Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
alt title(s): Modesty Rags
"Did his pants just grow to four hundred times their normal size?"
Transforming heroes who change in size generally don't have to worry about shredding their clothes in the process. They must have Magic Pants.
Simply put, Magic Pants are the "civilian" clothing the characters wear as they go about their daily business. They may lose them during the Transformation Sequence, but once the dirty work is done, they'll appear back in them often right where they're standing. This can even happen if the transformations explicitly destroyed the clothing. In some cases, the rest of the clothing is destroyed but the pants mysteriously survive.
This doesn't apply to magical characters, who presumably can conjure up a fresh set, nor to characters with super speed ( Superman, the Flash) who have the demonstrated ability to get dressed faster than the human eye can see, nor to heroes whose clothing is what makes them super in the first place. No, those would actually be aversions of this trope. This is for characters who seem to spontaneously regain their clothes even when it's inconsistent with what gives them their powers.
For costumes that can be tattered to almost any extreme just short of the point where they reveal the character's naughty bits, see Fan Service.
Compare to Impossibly Cool Clothes and My Suit Is Also Super. Not to be confused with Trouser Space. Related to Magic Skirt.
Examples
Anime
Comic Books
- The most obvious example is The Incredible Hulk, who seems to always wind up wearing those purple pants regardless of what Banner was wearing before the transformation:
- In the live-action series, Ferrigno usually wound up wearing the same kind of pants that Bixby had on when he "Hulked Out". This led to amusing scenes in which the transformation would shred shirts, destroy heavy leather work boots, and even, in one case, crack open a motorcycle helmet — and yet those Magic Pants remained intact. One speculates that this was why the Hulk was so angry.
- One issue of "The Ultimates", an Alternate Continuity version of The Avengers, plays on this, claiming that the Hulk, who was out of control, "murdered a fat guy and stole his pants" off screen after he transformed. Much of the time, he's just naked with Peek A Boo.
- This was done to an even more ridiculous degree in the 1980s Hulk cartoon, where Banner's clothes spontaneously regenerated when he transformed back. (A side effect of Limited Wardrobe, this editor supposes)
- Stan Lee once commented that he liked to work "science" (read: Technobabble) into all of his stories, and that Hulk's pants were the only time he never had a clue how the exact science behind it worked.
- Also used in She Hulk comics: magic pants and a magic top, although this was probably to escape the censors.
- Particularly noticeable in the original "Savage She-Hulk" series, where Jen not only ended up in whatever clothes she was wearing before making the transformation, but She-Hulk was often in the same tattered white dress, regardless of whatever Jen might have been wearing. Jeans and a blouse? White dress. Red dress? White dress, etc.
- However, because she was a member of the Fantastic Four for a while, you'd guess some of her clothes are just made of unstable molecules.
- She also borrowed clothes (as well as sublets her apartment) from The Wasp, known fashion-plate and hoarder of outfits made of unstable molecules. Shrinking has a tendency to leave you nekkid, too. The bad guys did manage to torch her favorite "gunky, loaf-around sweater" once, though. Once. Of course, She-Hulk had some very touchy fashion needs, too. As explained in her one-shot graphic novel, her high-heels had to be made of Adamantium because of her weight. (As a side-note she is on record as having the largest breasts in the Marvel Universe.)
- This was explained in her fourth wall-breaking second solo series. Her lingerie has been approved by the Comics Code Authority and is guaranteed to keep her decent.
- Lampshaded in a recent issue. In human form, she wears a baggy t-shirt that covers the important bits. She transforms, and suddenly her painfully stretched panties are visible below the shirt. The now-tight t-shirt reads "CBLDF
 ".
- And in fact, in the Dan Slott run — she managed to shred her work clothes, as during this run she had a psychological addiction to her powered up form but for various reasons, has to stay in human form at work. Such is her desire to change, she gets out the office and hulks out almost immediately — with a sigh of relief. She's still decent but the suit looks utterly ruined.
- This even led Deadpool to believe there was some sort of power in the Hulk's pants, calling out "HULK PANTS, ACTIVATE!" while being held aloft by the Rhino. But, then again, Deadpool is a Cloud Cuckoolander.
- Parodied in a billboard in Alan Moore's Top Ten. "Super Stretchy Gamma Pants. You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Naked."
- A possible parody is the giant green dragon Fin Fang Foom, also in the Marvel universe, who wears purple pants.
- In the post comics code "Strange Tales" comic where Fin Fang Foom debuted, every monster that was even slightly humanoid would inevitably be wearing brightly colored athletic trunks. Sometimes the trunks would be an obvious last minute edit, being that they were the same color as the monster's skin.
- However, this is subverted in the Ang Lee movie version of the Hulk, where there does come a point (after several stacking annoyances to Mr. Banner) where the Hulk is apparently completely naked. However, by this time he is largely shadow-clad.
