Special Re-Review: Equestria Girls: Forgotten Friendship · 4:42pm April 20th
While we now know that this has to take place not just before Season 8 but before the events of the 2017 FiM movie, it first premiered in February of 2018, about a month before Season 8 of FiM hit the airwaves. Interestingly, the Discovery Family broadcast omitted several scenes that were later released as part of an "extended" version. As for the writer, it was none other than Nick Confalone, who apparently got the job of writing for FiM because he was friends with Josh Haber. He would be among the writers to stay until the very end, and this would be the first of three Equestria Girls specials he would pen, marking the first time since "Rainbow Rocks" that the same writer was in charge of the franchise for multiple installments. Nick's next two specials would not be anywhere near as well received as this one. In fact, this seems to be the last time anyone ever talked about Equestria Girls in a positive light, and this was back when it was pursuing its "spin-off" series on YouTube. With all that has happened since this special's original release, has it stood the test of time or did it show the cracks in Nick's writing style that would become apparent with his later writing endevors? Well, let's find out.
The special begins with Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms working on the yearbook committee, with Sci-Twi being jealous that Microchips got an honor that Sci-Twi was hoping would go to her. Interestingly, during this time, Sunset meets a shy, plant loving girl named Wallflower Blush. And her name is quite fitting, she's literally a wallflower and a shrinking violet. Just then, human Trixie storms in, demanding to be named in the yearbook as "Most Great and Powerful", but Sunset refuses. Trixie furiously vows revenge and disappers via smokebomb. Then human Rarity proposes that the Rainbooms all meet at the beach on Saturday to take pictures, and that night Sunset writes to pony Twilight to catch her up on everything that's been ongoing. You might think this would be an attempted nod to the YouTube shorts series, but it isn't.
That night, as everyone falls asleep, we see strange magical trendils seeping out from everyone's minds. The next day, all seems well as the Rainbooms all gather at the beach, and Sci-Twi shows off a new invention of hers: A selfie sensing drone. Ironically, this was before there would be all this focus on unique "learning AI" that are capable of writing, drawing art, and even initimating vocal and musical artists past and present. Anyway, Sunset Shimmers shows up to take pictures with the Rainbooms, but they act as if they still think Sunset is just a bully, much to Sunset's shock and surprise. She tries to convince them she's good, but the Rainbooms refuse to believe her, claiming she's just planting evidence to trick them. Horrified and worried that something has gone wrong, Sunset writes to pony Twilight to ask for confirmation if she's still good. Much to Sunset's relief, pony Twilight tells Sunset that she is good, and suspects that someone has tampered with the Rainbooms memories.
So Sunset opts to return to Equestria, hoping that pony Twilight can help her pin down the problem. But Twilight proposes going to Canterlot and seeking help from Princess Celestia, which Sunset is understandably hesitant about given the way on which her studies with Princess Celestia ended.
Still, Twilight and Sunset go to Canterlot, and after Twilight awkwardly attempts to introduce Sunset to Princess Celestia, Sunset presents herself to the princess and humbles herself, apologizing for her previous behavior. Fortunately, all is forgiven, Princess Celestia is grateful to have Sunset back. Interestingly, Princess Luna is present during this scene, and when she speaks Sunset Shimmer starts snicekring, saying that she's used to hearing Vice Principal Luna, and hearing such a voice speak so formally is off putting to her. She also makes a comment about "no student parking in the faculty parking lot", to which Luna asks if it's a place of great power. You might think this is just a joke, but it's actually a form of foreshadowing. That aside, Princess Celestia opts to take Twilight and Sunset to a hidden location within the Canterlot library. And one of the extended scenes has Sunset briefly meet pony Flash Sentry, but the two never speak.
In fact, all of the extended scenes contribute nothing of substance to the overall narrative. They all involve either jokes or pointless scenes. Anyway, Princess Celestia takes Sunset and Twilight to the secret location in the Canterlot library, a restricted section. And Twilight quickly starts geeking out. The problem is is that this amounts to more or less milking her book loving tendencies for the sake of a joke. And this is what flanderization looks like, exaggerating one aspect of a character's personality until it becomes the only thing they're known for. The whole point of FiM specifically is that Twilight learned not to always be fixated on books.
