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alt title(s): Glamor Failure
This is how you rig a limbo competition.
There are many things that go bump in the night, secure in the knowledge that their unholy powers can trick the human eye into blindness, allowing them to live among and prey on humanity with impunity. But their supernatural (and at times inherently evil) nature means that no matter how complete the deception, they can never truly hide what they are. They may fool the mundane senses, but not the spiritual ones; inanimate objects, animals, children, The Empath or spiritually touched people can sense and see through the deception and cause a Glamour Failure. The Hunter and mundane heroes wise to these evil tells will be sure to use them to ferret out the villain; directors also love to work them into The Reveal when the creature's victim finally puts two and two together. More tragically, a hero under the effects of The Virus will usually have the full emotional impact of it sink in when she can't see her reflection.
These flaws in their façade are usually mixed and matched. So your mileage may vary depending on the critter:
- No reflection (usually reserved for vampires and The Soulless).
- Not appearing on film; digital cameras, voice recordings and telephone optional.
- True reflection (Fae or other glamour users will usually reflect their true image).
- A modern variation has the true form of glamour users revealed by a security camera, since glamour meant to fool human minds won't work on a machine.
- Animals hate and distrust them (see Evil Detecting Dog).
- Physical defect (usually for Shapeshifters, Clones, Body Snatchers, or Chest Monsters). See Red Right Hand.
- Mildly pronounced fangs (not huge, but big enough for the Wolf Man and vampire to stand out; compare Cute Little Fangs).
- Pointed Ears. A staple of vampires, fairies and Vulcans (though these last ones aren't evil, we promise [unless it's Evil Spock, but that's just a technicality]). For vampires, it's presumably to mimic a bat's large ears... or it could be done to up the Ho Yay factor.
- Unusual eyes: Red or yellow colored eyes, or vertical pupils.
- Variation (used in Discworld, but based on earlier folklore): the eyes are the only part that cannot be disguised, and reveal the true nature of the being.
- No shadow (usually ghosts and Holograms will lack these).
- Shadow moves on its own (a staple of vampires and really nasty critters; also of Peter Pan).
- Shadow shows their true form (sometimes for shapeshifters).
- Silver burns (silver has reputed anti-evil properties, so it’s fair game for most creepy crawlies).
- Iron does the same (often for The Fair Folk).
- Sometimes restricted to cold or wrought iron.
- Sunlight burns/weakens/makes them sparkle (not restricted to vampires, any strongly evil or supernatural creature will react to sunlight like a marshmallow in an oven).
- Holy objects burn/repel (pretty basic, anything holy aligned will repel evil, may be culture specific and/or depend on having a pure heart or strong faith).
- Cannot go someplaces either because they need to be invited, or the cannot cross some obstacle that would not hinder a human, such as running water, lines of salt or magic circles.
- Or the opposite, they are confined to a defined area (often for ghosts).
Some supernaturals will drop their glamour on purpose and reveal their Game Face or Hiss Before Fleeing. When this happens on a large scale it's a Broken Masquerade.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Seras Victoria from the Hellsing anime burns herself with silver in the second episode.
- That would be one of Father Anderson's "Blessed Bayonets". It happens because she's a Vampire, and those are intended to kill them.
- She also burns herself to her own silver bullets, as well as cutlery (I think - it's been awhile since I saw the series).
- Subverted in the Ghost in the Shell: 2nd Gig episode "Trans Parent", in which Batou is convinced that a young girl can see through his thermoptic camouflage somehow. He's wrong — she's blind.
- The wolves in Wolf's Rain use some kind of glamour to appear human, but humans can occasionally see through it. There are also a couple of instances where the wolves look human but cast wolf shadows, though this only happens when humans aren't looking.
- The Count of Monte Cristo in Gankutsuou appears blurry and out-of-focus in photographs, and his voice cannot be heard in audio recordings.
- Nanami Jinnai in El Hazard gains the ability to see through illusions. However, she sees completely through, meaning she doesn't notice there is an illusion in the first place: She simply assumes everybody sees what she's seeing until she blurts out something that tips them off.
