Transformation Sequence/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Needlessly long, flashy change in appearance.

  • Played Straight: Our heroine transforms into a Magical Girl with flashy clothes, saves the day, etc.
  • Exaggerated: Our heroine goes through a 10 minute Transformation Sequence, filled with sparkles, swirls, and light to turn into a goddess.
    • Alternately, the villain goes to a movie theater, and the heroine is just finishing when the film ends.
  • Justified: She must be another gender or species to use her powers.
    • The transformation works as a Power Limiter to dissuade the heroine of abusing her power.
  • Inverted: The villain is the one with the overly-long and elaborate transformation sequence... Except it's creepy instead of flashy, and it turns him / her into an One-Winged Angel.
    • Alternately, our heroine completes the transformation to battle-form in about a second, but goes through a flashy transformation sequence when she changes back to normal.
  • Subverted: The transformation is a waste of time as she can use her powers at any time...
  • Double Subverted: ...except for being properly dressed for battle within a second.
  • Parodied: The Transformation Sequence is so long that some villains fell asleep, and so flashy that it gives others seizures!
  • Deconstructed: The villains kills the Magical Girl while in her Transformation Sequence. Do you think they're just gonna wait?
    • Alternately: The villains use the delay to carry out their nefarious deeds and escape, leaving her to deal with the carnage when the transformation ends.
    • Alternately: The transformation is a horribly painful experience, requiring instant growth, transformation and/or disappearence of body parts and skeleton, thus making the sequence a slow and painful torture that must endured on a regular basis.
  • Reconstructed: Well, they try to kill her... but a barrier stops their attack and sends it back to them.
    • She transformes outside the enemy lair then comes in transformed.
    • While early transformations are horribly painful and violent, as she does this repeatedly her body adjusts and becomes stronger in her normal state while suffering less pain during the transformation. Eventually her two forms will be the same aside from activating her battle armor.
  • Averted: The girl simply changes clothes like a normal person, no transformation.
    • The transformation takes place in a flash of light that you can miss by blinking, no sequence necessary.
  • Enforced: The Transformation Sequence is there to make the show... more attractive.
  • Lampshaded: "Under different circumstances, I'd not hesitate to go and attack that girl!... But all that stuff she's doing is really mesmerizing"
  • Invoked: The transformation sequence is so distracting, that the heroine intentionally transforms in front of the villains to mess with their heads.
  • Defied: "She's transforming! Now is our chance to kill her!"
    • Alternately: "She'll be at that for ten minutes! Grab the loot and hostages!"
  • Discussed: "You know girl, it's not like I have all day, I've got kids at home and stuff to do. Could you just make it a bit quicker?"
  • Conversed: "This transformation sequence wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't so long!" "Hey! It's not that bad; I can even state two good reasons that make it rock!" "She's not even thirteen!"

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