Author’s Note: This is Part 2 of my Rainbow Rocks review. Click here for Part 1. Click here for Part 3.

 

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Weaknesses

 

Forced exposition in the prologue.

 

One of the golden rules of telling a really good story is "show, don't tell." Too often, this show tells a lot of exposition, particularly in some of the worst episodes like Daring Don't, Bridle Gossip, Rainbow Falls, and MMMystery. Two of the more popular ones, Maud Pie and A Canterlot Wedding, were really burned by how much the characters had to tell everything to the viewer. Maud Pie is one of the most fascinating because key details were exposited all over: Its volume not only killed any momentum it had, but it also preceded the lack of narrative clarity as well as unfortunate implications in the final moral.

 

The fact that you got the audience to introduce the villains first and see them behave actively is an excellent way to introduce the conflict. But that momentum was killed the minute this happened:

Aria Blaze: [sighs] That was barely worth the effort, Adagio. I'm tired of fast food. I need a meal.

 

Adagio Dazzle: The energy in this world isn't the same as in Equestria. We can only gain so much power here.

 

…

 

Aria Blaze: But this world doesn't have Equestrian magic.

 

Adagio Dazzle: It does now. And we're going to use it to make everyone in this pathetic little world adore us!

 

*whistles* Time out! The camera and sickly green coloring — a connotative color of evil — focus on their pendents, so it's obvious they're up to no good. The pendents themselves offer a glimpse over what they want. You can tell they're powerful, look for more power, and (if going by continuity, as this film expects us to) are definitely not from this world. Simply by introducing the viewer to angry voices immediately creates tension.

1. I said this perhaps two hundred times, and I'll say it again to those who haven't read any of my reviews yet. By telling so much exposition, the momentum in the script screeches to a halt. Words are powerful, and it's especially true in a script. Here, instead of wondering what the Dazzlings want to do, you know everything about them — along with their past — two minutes in.
   
2. Ink Rose already said this in Tommy_Oliver's commentary about the movie, and it bears repeating here. The moment the trio spoke, any subtlety they had left vanished. When you tell us how evil you are the second you're introduced, you lack credibility as a character, and the momentum to build the characters further into the narrative really becomes stilted.
    
   Some of the best villains in the history of cinema didn't info-dump on the audience. In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Judge Claude Frollo was a massive racist and ruled Paris like a dictator, but what helped him remain incredibly ambiguous are how he decided to take care of Quasimodo in the bell tower and held an honest belief that he was doing the right thing. Aladdin's Jafar is exactly the same thanks to his suave dialogue, yearn for what was in the Cave of Wonders, tense yet hilarious relationship with Iago, and lack of knowledge about his cobra staff; even though the narrator spilled plenty of details, Disney's writers were very sneaky in their subtle tricks.
    
   McCarthy's introduction to the Dazzlings is equivalent to a hammer banging on a wall. You saw the villain, and you read their proverbial biographies in the middle of the pages rather than the beginning.
   
3. The exposition is cringeworthy. When you exposit correctly, you add a subtle layer of depth to the story. When done INcorrectly, though, the rich blue water drains until you see the sand underneath.
    
   How?
    
   a. The lack of subtlety, which I just explained.
    
   b. None of their lines feel natural in any way. The characters' reactions feel extremely plain and forced. Sonata's slang lacks fluidity. Aria shows little personality other than one note (matter-of-fact). Adagio is the clichéd leader who must retain patience with her fellow friends.
    
   This problem becomes more visible once they witness the Elements of Harmony. Adagio Dazzle's reaction makes no sense given how long it's been since they sensed any Equestrian magic beyond theirs.
    
   c. All of the characters know who they are and their goals, so it makes no sense for them to say it again. The only reason the audience gets to hear that is to tell them they're evil.
   

Sunset Shimmer was factually a terrible villain and doesn't deserve any praise whatsoever, but one thing it did decently is introduce Sunset Shimmer with some subtlety. Unfortunately, everything about her collapsed the moment Canterlot High showed up and turned her into a generic, one-dimensional alpha bitch.

 

Unfortunately, the exposition doesn't end there. It continues with the Mane Six as well as Sunset Shimmer's mission to redeem herself, which I'll get to later.

 

Plot holes & contrivances.

 

Even though Rainbow Rocks solved some problems, it created several more.

1. In the last movie, it was the friendship between the Mane Six that triggered the Magic of Friendship whether Twilight had the crown or not. When Twilight left for Equestria, so did the Equestrian magic (the pony ears, hair extension, wings, and tails).
    
   For good reason. The movie implies that magic from Equestria has no business in the human world. Their magic is considered very dangerous there, so having it there opens Pandora's Box from systematic abuse. When Twilight lost her crown in the human world, "the balance between the two dimensions was at risk." With the portal closed, Equestrian magic is locked out.
    
