History Main / TransNature

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', Princess Ariel of the Mer-people has a fixation with humans, eventually falling in love with a human and becoming one herself.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', Princess Ariel of the Mer-people has a fixation with humans, eventually falling in love with a human and becoming one herself. In this version of the story, humans and merpeople are portrayed as equal, so Ariel's transformation isn't about becoming better or worse. The [[Literature/TheLittleMermaid original Hans Christian Andersen version]] is not so nice. In this version, it turns out that God loves only mankind, so the Mermaid is doomed from the beginning simply for being born as a "lesser" species. Since her quest in this version was limited to trying to reach out to her LoveInterest, it's not an example of this trope. Oh, and [[DrivenToSuicide it fails miserably, too]].

* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' has Nott, the self-loathing good-aligned goblin who [[BoomerangBigot believes goblins are all]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil irredeemably evil]] and who views herself as a halfling trapped in a goblin's body. She uses illusion spells, when possible, to pass herself off as a halfling, and her goal for adventuring is find magic powerful enough to permanently polymorph her into a halfling. In Episode 49, [[spoiler:it's revealed that she was literally {{Baleful Polymorph}}ed into a goblin; she regains her original halfling body in Episode 97.]]

* Uncle Ruckus from ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'', a [[BoomerangBigot self-racist]] black man who believes that he's really (or at least wants to be) a white man; you could call him trans-racial. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRNCpD3xhsY He even has a dream about going to Heaven and turning white]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Wolfwalkers}}'' : When Robyn becomes one of the [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent wolfwalkers]], she is initially very freaked out, but she quickly comes to embrace her new nature when Mehb shows her the benefits of being a wolf and the freedom it affords compared to life in the town.

* ''Franchise/DragonAge'': The Qunari people run into this a lot because of their unusual approach to gender roles. Several jobs are strictly single gender; for instance, all soldiers are men. Therefore, a soldier who was incidentally born a woman is considered a man and expected to live as a man (Aqun-Athlok in their language). The result is that a trans man who is a soldier is completely unremarkable to them, but a cis woman who is a soldier is so far outside their worldview they can't really grasp the concept.

** Captain Carrot Ironfounderson, as evidenced by his name, is a dwarf. He is also, through accident of birth, a six-foot-tall human king. But he sees no reason why that should stop him being a dwarf, just like adoptive Dads. Nor does he see why some funny crown birthmark, fancy sword, and "royal ancestry" should make him have to be King of Ankh Morpork. He would much rather work his way up the ranks of the Ankh Morpork City Watch by the sweat of his brow. This species dysphoria may be what helps him understand Angua, his werewolf girlfriend.
** Speaking of Angua, Discworld werewolves are notably ''not'' "human most of the time". They are ''always'' a werewolf. They just happen to be human-''shaped'' a lot of the time and wolf-''shaped'' at least some of the time. Meanwhile, Wolfmen are the same but the opposite way around. Many werewolves/wolfmen have problems changing shape, in fact. Some can ''only'' change in the moonlight, or not at all, as evidenced by Angua's sister, who could not change into a wolflike shape, and one of her brothers who cannot change into a humanlike shape but chose to pass as a champion sheepdog in Lancre. Apparently werewolves and wolfmen are simply two different examples of the same species (which ''can'' interbreed with human and canine biology).

** In the episode ''All About Steve'', there is a (possibly first otherkin villain in cartoon) [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Tolkien fan]] who also happens to be a domestic terrorist. It ''maybe'' cryptically implies that he's either literally ''Bilbo Baggins'' trapped inside a human body or just a misguided depressed fan who was done with being human by becoming a "dwarf" and believing that human society must be destroyed in order to create [[TheMagicComesBack his magical utopia modeled after Middle Earth by any means]].

