Legend of the Everfree Reactions · 2:21am Sep 26th, 2016
My immediate reactions while watching. Warning: Spoilers ahead
Is it just me or does the animation during the intro song look really cheap? I guess the other intro song animations were heavily stylized too, but at least they showcased the characters. The bus looks static and boring. The song itself sounds good, though.
Sunlight shipping fuel at 5:56.
“Gonna be nice gettin' away from that kinda stuff.” Oh Applejack, why must you tempt fate?
I like Timber Spruce better than Flash Sentry already. He's like a cool nerd. Though I do wish someone besides Twilight would get a chance at TV-Y rated romance - preferably Sunset. It's not fair that Twilight gets all the boys.
Whoa, human Filthy Rich is a much bigger douche than his pony counterpart. I guess it's just human nature? It's too bad, because my headcanon version of him was almost kind of cool.
At least the animation for walking and running is improving with each movie.
Sunset can read minds now.
I like Sunset's little moment of honesty with Flash.
I hope Camp Everfree has the budget for all those materials to build a new dock [Edit by future Maran: Or two, or three...]
Meh, it's hard to tell a proper ghost story with a TV-Y rating. No one was even killed or maimed.
It's painfully obvious that Gloriosa is either already Gaia Everfree, or going to turn into her.
Wow, finally, Sunset put her foot down about the girls bringing up past sins. Way to go, Bacon Hair! Unlike Starlight Glimmer, I don't think SciTwi needs to be reminded of her mistake.
SciTwi's song is great: so emotional and dramatic.
As an amateur ornithologist, I couldn't help thinking that those owls should be trying to eat those songbirds. True, they usually eat rodents, but they wouldn't turn their beaks up at a smaller bird if they have the opportunity. Heck, even smaller species of owls are afraid of bigger owls.
SciTwi's guilt is reaching irrational levels. She won't even consider the possibility that her friends are getting powers because of the camp, not her.
Yeah, I was right about Sunset being able to read minds. It doesn't have a lot of superhero uses compared to her friends' powers, but it's still cool.
Ok, it was awesome when Sunset read Pinkie's mind.
It's sort of interesting how they're using their new magic powers for something so mundane.
Sunset may have been thrown off by Timber Spruce's suspicious behavior, but I wasn't.
It strikes me as odd that our heroes are just standing there while Gloriosa sings her villain song about trapping them. Timber was the only one who tried to chop the vines.
Ok, all five of the girls need to pick one spot on the wall and break through instead of hitting different random spots.
I'm not sure if SciTwi's friends are creating those astral projections or if it's all in her head. I think I like the ambiguity.
Huh. I guess SciTwi earned her wings. I was kind of hoping Sunset would earn her wings first, but I guess the writers really wanted SciTwi to match Princess Twilight.
Random last minute unnecessary power up, go! ...Ok I'll be honest, I really love those outfits. But it's weird that Rainbow, Pinkie, and AJ have lost their "pony tails."
Don't tell me Gloriosa doesn't remember any of that transformation. That would be such a cop-out.
Rarijack shipping fuel at 1:06:02. There were some other Rarijack moments earlier, but this was the strongest...And they repeat the exact same scene about a minute later.
Poor Twilight is never allowed to kiss.
"They were good friends with Mom and Dad." I guess we can add Timber and Gloriosa to the list of orphaned characters.
The post credit ending: where SciTwi hopes she's dreaming again.
Bottom line: this movie is ok. Rainbow Rocks remains the high point of this series, but I'll have to rewatch Legends of the Everfree to give it a proper analysis. I do like the presence of Equestrian magic in the EG-verse. It reminds me a little of Fan of Most Everything's "Oversaturation." Also, Gloriosa would make an excellent overpowered earth pony villain in Equestria. I had been thinking about using Principal Cinch as an OP crystal pony villain in a fanfic, but now I really prefer Gloriosa.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to try to get some shuteye before I have to wake up at 4:30am for work.
I thought it was pretty good. It's fascinating, in a macabre sort of way, how utterly traumatized SciTwi is by her brush with magic. Her faith in science is so completely shattered that she doesn't even apply the scientific method, she just assumes magic is inherently evil and that she is the source of all evil.
