History Main / BecomingTheMask

** Jack Klugman and Tony Randall when they played Oscar and Felix, respectively on the 1970s ''Theatre/TheOddCouple''. Initially, both of them would have preferred to work with an actor that they'd co-starred with in their earlier performances of the original play. However, they very quickly bonded in the pursuit of an ever-funnier show-they'd argue all the time at work, sure, but it was always about the script and perfecting the scenes, never about them personally. Years later Klugman actually wrote a book in tribute to his and Randall's friendship, titled: ''Tony and Me: A Story of Friendship''.

** Jack Klugman and Tony Randall when they played Oscar and Felix, respectively on the 1970s ''Theatre/TheOddCouple''. Initially, both of them would have preferred to work with an actor that they'd co-starred with in their earlier performances of the original play. However, they very quickly bonded in the pursuit of an ever-funnier show, and years later Klugman actually wrote a book in tribute to his and Randall's friendship, titled: ''Tony and Me: A Story of Friendship''.

[[folder: Myth & Folklore]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* A sad literal example in ''VideoGame/DragonFable''. [[FallenHero Sir Valen]] dons the cursed armor of Doom Knights for the power necessary to save his love. He succeeds, but by the time it's over, [[TheCorruption very little of his humanity is left]] and the armor wears him more than he wears it. Now known as Sepulchure, he's one of the strongest, most sadistic, and successful villains in the entire game.
* Zachary Comstock of ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' is a complicated case, mixed over with BelievingTheirOwnLies. He works tirelessly to keep up his image as a religious leader, [[spoiler: lest he be forced to face by the guilt of his truly horrible past]], and has spent so much time abusing his knowledge of the future that he truly believes himself to be a prophet. He boasts about Wounded Knee, even though [[spoiler:the atrocities he committed there were what drove him to abandon his past identity as Booker [=DeWitt=] and become Comstock]], and he would declare anyone who suggested this a traitor. A Voxophone found in the ''Clash in the Clouds'' DLC has Rosalind say this of him explicitly.
-->'''Rosalind''': But at some point, the man became incapable of [[BelievingTheirOwnLies distinguishing his performance from his person.]]
** [[spoiler:When he comes to Rapture and becomes Booker once more to escape the guilt of Elizabeth's death in ''Burial at Sea'', he loses all traces of his "Comstock" persona, so that the ending once more comes as a shock]].
* [[KnightTemplar Sherman Shallancer]] of ''VideoGame/FairyFencerF'' acts like a pure and good man striving for world peace, glossing over the fact that he's willing to do anything to reach those means. In the Vile God route, he gradually changes into the good man he's pretending to be and even looks to atone for his over-the-top actions in the past.
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfLegendia'', Senel infiltrates the village where Shirley and Stella live, acting as a soldier of Vaclav. Senel pulls a HeelFaceTurn while there and forgets about his mission, wanting to live in peace beside them. But, [[DoomedHometown that doesn't last]].
* Cait Sith in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', 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.
** [[spoiler: Cloud]] wanted to be a badass SuperSoldier hero like the members of SOLDIER, but was regulated to being a faceless Shinra goon instead, and during the events of the game makes believe that he was a member of SOLDIER all along. [[spoiler: Though to be fair, he's lying even to himself due to intense mental trauma after being experimented on and watching his war buddy Zack die right in front of him. When the truth eventually comes out, though, he's already become a massive thorn in Shinra's side, and eventually goes on to become the hero he always wanted to be, albeit fighting ''against'' the organization he wanted to join and one of the ex-SOLDIER members he looked up to.]]
* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
** Leliana was originally basically an assassin, and she had to flee her home country and go undercover. She pretended to be a [[GenkiGirl sweet, bubbly girl]] with a strong faith in the Maker--then she decided she actually ''liked'' the whole "being happy" thing.
** 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 Iron Bull in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' is a former Qunari secret policeman who, following a breakdown, was reassigned to Orlais as a spy "pretending" to be a mercenary. He now leads his own company, while being [[OvertOperative quite open]] about the fact that he's a Qunari and regularly reports home. His personal quest forces him to pick a side.
* Done to a certain extent with Miranda Lawson in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', particularly with a mostly-Paragon playthrough; though she wasn't using a fake identity so much as intentionally downplaying the extent to which she was spying on Shepard. She starts the game viewing them largely as a tool; she's not lying when she says that she thinks they're the only person who can get the job done, but her loyalty is entirely with Cerberus and the Illusive Man. Still, she plays nice with Shepard's moralistic tendencies throughout the game, is increasingly vocal about how ''Shepard'' is in charge and she's their loyal second to quell distrust among the recruited specialists...and by the endgame, if forced to choose between standing with Shepard or the Illusive Man, she leaves Cerberus ''cold'' without a moment of hesitation.
** With a male Shepard, she can become genuinely loyal enough to fall genuinely in love with him to the point that no matter what you do, in the end if he leaves her she becomes so distracted and shaken (likely due to lost sleep and self-doubt as much as heartbreak) that she makes critical mistakes when she's attacked by Kai Leng in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', and ends up dying in Shepard's arms. After saving the day and making a few sarcastic quips, of course. She's still ''Miranda'', after all.
** To a certain degree, her odd friendship with Jack has hints of this, crossing over with FireForgedFriends. Their ceasefire starts with Shepard essentially ordering them both to play nice, forcing them to reluctantly restrain themselves to barbs and bickering while still being ''passably'' polite and having to work in close proximity, often watching each other's backs if the player chooses to take them on missions together. By the third game they seem to have buried the hatchet and their forced cooperation seems to have shifted to genuine mutual respect; they seem to actually enjoy one another's company.
* The whole plot of ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars 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.
** Ditto for ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'', with the exception that Lamia is the only choice.
* Claves in ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'' was a spy for Count Waltz, but chose to reveal their deception after falling in love. Unfortunately, RedemptionEqualsDeath.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** Rose in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' states near the end of the game that her getting together with Raiden was an act for the Patriots to learn as much about him as she could, noting that she even changed her hair color and mannerisms to fit what Raiden would like, but also notes that actually falling in love with him was genuine (though Raiden, at least initially, doesn't believe her when she says this).
** Ditto Decoy Octopus in ''Videogame/MetalGearSolid'': According to his bio, he has to undergo psychic therapy after he's done being disguised as someone else, since his disguises are absolutely perfect down to the slightest detail... including blood type and DNA. This [[TheUnfought bites him in the ass very early on]], as him taking in the blood and DNA of the DARPA Chief makes him a target of the FOXDIE virus Snake was injected with before his mission. The guy even files down his cheekbones where necessary to ensure that the shape of his face is the same as his disguise's.
** And later in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', we have [[spoiler:Revolver Ocelot, who specifically tricked ''himself'' into thinking that he was Liquid by way of hypnotherapy and (what else) nanomachines, so that he could fool the System and gain access to the Patriots' AI]].
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'': [[spoiler:Paz/Pacifica Ocean, a DoubleAgent for Cipher, a.k.a. Zero and the Patriots. Her diaries reveal that she goes from outright despising and deriding Big Boss and the members of his army to wishing she could spend a few more days with them before carrying out her orders]].
** Eventually happens in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' to [[spoiler:Big Boss/Venom Snake. When he regains his memories and remembers that he's only Big Boss's body double, he continues to play the part anyway, eventually becoming the Big Boss that Solid Snake fights at the end of the original ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear|1}}''. Helps that the real Big Boss himself acknowledges him as Big Boss]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'', Starkiller spends time gathering "allies" while pretending to be a Jedi. Over time he begins to make good decisions, and begins to play the part very convincingly. [[spoiler: By the time Darth Vader betrays him, he realizes that he ''is'' a Jedi. And goes on to challenge the Sith. He saves the rebels, but [[RedemptionEqualsDeath it doesn't go well for him.]] ]]
* Invoked as part of the Jedi's master plan in the first ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': upon capturing [[spoiler: Darth Revan, conqueror of almost half of the known galaxy]] they force him into a 'mask' of sorts and send him off to do good deeds for the republic as [[spoiler: the player character]] in hopes that the character he's been made to play will become his true face. Depending on how the game proceeds this either goes very well or goes [[GoneHorriblyRight much, much too well]], since the mask can end up becoming [[spoiler: a much more vicious and effective sith lord than the original Revan ever was]].
* ''VideoGame/RivalSchools'' pulls this off in both series' games. [[spoiler:Kyosuke Kagami]]'s work with Taiyo High in ''United By Fate'' convinces [[spoiler:him that his twin Hyo's plan may not be the best idea]], while [[spoiler:Yurika Kirishima]]'s time at Seijyun High (and specifically inspired by [[spoiler:her best friend, Akira]]) in ''Project Justice'' moves [[spoiler:her to betray her younger brother Kurow]].
* The whole damn point of [[spoiler:Eine's, AKA Katarina's,]] subplot in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem]]''. She was forced by her sister to [[spoiler:disguise herself as a new recruit in the Altean Army and assassinate Marth]]. The party is dumbfounded by the revelation, but [[spoiler:Eine]] seems to genuinely regret her actions. At the end of the subplot, she leaves her true identity behind to become her alias, serving Marth tirelessly to atone for her actions.
* Jansen Friedh in ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey'' starts out as TheMole ([[PaperThinDisguise as the other party members are perfectly aware of]]), but it only takes him a day or so of traveling with Kaim and Seth to decide he likes the two of them a lot better than he likes [[SmugSnake his employer]]. Falling hard for TheHighQueen Ming Numara is the final straw.
* [[spoiler:Joshua]] of ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' decided to [[spoiler:keep Shibuya the way it was after winning the last Game]] at the end because of his experiences with Neku.
* Combined with ManchurianAgent in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld''. It's pretty complicated, but it all boils down to [[spoiler:Ratatosk embracing the side of his personality that had originally been a facade and nearly eclipsed his original murderously angry persona]].
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' when one story arc has you tracking down an undercover police officer who turns out to have [[FaceHeelTurn fully joined]] the villain group he was infiltrating.
** This is possible for ''the player'' if you choose to start in Praetoria. You're required to choose a philosophy (Loyalist or Resistance) at the start of the game. Players can choose to do missions for the opposite faction, periodically contacting their faction leader to twist the results one way or the other. As long as you continue to periodically contact your faction leader, you're still considered to be "undercover". However, it's incredibly easy to find yourself "forgetting" to check in with your former faction leader...
** Vanessa [=DeVore=], leader of the Carnival of Shadows, coincidentally managed to find and put on an actual mask containing the soul of one of her ancestors. At first the two struggled for control of her body, but eventually began to work together, making Vanessa (formerly a normal, non-evil person) a violently hedonistic villain with PsychicPowers.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', Alex Mercer is [[spoiler:quite explicitly dead and gone. However, the corpse was subsumed and reanimated by the Blacklight virus, which imitated him so completely, so perfectly, that TheVirus believes it ''is'' Alex Mercer. Even after it finds out the AwfulTruth, "Mercer" is changed by the experience, evolving from the monster that Mercer was as a human, to a rampaging sociopath with occasional flashes of heroism, to a SociopathicHero, given that he protects New York from being nuked when it would have been far easier for him to simply do nothing and save himself]].
* Also happens a lot in ''VideoGame/MitadakeHigh'' when the Killer/Kira starts befriending others in order to betray them later, and ends up caring about them, and even sparing them at the end of the game. A weirder version can happen when the killer/kira doesn't notice that they are the killer/kira and plays the entire game as if they were innocent.
* Discussed in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''. One of the children that you play hide 'n seek with at the end of the game questions that, "if you have so many masks, what is your ''real'' face?"
-->"Your true face... What kind of...face is it? I wonder... The face under the mask... Is that...your true face?"
* Taichi in ''VisualNovel/CrossChannel'' is literally in the 'becoming' part of this trope. He's really trying hard not to be completely insane and connect with people, unlike Youko. The mask slips every now and then, causing all of his relationships to be extremely unstable. The best example of this would probably be [[spoiler:the small slipup that occurs right after Yutaka committed suicide]] and he ruins his relationship with Kiri. She thinks he [[spoiler:killed Yutaka, when in truth he didn't really care much anymore]]. Before and after that, she's probably the only person apart from Youko who truly understands him fully.
* Kessler in ''VideoGame/InFamous'' is [[spoiler: unrecognizable as Cole's future self;]] he keeps a memento to remember his previous life by, but after fifty-plus years of scheming and plotting and acting how someone has to act to reach his position and maintain it, he's not that person anymore.
* NinjaMaid Cecilia of ''VideoGame/VanguardBandits'' initially hates the whole maid idea. But by the end of the game she's grown to love it so much she gets into an argument about wanting to keep all her maid costumes.
* [[spoiler: Margarete]] in ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' talks about this in one scene. She was ordered by the "Powers" (presumably, the French, whom she worked for) to spy on the crisis in Asia, where the game starts. When she meets [[IdiotHero Yuri]], she fully intends to use him to benefit her nation. However, as she worked with him, she grew attracted to his comic book-esque ways. She never follows through with her mission.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** Both played straight and inverted thanks to the act of "Mantling." Essentially, to mantle someone, one must become so like them that there ceases to be a functional difference between the two entities; it seems that at this point the universe itself ceases to distinguish between the two, and they become one entity. Several famous examples:
*** One theory behind [[FounderOfTheKingdom Tiber Septim]]'s [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascension]] as the [[DeityOfHumanOrigin deity Talos]] is that Septim effectively "mantled" Lorkhan, the [[GodIsDead "dead" creator god]] of Mundus, the mortal plane. Between possessing the [[HumongousMecha Numidium]] and the Mantella (an unimaginably powerful soul gem said to hold the soul of Zurin Arctus/Wulfharth Ash-King/the Underking, all possible [[GodInHumanForm Shezarrines]]), Septim found a way to claim Lorkhan's station in the universe.
*** Whether or not [[PlayerCharacter the Nerevarine]] in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' is actually the TheChosenOne reincarnation of the original Nerevar, if he/she does the things the Nerevarine is prophesied to do, he/she ''will'' be the Nerevarine.
*** The [[PlayerCharacter Champion of Cyrodiil]] and [[spoiler:Sheogorath, [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] of [[MadGod Madness]]]] in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'''s ''Shivering Isles'' expansion. The Champion of Cyrodiil [[spoiler:was given the mantle of Sheogorath at the end of the Greymarch]]. The exact nature of this mantling is difficult to understand in full. Rather than acting like [[spoiler: Sheogorath]] until the universe effectively combined the two entities, Jyggalag surrendered the Mantle, or role, of [[spoiler: Sheogorath]] to the mortal Champion of Cyrodiil. Several hundred years later, the new Sheogorath looks and acts just as their predecessor; regardless of whatever their race or gender was prior to taking the mantle.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', a wizard sets up a ScoobyDooHoax, masquerading as the guardian spirit of a Nordic burial ground to scare away people from the nearby village while he loots the place clean. When he comes across a locked door, he spends over six months scouring the whole tomb looking for the key but can't find it. His failure drives him insane and he becomes convinced that he really ''is'' the guardian spirit of the tomb. [[spoiler:The innkeeper in the village had the key all along, and he happily gives it to you as a reward for dealing with that pesky spirit that's been scaring everyone]]. It's theorized by some (and arguably implied) that the tomb, and maybe draugr barrows in general, actually began changing him.
* ''VisualNovel/MagicalDiary'' has Damien nearly done with the con he's been pulling on you all year (and on the school in general for the past ''four years''), only to find out that he can't finish what he started. The realization causes him [[VillainousBSOD a few problems]].
* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs''[='=]s Wei Shen is described in his San Francisco police psych profile (before an undercover assignment for SFPD) as having "chameleon-like tendencies" which make him ''so'' "highly adaptable" that his handler needs to ensure that Wei doesn't actually change sides; [[spoiler:by the end he's less an undercover cop than a triad gang leader who's quietly cooperating with the police on a few cases, though in the end he returns to being a cop after all's said and done]].
* Kisuke, of ''VideoGame/MuramasaTheDemonBlade'' [[spoiler: infiltrated the household of Torahime as a servant to discover and steal an [[ArtifactOfDoom ancient demon blade]] her family was charged with protecting. During this time he fell in love with Torahime, and so, when the time came for the rest of his ninja clan to come and steal the blade he fought on the side of Torahime against his old companions. He fails, gets amnesia and spends much of his story trying to atone for his actions]].
* ''VideoGame/SuikodenV'' gives us Euram Barows, who, at first glance and throughout the game, shows us to be a foppish, idiotic buffoon. Background information received from Oboro, [[spoiler: and information learned after his HeelFaceTurn, shows that he actually starting acting this way to comfort his mother, who was mad with grief over the death of Euram's older brother Hiram, assassinated during a civil war prior to the game. Between that, [[SmugSnake the influence of his father]], and Euram's own emotional weakness, this act became real. The real Euram is a demure guy [[ItsAllMyFault who blames himself for a lot of problems]]]].
* Trish from ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' is posing as Dante's guide to Mallet Island in order to kill him for her master, Mundus. By the time she reveals her true colors in mission 20, Dante is mad at her for this and leaves her behind. This causes Trish to stick to her role as his guide for real.
* In ''VideoGame/LufiaCurseOfTheSinistrals'', [[spoiler:Erim, realizing how fond she has grown of humanity while travelling with the heroes as Iris, turns against the Sinistrals and revives Maxim after having killed him. Her sorrow over Maxim and Selan's deaths causes the Dual Blade to send her back in time, setting up the events of NewGamePlus]].
* The first of the "Jackal Tapes" in ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' warns against this. The Jackal suggests [[ShroudedInMyth intentionally building an image of yourself]] as a bloodthirsty maniac who kills in the most horrible ways possible for fun, to make your enemy fear you and become stronger in the process, but notes that all of it needs to simply be a display, otherwise you'll become ''less'' than a man and quickly get yourself killed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Originally travelling with Daenerys and Viserys to serve as TheMole for Varys in hopes of a royal pardon, Jorah gradually develops a BodyguardCrush on Daenerys, defending her life on several occasions and becomes her closest advisor in her mission to retake the Seven Kingdoms and restore the Targaryen dynasty, even after he secured his pardon. This is deconstructed and reconstructed across the later seasons: when Jorah's original allegiance is revealed, Dany has to exile him with the threat of death despite his pleas ([[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask and her own wishes]]). However, Jorah continues to fight on Dany's behalf despite being an exile, trying to win her favor (by capturing Tyrion) and saving her life multiple times. Eventually, after seeing the many tribulations Jorah went through for the sake of his new sovereign, Daenerys decides to give him a royal pardon of her own.
** Several characters note that Jon shows signs of this after his time as a FakeDefector with the wildlings, especially when he refers to them as Free Folk rather than wildlings. Tormund even goes so far as to suggest Jon will never be a true "kneeler" again. Jon himself becomes very torn about what he truly wants. At the very least, he came to genuinely love Ygritte. Ygritte, however, noticed that he is still at heart loyal to the Night's Watch, and although she tells him she is willing to ignore that, things soon comes to a head between the two.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
*** Taken quite literally in the episode "Masks". Data becomes the embodiment of The Sun, Masaka, wearing her mask. Picard dons her counterpart's mask to "become" Korgano and convince "her" (Data) to sleep and end the ritual.
*** Ro Laren goes undercover to infiltrate the [[LaResistance Maquis]] near the end of the series, but ends up sympathizing with them so much that she sabotages Captain Picard's plan to draw them out in the open and joins them for real.
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
*** In the episode "Soldiers of the Empire", a crew of Klingons are demoralized enough to [[BeneathTheMask drop their mask]] and let us see them as ordinary grousing soldiers just like humans. Then at the end they recover enough to put their mask on again and become a ProudWarriorRace.
*** There's an episode where Miles O'Brien infiltrates a crime syndicate. While doing that, he forms a genuine friendship with Liam Bilby, a local crime boss. Throughout the episode Miles becomes increasingly conflicted, and ultimately [[spoiler:attacks his [[Franchise/StarTrek Star Fleet]] liaison and tries to warn Bilby that he has been compromised]].
** In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', the crew finds out that some con artists are impersonating them. One of them, the fake Tuvok, ''really'' gets into the role: he seems to sincerely admire the values of the Federation, and is awestruck when he finally meets his counterpart face to face. The real Tuvok is not impressed.
-->'''Fake Tuvok''': Logic suggests that neither of us has the advantage.
-->'''Tuvok''': Your logic is flawed (''blinds him with a flashlight'').
* One episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' deals with this. [[spoiler:A con artist dates a rich girl in order to get her money while his partner finds her way in as a servant. The guy falls in love with the rich girl, however, and tries to break off the con. His partner kills him and tries to get away with it, but Castle and Beckett trick her.]]
* In season 2 of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Mohinder is originally working with HRG to infiltrate the Company, but eventually switches sides and betrays him, joining the Company for good.
** It's a popular (if not obligatory) concept in Sylar/Mohinder FanFiction that the two became infatuated with each other while Sylar pretended to be Zane during their roadtrip to Montana. Angst ensues.
** Sylar receives an involuntary Nathan mask at the end of season 3.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'':
** Sharon/Athena is ''ordered'' by the Cylons to make Helo fall in love with her and impregnate her. She ends up falling in love with him as well, and defects to the humans. Indeed, she becomes more anti-cylon in her attitudes than many humans.
** Later, [[spoiler:Boomer]], another copy of Number 8 [[spoiler:seduces/manipulates Tyrol to get him to help her]] but she hesitates to go through with it and soon regrets her actions.
** Another minor example is [[spoiler:Kat]] whose real name was Sasha. In her previous life, she used to be a drug runner and a smuggler which is where her piloting experience came from. When the Colonies were nuked, she took the name and identity of another woman that she knew was dead and worked herself a fake background and all. By the time her previous life caught up with her in Season 3, she was fully immersed in the identity she built herself.
* The Grinder
** After doing the show for 10 years Dean continues to act like the Grinder. They mention it in the series.
* The 1980s detective series ''Series/RemingtonSteele''. TheMole (Creator/PierceBrosnan) initially [[TheRealRemingtonSteele impersonates the fictitious Steele]] as a place to hide, but eventually settles into the role, even marrying the woman who ''created'' the persona in the first place.
* On ''Series/{{Wizards of Waverly Place}}'', Rosie was sent by the BigBad to seduce Justin and successfully manipulates him into stealing the Moral Compass for the Dark Realm. It wasn't until Gorog tried to destroy Justin for being an outsider that Rosie realizes she has genuinely fallen in love with him.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** Sawyer falls in love with the woman he is conning, and confesses to her that she was being taken advantage of. He then proceeds to carry through with the con and steal her money anyway, albeit with some apparent remorse.
** In season three, Juliet was meant to infiltrate the survivors in order to determine whether any of the survivors were pregnant, but by the end of the season she's firmly on the side of the survivors.
** Eko was guerrilla who essentially became his priest brother. He temporarily reverted to his former self twice: he killed guerrillas in self-defense in Nigeria, and when he met Ben Linus, he told him about an off screen incident in which he beat two Others to death with a rock.
* A short-lived series from the 90's called ''{{Series/Legend}}'' (starring Creator/RichardDeanAnderson and Creator/JohnDeLancie) focuses on a writer in the Old West who creates a popular series of pulp novels featuring a dashing cowboy hero known as Nicodemus Legend. With the help of a pesky, but clever, scientist, the author winds up taking on the role and identity of his fictional creation. And apparently, the author, who was pretty much a drunk and a jerk, finds that the selflessness and heroism are less and less of an act as time goes on.
