How could the later Equestria Girls movies/specials have been better?

[SunsetShimmerStan 36]

Looking at how the movies after Legend of Everfree have been pretty mixed in reception, does anyone have ideas on how the later movies/specials could have been better?

The movies/specials you'd need to figure out how to improve are:

• Dance Magic
• Movie Magic
• Mirror Magic
• Forgotten Friendship
• Rollercoaster of Friendship
• Spring Breakdown
• Sunset's Backstage Pass

[KPackratt 283]

For Holidays Unwrapped (even though you didn't list it): I would've redone the "Dashing Through the Mall" segment with the characters in their winter clothes (seen in part of "Blizzard or Bust", "Saving Pinkie's Pie", and "Winter Break-In"). Considering Rainbow Dash mentioning "super speed and icy roads don't mix" implied that the segment took place during winter weather, seeing them in their normal clothes there made no sense to me. If the segment took place on a day of calm weather (like "Blizzard or Bust" and "The Cider Louse Fools" did), that wouldn't have been a problem.

For Spring Breakdown: Cut down on the scenes where Rainbow Dash was concerned about the possibility of evil magic taking over and delete the scene where she got Pinkie Pie (and herself) banned from the desert buffet, as I feel she went a little too far in that part. The extra time gained from reducing Rainbow Dash's evil magic obsession scenes could be used to add a scene with Rainbow Dash meeting her Pony "twin" and having her join her (along with Sci-Twi and Sunset) on the quest to save the passengers of the sinking ship. We've seen both Twilights as ponies and humans (first three EQG films), Sunset as a pony, both Pinkies as humans (if you count the Friendship Games Bloopers), and Starlight as a human (Mirror Magic), so seeing both Rainbows as both species would've been a neat sight to see.

As for the others, I'm not sure how they could've been improved for me, as I felt they worked just fine as they were. Maybe if I notice something worth changing the next time I watch them, I'll mention them here.

[Megas 27,628]

Dance Magic - More focus on the Shadowbolts, particularly find a way to include Indigo Zap. Her absence was definitely odd

Movie Magic - The second story of March Radness was both a much better RD story and a better "Daring Do in EQG" story. I wouldn't mind if they just adapted that story instead, or even just removing it entirely to give both Dance Magic and Mirror Magic more time

Mirror Magic - Given what I said above, drop the Juniper Montage plot entirely and focus purely on Starlight in the EQG universe plot, especially have more Starlight and Sunset bonding and hanging out

Forgotten Friendship - Honestly, it's near perfect. Only thing I'd want would be more time

Rollercoaster of Friendship - Get rid of Vingette Valencia entirely, she's actually the worst, give the time to the rest of the pairings and girls. Also dial back the Rarijack pandering significantly, by this point they were getting paired up so much it was actually getting really obnoxious

Spring Breakdown - Drop the subplot of RD being obsessed with being a superhero, and make RD and Twilight being stuck in Equestria the actual main plot

Sunset;s Backstage Pass - Much like Forgotten Friendship, it's practically fine the way it is

Holidays Unwrapped - Have one of the parts play out like the finale of EQG. You can cut the Flim Flam Bros episode and give the time to that instead. Screw them anyway

[Sparklefan1234 170,728]

Movie Magic and Mirror Magic: No Juniper Montage

Mirror Magic:

Have the story be more about Sunset Shimmer reminiscing about the pony world she left behind which would be part one of the series finale. 

Rollercoaster of Friendship: No Vignette Valencia! 

 

23 minutes ago, Megas said:

Holidays Unwrapped - Have one of the parts play out like the finale of EQG. You can cut the Flim Flam Bros episode and give the time to that instead. Screw them anyway

 

I agree with this take on Holidays Unwrapped because I LOVE Christmas episodes and I would have loved if Sunset Shimmer

had to choose to spend the holidays with her friends in the human world or Equestria and we could make up our minds later 

about if Sunset decided to stay in one or the other after graduation...I'm still sad/upset that we didn't get to see the girls graduate from CHS!😭

Edited July 6 by Sparklefan1234

[SunsetShimmerStan 36]

39 minutes ago, Megas said:

Dance Magic - More focus on the Shadowbolts, particularly find a way to include Indigo Zap. Her absence was definitely odd

Movie Magic - The second story of March Radness was both a much better RD story and a better "Daring Do in EQG" story. I wouldn't mind if they just adapted that story instead, or even just removing it entirely to give both Dance Magic and Mirror Magic more time

Mirror Magic - Given what I said above, drop the Juniper Montage plot entirely and focus purely on Starlight in the EQG universe plot, especially have more Starlight and Sunset bonding and hanging out

Forgotten Friendship - Honestly, it's near perfect. Only thing I'd want would be more time

Rollercoaster of Friendship - Get rid of Vingette Valencia entirely, she's actually the worst, give the time to the rest of the pairings and girls. Also dial back the Rarijack pandering significantly, by this point they were getting paired up so much it was actually getting really obnoxious

Spring Breakdown - Drop the subplot of RD being obsessed with being a superhero, and make RD and Twilight being stuck in Equestria the actual main plot

Sunset;s Backstage Pass - Much like Forgotten Friendship, it's practically fine the way it is

Holidays Unwrapped - Have one of the parts play out like the finale of EQG. You can cut the Flim Flam Bros episode and give the time to that instead. Screw them anyway

So what would the conflict or threat be in Rollercoaster of Friendship and Mirror Magic without an antagonist? 22-44 minute specials do need some conflict after all.

