Sunset's Pet Needs More Love · 8:48pm Oct 22nd, 2022
Blog Number 201: Ray of Sunshine Edition
I've been watching more EqG...
This guy is a legendary fire salamander in PonyWorld, and you can't change my mind.😎
Source: https://onepiecefanon.fandom.com/wiki/Sara_Sara_no_Mi,_Model:_Fire_Salamander.
Not a One Piece reference - I just really love the design of this thing.
Earlier this month, I decided to plug a gap in my G4 experience, did a bit of catching up, and watched all the Equestria Girls shorts I hadn't already seen (specifically, that meant all the vids for Summertime Shorts, Better Together, and Choose Your Own Ending, as well as "My Past is Not Today", "Friendship Through the Ages", and "Life is a Runway").
Most I watched on the fandom wiki, but a handful I had to track down on YouTube. Which was a pain, not least because the ads swarm you as soon as you arrive. I swear they're getting longer and more numerous too (and repetitive: Grammarly kept coming up even when I told YouTube for the umpteenth time to stop bloody showing me the same ad over and over).
Anyway, back to the topic at hand! So yeah, as of this month, I have now seen every bit of EqG visual media (apart from the 3D ads, because... yikes 😬).
I'm not currently in the mood to give a full breakdown, so brief impressions:
- A rare few managed to dig a little deeper than I was expecting. I remember the Sunset-Twilight duet one especially, but there was also the Flash Sentry song, the song about one good deed leading to a chain of good deeds, and the one about the rain at the concert with a Wallflower cameo in the audience.
- Most were pretty fun - Pinkie at a 50's diner seemed so amazingly right despite coming out of left field, and Tank is now officially Best EqG Character. Cranky was an unexpected but welcome recurring cast member as well. And most of the shorts knew full well they were just there for a simple gag or cute idea, which made them feel nice and comfortable in the moment.
- Some were "meh", and just seemed kind of pointless even by fluffy standards (the multi-choice ones especially, for some reason), but most of those did throw some worldbuilding interest my way. The Rosette Nebula one, for example. You'd think someone who influenced Twilight down to the hairstyle would have more to do than eventually greet her at a party.
- A few made little sense. Like the driving test one: seriously, how does getting a jack out the trunk constitute an automatic pass?
- Only a couple seemed actually unpleasant. One was the yacht rap, and even then I ironically found it hilariously awful... whilst definitely never wanting to watch it again. The other was Rarity's song about inspiration, which just seemed uncomfortably sexualized and felt very out of place.
So overall? A nice bunch! I'd be happy to come back to this topic at some point and talk more about the specific vids, either individually or in clusters. Found it very interesting how some did have common themes and tied into the specials here and there, such as the run of Starswirled Music Festival shorts and the coal mining play from "Spring Breakdown". Feels like it wouldn't take much to expand on that and go full EqG TV Seasons. If only, eh?
However, I do have an inordinate fondness for a specific one that fed me headcanon fodder, so...
Sunset and a leopard gecko. This was way cuter than it had any right to be.😍
#WeNeedMoreRayInOurLives
That's all for now! Impossible Numbers, out.
Yeah, honestly, the shorts aren't half bad, Most of them do know they're just li'l bit of fluff and embrace it, making for amusing and wry little time wasters. Now we're several years removed from resentment towards them for most fans at getting them over longer content with more substance, it's easier to appreciate them for what they are. Helps that of the longer-form EqG content produced after Legend of Everfree, everything bar Forgotten Friendship is weak or worse, so much of this is often better, or at least doesn't irritate. Either that, or the TYT G5 shorts have numbed me, because these seems a lot better now in the wake of what passes for MLP shorts these days…
I quite like what they did with Cranky too. It reminds me a bit of how the comics used Filthy Rich a fair bit more than the show did, reinterpreting the character in a different medium.
Oh, and more than a few of the songs are quite ear wormy too. That one of Applejack at a juice bar lived in my head rent-free for ages. On a Yacht has kind of become a typical punching back to laugh at, naturally. And yeah, the sexualisation in The Other Side was… uncomfortable.
Because they came in dribs and drabs, they do blend together a fair bit, and aren't always easiest to tally in one's mind. Especially those Choose Your Own Adventure ones, which don't land nearly as well outside of their original content of the Discovery Family app, and can't operate as intended on YouTube now due to the COPPA Made for Kids restrictions, requiring the viewer to pre-find all paths before watching.
