Shapeshifter Default Form

A Shape Shifter (or a Master of Disguise or Master of Illusion) can look like anyone, and sometimes anything. But most such characters will have a regular form that they usually appear in.

This is either because they like that particular appearance, because they need to present themselves in a consistent (or more normal) appearance for the sake of others, or it's simply because that's what they and/or their species normally looks like. It usually depends on how their particular style of Shapeshifting works.

For more practical reasons, this is just easier to draw. Or it's implemented so that a single actor can be cast in the role.

The only time this might be a problem is when a shapeshifter is an assassin or otherwise working in espionage. Their enemies have seen the face of the shapeshifter, yet they remain using that same appearance in everything. This is rarely addressed; it is assumed to be part of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief.

There is also variations regarding the nature of shapeshifting within the fiction itself. There might be mass displacement or other limitations.

Of course, in the real world an individual has many options, either superficial (clothing, cosmetics and jewelry) or intensive (plastic surgery and tattoos), to appear as their "preferred self-image." It certainly isn't unlikely that a shapeshifter would have the same desires.

There are usually two types of Default Forms:

The default shape is simply the shapeshifter's actual appearance. This is often the case if the character is a member of a shapeshifting species or if the shapeshifting has some limitation, like how long the character can be transformed. (Previously called "Type A")

Their appearance is the form they like best. They may have a natural appearance that is completely alien or too bizarre (or just too expensive) to be practical for human interaction; such shifters often become humanlike in most cases. Oddly, few shapeshifters capable of this option seem to have the energy to go for their most powerful form as their Default. (Previously called "Type B")

Some shifters can use a combination of the two. Compare A Form You Are Comfortable With, Sleep Mode Size, Super Mode, Morphic Resonance, and (of course) This Was His True Form. Tends to go hand in hand with Coconut Superpowers.

Examples of Shapeshifter Default Form include:

The Shapeshifter's Actual Appearance

Anime and Manga

Albireo Imma's artifact allows for shapeshifting to a wide variety of people, including Gateau Vanderburg, Takamichi and Asuna's teacher and Nagi Springfield. But the robed appearance is what he really looks like.
Due of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, though as a very effective assassin, the only enemies who've seen her default form don't live long enough to squeal about it. At least, until Zest proves to be too much for her and promptly kills her to avenge his friend, Regius.
Shippo from Inuyasha is a Type A (He is a fox demon who just transforms via magic) while Naraku is a classic Type B example - Throughout the story, he is mostly seen in the form of a young man with long, curly dark hair which originally belonged to a young nobleman he once killed and impersonated. When the impersonating was done, however, he let a little of his demonic nature bleed through, like his red eyes. Later, after some major power-up, he uses a form with lots of spiky bone armor, tentacles and various misplaced eyes when confronting the heroes or doing other dastardly deeds, but is seen in his former, "normal" humanoid form when recovering or going about his daily life at his hideout. While the heroes have often theorized about what his possible Type A form could be like, it is ultimately revealed that he does not have any true form, or any true body for that matter, with the only thing that is truly his own being his soul, thus explaining why he just won't die no matter what the good guys do with him.
Mr 2 Bon Clay from One Piece can only use his most advanced techniques in his default form, because they require perfect knowledge of his body's strengths and limits.
- Most users of Zoan fruits typically use the human form as their default form... because it is a default form from before they gained their powers, after all. Type A either way. Chopper is the only one pulling off a Type B, using his hybrid form as a default form. He even reverts to it when losing control of his powers for some reason.
  - Chopper's default form is probably his hybrid form now, actually. He is unique in that he was an animal who ate the Human fruit, rather than the other way around, and this was accompanied with an increase in intellect that, say, the members of CP 9 wouldn't have gotten.
The Mazoku of Slayers are Type B. That can appear to be anyone or anything they wish to, they just have 'default' human forms so that they can be recognized by people they want to be recognized by.
While Oolong and Puar of Dragon Ball can assume any shape they want, their default forms are a short, anthropomorphic pig and a strange creature that looks like a fusion between a cat and a bat respectively.
In Fullmetal Alchemist, Envy has both a Type A and Type B form. Its Type B form manifests as an androgynous teenager with hair done in long spikes. The Type A form depends on which continuum you reference.
- In the manga and second anime Envy has two Type As. The first is an elephant-sized, six-legged... thing covered in the screaming faces of the souls imprisoned in its Philosopher's Stone. The second and real Type A is hidden with that: An almost embryonic version of its larger form which uses the mass provided by human bodies to shapeshift.
- In the first anime Envy's true form is revealed to be the dead son of Hohenheim and Dante. He despises his resemblance to the father who was never there for him and so only assumes the form once before transforming into a giant snake.

