Shapeshifting Squick: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:metapimp.jpg|frame|
{{quote|"''I swear, once we get through Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Psylocke, and She-Hulk, I am
|'''[[Deadpool]]''' (see below)}}
{{quote|"''I've just got one question. If you can change your form into anything you like, why didn't you change it in the one place it counts?''"
▲{{quote|"''I swear, once we get through Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Psylocke, and She-Hulk, I am DONE using her to fulfill my fantasies! And maybe Moondragon, but that's it!''"|'''[[Deadpool]]''' (see below)}}
|'''Leela on [[Futurama]]'''}}
▲{{quote|"''I've just got one question. If you can change your form into anything you like, why didn't you change it in the one place it counts?''"|'''Leela on [[Futurama]]'''}}
One of the first things our sweaty, clammy imaginations [[Power Perversion Potential|suggest to us]] is that a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifter's]] sex life must be '''really''' interesting. I mean, they can turn into ''anything'' right? ''Ahem''...
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See also [[Shapeshifting Lover]], which has a cleaner history in folklore.
{{examples}}
* A mid-series arc in ''[[Ranma
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* A mid-series arc in ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma 1/2]]'' had the [[Gender Bender|eponymous character]] being bewitched into falling in love with his rival, Ryoga, by a "[[Love Potion|Fishing Rod of Love]]." When Ryoga was creeped out by it, Ranma turned into a girl to appease him. It didn't work. But later on, girl-Ranma goes to considerable lengths to get Ryoga to love her back, culminating with [[Disproportionate Retribution|a kiss that fuels Ryoga's drive to kill her]]. After she tries to kill Akane, Ryoga defeats her by accidentally undoing the spell, to his relief. But then when he tries to confess to Akane, he accidentally grabs the wrong person: Ranma, who has returned to her senses. She's [[Squick|Squicked]] out and pulverizes Ryoga.
* Bon Clay in ''[[One Piece]]'' has the power to morph into anyone whose face he's touched before. In a memorable fight between him and Sanji, Bon Clay, exploiting Sanji's [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl|chivalry]], morphs into Nami, causing Sanji to have a brief dilemma about whether or not to keep fighting him.
** Okama Queen Emporio Ivankov possesses the power to manipulate hormones within people's bodies, basically changing any aspect about them he wants to. It also works on him should he desire.
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* An interesting non-comedy example appears in ''[[Runaways]]'', with Karolina and her [[Gender Bender]] fiancé(e) Xavin. Xavin initially presents herself as male, then promptly transforms into a female when Karolina reveals that she's a lesbian. Thereafter, there's an ongoing thread in the comic about Xavin's transformations; it's never exactly clear what Xavin's "real" sex is, if he/she even has one, and the other Runaways are not entirely comfortable with this. A complication arises when Xavin, knowing that Karolina has feelings for their team-mate Nico, transforms into Nico's shape to please Karolina. It... doesn't really work.
** Okay, that is just letting Xavin off the hook. S/he knows perfectly well that Karolina has a pile of unrequited feelings for Nico, chooses to morph into Nico and come on to Karoline ''without mentioning that she is Xavin.'' It is the meanest kind of fidility-test you can think off.
** But later, during an unrelated argument, Xavin becomes female without thinking about
* Another Marvel example: [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spidey villain]] Electro was once dating a shapeshifter (or perhaps employing a shapeshifting prostitute) who demonstrated a number of possible forms for that night's... entertainment, including [[Fantastic Four|Susan Storm/Richards]].
** ... including [[Foe Yay|Spider-Man]]...
** ... If [[Fridge Logic|we knew then what we know now]]...
* Subverted by a short-lived Defenders character called Cloud who initally had two forms, a small cumulus that could project rain, wind and lightning, and a blatant [[Fan Service]] young woman wearing strategically placed scraps of nimbus that always seemed on the point of blowing away. However, once every character with testosterone had got the hots for her, she discovered that she could just as easily coalesce from cloud form into a male body: and did, to general consternation.
