*Spoilers* "Equestria Girls" Climax Transformations: Necessary or Pointless?

[Batbrony 16,056]

*Warning* For those of you that have not seen "Equestria Girls" yet, the following thread will contain heavy spoilers.

 

Well, after seeing "Equestria Girls", as many of you know, I wrote up an opinion in both a blog and the EQG review thread in which I described how, while I liked the movie and found it to be both fun and entertaining, objectively I thought it was a bad film overall.  For my full review, just click on the link below:

 

http://mlpforums.com/blog/1009/entry-5598-batbrony-reviews-equestria-girls/

 

In this thread, however, I'd like to discuss one particular part of "Equestria Girls" that has bothered me to no end ever since I first saw it: the transformations of the HuMane Six at the end of the movie.

 

For those of you who don't know, in the film's climax the HuMane Six and Twilight unlock the powers of the Elements of Harmony (without the Elements themselves) and defeat Sunset Shimmer.  Now, I'd like to start by saying I don't really have any problem whatsoever with the fact that Twilight and the HuMane Six were able to unlock the Elements' power without the Elements themselves; in this universe I think that could work, and although a bit convenient and even a bit "deus ex machina"-ish, it fit and reinforced the film's message that the magic of friendship exists everywhere very well and even reinforced it quite effectively.

 

However, that said, this was my initial reaction as I witnessed, well, what I can only describe as a bizarre human/equine cross transformation that is hands down one of the strangest and most random transformations I've ever witnessed in any film:

 

http://youtu.be/ldSwwVMllyE?t=9s

 

 Yeah, that's right, I thought it was bucking terrifying!!!  Thanks film for giving me my new night terrors for the next week or so!!!  It was a bizzare transformation, and the only thing that should've been freaking the Canterlot High student body out more than that was the bucking Sunset Shimmer demon hellspawn in front of them!!!

 

But that's not my real problem with it, because it can't be; that'd be at most just a lighthearted jest and personal problem with it.  No, my REAL problem with the transformations is this; THEY WERE POINTLESS!!!!!!!!!!  They literally served no purpose, none whatsoever!  When I saw bits and pieces of the transformed HuMane Six on trailers, I was expecting at the least that there had to be some point to some of them getting wings (but not horns for some odd reason  ).  But when I saw what actually happened, I was frankly shocked: nothing, literally NOTHING came of the transformations.  They all got pony ears, some of them got longer hair, and a few got wings, and nothing, literally NOTHING came of it.  They didn't use them against Sunset because they didn't have to, they had them for a whole five minutes, and then the second Twilight left, they lost 'em.  Just like that.  Literally ONE thing happened as a result of the wings, JUST... ONE: Rainbow Dash flew with Scootaloo for 2 seconds, which, while certainly a cute bit and fun shoutout to ScootaDash, IS NOT JUSTIFICATION FOR THE TRANSFORMATIONS!!!!!!!!    I'm sorry, but it's not, it's just not!

 

Like EQG as a whole, the transformations happened for one reason and one reason only: Hasbro wanted to make terrifying cross human/pony dolls (and I still can't imagine who's going to buy these abominations  ):

 

 

http://youtu.be/gqLH9CY4dws?t=23s

 

*ahem* Sorry, that happens every time I see those... things.    Anyway, back to topic, UNLIKE EQG, which, as I said, even though I think it was bad I still enjoyed and was entertained by, I found nothing good in the transformations.  I know they were short, I know they impacted the movie none, and I know that I'm probably over-analyzing this, but I'm sorry but they came at the climax, THE BUCKING CLIMAX!!!!!!!    The transformations were the longest part of the activation of the Elements' power, and yet in the end they did nothing except for freak me the buck out and tick me off because they literally contributed NOTHING to the plot.  They were blatantly for marketing purposes only, ten times more than even EQG was, and that really rubs me the wrong way and grinds my gears.

 

So tell me, what did you think?  Do you guys think the transformations at the end of EQG were as useless as I do?  Can you think of any logical or rational reason that they actually happened, or justify them at all in the slightest?  Please share your thoughts below; I'm interested to see your different opinions and theories.

Edited June 30, 2013 by Batbrony

[Winona the Dog 1,984]

I didn't have much of a problem with the transformation to human/pony hybrids. To be honest it sort of reminded me about the anime Sailor Moon thing while they were transforming. Now the film itself was okay, but I have to say that the toys look absolutely HORRIBLE.

