Should tfs be painful?

Welcome to today's edition of Woody overthinks everything.....

I have another origin story in the works that uses a hybrid transformation in that the first transformation changes the heroine physically.

I won't tell you how deep the rabbit hole I went on the below question but I can't seem to reconcile it in my head.

how much pain would, should a heroine go through in a transformation?

the sciency part of me thinks if a body is changing there should be some pain involved.

the writer in me is arguing that point.

I don't want to go down the route of orgasms whilst transforming. 1 it's been done and 2. it makes no sense in my mind. 

let me know what you think?

now onto item 643579 on the list. Is there a better case of irony then drawing a tree on a bit of paper?
 

I feel it depends on your preference. Realistically it would be maybe a bit painful I guess but I’ve always been the orgasmic route cause of the idea being the power makes the girl honrny and makes her enjoy it rather than punish her.

tsuper is right. It depends on your preference.

Please don't ponder this at any length, Woody, but sometimes we can spend too much time and energy trying to determine whether or not we are overthinking something.

What's the fantasy image in your head/heart/private parts ? Is the character in pain in that image? In ecstasy? Neither? Whatever the answer, make the science fit that.

Depends on your preference as a writer and the method of transformation.  Magic could be painless.  Having your entire cellular structure torn down and rebuilt from the ground up (which is what I chose for the Super Starlets) might sting a little.

There is also the idea of the transformation being physically taxing to the point that not everyone survives, in which case it probably makes sense for it to hurt.

This actually came to mind. Not super, but it does lend to the idea that certain transformations would likely be excruciating

Lynda Carter's explosive transformation into Wonder Woman wouldn't hurt her as she would absorb the glowing radiation with her new-found power.
But, how would she transform back to agent Diana Prince? Would the after-effects of her transforming back hurt her?
Perhaps she wouldn't want to transform back if there was a pain threshold...

There might be some anesthesia going on during the transform or a moment of unconsciousness

If we are going to overthink it:  seems like it would start off as uncomfortable like flu symptoms to painful if the change is rapid and then as the super abilities become stronger it pivots to feeling good or invigorating.

There's also the consideration of whether it's a one-time transformation - "Becoming Super" - or a regular transformation between unpowered and powered forms - Lasso twirl, "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." Etc.

The latter is less likely be painful unless you want to focus the story on power coming with a price.

Again, it all comes down to the story you want to tell. If it's important that the transformation come at a terrible cost, then pain away. If it's just a means of getting from unpowered to powered, then it really doesn't matter.

It partly depends on the method of transformation, but mostly on just how much the author is trying to pay attention to practical details.

Really, it should probably hurt a lot. But that's describing what would probably happen in a real world scenario modified to the absolute minimum degree required to allow a normal woman to be transformed into a superwoman. Very few if any of our stories take place in such a reality. Most of our realities are tailor made to appeal to our fondness for superwoman stories and the various aspects that make up the genre.

In other words, don't sweat it. None of these stories take place in the actual real world, and if transformation is supposed to be painless or pleasant, or even orgasmic, then the fictional world in which they take place is one in which superwoman transformations feel that way, and I doubt many (any?) of us will question that particular detail when reading the story. It's one of those details most of us readers will happily stuff into the box labeled "Willing Suspension of Disbelief."

It seems like the pain level in fiction has been determined by the level of desire to be what the person is transforming into.  For example, Hulk or She-Hulk transformations seem to hurt when transitioning to savage alter egos, but not when they are keeping their intelligence or becoming "sensational."  The same is true for werewolves actually: the change mostly seems to hurt the people who don't want to transform, not those who do. 

Magical girl TFs, whether a Mary Marvel "poof" or a Sailor Moon/She-Ra henshin almost always are depicted as pleasant and empowering.  In fact back in the 1990s, I had an official Sailor Moon book that featured "interviews" with all the scouts.  Sailor Mercury was specifically asked what a transformation felt like and she said it was scary at first but soon felt like the most natural thing in the world.

"how much pain would, should a heroine go through in a transformation?"

It entirely depends on the kind of story you want to tell. Adventure? Comedy? Horror?

In the 70's Wonder Woman and Isis TV shows, it was breezy fun and adventure for the women to change into their super-selves.
In werewolf films, it's agonizing to have one's body reshaped at the full moon.
In Superman II, it's just a magic spin around the door, or in the time it takes to fly down the outside of a building a few dozen stories, to casually replace the business suit with the super suit and the hair curl. And nobody asks where the glasses went.
In Watchmen, Jon rebuilding himself into to Dr. Manhattan was excruciating.

It's all about whatever you want the heroine to go through.
Once you have the story purpose, hand waving fake science babble can easily justify it. Muscle fibers expanding is painless because there aren't nerves inside actin-myasin sheathes. Muscle fibers expanding is fun because the filling up of the muscles feels great. Muscle fibers expanding is brutal pain because the connective tissue rips apart before it gets rebuilt half a second later.