Becoming the Mask: Difference between revisions
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*** Note that she still tried to deny, right up to the breaking point. The Straw Hats were already in the middle of The Government's stronghold (Luffy himself had personally wrecked over 1000 rank and file soldiers, [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] style. But then, he's Luffy. He's either in [[Idiot Hero]] mode or Roaring Rampage of Insert Emotion Here). So Robin STILL tries to talk them out of it. Luffy insists that they're going to rescue her anyway, and then she can leave the Straw Hat Pirates if she wants. And then... [[Tear Jerker]] ensues. Robin's tears, specifically, in a moment of [[Not So Stoic]]. Also, Pirate on Elite Assassin Team action.
** Nami as well. She had only intended to use Luffy for all he was worth before leaving. But the longer she stayed with them, she grew to like being part of the Straw Hats (especially compared to her experiences with Arlong). Eventually, she betrayed them and cheerfully took off with Going Merry. But when on her own, she broke down and cried.
* Mami in ''[[Sister Princess]]'' is a spy charged with disrupting the reunion of Wataru and his sisters, pretending to be another sister; at the climax of the series, she is the one who takes the action necessary to keep the family together, rejecting her own ''real''
* Played with in ''[[Irresponsible Captain Tylor]]''. Tylor finds out Harumi is a Raalgon spy early on, but makes the decision to keep it between them and trust her despite her inevitable
* Kurama of ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' was a kitsune before he died and inhabited the body of an unborn human child. He planned to run away from his human "mother" Shiori Minamino when his demonic powers returned, but realized that he loved her too much to leave.
* In ''[[Shugo Chara]]'', {{spoiler|Mr. Nikaidou}} is a spy for Easter who infiltrates the school. While he has no compunctions with backstabbing the heroes whatsoever, he is eventually defeated, and following the ensuing [[Defeat Means Friendship]] he immediately goes back to the school, performing the role he was using as his guise with no-one the wiser.
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** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: Haruhi expects and desires the above tropes to be in place in her school. Him being the secret minion of Koizumi's Organization is not part of those tropes, and therefore those aspects are slowly being edited out of the equation. He's not so much 'becoming the mask' as he is [[Fridge Horror|having his personality slowly re-written by Haruhi's subconscious]].
** Heavily implied for [[Stepford Smiler|Koizumi]] [[Dissonant Serenity|himself]] as well.
* In ''[[D.Gray-man|D Gray Man]]'', Lavi is a successor to the [[The Watcher|Bookman]] lineage, who only joined the Black Order to record the war. However, as the years passed, he got more and more into the role of an exorcist, and is visibly angry when Bookman tells him he's not really a part of the Order, and that he's only there because it's convenient. His issues with
* In ''[[Superior]]'', the [[Big Bad]] female lead feigns hopelessness to gain the hero's trust and kill him. A few days later she realises she has a ''huge'' crush on him.
* Between ''[[Tsukihime]]'' and ''[[Melty Blood]]'', [[Meido]] Kohaku goes from sinister [[Chessmaster]] with no emotions who is planning the downfall of the Tohno family through drugging them; to really being the lovable goofball she pretends to be; who possibly makes robots and rides around on a broom in her spare time.
** Note, however, that the robots and broom-riding may have been influenced by Tatari, and she's STILL trying to play everyone like saps. She's just more...nice...about it.
** In Hisui's route it's revealed that she ''was'' becoming the mask, she just followed through on her plan anyway because she had no idea what else to do. In her own route, the mask starts to crack when Shiki pays attention to her and she reveals she honestly has no idea how she really feels anymore, so she leaves for a little while and becomes/reverts back to a very sweet, kind person.
* Used quite positively in ''[[Haibane Renmei]]''. {{spoiler|Reki originally acted nice and supporting towards everybody solely to earn a quick salvation for her troubles, but as time went by and no Day of Flight came, it slowly became her true identity, as she finally realized in the final episode, allowing her to [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]].}} This does not just come out of
* ''[[Kare Kano|Yukino Miyazawa]]''. Her public ''mask'' which she created soon after she started school, was designed to elicit praise from those people around her. Playing the role of the ''perfect girl'' was so stressful that she had to unwind by turning into a slob at home. When Arima discovered her secret and blackmailed her, keeping her ''mask'' on became so uncomfortable that when she and Arima feel in love, she decided to throw her mask away, only to slowly discover that she acted perfect for so long that a lot of her mask persona became part of her true nature.
