You know what would have been badass? If when Twilight froze up with inability to wield her power out of fear of becoming Midnight again in the climax, if Sunset had brought out her demonic form from the first movie to combat Gloriosa. Fire vs plants, make sense, right? Of course, it still wouldn't have been enough, because this was human!Twilight's conflict to overcome, but Sunset would have been using it as a dual tactic to stall Gloriosa while she kept trying to get through to Twilight by showing her the villainous side of herself that the human!Twilight had never seen, showing her that she really did truly understand what Twilight was going through, and that she could be the one in control of it.

Sunset's efforts to empathize with Twilight over a shared villainous past didn't get through to Twilight because she never knew Sunset as a villain, and couldn't picture her as one. IIRC, Twilight specifically rejected one of Sunset's attempts at such by saying that Sunset's transformation into Daydream Shimmer was beautiful. Bringing out the demon form in the fight against Gloriosa would have put that to bed, plus given us an awesome demon-on-nature-demigod battle, and another notch in Sunset's progression as a hero that she was able to not just escalate her good transformation as from RR to FG, but rehabilitate her original evil form by using it heroically. MAN, I just really disappointed myself with the real ending! D:

Time to sleep.

Legend of the Everfree, Part 3

Alright, let's see if it sticks the landing or falls flat on its face.

...and then Pinkie killed everyone. Good job, Pinkie. 10/10. Would murder again.

"...that explains so much." It really, truly does. Pinkie Pie lives in Mabel Land. With Pyro Goggles on.

Ooo, Sunset is singing to distract everyone so they don't notice that she's totally copping a feel on their memories. Just sampling all of her friends. Sure, Sunset. Go ahead. Invite yourself to their most personal moments without consent. F*cking horses, man.

So, I still don't understand why Pinkie's turned into Gambit. That is a really dangerous power for her to have. She's going to kill someone. She already almost did.

"So you have magic and it's not that great." Sunset just openly acknowledged that Fluttershy got f*cking screwed at the Superpower Lottery. Everyone else has cool awesome new powers and she can talk to birds.

"I knew it! He wants her to get rid of the camp!" Or she's a pissed off hell-god who's trying really hard to be accepted and doesn't want everyone to be afraid of her. For being a hell-god.

And Sunset Meet Cutes into Flash. Why. Why is Sunset MeetCuting into Flash. What possible purpose could that serve.

"I lost an earring. There it is!" Oh, hey, it's Boulder. Nice to see you, Boulder.

"Come on, Sunset. We used to date. I know when something's bothering you." Ugh, don't remind me. Dude, you really need to lay off the maref*cking. Find some nice girls your own age. And species.

"You know, you've changed a lot since we went out. You're so much nicer." ...nooooo. No no no.

Okay, I was all freaked out that they were seriously going to put Flash and Sunset together but the condescending shoulder pat from Derpy made that whole scene worthwhile.

"It's Sunset! She says to meet her by the rock quarry." How are you keeping your phones charged in tents? Y'all have been here for days. Your phones should be dead by now.

"I think it's Gaea Everfree. Or someone who wants us to think she's back. Come on." Still pushing that angle that Timber totally faked all your cool new superpowers, huh? I would love to see Sunset sit down and explain how Timber faked her mind-reading ability.

Oh, look, it's Glory. She's a hell-god. What a surprise.

...this thing in Glory's memory looks suspiciously like the Tree of Bullshit. This better not be the Tree of Bullshit. I am staring at six little crystal nubs that could totally grow to be the Elements of Harmony if this is the Tree of Bullshit.

F*ck, those are the Elements of Harmony, aren't they? This IS the Tree of Bullshit, isn't it? Goddammit. I thought we were safe in the human world. WHERE CAN I GO THAT YOU WON'T FOLLOW?!

So Gaea Everfree isn't a thing? That's disappointing. And ominous.

Wait, this Tree of Bullshit has seven Elements. F*cking hell, of course it does, because the Tree of Bullshit always provides exactly what the plot demands and Celestia forbid one of the Humane Seven get left out just for the sake of consistency.

Glory's hell-god form isn't as cool as Sunset and Twilight's Satan's Concubine transformations. I mean, it captures the whole "angry dryad" look but if she isn't actually a vengeful nature spirit, there are probably better evil super-forms she could have taken.

"Mmm, told you you'd like it." "It's alright. I guess. ...I do get to keep it after camp though, right?" So shipped.

"Behold the beauty of nature in all it's glory." Nicely punned.

I don't even know what's going on anymore. Glory's motivation is a f*cking mess. I feel like not having Gaea Everfree be an actual thing was a mistake, because this is just...well, a mess. There is no reason for her to be attacking the camp the way she is.

Her Villain Song doesn't help, either. She's ranting about how nature is the greatest thing ever and it's like, this would make sense if she was Gaea Everfree, but not the Glory we've seen. She cared about making her campers happy, not worshipped leaves. This is literally the first time she's ever even gone near a Poison Ivy rant.

"Let them come now, let them try!" Let who come? Filthy Rich? He's bringing a lawyer and some paperwork, not an army of invading barbarians. This f*cking character took a ninety-degree turn into batshit at some point.