   So why the hell did Equestrian magic appear whenever the Rainbooms played music? Given the connotations from the prequel, to have it reappear without Twilight and an open portal between the two worlds blatantly disregards continuity.
   
2. Sunset Shimmer's book is a blatant Deus Ex Machina and breaks the alternate world's lone hard-lined worldbuilding rule left. When Sunset Shimmer abandoned her studies, this means she abandoned them. The only reason for her to return was to retrieve the crown (which is both odd and stupid considering she was locked in the human world, so she ought to have no idea the Element of Magic exists), so she can help conquer Equestria. In the middle of the film, everyone couldn't figure out how to defeat the Dazzlings. They wished Twilight could return to help, but couldn't do anything other than congregate and mope because of the closed portal, a portal that can only be activated via a natural phenomenon.
    
   …Then out of nowhere, Sunset has the solution to reopen it? When the portal is closed, it's closed! Contact between the two worlds is stifled because the magic to connect them is blocked. You can't connect the two worlds without opening them.*
    
   Thus, it makes no sense for Twilight to not only retrieve Celestia's copy of the DEM, but also have the mirror in her castle in the first place. Last time she went, she had a good reason to go. After she left, she completed her mandatory mission and had no other reason to return. Last time we saw the mirror, it was in the Crystal Empire. When did the mirror get relocated and why was it relocated? Not once was any motive explained whatsoever, and this isn't a minor nitpick. Without the mirror, Twilight can't travel through, thus making her journey and subplot moot.
    
   Yet, the plot hole worsens when Twilight is suddenly able to magically reopen the portal. Again, the portal is a magical, innate phenomenon that can only be opened once in between a specific amount of time (and "moons" is a timeline the writers use as an ambiguous handwave). Instead of researching, Twilight is able to perform cartoon logic to reopen the portal by force.
    
   So now that Celestia's copy of the book is capable of re-opening the dimension, why didn't Celestia tell her about it in the first place? Princess Celestia has a copy so they can communicate with each other. As her copy is in sync with Sunset's, they know where the other is. Apparently, Sunset brought it with her, so you can make an educated guess that either she used it in the human world at least once before (after all, she never hinted that she ditched it permanently), and Celestia's copy can locate it. Therefore, Twilight and her friends could research a solution to forcibly open the portal, thus making all the tension — contrived to start — more contrived.
    
   In other words, there was no need for the audience to heed the "thirty moons" warning because it was bullshit from the start!
   

3. 
   Adagio Dazzle: Why? Because you didn't? Oh, we know all about you, Sunset Shimmer. You've got quite the reputation at Canterlot High.

   A contrivance from the first movie returns. No, it's not one of the biggest clichés in high school dramas (conversation between main protagonist and main antagonist in the conveniently dark hallway). It's how the Dazzlings know everything about Sunset Shimmer.
    
   a. They acknowledge the fact that she and the rest of her friends aren't affected by their spell and want to trigger their hate much more differently. But despite knowing their magic, they never explicitly had any knowledge about Sunset Shimmer, nor did the audience witness anyone conversing with them about her past evil.
    
   b. Let's say they did know about her background. But wouldn't that also means they must know about how Twilight was a pony who ventured into CHS in order to retrieve her crown, thus invalidating EQG's plotline of keeping her true identity concealed?
    
   In that case, why didn't they show up during the battle when Sunset, the HuMane Six, and the rest of Canterlot High were incapacitated?
   
4. The reason the Dazzlings' magic doesn't directly affect the HuMane Five is the Magic of Friendship lives inside them. When they abandon their Magic of Friendship, their hate clouds their judgment, resulting in such a weak position that grants the Dazzlings the ability to eat their magic and restore to their former glory.
    
   One HUGE problem. None of these five have ties to Equestria other than their pony counterparts. Their pony counterparts live in Equestria, and they each have innate magic. This includes Sunset Shimmer, who abandoned Equestria for the human world. Because just about every character in the human world has pony counterparts, shouldn't they have Equestria magic, too? Wouldn't this contrivance result in either affecting everyone with the Dazzlings' spell or not?
    
   Nope. Only the HuMane Five contain innate Equestrian magic. In this spinoff, the Magic of Friendship only works for the sake of the plot at given times. In this case, performing music, which this movie never explains how it works. Why does the Magic of Friendship ONLY function when playing music? As they're capable of enabling it at other times, shouldn't they be able to activate it anytime when they command it?
   
5. One drawn-out contrived scene of "humor" that I'll get to later.
   

Transparency of plot holes.

 

The abundance of plot holes in EQG completely broke the movie just after VP Luna interrogated Twilight. Despite my hatred for the film, being so thoroughly angry at just the ending was pointless because the whole movie was a lost cause.

