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1Works in this series with their own YMMV pages:
2
3* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls1 Equestria Girls]]
4* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks Rainbow Rocks]]
5** [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocksShorts Rainbow Rocks Shorts]]
6* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames Friendship Games]]
7** [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGamesShorts Friendship Games Shorts]]
8* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsLegendOfEverfree Legend of Everfree]]
9* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsMagicalMovieNight Magical Movie Night]]
10* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSummertimeShorts Summertime Shorts]]
11* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsDigitalSeries Digital Series]]
12* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsForgottenFriendship Forgotten Friendship]]
13* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRollercoasterOfFriendship Rollercoaster of Friendship]]
14* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSpringBreakdown Spring Breakdown]]
15* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetsBackstagePass Sunset's Backstage Pass]]
16* [[YMMV/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsHolidaysUnwrapped Holidays Unwrapped]]
17
18----
19!!Franchise in general
20* {{Adorkable}}:
21** The human Twilight. Would she be Twilight Sparkle if she wasn't this? She has a sort of shy-teenage-nerd charm to her, and is presented as very socially awkward.
22** Fluttershy. Like her pony counterpart, her shyness, innocent nature, and earnest enthusiasm for her interests can [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU8LYJSDdR4 come across]] this way.
23** Both Principals have their goofy moments through the series, with Celestia's being less frequent than Luna's, though.
24*** The photo montage at the end of ''Friendship Games'' shows them both (along with Cadance) gorging on the cakes their students made for the Home Economics competition. There's also a picture of Luna doing a rather silly dance without a care in the world as Celestia does her best to contain her giggling.
25*** In the [[Funny/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames third movie's blooper reel]] Luna flubs a line quite comically, and pokes fun at herself for it.
26*** Celestia has a moment in the [[Funny/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsLegendOfEverfree fourth film's reel]], overacting her excitement while everyone else looks at her funny.
27*** The book ''Wondercolts Forever'' is set in their teenage years, leading to quite a bit of this. Luna in particular was somewhat shy, didn't have many friends (as her middle school friends all went to Crystal Prep), called herself Detective Luna while investigating the theft of the Shadowbolt, and shows plenty of adoration towards Celestia. The future CHS Principal, meanwhile, indulges in some uncharacteristic excitement when she's elected Class President, and apparently snarks at Luna when nervous about her speech before that.
28** Flash Sentry also has his moments, like walking right into a door when starting his date with Twilight or asking her friends about her in ''Rainbow Rocks''.
29* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Many did. ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' without the pony? As a HighSchoolAU setting with the cast as teenagers, no less? Defying expectations, many did go to see the movies in theaters, and the franchise has made quite a lot of earnings for Hasbro. The sales have done very well despite the premise, and continues to be a very financially successful part of the line.
30* BaseBreakingCharacter
31** Flash Sentry. Some fans despise him, believing him to be a SatelliteLoveInterest and plot-irrelevant, while others love him and his relationship with Twilight, to the point of putting together a [[https://www.change.org/petitions/hasbro-studios-and-dhx-media-vancouver-save-flash-sentry petition]] for his pony self to appear in the fourth season. He began to edge his way to RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap once he got more to do than just be Twilight's love interest, but some of the early hate still lingers and induces groans whenever he appears.
32** The human Twilight Sparkle. Some are upset that her inclusion of the series has pretty much gotten the Equestrian Twilight PutOnABus, as the human Twilight has much less CharacterDevelopment and history than the Equestrian Twilight. Others like having the human Twilight around for her DivergentCharacterEvolution from the Equestrian Twilight and providing more options for story opportunities in the ''Equestria Girls'' world than the Equestrian Twilight had. A related point of contention is Human Twilight's position in the hierarchy of the Equestria Girls; Hasbro seems indecisive about if Sunset or Twilight is the "leader" of the group, as various entries in the series have gone back and forth between them on this point. Some dislike Twilight being depicted as the leader since Sunset has gotten more CharacterDevelopment compared to Twilight and is the overall main protagonist of the ''Equestria Girls'' franchise. Others don't mind since it makes sense for the girls to match the Equestrian Mane Six, and in terms of that group dynamic Sunset is still TheSixthRanger in spite of her prominence.
33** Timber Spruce, introduced in ''Legend of Everfree'', gets flak from some people for similar reasons to Flash Sentry, as Timber is viewed as another SatelliteLoveInterest, this time for Human Twilight. He had more plot relevance and showed a more complex personality in his debut than Flash got in his debut, which got him a better relative reception than Flash got, but he still has detractors who don't care for him.
