Not as You Know Them: Difference between revisions

The "victim" who was [[Dying to Be Replaced]] is moved out of the way, but the victim who is [[Not Asas You Know Them]] is expected to stick around and suffer. Not only have they lost their old title, it's usually through circumstance rather than their own fault. Unfortunately, whatever happened to them has transformed their personality - generally into something [[Darker and Edgier|more jaded]]. They're still there in the story, they're still (usually) on the side of good... but for all intents and purposes, [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|it may as well be a different character]]. They often become a cynical version of [[The Obi-Wan]] to the new hero, who, of course, is [[Beginner's Luck|much better at their job than they ever were]].

The quickest way to figure out if a character has become [[Not Asas You Know Them]] is to ask yourself "if their physical appearance was completely different, and I wasn't ''told'' exactly who they were, would I have figured it out or assumed they were a new character?"

If the returning original character doesn't suffer [[Character Derailment]], then they're [[Older and Wiser]] - but still recognizably "as you know them." Compare [[Same Character but Different]], where the returning character is derailed, but to fit a role in the plot instead of to make a replacement protagonist look good. As is always the case with [[Character Derailment]] tropes, [[Not Asas You Know Them]] can be fairly [[Subjective Tropes|subjective]]; there will be those who hate the changes and declare [[Fanon Discontinuity]], and those who like them and cite [[Character Development]] (albeit Character Development that happened "off screen").

* ''[[Pokémon]]'' adaptations rarely keep prominent characters the same as the games, especially the two [[Pokémon Special|most-well known]] [[Pokémon (Animeanime)|adaptations]]. For example Elesa is an [[Emotionless Girl]] but in the anime she's a [[Genki Girl]], Cilan lost all of his [[Shrinking Violet]] personality in the anime, and Sabrina is often given an [[Adaptational Villainy]] role when in the games she's a [[Reluctant Warrior]] who is more on the [[Lawful Neutral]] side.

* Jim Phelps in the ''[[Mission Impossible (Filmfilm)|Mission Impossible]]'' movies.

* The ''[[Bernice Summerfield]]'' novels feature a brief appearance by Chris Cwej, the [[Wide -Eyed Idealist]] who was [[Doctor Who (TV)|the Doctor]]'s companion alongside Benny in the [[Virgin New Adventures]]. Only now he's a cynical and bitter Time Lord agent who has had his memory altered and believes he was kidnapped by "the evil renegade". Then he regenerates (the Time Lords having given him that ability), so he doesn't even ''look'' like the original Chris any more. The ''[[Faction Paradox]]'' books take it further, with a whole army of "Cwejen": Cwej-Primes are the original tall, blond version, Cwej-Plus are the post-regeneration fat and balding variety, and Cwej-Magnus are bio-armored shock troops. One FP novel involves a Cwej-Prime allying with the Nazis to hunt down renegade <s>Time Lords</s> [[Writing Around Trademarks|members of the Great Houses]].

* Most of the major characters in [[Artemis Fowl (Literature)|The Time Paradox]] suffer from this, although [[Your Mileage May Vary]].

* In the 1988 series ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]'', mercenary John Kincaid joined the cast in the second season to fight alien invaders, and the cast changed as a result. The character he was replacing (Lt. Paul Ironhorse) was kidnapped, replaced with a doppelganger, and then shot himself in the head. Kincaid got more depressed as the series went on, especially when his brother (who he thought was dead) came back - and then died for real. Even the main cast was affected. The lead, Harrison Blackwood, lost his quirky nature, and started carrying weapons, when he refused to do so in the first season, and his accomplice, Suzanne, became so stupid that she didn't know how to bake a cake!

* In ''[[Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney]]'', the main character of the [[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney|first three games]] has been disbarred and become a piano player since we last saw him. His sense of justice takes a battering after this, and he is no longer the upright, optimistic lawyer of the first three games. Stepping up to bat is novice lawyer Apollo Justice.

* ''[[Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World]]'' supposedly features [[The Messiah|Lloyd]] as an antagonist. The opening has him killing people in the burning ruins of what had been Palmacosta. Your first few encounters place him as either crazy or evil. {{spoiler|it is later shown that this was an impostor. You then meet up with the real Lloyd who, while changed, is clearly not with the bad guys.}}

* In ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]] 7'', the reluctant warrior X is suddenly an obstructionist pacifist so that [[Replacement Scrappy|Axl]] can steal the show.

** Subverted in ''[[Mega Man Zero (Video Game)|Mega Man Zero]]'' when {{spoiler|X becomes the antagonist, but instead his actual programing was a cyber elf.}}

* In ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War (Video Game)|Deus Ex Invisible War]]'', the hero of the original ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]'' has been converted from a badass secret agent with a practical take on geopolitics, to an intellectual super-being [[A God Am I|with a god complex]] who wants to reshape the world in his image. He's also the [[Final Boss]] in every ending EXCEPT for the one where you side with his faction.

* Schala became like this in the transition from ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' to ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]'', as a result of {{spoiler|her fusion with Lavos to form an entity known as the Time Devourer}}. Longtime ''Trigger'' fans, as one would expect, were not at all pleased with the revelation.

* ''[[Prototype 2 (Video Game)|Prototype 2]]'' replaces protagonist Alex Mercer with new character James Heller, a move the developers made to avert [[Bag of Spilling]] and in the hopes Heller would gain more audience sympathy. In the process, they decided to make Alex the [[Rogue Protagonist|villain]] - by completely inverting his personality and ignoring most of the last game's plot developments. Where Alex once went on a vicious [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against those he perceived as responsible for New York's hellish state, {{spoiler|killed Greene to stop the infection, and blew himself to pieces preventing New York being nuked}}, he's now deliberately ''spreading'' the infection (including to Heller), {{spoiler|making rambling speeches about humanity's worthlessness, working with plants in GENTEK to make the virus more powerful, planning to infect a pre-pubescent girl to create a new "Greene"...}} Even reading the bridging comics makes it only slightly less difficult to believe they're supposed to be the same person.

* In ''[[Transformers]]: [[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'', Optimus Primal was a competent, down-to-earth commander with a tendency to make somewhat sappy speeches. In ''[[Beast Machines (Animation)|Beast Machines]]'', Optimus became some kind of spiritual teacher/fanatical terrorist, and the "down-to-earth commander" role got passed to Cheetor, probably the only returning character in the series who didn't [[Character Derailment|get shafted by his personality change.]]

* In ''[[Wolverine and Thethe X -Men]],'' at least in the early episodes, Cyclops is turned into basically the sum of all the ''bad'' qualities Wolverine used to have before they made him a [[Canon Sue]] (minus the bursts of [[Ax Crazy]], that is.) His role is "[[The Complainer Is Always Wrong|the one who's always wrong so Wolverine can be right]]."