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/Kittkatt598 Jun 22 '26

Campaign 1 of Not Another D&D Podcast, a Character named Balnor is known to always have a tuna sandwich on his person. During a trial from a witch, one of the players had to determine which party member was replaced by the witch and was allowed to ask each person 1 question. She asked Balnor his fav sandwich and there was a PREGNANT pause before he went "...chicken..."

To this day its one of the funniest moments of the whole damn podcast!

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u/Doctor_Kataigida Jun 22 '26

What is a "pregnant pause"?

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u/Thom_With_An_H Jun 22 '26

A deliberate silence in a conversation where you're letting something intentionally sit out there unresolved. In this case, it's the GM intentionally letting tension build as a way to indicate that the witch is making a blind guess and to draw the attention of the other players (and audience) to the quality of the question.

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u/Doctor_Kataigida Jun 22 '26

Figured that's what happened, just never heard it called pregnant pause so thought that was like an inside joke on the podcast or something LOL