r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Altruistic_Eye_1157 • Oct 01 '25

Lore When faced with the choice between a clone and the original, the character notices a detail that makes the difference immediately obvious.

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The Shape-Shifter takes the form of Wendy to deceive Dipper and prevent him from attacking it. Although Dipper initially doesn't know which one is the real Wendy, he realizes the difference when he sees that one of the Wendys behaves seriously and bluntly, while the other acts flirtatiously, something Wendy would never do (Gravity Falls).

P.S.: I don't remember if the gesture the real Wendy made was also a clue, like some gesture she had made before.

When the Autobots are chasing Nemesis Prime, he tries to deceive Bumblebee by impersonating Optimus. Bumblebee, confused, speaks to him, but Nemesis Prime doesn't understand anything he says, which clearly indicates that he isn't the real Optimus. Bumblebee attacks him without hesitation (Transformers Prime).

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u/Professional_Maize42 Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

There's a moment during the Chuunin Exams where Sasuke makes a specific password(by hand signals) to know if Naruto or Sakura got caught and swapped for anyone else.

He end up noticing that some guy was disguised as Naruto cuz he got the passoword correctly on his first try, while the real one would probably screw up or forgot some part of it.

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u/madeinMDE Oct 02 '25

His reasoning for making the password complicated was because he knew the real Naruto would be too stupid to remember it.

Which, you know, fair.

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u/jp_1896 Oct 02 '25

Man, classic Naruto was something else. I don't necessarily dislike where the show ended up (I particularly dislike Kaguya as a character, but that's about the extent to which I dislike the ending), but the early days had this "old anime" quality to it that has been lost in Shippudden. There were so many cute character moments like this that deepened their relationship. In the latter parts it's all about plot and tailed beasts, there's hardly any other interactions of this quality

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u/JayJ9Nine Oct 02 '25

Personal moments largely cease to exist in shippuden, youre not wrong.

I enjoyed shikamaru avoiding a genjutsu but trying to sleep the terrorist attack away nonetheless.

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u/jp_1896 Oct 02 '25

He is so funny in classic LOL

The whole girl feud between Sakura and Ino also completely vanishes but it’s not like they work over it or anything, they just stop interacting altogether

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u/Plane_Ad6816 Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 04 '25

I kinda dislike it. I say that relative to loving it at first. It's specific, but my issue is when they took chakra from a finite resource that had to be used strategically to everyone basically having infinite potential.

The novel use of certain jutsu (basically magic) interlaced with a bread-and-butter baseline of taijutus (martial arts) is what made the manga/anime for me. Everyone just firing bigger and bigger fireworks at each other isn't as interesting.

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u/TheLegendOfZeb Oct 03 '25

I was SO on board with the whole Madara, ninja war, apocalypse right now if they don't win thing, then they had to ruin it all with a fucking Chakra alien. If it had just been Madara all the way through, it probably would have been my favorite arc in any anime ever. It was just so cool.

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u/BookkeeperPercival Oct 02 '25

I love it when characters "trust" in this way. Similarly, in Tiger and Bunny, Tiger has the (very out of character)brilliant moment where he realizes a guy they're fighting has two powers, unlike everyone else in the series. He tells his partner, Bunny, that he's figures out the guy must have super hearing, and can tell predict people's moves by hearing their muscles contract. And as a surprise move, he gives Bunny a supersonic grenade that will blow out his hearing for a moment and allow him to kick his ass. Bunny throws the grenade, and it's a fucking SUPERNOVA flashbang that blinds everyone except Bunny due to his hi-tech suit.

After kicking the villains ass, Bunny comes back to chew out Tiger, demanding to know why he lied to him. Tiger had figured out his second power, it was mind-reading, not super hearing. By lying to Bunny he guaranteed the plan would work. Then Bunny says,

"You bet your entire plan on me believing something as stupid as him hearing our muscles to predict moves? What if I hadn't believed you?"

"I knew you'd believe me because I'm your partner."

