Two new Ponies to talk about, oh my!

First, "Your Deepest Desires" has been updated, and thank you very much to guest author Quillo Manar for contributing to the cause. When I said people could contribute to it I expected to get a bunch of "dark side" stories, rather than an absolutely adorable Safe-For-Work Cuddleshy story, but I'm most certainly not disappointed.

Anyway, Made in Manehattan was certainly a cute episode, but not my favorite. I probably would feel like saying more about it if it wasn't for-

"Equestria Girls: Friendship Games". Two years ago it was the first EG movie that made me start writing fanfics. Not the thing that got me into the fandom, mind you, just the one that made me want to write about it. This one, while the direction is okay and the characters continue to be lively and fun, I just feel like it suffered from a lack of a strong antagonist, and some watering down for the sake of maintaining marketability.

Twilight Sparkle in FiM episode 1 was sort of a smarmy smartass who rejected companionship outright, and actively told/convinced ponies to leave her alone. This Twilight Sparkle actually would have worked extremely well in this movie, but instead, because Twilight is "the protagonist" and the tentpole of the franchise, the Twilight represented here is much softer and kinder, a purehearted soul trapped in a sea of wickedness that is the Crystal Prep student body. She wants to be friendly and good, she just has nobody friendly and good to interact with. This diminishes the ending where they offer to teach her about friendship, since she's already friendly throughout.

Also the fact that her mischief is represented as being completely accidental makes her "evil transformation" completely unjustifiable. Sunset Shimmer was transformed into a monster because she took the crown in the spirit of wickedness and had evil intent, Twilight Sparkle doesn't have a shred of wickedness or evil within her, and her sole intention in using the power is "to learn". Her attempt to annihilate the school with her new powers makes absolutely no sense in this context. I get that "the magic corrupted her", but it has no REASON to have corrupted her. She never meant any ill will or had any wicked intentions. She could have easily just waved a portal open and wandered through, no destruction required.

This is basically the same problem I had with "Nightmare Rarity" in the comics. The heroes aren't allowed to be portrayed as antagonists, no matter what. It would damage their marketability. So if they do something that can be construed as bad, they need to be completely absolved of all wrongdoing. It can't be their fault. So the principal is turned into an extortionist and used as a flimsy "villain" just to give the movie something resembling one. Because Twilight sure can't be used as one, despite behaving like one "accidentally". She even watches Fluttershy collapse to the floor for crying out loud and never even thinks to worry about her. That would work if it was Smartass Sparkle who legitimately didn't care about and rejected others, but for this softer Twilight, it makes no sense.

I'm complaining, but I enjoyed the movie, I really did. It had some interesting action moments, great characterization, and some of the ideas were really cool. It's mostly Twilight Sparkle's portrayal that bugged me. Such a wasted opportunity, and it diminishes the ending, too.