** Arima also wore a ''mask'' of perfection but unlike Yukino, he never took his off, because he feared that his true nature was so awful that everyone would reject him if he took it off.
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** Batman probably keeps the Bruce Wayne persona because it's the last little bit of humanity he has left. In ''Bruce Wayne: Fugitive'', he tells the rest of the Bat-family that he's dumping the Bruce Wayne identity to be Batman 24/7, seeing it as a liability. Nightwing, in particular, doesn't take that well and goes at it with him. It takes encounters with both Superman and Catwoman to realize that he kinda does need Bruce Wayne.
** In some incarnations, becoming the mask may be what led Dr. Harleen Quinzel to become Harley Quinn. In her origin story, ''Mad Love'', the possibility was brought up that she interned at Arkham Asylum to cash in on the infamy of its highly abnormal inmate body. Ultimately, she really does end up giving a damn about [[The Joker|a certain patient.]]
* From the [[Marvel Universe]], we have the ''[[Thunderbolts]]'', who were originally the newest incarnation of the Masters of Evil, posing as superheroes to win the public's trust while the major superheroes were apparently dead for a year. Their leader, Baron Zemo, eventually leaked their true identities to try to avert a [[Heel Face Turn]] before he could [[Take Over the World]]. It didn't work; the majority of the team defeated him, and
** Only the first incarnation of the Thunderbolts counts as this. During ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' the new Thunderbolts team was no longer "Reformed villains trying to actually be the heroes they'd originally pretended to be" and was instead "a bunch of violent thugs we stuck mind control chips into so we could use them for black ops" who they [[Idiot Ball|put under the direction of]] [[Norman Osborn]] and by ''[[Dark Reign (comics)|Dark Reign]]'' had morphed into "Norman Osborn's especially vicious group of thugs because the Dark Avengers weren't bad enough."
** The ''[[Heroic Age (comics)|Heroic Age]]'' incarnation, on the other hand, is a specific attempt by the Avengers to induce this. They're using incarcerated supervillains to do good in the hopes that they'll start liking it, and then try to redeem themselves.
* Interestingly used in ''[[Lucifer (comics)|Lucifer]]'', where a shapeshifter is trapped in the form of a grieving father (whom it had killed to assume his shape, to try (and apparently succeed) at killing his daughter) and gradually becomes more the grieving father than the ancient shapeshifter from before the universe. This doesn't seem come about entirely honestly,
* Walter Kovacs from ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'', a formerly abused but relatively normal superhero, takes on the persona of his alter ego Rorschach after an event of [[Despair Event Horizon|intense psychological trauma]], becoming a [[Principles Zealot]] in the process.
** Rorschach later describes the early years of his hero career as "I wasn't Rorschach then. Then I was just Kovacs. Kovacs pretending to be Rorschach". During his bail hearing he refused to respond to anything other than "Rorschach". He also refers to his mask as his face, and once referred to removing it as "removing the skin from my head". He's kinda sensitive about it.
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* [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]] ''[[Superman]]'' had a story in which Clark Kent tries to prevent the demolition of his old home. Pete Ross assumes it's because he's afraid the workers will find something that'll give away his secret identity, but it's really because of Supes' sentimentality. Pete's last line is pretty much the trope. (Remember, this is when writers had decided that Superman was the "real" identity and Clark Kent a mere disposable mask.)
* V from ''[[V for Vendetta]]''. Who he is under the mask is unimportant, as the mask is a symbol of what he truly is.
* In [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver]] and [[The Bronze Age of Comic Books|Bronze Age]] ''[[Superman]]'' comics, [[Lex Luthor]] initially only helped an alien race rebuild its civilization in order to gain their
* [[Captain Atom]] was originally a government agent pretending to be a superhero so as to spy on the Justice League. Eventually he found himself becoming a superhero for real, leading to his [[The DCU/Awesome|Crowning Moment Of Awesome]], seen [http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/438240.html?#cutid1 here].
* In the ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' story "This Man, This Monster," an unnamed scientist steals Ben Grimm's appearance, voice, and power in order to kill Reed Richards, whom he both envies and considers motivated solely by glory. However, in the course of working with him on a dangerous research project, the scientist becomes so convinced of Richards' selflessness that he sacrifices himself to save his life.