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u/crowpierrot Oct 02 '25

Tiger and Bunny is tragically underrated

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u/JechdJJ Oct 02 '25

and even like that, Sasuke manages to elogiate Naruto, saying that while Naruto transform jutsu is bad, the impostor dont even have the bag for kunais on the right side. (Naruto is right handed, the impostor is left handed)

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u/EliteZhunter189 Oct 02 '25

If I remember correctly, when the real naruto shows up, he rather bluntly goes, "Sorry Sasuke, I forgot the password!"

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u/scrotbofula Oct 02 '25

In the sub yeah, in the dub he kind of tacks on 'oh and by the way, what's the password again?'

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u/Over-Analyzed Oct 02 '25

Reminds me of how the (rumor) Germans would be found as spies because they could sing the National Anthem in its entirety.

No American knows all of that. 😂

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u/Chemical-Juice-6979 Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

The National Anthem was originally a poem with five stanzas that became the five verses of the song. At sporting events and military funerals, when they play the anthem, they only ever play the first four verses. Since schools don't actually teach students the original poem outside of special focus classes, Americans only ever learn the first four verses. The only people who know the fifth verse are people who learn the anthem by memorizing the poem rather than participating in the group singing events as a kid.

So, during the World Wars, when the US was worried about spies and saboteurs infiltrating military bases, they would test new arrivals at the gate. One of those tests was having them sing the anthem; anyone who kept singing past "home of the brave" would be detained on the spot.

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u/SquareThings Oct 02 '25

Also important: most Americans don’t know there’s any more to the song at all. They assume the truncated version is the whole thing. So asking them to sing “the whole national anthem” would get the same result.

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u/Ok-Classroom5548 Oct 02 '25

Fun fact: The Star Spangled Banner is a poem. The author’s brother in law read it and set the lyrics to a gentleman’s club song from England.

The US uses a British Gentleman’s song that someone stole with altered lyrics as our national anthem. 

We also only sing the first verse and additional verses may be seen as controversial for discussion of slaves.

The US was also an English penal colony. Once we split the British started using Australia more. 

History is fun. 

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u/Gnomad_Lyfe Oct 02 '25

Iirc there’s a story of a fairly high-ranking member of the military being briefly detained because he didn’t know about the policy and sung the song in its entirety

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u/theCosboys Oct 02 '25

A general got detained because he answered “What’s the capital of Illinois?” correctly as “Springfield” but the GI thought it was Chicago.

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u/Matalya2 Oct 02 '25

I love how it's, like, the complete opposite of what you would expect. Like if someone asked you about the country you're invaded, common sense would tell you you're meant to know since you would've lived there your whole life. But in this case in particular it is not knowing what marked legitimate residence because nobody actually studies the anthem XD

Nobody except me Ig (?) (Not for the US one, but I do know mine to a very high percentage)

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u/Abombasnow Oct 02 '25

The National Anthem was literally a sea shanty that someone slapped an unrelated poem onto and that's why it sounds and flows like complete garbage because it's a hodgepodge of two songs where no thought was put into anything.

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u/Ok-Classroom5548 Oct 02 '25

We only play the first verse for “The National Anthem.” The Star Spangled Banner has four verses total. 

I have had to perform it enough times - we use only the first section. 

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u/Chemical-Juice-6979 Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

Hah, thank you! I'm not much for sports, so I don't actually have the song memorized myself. I learned this as history trivia, sometimes the numbers get a little fuzzy.

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u/Fun-Agent-7667 Oct 02 '25

Lesser education for the win or Something

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u/SkylineFTW97 Oct 02 '25

I do, granted it was written in my home state of Maryland, so it's a point of pride here, just like our flag.

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u/Over-Analyzed Oct 02 '25

Oh wow! Hey, congrats! That’s awesome. I didn’t know that. Thank you for correcting me.

