Feb
18th
2018
Forgotten Friendship Headscratchers · 12:49am Feb 18th, 2018
Lifted from TvTropes
- When Sunset Shimmer views her friends memories, we see how she's removed from them while in the novelization, she's just gone. If they actually remember her vanishing before her eyes, they should have realized something was amiss. So was Sunset actually seeing abstract personifications of their memories being tapered with or what? Why didn't they just depict her as missing from their memories like in the novel?
- Given that Sunset Shimmer singlehandedly saved the day against Midnight Sparkle, who no-one could have fought against otherwise, how would erasing her from those memories work? Would that not leave such a obvious gap in their memories that everyone should have realized something was up? Why didn't Sunset consider pointing this out to prove her case? The novelization, despite recounting all the other moments where Sunset is erased from memory, conspicuously doesn't reference that.
- Why didn't Sunset Shimmer revert to her oldAlpha Bitchpersonality after having all her memories from the human world erased? Celestia's dialog in the first film and the comics establish Sunset was like this by the time she fled to the human world. So what gives,besides the obvious?
1. Sunset does see memories in third person as well. Less jokingly, maybe it was a representation comparing her memories to theirs? Most likely it was a refresher or guide for someone coming in on this special, a kind of previously on.
2. This one was weird. It’s implied that the stone leaves people not questioning the memories (it took Sunset and Trixie knowing about the stone and suddenly being locked in to realize something was amiss), so maybe they just thought Sunset was BSing them and it wasn’t worth the effort? What’s even weirder is that Twilight remembers Sunset yelling at her, but nothing else about the context of that happening? I’d just say the stone is made of shenanigans.
3. This one’s pretty easy. We know Sunset was bad when she left Celestia, but not exactly how bad she was. The pictures from My Past Is Not Today imply she got worse over time. More importantly, she’s suddenly in a completely unfamiliar place in an unfamiliar body having no clue what’s going on, so her being primarily freaked out makes sense.
Plus, by this point the Sunset origin comic is next to useless. Between the other unicorns having been in Sunset’s class instead of Twilight, much older classmates in general (we haven’t seen any grown ponies in classes), the nonsense that was the mirror future vision, and Sunset’s surprise at the restricted section (one very different from the one in the comic), it’s pretty safe to say the comic is non-canon at this point.
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Maybe they could bring up the Dance Magic Music Video.
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There were definitely ways to help prove Sunset’s point, the biggest being asking how Princess Twilight got their message in RR, why Sunset yelled at SciTwi in FG, how they got in Twi’s head in LoE (or just the cave scene in general), the music video from Dance Magic, the cameo in the Daring Do movie, the Flanksy bit from one of the shorts, and probably most importantly, where was Sunset in all the time between RR and then.
Still, Sunset was pretty stressed, and even if she managed to prove that she was telling the truth, they would probably still be wary around her and that event could also be erased.
Make it seem that she snapped out of herself? Or the girls' combined magic did it?
I imagine it was so we, the audience, could see this. If you want a more complex answer, I could be she went poof with every memory, so you think of her vanishing, then you forget her vanishing, then you forget the forgetting, etc.
Because what works in a novel, a written medium, doesn't work in a visual medium.
THAT WAS A BIG QUESTION FOR ME TOO! Except for one thing! She doesn't remember going to the human world, and she doesn't remember she had FALLEN OUT with Celestia!
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Something to suggest...I know they did not believe the photos, but what-if...?
XXX
Rainbow Dash: I watched the Daring Do movie again.
Applejack: You really loved seeing that cameo of yours, huh?
Rainbow Dash: Yeah, so I watched it again, and when I saw our cameo scene again...Sunset Shimmer was in it,
Rarity: Are you sure?
Rainbow Dash: Yeah, I even rewound it just so I could see it again, and there she was, with us, in the same scene.
Fluttershy: I remember all of us were in that scene, but I don't remember Sunset Shimmer being there.
XXXX
Rarity: Something similar happened when I saw our music video online again. Look.
Rarity plays it on the phone, the Dance Magic Music Video with the Crystal Prep girls. They also see Sunset Shimmer singing and dancing.
Rarity: I know Sunset Shimmer can doctor photos and edit videos, but I doubt she's able to put herself in the video like that with us. And that costume, I know my designs anywhere, but I don't remember ever making it.
Pinkie Pie: You don't think...?
Applejack: She was telling the truth?
Twilight Sparkle: When I was Midnight Sparkle, how did I turn back to normal.
Rainbow Dash: Well, we saved you!
Twilight Sparkle: But I absorbed all your magic. So how did you?
Puzzled looks are shared by the group.
Pinkie Pie: Wait, and the Sirens. We called Princess Twilight, right? So, how did we do it again?
Rarity: Well, we used a book, right?
Applejack: But whose book?
Rainbow Dash: Well, the only other person we know who's from Equestria is...
"SUNSET SHIMMER!"
Applejack: C'mon, we need some answers.
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I had the amusing idea of Sunset bringing Princess Twilight over for proof... and they think that Sunset brainwashed her! And so they try to blast Princes Twilight! In fact, UPPING the stakes! I imagine they THOUGHT they found the book and Sunset stole it. The human brain will do AMAZING THINGS to just keep from admitting their memories are wrong.
A cop once swore up and down he had only fired twice, when he had actually emptied two clips, the evidence was the camera HE SET UP HIMSELF! Our memories lie to us all the time, but we don't think they do because we're conditioned to find any mental excuse we possibly can!
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Remember, they only edited the parts of Sunset and them BEING FRIENDS!
And if she 'only erased' the human six's memories, that means the curse has a cascade effect. It doesn't erase physical evidence, but will make whoever sees it make up ANY EXCUSE to dismiss it.
*SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME SERIES TIGER AND BUNNY!* When the memories of Wild Tiger are erased from the minds of his teammates, and he gives details that only a close friend would know, they think he must be a stalker. *END SPOILERS*