Jump to content
Banner by ~ Ice Princess Silky

Why wasn't Starlight Glimmer in the movie?


Flamepaw17

Recommended Posts

I know she makes a cameo, but why wasn't she involved in the story? I thought she was part of the main cast. Why didn't she join the mane 6 on their journey like in the show? So curious about this...

Edited by Flamepaw17
  • Brohoof 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well Starlight Glimmer is my favorite character, but unfortunately while she is becoming a more influenchal character she's not one of the mane 6 :( . I would have loved to see more of her in the film, but alas it did not happen. Another reason could be is that movies function a little differently to series and having too many main characters in a film can be confusing for viewers, expecially for people that haven't seen the series.

  • Brohoof 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, General Solar Magus said:

Well Starlight Glimmer is my favorite character, but unfortunately while she is becoming a more influenchal character she's not one of the mane 6 :( . I would have loved to see more of her in the film, but alas it did not happen. Another reason could be is that movies function a little differently to series and having too many main characters in a film can be confusing for viewers, expecially for people that haven't seen the series.

I totally agree with this, but (correct me if I'm wrong) my belief for starlight not being in the movie because the production started before her redemption. At least when they started movie production (in 2015), Starlight didn't have as big of a role as she does now

  • Brohoof 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, aBowlofFruit said:

I totally agree with this, but (correct me if I'm wrong) my belief for starlight not being in the movie because the production started before her redemption. At least when they started movie production (in 2015), Starlight didn't have as big of a role as she does now

That's a good point XD. I wouldn't have picked up on that.

  • Brohoof 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also wonder if this was impacted by creative decisions as well. Searching through the movie's art book, there are character sheets dated from early 2016, around the time season 6 and 7 were in production. While I doubt the crew were aware of the show's developments with Starlight at the time, it isn't impossible that they were (particularly with season 6 second-in-creative-command Mike Vogel joining the movie as a writer), therefore including Starlight in the final script (written around the middle of 2016, from what I can garner) wouldn't have been impossible. So why not then?

  • The movie was focused on the Mane 6 and Spike being a unit. The focal point of the movie is clearly set on the comradery and friendship between the Mane 6. Including Starlight (basically a back-and-forth seventh main cast member) in the mix would have confused the movie's themes (why isn't Starlight heading out with the six? Is she their 'friend' then?).
  • Adding Starlight would have also muddied the pacing. The movie already suffered a little from stretching too little time over a large number of new/returning characters. Adding Starlight would stretch the runtime even thinner for scenes introducing her, and related to the above, the writers would be essentially forced to add scenes of her being proactive in Canterlot during the Mane Six's adventure to justify introducing her, which would have taken runtime from the Mane Six's journey and disrupted the flow of said quest, breaking the intended tone of the group's increasing isolation from Equestria (particularly on Twilight's part). It wouldn't have been as effective.
  • Including Starlight would have made the movie's place on the FiM timeline less ambiguous. Technically, this would give the movie a clearer standing in the show's continuity as being set after Starlight's redemption (counteracting all the arguments that the movie is set during or before season 5), but it also makes the 'why aren't the dragons/changelings/Pillars contributing to the film?' issue more inexcusable as the movie would have written away most of the benefit of the doubt ambiguity it generated by not including Starlight as a character in the script and pretty much outright stating that it was set after season 5 (and likely 'No Second Prances' additionally), therefore clarifying the above issue as a genuine plot hole and complaint.

 

 

Edited by Them's Seeing Ponies
  • Brohoof 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Flamepaw17 said:

I know she makes a cameo, but why wasn't she involved in the story? I thought she was part of the main cast. Why didn't she join the mane 6 on their journey like in the show? So curious about this...

This thread belongs in the board for the 2017 movie.  I will notify the mods for this section immediately (as I alas, do not have mod privileges for this section).

Anyways, as aBowlofFruit said, to my understanding the main reason Starlight isn't in the movie is that it was in production since season 5.  Starlight and Trixie's brief cameos were added in to avoid backlash over them not being acknowledged at all, but most of the movie was most likely finished by that point so it wasn't possible to add them into the main plot.  

  • Brohoof 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

She WAS in the movie, she just had a cameo rather than a full part. The reasoning is pretty clear, most of the script was written before she was redeemed so it would have taken too much effort to overhaul it just to work her into it. 

  • Brohoof 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two reasons:

1. The decision to include Starlight Glimmer as a recurring character in the series was only made as they started scripting season 6. By then the movie's voicing had been recorded and so the script was pretty much set.

2. According to at least one writer, Starlight Glimmer wasn't supposed to be a recurring character in the series in the first place. It was supposed to be Sunset Shimmer. The third Equestria Girls movie was originally slated to be the last, at which point Sunset was to return to Equestria, but the powers that be at Hasbro decided Equestria Girls as a spinoff was doing well enough that they did a fourth movie and are now doing a series.

