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->''"Then I shan't be exactly a human?" Peter asked.\\
"No."\\
"Nor exactly a bird?"\\
"No."\\
"What shall I be?"\\
"You will be a Betwixt-and-Between," Solomon said, and certainly he was a wise old fellow, for that is exactly how it turned out.''
-->-- '''J. M. Barrie''', ''Literature/PeterPanInKensingtonGardens''

Some creatures are not exactly a thing, because they partake of the natures of two different things. The term for this is "liminality", from the Latin ''limen'' or threshold, and beings who remain perpetually on this threshold are mysterious, uncanny, eerie beings -- if the artist uses them for their full potential. They can also appear just for the RuleOfCool (but beware the dangers of NinjaPirateZombieRobot). This makes this a SuperTrope of many, many, many tropes.

Shapeshifting or other changes into and out of determinate states is still liminal if the transition keeps happening, or if the time in the other state confers a permanent change in the character.

They are also notorious for LoopholeAbuse and NoManOfWomanBorn, particularly for the ImpossibleTask. If a task can be performed by neither one thing nor the other, it can often be done by someone who is half one and half the other.

Most liminal beings take the chaos side of OrderVersusChaos. Lawful ones tend to be the guardians of the boundaries they cross and often are immensely powerful.

Transitioning out of being a liminal being is difficult if even possible. See LiminalTime for when transition is normal. DualityMotif appears a lot.

Compare and contrast {{Werebeast|Tropes}}s, which can change from being fully one form to fully another; in other words, they're either/or while Liminal Beings are both/and.

!!Tropes of liminal beings
[[index]]
[floatboxright:
Subcategories:
+ {{Shapeshifting}}\\
A being that is capable of modifying its own physical form, often radically.
]

* BlindSeer: They see with only the inner eye.
* ChildOfTwoWorlds: A member of two very different, often opposed, communities who may have trouble fitting completely in with either one.
* {{Cyborg}}: Mechanism and organism welded into one entity.
* DisabilitySuperpower: Both having the advantage and being at a disadvantage.
* DoubleConsciousness: A Liminal Being torn between the two states.
* FeatheredSerpent: A feathered serpent basically unites the heavenly and the terrestrial in one being.
* FlyingDutchman: Trapped in endless travel through space, time, and the realms beyond.
* GenderBender: Goes from one biological sex to another.
* {{Hermaphrodite}}: Someone with both male and female sex characteristics.
* HeroicBastard: Neither of his parents' social status, nor exactly ''not'' of it.
* HybridAllAlong: A character learns that they're a hybrid.
* HybridMonster: Many species, one monster.
* MasterOfDisguise: A character of many faces and identities.
* MixAndMatchCritters: Part one critter, part not. Also sometimes known as a "chimera."
* MortalityGreyArea: Can't be properly classified as dead or alive.
* NonLinearCharacter: Both in and out of time
* NotQuiteHuman: Just like a normal human, except for one obvious difference.
* OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: A god, demon, or otherwise otherworldly being or creature who is both male and female. Or neither.
* OurGryphonsAreDifferent: Combination of the lion (KingOfBeasts) and eagle ([[NobleBirdOfPrey king of birds]]) in one being.
* OxymoronicBeing: A living self-contradiction.
* ParadoxPerson: They exist, when they shouldn't.
* {{Planimal}}: Both plant and animal.
* {{Psychopomp}}: Often the only being capable of crossing between the worlds of the living and the dead.
* SecretIdentity: Ordinary person, living among ordinary people, and superpowered wonder.
* SemiDivine: Has an "essence" that is partly mundane and partly supernatural.
* TransNature: They're uncomfortable with whatever role they've been born into or assigned to and wish to change it.
* TheTrickster: Frequently, particularly in older myths, have a theme of guarding/crossing/exemplifying the thresholds between gods/humanity, good/evil, life/death, male/female etc.
* TheUndead: Both dead and alive.
* UpliftedAnimal: An animal gifted with human intelligence. Opinions vary on whether this is a [[BlessedWithSuck good gift]] or not.
* WhenTreesAttack: Sessile plants with motion.
* WildCard: On the moral border.
* WiseTree: Both a plant, and with a mind.
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: Both comprehensible/experienced -- and not.
[[/index]]