An FYI, the reason Ray never appeared again after his intro short is because those Summertime Shorts (the ones that aren't music videos, which Hasbro promotes as Canterlot Shorts) were produced not by DHX Media, but by Boulder Media. Hasbro bought Boulder in 2016, and these shorts came out in 2017. The main reason Hasbro bought Boulder was, of course, to move production of as many of their shows as they could in-house (not a successful ambition, as the G5 show proved). Now, it's speculation, but I think Hasbro had Boulder produce these as a test to see how they'd fare producing MLP going forward, possibly sub-contracting them before the purchase was even closed. I'm not sure if that included storyboarding them too, or just the actual production, much like with the later Rainbow Roadtrip (which itself only exists because Hasbro cancelled the plans for another G4 movie and needed something for the artists to do, retooling one of the film outlines into an unrecognisable shape – it would certainly explain why it goes an hour of runtime it assuredly does not need).
Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed the animation is on the stiffer side, compared to DHX having had years to avoid the obvious Flash tweening you can see a bit of in Season 1 of FiM. Whatever the end result of this test was internally, it is known that one reason for cutting FiM short at Season 9, according to Jim Miller, was moving MLP to Boulder Media.
What does this have to do with Ray? All new Flash assets made for those shorts never had a need to be send back to DHX unless specifically asked for. Which, evidently, they weren't. I don't doubt there may have been some lingering resentment on the part of the DHX crew at losing the property, but who can say for sure.
I know there's a piece of fanart where Sunset takes Ray through the portal and he turns into a wyvern on the other side, but besides that… yeah, I probably can't. :)
yes he does, Ray is great :D
Yeah, the yacht rap...
I don’t want to talk about the yacht rap.
But other than that, there’s some rich fodder to be had with the shorts. And Ray could always use more love.
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Oh, that reminds me: a couple of weeks back (I think?), I did search for Ray and Sunset stories to see if anyone had done much with the idea, and found this:
- Equestria Girls
- Slice of Life
During a routine visit to Equestria to see Princess Twilight, Sunset decides to bring her pet Ray along with her. Only... she wasn't quite expecting what he would turn into on the other side of the portal...The cover art is a snippet from that very work of fan art, too.
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"Ray for President."
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Strange, I thought we were talking about the Titanic animated movie. You know, the one with the rapping dog. I'm pretty sure there was a rapping dog in it.
I'm honestly surprised someone else interpreted him as a wyvern in PonyWorld, because the moment I saw him, my first thought was fire salamander. I mean, Sunset's hair, he's a reptile, he's not Spike: it all fits!
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Yeah, that one too! I remembered seeing it in the Featured box and reading through it at some point, but I couldn't remember what it was called or even when exactly it came out. Seems you're a step ahead of me!
April 2019, huh? Funnily enough, that's right around the time I really started doing things with my account. Good times!
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That happened? I must be half-blind, because I never noticed that kind of backlash (admittedly, it took me years to pay much attention to EqG at all - I first watched the original trilogy of movies in September 2019).
I'll go to bat for Sunset's Backstage Pass any day - not least because it lacks the problematic elements of Forgotten Friendship and manages to be solid high concept fun start-to-finish - but I see your point.
Pretty much my experience: I watched them all in a days-long binge, so they do blur a bit for me. In that context, it takes some doing to stand out (for good or ill), but my overall impression was one of lightweight enjoyment. It's probably the lack of pretentiousness and easygoing attitude that helps.
"It's all gone to the dogs these days..." Whoa there, old-timer. I can hear your knees a-creakin'.
At first, I barely noticed, though I suppose on some basic level I just found it as entertaining as everything else. It was during the short where Cranky casually hangs out with Celestia and Luna that it sort of hit me how I'd been quietly enjoying his prominence in the shorts. They're very good at suggesting worldbuilding and history while barely diving below the surface, yet making you want to explore.
Plus, a cranky old killjoy offers more scope for comedic moments.
That one sort of passed me by, to be honest. A fun one, but every one was a fun one, so it had to be something really out there (like Twilight's mad science song) to stick.
It feels so badly misjudged, and yet throws so much enthusiasm into what it's doing, that I can only describe it as impressively embarrassing.
To say nothing of the mysterious reappearance of the carousel dress, which feels less like something eccentrically classy Rarity would make and more like a bet made by people who thought Lady Gaga was phoning it in.
I definitely remember having to search YouTube a lot once I reached that collection. At least the various alternatives are like flavours of ice cream, though the seconds-long pause at the end of each starter vid always felt silly out of context.
Didn't realize Boulder were already veterans when they got ahold of G5. So it was premeditated, then.
Admittedly, my eye is not an eagle's, so the animation detail must have slipped by me, but I might look out for it on a rewatch. There's always the chance I did notice, but didn't think much about it and promptly forgot.
Possibly, though I think the more straightforward answer is that nearly everything in these shorts was built to be ephemeral and was never intended to be more than a momentary tease. So much of these vids' appeal to me personally is because of the occasional drizzle of fanfic fuel on the warm fire. Sunset's introduction to Ray amounted to little more than a faint nod to "May the Best Pet Win!", in any case.
