Shapeshifter Guilt Trips in Live-Action TV series.
- Altered Carbon. This is a standard form of execution on Harlen's World. In the Circle the condemned is forced to fight to the death synth-copies of people in their personal lives whom they have wronged in some way, as it makes it that much harder to kill them.
- Angel:
- Subverted in "Lineage" when the Monster of the Week appears as Wesley's distant father and is unceremoniously shot. Notably, this only happens after he threatens Wesley's love interest, and since Wesley does think that it's his real father at the time, he spends the next episode absent, apparently dealing with the revelation that he would have been willing to kill his own father. Made more humorous with all the other characters saying how they killed their fathers or mothers and haven't looked back since.
- Although not done intentionally, the demon Illyria (who has "hollowed out" and taken over the body of Fred) notes that Spike has no problem punching her in the face.Illyria: This shell... you had affection for it.
Spike: Tons. Loved the bird.
Illyria: Yet you strike at her form without sentiment.
Spike: You ain't her. I can see it. Lord knows I can smell it. And I got no problem hitting it.
- Ash vs. Evil Dead: During their Final Battle, season 2 Big Bad Baal does this to Ash by taking on the forms of his dead loved ones — his best friend Chet, sister Cheryl, and father Brock.
- In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this is the First's main tactic. Creepily, its Dragon Caleb inverts this — the First turns into girls he had murdered so that he can reenact killing them again. The First even tells Caleb that most people dislike seeing people they've killed and that he is a rare exception. Caleb really likes Reminiscing About His Victims.
- In Class (2016), the tentacled monster called the Lankin creates convincing copies of people's dead relatives and goads them to touch them so it can eat their souls.
- Doctor Who: The TARDIS' emergency hologram voice interface inadvertently does this to the Doctor in "Let's Kill Hitler", turning into each of the Tenth Doctor's companions in turn:[TARDIS turns into the Eleventh Doctor]
The Doctor: Oh no no no no, give me someone I like.
[TARDIS turns into Rose]
The Doctor: Thanks! Give me guilt.
[TARDIS turns into Martha]
The Doctor: Also guilt.
[TARDIS turns into Donna]
The Doctor: More guilt.
- In Heroes, Candace (who can actually cast illusions, but used it in a way equivalent to shapeshifting) as Simone to Isaac.
- Kamen Rider:
- The Worm creatures in Kamen Rider Kabuto occasionally do this by showing the image of the person they'd replaced. One early episode has a Worm guilt-tripping Kagami with the form of his brother, noting that since the Worm has all the memories of his victim, if the Worm dies, the victim will be killed "a second time".
- It happens again in Kamen Rider Double's movie, Begins Night, in which a dopant poses as Shotaro's mentor and in turn, Kamen Rider Skull. When it is revealed that it's the Dummy Dopant doing the imitating, this pisses off Shotaro.
- The Worms do this yet again in Kamen Rider Zi-O, this time accidentally, when a Worm manipulates Sou Yaguruma by posing as his deceased partner Kageyama. Yaguruma isn't fooled, because he's the one who had to Mercy Kill Kageyama in the first place, but he still does what the Worm wants simply because he can't bear to lose him again. At the end of the arc the Worm actually inverts the usual trope and guilts Yaguruma by spitefully declaring in its dying moments that it's not Kageyama.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: When Galadriel discovers that Halbrand is Sauron in disguise, she proceeds to attack him, but he traps her into a Mind Rape where he takes the form of her brother back when they both lived in Valinor. Galadriel is taken aback to see him alive and falls for the deceit until "Finrod" starts to justify Sauron's deeds.
- Lost: The Smoke Monster a.k.a. the Man in Black does this a lot to the main characters, though he usually impersonates their beloved ones: he appears to Jack as his late father, to Eko as his late brother, to Ben as his late daughter, to Richard as his late wife... you get the idea.
- The Red Dwarf episode "Polymorph" features the Polymorph, a genetic mutant who uses its shapeshifting ability to drive its victims to extremes of some emotion, which it then feeds on/sucks out. Thus, at one point, Kryten becomes the victim of a literal Shapeshifter Guilt Trip when the Polymorph impersonates Rimmer and tells Kryten that the Cat getting attacked was Kryten's fault in order to drain his guilt. It's not a straight example, though, since Kryten doesn't know that it's the Polymorph while it's in Rimmer's form.
- The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Man Trap" features an alien shapeshifter who impersonates McCoy's old flame, causing him to hesitate to shoot it.
- Supernatural:
- "Skin" does this when Sam fights a shapeshifter disguised as Dean. Sam can't kill him, so Dean does.
- Averted in "Fallen Idol", in which a pagan god is about to take the form of John Winchester but is killed before that happens.
- This happens again in the sixth season. When the boys prove unwilling to listen to her, the Mother of All takes on the form of none other than Mary Winchester. Still doesn't stop the Winchesters from ganking her.
- In "The Rupture", Castiel and the demon Belphegor, using the body of one of Castiel's fallen friends, venture into hell to draw the escaped souls back into it, only for Belphegor to reveal he was using them all along to become a god. As Castiel fights him, Belphegor's last trick is to pretend to be Castiel's dead friend, who sees right through it and angrily incinerates him.
- Young Dracula has a variant when Elizabeta turns into everyone Vlad cares about who he's disappointed or failed. Rather than doing it to gain an advantage, though, she's already beaten him and is just throwing his failures in his face before she kills him.
