History Main / YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm

-->'''Order:''' What that means is that I'm ''not'' really a pleasingly-shaped metallic object that can talk.*
--->'''[[FootnoteFever Footnote]]:''' *The purest form of order found on Earth is usually in the form of math problems where you have to show your work.
-->'''Chaos:''' And my true form isn't a jumble of random threads of what appears to be string.**
--->'''Footnote:''' **It's really entropy, which can look like string. However, [[{{Metaphorgotten}} it's very difficult to tie anything together with it]]. Chaos itself is usually found in junk drawers and the bottom of closets.

* Observer in ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' insists that he exists [[BrainInAJar only as a brain]], and that if "lesser minds" perceive a body carrying around said brain, it is merely this trope in action. (All evidence in the show suggests that yes, he ''does'' have a body, although his brain is indeed outside of it.)

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/Warframe''; with [[ArtificialIntelligence Cephalon]] [[TheCaptain Cy]] and the [[CoolStarship Railjack's]] [[FasterThanLightTravel Reliquary Drive]]. Cy is completely incapable of registering the Drive's existence in any way, to the point that he locates it by looking for a spot on his sensors that returns no data whatsoever. Any attempt on his part to closely examine or even think too hard about the Drive results in him [[LogicBomb having to reboot due to his systems being incapable of handling the lack of data input]]. The [[PlayerCharacter Tenno]], on the other hand, can comprehend it just fine, and see that the [[MeaningfulName Reliquary]] drive is a case that contains a humanoid finger... that's eight feet long. And was cut from the hand of an EldritchAbomination.

* Inverted (possibly) in ''VideoGame/Warframe''; with [[ArtificialIntelligence Cephalon]] [[TheCaptain Cy]] and the [[CoolStarship Railjack's]] [[FasterThanLightTravel Reliquary Drive]]. Cy is completely incapable of registering the Drive's existence in any way, to the point that he locates it by looking for a spot on his sensors that returns no data whatsoever. Any attempt on his part to closely examine or even think too hard about the Drive results in him [[LogicBomb having to reboot due to his systems being incapable of handling the lack of data input]]. The [[PlayerCharacter Tenno]], on the other hand, can comprehend it just fine, and see that the [[MeaningfulName Reliquary]] drive is a case that contains a humanoid finger... that's eight feet long. And was cut from the hand of an EldritchAbomination.

* The {{Trope Namer|s}} is ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994''. "You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas' attack!" It's a tradition of the ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' series' final bosses. In ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'', Giygas (aka Giegue) attacked telekinetically without lifting a finger; his mental power was so far beyond the protagonists they couldn't process what he was using for PSI. In ''[=EarthBound=]'' he was [[BodyHorror "reduced" to an]] EldritchAbomination so large and all-encompassing, you simply couldn't tell where his attacks are coming from; in gameplay terms you were fighting against ''the background''. In ''VideoGame/Mother3'', [[spoiler:Porky]] doesn't get an explanation, but it may be related to him having access to such ridiculously advanced technology that it's a form of ClarkesThirdLaw. Additionally, [[spoiler:the Masked Man]] doesn't have announcements for most of his attacks like most other enemies in the game do; they simply just happen without warning.

** Speaking of Pokémon, the Pokémon Mimikyu, as stated by Pokedex entries, have been seen without their crude Pikachu costumes on by some, including a child, and did '''''not''''' live to see another day after seeing what they've really looked like. [[TheWoobie It's no wonder why Mimikyu is so lonely]]!

** She can also use the power of You cannot grasp the true form to initiate an attack in a similar vein to [[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 Giygas]]/[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Gie]][[VideoGame/{{MOTHER}} gue]]. [[spoiler:As the [[StoryBreakerPower Witch of Theatregoing]], she can literally ''stop time, rip out the script of a world and rewrite it''. In the eighth and final book when she [[CurbStompBattle "fights"]] Lambdadelta, she starts from the end of the incoming fight scene and works her way back, only to the part where she deals a rather ''brutal'' finishing blow to Lambda. She doesn't even write ''what'' killed Lambda, deciding to think it up later. When time resumes, the poor Witch of Certainty suffered just as Featherine wrote and had no idea what just happened before perishing, the narrative almost quoting this trope word for word.]]

