Official Discussion Thread - MLP Girls - Friendship Games

[brianblackberry]

You all just want to see more Sunset Shimmer, admit it!

 

In addition to having a new episode today, we will also have the television premiere of Equestria Girls - Friendship Games!  In the third EQG movie, Canterlot High, home to our heroines, is set to face off against its rival school Crystal Prep Academy, while Sunset Shimmer deals with her homesickness for the magic of Equestria, meanwhile Crystal Prep brings with them a familiar face, that world's Twilight! What happens? Tune in to find out! The movie airs Saturday 7:00 PM EST on September 26th!
 
This thread is dedicated to discussing the movie before, during, and afterwards. As the thread is now open it may indeed contain spoilers. I ask that potential spoilers talked about or shown before the episode airs stay within the spoiler tags please, after the episode you no longer have to use the spoiler tags, but warning, if you haven't seen the episode yet after it airs, this thread no doubt will have all sorts of spoilers in reviews, images, etc. So tread at your own risk.

[SunsetSombra]

So much Sunset Shimmer - needless to say, I still want this mare in Equestria, but it's cool that she has her own life in the other world...good film, enjoyable!

[brianblackberry]

Wow, well if you SunLight shippers were looking for fuel, those last few minutes will help on your trip to shipping Valhalla, all sparkley and magical.

[Hawkeye12]

Well, I'm like four episodes behind in the show itself, but I went ahead and watched this anyways. And it was quite...filled with Portal references.

 

Okay okay, this was the best EQG. Definitely. Seriously, I remember back when the first one came out and how much I didn't like it. Because well. High school movies about magical teenagers with radiation poisoning and Sunset Demons weren't exactly my thing, you know? Rainbow Rocks was a bit better, sure, but my problem with that one is that all at once you're supposed to believe that singing magic horses are just walking around, and more importantly, that the mane five all play instruments. So when I heard there was a third one, let's just say I wasn't all that excited.

 

But things prove me wrong all the time, and this was no exception! It kinda had a slow start, but halfway through I was completely into it. Crystal Prep Twilight especially. Somehow those writers managed to make her awkward and nerdy like she was in the beginning of FIM, but went in a completely different direction with it. And luckily the mane five were just being themselves this time, no random musical talents. And Sunset Shimmer herself of course, she became a really good character after the first movie.

 

Oh, and the songs! They were like the movie itself- the first one was meh, as preppy as it tried to be, but the rest kept just getting better and better. That last one was by far the best, I seriously felt like I was watching some kind of musical. Plus, Tara Strong suddenly got much better at singing Twilight. She was always good, but still.

 

Two bits about the ending, don't read if you don't like spoilers:

Well, not the best villain of the show, but best concept on one. Seriously, Demon Twilight, being who does her evil things through the power of KNOWLEDGE! XD

 

But the best part of the movie? The fact that EQG Applejack does archery. Yes.

 

Best pony and human for ya.

 

Yessssssss.

[FrankT]

It was okay. Had me asking several questions though. Like... the CHS had a motocross, what high school does that?!

 

I predict another sequel too, with a cliffhanger like that.

[RarityDash]

So.... I just watched it. Wasn't going to since I knew the TV cut was going to be edited, but Canadian version turned out to be uncut so I went with that.

 

It was good. Rainbow Rocks was better.

 

Slightly disappointing for a few reasons, particularly in its usage of its minor characters. It really lacked for great moments like Trixie in the first film and Maud in the second; there were no big surprise appearances or anything like that and there was also nothing like Vinyl's role in the first, where something set up before the film in the shorts came back in a significant way. Instead, the shorts mostly ended up being pointless. Nothing was done with Lyra and Bon Bon, and even Flash, who I thought would maybe finally be given a chance to be important, became even less of a character than ever before.

 

Also, I think the Friendship Games themselves were kind of underutilized as a concept. They seemed kind of rushed through and like not as much time was spent with them as maybe there could have been... which also meant that our new characters, the new Crystal Prep students, turned out to be disappointingly underutilized and underdeveloped. Coming off of the Sirens, who were just really, great, they just didn't really do it for me. I was hoping we'd see more definable rivalries between them and the mane six.

 

The songs were also, on the whole, not as good or memorable as in Rainbow Rocks. it was more like the first film, where we had one show stopping amazing song (in this case, the brilliant, Disney-esque villian song) and the rest were just somewhere between forgettable and good.

 

What the film spent it's time on though, it was good. Human Twilight was an enjoyable character who I did think worked. It was a Twilight who had found neither friendship, nor even the positive encouragement of and guidance of a mentor. Her being so small and lost made sense, I thought, and her arc, it was effective. Also, Sunlight remained a very likeable and effective protagonist, and I think having Princess Twilight sit out this one, did allow her to come in to her own a bit as a main character.

