History Main / ShapeshifterGuiltTrip

* A rare heroic example comes from ''ComicBook/WildCATs''. When team was fighting Lord Entropy, an impossibly powerful madman who wanted revenge against Lord Emp for killing his wife, Voodo used her illusion to look like her. Entropy was so confused that Emp had enough time to prepare to wipe the floor with him.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'': A shapeshifting monster poses [[spoiler:as the hero's mother, as the High Priestess of the evil cult of Nimzo]].

* A rare heroic example comes from ''ComicBook/WildCATS''. When team was fighting Lord Entropy, an impossibly powerful madman who wanted revenge against Lord Emp for killing his wife, Voodo used her illusion to look like her. Entropy was so confused that Emp had enough time to prepare to wipe the floor with him.

** You can attempt this twice in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', once against Igos Du Ikana with his knight captain's mask ([[spoiler: which fails completely]]), and once against the Gorman brothers with their brother's mask ([[spoiler:which upsets them so much they can't fight]]).

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex''. While Rex fights Jack Scarecrow, the latter uses his {{shapeshifting}} abilities to turn into various friends/comrades of Rex. Rex is more than willing to punch (And possibly kill) him while taking the forms of people he loves, but he still falls for it as the UnstoppableRage quickly [[PsychoactivePowers drains his powers]].

** An inversion appears during a StoryArc of the animated series; a BrainwashedAndCrazy Morph shapeshifts into Franchise/{{Wolverine}}'s most hated foes (including ComicBook/{{Sabretooth}} and Omega Red), trying to take advantage of Wolvie's fractured and tormented memories of said foes to drive him to insanity. Unfortunately for him, Wolvie's got plenty of experience with repressing those memories, and he only escapes by taking advantage of the one memory Wolvie ''can't'' repress: being forced to leave Morph to die after a semi-botched mission. Prior to that, he shapeshifted into Wolverine's unrequited love interest Jean, and mocked him about how she'll never love him.

* A downplayed example appeared in everybody's favorite TropeOverdosed work, ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', when [[SpoonyBard Elan]]'s EvilTwin, [[SdrawkcabName Nale]], faces off against [[TheLeader Roy]]. If he was hoping that Roy would be reluctant to attack someone who looks identical to one of his party-members, he was [[BerserkButton DEAD WRONG]].

Usually, the hero ends up struggling to find the willpower to continue beating up someone who looks just like their loved ones. Bonus points if the form the shape shifter takes on is that of a dead friend or family member for extra guilt. Especially if it is one whose death the hero blame themselves for. Some examples may finish off the illusion by talking to the hero "in character".

* In ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'', a Ditto transforms into Tim's crush Lucy while he's fighting it. Tim starts saying that he has no problem hitting it regardless, but it takes the opportunity to knock him off his feet while he's talking.

* During ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'', several Skrulls shapeshift into corpses and claim to be victims of [[Comicbook/CivilWar the Stamford Incident]]. Although it works on Penance at first, [[{{Wangst}} he remembers the faces of everyone who really perished]] and attacks.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}'', the party encounters an undead monstrosity that uses magic to make whoever is looking at it see a dead mentor or parental figure they would trust implicitly (Nodwick sees his former guildmaster, Arthax sees the man who trained him to be a wizard, Piffany sees the head priest who raised her, and Rowan sees her adventurer father). All of them can only stare dead-eyed at it and mumble "I thought you were dead". Fortunately, while the magic also affected [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Orville]], his species of dragon instinctively try to [[SelfMadeOrphan fight and kill their own parents for dominance]]...
* [[Franchise/GreenLantern Red Lantern]] Rankorr used his power ring to make constructs resembling Abysmus' victims, paralyzing him with guilt and allowing Atrocitus to defeat him.

