WritingWithColor (Posts tagged shapeshifter)

Shapeshifting Black characters (Compilation)

Black person is a Black cat & witch

Hi, I’m writing a story that involves a lot of Scottish folklore and I have a character that is Cat Sìth, which is a witch that can transform into a black cat with a white spot on its chest. I’m designing their human form and am considering making them black, but I’d like to check whether or not this would be okay first, especially since it’s from Scottish folklore?

Black people can be Scottish, so yes, it’s okay from that standpoint.

There’s no inherent poor associations with Black people and cats, at least that I know of. I think this is a cool idea! I instantly am picturing them with Black curls with a white streak!

As always, to avoid dehumanization implications, I recommend
Having other non-Black characters with the ability to turn into an animal. And not just other BIPOC in general, but white characters too (Since only POC turning into animals feels dehumanizing).
And/or another Black character (specifically of their identity) who does not turn into an animal.

~Colette

Dragon shapeshifts into Black woman

@multifangirl69 asked:

Hello! I have this idea for a fantasy story that is all about the romance between a Knight and a shapeshifting Dragon. The Dragon can shapeshift into a human black woman and I worry that this might come off as othering. Most characters in the story will be POC, including the Knight and a lot of other human black women. I really want to write this story, but I also want this to be a diverse fantasy story that isn’t about white Europeans. Is there anything I should be careful about?

Please see my Black cat answer above. No unfortunate implications based on what i’m reading. You’ve got other human Black women, so that’s good. It’d be great if there were other shifters of different races and not just BIPOC, but since you have the other human Black women component, it’s okay.

There are dragons in many cultures, but I’ll just say be sensitive to that and avoid appropriation and do your research.

~Colette

P.S. Hit me up when your stories come out; I’d love to read them!

Black animal shifter prefers animal form as her default

@mkfshard asked:

I’m writing a Fantasy story that heavily features themes of transformation, and I want to make sure I’m not falling into the fantasy trope of PoC being confined to animal forms. One of my main trio is a young Black woman with this ability, who uses it to perform acts of heroism. At a young age, she was abused to encourage her to use this power to the exclusion of her human body, and has developed an aversion to being human and therefore ‘vulnerable’. She can return to human form at will, but chooses not to. She treats her non-human form as her 'default’ form, and easily enjoys being that way, scorning the fear of those who see her as a monster. The non-human form does not affect the mind in any way, and while she is very outgoing, outspoken, and a competent fighter, I’ve made sure her personality is not depicted as 'overly aggressive’ or 'animalistic’. I’ve tried hard, but I know I have massive blindspots. Have I made any glaring mistakes here?

The animal transformation is not a problem in itself, as long as there are other non-Black people who can transform into animals, and preferably not all BIPOC only. The Black woman being more of an “animal by default” does feel dehumanizing to me.

You’ve made your Black woman character more in touch with being an animal than human, afterall. On top of that, she was abused.

Questions to ask yourself:

Trace your logic - why does this character, out of all of them, have this characterization?
Are there other Black characters who are non-transforming humans and/or do not default to animal form? Particularly, Black women characters.
Are there other characters that prefer their animal forms as well? Preferably white ones as well and not just BIPOC?
Would it make sense for the past abuse to have made her feel more comfortable staying in the human form instead? And more aversion to the animal form (in order to separate herself from what she was told / forced into)?
Furthermore - how is her past of abuse addressed in the narrative aside from to explain her feelings towards her animals and human forms? It’s the topic that influences her identity and should handled with respect.
Is her life balanced between acts of heroism and having a life of her own? Is she the only one who uses her powers to save others, thus placing herself in harm’s way?
Is she allowed physical and mental weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and shown to be someone worth protecting? Do people care for her and protect her and show it?

~Mod Colette

Black Black women compilation shapeshifter shapeshifters dehumanization othering trace your logic asks

upset-to-dead asked:

hey! i just wanted to say i have found your blog incredibly helpful and was reading up on some of your asks about Muslim characters. i am currently writing a character who is a Muslim girl who can turn into an eagle at will and was wondering what your thoughts might be on this? she lives in a world where many people are animal-shifters. however, i do think there might be a problem since once someone shifts they leave their clothes behind? is there a good way to go about this that you reccomend?

