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The concept of Transformation by magnus

So bearbuttz bearbuttz and I were discussing the theme/idea of Transformation (or TF if you prefer), in and outside the furry community, and the different facets of interest it fulfils.

So I'm curious as to the 'why', from those of you that fall under this umbrella of interest. What is it about the concept of transforming from one thing into another that appeals to you?

For me, with a name like *WERE*Magnus, it goes without saying that I like werewolves and the like. But I've always felt that my interest for it lies outside the majority of what the theme means within the furry fandom. I seldom even refer to myself as being a "transformation fan" and more rather a "monster" or "werewolf" fan.

For me it comes down to horror movies & horror lore.

I'm fascinated with the idea as a tool for terror and panic in storytelling. Classic monster tropes. That the result is no gift, but rather more like a malignant disease. Transformation as an affliction. A curse. A brutal condition that forces a character live with this terrible truth about themselves, and as a result destroy their human relationships in hopes of sparing loved ones from the harm they will inevitable cause.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Wendigos. Werewolves. Hell, even classic vampires. That is where my interest in it lies. Sacrifice and self loathing for the sake of narrative.

So then of course I know werewolves are very popular in the furry fandom, but I think they deviate from the classic Universal Wolfman archetype a lot. I usually see them take a uber 'spiritual' and druidic route, or their role in transformation art is erring on the side of fetish (which I observe as more prevalent as a whole than transformation as horror).

ANYWAY I find this all very interesting. Share your thoughts!
Are your interests in it similar to mine? Or is it more fetishy for you? Somewhere in between? Some other reason entirely?
(FYI if it is fetish for you that's cool I ain't judging - but please keep it PG here in my journal. thnx! :) )

The concept of Transformation

magnus

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  • Link

    For me personally, it's the idea is becoming something that is not yourself, yet being along for the ride anyways. There's something enticing about it to me. Maybe it's the fight to maintain one's sense of self, maybe it's the illusion of a power trip.

    Difficult to say.

    • Link

      Rad, thanks for sharing!

      You use the word enticing - do you prefer then when process is depicted to be an enjoyable one? Surprising maybe, but not excruciating? (like in the horror monster flicks I was mentioning above)

      • Link

        Hmm...it depends. My preference is something that perceives itself as painful/excruciating, but I'll freely admit that I also dig some of the more surprising or "enjoyable" ones when done well. I guess "enticing" fits in there because the experience (or the idea of it) interests me in a psychological and--in some aspects--a physical way.

        The only TF piece I've ever had done (here if you are curious) is more of a painful one. It's something of a statement on how one side of me can take control and make me feel like the things that are happening are outside of my control.

        Maybe a little silly way of putting it, but hopefully that clears a few things up.

  • Link

    My TF interests started at werewolves (and to an extent, pokemon and digimon.) Shapeshifting became a major interest of mine. I think ever since I was a kid the idea of turning into an awesome monster was basically the COOLEST thing I could imagine.

    As I got older and more invested in the furry fandom, that never really changed, but I never really explored it in my own art very often at all.
    In fact, I never really started exploring TF artistically until I started working with Flir, and I've enjoyed it so much that I've never really gone back. Though it's usually my characters transforming others into things and less my own characters being transformed! I've always been more interested in the final result than the process itself, but working with the TF community has given me a lot of appreciation for the in-between bits. :)
    I think my favorite part is just the astonishingly endless possibilities to TF.

    Products, test tubes, costumes, magic, curses, mysterious substances.. it's a lot of fun, and I'm forever thrilled to see what people come up with!
    I also love that it can be as PG and silly or adult as you want it to be. It fits in just about anywhere and is an accessible and fun topic.

    I think this answer maybe skirts around the question a little, but I hope that's an okay bit of input!

    • Link

      I was hoping you'd reply since I know you've done a lot of variety in this sort of subject with different triggers/causes - like you mentioned already!

      This caught my attention: " it's usually my characters transforming others into things and less my own characters being transformed!"
      So is the control part of this what appeals for you, as your characters causing the catalyst to transform instead of metamorphosing themselves? Or whaddya think?

      Don't feel the need to answer if you don't want, I'm honestly just curious. As you said, there's endless possibilities to the concept and my own interest is such a small niche I am fascinated by where others have taken it purely as a spectator.

