Again, How I Learned To Stop Procrastinating and Just Watch More "Equestria Girls" Already · 12:42am Apr 22nd, 2021
Blog Number 140: Gaea Everfree Edition
Roughly a year and a half ago, I posted this blog about my belated experience with some of the Equestria Girls media. The gist: I stubbornly put it off for a long time, only to find I quite liked most of it.
Well, I recently followed up on the rest, and this current blog will mostly be more of the same. Yes, I have nice things to say about "Holiday Specials". No, I'm not drunk.
Brief contents below, then on to the main events!
My Very Recent Introduction to Equestria Girls: Tales of Canterlot High
My Very Recent Introduction to Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree
My Very Recent Introduction to Equestria Girls: The Last Three Specials
My Very Recent Introduction to Equestria Girls: Tales of Canterlot High
I actually saw this three-part collection of what I shall tentatively call "episodes" way back, back in January of 2020, back when the COVID-19 outbreak was somewhere between "that thing in China" and "the what now?" levels of public awareness.
My verdict? Well, it depends on the ep.
A.k.a. Pinkie knows the moon is made of cheese. Specifically gorgonzola.*
* Between this, the flash moment in Legend of Everfree, and her felt thoughts in "A Friend In Deed", I'm increasingly of the opinion Pinkie is a repressed artist looking for a creative outlet. A repressed mad artist, maybe...
"Dance Magic" divides into two major draws for me, the first being Rarity's daft little story about entering a dance video contest, because a school with a library that big clearly has money issues. Without the massive world-saving (or at least student-body-saving) stakes of the movies, we find ourselves firmly in disposable slice-of-life shenanigans which are clearly just there for a bit of a colourful lark.
I'm conflicted about this. On the one hand, stuff like this is honest about its aims: we're just here to hang out with likeable characters for twenty minutes, and if we don't go places from there, it's at least its own pleasant enough hangout. So when the ep tosses in that random imagine spot that goes nowhere but is unabashedly silly, it captures some of the loveable "you're in a good place" nature of the show.
On the other hand... it's hard to get excited over it either, especially when most of the ep doesn't reach the creative height of whatever goes on in Pinkie's literal headspace (plus, let's face it: this is essentially the first half of "Rarity Takes Manehattan" with a more interesting antagonist).
Speaking of which, the second major draw for me is "Look, the Shadowbolts are back!" And... well, I'm certainly picking a few fanfic delicacies (notice how Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare chiefly seem to be on the same page?), but I can't help noticing this buffet table is still understocked.
Them trying to reform from Cinch's administration (and being bad at it) isn't itself a bad idea. In fact, it's a chance at an interesting direction for them. For a group designed as the Anti-Main-Five, though, they're not really doing anything any random one-shot antagonist couldn't have done. Still, it's nice to see they still retain some of their superlative skill from the old Crystal Prep elitist days (if lacking in any actual creative direction: chalk that down to the rigours of standardized competition, I guess?).
As per their reputation, obviously. Sugarcoat being a ballet dancer is one of those weird details that, if anything, just begs for more elaboration.
So I'd say it's good fun, and that's fine by me (what's wrong with good fun, after all?), but it's little else.
A.k.a. "Daring Don't", eat your heart out.*
* Let me put it this way: when it comes to handling Daring Do and A. K. Yearling, which franchise didn't say the two are the same damn person? Point goes to Equestria Girls! 
"Movie Magic" is very much the best of the three. Remember what I said about these things being mostly colourful fun? Well, this episode just throws in a daft-as-hell excuse for the Main Seven to run around in Power Ponies costumes, and I think I can stop this review here and laugh away for the next five minutes.
OK, OK, it's not really comedy gold or anything, but it is remarkable how much this series shares that feel-good emotional space with the neighbouring pony show. This one's a more interesting outing than a spat over dance vids, too: from the exotic setting of a movie studio to a respectable enough mystery plot with some comfortable if not exactly shocking developments (The obviously angry actress Fluttershy adores was a red herring? You don't say!), this one's at least the ep that goes places, sometimes at Zapp speed.
