History Main / DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest

* Played with in ''Series/WonderWoman'' when the series moved from UsefulNotes/WW2 to the (then) present day. WW's long-time LoveInterest Steve Trevor had been established as an Army officer in the 1940s, so in order to have "him" around in TheSeventies, he had to be replaced by his identically-named son -- both played by the same actor, of course. However, to avoid the awkwardness of Diana flirting with her ex's son, it's quickly established that she and Steve Jr. are just friends, and she has other unrelated romantic entanglements over the rest of the series.

* ''Series/Zoey101'': After Zoey is goes to a boarding school in England, Chase ends up missing her so much that he drags a girl named Gretchen, who really ''does'' look a lot like Zoey, into his life. The problem? Gretchen acts [[{{Jerkass}} rude and dismissive]] towards his subtle attempts to make her more like Zoey, and Chase is [[LoveMakesYouDumb too distracted by "Zoey" to notice]]. His friends end up [[WhatTheHellHero calling him out for trying to replace Zoey]].

* ''Series/Zoey101'': After Zoey is forced to go to a boarding school in England, Chase ends up missing her so much that he drags a girl named Gretchen, who really ''does'' look a lot like Zoey, into his life. The problem? Gretchen acts [[{{Jerkass}} rude and dismissive]] towards his subtle attempts to make her more like Zoey, and Chase is [[LoveMakesYouDumb too distracted by "Zoey" to notice]]. His friends end up [[WhatTheHellHero calling him out for trying to replace Zoey]].

* In ''Manhwa/ThreadsOfTime'', this is what happens to Moon-Bin at the end. Although he isn't able to end up with Atan Hadas from the past, when he goes back into present time, it's implied that he ends up with a girl (that always liked him) who is identical to Atan Hadas.

* In ''Film/SusieQ'', Zach falls for Susie, a ghost who needs to settle her family's unresolved affairs before moving on to the afterlife. With the help of Zach, she succeeds and moves on to the afterlife and is reunited with grandfather and boyfriend. The next day at school, Zach runs into a new student named Maggie (played by the same actress). It's strongly implied that she's Susie's reincarnation, sans Susie's memories. The situation prompts Zack to [[BreakingTheFourthWall give a baffled glance to the camera]]

** It seemed to be implied that it actually was still her, just a version of her that had been made independent from the story.

* John Perry from ''Literature/OldMansWar'' is very upset by his wife's death. Near the end of the book he meets a special forces soldier who has a body cloned from his his wife's DNA, who looks exactly like her. They end up together. That said, he is very much aware that Jane is not Katherine, merely sharing some of her DNA.

-->--''Series/DoctorWho'', "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Doomsday]]"

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* ''A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court'' (1949). Bing Crosby's character meets and falls in love with Alisande La Carteloise ("Sandy") in King Arthur's time. When he returns to the present, he meets a woman who looks just like her.

* ''Quest for Love'' differs from the short story "Literature/RandomQuest" by Creator/JohnWyndham on which it is based as Ottilie Harshom dies of a previously undiagnosed congenital heart weakness. This obviously means that is no possibility of she and Colin Trafford being able to resume their relationship even if he managed to find a way to return to the AlternateUniverse. As such, there is less of a sense that Colin is "settling" for Ottilie's counterpart in the film than there is in the short story. Her counterpart Tracy Fletcher was raised by adoptive parents after her biological parents were killed in an air raid shortly after she was born in 1945. Colin manages to get Tracy to the hospital for treatment before it is too late. Unlike the short story, the film ends before Colin and Tracy are married but it is heavily implied that they will become a couple: in the final scene, he visits her in hospital with a bunch of flowers and introduces himself.

