Loves My Alter Ego: Difference between revisions

[[File:Lois Loves Alter Ego Resized 146.jpg|link=Superman|frame|[[Superman|The man]] of [[Lois Lane]]'s dreams is closer than she thinks.]]

 

 

Often, [[Clark Kenting]] leads to a [[Two-Person Love Triangle]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Anzu/Téa in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' manga and anime is frequently confused about whether she's in love with Yugi or "the other [Yami] Yugi." Obviously lampshaded in the [[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|abridged series]].

* ''[[Yubisaki Milk Tea]]'' first play it straight when Wataru fall in love with [[Wholesome Crossdresser|Yuki]], the alter ego of his best friend Yoshinori, the main protagonist. Later an odd example comes to when Yoshinori realise that ''he'' is in love with his OWN alter ego. Both causes a few issues.

* Subverted in ''[[Wild Rock]]''. Yuuen thinks he's doing a much better job at [[Disguised in Drag|being a woman]] than he actually is and assumes Emba's in love with that side of him. He's not.

* Inverted in ''[[Magical Project S]]'' where Hiroto has unrequited love for Misao, but hates Pixy Misa for being a victim of her troubles. Luckily, he gets to find out they're the same person.

** Played straight in one episode, where Konoha uses Sasami's baton. She puts Hiroto under a love spell, but he only falls for her transformed self, Funky Connie.

* Natsumi from ''[[Nicoichi]]'' initially fell for the [[Wholesome Crossdresser|female persona]] of the protagonist Makoto, not knowing his true identity, which [[Stupid Sexy Flanders|greatly confused her]]. To complicate matters, Natsumi actually disliked Makoto in his normal self, which created lots of problems for Makoto when he was trying to reciprocate the love.

 

** The "New 52" reboot gives Lois a new boyfriend, so it seems possible that she doesn't love Clark ''or'' Superman anymore.

** [[Depending on the Writer|Sometimes]] Lex Luthor does the [[Inverted Trope|inverse]], respecting Clark Kent a little more than Superman. In some stories they were even friends as kids.

* Mary Jane, at least for awhile, in some incarnations of [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]. A later [[Retcon]] has it that she always knew, but didn't say anything.

** More like, always knew but repressed the memory.

* ''[[Wonder Woman]]'''s Steve Trevor is a classic example; for decades he ignored bespectacled coworker [[Clark Kenting|Diana Prince]] in favor of her Amazonian alter ego. (After the book's [[Crisis on Infinite Earths|Crisis]] reboot, this dynamic was disposed of; Diana no longer had a secret identity and her relationship with Steve was non-romantic.)

** Currently, Wondy has her Diana Prince identity again, and Tom Tressler (the [[Badass Normal]] formerly known as Nemesis) is in love with someone's alter ego.

* This is repeatedly inverted with the comic book character [[Daredevil]]. Almost all of his female love interests have been looking to date Matt Murdock, not his alter ego. This applies even when the interested party is also a superhero.

* Vicki Vale was [[Batman]]'s Lois Lane (in fact she was a pretty blatant ripoff, being a nosy reporter with an alliterative name and all) throughout the '40s and '50s, but eventually the writers got tired of her and she quietly slipped away into comic-book limbo. She still turns up in [[The DCU]] from time to time as a TV reporter, but after [[Batman (film)|the Tim Burton film]], she didn't properly turn up again until ''[[The Batman]] versus [[Dracula]]'' (See [[Rule of Cool]]).

** She's now back at the Gotham Gazette and {{spoiler|knows Batman's secret}}. This results in {{spoiler|Bruce recruiting her as an ally.}}

* Daisy Duck frequently plays this role in Disney comics stories involving [[Paperinik]]. However, in the stories where she has her ''own'' superhero identity (Paperinika, making her Paperinik's [[Distaff Counterpart]]) and has to work with the latter, they outright ''hate'' each other...

** In the Italian miniseries ''Ultraheroes'', which basically is about the founding of a ''Justice League Disney Comics'', Paperinik and Paperinika actually starts to get along, and even falling for each other... which causes them no small amount of angst, since they both already ''have'' a significant other - the other's secret identity.

