friendship games Is anyone else upset at the lack of Shadowbolts in the movie?

[SolyWack 482]

So I've been think about Friendship Games (I do that a lot now), and I rarely find myself thinking about the Shadowbolts.

 

Like they were advertised so heavily before the movie, but in the movie they were hardly present at all. Pricipal Cinch did all the bad guy stuff, the students were just kinda there.

 

I think Spike had more lines than all of them combined. I didn't even figure out that girl with the cortana haircut's "personality".

 

So was anyone else kinda upset at the lack of Shadowbolt students in the story? I won't cry myself to sleep over it. Principal Cinch and Twilight supplied enough antagonism, but I was expexting there to be more Shadowbolt.

[SFyr 1,982]

Eh. Personally I think their plot purpose was more to provide context for Twilight's situation and friendless mindset, and help contrast her schools focus on individual excellence and the other's schools focus on friendship and cooperation.

Basically... I don't think they were really important enough to be given a larger role than they had. In my mind, they were made to serve a purpose or help support the plot or character growth arc of Twilight, rather than become fully fleshed out or important characters.

Edited September 30, 2015 by SFyr

[Evil_Emperor 176]

I thought it was mainly Lemon Zest who didn't get enough screen time or dialogue. I think she said a few things to Twilight on the bus? She gets points for being the only non-hostile Shadowbolt, though.

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

I feel like they should make Crystal Prep a spin-off show, with them learning about friendship and stuff, and market it to a slightly older audience.

[SolyWack 482]

I feel like they should make Crystal Prep a spin-off show, with them learning about friendship and stuff, and market it to a slightly older audience.

Hopefully you find a shooting star tonight, pinocchio.

 

I'd hope they would release a show with the main cast first. (Fingers crossed)

Edited September 29, 2015 by AppleJack_Wack

[Megas 27,622]

I was, especially with how heavily they were advertised. Instead we got Cinch outta nowhere, And like I said, it's mostly because, from what little we saw, they seem like they could be very fun characters(Well mainly Sugar Coat, Sour Sweet, and Lemon Zest), and I love their character designs(except for Recolor Dust  ), especially Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare and I'd hate to see them forgotten after Friendship Games.

 

It's probably my only real gripe with the movie though

 

Hopefully we can see get another chance in future EQG stuff(next movie or new TV show. Maybe even a comic?)

Edited September 29, 2015 by LAZENGANN OVERLOAD

[PROJECT: Simon 3,954]

In my perspective~.. there were enough~! '~" xD <3 <3       

[cmarston1 5,959]

It would have been nice to see a bit more of the Shadowbolts.

But I wasn't too disappointed.

[Ickery 49]

They should haved talked to eachother more. They all have great personalities(well Sunny Flare barely...), I want to see more of their group dynamic. Perhaps in a TV series, we can bring them, and even the Dazzlings back to learn more about them lol.

[One-Punch Man 316]

I wanted more Sugarcoat! :c All the Crystal Prep students seemed so..mean...I liked how they changed towards the end, but none of them really had my soft spot until the end.

I think that was mainly Principal Cinch's fault...because it is obvious throughout the movie, that she can and will draw fear from other students if it means keeping herself above others; she blackmailed Twilight, and would most likely do it to other students for her own gain. She should have been fired or something at the end of the movie...but I don't think the movie even implied that she was fired. I am glad Twilight left towards the end....but all the other students still have to put up with Cinch now! They will still be hassled and blackmailed by her. At least her reputation was spat on some, and maybe she went to the school board and told them what all happened with Midnight Sparkle, and was promptly thrown in the loony bin.  

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

For sure, the lack of characterization on the individual students of Crystal Prep really hindered their appeal as villains, if their lack of a background wasn't enough. Only Sugar Coat and Soury Sweet were really given anything to do, and they were just as stuffy and snobby as their principal. The others, especially Lemon Zest, could have provided some comic relief to dampen Crystal Prep's overkill of trite, rookie-league villain tropes. In her particular case, she could have portrayed how off-putting Crystal Prep students could be (from Twilight's perspective) without being a snobby spoiled brat like the others.

