History Main / NewBodyOldAbilities

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': When Jade swapped [[LifeEnergy chi]] with Uncle, [[PersonalitySwap she inherited Uncle's personality]] and all his [[KiManipulation chi-power]], and should theoretically be able to do anything Uncle could... but she had none of his knowledge as it was explicitly only the ''chi'' that was swapped, not their ''brains'', and despite having the ''ability'' to do them, she had no idea of ''[[HowDoIShotWeb how]]'' to do them.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': {{Body Surf}}ing villain Corpsetaker is shown to be able to rapidly adapt to new bodies, at one point even possessing a {{muggle}} and still having access to her magical abilities. However, this is not typical as one of her victims -- [[spoiler:Anastasia Luccio]] -- was said to have lost most of her power after her original body was stolen by Corpsetaker. It's implied that Corpsetaker, a centuries-old necromancer, has swapped bodies so many times she has learned how to circumvent the weakness.

* In ''Manga/FullMetalAlchemist'', when Ling [[spoiler:becomes the second Greed, Greed can still use his ultimate shield.]] JustifiedTrope in this case as the way he [[spoiler:becomes the second Greed is Father injecting him with Greed's philosopher stone and it only seems to work when Greed's in control of their body.]]

* ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'': Orochimaru {{Body Surf}}s every three years (give or take) in order to stay alive. Each time, he retains all of his abilities, although he usually would need some time to readjust the new body and be weakened in the meantime. This appears to involve modifying every body to be equally amorphous, which is also how he makes them look the same.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Subverted in the case of Mr. 2, who has a Devil Fruit that lets him take on the appearance of anyone he's touched before. During the Alabaster arc, he repeatedly transforms into Nami to [[WouldnthitAGirl prevent Sanji from launching any attacks]] [[DistractedByTheSexy and leaving him open for his own strikes]]. Eventually, Sanji realizes Mr. 2 always has to revert back to his original form when he's about to go on the offensive because Nami's body hasn't been conditioned to use his martial arts.

* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' the people with Jusenkyō curses, often transforming them into animals, are still capable of performing their old martial arts feats while transformed. Particularly egregious with Genma, who turns into a panda, in that he is not only able to do all his usual acrobatic techniques as a panda but also he can walk upright and sit seiza at a shogi board too.
* Kanata from ''Literature/ReMonster'' was [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld Reincarnate In Another World]] as a Goblin. But rare for a StockLightNovelHero in an Isekai story, he had his CannibalismSuperpower as a human on Earth before he was killed.

* At one point in ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'', Red Tornado was tricked into abandoning his android body and instead inhabiting a human body. Despite the change, he somehow still retained his ability to create tornadoes. Somewhat justified, in that Red Tornado was already a "tornado spirit" who happened to be inhabiting an android body, and how much the android body was connected to his powers was very much DependingOnTheWriter.
* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': PlayedWith, in that the time Thor is turned into a frog he ''does'' lose his powers... until he quests through Central Park for tiny Mjolnir and becomes Throg.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': After possessing [[spoiler:Jaune's]] body, Darth Nihilus is still able to use the Force abilities his original body had--like his [[MakeMeWannaShout Force scream]] and [[InASingleBound Force leap]]--in addition to all of [[spoiler:Jaune's]] Force techniques.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': {{Body Surf}}ing villain Corpsetaker is shown to be able to rapidly adapt to new bodies, at one point even possessing a {{muggle}} and still having access to her magical abilities. However, this is not typical as one of her victims--[[spoiler:Anastasia Luccio]]--was said to have lost most of her power after her original body was stolen by Corpsetaker. It's implied that Corpsetaker, a centuries-old necromancer, has swapped bodies so many times she has learned how to circumvent the weakness.

* In ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', whenever a demon possesses a human body, they retain all their strength and magical abilities. One episode played it for laughs by having a female demon possessing a male human; she still had all her powers, but she was irritated that she had to adjust her gait to account for the, er, ''male anatomy''.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': A {{Justified|Trope}} example is shown in The Emperor, who was truly born around 8000 BC when Earth's shamans realized humanity would need a strong leader to deal with the upcoming threat of Chaos. They committed simultaneous ritual suicide to merge all their souls into a single human, whose psychic might would be that of their combined psychic strength -- strong enough to be considered a god by other humans. When the emperor was born to normal human parents it did take him some time to discover his abilities, but he eventually did become the PhysicalGod that the shamans hoped. [[AGodIAmNot Though he was adamant in his own non-divine heritage]]. [[note]]In more recent canon this has been retconned into one possible origin among many.[[/note]]