Comic Books

Mystique of the X-Men. Interestingly done in X2, where Rebecca Romijn played Mystique in disguise—sans makeup. From X-Men 3, it seemed like the X2 no-makeup appearance would be her normal human appearance, except with dark hair.
- In X-Men: First Class, Mystique could almost be considered to be Type A and Type B. Her original form is the blue skin and red hair we all know and love, but she spends most of her time as Jennifer Lawrence, much like Rebecca Romijn sans makeup in X2. The fact that, like Clayface, she has to continually put effort into shifting, coupled with the final abandonment of her "regular human" disguise tips her into Type A by the movie's end.
Clayface from Batman. Batman: The Animated Series explained that shapeshifting is a acquired skill, or "muscle tensing," so he can't just constantly be in another form.
The Marvel Universe has the Skrull, who often hang around in their normal forms even when there's no real reason to do so.
Martian Manhunter from The DCU. The familiar alien "superhero" form in the comics is actually a slightly more human-like version of his true appearance, which is kind of playing with this trope.
Courier, a shapeshifter who most often appeared in the pages of Gambit's solo series, is an interesting twist on this. Courier's default form started off as a man, but after being melted (while impersonating a woman) and reconstituted by Mister Sinister, became a woman permanently.
When he's not fighting, flying, or impersonating more famous superheroes, Hulkling of the Young Avengers looks like an ordinary sixteen-year-old boy.
All the Endless in The Sandman can change their looks at will, but they all have default appearances they stick to when they're among other immortals. Morpheus usually looks tall, thin and pale, with messy dark hair, but he occasionally shows up in other forms appropriate to the person he's talking to—for instance, when visiting the dream of a cat, he looks like a cat.
- Or, when seen by the Martian Manhunter in the first volume, as Lord L'zoril, a giant flaming head. Considering that the Martians' weakness was fire, nightmares must have been common.
- Death's favorite form is that of a perky goth girl. She even appeared (briefly) in this form in a story set in ancient Greece, when her nephew Orpheus visited her in her home (which initially appeared as a slightly cluttered late-20th century apartment). The sight disturbed Orpheus so much that she promptly changed herself and her home into a form he was more comfortable with.

Fan Works

In With Strings Attached, George's default form is sort of Type A: his 21-year-old body with any changes he might have made to himself, like a new hairstyle. However, since he has no time limit or stress in other forms, he will cheerfully stay other things as long as he feels like it.