So Sunset and Twilight try to conduct research to figure out what could be behind the memory altering. But their search turns up nothing, aside from briefly mentioning Chancellor Puddinghead, though I believe they don't confirm if the chancellor was male or female. Coincidentally, by this point, Germany had famously elected a female chancellor named Meghan Merkel, who was seen as more or less the "face" of the EU. But just when you might think this nod to the founders is a throwaway bit for a joke, Twilight and Sunset end up finding an ancient journal about Clover the Clever. It confirms that Clover was actually male, not female, and reveals that on his own he was chasing after a thief who had stolen a magical mcguffin known as the memory stone. It was capable of stealing and preserving memories, and Clover chased the thief through a magic portal similar to the mirror portal used by Sunset and Twilight, but the thief eluded Clover and hid the memory stone in what turned out to be the human world.
Sunset decides to go back to the human world alone to find the memory stone and confront whoever's using it. Interestingly, she mentions that Twilight was a better teacher to her than Princess Celestia, and Princess Celestia initially acts jealous and offended at such a saying, before laughing it off. Sunset actually acts surprised to know that Princess Celestia has a sense of humor, which could suggest that Celestia was not as emotionally connected to Sunset like she was with Twilight. You could argue that Sunset was the Jason Todd to Twilight's Tim Drake.
Returning to the human world, Sunset is originally not focused on as we instead have the Rainbooms and human Trixie. Sci-Twi actually seems to be worried about Sunset, but human Trixie tells them not to worry about Sunset. Sunset Shimmer sees this, and begins to suspect that human Trixie is the culprit. She tries to prove to the Rainbooms that she's their friend, bringing up photos on her phone of them all being together, but the Rainbooms remember how Sunset used fake photos in the past and refuse to believe her. To make matters worse, Sunset accidentally steps on and breaks Sci-Twi's new drone, resulting in even Sci-Twi turning against Sunset.
Thinking that Trixie erased everyone's memories of Sunset as payback for Sunset refusing to put Trixie in the yearbook as "Most Great and Powerful", Sunset confronts human Trixie point blank in the hallways. But human Trixie denies any knowledge of the memory stone, and Sunset quickly realizes that Trixie can't be the culprit after all. Surprisingly, despite this false accusation, human Trixie is willing to drop the mask and help Sunset track down the real culprit.
As Sunset Shimmer tries to speculate on who could potentially have reason to make her look bad and try to turn the school against her, human Trixie points out that Sunset is still far from perfect despite her change of heart. We then get a montage of sorts of the two girls confronting and questioning various people throughout the school. Meanwhile, pony Twilight learns where the memory stone is buried, and finds out that if someone's memories are not restored within three days of being erased, they will be lost forever.
I should mention that human Trixie didn't agree to help Sunset entirely with no strings attached, she did ask to be named "Most Great and Powerful" in the yearbook. And Sunset initially refused, but ultimately relented upon sensing that she had no choice. Apparently, Sunset's journey to Equestria used up a lot of time, because now inexplicably Sunset realizes from pony Twilight's message that she only has until sundown to restore her friends' memories, or they'll be lost forever. Then she realizes that she and Trixie never thought to ask Wallflower Blush. They go to confront her, and Sunset uses her ability to read minds to find out that Wallflower is indeed the culprit. She found the memory stone by chance, and started using it to erase bad encounters or any time where she felt she'd screwed up. The memories also reveal that she targetted Sunset because Wallflower believed that Sunset hadn't really changed at all, even though there's no evidence to suggest that, and Wallflower has been erasing memories so that no one would remember her. Interestingly, this leads into a more or less villain song from her in the form of "Invisible", which we were supposed to get an extended version of, but I don't believe we ever did. They acknowledge that this song is taking place in real time, because Sunset and Trixie try to swipe the memory stone while Wallflower is distracted. But Wallflower catches them in the act, and erases their memories of the encounter to make a getaway.