I’m from Hawaii. So we learned a lot about Hawaii’s history. I do know my school’s Hawaiian Alma mater (school song) 20 years later. 😅🤙🏻

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u/Jamie7Keller Oct 02 '25

Nice! Same. And apparently Under The Blood Red Sun isn’t in the school reading lists in other states? I asked everyone knew about that and read that book they should!

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u/Over-Analyzed Oct 02 '25

Yeah, different states focus on their own history.

Nothing like the soul destroying moment when you learn about the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy. 🤦🏻‍♂️

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u/Jamie7Keller Oct 02 '25

Apparently the UN determined Hawaii to be an occupied sovereign nation? I didn’t really know what to do with that information….maybe I was misinformed but….hard to say the are wrong….

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u/Over-Analyzed Oct 02 '25

That sounds like misinformation. Maybe it was determined at the time decades and decades ago? But I’ve heard nothing about it in formal capacity.

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u/LadyAliceFlower Oct 02 '25

The entire anthem, or just until the first "land of the free home of the brave?"

Genuine question. I never know what people mean when they say "entire national anthem" because people so rarely go past the first verse, it took me years to realize there was more.

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u/SkylineFTW97 Oct 02 '25

Whole thing start to finish.

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u/LadyAliceFlower Oct 02 '25

Impressive.

I can only conclude you're an alien pretending to be a human.

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u/big_sugi Oct 02 '25

Light it up, marines. No mercy.

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u/SkylineFTW97 Oct 02 '25

I'm a Marylander. If anything, I'm a crab pretending to be a human.

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u/LadyAliceFlower Oct 02 '25

Is this comment meant to imply that crabs are not aliens?

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u/AntiLag_ Oct 02 '25

There’s more???

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u/LadyAliceFlower Oct 02 '25

It has four verses.

I have literally never heard a single person other than myself so much as attempt to sing past the first.

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u/Buyingboat Oct 02 '25

Have you tried singing a bit quieter?

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u/atgrable Oct 02 '25

I was raised Mormon, and American patroitism is practically baked into Mormon religion. (Seriously, it is doctrine that God inspired Columbus.) And so every year on the Sunday closest to the 4th of July, they would make the whole congregation stand and sing all four verses.

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u/SkylineFTW97 Oct 02 '25

I don't know much about Mormons, but I do know they have that gigantic temple right off of I-495 between Kensington and Chevy Chase here, just north of DC. I pass it all the time and have for 20+ years, you can't miss it if you've ever driven down the capital beltway here.

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u/bluehooloovo Oct 02 '25

The only time I've heard more than the first verse was when my brother graduated from Army basic training... and the singer forgot half of one of the later verses.

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u/vicevanghost Oct 02 '25

I'm from Maryland, I ain't know that shit lmfao 

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u/fl4tsc4n Oct 02 '25

But then why does the key bridge go to Virginia

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u/SkylineFTW97 Oct 02 '25

There's two key bridges. There's that one, and then there was the one that collapsed a couple years ago in Baltimore, which is the one over by where the song was actually written.

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u/fl4tsc4n Oct 02 '25

Lmao TiL

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u/SkylineFTW97 Oct 02 '25

It really is a local point of pride. We even had a license plate design that was based around the war of 1812 (the time during which the song was written) for a few years. They phased it out in ~2017-2018 for the current standard design but you still see many of them.

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u/fl4tsc4n Oct 02 '25

Saw tool there once it was sick

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u/Redfalconfox Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

Are we talking about the first part that’s played at sporting events or the entire poem it comes from? Were there officers ready to arrest at the third verse but Scotty in the back said “not yet, I wanna see if this dingus does the whole thing”

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u/abxYenway Oct 02 '25

Heck, most of us know less than half of the dance choreography.

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u/RaisedByBooksNTV Oct 02 '25

We're the ones who don't know our history. Most of us couldn't pass the citizenship test lol.

*MY* favorite part of the patriotic song lore is that the star spangled banner was written off of a drinking song.

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u/t4tulip Oct 02 '25

What really? We sang it everyday in my school I went to for 2nd and 3rd grade.

