So, I found out Equestria Girls 2 is a confirmed thing. (POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!) · 2:35am Feb 16th, 2014
For anyone who cares, it seems that Equestria Girls is getting a sequel: Rainbow Rocks. Here is the first known trailer released by Hasbro, if you're interested.
Right now, all I know for certain is that there is clearly a Battle of the Bands plot, the Mane Six regain their magical girl powers through music, Pinkie's on the drums, Applejack is playing bass, Rarity got a keytar, Fluttershy has a tambourine, Twilight is the singer, and Rainbow's got the guitar. That is literally all that has been confirmed by the trailer. However a few known details are noticeable as you watch.
1) Rarity has somehow strong-armed the Diamond Dogs' human counterparts into helping her. How this happened and what role these guys will play is unknown, but the fact that this is the first appearance of Diamond Dogs since Season 1, even as their human selves, is rather noteworthy.
2) The transformations are regained and even powered through music, which in itself is rather noteworthy. When Twilight and Spike left the human world at the end of the original Equestria Girls, the human Mane Five lost their abilities. For them to suddenly return out of nowhere and be powered through music... what the heck is going on here that music is tied to their superpowers? Are we going Mermaid Melody or something, here? And why are the instruments glowing when the transformations are triggered?
3) Hamsters. At the end of what I assume to be Fluttershy's transformation sequence, she floats down while a bunch of hamsters casually waddle into the room, kind of like she was playing the Pied Piper with a tambourine.
4) Sonic Rain-stomp. Wow... just... wow. I'm kind of wondering why Rainbow's eyes are glowing while she pulls this off, though.
5) Vinyl Scratch, a.k.a. "DJ-PON-3". The fact that she of all characters is featured in this trailer, especially in a film that is going to be more music-focused than its predecessor, suggests she has a serious role to play in the course of the film. The question though is what role is that? She's clearly the DJ of at least one part of the movie, and is one of the more major music-based characters. Is she going to be a friendly rival or an ally to the Mane Six?
6) Those outfits. Yeah, the Mane Six's clothes, dyed hair, and make-up in this film are clearly inspired by the 1980s rock bands. There is no hiding that. Though why did they go with 1980s looks? It could be a throwback to the 80s' styled issues of the IDW comic arc "Neigh Anything" where Shining and his friends formed a rock band in order to impress Cadance, or it could be a throwback to a forgotten Hasbro series Gem.
Now that's virtually everything that really stands out to me in the trailer, but a few questions come up.
1) Why the return to the Equestria Girls universe? Sure, it gives us more time to explore Canterlot High and the town surrounding it, but the Battle of the Bands story is more slice-of-life than the original Equestria Girls. The original film seemed a bit more adventure based since the conflict was Twilight and Spike traveling to an alternate world, Twilight having to learn to be human, and being given a three-day time limit to regain her crown stolen by Sunset Shimmer (who is a surprisingly good outside context villain for the human world if you think about it: I mean, other than the magic portal to an alternate universe in front of their school, the story seems like an ordinary high school setting, so having the high school queen bee turn out to be from another world and turn into a demon with plans for enslaving the student body and taking over her world wasn't really something anyone could predict) or be trapped in the human for 30 moons, leaving Equestria virtually defenseless. So what is happening in the human world that calls for the return to this world? Does it have anything to do with the transformations or the Battle of the Bands itself?
2) Missing characters from the trailer. Sunset Shimmer, Flash Sentry, and Spike are all missing from the clips. Considering Sunset was the main antagonist of Equestria Girls and has been left in the human world, you would think she'd be involved in this somehow. Even if she's no longer an antagonist, Sunset had a big impact on the back story of the Equestria Girls universe. For her to not appear would be shocking, unless she's been written off as graduated from Canterlot High? She was in her senior year of high school when this occurred, after all. Does this clear up room for a new antagonist (as the Diamond Dogs are far from capable of antagonistic behavior if Rarity has them helping her)? Will there even be a new antagonist?
As for Flash Sentry, well, he may not have a speaking role in Season 4 (him getting a cameo was a nice nod to the movie), but his human counterpart we don't know a lot about. I know he was created for the sole purpose of giving Twilight a temporary love interest, but he at least helped her during her time in Canterlot High. So, where is he?
Finally Spike. He went with Twilight to the human world, becoming her talking dog sidekick. So, why is Spike missing from the clip? Is he going to have any role at all in this movie?
3) Why do the Mane Six transform once again? As I brought up before, their transformations should not be possible without the Element of Magic powering them up. So, what happened that is causing them to regain their powers? We see Rarity using her magic to perform a power slide, Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy with their wings once again, and Applejack and Pinkie are seen transforming when they play their instruments. What is triggering these transformations?
4) The Twilight Sparkle in the trailer is one of the most curious parts about this. Is this the Twilight Sparkle that is Princess Twilight? If it is, what reason has brought her back to Canterlot High to sing as part of the group? If it is the Twilight Sparkle who was born and raised a human, what is she like? We know that a Twilight Sparkle exists in the Equestria Girls universe, so are we finally meeting her? If this is Princess Twilight, will the human Twilight Sparkle show up? And if this is the case, what will her role be?
5) The movie's subtitle, Rainbow Rocks. I know the Mane Six's motif for doing just about anything involves rainbows, but is this going to be a Rainbow Dash focused movie? She's more or less the secondary main character after Twilight since she's based around Lauren Faust's childhood favorite pony, Firefly. The fact that she's the guitarist also screams focus since in most rock band group-related stories, there are two characters more focused on than the others: the singer and the guitarist. Twilight's the singer, and Rainbow's the guitarist. She also seems the most eager to get started with their practice, being the most vocal with her impatience in Rarity's tardiness. Also note that in this scene Twilight is also absent, yet she's not being complained about. There's also the Sonic Rain-stomp she pulls off, which is the most memorable part in the clip besides the Mane Six performing what can be assumed to be the main song "Shake Your Tail" on stage in front of the audience. Sure, the other members of the Mane Five have notable scenes with their transformations (Rarity's magic power slide, Fluttershy's flying tambourine scene, Applejack actually leading off with the transformations, and Pinkie Pie's killer drum solo), but Rainbow is performing a stomp with her eyes glowing white with power. What does this mean?
6) Perhaps the biggest question is why is the Battle of the Bands the central piece of the plot? The whole movie seems to already focus more on music than the original Equestria Girls does, I've already said that. However, what reasons could there be for a Battle of the Bands plot that the Human Mane Six are picking up instruments and getting their superpowers back in order to compete in it? Fluttershy, if she's any similar to her pony counterpart, would no doubt have terrible stage fright, yet she is shown to be just fine in front of the crowd, singing and rocking that tambourine in front of a live audience. So, what is happening that has resulted in Fluttershy not showing any signs of fear in terms of performing? Could something be happening to Canterlot High?
That is really all I have for this. I would really love to see everyone else's opinion... just no flames, please.
Meh, not looking forward to this. If you ask me, Hasbro's milking it too much at this point. But hey, don't knock it till you try it, I guess. I'll have to watch the movie first before I make my judgement.
More shorts have been released, and it's been confirmed that Sunset Shimmer IS going to be in the movie, and the antagonists of the movie are turning the Mane Event into an all-out battle of the bands. In another short, Spike and Flash are shown, and Twilight is TEXTING. Wait, what?