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Power Copying

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Additional effects of inhaling enemies include lobbing fireballs and looking incredibly sharp in that hat.

"Now I've got your power!"
— Mega Man, Mega Man (Ruby-Spears)

Ordinarily, learning a new technique requires an instructor and long days of practice. However, some characters have the power to learn techniques just by watching someone else perform them a few times. Commonly, they can immediately do the copied techniques in the same amount of expertise/adeptness, but there are occasional times when they have to re-train what they just copied. Given the setting, this can even extend to magic spells and super powers.

Characters with this power tend to be very versatile and difficult to predict, capable of easily catching opponents off guard and beating them at their own game.

However, this power is seldom used to its full potential, as a character that can do anything is really difficult to balance and can quickly turn into a Story-Breaker Power if no limitations exist.

So, in the name of balance, the power is often given one or more of the following limitations:

  • They can only match the person if they remain nearby.
  • The power has a set time duration. This can combine with the above if they can match someone's powers indefinitely as long as they're within radius, but the clock starts ticking once one of them leaves.
  • They can only hold one power at a time; gaining a new power rewrites the old.
  • There is a limit to how many powers they can hold at a time. Copying too many abilities becomes mentally taxing, or may risk a Super-Power Meltdown.
    • Similarly, combining incompatible abilities can result in a harmful, possibly fatal reaction in a user.
  • The character can get certain abilities this way and not others.
  • They cannot replicate abilities that require cooperation between multiple users.
  • They don't know how to use the powers as effectively as the original user.
  • The user also gains the target's weaknesses and vulnerabilities, creating an exploitable susceptibility.
  • The process includes a mental link, which may cause disorientation, personality shifts, or even Loss of Identity.
  • The copied power is not as strong as the original. This may be because the user isn't as strong as whoever they copied it from.
  • They can copy the power, but they can't tap the cosmic forces needed to give the power its real strength.
  • The power does not cooperate with them or refuses to work properly because they aren't The Chosen One or otherwise the designated wielder. Alternatively, they may be the chosen one, but not matured enough, so the time is not yet right to harness it.
  • The power in its current state is incomplete and must be made whole. Sometimes, this requires the acquisition of a Macguffin or Character Development to evolve mastery over the power.
  • A villain gains a power that will only work for a hero, or vice versa.
  • The power becomes altered or different in the hands of another.
  • The power requires additional techniques or equipment to be usable, such as copying a sorcerer's innate access to magic, but not knowing any spells to actually use it.
  • The power requires a minimum level of physical, mental, and/or spiritual conditioning to properly handle that the copier cannot simply replicate.
  • Copied powers might not include secondary abilities that protect the original user from harm.
  • The power incurs a physical change in the user that can severely inconvenience those unprepared for it. The results of this with multiple abilities are not pretty.
  • Power copying is their only ability and they are effectively powerless if no other superbeings are around.

Despite this power's unpredictable nature, it has a few logical advantages that a wielder can make use of. For instance, if the copying only requires proximity and not physical contact, they might be able to sense the presence of other superbeings in the vicinity—maybe even pinpointing their location—even if that person is hiding, disguised, or otherwise keeping a low profile. And if they're part of a team, they can train in their teammates' abilities and provide backup-muscle in a teammate's specialty.

Compare All Your Powers Combined, Adaptive Ability, The Assimilator, and Material Mimicry. This is a subtrope of Meta Power, and a type of Keystone Superpower.

Super Trope to:

Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • While on a Not a Date, Maki in Airmaster gets the idea for a new attack move simply from watching a samurai movie. She later uses it without any practice, even though the samurai is using a sword and Maki is strictly legs and punches.
  • Angelic Layer prodigy Suzuhara Misaki is able to pick up her opponents' moves on the layer after seeing them only a few times, and she picks up moves performed by real people as well.
  • In Anpanman, there's the Donburiman Trio. Because their heads are rice bowls (with the donburi contents acting as their power source), they can be refilled with different ingredients when their original ones are drained, which can change their personalities and powers, though they only last for one episode. Some examples include Tendonman being filled with tempura soba (giving him the samurai abilities that Katsuobushiman has), Katsudonman being filled with natto (giving him Nattoman's never-give-up attitude and agility), and Kamameshidon having tuna sashimi in his head (giving him Tekkanomaki-chan's ninja-like skills).
  • In Arata: The Legend, a Shou is allowed to use the powers of the Hayagami of other Shou who have submitted to them.
  • In Baki the Grappler the protagonist's Ax-Crazy Blood Knight father encourages him to steal and copy his opponent's moves and techniques in part because "It really pisses them off".
  • Kazuo Kiriyama in Battle Royale. He can mimic the skilled martial artist Sugimura after seeing him use the moves in combat a couple of times. Even when Sugimura gains the ability to use ki attacks, Kiriyama quickly copies this as well.
  • In Black Clover, Rhya's Copy Magic let's him copy others' magic after he touches their grimoires once. Spells used through familiars such as elemental spirits have him copy the spirit's form, as well, while spells channelled through weapons have him conjure a replica of said weapons. His biggest limitation is that he can only use a single copied magic at any one time, meaning he cannot use copied magic while using transformation as that is in itself another type of magic.
    • The only thing that he seems unable to copy is Asta's Anti-Magic. He can copy the form of the Demon Slayer Sword, but it snaps the instant Mereoleona punches it. Rhya even lampshades that if he had successfully copied it, Mereoleona would've lost her arm.
    • After the elves are fully reincarnated with the power of the magic stones, Rhya becomes capable of using at least two different copied magics at the same time.
  • Bleach:
    • This is how Urahara trained Ichigo. Knowing he didn't have time to actually learn to fight, he just pummeled him until he learned the moves that were being used against him.
    • Loyd Lloyd's Schrift, "The Yourself", allows him to copy the spiritual power and abilities of his enemies. The only downside is that it's a static copy — Loyd's opponent can become even stronger during their fight, while Loyd's copy of their power cannot. Kenpachi exploits this to kill him. Loyd's twin brother Royd, on the other hand, can perfectly copy his target's memories while only replicating their power at 70%-80% of their maximum.
    • In Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World, the Zanpakutō Enrakyōten can use the abilities of any Zanpakutō its user has previously witnessed, though it can't copy the full abilities of Zanpakutō with unusual origins, such as Zangetsu. The power of these copied abilities scale to the reiatsu of Enrakyōten's user. In the hands of Tokinada Tsunayashiro, who can produce a high, but not absurd level of reiatsu, this means that the world-ending power of Ryūjin Jakka is weakened to a mere flamethrower, while the fairly weak first aid of Hisagomaru becomes able to instantly heal fatal wounds. Multiple abilities can be active simultaenously, though this weakens the strength of each individual ability. In exchange for all of this power, Enrakyōten constantly drains the user's life force while active.
  • In A Certain Magical Index, Rensa can use the powers of the Level 5 espers and any esper within a 200 meter radius, but one at a time. She cannot copy a power that she cannot understand, like Gunha Sogiita's. It is pointed out that she can't use a power as well as the original because esper powers require vast computational skills. She adds that if an esper dies, she can't copy their power anymore. When she tries to copy Touma's Imagine Breaker, her arm blows up.
  • Captain Tsubasa: The titular protagonist has, on occasion, seen some of his opponents performing some soccer technique and, if he finds it useful, he'll imitate it and make it his own. Sometimes even on the first try, to boot.
  • Clare from Claymore is fairly adept at this, typically copying her allies rather than enemies. Roxanne of Love and Hate did it as well, but in a much more sinister way.
    • And when Clare awakens as Teresa in the final battle, all of the skills she learned and copied are taken up to eleven.
  • In Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, it's shown that the Master of Disguise known only as the Ultimate Imposter can not only perfectly mimic a person's personality, but their abilities as well (despite being much heavier than the more athletic people he impersonates). During the class' Big Damn Heroes moment he disguises himself as Master Swordsman Munakata and proceeds to effortlessly slash through a crowd of mooks.
  • From Deadman Wonderland, there's Mockingbird: true to his codename, he can mimic the Branch of Sin of any Deadman whose blood he tastes, except for Ganta's special nuke shot.
  • Digimon Frontier has Mercurymon's digivolved form, Sakkakumon, who can learn the attacks of other and shoot said attacks out of its many eyes. He can't adapt to combined attacks, though.
    • Digimon Tamers had any Digimon that died exploding into shards of data that their opponent could absorb to grow stronger, essentially giving all of them Cannibalism Superpower, though Henry usually made a point of NOT absorbing defeated foes (Musyamon being the only exception after he tried to kill a young girl. Of course, this ended up being used by Beelzemon to copy Leomon's Fist of the Beast King.
      • And that's separate from the more common use in the series, which involves copying the powers not from other living (or dead) digimon, but from cards depicting the ones from the game based on the first TV series (which is a Show Within a Show that is referenced but not actually shown)
  • Dragon Ball:
    • The Kamehameha is a powerful energy attack that took decades for Master Roshi to create and perfect. Goku saw Roshi perform the attack once and was immediately able to do a smaller version. After a few more times, Goku completely masters it and is able to create a Kamehameha equal to his master. And this isn't the last time. He learns the After Image, Solar Flare, and the Hasshu-ken (Eight-Arm Technique) from seeing them once or twice. In fact, all of Goku's techniques are copied from his friends and masters except for his Instant Transmission, which he learns off-screen on another planet. He even improves upon the technique he copies and comes up with variations once he learns them.
      • The only unique moves he has come up with/used are the Kaio-Ken, the Spirit Bomb (both technically invented by King Kai, but Goku is the only person to have ever successfully use them), the Meteor Crash, and the Non-Serial Movie-exclusive Dragon Fist. This is deconstructed in Dragon Ball Super, where Whis considers Goku's inability to create his own original moves a weakness.
      • In the original series, Goku has a tendency to use his opponents' moves against them immediately after seeing said moves. This ends up being used against him at his first Tenkaichi tournament: Jackie Chun charges at him with a flying kick, Goku uses the same move, they hit each other in mid-air... but, because Jackie's legs are longer, he manages to inflict more damage on Goku. This causes Goku's loss.
    • Tenshinhan uses the Kamehameha against Master Roshi at the 23rd Martial Arts Tournament after seeing Yamcha use it against him, stating explicitly that he can learn an attack after seeing it once. Although, we only see him copy the Kamehameha and the After Image.
    • One of the most notable and Fridge Logic-y examples of an ability learned this way is flight. Tenshinhan and Chaotzu first display it as a limited ability to hover a few feet off the ground. Goku replicates it without really trying, and pretty soon everybody is flying across continents at supersonic speeds as though it were as natural as walking. Only Videl and Goten seem to need formal training in order to learn how, as the former was brand-new to Ki Manipulation in general and the latter was a novice.
    • Everyone can copy Krillin's Kienzan / Destructo Disc, apparently. And as an extra "kick in the stones" to Krillin, some of those people can use it to greater success. Frieza creates a scarier variant, turning it into a Homing Projectile.
    • Vegeta copies the protagonists' ability to sense ki and suppress his own power level to avoid detection by scouters, despite this not even being something that can even be "observed" at all. Just learning that it's possible was enough for Vegeta to figure out how to do it himself in a matter of days at most, giving him a key advantage against Frieza's minions. Justified with the sense, since he might have felt others' ki all along without recognizing it, and once he knew it could be done he started paying more attention to his senses.
    • Cell has this ability as his schtick, being able to copy anything once he absorbs them. Thanks to his trait of assimilating DNA as well, he gains everyone's secondary powers as well, including Namekian super regeneration, Saiyan's intense resilience, and Frieza's ability to survive without an atmosphere.
    • Buu, much like Cell, can copy the techniques of the people he absorbs. He also learned moves like the Kamehameha and Instant Movement from seeing them once.
    • Seven-Three from Super can copy someone's powers for up to thirty minutes by touching the back of their neck. Moro let him copy his powers as a contingency plan so he could consume him and become even stronger if Goku or Vegeta somehow managed to beat him.
    • Moro himself gains this power after devouring and merging with Seven-Three. Unlike Seven-Three, who can only use copied powers for thirty minutes, Moro can use the powers permanently. However, he loses the ability to copy new powers after his brief bout with Merus, at the cost of Merus' existence.
  • One of the definitive powers of Ifurita, the "Demon God" android from El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, who can copy and improve on any attack used against her. (That she's pretty much indestructible just helps her pick up things.)
  • Fairy Tail:
    • This is the power of the assassin Fukuro in, who eats his opponent whole and "digests" their powers. He swallows Natsu and uses his Dragon Slayer techniques, but Gray comments that they don't really compare to the real thing.
    • This also turns out to be the source of August's mastery of nearly all forms of magic, and unlike Fukuro, August not only copies the magic, but he instantly masters it and negates it as well. While this power definitely makes him one of the most powerful characters in the entire series (something acknowledged In-Universe), his magic does have one glaring Achilles' Heel: He can't copy or cancel-out Holder Magic (i.e. any magic that relies on an object such as magic cards or magic swords rather than a person).
    • Wendy is a more mundane example, in that she learned a majority of her offensive Dragon Slayer techniques by watching Natsu, just replacing fire with wind. When she fights Irene Belserion of the Spriggan 12 alongside Erza, however, she quickly realizes that the two of them use the same basic Enchantment Magic and starts copying Irene's spells to even Irene's surprise and respect, up to and including copying a Grand Theft Me enchantment that was being used on her by Irene, which she used to move into Irene's now-vacant body and then switch them back.
  • Shirou Emiya of Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] does this with the titular Unlimited Blade Works, a form of projection magic which allows him to copy almost any sword, possibly almost any weapon, he sees and store them in a hyperspace arsenal for future use. Part of the series is about him trying to figure out how it works with some mentorship from Archer.
  • In Fist of the North Star, The Hokuto Shinken technique Suieishin allows Kenshiro to learn an opponent's techniques just from fighting or observing them. Two notable examples is during Kenshiro's fight with Shew by using Nanto Seiken techniques and when Kenshiro confronts Raoh in his rush to find the Last General of Nanto, where he uses Toki's stance and one of Rei's techniques. Rihaku (and in the anime, Raoh) see the spirits of the fighters that Kenshiro has fought and learned from.
    • More explicitly evoked by a blinded Kenshiro in the anime when several of Raoh's biker troops tried to stop him from reaching the General: the troops deliberately revved their engines in hopes that it would drown out the sound of their attack, thus Kenshiro drew upon his experience with Shew to defeat them.
  • In Food Wars!, Subaru Mimisaka is a master of the "Perfect Trace" technique in which he can perfectly replicate anyone's movements as they're cooking simply by watching them, regardless of how demanding it is. He later refines it to "Flash Perfect Trace" when going up against The Dreaded Somei Saito, in which he can mirror another chef's movements as they're doing it. One weakness that comes up when dueling Saito, however, is that he can copy movements, but if his equipment is inferior, his food will also be inferior.
  • In Gakuen Alice, Mikan and her mother Yuka both have the ability to turn other peoples abilities into gems and then absorb said gems into their body, gaining those powers.
  • Ga-Rei -Zero-: Kagura and Yomi fight a spirit which mirrors their moves exactly. Its effective enough to put Yomi out of action temporarily and give Kagura her first major injury.
  • Hana from Gate 7 is described as "Not" and therefore "Everything is taken in" meaning that zhe can adopt opponents' techniques as offense or defense as zhe likes. This serves to differentiate hir as much as associate hir to Chikahito who is "Not" as well
  • In Guyver, the zoanoid Aptom has a particularly terrifying version of this power. At first he could only poorly mimic other forms: admittedly he could do this after only looking at them, but his imitations were far inferior to the originals. Once he's reworked by one of the series' Big Bads, he gains the ability to perfectly replicate any form just by getting a sample of their DNA. Except he gathers samples by melding genetic matter with his own body, and he can do this while the target is still alive. This becomes Aptom's favored method of killing, and it is lethal to amazing degrees: at one point he has contact with another character for roughly 3 seconds before being turned into shreds of skin, then atomized. In that time, his DNA-merging trick had already seeped into the other character enough to let Aptom take over with all his abilities intact, plus those of the character. Oh, and if he wants he can just let the DNA replicating system seep into someone and overwrite them without absorbing their body, meaning he can replicate himself without limit so long as there are bodies around to infect. He can even do this to corpses.
  • In Hunter × Hunter the leader of the Phantom Troupe can steal the Nen abilities of others by learning about them, asking questions, and knowing its name. The original user of that ability can then no longer use that ability again.
    • Ging is shown to be able to imitate other people's punching-based abilities after getting hit by them. Naturally, the drawbacks are that he has to take damage and that it's limited strictly to punches. In addition, people tend to only show their abilities as a last resort or to finish a battle quickly, so he rarely gets to copy in the first place. That being said, Ging refers to it only as a "talent" and not a power.
    • The King of the Chimera Ants, Meruem, is able to manifest and upgrade the powers of the Nen users he eats. He shows this after ingesting his Royal Guards bodies in the form of energy, as he is able to manifest their powers in a much higher level.
    • Leol, a Chimera Ant officer, can "borrow" the abilities of someone who owes him a favor. He can check the powers he is able to use on a device.
    • Shikaku has a power he calls "Culdcept: Yu-Gi-Oh!," in which he conjures a card-proportioned rectangle in front of him, and any power that comes in contact with this rectangle becomes a card he can use by playing it as if he were playing a card game.
  • I'm The Only One With Unfavorable Skills, Isekai Summoning Rebellion: The Absorption skill in a nutshell. It allows the user to copy the power of anyone they're in contact with while temporarily incapacitating them and halting them from using their skill.
  • Tachimukai from Inazuma Eleven is able to copy Endou's Hissatsu Techniques just by watching him, on TV!
  • Inuyasha:
    • Big Bad Naraku, is able to consume other demons to steal their body parts and abilities.