A person is either part of a certain category (such as a certain species or gender) that they do not feel all right with, and so they want to be part of a different category, or the person was assigned a certain category (often against their will) that they feel have never belonged to in the first place, or some combination of both. Because of this, the person may want or need to change their body or nature or both.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', Princess Ariel of the Mer-people has a fixation with humans, eventually falling in love with a human and becoming one herself. In this version of the story, humans and mer-people are portrayed as equal, so Ariel's transformation isn't about becoming better or worse. The [[Literature/TheLittleMermaid original Hans Christian Andersen version]] is not so nice. In this version, it turns out that God loves only mankind, so the Mermaid is doomed from the beginning simply for being born as a "lesser" species. Since her quest in this version was limited to trying to reach out to her LoveInterest, it's not an example of this trope. Oh, and [[DrivenToSuicide it fails miserably, too]].

* The ''Literature/MerryGentry'' series has a number of people who want to be sidhe and often mimic them by dyeing their hair an unnatural red or getting plastic surgery to get their ears pointed. The later is laughed at by real sidhe because only half breeds have pointed ears. One of Merry's coworkers in the first book is a former human gang member who rescued a couple of Unseelie nobles in exchange for being made one of the fey. He's now basically an anthropomorphic, bipedal cat.

** Discworld dwarfs are facing a kind of cultural revolution of a trans natured kind. Most of dwarf culture centres around stereotypically masculine things, like armour, weapons, drinking and mining. All dwarfs dressed the same, grew their beards long and used male pronouns for themselves. Most of dwarf "sexuality" consisted of finding out what physical sex your boyfriend was before you got married, not that it would change anything. But recently, some dwarfs have been daring to be more feminine. No shaving, obviously, but maybe wearing very slightly lighter chainmail, or a shinier axe. Maybe even lipstick or a chainmail skirt. Of course, since dwarf gender is so optional, it still doesn't mean that they necessarily do have female body parts. Just that they choose to be perceived that way.
** Captain Carrot Ironfounderson, as evidenced by his name, is a dwarf. He is also, through accident of birth, a six-foot tall human king. But he sees no reason why that should stop him being a dwarf, just like adoptive Dads. Nor does he see why some funny crown birthmark, fancy sword and "royal ancestry" should make him have to be King of Ankh Morpork. He would much rather work his way up the ranks of the Ankh Morpork City Watch by the sweat of his brow. This species dysphoria may be what helps him understand Angua, his werewolf girlfriend.

* ''Literature/TheArtOfRacingInTheRain'' is a book about a labrador retriever mix who wants to reincarnate into a human. It's based off of a Mongolian legend where dogs can reincarnate into humans if they prepare enough.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', at least two episodes are about regular humanoid Trill wanting to transition to become "Joined Trill". A Joined Trill is a composite species, with one humanoid component (normally from the Trill race, though a human was briefly joined in one [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]] episode) and one symbiont. Becoming a Joined Trill brings on many changes, including a form of reincarnation: You retroactively gain past lives in the form of the symbiont's former hosts and their memories, and after your death you will continue to live on as one of these past lives for subsequent hosts.
** Trill must be trained and prepared for a long time before Joining, if they are good enough to be selected, or they may become a person that is far more like past host personalities than the current host's previous personality. Will Riker, who had no idea what symbiosis was like at all, was entirely submerged without realizing that there was any alternative. Ezri Tigan, a humanoid Trill who was forced into Joining by circumstance, had at least grown up in a Trill culture and though she experienced a rough and prolonged transition period (full of weird cravings and feelings from her past lives), she kept most of her personality. The most immediately jarring part was that her then boyfriend suddenly reminded her of her ''son'' from a past life, squicking her out and ruining the relationship.

* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' has Maureen Ponderosa, who started identifying mentally as cat after having her "death tooth" finally fixed and eventually [[CrazyCatLady having too much cats]] made her snap and begin have various cosmetic surgery procedures done in order to develop more cat-like features and she wants everyone calls her as cat while on trial.