- In "The Incredible Hulk" film, Bruce Banner is shown buying extremely stretchy pants several sizes too big. Presumably he has quite a collection of belts.
- Also lampshaded when he turns down the stretchiest pair because they're purple.
- This is a modified version of a joke from the comics, used during his grey Joe Fixit days. Post-Transformation Banner is stuck in grubby torn clothes and goes to an upscale store, whose snobby salesman directs him to a bargain bin full of purple pants with "an exremely elastic waistband". Banner then whips out a handfull of Fixit's Mob money and walks out in a tailored suit.
- Also lampshaded in an early issue of Wolverine. Hulk, in his "Joe Fixit" gray Hulk persona has shown up in Madripoor. Wolverine, being a longtime foe of the Hulk recognizes him immediately. In an attempt to scare Hulk off and play a gag on him, Wolverine breaks into Hulk's hotel room, steals his expensive custom-made Hulksized Mafia suits, and replaces them with many, many pairs of large, ripped up, purple pants. (Hulk then goes to a tailor he knows who does excellent rush work, and shows up at Wolverine's place fully decked-out in a white linen three-piece suit.)
- Lampshaded and averted simultaneously in the Crisis Crossover The Infinity Crusade. Due to experiencing atmospheric re-entry, all of the Hulk's clothes burn off, plus he passes out due to the stress (though being Nigh Invulnerable, he was otherwise unharmed). After he lands on an opponent, a new hero unfamiliar with the Hulk wonders "if he always goes into battle in such a... natural state."
- The Hulk's son Skaar has a magic loincloth, which shrinks to fit his human alter-ego.
- Hulk's pants have been destroyed on rare occasion. In one instance revealing that he wore orange and yellow boxers that were apparently even more invulnerable.
- One assumes the reason Bruce keeps buying this same brand of hideous purple pants is that they're so stretchy. Though why, in all these years, he's never asked Reed for some unstable molecule trousers is anybody's guess.
- All of the Fantastic Four usually wear a uniform made of "unstable molecules", so Johnny Storm doesn't burn his own clothes when using his powers. However, if he's wearing normal clothing, he will burn it away, shirt, pants and all. In the second movie, he complains about being asked to leave from Sue and Reed's rooftop wedding to chase the Silver Surfer, because "[he] just bought this tux!" Later, when their powers are swapped, Sue accidentally burns off her own clothing.
- Sue hangs a lampshade on this — based on her being embarrassed at stripping to hide her powers in the first movie (of course, they turned off at the exact wrong moment) and her burning her clothing off at the second (again, turning back to normal at the exact wrong moment), she mutters "why does this always happen to me" as she turns invisible to hide herself from the crowd.
- In the cartoon version of the Fantastic Four (where many outfits that the characters had worked with their powers) Sue comments about the pains for shopping for people "That can burst into flames" and "need to be able to stretch 300 feet in all directions". Thankfully in this series her power to turn invisible was applied to whatever she wanted it to.
- And in comics, the formula's been stolen by at least one villain too, so knock-off designs are available to bad guys.
- Done pretty well in the third Blue Beetle's (Jaime Reyes) run; the magical/alien scarab implanted inside his body generates his armour at will; it also apparently uses whatever spare molecules are lying around to make his clothes when he needs to. For the first couple of issues, he'd turn up naked after the scarab dissolved the armour, and had to resort to stealing clothes from charity bins or that sort of thing. When asked what happened to his clothing when he didn't need it, he noted that it "just sort of dissolved". Most characters experience a bit of squick when they see the transformation.
- X-Men goes back and forth on this.
- When the Dark Phoenix persona is bound by Professor X, causing her to revert to plain Jean Grey, her outfit vanishes, despite her costume having been her previous clothes, rapidly rearranged into that form a molecule at a time. (That was her main method of suiting up during the Phoenix era.) There's really no reason for it to have disappeared, and normally, No Ontological Inertia would cause the outfit to revert to its previous form (which would have been her Hellfire Club outfit) instead of vanishing entirely. Can we say Fanservice? In the Animated Adaptation, she shifts from the Dark Phoenix outfit to the normal Phoenix outfit instead.
- In an inversion Mystique shapeshifts fully clothed, and it's eventually revealed that she doesn't wear actual clothes, but shapeshifts them. Presumably, the same goes for any such shapeshifter.
- She said this while wearing a towel, saying it was actually the most the person she'd been talking to had ever seen her wear... which makes you wonder why she was bothering with the towel on this occasion, alone in her own home before the other person arrived.
- Morph has stated that he's always naked and simply shapeshifts into clothing.
- With shapeshifters who are more limited as to what they can change into, it seems "unstable molecules" are involved, allowing clothes to disappear entirely and return when needed again. Best example — Wolfsbane.
