History Main / LovesMyAlterEgo

[[caption-width-right:325:The man of ComicBook/LoisLane's dreams [[LamePunReaction is closer than she thinks]].]]

* In a non-fantasy vein, this is certainly true of "ordinary" people who idolize celebrities. The "real person" more often than not is [[BrokenPedestal nowhere near as glamorous once you get to meet them]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cybersix}}'': Subverted, Cybersix's civilian alter ego is her [[SweetPollyOliver crossdressing]] as Lucas' best friend Adrian. Lucas is in love with Cybersix and vice versa... but then Lucas sees Cybersix go into Adrian's apartment and assumes they're lovers.

* ''Comicbook/WonderWoman'''s ComicBook/SteveTrevor is a classic example; for decades he ignored bespectacled coworker [[ClarkKenting Diana Prince]] in favor of her Amazonian alter ego. He learned her identity on both Earth-Two and Earth-One before marrying her, and in the original Golden Age comics it's hinted he's playing dumb since he does things frequently that help her keep her Diana Prince id. After the book's [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]] [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 reboot]], this dynamic was disposed of; Diana no longer had a secret identity and her relationship with Steve was non-romantic.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', Eric has vowed to marry the girl who rescued him but since the only thing he clearly remembers about her is her beautiful voice, he assumes that the mute girl he finds on the beach soon after can't possibly be her and is thus reluctant to kiss her even though he's clearly attracted to her from the start. He actually decides after Grimsby's advice that he prefers the flesh-and-blood girl to a "dream girl" who might not even exist, but then Ursula shows up in disguise pretending to be his actual dream girl...

-->'''Nick''': [[spoiler: I can feel in my heart that Sheeni is in love with me, not with some fantasy lover in a French romantic novel but me, Nick Twisp. It's funny, after all that, Nick Twisp was enough.]]

[[folder:Podcast]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* The Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse's version of Lois Lane gets a twofer in the original "World's Finest" crossover between ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''.
-->'''Batman''': ''It's ironic, you know. She likes Bruce Wayne, and she likes Superman; it's the other two guys she's not crazy about.''
-->'''Superman''': ''It's a pity we can't mix and match.''

** In another animated take on it, ''[[WesternAnimation/SupermanDoomsday Superman: Doomsday]]'', Superman and Lois are actively dating and outright lovers, and he still hasn't revealed his secret identity to her. The normal trope is subverted in that she ''knows'' who he really is and makes it clear that she knows; she's just waiting for ''him'' to admit to it and stop the pointless denial "for her safety", seeing it as the last blockage of any real commitment between them. He finally does in the last scene.

* ''Comicbook/WonderWoman'''s ComicBook/SteveTrevor is a classic example; for decades he ignored bespectacled coworker [[ClarkKenting Diana Prince]] in favor of her Amazonian alter ego. He learned her identity on both Earth-Two and Earth-One before marrying her, and in the original Golden Age comics it's hinted he's playing dumb since he does things frequently that help her keep her Diana Prince id. After the book's [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]] reboot, this dynamic was disposed of; Diana no longer had a secret identity and her relationship with Steve was non-romantic.
** In [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Volume 1] Helen Alexandros fell in love with Dr. Psycho's projection Captain Wonder, and Psycho fell in love with Helen's Silver Swan form. After her powers were removed, Helen searched for Captain Wonder but found Dr. Psycho instead who repulsed her, continuing her search despite the fact Captain Wonder did not exist. Psycho was likewise repulsed by Helen, and continued looking for Silver Swan, the one woman he did not despise due to her CharmPerson powers.

* In each of Creator/StudioPierrot's MagicalGirl series (''Anime/MagicalAngelCreamyMami'', ''Anime/MagicalStarMagicalEmi'', ''Anime/PersiaTheMagicFairy''), the heroine is in love with an older boy, who prefers her metamorphosed alter ego, leading the poor magical girls to be jealous of themselves.
* A rather peculiar take on this appears in ''Manga/SuperPig''. The main character Karin has a crush on her Junior High School soccer captain Kouichi Mizuno. He is in love with her secret identity Buurin. [[InterspeciesRomance But she is a pig in that form]]! Add in the issue of Karin being stuck as Buurin if anyone finds out about her secret identity, then you have yourself a very peculiar conundrum. [[spoiler:When Kouichi, along with Karin's classmates, finds out that Karin is Buurin, he is upset by this revelation. After fighting his own DemonicPossession, he comes to love her again]].

