History Main / TomatoInTheMirror

* ''Webcomic/CoolAndNewWebcomic'' seems to be set in the world of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', but almost everything in the universe has inexplicably degraded to the point of StylisticSuck. But it isn't until Kanaya contacts Rose with some distressing information does Rose learn the truth: The world was always corrupted from the start, and Rose, Kanaya and the rest of the uncorrupted characters have just become "enhanced" (i.e. they look and act like their original ''Homestuck'' counterparts). Rose [[HeroicBSOD does not take this information well.]]

* Defied in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pyuFfKPCvY this]] Britanick sketch guest starring Creator/JossWhedon.

* In ''[[WebVideo/SandersSides Losing My Motivation]]'', Logan learns Thomas has a lack of motivation and directly suspects Virgil (who personifies Anxiety) is the one responsible for it. But Virgil is not the one who caused it. It's Logan ''himself''.
* Luke's ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin2'' choose-your-own-adventure quiz in ''[[WebVideo/OutsideXbox Outside Xtra]]'' culminated in TheReveal that Ellen's character was a penguin all along, complete with {{Foreshadowing}}. Ellen is initially disgruntled, only to find the mental image of her penguin character flailing at a researcher hilarious, and accepted it.

** In chapter 31, in the real world, Kagami recalls how during the final fight against Hawkmoth, they found out that not only was Adrien a Sentimonster, but so were Felix, Chloe, and Kagami.

* Parodied in the ''Website/{{Bogleech}}'' {{Creepypasta}} {{parody}} [[http://www.bogleech.com/ghastlymacaroni.html Ghastly Macaroni]], in the story called "You were all the frogs." You keep finding frogs in your house and you keep putting them outside, but when you look in the mirror, you realize that [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin you were all the frogs]] and have therefore locked yourself outside.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'': The prologue even states Gothel kidnapped Princess Rapunzel as a baby to have her hair all to herself to stay young, and lied to her about the outside world so she doesn't leave and can live forever. It takes Rapunzel all the way until the climax of the film to realize her true identity, something the audience already knew about her since the prologue.

* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolfTheTigerProwess'': Lord Japper and Leopold believe themselves to be a tiger and a leopard respectively, but are actually a house cat and a hyena. After Counselor Gecko reveals he was the leader of the carnival operation, he tells Lord Japper and Leopold that he was lying to them just to be cruel.

* In ''Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2023)'', Comicbook/{{Batman}} finds himself completely amnesiac in costume in a working-class neighborhood in Gotham. He slowly starts piecing together that he's a vigilante, gets flashes of a [[DeathByOriginStory boy that lost his parents to a gunman]], and regains his combat skills while helping the residents of the neighborhood and getting a surrogate family. He finally spots the Bat-signal and goes to it...where he is ambushed by the GCPD and the ''real'' Batman, who informs him that he's Frank Freeman, a martial arts expert and former Green Beret who stole a copy of Batman's gear to sell on the black market. The flashbacks he got were a murder ''he'' committed under the orders of the military, which made him quit the service. After saving Frank's new family from the Ventriloquist, Batman lets Frank go, confident he will go on the straight and narrow now he has someone to protect.

* ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'': The JLA's initial way of dealing with the White Martian threat was to hypnotize them into thinking that they are mere humans. This leads to an issue where Batman declares that several members of the JLA need to track down a great threat to the world: Bruce Wayne. Turns out that one of the brainwashed Martians was working for Wayne as an assistant. After being involved in a plane wreck it loses its memories ''again'' and decides (from papers it had) that it ''is'' Wayne and takes his form (making it a double example of this trope: a Martian who is forced to think it is human who then winds up thinking it is a different human).

* The trope is played with throughout the first half of ''[[ComicBook/Marvel2099 Doom 2099]]''. Doom claims he jumped to the future due to a failed experiment, which also damaged some of his memory. People note strange discrepancies at first (he's too young, his face isn't scarred [at first], etc). Then Doom learns he was the son of a political enemy to Latveria, who was kidnapped by the REAL Doctor Doom and {{Brainwashed}} into thinking he was the real Doom. Then it gets massively subverted. Doom really ''was'' the real deal; his youth and failed memories were because of a regeneration tank. There was no Gambit; it was just Doom's former lover getting bored and screwing with him.

* In ''Fanfic/ClashOfTheElements'': Driad is not a Good Guardian, but actually the former Outer Guardian of the Nature Castle.
** This is subverted with Luigi and Dimentio in Part 2 though.

* ''Fanfic/{{Pokeumans}}'': Any transformed Pokeuman is replaced by a clone who lives out their human life believing they are the real one. If any of the RecursiveFanfiction series have them discover their true nature, they're in for a hard time. Luckily, the community is pretty well recognising that ClonesArePeopleToo

* ''TabletopGame/OneNightUltimateWerewolf'' can pull this on the player due to the number of roles that can switch cards between players. It's quite likely that a player can be playing as a werewolf, vampire, tanner, or whatever without knowing it after a switch occurs. However, this can be [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by the Insomniac whose action is to look at her card at the end of the night to see if she's been switched.

** In the FanGame ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaAnother'', like Izuru above, protagonist Yuki Maeda is revealed to be the mastermind with his NinjaMaid LoveInterest Akane being TheDragon.

[[caption-width-right:350: "Wait a minute, Patrick... ''I'm'' the maniac!" [[note]][[TheScream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA]][[SkywardScream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH]]!!!![[/note]]]]

* Up until the WhamEpisode in ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue: [[WebAnimation/RedVsBlueTheRecollection Reconstruction]]'', every problem that befell upon either the Red or Blue teams was caused by the Freelancers and their many AI. So naturally, it was a very shocking twist to find out that Private Leonard Church was actually the original Alpha AI that had been split into all the other AI that the cast had been fighting throughout the entire series. On top of that, the director of Project Freelancer is the ''real'' Leonard Church. Furthermore, as Revelations has since revealed, Tex is ''also'' an AI, based off someone the Director lost, but loved so much his memories of her ''spontaneously created a separate AI''. Church preferred to believe that he was a ghost.

[[caption-width-right:350: "Wait a minute, Patrick... ''I'm'' the maniac!" [[note]][[TheScream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA]][[SkywardScream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH]]!!!!]][[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350: "Wait a minute, Patrick... ''I'm'' the maniac!" [[note]][[TheScream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA[[SkywardScream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH]]!!!!]][[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350: "Wait a minute, Patrick... ''I'm'' the maniac!" [[note]][[TheScream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA[[SkywardScream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!]][[/note]]]]