Salutations my pony people. My name is Penny Wrights and I'll be a new tribute/editorial writer for a show that's ending but a fandom that will last for who knows how long. Even with all the pony stuff I've seen on the site, not much talk on our favorite teen cash grab Equestria Girls. And that's where I come in. I'll be discussing the mini series, music videos, and even the Pick Your Ending videos. I'll be giving some analysis along with some terrible jokes, but with my first post, I hope to not get flogged too badly in the comments.
I’m not sure whether to call this a nod to the non-Sunset Shimmer fans or nod to the overbearing fans of Trixie. Either way, we get our first mini movie to a long line of many mini shorts. I do like a lot of what’s going on in this one, but I can say the moral rubs me the wrong way. Pretty much a “be nice to everyone or you’re not nice at all” kind of feeling. But enough spoiler spewing. Let’s get to Amnesia: The Sunset Descent.
Oh Sun Shim. You should’ve known better than that. Opening with talking about your flimsy corrupted past, how things are better with friends, and even worse, you’re doing it in song. Rule of thumb here, this is how you start off a bad time.
I wish I knew what dark powers this version of Angel Bunny possesses to turn anyone happy by hugging it. It helps Sci Twi with opening up in the Friendship Games and that’s probably one of Sun Shim’s biggest smiles. I’m on to you fur ball of evil. I’m watching you.
So after our not so subtle nod to “Everything is Awesome”, we meet bedhead trendsetter Wallflower Blush. Along with being on the yearbook committee with the Human 6, she has also been trying to get Sunset’s attention through half the song. Her words, not mine. I can’t take credit for a joke that funny.
I’ll say this about her design, too. I like the fact that she’s one of the several that don’t have an identifying “clothing patch” on her (minus whatever the fandom has created for her). A lot of background characters in the human world have some form of identifier regardless of not having a pony version to work from. So when I see characters that don’t have something specific like that, it makes their characters more identifiable in the human world by personality and character design alone. Anyway, enough gabbing. Let’s watch Sunset crash and burn in social conversations when playing the extrovert.
Sweet Celestia don’t we all relate to this? Someone who you should probably know and you can barely remember where you’ve never noticed them. Don’t worry Shimmy. You can remember the other non-introvert characters during awkward high school reunions. But then again, I’d probably cheat and use Hoofbook to look up profiles.
Oh look. It’s “best red herring” Trixie. Sorry to any Trixie fans, but sweet Celestia does she grind gears. And it’s not helping that her first appearance is complaining about not have her centerfold in the yearbook. And of course being the nasty child she is, we have to be reminded that Sunset was a terrible villain. And by “terrible” I mean she wasn’t very good at it with a flimsy motive.
Ok at this point of the series, we all know the Mane 6 have parents so that should include the Human 6. But where are Sunset’s? How is she living in this loft as a student? I can only assume this is a studio apartment with that door maybe being a bathroom, but who else lives with her? Where are her parents? Even in the pony world I’m just gonna assume she’s taken over as the obvious orphan since Scootaloo has been confirmed not to live under a bridge like the fandom thought for years until season 9.
Hmm…selfie camera drone…or secret spy drone. Careful Twilight. There’s no telling what the FBI are up to when spying on high school girls in swimsuits at the beach.
I do love this genuine confused look on everyone’s face about Sunset being in their best friend’s picture. Like I could feel awkward just having them look at me like I was off my meds (so to speak). Also concerned with Flutters here. She looks like Michael Myers just rose out of the sand with a kitchen knife and Rarity doesn’t approve of his jumpsuit.
So are we to assume Twilight just talked herself out of breaking apart two dimensions or did the magic of puppy dog eyes do the trick?
I won’t deny the twinge of pain seeing Sunset begging Twilight to remember her. And after the news about her being Bi, this hurts even worse. Your girl crush doesn’t even remember you and now you’re just the mean girl in everyone’s eyes again and…*sniff* WHO IN THE HAY IS CHOPPING ONIONS BACK THERE?!?!
When you’re lost and alone and can’t depend on your friends, visit the Princess of Friendship. Easy common sense to figure out. And Sweet Celestia has it been a while since we’ve seen pony Shim. I also must commend the artists for replacing Human Shim’s backpack with a saddle bag when entering the portal. Guess you can’t bring your human clothing through another dimension, but bags work?
So with Twilight not having the answers to Shimmy’s Forgotten Friendship™, there is but one other pony to turn to when dealing with strange magic.
I’m curious to know if Luna knew about Sunset before or after her 1,000 year vacation to the moon. But Celestia… girl...chill…birds flair out their wings to seem bigger and intimidating. You’re a God. You’re already intimidating.
After years of being away from your home dimension due to running off, becoming a lackluster villain, and trying to take over Equestria with an army of brainwashed teenagers, your stitch effort for repentance lies in the hooves of… Princess of Awkward Introductions. I would probably have that look too Shimmy.
