Line #28 Main/ShapeShifterSwanSong


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15	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clayfaceswansong_2.png]]]]
16	[[caption-width-right:350:"Stop it, stop it, turn them off! I can't control it! I can't be all of them, not all at once!"]]
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18	{{Shapeshift\|ing}}ers are showoffs. Even the insidious infiltrators like to use their abilities to inspire awe and fear. It's no surprise then that dying is no exception. When a shapeshifter bites the dust, they have a veritable swan song of shape shifting as they slide through every single shape they've stolen throughout the episode or movie. Much like the [[MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes life-flashing-before-your-eyes]] thing, it may be considered a realistic [[DefenceMechanismSuperpower survival reflex]].
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20	It'll also happen if their powers are short circuited, they're critically injured or KO'd. After their swan song they'll settle into their [[ShapeshifterDefaultForm original form and body]], often [[TheReveal to the surprise]] of everyone else, especially if said form isn't human. Someone will usually go "ThisWasHisTrueForm", and look suitably mournful if it was a friend they lost to TheVirus. If the purpose of the swan song is to inform the ''audience'' who the shapeshifter posed as (and that they were, in fact, a shapeshifter) this becomes a case of ViewersAreMorons.
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22	In shows aimed towards kids or ones where the shapeshifter is especially smart, expect the shapeshifter to possibly survive, thus rendering this trope a bit confusing as the viewer wonders why there's the equivalent of death convulsions going on for a character who will later turn out to be fine.
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24	A special case of SuperPowerMeltdown. May happen to a ClippedWingAngel. See also ShapeshifterMashup and PerpetuallyProtean. NoImmortalInertia is similar but for immortals. Compare ShapeshifterIdentityCrisis and MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes.
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26	----
27	!!Examples:
28	[[foldercontrol]]
29
30	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
31	* In ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'', this is how the Choujin King 100 Ton is defeated. 100 Ton uses cue cards in order to take different shapes, but when Kinnikuman throws ''all'' of the cards into the ring, 100 Ton starts to reflexively transform into every form at once, making his body unstable enough for his opponent, Terryman, to strike a crucial, finishing blow.
32	* A possibly unique {{inver\|tedTrope}}sion in ''Manga/{{Pluto}}'': one flashback reveals that the "ultimate A.I." robot failed to come to life in the first place ''because'' it was [[PerpetuallyProtean shifting through so many personalities and faces]] that the hardware just couldn't keep up [[spoiler:until it was given a strong hatred to focus on]]. Played straight when [[spoiler:said A.I. [[TomatoInTheMirror learns the truth about itself]] and goes into a VillainousBreakdown]].
33	* In the ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' anime, one-shot villain Copycat Ken's breakdown resembles this.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Comic Books]]
37	* In the ComicBook/DisneyComics adaptation of the ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' storyline, Dracula had a great deal more shapes than just a bat, a man and a wolf. In the climax, as the protagonists complete a ritual to rob him of all his powers, he frantically goes through all the shapes he can think of trying to escape. However, since it wasn't a ''deadly'' ritual ([[NeverSayDie Disney oblige]]), the hilarious result is that it takes effect at the most embarrassing time imaginable, trapping Dracula as a [[MixAndMatchCritters slippers-wearing flying ostrich with a wolf head]] for all of eternity.
38	* ''ComicBook/{{Hound\|2014}}'': Morrigan diminishes from a gigantic monster bird to a bird with the head of a woman and finally to an ordinary-sized hooded crow when Cú Cullan throws the Gae Bolga at her.
39	* ''ComicBook/{{Ruins}}'' In the DeathWorld setting of the series (where ''nobody'' has RequiredSecondaryPowers), Mystique goes through an epic one resulting from her ShapeshifterIdentityCrisis causing her to forget to take her meds for managing her PowerIncontinence, and her brain implodes in the end.
40	* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': The comic does this with the Skrull Xavin a couple of times when we're getting to know him/her, although it's a case of short-circuiting (probably the Skrull equivalent of going into shock or throwing up from pain or whatnot), not actual death.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
44	* When Mater in ''WesternAnimation/Cars2'' accidentally [[spoiler:smashes the light used to disguise himself while infiltrating the Lemon meeting]], he cycles through all his previous disguises before being entirely unmasked.
45	* A non-lethal variant appears in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1''; Randall, TheDragon, goes through several camouflage forms when Boo strangles him.
