History Main / SlowTransformation

[[caption-width-right:350:[[DrugsAreBad Don't do drugs, kids!]][[labelnote:*]]Untested teleportation technology is a drug?[[/labelnote]]]]

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%% The examples have been alphabetized. Please put any new example in its proper place in the folder rather than at the end

* In ''{{Manga/Beastars}}'', a hybrid child of two completely different species mature in a way similar to this, often an animal that looked more like one of their parents than the other will begin developing features of the other parent's species when they reach adulthood. Given the heavy social stigma that treats hybrids like freaks, the thought of physically hybridizing further is often treated like BodyHorror for these characters.
* In ''Anime/TheCatReturns'', the protagonist becomes more [[CatGirl catlike]] the longer she remains TrappedInAnotherWorld.
* In ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'', the process of turning humans trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi into White Zetsu takes several years.
* In ''Anime/{{Simoun}}'' everyone is born female and upon turning seventeen go to a mystical spring where they choose to either remain female or become male. For those who choose to become male the process is a SlowTransformation. For example head mechanic Wapōrif went to the spring and became male two years before the series but still has the biggest bust in the series.
* Creator/JunjiIto:
** The snail people in ''{{Manga/Uzumaki}}'' develop a spiral pattern on their backs, then start developing other, more horrific traits over the course of several days.
** Possibly the most horrific example occurs in the ''Manga/JunjiItoKyoufuMangaCollection'' six-page short "The Hell of the Doll Funeral", in which a child contracts [[ToyTransmutation Early Onset Doll's Disease]]. She transforms first into something like a living doll, then into something that hopefully hasn't been a living ''anything'' for a long time.

* In ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' when Raven was being influenced by her father's power it effected her appearance slowly giving her more gaunt angular features and a [[ForeheadOfDoom taller forehead]] until she fell under his sway and turned on the team. ([[RecycledScript The first time it happened]].)

* [[spoiler:Wikus]]'s transformation into a Prawn in ''Film/{{District 9}}'', to the point where by the very end, [[spoiler:he's become one entirely]].
* The page image charts the progression of Seth Brundle's (Creator/JeffGoldblum) horrific transformation in ''Film/TheFly1986'', the result of a TeleporterAccident fusing him genetically with a housefly. In the first few days strange hairs start growing out of healing wounds on his back and his face becomes progressively blotchier, but because he is ''also'' becoming DrunkWithPower over the amazing physical stamina and strength he now has (which he credits to his teleporter "purifying" him) he doesn't begin to worry until his fingernails start coming off, revealing that the fingers are oozing pus, whereupon he consults the computer record of his teleportation and learns what's actually happening to him. A month later, his skin is completely disfigured and the human body parts his final form will have no need of begin falling off, starting with his ears. The BodyHorror climaxes with what remains of his decaying human skin being wrenched apart as his true mutant fly form emerges. The film may well be the TropeCodifier for media aside from literature.
** ''Film/TheFlyII'' is about Seth's SpinOffspring Martin. Because Martin was born with insect-human hybrid genes and is at least 75% human on the whole, when the insect side finally begins to show it unfolds over a few days. By the time he's looking his humanoid worst he's forming a chrysalis, and once it's finished the rest of the transformation happens offscreen.

* In ''Film/LostInSpace'' Dr Smith receives a spider bite -- two decades later [[spoiler:he's transformed into a huge spider creature]].

* The entire premise of the low-budget ''Film/{{Thanatomorphose}}'' is about a woman who slowly rots alive, starting as small bruises and escalating to rotten brownish-red skin and her extremities breaking off. The movie is set entirely within her apartment, which progressively becomes messy and diseased as she rots. By the end of the movie, [[spoiler:her body completely rots and melts away into a skeleton with bits of red flesh clinging to the bone, killing her.]]

* This was the plot of some ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' books:

* In ''Literature/{{Seraphina}}'' dragons' muscles are soft, and their wings incapable of flight, for the first few minutes after transformation.