* Will Traveler in ''Traveler'' becomes fond of the two roommates he's setting up, and ends up sparing their lives (at great cost to him later), against the plans of his employers.
* Cole Turner (Belthazor) in ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' was sent to kill the Charmed Ones before [[LoveRedeems love redeemed him]] and he abandoned his demonic power. Subverted in that he eventually found himself in dire need of power to protect his loved ones and snapped back to his demonic conditioning and tried to marry Phoebe in part of a long plot to set her up as queen of Hell and effectively spawn TheAntichrist.
* In ''Series/{{Highlander}}'', Kronos tells Methos that he's been pretending to be reformed for so long that he's started to believe it himself. When [=MacLeod=] learns about Methos' past, the resulting argument causes Methos to go back to Kronos.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Faith began her HeelFaceTurn like this. She [[FreakyFridayFlip switched bodies with Buffy]]. But after living only one day as Buffy, she effectively ''became'' Buffy. Or rather, her own semi-warped sense of what Buffy was like. She even [[FreakOut attacked]] Buffy-in-Faith's-Body, screaming that she was evil.
** 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]].
** Glory has taken on more and more human traits over the years, much to her annoyance.
* An unusual example of this takes place in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' 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]].
* In ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', the title character begins the show as an utterly emotionless sociopath who must fake all of his human interactions. However, as the series continues, he finds that he no longer has to pretend in many situations, coming to genuinely care for his family, developing a sense of empathy and feeling emotions beyond bloodlust. In the final season, a psychiatrist is amazed by Dexter's development.
* In ''Series/KamenRiderKabuto'', 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 ''Series/PrisonBreak'': T-Bag (who is someone who ''definitely'' can't redeem himself, despite being [[MagnificentBastard 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]].
-->'''T-Bag''': "You realize what I'm giving up here? I was guaranteed 50 grand!"
-->'''Gretchen''': "You're crying over 50 grand, are you serious?!"
-->'''T-Bag''': "I have a job! I make money, I get mail, people call me ''sir''."\\
'''Gretchen''': "12-hour days and eating left-over lo-mein. Something tells me Theodore Bagwell wouldn't last long in this situation."\\
'''T-Bag''': "Yeah, maybe. But ''Cole Pfeiffer'' would."
** Subverted in a later episode: T-Bag takes a proactive step towards being a Cole Pfeiffer-kind of guy by ''not'' killing a man he's holding hostage, who could be either an innocent Bible salesman or an evil Company agent. Turns out he ''was'' a Company agent after all. Violence ensues.
* In the original UK version of ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'', [[spoiler:Frank Morgan]] suggests this as the cause of Sam Tyler's condition. [[spoiler:The series also ends on this trope with Sam willingly immersing himself into 1973, though exactly ''how'' he does this is never fully revealed.]]
* In season four of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', [[spoiler:Tony]] begins a year-long relationship with [[spoiler:Jeanne Benoit]] as part of an undercover operation against her father, arms dealer La Grenouille. He genuinely falls in love with her in the process, which doesn't stop him from answering her inevitable "[[WasItAllALie Was any of it real?]]" with a simple "No."
** The same idea was used in an episode about North Korean sleeper agents, in which one of their number turned against the rest for the sake of her American husband and baby daughter.
** [[spoiler:Ziva]] also turns out to be someone who was originally sent as a spy, but grows more loyal to [[spoiler:NCIS]] than [[spoiler:her father and Mossad; so much so that she became a naturalized US Citizen so she could stay on as an official NCIS agent]].
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'':
** A bittersweet version occurred on a Mother's Day episode. The late Phil Hartman is with his mother, and he cannot get out of character. His mother calls him on it, and he realizes that he's spent so much time as ''other'' people he doesn't really know who ''he'' is. Mom knows who he is, though, so it'll be okay. ''sniff''
** That also happened in Hartman's monologue when he first came back to host in season 21, where Hartman does his monologue in different voices and runs crying into his dressing room, realizing that he's been playing so many characters and doing so many celebrity impersonations that he doesn't know who he is anymore.
** Similarly, when he appeared on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', Creator/PeterSellers informed Kermit that he had had his real self surgically removed. (See his entry under Real Life, below.)
* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'':
** 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.
** This happened to Glenn too, though in the opposite direction. He was a good-natured boy scout until he was thrown in juvie for something that was Earl's fault. He had to pretend to be a badass to survive in there, but he eventually internalized it. By the time Earl met him again, he was such a psychopathic criminal that everyone else in ''prison'' was afraid of him.
* ''Series/{{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.
** [[spoiler:Jazz Hoyt]] turns out to have been a Harvard law student who went insane and started believing himself to be a [[spoiler:biker]], which led to him actually becoming one. This meant that technically he was no longer delusional; this and the administrators' lack of interest in his past made them oblivious to any of this for a long time.
** Shillinger arranges for [[spoiler:Chris Keller]] to be Tobias's new roommate when he's introduced [[spoiler:as part of a long ploy to ingratiate him to Tobias and eventually betray him, causing sincere emotional distress]]. This ultimately backfires when the new roommates fall in love and proceed to cause Shillinger grief for the remainder of the series in a cycle of revenge plots.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'': 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 [[TearJerker it ''was'' his real face.]]. Even his poisonous blood has somehow changed human when he is killed.
* ''Series/{{Chuck}}'':
** When Chuck Bartowski first became the Intersect, it was an accident, and he was forced to work as a spy and foil terrorists and other bad guys against his will; a fact he complains about constantly. The show focuses on how Chuck slowly but surely begins embracing his saving the world role ''without'' coercion. Agent Walker in particular points out that although he denies, he really is a hero. At the end of Season 2, Chuck literally becomes the Intersect, again. And this time completely by choice.
** Sarah also finds herself actually falling in love with the guy she was supposed to be fake-dating for the sake of their covers. A flashback scene even shows that Sarah initially considered Chuck a dateless chump and that seducing him would be a "piece of cake."
** 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 [[TheMole 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 MagnificentBastard.
* Although he never forsook his real loyalties, undercover fed Vincent Terranova often formed strong personal connections with the criminals he investigated on ''Series/{{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.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Being stranded on Earth, [[OverlyLongName Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen]] got to know and enjoyed the everyday human rituals she conducted as Margaret Blaine. To the point where the Doctor has to point out that she is pleading for mercy from a dead woman's lips. She 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 noticed a nuclear power plant in the middle of the city designed to go apocalyptic?
--> '''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!
** The Doctor himself states that his "real" name doesn't matter in "The Name of the Doctor", stating that your name is a promise you make.
** In the Hartnell-era story "The Aztecs", Barbara has been mistaken by the Aztecs as a godlike reincarnated priest and assumes GodGuise to play along, in the hope of influencing the culture into abolishing human sacrifice. The Doctor rants at her in a notorious scene - "You cannot change history, Barbara, not one line!" to which Barbara replies, "Not Barbara; Yetaxa". She even refers to herself with the RoyalWe from then on.
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'':
** In "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult", Monk joins a cult to investigate claims that its leader murdered an ex-member, but he actually starts to get sucked in to its teachings when he finds that they help him overcome his OCD. It's also present to a lesser extent in the episodes where he goes undercover as an office worker and a butler, only to find that those jobs suit someone with his obsessions extremely well.
** On the other hand, pretending to be a hitman who happens to look [[IdenticalStranger identical]] doesn't work out so well.
** And in "Mr. Monk and the Actor", an actor playing Monk in a movie based on an earlier Monk case ''(Mr. Monk and the Astronaut)'', the actor gets so wrapped up in the part that ''he'' believes he's the real Adrian Monk.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Lilah admits to Angel in season 3 that she became her "game face" long ago.
* Happens to Quinn in ''Series/{{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 HeelFaceTurn, even saving the club when Sue seems successful in disbanding it. (It's debatable, though, how much Quinn would have Become The Mask if her pregnancy hadn't turned her into a FallenPrincess, though.)
** Also Santana who was also a spy at first but has admitted that Glee club is the best part of her day.
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' has a humorous non-evil version. Eliot has to play the part of a baseball player as part of a con, but as he tells Hardison before the con, he doesn't like baseball. However, as the con goes on, it turns out that not only is Eliot really good at baseball, but he starts to enjoy it too. He even gets a sandwich named after him. It leads to the following exchange:
-->'''Nate''': All right, good news, bad news.\\
'''Tara''': Good news?\\
'''Nate''': The mayor's hooked. We're in the pinch.\\
'''Tara''': Bad news?\\
'''Nate''': I think we lost Eliot until the playoffs.
** This was also the in-show reason for [[PutOnABus Sophie's absence]] when [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Gina Bellman went on maternity leave.]] Sophie had worked under so many different personas as a grifter that she wasn't sure who she was anymore, and she needed time to really find herself. Sophie isn't even her real name, it is merely the name she had adopted as her primary identity.
* ''Series/{{Alias}}'':
** In Season 2, 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 Creator/ChristianSlater) 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 ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' 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 life -- Xena realized this when she remembers that she actually killed one of the warriors he mentioned. Xena warns him that people eventually truly become what they pretend to be after a while. At the end of the episode, the guy decides to pretend to be something he can live with and try his hand at being a hero.
* ''Series/{{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]].
* A similar thing happens in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "All Dogs Go To Heaven". [[spoiler: A skinwalker disguises himself as a family dog, waiting for the call to attack and turn the family. He eventually grows to love the family, and almost dies to defend them.]]
* ''Series/WhiteCollar'':
** In the episode "Forging Bonds", it's shown that Neal went with the alias Nick Halden to work for Vincent Adler. As Nick Halden he meets Kate, and he has a good life going for him, to the point where Mozzie has to keep reminding him about the con he's trying to run. He even blows off the con for Kate at the con's most pivotal moment. He only came clean when Adler conned him out of every penny he had, and that was only because the old life was the only one he had left and he wanted Kate to stay with him.
** Another episode has Peter going undercover to the point that he starts to really enjoy his fake job.
* Detective Inspector Zain Nadir of ''Series/TheBill'' is warned of how this can occur to undercover detectives who stay in a role for too long. This somewhat happens to him too when he becomes romantically involved with a drug dealer.
* In the ''Series/NewTricks'' episode "Only The Brave" it turns out the murderer was ReverseMole, Knowles, who had gone native in the gang he was sent in to investigate.
* ''Series/BreakingBad'':
** Walt creates the persona Heisenberg when dealing with the criminal underworld. As he gains more and more power, the ruthless, [[spoiler: murderous]] Heisenberg becomes his new personality, and the mild-mannered pushover that was Walter White becomes the mask, to no longer existing by the time season 5 rolls around. However, there are also many interpretations for BeneathTheMask.
** Jesse has two of his junkie friends infiltrate his 12-step program to sell meth to the other addicts. They don't have much success. Later Jesse learns that his dealers are actually doing the steps for real and taking pride in their recovery.
* This is what happens to Horatio's brother Ray in ''Series/CSIMiami'', while he's undercover in South America. He ends up going dirty and gets killed because of it.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': "John Reese" is just a cover identity he was given when he became a government assassin. He discarded his life before that and became the new identity.
* An episode of ''Series/HumanTarget'' has a man find out that his wife is a deep-cover Russian spy. When Chance exposes her, he finds out that she had gotten married as part of her cover but has actually fallen in love with the guy since then. Unfortunately, her old contacts have come back expecting her to do her job. She non-fatally shoots her husband in front of her accomplices, and Chance (who figured it out) then non-fatally shoots her in front of them. The couple then get new identities, and can live without being pursued by her former partners.
* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': [[spoiler:Moriarty seduces Sherlock into a relationship in order to get close enough to him to study him. She didn't count on actually falling in love with him. This proves her undoing when Watson correctly deduces that it has happened]].
* ''Series/{{How I Met Your Mother}}'': In "[[Recap/HowIMetYourMothers1e17LifeAmongTheGorillas Life Among The Gorillas]]", Marshall fakes being a jerk so he can fit in with his new jerk co-workers, but it starts to effect his personality especially when he's around Lily.
* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'':
** Pennsatucky. Prior to her trial, she was a meth-head getting her fifth abortion. When she killed a nurse at an abortion clinic for "disrespecting her", pro-life activists assume she was one of their own and raised money to get her a good lawyer. Pennsatucky played along but eventually became a hardcore, pro-life, right-wing Christian. She eventually toned down alot in season two and three however.
** Black Cindy claimed being Jewish in order to get the kosher meals at meal times, which were of higher quality. However, as she studied more and more about it, she found out it was a faith where she felt she truly belonged, and [[spoiler: and the end of the season, truly wanted to be Jewish]].
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Coupling}}'', Jane says that she once invented a "crazy" twin sister who could do all the wild things she wouldn't normally dream of doing. That sister's name was ... Jane. This actually explains a lot; on the other hand, it's [[CloudCuckoolander Jane]], so who knows?
* ''Series/FatherBrown'': The man performing the DeadPersonImpersonation in "The Truth in the Wine" comes to thoroughly believe in the dream of the late colonel, and does his best to live a life worthy of the dead man.
* One ''Series/MidsomerMurders'' episode features a mystical lodge originally set up by two crime-partners as a con to separate wealthy people from their money. Ten years later, one of the partners wants to get out as originally planned for then, while the other has come to genuinely believe in the stuff he's spouting (which has also resulted in a massive drop in rates).
* In the final episode of ''Series/{{Dickensian}}'', [[spoiler: Compeyson is forced to confess his deception to Miss Havisham, and it becomes apparent that, while he is annoyed with himself for not getting away with it, what's ''really'' upsetting him is that he's disappointed her. Arthur Havisham is amused to realise that the arch-manipulator he hired to con his sister, and quickly lost control of, has genuinely fallen in love with her]].
* In ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}'', M'gann M'orzz, a White Martian DefectorFromDecadence, lives on Earth in human form. In the episode [[Recap/Supergirl2015S2E7TheDarkestPlace "The Darkest Place"]], when [[Comicbook/MartianManhunter J'onn]] discovers her identity and tries to kill her, she asks to die in her human form, now seeing it as her true face.
* In the fourth episode of ''Series/SweetVicious'', Ophelia, normally a [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair green-haired]], punkish hacker chick, disguises herself as the perky blonde "Fifi" in order to infiltrate a sorority that's hazing its pledges. She actually starts to identify with the sorority, feeling that, for all the horrors of their InitiationCeremony, it is actually creating genuine bonds of sisterhood among them. (That, and she's also [[WellDoneSonGuy finally winning her mom's approval]] by pledging to the same sorority she was a member of.) Any sympathy she has goes out the window, however, when the scope of their crimes becomes apparent.
* A {{downplayed|Trope}} example in ''Series/TheFlash2014'' - at the end of season 1, after [[spoiler: Harrison Wells has been revealed as the evil Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne]], he creates a video recording of himself, to be shown to Barry in the event his evil plan is foiled, and confessing to the crime he committed that Barry's father was unjustly convicted of. He stated that during his masquerade, he actually became fond of Barry, and as long as he failed in his goal anyway, he had no reason to prevent Barry from having a happy life.
* The 1989 mini-series ''Twist of Fate'' has SS Colonel Helmut von Schrader hunted after taking part in a failed plot against Hitler. He hits upon a wild plot to have his face changed and take on the identity of Jewish prisoner Benjamin Grossman. But a clerical error sends him to a brutal concentration camp for the rest of the war. Once freed, he only wants to get to his family and then to Switzerland to collect the account he set up for himself. However, he first learns that his family was killed by the SS and that the account is among many seized by the Allies. Max, a Jew who helped him in the camp, soon talks von Schrader/Grossman into joining him in Palestine. Before he knows it, the former Nazi is an Israel hero and marrying a Jewish lady.
** 25 years later, when his former SS buddies come along, Grossman [[spoiler: sacrifices himself to stop their plan to steal uranium. His grown son (who had discovered the truth) wants to come clean but Max stops him, saying that as far as he's concerned, von Schrader died decades ago and the man they all knew was Ben Grossman, Jewish hero]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In the ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'' duology, Ward has been ObfuscatingStupidity in front of everyone, for ''years''. Even the ''ghost'' that haunts the castle almost believes it, implying that Ward has been acting stupidly even if he thought he was alone. While he didn't become stupid in the process, he finds it very difficult to stop acting, and eventually reveals to a close friend that he suffers from an identity crisis, as the persona he shows instead of his stupid one is ''also'' a mask, in which he imitates someone else, and he has actually no idea what his true self is.
* ''Literature/TheImpairment'' features two examples of this [[spoiler: Meleeo and Allie Parker]] and both are an interesting contrast from one another. Whereas [[spoiler: Allie Parker, the human, dons a monster suit of which she commits murders on Mildwood University and grows to believe herself to be a "mother" of sorts to the Nytera, the creatures running amuck at night, Meleeo, the alien, adapts to life on campus in the form of a mild mannered human college teacher named Norman Oswald and plays the role of a helpful mentor to students, including Kyle and Mark especially]].
* In the ''Literature/BoundarysFall'' series, [[spoiler:Katya]] is one of many agents sent to infiltrate Alrendria by Tylor Durange to act as spies and, if need be, assassins. [[spoiler:She falls in love with Dahr]] but continues to pass along information until a critical moment, when Jeran, who has figured out the secret, has himself handed over to Tylor as a diversion so that Prince Martyn can escape. Manages to combine both the MyGodWhatHaveIDone and the HeelFaceTurn options.
* There's an interesting variation of this trope in the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series. It turns out that [[spoiler: Scourge]] was a product of this, but in the reverse of the norm: See, [[spoiler: when he was little, he was tricked into running away from his home and happened to end up in the city. To survive, he managed to fool the other rogues residing there into believing that he was a cold-blooded killer so they would fear him and bring him free food. However, by the time he actually kills someone, he slowly starts to become the unfeeling, cold-blooded monster he was portrayed as in his debut]].
* In Henri Duvernois short story "Clothes make the man", a trio of thieves has one member wear a police uniform as part of their plan. At first he doesn't like it, but after being treated like a cop he 'arrests' his fellow thieves.
* Isobelle Carmody's ''Literature/TheLegendsongSaga''. Despite losing his usefulness to the Shadowman, Solen is quite glad when his 'death'/exile allows him to discard his wastrel persona. He is afraid that if he pretends too long and too deeply he will lose who he really is.
* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'' it's repeatedly pointed out by other demons that this seems to be what happened to Crowley; he's spent so much time making sure he fit seamlessly into the role of the human he's supposed to be that he became that person over time, and eventually comes to really love humanity. Aziraphale does this as well, integrating into humanity well enough that he becomes enough of a bastard for [[HeterosexualLifePartners Crowley]] to [[HoYay spend several millennia with]].
** Likewise, at one point, Adam the young Anti-Christ is sent a massive Hellhound that takes the form that Adam most desires for it, which just so happens to be a small yapping dog. While it initially struggles with the new instincts it gets as a result of TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody, it grows to enjoy its new form and carefree life of catching sticks more than it ever enjoyed chewing up the souls of the damned and such. The presence of female dogs probably didn't hurt much.
* The plot of ''Literature/TheAssassinsOfTamurin'' centers around the FemmeFatale 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 TheChessmaster's, are best for the kingdom.
* Franchise/StarWarsLegends:
** In Creator/AaronAllston's ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]]'', former Imperial Intelligence agent Gara Petothel fits this trope to a "T". She infiltrates Wraith Squadron as Lara Notsil, but soon finds that GoodFeelsGood and she prefers her Rebel identity. She even falls in love with fellow pilot Myn Donos, the SoleSurvivor of a squadron her information work helped destroy! She gets to declare her love before her identity as TheMole is exposed, and even with everyone believing her to be an Imperial, she still goes on to do the right thing and bring down [[BigBad Zsinj]]. Afterward she adopts her old training persona of Kirney Slane and settles down with Myn.
** The ''Literature/HandOfThrawn Duology'' has the Devist family, a number of clones of AcePilot Soontir Fel who kept together and secretive to avoid the FantasticRacism that comes with being a clone. They were set up as a cell of sleeper agents, supposed to answer the call when the Empire needed them, and in the meantime they became farmers. But like Soontir before them, they [[FarmBoy loved the soil]], and loved it more than the Empire. When they scramble in their TIE interceptors and 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 [[Literature/NewJediOrder 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...
** ''Literature/LukeSkywalkerAndTheShadowsOfMindor'' has Luke half-awake during 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 [[GrandTheftMe 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 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}}y metaphor-heavy sequence.
** Luke seems particularly prone to this trope. It's the only thing anyone remembers about ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire''. That and the Emperor's clones.
** Lowbacca in ''[[Literature/YoungJediKnights Diversity Alliance]]''. He isn't racist, but he can see where the Alliance gets their ideas from. Even though they're basically the {{Flanderiz|ation}}ed version of the Black Panthers.
* Robert A. Heinlein's ''Literature/DoubleStar'' is about an actor who is hired to [[EmergencyImpersonation impersonate a kidnapped politician so that an election won't be disrupted]]. As time goes on the job gets stretched longer and longer and then the politician dies, with the masquerade still in place. He has to keep up the impersonation for over 25 years, and pretty much becomes his role. (He was an anti-Martian before the job, and is hired to impersonate one of the biggest pro-Martian activists. By the end of the 25 years, he has completed all the causes of the politician, and more.)
* In Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/{{Foreigner}}'' series, a wandering starship's crew are marooned on a planet of nine-foot-tall humanoid aliens, called 'atevi'. Unable to understand human emotions or the idea of love and friendship, they went to war against the perceived threat to their way of life. Human annihilation was only prevented by scholars on both sides equating the "English" (or should that be Basic?) word for treaty, with man'chi, the ateva word for association, a hard-wired homing instinct under fire. Since then, humans live on the island of Mospheira and the atevi of the Western association remain on the continent. No one is allowed to make contact between the two except the interpreter, or 'paidhi'. Bren Cameron becomes so attuned to atevi mindsets and language that he eventually becomes aligned with their point of view and begins to lose human feeling. He cannot show any form of emotion, because that would be deemed extremely threatening by atevi, whose legal recourse in disputes is assassination via an Assassins' Guild. He gradually takes on their mannerisms and can no longer remove the bland, impassive expression on his face - literally becoming the "mask" that he has to wear in public on the mainland.
* In the little known sequel to ''Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda'', ''Rupert of Hentzau'', the protagonist who had impersonated the King of {{Ruritania}} in the first book finds himself forced to masquerade on a permanent basis in the sequel although he is assassinated shortly after this happens.
* Occurs in reverse in Creator/CSLewis ''Literature/TheGreatDivorce''. A man who keeps trying to emotionally manipulate his love interest slowly becomes "The Tragedian", a false personality given to hackneyed dramatic gestures, and his real, honest (if average) personality gradually shrinks away to nothing. Ironically, she loved him as he was.
** In his other works, Lewis also discusses this trope in action (sort of) when explaining how he saw Christianity: by "acting like" Christ, you enable the inward transformation process to happen faster.
* Moist Von Lipwig in ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' initially only pretends to like his new post but ultimately gets his criminal thrills by being a LargeHam showman for the post office. At the end of the book he decides that as long as he never actually ''admits'' to himself he's become the mask, he never has to stop wearing it.
