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Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
You know how when you were a kid, your mother always kept saying if you keep making that face, it'd stick?
This is the [[Shapeshifting]] equivalent, where the shapeshifter manages to get stuck in a particular form, unable to use their shapeshifting powers. If they're lucky, they're stuck in their most natural or inconspicuous form (possibly their [[Shapeshifter Default Form]]), but if not, the body they're stuck in is either weak and pitiful, or monstrous and riot-inciting.
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* Happens twice in ''[[Those Who Hunt Elves]]'' - once involving a shape-change spell, once involving a lycanthrope. In both cases, having a spell segment imprinted on one's body creates a Mode Lock as long as the segment is in place.
* An example from ''[[Otogi Juushi Akazukin]]'': {{spoiler|[[Big Badass Wolf|Val]] ''used'' to be a werewolf. However, thanks to injuries he sustained while protecting Akazukin's home village from other werewolves several years before the series began, he's now trapped in wolf form.}}
* Keiki from ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]'' is mode-locked in his beast form per orders of [[The Evil Prince|The Evil Princess]] Joei, as a part of her plan to usurp Youko's throne.
* ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' was the first series to explore this aspect of E[Digi]volution -- both Guilmon and Terriermon have some trouble in coming back to their Child/Rookie forms after the change; there was even an entire episode showing the problems in hiding the huge Growmon in the real world. Eventually this aspect was downplayed, since they spent some 20 episodes in the Digital World, and after that the Digimon's existence was known by the public.
* ''[[Marvelous Melmo]]'' has two chief examples of this trope. Melmo, the titular heroine, is gifted from her dead mother of two types of candies. The blue candies make her older, and the blue ones make her younger, [[Promotion to Parent|with the explicit purpose of making her able to care for her younger siblings]]. As early as the first episodes, Melmo discovers that by taking both pills at once, she can de-age herself to embryonic state, then regrow her body in another form, thus shapeshifting to another animal.
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** In one episode of the original 1969 series, aptly named _____, Akko-chan, upon meeting a [[Long-Lost Uncle Aesop|new deaf kid]], uses her mirror, out of curiosity and compassion, to transform herself in a deaf-mute version of herself. Too bad that, since the mirror works by clear utterances of the needed transformation, and since [[Literal Genie|Akko-chan insisted on the "mute" part of her ailment]], Akko-chan couldn't ask the mirror to be changed back anymore.
*** Apparently, the mirror could have hit the [[Reset Button]] all the times, but {{spoiler|but since it believed Akko-chan's desire for deafness shallow and impulsive, had decided to [[An Aesop|show her how serious is an handicap]] by threatening Akko-chan with a permanent mode-lock, with the added perk to show how badly}} she was missing the point: instead of trying to feel on a temporary basis what deafness is, she should have rather stopped at how her new friend was going on even knowing that he couldn't get a magic mirror to fix him.
* Happens to Moka in ''[[Rosario
** Technically, before she met Tsukune, [[Only the Chosen May Wield|the only one who can safely remove her rosary]], she was mode-locked as her "outer" self.
* In ''[[SD Gundam Force]]'', Captain is stuck in vehicle mode after his soul drive is stolen.
* This happens to the Macross in [[The Movie]] of ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'': when a Meltrandi attack blows off its [[Eva Fins]], the [[Transforming Mecha|Macross]] is locked into [[Humongous Mecha]] mode since those fins, aside from being its [[Wave Motion Gun]], also happen to be the ship mode's forward section. And indeed after the final battle of both the movie and the series, the Macross never transforms into ship mode ever again as it's stuck waist down in a lake.
* In ''[[Suite Pretty Cure]]'', Seiren is stuck in her human "Ellen Kurokawa" form after performing a [[Heel Face Turn]]. On the plus side, she becomes the [[Sixth Ranger|third Cure]] Cure Beat.
* One chapter of [[D.N.Angel]] had Dark in control of the body after Daisuke went missing (sort of) on White Day.
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** Other instances include Manhunter being reduced to amorphous goo by a neurotoxin, being trapped in Aquaman's body and freaking out, and an Elseworlds story where all the heroes lost their powers, leaving him in his natural Martian form with all of the [[Blessed with Suck|suck and none of the blessing.]]
** The evil White Martians are initially dealt with this way by the JLA. They are given human form and have their memories removed, effectively trapping them as humans. Needless to say, problems occur when a few of them get their minds back and remember how to shapeshift.
