A Form You Are Comfortable With: Difference between revisions

'''God:''' ''Let me explain something to you, Joan. It goes like this: I don't look like this. I don't look like anything you'd recognize. You can't see me. I don't sound like this, I don't sound like anything you'd recognize. You see, I'm beyond your experience. I take this form [[Trope Namer|because you're comfortable with it]], it makes sense to you. And if I'm "snippy", it's because you understand snippy.''|''[[Joan of Arcadia]]''}}

 

 

In many cases, the nonhuman being will appear in the form of something, usually [[Humanity Ensues|a humanlike form]], that the human [[Lies to Children|can wrap his head around]]. Because let's face it. [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|Not doing so might ruin the point]] of the [[Starfish Aliens|entity]] talking to the humans in the first place.

Relates to [[Lies to Children]], especially if the form taken is in some way representative or symbolic of the thing's true nature. Contrast [[They Look Like Us Now]].

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Cerberus/Kero and Yue in ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga)|Cardcaptor Sakura]]/Cardcaptors''. At first they [[Sleep Mode Size|sleep mode]] as a stuffed animal and ordinary human but even after recovering their true forms they don't use them much. Probably because a large flying lion with some kind of helmet and a rather scary blueish angel would freak people out. The main cast, however, doesn't care.

** It serves a practical function as well, particularly in the case of Yue. Their true forms constantly emit magic (since both are the products of magic), which becomes dangerous if prolonged. This becomes a plot point in the "Sakura Cards" arc when a magic field prevents both of them from returning to their "borrowed forms" and Sakura has to come up with a solution.

** And [[Jerkass God|Truth]] takes this trope a step beyond: it literally wears YOUR body parts. So...a form you are ''un''comfortable with?

* In ''[[Inuyasha (Manga)|Inuyasha]]'', [[Youkai]] of [[Bishonen Line|particularly high level]] can turn into a completely human form. [[Boring but Practical|It also makes it easier to wield a sword]].

* Shinigami in [[Soul Eater]] is in appearance a Lighter and Softer version of your classic Grim Reaper-type being. He states at one point he took on this look (and associated Cloudcuckoolander persona) in order to recruit children to his school, as his true form kept scaring them away. When he loses said persona and look it's an indication he's either truly [[Let's Get Dangerous|angry]] or simply tired of his staff mucking around and puts on the scary voice to shut them up. Possibly a difference in perspective/art, but his size also seems to vary. At times he can look imposingly tall, far more than a human would be, at others he appears not much taller than his Weapon Spirit (who is tall, but not ''that'' tall).

* Holo of [[Spice and Wolf]] is a wolf deity, and over 500 years old, but takes the form of a young girl. She says that the human guise isn't uncomfortable, but her real reason is because she's afraid of frightening off Lawrence. This very nearly happens anyway, as Holo is forced to turn wolf to protect an injured Lawrence. Lawrence reacts badly to being approached by a giant wolf, which in turn only alienates Holo further. Lawrence comes to his senses quickly, though, and manages to salvage the relationship. From then on, Lawrence seems comfortable with both forms, having learned that Holo is the same regardless of appearance.

* Its the reason why the Scab Coral created human from Coralians to interact with humanity in [[Eureka Seven]].

* The Lord of Nightmares from ''[[Slayers]]'' can pick any form she wants, being god and all. She prefers to appear as a slender blonde woman though...at least, when she's not inside someone else's body.

** Played straight with the Vishanti, who take vaguely human or animal visages to avoid [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|terrifying their worshipers]].

* One time travel adventure for [[Tom Strong (Comic Book)|Tom Strong]] sees him encounter one his recurring enemies, The Pangean, who generally takes the form of a giant slime mold (who at this point, is roughly the size of a small country). Reasoning that Tom would rather speak to a biped, he splits off a part of his biomass, forming it into a shape resembling a green man wearing 17th century style clothing so that they can communicate more easily.

* Lampshaded and justified by [[Cross Gen]] when Ilhan of ''Meridian'' visits Ingra of ''The First''. Ilhan balks at her [[Stripperiffic]] [[Breast Plate|default]] [[Absolute Cleavage|outfit]], and Ingra amusedly transforms it into a more modest beige gown for his comfort, taunting him as she does so.

* Variation: In ''Proposition Player'', Bill the Angel of The Lord claims he uses that name because were he to speak his ''real'' name, the sky would rupture, the oceans turn to blood, a thousand virgins die, etc, etc. Given that he's basically a bully and leg-breaker for the forces of Heaven, it's not certain whether he's sincere or just being an egocentric jerk.

* ''Zarkorr! The Invader'' has a man who is judged to be [[Unfazed Everyman|the median of human society]], chosen to prove his species's worth by (somehow) defeating the titular monster. The one who relays this challenge to him takes on a form that is made to be "familiar and unthreatening". In the protagonist's words: a "tiny, teenage mall-tramp."

* Similar to the example from ''[[Dreamcatcher (Literature)|Dreamcatcher]]'', the aliens in ''Progeny'' project the Gray form to make the abduction ordeal more comfortable for humans. Their real form, as revealed part-way through the movie, is horrific, non-humanoid, and vaguely reptilian.

* Used up to a point in [[Bless the Child]], where most of the demons and angels look like regular people until the climax of the movie.

* It is revealed that the chairman of [[The Adjustment Bureau]] has met with every single living person at some point in their lives, each time with a different look and gender.

 

== 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. ''

* 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.

* The Arisians in the [[Lensman]] series. Mentor, in particular, has manifested as a giant brain in a jar, a giant brain ''not'' in a jar, a hard-bitten detective, a university professor, and a seven-foot woman. Though, given how the Arisians work, this may be less [[A Form You Are Comfortable With]] and more A Form That Will Elicit The Desired Reactions.

