History Main / BecomingTheMask

* FBI agent Joseph Pistone successfully infiltrated the New York mafia as a jewel thief named Donnie Brasco (see Live-Action Film above for the movie based on this case). While undercover, he formed close friendships with two mobsters and had conflicted feelings when the time came to reveal himself as a law enforcement official.

** Russi Taylor, the current voice of Minnie Mouse, and the late Creator/WayneAllwine, the previous voice of Mickey Mouse, developed a romance after meeting each other for the first time while on the job, and were married till Allwine's passing.

* In hindsight, Azula of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' is this. With no attachment to her mother and nobody to reel in/curb the more disturbing aspects of her, she drunk down the propaganda of the Fire Nation and emulated her father. Believing herself to be Ursa's failure, she took up the mantle of the monster. This bits her hard at series' end; and come the tie in comic, "The Search", it's clear that the phrase "Monster" starts to hit her a lot harder than normal.

** ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' actors Creator/KelseyGrammer and John Mahoney.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{BattleTech}}'', the Wolf's Dragoons mercenary unit was originally a scout unit from Clan Wolf sent to spy on the Inner Sphere. When the main Clan force invaded, however, the Dragoons changed sides and fought for the Successor States.

[[folder:Myth & Folklore]]
* One medieval legend is a very literal taking of the trope, that of an ugly man who for years wore a mask that made him beautiful until when he finally took it off, he found that his face had grown into the mask's shape, making him truly handsome.
** At least one variant of this story has an old enemy from before he began wearing the mask slip into a party the masked man is throwing and steal his mask, hoping to ruin his enemy. Instead the above realization occurs.

** Russi Taylor, the current voice of Minnie Mouse, and the late Wayne Allwine, the previous voice of Mickey Mouse, developed a romance after meeting each other for the first time while on the job, and were married till Allwine's passing.

** Unfortunately, as in the Creator/HeathLedger 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 loses self-control over time and in many cases ends under psychiatric treatment as well.

* The old phrase, "Fake it 'til you make it", is this trope in a nutshell.

* ''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 goes so far]] that the housemates start to believe they're the people they're pretending to be.
-->"Can someone explain to me why we're doing this when Xandir's not around?"
* Shayera Hol aka Hawkgirl of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' joined the team as an alien spy, but then decided to help them form a counter-offensive, when she found out that 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.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':
** Terra (in the AnimatedAdaptation only) 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]].
** The very next episode after that arc has Cyborg infiltrate the H.I.V.E. Academy under the guise of "Stone", in order to find out the "big plan" the H.I.V.E. has in the works. While he is able to successfully resist Brother Blood's mind control, unlike the rest of the students, he at one point shows himself to actually be enjoying himself at the school and only manages to focus himself back on the mission due to Robin's insistence.

* 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...
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'' has Ingrid going undercover in a close-knit mafia-esque Girl Scout Troop. She genuinely befriends the group, making it especially hard to go through the sting. As an added bonus, their leader was the Safety Patrol's previous undercover agent gone rogue who was much more loved and popular than Ingrid, which made them believe Ingrid could be more susceptible to this op.

* Subverted on one season finale of ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'', where the Teens were revealed to be secret agents of some sort and Carl was a secret agent assigned to spy on them. At the end of the episode, he mixes up strip club and liquor store, implying that the real Carl does not share the *ahem* interests of the Carl we've come to know and love. Of course, given what show we're talking about, don't expect this to carry over into next season.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'', Mipsy uses her cousin, Thea, to try to influence Ginger to stay at a private boarding school. Thea spends a semester with Ginger, and during the process, warms up to her and admits she felt bad about the deception, but only did so because she [[OnlyInItForTheMoney really needed the money to fund her shopping addiction]]. It's not hard to interpret that she legitimately ''wanted'' Ginger to stay because she liked her.
* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': [[spoiler:Numbuh 274, aka Chad Dickson]]. While he remains loyal to Kids Next Door [[spoiler:as a FakeDefector, his hatred of Numbuh 1 becomes real due to a perceived slight that Nigel is completely unaware of until the GrandFinale, and he spends his last appearance in the penultimate episode trying to kill him]].
* {{Discussed|Trope}} in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' TV movie "[[WesternAnimation/DariaIsItFallYet Is It Fall Yet?]]," when Daria's mom forces her to work as a counselor at a day-camp for children.
-->'''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)''
* In ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', Eddy decides to dress up as a foreign exchange student named 'Carl', to find out who wrote graffiti about him. When he introduces himself to the rest of the kids, he finds out that they all prefer him, instead of Eddy. Double D ([[spoiler:the one who wrote "Eddy is a no neck chump" in the first place]]) tells the surprised 'Carl' that it's respect, and that he hasn't done anything to provoke a negative opinion, like scamming for pocket change.
** In another episode, Edd builds a monster suit for Ed, only for Ed to start believing he actually is a monster and proceeds to go on a rampage through the neighborhood.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** Peter pretended to attend Meg's high school to discourage the students from licking toads, but he eventually started thinking he was a real teenager. "Eventually" here meaning "after about one day" ... this ''is'' Peter we're talking about.
** "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.
* [[spoiler:Zhalia]] from ''WesternAnimation/HuntikSecretsAndSeekers'' at the end of episode 17.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** 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]].
** This later happens to Trixie as well in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E6NoSecondPrances No Second Prances]]", when she returns to Ponyville and appears to become friends with Starlight Glimmer, Twilight's new student. As it later turns out, Trixie [[spoiler:originally only made friends with Starlight to use her against Twilight by having her choose to help Trixie over Twilight]]. In doing this, she however bonded with Starlight and formed a genuine friendship with her, so much so that when Starlight runs away in tears after discovering this Trixie is heartbroken as well over losing her first real friend. Twilight is later able to talk to Starlight and get her to forgive Trixie for her deceit and become friends for real.
** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E4FakeItTilYouMakeIt Fake It 'Til You Make It]]", after Rarity asks Fluttershy to look after her boutique in Manehattan while she and her assistants are occupied with a fashion show, Fluttershy creates and acts out three personas to help herself in interacting with Rarity's numerous and hard-to-please costumers. However, she soon becomes so immersed in each of the characters that she stops acting like herself altogether, essentially splitting into three separate people depending on which mask she's wearing at a given time, each of them rude and abrasive in a different way.
* In one of the old ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' episodes, a duckling comes to think of Tom as his mother. At first, Tom is only taking advantage of it to prepare to cook the little duckling into stew, but by the time the duckling willing decides to do it, Tom can't bring himself to cook the little guy and saves him. Also one of the few episodes that ends with Tom having a happy ending.
* [[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]].
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': Danny's mysterious 12-year old cousin Danielle, or Dani for short, turned out to be his OppositeSexClone created by his ArchEnemy, Vlad Plasmius, in a plot to use his DNA to create a clone for a son. Danielle was likely ordered to pretend to be family to make Danny trust her. However, Danny grew fond of her and didn't want to harm her, [[BigBrotherInstinct along with shielding her from Vlad]]. Even with her true identity revealed, they still see each other as family and care for each other.
* The ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' episode "Fleeced to Meet You" had the X Agent pretend to be Sheep's friend in order to manipulate him into getting captured by the top secret military organization planning to use him in a sheep-powered ray gun. In the end, X Agent finds that he really does like Sheep and ends up helping Sheep escape.
* Hopelessly averted in the ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' episode "There's a Penfold In My Suit." Penfold thinks he can be brave and heroic by putting on one of DM's white jumpsuits. Epic fail.