* In Jeff Smith's [[Shazam|Shazam! The Monster Society Of Evil]], Helen Fidelity, a Lois Lane [[Expy]], flirts shamelessly with adult Captain Marvel, but finds the 10-year-old Billy Batson rather annoying. Billy has an obvious [[Precocious Crush]] on her, but Marvel (who's a [[Super-Powered Alter Ego|separate personality]] in this version) seems entirely indifferent.

** The sequel series, ''Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam'' carries on this basic dynamic, but [[Retcon|Ret Cons]] Billy and Captain Marvel into one personality, making it more of a [[Two-Person Love Triangle]].

 

== Fairy Tales ==

* In some versions of ''[[Beauty and The Beast]]'', Beauty is haunted by [[Talking in Your Dreams|dreams of a handsome prince who begs her to find him]], and this is why she rejects the beast's advances. It isn't until she leaves the castle and stops having the dreams that she realizes that she loves the beast, who of course turns into the prince from her dreams when she agrees to marry him.

** [[Moral Dissonance|The hell?]] She saves him by slaughtering a bunch of [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|talking animals]].

 

 

 

 

* Inverted in, of all places, ''Death Wish'' 2. Unusually for a plain clothes adventurer of 1970's and 1980's film, Paul Kersey did in fact maintain a dual identity/alter ego, since the general public did not know that Paul Kersey acted as the vigilante and Kersey continued his work as an architect while acting as a vigilante. In ''Death Wish'' 2, Paul Kersey gave an engagement ring to radio announcer Geri Nichols, and they had scheduled their marriage and honeymoon in Acapulco. Nichols did not initially know that Kersey acted as the vigilante, and she strongly opposed the death penalty and unlimited punishment of criminals. When she discovered that Kersey acted as the vigilante, she left the engagement ring behind for him, since his actions as the vigilante clashed with her code of ethics.

* In ''[[The Legend of Zorro]]'', Joaquin idolizes Zorro, but thinks his father is a loser.

 

== Literature ==

** Elli explains herself as the relationship ends -- she may love Miles, but she ''hates'' Barrayar. If Miles chooses to abandon his identity of Lord Vorkosigan and emigrate with her as Admiral Naismith then they can spend the rest of their lives together, but if he chooses to stay as Lord Vorkosigan (and thus later on be Count Vorkosigan), then the woman who eventually marries him must inevitably accept her own role as Lady and then Countess Vorkosigan. Since Elli would rather yank out her own eyeballs with pliers than do that, and Miles would rather do the same than permanently abandon his home, their relationship could only last so long as Miles could postpone making a choice between which of his dual identities he'd finally have to commit to.

* Subverted in ''Death Sentence'' (the sequel to ''Death Wish''), Paul Benjamin starts a relationship with a court employee named Irene Evans. Her comments about the vigilante (whom she does not know as just Benjamin's alter ego) do not seem to indicate she particularly supports the vigilante.

* This becomes a major problem for Gara Petothel in ''[[X Wing Series|X-Wing: Wraith Squadron]]'', who is an imperial secret agent who likes her covert identiy as an Alliance pilot so much, she would rather like to [[Becoming the Mask|become the mask]]. Unfortunately the one pilot to show romantic interest her is the only survivor of an ambush she had set up months before. Not only did the death of all his friends traumatize him deeply, it's also his friendship to her that slowly helps him to recover.

 

* ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' has Oliver in love with Miley's alter ego, the rockstar Hannah Montana. Of course, he finds out. His reaction: he fainted. Later, Jake undergoes this, only this time, he didn't faint.

** Jake: "Jake Ryan doesn't faint, but [[Secret Identity|Leslie]], on the other hand, is a little woozy."

 

 

* This is [[Older Than Radio]]: in the play ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'', both [[Warrior Poet]] Cyrano and [[Book Dumb]] but so very handsome Christian are in love with Roxanne. Since Cyrano thinks he doesn't stand a chance with her anyway because of that big nose issue, he uses his gift for poetry to [[Playing Cyrano|help Christian woo her]] so at least he can know [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|they'll both be happy together]], which backfires because it tears them both up for years to know Roxanne's really in love with Cyrano but thinks she's in love with Christian. {{spoiler|There's also the fact that Christian is ''killed'' later and Cyrano ''still'' [[Cannot Spit It Out]] to not break Roxanne's heart... and keeps denying that the letters are his until his death.}}

* Margot Bonvalet in the operetta ''The Desert Song''.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Micki in ''Smithson''. Despite her interest in Scooter, she's definitely intrigued by and possibly attracted to Chumucka Man, the [[Secret Identity]] of Scooter's roommate, Chuck. [[Clark Kenting|She still hasn't figured it out]], despite the [[Steven Ulysses Perhero|similar name]] and seeing Chuck [[The Glasses Come Off|without his glasses]]. Since both Chuck and Micki are [[Comic Book]] fans, copious [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades are hung]] on this.

