Obligatory Equestria Girls Commentary · 7:56am Jul 2nd, 2013
Because all the cool kids are doing it!
I'll start off by saying this: I wasn't really planning on watching Equestria Girls. Since I'm not American, or even British, the chances of ever getting the movie in theaters here in original language are completely nonexistent, and I thought, if I'd see it, I do want to pay for it.
Then, youtube actually suggested it to me after looking through some random videos. Just, bam, right there, full movie. I was all, "no way", but yes, there it was. So I started watching it.
Now, since I didn't have the time to actually watch the whole thing (I was at work, eheh), I immediately used good ol' KeepVid.com to save it. That turned out to be for the best, because when I went back to the video a bit later, it had already been removed by Habsro. I think this one will be a neverending battle though... Hasbro is obliged to protect their IP, and thus obliged to keep removing it, and the bronies will keep uploading it, foreverrrr!
So, yeah, I watched it, with the same expectation as watching any new episode. Slightly giddy, and wondering if they made anything good out of it.
Do I even need to say, spoilers incoming? Because, spoilers incoming. Yeah.
I'll just start off by saying, I liked it. Some pones said it seemed like a fanfic made into a movie, and, well, perhaps, yes, but it was still a decent story. The "alternate world that equated all of Equestria to one high school" was kind of silly, but that was okay; MLP has always had a healthy dose of silliness.
As the opening rolled in, and I saw the silhouettes of the Mane Six transforming to human form, I was kinda "boo, don't put spoilers in the intro!", despite the fact not a soul would watch a movie without at least having read the short description.
Well, it seems I hadn't read that short description, because, the next thing that happened blew me away. Twilight Sparkle went in alone? Whaaat? The trailers showed all six of them! The intro showed all six of them transf— oh, very clever. Way to throw me off.
So, the whole school are alternates of the ponies of Equestria, and it is heavily implied there's a second Twilight Sparkle in this world as well. But knowing her, she graduated 4 years early and is already on her way to a second PhD; plenty of reason for her not to make an appearance in a high school 
And then we got Twilight figuring out how to be human. That was wonderfully silly, totally in-character and incredibly hilarious. Now, I'm not one for awkward situations humour... I'm usually all "ugh, no" and just skip it. None of this ever got to that. From her walking on all fours until seeing some dude walking his dog (heeey, weren't pets forbidden at school? 
), to her biting an apple off her plate, to the magnificent scene of her putting the pen in her mouth, and Pinkie not even batting an eye at that... I loved all of it. The vending machine was almost too much, but, saved by the Great and Powerful Trixie!
Now, for a feature film, I had expected a bit more complications in figuring out how Sunset Shimmer manipulated everyone. It was rather odd how none of them ever thought of looking into that. But well, I'll let that slide.
So, then we got the Bearers of the Elements, combined again. The always nice Fluttershy, Bounce-of-the-walls Pinkie, Bluntly honest AJ, boastful but good-natured Rainbow Dash, and ever-so-delicate but kind-hearted Rarity. Awesome.
Onto getting Twilight out of her status of (arguably adorkable) awkward anomaly. Cue the Tails and Ears. That, again, was downright silly; an obligatory throwback to the whole ponies thing. But it was meant to be silly; Rarity even calls it "absolutely preposterous" when proposing it, and she's absolutely right. But that's okay, because it was silly, and on top of that, it was explained not to be too preposterous in-universe. Good enough for me.
And I was ever-so-happy to see that in this alternate Equestria, musicalitis was also a common trait, and no one batted an eye at a spontaneous sing-and-dance choreography. Heck, Blue Dude even pulled out his guitar in the end. Of course, what would a MLP movie be without songs? 
Right. Blue Dude. I keep forgetting his name... something defence sentinel guardian something. Screw it, lemme look it up real quick. Right! Flash Sentry! Whatevs. When I first saw him in the school, I totally didn't make the link with the orange pegasus she bumped into in the Crystal Kingdom. So besides him, who's the only blue-haired guy we know in Equestria Proper? Her brother. Can we say, AWKWARD? Because I was kinda waiting for the guy to introduce himself as Shining Armor, and Twi being all kinds of weirded out. Now that would have been hilarious. (I had already heard he wasn't Shining around the community, mind you, but my point stands; it would've been so damn funny)
Let's skip a bit... past the hilarious photoshop-made-easy-in-a-mostly-2d-cartoon-world and the obvious friendship bonding cleanup and redecorating experience. Heck, let's skip right past Sunset's inevitable rise to demonic power, and onto the climax of the 'battle'.