Sunset Shimmer may not yet be a canonized goddess of Humanville like in Oversaturation, but between mind powers and (if the song was anything to go by) being a living conduit of magic, you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference.
And finally, calling it now, those geodes are the OG Elements of Harmony. The Tree's just doing some trans-dimensional recycling. That, or one of Sombra's experiments, because CRYSTAAAALS / immafilthysombrafanboy.
In non-magic news, Timber Spruce projected for guy-that-SciTwi-is-allowed-to-be-with status among the fandom. Sunset Shimmer will now be treated as into Twilight, but more than willing to stand aside and let her pursue what she wants, and Rarijack will become the default Equestria Girls ship on account of how much shipping they had in this movie.
I got that sense as well with the geodes. They even formed into necklaces with their not-cutie marks.
And I hope the fandom accepts Timber Spruce because I'm a little tired of the over-the-top Flash hate. Heck, I even felt bad for Flash in this movie. I wonder if more fans will ship him and Sunset after this.
I cannot help but feel the writers did Rarity a huge disservice in this movie; 80% of what comes out of her mouth is about that fashion show she wants to throw. Sunset and SciTwi got solid characterization, but as far as the rest of the main cast is concerned, Legend of Everfree was something of a step backwards in characterization, and it's Rarity who feels that lack most keenly. It's a shame.
(Though I did like her "and then I made a diamond-y thing" line. The combination of her expression and voice in that scene are pure gold. I seem to remember she had a moment similar to that before, probably her Equestrian counterpart in the main show. Anyone know what I mean?)
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I honestly think Timber is a worse romantic prospect for Twilight than Flash ever was. Flash suffered from a crippling lack of characterization, but at least he was more genuine. Timber shot off so many lame pick-up lines and fakish ways to try and make himself look good for Twilight, and she totally fell for it! Come on, writers! At this point, I'd almost prefer if Flash remained Twilight's intended love-interest. In the prior movies, I didn't want him to be Twilight's love interest, but I didn't otherwise mind him. But Timber just rubs me the wrong way when it comes to how he acts around Twilight.
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I also like the Equestrian magic, but one thing I really feel the writers of the movies could stand to be more consistent about is the pony-ups. In Rainbow Rocks, they pony up through the power of song. I really have no problems with that. In Friendship Games, they pony up by expressing the 'truest part of themselves', which is basically their matching Element of Harmony. This is also fine, though it makes it more difficult for anyone who is not part of the (Hu-)Mane 6. I really would have liked to see some other CHS students get pony-ups in the third or fourth movies, to show that the magic of friendship is a thing that spreads.
In Legend of Everfree, we don't see any pony-ups except at the end. This, I object to. Sunset's 'truest self' (and possibly even her special talent that earned her her cutie mark) is obviously her ability to inspire and motivate others. If the writers had made any effort to be consistent, Sunset should have gotten a pony-up during "Embrace the Magic", and possibly also when she persuaded Twilight not to skip out on the camp. The pony-ups during the climax seemed more to be a case of getting 'battle-ready' rather than expressing their individual virtues to any great degree (except for Sunset and possibly Rainbow Dash).
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I am of the opinion that SciTwi should not have had wings in that scene near the end of the movie - not if it means that she would actually be an alicorn if she went to Equestria. Unlike Pony!Twilight, Human!Twilight didn't do nearly enough to merit such a promotion. While 'Magical Mystery Cure' may not be my favorite episode or season finale ever (I felt it was horribly rushed - for an example how to do such an episode right, look no further than 'Crusaders of the Lost Mark'), Twilight did work towards that through three entire seasons of friendship lessons. Calling harmony-powered whoop-ass down on a major villain or threat is mere garden-variety heroism and not on the same level of personal achievement, in my book. Neither do I believe that Sunset ascended to alicornhood at the end of Friendship Games. I'm going to blame that one on magic in the human world working differently and her basically being infused with the power of the entire spectrum of harmony.
