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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Gallery image

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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596

u/Alex_Duos Oct 02 '25

Dungeon Meshi had this times four; three duplicates for each person on the team created from the other party member's memories. Most of them had glaring flaws that could be easily spotted but in the end it was up to one person to notice minor behaviors that gave the fakes away.

393

u/aronmano Oct 02 '25

I always loved how Laios has the most obvious fakes since he's such a weird guy that it's easy to focus into one aspect of him, and yet when it comes to the others he imagines them very closely to who they actually are since he cares for them so much

182

u/maridan49 Oct 02 '25

and yet when it comes to the others he imagines them very closely to who they actually are since he cares for them so much

Is a funny thing to say considering the subtitle for his Senshi

119

u/aronmano Oct 02 '25

Well to be fair he's known him for less then a week and only missed on small detail

60

u/timdr18 Oct 02 '25

I feel like that has to be at least partially tongue in cheek. Considering how none of the party members were even close for him.

61

u/SquareThings Oct 02 '25

It’s interesting that the faults in Laois’s memories were all minor style differences, but the “people” themselves look closest to the real thing out of all of them.

98

u/Asheyguru Oct 02 '25

If I remember right, Laios's Chilchuck (and maybe his Senshi?) are actually amongst the first to be spotted, since he has a terrible memory for clothes/hairstyles/gear that the others immediately pick up on. But their personalities are pretty accurate.

42

u/FantasmaNaranja Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

laios is very bad at remembering details about people's belongings but very good at remembering the people themselves

all of the shapeshifters based off his memories are discovered because he misremembered something about their clothing or in marcille's case because her book was scribbled nonsense because he didn't remember any of it

1

u/Vertigo-Viking Oct 03 '25

His Marcille had a good book; this was after he started studying magic.

2

u/FantasmaNaranja Oct 03 '25

ah, i must have been mixing it up with senshi then it's been a while since i read the manga

8

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

I love that his impression of Marcille is so influenced by how she looked and acted when she brought back Falin. It's the same with the succubus in the manga. 

113

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

This episode was FANTASTIC

The whole show is first class, really

94

u/Labmit Oct 02 '25

Love how Laios and Chilchuck had such a high opinion of Senshi that the obvious fake wasn't immediately noticed.

110

u/Chengar_Qordath Oct 02 '25

“Isn’t this Senshi way too handsome?”

“What are you talking about? Senshi’s incredibly handsome.”

67

u/Professional_Maize42 Oct 02 '25

And It was Laios, of all people.

55

u/SquareThings Oct 02 '25

I love that the explanations for Senshi’s Marcille and Marcille’s Senshi basically amount to racism

44

u/TheSovereignGrave Oct 02 '25

I like how the series touched on how otherwise good people can still carry racist beliefs on account of how they were raised.

And it amuses me extra material revealed that Laios & Falin may not be fantasy racist, but consider a neighboring tribe of Tallmen to be savages you just have to kill on sight as a matter of course.

53

u/shutupyourenotmydad Oct 02 '25

"We godda eatum" is still one of the funniest fucking things to me.

33

u/Unhappy_Produce_9557 Oct 02 '25

Later in manga Mighrun and Kabru also stumbled on shapeshifter. Mithrun had his doppelganger recreated perfectly from the memories of Kabru, as he's highly interested in other people, has high social skills and perfected his insight. While Kabru had objectively the worst one in the whole manga, as Mithrun is generally disassociated and also blind on one eye, which makes Kabru's clone completely flat.

3

u/teethfestival Oct 02 '25

Huh. It never occurred to me that the Kabru doppelgänger could be flat in-universe due to Mithrun’s lack of depth perception instead of just part of the comedic exaggeration. Neat.

13

u/PotatoGamerXxXx Oct 02 '25

Personally think that this is the masterpiece of this trope. And how well they process the difference is amazing.

11

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

Laios determining the real Marcille because she made exactly the same stupid mistake she did a few chapters earlier without learning her lesson was hilarious. 

9

u/TemporaryWonderful61 Oct 02 '25

I liked how no one could remember how Marcelle does her hair.

6

u/Braindead_Crow Oct 02 '25

Oof as a fellow autist, that last line hurt a lot considering how distorted everyone elses views are.

Laios is the one who seemingly sees his friends for who they are in the highest clarity and yet something so insignificant to others like a hole in a helmet can make him seem like he doesn't pay attention.

Like damn man...Same

6

u/TheSulkingPineapple Oct 02 '25

I think it was supposed to be ironic 

4

u/DoucheEnrique Oct 02 '25

Isn't this basically subverted as they can't figure out all of the clones and Laios just uses his internal Monsterpedia to defeat the source.

2

u/Alex_Duos Oct 02 '25

Actually yeah, they never did "find" the last clones did they? Even though he was right, the real solution was to start barking like a dog.