This Was His True Form: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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{{quote|What!? It was obvious. He's the red spy. Watch he'll turn red any second now...
''Any'' second now. See, red! {{spoiler|[[Mistaken for An Imposter|No wait, that's blood.]]}}|Soldier|[[Team Fortress 2|Meet the Spy]][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}OR4N5OhcY9s]}}
[[Shapeshifting|Shapeshifters]] in general tend to gravitate to [[Shapeshifter Default Form|their "base" or original forms]] as well when killed or sufficiently battered, as do most victims of a [[Shapeshifter Swan Song]].
This started with [[Wolf Man|werewolves]]; as monsters go, they tend be... [[Our Werewolves Are Different|"different"]]. One of their more peculiar traits is that they have [[No Ontological Inertia]], because upon death they inevitably revert back to their "true" human form. Though similar to the [[Shapeshifter Swan Song]] (which usually ends in
This is both potentially useful and frustrating for [[Heroes]], since it removes evidence of the paranormal (which might be something that they want to [[Masquerade|cover up]] or [[Paranormal Investigation|prove]]) while adding the eentsy little complication of making them liable to face murder charges. No [[Self-Disposing Villain
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== Comic Books ==
* [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]]'s body turns into that of a very old man after his death (though it is implied this takes several hours.)
* [[The Hulk]] rarely (if ever) gets his ass kicked. Or at least takes a hit powerful enough to bring him down in one go. When he does however, occasionally it depicts him transforming back into Bruce Banner.
* ''New Avengers'': Someone they thought was [[Daredevil|Elektra]] is fatally injured...and turns into a Skrull. No-one had any idea, including [[Super Senses|Wolverine]] and [[Doctor Strange]], meaning that this faction of Skrulls has considerably improved their shapeshifting powers. Naturally, they start to wonder [[Secret Invasion|who else]] might be an impostor...
** This also seems to happen to any part of a Skrull that's separated from the main body; when Crusader's hand was cut off during a training exercise in ''Avengers: The Initiative'', it started turning a little green by the time they'd reattached it.
== Film ==
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* Inverted in ''"Who Goes There?"'', the short story that inspired ''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'', the alien starts off as a blue humanoid with three [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|malevolent red eyes]], [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|blue skin]], and [[Prehensile Hair|tentacles on its scalp]]. Then it eats someone and [[They Look Like Us Now|mimics him]].
* In ''[[The Last Dove]]'', anyone who can Change tends to sleep in the form that fits their true self more. Considering the fact that no major characters die in the book, it's impossible to know if they would do the same when they die.
* In Part 5 of ''Oroon Rising'' by Ed Greenwood two co-conspirators find out they knew each other in other identities rather closely (if briefly) long ago. Of course, by this time one of them transformed into a lich and another into a Worm That Walks...
== Live-Action TV ==
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* Averted in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', where werewolves remain in werewolf form after dying. A werewolf hunter out for pelts even comments that "it's a little hard to skin them while they're alive."
* And then used straight in ''[[Angel]]'', as it's said werewolves revert back to human form upon death and thus must be eaten alive. A possibly explanation is that werewolves of the species Lycanthropus Exterus change back to human, whereas the "common" werewolf does not.
* In an episode of ''[[Charmed]]'' (and blatant ''[[Ladyhawke]]'' rip-off), the [[Monster of the Week]] sends a [[Mooks|mook]] after the man he cursed into an owl. When said mook turns up with a dead owl, he asks him why it didn't revert to human upon death, and [[You Have Failed Me...|promptly zaps him]].
** In another episode, a man has turned himself into a monstrous creature as part of a plan to rescue his half-demon son from its mother's species. He specifically mentions that he would only turn back when he dies. However, {{spoiler|he's later fatally injured and turns back seconds ''before'' he would die, giving them time to heal him. He remained a human, though}}.
* Tweaked in ''[[Sliders]]''. A vanquished fire-breathing dragon reverts to its (true) human wizard form as it lays dying...and then becomes an even smaller cockroach when no one is looking, allowing it to scamper away. {{spoiler|Only to get stepped on moments later.}}
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* Werewolves in ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' turn back into humans when slain, which helps them keep the [[Masquerade]] up. This also applies to any lost blood or body parts - as the book puts it, "a werewolf can spill a gallon of blood while in [[Unstoppable Rage|the war form]] and it will all register as human".
** In its predecessor ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'', the Garou normally revert to their base form when rendered unconscious, as would their body parts if mutilated. The problem is that some are ''born'' in their 9-foot-tall war form and must shapeshift into normal humans or wolves. Sure enough, they revert back to the war form whenever they fall asleep. An expensive Merit gives player characters exceptional control over shapeshifting, including the form they take when knocked out. Storytellers are prone to disallowing it, however.
* In ''[[Dungeons
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* Averted in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]''. A side mission has you hunt down and kill a shape-shifter, and he goes between a Wookie, one of your party members, a giant monster, and a small ape (he was trying to beat a hasty retreat), and after you finally kill him he reverts to a charred and unidentifiable skeleton. We shall never know his true form...
** Technically, it is possible that that skeleton was the skeleton of the shapeshifter's true form, given that it evidently is not the skeleton of the form that was killed.
* [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in ''[[Fire Emblem|Fire Emblem 9 (Path of Radiance) and 10 (Radiant Dawn)]]''
* In ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', Spies will lose their disguise upon death.
** This behaviour is also utilised with one of his alternate watches, that causes him to appear to "die" if he is hit, but instead simply drops a replica of his corpse and turns the player invisible, allowing the player the chance to then de-cloak and continue on their way.
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== Webcomics ==
* Milked for all the angst it was worth in ''[[
* Played for laughs in ''[[Oglaf]]'' when shapeshifters manage to horribly botch [http://www.oglaf.com/kingshaped/ an assassination attempt.] (Link is safe, but most other strips are ''very'' NSFW)
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Shapeshifting]]
[[Category:
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