History Main / EmpathicShapeshifter

* Mix a little of this with a whole lot of terror and you've got the insane children's book ''A Bad Case of Stripes''.

* In a Czech film adaptation of ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'' (''Panna a Netvor''), 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.

* 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.]]

* A one shot patient in ''Series/{{House}}'' had a bizarre type of amnesia, where he would automatically adopt the mannerisms and personality of whoever the dominant person in the room was.

* 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. 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, and whoever she first has sex with, she'll ShapeshifterModeLock into that person's ideal personality permanently. So the problem is, managing a way to safely transport her to her destination without her losing her virginity.

* ''Literature/WildCards'':
** Succubus, who 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).
** All Jokers have a form of empathic shapeshifting, except it's one-shot only (during initial infection), self-imposed, unconscious and uncontrollable, and ends in permanent ShapeshifterModeLock. According to Dr. Tachyon, the Wild Card Virus takes a random-- or maybe not so random-- image from the subconscious, and amplifies it to telekinetically influence how the virus is rebuilding the body. This explains why some jokers have animal or mythological forms, and why some Aces have overly specific powers.

** Most mutants actually change their appearance (involuntarily and unconsciously) to match their ideal self-image. Again, usually comes with ShapeshifterModeLock.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** The Boggart, which takes on the form a character's greatest fears.
** Also Nymphadora Tonks, a Metamorphagus who falls for much older, poorer lycanthrope Remus Lupin. [[InsecureLoveInterest When he refuses to get involved with her because he does not want to drag her down in society,]] her depression causes her normally vibrant pink hair to become a subdued shade of brown.

** 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 had the ability to adapt to any environment bundled in. However, she managed to move past it as of the ''ComicBook/CaptainBritainAndMI13'' series.

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** 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 had the ability to adapt to any environment bundled in. However, she managed to move past it as of the ''ComicBook/CaptainBritainAndMI13'' series.

* The Boggart in ''Literature/HarryPotter'', which takes on the form a character's greatest fears.

* ''Literature/WildCards''

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* ''WhateleyUniverse''

* The chameleon. They change colors based on features of the environment like temperature. Despite the common notion, their colour change is not based on the colour of the surrounding environment; a naturally green chameleon will not change to pink or brown if you pick it up or move it to a piece of tree bark. Apart from specific patterns for things like mating, most of the colour changes are darkening, brightening or paling.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball [[spoiler: Penny]] is revealed to be a shapeshifter. [[spoiler: She's]] rather self conscience about it though, which leads [[spoiler: her]] to mimick the way people describe [[spoiler: her.]] Or how [[spoiler: she]] thinks they describing [[spoiler: her.]]

* The Dog in ''SecretOfEvermore'' takes a form to reflect whatever region of Evermore the Boy is exploring at the time.

* In ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', it's heavily implied in the Black Rose Arc that [[spoiler:"Mamiya" is really Anthy in disguise, and in fact Mamiya at first glance appears to be a DistaffCounterpart to Anthy in terms of appearance]].
* [[spoiler: Ixtli]] in ''RahXephon'' will take the form of the whomever [[spoiler: the RahXephon's pilots]] cares about the most.

* In OsamuTezuka's ''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.

** ''EarthX'' suggested that all of Marvel Comics' supers were [[EvolutionaryLevels evolving]] toward this state. LossOfIdentity soon follows.

* One of the stories in ''{{Demo}}'' has a girl with this kind of power, but it only applies to romantic intent. She's searching for someone who will see her the way she really is. She finds a woman who seems to be able to do just that and falls in love with her based on that fact alone, only to find out that the woman is already seeing someone (and hence implicitly didn't ''care'' about making her look like the kind of person she already had).

* The Tulpas in ''OverTheEdge'' are formed by what their opposite expects them to be.

* ''CityOfHeroes''': This, combined with PowerPerversionPotential, can be found in...certain RP cliques on one of servers.

* Due to his inherent VoluntaryShapeshifter powers [[PowerIncontinence he has yet to master]], WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse finds he's literally as old as he feels. In other words, if he feels old, he'll ''be'' old.

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

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', [[spoiler:Penny Fitzgerald]] turns out to be a shapeshifter whose form [[spoiler:underneath her peanut shell]] is based on her self-image. She's rather self-conscious about it, which indirectly leads to her mimicking the way people describe her (or that she thinks they're describing her).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', [[spoiler:Penny Fitzgerald]] turns out to be a shapeshifter whose form [[spoiler:underneath her peanut shell]] is based on her self-image. She's rather self-conscious about it, which leads to her mimicking the way people describe her (or that she thinks they're describing her).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', [[spoiler:Penny Fitzgerald's]] turns out to be a shapeshifter whose form [[spoiler:underneath her peanut shell]] is based on her emotions.

* On WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball [[spoiler: Penny Fitzgerald's]] true form [[spoiler:inside her horned peanut shell]] is a shapeshifter whose form is based on her emotions.

* On TheAmazingWorldOfGumball [[spoiler: Penny Fitzgerald's]] true form [[spoiler:inside her horned peanut shell]] is a shapeshifter whose form is based on her emotions.