 

But what pisses me off about the plot holes in Rainbow Rocks more than in EQG are these:

Applejack: I just wonder why it happens. Princess Twilight took her crown back to Equestria. Shouldn't that mean she took all the magic back with her?

 

Rainbow Dash: Who cares why it happens? It makes my band totally awesome!

Rarity: How is that even possible?

 

Twilight Sparkle: I have no idea, but it... sounds like they need my help.

Sometimes a story can and will have a plot hole. Will the writer always catch it? No. It's up to the editor to find out, inform the writer, and correct it. If she or she can't, it's up to the critics to address the plot holes to inform the writers and overall audience about it.

 

But when you acknowledge the plot holes and then promptly ignore them, that's not a possible oversight anymore. That's being LAZY!

 

Part of what makes a really good story is the ability to shed some sense. It may not always have real-world logic like ours, but it must still be presented in a way that's clear, sensible, and something your audience can buy. Comedy works exactly the same way, only with a dose of surprise on the side. Often, Friendship Is Magic can execute really fresh comedy, as seen in Party of One, Return of Harmony, Pinkie Pride, and Testing Testing.

 

These handwaves don't prove that quality. And the comedy attached to them both (Dash's dismissiveness and Twilight's nerdy explanation) isn't fresh, period!

1. What makes lazy writing such a huge cardinal sin of narrative is its objective treatment of the audience. When you write lazily and know you're submitting lazy writing, you're telling the audience they have no intelligence whatsoever. You hope whoever watches the story eats up whatever explanation the characters spew out of their mouths, defends it like no tomorrow, and excuses it "just because." Friendship Is Magic and its team are well above this and repeatedly prove their ability to raise the bar in feminine-centric, family-friendly television. DHX presents no suitable excuse nor wants to: Excusing bad writing is a betrayal of trust. Rainbow Rocks excuses its own plot holes shamelessly and laughs at the audience for seeing them.
   
2. For there's humor attached to these plot holes, the humor is lazy, too. I'm not throwing around hyperbole when I state this type of humor is lower in the lowest common denominator meter than fart jokes.
    
   "Why?"
    
   Glad you asked.
    
   Notoriety from fart jokes comes from its abuse. Today, many writers who publish scripts to shows with a young base demographic believe the only method to make people laugh is to gross the audience out and pander to them…though lazily written flatulence jokes can also be found in adult entertainment like Eight Crazy Nights. When you write and acknowledge an extremely lazy joke, you're exclusively relying on the notion that the audience is stupid enough to laugh once it arrives. That's the only way for a joke like this to work, while fart jokes can still be used freshly if given enough effort.
   

The fandom as a collective unit doesn't like the word "pandering" too much, but this is classic pandering to the LCD. You don't handwave contrivances like these. It's disrespectful to your faithful audience, newcomers of all ages, adults, kids (especially the film's marketed demographic: tween girls), Hasbro, and DHX's collective writing talent.

 

Forced comedy.

 

Last movie, the true blights of the comedy come from hammering in how Twilight is an alicorn princess trapped in a human body, writing the characters in as idiots, brony pandering, and Twilight being bullied by Sunset Shimmer. Besides that, the comedy was surprisingly passable. (

is perfect!)

 

Unfortunately, Rainbow Rocks's comedy is much weaker than its predecessor.

1. The meta jokes above are a disaster for reasons just explained.
   
2. During Sunset Shimmer's journey to redeem herself, one of her inexplicable trials was to tolerate the constant reminder of how evil she was last time. Far too often, her friends accidentally put her into a rut by rubbing it in. One joke may be enough, but that might be pushing it. But when these jokes are constant, the behavior becomes mean-spirited. What's done is done. Sunset Shimmer regrets it. Adding salt to the wound without provocation turns the joke from semi-mean to cruel. The HuMane Six — the main characters besides Sunset — devolve from likeable characters to accidental antagonists, and Sunset becomes more sympathetic as the audience can no longer tolerate having the humor be hammered in.
    
   This type of humor ages faster because it's so dependent on knowing the prequel in order for people to understand it. This film relies on you to be familiar with EQG in order to get this plot, and the humor is no exception. If you watched the first movie or comprehend it completely, then you'll understand it. But if this is his or her first foray into FIM, then its context gets lost in a sea of obvious mean-spiritedness. The Mane Six are lent a terrible first impression to newcomers, which hurts the growth of the brony fanbase.
   
3. Solid characterization and/or intelligence of characters are/is often sacrificed to deliver the humor.
    
   During the HuMane Six's side of the plotline, more than a dozen comedic spots took place. Unfortunately, so few of them worked because the intelligence, life, and three-dimensionality that helped make each of them memorable is absent. By flanderizing the characters or making them OOC, the humor quality dips.
    