46	* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': After TheReveal, [[spoiler: King Candy / Turbo]] keeps glitching back and forth between forms, up until [[spoiler: his death in the Cola Mountain explosion.]]
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
50	* The Dummy Dopant from ''Franchise/KamenRider x Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie Wars 2010'' goes through these before entering its true form. [[spoiler:These include a priest, ''another'' Dopant, a pop idol singer, Shotaro's deceased mentor, and said mentor's alter-ego, Kamen Rider Skull.]]
51	* In ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'', a Ditto goes through this during the climax after being hit with the PsychoSerum "R".
52	* ''Film/{{Split}}'' and ''Film/Glass2019'' have one each in spirit, even if not quite literally.
53	** In ''Film/{{Split}}'', calling out the full name of Kevin Wendell Crumb causes the core, original Kevin personality to emerge, but at the cost of inciting all the other personalities to fight for control. [[spoiler:Kevin gets to talk for a minute asking Casey to get a shotgun and kill him, and in quick succession Barry, Orwell, and Jade beg her not to, with Hedwig, Patricia, and Dennis regaining control, saying they locked Kevin away and they prepare to release the Beast once again.]]
54	** In ''Film/Glass2019'', the combination of calling out the name and Casey's touch manages to bring Kevin back from the Beast. [[spoiler:When he is promptly shot, a flurry of personalities get their final words before Kevin holds onto the light one last time.]]
55	* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', after the T-1000 falls into the molten iron, it morphs into its various forms as it thrashes and screams, then begins to distort and warp in rather BodyHorror-esque ways as its shapeshifting breaks down, even sprouting multiple heads out of its body at one point.
56	%%* ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'', when the T-3000 is pulled apart by magnetic fields.
57	* An interesting non-magical example occurs in ''Film/TropicThunder'' with the dedicated {{method act\|ing}}or Kirk Lazarus briefly playing previous roles before reverting to his original identity.
58	* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''
59	** ''Film/X2XMenUnited'': When [[spoiler:Stryker's Dark Cerebro is turned against Earth's mutant population]], Mystique is overwhelmed with terminal agony, causing her to shift wildly between her various identities. The Chris Clairmont novelization indicates that the attack was killing mutants by literally turning their own powers against them, and that Mystique will continue shapeshifting until she loses her grip on all sense of identity and dissolves into goo. [[spoiler: Thankfully, Magneto is able to deactivate the machine before things get any worse.]]
60	** ''Film/XMenFirstClass'': [[spoiler:Invoked when Darwin's body goes through one state after another to adapt to Shaw's energy cherry-bomb about to go off inside him. His body ultimately gives out. [[NeverFoundTheBody Or did it...?]] The comic book version of Darwin survived having his entire body destroyed, and eventually generated a new one.]]
61	** Downplayed in ''Film/XMenApocalypse''. As she is being throttled by Apocalypse, Mystique's scales flutter in waves down her body. Yet again, she survives.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Literature]]
65	* In ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'', this reflex could actually save your life, as shapeshifting regenerates your body. In a more specific example, Rachel has an [[PowerIncontinence "allergic reaction"]] to the crocodile morph, and blacks out, morphing from creature to creature without "demorphing" human in between, something normally not possible for morphers. Downplayed in that the end result wasn't fatal, just ''incredibly'' unpleasant, and resulted in a crocodile bursting out of her.
66	* ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'': When ols, the [[BigBad Shadow Lord]]'s shapeshifting spies, are killed, their disguise breaks down, causing them to briefly take on their natural, shapeless form intermixed with chaotically emerging and subsuming traits of every shape they've taken over their lives.
67	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
68	** The monster in ''Literature/{{Moving Pictures\|Discworld}}'' has just been a GiantWoman [[KingKongClimb carrying a screaming ape to the top of the tallest building in the city]] ([[Film/KingKong1933 what's wrong with this picture?]]). When it falls, it changes into several different things ''on the way down'', trying to find a form that can survive the fall. Unfortunately, as the narration notes, the only thing that could make that kind of fall is a corpse.
69	** In ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', Susan discovers that the Tooth Fairy is actually a ''very'' ancient, dying boogeyman. It tries to conceal its nature from her, but she keeps dismissing the various deceptive or frightening shapes it assumes until its fading strength and imagination run out.
70	* The defensive version occurs in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: Ghost of the Jedi'', as a villainous Shi'ido is too injured to shapeshift properly. [[spoiler:He's not actually dead.]]