- It's been stated that Wolfsbane originally was given a specific 'unstable molecules' variation on the X-Men blue and yellow outift that shrank to a collar when she transformed. Since she was thus naked in her middle 'wolfgirl' form, this was adapted to a leotard of power (Excalibur, early X-Force and X-Factor), and she hasn't used her full (ordinary) wolf shape much since then. Continuing alteration of her wolfen form means she later (later X-Factor) wore ordinary if loose civilian clothes.
- According to end notes and letter columns her U-M clothes actually turn into a collar.
- Kinky.
- On several occasions, Made Of Iron characters get blasted. Sometimes just enough clothing remains to keep 'em decent, and sometimes it's the ol' Censor Steam (which X-Men just loves.)
- Husk, Paige Guthrie, has the ability to transform her skin into any material she can think of; but she must tear off the existing layer to do so. This results in her being naked a fair amount of time, but censor steam is not used in all scenes if her new skin serves the purpose of costume. She has specifically refused to revert to her human form on occasions because of her nudity.
- This despite the fact that, in the first issue of Generation X, she was able to tear off her skin out from under her clothes. Although, she did say it was an experiment, so it's possible she didn't get all the skin, and what was left was uncomfortable enough that she'd rather go full-frontal than repeat the experience. She also wasn't heavily clothed or in a hurry at the time.
- There is also the short-time X-man Marrow, a woman whose powers were to have bone weapons (knifes, spikes, armor plates) growing out of her body, constantly sticking out of her clothes. Strangely, while her entire wardrobe consist of nothing more than what she is wearing, her costume never got ripped apart. Even more strange, some artist actually showed her bones ripping her clothes apart, but others drew these as if they were fused to her clothes. This even got topped when she got a failpolish upgrade giving her something that was called a bone bikini by readers, with her pink bodysuit sometimes appearing out of nowhere.
- Dust's transformation may or may not leave her naked, depending on plot.
- Usually Dust attempts to get back into her clothes if they are available, and other times she doesn't completely leave her outfit if she can pull that off.
- The detail around how Pixie wears tops changes by artist (then again her wings change by artist). In New X-Men it appears she wears shirts with a low back (room for her wings) but in another scene she's wearing a jean jacket (but we never see her from the back). In X-Infernus we see the back of her costume and the wings are just "there" with no sign of how she put on the outfit. In Uncanny she's shown wearing a completely backless shirt when her wings are broken, but she is later shown wearing another low back spaghetti string top like in New X-Men. There is another scene of her in Uncanny wearing her X-Men Yellows but we never see her from the back so there is no sign how the wings fit there.
- One Story Arc of Spider-Man features a hero in training whose pants are not magic. His clothes get fried on multiple occasions, forcing him to trade up to a sturdier black leather version. (Not much later, he winds up suffering More Than Mind Control. Coincidence? I think not.)
- Kimo in recent issues of Elf Quest learns how to shapeshift into a wolf. When he's in wolf form he wears a bandana around his chest, but when he changes back to elf form it apparently slips down his torso to conveniently become a sarong.
- Very, very averted in Empowered. Of course, that is the whole point.
- Justified through an aversion in Captain Atom. When Nathaniel Adam transforms into Captain Atom, his clothing disappears, but usually reappears when he transforms back, except for the one time, in issue #8, that he transformed back into Nathaniel Adam involuntarily while unconscious. Then he was naked. The implication is that, without realizing it, Nate was using his matter-creation and manipulation abilities to recreate the clothes he was wearing when he transformed. Some fans have even inferred that Nate was recreating his whole body in this manner.
- Although there is a scene from Justice League Europe showing Captain Atom transforming to his superpowered form, and it appears that the clothes were just pushed underneath the silver layer.
- The Witchblade generally turns its wielder into a battle form covered with sort of Stripperiffic "armor", but while it can transform clothes, both exact fate of real clothes and amount of generated Fanservice mostly depends on specific wielder, which justifies what would otherwise count as an Adaptation Decay.
- When Iron Man's identity is first revealed to the Avengers, the villain literally melts his armour off leaving him in nothing but a red thong. This could also be female fanservice.
- It happens again during the Marvel Adventures run. But this time he gets some boxers.
- "Your only mistake was melting Iron Man's pants!"
- A very odd version of this trope (probably caused by an artist error) happens in the werewolf comicbook In the Blood. At one point in the first issue we see the main character strip down completely naked before he transforms into a werewolf, but a few pages later while he is still transformed he is clearly wearing tattered pants.
- In earler versions The Creeper has a device inside him that can make his costume reappear and disappear.
- In the Extinctioners comic, they literally are magic pants: team co-leader Phenix uses a spell to create "memory pelts" that swap places with whatever they're wearing when they say their code names.
- Justified with DC Comics supervillainess Giganta; it's explicitly part of her power that any clothing she's wearing grows with her.