    • Inuyasha's BFS is able to absorb new special abilities from some of the enemies he uses it to slay.
    • One of the two minions of the Big Bad in the first movie has this ability, which she uses to copy Miroku's Wind Tunnel. Apparently she thought it was simply a powerful attack and not a bona fide lethal curse that Miroku takes advantage of. She is defeated when she opens it wider to strengthen it and the predictable happens.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Jujutsu Kaisen: Yuta Okkotsu's cursed technique is the ability to copy other cursed techniques, such as Inumaki's cursed speech. His Domain Expansion, Authentic Mutual Love, creates a Field of Blades where each sword represents a single copied technique, while Yuta is free to imbue his Domain's barrier with any one of them to enable a sure-hit effect, effectively allowing him to use two techniques at the same time.
  • Nanami from Katanagatari can learn any technique she sees once, and master it if she's seen it twice. This isn't limited to martial arts techniques, either - things she's been able to copy include body-remodification, super-strength, and necromancy.
  • Kazane Aoba from Keijo!!!!!!!! has the ability to analyze and copy the butt techniques of anyone who's behind she's touched with her right hand. In the final chapter, she reveals that she has the combined techniques of over 300 million asses in her arsenal. As a result, she's the one who becomes the new prize queen, rather than the main character Nozomi or her rival Sayaka.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: Kenichi utilizes the techniques of his masters to break Odin's guard. It's what the masters of the dojo are teaching to him: He is being taught Karate, Kung Fu, Jujutsu, Muay Thai, weapons usage... just remember that he's just the apprentice.
  • In Kinnikuman Stecasse King, a giant cassette player, inserts tapes from the Choujin Encyclopedia into his chest, gaining the abilities of whichever wrestler the tape covers. This proves his downfall when he tries to copy Kinnikuman — the tape he has is outdated, from back in the days when the big guy was a cowardly wimp.
  • The Adventurer class in KonoSuba has the unique ability to learn any skill that the user has seen and heard the name of. This includes forbidden skills like Drain Touch, which regular classes don't have access to. When Kazuma realizes this he decides to remain an Adventurer instead of changing to a stronger class, since it would prevent him from being able to learn whatever skills he wants.
  • Kise of Kuroko's Basketball has the ability to copy any basketball technique he's seen and make it his own.
    • Actually, it's more like he uses Awesomeness by Analysis to analyze moves and use them himself.
    • Haizaki has the same power, although his is more akin to stealing someone's move and making it so that they can't use it anymore. He does this by slightly altering the technique so that his opponent subconsciously copies his movements and forgets how to do the original move. Used as a form of Ironic Echo.
  • Carpaccio from The Law of Ueki has the power to copy another person's power, with the catch being he has to be within a 10 meter distance for 24 hours from the person with the ability he wants to copy. Being the one who put together the Robert's Ten, he has thus copied all of the members' powers (along with two other powers he copied from outside of the Ten), which he uses when fighting against Ueki.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, the final challenge — the manifested form of the Book of Darkness — not only has her own suite of nasty-sounding attacks, she's also got the ability to copy and enhance the attacks of anyone whose magic has been used to fuel her. Which, unfortunately, includes both Nanoha and Fate. Cue our heroes bravely running like hell to escape the blast-range of Nanoha's trademark Starlight Breaker. Hayate also makes use of this same power shortly thereafter to become an Instant Expert in magical combat.
  • The protagonist of Medaka Box initially comes off as Always Someone Better, but it becomes apparent that every time she does lose to someone at something, she starts mimicking and equaling them. Post-Genre Shift, this turns out to be an actual superpower.
    • The downside of this comes up a few times in the manga. For example, she can't turn the power off, so when the heroes deal with an opponent whose power is incredible killing intent, Medaka's brother keeps her from fighting since she would copy his power, perfect it, and end up becoming an unstoppable killing machine. It's also shown to be useless when it comes to artistic pursuits because while Medaka can copy technique, there's absolutely no passion or soul behind it — she can play the guitar incredibly well, but it utterly fails to inspire any emotion in its listeners and is really no different from a computer programmed to make music.
  • Mega Man Megamix: Not as prominent as other versions, but Mega Man DOES copy powers here.
  • My Hero Academia:
    • Neito Monoma, a member of class 1B with the Quirk: Copy. He can copy someone's Quirk by touching them and is capable of copying multiple powers, but he can only use one power at a time and the copied powers will only last for five minutes. During the Joint Training arc, he copies Izuku Midoriya's Quirk: One For All, and Midoriya is terrified that Monoma is going to break every bone in his body but nothing happens. As Monoma explains later, this is because One For All is a Quirk with a Stockpiling Mechanism. Monoma can't copy Quirks with stockpiling mechanisms because they rely on accumulating something before they can be used. Monoma uses Fat Gum's Quirk, Fat Absorption, as an example when he explains that while he can technically still copy the power, the copy starts at a basic level and since the copy only lasts a few minutes he wont be able to accumulate anything in order to use it.
    • It's eventually revealed that Himiko Toga's Transform quirk allows her to use the copied person's quirk as well as their form, with the limit of course being how long she can maintain said form which in turn is tied to how much of their blood she has ingested.
  • Naruto: Users of the Sharingan have an explicit ability to copy other ninjas' moves. Kakashi is known to screw with his opponents' minds by subtly hypnotizing them into using techniques he already knows, making it look like he can copy their techniques before they even finish using them. The only limitation is that they have to be physically capable of using the moves they copy, meaning they can't copy moves based on bloodline traits or Tailed Beast abilities, but most anything else is fair game.
    • Downplayed in that throughout the series Sasuke only used the ability to imperfectly copy one of Rock Lee's moves (having only seen the first half of the move before their fight is interrupted, and thus needing to improvise his own second half of it), Kakashi only used moves that he copied from anonymous fighters before the series began, and no other Uchiha has been seen copying moves at all.note  That said, the Sharingan is a near Story-Breaker Power for other reasons down the line.
    • In the spin-off series Boruto, Sarada Uchiha uses this ability much more liberally than her predecessors, mimicking the Shadow Clone technique from Boruto and several Lightning Release techniques from Buntan.
  • In NEEDLESS, the protagonist and Big Bad, through the Zero Fragment, can memorize the series' huge amount of skills just by seeing it used or headbutting them. The villain's variant is pretty much the ultimate last word in Power Copying: he not only copies, he makes the copy stronger than the original.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Ku:Nel Sanders has a Pactio card that allows him to become anyone he's met for a few minutes, complete with all their abilities. However, he can't maintain someone stronger than him for more than that.
    • Prior to the tournament finals, Negi receives a pactio artifact from Princess Theodora that allows him to use all the artifacts of his ministra. However, for political reasonsnote  the contract is canceled after the fight.
    • Jack Rakan demonstrates this ability too. He can use high-level Shinmeiryuu techniques from simply having seen Eishun perform them.
  • One Piece:
    • Luffy is able to replicate CP9's Soru technique after watching the technique a couple of times and adapting his Rubber Man powers to allow his body to perform the task. Much later, Sanji successfully discovers how to perform their Moon Walk. Also way back in the beginning, Zoro debuted the Tatsumaki after watching Hachi do something similar in their duel.
    • A literal (though non-canon) example with Chameleone, the villain of the One Piece Premier Show 2012, who ate the Kopi Kopi No Mi which allows him to use the devil fruit abilities of those he has touched. Though he has to focus a lot to use them, even a sneeze is enough to disrupt his powers.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • During Ash's rematch against Paul in the Sinnoh League, Paul has copied Ash's Counter Shield and has his Gastrodon and Electivire use it. While Gastrodon is able to use it against Staraptor quite well, due to leaving an opening at the bottom of Muddy Water, allowing it to pin Staraptor with Body Slam, when Electivire tries Counter Shield with Thunder, Infernape Digs under the Shield and strikes Electivire from below showing It Only Works Once.
    • In Pokémon S23E1 "Enter Pikachu!", a Mew that faces off against a Nidoking after the former wanders into the latter's territory uses Nidoking's moves back at him after Teleporting out of the way of each one: Earth Power, Sludge Wave and Fire Blast, the last of which knocks out Nidoking.
  • Several characters from The Prince of Tennis have an ability referred to as State of Self-Actualisation (Muga no Kyouchi), which allows them to subconsciously replicate any techniques ever witnessed. Some other characters, while not possessing Muga, can also duplicate their opponents' moves, giving them a mental edge.
  • Wandering Warrior Reina enters the Queen's Blade competition after dueling (and losing to) several of the other Queen's Blade competitors and incorporating their moves into her repertoire, taking her from rank amateur to world champion, and later defeats her friends and allies in the competition by taking on their goals and making them her own. As a finishing move.
  • Being a deconstruction of the Fighting Series Played for Laughs, Ramen Fighter Miki parodies this trope. Because Kankuro is the resident Idiot Hero he uses Insane Troll Logic to guess a way to defeat Miki by imitating a local train:
    It's similar to animal styled martial arts, They imagine themselves as the animals they're imitating, nya. In other words: The train is pulling into station four, please step behind the yellow line… KATAN KATAN, KATAN KATAN. Yes, this is the result of my special training. My goal is… a train!
    • Later, Miki will do the same, only she would imitate a bullet train.
  • The titular hero in Ranma ½ spends much time of the plot facing other martial arts schools, learning their techniques to defeat them. Though this typically requires bona fide studying and practice before he can successfully use them in battle.
  • In Record of Ragnarok Adam is shown to have this ability. The passage Genesis 1:27 in which he's described to have been made in God's image is taken to mean he's a copy of the gods and as such, able to copy their abilities to use against them.
  • In Rozen Maiden when one doll defeats another, they not only gain the defeated doll's Rosa Mystica, but can also use their powers.
  • Rurouni Kenshin:
    • While it didn't exactly happen overnight, Kid Samurai Yahiko nonetheless managed to duplicate one of Kenshin's signature techniques solely from observation — which is still fairly impressive, since Kenshin apparently went through several years of Training from Hell to master his Hiten Mitsurugi style.
    • Subverted big time at the end of the manga. Aoshi fights a member of a Quirky Miniboss Squad who specializes in copying the sword techniques of his enemies and gets a psychotic joy out of killing opponents with their own techniques. It appears to be working and the guy seems to have the edge on Aoshi until Aoshi suddenly kicks him right in the face and informs him that as a martial arts master, using swords is only a part of his repertoire. (And the copycat can't copy Aoshi's kenpo skills). The angry copycat then tries to go through with killing Aoshi with his techniques, but Aoshi correctly anticipates the moves the copycat will use, comments on how dumb it is trying to kill him with moves that he knows inside and out, and then promptly breaks the copycat's swords and beats the crap out of him.
  • Several enemies in the first Sailor Moon anime had this ability, including the Gemini Warriors (copying Sailor Mars and Mercury), Techniclon (copying Sailor Jupiter), and Malachite (copying Sailor Jupiter, Venus, and Mars).
  • In Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, Leo Regulus can fully understand how a technique works, copy it and execute it better than the original user just by seeing it.
  • In the manga chapters of Saki set after the Prefecture finals, Yumeno Maho, one of the two kohai from Nodoka's previous school (she's the one with the ribbon), is revealed to have the power to copy any mahjong player, but she can only do it once per round per day each. She demonstrates this by using the styles of all the Kiyosumi players, culminating with her out-Rinshan Kaihoing Saki herself.
  • Sonic X: Sonic and the gang have difficulty defeating Emerl because he's able to copy their skills and Beat Them at Their Own Game. But Cream and Cheese manage to defeat him together since Emerl is only capable of copying one ability at a time.
  • In Hoshin Engi, Yozen is a master of shapeshifting and can copy someone else's power by taking their appearance. This even includes imitating the power of their paope, the Sennin's magical weapons, even if he doesn't possess it himself. He can replicate anyone he's observed enough or met before no matter how far they are, and switch from one form to another, and thus from one power to another, in a split-second. This makes him extremely versatile. However, even if he can take the appearance of someone stronger than him, he cannot imitate their strength and trying to use their power will quickly drain his energy.
  • Claude in Star Ocean EX has this ability, though notably absent in the games.
  • Tiger & Bunny Kaede can imitate the power of the last NEXT she touched, a very very important plot twist. Problem is, she can only copy a power once.
  • The first time the titular character from Toriko fought with a Red Nitro, he used his signature move on him. After getting back up, the creature proceed to use this attack after only seeing it once.
    • Midora can copy any ability that he observed long enough, regardless of what it is, making him one of the most overpowered characters in the manga.
  • Takeshi Yoshida, from the baseball manga Touch (1981) is able to imitate a pitcher's style perfectly just by watching them. He develops an impressive repertoire but is undone in the end by a lack of endurance.
  • According to Decepticon rumor, Thrust of Transformers: Armada can copy his opponent's fighting style just by watching him. He's never actually done this in canon, but since everyone's fighting styles seem to be either "run at enemy and grab his fists forcefully", "swing sword like baseball bat" or "shoot from a distance", he doesn't seem to have a reason to.
  • Undead Unluck: Billy Alfred's Unfair ability allows him to negate the fairness of only having a single Negator ability, in turn allowing him to copy up to 6 other Negator abilities. The condition for this changes slightly between the two loops the manga depicts. In the 100th loop, he has to view the target as an enemy or a threat. In the 101st, he has to acknowledge the target's strength.
  • This is the ability of Yamada in Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches. As with all other magic in the manga, the powers are copied by kissing.
  • YuYu Hakusho:
    • In the movie, Bonds of Fire, Kuwabara encounters a demon who can mimic any technique his opponent uses. After being matched move-for-move, Kuwabara tricks his enemy into copying a move that throws every single bit of spiritual energy at the target. The demon swiftly realizes he's just doomed himself, as while he can copy energy attacks, he can't copy his opponent's physical strength... and Kuwabara is far stronger than he is. Cue asskicking.
    • Gourmet, an enemy from the third season, had a Cannibalism Superpower. This unfortunately proved to be his downfall when he ate the Elder Toguro, who regenerated and took over Gourmet's body from within in the most horrible way possible.
    • Another example is Rando: he was a demon that could perform and even improve upon special abilities after seeing them used. Prior to his battle with Yusuke, he had already acquired up to 99 of them. However, he does not have complete mastery of his stolen techniques and doesn't understand their weaknesses. He gets done in because he didn't know that his chant technique can backfire if his victim can't hear him.

