| “ | So the Rainbooms want to turn this into a real Battle of the Bands? Then let's battle! | „ |
| ~ Adagio Dazzle |
Adagio Dazzle is the main antagonist of My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. She is a siren and the lead singer of her band the Dazzlings, rivaling the Rainbooms.
Development and Design
In late January 2014, Meghan McCarthy was asked regarding DJ Pon-3 "Is Vinyl Scratch's canon name really Adagio Dazzle?" and answered "Nope. In early April 2014, Michael Vogel stated that "Adagio is AWESOME." Her cutie mark varies across depictions, but always includes at least one gem.
Like those of her bandmates Sonata Dusk and Aria Blaze, Adagio Dazzle's wings are translucent and non-feathered. Human Adagio Dazzle resembles Unnamed Girl #11.
The word "Adagio" in music terms, is a tempo marking indicating that music is to be played slowly.
Role in Film
The Dazzlings, including Adagio Dazzle, Sonata Dusk, and Aria Blaze. appear in My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks as the main antagonists; Adagio Dazzle is shown on the cover of its novelization My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks: The Mane Event.
In the film, Adagio and the other Dazzlings are introduced in the human world. They are sirens from Equestria who were banished to the human world by Star Swirl the Bearded. They are first seen in a café causing tension between the patrons when they witness the Equestrian magic that brought Sunset Shimmer to her downfall in the first film. Sunset gives a tour of the school to Adagio and the other Dazzlings, but tells the main five that something seemed "off" about them. What is "off" about them is confirmed when they convince all of the students except the main 5 and Sunset with their music to turn the friendly Mane Event into an all-out Battle of the Bands.
Adagio and the Dazzlings use their siren's songs to control student opinion and advance through the competition bracket. When the only bands between them and first place are the Rainbooms and Trixie and the Illusions, Adagio manipulates Trixie into removing the Rainbooms from the competition entirely, causing the Rainbooms to argue with eachother and finally give in to Adagio's spell.
During the night of the finale, the Dazzlings perform their most powerful spell while singing a song in front of the entire school, gathering enough energy to transform into human-siren hybrids. Suddenly, the Rainbooms appear and retaliate with a song of their own. Annoyed that they escaped and are once again resistant to her spell, Adagio and the Dazzlings summon astral projections of their true forms to finish them off, successfully defeating the Rainbooms. With no options left, Sunset Shimmer picks up the microphone and sings an empowering song of her own, which remotivates the Rainbooms' and allows her to transform into a human-pony hybrid for the first time. Together, Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms summon a massive astral projection of an Alicorn that vaporizes the Dazzlings' power and causes their magic-channeling pendants to shatter, rendering them incapable of casting spells or singing. With no power left, Adagio and the Dazzlings flee in shame as the audience, now free of their spell, boo them off stage and pelt them with food.
Personality
Adagio Dazzle is shown to be scheming, manipulative, and only concerned with gaining power and being adored by others (not unlike Sunset Shimmer in the first movie, except while Sunset Shimmer had some morals, Adagio had none). She is able to sway student opinion with ease and trick Trixie into removing The Rainbooms from the competition. Adagio also bears considerable contempt toward her fellow sirens Aria and Sonata, calling them "idiots" and generally disliking their company. She was also both arrogant and sadistic; when Sunset Shimmer confronted her Adagio deliberately emphasized the similarities between her and Sunset Shimmer's past self, while also implying that her friends don't really care for her and see her as a liability. Her character is defined in one line: "it doesn't matter who you hurt if you're just proving you're the best", a line that also seems to suggest she is a narcissist.
She is arrogant and vain, not viewing her fellow sirens as equals, getting annoyed when Aria suggested she lead for once. This is justified somewhat, since she is incontestably the best planner among the Dazzlings. However, she is so self-assured that she never considered getting defeated, thus this arrogance led to her downfall.
Appearance
In Equestria, the sirens' appearance is similar to that of a dragon, pony, and sea creature hybrid. In the human world, the Dazzlings are shown to possess translucent fin-like wings in their anthro forms, unlike their true forms. Their siren forms are summoned as astral projections from their pendants and used to weaken the Rainbooms.
Aside from flashbacks, Adagio's true form is never physically shown in the film, but she and her fellow band members gain pony-like ears, extended ponytails, and translucent wings. They also summon astral projections of their true siren forms from their pendants.
Reception
Alongside Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk, Adagio recieved positive reception from critics and the brony community. She was known to be the most fan-favorite villain in My Little Pony : Friendship Is Magic, alongside Discord.
Trivia
- Flashbacks reveal their original siren forms in Equestria where that of Hippocampus.
- A lot of fan art erroneously depicts their alternative forms as mermaids, being the most common form for sirens.
- Alongside Sonata and Aria, Adagio is the third main villain in FIM to sing (with Chrysalis as the first and Discord as the second). She is the second to sing while currently a villain, as Discord is reformed before his song.
- Adagio and the other Dazzlings have more villain songs in the show than the others.
- Kazumi Evans, who does the voice of Adagio, also does the singing voices of Rarity and Princess Luna, much like the villain of the first film, Sunset Shimmer, is voiced by Rebecca Shoichet, the singing voice of Twilight Sparkle.
- Adagio sums up the seven deadly sins perfectly. Her lust is her motivation for power and wanting to take over the world. Her gluttony is eating hatred to increase her singing voice and corrupt people. Her greed is wanting to control everyone to do her malice and have everything go her way. Her sloth is forcing people to treat her like a god. Her wrath is being the heartless human monster herself. Her envy is causing despair to the Rainbooms and Sunset Shimmer. Her pride is being self-assured about never being defeated.
- The Dazzlings are one of three villains who came closest to winning, other two being King Sombra and Lord Tirek.
- The Dazzlings are one of two villains whose Fiendship is Magic issues of the comics do not seem to contain any plot holes, other being Tirek.
- Aside from Queen Chrysalis, whose may or may not have survived her fall (comics aside), the Dazzlings are the first main villains to neither turn good, die, or be imprisoned, although they are the second to lose all their power (first being Tirek). Principal Cinch is the second, and so far, final, although she had no supernatural powers to begin with.
- There is speculation that the Dazzlings aged into dust after losing their power and immortality, as their pendants kept them alive for over a thousand years and other villains such as Mother Gothel, Dorian Gray, and Adam Monroe suffered a similar fate when their immortality was taken away after at least a hundred years. This could easily be debunked if they return in a sequel, however, they were absent from Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree.
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