Line #97 Main/TrickingTheShapeshifter


1	->'''Skipper:''' There's something you've forgotten, Mutant. You can turn into a solid and back, but once you turn into a liquid, you're dead!\
2	'''Masked Mutant:''' What? You tricked me! The great Masked Mutant, tricked by a boy!
3	-->-- ''Series/Goosebumps1995'', "[[Recap/Goosebumps1995S2E2E3AttackOfTheMutant Attack of the Mutant]]"
4
5	A.k.a. Bet You Can't Make Yourself Really Small... (a.k.a. Bet You Can't Fit in This Bottle, a.k.a. Let's See You Turn into a Mouse...)
6
7	When two [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifters]] square off, they have a ShapeshifterShowdown. But what happens if an evil shapeshifter or RealityWarper faces off against a mere mortal?
8
9	Easy: the mortal just needs to trick the villain into turning into something he can defeat, or to enter a container in which it can be trapped! This is usually done by appealing to the shapeshifter's ego, either through flattery or through dismissive skepticism:
10
11	"Wow! What an impressive lion you are -- I bet you make a gorgeous cat! Ooh... what about a mouse? Can you do that?"
12
13	or
14
15	"Pshaw! You expect me to believe that a [[GenieInABottle djinni your size came out of that tiny bottle]]? Ha! I'll believe it when I see it!"
16
17	This could be how the [[SealedEvilInACan Evil got Sealed in the Can]]. Lately, some shapeshifters have started becoming aware of this ("Did you honestly think I would fall for that old chestnut?"), but it is still played straight as often as it is subverted. Compare with AssimilationBackfire.
18
19	----
20	!!Examples:
21
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
25	* Back in ''Manga/DragonBall'', when Piccolo was still a bad guy and faced off against Goku, he at one point made himself [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever grow much larger]]. Goku, somewhat impressed, [[BriarPatching remarked that if only Piccolo could become ''even bigger'' he might be in trouble]]. Piccolo promptly did so... and Goku flew down his throat to retrieve the SealedGoodInACan that he had previously swallowed. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Thanks, Piccolo]].
26	* ''Anime/Moomin1990'': The demon trapped inside a dead tree in "The Imp" is able to get out by turning to smoke and exiting through the straw he tricks Moomin's friends to place in a crack in the trunk. After Snufkin sees this happen, he pretends to believe the demon is a magician since he's too big to be able to fit in the straw and must have come from behind the tree. Offended, the demon decides to prove he's a real demon by returning back inside the tree in his smoky form, after which Snufkin removes the straw and leaves him trapped.
27	* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' actually subverts this with the Orange Islands match against Drake. His first Pokémon is Ditto, and when it's suggested to Ash to switch out Pikachu after Ditto changes into him, he says Ditto would just transform into the next one sent out.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Comic Books]]
31	* Shows up in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', with LampshadeHanging, during the sequence where Lyta is hallucinating and/or shifting between seeing the real world and the Dreaming.
32	* In a ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'' comic book, there's a story called "The Bad Genie". The genie, a [[CatsAreMean cat of course]], is a CardCarryingVillain who forces the mouse who freed him to serve him and also pushes aside some houses so he can stretch out. After brute force, Mighty Mouse tries the "bet you can't fit in your lamp again" gambit, but he's too tired to argue...
33	* In an issue of ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'', Batman uses this tactic against the all-powerful Metron. Metron prides himself on his knowledge and has never been a human, so Batman convinces him to take on a flesh-and-blood form to see what it's like. Then Batman punches him in the face, drugs him, and steals his [[TimeMachine Mobius Chair]].
34	* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
35	** This is one of the few ways to defeat the Absorbing Man, who can duplicate most superhuman powers and just about any material substance (though he nearly always needs physical contact) -- get him to turn into something inconvenient or that is more than his powers can handle.
36	** In his first appearance, [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] made him touch helium, so he turned into helium and floated helplessly into space, though that [[FridgeLogic raises the question]] of why he doesn't turn into the oxygen, nitrogen, and CO[[subscript:2]] in the air already.