34* BrokenBase:
35** Opinions on the series itself run the gamut from "awesome" to "average" all the way to "MLP has been ruined."
36** Try bringing up the topic of the human Twilight having wings in a fan forum. Bring a fire extinguisher or two. If you expect the idea of Sunset getting wings to come up, bring a dozen.
37*** With Twilight, her having wings in her ponied-up form implies she's an alicorn like the Equestrian Twilight, but that gets into the topic of if she's earned her wings like Princess Twilight did or if she just has them because she's Twilight's counterpart, and that invites debate about which should be the logic the series follows. ''Spring Breakdown'' had the human Twilight go to Equestria and she turned out to be a unicorn in that world, so discussions on why her human ponied up forms have wings are also part of the debate now.
38*** For Sunset, the CharacterDevelopment she's gone through and the understanding of friendship and magic she's achieved are impressive, but the fandom disagrees if it's enough to warrant her earning alicornhood or not. The climax of ''Friendship Games'', where she combines on the powers of the Humane Five in herself and turns into "Daydream Shimmer", an angelic being with a pair of HotWings, makes this matter all the more troublesome for discussion -- some point to this moment as proof Sunset is worthy of ascension, others think not. When specials came where she returns to Equestria and is still a normal unicorn, debates began about what her Daydream Shimmer form means then. Both of the girls each having winged powered-up forms but unicorns in Equestria also invites discussion as what makes one worthy or eligible to become an alicorn anyway, which has long been ambiguous throughout the franchise.
39* CriticProof: The dolls have been mocked by nearly every serious MLP and doll collector for their cheapness and hideousness, but they've been huge sellers despite this.
40* DracoInLeatherPants: The Sirens/The Dazzlings are this for the series as a whole. They're the most popular villains by a country mile, and thus get portrayed in fan works as three lost souls who are in a very hard place as a result of no powers since losing them at the end of ''Rainbow Rocks''. In canon, the Sirens are a TerribleTrio who want to spread a HatePlague, caused people to turn against their friends, fed off of the negative energy this created, and showed no remorse for any of their actions. And as far as "hard place" goes, as of ''Sunset's Backstage Pass'', the Dazzlings aren't really shown to really be in one other than having no powers, and [[RetiredMonster end the series as still being jerks to people, with or without active villainy]]. Even so, it's quite rare to find a fan fic that portrays them as completely unrepentant monsters or huge {{Jerkass}}es as they are in canon.
41* FanficFuel:
42** Where's the human world's Sunset Shimmer? It's normally assumed that she's out there somewhere, given that everyone else seems to have a counterpart in both worlds, but the whereabouts of a hypothetical "Human Sunset" were never brought up. This leaves fans to fill in the blanks; some fanfics have Sunset meeting her human counterpart, some have the two aware of each other and nothing else, some have the two living entirely separate lives and never interacting, and some say that there's only one Sunset. In fact, WordOfGod has confirmed that the finale originally planned for the series was gonna reveal the answer to this very question, but for reasons unknown it got pulled, leaving many fans feeling insulted.
43** The idea of Sunset Shimmer visiting Equestria and/or reconciling with Princess Celestia has also been a fairly popular concept among fanfic writers. [[IKnewIt Such a thing would happen in canon]] in ''Forgotten Friendship''.
44** Characters or creatures from either world crossing over to the other is a concept begging to be written about.
45** "The Fall of Sunset Shimmer" shows Sunset being significantly older than Twilight at the time of Sunset fleeing to the other world, and "ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic #3" shows the Sirens being banished to the modern ''Equestria Girls'' world from ancient Equestria by Star Swirl. Some authors decided to explore the implications of time moving differently between the two worlds.
46** A lot of stories explore WhatIf ideas where Sunset's exile to the other world went differently in some manner, her not going through the mirror and fleeing the castle to go somewhere else, etc.
47** It's established that Twilight didn't know of Sunset during their studies under Celestia, but nothing is said of Cadance, who was also studying under Celestia for years. A lot of fan works explore the idea of Cadance and Sunset's relationship in the years before Sunset fled to the other world.
