Backstory: Sunset Shimmer · 11:15am Sep 25th, 2018
Seems like Sunset Shimmer had a fan/artist-promoted "character holiday" of some sort recently. Every now and then I'll notice a bunch of images for a particular character, some of which contain text or description commentary denoting the image as having been drawn for such a holiday. I have no idea where these artists are coordinating these things at. I just appreciate the enjoyable art that results.
I consider myself a fan of Sunset Shimmer. However, I am a measured fan in that I don't obsess over her to the exclusion of other characters, I don't crusade on her behalf to proclaim how she's the best character ever, or rail at fans of other characters for daring to not like her or worse like some other character more than her.
I still remember a phase in my life where she was basically a nobody to me. I shared the popular (at the time) opinion that EqG was trash, and it wasn't until after Rainbow Rocks came out that I watched EqG1. And it was Rainbow Rocks that changed my mind on EqG as a whole, and Sunset Shimmer in particular.
I've been in my fair share of discussions/arguments about her, including being one of the rare few to defend her "stupid plan" in EqG1. I'm also generally against the notion that we should treat her merely as Twilight Sparkle 2.0 (or Starlight Glimmer, by extension as 3.0 or as Sunset Shimmer 2.0). As much as this whole series serves as a more reasonable look at each characters' backstories and how Starlight Glimmer holds up in comparison, this blog also is about how Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer are not mere clones (with one done worse than the other by many rabid fans proclamations).
As a quick reminder on what is and isn't canon, a topic that becomes much more important when it comes to EqG than anything else, the Equestria Girls movies, shorts, and so on form an explicit canon of their own. According to Megan McCarthy (and confirmed by other staff on occasional), EqG is canon to FiM. However, since Sunset Shimmer never appears in any FiM episode, nor is mentioned, it doesn't matter too much.
Officially licensed products like IDW's comics, various books, and so on are not canon. They can be ignored and disregarded. However, fans of Sunset Shimmer and EqG often do like material presented in IDW's comics and incorporate those things into their own headcanons, so it would be a disservice to disregard them in my blog. I've already tapped into such things for Trixie's blog and had to do so quite heavily.
That said, feel free to bring up material in comics and the like that you feel is important to her backstory that I've missed. I don't tend to read the IDW comics, but I have read two relevant to Sunset Shimmer, only one of which is relevant to this blog at all. A quick look through Derpibooru's offerings only gives me a cameo of Sunset in one panel in comic #68, and she appears on some alternate cover art, and some commissioned mock-up cover art.
Family
We know literally nothing about Sunset's parents, any siblings, or anything of that sort.
Cutie Mark
We know she has one.
Element
It is at this point where we can actually begin to delve into Sunset Shimmer's past at all. I'll get to the methods and standards that I've used in previous blogs in the series but first, let me toss out a few bits of canon facts.
In EqG1, she stole and eventually used the Element of Magic. While it did not function for her in the proper manner, she did get some power from it, indicating some relation to the Element and/or the virtues it entails. As a reminder, in Return to Harmony, the collected Elements didn't function merely by being in proximity to each other and/or being all worn. Spike wearing the Element of Loyalty did not let the group blast Discord. It wasn't until Rainbow Dash wore it and the girls recovered from Discord's curse that they functioned properly.
So, in that sense, among the literal Elements of Harmony, we'd need to place her with Magic. She's one of only three ponies to wield it at all (the other two being Twilight Sparkle and Celestia).
Stepping away from the literal Elements of Harmony, it has long been theorized by the fans that Sunset could be the seventh Element. Some have tossed around their own notions, such as "redemption" and other such nonsense, canon seems to have pushed her towards a virtue of "Empathy" based on her geode's powers. The fact that she can "pony up" like her friends and her power joined theirs to defeat the sirens in Rainbow Rocks further incentivizes folks to theorize that she's the seventh member of the Friendship-based magical effect that goes on there. An interesting side-note to that, SciTwi seems capable of filling in for Princess Twilight's place, as seen in forgotten Friendship.
Now, both of those were based on a more literal, mechanical aspect of the Elements, rather than a personality/background-delving sort of way. So let's go back to how I've been treating the Elements as a character trait rather than some mechanical process.
My Past is Not Today music video confirms the overall sentiment presented in the IDW comic, Fall of Sunset Shimmer (if not the details). "Power was all I desired," she sings. EqG1 doesn't really give us a clear idea of what Sunset's motivations were, but "power" does work as a reasonable fit. The comic seems to further imply impatience and a high degree of self-entitlement. Neither of which really stand out much in the EqG canon shows, but not necessarily contradicted either. The pursuit of power, through magic, does seem to mostly relate to the Element of Magic on the surface level. However, it has little to nothing to do do with Friendship, as we've determined the Element truly relates to.