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* ''[[Over the Hedge (animation)|Over the Hedge]]''. RJ the raccoon.
* This was the plot of the [[James Bond]] movie ''[[From Russia with Love]]''; the [[Bond Girl]] was sent by SPECTRE (under the guise of SMERSH) to seduce him into a trap. She pretends to be a Russian cypher clerk who's fallen in love with Bond's picture, only to fall for him for real.
* In ''[[While You Were Sleeping]]'', Lucy saves the life of the man she has a crush on and, due to a mistake at the hospital is assumed by the
* A variation occurs in the [[Woody Allen]] movie ''[[Zelig]]'': the protagonist becomes the mask ''involuntarily'', taking on the traits of whoever is around him, be they Nazis, pilots, or Greeks.
* ''[[Undercover Brother]]'' has Brother become Anton Jackson to infiltrate The Man's company. He becomes the mask due to mayonnaise and the White She-Devil. When he returns to normal, the White She-Devil goes through a similar transformation and does a [[Heel Face Turn]].
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* ''[[Mr. Deeds Goes to Town]]'' and [[The Remake]] feature a reporter who stages a [[Rescue Romance]] with the main character to advance her journalist career and then falls in love with him.
* ''[[Smokin Aces]]'' features an interesting inversion of this: after {{spoiler|FBI Agent Freeman Heller goes undercover as Mafia Hitman Primo Sparazza, the higher-ups at the FBI became wrongfully convinced that he had become the mask, and tried to have him murdered. Heller survived the assassination, and to retaliate against the Bureau that betrayed him, really did become the mask, eventually becoming the head Mafia Don.}}
* A classic movie example is Humphrey Bogart's character in ''The Left Hand of God''. He plays a mercenary in China who uses the identity of a dead priest to escape his warlord employer but that means actually acting the part of a priest at a medical mission. Luckily he's a Catholic boy so he knows the drill. He also does his best to live up to the part with
* ''[[Point Break]]'' stars [[Keanu Reeves]] as an FBI agent who goes undercover as a surfer to get close to a suspected bank robber. The inevitable occurs.
** A similar plot happens in [[The Fast and the Furious]]
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*** Yes and no with the hellhound. While the dog definately DID prefer Earth to hell in the end, the reason he took the smaller form wasn't as a disguise but because whatever the Anti-Christ named him, would define him and Adam chose the name 'Dog'. So he became the perfect embodiment of a dog, changing him from the very start.
* The plot of ''[[The Assassins of Tamurin]]'' centers around the [[Femme Fatale]] protagonist realizing that, contrary to what the [[Cult]] she's grown up in has taught her, she's been on the wrong side. Not only does she really fall in love with the king she's been spying on, she believes his plans, not [[The Chessmaster]]'s, are best for the kingdom.
* In [[Aaron Allston]]'s ''[[X Wing Series|Wraith Squadron]]'' books of the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', Lara Notsil fits this trope to a "T". Not only does she, over time, wish to become a Rebel in truth, but the person she eventually falls in love with, Myn Donos, is the sole survivor of a slaughtered X-Wing squadron, one which her information had helped to destroy! She gets to declare her love before her identity as [[The Mole]] is
** And [[Legacy of the Force|a later book]] by Allston mentions Donoslane Excursions, whose name is based on Donos' and one of Notsil's fake identities (rather, the one she decided to live by after her identity crisis), Kirney Slane.
** Another example, from some older comics: Darth Vader hires an actor to act as Obi-Wan to lure Luke into a trap, but the actor starts to see why Luke admires the figure he acted as so much, culminating in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
** The [[Hand of Thrawn]] Duology has the Devist family, a number of clones of [[Ace Pilot|Soontir Fel]] who kept together and secretive to avoid the [[Fantastic Racism]] that comes with [[Cloning Blues|being a clone]]. They were set up as a cell of [[Deep-Cover Agent|sleeper agents]], supposed to answer the call when the Empire needed them, and in the mean time they became farmers. But like Soontir before them, they [[Farm Boy|loved the soil]], and loved it more than the Empire. When they scramble in their TIE interceptors and [[Catch a Falling Star|save]] Han and Leia, they don't report them, and are eventually talked into helping the New Republic with the Camaasi Document crisis.