      • Link

        Oh definitely, I think you hit the nail on the head! Flir and I actually sat down and discussed that after I left that comment. I love being the instigator. It's a fun sense of fictional control, getting to enable the 'victim', commissioner, etc to live out their own transformation stories through my art and characters. It allows me to have my own slice of the awesome transformation pie, including getting to play with the stuff that might not have caught my interest otherwise.

        I think I just take a lot of joy in manifesting folk's dreams (both their characters and their own,) and it allows me to play mad scientist.

        It's weird because while I am obsessed with turning into insert-cool-creature-here, my interests are very light-switch and less about the process and more the result. With a lot of the work I do, I get to draw the fun parts! The distress, the confusion, the pleasure or the fun. It really pushes me to be more dynamic in a variety of ways.

        One of my favorite topics lately is 'oops, well now you're stuck with it' mid-tf scenarios. Imagine being a dumb gangly half-werewolf and being told that something went wrong and you're going to have to deal with this half-form of yours for a while. The emotions, feelings, experiences.. there's a lot of possibilities!

        I could basically ramble forever, transformation is a joy to chatter about, even if most of my time is spent being the instigator instead of the 'victim.'

        • Link

          I like the idea of the mischievous mad scientist vision a lot. Also the kind of like a bedazzled "be careful what you wish for!" type of scenario hahah.

  • Link

    I like the chaos and the usually unsuccessful effort by the human within to reign. I'm not sure if I like, say for example, a noble werewolf. I like it when human rationalization crumbles.

    • Link

      "I like it when human rationalization crumbles."

      Yes, this is also the concept I really find interesting. It's like the man vs. self conflict on overdrive

  • Link

    My primary character was a human who messed around with super science and ended up falling into the company of an alien cult that rebuilt him into his current form. I'm not sure if that counts under the TF banner since it was only a one time occurrence. The reason that I went for that story element is in part to justify why my character looks the way he does, and in part to give him a connection to humanity, something relatable. I like the idea of someone who is alien but has in his memory fragments of another life and is occasionally haunted by old memories, old desires and old regrets. The whole idea of searching for one's self and coming to peace with it.

    • Link

      One-time transformations are an interesting piece of the puzzle. I think it counts for sure, especially in a story as a definitive start or end to a character arch I think.
      From what I gather, your character's act of changing is a vehicle for more of a spiritual/self discovery.

      • Link

        That sums it up nicely, yes. Kind of the flipside of the whole Lovecraftian theme of humanity being corrupted by forces from beyond...what happens when you take a human and make him something more than human....how does he reconcile his old way of thinking with the realization that he is part of a much bigger universe?

        • Link

          Yeah, yeah that gets fairly sci-fi. It's not something I consider, but I think the reason for that is because when you start including such a bigger universe, as you mention, the possibilities seem so vast, I find it overwhelming!!

          The classic werewolf has a basis in our own history as humans, in various cultures. And I think I personally prefer that as it has rules/expectations to meet?

          • Link

            The classic werewolf definitely has an appeal that I can understand. We still all have those old old primitive instincts hardwired into us, so the thought of those taking over, turning humans into hunters of humans, that's pretty thrilling and frightening all at once. What are serial killers but ancient predators in heart, wearing the skins of modern men?

  • Link

    I think a lot of the appeal for me lies in retaining your mind (to varying extent) while having your body change to accommodate for new parts (tail, different ears, body size/type, etc.) Having control of these new muscles, parts, body as a whole is an exhilarating concept. It's like exploring a new sense of self, physically, and staying to experience it yourself. Stemming from that, whatever initial clumsiness with the new form or eventual mastery over manipulating the new form adds to the personal appeal for me. Some of what Dorbulyu mentioned kind of relates, I think. I hope all this makes sense ehheh

    • Link

      It makes as much sense as it can - thanks for sharing!

      So you mention clumsiness and discovery - does the appeal then lie in the sensation of feeling trapped, but then overcoming the limitations?
      Like i mentioned to Cubi, don't feel the need to answer if you don't want. I'm honestly just curious about how and why this theme is so varied and far-reaching :)

      • Link

        I think the appeal isn't so much from feeling trapped initially, but exploring what is new, and getting used to it, etc. Ideally, transformation for me is like a rush of excitement and new sensations as opposed to overcoming a negative change. To me, the transformation is a positive thing and discovering the new form firsthand is a great thing! I'm glad you chose the wording you did in your question, it brings up something interesting. I think I personally view the TF as very freeing as opposed to feeling limited or having to overcome a setback. I guess an analogy to it would be more akin to a child learning how to walk for the first time, developing new motor skills and so on.

