Some Belated Thoughts on Rainbow Rocks · 5:11am Jun 19th, 2018
I was recently re-watching Rainbow Rocks, the second Equestria Girls movie, and here are the mental fruits of that experience.
(1) The Dazzlings are really great villains, especially by Equestria Girls standards. They give off this aura of cruel immortal predators, even when they're being cute. And especially when they're being sexy, as there is no evidence they are actually interested in Humanoids that way. (They are, after all, really Sea Ponies -- the seductiveness act seems to be just that -- another lure to draw their prey in close to them for dispatch). The fact that they are doing this to real human teenagers makes them even creepier and more terrifying -- we know they Would Hurt a Child (among their intended victims are the Cutie Mark Crusaders).
(2) I like the Dazzlings even more as villains now that I've seen them go up against the Pillars of Harmony. The Pillars are very credible heroes, and the Dazzlings credible villains.
(3) Princess Twilight assembles -- out of what looks to be equipment lying around the Castle -- a space-time portal based on Starswirl's design, heavily modified, and attuned by the guide-beam of the book-communicator, and leaps through it. Truly, Twilight Sparkle is a technomantic Gadgeteer Genius. And the magical equivalent of a Science Hero.
(4) Even Humanoid Pinkie Pie is a precognitive who can twist probability. IMO she can be invincible at cards when she wants to be.
(5) Humanoid Dashie casually detaches and throws a chocolate chip from a cookie, with enough accuracy to hit Twilight Sparkle on the back of the head from at least 6-12' distance, and enough force that Princess Twilight feels it through her hair. Talk about your natural athletes!
(6) They let Sonata make the fruit punch? I wonder how much bloody meat wound up in it as ingredients?
(7) If this were Japanese anime rather than a Western cartoon, Humanoid Pinkie Pie would be the Queen of the Panty Shot, with all her odd physical antics and resultant upside-down postures.
(8) In the Shadow Wars Story Verse version of Equestria Girls, Sunset Shimmer researches musical magic in An Equestrian Gentlemare. Strikes me that if this is true in vanilla canon, then Princess Twilight wasted a lot of time by not consulting with Sunset Shimmer earlier.
(9) Humanoid Fluttershy falls asleep hugging Dragon-in-Doggie Form Spike. D'awww! This also confirms my belief that -- after Twilight and Rarity -- Fluttershy is probably Spike's best friend out of the Pony Mane Six.
(10) Twilight's first attempt at songwriting not only sucks, but appears to be a parody of the "moral message" plot style beloved of bad 1980's TV cartoons -- including the worst episodes of G1 My Little Pony.
(11) Clothing styles in the Humanoidverse are weird. Short skirts, large boots, extensive and pointless layering and accessories. And that's before we even get into some of the strange costumes Rarity devises for the Rainbooms.
(12) Mind controlled Principals Celestia and Luna are hilarious to watch. Celestia is hyper-enthusiastic. Luna is hyper-competitive. This fits my notion that Fusion is basically hedonic and Gravity agonic in emotional natures. Both of them stare dreamily at the Dazzlings: Celestia in particular looks as if she wants to write them mash notes.
IMO the Dazzlings would not be welcome at CHS if they returned. For that reason alone.
(13) Snips and Snails take the rap world by storm. I wonder if my Humanoid Snails would go all Glittershell for the performance. The thought of Humanoid Glittershell the Hip-Hop Slut (or rather, her concept of such a character) disturbs me even worse than what Snips and Snails actually do.
Two observers actually like their act. These are Pinkie PIe, whose Pony version also likes rap -- and Sonata Dusk, for some reason.
(14) Rarity shows up wearing what looks like 20+ pounds of metal -- presumably steel -- hanging from her clothing.
(15) How did Photo Finish know Rarity would be wearing that? She must have known, or she couldn't have prepared her sabotage with the magnets attached to puppeteer handles. And did she get the idea of the puppeteer handles from Snips' dad?
