Shapeshifter Showoff Session

"I have about twenty other animals I could morph to. Want to see my lobster?"

— Marco, Animorphs #45: The Revelation

Regardless of how overt or covert they may be, many shapeshifters have a flamboyant streak: as soon as their true nature is revealed — either by themselves or by a canny observer — they just can't resist showing off their powers in some grand display of transformation.

How they do this varies depending on the nature of their powers and the situation at hand. Some will dramatically revert to their true form, especially if the true form is especially impressive or frightening. In a popular variant, more performative shapeshifters opt to rapidly shift from one form to the next in a grand display of their versatility. Others still will just contort their body as grotesquely as possible to show how they can alter their disguises.

It's also not uncommon for shapeshifters to insist on doing this even in emergency situations — for example, after they've been caught infiltrating a restricted area and their disguise has been left in tatters, even when it might be in their best interests to fight or flee.

This is often for the sake of the audience in order to make the full scope of the shapeshifters' powers apparent as early as possible without getting bogged down in clumsy exposition, and indeed, friendlier shapeshifters can do this in order to explain themselves to their allies. However, it may also be used in order to impress, intimidate, or entertain another character. It may even be used as an illustration of the shapeshifter's personality — a sign of them being Fun Personified, a showboat, a narcissist, or just a really ostentatious Shapeshifting Trickster; in the case of villains, this might even lead to a case of Bond Villain Stupidity that the heroes can exploit — unless you're in a work where Transformation Is a Free Action, of course.

Regardless of what form it takes, the key aspect of this trope is showing off: it's rarely (if ever) used for combat, and it doesn't often have a practical purpose apart from shocking the onlookers.

Compare and contrast Game Face, another way of revealing the otherworldly nature of a disguised being. Compare Perpetually Protean, in which the shapeshifter is showing off on a constant basis, Shapeshifter Showdown, in which this trope is used in combat against another shapeshifter, and Shapeshifter Swan Song, when a shapeshifter (often involuntarily) shows off by switching between several forms as they die.

Subtrope of Showing Off Your Powers.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Combined with Costume-Test Montage in one 2009 commercial for Telma Cariot; here, a woman is lounging on the couch eating the eponymous cereal when the doorbell rings, and she belatedly remembers that she's got a date lined up, forcing her to figure out a good look for herself in record time. Over the course of the next few seconds, she proceeds to shapeshift across various fashion styles and ethnicities by shattering her outer skin like porcelain, unmasking herself, or unzipping her entire body to reveal various new selves underneath. She eventually settles on ripping her dress open to become a sexy catgirl — pouncing on her pleasantly surprised boyfriend in mid-transformation.

Anime & Manga

• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Envy announces to everyone that they murdered Hughes, though Mustang is unconvinced that someone like them could really do it. Envy then decides to prove it by showing off their powers, transforming into Gracia while explaining with sadistic glee how Hughes was unable to even fight them when Envy took on the form of his beloved wife. Unfortunately, this backfires as Mustang is considerably more pissed-off than afraid.
  • While trapped together in Gluttony's stomach, Envy recounts how they started the war in Ishval by turning into a soldier and shooting a child, prompting Ed to punch them. This only serves to irritate the homunculus, who decides to, since none of them have any hope of escaping, reveal their true form to kill Ed and Ling. They then proceed to transform into a gargantuan, eight-legged lizard monster with pulsating human bodies fused to their flesh and attack.
• One Piece: The Straw Hat Pirates first meet Mr. 2 on friendly terms, so he shows off the shapeshifting powers of his Clone-Clone Fruit, first by turning into members of the crew whose faces he's touched, then by turning into other people he's met in the past. Unfortunately for him, once the Straw Hats learn that he's an agent of Baroque Works — the criminal organization they're trying to stop from taking over the kingdom of Alabasta — they already know how his powers work and are able to prepare a countermeasure in case he tries to shapeshift into any of them.
• YuYu Hakusho: Elder Toguro twists and morphs his body, doing things like moving his eye to the palm of his hand, extending one out like an eye stalk, and migrating his heart to his face while bragging about his body morphing abilities and how it's almost impossible to hit his two weak spots (his brain and heart).