* ''Videogame/ChronoTrigger'': Frog's transformation into a, well, giant humanoid frog gave him all-new powers, mostly involving his extensible tongue and jumping ability while losing none of his skills with a sword (although his appearance and the grief of losing his best friend led him to live in exile for a while, no longer using his old name Glenn). He even thanks the mage responsible for it, as it put him on the path to obtaining the Masamune (though Frog mostly says this to needle Magus during their confrontation). He also ''does'' regain his humanity in endings [[spoiler:where Magus is slain and the curse broken]].
* ''Videogame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'': [[spoiler:The hero's Dimensional Scream ability is carried over from when they were a human. Unfortunately, this helps tip off [[TheMole Dusknoir]] to their true identity.]]
* ''Videogame/TheKingOfFighters'': Athena Asamiya is the {{Reincarnation}} of the Goddess Athena from an older SNK game; the former gets the latter's vast PsychicPowers from this.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'': In the second game, Death Knights were the horde's SquishyWizard, made by binding the souls of orc warlocks from the first war into the corpses of recently-killed human knights. In between ''Warcraft II'' and ''Warcraft III'', these death knights were broken down and reformed as liches, skeletal magi with new frost powers and, despite their reformation, keeping their signature Death and Decay spell (which will eventually kill ''anything'' that stays in the [=AoE=])

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/LsEmpire'', Void keeps his ability to summon spears out of thin air while under the effects of a FreakyFridayFlip with Geminiman due to the powers being bound to his mind and soul. It also ended up being the punchline to a three year long BrickJoke.

* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': While the Avatar is granted the ability to bend all four elements (bending is restricted to a single element for everyone else), they won't necessarily have the same skills their predecessor had. Korra had serious trouble with airbending at first and seems to be better at bending fire than the other elements, while Aang had difficulty mastering earthbending and at one point gave up on firebending due to accidentally injuring Katara. Avatar Roku was possibly a lavabender (an offshoot of earthbending, despite being a firebender), which neither Aang or Korra are able to do. The Avatar State is a DefenseMechanismSuperpower that brings back all the skill and power the previous avatars developed, granting unparalleled manipulation of the elements.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben10}}'': Averted in original series episode "A Change of Face", even though the swap is done via magic. Ben is not trained in martial arts, and Gwen in his body can't use her martial arts skills; she ''does'' have access to the Omnitrix courtesy of the swap, though. Interestingly, muscle memory and reflexes are enough for Ben in Gwen's body to use some of her simpler martial arts moves.
* PlayedWith in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': When Jade swapped [[LifeEnergy chi]] with Uncle, [[PersonalitySwap she inherited Uncle's personality]] and all his [[KiManipulation chi-power]], and should theoretically be able to do anything Uncle could... but she had none of his knowledge as it was explicitly only the ''chi'' that was swapped, not their ''brains'', and despite having the ''ability'' to do them, she had no idea of ''[[HowDoIShotWeb how]]'' to do them.

* ''WesternAnimation/JumanjiTheAnimatedSeries'' featured an episode where ''everyone'' underwent a FreakyFridayFlip with someone else. This didn't stop a monkey the AmbiguouslyHuman [[FriendInTheBlackMarket J.H. "Trader" Slick]] body-swapped with from using the human body to swing around treetops despite the lack of feet capable of gripping branches, or a tail.
* A ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' episode saw Kim and Ron body-swapped. When Ron-in-Kim's body proved completely ineffectual for cheerleading, Kim-in-Ron's body stepped in to take his place, much to the surprise of everyone else, and in general, she had absolutely no trouble performing the same SheFu she normally did, despite the body change. This may make sense, as Ron is sometimes shown as being as physically fit as Kim, just not as coordinated.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' episode "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS3E3CrissCrossCrisis Criss Cross Crisis]]", despite the mass FreakyFridayFlip, the girls and Mojo Jojo retain their strength and superpowers between bodies, with relatively minor effects from changes in shape and size. This is {{Handwave}}d by the FreakLabAccident only changing the "outside" of those affected, which is also why they maintained {{voices|AreMental}} and locations after every switch.
* A ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker'' short featured a scientist who believed Woodpecker bodies were the pinnacle of evolution, and he thus endeavored to perform a FreakyFridayFlip. At the end of the short, he manages to succeed, while Woody now ''flies around in a human body.''
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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jumanji}}'' featured an episode where ''everyone'' underwent a FreakyFridayFlip with someone else. This didn't stop a monkey the AmbiguouslyHuman [[FriendInTheBlackMarket J.H. "Trader" Slick]] body-swapped with from using the human body to swing around treetops despite the lack of feet capable of gripping branches, or a tail.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' episode "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS3E3CrissCrossCrisis Criss Cross Crisis]]", despite the mass FreakyFridayFlip, the girls and Mojo Jojo retain their strength and superpowers between bodies, with relatively minor affects from changes in shape in size. This is {{Handwave}}d by the FreakLabAccident only changing the "outside" of those affected, which is also why they maintained [[VoicesAreMental voices]] and locations after every switch.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the case of Mr. 2, who has a Devil Fruit that lets him take on the appearance of anyone he's touched before. During the Alabaster arc, he repeatedly transforms into Nami to [[WouldnthitAGirl prevent Sanji from launching any attacks]] [[DistractedByTheSexy and leaving him open for his own strikes]]. Eventually, Sanji realizes Mr. 2 always has to revert back to his original form when he's about to go on the offensive because Nami's body hasn't been conditioned to the same degree and he perform his martial arts while in her form.