Just being a mirror of Pony!Twilight seems like a tenuous excuse to give Human!Twilight wings, but any counter-argument I could come up with is tenuous, too. You could argue that she might not have wings in Equestria, but that makes little sense considering her standard ponied-up form did. You could argue that maybe Sci-Twi is a pegasus in Equestria, but that seems unlikely, especially considering she basically got unicorn magic as her special power in Legend of Everfree. It makes sense for Twilight not to go back to a wingless form after Midnight Sparkle, who was winged, but... bleh.
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Sunset's new power is amazing. She was already adept at social combat, but with her new abilities she is pretty much unbeatable. Imagine shaking the hand of a potential business partner and instantly being able to understand their motives and gauge their sincerity. Yes, her abilities demand to be used responsibly and ethically, but Sunset has been shown to be surprisingly level-headed ever since her reformation. The perils of abusing power is one lesson that has already been driven home for her.
There's also the fact that the empathic reading is only one side of the coin when it comes to the full extent of her power. If Twilight Sparkle is the kind of leader who organizes, then Sunset Shimmer is the kind of leader who inspires. Near the end of the movie, there were a few times where Sunset grabs Twilight's hands and bolsters her courage, with a clearly visible magical discharge. She also obviously channeled her powers during her "Embrace the Magic" song.
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Yeah, Human!Filthy Rich is an asshole. Kind of a shame, considering Pony!Filthy Rich is such a nice guy. I was really glad to see the impression I had of him as a basically decent pony held when he appeared in S06E23.
The crystal wings didn't really do it for me, but otherwise the outfits were pretty cool.
I also liked Sunset's interactions with Flash. That guy badly needed some screentime that wasn't about his 'bumping into each other' thing with Twilight. I wasn't happy to see that Timber pretty much replaced him in that role, only with the writers being way more obnoxious about it than they ever were with Flash. Twilight really strikes me as someone who should be falling in love with a good friend, if she is to have a love interest at all. Flash and Timber are both way too shallow characters for them to appeal to me in that role.
I agree it would be cool to have powerful earth pony or pegasus villains show up in Equestria. It's also kind of interesting how we have analogues of two of the three pony races. Crystal ponies are basically alternate earth ponies, and batponies are analogues to pegasi. I wonder what a unicorn-equivalent would be...
This movie was good, and I liked it a lot, but I don't think it's the strongest entry in the series. Still, it opens up some interesting possibilities for the future. Why the heck is that Canterlot Wondercolt statue not repaired / replaced yet? Celestia and Luna really should get that done. What's up with the magic that swirled out of that crack? I'm looking forward to seeing what they are going to do for EQG5.
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I was too focused on the Rarijack relationship to notice Rarity's lines by themselves, but now that you mention it, I think you're right. She had the same issue in Rainbow Rocks.
I still believe that Timber is a better character overall who was integrated into the plot much better than Flash . . . But yeah, I agree that Timber fails as a romantic interest for Twilight. He did try way too hard to sound cool, and he and Twilight should have stayed friends for this movie and gradually worked their way to romance in the sequels/specials.
I agree. It was hand-waved as “magic works differently here” but they should at least be consistent within each world.
Couldn't agree more. I still wish that the writers had waited until the series finale for Twilight to ascend, but at least she had two and a half seasons to learn about both friendship and magic, and prove her leadership skills. SciTwi is still barely learning about all of the above, and yeah, defeating one magical maniac is not enough to earn alicornhood. And can we even consider SciTwi a leader at this point? She spent most of the movie worrying on the sidelines. I think the only reason other girls look up to her is because she reminds them of Princess Twilight, not because of her own merits. I'm not trying to knock SciTwi, I'm just saying that it feels like she's been handed a lot of rewards that she didn't earn.
And yes, all of the Element bearers' new powers have the potential for abuse, but Sunset's seems to have the most potential, especially since she could probably read people's memories and feelings without them knowing about it. She could invade people's privacy and use the information to manipulate them. It's an interesting idea to use for a future EG story, for sure. Maybe she could be tempted to use her power for personal gain, or to help one of her friends.