Still, we can't rule out the lack of communication between studios as a factor. Don't think I'd make any guesses as to how the crew felt about it, not without statements from them, but it wouldn't surprise me if you were right.
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Not by much. If you hadn't mentioned the wyvern detail, I would have clean forgotten about it.
It makes me feel so ooollld.
Isn't she just? A friend cosplayed as that Pinkie back when the short was newish, and everyone smiled. Doesn't hurt that "Coinky-Dink World" is such an earworm, admittedly.
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Yes. A rap which, in what would seem to be proof that everything eventually comes back to Pony, I first encountered at UK PonyCon a few years ago.
It's a ridiculously terrible song in a ridiculously terrible film, but I'd still take it over "I'm on a Yacht" any day of the week.
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Well, resentment is a strong word. More indifference, and a sort of mostly-polite frustration we were getting fluffy nothings instead of content with more substance.
It’s subtle enough that a person might not notice it enough to remember by the time the short is done unless they’ve specifically internalised it’s a Boulder short, and to watching the animation tweens. It’d probably take comparing one of their shorts to a concurrent DHX one in a play-by-play for most folks.
That is most of it for sure, but the separation does at least indicate why Ray (or any other new or unique character models made for that run of shorts) don’t even pop up in background shots where they might otherwise have appeared. Ditto for any new backgrounds or sets.
Whenever asked on the matter, DHX crew have put a neutral and polite face on the matter of transferring MLP production over, and it seems they harbour no ill will towards anyone, but just feel protective of the property from their own work and thus uninterested in someone else managing their baby. Which, yeah, I get it. Jim Miller has gone on record to say he’s still not seen any G4/G5 MLP content produced outside of DHX, for one thing. Honestly, though, it almost certainly is just the lack of direct studio communications (sans DHX transferring their existing assets over), nothing more.
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Oh my god... Is the world really all ultimately one big pony convention, and I just haven't noticed it yet? My sense of reality has just gone pink!
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Hey, a step ahead's still a step ahead! Thanks for finding it; seems like a good excuse to reread it and give the little gecko some of that "more love" you were talking about!
It's probably just my hindsight falling victim to the rosy lens of saudade, but I'm actually kinda jealous that all you guys had to worry about was the occasional Mare Do Well or Twilicorn. I got S8, S9, an unironic appreciation for both of them, and all the subsequent baggage entailed.
On the other side of that coin, I've heard there was once quite a bit of trepidation surrounding EqD, and hey, that went on to give us neat tidbits like, well, Ray!
Point being, I look upon it in terms of experience!
Also:
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Ah, yes, the Italian animated Titanic movie rabbit hole; so nice(???), they had to hit the ice twice (thrice if you count the even more batsh*t sequel one of them got).
Ray is the best!
I do agree that Ray is pretty cute and that he needs more love
We have matching canons about Ray!
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My friends, let us all sign the Ray Petition.
Pets in general are underrated in Gen 4.
As was EQG.
As far as the music goes, my favorites would have to be the series Harmonies. Both Dazzling and Rainbooms. EQG did those particularly well.
Although "Invisible" echoes enough that it also sounds like a Harmony, which is very appropriate for someone like Wallflower Blush.
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Preach it!
Tank in the Equestria Girls shorts was extra adorable. I'm surprised by how much my attitude towards EqG in general has improved over the last few years. I was leery enough to steer clear of it for a long time.
And I really like that musical tidbit about "Invisible". That's pretty clever.
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That happens sometimes. I was lucky enough to love it from the get go.
It was the slice of life show I always knew the pony version could be, but done way more consistently.
Yeah "Invisible" is a really great song.
There's a few unnoticed goodies like that in EQG.
On the musical side, there's some echos in "Let's Have A Battle" that feels like a early stab on Invisible's concept.
It's almost like there's additional voices present during the Siren's feeding.
Excuse me, but "I'm On a Yacht" is not just the patrician's EG song, but the pinnacle of human achievement, and anyone who disagrees is obviously just jealous of John Jennings Boyd and Lisette Bustamante's sheer talent and genius.
That aside, I agree with the sentiment that the shorts varied in quality and memorability but were ultimately a net positive. Though, as is often the case in this franchise, I find that I tended to prefer the earlier ones the most. I don't dislike late-series Equestria Girls as intensely as I do late-series FiM, but it had a few nonsensical ideas that annoyed me and a heck of a lot of missed opportunities, and that often went just as much for the shorts as it did for the specials. For one thing, it always annoyed me that they had a short where the girls sat their final exams, only for them to still be high school afterwards. Where's the graduation special, you hacks?
It's why when I cut off my writing from canon after season six, I also simultaneously cut off from EG canon midway through these shorts. Specifically, I kept the Summertime Shorts series, but cut off the Better Together series and everything that came after (though of course I still cherry-picked ideas I liked from later canon... like Ray, for instance).