* During Marvel's [[Secret Invasion]] plotline, shapeshifting aliens called Skrulls kidnapped and replaced dozens of denizens of Earth - including several superheroes - in preparation for a full-scale invasion. The Skrulls lived as the people they'd replaced for, in some cases, years, meaning that, among others, Hawkeye, Reed Richards, and Medusa slept with Skrulls they thought were their repsective spouses many times. If you piece together the events of three different books, you realize that (1) Hank Pym was seduced by a college girl who slept with him, revealed herself to be a Skrull, captured him, and took his identity, (2) that Skrull, as Hank Pym, then started sleeping with the heroine Tigra, ''but'' (3) the process that allowed the Skrulls to pass undetected also caused them to take on the personality of the person they replaced, meaning that the Skrull(s) replacing the brilliant but unstable Hank Pym was actually a ''series'' of Skrulls who kept realizing what was going on and needing to be replaced by other Skrulls - ''all of whom had to maintain the sexual relationship with Tigra'' AND (4) one of whom got her pregnant.
== Fan Fiction ==
* The potential inherent in Tonks' sex life is a common thread in ''[[Harry Potter]]'' [[
** Please tell me she then [[Incredibly Lame Pun|threw the obvious insult]] at him.
** Other characters who have plenty of fanfiction invoking this trope include but are certainly not limited to [[Batman|Clayface]] and [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Beast Boy]].
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== Film ==
* While on a Klingon prison planet in ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]]'', Kirk ends up kissing a gorgeous alien played by supermodel Iman. Later in the film he is notably [[Squick
{{quote|
'''Not Kirk''': ''Must've been your lifelong ambition.'' }}
** Sillier if you switch them around.
{{quote|
'''Kirk''': ''Must've been your lifelong ambition.'' }}
** And in the Original Series, the salt monster who seduced its victims by appearing as their ideal mate, and spends years alone with a man who thinks of it as his "wife"; Kirk even explicitly [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshade Hangs]] this trope at one point:
{{quote|
* The movie ''Legend'' has the fairy turning into the heroine to tempt the hero, but he refuses. It almost causes a problem (because the fairy is insulted and almost doesn't help them), and the hero's allies reprimand him for not playing along and kissing her.
* And we can't forget the scene in ''[[Mallrats]]'' where Brody asks Stan Lee about [[Power Perversion Potential|the implications]] of [[Fantastic Four|Reed and Sue Richard's]] relationship...
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* In ''The Muppets Wizard Of Oz'' there's a scene where it's Tin Thing (Gonzo)'s turn to see the wizard. The wizard first appears as this very beautiful [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|green skinned woman]]... but when Gonzo fails to react to this, she turns into a ''chicken'' just like Camilla!
* As in the standard folklore, in the film ''Excalibur'' [[King Arthur]] is son of Igraine and Uther Pendragon. He is shapeshifted by Merlin as Igraine's husband (that, at the moment, is painfully dying on the battlefield for extra drama); because [[Squick]] was not already hitting the eleven, Uther is in full metal plate armor, with the queen laying under him. Ouch. No time to undress?
* In 17Again, the main character turns into his 17-year-old self. Problem is, he still loves his wife, who is torn between disgust at the teenage boy for hitting on her and confusion at herself for falling for him (partly because she notices sort of how he looks like her husband's younger self and partly because he knows the various things she likes). This leads to many awkward moments when people walk in on the two in ''very'' uncomfortable situations and {{spoiler|ultimately to him kissing her and her wigging out}}. On the other hand, she's quite happy to have him back when he turns back into an adult. As if that wasn't bad enough, there's also the squickyness of his teenage daughter trying to hook up with him.
* ''[[Galaxy Quest]]'': the human Fred Kwan falls in love with the Thermian Laliari. Thermians are [[Starfish Alien|octopus-like]] aliens who use advanced holographic technology to appear human. When Fred and Laliari get intimate her control slips and the tentacles come out. Bystanders are thoroughly squicked, but Fred doesn't mind one bit.