* In ''LightNovel/{{Kampfer}}'', Natsuru loves Kaede and Kaede loves Natsuru. The catch? Kaede loves [[GenderBender THE FEMALE NATSURU!]]
** To make things even more ridiculous, Kaede is under the impression that the male Natsuru is her love rival. [[spoiler:It turns out she knew it all along because she's the BigBad. And she really wants only the female Natsuru.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge,'' Danny explains that he can't date Amber, since he realizes that he was subconsciously attracted to her mainly because of her uncanny resemblance to his ex-girlfriend. Then he explains that he's set his sights on Amazi-Girl instead. (Shocking non-twist: [[spoiler:Amber is Amazi-Girl]]!)

** In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', Ben turns into an Incursean to infiltrate their fleet, attracting the eye of Princess Attea. Due to the influence of Incursean DNA, Bullfrag (Ben's Incursean form) actually starts flirting with her! When all is said and done, Attea offers Ben to join the Incurseans... provided he does so as Bullfrag.

* In [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Pokemon Sun and Moon]], Professor Burnet is certainly in love with Professor Kukui, but also has a serious celebrity crush on the Masked wrestler/trainer Royal Mask. She doesn't find out the truth until ''after'' they got married, but suddenly discovering she's ''married her crush'' completely blows her mind.

* In ''Big Bang Comics'', Superman CaptainErsatz Ultiman is really Chris Kelly, but this isn't a secret to his co-workers, because he works for the government in his capacity as Ultiman. However, he keeps another identity on the side: that of his own twin brother, Carl Kelly. "Carl" is a shiftless womanizer, despised by the Ultiman-crazed Lori Lake.

* Unlike all other adaptations, in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Lois might be a HeroWorshipper of The Blur (don't ask why they never used "Superman"), but she is with Clark all the time.

* On ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer,'' Angel is prone to going through a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor between himself and his evil, soulless identity, Angelus. Interestingly, Drusilla--who's not exactly sane--seems to blame Angel for Angelus' evil actions toward her (torturing him as she recounts them in one episode) even though she loves Angelus. (And of course, this trope also applies to Buffy and Darla, but they don't seem to make the same odd disconnect between the two halves that Drusilla does.)
** Though Dru's crazy, so do with that as you will.

* ''WesternAnimation/BigHeroSixTheSeries'': Karmi is in love with Hiro's alter ego, who she calls [[EmbarrassingNickname Captain Cutie]]. Meanwhile, Richardson Mole inverts this with Go Go, who he tries to woo and refers to her as "dream girl". The one time he talks to her while she's in costume, it's clear he couldn't be less interested.

* Played with in a number of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fics which start with the setup of the show (see under Western Animation below) but instead go in the direction of pairing up Marinette and Chat Noir for a slow-burn "friends to lovers" story, as each is the persona that the other likes, respects and cares about but doesn't (at least at first) romantically love to the point that they can only communicate through incoherent stammering or annoying flirting. ''[[Fanfic/{{Tendencies}} Obsession]]'' is a prime example, in which Chat Noir develops [[MyInstinctsAreShowing a cat-like addiction to petting]], and doesn't want to go to Ladybug for help, as he gets the sense that she'd do it out of duty without the affection he craves from her. As he puts it to Marinette, "My lady couldn't feed me macarons and chocolate milk. My lady wouldn't wait up in the rain to make sure I'm okay. My lady's smile doesn't light up her face when she sees me. Yours does. She can't give me what I need, Marinette. What I need, my Princess is you. And a princess is far brighter than a lady." He only finds out that they're the same girl later in the story, after she's found out his identity. There are also stories that deal with Ladybug and Adrien's mutual attraction (Ladrien), the discovery of which can be handled in a number of ways. If Marinette finds out about Adrien's crush on Ladybug, it can sometimes push her to approach him as Ladybug, often by visiting him in his bedroom, or else lead her to feel even less secure about measuring up to herself (see ''[[http://www.archiveofourown.org/works/10210028/ The Parts of You]]'' for an example). Alternately, if Adrien finds out about Ladybug's crush on him, he may view it as an opportunity, or, as in ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/9511511 fresh eyes]]'', come to believe that his Lady is a lot shallower than he believed, since "a boy she’s really only ever seen on billboards and screens has more effectively stolen her heart than her partner."