** As we see later in ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', [[spoiler:though on the surface he seemed to embrace his new job, his criminal's instincts have never left, and he becomes more and more dissatisfied with it as time goes on. His criminal instincts remain, but he acquires a strong drive to use them for good. (He was a sort of AntiVillain before, but has definitely graduated to LoveableRogue over the course of his new career)]].
** [[spoiler:Walter Plinge]] in ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'' eventually Became The Mask permanently, with a little help from Granny Weatherwax.
** In ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'' [[spoiler:Sergeant Jackrum. Not only has she been in disguise long enough to make a detailed account of most of the other women 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 sergeant 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.
*** Earlier, Polly herself, when she has infiltrate the fortress [[RecursiveCrossdressing recursively]] DisguisedInDrag, gets caught because she still walks like a boy.
** The Auditor from Thief of Time who becomes Lady Myria. In fact, a lot of the Auditors who take on human form start to act gradually more and more human. Lady Myria is just the only one to make a genuine HeelFaceTurn.
*** Which makes [[spoiler:her fate at the end]] something of a [[spoiler:TearJerker or DownerEnding]], a rare event in Discworld.
*** As well as the HeelFaceTurn, she acquires a soul, proving in the end that she's become a human.
* Creator/MichaelMoorcock's ''Behold the Man'' uses this trope quite effectively.
* OlderThanTelevision: Max Beerbohm's ''The Happy Hypocrite'' (1896) features a literal mask to hide the signs of dissipation in the villain's face; when the villainess realizes the truth and pulls off the mask, the face beneath has literally been molded into the mask's form.
* In the series ''Instrumentalities of the Night,'' by Creator/GlenCook, protagonist Else Tage is sent on a mission to spy on the west for the kingdom of Dreangor (i.e., Muslim Egypt). Pushed along by the fact that the EvilChancellor responsible for sending him on the mission is trying to have him killed, he starts questioning his loyalty. This process is clearly indicated by the fact that after spending the first book referring to him as Else, the narration switches to calling him by the pseudonym he's using.
* Creator/KurtVonnegut:
** The novel ''Literature/MotherNight'' is about an American living in Germany who was recruited to work as a Nazi propagandist so he could pass information to the Americans. While he never converts to Nazism, he has to act like one for so long that he's actually unsure of which side he belongs to. Near the end, one of his German relatives tells him that, even if he turned out to be a spy, it wouldn't matter because he'd done so much for the Nazi party that it would outweigh any work he did for the Allies. The introduction of the novel lampshades the theme when it says "We are what we pretend to be."
** ''Literature/CatsCradle'', 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 MessianicArchetype. Eventually, of course, the President gets too deep into his role and starts executing heretics.
* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'':
** 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, ''Literature/{{Memory}}'' happens and Miles finds his alter ego destroyed -- and he realizes that after everything else has been stripped away, he's still a Dendarii hillman in his bones. In other words, his Naismith persona had to always succeed, but his Vorkosigan persona simply didn't know how to lose. Miles successfully adjusts by finally allowing his true identity to fulfill the impulses his alter ego had been satisfying, though his mother claims she thought he'd flee Barrayar and "choose the little admiral".
** 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 Becoming the Mask.
** Sergeant (then Armsman) Bothari becomes whoever his commanding officers need him to be. Torturer (for Ges Vorrutyer). Soldier (for Admiral Lord Aral Vorkosigan). Bodyguard (to Miles). Cordelia thinks of him as a hero, so he makes himself one for her.
* Creator/AgathaChristie 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.
* Creator/GKChesterton's book ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'' 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.
* In ''Literature/EndersGame'', Valentine starts to worry about adopting "Demosthenes's" more radical, hard-line opinions after writing too many columns under that name. (Whether Peter is similarly worried about becoming "Locke" is unknown.) She uses that as the basis of another article - that people who give in to the Warsaw Pact will end up giving up everything (note that there's some [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany historical evidence]] for this idea - just ask Neville Chamberlain).
** Whether Peter is worried about the possibility, this occurs to him throughout the ''Literature/EndersShadow'' series. Contrasting the sadistic boy in ''Ender's Game'' to the non-aggressive Hegemon in ''Literature/ShadowOfTheGiant'' displays how Locke's persona changes Peter Wiggin.
-->'''Valentine''': Perhaps it is impossible to wear an identity without becoming who we pretend to be.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', Boba Fett occasionally mentions that this is how he became the bounty hunter he is, by working out how a hunter "should" act and sticking with it until it became second nature. Understandably, it wasn't very good for his social skills.
* In ''Outcaste'', first of the ''Literature/{{Spaceforce}}'' novels, the protagonist Jay is born into a world where everyone's occupation is absolutely determined by birth, or 'caste'. Dissatisfied with his fate as a lowly blacksmith, Jay sheds his identity and masquerades first as Priest Caste, and then as Swordbearer Caste. He spends many years as a swordbearer, is evidently comfortable with this identity, and presumably would have lived the rest of his life like this if events hadn't conspired against him.
* In the classic SF story "Private Eye" by Creator/CLMoore and Creator/HenryKuttner, the main character radically changes his identity in order to give himself an alibi for a murder he is planning. Since the police have chronoscopes in the future, he needs to play the role to the hilt. At the end he realizes he liked his new identity better.
* The title character of ''Literature/{{Montmorency}}'' starts out as a thief in the Victorian era, who concocts an upper-class identity so he can fully savor the profits of his crimes. Eventually, he finds life as a respectable gentleman so satisfying that he goes legit, retiring the original thief-persona he's grown ashamed of, and anonymously making amends for his crimes.
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', as revealed in ''Changes'', [[spoiler:Martin becomes this. He was initially sent by the red king to infiltrate the Fellowship of St. Giles, but eventually comes to sympathize with them. Doesn't stop him from eradicating them to achieve his goals, though]].
* [[spoiler:Fidelias]] in ''Literature/CodexAlera'' takes a position in the First Aleran legion as the Aquitaines' spy. However, he finds that [[GoodFeelsGood he rather enjoys]] being [[spoiler:Valiar Marcus, and eventually betrays the Aquitaines to support Tavi, who he has decided would make a better ruler. (The fact that he's the rightful heir is entirely incidental)]]. Even the sections from his perspective tend to refer to him as [[spoiler:Valiar Marcus]] rather than his real name, {{foreshadowing}} how absorbed in the role he gets.
** This has been noted two times by characters. [[spoiler:Marcus/Fidelias]] chides the outwardly perfect, but incomplete disguise of [[spoiler: Gaius Sextus]] and later by [[spoiler: Octavian]], when he notes that [[spoiler: real difference between Valiar Marcus and Fidelias is not in facial features, but in subtle things like speech patterns and intonations, stances and movement. Also, Fidelias smiles]].
* Creator/JackLondon's short story "South of the Slot" features a sociology professor who adopts a working-class persona to write about the culture from a scholarly standpoint, but finds himself spending more and more time as the rowdy labor-hero, until he eventually forsakes his career and impending marriage to become the other persona full-time.
** This, sort of, the plot of both his "The Call of the Wild" and "Whitefang." In the former a pampered pet dog is dognapped and becomes first a sled dog and then alpha wolf of a pack of Alaskan wolves; in the latter a wild wolf becomes a beloved pet. These would not really fit except that both stories are essentially told from the first person perspective.
* "If at Faust You Don't Succeed" (Millennial Contest, #2) By Creator/RogerZelazny and Creator/RobertSheckley: The harried archdemon Mephistopheles mistakenly signs up a medieval cutpurse named Mack the Club for the do-over of the Millennial Contest, thinking him the learned Dr. Faust- And Mack doesn't argue his identity, as he doesn't want to get in trouble with Hell itself for trying to rob the great magician Faust. [[spoiler: Mack eventually becomes the historical Faust by being better at being Faust than Faust himself- much to the original's wrath.]]
* In the Literature/AnitaBlake book Obsidian Butterfly, Anita is extremely concerned that her friend Edward, the sociopathic assassin, has proposed to a woman with two children under the guise of Ted Forrester, his respectable Federal Marshal identity. She quite thoroughly berates him about exactly how he managed to let his personal life get quite so out of control but relents when he manages to show her that he really does love his soon to be family. Of course, this involved Edward as PapaWolf, Anita as [[MamaBear Mama Werebear]] and a large body count when the bad guys decide it is a good idea to kidnap Edward's soon to be step children [[TooDumbToLive even when they know who he is]].
* Explicitly identified as one of the risks facing the shapeshifting secret agents of Ron Goulart's ''Chameleon Corps'' stories. Fearing the loss of his own identity one agent even spent several months as a baboon in an apparent attempt to avoid another assignment.
* In ''Literature/TheObernewtynChronicles'', supporting character Domick becomes a spy and works as a torturer under the name 'Mika'. As Mika, he is much crueler and selfish, to the point that it destroys his relationship with his partner Kella. Later, when he is [[MindRape under mental attack]], he flees into his own mind and Mika, who has evolved to become his own personality, takes over.
* Creator/OHenry's "A Retrieved Reformation". Master safecracker Jimmy Valentine poses as an ordinary salesman in a town, and becomes the mask to the extent that he gives up his old life and plans to marry the banker's daughter. He even arranges to get rid of his trunk of safecracking tools. And then, on the day he hauls the trunk into town to get rid of it, the one cop who might recognize him shows up hunting him. And a child gets trapped in the bank's vault in such a way that only a master safecracker could possibly get her out before she suffocates.
* In the ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'', Damodara starts as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, but after being in command of the honourable and noble Raput army he can't claim everything he does is based on mere practicality about not offending them. Even the Ye-Tai assigned to the army, despite the general opinion of the Ye-Tai on both sides of the conflict as being brutal barbarians, start behaving better, with the resulting increase in respect granted to them.
* In ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'' by Creator/RosemarySutcliff, Phaedrus the gladiator impersonates Midir the king [[spoiler:even dying to save his people]].
* Fulbert from the [[AfterTheEnd post-Apocalypse]] novel ''{{Literature/Malevil}}''. He [[BadHabits claims to be a priest]] but almost certainly wasn't one from before WorldWarIII. However, after he is seen in action it's revealed that even if he wasn't one before, he's certainly believes himself to be one since adopting the role. Unfortunately for La Roque, there is no change of heart with Fulbert and he is their SinisterMinister, believing his cruelty and [[spoiler: harboring Vilmain's marauding army]] to be [[NecessarilyEvil punishment from God]].
* A central theme in ''Literature/TheKingdomsOfEvil''.
* In Eric Ambler's ''[[SpyFiction Journey Into Fear]]'', Mathis, a fellow passenger of the protagonist on the eponymous journey, is a French socialist. Towards the end of the book, he reveals that by origin he was from the impoverished fag-end of the French aristocracy and a royalist who was henpecked by his snobbish petite bourgeois wife. After accidentally mortifying her in front of her friends by repeating the opinions expressed at a socialist meeting he attended out of curiosity, he started adopting deliberate public espousal of socialist views whenever she was unreasonably vicious to him. In the course of reading the books and pamphlets he buys to make his arguments more damaging (coupled with his experiences as a combatant in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI), he comes to believe in the truth of his pretended views and becomes a socialist by conviction (to the extent of being dismissed from his post of the manager of a factory when he supports its striking workers).
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', [[spoiler: Sansa Stark]] undergoes this when masquerading as [[MagnificentBastard Littlefinger's]] bastard daughter. She starts thinking of herself as Alayne Stone, her fake name, and refers to Littlefinger as her father, even while he's making sexual advances on her.
** This happens to several characters as the story goes on. Before book 4, the title of each chapter is the point-of-view character's real name. Starting in book 4, the titles of most chapters have changed to whatever alias or title the point-of-view character may be using at the moment.
* In the ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel ''Literature/{{Moonraker}}''; Gala Brand, an undercover government agent, is nevertheless passionate about her work as Hugo Drax's security officer.
* ''Literature/ThePostman'': A lone traveler AfterTheEnd finds a dead postal worker and takes his jacket and clothes for warmth. People he meets treat him like his actually ''is'' a postman, which he goes along with because it keeps him fed and sheltered. He eventually becomes an actual UnstoppableMailman and creates a network of post offices.
* One ''Series/SesameStreet'' short story had Big Bird pretend to be sick, only to fall sick for real the next day. He does get better by the end of the story, though.
* Ignazio Silone's ''Bread and Wine'' concerns a Communist fugitive in Fascist Italy who disguises himself as a priest and grows into the role, discovering a version of socialism more consistent with religious faith. In a possible Real Life twist, although Silone's public identity was as a Marxist turned anti-Communist leftist, historians in the 1990s alleged he was an informer for Mussolini's fascist government.
* Eleanor Farjeon's "The Kind Farmer" was a JerkAss who did some routine courtesy for a poverty-stricken widow who didn't know him. She told the whole town about his kindness and kept hanging around helping him out until he married her. For her sake, he kept up the "kind" facade. When she died in childbirth, he had to go right on being "kind" because of his daughter.
* Happens to Vlad Tepes in ''Literature/CountAndCountess'', who initially just wanted revenge against his father and the Ottoman Empire for the deaths of his brothers. At first his cruel practices (especially the impalement) are meant to psyche out the enemy army, with whom he spent some time [[ChildSoldiers as a child]], but the more cruelties he undertakes, the more commonplace he finds them.
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', this occurs when [[spoiler:Katniss pretends to be in love with Peeta just to keep them both alive in the arena. At the end of the first she's prepared to kill him to save herself. Contrast the end of the second, where she's totally prepared to die so he can continue living. At the end of ''Mockingjay'', she chooses Peeta over Gale]].
* There is a [[Literature/SweetValleyHigh Sweet Valley Twins]] book where the twins invent a triplet named Jennifer and have Jennifer become friends with mean girl Brooke in order to lure her into humiliation. However, the longer Elizabeth stays in the "Jennifer" role, the more she starts to sympathize with Brooke and genuinely wants to be Brooke's friend.
* Inverted and played straight in ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' with the Haunted Mask. When Carly Beth wore the mask, she became crueler and more menacing. According to WordOfGod, the Mask itself only became hideous when the maker covered his own hideous face with it.
* In the second half of ''Addie Pray'', the novel whose first half was the basis for the movie ''Paper Moon'', Mose and Addie get recruited to help a crooked lawyer fleece a rich elderly widow by Addie pretending to be her lost granddaughter. Addie (in particular) and Mose decide they like the old lady better than the lawyer.
* In one ''Literature/BerenstainBears'' book, Mama had grown increasingly annoyed with the family's lack of manners, and as a result, laid down some strict rules on how to have better manners. The cubs didn't like the idea and decided to drive Mama crazy by acting overly polite. It backfired when they began doing it naturally and even call Papa out on name-calling when he insults a driver in front of him toward the end of the book, little realizing (as the driver subsequently explained to him) that they were in front of a duck crossing.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars: [[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic The Old Republic]]: Annihilation'', Kana Tarrid was a promising Jedi padawan under Jedi Master Gnost-Dural. Even then she was a thrill-seeker less concerned with Jedi code and more concerned with action. In order to better channel her desires, Gnost-Dural sent her to infiltrate the Sith Empire under the guise of a fallen Jedi who wishes to study under Darth Malgus. Naturally, she ends up being corrupted and turns to the Dark Side, changing her name to Darth Karrid and becomning one of the biggest enemies to the Republic after building and commanding the ''Ascendant Spear'', managing to get herself appointed to the Dark Council despite not being human or True Sith.
* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': Zarracka pretends to be Benji's sympathetic 'Auntie Zarracka' to enlist his help in escaping her [[TailorMadePrison tailor-made cell]]. Once she was in the clear she planned on killing him for knowing too much. By that time she's become genuinely fond of him.
* In ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' books [[ShapeShifter doppelgangers]] suffer from this (or enjoy this) to a degree. Unlike most examples here this is instant rather than gradually increasing. When disguised they get much the same feelings the original would in the same situation. The one impersonating Geralt knew that Geralt would rather take him alive than kill.
* "Mark Twain" from ''Literature/BlondeBombshell'' was a probe for the Mk. II bomb, whose posing as a "Dirter" (human) turned from fitting in to becoming one. [[spoiler:Lucy Pavlov is revealed to have done the same, as she is the Mk. I.]]
* This happens to [[spoiler: Clover Lappina]] in ''Literature/SpectralShadows''. At first she arrives seeking only social status and money, feigning her love, but slowly...
* In the ''Literature/ClandestineDaze'' series, this is a danger dopplegangers face. They gain all of their victim's memories and feelings so this can bleed over. It's problematic because they've murdered the person they're now thinking like.
* Shai, of ''Literature/TheEmperorsSoul'', possesses five Essence Marks (powerful magic items that rewrite a person's history). Four merely grant useful skills and some physical changes, while allowing her to remember who and what she really is. The fifth is different. If she every uses that Mark, it will totally erase her old life. As far as she would then know, the simple farm-girl life that Mark gives her would be the only life she every had.
* Rose Lerner's aptly named ''True Pretenses'' is the romantic version: a fortune-hunting con man marries a rich heiress whose father has just died, only to find himself actually falling in love with her. [[spoiler: An interesting twist being that it turns into a mutually beneficial agreement; she learns about the con before they marry and still goes through with it, making a deal with him that he'll take a certain sum of the money and leave her the rest, which the terms of her father's will prevent her from accessing until she's married. Being that she's accustomed to independence, an absentee husband isn't a problem.]]
* In ''[[Literature/{{REEL}} REAL]]'', [[FalseFriend Likaï]] befriends [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Neru]] to steal his account and enter the Future Tournament in his place, and Neru, in turn, joins the tournament as Likaï's partner in order to sabotage their game, but instead the two of them develop a genuine bond of trust as they play together - mostly because Neru is actually trying to figure out whether or not [[WasItAllALie their friendship was all a lie]] and why Likaï is so desperate to win.
* ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}'': Subverted, knowing that Lauren is a [[spoiler: BodyDouble, you'd probably fancy that she got into that role by becoming the mask, but according to the Narrator's super sciency explanation, Lauren was already the mask before putting it on]].
* ''Literature/{{Flashman}}'': In his adventurous life, Harry Flashman has had to assume many roles, ranging from an Apache brave to a native soldier-turned-butler in India to a Danish prince, and often found himself thinking like the person he was supposed to be.
* In ''Literature/TheEmpressGame'', Kayla fears that this will happen after the person she's impersonating is put in a coma by an attack, since Kayla's temporary imposture then becomes indefinite. She doesn't want to have to be Isonde forever, since she'd get too used to it and therefore stop being ''her''.
* In ''Literature/TheBalancedSword'' series, there are multiple distinct cases of villains pretending to be heroes and choosing, or at least being seriously tempted, to give up their villainy and become genuinely heroic.
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Dalinar Kholin did this on purpose, with the [[CodeOfHonour Alethi Codes of War]]. As the Blackthorn, he was little better than a bloody cudgel in his brother's hand; with Gavilar's death, Dalinar realized he needed to be something else. He followed the Codes for long enough that it became as natural as breathing. Kaladin gets close to this truth when he wonders if his gesture at the end of the first book is just him pretending to be honorable. He decides that if you're willing to [[spoiler:''give up a [[ArtifactOfAttraction Shardblade]]'']] to "pretend" to be honorable, you're not really pretending any more.
* Happens to Holly in ''Literature/PrincessHolyAura'' in her new-found role and situation, which partly horrifies her. She even comes to hate her old identity.
* Aeril in ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'' infiltrates the Seven Dragon Paladins as the friendly and helpful "Coral". She grows to like her new role and to value the lives of common people, [[spoiler:eventually doing a HeelFaceTurn]]. Downplayed as she was already the WhiteSheep of her family.
* In ''Colonel Butler's Wolf'' by Creator/AnthonyPrice, the plot is kicked off by a Russian deep cover agent who attempts a HeelFaceTurn after discovering that he prefers his cover identity to his original identity. He winds up dead shortly afterward, leaving the heroes knowing that he existed but having to figure out what his mission was.
* An example in older sci-fi, ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' has the Facedancers, Tleilaxu shapeshifters that penetrate all layers of galactic society to act as informants, spies and saboteurs for their masters by killing and replacing strategically placed personnel. When they are all upgraded to absorb the personality of whoever they replace, in order for them to become entirely undetectable to conventional ways to find them, the Tleilaxu find that after a while they simply ''become'' the person they replaced entirely, going so far as to ignore and defy outright orders, which their programming should not have allowed. [[spoiler:In an act of spite, the Tleilaxu then activate a global kill-switch, killing all of them at the same time. The entire galaxy is shocked when a disturbingly high number of important people suddenly drop dead.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film -- Animated]]
* In ''Disney/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'', Kovu is sent to ingratiate himself into Simba's pride in order to kill him. Unfortunately for his mother, Kovu's growing love for Kiara allows him to break free of his mother's conditioning, realize the evil that he is collaborating in and decide he wants no part of it.
* Experiment 626/Stitch in ''Disney/LiloAndStitch''. He starts out masquerading as a dog for protection, but eventually Lilo's love causes him to do a HeelFaceTurn.
* Diego in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge''. He is supposed to get the baby and bring it to the BigBad, but eventually becomes its protector.
* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' has Gru pretending to be the three orphans' adoptive parent. However, [[spoiler:he rescues the three kids from Vector and keeps that role]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar 3 Europes Most Wanted}}'': The Zoosters masquerade as circus animals to hitch a ride on a circus train which is headed for New York which would allow them to finally return to the zoo. However, along the journey, they start to grow attached to the circus and make new friends with the circus animals. [[spoiler: [[IChooseToStay In the end, they realize they would much rather stay with the circus.]]]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' has this. [[spoiler:He begins to like Roxanne while dating her as Bernard so much that he doesn't want to be a villain anymore]]. However, [[spoiler:after Roxanne dumps him after finding out his identity]], it's back to being a villain for him. However, when [[spoiler:Roxanne tells him she needs him, while Titan has her tied up on top of a skyscraper, he flips to "hero" mode again and stays that way]].
* The danger of the unicorn's human guise in ''WesternAnimation/TheLastUnicorn''. Amalthea, the eponymous unicorn, slowly forgets who she was, as she becomes more and more human. It takes the three other protagonists (''including'' the human she fell in love with) to put her back on her quest.
* In ''Disney/TreasurePlanet'', Silver ends up [[ParentalSubstitute developing a bond]] with Jim Hawkins, despite him and his crew being the mole and simply being on the ship to steal the treasure. This serves as one of the primary conflicts of the story.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RockADoodle'', Pinkie (on the Grand Duke of Owl's orders) had Goldie keep Chantacler occupied to avoid encountering his friends. The only problem was that she was only supposed to ''pretend'' to fall in love with him, but she ended up falling in love with him for real, which lead her to side with Chantacler's friends and get him back to the farm.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
* Pretty much the entire plot of the Creator/KevinCostner film ''Film/ThePostman''. In a post-apocalyptic America where civilization has collapsed, Costner plays a wandering con man who poses as a postal worker of the fictional 'Restored United States of America' to deceive people into giving him food, shelter, and protection. In the process, he proceeds from pretending to deliver the mail to ''actually'' delivering the mail, and things sort of snowball from there until he eventually, entirely by accident, ends up basically creating the Restored United States of America he claimed to represent and becoming a postal worker for it.
* The whole point of the Creator/CharlieSheen film ''Beyond the Law,'' which in turn is based on several real stories about law enforcement agents who pretend to be outlaw bikers to observe the clubs engaging in illegal activities only to realize they feel more at home as outlaws than as cops.
* Played straight in the second ''Film/{{The Princess Diaries}}'' film. Nicholas is sent by his {{Evil Uncle}} to seduce Mia in order to become king, but he actually falls in love with her.
* Dana Carvey's character in ''Film/OpportunityKnocks''.
