History Main / AndThatLittleGirlWasMe

* ''[[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1973 The Four Musketeers]]'' (1974). Athos, when he tells d'Artagnan the story of the Comte de la Fere. d'Artagnan figures out that Athos was the Comte, and near the end of the film Athos admits it. It plays out much the same in the original novel.

* The ''Series/{{House}}'' episode "Three Stories": House tells a class of medical students three stories about diagnosing three different patients, all complaining of leg pain. The third story is revealed, at the end, to be the story of the aneurysm, and infarction that caused House's permanent leg injury, and continuing chronic pain. He never tells the students the third patient was him. His colleagues, who're listening in, do figure it out, though.

* The first ''Franchise/CareBears'' movie had the old man who head of an orphanage tell a story about a possessed magician's apprentice named Nicholas who was saved by the Care Bears. In the end, his wife calls him by name, Nicholas.

* There is an inversion about Leonardo Da Vinci painting the Last Supper. In order to find the appropriate look for Judas, he went to the local prisons and found a man who looked haggard, angry and dangerous and used him as the model. Some years later he still hadn't found the right person to stand in for Jesus. While pondering the question, a man walked into the studio who looked perfect, clean, with kind features. Leonardo immediately chose the man as his inspiration for Jesus. When Leonardo asked the man if they had ever met, the man replied "Yes, I was Judas."

* In one of the promotional comics for ''VideoGame/{{Nier}}'', Kaine tells a story about a warrior who protected a young boy from Shades. Weiss doesn't buy it. [[spoiler: Kaine refers to the warrior (herself) as a man, adding some foreshadowing to her own dilemma.]]

* During the second night of the first Democratic Debates in 2019, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11U-rzW8Ufc Kamala Harris attacked Joe Biden]] over his previous opposition to desegregation busing, telling the story of a young girl who was part of busing, before {{Name Drop}}ping this trope to the surprise of Biden and everyone else.

* ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'' has Mittens telling Bolt how they cannot trust humans while inevitably revealing her past to him. While Mittens never outright says it was her, it was obvious that she was talking about herself.

* ''Disney/CinderellaIIIATwistInTime'' begins with a voiceover asking the viewers if they remember a story about a girl who escaped a life of cinders by believing in a dream, and also letting talking mice and a fairy godmother help her find true love. After a {{beat}}, the narrator continues, "Well, that girl is me." Cinderella then smiles at the camera while the title appears.

* ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' provides an example, and also lampshades it within two seconds.

* In Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', the salesman from the beginning is in fact the Genie (which is part of why Creator/RobinWilliams voices him). The plan to have this revealed in the movie itself was dropped and had to be confirmed via WordOfGod years after it came out.

'''Leo:''' What'd they do to you? (''Toby says nothing, but looks uncomfortable -- he is Jewish'')

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Palpatine strongly implies that he served under a death-conquering Sith Lord in order to sway Anakin to his side. He also implies that Anakin was created by that same death-conquering Sith Lord, or possibly by Palpatine himself, who the Sith taught all his tricks to.

Seen often in {{Glurge}}. If you're reading one, and the wise old stranger is telling the discouraged younger person an inspirational tale of someone who was just like them once, you know it's coming.

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* Played with disturbingly in ''Psychopathia Sexualis''. A woman tells some girls a very morbid story of how a mute girl found her voice (via screaming) whilst being raped and then killed her rapists who she and her father had put on a shadow-puppet show for. The girls listening seem very disturbed and the woman narrating it seems sad and nostalgic. In the end she offers a disconcertingly weak "It's only a story" to the girls.
* In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Palpatine strongly implies that he served under a death-conquering Sith Lord in order to sway Anakin to his side. He also implies that Anakin was created by that same death-conquering Sith Lord, or possibly by Palpatine himself, who the Sith taught all his tricks to.
* ''Film/WhereTheTruthLies'': The journalist tells the story of a little girl who was saved thanks to a call-in show. It turns out it's her.