   That's not to mention when characters have to be stupid, and not an endearing form of stupid, either. The Dazzlings' villany potential crashes prior to the opening credits, but their personalities degrade more and more each time they quipped with each other, especially Sonata Dusk (whose ditziness is relied on).
   

When you must sacrifice character and writing quality to execute the humor, the humor becomes really contrived. The scenes would've been greatly improved if there was either more attention on the personalities or no humor at all.

 

And a couple of examples really come to mind.

1. Again, the Dazzlings' forced chemistry, but the most obvious come from when they talk with Sunset Shimmer as they tour CHS and after Trixie and the Illusions trap the HuMane Seven.
    
   What really made the former so forced is how obvious the Dazzlings spilled their evil to Sunset. Adagio, Aria, and Sonata never relented their sinister smirks, spoke with artificial sincerity to Sunset, and kept talking about how much they loved to control others' emotions through their singing.
    
   The latter?

   
   [trap door slams shut]
    
   Adagio Dazzle: [chuckle] Told you someone would give them a shove.
    
   Sonata Dusk: She didn't shove them. She pulled a lever.
    
   Aria Blaze: [groans] Go back to sleep, Sonata.

   Congratulations for reminding us what we already know. Only Adagio's line is suitable for this scene. The rest are moot.
   

2. 
   One drawn-out contrived scene of "humor" that I'll get to later.

   That drawn-out scene of Twilight practicing to sing with the rest of the Rainbooms breaks continuity. During the musical numbers, Twilight sang really well. Even in the first film, she sang well before a captivated crowd in the cafeteria, which helped contribute to her near-unanimous vote count to be the princess of the Fall Formal.
    
   Not to mention…what about the animated shorts, which were claimed to be some kind of "prequel" to RR for giving the HuMane Five the band's foundation? Do they matter, as well? Apparently, by the performance of Shake Your Tail! — the best song of the shorts, yet second-worst of the film (behind Awesome as I Wanna Be) — the movie doesn't think so: No hint of them exists.
    
   But if it wasn't transparent enough. The balloon pops during the climax after Twilight reaches an epiphany of how she never needed to write the counterspell, after all. If it took that line for her to realize they only needed to play as friends to defeat the Dazzlings, then why did the movie hammer in the idea that Twilight must write one? What was the purpose for at least three scenes — at night in the kitchen, backstage, and a montage during Under Our Spell — devoted to drawing such a conclusion, anyway?
    
   Twilight's anticlimactic epiphany makes every single scene, conversation, or diversion dedicated to the counterspell filler and Twilight unneeded. She could've been cut out entirely, and the overall pacing would've been more solid by eliminating one needless subplot. The only reason she had to show up now is because the rest of the characters are too stupid to think for themselves.
    
   *In fact, Sunset Shimmer could've filled the void much better by using the book to communicate with Twilight, who could inform her about the Sirens and help her research for a counterspell. That way, you could bend its continuity, but you don't break it by respecting the phenomenon and forcing the Rainbooms and Sunset to solve the problem themselves.
   

Flash Sentry Walking Cardboard.

 

*sigh* If there's one character who doesn't deserve a following, it's this one. Flash Sentry has as little redeeming value as Snips and Snails because of who he is. A Gary Stu whose lone purpose is to be Twilight's love interest. A walking stereotype. A character both blander than boiled chicken and a complete betrayal of FIM.

 

Flash was blander and flatter in Rainbow Rocks. It was bad enough last time because he was a sexist stereotype. Now not only does he retain that sexism. DHX didn't even try to redeem his character! It's as if DHX knows Flash's character jumped the shark, so they made him more useless as a protagonist and let the egg-eating snake swallow him whole. The only time he had any personality whatsoever was when he was under the Sirens' trance, but when they were defeated, he was back to his old self.

 

And I didn't even mention nailing in the most obnoxious, clichéd piece of slapstick in MLP history. Other than after the climax, each time Twilight and Flash meet, they bump into each other. The only reason Twilight has the hots for him is because she likes his looks. She cares so little about his personality, and no chemistry between them exists. Twilight is a fully-fledged character whose personality is warped to make both films pace itself. The first movie forced in a romance so pointless, it'd change zippo.

 

"A better love story than Twilight"? Until the snake throws up Flash Sentry, FlashLight is a serious competitor.

 

One major animation screwup!

 

 

Couldn't you rework the puppets to make them anatomically better?

 

NEXT!

 

The Dazzlings.

 

Unlike Sunset, they were very imposing in their plans. Don't let their sweet singing fool you. It's a trigger that inches them closer to their full power.

 

Conversely, a very imposing threat and villain doesn't always make for a good villain. Villains should be credible in how they act. Their motives should feel plausible. The characters should have layers of depth and be active rather than passive until the last minute. Make the characters show who they are, yet be full of unique personalities to make them interesting.