71	-->''In a desperate attempt to save himself, the Shi'ido was shapeshifting into every form he could think of. But nothing could save him. With a wordless cry, Gog [[DisneyVillainDeath fell away from the ladder]] and Tash watched his gray form shrink into the void.''
72	* In the setting of ''Literature/HarryPotter'', using ''Riddikulus'' on a boggart while it's surrounded by many people will cause it to go through a frantic spate of reflexive transformations, helpless to settle on a single guise, so it can be safely locked away.
73	* Perhaps the earliest example, maybe the UrExample, in Eric Frank Russell's 1940 "I, Spy" (also published as "Spiro", and "Venturer of the Martian Mimics") the alien shapeshifter is trapped by a rising flood of deadly water and frantically shifts between shapes trying to escape. The main character comments that the alien's home planet must not have birds.
74	* ''Literature/{{It}}'' culminates in [[spoiler:a psychic battle between Bill and Pennywise based on an ancient ritual of dominance]]. The monster cycles wildly through all his horrifying faces in a futile attempt to escape.
75	* ''Literature/LilithsBrood'': The profoundly depressed ooloi [[spoiler:Aaor]] loses control over its ability to manipulate its own DNA, causing it to shift into ever more biologically simple forms over several weeks. It regresses to a sluglike creature by the time it's rescued, and restoring its original form is an uphill battle against its body's urge to dissolve into single-celled organisms. [[spoiler:They succeed in healing it.]]
76	* A story in ''Literature/TheMartianChronicles'' may be the {{Trope Maker\|s}}, if not the UrExample: the title character of "The Martian" appears to whoever sees him as a lost loved one. When he's surrounded by a crowd of people, who all need to see somebody different, the results are not pleasant.
77	* Creator/DeanKoontz' ''Literature/{{Shadowfires}}'' features this -- at the end, the regenerating, mutating villain shifts through a variety of forms as his metabolism burns out. His accelerated metabolism consumes him, leaving a pile of goo. (Koontz likes to do this to regenerating characters.)
78	* "Literature/TheShunnedHouse" has an especially horrifying example. As the monster ([[OurVampiresAreDifferent a sort of vampire that feeds off its victims' life energy rather than blood]]) dies, it displays the faces of its victims, ending with the narrator's beloved uncle, who had tried to help him destroy it.
79	* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', Sauron is caught in a headlock by the hound Huan, and flips through several forms in an attempt to escape. He fails, and only escapes by shedding his body.
80	* In the [[Literature/ChildBallads Scottish ballad]] ''Literature/TamLin'', Janet, pregnant with Tam Lin's child, must drag him from the procession of fairies taking him to his doom, and hold on to him as he shapeshifts, until he turns into a burning coal, at which point he can be dropped into a well to return him to human form. [[ItMakesSenseInContext It makes more sense in poetry]].
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
84	* ''Series/AgentsOfShield'':
85	** In the season 3 finale, [[spoiler: it is {{Subverted\|Trope}}. The team attempts to kill [[PuppeteerParasite Hive]] by subjecting him to a machine which dredges up hidden memories, causing him to become lost in the personas of his past victims. However, they are unable to finish him off, and he has enough of his mind left to carry out the remainder of his plans.]]
86	** In the episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E2HeavyIsTheHead "Heavy is the Head"]], [[ElementalShapeshifter Carl Creel]] goes through one when hit with a PowerNullifier, turning into a series of different materials in quick succession before being TakenForGranite.
87	* Inverted in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer:'' the First Evil's (re-)introduction as as a BigBad ''starts'' with a shapeshifting rundown of past archvillains. In the finale, [[spoiler:the First slinks away unseen when its plan starts to go bad, and is never heard from again.]]
88	* Happens to Everyman in ''Series/TheFlash2014'' when he is injected with a serum that nullifies his abilities. Interestingly, he ends up stopping as Iris West rather than his original appearance. Then again, he later admits that he can't even ''remember'' his original appearance.
89	* A few variants in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
90	** When a real shapeshifter shows up, [[spoiler:it still doesn't happen, handily enough for Sylar, whose form he'd taken before dying.]]
91	** In a season finale, [[spoiler:Peter uses his own copied shapeshifting power to overload Sylar's, causing him to shift through all the forms he had taken. This distracts Sylar long enough for Peter to jam an elephant tranquilizer syringe into his throat.]] Also a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.
92	* In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode "[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S08E06TheUndead The Undead]]", an evil shapeshifting witch comes to the satellite to threaten Mike and the bots. Unfortunately, she seems to be suffering from some severe indigestion, resulting in this trope. She gets stuck in the form of a bottle of bleach.