        • Link

          "I think I personally view the TF as very freeing as opposed to feeling limited or having to overcome a setback. I guess an analogy to it would be more akin to a child learning how to walk for the first time, developing new motor skills and so on.

          That's a really cool angle I've never considered, but it makes sense. It reminds me of wondering how it must feel to see for the first time if you were otherwise blind, or gaining the ability to walk if you were paraplegic.

  • Link

    I use transformation as something of a literary tool for a certain character. He's something of a minor shapeshifter, and he changes his looks to adapt to his surroundings, to hide his (usually mental and emotional) weaknesses behind apparent physical strengths, like dangerous colors to drive away predatory creatures, or very intentionally just-above-average looks and build to be mildly appealing but ultimately ignorable to people. It's very telling about a character, how they choose to hide themselves in plain sight.

  • Link

    I kinda' come at it a few ways. I dig TF stuff and I also have a couple of folks who transform in my comic.

    Storywise, I tend to treat TF in a few ways. Since I do a newspaper-style strip, I make to make it a quick and relatively painless change. Not much space to do a grand change sequence every time which also plays into things a bit.
    I got a werewolf girl who Really doesn't want to be one. For Red, it's very much a "curse" that she inherited from her parents. It's that thing she hides and is embarrassed by because it's a loss of control for her. He boyfriend, Vincent, loves it. He's uses his condition to mess with folks and relishes his ability to physically change shape. He's at a point where he's most comfortable not being in human form.
    Then there's Carl - a man Actually cursed by a demon. He can't get away from it but he can control it as it's not emotion-driven. He's kinda' at that point where it simply is what it is.

    Outside my own story stuff, it's really just something I dig much in the same way as yourself. It makes for an interesting story trope. How does one deal with it? Do they roll like the Wolfman and hide away from the world or do they roll like the Hulk and try to find ways to cure or tame that monster they become? I love seeing how folks handle that idea.

  • Link

    I see it more as a horror trope like you do. In my experience, as a child werewolves, scared the shit out of me. My uncle didn't make things better when he had a wolf mask to scare me when horror movies were playing. I still hate werewolves and vampire stuff because of it. Never actually have drawn transformations after finding out the huge fetish base for it. It's something I would like to try to animate someday since it is a challenge.

    The kind of transformations I tend go with are personality shifts. It's a bit more realistic and unpredictable than changing appearances.

    • Link

      as a child, werewolves*

      Oh how i wish there was a comment edit function.

    • Link

      So you still find the idea of a werewolf or vampire scary/bad, but interested enough to animate it - that's cool. I think that's fairly close to where I sit. I love werewolves, but I don't know if I'd actually want to experience that if it was ACTUALLY possible. I don't envy werewolves in media, I suppose. But I enjoy the chaos of their situation. Is that sadistic? I don't know.

      I'm also interested in the transformation of personality - like Jekyll/Hyde as I mentioned above. I know that one has a more physical aspect to it now-adays but in the original story it was a lot more subtle when that character shifted from one to the other.

      COOL PONDERINGS MAN thanks for sharing your thoughts! Apologies for my rambles.

  • Link

    I've been into transformation as a theme in literature and cinema and television and other works of art since... well, jeez, the 80's. The cartoons of the day were most certainly a huge influence, both in my falling in with furridom and transformation. I mean, how many 'toons in the 80s and 90s were anthro? Like... eighty percent? And how many of them had a lot of prominent episodes with transformation as the plot point? A good number!

    I would say that's how it started. Why I like TF now? What about it is appealing? Several things have already been mentioned by others. The loss of control of yourself; the finding of new control. The simple eroticism of one thing becoming something else in a smooth and sensual fashion. I very much believe there is a strong sexual aspect of most people's fascination with it. If I were to get really pretentious I'd suggest there's a pre-sexual arousal that many felt as a younger person. I myself recall being overly fascinated with American Werewolf in Paris and The Howling and that terrifying Unico anime (Unico and the Island of Magic?) that had people turned into mindless, cookie-cutter clay dolls. Anything that had transformation of the mind or body. I recall the intensity of needing to understand why I felt so attracted and fascinated by these same things that scared the hell out of me.

