Unpopular opinion time

Applepie1973

Nostalgia Purist
I don’t hate Snips and Snails designs in fact I like that they have unique designs to them since you don’t see many ponies with there models.
 
me too
AC97
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@Brass Beau
 
I’m pretty sure she’s manipulated others with their morals of what they’d consider right or wrong.
 
Cozy Glow: Me?! We all just saw you with your claws all over them! [gasps] It all makes sense. These creatures want magic gone from Equestria because it’s the only thing ponies have that they don’t!
 
Cozy Glow: And you repay her by sending her to Tartarus on a wild goose chase so you could destroy everything she built! [gasps] They’ve even trapped Starlight in that-that thing! We have to defend this school!
 
…and she was the first one to basically label the three of them as evil in “Better Way To Be Bad,” and she said it herself, about why they’re backstabbing Grogar:
 
Cozy Glow: We’re villains. Duh.
 
So I think she at least has a grasp on reality in the morals department (as the saying goes: “know the words, but not the music,” regarding the existence of a conscience).
 
If anything, “deranged” comes closer to Starlight’s mindset as a villain, even if she was still evil.
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
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Sunset Shimmer: [to Snips and Snails] Round them up and bring them to the portal. [to Twilight and friends] Spoiler alert: I was bluffing when I said I was going to destroy the portal. I don’t want to rule this pathetic little high school; I want Equestria! And with my own little teenage army behind me, I am going to get it!
 
…I’m really not sure how the scriptwriter(s) thought “little teenage army” would sound like something intimidating, instead of amusing, unless they were actively trying to make her sound way too big for her britches.
 
Would Sunset’s army have even be able to walk properly, shifting to quadrupeds, let alone fly and use magic?
 
Diet Sombra… not even once.
 
and yes, technically Sombra using mind-controlled ponies as an army came later in S5, then S9, unless the comics got there first and I don’t know about it
Brass Beau

Howdy from Shimmer Pope
@AC97  
Sunset kinda got the short end of the stick in the villain department. I’d say at least two or three hours was needed to set up the plot, develop the setting, establish the characters and motivations and enact a plan worth all of the hullabaloo. That’s a recuring problem in a lot of the Equestria Girls stuff; lack of time and focus. I think Rainbow Rocks gets a pass because of all the musical numbers but it still has plot threads going nowhere and underdeveloped or poorly motivated characters. I still like the series (A LOT) but it probably should have been a show in its own right instead of a bunch of movies and ten minute (or two minute) shorts.
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
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@Brass Beau
 
Rainbow Rocks got a pass because it kind of dazzles you. Pun intended
 
…And yeah, Sunset got one of the shortest ends of the stick, as a villain. Her plans made no sense, what she knows because reasons included, and it was anticlimactic, the resolution (which happened more than once afterwards). It also doesn’t help that the best she did before reforming was… not hurt Spike before putting on the crown.
 
I think it’s quitter’s talk to go “she just wasn’t meant to be a villain,” really.
 
For a noticeable example of “they didn’t really address it,” outside of the first movie, they didn’t put much focus on those magical geodes and what they really meant, the implications of them paralleling the Elements of Harmony with how they were tied to specific people, where they came from.
 
EQG would’ve, or could’ve probably benefited from that different format, agreed.
Vinylshadow
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Megalomaniacal toaster
…how could anyone take an army of drunk/stoned teenagers seriously as a threat
 
What on earth was Sunset thinking? Did the influx of magic rot her brain?
Lord WyrmSpawN
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Lingering Wyvern
@Vinylshadow  
Well, when they have wayward and random magical powers and they’re being released in Equestria’s vassal nation where the nation’s finest are lying in wait and not expecting an attack…
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

@WyrmSpawN
 
They were gathered around the mirror waiting for something to come through, at a chokepoint (only one way in, with the mirror), so they couldn’t be attacked in their sleep… and it’s possibly optimistic for their combined might to overwhelm three alicorns, and Discord was free at that point in time, worst case scenario (not that she could’ve known him to be free… then again, she already knew about things she shouldn’t in that movie).
 