48** FridgeHorror would suggest that Sunset Shimmer doesn't have much of a future in this alternate world; given that she's from another dimension, it follows that [[UndeadTaxExemption she would have no public records or identification, making secondary school and long-term careers unlikely]]. Fan works that deal with the cast graduating high school often examine Sunset's feelings over her uncertain future after high school, and the option of returning to Equestria for good comes hand in hand with that.
49** ''Holidays Unwrapped'' is a series of shorts despite being the last confirmed special. How will Sunset's future be resolved now?
50* {{Fanon}}:
51** A large portion of the fandom considers it as good as canon that Sunset was being groomed to be a princess by Celestia in the same manner as Twilight, and some go so far as to suggest Celestia was preparing Sunset to receive the Element of Magic. Related to this, it's also commonly accepted that Sunset knew of Twilight during their tutelage with Celestia but Twilight didn't know her, and that jealousy of Twilight played a role in Sunset's StartOfDarkness. Details on these points vary, but the general ideas are ''very'' common in fan works.[[note]]While the canon says nothing about Sunset knowing about the Element of Magic or Twilight during her time with Celestia, this Fanon would resolve several {{plot hole}}s about Sunset backstory, personality, and motivations, which is why it's so widely accepted.[[/note]]
52*** A less common idea, but still a prominent one, is that Sunset is Celestia's daughter, usually adopted but not always.
53** It's popular to depict Sunset in the human world as a vegetarian, keeping with her Equestrian heritage and the presumption that she wouldn't feel comfortable eating meat (especially since many of the common species humans raise for food are ones that are sapient in Equestria).
54*** Related to this is the idea of Human Fluttershy also being a vegetarian/vegan, due to her status as a FriendToAllLivingThings and her magical ability to talk to animals.
55** Ponified Human Twilight/Sci-Twi is near-universally portrayed as a unicorn like her pre-alicorn self in fan works. That her "ponied up" form has wings implying she's the equivalent of an alicorn is subject to AcceptableBreaksFromCanon due to their feeling it's [[ShrinkingViolet at odds with her character]] compared Pony Twilight and/or that she has yet to "earn" it like Pony Twilight, and Sunset Shimmer having done enough to be more deserving of it by now. The series eventually confirmed this as canon when the human Twilight briefly visited Equestria and turned out to be a unicorn in that world.
56* FanonDiscontinuity:
57** The premise alone would drive many fans of ''Friendship Is Magic'' to ignore its existence. Many have since softened since the series has [[GrowingTheBeard improved in quality over time]], and avoided affecting the show such that it could be ignored by those still inclined. There are still fans who prefer to imagine ''EG'' as non-canon, not because they dislike the franchise itself, but because they dislike the lore and events it establishes (Twilight visiting a human world, humans canonically not existing in Equestria, Celestia having a student before Twilight, Twilight having an ImpliedLoveInterest).
58** Some prefer to ignore the ''Equestria Girls'' content that came after ''Friendship Games'', as ''Legend of Everfree'' was a PilotMovie to launch the [=YouTube=] shorts and TV specials, which got a contentious reception among even fans of ''Equestria Girls''. Even those that don't dislike ''Legend of Everfree'' and later content tend to think of the first three films as a self-contained trilogy, and then lump ''Legend of Everfree'' with the [=YouTube=] series and specials as their own sub-series.
59** [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW The IDW comics]] have all been condemned by fans of the ''EG'' series. The 2013 Annual for seemingly confirming Sunset Shimmer's negative depictions and [[SoOkayItsAverage being so bland otherwise]] there was no reason to accept it and its minor flaws. The 2014 Holiday Special, in [[AuthorsSavingThrow attempting to redeem Sunset]], [[HappyEndingOverride negated her hard earned happy ending]] from ''Rainbow Rocks'' over a [[BrokenBase very controversial]] plot that, while [[FanficFuel inspiring more fanwork then anything else from the comics]], had an [[EsotericHappyEnding ending many were unhappy with]]. ''[[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic Fiendship Is Magic #3]]'' was the OriginStory for the Dazzlings/Sirens, which failed to show, and even [[FanDislikedExplanation disproved]], much of what made them popular and interesting. The story of the Sirens' banishment was retold by [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E26ShadowPlayPart2 Shadow Play - Part 2]], making the the Fiendship issue non-canon.
60** The ''Canterlot High Tell-All'' [[https://derpibooru.org/1166167 claims Sunset Shimmer is in contact with Princess Celestia]], potentially cheapening or replacing their reconciliation which was one of the most anticipated plots by the fandom. ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsForgottenFriendship Forgotten Friendship]]'' chose to ignore this bit of trivia and give fans an on-screen reconciliation.