Initially, Sunset and Trixie don't remember how or why they're locked into the computer room, which is where they confronted Wallflower.
But in a case of Chekhov's Gun, Sunset reveals that she had Sci-Twi's repaired selfie drone recording the whole time. And sure enough, its databanks preserved the confrontation with Wallflower, enabling Sunset and Trixie to realize what's going to happen. They're still locked into the room, however, and there isn't time to wait for someone to let them out. So Trixie tries to pull off a smoke bomb escape, but keeps swapping herself and Sunset in and out, unable to get them both out. She ultimately settles for leaving herself behind so Sunset can stop Wallflower before it's too late.
Sunset catches up to Wallflower in the faculty parking lot, and tries to plead with her to give back the stolen memories, even apologizing for having unintentionally ignored Wallflower in the past. But Wallflower refuses to listen and instead decides to erase the memories of the Rainbooms to keep them from ever becoming friends with Sunset again. Realizing that they'll never become friends if they don't have memories of each other, Sunset leaps in front of them and scarifices her own memories.
So Sunset ends up not only losing any memories of the Rainbooms as her friends, but seems to lose all her memories of her time in the human world, because she drops to all fours and starts asking about "Canterlot" and "Princess Celestia". And this scarifice is enough to momentarily jog the Rainbooms memories, allowing them to power up. Interestingly, Wallflower doesn't turn into a monster like Gloriosia Daisy or Juniper Montage. And the Rainbooms powering up enables them to destroy the memory stone for good, restoring everyone's memories.
Now deeply ashamed of what she's done, Wallflower apologizes to Sunset, who in turn apologizes for unintentionally making Wallflower feel invisible. All is forgiven as the yearbooks are printed, and Sunset keeps her promises to both human Trixie and to Wallflower. She also writes to pony Twilight asking her to thank Princess Celestia, while mentioning that she still regards her as the "second best teacher" she ever had. Oddly enough, the special ends with a joke from human Rainbow Dash about how the yearbook photos make it look like they're being kissed by human Bulk Biceps.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the special? Well, it probably helps that it chose to focus on Sunset Shimmer, proving once again why she was Equestria Girls' greatest accomplishment during its run.
However, they didn't do it just for fanservice. This special ends up showing that redemption is an ongoing process. Much like life itself, you're never going to have to stop proving that you're good, and you will always have to live with the reminder of what you used to be like. This special shows how far Sunset has come as both a pony and a person, while also showing that there are still things to work on. Human Trixie also turns out to be a surprisingly good addition. In contrast to her pony counterpart, they actually let us see behind the mask and see a more vulnerable side of her. Why couldn't they have done stuff like this with pony Trixie, who sorely needed it?
As for Wallflower Blush, her original motivations for targetting Sunset make no sense. Not only is there plenty of evidence to suggest that Sunset has indeed changed, but Wallflower herself admits to having used the memory stone to erase any encounters of her, thus guaranteeing that she would be forgotten by everyone. She does improve a little in the villain department when she claims she's not lonely and that she hates Sunset for being so popular, even the anti-social can be envious of the social for having and experiencing what they (the anti-social) cannot have.
Of course, the real highlight is seeing Sunset Shimmer go back to Equestria and make amends with Princess Celestia. It's everything we could've hoped for, and then some. If anything, I wish they had dwelt more on this, not on jokes or cameos that didn't need to be in the story. They also needed to do a better job of conveying the passage of time, since they out of the blue state that Sunset only has one day in the human world to get all the stolen memories back before they're erased forever. They clearly did it to try to ramp up tensions, but why did they not reveal that sooner and then have pony Twilight discover it out of the blue on her own? Human Trixie is also a painfully obvious red herring villain. When Sunset confronts her and the special is only half over, it's obvious that Trixie is not the culprit.
