i wish i could post about my favorite subversion of a fairytale-romantic trope without fifty people going "SHREK? SHREK!!!! THIS IS THE PLOT OF SHREK" god dammit
I hate this because Shrek wasn't what that post - and my favorite exception - was about.
Fiona didn't see being human as a curse. She saw it as a blessing, the fact that she transformed at all was a curse. The plot of the movie was about her having to learn to embrace her true nature as an ogre.
but
As I read your post, the impression I got was it is for the version I like. Where humanity is the curse. Where the main character does not have to learn to accept their monster side, but where the quest revolves around breaking free of the limitations imposed on them by humanity. Where the curse is they no longer have their beautiful form of scales (or fur or carapace or whatever non-skin coating suits your preference) and teeth and jaws and wings (or tentacles or extra legs/arms or whatever nonhuman limbs are right for your true form). Breaking the curse is not an act of acceptance, it's an act of rejection of the curse, a rejection of a human form that was never wanted and is happily shed.
And that is something we need more of.
yeah exactly! EXACTLY!
