Line #29 Main/ResidualSelfImage


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3	%% The examples have been alphabetized. Please put any new example in its proper place in the folder rather than at the end.
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6	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scorpio_and_her_projection.png]]]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350:Perhaps SCORPIO has dreams to become [[BecomeARealBoy organic]].]]
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9	Residual Self-Image is what you get when a Virtual Reality, SpiritWorld, or other alternate plane of existence designs the appearance of [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]], [[OurSpiritsAreDifferent spirits]], or avatars in its domain off of personality and how people think of themselves, rather than real-world appearance.
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11	In fiction, a world seen through residual self-images will often have BeautyEqualsGoodness in effect, or else the absolute inverse. (Self-hatred might skew things a little.) Gender and (sometimes) species may be different in that VR than in the real world. Odds are, there will be a set of appearance tropes the VR is using to translate personality into looks...
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13	Compare to HealthyInHeaven and OutOfClothesExperience. Supernatural versions that shows a discrepancy between visible sex or gender often fall under SupernaturallyValidatedTransPerson. If the projection syncs to the characters changing self-image, that's SelfPerceptionShapeshifting.
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16	!!Examples:
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18	[[foldercontrol]]
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20	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
21	* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'':
22	** At the start of the manga, Matsuri is [[GenderBender transformed from male to female]], which also [[RapidHairGrowth lengthened]] and [[LightGirlDarkBoy bleached]] his hair. Despite this, his thoughts often show his original body besides his current one (even his hair in unchanged). A chapter appropriately titled "The Shape of the Spirit" shows this is more than a visual, as when Matsuri [[SoulFragment put some of his spiritual energy into Lu]] to exorcise an ayakashi from her, she sees his male form (for the first time, confusing her). An omake also showed him as still male in his dreams. Matsuri has remained quite literally a boy in a girl's body. Eventually, we ''do'' see Matsuri's self image as a female, but if this is the SecondLawOfGenderBending taking effect or just an arbitrary depiction for the audience is unknown.
23	** When Suzu was young, she created a SplitPersonality without PastLifeMemories, the Suzu the story follows. The original personality, latter called "Kanade", remains in Suzu's mind, keeping the appearance of a five-year old even as Suzu is fifteen. Kanade even has the same long hair before the ImportantHaircut that signified their personalities splitting.
24	* In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', the [=DigiDestined=] always have the same outfits in the Digital World regardless of what they were wearing beforehand, which are completely different from anything they owned in reality.
25	* In ''Literature/MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation'', when Rudeus first meets Hitogami in his dreams, Rudeus perceives himself as the thirty-something Japanese man he was before he died, rather than as the boy he's been living as in the ten years since he reincarnated.
26	* In the ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' anime, Kumoko still thinks of herself as a cute girl reincarnated as a spider. As a result she perceives herself as being a cute(ish) spider with a highly expressive face which in turn is how the audience sees her most of the time. Without that self-image, other humans view Kumoko as a horrifying spider.
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29	[[folder:Fan Works]]
30	* In ''Fanfic/KnowThyselfThePrelude'', Trinity is nearly moved to tears when she looks at Harry's self-image on his first return trip to the Matrix, dressed in baggy grey clothing that's still too large for him, showing his lack of self-confidence after years of abuse.
31	* ''Fanfic/LaterTraitor'': Vernon Tripe (a 10-year-old boy) appears as a wise old storyteller inside his mind, giving the reader an idea of [[SmallNameBigEgo how he sees himself.]]
32	* In the ''Animal Crossing'' fic ''Fanfic/SliceOfHeaven'', Rover is TheGrimReaper and his character customization questions help shape your form in the afterlife.
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35	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
36	* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': When the Lee family undergoes a ritual to exorcise their Panda spirits, they enter a spiritual realm and usually retain their normal appearances there (aside from invariably having the [[LockedIntoStrangeness hair color they would have if they were bound to their panda spirit]]). That is, except for [[spoiler: Ming, who looks the way she did when she scarred her mother after losing control of her emotions as a teenager. It takes Mei's guiding hand, along with her mother's forgiveness, to get her to return to her normal age, symbolizing her finally letting go of the past and her desire for control.]]
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39	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
40	* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' has shades of this when Bruce Banner [[spoiler: meets the Ancient One in 2012. By this point Bruce is permanently in Hulk form as a fusion of the two personas, but when the Ancient One knocks him out of his body, he's in his purely human appearance]].