 

One of the reasons the Sirens are so well remembered is because of the comic relief energy coming from Sonata alone as well as her bickering with the other two. With the lack of sufficient development given to their other members, Crystal Prep comes off as an overexaggerated hivemind with little to no chemistry between each other and the main characters. It's an enormous waste of potential having an entire school to characterize, with the intended focus on five of them, and yet only giving a couple of them the bare minimum to qualify them as characters. In opposition, Rainbow Rocks took full advantage of the three-character dynamic they were given.

 

I'm not saying this out of bias towards these particular characters, but in any colors, the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts were set up in the first act (particularly the bus scene) to be a very dynamic and entertaining band of rivals. Unfortunately, Josh Haber seemed to have forgotten the importance of having appealing villains, even superficial ones like Sonata Dusk, to the overall entertainment value and quality of the film.

[Carolina 212]

I was slightly disappointed. I mean, we didn't even learn their names until the second competition. Sour Sweet and Sugarcoat were definitely funny and it would've been nice to see more of them.

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

Hopefully you find a shooting star tonight, pinocchio.

 

I'd hope they would release a show with the main cast first. (Fingers crossed)

That's my point. The mane six already are friends and have a show. It would be interesting to have a new set of characters.

[Sugar Cube 4,843]

Eh. Personally I think their plot purpose was more to provide context for Twilight situation and friendless mindset, and help contrast her schools focus on individual excellence and the other's schools focus on friendship and cooperation.

Basically... I don't think they were really important enough to be given a larger role than they had. In my mind, they were made to serve a purpose or help support the plot or character growth arc of Twilight, rather than become fully fleshed out or important characters.

 

I have to agree with this.

 

And given the time constraints that are inevitable of a 72 minute movie, I think there were simply more important characters and plot points for the narrative to focus on than a group of characters who really weren't even "villains" in the same context as say, the Dazzlings were. Principal Cinch and Midnight Sparkle were the true obstacles to overcome, not the teamwork-lacking students of Crystal Prep who were there to provide context to Earth Twilight's struggle. I do agree that more time and development would have been nice if possible, seeing as the Shadowbolts were fairly heavily advertised which led viewers to believe they'd be more prominent, and at least two of them (Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet) were very entertaining. Ultimately though, I think the movie had its priorities straight.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I would have liked to see more of them and to definitely see them talk more than they did.

[KillSh0ck4 102]

I thought after seeing the trailer the shadowbolts were going to be the main villains since they were being talked about so much and being advertised like crazy but I guess this wasn't the case since principal cinch was just black mailing twilight to compete the shadowbolts were just her servants.

 

I feel like they needed a lot more screen time like the sirens their designs were just perfect but sugar coat and sour sweet were the only ones with dialogue but still it was like less than two paragraphs worth of words they said.

[Steve Piranha 29,424]

Eh. Personally I think their plot purpose was more to provide context for Twilight's situation and friendless mindset, and help contrast her schools focus on individual excellence and the other's schools focus on friendship and cooperation.

Basically... I don't think they were really important enough to be given a larger role than they had. In my mind, they were made to serve a purpose or help support the plot or character growth arc of Twilight, rather than become fully fleshed out or important characters.

Still, their role was so minimal in contrast of how heavily advertised they were. Hell, their toys even had some description which didn't even showed in the movie  . I'm still curious of what kind of poneh their Equestrian counterparts would be 

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

I'd have liked to have seen a bit more of them too, but it was a short movie and there was only so much screentime to go around. With that in mind, I'm pretty happy that the Humane 5 finally had some time in the sun, especially since they'd been totally robbed of most any development and focus in the previous movies.

 

For me, the scenes of AJ, Flutters and Dash showing off their elements are some of the most memorable in the the EQG films. Given a choice between those and more time for Sour Sweet and Sugar Cost to be jerkfaces... I'd stick with what we got.