Mariusioannesp's Followup to My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks · 3:55am Oct 19th, 2014
Yesterday was the network television premiere of My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks on Discovery Family. For those Bronies who didn’t really make the effort to see it in its limited theatrical run, this is probably the first time many of us got to see it. I made a trip down to my local movie theater, saw it the day it premiered, and wrote up a fairly detailed review based on my first impressions. What I said for the most part still stands. However, I have had some time to think about it, and as generally occurs with most beliefs, my thoughts on it developed over that time. I also have some comments based on the general reaction the film has received as well as where I think Equestria Girls is going in the future.
It goes without saying that there will be SPOILERS. But if you haven’t seen it by now, that’s your own fault.
A few revisions I would like to make. The first couple are based on some very helpful comments I received on my initial review. (You know who you are. Thanks. 
) I initially criticized the film for in my belief at the time making Sunset Shimmer basically into a seventh Element of Harmony. I have now been made aware that she’s really acting more like a supplementary Element of Magic. Secondly, I criticized the number of similarities I thought the Sirens had to the Windigos as being uncreative on the writers' part. (Tommy Oliver in his brief thoughts on Rainbow Rocks made a similar claim about them being too similar Changelings.) I have been made aware that this could just be an indication that Sirens could just be a subspecies of Windigo or that there is some kind of connection between the two.
Speaking of the Dazzlings, I initially described them as middle of the way villains given that they come nowhere near giving Tirek a run for his money. I now realize how incredibly unfair it is to expect the Dazzlings to at least equal the best villain on MLP so far. The general response to the Dazzlings by the Brony community has been positive overall, and I completely see their appeal. I especially like about them how they manipulate others to do their dirty work for them. In a way, it makes them kind of like Discord. They at least come close to Discord; they’ve got that going for them. Perhaps given that in their Siren forms, they have cloven hoofs, horse heads, and draconic fishtails, Sirens are possibly connected to Discord and other Draconequi. 
The climactic musical battle between the Dazzlings and the Rainbooms remains a highlight the film. Though I didn’t realize it until Tommy Oliver made the comparison, but the climax was very similar to the battle of the bands scene from the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
I still don’t get why in their anthro pony forms, the Dazzlings have jagged, bug-like wings. Are they supposed to be like the fins on their backs or something? If the Sirens had wings, it would make sense. It could have made them a bit more like a Melusine. Perhaps, I am still a teensy, tiny bit miffed the film broke my Flutterpony headcanon.
I believe it was Jake the Army Guy in his initial thoughts on the film who described the Dazzlings as “almost sensuous”. Watching the film again on the not so big screen, I agree that is an accurate assessment. (I mean did you see Vice Principal Luna’s face while they were performing “Under Our Spell”.) They were pretty touchy with some of the boys and girls around them in the “Battle” sequence. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it the first time around, but in their final song, Aria Blaze is also wearing a halter top, and Sonata Dusk is wearing a shoulderless top.
Speaking of Sonata Dusk, she seems to be the breakout character of the film having attracted the fondness of many Bronies. Just checking out the Featured Box and Popular stories list in the days since the film’s premiere attests to that. In my initial review, I admitted my own fondness for the character comparing her to Karen from Mean Girls. Interestingly enough, I got the same feeling of fondness from Maud Pie the first time I saw the episode “Maud Pie”, and then she became the breakout character of Season 4.
I’ve heard some people compare the Dazzlings to the villains of Hasbro’s elder series Jem and the Holograms, which I am not at all familiar with. It makes me wonder though. If Hasbro was so interested in making a musical property, couldn’t they have just rebooted Jem and the Holograms with their own toyline and a series with music provided by Daniel Ingram? If that was the case, I would have watched it. That could have possibly saved the Hub! I understand there’s a film version of Jem and the Holograms in the works. I’m not saying that’s what they should have done because Rainbow Rocks is just fine. I imagine though it probably would have been more difficult given they’d have to introduce a whole new set of characters, and the characters in Rainbow Rocks are one’s we’re already familiar with.
