spoiler Magic rules in the human world

[KatonRyu 1,026]

So, after watching Legend of Everfree I've completely lost track of how magic is supposed to work in the human world. I'll sum up the progression of magical presence over the course of the movies, and then attempt to make sense of it all.

 

Equestria Girls

Originally, there was no magic in the human world. The portal existed, but was only open once every thirty moons. Then Sunset Shimmer stole the Element of Magic and inadvertently caused the powers of the Elements of Harmony to awaken within the Humane Five, thanks to Twilight's help.

 

Rainbow Rocks

Somehow, the Humane Five transform into their anthro forms when they play music. This happens both when they play alone, or when they play together. It's pointed out that this is weird, but it's never addressed beyond that.

 

Friendship Games

The Humane Five now transform whenever they display their Element, as well as transforming when they play music. Sunset figures this much out, but not why this is happening.

 

Legend of Everfree

The presence of the...human world Elements (?) gives the girls powers that seem to be vaguely related to their pony version Cutie Marks. The gems themselves trigger some kind of transformation.

 

The magic in RR and LOE bothers me most of all. The musical magic baffles me to this day because it comes right out of nowhere. It mainly annoys me that they point out how odd it is and then never mention it again, despite their magic being directly related to the plot. Hell, a throwaway line about the latent magic the Element of Magic gave them reacting to the presence of the Sirens would have been enough. It would have had its own problems, but at least it would have been something.

 

Then there's LOE. I don't even know where to begin here. For no adequately explained reason, the girls end up with magic that seems based on, yet not consistent with, the magic their pony forms have thanks to their Cutie Marks. Fluttershy can talk to animals, Rainbow Dash has super speed...but Rarity can't fire diamond shields in the pony world, nor does Applejack have super strength. I also doubt Sunset ever had the power to read minds, since her ability was a surprise to her.

 

I presume this power was awoken within them thanks to the mysterious EoH-like gems from the cave, which may or may not have reacted with the Equestrian magic within each of them. But that raises the question, where did the gems come from? Why do they have power? Are the gems a consequence of Equestria and the human world starting to meld together, like what happened in the Reflections arc of the comics? The stinger seemed to hint at something like this. If so, then why don't the powers of the girls map exactly to the Cutie Marks of their pony counterparts? I'm fairly sure pony Pinkie Pie can't make frag grenades out of sprinkles.

 

I get the feeling that by this point, the writers have given up on keeping the magic even the slightest bit consistent, but I'm still looking for an in-universe explanation. Does anyone have any coherent theories about the way magic works now? Do you think we'll ever find out, one way or another?

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

So, after watching Legend of Everfree I've completely lost track of how magic is supposed to work in the human world. I'll sum up the progression of magical presence over the course of the movies, and then attempt to make sense of it all.

 

Equestria Girls

Originally, there was no magic in the human world. The portal existed, but was only open once every thirty moons. Then Sunset Shimmer stole the Element of Magic and inadvertently caused the powers of the Elements of Harmony to awaken within the Humane Five, thanks to Twilight's help.

 

Rainbow Rocks

Somehow, the Humane Five transform into their anthro forms when they play music. This happens both when they play alone, or when they play together. It's pointed out that this is weird, but it's never addressed beyond that.

 

Friendship Games

The Humane Five now transform whenever they display their Element, as well as transforming when they play music. Sunset figures this much out, but not why this is happening.

 

Legend of Everfree

The presence of the...human world Elements (?) gives the girls powers that seem to be vaguely related to their pony version Cutie Marks. The gems themselves trigger some kind of transformation.

 

The magic in RR and LOE bothers me most of all. The musical magic baffles me to this day because it comes right out of nowhere. It mainly annoys me that they point out how odd it is and then never mention it again, despite their magic being directly related to the plot. Hell, a throwaway line about the latent magic the Element of Magic gave them reacting to the presence of the Sirens would have been enough. It would have had its own problems, but at least it would have been something.

 

Then there's LOE. I don't even know where to begin here. For no adequately explained reason, the girls end up with magic that seems based on, yet not consistent with, the magic their pony forms have thanks to their Cutie Marks. Fluttershy can talk to animals, Rainbow Dash has super speed...but Rarity can't fire diamond shields in the pony world, nor does Applejack have super strength. I also doubt Sunset ever had the power to read minds, since her ability was a surprise to her.

 

I presume this power was awoken within them thanks to the mysterious EoH-like gems from the cave, which may or may not have reacted with the Equestrian magic within each of them. But that raises the question, where did the gems come from? Why do they have power? Are the gems a consequence of Equestria and the human world starting to meld together, like what happened in the Reflections arc of the comics? The stinger seemed to hint at something like this. If so, then why don't the powers of the girls map exactly to the Cutie Marks of their pony counterparts? I'm fairly sure pony Pinkie Pie can't make frag grenades out of sprinkles.