93	* At the end of ''Series/{{Roswell}}'s'' first season, the protagonists use alien technology to heal a shape-shifting associate, who promptly exhibits this trope.
94	* Averted in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. If you kill a doppelganger, they will stay in their last form. This becomes a plot point several times.
95	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E13TheFourOfUsAreDying The Four of Us Are Dying]]", a man who can alter his face to look like someone else's goes through a convulsive process of his face taking on the shape of each one he impersonated, while he lies dying from a gunshot wound.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
99	* A recurring villain in a series of published ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' adventures has something akin to this happening to him near the end of the last module; ''Grasp of the Emerald Claw''. [[spoiler:Garrow, a changeling cleric who has been dogging the party to retrieve the MacGuffin starts to lose control to said Macguffin (which is now sentient), causing him to shift through the various guises he's used to fool the party: a vampire, a half-elf airship captain, a dumpy-looking woman and a few others that he would've used before ever learning of the party. This happens at the start of his last meeting with the party (at least in published material).]]
100	* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' setting, the doppelganger darklord Sodo is cursed to be in a permanent state of this trope, never able to settle on a form.
101	* Polymorphine, a drug in the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' universe, induces this by default. The Callidus assassins train themselves over a lifetime to use it for proper shapeshifting.
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Video Games]]
105	* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'': Used as a boss mechanic in the fight against [[spoiler:Delirium]], Afterbirth+'s FinalBoss. Throughout the fight, he shifts into other bosses you've fought that run. The lower his health is, the more rapidly he changes. Once he's at about 5%, he'll swap between bosses several times a ''second'', giving off this feeling. Inverted for his actual death animation, which has him in his ShapeshifterDefaultForm, with the room itself flicking between different chapters instead.
106	* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}''
107	** When the shapeshifting boss [[LivingShadow Shadow]] is defeated in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'', it shifts rapidly through its three forms before burning away.
108	** The Doppelganger boss in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'' does the same thing upon being killed.
109	%%* Defeating Wilfre in ''VideoGame/DrawnToLife: The Next Chapter'' will cause this to happen to him.
110	* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qkTpJAhywg this video of "The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku"]] from ''VideoGame/HatsuneMikuProjectDiva'', the title character can be seen cycling through various "modules" (costumes) as she's being deleted.
111	* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam'', before you fight [[spoiler:King Boo]], he is seen rapidly morphing into various characters.
112	* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
113	** In ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', the [[EvilTwin SA-X]] starts to do this... but doesn't quite finish, instead becoming a ClippedWingAngel mix of its previous hosts, namely Samus herself and the Hornoad that infected her in the opening.
114	** In ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption Metroid Prime 3]],'' Gandrayda shifts through the forms of various other bosses as well as copying Samus herself as you fight her. Once she goes down, she rapidly cycles through the various other boss forms before lingering on Samus's own form as it is (suit upgrades and all) for a good long moment. This leads to a particularly striking moment with the real Samus, by this point badly corrupted by [[ToxicPhlebotinum glowy blue Phazon energy]], standing victorious over the image of her own uncorrupted self in the midst of her death throes. Samus is seemingly affected by this nightmarish death, as she looks away and does nothing to stop [[spoiler:Dark Samus from absorbing Gandrayda]].
115	* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
116	** In the original ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1992'', defeating the final boss Shang Tsung--who has the ability to [[DittoFighter become any other character and use his or her moves]]--results in his effectively shedding all the characters' forms before he dies. It's less a song than a curtain call though, as each character separates from his body (with name announced) and combusts. This also happens to Shao Kahn in ''[=MK3=]'' and its updates, except Kahn isn't a shapeshifter like Tsung.
117	** He plays it straight in the opening to ''VideoGame/MortalKombatShaolinMonks''. Every time Liu Kang hits him near the end of the fight, he transforms into another character, looking disoriented the whole time, as though it's a survival reflex as described on the top of the page.
118	* A more mundane version in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'': [[spoiler:[[BigBad the phantom]], during their VillainousBreakdown, starts tearing off every single mask they have in an effort to find what their true face is, as they have spent so long impersonating others that they've [[ShapeshifterIdentityCrisis forgotten their own identity]]. Just as they finally make it to the last one, they're shot by a sniper, and [[TheUnReveal collapses out of sight before the player can see what they look like]]]].