 

The Dazzlings aren't close to being good villains!

 

Firstly, thank their contrived characterizations.

1. Aria Blaze and Adagio Dazzle are the blandest villains in the show (if counting the comics, too, blandest since Celestia and Luna from Reflections). Their dynamic is about as vanilla as vanilla can be. Their personalities are completely one-dimensional; if you hear one line from each of them, you heard their full personalities. Adagio is written to be the cocky leader. If going by Tommy_O's brief review, Aria is written to be the matter-of-fact smartass, which makes sense since she's extremely sarcastic and argues pettily with Sonata Dusk a lot earlier.
    
   But because that's what the script wants to tell is, it doesn't mean they showed it. These two are extremely flat with extremely predictable, mechanical dialogue. There's no flow from one line to another, and their lines come across as forced. With the exception of one moment in front of the cafeteria (Adagio grabbing Aria's vest to shut her up, thus ending any drama that could deepen their dynamic), they had no drama or conflict. If you scratch that scene out, then their roles can easily be swapped, and neither personality changes. When you're able to interchangeably switch them as characters, then your villains lack any development.
   
2. On the other hand, Sonata Dusk is the most unique of the trio. She embodies comic relief through her vibrant, playful colors on her skin and hair and her dopey personality. (Hell, arguably the only one with some kind of personality at all.) She isn't an equivalent to Snips and Snails from last time, for she's her own character, and McCarthy didn't have to massacre their set characterizations for it to work.
    
   Unfortunately, her role is her biggest problem. Like Aria and Adagio, her dialogue is incredibly forced. This time, via dialect and slang as dated as Gilda. Each time she speaks, her comedic role's nailed in like Snips's and Snails's mic drops following their rap, degrading any opportunity for decent humor. On top of that, she's equivalent to Pinkie from Three's a Crowd or a bastardized Derpy with a dose of evil; almost all of her humor comes from her being absentminded, scatterbrained, or an idiot.
    
   But her arguments with Aria are when she's the most cringeworthy. Each devolve into sorry, childish arguments that should be long past them given their supposed length of time in this world. No, it's not that they can't have petty arguments; you can if believable. But these characters are adults trapped in teenaged bodies. They're not kids. So if you want Aria and Sonata to argue, don't have it them argue like two-year-olds. Give their arguments plausible background so you don't waste script space.
    
   Unfortunately, the only time she said anything worthwhile and funny occurred early, and it's no guess what it is:

   
   Sonata Dusk: But we can get lunch after though, right? It's Taco Tuesday!

Secondly, their plan to take over the human world is incredibly plain because it's so clichéd. It's not necessary for every single villain outside of Sombra to only want to conquer Equestria and/or their own world. A good, unique villain should want more or something other than global conquest. For example, when Discord desired to conquer Equestria, he did so while staying true to his integrity and never had a true goal. Unfortunately, their goal is samey other than be a role reversal of A Canterlot Wedding.

 

However, when the Dazzlings wanted to approach their goal, they let the audience know about it all the time! Count how often they (or the protagonists) exposit their ability to eat negativity or how they're close they are to conquering, either in conversation or song. Them telling about their plan so often irritates the plot, destroys any credibility they have as characters, and pads the runtime.

 

Thirdly, how long did they live in the alternate world, anyway? Star Swirl the Bearded was alive at least a millenia ago, so the Sirens terrorized Equestria until they were banished. So…seeing as the timing between the alternate world and Equestria is syncronized, this means they must've lived in the alternate world for several centuries… Did they live as teens since they first arrived in the alternate world, or is it a recent disguise? Did Star Swirl regress their characters as punishment? Twilight's story explaining the history of the Sirens was only supposed to inform her friends about their power. But through the large gap between banishment and today, the backstory merely reveals more plot holes.

 

Lastly, Let's Have a Battle (Of the Bands) is their weakest song. The morally ambiguous messages in the meters are great, but, yeah, subtlety's lacking. Ultimately, their speaking roles eventually become confined to exposition afterwards.

 

Sirens, your lust for world domination is as obnoxious as EQG's fan pandering.

 

HuMane Six (minus Sunset).

 

Three phrases: flanderization, out of characterization, useless. The entire body, including Spike, regressed from last time. Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are the biggest victims.

1. Last time, the only time where Pinkie's characterization deviated from what made her likeable was when everyone was too dumb to figure out that Sunset framed them. Unlike the rest of the HuMane Five, the Bearer of Laughter's human complement got back on track and was actually really solid. After a season where she struggled outside of Too Many Pinkie Pies and Wonderbolts Academy, she was eccentric, random, but not without reason, and the gags were very in character.
    