* In ''Zerophilia'' (2005), Luke finds out he's got a Rare Genetic Disorder that allows him to change gender at will. This makes for some awkward comedy when he starts to like a girl whose brother starts to like Luke's girl-self. {{spoiler|Luckily, it turns out that the girl and the brother are one and the same, another zerophiliac, and the two all live happily ever both-genders after.}}
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* This is one of [[The Oldest In The Book]]. Foxes in Asian folklore were often given the power to turn into humans and seduce men. Originally, they were often used in stories where a man finds out the one night stand was actually a fox, the horror of that reveal sufficient for [[An Aesop]]. However, the additional power of succubus had to be added when the squick factor of accidentally sleeping with an animal, apparently, wasn't enough to get the point across!
** Not to mention the kitsune myths where the squick works just as well backwards- a useless drunken lout shares his liquor with a cute baby fox, gets it thoroughly inebriated and lets it snuggle up to him like a cat. And wakes up in bed with a drunken, naked teenage boy. Naturally, family members are not amused.
** Korean foxes don't have this moral ambiguity, though. [[
* In many accounts, an incubus can not produce sperm to impregnate women in their sleep, so he gets it from other human men while in the form of a succubus. This explains when a child looks nothing like its father but comes a lot after the neighbors sons. Damn these rapist demons!
* There's also a Greek myth which says that the gods turned the prophet Tiresias into a woman for seven years. This came in handy later when he could [[No Control Group|answer Zeus and Hera's debate about whether men or women have more fun]]. Some versions claim during Tiresias' time as a woman she then spent several years as a famous prostitute.
** For the record, the answer was something like, "Women, ten times over!", which pissed Hera off enough to strike him blind on the spot. Zeus couldn't reverse the curse of another god, but he could give Tiresias the ability to [[Blind Seer|see the future]] as compensation. In other versions, it was Zeus who cursed him for proving him wrong and Hera who blessed him.
** Shapeshifting seems to have been Zeus' standard means of seducing mortals. Hercules' mother, for instance, thought she was sleeping with her husband. That's an example of his most ''tame'' sort of shapeshifting seduction. Swans, bulls, ''golden rains'' (well, okay, the shower of gold was a metaphor; the woman's father had locked her away to keep her pure, but gold gets you past any locked door -- ''but still'')...
* An example from the ''Snorra Edda'': as part of a plot Loki shape-shifts into a mare and gets a stallion to run after him... several months later Loki gives birth to an eight-legged horse called Sleipnir, which becomes Odin's mount.
** Loki was pretty much the master of this trope, being an eternal [[Trickster]] with incredibly low sexual restraint (for the Norse gods, at least; he'd be a prude in plenty of other pantheons).
** Loki was also the father of many strange monsters, including the Fenrir wolf, who is destined to devour Odin, and the Jormungandr dragon, so huge he circles the world with his tail clenched in his teeth, and destined to kill Thor with his poisonous breath. The most disturbing of his children might be Hel, the goddess who rules the
* In Arthurian legend, the warlord Uther Pendragon falls madly in <s>love</s> lust with Igraine, who is already married to Gorlois. Uther asks Merlin for help, and the wizard transforms Uther into a copy of Gorlois. Igraine [[Rape Is Love|makes love]] to the man she thinks is her husband, and conceives Arthur Pendragon of legend. That's right, the honorable [[King Arthur]] is [[Values Dissonance|the product of rape by fraud.]]
** Meanwhile her husband is killed in the unjust war Uther had begun against him in the attempt to win Igraine, and he marries her a little later. After she's figured out what happened that night. [[Word of God]] states they were very happy, but it's pretty full of relationship [[Squick]].
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** She also turns into a dolphin and mates with other dolphins at one point.
* ''[[Hyperion]]'' has one of the most disturbing examples. {{spoiler|''While having sex'' Kassad's girlfriend turn into the Shrike, a seven foot tall monster made of thorns. His penis barely gets out in time.}}
* In one of Marion Zimmer Bradley's ''Darkover'' novels, a Terran man falls in love with one of the chieri, the hermaphroditic, elf-like natives of Darkover, in her female phase. In the middle of their lovemaking, she transforms into her male form.
* Subverted in ''[[Harry Potter and
** Not as strange, remember that Fleur is one quarter ''Veela'', which is basically a creature with super-pheromones as a superpower. Which Tonks presumably cannot replicate.
