Witness Protection/Playing With
- Basic Trope: A character is given a new home and a new identity as protection in exchange for testimony against an individual or an organization.
- Played Straight: Alice Jones testifies against The Don, and has her name changed to Anne Smith and is moved out with her husband and children to a small town in farm country.
- Exaggerated: All of Alice's relatives and friends are put into the program, too.
- Inverted:
- Justified: If members of The Mafia have a way of finding Alice and/or members of her immediate family, they could harm or kill her (and her husband and kids, too).
- Subverted: Alice moves away to the aforementioned small town, but is not part of a government program.
- Double Subverted: But she has changed her name and her hair color, and her past history is a bit sketchy.
- Deconstructed: Alice misses her family and friends, and worries if they might be in danger, too. And what if someone finds her?
- Reconstructed: Alice does everything in her power to keep her identity secret and makes new friends, and starts a new life. She knows that contacting old family and friends could put herself and her family in danger.
- Parodied: Alice goes into WP for doing something mildly embarrassing, like tripping on the stairs in front of everyone.
- Lampshaded:
- Averted: Alice is not placed in WP and goes about her normal life.
- Enforced: Rule of Drama
- "We have this character, let's give her a dramatic backstory or have her Put on a Bus!"
- Invoked: Alice testifies against The Don in a high-profile, federal case.
- Defied: Alice doesn't want to be put into a program that would force her to start all over again from scratch and decides to take her chances.
- Discussed:
- Conversed:
- Played For Laughs: See Parodied
- Played For Drama: Almost always is.