Mirror Magic

[Music Chart Fan 818]

Overall, I would probably rank this at the bottom of the three Equestria Girls special episodes. Juniper in this episode just comes across as an entitled, shallow, narcissistic brat, and I really don't find her sympathetic or relatable at all. Starlight's presence in this episode seems pointless, and carries no interest for me. The impetus for the whole episode is that a random wisp of Equestrian magic apparently comes down in the middle of the mall to enchant the mirror that Juniper just so happens to be using. Finally, I saw it kind of hyped up that Sunset returns to Equestria in this episode, but all that really comes of that is a handful of mildly amusing gags about Sunset being "out of practice" as a pony.

First, to talk about Juniper, I find her to have essentially no sympathetic or relatable qualities here. At least in "Movie Magic" Juniper had a shared geeky liking of Daring Do and at least an implied familiarity with and interest in the movie-making process. In this episode, though, the way that Juniper deliberately shirks her job duties, throws a tantrum when she's told to do something, and has no desire to serve customers in any kind of friendly way makes me think that she should have been fired yesterday. All of that, plus her incessant staring at her alter ego in the mirror, make her come across as nothing more than an extremely entitled, shallow, and narcissistic brat.

Regarding Juniper's motivations, she is apparently utterly convinced that she would have gotten to play Daring Do and would have become a star if it weren't for the Mane Seven foiling her plan, even as I don't see any particular reason why that would have happened regardless of whether her plan succeeded. However, from Sunset's flashback, it seems we're to believe that Juniper's obsession with becoming a movie star is just because she wants other people to like her. But how is that a good plan, as opposed to, you know, being likable and proactively doing things to befriend people? Furthermore, after Juniper transforms into a giant, she goes around the mall while other people are filled with terror, screaming and running away. It would seem that if Juniper's goal was to get people to like her, this isn't doing the job. But then, I don't know, did the magic that transformed Juniper also make her delusional (or, maybe I should say, more delusional than she already was), causing her to believe that the terrorized people actually do like her? I'm not sure I understand what Juniper would have done if Starlight didn't stop her.

Speaking of Starlight, her presence in this episode just seems utterly uninteresting and unnecessary. I don't see what she contributed that wasn't done already (e.g. a pony learning to be a human) or could have been done by a member of the Mane Seven (e.g. talking Juniper down to stop her). In fact, Starlight's stopping Juniper may not even make that much sense. The way that Starlight talks Juniper down is to say that Starlight understands Juniper and that Starlight knows that the Mane Seven will forgive Juniper for, as Juniper puts it, her too many "unforgivable" mistakes. But can Starlight really credibly make those claims? Starlight knows next to nothing about Juniper or whatever Juniper might have done, besides trapping the Mane Seven in the mirror.

Some of Starlight's other actions in this episode also mildly grated on me. One of Starlight's supposed reasons for going through the portal is that she's supposed to learn about friendship, and she's not learning much hanging out in the castle. But what friendship lessons does Starlight think she'll learn in the Equestria Girls realm that she couldn't learn in Equestria? If Starlight isn't learning a whole lot about friendship holed up in the castle, then maybe she should be proactive and do something to learn about friendship in Equestria. Starlight also says that her presence will keep Sunset's mind off of other things that might be bothering her. What is that supposed to mean? Does Starlight read Sunset's diary entries to Twilight? If so, does Twilight know about and approve of Starlight's doing that? Finally, when Sunset mentions the issues that she wanted to talk to Twilight about, Starlight volunteers herself to talk to Sunset about those issues instead. Since when has Starlight considered herself a great sounding board with whom others can talk about their problems, and she can give them advice?

Now for a few other miscellaneous observations:

This is something I haven't mentioned before, but after recently watching the Dead Mall Series, it seems especially anachronistic for these Equestria Girls episodes to portray the mall as still being the cool place to hang out for teenagers.

I do find it weird that the Mane Seven are all on the sign/poster for the Daring Do movie, even though they're just background extras and not at all main characters in the movie.

The "burgers" that the Mane Seven have are obviously not beef, so what are they? Are they supposed to be vegetarian burgers? Are all the people in the Equestria Girls universe vegetarian? Or does it just so happen that all the Mane Seven are vegetarian?

Why is Sunset fired out of the portal at high speed?

Sunset says that she hasn't seen the Equestria Girls world version of Starlight before, but then, Sunset wouldn't have had any reason to look for or notice Starlight's doppelganger before, so I wouldn't be so sure that Starlight is in the clear to go through the portal.

