Going Native: Difference between revisions

[[File:lawrence2.jpg|link=Lawrence of Arabia|frame|They don't call him [[Lawrence of Arabia|Lawrence]] of [[Land of My Fathers and Their Sheep|Wales]].]]

 

 

 

 

If the character becomes more successful in his new culture than he could have ever been back home, it's [[Like a Fish Takes to Water]].

Compare: [[Raised by Natives]], [[Raised by Orcs]], [[Raised by Wolves]], [[Mighty Whitey]], [[Becoming the Mask]], [[Foreign Correspondent]] and [[Lost in Character]]. See also [[Of the People]].

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Jyu-Oh-Sei]]'' draws heavily from this, with the very much civilized lead eventually outdoing the natives of Chimera.

** But then, he was {{spoiler|genetically engineered to be so, which}} brings up a lot of nature vs. nurture questions.

* Principal Kuno in ''[[Ranma ½]]'' spent a few years living in Hawaii and came back to Japan as a Hawaiian-shirt-wearing, ukelele-playing, coconut-eating wacko who speaks in [[Gratuitous English]].

 

* In the ''[[Tintin]]'' comics ''The Broken Ear'' and ''Tintin and the Picaros'', the titular reporter comes across Ridgewell, an English explorer who ended up living with natives in the South American rain forest.

* ''Down'' features two police officers who both go undercover in the drug trade and find themselves becoming part of the criminal underworld.

* ''[[Sleeper (Comic Book)|Sleeper]]'' is about an undercover secret intelligence agent working to bring down a massive super villain cartel - unfortunately, the bad life seems to agree with him...

* The early ''[[Aliens vs. Predator]]'' comics featured a woman who ended up becoming a Predator warrior. And sucked horribly at it, to the comics' credit.

* Swedish comic ''Johan Vilde'' (Johan Savage), is about a Swedish boy in 17th century west Africa, who is raised as the son of a prominent merchant from one of the larger tribes/nations in the region.

* Nolan, [[Invincible]]'s father, originally came to Earth to blend in and {{spoiler|slowly take over. He hated his assignment at first but found himself actually liking Earth}} and ended up with a wife and son.

* Shuna in ''[[Elf Quest]]'' is a human girl who decides to become part of the elf tribe. A few years later, puberty really kicks in and she goes looking for a husband in nearby indigenous human tribes - a whole new world compared to her previous medieval city life.

* Many, ''many'' examples in ''[[Elf Quest]]''. Leetah becoming a Wolfrider to be with Cutter is the most prominent one. Any of the Sunfolk or Gliders that join the Wolfriders, the Jackwolfriders or the Forevergreen group count; Suntop taking on a Wavedancer appearance to be with Brill; Shuna (a medieval human) being adopted by Wolfriders; Little Patch, Winnowill and later Mender exploring human society (since the elves consider humans savages, and vice versa); Lehrigen becoming a woodland stalker to hunt elves; Rayek living as a Go-Back for a while; and last but not least, the Jackwolves living around Sorrow's End mating with the Wolfriders' wolves.

 

 

* ''[[Dances with Wolves]]'', in which a Union officer joins the Sioux and ultimately fights with them against the Union army.

* ''[[A Man Called Horse]]'', in which a white man joins the Sioux. It's considerably more honest about less pleasant aspects of Sioux traditional life, such as the torture of captives and ritual self-mutilation, than ''Dances With Wolves''.

* At the end of ''[[Stargate (film)|Stargate]]'', Daniel Jackson settles down with Sha'ri happily.

* ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''. The previous guy sent to kill Kurtz, played by Scott Glenn. {{spoiler|Although he actually goes through with the mission}}, it's also implied that Willard is seduced as well.

* ''[[Doomsday]]''. With the slightly unusual variant that, thanks to [[You Kill It, You Bought It]], {{spoiler|the hero}} ends up going native as ''leader'' of an [[I'm a Humanitarian|army of Glaswegian cannibals]].

* Dr. Rae Crane does this at the end of ''[[Medicine Man]]''.

* Harvey Keitel's character shows signs of this in ''[[The Piano]]''.

* The Jesuit Priest in ''[[Black Robe]]''.

* In ''Farewell to the King'', Nick Nolte stars as a [[WW 2]] deserter who becomes adopted by a tribe of Dayaks in Borneo, who consider him divine because of his [[Mighty Whitey|blue eyes]].

* How [[John Carter (film)|John Carter]] becomes "John Carter of Mars".

 

* The trope codifier, ''[[A Man Called Horse]]'' is about a white man captured by Native Americans who eventually assimilates into their culture. It is mandatory reading in most grade school literature classes in the US.

