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'''Fuuma (in Aizawa's form):''' Come on! Try to punch me!<br />
'''Tobari:''' Sorry, Aizawa. I can punch him. *punches Fuuma*<br />
'''Fuuma:''' Huh?!|''[[Nabari no Ou (Manga)|Nabari no Ou]]''}}
 
Our hero is in a duel with a crafty [[Shape Shifter]] villain. It looks like the shapeshifter is going to lose, until he busts out the most underhanded trick of all -- suddenly impersonating one of the hero's loved ones or [[True Companions]], trying to cause him to lose his will to fight.
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Usually, the hero ends up struggling to find the willpower to continue beating up someone who looks just like his mom/girlfriend/little sister. Bonus points if the form the shape shifter takes on is that of a [[Dead Little Sister]], for extra guilt.
 
Also covers [[Cloning Blues|clones]] and other doppelgangers who [[This Was His True Form|suddenly reveal]] that they happen to resemble the hero's mom/girlfriend/DeadLittleSister/[[Death Byby Newbery Medal|Dead Pet]]/whatever.
 
If the protagonist is an [[Anti-Hero]], there's the possibility that they won't care at all about what face they are kicking in as long as they know whose face it ''actually'' is - the bad guy's.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* Envy of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' positively ''loves'' this. In a pivotal moment, he uses this to {{spoiler|kill Hughes by transforming into a replica of the wife he adores, which makes poor old Hughes hesitate just long enough to get shot}}. And given Envy's regenerative powers, it wasn't really necessary either, it was just [[For the Evulz]].
** In Envy's fight against {{spoiler|Mustang}} near the end of the manga: {{spoiler|Mustang finally gets to confront Envy about who murdered Hughes. Envy responds by shape-shifting into Hughes' wife, and laughing at how easily he was tricked. Mustang is not amused. During the fight, they end up in some narrow corridors. Envy appears in Hughes's shape and makes Mustang momentarily flinch, but he then incinerates Envy as he knew Hughes was dead. Envy flees again.}}
** During his climactic fight with Ed at the end of [[Fullmetal Alchemist (Animeanime)|the 2003 anime version]], Envy cycles through the forms of everyone who's been either hurt or killed as result of Ed's actions. He tries to psyche him out by turning into Dr. Marcoh, his mom/{{spoiler|Sloth}}, Hughes, and Mustang (which only makes Ed attack him ''harder''). Ed keeps his cool through the whole thing, and even goads Envy into showing his original (human) form. {{spoiler|Let's just say it was one [[Long Lost Sibling|family reunion]] Ed was ''not'' expecting.}} Ed actually invoked the use of his mom by saying he still {{spoiler|killed Sloth when ''she'' tried it}}.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Mr. 2 Bon Clay uses this as a desperation attack against Sanji. Sanji heartlessly beats up all of the doppelgangers of the male Straw Hat pirates, and Bon Clay is about to give up till he carelessly switches to Nami, [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl|which paralyzes Sanji with lust]]. Bon Clay comments, "It can't really be that easy, can it?"
* In ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' Lyumnades Kaza did this thrice on-screen (plus a couple off-screen times). First in a battle against Cygnus Hyoga, taking the form of Aquarius. Then against Pegasus. Then in battle against Shun by transforming into his brother; it didn't work at first. He did it again when Shun was getting the upper hand, and it made Shun doubt enough for Kaza to beat him. Finally he did it against Shun's brother Ikki by transforming into Shun. But as Ikki was a [[Genre Savvy]] [[Anti-Hero]], it didn't work.
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* In ''[[Bleach]]'', the hollow Grand Fisher has a lure on his head. By reading his target's psyche, he can transform that lure into the person the target cares about the most. He impersonates Ichigo's dead mother early on in the series.
** {{spoiler|Later on, an Arrancar also impersonates Kaien Shiba, Rukia's mentor, to great effect. This particular one happened to be the 9th Espada, Aaroniero Arruruerie}}. In both cases, the impersonator had eaten the impersonate-ee.
* The ''[[Sorcerer Hunters]]'' manga had a variation: We eventually learn that [[Body Surf|Body Surfing]] demon Almond Rassel had been trapped in the body of Apricot, the [[Missing Mom]] of Carrot and Marron. In the final battle, Almond has to fight Onion Glace (Carrot's [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|Crouching Moron Hidden]] [[Retired Badass]] father), and plays his current body for all it's worth. Onion has no problem attacking [[Doppelganger Spin|Almond's clones]], but can't bring himself to attack the real body of his wife. His solution: grab on to Almond and [[Taking You Withwith Me|stab them both]] with his [[Precision-Guided Boomerang|boomeranging]] [[BFS|Big Freaking Axe]], which he aimed at ''himself''.