    Asian Animation 

    Board Games 
  • 7 Wonders:
    • In the original game, the Mannekin Pis copies effects from your neighbors' Wonders.
    • In Duel:
      • In Pantheon, placing the Nisaba token on an opponent's green card lets you benefit from its scientific symbol too.
      • Agora has a decree that lets you benefit from your opponent's chaining symbols. Also, the promo card "Tu Quoque Fili" lets you copy a previously played Conspiracy.
  • Abyss: The City of Mirrors is a location with the ability to copy the ability of an opponent's location at the end of the game. Note that this copies the ability itself, and not the raw number of points your opponent was granted by the location.
  • Sushi Go!: The special order card copies any of the cards you've played in the current round. Nice if you need one more card for a Set Bonus.
  • Wingspan:
    • Two birds in the base game have the power "Repeat a brown power on one other bird in this habitat", which amounts to copying it. There's also one such bird that only works with predator powers.
    • The Expansion Packs introduce birds that copy powers from an opponent's birds. There are also birds that let you copy an opponent's Bonus Card. Note that this copies the way the card's value is calculated, not the opponent's raw score.

    Comic Books 
  • Rogue from X-Men is possibly the best-known example in the world of comics. However, her power works on bare skin contact and works whether she wants it to or not and, in most cases, puts the "donor" into a coma that lasts as long as the powers are transferred to Rogue. In the Ultimate and movieverse version she even sucks the life out of the victim. This has been a constant source of angst, but since then she has gained better control so that touching people isn't always a near death sentence. There have been other X-Men examples over the years:
    • Mimic, the X-Men's first-ever Sixth Ranger, needs only be in the proximity of another superhuman. He gets a bonus, too: The main Marvel Universe version has permanently taken on the powers of the original five X-Men with a sixth "free slot" available to him, and his Parallel Universe double, the Exiles version, can hold any five powers at a time but at half the original power level each.
    • Synch from Generation X can copy the powers of any single superhuman within his radius, and more than once he was shown using borrowed powers better than their original owners, and he could use his power for lots of secondary effects like identifying and tracking other mutants.
    • Gen-X's archenemy Emplate could do this too, by feeding on a mutant's marrow via the mouths in his hands. Unlike most others, however, he must do this to survive. Basically, he's a mutant vampire. His victims gain the same mouths on their hands he has, and the same compulsion to feed, also similar to certain vampire stories.
    • Pandemic injected himself with a virus that would copy mutant powers. He is defeated◊ when Sabretooth has him gain his Healing Factor.
    • Hope Summers has this power along with the ability to influence the mutants around her.
  • Taskmaster, of Marvel Comics, possesses photographic reflexes. He can do anything after seeing it performed once, with exactly as much skill as the person he watched had in the task. Up to and including Chow Yun-Fat◊. However, he gains the ability to use it, not their powers. Meaning he can do the same flips as Spider-Man, but he'll never be able to leap off a sheer wall. However, he can watch a scene in fast-forward and perform it at double-speed for a (very) limited time. Even more so, he uses his ability of reflecting an enemy's moves to predict what they would do next. Which got him absolutely nothing when Deadpool kicked his ass with the power of dance and randomness. Another weakness is that he has reached his brain's limits on what he can remember—as he memorizes actions and techniques, other memories become corrupted, diffused, or lost, so he suffers from a scattered variant of amnesia.
    • Echo, also of Marvel, has the same ability.
    • Finesse of Avengers Academy has similar power. Seeing how her parents were criminals once trained by Taskmaster, she actually suspects he might be her real father. Of course with his amnesia he has no idea. Just in case through he wanted to copy some of her moves, so he wouldn't forget her, but because all her arsenal is itself composed of copies he already knows he couldn't.
    • Cassandra Cain from DC Comics does as well as an extension of her ability to read body language. It's not so much a superpower as she's just so good at reading enemies and martial arts in general that one look is all it takes, and she can learn entire styles perfectly in minutes.
    • As does Ryan Tabbot, from Gold Digger, though his version is a bit worse in that while he can copy any move he sees, he still has to figure out how best to use it, so some highly specialized moves would get him in more trouble than they're worth if he used them.
  • The Super-Adaptoid can copy the powers of any superhuman it fights. In the Marvel Adventures series, it could also think like its target - which meant once it had copied the Avengers, it no longer wanted to fight, seeing them as the good guys now.
  • In the Guardians of the Galaxy future of the Marvel Universe, The Protege has this ability for all inherent abilities, with no restrictions and can combine them. Needless to say, she quickly becomes the most powerful being in her universe. Eventually, she tries to use these to become the new One-Above-All before getting smacked down by the Living Tribunal.
  • Philip Nolan Voigt, aka Overshadow, from the short-lived Marvel New Universe had the ability to not only copy powers but use them to a greater effect than the original user could.
  • Over in The DCU, we have the android Amazo (created 6 years before the Super-Adaptoid), who has this ability. Just to make things tougher for the heroes, sometimes he comes with powers pre-programmed, and then copies some more. Amazo's power is taken to the ultimate level in the DC Animated Universe.
    • Also in the DCU, we have Libra. Who first appeared as a minor Justice League villain in the 70's, before Grant Morrison used him as one of the main villains of Final Crisis, being pretty much responsible for all the evil not committed by Darkseid personally, including the near-death of Lois Lane.
    • The Parasitic Teutons of Assimilation, or PTA. WASPs engineered with the ability to copy any superpower they see in action. Their exact origin is a mystery, but be honest: would you really want to know?
    • There's the relatively minor villain Paragon who can copy the powers of everyone near him at heightened levels. So if you have Super-Strength, he gains greater Super-Strength. The only reason he hasn't taken over the world is because he only retains his copied powers while the source of them is nearby.
    • Cypher of the Relative Heroes, a former child agent of the D.E.O. by the code name Omni who defected at his first opportunity, can copy the powers of anyone within his vicinity and the further away they are the weaker his copy is. The shapeshifting extraterrestrials known as the Es who the Relative Heroes face off against can also copy powers. Though Cypher is an Es so that explains that coincidence.
    • Power Girl, Zatanna and Superman once fought a villain named Manuel Carlito (Siphon) who had the ability to copy the powers of any magic user in his vicinity. If he stayed within their vicinity past three hours the powers he copied would permanently become his.
    • Animal Man and Vixen can mimic the abilities of any animal in existence. Sometimes, this can mean mimicing the powers of other superbeing like the Flash, Black Lightning or Superman.
  • Mega Man (Archie Comics). It's pretty accurate to games, though also a source of angst as Rock is inherently a pacifist who is gaining ever more powerful weapons.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes: The Heroes of Lallor were a team of superheroes who occasionally appeared as allies of the Legion in the Pre-Crisis continuity. One of their members was Duplicate Boy, who was generally accepted to be the most powerful hero of that era, even when Pre-Crisis Superboy was around. The reason was that Duplicate Boy could copy the powers of any hero of whom he was even aware of, could retain any number of powers for as long as he wished, and could combine them in any fashion he wished. He once copied the powers of Legionnaire Dawnstar without ever having met her personally or even been on the same planet as her, he simply needed to know she existed and what her powers where and he could copy her. The only things that kept him from being a complete game breaker was that he had a very strong sense of fair play and was not very imaginative. His usual response was to copy an opponents abilities to fight them fairly, or simply copy Superboy's powers and deal with a threat in the most physically direct manner possible. Dealing with magic or copying someone with ridiculous amounts of power (such as Validus) can overtax him and knock him out, as well.
    • The leader of the villainous Justice League of Earth, Earth-Man (formerly Absorbancy Boy), has the power to copy the abilities of others including both Metahumans and Aliens, but only for about 12 hours. He can also suffer overload if he absorbs and tries to use too many powers at once.
  • The Midnight Sons crossover Midnight Massacre has Blade of the Nightstalkers, in his quest against all occult, reading a certain page from the Darkhold and turning into Switchblade the Demogorge, who obtains the powers of anyone he kills. This power proves to be his undoing when he kills Ghost Rider, and feels the power of his Penance Stare as he obtains it, buying enough time for Prof. Hastings of the Darkhold Redeemers to fix things up.
  • Wildcard from Strikeforce: Morituri could duplicate the ability of a nearby Morituri subject.
  • Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: Similar to Taskmaster, Skids has the ability to copy anything he's seen done once. This gets deconstructed during the events of Transformers: Dark Cybertron, however, when he sees Bludgeon fighting and tries using some of the Decepticon's own moves on him. Bludgeon almost instantly realizes that Skids is just mimicking him with absolutely no understanding of how the martial arts style he's copying actually works, whereas Bludgeon himself has spent thousands of years perfecting his abilities. As a result, Bludgeon easily trounces Skids.

    Fan Works 
  • Child of the Storm has Harry, whose frightening adaptability, flexible power-set, and active imagination sometimes allow him to do this. The most prominent example is in the sequel, when Maddie Pryor - a Living Weapon trained from infancy - infuses lightning with psychic energy and throws it at him. To her astonishment, all this achieves is Harry making a light-hearted quip thanking her for the "new trick" and copying it... with fire.
  • Constants and Variables: In the process of accidentally freeing her from the containment unit she was kept in, Harry accidentally received some of her tear-based powers (later becoming amplified when he loses a finger in Elizabeth's effort to save him during the quidditch match). In-turn, Elizabeth ended up absorbing part of Harry's potential magic, Elizabeth gaining the ability to cast spells despite coming from a universe with no magic.
  • A Diplomatic Visit: Minor example in chapter 7 of the sequel Diplomat at Large. During the big battle outside the Storm King's fortress, Pharynx sees one pony pulling a Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs to shatter a boulder. He later takes her form and copies her move to shatter the Storm King's armor.
  • Escape from the Moon: In the sequel The Mare From the Moon, averting this trope is one reason Luna and Celestia don't want to send Spliced to Tartarus, regardless of her crimes; they're afraid Tirek (who is imprisoned there) might do this to her and become immortal.
  • A Game of Cat and Cat: "Another Chapter of Just Talking": The speculation on how Dmitri's soul escaped Soma's Domination power, is by using his Power Copying to copy another power to do it:
    I believe that he duplicated the Ghost's power to separate soul from body, said Stolas
  • In the Touhou Project Fanfic Imperfect Metamorphosis, Rin Satsuki can absorb other people. By doing so, she becomes able to replicate their powers and appearances.
  • The gloriously bonkers Neon Genesis Evangelion Crack Fic A Little Angel on My Shoulder has the Instrumemory system, which is a bit different from most examples of this trope since it involves the Shoulder Angels (basically pint-sized ghosts of the canon Angels) temporarily merging with the Eva to allow it to borrow the Angel in question's abilities.
  • In the Alternate Universe Twilight fic Luminosity, Addy can, upon physical contact, perfectly replicate the powers of any person with special abilities (called "witches"). She can only hold one at a time, however. And it's involuntary, so plans made expecting to oppose her generally involve finding a way to get her to bump into someone whose power she can't exploit.
  • Maris Stella:
    • The Rooster Miraculous is able to directly copy the powers of other Miraculous in this fic, something ostensibly not possible in the canon series.
    • Windnil can copy the powers of anything it touches.
    • Glare Gazer can copy the powers of anyone it looks at.
  • In RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, the Element of Magic there, Trixie Lulamoon, is able to learn spells "by ear"; that is, she learns how to cast spells by watching other ponies do it. Unfortunately, she's not very good at learning spells via spellbooks.
  • In Manehattan's Lone Guardian, the Mega Man line's Variable Weapons System eventually manifests itself in Fairy Leviathan after her fight with Trifecta, with the techniques taking her weapon and elemental leanings into account.
  • My Hero Academia: Mega Izuku is a crossover between My Hero Academia and Mega Man, where Izuku has a Quirk that allows him to transform his hands into guns - and also allows him to "copy" the Quirks of other people by either defeating them or having permission to do so, which gives him a new weapon that has a similar power.
  • Hachiman's Quirk, 108 Skills, in My Hero School Adventure Is All Wrong As Expected allows him to copy up to 108 other Quirks for future use, with the caveat that he can only use one Quirk at a time and each copied ability is only 1/108th as powerful as the original. This ability was rightfully deemed to be nearly useless by the rest of his classmates. Until he started copying Quirks that would make it more effective, even at reduced strength, like All For One (allowing him to gradually stockpile extra power in each copied Quirk), and Ooze, allowing him to use multiple Quirks simultaneously. With preparation and cunning, his collection of copied Quirks can have devastating effect. Also, the copying process lets him analyse and understand the Quirk, which is a valuable skill in fields like criminal investigation.
  • In Opening Dangerous Gates, the demon twins can copy their opponent's power level and skills, but it takes some time to work. Since they started out weaker than him, Grimmjow got cocky, giving them enough time to match his power. He beats them anyway.
  • Pokémon Wack: The move Sketch, much like in canon (only it's now reclassified as a Paint-type move), has the gimmick of copying the last move the opponent uses and is permanently replaced by the aforementioned move.
  • In the Pony POV Series, it's revealed that Twilight's ability to learn any spell after witnessing it is because this is a special ability of the Element of Magic. Since Trixie is another Element of Magic, she's able to do likewise. Celestia can do it too for the same reasons, as can Sunset. Notably each works differently: Twilight copies them exactly, Sunset's are stronger but more mana intensive, Trixie's are weaker but less mana intensive, and Celestia's are fire based versions. Dark World Rarity gains this ability after absorbing the Element of Magic.
  • Prime Directive: Hero is a My Hero Academia fanfic where Izuku has this power combined with a sort of Super-Intelligence. The fact that his version of the power has almost no limits, combined with the aforementioned Super-Intelligence, means that he is super OP in this universe.
  • In RWBY: Reckoning, Darrel's Semblance is this. By touching an ally or enemy, he can copy their unique ability (i.e. Ruby's Super-Speed, Blake's Flash Step), and use it to his own desire, though he can only do it once, and can only hold one power at a time.
  • Road Roller Extreme from Super Milestone Wars, a super robot that can assume the power or Mecha Expansion Pack of any other super robot in fiction.
  • The Superwomen of Eva series' initial heroine Spirit (real name: Hikari Horaki) — whose superhero identity, unlike most of the others, is not based on a DC or Marvel character but rather an original idea created by Mike313 — has the ability to absorb angel DNA to acquire their powers in addition to her Flying Brick and regenerative abilities. However, unusually for this trope, Hikari does not make use of this power much aside from her initial acquisition of Sachiel's ability to fire cross shaped energy blasts, which she has in every appearance as one of her trademark attacks (which is a lot; Spirit is probably the series' most frequent guest hero, appearing in multiple stories, by all 3 authors). Which means she's somewhat lacking in power compared to Her evil counterpart, Rei III who has the power of many angels. She does, however, also take Bardiel's ability to take over Nerv weapons which she uses to seal Rei III in bakelite in her title story, and in orionpax09's Lilith's Herald (Rei as Marvel's Silver Surfer) Hikari accidentally takes Sahaquiel's ability to fire explosive projectiles of its own mass (in Spirit's case her feathers).
    • In the latest chapter of Lilith's Herald Spirit finally willingly makes use of this power and copies the powers of most of the previous Angels fought thus far through DNA samples Rei obtained for her, making her similar in power to her final foe in the Spirit story, although it manifested differently (that enemy mostly used its hands to wield its power while Spirit creates energy whips from her hair, and fires Ramiel's focused energy beams from her eyes). Conveniently the Angels that had no powers like the 6th (which was a big whale thing that just crashed into stuff) or the 8th (which just sat in a volcano doing nothing) were the ones Rei couldn't sample.
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: In this crossover, Asuka and Rei fought the Parasite, a mutated human copied his victims' powers and stole their memories and energy by touching them.
  • Izuku's quirk "Verbatum" from Switch The Colors works the same as Delsin Rowe's Power Absorption ability, allowing him to replicate another person's quirk by touch, and can even glimpse into that person's memories while in contact.
  • Another Touhou Fanfic, Touhou Doujin: Dawitsu's Folly has Original Character Dawitsu as a youkai 'mimicker', who uses his Otaku knowledge to form a varied arsenal of video-game and anime-based attacks, as well as copying the Touhou cast's abilities...
  • In Trump Card, Taylor has the power to temporarily copy the powers of any Parahuman in range. She can only do one at a time, but in exchange she becomes an Instant Expert, allowing her to use it a lot better than the cape whose power she's copying.
  • When Izuku learns how to take other people's forms in Turning a New Leaf, he inadvertently discovers that he can copy their quirks too.
  • In Turnabout Storm, coming into contact with Phoenix Wright's Magatama accidentally gives Twilight Sparkle the ability to see Psyche-Locks, effectively turning her into a Living Lie Detector.
  • In Unlimited Potential, Taylor thinks that her Quirk is just being a robotics Tinker - until a fight while she's wearing her armor allows her to discover she can expand her fighting repertoire by defeating other capes.