   Here, she's completely flanderized. Like the others, she's involved in expositing at Sunset Shimmer's expense without provocation, too focused on partying, too screechy (especially her pony counterpart… ), and missing two of her most subtle trademarks: her patience and sensitivity. Do you really think she'd yell at Fluttershy for suddenly having the stage light flashed onto her or obliviously make Sunset feel uncomfortable after Sunset's already ashamed for what she did?
   
2. Fluttershy's trademark sensitivity and timidity don't show up until specific points. Otherwise, it's hammering in her drawn-out wish to play her rejected song. Of the HuMane Seven, her dialogue is the most repetitive and lackluster.
   
3. There are two asses in the Rainbooms, and AJ is one of them. If you wanna compare a past episode, the best choice is Look Before You Sleep.
    
   There's a difference between honest and rude; in RR, Applejack crosses that line. During all of their arguments, Applejack is the biggest perpetrator. She confronts head-on without consequence, and her actions create friction with the rest of the band. The most obvious is her on-and-off, yet aggravating, annoyance and eventual anger at Rarity for wanting to present a first impression. Whenever AJ snidely points out Rarity's desire to look nice and yells at her for it, deterioration of her character accelerates.
   
4. As I wrote earlier, Twilight is a really studious in her field of magic, namely her passion to help others. Unfortunately, this adult pony retains her shallow crush on Flash Sentry, sucked at singing through the mic, and contrivedly reduced her expertise in the Magic of Friendship to not knowing how to write a counterspell.
    
   Why didn't she research any songs that could help her band defeat Adagio and company? Her friends are there for a reason. It makes no sense for her to lock her sloppy writing and ideas in the closet. How come she never asked her friends for help? Spike? Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash? Sunset Shimmer? Her first line of research is available, and we never saw her capitalize on any opportunity to correct herself.
   
5. AJ is one jerk. But no other M6 character turned into an even bigger jerk in RR than Rainbow Dash. To call her unlikeable is putting her lightly.
    
   I mentioned this often, and it bears repeating. The biggest reason she was such a breakout character is how deep she truly is. Rainbow Dash's archetype is a tomcolt. Brash. Rude. Hard-headed. Oftentimes too hard on others. But Rainbow Dash doesn't follow the archetype completely. In fact, Faust gave her enough background to twist up the cliché and provide something new and fresh to the audience. (Considering the many girls and boys who show masculine and feminine qualities, respectively, all the most resident.) Several key aspects that make her so endearing include sticking by her morals if the key to accomplish her dreams compromise it, her extreme loyalty to those she cares for, her extreme sensitivity to a fault. Her flaws are balanced by several powerful strengths, all something every pro-Dash brony can really relate to.
    
   So what does RR!Dash have? A massive superiority complex. Her whole "personality" revolves around being a jackass to her friends and believing her talent is above everyone else. Instead of putting her friends above the band, she put the band above her friends.
    
   How?
    
   a. Bluntly critiqued their rusty musical talent, unsolicited, in front of Flash Sentry.
    
   b. Always called the band "my band" despite being corrected thrice.
    
   c. Every time Fluttershy asked about her song, Dash dismissed them in favor of others, including Awesome as I Wanna Be.
    
   d. Dismissed their contributions to the band.
    
   e. Insulted Twilight and accused her of trying to hog the Rainbooms over her.
    
   f. Awesome as I Wanna Be. It's completely possible to write a song that brings out the worst of a good guy, but don't reduce her to a less dimension than a shallow puddle of water. Instead, a repetitive and obnoxious musical score and shallow lyrics bloat Dash's insolent ego. Snips and Snails's rap was bad, but at least it was funny in a "so bad, it's good" structure.
    

   
   "But it's okay for Dash to be like this: She never had the same amount of character development unlike her pony self."

   Clamp the excuses! FIM brings out characters who are in character, three-dimensional, and likeable. Only three episodes showed off Pony!Dash with a massive ego: May the Best Pet Win!, Mare Do Well, and Rainbow Falls. All of them very out of character. In the first movie, Dash was in character, yet really flanderized courtesy of her very shallow vocabulary. Her shallow vocabulary remains in Rainbow Rocks, but her attitude is much worse than last time by being uncharacteristically intolerable. In other words, she's flanderized and out of character. Having her be called out for it in her face is a good direction, and she corrected herself, but it's way too late to redeem her for this movie.
   
6. *sigh* Rarity…what happened to you?! Where's the generous, loving fashionista that helped compete with Dash as the most three-dimensional character of the show?
    
   I think the Rarity side of this fandom can explain it, but I think I'll do it. Prior to Suited for Success, Rarity sucked as a character. Minus the pilot, several episodes featured her stuck up or childishly. Its biggest offenders: Boast Busters, Look Before You Sleep, and Bridle Gossip. Suited for Success is the first to truly capture her character, and subsequent appearances from episodes like Sisterhooves Social, Sonic Rainboom, Rarity Take Manehattan, Green Isn't Your Color, and Filli Vanilli.
    