* Parodied in ''[[Ranma One Half]]'', when the Cat Demon possessed {{spoiler|Genma}}, thinking that Ranma wouldn't attack {{spoiler|him}}. Ranma's response: IT'S EXORCISM TIME!
** To explain further, it really didn't help that {{spoiler|Genma forced Ramna to fight [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|a giant cat]] since, no matter how weak a demon it was, Ranma is utterly ''terrified'' of cats. Right before booting his son towards said terror, Genma says that it's a martial artist's job to defeat demons, no matter what. Ranma repeats that right before beating up his old man.}}
* ''[[Dance in Thethe Vampire Bund]]'': One of the assassins sent after Akira in vol 4 pulled this. {{spoiler|It worked perfectly when he took the form of Graham, a colleague whom Akira killed under as yet unknown circumstances, but then she(?) twisted the knife and tried to extract information by taking the form of Mina. Big. Mistake.}}
* In ''[[Project ARMS]]'', one of the cyborgs that Hayato fights tries to trick him by impersonating Ryo. In this case, it was done to trick Hayato and not guilt him. After Hayato figures out the truth and impales him, the cyborg takes the form of Hayato's dead mother before dying.
* [[Big Bad|Dougan]] in the ''[[Saiyuki]]'' Requiem Movie absolutely adores doing this; so much so that it becomes pretty much the premise of the entire movie. For Sanzo he changes into his mentor Koumyou as well as his teammates Sha Gojyo, and Son Goku. For Goku he changes into Genjo Sanzo. For Sha Gojyo he changes into Hakkai and induces stabby death onto him. And for Cho Hakkai he shapeshifts into both his dear [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNlWH1DtjRM sister/lover Kanan] as well as his [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qp5jvDFQuw&feature=related friend Goku].
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== Film ==
* In the ''[[The Spiderwick Chronicles|Spiderwick]]'' books and [[Film of the Book]], {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Mulgarath]] attempts to do this to the main character by transforming into his dad. Much like in the FMA example, the main character has [[Parental Issues]] and this ends up being a bad choice.}}
* In the ''[[Mortal Kombat (Filmfilm)|Mortal Kombat]]'' movie, the villain Shang Tsung tries to pull this gambit with Liu Kang by assuming the form of his dead brother Chan, whom Shang Tsung had killed at the start of the movie. It doesn't work.
* The monster in ''[[Phantoms]]'' turns itself into a little boy who looks like the kid [[Ben Affleck]]'s character accidentally killed in his former life in the FBI.
* The T-1000 from ''[[Terminator]] 2'' made use of this trope, shape shifting into Sarah Connor in an attempt to lure and terminate her son John. {{spoiler|The attempt fails when the real Sarah appears behind the T-1000, and John trusts her characteristic approach ("Get out of the way, John") over the duplicate's attitude of slumped defeat. The film's special edition, disappointingly, replaces this subtle indicator with an obvious shape shifting flaw (warped and misshapen feet).}}
* Inverted in ''[[Dreamscape]]''. Assassin Tommy Ray murdered his father as a teenager. While fighting him in a dream, the [[Heroes|heroic]] Alex distracts him by changing his appearance to that of the father and asking Tommy Ray why he killed him.
* In ''[[The Exorcist (Film)|The Exorcist]]'', the demon takes on the voice of Father Karras' recently deceased elderly mother.
* In ''[[Event Horizon]]'', the title ship has taken over Dr. Weir. In an effort to get to Captain Miller, Weir takes the form of a flaming Edward Corrick, the man in Miller's back story whom he had to [[No One Gets Left Behind|leave behind]] in [[My Greatest Failure|his greatest failure]]. Miller doesn't buy the attempt to guilt-trip him for a minute though: "No. You're not Edward Corrick. I watched him die."
* Mystique tries this on her captors in ''[[X-Men (Filmfilm)|X-Men]]: The Last Stand''. She transforms into the senator she has been impersonating and threatens to have them all court martialed if they do not release her, and then a little girl who begs and cries to be let out. She finally turns mockingly back into herself when one of the guards threatens to empty a can of pepper spray in her face if she doesn't knock it off.