37	** [[FanWank Transforming can't be subconscious, or he'd always be made of the same stuff as his]] MagicPants, or indeed the air. But it would be in-character for him to deliberately transform to anything he touches unexpectedly, as a defense mechanism against a possible attack. After all, all these attacks inconvenience him but he recovers eventually, whereas if he touched acid and ''didn't'' transform, he'd just die like a human. However, the numerous times he's defeated by getting him to absorb something he doesn't want to and isn't an active threat demonstrates that he does not have full control over his powers.
38	** This can lead to HoistByHisOwnPetard when the Absorbing Man overestimates what he can handle. One fight with the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] led to him trying to absorb the power of the very Earth itself, only to explode when the Earth's power proved too much for him to absorb. He recovered. Eventually. Another time, the Absorbing Man fought the Hulk and made the mistake of breaking glass over him, and accidentally took on a shard's properties when it fell on him. All the Hulk had to do then is throw one punch and he shattered his enemy.
39	** Also, he shouldn't go up against guys who know chemistry. ComicBook/SpiderMan once got him to absorb one thing, then sprang his trap: dumping a ton of something that reacts explosively with what the Absorbing Man had become. Kaboom. (He recovered. Eventually.)
40	** In one particularly humiliating defeat, ComicBook/SheHulk beat him when he attacked her in an aquarium in the Mall of America by simply waiting until he realized he was ankle-deep in water and turned into it, causing him to flow down a nearby drain into the sewer.
41	* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': Black Adam was a supervillain who had been given the same superpowers as Captain Marvel in biblical times and had never transformed back to his mortal form. In his first appearance he easily defeated all of the Marvel family except "Uncle Dudley" Marvel, an elderly con man who had no actual superpowers but dressed in a homemade costume similar to those of the rest of the Marvel family. Dudley repeatedly mispronounced the name "Shazam", who was the wizard who gave the other Marvels their powers and whose name was the magic word that transformed them to and from their superpowered forms. This enraged Black Adam, who yelled "no, you mean Shazam you fool!", transformed back into his human form for the first time in millennia, and [[NoImmortalInertia instantly crumbled to dust]].
42	* ComicBook/WonderWoman goaded The Queen of Fables into [[ShoutOut turning into]] [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty a dragon]], then quickly [[EyeScream buried axes in her eyes]].
43	* In the 1994 Creator/{{Milestone\|Comics}}[=/=]Creator/{{DC\|Comics}} crossover ''Worlds Collide'', some children try to goad EldritchAbomination RealityWarper Rift into transforming to a smaller, less powerful shape. He's just amused and commends them for trying, since he admits the ploy might have worked if he'd fallen for it.
44	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': During his first battle with the Sandman in ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManLeeAndDitko'', Spider-Man feints an attack with a power drill. The Sandman evades it by turning into a cloud of dust, only for Spidey to jump through him and grab an industrial vacuum cleaner, then hoover up his foe.
45	* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': Butcher gets Malchemical to shapeshift into a cloud of gas, which he then sets on fire.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Fairy Tales]]
49	* Literature/PussInBoots tricks a shapeshifting ogre into becoming a mouse, then eats him.
50	* The original version of ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' has the apprentice tricking the evil master into turning into a drop of water, which then falls into a river.
51	* There was also a story where the shapeshifter turned into a fish (swimming in a river) as part of a chain of transformations to show the normal hero his power. The shapeshifter says he'll change from the fish into a mountain, but the hero says he'd be more impressed if the shapeshifter could change into a drop of water. He does and washes away with the river.
52	* ''Wiley and the Hairy Man'' has Wiley do this to the shapeshifting Hairy Man as one of the three tricks he has to pull.
