Basic Trope: When someone shapeshifts, the appearance of their new form has some traits in common with their normal one.
- Straight: A brown haired person, Alice, changes form into a dog that has brown fur.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice shapeshifts into a dog, but still has a human head.
- Alice's dog form has brown hair, except for the dog's torso, which is the same color and pattern as Alice's clothes, and also has an ear piercing and a tattoo just like Alice.
- Downplayed:
- Alice's dog form has a small scar under her jaw just like Alice's human form.
- Novice shapeshifters keep a lot of traits in common between different forms. Ones with more practice can alter these traits if they desire.
- Shapeshifting doesn't extend to the genetic level. The "dog" is still a 100% genetic match with Alice.
- Alice's physical appearance is totally different, but she doesn't change her body language while transformed.
- Justified:
- A rule of the Functional Magic is that something has to remain the same for them to be able to return to their original form.
- Alice wants her allies to recognize her somehow while she's in dog form.
- Inverted: It is a rule of the spell that when someone shapeshifts, they can share no traits of their base form (ie a hero with blue eyes and brown hair cannot have blue eyes or brown fur/scales/feathers while shapeshifted.)
- Subverted: A black dog is shown which the audience or a character is lead to believe is a black-haired shapeshifter in disguise, but it was really a different blond shapeshifter.
- Double Subverted: The blond shapeshifter isn't a natural blond...
- Parodied: Bob's resemblance to his old form leads people to instantly figuring out that he's in disguise and telling him how bad his skills at shapeshifting are.
- Zig Zagged:
- The apparent identity of a werewolf is repeatedly shifted between someone with the same hair color and a different hair color.
- Bob's opponents seize upon an animal that resembles him, but that's just a coincidence. The real Bob goes unnoticed.
- Averted:
- A red haired person is turned into a dog with black fur.
- No one shapeshifts.
- Enforced:
- "You need to visually indicate to the audience that this is someone taking a different form. Give both forms the same scar."
- "Costuming needs slightly more budget to make a fully covering werewolf costume for Alice, sir." "And if we forego the wolf eyes?" "That would keep it in budget, sir" "Do it."
- Lampshaded: After Bob changes into an animal in front of Alice, the Alice question why he is still wearing his hat (answer: because it's an awesome hat).
- Invoked: Alice intentionally retains some traits of herself when shapeshifting so that her friends can recognize her.
- Exploited: Someone needs a black dog, so they find someone with black hair and turn them into a dog.
- Defied:
- Alice turns into an animal but deliberately makes sure every feature of it is completely different, so no one can tell it's her.
- Alternatively, they dye their hair before turning into a dog.
- Discussed: Two shapeshifters are talking to each other and mention how hard it is to have no resemblance to their regular form.
- Conversed: "Why do people on TV that change shape always look similar to their real form if it's supposed to be a disguise?"
- Implied: The heroes all shapeshift simultaneously, and while it is never stated which is which, their new forms maintain the characters' distinctive features.
- Deconstructed: The Bob's enemies pick up on the fact that his hair color always remains the same. Since the Bob has green hair, he sticks out like a sore thumb, no matter what form he takes. Bob is tragically gunned down.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob catches on that his opponents have caught on and begins sending in miscellaneous animals in his stead, all dyed green to make them look like his shifted forms. Confusion ensues.
- Alternatively, Amazing Technicolor Wildlife is common in this world, so the revelation isn't particularly helpful.
Oddly enough, the Morphic Resonance page looks like an ordinary TV Tropes page even when transformed.
