Present Perfect vs. Mirror Magic · 11:45pm May 28th, 2017
All right, kiddies, we've tried Dancing, and we've tried Movies. It's time to taste the Pain Mirror! ...Bow.
I mean, uh, it's time to watch the last Equestria Girls short, Mirror Magic. :B
The thing that surprised me about this was that it follows directly off of Movie Magic, as we follow new cutie-patootie Juniper Montage, finding a mirror randomly imbued with magic. (There's also a link to Dance Magic, but it's not as strong; basically, you watch that so you understand why the humane six are dancing with the Shadowbolts on TV screens at the mall.) The mirror shows her an idealized version of herself, and also grants wishes, mostly by sucking things into itself. "Things" here includes popcorn, candy (she's working at a movie theater), and the humane six. :V
Meanwhile, Sunset is running out of pages in her magical plot journal, so Twilight calls her back to Equestria to get a new one.
Number one, getting to see pony Sunset again. Number two, getting to see her forgetting how to pony. (Oh, it's so good!) Number three, Starlight Glimmer.
No, seriously, the real cutie-patootie is human Starlight. I already knew about her hipster look, and it's fantastic to see in action, but moreover, she doesn't have any fucking magic, ergo, she cannot make situations worse via the reflexive use thereof. It's pinnacle Starlight!
This is balanced somewhat by the fact that she saves the day single-handedly, mere hours after, y'know, gaining hands. This is not, surprisingly, my big problem with the special, but a symptom of it: it's too short!
This wouldn't have worked as a movie, mind (and given the lack of direct continuity between Dance and Movie, neither would all three put together), but it definitely needed to be longer. The end run is "Juniper becomes evil"/"negligible chase scene"/"offer of friendship"/"Starlight saves the day". And it all happens in maybe three minutes. There's no attempt to ramp up the threat, if any, that Big Juniper poses, so there's neither tension nor catharsis at the end.
Could it have filled an hour? Maybe, though it might have felt stretched. Give us more scenes of Starlight adjusting to the human world (and for fuck's sake, have her do things Twilight didn't) interspersed with Juniper first figuring out she can make people disappear and then systematically hunting down Twilight and co. I mean, that could have been cool. Then get the finale ramped up to world-shattering (and mirror-shattering)... or at least mall-shattering proportions, then drop the friendship bomb. (Oh yeah, and how about a longer Equestria scene? Not just because hey it's nice seeing pony Sunset again, but because "Sunset meets Starlight" is kind of a big event!) It could probably work!
Still, this one was good. I'd rank it solidly at #2 of the trio, not too far behind Movie Magic. (Funnily enough, it's the same spread as the original movies: first one sucked, second one was awesome, third one... Well, I like Mirror Magic more than I liked Friendship Games, if they're at all comparable, but still, in the middle.)
Okay but seriously, please keep Starlight in Humania, she's much better there. D: Curse this lack of show/movie continuity!
-Sees "Starlight saves the day"
-Vomits
I'll wait for the English releases...
You were a lot nicer to this short than I was.
Sunset and Starlight permanently switch places... now that's a Season 8 I would love.
Kinda surprised you liked it so much because my reaction to it was... it was okay.
I said this over on Drakey's blog, but I think I succumbed to high expectations. I really wanted this to be spectacular and what I got was competent.
Is that too much to ask? Well, I had high expectations for A Royal Problem and I came out of that with my expectation met and then some.
I'm hoping something interesting comes out of this. Having this be a one-off meetup of two popular characters seems like wasted potential.
4550318
I second that motion.
I'm still annoyed in general by EqG Twilight's role. She's in front of Sunset in the intro? She gets the wings? I mean, come on. On what level does she even deserve them and not Sunset? Ugh.
Other than that, it was kinda cute.
4550318
This guy gets it.
4550334
I mean, what did I get from this? Adorable human Starlight, even though she saves the day. Pony Sunset Shimmer, even though that whole scene is kind of awkward and dumb. More Juniper Montage, even though she kind of just stands around yelling at a mirror before becoming the least threatening villain in history. There's a lot of stuff that I liked, but it's all riding on this air mattress of mediocrity and disappointment. I guess I'm just focused on the good parts for once because I'm so hyped from Movie Magic?
4550498
Not just you, I also find it odd that Sci-Twi gets wings just because her horse counterpart has them. But, I don't expect the show runners to put a lot of thought into EQG stuff. :/ I wish I could.
Do want
Pls give
:(
4550498
Das what I'm saying
So, I actually had to take a break in the middle because of how disgusted I was by Starlight saying "if you spend too much time worrying about the things that might happen..."
A huge part of why she's awful is that she never, ever thinks about the bad things that might happen. Or will probably happen. Or are exactly the things that she's planning to do. >:(
And that was after "I don't know she won't" too.
But... the collapse inside the mirror was good, and the end, though hokey, was fine. That said, I call bullshit on Juniper or whatever wanting a friend as opposed to fame. There was nothing indicating that in either of the specials she was in, and in Movie Magic it basically looked like the girls were all ready to be friends in the first place. Eh.
Oh, and the design of Movie Star!Juniper was hideous, taking the somewhat too-long legs of EQG and then like doubling them. Why? D:
4550498
I felt seriously ripped off by pony Sunset not having wings after "My Past Is Not Today" and Friendship Games. She, frankly, seems like a less arbitrary target to me than actual Princess Twilight Sparkle was.
4596099
I think that is what the designers were trying to go for. By making a character look disproportionate, they could make the viewer feel uneasy, just like how the passerby reacted when they saw Movie Star!Juniper. What's wrong with hideous if you're trying to make the character look scary?