Random Ramblings XXXIX · 7:18am Feb 23rd, 2016
I FINALLY WATCHED FRIENDSHIP GAMES
That header really speaks for itself. Yeah, yeah. Call me a scrub or whatever. I have no excuse. Due to a combination of busy and apathy (and refusing to until I'd finished S5, which I did a couple months ago, so I could see FG in its proper position in the timeline – kinda like EQG1 and its prequel comic), I did not watch Friendship Games. Until tonight.
Thoughts below the jump.
Warning: Long blog-post is long!
This is not going to be a "Twelfth Doctor"-style review, because even though I promised exactly that a few months back, I just don't have it in me to synthesize and distill my thoughts enough to do the bullet-point lists anymore.
I liked the movie. I didn't enjoy it as much as Rainbow Rocks – which is without a doubt the best thing this franchise spin-off will ever produce – but it was a hell of a lot better than the first movie, which I considered passable at best. Yes, I'm going to be referencing the first two EQG movies a bit, which I normally wouldn't do because I feel even a sequel should be able to stand on its own. This one does so, but the fact that it is a direct continuation and often references the first two instalments just invites the comparisons.
The animation managed to improve upon the already excellent work in RR, although some of the expressions tended towards "Dreamworks Face", which seems a little odd for characters that are absolutely sincere in their emotions and actions (including Rainbow Douche).
I love that when Rainbow Dash was bitching about her busted guitar, Sunset had a spare guitar string in her bag. It's a nice callback to Rainbow Rocks and fits my headcanon of Sunset spending most of her free time practising her guitar.
The songs weren't as memorable as RR, but again they were far better and felt more varied than EQG1. The opening in particular is the best of the three EQG openings we've had thus far.
Midnight Sparkle – or as I prefer to call her, Nightmare Twilight – has an excellent design, with a single exception. Yeah, both she and "Daydream" Shimmer (another otherwise fantastic design) have those damn horns – on Derpibooru, I make no secret of my dislike for "horned humanizations" – but the camera seems to go out of its way to avoid showing the horns, which means it's not as distracting as it could have been.
And now my issues with the movie:
ONCE AGAIN, Sunset is forced to take a backseat to Worst Main Character™, although the EQG-verse version is a hell of a lot more sympathetic than her pony counterpart. It's also a little irritating that Sunset sees fit to give pony-Twi all the credit for defeating the Dazzlings (a.k.a. Best Villains™) — I rewatched that movie recently; Sunset was the one who figured out a musical counterspell was necessary, not Twilight. Sunset was also the only one who realized Twilight wasn't up to the task of writing it (note her facial expressions), though she pushed her doubts aside and trusted Twi to do it. Hell, the Other Five are more willing to give Sunset credit than she herself is.
Does Sunset – a girl whose downfall was precipitated in part by her massive ego (though I have my own analysis on that) – really have so little confidence in her own intelligence, or perhaps her brain got so scrambled by that Taste-the-Rainbow, that she feels compelled to genuflect to Twilight, a pony compared to whom she is demonstrably more intelligent (in all matters other than Friendship)? In that same vein, though it was nice to see Sunset's fiery personality come to the fore again, I wish she would have been even harsher on Sci-Twi, and that Sci-Twi had been less clueless about her own device that she created.
Although I understand the narrative reason for cutting Sunset's half of "What More Is Out There", it's still a damn shame, since I'd rather hear Sunset sing than Twilight (even if Rebecca is singing for both). The fact that Sunset is cut even from the OST version (where there's no excuse) is just fucking insulting, especially since it's nearly impossible to find a non-pitch-shifted version of that song anymore (screw you Sony, I hope all your executives and paper-pushers contract that disease that makes your butts explode).
Probably the biggest issue of the film is that the Crystal Prep kids needed more characterization, or at least more screen time to show off what traits they had. To do that, the movie needed to be at least ten minutes longer than it is. It's only a couple minutes shorter than Rainbow Rocks, but RR benefits from not having as many characters to keep straight. I want to like them but I couldn't get attached to any of them. It reminds me of something else — I'm currently reading some of the more recent (English) volumes of One Piece, and there's a massive battle-royale going on. Problem is there are so many characters to keep straight (even by this comic's standards) and the action keeps cutting away so frequently that it's difficult to care about anything.
