Romance...with a blatantly non-human creature...is this pushing it?

Nogetsune

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There has been a lot of romances in YA between protagonists who are human and love interests that are...well...not. However, with all of those romances the non-human creatures that the protagonist fell in love with happen to be creatures that look, well...human. Vampires are just humans with pointy teeth and no pulse. Angels are just humans with wings. However, I have a story idea I got that, while not a romance story, has a romance between a human and a non-human as a plot point. The story itself isn't focused around this romance, though. The story is actually a epic science-fantasy adventure where the protagonist is forced into a fetch quest(that turns out to be much, much more then a simple fetch quest) against their will that takes them across many different worlds, and the one who forces them into it also happens to eventually become a love interest of sorts. The catch? They are a dracolich. What dose this mean? In their true form, they don't look remotely human. This character's true body is that of a giant, skeletal dragon. Not a human with fangs. Not a human with wings...a giant, skeletal dragon.

Now, they do spend most of their time in the story in human form, and as of yet I do not plan to have any...sexual..scenes between them and the protagonist due to the fact that romance, while a plot element, is not really the focus of the story. However, I don't know what will happen between these characters as things develop. While they would of course be in human form, I'm wondering if the fact that the protagonist is both in love with, and may possibly have sex with a giant bone dragon(though one that takes the form of a human) would just be going TOO far. I mean, that's technically both necrophilia and bestiality at the same time...even if the big bone dragon looks like an attractive human the whole time.

Would such a romance be pushing things "too far" or is this really no different then all the "human with X magical creature" romances out there as long as the dracolich in questions sticks to their human form?
 
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alleycat

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Worked for Beauty and the Beast.

This sounds more like fantasy than YA to me however.
 

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How many Beauty and the Beast stories include Beauty bonking Beast while is knickknack is still shaped like that of a wild boar or some such?

It's pretty uncommon and a different dynamic to waiting until he is in human form. I have one romance scene where there is one human x dragon sex scene that is totally vague and it still surprised some people rather a lot.
 

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I mean, that's technically both necrophilia and bestiality at the same time...even if the big bone dragon looks like an attractive human the whole time.

Would such a romance be pushing things "too far" or is this really no different then all the "human with X magical creature" romances out there as long as the dracolich in questions sticks to their human form?

It sounds like any potential sex will be had while in human form, is that true? If so, then that last question sounds like it's your answer. How would it be different from a werewolf in human form? There's actually already a YA where the MC could shift between dragon and human form, and there was plenty of romance there (no sex in book 1, at least, though)
 

Nogetsune

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Yeah, it's a bit harder to do something like that with this once since the character is undead and skeletal in addition to being a dragon...which means in their true form their reproductive organs have likely rotted/decayed away. As for whether or not the story is YA, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, but it has a teenage protagonist and alternates between world hopping and HS stuff.(The story roughly follows, and parodies/plays around with the wake-up, go to school, save the world kind of setup, except replace "save the world" with "look for that blasted reality warping artifact and perhaps conquer the world I happen to be searching on today in the process." It's not episodic, though, but at the start it feels kinda like it is until things get significantly darker and the story comes together. Oh..and yes, the dracolich shows up during some of the school parts as well....and not in the manner your thinking.)
 
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Samsonet

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I'm just going to note that love =/= sex. The characters could be in love without having it and I don't think the readers would mind.

But if you do choose to write it all the way, don't let the authorial voice make it awkward for the characters. If your characters don't think necrophilia, don't write it as such. If that makes sense. Be true to the story and save the irl viewpoint as a fridge moment.
 

Albedo

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I don't see why it should matter at all if the characters can take human form. What if your character's true form was a 1984 Camaro? There goes my Turbo Teen fan fic Would that be automobilophilia? Not that you're necessarily trying to sell a message, but the positive undertones about human diversity are kind of lost, IMO, if we say that 'love conquers all (unless our lover's inner self is too different)'.
 

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I don't think there's a massive problem here. If the dragon spends most of his time in human form then it doesn't seem any different to other shape-shifting love interests.

That said, in Maggie Stiefvater's 'Shiver' the love interest spends most of his time as a wolf rather than a boy. The main character first notices him and talks of him as 'her special wolf'/beautiful wolf etc before she even knows he's really a boy... Some readers found this is a bit odd as it seemed like she had romantic feelings about... a wolf... which were then 'normalised' when she discovered he could actually change into a boy. I would personally want to avoid that - I'd limit the romantic elements to the human form only... Unless, you know, you're going for a very niche market!
 

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Warm Bodies involves a zombie and a human in a romance. I'm sure I've read other YA books with this type of thing, but I can't think of any.

If you don't plan on having sex scenes or implying sex happens, then I don't see any issues in the romance. If you do plan on including sex scenes, then I would keep the attraction based purely on 'human' characteristics.
 

lucyfilmmaker

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It's a cartoon and not a book, but Goliath and Elisa (Gargoyles)... in my older years I always cringe at how that would work in the physical world, but in my youth I was CONVINCED they were in lurve and should be together even though she was a tough cop and he was a giant gargoyle beast thing.
 

Forbidden Snowflake

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Katie Macalister had dragons. It worked. However, I do not remember how often they were in dragon form and if even.
 

indwig

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I'll second Samsonet: love and sex are two different things. If it bothers you, don't have them have sex. Personally, it wouldn't bother me. I'd think it'd be fine for mainstream audiences if the guy spends most of his time in human form, like you were planning anyway. And what's the difference between your character and a werewolf? There are plenty of romances focusing on werewolves or shapeshifters where they still get jiggy.
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