Alternate Aesop Interpretation: It's very easy to read the movie as making a statement about how some children's competitions can be taken too far by over competitive authority figures — and how such things are utterly pointless, and how negatively the children themselves can be affected.
Is Lemon Zest the Token Good Teammate of the Crystal Prep team? What with her being Pinkie Pie's counterpart, she appears to be Innocently Insensitive at the worst — and she has something resembling a Pet the Dog moment to Twilight. Then again, she's also participating in the "Unleash the Magic" number with a menacing face.
Was Sunset snapping at Twilight instigated in part by her resemblance to her pony counterpart? Sunset has spent the whole movie seeking Princess Twilight's aid in handling the situation and being met with nothing in return. Even though it's clear from her reaction after the fact that she knows the best thing would have been to simply talk things over, it's not hard to imagine that realizing human Twilight has been the cause of their problems all along would have especially set off Sunset's Hair-Trigger Temperbecause of how much she looks like the princess — adding an element of personal betrayal to Twilight's actions that Sunset consciously knows isn't true, but can't get past on a subconscious level.
Angel/Devil Shipping: Midnight Sparkle looks like a Fallen Angel with her feathered wings and general Evil Makeover design, which pairs nicely with both Sunset's demon form and Sunset's angelic Daydream Shimmer form.
Base-Breaking Character: Principal Cinch. Some people genuinely Love to Hate her and find her a fantastic mundane Big Bad, something the EG verse hasn't actually used yet, and felt her motives made her stand out a bit, while others found her comeuppance were too light to be satisfying and felt that the movie would have been better if it focused more on the Shadowbolts.
Broken Base: The uncut version of "What More Is Out There" has split fans between those that wished the song had stayed uncut and those that admit while it is much better as a duet they understand the cutting. Sunset's lines offer a whole new aspect to her character, that she is homesick, but fans argue over whether the movie would have had time to explore this aspect or not. The creators admit they cut Sunset's lines because they didn't like the thought that Sunset was unhappy with her new life, as well as still being up in the air for if Sunset will ever return to Equestria.
Contested Sequel: Coming hot off the heels of the very well-received Rainbow Rocks, Friendship Games had a lot to live up to, and fell into this territory. Some like this film over the other for the continued Character Development of Sunset Shimmer, the character arcs given to her and Twilight, the thematic parallels to the first film, and a better balance of comedy and action. Others prefer Rainbow Rocks for the stronger songs, more threatening and engaging villains, and tighter plotting. Another factor that the characters themselves lampshade is that, while the Friendship Games (the in-story event) aren't unimportant, a school competition has much lower stakes than the threat of three Sirens trying to enslave the world. Though that's eventually subverted come the third act, when Midnight Sparkle comes on the scene.
Ensemble Dark Horse: The leader of the marching band in Rainbow Dash's Rousing Speech song is the second most prominent character in the number behind Dash herself, which has drawn much attention to her. Some have also pointed out her strong resemblance to Sour Sweet, with her Odango Hair and similarly colored hair and skin. This led to speculation that the two are related.
Evil Is Cool: Midnight Sparkle was very warmly received as a villain thanks to her high threat levels, her great design, and Evil Is Hammy vocal performance and animation.
Since the Shadowbolts didn't get much screen time, but have given characteristics to them they are completely open to write about.
Human Twilight and the rest of the Humane Seven's adventures.
The many possible hilarious situations that would ensue with two Twilights.
Going off the idea above, now that we've seen the human Twilight, ideas about the human Sunset are cropping up.
Unlike the statue/mirror portal, the magic portals opening up do not change people, leading to more canon possibilities for human-pony interactions.
We get little characterization for Human Shining Armor beyond his pride in his performance in the past Games, leading to questions about just how he'd take Twilight transferring to their school's arch-rival.
To differentiate between the two Twilight Sparkles, fans make use of the nickname given to Human Twilight in her SDCC 2015 Exclusive Doll: "Sci-Twi", reflecting her scientific nature. In the commentary, the writing staff also uses the name Sci-Twi for Human Twilight.
Sunset's new Golden Super Mode got several of them. First is Goddess Sunset, due to a resemblance to Goddess Madoka. Alternatively, Sunset Phoenix, because the form is thematically similar to the phoenix wings she gained in her song "My Past is Not Today". Ultimately, her form's canon name is "Daydream Shimmer."