I just rewatched Rainbow Rocks and I think it is by far the strongest entry in the series. The plot makes more sense compared the other movies, the songs are the best, and the Dazzlings are the most threatening villains (although I do think Gloriosa is a more interesting character and one that I would want to explore more). Still, I think Legend of Everfree is a step up from Friendship Games, which had a lot of problems. But I want to rewatch them both again to get a better comparison.
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I didn't really notice the issue at all in Rainbow Rocks at all. I guess maybe the surrounding circumstances made more sense? In Rainbow Rocks, there's a bunch of different locations and situations where she starts harping about her outfits - the only one that stood out to me as egregious was the thing with the metal tassels where the others were just trying to get through the round of the tournament, and the movie did a pretty good job lampshading and making a plot point out of that. There's also the fact that visual presentation does play a (minor) part in the battle of the bands, so it didn't seem as out of place. Perhaps there's also the fact that by the time LoE happens, we expect her to have gotten it out of her system at least a little bit? I don't know. But it never seemed as obnoxiously one-dimensional to me in Rainbow Rocks. In that movie, Rarity also had some good scenes and lines of dialogue, particularly that sweet moment with Sunset.
EDIT: In retrospect, a large part of what excused Rarity's obsession with outfits in RR is the fact that it helps generate the conflict within the group which is such a major plot point in the movie. In contrast to that, Rarity's obsession with her fashion show in LoE feels much more extraneous and pointless.
It's a matter of taste, but I find Timber's trying-too-hard attitude a big dealbreaker. With his blatant lies and beyond-lame pickup lines, it's like he has no self-respect, nor any respect for Twilight. Seeing how Twilight lapped it all up made me cringe every time. I have to agree that unlike Flash (except for this movie), Timber had good characterization when he wasn't interacting with Twilight, but they pushed the romance angle so hard it hardly even seems to matter. I was really grateful Gloriosa showed up in time to cockblock that kiss.
I'm late to this fandom - been here only a few months, so Twilight's ascension wasn't a surprise for me. It's basically impossible not to get spoiled at this point, if you take any interest at all in the fandom, and the fanworks were how I really became a brony. I found WarpOut's "Lullaby for a Princess" animation, which blew me away (I'd already seen season 1 some time earlier, so I had all the context necessary), and then saw a reference to some fanfic in the comments, which led me to this site. Seeing all the amazing fan content (and the really nice and user-friendly interface of this site didn't hurt, either) made me decide to track down the other seasons and watch them... and the rest is history.
Anyway, I didn't really mind Twilight's ascension happening, or it happening when it did. I feel the problem is with "Magical Mystery Cure" and how it was executed (though I guess some buildup and foreshadowing in prior episodes wouldn't have hurt, either). For an example of how to do an episode like that right, you have to look no further than "Crusaders of the Lost Mark". Unfortunately, they did almost everything they did right in that one wrong in "Magical Mystery Cure", except possibly the songs. The pacing was all wrong, and the way Twilight ended up finished writing that spell doesn't seem like the princess-worthy feat it was intended to be (what does it even DO? Twilight never even cast it after completing it, she just wrote the final lines...). Because the build-up was lacking, the ascension itself fell flat, and after that it was all pomp and ceremony for the rest of the episode.
I still think "Magical Mystery Cure" is one of the most poorly-executed episodes in the entire show, especially given its importance in the plot. Still, I felt like it was mostly salvaged surprisingly quickly. Season 4 is where I really noticed the show hitting its stride, with the episode quality becoming consistently better and less hit-and-miss, and it only got better in season 5 and 6. The concept of the Cutie Map was a masterstroke, giving Princess Twilight real legitimacy with official missions endorsed by the magic of harmony itself. I can see why they originally intended to let her ascension be a note for the series to end on, but by now I'm more than convinced that it's been for the best.
I agree that SciTwi doesn't really make sense as the leader of the group. It should be Sunset, hands down. She has the temperament, the inclination and the experience for it. Where Twilight is a leader who organizes, Sunset is a leader who inspires. She has been surprisingly level-headed ever since her reformation. In Rainbow Rocks, she was still coming into her confidence and finding her place in the group, but in both Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree she has been amazingly confident and self-assured. It's been a real treat to see her like that in the last two movies. Just from observing her character, it seems astonishingly unlikely she would succumb to abusing her empathic reading, despite the high potential for abuse. I could see her being tempted if there was a dilemma involving one of her friends, but otherwise I'm not worried.
