Animal Transformation

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Tropes and genres
Related tropes/genresCats (trope), Centaurification, Bestiality, Selkie, Shapeshifter, Spirit Animal, Were-Animal, Kemonomimi (includes catboys and catgirls), Werewolf, Penguinfic, Merpeople
See alsoAlternate Universe, Animagus, Anthropomorfic, Cat AU, Crack, Furry Fandom, Minerva McGonagall, Tentacles
Related articles on Fanlore.
interior art for the Doctor Who zine The Cat Who Walked Through Time: artist: eccentricone
art by Maggie Symon from the zine, Children of the Sun Aliens transform Spock into a sort of giant sabertooth wolf-thing (called "Gral") as part of an experiment.

Animal transformation is a fanfic trope in which one or more characters are transformed into an animal, or else an Alternate Universe story wherein the characters are cast as animals.

Often though not always such stories are considered crackfic, but they may be especially long and involved specimens of the genre. (Fic about characters cast as or being turned into inanimate objects or ideas is sometimes called Anthropomorfic.)

Although examples can be found for an enormous variety of animals, the most common types are pets, especially cats.

The animal transformation trope may be even more popular in Japanese fandoms than in Western ones; many doujinshi feature characters as animals, drawn either with selected animal features (as in the ears and tails of catgirls) or completely changed. When a character has only the animal ears and tail, it's known as Kemonomimi.

Fic set in fandoms where it is canon for characters to turn into animals, such as Harry Potter animagus fic or stories about other fantasy or comic characters with shapeshifting superpowers, usually are not called animal transformation fic but labeled with the universe's term. In Fullmetal Alchemist, for example, there are canonical attempts to fuse humans with animals (typically with tragic results); the resulting creations are called chimeras.

Because The Sentinel has canon examples of spirit animals, both Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg are often portrayed as transformed into a jaguar and wolf respectively.

interior art from Missing Links #2, artist is TM Alexander

Examples

(For examples where characters turn into wolves or other wereanimals (e.g., cyclically or via a bite), see the Werewolf and Wereanimal pages. For more examples where characters are turned into cats, see the Cats page. For examples where characters spend part of their time as penguins, see the Penguins page. For examples where characters spend part of their time as dragons, see the Dragon page. For examples where characters are centaurs, see the Centaurification page. For examples where characters turn into unicorns, see the Unicorn page.)

External links

References

  1. ^ "Children of the Sun". Archived from the original on 2021-04-12. Retrieved 7 Jan 2010.