Audio Plays

• A purely audio example occurs late in the Big Finish Doctor Who episode "Axis Of Insanity": here, Erimem belatedly realizes that the Doctor is actually Jarra To in disguise, prompting her to turn back and rant at length about how the Time Lords imprisoned her in an infinite loop to stop her from damaging any more timelines — transforming into various figures from across the Axis as she explains how futile her life became. Not long afterwards, Jarra grows so frustrated with Erimem's Silent Treatment that she resorts to repeatedly shapeshifting into Erimem just so she can hold both sides of her expository villain monologue until the real Erimem screams at Jarra to shut up.

Comic Books

• Captain Britain: Shortly after the two of them successfully return Captain Britain to his home dimension in Captain Britain: A Crooked World, Roma demands to know why Merlin doesn't just show himself and explain things, if only to spare poor old Brian Braddock a great deal of pain and torment. Merlin cheekily asks "which self?" and abruptly shifts between no less than five different forms over the next few panels; among them are a malevolent-looking sorcerer, a benevolent druid-like figure, and even a giant anthropomorphic spider... all to drive home the fact that Merlin may be Captain Britain's guide and benefactor, but he's also a Shapeshifting Trickster.
• Exiles: During one plot arc, team shapeshifter Morph ends up getting taken over by Proteus. Overjoyed at finally having a body that can't burn out, Proteus immediately shows off his new powers to Morph's horrified team members by assuming no less than four different forms — including his original human body, Miss Marvel, Jack the Ripper, and a little girl — all while gloating that he can prey on anyone and never be caught. He quickly follows this up by reshaping his body so that Longshot's throwing knives harmlessly pass right through him, then winds himself into a slinky and bounces off into another dimension.
• The Outsiders: Lady Clay's first appearance is in Outsiders 1985, in which she impersonates Looker's husband so that she can drug and replace her; as Looker slowly loses consciousness, Lady Clay reveals her blobby true form and gloats for a bit, before making herself into a perfect copy of Looker — right before the real Looker finally passes out.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): In the "Tangle and Whisper" mini-series, we don't get to see the full display of Mimic's power until Tangle and Whisper come to first confront him. First by taking Jewel's form then Whisper's to trick Tangle. Then later Tangle's form when Whisper encounters him which she sees through easily. He then goes on to revert to other members of her former Diamond Cutters unit in a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip ploy to get her to drop her guard. It nearly works but she regains her resolve, forcing him to go to Plan B before she takes the chance to off him.

Fan Works

• In The Land of What Might-Have-Been, members of the Amorphous League often introduce themselves with great flourish, especially once their disguises have been uncovered. One notable example of this features the introduction of Shenshen-Pfannee, who reveals that they've been disguised as the island that Elphaba's been sheltering on, before conjuring a body from one of the rocks on said island so they can properly introduce themselves, shapeshifting into a conjoined human form so Elphaba has some idea who they are, before turning into a pair of snakes so they can say hello to Glinda with a hug.
• In League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Tempest Rewrite, Prospero is revealed to actually be Dracula, who faked his death in the events of the original novel and has been scheming towards the end of the world for centuries. To mock Mina, he then reveals himself to have been both Fantômas and Cesare as well, and then cycles through several more identities: Him, Alastair, Killer BOB, Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, Slade, Bill Cipher, and Pennywise before finally revealing his true identity: Nyarlathotep.