This is gonna sound kinda weird, given that I'm a longtime fan of Cathy Weseluck's work, but there was no reason for Spike to talk. Yes, it was justified in-story, but him talking added nothing to the plot. Compared to EQG1 where he was one of the best things about the movie, and RR where he was the one who technically saved the day, it's kind of a letdown. I'm not sure if it was a corporate or actors'-union dictate, or if Josh Haber just felt guilty and wanted to give Cathy something to do. It's a little odd too, since Haber wrote one of the funniest Spike scenes in the entire main series, and did it without Spike saying a word. Granted, this Spike is different from "our" Spike; the EQG version is just a dog who has no reason to be anywhere near as sarcastic as the butt-monkey dragon we all know.
On the neutral front, I think school pride stuff is dumb, and EQG has gotten more than its share of flak for it, but I'm from a small semi-rural town, and these pep rally things do happen. At least this time wasn't nearly as bullshit as the first movie. "Magic Of Friendship" may be silly, but it is sorta-kinda the entire purpose of the series (narratively; "to sell toys" being its commercial purpose), so I can't really fault it for that. But I don't get as mad as a lot of other people. This is because I've been out of high school for over a decade, so for me it's kind of looking from the outside in to a distant fuzzy memory.
Also, I'm starting to feel almost sorry for Flash Sentry. He's surpassed Spike as the butt-monkey to end all butt-monkeys.
In all, I'm willing to give Friendship Games a B-. Or, going by my old "Twelfth Doctor" rating scale, an 8/10.
As a final aside, some months ago I outlined a Sunset story – an AU murder mystery involving both Twilights – and I was concerned that watching FG would force me to scrap some or all of it. I am pleased to say that nothing in this movie changed my mind about the direction I've taken with my story. "AU" is a very useful tag.
I apologize for the long post.
Man I'm sorry, I'm like a week or two behind on my feed.
I agree on most of your points here.
This was the biggest letdown for me about Friendship Games. RR was amazing, IMO; it offered a great combination of music, plot, and interesting characters. IMO, the biggest missing element in FG was the music; I wondered if they would maintain that link between the pony powers and the music, and I was disappointed when they decided to abandon that. (Or water it down with a super-generic "use your special talent" thing.) The only song from FG that stood out to me was Unleash The Magic; perhaps because it was the only one that came anywhere near the tone and style of RR.
To me, FG somehow managed to feel both too long and too short. I didn't feel a lot of engagement with most of the plot, so I was eager to get it over with; but part of the problem there was that so many characters just came and went without spending enough time to build any sort of connection. Such a wasted opportunity to leave us with a well fleshed-out "evil 6" that could have spawned interesting fanfic. (I mean, people are obviously filling in the blanks and doing OK by it, but the Sirens gave us so much more to work with.)
Tell me more, darling.
3785452 - I agree that the pony-up thing got diluted, but at least it was justified within the story, as Equestrian magic running wild.
Friendship Games is not terrible in any sense. I just think it needed to tighten its focus. However, the fact that the story was built around a competition meant there had to be characters that presented a direct contrast to the Mane Six. Unfortunately, the story didn't spend much time on them, so I found it difficult to feel anything toward them at all. They created these new girls with wonderful designs, but I just couldn't care. Since their purpose in-story was to serve as a direct contrast to the Other Five, they needed more focus. Of course, doing so would have bogged down the A-plot, so I don't think there was much Haber could do to salvage it.
As to my EQG AU story, I'm not going to say any more publicly than I already have. After all, part of a mystery is not knowing what's coming, right?
I don't mind PM-ing you a few of the details though. It's next on my to-do list, after I write Lows And Highs, which hopefully won't take too long once I start it, which I'm going to do once I finish the current chapter of Break Time, which I almost finished today.
3785563 Lol true, I suppose that giving away the mystery early does no one any good. Well, if nothing else, there's interest in the concept.