History Main / BecomeARealboy

* Grace from ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' goes through a desire to become human between the Painted Black and Birthday Party arcs by refusing to use her abilities to shapeshift from her full human form. She is still willing to use other means to transform, i.e., via the TransformationRay Gun, and only uses her abilities to transform back to human when she is told that it's the only way to do so -- even then, she only uses them reluctantly.

* Number/Johnny Five in ''Film/ShortCircuit'', who has gained self-awareness and understands himself to be alive; thus, he must fight to prevent being "[[TheyWouldCutYouUp disassembled]]" (which for him would be "death") and convince others that he does have human emotions and thought processes. Though he is an ''extremely'' fast reader, in the second film, he intends to study the books ''Literature/{{Pinocchio}}'' by Collodi and ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' by Shelley more closely, clearly identifying with the plights of both the puppet and the creature. [[spoiler:He gets his wish, partially, at the end of the film, when after his heroics, the U.S. government decides to grant him the rights of an American citizen; the film ends with him and his immigrant friend taking the oath of citizenship at a mass-ceremony for such.]]

So, you've got a character who isn't human, such as (but not exclusively) an ArtificialHuman grown in the tank or just put together your RobotGirl with an assembly kit, or a character who either wasn't human to begin with or WasOnceAMan before being the subject of a ForcedTransformation {{curse}} or transformed via TheVirus into monsters or otherwise made into something else that is decidedly ''not'' human. Whatever the reason, the nonhuman being wants to become human, or in the case of a formerly human being, they want to be human again. In those cases where those who ''do'' get the instant magical cure, they'll often throw it away, saying they want to earn it, or "it's the path, not the destination" (whatever that means), or it will come at a horrendous moral cost.

This is often a goal of {{robot}}s, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]], and so on. In these circumstances, sometimes a wiser character will be taken in by this trope, but instead make some important logical deductions. Namely, that if you're a robot, you [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots probably already act like a normal human]], to the point of being able to pass the TuringTest. If you're a vampire or werewolf, you're substantially stronger and [[PunyEarthlings hardier than a typical human]]. Or maybe, in the most extreme cases, you'll become convinced that HumansAreBastards, and you're better off being what you are. As a result, as cool as these "emotion" things may be, it may not be worth being BroughtDownToNormal just to enjoy them. In these cases, the character in question can often be found [[TakeAThirdOption looking for a third option]] that will allow for the best of both worlds.

** Meanwhile, in the alternate universe created by Rumpelstiltskin's [[RetGone deal with Shrek]], Pinocchio is instead begging for a deal to be a real boy and clearly interested in the [[MakeAWish Deal of a Lifetime]] for the same purpose. Since this is a universe where [[ForWantOfANail Shrek was never born and he never made friends among the fairy tale creatures]], or [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits assist in the climaxes of the second and third movies]], Pinocchio didn't go through the character growth displayed in the original timeline.