    Films — Animation 
  • Po from Kung Fu Panda learns the Wuxi finger hold, and a technique to manipulate water droplets after watching them once. His master Shifu is a little bit jealous.
    Shifu: It seems that you have found inner peace... (frowns) And at such a young age.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Beast Tamer: When Rein forms a contract with one of the Strongest Species, he gains their abilities on top of his own. When he contracts with Cat Girl Kanade he gains a massive boost in physical power, while dragon girl Tania gives him a similar boost in magical power. The fairy twins Luna and Sora, meanwhile, grant him increased control of his magic, such as the ability to cast multiple spells at once and properly manage their power, and immunity to status effects up to and including a One-Hit Kill.
  • Unique among the Thirteen Orphans in Breaking the Wall, Albert Yu, representing the Cat, is able to temporarily mimic the status and abilities of any one of the other twelve traditional places on the Eastern Zodiac.
  • Protagonist Lire of Deadly Remains lives in a world where magic and Psychic Powers are real and publicly known. She normally has the power of Psychometry (read the thoughts of a person who handled an object). By touching the remains of three psychic murder victims (to read them), she gains the powers of telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and cryokinesis. With practice, she gains the ability to combine the abilities.
  • Harry Potter: In the last book, we learn that goblin-made objects repel dirt and rust while absorbing only that which make them stronger. So after it pierced a basilisk's venom sac, the sword of Gryffindor was now able to destroy Horcruxes.
  • Fetch in Heretical Edge can target a person to gain their appearance, skills, and powers, although he can only copy one person at a time. He generally uses this power for Kill and Replace shenanigans. After Avalon kills him while he was impersonating Paul Calburn, she gains a weaker form of this ability, able to copy either a specific talent or power she knows of or a random one; she can only copy one power or skill at a time, the copy only lasts a few minutes, and she cannot copy any one person more than once per day.
  • This is how JK's power works in JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World, although the actual mechanism of transfer is a little... squicky. She absorbs a copy of all the magic abilities of any man who ejaculates inside her. She also gets credit for all the experience they currently have. So if she screws an old, experienced adventurer, she gets all his powers and a bazillion experience points. She hides this fact for quite some time until a friend is killed and she goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Given that this character is a very popular prostitute in a city full of soldiers and adventurers it's definitely a Chosen One/Story-Breaker Power level power.
  • In The Legend of Sun Knight, Creus, the Sun Knight in question, is able to learn any magic spell just by watching it. Including Necromancy. Which the Sun Knight is not supposed to know. Oops.
  • Lorien Legacies: This is where Ximic is all about. The user can copy other Legacies, by simply having it experienced from another one using it. As such it is the most powerful Legacy, and also most rare.
  • Myriad's power in The New Humans. In addition to being able to temporarily assume the powers of other superhumans, mundane skills and talents are permanently retained.
  • In Other People's Heroes, this is Josh Corwood's power. He feels the "Rush" of powers near him and can then make use of them. He also gains an understanding of the power in the process, often allowing him to use it better than they could.
  • The Parasol Protectorate: Baby Prudence combines this with a form of Power Nullifier. Her touch reverts werewolves and vampires to their mortal states and allows her to use their powers until the sun rises or she is touched by a Preternatural, at which point she and her victim return to their previous states. The effects are also connected to her current target; If she strays too far or the victim dies, she returns to her natural form.
  • Star Wars Legends: General Grievous' mastery of lightsaber combat is explained in the novelization of Revenge of the Sith. The computer in his brain analyzes his opponent's fighting style and allows him to utilize it himself, even Mace Windu's unique Vaapad. This ends biting him in the ass when Mace Windu sics Obi-Wan on him, as his foe is the master of an incredibly basic style focused on blocking everything and is at least knowledgeable in the other styles, resulting in Grievous' retreat after Obi-Wan negated his attacks until he grew bored and cut two of his wrists.
  • In Warlocks of the Sigil, everyone has a power specific to them. This is Kole's power.
  • All of the competent channelers in The Wheel of Time series do this on a regular basis. Some of them even do it to each other when they intuitively leap to new things (specific example: when Egwene ties off a weave but can't figure out how she did it, then Elayne learns from her, and Egwene watches Elayne do it so that she can repeat it).
  • In Worm, several characters can use the abilities of other parahumans:
    • Glaistig Uaine, who absorbs dead parahumans, and can manifest up to three of their ghosts, powers included.
    • Grue after his second trigger event, who can borrow the powers of anyone he catches in his darkness, although he can borrow only one power at a time and they are weaker than the original.
    • Tohu, Endbringer number six, can take the powers of any three capes, including ones that aren't currently on the battlefield - or even alive. Given the number of synergizing powers in Worm, this is, as normal for the Endbringers, a Story-Breaker Power.
    • Victor can steal proficiency from others by proximity, although this only works for mundane abilities. However, he retains these skills, while the victim of the skill drain can only recover part of the lost proficiency with time.
    • Every time the Butcher is killed, its powers and consciousness transfer over to its killer. We first encounter it in its 14th iteration, containing the powers and minds of 14 different parahumans. We also see Cherish accidentally kill Butcher, becoming Butcher XV.
    • In the sequel Ward we meet Spright, who can copy any one power near him, though for people with multiple powers he can only take one. It works best with Mover powers, where he can get a sense of how they work before using them, and Changer powers, where he can keep the form for several minutes even after dropping the power to take another.
  • In Sergey Lukyanenko and Nick Perumov's Wrong Time for Dragons, a Dragon Slayer can absorb and, eventually, use Elemental Powers. In fact, to become a true Dragon Slayer, he must absorb the powers of all four elemental clans. The totem clans don't count, apparently.
  • Some of the more powerful mages in Skulduggery Pleasant can copy other mages' powers;