 
 
== Literature ==
* [[Older Than Print]]: In ''[[Arabian Nights (Literature)|Arabian Nights]]'', one story involves a hero being told that he must kill a demon that is taking the shape of his mother. He refuses, is sent back where he started, and has to undertake all the other challenges of the quest again, as well as kill the copy of his mother.
* In the novel ''[[Myth Adventures|Myth-Taken Identity]]'', a group of shape shifters are running around disguised as the protagonist of the series, and their chief uses it against the protagonist's mentor in the climactic fight.
* A very neat example takes place in Roger Zelazny's ''[[Lord of Light]]'' during, well, calling it fight would charitable, between Yama, the God of Death and Mara, the God of Trickery. The first of many [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for Yama.
* The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] plays this one straight in ''Sacrifice''. {{spoiler|Jacen disguises himself as Ben when dueling Mara.}}
* ''[[Magic Time (Literature)]]'': There's a whole swarm of these towards the end of the final book, divided into groups targeting each main character. (For instance, a doctor who survived Chernobyl fights animated radiation corpses. What, the title made you think it was a kids' book?)
* In Juliet Marillier's ''[[The Sevenwaters Trilogy|Child of the Prophecy]]'', the [[Evil Matriarch]] Oonagh does this during the middle of the climactic showdown: {{spoiler|while facing off her son and granddaughter, she takes on the appearance of the son's dead wife. Made worse by the fact that she killed the wife in the first place. This throws her son off-balance long enough that she would have killed him, had his half-brother not intervened.}}
* ''[[Harry Potter]]''
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== Live Action TV ==
* An episode of ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' features a genetic mutant which uses its shape shifting ability to drive its victims to extremes of some emotion, which it then feeds on/sucks out. So at one point Kryton becomes the victim of a ''literal'' Shape shifter Guilt Trip.
* The ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' Season 1 episode "Skin" does this when Sam fights a shape shifter disguised as Dean. Sam can't kill him, so Dean does.
** Averted in Episode 5.05 "Fallen Idols" {{spoiler|in which a pagan god is about to take the form of John Winchester and gets killed before that happens.}}
** It happens again in Season six. When the boys prove unwilling to listen to her, The Mother Of All takes on the form of none other than Mary Winchester. {{spoiler|Still doesn't stop the Winchesters from ganking her.}}
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'''Spike''': You ain't her. I can see it. ''Lord'' knows I can smell it. And I got no problem hitting it. }}
* Also done in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story "Planet of Fire".
* On ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Candace (who can actually cast illusions, but used it in a way equivalent to shapeshifting) as Simone to Isaac.
* Notably averted on ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]''. The heroes want to kill her ''extra''.
* The Worm creatures in ''[[Kamen Rider Kabuto]]'' occasionally do this by showing the image of the person they'd replaced. One early episode has a Worm guilt tripping Kagami with the form of {{spoiler|his brother}}, noting that since the Worm has all the memories of his victim, if the Worm dies the victim will be killed "a second time".
** It happens again in ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'''s movie, ''[[The Movie|Begins Night]]'', in which {{spoiler|a dopant poses as Shotaro's mentor and in turn, Kamen Rider Skull. When it is revealed that it's the Dummy Dopant doing the imitating, this pisses off Shotaro.}}
* On ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]],'' this was [[Big Bad|The First]]'s main tactic. Creepily, its [[The Dragon|Dragon]] [[Sinister Minister|Caleb]] [[Inverted Trope|inverted]] this---the First would turn into [[Straw Misogynist|girls]] [[Serial Killer|he had murdered]] so he could reenact killing them ''again.''
* The ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series]]'' episode "[[Star Trek (Franchise)/Recap/S1 E1 The Man Trap|The Man Trap]]" features an alien [[Shape Shifter]] who impersonates McCoy's old flame, causing him to hesitate to shoot it.
* ''[[Lost]]'': The Smoke Monster {{spoiler|aka The Man in Black}} did this a lot to the main characters, though he was usually impersonating their beloved ones: {{spoiler|he appears to Jack as his late father, to Eko as his late brother, to Ben as his late daughter, to Richard as his late wife...}} you get the idea.