Literature

Played against in Larry Niven's What Good is a Glass Dagger?, wherein the true form of werewolves is the wolf form, not the human form.
In Octavia Butler's Wild Seed, the character Anyanwu takes on different identities when moving from place to place, and is able to change her race, gender, and even her species. In private or with someone who knows her secret, she reverts to the form of a beautiful, petite twenty-year-old African woman. This is the original body she had before her mutant abilities first developed.
All users of Andalite morphing technology in Animorphs have a default form which they must revert to if they wish to take on a new animal form. There is also a time limit to how long one can remain morphed; exceeding this time limit results in Shapeshifter Mode Lock that not even reapplication of the morphing tech can fix. Tobias falls victim to this early in the series, becoming trapped as a red-tailed hawk; later in the series he regains his ability to morph thanks to the Ellimist, but now has the hawk as his default form.
Given a twist in Tais Teng's SF short story "Gekleed in Twijfelachtig Vlees" ("Dressed in Doubtful Flesh"). Problem solver Percy d'Arezzo (y Mac Shimonoseki) is hired by a shapeshifter who has forgotten his true form. Percy proceeds to take litmus tests for a baffling gallery of shapeshifter species in an attempt to solve the problem by elimination.
In The Bartimaeus Trilogy, spirits are described as having both a Type A and a Type B form. All demons have a default form, but they generally do not assume it on the mortal plane because they look slightly repellent (hell, even some spirits prefer not to see each other’s true forms). Instead, most spirits generally refer back to a form most humans are comfortable with, which is usually the form they took when they were first summoned. Which doesn’t mean it can’t still be scary.
The Were Hunters in Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series can change into a specific animal.
In Robert E. Howard's Kull story "The Shadow Kingdom" the Master of Illusion Snakemen are really reptilian headed men.
Boggarts in Harry Potter are rumored to have a true form, except nobody knows what their true form actually looks like; the instant a Boggart is spotted, it immediately transforms itself into something else.
- The only person who does know, is Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, as he was able to see inside a dresser one was hiding in, thanks to his magic eye. Sadly, he doesn't say what it looks like.
- Tonks, a Metamorphmagus, is also a mild Type A example. It appears that she changes her hair dramatically for day to day wear, but rarely changes the shape of her face or her eyes, which is how Harry consistently identifies her.
In Consider Phlebas, Horza, a member of shape-shifting race of alien mercenaries, spies, and assassins averts this trope pretty hard. When he's picked up by a salvage ship after being left adrift in space, he immediately begins modeling his form on the hulking Jerkass captain (he had been in the form of an old man from his last assignment) anticipating the need to kill and replace the man down the line, which would be easier if he already had the body copied and then could just change his face when the time was right.
- He does revert to a true form after dying, but a disturbing dream sequence earlier in the novel suggests that he might not have even recognized that face in the mirror (he may have been a different member of the same race who lost himself in impersonating Horza for an assignment a long time ago
In Mistborn, the true form of the shapeshifting Kandra race is a big blob of tissue that essentially resembles a giant amoeba. They very rarely use this form, however, since in order to take the shape of someone or something a Kandra first has to ingest the one thing they can't turn into- a rigid skeleton. There's some crossover with type b, since although Kandra normally use the bones of whatever individual they're replicating, among themselves they use artificial skeletons called True Bodies that set a preferred shape for that Kandra, and are often fanfically inhuman.

Live-Action TV

Supernatural: The Trickster, although he's been shown to be able to assume other forms (Doctor Sexy, the guy he dropped in a wormhole) tends to stick with the one played by Richard Speight Jr. That form actually consisted of the entirety of his first appearance, sans wardrobe changes. As he's actually the Archangel Gabriel it's not explained his default form is the visage of his vessel, as all other angels require. It's certainly not his actual true form, as an unmasked angel is an eye-burning, ear-splitting Brown Note.
Star Trek: The Original Series episode Whom Gods Destroy". Lord Garth is a human being who learned the ability to shapechange. His default shape is his original (human) body.
The X-Files: the Alien Bounty Hunter first appeared in "Colony" in the form of a Russian pilot played by Brian Thompson. While he could take on any form, he most often seen in the appearance of the pilot. It wasn't until "The Unnatural" that his true form was revealed to be that of a Grey alien and that he was using his current human template as far back as 1947... long before the events of "Colony". It was further revealed that there may have been more than one ABH but that they all had the same 'default' appearance since Mulder saw a number of Greys after being abducted and they all bore the same human form.

Mythology

Older Than Feudalism: Most gods of Greek Mythology who can shapeshift (Zeus, I'm looking at you here) have a normal, everyday form. Of course, Zeus had a preferred form and a true form, so he was both A and B. He didn't appear in his true form to mortals, for reasons Semele discovered just before she burnt to death.