- On Pokémon, the character Duplica had an inexperienced Ditto that could transform, but retained its own facial features, (such as they were). Her next appearance had a second, undersized Ditto, named Mini-Dit. This one could transform, matching everything but size. This led to appearances by the likes of mini-Onix and mini-Ursaring.
- Medusa in Soul Eater has a tendency to form slit-like pupils when feeling particularly sinister, often accompanied with a Slasher Smile.
- Midway through To Aru Majutsu No Index, Touma suddenly finds himself in a bizarre world where everyone's appearance has been swapped without anyone else noticing, leaving him the Only Sane Man for much of the time. However, photographs are not changed from Touma's perspective (though even television broadcasts are). He identifies spellcaster responsible by how their appearance in person is the same as in a photo.
- A variation of this occurs early on in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de manga and TV anime. A female ghost, given a beautiful human form by the Big Bad, seduces young men who come to visit her, devouring their souls. When Yasuaki is sent to investigate the case, she tries this tactic on him, only to be informed that he has no emotions that would allow him to appreciate her beauty, and therefore sees her just as what she really is (a skeleton). She does not take it well...
- The Blob Monster Melona can perfectly mimic anyone she choses, but her pupils always retain their eerie + shape.
Comics
- In the Marvel Universe, there have been various ways over the years to detect the shapeshifting Skrulls, including superhuman senses, telepathy, magic, and various devices. Also, death. However, as of the Secret Invasion storyline, the Skrulls have figured out ways to trick telepaths, magic users, and super-senses, leaving technology (e.g. 3-D Man's special goggles) and improvised tactics (e.g. Ms. Marvel shooting a whole crowd with a low-level energy blast strong enough to knock down the humans and leave the Skrulls standing).
- And then Reed figures out a way to do reveal the Skrulls -anyway-. Guess he's not so useless after all.
- Komodo from Avengers: The Initiative must maintain some level of consciousness to keep her transformation, otherwise she reverts back to her true form. She does exactly this in one issue when she accidentally falls asleep in front of her teammate Hardball. Inverted in that she's an attractive young woman in her true form, while transformed she's a monstrous lizard...thing.
- But played straight in that in her human form, she has no legs.
- Monstrous? She's awfully pretty in both forms.
- An interesting example is Mrs. Vashti, AKA 'Spell Syrin', one of the teachers of PS238, and a former superhero. Rather than bother with official clothes, she just walks around in her spandex-tastic superhero outfit all the time, and uses Glamers to appear demurely-dressed to others. The reader, however, usually sees her as she really is, and a couple of mystically talented students have also demonstrated the ability to see through it. More interestingly, when mirrors appear, they show us what she appears like to others, in a direct inversion of the classic 'The mirror tells the truth' cases above.
- In that vein, Girl (Varied Number) from the Top Ten comic book series uses her color control over her android body to fake clothing. Too bad her commanding officer, a sentient dog, is color blind. Punching ensues.
Films
- In John Carpenter's They Live (1988), aliens use a mind-controlling satellite signal to appear human, cloaking themselves from the eyes of Mankind while they take over governments and corporations. A resistance movement forms when someone creates special sunglasses that can filter out the signal before it reaches the brain and allows the wearer to see the aliens as they truly are.
- The Shadow (1994) with Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston a.k.a. the mysterious Shadow, the titular character of this movie screen comic book adaption. His powers of deception, mind control and telekinesis are clearly psychic, the result of a Training From Hell by an ancient mysterious Asian mentor. Only two people can see through his hypnotic deception: his arch-enemy who has similar mental powers (and who can hide whole buildings from the eyes of passers-by), and the professor's blonde daughter who is a latent psychic herself and who catches a glimpse of The Shadow when she meets Cranston.