 
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== Video Games ==
* In the [[Final Boss]] fight of ''[[Beyond Good and& Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|Beyond Good and Evil]],'' the [[Big Bad]]'s shape shifting [[Mooks]] mimic the forms of Jade's [[Sidekick|sidekicks]]. They accuse her in a [[Creepy Monotone]] of causing their suffering, and beg her to join the villain to take the pain away. Considering their [[Large Ham|natural tendencies,]] this is especially unnerving.
** Worse, they do this right after the [[Big Bad]] apparently absorbs them both, leaving you to wonder just how fake it is.
* Used a few times in a section of the first boss battle in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]'', with Laughing Octopus, who uses her OctoCamo and FaceCamo to disguise herself as Naomi, then as Metal Gear Mk. II, with Otacon's voice. When you approach it, it attacks you, with Otacon's voice (although obviously not him speaking) making fun of you. Of course you can spot the flaws easily (she never changes out of her suit when in the face cameo and MK II is much bigger then its normal size. Plus Otacan doesn't flag you down with it in regular play.)
** You can briefly pull this off in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater]]'' thanks to [[Latex Perfection]]. Put on the Raikov mask and uniform when fighting his gay lover to distract him for a moment. "Ivan is that you?"
* In ''[[Star Fox (Video Gameseries)|Star Fox]] Assault'', the final boss tries to pull this, although only with voices from the various people that died (or are presumed dead) during the storyline.
** Including James. Which is the clincher, since Fox knows that "[[Something They Would Never Say|my father would ''never'' tell me to give up!]]"
* You can attempt one in ''[[Majoras Mask]]'' against Igos Du Ikana with his knight captain's mask. Then fail completely.
{{quote| "Ohhh! Keeta! Is it not Captain Keeta?!?... But you're so... T-Tiny!!!"}}
** Also done with the Gorman brothers of the same game while wearing their brother's mask, they get so upset looking at it they can't fight.
* The ''~Baldur's Gate~'' series features dopplegangers and other shapeshifters who like to impersonate other characters, but all of them shift into their normal forms when attacking, thus disqualifying some interesting scenes from quite exemplifying this trope. The closest to actually qualifying are the random dopplegangers that attack you in the Candlekeep catacombs that appear in the form of familiar minor characters and speak lines that don't actually make sense for those characters but are still related to what they might actually say; the greater dopplegangers near the end of the level try to convince you that it's all been an illusion and you've actually been killing the people that the dopplegangers looked like, but they stop pretending immediately if you choose to fight them. ''Throne of Bhaal'' also has a similar scene where some wraiths have a go at [[Break Them Byby Talking|Breaking You by Talking]] in the form of lost loved ones, but they too do it only ''before'' the battle is joined, not during it.
* Not quite an exact use, but referenced: In ''<nowiki>~Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door~</nowiki>'', when {{spoiler|the Shadow Queen takes over Peach's body}} Goombella tells you that no matter how much it looks like your friend, you can't think of it that way and just have to fight it.
* The Holoprojection droid PROXY in ''[[Star Wars]] [[The Force Unleashed]]'' uses it to his advantage several times. Going against Vader as Obi-Wan Kenobi or against Boba Fett as his father Jango does not guarantee him victory, but ''does'' confuse his opponent for a few precious seconds.
** In the Wii/[[PSPlay Station 2]]/PSP version of the first game, Darth Phobos briefly adopts the appearance of Juno Eclipse to lure Galen into letting his guard down at the start of the fight. After you defeat her, she tries it again to stop you from killing her. It doesn't work.
** In the beginning of the sequel, Darth Vader orders Starkiller to destroy a droid that looks like Juno Eclipse, but he can't. The game's novelization includes a scene where Starkiller is confronted by a Juno droid again, as well as droids of his friends and father, but this time he declares that dreams and memories have no power over him anymore and destroys them all. {{spoiler|[[Evil Knockoff|The Dark Apprentice]] destroyed his Juno droid and declared that he felt ''nothing.''}}
* Completely averted in ''[[Prototype (Videovideo Gamegame)|Prototype]]''. If Alex is discovered by the military, while shape shifted, the military will not hesitate to fire on him -- even if you're in the guise of a respected commander, unarmed woman, or someone they wouldn't dare think about hurting otherwise. [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilariously]], if you use the Patsy ability to accuse someone of being Alex, the poor sod gets gunned down with an equal lack of restraint.