Indigo Zap being a Palette Swap of and having identical characterization to Lightning Dust, who she was intended to be before being made a new character, has led fans to near-universally assume her pony counterpart is a pegasus like Lightning (whereas the other Shadowbolts vary) and less but still common that Indigo and the human Lightning are relatives, usually a sister or cousin.
Another (admittedly slightly less common) bit of Fanon is making Sunny Flare as Abacus Cinch's relative, usually a daughter or niece.
Another common idea is Human Twilight's parents being dead, and Human Shining Armor and Human Cadance being her legal guardians.
Many people feel the cut subplot, where Sunset Shimmer longs for her original homeland and muses about returning to Equestria, was a missed opportunity to further develop Sunset's character.
The original ending had human Twilight Sparkle remain in a friendlier Crystal Prep, which many felt would have better utilized the Shadowbolts (who all but disappear from the series afterward) and the appeal of human Twilight being distinct from her pony-counterpart.
Franchise Original Sin: After Rainbow Rocks offered a comparatively more unique climax, Friendship Games started the trend of Equestria Girls villains going One-Winged Angela laSunset Shimmer in the first film and embarking on a rampage that forces the girls to intervene, which would continue uninterrupted until Forgotten Friendship. Unlike later installments, however, here it's presented as a deliberate (and acknowledged in-universe) parallel to Sunset's experience that helps further the Character Development of both the heroic and villainous parties, rather than merely a way to add additional action to the proceedings.
Lemon Zest is Pinkie Pie's counterpart on the Shadow Bolts team. Pinkie's hair is pink, and Lemon's is green, on the exact opposite of the spectrum.
Twilight wins the ACADECA's spelling bee by spelling "isosceles" correctly, and conveniently enough, knowing the properties of isosceles triangles is also crucial to winning the next event...
The solution to the geometry problem requires constructing two new points F and G, but Sunset and Twilight don't define these points or specify on the diagram where they're supposed to go. Because their solutions mention that triangle DCF is similar to triangle ACB, we can deduce that F is the point on EB such that DF is parallel to AB, and G is the intersection of DB and AF. With that established, Twilight's solution is indeed valid. See the comments in this Derpibooru post for complete details.
Harsher in Hindsight: From the Blooper reel, Pinkie’s Animated Actor being left dangling from a wire in mid-air during a failed Power Floats scene becomes this — or even funnier — when a similar scene happens as part of the actual plot of My Little Pony: A New Generation, with harsher consequences than a failed take.
If not for the summer hiatus, Season 5's finale would have aired in North America on the same day Friendship Games premiered on television later in the day, tying in perfectly with why Princess Twilight was too busy to help during the events of the movie — she was caught up in the events of the finale (her dialogue even specifically references the finale as an in-joke to explain her absense). Instead, the movie airs on the same day as "Made in Manehattan", which has the explicit plot point in the opening act of Twilight being bored and having nothing to do. Whoops.
There was a very short-lived attempt at a meme called "vandal twilight", using a shot of her investigating the portal from the second trailer months before the film's release. Not only does Rainbow Dash think Twilight is going to vandalize the statue in the movie proper, but Twilight, as Midnight Sparkle, ends up destroying the horse statue.
Somebody on Derpibooru basically asked forMidnight Sparkle shortly after the first movie came out.
When Sunset Shimmer transforms into her Daydream form, with a horn and wings made of Hard Light, it fueled speculation at the time that, should she ever return to Equestria, she would be an alicorn on the other side of the portal, which was ultimately disproven in "Mirror Magic". However, come My Little Pony: A New Generation, when Sunny Starscout becomes an alicorn, her new horn and wings are similarly made of golden light, resembling a pony version of Daydream Shimmer more than the organic horns and wings of G4 alicorns.
While the least antagonistic of the Shadowbolts, Lemon Zest being voiced by Shannon Chan-Kent is this to those expecting her to voice a villain in this movie, after the rest of the Mane Six's singing voices played the Big Bads in the last two. (Chan-Kent would later play the primary villain in Forgotten Friendship.)
Fanon was that Human Twilight Sparkle would be a Mad Scientist once it was revealed she was an antagonist. While she lacked the personality, she proves reckless (compared to Sunset) in her studies, with Midnight Sparkle fully running with it. Played straight in that her transformation and Heel–Face Turn would be a role reversal with Sunset Shimmer from the first movie.
