Shapeshifter Swan Song: Difference between revisions

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Shapeshifters are showoffs. Even the insidious infiltrators like to use their abilities to inspire awe and fear. It's no surprise then that dying is no exception. When a shapeshifter bites the dust they have a veritable swan song of shape shifting as they slide through every single shape they've stolen throughout the episode or movie. Much like the life flashing before your eyes thing, may be considered a realistic [[Defence Mechanism Superpower|survival reflex]].

 

== Film ==

* In the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' movie, when Mystique was stabbed, even though she survived.

** Even worse in the second one, when {{spoiler|Cerebro-2 almost kills her (and every other mutant on earth)}}. She survives again, of course.

** This also happens to Mater in ''[[Disney/Cars|Cars 2]]'' when he accidentally smashes the light used to disguise himself while infiltrating the Lemon meeting.

 

 

== Literature ==

* Ols from Emily Rodda's ''[[Deltora Quest]]'' series do this as they die.

* [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Monster Clown|It]]'' culminates in {{spoiler|a psychic battle between Bill and Pennywise based on an ancient ritual of dominance.}} The monster cycles wildly through all his horrifying faces in a futile attempt to escape.

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "The Four Of Us Are Dying," a man who can alter his face to look like someone else's goes through a convulsive process of his face taking on the shape of each one he impersonated as he lies dying from a gunshot.

** When {{spoiler|Sylar kills an illusionist}}, we cut away from the scene, and by the time we get back all we see is her lying in a pool of blood in her real (and fat due to all the junk food...) form.

** When a real shapeshifter shows up, {{spoiler|it still doesn't happen, handily enough for Sylar, whose form he'd taken before dying.}}

* At the end of ''[[Roswell]]'s'' first season, the protagonists used alien technology to heal a shape-shifting associate, who promptly exhibited this trope.

* Inverted in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]:'' the First Evil's (re-)introduction as as a [[Big Bad]] ''starts'' with a shapeshifting rundown of past archvillains. In the finale, {{spoiler|the First slinks away unseen when its plan starts to go bad, and is never heard from again.}}

* One of the Dopants from [[Kamen Rider Double]] goes through these before entering its true form. {{spoiler|These include a preist, ''another'' dopant, a pop idol singer, Shotaro's deceased mentor, and Kamen Rider Skull, who is also the deceased mentor.}}

 

 

== Mythology and Folklore ==

 

 

* In ''[[Metroid Fusion]]'', the [[Evil Twin|SA-X]] starts to do this... but doesn't quite finish, becoming a [[One-Winged Angel]] [[Biological Mashup]] instead.

** In ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3'', Gandrayda shifts through the forms of various other bosses as well as copying Samus herself as you fight her, and her [[Shapeshifter Swan Song]] rapidly cycles through the various other boss forms before lingering on Samus's own form as it is (Suit upgrades and all) for a good long moment. This leads to a particularly striking moment with the real Samus, by this point badly corrupted by glowy blue Phazon energy, standing victorious over the image of her own uncorrupted self in the midst of her death throes. Samus is pretty much affected by this nightmarish death, she looks away and does nothing to stop {{spoiler|Dark Samus from absorbing Gandrayda}}

* Defeating Wilfre in ''[[Drawn to Life]]: The Next Chapter'' will cause this to happen to him.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* Happened in ''[[Futurama]]'' to a shapeshifter who used his powers to juggle several different women in simultaneous relationships. Being confronted by all of them at once leads to him rapidly changing his appearance to appeal to each one (and to them beating the crap out of him so bad he starts to mix up aspects of the different forms before giving up and showing his true form).

* Happens to Bowser in the [[Animated Series]] based on ''[[Super Mario Brothers]] 3'', after Iggy and Lemmy/Hip and Hop build him an amulet that endows real-world mushrooms, flowers, etc. with the powers of those from the game. He goes a little crazy, mixing and matching Powerups (a fiery orange Bowser in a Kuribo shoe...and raccoon tail), and when he's defeated, the amulet malfunctions, causing him to blink through several different forms (raccoon, frog suit, orange (fire powerups on the NES made you a lot more orange!)) and odd mixings before finally rocketing him into a manhole.

* In an episode of [[Darkwing Duck]], the villain, who was a Chameleon, went through one of these when she was exposed to warm temperatures and her metabolism speed up, resulting in her turning into an [[Furry Confusion|''actually'' chameleon]]

* Minor superhero Chameleon of ''[[The Tick]]'' suffers a mild form of this when he accidentally tries to conceal himself on some plaid curtains.

* Happens to ''[[Static Shock]]'' villain Omnifarious when he uses the gas that gave various people superpowers (including Virgil) to try to destroy his father's company HQ. The dose turned out to be too heavy and caused him to mutate like mad and turn into stone.

* Minor example: In the ''Reboot'' episode ''Painted Windows'', Bob uses ''Paint'' of all things to remove Hexadecimal's mask. He then get's a [[Hannibal Lecture]] from all of Hexadecimal's faces as she starts to overload.