently they're one-size-fits-all.
* ''[[Farscape]]''. John Crichton infiltrates a Peacekeeper base disguised as an officer (a ploy that had worked successfully before) but encounters [[Big Bad]] Scorpius for the first time who casually says "Guards, that man is an imposter. [[Seize Them|Seize him]]." It turns out that Scorpius has the ability to see the heat signature of others, so he could tell Critchton wasn't Sebacean.
** John keeps wearing the Peacekeeper uniform throughout the season, though, partially because he doesn't exactly have a whole lot of changes of clothes with him and partially because it makes him look badass.
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* Early FPS/RPG ''[[Strife]]'' has a mission were you need to locate an officer's uniform before you can infiltrate an Order base without setting off all the alarms.
* [[Command & Conquer]] Red Alert 2 and [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3|3]] have the Allied spy unit which can do this. The Imperial Sudden Transport from [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3]] can disguise itself as an enemy vehicle.
* ''[[StarcraftStarCraft II]]: Wings of Liberty'' features an alien organsm, called "changeling", which is capable of assuming the identity of the enemy race, clothes and all, and do some recon. Units won't be able to spot or attack the changeling without the player's direct intervention in the form of explicit order to attack what appears to be an ally.
* ''[[Space Quest]]'' has you do this in homage to the Stormtrooper disguise in ''[[Star Wars]]''. Later, you lose the helmet and blow your cover.
* ''[[Covert Front]]'' has a scene where Kara has to dress in [[Imperial Germany|German]] officer's clothing so that she can drive past a German checkpoint safely. This all hinges on none of the soldiers getting a good look at her and realizing that she is not only a woman, but also the spy whose photograph is plastered over all their bases; once in Lisbon, Kara still has to avoid all the soldiers guarding the roads.
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* This was the main modus operandi of the [[wikipedia:Selous Scouts|Selous Scouts]], a [[Zimbabwe|Rhodesian]] special operations unit that would capture terrorists, turn them against their comrades (usually by giving them the choice between that and death) and then send them back to become [[The Mole]]. With them, of course, would be white Rhodesian officers or NCOs disguised as [[Blackface|black terrorists]].
* Navies love this trope. During the Age of Sail, a popular tactic was to raise enemy colours (or, if you were really sneaky, a plague flag) and only lower them at the moment of firing. Died out after advanced naval gunnery and explosive shells meant that it was common practice to sink enemy vessels rather than capture them (the deception only worked if the disguised ship pretended to be a captured enemy one). Still the British raid on St Nazaire used this, flying a German ensign from the HMS Campbeltown. It worked.
** A particularily funny example from [[World War OneI]] also combined with [[Because I'm Jonesy]]. The British and Germans both employed armed merchant ships (the Germans used them to attack British shipping, the British to hunt down German raiders), and often used fake markings, false smokestacks, and other elements to disguise them as the other side's ship. In the 1914 [[wikipedia:Battle of Trindade|Battle of Trindade]], the German SMS ''Cap Trafalgar'' encountered the British RMS ''Carmania'', both of which were disguised. The problem was that not only was ''Cap Trafalgar'' disguised as ''Carmania'', ''Carmania'' was also disguised as ''Cap Trafalgar''. At that early point in the war, neither side actually knew which merchant ships the other had converted into auxiliary cruisers, and thus both ships' captains made poor choices of disguise.
 
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[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:Dressing as the Enemy{{PAGENAME}}]]