*** Fel himself states that they and the other cells were ''designed'' to do this - to develop stronger loyalty to each other and their world than to the Empire that quite literally created them. This way, when a threat [[New Jedi Order|came past the galaxy's edge]], they would be able to fight it without too much worry about ideological ties. Pity the villains dug most of the cells up to act as cannon fodder well before that...
** ''[[Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor]]'' has Luke half-awake during [[And I Must Scream|an eternity after the heat death of the universe]], after all the stars have burned out. He escapes the projection of this eternity before he can despair enough to [[Grand Theft Me|let his body be stolen]], but for quite some time later he's cynical, depressed, even nihilistic, believing that all of his friends are using him and nothing will matter in the end. He's [[The Messiah|Luke Skywalker]], so he very consciously decides to act ''exactly'' like he would have before going through that, hoping that eventually it will stop being an act and he can "fall back into the dream of the light". Fortunately he doesn't have to wait that long before regaining his faith during a [[Mind Screw
*** Luke seems particularly prone to this trope. It's the only thing anyone remembers about ''[[Dark Empire]]''. That and the Emperor's clones.
** Lowbacca in ''[[Young Jedi Knights|Diversity Alliance]]''. He isn't [[Fantastic Racism|racist]], but he can see where the titular group gets their ideas from. Even though they're basically the [[Flanderized]] version of the Black Panthers.
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*** Rare outside of ''[[Discworld]]''. Pratchett is relatively fond of this in some respects.
** His criminal instincts remain, but he acquires a strong drive to use them for good. (He was a sort of [[Anti-Villain]] before, but has definitely graduated to [[Loveable Rogue]] over the course of his new career).
** Also, {{spoiler|Walter Plinge}} in ''[[Discworld/Maskerade|Maskerade]]'' eventually
** In ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'' {{spoiler|Seargent Jackrum. Not only has she been in disguise long enough to make a detailed account of every other female hiding in the ranks of the army, she also has evaded her service papers discharging her from the army for years. As the war ends, she admits to Polly that she doesn't want to return home to just be an old biddy. Polly suggests that she keep the mask and return home as a respected retired seargent instead.}}
*** From the same book, {{spoiler|The command staff who became just as eager to punish women}}, as {{spoiler|Jackrum}} eventually warns Polly to avoid the same pitfall.
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** The story is [[An Aesop]] about the fact that what you do is more important than what you believe. You are good or evil based on your acts, not whether or not you think you are good or evil. As for the protagonist, he was asked to become a Nazi by an American agent and the information he provided the Allies throughout the war was of great help. The problem he has is illustrated when near the end of the war a Nazi friend tells him he knew the protagonist was a spy but never reported him because whatever damage he did as a spy would be more than offset by the help he was giving the Nazis in his cover role. Obviously, that would bother any anti-Nazi person, which he was.
** ''[[Cat's Cradle]]'', by the same author, has a religion created by two men to keep a country happy. They decide to have the religion outlawed, with one playing the role of President, the other [[The Messiah]]. Eventually, of course, the President gets too deep into his role and starts executing heretics.
* In the ''[[Vorkosigan Saga]]'', Miles Naismith Vorkosigan finds himself becoming Admiral Naismith (his fictional identity) more and more, and Lord Vorkosigan, his actual identity, less and less. This is helped by the fact that the reason he created and maintained his fictional identity was to have an outlet for the drives and urges his true identity is not permitted to indulge in. However, ''Memory'' happens and Miles finds his alter ego
** And his clone, Mark, was brainwashed and trained from birth to impersonate Miles, and after breaking free of his captors he struggles for years to find his own personality and avoid
* [[Agatha Christie]] pulled this one with Dr Rathbone from ''They Came to Baghdad'': a con man who established a philanthropic society to make money, but ended up believing in what he preached.
* [[G. K. Chesterton]]'s book ''[[The Man Who Was Thursday]]'' has a character who was an actor that portrayed an anarchist philosopher as a joke, and did such a good job of it that he convinced everyone watching that he really was the philosopher and even bested the philosopher himself in a debate, resulting in the real philosopher getting tossed out into the street. He is then forced to continue playing his role, even when {{spoiler|he was elected to the Council of Days.}} By the time he meets the protagonist, he's been playing the part of an old man for so long that he can't stop.