* There was a sci-fi story in which a race of aliens were taught by a human stranded on their planet to transform into humanoid forms (and wage war, which was a foreign concept to them). The shapeshifted beings ended up being attractive by human standards because a human taught them their new form. Years later, a human exploration party arrives. One human guy (a bit of a perv) commands one of the aliens to transform while he's getting it on with her. She's initially hesitant, then very reluctantly obliges... and ends up driving him insane, because her original alien form looks kind of like a huge lobster/bug that directly triggers subconscious human fears.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* First type happened to Tucker and Reed in the ''Enterprise'' episode "Two Days and Two Nights". It didn't end well.
{{quote|
'''Malcolm:''' You were willing to follow two strange aliens into a basement.
'''Trip:''' Gorgeous aliens! Don't forget they were gorgeous.
'''Malcolm:''' They were male!
'''Trip:''' Not at first! }}
* Honourable mention must be made of the original [[Green-Skinned Space Babe]] from the first ''[[Star Trek]]'' pilot, "The Cage". She was, in reality, a human, but she was able to use the aliens' telepathic abilities to change the way she appeared to Captain Pike. It essentially played out as the first type.
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* In Season 7 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Willow has finally healed emotionally enough from {{spoiler|Tara's death}} to kiss her new prospective girlfriend, Kennedy. Much to the astonishment of her lesbian partner, Willow promptly turns into a man. Much to Willow's astonishment, it happens to be the man she {{spoiler|skinned alive last season}}. Hilarity Ensues.
* An episode of ''The Tonight Show With Jay Leno'' featured a fake advert for something called For Men Only (a parody of men's haircare products) which was a liquid that turns men into women. There are several male to female morphs in it including Jay himself using the product. Another episode had Jay in drag (a supermodel with his voice). And on the episode where Pam Anderson was the guest- Jay asked several questions about implants and then asked her... "If you could be a man, who would it be?" Pam responds "I could be you!" Jay then exclaims "That's perfect. Why?" Pam's answer is "So I could sit there, torturing you, asking about your implants."
* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'''s Wesley Crusher had a run-in with a changeling in "[[Star Trek: The Next Generation/Recap/S2
** In "Tapestry," Picard relives the days leading up to when he lost his original heart. Although everyone in his dream/memory/time-travel/thing sees him as a 19-year-old, he is still played by Patrick Stewart, so the audience sees him as a bald 40-something. Approaches this trope when he sleeps with one of his friends, who is of course an actual 19-year-old.
*** Who then turns into Q, much to Picard's chagrin.
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* Lunar [[Exalted]] have shapeshifting powers that let them switch genders, turn into any sort of animal, or both. This power means that they are able to create [[Beast Man|Beastmen]] by committing bestiality as, er, either component, and they can be either mother or father, depending on their whims. Their patron deity has a form that appears as a pregnant human [[Mister Seahorse|of either sex]] and it's implied that a sufficiently skilled Lunar Exalted could mimic this trick themself.
** Somewhat justified in canon; the Lunars were originally created not just as counsellors and stewards to the Solars, but as their mates. When you're an immortal god-king and you live in a setting where [[Everyone Is Bi|a good chunk of the population swings both ways]], you're going to need some variety.
* Changelings in ''[[Eberron]]'' are probably masters of this trope. Even gender is merely a guideline to them, provided they stay within general humanoid appearance and [[Shout-Out|don't change gender]] [[Ranma
** Jokes about the hookers in [[Welcome to the Big City|Sharn]] pretty much make themselves.
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** Considering Pokémon have supposedly never actually been seen laying eggs, it's entirely possible that genetics between them are dependent on some sort of stork-type Pokémon...
*** Celebi's pokedex entries from its first appearance in the 2nd Gen onwards mentioned that while it time travels, [[Delivery Stork|it sometimes brings back an egg from the future]], so until another stork pokemon comes, Celebi is pretty close to the stork-type, for now.
** In 4th Gen, a well-known breeding trick is to give the mother poke an Everstone, so the offspring has a better chance of inheriting the mother's nature. If something is being bred with a Ditto, the trick only works if the Ditto is the one holding the Everstone and passing on the nature. Conclusion: Ditto is the mother, even if the other poke is female.