119	* [[spoiler:The Shining Trapezohedron]] from ''VideoGame/{{Sundered}}'', upon being defeated in the Resist ending, transforms into a succession of human and not-so-human faces as part of its VillainousBreakdown. It settles on a face with an enraged expression and too many eyes, which can only glare impotently at Eshe before she blasts it to hell with the [[{{BFG}} Valkyrie Cannon]].
120	* Happens to a shapeshifting hench in the ''VideoGame/TexMurphy'' game ''Under A Killing Moon'', except the guy starts out in his own form and ends up as a gooey blob.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Web Animation]]
124	* In ''Fandeltales: The Cursed Prince'' (WARNING: NSFW) by Website/{{Newgrounds}} +18 artist Derpixon, the [[SuccubiAndIncubi succubus]] and professional ShapeshiftingSeducer Herzha meets her match in Prince Amont, who has the stamina to avoid having his life drained and outlast every single shape she wears while screwing him. As such, at the very moment of final climax, Herzha shifts wildly between several different forms, before passing out. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, she's not fully defeated, as Amont soon discovers.]]
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Webcomics]]
128	* A survived example: Ariel in ''Webcomic/DrowTales'', having a high sorcery ability that lets her shapeshift, cycles back through several people she imitated as she tries to control herself enough to close the gaping wound resulting from Kalki slashing off her arm at the shoulder.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Web Original]]
132	* ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneAmnesty'' has a pretty horrifying example with its fourth [[MonsterOfTheWeek Abomination]] simply known as The Shapeshifter. After being shot with the [[BlandNameProduct Narf]] [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells Blaster]] by Ned, the Shapeshifter devolves into a literal pile of human viscera clawing at the ground with constantly growing and deforming hands.
133	* A comedic version happens in several of WebVideo/{{Markiplier}}'s ''VideoGame/PropHunt'' videos, where a Prop (usually Mark, but others do it on occasion) will panic and try to run away from the Hunters while rapidly transforming into other props.
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Western Animation]]
137	* ''WesternAnimation/TwoStupidDogs'': In the Super Secret WesternAnimation/SecretSquirrel short "Chameleon", Secret Squirrel must track down an art thief chameleon with camouflage powers that let him remain HiddenInPlainSight. Secret eventually figures out his weakness and tricks him into a room full of abstract and surrealist art; the clashing colors, confused perspectives, and abstract shapes found in modern art cause Chameleon's shape-shifting powers to go haywire, allowing Secret to capture him easily.
138	-->'''Chameleon:''' This...is not art!\
139	'''Secret Squirrel:''' Everybody's a critic.
140	* Happens to Bowser in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'', after Iggy and Lemmy/Hip and Hop build him an amulet that endows real-world mushrooms, flowers, etc. with the powers of those from the game. He goes a little crazy, mixing and matching Powerups (a fiery orange Bowser in a Kuribo shoe and raccoon tail), and when he's defeated, the amulet malfunctions, causing him to blink through several different forms (raccoon, frog suit, orange (fire powerups on the NES made you a lot more orange!)) and odd combinations before finally rocketing him into a manhole.
141	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'',
142	** In one episode Gumball attempts to take [[InvoluntaryShapeshifter Penny]] on what he considers to be the perfect date, with the intention of proposing to her. This being the show it is, however, nothing goes over too well. The evening eventually culminates with poor Penny choking on the ring Gumball slipped in her drink, causing her to rapidly change between forms.
143	** A non-lethal example of this trope also comes into effect in "The Shell", when Penny, who believes herself to be a monster at the time due to her newly-gained InvoluntaryShapeshifter status, is snapped back to her senses with a kiss from Gumball.
144	* The second half of Clayface's introductory episode in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE21FeatOfClayPart2 Feat of Clay: Part 2]]", has Bats lure him into a room filled with [=TVs=] showing all the roles he'd played in his former life as an actor. He starts convulsing and turning into them at random; when he panics and starts smashing the [=TVs=], he's electrocuted. However, at the end [[spoiler:it turns out the whole thing was an act, or at least the dying part, and Clayface survived, making this a subversion. Clayface inadvertently clued in Batman to this, because he couldn't resist making an aside about having wished for a death scene that good in his movies]].
145	* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', during the series finale, Ben rapidly switches through nearly all of his alien forms while trying to contain the detonation of [[spoiler:Maltruant's modified Anihilaarg.]] This turns out to be an emergency feature of the Omnitrix: if the wearer is about to die, it will shift through all available alien forms until it finds one capable of surviving the given situation.
