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rainbow rocks What are the Dazzlings, honestly?


BrilliantVenture

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I must admit myself a bit confused...

 

First off, yes there are spoilers here...if you haven't seen the movie, go watch it. It's awesome!

 

They're obvious spoilers, but spoilers none the less...

 

 

Ok, so...

 

What are the Dazzlings exactly?

 

The ponyville scene & ending scene show the dazzling's "once true forms"...

 

But are they really???

 

The reason I say this...

 

is if this is their true form...

 

Adagio_Dazzle_Siren_ID_EG2.png

 

Then what in the name of Celestia was this?

 

pony+version.PNG

 

Like, seriously...it's been bugging me...

 

One's a big ol' sea monster, and one's a butterfly winged equine.

 

BUT.

 

I possibly have a solution...at least, in my headcanon...

 

What if perhaps, it was the necklaces/pendants that held the true power of siren form?

 

What if the dazzlings started out as ponies, or...translucent winged, whatever-that-thing-on-the-Adagio-boxart is...

 

and after discovering the pendants/necklaces, they went full on siren?

 

And then once they took on the siren form, Starswirl banished them...perhaps he didn't know the pendant's strength...

 

I mean, as cool as Starswirl is, he had his faults...(as we saw in Magical Mystery Cure)

 

So, what do you think?

 

Is there more to the Dazzlings than what met the eye in the movie?

 

These three have easily become my favourite show villains, and I feel like they deserve a proper explanation for this.

Edited by BrilliantVenture
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They are sirens. Based off of the mythical creature from old folklore with the same name. The creature that lures men to their doom out at sea by singing.

then what about their vector equine counterpart?

 

was that just hasbro being disconnected with the writers? (which would be understandable as they've done that before)

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then what about their vector equine counterpart?

 

was that just hasbro being disconnected with the writers? (which would be understandable as they've done that before)

Yeah it probably was. Where did you find that pic though?

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In the movie they didn't actually change in to their "true forms", it was a sort of projection they created. When they were powered up though, they did have pony ears and translucent wings like the vector you showed.

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In the movie they didn't actually change in to their "true forms", it was a sort of projection they created. When they were powered up though, they did have pony ears and translucent wings like the vector you showed.

that's actually a good point...I had forgotten the ears and "symbolized tails" were added...which means there must be truth to that original vector...unless the mane 6's "equestrian magic" just happens to be "pony mode" by default.

 

But yeah, now that I think of it...think of what you just said..."projection"...they were projected out of what?...the pendants!

 

Perhaps I wasn't too far off...

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Well they're actually two different greek mythological creatures put together. In function, they are sirens. Which Twilight explicitly refers to them as. The monsters that would sing and hypnotize passing sailors so that they would crash into the rock faces of cliffs and drown. Odysseus was able to evade them by having his sailors fill their ears with wax so they couldn't hear the siren's song and had them tie himself to the mast.

 

Odysseus-Sirens.jpg

 

The sirens had the faces of beautiful women but the bodies of birds. In ages since though, popular fiction has given them more aquatic or humanoid forms. The Dazzling's true form is that of the hippocampi, Poseidon's steeds.

 

image393.jpg

 

So, the Dazzlings are pretty much sirens in every way that counts except physical form, but even then, that's more due to pop cultural inheritance than mythological inaccuracy.

Edited by Steel Accord
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The mythical sirens were sea monsters that would disguise themselves as beautiful women to lure sailors to their doom by hypnotizing them with singing. But then they would turn into their true forms and eat them.

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Well they're actually two different greek mythological creatures put together. In function, they are sirens. Which Twilight explicitly refers to them as. The monsters that would sing and hypnotize passing sailors so that they would crash into the rock faces of cliffs and drown. Odysseus was able to evade them by having his sailors fill their ears with wax so they couldn't hear the siren's song and had them tie himself to the mast.

 

Odysseus-Sirens.jpg

 

The sirens had the faces of beautiful women but the bodies of birds. In ages since though, popular fiction has given them more aquatic or humanoid forms. The Dazzling's true form is that of the hippocampi, Poseidon's steeds.

 

image393.jpg

 

So, the Dazzlings are pretty much sirens in every way that counts except physical form, but even then, that's more due to pop cultural inheritance than mythological inaccuracy.

Interesting...

very interesting in deed...

 

As I said, I think it'd be great to actually get more backstory on them...especially for the fact that in Equestria, all the myths/legends seem to have their own special twists put on them!

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Interesting...

very interesting in deed...

 

As I said, I think it'd be great to actually get more backstory on them...especially for the fact that in Equestria, all the myths/legends seem to have their own special twists put on them!

 

Well Twilight does give them the whole book passage flashback and explained that they once threatened all of Equestria because their hypnotic powers grew too strong. So Starswirl the Bearded banished them to another realm.

 

The very fact that they are hippocampi in form is kind of an interesting twist in of itself. A rather large upset of their mythological origins though is their ambition. The sirens of myth were little more than yet another literally monstrous roadblock Poseidon could throw at Odysseus. The Dazzlings evidently had faaaaaaaar greater designs than their forebears.  

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According to the movie, they're sirens that got banished to the human world by Celestia (i think?) and the necklaces hold their power. And I have no idea why they have butterfly wings. That is confusing.

