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Glamour Failure: Difference between revisions
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[[File:NoReflectionVanHelsing.jpg|link=Van Helsing|frame|Vampires seldom reflect on the emptiness of their unlives.]]
There are many things that go bump in the night, secure in the knowledge that their unholy powers can trick the human eye into blindness, allowing them to [[Masquerade|live among and prey on humanity]] with impunity. But their supernatural (and at times [[Always Chaotic Evil|inherently evil]]) nature means that no matter how complete the deception, they can never truly hide what they are. They may fool the mundane senses, but not the spiritual ones; inanimate objects, [[Evil-Detecting Dog|animals]], [[Oracular Urchin|children]], [[The Empath]] or [[Touched By Vorlons|spiritually touched]] people can sense and [[You Can See Me?|see through]] the deception and cause a [[Glamour]] Failure. [[The Hunter]] and mundane heroes wise to these evil tells will be sure to use them to ferret out the villain; directors also love to work them into [[The Reveal]] when the creature's victim finally puts two and two together. More tragically, a hero under the effects of [[The Virus]] will usually have the [[Heroic BSOD|full emotional impact]] of it sink in when she [[Tomato in The Mirror|can't see her reflection.]]
These flaws in their façade are usually mixed and matched. So [[Our Monsters Are Different|your mileage may vary]] depending on the critter:
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* The wolves in ''[[Wolfs Rain]]'' use some kind of glamour to appear human, but humans can occasionally see through it. There are also a couple of instances where the wolves look human but cast wolf shadows, though this only happens when humans aren't looking.
* [[The Count of Monte Cristo]] in ''[[Gankutsuou]]'' appears blurry and out-of-focus in photographs, and his voice cannot be heard in audio recordings.
* Nanami Jinnai in ''[[El Hazard]]'' gains the ability to see through illusions. However, she sees ''completely'' through, meaning she doesn't notice there is an illusion in the first place: She simply [[I Thought Everyone Could Do That!|assumes everybody sees what she's seeing]] until she blurts out something that tips them off.
* On ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]'', the character Duplica has an inexperienced Ditto that can transform, but retains its own facial features, (such as they were). Her next appearance has a second, undersized Ditto, named Mini-Dit. This one could transform, matching everything but ''size''. This led to appearances by the likes of mini-Onix and mini-Ursaring.
** In ''[[Pokémon Zoroark Master of Illusions]]'', [[Cunning Like a Fox|Zorua]] could disguise itself as a human, but its tail would always remain visible and it would hold its hands up in an odd position.
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* In the ''[[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'', no shapeshifter can change [[Red Right Hand|their eyes, which may be highly unnatural in color.]] On that basis, occasional [[Glamour Failure]] is not that surprising.
* In Robert Bloch's story "Shadow from the Steeple", which is a sequel to H.P Lovecraft's "Haunter in the Dark", the protagonists confronts the man he believes to be possessed by the god Nyarlatotep, noting that his skin has turned darker. The man explains this has been caused by exposure to radiation (he was a nuclear physicist), but when the protagonists doesn't believe him, he turns off the lights, causing his body to glow with unnatural light, and causing the protagonists to die of heart attack.
* A variation of this shows up in Mike Resnick's science fiction novel ''[[Santiago:
* In the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' universe, daemonhosts (a daemon [[Sealed Evil in A Can|sealed in the body of a human]] by means of occult rituals and symbols) generally resemble the person whose body they're possessing, but with distinct physical changes that identify them for what they are. For example, in the final ''[[Eisenhorn]]'' novel ''Hereticus'', Inquisitor Eisenhorn notes that while the daemon Cherubael has made all the usual physical alterations to its host body - small horns, glossy golden skin, blank eyes, and claws - the daemonhost still bears a chilling resemblance to {{spoiler|his old friend Godwyn Fischig}}.
** In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Brothers of the Snake]]'', a squad of marines finds themselves fighting foes that can ''only'' be seen with the naked eye; all their equipment will not recognize them. They bare their faces and win, though several die because of the vulnerability. Later, a Chaos daemon infiltrates a Chapter House. After one Marine recognizes it and kills its host, it escapes, but a second one manages to recognize it. (It also manages to make the rest of the House believe that the first Marine was raving in his cell, but the second one manages to see that in fact, the man is sitting there quietly, and talks with him.)
** Another ''WH40k'' example: in the ''[[Gaunts Ghosts]]'' novel ''Ghostmaker'', {{spoiler|an Eldar Farseer is manipulating the memories and perceptions of the Tanith First and Only, making them believe that they are back on their doomed homeworld, fighting for its survival}}. The illusion isn't perfect, however, as several characters get the sense that something is wrong, and eventually the glamour fails when {{spoiler|mildly psychic teenager Brin Milo looks at a disguised Eldar warrior through the appropriately-named "Mad" Larkin's [[See
* In [[Stephen King]]'s story "The Ten O'Clock People" (found in ''Nightmares & Dreamscapes''), only very light smokers can see the "batpeople" who are steadily taking over. Non-smokers and heavier smokers alike simply see humans where the titular group sees the monsters.
* There isn't any real way to tell that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the same person (other than [[It Was His Sled]] anyway), but they do have the same handwriting in the original novel.
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[
* Several villains on ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark]]?'':
** ''The Tale of the Mystical Mirror'': A woman who killed young girls in a ritual to keep herself eternally young and beautiful looked like an old hag (and so did her portraits) in mirrors. Hence why one girl wondered while visiting her house, "How can you be so vain and not have a mirror in your bathroom?"
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* ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'''s brand of Changelings, the Founders, are liquid beings that can perfectly mimic any object (though some, like Odo, can't get the faces right). In later years, the only way for the Federation to scope out a Founder is through blood tests, as any material drawn from a changeling reverts back to its own natural liquid state (that looks very different from blood).
* ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "The Unnatural" is about an alien who falls in love with baseball, taking on the form of a Negro player in 1947 Roswell. At one stage while he's asleep another character sees his true [[The Greys|Grey alien face]] reflected in the window of the bus they're traveling on. The image disappears when he wakes up.
* In the ''[[
* In the ''[[Ultraviolet (TV)|Ultraviolet]]'' series (not ''[[Ultraviolet (Film)|Ultraviolet]]'', but also about vampires) they don't show up in mirrors, camera or film, they can't be heard in audio recordings, and when they captured one they found they were unable to even take a fingerprint from it.
* [[Monster of the Week]] Primator from ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' had the ability to assume the form of any Ranger, but would be forced out of it when he looked at his reflection.
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[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
[[Category:Glamour Failure]]
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