Hey guys, I have a chapter of a story coming up soon that’s going to involve a forced transformation that I want to be pretty extreme, probably unwanted, and definitely hot. It’s going to involve characters masturbating while the change is happening - a sort of “character masturbates as the unwanted transformation occurs, they don’t want to change, but can’t stop masturbating and orgasm seals the change” sort of thing. Old trope, but I like it.
Question is, how far is too far? I know based on the rules of the site age regression beyond sexual maturity would be expressly forbidden and I’m totally on board with that. But what about things like dwarfism, Down’s syndrome, other-abled changes, or even just extremely offensive racial stereotypes? Just trying to get a good idea of how far I ought to go with this and make it pretty fucked up and hot without going too far and being gross. Thanks
The best way I think to do this is have the character be racist or prejudice to something and have them be changed into that. That way you still get the forced unwanted transformation without it being as fucked up to readers.
Ex: Have a straight man be racist to Irish, dislike really buff people, and homophobic. Irish because racism and buff people because he thinks they’re ugly or something and doesn’t attract girls. Then have him transform into a really buff gay Irishman.
You get the kick of force transformation, without the moral problems of the transformation has left the person in a worst position than they were before, because there’s nothing wrong with being Irish and arguably being buff is probably better for the character’s health.
Sss’s suggestions seem to the way to go, if you can. Those examples are pretty tame tho, in terms of things that will upset people to read.
It will be tricky. It’ll be easier if the person being changed hates the things he’s being changed into, because as a reader, it’ll feel deserved, because that person was a racist, etc. It’ll be tougher if the person causing the change is someone else and they are the one who is racist. Because then they aren’t getting their comeuppance, at least not right then.
If part of the scene is to show how villainous the villain is, that might give you some leeway. Maybe?
In your recent story, readers (myself included) had a reaction to a character being turned into a pig. The same happened in a story years ago where a dog got kicked. Sometimes it comes down to how invested in the characters your writing gets readers. In a straight up wank story, with generic characters and that I have no attachment to, I don’t care as much about characters doing bad things. In well-written stories that I’m invested in, I don’t want the dog to get kicked. I might be ok seeing the homophobe reveal he’s got other prejudices besides homophobia, but I’ll be more onboard if others in the story show that he’s prejudiced and call him on his shit, or if it’s clear he’s being built up to fall eventually.
The character isn’t you, does express things you have thought about but is ultimately there to get across whatever point you are trying to make. If the point you are trying to make is that stereotypes are hot, some readers might be upset.
I appreciate both these responses. It IS actually going to be Searcey in TMTC who’s going to be behind this, so definitely a large part of the rationale is to continue to establish his villainous intent (and it’s obvious he has a mean and vicious streak.) I’m going to think a bit about how I lead up to it.
The reactions to the character being turned into a pig were so enlightening. The main intent there was to establish Searcey as the chief antagonist and to really show the lengths to which his internalized homophobia would drive him, but I also really wanted to give the scenario an echo of Circe’s most prominent Greek mythology account in the Odyssey, when she turned Odysseus’s shipmates into swine. In the early scenarios where the guys really used their powers willfully, I wanted it to be a strong reflection of their God patrons - Deon getting the guy drunk (Dionysus), Eric renewing his parents love/lust for each other (Eros), and poor Lucas being transformed into a pig (Circe.) I didn’t expect folks to be so sympathetic to his horror, but good news - it did cause me to make sure to plot him a way out from his current situation soon.
I think I picked up on the guys channeling their godly essences/stories in the first couple of chapters. It’s some really great writing in regards to how you’ve treated the mythology. Mad respect!
I’m also happy to hear you thought up a way to rescue poor Lucas
