YMMV / My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship

• Adorkable: Wallflower Blush. Very shy and awkward, but passionate about a couple of things, such as her garden in the woods behind the school.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Was pony Twilight Sparkle not bothering to ask about Flash Sentry or react to his pony counterpart (unlike last time) a sign she's lost interest in him, or was she just too preoccupied with the current situation to pay them mind? How indicative is this of their current relationship?
  • Was the villains motive that Sunset Shimmer ignoring them showed she didn't deserve her redemption legit? A Dog-Kicking Excuse for acting out of jealousy? Or some of both?
  • How much of Wallflower's being ignored and forgotten was due to her erasing everyone's memories? Her flashback show her being ignored well before she found the Memory Stone. Was she guilty of not making a effort to get noticed, or was her introduction indicative of how she tried but failed?
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • Trying to reform? It is your responsibility to make sure you are friends with everyone.
  • You should be aware about the problems of the people around you, even if you barely interact with them.
• Awesome Music: The Villain Song, "Invisible", is extremely catchy. Shame it gets seemingly cut short by Wallflower spotting Sunset rooting through her backpack.
• Base-Breaking Character: Wallflower Blush is yet another reformed villain, so it was inevitable. Many found her adorable and sympathized with her plight, while others felt she was Unintentionally Unsympathetic for the Misplaced Retribution.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Both of sexy and plot-related kinds. The special is probably best summarized and remembered as "the one where Sunset and Celestia reunite, and there's also a Beach Episode with the girls in swimsuits."
• Captain Obvious Reveal: It's fairly easy to deduce that Wallflower Blush is the culprit due to the fact that the show wouldn't introduce a new character with a name and personality unless they were going to become important and the only legitimate attempt at a Red Herring is Trixie, who was eliminated by then. Making it even more obvious is the shot of a mysterious hand picking up the dropped yearbook in the first scene in the yearbook room; except it's not mysterious, because it's been established Wallflower is the only character in the room besides the main cast and Trixie, and the hand is Wallflower's distinctive green tint.
• Even Better Sequel: To the Magical Movie Night specials. The story, characterization, and conflict are a step up, and the scenes of Sunset in Equestria gave what fans have long awaited and, along with the climax, meaningfully advanced the series unlike anything since the movies.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Sunset commenting on how Celestia now has a sense of humor continues to leave the floodgates wide open for interpretation of Sunset's time with Celestia as her student, especially since Celestia's sense of humor is a notable part of her character in the main series.
  • What if Sunset or her friends didn't get their memories restored in the finale?
• First Installment Wins: The first of the YouTube specials, it's the best remembered for its strongest story, emotional stakes, and delivering the long awaited reunion of Sunset and Celestia that met years of high expectations.
• Ho Yay:
  • One trailer for the special says "love is in the air at Canterlot High" as Sunset and Twilight pass each other and smile. Given that the two are the primary romantic pairing of the Equestria Girls series, and the creators surely know this, this is almost certainly a case of Trolling Creator. Not to mention the special airing only a couple of days after Valentine's Day.
  • There's quite a lot of interactions between Trixie and Sunset that go beyond mere bonding throughout the story, such as when Trixie confides in Sunset that she feels constantly left out or underappreciated.
  • Human Twilight gets a little bit more emotional reactions from Sunset than anyone else. Sunset is hit hardest by Human Twilight not remembering Sunset's role in the Friendship Games, and is also the last memories that get stolen from her by Wallflower, crying out "Twilight, don't forget me!" in anguish before they're taken away. When Sunset gets her memory back, the first person she recognizes is Twilight. They're also together in a yearbook photo.
  • Though to a lesser extent than Human Twilight as mentioned, Sunset's reactions to the rest of the Humane Seven forgetting and treating her coldly show she doesn't take any of it well at all. And at the climax, her selfless Heroic Sacrifice in losing her memories of them and her time in the human world potentially permanently in order to make sure their friendships will still last even if she's not included (and crying out their names as those memories are erased) can invoke a sense of making the ultimate sacrifice for her loved ones.
