Shapeshifting Seducer
From Tv Tropes
- Logan: What do you want, an apology?
- Mystique: You know what I want. (transforms from one woman to another) The question is, what do you want?
- "I can assume any form I wish. Any form you wish."
- The Beast, Krull
When the Master Of Illusion or character with Voluntary Shapeshifting wants to seduce someone, they have one very powerful tool in their arsenal: they can be anyone's "type." If they get their amorous advances rejected they will simply change their appearance until they hit paydirt. A little research goes a long way in this regard, and a lot of subtlety is needed to keep the target from figuring out the seducer is a shapeshifter. ... which is actually fairly rare for this trope, since the shapeshifter will basically be Showing Off The New Body in a superpower equivalent to a strip tease while the seducee is looking. If the fact that they're being seduced by a shapeshifter doesn't give them Shapeshifting Squick, they may actually find it really kinky and start making suggestions. Is likely to be involved in The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction.
One of the quickest ways for this tactic to fail is for the shapeshifter not to do any research on the seducee or badly botch said research. This can happen if they take the form of a lost love, an ex, or their anti-type, the form likeliest to turn them off and make them run screaming.
Compare You Sexy Beast. See also Power Perversion Potential. Not to be confused with Shapeshifting Lover, where they only have one alternate form (and it's animal to human).
- Examples
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[edit] Anime and Manga
- The Hentai Cosplay Sex Machine is based around this.
- Bone Clay of One Piece shortly uses this to seduce The Dragon of Impel Down.
- Also, unintentional "keep changing till it hits paydirt" in the fight with Sanji. It would have gone unnoticed if he wouldn't have shouted "Melorine!" every time he saw that face. Bone Clay notes this is too good to be true, but this is Sanji we're talking about...
- Also notably, Bone Clay tends to fall into Shapeshifting Squick with most of his techniques that don't imply looking like a girl for a male. He even has one technique to get the best out of that.
[edit] Comic Books
- Mary Shelley Lovecraft tried this in a Hack Slash story, morphing into a number of Cassie's past love interests while saying We Can Rule Together.
- Runaways: Xavin is in love with Karolina, but he's not her type. Fortunately Xavin is a Skrull, with the ability to change his shape - including into a her.
- There was a Spider-Man comic where The Chameleon tried to seduce Mary Jane by turning into different handsome men. It didn't go over well.
- Another comic had Electro visiting a shape-shifting prostitute, who offered to turn into Namorita, Sue Storm or the Scarlet Witch, among others. Spidey interrupted before we found out who Electro "fancied a crack at" this time...
- Mystique of Marvel Comics has been known to use her shapeshifting for this purpose on occasion. The "Bizarre Love Triangle" arc involves her efforts to seduce Gambit by such a method - first by inventing the false identity of "Foxx" and, when that fails, taking Rogue's form instead - specifically in order to get him to cheat on Rogue and thus prove to Rogue that he isn't good enough for her.
- Mystique may be seen as a Most Triumphant Example in our age - she's been doing it for over 60 years and has attached herself to the collective idea of this trope.
[edit] Film
- Epic Movie has a scene where the Mystique Expy seduces a character...and he asks her to get fatter.
- Legend. While the protagonists are trapped in Darkness' jail, the fairy Oona tries to get Jack to kiss her by creating an illusion that she's Jack's girlfriend Lili.
- Mystique in X-Men 2 and X-Men: First Class, which didn't really work for her either time until Magneto in First Class told her he preferred her without the shapeshifted appearance.
[edit] iterature
- In A Night In The Lonesome October, the Thing In The Circle tries this on the protagonist-narrator in an attempt to get free of the Circle that imprisons it. It never quite succeeds in making him forget what it really is, and all it gets for its trouble is a series of deadpan snarker demurrals.
- Iris in the first Xanth novel does this. She never hid her capacity for Magician-level illusions (although the more deceptive particulars are another matter), and, this being a Xanth novel, where every able-bodied male is horny as hell, it very nearly works.
- What Saiman attempts with Kate Daniels, but never succeeds. His never-changing eyes make it Uncanny Valley for her.
[edit] Television
- At the start of Season 2 of Heroes, the illusionist Candace tried to seduce Sylar with, among other forms, hot twins, and himself. He kills her to try to steal the power for himself.
- In The X Files episode Small Potatoes, Eddie Van Blundht used his shapeshifting abilities to seduce women, generally by posing as their husbands. In one case, he took advantage of a woman crazed about Star Wars by appearing to her as Luke Skywalker. This tripped him up. He knew about her obsession from years ago, and her social circle was pretty small.
- Sirens of Supernatural don't actually shapeshift (they're ugly motherfuckers when actually seen), but can give the illusion of looking like anyone's biggest dream (of a woman) and they prefer seducing men. Reaches Shapeshifting Squick proportions when it turns out, for Dean to be seduced, it wouldn't have worked with a "damsel looking for a lay" stunt, but brotherly love. Yes, Dean is seduced by a guy.
[edit] Tabletop Games
- Changelings of Eberron are noted to be very popular in prostitution, except for the paranoia about traps.
[edit] Video Games
- Ditto in Pokemon breed with almost everything.
[edit] Web Comics
- In the (very NSFW) webcomic Oglaf, an overly literal shapeshifter performs an all-too-obvious duck behind a tree for a not-very-clever change.