Films — Animation

• Aladdin: When Aladdin rubs the lamp for the first time, it turns red and starts shaking in his hands and spitting colorful fireworks, scaring off Abu and Carpet. Thick, blue-and-pink clouds of smoke leave the lamp, turning into a muscular, screaming, threatening figure, to suddenly change into Genie's real form as he complains about a creek in the neck. He "hangs" Aladdin on a wall of the cave, before taking off his head to spin it around and "fix" the creek. After this, he proceeds to turn his smoky appendage into a microphone to talk to Aladdin like a TV host, then becomes a Scottish, calls a dog, and becomes the said dog. Quite confused, Aladdin suspects he hit his head harder than he thought.
• In Injustice Batman calls a meeting to discuss breaking Mr Terrific out of prison, and admits that there's only one superhero with the power to breach the facility where he's being held... and said superhero has been hiding in their current location for the last few days. Found out, Plastic Man startles the bejesus out of Harley by revealing himself to be the chair she's currently sitting on — sprouting eyes and a mouth from the backrest in the process — and then transforms back into his true form with gusto, much to Harley's despair.
• Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night: The eponymous Emperor reveals himself to Pinocchio with this, transforming into all the various forms he's held while Puppetino was guiding the boy through his evil little wonderland before finally assuming his fearsome true form.
• The first time that Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas meets Eris, the goddess of discord, she attempts to inveigle him into absconding with the Book of Peace for her. Part of her pitch involves showboating her transformative powers: she's like an inky mist that moves at eyeblink speed and changes size from normal woman into giant goddess. Though suitably impressed, Sinbad nevertheless declines her offer.
• During her Villain Song in The Sword in the Stone, Mad Madam Mim shapeshifts numerous times in order to show off her magical powers to Arthur (currently in the form of a sparrow). At first, she grows tall enough to bump her head on the rafters, then small enough to sit on a teacup next to Arthur, then returns to normal size and gives herself the face of a boar, then transforms into a beautiful woman, before finally returning to her true form. With her song over, she then transforms into a cat and prepares to eat Arthur alive — only to be stopped by the arrival of Merlin, neatly segueing into their Shapeshifter Showdown.
• Onyx of Time Masters reveals his powers at the mission briefing by transforming into a vase of flowers, then (at the prompting of the audience) into a miniature replica of Silbad, before finally transforming himself into a pile of treasure that the heroes will use to gain access to the Reform cruiser.

Films — Live-Action

• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Ego is shown to be a shapeshifter since his true form is really a planet, but mostly takes the form of an old man. However when he reveals he intentionally killed Quill's mother by giving her cancer and Quill instantly shoots him for it, he briefly morphs into David Hasselhoff (via his Micheal Knight persona) before switching back. Likewise in the finale when Quill and he clash after the latter awakens to his powers, Ego takes a much bigger form of his older self while Quill turns into...Pac-Man.
• Occurs by way of Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane in the final act of The Lighthouse: when tensions between Ephraim Winslow and Thomas Wake finally result in a fight to the death, Wake abruptly appears to transform into the man Winslow murdered for his identity, startling his opponent into submission; then, Wake becomes the mermaid that's been haunting Ephraim and tries to draw him in for a kiss... only for the mermaid to become a tentacled monster version of Wake and try to throttle him to death. It's left deliberately ambiguous as to whether Winslow has finally lost his grip on reality or if Wake is actually some kind of shapeshifting Proteus figure.
• Late in Lucy, the eponymous protagonist shows off her expanding powers to a group of fascinated scientists by warping her right hand into new shapes; at first merely sprouting a sixth finger, she then grows a perfect replica of her hand alongside, then reabsorbs it to shape her hand into a giant set of claws, then shrinks it back down again and gives herself webbed fingers.
• In the finale of Society, the villains who aren't busy with the massive flesh-absorbing orgy take great delight in screwing with Billy by demonstrating their shapeshifting powers: Ted extends his tongue and gleefully licks Billy's face; Dr Cleveland shapes his head into a giant hand, then stretches his right arm like elastic to grab at Billy; Nan reveals that she's removed her limbs and fused herself with various bits of Jim and Jenny — complete with Jenny's head suddenly erupting from her groin to menace Billy... and then the rest of Jim lurches out from under the bedsheets — with his face protruding from the cheeks of his ass.
• Bubble of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets introduces herself by showing off her shapeshifting powers in a burlesque show in which she warps into a wide variety of fetish costumes: beginning with a Sally Bowles-style Cabaret outfit, she then shifts into a sexy nurse costume, then a schoolgirl getup, then a tribal costume complete with headdress, then a 1970s roller-skating costume with a massive blue afro, then a fetish catwoman outfit — before finally reverting to the Cabaret ensemble.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • In X2: X-Men United, Mystique "reintroduces" herself to Wolverine by posing as Jean and sneaking into his tent for a booty call. Halfway through their initial kiss, however, Wolverine notices the scar he gave her in the previous film; knowing that her cover is blown, Mystique immediately reverts to her true form, then tauntingly asks what he wants while shifting between various other shapes — first Jean, then Storm, then Rogue, then Stryker — before Wolverine finally tells her to get out.
  • Happens twice in X-Men: First Class: when Charles Xavier presents himself to the CIA, his attempts to reveal his telepathic powers immediately get him and Mystique Mistaken for Spies — forcing Mystique to jump to her feet and transform into one of the CIA executives to defuse the situation. Later, while the other mutants are showing off their powers, Mystique's big reveal is to surprise everyone by turning into Banshee — much to Banshee's shock.