To be fair, Rarijack ship tease isn't inherently a bad thing. There have been shows that did do good with main characters getting LGBT ship tease such as Adventure Time with Bubbline (with the Fionna and Cake spin off also doing it with their counterparts Gary Prince/Marshall Lee), OK KO with Enid/Red Action, Steven Universe with lots of LGBT, and Owl House with Lumity.

Would the cruise stuff still be kept though in this revised Spring Breakdown given the cruise does explain what Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie are doing and why they aren't with the rest of the group at the time plus giving a catalyst on how RD, Sci-Twi, and Sunset end up in Equestria in the first place? Ditto for still having Sunset go with Sci-Twi and RD in Equestria since someone experienced in Equestria needs to guide them.

So would this be a decent concept for a Christmas related short in Holidays Unwrapped (suggested by someone): "I think at least one HU short could have been replaced with a short that showed Sunset repressing feelings of loneliness, not wanting to make her friends feel bad for having families to spend the holidays with, while she's basically only got Ray [they wouldn't even have to really infer she had a bad home life, or anything] and the short ending with her friends and their families all showing up to her apartment so that she won't have to be alone [which could also provide some looks at the humanized Mane-6's parents, which the fandom would likely go nuts over]. Classic holiday happy ending stuff"

16 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

Movie Magic and Mirror Magic: No Juniper Montage

Mirror Magic:

Have the story be more about Sunset Shimmer reminiscing about the pony world she left behind which would be part one of the series finale. 

Rollercoaster of Friendship: No Vignette Valencia! 

 

 

I agree with this take on Holidays Unwrapped because I LOVE Christmas episodes and I would have loved if Sunset Shimmer

had to choose to spend the holidays with her friends in the human world or Equestria and we could make up our minds later 

about if Sunset decided to stay in one or the other after graduation...I'm still sad/upset that we didn't get to see the girls graduate from CHS!😭

If there were no antagonists like Juniper and Vignette, what would the conflict or threat be in Rollercoaster of Friendship, Movie Magic, and Mirror Magic without an antagonist? 22-44 minute specials do need some conflict after all. Movie Magic especially needs an actual antagonist for its Scooby Doo-esque mystery plot. 

And Mirror Magic can't exactly be part 1 of a series finale when there are several specials and shorts after that.

[Sparklefan1234 170,728]

13 minutes ago, SunsetShimmerStan said:

And Mirror Magic can't exactly be part 1 of a series finale when there are several specials and shorts after that.

 

Some can be filler until the next big point in the story. FiM didn't always focus on the main plot.🙂

[Megas 27,628]

42 minutes ago, SunsetShimmerStan said:

So what would the conflict or threat be in Rollercoaster of Friendship and Mirror Magic without an antagonist? 22-44 minute specials do need some conflict after all.

I don't every story needs some sort of big conflict, they could easily do something smaller scale even for 22-44 minute specials. For Mirror Magic it could easily focus on Starlight adjusting to the EQG world, given that her and Sunset hanging out was easily the highlight of that special, expanding could easily carry the episode imo. As for RoF they had subplots for the other characters as well, I think they could expand on those while giving something new for Rarity, AJ and Pinkie to do, just anything that doesn't involve Vingette

Edited July 6 by Megas

[SunsetShimmerStan 36]

On 2024-07-06 at 6:57 PM, Megas said:

I don't every story needs some sort of big conflict, they could easily do something smaller scale even for 22-44 minute specials. For Mirror Magic it could easily focus on Starlight adjusting to the EQG world, given that her and Sunset hanging out was easily the highlight of that special, expanding could easily carry the episode imo. As for RoF they had subplots for the other characters as well, I think they could expand on those while giving something new for Rarity, AJ and Pinkie to do, just anything that doesn't involve Vingette

So what do you think are the MLP episodes that prove it is possible to have a good 22-44 minute episode without an antagonist?

After all, most of the MLP two-parters (which the Equestria Girls specials are the equivalent of) always had a villain and even The Crystalling (the only two-parter without an antagonist) had a big threat too with the snow storm in the Crystal Empire caused by the Crystal Heart shattering.

[Megas 27,628]

Rainbow Roadtrip was literally just about the Mane 6 helping the ponies of Hope Hollow, and restoring color to the town. It was generally pretty well liked and it's still one of my favorite specials. In fact I'd argue it clears most of the two parters, EQG specials and even the movie

Edited October 13 by Megas