   What makes her such an egregious offender isn't by how mean she is (she wasn't), but by her flat and predictable her lines were. One of Rarity's qualities is being able to sew dresses for her clients and friends. Once she creates a plan, her creative senses activate. On the other hand, Rarity is also very vain (Sonic Rainboom), a drama queen (Suited, RTM, LZ), extremely generous to a fault, a character with exquisite tastes and high standards, egotistical, and sometimes puts her work above the people she cares for.
    
   Rarity is generous in Rainbow Rocks, but only in one way: fashion. The majority of her dialogue and comedy is about clothing, especially in the second half of the film. When that's all she concentrates on, then you're not writing Rarity anymore. You're writing a shallow representation of her.
   
7. Even Spike is a victim of character regression, but only out of pointlessness. Throughout, he was used either to exposit or accidentally put extra pressure on Twilight. Strangely in both, he's the best written M6 character, even in his weaker performances.
    
   So, what about his scene when he opened the door? That'd be okay if the door hadn't swung inward (a door that was unlocked, BTW) and his friends hadn't lost intelligence for it to work.
   

And this doesn't mention how all of the characters outside of Spike and Twilight had dumbed down dialogue. Of course, some had it worse.

 

Sunset Shimmer's path to redemption.

 

Other than Spike and Twilight, she was the only likeable protagonist. Her motives had merit, and she proved how she was able to move on with her life. Yes, she has much to learn, but she's on the way there. And her pluses earlier have plenty of merit.

 

Unfortunately, the way her path was executed was extremely flimsy, and not all of it is her fault plot-wise.

 

Sunset Shimmer deserved to feel very guilty for her actions. As generic a character she was prior, there's no denying how much she bullied others. When Twilight arrived at Canterlot High, she used Snips and Snails to help post a smear campaign online, a classic case of cyberbullying that'd result in being expelled (except Principal Celestia and VP Luna are as inept then as now). As Twilight foiled each tactic and only gathered a bigger following, Sunset grew more desperate by slandering Twilight into being blamed for the gym's destruction, bully Twilight in a bluff to retrieve the crown, destroy part of the school, and try to murder Twilight. She should suffer the consequences.

 

But that's where the Elements of Harmony effectively died as a weapon that aided in making friendships. When Sunset Shimmer was defeated, her entire character was reset. This is completely different from what the EoH did with Princess Luna and Discord.

1. Luna: A once graceful princess turned bitter and jealous, and there was no way for her to control it. Unless ome antidote was there to heal her, she was going to remain angry forever. The Elements of Harmony acted as medicine, healing her heart and ebbing the bitterness she had out of her.
   
2. Discord: The Elements of Harmony turned him to stone and then freed him. KCaFO pushed him on the right path, but now that Fluttershy swore not to turn him to stone, he's free. When he realized who his true triends are, no outside dictatorial weapon forced him to make friends. He changed by himself.
   

In Equestria Girls, the Elements decided to make completely change her character and use one of the worst, most contrived reasons why she was evil: she didn't know any other way to befriend others. By all counts, it was going to take a lot of work to fix Sunset's character and make her redeemable.

 

As expected, DHX didn't succeed, but not completely.

 

First, Sunset's cruel deeds are told continually. It's okay for the audience to remind that Sunset was "reformed" every once in a while, and it's just as okay for Sunset to be worried about her reputation. However, just like the Sirens, this movie shoves "Sunset was bad" right in your every three to five minutes.

 

The constant reminders are at their most objectionable when they're reminded as a joke. In the first half of RR, these jokes are all over the place, and not always accompanied by a "no offense," either. Each time these jokes occur, the characters behave as if it was an accident. If you make this joke once, that's an accident, and this type of joke can work if treated with respect. But when they're frequent, the jokes become filler, and they don't act like an accident anymore, but implied maliciousness. Of course, this wasn't the jokes' intent, but the implications exist. (Only Twilight gets away with this passé joke because they happened when she wasn't around, and Sunset couldn't care less anymore.)

 

It was less offensive when Sunset reminded herself of her deeds. The elements forced a severe layer of guilt and self-evaluation into her character, resulting in several self-introspections. When everyone glares at her, she gets so embarrassed and doesn't feel she can "live it down." Following the tour, she feared the Dazzlings knew her background, crushing her conscience. That said, it mildly risks devolving her into the "woe is me" trope.

 

More subtlety, better spreading of her self-guilt would've improved the impact. Fewer "oops" jokes would've improved the dilemma and not turn the subplot into an early headache.