 

The climax was fairly typical fair for the series, but wasn't bad. I liked the designs for both Twi and Sunset there.

 

And yeah, the characters were written fairly well; the mane six's moments capturing their elements were done pretty well for the most part, and it was funny and cute and enjoyable.

 

So yeah, could have been better, but it was a solid enough entry in the series. Better than the first one.

[Lux]

Interesting movie! Not as good as Rainbow Rocks but better than the original Equestria Girls. 

 

Stuff I liked: 

 

• Principal Celestia and Luna actually getting character depth! I can finally see them as leaders of a school and standing up to Principal Cinch.
• Speaking of Cinch, I like her as a villain. I would say that she is the true villain of this show: manipulating Twilight into spying on Canterlot High, forcing her students to care about nothing else but winning, and ultimately forcing Twilight to unleash her magic.
• Vice Principal Cadence. You know, at first I didn't know how this would go as typically vice principals are the disciplinarian of a school, but it worked very well! 
• Twilight becoming evil! I know, I'm a horrible person, but I see the EQG version of Twilight as a completely different person from the Twilight Sparkle we all know. She doesn't know what she's really doing and she just desires to learn without knowing the consequence to her actions. Soher releasing the magic and becoming evil is a clear moral: "Be careful what you meddle in." 
• The theme/ morals - There are lots here! Besides the one that I mentioned above there is the idea that winning isn't everything, that sometimes a person's current goals aren't what they truly want in life, and that you have to overcome peer pressure from adults and peers alike.
• Sunset Shimmer. She rocked this movie while still trying to figure out her purpose with her friends. 

 

Now the bad: 

 

• Poor Flash Sentry. I had so much hope that there would be more to him, but no he's about as useful as Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars Episode I. 
• Lack of background character involvement. We saw so much interaction with Maud Pie and Trixie in the last movie. Shame that really it's just Twilight and the six Canterlot High main characters. 
• Not much development with the Shadowbolts students. They're basically only interacting with Twilight are rarely anyone else. It would be interesting if each one was a rival to the Mane Six. Although I did like Sugar Coat (the one with the white pigtails that pointed out obvious things). 
• The songs were meh. Not bad but not as memorable as the ones from Rainbow Rocks or FiM. 

 

Not bad story, and I'd like to see where it will go from there. 

[NightmareMuffin]

So....what exactly was the main moral of the movie? Yeah, there's the blatantly obvious "stop being stupid and messing with dangerous sh*t you don't know anything about, open your mouth and ASK, if you want answers" lesson, but I feel, like with Sunset, constantly undervaluing her own efforts and potential, the Shadowbolts relying on SciTwi's magic to win the games for them (in spite knowing that they've always relied on their own effort to win, every other year), and Gigantic idiot SciTwi, herself, relying on someone else's influence to detrmine her future, the clear lesson (that was overshadowed by everything else) should've been to have confidence in your own abilities, and go for what you wang, on your own strength and determination.

Only Sunny seemed to remember it, though, at the end

[QuickLime]

So....what exactly was the main moral of the movie? Yeah, there's the blatantly obvious "stop being stupid and messing with dangerous sh*t you don't know anything about, open your mouth and ASK, if you want answers" lesson, but I feel, like with Sunset, constantly undervaluing her own efforts and potential, the Shadowbolts relying on SciTwi's magic to win the games for them (in spite knowing that they've always relied on their own effort to win, every other year), and Gigantic idiot SciTwi, herself, relying on someone else's influence to detrmine her future, the clear lesson (that was overshadowed by everything else) should've been to have confidence in your own abilities, and go for what you wang, on your own strength and determination.

Only Sunny seemed to remember it, though, at the end

 I wouldn't call her stupid, she was meek, shy, and antisocial, and ofcourse she let  someone elses influence determine her future, she was being /blackmailed/

[RegalSteel]

I thoroughly enjoyed this EqG film. I'm a big Sunset Shimmer fan so I was guaranteed to like it no matter what but this one really stood out to me. A big part of what made this one for me was Sunset herself. Her voice Actress really felt like she was finally getting comfortable with the role in Friendship Games and made it her own character. More than that her character design was much better in this film, better outfit and better overall look.

 

Of course the look wasn't just Sunset. Every character looked a lot better in FG than previous EqG films. I feel like the artists have found a style that is distinct and still MLP-feeling finally. 

 

The songs weren't the best but I still enjoyed them. Especially the haunting manner that "Unleash the Magic" was done. It was a nice touch of creep factor to really show how much of a jerk the Principal was and just how obsessive she was about winning. Cinch was easily the weakest character in FG as she was very 1 dimensional (though this was sort of on purpose). 

 

The Shadowbolts/Crystal Prep girls were a fun twist on the mane5's elements of harmony and Sugarcoat is super cute. Also, best uniform. Seriously.