There was one detail in there which was brilliant, took me totally off guard, and was a direct reference to what happened in the first episodes. With Nightmare Moon, the situation was arguably even worse; they were facing an incredibly powerful enemy, and the Elements were shattered, deemed unusable. But because of that detail, people tend to skip over another important one:
Nightmare Moon had them. The Elements, shattered, were lying at her feet.
And, when watching that climactic scene in Equestria Girls, it finally dawned on me that the Bearers don't need to have the Elements. As long as they're close to them, the Elements will come to them. And that's exactly what happened here.
So, yeah, that was pretty cool. What happened after that, however, wasn't.
Sunset Shimmer is alive. And suddenly all pathetic and saying she's sorry.
What? No! Give her the Tirek treatment! She shouldn't have come out of that blast at all! This is no Princess Luna who became evil because she was wronged for years on end! This was an insufferable bitch out to manipulate everyone just to get her way! There shouldn't have been anything left in that crater when the smoke cleared.
Alas, I guess the whole 'forgiveness' thing is a theme they need in there for the little girls. In reality, though, I don't see people like Sunset Shimmer making heel faced turns; they just grow more bitter and resentful. She turned into a demon, for feck's sake! She almost looked related to Tirek! But no, she is forgiven for no reason at all. Ah well. I got a chuckle out of Celestia handing her that trowel, at least.
And then Rainbow Dash has wings, and she's so goddamn awesome. Too bad they got these extras exactly after they'd have been useful to, y'know, keep the crown away from Sunset Shimmer, but eh. Not like Fluttershy would've dared to get more than a feet off the ground, anyway. I'm just glad Rarity and Twi didn't grow horns... because, ugh. That just looks awful on humans.
And then, they throw us some blatant shipping bait, by showing the pony version of Blue Dude again, and making us all fully realize he's the alternate of the Blue Dude in the High School World. Yeahh... like that'll stop this community from lesboshipping them all 
If there is a next season, I do wonder if Blue Dude will show up in it, though, of if he'll simply be forgotten like all of Equestria seems to constantly forget how the Mane Six save their world all the time.
Welp, that was my view on Equestria girls. Thumbs up, would (and probably will) watch again, now dammit Hasbro, sell some original-language region 2 DVDs in Belgium so I can own it properly.
This was one of the major things that stood out to me as well... at least for a moment. And then a thought came to me... how do we know those aren't crocodile tears? For all we know she was simply showing everyone what they wanted to see. A broken and defeated girl, rather then a cunning unicorn mage. She was simply manipulating them. Is this likely to how it is? No... but there's nothing telling me otherwise so my brain accepted it as head-cannon.
1183907
Habsro's Response: NEIN! The power of friendship compels you! Wololo!
1183914 NOooooooo!!!!!
That makes an absurd amount of sense.
It's obligatory, is it? I guess I'll have to do one of my own, then.
Funny, that's how I found it. Isn't Youtube amazing?
I think Flash Sentry is an example of Hasbro interference. I imagine Hasbro went to the writers with a list of plot elements they had to include in the movie: There have to be humans. The finale has to focus on a dance. There needs to be a romantic interest. The villian must be redeemed at the end. And then the writers attempted to twist Hasbro's vision into something resembling a good story. Hence the tacked on romance subplot and the strangely repentant Sunset Shimmer. I doubt that Flash Sentry will be coming back unless Hasbro insists on it. Which they very well might, but I try not to think about that sort of thing.
Sunset Shimmer, on the other hoof... The "teach her about friendship" moment at the end struck me as setting up a tv show. Will it happen? I don't know. But this is Hasbro. I'm sure they've thought about it, at least.
Obligatory?
OBLIGATORY?!?!?!
Oh... well, I guess that makes two of us...