Rainbow Rocks: After-thoughts · 3:40pm Oct 20th, 2014
In my initial review of the film, I complained how the villains ended up being wasted potential, but after being given some time to think things over and consider the movie in retrospect I've come to the new conclusion that not only was the Equestria Girls universe the ideal setting for these villains, but also ended up being one of the key reasons why the plot worked so well. This will be relatively spoiler free (although really, it's not like a My Little Pony movie would have a massive twist ending that could be spoiled, everyone knows how these things are expected to play out), but I will reveal the identity of the three villains, which I don't consider to be a major spoiler since it's revealed quite early on in the movie.
So in the movie, Twilight learns from Sunset Shimmer and co. that three new students have arrived at Canterlot High and they have mysterious powers linked to their voices. Twilight realises this is tied to a legend of three sirens who fed off the negative energies of ponies, giving them the power to control, but they were banished to an unknown dimension by Starswirl the Bearded. When I first heard this I was actually quite intrigued, I was sure that had this been used in an episode of the actual show it could have been really good. Of course when the 'Dazzlers' turned out to be bland and really annoying, I just assumed that whatever potential the 'sirens' had at beings cool was wasted when they were made into over the top, punk/diva humans. But this is where I had a change of heart, they weren't bad villains because they were made into silly humans, they were just bad villains period, they were the kind of B-list baddies that the mane 6 could have whipped the floor with easily. The Dazzlers never would have posed any real threat to the mane 6 since their plans hinged on the main characters turning against each other, and that's why it could never have worked in the original show with the real mane 6, because after four seasons of friendship lessons I refuse to believe that those three could turn them against one another... and it's for that very reason that the Equestria Girls universe was the perfect place for them.
One problem the first Equestria Girls had was that its conflicts were really trivial and contrived. Oh no, Twilight had her crown stolen, a situation that could easily have been avoided if those battalions of guards had been doing their job. Oh no, she has to win this prom queen title thing to get the crown back despite not even being a student at the school, or she could just steal it, hell Sunset Shimmer could have done that. The list of bad decisions goes on, but in Rainbow Rocks there was a single threat which made use of the conflicts that had been developing throughout the whole movie, conflicts that never would have happened between the real mane 6, but then this is not the real mane 6 we're talking about here. Twilight is Twilight, but the others are just alternate counterparts to the ponies we know and love, and Rainbow Rocks really brings that into the spotlight by reminding us that these five haven't gone through four seasons of adventures, they aren't friends bound through the trials of facing down foes such as Discord and Nightmare Moon, they are just friends.
The Dazzlers plan hinged on the main characters, who had been imbued with the power of harmony, turning against one another, a plan that couldn't have worked with the real mane 6, but one that was completely in place between these five. So in a manner of speaking, the Dazzlers needed Equestria Girls because they're plan never could have worked in the real Equestria, and Equestria Girls needed the Dazzlers because even though it may be argued that a musical counter spell seems a bit contrived, their looming threat was the one major thing that held the plot together from beginning to end.
I still have some problems with the movie, some very cringy moments in particular (Cough! Snips and Snails Cough!), but the fact that given time to think things over I can still look back and say that I liked it and even consider the plot to be better and more solid than I had first realised, says a great deal about how much of an improvement this movie is on the first one.
This movie was a hell of a lot better then I thought. This is what I call the movie that we all wanted honestly and it just shows how much the writers are improving as they go on. I can't wait to see what the third movie has in stores for us and its obvious since their is already a book about it in the works from what I have heard.
2545376 Well we've got an actually pony movie in the works now, although it's scheduled for 2017 so they must be feeling confident that MLP with still be popular for another few years.
2545417 Ya but I don't mind if this is gonna continue and I know it will somehow which I expect it to come out during after season 5 ends or something.