The Equestria Girls General Thread

1. When Rainbow Rocks came out, every single fan loved it from beginning to end.
2. It got so much stuff. Again, four movies, many shorts, many music clips, a TV show… So the word “underrated” doesn’t apply in this particular case.

It’s initial antagonist turned main protagonist was definitely the highlight of it for me, I really became invested in Sunset Shimmer’s redemption and seeing the very consistent, well-written development of her character as she rose above her past and began helping others in ways only she could having been in such dark places. Though to say EqG’s success is solely attributed to Sunset I think wouldn’t be giving it enough credit.

I don’t think it’s controversial to say pony high-school girls, on paper, is a pretty bad idea, and its first outing did little to ease concerns. But I’m really impressed with what it was able to make of its limited setting as early as its 2nd movie (which to this day remains one of my most cherished G4 media), and ultimately come around to a solid show with such a shaky start. By the time it had established itself as a sort of Magical Girl show, I think it really found its footing.

As the series went on, it kind of went to even replace FiM as the next release I always looked forward to most. At the time, FiM was starting to reach for greater and greater heights: a ton of new secondary characters were introduced and explored, and the stakes at the end of each season were usually the entire fate of a nation. However, spreading the attention around so many new characters took attention away from the Mane 6 and their dynamics that drew me to the show in the first place, and the stakes always being so high to the point where you couldn’t have a season finale where Equestria wasn’t in danger diluted the gravity of that threat. EqG, meanwhile, kept its plots laser-focused around the mane seven characters. Admittedly, the very brief runtime of the shorts and only a handful of specials mean they didn’t have much opportunity to do otherwise, but I preferred being able to keep the Mane 7 at the focal point of the story. And whereas FiM finales concentrated more on the increasingly lofty and somewhat impersonal fate of the world, big plots in EqG would focus more on smaller but more relatable things like the relationships or well-being of its cast. It got to be I cared a lot more about something as personal but important as Sunset’s memories or Scilight’s psyche than the 6th-7th time Equestria was almost destroyed.

This combined with some amazing songs, good humor, and more surprisingly mature themes than you might expect made EqG solidify itself to me as a worthy spinoff. I am only disappointed it felt like it was never really allowed to reach its full potential with the limited format of the shorts.