Literature

• Animorphs:
  • In #45: The Revelation, Marco is forced to reveal the truth to his dad after having to rescue him from being captured by the Yeerks for his R&D work. Afterwards, his dad is briefly convinced that he was just hallucinating the whole thing, forcing Marco to drive the point home by morphing into an ant and an osprey in quick succession.
    Marco: I have about twenty other animals I could morph to. Want to see my lobster?
  • During the preparations for the Yeerk attack on the Free Hork Bajir valley in #47: The Resistance, Jake and Tobias have to evacuate a group of unsuspecting campers who have ended up right in the path of the Yeerk army. Following a failed attempt to talk them into leaving of their own accord, the two are forced to morph right in front of them, with Jake morphing to tiger and Tobias demorphing to hawk. Unfortunately, this backfires: most of the campers are immediately convinced that the Animorphs are aliens and are practically begging to help in the efforts to defend the valley.
  • #49: The Diversion features the Animorphs realizing that the Yeerks now have a foolproof means of learning their true identities, forcing them to evacuate their families before the Yeerks can get to them. Given the need to explain things in a hurry, Cassie has Tobias morph right in front of her parents, while Rachel just shows up to retrieve her family in grizzly bear morph. Tragically, by the time they get to Jake's family, it's too late: Tom has arranged for his parents to be infested, forcing the Animorphs to retreat... but not before Jake deliberately morphs to falcon in front of the Controllers in a show of defiance.
• Discworld: Late in Hogfather, Susan finally meets the Tooth Fairy, here taking the form of a sweet little old lady... and is immediately suspicious because the scene appears to incorporate way too many cliched elements. Trying to force Susan to back off, the Tooth Fairy begins rapidly cycling through numerous different shapes in an attempt to intimidate Susan into submission — only for Susan to No-Sell them one by one, eventually forcing the Tooth Fairy to assume her true form. Namely that of the first Bogeyman.
• Hagwood: Early in Thorn Ogres of Hagwood, Terser Gibble the Wergle master reveals himself to his students by suddenly bursting into the classroom as a magpie — an intimidating sight, given that most Werlings are small enough to be eaten by magpies. It's not until the terrified students notice that Finnen Lufkin isn't panicking that they finally realize that the huge predator is just their teacher in disguise, whereupon Gibble changes back to his true form and admonishes any students too slow to sit back down.
• The Nekropolis Archives: During his big showdown with Matt, Lycanthropus Rex deliberately lengthens his transformation and the ensuing growth into a fifty-foot-tall giant just so he can impress the onlookers. Even Matt admits that he puts on a pretty good show.
• Red Dwarf:
  • In Better Than Life, the Polymorph is first introduced impersonating Lister, only being found out when it turns out that the real Lister is actually in his sixties thanks to Time Dilation on Garbage World; seconds later, it partially reverts to its monstrous true form and goes on the attack, trying to encourage as much fear as possible.
  • Later, another Polymorph recreates the famous reveal scene from the original episode, though instead of becoming a python, it becomes a plague rat and takes a flying leap at Lister's face.
  • In Last Human, symbi-morphs are shapeshifting GELFs that transform to better fit their bonded clients' fantasies; as such, when Lister is bonded with a symbi-morph by the name of Reketrebn as a reward for participating in a Suicide Mission, Reketrebn soon begins showing off to prove that it can accommodate Lister's desires. In short order, it becomes a rose in a vase, a completely naked Kristine Kochanski, Kristine Kochanski wearing a ballroom gown, Arnold Rimmer, before finally settling in its Shapeshifter Default Form — which Lister prefers, allowing him to enjoy a friendly dinner with the symbi-morph.
• According to Senior Anthropologist Hoole in Star Wars Legends, this is how his fellow Shi'ido keep outsiders from getting too interested in their home planet; whenever explorers begin snooping around, nearby Shi'ido transform into hideous monsters in order to intimidate them into leaving — and that's if they don't just shapeshift into rocks and trees so they can pretend nobody's home. Consequently, in The Star Wars Essential Guide to Species, the illustration of a Shi'ido is depicted right in the middle of a transformation into something terrifying; in fact, this practice is apparently so common that the only image of a Shi'ido in Shapeshifter Default Form available to in-universe texts is that of Hoole himself.