    Live-Action TV 
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Severin gains Illyria's power over time and space.
  • Heroes :
    • Sylar and Peter Petrelli both are able to acquire new powers from other evolved humans. Peter just has to remember how that hero made him feel. Notably, Peter has an easier time getting new powers, he has trouble getting some powers to work, and trouble getting other powers to turn off. Sylar for most of the time is a Power Parasite that kills people to steal their powers, and in many instances he's actually better at using acquired powers than the original wielders. Later, he learns how to gain abilities without removing a person's brain, obtaining Elle Bishop's power of electric manipulation by empathizing with her and convincing her to let go of her anger. Despite possessing this ability, he has returned to killing to obtain new powers..because Status Quo Is God.
    • In the graphic novels, one character, Linda, has a power that allows her to see the auras of people around her, and seemingly absorb them. Not only does it happen to absorb superhuman powers, but it allows her to kill them as well. Nifty. Unfortunately, she got a bridge dropped on her in her very first appearance, and didn't do anything too spectacular in the two other comics she appeared in (thanks to Anachronic Order). Ah, well.
    • Like Taskmaster, Monica Dawson's power is to be able to perform any physical feat she sees, from cutting a tomato into a rose like the TV chef to pulling wirework-style Kung Fu from action flicks. She receives a Blackberry with videos of various skills (plumbing, fighting, flying airplanes, etc) that she can watch to copy any time she needs to.
  • A number of examples from Charmed.
    • This was the main ability of warlocks, the Monster of the Week enemies from the show's early seasons, which was their primary motive for hunting and killing witches. Despite their potential for leveling up, they were pretty much at the bottom of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil because they were mostly too weak to kill anything with substantial power (such as a demon).
    • Zankou, the second-most-powerful demon in existence and the Big Bad of Season 7, demonstrated the ability to absorb the powers of those he kills, but only really used this ability once.
    • Cole, after being sent to the demon afterlife, managed to avoid disintegration and found he could absorb the lingering powers left behind by all the demons sent there to be destroyed. Eventually he absorbed enough powers to kill the serpent that devoured the souls sent there and was able to return to Earth, with a ridiculously large array of random abilities.
    • This in an inherent ability in Empaths and Telepaths. Powers in this show are governed by emotions, so anyone with the power to duplicate emotions is also capable of duplicating the powers of other magical beings within range. An experienced Empath/Telepath is incredibly dangerous because they can turn their opponents' more destructive powers back on them. This also runs the risk of getting overwhelmed by the target's negative emotions or getting Drunk on the Dark Side.
  • Kamen Rider:
    • Kamen Rider Raia, from Kamen Rider Ryuki has an Advent Card that allows him to copy the weapon of another Rider.
    • The Riders in Kamen Rider Blade have access to the Rouze Card system. This allows them to seal an Undead into a card and use this card to utilize the power of said monster to a limited extent. IE, using a card of a lightning-wielding deer monster allows the Rider to shoot a blast of lightning himself. Played even straighter with the Joker Undead, who is able to use aforementioned cards to gain the form of the sealed Undead, including all of its powers and abilities. In this case, borrowing these forms overwrites the identity of the Joker Undead, as using the form of the Human Undead causes him to become Aikawa Hajime.
    • The Cassisworm Gladius from Kamen Rider Kabuto has the ability to absorb the finisher attacks from the Kamen Riders, enabling him to use stronger versions of said attacks. However, he can't use this skill when he is simultaneously hit with multiple finishers. To a lesser extent, the Worms are able to fully copy human beings, including memories and skills.
    • In Kamen Rider Decade, the eponymous hero possesses the ability to transform into one of his nine predecessors (Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, Blade, Hibiki, Kabuto, Den-O, and Kiva), gaining all the abilities and equipment that comes with them. His limitation is that he can't gain the other Riders' powers until he understands them. He retains his own Transformation Trinket belt, since his powers operate by using a card reader in the buckle. In one of his movies, he demonstrates the power to turn into the original Kamen Rider, implying that he has access to the Showa Riders' powers too.
      • When he returns in Kamen Rider Zi-O, Decade has gained the powers of the next ten Heisei Riders as well as some upgrades to how efficiently he can use their powers.
      • Years later, a Kamen Rider Gotchard spinoff introduces Kamen Rider Legend, a walking homage to Decade with very similar copying abilities.
    • Kamen Rider OOO uses a similar concept, with the main character having to take Core Medals from the Big Bads this series, the Greed, in order to use the powers contained in them. Unusually, the Core Medals are effectively the Greed's internal organs (or perhaps a kind of Soul Jar). Most Kamen Riders have some element of Phlebotinum Rebel, but OOO is probably the only one whose powers are chunks of his villains instead of merely made by them.
    • Kamen Rider Fourze:
      • Fourze offers a villainous example in the form of the Leo Zodiarts, who can change into any of the other 11 Horoscope Zodiarts by using their Astro Switches.
      • Fourze himself copies his allies' powers and adds them to his own in spinoff movies with forms called Fusion States; the first time he fuses his powers with those of Kamen Rider Meteor, and then with both Meteor and Nadeshiko.
    • Kamen Rider Gaim's Super Mode Kiwami Arms, unlike the other Rider forms in this series, doesn't have its own unique weapon. Instead, it has the ability to use everyone else's weapons at will — and can even use them better than their original owners, primarily by Dual Wielding (either duplicate copies of the same weapon, or two different weapons at the same time).
    • Most series starting with Kamen Rider Gaim have spinoff media where one or more Riders copy the powers of Riders from previous series and adapt them to their own powerset, plus additional copy forms All There in the Manual and appearing in the Ganbaride/Ganbarizing arcade game series. Before Gaim, Fourze also had a set of Rider-themed weapons in Ganbaride, but they never appeared in the show or its tie-ins.
    • As a Milestone Celebration series and the end of the Heisei Era, Kamen Rider Zi-O builds its central gimmick around this trope: the villains of the show are Power Parasites who steal the powers of the previous Kamen Riders to turn into monstrous copies of them. Zi-O and Geiz respond by gaining armor based off those same past Riders, since it Takes One to Kill One. The armor usually has the same general abilities as the Rider it's based on, but can take creative liberties in the execution.
    • The villainous Kamen Rider Thouser in Kamen Rider Zero-One has a sword that acts like a syringe, permanently copying the powers of anyone he stabs with it. Unlike most other examples on this list, however, Thouser is Unskilled, but Strong, something that abusing his copying ability to gain more powers without any training only seems to make even worse.
    • Averted by Kamen Rider Revice, which, like Decade and Zi-O is a Milestone Celebration that honors past series by giving its heroes different forms based on past Riders — but in this case they're visual and stylistic homages only, and don't confer any previous Rider powers.
  • And then Super Sentai got in on the act, following Kamen Rider by celebrating Milestone Celebrations with teams that mimicked past series:
    • In Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, the heroes have a stash of Ranger Keys, which unlock the powers of previous Sentai teams. Exactly like Decade and his cards. And of course, when both Kamen Rider and Super Sentai crossed over in Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen, one of the main selling points was Decade and GokaiRed using their copied powers against each other.
    • In Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger, each Zenkaiger has powers themed around a specific past Sentai, and they can also use Sentai Gears to use special attacks and abilities from other Sentai teams.
    • While not an anniversary series like the previous two, the Avataro Sentai DonBrothers can also transform into prior Rangers, much like the Gokaigers. In this case, their Ranger forms are portrayed as Digital Avatars and they're just switching the avatar they're using. Unlike the Gokaiger the Donbrothers have some slight limitations. They can only transform into a previous member of their same color (which means Inu and Kiji Brother, Black and Pink respectively have a more limited selection since not all teams share that color) they retain their unique Donbrother belts and sidearms and they don't have total access to all their copied forms ability (Don Momotaro can't use any of the previous Red's upgrades for example, he can only incorporate their suits into his own Super Mode )
  • Star Trek: The Borg have the ability to assimilate technology and knowledge from other species. It is at the very core of their philosophy.
    Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own.
  • In one episode of Stargate SG-1, the planet of the week features a civilization with nanites in their brain. They have child prodigies learn everything they can about a certain subject (one character is an 11-year-old expert on Naquadah reactors). When they reach a certain age, the nanites are harvested and distributed to the other members of the species, and suddenly everyone with a nanite has that knowledge. The downside is that removing the nanites causes their original possessor to regress to an infantile state and adding new nanites doesn't work.
  • In Ultraman Ginga Hikaru can transform into previous Ultra Heroes and Monsters, by scanning the Spark Dolls with his Ginga Spark. Interestingly enough the Spark Dolls are actually the sealed forms of the previously mentioned Heroes and Monsters instead of a replica of their powers.
    • Before Ginga, we had Ultraman Zero, who used gimmicks based on past eras of Ultramen rather than directly copying their powers. For example he has his own Ultra Brace like Ultraman Jack or Taro, he can color change forms like Tiga, Dyna or Nexus, and in later series gained his own fusion form just like Ultraman Orb or Geed.
    • Ultraman Orb and Ultraman Geed started a trend of using two Ultraman powers at the same time, essentially mixing and matching to make new unique forms for themselves.
    • Ultraman Z uses Variant Power Copying to imitate Zero, by making new forms based on three Ultramen at once, to homage each major era of Ultraman—Showa, Heisei, and New Generation.
  • The title character of the short-lived 80s show Automan could duplicate any skill he'd seen used at least once.
  • In the first season of Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, the winner, Feedback, has the ability to absorb powers and abilities from video games.
  • The 4400: In "Graduation Day", Isabelle displays the ability to copy the powers of 4400s and turn them against the person in question. She uses it to hunt down the member of the Nova Group responsible for turning Shawn insane. First of all, Isabelle confronts Jane Nance, who has the ability to control animals, and kills her by forcing her pets to kill and eat her. She then turns Jorge Molina's pyrokinesis against him, causing the gas station where he worked to explode and kill him. Finally, Isabelle drives Daniel Armand insane after he cures Shawn's condition.
  • The Umbrella Academy (2019): Lila has this power, as she came from the same Mass Super-Empowering Event as the main characters. The show was very sly in revealing this, by having her spend most of her screentime with Diego, whose powers are the most subdued out of the siblings, thus she could just pass it off as mundane marksmanship. But when she fights the entire family, she matches their powers exactly. The only limitation is that she cannot use more than one power at a time.
  • The Flash (2014): Kristen Kramer turns out to have the ability to copy the powers of any other metahuman in her vicinity temporarily (generally only for a few seconds) in order to protect her own life

    Tabletop Games 
  • Every major Superhero RPG ever. DC Heroes (the eighties/nineties version from Mayfair Games) had both Mimic, which copied powers, and Power Drain, which gave them to the user while removing them from the target. Champions characters with this ability were and still are most typically built with a Power Pool (a point reserve to be assigned to actual powers at appropriate times) with appropriate special effects and limitations. Marvel Super Heroes had relevant powers in its various editions and source books...the list goes on.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade, a vampire can steal another vampire's power by devouring the vampire's soul. The game considers this act, called Diablerie, to be a Very, Very Bad Thing, especially in the eyes of the Camarilla... Though they mostly dislike it for the precedent it sets.
  • Werewolf: The Apocalypse gives the Ragabash (sneaky, trickster werewolves) the Thieving Talons of the Magpie Gift, which allows them to temporarily copy any supernatural power they witness.
    • The successor game, Werewolf: The Forsaken, gives the Irraka (also sneaky werewolves) a Milestone Gift that allows them to do the same thing permanently, as long as they witness the power on multiple occasions and make the right expenditures of Willpower.
  • In Exalted, Eclipse Caste Solars and Moonshadow Caste Abyssals can learn the Charms of other types of Exalted, as well as Charms unique to spirits and Fair Folk. The catch is they have to be taught the Charm by an Exalt of that type (or Spirit) who knows it.
    • Apostate Alchemicals have a Charm that physically tears off the Charms of other Alchemicals and bolts the stolen device to their own form. This cruel enhancement, known as Flesh and Steel Transference Mechanism, was nicknamed "Mega Man Method" during development.
    • There is a high-level charm that allows you to copy every power that a being possess. You can even use powers that you normally can't ever learn, such as Sidereal Martial Arts or Lunar Knacks. The bad news is that that charm belongs to The Ebon Dragon.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • The Illithid Savant is an illithid prestige class who can permanently gain the abilities of any creature whose brain it consumes. As you can assume, it's considered one step below Pun-Pun in the pantheon of What The Hell Were the Designers Smoking, mainly because its racial prerequisite requires Loophole Abuse for most.
    • Less broken, the Spellthief class in edition 3.5 has a temporary, disposable version of Power Copying, by stealing spells directly from other spellcasters' minds.
    • The Ardent Dilettante Prestige Class, from the Planar Handbook, has a high-level ability called "See It Again" that allows to duplicate once any spell the character has been targeted with in the previous round.
    • Another Prestige Class, the Ur-Priest, beyond stealing clerical spells from the gods without worshiping them, at maximum level can copy the spell-like abilities of another creature.
    • In 5E, the Rogue specialization Arcane Trickster gains the "Spell Thief" ability at level 17, which lets them try to negate any spell cast in their presence and, if successful, then use that spell as if it were their own for 24 hours. The only downside is that this ability can be used once per long rest.
  • Games Workshop games:
    • Warhammer 40,000 :
      • The Tyranids do something similar to Power Copying. When they turn their opponents into the raw materials to make more Tyranids, they also absorb their information and occasionally their traits; these are then used by the hive fleet to make it easier to counter those tactics and abilities. Some sources also hint that some varieties of Tyranid were "invented" using the DNA of certain foes, such as the psychic Zoanthropes (believed to have come from Eldar DNA) and the durable Tyrant Guard (supposedly created with Space Marine DNA).
      • The Kroot also do something like this. They consume their slain enemies, and any useful traits are incorporated into the Kroot's DNA (which is mostly blank apart from their natural traits). Over a few generations, the traits gained from consumed enemies become a natural part of the Kroot's biology. The Kroot Shapers are shamans within tribes that direct what they eat, to ensure only good traits are retained and not detrimental ones. This came after one section of kroot decided it would be good to assimilate canine DNA, and getting trapped in an evolutionary dead end. The current Kroot themselves are actually not the base race, they use to be a type of scavenging bird before consuming a humanoid race.
      • The Space Marines themselves possess an oft-forgotten organ, the omophagea, that allows them to learn a bit from any creature by consuming some of their mass. Brain works best, but not always necessary.
    • Warhammer: Age of Sigmar:
      • The Blue Scribes (a pair of Daemons given a mission by the Chaos God of magic to acquire every spell in existence) gives the pair a 50% chance of copying any spell used by a nearby Wizard, friend or foe.
      • The ability of a Curseling's Tretchlet to uncover secrets extends to magecraft. This insidious power allows the homunculus to steal spells from the mind of any nearby Wizard so that their host can cast them back at the enemy.
  • The chess variant Plunder Chess allows pieces that capture other pieces to use the captured piece's move once.
  • There's also the gruesome Pathfinder spell, Blood Transcription, which requires you to "consume" a pint of blood from a dead spellcaster, allowing you to learn one of their spells, provided your class can learn it. Needless to say, this spell comes with an 'evil' descriptor.
  • Magic: The Gathering:
    • Experiment Kraj copies all the abilities of creatures that have +1/+1 counters on them.
    • Necrotic Ooze and Havengul Lich all directly copy the abilities of creatures in any Graveyard.
    • Majestic Myriarch gains the abilities flying, first strike, double strike, deathtouch, haste, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, and vigilance at the beginning of combat if its controller controls another creature with one of these abilities. For example, if Majestic Myriarch's controller also controls one creature with haste and another creature with double strike, Majestic Myriarch gains haste and double strike at the beginning of combat.
    • Several shapeshifters can copy the abilities of defeated foes; Dimir Doppelganger and Cairn Wanderer, for example.
  • Excrucian Deceivers in Nobilis are capable of completely copying all the abilities of people they know very well, through the Ritual of the Second Skin. This comes with a number of drawbacks: The ritual takes a full day to perform, it copies all of the target's limitations and weaknesses, and anyone who commands the Deceiver in the name of the person whose skin they're wearing can force them to follow a single order. Still, it's one of the most dangerous abilities in the game for the sheer versatility it grants them.
  • Changeling: The Lost: Fetches are normally only physical copies of the Changelings they're created to replace, but those with the "Mimic Contract" ability can also duplicate any of their Changelings' supernatural powers as long as they're nearby.
  • Dead of Winter: John Price's special ability lets him mimic the special abilities of all other Survivors at his location.

