I originally wasn't going to write a review for this, mostly because I felt Equestria Girls has gone on for way too long, and that was due to stagnation in the writing. But these thoughts have been haunting my mind for so long that I simply could not ignore them anymore, and so I've decided to sit down and give Forgotten Friendship a proper review. Oh joy...(!)
After last week's crisis, everything is doing great for Sunset, Sci-Twi and company, except that there's a new personal conflict among friends and a new generic female villain on the loose. After a whole lot of fluff in the middle, the villain reveals herself and everybody else is useless in stopping the bad girl of the week, and it's only Sunset or Sci-Twi that gives them the boost to save the day and forgive the villain for her misdemeanors. All is forgiven. Roll end credits and include generic pop song.
Let's use Legend of Everfree as an example: Following the Friendship Games, things are relatively okay for Sci-Twi and her new friends, but Sci-Twi has shell shock from Midnight Sparkle and Gloriosa Daisy is causing trouble at Camp Everfree. She transforms into Gaea Everfree and the Human Six struggle to beat her until Sci-Twi comes in to save the day. Gloriosa is forgiven for her actions, and raises enough money to save Camp Everfree before the end credits roll.
And then there's Mirror Magic: The post-production for the Daring Do movie has completed, and things are great for the Rainbooms, except Sunset is worried about Equestrian magic in the human world and Juniper Montage is bitter for her humiliation. She becomes a fifteen-foot giantess and traps the Rainbooms in a magic mirror, only to be talked down by a visiting Starlight Glimmer. Juniper is forgiven and all is well; cue the end credits.
(Yes, I know Dance Magic and Movie Magic don't follow the exact formula to the letter, but they're still incredibly generic and boring in and of themselves.)
I don't know if this was intentional or not, but if you strip the stories down to the basic elements, they are more or less the same, and each has gimmicks sprinkled on top to try and distract the audience from the fact that it's the same story they've seen before. You can change a couple of ingredients to bake a pizza, and it will still look and taste like a pizza.
And that is the biggest problem with Forgotten Friendship; they replace Gloriosa Daisy/Juniper Montage with Wallflower Blush, the shell shocked Sci-Twi/stressed out Sunset with Sunset realizing her friends don't remember her being their friend, the geodes/mirror with some stupid rock, and yet Nick Confalone (the writer/editor of this crapfest) expects us to think this is new?! I'm sorry, but most of us aren't stupid, Hasbro! The only difference is that Wallflower Blush doesn't transform at the climax.
Oh, yes. Wallflower Blush. I absolutely deplore this stupid, stupid brat!! I never thought there'd be a character who angered me more than Timber Spruce, but I found them. Nothing about her is likable or sympathetic in the slightest! Before you comment that I should like her because she's "cute," appearances do not factor into my views on a character because they're a default setting, not a freak accident. Wallflower is not cute! Not in the slightest!
Think about her "goals" for a moment; she feels neglected around her peers and wants to be noticed. Fair enough, it's something that's a little more grounded, but that's where the story takes a rifle to the chest. She erased awkward memories with the Memory Stone and for no reason blames it all Sunset! Seriously! What had she done to Wallflower to deserve it? Nothing! Sure, she turned off the lights with Wallflower still in the room, but that was hardly the worst thing you can do to someone! Juniper Montage had better motivations than this! I'm not even kidding.
Why is Wallflower targeting Sunset when she could've targeted literally anybody at CHS? What was she hoping to accomplish with this, and how would erasing everyone's memories of Sunset make her feel better? All this would do is make things worse for Wallflower, and she'll have no personal gain from this! Her motivations are petty at best, and outright stupid and malicious at worst!
Also, did anyone notice that her inclusion in the flashbacks of first three movies was contrived? They (along with Legend of Everfree and the 2017 specials) never acknowledged she existed prior to this, and she'll most likely never be used again, making her role completely pointless! This would've been a good way to bring the Dazzlings back, and as much as I'd be okay with them not returning, it would make a hell of a lot more sense as their grudge against Sunset and co. would be a lot stronger.
And yes, I'm going to talk about her redemption at the end; I HATE that godforsaken cliche! What's even more insulting is that it felt like Wallflower was being given the happy ending she didn't deserve! This was a moment where adults should've been involved to give her a punishment, but they dropped the ball here by implying that people will accept you after you emotionally traumatized one of their friends. Seriously, that is legitimately what Wallflower did to Sunset!
And that brings me onto the Rainbooms; whilst Sunset is written fine, the others are once again caricatures of their pony counterparts! This is a problem with the Rainbooms which has been brewing since... Rainbow Rocks, actually. The writers have to make the Rainbooms look as weak and helpless as possible whilst making Sunset (except in Everfree and Mirror Magic, when it was Sci-Twi and Starlight, respectively) the big hero in the end. It made sense in Rainbow Rocks, but everything after?