* In ''[[Metroid]]'' {{spoiler|Gandrayda}} pulls one of these once you [[Shapeshifter Swan Song|defeat]] {{spoiler|her}}. First, {{spoiler|she changes into Ghor, then into Rundas, then into Samus. The whole thing takes less than a minute, and the only sound that comes out of her mouth is a scream, but the message to Samus is clear: You couldn't save them from [[The Corruption]], you couldn't save me from it, and you're not going to be able to save yourself. [[Your Days Are Numbered]], Samus.}}
* ''[[DantesDante's Inferno (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dantes Inferno]]'': Lucifer takes the shape of Dante, along with his form massacring innocent people in his grand illusions, to break the will of Dante's wife's soul, Beatrice.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'', the final totema attempts this in a cut scene. It changes from Ritz, to Doned, to Mewt (all characters with a close relation to the main character), and then finally to the main character himself, each one trying a different tactic to try to get him to {{spoiler|stay in the world and not destroy the final crystal}}. None of it works, though it does succeed in briefly mind fucking the main character.
** Similar to the above, in ''[[Tactics Ogre]] The Knight of Lodis'', when you enter the [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon]], the first battle has [[Big Bad|Shaher]] attempt this on Alphonse and Eleanor, and who he takes the illusion of depends on the route you take. If you take Path A, he becomes {{spoiler|Rictor, Alphonse's commander who was possessed by Shaher and subsequently killed by Alphonse.}} If you take Path B, {{spoiler|he takes the form of Cybil, who felt she could no longer trust Alphonse and was later possessed by Shaher in a similar manner of Rictor in Path A}}. However, Alphonse doesn't buy it one bit, and simply lashes out at them and causes the illusion to break. Then again though, [[Genre Blind|Shaher did actually say he would take their form to their face]], but to be fair, even before he said this, Alphonse wasn't buying it.
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== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Drow TalesDrowtales]]'' [[Eldritch Abomination|Khaless]] does this to Lulianne [http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=1286 using the face of her niece Sael], who Khaless may have killed and/or absorbed.
* A half-example appeared in everybody's favorite [[Trope Overdosed]] work, ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', when [[Spoony Bard|Elan]]'s [[Evil Twin]], [[Sdrawkcab Name|Nale]], faces off against [[The Leader|Roy]]. If he was hoping that Roy would be reluctant to attack someone who looks identical to one of his party-members, he was [[Berserk Button|DEAD WRONG]].
{{quote| '''Roy''': I've been suppressing the urge to beat the crap out of someone who looks EXACTLY like you for a long, long time.}}
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[X-Men (Animationanimation)|X-Men]]'':
** Not exactly the same, but during a [[Story Arc]] of the animated series, a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Morph shapeshifts into [[Wolverine]]'s most hated foes (including Sabretooth and Omega Red), trying to take advantage of Wolvie's fractured and tormented memories of said foes to drive him to insanity. Unfortunately for him, Wolvie's got plenty of experience with repressing those memories, and he only escapes by taking advantage of the one memory Wolvie ''can't'' repress: being forced to leave Morph to die after a semi-botched mission.
*** Prior to that, he shapeshifted into Wolverine's unrequited love interest Jean, and mocked him about how she'll never love him.
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** [[Fight Unscene|And we never got to know how]] ([[Wild Mass Guessing|or if]]) [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome|Martian]] [[Martian Manhunter|Manhunter]] actually beat his own clone during his]] [[Shapeshifter Showdown]].
* During Endgame of ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', Shockwave tries this on Bulkhead and Bumblebee, asking if they're really willing to take out their old friend Longarm by changing to his form. (In this case, he's only sort of playing head games, as Longarm and Shockwave were always the same person. {{spoiler|The Autobots feign sympathy for a minute before smacking him up.}}
* ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (Animation)|Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]]'': One of Mogul the Sorcerer's illusions is that of Zachary's wife. Mogul learns the hard way that this is Zach's fastest-acting [[Berserk Button]]. The Queen also pulls this trick on Zach during the [[Dream Sequence]] in "Psychocrypt."
* ''[[The Legion of Super -Heroes (TV series)|The Legion of Super Heroes]]'': The [[Monster of the Week]] tries to save itself by turning into Ma Kent, but Superman roars, "You are not my mother!" and smashes it.
* ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'': In "The New Olympians," Proteus irritates the prison warden Taurus by taking the form of his father (whom Proteus murdered) and begging to be released from jail.
 
{{reflist}}
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