A Form You Are Comfortable With: Difference between revisions

“Yeah.” }}

* In ''[[The 10 Doctors]]'', {{spoiler|the Guardians}} say that their appearances change with the needs of their desired champions. In the story proper, they manifest as attractive humanoid women in order to toy with the Tenth Doctor's need for meaningful companionship, and in a flashback, {{spoiler|the White Guardian}} manifests to Davros as a military officer.

 

== Film ==

 

== Literature ==

** Nyarlathotep, however, does hide in the ever-so-subtle form of... [[Refuge in Audacity|an Egyptian Pharaoh]]. He also likes to [[Mind Screw|fuck with people's heads]] by sticking to the bare minimum. The reason one of his masks is known as "the Black Man" isn't because it appears to have African features, but because its skin is ''pitch black.''

** Actually, he does not always appear dressed as a Pharaoh, in ''Nyarlathotep''; he is described only as a swarthy man "of the race of the Pharaohs" - from Lovecraft's letter: ''Nyarlathotep was a kind of itinerant showman or lecturer who held forth in public halls and aroused widespread fear and discussion with his exhibitions. These exhibitions consisted of two parts — first, a horrible — possibly prophetic — cinema reel; and later some extraordinary experiments with scientific and electrical apparatus. ''

*** So, [[The Sandman|Dream?]]

** The Mi-Go in "The Whisperer In Darkness" take a stab at this trope with the...materials they have at hand.

** In particular, one of those forms is described as being a particular perception of the eldila in much the same way as suffering a concussion and seeing stars is a particular perception of a rock (i.e. one that has been thrown at your head).

* C.S. Lewis also explores the idea in an interesting way in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''. Aslan the talking lion isn't just a [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]], he actually ''is'' Jesus. Or rather, on Earth, among humans, he went by that name and form, while in the [[Talking Animal]] world of Narnia, he manifests as a fellow talking animal.

* Wheeler, an alien of some kind or other beyond human understanding in the books ''[[Signal To Noise]]'' and ''[[A Signal Shattered]]'', by Eric S. Nylund takes on a sort of human form. He takes on the form of the protagonist, Jack, except for perhaps some odd little differences such as the spinning gears in his eyes.

* Michael Scott Rohan's ''[[The Spiral Series]]'' does this twice to the protagonist. In ''[[Chase The Morning]]'' it's part of the [[Battle in the Center of the Mind]] with the [[Big Bad]], and in ''[[Cloud Castles]]'' it's his interaction with the [[Big Good]]. Both times it's presented as a business deal in his office, since that's how his brain could best handle what was happening.

* Played with in a [[Judge Dredd]] spin-off novel, ''Wetworks'' by Dave Stone: An alien adopts the form of a certain famous cartoon character in an attempt to make the humans it deals with more comfortable; it doesn't really work, partly because seeing a cartoon character in the flesh is actually pretty discomforting, and partly because although the alien's shape has changed it neglected to do anything about the fact that it constantly emits a toxic gas.

* Subverted in ''[[Solaris]]'' by [[Stanisław Lem]], where a planet-sized alien intelligence spawns human replicants convincingly interacting with the protagonists, while the purpose of this phenomenon and the message, if any, behind it are a maddening enigma.

* [[Flatland]]: A Romance of Three Dimensions, features an interesting variation of this trope. As the Square passes through Lineland, the king of Lineland can only perceive the Square as another Line. When a Solid passes through the plane of Flatland, the Square can only perceive the Solid as another Shape.

 

* This happened a lot in the various ''[[Star Trek]]'' series:

** The original ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek]]'' series featured Trelane ("The Squire of Gothos"), the Organians ("Errand of Mercy"), and the Metrons ("Arena"), all of whom took human form in order to interact with the mere mortals.

** This is immediately [[Lampshaded]] by Ray, who says "You're Santa Claus, not a [[Star Trek|Klingon]]."

* Done in the ''[[Animorphs (TV series)|Animorphs]]'' live action adaptation, where the Andalite Visser 3 takes the form of a human in order to make his enemies (humans who he thinks are Andalites) more comfortable. If you think that sounds like a poor excuse to cut corners on the show's special effects, congratulations, you're smarter than the [[Viewers are Morons|target demographic]].

