Shapeshifting

Not depicted: Refried Bean Gas Cloud.

"Aliens disguised as typewriters? I never heard such—"

— An eight word drabble by Colin Greenland

Shapeshifting or transformation is the ability to completely change one's body from one form to another, usually by magic or Applied Phlebotinum. Common in Speculative Fiction, folklore and myths are replete with tales of princes transformed into frogs, gods turning themselves into animals, and so on. Several of these tropes are Older Than Feudalism.

There are a wide variety of ways that this can occur, but thematically it can be sorted into two broad classes:

• Shapeshifting: A character can transform their own body as a special power or ability. Obviously enough, they are called shapeshifters, and often ply their powers for fun and profit (whether good or evil), or simply to trick or play practical jokes on normal folks.

• Transformation: An otherwise non-shapeshifting character has a transformation cast upon them from an outside source (again, usually by magic or Applied Phlebotinum). This is typically Played for Drama; it may be part of a character's backstory, or even form the central conflict within the work. Curses are a popular source here, as it requires the character to go on The Quest to satisfy the Curse Escape Clause. A list of possible causes for transformations can be found here.

See also the Autonomous and Artificial Appendage Index, Disguise Tropes, and Werebeast Tropes indexes.

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Tropes related to shapeshifting as a power or ability

• Asian Fox Spirit: Kitsunes, gumihos, huli jing and their kin traditionally have the ability to take on human form at will.
• Ball of Light Transformation: Transformation into a luminous form shaped as a flame, orb, star, mote, etc.
• Beast Man: They don't have to be based on wolves...
• Changeling Tale: When fairy creatures pretend to be human infants, usually after abducting the real babies and switching places with them.
• Dual Age Modes: The ability to change between an "older" and "younger" form.
• Elemental Shapeshifter: Transforming oneself (in whole or part) into one of the Elements of Nature.
• Empathic Shapeshifter: If other people dictate what you transform into.
• Eye Colour Change: Some forms, where you can change your eye color repeatedly.
• Eyes Are Mental: Their eyes stay the same even if the rest of their bodies don't.
• God in Human Form: A deity pretends to be a mere mortal.
• Growing Muscles Sequence: Bulking up as you transform.
• Henshin Hero: A character who gains superpowers by transforming.
• Hulking Out: The You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry! version.
• Human Disguise: When non-human beings somehow change their appearance to look more human.
• Humanshifting: Some shapeshifters only have the ability to transform into humanoids.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: If you can't control when/where your shapeshifting powers kick in.
• Kaleidoscope Eyes: Change your eye color randomly.
• Kaleidoscope Hair: Or change your hair color repeatedly.
• Kibbles and Bits: Why does that car have sections that look like fists? Why does that robot have pieces of car dangling from its back?
• Limb-Sensation Fascination: So that's what a tentacle feels like.
• Long Neck: What happens when your head needs to be way over there but the rest of you stays put, without detaching.
• Magic Pants: Clothes don't get destroyed during a transformation.
• Material Mimicry: Transforming to be like substances you touch.
• Master of Disguise: When instead of using artificial means the character can actually change their facial features or even their body type.
• Metamorphosis Monster: It may be cute and cuddly now, but just wait...
• Morphic Resonance: When a shapeshifter's forms all have some common feature that the audience can identify them by.
• Multiform Balance: When there are trade-offs between various forms.
• My Instincts Are Showing: Behavior is frequently influenced by another form's instincts, during or after the morph.
• Narrative Shapeshifting: A silent character recounts a story by playing shapeshifting charades.
• New Body, Old Abilities: Regardless of the body's physical abilities, the new owner can use all their former abilities.
• Objectshifting: Transforming into an inanimate object - voluntarily or otherwise.
• Older Alter Ego: Someone's superpower is to turn older.
• One to Million to One: Shifting into multiple separate creatures, possibly to avoid an impact.