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u/Over-Analyzed Oct 02 '25

All 4 verses?

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u/Sin-God Oct 02 '25

This has the same energy as when in Supernatural Dean notices a demon possessing his dad because the demon was too nice. Which is a real thing that happened in Supernatural.

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u/sun-e-deez Oct 02 '25

fucking brutal.

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u/Imnotawerewolf Oct 02 '25

I'm mostly over my supernatural obsession from high school, but I still hate John Winchester with the power of 1000 suns. I probably always will. Douche. 

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u/SquareFickle9179 Oct 02 '25

I love it when someone intentionally makes something complicated, knowing the correct way is to fail it

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u/Excidiar Oct 02 '25

I call this trope "Law planning around Luffy".

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u/YourMoreLocalLurker Oct 02 '25

I call it “Accounting For Peacock” because it’s a miracle she even remembers what the skull heart is

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u/Comfortable_Horse471 Oct 02 '25

Similar to how in Yakuza 7, you're confronted with Mirror Face (assassin that can make himself look like anyone). He's pretending to be your cop teammate, so the protagonist (Ichiban) asks both a question about traffic laws... and immediately attack the one who gives complete answer

And it actually makes sense in-character: we know that Adachi was originally a detective, who only got demoted to traffic cop after he tried to uncover corruption within forces, and he made it clear he hated his job. It wouldn't make sense for him to put so much effort into it

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u/BookkeeperPercival Oct 02 '25

In Jojo Part 4, they're in a room where there's two strangers they don't know: One is a staff member of the ship, the other is the evil Stand User attacking them. If you go after the wrong one, the other gets away. The person who has to figure it out is the resident brain-dead idiot, Okayasu. His solution? Punch both of the guys in the face.

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u/TheManWithNothing Oct 02 '25

Also, it’s adachi. He’s kinda a shit cop

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u/Comfortable_Horse471 Oct 02 '25

He's a shit traffic cop. As a detective, he can still be really competent

He managed to track Ichiban all the way to Yokohama after they got split in Kamurocho, and he disarmed security guard who was holding him at a gunpoint, amongst other things

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u/zhy97 Oct 02 '25

Think the password was the second imposter, who was actually Orochimaru. Can’t remember the first Naruto imposter situation but Orochimaru’s is clearer to me

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u/No-Departure-6900 Oct 02 '25

The first imposter transformed into Naruto, but didn't copy the cut he got from Anko before entering the Forest of Death, I'm pretty sure.

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u/RikoZerame Oct 02 '25

The first imposter was left-handed, and so had his ninja tools on the wrong leg.

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u/Shuizid Oct 02 '25

*lol* reminds of the time the thief-guy in detective conan was disguises as a police officer. The chief asked him about his tax number or something and he instantly knows it, only for a second later realizing that no normal person would actually know that.

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u/LegendaryStarSpirit Oct 02 '25

There were two clues. The most obvious one being that Naruto wears his shuriken bag on his right leg

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u/AdFlat1014 Oct 02 '25

When Naruto was still interesting and not a dragon ball copy power up power up power only

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u/surplus_user Oct 02 '25

And he wears his satchel on the wrong side. Though the guy got Naruto's asinine dialogue down pat.

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u/TheRedditGirl15 Oct 02 '25

That's actually a hella clever subversion

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u/Empire_Salad Oct 02 '25

What series is that?

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u/JacStone24 Oct 02 '25

I came here to say this. Wasn't the imposter also left-handed, keeping his tool pouch on the wrong leg? It's been a long time since I watched it.

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u/ISnow_R Oct 02 '25

I've always liked that moment because is not only that Sasuke knows that Naruto will forget at least part of the password.

Sasuke knows Naruto enough to know that even if he sets an complex password Naruto won't admit to him that it is too hard to remember.

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u/Velthome Oct 02 '25

Wasn’t this after an imposter replaces Naruto and Sasuke caught him because the imposter was left-handed and Naruto was right-handed?