* After a fly spent a good two minutes on Vice President Mike Pence's head during the 2020 Vice Presidential debate, three nights later ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' addressed the incident in the ColdOpen of the October 10, 2020 episode by way of a parody of ''Film/TheFly1986'': Midway through the debate Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden (Creator/JimCarrey), watching from home, decides to disrupt the show by teleporting to it in a not-yet-perfected telepod. Aided by doctored clips from the movie, he ends up not only merged with a fly but also undergoing a cutaway-aided transformation into...Creator/JeffGoldblum. As he mocks the Republican party his hair turns black and stringy, he paraphrases ''Film/JurassicPark'', hypes Apartments.com, and even gains a pair of NerdGlasses! (This was effectively the show's acknowledgement of online outcry for the real Goldblum to parody one of his most famous roles, an unfulfillable request because he was in England shooting ''Jurassic World: Dominion''.)
%%* God!Castiel in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''
* The Halloween episode of ''Series/{{Thats So Raven}}'' has Raven and Chelsea slowly turning into cows over the course of the episode. While their physique is human, they get cow ears, tails, snouts, hooves, tongues, and also start eating and mooing like them. At the end of the episode [[spoiler: they are completely transformed, but it is revealed that it was actually one of Raven's visions that she manages to prevent from happening]].
* In "Research Alpha", an episode of the short lived Creator/{{Syfy}} GenreAnthology ''Welcome to Paradox'', scientist Vincent Cloak is in a race with rival John Hammond to take advantage of guided evolution, so he experiments on himself and secretly on wife Barbara as well. While both Hammond and Barbara find themselves evolving into superbeings, Vincent himself devolves into a weak simian.

* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu''. As [[HalfHumanHybrids Deep One hybrids]] are growing up they appear to be human. When they reach the appropriate age, they slowly change into Deep Ones and go off to join their fellows.
* ''Dark Conspiracy''. The ''Darktek'' supplement had Empathic Viral Mutators, a virus that could change the victim into another creature over a period of 48 hours.

*** [=WG5=] ''Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure''. The Kaftan of Ogrishness slowly turns its wearer into an ogre over a period of three days.
*** D3 ''Vault of the Drow''. Anyone possessing the idol of Lolth will, over 66 days, slowly turn into a giant spider.

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}''
** ''Space Adventures'', adventure "Rebirth". A genetic virus called Proteus can slowly change a human being into an alien.
** ''Fantasy Folk''. A Fishmen artifact can slowly change its user into a Fishman.

* Played for drama in the [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations stage adapation]] of ''Theatre/BeautyAndTheBeast''. Instead of being [[KarmicTransformation transformed instantly]] as in the [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Disney movie]], the inhabitants of the castle slowly change into objects -- until they can no longer move, speak or even see. [[PragmaticAdaptation This change was made primarily to allow full-sized actors to play them]].

* The Wanderer over several cutscenes in ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} 2'' gradually looks more and more evil, until in a final cutscene morphing fully into a Diablo form.
* In ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' one of the characters you play as is inflicted with a curse in their chapter, meaning he gradually rots and turns into an undead creature (this happens at set points in the level) while he tries to to warn Charlemagne before he meets the same fate. [[spoiler: He fails and ends up trapped in a room in the church as an undead monster until another character finally puts him out of his misery in a boss battle [[AndIMustScream a few hundred years later]].]]

* ''VideoGame/TheHauntedRuins'': The general shopkeeper slowly transforms from a seemingly innocent girl into [[spoiler:an evil witch]] the deeper you venture into the dungeon. At first it looks like she just put on makeup, [[spoiler:but then she gets PointyEars, her cashier uniform becomes a skimpy dress, and a tiara and pointy nose begin to gradually form on her. This transformation is mostly amusing to watch because of how she keeps on insisting that her changing appearance is all in your head and how you simply MUST show the fabled "[[ArtifactOfDoom Dark Orb]]" to her as soon as you find it, mmkay?]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'', this happens to [[spoiler:Filia]] during her ending: Upon finding the [[JackassGenie Skull Heart]], she wishes for [[spoiler:Painwheel to return to normal]], a seemingly pure wish that should be granted without problem by the Skull Heart [[note]]If the Skull Heart decides your wish is impure, you become the next Skullgirl[[/note]]. However, the Skull Heart finds that her motivations are not entirely selfless: [[spoiler:Filia's wish is partially motivated by her desire to atone for her actions during her life as a member of [[TheMafia Medici family]]]]. As a result, poor [[spoiler:Filia]] is next in line for the title of Skullgirl, but since the wish was not entirely selfish, the transformation is not instant, allowing her to at least enjoy life with [[spoiler:her childhood friend]] for a while.

