Writer's Workshop: Analysis in Action

So recently, I've rambled a lot about plot, character, theme, and framing. But I'm sure you may be wondering, "How can this actually help me? Do any real stories benefit from this sort of rigor?" And to that I say, let's look at a story and see how it works. For this demonstration, I've picked none other than the first Equestria Girls movie. Now, while it has some great ideas here and there, I think you'll agree that it's a bit flawed. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty and see why that is.

First, let's look at the inequity. (I'll jump ahead a bit and include the turns, too.) What is the inequity of the story? Should be pretty obvious: Sunset Shimmer steals Twilight's crown, and Twilight has to follow Sunset through the looking-glass to get it back. Thus we see what drives the story: characters perform actions, leading other characters to make decisions in response. The Goal of the story is, as one song's title goes, helping Twilight win the crown. We can also see each of the steps required for Twilight to get that crown: first, she has to apply to become Princess of the Fall Formal. Then, she has to convince her friends to make peace with each other. After that, she has to reunite the warring cliques of Canterlot High and draw their vote away from Sunset. Finally, with Sunset hulking out and threatening to assault Equestria, Twilight unites her friends against Sunset and brings order to Canterlot High once and for all. (At least, until the Dazzlings show up.) We can see how Twilight's approach grows and improves over the course of the story, as well as how Sunset's desperation leads her to change tactics. First, she plays mind games on Twilight, trying to make her feel unworthy or unable to do anything. Next, she screws with the relationship between the mane 6 (in the past, anyway), keeping them from uniting. Next, she grows more desperate, actively trying to sabotage Twilight's campaign. Then, finally, she kidnaps Spike and transforms into a raging she-demon to get what she wants.

So that's the overall plot. Other than a couple hiccups, like Flash Sentry's part in the third act (which I'll come back to), it seems to work fine. The character drama, however, is where the story fumbles the most. So let's look at the bookends, shall we? Twilight starts as an uncertain, panicky princess with a burden of responsibilities she's not quite ready for. She ends the story with renewed confidence in herself and her capacity to be a princess. That... pretty much makes sense, I guess. So who's her Influence Character? Not the Mane 5; they don't really affect her all that much. Not really Spike or Flash Sentry, either. The only option has to be... Sunset Shimmer. Do you see why that's a problem? Sunset Shimmer changes, too. At the start of the story, she's a puppy-kicking villain with a long past of keeping the students divided, and the end of the story, she finally realizes the error of her ways, pleading, "I'm so sorry... I didn't realize there was another way." But in a good story, you can't have it both ways. Either the Influence Character forces the Main Character to change, or the Main Character forces the Influence Character to change. Otherwise, the point of the story doesn't make any sense.

Sunset Shimmer... is not a very good Influence Character. She gets the whole "reflection of the Main Character" thing, considering her name is literally just synonyms of "Twilight Sparkle," but the problem with the way the story is presented is that we simply don't understand her motivations very well. Just purely from the movie, we understand this: she was once Celestia's student, but she didn't learn Celestia's lessons about friendship properly, so she was kicked out and went to Canterlot High. Once there, she ambitiously took over the social order, broke up the Mane 5, and maintained her position of power by "winning" all of the popularity contests. She dated Flash Sentry, but not out of love (as is explained in Rainbow Rocks), but out of desire for more power. We can see that they fundamentally disagree on the nature of leadership and how one should lead. After all, isn't that what the final conflict is about? Sunset Shimmer leading a mindless army, and Twilight being the true leader, a friend. Twilight ultimately shows that she won't give up the things she's learned in Ponyville. She decides that she... will... hold steadfast...

Oh. Oh! Don't you see? Twilight doesn't fundamentally change. She grows in confidence and initiative, but she doesn't fundamentally alter her perspective. Instead, she changes the world around her and even gets Sunset Shimmer to see the world in a new way. ...So why is the story framed like Twilight's supposed to change? Why does it show Twilight as afraid at the start of the story when the rest of the story doesn't reflect that fear? Why does Sunset Shimmer threaten Twilight's plans but never Twilight's method of thinking? How can the story pose an argument as is demonstrated at the end of the movie when the rest of the movie doesn't clearly demonstrate this growth from beginning to end?

Do you see how this all comes together? It's not enough to simply have a character, a goal, and conflict towards that goal. A story is, at its deepest, the conflict of two ideologies, and in Equestria Girls, we only see the one. It is, in a sense, inevitable that Twilight will defeat Sunset Shimmer; without an alternate argument to challenge Twilight, she is guaranteed to win. It's precisely what makes Sunset's change of heart feel so strange. If Sunset were a nuanced character with a real position to defend, we'd understand how Twilight's strength of character overcame Sunset's past beliefs and changed her for good. But since the story only hints at who Sunset Shimmer truly is, we only get a hint of a true story.

All right, one last thing. Scenes and sequels. It's hard to say much on this, other than, "Of course it does scenes and sequels," so let's pick a story segment to break down a bit. As I mentioned earlier, actions drive this story; for example, Twilight performs her flash mob show in the cafeteria, undoing Sunset's regime. That's an action, a scene. Afterwards, we see Sunset's response: she's pissed, but she knows exactly how to stop Twilight in her tracks. That decision to stop Twilight ("I have something for you to do") is the end of the sequel. That decision leads to an action (destroying the gymnasium) which leads to a decision (Principal Celestia decides Twilight is a troublemaker) and an action (Celestia kicks Twilight out of the running for Princess of the Fall Formal). But here's where the story fumbles. The next thing that should happen is we see Twilight's reaction to being kicked out, then watch her make a decision to undo what happened. Stories should be logically, causally linked. The reason why Flash's discovery of the pictures feels like it came out of nowhere is precisely because it did. Having just explained this causal pattern, the solution is obvious, isn't it? Instead of Flash simply barging into the office and saving Twilight ex nihilo, Twilight should have decided to seek him out. Not only would this create a causal link between the action of being kicked out of the proceedings, the decision of getting Flash's help, and the action of him bailing her out, but it would also reinforce the theme of the story: Twilight's strength comes from her ability to create and implement relationships, which is stronger than Sunset's ability to sever them. Everything is connected!

I hope that you can see from this analysis how the interworkings of story play off of each other and how a single misstep can cause the whole story to fall off-kilter. Now, Rainbow Rocks suffers from a similar yet different problem than the first Equestria Girls: it can't decide what to do with Sunset Shimmer. It does try to flesh out her character and purpose, but just like Equestria Girls, it tries to have her change and hold steadfast simultaneously. What makes Rainbow Rocks different from Equestria Girls is that Sunset is fighting two fronts, and one of them keeps trying to steal her spotlight. First, she holds to her principle of support and friendship with the Rainbooms and Rainbow Dash in particular. However, once Twilight jumps through the portal, the camera keeps trying to focus on her to make the story about Twilight's attempt to create the counter-spell. And in that story, it's Twilight who holds strong to her belief in Sunset and Sunset who changes to regain her confidence and take the lead she never dared to before. It's very weird for the story to have Sunset give the climactic speech underneath the stage but then have a speech given to her at the showdown against the Dazzlings.

But that's for another time. Hopefully you found all of that interesting. If you want more, I may have to find the time to analyze the Season 5 episodes. For example, did you feel like the last bit of the premiere dragged on just a little? Maybe that was because the main goal of the story, undo Starlight Glimmer's control of Our Town, had already been reached. The little chase scene at the end kinda feels like fluff. But as I said, I'll have to come up with something more complete than that. Anyways, hope you enjoy!