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Ohhhhhhhh, so that's why that special was so weird. I always wondered, but never really cared enough to look into it. What was the original outline then? Something actually involving a roadtrip in a significant way, I imagine?
Should've protected it from Haber then.
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Well, unlike the leaks for the actual show, or the 2017 movie, there have not been (to my knowledge) leaks from DHX on anything I'm about to talk about. Certainly not from Boulder Media, anyway. This is all based on circumstantial, but reliable evidence from various crew members here and there.
So. When Boulder was first put in production of an MLP movie, in the very, very early days – like, before the 2017 movie was even out – it was going to be just another G4 film, albeit one that would end the series. A New Generation Art Director Pablo Meyer, after he'd uploaded tons of concept art of that film's production, last December, uploaded some of this early G4 film art here and here on his Instagram. Doesn't tell us much, though quite a lot of Spike focus (plus one huge dragon and another shadowed dragon-like creature), indicating some sort of role for him. Totally worth a look! Anyway, another crew member said that they worked on 3 or 4 scripts across a six-month span before Hasbro decided to go full reboot (presumably, this was when they switched to the Mane 6 reboot that we saw in the 2017 movie leaks). But, they were all supposed to be the end of G4. Though when he says 'scripts', I don't think he means actual scripts, more outlines.
I cannot find the source for it now, alas, but someone did confirm that Rainbow Roadtrip used a potential G4 sequel plot as its basis. In reality, it probably inherited only the concept of a greyed-out locale and rainbow colour magic. Maybe a notion of the Mane 6 splitting and doing individual bonding with various townsponies, though I doubt it. Now, I don't have as much evidence on the whole for this next bit, BUT, we do know from 2017 movie leak emails that some folks were trying to push a second G4 film into production for a 2019 release, and Meghan McCarthy had to point out it was feasibly impossible from where they were at that moment. Early public timelines by Hasbro did have another MLP movie for late 2019, so this is all fact. This is probably when Hasbro shifted to letting DHX finish G4 and just moving Boulder onto G5. Anyway, I'm guessing Boulder had already started their massive hiring spree for the movie, and while they let the pre-production artists tease out a new direction, they needed something to justify keeping them (those of them that would work on TV special pay, I mean). So, Hasbro told Haber "look, we need an hour-long special, can one of your writers make something one of these scrapped ideas?", it ended up with Nicole Dubuc, and the rest is history.
Sadly, no idea what the original outline was, alas (nothing much in the art above either). Hopefully all that was still plenty interesting regardless!
I mean, I never said they were in the total right, given Jim Miller seems to have supported much of the direction Seasons 6-9 went in. Moot point anyway, given Haber becoming Story Editor and sending the show into a ditch was Hasbro's choice, not DHX's.
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Very. Thank you.
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Please send me the coordinates to the alternative universe you live in, because it sounds like a rockin' dive.
To paraphrase a line from one of your own review blogs: Equestria Girls' timeline is ****ed.
Quite apart from its muddying of the chronology waters, though, late-series EqG became a lot more frivolous than I was expecting. To be fair, it's been cheerfully doing frivolous stuff since the Other Main Five basically mucked about in the background for long stretches of movie time (heck, you could argue the whole "High School A.U." is inherently frivolous). But at least at the beginning it was anchored by Twilight and Sunset's larger character arcs and development.
I tend to single out The Legend of Everfree as the point where it started to feel less focused, if only because the prior three movies feel surprisingly self-contained in hindsight. Plus, the antagonist is in this awkward middle category where they're too thematically relevant or threatening to be dismissed as a throwaway villain... but they're so divorced or downplayed relative to the main character shenanigans that they're totally a throwaway villain.
Privately, I'm compiling this as evidence that EqG is not as copy-paste-the-real-world as it initially seems and may or may not have rules of its own. But that's total fan wonk.
Oddly, despite my own "increasingly ignore canon after X point is reached, outright dismiss it after Y point" re: MLP:FiM, I haven't yet narrowed down my own approach to EqG canonicity. For one thing, "Spring Breakdown" inevitably falls victim to my own lack of interest in the movie, whereas I really like "Sunset's Backstage Pass" as a rare late-EqG highlight.
And Ray. If I ever get a fanfic out for him, Ray is totally getting the first class treatment.
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Well, hard to have character arcs in a series of two minute shorts. But the specials usually kept sight of that. Forgotten Friendship was probably the most focused any story had been on Sunset's character arc since arguably Rainbow Rocks. I feel like it's the theme park special where we began to pivot away from that.
Well, here's how I handled it, just for reference. Given that you and I share a lot of opinions about the latter half of the series, I would suggest some variation on this, just picking a few different cherries than I did. Or alternatively, you could consign a few favourites to your "good apocrypha" category, alongside the likes of The Parent Map.
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Oh, I'll consign them, all right. I'll consign them indeed...
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