A while back, I spoke with someone on DeviantArt finding Sunset an overrated character and that she's a spotlight stealer, and honestly? I don't blame her, and I can see where she's going with this. And yet fans accuse Starlight Glimmer for stealing the spotlight, and her character has gotten better since To Where and Back Again (though it's debatable at best). Sunset? Praised to high hell. I imagine some of you are going to call me a hater and a hypocrite, but calm down; I don't hate Sunset Shimmer. I never did, not even in 2013. But sometimes, it helps to look at both sides of the coin, and as much as I'll always love Sunset, it pains me to say that it feels like she's for EG what fans are saying about Starlight for FiM; over-glorified by the writers.
It's a special kind of sad that the Human Six actually have potential to be as well-rounded as their pony counterparts, but are constantly dumbed down to a few traits; seriously, why does Pinkie Pie have to make some stupid food related jokes every few minutes? It wasn't funny in Movie Magic, and it's definitely not funny here! Until they're allowed to have deeper personalities on a consistent basis, and within a longer timeframe, this will not improve.
Also, this is a nitpick, but I'm gonna complain about it anyway. Why the hell did Sunset not remind her friends of the time they made a music video together and then showed it to them? Heck, why didn't she ask Spike to confirm she's their friend? I know this doesn't have a huge effect on the story, but it's a prime example of cherry-picking continuity. They show flashbacks of the first four movies, and yet they ignore the events of the 2017 specials! Either reference all the events that had happened, or not at all. This is another of many plot holes of the special; there's so many that Swiss cheese feels whole by comparison!
Then there's the swimsuits of the Rainbooms; they're fine for what they are, but let's look at them from a marketing standpoint. Minis of them were revealed long before the special came out, and that tells me that this special was made just to sell toys! I get that MLP started as a toy franchise, but come on! They should be a byproduct of the show, not the other way around! It feels like a gimmicky distraction from the lackluster story. They could be hanging out at the mall in regular clothing and the plot wouldn't change.
Back to legitimate issues; there's the two signature scenes, and the first being the one many fans wanted - Princess Celestia and Sunset reuniting. And it was absolutely anti-climactic. Seriously, that was the biggest slap in the face since the ending of Crusaders of the Lost Mark! It could've been great, except they have Twilight (the Princess, that is) acting like an idiot trying to lighten the situation, therefore making the tone feel confused as to what it should be - comedic or heartwarming? It can't be both! They should've made that an entire special on its own, but it feels like it was shoehorned as an afterthought and has little effect on the story, as well as payoff that's unsatisfying on so many levels. It's just another way to distract the audience from the fact that the story is lackluster, almost like Big Mickey's reveal in New Crane on the Dock, in fact!
Speaking of the ponies, was Equestria even necessary to the story? The reason Wallflower found the Memory Stone was because Clover the Clever (male or female; I don't care at this point) banished it to the human world instead of, oh, I don't know, destroying it in the first place?! Yes, I get that you wouldn't have a story in the first place, but I counter with my comments on Legend of Everfree's ending; if the solution to a problem is that simple, then the story is pointless.
And now we come to the climax, and again, it's very anti-climactic and just laughably stupid (not in a good way either). First off, Sunset gets her memories of the human world taken from her. I would agree that it's dramatic... if it wasn't for the fact that past experience showed me that she and her friends are unlikely to get killed off by now! We got the message in Mirror Magic; they're the main characters and cannot be killed off. With that knowledge in mind, it makes the story even more pointless than it is! Oh, and why did they have to transform just to destroy that damned Stone? They could've simply took it from Wallflower and smashed it to the ground!
But the things I hate most about Forgotten Friendship is that it feels like it was padded out to fill the runtime (and that is a huge problem with Nick Confalone as a writer) and the wasted potential. I'm serious; this is what I'd have done:
Why is Wallflower targeting Sunset when she could've targeted literally anybody at CHS? What was she hoping to accomplish with this, and how would erasing everyone's memories of Sunset make her feel better? All this would do is make things worse for Wallflower, and she'll have no personal gain from this! Her motivations are petty at best, and outright stupid and malicious at worst!
Also, did anyone notice that her inclusion in the flashbacks of first three movies was contrived? They (along with Legend of Everfree and the 2017 specials) never acknowledged she existed prior to this, and she'll most likely never be used again, making her role completely pointless! This would've been a good way to bring the Dazzlings back, and as much as I'd be okay with them not returning, it would make a hell of a lot more sense as their grudge against Sunset and co. would be a lot stronger.
And yes, I'm going to talk about her redemption at the end; I HATE that godforsaken cliche! What's even more insulting is that it felt like Wallflower was being given the happy ending she didn't deserve! This was a moment where adults should've been involved to give her a punishment, but they dropped the ball here by implying that people will accept you after you emotionally traumatized one of their friends. Seriously, that is legitimately what Wallflower did to Sunset!