* An inadvertent version occurred when the Runaways visited ComicBook/AvengersAcademy. Reptil tried to entertain the guests by showing off his dinosaur-transformation abilities. He made the mistake of turning into a deinonychus in front of Klara who, up to that point, still believed that she was responsible for Old Lace's apparent death, resulting in Karolina having to rush over and calm the poor girl down before her powers started kicking in.
* Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} once faced a psychic, sentient dinosaur called the Empathosaur. It probes her mind and makes his head look like her father. Supergirl is completely unimpressed, commenting that a man's head sticking out of a dinosaur's body isn't going to fool anybody.

* During an issue of ''[[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Sonic Universe]]'', Amy is facing off against the wizard Naugus when he suddenly takes the form of Sonic, her crush. She immediately mocks him for trying that trick, decides that he's too pathetic for her to bother, and lets Knuckles and Shadow -- [[TheRival neither of whom would be very torn up over having to beat up Sonic]] -- finish him off.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Mr. 2 Bon Clay uses this as a desperation attack against Sanji. However, Sanji beats him up anyway as he's impersonating Usopp. Bon Clay is about to give up till he carelessly switches to Nami, [[WouldntHitAGirl which paralyzes Sanji with lust]]. Bon Clay comments, "It can't really be that easy, can it?" He toggles his face-switching power on and off to cure his disbelief, and then uses the form of Nami against Sanji because Nami looks just too cute for him to hit. ''Until'' Sanji catches on that Bon Clay can't use his Okama Kenpo properly because he's not used to her physique.

* A rare heroic example comes from ''ComicBook/WildCATS''. When team was fighting Lord Entropy, an impossibly powerful madman who wanted revenge against Lord Emp for killing his wife, Voodo used her illusion to look like her. Entropy was so confused that Emp ha enough time to prepare to wipe the floor with him.

->'''Fuuma (in Miharu's form):''' Even though you know I'm an imposter, you still can't hurt me, can you?!\\
'''Fuuma (in Raimei's form):''' It's naive for you to be fooled by an illusion!\\
'''Fuuma (in Aizawa's form):''' Come on! Try to punch me!\\
'''Tobari:''' Sorry, Aizawa. I can punch him. (''punches Fuuma'')\\

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Parodied in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', when the Cat Demon possessed [[spoiler: Genma]], thinking that Ranma wouldn't attack [[spoiler: him]]. Ranma's response: IT'S EXORCISM TIME!
** To explain further, it really didn't help that [[spoiler:Genma forced Ramna to fight [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes a giant cat]] since, no matter how weak a demon it was, Ranma is utterly ''terrified'' of cats. Right before booting his son towards said terror, Genma says that it's a martial artist's job to defeat demons, no matter what. Ranma repeats that right before beating up his old man]].

-->'''Logan''': I, uh, don't want to fight you anymore. Or look at you. Ever again.

[[folder:Film]]

%%** Also done in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E5PlanetOfFire "Planet of Fire"]]. %%Please add context and place in the correct chronological order before uncommenting. %%
* In ''Doctor Who'' spinoff ''{{Series/Class}}'', the tentacled monster called the Lankin creates convincing copies of people's dead relatives and goads them to touch them so it can [[spoiler: eat their souls]].

* ''WebVideo/SuperPowerBeatDown'': In a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwP2vnQCoho battle between Darth Vader and Gandalf]], Gandalf takes on Anakin Skywalker's form to briefly shock Vader.

* In the finale of {{Franchise/RWBY}} Volume 7, Team JNPR faces off against Neo, a MasterOfIllusion who at one point uses her powers to disguise herself as Nora in order to steal the Relic of Knowledge off Oscar when he lets his guard down. As she escapes, Ren tries to strike her down, only for Neo to switch her TechnicolorEyes to Nora's light blue and flash Ren a look of fear. Ren and Nora are close ChildhoodFriends [[spoiler: who also received a RelationshipUpgrade a few episodes before this,]] so it's not surprising when Ren freezes up with a horrified expression, giving Neo enough time to take him down and easily retreat. While it's clear it's only a CriticalHesitationBlunder on Ren's part, apparently the mere notion of hurting Nora is enough to cause him to cry.

* 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.