Muslim Eagle Animal Shifter

Hi! Firstly, the fact that she can turn into an eagle is pretty cool. Eagles are beautiful and sophisticated. The other part of the question, I want to answer in two separate points:

1. It won’t be a problem for the character to turn into an eagle, even if her clothes are left behind. Since this character is a Muslim girl, I suggest you having her being very mindful with where she turns back into human. She might have certain spots where she hides extra clothes, or a place she can always go to shift back… etc. Don’t make her turn back into human in front of other people. That would be embarrassing for anyone really, but especially for someone that holds modesty in such a high esteem.

2. The second point I wanted to address is that even if your character were a Muslim boy instead of a girl, the same rules would apply to him. Modesty goes both ways; there are some slight differences, but majorly, covering key areas of the body is obligatory for both sexes.

-Asmaa

phan-killjoy-emo-binch Muslim Muslim women Shapeshifter supernatural beings asks

sylveon-appreciation asked:

Hello! I want to write a story about kids with superpowers (the protags are raised in a fairly isolated place; I’ve been trying to keep the nonpowered characters diverse, though). One of the ideas I had was for a shapeshifter whose powers are limited to shapeshifting into other humans, and they tend to mess around a lot with their appearance. They prefer to remain East Asian to stick to their roots except when specifically copying someone. Should I scrap this power and make another character?

East Asian character can shapeshift into other people, mainly shapeshifts into other East Asians

I do think there is something poetic about this. East Asian cultures can be notoriously xenophobic and have borderline creepy ideas on what the “ideal” person from a particularly ethnic group looks like. Many multiracial Chinese, Japanese and Korean nationals talk extensively of wishing they looked more like whatever the “ideal” happens to be for their respective countries (Keep in mind, nationality =/= ethnicity) so I can imagine a Mystique-like East Asian shapeshifter dealing with the internal struggle of figuring out what “face” to present to other people to better fit in because their real face is considered too foreign/ alien.

That said, I wish you had assigned this character an ethnicity so we could better advise you on what avenues of identity and norms surrounding appearance to explore. Though I privately think East Asians are more alike than they are different in numerous respects, the fact remains these are distinct ethnicities. They may share numerous physical features, but the social and cultural aspects of these ethnicities are not interchangeable. I think you should come back to us after you’ve fleshed out this character’s background more.

- Marika

As another mixed Asian, I’m also okay with this, I think! I would also have liked to see a specific ethnicity assigned to this character because there’s a lot of differences between East Asian cultures that could be explored with different nuance. I would just be mindful of coding this character as East Asian solely through appearance, as there’s a lot of different ways to show race other than through appearance and presentation.

I think it would be interesting to see East Asian habits and cultural details show up in a character who was shifted into a non-East Asian body– I think Nalo Hopkinson did a few stories on a similar bend, that were interesting to read.

–Sophia

sylveon-appreciation East Asian beauty standards shapeshifter shapeshifting Chinese japanese Korean asks

casually-leviathan asked:

Hi! My secondary main character is a deity who was raised on Earth by a Czech Vietnamese woman. But fact that the only on-screen Asian representation is my story would be a shapeshifter seems alarming to me. Do you think I could keep his appearance and how his upbringing has shaped him but make a point of it "not really being his"? Or would that be even worse, so maybe remodel the concept altogether? Also, he really loves dinosaurs. Is that too close for comfort to the Asian/Dragon trope?

Vietnamese deity shapeshifter loves dinosaurs - Is this the Asian/Dragon trope?

Only On-Screen Asian Rep is a Shapeshifter

Question– is this the only character who shapeshifts? There are problems in having POC animal shifters (further examined in the Werewolves & Animal Shifters of Color post) and changing the character to avoid perpetuating this “POC are beastlike” trope would be a good option.

If he isn’t “othered” in the way that you have many other non-Asian characters that aren’t shapeshifters, then there shouldn’t be any problems!