(16) If it was Snails' -- or Glittershell's -- idea to attack Fluttershy with the spotlight, this was actually quite clever of him. Or her. Or them.
(17) Celestia and Luna liked the Rainbooms' act. I think they thought all the flailing around was a dance routine.
(18) Adagio likes tears. But then again, tears are saltwater.
(19) I love the Dazzlings' predatory circle. They look like at any moment they are going to start darting in, biting pieces off Sunset Shimmer, and dart away again after each attack. Very like carnivorous fish.
(20) Since groups of friends stick together to form bands in this, we can conclude that Bulk Biceps at this point has no musically-inclined friends, and that Octavia Melody either hasn't yet befriended Vinyl Scratch, or they were unable to come up with an act that worked together. Vinyl, remember, isn't under the spell of the Dazzlings -- one of the few non-Rainbooms of which this can be said.
(21) Twice in the movie, Pinkie Pie does the "She's gone! ... oh, wait, she's here" gag, lampshading Trixie's failure to carry out the smoke bomb disappearance trick properly. My guess is that Pinkie is first confused because she can also see the worldlines in which Trixie did it right -- and then she can locate Trixie anyway, through precognition.
(22) It is odd that Trixie has a compact with pink powder in it, when Trixie's skin color is blue. Pink is the wrong hue for Trixie to use as face powder or rouge.
Subsidiary thought: in the Humanoidverse, the cosmetics industry must be wondrously complex.
(23) The Dazzlings put a lot of effort into messing with Trixie's head. In the SWSV, it's because Trixie -- being Illusion -- has strong magical potential the Dazzlings can tap.
(24) Trixie does good maniacal laughter, complete with dramatic pose, for someone who normally isn't a villain.
(25) Pinkie pulls wild angry faces worthy of anime.
(26) The Dazzlings get a lot more powerful after they absorb even a little of the Rainbooms' energy.
(27) Fluttershy gets so happy when Dashie finally wants to sing Shy's song!
(28) "Welcome to the Show" is a really good villain song. The motions of the Dazzlings as they sing it are eerie and menacing, suggesting the motions of underwater predators and waving kelp fronds.
(29) Vinyl Scratch to the rescue! Twice in this movie. I wish they'd given her a bigger role in the other three later main movies.
(30) The Ponied-Up Humanoid, and Spirit Sea Pony forms of the Dazzlings are both great. Terrifying, in different ways. And we known now that their (real) Sea Pony forms actually are that huge!
(31) It occurred to me that building the performance out of the contributions of all of the Rainbooms bound together their Friendship Magic and infused their song with its power.
(32) "Bitches! We Sirens invented musical magic!"
(33) I wonder if the gigantic Alicorn seen at the end of the fight is a manifestation of Sunset's Concept, or a fusion of all their Concepts?
(34) "Three harmless teenage girls." Twilight, you are an incredible optimist. They are still evil immortal predators; they've just been Brought Down To Normal. They are no more "harmless" than any other Humanoids, and -- as they are inhuman sociopaths -- considerably more "harmful" than most!
Those are my thoughts on what is possibly the best movie of the Equestria Girls series. Your own thoughts are extremely welcome.
This is why it remains my favorite of the Equestria Girls works.
Agreed that 'Rainbow Rocks' i my favorite EQG/MLP movie.
Thanks for pointing out lots of cool touches in the film.
Only if she wanted to be. And she's not that sort of Pinkie, so even there, she'd make sure her skirt fluttered in just the right ways to block those shots.
Rainbow Rocks is indeed pretty darn awesome. Have you seen Forgotten Friendship yet? Where would you rank it?
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No, too easy.
Going by how non-sirens seem to enjoy it, I think the others managed to impress on Sonata that this was supposed to be vegan punch.
One of the stranger Angels, but very popular in some parts of the world.
