Times where a doppelgänger is treated similarly to the version somebody is already familiar with in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Used to positive and negative effect in the Marvel/Ultimate Marvel crossover Avenging the Ultimate:
- Bucky!Cap and 616!Spider-Man having to defend their Black Widow from Ultimate!Hawkeye's anger as he initially assumes she is her resurrected counterpart, while Natasha is shaken at the idea that any version of her could do that to Hawkeye.
- The Ultimates - particularly Ultimate!Cap - are quick to treat 616!Hank Pym like he's just as bad as his deceased counterpart just because they're both Hank Pym, even with the Avengers speaking up in his defence.
- 616!Spider-Man has no problem letting Ultimate!Black Cat depart based on his experience of her counterpart.
- Discussed in Captain Spike
, when Torchwood meet a dimensionally-displaced Spike (Angel) and Jack initially mistakes Spike for John Hart. By the time he's accepted that Spike isn't just John with amnesia but a genuinely different person, Jack has already become intrigued by the vampire, to the extent that he kisses Spike before Spike has to leave that dimension, which prompts Spike in turn to concede that he might be willing to come back to this reality (in a hundred years when his current partner's dead). - In the Angel/Dark Angel crossover Darkest Angel, when Max ends up in the Buffyverse in 2003 (and thus over a decade in her past), she recognises Giles because his counterpart in her world was her biological father, and Giles in turn observes that Max reminds him of Jenny Calendar, prompting speculation that Jenny's counterpart might have been Max's mother even if the names are different. While Giles and Max each recognise that Giles isn't exactly her father, he still swiftly becomes so fond of Max that he's the first person she tells that she's pregnant with Angel's child.
- A brief example of this features in Destiny's Child, when the USS Resolution (Star Trek) arrives in the Stargate-verse. By sheer coincidence, the Resolution's chief engineer, Lieutenant Jennifer Barrett, looks exactly like Daniel Jackson's deceased wife Sha're. All relevant parties obviously recognise that Lieutenant Barrett is not Sha're, but the resemblance is enough that the rest of SG-1 anticipate that Daniel will need some time alone once they return to Earth to deal with this encounter due to the memories Barrett will inspire.
- Distorted Reflections features this quite often as SG-1 (Stargate SG-1) find themselves in a parallel universe where Earth has been decimated by a virus fifteen years ago (Jeremiah). Among particular examples, Jack O'Neill swiftly re-establishes his bond with the alternate version of the long-deceased Charles Kawalsky, Sam easily settles into a working relationship with Jack's own counterpart, as well as dealing with her discomfort at meeting the living Martouf and Jolinar, and Daniel attempts to use his experience of Colonel Simmons in his world to manipulate the Simmons of this reality.
- In an interesting inversion of this trope, when Teal'c spends time working with Erin Gant of this reality, he finds himself reflecting that he must get to know Major Erin Gant of his reality when he returns home, as Teal'c reflects how she, like Teal'c himself with Bra'tac and O'Neill, has put aside her own ambitions to serve a leader she respects in the form of Markus Alexander.
- Drift Compatible: The B-series mechs gain the voice of their first pilots; even if the pilot dies, their voice remains unchanged. This means that they unintentionally remind those who knew said pilots of them whenever they speak. This influences Kevin to occasionally treat Wheeljack like his original pilot; Jeff does the same with Optimus.
- An Extraordinary Journey acknowledges the SGC's usual philosophy of not worrying too much about alternate universes, but when circumstances send Willow to parallel universes she can't help but try and help her local counterparts, ranging from saving Dawn from a car accident to fighting her magic-corrupted alternate self, and everyone else in SG-1 feels her sorrow when she reveals that, in one reality she visited where there was never a Stargate Program, Jack O'Neill was Driven to Suicide by Charlie's death.
- Fate Grand Dungeon: In this Fate Series / Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? crossover, Zelretch sends Shirou Emiya to the world of Danmachi and helps him summon seven Servants to assist him. The Servants are all demigods and the gods in Danmachi are apparently identical to the ones in Fate, with a few exceptions like Loki and Haephestus. The gods who are related to them begin to pick up memories of their alternative selves. Heracles, Achilles, and Asclepius happily greet Hestia as their aunt. Achilles begins to connect with his mother Thetis and father Peleus as a family and Thetis begins to hate Apollo since his Fate counterpart helped Paris kill Achilles. Asclepius hates his father Apollo since he murdered his mother, Coronis. Heracles points out that the Danmachi Apollo is not the same as his father, but this rings hollow when it turns out that the Danmachi Apollo did have a lover named Coronis whom he murdered. However, this Apollo is so moved by seeing memories of a son he never knew that he sacrifices himself to help Asclepius.
- Defied in the Stargate SG-1/Battlestar Galactica crossover Finding Avalon, when the two groups learn that Fifth created the human-form Cylons, with one of his 'secret' creations being a duplicate of Zack Adama who is a loyal supporter of Fifth's agenda; Admiral Adama and Lee each reject the idea that the other Zack is anything but a twisted copy, with Kara even shooting Zack when she has the chance, informing him that the true Zack Adama is at peace while the duplicate can go to Hell as far as she's concerned. By contrast, Doctor Janet Frasier- who was copied by Fifth at some point before her death- is close enough to the original that the SGC all accept her as a new version of their old friend, even if Cassie has trouble adjusting to the 'return' of her adopted mother.