* In ''[[Transformers]]: Spotlight'', Soundwave gets locked by the Decepticon Pretenders when he tries to stop them after learning the full extent of their plans.
* The Thing from the ''[[Fantastic Four]]'', but not in all continuities.
* Happens to [[Incredible Hulk|Bruce Banner]] on occasion.
** Whether this is good or bad depends on the form he's stuck as. Though when he recently got stuck as Banner... he proved to be dangerous even without the Hulk.
*** It's all a matter of perspective. Hulk would love to be mode-locked and never turn into Banner again. Banner would love to be free of the Hulk, but at this point [[Genre Savvy|knows better]]. Both absolutely hate the idea of being mode-locked as the other.
** His [[Expy]]'s son in ''[[PS238]]'' is always in 'hulk mode'.
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** Also used more conventionally within the series: Angua frequently worries about the psychological effects of becoming a wolf, fearing that if she stays in wolf form too long, she will forget how to be human.
** Shown with her father, in particular, who is slowly forgetting how to be human. Mentioned also that the human/reasoning side becomes less powerful the longer they're in Werewolf form, while the senses fade in human form.
** Borrowing can also cause this, in a way; if a witch borrows an animal's mind and stays there for too long, she'll forget she was ever human and it'll take a powerful witch to bring her back.
* An unusual variation occurs in the ''[[Switchers]]'' series. The titular shapeshifters [[Growing Up Sucks|lose their powers at 15]] (which is to say, Midnight on the morning of their fifteenth birthday) and are stuck as whatever they happen to be at the time. This issue is directly and pointedly addressed in the second book, appropriately entitled ''Midnight's Choice''.
* Likewise in ''[[His Dark Materials]]'', Daemons may manifest as any creature up until (once again) [[Growing Up Sucks|their human counterpart grows up]], whereupon they "settle" on a [[Animal Motifs|highly symbolic]] permanant form.
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* The succubus lead character in Richelle Mead's ''Georgina Kincaid'' series suffers a mode lock, along with all of the other demonic immortals in Seattle, when their supervising Archdemon goes missing {{spoiler|(summoned and bound by his lieutenant, with help)}}. Georgina is lucky enough to be in her default form when the lock begins - another succubus is not so lucky and gets locked into a completely different body. This stasis removed definable abilities such as shape-shifting and aura perception due to their being normally 'distributed' via the Archdemon, but their connection to hell - and their immortality - remained.
* In the "Outernet" books by Steves Barlowe and Skidmore, the shapeshifter-characters Sirius and Vega are trapped in the forms of a cat and dog, respectiely. This remains throughout the whole of the series (with two brief exceptions).
* Mikey McGill in ''[[The Skinjacker Trilogy]]'' gets stuck in his hideous monster form whenever his negative emotions overwhelm him, and it usually takes some sort of trigger to bring him back to normal.
* Inverted in ''[[Dragon's Winter|Dragons Winter]]'' when Karadur is locked in his human form (he's a dragon shapechanger). Later in the novel, Hawk is also so locked. Her alternate shape should be [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|rather easy to guess]].
* In ''Prospero's Children'' by Jan Siegal, a sorceress with the ability to turn into a wolf would use her form to hunt humans for sport. One day she met a wizard who cursed her to remain in wolf form permanently until she could repent for her evil ways. After several years, she sought out the wizard so that she could show him that she had changed, but the wizard no longer had the power to change her back.
* ''[[Curse of the Wolfgirl]]'' reveals that werewolves are unable to shift out of their human forms if there is a lunar eclipse. Then things [[It Got Worse|get worse]] when the [[Big Bad]] of the book finds a spell that can simulate an eclipse and conspires with a bunch of hunters.
* In [[Mikhail Akhmanov]]'s ''[[Arrivals From the Dark]]'' series, the Metamorph species is able to [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|voluntarily shapeshift]]. Their normal form is that of an amorphous blob. There are a few individuals who have a mutation that locks the individual into the first transformation for life. At that point, only slight changes are possible. These usually become spies among other races, able to slightly alter their appearance within the confines of the race. The observer on Earth took on the appearance of a human male. He's able to change into other males of any human ethnicity but not females due to radical physiological changes.
* In ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'', Treach, the Tiger of Summer, a [[Voluntary Shapeshifter|Soletaken]] [[Physical God|Ascendant]] is said to be stuck in his tiger form for at least last 500 years and becoming little more than crazed, mindless beast.