Live-Action TV

• Farscape:
  • In "Infinite Possibilities Part 1", Furlow is immediately suspicious of "Jack Crichton", and when he informs her that the wormhole technology must be destroyed, she pulls a gun on him, demanding to know why she should listen to anything he says. Jack responds by reverting to his otherworldly true form unprompted, immediately shocking Furlow into silence.
  • Played for laughs in "Revenging Angel": during his Adventures in Comaland, Crichton bumps into his mental incarnation of Aeryn, here represented by a sexy cartoon. After asking Crichton to give her some proper clothes, Aeryn is redrawn with a giant pencil, only to end up looking like Jessica Rabbit; annoyed at Crichton's lack of imagination, Aeryn snaps the pencil in half and begins shapeshifting into various sexy personas on her own: in quick succession, she becomes Marylin Munroe, Cleopatra, Dorothy Gale, Madonna, and Pamela Anderson... and when Crichton asks if she can become Sharon Stone a la Basic Instinct, she immediately becomes a finger-wagging Nancy Reagan, much to Crichton's horror, before becoming Aeryn again.
  • A visit to a massage parlor in "Bringing Home The Beacon" results in Chiana being given a session with a shapeshifting masseuse while she tries to get information on the two men she was tailing; initially, Marella appears content to carry out the massage with her own rather dainty long-nailed hands, but then transforms into a hardened, punkish character so she can work her customer's back muscles more forcefully — much to Chiana's appreciation. However, when Chiana begins asking questions about confidential matters, Marella swiftly transforms into a burly wrestler-type and jams a thumb into one of her pressure points, threatening to paralyze her if she doesn't explain herself... before changing back and revealing that Chiana's questions are pointless because she followed her targets into an establishment that sells transformations.
• In the final episode of In From the Cold, Jenny's shapeshifting powers seemingly kick into overdrive as she hurries to save her daughter. By now, snipers are targeting her in the belief that she's a terrorist, but she is able to throw them off by transforming so quickly that none of them can work out what happened, much less recognize her. An extended tracking shot of her marching down the corridor reveals that she's actually transforming into everyone she's ever sampled over the course of her career, but at a speed she's never been able to utilize up until now. However, the ending indicates that Jenny has actually been lying about her true allegiance, suggesting that she may have been lying about the limitations of her powers as well.
• During the Red Dwarf episode "Polymorph", the eponymous Emotion Eater first demonstrates its powers in a deliberately showy fashion in order to provoke fear in Lister so that it can feed. Initially impersonating one of his kebabs, it then goes for his neck, before becoming his underwear and painfully constricting him from the waist down, then becoming a boa constrictor and trying to attack him head-on — before finally reverting to its gigantic armoured Shapeshifter Default Form and devouring Lister's fear.
• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot episode "Encounter at Far Point," Q introduces himself by suddenly appearing on the bridge in the guise of a Renaissance-era ship captain, then (after some more godlike antics) becoming a US army general, then a soldier from post-atomic Earth.