--> '''Ty:''' You know who that guy was, Danny?
--> '''Danny:''' You?
--> '''Ty:''' Ha ha... No, that guy was Mitch Comstein, my roommate. He was a good guy.
* The end of ''[[Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior The Road Warrior]]'' reveals that the {{Narrator}} is none other than the Feral Kid.
* In ''Film/{{Matilda}}'', the ReasonableAuthorityFigure Miss Honey describes how the BigBad Miss Trunchbull was once her [[WickedStepmother wicked step-aunt]], without mentioning herself or Trunchbull by name. During the story, ChildProdigy Matilda immediately recognises Trunchbull as the mean aunt but only afterward realises that Miss Honey is the little girl. Interestingly, the original reveal in the novel was Trunchbull being the aunt, rather than Miss Honey being "the little girl". This was undoubtedly changed for the screen because it was easier to hide "the little girl's" identity than to keep the audience from recognizing Trunchbull in the flashbacks.

* Fox tells a similar story to explain why she works for the Fraternity in ''Film/{{Wanted}}''.

* In ''Film/WhosAfraidOfVirginiaWoolf'', George tells Nick the story about a boy he knew during his youth who accidentally killed both of his parents (his mother with a shotgun, and his father in a driving accident). When asked whatever came of the boy, George told him that as far as he knew, he was still in the asylum. This was not the case, the boy was George.

* Parodied in ''{{Film/Bridesmaids}}'', where Megan tells an "inspirational" anecdote that is so transparently about herself that the little girl in the story is also named Megan. Annie even keeps trying to interrupt so they can skip to the obvious ending.
* At the end of ''{{Film/Maleficent}}'', the narrator is revealed to be an elderly Aurora.
* After the brutal final confrontation in ''{{Film/The Devils Backbone}}'', the narrator turns out to be the ghost of doctor Casares, who now haunts the orphanage with Santi.
* In ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'', Curtis tells the story of the chaotic early days of the tail section, when people starved and [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty turned to cannibalism]]. He goes some way into detailing his own part ("I know that babies taste best") but shifts into third person when relating how things turned around. After a man kills a mother to get to her baby, an old man steps up to offer his arm to be eaten instead, spurring others to make the same sacrifice. Gilliam, Curtis' mentor, was the old man; Edgar, Curtis' protege, was the baby.
-->''I was the man with the knife.''
* ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' starts with a grandmother telling her granddaughter a bedtime story, about a man with scissors for hands who made it snow for a girl he loved. It is revealed in the end that the grandmother is actually Kim, the girl who Edward loved and who loved him.
-->"Sometimes...you can still see me dancing in it."
* Early on in ''Le Destin Fabuleux de Désirée Clary'', at a dinner party at Joseph and Julie's house, Bernadotte tells Julie an anecdote about a sergeant who came to her father's house with a housing billet and was shown the door and asks her if she would recognise that sergeant; of course, it was him.
* Villain example in ''Film/{{Cinderella 2015}}'': Lady Tremaine tells Ella the story about a young girl who married for love, and was happy, until her husband died. Out of concern for her daughters’ wellbeing, the girl, now a grown woman, decided to marry again to provide them with financial support. But then ''that'' husband died, too. Her last attempt was to get her daughters to marry the prince of their kingdom, but the prince was instead wooed by a simple servant girl "and ''I'' lived unhappily ever after".
* In ''Film/AntoniasLine'', the narrator of the story is revealed at the end to be Antonia's great-granddaughter Sarah.
* When Daavar recruits Vijay in ''Film/{{Deewaar}}'', Vijay starts talking about one time Daavar got his shoes shined before revealing that he was the shoeshine boy.
* In ''Film/OneMissedCall: Final'', Emiri’s boyfriend Jin-wo explains to her that at the Sign Language Summit where they had first met, he learned of the death call and how it worked from a deaf violinist whose girlfriend was killed by it. [[MyGreatestFailure The violinist knew that he could’ve saved her by taking the call and dying in her place, but he didn’t, and forever regretted it]], to the point of purposefully punishing himself until he went deaf. Then near the end of the movie, Jin-wo tells Emiri that knowing her made him stronger, and that he won’t regret again. It’s this that makes her put two-and-two together to realize that the deaf violinist was ''him''. And that he wasn’t going to make the same mistake again as he swipes Emiri’s phone (which had the death call forwarded to her during the climax), and [[HeroicSacrifice takes the call in her place]].