The level of antagonism is certainly a welcome change of pace. Instead of a massive magical threat in the movies, we get a simple mysterious figure with a home advantage and more mundane motives. She even gets some consequences for her behaviour, instead of being instantly forgiven, thus putting Canter Zoom in something of a rarity among the cast for actually invoking any kind of punishment for bad behaviour.
It doesn't unseat "Rarity Investigates!" as the best mystery take in the pony franchise, but it's in good company up there.
A.k.a. "Where's Poochie?"*
* One of the staff cheat sheets for the later pony seasons describes Starlight unironically as "edgy". I rest my case... TO THE X-TREME!
"Mirror Magic" is, alas, where the whole thing breaks.
Starting with our villain - Juniper Montage - and her selfish motive is actually kind of an interesting move, especially when it's a villain who hasn't gone away just because the heroes beat them before. Here, the ep makes no pretence that Juniper's a petty little madam, which means we could go in some new and interesting directions from there.
Where we actually go is deep into territory that I'm going to find drearily familiar from the later Specials. See, Juniper - it turns out - is the first in a line of what I shall call "Starlight clones": someone who performs some heinous actions on multiple innocents and then gets incongruously redeemed at the last minute, likely with a weak sob story thrown in as a feeble justification. Vignette Valencia is very much in the club. So too, technically, is Wallflower Blush, because as intriguing and psychologically complicated as she is, being a coded representation for teenage self-hating depression doesn't really excuse fucking around with people's memories out of pure spite.
One major problem is Starlight herself. Even if I liked her, this episode is so blatantly skewed in her favour it's simply aggravating. Taking out the Main Six like chumps, writing Sunset out later, mucking up Sunset's first canonical return to Equestria on such a trivial outing... There's some real character nobbling going on here, just to give some canon intruder a free kick.
Second major problem is Juniper. She doesn't even have a sob story. At the end of the day, her problems were caused by her own bad behaviour and her motives were utterly venal. Her only mitigating factor is that she was a lame duck of a villain anyway.
Hell, Wallflower Blush - a character I have major problems with - is light-years better than Juniper as an antagonist. Which is why the otherwise-interesting first half of this ep ends up being a tone-deaf liability. To borrow from another Faust-associated show: Wallflower is basically the Amoeba Boys. They're frustrated, small-fry underdog losers in a world of big players, who then get in way over their heads and become massive dangers out of nowhere. Juniper? She's freaking Princess Morbucks. You want to spend half an episode "sympathizing" with that brat?
To top it off, Juniper's were-demon turn is, frankly, a damp squib of an effort. Probably as clear a sign as any to pack it in, actually. Even Gaea Everfree was... well, an interesting excuse for a climax with a twist on a franchise concept (the Everfree itself). Juniper just turns into this big woman. Yeah, guys? You don't have to keep chucking us were-demons to entertain us, you know. Especially when the well of inspiration dries up this quick.
In short, easily the worst of the three eps. Easily the worst of all Equestria Girls media, in my opinion. The first movie was malfunctional and embarrassing, but at least it didn't actually make me see red.
Oh, and speaking of Gaea Everfree...
My Very Recent Introduction to Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree
After the Tales of Canterlot High trilogy suggested the spin-off was scarcely going to reach the heights of Rainbow Rocks and "Forgotten Friendship", I didn't bother looking for anything else for the longest time. Not until earlier this very month, actually.
Long story short: I've recently been paying more fanfic attention (behind the scenes) to Equestria Girls generally, even going so far as to revisit the stuff I'd already seen (except for a certain episode which I happily skipped). Eventually, I got interested in the rest of the continuity enough to seek it out and plug the gaps in my experience.
Hence we now turn to what I like to think of as the fourth movie in the trilogy, a description that sounds more dismissive than I mean it to be.
My verdict?
I... actually like this one. A lot more than I was expecting to. Slightly more than Friendship Games, as it turns out.
(The real reason Midnight came back was because the first time, Tara Strong hadn't had enough fun yet).