* In the Custom Nights endings in ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSisterLocation,'' this can be witnessed happening to [[spoiler:"Eggs Benedict," the ''PlayerCharacter'', who at the end of the main game, got "scooped" and his flesh possessed by Ennard, the animated robot endoskeleton. Ennard-Eggs is shown walking out of his house and down the street, waving to his neighbors, but over successive cutscenes, his body [[BodyHorror gradually rots]] and shambles instead of walks, and his neighbors stop waving and eventually hide in their houses, until Eggs' body ''vomits up Ennard,'' and collapses in a pile. ''And then his body stands back up, as 'Eggs' reclaims it.'']]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD7PB-6TWrg Ted Bear's weight gain]] in the ''WebAnimation/CyanideAndHappiness'' short.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Exiern}}'' Dragons are born looking like humans and gradually transform into their true forms after they mature. The protagonist's sidekick/like interest (she can't admit to more than that) Denver is a larval dragon, though he doesn't know it. His sister was well along in her transformation when she was last seen.

* Website/TVTropes: Our own page description for SelfDemonstrating.SugarBowl.

* Michael Swaim's... Um... "Cuteification" in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znWYcsYe0Aw Vids They Thought Would be Cute.]]''

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}}'' Horse goes through one once she enters Centaurworld, beginning with the ability to speak where she'd been "just" a regular war horse on the other side, and starts gaining cute, softer features and a talking tail. As the season progresses, she tries to return home before the changes go further or become permanent out of fear that Rider won't recognize her anymore. [[spoiler: She finishes transforming before the reunion, gaining some magical powers in the process. It's quite traumatic at first, but she learns to adjust, and this is helped by Rider recognizing her despite the big visual changes.]]
* Eustace in the ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' pilot "The Chicken from Outer Space" after he eats one of the chicken's eggs, he begins to turn into a giant chicken, first his eyes turn red, then his arms turn into wings, his face becomes a beak, he grows feathers, and his feet become chicken feet.

* ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''. Due to Dracula nightly visits to feed on Lucy, she becomes weaker over time and observes that her senses have suddenly become keener but she continues to have nightmares of dark beings. By the third visit, she's lost so much of her blood that her bite wounds eventually close up on their own, she gains fangs and her demeanor is uncharacteristically more seductive, signifying to Helsing it's too late to save her from becoming a vampire. Mina's transformation is slightly different due to Dracula feeding her his blood, cursing her to turn regardless if she stays alive or dies as long as he's alive. Indeed, she starts showing signs due to losing appetite for food, her canines slowly turning into fangs, sharing a psychic connection to Dracula and being unable to stay awake during the day but being much more lively at night.

* When Tash is infected in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' she starts off with a rash that, through that story, swells and spreads, sends off TaintedVeins, and she sweats and is unusually irritable. Then the rash starts oozing... then the ooze proves to be [[spoiler: tendrils of the BlobMonster that she's [[TheVirus turning into]]]] and moving about as the transformation speeds up. This is in a day or so.

** ''Chicken Chicken'': The main character and her brother are cursed by a witch to gradually transform into chickens after they're rude to her. It starts with the main character's lips becoming hard like a beak and her brother beginning to grow feathers; by the time they figure out how to get the witch to remove the curse, they've become fully transformed and need to peck at a typewriter to communicate with her.
** ''My Hairiest Adventure'': The main character, after trying out a strange lotion, starts growing dark fur on his hands that keeps coming back and spreading to the rest of his body no matter how often he shaves it off. While this is happening, he also spots several alarming signs that his friends are being transformed into dogs. [[spoiler:It turns out that the lotion [[RedHerring had nothing to do]] with his transformation; the real cause of it is that he and his friends were dogs who were transformed into humans for childless families to adopt and that transformation is slowly wearing off now.]]
** ''Say Cheese and Die -- Again!'': The camera's curse makes the protagonist morbidly obese and his friend [[WeightLossHorror dangerously thin]], with the weight gain/loss taking place gradually over a couple of days.

* Stock in trade of the [[EvilutionaryBiologist Evilutionary Biologists]] in ''Literature/TheMoreauFactor''. Somewhat mitigated by the fact that their victims are mostly other scientists deliberately chosen because they would find the research opportunities presented by their transformations (if not the actual transformations themselves) intriguing.
* Though most of it happens off-screen, Francis Leicester [[Creator/ArthurMachen Arthur Machen's]] ''Novel of the White Powder'' undergoes one of these after he starts taking regular doses of the titular powder in the belief that it's his prescribed antidepressant. It starts with his appearance provoking a vague UncannyValley response in his sister, Helen. It ends with a [[ImMelting formless puddle of black protoplasmic ooze, seeping through the floor of his bedroom and into the room below]], [[AndIMustScream and yet still very much alive]].

