sstabeler wrote:
There is a simple reason why Sunset Shimmer is better at fighting Twilight than her other opponents thus far: in merchandise of Sunset Shimmer, it said she used to be a student of Princess Celestia. Therefore, at the very least, you can say Sunset Shimmer is of a similar power to Twilight when the Elements aren’t involved, and has been taught by the same Alicorn.
A hint, in case you don't get the reference immediately.
My guess is similar, although I don't think Celestia spent much time teaching Twilight how to fight (Twilight living in a peaceful land all up until the return of Nightmare Moon, Celestia never giving her any indication that Nightmare Moon was returning, or that Discord ever existed or Sombra or Diamond Tiara- …)
Twilight was probably trained to use her powers in a way that could be used as a princess. Most of her battle tactics involve friendship, harmony, and being clever less than raw power or offensive spells.
My thinking is that Sunset Shimmer may have had the same raw ability that has been shown in Twilight throughout the show, but she could have also had one, unique magical ability and a lot of smarts to go with it. For example, her cutie mark is about the equivalent of her name and Twilight's name. Like Celestia, perhaps she was able to move the sun over the horizon, and that's what got Celestia's attention. Of course, you can't have a filly running about doing your job (that's how people get usurped,) so you take her under your wing and see if she has the heart and mind to rule.
From there, she was probably seen by Yoda or Luna to be hiding a great evil, and so she wasn't taught in the manner that she wanted to and she bolted/Celestia kicked her out for doing something heinous (i.e., being tardy with a friendship report.)
But unlike Twilight, she didn't have friends to help her out when Celestia got angry (yes, I know it was because Twilight caused chaos in Lesson Zero immediately after Discord's chaos) cuz they wuz all jelly of her swag.
They wuz so jelly…
But I'll headcanon that. It's a sound theory.
Platus wrote:
Though, the possibility of this film not being horrible brings up a question – how much do you think Hasbro plans to milk this if it turns out not to suck? Spinoff series, maybe? (It would have to be in order to compete with Monster High.) And if there is a spinoff, how long do you think its continuity would stay sealed off from the main show?
It's hard to say. This had been in the works way early in 2012, if I remember correctly, so if there were plans for a spinoff series, it would be:
- A long way away. Hasbro would probably want to know that this was successful (probably after it airs on The Hub in the fall,) and then you'd have to give the people creating it time to put together episodes for it. We may not see it until 2015.
- And if you had the same people working on it, then it would take away time from FiM. So my guess is that they would remain separate in this case, because FiM would be scratched. I don't think Hasbro will want to take away its main source of toy sales in My Little Pony, because My Little Pony is still iconic. There will always be Pony toys, even if there isn't always a show. But I don't think they want to nix the show in order to sell more EgG paraphernalia.
- Made by a different staff (and still probably a long way away.)
- I don't think the universes would ever blend, because that doesn't seem to make sense in terms of merchandising. You're trying to appeal to two different demographics, so if you have two shows catering to those two demographics, it doesn't seem to make sense in the eyes of Hasbro (who probably still see cartoons as being for a specific demographic) to ever mix them up.
- Now if you had a different staff doing an EqG spinoff while FiM was still on its own path, lightning would have to strike twice for it to have the popularity/success of FiM.
If there's a spinoff, then I'll wager that we won't see it until late 2014, and it will never cross the line so that it affects the FiM continuity. (I won't say that Twilight won't re-enter the human world ever again if just to hype up a spinoff, but I don't think that would be a part of a Season episode either.)