    I think the idea of transformation as something desirable for the self is developed early. But, I've got no studies under my belt or anything. Just what I've experienced and what others in the scene have told me and talked about. Everyone seems to have similar stories to mine. I've felt my tastes in what aspects of the change I am most preoccupied with shift over the years. I used to be very, very much about the change itself. Just using as many intricate details as possible in prose to describe the slowest, most gradual change I could. Documenting every hair growth, every muscle spasm and trying out different ways of describing how it all felt as it was happening. I soaked that up and lived in it.

    The last several years, however, I find myself much more interested in the finished product, as it were. I have a great fascination with how people deal with the changes. I love stories where a person is put into a new body, or is in a state of flux, and must figure out a way to live with that. Like werewolves - needing to isolate themselves from loved ones for their own safety. Or cursed to live as a golem or anthro creature. Maybe they retain their mind, and would very much like to continue living their lives as they used to, however impossible that is. Maybe they even have friends, family helping them out. The change in their social dynamics, in their sense of self, is as much a part of the physical aspect of change ever was for me. Why? Perhaps it's a dissatisfaction with my own life, some janky subconscious desire to be someone/something else. I know when I write, I much prefer my main character to be very much unhappy about their change. I want them to be encumbered, inconvenienced, bothered, frustrated, depressed, anxious. Very much reflections of how I feel. Maybe I've mixed my fascination with transformation with my mental disabilities to form new wants and fetishes. Can't quite be sure.

    This turned into much more of a rant than I imagined. Sorry! :p

  • Link

    OOOoOOOOOoOOooo....

    For me transformation is always best when it's something bigger or stronger than what you are currently. Werewolves for example. uvu

    If it's a reluctant shape-shifter then it's interesting seeing them attempt to fight off the change only to succumb to something ultimately more powerful inside of them taking over. IF IT'S A WILLING SHIFTER then it's cool to force this form outward for whatever reason it needs to be present....Kinda like a super form! QoQ

    My interests into it are also of a kink nature as well-- it's pretty obvious how becoming bigger and stronger and more beast like can be seen as a kink. xD So I'll leave it as that.

    I'M ALSO PERSONALLY not a fan of the 'mind-less werewolf killer' trope too much. u____u I like them to retain a lot of their personalities when they shift. A lot more primal and underlying personality coming forth is great for me. A loud and bouncy character showing her quieter more calculating side in were form-- a anti-social or shy character ultimately showing affection to friends or mates in this form just because it's an underlying personality tone. <: Love it!

  • Link

    I'm not really into transformation per se, but I have been commissioned to draw some sequences a couple times and it's really super fun. I really like drawing the gross in-between phases where the character isn't really human and isn't really animal. Coming up with weird blends of creature and human aspects is probably the most fun part and even though I'm sure what I'm being paid to draw is supposed to be sexy I can't help but draw the grossest things I can think of.

    I'm not particularly interested in narrative aspects of transformation, though, especially when it's supposed to be a metaphor.

  • Link

    I have not yet run into a theme of transformation I didn't like. I like wish fulfillment TFs, where the change is desired, I like curse transformations, where like, the person now has to deal with these unfortunate differences. I like surprise ones, I like resisted ones that are lengthy. I like ones where the person has no clue how to use their new body, and I like ones where the person's body makes them do things they didn't plan on.

    I like the process of the change, what order things happen, how does a specific change affect the situation they're in right now, and how does it affect their life? Is it a one time change? Do they go back and forth? Do they control it? CAN they control it?

    I like it used to explore different perspectives from a central viewer, I like when it happens to others who aren't the storyteller/main character.

    I guess in general I like the change, and how people deal with change. I like how others deal with the change.

    Basically, "What do you like about transformation?" is a bad question to ask me because the very nature of transformation makes situations often more interesting to me. I don't like when the transition is skipped, unless they play up how instantaneous it was (even then I do prefer transition shots). I don't like when it's used in like, action stuff or games poorly, where it's just a non stop stream of "This isn't even my final form!"