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*** Another Buffy example: Jenny Calendar {{spoiler|is revealed to be Janna, a member of the clan of gypsies who cursed Angel with his soul, after he experiences 'true happiness' with Buffy and reverts to the evil Angelus. It's heavily implied that her love for Giles ("I didn't know I would fall in love with you") led to her Becoming The Mask, and after she is killed by Angelus, she's buried under her assumed name of Jenny Calendar.}}
* An unusual example of this takes place in ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' episode "Allison from Palmdale." Cameron, suffering a glitch due to damage to her chip, briefly adopts the personality of Allison Young, {{spoiler|the resistance fighter whom she was modeled after and whose personality she copied, before going off to assassinate John Connor.}}
* A somewhat perverse version occurs in ''[[Dexter]]'', where Dexter begins as a completely amoral psychopath who's also phenomenal at pretending to be
* In ''[[Kamen Rider Kabuto]]'', the Scorpioworm assumed the identity of {{spoiler|Kamishiro Tsurugi}}, but prior to the beginning of the series somehow came to believe himself to be {{spoiler|Tsurugi}} to the point at which even he is shocked when the mask slips.
* Played out interestingly in ''[[Prison Break]]'': T-Bag (who is someone who ''definitely'' can't redeem himself, despite being [[Magnificent Bastard|awesome]]) has this with his fake identity of Cole Pfeiffer, a charming top-salesman. He actually hopes to leave his past as a convict behind, because he really seems to love his role. In the end, {{spoiler|it doesn't work.}}
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* In ''[[My Name Is Earl]],'' Earl at first only tried to make up for all his past bad deeds because he believed "karma" would punish him otherwise. But eventually, he starts to really ''care'' about people.
** Same with Billie, who at first hides among the Camdenites (radical Amish) while plotting revenge against Earl. However, the simple lifestyle eventually wins her over, and she joins their community, giving Earl all her money.
* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "The Masks" does this, quite naturally, with a [[Karmic Twist Ending]]: a dying man makes his overly-eager-for-the-inheritance relatives wear masks as a condition of inheriting. The masks are nasty caricatures of their inner selves, and they end up quite literally
* ''[[Oz]]''. Undercover cop Desmond Mobay, posing as a Jamaican drug dealer, gets hooked on drugs and murders a corrupt cop turned inmate who threatens to blow his cover. Another prisoner, convicted copkiller Augustus Hill, realises who Mobay is and calls him out over his hypocrisy. Mobay beats Hill unconscious, but then confesses to the murder, realising he's become one of the criminals he's supposed to be fighting.
* ''[[The X-Files|The X Files]]'': An alien invader, infiltrated as a human baseball player, eventually decided he was a better person that way. When another alien came to execute him and ordered him to show his real face, he answered that [[Tear Jerker|it ''was'' his real face.]]. Even his poisonous blood has somehow changed human when he is killed.
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** An interesting case with a nerdy British young man who became a test subject of an experiment similar to the Intersect project, except this one involves completely replacing the subject's personality with a new one in order to create a perfect [[The Mole|mole]]. Unfortunately, it ends up working a little too well. The man becomes one of the most powerful criminals in the world, being none other than {{spoiler|Alexei Volkoff}}, a [[Magnificent Bastard]].
* Although he never forsook his real loyalties, undercover fed Vincent Terranova often formed strong personal connections with the criminals he investigated on ''[[Wiseguy]]''. His friendship with Sonny Steelgrave was so genuine, Vinny openly admitted he would have allowed the mob boss to escape, had Sonny not personally beaten a man to death in front of a hidden camera.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]''
** Blon also shows signs of getting too into the part earlier when her escape plan causing destruction on a global scale is discovered by The Doctor & Co. When queried why no human authorities had notice a nuclear power plant in the middle of the city designed to go apocalyptic?
{{quote|'''Blon''': London doesn't care -- the South Wales coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice? Oh? I sound like a Welshman. God help me, I've gone native!}}
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** On the other hand, pretending to be a hitman who happens to look identical doesn't work out so well.
* ''[[Angel]]'': Lilah admits to Angel in season 3 that she became her "game face" long ago.