- A good description of a key element in From the Top, which sees Peter B. Parker (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) arrive in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by mistake. As well as the Kingpin's fixation on finding another version of his lost family, at one point Peter B. convinces the local version of Aaron Davies to help him by discussing how Aaron's nephew is Spider-Man in another universe and was motivated to become a hero after Aaron's counterpart died.
- In Harry Potter and the Alien Reality, after Voldemort banishes Harry to the Stargate universe (deliberately sending him to a world without magic so he can't reverse the necessary ritual), the SGC soon establish that Harry's counterpart in this reality was killed along with his parents in a car crash with the 'local' Tom Riddle. However, it turns out that his parents were agents for MI6, and when the agency investigates the SGC's interest in the Potters, it leads to Harry being introduced to the local version of Sirius, who now goes by his codename 'Orion'. Despite his own godson having died as an infant, Orion and Harry soon become fond of each other, and the SGC's willingness to help Harry leads to the British Government volunteering to help provide the SGC with resources and financial support in the war against the Goa'uld.
- The Bridge/Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls crossover Hunters and Hollows:
- Monster X and Irys are disturbed when they meet alternate versions of their friends Adagio Dazzle and Sunset Shimmer. Monster X quickly realizes they are different and don't know them, then manages to prevent Irys from making a scene when she sees Sunset.
- When Adagio finds out Monster X is dating an alternate version of Aria Blaze, she tells him to take care of her. She may not be her Aria, but she is still family.
- Imaginary Seas:
- Percy Jackson hesitates when fighting Lostbelt Chiron, whose face reminds him so much of the Chiron who had taught Percy everything he knows. He gets over it with the knowledge that his beloved teacher from Pan-Human History is on his side. Even then, he's creeped out by the idea of Chiron more or less cannibalizing his Lostbelt counterpart and cringes when Lostbelt Chiron screams after being paralyzed.
- When Percy learns that Zeus mind-wiped Poseidon into a mindless minion, he says he'll try to reason with him, believing their father-son bond plus Poseidon's three promises to Theseus will be able to reach him. Chiron points out that it won't work because they are in an alternate timeline where Percy never existed, so Poseidon wouldn't recognize him even if he wasn't mind-wiped. Percy says even so, Poseidon is his father and he has to try.
- Although a few characters meet their counterparts in Infinity Crisis and its spin-offs, this idea is most explicitly evoked in Brothers of Thunder, when witnessing the death of Odin on Earth-8096 (and learning of his death on Earth-199999) prompts the Thor of Earth-12041 to visit his own Odin to spend some time catching up with him and prepare himself for the day when his father will no longer be there. Distant Cousins features two different negative versions of this as Steel/John Henry Irons has arrived on Earth-38 and is automatically preparing to treat the Superman of this world as a threat because of what he did on Irons' Earth of origin, and the displaced Avengers are upset by the discovery that the 'local' Peter Parker of Earth-38 was paralyzed in the battle against Doomsday.
- In the Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA/RWBY crossover Into the Night, the Miyuverse Shirou Emiya gets sent to the world of Remnant. Yang Xiao Long bears a resemblance to his enemy Angelica Ainsworth. Even though he objectively knows they are different people and Yang's personality is completely different from Angelica's, he can't help but feel slightly hostile to Yang.
- Basically deconstructed in The Key to Marauding, when Dawn Summers finds herself in Hogwarts when she jumps into Glory's portal rather than Buffy, and soon learns that she's in a parallel universe to her own world. While she visits Buffy's counterpart, their brief talk is enough to confirm for Dawn that this isn't her Buffy, and although she learns that Spike's counterpart is alive in this world, she never bothers looking for him as she recognises that it took a very specific set of circumstances to make Spike 'good' in her world. However, when a history lesson reveals that Angel's counterpart killed Darla and the Master after he was cursed before exposing himself to the sunlight shortly before World War One, Dawn is genuinely sorry at that news, mourning how all the good Angel could have done was cut short like that.
- Defied in principle in Lost in Camelot; when Bo is explaining her status as resident fae in Camelot to a younger version of her future ally Dyson, she reminds herself that she doesn't know this Dyson well enough to be honest with him, and so claims that she rules Camelot discreetly while leaving Uther to deal with the administrative details in case Dyson attempts a coup of his own. After spending time getting to know this Dyson as his own person, Bo apologises for initially insisting he come back to Camelot because he reminds her of an old lover but now accepts him as his own person, but the younger Dyson assures Bo that he respects her relationship with Merlin and Morgana and has never allowed himself to think of her romantically.
- Technically applies in A mother's love, a Maleficent/Descendants crossover where Maleficent and Diaval accidentally travel to Auradon. While Maleficent is initially attacked because the people of Auradon assume she's just the 'local' Maleficent, when Mal follows after Maleficent to introduce herself properly, both are overcome as Maleficent meets her biological daughter and Mal finally receives actual affection from her mother. Even after the two Maleficents confront each other directly, Mal continues to refer to Maleficent as her mother, sympathising and horrified when Maleficent shares her story with the other residents of Auradon (although Maleficent then takes it 'personally' when she meets Audrey and learns her identity).
