History Main / ShapeshifterGuiltTrip

* ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': The MonsterOfTheWeek tries to save itself by turning into Ma Kent, but Superman roars, "You are not my mother!" and smashes it.

* ''ComicBook/TheElementals'' by Bill Willingham did an elaborate variant which [[TheReveal revealed]] that a {{ShapeShift|ing}}er that the Elementals had fought before had, over the course of a StoryArc gotten one of the team, Morningstar, to fall in love with him/her.

* Used to great effect in "She Ra and the Princesses of Power"'s season 4 finale. Double Trouble gives Catra a speech about how she pushes people away and blames them for it, while shifting between the forms of Adora, Shadow Weaver, Hordak, and Scorpia (all people who had messy relationships with Catra).

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' [[spoiler:Sync the Tempest mocks the protagonists, asking how it feels to fight against someone who resembles their deceased friend Ion. Luke counters that while he may resemble their friend, he isn't him]].

--->'''Envy'''[[spoiler: (To Mustang, while disguised as Hughes)]]: What's the matter with you?! You didn't even hesitate to incinerate your best friend!

** In a pivotal moment, [[NoBiologicalSex it]] uses this to [[spoiler:kill Hughes by transforming into a replica of the wife he adores, which makes poor old Hughes freeze just long enough to get shot. It's really clinched by his facial expression: he ''knows'' it's not Gracia, but he still can't make himself attack "her"]]. And given Envy's regenerative powers, it wasn't really necessary either, it was just ForTheEvulz.
** In one encounter, Envy is about to be stabbed by [[spoiler: Ling Yao, so it alters its appearance to that of Lan Fan, who has just been driven away to get medical attention for a severe injury she attained while protecting Ling, causing him to freeze up and enable Gluttony to swallow him. ''Brotherhood'' takes this a step further than the manga, having Envy appear as Lan Fan in her current vulnerable state; bandaged and without her left arm, her mask gone revealing a hurt expression. Though admittedly, that was because in the anime adaptation he'd only seen Lan Fan unmasked as the anime cut out his earlier fight with her, so it was due to to this rather than due to any extra ruthlessness]].
** 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 Gracia Hughes, and laughing at how easy this made killing Hughes. Mustang is ''not'' amused. During the fight, they end up in some narrow corridors, and Envy take the opportunity to appear in Hughes's form. It does make Mustang momentarily flinch, but unfortunately for Envy, the whole reason Mustang was after it was because it had murdered Hughes, and the reminder only served to piss him off even ''more''. It was a CurbStompBattle to begin with, and that stunt only made things ''worse'' for Envy.]]
** Hilariously, Envy is something of a {{Hypocrite}} regarding its use of this trope, referring to it as a cheap trick and taunting opponents when they fall for it, but then turns around and tries to invoke WhatTheHellHero on the ones that ''don't''.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Dartz projects the images (and voices) of Yugi's soul-stolen friends onto his Mirror Knight monsters to intimidate Yugi out of attacking them. Seto Kaiba doesn't care and attacks them without hesitation.

* In ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', as a last ditch effort to save herself, Raynare takes on her human disguise Yuuma Amano. Issei cannot strike her in this form, so he walks away and leaves it to Rias, who kills her without hesitation.

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[[folder: Fan Works]]

* In the novel ''[[Literature/MythAdventures 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 Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Literature/LordOfLight'' during, well, calling it fight would charitable, between Yama, the God of Death and Mara, the God of Trickery. The first of many SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for Yama.
* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse plays this one straight in ''Sacrifice''. [[spoiler: Jacen disguises himself as Ben when dueling Mara.]]
* ''Literature/MagicTime'': 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 ''[[Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy Perelandra]]'', Ransom is fighting the Un-man (the demon-possessed undead corpse of Weston, the previous book's villain) when it suddenly reverts to Weston's actual personality and begs for mercy. Ransom ignores it, and the narration points out that Weston's actual soul had most likely been completely subsumed long before.
* In a non-villainous example, Bartimaeus of ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy'' regularly appears in the form of Kitty Jones in the beginning of ''Ptolemy's Gate'', purely because he knows how much guilt his master still feels over Kitty's [[spoiler:apparent]] death in the previous book. He sometimes exaggerates the curves, though.
* Literature/CiaphasCain ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!''') experiences this in one book: while on a raid on a Slaaneshi cult, he's quite surprised to see Amberley Veil (his boss with benefits), and can't bring himself to shoot her. In fact, hearing the soldier next to him comment in the same love-struck tones though with a different name, he is consumed by jealousy and about to shoot him. Fortunately Jurgen moves closer and dispels the effect, revealing her as the old brothel owner. "Impersonating an Inquisitor is a capital crime" indeed.

* In ''[[Literature/ThousandSons Ahriman: Exile]]'', when Ahriman summons a daemon in order to interrogate it about Amon’s plans, the daemon tries to break his concentration (and thus escape from its bindings) by taking on the form of his dead brother Ohrmuzd. Ahriman, being no stranger to the ways of daemons, is unfazed.

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* An episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'' 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.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** The 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.]]

