One Winged Angel / Live-Action TV

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• Without their encounter suits, the Vorlons of Babylon 5 look like holy creatures from the observer's mythologies. But when angered, they look... different.
• Beetleborgs has had its share of transforming baddies. Kind of odd, given that many of the good guys were already monsters.
  • Noxic in the first season had a super form called Hurt-Ulyles, in one episode Fangula the resident vampire became Super Fang and in Metalix- The Crustaceons themselves have this.
  • In the episode Buggin Out which is a satire of the 80's remake of The Fly Flabber sees a drawing of a matter transporter, brings it to life and tests it out- but unfortunately much like in the movie a fly monster called Kombat Gnat gets in the machine with him- and when he arrives at Zoom Comics he's merged with the creature and gradually evolves into Kombat Gnat and the kids have to fight him in order to get him back to normal.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • The Mayor spent a whole season getting there.
  • Black-haired, black-eyed, black-garbed Willow at the end of season six could definitely be said to be at least partially this.
• Doctor Who:
  • In "The Brain of Morbius", a renegade Time Lord survived execution only as a Brain in a Jar, and then was transplanted into a body that was a monstrous patchwork of alien parts.
  • Subverted in "The Satan Pit", where the Doctor finally encounters The Devil, a monstrous horned creature the size of a skyscraper, only to discover that it is only a shell, as the Beast's essence is now in a regular human.
  • Played straight by the Professor Guinea Pig in "The Lazarus Experiment", who winds up as a freaky scorpion thing.
  • Rev. Golightly in "The Unicorn and the Wasp" takes the form of a giant wasp-like alien when angered.
  • Ganger!Jennifer from "The Rebel Flesh"/"The Almost People", who goes from seemingly human to a loping, four-legged monster.
• Game of Thrones: According to Jaime, Aerys' lunacy got to the point that during his downfall he believed he would turn into a dragon if he were burned alive with his subjects. Jaime, normally skeptical, slit his throat just to make sure it didn't happen.
• Throughout Kamen Rider, there are many monsters who are humans/former humans who can power up, or are monsters hiding as humans (still this trope; hence its alternate title "Behold My True Form"). Other monsters never have human forms, but can still power up in various ways:
  • As with Super Sentai and Power Rangers above, the human commandants of the terrorist organization Shocker in the original series had monster forms.
  • Kamen Rider BLACK: The High Priests sacrifice the stones keeping them alive to complete Nobuhiko's transformation into Shadow Moon. He then rewards them by powering them up into Great Mutant forms and making them his lieutenants.
  • Some of the stronger Grongi in Kamen Rider Kuuga can gain access to one or more stronger forms. Disturbingly, the more they fulfill this trope, the more their appearance comes to resemble that of Kuuga himself.
  • Every Orphnoch in Kamen Rider 555 is a former human, and they still disguise themselves in human form when not in battle. Some Orphenochs can also take on advanced forms, although unlike later giant monster forms, they're usually fought on foot.
  • In the movie of Kamen Rider Blade, Tennoji fuses himself with the artifical Category Ace Kerberos in order to try and win the Battle Fight himself.
  • The unique Worms in Kamen Rider Kabuto are the result of one of the common Worms pulling this trope off. The Cassis Worm has two more advanced forms, but despite their stronger-looking appearances, they're more of a Clipped-Wing Angel due to each having a much weaker special ability than the form before.
  • Once in a while an Imagin in Kamen Rider Den-O can take on a giant monster form called Gigandeaths. This typically only happens to show off the newest Den-O form's Cool Train car.
  • Fangires in Kamen Rider Kiva can sometimes take on giant monster forms called Sabbats. Like Gigandeaths, they're typically only brought out to show off Castle Dran. Kiva himself can do this, in an extreme rarity for a Rider, by transforming into his dragon-like Flight Style form.
  • All Dopants in Kamen Rider Double are humans using a G-Rated Drug to achieve their monster forms. Some of them have additional transformations into big monster forms used to show off Double's/Accel's new bike extensions, all in CG.
  • Like Worms, most Yummies in Kamen Rider OOO start out in a mummy-like larval form before turning into their unique monster forms. The Greeed can achieve giant monster forms by absorbing too many of each other's Medals, "too many" because doing this also drives them insane. Later in the show, Dr. Maki implants an Artifact of Doom into his body to become a Greeed himself.