- Martian Manhunter's short-lived series claimed that Martian clothing is actually a bioengineered organism that shapeshifts according to its wearer's telepathic commands.
Fanfic
- Averted in one case for DC Nation. Fauna's clothing doesn't "keep up" when she shapeshifts. This led to her fighting off a zombie horde and only realizing AFTER she had come out of her Hulking Out that she was wearing nothing at all. The only saving graces to the situation were that she grew up on a hippie commune and that Hades had forced the Titans to compete in the nude, so she was in good company. She later designed (and sewed) her costume to accommodate her shapeshifting.
Film
- X-Men III: The Last Stand. Jean Grey (as Dark Phoenix) is disintegrating everyone and everything around her, and Wolverine gets near her. Her power disintegrates his shirt (and his chest), but not his pants.
- The Van Helsing movie takes this to a more ridiculous extreme, where every werewolf that transforms visibly shreds their clothes upon transforming, but when reverting to human, their shredded clothes are right there on their body. Even odder, part of the transformation sequence is for them to rip their previous form off of themselves like tissue paper.
- In the animated movie Monsters Vs Aliens, there is a very blatant example - Susan's wedding dress. She grows from normal size to maybe fifty feet, and the dress (with minor shredding of the skirt and sleeves) manages to cover as much as a one-piece bathing suit would on her giant form. Never mind that the amount of fabric in the torn wedding dress on her giant form would make maybe thirty normal-sized wedding dresses.
- The werewolves in Blood and Chocolate transform along with their clothes; I've only seen bits of the film so I can only guess the explainaion is "supernatural powers".
- Of course, this is just one of many things changed from the book, in which it was made a point that werewolves had to remove their clothes before changing (either because they're get ruined or because of the risk of being seen as a wolf in human's clothing).
- In Shrek 2, when Shrek takes the Happily Ever After potion, his old clothes become ridiculously baggy and he has to rob a passing noble for a new outfit... yet when the potion wears off, his stolen clothes transform into the old baggy clothes that he left behind in the forest!
- Probably justified as the potion restores both Fiona and Shrek to their "pre-potion state". This is a magic potion, after all.
- The Cutey Honey Live Action Adaptation movie averts this: Honey has to wear a bra and panties, because all her other clothing is conjured up by the AI System (which runs on onigiri— rice snacks). Bizarrely, though, she has to wear a towel for her first transformation—never mind that she's dry, alone, and in her own house (although one could argue that she wasn't exactly prepared to run around town naked)
- In the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Peter Pettigrew at one point turns back into his rat form and his clothes come off. Later he turns back into his human form wearing the clothes he had lost.
- Lampshaded in the movie The Monster Squad, where the titular kids are having a debate on Wolfman and whether he can actually be called a "guy." One of the kids says, "What are you talking about? He walks around and wears pants..." and then the other kid explains, "He had to wear pants, see, those movies were made in the 40s. He had to wear them so we wouldn't see his...wolf dork." Later on in the movie, the kids encounter Wolfman and one of the kids "kicks him in the nards," revealing that yes, "Wolfman's got nads!"
- Subverted in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit as Wallace's Y-fronts do survive the transformation sequence, as they are clearly shown to be intact when they fly into the face of Quartermaine. When Wallace reverts to human form, it leads to some funny Peek A Boo Items.
- Averted in the 1957 B Movie The Amazing Colossal Man, as the angst-ridden protagonist reflects:
"Who else but a clown would have an expandable sarong like this? You know, it's adjustable. I can grow to be a hundred feet tall, and I don't need a change of wardrobe. Army ingenuity!"
- Also averted in both the original and remake of the B-Movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Naturally in the 50's original, it's not shown on camera, but in the 90's remake, it is. Also in its Rule Thirty Four / Plot What Plot softcore parody. (No, I'm not kidding.)
- Lampshaded in The Incredibles since Edna Mode is a Magic Pants Tailor.
- Completely averted in Village Of The Giants — the teens grow to enormous size rapidly and their clothing proves to be utterly inadequate, fortunately some giant curtains are on hand to cover their shame.
- The newest trailer for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland is also averting this, as Alice shrinks right out of her clothes.
- Played straight in the 1951 Disney adaptation.
- In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Peter Pettigrew must have some very magic pants. When he changes from human to rat form he leaves a pile of clothes on the floor yet when he changes back to human form he is fully clothed. Either they magically teleport to him or he could make alot of money by changing form all day and selling all the clothes that pile up.
Legends
- Non-censorship/Non-Modesty example: Saint Brigid of Kildare — when asking King of Leinster for land to build a convent, she was told she could lay her cloak on the ground and the area the cape covered could be claimed for the convent. She preceded to lay her cape on the ground and it grew.
