How to write a PG13 Succubus character?

A succubus is not the embodiment of sexuality, but the embodiment of the fear of sexuality. So it is highly relevant to an age group where sexuality is often viewed with a mixture of fear, disgust and fascination.

You really don't have to bring sex explicitly into the picture at all. Just write a character who the protagonist finds horribly and unstoppably fascinating and compelling, and yet is simultaneously scared of and disgusted by.

On the other hand, it's difficult for me to envision such a character reformed into a truly PG love interest. Dangerous, inappropriate, and untameable are among its core characteristics.

posted over 6 years ago

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Chris Sunami‭

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Keep in mind that the "Seven Deadly Sins" are not grounded in anything objective, nor even the founding of any religion. Rather, they source from religious writings of authors of whom most people have never heard. They aren't even consistent in that different sources will compose a different list.

The Implications of Lust

To translate a succubus, I would focus on what "lust" actually does to a person. We, in our modern cultures, generally accept that sex and sexual attraction are not problematic themselves. It would be generally agreed that there must be some deeper problem to a "cardinal sin" than mere sexual desire, as that is a very natural (and inevitable) response for most people. So what other problems would "lust" present? As @JasonBassford's comment stated, there's distraction. There's also, when extreme, a disregard for previous commitments such as a voluntary monogamous relationship or a social agreement or contract with one's community or family. It also represents "desire" in a general sense, which is problematic in certain philosophies.

Obsession

However, for this purpose, I would look at the different forms of love/desire in Roman/Greek mythology. Why? Because the god "Eros" was a god not just of sex, but of sexual obsession or "sexual madness". Eros represented that obsessiveness we can sometimes feel when we first form a new relationship, or "new relationship energy" as it has been called. Eros also represents the general obsessiveness one can have for another in a romantic/sexual sense. This is, as many might note, something that is very common in one's early life as one is fluttering around both puberty and Erikson's life stage of intimacy versus isolation.

Relevance of Obsession

This, of course, makes such feelings and behaviors extremely relatable to the young adult demographic. So I think a very natural expression of a succubus might be a sexual/romantic obsessiveness. Many young people mistake it for "love", only to obsess about a different person months or even weeks later. Many young people would find the feelings very relatable. And it would be the same basic concept, but translated without the over-the-top sexuality that is typically associated with "lust".

posted over 6 years ago

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Attackfarm‭

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You can think of lust as the more physical aspect as love as the more emotional aspect if you want. So a succubus in a story for a YA audience could be constantly seeking actions we consider physical validations of love.

So you could have a succubus that likes to hold hands, hug or cuddle a lot but doesn't seem to show anymore care for their current cuddle friend than they do for anyone else. Add in no respect for personal privacy to this dysfunctional behavior - they aren't a bad person, they will just cheerfully go up to and hug a guy before starting to talk about how great a person another guy is without understanding the problem with it - and you could show that this behavior is not right, without having anything sexual or making it seem like hugs are the problem.

It also leaves room for the succubus to grow into realizing that physical shows of affection should actually come hand in hand with actual affection.

posted over 6 years ago

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DavidL‭

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How to write a PG13 Succubus character?

You can't.

How was the concept of succubus invented? First, we have witches. They go to sabbaths. What are they doing there? They have sex with the Satan himself. Why? To bear his offspring, of course. But wait, it's already stated that Satan cannot create anything. Not even the tiniest Act of Creation that husband and wife are capable of. So how do we explain where do Satan takes the semen from? Let's invent agents of Satan (succubi), they will have sex with men, collect their semen, deliver it to the Devil, he will infuse it with his evilness and then use it to impregnate witches (via incubi). Boom, all the loose ends are tied, we can put it in Malleus Maleficarum now. You should not even try to call it "succubus" if the sex is not its primary function.

The succubus was invented to literally collect semen via sex. You can't make that PG13.

The problem with lust is that it can't be explained to pre-adolescents because they have never felt it. For adolescents, as it was already stated here, lust is as much scary as it is a desire. It's a very adult sin by definition. And you can work with that - in American Pie there is the character Stifler's Mom - she's a woman fully aware of her sexuality and that alone is enough to make her both irresistible and scary to the horny teenagers. The key point of flirt is talking in riddles to maintain plausible deniability. Your Lust shouldn't do actual sex, because satisfaction quenches lust. The power that lust wields over people is not the actual sex, but sex being the distant goal they chase.

Please note how we're all automatically assuming Lust to be a woman : )

posted over 6 years ago

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Agent_L‭

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Happiness

You can choose to go a more traditional route of having a succubus as a sort of dream eater. Instead of wet dreams you could then just make the Succubus long for any kind of nice dream. An oversimplified example would be to have it eat the dreams of kids that they will win some contest.

This is basically a replacement of the hunger for sex with the hunger for some kind of positive emotion. This version of the Succubus would then try to search for people that have everything in life they want and live off all the positive emotions that are surrounding this person. If you don't want to have a dream eater you could simply say that it's eating all the happiness around this person. Everyone around the victim has bad luck, feels sad and nothing seems to work out quite the way it worked out a few weeks ago. The scenery around the succubus becomes gloomy and it has to regularly switch its victim to get more happiness.

Happiness is something even very young kids can relate to and is therefore an easy substitute. This could be as easy as having an ice cream on a sunny day - which falls down when the Succubus is near. Or it suddenly doesn't taste as good anymore.

Or you could keep the happiness as it is and make the Succubus simply seek out happiness. It's like a moth that is searching happiness instead of light. The happiness of having a purring cat in your lap and talking with your friends about the newest computer games. Nice everyday situations and the Succubus will want to be near to feel as if it was part of this happiness. This even opens up routes where there is a happy end for the Succubus as it becomes an acknowledged member of a group instead of trying to leech the happiness. This could be worked out to be for example a metaphor for group behaviour and how you should be yourself and find people who accept you as you are if you want to have it be "the morale of the story".

posted over 6 years ago

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Secespitus‭

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