* Inverted in the Star Trek: TNG novel Eyes of the Beholders. The Enterprise encounters an artifact of an extinct race that is sending out a psychic beacon that causes insanity with prolonged exposure, is so oddly shaped that they can't look at the thing, and beaming aboard it overloads Data, sends Worf on a homicidal rampage. Although they deduce that it is the cultural legacy of an extremely unique race (It was basically a spacefaring art museum with psychic advertising) Picard orders it to be destroyed, before they realize that they can reprogram Data to be comfortable enough with it to go in and turn it off.

* In ''[[The Dresden Files (Literature)|The Dresden Files]]'' book "Ghost Story", {{spoiler|Harry starts out the book in a place that's "in-between" the normal world and the afterlife, possibly some sort of limbo. When he asks one character there what's going on, Harry is told that he's "allowed to see as much as he can handle".}}

* [[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.

* Parodied in a Christmas special for ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'' where Rob pretends to be Santa, but Ray's daughter isn't fooled. His response? He had taken the form of her uncle Rob because it's a form she'd be comfortable with.

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

* Seen in ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (TV)|Battlestar Galactica]]'', angels appear to characters throughout the series in the form of other characters. Notably Six to Baltar and vice versa, as well as an angel who looks like Leoben to Starbuck.

** Head-Leoben is the only one who confirms this though. Head-Six and Head-Baltar appear in these forms even when no one is around to see them. In fact, {{spoiler|Tyrol}} implies that the Final Five designed Cylon Model Six after the angel they saw, not vice-versa.

* Alex Mercer and Elizabeth Greene, from ''[[Prototype (Video Game)|Prototype]]'', look human enough to begin with, albeit able to shapeshift and turn parts of their bodies into weapons. Eventually, though, you realize that {{spoiler|the human form of Alex is just like all of his other disguises and that he is really the Blacklight Virus, released at Penn Station by the real Alex Mercer; before that, "he" just looked like thick, bright red goop in a test tube}}. Later in the game, Elizabeth Green turns into a mountain of flesh and biomass growing out of the sewer at Times Square, giving you a hint of how Alex might truly look. Subverted by the fact that Alex himself genuinely believes he is his human form, at least until someone tells him otherwise.

* A rare example of this being played for horror comes in ''[[FEAR|Project Origin]]'' with Alma. She pins Beckett to a wall, looming over him looking like an emaciated corpse, but then retreats and takes on the form of a healthy, attractive young woman. Made horrifying by the fact that Alma is [[Stalker With a Crush|in love with Beckett]], and it's quite clear that she's doing this to appeal to him.

* Pretty much all powerful dragons in ''[[World of Warcraft (Video Game)|World of Warcraft]]'' have the ability to take on a human(oid) form whenever they want. Some even adopt aliases and pass themselves off as (relatively) normal people to suit their purposes (be they good ''or'' evil).

** That said, the method of getting aliases and infiltrating mortal societies has become so well known that [[Genre Savvy]] people can [[They Walk Among Us|spot a dragon-in-mortal-form from a mile away]]. In response, some dragons have stopped bothering with perfect disguises and let [[Red Right Hand|some of their draconic featured remain visible]], thus increasingly subverting this trope.

== Western Animation ==

* Used in ''[[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|The Venture Brothers]]'' When Dr. Venture calls him out for using his dead father's image and bringing up a lot of painful memories, an alien revealed his [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|true form]] to shut Rusty up and traumatized everyone present.

** Possibly parodied/subverted with The Master, Dr. Orpheus' teacher. We've never seen his true form, so we have no idea is he's human, or what. But instead of taking on forms to comfort people, he seems to choose ones to screw with their heads (or at least to engage in [[Power Perversion Potential]]) though he always claims there's a valuable lesson in them.

* Lampshaded and double-subverted in an episode of ''[[South Park]]''. The alien initially takes the form of Stan's father and the kids first think that the whole "alien taking a form you are comfortable with" trope is lame. But when the alien then takes its [[Eldritch Abomination|true form]], they scream and quickly ask it to go back to a "comfortable" form. They then spend quite a while going through possible forms (including Santa Claus, Saddam Hussein, and Missy Elliot) until they arrived at a taco that craps ice cream.

* [[Fairly Oddparents|"Does this form not please you?"]]

* When the Vok talk with Optimus Primal in ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'', they take the form of the head of Unicron, having scanned his mind and determining it to be a "figure of authority" that Optimus would listen to, though it was more likely "A Form You'd Know Not To Screw With". Pulling such a stunt is entirely in character for the Vok.

* ''[[Star Trek the Animated Series (Animation)|Star Trek the Animated Series]]'' episode "The Magicks of Megas-Tu". The inhabitants of Megas-Tu do this for their own bodies and their planet's surface so the crew of the Enterprise can comprehend them. Lucien turns the planetary surface to a forest glade, and the other Megans change it to a recreation of Salem, Massachusetts during the Witch Trials.

* ''[[Daria (Animation)|Daria]]'' met many holidays at the "Depth takes a holiday" episode. Christmas, Halloween and Guy Fawkes day wanted to start a band, but Cupid and Saint Patrick day wanted them to return home. They are supposed to say that home is "in your hearth", but it was actually in another dimension they could access through a dimensional wormhole at the back of the chinesse food restaurant. The holidays seem and act like common teenagers, and in their dimension they are all at a place that seems like Lawndale High, but which is worse (a quote that Daria and Jane will be repeating in their adult life).