* In ''Julius Caesar in Egypt'' by Music/GeorgeFredericHandel, Cleopatra plans to seduce Caesar so that he would help her overthrow Ptolemy; however, she ends up genuinely falling in love with him.

* In ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', identical twins Mion and Shion [[spoiler:accidentally did a permanent TwinSwitch years ago when Mion (born Shion) was given a yakuza tattoo.]] The two siblings had to begin [[spoiler:acting like one another]], despite being [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl polar opposites]]. For the most part, Mion has learned to be OneOfTheGuys and Shion is fine being a GirlyGirl, but occasionally Shion's [[GirlyGirlWithATomboySteak more tomboyish side]] shows and Mion secretly has [[TomboyWithAGirlyStreak a feminine side]] (and a [[TomboyAngst complex about her boyishness]]).

* In ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', identical twins Mion and Shion [[spoiler:accidentally did a permanent TwinSwitch years ago when Mion (born Shion) was given a yakuza tattoo.]] The two siblings had to begin [[spoiler:acting like one another]], despite being [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl polar opposites]]. For the most part, Mion has learned to be OneOfTheGuys and Shion is fine being a GirlyGirl, but occasionally Shion's [[GirlyGirlWithATomboy more tomboyish side]] shows and Mion secretly has [[TomboyWithAGirlySide a feminine side]] (and a [[TomboyAngst complex about her boyishness]]).

* ''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.

* In ''Julius Caesar in Egypt'' by Creator/GeorgeFredericHandel, Cleopatra plans to seduce Caesar so that he would help her overthrow Ptolemy; however, she ends up genuinely falling in love with him.

* It can be argued that Øystein "Euonymous" Aarseth of the BlackMetal band Music/{{Mayhem}} underwent this; believing his own hype so much that he underwent severe SanitySlippage, crossed the MoralEventHorizon in regards to his treatment of their then-vocalist Dead, and it costed him multiple friendships and, if [[Music/{{Burzum}} Varg]]'s account of the stabbing is true, [[AuthorExistenceFailure his own life]].

* Music/DavidBowie apparently became very engrossed into some of his stage personas, to the point where they affected his offstage personality. He became so immersed in the character of Ziggy Stardust that according to people around him he started to think he ''was'' the character. This also applies to when he performed as the Thin White Duke -- which was even more troubling, since the Thin White Duke was a NaziNobleman and Bowie ended up expressing ''actual fascist ideology'' for a time. Bowie's period of PuttingOnTheReich is generally considered the lowest point of his drug-induced CreatorBreakdown -- as Rick James once said, "[[Series/ChappellesShow Cocaine is a hell of a drug.]]"

** Unfortunately, as in the Creator/HeathLedger 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.

* A common dating tip for men who have trouble approaching women because of low self-confidence is "Pretend that you've got a lot of confidence. After a while you'll find that you don't need to fake it anymore." Similar tricks may work for socialization in general.

* ATF agent William Queen spent two years undercover as Billy St. John, a member of the Mongols motorcycle gang, and admits he grew to liking the gang he was in and found them kinder than many law abiding folks he knew. He felt somewhat sorry for turning them in when his job investigating and spying on the gang was over.

* An aversion is shown in ''A Bright Shining Lie'' by Neil Sheehan. US advisor John Vann builds up ARVN officer Colonel Huynh Van Cao as a BloodKnight anti-communist tiger in the belief that this trope would come into effect. However Cao often refused to close with and destroy Viet Cong forces when he had the opportunity to do so, as President Diem had ordered casualties to be kept to a minimum, and the propaganda image the Americans had built up prevented them from acknowledging the flaws in the South Vietnamese military.