Tabletop Games

• In the Mage: The Ascension tradition book Verbena (revised), the character template known simply as "Shapeshifter" lived a restrained and depressive life as one of the Sleepers until she fell in love with a mystery man — a Verbena mage, of course. Their relationship eventually led to him revealing his true nature to her by transforming into a wolf, then an eagle, then her — as a preamble to explaining that the character can do this as well.

Video Games

• During the finale of Batman: Arkham City, it's revealed that Basil Karlo, AKA Clayface has been serving as a Body Double to a major character for most of the game, eventually leading Batman to find himself meeting two versions of the character and prompting the imposter to enact a horrific-looking reversion to their gigantic true form. For good measure, it's clear that this is being done mainly for the sake of drama, as it's already been established in the previous game that the character can transform in the blink of an eye; Clayface is deliberately drawing out the transformation in order to show off.
• Dracula Unleashed: The vampirized Juliet does this in a bid to save herself from being staked by turning into protagonists' loved ones (Mina to Harker and Anisette to Alexander). Dracula likewise is shown to have this power as he's been posing as Arthur the whole time, having killed him and his wife prior to the events of the game.
• A visit to a Wingly village in The Legend of Dragoon results in a standoff with the elder Bardel brother, who is out for revenge against humanity for the murder of his sister - clearly not knowing that the heroes are Dragoons. The confrontation ends with Bardel throwing a fireball at Dart, who immediately blocks it with his powers and transforms into his Dragoon form; however, Dart isn't merely showboating - and indeed isn't the kind to show off - but trying to avoid violence through shock and awe. It works, leaving Bardel a quivering heap on the floor.
• Mega Man ZX Advent: When Albert reveals that he possesses the same Voluntary Shapeshifting as the protagonist, he demonstrates it by switching between the forms of the game's bosses and doing a little impression of each of them.
• After being infected with a weaponized parasite by Blackwatch in [PROTOTYPE], Alex Mercer has to seek help in the form of Dr Ragland, both for answers on the current epidemic sweeping Manhattan and for a cure for the parasite. When questioned on who he is and what he wants, rather than explain what his interest in the disease is, Alex not only shows off the massive glowing boil sticking out of his clothes but also shapeshifts by letting biomatter creep over him in a massive red-and-black ripple.
• In the climax of Resident Evil Village, Mother Miranda reveals herself to be a shapeshifter by approaching Ethan in the form of Mia Winters, then reverting dramatically to her true form by manifesting massive black wings and appearing suddenly from behind them. She spends the rest of the confrontation with Ethan shifting between her two primary disguises as she gleefully monologues, before suddenly ripping Ethan's heart out with her bare hands, seemingly killing him, then transforming into a flock of crows and departing.
• In The Shapeshifting Detective, you're advised against doing this for the sake of keeping your true nature a secret. However, if you end up captured by the killer in the finale, you have the option of transforming in order to shock them into submission, with the most common option being to turn into the killer themselves. Zak faints in shock, while Violet becomes convinced that she's gone insane and blows her head off; it doesn't work on Rayne, though.
• Star Wars: Should you accept the Genoharadan contracts in Knights of the Old Republic, you're eventually sent after Rulan Prolik, a shapeshifting assassin currently on safari in the Shadowlands of Kashyyyk. At first, the search seems fruitless, as the only sentient being there is a Wookie by the name of Grarwwaar. However, checking the surrounding area reveals clues indicating that Rulan hunted down and murdered the real Grarwwar several days ago (along with the rest of his hunting party); confronting Rulan with this prompts him to take a form "more to your liking" - in this case, your companion Jolee Bindo. For good measure, he doesn't actually attack until you respond to the transformation, suggesting he only did this to screw with you.

