For my original review of Forgotten Friendship, I saw the 44-minute TV edit since that's all that existed at the time! This time around, I watched the slightly extended version Hasbro uploaded to YouTube,¹ which can be a pain to find since it's listed under the alternative title Most Likely To Be Forgotten. Since almost nobody in the fandom ever uses that name to refer to either version, I'm sticking with Forgotten Friendship here.
¹ Albeit only in 720p...
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| "Review? What, like a behaviour review?" |
17 Feb 2018 (original 44-minute TV edit)
My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 7.3
Thoughts: Well, like most Brits I don't care about high school yearbooks, but this special mostly overcomes that. Wallflower Blush isn't the most thrilling antagonist (though she does rather grow on me as time goes alone) and the Memory Stone being in CHS-world in the first place is a tad convenient, but get past that and the slightly tedious beach/photo stuff and the story clips along. Sunset Shimmer's meeting with Celestia – in Equestria, which was A Big Deal when this special came out – is memorable. She also has the toughest time, being treated after the memory spell as though her reformation didn't happen. Meanwhile Trixie surely revels in her enormously enjoyable role, and Sunset and her work nearly as well together as Trixie and Starlight do in Friendship is Magic. Convenient discovery of Clover's last page is convenient. "Invisible" is the better of the two songs, but neither are out-and-out smashes. I enjoyed this, though in truth a four is a little too generous. Nudging this down to a high three – which, let's not forget, is still a comfortably above-average score. Nick Confalone done good.
Choice quote: Sunset: "Princess Celestia has a sense of humour? Looks like I'm not the only one who's changed."
New rating: ★★★
this is still a four in my heart :) it was just so important
ReplyDeleteOh no, not this one...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I still hate this seven years on. Wallflower Blush's motives are so childishly petty it is impossible to feel any degree of sympathy for her; she erased her own awkward memories, and yet somehow, Sunset is responsible for it? How the hell is that meant to be sympathetic?! As someone who is autistic, the portrayal of Wallflower feels extremely insulting as if anyone introverted is a petty manchild! And this is coming from a guy in his 20s; imagine what a child would take from this!
And that's not even getting into Wallflower holding onto a petty grudge for seemingly months despite Sunset having changed for the better! If Sunset had actually done something mean to Wallflower in the past but forgot about it, maybe I would buy it. As it stands, Wallflower is no better than who Sunset was back in the first film, her "redemption" in completely undeserved, and she's the worst character out of MLP G4, full stop! And that includes Snap Shutter and Mane Allgood. I'm honestly surprised no one tried to kill Wallflower for mind rape!
So what if Sunset and Celestia had their reunion? And that's another thing; these two plots do not belong in the same special! If the Wallflower plot took place between Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games, and the Sunset/Celestia plot was the last thing produced for EG, it would've made much better sense. As it stands, it's a simultaneous case of "too soon" and "too late" in terms of time placement.
So yeah, Forgotten Friendship is the worst thing to come out of Equestria Girls (then again, I didn't know what else to expect out of a completely pointless spinoff) and G4 as a whole (and that includes the so-called finale of FiM), and Wallflower Blush can burn in Tartarus as far as I'm concerned.
I'm not going to agree with most of that, but that's hardly surprising given what I wrote above! :P For a start, I cannot possibly imagine rating any of the specials lower than "Spring Breakdown", which for me is the dullest thing ever made in this sub-franchise. ;)
DeleteOoh, interesting! Something I'm willing to comment on (as per my stated non-interest in S8).
ReplyDeleteUnusually, this one ends up in the middle for me largely because of two strong and opposing reactions to its content. The first is strong good: there's plenty to enjoy here. As the last EqG special to examine Sunset's history and progress, this hits a good double-bill with the mystery behind the memory wipe and revisiting the PonyWorld roots. I can't say it's spectacular, as such, but not only does it finally address Sunset's relationship with Celestia (I don't know why, but I really like how poker-faced Celestia is until after hearing Sunset's speech), it also gives Sunset some welcome respite in PonyWorld before throwing her back into her nightmare come true. There's a cruel irony in Sunset's would-be fate here, as her positive legacy is negated even as she herself has grown and developed, allowing a criticism of her worst habits without undermining her improved character itself.
