Would you have preferred if EG was never made?

[Sunny Fox 5,929]

I would say Rainbow Rocks is good enough to retroactively justify the first movie.

[Megas 27,064]

Meh, I enjoyed them, and so did lots of other people. And it's not like it's hurting anyone

[chirox the pony 1,334]

That's hard to say, as far as I'm concerned the EG movies existence is pointless (beyond selling toys that is) but you could argue that Sunset Shimmer and the dazzlings wouldn't exist if it weren't for EG, but these characters could have easily been introduced in the show. Whilst yes I don't think it should exist I still like rainbow rocks (still hate the first one).

[smitty121325 64]

After watching the second movie, my disdain for this series has died down significantly. wcan uunderstand why it was made, but, yes, I would have preferred had it not been made at all.

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

The EqG movies are FUN!!!! I love fun movies!! so to answer your question:

 

[GreyScholar 1,584]

No I would not as I actually like Flash Sentry and feel both he (whether human or pony) and Sunset Shimmer have potential that I hope is expanded on... now Equestria Girls II on the other hand messed up the Mane Six (especially Twilight), forcing them out of character, just do Sunset could be raised on a pedestal and shine.

[BayoUni2847 528]

I really enjoy Equestria Girls, if it was never made and we never knew anything about it, I would still love the show the same.

 

But we wouldn't have Sunset Shimmer and I like her.

[Blue Moon 6,336]

Nope, I enjoyed them a lot, and if it weren't for Equestria Girls; we wouldn't have Sunset Shimmer who was greatly improved in Rainbow Rocks and is a great character and one of my favorite "villains." Plus, there have been some great songs from each movie.

[Roughshod 719]

I would say Rainbow Rocks is good enough to retroactively justify the first movie.

"Justify"? I don't know about that. I'd say it helped salvage the series to some extent. If the next EG is as good or even better then perhaps that mess will have been justified to a degree.

[yayayayayala 1,668]

No, because then we wouldn't have Rainbow Rocks. :3

[Sunny Fox 5,929]

No, because then we wouldn't have Rainbow Rocks. :3

 

My point precisely.

 

"Justify"? I don't know about that. I'd say it helped salvage the series to some extent. If the next EG is as good or even better then perhaps that mess will have been justified to a degree.

My faith was fully restored, but I'm sure there are many who would agree with you that it's too little, too late, and that the concept still has a way to go before it's fully redeemed itself. Diff'rent strokes, after all.

[Roughshod 719]

I don't hate this series entirely, at the very least it has room for growth which is always appealing to me. Call me optimistic.

 

Also, I've been thinking, so far all the antagonists in the EG movies have originated from Equestria. What if a villain was instead a human(s) from the human world? Perhaps bent on exploiting or harming Equestria? That would at least be interesting to me. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Edited November 10, 2014 by Roughshod

[cuteycindyhoney 13,283]

I have never understood the "I don't like it, so I don't want ANYONE to see it!" mindset. (some) Bronies make a career out of shoving FIM down the throats of people who have no interest in it, yet then turn around and bleat that "Equestria Girls shouldn't exist!" Frankly, it's stupid. If you don't like something, DON'T WATCH IT! It's that simple.

Edited November 10, 2014 by cuteycindyhoney

[Shimmer Down 668]

EQG gave us Sunny. And RR gave us redemption Sunny. Wouldn't trade that for the world.

[Roughshod 719]

EQG gave us Sunny. And RR gave us redemption Sunny. Wouldn't trade that for the world.

And EQG 3 may give us Sunset Shimmer's human counterpart, who's likely as bad as the original pony version. It's possible.

[Andaasonsan 3,205]

And EQG 3 may give us Sunset Shimmer's human counterpart, who's likely as bad as the original pony version. It's possible.

I still think pony Sunset Shimmer took the place of human Sunset Shimmer and that Sunset Shimmer is decomposing under the ground of her own back yard.

 

It explains so many unanswered questions so well. I wouldn't expect MLP to be that dark, but it just makes too much sense.

[Roughshod 719]

I still think pony Sunset Shimmer took the place of human Sunset Shimmer and that Sunset Shimmer is decomposing under the ground of her own back yard.

 

It explains so many unanswered questions so well. I wouldn't expect MLP to be that dark, but it just makes too much sense.