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'' [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/07/07/the-truth-the-whole-truth/ when Pete and the Dragon Spirit convocated King]] [[EldritchLocation into their realm]] King sees his own universe as a RPG which [[CosmicEntity both beings]] literally play with.

* The True Shape of ''WebComic/KillSixBillionDemons'' is noted to be impossible to fathom. The Goddess Aesma saw it twice; the first time [[AchievementsInIgnorance she was too preoccupied to understand it]] and escaped unharmed, but when she tried to repeat the process with intent the knowledge [[EyeScream boiled her eyes from their sockets]]. The Demiurge Jadis tried, and it drove her irrevocably insane (though she did get omniscience out of the deal). It's usually depicted as a wheel, though those who achieved Royalty can turn the wheel on its side to see in it the true name of God; I.

* The portals in ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'' are very hard for anyone to really comprehend what they are seeing, describing it in completely contradictory terms (for example, one character notes it looks both parallel and perpendicular to the ground). It is mentioned at it at least a seven dimensional object, and what is seen is a best the "shadow" of the real thing.

** Go ahead. Try visualizing what number [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-033 SCP-033]] is supposed to be. The closest the article comes to explaining what it is is by using the example of humanity not ever coming up with 5, instead skipping straight from 4 to 6 simply because the quantity of 5 was never conceived of. To make matters worse, the range of numbers this integer is supposedly located in has been expunged from the record, and the number itself is so chaotic it literally cannot fit into ANY known mathematical system; absolutely all calculations, no matter how large or strange, are done without it or knowledge of it, and trying to make use of it ''causes logic itself to break down'', manifested as objects on which the number has been written ''degenerating into mush''.
** Then there's [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3930 SCP-3930]], whose threat is ''driven'' by the fact the human mind keeps trying to grasp it. It's ''literally'' nothing, a perfect nothing where nothing exists, nothing leaves, nothing is visible, etc. But the human mind, with its tendency to see patterns where there's none, goes into overdrive and overwrites that nothing with something; the equivalent of seeing shapes in clouds, something where there's nothing, except this time it sees Russian wilderness and a building where there's nothing at all. Anyone that enters that nothing ceases to exist, too, but the brain continues to act as if it does, and anyone watching or listening continues on like the individual actually went there and saw things. But that all breaks down, loses consistency as the brain keeps lying to itself because it can't put up with actual nothingness, right until concentration is broken and the invented individual with their invented expedition stops registering. They were always gone, but that shadow the mind invented is gone too once the thread is broken. [[spoiler: And in those utter voids, even these little shadows have an influence, the edge of this void starts piling up with these invented things that aren't real, but seem real enough to manifest, and they merge together. The more people know of this void and subconsciously overwrite it with their own patterns, the more they are. If there's too much of this thought together, too many of these inventions of the mind piling up at the edge of nothingness, they start to merge into one thing, it becomes complex, gains sentience, and realizes what it actually is. It exists now, and it would ''very much like'' [[ParadoxPerson to go back to not existing]]. That little thing is what's known as a [[EldritchAbomination Pattern Screamer]], because it's born from seeing nonexistent patterns, and it screams in hatred of thought that brought it to be. The only way to erase it is to erase the inventions that made it happen; the only way to make ''that'' happen is to send the ones who thought them into this nothingness, so they'll stop existing. The threshold is around ten people; any more than that knowing of this void, and the screaming starts]].

* It is implied in Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos that this is one of Slendy's characteristics, given that he has been know to grow CombatTentacles, his use of both On and OffScreenTeleportation, and taking into account the lack of distinguishing (read: [[TheBlank ANY]]) facial features.

