Two Days to Sunset · 3:38am Sep 26th, 2014
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Sunset Shimmer, back left near the window.
I like Sunset Shimmer. A lot of Bronies claim she's basically just Trixie Lite, but these are the same guys who hate Flash Sentry because his hawtness threatens their masculinity, so what do they know?
Sunset Shimmer is a perfect nemesis for Twilight Sparkle. She has a similar name and an opposite color scheme. She is a former student of Princess Celestia and is exceptionally competent in magic. What's more, had she not fallen into overweening ambition, she could have had everything Twilight Sparkle now has. The Sunset Shimmer story arc in the Equestria Girls comic book annual makes this ironically clear: had she submitted to Celestia's tutelage, she could have eventually achieved the princesshood she lusted for. Instead, in her pride, she grasped at power—and thus lost everything. Sunset Shimmer sold her birthright for a mess of pottage.
Dude. I mean, duuuude.
Although I do not find nearly as much fault with Equestria Girls as some do, I was disappointed that it never capitalized on this. It set up Twilight and Sunset as opposites, but failed to emphasize their opposition. Sunset certainly contemns Twilight, but the resentment and envy that really ought to characterize her never show up. She ought to hate Twilight for being a princess. She ought to hate Twilight for being Celestia's favored student. Perhaps even more than that, to make the rivalry more immediate, she ought to absolutely loathe Twilight for catching the eye of Flash Sentry. The movie set the foundation of a love triangle, but built nothing on it.
Behold the hawtness.
When I watched this tantalizing "sneak peek" video of the film coming out this Saturday (I can't see it until Sunday at the earliest so don't tell me about it or I swear I'll send a magical girl to your house to beat the everloving friendship into you), I came to the conclusion from Sunset's denial of any interest in Flash that this film, too, would fail to exploit the potential love triangle. Some of my readers, however, understood Sunset's words in a very different way. I hope they're right.
I like what we've seen of this film so far. Sunset Shimmer is reformed; she has given up on her pride and her ambitions, but not everything is sunshine and rainbows. Formerly the undisputed queen of the school, she is now the pariah with no friends but the Equestria Girls. The other students, no longer fearful of her, have turned on her. This is, without being inappropriate for the target audience, fairly heavy stuff. Now that she no longer has illusions of grandeur to sustain her, Sunset might have nothing to hold her back from reflecting on her wasted life and lost opportunities. She could very well be in danger of wallowing in self-pity.
Sunset Shimmer realizes she just lost her boyfriend to her hated rival.
And thus, even though she is reformed, her envy of Twilight Sparkle might finally come out.
I rather hope it does. That could make for a rich subplot. Sunset Shimmer is in a way the Twilight Sparkle of the Equestria Girls universe—a student of Celestia who goes to a new home and learns of friendship. When Twilight shows up again in the upcoming movie, she is in a way muscling in on Sunset's turf. Sunset Shimmer, having previously rejected the world of Equestria, has apparently chosen the human world as her permanent home. Twilight, however, chose to go back to Equestria, presumably to stay.
Perdita Finn's novel Rainbow Rocks, which is a sort of prequel to the movie, opens with Twilight Sparkle in Equestria hanging out with her pony friends when she starts daydreaming about her human friends. If she spends that much time thinking about the human world, perhaps she spends a lot of time talking about it, too—enough, even, that her pony friends might come to resent being compared to their human doppelgängers. And the book establishes unambiguously, as the Equestria Girls book and movie did, that Twilight has some strong feelings for both the human and pony versions of Flash Sentry as well.
What I am hoping for is a film in which Sunset and Twilight, though no longer true enemies as they were previously, nonetheless find themselves still rivals. I would like to see a story in which each must choose which world she will permanently call her own. My ideal ending of the film would have Sunset making the firm decision to remain in the human world and make the best of it now that somepony else occupies her place in Equestria, and getting back together with Flash Sentry, while Twilight Sparkle returns to Equestria convinced that the pony world is indeed her true home—to find her pony friends, and also the pony Flash, waiting for her.
Sunset Shimmer knows what's hawt.
Yes!
Great ending, I have many strong feelings about it!
I'm seeing it on Saturday in a theater. 10 AM showing. I'm praying the brony stinkfog won't get too thick. If particulate Cheeto dust starts filling the air, I'm out of there.
I love your ending, and I feel the same way about Shim-Sham. To me, the one other interesting angle Sunset Shimmer has is that she obviously views Princess Celestia as a surrogate mother (even more than Twilight, who had a happy homelife, adoring older brother, and baby dragon to raise), and that motivates her actions throughout the movie. The whole "march a few hypnotized high schoolers through a magic mirror and somehow use that to take over Equestria" plan was incredbly stupid, even by children's cartoon standards. But it makes a lot more sense as some sort of rebellious teenager who wants Celestia to acknowledge her more than anything (and an excuse for her to go home, without admitting she was wrong).
I definitely hope she gets back together with Flash, and find some way to accept never being a princess or using magic again. And I would love to see more her relationship with Principal Celestia, both before and after the movies.
2484599
I think Sunset´s original plan was only to claim the Element to prove Celestia she was more worthy of it than Twilight. The whole "Taking over Equestria with a teen army" was probably cause by the insanity of the corrupted, unstable Magic after she became Sunset Satan (Note how hammy she acted, and how eager she was to throw fireballs to innocent people when previously she had refused even to harm a dog).
I'm as cautiously optimistic for the sequel as I am for the first.
However, something has been bugging the hell out of me; what is the timeline?! Sunset Shimmer presumably entered the mirror before Twilight was an apprentice. Then over that time, she was presumably in high school for a year or so. How does it line up with Equestria's timeline? Does that mean that ponies age (or at least mature) like normal ponies, hence them growing up extremely quickly? Is there some time screwery afoot with the mirror?
Also; where in the hell was Sunset Shimmer staying/living as she was a student there? (Although I think that would make an excellent story in and of itself. I used to work at a high school were one of our students had apparently been living out of a broken drain pipe near the property. I think that someone like Sunset Shimmer could well have the strength of will and social guile to pull off living like that when the goal is becoming Princess of Equestria.)
2484973
The story takes place in High School World. They never "leave" high school.
2485143
Does anyone talk about highschool world, or is that against the rules?
2484973 I think time in EQG world passes 1/4 as fast as time in Equestria. It seems like 10 years passed in Equestria since Sunset left, but only around 2 1/2 years passed in EQG. I could see Sunset having dispatched her double, stolen her identity and living with the EQG doubles of her parents, or living in the steam tunnels, or even living with Principal Celestia. You know the Celestia of any world is a big old softy who would totally take in a homeless girl with a sob story.
Do not attempt to wade deep into Equestria Girls worldbuilding, for that way madness lies...
2485143
So, is it an Ironic Hell/Purgatory for Sunset?