Transformation Anatomy: Where does the tail go?

[Peanutt_Buta]

Originally Posted by TailBoy

there you see? if somone were to grow a tail it would just grow out from where it was in the FIRST place & not dislodge itself n get all complex n stuff.
now lets just all follow our proper anatomy like you would study in art class or an important exam & just follow yur honesty rather than just 'living with an unproven opinion'?
heck many scientists & teachers out there had to rethink their studies & suck up to their goofs so im sure many of you can, right?
and thats the end of my 1st amendment preaching m;kay?

Tailboy, I'm not disagreeing with you. Inaccuracies are found everywhere and sometimes, yes, the public at large is usually a little hesitant to agree with what is accurate rather than inaccurate. See: Sound in Space - Done accurately in Firefly, yet in a lot of films and shows afterwards, it's still ignored.

There are a lot of ways transformation is depicted in fiction. Instantaneous or gradual, asymmetrical or symmetrical, skin-ripping or adapting skin/fur, teeth growing or teeth falling out, backward knee or rising ankles, and so on. The point is, drastic transformation into another species is still a fiction.

My favorite transformation is the scene in Willow - and the main character, Madmartigan, has his four fingers merge into two. This is not remotely accurate for several reasons. Pigs, for one, have 4 phalange structures, not three. So where did the last dew claw come from in the main two fingers emerged? Wouldn't it have been more accurate for the thumb to shrink into nothing and the two middle fingers become the cloven hooves? Yes. But does that take away my enjoyment of the scene? No.

My view is the sacrum is still the base of the tail, I only disagree with what happens to everything below it. If you put all your weight into your first hand on top of your other hand, your bottom hand can't lift without the first hand giving way. I'm suggesting a second tail would start from scratch and grow from the sacrum while the other would be left to wither - not unlike how the thumb in the above scenario would wither as well.

In the end, I agree with Ironhorse. This is subjective and it doesn't have to be entirely accurate for someone to appreciate the process of the transformation.