** Not to mention that incident where Head-Baltar appeared to Baltar. Baltar was everything ''but'' comfortable.

** The angelic-like ascended aliens (called Being's of Light)from the original series did this when they needed Apollo's help with a mercy mission. He got a sidekick that only he (and later Starbuck) could see called "John".

** He could create hallucinations of almost anyone, but it’s implied that he could only physically mimic a limited number of people. Every solid human shape he takes is of a dead person whose corpse is on the island ("Isabella" never physically interacts with Richard). This would explain why he took the form of Christian in front of characters for whom that form carried no significance; Christian was the most convenient non-threatening form that he had in his repertoire at the time.

* The Operators, Specialists, et. al. of ''[[Sapphire and Steel]]''. [[Shrug of God|Maybe.]]

{{quote|'''Sarah''': I guess i should've expected it.

'''Neil''': What?

'''Sarah''': How do you know that?

'''Kurt''': 300 hours of [[Star Trek]]. }}

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* The ''Tao te Ching'' is an attempt to do this to the Tao, through a series of analogies.

* For the most part, the followers of [[Egyptian Mythology]] understood that the various forms ascribed to their various gods weren't supposed to be how the gods actually were. Those forms were supposed to be symbolic of concepts and traits found in the gods, with the actual gods themselves being thought to exist as abstract forces.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Other Incarnae also have the power to assume more comforting forms. Luna in particular is defined by being a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifter]], with a multitude of forms and identities, some of which are specifically assumed to be comforting to others.

** There's also the implication that some of the jouten (bodies) of certain [[Eldritch Abomination|Primordials]] serve the purpose of giving them a means of interacting with lesser beings in a context other than complete awe and terror. Note that in most cases, this doesn't constitute actual shapeshifting; they're just capable of existing as multiple bodies simultaneously.

 

== Theatre ==

* In Marlowe's ''[[Doctor Faustus]]'', the eponymous scholar is appalled by the first form Mephistophilis presents himself in after being summoned (it's never made explicit in the text what that form resembles), and asks him to come back in the shape of a [[Death by Irony|Franciscan Friar]].

 

== Video Games ==

* Played with in ''[[Catherine]]''. {{spoiler|''Catherine'' is a succubus, meaning that she changes appearance playing up to the fetishes of the men she seduces prefer. You only see one form during the game, but we possibly see her true form in the True Cheater Ending}}.

* [[Final Fantasy X]] has the Eidolon Bahamut appear to you in the form of a small boy with Bahamut-themed clothing. Though considering how Eidolons are made it's a mixture of this trope and [[Was Once a Man]]

 

* Something does this by accident in ''[[Beyond Reality]]''. It's trying to ''not'' to appear as something the human is comfortable with, but doesn't know much about humans, and thus has to make an educated guess.

{{quote|'''Interdimensional Being:''' You... don't find it frightening?

* All of the [[Anthropomorphic Personifications]] in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' are made of this trope because, being the physical incarnations of ideas, everyone has a different interpretation of that idea. What this means is that two people could be talking to The King (the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of "The Legend of Elvis Presley") and he'd look precisely like how they think Elvis Presley looks like when they think of Elvis Presley (meaning if one person pictures [[Ed Sullivan]]-era Elvis, he looks like Ed Sullivan-era Elvis; if they picture Vegas-era white-tassle pudgy Elvis, he looks like Vegas-era white-tassle pudgy Elvis).

* On deviantART there is this prose piece called "God Drinks Black Coffee". The main character meets God on the sidewalk in the form of a woman.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Some zoos have been known to feed animals using hand puppets that look like an adult of that species.

** This is actually necessary for baby primates when humans are feeding them. The human literally wears a monkey suit to simulate the fur of the mom. This way the baby will accept the mother when he's returned to her.

* One example of this is the quadrupolar echo pulse sequence in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The math works out perfectly, but trying to visualize it invariably winds up with the spin pointing 90 degrees from where the math says it should be and where experiment confirms that it actually is. The lesson here is that once you get into the realms of quantum mechanics, physics really ''is'' just math, and what you ''think'' of as "physics" is just a Form You Are Comfortable With.

* Humans instinctively relate to dogs by summoning up qualities dogs and humans share in common (dogs cannot understand space shuttles, they can understand hierarchy, territorialism, tribalism, predation, and familial affection).

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]

[[Category:Religion Tropes]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

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