Not that I could have guessed as much, at first: Twilight's nightmare as Midnight's demonic host feels simultaneously like an acknowledgement of the sort of guilty trauma Sunset could have had earlier, and like an after-the-fact mopping up of the best character development in Friendship Games. Still, pretty hardcore to show the Main Seven disintegrating.
Surprisingly, the movie gets better from there.
While I think Twilight's arc in the last movie was a more interesting tug-of-war than this relatively one-note "face your fears" approach (albeit the resolution was a nice surprise, with her embracing and mastering her innate magic rather than just standing up to Midnight), the effort to show her anxieties and attempts to resolve them with Sunset's confidential help is much appreciated, and even very nice to watch. It's a neat complement to Sunset's role as redeemer and guide at the climax of the previous movie, only given more room to breathe (if fewer visual splendours and evocative imagery).
Speaking of visual splendours, Gaea Everfree works awfully well for being the first diminishing return of the whole "villain turns into a demon" concept. Timber Spruce's legend adds a nice world-building touch and a rich mineshaft of opportunity for the twisting of ponyworld concepts, and Gaea herself strikes a neat balance between hammy evil and legitimate threat that's almost as metal as the Dazzlings (only without a whole movie to build up any tension and villain cred). It's only a shame that, unlike Sunset's demon and (arguably) Midnight Sparkle, she doesn't have any meaningful connection to the cast beyond being the last big obstacle.
No, that's actually Gloriosa's job.
(Surprisingly, get past the mugging and this represents one of the best parts of the movie).
In fact, Gloriosa and Timber nicely parallel the frustrations between Sunset and Twilight, a bit of emotional resonance that I quite liked. Both involve hiding the strain from others, both are in open defiance of the obvious good advice of those closest to them, and both threaten to spill over into magical abuse if they don't keep their frustrations in check.
It's not only a fitting compare-and-contrast, but makes one-shots Gloriosa and Timber more interesting as a pair of happy campers - one the constant people-pleaser, the other a potentially superstitious axe-wielder - secretly nearly at each other's throats. Always a good starting point for character. It's certainly much better than having the Shadowbolts just hang around like redundant extras for most of a movie.
I mean, the bit where Gloriosa just agrees to yet another request and insists she's "got this", whereupon Sunset touches Gloriosa and hears her shrieking in her own mind: that's a cool character snapshot!
Timber Spruce, I'm of two minds where he's concerned. On the one hand, his cool nerdy persona (one word: "sapphires"), pro-urban attitude on a forested camp site, and anger with his sister automatically make him a more charismatic love interest - heck, a more interesting character - than Flash Sentry (speaking of which, he became a one-joke character in a hurry, didn't he? Poor devil).
On the other hand, I find the implications between him and Twilight... deeply uncomfortable. For one thing, isn't he a camp counsellor? That must constitute an unethical breach of professional protocol. For another, how old is he? It's not like it stops at some innocent crushing from Twilight: he notices and reciprocates! I doubt the show would ever go further than a cute date or something, but this is way too close to "possible ephebophile" territory for my liking. And for a third thing, what's the point? He disappears after this. Heck, he's not even crucial to Twilight's arc within this movie. Sunset plays a bigger role there as confidante and emotional support. He's basically just there. Even Flash Sentry is a recurring cast member: he's technically got an advantage over this guy!
Take out the romance angle, though, and admittedly he's a pretty cool addition, not least of all for introducing the Legend of Everfree itself. Because scaring kids with campfire stories is always fun. Just ask Scootaloo. 
(This spin-off in a nutshell: vivid, bright, uplifting, heartwarming, and so, so ineffably ridiculous.)
The rest of the Main Seven mostly operate in silly slice-of-life mode, which does feel like they're borrowing a lot of character goodwill from the pony side of things (seriously, once you keep them separate in your minds, how much do the human counterparts individually matter for each movie's narrative besides acting as a consistent cast herd? Or stand on their own two feet, metaphorically speaking?).
Oh yes, the geodes. Almost forgot!
Perceptive readers might note that I'd delved into post-Legend EqG media completely innocent of where the hell those power-granting geodes suddenly came from. Didn't it, after all, strike me as odd while watching Rainbow zip around in "Movie Magic", or watching Sunset suddenly read Wallflower's mind in "Forgotten Friendship"?