-->Imagine that you’re in a boat and you see some fish in the water. You reach your hand into the water to grab one of the fish. From the fish’s point of view, this weird thing with a flat body and five tentacles and a weird thick tail that reaches out into nowhere, but no eyes, mouth or fins, just appeared in a shower of bubbles. It moves around in ways that have nothing to do with swishing its tail or moving fins in any way. Then this thing which shouldn’t be any stronger than the fish is, and has no eyes with which to see, wraps itself around one of the other fish, and suddenly that fish disappears from the first fish’s plane of reference. The hand is utterly alien to the fish, and it operates in ways that would seem magical to it, if fish had the brains to encompass the notion of magic. I think that your Headhunter is like that: it has much, but not all of the power of the demon at its disposal, and it has a perspective that most mortals can’t have, and it operates on very different principles and motives.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/IAmWeasel'', Weasel and Baboon use a bike so fast it exceeds the speed of light in which they find in AnotherDimension where the living beings look like ham. I. R. Baboon tries to eat one even after the beings explain they aren't really ham, they simply appear as such to their minds.

-->'''Alien:''' All right, fine! You wanna see? Here! ''*pulls away disguise*''\\
''*off-screen light and [[SinisterScrapingSound sound]]*''\\
'''Alien:''' There! THAT would have been better? If I showed up like THAT out of nowhere?! Look at you! You [[BrownNote practically crapped your pants!]] Except for him, [[BowelBreakingBricks he crapped his pants]]!

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', a mysterious alien arrives to save Earth from another extraterrestrial invader. This alien has taken AFormYouAreComfortableWith to avoid upsetting anyone. Unfortunately, the appearance it chose was that of Jonas Venture Senior. Dr. Venture is furious at it for impersonating his dead father and refreshing so much emotional pain. The alien is so irritated by Dr. Venture's tantrum that it spitefully agrees to drop its disguise just to prove a point. The audience [[DiscretionShot doesn't see]] what it looks like, but the other characters do. Sure enough, they are utterly horrified.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':

* In ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'', God appears in various forms to the main character, including a goth guy, a pair of twins, old women and a substitute teacher. At one point, Joan accuses God of being "snippy" at her, and God replies that if she hears snippy, it's because snippy is the closest thing she's capable of understanding to what God's saying, and that it doesn't really look like any of its forms, it just appears as them because it has to manifest as something she's able to experience in order to speak to her.

* Creator/CSLewis' ''Literature/SpaceTrilogy'': Most of the timeangels just look like a vague shimmer of light; other attempts have produced wheels rolling on distant hills, a painful impact of colors (described as being like the "true sensation" of being hit in the eye by a rock), and (most successfully) a pair of otherworldly humanoids.

* In Ambrose Bierce's "The Damned Thing", there is a creature that is not of alien form but of alien ''color'' rendering it impossible to see properly.

** The series also features the interesting situation of not being able to grasp one's ''own'' true form. To human senses, Mahiro is just an average looking human boy, but in the AlienGeometry that beings like Nyarko can perceive, he's apparently the most beautiful being in existence! ([[SoBeautifulItsACurse Much to his consternation.]])

* The final battle with Sin in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' plays out somewhat like the ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' example above, with Sin's attacks not being labelled except for its LimitBreak, [[NonStandardGameOver Giga Graviton]].

** She can also use the power of You cannot grasp the true form to initiate an attack in a similar vein to [[VideoGame/{{Earthbound}} Giygas]]/[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Gie]][[VideoGame/{{MOTHER}} gue]]. [[spoiler:As the [[StoryBreakerPower Witch of Theatregoing]], she can literally ''stop time, rip out the script of a world and rewrite it''. In the eighth and final book when she [[CurbStompBattle "fights"]] Lambdadelta, she starts from the end of the incoming fight scene and works her way back, only to the part where she deals a rather ''brutal'' finishing blow to Lambda. She doesn't even write ''what'' killed Lambda, deciding to think it up later. When time resumes, the poor Witch of Certainty suffered just as Featherine wrote and had no idea what just happened before perishing, the narrative almost quoting this trope word for word.]]