Wallflower Blush is interesting in the fact that she doesn't turn into a monster, something that would become the trend for all future Equestria Girls villains. And it's easy to see that she got drunk on the dark side without realizing it. As for the Rainbooms, aside from their brief bit of genre saviness in remembering Sunset's use of fake photos in the past, and Sci-Twi briefly worrying about Sunset, they're mostly just there in the background. I know this wasn't really their story, but I feel like they could've done a bit more with them to justify Wallflower trying to resort to the nuclear option of erasing their friendships all together.
In the end, I give this special an A-. With just a little bit more polish in certain spots, it probably could've been flawless or very near flawless. Still, this I would say was Equestria Girls at its best. It was all more or less downhill from here.
So now it's back to FiM, and onto Season 8, which I already stated was a major step down in quality from Season 7. Having already covered the first three episodes back in 2021, we're jumping ahead to what I consider Season 8's first true misstep in "Fake It 'Til You Make It", which ends up being yet another episode about Fluttershy learning to stand up for herself.
Surprised you never even tried to give the Better Together shorts a watch. Sure they aren't half hour episodes, but it's not like they makes them any less good and valid. Plus, they do make more of an effort to focus on the other main characters and give some insight on them.
Even the supporting cast get to shine more in the shorts with the Canterlot Movie Club short especially shedding light on what the CMC's human counterparts are like (as in they aren't clamoring for Internet fame the one scene in the first movie). Monday Blues also answers the question of where Sunset lives, Good Vibes showing the Rainbooms' jobs and how they gain income (especially Sunset), and Pet Project shows Sunset gaining a new pet with her lizard Ray the Gecko.
The shorts aren't exactly bad, they are pretty charming and I do recommend you try to give them a chance.
5777531 Eh, thye fall into the same problem as the "Tell Your Tale" episodes for me. Five minutes is too short a span of time to do anything meaningful with the characters. Plus, some episodes are basically just music videos, and there is no consistency from episode to episode.
This special is a lot of fun, but it's not my absolute favorite EQG thing (that's still Mirror Magic).
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I do wonder then, have there been any shows with shorts that you enjoyed? Like, the short format isn't always bad with the recent Mickey Mouse shorts by Paul Rudish being an example of the short format working well in modern animation.
5777533
Would you consider making an exception for the half-hour long specials in regards to Tell Your Tale?
As for this special, it is sad that Nick Confalone peaked early with Equestria Girls here, though from what I've heard he doesn't think too highly of the spin-off series as a whole.
5777542 Nope. I've already said through earlier blog posts that I do not see how they can possibly turn something as low budget and low production valued as Tell Your Tale into something that could span the length of a traditional cartoon episode, or even half its run time. And even assuming they could, it further reinforces how G5 took too long to get good on its own, rather than relying on fanservice and nostalgia for G4.
Interesting to know Nick didn't think very highly of Equestria Girls. I wonder if that at all explains why his other two writing endevors for this didn't turn out very good, he wasn't much of a fan so he just wrote something for the sake of it and turned it in without much thought?
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Well according to The Hero of Tomorrow from his Spring Breakdown review, Nick allegedly said at a con somewhere that he thought the Equestria Girls series was kinda stupid.
5777608 I can see how he might think that, especially if he only had the first movie to go on for an impression.
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There isn't any statement from Nick personally where he said that. If all we have to go off of Nick hating EQG was just one fan, I wouldn't call it a reliable source.
Heck, Nick was interested enough in EQG to have an idea for a human Sunset Shimmer special.
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So how else would the show be able to reveal the smaller details with stuff like where Sunset lives and how she gets the money to afford her apartment, as well as her gaining a pet in Ray the Gecko? Those were things that are good details to know, but also aren't big enough to sustain a 22-44 minute plot so the short format does work with that smaller information stuff that can't be done in a 22-44 minute special.
5777962 If that's what the shorts were primarily used for, that would be different. But that's not what the majority of them were. It's the same as in "Tell Your Tale", there is no consistency or overall theme that ties them together, aside from the first two or three "Tell Your Tale" shorts showing the construction of the Brighthouse, and Zipp and Pipp moving to Maretime Bay.