My Grandson, Myself: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Willow''': Wow! Like father like son.

 

You're immortal, or just extremely long lived, and you want to stay in one place for a long time without people noticing that you don't age. So what do you do? You reintroduce yourself as your own son, then grandson, etc. This handily gets around the problem of having to explain how you could have served in WWII and still only be 25 years old.

 

The inversion (a character claiming to be immortal is actually an identity passed down from father to son) is [[Legacy Immortality]].

 

* Ernst von Boem in ''[[RahXephon]]''.

* Rin from ''[[Mnemosyne]]'' uses this during a visit to an old acquaintance from WWII when the latter recognizes her.

** According to {{spoiler|Ronnie}} in the prologue of ''[[All There in the Manual|The Rolling Bootlegs]]'', there's a mental block against setting false IDs:

{{quote|"If it's just giving a temporary introduction to ordinary people, then there is no problem. But you will use your real name when conversing with fellow immortals, and your body will reject establishing a false identity in this world"}}

 

* Vandal Savage in [[The DCU]].

* Lex Luthor, dying from radiation poisoning ('cause it turned out kryptonite was just like any other radioactive substance to humans), faked his death by plane crash then had his brain transferred to a clone body, introducing himself to the world as his own son. After the reveal (which involved clone degeneration and him levelling Metropolis), he pulled a [[Karma Houdini]] by selling his soul for a cure and then blaming everything on an [[From a Certain Point of View|insane clone that faked his death and took his place]].

* Many of the Destines from ''[[ClanDestine]]'' have done this. In the first volume, Kay has to establish her new [[Body Surf|host body]] as the daughter of the same name as her old one- somewhat complicated by the fact that she hadn't planned on the switch and therefore never mentioned having a daughter. The sequel miniseries establishes that Walter has also been repeatedly posing as his own son (under the same name), and a villain discovers that the family has a suspicious pattern of births and deaths in out of the way locales with conveniently poor documentation.

 

 

* ''[[The Haunted Mansion (film)|The Haunted Mansion]]'' has Master Gracey who poses as his own grandson.

* John in ''Man From Earth'' claims that he has passed himself off as his own son multiple times.

* In ''[[Dracula 2000]]'', Dr. Abraham Van Helsing uses Dracula's blood to keep himself immortal, in order to continue research on how to kill the vampire king for good. In the modern day, he passes himself as his grandson, "Matthew Van Helsing".

 

* {{spoiler|The all-mighty High Priest Dios}} in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''Pyramids'' is an interesting case of this: not only has he been {{spoiler|the high priest and chief adviser to the pharaohs of Djelibeybi for over seven thousand years by abusing a pyramid's age-reversing effects}}, he has ''[[Stable Time Loop|always]]'' been that way (or at least for untold tens of thousands of years) as a result of {{spoiler|being brought back to the moment of Djelibeybi's founding [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|with all of his religious knowledge but no memory of his past, leading him to repeat the experience over and over]]}}. As far as we know, he never actually ''pretends'' to be his own descendant - people just assume.

** It's more a matter of people trying very hard not to think about it too much, as being fed to crocodiles often offends.

* Short-term variant: In ''Bloodlist'', Jack Fleming rises as a vampire looking a decade younger than his real age, so poses as his own near-identical younger brother while pursuing the gangsters who murdered him.

 

* Captain Jack Harkness in the ''[[Torchwood]]'' episode "Small Worlds."

* Mayor Wilkins III (aka Mayor Wilkins I and II) in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.

* In the ''[[Charmed]]'' episode "Saving Private Leo," Leo Wyatt poses as his own grandson to attend a 60th-anniversary reunion of [[World War II]] veterans.

* The Doctor in the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] is occasionally referenced as doing this so he can continually visit places he likes. Of course, he has the advantage that he [[The Nth Doctor|doesn't look the same every time]].

* Duncan MacLeod from ''[[Highlander the Series]]'' sometimes has to resort to doing this when mortals from his past think they recognize him - naturally they tend to suggest this themselves once they get over the stunning likeness.

* Stefan and Damon Salvatore of ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'' pretend to be descendants of "the original Salvatore brothers" from Mystic Falls' founding families. However, when Elena discovers that both Stefan Salvatores are identical, she realizes the truth.

 

* Played with in ''[[Sunday in The Park With George]]'': although late 20th-century artist George is actually a different person from late 19th-century artist Georges Seurat, the [[Mind Screw]]-y final scene has him effectively turn into the famous painter, as he reconciles with his estranged mistress, Dot ([[Incest Is Relative|who is actually his great-grandmother]]) from beyond the grave.

 

* ''[[GURPS]]'' 4e has this among Baron Janos Telkozep, an iconic vampire character.

* King Kaius III in the ''[[Eberron]]'' campaign setting is really his great-grandfather (and secret vampire) King Kaius I. Kaius II (and the real Kaius III) were really themselves, and it's strongly hinted that the latter [[Man in the Iron Mask|has been locked up somewhere]].

 

 

* ''[[Magellan]]'' has the case of elderly superhero {{spoiler|Gola Beh}} pulling this after {{spoiler|being exposed to a forced [[Fountain of Youth]]. She pretends to be a grand-niece named Olga Beh}}.

 

* In the 2003 series ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', the Utrom Shredder pretends to be his own descendants, all named Oroku Saki.

 

* In Georgia (the Eurasian one, not the North American one) men would pretend to be their fathers in order to dodge being drafted into the Russian army in the bad old days.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters and Casting]]