 

Actually it was Starswirl who did the banishing. I get the feeling he did the Mane Six's job in times long past.

 

Those aren't butterfly wings though, those are fins.

 

Adagio_Dazzle_anthro_ID_EG2.png

 

Which again, not part of the original myth, but fitting the more appropriated aquatic nature of the post Classical myths.

Edited by Steel Accord
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The Dazzlings take the form of sea ponies put take the personality and actions of the mythical creature "Sirens." That pony counterpart was likely a placeholder at the time or something of the sort. They've done things like that before.

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The Dazzlings take the form of sea ponies put take the personality and actions of the mythical creature "Sirens." That pony counterpart was likely a placeholder at the time or something of the sort. They've done things like that before.

 

Well as stated above, the technical term is "hippocampi" but seeing the sea ponies were more than likely based on the hippocampi anyway . . . . yeah that's more or less accurate.

 

Man, Tirek, the sea ponies, DHX doesn't screw around when they adapt previous generations!  :P

Edited by Steel Accord
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I'll ask this here. Am I the only one who feels sorry for the Dazzlings? They're now trapped in the human world with absolutely nothing. They'll need to get jobs and find a place to live. Life is going to be very hard for them now. Maybe Sunset Shimmer should seek them out and offer the hand of friendship. She was once worse then they were, after all.

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I see their pony forms as their true forms. Twilight says something like "Legend has it Starswirl banished them" which means the account is not necessarily complete or accurate.  Assuming they project the hippocampi when the sing at full strength in their pony form too, I can see how records of them could be confused. I mean which would you remember, the ponies with lacy wings or the giant flying sea monsters.

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Well, probably a marketing ploy. But in-world, it might have had some use if they used that form to "seduce" ponies in Equestria. They needed some way to get close to their victims after all.

 

I'll ask this here. Am I the only one who feels sorry for the Dazzlings? They're now trapped in the human world with absolutely nothing. They'll need to get jobs and find a place to live. Life is going to be very hard for them now. Maybe Sunset Shimmer should seek them out and offer the hand of friendship. She was once worse then they were, after all.

That ending was so very confusing.
If the siren forms were their real forms, then that means that the "Dazzlings" should have died when their spirits shattered.

If their real bodies happened to be whatever was left after they got hit by the EOH... then what did they summon? Why not just turn into hippocampi and attack that way?

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The Dazzlings fit the term of sirens:

 

In Greek mythology, the Sirens (Greek singular: Σειρήν Seirēn; Greek plural: Σειρῆνες Seirēnes) were dangerous yet beautiful creatures, portrayed as femmes fatales who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.

 

Now you can find other monsters who fit this kind of gray zone but their given shape might look be in area: hippocampi but it might hit the lines of a  Kelpie:

 

is the Scots name given to a water being inhabiting the lochs and pools of Scotland. It has usually been described as appearing as a horse, but is able to adopt human form.

 

Which might why they kept their powers in the human world like setting!

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The Dazzlings fit the term of sirens:

 

In Greek mythology, the Sirens (Greek singular: Σειρήν Seirēn; Greek plural: Σειρῆνες Seirēnes) were dangerous yet beautiful creatures, portrayed as femmes fatales who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.

 

Now you can find other monsters who fit this kind of gray zone but their given shape might look be in area: hippocampi but it might hit the lines of a  Kelpie:

 

is the Scots name given to a water being inhabiting the lochs and pools of Scotland. It has usually been described as appearing as a horse, but is able to adopt human form.

 

Which might why they kept their powers in the human world like setting!

I'm glad I read all the way before replying, because I was about to post the same thing. They seem to fit the pattern of the Keplie in appearance, but with the behavior of the Scandinavian Näck, a shapeshifter fairie-type who lure victims into the water with music before drowning them. All the various water spirits tend to work in very similar ways, and most of them seem capable of taking horse-like forms.

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I'm glad I read all the way before replying, because I was about to post the same thing. They seem to fit the pattern of the Keplie in appearance, but with the behavior of the Scandinavian Näck, a shapeshifter fairie-type who lure victims into the water with music before drowning them. All the various water spirits tend to work in very similar ways, and most of them seem capable of taking horse-like forms.

 

I never got the horse and water thing in truth....

But it does fit the Dazzling if anything  which would one put them under the loose "mer-pony" label?  Also does this mean we will get the mer-ponies at some point in the show?

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I never got the horse and water thing in truth....

But it does fit the Dazzling if anything  which would one put them under the loose "mer-pony" label?  Also does this mean we will get the mer-ponies at some point in the show?

There's lots of theories on why there's a water-horse theme in a lot of different mythologies, but they are too speculative even for me. And I do a lot of speculation. The problem is whatever the connection is, it's in so many different mythologies it's either based on something very common (so they all experienced it separately), or had to happen far enough back when all those different cultures were the same culture (*way* before anything we've dug up that has enough detail to parse).

 

We've had mer-ponies in the extended MLP:FiM lore, as they've shown up in one illustrated novel, and the comics. And their physical depictions in those media wasn't very different from what was used in the film for the Siren's energy form, so it's always possible that was an intentional connection.

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