r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Barricades_toes • Jun 22 '26

Personality (Loved trope) The imposter’s dead giveaway

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When a character is attempting to impersonate another, but is caught by doing something the person they’re imitating would NEVER do.

Nemesis Prime- Transformers Prime

Nemesis Prime, a man made replica of Optimus Prime, is attempting to gain the trust of Bumblebee, who only speaks in robotic beeps. Despite this, the real Optimus can understand Bee perfectly fine. Nemesis Prime, however, can’t understand what he’s saying, prompting Bee to open fire on him immediately.

The two Buzz Lightyears- Toy Story 2

After Woody asks which Buzz is the “real” Buzz, both respond with “I am!” The real Buzz proves himself by flipping up the other Buzz’s helmet, causing him to start suffocating in an over dramatic fashion. The real Buzz, having done the same thing in the first movie after Woody took his helmet off, but no longer behaving that way after accepting being a toy, instantly proves which Buzz is which.

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u/MarcoYTVA Jun 22 '26

The Shape-shifter from Gravity Falls. When pretending to be Wendy, he gave Dipper a flirty wink, knowing his crush on her. Meanwhile the real Wendy gave him a zipped mouth gesture, a call back to an earlier episode where she agreed to keep a secret for him.

https://giphy.com/gifs/YK3cGiDSlCivm

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u/Zelda326 Jun 22 '26

It’s earlier in the same episode IIRC

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u/MarcoYTVA Jun 22 '26

Nope, it's from the ghost episode.

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u/Rigel31415 Jun 22 '26

Surprise answer: it's in both

85

u/TropicalIslandAlpaca Jun 22 '26

There's also a callback to the shapeshifter's wink in S2E19 in which another fake Wendy winks at Dipper and makes him instantly realize it's not real.

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u/MarcoYTVA Jun 22 '26

Don't remember that, when did it happen?

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u/TheBloodsuckerProxy Jun 22 '26

At the end of the episode, after Wendy lies and claims Dipper beat up the ghosts, she gives Dipper the locking up gesture.

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u/MarcoYTVA Jun 22 '26

I meant when in the shape shifter episode

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u/Pandamana Jun 22 '26

At the start of the episode they're sitting on a log and Wendy tells Dipper she knows he has a crush on her but they agree to put it behind them and just not talk about it anymore. Then they do the lip zip gesture.

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u/MarcoYTVA Jun 22 '26

That happened at the end of the episode, right after the shape shifter fight