61** Several fans prefer to believe the series ended with ''Forgotten Friendship'' which gave the long-awaited reconciliation between Sunset Shimmer and Princess Celestia and a BookEnds for Sunset's character, as the series after fails to advance the story (that they shot down a proposed finale revealing the long awaited human Sunset Shimmer's whereabouts added salt to that wound), lacks a proper finale, and made [[ComicBookTime their remaining in high school after all this time]] hard to overlook.
62* FanPreferredCouple:
63** Sunset and [[AlternateSelf both Twilight's]] have canonical {{Love Interest}}s, but by far the most dominant ship within the ''Equestria Girls'' fandom is Sunset x Twilight (either of them, [[OneTrueThreesome or even both]]). Their PseudoRomanticFriendship scenes throughout the series have provided plenty of ShippingFuel, and some claim they have more romantic chemistry with each other than with their intended partners.
64** While it is implied that Sunset and Flash Sentry may have gotten back together in later media, some like to pair Flash up with Derpy, as they've often shown spending time together and she's the one to comfort him when he's abandoned by Twilight and Sunset in ''Friendship Games'' and ''Legend of Everfree''.
65* FanPreferredCutContent: A planned finale would have revealed the whereabouts of Sunset Shimmer's human counterpart, something long awaited by fans who thought it would make a better SeriesFinale than [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsHolidaysUnwrapped what was given]] which aside for a moment of EndOfSeriesAwareness gave no meaningful narrative developments or closure to end on.
66* FranchiseOriginalSin
67** The first couple of movies got some criticism for having all the girls look the same, almost to the extent of being {{Palette Swap}}s. The parent show is infamous for reusing character models all the time and just recoloring them, and among the Mane Six and many other ponies, they have the same basic body type and the only difference aside from coloration is their hairstyle and cutie mark. But because the designs of the ponies are so simple, it's not so egregious that they all use the same base assets and the differences in hairstyle and cutie mark are enough to make them look distinct. The human characters though have clothes with more details in their designs, which makes it much more obvious that they share base assets since all of their outfits are identical with minor visual changes (like Pinkie and Rainbow having jackets).
68** The {{Curb Stomp Battle}} and easy reformation of the later villains attracted increasing criticism, starting with Juniper Montage in ''Mirror Magic''. It was the same way with Sunset Shimmer in the first movie, and this was also done with the human Twilight in ''Friendship Games''. However, they each had entire movies to build up the danger they posed for when they inevitably went OneWingedAngel, and the two have become recurring characters and got to demonstrate proper redemption arcs and CharacterDevelopment. The shorter length of the series' later media means less time to build up the threat level of the villains, and none of them have had such recurring appearances to get the development Sunset and Twilight did, thus their defeats come off as anti-climactic and their reformations upon their defeat come off as sudden and unearned.
69* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While generally well-received by the target audience in its home country of America - it ''did'' eventually grow into its own franchise for a reason - ''Equestria Girls'' just seems to have clicked better with some foreign audiences:
70** Poland seems to like it just fine, judging by all those activity books and sticker albums and journals and so forth that exist, more or less [[NoExportForYou exclusive to the region]]. It even has its own [[http://pl.fanowska-equestria-girls.wikia.com/wiki/Fanowska_Equestria_Girls_Wiki Wiki dedicated to fanworks]] about the series, and also [[http://pl.equestria-girls-wymyslone-postacie.wikia.com a separate Wiki for fanmade characters]]. Naturally, there's also a [[http://pl.mlpeg.wikia.com Polish version]] of the "general" Equestria Girls Wiki, which seems to be better maintained than the English version.
71** Latin America -- Mexico in particular -- is also reasonably fond of the series, what with them getting their own official [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations musical theater version]] of ''Rainbow Rocks'', courtesy of Tycoon Gou[[note]] A pretty big production company of theatrical, well, productions in Latin America. [[/note]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEWQz-yQ4bg]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AQ-nobSJuw]] -- which started touring in Mexico and ended spreading southwards like an sparkly, colorful plague -- reaching [[https://www.panamaparaninos.com/eventos-infantiles/recreativos/My-Little-Pony-Equestria-Girls-Panama Panama]], [[https://www.tuticket.com/Website/co/Evento/5_Especiales/864_My%20Little%20Pony%20Equestria%20Girls%20%20Medellin Colombia]] and [[http://www.netlima.com/eventos-deta.php?pcamp0=7583&tipo=G11 Peru]]. And said musical production, which debuted on 2015, came back on January/February 2017 [[http://yucatan.com.mx/espectaculos/my-little-pony-vuelve in Mexico]] -- all this while having a very positive reception. There's also a lot of [[NoExportForYou region-specific]] merch there, such as [[https://www.mlpmerch.com/2017/02/store-finds-easter-egg-figures-plush.html licensed Colombian toothpaste]] (which, naturally, include everyone's favorite {{shoddy knockoff product}}s of dubious safety standards!).