The number of chocolate-covered almonds raining down on the Mane Six inside the mirror seems too high to have come from just a single box.

[Sonic5421 423]

Well, this was a good way to tie the first two specials in with also granting Sunset a chance to return home to Equestria while Starlight got a chance to experience being human herself like Princess Twilight did.

It was clear that Juniper was already on a knife's edge with her sanity because of her being fired by her uncle and kicked off the movie lot, and seeing the joint Rainbooms/Shadowbolts music video did not help matters. Once that mirror was imbued with Equestrian magic from the leaking portal, Juniper really started to lose it as she kept seeing her dream self in it.

Things only got worse once the Rainbooms entered the Canterlot Mall Theater to get ready for the premiere, and Rainbow tripped Juniper's Berserk Button by reminding her it was her own fault she was fired by her uncle, causing her to use the mirror to trap them in limbo. Once Sunset learned what happened and tried to talk Juniper down, Juniper, already unhinged and on the verge of total insanity, traps Sunset with the rest of the Rainbooms, causing their geodes from the events of Legend of Everfree to imbue Juniper with more magic, turning her into a corrupted giant version of her dream self, leaving it up to Starlight to talk her down and convince her to turn back before it was too late. Thankfully, Starlight was able to talk Juniper back to her senses, and Juniper reversed all the damaged she caused, saving the Rainbooms from who knows what had the limbo dimension collapsed with them still in it, and returning Juniper to normal, and being very repentant over her actions.

As a result, the Rainbooms forgive her, and she becomes a new friend, while Starlight is allowed some more time with Sunset and the others by Princess Twilight before returning to Equestria.

I really enjoyed this last special, and I'll give it a 9.5, maybe a 10/10.

[KatonRyu 1,026]

I liked it, really. I mainly enjoyed seeing Sunset's pony form again and her meeting Starlight. I would have liked to see Sunset meeting Twilight as well in Equestria, but maybe that will happen in a future episode/movie. The villain was rushed, yes, but really no worse than Sunset's villainy, which was downright bad. At least Juniper's envy came across well here. I also really liked human Starlight's design and I do hope we'll be seeing more of her, especially since I rather like her. Pinkie's remark of 'Wow, we are a really forgiving group' also brought back some of the self-awareness I haven't seen in a while, so that was a very welcome thing.

I do have to agree that everyone being Worfed just so Starlight can save the day is a bit concerning. I like Starlight as a character, the writers really don't need to make her the magical solution for everything.

[qwerE 95]

Starlight Glimmer was cool. The story wasn't as good as the last one, but this episode had many interesting moments. 

[Arkadios 91]

Compared to something like Friendship Games, I think this was really good.

Then again, same with The Emoji Movie.

The climax was a bit predictable (and I haven’t watched anything after the season 5 premiere), but the story felt sound. Really, it’s just heartwarming seeing bad characters reformed.

[Moony the Cat 3,697]

There were a few things i liked about this Episode, first off it featured Starlight ( Yay ! ), Sunset was back to her Pony from again ( also Yay ! ) and it was cool that it featured an actual powerful villain again.

But the other half of the Episode was disappointing. First of all, where did the magic for the mirror even come from? Pretty lazy story device, if you dont even have a device. Also the mirror didnt even do all that much. It did a lot of meaningless stuff, except that it captured the main characters. That was all that it did really. I was actually interested in this Episode because of its premise, having a supernatural mirror that could pretty much do anything you want and then nothing really happened.

This Episode is such a wasted opportunity.

[Justin_Case001 4,855]

Pretty good.  I thought that Mirror B*tch was a tad corny.

On 5/29/2017 at 7:38 PM, Unlikeable Pony said:

I'm not against the occasional Reformation, but it shouldn't be the go to response for every single person.

Agreed.

 

I very much enjoyed the Sunset-Starlight meeting scene.  I love seeing pony Sunset.  Wish we got it a little more often.

[Rushing cash 824]

A very entertaining special, especially starlights and sunsets interactions were gold. They should meet again, or introduce the EG starlight in the series, it would be so cool! I love sunsets pony form, each time she passes through the portal ends up being my favorite moment in the special or whatever. The ending however felt rushed and subpar, another quick redemption out of nowhere... in this case it just felt so out of place to me. 8/10.

By the way, I liked starlights outfit for some reason.  

[phantompone1148 125]

This special has so much wasted potential. It's cool to see Starlight interact with Sunset, just get rid of the crappy antagonist plot to make this better.

 

4/10