More than one person correctly guessed that Indigo Zap was meant to be Lightning Dust early in production, but was changed to an original character. Confirmed by the DVD commentary.
Informed Wrongness: Sunset is treated as being in the wrong for blowing up at human Twilight Sparkle. But Twilight endangered everyone with her reckless study of magic, and Sunset was lashing out in defense of her friends and didn't know about human Twilight's mitigating factors at the time. Things that would have established Sunset as objectively wrong (unfairly projecting pony Twilight onto human Twilight who wouldn't have known better, wasting a chance to properly talk them out of their dangerous actions) weren't brought up as reasons.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: There are some complaints that the climax of the movie is largely a rehash of Equestria Girls and Sunset Shimmer's subplot is once again angsting over a problem until she saves the day at the end.
It Was His Sled: The appearance of Midnight Sparkle in the film's climax; the climax is widely regarded as the best part of the movie and its most memorable and talked-about scene, so any discussion of Friendship Games will inevitably mention the character. This is furthered by merchandise spoiling their existence before the film released, and the next film makes their existence a plot point and touches on it in its opening scene.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Continuing her status with Princess Twilight, Sunset Shimmer has a lot of moments with each of the Humane Five. Especially so with human Twilight.
Twilight and Sunset's interactions have a rather romantic undertone, especially when Sunset helps Twilight let go of her new demonic form during the climax.
Vice-Principal Luna and Dean Cadance greet each other with enthusiastic hugging, which makes them much closer than their alicorn counterparts ever were.
The Home Ec portion of the Friendship Games have Pinkie and Fluttershy submit a cake that when sliced reveals a replica of the Mona Lisa, impressing the school administrators. Naturally, fans turned it into an exploitable meme.
Sunny Flare's bracers have what seems to be a screen and two buttons on them, looking strikingly similar to a Pip-Boy. Cue jokes to the same effect, especially Fallout: Equestria ones.
Plenty of Puella Magi Madoka Magica jokes have popped up in response to the movie's ending: there's plenty of points of comparison, from the similarities between Sci-Twi and Glasses!Homura, and them turning into Midnight Sparkle and the similarly-designed Akuma Homura respectively, to the fact Sunset Shimmer dons an Ultimate Madoka-esque white dress to battle her, not to mention the abundant Ship Tease between them...
Misblamed: Fans are quick to blame the movie for causing a delay to Season 5, much like with the first movie and Season 3's short episode count, even though it's been stated multiple times that Equestria Girls has nothing to do with impacting the schedule of the episodes. Thankfully, Season 5's next half picked up rather quickly (on September 12th to be exact) so this has mostly died down... at least until they keep mentioning an important plot detail for the finale... which hadn't premiered yet. And even said problem is not the fault of the movie itself, or the people who made the movie — they aren't in charge of when and in what order the film and episodes are broadcast.
Moe: Human Twilight, similarly to Sunset in the second film, comes across as very moe: her shyness, social awkwardness, and her situation with her classmates makes it so you want to give her a big hug. With the Cute Clumsy Girl thing she's got going for her, the Adorkable glasses and technical terms she peppers throughout her dialogue, she puts her pony counterpart to shame by comparison.
Celestia, Luna, and Cadance dropping their forks at the sight of Pinkie's impossible cake is one thing. Dropping their clipboards for an admittedly nice two-story birdhouse is more than a bit over-the-top.
The Shadowbolts singing backup in "Unleash the Magic". "Oh wah-oh-wah" isn't the most menacing hook for an ominous choir to sing. They make up for it when they get real lyrics.
Older Than They Think: Since the Friendship Games toyline is the first to heavily feature the dolls wearing long pants instead of skirts or shorts, you occasionally find people thinking this is the first time the dolls have wore pants, ever. The first doll to feature pants was (fittingly enough) Scootaloo as part of the Wild Rainbow subline. On a related note, Sunset Shimmer first wore pants in her "main" doll in the Rainbow Rocks toyline — way before the Encore Shorts and this movie were released.
Human Shining Armor only shows up once in Principal Cinch's office to convince Twilight to enter the Friendship Games.
"Sweeten Sour", the drum majorette who appears with Rainbow Dash in the CHS Rally Song (see under Ensemble Dark Horse), never appears prominently in any other scene.
Midnight Sparkle gets less than five minutes of screentime in the film's climax and absolutely steals the show and is the thing everyone remembers best. It helps the entire film was arguably building up to her arrival.