* This is more or less the entire plot of Creator/JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. The main character, who is "piloting"/"possessing" an custom-made alien body for the purpose of infiltration, even remarks in the film at one point that [[spoiler:the situation had become reversed - "out there was reality, and in here [in his human body] was the dream."]] At the end of the movie, he undergoes a ceremony that [[spoiler:permanently puts him in the avatar body, and he leaves his old human body to die in the toxic atmosphere]].
* The plot of ''Kagemusha'' by Creator/AkiraKurosawa. A lower-class criminal is taught to impersonate a dying warlord as a ''kagemusha'' (shadow warrior) in order to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable clan. He becomes more and more convincing after the death of the warlord, but he is revealed as in impostor after he is rejected by the horse of the warrior. However he chooses a death on battle, in a desperate search for identity.
* There are a number of stories in which the main characters pose as heroes, only to actually become real heroes by the end.
** The main characters of ''Film/ThreeAmigos'' are stars of many [[ShowWithinAShow movies within a movie]]. A small Mexican village mistakes their movies for a truthful account of actual heroes, and hires them to save the town from bandits, while ''they'' [[AndYouThoughtItWasAGame mistake the offer for an offer to simply put on a show]]. Unfortunately, having lost their jobs, they have no place to go to after learning the truth, so they decide to save the village anyway, becoming the very movie characters they played.
** ''Film/GalaxyQuest''
** ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife''.
** ''Film/MyNameIsBruce''
** ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun''.
* The main point of ''Film/WeddingCrashers''; this one using the "fall in love" variety with both protagonists. Things go south when they're discovered, but they manage to work out a happy ending.
* Occurs for the worse in ''Film/MeanGirls'': NaiveNewcomer Cady joins the popular girls' clique only because her friends want her to get inside information on [[AlphaBitch Queen Bee]] Regina so that they can [[BreakTheHaughty knock her several pegs down the social ladder]]. Cady succeeds in doing this, but her experience as one of the "[[TheBeautifulElite Plastics]]" causes her to become as shallow and popularity-obsessed as them, and she takes over Regina's former position. Fortunately, when she realizes what she's become (and has a FallenPrincess experience), she snaps out of it and makes amends.
* A variant appears in ''Film/{{Dave}}'': an actor who bears an uncanny resemblance to the President of the United States is hired by advisors to [[EmergencyImpersonation stand-in at an official function]] while the real President is seducing his secretary. Unfortunately, the President suffers a stroke [[OutWithABang during the act]] and is rendered non-responsive, forcing the actor to remain in the role indefinitely; he ends up becoming a [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent more noble and honest]] President than the actual one, and falls in love with the First Lady.
* ''Film/TheMusicMan'' himself, Professor Harold Hill.
* [[spoiler:Alice]] in ''Film/{{Antitrust}}'' was originally hired to be TheMole, but ends up falling for the protagonist and refuses to betray him.
* This is the main character problem affecting Robert Downey Jr.'s character in ''Film/TropicThunder''. Specifically, he's supposed to be an AffectionateParody of Daniel Day-Lewis.
* {{Inverted|Trope}} in the first ''Film/{{Darkman}}'' movie. When Darkman interacts with his girlfriend Julie after nearly having been burned to death, he makes good use of his artificial skin to pretend to be the same Payton Westlake he always was. However, at the end of the movie, when the BigBad has been defeated and Julie finally sees Darkman's face as it truly is, she tries to reassure him by telling him that she can still love him despite his horrible injuries. Darkman replies that their former relationship could never go on because, while he was wearing the mask of the old Payton (among other masks), the man behind the mask had changed into an altogether different person.
* This was the plot of the ''Film/JamesBond'' movie ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove''; the BondGirl 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 ''Film/WhileYouWereSleeping'', Lucy saves the life of the man she has a crush on and, due to a mistake at the hospital is assumed by the staff -- and the man's family -- to be his fiancée, whom they haven't met. A variation, however, in that Lucy isn't a villain with malicious intent; she's initially mortified by the error and tries to clear it up right away, but finds the man's warm, welcoming and immediately accepting family, in contrast to her own painfully lonely life and lack of family, a bit too hard to give up. Then she falls in love with his brother -- right before the man comes out of his coma and, due to what-he-thinks-is-amnesia, is convinced that she is his fiancée...
* A variation occurs in the Creator/WoodyAllen movie ''Film/{{Zelig}}'': the protagonist becomes the mask ''involuntarily'', taking on the traits of whoever is around him, be they Nazis, pilots, or Greeks.
* ''Film/UndercoverBrother'' 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 HeelFaceTurn.
* One of the big themes of ''Film/{{Clueless}}''. While many of Cher's actions require the pretense of altruism, she does genuinely grow altruistic and is very humbled by the experience whether it be success or mishap.
* ''Film/TheAssignment'' (1997). The protagonist, a naval officer with an uncanny resemblance to Carlos the Jackal, begins to take on the nature of the violent, charismatic terrorist after being trained to copy his methodology (as part of a plot to frame Carlos as a CIA informant so he'll be murdered by the KGB). The final scene shows him going to burn a spider with his cigarette as Carlos did in the opening scene, but he stops at the last second.
* ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' Does this quite literally [[MindScrew (or does it?)]] - Our protagonist Doug Quaid is told that his true identity is [[spoiler:actually Hauser, Cohaagen's evil sidekick: but Quaid has other ideas. As Cohaagen puts it: "I didn't want it to end this way, I wanted Hauser back, but no... you had to be Quaid!"]]
* Pretty much the point of ''Film/DonnieBrasco'', where Creator/JohnnyDepp's character, an undercover cop, develops a friendship with his primary mob contact and feels guilty about betraying him.
* Heavily discussed in ''Film/TheDeparted'' by Costigan, where he worries that the horrible things he has to do while undercover are actually making him more of a horrible person, which culminates in [[spoiler: him being unable to trust the police department at all; he asks to resign rather than be reinstated after Costello's death ends his mission, and upon realizing that Sullivan is a mole he immediately goes rogue to try to deal with him rather than even considering reporting him to anyone else in the department]].
* The main source of drama in ''Film/InfernalAffairs'', the Cantonese film ''Film/TheDeparted'' is based on, was the psychological impact of the main characters' double lives as Andy Lau's character wishes to become his mask while Tony Leung Chiu-Wai's character fears he is becoming his. [[spoiler:He eventually goes so far as to kill everybody who knew his real identity and could incriminate him, with the exception of his wife.]]
* Burt Lancaster's Bill Starbuck, in ''Film/TheRainmaker''.
* In ''Film/TroopBeverlyHills'' we get Annie, who was sent to the title troop by Velma to to discredit their leader and get the troop disbanded. Eventually she grows a spine and gives up on the pursuit. Of course, Velma catches on to this and tries to fire her before the climactic final competition.
* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', [[AllThereInTheManual according to a comic book sequel]], this is the origin of [[spoiler:Judge Doom,]] who was originally a Toon specializing in villain parts and changing his appearance for every short, akin to a Toon Lon Chaney. After a ''grenade accident'', the actor part of the "Actor playing a villain" slowly vanished and he never appeared out of costume/make-up, to the point that no one in Hollywood could remember what he looked like.
* In the film version of ''Film/VForVendetta'', [[spoiler:Gordon Dietrich reveals to Evey that he not only keeps a ton of contraband art, religious items, and other memorabilia in a secret room, he also has a predilection for certain government-unfriendly sexual appetites. Or rather, he ''had'' these appetites before years of having to pretend he didn't..]].
-->[[spoiler:'''Gordon''']]: "You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it."
* In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Rachel is the one to point out Bruce is the mask, and that the man who was once Bruce Wayne has become the Batman, wearing Bruce Wayne's face as an alter ego. Alfred warns Bruce of it earlier in the movie:
--> '''Alfred''': You're getting lost inside this monster of yours.
* The father of the title ''Film/LordOfWar'' was a Ukrainian who, along with his family, emigrated from the Soviet Union to America under the pretense of being Jewish. He would later on fully embrace the Jewish lifestyle, opening a store with the Star of David as part of the logo, faithfully attending synagogue services, and even obeying orthodox Jewish dietary laws, much to the annoyance of his Catholic wife.
-->'''Anatoly Orlov''': I'm going to temple.\\
'''Irina Orlov''': You're not going to temple! You go to temple more than the Rabbi!
* In ''Film/PlunkettAndMacleane'', Macleane infiltrates the rich upper classes so he can rob them blind with his fellow highwayman. However he begins growing too fond of acting like he's rich and squandering money on his gambling habits.
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Cypher}}'' when Morgan Sullivan's spy alter ego that he created for himself is ignored [[spoiler:when Digicorp transplant him into his new identity by way of brainwashing. The next plot segment is driven by his annoyance that his new persona doesn't smoke or drink whisky]]. Also inverted: [[spoiler: The spy alter ego was his true personality re-asserting itself, Morgan Sullivan was the mask he was unbecoming]].
* In ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'', the titular character watches over the young Aurora to keep her alive until her DangerousSixteenthBirthday but ends up becoming a foster mother to her.
* In ''[[Film/WhiteTheMelodyOfTheCurse White: The Melody of the Curse]]'', once the other three members of Pink Dolls are incapacitated due to a healthy dose of CursedTechnology, Eun-jun realizes she has the chance to go solo after she believes she broke the curse. She only answers to the name of "White", rather than Eun-jun, denies ever being a back-up dancer, and claims she wrote the song itself. [[spoiler: She didn't break the curse. At all.]]
* This is the plot of ''Film/SisterAct'' when Creator/WhoopiGoldberg's character becomes a nun. Whoopi comes to like the nuns and their work to help people in need, but she also convinces them to serve the Lord with more joy and less woe, singing passionately.
* ''Film/MrDeedsGoesToTown'' and TheRemake feature a reporter who stages a RescueRomance with the main character to advance her journalist career and then falls in love with him.
* ''Film/SmokinAces'' 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 Creator/HumphreyBogart'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 predictable results.
* ''Film/PointBreak1991'' stars Creator/KeanuReeves as an FBI agent who goes undercover as a surfer to get close to a suspected bank robber. The inevitable occurs.
* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' series has Paul Walker's cop become a street-racing rogue like the people he infiltrates. It's basically ''Film/PointBreak1991'' with cars instead of surfboards.
* ''Film/TheBrothersBloom''. The older brother believes that "the perfect con" is one that actually becomes real. His younger brother inevitably falls in love with the heiress that he was supposed to seduce.
* When Luke Skywalker surrenders to the Imperials in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', he tells Darth Vader he has accepted that [[ItWasHisSled he was once Anakin Skywalker, his father]]. Vader replies, "[[ThatManIsDead That name no longer has any meaning for me]]." Luke insists [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight there is still good in him]].
* One of the themes in ''Film/BlackSwan'' is the protagonist struggling to delve into her darkside in order to perfect her role as Odile of ''Theatre/SwanLake''. [[EnemyWithin This unfamiliar side of herself begins to devour her]].
* {{Zig Zagging|Trope}} around this trope is one of the main selling points of ''Film/{{Salt}}'': Is she primarily a CIA operative trying to [[ClearMyName clear her name]] or a [[DirtyCommies Soviet superspy]]? [[spoiler:The theatrical version plays this straight; She [[LoveRedeems did fall in love]] and went native. The DirectorsCut goes the opposite way but manages to sneak in a twist: She's loyal to ''current'' Russia, not [[BigBad Orlov]].]]
* ''Film/JustGoWithIt'' is a RomanticComedy where two people that have to pretend to be a couple actually fall in love with each other.
* In ''Film/TheWholeNineYards''.
** [[spoiler:Jill, secretly an assassin]]. She is hired by Oz's wife to kill him, so she started [[spoiler: working as his assistant]], to get closer to him. She ended up liking Oz so much she couldn't go through with it.
** Jimmy reveals this happened to him. He got close to one guy, who had a cute but quirky attitude. Eventually, Jimmy revealed his job and to run. He couldn't go through with the hit. He walked away from the mark... and was shot in the back by the mark. Jimmy no longer liked him as much. The mark took a long time to die.
* Ronald Colman won his only Academy Award for doing this in ''A Double Life''. He plays a Shakespearean stage star who is something of a method actor, immersing in and "becoming" each role. Already having (actual, but unfounded) concerns about his wife's fidelity, he then gets cast as Othello...
* [[spoiler:Kayla Silverfox]] in ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' is [[spoiler:blackmailed by Stryker into posing as Wolverine's lover]]. However, near the end, the mask has become real.
* Done to the letter in ''Film/TheBaker'', a British comedy about an assassin with second thoughts about his profession who escapes to a tiny Welsh town and poses as the local baker to avoid attention. Turns out, he likes baking a lot more than he does killing, and a local girl captures his attention. Sure enough, he ends up as the town's baker, and gets the girl.
* In ''Film/TheWildHunt'', Murtagh and his fellow Celts start playing their LARP characters for real, with bloody consequences.
* Kichi's mother begins to worry that this has literally happened to her after she dons a demonic mask in an attempt to scare her daughter straight in ''Film/{{Onibaba}}''.
* In ''Film/PlanB'', Bruno attempts to seduce his ex Laura's boyfriend Pablo as part of a convoluted plan to win Laura back, only to [[QueerRomance end up developing genuine romantic feelings for Pablo]].
* ''Film/BigDaddy'': Sonny Koufax adopts a five-year-old boy and lies about being the kid's biological father for the completely self-serving motive of gaining respect from certain people who have criticized him for not acting his age. But he gradually comes to really love the boy, [[SweetAndSourGrapes even after one part of his grand plan fails]].
* The original ''Film/FrightNight1985'' features washed-up horror actor Peter Vincent becoming a real vampire-hunter, and gradually growing into the role.
* Barbara "''Film/DownWithLove''" Novak is a best selling author who tells women that they don't need a man to be satisfied as women. It turns out [[spoiler:there is no Barbra Novak and her real name is Nancy Brown. She has been pretending to be Barbara Novak to get Catcher Block to fall in love with her but what she didn't count on was by pretending to be Barbara Novak... she would actually "become" Barbara Novak]].
* ''Film/AlDiLaDellaLegge'' (Beyond the Law) is about a bandit, called Cudlip, who initially becomes the sheriff of a town for his ulterior purposes but gradually grows into the role, to the point where [[spoiler:he and his new friend, a European immigrant called Novak, kill his two partners when they try to kill Novak in an attempt to steal the gold]]. The film ends with him [[spoiler:holding and looking at his badge as Novak tells him he's earned it]].
* The first ''[[Film/TheAddamsFamily Addams Family]]'' movie has Gordon Craver, son of the film's antagonist, impersonating Uncle Fester to discover their fortune. He eventually starts settling in with the family and appreciating their strangeness. [[spoiler: It turns out to be inverted, since Gordon actually ''is'' Fester with amnesia and was taken in by the antagonist.]]
* The Creator/ChevyChase comedy ''Funny Farm'' has his character Andy and his wife Elizabeth moving to a small town in the country, but the odd behavior of everyone there and some personal troubles between the two lead to them to having a falling out, wanting to divorce, and hoping to both move away as soon as possible. They work together with all the inhabitants to lure in another couple into buying their house under the prospect that town is the perfect place to live in and that they are HappilyMarried. As they maintain the charade though Andy and Elizabeth realize that in spite of everything that's happened they still love each other and actually do love living in the town.
* ''Film/TrainingDay'': One EpilepticTree claims that Alonzo is so dangerous precisely because being "The Wolf" does not come naturally to him - his bad guy persona is taken to the max precisely because he has to construct it.
* In ''Film/LegendOfTheBlackScorpion'', Wu Luan and Wan have a discussion about the power of masks in theater and whether or not wearing one brings about a greater performance. This as Wan is slowly becoming one with [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask her queenly mask]].
* In ''Film/WereTheMillers'' the band of misfits actually starts turning into a family.
* In ''Film/TheUnknown'', Alonzo the Armless really becomes armless. He decides to go with it when Cojo laughingly remarks that he forgot he has hands when he lights a cigarette with his feet.
* ''Film/TheEast'': Sarah, a corporate intelligence agent, infiltrates a bunch of eco-terrorists. Her boss tells her that a certain amount of this trope is to be expected in any long-term undercover assignment, but she goes just about all the way in.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'': After accidentally being sent to 1885 towards the end of Part II, Doc tells Marty in his letter that he'd set himself up as a blacksmith as a cover while attempting to fix the time machine. But when he realized the damage was beyond the capacity of 1885 technology, he buried the time machine so that Marty could fix it with the help of his 1955 counterpart and go back to 1985 himself, and accepted his place as a blacksmith, content to stay in 1885.
* ''Film/SoundOfMyVoice'': Two documentarians infiltrate a {{cult}} to expose it, but one of them starts to get swept under the charismatic leader's spell.
* At the end of ''Film/{{Unknown 2011}}'', it is revealed that Martin Harris [[spoiler: doesn't really exist, and that "he" was merely a cover story manufactured by a shadowy assassination organization]]. However, Martin began to believe [[spoiler: that he was the identity of his cover story after suffering head trauma during a car crash]].
* ''Film/{{How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days}}'' is a RomanticComedy about two people trying to manipulate each other for their respective jobs only to end up falling in love.
* In ''Film/{{Clown}}'': Done to the extreme in this film, Kent [=McCoy=], upon donning a Clown costume to stand in at his son's party, goes from a loving father to a child eating demon under the influence of the "costume" [[spoiler:which turns out to be literal skin and hair from an Ancient European Demon]].
* ''Film/DeepCover'': Russell is chosen to become an undercover narcotics officer because his personality is so similar to that of a typical criminal. As he discovers, he's actually pretty good at being a drug dealer. Eventually he's forced to sell crack cocaine for real because his handler doesn't have enough money in the budget to pay for all the stuff he brings in. Ultimately subverted in that he never completely loses sight that he's still a cop and helps to dismantle a major supplier.
* ''Film/TheFront'': Howard Prince, a cashier decided to pose as a writer that blacklisted artists could submit their work to. While he doesn't become a genuine writer, he arguably becomes more sympathetic with their politics, and refuses to cooperate with an investigation by HUAC.
* ''Film/TwentyOneJumpStreet'': Schmidt was a nerd when he was a high schooler and didn't have many friends. When he goes undercover at a high school with Jenko to bust a drug ring, they find that nowadays things like comic books and caring about the environment are considered cool. Thus, Schmidt easily makes friends and becomes one of the popular kids. This causes him to spend all of his time hanging out with the other students, instead of working to solve the case and find the drug dealer. Jenko calls him out on it after a chase to find the dealer goes wrong thanks to Schmidt caring more about the school play.
* This is what the documentary ''Film/{{Kumare}}'' is all about. Vikram Gandhi ([[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi no relation]]), raised in New Jersey in a family faithfully devoted to UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}}, became a "guru" himself, for a film about why people believe in them. [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vikram-gandhi/kumare-the-time-i-became-_b_1612564.html He explains his rationale here.]] With two assistants as "devotees", he even created a false [[http://www.kumare.org/about/ website]] for publicity. Then he just started appearing around Phoenix and Tucson, giving guest lessons in yoga studios. Sure enough, people flocked to hear him, many saying [[http://www.mbird.com/2014/04/kumare-the-true-story-of-a-false-false-prophet/ they really got something out of his teachings]], especially about becoming "your ideal self" and that we are all our own gurus with the ability to transform our lives. He dropped hints all along that he was a fake. Months into this journey, Vikram realized that he actually had transcended, in a way -- he ''was'' Kumare -- his own ideal self. By living a lie, he had made it true -- and the students really had changed their lives for the better. Most of his students stuck with him. There are still people who understand what he did and believe in Kumare's teachings.
* ''Film/TheVerdict'': It's revealed toward the end of the film that Galvin's girlfriend Laura is [[spoiler:spying on him for Galvin's courtroom opponent]], but she has come to love him anyway.
* In ''Film/TradingPlaces'', [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold Ophelia]] was hired by [[DirtyCop Clarence Beeks]] to pretend to be Louis Winthorpe's lover in front of Louis' fiancee [[TraumaCongaLine as part of a secret plot to ruin his life]], [[OnlyInItForTheMoney only agreeing because Beeks paid her to]]. However, she pities Louis, so she starts taking care of him, and eventually, she truly becomes his LoveInterest.
* ''Film/{{Captain America The First Avenger}}'':
** Inverted with the red head Red Skull. His red head is actually his real face and his human one is actually a mask he wore that resembled his original look. It is implied that his red head is a result of using the SuperSoldier serum which permanently turned his head red due to it being unstable at the time.
** Invoked with Steve Rogers who was commercialized in films and theaters as the American USO Captain America and later became the real deal.
* In ''Film/KindergartenCop'', Detective John Kimble is forced to go undercover as a Kindergarten Teacher when his partner (who was originally supposed to be the teacher) gets the flu. He turns out to be a great teacher and he really begins to enjoy his job. [[spoiler: In the end, he retires from the force to stay on as the teacher.]]
* At the end of ''Film/SuperTroopers'' Ursula admits that she initially was pretending to be attracted to Foster so she can use him to quietly expose the rest of the [[DirtyCop corrupt police officers she works with]], but actually falls for him in the process.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:FanWorks]]
* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': Discussed in [[http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/a-crown-of-stars-nge-ou.11766/page-10#post-2491498 chapter 34]]. Asuka says she has worn so many masks during her life that she is not sure of what is her real self anymore. Another character suggests her to choose one of them and wearing it until the mask becomes real.
* Claymade's ''FanFic/TheDarkLordsOfNerima'' is particularly insightful examination of this trope when a wounded [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Youma]] from ''Anime/SailorMoon'' is taken in by the ''[[Manga/RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'' crew.
* TheReveal in the middle of Chapter 3 of the ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6085808/1/Finding_Freedom Finding Freedom]]''. You thought that the BetaCouple's main reason for being added in the previous chapter was to give the other main character a boyfriend too or to be the cute established couple? Think again.
-->"Don't be stupid, although I know you can't help that. [[spoiler:Kiku]]'s... not my type."\\
Also a lie, [[spoiler:Heracles]] told himself. He definitely felt something for the other man, cherished his time with him and his quirks and just... all that made him who he was. When he kissed him, it was real. By now, everything he did with [[spoiler:Kiku]] was real.
* [[Franchise/{{Halo}} John-117]] in ''WebComic/Company0051''. As such, he certainly doesn't appreciate [[ReluctantRetiree the having to be out of armor]], and to make matters worse the armor in question is kept by a scientist [[CargoShip who seems to have a bit of a fetish for it...]]
* ''Fanfic/SOE2LoneHeirOfKrypton'': Asuka decided to pretend she was a super-heroine... and throughout the story she becomes one.
* ''Fanfic/LulusBizarreRebellion'': [[spoiler:Shirley]] started out being manipulated into the role of Zero by Lelouch as nothing more than a figurehead with powerful stand, with Lelouch literally dictating her speeches by writing on the inside of her mask with his stand. Then, when she accidentally [[spoiler:gets her father killed]] she retreats into the Zero persona to deal with it, becoming more loyal to the role than to Lelouch and developing her own planning skills.
* ''Fanfic/QueenOfShadows'': Thanks to Shendu trying to re-write the Book of Ages, Jade Chan ends up in an alternate reality where she has replaced the queen of an empire of Shadowkhan. Trying to fufill the role so she isn't caught out, Jade unknowingly does a better job of being the queen than the ''real'' queen. Her advisors take this more as her developing into a true leader than anything suspicious.
* Explored in the ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' crossover ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6338566/1/Drift Drift]]'', where [[RobotGirl Cameron]] has spent a couple hundred years carefully developing an entire personality construct based on her "Allison" memories, effectively becoming an otherwise indistinguishable human. It turns out that Cameron has apparently been using the Allison persona for so long that elements of her have influenced other parts of her "brain," like her combat programs - which she finds quite troubling, because she is apparently unable to actually do physical maintenance on her processors.
* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4446452/1/Deep_Cover Deep Cover]]'', a Naruto fanfic. Naruto gets sent on a mission to infiltrate the Sound village, with the idea that his behavior is so loud and obvious that nobody would suspect him hiding something. [[spoiler: He betrays Konoha and has a romantic moment with Tayuya while watching it burn. Thinking back on how he made his decision, he realizes that at some point in the past he stopped caring about Konoha and decided that Sound was his home.]]
* In the Bleach series [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/Heirverse Heirverse]] this is pretty much how Gin and Aizen get together. YMMV though as this could just as easily be a case of BeneathTheMask and some of Kyouka's comment would imply that.
* Really, almost any Naruto fanfic that has the word 'mask' in the title.
