Astrobrony

I have sucessfuly integrated "Eeyup" and "Nope" in my everyday vocabulary! I'm now challenging myself to throw out "Schmoopy Doo!" somewhere to finish the Big Mac trifecta.

I perosnally wouldn't mind a change of pace for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They're probably the flatest recurring characters on the show, and I'm amazed with all the learnings about friendship all over the place in Ponyville, that these two JUST DON'T GET IT!!! Yeah I know, story convenience and all, but seriously if everypony else is learning about being a good friend and being an overall nice pony, then Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon should have learned SOMETHING by now.

To be fair, Iron Will should have included when and when not to be assertive in his lessons. With that said, it was still mainly Fluttershy's fault for taking things all the way up to bullying other ponies.

I read somewhere that Lauren originally envisioned the Mane 6 as having different body types, but they went with the same template because it wound up being less expensive for they toys having one standard pony template, and also it helps speed up the production of the show in terms of animation (also explains why all six are the same height in Equestria Girls). I think that it is amazing to see how varied they can still make the designs for everypony while working off of one single template.

I wouldn't call it a "mistake", but I can understand the sentiment. I'm just saying that Sunset Shimmer worked fine as designed for the movie. Did she have potential to be a lot more? Definitely! I was fine with what we got, but I see where others might not.

I think you have to think of Sunset Shimmer more as an "antagonist", and not a purebred villain. Keep in mind that the scope of Equestria Girls is limited to the high school, so having a full blown villain like Chrysalis or Discord show up at Canterlot High would have been too jarring, especially if we are to believe that this world is our own everyday world. Any "villain" based off of a high school setting ("I want to be popular by any means necessary!") would even come close to comparing to the villains we saw in Equestria. And to answer your other point, I believe they DIDN'T need to create Sunset Shimmer at all. To be honest, they could have easily used Trixie instead if it weren't for "Magic Duel", and IMHO, Trixie would have been a more engaging EqG antagonist if she was still in her boasting mode. I am ok with Sunset Shimmer, but they really should have used Trixie.

I dunno. I think for a 70 minute movie, Sunset Shimmer works fine as is. Like I pointed out earlier, she isn't the strongest villain by a long shot, but at the end of the day, she didn't need to be. Keep in mind that Sunset Shimmer is just an average pony compared to Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra. And also, being the same age as the Mane 6, she is nowhere near experienced enough to be a "Great Villain" like those others. Like the Mane 6, she is still a young pony/young girl still learning about the world. And also like the Mane 6, she is liable to make some really dumb mistakes when she really should have known better. However, while the Mane 6 have each other, Sunset outright rejects friendship. That's part of the message Equestria Girls is trying to send (The magic of friendship is everywhere), and IMHO Sunset Shimmer helps execute that message effectively exactly as she was written, someone who destroys friendships in order to gain power. Again, this makes her a pretty weak villain compared to the others, but that's to be expected. She's just a teen/pony who just took things a bit too far (ok, she had sinister intentions, but the same principle applies).

All indications point that the events of Equestria Girls will NOT affect future events in 'Friendship is Magic', much like how fanfics and fanstories take place within a context of the show, but doesn't affect the show itself. So if it is easier for you to think of it that way, just think of this as a fanfic.

I think they had a missed opportunity with the fight Twilight's human friends had. It wrapped up a bit too nicely IMHO. I felt that whole sequence could have been taken a whole lot further, especially if they wanted to contrast the closeness they shared in the poniverse or even in their own universe before Sunset Shimmer showed up.

Ok, here are a couple of mine... > Rainbow Dash is a better sister than Rarity. > Too much of Pinkie Pie's antics can get kinda annoying. > RD's and AJ's elements should have been switched. > G3 wasn't THAT bad (Newborn Cuties was horrible though).

My favorite is a tie between Octavia and Lyra. I especially love how one moment of her sitting on a bench ignited an entire fanon personality for her (HANDS! MUST HAVE HANDS!!!). And I don't really have a "least favorite", so..... there.

IMO, Sunset Shimmer is the weakest of the major villains we've encountered so far, but I don't think that makes her "bad". After all, unlike all the other villains, Sunset is just about the same age as Twilight, and she also shared the same status as Celestia's student like Twilight. However, what makes Sunset Shimmer works for EqG was the fact that she rejected the magic of friendship way back when, opting instead to be a cold, power-hungry pony/human. She didn't need to live up to the likes of Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra. What we see with Sunset Shimmer is what happens when you live your life without the magic of friendship. You become cold, selfish, and spiteful, going so far to drive everyone around you apart just to reaffirm your own "popularity". And when she finally gets to wear the element of magic, it turns her into what she had become, a demon. And all this comes back to my original point, Sunset Shimmer is still a young pony/young woman, and she's still has a lot of life learning to do, much like Twilight and her friends. The difference again is that Sunset rejected friendship and went solo all this time while Twilight and her friends have each other to figure things out. It's that simple contrast that makes Sunset Shimmer an effective antagonist for Equestria Girls. Again, she is not in the same league as the other major bad guys, but she isn't meant to be. That's just my two cents.

Personally, I would love it if they DIDN'T answer this question. They could hint at it, but they shouldn't answer it flat out. Just leave it open for interpretation for the audience. I kinda like that aspect for this debate, and I hope they just leave it open ended for us to figure out.

I'm going to take the third option: PONY SPIKE!!! Seriously though, as much as Spike the Dog worked, I'm still more partial to Spike as a dragon. Maybe I'm just used to him that way, but his personality fits better as a dragon than as a dog. That's just me though.