I liked both Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree about equally well, though I think I have to agree that Rainbow Rocks remains superior overall. Still, while RR had the Dazzlings, FG had the Shadowbolts. Of the sirens, I like Sonata a lot (she seems like she'd instantly make friends with anyone who offered, if she wasn't stuck with her fellow sirens; she isn't really bright enough to be evil), Adagio a little (I can't help but admire her sincerity when she says "You have to excuse them; they're idiots."), and I'm indifferent about Aria. For the Shadowbolts, I like all of them, especially Sour Sweet (love her flip-floppy personality), Sugarcoat (her bluntness is hilarious) and Lemon Zest (she's actually friendly). Sunny Flare is the one who most remains a blank slate, but that may not necessarily be a bad thing for the fanfic writers. These characters really need to get their own tags on this site.
FG's plot has some glaring issues where LoE was executed much more tightly, especially the motocross race just merrily continuing on its way despite the portals and the Equestrian plant monster attacking, and SciTwi acting like a moron and not doing something about her gadget after she has seen it act up once or twice. Somehow those flaws didn't ruin my enjoyment of the movie, though. In RR, I didn't really like that the Rainbooms spent so much time on the outs with each other, and Twilight being useless trying to cobble that counterspell together while refusing to reach out to her friends for help.
The musical score of LoE was perhaps a little weaker than we could have hoped for. "The Midnight In Me" was amazing, but far too short, whereas "Embrace the Magic" fell short of being as glorious as it should have been, no matter how badly we needed to hear Sunset sing a solo. The title song is probably the strongest contender for best song of the movie, though Gloriosa's villain song was also pretty good with amazing lyrics. The last two songs were forgettable, though I wouldn't go so far as to call them mediocre.
I agree that Gloriosa was a delightful character, and so was Timber while he wasn't showboating for Twilight. The interactions with his sister were the obvious high points of his characterization. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing either of them again, if we could just keep the romance angle out of these movies, since the writers clearly don't know how to do a good job with that.
4254887 You do have some good points about how Rarity's fashion obsession fit RR better than LoE. Hopefully her new shield power will break her out of it in the upcoming specials.
I sort of envy you getting into the fandom this late, because you got to binge-watch 5 seasons for the first time! I got into MLP between S2 and S3 and I've noticed a huge difference in binge-watching the show verses waiting at least a week between episodes. When I'm forced to wait between episodes, I have time to analyze them and think about their flaws and missed opportunities, which has made me like some episodes less than I did initially.
OTOH, I watched most of the series spoiler-free (although we all knew Twilicorn was coming about halfway through S3) which greatly increases my enjoyment of this show. So there are pros and cons to both ways of watching.
I agree with you about MMC's poor execution. It really should have been expanded to two parts. All Twilight did was fix her own mistake, which doesn't seem princess-worthy. I agree that Crusaders of the Lost Mark was handled much better. The pacing was still a bit rushed, but at least it was an improvement over MMC. Plus, Crusaders of the Lost Mark is one of the few episodes to actually make me tear up.
I do think the writers have done the best they could with Twilight becoming an alicorn princess. Sometimes no one seems to notice or care that she's an alicorn, and other times she has to deal with extra responsibilities.
Wow, it's funny you should say that, because I'm starting to wonder if the Cutie Map was the worst addition to the show. To be fair, I haven't watched Top Bolt yet, so I'll try to reserve judgment until then. My biggest problem with the Map is that over the course of two seasons they still haven't explained how it knows when and where friendship problems arise, how important each crisis is, and which of the Mane 6 should handle them. And why do the M6 obey it without question? The characters have lampshaded this a little, but I'd really love an in-show explanation. I think it is telling that I have rarely seen the Map utilized in fanfics.
Those happen to be my three favorite Shadowbolts as well. They were criminally underused in FG. One of the problems with FG is that it tried to do too much. If the run time had been 20 or 30 minutes longer, the Shadowbolts could've been fleshed out more. I do like the idea of the EoH used in more negative ways with the Shadowbolts, which is why I think they're so popular with the fans despite having so little character development (Sugarcoat is brutal honesty, Lemon Zest is inappropriate laughter, etc.)