It’s not like the fandom hasn’t been waiting with anxious anticipation for this moment. If anything, I still await for the moment of when Sunset turned evil and ran away. Still need that backstory to even come close to understanding what she was trying to do in the first EG movie. But with this happening in the first TV special of Equestria Girls spin off was truly unexpected. And with the way Sun butt is glaring, we all wanted to see if it was possible to banish someone to the sun without killing them.
*squees intensifies* I have no words. Shimmy’s speech was heartfelt and sincere, this hug between them was long overdue, and the relief on Twiley’s face gave us a chance to breathe. Favorite moment of the special…until we get to nerd Twilight in the next scenes.
Oh yeah. Nothing to see here. Just three of the princesses strolling into the library in the middle of the day. No biggie. Seriously, we question why nobody notices Twilight as an alicorn princess, but these two have been around for centuries. Their faces are probably on the bits being used in this world. And no royal guards, no chariot to ride on, not a single person kneeling.
Booklight’s nerdgasm is always a fun treat to experience. But she went straight up Granny Smith a few times with her voice. At this point in time, they should have inhalers for someone like Twilight. Either she passes out or Tara Strong does.
Always love the world building this show brings us. This art style for the ancient scrolls along with the writing is so intricate that it feels like an ancient story. So along with a cool folk story, we get info on the memory stone (not the most elaborate name, I know) and how to outwit someone using it against you.
Oh hi Red Herring…I mean Trixie. Man, gotta try to remember these names better. So back in the human world we get more of Trixie still trying to be the main antagonist in this special. Just so you know it’s not working. But most of the fluff here is just filler so the Human 6 don’t get bored waiting for the story to continue.
“I’d never make a face like that!”
Can anybody even describe this face to me? What am I seeing here? Constipation? Stink eye? Mean mugging? My top lip is tangled in my invisible braces and I got stuck this way?
Oof. I do not want to be on the other side of this glare. I think this is why I love Shimmy as a character in this show. She doesn’t just get sad or depressed at the situation. She can get mad and frustrated to the point of lashing out at others. You won’t always see a character take their anger out on someone who’s not your problem. I think it’s those type of imperfect feelings that doesn’t make her a Mary Sue.
Oh no! It looks like the culprit was Trixie all along just to get her own page in the yearbook and now Sunset is gonna stomp the friendship out of her. (Editor’s note: it’s really tricky to write in monotone voice). You know, with some bouncy movement and action music, this looks like the start of a fighting video game. See if we can give Trixie the Alicorn Amulet from season 3 and we have Magic Duel 2: Electric Boogaloo
So language barriers aside, this is a really cool looking poster. Also it looks like Trixie doesn’t know about the memory stone and was a red herring after all. Who would’ve guessed it?
*Deep breath*. Alright. In this moment, I don’t deny loving Trixie’s character. She’s always been this boasting blowhard who thinks she can do no wrong, but when she get vulnerable and relatable like this, it’s not just something shoehorned in or out of character for her. She’s aware of what people think of her and can’t show any sign of weakness or else she would lose the confidence she has in herself. I like Trixie better when she’s paired with odd characters like Sunset and even Starlight in the original show. She brings out a better light with them and even supports them. She could’ve easily kicked Sunset while she was down but she gave a listen and felt a kinship to having great expectations of yourself be forgotten or overlooked.
But of course that moment doesn’t last long and is blackmailing Sunset to get her into the yearbook in exchange for helping her find the memory stone. Yeah I can only take Trixie in small doses. Sunset must’ve been some bully to win out Biggest Meanie when against someone like Trixie.
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| Alternate dialogue: “LIBRARY WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!?!” |
I don’t know if Maud would’ve been the one to ask about a magical stone, but she was the one who helped Glim Glam with collecting Cutie marks in her dictatorship days. I don’t think Maud should give out advice anymore.
Oh look. At nearly the half hour mark of the special we get to see her again. I do wish we could’ve had a “Where’s Wallflower” type of thing with her just hidden in the background. Kind of like with Glim Glam stalking Twilight in random episodes. Of course she could’ve been in the background through the whole movie, but had no presence the whole time so the viewers couldn’t find her. Hmmm…
I will say this, Trixie is at least honest. She’ll flat out say she doesn’t remember you even after hearing your name for the 2nd time in a matter of 2 lines of dialogue. Even Shimmy is confused at how proud Trixie is for not remembering someone. This is where your hope lies Sunset. Soak it in.
Ah. Like all introverts, we are mostly silent and invisible until we’re asked about a topic we like. Happens all the time. But I will say it doesn’t make much sense to have her be the only member of her gardening club without the flower trio Rose, Daisy, and Lily. Though if she knew they would overreact at the site of a broken flower stem and pass out, I don’t think our little Wallflower would be able to handle them.
