Deconstruction Of Changeling Fantasy.

Okay a pair of twins discover that their mother is a mermaid. They've been raised by their human aunt and uncle since they were three. Any thoughts on deconstructing the "discovering your supernatural real family" plot?

Well...I think if something like this were to happen for real, most people wouldn't believe it for a very long time (and until a lot of proof had been provided). So most likely they think the biological mother is suffering from some mental illness, and anyone who backs her up is cruelly humouring her.

If/when they do believe it: having their faith in the world as they know it completely shaken? Being kind of disgusted by the revelation (I think being part fish could easily be quite gross)? Being furious for being lied to about something so important?

Or to take it in a much less wangsty direction: they don't really care. They accept it, deal with it and then move on to become chartered accountants like they always planned. No idea how you could make that an interesting story, though I'd be interested to see it.

...Nothing I'm coming up with sounds that great though. Not even sure some of them would even count as deconstruction. Sorry.

Well if they go of to live in the sea, well it would be quite likely the aunt and uncle would get "You murdered them" accusations.

A missing child hunt with loads and loads of press. They either have to fess up and reveal the supernatural secret, or let the people who raised them rot in jail/be suspected for the rest of their lives.

Especially since the twins were always a bit "odd", people coould think they killed them because they were tired of dealing with it.

Mostly unrelated to the thread, but if you're going to do that, I'd recommend having them be half something other than mermaid, since a mermaid is a rather sea-centric creature.

Unless the story takes place primarily near the sea, of course.

They're dad was human. And it does take place near the sea.

How about looking at what kind of child would just ditch the family they've been raised with to live a life of "magic"? Make the aunt and uncle dull but not cruel, and extremely loving and it makes the premise look foolish by the child's behavior. Maybe the upbringing of the biological parents is extremely unhealthy, and they refuse to share the child and allow them to continue living their lives.

The aunt and uncle are very loving parents. And Finley (one of the twin's, his sister's Gillain) has a friend with an abusive mother (have you ever noticed that whenever a kid in fiction has one parent who's abusive and the other decent, the father is never the kind one?) , and he wants to turn her into a mermaid so they can be togethor. Trying to figure out ways him suceeding could be pretty bittersweet.

Say, that gives me an idea - why don't you try telling the story from the aunt/uncle's perspective? I think the whole thing becomes a lot less attractive when you look at it from the point of view of anyone besides the "changeling" themselves.

Now I almost want to write this myself. I've always hated pure Wish-Fulfillment tropes.

I was planning on narrating from the point of view of most of the characters. The last scene will definantly be from the aunt, uncle and Maria's (Fin's friend) dad's perspective. Six months after they left, they all want to leave the town so they can stopped getting "murderer" stares from everyone, but then they'll want even be able to catch the occasional glimpse of their children in the bay, creepily happy, seeming to have forgoten the people who raised them... It'll be less overly dramtic in the finished product, I hope.

So any ways Maria becoming a mermaid could be really sad?

edited 25th May '11 8:06:58 PM by Zolnier

So any way life as a merperson could seem alluring to a kid under ten?

The kid could have loved the ocean and wanted to see the fish.

In the scenes from the kid's perspective, it could be good to indicate that most of their reasons for going with their bio mum were immature. Like "mermaids don't have to go to school" level of immature. Also would this be dark? Maria decides to make people think she's dead so they won't look for her, by cutting of her toe (since her legs will be a tail soon) and bleeding on some scraps of her clothing, and leaving them somewhere seedy. Or does that sound beyond a seven or eight year old?

How does a man have sex with a mermaid? Their lower half is fish...

Anyway, IDK. I would think deconstructions of fantasy would be harder, since, you know, magic and creatures like all of this do not have a real life counterpart. I guess anatomy and physiology would be easier to do though, but as for something like this? I honestly do not know. I'd compare it to someone realizing they are born from a very different culture, but even that is ignoring some parts. That's all I an really suggest, is exploring elements with someone learning something like they are part arab or part black in an all super white blonde hair blue eyes family. I'd imagine on some level it would be similar.

Just assume that the mermaid is basically mamalian under the scales. And deconstructing fantasy isn't that hard, deconstruction is basically exploring the Unfortunate Implications and logical fallacies of something.

edited 25th May '11 9:05:02 PM by Zolnier

Any sinsiter ways the twin's mother could convience them to come with her?

Leave out crucial information about the hazards of the ocean. Make it look like it's all dolphins and clown fish.

Hmm, so anyone have any thoughts on a nightmare fuel ritual for Maria's transformation?

Coraline deconstructed the Changeling fantasy by having the "real parents" actually be a monster attempting to lure the protagonist into a trap. If you want to do something different, how about the main character considers the parents that raised them to be more important than their biological parents regardless?

Well this is probably going to have a bittersweet ending. And anyone have any thoughts on what would stuff would make an under ten think a society is awesome?

So any ways the ending could avoid being a complete downer?

The Changeling Fantasy is actually an ephemeral Happy Place?

How is the sea ephermeral?

So anything that could make a child want to leave a loving family for some mermaid who apparantly left them on their deadbeat bio dad's boat?