"What are we going to do?" "What we always do. Save the day!" I love Leadership Dash. Have I mentioned that?

You know, everyone's being stupid right now. It's a great action montage but they're all being stupid. I love how they honestly think they're going to be able to punch a hole in the vines to escape while Hell-God Glory is just floating there watching them do it. Like, there hasn't even been the slightest effort put into distracting her or something. It's not like she has anything else to do.

Yeah, that ended in futility because of course it - SERIOUSLY with those two! Rarity throwing herself into AJ's cage to shield her with her magic. The Rarijack is stronger with this movie than it's ever been in the show, and yes, I'm including the hilariously on-the-nose friendship stand from "Made in Manehattan" in that estimation.

I think Human Rarijack might be just under Startrix and Lyrabon in canonicity at this point. From one movie.

"This isn't working! Her magic is too strong!" No, it's not working because she's too conscious. You've made no effort to even try to be subtle about this. You're all idiots and it's goddamn hilarious.

"Twilight, you have to use your magic!" Yeah. Telekinesis is the only way Sunset and Twi are getting out of this cave. You can do it Twilight. Unleash the magic! Unleash the—I'm not helping, am I?

"Twilight! Our friends are in there!" Sunset ponied up when she touched Twilight. They've been ponying up specifically from using their magic. She just totally used this appeal to disguise the fact that she's reading Twilight's mind to find out if Midnight Sparkle is actually a thing or just some shit she made up.

Seriously, there's a season's worth of Rarijack crammed in these 70 minutes.◊

...oh look. An Element for each of the seven. With Magical Girl transformations. Because of the f*cking Tree of Bullshit.

"I am so sorry. I only wanted this to be the best week Camp Everfree has ever had. Instead, I've made it the worst." You kinda ruined the ending to the movie, too. Everything was going great until the actual Reveal. Once you're done with the principals, I expect an apology too.

"I just don't know how we're going to plan a ball by tomorrow and invite everyone." "We've got this!" No, you don't! Even if we ignore the impossible logistics by just screaming "MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC" over and over, you're still expecting all the old camp attendees to drop what they're doing and come out here on a day's notice. People who could be halfway across the world.

Throw the best ball in the world, whatever, but nobody's attending it.

So we're really just not going to even bother explaining why a Tree of Bullshit is growing in a random cave by the camp, are we? Just leaving the elephant in the room totally unaddressed? Yeah. That sounds about right. Celestia forbid anything about that thing ever make sense.

"Thank you all so much for coming and for helping us raise enough money to save Camp Everfree!" Bull f*cking shit. Twilight becoming Prom Queen made more sense than this.

"If I'd just asked for help in the first place...." Then they never would have gotten the superpowers that nonsensically made this possible, so you'd still be screwed.

And the Twilight/Timber subplot reaches its steamy conclusion. And I'm still bothered by the fact that he's a camp counselor, but he's also still the least shitty option on the table so I guess I can be okay with this? It's unpleasant, but not "Kill it with fire" Flashlight.

"I think maybe we were meant to have them all along." F*cking horses. F*cking Tree of Bullshit. F*cking overreliance on impossible coincidences to achieve its goal. Blaaaaaaagh.

"There is one thing I'm still wondering about, though. Where did the magic that hit this cave come from?" Oh good, we aren't just ignoring that. Sunset Shimmer, you remain the hero this franchise deserves.

Stinger feels kinda mean-spirited but I honestly can't care anymore about what happens to this stupid camp.

So, this was a pretty engaging 2/3 of a movie and then it shit the bed with the third act. On the plus side, they refrained from having Midnight Sparkle be an actual thing. It was just a product of Twilight's trauma manifested through her neuroses. So that's cool.

Everything else about the third act was garbage and the f*cking Tree of Bullshit even popped in to say hi. Like, WTF, movie? Ugh. And you were off to such a great start too.

But before all that, there were great characterizations and some neat bits of fleshing out for the Humane Seven. And they actually did have the balls to go where I thought they were going with Twilight, even if they didn't spend much time actually focusing on it. So props for that. Also, Sunset Shimmer is Best Pony.

So, of the four, I think I'd rank them like this from best to worst:

1. Friendship Games
2. Rainbow Rocks
3. Legend of the Everfree
4. Equestria Girls

Legend could have made it higher on the list, definitely beating Rainbow Rocks and forcing me to seriously consider whether it's better than Friendship Games, had it just stuck the landing on the third act and delivered a better conclusion. As it was, it's still much better than the first EQG movie, but it can't quite hold up to those two.

Also, Sunset Shimmer is Best Pony.

Congratulations on your good taste. Now if I could just get another shipmate aboard the H.M.S. Misses Jacksun...

Also, I wonder if... ah, yup there's my live reaction to the movie. Amused to note that we pointed out a number of the same things, including the potholders.

Yes, we did.

You seem to have liked Hell-God Glory more than I did, though. And I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who goes into rage tourettes when the Tree of Bullshit starts bullshitting.

edited 27th Apr '17 10:14:53 PM by TobiasDrake

Apparently she's called Gloriosa Daisy because that's the name of an actual flower.

