History Main / EmpathicShapeshifter

* Skinfred, 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.

Can overlap with AFormYouAreComfortableWith and YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm, if the taken form is merely whatever the person looking ''wants'' to see.

* 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''. 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.

* 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.
* In Creator/{{Clive Barker}}'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.
* ''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).

* In Creator/JamesBlish's ''The Duplicated Man,'' 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.

* 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.

* In Creator/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.

* Ex-SuperSoldier Shane "Goose" Gooseman of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'' shapeshifts automatically in response to any threat (forming reflective armor against [[EnergyWeapon Energy Weapons]], for instance), but if his [[RestrainingBolt Series Five implant]] goes out of whack, he [[PowerIncontinence loses control of his power]] and becomes a danger to himself and others.

* Ex-SuperSoldier Shane "Goose" Gooseman of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'' shapeshifts automatically in response to any threat (forming reflective armor against FrickinLaserBeams, for instance), but if his [[RestrainingBolt Series Five implant]] goes out of whack, he [[PowerIncontinence loses control of his power]] and becomes a danger to himself and others.

Can overlap with AFormYouAreComfortableWith, if the taken form is merely whatever the person looking ''wants'' to see.

** 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; if used discretely, it made other instinctively trust and like him.

* 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 it’s effect ruined when said lover [[ConfrontingYourImposter happens to walk in as the monster is taking his form]].

* 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", [[Film/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 it’s effect ruined when said lover [[ConfrontingYourImposter happens to walk in as the monster is taking his form]].

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

* The MonsterOfTheWeek in the ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "X-Cops" kills people using the form of whatever they're mortally afraid of. Forms it's assumed have included a werewolf, "the Waspman", Freddy Krueger, a crackhead, and the hanta virus.

* 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''. The story is an aesop to BeYourself.

* Skinfred, a bizarre one-off character from ''Series/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.
* ''Series/RedDwarf''

* 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. At one point, House and Cuddy decide to use his condition to deliberately determine who is ''really'' top dog by seeing who he will mimic in a room with just the two of them:
--> '''Patient (to Cuddy):''' Your ass is amazing...
--> '''House:''' That's definitely me.
--> '''Cuddy:''' Doesn't prove anything... I'm very proud of my butt!

* 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.

%%[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{WITCH}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leahwitch_7.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{WITCH}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leahwitch_7.png]]]]

[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/third_child.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:A visual clue to show whose side he's taking at the moment.]]

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

* Changelings in [[MagicTheGathering Lorwyn]]. They involuntary copy any form that catches their attention. While they blend in perfectly with others, this also outs them [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny pretty quickly]].

* In Creator/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.

[[caption-width-right:300:A visual clue to show who's side he's taking at the moment.]]

Can be related to AFormYouAreComfortableWith, if it's implied that people merely ''perceive'' the shape they want to (to understand the difference between these tropes, ask Irwin Schroedinger).

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

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-523 SCP-523]] is an object that transforms into something that will have no current use for the person holding it. For example, if you are cold, it would become an ice cube. If you are trying to put out a fire, it would become something flammable.