And then there’s Sunset Shimmer. In my initial review, I made known my surprise about how much Rainbow Rocks focused on Sunset Shimmer. Apparently, many Bronies agree that Sunset Shimmer’s central role in Rainbow Rocks was one of the best parts of the film. I remember some people didn’t care for how quickly Sunset repented of her misdeeds at the end of Equestria Girls. Those kind of things don’t really bother me. Probably because I’m a Christian. Anyway, Sunset Shimmer’s development over the course of Rainbow Rocks seems to have made up for it. In a way, it’s kind of like how Season 4 made Twilight’s alicorn ascension in “Magical Mystery Cure” worth it. It seems like the MLP writers have gotten good at taking situations that seem odd and having them make sense in the long run.
Also, it turns out the halter top Sunset wears during the final battle with the Dazzlings was not her usual shirt. Still kind of hot though.
What is wrong with me?
The overall response to Rainbow Rocks was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone seems to agree that the animation, story, and music were all better than in the first Equestria Girls film. There is certainly truth to that. Nonetheless, I thought Equestria Girls was a lot better than expected, and I found Rainbow Rocks to be about even with it, albeit just slightly better. Still, the songs are very catchy and all of them have further wormed their way into my head now that I’ve seen it on TV. I know the lyrics better now too given that I watched it with the closed caption on as is often my habit while watching certain shows. Another good thing watching it at home was that I experienced no technical issues while viewing it. I just hinted at it in my initial review, but the theater where I initially watched Rainbow Rocks in Edgewater, NJ experienced some technical issues during the presentation. From about halfway to the end, the film would stop and the sound would cut out intermittently.
I always find it interesting when they air films on network TV what they end up cutting out for time. Rainbow Rocks was no exception. They cut out Rainbow and Applejack arguing over a video game at Pinkie’s slumber party, Spike photobombing Rarity’s selfie at the aforementioned slumber party, the middle portion of Snips and Snails rap song, Flash Sentry snubbing Twilight, and most egregiously the whole sequence of clips and anime-esque artwork in the credits as well as the now infamous post-credit scene featuring the human Twilight Sparkle. (I wonder if they cut the post-credit scenes when they air Marvel movies on network TV.) Most importantly though unlike the first film’s Hub network debut, all the cameos by Derpy, Maud Pie, Lyra and Bon Bon, and Octavia remain intact. At least this time I got to hear Octavia speak. Her voice was a bit more high pitched than we are used to hearing in certain fan audio works (i.e. The Vinyl Scratch Tapes) but she still had a hint of the Received Pronunciation accent we always imagine she has. Ironically enough, I always imagined Octavia sounding as if she were also voiced by Tabitha St. Germain, Rarity’s voice, but in this case she was voiced by Kazumi Evans, Rarity’s singing voice.
You know it’s kind of weird Flash Sentry’s band doesn’t have a name. You know it would be funny if they were called like “Flash and the Sentries”, and the pony versions of his bandmates were also Royal Guards in Equestria.
And now let us consider what the future may hold for the Equestria Girls franchise. I recently saw a video from Paleo where he discusses the future of Equestria Girls in the wake of the post credit scene in Rainbow Rocks with AnY, Tommy Oliver, and Saberspark. They made some rather interesting claims. For one, they apparently are certain Season 5 will be premiering in early 2015 but consider the rumor of the EG series Equestria Academy to be without merit. They also speculated as I did in my blog speculating on MLP’s future after the end of the Hub that MLP or an Equestria Girls spin-off might end up on another network like Cartoon Network. They, however, gave the reason that Hasbro might be interested in broadening their viewership by airing MLP on a more basic cable channel. So my speculation that MLP could end up on Disney XD is rather unlikely if this is the case since it is a premium cable channel. Apparently, it would more likely end up on the Disney Channel itself. They also suggested that Hasbro could just release future seasons of MLP directly on Netflix, but they wondered if children were internet savvy enough to be able to watch shows on the internet. (Interesting note though, G1 MLP’s contemporary Rainbow Bright is being rebooted and is going to be airing on an internet TV network called Feeln.)