----
!!Liminal beings that fall between the tropes

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Schrodinger in ''Anime/{{Hellsing}}'', a catboy who, due to being a result of a Nazi experiment, has a loose grasp of causality; he both exists and does not exist.
* ''Anime/TweenyWitches'': Lennon, the pirate witch from the Interdimensional Sea, is revealed to be the only male witch and the only HalfHumanHybrid in existence.
* Kurama and [[spoiler:Yusuke]] in ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''. Kurama is a fox demon who fused with a human embryo to avoid dying of injuries, while [[spoiler:Yusuke was born a human, but because he was descended from a demon 44 generations back, he transformed into one after dying a second time]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fairy Tales]]
* Jean de l'Ours (John of the Bear, John Bear, among other names) is a character in European folklore that can be described as this: he is the product of a union between a human woman and a bear, after the animal kidnaps her and takes her to its den. After the boy is born, he is always said to possess superhuman strength, and sometimes is described as having some of his father's physical traits (bear's ears, lots of hair, etc.). The boy and his mother escape back to human civilization, but, due to his animal ancestry and superpowers, he can no longer fit among human peers. Eventually, in his adulthood, he meets two (or three) equally strong companions and rescues three princesses, marrying the youngest of them (depending on the tale).
* Literature/TheSwanMaiden, a creature from Eurasian folklore and myth, can be considered this. Barring tales where she is a cursed human princess, she is of supernatural origin (sometimes the daughter of a celestial deity), and is capable of shifting between human and avian forms. In her tales, a mortal man meets her (and her sisters) while they are bathing in a lake - which is also a liminal place between water and land.
* In the French tale "The Valley of Damned", the character the couple meet on the borders of the valley is dressed half for town and half for country.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'' has it verbalized by Boris about the title character. "Not a dog, not a wolf... all he knows is what he is not."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Tobias from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', with his human and hawk dual natures, plus his Andalite heritage.
* ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'':
** In ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Sea of Monsters]]'', Chiron points out that DivineParentage for humans (as opposed to cyclopes and other such creatures) puts them on two levels at once, human and immortal.
** In ''[[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus The House of Hades]]'', Hecate -- while standing at a crossroads -- tells Hazel that having died and come back to life gives her still more control over the veil between the two worlds.
* In ''Literature/ADiscoveryOfWitches'', it turns out that Diana Bishop is a being of opposites in several ways -- thanks to Vanishing Twin Syndrome, she's a genetic chimera with DNA of her unborn twin brother. She then saves Matthew's life by giving him some of her blood, and patches of her body turn cold, like a vampire's. In the second book, it turns out she is a weaver (capable of [[JackOfAllTrades using all paths of witchcraft, but never mastering them]]), with an affinity for fire and water, and capable of standing between the realms of life and death, and past and future. [[spoiler:In the third book, it's revealed that weavers themselves are the result of daemon and witch DNA mingling -- and Diana merges with the Book of Life, to become a book and a woman, the history of the four races and the hope for their future.]] Phew!
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** In ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'', Mrs. Gogol starts her invocations with the observation that she is between light and darkness, which does not matter because "I ''am'' between."
** In ''Literature/TheWeeFreeMen'', the "hag of the hills" is supposed to look after edges and gateways. At the end, [[spoiler:the witches tell Tiffany that witches are supposed to look after edges.]]
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': {{Implied|Trope}} with wizards, who have both human souls and supernatural powers. One character notes that they have an inherent "conflict" in their natures, unlike other supernatural beings. In the modern day, this manifests as WalkingTechbane tendencies that worsen when they use their magic; in previous eras, it caused wizards to grow warts or spoil nearby milk.
* In the ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'' book ''The Farthest Shore'', they find that someone is offering that one can escape both life and death. [[spoiler:In the end, he claims to be between both and so free of them.]]
