Tangent Valley Pg. 04

There's waaaay more nuance to the whole transformation themed thing from mythology to pop culture and everything in-between. (and from visual art that depicts a scene or intends to imply something more complex or mysterious, less tangible ... or is just art for the sake of art: particularly well made art can be appreciated from plenty of different perspectives, including well out of intention: including the OPPOSITE of the problem you had here originally, ie stuff originally intended to be 'fap material' that ends up appreciated more as quality/beautiful art XD )

And hell, you could have tranformation themes that are just accepted character traits/quirks, particularly in sci-fi or fantasy settings (where tech, magic or inate abilites are more commonplace, or uncommon by an accepted not-secret part of a central character) it doesn't HAVE to be associated with some sort of drama, just a neat character trait or aesthetic. (usually more than just aesthetic though, as /usually/ some sort of shapeshifting character has particular advantages and handicaps because of that) Plus the distinction between relatively limited shapeshifting (were creatures, animagi, skinwalkers, or even more limited than that) vs full on neigh-universal changelings. (kind of have the epitome of that with that Star Trek did in DS9 XD )

That said, someone changing for the first time, or changing permanently and having to learn/adapt because of it is an interesting theme all its own, and a more adventure/exploration themed one. (a sort of new-world discovery thing, and often mysterious on top of confusing or even distressing)

Besides, even with people who are really fixated on the shaepshifting theme and not particular story-building around it, it doesn't have to be a /sexual/ fascination, could just be a general intrigue. (it's also a far deeper and more universal one in human history and mythlogy in general than some other 'random weird stuff' Deviantart might be known for )

Then again, I'd already grown up neck deep in all sorts of sci-fi, fantasy, and real world history, culture, and science ... so the 'weird smutty stuff' that I became aware of later on seemed more like rather limited sexualized expansions of what there was ALREADY far more breadth and depth of. (then you had like ... vampire and werewolf romance stuff that's been mainstream in popculture on and off since the 1960s ... and done /many/ times better in many ways loooong before that mess with Twilight XD ... blame Dark Shadows in the 60s for making THAT a mainstream pop culture phenomenon, though) Huh, come to think of it (in line with semi-obscure old TV shows), the original run of Doctor Who ended with a serial centering around alien Were-Cheetahs, one of the better stories in the final neck of the series really. (critics tend to note it going out on a high note with that ... and as a little kid watching it on PBS ... yeah it was pretty immersive and freakin creepy XD)

Plus, some of the people who /do/ like the sex (or actual romantic) side of some stuff are ALSO deep thinkers and have some really interesting ideas and depth to things ... buuut there's also the idiot shallow porn-fans/fetish-fans who are really boring and (worse) sometimes clingy and unpleasant. So I can understand THAT souring perception of things. (that and clashing with high emotions or -gasp- DRAMA with other artistic minded folks with similarly high emotions: seems a common train along with creativity ... shame it leads to destruction all too often)

Glad you didn't decide to delete this in any case. Always sad to see neat stuff disappear.