* [[Baldur's Gate|In the Bhaalspawn Saga]], there's a Bhaalspawn ''Chinchilla''. Sure there's humans, elves, dragons, but a ''Chinchilla''?
** It's more of a surprise that the Realms apparently ''have'' chinchillas than that the god of ''murder'' of all things doesn't squick as easily as mere mortals.
* In ''[[Dragon Age]]'', [[Anything That Moves|Zevran]] asks [[Hot Witch|Morrigan]] if she's ever had sex in non-human form. She's [[
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' has a stable romantic relationship between Nale and [[Horny Devils|Sabine]], which includes a, shall we say, [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0365.html interesting subversion].
{{quote|
'''Sabine:''' ''"Honey, I am a shapechanger, it's not like we never tried-"''
'''Nale:''' ''"Not! Helping!"'' }}
* ''[[Last Res0rt]]'' toys with this one early on, as Alice Quinn transforms into 'fellow prisoner' Daisy Archanis ([[Red Eyes, Take Warning|minus the eyes, of course]]) in order to convince Jason to pick her as his lieutenant. The squick is more implied than anything else, and thanks to Jason's ambiguous morality, ''Daisy's'' more disturbed by the idea than anyone else.
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* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Princess Voluptua revealed to Bob early on that her [[Hello, Nurse!]] appearance was an illusion and that she was actually a [[Starfish Aliens|Starfish Alien]]. Consequently, they have never pursued a relationship, although his girlfriend Jean still dislikes her hanging around him in all her [[Green-Skinned Space Babe]] glory.
* This in inverted in ''UC: Deviating from Normality'', where a shapeshifting demon [http://www.wanderingchaos.com/uc/103107.html tries] to find something that will turn Nicodemus on. Instead, he finds something that turns ''him'' {{spoiler|inside-out}}.
* Played around with in ''[[Something
** Even worse (almost), was a re-enactment of said rape by some [[LARP
*** He gets better [[Rescued
* [http://www.galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=594 This strip] in [[Casey and Andy]]:
{{quote|
'''Andy:''' "It's not like that at all."
'''[[Hot as Hell|Satan]]:''' "Oh, honey... I feel feisty. Before bed tonight, I want you to pick your favorite farm animal. You'll find out why later."
'''Andy (to Casey):''' "That's probably not good." }}
* In ''[[Housepets]]'', we have {{spoiler|King}} and his [[Attractive Bent Species|popularity for shipping]] with all the girl dogs. {{spoiler|King}} is a [[Baleful Polymorph]] and {{spoiler|a human named Joel}}.
* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'': transformations and gender-bending are constants throughout and drive the majority of the plots. Once the characters start hooking up, well...
** Notably, a noncanonical [[Remix Comic]] was a word-for-word redo of the above-linked ''[[Casey and Andy]]'' strip.
* In ''[[Wapsi Square]]'', Justin [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/fringe-paranormals/ once dated a werewolf] who liked to change in the middle of sex. Justin wasn't really into it.
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* [[Batman Beyond]]'s Inque. A woman with a sexy voice who's been turned into a living but shapely blob. Creeee-pyyy...
* ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' had an example with this trope's headliner image character, [[Metamorpho]]. Since he can transform into liquids and gasses he can get inside people... don't tell me that's not perverted.
{{quote|
* The ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "A Bicyclops Built for Two" has Leela meeting [[Actor Allusion|Alkazar]], whom she believes to be the other [[Last of His Kind|last of her kind]]. Turns out he was really a shapeshifting cricket who tried to seduce five women to keep his five castles clean.
* ''[[Ben 10]]'' contains are rare inversion in an episode where Ben meets a trio of crime-fightin' aliens. The female Tetramand, a species of massive red-skinned four-armed aliens, is impressed with [[Shotacon|Ben's Tetramand form and begins flirting with him]]... until he turns human. [[Humans Are Ugly|Cue disgust]].
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[[Category:Older Than Print]]
[[Category:Shapeshifting]]
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