** Likewise, in many Naruto fanfics where he uses [[MesACrowd Kage Bunshin]] that have to act like someone other than himself, they end up actually thinking of themselves as their adopted persona. Case in point, in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8702285/16/The-Ninth-Sekirei-Pillar The Ninth Sekirei Pillar]]'', a pair of clones pretending to be a married couple actually start thinking of themselves as a married couple. Naruto doesn't protest their moves to prevent their dispelling since he "doesn't want memories of fucking himself".
* ''FanFic/WhiteRain'' has Itachi Uchiha and [[OriginalCharacter Lucia van Alstyne]]; the former's motivations were only revealed long after his death, while the latter only came to realize it after being interviewed by Ibiki.
* This trope is a major part of the [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans Teen Titans]] fanfic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3051670/1/Avatar Avatar]]. As far as Robin's concerned, when the mask goes on he ''is'' Robin - Tim Drake (unusually for a [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans Teen Titans]] fic, Robin is the Tim Drake version rather than the Dick Grayson one) doesn't exist. He deliberately wears the mask at all times, even when hanging out with the other Titans, because he considers leading the Titans a 24/7/365 job, so decided to simply stop being Tim, who he feels doesn't have what it takes to be a hero.
* The ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/AngelasPetMonster'' involves Randall getting adopted by a human girl. At first, he doesn't care much for her, only wanting food and warmth. However, he quickly grows to like her, which leads to his HeelFaceTurn.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/WithoutAHive'', by Phoenix_Dragon, a novice [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Changeling]] [[TheMole Infiltrator]] named Nictis is cut off from his Hive, and forced to pretend to be a (female) Pony named Meadow Song for many, many years, during which it has no contact with his own kind. As the years pass, the identity of Meadow becomes all too real, causing a slow change in Nictis's own loyalties and values.
* In ''FanFic/DiariesOfAMadman'', Bon Bon has been away from the changeling hive and amongst ponies for so long that she's come to consider herself as a pony foremost.
* Zaysen in ''[[ComicBook/BuckyOHareAndTheToadWars The Bucky O'Hare Web Series]]''. A toad spy altered to resemble a hare named [[spoiler:Renfield]], he's placed in mammal society and very quickly becomes enamored with the freedom of expression and choice it offers, at least in comparison to that of the toads. He develops close friendships with his co-workers, and even begins dating one, and gradually starts feeling guilty for secretly betraying them the whole time. Although he faces some hurdles (a big one being that he's outed and captured), he gradually assimilates more or less perfectly, and even his boyfriend doesn't entirely mind that he's a toad.
* In Fanfic/SeanBeanSavesWesteros, the [[RealPersonFic "real life"]] Creator/SeanBean is transported into the land of Westeros of Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire. Now living as Ned Stark, not just playing him on TV, Sean Bean has a hard time not accepting Ned's family as truly his own, especially after Sansa is rescued.
* In ''FanFic/DumbledoresArmyAndTheYearOfDarkness'', from the perspective of Hogwarts students in 1997-8, there's no real difference between Severus Snape pretending to be evil so as not to make Voldemort suspicious, and Snape ''actually'' being evil.
* The Seraphim, the major antagonist of Fanfic/AngelOfTheBat, doesn't have the prestigious lineage he claims he does, he's just so crazy he forgot what he was saying was a lie to gain followers.
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/10879595/1/Lelouch-of-the-Rebellion-RX-Demonic-Knights Lelouch of the Rebellion RX: Demonic Knights]]'' has Lelouch abandon his apathetic schoolboy personality completely and fully become [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Zero]] before using his [[MagicalEye Geass]] on [[TheEmperor Emperor Charles]] to erase everything except for his memories of being Zero. Even after his memories are restored in Chapter Ten, Lelouch continues to believe that he is Zero whenever he is with most of the Black Knights.
* In ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/38135/Who-We-Are Who We Are]]'', one of the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Mane Six]] is revealed to secretly be a changeling. While it's never revealed which of them is, she's shown to be far less concerned with being outed as a changeling and more with losing her friends.
* In ''FanFic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'' we learn that one of the villains originally constructed their villainous identity simply to test their allies and provide an enemy for them to rally against, but became disillusioned when they failed to put up an effective resistance and eventually came to enjoy the role and the respect it afforded him from their fellow villains.
* ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'': At the beginning Shinji intended to pretend that he cared about Asuka, Rei, Misato, Touji, Kensuke... in order to manipulate them. However, he quickly came to care for them and regard them as his family sincerely.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' fic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/6816583 Pulse]]'', Pearl only accepted Amethyst as a teammate because Rose ordered her to. Over the millennia, Pearl's barely-hidden distrust of/apathy for Amethyst grew into real friendliness.
-->''"No, Amethyst," Pearl said quietly. "You're wonderful. We all thought you were."\\
"No, you didn't!" shouted Amethyst. "I bet you would've killed me if Rose wasn't there."\\
"I probably would have," said Pearl, "and it would've been a horrible mistake."''
* In ''FanFic/MyMirrorSwordAndShield'', Suzaku was a OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent turned unintentional time-traveler. Fearing how his appearance could butterfly the War of Ascencion and erase his timeline, he joins Emperor Lelouch's EvilEmpire as a knight. Suzaku puts on the facade of being a loyal obedient knight to Lelouch in order to keep track of him and make sure that Lelouch dies at the right time. When he refuses to give up Lelouch to [[LaResistance the JLF ]] despite being unarmed and surrounded in the Battle of Narita and being promised to absolved for his actions. Suzaku then realizes that he is genuinely loyal to Lelouch. Which complicates things.
* Subverted and then played straight in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10873281/16/Snapshots-of-The-life-and-times-of-Hatake-Kakashi-Nukenin Snapshots of The life and times of Hatake Kakashi, Nukenin]]'' where Ran has been one of Konaha's top 5 longest running infiltration, after ten years in the Grass village, but when she's ordered to 'go nukenin' and get close to the titular character, she finds that she rather enjoys the freedom that being a nukenin offers
* Renamon is this in ''FanFic/DigimonTrinity''. As it turns out, [[spoiler: she only partnered with Rika in the first place because Apocalymon ordered it, as he wanted to learn how to use the bond between Digimon and Tamer to strengthen the Nightmare Soldiers]]. No one anticipated that she would actually come to care for Rika.
* A literal example in ''FanFic/WithThisRing''. In the Renegade timeline, Orange Lantern rolled with the mistaken identification of being Grayven in order to foil several Apokolpian invasion schemes for earth by 'claiming it as his own'. Disturbingly he has found himself having flashbacks to Grayven's past and is finding difficulty separating his SI past life and Grayven's in his memories.
* Zigzagged in ''FanFic/BrideOfDiscord'', where Discord has feelings for Fluttershy from the beginning, but initially tries to justify his attempts at wooing her to himself, as an attempt to manipulated her into falling in love with him, so she would be unwilling to join her friends in trying to stop him, when he finally targets the rest of Equestria. But as the story goes on, he eventually forgets about the manipulation angle and is genuinely trying to convince her to marry him for its own sake.
* Cinder Fall in ''FanFic/TheRWBYLoops'' zigzags this trope something fierce. Because of the way the time loops works, she decides to fake a friendly looping identity with which to socialize with the good guys whilst simultaneously indulging her villainous side in secret. The two identities both manage to grow stronger and cause more internal conflict [[spoiler:to the point where, with a little assistance from an outside force, they become [[SplitPersonality independent and unaware of each other.]] This does not end well]].
* Jaune in ''Fanfic/ForgedDestiny''. At the beginning of the story, he is merely a disguised Blacksmith pretending to be a Knight with none of the knowledge or skills to back it up. After a few adventures though, he develops into one of the most heroic characters of the main cast with a knack for tactics and improvisation that makes him one of the more valuable party members.
-->I was a Blacksmith, but I'd never felt less like one than I did right now. I could remember back when Beacon started and that reality had plagued me every day.[...] No one could look at me and think I was a Blacksmith. I never acted like it.
* The fanfic [[http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/704708/camouflage-contract-angst-donghae-eunhae-hyukjae-romance-mpreg-hyukhae Camouflage Contract]], a Music/SuperJunior fanfic about the [[ThoseTwoGuys Eunhyuk]]/[[HoYay Donghae]] couple (more commonly known as [[PortmanteauCoupleName EunHae)]] is all about this trope. [[spoiler: Eunhyuk gets Donghae to a fake relationship with him so he can avoid others' suspicions and in turn Donghae can raise his son well instead of having to be a prostitute everyday for money. At first it was only temporary, but through time, they truly fall in love with each other and decide to settle with the other for real.]]
* Inverted in the ''Zelda'' fic ''Fanfic/SurfaceTension''. When she began falling for Malon and later Ruto, Zelda tried to make herself believe that she was just ''really'' into being her male-disguise Sheik. No, she's lesbian. [[{{Gayngst}} She just had a hard time accepting it]].
* Jaune Arc in ''Fanfic/ProfessorArc'' goes from a bumbling ButtMonkey doing his best to act like the professional Hunter his credentials paint him as to a serious professor who frequently forgets he's the same age (or younger in some cases) as his students and a genuine badass who's acknowledged as a hero.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Franchise/{{Batman}}: In the Silver Age, Batman was the mask Bruce Wayne wore, in a nod to ''Franchise/{{Zorro}}''. Bruce Wayne is now merely [[SecretIdentityIdentity Batman in disguise]] and not the reverse, and his subconscious calls him Batman, as seen in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''. Like everything with Franchise/{{Batman}}, how much this is true varies [[DependingOnTheWriter from writer to writer]].
** Summarized in the novelization of ''Comicbook/{{Knightfall}}'', Alfred explains to Tim Drake that Batman uses the cowl to become a different personality, hearkening back to primitive beliefs that wearing the mask of a god is to become that god.
--->''(Batman puts his mask on)''\\
'''Bane''': Stop hiding.\\
'''Batman''': I'm not hiding. I'm ''becoming''.
** By now, he's gone so far that in ''Batman Inc.'' #3, El Gaucho even remarks "Why the hell is Batman masquerading as Bruce Wayne, anyway? I've met Bruce Wayne and you don't fool me."
** There was also a three-part story in which Batman Became A Completely ''Different'' Mask; his undercover identity of Matches Malone. In "Close Before Striking", the ''real'' Matches Malone returns to Gotham, and gets shot by Scarface's gang, since Scarface has concluded that Malone is in cahoots with Batman. As Batman blames himself for this, he spends more time in his Matches identity, and both Bruce Wayne and Batman start adopting Matches's mannerisms and attitude. Nightwing is able to snap him out of it before he kills the Ventriloquist.
*** This happened to the Riddler in one of the {{alternate universe}}s depicted in ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheCapedCrusader'', {{foreshadow|ing}}ed in an early conversation.
** Another suggested reason why Batman keeps the Bruce Wayne persona is because it's the last little bit of humanity he has left. In ''ComicBook/BruceWayneFugitive'', 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.
** On the other hand, when the League had their personalities divided in ''JLA'' and Bruce and Batman were temporarily separated people, Batman became an empty shell, even faceless. Bruce, on the other hand, had all the rage and anger, but none of the training or ability to channel it into anything positive.
*** From a purely psychological point of view, this makes sense, as it's Bruce Wayne, not Batman, who suffered the trauma of seeing his parents cut down, who needed an outlet for his pain. Batman on the other hand, didn't come into existence until Bruce had become a fully grown adult.
*** In the same story arc, a similar problem leads [[ComicBook/PlasticMan Eel O'Brian]] to reunite the alter-egos and reverse the process. He finds that, in the process of becoming a superhero for money (in his [[Creator/PhilFoglio Post-Crisis incarnation]]), he grew to love the trust and respect he received. After the split, however, his old desire to commit crimes returns, making him desperate to reverse the process before he does something unforgivable.
** In ''Generations'', he reveals to his son, the third Batman, that he assumed control of Ra's al Ghul's criminal empire and changed the organization so that charities which once acted as its fronts were now the entire operation with the criminals still working for them none the wiser.
** In the first ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'' Annual, the Trinity holds the lasso as a way for Diana to make sure they speak the truth. She asks it who they are. Diana answers that she is Diana of Themyscira, and daughter of Queen Hippolyta. Superman answers that he's Clark Kent, Kal-El. Batman answers... that he's Batman. Yep, the thing that channels the very concept of truth, that, in this version, actually calls on the absolute truth of matters and ''not'' just what people believe... has Batman say that he's Batman.
* 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 [[ComicBook/TheJoker a certain patient.]]
* [[ComicBook/{{Azrael}} Jean-Paul Valley]] starts suffering this at the end of his SanitySlippage during ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'', ultimately declaring that if he wasn't Batman, he was nothing.
* Played with with Franchise/{{Superman}}. In UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}}, Clark Kent was the mask worn by Superman. Beginning with John Byrne's reboot, Superman became the mask Clark Kent wore.
** UsefulNotes/{{The Silver Age|OfComicBooks}} ''Franchise/{{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.)
** It eventually came back around to Clark Kent and Superman both being masks that he wears. Even as Clark, he has to pretend and hide things about his character and nature.
*** In a way, the only time he doesn't wear a mask is when he's married to Lois Lane. He can be down to earth Clark, but also share about all the troubles of being Superman with her.
* From the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, we have the ''ComicBook/{{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 HeelFaceTurn before he could TakeOverTheWorld. It didn't work; the majority of the team defeated him, and tried -- for various reasons -- to actually become heroes. [[AntiHero To the best of their moral abilities, anyway.]]
** Only the first incarnation of the Thunderbolts counts as this. During ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' 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 [[IdiotBall put under the direction of]] ComicBook/NormanOsborn and by ''Comicbook/DarkReign'' had morphed into "Norman Osborn's especially vicious group of thugs because the Dark Avengers weren't bad enough."
** The ''ComicBook/HeroicAge'' 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 ''Comicbook/{{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, though -- much of the father's mentality seems to be forced onto the shapeshifter by the same magic that traps it in his form.
* Walter Kovacs from ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', a formerly abused but relatively normal superhero, takes on the persona of his alter ego Rorschach after an event of [[DespairEventHorizon intense psychological trauma]], becoming a PrinciplesZealot 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.
** "It was Kovacs who closed his eyes. It was Rorschach who opened them again." If that doesn't ''define'' this trope, nothing does.
** It was portrayed wonderfully with the art too, when the reader sees Rorschach in the past, he stands differently and looks odd compared to the Rorschach we know in the present. There's something very human about him that adds a quiet tragedy to the man we know now.
* Happened several times to the Skrull impostor(s) posing as Hank Pym during the ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion''. Apparently a side-effect of the enhanced shape shifting they were using to escape detection. One issue revealed that they went through no less than 4 different Skrulls who EACH KEPT TRYING TO DEFECT once they settled into the role.
* The Creator/{{Vertigo|Comics}} version of ''Series/HumanTarget'' written by Peter Milligan was all about this. The main character, Christopher Chance, was so good at imitating the people he was meant to protect that he needed post-hypnotic triggers to resume his "normal" personality. This problem largely presents itself when he's not in contact with the person he's impersonating, and especially when that person is dead. In the most advanced cases, he has literally forgotten that he was ever Christopher Chance.
** Christopher's protégé Tom [=McFadden=] actually has it even worse. Not only does he disappear into his adopted personas completely, but the inverse is also true -- Chance describes Tom as "leav[ing] something behind" when he discards an identity, and eventually he has no real sense or memory of who "Tom [=McFadden=]" ''is''.
* Marvel's first [[ComicBook/CaptainMarVell Captain Marvel]] was a Kree soldier named Mar-vell, who came to Earth to spy out humanity. He eventually came over to Earth's side for real.
* Magica De Spell goes through this in the WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck story [[http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+98051 "Date with a Munchkin" by Kari Korhonen]], where she kidnaps Daisy Duck and takes her place in order to get close to Scrooge [=McDuck's=] NumberOneDime. During her time as Daisy, she receives Donald's affection for Daisy and takes a liking to their romance. (It helps that she's accidentally also dosed ''herself'' with the LovePotion she's using to forestall Donald's suspicions.) It culminates in a Duckburg ball where Magica originally intended to steal the dime, but chooses not to leave Donald's side. However, Daisy has escaped her restraints and crashes the ball, confronting Magica. When Donald takes Magica's side, believing that she's the real Daisy, Magica ends her illusion and flees the scene rather than break Daisy's heart. She later reflects that although she didn't manage the theft, she has experienced "a new feeling," and maybe that's worth something.
** Magica manages it again in "[[http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2003-014 A Gal For Gladstone]]": she hexes away [[BornLucky Gladstone Gander's]] luck so he'll have to work for Uncle Scrooge, then disguises herself as a wholesome girl and seduces him to get close to the dime. She's genuinely touched by his devotion, though, and ends up giving up her chance at the dime [[FriendOrIdolDecision in order to save his life.]]
* Punch/Counterpunch in Dreamwave's ''ComicBook/TransformersGenerationOne'' comics. Punch is an Autobot spy sent deep undercover into the Decepticon ranks as counterintelligence expert Counterpunch. However, in developing Counterpunch's "character" and establishing him as a dedicated Decepticon, Punch may have caused an entirely new personality to develop within him; Lately, he's been having blackouts as Counterpunch and is unable to account for his whereabouts or activities, though he suspects Counterpunch is asserting himself and doing his job.
* In the ''Anime/SonicX'' [[ComicBook/SonicX comic book]], Dr. Eggman disguises himself as the heroic wrestler El Gran Gordo to earn extra cash, but soon finds he likes being praised and adored by his fans. This leads him to ''almost'' pull a HeelFaceTurn, and even after going back to villainy, he later returns to being El Gran Gordo for the thrills, fame, and loving fanbase. He also [[Awesome/SonicX pummels a wrestler about twice his size, and considering how big Eggman was to begin with, that's quite a feat.]]
* V from ''Comicbook/VForVendetta''. Who he is under the mask is unimportant, as the mask is a symbol of what he truly is.
* In [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comics, ComicBook/LexLuthor initially only helped an alien race rebuild its civilization in order to gain their cooperation--but when they hailed him as a hero (even renaming their planet Lexor!), he realized he ''liked'' being considered a good guy. Lexor became his home away from home for years, until the planet was accidentally destroyed in a fight with Supes. This tragedy caused a major VillainousBreakdown.
* ComicBook/CaptainAtom 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 [[Awesome/TheDCU Crowning Moment Of Awesome]], seen [[http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/438240.html?#cutid1 here]].
* In the ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' 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.
** An AffectionateParody of this story, "And Men Shall Call Him... Hero" from ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'', has a villain steal Cliff Steele's robotic body in order to kill his Doom Patrol teammates, only to feel unexpected compassion when a [[TheWoobie lost, frightened blind girl]] instinctively clings to him. As a result, he sacrifices himself in order to prevent the OmnicidalManiac Celestius from absorbing her life energy.
* GentleGiant Vathek from the original ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'' comic begins as a villain, but is sent by Cedric to act as a TheMole among the rebels. Vathek, however, decides that GoodFeelsGood and ends up genuinely changing sides. (In the [[WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}} cartoon]] Vathek has a smaller role and acts as TheMole among the ''bad'' guys while being genuinely on the side of good all along.)
* Happens both ways in ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd''
** On the one hand, Wally Squad Judges face a constant mental battle to avoid either becoming the criminals they're supposed to be undermining, or simply thinking too much like a normal human being. Many fail; at present, Dirty Frank is right on the precipice.
** On the other end, SerialKiller PJ Maybe stole the identity of Byron Ambrose, a wealthy philanthropist, and got himself elected Mayor of Mega-City One. In order to keep up the charade, he had to do as many good deeds as were possible for the mayor - and during this time, he gradually came to [[GoodFeelsGood enjoy being good]] so much that he risked his own life and reputation in attempting to assassinate [[EvilChancellor Martin Sinfield]] for no other reason than that he felt it was for the good of the city (sure, he may randomly kill people for fun, but he was still the best mayor Mega-City One has ever had... which speaks for the [[CrapsackWorld city]]).
* A long running plot-point of ''ComicBook/StrangersInParadise'' was the "Parker Girl" operation, women who would assume long-term, deep-cover identities and get involved with influential men in order to manipulate politics from behind the scenes. However, when the operation collapsed after the death of Darcy Parker, many Parker Girls were trapped in their cover identities, unable to extricate themselves from the lives they had established. In ''Comicbook/{{Echo}}'', the next series written by author Terry Moore, there is a {{crossover}} with ''[=SiP=]'' as a character makes contact with some of the women still living their cover identities. Lieutenant Laura Higgs, who used be a Parker Girl named Stephanie who was infiltrating the U.S. Military, asserts that she has a life now and refuses to give up the world she has built. "[[ThatManIsDead Stephanie's dead]]. I'm Laura Higgs now."
* [[AwesomeMcCoolName Zachary T. Paleozogt]] IS ''ComicBook/{{Zot}}''
* In ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Classic Star Wars]]'', a set of Star Wars newspaper strips, Vader once hires an actor to pretend to be Obi-Wan in order to lure Luke into a trap. The thing was, the actor was [[http://images.plurk.com/b0d529cc5abbc00dbd5811d8a4a0e444.jpg moved]] by how Luke respected him, and started having thoughts like "[[http://images.plurk.com/f0e09d57ca3c1997a3e5cdb3909b89b8.jpg What would the real Obi-Wan do?]]" He still led Luke into the trap, but then sprung it, dying himself. From Luke's [[http://images.plurk.com/be74a4045fe984953b521dfae22b2c81.jpg utter lack of reaction]] before the panel at the top of the page, it's a little ambiguous whether Luke was really oblivious about what was going on.
* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' this happened to [[spoiler: Minimus Ambus, the current holder of the title of "Ultra Magnus"]]. Originally a mere soldier in the Autobot army, he had long admired [[spoiler: Ultra Magnus, for being the epitome of law and order, and aspired to be a lawman just like him. When the former holder of the title died, and Ambus was offered the chance to actually ''become'' his idol by Chief Justice Tyrest, he leapt at the opportunity, throwing himself completely into the role]]. He's briefly forced to take the mask off during the "Remain in Light" storyline [[spoiler: when Tyrest takes away the Magnus armor and replaces Ambus with his new Enforcer Star Saber, but when he learns that the now insane Tyrest plans to use the Universal Killswitch to kill all Cybertronians who were constructed cold, Ambus announces that ''Ultra Magnus'' would never stand for that, and turns against his former boss]]. By the end of the storyline, he has once again become [[spoiler: Ultra Magnus]], and is even told by Ratchet that he ''is'' the true [[spoiler: Ultra Magnus]].
* ComicBook/{{Loki}} is on the way to this if the powers that be let them with the mask being ''their child-self''. [[spoiler:He died to be reborn as a child (''Comicbook/JourneyIntoMystery''), but also left a copy of his old consciousness behind to [[BodySnatcher obliterate the child and take over his body]] when the time is right, to basically pull a MemoryGambit. Now the new Loki born out of this is stuck between two different roles (''Comicbook/YoungAvengers''), and tries very hard to become the mask (''Comicbook/LokiAgentOfAsgard''), because it's preferable to the [[ChronicVillainy alternative]].]]
* Issue #20 of ''ComicBook/ThePowerpuffGirls'' (DC run), "Bow Jest," posits how Blossom becomes ineffective as both a fighter and leader of the team after she loses her hairbow. Buttercup steals it and won't give it back. Mojo Jojo thinks that if Blossom can be reduced to a sobbing mess without her bow, then it must possess some intangible powers. He manages to obtain it during a confrontation with the girls and feels invincible... until Bubbles (of all people) clocks him, takes the bow back, angrily slams it on Blossom's head and gives her a dressing down about the bow being nothing more than HairDecorations.
* Inverted in ''ComicBook/TheJudasContract'' arc of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans''. Terra is TheMole for ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}}. Over the course of the comic there are few signs (such as when the Titans throw her a surprise birthday party) that she has grown to like them. In the end, Terra ''does'' betray them and even declares her undying hate for them. She ends up accidentally killing herself while trying to kill them ''and'' Deathstroke (who betrayed her).
* In ''ComicBook/BeastWarsUprising'', [[spoiler:Wolfang]] is eventually revealed to be a Predacon SecretPolice operative who underwent this; he was ordered to pose as a Maximal cop, but steadily came to enjoy solving murders and helping people far more than he ever enjoyed being a spy. [[spoiler:When Tarantulas tricks his handlers into thinking he's turned traitor and sends them to kill him, he doesn't mind too much because, in his own eyes, he's a cop first, Predacon second.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