- In Multiversal Constants, when Jon Kent and Damian Wayne arrive in the universe of Young Justice (2010), while the two obviously form swift if awkward bonds with their fathers' counterparts, Damian in particular is swiftly protective of not only the alternate Tim Drake but also the alternate versions of Cassandra Cain and Ravi (an old teacher of Damian's in his original world, Ravi sacrificed his sight to save Damian from a punishment due to a childhood mistake). As they continue to spend time in this world, not only does Jon help Superman open up to Conner/Superboy, but Damian is able to help Cassandra, Ravi and his infant counterpart leave the League of Shadows to live in Wayne Manor, and also introduces the 'local' Tim Drake to the rest of the Bat-Family.
- In The Odyssey Resurgence, General Landry, SG-1, and the crew of the Odyssey are all grateful to meet the 'local' version of Thor when they find themselves in a parallel universe after the destruction of Orilla, although Thor needs to see the Asgard core's holographic recreation of his other self to be assured that the Odyssey didn't just steal the technology from his counterparts.
- Pokemon: Dark Multiverse is a Pokemon/Dark Nights: Metal crossover where Ash Ketchum is revealed to essentially be the counterpart of Bruce Wayne. Once the reasons for Ash's connection to Bruce have been established, after Ash is captured by the Dark Knights, Pikachu and Bulbasaur in particular convince the rest of Ash's team to trust Bruce as their temporary trainer. Later on, when Ash finds himself in a post-apocalyptic Earth where the local Superman is the only survivor of a zombie outbreak, Superman recognises Ash as a variation of Bruce Wayne based on his heartbeat, defending Ash from some of Superman's own dark counterparts and joining him in saving his world from the other Dark Knights.
- Reacting to Heaven's Feel: Cast members from RWBY watch recordings of an alternate universe where their counterparts live lives replacing characters from the Fate Series.
- They tend to cringe when they see counterparts suffering and dying. Jaune Arc is traumatized when he learns his counterpart sacrificed Nora Valkyrie to survive a battle and further breaks down when his counterpart kills Lie Ren. Jaune later cannot bear to look at his Nora, too ashamed of what his counterpart did. Glynda Goodwitch vows not to let Jaune turn into his counterpart.
- James Ironwood's counterpart killed Jacques, married Willow Schnee, and had Winter for a daughter. Ironwood is so affected by seeing this that when he runs into Winter, he starts acting like a father figure to her.
- In The Secret Return of Alex Mack, Alex spends time reminding herself not to fall victim to this when she initially meets her world's version of Jack O'Neill, even if he swiftly proves himself trustworthy. This trope also contributes to her establishing a friendship with the 'local' Willow and Hermione.
- Invoked in Spider-Man and Power Girl when Wonder Woman is talking with Mister Fantastic and the Human Torch about their respective histories. Diana is outraged to learn that Hercules is seen as a hero in the other world, although she accepts Reed and Johnny's assurances that their version of Hercules never subjugated the Amazons like he did in her reality.
- Top Secret is a triple crossover between Quantum Leap, The X-Files and Lois & Clark which features a minor version of this. When Al receives an alert from Ziggy that Sam ("currently" a few years in the past) has left a tape about the Project with Lois Lane, he and Sam's wife Donna speculate that Sam chose to leave the tape with Lois because of her resemblance to Donna.
- Goes back and forth in the Supernatural/Lucifer (2016) crossover "Tripping Down the Rabbit Hole"; after Gabriel arrives in Lux, he takes time to adjust to meeting a Lucifer who doesn't want to kill him and destroy the world, but even after the characters learn that the 'local' Gabriel (who looks exactly like Gabriel) is dead, Lucifer in particular continues to treat Gabriel as a brother he actually likes.
- In the Twilight Storm fic Time's Ashes, Bella and the First Doctor meet an alternate version of Marcus from the Volturi in an alternate timeline where the later Doctors were briefly erased from existence by the Monk ("Time's Ashes"), the alt-Marcus basically acting as their bodyguard when they have to retrieve the TARDIS. After reality is restored, Bella is initially happy to meet Marcus in the prime reality ("New Dawn") before the Tenth Doctor reminds her that this Marcus hasn't met them before.
- When it's Raining on Sunday focuses on the idea that 'Pietro' of WandaVision was actually the displaced Peter Maximoff of another reality instead of just a random man controlled by Agatha. Once Wanda establishes the origins of this "new" Pietro, she assures her sons that Peter is their uncle in every way that matters, Peter in turn describing himself and Wanda as "cosmic twins".
- Eleutherophobia: Inverted in Back to the Future. Most of the extended Berenson family judge the real Tom by things Temrash 114 and/or Essa 412 did while controlling him.
- Arrow: Rebirth: Zigzagged. The people Oliver is interacting with (with the exception of the Monitor and Felicity) are the same people he knew, just at the start of the timeline during his first return home, before all their Character Development set in. While Oliver is aware of this, he can't help but see them in light of the people they would come to be instead of the people they are now, and it causes him no end of problems.
- He admits that one of the reasons why he made a job offer to Barry is because the latter was one of his closest friends and he wanted him back in any way he could have.