* In Dan Abnett's ''His Last Command'' from the series [[Gaunt's Ghosts]], {{spoiler|Gaunt's 'forced' Junior Commissar Ludd betrays his trust by reporting him in the eve of battle}} even though Gaunt fully expects him to do so.

* In ''[[Heart of Darkness]]'' by Joseph Conrad, Kurtz goes into Africa and after a spectacular back story breakdown, goes native in horrifying ways, inverting the European life he came from. This book would later have its ultimate adaptation in the Vietnam movie ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''.

* Stanislaus Grummann from ''[[His Dark Materials|The Subtle Knife]]'' spent the rest of his days as a Siberian shaman.

** In ''The Andalite Chronicles'', Elfangor {{spoiler|1=flees to Earth, permanently becomes a human, marries Loren, and fathers a son before the Ellimist returns him to his Andalite form and the ''StarSword''.}}

** In ''The Hork-Bajir Chronicles'', Aldrea {{spoiler|permanently morphs into a Hork-Bajir, marries Dak Hamee, and has Hork-Bajir children. When she "appears" in the main series (as a kind of psychic back-up-disk downloaded into Cassie's brain), this is the source of a lot of friction between her and Andalite team-member Ax.}}

* In [[Stephenie Meyer]]'s adult novel ''[[The Host (novel)|The Host]]'', the alien invaders, the so-called Souls, are physically inserted into a host body and eradicate the host's mind. Except in the titular character's case, in which the host's mind is still present and they both think inside Melanie's body. Later, the ragtag group of human survivors finally finds another group of survivors with their own dual-minded alien/human, who literally refers to the situation as "going native."

** Also in the back story, one of the Kings of Gondor does this when sent as a prince to the ancestors of the Rohirrim. His son's ascension to the throne leads to civil war, and the death of most of the royal line (hastening the end of the line).

** The Elven-Kings of Mirkwood (Oropher and later Thranduil) were originally Sindarin elves who came to the Woodland Realm after the sinking of the sub-continent Beleriand, and ended up adopting the more 'earthy' customs of the Sylvan elves, to the point that Thranduil's son Legolas identifies himself purely as a Sylvan elf.

* John Blackthorne from James Clavell's ''[[Shogun]]'' is an English sailor shipwrecked in old Japan. Unlike his shipmates, he decides to learn the language and cultural skills needed to fit into the unfamiliar society, and eventually decides that it's preferable to the society he came from in a number of ways. He's no [[Mighty Whitey]]: he has a ''lot'' of difficulty learning the new ways, becomes only moderately competent, does not impress people, and is usually irrelevant.

* Liet-Kynes and later Paul Atreides and Jessica adopting the Fremen ways in ''[[Dune]]''.

* In ''[[Good Omens]]'', Aziraphale and Crowley, an angel and a demon respectively, go native with humans in general.

* Jacob Wheeler does this in ''[[Into the West]]'' after marrying a Lakota woman. They and their children shift between Native and white society as the series progresses. Jacob's cousin, Naomi, also goes native when she marries a Cheyenne chief, Prairie Fire.

* In ''Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong'' from ''The Things They Carried'', Mary Anne Bell is the girlfriend of a young medic who falls in love with Vietnam and eventually crosses over to the other side, becoming part of the land.

* In [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s ''The Faded Sun: Shon'jir'', Niun and Melein give Sten Duncan a choice: Go Native or die. And in her ''[[Foreigner (novel)|Foreigner]]'' novels, protagonist Bren Cameron essentially does this. Which is not taken too well at first by the (human) government he was supposedly representing, or the people close to him he now is not able to see except very occasionally.

* Marat Lon in ''[[Star Trek: Mere Anarchy]]''. A human scientist assigned to help restore the devastated planet Mestiko, he remains when a reactionary coup forces the Federation and other aliens off the planet. He disguises himself as a native, but doesn't do a very good job of blending in. Fortunately, he is discovered by native factions sympathetic to his cause, who instruct him in how to pass as a Mestiko resident. He transforms over time from an arrogant, somewhat patronizing outsider to someone with a deep concern for the Mestiko peoples. He takes a native name and the woman who helped educate him in the local culture becomes his wife.

* In Rosemary Sutcliff's ''The Lantern Bearers'', a young Roman's sister is kidnapped by the Saxons. Years later, he's captured in turn and finds her married to her kidnapper and mother to his son. She helps him escape, but refuses to go with him.

* Basil Fotherington-Thomas (from the ''[[Molesworth]]'' books) fills the Kurtz role in ''Teddy Bear's Picnic'', a bizarre [[Alternate History]] retelling of ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' by [[Kim Newman]]. [[Just William]] also fits as the soldier sent to kill Fotherington-Thomas who ends up joining him.