And that brings me onto the Rainbooms; whilst Sunset is written fine, the others are once again caricatures of their pony counterparts! This is a problem with the Rainbooms which has been brewing since... Rainbow Rocks, actually. The writers have to make the Rainbooms look as weak and helpless as possible whilst making Sunset (except in Everfree and Mirror Magic, when it was Sci-Twi and Starlight, respectively) the big hero in the end. It made sense in Rainbow Rocks, but everything after?
A while back, I spoke with someone on DeviantArt finding Sunset an overrated character and that she's a spotlight stealer, and honestly? I don't blame her, and I can see where she's going with this. And yet fans accuse Starlight Glimmer for stealing the spotlight, and her character has gotten better since To Where and Back Again (though it's debatable at best). Sunset? Praised to high hell. I imagine some of you are going to call me a hater and a hypocrite, but calm down; I don't hate Sunset Shimmer. I never did, not even in 2013. But sometimes, it helps to look at both sides of the coin, and as much as I'll always love Sunset, it pains me to say that it feels like she's for EG what fans are saying about Starlight for FiM; over-glorified by the writers.
It's a special kind of sad that the Human Six actually have potential to be as well-rounded as their pony counterparts, but are constantly dumbed down to a few traits; seriously, why does Pinkie Pie have to make some stupid food related jokes every few minutes? It wasn't funny in Movie Magic, and it's definitely not funny here! Until they're allowed to have deeper personalities on a consistent basis, and within a longer timeframe, this will not improve.
Also, this is a nitpick, but I'm gonna complain about it anyway. Why the hell did Sunset not remind her friends of the time they made a music video together and then showed it to them? Heck, why didn't she ask Spike to confirm she's their friend? I know this doesn't have a huge effect on the story, but it's a prime example of cherry-picking continuity. They show flashbacks of the first four movies, and yet they ignore the events of the 2017 specials! Either reference all the events that had happened, or not at all. This is another of many plot holes of the special; there's so many that Swiss cheese feels whole by comparison!
Then there's the swimsuits of the Rainbooms; they're fine for what they are, but let's look at them from a marketing standpoint. Minis of them were revealed long before the special came out, and that tells me that this special was made just to sell toys! I get that MLP started as a toy franchise, but come on! They should be a byproduct of the show, not the other way around! It feels like a gimmicky distraction from the lackluster story. They could be hanging out at the mall in regular clothing and the plot wouldn't change.
Back to legitimate issues; there's the two signature scenes, and the first being the one many fans wanted - Princess Celestia and Sunset reuniting. And it was absolutely anti-climactic. Seriously, that was the biggest slap in the face since the ending of Crusaders of the Lost Mark! It could've been great, except they have Twilight (the Princess, that is) acting like an idiot trying to lighten the situation, therefore making the tone feel confused as to what it should be - comedic or heartwarming? It can't be both! They should've made that an entire special on its own, but it feels like it was shoehorned as an afterthought and has little effect on the story, as well as payoff that's unsatisfying on so many levels. It's just another way to distract the audience from the fact that the story is lackluster, almost like Big Mickey's reveal in New Crane on the Dock, in fact!
Speaking of the ponies, was Equestria even necessary to the story? The reason Wallflower found the Memory Stone was because Clover the Clever (male or female; I don't care at this point) banished it to the human world instead of, oh, I don't know, destroying it in the first place?! Yes, I get that you wouldn't have a story in the first place, but I counter with my comments on Legend of Everfree's ending; if the solution to a problem is that simple, then the story is pointless.
And now we come to the climax, and again, it's very anti-climactic and just laughably stupid (not in a good way either). First off, Sunset gets her memories of the human world taken from her. I would agree that it's dramatic... if it wasn't for the fact that past experience showed me that she and her friends are unlikely to get killed off by now! We got the message in Mirror Magic; they're the main characters and cannot be killed off. With that knowledge in mind, it makes the story even more pointless than it is! Oh, and why did they have to transform just to destroy that damned Stone? They could've simply took it from Wallflower and smashed it to the ground!
But the things I hate most about Forgotten Friendship is that it feels like it was padded out to fill the runtime (and that is a huge problem with Nick Confalone as a writer) and the wasted potential. I'm serious; this is what I'd have done:
- Change the title to Sunset's True Friends and reduce the runtime to 22 minutes.
- Make Trixie the antagonist and have her spread rumors about Sunset among the school. Yes, it's kind of petty and cliche, but at least it's not as bad as what we got.
- A few select students - maybe a few background humans? - believe Sunset is bullying them behind their backs, but the rest are willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
- Remember Flash Sentry's cameo near the end? Have him be the co-star alongside Sunset and we delve a little more into their past.