- This isn't really much of an issue with Laurel, because when it comes down to it Laurel always had that strong, innate sense of justice and desire to help people. The problem she had was her (not unjustified) anger at Oliver and Sara. With Oliver being more open with her about what happened to him and to Sara on Lian Yu and beyond, and how that changed both of them, it doesn't take long for her to move past that anger and be more like the Laurel he knew her to be before her death in the previous timeline.
- Nor is it much of a problem with Sara. Oliver recognizes that it will take time for Sara to really gain that drive for heroism because he had been in the same place as her at one point in his life. So he entrusts her with the tasks he knows she'll be comfortable with first and remains patient with her.
- With Thea, Oliver keeps on expecting her to be more mature like she was in the future, instead of the Bratty Teenage Daughter she was in the beginning of Season One. This attitude is what drives Thea to run away to Metropolis after the deaths of Moira and Walter.
- It backfires massively with Tommy. Oliver can't help but keep on seeing Tommy as the good man he became before his death, the man that Oliver mourned for almost a decade. This Tommy is nowhere close to that man because he never got together with Laurel or got cut off by Malcolm, the circumstances that forced him to change into that person. Thus, he is elitist, selfish, and incredibly naive — traits that ultimately lead him to expose Oliver as the Green Arrow.
- Oliver berates himself for having this attitude towards Emiko after learning that "Dinah Drake"/Tina Boland was an agent for the Ninth Circle. Originally he didn't want anything to do with Emiko after that, but then he realized that Emiko hadn't done any of those things yet and right now was just a girl who wanted to be a part of the family.
- Malcolm Merlyn. Post-Undertaking Malcolm in the previous timeline was still a bastard, but Tommy's death humanized him, and he did love Thea, which meant he was more willing to work with Oliver and co. when deemed necessary. This Malcolm never lost Tommy, and ultimately his love for Thea does not outweigh his desire for revenge against Oliver, making him Beyond Redemption.
- Oliver shoots Hank Henshaw in the leg for calling Earth-1 Kara a "thing". This is because he can't help but see her as a younger version of the friend whom he gave his life to save.
- This issue is analyzed in Happy Accident, which opens with Felicity killing Black Siren in her debut with an unfortunate punch. This fresh reminder of the loss of Earth-1 Laurel drives Oliver to take Black Siren to a Lazarus Pit to save her; when Barry hears about this sentiment, he compares it to his reaction to seeing Earth-2 Joe West die. When circumstances result in Earth-1 Laurel being brought back to life in Black Siren's body, Constantine is able to confirm that there is no issue of rejection on a spiritual level, but Laurel is put out at the minor differences between her "original" body and her "new" one (such as scars and tattoos she didn't have before) and is uncomfortable at the way everyone refers to her as "the real Laurel" as though her other self just doesn't matter.
- An Interdimensional Meet: Featuring an original take on the The Flash (2014)/Supergirl (2015) crossover, this storyline includes Barry investigating the history of his counterpart on Kara's Earth and learning that, in this reality, he and his father were killed by Zoom while his mother survived. When Joe West comes to National City to investigate the apparent connection between the Allens' death and the city's new hero, Barry meets this world's version of his mother, with Nora immediately reacting to Barry as though he's still her son rather than an alternate version of him.
- In To Hell and Back, Black Siren is painfully aware that Earth-1's residents are not her loved ones, but at the same time they are and she just misses them so much. In spite of constantly reminding herself she's undercover, she can't help but slip up.
Battlestar Galactica
- Through the Looking Glass features an interesting variation of this when the two Battlestar Galactica shows 'exchange' one individual each, with Athena Adama (The original series) and a Number Eight known as Callista (The reimagined series) ending up in the other's universe after travelling through a Negative Space Wedgie. Although Commander Adama and Lee Adama don't resemble their counterparts in her original universe, Athena soon bonds with her alternate father and brother, Lee freely introducing her to the rest of the pilots as Athena Adama, Athena in turn soon bonding with Starbuck (although surprised to learn her identity, as Kara Thrace in her original universe is still a young girl and obviously a separate person from Starbuck).
- Splinter: when Angel Investigations arrive in an alternate reality where it appears as though Angel has killed Wesley and Buffy, literally torn out Cordelia's eyes, and is living with Darla with his soul intact, Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn each decide to go off on their own on the grounds that they feel they can't trust "their" Angel based on what his counterpart has become. However, they eventually learn that they had misjudged the moment of divergence from their original reality, and in fact, Buffy's death was relative chance, Wesley was killed when their original office was blown up by Vocah, and Cordelia tore out her eyes herself because she couldn't cope with being bombarded with visions. As for Angel's counterpart, they determine that he is still basically trying to do the right thing, living with a human Darla as he's trying to find some way to save his dying pocket universe, and has just lost his ability to really relate to humans as he tries to focus on what he feels is the "big picture".
- Osiris Makes a Counteroffer opens with the ritual to resurrect Buffy from her death after jumping into Glory's portal being interrupted so that it instead brings the Buffy of the Wishverse into this reality, from the moment before the Master snapped her neck. While Wish!Buffy initially has no regard for the other Scoobies, dismissing Xander and Willow as strange humans who look like the vampires she previously fought and staking Spike as just another vampire, the circumstances of her arrival result in her starting to receive memories of life with Dawn in this reality. Once Angel manages to talk with her, he and Dawn affirm that they will still consider her another version of "their" Buffy rather than just a convenient double, and Buffy even expresses an interest in getting to know Angel after his counterpart in her world died to save her.