* [http://boymeetsboy.keenspot.com/d/20031124.html This strip] in ''[[Boy Meets Boy]]''.

* Daisy on ''[[Static Shock]]''; Static [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] this once.

* In ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'', Jenny falls for the Silver Shell, a robot suit piloted by Sheldon, who has a crush on her. He originally designed it so that he could act like a jerk and dissuade her from liking robot boys, but instead decided to take advantage of the changing situation.

** Technically, Freakazoid is more of a split personality than an alter ego, which occasionally caused him to actively mock Dexter over this trope. It also meant that when Steff found out the truth, she was at first incredulous, then thought it was funny more than anything else, and never brought it up thereafter.

** He actually invokes this trope to get the girl in the first episode. He even acknowledges how shallow it is, but he doesn't care.

* Sweet Polly Purebred (practically a Lois Lane [[Expy]] anyway) from ''[[Underdog (animation)|Underdog]]''.

* Similarly, Rosemary the police dispatcher is smitten with [[Hong Kong Phooey]], but couldn't care less about Penrod Pooch.

** Which is ridiculous because in ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'' Lois ''is'' attracted to Clark; [[He Is Not My Boyfriend|she's just in denial]].

** Similarly, Catwoman loves Batman, but only considers Bruce a friend. He knows both her identities and, according to the "perfect world" illusion created by the Mad Hatter, would marry her, if [[Dating Catwoman|Batman and Catwoman]] were out of the equation.

** It's ok, they're [[Not Blood Siblings]].

** Tobey has a [[Villainous Crush]] on Word Girl, but generally treats Becky either indifferently or as an annoying rival. (He sometimes ''does'' suspect that they are the same person, though; events just usually conspire to dissuade him of that theory.)

* On ''[[Hey Arnold!]],'' Arnold's attraction to Helga (disguised as Arnold's French pen pal Cecile) in the episode "Arnold's Valentine." Helga even soliloquizes about it:

{{quote|'''Helga:''' He likes me. He really likes me! Ohh! (beat) Wait a minute - he doesn't like me, he likes Cecile. Well, not ''Cecile''-Cecile, ''me''-Cecile - so he ''does'' like me!. Oh, criminy, I'm a basket case!}}

*** Hey, at least you can't say they're only interested in them [[Paper-Thin Disguise|for their looks]].

* ''[[Megamind]]'' has this with Roxanne falling for {{spoiler|the eponymous character impersonating Bernard}}.

* ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' has a non-romantic version of this trope where Terry's younger brother Matt idolizes the new Batman as [[Badass]] and the epitome of cool but sees his own older brother as a boring workaholic who's never around.

* ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'': In "Otter Woman" Skipper falls for Arlene (Marlene in disguise due chlorine accident)

* Inverted in ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'' where Rose likes Jake, but hates his dragon form, due to hunting him down. Luckily, she gets to find out they're the same person near the season 1 finale.

* A ''[[Pepper Ann]]'' episode had Pepper Ann become the mascot of her school's field hockey team. While performing in her otter costume, she managed to win over upperclassman Craig Bean. Pepper Ann continued to meet Craig in guise of the otter, but eventually decided to reveal herself to him. Craig subsequently admitted that he knew all along that Pepper Ann was the otter, and also acknowledged how ridiculous it would feel if it turned out he ''did'' love Pepper Ann's mascot self more than her.

 

== Real Life ==

* In a non-fantasy vein, this is certainly true of "ordinary" people who idolize celebrities. The "real person" more often than not is [[Undermined by Reality|nowhere near as glamorous once you get to meet them]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Disguise Tropes]]

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Love Interests]]

[[Category:Magical Girl Tropes]]