Well I would hardly call her redeemed if she's a murderer.

 

What if at the same time the Equestrian Sunset entered the human world, the human version of her found a means to enter Equestria? That would balance it out, and create a pretense for their lack of interaction.

[Sunny Fox 5,929]

Well I would hardly call her redeemed if she's a murderer.

 

What if at the same time the Equestrian Sunset entered the human world, the human version of her found a means to enter Equestria? That would balance it out, and create a pretense for their lack of interaction.

Why is there a need for a pretense for lack of interaction? Human!Twilight was mentioned in EQG1, and shown in the stinger for EQG2, and she never interacted with Pony!Twilight. Human!Sunset Shimmer might be on the other side of the planet from CHS, for all we know.

[Roughshod 719]

Why is there a need for a pretense for lack of interaction? Human!Twilight was mentioned in EQG1, and shown in the stinger for EQG2, and she never interacted with Pony!Twilight. Human!Sunset Shimmer might be on the other side of the planet from CHS, for all we know.

It was just some harmless headcanon. I believe there's a strong chance she'll appear in the next film with human Twilight. It'll serve as a throwback to EQG 1.

[yayayayayala 1,668]

EQG gave us Sunny. And RR gave us redemption Sunny. Wouldn't trade that for the world.

I must say something totally random here: I love your sig, Shimmer Down! Also cute Sunny emote :3

 

 

I still think pony Sunset Shimmer took the place of human Sunset Shimmer and that Sunset Shimmer is decomposing under the ground of her own back yard.

 

It explains so many unanswered questions so well. I wouldn't expect MLP to be that dark, but it just makes too much sense.

LOL XP She might have been capable of doing that when she was still evil.

Edited November 11, 2014 by yayayayayala

[Falsey 44]

Hmm... I guess I can't say I hate EG, as I have yet to give that a watch, mostly out of slight apprehension at seeing my favorite characters change. I do however want them to make another mlp movie, that is not humanized.

[Sazama Ichida 2,352]

Not at all. I love them as humans just as much as ponies.

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

One thing i like about EqG is that, even though it has stereotypes and clichés, they're used in a different way that makes the actions of the characters more believable.

I'm cutting you off because your logic completely falls apart here. To quote the definition of a stereotype:

a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Stereotypes take a concept and reduce them to a point of making them nonsensical at best and offensive at worst. This is exactly what Equestria Girls, both the original and Rainbow Rocks, is. It's a plethora of stereotypes.

 

High school: Sensationalized and (in the first movie) segregated teens into specific labels. The building itself has no plausible conflict, falling for the same traps we've seen in so many other high-school chick flicks.

 

Flash Sentry is a stereotype of hunky crushes, and it only worsened in Rainbow Rocks.

 

Sunset Shimmer in EQG is a complete stereotype of the high school bully, only with a dose of stupid in her vial. Rainbow Rocks's Sunset is out of character: Rewrite the name and switch the script a bit, and you have a completely new character.

 

The little reference of Sunset and Flash's relationship reinforces the "evil-bitch-has-a-boyfriend-interested-in-the-protagonist" cliché. It's one of the worst stereotypes from a narrative perspective because the unnecessary moment made both Flash and Sunset even flatter characters.

 

Why did Twilight get a crush on him? Because he looked hot. That's a stereotype because the reasoning makes Twilight shallow and, thus, unlikeable.

 

The "only way" for Twilight to regain her crown was to win a popularity contest, one that the first movie glorified and accentuated in value. The whole movie was based on this popularity contest and constantly referred back to it. This violates Sweet & Elite's secondary moral about how being popular isn't always everything. The "fall formal" in itself is another term for a prom. So the whole "who-wins-the-popularity-contest-in-a-high-school-prom" plot is a huge high-school cliché thanks to how sterile it is. Your brief explanation of the fall formal contest really stretches the plot's credibility.

 

You pretty much get the point. There's nothing about a stereotype that's believable. In fact, "believability" and "stereotypes" are polar opposites. By writing stereotypes, McCarthy wasn't writing a believable plot with believable characters anymore. Instead, she was caricaturing the entire concept. Perpetuating stereotypes is black-and-white bad writing because of how lazy it is, and these stereotypes are perpetuated in not just the first movie, but both the second and entire concept, as well.