* ''[[The 13th Warrior]]'' features an Arab going native amongst Vikings. It's a rare example of an Eastern character going native amongst Westerners.

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', Daenerys Targaryen, originally a native of the main continent of Westeros, is married off to Khal Drogo, a warlord of the nomadic Dothraki people. Throughout the course of the first book, she learns the customs of the Dothraki people, begins to dress in their style, learns the Dothraki language, and generally starts to come out of her shell. Her brother Viserys doesn't fare as well, continuing to dress in silks and he is offended by Dany's attempts to dress him in Dothraki clothing.

** Jon Snow is forced to do this to the wildlings, becoming a [[Fake Defector]]. Ultimately subverted, as he never [[Becoming the Mask|becomes the mask]], and run off when he needs to kill an innocent civilian.

 

* Gabriel/Trickster from ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' fits this. He ran away and 'joined the Pagans', only to eventually go up against Lucifer because he actually quite likes humans and doesn't particularly want them to die. He's also shown to understand sarcasm, have conversations with people and blink regularly (Castiel had difficulty with those at first).

* In the later series of ''[[Northern Exposure]]'', Joel ends up living with native villagers on the banks of the river.

* ''[[Lost]]'': Locke "goes native" by leaving the 815 camp to join the Others. Also, in season 5, {{spoiler|several of the 815ers join the Dharma Initiative and lead happy lives in the 1970s.}}

* Zeb Macahan from ''[[How the West Was Won]]''.

* An episode of ''[[Tales from the Darkside]]'' was called "Going Native", and involved an alien woman settling down on Earth.

* [[Played for Laughs]] on ''[[Mad TV]]'' when an Arab terrorist sleeper agent ([[Casting Gag|played by the Jewish Ike Barinholtz]]) becomes completely Americanized to the point of becoming Jewish, speaking with a perfect "Goofy White Guy" American accent and basically living the [[American Dream]] as just another suburbanite. He's called out on this by his contact...who then [[Heel Face Turn|becomes mesmerized by the vibrating chair, built-in remote and TiVo,]] promptly adopting the same accent and turning his turban into a fruit bowl to become the agent's "old friend."

* In ''[[Rome]]'', Lucius Vorenus is complimented by a high-class Roman visiting Egypt for averting this. He stays true Roman while other officials in Cleopatra's court, including the triumvir Mark Antony, go native, a sacrilegious offense to roman eyes. See Real Life below for more info on Antony's fate.

* The Tams in ''[[Firefly]]''.

** More sinister is the sole survivor of a Reaver attack on a ship. He begins to act as a Reaver because he can't mentally handle the things he saw, so he becomes the horror he witnessed.

* The first Kosh seems to have gone native with humanoids in ''[[Babylon 5]]'', in a sense. To the point of helping to assassinate his successor to prevent him from listening to Sheridan's plans.

** Delenn was accused of doing this by other Minbari and in fact she had, biologically speaking. Culturally she remained a Minbari. Racism aside it is perhaps a legitimate fear that a diplomat will do this if in contact to long and so the Grey Council may have not been totally irrational.

*** Although Delenn's relationship with the human John Sheridan is part of what gets her accused of this, in the end he's the one who ends up moving to Minbar with her where they raise their son - who presumably ends up culturally Minbari despite being biologically mostly human.

* In ''[[Vikings (TV series)|Vikings]]'', Athelstan goes full Norse after being captured by Ragnar, going from a quiet monk in season 1 to a Viking raider in season 2.

 

* In an "undercover cop switches sides" example of the trope, the John Woo game ''[[Stranglehold]]'' features Jerry Ying, Tequila's partner, who has gone undercover with Wong's Dragon Claw syndicate. The more time he spends around Wong's crew, however, the more he begins to identify with them instead of the cops he's supposed to be one of. It all comes to a head when {{spoiler|Wong orders Jerry to kill Tequila and [[Offing the Offspring|Wong's own daughter Billie]], who Tequila loves and had a daughter by. Tequila survives, but Billie is not so lucky, setting up a furious showdown between partners as Tequila seeks vengeance for Billie}}.

* Many characters with [[Multiple Endings]] in the ''[[Star Ocean]]'' games whose relationship with someone from another planet gets to a certain point will choose to live on that planet with them.

* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has a rare inversion of this: {{spoiler|A yahg, a race kept in tribal conditions on a locked down planet manages to escape and become the foremost information broker in the galaxy.}}

 

 

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Obsoletely Fabulous," Bender is stranded on an island with outdated robots and goes native by replacing his metal exterior with wood. He then launches a guerrilla war against civilization. {{spoiler|But it turns out to be all a dream induced by the upgrade procedure he is undergoing.}}

* Somewhat parodied on ''[[Recess]]'' when TJ gets captured by the kindergartners for the afternoon and becomes assimilated into their primitive kindergartner society.