53	* ''The Fisherman and the Jinni'', one of the core stories of the Literature/ArabianNights, has the eponymous fisherman trick the murderous JackassGenie he's accidentally released back into its bottle-prison, by "doubting" it could have ever fit inside there in the first place. Naturally, the prideful genie proves him wrong… and the fisherman immediately reseals the bottle with the genie inside.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
57	* Sort of used in ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', where Aladdin does this to Genie to get himself out of the cave without wasting a wish. Though Genie doesn't do any shapeshifting, he does take the SchmuckBait out of sheer ego. Later, Aladdin tricks Jafar into wishing to become a genie, which immediately causes him to be sucked into a lamp. However, Jafar does need Genie to do this, so he couldn't do it all on his own. It ''did,'' however, use up Jafar's final wish and prevent him from using his powers (which the Genie had already made quite vast with a previous wish) against Aladdin; he may have been stronger as a genie, but [[ThouShaltNotKill genies are incapable of killing anyone]] and are bound to the lamp that contains them.
58	* Alluded to in the ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'' short "Mickey and the Beanstalk". Mickey very nearly talks Willie the Giant into turning into a housefly; unfortunately, Willie insists on changing into a pink bunny instead, upon which he notices Mickey, Donald, and Goofy going for the giant flyswatter.
59	* In ''Anime/TheGreatMissionToSavePrincessPeach'', Peach convinces Bowser to entertain her by demonstrating his shapeshifting powers. Her last request is for him to turn into a teddy bear, and when he complies, she stuffs him in a small chest. Then Bowser morphs out of the chest and back to normal, subverting whatever plan she had in mind.
60	* ''[[WesternAnimation/KatyLaOruga Katy Meets the Aliens]]'' has its animal heroes trick the shapeshifting [[BigBad Alien X]] into turning into a balloon so they can pop him with a pin. [[spoiler:It takes him out of action long enough for them to free his prisoners, but he eventually reforms into a [[NightmareFuel horrific]] [[OneWingedAngel monstrosity]].]]
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
64	* In ''Series/{{Fantaghiro}}'', the heroine tricks the Black Witch into transforming into a crystal -- which she shatters.
65	* ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'':
66	** In ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'', when Gozer demands that the Earth choose the shape of its destroyer, Ray immediately thinks of The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, assuming the character would be the one thing that could not possibly ever harm anyone. It's {{subverted}} when it turns out a 100 ft tall version of the character is actually very much capable of mass destruction.
67	** In ''Film/Ghostbusters2016'', Rowan offers to take the form of whatever the women want for the final battle. Holtzmann tries very hard to take advantage of the situation and suggests a bullseye. Rowan instead becomes a gigantic version of the Ghostbusters' logo ghost, which they had thought was a safe option.
68	* In ''[[Film/Underworld2003 Underworld: Awakening]]'', Selene runs into a tunnel too narrow for Quint's Uber-Lycan form to enter, so he returns to human form and follows her. Although he is still rather powerful in his human form, it was enough of an opening for her to kill him.
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Literature]]
72	* "The Fisherman and the Djinni" is referred to (and subverted) in ''Starik Hottabytch'' (''Old Man Hottabytch'') by Lazar Lagin. A JackassGenie ''almost'' falls for the trick, but at the last moment remembers that "a thousand one hundred and forty-two years ago a fisherman fooled me in just the same manner.".
73	* In the story of Brazilian BigEater Magali: she tricked a shapeshifting villain into turning into [[LetsMeetTheMeat a roasted chicken with potatoes]]...
74	* In Creator/MercedesLackey's retelling of ''Literature/PussInBoots'', ''Literature/ReservedForTheCat'', Thomas attempts to trick [[AllTrollsAreDifferent a troll]] into doing this. Unlike the ogre in the original, however, the troll is not an idiot and shifts again to catch the cat by the throat when he pounces.
75	* ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'': When Kitty tries to pull this on Bartimaeus, he scoffs at the idea that he would be dumb enough to fall for one of TheOldestTricksInTheBook. He notes, however, that had it worked this would be a very powerful binding charm since he would have entered of his own free will. It's implied that it's happened to him at least once in one of his footnotes in ''Ptolemy's Gate''. Which would explain why he would know why the charm would be so powerful.
