History Main / EmpathicShapeshifter

Contrast SelfPerceptionShapeshifting for when you shift to match you're own thoughts about yourself.

** Ditto, however, can transform into anything it sees regardless of size. In the games, it can only transform into [[DittoFighter other Pokémon]], but in [[Anime/PokemonTHeSeries the anime]], it has been shown to mimic things like {{objects|hifting}}.

* Skenfrith, a bizarre one-off character from ''Series/FraggleRock'', is completely at the mercy of other people's opinions of him. It's really amazing how upbeat he is, come to think of it.

** Trauma of ''ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative'' can touch the mind of his target and [[OneWingedAngel turn into their greatest fear]] -- complete with that fear object's abilities. The shortcomings of this ability are shown in the ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'' storyline when Trauma is sent to fight the Hulk and fails because the Hulk doesn't fear ''anything''.

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* In Creator/OsamuTezuka's ''Manga/{{Phoenix}}: A Tale of the Future,'' the Moopies are amorphous aliens who will voluntarily become anything a person desires. Earth society condemns interacting with them, because it is of course tremendously addictive. The main character is in love with a Moopie who has turned into his idea of the perfect woman.

* [[spoiler:Ixtli]] in ''Anime/RahXephon'' will take the form of the whomever [[spoiler:the [=RahXephon=]'s pilots]] cares about the most.

* ''ComicBook/XMen''
** Meggan, from the spinoff ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}''. She is the TropeNamer as she was explicitly described as a Empathic Shapeshifter and, indeed, she would look like what other people thought she should. This caused her quite a lot of angst as a kid, though she fortunately had other powers to back it up (and by other powers we mean that she won the SuperpowerLottery, big time) and had the ability to adapt to any environment bundled in. However, she managed to move past it as of the ''ComicBook/CaptainBritainAndMI13'' series.
** Darwin from the ComicBook/XMen would gain new powers to protect himself from threats, often shape shifting in the process.
** Lifeguard, also of the ComicBook/XMen, teleported situationally, developing powers that would be useful to save any endangered lives around her.
** ''ComicBook/EarthX'' suggested that all of Marvel Comics' supers were [[EvolutionaryLevels evolving]] toward this state. LossOfIdentity soon follows.
** Benjamin Deeds, the second character to use the name Morph, who joined Cyclops' post-Schism X-faction. His appearance would change to resemble anyone he spoke to. Anyone who didn't see it in action would instinctively like and trust him.
* Trauma of Marvel's ''[[ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative The Initiative]]'' can touch the mind of his target and [[OneWingedAngel turn into their greatest fear]] -- complete with that fear object's abilities. The shortcomings of this ability is sown in the World War Hulk storyline, when Trauma is sent to fight the Hulk, and fails because the Hulk doesn't fear ''anything''.

* One of the later arcs of ''{{ComicBook/WITCH}}'' had Cornelia befriend a girl named Leah, who had the magical ability to change her appearance depending on the current needs of those around her. However, she didn't have full control of her power, and had changed her appearance so many times that she no longer remembered what her face originally looked like. The girls were eventually able to bring her to Yan Lin, who was able to help Leah return to her true appearance.
* Franchise/GreenLantern Xrill-Vrex is an empath who can key in to specific individuals around her to get a better idea of their feelings, motivations and language, and when she does so she takes on elements of their appearance, speech patterns and behavior though she usually remains more stoic and doesn't allow their feelings to dictate or change her actions. If she's keying into an individual who is humanoid and close to her size and mass she ends up looking just like them.

* Prot in ''Film/KPax'' claims that he appears human on Earth because it is the most energy-efficient shape he could assume here. He uses the analogy of "Why is a soap bubble round?" and says that on K-PAX he [[ShapedLikeItself appears K-Paxian.]]
* In ''Film/PannaANetvor'' (the Czech film adaptation of ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'') , the beast, instead of changing completely from monster to human in a single pivotal scene like in almost every other adaptation, changes according to the beauty's perception of him: when she grabs for his talons, expecting them to be a pair of hands (as he's forbidden her from looking at him and she [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve believes he's human]]), they magically transform into human hands, but it isn't until she declares that he's beautiful in her eyes that his human form is fully restored.