Yeah, having the new episodes available to watch whenever I wanted has been nice. Watching it all in such close proximity really lets you see how the writing and animation slowly improves over time. It's a sneaking, gradual improvement, but like I said, it was during season 4 that it really hit me how the overall quality seemed much higher and there were far less episodes that made me cringe or shake my head.
As for analyzing things to death, I'm kind of mellow in that regard. I like to analyze the events of an episode and examine every shred of evidence to see what it means for the overall canon of the show as much as the next nerd, but I'm also aware that as a fanfic writer, any time you don't like the canon constraints you are given, you are perfectly free to throw them out the window. If a character gets a little shippy moment with another character, that doesn't take away from any other ships involving that character - it just means giving us writers even more possibilities to play with and events to reference. I shake my head a little at some of the reactors I've seen who saw the debut of Princess Ember and naively proclaimed that Rarity and Spike as a ship is now sunk. Shippers will do whatever they want, and nothing that happens on the show is going to change that. I happen to like lots of variety in my shipping in this fandom, so I maintain a "live and let live" attitude.
Also take for example the recent episode S06E23, "Where the Apple Lies". It completely screwed up the Apple family timeline where the death of Applejack's parents and Apple Bloom's birth are concerned. It's somewhat frustrating and annoying for anyone trying to make sense of the whole thing, but it's not worth getting really upset over. If your fanfic requires that this be straightened out (or even if you just want to), you do whatever you have to do, including blatantly defying the canon of the show.
Perhaps watching the show in such a short timespan has also taught me not to take the little out-of-character moments that tend to happen from time to time too seriously. I personally prefer that fictional characters act at their best and make as few stupid mistakes as possible, but being the subject of a friendship lesson excuses quite a bit. It also helps that the stakes are never really all that high here, though in other works I really hate it when a stupid decision on the main character's part which could easily have been prevented sends the story down a path I don't like.
Yeah, "Magical Mystery Cure" would probably have been better as a two-parter. "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" was done so well that I don't think making a two-parter out of it would have substantially improved it. Yeah, it still feels kind of rushed when looked at objectively, especially Diamond Tiara's redemption, but they definitely achieved the best possible result within the constraints of the format. Diamond Tiara's song made me cry, it was so heartwrenchingly beautiful, and the feels train never really stopped after that. I spilled a lot of Liquid Pride during that episode. Where 'MMC' only had "A True True Friend" as a stand-out song, every song in 'CotLM' was top tier, except possibly the campaign song. I can hardly think of anything they could have improved while staying within the runtime of an ordinary episode.
I am of the opinion that if Twilight as Princess of Friendship is going to be a thing, it should mean something - preferably something more than being on call to smite major threats to Equestria's stability with the power of rainbows. The map is a great step in that direction, giving her a source of official princess responsibilities ordained by the world itself, kind of like Princess Celestia and Luna are responsible for the sun and moon, only less boring. I think it's important to have something of that nature if Twilight is to stand on a tier with Celestia and Luna, though I also really like the references we've seen in recent episodes of Twilight holding lectures and 'friendship summits' - official princess business that is not divinely inspired (for lack of a better term), but just seemed like a really good idea to our (still fallible) little ponies.
I don't really need explained how the map works - it already makes sense to me. It is powered by the magic of harmony, which is one of the three pillars of pony magic in my headcanon. The magic of harmony is a kind of semi-sentient force that resides in the world of Equestria, and it is somehow able to read the currents of harmony and friendship within Equestria, perhaps only in a fairly broad and superficial manner. When it senses a disturbance in the force, so to speak (or an opportunity to substantially improve things, like you could argue for Griffonstone), it dispatches Twilight and her fellow Elements of Harmony to solve the problem and bring the future back on track. It ties into the magic of cutie marks and special talents (another pillar) to select the element bearers that are best suited to each problem, and perhaps also to gauge which problems can be solved by these incarnations of the Elements of Harmony, and which ones it'll just have to leave alone.
