#baleful polymorph

Here is the thread:

Since I'm getting closer to finishing the first final draft of RFR comic script, I might need beta readers in the future. This story looks promising.

I'm also debating whether to add a note about this story has POC and non-binary characters as baleful polymorphs (all characters transformed into relics after mass extinction event). Some people don't like this trope because they believe that these characters lose their agency when transformed into objects or animals, as it may perpetuate the erasure of POC characters in stories. While I agree with this to some extent, I feel this trope can still be explored and improved upon.

The characters in RFR still have their humanity even as relics, it doesn't just exist when they are humans (or as gods within this story). I realized that I been putting a lot of my feelings, stress, and anxiety about this year into this story. I'm using the baleful polymorph trope to explore both my powerlessness and my hope during this time.

Basically, I'm just concerned about how it might be received if I go through with this story. For context, I'm Black and (while not completely out) non-binary [currently out now]. Some of the characters represent me, even as relics in this story.

The characters don't transform back into humans (or gods) but find ways to cope with a new normal in an increasingly difficult time. Like us living and coping with an ever-growing pandemic and increasingly violent government that is ignoring its citizens' cries for help.

So too are the relics, formerly gods, in RFR. Their world is dying and a small number of relics are trying to save what is left, while at the same time, another group of relics thinks that it is best to sacrifice everyone and everything to reboot the world. Which would kill off everything in their world, except for those who initiated its destruction. What do we do when the world we knew of is gone? How do we react? Do we try to cope and deal with what we can? Or do we chose to sacrifice others in a deeply selfish race to make things great again?

I want to cope and deal with what I can. Maybe start a movement that will make a better world. I'm not here to sacrifice everyone just to get back to normal. I want to fix things. To soothe the pain of loss and to ensure a better future for everyone.

```there is more but I just want to focus on this bit.

So with the final round of revisions (reformatting and then spell-check). I’m still thinking about adding an author's note on my use of the baleful polymorph trope in this story. I am not using it as a weak twist (looks at Princess and the Frog and Soul), I’m using it as a representation of powerlessness as someone with anxiety living in the year 2020 where there is world-wide unrest, an ever-spreading pandemic, and a constant feeling of death and doom hanging over my head. I want to make sure that my intentions are clear with this trope, but I also want to be sure that I don’t perpetuate the same problems with this trope.

In a way, I’m reclaiming a part of it. Transforming into something, as a representation of extreme drastic changes in our lives. The loss of agency of our normal daily lives due to a sudden dire event. A permanent transformation represents the long term effects of this change. When is our normal coming back? Will it ever come back? What will be our future? How many have suffered?

What do our characters (the gods) transform into? Relics. Relics that still retain their power. Just enough power to take action and cope with what happened to them. The loss of agency is temporary, we still have power. We can still make choices. We can still do something. Our agency is still here, within us.