- Cranston also lands himself in hot water twice when the villains use his ability to cloud men's minds against him. The first time happens in Dr. Lane's lab when one of Shiwan's men begins shining a flashlight around the room, discovering him when the light falls on him and makes him cast a shadow. The second time happens when he tracks down Farley Claymore to a pressure testing chamber, thinking he's been brainwashed into helping Shiwan; the latter starts filling the tank with water, and spots Cranston by looking for signs of water flowing around a person's legs. He ends up getting shot on both occasions.
- In X Men, Mystique's shapeshifting isn't quite perfect. Her eyes flare yellow if she loses her concentration, for example, and she can't quite mimic the smell of others (making her particularly vulnerable to Wolverine's sense of smell).
- The T-1000 in Terminator 2 could imitate anything it touched, within certain limitations. However, after being frozen and shattered, its mimicking technology got a bit... twitchy. Beyond that, your only clues are his precise movements from the Uncanny Valley Acting School, and a Bluff The Impostor moment when he's imitating John's foster mother.
- In Phantom Of The Paradise, Swan's lackeys always make sure that he's never photographed or filmed. It's revealed that years ago he made a Deal With The Devil that allows him to never age; part of the price is that this trope applies to any pictures/film taken of him since the pact was originally made (and videotaped — the tape is his Soul Jar).
- In the Blade movies, the Glamour Failure ended up being needed. If you were a certain vampire's pet, you got a tattoo so other vampires knew not to eat you. This helps (and oddly hinders) Blade. And relatedly, despite getting all the good bits of vampire powers in his origin (durabillity mostly) he cannot detect if his adversary is a human with fake pointy teeth. This also comes back to bite him on the ass (pun intended).
- The page image from Van Helsing shows one of the common ways in which vampires can experience this — lacking a reflection in a mirror.
- This was parodied in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, where a big dance scene ends up being ridiculous when seen in a mirror, particularly when Dracula is spinning the woman in the air.
- Well, to be fair she was doing quite well on her own
- In the 1986 remake of The Fly, Seth Brundle realizes just how badly he has already been transformed when the computerized teleportation pods refuse to recognize his voice.
- In The Little Mermaid, Ursula, in the guise of a beautiful woman named Vanessa, is found out when Scuttle sees her true form reflected in a mirror.
- Blade Runner replicants are identical to humans. The only reliable way to detect them is the Voight-Kampff test which monitors answers and subtle physical response to emotional questions.
- In Avatar, after the all the effort and technology the humans went through to create remote-controlled alien clones, the Na'Vi are never actually fooled for a second. (at least not durin the events of the film) Possibly because all the real Na'Vi all know each-other, or because they've seen Avatars before, or because he was acting like an idiot. It does beg the question however; if they were making Avatars so that they could interact with and/or form diplomatic ties with the Na'Vi, why the hell did they dress the Avatars in human millitary clothing? why even make cargo shorts, jackets, boots and T-Shirts that tall?
- The Avatars were never intended to fool the Na'vi - there's no way that humans could get all their social cues correct without aid, and they have distinct physical differences, most notably five fingers instead of four. Their main purpose is to have a higher survival rate for the scientific expeditions in the highly dangerous Pandoran jungles, and make interaction with the natives more comfortable. It makes sense for them to wear human clothes, since the diplomatic association with the Na'vi was intended to gently impose human cultural values on them, rather than to assume their values.
Literature
Live Action TV
- Battlestar Galactica: Humanoid Cylons are very difficult to detect in isolation, but once more than a few get together it gets much easier as there are many copies, but only twelve "models". Their very existence is sniffed out this way by Helo in Season 1, and again by Kendra Shaw in the movie. Although five models exist as individuals without additional copies.
- Several villains on Are You Afraid of the Dark?:
- The Tale of the Mystical Mirror: A woman who killed young girls in a ritual to keep herself eternally young and beautiful looked like an old hag (and so did her portraits) in mirrors. Hence why one girl wondered while visiting her house, "How can you be so vain and not have a mirror in your bathroom?"
- Clearly taken from the folklore surrounding Transylvanian (Romanian) Countess Erzebet (Elizabeth) Bathory.