    Theatre 
  • In Pokémon Live!, MechaMew2 has the ability to learn and amplify any Pokemon's attack.

    Toys 
  • BIONICLE:
    • The Mask of Kindred allows the wearer to copy the abilities of animals sharing the general environment with them (so land animals if the user is on land, sea animals if they're diving, etc).
    • The Mask of Emulation, which allows the wearer to use any power he can watch someone else using.
    • One minor character, the Dark Hunter Mimic, has the ability to become the master of any activity he sees being performed. This doesn't encompass powers, but it does let him, say, become proficient in the melee fighting style of his opponent. And be better at it.
    • Another Dark Hunter, Conjurer, can steal his opponent's powers with his Rhotuka spinner. He's in a coma after trying to use it on a Makuta (members of the species have 43 different powers).
    • Vezok can absorb and store powers used against him. He can also combine them, though there's a time limit on how long he can keep hold of a power before he needs a "recharge", so to speak.
    • Krahka can change her form at will, and unlike other shapeshifters she can also use the powers of the copied form. Krahka can combine several forms and powers at once, to the point that she can create a Toa Seal on her own as long as she copies six different Elemental Powers. Her only true limit seems to be that using too many powers at once or switching forms too quickly on the fly can drain her energy.
  • The Mega Man action figures (based on the Ruby-Spears animated series,) has this as its main feature. Every robot figure in the line can replace one hand with a spring loaded arm cannon (though only a couple actually COME with an arm cannon) and all the various weapons are completely interchangeable, which not only allows Mega Man himself to do his thing, but many other wild combinations—like having Cut Man fire plasma shots, bombs, or even Guts Man's fire hydrant from his head.

    Web Animation 
  • The magical Crystal of Absorb from Unforgotten Realms gives one the power to take on the powers of a dead opponent. Rob instantly equates this to being "like Mega Man".
  • In the crossover of Smash Bros. Lawl, The Irate Gamer has this as a signature move, but with the twist that the powers he copies are very underpowered versions of the originals.

    Webcomics 
  • Red Mage of 8-Bit Theater can copy the last action he's seen, though only once. This is because his class was changed to Mime — a real class from the Final Fantasy series — but the author uses it for occasional references to Marvel's Taskmaster as well.
    • Also on 8-Bit Theater, Black Mage has the blue magic ability to learn attacks from others. Naturally, since he's the official Butt-Monkey, he has the most inconvenient form of blue magic - he needs to get hit with an attack to learn it. "Useful" spells he learned this way include "make Black Mage vomit up his intestines" and "rewrite reality according to Sarda's will".
      Black Mage: When Sarda casts a spell to hurt you and you learn that spell, you learn to cast a spell that hurts you.
  • Chocolate Milkmaid can absorb the powers of anyone she "takes in a part of". Bodily fluids count. All of them. But it only works when she's in Milkmaid mode.
  • Max from Asperchu can copy an enemy's abilities by swallowing them, due to being an Expy of Kirby.
  • The Big Bad of Akuma's Comics is The Undertaker, a demon with the ability to copy and absorb a person's soul, gaining that person's strength, techniques, and knowledge. He can copy inanimate objects, too, as long as they have energy. Gemel from Tony TH learns any move that he personally sees. When the two meet during a crossover◊, The Undertaker briefly discusses the different methods that can be used to perform this trope. 'Taker then proposes that they copy each others' ability to copy, allowing them both to copy a person's entire moveset just by looking at them.
  • Bob and George only lets Mega Man copy powers during the parodies of the games themselves. Given the nature of the series, what he can actually do with the powers is often extreme.
  • Kirby does this a lot in Brawl in the Family. In this comic, he ends up doing multiple layers of power copying.
  • Clown Corps: Echo the Mime has the ability to Mime and thus copy another clown's routine and its attendant powers. Her go-to in battle is simply to do whatever her opponent does, but better. She is later revealed to have a Logical Weakness in that she can't copy direct physical attributes and inborn talents, so she can't copy the strengths of people like Strongman and PJ, and since McBell is an expert on improv and has no routine there's nothing there for Echo to copy.
  • El Goonish Shive:
    • All wizards can permanently learn another person's spell just by observing it in action enough times. Since learned spells appear in their owner's spellbook as additional pages and are described in detail, wizards who keep up with their spellbooks can potentially use such spells at least as effectively as the original owners can if not more. That said not all magic users are wizards, it's a special trait one is born with.
    • Tedd can do something similar, by Looking at spell with their Seer powers, they learn how to put spells in various objects for later use. Seers are later defined by Pandora as wand makers, and another seer just assumed they were "A wizard with a quirk". They're basically a wizard that requires an extra step in placing the spell in a wand first.
    • One of Ellen's spells is to copy the form of something else. At first this only appears to be transformation-based (copying a cat lets her turn into a cat), but eventually she tries copying Nanase's uber-powerful Guardian form. Not only does she gain Nanase's appearance, but she gains all the powers of the Guardian form along with it.
  • GrrlPower: The character For Whom the Death Tolls has an interesting variation. He doesn't copy a person's power, but when he is attacked he automatically gains the power/ability that will nullify the attackers power/ability. Only one at a time though....
  • Proxy from the EGO story arc of Heroes Unite has the ability to take on another character's powers and appearance. (Nebulon appears twice on the cover art for this reason). Similarly, the foe who originally prompted the formation of Heroes Unite was an alien warrior called Deuce who had the ability to copy powers (as well as Super-Strength and Super-Toughness). In the end they only beat him because he was limited to absorbing two sets of powers at once and they tricked him into using up both slots to copy Acrobat - a Badass Normal with no powers whatsoever.
  • Sidekicks: One of the functions of the Second Prana.
  • Yuuki from Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki is able to steal power from Otsana and Shebi.
  • Spinnerette's roommate and best friend Sahira learns she has this ability in Issue 5, being able to temporarily utilize the abilities of other super-powered individuals when exposed to their DNA. She's also capable of stacking them on top of each other. However, she has absolutely no interest in becoming a superhero, and mostly uses her power for more mundane activities like regularly copying Heather's extra arms to make cleaning their apartment easier.
  • Bam in Tower of God can easily copy and apply both Shinsu and physical techniques once he experiences them, even ones that should be far above his level. In some cases he can improve the techniques with ease, though sometimes, special skills require a lot of improvement to even reach the original user's level, as Love notices. At one point, he masters a long list of martial arts by letting their practitioners beat him up. Another time, he has difficulty learning a powerful new Shinsu attack because his teacher is afraid that if he'll actually use it on Bam, he might kill him with it, so he has to actually just teach him. Then again, another time Bam is able to partly learn a difficult technique after just seeing it rather than being hit with it. Maybe being actually hit with the technique just makes it even easier.
  • unOrdinary: John has the ability to temporarily copy abilities that he experiences and utilise them in more powerful and creative ways than the original ability user.
  • In Yokoka's Quest, Copycat can copy another person's languages, abilities, and appearance - though the appearance is mirrored, and he typically chooses to retain his purple eyes. He only turns into pretty boys however, even if he thinks they're weak.

    Web Original 
  • Chaka, at the Super Hero School Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe, has the ability to manipulate Ki and see it flow. When attacked by a ninja using a secret "paralyzing nerve strike", she watches him as he tries it on her. She blocks it, so he never finished the move. She promptly uses it on him before he can react, having learned it in less time than it takes to execute the complete move once.
    • The second time she meets that ninja, she witnesses him finish off another student beforehand with a Kame Hame Hadoken. When she fights him shortly after, she takes him out in a Quick Draw battle, using the blast back against him. She names it the "Chaka Chaka Bang Bang". Chaka stealing Daikon's moves seems like it's one instance away from being a Running Gag.
    • Also, 'mimic' abilities are one possible subcategory of mutant powers in that setting, though the copy isn't usually quite as good as the original. For example, Sahar has the ability to 'collect' other people's specific psychic knacks, and Counterpoint is a school bully who deliberately tries to goad other students into fighting him so he can copy their powers and beat them up even worse next time.
    • In-universe, the canonical example of the Mimic trait is Mimeo, who can copy the powers of multiple mutants at once at full strength simply by fighting them for a while and as an experienced career supervillain also generally has the skill to use the powers effectively once he has them (it helps that he's studied at Whateley himself back in the day when the school was still new). His one limit in this regard is that he can only hold the copied powers for up to four hours — consequently, his usual modus operandi appears to be that whenever he needs cash, he makes a splashy scene in public to get the attention of the whichever Super Team which has the combination of powers he needs for his planned heist, tussle with the heroes long enough to copy those powers, and then go off to hit a bank or otherwise commit his real crime while the "charge" lasts. And now he's fought Team Kimba and discovered what those kids can do...
  • Trinton Chronicles:
    • Jasmine, has the ability to copy all the other superpowers she is with-in range of. This being said her power is kind of useless against others with the same or similar ability. Jasmine has copied so many powers at once she seems to have no limit, she also tends to use them like 'toys' in some cases including copying the power of a transmuter to transform junk into gemstones and the power of mentally interfacing with technologies in order to turn on her apartment's electronics and dial the phone without ever touching it.
    • Taltos does this also only using his own power of Nemesis against several of the heroes in Hallow's Eve.