- The Phoenix Corps: Zigzagged when the Justice League are forcibly transported to the Justice Lords/Phoenix Corps' dimension again and meet the Phoenix Corps. While the Phoenix Corps openly acknowledge that the League are not the Lords (especially since the League were the ones responsible for taking down the Lords in the first place), they are all understandably tense being near the doppelgangers of their oppressors and keep their distance as a result. The League opting to use their civilian identities and wear civilian clothing around them helps with the issue, but there is nonetheless relief on both sides when the means to take the League home is finally fixed.
- In Second Chances for Sora, the Digidestined discover another version of Sora in the ruins of Datamon's pyramid, apparently created as a side-effect of Datamon's attempt to duplicate Sora; once Izzy has confirmed that the two Soras are biologically identical, speculating that the other was created due to an unexpected side-effect of Sora's exposure to Datamon's equipment, the team soon accept her as another member of the group. The 'new' Sora even starts dating Tai and reforms her old bond with Kari whereas the 'original' Sora has lost those old friendships after she started dating Matt.
- Dragonball Z: Legacies: In Universe 6, the Saiyans were able to rise up against and kill Frieza, while in Universe 9, Frieza was able to completely exterminate the Saiyan race. Naturally, tensions are high when U6's Bardock meets U9's Frieza.
- What If Cell Turned Good?: Androids 17 and 18 treat 21 like he's exactly the same as the original Cell.
- My Lil Bunny: As in canon, this is defied regarding the present and past versions of Weisz Steiner as they are treated as different individuals. In two examples in the author notes, Rebecca sees the Professor as her Parental Substitute while young Weisz is her perverted crewmate, and Hermit views old Weisz as her mentor but mentors and falls for the younger Weisz. The closest to a straight example is Bernadette seeing young Weisz as an immature delinquent because that's how she saw Professor Weisz before his Character Development and her falling for him.
- In the Alternate Tail Series, Mira becomes distrustful of Mystogan after seeing he looks exactly like Laxus, who beforehand tried to kill her.
- The Queen's Sin is a Fate/Grand Order fanfic where the Lostbelt Morgan faces this after being summoned by Chaldea because of her Proper Human History self. While Gareth happily sees her the same as her own mother, Gawain is outright distrustful, seeing Morgan as the same treacherous witch that their Morgan was. He tells Gareth not to get involved with Lostbelt Morgan or any out of fear of her being manipulated. The interactions are also complicated because Morgan has the memories of her other self.
- Mordred also sees Lostbelt Morgan as the same as his PHH mother, believing they are the same at their core. Like Gawain, he also decides to avoid speaking with her.
- Lancelot is a unique case as he sees two of PHH Morgan's split personalities in Lostbelt Morgan: both the manipulative witch Morgan le Fae who was Camelot's enemy and the Lady of the Lake Vivian who raised him, even saying he can see them along with Morgause of Orkney more as the same person with Lostbelt Morgan than he could when PHH Morgan was alive. Despite that, he sees Lostbelt Morgan as a separate individual from any of the PHH self's personalities.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Averted by Vivienne Graham when she thinks about San's Alternate Self which regrew on Ghidorah's body and subsequently died in Bostonnote ; and initially also in regards to San's other Alternate Self San-2/Youngest Brother. Later in the story, however, Vivienne mournfully acknowledges San-2 as San-Who-Could-Have-Been and even extends a moment of Big Sister Instinct towards the doppelgänger.
- Peter's Pan's Got Kids?, which adds a younger version of Peter Pan to the equation after Banning returns to Neverland, features an interesting reversal of this kind of dynamic. While the younger Peter Pan isn't entirely capable of consciously acknowledging who Jack and Maggie are to him, he still finds himself feeling unusually protective of them when Hook captures him while Banning is training with the Lost Boys.
- Out of Time, Out of Place opens with Rory travelling to the alternate universe witnessed in "Once Upon a Time" rather than "simply" going into her past. Once she establishes that she's in an alternate universe, Rory is left uncertain how she should interact with her alternate parents, but she is clearly appreciative of the chance to meet any variation of her maternal grandfather, as she hasn't been able to visit John Decker in Heaven yet in her home universe.
- Exploited in the Loki (2021) fanfic Crossworlds by Loki who has found his way into an Alternate Timeline where his variant is an Avenger. Initially the Avengers are unaware he isn't their version. But even when the variant problem is revealed, the Avengers and Thor treat him with far more trust than his canon actions - which they know of - deserve. Avenger!Loki is quite aware of this problem.Avenger!Loki:You think I can’t guess how you are planning to play this? Planning to build up their sympathy?
- Comes up in Langsyne, when Wanda Maximoff post-Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is introduced to the "local" version of Charles Xavier as a possible therapist. Wanda is immediately guilty at the memory of how she killed the Xavier of Earth-838, but Xavier is able to face this memory and help Wanda understand that what matters most is not where she fell but how she wants to do better.