* In ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'' a Ditto transforms into Tim's crush Lucy while he's fighting it. Tim starts saying that he has no problem hitting it regardless, but it takes the opportunity to knock him off his feet while he's talking.

** Similar to the above, in ''VideoGame/TacticsOgreTheKnightOfLodis'', when you enter the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, the first battle has [[BigBad Shaher]] attempt this on Alphonse and Eleanor, and who he takes the illusion of depends on the route you take. If you take Path A, he becomes [[spoiler: Rictor, Alphonse's commander who was possessed by Shaher and subsequently killed by Alphonse.]] If you take Path B, [[spoiler: he takes the form of Cybil, who felt she could no longer trust Alphonse and was later possessed by Shaher in a similar manner of Rictor in Path A]]. However, Alphonse doesn't buy it one bit, and simply lashes out at them and causes the illusion to break. Then again though, [[GenreBlindness Shaher did actually say he would take their form to their face]], but to be fair, even before he said this, Alphonse wasn't buying it.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/IDWSonicTheHedgehog https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tangle_please_dont.jpg]]]]

** Subverted in an episode, when the MonsterOfTheWeek appears as [[spoiler:Wesley's]] distant father [[spoiler:[[KilledMidSentence and is unceremoniously shot]]]]. Notably this only happens after he threatens [[spoiler:Wesley's]] love interest, and since [[spoiler:Wesley]] did ''think'' it was his real father at the time he spends the next episode absent, apparently dealing with the revelation that he would have been willing to kill his own father. Made more humorous with all the other characters saying how they killed "their" fathers or mothers and haven't looked back since.

* Completely averted in ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}''. If Alex is discovered by the military, while shape shifted, the military will not hesitate to fire on him -- even if you're in the guise of a respected commander, unarmed woman, or someone they wouldn't dare think about hurting otherwise. [[HilarityEnsues Hilariously]], if you use the Patsy ability to accuse someone of being Alex, the poor sod gets gunned down with an equal lack of restraint.
* In ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' [[spoiler: Gandrayda]] pulls one of these once you [[ShapeshifterSwanSong defeat]] [[spoiler: her]]. First, [[spoiler: she changes into Ghor, then into Rundas, then into Samus. The whole thing takes less than a minute, and the only sound that comes out of her mouth is a scream, but the message to Samus is clear: You couldn't save them from TheCorruption, you couldn't save me from it, and you're not going to be able to save yourself. YourDaysAreNumbered, Samus]].

* Early on in ''ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative'', [[BadPowersGoodPeople Trauma]] had difficulty controlling his fear-based transformation powers, causing him to freak out Cloud 9 by transforming into a zombified version of MVP, who was killed while protecting Cloud 9 from an errant rifle blast. When Hank Pym tried to intervene, Trauma transformed into an extremely battered version of Janet Van Dyne, reminding Hank of his [[NeverLiveItDown domestic abuse incident]], which sent poor Hank scrambling for his anti-anxiety meds.

Usually, the hero ends up struggling to find the willpower to continue beating up someone who looks just like their loved ones. Bonus points if the form the shape shifter takes on is that of a dead friend or family member for extra guilt. Especially if it is one whose death the hero blame themselves for.

** 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".

* An episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'' features a genetic mutant which uses its shapeshifting 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'' Shapeshifter Guilt Trip.

** The Season 1 episode "Skin" does this when Sam fights a shape shifter disguised as Dean. Sam can't kill him, so Dean does.

* In the FinalBoss fight of ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil,'' the BigBad's shape shifting {{Mooks}} mimic the forms of Jade's {{sidekick}}s. They accuse her in a CreepyMonotone of causing their suffering, and beg her to join the villain to take the pain away. Considering their [[LargeHam natural tendencies,]] this is especially unnerving.

* Used a few times in a section of the first boss battle in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', with Laughing Octopus, who uses her [=OctoCamo=] and [=FaceCamo=] to disguise herself as Naomi, then as Metal Gear Mk. II, with Otacon's voice. When you approach it, it attacks you, with Otacon's voice (although obviously not him speaking) making fun of you. Of course you can spot the flaws easily (she never changes out of her suit when in the face cameo and MK II is much bigger then its normal size. Plus Otacan doesn't flag you down with it in regular play.)

