We Need To Talk; AKA The Curious Case Of Princess Luna & Sunset Shimmer, And Why Friendship Games Will MATTER · 6:55pm Jun 18th, 2015
I don't ship this pair all that much, and the picture is irrelevant besides, but this was too adorable not to throw in.
I saw a comic the other day. It was mainly done as a joke, but I found it opening up some thoughts about the EoH, the subtle art of villain reformation, and how one of Rainbow Rocks' greatest assets was also a huge weakness. But before I ramble, let me show you the comic.
Heh, pretty funny amirite? The notion of someone as malicious, manipulative, and generally evil as Adagio doing such a 180 after being FRIENDSHIP LAZERED is just so random that it makes a twisted sort of sense. After all, we've seen it with Luna, and we've seen it with Susnet Hsimmer, right?
Well, yes and no.
Part 1: THE MOON GODDESS SPEAKETH OF CHANGE BUT ACTETH OF CONSISTENCY
When Nightmare Moon appeared, all we'd seen of her up to that point was a flashback told in storybook format. NMM herself acted extremely hammy and somewhat archaic. After being FRIENDSHIP LAZERED, we saw all of four seconds of screentime, during which Luna made an ambiguous apology and hugged Celestia, her love for her sister and the horror of NMM bringing her to shelve their issues for the time being. Of course, we never saw them talk about things, so it's really really very difficult to tell if they even needed to or not - an authorial oversight, but one I'm willing to overlook to an extent. Either way, the point is - we didn't see much of Luna at that point; her personality was very ill-established. (Well, it was well-established, but we discounted it as general villainous behavior.) Most of you young'uns weren't there to see the thousands and thousands of fics, each with their own (relatively - certain trends did inevitably develop) unique takes on the Moon Princess. Then came Luna Eclipsed.
Now, imagine how hyped all of you have been for Episode 100. BACKGROUND PONIES SPEAKING! WILL THEY JOSS EVERYTHING? WILL IT BE CONFIRMED? WILL WE JUMP THE SHARK? (Yes we did, and it was glorious.) OH MY CELESTIA WHY IS BON-BON A SECRET AGENT?
The fandom was much smaller at the time of LE's airing, but back then we had no Last Roundup or such to set the precedent for this kind of thing, so I'd say the sheer hype and apprehension for that episode was simultaneously smaller and more intense. And then the episode came out, and all images of shy, sad Woona were smashed to pieces by OUR RESIDENT PRINCESS OF HAAAMMMMMM. It was glorious. Sure, the resolution was a bit nonsensical, but it was passable.
But more importantly, looking at her behavior, and looking at Nightmare Moon's, and then taking into account what else we knew about her, it all made sense. There was an internal consistency there, she felt much more believable than Woona, and frankly it didn't take much mental stretching for it all to come together.
Oh, hey, M.A. Larson wrote it. Fancy that.
Part B: The Perfect Opposite, Opposite Herself
Let me make something clear to you: I love Sunset Shimmer as a character. If my icon at the time of writing this doesn't tip you off, I am a massive fan of Baconhair, on par with the Sirens and second only to Nightmare Moon/Luna and Rarity. She is intriguing, compelling, and in many ways seems like the perfect foil to Twilight. (And unlike Trixie, I can actually take her seriously...)
And in my opinion, she still has yet to be written in a way that does justice to her concept. Meghan got a lot closer to pulling it off in Rainbow Rocks, but there was still a big problem I took issue with. For there is a certain disparity...
In Equestria Girls, Sunset was a grade-A Alpha Bitch and intensely arrogant and obviously ambitious. She also displayed a certain level of sarcasm and general snarkiness. Oh, and she transformed into a raging she-demon and tried to take over Equestria. (No offense.) In Rainbow Rocks, however, she becomes completely different - quiet, shrinking violet, Fluttershy-esque... and frankly, rather adorable. Which wouldn't be so bad in of itself if it weren't for the fact that it's completely contrary to everything we saw of her before. Unlike with Luna, we saw her pre-demon self, and even before she got overloaded with dark powers, she had sass. So while I think Susnet and her quest for acceptance in RR was one of the movie's high points, it is also somewhat disappointing in the sense that on some level, she doesn't feel like Sunset Shimmer.
Part III: Brainwashing?
Nah, let's not go there.
