Roller-coaster of Questionable Things (Spoilers for Roller-coaster of Friendship!) · 12:56am Jul 7th, 2018
Saw the latest EQG special and felt the need to rant, so I'd like to start with the positives.
As usual, there are plenty of adorable, silly moments that had me smiling nearly ear-to-ear, and the special is generally fun if you've enjoyed things long enough that you're still on this site. Whatever else I have to say about it, this special is fun to watch, even if you don't have an eye for shipping fuel. 
Right, onto the parts that make me wonder if the writers have gone bonkers or if it's just me. 
The story this time centers on a theme park called Equestria Land. The human world apparently knows about Nightmare Moon and all the mlp-themed stuff, in and outside of the Rainbooms' adventures, even without necessarily knowing that much about the Rainbooms themselves. None of this is explained, nor alluded to, nor given a second's consideration by anyone, it's just there out in the open, to be accepted without question.
My first guess was that whoever built the park (possibly Valencia...?) heard about all the magic going on around CHS, but that doesn't seem to be the case. My second is that the human world has equivalents to everything, even the villains, but that makes even less sense, because it would mean they were just taking random crud from their own world (Nightmare Moon presumably being a historic figure or something), including Sweet Apple Acres. Imagine if someone built a theme park where the attractions were a haunted house dedicated to Attila the Hun, a spaghetti-themed roller-coaster, some local farm, and possibly some local sweets shop, naming the park after an alternate dimension that they don't strictly know about. At least, that's the impression I got from the snippets of what the park actually consisted of.
And why is Applejack working multiple jobs? It was clear that she worked at a smoothie place (since quit for the caramel apple job) and her family farm, and still apparently wasn't making enough money for... something. Pattern recognition says "It's to justify putting her in the situations that make up the specials and shorts, nothing more to it than that," and I'm inclined to think that's all, but maybe they're building to something?
"And maybe scallops'll fly out of me pants!"
There's some (but only some, because I feel like Rarity at least had an excuse at the time. Not that the same can be said of Pinkie or the two 'geniuses,' Twilight and Sunset) stupidity involving no one apparently trusting or believing Applejack of all people until it's too late, but there might not have been another stupid, pointless Magical Girl transformation without that, so I guess it's to be expected.
The villain's magic might have broken a record on the Nonsense scale, because the random Equestrian enchantment this time is a phone that lets her change things by teleporting the target into some white, unlocked room in the park. Which apparently exists for some reason. This isn't the villain making the conscious decision to confine her targets to a particular place, it just does that on its own, her explicitly stating that she has no idea where the people she snaps pictures of (which makes her able to create holograms of them as she wishes for some reason) end up. I was brought up in the American educational system, so I like to think I've gotten pretty good at piecing together justifications for insane bullshit, but at this point, I don't even want to try anymore. 
However, there is one thing that caught my ear; a line delivered by the villain just before the magical spectacle:
"It doesn't matter what's real, it's what you show people online!"
Looking at what's popular in just this fandom, at the headcanons people not just latch onto themselves, but get surprised and sometimes even aggressive when they aren't adhered to? Idealism says she's wrong. The facts suggest she has a point.
Quite a few people seem to wholeheartedly believe in Sunset Shimmer being brilliant/badass/nearly perfect (see an older post for thorough debunking) because they saw her in a positive light in Rainbow Rocks, Sonata Dusk being 'the good one' of the sirens because they saw her acting cute and dopey and ignored her being just as venomous as the other two ("Too bad! So sad!"), Tempest Shadow being cool and competent (or at least, that's the impression I get when I see people talk about her, maybe I'm completely wrong on this one) because they saw her doing action movie spectacle (aided by equipment from the Storm King and an army of mooks) for a few minutes and ignored her laughable reasoning skills ("You can't trust anyone and you're better off alone, so I'm going to put all my faith in this evil bastard that he'll help me out when I give him everything he wants and he doesn't need me anymore"), etc., even when, taking a closer look, seeing what is real for all of those cases, you get something completely different. Because a person might be smart and sensible, and when you point out the truth, they'll generally acknowledge it, but people, especially people online, tend to be idiots, apparently only seeing the brightest, shiniest spectacle and deciding that that's all there ever was.
The cherry on the cake? Following the magical climax, the crowd that witnessed the whole thing, without a hint of self-awareness or anything that was just said, immediately gets hyped up about 'that rainbow lightshow' when it's done, proving the villain right. Pinkie starts to point it out, asking if they even understand what's going on (the truth and friendship parts), but the Rainbooms see that they're getting more popular, so they just go with it.
That tendency, I think, is what got the villain where she was at the start of the special, what drove her behavior, and I think there's a lesson in that: Don't be one of Valencia's followers, Be Better.
...And juuuust because I'm pretty sure some will think this is the takeaway; no, I'm not saying 'hate everything unconditionally' either, just, think. Analyze. Process. Feel free to do so with this very post if you think I've missed something crucial.
Allow me to do so then.
Because the show keeps hinting that she is.
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This is before they all actually studied (in a way that gave them access, that is). In this case, I think you are clinging to the notion that she's not smart.
4896289
Addressed and demolished in the linked blog post. Occasionally doing well in math (if we assume that x did indeed equal 4 there) does not make someone a genius, and at absolute best, puts her on about the same level as Fluttershy so far, who I think outshined her in chemistry and spelling.
There is much, much more evidence that she's not especially bright than there is supporting that she is. Just in this special? She gets obsessive over a carnival game that she herself said was rigged, failing over a hundred times before walking away and somehow winning a ring only through dumb luck, which is certainly consistent for her.
4896297
Except Fluttershy couldn't solve this one. Sunset Shimmer was the only out of these six who solved it, and solved it without great problems. Not demolished at all, sorry. I know you mean to convince people with your post here, but this is one where I think you are wrong. So, also kinda like you said. Processed, analysed.
My opinion stands. Agree to disagree, that's the best I can offer.
4896303
Sunset has getting one algebra problem right to her name. Fluttershy has working out a much bigger problem on the board in front of the class in detail, defying her biggest fear (public attention) at the same time. This, in addition to Fluttershy doing well in other subjects, as mentioned, tells me that of the two of them, Fluttershy is the smarter one.
The old blog post is the part I'm referring to as having demolished the argument, because that is where the extensive analysis is. I get the feeling that you either didn't read it, or don't remember.
I know it is, because you've shown me before that you pick and choose your reality (at least in terms of ponies) based on what you want to believe, not what's actually right there in front of you, even when it's not really a matter of 'opinion' or 'agree to disagree.' As is the case with Sunset's repeatedly visible lack of smarts.
4896313
Thank you for the vote of confidence. Your time won't be wasted anymore in the future.
4896321
Goodbye and good riddance.
Here's an idea: Maybe the sirens made some dough selling stories of Equestria to the general public, writing "fantasy" novels under a nom-de-gurre or something. This theme park is them cashing in now that they need to raise money without mind-controlling people.
I anticipate hilarious future fanfics where the Dazzlings attend the theme park and ask Adagio to tell them about the time she got lassoed over Appleloosa.