* In ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault'', 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 a fan-made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwP2vnQCoho battle between Darth Vader and Gandalf]], Gandalf takes on Anakin Skywalker's form to briefly shock Vader.

** 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 takes the opportunity to appear in Hughes's form. It does make Mustang momentarily flinch, but unfortunately for Envy, the whole reason Mustang was after them was because they 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.]]

** Cameo uses his JerkAssGenie Stand to manipulate Polnareff into this by reanimating his dead sister and Mohammed Avdol (who dies defending him), blaming him for their deaths. [[spoiler: Luckily, the real and alive Avdol appears to save the day, and Polnareff wises up to take down the fake image of his sister.]]

* PlayedWith in ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic.'' The villain [[OneBadMother 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]].

* When the [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Titans]] and the [[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]] collided, the Titan Mirage went up against the ComicBook/MartianManhunter by posing as his dead wife.

* ''ComicBook/AstonishingXMen'': Subverted (and inverted?) in Creator/JossWhedon's run. ComicBook/KittyPryde is confronted with Colossus (the genuine article); not believing it's really Colossus, back from the dead, she tells him that if he's a robot or a clone, she'll understand, but if he's a shapeshifter or illusionist, he's in for a new meaning of pain.

* Early on in ''ComicBook/AvengersTheInitiative'', Trauma had difficulty controlling his fear-based transformation powers, causing him to freak out Cloud 9 by transforming into a zombified version of MVP, who was killed while protecting Cloud 9 from an errant rifle blast. When Hank Pym tried to intervene, Trauma transformed into an extremely battered version of Janet Van Dyne, reminding Hank of his [[NeverLiveItDown domestic abuse incident]], which sent poor Hank scrambling for his anti-anxiety meds.

--->'''Logan''': I, uh, don't want to fight you anymore. Or look at you. Ever again.

* In ''Film/MortalKombat'', the villain Shang Tsung tries to pull this gambit with Liu Kang by assuming the form of his dead brother Chan, whom Shang Tsung had killed at the start of the movie. It doesn't work.

* The T-1000 from ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' made use of this trope, shape shifting into Sarah Connor in an attempt to lure and terminate her son John. [[spoiler: The attempt fails when the real Sarah appears behind the T-1000, and John trusts her characteristic approach ("Get out of the way, John") over the duplicate's attitude of slumped defeat. The film's special edition, disappointingly, replaces this subtle indicator with an obvious shape shifting flaw (warped and misshapen feet).]]

* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''
** Mystique tries this on her captors in ''Film/XMenTheLastStand''. She transforms into the President and threatens to have them all court martialed if they do not release her, and then a little girl who begs and cries to be let out. She finally turns mockingly back into herself when one of the guards threatens to empty a can of pepper spray in her face if she doesn't knock it off.
** In the second movie, ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', while in an EnemyMine situation with the X-Men, she tries to seduce Logan as Jean, Rogue, and Storm. [[spoiler:He gets wise when he sees the scars he left on her belly from the first movie.]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotter''

* 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.

** 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.]]

** In the backstory, the dwarf Durlag built his [[BonusDungeon fortress]] as a safe haven for all of his kin, but unfortunatelly, it got infested by doppelgangers. He had to fight his way out of the fortress through monsters bearing the faces of his family and companions, which caused him to go insane. He now saw enemies everywhere and [[BoobyTrap booby-trapped]] the whole place [[UpToEleven with more traps than you'll see again in the whole series]].