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: Not all of them are wolves with a lunar trigger.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: The specific traits of werewolves vary from work to work.
• Partial Transformation: Mix-and-match shapeshifting to create one sleek Hybrid Monster.
• Perpetually Protean: Shapeshifting that rarely stops - if at all.
• Randomized Transformation: An unpredictable transformation, usually affecting a living being.
• Ride the Lightning: Turning oneself into lightning for quick transportation.
• Rubber Man: They can stretch and flex themselves into almost any needed shape.
• Selkies and Wereseals: People that can turn into seals.
• Sexier Alter Ego: Transform into a more attractive or otherwise sexually appealing form.
• Sex Shifter: The ability to alter one's sex, male, female or other, rather than shape: a non-permanent Gender Bender.
• Shape Dies, Shifter Survives: A shapeshifted form dies, but the shifter goes back to normal instead of dying for real.
• Shapeshifter Baggage: Some forms are smaller/larger or lighter/heavier than others.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: Whatever form they're usually seen in when not actively using their powers.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Impersonating the form of an opponent's friend or teammate during battle, to mentally break the opponent down.
• Shapeshifter Identity Crisis: Mental instability causing you to transform into whatever identity/persona is currently dominant in your mind.
• Shapeshifter Mashup: When attempting to mix-and-match multiple forms goes horribly wrong.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: A Phlebotinum Breakdown that leaves a shapeshifter Brought Down to Normal and/or trapped in one form.
• Shapeshifters Do It for a Change: The sexuality of a shapeshifter.
• Shapeshifter Showdown: Shapeshifter vs. shapeshifter! Awesomeness ensues.
• Shapeshifter Swan Song: Uncontrolled transformations triggered by a critical (or fatal) injury to the shapeshifter.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: Using your shapeshifter powers to create weapons from your own body.
• Shapeshifting Heals Wounds: Going from one shape to another fixes the damage taken by one form (although it may still be there on returning to the original form).
• Shapeshifting Seducer: Shapeshifter trying to get in your bed? It'll just turn into the most desirable person you've ever seen.
• Shapeshifting Squick: Shapeshifters must have a very interesting love life...
• Shapeshifting Trickster: A trickster character who changes form.
• Sizeshifter: The ability to alter one's size, rather than shape.
• Skinwalker: A magical shapeshifter who can change from human to animal forms at will, originating from Navajo Indian folklore.
• Sprouting Ears: A little extra number and type of ears when Super-Deformed.
• Super Smoke: Transformation into a gaseous form like smoke, air, mist, etc.
• Swiss-Army Hero: Shapeshifting where each form has some kind of exclusive ability. A popular manifestation for Video Games.
• Technically Naked Shapeshifter: A shapeshifter whose clothes are part of their body.
• Temporary Bulk Change: Rapidly gaining or losing fat or muscle.
• They Look Like Us Now: When evil creatures figure out a way to look like humans.
• Totally Not a Werewolf: A shapeshifter becomes mistaken for whatever creature or monster they appear as.
• Toy Transmutation: A character is transformed into a toy of some kind.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Because it would be a vulnerability if it wasn't.
• Transformation Sequence: Activating one's superpowers may also induce a physical transformation. May become Stock Footage in serial works.
• Transforming Mecha: Shapeshifting for robots!
• Transforming Vehicle: Normal cars (and other vehicles) can shapeshift too.
• Tricking the Shapeshifter: If you can't defeat a shapeshifter in one of their forms, convince them to transform into something you can.

• Unstable Genetic Code: A more scientific explanation for shapeshifting.
• Voice Changeling: The ability to imitate anyone's voice, rather than their shape.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The "standard" shapeshifter package.
• Weredragon: Someone that can turn into a dragon.
• Wolf Man: A canine-like humanoid, often a kind of werewolf.
• You Sexy Beast: For cases where a less human form is considered more attractive.