 

Second, Snips and Snails are just as guilty as Sunset. By all accounts, they willingly aided her bullying of others. When Sunset transformed, the tools of FIM's canon stood alongside and were about to help lead Sunset's attack on Equestria. Why did nobody treat them with the same level of scrutiny and scorn?

 

Third, she never had a trial that would test her loyalties, as well pointed by a brony named @. In order to make a character's redemption believable, there needs to be some temptation for her to consider jumping to the other side. If the Dazzlings offered something very tempting to make her reconsider her friendship with her friends, then you create a deeper internal conflict.

 

What if the Dazzlings obtained some secret showing how Canterlot High nor the Rainbooms respect her? Their jokes eat her up, and she gets reminded again. Think about this: As the Rainbooms perform, she stands idle in the back. Because the Dazzlings are capable of playing solid mind games, maybe offer her a spot where she can co-lead Adagio's trio and help sing alongside? Or better yet, focus on her strained relationship with Celestia?

 

Fourth, there's no connection of her past life in Equestria other than her book. Once, she was her prized pupil, and if going by comic canon (something the movies treat as part of the actual canon, unlike the main series), Celestia views her as a daughter she couldn't control and feels heartbroken that she couldn't help her. Rainbow Rocks doesn't present closure to the Celestia arc, which is really gaping to the series and spinoff itself.

 

Fifth, in order to make Sunset look better, the other characters' personalities were reduced. Compare the shallow, flanderized caricatures of the HuMane Five with Sunset Shimmer. Sunset Shimmer's rebuilt character is multi-faceted, allowing her to react unpredictably. But her friends are cardboard cutouts, constricting them to specific reactions and behaviors like robots.

 

This has been a problem with the series, too. In A Dog & Pony show, the Diamond Dogs are idiots to make Rarity look better. Equestria Girls is just as blatant, only executed through the Rule of Thirds.

 

Whenever you reduce the quality of other characters to make the main look better, he or she doesn't look as intelligent as the writer believes. The HuMane Five are stupid to enhance Sunset Shimmer, so Sunset's credibility is damaged. Since they swallowed the stupid pills throughout the film, Sunset's arc is seriously damaged.

 

Lastly, every bit of her past personality is wiped out, except once:

Sunset Shimmer: A demon. I turned into a raging she-demon.

Her exasperated, sardonic response to Fluttershy very early in the film is the only time her past character bled into her current. Otherwise, it's completely absent, and both halves are completely segregated.

 

This is the problem's crux. Stemming from EQG's climax, Sunset's development lacks authenticity. In order for Sunset Shimmer to develop, RR had to completely reset her. Subtract that peculiar line, and her character's a 180. Before the movie began, her growth is automatically damaged because this isn't the Sunset people speculated and saw. Her life in the past matters as much as the present. Without the bad, you can't have the good. With the bad erased and her character acts like that half is retconned, all credentials for her to be a truly memorable character feel superficial.

 

This Sunset Shimmer in Rainbow Rocks isn't her. It's a completely different character in her colors, clothes, and voice. Her character development skidded to a dead end and faced the angry shark before it even began.

 

But it never quite jumped it. Despite harping on Sunset's execution, DHX deserves plenty of credit for reviewing her critically and trying to fix the problems. As sloppy as the rest of the story is, a lot of hard work was put into reworking Sunset Shimmer and mending the shattered ends. From a quality perspective, her character as a villain is beyond broken. Unfortunately, with her now as a protagonist, it's as if it doesn't exist anymore. If McCarthy or anyone else in the future shows a merger of both Sunset then and Sunset now, you can slowly transition her from the stereotypical bully into the selfless character with a desire to continue making amends so nobody else makes the same mistakes as she did. You can also retain that edge that Celestia and The Fall of Sunset Shimmer imply so she isn't a completely different character.

 

Does Sunset have a long way to go before it's completely mended? Absolutely. Like what I wrote in Part 1, her path to redemption wasn't rushed; it flowed decently, and she had to make a mistake before atoning in the climax. And her conversation with Twilight in Pinkie's kitchen is a great evolution to her progress. If going by the side-canon like the Holiday Special, she's heading in the right direction. Hopefully, the Sunset/Celestia subplot will be resolved, as well.

 

Transparent plot.

 

Last time, the plot played way too safe in its approach. Rainbow Rocks is just as safe and predictable. Making the movie about a battle of the bands is clichéd already in the high school setting. The minute the flanderized HuMane Five appear for the first time, it was obvious to the audience that Sunset was going to help them save the day. The more she stood in the background, the more glaring the approach. I already talked how the prologue killed any speculation as to what the Sirens plan to use the Equestrian magic. Only a well-done journey could really make the ending as worthwhile as it should. Suffice it to say that it wasn't.

 

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If you want to read Part 1, click here. Click here for Part 3.