- In A Little Red and Blue, Sharon is inadvertently sent to the year 1944 by Wanda and is later found by the past Steve and Bucky, introducing herself to them as "Kate". She is initially rather hostile to Steve because of the fact that in her time, he abandoned her to stay in the past with her aunt Peggy. She eventually warms up to him, even giving him some advice on how to better help the common people, and the past Steve develops feelings for her, even trying to convince her to join him as part of the Howling Commandos. When Sharon is sent back to the present, she comes across the present Steve who explains that he didn't actually stay in the past and that part of what inspired Peggy, particularly founding S.H.I.E.L.D., was Steve telling her Sharon's advice to him.
- Part Of The Journey Is The End centers around the heroes watching the movies, making them all Alternate Selves of their cinematic counterparts. While they try not to judge their fellow viewers too harshly based upon the actions taken by their alternates on the big screen, it's clear that they struggle to keep them separated at times, especially whenever anything especially outrageous crops up.
- Basically comes up in Spider-Man: Finding Home when Peter finds himself attending a college class with Kate Bishop and their professor is the one-armed Doctor Catherine Connors. Recalling his encounter with the Lizard (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Peter eventually explains the reasons for his concern to Kate and Yelena, but the three agree to just watch out for any possibility that Connors will do work with lizard DNA rather than outright condemn her based on her counterpart's actions.
- Simultaneously invoked and defied in Stars Will Light the Way when Strange Supreme ("What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?") confronts the Illuminati of Earth-838 (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). While the Illuminati are all quick to judge Strange as a threat even before they know about his specific circumstances based on what his local counterpart did, Strange immediately acknowledges that the Peggy Carter he's facing isn't his teammate from the Guardians of the Multiverse, so reminds himself not to be too hurt by her judgement of him.
- “Trapped in the Web” opens with a version of Gwen Stacy/Ghost Spider being sent to the MCU, arriving literally in front of Peter Parker and Tony Stark. Not only is Tony quick to help set Gwen up with the relevant details to establish a new life for herself here based on her similarity to Peter, but Gwen herself swiftly starts a relationship with Peter based on her previous relationship with his counterpart. Later on, Gwen talks with May Parker about her emotional problems based on her doing the same thing with May’s counterpart in her world (and the fact that Gwen can’t talk to a conventional therapist as she can’t trust anyone with her secret identity).
- CONSEQUENCES: In RUNNING AMOK, Senti-Bird resembles her creator Lila. This proves to be a bit awkward for Lila's classmates, given how she was just exposed as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who was working with Hawk Moth. While they don't hate or blame her for what Lila did, she still stirs up complicated sentiments.
- Deconstructed in the Feralnette AU courtesy of Bunnyx. Bunnyx is a Time-Traveling Jerkass who believes that every possible permutation from how she believes things should go are Expendable Alternate Universes that need to be brought back to heel. As a result, she wants to "fix" this reality's version of Marinette so that she acts like the girl she knows, on her terms, without acknowledging how she was partially responsible for breaking her in the first place. She also regards this reality's Felix with immediate disdain, both because they're so different than the Felix she knows... and because she hates that Felix.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: In Crisis on Two Equestrias, Lunaverse Twilight treats regular Spike like her universe's version of Spike, the closest thing she had to a friend. Likewise, she treats regular Trixie like the Lunaverse Trixie, even though regular Trixie had never done anything to her. Meanwhile, Lunaverse Luna uses regular Celestia as a substitute for her world's Celestia, who is a raving loon, even though both parties involved acknowledge how unhealthy this is.
- In Son of the Sannin, Orochimaru creates two adult clones of Kaida and Hagane, Tsunade and Jiraiya's children, to serve as his henchmen during Part II. Despite being clones, Naruto, Jiraiya, and Tsunade decided to avoid killing them and capture them alive if possible.
- Ace Lives:
- Defied by Luffy, who refuses to acknowledge Mafia Ace as the same person as Pirate Ace.
- Played straight by the Marines, who decide they need to kill Mafia Ace as well since he also bears the blood of Roger.
- In Crossroads, a chain of events led to canon!Tommy Oliver being transferred to an alternate reality where the original Power Rangers are the Knights of the Round Table (Tommy=Arthur, Kimberly=Guinevere, Jason=Lancelot, Trini=Nimue, Billy=Merlin, Zack=Galahad, Kat=Morgana and Justin=Mordred, aided by the ancient wizard Myrrdin as a variation of Zordon; Tommy glimpses four unnamed figures at the concluding banquet who are clearly intended to be the local versions of Rocky, Aisha, Adam and Tanya). At one point, Morgana attempts to convince Tommy to assist her in staging a coup of Camelot where he would take Arthur's place, asking if he can truly trust Myrrdin and his 'servants', but Tommy affirms that he believes in Zordon/Myrrdin regardless of what name he uses or what world he comes from.
- Appears to apply in Multiverse of Madness, when JJ Oliver and Minh Kwan (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always) find themselves in a parallel universe where the Power Rangers first appeared in 2017 (Power Rangers (2017)). JJ and Minh find the "new" Rangers based on tracking Kimberly's social media images, even though this version of the team looks different from the ones they know, to the extent that they briefly assume the Billy of this world is Zack. However, despite the changes, it's easy for them to identify which of the group is Jason's counterpart based on his physical presence, and Minh is overwhelmed when she first meets the local Trini, reflecting that the other girl feels like Minh's lost mother even if she doesn't look anything like her.