Tropes related to transformations as an event

• And Your Reward Is Infancy: Someone is turned into or reincarnated as a baby to give them a new life.
• Anthropomorphic Transformation: A normal animal is turned into a more anthropomorphic form.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: A person becomes attractive post Gender Bender
• Baby Morph Episode: An episode where characters turn into babies.
• Become a Real Boy: A non-human character whose goal is to become one.
• Become Your Weapon: When simple mastery is not enough.
• Becoming the Costume: Particularly popular around Halloween, a curse that transforms the individual into whatever their costume resembles.
• Becoming the Genie: My third wish, make me an all-powerful genie! (Wait a second...)
• Bewitched Amphibians: For whatever reason, frogs and toads are very popular animals for wizards and witches to turn people into.
• Biomanipulation: The superpower of mutating and transforming other living beings besides oneself.
• Bishōnen Line: Transformation from a monstrous form into a much more elegant and human-like one.
• Bit-by-Bit Transformation: Transforming into a creature body part by body part.
• Clone by Conversion: Someone is turned into a copy of another person.
• Clownification: Characters being turned into clowns or mimes, usually through a virus or magic.
• Color Me Black: A bigot turns into another member of a group that they hate.
• The Corruption: When one's mind and/or body is twisted into evil and villainy.
• Different for Girls: When a new form subjects you to new social norms.
• Eldritch Transformation: Someone or something gets turned into an Eldritch Abomination.
• Emergency Transformation: When the only way to save your dying body is to have it transformed into something else. Whether or not you'd be better off dead is up to you.
• First Law of Gender Bending: It's easier to change into a female than it is to change back.
• Fisher Kingdom: A world or setting that transforms your mind, mood, and/or physical form to match its expectations or requirements.
• Forced Transformation: Someone is transformed against their will by an outside force.
• Fountain of Youth: A character spontaneously becomes younger.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Switching bodies/minds/souls with another person.
• Freaky Friday Sabotage: Sometimes the switch backfires. Badly.
• Gender Bender: Being transformed into a member of the opposite sex.
• Humanity Ensues: An animal (or other non-human) is transformed into a human. They usually aren't happy about the change.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: Somebody shrinks down in size.
• Just Woke Up That Way: And avoided a bunch of Phlebotinum, Nonsenseoleum, or Functional Magic by skipping straight to the results.
• Karmic Transformation: Getting transformed into something you despise or that is otherwise ironic; often caused by Laser-Guided Karma.
• Literal Transformative Experience: A transformation and the experiences that follow leads to a change in personality and character.
• Magical Species Transformation: Going from human to a mythical species.
• Mass Transformation: A large group of people are transformed at once.
• Metamorphosis: A permanent, one-time transformation that occurs over the long term, and you may know about it well in advance.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Your thoughts and instincts transform to match whatever new form you have.
• Mirror Reveal: A character discovers they've been transformed when they look in the mirror.
• Mutagenic Food: You are what you eat... literally.
• Mutagenic Goo: Gooey Applied Phlebotinum that can mutate and transform living beings into monsters.
• Nighttime Transformation: When the characters transforms as a consequence of a late hour of day.
• Not Quite Back to Normal: When a transformation leaves residual effects on the individual even after being turned back to their previous form.
• Oblivious Transformation: When the victim is initially unaware of their changes.
• Overnight Age-Up: A character spontaneously becomes older.
• Personality Remnant: A person transformed physically and mentally retains parts of their original mind.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: An Overnight Age-Up so that a young character can quickly become old enough to have a legitimate role in the story's events.
• Pupating Peril: A pupating character is expected to emerge transformed into a much deadlier shape when they finally escape from their cocoon.
• Racial Transformation: A character's race is changed permanently, or at any rate in a manner more long-term than make-up, using some kind of fantasy or SF mechanism.
• A Rotten Time to Revert: A transformed character is forced to revert to their natural form at the worst possible time.
• Sapping the Shapeshifter: For mere mortals, a shapeshifter can only be defeated by slowly exhausting them and - often - their forms.
• Scary Symbolic Shapeshifting: A non-shapeshifter symbolically transforms to illustrate their unpleasant nature.
• Second Law of Gender-Bending: Your new gender is always more enjoyable than your old one.
• Sense Freak: When a non-human becomes human, they will go wild over senses humans take for granted.
• Shapeshifter Showoff Session: As soon as they're revealed as such, shapeshifters just can't resist flaunting their powers.
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: You may have changed, but your clothing sure didn't.