Web Animation

• In Fandeltales: The Cursed Prince (WARNING: NSFW) by Newgrounds +18 artist Derpixon, after the eponymous hero is captured by the succubus Herzha, she decides to give him a choice of what form she'll wear while she drains him of life via sex. To that end, she transforms into a dark-skinned blond wearing nothing but strategically-placed body paint, before indulging in a little Breast Expansion to demonstrate her control over her new shape; then, in quick succession, she transforms into a forest nymph, a Southern Belle, a sexy ninja, a sexy nun, a Cat Girl, an old hag, a child (thankfully fully dressed and complaining about wasted time), an incubus - before finally turning into an exact replica of Prince Amont himself.

Web Comics

• Just Another Web Comic has Jonathan Hart recover Penelope, the prototype sexbot built by Eryl Keydon, after the disastrous fire at the shopping mall. In Jonathan's home, Penelope demonstrates that she can switch gender and species in mere moments, morphing into a male dalmatian, a female rabbit, and a female mouse almost instantly. However, since Penelope's default form is a female feline, Jonathan recruits Cat Girl Jocelyn to be Penelope's mentor.

Western Animation

• Gravity Falls:
  • In "Dreamscaperers", the search for the safe combination inside Stan's mind ends with Mabel and the others locating the door it's hidden behind; Soos even offers to destroy the door so that Bill Cipher can't get a hold of it... and then the real Soos appears, having wandered off to investigate another memory. Immediately, "Soos" transforms back into Bill with unearthly flourish, takes a moment to laugh at the team, before stealing the door and flying off.
  • The Shapeshifter of "Into The Bunker" initially poses as the Author and makes it look as if Experiment 210 is his enemy, even tricking Dipper into handing over the Journal... right up until Wendy realizes that the "Author" is identical to the mascot on a can of baked beans. Experiment 210 responds by turning his head 180 degrees, scuttling up the wall on giant spider legs, and screaming diabolically with Blank White Eyes — frightening the living crap out of Dipper and Wendy in the process — before finally reverting to his true insectoid form. Then, while obsessing over the Journal, he quickly shapeshifts into a number of forms based on the creatures documented within, including a gremloblin, a gnome, and even the Hide-Behind.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In "The Return to Harmony", Discord makes his debut transforming into one of the figures of the stained-glasses windows of the royal palace to taunt Celestia and the Mane Six.
  • In "Twilight's Kingdom", Tirek prepares to corner a gray unicorn in an alley, when the unicorn's head suddenly turns 180° as it transforms into Discord's head. When Tirek recognizes him, he stutters "You're free?" Discord answers "As a bird!" as he turns into one to illustrate his answer.
• The Owl House: Hunter and Luz are tricked by the Inner Belos into helping contain and nullify the Palismen souls in his mindscape. He then reveals he's been consuming Palismen as they grant him eerie, shapeshifting powers, but the souls up until now cause him to turn into a sludge monster and go berserk. He then shows off his new control by transforming his arm into an amorphic mess and assimilating a Palisman, horrifying the kids.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Double Trouble, a shapeshifter, is hired by Catra to sabotage the rebellion, which they do using the identity of 'Flutterina'. However, upon being discovered as the traitor, they put their abilities on display by transforming into the various Princesses before reverting to their true form and introducing themself.
• Young Justice: Miss Martian shows off some of her shapeshifting abilities to her new teammates during their first tour of Happy Harbor. She only turns into gender-flipped versions of Robin and Kid Flash, admitting that she's only able to pull off girls better than she can with boys.

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