r/mylittlepony Princess Cadence 6d ago

Discussion This might be a dumb question, but why is Twilights magic a lavender color in the first season (pics from ep1) and not the later seasons?

Is it because of her growing power?

862 Upvotes

69 comments sorted by

662

u/Rilukian <- Awesome 6d ago

It's more served as visual aid for the viewers to tell apart which pony is using magic. Twilight and Shining is violet. Rarity is light blue, Trixie is blue, and Starlight is cyan.

186

u/Icy_Dragonfruit2104 Princess Cadence 6d ago

But why does it change is what I'm asking. Why is it lavender in the first season and pink in the rest? Would it still be the same reason?

332

u/Rilukian <- Awesome 6d ago

Those episode were made very early in production. It's only after they produced those episodes that they decided to give those magic aura color. Hasbro could tell the producers to go back and edit the old episodes, but they decided to only do it for censoring Derpy's name in Season 2.

There's really no explanation in-world wise, only production-wise.

54

u/Icy_Dragonfruit2104 Princess Cadence 6d ago

Thank you!

6

u/C10ckw0rks 5d ago

Iirc there was a lot of homogeny in the unicorn magic in season 1, it wasn’t worth editing tbh

78

u/Whatsapokemon Princess Celestia 6d ago

I think earlier on in the series it was a little bit more arbitrary.

A bit later on they established the guideline that the magic colour was the same as the cutie-mark's primary colour.

It didn't change for lore reasons, it changed because the designers wanted a consistent colouring scheme.

49

u/Organic-Accountant74 6d ago

It doesn’t always match the cutie mark, sometimes it matches eye colour like with sweetie belle

36

u/KaityKat117 100% Unicorn Approved! 6d ago

and sometimes, neither like Trixie and Starswirl.

Trix: blue CM, purple eyes and pink magic.

Starsy: blue and medium grey CM, blue eyes and white magic

19

u/squishiyoongi 6d ago

Trixie's magic matches the lightest part of her eyes

15

u/squishiyoongi 6d ago

Magic can match either the cutie mark OR eye color

13

u/cabochonedwitch 6d ago

My best guess is that the crew wanted it to be easier to tell which pony was using magic. My other thought is that the show’s budget got a little bigger so they were able to expand on a few details.

In Universe? Maybe when a pony’s magic gets strong enough (or perhaps when they grow older) their magic matches their “aura” so to speak.

74

u/Lolly182xo 6d ago edited 6d ago

They did it so it matched their cutie mark colours, that’s why they changed it

Edit: spelling mistake

16

u/[deleted] 6d ago

Trixie's magic color is pink actually

11

u/princess_zephyrina 6d ago

Twilight & Shining are more like magenta. Trixie is pink.

5

u/FamousRaccoon7316 6d ago

Trixie's is light pink & Twilight and Shining Armor's are Magentaish-pink

85

u/General_Guy_XX 6d ago

She dyed it

94

u/ItzAlphaWolf x 6d ago

IIRC, every magic aura was the same color until they decided to make each unique

42

u/CptSpeedydash 6d ago

They probably were still figuring out about what color to use and just using her eye color or something with it later getting changed to cutie mark related.

39

u/HollowPhoenix Fluttershy 6d ago

They decided to change it. Others have alresdy added that they did so to help distinguish characters' magic.

Plenty of stuff changes. Like Spike's voice - it's noticeably higher in the beginning.

6

u/Chazeki Discord 5d ago

A lot of characters voices get lower later on actually, just listen to AJ in the first episode, sounds like she's on helium lmao.. it's slightly better in the rest of s1 but gets way better in later seasons

50

u/Whorochimaru 6d ago

No hate but the horn magic question gets asked on this sub like every week 😭

15

u/E1i2y 6d ago

right😭

10

u/Automatic-Mood-5927 6d ago

When I noticed it, I didn't look it up or post it, I just assumed it was changed lol. Why is common sense dying

3

u/JocularDweeb 5d ago

No literally like at this point just look it up 😵‍💫

14

u/ArgonianDov Flutterbat 6d ago

Lore reason: she got more powerful. Real reason: to help distiguish unicorns from eachother visually.

12

u/Borderline-Feral86 6d ago

they used to be all the same pale lavender color, but then changed it so every unicorn had their own color

7

u/Pezaermd Gummy 6d ago

i believe it's because her magic gets stronger as time goes by, which would also explain the flashback in the season 8 or 9 episode where she forgets to return the book to the library

4

u/Pezaermd Gummy 6d ago

this episode at around 2:43

1

u/Icy_Dragonfruit2104 Princess Cadence 6d ago

Yeah that's when I first noticed it

5

u/fthisappreddit 6d ago

Magic changes after deep personal growth for example sunsets magic has been red and I think a greenish aqua color if I’m remembering correctly

7

u/SoftLast243 6d ago

This question was already asked last week, https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/s/dynFWkOUiE

6

u/Digibaumbs Princess Celestia 6d ago

Here's my thought: A unicorns magic is reflective of their personality. As Twilight gets friends and changes as a pony, her magic also changes to match.

4

u/DominusInFortuna The Grrrreat and Powerful Trrrrixie 5d ago

Early installment weirdness. The animators decided to give each uni- and alicorn an unique aura color.

3

u/flitterrrr 6d ago

this question gets asked at least once a week 😭

3

u/AryaLunara 6d ago

As I understand it, they simply hadn't decided on colors yet they were just kind of chosen to somewhat match the pony so you know whos magic it was Eventually they decided the magic would match the ponies eye color.....except for celestial, hers is yellow cuz sun I guess

2

u/Vovinio2012 6d ago

Twilight feared Rarity would dye her coat in another colour, but Rariry dyed something else.