76	--> ''You know the trick. The clever mortal convinces the stupid djinni to squeeze inside a bottle (or some other confined space) then stoppers him up and refuses to let him out unless he grants three wishes, etc., etc. Ho hum.''
77	* ''Literature/AttackOfTheMutant'' has a shape-shifting villain from a comic book actually be real. Early on, we're told that if the villain turns into liquid, he can't change back. A kid claims to be a superhero who can only be killed by acid, so the villain turns into acid, and thus is another ChekhovsGun fired.
78	* This is one fundamental strategy for dealing with a boggart in ''Literature/HarryPotter''. As it automatically assumes the shape of your greatest fear, tackling it in a group may cause it to try and combine two different fears - and end up with [[GoldenMeanFallacy something less scary than either.]]
79	* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': The team [[spoiler:defeats David]] by using an elaborate version of this ruse: they trick him into turning into a mouse to enter a miniature labyrinth with Rachel (by pretending that the MacGuffin he tried to blackmail out of them is there). Rachel escapes the labyrinth, [[spoiler:David stays locked inside until he enters ShapeshifterModeLock since he wouldn't be able to demorph without being squished like a pancake]].
80	** And as part of that, they tricked him into thinking ''he'' tricked ''them'' into turning into cockroaches, which he then trapped in a bottle.
81	%%* ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'': Used rather cleverly by Jon-Tom to [[spoiler: escape the mimicvines]] in ''The Moment of the Magician.''
82	* ''Literature/TheSpiderwickChronicles'': Although not intentional, Mulgarath the ogre is defeated when he turns into a bird to get away and ends up [[spoiler:eaten by Hogsqueal, who just happened to be hungry at the time]].
83	* ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'': While not a shapeshifter itself, Com-Pewter can summon anything to serve it. The heroes escape its chamber by verbally expressing fear that it will summon [[spoiler:a female egret -- in other words, an egress]].
84	* There is a German book named ''Krabat'' that, even though it is shapeshifter vs. shapeshifter, has [[spoiler: Krabat]] win a fight with a very similar trick: While trying to hide (there are more attempts before this one), he turns into a grain and hides among the grain that a girl is feeding to her chickens. After he is thrown to the floor, his enemy transforms into a chicken and starts pecking at the grain. Once he is close enough, [[spoiler: Krabat]] transforms into a fox and quickly bites off the chicken's head.
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
88	* In the ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' episode "The Tale of the Fire Ghost", the ghost is defeated when one of the kids claims that he's terrified of fire and begs him not to turn into its fire form. The ghost promptly does so...activating the sprinkler system.
89	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
90	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "The Eleventh Hour"]]: [[spoiler:The Doctor is able to uncover the escaped Prisoner Zero by tricking it into attempting to disguise itself as... itself.]] Specifically, it's taking the form of [[spoiler:whatever Amy Pond is thinking about. So he gets her to think about the true form of Prisoner Zero.]]
91	** [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]]: Queen Elizabeth I has been impersonated by a Zygon shapeshifter. [[spoiler:She later turns out to be the real Elizabeth, who killed her alien copy and is now ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin, given that the other Zygons would never believe a mere human female would overcome one of them. There's a HistoricalInJoke when explaining how she did this. Brandishing a ChastityDagger the Queen says, "I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman... but so did she!"]]
92	* Wembley gets rid of the Mean Genie this way in ''Series/FraggleRock''.
93	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
94	** Lampshaded in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E16Shadowplay Shadowplay]]". A little girl tells the real shapechanger Odo an old fairy story about a hero named the Great Minra who tricked an evil changeling into turning himself into a loaf of bread. To her surprise Odo gets to the end first ("The Great Minra gobbled him up"), and when she asks how he knew Odo wearily points out that the fictional changeling wasn't very smart. And when the girl asks Odo to turn a loaf of bread, he asks; "Why? So you can gobble me up? I don't think so."