In my mind, what Twilight and her friends call "friendship problems" are events that, if left unchecked, have the potential to spread disharmony in a wider radius than just the few ponies who are immediately affected, or perhaps prevent certain ponies who might have a substantial positive impact in the future from ever getting the opportunity to achieve their destiny. It's not too hard to come up with reasons or scenarios for each of the friendship problems we've seen how they could eventually turn into a local or regional problem, affecting enough ponies that it could be spotted as a blip on a radar of disharmony, or how solving the problem has a commensurate beneficial effect when you compare the two futures.
(The third pillar is racial pony magic - the inborn magic of earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns, if you were curious. I figure changelings can access the racial magic of whatever pony form they are emulating, and any sentient being can harness the magic of friendship and harmony, but I don't expect they can turn into a pony with an arbitrary cutie mark and harness that special talent...)
Yeah, I wish we could have seen more of the Shadowbolts, and it's a shame they didn't make a return appearance, but I expect a legion of fanfic writers are at work to remedy this problem as we speak.
That idea of the Elements of Harmony gone too far is interesting and definitely deserves to be explored in a fanfic, but I don't know that the Shadowbolts as they are shown really fit the bill as the Elements of Harmony's dark mirrors, not without some external magical influence to distort them. Only Sugarcoat doesn't seem like she doesn't need much of a push in that regard. But yeah, blind loyalty is a thing, and generosity can be taken too far as well if you start neglecting your own needs. Kindness can be taken to smothering levels - a lesson the Breezies episode tried to teach in an oblique way - though that doesn't seem to fit Sour Sweet very well.
I definitely want to see these characters explored more, and I wish they'd add tags for them to this site so you could search for those stories properly.
4255436 I agree that fanfic writers should be expected to play around with canon and throw out whatever doesn't fit their story, and that's especially true of a show that's so loose with its own continuity such as MLP. Though part of the fun for me is taking things that don't seem to fit together and trying to make sense out of them. But even I can't do that for every continuity error or retcon or throwaway gag.
See, the way you explain it makes it sound way more awesome than it is presented in the show. This is idea has a lot of potential, but I find the execution to be lacking, like several other aspects of the show. All I got from it so far is “magical device that mysteriously knows things and must be followed absolutely.” It gets kind of ridiculous when Twilight wants to go somewhere but won't because her cutie mark is still at the castle. Granted, in most of those situations she probably would have either hurt the situation or resolved it before anyone could learn a friendship lesson. Still, her responses to the map should be explained and accounted for in-story. It doesn't help that the only Map episode I truly loved was Lost Treasure of Griffonstone. Viva Los Pegasus was solid, but the others were “meh” to me (Top Bolt remains to be seen).
4256092 Yeah, the theorycrafting is definitely fun and an important part of fandom. But some people seem to be way too intense about the whole thing, obsessing over how to fit everything together to the point of detriment to their story, or being more than just bummed out when their favorite headcanon gets jossed. What's the big deal? Just ignore any inconvenient new bits of canon and continue writing your fanfic the way you like it. Personally, I write to please myself first and foremost, and I think that's how it should be.
If you assume that the map constantly shows the location where the elements should be, then yeah, I can see why you would take issue with it. It seems to me the map only displays the marks when it has a mission ready. Otherwise, everypony is free to do whatever they want and be wherever they like. With map episodes being as rare as they are, it doesn't seem like it affects their day-to-day life very much.
Though I never really wondered how it worked (the theory I described has pretty much been my headcanon from the start, though I evolved it a little thinking about it), it would probably be cool for the whole thing to be elaborated on a bit. However, this is where being the secondary demographic bites us in the plot. I can easily see the show writers decide that the primary audience doesn't care exactly how it works and they never elaborate on the mechanics of it. I was surprised that Twilight and Starlight needed to reboot the map at the start of episode; I'd just assumed it would start working again after the future was saved...
Top Bolt was pretty good IMO; I think I can say this much without spoiling anything. If you want to watch it or the leaked season finale, go to the youtube channel of a guy called NerfStrangerX and check out the descriptions of his reaction videos to those episodes.
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Ok, thanks!