 

I get the feeling that by this point, the writers have given up on keeping the magic even the slightest bit consistent, but I'm still looking for an in-universe explanation. Does anyone have any coherent theories about the way magic works now? Do you think we'll ever find out, one way or another?

 

 

I honestly think that the gems from LOE were meant to be an author's saving throw to FINALLY codify the magic and give it some rules (I.E., the magic comes from the gems like how the mane six have to have the EOH necklaces in the pony world to shoot the giant friendship laser).

Previously they were basically just pulling it out there ass and being like "magic is chaotic!", but they've probably realized that they CANNOT keep doing that all the time and so its best to just handwave the First three movies away as the magic being Chaotic and it settling down more and more into a concrete, orderly form which its in now.

[KatonRyu 1,026]

I honestly think that the gems from LOE were meant to be an author's saving throw to FINALLY codify the magic and give it some rules (I.E., the magic comes from the gems like how the mane six have to have the EOH necklaces in the pony world to shoot the giant friendship laser).

Previously they were basically just pulling it out there ass and being like "magic is chaotic!", but they've probably realized that they CANNOT keep doing that all the time and so its best to just handwave the First three movies away as the magic being Chaotic and it settling down more and more into a concrete, orderly form which its in now.

 

That's certainly possible, although that would be the end of my headcanon, in which the necklaces of the Elements were just catalysts for the power inside themselves rather than the source, both explaining why they were useless when they were Discorded and why the Humane Five were able to use the power after only the crown was present.

 

Still, I could see this being the actual explanation they go with from the next movie onwards, where they'll probably retcon the previous movies to fit in with it.

[Evil_Emperor 176]

I think that they should make "Human world magic" a thing, but it's hidden and forgotten, with a future movie(or series) focusing on finding it, protecting people from it's effects and researching it's history. The reason Equestrian magic could have been being unpredictable in the Human world is because it's mixing with Human world magic.(hence the stones, with Equestrian magic being stabilized into a stable, usable form by the Human magic)

 

Basically I think it can't always be about Equestria and want to see some Human stuff. Like with how Equestrian mythology is based on Greek mythology, Human world magic and mythology could be based on European Fae mythology. I actually thought that's what Legend of Everfree was going to be about when they first released that teaser image of Gloriosa Daisy's design, she looked like some kind of Fae/Nature Spirit.

Edited September 29, 2016 by Evil_Emperor

[cmarston1 5,951]

I've always kind of liked the magical girl-esque feeling that the Equestria Girls series has had.

Plus with the way things were handled at the end of LOE, I am interested in seeing how they handle it from here on out.

I see enough potential for either one last film to wrap things up, or an animated tv series by now.  Maybe a 13 episode miniseries instead.

Either way, I am looking forward to seeing what happens from here with the franchise.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

I've always kind of liked the magical girl-esque feeling that the Equestria Girls series has had.

Plus with the way things were handled at the end of LOE, I am interested in seeing how they handle it from here on out.

I see enough potential for either one last film to wrap things up, or an animated tv series by now.  Maybe a 13 episode miniseries instead.

Either way, I am looking forward to seeing what happens from here with the franchise.

I'd feel kind of gypped if it ended in a movie series to be honest. Up to this point I didn't think that EQG would really work well as a series due to not "knowing" what it wanted to do with magic and without any real purpose behind it, but since they tried to Solidify things in this movie and there's a legitimate threat that they need magic to stop (Magic leaking through from equestria), I could see some real ongoing stuff being done.

 

 

I didn't feel there was much potential at the end of EQG, RR or FG, but I think this one really set up too much potential plotlines (and has too much still left to be explored with their necklaces and abilities) to stop at just another movie, and I also think it'll be hard to flesh it out with just a movie instead of a series now.

[KatonRyu 1,026]

I'd feel kind of gypped if it ended in a movie series to be honest. Up to this point I didn't think that EQG would really work well as a series due to not "knowing" what it wanted to do with magic and without any real purpose behind it, but since they tried to Solidify things in this movie and there's a legitimate threat that they need magic to stop (Magic leaking through from equestria), I could see some real ongoing stuff being done.

 

 

I didn't feel there was much potential at the end of EQG, RR or FG, but I think this one really set up too much potential plotlines (and has too much still left to be explored with their necklaces and abilities) to stop at just another movie, and I also think it'll be hard to flesh it out with just a movie instead of a series now.

 

They have set up a lot, but honestly I don't know how they're going to handle it. While I'd love to see some things actually explored, I do feel that the plot holes are getting bigger with every iteration. Keeping that in mind I still hope they'll end it with one more movie, rather than turning it into its own series. I wouldn't mind if they did, but I don't think it would turn out as well as I'd hope from such a thing.