  • The Zodiarts in Kamen Rider Fourze are humans that turn into monsters using a drug metaphor, much like Dopants. While they can transform freely at first, eventually they reach their Last One state and get stuck that way. This sometimes causes them to gain a more dangerous appearance as well, although not all do. A rarer few still can surpass Last One and evolve into one of the twelve Horoscopes, earning them an immediate promotion to Co-Dragons status. The Horoscopes, in turn, can do this again by using their Supernova forms, which run the risk of Explosive Overclocking.
  • The Phantoms in Kamen Rider Wizard actually start as giant CGI monsters while they're inside the Gates that birth them, but if their Gate hits the Despair Event Horizon, the Phantom can kill them and steal their appearance, although their personality is always far more evil than the original's. The only exception is Gremlin, who was a monster to begin with.
  • Inves in Kamen Rider Gaim start as common types before eating Lockseeds and mutating into rarer types. Eating enough leads them to become giant berserk CGI monstrosities. Demushu, the first Overlord fought by the Riders, pulls a similar trick, but none of the others do until Kaito pulls a reckless gambit to avoid dying from an incurable infection by becoming an Overlord himself.
  • Roidmudes in Kamen Rider Drive can absorb multiple Viral Cores to become giant car/animal/robot monstrosities, although since there's no way to replace lost Roidmudes, they're discouraged from doing this. Roidmudes who copy a human's personality can instead evolve from one of the three common types into a unique form, and from there eventually undergo enough character development to achieve a Golden Super Mode.
  • Ganma in Kamen Rider Ghost can use Heroic Eyecons to achieve giant monster forms, although the number of times they do this can be counted on one hand.
  • The first few Bugsters in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, like the Phantoms, start as giant CGI monsters before evolving into their standard Humanoid Abomination forms once they're separated from their patients. Graphite plays the trope straighter, with three progressively more powerful forms. Masamune Dan also has two more powerful forms that he gains from absorbing Gamedeus, the Final Boss of the video game that he draws his powers from. The second time has him lampshade this trope beforehand:
    "None of you knows anything about Video Games...let me show you. [...] After you beat the True Final Boss once, they achieve their ultimate evolution! That's how video games work!"
  • Evolt in Kamen Rider Build starts going into this trope near the end of the show: first by achieving his monstrous Fever Flow form, then by layering further upgrades onto it as he starts eating planets.
  • The Another Riders in Kamen Rider Zi-O are humans using bootleg transformation trinkets, much like Dopants or Zodiarts, although the drug metaphor is downplayed this time. Of the Another Riders, only Another Zi-O pulls off this trope again, evolving into the more powerful Another Zi-O II. Swartz eventually manages to steal the powers of Kamen Rider Decade, allowing him to become the immensely powerful Another Decade.
  • In Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, the Mooks did this. It didn't do them much good. A flashback reveals that the advanced Mooks can become more-advanced, flight-capable ones. It...still didn't do them any good, but hey, what matters is that it looked awesome. The last two or three episodes give us all three types of cannon fodder as well as various monsters in an all-out war against the Riders.
• Inverted on Lost: The Man in Black/Jacob's Enemy can turn into the Smoke Monster anytime he wants, except during the final battle, since he has become mortal again.
• Power Rangers/Super Sentai can be both played straight for the villains and inverted for the heroes:
  • "Make My Monster Grow!" Every Super Sentai/Power Rangers season except for Himitsu Sentai Gorenger and J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai has had this, with each Big Bad using a different growth method. Also, growing comes with different other advantages for the monster: sometimes any damage taken or weapons lost while small will return (including whatever you broke to shut down its main means of terrorizing the populace. Uh-oh!), and sometimes it will gain a new form much like a Big Bad can. Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue has the latter happpen often. Sometimes, entirely new powers are gained.
  • Also, many a major villain has an advanced form (the better to make formerly human villains killable, as well as giving Dragons an extra edge.)
    • Probably the uber-example would be Season 1's Scorpina. Whenever she grew she went from a pretty Asian woman to a hideous scorpion creature.