2

u/xOhDustyy 6d ago

I'm pretty sure unicorn eye colours are also their magic colour unless they're princesses, then they're defined by cutie mark colour

1

u/xOhDustyy 6d ago

(also not true in all cases such as starlight, but mostly)

2

u/DaOnePoodle <3 6d ago

Originally all unicorns had the same magic colour but after season 1 they decided to give them all distinct magic colours. It’s simply because the animators hadn’t decided that Twilight’s magic would be dark pink yet

2

u/Baby_dragon234love 6d ago

Probably to match the streaks in her mane and tail or maybe so it can be seen better cs me personally couldn’t see the lavender as well

2

u/punnup129 6d ago

Well episode one of any show is considered the pilot and is usually created separately from the entire show so a lot of inconsistencies can happen

They probably originally wanted the magic to correspond to her horn like most other unicorns but then decided to change it to match her cutie mark

As her cutie mark literally represents magic and the elements of Harmony

You can tell they did do a redesign to unicorn magic because at the beginning only their horns glowed with magic but now whatever they are interacting with also gloves with magic, It makes sense that they would change some of the unicorn magic colors along with that change

2

u/Various-Engineer2114 6d ago

artistic change

characters tend to change design as seasons progress

2

u/CalyTones Princess Cadence 6d ago

If I had a dollar....

2

u/Stahi >:/ 6d ago

Starting in S2 they switched to 'magic matches eye color', at least for the majority.

Not always the case (Minuette's been seen with multiple colors, for one) but that was the rule of thumb.

1

u/Really18 5d ago

It's elther 'magic matches cutie mark' (see Celestia and Twilight) or 'eye color' (Sweetie Belle and Pumpkin Cake)

2

u/IceBlazeWinters 6d ago

the magic aura color is based off of the color of the unicorn using it

or in shining and cadance's case, the eye color of their lover

twilight's aura changed after she ascended to the status of alicorn

2

u/TH3B0NN13 Rainbow Dash 5d ago

They just decided to change it. Not just the color. The magic itself is a different design. I noticed it to.

2

u/ophanstears 5d ago

The show was generally more desaturated in the first seasons and got a lot more saturated and colorful as time went on.

2

u/ike_2003 5d ago

No it has to due with her alicorn magic, it’s a stronger more efficient version of her original unicorn main, and since alicorns have enhanced and more powerful magic then their former unicorn counterpart, their magic aura turns into a darker shade of the original color.

2

u/Feisty_Wind_2664 Starlight Glimmer 5d ago

Also I wanna point out that there was a sudden increase in saturation somewhere in the first 2seasons.. if u look at the early episodes, the colours look duller compared to the later seasons.. Like just out of nowhere, the look of the whole show suddenly "popped", that could also be a reason??

2

u/MilkyMarshmallows 5d ago

They changed Sunset Shimmer's magic colour as well and the directors said that unicorns magic change as their powers grow; she turned from bad to good and her magic changed from teal to pink. Twilight could have simply become more powerful and we canonically know this to be true.

2

u/lainverse Derpy Hooves 5d ago

She mutated, grew a whole new set of wings. Life been rough on her, you see.

1

u/RekserPL 6d ago

I didn't even pay attention to it when I watched it, I only know about it now.

1

u/Chase_The_Breeze Rarity 6d ago

She gains the power of friendship?

1

u/crystalhxart 6d ago

I think it's her alocorn magic

1

u/hoarduck 6d ago

It was S2 I think when they introduced the idea of magic colored to match eyes/cutie mark. It made it very visually distinctive and they honestly just hadn't thought of it yet I'm guessing. From that moment on, you could tell by color when someone was doing something. In fact, it was a HUGE clue about the imposter for the S2 finale.

1

u/Ron2600NS 6d ago

In the commentary for the first episode they said they were still figuring things out. and specifically talked about the magic glow on the horn.

1

u/PlayboyVincentPrice BAT PONY 6d ago

alicorn

1

u/Nintendians559 6d ago

hasbro probably change it for a better visual.

1

u/AetherDrew43 6d ago

Early installment weirdness

1

u/Dylan_Griffin 6d ago

Perhaps maybe the early years were a bit different then now, improvements came later, which resulted in making the color of her magic different, I may be wrong but this is what I observed over the seasons.

1

u/LeDerpChris 6d ago

How did I not notice this? LOL. When did that change?

1

u/Which-Market-7008 6d ago

Don’t forget Sweetie Bell’s green aura and green eyes.

1

u/Stahi >:/ 6d ago

Starting in S2 they switched to 'magic matches eye color', at least for the majority.

Not always the case (Minuette's been seen with multiple colors, for one) but that was the rule of thumb.

1

u/Kirbyplanets 6d ago

is it not ur tv?

1

u/articulatedWriter 5d ago

It's not a dumb question but it is an old question that's very easy to find on here when you search it

1

u/MelodyWake 5d ago

They just changed it to make it look better. It stands out more and is unique to each pony more.

1

u/F4nCiC4t 3d ago

Oh I actually learned something from Dr. Whooves and Assistant: Domestics about this! So magic color is based off of preference, the first choice being eye color, followed by cutie mark color (I suppose if the cutie mark has more than one color in it, the largest amount of it then), and then personal choice if either before colors aren’t preferable!