But enough of where we could see future MLP seasons and a possible EG series. What’s more important is what we can expect to see on such a series. Either way, it is very likely that we are going to see a third Equestria Girls movie with a series coming after that a possibility. I had a feeling that we would be introduced to the human Twilight Sparkle in Rainbow Rocks, though I never expected it to be in a post-credits scene. From the few seconds we saw of human Twilight, she appears to be very scientifically minded and is very interested in the mysterious goings on at Canterlot High. She is very likely what pony Twilight would have become if she didn’t have the friends she does now, a bookish introvert with few social skills. It is very likely this human Twilight will play a role in the next EG movie, at least as an antagonist or possibly as a full-on villain. It would be quite ironic. An EG movie with Sunset Shimmer as the hero and human Twilight as the villain. I sense the introduction of a human Twilight in future installments of Equestria Girls means we’re going to see the whole Mane 6 go through the mirror later on. I think it would be fun seeing the pony Mane 6 interact with the Humane 5. (Trademark Pending) Or perhaps the Humane 5 and possibly Human Twilight could end up in Equestria.
With the mirror being jerry rigged to work anytime now, there is a sense that MLP and EG will become more interconnected. Perhaps an EG series could end up running simultaneously alongside MLP and could have crossover episodes. While some of Paleo’s cohorts balked at the notion of MLP crossing over with an EG series, I for one wouldn’t mind that. Such crossovers were my favorite part of spin-off series like those from Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis and those from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. But I wouldn’t mind though if an EG series ended up airing in between future seasons of MLP as the films did. Perhaps this interconnectedness won’t last. Maybe the third EG film will be about this growing connection threatening to destroy both worlds. Something like that happened in the MLP Comics’ Reflections arc.
I still believe despite the initial misgivings that Equestria Girls franchise has a bright future ahead of it. It really shows that the minds behind MLP can really pull anything off. I look forward to seeing what lies ahead in MLP and EG’s future.
What do you all think about the future of Equestria Girls after Rainbow Rocks?
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
You know... I can't bring myself to truly like Equestria Girls. It's not that the character models are horrible, or the characters are. They are kinda awesome. I can sum up my problem with Equestria Girls in two short sentences.
♫My little teen-aged girls— Music stops with a sudden sound of a record scratching.
Could you have a seat over here?
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An interesting read, as is the norm with your blog posts.
I too would be up for an MLP/EG crossover in the future and am interested in seeing where these two series (well...one series and another possible series) go from here.
I shall be posting my full review of Rainbow Rocks soon.
Some cliff notes to provide you here (Yes, I understand this being old and all, but, well...)
I leave the Closed Caption feature on on my TV on a Daily Basis.
I guess that portion was Discovery Family's "Elvis on Ed Sullivan" moment (Back in '56, Elvis appeared on CBS' Ed Sullivan Show. On the first two of Elvis' Sullivan Shows, he was seen head to toe and shook his pelvis heavily, in a sight which enraged many Americans across the country. It also horrified CBS, who asked Elvis to be shown from the waist up on his third Ed Sullivan show; naturally, Elvis complied.)
Yet another sign of Hasbro not watching the Tabitha St. Germain EverFree Radio interview carefully (or even hearing Germain's answer to the question "Can you sing" being asked to her very nicely) and deciding to use Evans in almost every musical role Germain was to occupy (I have nothing against either, but, good Lord! Does T.S. Germain need to be dubbed over a la Marni Nixon every time there is a call for her to sing?!?!?!)
A day in which it airs on the Disney Channel (or, for that matter, on Disney XD) would be a day in which a SEVERE violation of Disney's contract with Mattel, arguably Hasbro's biggest rival in the business of toy-making, would be made. And that's both professionally and ethically speaking.
Indeed, it's so popular that there may be a day when Equestria Girls becomes its own franchise, one that is independent of MLP.
2951434 I see you're a relatively new follower so feel free to comment on whatever blogs of mine you'd like.
As for my comments on MLP and Disney, those were based on another blog I wrote where I brought up based on an article on Equestria Daily that Hasbro and Disney had entered a partnership to produce a line of dolls based on Frozen. It had also mentioned that Hasbro and Disney have had a loose business relationship for the past fifty years, and that Hasbro products are sold at Disney parks. I was unaware of whatever business Disney has with Mattel. I'm also not at all versed with the wheelings and dealings of the business sphere so I can't really comment on whether or not Disney could legitimately have business with two competing toy manufacturers.