History Main / TransformationIsAFreeAction

* Mostly played straight in ''Literature/CoffinPrincessChaika''. When Toru and Akari undergo their Iron Blood Form transformation, they have to chant an incantation that takes a few seconds to complete. A few times, the two took measures to distract enemies so they could finish it uninterrupted. However, no one has ever ''actually tried'' to stop them from doing it, even when standing right in front of them.

** One episode of ''Anime/BraveExkaiser'' had the titular Exkaiser attempt to form King Exkaiser with the King Roader, as usual. Unfortunately, the Geisters had predicted this move by this point, and smashed the King Roader to the point of uselessness by the time it arrived, leaving Exkaiser in his much weaker form. The only reason that battle was won was because Exkaiser then summoned the Dragon Jet to form Dragon Kaiser, using his secondary unit for much of the remaining episodes until he later gained access to ''Great'' Exkaiser.
** A similar case to the above-''Exkaiser'' example occurred in the second series, ''Anime/TheBraveFighterOfSunFighbird'', where Katori is knock away from the Fire Jet by the enemies before they blast the vehicle to bits, rendering Fighbird unuseable. Fortunately, Katori was able to adapt the Fire Shuttle to merge with it and become Granbird, which became his default until he could access ''Great'' Fighbird.
** ''Anime/TheBraveFighterOFLegendDaGarn'' featured and invoked aversion by DiscOneFinalBoss Redlone, who noted that the main mecha take ''3 seconds'' to combine. As such, he developed a special weapons system that would fire a shot that would blast them apart before the combinations could finalize, using this to prevent Da-Garn from forming Da-Garn X and the Sabers from forming Sky Saber. Unfortunately for Redlone, the system wouldn't work if the combiner had already formed beforehand, which Seiji was able to exploit by having the Landers form Land Bison before arriving at the battlefield. This allowed them to disable the weapon system long enough for the others to combine and help finish the fight.
** ''Anime/TheBraveOfGoldGoldran'' features an episode where Dran gets knocked away from Golgon while forming Goldran by Walter Walzac, who used his own mecha of the episode to usurp his position and forcibly combine with the beast into Dark Goldran.
*** ''Anime/GaoGaigar'' generally averted this, with most of it's combination sequences being implied to take place in real-time.

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] for laughs in ''Literature/MyInstantDeathAbilityIsSoOverpowered'': when a furious [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Masayuki of the Immortal Corps]] decides to take on Yogiri he starts transforming, [[NinjaZombiePirateRobot first becoming a zombie werewolf, then gaining bat wings]]... At which point Yogiri [[StoryBreakerPower kills him with his overpowered Instant Death ability]], much to Tomochika's chagrin as [[LampshadeHanding letting the transformation finish is just the polite thing to do]].

* Happens in ''Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine''. While Nemeroth is undergoing his transformation into a Daemon Prince, you're distracted by fighting a horde of Bloodletters. You can't attack Nemeroth anyway, as a barrier protects him. Sadly, this leads to one of the lamest final boss "fights" in recent history -- a QTE button mashing affair that a chimpanzee could get right on the first try.

** ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' puts a little spin on this; transformation is not a free action, but attacking the Riders during their transformation has done nothing. The Riders are also capable of moving around during their transformation. PlayedStraight with Gaim's Kiwami Arms SuperMode, which summons every other type of armor and fuses it with him. This summoned armor can be used to barrage the opponent and knock them away if they decide to try and interrupt.

** A notable example of characters trying to subvert this and failing: in the Cell Saga, when Cell finally achieves his [[OneWingedAngel "Perfect" body]], the transformation takes quite some time. Future Trunks immediately tries to destroy Cell, but the mere ''BattleAura'' that the villain sheds during the metamorphosis is more than enough to protect him from any assaults.
** In the Namek saga, Captain Ginyu threw a boulder and then a few energy blasts at Goku while he was powering up, only for Goku's BattleAura to protect him.

* Parodied in ''Manhwa/DorothyOfOz'', as Mara's TransformationSequence involves her clothes tearing themselves apart and reforming in real time. The reason why nobody attacks her is so that they can enjoy the stripperific FanService.

** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] when the ''SDF-1 Macross'' goes from her usual spaceship form to a kilometers-long robot to use the [[WaveMotionGun main gun]] for the first time in that not only the Zentraedi were trying to capture the ship and thus were holding back, they had no idea what was happening or even ''why'', and even later they wondered why they had done it because, for all they knew, the only difference was that the ''Macross''[='=] cruising speed was now lower (the ship's fold drive had disappeared due a botched fold, and since the energy conduit from the reactors to the main gun passed through the fold drive they had to rearrange the ship to fire).

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] for laughs in ''Literature/MyInstantDeathAbilityIsSoOverpowered'': when a furious [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Masayuki of the Immortal Corps]] decides to take on Yogiri he starts transforming, [[NinjaZombiePirateRobot first becoming a zombie werewolf, then gaining bat wings]]... At which point Yogiri [[StoryBreakerPower kills him with his overpowered Instant Death ability]], much to Tomochika's chagrin as [[LampshadeEnding letting the transformation finish is just the polite thing to do]].

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] for laughs in ''Literature/MyInstantDeathAbilityIsSoOverpowered'': when a furious [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Masayuki of the Immortal Corps]] decides to take on Yogiri he starts transforming, [[NinjaZombiePirateRobot first becoming a zombie werewolf, then gaining bat wings]]... At which point Yogiri [[StoryBreakerPower kills him with his overpowered Instant Death ability]], much to Tomochika's chagrin as she wanted to ''see'' what he would become before Yogiri killed him.

* Played straight and averted in Claymade's ''[[Fanfic/TheDarkLordsOfNerima The Dark Lords Ascendant]]'', Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune transform right in front of Ryouga and Ukyou when it becomes clear they already know their identities. They don't attack partially because they intend to fight them as Senshi...and because [[PleasePutSomeClothesOn Ryouga turned his back when the sequence left them naked briefly]]. [[spoiler: Later when a group of mercenaries come for Hotaru, Haruka begins her activation phrase, but one of the mercs shoots her before she can finish it.]]

'['Beat]''\\

--> '''Maou Ranger Red''': "It's a rule that you can't attack while transforming."

-->'''Fox Gahee:''' "What are you doing!? This isn't the time to be dawdling around! Our Hyun's in danger!
-->'''Oh Duk Hee:''' "No. During transformation, there is no danger. That is the law of the transforming genre."

-->'''Krillin:''' Yeah, you know, I keep forgetting to do that.\\
(''Beat'')\\

* ''Anime/{{Scryed}}'' averts this, as Kazuma ends up getting attacked in the middle of forming his Alter a couple times over the course of the first half of the series, even when it skips the usual lengthy transformation sequence. By the second half this drops off, however, with Kazuma's second stage for his Alter seeming to be powerful enough that even anyone who would want to interrupt the transformation is simply unable to get close until it's been formed.