Upbringing is Different from Ethnicity and/or Race

For your question: where in the world does the story take place? I’m assuming the Czech Republic given that he’s adopted by a Czech Vietnamese woman and that he’s the only Asian character.

So is he being brought up in the Czech Republic and that is what he’s conflicted about “not really being his”?

If so, then I think that you should really do research on the Third Culture Kid experience.

Specifically that of immigrant (Southeast Asian) people in the Czech Republic/Central Europe.
If you can’t get input/advice from actual TCKs, then I really don’t think that this is something you should include in your story :)
I do think that talking about how his upbringing shapes him could be a pretty interesting way to explore his character! Just be sure to not show it in a way that suggests that being raised in a predominantly white place is better than being raised in a predominantly Asian community. (This perpetuates the trope that non-European countries are all disease-ridden and impoverished.)

Vietnamese Character Loving Dinosaurs

This isn’t problematic on its own! I loved dinosaurs while growing up! But please retrace your character creation process and be certain that this hadn’t been because of Asian stereotypes. Also make sure that the character doesn’t pay disrespect to dragons in actual Vietnamese culture, as there are magical elements in your story.

(As always, Vietnamese readers, please feel free to add on.)

You can always have characters like something without it being determined by their culture!

~ Mod Em :3

casually-leviathan Asian Dragons Asian Dragon Vietnamese shapeshifter shapeshifting Vietnamese men supernatural beings Third culture Third culture kid asks

tenaciouscreative asked:

I have a half chinese half mongolian main character who is apart of a fantasy/action story I'm developing. His mother, the chinese parent, is supposed to be descended from ancient mythological dragons and thus can shapeshift into one, along with all her children, and has elemetal powers to boot. My m/c isn't the only one with powers but is it okay for me to write this? Or should I change it to regular shapeshifting?

Chinese Mongolian Dragon Shapeshifter

Are there other Chinese, Mongolian, and Chinese-Mongolian characters who don’t shapeshift?

My main concern is that your only mentioned Chinese characters are dragons or descended from dragons and therefore are seen as non-human. Given that there are no human Chinese characters mentioned in this ask, I am concerned in regard to the execution especially since Asian people are often dehumanized such as Nagini in the Fantastic Beasts film series, who was made into an involuntary shapeshifting Asian woman and forced to permanently become a snake.

Here is a link to an ask on East Asian shapeshifter dragons answered by WWC: East Asian Shapeshifter Dragons

I would also recommend going through the alien/non-human characters of color tag as linked in the Alien Tag.

- Sci

cheese-chiled Chinese Chinese men Mongolian Mongolian man shapeshifting shapeshifter dragons East Asian Harry Potter dehumanization asks

Japanese characters shapeshifting into fox

@with-love-maddie asked:

Hi, I’m a Spanish writer who needs help. I’m writing an urban fantasy book where some of my characters are mythical creatures. Two of them are Japanese-American siblings (Kaito and Mei) who are kitsunes in human form, but can shape shift. Is it offensive to use kitsunes? I really don’t want to insult anyone by being ignorant. Thank you very much!!! ❤

It isn’t inherently bad for a non-Japanese person to use kitsune in their work. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

1) The plural of kitsune is kitsune.

2) Traditionally, kitsune aren’t humans who can shapeshift into foxes—there’s a superstition in Japan that all foxes have the ability to shapeshift into humans, and the word “kitsune” in Japanese literally just means fox.

3) Most modern-day Japanese people don’t believe that foxes can shapeshift, any more than modern-day Greek people believe in the Greek gods.

So, if your characters are Japanese-American humans who can shapeshift into foxes, they wouldn’t really be kitsune. But you could still have Japanese-American people who can shapeshift into foxes, and in principle, that would be fine.

However, if white people can be regular humans, and your fox-shapeshifters are the only Japanese characters in your story, that isn’t very cash money of you. But if almost everyone in your world is a supernatural being, or there are also regular Japanese humans, you’re probably fine.

—Mod Ixia

Japanese fox shapeshifting shapeshifter kitsune supernatural beings mythology asks