  • Kat herself had one before becoming the second Pink Ranger, while still a Brainwashed and Crazy pawn of Rita; she could assume a monstrous Cat Girl form called Katastrophe; it wasn't mentioned after her Heel–Face Turn.
  • For quantity, several Big Bads tie with four advanced forms. Most recently, Dai Shi has a human form, a Lowemon-ish lion armor form (with similar transformation!), a Phantom Beast King form, and an eight-headed dragon form (his true self, as seen in a carving at the beginning of the series.) He's not alone, though: Ecliptor, Trakeena, and Olympius can boast the same number of forms.
    • Dai Shi's sidekick Camille has three forms: human, armored, Phantom Beast General.
  • In the aforementioned Lightspeed Rescue, in a few cases, the monsters have to grow twice to fight the Supertrain Megazord, which is a good two or three heads taller than the average giant monsters.
  • Power Rangers Mystic Force (and the sentai Magiranger): the Five-Man Band have One-Winged Angel forms instead of the traditional Humongous Mecha.
    • Also, some of the more powerful wizards can take on monster-like People in Rubber Suits forms of their own. Two in particular have rubber suit and Ranger suit forms.
    • This was not the first time that heroes gained OWA forms, however. The first sentai series to feature this was Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. The Kakurangers themselves can become the Beast General Fighters.
    • Shuriken Sentai Ninninger was also the third time. The Ninningers can become the components to form Gekiastu Dai-Oh.
    • A similar thing happens in Power Rangers Jungle Fury and Juken Sentai Gekiranger. The Zords are actually manifestations of primal spirits unlocked through martial arts.
  • Power Rangers Operation Overdrive has it like it's going out of style, with Moltor being the only major villain to have just one form. Namely:
    • Flurious gets the MacGuffin in the end, turns into something that looks like a chess piece or a Monster Pope, and freezes the planet.
    • Miratrix turns into a monster bird with the power of the MacGuffin of the week and completely manhandles the Rangers' strongest machines. Unfortunately for her, Ronny and Tyzonn are able to remove the MacGuffin from its place before she can finish the Rangers. (In Super Sentai, this was the One Winged Angel form of another villain who isn't in PR. Mira's counterpart Shizuka had a different OWA form.)
    • Kamdor... can open his faceplate to show a different faceplate. Kind of a letdown after Miratrix's transformation.
    • The two main Fear Cats use Flurious' technology to go from feline monsters to awesome black-armored gun-toting warriors, a permanent upgrade. In the Boukenger, the Ashu Gai and Rei used the Gordom Engines to become the Questers.
  • In Power Rangers in Space, the Psycho Rangers didn't have Zords, instead transforming into giant monsters, which were hideous even when compared to the typical Monster of the Week. This is the same series with Ecliptor's four forms, and Darkonda's three: standard Darkonda, Darkliptor after absorbing Ecliptor, and a powerful but insane form he mutated into after taking a strength enhancer that had been poisoned by Ecliptor for the Darkliptor incident (and separating from Ecliptor and using him as a shield once the fight went bad.) The poison seems to count as Cursed with Awesome, though: after seemingly being taken out by, but soon recovering from, the Megazords' first finishing move, he's suddenly much saner and still ultra-powerful.
  • Power Rangers: Dino Thunder makes a habit of it, too. Mesogog turns into a monster that is very strong and separates into five. Zeltrax uses a mystical 'tree of life' and gains a second, thorny form - and as a case of We Can Rebuild Him, Zeltrax's standard form may count as the OWA form of Terrence Smith. The White Ranger clone has access to the same Super Mode as the good White Ranger, and Elsa...does returning midseason with a new haircut, and inexplicably stronger count?
  • The pre-Power Rangers sentai series Choujuu Sentai Liveman has this because of the "better living through mad science" ways of the villain organization. Remaining a puny human will never do, and nor will failure to upgrade a monster or cyborg form that has proven ineffective. That's why the generals all have multiple forms. Kemp leads the pack, going from Kenji to Dr. Kemp to Beauty Beast Kemp to Fear Beast Kemp to Kemp-Zuno. (He got a head start, beginning the series with his "Dr." and "Beauty Beast" forms, whereas the others' "Dr. [name]" forms were all they had.)