** Similar to the above, in ''VideoGame/TacticsOgreTheKnightOfLodis'', when you enter the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, the first battle has [[BigBad Shaher]] attempt this on Alphonse and Eleanor, and who he takes the illusion of depends on the route you take. If you take Path A, he becomes [[spoiler: Rictor, Alphonse's commander who was possessed by Shaher and subsequently killed by Alphonse.]] If you take Path B, [[spoiler: he takes the form of Cybil, who felt she could no longer trust Alphonse and was later possessed by Shaher in a similar manner of Rictor in Path A]]. However, Alphonse doesn't buy it one bit, and simply lashes out at them and causes the illusion to break. Then again though, [[GenreBlind Shaher did actually say he would take their form to their face]], but to be fair, even before he said this, Alphonse wasn't buying it.

* In ''VideoGame/StarcraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm'', AntiHero Kerrigan faces-off against the ShapeShifting [[spoiler:Narud/Duran]]. The first tactic [[spoiler:he]] uses is to shapeshift into Jim Raynor, which causes Kerrigan to hesitate for a quick moment, before having her BerserkButton pushed and beats up [[spoiler:Narud]] mercilessly. Near the end of the fight, [[spoiler:Narud]] shapeshifts into Kerrigan before she was infested, which causes her to [[HeroicBSOD hesitate]] long enough for [[spoiler:him]] to stab her.

* In ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'', Neclord appears to resurrect Viktor's ChildhoodFriend, Daisy, offering to trade her for the Star Dragon Sword. Viktor appears to be conflicted, but then says that he knows that resurrection is impossible, and decapitates the doppleganger.

* In ''WebComic/WildeLife,'' [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Clifford]] first meets Raven when the latter looks like a little kid, though he quickly learns that Raven knows HumanShifting and likely took that form to seem more innocent than he really is. At one point Cliff is about to attack Raven when he's in his teenage form, only for him to quickly switch back to being a kid. Clifford pulls back on instinct and, combined with his general stress and drunkenness at the time, winds up throwing up.

* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Ben10}} Ben 10]]'' episode "Permanent Retirement", Ben is beating the tar out of one of the evil aliens (already posing as Grandpa Max) as Wildmutt when it shapeshifts to close up its revealing wounds and says in Max's voice, "Now, you wouldn't want to hurt old Grandpa Max, would ya?" Ben-as-Wildmutt hesitates, allowing the alien to start wallopping him and forcing Gwen to have to remind him of reality.

** Franchise/TheFlash and Franchise/{{Batman}} aren't affected: the Flash drone's attempt to HannibalLecture him fails miserably, and Batman defeats his double before it could open its mouth.
*** Flash's is particularly amusing, as him being aware of his [[TheHeart heart of the team]] status and playing it up is what allows him to ignore his double's words.

** An inversion appears during a StoryArc of the animated series; a BrainwashedAndCrazy Morph shapeshifts into ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s most hated foes (including Sabretooth and Omega Red), trying to take advantage of Wolvie's fractured and tormented memories of said foes to drive him to insanity. Unfortunately for him, Wolvie's got plenty of experience with repressing those memories, and he only escapes by taking advantage of the one memory Wolvie ''can't'' repress: being forced to leave Morph to die after a semi-botched mission.
*** Prior to that, he shapeshifted into Wolverine's unrequited love interest Jean, and mocked him about how she'll never love him.
** Similarly, Mystique shape shifts into Ms. Marvel to dredge up a bad memory in Rogue of her past to try and guilt her into abandoning the X-Men and hook back up with her; the memory was of Mystique ordering Rogue to fully absorb Marvel's powers and personality, an action that caused Marvel to pop up on occasion as accusatory hallucinations. Rogue eventually had to ditch Mystique as a result, joining the X-Men and having Professor X block her mind of Marvel and the incident to keep the hallucinations at bay, but since he was at this time MIA and unable to keep the block in place, Mystique was trying to convince Rogue that she was the only one in the world who could help her with it.

* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'': In "L.O.D.R.S.V.P.", Clayface tries to make Aquaman stand down by turning into Superman. With his poor acting skills (he claims to be from "Kryptalon", among his general character inaccuracies) and the fact he transformed right in front him, Aquaman is not fooled for a second and chops his head off (luckily Clayface can survive that).