- The Tale of the Captured Souls: A boy who stole people's youth to make him young forever looked like an old man in mirrors, pictures, and on video camera and was thus alarmingly camera shy.
- Taken from Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray.
- Parodied on the US version of The Office. Jim is attacked by a bat and spends the rest of the episode faking vampire symptoms (garlic aversion, repulsion at Karen's cross, etc.). A dangerous game, knowing Dwight.
- The Smallville version of Bizarro looks exactly like Clark unless he's weakened or, later, exposed to sunlight, in which case his face will briefly flicker into a broken-glass-ish looking form that calls to mind the earliest comic book versions of the character.
- A heroic example: Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap can be seen as he really is by the very young and animals, and sometimes by the insane, psychics, or people whose brain patterns are similar to his own. This also applies to his friend Al, who appears as a hologram that is normally invisible to others than Sam.
- Although due to real-life technical limitations, Al's hologramatic appearance sometimes casts shadows, his cigar smoke is affected by wind, his cigar smoke is visible despite the established rule that only things Al touches can be seen, etc.
- The Latino Soap Opera La Mujer en el Espejo ("The Woman in the Mirror") is about a homely woman who finds a magic mirror that gives her a beautiful appearance — but her reflection still looks ugly.
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Buffy is supposed to be able to sense vampires magically, but this seems to be one of the Slayer powers that just did not manage to cross over. She still figures out two or three vamps because their fashion sense stalls at the point of time they, the vampires, first died. Dated clothes trumps weirdo magic-sense.
- Faith mentioned being able to tell if Angel was anywhere in a building, so it works pretty well for her. Apparently Buffy just has the sensitivity of a brick given the number of times vampires have been able to get right up to her without being noticed.
- Note that this ability may have been specifically honed by Faith after she accidentally killed a human she mistook for a vampire. Buffy, being able to rely on her other instincts to spot vampires, simply hasn't bothered.
- The Rakshasa are featured in Kolchak the Night Stalker. This variation could appear as someone its victim trusted and/or loved; it could be repelled by the Swastika, which was a sacred symbol long before Nazi Germany co-opted it. This version was the direct inspiration for the D&D version, being vulnerable to a blessed crossbow bolt.
- The first episode of Merlin uses the mirror variant with a vengeful crone who kills an esteemed guest of Camelot and takes her form.
- Used several times in Supernatural. Mainly the true reflection variant (such as the Changelings, or the Siren). Occasionally, they'll thrown in the physical defect variant (the "flip-to-silver" eyes for the shapeshifters, a retractable layer of fangs for vampires.) But since most of the characters in the show hunt these nasties, they also have several tests, just in case. For starters, iron and holy water are pretty good indicators that a baddie is about.
- Bobby actually uses these tests on Dean after the latter gets out of Hell, just to make sure Dean is, in fact, Dean.
- Star Trek Deep Space 9's brand of Changelings, the Founders, are liquid beings that can perfectly mimic any object (though some, like Odo, can't get the faces right). In later years, the only way for the Federation to scope out a Founder is through blood tests, as any material drawn from a changeling reverts back to its own natural liquid state (that looks very different from blood).
- The X Files episode "The Unnatural" is about an alien who falls in love with baseball, taking on the form of a Negro player in 1947 Roswell. At one stage while he's asleep another character sees his true Grey alien face reflected in the window of the bus they're traveling on. The image disappears when he wakes up.
Mythology
- In Japanese mythology, a Kitsune's (fox's) human-disguise is often revealed because a Kitsune cannot hide its real eyes in reflections.
- Also, a young, inexperienced, drunk, or just plain careless kitsune may accidentally reveal its fox ears or tail(s); this seems to show up especially often in anime. This seems to imply that the ears and tail are the hardest body parts for a kitsune to transform, though this troper has yet to find any work in which this is explicitly stated.
- The tails being difficult to transform makes sense, but maybe the ears are just easy to forget about?
- Kitsune are also said to be incapable of saying "moshi moshi", which lead to the phrase being used as a greeting. It is still a typical way to answer the phone in Japan.
