Basic Trope: A superhero who has distinctive normal and powered "forms" they must actively switch between, resulting in them only having their powers some of the time.
- Straight: Bob, an ordinary human, transforms into a giant alien warrior with gray skin, glowing orange eyes, and the power to shoot all sorts of energy beams out of various points on his body to battle a rampaging Kaiju.
- Exaggerated: Bob transforms into an all-powerful god and various other sorts of heroic entities.
- Downplayed: Bob simply develops his distinct powers and glowing eyes upon entering his Super Mode.
- Justified:
- Bob owns a special Transformation Trinket that allows him to transform into various heroic entities whenever a rampaging Kaiju attacks his city.
- Bob was born with a genetic mutation that grants him shapeshifting powers, so he transforms into various sorts of giant alien warriors and battles whoever and whatever dares to harm the rest of humanity, whereas other humans around him simply can't do the same.
- Bob has a curse that makes him transform into various heroic entities whenever he says a certain word or phrase.
- Inverted:
- Ultra-Galacticus, a giant extraterrestrial warrior with a plethora of powers and abilities, transforms into an ordinary human named "Bob" to be able to more easily interact with and befriend humanity.
- Bob sports an ability to transform other humans into heroic entities so they can battle rampaging Kaiju more easily.
- Subverted:
- Bob gets ready to transform into a heroic entity, but his Transformation Trinket malfunctions, forcing him to fight his enemies as an ordinary human.
- A magical substance that drains Bob's powers comes into contact with his body, causing him to lose said powers for a period of time.
- Bob's magical word/phrase curse wears off for one reason or another (such as age or time limits placed upon it).
- Double-Subverted:
- Bob either places new batteries into or repairs his Transformation Trinket, allowing him to use it like normal once again.
- The magical substance's effects wear off, allowing Bob to regain his shapeshifting powers.
- Bob asks for a sorceror to renew his word/phrase curse's effects, allowing his By The Power Of Gray Skull abilities to be used again.
- Parodied: Bob transforms into an entity resembling a hen's shin, causing every other entity around him to laugh at him nonstop as Sakura horribly fails to eliminate the nearby rampaging Kaiju and die at its hands.
- Zigzagged: Some of the humans in Bob's world, including Bob himself, transform into heroic entities to battle rampaging Kaiju, but some other humans have powers that are completely innate to them, allowing them to battle said Kaiju without shapeshifting first. Also, heroic gods from space sometimes transform into ordinary humans so they can interact with and befriend true humans more often.
- Averted: Every heroic entity in the universe is able to regularly interact with humanity without transforming into an ordinary human first, and every human who frequently battles rampaging Kaiju has powers that can be used without him/her transforming to a heroic entity first.
- Enforced: Studio executives force the series' writers to make humans transform into heroic entities (and vice versa) as to make them more dynamic and relatable.
- Lampshaded: "Have you ever noticed how there's always gotta be humans capable of transforming into all sorts of heroic entities on this show? Can the writers not come up with something else every once in a while?"
- Invoked: An ancient space wizard grants Bobshapeshifting powers so he can transform into all sorts of heroic entities and battle rampaging Kaiju (while also still being able to interact with the rest of humanity).
- Exploited: Alice, Bob's younger sister, grows progressively closer to Bob himself with time, and once she learns that Bob can transform into various sorts of heroic entities, Alice uses the other parts of Bob's identity to provide herself with additional protection against rampaging Kaiju.
- Defied: One rampaging Kaiju in particular instinctively senses Bob's shapeshifting capabilities, so he uses dark magic to permanently drain Bob's powers, allowing itself to easily kill Bob and drive humanity into extinction.
- Implied: Alice hears rumors stating that Bob may have the ability to transform into various heroic entities, but having not seen Bob's powers in action, Alice isn't sold on the aforementioned rumors (yet).
- Discussed: "The reason why we have humans capable of transforming into various types of heroic entities in our world is because there simply aren't enough naturally existing heroic entities whose powers are completely innate to them to go around in this corner of our universe, at least not yet anyway."
- Conversed: "Well, at least we've still got someone capable of transforming into a giant alien warrior around with us in case of Kaiju-related emergencies."
- Deconstructed: Everyone in Bob's world soon catches on when it comes to who Bob really is, so they start looting his house, stealing his Transformation Trinket for themselves, and publicly revealing his identity to the universe, allowing Bob's main enemies to learn more about him and start coming up with new plans on how to kill her for good.
- Reconstructed: Bob also soon learns a new power that allows him to drain other entities' memories of him, so he drains the memories of everyone he's ever known in his life, allowing his most closely guarded secrets to remain hidden from the universe.
- Played For Laughs: Bob transforms into a giant Blob Monster with people laughing at him as he slowly wobbles across his city and simply suffocates his enemies to death by absorbing them into himself.
- Played For Drama: Bob constantly recommends that Alice should stick with him at all times because Bob's shapeshifting powers are Alice's only hope of ever surviving attacks by rampaging Kaiju, and on top of that, Bob also later plans to endow Alice with his powers so Alice can survive more easily after she grows up.
- Played For Horror: Bob transforms into heroic entities resembling eldritch abominations so he can instill great fear in his enemies, break their collective fighting spirit, and defeat them more easily, and despite Bob's heroic and caring personality, he still accidentally makes the others humans he constantly protects (even Alice) afraid of his lots of times with his various heroic forms.
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