* After the ''Literature/{{Confessions}}'' spends the first chapter questioning {{God}}, humanity's ability to manage to say anything about Him is called into question and only answered with an assurance that we need to at least try to say something, lest we end up pagans.

** The series also features the interesting situation of not being able to grasp one's ''own'' true form. To human senses, Mahiro is just an average looking human boy, but in the AlienGeometry that beings like Nyarko can perceive, he's apparently sex on legs! ([[SoBeautifulItsACurse Much to his consternation.]])

** The enigmatic being Aiwass. When Accelerator gets his ass kicked by it, Accelerator has a difficult time comprehending what his foe ''was''.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' takes a slightly different approach. An intelligence of a lower toposophic ''cannot'' understand a higher intelligence. Humans are considered S0 intelligences ([[PunyHumans the lowest level of sapient intelligence]]), and cannot comprehend the nature or thoughts of an S1 intelligence (Basic Transapient). However, an S1 is likewise unable to comprehend the thoughts of an S2 entity, and so forth. The highest intelligences (or at least the highest ''known'') are the Greater Archailects (S6), which exist physically as multiple planet-sized objects networked together, sometimes at least partially in alternate universes of their own creation. It's said that an archailect's ''individual thoughts'' are themselves sentient entities, whatever that means. Given that an S6 is effectively a vast and all-powerful interstellar civilisation in itself, an S7 (if such beings exist) would be... perhaps literally incomprehensible to humans.

** [[{{God}} The One Above All]], the supreme cosmic deity, much like [[Literature/TheBible the Abrahamic God]], is utterly incomprehensible to humans (because he is literally ''everything''). [[TheAntiGod The One Below All]] is much the same, only much less nice. When dealing with mortals, the One Above tends to come in the form of an elderly human male. The One Below steals bodies and wears them "like a mask". That's if it's feeling nice.

* The power of Houjuu Nue from ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' is this minus the GoMadFromTheRevelation part. She can also imbue other things with the same characteristic by placing a "Seed of Unknown Form" on them, although knowing what the actual object is prevents it from working. This is actually the reason behind the [=UFOs=] in ''VideoGame/UndefinedFantasticObject''. [[{{Superboss}} Nue]] has placed these seeds on the fragments of the Flying Vault, which caused the heroines (who have just had a conversation about [=UFOs=]) to see them as flying saucers. [[FinalBoss Byakuren's]] group, who knew what the fragments are since the beginning, only see floating but otherwise ordinary pieces of wood and are confused by the claims of them being [=UFOs=]. The heroines investigating this discrepancy is what sets off the story of the [[BonusDungeon Extra Stage]].

** In ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', it's explained that forces and entities, like the Abstracts, sometimes simplify themselves for mortals in order to get their assistance. In the some issue, it's revealed that the setting, what looks like a giant checkerboard-like world, is actually the cloak of a gigantic Abstract.

* ''[[ComicBook/ConanTheBarbarian Conan the Slayer]]'' had the main protagonist and his companions encountering a trio of monstrous brothers whose physical appearance varied from each person's point of view. To Conan, they looked like normal humans of unusual size while one companion saw them as troll-like creatures, another one as tentacled humanoid beings resembling Davy Jones and a third one viewed them as demonic skeletons on fire.

** It's often said that [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]] doesn't actually look like a gigantic human -- it's just the human ''brain'' that makes him seem that way, [[AppearanceIsInTheEyeOfTheBeholder and each alien race has a different perception of him]]. It turns out that he was a {{Human Alien|s}} in the previous universe before he became Galactus, but now his true form resembles a star.

*** PlayedForLaughs when the ComicBook/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl encounters Galactus. She's heard of the different species theory, so she asks her squirrel sidekick what '''she''' sees. Tippy-Toe reports no, Galactus just looks like a regular guy -- but the art reveals "a regular guy" is how Tippy-Toe describes a 400-foot-long purple squirrel.