- Relic Of The Future: Deconstructed and defied. Jaune comes to realize that the younger versions of his friends (and enemies) within the new timeline might as well be entirely separate individuals from the people he knew their original counterparts as, thanks to their lives being meaningfully altered on top of the fact he's nearly a full generation older than them now. At least, he eventually does. Before then, Jaune's biases cause him to do things such as rationalize away all the signs that these versions of Blake and Adam have essentially switched moral alignments (right up until Blake stabs Jaune in the back), or struggle to get past his anger towards a version of Cinder who hasn't yet crossed the Moral Event Horizon and could still be converted over to their side.
- Arc Royale has all of the alternate Jaunes engage in this:
- Knight treats Ruby as though she's a younger version of his wife, which she technically is, often hovering protectively around her.
- Despite not being Anchored to her, Ash made it clear that he was fully devoted to Cinder, just like he was to his own timeline's version of her. Of course, him being both manipulable and weak made him an easy target for a Cinder who has neither investment in him nor underwent any of the character development his version did.
- Grimm acts outgoing and familiar with Salem, insisting on calling her "mother" despite Salem constantly asking him to stop. Lampshaded later on when the universe's native Jaune realizes how friendly he actually is and points out that this Salem is clearly evil; Grimm is well aware and would have immediately run to Ozpin's side if it wasn't for the fact that he can't help but see his own mother in her despite the differences, so he's attempting invoke Love Redeems in hopes that having someone who earnestly cares about her will invoke a Heel–Face Turn like it did with his parents. It doesn't work, so he gives up and pulls a Taking You with Me with Knight.
- Ashari is not happy about the people he now has to work with, but is extremely protective of Emerald, who in his timeline (due to time travel) was his adopted daughter. Emerald naturally isn't very receptive to this stranger who insists on acting so parental, especially since he's trying to convince her to leave Cinder, but he's determined to see the best in her regardless.
- It takes a bit to get through his caustic exterior, and he immediately puts the act back up when it's pointed out, but Fate accidentally lets himself start bantering Like an Old Married Couple with Weiss, showing that his efforts to think of the doppelgangers as unimportant are about as successful as they were in his own fic. He and Pyrrha later discuss this concept when he manages to predict her feelings about Ironwood forcing him to fight, as he points out that while she's not his Pyrrha, she's still a Pyrrha, and he knows her like the back of his hand.
- Averted with Revolutionary, in part because the Adam inside his head came along for the ride; while said Adam apologizes for his alternate self's behavior, Revolutionary shrugs it off by saying "he's not you". That said, Inner Adam's feelings toward his Blake are heavily implied to carry over to this one.
- Null relishes in the opportunity to indulge his thirst for revenge by not only targeting Ruby but deliberately acting as a psycho killer so she'll feel maximum fear before she dies. When things have calmed down, though, Null privately admits that this version of RWBY has done nothing to him and it isn't fair to take out his personal issues on them — not that it'll stop him from killing them if it's the right decision to win the death game. He later has a very hard time combatting Nicholas Arc, as even though he realizes that the Nicholas he's fighting isn't actually his father, he just misses his own dad so much that the thought of losing him again hurts just as bad.
- Headmaster Arc interacts with this Neopolitan just like he would his own, sitting down right next to her and massaging her neck, and within minutes she's come to accept his presence and fall asleep on him. Roman watches this happen in nothing short of shock and awe, as Neo never lets anyone get that close to her, much less touch her, and he did both without blinking an eye. In that same chapter, it's stated that when Roman previously implied that he wouldn't be too upset if Ruby died during the war, the Headmaster threatened to run him through for even expressing the idea, even though it's not his Ruby.If Roman hadn't believed from the crazy blue lady that the guy knew them, he would have from this. The man navigated Neo like he had a god-damned instruction manual.
- Xiong shows downplayed relief when he finds out Qrow isn't an anchor. The latter is one of his closest friends in his own world.
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong
- In I Will Never Be Him, Luo Binghe falls into a dimensional rip that brings him into the world in which he becomes a tyrant, and is cared for and helped by a fox demoness named Yan Xiyan whom he identifies as his human husband's Shen Qingqiu by her facial traits and mannerisms. It makes him rather protective towards her, outright suggesting her to come back with him as he cannot bear to see how unhappy she obviously feels.
- The Star Trek: Voyager fic Eclipsed explores the crew meeting their Silver Blood duplicates ("Course: Oblivion"), in a world where the Silver Blood Doctor was able to save the ship just in time for them to find a wormhole back to the Alpha Quadrant, with the result that the crew only learn they're not 'real' when the original Voyager returns via a transwarp hub two years later. Back on Earth after their duplicates have already essentially assumed their lives, the crew have to face various issues adapting to the fact that their doppelgangers have been living their lives for two years; as a particular example, some doppelgangers have been married to the original's spouses, but on the other hand characters like Joe Carey's wife are unsure how to feel upon learning that the 'original' is dead when his duplicate is playing with their children. As the fic ends, various individuals are shown trying to adapt to the situation, such as the Samantha Wildmans 'sharing custody' of the two Naomis while one or the other of them goes off on assignments while Tuvok and his duplicate are accepted by T'Pel as both being her husband.