* In the manhwa ''Manhwa/AflameInferno'', creatures called Tedlars can only interact with the human world by taking over a human's body, subsequently killing the human doing so. As the Tedlars usually have to live the same life the possessed humans do to avoid detection (not to mention they have access to all the humans' memories), it's quite possible that they become the human they took over themselves. However, usually Tedlars don't stay too long in one body and return to their plane of existence to 'cast off' the fake identity, avoiding this.
** It's a plot point that the Tedlar called Inferno refused to return, thereby retaining her memories as the human Jeanne de'Arc, and more importantly, the experience of becoming a mother.
* In ''Anime/AquarionEvol'', Jin's infiltration of Earth is cut short when he actually meets [[MarsNeedsWomen the gender he is supposed to kidnap]] and realizes that they are people just like him and he doesn't really feel like betraying his new...fake?...friends.
* [[spoiler: Reiner Braun]] from ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', in an absolutely heartbreaking deconstruction. [[spoiler: His guilt over his crimes as TheMole, and growing attachment to his human comrades, results in him suffering dissociative episodes. He essentially {{Mind Rape}}d himself into having episodes where he genuinely believes his cover is real, since that's who he would rather be]]. Two a little more minor cases also occur with [[spoiler: Annie Leonhart and Bertolt Hoover, his partners. During a rampage, Annie spares her former classmates... which eventually leads to her being exposed. And Bertolt eventually admits [[WasItAllALie that not everything was a lie and he did care about his comrades]] during his VillainousBreakdown]].
* In ''Anime/{{Bakugan}}: Gundalian Invaders'', Ren was sent by the Gundalians to get the Battle Brawlers to join them in the guise that they were the innocent party in their war. However, after experiencing their friendship and eventually realizing that the king he served didn't care about him, he did a HeelFaceTurn and joined the Brawlers in the battle against his own kind.
* In episode 18 of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the guy who was hitting on Mikoto turns out to be a shapeshifting assassin assigned to kill her. He fell in love with her for real, so he decided to protect her from his colleagues, but murder Touma and get rid of his potential romantic rival. After Touma defeats him and a steel girder falls on him, he begs Touma to protect her as well.
* Subverted, deconstructed and played with in ''Anime/CodeGeass''.
** Never one to be content with mediocrity, Lelouch vi Britannia wore and became not one, but ''two'' different masks through the series' run, one being [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Zero]] and the other being [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Lelouch]] [[BrilliantButLazy Lamperouge]].
*** Between the two seasons, Lelouch is [[spoiler:[[FakeMemories brainwashed]] into]] becoming Lelouch Lamperouge, the ordinary if highly intelligent high school student. Except that he's still disaffected with society and only superficially apathetic to the dreary, distasteful reality of Britannian domination.
** [[spoiler:Rolo]], with each passing day, grows more comfortable in his role, until finally [[spoiler: he dies for his “brother's” sake]].
** While [[FemmeFatale Villetta Nu]] only masqueraded as [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Ohgi's]] [[spoiler:lover]] shortly before [[spoiler:shooting him]] (thanks to IdentityAmnesia), their [[spoiler:[[LivingWithTheVillain past relationship]]]] was used to blackmail Villetta into [[spoiler:siding with the Black Knights]] in R2 in order to counter the latter, now a Baroness [[KeepingTheEnemyClose from keeping the then supposedly amnesiac Lelouch from continuing on as Zero]], until Ohgi [[TakingTheBullet shielded her from one of Sayoko's kunais]].
* Contractor [[spoiler:Shihoko]] from ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' started up a relationship with [[spoiler:Huang]] sometime in the past as part of a Syndicate mission. While she didn't let any feelings get in the way of the original plan, they ''did'' spark some [[WhatIsThisFeeling uncharacteristic pity]] that lead her to pull some strings and give [[spoiler:Huang]] the opportunity to join the Syndicate himself as an alternative to memory erasure.
** Also the cult leader Alma in the same episode. She started out as a typically ruthless Contractor and started the [[ChurchOfHappyology Friends of the Gate]] as a way of hiding from Contractor-hunting humans and keeping abreast of information about the Gate. Over time, because of the faithful worshipers, she began to believe in peaceful coexistence and genuinely became the spiritual leader she pretended to be. Totally against Contractor stereotype, she was happy to bear the terrible price of using her powers (rapid aging and debilitating health) so that she could appear young before her followers, and also considered it a way to atone for her past actions.
* In ''Manga/DetectiveSchoolQ'', [[spoiler:Ryu]] was supposed to be TheMole and infiltrate the DDS, but as time passed he discovered [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove what friendship really was]] and grew fond of his partners for real.
* Souichi Negishi is a soft-hearted nice guy. His stage persona in ''Manga/DetroitMetalCity'', Krauser II, is a violent, foul-mouthed, vulgar Gene Simmons lookalike. Quite a few gags in the series revolve around Negishi accidentally lapsing into his Krauser II persona when he's out of costume, offending and confusing everyone around him.
* In ''Manga/DGrayMan'', Lavi is a successor to the [[TheWatcher 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 Becoming The Mask are actually what LittleMissBadass Road Kamelot uses to [[MindRape "destroy his heart"]].
* ''Manga/DragonBall'' has a number of examples of this trope;
** Piccolo, after years of being an evil villain because [[ThenLetMeBeEvil he was literally born into the role]], becomes a steadily softer and even more [[NobleDemon noble]] character due to his exposure to the heroes, but this whole transformation began with him being forced to play hero with his [[EnemyMine nemesis]] for his own gain.
** Vegeta begins as an apparently [[CompleteMonster irredeemable]] villain but is forced to fight on the side of the heroes for a number of battles for the sake of practicality. He himself will later admit that the heroes rubbed off on him by the time he is doing good [[GoodFeelsGood for its own sake]].
** This list wouldn't be complete without Mr Satan. He begins as a shameless blowhard who is playing the hero for glory. When he finally gets the chance to do it for real, [[spoiler: by getting Android 16 where he needs to be in order to help Gohan find his drive]], he could have backed out like a coward. [[WhatYouAreInTheDark He doesn't]]. He will later go the distance again when he [[spoiler: convinces the people of Earth to help Goku save the universe with their energy]].
* Sena Kobayakawa of ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'' undergoes this, taking on such a title and becoming the "Hero of Notre Dame." The more the series progresses, the more he realizes how important that name really is and how people's dreams are relying on his lightspeed runs. And of course, this leads to problems when he [[spoiler:meets the real Eyeshield 21...s and has to fight for his title.]]
** Ironically his ultimate opponent is not someone who is vying for the title, but someone whom already surpassed everyone whom has taken up that title.
* Ninamori of ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' wanted for this to happen with her family. She thought if her parents would come to the play and watch it together, and they could all act like a happy family, it would become real. That was why she loved Puss In Boots so much: It represented a lie becoming a happy truth.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' has this with some of the homunculi. For instance, [[TheDragon Pride]] is, as true to his name, totally bereft of compassion for any human being in the world... ''except'' for [[spoiler:his foster mother, Mrs. Bradley]], who tended dearly to him after he was hit by a car (not knowing he was a homunculus, nor about the near-immortality that comes with the territory). Doesn't mean he has any hesitation to sacrificing her along with ''the rest of the entire country'' in [[BigBad Father's]] plans, of course, but at the end of it all, [[spoiler:he's the only homunculus left - having his Philosopher's Stone eradicated, but spared from death, by Edward Elric - and he gets grow up from scratch under her care]]. Wrath also shows compassion for the same woman [[spoiler:given that she's ''his wife'']], but he doesn't have to put forth quite as much of an act as Pride does.
* Yukki and [[spoiler:Yuno]] in ''Manga/FutureDiary''. [[spoiler: Both of them were faking their love and using each other. Yukki used Yuno for protection and Yuno used Yukki for an emotional crutch. But over time the fake aspect became less and less fake and more like genuine love.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** [[spoiler:Michelle]] from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' is sent to spy on the White Base. [[spoiler:She falls for a guy in the crew, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Kai]], and tries to help him instead. [[StarCrossedLovers And then,]] [[HeroicSacrifice she dies]].]]
** Katejina Loos in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'' is effectively kidnapped by the Zanscare early on. At that point, she comes up with the idea of getting close to them and becoming a spy for the League Militaire. Whether or not that would have been possible ends up being beside the point, as she slowly (or maybe a little too suddenly) becomes an actual enemy pilot and a total [[KnightTemplar zealot]] by the end.
** [[spoiler:Flay Alster]] in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]''. She pretended to love [[spoiler:Kira]] because [[spoiler:she wanted to have revenge against him for her dad's death, which he caused indirectly]], but ended up loving him for real.
*** Also, [[spoiler:Meer Campbell]] in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]''. She's a NaiveEverygirl with a pathologically low self-esteem, chosen to [[spoiler:become Lacus Clyne's BodyDouble.]] She does her job more or less well... but as time passes, the girl's [[spoiler:identity issues kick in]], she falls in love with [[spoiler:her SecretKeeper ''and'' Lacus's ex boyfriend]] Athrun Zala and [[TearJerker it does NOT end well for her]].
** ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]''.
*** [[spoiler:Lyle Dylandy. He joins Celestial Being mostly as a Kataron DoubleAgent, but in the end, he becomes a full-fledged Gundam Meister like his deceased twin brother, Neil.]]
*** Also [[spoiler:[[ArtificialHuman Anew Returner]]. She's TheMole, but falls in love with Lyle. In the end, she attempts to [[MeaningfulName return]] to him and Celestial Being, but is controlled by [[BigBad Ribbons]] into attacking Lyle, forcing Setsuna to kill her]].
** Zeheart Gallette of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE'' enrolls in a Federation high school as part of his cover (he's a Vagan spy, but is [[CompulsorySchoolAge young enough to be in high school]]). He does this only to maintain his cover, but finds himself forming real friendships among his classmates, most especially with Asemu Asuno and Romary Stone, which continue to affect his judgement long after he rejoins the Vagan military.
* Used quite positively in ''Anime/HaibaneRenmei''. [[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 AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.]]
* The eighth ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' light novel:
** The StudentCouncilPresident installed by Koizumi's Organization was supposed to act as a stereotypical [[SmugSnake arrogant, scheming leader]] of the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil purely to serve as an opponent to keep Haruhi from getting bored (since her boredom can lead to [[RealityWarper bad things happening]]). In the ninth novel, however, the president seems to be slipping into the act subconsciously quite often. He even comments that he sometimes forgets which part of him is the "real" him.
** Heavily implied for [[StepfordSmiler Koizumi]] [[DissonantSerenity himself]] as well.
* Played with in ''Anime/IrresponsibleCaptainTylor''. 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 betrayal -- something that completely confuses her. It's explicitly ''because'' of this response that Harumi begins having second thoughts that leads her to an official HeelFaceTurn.
* In ''LightNovel/InvadersOfTheRokujyoma'', Koutaro ends up acting out the role of a legendary knight in a play written by Alien Priness Theiamillis. After a battle with Theia's rival ends up catapulting them two thousand years ago on Theia's homeworld, he ends up actually becoming the knight of legend. Fortunately for him, Theia was big on [[ShownTheirWork Showing Her Work]], and actually trained him in ancient Forthorthian sword techniques, and his Knight costume was actually a suit of high-tech PoweredArmor.
* ''[[Manga/KareKano 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 fell 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.
* In ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'', [[spoiler: Togame]] really did fall in love with [[spoiler: Shichika]] but due to RevengeBeforeReason (at least according to them), they would have killed the latter in the end regardless.
* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'':
** Initially, [[spoiler:Chao Lingshen only travelled back in time and entered Mahora to change the past and expose magic to the world,]] but when Negi asks her whether the time she spent with her classmates [[WasItAllALie was just part of her disguise,]] she admits that the bonds she created and the happy and fun time she spent with her friends weren't part of her plan.
** Happens to [[spoiler:the fake Asuna, Shiori. While her Signum Bioregens supposedly makes her more-or-less a sleeper agent (which is in and of itself a subversion of this trope) with added control (she can apparently switch at will), Shiori is in danger of ''merging'' with Asuna's personality if she falls in love while disguised]]. Infiltrating a group held together by a ChickMagnet might not have been the best of ideas...
** Also appears to have happened to [[spoiler:Governor-General Kurt Gödel]], who was unambiguously heroic 20 years ago. In the meantime, he infiltrated the corrupt senate, to find out more about and stop their villainy. He has since taken on many more villainous characteristics, such as being a SmugSnake and exhibiting FantasticRacism to an ''incredible'' degree.
* ''Anime/MashinHeroWataruSeries'': Kurama took on the job as an agent for Doakudar for one, being forced, and two, solely for his own benefit to turn back human without considering his fellow townsmen. As he befriends Team Wataru and slowly understood their genuine friendship with him, he became intensely remorseful; eventually learns to put his benefits behind and aid Team Wataru to atone for his misdeeds.
* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': [[spoiler:Erika]]. She was an android built by Dr. Hell. However, she suffered from amnesia and had forgotten her origins. She genuinely believed she was a normal girl, and when she was told her true nature, she rejected it. In the end she helped TheHero Kouji [[spoiler:and she died because of it]].
* Parodied at ''Manga/MutekiKanbanMusume'', a deconstruction of the FightingSeries PlayedForLaughs: Just after his TomatoInTheMirror moment, when he realizes he is not an [[{{Sentai}} Star Ranger]], but merely a ShopKeeper who CannotTellFictionFromReality, Akihiko decides that even if he is not a Star Ranger, he will be a hero and see that a little boy is not harmed by an AngryGuardDog.
--> '''Kankuro''': ''[[YouCanBarelyStand Hey Akihiko, your body can't…]]''\\
'''Akihiko''': [''signals Kankuro to shut up''] ''[[DamselInDistress Wakana-chan is waiting for Toshiyuki – Kun's safe return]]''. – ThemeMusicPowerUp begins - ''[[HeroicResolve I've still got willpower]]. [[IGaveMyWord Since I was asked, I have to help her!]] [[HeroicSpirit A man… is forged from willpower and perseverance!]]'' – Cue ImagineSpotting of Akihiko as [[RedIsHeroic Red Star]].
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Sai was trained as an emotionless assassin and then sent to join Team 7. Originally ordered to assassinate Sasuke and observe Naruto, he eventually became a true member of the team.
** In a darker variant, this is [[spoiler: Kabuto]]'s backstory. An orphan who was all but conscripted into duty as a spy, he spent most of his childhood under numerous names in different villages. [[StepfordSmiler By the end of it, he's not really sure who he is.]] When he breaks down, the village stops trusting him, he loses his only purpose in life, and ends up believing Orochimaru's insane logic.
** Tobi has a decidedly literal take on this trope, in that he has become his literal mask, ie no one. After TheReveal that he is really [[spoiler: Obito Uchiha]], he just says ThatManIsDead and the heroes can call him whatever they want.
* In the second season of ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'', a young wizard by the name of Akatsuki was sent by his fellow wizards to help Oyajide kidnap Hana. To do this, he adopted a friendly facade and pretended to be Doremi's friend. But after spending a lot of time with and getting to know her, he began having doubts. When TheReveal came along and exposed his duplicity, Doremi's pain at being betrayed was one of the things that helped him and his allies, Tooru, Fujio, and Leon, make a HeelFaceTurn and save Hana from the other wizards.
* In ''Manga/{{Ojojojo}}'', Haru's [[RichBitch condescending attitude]] was originally [[spoiler: just a way to hide from the pain of her original friends leaving her do to her social status,]] but over time it became so ingrained in her personality that she can't stop acting that way, even if she wants to. Most of her CharacterDevelopment is devoted to undoing all of that.
** Hilariously, [[BitchInSheepsClothing her little sister]] has the same problem, [[SiblingYinYang just in reverse]].
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** This series actually has a running theme of declaring oneself to be something and then using that as a source of strength to follow through. Sogeking, Luffy, Don Krieg, etc.
** The motivation of Captain Kuro, who wanted to give up the life of piracy to become a normal (albeit rich) man. Not so much a FaceHeelTurn considering how he wanted to do it, though... turns into a cruel subversion when he seems to consciously invoke this trope in a confrontation with the girl he intends to kill to make her drop her weapon.
** Nami as well. She had only intended to use Luffy for all he was worth before leaving. But the longer she stayed with them, the more 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 once she was on her own, she broke down and cried. When the Straw Hats eventually follow her, she is visibly upset while trying to keep them out of a fight she thought they couldn't win. Luffy continues to think of Nami as part of his crew and confronts Arlong for her sake. The final nail in this was when Luffy told Nami to watch [[NiceHat his signature straw hat]], simultaneously a sign of his trust in her and a sign he was [[LetsGetDangerous about to kick some serious butt]]. By this time she is too shaken with emotion to even move, ultimately coming to the realization she ''wants'' to be a Straw Hat, leading to her ultimate decision to leave with them after Luffy defeats Arlong.
** Sogeking. This is a literal case of becoming the mask for Usopp, who undergoes a heavy personality shift when he dons the Sogeking mask. This leads to a funny exchange where the Usopp and Sogeking parts of his personality have an argument while he's trying to think of a plan.
** Nico Robin had originally planned to use the Straw Hats as a shield until they deemed her too dangerous to protect any longer, as she had with all of the groups she joined. However, after being [[TrueCompanions accepted and loved by them as one of their own]], she chose to [[HeroicSacrifice give up her life for the sake of her crew]] by giving herself into [[TheGovernment the government that she had been running away from her whole life]]. Of course, [[RescueArc this didn't stop the Straw Hats]] from trying to save her despite her claiming she wanted to die; however, after the Straw Hats immediately declared ''war'' on said government she realized that they would stick by her no matter what, upon which she claimed that she wanted to stay in their crew forever and sail the seas with them.
* ''Franchise/PrettyCure'' loves this trope. [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure Kiriya]], [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar the Kiryuu twins]], [[Anime/FreshPrettyCure Setsuna]] and [[Anime/SuitePrettyCure Siren]] each pretended to be ordinary schoolkids in order to get close to the respective series' heroines and undermine their efforts. Inevitably, their interactions with the Cures expose them to ThePowerOfFriendship and lead to a HeelFaceTurn by the end.
* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', Ryoga initially allowed Akane to cuddle and sleep with his cursed animal form, as a way to piss off her fiance Ranma. It backfired massively when Ryoga actually ''fell in love with Akane'' since she was so kind to his animal form, but had already doomed his chances by sleeping in her bed without her knowing it. Ouch.
* In ''Manhua/RavagesOfTime'', Sima Yi's plan for revenge after [[spoiler:Cao Cao has his family purged]] involves his assassin Liaoyuan Huo joining "a worthy lord" and using Sima Yi's money to build him up as a rival to Sima Yi's lord Cao Cao[[note]]particularly after the deaths of Lu Bu and Sun Ce, then moreso after the northern Yuan clan's downfall[[/note]] so that [[TheStarscream Sima Yi can work his way up Cao Cao's ranks]]. However, Sima Yi already admits [[CallForward his recognition that Liaoyuan Huo has been "want(ing) to leave this dark maze"]] (as Zhao Yun realized during [[spoiler:his rescue of Zhang Lei and Sima Lang during the purge of the Sima clan residence]][[note]]"I have always wanted to crawl out of this place, crawl toward the light. For what? Living without ambition, like Zhongda; I hate that kind of life. Living from day to day, like my life; I hate that too."[[/note]]) and years later, in chapters 386 and 387 [[spoiler:Huo turns on his teacher as an assassin after the teacher and his men take Liu Bei's wives and son hostage during the Battle of Changban]], having by now internalized the name that Liu Bei gave him: [[spoiler:Zhao Yun, styled Zilong]].
* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' has this as part of Kenshin's backstory: [[spoiler: Kenshin/Battosai's first love Yukishiro Tomoe was sent to Battosai to become close to him as part of a plan to discover his weaknesses, something she was participating in because one of the samurai Battosai killed was her fiancee. However, her influence on him caused Battosai to show his kinder side to her, which resulted in her falling for him for real]].
* In ''Manga/ShugoChara'', [[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 DefeatMeansFriendship he immediately goes back to the school, performing the role he was using as his guise with no-one the wiser.
* Mami in ''LightNovel/SisterPrincess'' 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'' brother -- the mastermind of the scheme -- to beg Wataru to come back home.
* Stewart of ''Anime/SonicX'' was a government agent assigned to investigate Sonic and the other animals. As it turned out, while he shows himself capable as an agent, he's really good at, and really likes, being a teacher. And occasionally a BadassTeacher.
* Possible example in Shinigami from ''Manga/SoulEater''. He tells Asura that he took on his current silly appearance and demeanour to avoid scaring the children he wanted to recruit to his school, but that he 'got used' to it. The odd flashbacks depict him as far more ruthless and direct in his dealings with his enemies.
* Played with in ''Manga/SpecialA''. Megumi tries to distract Yahiro (the closest thing the early chapters have to a BigBad) so that he won't interfere with [[BetaCouple Akira and Tadashi's]] burgeoning relationship. She does so by pretending to like him. Yahiro sees right through the mask, but goes along with it just to screw with her. In the process they end up actually falling for each other.
* In ''Manga/{{Superior}}'', the BigBad 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.
* Zero from ''Anime/TenchiMuyo''. She ended up fusing with the person she was emulating.
* Hinted at in ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'', where [[DepravedBisexual Tsukiyama]] [[TheFriendNobodyLikes Shuu]] joins the protagonist Kaneki's FiveManBand with the intention of [[ImAHumanitarian eventually eating him]], but begins to show instances of genuine kindness toward him. By the end of the manga, [[spoiler: Tsukiyama is the only one who tries to stop Kaneki's SuicideMission, and following Kaneki's death seems to fall into an AngstComa - though this may be because [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation he still wishes he got to eat him]]]].
** A more abstract example is Kaneki himself, who starts out the story looking far more frightening than he really is - due to a particularly terrifying leather [[RuleOfSymbolism mask]] that Uta made for him. By the end, however, he suits the personality reflected by his mask [[SanitySlippage much better]].
* In ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'', it is revealed that [[spoiler: Fai]] has secretly been working as a [[TheMole mole]] for Fei Wong in an attempt to [[spoiler: resurrect his twin brother]] and has been misleading the group the entire time. However, he eventually develops a genuine affection for his comrades and undergoes a HeelFaceTurn just prior to the reveal.
* Kurama of ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' 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.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/{{How I Met Your Mother}}'': In "[[Recap/HowIMetYourMothers1e17LifeAmongTheGorillas Life Among The Gorillas]]", Marshall [[JerkassFacade fakes being a jerk]] so he can fit in with his new jerk co-workers, but it starts to effect his personality especially when he's around Lily.