Literature
- Aversion: In the Animorphs series of books, the main characters are able to shapeshift into animals. Doing so leaves their clothes intact, or rips them up. During the first book they transform back, completely naked, and have to find clothes or store spares elsewhere to change into later — but as they become better at controlling their abilities they become able to clothe themselves in very thin skintight clothing, usually black and "spandexy," which usually causes more unusual attention than outright nakedness...
- This didn't affect the cover artists, though; many editions of the books show characters and their normal clothes transforming in stages (i.e., somebody wearing a red shirt transforming into a cardinal).
- The TV series (when it showed transforming at all...) played this straight, though, with clothes transforming to and from animal forms with the wearer — for budget and decency reasons, one presumes.
- Similarly, in the Discworld series of books, the werewolf Angua von Uberwald has to keep clothes stashed around the city of Ankh-Morpork. In Thud!, when she and the vampire Sally both end up completely naked after transforming into a wolf and a flock of bats respectively, they end up having to borrow clothes from a nearby strip club. It is explicitly stated that male vampires can recorporeate their clothes after shapeshifting, but female vampires cannot. This is probably a direct reference to Fan Service.
- In David Eddings' Belgariad tetradecalogy, a sorcerer's clothes and equipment go "somewhere" when they turn into animals, and reappear when they change back.
- Actually, they are still "there" for a given value of where, since Belgarion can still feel the Orb
- In the Tanya Huff book Blood Trail, the shapeshifters simply walk around naked or take off their clothes to change shape. Of course, there is also a very good reason for this — they are physically unable to shift form if wearing clothing (something about the 'unnatural' fiber interacting with their innate abilities).
- Averted in The Dresden Files, in which the pack of heroic werewolves must simply deal with the fact that they need to remove their clothing before transforming and will be unclothed when they return. They're used to it by the time Dresden meets them and it's no big deal. The fact that their leader doesn't see why it was ever a big deal to anyone is the first sign that she's not what she seems.
- In a short story by Brian Aldiss, a werewolf's transformation is described as a change in his "biomorphic field." This can include clothes as long as they are natural fibres, which will be absorbed into the wolf form and returned to their previous form with the rest of him. Artificial fibres would just be shredded.
- Averted in the Anita Blake novels, lycanthropes transform by shedding their outer layer like, well, wet tissue paper. (If this sounds familiar, well, get used to it, it's Anita Blake.) This includes their clothes. Luckily for them, contracting lycanthropy apparently flips the brain's Body Modesty switch to "off".
- Averted in the Piers Anthony Xanth books. When Nada, a shape-changing naga woman, becomes a snake, she slips out of her clothes and must then take the trouble of bringing them along and changing back into them when she becomes human.
- Alternatively, there are other shape-changing characters in the same series who keep their clothes. In those cases, the clothing magically disappears when the character shifts, then re-appears when the character returns to their previous form. This has caused characters to remark on the difference in the story. A notable moment was one time when a clothing-losing shape-changer witnessed a clothing-keeping shape-changer, and wondered about the difference in their abilities (which was explained as one being a natural racial ability, and the other being a magical talent).
- Averted in the Mercy Thompson series. Clothing is not kept during shifting — and for werewolves, who become larger when they shift, it is torn. Werewolves and other shapeshifters will therefore discard their clothing prior to shifting if there is time to do so. As a side effect, shapeshifters (and those who live with them) tend to be comfortable with casual nudity.
- In the novel Lonely Werewolf Girl, clothes just disappear when a werewolf transforms, and come back when they shift back. When a human who witnesses the process asks Kalyx what happens to the clothes, she says no one really knows.
- The werewolves in the Twilight series destroy their clothes when they transform. To solve this problem, once they get the transformation under control, they undress somewhere where no one will see them and tie them to a leg before transforming — apparently, this somehow saves the clothes. Characters often complain about this when they first begin shifting, Jacob even once getting angry that he accidentally shredded his last pair of underwear.
- The 'Hulk' problem is parodied in the story "Tales of the MCO" within the Whateley Universe, when one of the commercial breaks for the program the students are watching is for the upcoming Merchant-Ivory film "Hulk 1809", which includes in the trailer a Keira Knightley look-alike saying to the hero, "Good sirrah, where are your clothes? And why are your pants that hideous shade of purple?"
- Lampshaded in Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.
Live Action TV
- Somewhat enhanced in Power Rangers and other Tokusatsu series, where if a character covered in filth transforms, they'll be squeaky clean when they de-morph. Apparently the Morphing Grid does sheets, too.
- Mostly averted in Star Trek Deep Space Nine — the shapeshifter Odo forms clothes out of his own substance, but seems to have a Magic Combadge.
- Expanded Universe either implied or outright said that he'd usually put the badge on the inside of whatever he turned into (since he didn't need to actually make organs and so on). Which doesn't explain where it goes when he turns into things like puddles of water.
- On the desk next to his bucket, I would assume.
- Very present in the Animorphs TV series; since the books were an aversion, this is one element of the massive Adaptation Decay the series suffered.
