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Shapeshifting (thelemmy.club)
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[-] Aquilae@hexbear.net 2 points 3 hours ago

Just choose reality manipulation. All superpowers in one.

[-] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 10 points 5 hours ago

“Don’t mind the pen holding the bag of money”

[-] FRYD@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 hours ago

I feel like shapeshifting would be an awful superpower if I got to choose. Why would I choose a superpower to cancel my insecurities? Your appearance is a huge part of who you are. How you look is a reflection of the life you lived and the work you put in to look a certain way. Magically being able to look perfect won’t make you secure, it’ll just make you come up with new things to be insecure about. Insecurity isn’t about looks, it’s about strength of character.

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Also some forms of shapeshifting can be horrifying. In some kinds of shapeshifting, you have to be able to visualize every minute detail of the form you're shifting into. Imagine getting shapeshifting powers and shifting into another form. Then when you want to shift back, you realize you don't actually have a "default form." You can shift forms as often as you want, but you have to picture and visualize every minute detail. Your original form is now lost forever. Remember Odo from Deep Space 9? His form was roughly humanoid but clearly not natural. He had to consciously control every minute detail of his face.

Imagine trying to paint a photo-realistic painting of yourself. That's a fraction of the level of detail you'll need to capture every detail of the forms you're changing into, including your original one. Even your original form is now lost, replaced with whatever half-remembered remnant you can cobble together with your mind.

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 hours ago

Just shapeshift into someone with other powers

[-] embed_me@programming.dev 2 points 6 hours ago

Also I'm repping my ancestors. It's a proud heritage

[-] argiope@lemmy.ml 4 points 7 hours ago
[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 11 points 10 hours ago

Why does that pen have two bags with two hundred thousand euros? Does anyone else find it odd?

[-] callyral@pawb.social 12 points 12 hours ago

If I shapeshift into an inanimate object, where does my consciousness go? Pens don't have a brain, or any senses at all. Could I even perceive the world around me? Would I live forever in pitch darkness, unable to think, unable to change back? All for a bank robbery?

[-] embed_me@programming.dev 2 points 6 hours ago

It's not actually shapeshifting you just perfectly transform everyone's perception including yourselves to appear as such. There, no more physics breaking.

[-] edgesmash@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago
[-] binarytobis@lemmy.world 11 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Jumper style teleportation. I know it’s not objectively the best, that would probably be Atom Eve’s power from Invincible. But Jumper is the only media I’ve ever seen that’s left me a deep, unquenchable yearning to have a power. For days afterwards I was daydreaming about where I would teleport to.

You could get a cheap house in the middle of nowhere. You could get into movies for free. You could rob a bank. If you felt heroic you could be a top tier EMT. Maybe a low-risk astronaut. Bring the pieces of a giant rocket into orbit a little at a time until they can go anywhere with it. I could also spend more time with dispersed family.

Most importantly you could go to your favorite restaurants around the world whenever you wanted.

[-] nul9o9@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 hours ago

I always liked the powers from chronicle.

[-] Zugyuk@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

Jokes on him, he didn't specify a shape shifting pen... Now he's trapped as a a pen forever.

[-] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 6 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

I use my shapeshifting ability to look exactly like myself, simultaneously concealing the ability. No one knows I'm actually me, but not really.

[-] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 54 points 19 hours ago

"Yea, I picked the power to change reality at my will. I can literally do anything I want. Water is breathable now. Disease doesn't exist. I created a moon base by snapping my fingers and people can teleport to it. What did you pick?"

"Oh, uh... shapeshifting..."

[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

If you've read Watchmen you know what the downside of that power is. Godlike power leads to detachment from the human race. You lose the connection to everything you ever loved, to your humanity.

The worst that being a shapeshifter will do to you is getting you into some kinky sex.

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Some versions of shape shifting have very real downsides. Remember Odo from Deep Space 9

Notice how his face looks like it was crudely sculpted out of clay? This is because in the story he's a shapeshifter. But this isn't shapeshifting like Animorphs, where you just have to imagine an image of an animal that you've absorbed the pattern of. That form of shapeshifting is like a menu. You mentally select a form to shift into, and the powers take care of all the pesky details.

But some forms of shapeshifting, like Odo's, don't work like that. You can't just mentally tell your powers "make me look like John." If you want to look like John, you instead would have to mentally picture every single minute detail of John's face and body. Imagine if you had to consciously recall and build up your entire form detail by detail every time you shifted.

This is why Odo looks so odd. His true form is a puddle. Him taking a form is like a painter painting a picture - every detail has to be consciously chosen. Maybe a true master painter could shape shift into a form with a realistic face, but most folks would end up looking like Odo.

[-] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 hours ago

What did I pick?

Russia.

[-] youcantreadthis@quokk.au 24 points 18 hours ago

So I don't risk fucking up thermodynamics next time I drop acid and making atoms stop being a thing.

[-] edwardbear@lemmy.world 9 points 17 hours ago

I mean I’ve seen myself “functioning” when I’m a tiny bit high. No way I’m trusting myself with that much power. “Oops, instead of teleporting those guys on the surface, I halfway burried them”

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[-] square@lemmy.zip 10 points 14 hours ago

I'd want the powers of the Jessica Jones villain played by David Tennant where you can make anyone do anything. But instead of using it to rape and shit I'd make rich people turn their homes into homeless shelters and give their wealth away and I could just walk out of any bank or store with whatever I wanted.

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[-] matlag@sh.itjust.works 7 points 13 hours ago

So the very first thing you think about when picking a superpower is one that's primary benefit is deceiving people?
Not materialize unlimited amount of food and address world hunger?
Not healing any disease with a touch or better: remotely? Or materialize vaccines with a snap of fingers? Or capturing CO2 out of the air??
We had way too many Hollywood superheroes movies. Now people think a supe is either an invincible warrior or can do super nasty things. No one wants the least spectacular highest good brought to the world powers?

[-] vagrancyand@sh.itjust.works 12 points 13 hours ago

Think through the state of the world and the consequences of those things. Unless you're also invincible you will be killed for doing literally any of those things.

Lets just do world hunger. We produce around 2.5x the amount of food needed to feed everyone to the average american caloric intake. That's something we already do. We have the ability to ship any good anywhere in the world within 12 hours, or alternatively, keep a good fresh enough to be sold over MONTHS of transportation (think the fresh fruits picked in South America that is shipped to Thailand to be processed and shipped to china to be packaged then shipped to the US to be sold 3-6 months after they were picked.).

We have no world hunger. There is not a lack of food. There is not a lack of transportation.

Hunger is used as a weapon. Period. That is the totality of the reason that any single person or group of people do not have the ability eat 3 square meals a day.

If you, as (presumably) an American were to just bring food to Cuba, you will be investigated by congress and Trump's DOJ both on criminal charges. (see Hasan Piker currently being subpeanoaed for just filming Cubans and bringing food.)

If you magically could produce infinite food, you have just taken away the most used weapon in world history. This means you are the single most hated and despised person by not only those in power, by but everyone that benefits from those in power, and that's a lot of people, and they own (effectively) all the guns and nukes.

The reason people dream small with superpowers is because, realistically, as long as you don't drastically change the status quo, you're safe.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 27 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

When you become a pen where do you put the money? Checkmate shapeshifters.

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[-] Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 12 points 16 hours ago

The "pick a superpower" game needs rules, because otherwise, the best option is omnipotence.

[-] SethranKada@lemmy.ca 4 points 13 hours ago

That's what CYOA's are for, they are the complete game that this question teases but never delivers.

My favourite is https://cyoa.ltouroumov.ch/viewer/

I've spent hours of my life, every single day, just browsing its insanely long list of powers and trying to make various combos and synergies.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 4 points 14 hours ago

Omnipotence also needs to have rules. What if it doesn't come with omniscience? What if your powers are so immense that they're utterly impossible to control? You move the muscles you'd normally use to stand up, and your power shoots through your legs, shattering the planet.

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this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
531 points (99.4% liked)

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