* Subverted in an episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}''. Sharona has a fear of elephants that culminated when she was a little girl. She tells a story of how when she was little, a small girl ended up in the elephant cage at a zoo. As the girl didn't actually get hurt, the audience waits for her to say "I was that little girl", but nope, she was apparently traumatized because some other girl was in that predicament.
* In ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'', Sophia often ends her "Picture it..." stories like this.
--> "That beautiful young peasant girl was me. And that artist...was Creator/PabloPicasso."
* The ''Series/{{House}}'' episode "Three Stories": House tells a class of medical students three stories about diagnosing three different patients, all complaining of leg pain. The third story is revealed, at the end, to be the story of the aneurysm, and infarction that caused House's permanent leg injury, and continuing chronic pain. He never tells the students the third patient was him. His colleagues, who're listening in, do figure it out, though.
* Subverted in an episode of ''Series/MyTwoDads'': Nichole is worried about going to the prom, and Judge Margaret tells her about another teenage girl who was teased at her prom. When Nichole asks what the girl did, the judge says she destroyed the other girls with her psychic powers.
-->'''Nichole''': Wasn't that ''Literature/{{Carrie}}''?\\
'''Margaret''': It's all I've got. I was really popular at school.
** Another similar episode had Nicole becoming jealous of one of her friends at school who had developed breasts before her. The judge told her about one of her friends back then. When Nicole asked her if said friend was the first to get breasts in her school, the judge told her : "I was the first one to get breasts in my class !", and told her of all she suffered because of that, including the breaking up of her friendship with the girl she was talking about.
* In the Christmas episode of ''Series/{{Glee}}'', [[BrawnHilda Coach Beiste]] has to dress up as Santa Claus, to convince Brittany (who still believes in SantaClaus) that even Santa's magic can't grant her wish: for Artie, who is paraplegic, to be able to walk. Beiste does this by sitting down Brittany on the couch and telling her a story about another little girl, just a little younger than herself, whose only Christmas wish every year was [[HugeSchoolgirl to be petite and slender instead of "a little husky".]] And how she never got it, but she did get the gift of patience. Subverted in that Brittany never gets it -- Santa's a ''boy'', duh!

* Quasi-subverted on ''Series/HillStreetBlues'' when the [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} eccentric]] vigilante "Captain Freedom" spins Detective Belker a long story about a boy growing up neglected and abused with only the heroes of comic books and TV shows to relieve his horrible existence. However, when Belker is moved to tears by the story the Captain assures him that the little boy grew up to be a business leader and that he read about him in ''Reader's Digest.'' It's unclear if the Captain was actually talking about himself or not.