- Present in every episode of Manimal where Dr. Jonathan Crane (aka Manimal) transforms into a panther, hawk, dolphin, cat, or whatever animal-du-jour. In the pilot he transforms to a panther while wearing a tux, and the tux is nowhere to be seen. Upon retransformation to a human he is still wearing the same tux. This is repeated throughout.
- Present in the Season 6 episode of Buffy, "Villains": when Willow kills Warren, she rips his skin from his body, but leaves his pants on.
- Averted in the Season 2 episode of Buffy, "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", Buffy loses her clothes when she is turned into a rat, leading to an embarrassing moment when the spell wears off and she turns back again.
- Present in Season 3 of Heroes: when Sylar is zapped multiple times by Elle, his shirt burns off him but his trousers appear completely undamaged.
- Also in Season 1, when Nathan flies at a supersonic speed, his pants magically stay intact.
- Averted in The Secret World Of Alex Mack; Alex's first attempt at morphing into silver goo winds up with Alex naked and hiding behind a washing machine. The second time, she manages to morph her clothes with her.
- Averted in Woof! — very much so — Eric Banks/Rex Thomas lost his clothes every transformation, very brave for a children's show.
- It is a British children's programme. Compare Doctor Who, which also has a considerable young audience.
- Averted in Being Human. Poor George gets no Magic Pants when he transforms into a werewolf.
- Captain Jack Harkness is canonically immortal and thus able to survive physically destructive situations such as being buried for centuries or incinerated by Daleks. The survival of his clothing, however, has yet to be canonically explained, especially since clothing is scarcely one of Jack's priorities.
Tabletop Games
- In the game Werewolf: the Apocalypse, the pants very well can be magic. Although the shift from regular human to 900-pound killing machine pretty much reduces clothing to shreds, there exists a ritual called the Rite of Talisman Dedication that allows certain items, such as clothing, to become a part of the werewolf's identity. They grow and eventually turn into skin symbols as he grows larger, and return when he goes back to human. The Rite of Talisman Dedication also shows up in the game's "reboot", Werewolf: the Forsaken, as the "Rite of Dedication."
- Appropriately enough for this trope, this Rite is sometimes called "the Rite of Pants" by players due to its most common use being ensuring the character isn't left naked after a few transformations.
- In Vampire The Masquerade, shapeshifting disciplines handwave this by saying the vampire blood melds clothing into the vamp's body. Or some nonsense along those lines.
- That being said, if your party had a vampire sufficiently advanced in the sneaky-hidey Discipline, you could have Virtual Magic Pants For All.
- In Exalted, you'd think Lunar Exalts would go through a lot of clothing when changing shapes — especially to their massive "warforms" — but no, it just disappears into Elsewhere. On the other hand, if they're wearing Moonsilver Artifact Armour, it shifts with them no matter the form they assume — be it that of an unassuming housecat, or a bear the size of a small house. Complete with appropriately sized and shaped chainmail shirt/plate armour. No, really.
- It comes back when they revert to their human true form, however.
- In Dungeons And Dragons, most shapeshifting spells and powers either explicitly have your gear change with you, have your gear meld into your body, cause your gear to fall off unharmed, or some combination of the three when you change.
- At least one supplement on weres (Night Howlers for the boxed set/Rules Cyclopedia edition) not only explicitly specified that the transformation ruined clothes, but included rules for how much damage a lycanthrope would take from shapechanging while wearing (and in the process probably destroying) armor.
- The habit of clothing and gear to meld into one's animal form when using the Druid's Wildshape ability in 3.5 is probably a good thing, since one is probably going to be wearing armor most of the time. It gets a little ridiculous, however, with the Master of Many Forms prestige class that allows a character to use the same Wildshape rules to change into a variety of creatures, including other humanoids. So technically, even though yes, your clothes and armor would still fit if you changed from a human to an elf, you always end up naked. The true Magic Pants comes in when you use an item called a Wilding Clasp, which clips onto a piece of equipment (usually armor or clothing) and causes it to remain on your body and even change size and shape to fit whatever form you take.
- The magical armor enhancement "Beastskin" makes it possible for the armor to morph into armor fitted for the creature you change into and then change back with the character.
- In the superhero RPG Aberrant, characters can take points in a background called "Attunement" which allows them to keep items on their body from being destroyed by powers like shapeshifting, growing, or self-immolation. The lower levels allow them to protect their own clothes, and the higher levels allow them to protect a whole other person. There's also Eufiber, a material produced by a superpowered "Nova" that shifts at the wearer's will.
- GURPS Supers had a buyable Advantage called "Costume" — a costume that works with and adapts to the powers and form of the wearer, similar to Marvel's "unstable molecules".
Video Games
- Eiji from Super Tokusatsu Wars has a transformation where he turns into a large, monstrous humanoid... completely destroying his old body in the process. Yet, if you use the Detransform action, he returns to his normal self, with the clothes he had on before he transformed.
