Travis Kelce: Woo! Jabroni thought he got me. [Kelce takes his hand off his neck, revealing a glowing bite wound]
Andy Reid: You've been infected... with Eaglemania.
Kelce: No! No! I can stop this jawn! I mean... thing.
Patrick Mahomes: He's changing! [Mahomes and Reid watch in terror as Kelce transforms into a zombie version of his brother, Jason Kelce]
Zombie Jason Kelce: Hey Jabronis... Go Birds!
— Gridiron Heights: Super Bowl LVII: Zombies in Gridiron Heights!?
This trope is for when a character's physical transformation is foreshadowed by a transformation in behavior or instinct, usually when curses or Applied Phlebotinum are concerned.
For example: Bob has been bitten by a werewolf, but the full moon hasn't risen yet. However, he's developed certain habits that are commonly associated with canines, including howling into the sky, scratching himself with his foot, eating raw meat, and barking at cats.
Can be Played for Laughs or for drama, but the former is most common. The character will often be frightened and confused by how strange they've been acting.
Subtrope to Slow Transformation. Compare The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body, OOC Is Serious Business, Transformation of the Possessed, Minor Symptom Foreshadowing, and Virus-Victim Symptoms. Related to Furry Reminder and My Instincts Are Showing.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Paprika: As a result of the Big Bad hacking the DC Mini, people who've been using it are forcibly assimilated into a nightmarish parade of surreal characters and transformed to fit the theme. However, because both the assimilation and transformation only happens in dreams, the first real world hint of anything amiss is the victim beginning to speak in inspirational-sounding gibberish as the parade consumes their minds - as is the case with Dr. Shima, who turns up in the dream world as a grotesque giant with a body made out of dolls. In the finale, this gets even worse when the Dream Land begins to merge with the waking world, resulting in an entire city full of victims talking nonsense and then transforming in reality.
- Tokyo Mew Mew: After a laser infused with Iriomote cat DNA strikes Ichigo while hanging out with her crush, she starts falling Asleep in Class all the time and gets cravings for fish and milk. This leads to her eventual transformation into Mew Ichigo.
- Uzumaki: In "The Snail," the first symptom of Katayama's transformation into a giant snail is tiredness and mental sluggishness, something that Tsumura frequently bullies him over. It's not until later that he begins manifesting a shell and stalk-eyes, losing the ability to walk, and so on. Later, Tsumura begins lagging behind his friends, finding himself inexplicably tired and unable to catch up; of course, he's found partially transformed into a giant snail later on.
Comic Books
- The Incredible Hulk: When Samuel Sterns (the Leader) was exposed to gamma radiation, he became smarter and started reading voraciously. The enlarged cranium and green skin came later.
- Spider-Man: When he first bonded with the Venom Symbiote, Spider-Man Took a Level in Jerkass, acting more aggressive and standoffish as opposed to his usual goofy, wisecracking nature. Had he not rid himself of the Symbiote when he did, he likely would've taken on the monstrous form the Symbiote would take when bonded to Eddie Brock.
Fan Works
- Inverted in Austraeoh: After being turned back from a chaos beast, Rainbow Dash spends a while being Ax-Crazy and making extremely inappropriate jokes and remarks about the violence she's causing, before eventually calming down.
- Based on The Loud House:
- The fanfic The Buzz on Leni
, Leni turns into a bee/girl hybrid when given bee DNA. Before this happens, she becomes more intellectual (since bees, apparently, are smart), starts bossing her siblings around and calling herself a queen, pronounces her "S"s as "Zzzz", and serves her siblings lots of honey.
- The Sponge House: In "I Was a Teenage Hops" (parodying the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "I Was a Teenage Gary"), Lana gets accidentally injected with something called "frog plasma". It makes her crave frog food and hop like a frog, and then she turns into a frog.
- The fanfic The Buzz on Leni
- In the Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic Lycan Around, Falke has always had his share of wolf-like behaviors, but they become even harder for him to control right before he becomes a werewolf. He pants like a canine, gains cravings for raw chicken, and wants to play fetch.
- In the Knights of the Old Republic fanfic In The Shadow Of The GenoHaradan, Darth Malak accepts a shapeshifting Body Double as a gift from Hulas and decides to use it in the final battle with Revan. Unfortunately, Revan recognizes the body double instantly; so, she uses the Jedi Mind Trick to convince the extremely weak-willed shapeshifter that it's actually a Twi'lek dancing girl. The body double is halfway through denying the claim when it begins slowly speaking a mixture of broken Basic and Twi'leki in an increasingly feminine voice, before its body shapeshifts to match its new identity.
- In the Gravity Falls / The Secret World crossover fanfic Pine Trees And Honeybees, Dipper is abducted by a grief-maddened Lorraine Maillard, who is convinced that he's actually her long-dead son Callum. As Solomon Island's eldritch magic comes into play, Dipper soon begins to transform into Callum, even getting younger to match the age that Callum died at; however, before the change becomes noticeable, Dipper begins unconsciously treating Lorraine as if she really is his mother, even calling her "mommy".
- Night of the Vampurr: Before Yuki becomes a vampurr that steals milk, she becomes sleepier during the day (as bats are nocturnal), begins to sleep upside down, gains cravings for milk, and is disgusted by garlic bread.
- Total Eclipse of the Bark:
- At the beginning of the story, before Wolfrun becomes a werewolf, he suddenly howls, bites Akaoni for eating the last of the chicken, gets on all fours, and bites Majorina's broomstick. The others are confused by how strangely he's acting until Majorina realizes that the next night will be a full moon.
- Before Akane becomes a werewolf, she exhibits several canine-like behaviors. She eats messily, scratches her ear with her foot, howls, catches a ball with her teeth, and scratches a treenote .
- In the Wicked fanfic The Land of What Might-Have-Been, the alternate Elphaba first secures power over Oz by unleashing a chemical weapon called the Plague of Transformations and framing Morrible for it. As the name suggests, anyone exposed to it will be transformed into an animal... and it's not uncommon for the afflicted to begin showing mental symptoms first: a woman about to turn into a pig begins gobbling down her dinner with Jabba Table Manners; a man being transformed into a leech starts zeroing in on someone's jugular long before the transformation starts; the alternate Boq, just before transforming into a chameleon, grows increasingly uncomfortable about being visible in front of a crowd and runs for cover; most amusingly, the alternate Glinda forgets how to read, then begins playing with Fiyero's medals and rubbing herself against him - right before turning into a kitten.
Films — Animated
- Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman: After getting bitten by a werewolf the night before, Theodore's personality starts to change. He starts slicking his hair back, asks if there's a steak sandwich in his lunch bag (he's a vegetarian), and starts acing like vicious Jerkass instead of the meek Nice Guy he's known for being.
- Bartok the Magnificent: In the finale, Ludmilla takes a magic potion designed to bring out the drinker's innermost qualities, believing it will make her even more beautiful and glorious. Instead, it turns her into a dragon via a grotesque Bit-by-Bit Transformation sequence. However, before the physical signs start to show, Ludmilla's personality begins to subtly shift as her carefully concealed monstrousness is brought to the surface by the potion. Not only does she strangle a rat, but in the ensuing Villain Song, her rather dainty singing voice slowly turns bombastic and grating - right before an enormous dragon tail erupts from her rear and her behavior takes a sharp swing towards the crudely monstrous. During her song, she even says that she can feel her inhibitions molting.
- Beauty and the Beast (1991): The Enchantress invokes this trope by transforming a prince into the titular Beast for refusing to give her shelter during a snowstorm. In order to break the spell, he must learn to love another and earn their love in return, necessitating that he learn to be a better person to become human again.
- Pinocchio (1940): The first sign of Pleasure Island's true nature taking effect is the visitors start braying like a donkey prior to their Slow Transformation into one. When Lampwick starts tuning into a donkey, Pinocchio begins laughing at the sight...until his laughter becomes a loud bray.
- Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: When a lab accident results in Wallace turning into a were-rabbit, he shows signs of it while still in human form — he gets cravings for vegetables and sometimes bounces like a bunny. Later, when the full moon comes out as Victor tries to pick a fight with him, Wallace's beastly strength kicks in just in time to block a punch and toss him off rather violently.
Films — Live-Action
- Bedknobs and Broomsticks: Late in the film, Emilius Browne finds himself cornered by Nazi soldiers and is forced to use Miss Price's rabbit spell on himself in order to escape. On all the other times it's been used (including on Browne himself), it's worked instantaneously, but this time there's a distinct delay, apparently caused by Browne's lack of belief; for a moment it looks like the spell isn't going to work... and then Browne's nose begins to twitch in a rabbit-like fashion. By the time the Nazis have broken the door down, he's a fully-transformed rabbit.
- Blade (1998): In one scene, it's revealed by Abraham Whistler that the first signs that a human is beginning to transform into a vampire is that they begin to feel thirsty no matter how much they've had to drink, and also start exhibiting sensitivity to sunlight.
- The Boy Who Cried Werewolf:
- After Jordan steps on broken glass from a vial of blood labeled L.B. 217 in their late great-uncle's lab, she initially becomes much more excitable and outgoing, loses her allergies and bad eyesight, and starts craving meat despite being a strict vegetarian. It seems like a good change, until her first transformation into an out-of-control werewolf. It turns out the blood was werewolf blood, which infected Jordan until she could get an antidote made. Even after she is cured, she shows more confidence.
- Subverted with her brother Hunter, who shows no behavioral changes, but is revealed to be a bloodline werewolf through their great uncle (the source of the blood that infected Jordan), with the gene activating on the first full moon after his 14th birthday. Justified, since Madame Varcolac explains that infected werewolves struggle much more with the transformation since it isn't natural for them, while bloodline werewolves have full control from the outset.
- The Fly (1986): After the teleporter accident fuses Brundel with a fly, the first indicators of his impending transformation are an increased craving for sugar, a noticeable increase in his physical strength, and a much stronger sex drive. It was not long, however, before he began to deteriorate and transform in grotesque ways.
- Ginger Snaps: As part of a larger Growing Up Sucks allegory/ Psychosexual Horror take on the Puberty Superpower, Ginger, after getting bitten by a "dog" who was attracted to the scent of blood through her getting her first period, slowly transforms in mind and body over the course of a month before the full-blown permanent transformation on the full moon. She develops an animosity with canines and feels compelled to cow them into submission before killing them, while also becoming more extroverted, domineering, and sexually aggressive in her everyday life. The adults around her, and even Ginger initially, just assume it's her "becoming a woman", while her sister Brigitte knows something is off. In the second film, Brigitte, now infected herself after killing Ginger, fights harder to resist the same urges for sex and violence her sister had, since she knows where it leads, but fails.
- The Luck of the Irish: As Kyle, who finds out he's half-leprechaun, finds himself slowly turning into one, his voice slips into an Irish brogue (including calling his grandfather "Gran'da") and he suddenly starts dancing a jig whenever he hears Irish music.
- Pinocchio (2022, Disney): Just like in the original movie, Pinocchio emits a braying sound when he's laughing at Lampwick for looking like a donkey, shortly before he sprouts the ears and tail of a donkey himself.
- Slither:
- Early in the film, Grant is infested by an alien parasite that begins converting him into a Hive Queen. Before he develops the impregnator tendrils, Combat Tentacles, and other horrific mutations, however, Grant enjoys an enhanced libido and a hunger for raw meat. It's not until later that his lust results in him manifesting the impregnator tendrils - and using them for the first time.
- Victims impregnated by Grant eventually swell up into fleshy, limbless balloons that eventually explode, unleashing a horde of parasitic slugs on the surrounding area. Before they start looking pregnant, though, they develop a similar hunger for meat, which Grant helpfully feeds by providing his captives with corpses.
- The Thirteenth Year: One of the signs that Cody is becoming a merman is that he suddenly starts feeling dehydrated and thirsty all the time.
- The Witches (1990): Odd case; normally, people affected by Formula 86 only demonstrate appropriately mouse-like behaviour after they've started demonstrating physical symptoms - but act perfectly human after they've become mice. However, after the Chef Witch taste-tests the formula-spiked cress soup, her transformation begins with groans of pain that degenerate into involuntary squeaking sounds, and it's not until a few minutes later that she begins to physically transform.
- Van Helsing: The eponymous character is bitten by one of Dracula's werewolves halfway through the film, leaving him in a Race Against the Clock to find a cure before his first full moon - after which he'll be under Dracula's control. During the last forty-eight hours, Van Helsing begins to lose his grip on his temper, nearly throttling Carl to death over a minor disagreement concerning the Frankenstein monster. The next day, this escalates to physiological changes like manifesting Super-Strength while still in human form.
- Wolf: Jack Nicholson's character begins to show increased aggression after he's bitten by a wolf, at first channeling it into taking down his rival at a publishing company, and then attacking hoodlums in the park at night.
- Wolves: The first sign of Cade's Secret Legacy as a werewolf is terrifying nightmares, followed by violent moodswings. The latter manifests when he's fouled at a football game and leaps about twelve feet to beat the tar out of his opponent.
Literature
- Give Yourself Goosebumps: In Lost in Stinkeye Swamp, one possible ending features you meeting Annabelle the witch and being challenged to drink one of her magical potions. Drinking from a cup in the center results in you and Zeke being given what tastes like apple juice... but turns out to be the Fountain of Youth, though for once in this series, the behavioral effects kick in ahead of the physical ones: suddenly petulant over Zeke drinking more than you, you make a grab for the cup and accidentally spill it all over the floor, prompting Zeke to start bawling at the top of his lungs, and when you tell him not to be such a baby, you find that all that comes out of your mouth is "Oh doo bee soo gee baba!" It's not until the next page in line that you and Zeke physically regress to infancy... and stay that way.
- The Goosebumps series in general was quite fond of this trope, to the point where Troy Steele of Blogger Beware was quick to poke fun at its appearance, as noted below.
- In The Haunted Mask, the first sign that there's something sinister about the titular disguise is that Carly Beth, normally a Shrinking Violet, starts becoming menacing, cruel, and violent to friends and strangers alike. Similarly, in The Haunted Mask II, Steve Boswell dons a monstrous "old man" mask and, before he begins physically changing, feels exhausted and craves oatmeal as he rapidly ages.
- The short story "Pumpkin Juice" in Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps has two children drinking a magical potion that slowly changes them into monsters; before any physical transformations happen, they begin developing ravenous appetites for trash, raw meat, and live animals.
- Another short story—"A Holly Jolly Holiday" from More & More & More Tales to Give You Goosebumps—combines this trope with Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul. Anyone who watches the in-universe film A Holly Jolly Holiday is overwhelmed with Christmas spirit and becomes a saccharine zombie obsessed with spreading holiday cheer. The first symptoms of the change are a desire to bake cookies, humming carols, and an inability to swear; the transformation into a fairy-like creature comes later.
- Cry of the Cat has main character Alison scratched by a seemingly-immortal feline; the next day, she starts craving tuna fish, making acrobatic leaps, and licking her palms incessantly.
- Hogfather: Mr Teatime's raid on the Tooth Fairy's castle goes somewhat awry when several members of his caper crew are menaced by their childhood fears and suffer Emotional Regression as a result, exhibiting thumb-sucking, childish insults, and irrational fear - doubly upsetting to the crew once they notice what they're doing. Most of them are killed off by their various bogeymen before the full effects can be seen... except for Mr Sideney, who, while fleeing the tower in a fit of childish panic, finds himself physically regressing to five years old - just in time to end up at the mercy of his old school bully.
- Merman's Kiss: After having sex with her merman boyfriend Damarian, Cassie starts to slowly turn into a mermaid herself, and part of the process involves a craving for water and fish. The latter is particularly noteworthy since up to this point, Cassie didn't like fish so the transformation changes her preferences in food.
- Shivers: In the story Your Momma's a Werewolf, Iggy's mother was attacked by a wolf carrying a lycanthropic viral strain. While she escaped with a mere scratch, later on Iggy and his bestie, Mole, starts noticing something's amiss with her behavior, namely trying to feast on raw bacon behind Iggy's back, shaving hair which unexpectedly begins growing on her face, and in an Out-of-Character Alert moment, shouting at her son when Iggy tries showing concern over her wound. The rest of the story is a Race Against the Clock with Iggy and Mole trying to prevent Iggy's mother from becoming a werewolf completely.
- Such Sharp Teeth: After the protagonist Rory is mauled by a werewolf, in addition to PTSD from the attack, she finds she has an increased hunger for meat, she's stronger and more athletic, and has an inexplicable aversion to silver. Already suspecting the truth, she confirms it when she peels off her bandages and sees silver fur growing beneath the lacerations the werewolf left.
- Some of the transformations in TF High work this way, such as when main protagonist Brandi Hound started growling and becoming ornery at the word "cat" right as she was beginning to turn into a half dog hybrid.
- Whateley Universe: Inverted; Lapin's transformation into a version of Iron Bunny starts with the physical appearance, then after some days, the personality traits appear, like a lack of propriety.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who:
- In "Ghost Light," Josiah Smith decides to dispose of the annoying Reverend Matthews by using Light's tech to turn him into an ape in a deliberate mockery of Matthews' anti-evolutionary beliefs. At first, the victim appears perfectly normal and is able to continue lecturing; then, after being offered a fruit bowl, Matthews begins chomping down on a banana, ignoring traditional Victorian table manners despite the formal meeting. It's not until afterwards that he begins sprouting hair on his hands...
- In "Survival," the first signs of Ace falling under the Cheetah Planet's influence are that she starts feeling that she belongs there, and unnatural hunger. The glowing eyes that are the first sign of her physical transformation show up a little later.
- In "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances", nanogenes mistake a dead, beyond recognizable child with a gas mask (killed in a WWII bombing raid in London) as the template for the human race, and sets about trying to "cure" the humans in London based on this template, turning them into gas mask zombies. While the first symptom is a scratch on the back of the right hand, the infected person also starts unconsciously calling people "Mummy" (since patient zero, the Empty Child, is obsessed with finding his mother) and losing memories of their own life, before they fully lose themselves.
- Dracula The Series: One episode opens with Eileen (Max and Christopher's mother) rushing to get out of Uncle Gustav's house in terror. Max is surprised as this is unlike her. They later discover she's going to Lucard's (Dracula's alias) mansion for a business meeting, and they go to intervene. There, they discover that Dracula has turned her into a vampire, and she was trying to get away from Uncle Gustav's anti-vampire wards.
- Farscape:
- In "DNA Mad Scientist", Namtar injects an unsuspecting Aeryn with a serum that begins transforming her into a Pilot. Soon after, she begins manifesting enhanced senses and new mental processes, leaving her wandering around Moya in a bewildered daze as she struggles to process all the new sensory data - as if she were a Pilot aboard their first Leviathan. It's not until later that Aeryn begins manifesting physical mutations like secondary limbs sprouting from her stomach.
- In "Bone To Be Wild," M'Lee's transition to her "monster" form is foreshadowed by her beginning to growl animalistically and snarling about food - before suddenly sprouting spikes, spines, and fangs across her body. Br'nee later explains that this transformation is a direct response to hunger, since she only has the attitude to kill when she's in the monster form and will only revert to her "placid" self once she's satiated.
- Henry Danger: In "Henry the Man-Beast", Henry gets zapped by one of Ray's gadgets that makes the victim stronger and more powerful, but with the side effect of slowly turning them into an evil man-beast covered with hair all over. The first stage after getting zapped is Henry turning into a selfish Jerkass who never follows rules, does not use proper table manners, and not caring about others.
- Stargate SG-1: In "The Broca Divide", the first sign that a person has become infected with the alien virus is an uptick in aggression: infected SGC personnel start picking fights, or in Samantha Carter's case, getting horny for Jack. Later, they develop more prominent brow ridges and bushier eyebrows.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation:
- In the episode "Identity Crisis", Geordi has been infected without his knowledge with alien DNA that is slowly transforming him. The first signs are light sensitivity, heat flashes, and tremors. Since we saw this happen to his friend Suzanna before, we know what's happening but Geordi doesn't.
- In "Genesis", the crew starts turning into prehistoric monsters. Before they change, their behaviour does — Picard, who was about to turn into a monkey-like creature, becomes fearful, Riker, who was about to become a caveman, becomes a Forgetful Jones, Worf, who was about to become a brutish monster, becomes even grumpier than usual and burps at the table, Troi, who was about to turn amphibious, starts complaining about the cold, eating caviar for lunch, drinking a lot of water, and wanting to take a bath, and Reg, who was about to become part-spider, becomes hyper.
Tabletop Games
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Most Fera undergo their First Change all at once; by contrast, members of the Ananasi (aka Werespiders) begin undergoing permanent behavioral shifts long before they physically transform: first, they become more curious, noticing patterns in the world they couldn't previously perceive. They also suffer a marked loss in empathy and emotion - to the point that in the intro to the Ananasi breedbook, a teenage girl undergoing this metamorphosis observes her best friend being struck and killed by a car without feeling anything other than disinterest. By the time they finally manifest the power to transform, they've already become the cold-hearted, blood-drinking tricksters that the Ananasi are so widely known as.
Video Games
- Downplayed in Cyberpunk 2077, where V's brain (but not their entire body) is slowly being rebuilt on a molecular level by implanted nanomachinery into that of Johnny Silverhand. The first sign of this happening is V taking up smoking — a habit they have never had, but Silverhand very much did.
- Dragon Age: Origins, Zathrian explains that people suffering the werewolf curse experience enhanced aggression and violent temper tantrums long before they undergo the actual transformation.
- Identity V: According to Luchino's (The Professor) introduction trailer narration, his transformation process into the Evil Reptilian was marked not only by the development of scales in place of his skin, but by the fact that he abandoned all his moral boundaries. His experiment file also says that he developed a vigilant paranoia, although the writer theorizes that it was related to his trauma of being bitten by a snake rather than a consequence of his transformation.
- The Quarry: Almost everyone who gets infected by werewolves shows aggression whether they transform or not. Max, Laura, and Nick are the only playable characters who will get infected regardless of the player's actions.
- Nick's transformation into a werewolf is foreshadowed by him slowly becoming more violent, lustful, and possessive of Abi. This comes to a head when, right before he transforms, he angrily claims that the only reason he got with Abi was because she was pitiful to him (although given how everyone points out how drastically out of character Nick was acting, this likely isn't true).
- After Max is infected, depending on what Laura says to him, he will lash out at her before transforming.
- If Abby gets infected, she will push Bobby. (She will not actually turn because of her silver bracelet. Also, the werewolf who would've bitten her would be canonically deceased before the other wolves, resulting in her curse being broken.)
- If Emma gets infected, she will either say mean things to Abi or her fans. This depends on whether Abi is still alive.
- If Jacob gets infected, he'll get insecure about no one wanting him and express anger over the summer being over.
- Resident Evil 1: In the game, a document called the Keepers Diary can be found in which the author, an Umbrella researcher describes his transformation into a zombie as a result of being infected with the T-virus. Some of the changes he describes include being hot and itchy all the time and being tired and wanting to sleep. After the player finishes reading the document, the researcher now fully transformed into a zombie emerges from the wardrobe behind them and attempts to attack.
- Similarly, in Resident Evil 2, you can find a diary from a police officer who befriended a scrapyard worker named Thomas, with whom he plays chess. He remarks on how the man has "poor manners" and is frequently scratching himself, and how the man has a ravenous appetite and spoke of nothing but food during their game. Naturally, the diary ends with him remarking on how Thomas looked terrible the last time they met and that he wasn't feeling that well either...
- In The Secret World, Filth infection and the gradual Eldritch Transformation into a Filth entity first manifests as brief spurts of Word-Salad Horror that persist for a while as the Dreamers slowly begin interfacing with the victim's brain. Soon after, the Filth itself begins erupting from every orifice to layer the victims in the signature Ominous Obsidian Ooze; from here, the growth of the signature tentacles and Glowing Eyes of Doom quickly follow.
- Until Dawn:
- The backstory features a party of miners being rescued from a cave-in and brought to a nearby sanatorium, where they began transforming into Wendigos as a result of eating their dead while trapped underground. Before any physical changes set in, several miners began demonstrating apparent mental illness and - in one case - tried to bite the doctors who were treating them.
- The finale reveals that Hannah Washington began suffering her own set of symptoms after being trapped in the mines, resulting in her makeshift Apocalyptic Log losing coherency as the mental symptoms set in. Once again, she's transforming into a Wendigo, this time as a result of her being forced to eat her sister's body in order to survive. It wasn't until the end of the diary that her physical transformation was well and truly underway, by which point she was so mentally ravaged that the only thing she could write was "HUNGRY."
Web Videos
- Gridiron Heights: In the Super Bowl LVII episode, which is a parody of The Last of Us, Travis Kelce ends up getting infected with the Eaglemania after fighting with a zombified Hasson Reddick. While he initially appears with a glowing bite in his neck, his accidental use of Philly mannerisms, namely "jabroni" and "jawn" forces Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes to watch in horror as he transforms into a zombified version of his brother Jason Kelce.
- In Oxventure, a Dungeons & Dragons Actual Play, Prudence the Warlock becomes a werebear after being bitten in "Fast & Furriest". This leads to small things (mainly feats of strength from her strength score being increased to 20), and culminates in "High Moon", where being close to her first transformation causes an increased appetite (to the point of eating all the nachos in a tavern), and a compulsion to bite an opponent in a bar brawl. This is a minor plot point, since a woman who's dating a werebear recognises the symptoms, and puts her in touch with the local werebear scene.
- The Spider (Just Preston): Only a day after Peter Parker is bitten by the Oscorp spider, he goes out and brutally murders the man responsible for Uncle Ben's death before going off on a killing spree, using his powers to massacre petty criminals and supervillains. Gwen theorizes that this is because the mutations that gave him his powers also effected his brain chemistry. It's also telling that while his canon-counterpart is a massive snarker, Peter speaks less and less as his body mutates further, eventually culminating into him becoming mute as his human body mutates.
- Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye: Downplayed. After Paul survives the wolf-like attack on his life that killed Prism, he starts asking for rare meat, despite being a strict vegan grossed out by meat prior to the attack. He also becomes a lot more anxious about the growing werewolf hysteria around Connor Creek. Other than this, his sister barely notices his changes, so much that Genre Savvy Paul and the Connor Wolves have to spell out the truth for her.
Western Animation
- Adventure Time: In "Hug Wolf", after Finn is hugged by the titular monster, he develops an insatiable urge to hug everything he sees well before he transforms into a Hug Wolf himself.
- Aladdin: The Series: In "Shark Treatment", evil mermaid Selene puts a spell on Aladdin to change him into a shark so he can become her pet. As the transformation starts to kick in, Aladdin gains superb swimming skills and develops a rabid craving for fish.
Genie: If you snack now, Al, you'll ruin your appetite.Iago: Ugh! He's certainly not helping mine.
- American Dad!: In "Dancin' A-With My Cell", Stan tries to make his family more like him by CRISPR-ing them with his DNA. At first, they take on his bullheaded, take-no-prisoners attitude before gaining his distinctive chin.
- Archie's Weird Mysteries: In "Me! Me! Me!", Veronica makes a wish using a magic statue that gradually turns everyone in town into duplicates of her. Before the physical transformation takes place, the person usually begins acting more like her (e.g., refusing to do work or help and buffing their nails).
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force: In the infamous episode "Shake Like Me", Master Shake starts to sound a little... different after he's been bitten by a radioactive black man.
Shake: Yo, where do they get off? Biting me like an animal all up in here?Frylock: "All up in here?"Shake: Yeah, yo. This region of the epidermis? Dawg!
- The Batman: In "The Laughing Bat", Batman becomes infected with Joker's latest strain of Joker Venom, which is slowly turning him into a "Joker". The first symptoms are compulsive laughing fits and a tendency to make inappropriate jokes.
- Big City Greens: Invoked in the episode "Like Father". After Cricket spends an extended time with Bill, he catches "Billness" and begins acting a lot like his father, such as moving, talking, and even toasting diet Splish in perfect sync. Cricket soon discovers he is becoming less like him and more like Bill, worrying he will turn into Bill as a result, and soon begins doing what Bill would do like boarding up his escape hole, napping all of a sudden, and struggling not to laugh at Doug's jokes. Eventually, he begins speaking in Bill's voice, and it's only a matter of time until he undergoes the physical transformation into a mini version of Bill from his Imagine Spot.
- Ben 10: In "Benwolf", Ben is bitten by the Yenaldooshi werewolf and slowly turns into it. The first indication of this is him asking Gwen to scratch his back, immediately before he starts growing hair. He's not actually becoming a werewolf. The alien scratched the Omnitrix, causing it to absorb its DNA and giving Ben a new alien transformation.
- Dexter's Laboratory: In "The Laughing", Dexter accidentally gets bitten by a clown's dentures at Dee-Dee's birthday party. He would suddenly lapse into a fit of uncontrollable laughter before changing into a were-clown.
- In Extreme Ghostbusters, the Monster Clown Ghosts manage to infect Eduardo which slowly turns him into one of them. The first symptoms are his consistent laughter, compulsive joking, and tendency to juggle balls and perform unnaturally acrobatic tricks.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In "Twistory", Timmy wishes three of the Founding Fathers into the present day, and his meddling with history creates an alternate timeline where America is still a British colony and electric technology doesn't exist. As everything starts to change, Timmy briefly slips into a British accent.
Wanda: We gotta get these guys back to their time period. They've been here too long already.Timmy: Relax, Wanda. We're still okay. Besides, I think if history had changed, we'd have noticed by now. Right?(a nearby vacuum cleaner suddenly changes into a broomstick, and a light into a candle)Timmy: (nervous) Roight? Roight—I mean, right?
- Johnny Bravo: In "A Wolf in Chick's Clothing", Johnny scores a date with a woman who requests that he bring doggie treats with him. When he gets to her house later that night, he finds out the treats were actually for her to eat, and Johnny finds out shortly after that she's a werewolf.
- Hey Arnold!: Discussed but subverted in "Monkey Business". Mr. Simmons tells the class about a long-debunked, terminal disease called monkeynucleosis which supposedly turned the infected into a monkey before they "expire". After Helga gets touched by an organ grinder monkey, she seems to start exhibiting symptoms for the disease, including loss of appetite and irritability. It turns out Helga just has Hypochondria and, once absolutely convinced that monkeynucleosis isn't real, is relieved she isn't going to turn into a monkey after all.
- Kid vs. Kat: In "Rat-a-Phooey", Kat tries to blast Coop with a "rat-ray" gun to change him into a rat, only to hit his dad instead. Before he transforms, he is shown to be squeaking, eating cheese, and freaking out at the mention of cats.
- My Gym Partner's a Monkey: In "Inoculation Day", after Adam is accidentally hit with a syringe meant for Jake, he suddenly develops monkey habits like scratching himself, eating bananas, grooming Jake for fleas, and swinging on vines. No points for guessing what happens next.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Bats!", a botched spell results in Fluttershy turning into a cross between a pony and a "vampire fruit bat" (a type of bat that sucks apple juice). Before transforming, she starts thinking the apples look very delicious.
- Phineas and Ferb: In "That's the Spirit", in which Doofenshmirtz turns into a werecow. Before his transformation, he says he "had a strange craving to lick salt" and "found himself watching the nightly farm report and the Pasture Channel way more than usual".
- The Real Ghostbusters: In "Poultrygeist", before turning into a were-chicken, Maude starts clucking.
- Rugrats: Discussed in "Brothers are Monsters". When the babies overhear Stu say that "older brothers are monsters", they take it literally, and worry that Tommy having accidentally made Dil cry earlier in the episode was evidence that he was going to change into a literal monster.
- Rick and Morty:
- In "Rick Potion No. 9", Rick's shenanigans lead to an outbreak of a virus that turns all of humanity (except the Smith-Sanchez family) into deformed mantis monsters that have a romantic obsession with Morty. In one scene, Beth's co-worker Devon tries to hit on her before he catches the virus and suddenly starts asking her about her son's private parts.
- In The Last Temptation of Jerry after Jerry accidentally runs over the Easter Bunny, he starts to exhibit rabbit-like tendencies, including eating lettuce and drinking water like a rabbit, developing an insatiable sex drive which arouses Beth, and, later, starts transforming into the Easter bunny himself, to her horror.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- In "I Was a Teenage Gary", SpongeBob is accidentally injected with a dose of snail plasma meant for Gary. By the time he begins turning into a snail, he's started eating snail food, meowing, and walking really slowly.
- In "The Inside Job", Plankton attaches himself to SpongeBob's heart to find out the Krabby Patty formula, and his Evil Laughter turns into SpongeBob's iconic giggle before turning into a happy, moral, yellow, bucktoothed, spongy version of himself.
Plankton: Like I was saying, the Krabby Patty recipe is... the delicious sole property of the Krusty Krab! (catches himself) Who said that?!
- Teen Titans (2003): In "The Beast Within", after a fight with Adonis that resulted in Beast Boy getting splashed by strange chemicals, he starts acting rude and aggressive towards his teammates and even eating meat and eggs, things that Beast Boy would never eat, since he’s a vegetarian. After a terrible fight with Raven, he transforms into a werebeast that begins attacking his own team. It turns out that Adonis has also become a werebeast, and Raven tells the group that Beast Boy was protecting her.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): In "The Catwoman from Channel 6", April gets caught in Shredder's teleporter device at the same time as a cat. She starts to display feline behavior afterwards (meowing as she speaks, being disdainful of humans, violently reacting to sudden attention) and later physically transforms into a cat/human hybrid.
- Winx Club: After they rescue her from Lord Darkar's clutches, Bloom starts suffering episodes of meanness and gratuitous, sadistic cruelty. This foreshadows the fact Darkar Brainwashed her and turned her into Dark Bloom. Although it's downplayed because, while Bloom doesn't get her Evil Costume Switch, her eyes do change during the aforementioned episodes — from cyan to yellow with slitted pupils.
Real Life
- During the first trimester of pregnancy, the mother usually experiences a number of behavioral changes (Wacky Cravings, mood swings, stronger sense of smell). Appearance changes are normally too subtle to notice except to the mother and those closest to her. It's during the second trimester that the mother's appearance starts to noticeably change, most notably with the swollen abdomen.