 
…and annoyingly, we didn’t get to see if Snips and Snails had any real special abilities other than flying in their changed forms, with how quickly they were collectively defeated.
 
If S9 was anything to go by, Cadance could quite possibly just purge active mind control with the Crystal Heart, if she managed to get to it, just like she did with Sombra and everyone he brainwashed in the Crystal Empire, even without it being supercharged like in S3’s premiere.
 
The main gripe though, regarding the script, is that she said “teenage army,” not something like “these pitiful teenagers are only the beginning,” because something like the latter would’ve sounded more imposing.
Brass Beau

Howdy from Shimmer Pope
@AC97  
Giant evil winged unicorn? She was at least as powerful as Nightmare Moon. With Equestria’s best defense all in one room, if she took them by surprise she likely could have taken them out. Even if she didn’t, the army was meant as cannon fodder and the princesses likely wouldn’t have been as ruthless as those teenagers. Her army may not have been intimidating, but it likely would have been effective. And that’s assuming she doesn’t brainwash the residents of the Crystal Empire or the princesses. Not the best plan by a longshot, but she’s decent at improvising.
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

@Brass Beau
 
…do I need to go over how silly and nonsensical her framing job with Twilight was, with how she obviously knew how to use some sort of video editing software for that video she made, yet she didn’t photoshop the photos so she wouldn’t leave physical evidence behind for Flash Sentry to find (Sunset cut out pictures of Twilight, glued them over the vandalism photos, and photocopied them to give to Luna, as “evidence;” that scene with Flash Sentry just rubbed me the wrong way, how he just had to save Twilight there, and I don’t even care enough to hate him), which she was already lucky that Luna didn’t automatically see how ridiculous Twilight’s poses were for what she was supposedly doing, or how her attempts to drive the Human Five apart could’ve been thwarted by simple texts?
 
Twilight Sparkle: STOP! All of you! I wanna show you something. You were friends once.
Applejack: Hmm. The Freshman Fair. Y’all remember?
Pinkie Pie: Mm-hmm.
Rarity: Yes.
Twilight Sparkle: But something happened. I think that something was Sunset Shimmer.
Rarity: Well, it’s a nice theory, darling, but Sunset Shimmer had nothing to do with it.
Fluttershy: She’s right. Sunset Shimmer isn’t the one who ruined my silent auction for the animal shelter by bringing fireworks and noisemakers! It was supposed to be a serious event, and Pinkie Pie ruined it!
Pinkie Pie: What are you talking about? I got a text from you saying that you didn’t want a silent auction. You wanted a big party!
Fluttershy: Uh! I never sent you a text!
Pinkie Pie: You didn’t?
Rarity: You don’t think she’s the one who’s been sending me those e-mails, do you? Every time I volunteer to help with the decorations at a school function, I get an e-mail from Pinkie Pie saying she has plenty of volunteers! And then I find out she’s done everything herself.
Pinkie Pie: I never sent you any e-mails!
Applejack: Maybe she’s the reason Rainbow Dash didn’t show up for my bake sale!
Twilight Sparkle: Didn’t you ever ask Rainbow Dash why she didn’t show up?
Applejack: Heh, I guess I kinda stopped talkin’ to her at all after that.
 
Assuming she rivalled Sombra in her prowess for brainwashing others (he got a town/city brainwashed swiftly on two occasions, she got the school handled quickly), Sombra still didn’t manage to defeat Celestia and Luna, who beat him without the Elements, and it could’ve very well mirrored that case with her, even if she was about as strong as Nightmare Moon… and I’m not sure they’d hesitate to fire, would possibly get the first hit in, when some demonic looking pony or whatever comes through the mirror.
 
Not saying she couldn’t win, I just wouldn’t be all that confident in her victory being assured, and between Discord, who possibly purified Luna under different circumstances (and his Plunder Vines that incapacitated Celestia and Luna), and Tirek being out there (since he escaped during It’s About Time), I’m not sure her victory over Equestria would’ve lasted that long anyway.
 