- Odin gave up one of his eyes for wisdom. He usually is unable to fully conceal this.
- In Jewish, Russian, and some other folktale traditions, demons and vampires had bird feet which they couldn't conceal no matter what form they took.
- There is a story about the Welsh Saint Collen who entered a fairy castle at the behest of its king. He was invited to a banquet there, but wisely refused to eat, remarking that the food was only tree leaves. When the king asked what he thought of the red and blue garments worn by the castle servants, Collen said that the red signified the side being burnt and the blue signified the side being frozen. He then poured holy water on the ground, causing the entire castle to vanish.
Tabletop Games
- In Changeling: The Lost, the Mask that disguises changelings as mortals always shows some small hint of their true nature and appearance. This gets worse as they become more powerful — the most powerful, although still human in appearance, look decidedly off, and are unlikely to be able to go anywhere without drawing unwanted attention. Also, certain people can sometimes see through the Mask — the insane, those who are high, fetches, very young children, people with certain forms of brain damage... it's not a sure thing, though. Furthermore, a changeling's shadow always shows hints of their true nature — if you were turned into a mountain goat, your shadow's going to show horns, even if you strengthen the Mask to the point that even other Changelings can't see through it, or use Contracts (Fae magic) to appear as something or someone else entirely. Fortunately, the shadow only looks 'off' to other fae or creatures that can see through the Mask, not to everyone in general.
- In Promethean: The Created, Prometheans appear human, but other people can sense that there's something wrong about them on a deep, fundamental level. This feeling can build over time until the point where a lynch mob is forming. It gets worse when a Promethean uses their innate powers around another person, because then the glamour fails utterly and they can see the Promethean in their true form - an animated corpse.
- The tiger-like Rakshasa in Dungeons & Dragons are demonic shapeshifters (derived from Indian folklore) who can disguise themselves as any humanoid creature, with the caveat that their hands are always facing the wrong way on their wrists.
- This has varried over the years from the hands being upsidedown to the palms being on the wrong side. i.e. the left and right hands were switched. Another version from the spinoff parody Dungeon Hack described their hands as being upsidedown and switched, so that the palms faced inward, but the thumbs were on the bottom and the pinkies on top. This is the only version where the palms faced inward.
- D&D also brings us the "Changelings", a sort of Doppleganger / Human hybrid who can appear like any sort of humanoid they wish. However, a true seeing spell will easily reveal their true form. For the record, they're grey, with gangly and slightly off proportion limbs, white eyes, and only the slightest indication of a nose and mouth. They also turn back if killed, of course.
- Infant changelings are also unable to maintain a fake appearance while asleep, returning to their true form. There're also certain size and mass limitations for a changeling's tranformation.
- An article on Changelings in one Eberron sourcebook dedicated an entire section to "ways to spot a Changeling". The top causes of Glamour Failure are an incorrect accent, incorrect clothing (the body might transform, but the clothes do not) and a lack of knowledge on local customs.
- In Exalted, the Lunar Exalted are shapeshifters extraordinaire, but each one possesses a single animal feature — its Tell — that remains consistent regardless of what form it takes. The Tell is usually fairly subtle, such as an oddly-colored patch of hair or strange-looking eyes, but it does allow anyone who knows what he's looking for to identify the Lunar.
- Also in Exalted, Solars have a awareness charm that make them ignore glamour as if it were not there.
- In the Warhammer 40000 universe, daemonhosts (a daemon sealed in the body of a human by means of occult rituals and symbols) generally resemble the person whose body they're possessing, but with distinct physical changes that identify them for what they are. For example, in the final Eisenhorn novel Hereticus, Inquisitor Eisenhorn notes that while the daemon Cherubael has made all the usual physical alterations to its host body - small horns, glossy golden skin, blank eyes, and claws - the daemonhost still bears a chilling resemblance to his old friend Godwyn Fischig.