* In the ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'' crossover: after flying into space, ComicBook/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/IronMan see the forcible merger of their worlds as two gigantic hands pushing the two Earths together. Tony comments that this can't be real, and Clark says that this is simply how their minds chose to represent the event. Also in this crossover, we see Eternity (the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse) merging with his female counterpart, Kismet of the Franchise/DCUniverse, [[http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion/1/a-dc-equal-for-eternity/688456/ in what looks like, uh, a very intimate embrace]].
** Left behind in the space where the "merger" took place is an egg that will explicitly become the center of a new universe someday. Make of this what you will. (At any rate, it certainly gives Big Bang [[DoubleEntendre a whole new meaning]].)

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* Many ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' fanfics depict the natural forms of the Tailed Beasts as unbearably horrific and mind-numbing to humans.

** The ''[[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 Chaos Gods]]'' have horrible forms that are beyond human understanding.

* In ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'', Dementors are this... unless your conscious mind can solve the riddle they represent, in which case you ''do'' see the true form.

* A variation occurs in ''Fanfic/FateBlackReflection'' when Shirou and Archer find themselves unable to grasp the structure and history of [[EmpathicWeapon zanpakutous]] the way they can with regular weapons and Noble Phantasms. Shirou compares it to a computer continuously trying to process a file and getting an error message every time he pictures [[spoiler: Tensa Zangetsu]]. This is because zanpakutou are not magical weapons but rather extensions of a shinigami's soul in the shape of a sword, a fact neither of them are aware of. [[spoiler: They can grasp the basic nature of a zanpakutou after close inspection, as Archer is able to figure out that Rukia's [[AnIcePerson Sode no Shirayuki is ice-based]] before she releases her shikai during their encounter at Homurahara high school]].

* In the ''[[Fanfic/BloodBondBloodOmenSeries Blood Bond, Blood Omen]]'' series of Kim Possible fanfics, the Unshaper looks like an amorphous mass the size of a moon. From a distance. Once someone gets an actual ''look'' at it, physical or psychic, their mind tends to shatter because the Unshaper is "a thing of absolute negation, pure unCreation", and no creature of Creation -- that is to say, ''any creature of our universe'', let alone humans -- can comprehend it.

* No one knows what the true (or original, if you prefer) form of ''Film/TheThing1982'' is. Not in Creator/JohnCarpenter's version, anyway.
** This is one of those subjects that "one could go crazy thinking about" as Carpenter put it in the DVD commentary. It remains debated by the fans.

* Insofar as God is depicted in ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' at all, it's in an extremely abstract fashion due to how far he is beyond human understanding. Dante has to literally go through Hell, climb up the opposite side of the world, fly outside the universe, bathe his eyes in a river of heavenly light, and pray for the intercession of the Mother of God and even then, he admits his memory contains an infinitely inadequate account of what God actually is.

* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in ''Literature/{{Flatland}}'', whose protagonists are two-dimensional polygons for whom the very notion of three-dimensional creatures inspires {{Cosmic Horror Stor|y}}ies. When a Flatlander is [[PalsWithJesus befriended by a]] 3-dimensional sphere, he literally Cannot Grasp The True Form without touching it. A cube looks like an EldritchAbomination, constantly changing shape at various angles.
* The angels in ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' are described as being like this -- humans and even witches see them as human shaped, being incapable of perceiving their true form which is more like architecture. Baruch and Balthamos may be the exception; they really do seem like see-through humans.

* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': Looking at a god's true form is fatal to humans. See Mythology below.

* ''Angels'' are like this in Creator/CSLewis' ''Literature/SpaceTrilogy''. Most of the time they just look like a vague shimmer of light; other attempts have produced wheels rolling on distant hills, a painful impact of colors (described as being like the "true sensation" of being hit in the eye by a rock), and (most successfully) a pair of otherworldly humanoids.

* Also happened over a decade before in the ''Literature/WorldsOfPower'' novelization of ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster'', in which the BigBad takes the form of whatever each person fears.