* "Literature/AngelDownSussex" revolves around a being whose appearance and behavior is influenced by the people around her. Of three investigators who get a look at her, the starry-eyed spiritist sees a fey changeling, the gleefully-depraved occultist sees a succubus which proceeds to anal-probe him, and the skeptic just sees her as a hoaxer. At the end someone wonders [[TheGreys what she might appear as]] to someone decades from now.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/JanetAsimov's ''Literature/TheNorbyChronicles'': The "All-Purpose Pet" is an animal/species [[BioAugmentation created by]] Mentor First, from genetic samples across multiple planets. Only two are ever mentioned; the original Pet (who Fargo named Oola), and [[OneGenderRace her child]], which was given to Jeff. Both animals look somewhat like a cat [[ShapeshifterDefaultForm normally]], but are sensitive to the minds of those around them. The reason why they're an "All-Purpose" pet is that they adapt to be the sort of pet you'd like. If you prefer dogs, then she'll bark and turn into a beagle. If you prefer cats, then she'll purr and become a miniature simoladon. If you want a nununiy, then she'll grow sixteen legs and tentacles at each end. They'll take whatever shape ''you'' want them to, if your thoughts are strong enough.
* Mix a little of this with a whole lot of terror and you've got the insane children's book ''Literature/ABadCaseOfStripes''. Camilla, a little girl who's self-conscious about how other people view her, wakes up one day covered in stripes and her appearance changes based on what people around her say. It enters BodyHorror territory when the doctors' voiced ideas about what kind of illness she might have causes her body to develop symptoms of that illness (ex: a doctor saying she may have a virus causes virus-like extensions to sprout from her body) and a therapist's suggestion for her to relax by imagining that she's in a room causes her to ''merge with her room'', her eyes becoming picture frames and her lips becoming her bed. Not until she learns to [[BeYourself be herself]] and stop worrying about what other people may think about her weirder traits does her body return to normal.
* In Creator/CliveBarker's ''Literature/{{Imajica}}'', one character is a "mystif" who takes on the form matching the unconscious sexual desires of whoever looks at him/her/it. The character says that many people, when shown what they actually desire instead of what they think they desire, end up feeling horrified instead of attracted.
* In Creator/JamesBlish's ''Literature/TheDuplicatedMan,'' the titular duplicates are formed by a machine that is controlled telepathically by its operators. The operators are displeased to discover that all the duplicates come out ''wrong'' because each of the operators has his own imperfect, thoroughly subjective ideas of what the original guy is like, both in his personality and his appearance.
* In the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novel ''Silhouette'', one of the "living weapons" is a shapeshifter who duplicates a person's self image, which ''usually'' gets them to to trust him. He gets very confused dealing with the Doctor, who has [[TheNthDoctor twelve self images]], and doesn't really like ''any'' of them.

* ''{{Literature/It}}'' uses the "turn into something that someone fears" gimmick. When luring people in, it wears the form of a harmless looking clown, but it's also become various movie monsters and predatory animals depending on its present company. It uses this ability to target children, apparently because adults tend to be more afraid of non-tangible things, which are beyond its capabilities (not that the child-eating monster isn't horrifying already).
* In ''Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'': SuccubiAndIncubi take the form the person who summons the devil finds most attractive. Some mages summon them to learn more about themselves.
* ''Literature/TheWarlockInSpiteOfHimself'' series has Witch-moss, an alien fungus that adapts its shape in response to {{Telepathy}}-- even [[PowerIncontinence unconscious]] telepathy, explaining why there are [[spoiler:elves]] and many other mythical monsters on the planet Gramarye.
* ''Literature/WildCards'': Succubus becomes the ideal lover of whoever she's near, and has since childhood. Her parents actually took advantage of this and pimped her out as a prostitute (her clients were mostly unaware of her real age since she looked older even in her default form).

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' :
** A one-off character on looked like whoever the viewer was most attracted to -- The very personification of beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
** The Psirens from a later series could take the form of their chosen victim's greatest sexual fantasy, complete with voice and mannerisms, etc, only they did it to get brains to snack on.
* The MonsterOfTheWeek in the ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "X-Cops" hunts and kills people using the form of whatever they're mortally afraid of. Forms it's assumed include a werewolf, "the Waspman", [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]], a crackhead, and the hanta virus. [[DeconstructedTrope This is as much a weakness as a strength for it]]; it fails to kill one victim because the thing he was most afraid of was his lover leaving him, which obviously isn't fatal and has its effect ruined when said lover [[ConfrontingYourImposter happens to walk in as the monster is taking his form]].