Well, in a word: no. In another word: wiki. In a lot more words: I did say before now that I'd scavenged trivia tidbits from the wiki long before I ever watched this stuff, so I was forewarned. Besides, in some cases spoilers aren't a problem for me, simply because execution counts for a lot.
So here, the geodes... come across as a bit random. Like an unhelpfully large number of magical elements in EqG, their existence and origins aren't explained. They just happen. Heck, a lot of plots here boil down to "Equestrian magic did it", even though corruptions and so on aren't an obvious part of Equestrian magical ecology. "Forgotten Friendship" at least gave its magical plot device a backstory, and even that's muddled by the fact Clover somehow crossed a random border to get here. Honestly, the continuity here is one damn thing after another... 
But get past that, and you've got some tidy personality-matching superpowers that allow for some epic setpieces (I must admit I dig the climax of this one a lot). That said, I did a double-take when Pinkie's turned out to be "exploding stuff". You mean Pinkie couldn't do that already!? She's Pinkie, for Luna's sake!
Anyway, they serve up more of that good old silly EqG fun. Nothing new here, and nothing wrong here neither. 
Although how the hell did they rebuild that dock so fast? And repeatedly? 
So, long story short: for a disposable coda to a trilogy, this is a surprisingly solid bit of entertainment.
Yeah, it doesn't entirely hold together on analysis, and I'd still contend Friendship Games does some things better, or avoids some of its pitfalls. By the same token, though, this one has a tighter plot, more focused friendship, antagonists who actually have some kind of depth, and a better build-up to a more exciting climax.
Ultimately, it's a surprisingly entertaining movie (I haven't delved into the songs, but they maintain EqG's track record remarkably well, with a little campfire song twang for local flavour). Sunset and Twilight's deepening trust and sweet rapport both make for the strongest candidate raising it above Friendship Games, followed closely by a more meaningfully resonant use of its non-Twilight antagonist, the novelty and attempts at lore for its setting, and the sheer giddy fun of watching the "superhero" Main Seven go all out for the first time.
OK, maybe not that short a story. So sue me. 
My Very Recent Introduction to Equestria Girls: The Last Three Specials
Er... tell you what, I'll talk about these another time. I wasn't expecting this much to take so long.
Yeah, yeah, it's a bit of a cop-out, but isn't this long enough already? Next time, I'll talk about "Holiday Specials", "Spring Breakdown", and "Sunset's Backstage Pass". In that order, because that's the order I saw them and because I want to end on a high note.
Well, till next time! Impossible Numbers, out! 
I find I've enjoyed a lot of the EqG content as well. I thought Everfree was a pretty good movie (and Gaia's song may be my favorite of the franchise), yet there were three main things that bugged me about it.
1. Sunset spent 2 movies freaking out about Equestrian magic being there and warning everyone about the dangers of using it. Then suddenly in this movie, she's all about encouraging the girls to develop their powers. If she'd had a gradual change of heart, that would have been fine, but it's like she made a snap decision off camera some time before the movie. I don't buy it.
2. Maybe it's me, but the bit where Sunset bumps into Gloriosa and hears her internal scream? That just doesn't sound like a scream to me. Every single time I watch the movie, I don't hear it as a scream until Sunset says something about it, and half the time I don't really hear it at all.
3. Sunset's new not-rainbow-power suit makes her look way too much like Yu-Gi-Oh.
They're doing it to raise money for Camp Everfree. I suspect this was originally meant to be set before Legend of Everfree and thus help raise funds for the trip, but then we run into the library issue again.
Yeah, seeing the Shadowbolts again is nice, but there's still barely any there there. And poor Indigo Zap ceased to exist at some point after the Friendship Games.
"Movie Magic" amuses me on a meta level. After the Scooby-Doo movie that was Legend of Everfree (e.g. meddling kids and their dog investigate an actual supernatural incident,) we get a Scooby-Doo episode (e.g. meddling kids and their dog investigate and capture a disguised, disgruntled saboteur.)