- During all this, have Sunset worry she might not be as good as friendship as she thinks and she expresses her concerns to Princess Twilight.
- The more rumors spread, the more Sunset worries and is on the verge of depression. This paranoia is only affirmed when her best friends slowly turn on her one by one.
- Trixie is confronted in the hallway, and she reveals her intentions in front of a lot of students, resulting in Flash calling her out for her petty behavior, even to the point of calling her a complete, utter blowhard.
- Principal Celestia has Trixie put in detention for the rest of the year, and the latter gets a very humiliating photo in the yearbook.
- As gratitude for Flash helping her, Sunset decides he and Princess Twilight need closure, and writes to her friend about it, and then lets the two talk things out.
- Don't worry, I didn't forget the Princess Celestia bits; have that its own individual special called Celestial Sunset, and it's built up by Flash asking if there's any others she hasn't had closure yet, which surprises Sunset. In the next special, she returns to Equestria and by the end, has full closure with Princess Celestia. (I'll let you work out what happens in between.)
Seriously, it takes a lot of effort to create something astonishing like A Royal Problem. If they had gone for something similar to what I've suggested, this could've been one of the best of the Equestria Girls spinoff! But as Forgotten Friendship stands, it's a trainwreck from top to bottom, and the worst thing to come out of Generation 4.
The voice acting is serviceable, but I feel really bad for the cast having their talents being wasted on terrible concepts for the spinoff, especially Rebecca Shoichet and Vincent Tong (even if he didn't voice in this special). The former has always done a fantastic job as Sunset Shimmer, so to never see her character show up on the actual show is just sad, even if she does a great job voicing Sugar Belle. As for Vincent Tong? Flash is never given a chance to shine, and it's sad as unlike Juniper Montage and Wallflower Blush, who are merely toy ploys, he has potential as a character. But since Sandbar from season eight is voiced by Vincent, at least he's given a chance to voice more often, though I doubt it means Flash will turn up again in the actual show...
The animation, once again, is fine. But apart from the beach scenes and the scenes in Equestria, there wasn't a whole lot where it stood out on its own. It's not terrible, but not as grand as it could be.
And then there's the music; the instrumental themes are quite generic and forgettable, but the songs are just plain awful. Wallflower's song tries way too hard to make you sympathize with her, and its generic pop sound makes it sound worse than it already is. "Open Up Your Eyes" handled this way better in The Movie, mostly because we were being shown what was happening instead of just being told. The fact that there was orchestral music made it sound grander than it did. The opening song is extremely forgettable; in one ear, out the other.
Final Thoughts
I'll be honest; when the description for A Friendship to Remember came out (it's the novelization of the special) and then it was revealed it'd be in animated form, I knew it was going to be awful, and watching it proved my point. It's a piece of garbage from start to finish, and there is no redeeming quality about it. There are so many plot holes throughout that it almost feels like Nick Confalone is half-assing his way to tie up some loose threads in the series. And that's not even mentioning that it actually could've worked as two specials.
And I know people are gonna say, "But it's the best thing ever! Sunset and Celestia reunited!" Open your eyes, people! My Little Pony was a success because of the writing first and foremost! Everything else is purely secondary, and the gimmicks should be stone dead last or not there at all. Stories should work around characters and not the reverse. The music, voice acting, and animation are there to help the story being told. Hell, even season six, much as I'm not a fan of it, got that right. And on top of that, the characters were written to be relatable. With Friendship Games and all EG productions afterward, I didn't feel any of them were relatable at all, and even when they do try with the likes of Wallflower Blush (I assume they tried to make her represent autistic people, but I'd take Theo from Journey Beyond Sodor every single time), they fail spectacularly.
Let's take a look at the Toy Story franchise for a bit, shall we? All three movies, even if they have similar tropes, each feel different to each other. The 1995 original was about Woody feeling jealous of Buzz and then both get separated accidentally from Andy, so they have to work together to get home. The 1999 sequel had Woody being stolen by a greedy toy collector, and so Buzz and several other toys head out to save him. And then in the 2010 threequel, all of Andy's remaining toys get trapped in a daycare run by a tyrannical teddy bear and so they plan to break out and return home.
The reason I bring up the Toy Story trilogy is because that the two sequels at least try evolving and taking risks in their storytelling. Equestria Girls is constantly spinning in its wheels, and it's become stagnant to the point it leaves me wondering how people are willing to accept the same story repackaged slightly every time; it's the Hasbro equivalent to the Thomas Creator Collective. They need to stop reusing the same story over and over again, try new things, cut the gimmicks, and for the love of God, stop using the baddie redemption trope!
If you liked the special - as well as EG in general these days - good for you; you're in the majority. This special as it stands just isn't for me, and I'm absolutely baffled it's still going on even to this day!