- Another WH40k example: in the Gaunts Ghosts novel Ghostmaker, an Eldar Farseer is manipulating the memories and perceptions of the Tanith First and Only, making them believe that they are back on their doomed homeworld, fighting for its survival. The illusion isn't perfect, however, as several characters get the sense that something is wrong, and eventually the glamour fails entirely when mildly psychic teenager Brin Milo looks at a disguised Eldar warrior through the appropriately-named "Mad" Larkin's sniper scope, revealing that the tall, thin "Tanith" with white and red hair is in fact a Dire Avenger Aspect Warrior.
- Gee, you'd think maybe the 8' 8" Farseer would have been a bit of a tip off. Or the fact that the Dire Avengers weren't even pretending to act human.
- Many of the Glamour Failures in Deadlands are exactly what one would expect from a series were All Myths Are True: silver repels even human-form werewolves, and so on. The series' most unique form of revenant, the Harrowed, bear most extensive discussion: they carry the smell of death everywhere they go, have a distinctly pale complexion, keep a scar from their cause of death, and are prone to setting off nearby wildlife. If a lot of their giveaways make them sound like evil incarnate, it's worth remembering that even the nice ones have a Jekyll And Hyde complex.
Theatre
- A rather literal Glamor Failure occurs in a Dream Sequence in Lady in the Dark, where Liza Elliott dreams she is a wealthy, glamorous lady in blue. As a renowned celebrity with legions of admirers, the glamorous Liza can hardly refuse to allow her portrait to be painted. When the portrait is unveiled, it shows Liza as the austerely dressed, neurotic magazine editor she really is. Consternation ensues.
Video Games
- In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, you find a girl trapped in one of the dungeons who asks you to lead her out, but if you do so she tells you not to go out that way. You have to lead the "girl" into a room with bright sunlight coming in, which reveals her to be the boss Blind.
- In Phantasy Star Online, in the Seabed area, there are robot enemies that are usually invisible. However, you can see their reflections in the water and reflective surfaces that are usually common throughout the area, making it possible to attack them. Also, using a lightning spell will short out the invisibility for some time.
- Reversed in one of the possible quests in the video/PC game Darkstone. A witch has cursed the women of a local village to turn to stone if they ever become more beautiful than she is. Since she looks to be about three million years old, all the women are statuary. Your character must visit the local dungeon and find a perfectly normal-looking man who is convinced that he's ugly as sin, so has come down to find the Fountain of Youth in order to hopefully fix the problem. Turns out that his real problem is that he's been using something called the Mirror of Lies, which makes beautiful people appear ugly and vice-versa. After getting it from him in exchange for a normal mirror, your character gives the Mirror of Lies to the witch, fooling her into believing that she's young and gorgeous again, so she releases the spell on the village.
- Bart Simpson can see through the aliens disguises with X-ray specs in Bart Vs. The Space Mutants.
- In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the fake residents of Seaside Town look sort of like real mushroom people, except they have metallic colors and don't move like a normal mushroom person should.
- In Paper Mario, the Koopa Bros. attempts to block off the Toad Town gate via apparently magical Toad disguise fails because their hats are black and they pretty much try to be conspicuous.
- In Devil May Cry, when Dante and Vergil's father Sparda took human form, his shadow remained shaped like a demon.
- Spies in Team Fortress 2 have both an invisibility watch and a disguise kit. The invisibility will flicker if the spy is shot or if someone runs into them, and the disguise will fail if they use their gun or knife. If an enemy pyro lights a spy on fire, the disguise and cloak are maintained, but they are completely worthless as friendly players cannot be lit on fire, and the player is clearly a spy once they're on fire.
Web Comics
- The protagonist of Fox Tails
 , Keen Kotaru, possesses a so-far unexplained ability to see through the Glamours of the various animal-spirits that are otherwise maintaining a Masquerade in our world. His ability to thus notice the remaining animal features of transformed spirits is what drives the plot, and allows him to effectively fight the evil spirits...
- In Errant Story, the Elven Rangers who move around the world of men in search of 'Errants' (half-elves who frequently become psychotic) often uses glamours to disguise their elven nature. At one point, however, a young child can see through it, though her mother dismisses it...