95	** Further subverted in one novel to series where Odo warns off a Cardassian with a tale about how he voluntarily transformed himself into some food the certain alien liked, allowed himself to be eaten, and then expanded in the alien's stomach, ripping him apart. (It's implied that Odo's lying about having actually done that, but the fact that he ''could'' do that is terrifying enough).
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
99	* In Greek mythology, Zeus realized that he had to get his mistress, Metis (goddess of prudence and magical cunning) out of the way since it had been prophesied that she would bear powerful children, and he feared being overthrown by one of his children the way he seized power from his father Cronos and how Cronos had usurped his own father Ouranos. He suggested that they play a "game" of changing shapes, and, when she turned into a fly, he swallowed her whole. She was a pretty good sport about the whole thing, though, and from thereafter she lived inside his head, giving him good advice. She also gave birth to their daughter, Athena, who had to be delivered via skull (and so, despite Zeus' claims, he did not create Athena alone). And it turns out that Zeus's fears were unfounded because while Athena ''was'' very powerful, she was also [[DaddysGirl completely loyal and devoted to her father]].
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Podcasts]]
103	* ''Podcast/TheThrillingAdventureHour'':
104	** In the ''Beyond Belief'' episode "Wishing Hell", Nightmares the Clown's attempts to frighten Sadie Doyle fall short because she finds clowns, even {{Monster Clown}}s, hilarious. He decides to show her his true form, that of a giant spider. Frank exclaims that Sadie is deathly afraid of spiders, only for Sadie to correct him and point out ''giant'' spiders don't scare her, only regular teeny tiny spiders due to how they can creep up on one [[TheAlcoholic when they're going through their liquor cabinet, innocently trying to collect a bottle]]. She pleads with Nightmares ''not'' to turn into a teeny tiny spider lest she ''actually'' become afraid. Nightmares does exactly that and promptly gets stomped on by Frank.
105	** The ''Beyond Belief'' episode "When Cthulu Cthalls", Frank and Sadie are up against a pair of HollywoodJehovahsWitness peddling a particularly old god. When said old god makes an appearance, it has a loss of confidence due to its age. Sadie convinces it to possess a nearby lamp, which she then turns off and unplugs.
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Theatre]]
109	* In ''Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung'', [[TheTrickster Loge]] asks Alberich to demonstrate the Tarnhelm's powers. Alberich becomes a dragon, but Loge then asks if he can become as small as a toad. Alberich becomes a toad and is caught by Loge and Wotan.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Toys]]
113	* This has happened a few times in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}''. The best example is when the Toa fought against a creature turns into whatever substance it is struck with. They incapacitate it by hitting it with glass, rendering it unable to move without hurting itself, because it was so huge that it couldn't properly support its own weight in glass form. Another monster that had SizeShifting powers and immunity to the Toa's powers was beaten by causing to grow so large that it couldn't hold itself together and evaporated due to its density becoming too low since the Toa figured out that its mass wasn't changing.
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Video Games]]
117	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
118	** Kecleon changes type depending on what attack is used on it. You can use an attack, then one of a type that is strong against the previous attack's type for massive damage. In some cases, you don't even have to use more than one type. Ghost- and Dragon-Types are both weak against their own type, though Kecleon's default type is Normal, which is immune to Ghost attacks.
119	** Porygon's Conversion move works similarly, though Conversion (which turns into a type ''strong'' against the one used) is much more difficult to exploit since there's the element of chance involved. Of course, in both cases, Porygon doesn't even have to use either move, but you know, just in case...
120	** The transforming Ditto can't change forms until the battle ends, so once it transforms it's locked in that form. This means you can potentially control which Pokémon it becomes for the purposes of using a Super-Effective attack against it.
121	** In ''VideoGame/PokemonGO'', Zorua disguises itself as a copy of the player's Buddy Pokémon. An ''exact'' copy, which means they will copy shininess, Best Buddy ribbons, and species or forms that don't spawn in the wild in a given location, making it trivial to spot them.