Tabletop Games

In Exalted, each Lunar has three "default" forms: their original human form, their totem animal, and their Divine Beast Transformation. When their Anima Banner reaches a certain level, they are restricted to these three forms.
The vast majority of shapeshifting creatures and classes in Dungeons & Dragons follow this trope, like the Dragons, Doppelgangers and Changeling. In the case of the changelings of Eberron, one of the three philosophy (the Reality Seekers) are based on this. They remain in their natural forms most of the time.
Tzeentch's Changeling subverts this hard, as it doesn't even remember what its original form looks like. Tzeentch knows, of course, but he's not telling...

Video Games

Druids in Warcraft, although some have been shown to have given in to feral instincts after staying in one form for too long.
Fire Emblem Has Manakeetes, who are basically humans with wings. They need special stones to access their dragon forms.
- And don't forget Chameleon-class characters like Xane, who are true shape-shifters with a Type-A default.
In Sonic Heroes, after Metal Sonic captures Chaos's data and becomes liquid metal a la the Terminator, he chooses to take on a larger, spikier, eviler-looking form based on his original form. When he's defeated though, he reverts to his very first form.
Doopliss in Paper Mario 2 has his default form he reverts to when defeated or not transformed into something else (which looks like a Bedsheet Ghost with party hat), as do possibly the Duplighosts in Paper Mario 1 and Mimi in Super Paper Mario.
Touhou 12's Extra boss Nue Houjuu is a Master of Illusion youkai who exploits the fear of her true form. Her true form is better described as a Japanese teenager with messy crow black hair and strange wings. She is also known as the energy ball midboss in Stage 4 and 6.
It's debatable whether Alex Mercer of Prototype would be considered a Type A or Type B form of this trope. He does use his appearance before being infected as a default form, however it's later revealed that he's not actually the "real" Mercer, but The Virus itself after consuming Mercer and assuming his shape and memories. So the player-controlled Mercer never really had a original form to begin with; the closest we see is either his black and red tendrils or the brilliant red goop the virus was while inert in its vial.
- James Heller, however, is a Type A.

Web Comics

April Fools' Day from Holiday Wars has a default form where he looks like a scruffy punk from the 80's.
Jymre from Hitmen for Destiny usually appears as human, but in his real form he is a weird-looking alien (see here).
For El Goonish Shive shapeshifters this seems to be the main way they're shown. The default forms are also said to be most powerful. Raven is shapeshifted most of the time, but returns to his real face when fighting and later uses an illusion for disguise when he expects to need all his power. There may be some debate as to which one is the actual default/normal form for Grace: human/squirrel with Cute Little Fangs is seen more often than the three-tailed spiked squirrel of death mode, as the traits of her strongest parent species are said to be inactive. They also include ability to mix in acquired forms as well, thus after being turned into a half-hedgecat she sometimes adds hedgehog spines to hybrid forms as well.

Western Animation

Ben 10. His Phlebotinum only allows him to change form for a set period of time, afterward he changes back into his normal form. In the future of "Ben 10,000," he unlocked the master code removing the timelimit, and he instead chose the really fast XLR8 as his default form. Until his younger self showed him that he should stay human
- In Ben 10: Ultimate Alien episode "Ben 10,000 Returns", Ben's Future Self has unlocked the humans ultimate form, meaning he can stay human, but use the powers of all the aliens.
In The Fairly OddParents, nearly all of the magical creatures have Type A Default Shapes.
Beast Boy from Teen Titans stays humanlike when not an animal.
- Madame Rouge's default form can be described as The Baroness and The Vamp (might by a type B- it's never said if it's her true form or merely a preferred one).
- On the other hand Beast Boy from Young Justice is a type B. He has a (green) human form but usually shape shifts to look like a human-monkey hybrid.
Master shapeshifter Amorpho from Danny Phantom is really a faceless ghost in a black trenchcoat/hat.
Pain and Panic Hades' minions from |Hercules can assume any shape they wish they can also disguise their voices, their default forms are a fat pink demon and a skinny green demon respectively.
In Futurama, Alkazar courts Leela and other aliens by shapeshifting to resemble a male of their species. When Fry and Bender blow Alkazar's cover, Leela and his other wives beat him up until he reveals his true form: a 3-foot alien cricket.

The Form the Shapeshifter Likes Best