Thankfully, that look seems to be going out of style in more recent looks at that world. In ten years, it'll be mocked endlessly. In twenty, it'll probably be popular again for the sake of nostalgia.
Luna actually doodles a heart!
Good thing it's early in the morning. Plenty of time to develop a mental scab over that idea before I sleep again. Ugh...
Probably quite similar to house paint, complete with color swatches.
She may not normally be evil, but she'll always play a role to the hilt.
She's rather specialized. The other major threats weren't nearly as sound-based, and her possibly Cybertronian car wouldn't have been nearly as useful even if it were available. Though to her credit, Vinyl does help start bridge the gap between CHS and Crytal Prep at the end of Friendship Games by connecting with Lemon Zest.
Personally, I prefer Friendship Games for the bounty of characters and other useful components it provided. Still, while it's a better toolbox, I can't deny that Rainbow Rocks is the better narrative.
Actually, maybe not, if it's translucent powder. For example, in the real world a lot of face powders are translucent and white (or pink much paler than skin tone or blush) to even out a liquid foundation that matches the skin tone or varies in color for contouring. A translucent pink would have the same effect as a slightly flushed face: Trixie's case giving her a warm purple tinge more natural looking (less "made-up" looking) than purple make-up.
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That's an interesting point I hadn't considered. You're probably right -- after all the color change from blushing is based on blood flow, and Humanoid blood is as red as our own, regardless of the colors of their skins!
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"No, Sonata. We don't need to get a gallon of fish oil for the punch. It would make everyone sick."
"You're right, Adagio! They're land-dwellers. I should use beef blood ..."
Luna doesn't do anything by halves. Including express admiration for people mind-controlling her.
As you know, I like Glittershell, but she would not make a good Fly Girl.
Yeah, no one ever accused Trixie's performance style of being too flat.
Friendship Games is my second favorite Equestria Girls movie.
Twilight's unwarranted optimism stems from her thinking that magic powers maketh the villain. Every antagonist she's had so far is a powerful magic user so the idea of non-magical villainy takes a while to process. Too bad that she'd have to experience proof of my concept (like, say, getting shot at) to realize "Great Googly Moogly...they're still horrible freaks even without magic."
1: Yup. They look like they want to eat the person they're talking to most of the time. Which is absolutely true, the question is how. There are at least three possible answers, all of them valid.
5: Rainbow has crazy good aim. She's had it the first movie too. Like Pinkie said, she's an athletic omniglot. Applejack is stronger than she is, though.
6: Not like they could stop the mind-controlling interdimensional seahorse. Well, her sisters could, but they had their eyes on other things.
7: Absolutely. Though, I have seen a 3D animation of the cafeteria song, and only Rainbow Dash came away without showing off the goods, so to speak. I'm not sure human Pinkie would even mind that much.
9: I heard the crush on Rarity was originally going to be on Fluttershy. They changed it to emphasise Rarity's good looks.
10: No wonder. She's trying to write a spell, not a song. Right idea (fighting back with music), wrong approach.
11: Those skirts probably have weights or magnets in them. You couldn't go anywhere without giving anyone a show.
13: She's evil Pinkie!
Unlike Evil Pinkie, who is just grumpy, nasty Pinkie.
20: Could be she thought the entire thing was becoming too toxic and stayed out of it. No sense breaking up your friendships over, right?
21: Her teleporting in Forgotten Friendships is something I really did not like. There was no foreshadowing, there was no hint she suddenly had actual magic, the whole thing came out of left field.
23: All Trixies so far share a need for attention and a jealous streak a mile wide. She's perfect prey. Also, it's ironic that she wound up doing what she accused Sunset of earlier, acting in a fit of jealous rage.
28: Yup, it sounds otherworldly. Too bad there isn't a longer version of just that, because as much as I like our heroes, their countersong doesn't measure up. Back to bardic college with you, girls.
30: And they really can fly! Also, imagine you're this giant, mind-controlling seahorse thing. Suddenly you're in a different world, stuck on land, in a tiny body. Good thing they wanted to be adored rather than feared anyway.