41	* ''Film/Deadpool2'': The third time Wade Wilson is having a NearDeathExperience, he finally goes through the invisible wall to reach Vanessa. In doing so, he no longer looks like a mutant disfigured by cancer, but his original, handsome self (i.e. Creator/RyanReynolds without make-up).
42	* ''Film/TheMatrix'': TropeNamer. A person's avatar within the Matrix is generated by a combination of will and programming parameters established by the Matrix. This appearance can be markedly different from the "outer" self. One cut example was Switch, who was female in the Matrix but male in the real world (in the final film they're female yet androgynous as an homage to the original idea).
43	-->'''Morpheus:''' ''[speaking to Neo in the Construct]'' [...] Your clothes are different; the plugs in your arms and head are gone. Your hair has changed. Your appearance now is what we call "residual self-image". It is the mental projection of your digital self.
44	* ''Film/{{Surrogates}}'' has this trope in spades given that literally anyone can carry out their everyday lives through a robot that looks exactly how they'd like it to. Age, race and gender are decided by the user.
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47	[[folder:Literature]]
48	* In ''Literature/AccelWorld'', duel avatars are something like a cross between this and PersonalityPowers - appearing as robotic beings with traits that represent the Burst Linker's traumas. In the {{Crossover}} story ''Versus'', a glitchy [=VR=] device results in Kirito from ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'' becoming connected to Brain Burst; the system's attempts to normalise his data result in him taking on the appearance of his longcoated [=SAO=] avatar.
49	* Non-SpiritWorld or VR example: This is precisely how magical healing in ''Literature/TheCosmere'' works. You are rebuilt back to your "cognitive ideal." This can be beneficial (e.g. you've never accepted or internalized a lost limb, so it starts to grow back as soon as you get some {{Mana}}) or harmful (e.g. your SlaveBrand doesn't heal because you've internalized the baggage that comes with it, and alterations heal away because they're not part of the template).
50	* Creator/MarionZimmerBradley's ''Literature/{{Darkover}}'' uses this trope in "the Overworld", the spiritual[=/=]mental plane that some ''laran'' users (especially healers and monitors in the Towers) operate on. A person's appearance in the Overworld seems to be determined entirely by their self-image. In one memorable case, the Overworld form is a huge crab-like being.
51	* In ''Literature/JohannesCabalAndTheFearInstitute'' Cabal and the three FI members journey to the Dreamlands and find their apprances changed to reflect their inner dreams-one looks like a swashbuckler, another a merchant, and the last a magistrate. Cabal himself doesn't change at all (though his gun turns into a sword because guns aren't poetic enough for the Dreamlands) because as one of them puts it "he's already what he wants to be."
52	* In ''Literature/TheSkinjackerTrilogy'', the appearance of children in ''Literature/{{Everlost}}'' is based on what they think of themselves. If some can remember exactly what they looked like when they were alive, then they'll look that way in Everlost, but their appearance can change if they think about one of their features too much (for example, someone uncomfortable about a large nose might have it get even bigger, and someone proud of their long hair might see it grow even longer). There are two extreme examples of this: Nick had chocolate on his face when he died, and he keeps thinking about the smear until it expands and starts to take over, and [[spoiler:Mikey [=McGill=], when falling to the center of the earth, pictured himself as a monster clawing his way back out, and remained that way after he escaped. He reverts back to his real appearance after his sister shows him a locket containing a picture of himself.]]
53	* ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'': After two years of being trapped in a videogame and forced to fight for their lives, the survivors of the ''[=SAO Incident=]'' have internalised aspects of their avatars to the point where they reflexively attempt to reach for their weapon or open menus in real life (though the game also [[DeepImmersionGaming modified their avatars to reflect their real-life appearances]] in order to prevent too much dissonance). In the ''Alicization'' arc, this results in [[spoiler:[=SAO=] survivors being able to transform their Underworld avatars into their [=SAO=] ones through HeroicWillpower, as a side-effect of the [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve consensus reality]] system that Underworld uses to fill out its finer details.]]
54	* In ''Literature/TheWoundedSky'' by Creator/DianeDuane, every time the Enterprise uses the experimental drive, the crew members experience a reality based on how they perceive themselves. While Kirk's self-perception is never actually described, [=McCoy=] provides a solid clue when he asks "[[KnightInShiningArmor Is that armor getting heavy, Jim?]]"
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57	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
58	* On an episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'', Cordelia has an out-of-body experience after her powers begin to take a toll on her body. Skip the demon, her guide, remarks that astral appearances works like this; he says that most people he meets project an idealized image of themselves, and is impressed that she just looks like herself.