-->'''Illyria''': This shell... you had affection for it.
-->'''Spike''': Tons. Loved the bird.
-->'''Illyria''': Yet you strike at her form without sentiment.
-->'''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 ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Planet of Fire".
* On ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Candace (who can actually cast illusions, but used it in a way equivalent to shapeshifting) as Simone to Isaac.
* Notably averted on ''Series/{{Alias}}''. The heroes want to kill her ''extra''.
* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
** The Worm creatures in ''Series/KamenRiderKabuto'' 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 ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'''s movie, ''[[TheMovie 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.]]

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E1TheManTrap The Man Trap]]" features an alien {{ShapeShift|ing}}er who impersonates [=McCoy's=] old flame, causing him to hesitate to shoot it.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The TARDIS' emergency hologram interface [[ObliviousGuiltSlinging inadvertently]] does this to the Doctor in "Let's Kill Hitler", turning into each of the Tenth Doctor's companions in turn:
-->''TARDIS turns into the Eleventh Doctor.''
-->'''Doctor''': Oh no no no no, give me someone I ''like''.
-->''TARDIS turns into Rose.''
-->'''Doctor''': Thanks! Give me guilt.
-->''TARDIS turns into Martha.''
-->'''Doctor''': Also guilt.
-->''TARDIS turns into Donna.''
-->'''Doctor''': More guilt.

* ''Series/AshVsEvilDead'': During their FinalBattle, season 2 BigBad [[DemonLordsAndArchDevils Baal]] does this to Ash by taking on the forms of his dead loved ones -- his best friend Chet, sister Cheryl, and father Brock.

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[[folder: Web Original]]

* Played with in the first episode of ''Gary and his demons'': in the DramaticChaseOpening Gary maims an orphan he thinks is a shapeshifting demon in disguise, though in Garys defense, he makes a very good argument why and manages to counter all the arguments the orphan makes about not being a demon. Later, the same demon plays it straight by disguising itself as the now crippled orphan.

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* ''Manga/NabariNoOu'': PlayedForLaughs in an omake where Tobari is unable to attack Fuuma when he takes Raimei and Miharu's forms. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny It fails when Fuuma takes Kouichi's form, though]].

* A very neat example takes place in Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Literature/LordOfLight'' during, well, calling it fight would charitable, between Yama, the God of Death and Mara, the God of Trickery. The first of many CrowningMomentOfAwesome for Yama.

Also covers [[CloningBlues clones]] and other doppelgangers who [[ThisWasHisTrueForm suddenly reveal]] that they happen to resemble the hero's mom/girlfriend/dead little sister/[[DeathByNewberyMedal Dead Pet]]/whatever.

** 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 Gracia Hughes, and laughing at how easy this made killing Hughes. Mustang is ''not'' amused. During the fight, they end up in some narrow corridors, and Envy take the opportunity to appear in Hughes's form. It does make Mustang momentarily flinch, but unfortunately for Envy, the whole reason Mustang was after it was because it had murdered Hughes, and the reminder only served to piss him off even ''more''. It was a CurbstompBattle to begin with, and that stunt only made things ''worse'' for Envy.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperheroes'': The MonsterOfTheWeek tries to save itself by turning into Ma Kent, but Superman roars, "You are not my mother!" and smashes it.

* Non-combat example from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''. Amethyst and Greg get sucked into rewatching their old favorite TV sitcom for almost two straight days, and eventually Greg realizes that he's missed watching the New Year's fireworks with his son Steven. Amethyst urges him to stay, even shape-shifting into Steven in order to convince him. Greg doesn't take kindly to it, and Amethyst responds by mockingly shape-shifting into him; when ''that'' fails, she angrily shape-shifts into Greg's ''dead wife'' Rose Quartz while blaming him for taking Rose away from her, even as Greg hides in a corner and begs her to stop.

* Played with in the first episode of "Gary and his demons": in the DramaticChaseOpening Gary maims an orphan he thinks is a shapeshifting demon in disguise, [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy though in Garys defense, he makes a very good argument why and manages to counter all the arguments the orphan makes about not being a demon.]] Later, the same demon plays it straight by disguising itself as the now crippled orphan.

* In ''VideoGame/StarFox 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 Fox's father James. Which is the clincher, since Fox knows that "[[OutOfCharacterAlert my father would ''never'' tell me to give up!]]"

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', Midna briefly transforms into the likenesses of the recently kidnapped Colin and Ilia in order to remind Link that he has a personal motivation to fight back against Zant and the Twilight.

* PlayedWith in ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic.'' The villain [[OneMadMother Aum Madaura]] can brainwash people into seeing her as their mother; [[AntiHero Hakuryuu]] falls under her spell and fights his friends for her. We get {{Flashback}}s as this is going on about how his evil [[TangledFamilyTree uncle/stepfather]] killed Hakuryuu's father and brothers and corrupted his mother afterward. Unfortunately for Aum Madaura, Hakuryuu's memory eventually reaches the point where he remembers that [[EvilMatriarch it's his mother who was actually]] EvilAllAlong, and he [[OffWithHisHead decapitates her]].

* In ''VideoGame/GodOfWarAscension'', Kratos starts strangling Alecto and then she transforms into Lysandra, his wife. He hesitates for a moment, then continues.

Also see DoppelgangerGetsSameSentiment (the reason this sometimes works), ShapeshifterSwanSong and TreacherousSpiritChase. Contrast ShapeshiftingSeducer.

Also see ShapeshifterSwanSong and TreacherousSpiritChase. Contrast ShapeshiftingSeducer.