^^ I roll my eyes, if that's any consolation.

You will applaud the Imperator Gloriosa!

I honestly hoped things would play out with Midnight Sparkle less like a battle and more like a Split-Personality Merge. "You're a part of me- you are me- and I'll never be at peace until I accept that. Just like I have to accept that, for better or worse, this magic is part of me now too.

"But you aren't all of me, either. Whatever mistakes I've made, from here on out, it's up to me to decide whether this magic is a force for good or evil... whether I'm good or evil! And I choose... to fight alongside my friends, as they have with me!

"For my past... is not today!"

edited 27th Apr '17 10:53:39 PM by YamiVizziniX

And then Midnight turns into Twilight's Persona?

edited 27th Apr '17 10:56:51 PM by LordVatek

@Adric: Gloriosa's name is an alternative name for the black-eyed susan, aka, my home states' state flower. So she's decorated with the wrong kind of flower. Just sayin'.

I honestly just skimmed the past couple pages, but since we're talking about LOE, I just want to say that:

A) I feel Gloriosa is a pretty relatable character because she's an early twenty-something who's (literally) screaming internally, and that's me everyday.

B) I need the writers to give me a Flash/Timber bromance. If they're not practically singing the Guy Love song then it's not enough.

It's guy love, that's all it is
It's guy love, he's mine, I'm his
Because we've both been branded waifu thieves
It's guy love, our bro reprieve

Man, the tone of the movie would have been way different if her name was Black-Eyed Susan.

I doubt Filthy Rich would have come within fifty feet of the place.

Nicely punned.

My favorite pun was stand for Everfree/stand forever free from Gloriosa's song.

Anyway, I'm amused that your ranking is a near exact opposite of mine. If I had to do a ranking, mine would probably be more like

1. Rainbow Rocks 2. Legend of the Everfree 3. Equestria Girls 4. Friendship Games

@Kegi: Oh damn, Black-Eyed Susan would be an amazing name for a Equestrian mafia queen.

@Wryte: Twi: Excuse me, Flash, I saw him first.

Flash: You can share.

And then Flash became a husbando thief.

I'm full of good ideas, someone let me write for this series.

edited 28th Apr '17 12:07:19 AM by PrincessGwenevere

Alternatively, Black-Eyed makes it sound like she gets beaten up a lot.

My biggest issue with Glory was that I feel like the connection between her motives and her villainy were paper-thin. She's the third character we've seen overtaken by magic, so there's a precedent for what that should be like.

Sunset was basically exactly the same person when she was drunk on magic.

Twilight seemed altered but only in the sense that it felt like her fetters were stripped away, leaving only her purest desires. Her goal was still the pursuit of knowledge that could only be had in Equestria, and she was ready to physically rip a hole between the human world and the land of magic horses to get there.

With Glory, though, there's not really a lot of connection between "wants to keep her camp running" and "attacks everyone with brambles". There isn't even much connection between Glory and brambles in the first place because despite her name, we never really see her played up as this big nature-worshipping druid person in the first place.

Between "Midnight" Sparkle and Glory, it felt like they were trying to present the idea in this movie that the evil magic super-form is basically its own sinister entity utterly divorced from the person who gets overtaken by it. Sunset outright tells Timber that she isn't Glory anymore, and Glory even wakes up asking, "What happened?" as if she has no memory of being Poison Ivy on steroids.

This really doesn't mesh with EQG or Friendship Games, in which Sunset and Twilight's evil forms were unambiguously still supposed to be them. It feels like the writers in this one wanted to have Twilight fretting about "Midnight" throughout the movie while also absolving her of responsibility through Glory.

In Gloriosa's case, the connection is that in both cases, she's trying to protect her home. That includes both the camp itself and the forest in which it resides.

Crushing the camp with brambles is as awkward a definition of "defending her home" as abducting all the campers and trying to crush and/or suffocate several of them was of "everyone having a good time".

She basically saves Filthy Rich the trouble of paving the camp by doing it for him.

edited 28th Apr '17 6:08:38 AM by TobiasDrake

we're getting away from the most important issue

is gloriosa mono-green or does she splash a color

edited 28th Apr '17 6:09:31 AM by Rosvo1

I'd say she's RG. She has red's recklessness and its tendency to lash out wildly against other people's ideas of what she should be doing. She finds out that her camp is going bankrupt and she's going to lose it so her response is to huff mystery rocks until the universe bends to her will. Her brother tells her this is a bad idea and she's like, "Pfft, screw good ideas, I do what I want!"

Now, on to another important question.

WHAT KIND OF YU-GI-OH DECK DOES SHE USE?!

Damn it, I really wanted Rainbow Rocks to end in a Yu-Gi-Oh duel!

Post of the Day #1806

I'll be honest, not my favorite recap.

Gloriosa's actions made perfect sense to me. She is trying to protect the camp, by preventing anyone from leaving or entering. It's not a *good* plan, but it is understandable, especially given that she's not exactly thinking clearly.

Logic and reasoning were not a part of the decision making process.