59	-->'''Skip:''' You're a remarkably self-confident individual, you know that?
60	%%* On an episode of ''Series/DoctorWho'' called "The Doctor Falls", Bill... %%Incomplete example.
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63	[[folder:Podcasts]]
64	* ''Podcast/RedPandaAdventures'': In "The Darkness Beyond", Kit and John Doe enter a spiritual plane in order to find out what's happened to an EldritchAbomination that's suddenly up and disappeared. While there, their forms, and even the dimension itself, shape themselves based on their own perceptions. Despite being on the tail end of pregnancy, Kit identifies as her superhero persona, the Flying Squirrel, so much that she appears in full costume and a more svelte figure than she ever had in reality. John Doe, meanwhile, appears in his original identity and appearance of "John Archer" even though he has been masquerading as the Red Panda, to the extent of changing his face, for several months by that point.
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67	[[folder:Video Games]]
68	* In ''Videogame/DreamfallChapters'' ,when Zoë makes it to Arcadia in Book Three, she appears in appropriate clothing (if a little overdressed for the neighborhood, as she points out), her hairstyle is back to what it was in the first two books (although pinned back) and she no longer has her scar or dermal patch.
69	* In ''Videogame/GhostTrick'', [[spoiler:a ghost's appearance depends on what they believe they are. This leads to a gag where a character's ghost momentarily took the wrong appearance, as well as the twist that the main character isn't who the player expects.]]
70	* ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' and ''VideoGame/EnterTheMatrix'', being part of ''The Matrix'', have this for all the rebels. Both are also an example of BeautyEqualsGoodness.
71	* ''VideoGame/{{SOMA}}'': Up until he leaves Upsilon, Simon retains his self-image of himself as a human being; [[spoiler:it's not until he finds himself miraculously surviving the collapse of the comm center roof and the subsequent flooding that [[RoboticReveal his true robotic appearance flickers into view]].]]
72	* SCORPIO from ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic.'' She is a highly advanced droid that ''[[BerserkButton loathes]]'' being labelled as such. Several instances have her appearing in human form via holographic technology. It's a point of interest that she chooses to look like this freed from the confines of her physical body, whether or not this is a default display, a disguise she merely favours or that it hints at a deeper longing to be [[BecomeARealBoy more than a machine]] is still up for debate.
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75	[[folder:Webcomics]]
76	* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'': When George enters X's mind to save the others he's assimilated, he meets Protoman's core personality, which resembles a human being instead of a robot. Dr. Light explains that he designed his robots to be as human as possible, so their core personalities naturally would resemble humans.
77	* ''Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFoxhound'': [[MasterOfDisguise Decoy Octopus]] appears as nothing but a trench coat and fedora in the spirit world. When questioned on this by The Sorrow, he explains that it would make no sense for his soul to be in disguise--in fact, he doesn't think of himself as having any specific appearance at all. The coat and hat are because he's a fan of Creator/HumphreyBogart.
78	* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
79	** Roy discovers that everyone in the afterlife LawfulGood plane looks like an ideal version of themselves. His father looks the same as he did when he died, an old man, because he always was a GrumpyOldMan at heart, even when he was young. His mother, however, looks young and hot, because she never stopped thinking of herself as a 19-year-old looker.
80	** Durkon [[spoiler:in the Dwarven afterlife looks like he did before being vampirified. His true self not only is lacking the teeth and pasty skin of a vampire, he's also wearing his usual armor (the vampire was destroyed wearing robes) and his beard is at full length (the vampire's got shortened by a slash of Roy's sword)]].
81	* In ''Webcomic/YokokasQuest'', when Copycat enters Mao's dream, Mao is wearing a recently acquired set of clothes that Copycat hadn't seen before, and that Mao wasn't currently wearing (as he's asleep in his nightwear). He also appears as a [[CatGirl cat boy]], despite hating his aspect of his appearance and wanting to revert to being human.
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84	[[folder:Western Animation]]
85	* In the third season of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Aang visits Avatar Roku in the spirit realm. While there, Aang has his traditional shaved head and Air Nomad robes, rather than the short hair and Fire Nation disguise he is currently wearing.
86	* ''WesternAnimation/MastersOfTheUniverseRevelation'': It is mentioned that one can choose their form in the afterlife. When He-Man sacrifices himself and temporarily dies, everyone is surprised that he chooses to be the scrawny Prince Adam instead of the muscular He-Man.
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