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** At one point the Doctor says he smashed the circuit with a hammer, so it would NEVER work again. [[Depending on the Writer|In a more recent episode]], he claims that whenever he repairs or replaces the circuit, the TARDIS herself deliberatly shorts it out. [[A Boy and His X|They both]] prefer her as a Police Box. ([[Crowning Moment of Funny|Throwing the TARDIS instruction manual into a SUPERNOVA probably didn't help matters any.]])
*** Although, now it's stated that the chameleon circuit is working properly. It analyzes a huge area of its surrounding environment, extrapolates an inconspicuous form for it's exterior, then shifts that appearance to.....a 1960s British police box. Every time. But it is, technically, functional.
* In an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' Garak uses a device on Odo that prevents his shapeshifting. Since he cannot take his natural liquid form, his body begins to deteriorate. Later, he had his powers taken away by his people for a surprisingly long amount of time (unusual for this trope): about half a season.
** Still later, in the latter days of the Dominion War arc, all of Odo's race (including Odo) fall under the influence of a disease which makes them unable to liquefy, slowly killing them as above. This is revealed to be {{spoiler|a biological weapon invented by the [[Secret Police|shadowy, rule-evading part]] of Starfleet. Unfortunately for their plot, they had to infect the race through Odo, which means the good guys race to find the cure in the nick of time.}}
* This happened to the character Tommy Oliver in ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]'' when the actor playing him had real life commitments; the character was stuck in his suit, then invisible for the best part of a season.
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** Which brings us to Vlad, who was in a de facto mode lock as his attempt to turn human nearly killed him; he ended up staying in some sort of mishmash of forms with weird stuff growing from his face. {{spoiler|He's unlocked after Ellen blasts him..and the idea of being kept away from a human form has her now voluntarily staying in her new human form no matter what.}}
** Also the [[Transformation Ray|TF Gun]] has a built in mode lock related to it's original purpose: If you get pregnant while transformed, you stay female. (There's no mention of being able to turn back after giving birth...)
* In [http://www.drunkduck.com/Jix Jix], the main aliens (the Ambis) have the ability to going from cute and fuzzy to large and pointy beasts. This is known as their feral form. One of the villains, Maricax was introduced in his feral form, unable to revert back to normal. {{spoiler|That is...until another villain named Kelelder gives him super healing ability.}}
== Web Original ==
* The horror story [http://everything2.com/user/grundoon/writeups/We+don%2527t+make+good+wives?author=grundoon We don't make good wives] explains why one should never [[Baleful Polymorph|do this]] to a [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|shapeshifting snake woman]], no matter how much of a [[Cute Monster Girl]] you think she is.
* The ''[[World of Warcraft]]''-based series ''[[Chronicles of the Annoying Quest]]'' has Hana. Unlike other druids, Hana cannot shapeshift back from his cat form at will. This shortcoming is a great source of annoyance to his fiancée, Kit.
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* Ben in ''[[Ben 10]]'' has this happen to him a lot, since he's basically got a [[Black Box]] [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|from outer space]] [[Clingy MacGuffin|permanently attached to his wrist]]. Even leaving aside that when he uses it, it turns him into the alien he chooses (or the one ''it'' chooses instead) until the timer runs down, then turns him back human until it powers up again, there have been a number of Mode Lock incidents, generally involving a weaker alien such as Grey Matter or Ditto.
** As a variant, Kevin winds up submitting to Mode Lock after overuse of previously-acquired Omnitrix-fueled transformation -- what Vilgax lovingly (sarcasm) calls a "misshapen amalgamation". By the time ''Alien Force'' rolls around, he [[Unexplained Recovery|returned to human form]] in time for his escape from the Null-Void.
*** Seems to have happened to Kevin yet again in ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force|Alien Force]]'', since now he's part concrete, metal, diamond, and other stuff.
* In ''[[Visionaries]]'', the title characters are futuristic knights who can [[Shapeshifting|transform]] into animals. During the episode "Lion Hunt", one of the Visionaries gets stuck in animal mode.
* An episode of ''[[The Mask (animation)|The Mask]]: The Animated Series'' featured a gypsy fortune-teller that tricked Stanley into giving her the Mask which she then used to power another magic Mask that gives enormous powers. She then discards the Mask thinking it's now useless and Stanley puts it on... only The Mask is stuck in the form of a sterotypical Scot (complete with kilt). He then gradually obtains the rest of his forms (starting with the most useless ones, as The Mask himself lampshades).
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