* One of several FreakyFridayFlip chapters in ''Manga/ToLoveRu'' has Mikan and Yami change bodies. Yami doesn't have her transformation power in Mikan's body, and comments that she's weaker than usual, but she's still able to beat up [[AbhorrentAdmirer the Principal]] with a flurry of kicks Mikan probably isn't normally capable of.
** Averted in another chapter where it's Lala and Mikan that change bodies as part of a plan to have Mikan as bait for a gang without putting her in actual danger. Lala tries to to beat them up with her usual flair only to find Mikan's human body doesn't allow her usual alien strength that she's reliant on for most of her fighting style.

** Uub is Majin Buu reincarnated as a human. While not having all Buu's powers, he is vastly more powerful than any other human in the setting. ''Manga/DragonBallSuper'' reveals that he retained god ki that Kid Buu absorbed from the Grand Supreme Kai.

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'', Giorno swaps bodies with Narancia, Trish with Mista, and Bucciarati with Diavolo, and their Stands, being manifestations of their [[Fighting Spirit]]s, all transfer with their souls, arguably working better than they did before. The exception is Polnareff, who was swapped into Coco Jumbo, but doesn't retain his Stand since [[spoiler:its Requiem form was what caused the swap]].

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'', Giorno swaps bodies with Narencia, Trish with Mista, and Buccerati with Diavolo, and their Stands, being manifestations of their FightingSpirit, all transfer with their souls, arguably working better than they did before. The exception is Polnareff, who was swapped into Coco Jumbo, but doesn't retain his Stand since [[spoiler:its Requiem form was what caused the swap]].

* ''Manga/OshiNoKo'': Aqua and Ruby were (near) adults that reincarnated into a pair of twins. This didn't just give them [[BrainyBaby full consciousness and memory from essentially the moment of birth]], but the ability to stand, talk, operate electronic devices, and generally demonstrate far more dexterity than a newborn would be capable of in real life.

* Kanata from ''LightNovel/ReMonster'' was [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld Reincarnate In Another World]] as a Goblin. But rare for a StockLightNovelHero in an Isekai story, he had his CannibalismSuperpower as a human on Earth before he was killed.

* PlayedWith in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': When Jade swapped [[LifeEnergy chi]] with Uncle, [[PersonalitySwap she inherited Uncle's personality]] and all his [[KiManipulation chi-power]], and should theoretically be able to do anything Uncle could... but she had none of his knowledge as it was explicitly only the ''chi'' that was swapped, not their ''brains'', and despite having the ''ability'' to do them, she had no idea of ''how'' to do them.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS3E3CrissCrossCrisis Criss Cross Crisis]]", despite the mass FreakyFridayFlip, the girls and Mojo Jojo retain their strength and superpowers between bodies, with relatively minor affects from changes in shape in size. This is {{Handwave}}d by the FreakLabAccident only changing the "outside" of those affected, which is also why they maintained [[VoicesAreMental voices]] and locations after every switch.

[[folder: Literature]]

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Jeannie}}'', Corey and Henry are magically mind swapped and have to stay that way while Jeannie and Baboo work out a solution. When it comes time for the GymClassRopeClimb, Henry (in Corey's athletic body) can't climb an inch, while Corey (in Henry's spindly, unathletic body) climbs to the top like it was nothing. When Henry asks Jeannie why he still couldn't climb the rope, even in Corey's far stronger body, Jeannie simply says "You are not Corey."