You Down With M.O.T.?

If you have fantastic transformations, you need a reason for that transformation to take place.  Which means you need a Transformation Method, or that is, a method of transformation or MOT for short?

“It just happened” just won’t do.

These can go into four broad categories

Disguise or Fake: If it’s all just make-up and padding and rubber, or it was all a dream, here you go. This one is the most believable.

But it can still be abused. An example being all those old episodes of Mission Impossible where the IMF agents would put on a an easy to remove mask and presto they’re someone else, more often than not someone with bone structure that was completely different from the one under the mask. But hey, that’s why it’s called “willing suspension of disbelief” you have to meet them half, or sometimes more than half way.

And if it was just a dream… just keep it to yourself, people act like that’s interesting, but no wants to hear the ones someone else had.

Physical Change through Effort: For example see body builders, clients of plastic surgeons, and any number of training montages from kung fu or Rocky movies, also sad, but still too true, accident victims.

Some remarkable changes possible in real life, to an extent, but not like they show in the movies.

Science: Especially if it’s Weird Science. Now we’re at the place where we can get away with just about anything and have some really wild changes, as long as you can come up with a good enough “scientific” reason” for it to take place.

Nano-Bots, avatar creating bods, being bitten by a gamma ray, being too near a spider bomb going off, loudly humming booths of all sorts, Quantum Sidereal This or That, leaky vats of bright bubbling unobtainium, put in enough mysterious ray machines, and herbs unknown to science and you can get away with a lot. Remember, “Reverse the proton stream” is your friend.  

Magic: Now here’s where things get too darn easy, Yes you can get away with anything at all this this excuse, but you have to be careful and not get lazy. This can be as bad as “if just happened.” I mean look at this movie coming up where two buddies swap bodies, played by the way by two actors that I for one have a hard time telling one from the other in the first place so what’s the point? With the mind swap coming about because they peed in the same “magic” fountain at the same time, seriously? Sure… okay. Whatever.

Put some limits on it and make it have a little texture and be fun to play around with as a reason.

So there at least or my ideas of the 4 reasons for out of the ordinary transformations in stories.

Oh… The reason I put this here is that I will be putting in items from time to time, like the one called “How to Become Filipino” in which I outline some MOTs, which I will tag with both that and transformation method, the reason being that, if I can get this going enough generate at least some interest, I was thinking about having a contest, with real prizes `en everything, and having that tag might prove useful.

But that’s not for some time yet, if at all.

We’ll see.