* Played with in a number of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fics which start with the setup of the show (see under Western Animation below) but instead go in the direction of pairing up Marinette and Chat Noir for a slow-burn "friends to lovers" story, as each is the persona that the other likes, respects and cares about but doesn't (at least at first) romantically love to the point that they can only communicate through incoherent stammering or annoying flirting. ''[[Fanfic/{{Tendencies}} Obsession]]'' is a prime example, in which Chat Noir develops [[MyInstinctsAreShowing a cat-like addiction to petting]], and doesn't want to go to Ladybug for help, as he gets the sense that she'd do it out of duty without the affection he craves from her. As he puts it to Marinette, "My lady couldn't feed me macarons and chocolate milk. My lady wouldn't wait up in the rain to make sure I'm okay. My lady's smile doesn't light up her face when she sees me. Yours does. She can't give me what I need, Marinette. What I need, my Princess is you. And a princess is far brighter than a lady." He only finds out that they're the same girl later in the story, after she's found out his identity.
** There are also stories that deal with Ladybug and Adrien's mutual attraction (Ladrien), the discovery of which can be handled in a number of ways. If Marinette finds out about Adrien's crush on Ladybug, it can sometimes push her to approach him as Ladybug, often by visiting him in his bedroom, or else lead her to feel even less secure about measuring up to herself (see ''[[http://www.archiveofourown.org/works/10210028/ The Parts of You]]'' for an example). Alternately, if Adrien finds out about Ladybug's crush on him, he may view it as an opportunity, or, as in ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/9511511 fresh eyes]]'', come to believe that his Lady is a lot shallower than he believed, since "a boy she’s really only ever seen on billboards and screens has more effectively stolen her heart than her partner."

Compare HatesMySecretIdentity, for non-romantic cases of people reacting differently to the two identities. See also LikesClarkKentHatesSuperman, which is when a character has negative feelings to a person but positive ones to his alter ego / secret identity.

** ''Series/KamenRiderAgito'' has an inverted version: Ryo Ashihara is good friends with Shoichi Tsugami, but hates Agito because he (wrongly) believes Agito killed a girl he liked. When he learns the truth, Ryo realizes he must have been mistaken because there's no way a guy like Shoichi could be a murderer.
*** The same plot was repeated eight years later with ''Series/KamenRiderKiva'' (which had the same head writer): Keisuke Nago likes and mentors Wataru Kurenai, but thinks Kiva is an evil mass-murdering enemy of humanity, and has the same resolution where Nago learns Kiva's identity and realizes he was wrong. In this case Nago's attitude is a bit more justified because there was a different Kiva in the 1980s who ''did'' want to kill off humanity and he had no way of knowing.

* A platonic(mostly) version in ''[[Manga/MyHeroAcademia MHA]]: [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/mha-worlds-finest-bnhaxbatman.868273/ World's Finest]]''. Nana is very close friends with Bruce, the homeless guy she took in after he helped her stop a criminal. However she can't stand ComicBook/{{Batman}}, the mysterious unliscenced vigilante that’s started showing up out of nowhere.

* A platonic(mostly) version in ''[[Manga/MyHeroAcademia MHA]]: World's Finest''. Nana is very close to Bruce, the homeless guy she took in after he helped her stop a criminal. However she can't stand ComicBook/{{Batman}}, the mysterious unliscenced vigilante that’s started showing up out of nowhere.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In Jeff Smith's [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Shazam! The Monster Society Of Evil]], Helen Fidelity, a Lois Lane {{expy}}, flirts shamelessly with adult Captain Marvel, but finds the 10-year-old Billy Batson rather annoying. Billy has an obvious PrecociousCrush on her, but Marvel (who's a [[SuperpoweredAlterEgo separate personality]] in this version) seems entirely indifferent.