  • However, the Big Bad of Jungle Fury's parent sentai Gekiranger has a doozy: Rio (lion armor guy) doesn't have the dragon form because that came from Gekiranger baddie Long. Long goes from a boyish young man to a Phantom Beast General form, fair enough. However, when he reveals that yes, he is the Big Bad, and only wants Rio to become the Phantom Beast King so he'll go out of control and destroy the world, and that fails, Long takes on his true multi-headed dragon form. And for the teamup with the following series, Engine Sentai Go-onger, Long returns and eventually possesses the Monster of the Week, Nunchuk Banki, to become Long Banki. So ultimately, he's got as many bodies as Dai Shi.
  • In Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, after throwing copies of past Rangers at the Gokaigers, evil space pirate Basco ta Jolokia unleashes his true form in #31, resulting in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • In Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, Enter and Escape did pretty well in their from-time-to-time fights with the Go-Busters, utilizing tentacle arms and dual-guns respectively. When they start to take on the Go-Busters more frequently, they don special battle-suits but don't actually transform, since the suits lack gloves and helmets. However, when the Go-Busters bring out their Powered Custom forms, Enter and Escape finally decide to get One-Winged Angel forms, upgrading to powerful robotic bodies when they're needed. Escape goes first, upgrading to Escape Evolve in #37, Enter goes next, becoming Enter Unite in #40.
• Stargate: The Wraith have very versatile organic technology. Even their ships are alive but are restricted by their power generation capabilities. In the final episode, one Wraith got the right idea and wired the most potent energy source in the known universe into a Hiveship (Wraith equivalent of The Battlestar). It used the extra energy to grow more armor and guns, resulting in a HUGE (3200+ meter long) monster of a ship armed with dozens of cannons. Asgard plasma beam weapons which could easily neutralize a normal hive in about half-a-dozen shots barely even scratched the Superhive. Plus, the increased sensor sensitivity...
  (the team is scouting the superhive with a cloaked jumper)
  McKay: Hold on, they're powering weapons...
  Ronon: They can't see us, right?
  McKay: No, of course not. They must be just running a test- (a shot passes VERY close) Holy crap...
  Sheppard: What are the odds of them randomly firing a test shot DIRECTLY AT US?!
  McKay: I'd say: given the enormity of space all around us, non-existent?!
  • They managed to take it out only by sneaking a multi-gigaton nuke inside but still.
• Sweet Home (2020): Hyun-su provides a rare heroic example when he turns into a monster and attacks Ui-myeong. Bonus points for his monster form being literally one-winged.
• Todd and the Book of Pure Evil: Just before the Final Battle, Atticus uses the Book to turn himself into a demonic "man goat".
• Ultra Series
  • Zogu, the Big Bad of Ultraman Gaia first appears as an angelic entity to trick Gaia and Agul, then defeat them. When round two comes around, they're ready for her tricks and beat the tar out of her. In response, Zogu undergoes the "reveal your true form" version of this trope and turns into an absolutely massive, centaur-like beast that can crush skyscrapers under her feet.
  • In Ultraman Cosmos, Chaos Header takes on no less than five super-powerful physical forms to destroy Ultraman Cosmos throughout the series. His first two forms, Iblis and Mebut, proved to be Cosmos' most challenging foes up to that point in the series (he had to gain Eclipse Mode to defeat Mebut), while his third and fourth forms, Chaos Ultraman and Ultraman Calamity, were simply Evil Knockoffs created by stealing some of Cosmos' light. However, he finally switches to "true form" mode in the final battle as Chaos Darkness, a humanoid creature resembling a shadowy fallen angel, who has all the powers of the previous forms taken up to eleven.
  • Ultraman Belial can't seem to get enough of this trope, because in Ultraman Geed, he does it twice. In his first battle with Geed, he uses the Monster Capsules of Hybrid Monster Five King and the aforementioned second form of Zogu to become a fusion of himself and the two monsters known as Chimeraberos, who curbstomps and devours Geed. While Geed eventually manages to win, Belial proves persistent and later uses the capsules of Empera and Dark Lugiel to transform himself into the incredibly powerful, skeleton-like Belial Atrocious and tries to destroy Earth.

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