* An episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' featured a woman who was to be used to seal a peace treaty: she would marry the leader of a planet and end a centuries long war (which began when one royal brother kidnapped the other's bride). The problem is, while she remains physically the same, her personality changes to whatever the men around her find irresistibly attractive, which has the added effect of her being irresistibly attracted to every man she meets. At least until she reaches "maturity" and forms a bond with a single mate, then ShapeshifterModeLock kicks in and she remains that person's ideal personality permanently. So the problem is twofold, managing a way to safely transport her to her destination without her causing a riot among the various males who ''all'' fall in love the moment they meet her ''or'' her bonding with a single individual before she meets her arranged husband. They manage the former by keeping her as isolated as possible once they realize how disruptive her mere presence can be, the latter issue [[spoiler: ends up as yet another example of Picard's tragic love life. She bonds with ''him'', but of course Picard's ideal mate is noble enough to put her duty to end the war ahead of her own happiness, so she resolves to ''fake'' bonding to her new husband (using her residual empathic ability to understand his desires) for the rest of her life.]]

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* Skenfrith, a bizarre one-off character from ''Series/FraggleRock'', is completely at the mercy of other people's opinions of him. It's really amazing how upbeat he is, come to think of it.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': This, combined with PowerPerversionPotential, can be found in...certain RP cliques on one of the servers.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Eevee: every game describes it as having an unstable genetic structure, and it evolves into one of several creatures depending on environmental stimulus (or exposing it to a magical stone). So far, we have evolutions for eight habitats: hot/fire, aquatic, electrical, nocturnal, diurnal/friendship(?), forest, cold/snowy, and bonding with another being. That said, once it evolves it's permanent, and since there are reliable ways for Trainers to force/invoke each individual evolution...yeah.
** Ditto, however, can transform into anything it sees regardless of size. In the games, it can only transform into other Pokémon, but in the anime it has been shown to mimic things like objects.
* The Dog in ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'' takes a form to reflect whatever region of Evermore the Boy is exploring at the time. In the prehistoric world of Prehistoria, the Dog becomes a hulking wolf-like canine; in the AncientGrome-inspired world of Antiqua, he becomes a sleek jackal-like hound; in the medieval world of Gothica, he becomes a poodle; and in the sci-fi world of Omnitopia, he becomes a mechanical RobotDog.

* In ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', yordles mostly manifest as chipper little hamster people by default, but when they travel outside of [[HiddenElfVillage their magical pocket world of Bandle City]] and into the physical realm, they begin to develop physical and personality traits, adapting them to their surroundings. For example, Fizz of the waters around Bilgewater is [[FishPeople amphibious]], Kled of [[TheEmpire the warmongering empire Noxus]] is an AxCrazy soldier obsessed with claiming and defending territory, and Poppy of [[TheGoodKingdom the proud military kingdom Demacia]] is a humble KnightErrant.

* Accidentally done in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'': The Beastmaster's animal summons actually have three different skins that change depending on the tileset the map uses (the "standard" one, a darker variation in forest and underground maps, and white-furred/feathered variations on snow-themed maps).

* The Website/SCPFoundation has several of these:
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-056 SCP-056]] is a being that becomes "[[TheAce better]]" than anyone observing it. It will take on a shape that is more attractive, stronger, and smarter, with the particulars determined by the mindset of the observer. Even when there aren't any people around, if there is a camera monitoring it, it becomes a higher-quality video camera.
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-523 SCP-523]] is "The Most Unhelpful Object on Earth", an object that transforms into something that seems useful, but becomes completely detrimental when someone tries to use it. For example, if you're trying to put out a fire, it would turn from a pitcher of water to a pitcher of gasoline.
** A teddy bear run through [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-914 SCP-914]] on "Very Fine" ended up as a ball of fluff that transforms into an animated plush toy if held by a sentient being. The toy's appearance and behavior is whatever the holder finds most CutenessProximity-inducing. It was removed to be analyzed under controlled conditions later.

* In Creator/JamesBlish's ''Literature/TheDuplicatedMan,'' the title [[CloningBlues duplicates]] are formed by a machine that is controlled telepathically by its operators. The operators are displeased to discover that all the duplicates come out ''wrong'' because each of the operators has his own imperfect, thoroughly subjective ideas of what the original guy is like, both in his personality and his appearance.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTriger'': One of the monsters in Magus' Keep takes the form of a loved one of whoever's in the party's front slot (Crono sees his mother, Lucca and Marle see their father, and Frog sees Queen Leene). It doesn't attack at first, only saying it was worried about [the character]. The second time around, though...
-->'''"Queen Leene:"''' Frog! You're safe!\\
'''"Queen Leene:"''' That won't do at all.
* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': This, combined with PowerPerversionPotential, can be found in...certain RP cliques on one of servers.