* One case in ''Series/CasoCerrado'' revolves around a man called Tiko who believes he's a cat and is trying to transition to the best of his abilities. Tiko's step-mother, however, argues that he's mentally ill and can't inherit his deceased father's inheritance.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', elves are a subrace of humanity. Some normal humans are "elf wannabees" who want to be elves, and sometimes use plastic surgery to make themselves more elf-like. They're usually looked down upon by real elves and other humans.

* In ''TabletopGame/FengShui'', the Ascended are an AncientConspiracy of intelligent animals who used magic to become human, and then took over the world to prevent the same magic from being used to return them to animal form.

** Played with by Tedd, whose androgynous looks cause people to assume that he is a girl anyway. He developed the genderswapping features on the transformation gun just so that he could actually switch back and forth whenever he wanted to, but mostly because he's a ChivalrousPervert and proud of it. Eventually he is indicated to be gender-fluid, but that he didn't know that was a thing you ''could'' be, and just thought his interest in sometimes but not always being a girl was a result of being raised in an environment with regular contact with shapeshifters and eventually having access to the technological ability to switch sexes. Tedd, after being informed it had a label by Grace and given magic to swap genders whenever he feels the need, comes out to some of his friends as Gender Fluid, not that that this changes his/her behavior much. The author and various characters start referring to Female Tedd with female after this, with no complaints from Tedd. That said regardless of form Tedd is largely only attracted to women. (Though transforming via the Transformation gun makes straight swaps Bi, it's apparently only physical, not romantic, as noted by Ellen)

** Played straight to the hilt by Ellen & Elliot! At first, Elliot was Tedd's much more obviously male friend. He also started off normal to counter Tedd's "MadScientist" theme, though that soon got replaced with a MagicVersusScience theme when he was revealed to be skilled at "Anime Style Martial Arts" including projecting spells from his hands. He gets hit by the "Venus" transformation (becoming an extremely attractive, long-haired girl for a month), he demands that Tedd get him a quicker cure (so as to avoid going to high school with an attractive girl's body for a month). Tedd finds out about a crystal that gets rid of transformative "curses", which should work, since the gun is based on [[AWizardDidIt alien]] {{Magitek}}. They find the crystal and Elliot touches it. Long story short, it split him into two people. "Elliot" who got to keep his name (because he was the male one) but now has to burn off his excess magical energy once a day by spending a few hours as a woman. "Ellen", who was created from the "curse" that was removed, is permanently a woman now, and only slowly coming to terms with the thought that she might be okay with that. But she still remembers having been a man, mind and body, all her life as well as not being able to date Sarah, the girl she remembers as her girlfriend. She also has the ability to use the anime martial arts but has decided to pursue magic more in order to differentiate herself from Elliot, although she really likes to use her own "Venus" transformation on him, via a hand beam spell that looks like the TF gun's beam.
** Grace's brother, Vlad, is a male bat-human hybrid who can't change into human form permanently because it's too painful. After being hit by Ellen's Venus transformation, he turns into a human woman and is thrilled to be human for once (s/he takes the female part of things in stride, since it matters very little compared to being human).

** When the team first meet Nick, they conclude that because he's human (albeit one whose had his brain removed and stuck in a helicopter) his problems don't fall under their purview. When he refers to the helicopter as his "real body" they decide that since he ''identifies'' as non-human he should be treated as such.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016'': features a colt who wants to be a unicorn. Bubbles get the Professor to turn him into a unicorn but it backfires and he transforms into a monstrous looking creature. [[spoiler:Eventually his mother appears and informs him he really was a unicorn the entire time, it's just his mane covered up his horn]].
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' have couple villains in earlier seasons who have this mindset.
** In the episode ''All About Steve'', there is a (possibly first otherkin villain in cartoon) [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Tolkien fan]] who also happens be domestic terrorist. It ''maybe'' cryptically implies that he's either literally ''Bilbo Baggins'' trapped inside a human body or just a misguided depressed fan who was done with being human by becoming a "dwarf" and believing that human society must be destroyed in order to create [[TheMagicComesBack his magical utopia modeled after Middle Earth by any means]].

