So a while back I was wondering if I should make magic a force of nature or an actual entity. Given the nature of what I'm parodying with this project, I thought it'd be fitting to do both. What I'm curious about now is her reason to take a mortal form. Does it particularly need to be anything logical? I was thinking her excuse was "I was bored as fuck" but I dunno, it's in character for her but it doesn't seem very god-like. Maybe beyond being 'bored' of being a god, she wanted to become closer to humans or some romantic thing like that. Another reason is maybe she thought being mortal would be fun. but again, doesn't seem very god-like. For the record, she will still have most of her godly power, but she will be able to technically 'die' in her physical form.
The only reason to sacrifice your mortality is to join forces with the Earthrealm heroes and fight Shao Khan! But that's already been done. But you could come up with a similar rational. Maybe that's the only way she can truly reproduce? Maybe she did get bored or wanted to know what fear was like. This was one of the things Achilles in the movie 'Troy' and maybe Odysseus in the miniseries 'The Odyssey' recognize, both pointing out how the Gods are envious of mortals because they don't have the same sense of danger and importance to live that mortals do. Or maybe she lost a bet with another God that she couldn't last x number of years as a mortal even with her powers.
Yeah, could be that she took a bet and the other gods (the other elements) are constantly trying to kill her so that they win the bet. I don't know if I want the other elements to be traditional (earth, fire, wind etc) or metaphysical (element of love, hate etc) I guess I could do both and give myself room to base their personalities on their nature.
Perhaps she annoyed her far more powerful parents who decided to do the godly equivalent of tossing a thankless, freeloading adult child out of the free room and board basement?
If it's in character for her to do so, then it doesn't have to be a "good reason". It doesn't even have to be a reason that the reader agrees with. It just has to be a good enough reason for that character and by your own description, it seems like the reason is a good one.
You mention this is a parody. Parody is characterized by hyperbole and trivialization, for comic effect. Hyperbole is exaggeration to extremes. With trivialization, her status as a god could be treated as irrelevant or ridiculous. With this in mind, maybe she just wants to shop at Walmart, or some other mundane aspect of mortal life.
I was wondering the same thing. What's the overall tone of the story? It matters if something is meant to be taken seriously or not. Sitcoms like Family Guy tend to do ridiculous takes all the time, but even they have some depths to their jokes. They can easily parody some mythological Goddess who abandons immortality just cause she's bored, but they will have backbone to that joke, something their audience understands. For example, they won't just show Obama falling out of the sky for no reason, it'll be a metaphorical reference from some situation during his presidency or something like that. If we are talking a story with a serious tone, then unless your Goddess is borderline crazy and wild and this is just your way of adding to that, then I don't think that this is a particularly good idea. Your readers will wonder why she decided to abandon immortality, and they will seek answers. It's a pretty big deal after all. She'll eventually die. So when she just casually says, "Well I was just bored," it'll cause a few eyes to roll. If not that, the readers won't buy it and they'll start speculating if there is a deeper reason. With that said, you could give a different dimension to her decision. Maybe your Goddess did indeed do this out of boredom because deep down, living forever has started to strain her. That would then be your window of opportunity to give some depth to immortality. Gods are different from humans though, so you have to keep that in mind. Humans need reasons to keep living, maybe Gods don't. It's up to you to figure it out. You don't even necessarily need to go down that route, you can come up with a different root cause behind her surface behavior. In any case, I think surprising your readers somehow on this aspect of the story is a good idea.
Where did he mention parody? Has my reading comprehension devolved to such an extent that I can't find the word "parody" in the OP?
The same thing crossed my mind. I was going to say that one of the disadvantages to her becoming immortal is power loss, but according to OP: God is a broad word really. There are tons of mythologies and religions with all kinds of Gods. I suppose one can have a "God-like mortal", I guess. Let's call it a demi-god. Hell... Disney did this with Hercules. He had immense power but was not immortal. Although the Disney movie was also inaccurate from a mythological point of view, so there's that consider. But that didn't stop all those people from enjoying the movie. It did piss off some Greeks, though.
The general tone of the story is fairly lighthearted, with some seriousness when shit hits the fan, but otherwise easygoing. (I mean the main character is the 'idiot prince' trope and he declares the day that he leaves on his adventure 'inciting incident day' for crying out loud) The kind of 'parody' it is is more of a thing where I'm poking fun at certain story elements common in the series. (If anyone here knows what Rune Factory is, that's the tone I'm going for, and exactly the thing I'm parodying) mostly her ability to heal and a small percentage of her full power, enough to undeniably prove she is in fact a god, but not quite enough to trivialize the enemies the MC will face. The gods also have a 'can't interfere' clause where they would become mortal for good if they did interfere. Generally due to being mortal the more of her power she uses in a single instance, the more it wears on her (technically) mortal form. The effects will range from minor exhaustion to a coma-like state of sleep. She will remain a god if she dies, but it's too fun being human/mortal and whatever magic she used is very risky to do more than once. She actually cares enough about her physical form to you know, not want to die. If she were to use her full might in a single instance, even for a few seconds her mortal form would turn to stone.