- In the Bloody Roar series of games, the transformations into the characters' beast forms explicitly tears the characters' clothing (almost always shoes, but often shirts, and sometimes their beast form is actually partially or completely naked). However, transforming back to human form also restores the torn clothing.
- Appearing, whenever intentionally or not, in Unreal Tournament 2003/2004. The weapons in this game look like they can take down a tank, especially when you get to the one shot super weapons. Probably most visible when the player is hit with the local version of a hand held nuke, the only thing that survives are his pants and the body parts they are covering. The rest is evaporated or gibbed.
- In the remake of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood included in The Dracula X Chronicles, once you defeat the werewolf boss, he reverts to human form, wearing only a small loincloth. Ironically, in the original version, he was completely naked.
- Well, there's a big difference between spriting a naked man and rendering one, you know.
- Averted in Shadow Of The Colossus. As the game progresses, the hero (and his clothing) becomes more visibly worn from fighting monsters the size of office towers.
- Of course, the fact that he is being gradually possessed by the Sealed Evil In A Can probably contributed.
- In Net Hack, a self-polymorph can destroy or forcibly disrobe you of all your armor, but when you return to normal form you can sit on a cockatrice corpse without turning to stone. Hence, your character must be wearing magic pants.
- Or you're smart enough to just not sit right on the cockatrice. Considering that a single tile is big enough to hold a full-grown dragon, there's presumably enough room for at least a bit of safety margin.
- Not to mention an unlimited number of dead dragons.
- Averted with Rampage; when the player characters revert to human form, they cover themselves up with their hands and run off screen.
- In Final Fantasy VII, Vincent Valentine's Limit Break involves changing shape into a beast. His clothes simply reappear when he changes back.
- Advent Children seems to suggest that the cloak itself is part of his power,
- Considering that, before he was experimented on, he was wearing a lab coat, it's either that or some very Unfortunate Implications.
- Ditto for Terra Branford in Final Fantasy VI, whose innate ability, Trance (Morph in the original release) turns her into a naked, fuzzy, pink Esper, although she still wields her weapons and enjoys the stat benefits of her armor and relics. Using the command "Revert" restores her and her clothes.
- There's some debate over Terra; given that all her equipment is apparently on and still works, this might just be a case where Power Glows so brightly that it prevents anyone from seeing her clothes underneath.
- And again in Final Fantasy IX, with both Zidane and Kuja, whose trance forms have all their clothes vanish in lieu of fur, yet reappear as soon as it ends.
- Subverted in Killer Instinct with Sabrewulf's ending. After turning back into a human, his shirt rips more, and because he's only seen from the waist up for this final scene, one can only assume what's down there, or more so, what isn't.
- In Altered Beast, the player characters can collect a series of orbs that causes them to become more muscular and less clothed with each application, until finally taking on the form of a fully nude (yet anatomically void) monster. It's a different monster on each level, with the player characters reverting back to their original (clothed) form at the beginning of each level. Then again, you start off wearing not much more than a tunic and a loincloth anyway.
- In World Of Warcraft Druids keep the statboosts from their gear despite not wearing anything in animal form. The gear also reappears when they tansform back. Same also aplies to any other class or mob with a shape-shifting ability. Notably, the Warlock's Metamorphosis (which temporarily turns the user into a demon) has Magic Pants, as does a Shaman's Ghost Wolf form.
- In addition other players polymorphed by a mage, or otherwise transformed into a Sheep, Penguin, Frog or any other part of a wide ranging menagerie are also immune to unexpected nakedness, but it is magic after all.
- Players can remove all their equipped gear, leaving the character naked except for a different kind of Magic Pants.
- They finally going to play it real straight in later Expansion Pack Cataclysm, this is going to be standard issue for all classes of playable Worgens. They can alternate between human and worgen form, but always revert to worgen when combat is initiated. Unlike druids, they do keep their clothing/armor while in worgen form (not just strangely dissapear and reappear when returning human).
- Werewolves in the game Majesty are naked while in wolf form (which is all the time when they are alive), magically gaining pants when they revert to human form after they die.
- The X-Men Origins: Wolverine game plays this painfully straight. Despite the game having impressive effects where Wolverine's shirt, flesh and muscles get torn up as he takes damage, this only applies to his upper body. His pants stay completely intact.
- Subverted in Morrowind. If you become a werewolf and transform, when it's no longer night, you won't be wearing anything (except your glued on loincloth). Though they won't be destroyed, since you can just equip them again, otherwise all your precious artifacts would be destroyed.
- Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. When he's a kid he has no tights. When he wakes up in the Temple of Time...Tights. Magically. How? I don't know. But it's a damn shame.
- Rauru did it, while Link was sleeping.