You clearly haven't seen some of the shorts. And no, that isn't a suggestion that you do so.
Excellent point with the parallels between Twilight and Gloriosa. I'd never made that connection until now. And I wholeheartedly agree on Timber. He's a great character aside from the romance.
And yeah, the Stump of Harmony raises questions that they never really answer. But hey, more fanfic fodder.
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I completely failed to notice the first continuity issue you pointed out, likely a side effect of me watching these things out of order. Chuck it on the growing pile of plot problems.
I didn't have a problem with the scream thing, though. Also, I know jack about Yu-Gi-Oh and Sunset's weird wardrobe doesn't even make me bat an eyelid. Well, no more than the other fashion explosions do.
For me, this is very much a series where you're in it to hang out with the cast, not to marvel at the world-building craftsmanship.
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I legitimately forgot why Rarity et al were so intent on raising the money in the first place, and had some vague idea it was to raise funds for the Lux Deluxe cruise in "Spring Breakdown". Perhaps I got my wires crossed with the Shadowbolts' motive (to pay for a yacht, I think).
Apparently, she was on vacation, enjoying a cruise. Which raises the intriguing possibility that A) she's the wealthiest member of the Shadowbolts, and B) she can't be bothered to pay for their yacht herself.
They even have a talking dog! But would he do it for a Spikey snack? Spikey-Wikey-Woo!
Both Scooby-Doo formats fit remarkably well into the Equestria Girls world, as it happens. Probably because of that "meddling kids" cast composition, plus the kid-friendly mystery aspect and tendency to elaborate traps and big maze-like locations. Can't wait for Equestria Girls on Zombie Island...
I basically just focused on anything longer than twenty minutes, so that is correct.
I went in not expecting any such connection, so I was generously disposed to the movie as soon as I noticed it. I always like a bit of parallelism in a story, especially when the contrast is between hero and villain.
Meanwhile, I suppose it doesn't help that I don't really care much for romance at the best of times. Regardless, Timber Spruce goes further than most love interests by clearly having a life beyond whomever he has a crush on.
Oh, hell yeah. That goes without saying.
If I didn't know better, I'd swear that regularly supplying fanfic fuel was the plan all along...
Despite the rest of the episode being meh at best, the 5 minutes or so of just Sunset and Starlight were just excellent. There's so much potential in the two of them becoming friends over assorted shared experience! I'm just sad we didn't get a whole short just for that...
Ayyyy, I knew there was a reason I liked you
Oh my god, all of this, times, like... 18.
Which Sci-Twi is not. :B
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Personally, I thought that was one of the least appealing parts of the episode, and I'm not just saying that because "Forgotten Friendship" actually did something with the same idea. It's worth admitting my biases at this point and saying that - in my case - reformed-Starlight is at the bottom of the same personal favourite characters ranking that Sunset is at the top of.
I think it's also safe to say I wasn't generously predisposed to "Mirror Magic" even going in, to say nothing of how it all played out.
How many am I at now?
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Now here's the million dollar question: Is he better or worse than Flash Sentry?
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I suppose you are allowed to dislike second best pony
I lost count a while back, so it's gotta be at least two
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Far worse! At least Flash is also a teenager!
I'd watched Legend of Everfree maybe once and filed it under "it's OK". Your analysis of the Gloriosa & Timber versus Sunset & Twilight parallels gives me a little more appreciation for it!
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"It's OK" was what I was expecting going in, especially since I got the impression Friendship Games was a "come full circle" satisfying conclusion to the original trilogy, whereas this one seemed mostly superfluous or no deeper than surface-level amusement. Yet after the halfway mark, I had to admit I was enjoying it more than I was expecting, possibly more than I'd enjoyed the previous movie.
The parallelism helped when I noticed it, but I thought the Twilight-Sunset stuff was very sweet at face value (Sunset being a redeemer is nice, but this is one of the few EqG media where it's actually shown as a long-term commitment than as a way to end a one-off conflict). Certainly more developed than a couple of brief scenes at the end of Friendship Games.
Long story short, I would have liked this one a lot just for its emotional attention... to say nothing of its superhero finale!