Ummm ... YOU are the author of the OP, and that's why I asked the question. The last sentence implies that, as a mortal, she retains some (unspecified) powers. That's not something I have ever encountered in reading myths or sci-fi/fantasy literature, so that's why I asked the question.
I don't really see the appeal in this either for the character or the reader. Seems small stakes. Zeus did this all the time (taking 'human' form). It did cause problems in his marriage though.
Seriously? I didn't create this thread. I can't be expected to explain the rationale of every poster.
I was thinking it could be a kind of twist that even she doesn't know about. Maybe the person who created the spell lied to her so she's not super worried about it. Actually I might go with that, since she doesn't make the spell herself, and she's not the sharpest tool in the shed, it'd be pretty easy for one of the more conniving gods to trick her like that. She's not really like, stupid, but more...innocent? Kind of the way too trusting type. It'd be fairly easy for one of the other gods to bait her with the bet AND set up the spell so that she couldn't become a god again if she died.
I mean in Avatar the Last Airbender didn't the Moon and the Ocean just become koi fish because of...reasons? And they were prone to death while still being, like, the ocean and the moon so I can see it working. Any reason is a good reason as long as you make it convincing enough.
It of course depends on your writing. To answer what I think could be in my writing, I would not have a being who could not die become a being who could, and probably would, die. With this there would really be some conflict I would have to deal with. However, it is possible, and I find to be popular, in writing, for immortal beings to send an avatar of themselves, which can have mortal form, through which they act, I would use this.
But there's no real stakes in that, since if the avatar dies the immmortal still lives on exactly as before. There are huge stakes if an immortal decides to give up immortality. Then she could learn gradually that life doesn't really have any meaning until it's precious and has a finite limit. She may not be able to articulte it in the beginning any better than "I was bored", but she comes to realize there's no meaning and no point in a life without limits.
That was pretty much my reasoning for her 'just being bored' and maybe falling for the schemes the other gods set up for her. Strong as she is (she's the second strongest god of the bunch, but that's largely due to being the 'mother of the earth' even though she is insanely strong compared to standard humans in her mortal form, it's a fraction of her full strength.) she's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. I find it an interesting twist that one of the oldest gods of the bunch is the most childlike/inexperienced. While the newer ones are more crafty and more prone to being jealous of the other gods having more followers/dominion etc. Funny thing that being weakened to a state where she could die actually made her stronger (both physically and spiritually ala character growth) while the other gods grew weaker from being prideful and decietful even amongst themselves. One 'funny' thing I do plan to do that I've already written the first half of. One character questions what the MC would do if he were to meet Gia right then. He exclaims 'pow, right in the kisser, and dunno maybe ask her out or something' When the other character questions his logic (even suggesting it would be wiser to ask her out first and THEN sock her, if she turns him down) and he explains that sometimes you gotta show em you mean business first, but also he's pretty certain that given all the depictions of her, that the mother of earth could take a left hook from his 'noodly ass arms'. I won't spoil what happens later. (it's kind of a pay off of a running joke) But let's just say that the goddess is very amused by his actions when they finally do meet.
Interesting idea. What if god(desse)s are barred from entering each other's holy places and she wants to do some touristing? As a goddess, she could never enter the Temple of Walton, but by becoming a mortal she'd be able to slip past the wards and see what's inside. Of course, she'd still look like herself so she'd probably need to put on a horrible wig and some unmatching big-cat print clothing (leopard-pattern jeggings and a tiger-striped crop-top) and when she got inside she recognized dozens of her Heavenly brothers and sisters in similar disguises... But yeah, something she was banned from doing as a Celestial that was worth trying as a mortal. Death Takes a Holiday/Meet Joe Black are based on that idea.
Being immortal and a god is a huge burden and she wants to be rid of it. Or she's had enough of the status quo and wants to tear it all down, think Elden Ring.
My own difficulty in my writing is having immortality being inherent to who is immortal. The one who is immortal cannot die, there are conditions preserving life all the time, so there is no way I can explain it being given up. If immortality is some sort of essence that one can separate from one's self that is different, though with it hard to describe what that essence actually is, then something might be described as extremely frustrating that would drive the one with immortality to give it up, for good, and to then be certain to die, at some time ahead, while not knowing when.