34: No idea how long they stayed in the human world. Could be immortal, since the portal seems to be related to space, not time. Has anyone ever considered a story where, after their gems were broken and their spirit forms destroyed, the Dazzlings find themselves transforming more and more to look like their original selves, by the way? Could be interesting. And a change from the usual 'They're starving' plot.
Two observers actually like their act. These are Pinkie PIe, whose Pony version also likes rap -- and Sonata Dusk, for some reason.
This will sound odd, but I have the idea that Sonata is the sort of person who would politely and genuinely applaud someone's hard work even if she was going to eat them a moment later.
With note 19 and the way the Sirens acted when they were circling the HuMane Six when the Dazzlings were in their true forms, I have to say that I got a very strong feel of "shark" from it. Which is only appropriate for aquatic predators.
I also wonder if the Dazzlings were unique monsters or simply powerful representatives of an entire race. And if the rest are anything like them in personality.
I also think it was probably for the best that the Dazzlings ended up in EG!Earth rather then, say, John the Balladeer's world. Magic might be better known in his but the Sirens would probably have been more powerful from the start. And given how easily evil sorcerers and witches in those stories gathered cults willing to kill for their masters? The Dazzlings would have had plenty of followers. As well as plenty of resources for improving their own magic.
And there were creatures like them in mountain folklore. Like Dakwa, 'the Siren of the French Broad', a Cherokee demon that appeared as a lovely woman but dragged men down to drown and eat; or the giant leech Tlanusi'yi, or the horned serpents and giant catfish found nearly everywhere in American legends.
As several other people said here, this film is probably my favorite of the Equestria Girls series.
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34: No idea how long they stayed in the human world. Could be immortal, since the portal seems to be related to space, not time. Has anyone ever considered a story where, after their gems were broken and their spirit forms destroyed, the Dazzlings find themselves transforming more and more to look like their original selves, by the way? Could be interesting. And a change from the usual 'They're starving' plot.
Sounds like a great idea for a story. Though I imagine Adagio would be highly annoyed if she was unable to manipulate people into doing her will; she seems to want power while Aria and Sonata are content to just eat.
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Adagio wants power; Aria wants power but lacks ambition; Sonata lacks wits but she kinda likes having power when she gets it. I'm convinced all three will find being unable to manipulate others highly annoying at best, since none of them enjoys living in the human world. If they start transforming into something clearly inhuman, it'll make everything so, so much worse.
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"my little songfish"
went into that a little.
Talking of the Dazzlings, did anyone see Mascot!Adagio's brief cameo in the latest EG short? I've seen a lot of fan theorizing that this is what the Dazzlings have fallen to, being the mascots at an amusement park. It's different from the more usual 'back to their old tricks/withered away to nothing' fates we fans give them.
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Anything that gave them widespread public attention would probably allow them to transduce some emotional energy to keep alive. Probably not enough to let them use any magical abilities beyond that, though.
Hey, they could team up with Vignette. They have a lot in common.
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I'll have to take what you say about; I hven't seen the special yet, can't find a good copy/whatever online. Say, if anyone knows of a good link for it I'd appreciate being pointed in its direction.
And I have to say that 'Siren' we saw looked so miserable. If it is 'Dagi I doubt she's having fun.
What is Glittershell?
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Transgirl Snails.
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Forgotten Friendship is very good indeed, because it hits at a very real fear of both children and adults; namely losing one's friends. What Wallflower does to Sunset is that fate, on steroids. And even her Pony friends have to be careful how they get involved, let the same power destroy their memories as well.
It also works really well with the character. Sunset Shimmer has worked hard on becoming a good woman whom other people like and respect, and she's losing the fruits of all her labor, and at first she has no idea why. You really see the pain she's feeling. And really want her to succeed in restoring everyone's good memories of her.
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Got it.