• Shrink Ray: A device or magic spell that can make people smaller.
• Slow Transformation: The change happens gradually.
• Third Law of Gender-Bending: Any gender bent character will either embrace or be subject to all of the stereotypes associated with their new gender.
• Transformation Causes: Lists the number of ways a character can wind up transformed.
• Transformation Comic: Transformation Fiction in comic form.
• Transformation Discretion Shot: A transformation is obscured by editing, camera angles, or visual effects.
• Transformation Fiction: When a work revolves around transformation and/or shapeshifting.
• Transformation of the Possessed: When the new tenant in your body decides to do a little remodeling.
• Transformation Ray: An energy beam that can instantaneously alter people.
• Transhuman Treachery: A human transformed into a monster loses their original personality and betrays their former species.
• Transmutation: A form of matter is converted into another in general.
• The Transmogrifier: Someone who has the power to transform other people's bodies.
• Unanthropomorphic Transformation: An anthropomorphic animal becomes a regular animal.
• Viral Transformation: Spreading a transformation from one person to another.
• The Virus: A monster that infects people and turns them into another member of its kind.
• Virus-Victim Symptoms: Signs and symptoms of an impending metamorphosis into a monstrous creature.
• Voices Are Mental: For some strange reason, when two people undergo a "Freaky Friday" Flip, their voices get switched along with their minds.
• Voices Are Not Mental: Though of course, sometimes voices do remain with the original body.