Trixie's prominence I really was not expecting going in, but even that kinda works as Trixie is basically a toned-down version of Sunset pre-development: full of herself, willing to be pushy to get her own way, outright delusional in her plans, and yet there are hints of something in there that's self-aware, envious if not outright resentful of others, and feeling that something's missing. Plus the fact that Trixie is in a unique position to cotton on to Sunset's change of heart. Had any future specials actually built on that, we could've had a really juicy ongoing arc here. As it is... well, Trixie is at her comedic best here, and I liked the change of pace and odd partnership.
Even Wallflower Blush has her psychological mess that's actually kinda great as a cycle of self-destruction and losing what little she had to begin with. Antagonists like Gloriosa Daisy and Vignette Valencia cause trouble and have stress, but any inner conflict isn't sold in their cases. With Wallflower Blush, there are so many red flags (some subtle, such as her defeated and unkempt appearance) that it's easy to glean some serious psychological issues there, and I kinda liked that.
What brings this special down for me - and leads straight into the strong bad - is, unfortunately, something that bugs me about MLP:FiM's approach to redemptions overall: how rarely earned they feel, and how much some of them strain sympathy or misconstrue what it means to straighten yourself out. It's especially aggravating when Sunset's around, because despite how bad she was in the first Equestria Girls movie (take that either way), since then she's basically been a rare good case of showing the work required to rebuild oneself, reassess, and realize that change of heart. This very special even comes close to another worthwhile critique: overlooked past transgressions, which might have been another Tuesday for her, but could've meant a lot to one of her victims.
DeleteMaddeningly, I find that the special, if anything, does everything backwards. Firstly, Wallflower's crime is so heinous and creepy - essentially magical gaslighting and life ruining - that it simply can't be brushed under the carpet at the end the way it is. You don't do stuff like that unless you're so seriously messed-up morally that it'd take a huge amount of work to reverse course, if it's even possible. But the special ignores the scale of the crime completely, or even that there was a crime at all: as soon as Wallflower loses her means to cause damage, the change of heart is just unjustifiably assumed. That's a writing cheat.
Secondly, the special then takes the bafflingly nasty route of somehow trying to pin some if not most of the blame on Sunset herself, who is clearly the main victim in this scenario. With no clarification on what specific harm Sunset did to Wallflower - indeed, no clarification that Sunset even knew Wallflower - it just comes off as Wallflower using Sunset as a scapegoat for her own problems. Then there's Sunset's anger at Wallflower messing with her friend's memories, which the special tries to present as a personal flaw on her part but which seems incredibly justified in context. It legitimately made me angry when Trixie starts to imply that Sunset somehow has an obligation to befriend people rather than just not be nasty to them anymore. No! Undoing the damage and having to fit someone else's entitlement are two completely different things, and the special's morals are insanely irresponsible and disproportionate!
And lastly, it's not really emphasized that, whatever her valid mental problems, Wallflower's response was just unbelievably petty. Wallflower being a self-damaging, maladjusted social failure with low self-esteem, I can sympathize with, and to an extent I do sympathize with that part. Wallflower essentially mind-raping people en masse and lashing out at others, the vast majority of her victims being bystanders who never even antagonized her to begin with, I straight-up can't. If anything, I find it even more aggravating that this vicious karma houdini is also mixed in with a very obvious child in need of help and intervention, because the former ends up stinging more by tainting the latter.
As a result, there's an extremely sour portion of this special that - regrettably - undoes a lot of the bonuses provided by the sweeter stuff. I can't quantify what the exact portions of each are; all I know is that this is an extremely ambivalent watch for me, in a way that other mid-tier EqG media simply aren't.
"overlooked past transgressions,"
DeleteWhich, now I think about it, might be why the PonyWorld portion is actually a better fit than I gave it credit for: Sunset revisiting an old transgression (against Celestia) and finally making up for it!
Heck, throw in the fact that Trixie - hitherto a disposable comedic side character or secondary nuisance in EqG - actually gets a chance at the spotlight in this special. Meta-thematic connections! :D