- While we're on the topic of Zelda, two words: Giant's Mask. Well, okay, it may be the mask that's magical and causes his clothes to grow in tandem, but it's still kind of humorous when you think about it.
- The other Transformation Masks as well...
- Don't forget the wolf-to-human and back transformations in Twilight Princess. Not only does Link's clothes magically disappear and reappear, but when he turns into a wolf a chain that was previously used to hold him in a prison cell reappears around his paw (and disappears again when he turns into a human).
- Certain characters in the Touhou series have displayed shapeshifting abilities in the games they're in, either when introducing themselves (Orin changes into her humanoid form twice in the same game, complete with dress and wheelbarrow), or when the player uses a bomb (Flandre, Momizi; Remilia sometimes changes into a bat during certain attack patterns, and if the player bombs during her final patterns, she temporarily changes into a bat too)
- On a different note, Mokou has a literal pair of magic pants that are immune to fire.
- In Splatterhouse, during the fight against the mutated Jennifer, she transforms back into her human form after being hit enough times, with her clothes literally reappearing out of nowhere.
- Used in one of the end credits scenes from Cave Story. Sue and Itoh are transformed from Half Dressed Mimigas to fully-dressed humans.
- When Daxter is turned into an ottsel, he's left with only his gloves and goggles. Similarly, Veger loses his coat, boots, and pants, and Tess loses just her shoes. And when Daxter's Superpowered Evil Side comes out, his gloves and goggles grow while his pants are shredded from the knees down. Of course, upon returning to his cute lil' ottsel form, his pants are returned to normal.
- Averted in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and every subsequent game that uses the Rondo sprites for the Werewolf enemy. After losing all his HP, he transforms back into a naked man and bursts into flames as per the Castlevania tradition.
- Played somewhat straight in the Rondo remake on the PSP, The Dracula X Chronicles. When the Werewolf transforms back, he's now wearing a black speedo, both in the new 2.5D remake and the port of the original Rondo. The Werewolves in the port of Symphony, however, remain uncensored.
- Fawkes from ''Fallout 3 used to wear Vault 87 overalls. The top half has been torn, clearly inadequate to house his new physique. The lower half fits just fine.
Web Comics
- Subverted in El Goonish Shive: Not only can shapeshifters lose their clothing if they aren't careful, at least one of them, Grace, prefers nudity even in human form. Later, an explicit form of Magic Pants was introduced so the author didn't need to use creative camera angles for most of the scenes.
- Spoofed in The Order Of The Stick when Thog breaks out of prison and is actually seen wearing purple pants. After the raging is over, he wonders why his pants changed color.
- Averted with the spellwolves in Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire. It's explicitly mentioned that they have to wear oversized clothes to accomodate the transformations... If they wear anything at all (they have many nudists in their home land).
- Averted in Sluggy Freelance in a series of strips where Zoe gets repeatedly changed into a camel and back to a human; she remains clothed since her dress simply bunches up around her neck in her camel form.
- Averted in the multiple other series where Zoe gets changed into a camel and back, too. In those cases she ends up naked in her human form; as a rule, minor Hilarity Ensues.
- Very, very averted in The Adventures of Dr. McNinja.
- In The Dragon Doctors, a mage who specializes in shapeshifting can summon emergency pants, saying "I had a very wild adolescence."
- Averted in Peter Is The Wolf: the pants are not magical. That doesn't mean that people changing from human to their were form will RIP the clothing. That really depends on the size difference. The titular character is a similar size in both forms and so, doesn't do much to his clothes. Other characters who increase substantially in size... aren't so lucky.
- Averted due to Fetish Fuel in the perpetually NSFW Magnificent Milkmaid: every character with a transformation regularly destroys their clothing. The titular Milkmaid has the advantage of transubstantiation — and so, she can form her costume when she's powered up and reform her normal clothes as she powers down. Everyone else is saddled with being in whatever state of undress their transformation leaves them in.
- The Wotch: Subverted twice in one arc, once when Ann in turned into a Pixi, and again when she changes back.
- Eerie Cuties averts this in the case of Brooke Lynn's transformation, which left her panties where Blair could find them, but considering her shoes and socks returned, this might be Rule Of Funny. Ace, a young werewolf, seems to be able to 'shuck' his clothes in one piece.
Web Original
- In Erika's New Perfume regressing Heather and progressing Sarah their clothes changed to fit their appearances. Only partially played straight for Heather because while her clothes do change to fit her new size, she does not get training pants out of it as her sister soon mentions.
- Earlier than either of these, this is averted for Erika. Her needs in clothing (particularly underwear) change after she uses the perfume, but she keeps the same ones that according to the way everyone now remembers she's never supposed to have had.
- Averted in the Whateley Universe by Shifters. Either they're not very good, and they lose their clothes, or they're so good that — like Jimmy T — they fake their own clothes as part of their appearance.
Western Animation
|
|