[Dreadmallon 353]

   I've wondered that myself. One of my problems with the transformations is the inbalance it seems to bring. Yes, it's a shoutout to the ponies from Equestria, but it makes it seem like the ponies are so much more important than the humans, who are supposed to be exactly like them (excluding the species difference, of course), to the point where they have the humans transform into the ponies. That seems to make the humans insignificant compared to their supposed counterparts. I'm a homer.

 

   The other is, well, as you've said...that it's kind of strange.

 

   But, to answer your question, no, I do not think the transformation was necessary. They could've just had the Elements appear, or at least duplicates.

Edited July 1, 2013 by Alkryn

[Scootalove 10,689]

I agree. I'm guessing that the writers and Hasbro's toy division made an evil plan to sell those toys after the movie and put plot holes with pointless transformations in the movie. Their diabolical goal was to you, you guessed it. Sell the toys. The toys look pretty horrible, they look like Mark Simpson mutating with Alfred E. Newman.

 

But anyway, that's their evil plan.

[Nas 2,874]

To be honest, I wasn't expecting it at all. I remember seeing the early artwork for the movie with the human/pony mane 6, and I was like "bleh".

 

 

As we saw the trailer with the 100% human character designs, I was sure we weren't going to see anything like the above image. I was surprised to see the transformation. At first when I saw them transforming, I thought they were going to turn to full-on ponies, but I realized the resemblance with the early development art. The main difference is their lack of the cutie marks on the cheeks. Initially, it does seem kind of pointless, considering it wasn't that much of a difference. But yeah, it's more representative of the school mascot, so I think it makes sense.

 

As for the dolls... *ahem* ...I think I'll just stick with calling them just ammunition for the war against Mattel.

[Blique 211]

Overall I'd say the climax was really rushed and didn't tie up ends as well as it could've, but I'll just suggest that a little extra time could've helped that be awesomer (curse you movie time limits! I'd gladly be in there for five straight hours if they allowed it).

 

The transformations were kinda random, but interesting enough for me to overlook it. Twilight's human-pony hair is awesome! The whole psuedo-tail thing is pretty creative as well. When I was watching it, I didn't think it was pointless - I just assumed it was because they were going to start a series after the movie, and thus I was pleasantly surprised that they were encorporating a magical girl theme to the high school setting. I've had the series assumption for a while, so I watched the movie figuring that it's setting the stage for a TV series.

 

By the way, if they weren't planning a series, what's with Pinkie's comment about Twilight's "twin sister who lives in the city"? She even knew Spike's name. It seems too far off to be a typical 4th wall joke, so I thought maybe another Twilight lives in that world (as normal human, but with transformation capabilities), and she would replace pony Twilight for the series.

 

Anyhow, I like the dolls a bit too. The eyes are weird, but honestly, I've yet to see a factory-made doll with decent eyes. The wings are didn't-even-try quality sadly, but again, hard to expect much more. I don't feel either way about the cutie mark tattoos; aesthetic-wise, they look fine to me.

 

I'll probably buy one or two if the prices are reasonable. I'd like to try some repainting...

[Sugar Cube 4,843]

Honestly, I don't think it's that big of a deal. It is an extension to the My Little Pony property, so it doesn't hurt to keep the spirit alive by reminding us these characters are based on ponies. Besides, they actually look a bit better with the pony ears IMO. It's easier to view them as pony/human hybrids, or anthro ponies, rather than trying to think of a reason as to how or why a HUMAN would run around with blue or purple skin. But, that's just me.

 

And one thing to note is this Sunset Shimmer pic:

 

You'll notice that Sunset Shimmer has the pony ears and the hair extension just like the Mane Six in the pic that NASCARFAN160 posted above. However, we never see her like this in the movie. Wouldn't she have to be a part of the Mane Six and/or have an element of harmony to take this appearance? It's possible this pic is just drawn like this because the other EQG characters are drawn in this style. Maybe it'll be used for merchandising or something, but we have yet to see this pic used on anything official so far. I just thought it was interesting to point out.

Edited July 1, 2013 by Sugar Cube

[Zygen 6,066]

I think the transformations where ok, it didn't really bother me personally, besides it really didn't last that long anyways.

 

Now if it was like that for a majority of the movie I might be bothered a bit more but yeah.

 

Honestly as a whole I thought I was going to absolutely hate looking at the ponies because of the art style, but I actually grew to enjoy it kinda, and the wings and all that didn't bother me that much again. It kinda made sense because they where sorta merging parts of the worlds.

 

Although the toys... Those just look eh, they don't look good at all I think personally, not that I even buy MLP merch anyways.

 

Overall I think the movie surpassed my expectations a bunch and ended up pretty good. But of course your entitled to your opinions .