146	* At the end of the ''WesternAnimation/COPS1988'' episode "The Case of the Crook with a Thousand Faces", the shape-shifting robot Shifty ends up tricked by the C.O.P.S. into taking on their forms, resulting in the robot rapidly cycling through various forms and then shutting down.
147	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'', the villain, who is a Chameleon, goes through one of these when she is exposed to warm temperatures and her metabolism speeds up, resulting in her turning into an actual [[FurryConfusion chameleon]].
148	* Happens in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E9ABicyclopsBuiltForTwo A Bicyclops Built for Two]]" to Alcazar, a shapeshifter who uses his powers to juggle several different women of different species in simultaneous relationships, including Leela. Being confronted by all of them at once leads to him rapidly changing his appearance to appeal to each one, and to them beating the crap out of him so bad he starts to mix up aspects of the different forms before giving up and showing his true form: that of a dog-sized cricket.
149	* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':
150	** In the episode "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E2IntoTheBunker Into the Bunker]]", Dipper, Wendy, Soos, and Mabel fight a shapeshifter and eventually push it back into the freezing chamber where it was originally contained. It turns into a flame to try to avoid freezing and tries to use large, muscular forms to break out, making it seem to fit the "survival reflex" variety. Also, when it finally freezes, it turns into Dipper and screams in agony in order to taunt and intimidate him.
151	** [[spoiler:Bill Cipher, the BigBad of the series, gets one during the GrandFinale "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E20WeirdmageddonPart3TakeBackTheFalls Weirdmaggedon Part 4: Somewhere in The Woods]]". When he's being erased, he starts glitching up and changes between multiple different forms, each of which are arguably more [[EldritchAbomination horrifying]] than his ShapeshifterDefaultForm, although retaining his triangle/pyramid motif.]]
152	* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'''s [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightskingdomPart2 Season 4 finale]], Tirek goes through this as he is depowered by the Mane Six's [[SuperMode Rainbow Power]] [[WaveMotionGun super laser]].
153	* Minor example: In the ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' episode ''Painted Windows'', Bob uses ''Paint'' of all things to remove Hexadecimal's mask. He then gets a HannibalLecture from all of Hexadecimal's faces as she starts to overload.
154	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' example above is spoofed in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E6TreehouseOfHorrorVI Treehouse of Horror VI]]" when Groundskeeper Willie (as a [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]] {{expy}}) turns into many things at once, after having been trapped in quicksand and desperately trying to get out.
155	* Happens to Chameleon in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries''. In this case, it's his belt malfunctioning after Spider-Man attacks him, as he needs the technology to shapeshift. The Chameleon is taken alive and arrested by SHIELD.
156	* In the ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'' episode "Junior", Edwin Alva Jr. becomes the villain Omnifarious and utilizes a belt filled with modified Bang Baby gas in each pellet, giving him a different power each time he bursts one, with intent on using it to try and destroy [[CorruptCorporateExecutive his father]]'s company. In the episode's climax, he bursts all the pellets at once to turn his father's HQ to rubble. Unfortunately, he ends up overloading on the dosage, resulting in him mutating randomly and out of control before finally [[TakenForGranite turning into stone]]. Fortunately, he's restored to normal later on.
157	* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''. The Gems are a OneGenderRace of [[StarfishAliens living jewels]] who create human-looking bodies around themselves to see, hear, speak, move around, etc. If their human forms are mortally damaged, they dissolve the forms back into their gems to regenerate, and once they're ready to be used again, they regenerate them with a new design. They quickly [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKEOnqr2JKk cycle through]] their past regenerations as silhouettes while doing so before settling on the newest one. In addition, in the episode "An Indirect Kiss", Amethyst's gem is cracked. It's a potentially fatal injury that only the late Rose Quartz had the ability to heal. As the crack worsens, she has trouble keeping her physical form together and speaks backwards.
158	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'' where the MonsterOfTheWeek is a shapeshifting ghost, during the climatic battle, it morphs through all the forms it took on with each punch from Titan before [[DefeatMeansExplosion eventually exploding]].
159	* Minor superhero Chameleon of ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' suffers a mild form of this when he accidentally tries to conceal himself on some plaid curtains.
160	%%* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'': Sort of happens to Rogue near the end of "Self-Possessed" during her SuperpowerMeltdown, but she does survive.
161	[[/folder]]
162
163	[[folder:Real Life]]
164	* Some chameleons will [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZ2K44LIxM flash multiple colors]] as they die.
165	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ShapeShifterSwanSong