  • Link

    I always saw transformation as a condition (the closest real life comparison could be epilepsy though I guess some psych conditions could also loosely fit) so I was always interested in the theme of werewolves and characters like Remus Lupin but not from the horror point of view but more like... coping with your own body, learning to be happy with the cards you got in your life. But then I'm not a furry (and I don't even have any talking animal OCs thoguh I sure have fond childhood memories) so idk if I have a voice in this conversation. I find the concept of transformation as a fetish nearly as disturbing as the concept of disability as a fetish (do I have to spell out that there's a huge difference between liking a person who happens to have some trait and liking a person only because they have that trait?), the only thing that makes it better with transformation fetishists is that at least they don't make lives of any real group of people harder.

  • Link

    I'm only just discovering and getting interested in talking with others about transformation fandom, so hello there Magnus =)
    I'd always avoided discussing transformation with furries before, mainly because of my worry that people would instantly equate it with fetish material (and the fact that almost ALL the transformation stuff I see on furry sites is obviously fetish-related). Which gives me a sad, because I like it too, just not in that way! (Ofc it's fine if people like it that way, it's just that I don't.)

    My fursona is a wolf, and that doesn't come from nature documentaries so much as it comes from werewolves =D I was interested in werewolves long before I even found out about furry fandom. I'd say my interest lies in a similar vein as yours, although perhaps with a bit more acceptance and a bit less suffering involved in the recipe. Although I do think it's more interesting to see that transition from initially horrible suffering to an eventual acceptance; it's like character development and I think it's cool to see how individual characters handle their situation. Plus, one major cool point about transformations is the secrecy involved. An afflicted character isn't going to want others to find out about their condition, so there's a big potential for secrets, hiding, people who are in on the secret, consequences of the secret getting out, and all that good suspense-type stuff =D

    I also enjoy the "druidic" type of transformation that you mentioned, and I think it might have come about as a result of transformation fans only getting to see horror movie scenarios, liking the concept, but wanting to celebrate rather than revile the beast within. Kind of like when I was a kid, watching Disney movies or whatever. There's a magically transformed character, who we get to know throughout the course of the story. And when we get to the end, the afflicted character gets to turn back into a human, there's a swell of celebratory music, and everybody's happy again! As a kid, I didn't understand that at all! I thought, who wants to go back to being the way they were before? Nobody wants to see Prince Adam or whatever, where's the Beast?! He was interesting. I felt this way about almost every story I encountered (with the exception of Brother Bear, which I only saw years later, and it had a wonderfully refreshing ending). So I think the "peaceful Druid-type werewolf" trope could come from that desire to celebrate transformations as a desirable thing.

  • Link

    Transformation is not one of my biggest interests, but the idea of becoming something different appeals to me. The only transformation I explored artistically was a joke of a badass character turning into a pink girly horse, but I had so much fun imagining how each part of the body would rearrange be affected.

    I definitely love the idea of becoming a powerful creature, either werewolf or other beast. When I injured my leg I frequently imagined myself turning into an agile dragon or a centaur, I wanted the freedom to run or even fly.

    The werewolf concept fascinates me. Just imagining what it would be like to become this grand monster. Even just the idea of how much wolf and how much human would remain during each phase. Some stories have werewolf characters becoming gradually more wolf like as they near the full moon, and the transformation just being the final step, where for others they are a completely average human right up until the transformation. It's just interesting to think of how it would affect someone, would they be horrified or would they be excited? Would they take joy in a night free from all the human worries, or would they be repulsed by this animal side?

  • Link

    I don't do much TF art myself (haven't felt I've been able to do the concept any justice yet), but I've been fascinated by the concept of transformation and shapeshifting since I can remember, even as a little kid.

    For me, the fascination is the same root of why I am interested in anthros - it comes from the border between what is human and what is inhuman. We define ourselves so strongly in our humanity, insisting that we are above and apart from animals, and yet, we are animals ourselves, it is inescapable. Explorations of what that means, where the limits are, are interesting to me.

