Basic Trope: An imposter, in the process of pretending to be someone else, is spotted because they missed one or more of their impersonation victim's characteristics.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz captures Tom, a leading member of La Résistance, and replaces him with an imposter. Alice and Bob spot the imposter easily. How? The real Tom has a scar on his left cheek, while the imposter does not.
- Exaggerated:
- The imposter not only has no scar, but he also has a clear voice while the real Tom stutters a lot.
- Alternately, he has the wrong hair, skin or eye color.
- Or else he has the wrong accent.
- Tom has a very high-pitched voice. The impostor has a low, deep voice.
- Cover Identity Anomaly
- Downplayed:
- The imposter has a scar on his left cheek, but it's the wrong kind of scar (Tom actually has a burn scar; The imposter has a slash scar).
- The imposter has a scar on his right cheek instead of his left.
- Justified:
- No-one among Evulz's minions remembered to copy Tom's scar for the imposter, not even the Evil Genius.
- The scarring happened after Tom's last public appearance, thus Evulz and his minnions had no knowledge of it.
- The impersonator consulted a mirror-print photo of Tom for his disguise
- Inverted:
- The real Tom is mistaken for an imposter by his own team.
- The impostor is revealed when he remembers too many details.
- Subverted: The team fail a spot check when it comes to the scar when the imposter arrives claiming to be Tom.
- Double Subverted: It prompts a Spot the Imposter when the real Tom escapes, with something only Tom would say.
- Parodied:
- The imposter has a Paper-Thin Disguise.
- The all-important scar is not on Tom's face but on his butt (laser surgery to remove an Embarrassing Tattoo). It then turns out that Evulz's English is poor and he did not understood what all of the mentions of "cheeks" were really referring to.
- Zigzagged: The team has a hard time determining whether Tom is what he is claiming to be.
- Averted: Tom is not captured.
- Enforced: The writers want the real Tom to survive a Bond Villain Stupidity involving an attempt to kill him, but also want a way to set up the rest of the team for a "Shaggy Dog" Story involving his rescue.
- Lampshaded: When the imposter is captured, this conversation ensues:Alice: You are not Tom, you jerk!Impostor: H-how did you know?Tom (the real one): See this scar? Maybe you should have taken that into account.
- Invoked: Bob deliberately gets a scar that he knows would be hard to fake just as a means of easily identifying imposters.
- Exploited: After determining what the imposter actually looks like and learning all he knows, Bob impersonates the imposter impersonating Tom to try to rescue his comrade.
- Defied: The scar is included, allowing the imposter to convincingly impersonate Tom.
- Discussed: "If Tom did not come back as a normal guy, where is he?!"
- Conversed: ???
Back to Imposter Forgot One Detail