- Applies to a degree in To the Journey, where a still-living Tasha Yar of the present meets the Romulan that fathered Sela with her counterpart during the Dominion War. While the Romulan general recognizes that Tasha is not his deceased lover, his knowledge of her counterpart inspires him to help influence the Romulans to assist the Federation against the Dominion.
- Played With in Where there's only one left, depicting an AU of "Course: Oblivion" where the Silver Blood Voyager met the originals before their situation became extreme. With the Silver Blood B'Elanna dead and no way to reconstitute her, the original B'Elanna talks with the Silver Blood Paris about her counterpart and their life together. While B'Elanna acknowledges that she and her Silver Blood self were different people in the end, she can be sure that neither B'Elanna would want 'their' Tom Paris to become lost in grief in this manner, with SB-Tom acknowledging her argument and promising her that he'll try to be better in memory of his wife.
- Plays heavily in “Legends Never Die” when Luke, Mara and Artoo of Star Wars Legends cross realities and find themselves in the events of The Force Awakens. Once Luke and Mara establish that they’re in an alternate reality rather than the future of their own reality, Han and Palpatine each respectively realise that Luke can serve the same role for the Resistance as his counterpart; Palpatine even loses the link he forged with the ‘local’ Luke to fuel his despair over his nephew’s fall to the Dark Side because it’s blocked by the presence of the alternate Luke.
- How Long is Forever? begins with the Daniel Jackson of mid-Season 9 being sent back in time to around early Season 3, briefly creating a timeline where his younger self is killed by Amaunet (the Goa'uld that took his wife Sha're as a host) before SG-1 save "their" Daniel. Before the future Daniel can return home, the SGC is visited by a displaced version of the future SG-1 where Sha're was rescued and joined the team in Daniel's place due to the Goa'uld knowledge she retained from Amaunet. While the future Daniel and the alternate Sha're acknowledge that they aren't from the same timeline, they end up conceiving a son during their time together.
- In Mirror World, after Sam is abducted by the hunters of a parallel world and Dean and Castiel re-open the portal to save him, while Dean expresses disgust at what his father and himself have become in this reality, he eagerly hugs the alternate Bobby Singer even if he's consciously aware that this Bobby doesn't know him.
- Will the Real Dean Winchester Please Stand Up opens with Dean swapping places with his counterpart in another universe as part of a demon/angel hybrid's attempt to escape a prophecy where Dean will kill him. While alt-Dean might at least partly agree to fight the current threat as it's the only way to get himself home rather than explicitly caring about his other self's associates, Dean clearly appreciates the chance to spend some time with his mother's living counterpart in the other world before he has to go home.
- Finding Peace features the Donatello of the 2003 series being accidentally sent to the "Last Ronin" universe. While he and the local April are soon able to confirm that he's not the Donatello she knows, his response as he discusses the issues in proving his identity is described by April as "a classic Donatello overthink", leaving her satisfied that he's at least a version of her old friend. Likewise, when April reveals that Michaelangelo is still alive but badly injured after the battle with Hiroto Oroku, Donatello immediately responds as though the Ronin is "his" Michaelangelo, and assures April he'll do his best to save the other turtle's life, even as April assures him that they don't expect miracles but are simply grateful for whatever Donatello can do for him.
- The Ouroboros follows the turtles, April and Casey who were sent into space under the pretense of maintaining a Stable Time Loop so that their counterparts from the original timeline could reclaim their lives. When they meet the Salamandrians, Raphael is caught off-guard by how Y'Gythgba expects to continue the relationship she'd kindled with his counterpart.
- another day features Sarah Connor and Pops (Terminator Genisys) investigate a potential time-traveller, only to find themselves meeting another Sarah Connor and Dani Ramos (Terminator: Dark Fate). Obviously Older Sarah is disturbed to learn about what happened to John in this timeline and is uncomfortable around Pops, but accepts her counterpart's assurance that Pops is on their side. As an interesting addition, Sarah and Kyle now have a daughter rather than a son, but they named their child 'Jonelle' and are keeping themselves open to the idea that 'Jonny' may identify as male later in life.
- Heart of Ashes: Kathryn feels this way towards the alternate Smaug of The Appetite for Souls universe, leading her to participate in the fight against the Dragon God. The alternate Smaug seemingly got a sense of déjà vu when he briefly saw Kathryn.
- Features heavily in Double Trouble- a spin-off to The Wolf in me- which involves characters travelling to alternate realities due to a device created by Robbie. At one point, one particular alternate version of Jade and Tori (referred to as 'Jadelyn and Victoria' to distinguish them from the "prime" versions) use the machine to travel to other realities to explicitly encourage their counterparts on those Earths to get together, taking it for granted that every version of Jade and Tori will have feelings for each other. That said, while the Beck of Jadelyn and Victoria's reality was an abusive manipulator, they are willing to acknowledge that not all Becks will be that bad, to the extent that they trust another alternate version of Beck to help them fake "their" Beck running away after he is actually banished to an alternate universe when he tried to kill them.
- In The Land of What Might-Have-Been, Elphaba coming to the alternate reality depicted in this fic is the reason that the mysterious Mistress of Mirrors- eventually identified as the still-living alternate version of Nessa- chooses to end her neutrality in the war between Elphaba and Glinda's counterparts, as Nessa would rather the monster that her sister has become be defeated by the woman she once was if anyone has to do it.