** And some [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom furries]] or "Furry lifestylers" as well. These most often take the route of reincarnation much like the aforementioned religions or people waiting for biotechnology to become real life {{Beast M|an}}en. Comparing them to transgender people is considered a BerserkButton to most trans groups.
** A third piece to this puzzle would be anyone with other extreme views on body alteration. Some body art and cosmetic surgery won't get you any out of the normal attention, but some do cross deeper inside. People who partake in transforming themselves into living dolls, have overly tattooed or pierced bodies or have done something considered a "self-mutilation" can all fall into this category. Any such people clearly follow the philosophy a human should alter their body to how they prefer it to look. Even where there are points of similarities, there are significant portions of the trans and furry communities that want nothing to do with them and probably vice versa.[[note]]To clarify to users who aren't sure who this refers to, we're talking about people who do some of the same things but don't share the ideology.[[/note]]

* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' has Nott, the self-loathing good-aligned goblin who [[BoomerangBigot believes goblins are all]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil irredeemably evil]] and who views herself as a halfling trapped in a goblin's body. She uses illusion spells, when possible, to pass herself off as a halfling, and her goal for adventuring is find magic powerful enough to permanently polymorph her into a halfling.
** [[spoiler: It's a SubvertedTrope. She's being literal. The 'reincarnation' spell is a BITCH.]]

* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': Nott is a goblin who loathes other goblins, agrees that they're AlwaysChaoticEvil, enjoys killing them, and hopes for her wizard friend to learn to transform her into a different species. {{Subverted|Trope}} in Episode 49 by TheReveal that she [[spoiler:is a [[{{Hobbits}} Halfling]] who was {{Baleful Polymorph}}ed into a goblin as a punishment. She's restored to her original body in Episode 97.]]

Supertrope of TransTribulations (for {{UsefulNotes/Transgender}} [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} characters]]) and PinocchioSyndrome. Sometimes a SisterTrope of AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Compare and contrast TheWhitestBlackGuy and BecomingTheMask.

Supertrope of TransTribulations (for {{UsefulNotes/Transgender}} [[{{Transgender}} characters]]) and PinocchioSyndrome. Sometimes a SisterTrope of AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Compare and contrast TheWhitestBlackGuy and BecomingTheMask.

* The "permanent magical transformation" support group in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/ClairDeLune'' usually acts as a {{transgender}} support group, however it is a support group for all kinds of transformations. One member is a unicorn, Green Wheat, who was born an earth pony. She felt uncomfortable being an earth pony so she turned into a unicorn. It's legal to change breeds but there's a stigma against it.

* The children's picture book ''Goblinheart: A Fairy Tale'' uses this as a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything metaphor]] for {{transgender}} youth. Julep is a fairy who insists they're a goblin. Julep meets a younger goblin named Tuck who is the opposite.

* [[{{Transgender}} Trans]] people are assigned a gender at birth, usually based on their physical sex, that does not match their self-identified gender later in life. Sometimes occurs due to Intersexuality, i.e. physically being in between male and female or not fitting easily into one or the other, or on rare occasions when something happens to their genitals such as a botched circumcision. Most often the infants are assigned to be female. The whole situation is [[FlameBait very contentious in the Trans community and Anti-trans/Transphobes]].

A person is either part of a certain category (such as a certain species or gender) that they do not feel all right with, and so they want to be part of a different category, or the person was assigned a certain category (often against their will) that they never belonged to in the first place, or some combination of both. Because of this, the person may want or need to change their body or nature or both.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', Princess Ariel of the Mer-people have a fixation with humans, eventually falling in love with a human and becoming one herself. In this version of the story, humans and mer-people are portrayed as equal, so Ariel's transformation isn't about becoming better or worse. The [[Literature/TheLittleMermaid original Hans Christian Andersen version]] is not so nice. In this version, it turns out that God loves only mankind, so the Mermaid is doomed from the beginning simply for being born as a "lesser" species. Since her quest in this version was limited to trying to reach out to her LoveInterest, it's not an example of this trope. Oh, and [[DrivenToSuicide it fails miserably, too]].