* In Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'', the inhabitants of Innsmouth are born as humans, but slowly turn into fishmen over the course of their lives.

** Possibly the most horrific example occurs in a six page short titled "Hell O'Dollies", in which a child contracts [[ToyTransmutation Early Onset Doll's Disease]]. She transforms first into something like a living doll, then into something that hopefully hasn't been a living ''anything'' for a long time.

* Eustace in the WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog pilot “The Chicken From Outerspace” after he eats one of the chicken’s eggs, he begins to turn into a giant chicken, first his eyes turn red, then his arms turn into wings, his face becomes a beak, he grows feathers, and his feet become chicken feet.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In the episode "Birthright", a U.S. Senator escapes from his security detail after his own men try to kill him, and gradually gets weird warts and such. It turns out that a race of [[LizardFolk reptiloid aliens]] had sent spies to study humans and the spies are turning back after the disguise wears off. The horror factor is the spies themselves didn't know they were aliens.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[DrugsAreBad Don't do drugs, kids!]]]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Due to physical and biological limitations, this is true of all the "transformations" humans and other organisms go through such as growing from a child to an adult, growing your hair longer, building up muscle, gaining or losing weight, healing a wound, etc. In fact, if certain such changes happen too ''quickly'', it's often a sign that something is wrong and that you need to see a doctor.
[[/folder]]

* The Omnitrix transformations are usually instantaneous, but in an episode of the original run of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'', Ben is bitten by a werewolf-- erm-- that is, [[Main/TotallyNotAWerewolf a wolf-like alien activates the scanning function of the Omnitrix]], and it takes him several hours to transform.

* Happens to the snail people in ''{{Manga/Uzumaki}}'', who develop a spiral pattern on their backs, then start developing other, more horrific traits over the course of several days.
** In general, this seems to be a favorite trope for {{Creator/Junji Ito}}. Possibly the most horrific example occurs in a six page short titled "Hell O'Dollies", in which a child contracts [[TheVirus Early Onset Doll's Disease]]. She transforms first into something like a living doll, then into something that hopefully hasn't been a living ''anything'' for a long time.

* Wiki/TVTropes: Our own page description for SelfDemonstrating.SugarBowl.

Something's starting to happen to one of our characters - [[VirusVictimSymptoms maybe he's been infected with some]] [[TheVirus virus]]... [[WickedWitch Maybe some witch]] [[BlackMagic had casted a spell on him]]... [[MadnessMakeover Maybe he's going]] [[SanitySlippage crazy]]... [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking Or maybe he's just]] [[Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness gaining weight]]. Whatever it is, it's usually not directly explained, and we don't see him changing on-screen...

[[caption-width-right:350:The progression of Seth Brundle to "Brundlefly".]]

Something's starting to happen to one of our characters -- [[VirusVictimSymptoms maybe he's been infected with some virus]]... [[MadnessMakeover Maybe he's going crazy]]... [[Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness Maybe he's just gaining weight]]. Whatever it is, it's usually not directly explained, and we don't see him changing on-screen...

* The entire premise of the low-budget ''Thanatomorphose'' is about a woman who slowly rots alive, starting as small bruises and escalating to rotten brownish-red skin and her extremities breaking off. The movie is set entirely within her apartment, which progressively becomes messy and diseased as she rots. By the end of the movie, [[spoiler:her body completely rots and melts away into a skeleton with bits of red flesh clinging to the bone, killing her.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}} Horse goes through one once she enters Centaurworld, beginning with the ability to speak where she'd been "just" a regular war horse on the other side. As the season progresses, she tries to return home before the changes go further or become permanent out of fear that Rider won't recognize her anymore. [[spoiler: She finishes transforming before the reunion, changing from a realistic war horse into the cute and rounded art style of Centaurworld, gaining some magical powers in the process.
It's quite traumatic at first, but she learns to adjust, and this is helped by Rider recognizing her despite the big visual changes.]]

* The entire premise of the low-budget ''Thanatomorphose'' is about a woman who slowly rots alive, starting as small bruises and escalating to rotten brownish-red skin and her extremities breaking off. The movie is set entirely within her apartment, which progressively becomes messy and diseased as she rots. By the end of the movie, [[spoiler:her body completely rots and melts away into a skeleton with bits of red flesh clinging to the bone, killing her.]]