72** Japan has seen ''Equestria Girls'' become the MorePopularSpinoff to ''Friendship is Magic''; the title show of ''Friendship Is Magic'' was cancelled after two seasons. All ''Equestria Girls'' media from the first movie to ''Forgotten Friendship'' and the Digital series were dubbed and released in quick succession.
73*** Adding to this, The popularity of ''Equestria Girls'' has lead to a new line of [[http://en.kotobukiya.co.jp/kotoblog/my-little-pony-bishoujo-fluttershy/ Bishoujo Series figures]] of the main cast + the princesses being created by the popular Japanese figure making company Kotobukiya.
74* GirlShowGhetto: One of the many initial complaints was that it seemed "too girly" for some. Ironic in that the show is just as girly, but had the benefit of three seasons of characterization. The second film introduced far more fantasy elements to help with this.
75* GrowingTheBeard: After the first film got a lackluster response, ''Rainbow Rocks'' was a considerable improvement that helped WinBackTheCrowd, and it's stuck through the rest of the series.
76* HilariousInHindsight:
77** The franchise was created to compete with ''Toys/MonsterHigh''. And now ''Monster High'' has it's own counter-move with their ''Fright-Mares'' line.
78** A common fan joke after the end of ''Rainbow Rocks'' was that Human Twilight/Sci-Twi was a MadScientist based on her first appearance with a LabcoatOfScienceAndMedicine. One of the Summer Shorts, released much later, is called "Mad Twience" and involves Sci-Twi engaging in some mad science to create a robot dog.
79** The [[https://johnjoseco.deviantart.com/art/Jack-n-Dash-The-Human-Factor-204827383 earliest examples]] of humanized ponies started appearing in '''2011''' and a [[https://mauroz.deviantart.com/art/la-magia-de-la-amistad-330278018 fan-comic]] that had some close similarities to the first ''Equestria Girls'' was started in ''2012''.
80** Creator/VincentTong voiced Flash Sentry, a blue-haired, kind hearted boy who likes to play guitar. In 2021, he would play as ''another'' kind-hearted guitarist with blue hair in ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake: Berry in the Big City'', as Huckleberry Pie.
81* HoYay: [[HoYay/EquestriaGirls Has its own page]].
82* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: With the exception of the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks Dazzlings]] and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames Principal Cinch]], all of the villains after the first movie were rehashes of the Sunset Shimmer formula: a girl gets access to magic from Equestria, gains a OneWingedAngel form along with [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity abilities that inspire them to do evil things]], and then they are blasted with the Power of Friendship and/or talked into seeing the error of their ways and are EasilyForgiven for their misdeeds. While the OneWingedAngel part was abandoned after [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsMagicalMovieNight Juniper Montage]] (who barely even did anything with it), the rest of the formula was still there, with each villain being a less credible threat than the last.
83* JustHereForGodzilla: The first movie had fans that were just in it for the background pony humanized cameos. After the first, several fans stayed for Sunset Shimmer, who had grown to be surprisingly well liked as the franchise's main protagonist. After that, many were also in it for Sci-Twi, While many fans do enjoy the series for its own merits, plenty in and without genuinely love these two.
84* LauncherOfAThousandShips: As Sunset Shimmer made her transition into being a heroine, her shipping potential skyrocketed to levels rivaled only by the main series' Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. Sunset has been shipped with both Twilight Sparkles, the rest of the Rainbooms, Flash Sentry, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Wallflower Blush, the Dazzlings, and so on.
