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bronyinabottle · 7 years

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MIRROR MAGIC (EQG SPECIAL 3/3) THOUGHTS

Once we found out what all the EQG Specials were going to be about there was no doubt it was the 3rd and final one that created the most buzz and just from two things alone:

The first of course being that at least for a brief time Sunset would return to Equestria. Something that the fandom has wanted dearly for a long time now, especially after hearing that was a subplot that was entirely cut out of Friendship Games. So many fans wanted to see the now reformed Sunset return to Equestria, and have a emotional reunion with Celestia. However though, it appears those who wanted the latter thing especially will still have to wait at least a little longer. Because the only reason Sunset really goes back is to get a new magic journal since the one she's had since Rainbow Rocks ran out of pages. Though upon going back to Equestria comes the 2nd major thing that caused buzz for this EQG special.

And that of course was the news that Starlight Glimmer would be involved in this one. And unlike the desperately wanted scene of Sunset returning to Equestria, the response to this was… mixed to say the least. As I said in the Royal Problem thoughts there was so much Starlight things going on at the time we found out about the synopsis of that episode cause we have already had 3 out of the first 4 Season 7 episodes star (no pun intended) Starlight in some way. And then we find out she's involved in one of the EQG Specials too. It isn't just the fact it seems everything seemed to have been involving Starlight all of a sudden, that was two things that fans have desperately wanted to see (A royal sister episode and Sunset returning to Equestria) that in their own minds felt like Starlight has been hijacked into. Again i take the more fair route that it's fine to include Starlight, but I do understand the frustration of those who aren't a fan of Starlight at all. When it comes to putting Starlight in those highly anticipated events it's like finally getting a long requested food only for the inside of it to have some undesired flavor that you were familiar with and didn't like before.

I guess another thing to consider that people would get worried of any canon implications of it if possible. But it's nothing that isn't that new to the EQG series. The main show is obviously canon to EQG but when you get to the other way around that's kind of sketchy. We never see the mirror, and none of the events of the EQG movies are ever referenced in the Main show. The closest we got are the Flash Sentry cameos during Season 4, but that isn't enough. It would of taken Twilight having some kind of reaction to seeing Pony flash for something like that. One situation where that could of happened was Three's a Crowd but he literally was just a guard there, Twilight completely ignores Flash in favor of being happy Cadence is there. I don't think Starlight's going to mention what happened in the EQG special either. So I think I can still stand on the belief that this is on purpose as to you can watch the show without ever seeing EQG so that EQG can be its own thing. Because the catch about making EQG really canon to the show you have to have the exposition in case people coming in watching haven't watched any of the movies. And after 4 movies, that'd be a lot of exposition to go over. I do not think Sunset will come into the main show as a result of this, so any reunion with Celestia would have to take place in an EQG involved thing. So if you're worried about Starlight's appearance at all confirming completely any canon status for EQG, based on past trends I don't think it's something to worry about much. Barring a Sunset appearance episode in the main show in a Season 7 or even Season 8 episode it shouldn't mean much.

But enough about a few things that we could of talked about just knowing the synopsis for the thing how did the episode itself hold up? Well I've already stated that Dance Magic was my favorite of the 3, and Movie Magic was my least. So this turned out to be the middle-of-the-road one. I think the plot alone makes it more interesting and certainly some nice things make it better then the Scooby-Doo tribute Movie Magic. But obviously some things went down that the most interesting episode synopsis wise couldn't beat an episode that was just a dance competition episode for me.

For what it's worth the scenes of Starlight and Sunset together play out fine. We get to have them forge a friendship of their own between 2 characters that are often compared to each other. I don't think it's entirely unfair to compare the two because there are glaring similarities. But the differences are there that some degree of interaction could be interesting. I just don't think if this one episode could really share everything of the potential between the two because of course this isn't the only big part of the episode.

Because besides Starlight and Sunset's plot we also have Juniper seeking revenge and using that mirror. One note before I get to the episode's events for this. As the one who runs the genie blogs it is a little amusing that the mirror Juniper uses happens to be activated whenever she says something after "I Wish". I could easily make some sort of connection with genie magic in my thing. Though I decided to opt out of doing episode responses to the EQG Specials. And a magic mirror is not really something to make me do an exception. Only thing is I think if it happened where Genie Sci-Twi happened. While they were in the mirror they could of wished from Genie Sci-Twi to get themselves out soon after and then stop Juniper from there.

But anyway as for Juniper's character, I'm not really too sure how to feel. She was a Scooby-doo antagonist in the previous special but the events of that episode motivates her to doing something on par with the other characters that had to been reformed in some fashion in the EQG series. Though Sunset and Starlight both started out as villains, while Sci-Twi was only a straight-up villain when she was taken over by Midnight Sparkle. Though I suppose she is similar to Starlight in the events she does are caused by a rather petty thing. Starlight's course towards evil started with Sun Burst moving away and getting his Cutie Mark. While with Juniper, they just stopped her dreams of being the actor to play Daring Do in what would be an in-universe live action adaptation. Though Juniper's motive mostly seems she wants to be famous by any fashion and there's more ways to become an actor then decided to try to go as the starring role in your favorite book series. Sure it hurts to miss out on the role you wanted, but if Juniper wanted to be a famous actor she needs to build herself up to the role. Take auditions for other things, practice acting. They's all still high school students right? Just get as far as you can in a Drama class and sign-up for all the school plays to show your stuff. It just seems to be particularly more petty of a motive then a lot of the rest. Perhaps even more petty then Starlight's reasoning because we can understand if she had been lonely ever since Sun Burst left how that could effect her (Though it's still be nice of the show to explain that eventually). Perhaps Juniper was particularly obsessive with wanting to be Daring Do since she was such a big fan of the series, but again the mirror didn't show she just wanted to be Daring Do. It looked like she just wanted to be famous. And there are other ways Juniper could of tried to get there. If it was specifically focused on Daring Do that much, I'd think the mirror would of shown her in a Daring Do costume.

As a result of all this, Mirror Magic is a bit of a mixed bag It has some fun parts with Starlight and Sunset. But this being put in the same 22 minute plot as Juniper's thing made it incredibly hard to balance. I think this needed a little more time then it got. I'm not going to say it deserved to be the plot of EQG5 or anything, I feel making it 66 minutes would be a little too long. But I do think if it had been made a two-parter it may have gotten a much better pace then it did. Have the first 22 minutes to perhaps give a little more time of Sunset visiting Equestria and of course Starlight seeing the EQG world. And maybe a little bit of Juniper here and there. But then upon the 2nd part you could have all that time to go more into Juniper's motivations to get a more clear understanding of her character.

All-in-all it's an alright episode as is. But it being only 22 minutes does give that rushed feeling, perhaps even more so compared to some of the other endings of EQG related things. I think it's something that could of benefited with a 2nd part. I don't know if any of the specials will have anything that bodes for anything coming up for EQG unless Starlight plays a part. But I'll still be awaiting where they go next, the specials didn't really solve the cliffhanger of EQG4's ending after all.

Anyway, I don't know when Season 7 comes back. But that'll be when I share more episode thoughts. BTW I have seen the Australian releases for both Episodes 12 and 13 of the season. But I'm going by the same rule with all the others and waiting for the official US release before giving the episode response and thoughts. But I will say that of course Episode 13 of the season was no doubt a fantastic episode and can't wait to give my thoughts about. If you've seen it already yourself I think you know why. Right now all we have right now is some Summer stuff, and for me in particular I'll be going to Trotcon this weekend. So that's sure to be exciting

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