  • Princess Twilight and Sunset are rather touchy-feely with each other (albeit ponies are touchy-feely in general) and there's plenty of blushing between the two, most notably when Sunset calls Twilight a "good teacher".
• Harsher in Hindsight: It's harsh to take Wallflower's motive into consideration when you realize that, outside of Crystal Prep's students, none of the extra characters introduced like the Dazzlings, Gloriosa or Juniper ever make an additional appearance after their first (or if they do, it'd be a brief, speechless cameo or One-Scene Wonder and that's it) which means that Wallflower's plight and desire to be remembered and noticed will inevitably be for naught. That said, it doubles as Heartwarming in Hindsight as, now that she has brought herself in the forefront, she can now be used as reference for fan artists and fanfic writers, ensuring that she will be noticed and remembered.
• I Knew It!: A common bit of fan speculation after Sunset's Heel–Face Turn was that she would return to Equestria to apologize to Princess Celestia for being a Spoiled Brat. While it wasn't the primary purpose of her visit, Sunset does meet with Celestia and apologize, which plays out exactly how the many fan works portraying it did.
• Informed Wrongness: Sunset Shimmer realizes she's at fault for provoking Wallflower Blush's retribution for ignoring them, thus failing to show them she had reformed. But given that she has saved the school multiple times and earned forgiveness from many people that she mistreated, it's hard to fault Sunset for assuming everyone thought her redeemed. Given Wallflower was so hard to notice they unsuccessfully tried to get their attention for a half a song and was just as forgotten by everyone else, it's unfair to fault or single out Sunset for it.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The biggest draw for many fans was Sunset Shimmer and Princess Celestia's reunion, a plot thread that has been left dangling for years.
• Memetic Mutation: Editing Wallflower Blush into backgrounds of virtually any scene — even non-pony stuff, like music videos or classic photos — has become a recurring joke due to this movie showing her as being in the background of scenes from previous movies.
• Signature Scene:
  • Sunset's heartfelt reunion with Celestia. This effectively validates up to five years worth of fanon for just this scene alone.
  • Sunset at the climax of the movie pulling a Heroic Sacrifice for her friends by Taking the Bullet.
• Squick: In the extended edition, Trixie happily chows down on a carrot that Micro Chips gnawed on that he tries to give Sunset to placate her.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Out of everyone who had their memories of Sunset erased, Human Twilight Sparkle was the only character who wasn't too sure if Sunset was really bad or not, as she wasn't a student at Canterlot High School before the events of Friendship Games so she didn't really know Sunset back when she was a bully like everyone else did. With that in mind, Twilight could have checked to see if Sunset was really not a bully anymore through questioning her nice behavior despite being considered a bully and possibly even include the other Humane Five on that questioning, which would not only give them more purpose in the special but it would also actually make their bond with Sunset really speak out to how strong it is despite their memories of her erased. But unfortunately, Twilight's suspicions of Sunset is tossed out the window halfway into the special.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Wallflower Blush was supposed to be sympathetic due to years of resenting being ignored and forgotten boiling over when Sunset Shimmer's disregard made them think Sunset was undeserving of her redemption and popularity. But aside from her introduction where it's unclear how hard she tried, Wallflower was never shown trying to get noticed, and admitted to erasing embarrassing memories of herself making their problems seem self-inflicted. Sunset was never any more guilty of disregarding them than the rest of the school, causing some to go so far as to compare singling out Sunset, then her friends, out for random revenge with a dangerous item to a school shooting.
• Win Back the Crowd: The works made after Legend of Everfree, while not unliked by most fans, left some feeling Equestria Girls was getting stale. Forgotten Friendship's return to a more adventurous and emotionally driven story renewed a lot of interest in the franchise.

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