* In Creator/LewisTrondheim and Fabrice Parme's ''Comicbook/{{Venezia}}'', the deuteragonists' civilian identities, an opera singer and a painter, can't stand each other; but their spy selves, the Black Scorpion and the Eagle, are quite friendly and exchange witty banter as they work for their respective countries against Venice.

* Creator/HarveyKurtzman's ''Superduperman!'' his ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' parody deconstructs the entire trope and its sexist foundation. Lois Pain rejects Clark Bent after he reveals that he and Superduperman are the same person. This was a spoof of the sexist assumptions that girls should be seduced by charismatic personas but ultimately settle for the dull "real guy" who they ignore, which Kurtzman saw as deceptive and disrespectful:
--> '''Lois Pain''': "Once a creep, always a creep!"

* In ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid,'' the Prince says that he won't marry the Princess to whom he's betrothed, because he already had LoveAtFirstSight with the woman who found him after he nearly drowned. Then he meets the Princess, and it turns out she ''is'' the woman who found him! It's a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage...except that the protagonist of this story is [[UnrequitedTragicMaiden the Little Mermaid]]. Who will suffer magical death if the Prince marries anybody but her, but [[CuteMute is unable to tell him that]].
** Kind of counts double, in that regard: he wants to marry "the girl who saved him," but since he was blacked out, he just assumes that he washed up on shore and was found by the Princess, not that the Little Mermaid kept him from drowning in the first place.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* A platonic(mostly) version in [[Manga/MyHeroAcademia MHA]]: World’s Finest. Nana is very close to Bruce, the homeless guy she took in after he helped her stop a criminal. However she can’t stand ComicBook/{{Batman}}, the mysterious unliscenced vigilante that’s started showing up out of nowhere.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* In ''Literature/AnansiBoys'' Rosie is in love with Spider, who she thinks is her fiance Fat Charlie, but he's actually Charlie's alter ego...sort of. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* During the "Blue Dudes" story arc from ''Drabble'', Norman tries to propose to the girl he's been dating, Norma. She rejects him as she's in love with someone else. He's so crushed that he eventually quits the Blue Dudes in the middle of the next game they attend. At that point, he not only finds out the "someone else" Norma was in love with was his Blue Dudes alter ego, but his previous love, Wendy, was as well.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder:WebVideo]]
* Leafa's interest in Kirito starts in Episode 13 of ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' and all but dies a squicktastic, incest-fraught death by the end of Episode 14. Not because Leafa's player Suguha goes through with it, but she instantly recognizes her relative Kazuto by his in-game name and unleashes scream after profanity storm after bloodcurdling scream as a direct result of her own revulsion.
-->''Son of a horse dick-fucking shit weasel-fucking bitch whore... ASS!! What is that FUCKING cock-sampler doing in MY game?!'' Oh Jesus fuck, I said my brother had a sweet patootie...! Aaaaaaaaaaah! ''(sobs into pillow)'' Noooooo!
[[/folder]]

* While the alternate identities aren't exactly secret, there is a little friction in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'''s Goku Black arc, where Trunks and Mai both get {{Precocious Crush}}es on each other's Future Timeline counterparts. Then they have the gall to get [[HypocriticalHumor jealous]] over it. Yes, ''both'' of them.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' short "Moon Over Minerva", Minerva Mink spurns the affections of the nerdy and unsophisticated Wilford Wolf, but goes crazy when the full moon turns him into hunk. After finding out the truth from Wilford, she decides to stay with him because "some things are worth waiting for."

* This becomes a major problem for Gara Petothel in ''[[Literature/XWingSeries X-Wing: Wraith Squadron]]'', who is an imperial secret agent who likes her covert identiy as an Alliance pilot so much, she would rather like to [[BecomingTheMask become the mask]]. Unfortunately the one pilot to show romantic interest her is the only survivor of an ambush she had set up months before. Not only did the death of all his friends traumatize him deeply, it's also his friendship to her that slowly helps him to recover.