** In the Old Testament, God warns Moses that "you cannot see My face, for man may not see Me and live". Even Moses could only see His back. God, like [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Yog-Sothoth]] (or the other way around), is omnipresent and exists at every point in the space-time continuum simultaneously yet transcends all of it. Islam takes this bit particularly seriously; arguing that if God's true form is alien and utterly incomprehensible to humans, then you cannot picture Him as anthropomorphic, therefore doing so and worshiping God through pictures is considered blasphemous, heretical idolatry ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclasm Christianity under the Byzantine Empire also tried this]] but failed). Which then rubbed off on Moses a bit, since when he came back to everybody else his face blinded them into making him wear a veil. That said, several Old Testament figures (including Abraham, and for that matter Moses) are said to interact with God directly. The usual explanation is that they were speaking with an angel who was speaking directly for God (acting as a kind of cosmic telephone), or else that God was appearing in [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith a form they could comprehend]]. Christians often interpret these events as pre-incarnate appearances of Christ, the "image of the invisible God".
** In another incident ([[Literature/BookOfExodus Exodus chapter 24]] for those who care) God appeared in full glory for seventy-four leaders of Israel total. The fun part? It mentions that they all [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu ate and drank together]], it says that God stood on a sapphire pavement, and absolutely nothing else.
** This is subverted in the Catholic faith, as the saints will get to see God in all his glory in Heaven, often referred to as Beatific Vision. The idea behind it is that it should destroy your very soul, but God, being God, could perserve someone from letting that happen. (Or perhaps that "no man sees my face and lives" isn't so much of a concern if you've already died, although this will presumably be the case after the General Ressurection). This is also an interpretation of the Beatitudes promising that the "clean of heart will see God."

** Averted with Jesus generally, although revealing Himself to Paul later on (after the Ascension), is likened to a lightning strike and knocks Paul off his horse, temporarily blinding him. Some forms of Gnosticism instead teach that Jesus never was physically incarnated, and had no tangible form.
** The New Testament condenses all of its incomprehensibility in the book of Revelation. Okay, so the four horsemen and great seven-headed beast are all ''probably'' metaphorical... and ''maybe'' angels in their native environment really are humanoids, some with six wings and using four of them to cover their faces and feet, or have four wings and four faces... but then John talks about things like how "the sky rolled up like a scroll," and you start to get an inkling of how ''everything'' this poor man's mind was experiencing utterly defied all human comprehension.

** In The Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles "like tongues of fire". Since the only way to make light in the first century would have been A) the Sun (obviously not it) B) lightning (again, not in a flash) or C) fire, this would have been the only way someone then could have described it. They would not have said something like "descended with the brightness of a 100-watt light bulb."
* OlderThanFeudalism: In the ''Literature/BhagavadGita'', [[Myth/HinduMythology Krishna]] actually shows Arjuna his ({{God}}'s) true form, which is basically a more extreme combination of EldritchAbomination and PurityPersonified. Krishna even mentions that Arjuna's mortal mind cannot comprehend all that he is, so Krishna briefly gives Arjuna divine sight so that Arjuna can comprehend. [[TooMuchForManToHandle Arjuna still can't handle it, and begs Krishna to retake human form.]]

* In [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek and Roman myth]], mortals that look upon a God/Goddess's true form instantly ''burst into flames and die'', because [[EldritchAbomination the gods are that awesome]].

** By definition, Medusa. Though her description is well-known -- a hideous, snake-haired woman at her most basic -- you literally cannot look at her or you'll turn to stone and (implicitly) die.

* Myth/EgyptianMythology is yet another example. Followers of the ancient Egyptian religion (and modern kemeticism) did and do not believe that the gods look like dudes with animals heads; that is just a symbolic/metaphorical representation of their basic traits meant to help convey what the gods what were like and their teachings. The ''actual'' gods were understood to be abstract forces far beyond such simplistic descriptions, and if they appear to mortals at all, [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith it's through forms that humans can better understand]]. In fact, it's arguable that this trope is omnipresent throughout '''all''' religions; mortal bodies just plain aren't designed to withstand the full glory of the divine. Otherwise, we wouldn't ''be'' mortal.