    Western Animation 
  • Marceline of Adventure Time obtained her vampire abilities this way. In the Adventure Time continuity, different vampires have different abilities, and a Season-7 arc is devoted to explaining how she went to a bunch of different vampires and gained their abilities.
  • Ben 10:
    • Ben Tennyson later gains the ability to turn into any alien the Omnitrix got a DNA sample from in the third season, allowing him to transform himself into slightly-altered versions of a small handful of that season's aliens. To date, each of these three forms are used exactly once in the original series, and the plot point is dropped for an entire series, until it's picked up again in Ultimate Alien, except this time, Ben uses the acquired powers more often.
    • Ben's nemesis Kevin 11 started out with a similar ability, which he used to copy Ben's powers. After getting Ben's powers, his original ability was never seen again (except in an "alternate future" episode where he had used his ability absorption to steal traits of thousands of aliens, basically becoming a cross between Naraku and Sylar).
      • Later seasons have Kevin as a sidekick, having found a way to return to human form. His power is the absorption ability he originally possessed, although he only uses it to absorb matter instead of copying powers. It's explained in a much later season that his power copying is a Dangerous Forbidden Technique that turns members of his species evil and insane, which is why he was a sociopathic villain in the original series.
  • Unlike other mages in The Dragon Prince, Callum learns magic primarily from copying what he sees from others or observing magic in action. The only exception is learning the Sky Arcanum, and this is because thus far he's shown to be the only human in the world capable of doing so.
  • Dante Vale in Huntik: Secrets & Seekers gains this ability with the CopyKind ability, which let him borrow the abilities of Titans. This comes in handy to bring him Back from the Dead at the end.
  • The version of AMAZO from Justice League is a master of this. By the end, he's got wings and a mace, reflecting bracers, a Green Lantern Ring, Super-Speed and Eye Beams. The only way to stop him was to give him another power: telepathy, so that he could learn that he was being manipulated by a bad guy. He eventually got bored with his "opponents", and decided their conflicts were now beneath him (as the android doesn't just copy powers, it evolves), and headed off into space in search of meaning. When it returned, Amazo was basically a God. Lex Luthor later wanted to make himself an android body to gain Godhood using the same blueprints as Amazo.
  • Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness expands on Po's Power Copying from the movies, establishing that - thanks to the encyclopedic knowledge of kung fu he got from years of fanboying - he can copy virtually any ability after seeing it performed a handful of times. Some techniques are also so easy to learn that anybody can do this, including Po's father Ping.
  • Mega Man (Ruby-Spears) again.
    • Mega Man's methods in the show differed from the games: Defeating a Robot Master wasn't needed as Mega Man only need to grab the Robot Master to absorb the power. His armor's colors also stay the same familiar blue, and the Robot Master's weaknesses to the weapons are never brought up. He could seemingly only keep the power for a few minutes/shots, but he stole a Robot Master's power at least Once per Episode, usually with stock footage.
    • As evidenced by Mega Man's most (in)famous utterage of the page quote, this didn't always work out for him.
    • Mega Man's powerful time-traveling ally, Mega Man X, gets in on the act and takes this up to eleven during his only appearance in the cartoon. X shows that not only can he copy enemy weaponry from Mega Man's time (Snake Man's Search Snake, to be precise), but like in the Mega Man X video games, X can super-charge them. He powers-up the Search Snake and sends it to speedily devour Wily's gigantic super laser.
    • Aki/Mega Man in Mega Man: Fully Charged only needed to scan a Robot Master to copy their power, but it also copied their personality as well and he can only hold 3 powers at a time.
  • The Big Bad of Men in Black: The Series was Alpha, the human founder of MIB, who merged with an alien artifact that allowed him to absorb the body-parts of aliens into his own, allowing him to cheat death and also resulting in him turning into a rather grotesque patchwork lifeform (with the abilities and attributes of all his alien body parts).
  • Twilight Sparkle of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is capable of this. While most unicorns are capable of a little magic that helps them in their special talent, Twilight's talent IS magic so this allows her to easily copy spells used by other unicorns. She only need be exposed to it a couple times at most in order to pull off a fairly accurate facsimile.
  • The already unstoppable, unyielding Beast Planet in Shadow Raiders is implied to be able to do this when it creates a duplicate of a planet it previously ate... and at the very end, when it may have copied the Prison Planet's teleportation technology...
  • On The Simpsons, Comic Book Guy invents a superhero named Everyman, who is able to get the superpowers of any superhero just by touching a comic book. "His superpower is every superpower!"
  • Blackarachnia from Transformers: Animated can drain powers with a touch, similar to Rogue (except she can turn it off). Back when she was Elita-1, she could copy without draining. Lockdown, similar to Alpha, steals body parts from other Transformers, and is essentially a Frankenstein's monster-like assembly of parts.
  • The Shushu Anathar from Wakfu can copy the magic of anyone he physically touches or physically touches him. He can even those use their magic better than they can. When he copied Yugo's power after being struck he could create dozens of portals at once while Yugo is only able to under normal circumstances create one pair of portals at a time. However, he can only copy one power at a time and needs to sacrifice it whenever he switches to a new power. Also, the "physically touch" part is important. Qilby easily handled him by using his Wakfu portals to make Anathar punch himself, and then seemingly killed him via either Wakfu beam from afar or the resulting rocks from the collapsing tunnel.
  • In X-Men: Evolution, Rogue's powers work basically the same as they do in comics. However, even after the effects wear off, the personality of the person she touched remains inside her head. Eventually, she absorbed so many people that the personalities started resurfacing to take over, with their powers re-emerging with them. Then, when Rogue accidentally overabsorbed Mystique's power, she began involuntarily transforming into everyone she had touched. Things then got worse when she eventually got control of all the powers at once, allowing her to overwhelm the entire team for a bit.
  • The version of Amazo seen in Young Justice (2010) has a crippling weakness: for all the powers it can copy, it cannot use them at the same time, allowing Superboy to kill it while it was switching abilities.

    Real Life 
  • The nudibranch, a type of mollusk sometimes called the "sea slug", feeds on jellyfish and other stinging sea creatures. It is capable of taking the "stinging" cells from the creatures it eats and incorporating them into its own body, sometimes becoming more deadly than the animals it preys on. One species has taken this in a different direction and absorbs chlorophyll from the algae it eats that it then puts into its skin, making it the only photosynthetic animal known to exist.
  • Photuris fireflies first learn and mimic the blinking pattern of a different genus' females, then devour the attracted males. They can then absorb the devoured male's defensive toxins and use them for themselves.
  • It was believed by some cannibalistic tribes that eating a dead person's brain allowed you to learn their life's experiences. This unfortunately meant you could also gain the exact same disease they probably died from.
    • The most common version of this was when warriors would eat the brains or hearts of vanquished enemies to gain their strength or energy.
    • Eating brain matter was the main way the disease kuru spread between people. It's thought to be extinct now. Just as well since it's deadly and dying from it is messy at best.
  • The concept of sympathetic magic can work like this: the Bimana of Africa decorate their hunting shirts with mouse skins for speed, animal claws and teeth for ferocity, and so on.
  • Rabies. A deadly example but the trope still works. Rabies does not just spread via bites but also from eating something with rabies. Without treatment, this can be fatal but before death hits, "Rabid" strength, speed, ferocity and foaming at the mouth can be enjoyed.
  • Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do works on the idea of "absorbing what is useful". Lee's personal style combined his best moves from Wing Chun, Tae Kwon Do, western boxing, fencing, and escrima. Anyone adhering to this concept of martial philosophy can build their own style by learning from different ones.
  • Many drugs are like this as certain (sometimes unnatural) chemicals in them mimics neurotransmitters. This can be beneficial if it gives your brain something it is lacking. It can be harmful if it causes you to get addicted and makes the real neurotransmitters less effective. It can be worse if you get too much of something, because then your body and mind freaks out and you can die from an over dose.
  • The mimic octopus doesn't gain "powers" per se, but it can use its transforming ability to scare off or discourage certain predators and it can change color to camouflage itself.
  • Viruses, though they aren't technically living (sort of, the other wiki uses this quote: "organisms at the edge of life"), invade a cell. If two viruses of the same strain attacks a cell, their DNA or RNA can break apart and recombine into a new shape. Also, if different strains of a virus have an "offspring", they can become more deadly AND spread across species. The 2009 flu pandemic, for example, had a mix of swine, avian, and human influenza genetic sequences.
  • There are few animals that evolved to look like more dangerous animals (e.g. a non-venomous that looks similar to venomous ones). They are other species that are rarer in that they mimic a more dangerous species behavior. There's at least one snake that mimics cobras despite the fact that its species has never seen cobras and there are no fossil records of its species meeting a snake that acts like a cobra (cobras' behavior really is one-of-a-kind, well, the only species that can back it up anyways...)
  • A version of this is employed in many sports and games with a competitive scene (especially where there are regular tournaments with cash prizes): the winners' strategy is analyzed and copied. Those who wish to remain winners must continually create new strategies, or perform their strategies better than anyone else can.
  • The Ancient Roman Army was prone to imitate the best equipment and tactics of their enemies and integrate them in their own. A partial list of equipment they copied from enemies include chainmail (copied from the Gaulish tribes of Italy), helmets (copied initially from the Gauls and later from the Sassanid Persians), molossoid guard dogs (the first ones stolen from Pyrrhus' camp at Asculum), and even their signature scutum (copied from the Samnites), pilum (copied from the Estruscans) and gladius (copied from the Celtiberians, the first being outright bought from them), while tactics include the manipular formation (copied from the Samnites at the same time of the scutum), attack dogs (used against them by the Cimbrians) and the use of cataphract cavalry and mounted archers (copied from the Parthians).

 
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Ace Killer

Now that Yapool has the Ultra Brothers crucified on Planet Golgotha after luring them there, he's had his latest creation, the deadly cyborg Ace Killer, steal their powers for his own. To prove Ace Killer's fearsome power and ability to emulate the Ultras with the techniques he stole, Yapool summons Ace Robot, a seemingly-perfect (albeit mechanical) duplicate of Ultraman Ace to serve as a test subject. Given that Ace Killer uses his stolen powers to effortlessly end the machine (all while Yapool pulls off some rather hammy evil gloating), how can the real Ace stand up to such a fearsome threat?

Naofumi

Radical Centrist

Gate of Bootylon

Delsin Rowe

Alternative Title(s): Blue Mage, Mega Manning, Power Copy, Power Duplication, Blue Magic

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Ace Killer

Now that Yapool has the Ultra Brothers crucified on Planet Golgotha after luring them there, he's had his latest creation, the deadly cyborg Ace Killer, steal their powers for his own. To prove Ace Killer's fearsome power and ability to emulate the Ultras with the techniques he stole, Yapool summons Ace Robot, a seemingly-perfect (albeit mechanical) duplicate of Ultraman Ace to serve as a test subject. Given that Ace Killer uses his stolen powers to effortlessly end the machine (all while Yapool pulls off some rather hammy evil gloating), how can the real Ace stand up to such a fearsome threat?

How well does it match the trope?

5 (6 votes)

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Main / PowerCopying

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Ace Killer

Naofumi

Radical Centrist

Gate of Bootylon

Delsin Rowe