122	* The same tactics are used to trick a verbal shapeshifter in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', enabling you to use his voice mimicry to break a voice lock. Whether said shapeshifter is tricked or just doesn't care is up to discussion. Paraphrasing: "...the morality chip most droids are believed to possess forbids me from mimicking a human voice."
123	* The final battle in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestV'' has King Graham engage in a shapeshifting duel with the evil sorcerer Mordack. After his first three forms are countered, Mordack gets mad and transforms into a raging fire... which is when that raincloud spell Graham just learned comes in real handy.
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Web Comics]]
127	* In ''Webcomic/CaptainSNES'', Alex comes up with a (fake) plan to get rid of the personification of his hatred, which resembles [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Zeromus]]. He will get really angry, causing "Zeromus" to grow so big that he'll explode. Alex points out that the only way Zeromus can counteract this plan is if he can deliberately shrink himself. Zeromus demonstrates that he ''can'' deliberately shrink himself... by shrinking himself to be just small enough to fit into Alex's unbreakable jar.
128	* In ''Webcomic/{{Darken}}'', this is how a possessing spirit came to be [[http://darkencomic.com/?webcomic_post=2383 trapped]] in [[spoiler:the gem in Komiyan's sword Blackshard]]. It's had a very long time to [[LeakingCanOfEvil find the weak points in its prison]].
129	* The "Contains One Space Battle" story in the webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Goats}}'' has Jon and Phillip meeting God after Phillip argues he doesn't exist. God appears as a pirate named Larry and explains he can take many forms, such as a slightly taller pirate named Sebastian. The guys are unimpressed, and God tells them to pick a form. Phillip suggests a pork chop. God becomes a pork chop, then Phillip eats him, thus winning the argument. This is, incidentally, both a pivotal event behind the later plot-driven era of the comic and ''the least kosher meal ever imagined.''
130	* Parodied in ''Webcomic/VanVonHunter'' when the title character faces a vampire that can switch between human and monstrous form. "A beautiful woman is so much more intimidating than a vampire." Two panels later, "They are easier to stake, though."
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Western Animation]]
134	* Similar to the ''Aladdin'' example, in ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' special "WesternAnimation/RealityTrip", Danny [[FlawExploitation played upon]] evil ringmaster Freakshow's [[GreenEyedMonster envy of ghosts]] so that he'd use the all-powerful [[RealityWarper Reality Gauntlet]] to become a ghost. This ended up making him susceptible to Danny's Fenton Thermos.
135	* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'': Vilgax finally succeeds in stealing the Omnitrix but [[LoyalPhlebotinum can't get it to work for him]]. Ben volunteers to show him if he releases his friends. Ben uses this opportunity to set the Omnitrix to turn Vilgax into Goop, a giant amorphous blob of gel, and steals the anti-gravity device the alien needs to maintain its shape, reducing Vilgax to a puddle. Ben then just plucks the Omnitrix off his melted form.
136	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ArchiesWeirdMysteries'', Archie is able to trap a recently freed evil genie by challenging him to get ''all'' of the ketchup out of a glass bottle as proof of his power. The genie shrinks down to go inside the bottle and pushes out all of the ketchup just in time for Archie to close the cap on him.
137	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'':
138	** The Absorbing Man touches Thor's hammer Mjölnir and converts himself into metal that can harm a god. Thor, however, points out that he can control Mjölnir, and can therefore control Absorbing Man, whom he uses as a human-sized hammer for the rest of the fight.
139	** Counting against Absorbing Man, even in the comics, is the fact that he's dumb as bricks. He doesn't even need to be tricked into turning into something the heroes might have an advantage against. Still from this cartoon:
140	--->'''Hulk:''' Hulk ''smash'' rock, Einstein.
141	* ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'':
142	** Used straight in the episode "Sands of Fate". Genie needs to stop a caravan from proceeding. Aladdin who is at that time a guardian of said caravan (long story) offers him to settle the matter by tossing a coin. Aladdin then makes it so that the coin falls into a bottle and the helpful simpleton Genie volunteers to retrieve it. It turns out that even a freed Genie cannot escape from a sealed bottle. Go figure.