--> '''Nucky:''' Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
* The final episode of the second series of ''Series/BlackAdder'' contains a series of increasingly bizarre examples as a gloating MasterOfDisguise reveals his past encounters with the main characters. Starting with...
--> '''Prince Ludwig:''' We have met many times, although you knew me by another name. Do you recall a mysterious black marketeer and smuggler called Otto with whom you used to dine and plot and play ze biscuit game at ze old pizzel in Dover?\\
'''Blackadder:''' My God!\\
'''Prince Ludwig:''' "Yes! I... was ze waitress!
* Subverted in British sitcom ''Just Good Friends''.
-->'''Penny's mother:''' Many years ago there was ... a girl who lived in the same road as me - we were the same age. She met a chap. And then she discovered she was carrying his child. Her family disowned her, the neighbours shunned her, even her best friend called her a trollop. She miscarried. Years later she married. She has a small family of her own now.
-->'''Penny:''' That girl, it was you, wasn't it?
-->'''Penny's mother:''' It most certainly was not me! Her name was Eileen Bennett, and I was her best friend, the trollop!
* The Crack Fox in ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'' tells his backstory to Vince in this manner, showing him [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCuUnTJgD9M a short animated film]] about a fox that moved from the countryside to London, only for his life to be ruined by drugs and constant partying, before concluding "That fox, my friend, was none other than me... the Crack Fox".
* Parodied in one episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', when Gypsy puts on a "one woman show" and ends the show with the story of "a gal who ran the higher functions of a little satellite in a synchronous orbit." It's clear she intends the story to be uplifting and inspirational -- the problem is that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
* Hank Henshaw related a story about hunting an alien refugee as part of the DEO in ''Series/{{Supergirl 2015}}''. Naturally, for this trope, it turns out to be Henshaw himself, who's really [[spoiler: the ComicBook/MartianManhunter and the real Henshaw died trying to kill him]].
* ''Series/{{Outnumbered}}'': Subverted in "The Chinese Horde", where Karen is called to the headmistress's office:
-->'''Headmistress:''' You know, Karen, I once knew a little girl like you. A long, long time ago. She was clever, she had lots of opinions, which she loved to share, she thought she was the center of the universe and she didn't think the rules should apply to her. And do you know what happened to that strong-willed little girl?
-->'''Karen:''' Did she become head teacher?
-->'''Headmistress:''' No, she got expelled. She's in prison now. Turns out the rules did apply to her after all.

-->'''Blake Tower:''' How did you miss that in his file?
-->'''Samantha Reyes:''' All the names were redacted.
-->'''Blake Tower:''' Not good.
-->'''Samantha Reyes:''' No shit.
* In ''Series/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', Gérard Carrière tells Christine all about the Phantom's childhood and his relationship with his father; when Christine asks him how he knows all this, he reveals that ''he'' is the Phantom's father.
* Parodied in ''Series/UnbreakableKimmySchmidt'':
** First with Titus and Kimmy.
-->'''Titus Andromedon''': And that 12 year-old boy who got kicked out of the choir...was me!
-->'''Kimmy Schmidt''': Yeah. You said that. That was the whole story.
** And again in the same episode, with Lillian and Jacqueline:
-->'''Jacqueline White''': And that young, impressionable girl in the fishing gear was me!
-->'''Lillian Kaushtupper''': Yeah, I know. That was the whole story.

* ''Series/{{Pixelface}}'': Subverted. In "The Game's Up", Rex is deliberately slowing down his performance as he approaches the final level of his game. QM tells him a story about a character who did not want his game, so started deliberately screwing up, and eventually the player gave up playing the game because he couldn't finish it, and the character became a quartermaster in a console. When Rex goes "You were that character!", QM responds indignantly (and seemingly genuinely surprised) and says he is talking about a quartermaster in another console who is a total loser.
* ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'': Subverted. Bob tells Emily a story about a bully he used to know in high school. Eventually a new kid stood up to the bully and they became friends, and the bully stopped being a bully because he was only angry because he was lonely and didn't know how to relate to people. Since Bob is a psychologist, Emily assumes he was the "friend" in the story. Bob replied that he isn't, which make Emily think he was the bully. Bob replies in the negative again; it really was just two guys he knew in high school.
* ''Series/YediYuz'':
** The climax of "Büyük Günahlar" reveals that party guest Nihal is Aytaç's daughter, the little girl who first answered Elif's fateful phonecall. Following the events described by Mete, she witnessed the disintegration of her parents' marriage and her father's mental state, which ultimately led him to commit suicide.
** In "Karşılaşmalar", Gödze finds an old photograph of herself and ex-boyfriend Kerem in better times -— only to notice her husband, Onur lurking in the background. She immediately begins to connect the dots, coming to the realization that her now-beloved husband had started stalking her from that moment.

-->'''Saint of Killers''': You ever hear that story about the drunk General who got caught reading his map sideways? It was back in the war middle of a big battle. Colonel rides up on his horse and says to the General, "What do we do?" Our General says, "We're gonna march right up that hill". The Colonel sees the sideways map in the General's hand, but he follows orders just like everybody else, so he sends his men up that hill into a slaughter...
-->'''Jesse Custer''': You were the Colonel.
-->'''Saint of Killers''': I was the General.