Supertrope of TransTribulations (for {{UsefulNotes/Transgender}} [[{{Transgender}} people]]) and PinocchioSyndrome. Sometimes a SisterTrope of AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Compare and contrast TheWhitestBlackGuy and BecomingTheMask.

Supertrope of TransTribulations and PinocchioSyndrome. Sometimes a SisterTrope of AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Compare and contrast TheWhitestBlackGuy and BecomingTheMask.

Supertrope of {{Transgender}} and PinocchioSyndrome. Sometimes a SisterTrope of AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. Compare and contrast TheWhitestBlackGuy and BecomingTheMask.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPMDCJrRpT8 Behold, the guy who sexually identifies as an attack helicopter]]. [[PoesLaw Whether this is meant to be serious or satire, it's hard to tell]].

* In the Creator/IsaacAsimov novella (and later film) ''Literature/TheBicentennialMan'', the robot "Andrew" desires to be human, so he gets various implants to change his robotic/positronic body and mind into biological parts. He finally gets acknowledged as human by the government, [[spoiler:when he dies of old age]].

* In Creator/{{Vathara}}'s ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2698347/1/Walk-Through-the-Valley Walk Through the Valley]]'', [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Hiko]] turns himself into one of the less obvious examples of a CatBoy in fiction. He has retractable AbsurdlySharpClaws hidden under fingernails, InnateNightVision so acute that he's [[BlindWithoutEm blind without]] his CoolShades, [[AlienHair sensory tendrils]], [[KnightTemplarParent parental instincts]] that almost drove him to kill a friend because she didn't smell or feel right, [[TheAgeless eternal youth]] and an interpretation of the original canon's ''ki''-sense that basically makes him TheEmpath. That is, if they could sense trees and animals. Also, he can project images as well as emotion. He's implied to have a hell of a HealingFactor. Making these changes permanent is a felony in the Confederacy—he worked for a hidden branch of its government—and the reader is never given a coherent reason why he'd risk prison and the end of a brilliant career to do this; he and Shakku Arai, his partner-in-crime (literally) had invented anti-aging drugs before he took the serum that would have allowed him to restore his banged up knees and bad back without touching his wrinkles...or the middle-aged spread he must have avoided somehow; he wasn't in do-or-die situation; and then there's this weird line that suggests that even if Hiko isn't consciously aware of any species dysphoria, Arai is:

* King Louie from ''Disney/TheJungleBook'', an orangutan wanting to become a human.
* Louis, the alligator from ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', wants to be human so that he can play trumpet in a jazz band. [[spoiler:He doesn't become human, but still gets his wish to play in a band.]]
* In the Disney version of ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', Princess Ariel of the Mer-people have a fixation with humans, eventually falling in love with a human and becoming one herself. In this version of the story, humans and mer-people are portrayed as equal, so Ariel's transformation isn't about becoming better or worse. The [[Literature/TheLittleMermaid original Hans Christian Andersen version]] is not so nice. In this version, it turns out that God loves only mankind, so the Mermaid is doomed from the beginning simply for being born as a "lesser" species. Since her quest in this version was limited to trying to reach out to her LoveInterest, it's not an example of this trope. Oh, and [[DrivenToSuicide it fails miserably, too]].

* The "permanent magical transformation" support group in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/360473/clair-de-lune Clare De Lune]]'' usually acts as a {{transgender}} support group, however it is a support group for all kinds of transformations. One member is a unicorn, Green Wheat, who was born an earth pony. She felt uncomfortable being an earth pony so she turned into a unicorn. It's legal to change breeds but there's a stigma against it.