What if Equestria Girls didn't have alternate characters?

[SkyPie 261]

By that I mean what if the world of Equestria Girls had completely different characters that aren't alternate to characters from Equestria? As in, Twilight gets to the human world and there is no human versions of the ponies back home. Would you have preferred it that way? How would the movies have gone differently with no Human Mane 5 or any other human versions of the ponies? I think there would be 5 humans that Twilight could meet that would have similarities with the other 5 back home, but not be copies, and they would have their own look. They could have represented the Elements in that world in order to defeat Sunset Shimmer. I think I would have enjoyed seeing fresh new faces instead of being introduced to the same characters again, and find it interesting that Twilight would have another different set of friends.

[Ganondorf8 11,311]

It would've made it a more difficult spin-off to sell in that sense. Without some established characters being the main focus, it might not have been all that successful, and we might not have gotten additional movies and specials. We also have to look at it from a business perspective. In Hasbro's mind, using familiar characters would bring fans of FiM over to see what EQG had to offer. Had they gone with original characters, it would've been more risky.

[Singe 2,111]

So rather than playing it safe with clones. Twilight would need to make friends with new characters and that would have been a way to showcase her friendship skills. On top of that the movie would have to be expanded to develop five new characters.

Princess Twilight would have needed to come back to EG more often. As new characters would not be able to carry the EG franchise. Princess Twilight was able to leave the series by the third movie with the second movie being her last major plot appearance before Sunset Shimmer took the reins.

 

[Megas 27,629]

They might as well have made it a new IP all together

[Toon4Thought 274]

Interesting at face value, but honestly a large part of the appeal of EqG to me is seeing the familiar characters play out in a human environment and lifestyle.

[DonMaguz 1,023]

7 minutes ago, Toon4Thought said:

Interesting at face value, but honestly a large part of the appeal of EqG to me is seeing the familiar characters play out in a human environment and lifestyle.

I think that's not only the main appeal, but the very reason Equestria Girls exist.

Every spin-off is the result of a 'What if?' wondering and EQG's original wondering is: 'What if these successful pony characters were humans?'.

Twilight Sparkle alone wouldn't have sold the franchise. 

[Thrond 3,263]

That would be something very different, and I have to wonder if it would have gone as long as it has. Beyond the first movie, they’d basically need to build everything from scratch, so I’m not convinced it would be the same as it is now. For me, seeing familiar characters as humans is 80% of the appeal, so not having counterparts in the series is hard for me to even imagine. But I guess they could still make a high school series from scratch. 

[RDDash 19,181]

It would have been slightly better choice than just copy paste old characters in the new environment. Well you say: but Hasbro needs to buy our toys, ant they need mane 6 dolls to put on the market

So maybe they could just let all six of them go to human world to interact with the human pony hybrids or something.

[Singe 2,111]

If Twilight had to make new friends it could have been drawn out as a mini-series. Twilight is stuck in EG and cannot leave. So she has an episode for each of the new friend she has to make while dealing with the antics of Sunset Shimmer that build up to the climax showdown.  

[Misty Shadow 7,873]

That would've been some dangerous thinking, Harry. Just the concept of Equestria Girls at the time was a gamble, not just the movie that they wanted to make sequels for, but also the toy franchise. Toys already do not sell like they used to, so without recognizable characters to market the concept, it would've been unthinkable for the franchise to succeed. Don't get me wrong, the idea is interesting. It's very easy to understand though why trying to market original human characters under the My Little Pony name without the main cast to back them up wasn't in their best interest.