* Happens to Quinn in ''[[Glee]]'' - she first joins the club to spy on it for Sue, hoping Finn would lose interest in Rachel if the club disbanded. She ends up enjoying the club enough that she does a complete [[Heel Face Turn]], even saving the club when Sue seems successful in disbanding it. (It's debatable, though, how much Quinn would have
** Also Santana who was also a spy at first but has admitted that Glee club is the best part of her day.
** Quinn's case is a lot more complicated than a simple straight playing of the trope. For one, it could be argued (and the show gives glimpses of this) that her previous identity as [[Alpha Bitch]] and [[Seemingly-Wholesome Fifties Girl]] was more of an act than her role in the Glee Club, but she didn't realize it until she got pregnant and Glee was the only thing remaining from her former life. Certain scenes suggest that Quinn was under a lot of pressure from both Sue and her parents to live up to certain expectations, whereas Glee gives her more of a chance to truly express herself. So it may be more of a [[Secret Identity Identity]] - maybe we don't always know which part is "real" and which is the mask.
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* In Season 2 of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', Allison Georgia Doren, disguised as a replica of Francie Calfo, actually falls in love with Will Tippin and is visibly upset when she is forced to kill him.
** In a Season 2 episode the wife of an American mathematician (guest star [[Christian Slater]]) turns out to be a Russian agent who fell in love with him for real. It also turns out {{spoiler|her husband was an NSA agent and knew his wife was all along.}}
* In one episode of ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' some random guy shows up wanting to kill Xena to build his reputation as a warrior because he wants to become a great warlord. He claims to have killed other fearsome warriors as well. While he does have the skill to back up his claims, it turns out he has never killed anyone in his
* ''[[Fringe]]'': One shapeshifter at least (maybe two) got very attached to their family.
** Another example occurs with {{spoiler|Fauxlivia, who impersonates the real Olivia in order to gain Peter's trust and eventually begins to develop genuine feelings for him.}}
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== Music ==
* The song "I Whistle A Happy Tune" from ''[[The King and I]]'' gives
* The ''Trans Siberian Orchestra'' song "Promises to Keep" contains, in reference to the "Christmas Spirit," the lines:
{{quote|And if our kindness
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* Cait Sith in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', who joins the party as a spy and then grows to care about them and joins them for real.
** Only superficially fits as an example. {{spoiler|Reeve}} was already sympathetic to most of the party's issues, but sincerely did not trust Avalanche. He didn't so much change personality wise, but realize that Avalanche was operating on the same wavelength he was.
* Leliana from ''[[Dragon Age]]''. She was originally basically an assassin, and she had to flee her home country and go undercover. She pretended to be a [[Genki Girl|sweet, bubbly girl]] with a strong faith in the
** Morrigan also has some elements of this, pretending to like the male player character in order to get into bed with him and then actually falling in love.
* The whole plot of ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Advance'' pretty much revolves around this, depending on who the protagonist is. If it's Axel Almer, he got amnesia after doing the dimension jump to infiltrate the protagonist group and had enough time to befriend them and leave a good impression, and when it came to his time to return, he realized that his group was wrong and elected to stay on the new group, fighting his previous superior. Same thing happened to Lamia Loveless, except that she got no amnesia, but her orders usually come too late, and she already blended with the society, making her realize she has a conscience and values it, thus making her reject the fact that she's a mindless doll and betray her superiors. And the protagonist's reaction to them? Forgiving as ever.
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== Web Original ==
* ''[[Tales of MU]]'' has Suzune "Sooni" Hoshinotama, who appears to be this in addition to the local [[Yandere (disambiguation)]]. She sees herself as the lead character in a manga, and expects the world to naturally follow the "rules" of manga plot
* In ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' version three this happened to Dominica Shapiro, who initially joined the group SADD on the off chance their plan would work, with the intent on a double cross if not, but gradually became more and more part of the group properly.
* In Chewbot's [[Let's Play]] on ''[[Oregon Trail]]'', "[[Plague and Treachery On The Oregon Trail]]", it's revealed that {{spoiler|Susan was a British spy sent to overthrow America from the inside, but she eventually came to love the family she created as a cover, and abandoned her assignment.}}
* While everybody in ''[[Suburban Knights]]'' is trying to stay in-character, several of them do so with more...commitment than others. [[Obscurus Lupa]] claims that she should be useless in battle because of [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|her character choice]], [[Paw Dugan]] tries to [[Dungeons and Dragons (film)|gather rage]] from everybody (including the trees), and [[Phelous]] seems to have gone right off the deep end. [[Marz Gurl]] also seems to be joining the throng, what with speaking only in Japanese, scenting the air and biting the Critic on various portions of his anatomy.
