Rollercoaster of Friendship Review · 4:07am Jul 7th, 2018
Now I have the free time to do a full review of the special. According to a comment on my quick review, Nick Confalone wrote this special though I cannot confirm that at the time. Nick was, I believe, responsible for "Forgotten Friendship" which did better than I think everyone expected. After the subpar shorts series I don't think anyone really expected much out of "Forgotten Friendship" and the shorts since then have gone back to being mediocre, restrained by their time limit (two minutes is not enough time to do anywhere close to what a spin-off series with established characters needs to do). Nick's writing credentials have also included recent endevors in the form of "The Maud Couple" which was not as strong as "Rock Solid Friendship" but at the same time I felt like there was enough heart in it to make it one of the best of Season 8 so far. But "The Break Up Break Down" was very underwhelming and used a tired old cliche that stopped being appealing long ago. So if Nick did indeed write this, I guess it just further establishes for me how badly he's losing his touch. Yeah, I'm not gonna pretend my feelings on the special magically changed in the hours since my quick review. If that's a deal breaker for you, it's not gonna get any better so click elsewhere now and don't continue reading. For those who choose to stay, I applaud your bravery, because oh boy do we have a mess of a special on our hands.
We do kick off with an extended theme song for the series that we'll sadly never see for the shorts (it really feels like Hasbro has half heartedly given Equestria Girls a spin-off after years of fan pleading but either because of resources or lack of interest they aren't willing to fully commit to said spin-off). And then we immediately get our setting and our antagonist, the name of whom I don't remember and I really don't bother to remember. Considering this special is gonna rip off "Mirror Magic" in a lot of spots, she's just a knock-off Juniper Montage except without the hideous monster form, and instead of being a whiny teen she's just the stereotypical control freak villain. Then we have what is the primary plot for this special and what promos heavily touted, Rarity and Applejack's friendship is strained when Rarity is given a new Summer job at Equestria Land working as a costumer designer for a parade. And it turns out that she's friends with the antagonist and never mentioned this at any point prior. We soon get into the contrived conflict when she stands in front of Applejack and doesn't introduce her, causing Applejack to start to feel left out. And do either of the girls take a moment to talk about how they're feeling? No. Instead we get a whole lot of social media talk that's only gonna date this special incredibly horribly in about half a decade or so (just as it may be hard for us to imagine a time without Facebook or Snap Chat, there will come a time when those are no longer relevant. Heck, Facebook's time in the sun may already be over considering all the controversy surrounding it). I could go on and on about this, but I'll instead refer you to a reviewer (a non Brony one) who explains the faults of any fictional media using memes or whatever's relevant at the time.
Everyone else splits off to do various things, Fluttershy gets dragged onto a roller coaster after being terrified of a kiddy coaster, and then they think they can be funny by swapping the roles so Rainbow Dash is the one terrified instead. It does kind of work, but the set up to the joke is incredibly mean spirited and unfunny. It's as bad as pony Rainbow Dash and Twilight trying to drag pony Fluttershy into the dragon migration when she clearly doesn't want to be involved. Forcing your friends to step outside their comfort zone isn't going to do anything except make them hate you for it. You can't force someone to face their fears the moment you think they're ready, and you certainly don't throw them headlong into it. Just as you don't teach someone to swim by throwing them into the deep end and expecting them to learn how so they don't drown. And Twilight and Sunset get a plot that basically just further ships them, where they try and fail to win a carnival ring toss game run by human Flim and Flam. But in actuality, they don't appear to be rigging the game at all, it's just insanely hard to do it. But after a while this subplot stops being funny, and they're gonna find a way to make both characters involved in it look bad. Yes, even Sunset Shimmer, the break-out character of the entire spin-off franchise.
Rarity gets overwhelmed by her new responsibilities and starts to act bossy and rude to everyone around her. This is retreading "Rarity Takes Manehattan" but you know what made this behavior work there? They showed that Rarity wasn't completely abusing her friends, she was still willing to get them something to eat and told them to go see "Hinny of the Hills". Plus, she immediately regretted her action (done in the spur of the moment for the sake of an important competition for her) and was willing to give up victory if it meant having her friends back. Here, while she does eventually come to her senses it is only after the special has spent over half its run time pushing the envelope far beyond what is needed. Meanwhile, the villain's phone (corrupted by Equestrian magic in much the same fashion as Juniper's mirror) is used to make Fluttershy disappear because she refuses to conform to the antagonist's line of thinking. And although they poke fun at the fact that this is similar to "Mirror Magic" it still feels like a very uninspired re-hash. Especially when Sunset Shimmer makes a comment about how not everyone has Equestrian Magic and is it out to get them. After all, that was kind of the point with Wallflower Blush. She obtained power unintentionally and got carried away with it, but it didn't corrupt her like it did Juniper, Gloriosa, or Twilight. Speaking of which, despite the special's time frame there is no mention of either Wallflower or Juniper (who you know, works at the mall considering they never specified otherwise).
