Why Sunset Went Bad · 7:56pm Sep 29th, 2015
I don't normally just share speculations like this, but I think I figured out one of the big reasons Sunset went bad. In the first movie, she was pretty horrid. In the prequel comic, she wasn't anywhere near as bad. Yes, I know that the comics can't be taken as totally canon (don't start on that), but sometimes, it's all we've got. Plus, her origin comic jives alright with the show and movies. So, going off that, what made Sunset so horrible after coming through the mirror?
My answer: Princess Celestia.
Sunset goes through the portal, finds her new body, all that stuff. So what does her teacher do about this missing student? Nothing. Celestia's prized pupil just dove into an alternate world, and she doesn't do a thing about it. She doesn't send guards in to catch Sunset for defying her, she doesn't send in a rescue team to save her from the strange world, she doesn't even poke her head through and take a look around for her. She just ignored her. Celestia abandoned Sunset, at least as far as Sunset is concerned.
This crushed her. This was when Sunset knew in her mind that Celestia never cared about her and was just using her. Just manipulating Sunset into being a little royal servant for her, and maybe even a weapon (as an element bearer). But Sunset was unruly, and when she threw herself into a dangerous new world, Celestia just wrote her off and moved on. This was made worse by Sunset learning that Celestia was doing it again with Twilight (she clearly knew about her, so she must have checked in on Equestria every thirty moons). Celestia had just replaced Sunset with somepony who was more obedient, and even made her an alicorn after refusing to do the same to Sunset. That had to hurt.
Disclaimer: not Celestia bashing. Purely about Sunset's perspective. Also, I'm probably not the first to say any of this.
Okay I'm glad you put that disclaimer up.
This makes a lot of sense for Sunset's perspective.
3430095
Yeah, I felt it was necessary after what I said, there. I like Celestia just fine, for the record. She's not perfect, but nopony is.
3430114 Couldn't have said it better myself.
makes me re-wonder how long a set of "thirty moons" is, it's as short as a month and as long as 3 years. the former would reinforce Sunset's feeling of neglect if Celestia could pop through the portal fairly regularly; the latter could suggest Sunset went back and gathered a bunch of information at once. I agree Sunset was most likely ticked off at learning of Celestia's new student becoming an alicorn princess
I understand what you're saying, but doesn't the portal only open every thirty moons or something? So Celestia wouldn't be able to go right away. And even after that time, I wouldn't go after my batshit insane student. Maybe Celestia thought Sunset could handle herself and come back, or that she didn't want to come back? I dunno; but I did get some characterization ideas for Celestia from this post.
3430239
The portal remains open for several days, as the first movie shows. We don't know what day of the cycle Sunset went in on. Celestia could have had several days before it closed. And if the comics are anything to go by (or even the first movie), Sunset wasn't insane when she left. She had problems, didn't care about friends, and sought power above all else, but she only came off as flat-out nuts when she transformed into a literal monster. And she was clearly able to be saved, as the movies have shown. If someone I was grooming to be a future ruler (she probably was) ran off into some other world, I'd go after them if they were important to me, even if I had a replacement lined up. Never leave a mare behind.
Sunset did bring the cross-dimensional communication book, though, which says something about her. Sunset wasn't sure if the book would work in Rainbow Rocks. It does work, so that means that Celestia never even attempted to contact her through it.
Wow. I'm seriously not trying to bash Celestia, but she keeps looking worse the more I think about this.
I think you're on to something here. I noticed the same thing. You know the music video where we see Sunset sing her song? There's the montage of all the times she's won some sort of princess competition at CHS. The first time she won she looks actually happy, in each competition though she gets increasingly smug and cruel-looking.
I think you're right, she felt betrayed by Celestia. Celestia never wrote in the book it seems, and that was the least she could do. I suspect that even when the portal is inactive, you can still hear things across it. I'm making that guess because obviously Sunset found out information somehow, since she just charged out and grabbed Twilight's crown. My theory is that Sunset had started acclimatizing to the human world and making friends, and then she overheard some guards through the closed portal gossiping about Twilight Sparkle, the new protege, and that made Sunset furious. She probably used the same method to learn that Twilight had become an alicorn princess, which is when I think she came up with her plan to steal the crown.
I think this is an important part of the discussion that most people don't take into consideration. Probably the most important part of the discussion, honestly.
3430666
I'm highly inclined to agree. Perspective is everything.
From Sunset's perspective, Celestia teased her with the mirror and then refused to explain, holding her back. When she took initiative and sought the information herself, she was scolded and kicked out. When she sought her destiny through the mirror, Celestia just wrote her off as a failure and left her behind, not even bothering to try to check on her. Celestia abandoned her in a strange world.
But from Celestia's perspective, Sunset was on a dark path. Celestia made a mistake by showing her the mirror, but she kept things from Sunset because she knew that her student wasn't responsible enough to deal with that knowledge and power. Then her student bypassed her entirely, breaking into a forbidden area and stealing that knowledge. She decided that she'd made a mistake and pushed Sunset away. Then Sunset abandoned her and went through the mirror to chase power she wasn't ready for. Celestia may have felt as betrayed as Sunset.
And I think they're both right, to an extent.