    I played a lot of Werewolf: The Apocalypse when I was in my teens, and in that case it was all about fighting off threats to the earth by taking on animal forms - in modern society, a large part of seeing ourselves as separate from the rest of our environment is being willing to destroy the very thing that nurtures us and gives us form. For me, animal-human stuff is about breaking down those boundaries, embracing things that are alien to us and yet still mirrored within ourselves. It's about rediscovering the wildness and the stark beauty of non-artificiality that exist within us all if we stop trying to control everything, and having empathy and compassion to the other nations of life and the biomes themselves which inhabit this planet with us.

    Oddly, I don't really like a lot of the "druidy" werewolf stuff as much (I am assuming you mean like Goldenwolf?) because it strips out the inhumanity of the animal and feels shallow to me as a result. It is basically a human pagan or witch in a wolf shape. It doesn't bother questioning what it would mean to truly live that way, to have blood on your claws and teeth, to be naked and fierce and not give a damn about what anybody thinks of you. Animals don't have shame for existing.

    By the same token, the body horror and Id externalization aspects that traditional Hollywood werewolves entail often have a similar shallowness to me. It's anxiety about a lack of control, fear of judgement, fear of ostracization and loneliness, xenophobia. Don't get me wrong, I like monsters and aliens and horror. Some of these stories can be interesting and poignant, they can definitely have depth, but any movie in which werewolves are unquestionably simple "evil" to be vanquished usually bores me with oversimplification. I'm much more interested in what happens when people embrace their demons than when they try to drive them out and destroy them.

    Life isn't all beauty and peace, but it isn't all violence and gore and poorly repressed impulses either. It's all of these and more, gritty and cruel, ugly and beautiful at the same time, and I like to see that complexity reflected.

  • Link

    I've always liked the idea on TF in itself, but you're right about it being highly fetishized. I pondered on TF even knowing about furry, but I acknowledge that it either has it's benefits, or disadvantages. In the case of you mentioning werewolves or vampirism, it's more akin to horror or a curse. I tend to lean more towards how a curse, at first, then becomes an advantage or perhaps a challenge that the one cursed must overcome.

    Brother Bear comes to mind as one example, and others, perhaps a plethora in the superhero/comic book scene alone. I think people are naturally drawn to it as perhaps a change from the normal and mundane human condition, or perhaps even an improvement. There's a broad spectrum that I think appeals to all sorts.

    But I guess it all boils down to what kinds of TF you were exposed to growing up and how it affects you. You either seen too many Disney movies or various other animated movies that portray it as a positive/neutral fantasy side of thing or you watch a lot of monster flicks and horror stories that portray another darkder/scary side of things. It's where you mind likes to dwell.

  • Link

    TF is a rather minor interest of mine... as much as someone on tumblr always tags me with TF stuff because I once said it was something I thought was cool and it turned out to be their fetish so lmao. Anyway I don't know, I think it may be one of those things that comes from youth and evolves into an adult thing of excitement (not necessarily sexual) because a lot of action cartoons have transformation sequences so one comes to association changing appearances with amazing awesome stuff.
    Its not really a fetish of mine but when I see fetish work some of it can be pretty hot at least if the transformation seems to be wanted. I don't know I just find transformation sequences in porn where the person is panicking and seems really upset borders on non con/abuse and as a person that endured some abuse as a kid (not sexual though btw) it just... hurts me emotionally too much to give me a boner that's the summary of it.

  • Link

    Just a short comment, I think I like it because it seems like the ultimate out-of-this-world kind of experience, becoming something else means everything is new again! Maybe it's partly just a desire for something more than we have.

  • Link

    I have been interested in transformation way before I even knew the furry fandom. For me it's the loss of control, loss of tangible thought and just losing yourself as you're painfully forced into this monster form of ultimate power and killing. It's the possibility of forgetting about the full moon, and transforming hideously in front of your best friends or family and how terrible that would be. The fact that you could slaughter those you care about. Keeping secrets from people. In junior high and high school I read every werewolf book I could find. Unfortunately or fortunately most of the ones I could find were adult romance books. I was not so please at the time, but anything with a werewolf storyline I would read it anyways.

    Now that I have found the fandom, I have seen different spectrums and types of tf and it is fascinating. I still prefer my painful, 'curse' tf, and am interested in cutesy paint induced tf also. Recently have started drawing these two and would like to promote myself as more of a tf artist. But there are still spectrums I am less interested in. It feels like most people want a specific fetish of theirs when all I want to draw is a little more morbid, less happy transformation lol.