 

yet then turn around and bleat that "Equestria Girls shouldn't exist!" Frankly, it's stupid. If you don't like something, DON'T WATCH IT! It's that simple.

You're not doing yourself any favors by using the ol' "don't like it, don't read/watch it" strawman. Even if I never got to watch it, there's so much information about Equestria Girls with a couple of clicks. The wikis and any reviews that leave the movie intact provide more than enough info to judge the spinoff's objective quality. Your excuse doesn't fly anymore because we're not in an era where most people were in the dark. If anything, by using it, you're only enforcing how bad this spinoff truly is.

 

And, yes, Equestria Girls shouldn't exist because like what I wrote prior, it goes against the most valued core of the franchise: the ability that people can be empowered regardless of who you are. FIM's roots are deep in feminism, ones dating back to G1. These values are everywhere, from the character design to the pro-feminist concepts.

 

Equestria Girls panders to adolescent girls, the market Hasbro claims it speaks to and for. By pandering to girls, EQG objectifies them and enforces the blatant sexism Faust fought against. And because they demean adolescent girls, they demean women, men, and and people, period. As such, I have every reason to speak out against it.

Edited November 12, 2014 by Dark Qiviut

[Andaasonsan 3,205]

~whole lot of snipping~

 

I'm going to go completely crazy here and propose something radical: Stereotypes and cliches are not necessarily bad thing.

 

There is a concept called "generic verisimilitude". Verisimilitude means "the appearance of being true or real." When talking about narrative, the meaning is more specific. According to Wikipedia:

 

"Verisimilitude, in a narrow sense, is the likeness or semblance of a narrative to reality, or to the truth. It comes from Latin: verum meaning truth and similis meaning similar.[1] In a broader sense, verisimilitude refers to the believability of a narrative—the extent to which a narrative appears realistic, likely, or plausible (regardless of whether it is actuallyfictional or non-fictional).

 

Alright, so then we can further split this up into "cultural verisimilitude" and the aforementioned "generic verisimilitude". Cultural verisimilitude is just the basic level of appearing in a way that people can relate to the story and things seem plausible and make sense, or at least based on their own experience.

 

Now we come to generic. "Generic" simply means "genre" which should be familiar to everyone, "a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter." How this relates to the concept of verisimilitude is where things get crazy. Genres have conventions that make them the genre they are, such as westerns having cowboy hats and six-shooters, or space operas having spaceships and galaxy spanning empires. But why do we have these conventions, what purpose do they serve? Well this is where we get the generic verisimilitude. A story can feel real within it's own genre because it follows the rules of that genre. Genres are basically a collection of symbols and archetypes that can be used as a form of shorthand to telling a story. If we have guys in cowboy hats with six shooters in a western, we don't have to take the time to explain what a cowboy is, because the audience has become familiar enough with these symbols.

 

So in the case of Equestria Girls we're working within the genre of a high school story, which of course has it's rules and conventions. Twilight Sparkle in a way is not just a visitor from another world, she can be viewed as a visitor from another genre.

 

At the core level Equestria Girls functions as a fantasy story, telling the tale of a young hero with magic on her side who has to go on a quest to recover a lost crown, which is very Friendship is Magic.

 

But in this case the quest has taken our hero to another alien world with it's own rules. The rules just happen to be related to genre. Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer have a conflict to save the world from dark magic. Only they have to fight using the rules of their new battlefield.

 

So to make it clear to the audience what these new rules are, the story incorporates generic verisimilitude and calls upon a crap ton of genre conventions. As such we now have a framework for what this world is and how we can expect it to function. Now the concept of a quest and a conflict over a magical crown is alien to this new world, and so the quest and the conflict are now forced to conform to the rules of our new genre. As such, the conflict must now be fought through gaining popularity and becoming Fall Formal Princess, which is so very high school and sits well with the genre. It's still all just a back drop to the fantasy story of the magic crown. Twilight doesn't actually give a crap about the title in and of itself. It's not like she's suffering self-esteem issues, she just wants the damn crown back, but has to 'play by the rules' to get it.

 

 

As such, Meghan McCarthy has made Equestria Girls into a study of a genre. So it now becomes vital that we have these conventions in place, because otherwise it wouldn't be a quest to another genre, it would just be a quest that ends at a high school for some weird reason.

[Roughshod 719]

They just wanted to sell some dolls. Equestria Girls was all about the bits.