* The Maximals in ''[[Beast Wars]]'' are [[Mechanical Lifeforms]] who recently evolved the ability to copy organic life. But by the end of the show, one teammate ''prefers'' Earth's organic nature and wants to stay there as a tiger. Also, in ''[[Beast Machines]]'', the premise becomes changing Cybertron to ''model Earth'', which both [[Big Bad|Megatron]] and [[Face Heel Turn|Rhi]][[The Starscream|nox]] are vehemently against.

* A common plot element on ''[[American Dad]]'', where Stan would go full-throttle on various cultures or lifestyles. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by Francine in "Stan of Arabia".

 

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: Among the many accusations made by Octavian's propaganda against his no-longer-needed colleague Mark Antony one of the worst and most effective was that Antony had "gone native", was styling himself like an Egyptian and abandoning Roman customs and traditions, an unforgivable crime to the proud and conservative Romans. This would be exploited by Octavius to eventually trigger "The final war of the [[The Roman Republic]]" and later form the [[The Roman Empire]] when Antony and Cleopatra were defeated and driven to suicide.

* The French colonies in what is today Canada were an exercise in this. Many white trappers adopted native customs of dress, residence, and even face-painting. Women were abducted, raped and killed by Native Americans. Sometimes they were ransomed back to their families traumatized and often maimed. Children on the other hand were likely to be reared as members of the Tribe and assimilated. A classic case is that of Cynthia Anne Parker whose white family was massacred at Parker's Fort and became the mother of famed Comanche war-chief Quanah Parker. In other cases a few may have gone off willingly to escape abusive husbands, oppressive fathers or the rut of everyday life and refused to leave their new tribes when their families found them.

* Gonzalo Guerrero, one of the shipwrecked Spanish sailors that Cortez encountered on his expedition: Unlike his companion Aguilar Guerrero opted to stay with the Maya and would eventually side with them against his former countrymen.

* Many of the Norman families who settled in Ireland after the invasion of 1169 eventually became "Hiberniores Hibernicis ipsis"-more Irish than the Irish themselves- to the point where the government passed the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1367, which banned the "English" in Ireland from adopting Irish customs, in a failed attempt to halt the process.

** It's not only Ireland, this trope defines the Normans. Originally they were Vikings who settled in Northern France, enthusiastically adopting French and converting to Catholicism. Wherever they went the Normans conquered, left their mark on the language and culture before being absorbed and integrating into their new homes.

* [[wikipedia:Helmuth von Pannwitz|Helmuth von Pannwitz]], a German general who was placed in command of the Cossacks who defected over to the Germans to fight the Soviet Union. Due to the respect and understanding he always showed for his troops and his tendency to attend Russian Orthodox services with them, Pannwitz was very popular among his Cossack volunteers. The Cossacks even voted him as their ataman, or supreme commander. When Pannwitz surrendered to the British and his troops were turned over to the Soviets, he chose to go with them. Even when told that as a German he was not subject to repatriation, Pannwitz insisted on sharing the fate of his men and voluntarily surrendered to the Soviets who duly executed him. The only thing preventing the whole thing from being a [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] is the fact that the Cossack regiments under Pannwitz's command committed a number of atrocities against the civilian population, including several mass rapes, and routine summary executions. And, of course, continuing the Cossack tradition of Jewish pogroms.

* [[Catherine the Great]]. Born a German Lutheran who converted to the Russian Orthodox Church after becoming the wife of a Russian Tsar. Once she seized the throne, she fully embraced her adopted nation expanding the size, influence, and progress of Russia.

* J. Hudson Taylor, a British missionary in China, wore Chinese clothing, wore his hair in the Manchu queue, and spoke Chinese to be able to be better accepted by the Chinese public.

** Matteo Ricci, Jesuit priest and missionary, also mastered the Chinese language (including its complicated writing system), wore Chinese robes and was the first Westerner to visit the Forbidden City.

* Soldiers from any number of long-term occupying armies over the centuries have found themselves in settled lives, even marrying locals and having children, in the occupied countries. For example, it's on record that when the ancient Romans were finally ordered to leave Britain as the empire collapsed, a lot of them quietly deserted to stay with their families.

* William Adams also known as Miura Anjin, an English ship's pilot working for the Dutch who eventually became an adviser to Tokugawa Ieyasu and was responsible for setting up Dutch and English trading houses in Japan. He also served as the inspiration for the Blackthorne character in [[Shogun]].

** Same with the Manchus in China: they basically adopted Chinese culture and language, and even though many people in northern China claim to be ethnic Manchu, there are only about a dozen speakers of the Manchu language left.

* Pocahontas is a Native American that adopted English ways.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:In Another Man's Shoes]]