143	** There's also the time in "My Fair Aladdin" when Mechanicles trapped Genie in a bottle by simply asking him if he could remove the model ship that was inside.
144	* In the ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' retelling of ''Literature/PussInBoots'', Garfield manages to trick the ogre resident of a nearby castle into turning into a roach, which he then squishes with his high-tops. Unfortunately, at the end of the cartoon, it's revealed the ogre survived, forcing Garfield to put his high-tops to use in running for his life.
145	* In ''WesternAnimation/AlfredJKwak'', this is played straight and subverted with the Evil Spirit of Darkness.
146	** The spirit was defeated hundreds of years ago by a traveler who tricked him into going back into his bottle and then sealed him shut.
147	** When Alfred tries the same thing later on it almost works, but [[GenreSavvy the spirit then remembers the details of how he was resealed again and stops halfway through]]. Alfred only succeeds when he realizes that the Evil Spirit can be hurt by light, and forces him back in.
148	* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'':
149	** In "[=TransWarped=]", Henry Masterson uses his Headmaster unit to take over Starscream's headless body and go on a rampage. Optimus Prime goads him into trying out Starscream's jet mode, saying a noob like him wouldn't be able to figure it out. Enraged, Henry tries it, but the transformation process makes the jet mode's nose cone smack him in the face and knock him out of Starscream's body.
150	** Several times, Blitzwing gets tricked into transforming into his tank mode while still in midair in jet mode, sending him plummeting to the ground. The trick is that Blitzwing's multiple vehicle modes [[PersonalityPowers are tied to his]] [[SplitPersonality multiple personalities]], and which personality is in charge can be influenced by his mood.
151	* An accidental example occurs in ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo''. When Scooby faces the ghost wizard Maldor with a magic scepter, he turns himself into a fly to hide from him. Maldor turns himself into a frog to catch Scooby. A frog that is small enough to be trapped in the Chest of Demons.
152	* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'':
153	** Animan's power is shapeshifting into any animal he wants. Cat Noir figures they can trick him into shifting into something small and trap him in a cookie box at the Dupain-Chengs' bakery, but Ladybug points out that it won't prevent him from shapeshifting into something bigger and breaking out. They do use the box to catch him (he'd taken the form of a ladybug, nice choice), but then lure him into a bus after he shifts into larger forms. Then he shifts into a ''T. rex'', and any thoughts of caging him again are abandoned.
154	** Chameleon's power allows her to become anyone she kisses. Ladybug tricks her into kissing a clam, which she immediately transforms into. Since Chameleon has to kiss someone to change forms, she's trapped in the form of a clam and getting her akuma is as simple as having a waiter pry it open.
155	* Occurs in a second season episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'' when Zak and Fisk encounter a large predator cryptid that can shapeshift to adapt to its environment (becoming serpentine to move through swamps, growing armor to crash through trees, etc.). Zak is finally able to capture the beast by tricking it into chasing him into a swimming pool. The cryptid shifts into an aquatic-based form as Zak climbs out the other side and [[GrandTheftMe Fisk]] closes the pool's top. Since the creature could only adapt to its present environment, it couldn't alter its body to try to escape and was effectively trapped.
156	* In ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'' episode "Share-A-Lair", after it's revealed that Chameleon posed as T.U.F.F and D.O.O.M's new field agents to set them against each other, Dudley claims he doubts that Chameleon was T.U.F.F's mouse agent, stating it was too realistic for Chameleon to change into. Chameleon takes offense to this and proves it was him by turning into a mouse. Unfortunately for Chameleon, this resulted in [[ElephantsAreScaredOfMice Agent Jumbo stomping on him]].
157	-->'''Chameleon:''' ''[dazed]'' See? It fooled the elephant.
158	[[/folder]]

Context Main / TrickingTheShapeshifter