Other shapeshifting tropes

• Age-Down Romance: Magically becoming younger or older results in romance with another character who was previously too young or old for you.
• Animorphism: Transformation into an animal, either as a special power or a one-time event...
• Angelic Transformation: An angel of human origin.
• Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: How you look varies depending on who's looking at you.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Because bigger is better...
• Attractive Bent Species: When other animals think your new form looks sexy!
• Bewitched Amphibians: They could be a prince, they could be a lying frog...
• Body Horror: Sometimes changing shape ain't pretty.
• Breast Expansion: A character's bosom grows a few cup sizes.
• Cape Wings: For when a cape mysteriously transforms into fully-functional wings and then back into a cape, or wings to cape and then back.
• Chest Monster: A predatory creature that disguises itself as a seemingly innocuous object.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: A being's supposed ultimate form actually makes them weaker.
• Collector of Forms: A shapeshifter who needs to "collect" forms in order to assume them.
• Deity of Human Origin: A god that was once a mere mortal.
• Demon of Human Origin: A demon who used to be a human.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: A villain's actions lead them to becoming hideous.
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: A villain turns into an inhuman monster.
• Face Stealer: For when you have to harm the target to assume their appearance.
• Fusion Dance: When two or more individuals merge their bodies together to become one being.
• Game Face: Revealing the true face of evil.
• Glamour Failure: When a shapeshifter's disguise starts to malfunction.
• Hot in Human Form: A nonhuman becomes attractive after shifting into human form.
• Lie to the Beholder: A psychic illusion that makes you look/sound like someone else, without involving a physical transformation or shapeshifting.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman : Getting rather intimately acquainted with the new you.
• Miracle-Gro Monster: A creature grows larger and larger until it becomes titanic.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Reflective surfaces can reveal what a shapeshifter's real form looks like.
• Mistaken for Transformed: An observer confuses a person, animal, or object for a transformed character.
• Mistaken for Own Murderer: Shapeshifting can make someone think you're a monster and killed "yourself".
• Morph Weapon: A transforming weapon.
• One-Winged Angel: When the villain shouts "Behold my true form!" before the final battle.
• Painful Transformation: If it looks painful, what must it feel like?
• Physical Attribute Swap: Trading a physical trait with someone else.
• Puppet Permutation: Transformation into a puppet doll.
• Reveling in the New Form: A transformed character likes their new self.
• Scaled Up: Is turning yourself into a giant snake ever a good idea?
• The Shadow Knows: A particular kind of Glamour Failure hinting that a character has a dark secret or shapeshifting prowess.
• Shapeshifting Failure: When shapeshifting doesn't quite work properly.
• Shapeshifter Longevity: Shapeshifters live longer.
• Shapeshifting Lover: Females are usually a Voluntary Shapeshifter; males are usually victim of a Forced Transformation Curse.
• Shapeshifting Sound: A character transforms with a loud, noticeable, or distinctive sound.
• Showing Off the New Body: The individual closely inspects their new body, giving free Fanservice for everyone!
• Something for Everyone: Multi-target illusion with personalized effects.
• Stumbling in the New Form: It can take awhile to learn how to move properly in a newly transformed body.
• Terminal Transformation: A transformation that directly results in the transformee's death.
• This Was His True Form: A reveal occurring after a shapeshifter has been killed or defeated.
• Toon Transformation: Toon world physics, meet toon world biology.
• Tragic Monster: They were forced to become something inhuman against their will, and that's sad.
• Transferred Transformation: A specific transformation gets passed from one person to another.
• Transflormation: When a character transforms into a tree, plant, or other type of flora.
• Transformation Conventions: Personality Powers applied to shapeshifting and transformations, often involving Animal Stereotypes.
• Transformation Exhilaration: A transformation that the transformee finds enjoyable in some way.
• Transformation Horror: Disturbing shapeshifting at its finest.
• Transformation Trinket: When the transformation power resides in or relies on an amulet or similar token.
• Travel Transformation: Transforming to get new or better ways to travel.
• Turning Back Human: When someone's transformation is finally reversed, allowing them to regain their humanity (or otherwise revert back to their original form).
• Voice Change Surprise: A character who has just transformed tries to speak and is startled at having a different voice.
• Was Once a Man: It turns out that there's a monster or other strange creature, who used to be an ordinary human being.
• Water-Triggered Change: A shapeshifter's transformation activates when they come into contact with water.
• You Are Who You Eat: Eating people allows certain kinds of shapeshifters to look like whomever they ate.

Related tropes

• Adaptive Ability: Often involves shifting, sometimes involves shapes.
• Artificial Hybrid: Someone gets mutated and turned into some sort of hybrid.
• Being Human Sucks: Not everyone likes being a boring, ordinary human being. This motivates them to try and become something else.
• Blob Monster: A compositionally questionable, physically malleable monster.
• Equivalent Exchange: When shifting into a certain form requires exchanging it with someone or something that already has it.
• Face–Monster Turn: When a mental and/or physical transformation turns someone evil.
• Instant Armor: The ability to summon protective armor from nowhere. May be part of a Super Mode.
• Kill and Replace: A tactic sometimes performed by shapeshifters using their natural abilities.
• LEGO Genetics: Genetic engineering can be used to transform an ordinary organism into some sort of mutant being after getting their DNA fused with that of another species.
• Master Actor: Often a Required Secondary Power for shapeshifters.
• Master of Disguise: Some shapeshifters can look like anyone.
• Super Mode: Sometimes involves a physical transformation.
• Transhumanism: The (artificial) evolution of humans into something different.
• Transforming Conforming: A shapeshifter or other transforming characters must play by the rules of their chosen form.
• Werebeast Tropes: Everything regarding people who turn into animalistic monsters.

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