* The Dog in ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'' takes a form to reflect whatever region of Evermore the Boy is exploring at the time. In the prehistoric world of Prehistoria, the Dog becomes a hulking wolf-like canine; in the AncientGrome-inspired world of Antiqua, he becomes a sleek jackal-like hound; in the medieval world of Gothica, he becomes a poodle; and in the sci-fi world of Omnitopia, he becomes a mechanical robo-dog.

** If he's leashed to Venom Snake, Third Child has a large horn in his forehead that looks similar to Snake's shrapnel wound.

** If he's leashed to Shabani, Third Child wears a lion necklace similar to Shabani's .

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' has Third Child engage in a variant of this: He's a powerful psychic whose will can be leashed to someone else, and whomever holds the leash causes mild shapeshifting on Third Child's body.

** If he's leashed to Skull Face, the gas mask Third Child wears becomes thinner, looking like Skull Face's domino mask
** If he's leashed to Shabani, Third Child wears a lion necklace similar to Shabani's

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has several of these:

[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/{{WITCH}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_leahwitch.png]]]]

* The MonsterOfTheWeek in the ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "X-Cops" hunts and kills people using the form of whatever they're mortally afraid of. Forms it's assumed include a werewolf, "the Waspman", [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]], a crackhead, and the hanta virus. [[DeconstructedTrope This is as much a weakness as a strength for it]]; it fails to kill one victim because the thing he was most afraid of was his lover leaving him, which obviously isn’t fatal and has its effect ruined when said lover [[ConfrontingYourImposter happens to walk in as the monster is taking his form]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'': [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Ahamkara]] naturally and instinctively change their appearance based on what people expect them to look like, or [[JerkassGenie based on what someone wished]]. The reason many of them look like dragons is because one sensed [[TheDragonslayer Lord Saladin’s subconscious wish to fight a real dragon]] and promptly granted said wish, turning itself and several of its fellows into towering wyrms.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-056 SCP-056]] is a being that becomes "[[TheAce better]]" than anyone observing it. It will take on a shape that is more attractive, stronger, and smarter, with the particulars determined by the mindset of the observer. Even when there aren't any people around, if there is a camera monitoring it, it becomes a higher quality video camera.

** A teddy bear run through [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-914 SCP-914]] on "Very Fine" ended up as a ball of fluff which transforms into an animated plush toy if held by a sentient being. The toy's appearance and behavior is whatever the holder finds most CutenessProximity-inducing. It was removed to be analyzed under controlled conditions later.

* In ''Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'': [[HornyDevils Succubi/Incubi]] take the form the person who summons the devil finds most attractive. Some mages summon them to learn more about themselves.

[[folder:Puppet shows]]
* Skenfrith, a bizarre one-off character from ''Series/FraggleRock'', is completely at the mercy of other people's opinions of him. It's really amazing how upbeat he is come to think of it.

* The MonsterOfTheWeek in the ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "X-Cops" hunts and kills people using the form of whatever they're mortally afraid of. Forms it's assumes include a werewolf, "the Waspman", [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]], a crackhead, and the hanta virus. [[DeconstructedTrope This is as much a weakness as a strength for it]]; it fails to kill one victim because the thing he was most afraid of was his lover leaving him, which obviously isn’t fatal and has its effect ruined when said lover [[ConfrontingYourImposter happens to walk in as the monster is taking his form]].

* ''{{Literature/It}}'' uses the "turn into something that someone fears" gimmick. When luring people in, it wears the form of a harmless looking clown, but it's also become various movie monsters and predatory animals depending on its present company. It uses this ability to target children, apparently because adults tend to be more afraid of non-tangible things, which are beyond its capabilities (not that the child-eating monster isn't AdultFear already).

* The ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'' series makes it quite clear that the instincts of the animal always pop up. Not so bad if you're morphing a dolphin. You basically experience pure joy. Not so good if you're morph a prehistoric superpredator. Then you turn on your friends and attack random prey animals. NightmareFuel if it's some mindless automaton insect. All you can do is get in line and serve the queen.