* Leliana from ''Franchise/DragonAge''. She was originally basically an assassin, and she had to flee her home country and go undercover. She pretended to be a [[GenkiGirl sweet, bubbly girl]] with a strong faith in the Maker--then she decided she actually ''liked'' the whole "being happy" thing.

* In episode 18 of ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the guy who was hitting on Mikoto turns out to be a shapeshifting assassin assigned to kill her. He fell in love with her for real, so he decided to protect her from his colleagues, but murder Touma and get rid of his potential romantic rival. After Touma defeats him and a steel girder falls on him, he begs Touma to protect her as well.

** [[spoiler:Rolo]], with each passing day, grows more comfortable in his role, until finally [[spoiler: he dies for his “brother's” sake.]]

** Happens to [[spoiler:the fake Asuna, Shiori]]. [[spoiler:While her Signum Bioregens supposedly makes her more-or-less a sleeper agent (which is in and of itself a subversion of this trope) with added control (she can apparently switch at will), Shiori is in danger of ''merging'' with Asuna's personality if she falls in love while disguised.]] Infiltrating a group held together by a ChickMagnet might not have been the best of ideas...

* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': [[spoiler:Erika.]] She was an android built by Dr. Hell. However, she suffered from amnesia and had forgotten her origins. She genuinely believed she was a normal girl, and when she was told her true nature, she rejected it. In the end she helped TheHero Kouji [[spoiler:and she died because of it.]]

'''Akihiko''': [''signals Kankuro to shut up''] ''[[DamselInDistress Wakana-chan is waiting for Toshiyuki – Kun's safe return]]''. – ThemeMusicPowerUp begins - ''[[HeroicResolve I've still got willpower]]. [[IGaveMyWord Since I was asked, I have to help her!]] [[HeroicSpirit A man… is forged from willpower and perserverance!]]'' – Cue ImagineSpotting of Akihiko as [[RedIsHeroic Red Star]].

* ''Manga/OnePiece''

* ''Franchise/PrettyCure'' loves this trope. [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure Kiriya]], [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar the Kiryuu twins]], [[Anime/FreshPrettyCure Setsuna]] and [[Anime/SuitePrettyCure Siren]] each pretended to be ordinary schoolkids in order to get close to the respective series' heroines and undermine their efforts. Inevitably, their interactions with the Cures expose them to the PowerOfFriendship and lead to a HeelFaceTurn by the end.

* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' has this as part of Kenshin's backstory: [[spoiler: Kenshin/Battosai's first love Yukishiro Tomoe was sent to Battosai to become close to him as part of a plan to discover his weaknesses, something she was participating in because one of the samurai Battosai killed was her fiancee. However, her influence on him caused Battosai to show his kinder side to her, which resulted in her falling for him for real.]]

* Played with in ''Manag/SpecialA''. Megumi tries to distract Yahiro (the closest thing the early chapters have to a BigBad) so that he won't interfere with [[BetaCouple Akira and Tadashi's]] burgeoning relationship. She does so by pretending to like him. Yahiro sees right through the mask, but goes along with it just to screw with her. In the process they end up actually falling for each other.

* Hinted at in ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'', where [[DepravedBisexual Tsukiyama]] [[TheFriendNobodyLikes Shuu]] joins the protagonist Kaneki's FiveManBand with the intention of [[ImAHumanitarian eventually eating him]], but begins to show instances of genuine kindness toward him. By the end of the manga, [[spoiler: Tsukiyama is the only one who tries to stop Kaneki's SuicideMission, and following Kaneki's death seems to fall into an AngstComa - though this may be because [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation he still wishes he got to eat him]]]].

* Kurama of ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' 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.

*** From a purely psychological point of view, this makes sense, as it's Bruce Wayne, not Batman, who suffered the trauma of seeing his parents cut down, who needed an outlet for his pain. Batman. on the other hand, didn't come into existence until Bruce had become a fully grown adult.

** UsefulNotes/{{The Silver Age|OfComicBooks}} ''Comicbook/{{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.)

* The Creator/{{Vertigo|Comics}} version of ''Series/HumanTarget'' written by Peter Milligan was all about this. The main character, Christopher Chance, was so good at imitating the people he was meant to protect that he needed post-hypnotic triggers to resume his "normal" personality. This problem largely presents itself when he's not in contact with the person he's impersonating, and especially when that person is dead. In the most advanced cases, he has literally forgotten that he was ever Christoper Chance.

* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' this happened to [[spoiler: Minimus Ambus, the current holder of the title of "Ultra Magnus"]]. Originally a mere soldier in the Autobot army, he had long admired [[spoiler: Ultra Magnus, for being the epitome of law and order, and aspired to be a lawman just like him. When the former holder of the title died, and Ambus was offered the chance to actually ''become'' his idol by Chief Justice Tyrest, he leapt at the opportunity, throwing himself completely into the role.]] He's briefly forced to take the mask off during the "Remain in Light" storyline [[spoiler: when Tyrest takes away the Magnus armor and replaces Ambus with his new Enforcer Star Saber, but when he learns that the now insane Tyrest plans to use the Universal Killswitch to kill all Cybertronians who were constructed cold, Ambus announces that ''Ultra Magnus'' would never stand for that, and turns against his former boss.]] By the end of the storyline, he has once again become [[spoiler: Ultra Magnus]], and is even told by Ratchet that he ''is'' the true [[spoiler: Ultra Magnus.]]
* Loki is on the way to this if the powers that be let them with the mask being ''their child-self''. [[spoiler:He died to be reborn as a child (''Comicbook/JourneyIntoMystery''), but also left a copy of his old consciousness behind to [[BodySnatcher obliterate the child and take over his body]] when the time is right, to basically pull a MemoryGambit. Now the new Loki born out of this is stuck between two different roles (''Comicbook/YoungAvengers''), and tries very hard to become the mask (''Comicbook/LokiAgentOfAsgard''), because it's preferable to the [[ChronicVillainy alternative]].]]

* Inverted in ''ComicBook/TheJudasContract'' arc of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans''. Terra is TheMole for Deathstroke. Over the course of the comic there are few signs (such as when the Titans throw her a surprise birthday party) that she has grown to like them. In the end, Terra ''does'' betray them and even declares her undying hate for them. She ends up accidentally killing herself while trying to kill them ''and'' Deathstroke (who betrayed her).

* Cinder Fall in ''FanFic/TheRWBYLoops'' zigzags this trope something fierce. Because of the way the time loops works, she decides to fake a friendly looping identity with which to socialize with the good guys whilst simultaneously indulging her villainous side in secret. The two identities both manage to grow stronger and cause more internal conflict [[spoiler:to the point where, with a little assistance from an outside force, they become [[SplitPersonality independent and unaware of each other.]] This does not end well.]]

* This is more or less the entire plot of Creator/JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. The main character, who is "piloting"/"possessing" an custom-made alien body for the purpose of infiltration, even remarks in the film at one point that [[spoiler:the situation had become reversed - "out there was reality, and in here [in his human body] was the dream."]] At the end of the movie, he undergoes a ceremony that [[spoiler:permanently puts him in the avatar body, and he leaves his old human body to die in the toxic atmosphere.]]

* [[spoiler:Alice]] in ''Film/AntiTrust'' was originally hired to be TheMole, but ends up falling for the protagonist and refuses to betray him.

* Heavily discussed in ''Film/TheDeparted'' by Costigan, where he worries that the horrible things he has to do while undercover are actually making him more of a horrible person, which culminates in [[spoiler: him being unable to trust the police department at all; he asks to resign rather than be reinstated after Costello's death ends his mission, and upon realizing that Sullivan is a mole he immediately goes rogue to try to deal with him rather than even considering reporting him to anyone else in the department.]]
* The main source of drama in ''Film/InfernalAffairs'', the Cantonese film ''Film/TheDeparted'' is based on, was the psychological impact of the main characters' double lives as Andy Lau's character wishes to become his mask while Tony Leung Chiu-Wai's character fears he is becoming his.[[spoiler:He eventually goes so far as to kill everybody who knew his real identity and could incriminate him, with the exception of his wife.]]

* In the film version of ''Film/VForVendetta'', [[spoiler:Gordon Dietrich reveals to Evey that he not only keeps a ton of contraband art, religious items, and other memorabilia in a secret room, he also has a predilection for certain government-unfriendly sexual appetites. Or rather, he ''had'' these appetites before years of having to pretend he didn't...]]

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Cypher}}'' when Morgan Sullivan's spy alter ego that he created for himself is ignored [[spoiler:when Digicorp transplant him into his new identity by way of brainwashing. The next plot segment is driven by his annoyance that his new persona doesn't smoke or drink whisky.]] Also inverted: [[spoiler: The spy alter ego was his true personality re-asserting itself, Morgan Sullivan was the mask he was unbecoming.]]
* In ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'', the titular character watches over the young Aurora to keep her alive until her {{Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday}} but ends up becoming a foster mother to her.
* In ''[[Film/WhiteTheMelodyOfTheCurse White: The Melody of the Curse]], once the other three members of Pink Dolls are incapacitated due to a healthy dose of CursedTechnology, Eun-jun realizes she has the chance to go solo after she believes she broke the curse. She only answers to the name of "White", rather than Eun-jun, denies ever being a back-up dancer, and claims she wrote the song itself. [[spoiler: She didn't break the curse. At all.]]
* This is the plot of ''Film/SisterAct'' when Whoopi Goldberg's character becomes a nun. Whoopi comes to like the nuns and their work to help people in need, but she also convinces them to serve the Lord with more joy and less woe, singing passionately.

* ''Film/SmokinAces'' 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 predictable results.

* When Luke Skywalker surrenders to the Imperials in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', he tells Darth Vader he has accepted that [[ItWasHisSled he was once Anakin Skywalker, his father]]. Vader replies, "[[ThatManIsDead That name no longer has any meaning for me]]." Luke insists [[IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight there is still good in him]].

* Barbara "''Film/DownWithLove''" Novak is a best selling author who tells women that they don't need a man to be satisfied as women. It turns out [[spoiler:there is no Barbra Novak and her real name is Nancy Brown. She has been pretending to be Barbara Novak to get Catcher Block to fall in love with her but what she didn't count on was by pretending to be Barbara Novak... she would actually "become" Barbara Novak.]]

* The Chevy Chase comedy ''Funny Farm'' has his character Andy and his wife Elizabeth moving to a small town in the country, but the odd behavior of everyone there and some personal troubles between the two lead to them to having a falling out, wanting to divorce, and hoping to both move away as soon as possible. They work together with all the inhabitants to lure in another couple into buying their house under the prospect that town is the perfect place to live in and that they are HappilyMarried. As they maintain the charade though Andy and Elizabeth realize that in spite of everything that's happened they still love each other and actually do love living in the town.

* At the end of ''Film/{{Unknown 2011}}'', it is revealed that Martin Harris [[spoiler: doesn't really exist, and that "he" was merely a cover story manufactured by a shadowy assassination organization.]] However, Martin began to believe [[spoiler: that he was the identity of his cover story after suffering head trauma during a car crash.]]

** Inverted with the red head Red Skull. His red head is actually his real face and his human one is actually a mask he wore that resembled his original look. It is implied that his red head is a result of using the {{Super Soldier}} serum which permanently turned his head red due to it being unstable at the time.

* In the end of ''Film/SuperTroopers'' Ursula admits that she initially was pretending to be attracted to Foster so she can use him to quietly expose the rest of the [[DirtyCop corrupt police officers she works with]], but actually falls for him in the process.

* There's an intereseting variation of this trope in the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series. It turns out that [[spoiler: Scourge]] was a product of this, but in the reverse of the norm: See, [[spoiler: when he was little, he was tricked into running away from his home and happened to end up in the city. To survive, he managed to fool the other rogues residing there into believing that he was a cold-blooded killer so they would fear him and bring him free food. However, by the time he actually kills someone, he slowly starts to become the unfeeling, cold-blooded monster he was portrayed as in his debut.]]

** Lowbacca in ''[[Literature/YoungJediKnights Diversity Alliance]]''. He isn't racist, but he can see where the Alliance gets their ideas from. Even though they're basically the {{Flanderized}} version of the Black Panthers.

** As we see later in ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', [[spoiler:though on the surface he seemed to embrace his new job, his criminal's instincts have never left, and he becomes more and more dissatisfied with it as time goes on. His criminal instincts remain, but he acquires a strong drive to use them for good. (He was a sort of AntiVillain before, but has definitely graduated to LoveableRogue over the course of his new career).]]

** In ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'' [[spoiler:Sergeant Jackrum. Not only has she been in disguise long enough to make a detailed account of most of the other women 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 sergeant instead.]]

* Creator/GKChesterton's book ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday'' 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.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', as revealed in ''Changes'', [[spoiler:Martin becomes this. He was initially sent by the red king to infiltrate the Fellowship of St. Giles, but eventually comes to sympathize with them. Doesn't stop him from eradicating them to achieve his goals, though.]]
* [[spoiler:Fidelias]] in ''Literature/CodexAlera'' takes a position in the First Aleran legion as the Aquitaines' spy. However, he finds that [[GoodFeelsGood he rather enjoys]] being [[spoiler:Valiar Marcus, and eventually betrays the Aquitaines to support Tavi, who he has decided would make a better ruler. (The fact that he's the rightful heir is entirely incidental)]] Even the sections from his perspective tend to refer to him as [[spoiler:Valiar Marcus]] rather than his real name, {{foreshadowing}} how absorbed in the role he gets.
** This has been noted two times by characters. [[spoiler:Marcus/Fidelias]] chides the outwardly perfect, but incomplete disguise of [[spoiler: Gaius Sextus]] and later by [[spoiler: Octavian]], when he notes that [[spoiler: real difference between Valiar Marcus and Fidelias is not in facial features, but in subtle things like speech patterns and intonations, stances and movement. Also, Fidelias smiles.]]

* "If at Faust You Don't Succeed" (Millennial Contest, #2) By Creator/RogerZelazny and Creator/RobertSheckley: The harried archdemon Mephistopheles mistakenly signs up a medieval cutpurse named Mack the Club for the do-over of the Millenial Contest, thinking him the learned Dr. Faust- And Mack doesn't argue his identity, as he doesn't want to get in trouble with Hell itself for trying to rob the great magician Faust. [[spoiler: Mack eventually becomes the historical Faust by being better at being Faust than Faust himself- much to the original's wrath.]]

* In ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheHorseLord'' by Creator/RosemarySutcliff, Phaedrus the gladiator impersonates Midir the king [[spoiler:even dying to save his people.]]

* A central theme in ''Literature/TheKingdomsOfEvil''
* In Eric Ambler's ''[[SpyFiction Journey Into Fear]]'', Mathis, a fellow passenger of the protagonist on the eponymous journey, is a French socialist. Towards the end of the book, he reveals that by origin he was from the impoverished fag-end of the French aristocracy and a royalist who was henpecked by his snobbish petite bourgeois wife. After accidentally mortifying her in front of her friends by repeating the opinions expressed at a socialist meeting he attended out of curiosity, he started adopting deliberate public espousal of socialist views whenever she was unreasonably vicious to him. In the course of reading the books and pamphlets he buys to make his arguments more damaging (coupled with his experiences as a combatant in UsefulNotes/WW1), he comes to believe in the truth of his pretended views and becomes a socialist by conviction (to the extent of being dismissed from his post of the manager of a factory when he supports its striking workers).

* Happens to Vlad Tepes in ''Literature/CountAndCountess'', who initially just wanted revenge against his father and the Ottoman Empire for the deaths of his brothers. At first his cruel practices (especially the impalement) are meant to psyche out the enemy army, with whom he spent some time [[ChildSoldier as a child]], but the more cruelties he undertakes, the more commonplace he finds them.
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', this occurs when [[spoiler:Katniss pretends to be in love with Peeta just to keep them both alive in the arena. At the end of the first she's prepared to kill him to save herself. Contrast the end of the second, where she's totally prepared to die so he can continue living. At the end of ''Mockingjay'', she chooses Peeta over Gale.]]

* ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}'': Subverted, knowing that Lauren is a [[spoiler: BodyDouble, you'd probably fancy that she got into that role by becoming the mask, but according to the Narrator's super sciency explanation, Lauren was already the mask before putting it on.]]

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Dalinar Kholin did this on purpose, with the [[CodeOfHonor Alethi Codes of War]]. As the Blackthorn, he was little better than a bloody cudgel in his brother's hand; with Gavilar's death, Dalinar realized he needed to be something else. He followed the Codes for long enough that it became as natural as breathing. Kaladin gets close to this truth when he wonders if his gesture at the end of the first book is just him pretending to be honorable. He decides that if you're willing to [[spoiler:''give up a [[ArtifactOfAttraction Shardblade]]'']] to "pretend" to be honorable, you're not really pretending any more.

*** There's an episode where Miles O'Brien infiltrates a crime syndicate. While doing that, he forms a genuine friendship with Liam Bilby, a local crime boss. Throughout the episode Miles becomes increasingly conflicted, and ultimately [[spoiler:attacks his [[Franchise/StarTrek Star Fleet]] liaison and tries to warn Bilby that he has been compromised.]]

* On ''Film/{{Wizards of Waverly Place}}'', Rosie was sent by the {{Big Bad}} to seduce Justin and successfully manipulates him into stealing the Moral Compass for the Dark Realm. It wasn't until Gorog tried to destroy Justin for being an outsider that Rosie realizes she has genuinely fallen in love with him.