When Rainbow Dash ends up trapped as well, Applejack sees this on the security cameras because Pinkie Pie gave her a badge that some random security guard mistook for an official inspector's badge. So she goes to confront Rarity about this, and we get a rehash of the infamous scene from "A Canterlot Wedding Part 1" where Twilight's friends abandon her in favor of Princess Cadence. But when we the audience see the antagonist swap out her phone and the color clearly changes, it only makes Applejack and the other characters look stupid for not noticing it too. Especially since after Applejack storms off Sunset Shimmer, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie all stand up for her (after previously not caring that Fluttershy was missing in a park full of people, despite her still obvious social anxiety) and get trapped by the phone. Rarity nearly suffers the same fate, but manages to use her gem shield to block the flash. Though she then runs away without even trying to grab the phone (even though she runs past the antagonist) and apologizes to Applejack before revealing what happened to their friends. Except it turns out they were never really in danger, they were just trapped in a blank white room in the park. And then they try to force the stakes higher for the climax by claiming it can't hold everyone if the antagonist sends them all into the room at once.
So they get out in front of the parade route, power up with new costumes again, and defeat the villain who of course apologizes and gets accepted into the circle of friends. But then they decide to pull a twist by having the parade get really popular on social media thanks to the Rainbooms, so in essence the antagonist who threw a temper tantrum when she couldn't get everything exactly the way she wanted it to be, ends up completely vindicted and gets off with zero consequences for being an alpha brat! And yes, that is the last exchange we have in the special, we close out with a song which is both underwhelming and forgettable. Which only further draws attention to the fact that the villain is get everything she wanted without even having to face up to what she did!
And that's the special more or less, aside from a few chuckleworthy moments here and there it was a massive disappointment that left me unsatisfied. And the ending was just the icing on the cake of frustration. I wasn't kidding when I said this felt like one half of a redo of "Mirror Magic" that thought all you had to do to fix that special was take away Starlight Glimmer and Juniper Montage's terrible monster form and not do anything else (Starlight's addition in and of itself wasn't bad, it was how she was used that became a disappointment), and the other half for whatever reason thought it was a good idea to reuse that infamous scene from "A Canterlot Wedding". The key to fixing bad writing is not to use MORE bad writing to make the initial bad writing look believeable or justifiable! When bad writing occurs the only way you CAN fix it as by admitting to your mistake and striving to make up for it or correct it the next time you're in a similar situation (and surprisingly "What About Discord?" actually managed to do that, the only thing that episode actually got right. Twilight's friends didn't cast her out when she got upset, they stopped and showed consideration for her feelings.). Heck, that scene with the white room and Sunset's line about Equestrian Magic felt like they were trying to go for a self pardoying angle here. But if that was the case they played it way too seriously, and not to a comical extent. So I have no trouble giving this an F-, it tops even "Secrets and Pies" for the worst thing the MLP license has done in G4 (not counting comics or expanded media, because if it did then the "Anon-A-Miss" fiasco would still top even this hot mess). Yeah, that's right, this makes "Secrets and Pies" look better in my book!
Well at least the good news is Season 8 will apparently be returning in August, and the episode order is being switched around a bit. So assuming there are no more scheduling hiccups, come back in August when "The Hearth's Warming Club" drops.
Ouch! I mean, I know you said you weren't a fan of this special, but I didn't think you would go so far as to say it's worse than your least favorite episode of the parent series. Though I suppose in the case of Secrets and Pies, you could at least make the argument that it wasn't meant to be taken seriously.
In regards to Nick Confalone, I'm guessing he put so much energy into writing Forgotten Friendship that he didn't have enough left over to properly write Rollercoaster of Friendship. After all, it's gotta be difficult having to write 2 specials back-to-back.
4896358 Then someone else should've taken over for this special, "Equestria Girls" has had several different writers already. In fact, with the exception of Meghan McCarthy for the first two films the writing talent has never been consistent.
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He might not've had a choice in the matter. The creators probably thought they could save on money by having one person write both of their 2018 Equestria Girls specials instead of just getting two different writers to do the job.
This episode....... kind of a let down in my opinion after Forgotten Friendship.
Something that does have me curious. The new episode that will be about Hearths Warming, do you think the students will play a large role in the episode. I honestly can't tell with the title. Could be centered around the mane 6's parents. Or perhaps Scootaloo starts a new club like the Rainbow Dash Fan Club. But what do you guys think?
4898104 It says in the synopsis that the students bond while sharing memories of home. But now, apparently, "Yakety Sax" will air in a little over a week, on July 20.
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Well, I guess we'll see what volume 2 of season 8 has to throw at us sooner then expected.
You know, For funs and giggles, why don't we have vignette's personality of both courtney and heather from the total drama series, vignette's corruption is 50% of electro, 25% livewire and 25% Syndrome... and have her be voiced by by Emilie-Claire Barlow
as for the story, make it into a 1 or two hour special (LIKE IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO THE MOVIE!!!), write new stuff, change the theme park's name and probably have Sunset/Twilight play the arcade, Rainbow Dash Ride the rollercoaster, Pinkie Pie eats cotton candy and Fluttershy ride the ferris wheel.
Drop the Social Medial stuff!
but keep the megan williams cameo okay?
Technically, the moment when Applejack and Rarity reconcile could be one of the special's high points, as it managed to do something better than both Look Before You Sleep and Honest Apple. Why? Because unlike those episodes where only Applejack was made out to be in the wrong, Rarity does own up to the mistakes she made here. I know it's not much and doesn't completely redeem the special, but it is something worth acknowledging.