Going Native: Difference between revisions

[[Going Native]] is not restricted to known traditional cultures. It might involve characters involved with aliens, orcs, mobsters,... you name it. Overlaps may occur with [[Becoming the Mask]]. Oddly, it is almost never used in cases where it is the audience's group being joined by a more advanced figure, such as the Fifth Column in ''[[V]]''.

 

 

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime & Manga ==

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

* Manly [[Chivalrous Pervert]] Sanji of ''[[One Piece]]'' runs into this problem when he lands on an island full of transvestites. He resists best he can but he's briefly put into a dress and running along the shoreline with all the other 'girls.' He breaks free, but the whole thing is just a little traumatic again.

== Comicbooks ==

* Blueberry (a french cowboy comic) goes to live with the indians who rescue him after an accident, tries to marry the chief's daughter, and helps the tribe escape from the U. S. Army. It is worth noting that it was hard for him to get back to his people, since he was (falsely) accused of stealing $ 500.000 and trying to kill President Grant.

* ''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.

* 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.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[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''.

* In ''[[The Last Samurai]]'', an American Civil and Indian War veteran is taken captive by samurai and goes native during the Meiji Restoration.

** He also became their new leader as well, since [[Leonard Nimoy|their old one]] was murdered by one of said villains, and he ends up marrying [[The High Queen|his daughter,]] who was next in line for the throne.

* ''[[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.

{{quote| '''Willard:''' They were gonna make me a Major for this, and I wasn't even in their fuckin' army anymore.}}

* The movie ''[[Battle for Terra]]''.

* Wikus in ''[[District 9]]'' had this problem, although in his case it was due to a [[Baleful Polymorph]] and not a crashed ship.

* In ''[[The Searchers]]'', when the kidnapped girl is found she has completely assimilated into the society of her captors.

* Averted in ''[[Pocahontas]]'' where John Smith actually ends up going back to England due to a severe injury he received while protecting the Indian chief from being assassinated by the villain. Played straight with Percy the pug, however.

** Invoked with John Rolfe at the end of the sequell.

** Of course in Real Life it was Pocahontas who 'went native' as an English gentlewoman.

* 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]].

 

 

== Literature ==

* 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.

* [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]]'s ''[[Darkover]]'' novels are full of Terran citizens going native on Darkover; Andrew Carr and Magdalen Lorne are notable examples. There are also Darkovans who try to go Terran.

* 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 [[Liaden Universe]] books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, this is an occupational hazard for the Scouts, whose task of exploring new worlds often results in them spending long periods immersed in alien cultures. Many an experienced scout, even among those who resisted the temptation, has retained traits from a culture where he or she felt particularly at home.

** 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.}}

** 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.

* In [[George Orwell]]'s early novel, ''Burmese Days'', Flory admires Burmese culture more than he does his own, and despises the British Empire. It looks like he might be going this route, but the trope is subverted when {{spoiler|he takes command of the police and breaks up a riot intent on destroying the Club and killing Ellis}}.

** The liteary critic V. S. Pritchett once described the period Orwell spent living as a tramp as "going native in his own country."

* Amusingly inverted in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes]] pastiche, ''[[A Study in Emerald]]'', where the [[Eldritch Abomination|Great Old Ones]] returned to Earth centuries ago, but instead of wiping out the humanity, or forcing us to adapt their ways instead assumed leadership in human terms, resulting in a pseudo-Victorian world where most people lead entirely normal lives despite of that most of the crowned heads of Europe have an unpleasant number of tentacles under them, and even consider their existence a blessing that makes the civilization possible at all.

* 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 ''[[Years of Rice and Salt|The Years Of Rice And Salt]]'', a Japanese ronin ends up with a Native American tribe and assimilates into their culture.

* 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.

* 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.

* {{spoiler|Erika Hernandez}} in ''[[Star Trek Destiny]]''.

* 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.

* In the [[Belisarius Series]] Damodara begins to adopt Rajput ways in the realization that they were the best warriors that the Malwa Empire could field (except for the Kushans with whom they were roughly equal) and flattering them was a way to gain military success and not coincidentally gain the throne.

* One of the characters in [[The Laundry Series]] {{spoiler|is actually an [[Eldritch Abomination]] known as the Eater of Souls who was stuck in a human body and trained to pass as an Englishman. The ones doing the training ended up doing too good a job of it.}}

** 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.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* Helo/Athena from ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'' fits.

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

** In ''A Hundred Days'', Jack O'Neill gets trapped on a planet after a meteor hits the Stargate and buries it. He gets a quick [[Time Skip]] montage wherein he gets married and settles down, only to get rescued by the end of the episode.

** Also happens with Ba'al to a lesser extent. After the Goa'uld are no longer the threat they once were, he hides out on Earth, developing a fondness for the culture. He's still evil, of course, but he actually picks up enough human traits that he becomes a better villain than the rest of the Goa'uld combined.

** Long time SG-1 antagonist Harry Maybourne eventually gets marooned on a low tech planet, where he uses his knowledge to make himself king. He finds that he ''likes'' being the king, and that he's ''good'' at it, so much so that he is very popular among the people he's ruling because he has done so much to make their lives better. When he gets the opportunity to return to civilization, he opts to stay.

* In an episode of the revived ''[[Doctor Who]]'', a stranded alien has been covertly living as a Welsh politician, and, even as she plots to {{spoiler|blow up the entire Earth to facilitate her escape}}, grumbles that the London-based government wouldn't notice if Wales slid into the sea. She then immediately labels the moment as an example of this trope.

** You might even consider the Doctor a minor variation of the trope. In all his 1100-odd years, he sure has grown fond of us humans. He still loves to travel, and it a little too alien to really be considered a 'native', but he loved everything about our culture, clothes, food and people.

** Captain Kirk does this again in "A Piece Of The Action" when he adopts the [[The Mafia|natives ways]] by making himself the biggest [[The Don|don]] on the planet. Nobody's gonna put the bag over him any more!

* [[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."

** Nandi, former [[High Class Call Girl|Companion]] turned tough-talking [[Miss Kitty|madam]] of a rim-world brothel. Certain episodes suggest this may have slowly been happening to [[Silk Hiding Steel|Inara]], the show's other companion.

** 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.

*** 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 the other direction was Sinclair, a "Minbari not born of Minbari" and less dramatically Marcus Cole.

* [[wikipedia:Sleepers (TV series)|Sleepers]], a BBC comedy-drama originally shown in 1991, tells the story of two Soviet 'sleeper' agents sent to Britain in the 1960s but all but forgotten about until 1991. Meanwhile the two agents have Gone Native and now consider themselves British, and the series depicts their attempts to evade the KGB who want to bring them back to the Soviet Union.

* 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 ''[[Splinter Cell|Splinter Cell: Double Agent]]'', the NSA constantly worries about Sam Fisher going native and actively joining John Brown's Army. In the bad ending, that's exactly what he does. In the neutral ending, that's what everyone ''thinks'' he does.

* In ''[[Dragon Quest|Dragon Warrior VII]]'', Kiefer abandons your party to join the Deja tribe of the past. {{spoiler|It is strongly hinted that Aira of the Deja tribe of the present (who joins your party) is a descendant of Kiefer.}}

 

 

== Webcomics ==

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[The Road to El Dorado]]'' is about two Spaniards who wind up discovering El Dorado and masquerade as [[A God Am I|gods]]. One is only in it for the gold, but the other grows attached to the people, and ultimately protect them from the Cortez's expedition.