EqG Rollercoaster of Friendship Review · 1:12am Jul 7th, 2018
Oh good, something to tide me over during the hiatus.
Movie loses points right away for doing the exact same intro as Mirror Magic - antagonist is having a bad day, swirl of magic infects object as she goes to use it, discovers object has magical powers now. I think this intro is a misstep though, making it obvious right off the bat that Vingette is either the villain or will become the villain. Then she did, in the exact same way Juniper Montage did. The group even lampshades how similar this is and are just bored by it this time.
And then it turns out they weren't sucked into her phone, just teleported to a random room in the park with all white walls... wut. I can't even that so I won't, let's move on to the villain.
Vignette is a paper-thing non-entity with this special. She heard us say "Juniper Montage is the lamest EqG villain" and said "hold my beer." She is Juniper but with no motive, no backstory, a far more annoying and dull personality, and no show of how she became evil. She just randomly got a magic phone and decided "okay, if these girls disagree with me, I suck them into my phone."
Vignette isn't even evil, she's just... nothing. She sucks people into her phone and plays dress-up with them and thinks its no big deal, and openly explains all this to Rarity like she'll understand and agree with her. What even is this? She talks about her "ma-jick" phone as if it's some trend or something. Is that the aesop, that Vignette is so obsessed with social media she has no sense of morality beyond what she likes and doesn't like and people should just agree with her and see things her way because she knows better? Because if that is the intent, it's really lame and stupid and poorly written.
It's rather sad how the special pulls the rug out from the threat she posed with the white room reveal, then keeps justifying why they have to stop her by bringing up the idea she may teleport crowds of people into the small room and "squish" them. Just go with "banish them to the Shadow Realm," it's less embarassing. Why do they even need her to be a threat to the crowd, she has a magic phone she's using to get rid of anyone she dislikes for whatever small and petty reason, that's cause enough to stop her. And they they try to shove a sympathetic backstory to her in at the very last minute. Too late, sorry, don't care.
Beyond that the episode is basically a reversal of Applejack's Day Off, Rarity superstressed at her job and Applejack upset she has no time to spend with her. Except it's ramped up by giving Rarity and Applejack each an extra big spoon of Bitch, and then padded out with pointless subplots with the rest of the Humane Seven.
This special was just boring, it really was just an hour-long Equestria Girls version of Applejack's Day Off with a very poorly written and underwhelming villain forced into things. We're watching the Humane Seven hang out at an amusement park for about half an hour, then Applejack and Rarity have an argument, and Vignette becomes the villain out of nowhere and with no reason for us to be invested in what's happening with her. There were plenty of individual funny moments as I list below, but the main plot and villain are dull.
Even with the Celestia reunion aside, this has nothing on Forgotten Friendship, and I'd even say it has nothing on Mirror Magic. At least Mirror Magic was short, Juniper actually posed a threat of a sort, and there was a backstory and escalation of villainy with her. The only thing this special has going for it is that it doesn't focus on Twilight and/or Sunset, giving focus to other characters, but it just rehashes Applejack's Day Off with them and does nothing new or interesting. Though it is cool to see Rarity at the center of the final line-up as the one commanding the friendship magic against Vignette.
Congratulations, Rollercoaster of Friendship - I crown you new "Worst EqG Special".
Individual highlights
Twilight following social media bots that post science stuff.
Pinkie "We sing songs together!"
"Naysayers gonna neigh", how was that not a thing before this special?
"SOMEBODY GET ME A BIGGER PILE OF CLOTHES TO SCREAM INTO!" And then a perfect fade out with a Rarity plush in the background.
"Are we trapped in a magical phone? Typical." It really is amusing how used to this stuff the cast is now.
"You only like her because she's always blowin' smoke up your chimney!" How did THAT get past the sensors?
"I really screwed things up with Rarity." Ditto previous comment.
"How much coding do you know?" "Uh... I can rub two sticks together."
The ponied up forms reuse their appearances from Forgotten Friendship instead of redesigning them yet again, which I appreciate. I guess there was doll merch in the warehouse left to push.
One of the crowd shots at the end inexplicably uses Sweetie Belle twice. There's barely a dozen people in the crowd and they had to reuse someone? You couldn't put Flash or Bulk Biceps or the Eco Dude in there?
I see the complaints about the special and I agree but then I wonder if I'm the only one who doesn't overthink the plot and just enjoy the characters. This was clearly more of a character piece after the last special which was more plot heavy and I appreciate that. Sometimes I just want to watch something to have fun and I did have fun with this.
Rarity's dramatic fit was one of the few good parts of this. Tabitha really killed that one. Also, Sunset and Sci-Twi getting obsessed with the ring toss was fun.
I cracked up at that line.
Not really? "Screwing up"/"screwed up" has been in continuous use in Y-rated animation since at least the 90s.
I'm with you, though, this was a sad misfire of a special. :/
4896249
Because it's possible to have a character piece AND good storytelling, that's what makes a show memorable. This? Failed so badly at storytelling that it detracts from the character piece value.
4896284
Yeah but pony has never used the "screwed" term yet.
4896284
I disagree, yeah I was disappointed with the main plot but everything else was alot of fun. I just don't see the point in pretending that it ruined everything else that made this special good.
Like I said all the character pairings were fun to watch, Pinkie was kind of the odd one out but that's what happens when you have an odd number of main characters. Personally I think people have a habit of taking Equestria Girls way too seriously. You know you have a problem when you start taking things more seriously than the characters.
4896288
How is pointing out the weak writing and disappointing villain "taking things too seriously"? It's called having an opinion. We're entitled to that.
4896398
Nothing wrong with that, I agree with you, I just think it's silly to get so upset over an average story. The character moments were great and I don't mind that things were kept pretty low stakes for the most part especially following Forgotten Friendship. I honestly laughed when it was revealed that they were just in a ordinary room that happened to be white especially when combined with Sunset's reaction. We clearly weren't meant to take things super seriously this time around.
Oh, it's definitely not the worst (so many of the shorts were just horrid), but we are definitely on the same page, here. Dull as all get-out, with nothing new or interesting to really balance that out.
4896621
At least the shorts are short.