* In ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'', a woman had been formally betrothed to a prince when he died, but not actually married him; this detached her from her own family without incorporating her into his. Maia contemplates her status as this, and there are suggestions that she could [[TakingTheVeil become a votary (dedicate herself to a god)]] as the simplest way to handle her situation.
* ''Literature/TheGraveyardBook'':
** The protagonist, Nobody Owens, is a human child raised by ghosts, which gives him access to the worlds of the living and of the dead. When he reaches adulthood, he has to choose once and for all which world he will belong to.
** Silas (who is strongly implied but never quite stated to be a vampire) also exists between the living world and the dead, but unlike Bod, who belongs to both worlds, Silas belongs to neither, which occasionally has drawbacks.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Nearly Headless Nick reveals that this is what it means for a witch or wizard to become a [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghost]], to be stuck between life and death and have chosen not to move on for a flimsy approximation of life.
* In ''Literature/TheKingOfElflandsDaughter'', having been across the border to the mortal lands and back means Lirazel cannot be content in either land.
* ''Literature/LabyrinthsOfEcho'': A strong affinity for liminality of all kinds is Sir Melifaro's unique magical power within the Special Investigations team. Its primary application allows Melifaro to serve as a Guardian for his colleagues whenever they travel to the [[SpiritWorld Dark Side]]: by staying exactly on the border between the material world and the Dark Side, he is able psychically monitor anything that happens to them and yank them out of danger if necessary, while also preventing anyone from pursuing them from the material plane. However, his liminality affinity also has a lot of other applications, such is when he is able to resist powerful enchantments by succumbing to them half-way, i.e., feeling their effects, but still retaining a degree of agency, or when he can keep watch for days by remaining half-asleep-half-awake indefinitely. Juffin suspects that this affinity has to do with his ancestry, as his [[HeinzHybrid forebears included both]] dwarves ''and'' giants, making it easier for him to stay in-between extremes.
* In the ''Literature/MothAndCobweb'' book ''Green Knight's Squire'', the Moths and Cobwebs are part human, part fae. They are known as the Twilight People as a consequence, and fall between worlds in many ways.
* The "scramble suits" worn by drug enforcement agents in ''Literature/AScannerDarkly'' are thin membranes projecting constantly shifting images of different physical and facial features over the bodies of the wearers, to provide anonymity.
* ''Literature/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'':
** Umie is an ex-ghost who, because she died in one reality, was able to prevent her death in another one and RetGone her ghost self out of existence. Due to paradox shenanigans, she has the memories of ''both'' lives, a corporeal body, and a ghost's ability to remember the supernatural.
** The [[spoiler:Colorless Little Girl]] (human name unknown) died to an attack so powerful that it erased the memories of people around her. A few years later, her brother forged an entirely new [[OurGodsAreDifferent Material]] (one outside the hierarchy of existing Materials) which she incorporated herself into. Therefore, she has all the strength of a Material, but she has the free will of a human [[spoiler:and can oppose the Queen of Materials]], owing to the NoManOfWomanBorn principle.
* In ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime'', when Calvin and Charles Wallace first meet, Charles Wallace explains to Mrs Who that Meg has it tough because she's not really one thing or another -- neither, like him, comfortable dealing with Mrs. Who and others like her, nor not involved at all.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' has [[spoiler:Owen]], who dies and [[CameBackWrong Comes Back Wrong]]. He isn't really alive or dead, so he can't be killed, can't heal from injuries, eat, etc.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Myth/Folklore/Religion]]
* In one of Literature/AesopsFables, a bat tries to ally with both beasts and birds, trading on its similarity to both and disavowing the other traits according to whom it's addressing, but after the war, they unify in rejecting it from both groups.
* According to UsefulNotes/{{Christian|ity}} doctrine, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} is "[[GodInHumanForm fully God and fully Man]]". The official doctrinal term is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypostatic_union hypostatic union,]] meaning Jesus was one individual person who had two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, 100% of each. The ideas that he was God but ''appeared'' to be human, or that he was a human who ''became'' God, are rejected by most branches of the Church as [[FandomHeresy heretical]], though not without a fair bit of controversy.
* Myth/ClassicalMythology: Tiresias, when Odysseus consults him in the underworld, manages to hit a trifecta of liminality:
** A ghost, both alive and dead
** A blind seer, both less and more than human in his abilities, and
** Having been transformed into woman and back while alive, both male and female.
* In Myth/HinduMythology, Vishnu became a half-man, half-lion in order to deal with a demon that could not been killed by an animal, a man, or a god, neither by night nor by day. (He also did it at sundown.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'': Mages belong to both the mortal world and the Magical Realm. As mortals, they're vulnerable to Warping from magic exposure, although they experience it differently and can even [[CursedWithAwesome benefit from it]]. As beings of magic, they can [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence vanish into Twilight in lieu of dying]], although nobody's quite sure what that means for the mage. Unlike purely magical beings, their powers register as profoundly ''wrong'' to {{animals|HateHim}} and humans nearby. There are rare ways to become wholly of the Magical Realm, though they usually deprive the mage of some important benefit of being mortal, like the ability to learn and grow.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': The Liminal Exalted are something like zombies, able to amputate and reattach their body parts without harm. Their appearance can range from human to disgustingly corpselike, depending on how high their Essence is at the time. Apparently, they come from necromantic rituals both successful (in the sense that ''something'' came alive) and not (in the sense that what came back was ''not'' the original dead person, but something that inhabits their body).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* In ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', Elphaba herself links earth and sky. At first, she simply doesn't fit in anywhere. After she unlocks the ability to fly and comes into her own, her Act II dress brims with fossil-and-geode patterns (see Susan Hilferty's notes in ''The Grimmerie''). And late in the play, we learn that [[spoiler: she is literally the child of two worlds]], which accounts for her uncanny power.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* In [[UsefulNotes/TarotCards the Tarot deck]], more than a few cards dwell between worlds, or between states.
** TheFool is a clear example, standing outside the numbered cards, at both and neither the beginning and the end, [[note]]The other 21 "major" cards are each consistently numbered from 1 to 21, but the Fool is either/both card 0 and card 22[[/note]] with symbols of creation and destruction.
** The Hanged Man is a card full of paradoxes: he is between life and death, sacrificed, but still alive; he dangles between worlds, yet sees all of them clearly; bound, his mind is freed.
* In the WesternZodiac, a few signs hinge between forms, either obviously or implicitly. Capricorn is depicted as a goat with a fish's tail, therefore being between earth and sea. Sagittarius, depicted as a centaur, is half-human, half-animal, furthermore always aiming towards heaven with their bow, therefore a being between ''three'' worlds. Gemini is a pair of twins, Castor and Pollux, of whom one is mortal and the other is divine, but they'll do anything to stay together. Aquarius, "The Water Bearer," is actually an Air Sign; in mythology Aquarius is Ganymede, a human prince who was kidnapped and made to be a servant of the gods.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'''s "Reaper of Souls" expansion, Malthael, Angel of Death, is said to be in a state of superimposed life and death, allowing him to attack people or even [[YourSoulIsMine suck out their souls]] while their weapons pass through him harmlessly. In the final part of the act, the player-character must counter this by receiving help from a group of powerful ghosts, giving them the same attribute.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsV:Skyrim'' your character, the dovahkiin, is a link between mortals and dragons, with a mortal body and mind but a draconic soul to give them power.
* Many characters in ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' invoke this trope, but possibly no one embodies it as much as [[spoiler:Yomiel]]. [[spoiler:Stuck [[TheUndead between life and death]] due to the Temsik meteor fragment lodged in his body, Yomiel can neither live nor die, and the isolation eventually drives him insane.]]
* Loatle from ''VideoGame/{{Temtem}}'' is described as straddling the line between natural and artificial intelligence, and life and death.
* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' has Yukari Yakumo, the youkai of boundaries, who has perhaps the single most broken SemanticSuperpower in a series filled with them. She can manipulate boundaries (Gensokyo/the real world, truth/illusion, Earth/the Moon, life/death...), manifesting mostly as ThinkingUpPortals (holes in reality where and whenever she wants. Call her the gap hag at your own risk). Thankfully she spends most of her time sleeping and playing stupid pranks on people.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': In the backstory, [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Void]] mutated a group of children into... ''something'' that hovers between the realm of EnergyBeings and mutated humans. This is likely why the Orokin treated them like dirt, since they no longer saw the children as pure humans and referred to them as monsters or "demons." [[spoiler:These children eventually became the Tenno, warrior-gods who destroyed the Orokin Empire for their crimes against absolutely everyone.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'': (WalkingSpoiler example that can't be written without endgame spoilers.) [[spoiler:Monika, thanks to being a {{deconstructed|Trope}} example of MediumAwareness, leaving her trapped in a world she sees as unreal, yearning for access to the real world, which she can interact with through the internet as well as by modifying the game itself, but never enter. Thus, she's between a real person and a video game character, neither fully part of the game world nor the real world.]]
* Ciel from ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' is stuck between [[spoiler:life and death, due to not having died after the BigBad possessed and left her body, like all his previous victims did]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/BirdBoy'', [[http://bird-boy.com/comic/volume-ii-the-liminal-wood/ the woods]] are actually called the liminal woods.
* In ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', when Annie and Kat ask Jones whether Zimmy is human, Jones says not that she is, or isn't, but that she is for all practical purposes. Zimmy is in many respects more uncanny and creepy than most of the overtly non-human beings in and around the court.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The main hero of ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' is a [[HalfHumanHybrid ghost-human hybrid]], the result of a FreakLabAccident. [[VainSorceress Spectra]] pulled a BreakingSpeech on Danny in her first appearance based on this.
-->'''Spectra:''' What are you? A ghost trying to fit in with humans? Or some creepy little boy with creepy little powers?\\
'''Danny:''' Both! Uh... neither! I don't know.\\
'''Spectra:''' You're a freak! Not a ghost, not a boy! Who cares for a thing like you?
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Spike the dragon suffers from this as a major emotional obstacle. As a dragon that grew up among (magical) ponies, Spike has a lot of characteristics normal for ponies, which makes him stand out like a sore thumb among his fellow dragons. Dragons aren't quite AlwaysChaoticEvil, but they are prone to more violence and aggression than is normal for ponies, so Spike's soft-hearted nature is ill suited to living around large portions of the dragon race. Spike does later meet more reasonable, pragmatic dragons who can act and speak diplomatically and intelligently, and actually manages to reconcile his image of dragons being rude and crude with examples of genuinely well-meaning dragons. Though, there is a degree of arrogance among the ponies (that the story rarely addresses) that the ponies are acting a bit self-important; as if they have no history of crimes or terrible personality flaws to speak of, when clearly they're not that different from dragons in some respects.
* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'':
** As an UpliftedAnimal, Swift Wind is both a horse and a sentient being
** Double Trouble straddles categories and transgresses everyday boundaries. As a non-binary character, they transcend binary categories of gender. As a shapeshifter, they partake of many forms. [[spoiler:As a mercenary, Double Trouble sides with the Horde ''and'' the Rebellion at different points in season 4.]]
** Hordak straddles boundaries as well. As a cyborg, he is both flesh and machine. [[spoiler:He was cast out of the galactic Horde but remains loyal to Horde Prime, so he both is and isn't part of the clone army. As a [[RogueDrone clone soldier with free will]], he has aspects of both his drone-like brethren and an autonomous individual.]]
* The eponymous character in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' is a gem-human hybrid, with the abilities and needs of both. Rather than a conventional HalfHumanHybrid, he has the HeartDrive of a gem (the same one his mother [[DeathByChildbirth effectively died passing on]]) tied to an organic body, instead of projecting a HardLight [[SelfConstructedBeing construct]]. [[spoiler:Separating the two will leave his organic body [[CantLiveWithoutYou physically crippled]] and make the gemstone project an [[TheSoulless emotionally crippled]] new body for the express purpose of reuniting.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Viruses. They don't grow, can't live on their own, and do not generate their own energy, so they can't be considered alive. At the same time, they do replicate, mutate, and adapt, traits commonly associated with living beings. Scientists have argued whether they are considered living or nonliving, depending on the system they adopt, but one thing is clear - viruses are a class of their own.
[[/folder]]
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