And this is where the plot loses me. It’s not like Sunset was the only person not noticing her. Why pinpoint her in all this? Trixie didn’t even hesitate to say she didn’t know or remember her. There was not even any evidence that says Wallflower was bullied by her so why single her out? In a way, Wallflower is the fandom that wasn’t up to Sunset being so easily turned good after a brief 5 minute fight in the first movie and yeah I thought the same. It did seem rushed and too easy and maybe it was with Sunset’s popularity while being both mean and nice that set Miss. Passive Aggressive off.
So in this form, memories are treated like removing a ribbon or thread from someone’s mind. Later we see that happen with Sunset too, but the memories come out of the middle of the forehead instead of just off to the side. Of course with it coming from the middle of the head, that place is the Third Eye, where thoughts and memories are stored. Just adding some random New Age facts for continuity. I hope I made Silver Quill proud.
Contrary to what’s happening in the picture, she is not Naruto running. Just to make that clear. Also, I love the power and angst in this song. I’m sure it relates to a lot of people, but again, she’s calling out anyone who never noticed her. It wasn’t directed at Sunset, but she set her memory stone lasers on her specifically. Sunset changed, but she didn’t. How is that anybody else’s fault?
Aww Sun Shim. That’s quite rude to go through her stuff while she’s in the middle of her 90’s pop angst song. Especially when it was quite good. I don’t think Hasbro released a full thing of this, but they need to get on that. I guess in a way this is considered Sunset not caring about her. But how could she? As she stated, she doesn’t even know her.
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| “You’re about to see how mean I can get.” |
Ok so maybe it’s not good to advocate violence in a little girl’s cartoon, but wow Shimmy. I can only imagine the beat down she wants to unleash on Wallflower. So much so that even Trixie was trying to hold her back from a brawl. It’s at least for a logical reason since Wallflower has a powerful rock that can take away memories.
Great McGuffin #840. Random camera that was recording everything in case of memory loss. On a second watch, you can see Sunset reach for something, hear a click, and even during Wallflower’s song the light on the drone is blinking red. Being that many steps ahead is a pretty good tactic. Also Trixie commenting how long her song was did get a chuckle out of me.
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| “But maybe it’s not good enough to not be mean to someone. Maybe you have to be nice.” |
Oh great. Another moment of Trixie being a decent voice of reason. But it’s still something that’s not really Sunset’s fault. Through mind reading flashbacks, nobody else paid Wallflower any attention. Why does she have to be the advocate of friendship and initiate everything for her? I’m not saying that Wallflower should’ve spoken up or tried to change herself to fit in, but it makes no sense to go against just one person when we don’t see anyone else talking to her. Would it have been better if mean Shimmy was a bully to her and she would have some form of attention? Probably not, but it would’ve made more sense to get revenge after that happening and not being able to forgive her like the rest of the school has done.
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| “I’m not lonely because I have…PLANTS!” |
In all honesty, with her design, she would’ve been a great Gia Everfree from the Legend of Everfree. I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t already fan art of Wallflower as Poison Ivy or something. I won’t take the time to look only because I don’t know how…risqué the picture might be.
So when taking a dive and losing all her memories of even being human, this moment got way too heavy. It was kind of sad and dark in a way and even Wallflower was pretty shocked at what she had done. I won’t deny my heart breaking when she was helpless and calling out for Celestia and...and...DIDN'T I SAY TO STOP CHOPPING ONIONS BACK THERE?!?!
Oh look! More toy sales! So we get out magical girl transformation with new clothes and probably Pinkie’s best badass line to ever come from the show. Not to mention keeping Sunset dazed and confused with what’s happening and how the how to explain any of this to Celestia. Wallflower done bucked up now.
Aww. You’re still a messed up antagonist. I will say the moral better with how they worded it here. That everyone should matter no matter who invisible they feel. I’ll chalk it up to the Equestrian magic able to corrupt non-Equestrian beings. It’s probably the reason for a lot of the antagonists in this series, but I can see it in a more realistic way instead of someone being horrible for the sake of being horrible.
Editor’s Note: Don’t ship it! Don’t ship it! Don’t ship it! Don’t ship it! Don’t ship it! Don’t ship it!
Ok so I had 1 out of 3 right. Never would’ve thought of Derpy as the gardener type, but hey. They needed to keep pleasing the fans with her presence. And contrary to what would probably happen, her plant actually looks good. I just don't know what went right.
So that was the Forgotten Friendship. It’s a good development special for Sunset and surprisingly Trixie. The rest of the Human Six are pretty much there to be there with having their memories erased even though the whole school lost their memories of Sunset. I can’t really agree with Wallflower aiming her anger at Sunset just because she didn’t notice her out of supposedly being nice. Has an entitled tone to it depending on when you ask me about her. She’s a good character and with her being a passive character, of course she’s easily redeemed. Hope you all had a good time reading and let me know your thoughts and comments on the first special after the movies.