* In both the novel and subsequent TV movie ''[=TekWar=],'' Jake Cardigan falls in love with an [[RobotMe android]] built in the image of Beth Kittridge. The android dies in a HeroicSacrifice. Then Jake meets the real Beth.
* In [[Literature/TheDarkTower2004 the final book]] of ''Literature/TheDarkTower'', [[spoiler: Susannah Dean travels to an alternate New York City where she meets an alternate version of her (deceased) husband Eddie, their young (also deceased) friend Jake, and even an Earth-dog version of their (guess) billy-bumbler Oy.]]
* Zig-zagged in the penultimate volume of ''Literature/GleamsOfAeterna'': Robert's love interest, Baroness Marianne, is killed during the Ollarian riots -- but he never actually learns of it, since he is busy elsewhere, dealing with the rioters and helping the refugees. After escaping the city, however, a ''fulga'' (a shapeshifting elemental being) finds him and assumes Marianne's form to comfort him and help him recuperate after the TraumaCongaLine he just suffered, without adding any more trauma to it. The MagnificentBastard Marcel Valme actually sees through her disguise and confronts her, but after confirming that she has no ulterior motive for Robert, he lets her carry on, since he wants Robert up and running ASAP.
* In the short story "Literature/RandomQuest" by Creator/JohnWyndham, Colin Trafford is accidentally sent to an AlternateUniverse where he falls in love with his counterpart's beautiful wife Ottilie Harshom. After returning to his own universe, he eventually tracks down Ottilie's counterpart. In his universe, Dr. Harshom's son Malcolm had a girlfriend who, unbeknownst to him, was pregnant when he was killed in 1927. She married a Canadian man named Reggie Gale who raised her daughter Belinda (Ottilie's counterpart) as his own. When Colin found Belinda, she was living in a flat in Ottawa with her mother. Reggie, a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, was killed in a mission over Berlin during the war. Colin marries Belinda within several months and brings her back to England to meet her grandfather Dr. Harshom.
* The first ''Literature/RedDwarf'' novel has the Lister get back to Earth after millions of years and marry an [[IdenticalGrandson identical descendant]] of his ex-girlfriend but it eventually turns out he's in a LotusEaterMachine.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Theatre/{{Finale}}'', all of Dani's boyfriends are played by the same actor.

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1647626325078970000&page=1
%% Please start a new thread to discuss a new image.

->''"Earth. After the War. Three years have passed since I saw your face. I wonder if I come to you, at night, in dreams; in the day, as memories.\\
"Do I haunt your hours, the way you haunted mine? And I wonder if you see me, when you look at her?\\
"If we have souls, they are made of the love we share; undimmed by time, unbound by death.\\
"For three years I searched for the house he built. I knew it had to be out there. Because I know him. I am him. I am Jack Harper, and I'm home. "''
-->-- Final lines of ''Film/{{Oblivion|2013}}''

* In ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' The Atom Ray Palmer ended up in a parallel universe where his counterpart had just died. He tried to make a new life for himself there and got together with the counterpart of his insane ex-wife Jean Loring.
* In ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'', Black Canary was in a relationship with Green Arrow, but he died in their home universe. At the end of the second year she gets brought BackFromTheDead and meets an alternate universe Arrow, while ComicBook/DoctorFate explains that this Arrow lost his own Canary five years ago. While Fate knows the two have never met and that he cannot guarantee them happiness, he can give them each other. The scene ends with Arrow calling her "Pretty Bird", the original's pet name for her.

* Volume 3 of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' was supposed to end with the team ending up in an alternate universe where Gert Yorkes and Old Lace never died, creating the possibility of her getting together with Chase, who had never really gotten over ''his'' Gert's death. Unfortunately, due to the series' abrupt cancellation in mid-arc, it actually ended with Chase encountering an alternate-universe version of Gert and then being hit by a van.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' dealt with this in the original Clone Saga by Creator/GerryConway. Peter, pining after Gwen after her death, meets Gwen's clone and his old feelings for her resurface. However, the returned Gwen is the Gwen as Peter remembers her but not the true Gwen, whereas his real feelings are for Mary Jane, an actual flesh-and-blood woman. According to Conway, the whole point was to demonstrate how unhealthy and sick grief can be and how our longing for TheLostLenore comes from [[LovingAShadow rejecting reality]].
* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', a malfunction with the Lost Light's quantum engines causes the entire ship to duplicate itself the moment it leaves Cybertron. On the version the readers follow, Chromedome and Rewind's romance ends tragically when Rewind pulls a HeroicSacrifice. On the "second", the entire crew save Rewind ends up massacred by the Decepticon Justice Division. When the two find each other, they end up resuming their relationship. However, the series is very careful to point out that neither one is a complete duplicate of the partner the other lost, and the way this affects their relationship is an important plot point after that.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

** After Miaka encounters a man who looks identical to Tamahome, named Taka, in her own world, it's said that he's Tamahome's reincarnation. [[spoiler: After Taka suffers from some CloningBlues, Suzaku admits that Taka Sukunami is ''not'' Tamahome's reincarnation, but a regular man who was meant to unite with Tamahome's memories.]]

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': Peter Quill runs into an alternate timeline version of his deceased girlfriend Gamora, who [[GroinAttack violently]] rejects him because she doesn't know him. Despite this, he becomes determined to find her. This plot is continued into ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3'', and in the end ||they do not end up together as he realizes this Gamora really is a different person||.