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* Sasuke Uchiha in ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'', when he travels alongside with Boruto back to 20 years in the past, and meets a 12 year old Naruto who's coping with Sasuke's recent defection from Konoha. He tells Naruto the story of "an old friend of his" who left his friends in search for power and how he never gave up on him until he managed to knock some sense into him. All which cheers Naruto up.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': In the side story ''How The Paladin Got His Scar'' O-Chul and Saha discuss whether people are inherently evil or not. O-Chul tells the story of a sergeant in the army who, upon catching a pair of bandits and their teenage son, brought the son to his sister in another part of the country to be raised right. [[GenreSavvy Saha sees this trope coming,]] but says it proves nothing: Yeah it's great that he was kind to the bandit boy, but he was already a good man at that point. [[spoiler:O-Chul says he was not the sergeant, but the boy]].

* In ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick How The Paladin Got His Scar]]'' O-Chul tells the story of a sergeant in the army who, upon catching a pair of bandits and their teenage son, brought the son to his sister in another part of the country to be raised right. [[spoiler: The listeners assume O-Chul was the sergeant, but in fact he was the boy.]]

* In ''Film/OneMissedCall: Final'', Emiri’s boyfriend Jin-wo explains to her that at the Sign Language Summit where they had first met, he learned of the death call and how it worked from a deaf violinist whose girlfriend was killed by it. [[MyGreatestFailure The violinist knew that he could’ve saved her by taking the call and dying in her place, but he didn’t, and forever regretted it]], to the point of purposefully punishing himself until he went deaf. Then near the end of the movie, Jin-wo tells Emiri that knowing her made him stronger, and that he won’t regret again. It’s this that makes her put two-and-two together to realize that the deaf violinist was ''him''.

* Parodied in Theatre/TheProm. Angie tells Emma the story of a cast member in the original production of Chicago [[StepUpToTheMic who got cast as Roxie]] after everyone in the cast got sick.

* Done inadvertently as the punchline in ''Literature/HeWalkedAroundTheHorses'', a short story by Creator/HBeamPiper in which a diplomat carrying documents from our world fall into an AlternateUniverse where the French and American Revolutions never happened. The story is told through a series of letters and reports, the final one by a high-ranking British officer called Sir Arthur Wellesley, who is puzzled by the repeated references to this chap Wellington. "I've no idea who he could be."

* During the second night of the first Democratic Debates in 2019, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11U-rzW8Ufc Kamala Harris attacked Joe Biden]] over his previous opposition to desegregation busing, telling the story of a young girl who was part of busing, before {{Name Drop}}ping this trope to the surprise of Biden and everyone else. After the debate, analysts considered this moment to be one of the best highlights of the debate.

-->'''Roshi''': A long time ago, your Grandpa Gohan was walking through the woods when he came upon a strange object that appeared to have fallen from the sky. When he went to examine it more closely, he found a baby boy with a tail, sealed inside a little round pod. Gohan decided to take the child home and raise him as his own. But the boy had an angry, violent nature, and before long the old man was at his wits' end. Then one day, there was a terrible accident. The child fell into a deep ravine and hit his head. The injury was nearly fatal. But somehow, miraculously, the boy survived. What's more, after that, he was no longer violent. From that day on, he became a happy, loving boy.
-->'''Goku''': The boy was me, wasn't it?
-->'''Roshi''': Yes...

* Done literally in ''Manga/TriageX'' during [[spoiler:Hitsugi's rematch against Kaori and Kaoru]]. She tells them about a young girl who suffered from a debilitating disease, and whose scientist father began experimenting on her to try and cure it. After developing a drug that boosted the girl's strength and endurance to superhuman levels, the man lost his way and started experimenting on others as well, until finally the girl snapped and killed everyone involved in the experiments. [[spoiler:Hitsugi]] then reveals that she was the little girl, and [[spoiler:asks Kaori and Kaoru how they managed to survive, revealing that they were also used as test subjects by her father]].