  • Brohoof 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Them's Seeing Ponies There's another reason to add, and (to echo many others here), it's the most sound. Animation takes a long time to make. It takes approximately a year to create only one FIM episode in Flash, but Toon Boom Harmony's animation is more expressive, more detailed, and has a lot more puppet frames. The longer runtime will likely add more time to developing the animation, too. When the animation began, the script had likely long been locked. When the film was announced, season five was still under production. They wouldn't be able to fit SG into even tertiary status, because it was under production for so long, and the script was being both developed and written before her reformation was finally set. (I won't be shocked if MLP:TM's animation alone took at least 18 months to make.)

39 minutes ago, Red Cedar said:

2. According to at least one writer, Starlight Glimmer wasn't supposed to be a recurring character in the series in the first place. It was supposed to be Sunset Shimmer. The third Equestria Girls movie was originally slated to be the last, at which point Sunset was to return to Equestria, but the powers that be at Hasbro decided Equestria Girls as a spinoff was doing well enough that they did a fourth movie an

Hasbro's decision to leave Sunset in the EQG world might be for the better here. If Sunset is included in the main series, then the audience is required to watch EQG. The setting itself is an acquired taste for being clichèd and sterile, but the writing decisions have very loud question marks. Starlight being a mane character instead erases those question marks.

Edited by Dark Qiviut
  • Brohoof 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Babyyoshi309 said:

This is why she was not in the movie.

Good one. Starlight knew the movie could end in 20 minutes if she took them seriously. Those villains are so weak, they doesnt worth her time, so she takes her sweet time in the cage so the anti-fans will be happy, remember when she was captured by Pharynx so easily? She let it happen to see what happen next.

Starlight got a bug queen to reformed, no time for weakling Storm Yeti.

  • Brohoof 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Ganondox said:

She WAS in the movie, she just had a cameo rather than a full part. The reasoning is pretty clear, most of the script was written before she was redeemed so it would have taken too much effort to overhaul it just to work her into it. 

I know she had a cameo, I mentioned that. My topic was about why she wasn't involved in the story.

  • Brohoof 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They had to reanimate everything from scratch with a new animation tool the story was written before she was even a character. But I'm glade she only had a cameo she's been getting a lot of the spotlight in two parts recently so it was refreshing to see the mane 6 + Spike save the day again.

 

@Red Cedar

Good adding Sunset to FiM would be a really bad idea since her and Twilgiht are the same character Sunset's role is the teacher ti the humane 6 she's the leader the one with the plan..just like Twilight in FiM bringing her in would mean one of them would have to be OOC all the time or removed completely.

Edited by Rosetta Spring
  • Brohoof 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am amused by some of the replies here. Some assume that Megs had no insight into where they wanted to take Glimmer. Some suggest that there was crazy lead time so a change wasn't possible. Both are not completely accurate. They were writing new scenes and jokes while the film had some scenes being animated, after Starlight's reformation. 

Meghan said this at the Hascon panel. She loved that unlike an episode of the show, shit was easy to update and change as they went on. It was a creative decision to keep her role to a cameo. They had enough shit to juggle. Characters aplenty!

  • Brohoof 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/13/2017 at 0:21 AM, Flamepaw17 said:

I know she makes a cameo, but why wasn't she involved in the story? I thought she was part of the main cast. Why didn't she join the mane 6 on their journey like in the show? So curious about this...

The script was being written since S4, AT LEAST, and they couldn't afford to adapt it with all the constant changes to the status quo the show had during development >_>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/13/2017 at 2:24 AM, Ganondox said:

She WAS in the movie, she just had a cameo rather than a full part. The reasoning is pretty clear, most of the script was written before she was redeemed so it would have taken too much effort to overhaul it just to work her into it. 

Plus, we would have to wait another year or two for the movie movie to be finished.

  • Brohoof 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

she was. watching Trixie's fireworks. 

Thsi is because the film was written back for Season 4/5. And it would be a pain in the arse to redo it all to add another main character - theres already too many and Fluttershy doenst even get many lines, so imagine with Starlight added. 

They added her into the Trixie shot last minute. 

  • Brohoof 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

 

On 11/20/2017 at 4:59 AM, StormBlaze said:

she was. watching Trixie's fireworks. 

Thsi is because the film was written back for Season 4/5. And it would be a pain in the arse to redo it all to add another main character - theres already too many and Fluttershy doenst even get many lines, so imagine with Starlight added. 

They added her into the Trixie shot last minute. 

Smh... OP already knows about the small cameo she made in the movie. OP even mentioned it in their thread description. You're not getting their point, what they meant by her not being in the movie is her not being relevant in the movie's story...

Edited by ARandomPyro
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ARandomPyro said:

 

Smh... OP already knows about the small cameo she made in the movie. OP even mentioned it in their thread description. You're not getting their point, what they meant by her not being in the movie is her not being relevant in the movie's story...

Alright mr nit picky. Geez.

She didnt even exist when writing and animating began ok? The production was so far behind tge main series that they stuck her in for a tiny cameo as a background pony. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Join the herd!

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...