* A short-lived series from the 90's called ''{{Series/Legend}}'' (starring Richard Dean Anderson and John De Lancie) focuses on a writer in the Old West who creates a popular series of pulp novels featuring a dashing cowboy hero known as Nicodemus Legend. With the help of a pesky, but clever, scientist, the author winds up taking on the role and identity of his fictional creation. And apparently, the author, who was pretty much a drunk and a jerk, finds that the selflessness and heroism are less and less of an act as time goes on.

** 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 ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' 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.]]

* Played out interestingly in ''Series/PrisonBreak'': T-Bag (who is someone who ''definitely'' can't redeem himself, despite being [[MagnificentBastard 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.]]

--->'''Nate''': All right, good news, bad news.
--->'''Tara''': Good news?
--->'''Nate''': The mayor's hooked. We're in the pinch.
--->'''Tara''': Bad news?
--->'''Nate''': I think we lost Eliot until the playoffs.

** In a Season 2 episode the wife of an American mathematician (guest star Creator/ChristianSlater) 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.]]

** 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.]]
* A similar thing happens in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "All Dogs Go To Heaven". [[spoiler: A skinwalker disguises himself as a family dog, waiting for the call to attack and turn the family. He eventually grows to love the family, and almost dies to defend them]].

* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': [[spoiler:Moriarty seduces Sherlock into a relationship in order to get close enough to him to study him. She didn't count on actually falling in love with him. This proves her undoing when Watson correctly deduces that it has happened.]]

** Black Cindy claimed being Jewish in order to get the kosher meals at meal times, which were of higher quality. However, as she studied more and more about it, she found out it was a faith where she felt she truly belonged, and [[spoiler: and the end of the season, truly wanted to be Jewish.]]

* In Series/{{Supergirl}}, M'gann M'orzz, a White Martian DefectorFromDecadence, lives on Earth in human form. In the episode [[Recap/Supergirl2015S2E7TheDarkestPlace "The Darkest Place"]], when [[Comicbook/MartianManhunter J'onn]] discovers her identity and tries to kill her, she asks to die in her human form, now seeing it as her true face.

* A {{Downplayed}} example in ''Series/TheFlash2014'' - at the end of season 1, after [[spoiler: Harrison Wells has been revealed as the evil Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne]], he creates a video recording of himself, to be shown to Barry in the event his evil plan is foiled, and confessing to the crime he committed that Barry's father was unjustly convicted of. He stated that during his masquerade, he actually became fond of Barry, and as long as he failed in his goal anyway, he had no reason to prevent Barry from having a happy life.

** 25 years later, when his former SS buddies come along, Grossman [[spoiler: sacrifices himself to stop their plan to steal uranium. His grown son (who had discovered the truth) wants to come clean but Max stops him, saying that as far as he's concerned, von Schrader died decades ago and the man they all knew was Ben Grossman, Jewish hero.]]

* Creator/KevinJames preforming stand-up at the Just for Laughs festival said that he really hates it when he's waiting in line and the person ahead of/behind him tries to have have a chat with him unprovoked. He suggests trying to look like you really have to take a crap and are desperately trying to hold it in as a way to get people to not want to talk to you. "Hey, it's working... [[FromBadToWorse but now I have to take a crap]]! I got a whole ''new'' set of problems!"

** This is likewise what happens when a [[TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent demon]] Falls. They've lived a cover story in order to fulfill the will of the God-Machine, perhaps one that had a profession, friends, even a family. But they only view such things intellectually, without any true connection. Once a demon Falls, the emotional context comes flooding in, and while there may still be some disconnect, all the elements of her Cover ''mean'' something.

* Charlie Baker from ''Theatre/TheForeigner''. By the end of the play, [[spoiler:Charlie has become the Foreigner to the point that he remains in character around Froggy, the one character who knows he really speaks English.]]

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'': [[spoiler:Paz/Pacifica Ocean, a DoubleAgent for Cipher, a.k.a. Zero and the Patriots. Her diaries reveal that she goes from outright despising and deriding Big Boss and the members of his army to wishing she could spend a few more days with them before carrying out her orders.]]

* Invoked as part of the Jedi's master plan in the first ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': upon capturing [[spoiler: Darth Revan, conqueror of almost half of the known galaxy]] they force him into a 'mask' of sorts and send him off to do good deeds for the republic as [[spoiler: the player character]] in hopes that the the character he's been made to play will become his true face. Depending on how the game proceeds this either goes very well or goes [[GoneHorriblyRight much, much too well]], since the mask can end up becoming [[spoiler: a much more vicious and effective sith lord than the original Revan ever was]].

* The whole damn point of [[spoiler:Eine's, AKA Katarina's,]] subplot in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem]]''. She was forced by her sister to [[spoiler:disguise herself as a new recruit in the Altean Army and assassinate Marth.]] The party is dumbfounded by the revelation, but [[spoiler:Eine]] seems to genuinely regret her actions. At the end of the subplot, she leaves her true identity behind to become her alias, serving Marth tirelessly to atone for her actions.

* Combined with ManchurianAgent in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld''. It's pretty complicated, but it all boils down to [[spoiler:Ratatosk embracing the side of his personality that had originally been a facade and nearly eclipsed his original murderously angry persona.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', Alex Mercer is [[spoiler:quite explicitly dead and gone. However, the corpse was subsumed and reanimated by the Blacklight virus, which imitated him so completely, so perfectly, that TheVirus believes it ''is'' Alex Mercer. Even after it finds out the AwfulTruth, "Mercer" is changed by the experience, evolving from the monster that Mercer was as a human, to a rampaging sociopath with occasional flashes of heroism, to a SociopathicHero, given that he protects New York from being nuked when it would have been far easier for him to simply do nothing and save himself.]]

* Taichi in ''VisualNovel/CrossChannel'' is literally in the 'becoming' part of this trope. He's really trying hard not to be completely insane and connect with people, unlike Youko. The mask slips every now and then, causing all of his relationships to be extremely unstable. The best example of this would probably be [[spoiler:the small slipup that occurs right after Yutaka committed suicide]] and he ruins his relationship with Kiri. She thinks he [[spoiler:killed Yutaka, when in truth he didn't really care much anymore.]] Before and after that, she's probably the only person apart from Youko who truly understands him fully.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* Kisuke, of ''VideoGame/MuramasaTheDemonBlade'' [[spoiler: infiltrated the household of Torahime as a servant to discover and steal an [[ArtifactOfDoom ancient demon blade]] her family was charged with protecting. During this time he fell in love with Torahime, and so, when the time came for the rest of his ninja clan to come and steal the blade he fought on the side of Torahime against his old companions. He fails, gets amnesia and spends much of his story trying to atone for his actions.]]
* ''VideoGame/SuikodenV'' gives us Euram Barows, who, at first glance and throughout the game, shows us to be a foppish, idiotic buffoon. Background information received from Oboro, [[spoiler: and information learned after his HeelFaceTurn, shows that he actually starting acting this way to comfort his mother, who was mad with grief over the death of Euram's older brother Hiram, assassinated during a civil war prior to the game. Between that, [[SmugSnake the influence of his father]], and Euram's own emotional weakness, this act became real. The real Euram is a demure guy [[ItsAllMyFault who blames himself for a lot of problems.]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/LufiaCurseOfTheSinistrals'', [[spoiler:Erim, realizing how fond she has grown of humanity while travelling with the heroes as Iris, turns against the Sinistrals and revives Maxim after having killed him. Her sorrow over Maxim and Selan's deaths causes the Dual Blade to send her back in time, setting up the events of NewGamePlus.]]

* Between ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' and ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood'', [[spoiler:{{Meido}} Kohaku]] goes from sinister {{Chessmaster}} with no emotions who is planning the downfall of the Tohno family through [[spoiler:drugging them]]; to really being [[spoiler:the lovable goofball she pretends to be; who possibly makes robots and rides around on a broom in her spare time]].

* As part of Robbie's secret identity in ''VisualNovel/GrisaiaNoRakuen'', he married a storekeeper's daughter and inherited their soba shop. [[spoiler:She's actually a CIA agent who pretended to marry him as part of her cover and then grew more serious about it.]] Good thing too, otherwise [[spoiler:she might never have learned what Yuuji was like after getting out from under the thumb of Heath Oslo and simply shot him.]]

* ''VisualNovel/ShallWeDateNinjaShadow'': In [[spoiler: Tsubaki Kusunoki]]'s path, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Tsubaki set himself up as a HoneyTrap to seduce the PlayerCharacter Saori and then use her as an UnwittingPawn, to gain a foothold within the Nagasaki Vigilantes]]. But when he willingly reveals his plan and is harshly called out [[spoiler: by Saori herself]], he also admits that [[spoiler: he has fallen in love with Saori for real.]]
* ''VisualNovel/{{Nekojishi}}'': [[spoiler:It turns out that Leopard Cat was a predatory yaoguai who had eaten the souls of many animals and humans before, including the real Yan Shu-Chi, and when this is revealed in his True Ending, at first he's adamant that he only ever saw Liao as food. However, in the end he realizes that he really had come to like Liao and now wants to be in a relationship with him.]]

* An inverted example occurs with [[spoiler:Anevka]] in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''. After being damaged in an experiment as a young girl, her body is stuck in a nutrient tank and attached to a Clank that allows her to interact with the outside world. At least, until [[spoiler:her brother reveals she died ''years ago''; the Clank ended up developing its own personality and came to believe it was Anevka. In other words, the mask became her.]]

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', [[TokenEvilTeammate Belkar]] pretends to be [[spoiler:more of a team player after his HeroicComedicSociopath routine gets him cursed and almost kicked out of the Order. It slowly becomes real CharacterDevelopment thanks to Mr. Scruffy, his LoyalAnimalCompanion and MoralityPet, [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0807.html showing him]] what it's like to [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove care about others]]. When Durkon is killed and [[FaceMonsterTurn reanimated]] by a vampire that had attacked Belkar, Belkar is genuinely horrified, and left deeply guilty about Durkon's LastRequest that he and the Order not be harmed.]]

* In ''LetsPlay/PlagueAndTreacheryOnTheOregonTrail'', 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.]]

* Wannabe Heroine Taylor, the protagonist of ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' starts off joining the Undersiders due to a combination of [[ObviouslyEvil looking evil]] and the [[UngratefulBastard heroes]] [[TheInfiltration needing]] [[MysteriousBacker information]] on them. Over time her disillusionment with the heroes and the friendship she finds among her [[TrueCompanions team]] complicates things, and she decides to stay with them. Interesting in that it's a hero to villain example, although most of the superheroes and supervillains have GreyAndGreyMorality.

* A fair amount of the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' 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 ''MyLittlePony'', 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}}es and {{Shout Out}}s, and of course, Lauren Faust's contributions to the show, making it fun to watch even for the parents of the target demographic (girls aged 5-10). The trolls started legitimately liking the show. Some even stopped their pony-themed trolling out of respect.

* WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether: Parodied in ''A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special''. Xandir is afraid to tell his parents that he's gay, so he and his housemates do some role-playing. [[UpToEleven It goee so far]] that the housemates start to believe they're the people they're pretending to be.

* Shayera Hol aka Hawkgirl of the animated ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' joined the team as an alien spy, but then decided to help them form a counter-offensive, when she found out what her race was really planning to use the Earth as a hyperspace bypass in an interplanetary war, which would destroy it. Feeling guilty of betraying both the Justice League, and her homeworld of Thanagar, she decided to leave the team before they announced their decision on whether she can return.
* Terra (in the AnimatedAdaptation only) of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' really began to feel at home with the team and fell in love with Beast Boy. She tried to compromise by saving him and letting Slade kill the others, and, well, you can guess [[RedemptionEqualsDeath how it turned out]].

* Goldie in WesternAnimation/RockADoodle is meant to take Chanticleer's mind off the farm and his old friends. However, to the ire of her boss, Pinky, she falls in love with him and helps him rescue them.

* Taken to ludicrous extremes by Roger in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. Once 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...

** In "The Principal and the Pauper", it's revealed [[spoiler: Seymour Skinner is actually Armin Tamzarian. He served with the real Seymour Skinner in Vietnam and took over Skinner's identity when he was apparently killed. Twenty years later, the real Skinner shows up in Springfield to reclaim his identity. But the townspeople decide they prefer to keep the Skinner they're used to. The real Skinner is banished from town, Tamzarian is put back in Skinner's identity, and it's ordered that nobody will ever mention this incident again.]]
*** Well, they ''do'' when it's either funny or to shut Skinner up.

* {{Discussed}} in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' TV movie "[[Recap/DariaTVM1 Is It Fall Yet?]]," when Daria's mom forces her to work as a counselor at a day-camp for children.

** "Brian writes a bestseller": Though his original intention was to write trash out of sheer frustration, the work began to garner fame and appreciation from the looked-down-at people and he started to really believe he was a genius, and he had created a life-changing masterpiece.

** In the Season 3 episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E11KeepCalmAndFlutterOn Keep Calm and Flutter On]]", this happens with ''[[MadGod Discord]]'' of all villains. Princess Celestia charges Fluttershy with redeeming him, and Discord plays along while plotting to exploit Fluttershy's kind nature to ensure his freedom. However, during this, he finds out that [[spoiler:she ''genuinely'' saw him as a friend and her friendship actually means something to him. The end result is Discord reforming for real rather because he can't bring himself to lose the one genuine friend he'd ever made.]]

* [[spoiler:Knock Out]] of all bots does this in the finale movie of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', ''Predacons Rising''. While his personality and motives remain virtually unchanged up until the very end of the film, [[spoiler:his assistance (however limited) when facing Unicron's undead Predacon army and later show of genuine regret when Optimus dies seem to indicate he's truly changed.]]

*** Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch (Watson and Sherlock in Series/{{Sherlock}}) are either really good friends and very close to each other or extremely good at faking it.
** ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' actors Kelsey Grammer and John Mahoney.
** The core cast of ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' (Ben Savage, Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle) have all become TrueCompanions in RealLife, much as their characters (Cory, Topanga, Shawn, and Eric, respectively) did on the show.

* Martin Sheen played the President of the US on Series/TheWestWing - for quite some time fellow actors actually treated him as if he were the President.
* Playing UsefulNotes/RichardNixon for ''FrostNixon'', FrankLangella stayed in character all the time. When he wasn't in a scene he would just go stand quietly offstage and think. When it was his cue the stage manager would say "Mr. President, you are needed onstage."

** Unfortunately, as in the [[{{Creator/HeathLedger}} Heath Ledger]] example above, it also works in reverse - [[ObfuscatingStupidity playing]] TheFool act too much, or living among people with too insane or even [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} eccentric]] behavior slowly cuts into someone's sanity as well. Almost like a drug addiction, the subject looses self-control over time and in many cases ends under psychiatric treatment as well.

* In ''Anime/AquarionEvol'', Jin's infiltration of Earth is cut short when he actually meets [[MarsNeedWomen the gender he is supposed to kidnap]] and realizes that they are people just like him and he doesn't really feel like betraying his new...fake?...friends.

'''Options:'''

** [[spoiler:Rolo]], with each passing day, grows more comfortable in his role, until finally [[spoiler: he dies for his “brother’s” sake.]]

--> '''Kankuro:''' ''[[YouCanBarelyStand Hey Akihiko, your body can’t…]]''\\
'''Akihiko:''' [''signals Kankuro to shut up''] ''[[DamselInDistress Wakana-chan is waiting for Toshiyuki – Kun’s safe return]]''. – ThemeMusicPowerUp begins - ''[[HeroicResolve I’ve still got willpower]]. [[IGaveMyWord Since I was asked, I have to help her!]] [[HeroicSpirit A man… is forged from willpower and perserverance!]]'' – Cue ImagineSpotting of Akihiko as [[RedIsHeroic Red Star]].

[[folder:Comics]]

* In ''ComicBook/BeastWarsUprising'', [[spoiler:Wolfang]] is eventually revealed to be a Predacon SecretPolice operative who underwent this; he was ordered to pose as a Maximal cop, but steadily came to enjoy solving murders and helping people far more than he ever enjoyed being a spy. [[spoiler:When Tarantulas tricks his handlers into thinking he’s turned traitor and sends them to kill him, he doesn’t mind too much because, in his own eyes, he’s a cop first, Predacon second.]]

* In Fanfic/SeanBeanSavesWesteros, the [[RealPersonFic "real life"]] Creator/SeanBean is transported into the land of Westeros of Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire. Now living as Ned Stark, not just playing him on TV, Sean Bean has a hard time not accepting Ned’s family as truly his own, especially after Sansa is rescued.

[[folder: Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

--> '''Alfred:''' You're getting lost inside this monster of yours.

-->'''Anatoly Orlov:''' I'm going to temple.\\
'''Irina Orlov:''' You're not going to temple! You go to temple more than the Rabbi!

* One of the themes in ''Film/BlackSwan'' is the protagonist struggling to delve into her darkside in order to perfect her role as Odile of ''Theatre/SwanLake''. [[EnemyWithin This unfamiliar side of herself begins to devour her.]]
* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagging]] around this trope is one of the main selling points of ''Film/{{Salt}}'': Is she primarily a CIA operative trying to [[ClearMyName clear her name]] or a [[DirtyCommies Soviet superspy]]? [[spoiler:The theatrical version plays this straight; She [[LoveRedeems did fall in love]] and went native. The DirectorsCut goes the opposite way but manages to sneak in a twist: She's loyal to ''current'' Russia, not [[BigBad Orlov]].]]

-->'''Valentine:''' Perhaps it is impossible to wear an identity without becoming who we pretend to be.

-->'''Fake Tuvok:''' Logic suggests that neither of us has the advantage.
-->'''Tuvok:''' Your logic is flawed (''blinds him with a flashlight'').

-->'''T-Bag:''' "You realize what I'm giving up here? I was guaranteed 50 grand!"
-->'''Gretchen:''' "You're crying over 50 grand, are you serious?!"
-->'''T-Bag:''' "I have a job! I make money, I get mail, people call me ''sir''."\\
'''Gretchen:''' "12-hour days and eating left-over lo-mein. Something tells me Theodore Bagwell wouldn't last long in this situation."\\
'''T-Bag:''' "Yeah, maybe. But ''Cole Pfeiffer'' would."

--->'''Nate:''' All right, good news, bad news.
--->'''Tara:''' Good news?
--->'''Nate:''' The mayor's hooked. We're in the pinch.
--->'''Tara:''' Bad news?
--->'''Nate:''' I think we lost Eliot until the playoffs.

[[folder: Myth and folklore]]

** In Hisui's route it's revealed that [[spoiler:Kohaku]] ''was'' becoming the mask, and just followed through on the plan anyway because [[spoiler:Kohaku]] had no idea what else to do. In [[spoiler:Kohaku’s own route]], the mask starts to crack when [[spoiler: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 [[HeelFaceTurn becomes/reverts back to a very sweet, kind person]]]].

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/BuzzfeedUnsolved''. [[AgentScully Shane]] realizes with horror in "The Restless Spirits of Waverly Hills Sanatorium" that he is a ghost hunter.

-->'''Daria:''' And I judge myself unfit for human contact.
-->'''Helen:''' That's exactly what you ''will'' be if you don't start engaging with the rest of us! [[StepfordSnarker You keep hiding your real face behind that antisocial mask]] and one day the mask will ''be'' your face. I'm not letting that happen. You're working at that camp! ''(leaves)''

* Many [[{{UsefulNotes/Skydiving}} skydivers]] have noted that they relate to everyday tasks, work and live with the same incredible determination, methodicalness and courage, the psychology of the sports bleeding to their everyday lives.

[[/folder]]

* In the Bleach series {{Heirverse}} this is pretty much how Gin and Aizen get together. YMMV though as this could just as easily be a case of BeneathTheMask and some of Kyouka's comment would imply that.

* Waist training with a corset [[IncrediblyLamePun fits]] this trope.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E145TheMasks "The Masks"]] does this, quite naturally, with a KarmicTwistEnding: 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 Becoming The Mask.

** Originally travelling with Daenerys and Viserys to serve as TheMole for Varys in hopes of a royal pardon, Jorah gradually develops a BodyguardCrush on Daenerys, defending her life on several occasions and becomes her closest advisor in her mission to retake the Seven Kingdoms and restore the Targaryen dynasty, even after he secured his pardon.

Contrast BeneathTheMask where the audience is only given a peek. Similar in style to AmnesiacDissonance, but without amnesia. May involve ObliviousGuiltSlinging. Compare SecretIdentityIdentity, FakeRealTurn, and GoingNative. If the character does not even respond to his old name anymore, that is ThatManIsDead. When a ''literal'' mask starts to change someone's personality, it's EvilMask. Contrast LostInCharacter, where a character who is a professional actor lives and breathes a role. Do not confuse with BecomingTheCostume or BecomingTheBoast. Some spoilers ahead. Has overlap with TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask because the woman's true personality be influenced or be absorbed into the queen personality, and consider as well ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim when people try to figure out how someone by thinking like them.

** [[spoiler:Flay Alster]] in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]''. She pretended to love [[spoiler:Kira]] because [[spoiler:she wanted to have revenge against him for her dad's death, which he caused indirectly]], but ended up loving him for real.
*** Also, [[spoiler:Meer Campbell]] in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]''. She's a NaiveEverygirl with a pathologically low self-esteem, chosen to [[spoiler:become Lacus Clyne's BodyDouble.]] She does her job more or less well... but as time passes, the girl's [[spoiler:identity issues kick in]], she falls in love with [[spoiler:her SecretKeeper ''and'' Lacus's ex boyfriend]] Athrun Zala and [[TearJerker it does NOT end well for her]].
** Katejina Loos in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'' is effectively kidnapped by the Zanscare early on. At that point, she comes up with the idea of getting close to them and becoming a spy for the League Militaire. Whether or not that would have been possible ends up being beside the point, as she slowly (or maybe a little too suddenly) becomes an actual enemy pilot and a total [[KnightTemplar zealot]] by the end.

* In ''Anime/{{Bakugan}}: Gundalian Invaders'', Ren was sent by the Gundalians to get the Battle Brawlers to join them in the guise that they were the innocent party in their war. However, after experiencing their friendship and eventually realizing that the king he served didn't care about him, he did a HeelFaceTurn and joined the Brawlers in the battle against his own kind.

** Nami as well. She had only intended to use Luffy for all he was worth before leaving. But the longer she stayed with them, the more 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 once she was on her own, she broke down and cried. When the Straw Hats eventually follow her, she is visibly upset while trying to keep them out of a fight she thought they couldn't win. Like with Robin later on, Luffy continues to think of Nami as part of his crew and confronts Arlong for her sake. The final nail in this was when Luffy told Nami to watch [[NiceHat his signature straw hat]], simultaneously a sign of his trust in her and a sign he was [[LetsGetDangerous about to kick some serious butt]]. By this time she is too shaken with emotion to even move, ultimately coming to the realization she ''wants'' to be a Straw Hat, leading to her ultimate decision to leave with them after Luffy defeats Arlong.

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}: