Follow TV Tropes


Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder

Go To








    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • The Illusion from Cardcaptor Sakura in Episode 6 appears as whatever each person is expecting to see so Sakura and her friends cannot settle on what they saw, like Tomoyo picturing a nikuman since she was hungry and Sakura picturing Nadeshiko since it was their birthday. However, this is ultimately exploited by Sakura, as she expects Nadeshiko, and comes to seal the card after realizing that her mother would never let her fall of a cliff.
  • In Noragami, Izanami takes A Form You Are Comfortable With to whomever looks upon her, as part of her way to make them stay longer with her in the Underworld. To Yato, she looked like Hiyori. To Ebisu, she took the form of the old woman who owned his favorite restaurant.
  • Zombie Land Saga: How the zombies are depicted changes on how they're perceived by whoever sees them. Amongst each other, the zombies look like normal girls, albeit with greenish-blue skin and the occasional bandages or Scary Stitches. However, when people are frightened by their appearance—including each other when they realize their makeup washed off in public—their putrefied complexions, sunken features, and bulging red eyes become apparent, reminding the viewer that they're still walking corpses.

    Comic Books 
  • This is why Galactus looks to us humans like a human with a funny hat and the letter G on his belt buckle. To the Stone Men from Saturn he looks like a Stone Man, to Toad Men he looks like a Toad Man, etc. One appearance consists of an entire page showing Galactus as he is normally shown, overlaid with dozens of smaller images of how he appears to every other alien species in the room.
  • This is explicitly shown several times in The Sandman, where Morpheus (as his name implies) always appears like a member of the observer's own species and culture, or like what the observer would expect the God of Dreams to resemble. He usually appears as a gaunt pale-skinned and raven-haired human man, but Martian Manhunter saw a giant skull wreathed in black flames, a Kitsune perceived a great fox coalescing from the night sky, and an ordinary cat saw a big black cat.
    • It also extends to speech, everyone hears him speak in their native language. This makes one person realize that Morpheus is who he claims to be when he realizes that he's hearing him speak in English even though his father-in-law (who doesn't know English) is conversing with Morpheus in Greek at the same time.
  • The Grant Morrison's JLA story dealing with the aftermath of Day of Judgment sees The Spectre having this applying to Hal Jordan when he took over as its host, making it hard to convince the Justice League that he was who he said he was.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), the goddess Aurora looks like an echidna to Knuckles but different to anyone else, saying "people see me how they imagine me."
  • Man-Thing in Thunderbolts has the "Ear of the Beholder" version: when he's Suddenly Speaking, everyone hears the accent, sentence structure, and terminology they associate with authority, whether that means a wise master or a crime boss. This is because he's actually speaking the Universal Language.
  • The Flash: When Max Mercury and Jessie Quick reappear in Flash #759, they look like zombies. At the beginning of the next issue, they zap Barry, and suddenly look like they did in life. Max explains that Barry's guilt was causing him to see them like that.

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Works 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The entity haunting the Ayres family in The Little Stranger manifests itself differently depending on what scares each family member the most. To the son, badly burned in a plane crash, it shows itself as fire. To the mother, it shows itself as her dead daughter, Suki. To the daughter, it shows its more or less true form, which is the monstrous version of her former fiancé Dr. Faraday.
  • The entity Indrid Cold of The Mothman Prophecies claims that his appearance is dependent on whoever is looking at him.

  • In Percy Jackson and the Olympians and its sequel series The Heroes of Olympus Aphrodite's appearance is not only different for each person who sees her, but her appearance will change while they are looking at her to better reflect the individual's idea of ideal beauty. When Percy sees her, he thinks she looks like Annabeth.
  • The Traitor's Hand: The Slaaneshi sorceress Cain and a squad encounter has the ability to appear as the person each viewer cares the most for. Cain sees her as Amberley (and is about to shoot another Guardsman for looking at her with the same expression and calling her by a different name)... until Jurgen shows up, breaking the spell and revealing her as a homely middle-aged woman.
  • Yvonnel in Homecoming has several artists of Mezoberranzan draw her portrait, telling them that they should only draw exactly what they see. She ends up with a hall full of very different paintings (some even with Multicolored Hair), because she appears to everyone as their ideal of beauty.
  • The Philip K. Dick story "Faith of Our Fathers" uses a variation on this. A True Believer in a future dystopia attempts to watch a televised speech by the all-powerful leader while under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug, and sees the leader transform into a hideous Eldritch Abomination. He is then informed that what he took was not a hallucinogen, but an antidote to the hallucinogens that are in every citizen's rations... The leader is in fact an alien monster, but no one can grasp his true form because he has a whole handful of different appearances — which one you see ostensibly depends on your personality.
  • Ghosts in John Dies at the End appear different depending on the expectations and desires of the person seeing them. A female ghost might conform to the beholder's standards of beauty, for example. This is the way that they are spotted, when different people disagree on the details of their appearance (hair color, skin color, etc).
  • What The Hell Did I Just Read
    • Mister Nymph takes the form of what you most fear.
    • The NON agents, who give their names to a crowd of three people who hear three different versions.
    • The appearance of the extra-dimensional door.
  • In the sequel to The Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Starlight Barking, when Sirius the Dog Star appears to the dogs, Pongo and Missis see a Dalmatian ... and then hear the General exclaiming in surprise that Sirius is a sheepdog. It becomes apparent that every dog sees Sirius as their own breed.
  • Animorphs: The Ellimist regularly appears to the animorphs in different shapes, though he takes a form they'd be inclined to trust, such as a Grandpa God. To Tobias, he takes the form of a mashup of every bird of prey, while in one story he freezes time and takes the appearance of a girl sitting not far away. Strangely, although he more or less created the Andalites, he doesn't appear as one to Ax.
  • The Franny K. Stein book The Frandidate had Franny create a living suit that would change its appearance based on the interests of whoever looked at it. For example, Franny's dog Igor sees the suit turn into the hostess of his favorite TV show, while one of the girls at Franny's school sees the suit take on the form of a bunny wearing a dress decorated with penguin patterns.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Angel: The second Conduit. In "A Hole in the World", it reverts to Gunn's shape after Gunn unknowingly arranges the death of Fred.
  • The sisters (and Leo) use a spell to this effect in season eight of Charmed (1998). Having faked their deaths during the Series Fauxnale, but finding traditional magical disguises too confusing (particularly for Wyatt and Chris), they came up with a glamour that would make them appear as themselves only to "those [they] call family," while everyone else would see a pre-selected alternative appearance.
  • Red Dwarf:
    • Pleasure GELFs can appear to any onlooker as their perfect mate, despite looking like disgusting green blobs in their natural form. Cat is so vain and egotistical that when he goes to meet the GELF he ends up having a cheerful conversation with a copy of himself.
    Middleman: What do you mean?
    Middleman: Sands of Zanzibar! You see an office building?
    Wendy: Yeah. You don't?
    Wendy: Seriously?
    Middleman: No. I see an office building.
    Wendy: Wow. Somebody's funny in the Underworld.
  • The Outer Limits (1995): In "First Anniversary", Dennis can see his wife Barbara in her true form, that of a repulsive aquatic alien, while his best friend Norman Glass sees her in the new form that she has assumed to trick him. This is because Dennis has developed a resistance to Barbara's ability to fool his senses after a year of close contact. Later, when the same thing happens to Norman, he sees his own wife Ady as she truly is while the paramedics who are taking him to hospital see her as the beautiful woman whose form she assumed when she first met Norman.
  • In Jupiter's Legacy, the being who grants the original members of the Union their powers appears differently to most of the members. For Sheldon and Walter, it's their father. For Fitz, it's his grandmother. For Grace, it's her uncle. For George, it's his mother. And for Richard, it's his best friend.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • The monstrous dream larva in uses this ability to be every one of its enemies' worst nightmares at once.
    • The spell reflective disguise causes anyone looking at the caster to see them as a member of the same race and gender as themselves, which could easily lead to Pronoun Trouble in group interactions.
    • Beholders, giant floating monstrous heads studded with eyestalks, are insanely xenophobic, particularly towards other Beholders - in all but the rarest of cases, a Beholder will attack another of its kind on sight because it looks wrong. Their deity, the Great Mother, embodies perfection, but when it manifests in front of a group of Beholders, each sees a larger, grander version of themselves.
  • New World of Darkness:
  • Warhammer 40,000: The Emperor of Mankind is sometimes depicted this way: even when he's not consciously using his psychic powers to disguise himself, his passive psychic abilities are so powerful that they affect other people's perception of him. Most humans see him as a shining god-like being, warriors see him as a man of tremendous stature and strength, while intellectuals see him as a wise man, and so forth. It's suggested that extremely powerful psykers, or just people with very strong wills (such as his bodyguards and Malcador the Sigillite) could see past the illusion and see him as simply an ordinary man.

    Video Games 
  • Mass Effect: Implied to be the case with the Asari. For some reason, every sentient race sees them as looking like blue members of their own species, with bipedal features for those with 4 legs or those without. The effect has yet to be properly explored in universe as even the theories which scientists propose do not explain why the effect carries over to film, security cameras, and other methods of recording images.
  • According to Fi's description of him in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Demise appears differently in each epoch and to each person who lays eyes on him, though this is an Informed Attribute as her description of this is the only hint that it is the case.
  • Happens to the entire town of Silent Hill, which changes appearance and content depending upon the psychology of the person viewing it, and is implied to almost never be seen the same way by any two people.
  • Bramimond of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade delved so deeply into dark magic that it utterly erased his sense of self. Now, he — or rather it — acts as a mirror of whomever it speaks to, copying their voice and mannerisms. The implication is that its cloaked, hooded appearance is likewise only how the Tactician sees it.

  • In Gosu, when Hwan Sa the Spirit Lord comes into the tavern-at-the-fork, four different customers see him as a scarred brutish man, a young pretty man, an old man with a white beard and a noble lady respectively. The readers simply see him as a regular looking man (although his face is completely shaded out).
  • Gunnerkrigg Court:
    • The Norns appear to Annie, Kat and Anja as themselves at three different ages. This seems to be relative to their current age, so for the teenaged Annie and Kat, Skuld is a child and Urðr is an adult, but to the adult Anja, Skuld is a teenager and Urðr is an old woman. (Verðandi is them at their current age, of course.)
  • Cubi clan leader Diamanika in Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures initially appears to Dan as his mother. She suggests he try imagining someone he doesn't know, which lets him break the illusion.
  • In Unsounded, perceptive glamours let a spellwright cloak themselves in abstract traits to this effect; Duane goes incognito by borrowing the unobtrusive pleasantness of autumn leaves. The disadvantage is that every viewer interprets a perceptive glamour according to their own preconceptions, so it quickly falls apart if people start comparing notes.

    Web Original 
  • If you can believe it, the original concept of The Slender Man was not The Blank we all know and love. He had a face that looked different to everyone, and only appeared faceless in pictures and videos due to Glamour Failure. Needless to say, this aspect of the character was quickly dropped in favor of making him genuinely faceless.
  • How to Survive Camping: The man with a skull cup appears differently to every person it interacts with. This is what he looks like to Kate, but other people for instance see him as a woman instead.

    Western Animation 
  • Batman: The Animated Series has Calendar Girl, who hides her face out of disgust of being disfigured, wearing a mask. However, when the mask is revealed, she's still has model looks — despite this, she breaks down crying at how hideous she is.
  • Legend Quest: Alebrije's true form is a brightly colored and cartoony dinosaur or dragon-like creature however only ghosts and Leo can see him for what he truly is, humans see him as purple and yellow versions of normal animals like goats, pigeons and dogs while supernatural beings (witches and trolls for example) see him as magical creatures like imps and triplecorns.
  • Season two of Young Justice has Artemis using a magical amulet that casts an illusory disguise. The only people who can see through it are Wally, Robin, and Aqualad, also the only ones who know that they're a Double Agent.


Video Example(s):



To Vincent, Catherine looks like a pretty blonde lady; not so much to Steve, however...

How well does it match the trope?

4.8 (5 votes)

Example of:

Main / AppearanceIsInTheEyeOfTheBeholder

Media sources:

Main / AppearanceIsInTheEyeOfTheBeholder