(I think Philweasel put it very well, when they said that Sunset made Garble look like a criminal mastermind, and that it was part of the fun how it made no sense; that first EQG movie was a shining example of how Meghan McCarthy is capable of… writing things with nonsensical plots, even if I mostly enjoyed her stuff)
Brass Beau

Howdy from Shimmer Pope
@AC97  
Oh, victory is most definitely not assured. And not for long if it happened. As for the photos, that seems like a Snips and Snails task. I could be wrong. Luna just accepting the evidence I have no idea how to explain. “Hilariously nonsensical” sums up that movie well.
Terminal Rex

Going Indognito mode..
I think sunset Satan, in her Madness made up her plan on the fly. Launching an invasion of a few hundred fire spewing demons into the heart of a nation in a suprise attack, possibly taking out its leadership in the opening moments aint that bad a plan.
 
I doubt shimmer had anything like mind control or a demonic invasion in mind when she put on that crown. It came off more like her wanting alicornhood and showing up celestia and her new student.  
She showed restraint in not harming spike or retaliating against flash for dumping her because she was out to eleveate herself, not injure or destroy others.
 
It wasnt untill the malfunctioning crown turned her into a parody of herself by turning all her negative traits up to 11 that she started trying to kill people and conquer the world.
 
Its why she was so scared and in obvious pain during her transformation and ashamed and remorceful post transformation. The crown held up a mirrior to her soul and she saw herself as others saw her for the first time.
Latecomer

@AC97  
There’s also the possibility that just sending enough people through the portal would matter more than who exactly - Celestia did seem quite concerned about sending too many the other way, after all. Alicorns can’t do much to stop you when they’re focused on containing a local reality collapse. But I guess Spring Breakdown put the kibosh on that theory…
 
 
@Brass Beau  
I think it’s just that the wild magic is drawn to certain emotions and amplifies them. Might also be related to the original breach being made by Midnight Sparkle.
Vivace
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
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“ShimSham my GlimGlams”
@Latecomer  
Oh yeah, either Celestia just made an incorrect assumption, or Spring Breakdown may have been made a bit worse than it already was by breaking EQG’s lore. Given that that went unaddressed, I’m inclined to take the stance of the latter.
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

@Brass Beau
 
In the end though, it’d depend on who’s writing it, really. If it were Meghan McCarthy writing it, I’d give her at least an 80% chance of winning… unless she liked Cadance enough to let her win/contribute enough to win, which I think she does like her as a character, since she had a decent showing in episodes she wrote/the Movie.
 
(I don’t think we ever got a concrete answer for shields blocking mind control)
 
@Terminal Red
 
You’re probably right, she likely did make up that plan on the spot after transforming, for the reasons you said.
 
@Vivace
 
EQG’s lore was… always kinda lacking, between the Memory Stone being the only Equestrian magical artifact to get an explanation for how it got there, and the things like “some of the Storm King’s stolen magic leaked into that world” (for something apropos to Spring Breakdown). It would be one thing if the alternate portal we saw was in Canterlot or something, where the storm was (which granted, they mentioned the possibility of there being even more), but it seemed to be in the Everfree or some other wooded area close to Ponyville.
 
Generally you probably get more out of Equestria Girls if you’re invested in the characters over lore and such, which there isn’t anything wrong with, mind you.
 
@Sadrai
 
Amusingly, Starlight actually pulled a Boast Busters/Snips in To Change a Changeling, if you think about it, with the “lure Maulwurf so Pharynx can defeat it” plan being very similar to what Snips’ plan was all the way back in S1, they just went wrong in different ways.
 
…Trixie didn’t pick up on that being eerily similar because she admits she never learned from history in multiple episodes (that writer for A Horse Shoe-In, for having written only that episode in the series, really nailed the characters, between Big Mac, Trixie, Starlight, Spoiled Rich, and so on).
 
Trixie: So you messed up. Big deal. [hushed] Don’t you ever tell another pony I said this, but even Trixie’s made mistakes. [giggles] I know! The trick is to just move on and pretend they never happened.
 
Trixie: In the Pre-Equestia Era, year thirteen twenty-two, Abraxius the Bold did… [muttering] …ooh, a bunch of boring stuff… [muttering] …for a really long time. Okay, I know history is important, but I never learned any of it, and look how I turned out.
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