85* MagnificentBitch: [[EvilDiva Adagio Dazzle]], debuting in ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks Rainbow Rocks]]'', is the leader of the [[EnthrallingSiren Dazzlings]] and the brains behind everything they do. When they realize Equestrian magic has been brought into this world, Adagio swiftly follows threads to locate its source in the Rainbooms and enflare tensions between them to make them fight, letting the Dazzlings absorb their magic and regain their full powers. She balances this with using their singing to drive the school into a competitive frenzy, generating more and more energy for them to feed on while they await the Rainbooms giving into fighting. Calm, confident and in control, even after her initial embarrassing defeat, Adagio even recovers from losing her powers, finding "magic" as a regular musician and promising to regain her abilities.
86* MisBlamed: In responce to criticisms of the franchise's villains being EasilyForgiven, director Ishi Rudell [[https://mobile.twitter.com/ishiH3Art/status/1017125609305042944 has stated]] that it's not up to him. Many assumed this meant the Hasbro executives were responsible for it because of how extensive ExecutiveMeddling has been in the MLP G4 franchise. However, the statement could just as easily apply to the shows' writers, as Rudell's job is to adapt their scripts into animation.
87* PortmanteauCoupleName: In addition to carrying over numerous ships from ''Friendship is Magic'' to their ''Equestria Girls'' counterparts (Rarijack, Flutterdash, etc.), the series gave fans a vast swath of material for new ships of its own, including Sunlight (Sunset/Princess Twilight), Sciset (Sunset/Human Twilight, based on her FanNickname of Sci-Twi), Sundagio (Sunset/Adagio), Sunpie (Sunset/Pinkie), Sundash ([[LauncherOfAThousandShips Sunset]]/Rainbow Dash), Sunflash (Sunset/Flash), Flashlight (Princess Twilight/Flash), Timbertwi (Timber/Human Twilight), Timberflash ([[ShipsThatPassInTheNight Timber/Flash]]) and many more.
88* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
89** For the first film, Sunset Shimmer was a BaseBreakingCharacter at best, with most finding her a shallow and disappointing villain. ''Rainbow Rocks'' devoted an entire arc about her redemption and saw her become a SixthRanger to the group, and she became ''far'' more popular with the fanbase and subsequently became the franchise's BreakoutCharacter, usurping both Twilights as the spotlight protagonist.
90** Flash Sentry is a slower, more gradual case. He spent the first movie as a SatelliteLoveInterest for Twilight that did little to endear himself to fans. As the series continued he got a steadily decreased role until he was slotted more firmly into the supporting cast, and began to show some more personality as a goofy but likeable CasanovaWannabe. The result: his reduced role cooled the hatred for him while the improved characterization he exhibits when he ''does'' appear has begun to win him some respect. He became increasingly popular in the shorts "Good Vibes" and "Cheer You On". In the former, he kicks off a chain of events of people doing good deeds and spreading kindness. In the latter, he actively helps the Humane 7 fight against a toaster monster that was attacking the school. Heck, "Cheer You On" is essentially one giant love letter to his character with him stating that he's perfectly fine with being a supporting character and not having much to do.
91* SelfFanservice: Hand-in-hand with the normal show, the human characters tend to be depicted in fan works as much more curvaceous and beautiful than in the series. Sunset Shimmer in particular has practically become a sex symbol for the ''Equestria Girls'' franchise.
92* ShipToShipCombat: Sunset x Twilight ("Sunlight") shippers tend to be vocal with their hatred of Sunset x Flash and Twilight x Flash, and shippers for those two can be as equally vocal in their hatred of Sunset x Twilight. When [[WordOfGay Katrina Headley stated that they had intended Sunset as bisexual]] but "[[AmbiguouslyBi left it open to interpretation]]" to avoid getting in the way of fan ships, ironically the wars intensified: the Sunlight shippers felt vindicated and pointed to Hadley's comments as proof that their ship was canon, and the shippers for one of the two with Flash pushed back harder than ever and pointed out that Hadley specifically avoided stating if any particular ship was canon or not. It's not a universal sentiment, however, particularly as the availability of two canon Twilights means Sunset x Twilight and Twilight x Flash can coexist (post-''Friendship Games'', Sunset has more consistently been shipped with Human Twilight, while Flash was primarily shown to be interested in Pony Twilight in-series).
93* SlowPacedBeginning: The first film suffers from this - as Twilight has to meet all of her friends again in the human world, re-establishing these characters that the viewers already know. Rainbow Dash in fact doesn't appear until nearly halfway through the film! The first film is also a rather mundane TeenDrama that doesn't introduce magic until the final act. However the GenreShift to become more MagicalGirl esque and introducing magical antagonists has proved successful.
94* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: The first film divided the fanbase with its human characters and the HighSchoolAU setting. Starting with ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks Rainbow Rocks]]'', however, the series started to grow with the fanbase.
95* TaintedByThePreview: The mix of leaks, promotional art, and rumors all before Hasbro unveiled of ''Equestria Girls'' in full left fans... uncertain about this extension, to say the least. The trailers convinced ''some'' fans the movie wouldn't be completely terrible.
96* TestosteroneBrigade: Sunset Shimmer is the character who is drawn the most appealingly and she has become very popular in Rule34 art. Her initial costume including a short skirt and leather jacket helps.
97* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: One point of criticism among the fans is the amount of characters that are wasted in this franchise.
98** The Dazzlings are the most popular villains in this series from a country mile, and they never even made another appearance again until an effective five years later in '' Sunset's Backstage Pass, and even then, they only serve as a RedHerring, and it isn't made all that clear whether they have reformed or not.
99** The Shadowbolts are underutilized in ''Friendship Games'' despite being massively hyped up as {{Evil Counterpart}}s to the Rainbooms. And while Dance Magic does give them a little more screentime, they don't really add much to the plot of the special.
100** Gloriosa Daisy completely disappears after her camp is saved from Filthy Rich's clutches in '' Legend of Everfree''. Juniper Montage does the same even though she was seen hanging out with the Rainbooms plus Starlight Glimmer at the end of the Mirror Magic special. And after Wallflower Blush became Sunset Shimmer's new friend in ''Forgotten Friendship'', she too never makes another appearance again after her reformation in said special, aside from background cameos in ''Sunset's Backstage Pass'' and "Let It Rain".
101* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
102** Aside from Twilight, the idea of characters from either world crossing over to the other has come up ''once'', for Starlight Glimmer. This despite the fact that the core cast in both worlds have shown interest in seeing what's on the other side, and at this point there's little reason why they couldn't. ''Spring Breakdown'' finally saw the human Twilight and Rainbow Dash cross over, but only because they had to escape a monster through a convenient portal nearby, and they just hightail it to Twilight's castle to return home through the mirror, avoiding all contact with others on the way.
103** The magical crystals that turn into the girls' geode necklaces that they find in ''Legend of Everfree'' are implied to be some sort of parallel to the Equestrian Elements of Harmony, as they're each tied to a specific girl and grant them new magical powers even before the girls claim them as their own, and it's made clear the geodes come from Equestria, or at least were created by Equestrian magic. There's some further evidence of a connection with human Twilight being granted wings when she powers up ''a la'' Princess Twilight, despite later being shown as a unicorn in Equestria. However, any connection between the geodes and the Elements, and the story opportunities such a thing would open up, have gone unremarked upon and unexplored.
104** With the ''Friendship is Magic'' series finale ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E26TheLastProblem The Last Problem]]'' showing the Mane Six as adults in the future, ''Equestria Girls'' never showed what the Humane Seven are in the future as adults. Sunset Shimmer, despite having a cameo during a montage in "The Magic of Friendship Grows" song, didn't even visit Equestria as an adult pony in the episode.
105** Despite ''Mirror Magic'' teasing Starlight Glimmer possibly spending some time in the human world, no following shorts or specials took advantage of that.
106* ToughActToFollow: ''Rainbow Rocks'' redeemed the franchise in the eyes of many fans, so the following movies frequently get judged against it.
107* VindicatedByHistory: The initial criticism of ''Equestria Girls'' describes it as another cash-grab scheme to compete with the successful ''Monster High'' series which started three years earlier. Fans have gradually warmed to the series and even believe that ''Forgotten Friendship'' is slightly better than the highly anticipated ''2017 Movie''.
108* WhatTheHellCostumingDepartment:
109** Opinions on the human outfits in general aside, there's been some controversy about putting [[TomboyWithAGirlyStreak Applejack and Rainbow Dash]] in skirts. Later specials would eventually put the latter in pants.
110** Early entries in the series had nearly all female characters wearing knee high, hood shaped boots, which were the subject of much fan mockery. Later character models, such as human Twilight and Sunset's first redesign, avoided the boots, and they would eventually be eliminated with the 2018 character redesigns.
111** Even moreso with the toys, where the dolls are dressed in "sexy" outfits that not only are vastly different from the clothing worn in the movie, but are usually in conflict with the character's personality i.e. Fluttershy in an off-the-shoulder minidress.

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