- In Dan and Mabs Furry Adventures, the Cubi all possess powerful shape-shifting abilities, which obviously comes in handy for many things. However, they all have a single "marking" on them that they cannot change — and which also shows what clan they belong to. If you manage to spot such a mark, and happen to know what they mean, you'll both know that you're actually facing a Cubi — and usually whether it's the kind that feasts on pain, terror and suffering, or the kind that feeds on lust, joy and happiness. Very handy for determining what your next response should be, really.
- Although make-up or clothing can conceal them.
- But only real clothing, not clothing made by shapeshifting.
- In Gunnerkrigg Court, certain individuals are living Glamour Failure, who unconsciously dispel illusions by their very presence. Antimony is one such person, as her encounter with the ghost in the hospital showed.
- Last Resort uses the "Dead Eyes" of the Djinn-si as a quick tell-tale for identifying most Dead Inside, and it's also the only part of Alice's body that can't be changed by shapeshifting.
Web Original
- The webnovel John Dies at the End tells the story of two college dropouts who discover and fight an otherworldly invasion after a chance run-in with a supernatural drug changes their perceptions forever. As a result, they see a lot of freaky stuff invisible to everyone else, but they also gain a lot of experience identifying subtle clues that ordinary people could notice if they paid attention. They learn mirrors can be used to circumvent certain illusions, religious symbols can be used to flush out and ward off evil, and household pets can be used to detect and identify paranormal beings.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Joo Dee, the kids' obstructive Stepford Smiler minder who follows them around Ba Sing Se is driven bonkers by them poking holes in her government cover story. She's promptly replaced by a new Joo Dee, and it's later revealed that there's a lot more where that one came from.
- Hilariously done on the children's show Count Duckula where the titular duck decides to redecorate the castle and one decorator hired does the place up in all windows. Of course, since the duck is a vampire, he can't see himself in any of them.
- Batman Beyond: Whenever Derek Powers got angry, which was frequently, his powers would flare up and start to burn through his artificial skin, revealing that of the radioactive, glowing villain Blight. Actively using his powers for even a few seconds will completely shatter it, requiring him to have new skin grafted on. His inability to keep his skin on through the events of any given workday actually makes him a case of Blessed With Suck.
- In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, whenever Nergal Junior transformed, he always retained his green eyes, glasses, and fangs.
- In Samurai Jack, anything Aku transforms into has the same black/green/red color scheme he does, and his true form shows up in reflections.
- He's clearly aware of this, as he doesn't use the power to try fooling Jack.
- Except for that one time he disguised himself as a beautiful woman and managed to fool Jack all the way till the end of the episode, at which point it was too late as Aku managed to destroy the Mac Guffin Jack had spent the episode trying to locate.
- To be fair to Jack, this was the first time Aku had pulled this trick on him. When Aku tries it in a later episode, he gets thoroughly owned.
- While not a person, an episode of Justice League Unlimited has Hawkgirl discover a mine on a faraway planet was fake (and, thus, a trap) when the holographic shadows it cast from her glowing mace didn't follow the same direction of the other shadows the mace cast.
- Earlier, a spell cast on Superman and Wonder Woman to make each think that the other was a demon could only be broken once they saw the other's reflection. The problem was that, once Superman saw what was going on, he felt unable to fight Wonder Woman, and thus had to take a beating until Wonder Woman saw it too.
- And there is the whole In Blackest Night episode, where John is tried for destroying a planet. The others notice the planet's sattelite is stil orbiting it, find the holoprojector, and blast it apart, causing the planet to reappear right in front of the judges.
- In Code Lyoko, XANAfied people and Polymorphic Specters can be recognized by their pupils turning into "Eye of XANA" symbols, or by their tendency of getting blurry with "static" from time to time. They can usually suppress this long enough to force a Spot The Imposter Check, though.
- On X-Men Evolution, Kurt's image inducer. Given that it really only needs the settings "off" and "on" was there really the need to give it so many options and make the off button so incredibly easy to press by accident?
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