History Main / FakeRealTurn

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

Similar to BecomingTheMask, but with entities. For cases where the goal was to make something real, but to have it fail, see SpringtimeForHitler. If it's a person being faked it becomes InventedIndividual. A subtrope is RomanticFakeRealTurn. See also SecretIdentityIdentity and AppropriatedAppellation. If a previously fake organization becomes real, it might be UnderStrangeManagement. Compare {{Defictionalization}}. This trope's name is a pun on FaceHeelTurn.

* In "Razzle Dazzle", one of the ''Literature/WhateleyAcademy'' stories, Mephisto the Mentalist learns that his Master of the World scheme, where he would issue random "orders" to nonexistent minions, has turned into an actual organization networked across multiple states, who have been interpreting his messages to their own design.

* Stuck inside his house with COVID-19, [[Creator/GregoryAustinMcConnell Austin McConnell]] dreamed up an entire for a cinematic universe based on old, forgotten superheroes from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks who'd fallen into the public domain. He never intended to actually make any of the proposed films, but the idea proved unexpectedly popular with his audience, so he decided to make it for real, dubbing the project "Superzeroes."

* Stuck inside his house with COVID-19, [[Creator/GregoryAustinMcConnell Austin McConnell]] dreamed up an entire for a cinematic universe based on old, forgotten superheroes from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComics who'd fallen into the public domain. He never intended to actually make any of the proposed films, but the idea proved unexpectedly popular with his audience, so he decided to make it for real, dubbing the project "Superzeroes."

* Stuck inside his house with COVID-19, [[Creator/GregoryAustinMcConnell Austin McConnell]] dreamed up an entire for a cinematic universe based on old, forgotten superheroes from the UsefulNotes/GoldenAgeOfComics who'd fallen into the public domain. He never intended to actually make any of the proposed films, but the idea proved unexpectedly popular with his audience, so he decided to make it for real, dubbing the project "Superzeroes."

[[folder:Western Animation ]]

* ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'' began as a parody, with its creators initially assuming nobody would take the idea of magical girls in the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness seriously. But the idea proved surprisingly popular, and a few {{Cerebus Retcon}}s later Blossomed into a fully developed gameline.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonVsPhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', [[spoiler:it's revealed that Labyrinthia is actually a testing ground built by the Storyteller's/Arthur Cantabella's company Labrelum Inc. The volunteers for the project who had their memories suppressed to become the town's citizens regain them and panic, with many of them making a run for it. However, some of them such as the Judge decided that they enjoyed their fake lives and town, with all of them deciding to make both of them legitimate.]]

Similar to BecomingTheMask, but with entities. For cases where the goal was to make something real, but to have it fail, see SpringtimeForHitler. If it's a person being faked it becomes InventedIndividual. A subtrope is RomanticFakeRealTurn. See also SecretIdentityIdentity and AppropriatedAppellation. If a previously fake organization becomes real, it might be UnderStrangeManagement. Compare {{Defictionalization}}. Not to be confused with FaceHeelTurn, which this trope's name is a pun on.

* In ''Fanfic/TheDarkLordsOfNerima'', Ranma and the rest of his Neriman peers orchestrate the eponymous scheme to fake their deaths and get both the Sailor Senshi and the Dark Kingdom off their cases. [[spoiler:During ''Ascendant'', thanks to both Beneda hyping them up and their subsequent feats, the Dark Kingdom's remaining monsters decide to place themselves under Ranma's group. The end result is that the Nerima Wrecking Crew becomes Dark Lords for real.]]

* This is pretty much the origin of the Dollars in ''{{LightNovel/Durarara}}''. Initially, people got e-mailed to join an online group called the Dollars, which was presented as a secret society of sorts, but had no membership obligations, and it was pretty much a joke. Over time, rumors got started about their power and because they acquired a reputation for violence, people started committing crimes in the name of the group. Eventually, their founder realizes things have gone horribly wrong, and starts spreading counter-rumors about them being a heroic group in order to stop this. [[spoiler:The fun part is that ''this also works'', or at least it does until Izaya arrives.]] Well, [[spoiler:it's not that Izaya wants to stop the heroic nature of the group -- he was the one who spread the e-mail around in the first place -- but that he wants to have the group be flexible enough so that he can manipulate it to whatever end he wants]]. Sort of.

* In ''Literature/WingsOfFire'', the [=NightWing=] tribe (who used to have genuine precognitive abilities, but don't anymore) orchestrate a fake prophecy about children stopping the war, which gets the tribe political leverage. They delude not only members of all the other tribes, but ''[[KickTheDog the actual children involved]]'', who they kidnapped and raised to be [[UnwittingPawn patsies]]. And then the children escape- partly because they want to fulfil their "destiny"- and because they are genuinely heroic, and so many people believe in the prophecy at this point, they ''succeed''. Halfway through, they discover the prophecy is a sham but decide to fulfil it anyway, because it's the best chance anyone has of bringing peace to Pyrrhia.

* In 1969 Greil Marcus, a critic for ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, penned a spoof "review" of a pending release from the Masked Marauders, a purported supergroup consisting of [[Music/TheBeatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney]], [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Mick Jagger]], and Music/BobDylan. So many readers bought into the hoax, inundating the magazine as well as the various artists and their managers with requests for information on how to get the album, that Marcus decided to take things a step further by recruiting The Cleanliness & Godliness Skiffle Band (a San Francisco Bay Area cult favorite) to record an album in the guise of the fictional Marauders. Even after the hoax was revealed, said album actually made it onto the lower reaches of the ''Billboard'' charts (the album itself revealed the hoax in its final track, in which a disgruntled customer angrily complains about wasting his money on the album).

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': This happens to the TeamRocket trio multiple times. They'll open a beauty salon or engage in some other form of seemingly legitimate business just so they can steal Ash's Pikachu or some other rare Pokémon/items. While they're biding their time, [[CutLexLuthorACheck their business draws actual customers and money.]]

Similar to BecomingTheMask, but with entities. For cases where the goal was to make something real, but to have it fail, see SpringtimeForHitler. If it's a person being faked it becomes InventedIndividual. A subtrope is RomanticFakeRealTurn. See also SecretIdentityIdentity and AppropriatedAppellation. Compare {{Defictionalization}}. Not to be confused with FaceHeelTurn, which this trope's name is a pun on.

Similar to BecomingTheMask, but with entities. For cases where the goal was to make something real, but to have it fail, see SpringtimeForHitler. If it's a person being faked it becomes InventedIndividual. A subtrope is RomanticFakeRealTurn. See also SecretIdentityIdentity and AppropriatedAppellation. Compare {{Defictionalization}}. Not to be confused with FaceHeelTurn.

* A "Shoot" in wrestling is a term for something that happens which wasn't in the script, contrasted with something combined before, a "work". The etymology may come from wrestlers accidentally "shooting" their opponents through ropes. And due how {{Kayfabe}} works, the goal of a work is to make it look [[WorkedShoot as much like a shoot as possible]] without it actually becoming a shoot to avoid liability and real injuries that can cripple or even end a career.