Basic Trope: A character can shapeshift into one of the classical elements.
- Straight: Wallace can turn his body into water and back. Frank, Earl, and Aria can do likewise, but with fire, earth (presumably any type of rock), and air.
- Exaggerated: The characters can transform into elements spanning a very large radius - Frank, for example, can "become" an entire forest fire, and Wallace can "become" a tsunami.
- Downplayed: They can only turn certain parts of their bodies to elements.
- Justified: Frank, Earl, Wallace and Aria are elementary spirits.
- Inverted: Frank, Earl, Wallace and Aria are elemental humanoids who can disguise themselves as normal humans.
- Subverted: ???
- Double Subverted: ???
- Parodied: Florence can turn into fluoride. Alright, cool. Nobody cares.
- Wallace can transform into...a water puddle.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: ???
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited:
- Consider if the boundary between "elemental" and "regular element" were loose, and regular elements could be assimilated into the shapeshifters. For example, if Wallace were to turn to water and mingle with a large swimming pool, the pool would become "him" and he could become much larger when shifting back to human form (assuming the chlorine and such is somehow disposed of). Then, if Reed Richards is rather hostile and not so useless, Wallace could easily get the world to concede to his demands by threatening to assimilate the ocean. Aria could pull off a similar situation with the atmosphere itself, and Earl could do so with the entire planet (or at least the crust).
- Those who can turn into non-solid elements can dodge attacks much easier. You can't "cut" fire or air, for example, and shooting it has little effect.
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Wallace can only turn into liquid water and back, and cannot transform if he isn't in liquid or human form. If someone decides to freeze him solid during his wave attack, he won't be able to do anything but watch until he thaws out. That is, assuming someone doesn't just put him in a large freezer after freezing him and never let him thaw. (Similarly, someone can evaporate him whole given enough heat, but depending on how his powers work, that could result in him coming back down in raindrops.)
- Frank can turn into fire. Wallace can turn into water. They get in a fight, and, for whatever reason, make contact while in their elemental forms... now there's no Frank or Wallace anymore.
- Wallace drops into the ocean while in water form, and the water forming "him" is quickly dissolved into the non-sentient water, causing Wallace to lose his consciousness entirely. Similarly, Aria can lose herself to the open air, making it dangerous for her to ever shift forms, and Frank can lose himself if he joins in a massive fire.
- In elemental form, the characters have no way of sensing anything that's happening due to a lack of ears, eyes... et cetera. Some type of sixth sense is a Required Secondary Power.
- Reconstructed:
- Which element the characters have control over depends on the last elemental form they took or the current elemental form they're in. So if Wallace were frozen, he would become an ice elemental and easily be able to shift to human form, and if Frank and Wallace made contact in fire and water form, they would both become smoke/vapor elementals. (Although they'd be infringing each other's space at first, and might be able to share a body if they stayed intertwined in smoke form before shifting back to human form.)
- Despite being attached to the element they imitate, they still have a certain consistency, which makes it difficult for them to dissolve.
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