One True Threesome: Human Twilight×Sunset×Princess Twilight, for those that can't choose which version to ship.
The scene where Sunset explodes at Human Twilight for her recklessness is seen by fans as a brilliant acting by Rebecca Stoichet.
Subtly for Tara Strong, who really impresses when using the same voice for the human Twilight, but still easily making her sound like a different person. Then there's her hamming it up as Midnight Sparkle.
Suspiciously Similar Song: The chime-like synthesizer arpeggios underlying the chorus of "What More Is Out There?" sound a lot like the instrumental backing for the chorus of "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. The rotating shot of her in one of the halls of Crystal Prep while singing the song has also been to compared to the final scenes in Frozen (2013)'s "Let It Go".
Flash barely appears, only to get offhandedly shot down by Human Twilight twice as she instead continues following the magic traces.
For those who thought Suri Polomare was a Karma Houdini in "Rarity Takes Manehattan", her human counterpart fails the baking challenge against Canterlot and is given a threatening Death Glare from Principal Cinch.
Despite the toyline and promotional materials pushing them heavily, the Shadowbolts don't get as much screentime as you would think. Only Sour Sweet and Sugarcoat get any substantial scenes and show memorable character in them, Indigo Zap gets a little of the same, and Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare barely even get dialogue. The film tries to enforce that each of them is an Evil Counterpart to one of the Humane Five, but barely any interactions between them even justify rivalries between them as individuals.
The human version of Shining Armor. He shows up for a brief scene, prompting Twilight to take part in the Friendship Games, and... that's it.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Human Cadance has this problem much more than anyone else, primarily due to having smaller eyes, which are closer to reality than anyone else's cartoonishly large ones, triggering this.
Everything from the climax, especially the fight between Daydream Shimmer and Midnight Sparkle. Midnight Sparkle taking Daydream Shimmer's hand is said to be one of the most beautiful moments of animation in the entire series.
The opening titles, — specifically the animation of the tiny magic spark traveling through the threads of Twilight's String Theory. It's quite detailed.
Human Twilight. Just about everything we know so far about the life of Twilight's human counterpart. We all know her potential to be as great and amazing as Princess Twilight and yet, life seems to be going out of its way to make her miserable. She has no friends beyond her family and dog, everyone at Crystal Prep, even the Principal (with the exception of the Dean, Cadance) treats her as an outcast and do not even bother to hide their dislike for her — something not helped by her massive social awkwardness and, in the titular Games, her lack of physical prowess. She even has a song describing, among other things, that her fellow students "look at her like something's wrong" and wondering if she's better off alone. Because this is apparently still too good for her, her interest in magic leads to a nearly-apocalyptic disaster; and even before that, it causes severe problems during the Games, almost getting people severely hurt — and Sunset chews her out for that, so harshly in fact, it causes her to run off in tears. And after that, as if it somehow wasn't made clear enough that this girl has no friends in high places, she gets bullied by her own school into opening her amulet and not only does it seem, at first, that she got nuked into oblivion by magic, but ends like Sunset Shimmer in the first movie: turned into an insane, destructive, aggressive monster that ends up causing the mentioned near-apocalyptic disaster. What makes it worse is that the audience knows that there's six girls who could be her best friends but they're currently on the opponent's team, no doubt something that will cause more grief for her. Luckily, it all ends well for her, but still: damn.
Sunset too fits the trope, even though her relations with the school and the Humane Five have greatly improved. She still has bouts of anxiety and depression due to being the cause of magic now being part of a world that never had it before. What's worse is she has no idea how to control it or even a base line understanding of how it works. She becomes increasingly frustrated with herself and desperate for help, so when Human Twilight shows up and causes even more magical havoc, if accidentally, it leads to Sunset unloading all her stress and anger onto the poor girl. Deleted Scenes also show Sunset feeling homesick and wondering if she really belongs on Earth or back in Equestria. She even has a moment with Princess Twilight, expressing her troubles and feels unsure what to do, especially with all the magic showing up. While it didn't make it into canon, it does well enough to make you want to hug her.
To some viewers, Flash Sentry. He legitimately seems happy to see Twilight again and is unaware that it isn't the same Twilight he knows. She brushes him off twice, and might think she's lost interest in him. Sure he may not have much in terms of personality and development, but being ignored by someone you like is far from a pleasant feeling.
for complete details.