* A fair amount of the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' fanbase started out as Internet trolls who started pretending to be obsessive fans of the show just to get other people confused and/or irritated. It's ''[[My Little Pony]]'', what teenage boy or man could possibly enjoy such a series? Well, as the trolling went on, the majority of them started to find all the little [[Parental Bonus
* Dramatic Detective of [[
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* The assassin droid Zeta in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' replaced an accountant, as he was investigating money laundering by a terrorist organization. Once he completed the mission he ended up running into the guy he was impersonating. Per protocol, he should have eliminated the man on the spot. The aforementioned time spent with the man's family affected him to the point that he could not bring himself to deprive him of that experience, and so went rogue instead (leading into his [[Spin-Off]] series, ''[[The Zeta Project]]'').
* The ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super Heroes]]'' cartoon has evil shapeshifter Ron Kar finds himself sympathizing with the good guys, and even willingly helping them, after his [[Memory Gambit]] infiltration is exposed.
* The ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' cartoon ''Bugs' Bonnets'' (1956) plays with this idea by casting it in the form of people taking on roles defined by the hats they
* Taken to ludicrous extremes by Roger in ''[[American Dad]]''. {{spoiler|He creates a new identity to seduce a shop girl and allow him to steal a pair of gloves he likes. Then the stress of actually caring about someone causes Roger's mind to split into two - the persona he created, and himself. Apparently his persona carries on for quite a while before Roger notices extra bills on his credit card, at which point Roger tries to destroy this man's life.}}
** Not to mention the little roleplaying activity that he and Francine improvised for themselves...
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* The late great [[Peter Sellers]] had said on numerous occasions "There is no 'Me'; I do not exist." Beyond just being a great actor, he literally could ''become'' his role and have a bit of a hard time shaking it. The great Sir Alec Guinness and legendary Lon Chaney Sr. were said to have similar psychologies.
** Heath Ledger was also rumored to have that psychology.
* A Russian [[Intrepid Reporter]], Yaroslava Tankova, was making a series of articles about [[Gold Digger
* Social Constructionist theories of society claim that any aspect of society (education, religion etc.) only has a function because it is ascribed by the population. A kind of Becoming the Mask for concepts.
** Which begs the question of whether being "socially constructed" makes it any less a part of oneself than being "natural". People are social beings and naturally have a part to play. Why are social constructs "artificial" and non-social instincts "natural" when they both come out of humanity? And why is being "natural" better than being "artificial"?
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* ATF agent William Queen spent two years undercover as Billy St. John, a member of the Mongols motorcycle gang, and admits he grew to liking the gang he was in and found them kinder than many law abiding folks he knew. He felt somewhat sorry for turning them in when his job investigating and spying on the gang was over.
* [[Multiple Choice Past|One explanation]] for [[Soapbox Sadie|leftwing agitator]] / [[Con Man]] Ward Churchill (best known for writing an inflammatory essay praising the 9/11 hijackers, or at least villifying the people they killed and claiming the incident as a legitimate act of war) posing as a [[Magical Native American]] for several years and gaining a university professorship as part of some kind of [[Positive Discrimination|affirmative action]]-type scheme. He claimed he'd originally planned to admit the ruse as soon as he got the job in order to point out the inherent racism of the university's hiring practises and the government's various "Indian Affairs" schemes, but found himself growing into the role and believing he could do more good as a teacher. [[Money, Dear Boy|The fat paychecks he was getting from the school probably had a lot to do with it, too, though]].
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* In ''The Chrysanthemum and the Sword'' the Japanese code of honor is described as being like this.
* Joe Pistone, a.k.a Donnie Brasco, would arguably qualify as a subversion. While he admits he retains some "wiseguy" habits from his six-year undercover stint and felt some closeness to mob mentor Sonny Black, his daily interactions with real-life Mafiosi more or less reinforced his negative view of the Mafia and its members.
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