Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-29195016-20160724182401/@comment-25926288-20160724183700

TL;DR: Because Disney did it, some things worked, some things didn't work.

In show, having ice and  snow-related powers are rare but not unheard of. Maleficent simply is a master shapeshifter witch.

Part of what might confuse anyone trying to figure out why (including myself) is what I call the "Disney did it" distortion (DDID). Why is it that Elsa (and Ingrid) have powers that really don't match the powers and scale of other magic users? DDID, that's why! I'll go in more detail as I spent some time doing unnecessary research.

We have many a thread here about magic and power scale. What throws it off is primarily season 4 with Elsa creating a town-sized wall, Ingrid freezing an entire castle town, and Mal cursing an entire town with little effort. Nothing like that matches the casual fireball or conjuration that everyone else does. But let me not type an essay about Once's magic system.

Mal can turn into a Dragon because she did so in Disney and honestly...it's more compatible with Once than Frozen was. Once's Mal can turn into a flock of birds, a dragon, wraith-thing, project her voice and a great deal of magic. None of that is too far from the other shapeshifting Once has. Question is though: Is she a dragon-human hybrid? Or does she just a spell she created to turn into a dragon? If so, why does she eat humans and how could that be anything acceptable?