Basic Trope: A
Shape Shifter transforms into
The Hero's loved one, giving him hesitation.
- Straight: Eva transforms into Bob's dead little sister Alice, forcing Bob into a Heroic BSOD.
- Exaggerated: Eva transforms into Bob's dead family, driving Bob to suicide.
- Downplayed: Eva transforms into Bob's pet dog, which makes Bob confused.
- Justified:
- Eva knows about Bob's past to hit where it hurts.
- Eva feeds off misery to live, and her time is nearly up so she takes Alice's form to feed off Bob's emotions.
- Eva isn't well adapted/trained for direct confrontations, with her shapeshifting abilities being better suited for stealth and infiltration missions. So, when she ends up engaged in a duel with Bob, she decides to take Alice's form to confuse him and try to make a shift escape.
- Inverted:
- Eva transforms into Bob's sworn-enemy, and taunts him in order to make him lose his composure and judgment.
- Eva is on Bob's side, and transforms into Bob's mentor to give him more confidence.
- Subverted:
- Eva transforms into Alice, but Bob gives no response...
- Alternatively, all the transformation manages to do is piss Bob off. "You don't deserve to wear that face!"
- Double Subverted: Until Eva, as Alice, calls him out for letting her die. Cue BSOD.
- Parodied: Eva turns into Bob's neglectful father, hoping to start a Heroic BSOD. Cue the parental abandonment issues.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: This strategy never comes across Eva's mind
- Enforced: "We're contractually obligated to have Alice's actress appear in another episode, but the character's dead. How about we have Eva shapeshift into her to emotionally freak out Bob?"
- Lampshaded: "Oh yeah, transform into my dead little sister, very original."
- Invoked: Eva starts studying all the information regarding Bob's lost sister, just in case she ends up in trouble and she has to use that transformation against him.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Eva doesn't go for old wounds, seeing them as a cheap way to achieve a win.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Eva transforms into Alice, but instead of pressing a BSOD button, it pressed a Berserk Button. Eva soon finds herself in fifteen separate pieces, with enough of her body to still be torn apart.
- Reconstructed: Eva decides to stay as Alice, so that while Bob is killing her, it would look like he's killing Alice, thus BSOD moment.
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Shapeshifter Guilt Trip