Part Four: HOPE IS NOT LOST
However, Sunset is far from a lost cause, and there's something they could do in Friendship Games that would retroactively fix this issue and be brilliant besides, but whether they actually will is another question entirely. The thought, though, is that in the wake of her demonic experience, she's been thoroughly scared away from her own ambitious tendencies, and so has basically been trying to be nice as possible in general to convince herself she's changed, and has resultingly been suppressing herself in general. And frankly, that would be in keeping with what we saw of her in Rainbow Rocks.
What I hope for in Friendship Games is that the strain of this starts to make itself known in some form or another, and the lesson ends up being something along the lines of "Ambition isn't inherently bad; it's what you do to reach those goals that matters." Sunset finds an ideal balance between adorkable good guy and badass shmexy biker, and she maybe gets to show off her more intellectual side a bit.
Really, we'll just have to see what happens, but I think one way or another, it is Friendship Games that will determine the fate of our beloved Baconhair as a character - and if she can make things work, I will take back (almost) every negative thing I've said about Meghan in the wake of the atrocity known as Twilight's Kingdom. (If the Sirens make a cameo, though, that will greatly bolster my forgiveness.)
So that's the main reason I am looking forward to Friendship Games - It matters.
Fingers crossed for balanced Sunset. Girl has a yin-yang in her cutie mark for a reason, dang it.
Also, I do love that comic. And that Adagio keeps the boots even after the Rainbow Beam of Involuntary Redemption.
3160463 Indeed; don't let me down now, Meghan!
Heh, yeah. Either the elements don't care too much about footwear, or if she herself changed, couldn't be bothered to de-spike them - Somehow I can just picture her owning rows and rows of shoes, with every single last one of them tastefully lined with sharp pointy things.
...and because it matters so much, I MUST finish my rambling epic before the leaked spoilers become any clearer.
You're right on the mark - Sunset in RR was so off balance that she didn't know that being "good" doesn't mean being meek. Everything from the tackle of Rainbow Dash to the end, we got a little glimpse of the old Sunset, but we didn't get a clear picture of the new Sunset. Fortunately, the short "My Past Is Not Today" restores some of her sass, and gives me greater hope that the next movie will establish her as a stronger standalone character.
The loose ends should (in my headcanon-biased mind) force the narrative to neglect just about everyone except Sunset and the two Twilights. But, they won't because... toys.
Great analysis, and thanks!
3161095 And I need to catch up on said rambling epic! Though maybe I should wait until it's done and then binge-read it all from start to finish? Hmm.
Yeah, looking forward to that.
To be perfectly honest, I'm also rather interested in seeing how the new characters turn out. The moment we learn their actual personalities (as opposed to my wild guesses) I'm going to write/throw them in a room with the Dazzlings to see what happens.
Thanks, and not a problem!
This, so much this, and it sometimes bothers me that more people don't notice. Really though, it doesn't surprise me either, because unfortunately it's also how most redemption fanfics for any villain are also written. Writers who are too eager to reform a given villain, all to often make the mistake of simply inverting that villains personality. This can sometimes work, if the villain was someone who was ostensibly only evil because of some external corrupting influence (pre-S2 fanon Luna/NMM), but it's completely ill-suited to anyone who's villainy had been a purely conscious choice (FlimFlam, Starlight Glimmer, Discord). Simply put, if character has to be rewritten from the ground up to justify their "reform", then they haven't really been reformed at all, but rather replace with some new character that just happens to be wearing their old name.
Plus, well... it also tends to be a recipe for Mary Sues, as it all to often ends up meaning stripping the former villain of all their old flaws, leaving them a rather hollow shell of saccharine perfection.
Agreed, because it's not just authors that make the mistake of thinking "reform" means abandoning all of the character's previous defining traits. People make this exact same mistake about themselves, and so really do try going the cold turkey route in regards to qualities they think led them to make bad decisions in the past. In Sunsets case it makes perfect sense for her to be nervous about losing her new found friends by falling back into old habits. Hopefully though, now that she seems to be better settling into the idea of having friends she'll be able to start reclaiming some of her old confidence and so begin a more fully realized reform that incorporates who she really is as a person.
While, yes, that might include some of the old reckless arrogance as well, I think that would be a good thing to, as if she really is going to be the leader of the HuManeSix she needs to be more full three-dimensional character (virtue and vice together, like all the rest).
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Exactly! The scene where Sunset was shaking her fist in Trixie's face ("IT WASN'T A FIT OF JEALOUS RAGE!") is pretty much the only indicator that this wasn't what Meghan did, thank goodness.
Hoo boy, I could name a few fics...
Prime example being Zuko in the last three episodes of Book 2.
Yes, very much so. Fingers crossed!
Couldn't have said it better myself.
so what did you think of freindship games when all is said and done