As with Trixie and Starlight Glimmer, I think another Element is a better candidate. In this case, I'd say it's Generosity. Ultimately, Sunset Shimmer desired power in a selfish manner. Fall of Sunset Shimmer showed Celestia attempting to get Sunset to be more social and, as Sunset viewed it, sacrifice some of her pursuit of power through study to make friends. To gift them with her time and attention at the cost of her own progress. Near the end of the comic, she was demanding that Celestia make her a princess and her equal or even her superior. This all seems like a reverse-Generosity. Demanding much from others, and an unwillingness to sacrifice of herself.
After redemption, Sunset spent a great deal of her time and energy helping others. In serving her sentence of community service fixing the damage she caused, in being a hero several times to save others, trying to solve the often dangerous mystery of Equestrian Magic in this world, and in her zeal to participate in various clubs and activities such as yearbook editor and so on. We see a direct nod towards this notion in Display of Affection (EqG short), where "Flanksy" generously decorates the display Rarity was struggling with.
In general, it feels like Sunset's conflicts tend to be about that balance between her own interests and those of others, much the way Rarity often has to balance her own goals against throwing her time, energy, and creativity towards benefitting others.
Events
While we know nothing about Sunset's childhood or family situation, we know that she became Celestia's personal pupil and that she was gone from Equestria before Twilight Sparkle earned her cutie mark and also earned that lofty honor. One error of the comic is that it sought to populate Sunset's cast of classmates not merely with OCs, but with Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, Minuette, Lyra, and Moondancer. Sunset was presented as a rather adult-looking mare, as were the non-friends listed above. Yet we have seen those very same fillies in Amending Fences as Twilight's classmates and non-friends. That said, it is probable that there were some peers at CSFGU that tried to befriend Sunset Shimmer.
We learned in Forgotten Friendship that, at least from Sunset's perspective, the Celestia she knew as a teacher didn't have a sense of humor. Sunset was genuinely worried about what consequences she would face on her return. She clearly did not expect hugs and forgiveness and Celestia's playfulness. I feel like this implies some bit of time-gap between Sunset's departure and Twilight's arrival. Time enough for Celestia to reflect on her conduct as a teacher and to decide to behave more warmly with Twilight Sparkle. As far as Sunset Shimmer is concerned, this translates to a potentially significant amount of age-gap between her and Twilight, and potentially some amount of years of passed time in Equestria since her departure. This could, if a long enough amount of time, play into why Sunset isn't interested in coming "home." Her family and home may not still be around.
There was also a period of time of at least three years in which Sunset Shimmer was a student at CHS prior to EqG1. We see three pictures on the wall of her winning the Fall Formal Crown, and it would have been her fourth win during EqG1. We know that during this time she sabotaged a lot of friendships and turned CHS into a scattered collection of cliques that were generally hostile to each other. She also "dated" Flash Sentry in order to use him for his popularity to boost her own, and presumably picked up a few skills along the way like being able to play the guitar.
While we still don't have any clear answer on what "thirty moons" means as a measurement of time, it seems possible that this happened more than once during Sunset's exile. It is feasible that she returned to Equestria to scout things out, and to learn about Twilight Sparkle and the Element of Magic. If this is true, that would mean that "thirty moons" is a short enough cycle of time to happen at least twice during Seasons one through three, as the portal opened shortly after Magical Mystery Cure, and would have to have opened at some point before then and after Friendship is Magic Part II when Twilight Sparkle re-discovered the Elements.
An alternative to that is that Sunset had read about the Elements and learned more about them while a student of Celestia's than Twilight Sparkle was able to learn in the research we saw her conducting in Friendship is Magic Part I.
Sunset Shimmer has an apartment, and a job at the mall working as a fast food sushi delivery girl. She is also enrolled in CHS at least officially enough that, despite coming under direct scrutiny by Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna, she isn't barred from coming on school grounds. This all implies that Sunset has managed to integrate into society despite having no proof of identity, birth certificate, guardians responsible for her apparently teenaged self, or any indication of emancipation. It is possible that the world EqG is set in lacks a lot of that, but we know they require drivers licenses as there is a short in which Sunset is struggling to pass her driving test to earn hers. Whatever the requirements are for this world, she attends high school, has a job, and rents/leases/owns an apartment of her own. After literally stepping through a magical portal into this world 3+ years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqnbYUG6Bn8
"My past does not define me, because my past is not today."
Sunset Shimmer basically has no backstory. The character starts in Rainbow Rocks. There are a few lingering bits of "character" from before that movie, but part of her current character design is that she is an entirely different person from that past. As much vitriol as people have hurled towards Starlight Glimmer, Sunset's backstory amounts to, "I used to be Celestia's student, I wanted power, wasn't getting it, and fled through a mirror where I was a bitch for several years until Twilight and her friends erased the old me with magical Friendship laser to the face."
We know nothing about the creation of this "bitch Sunset" that we were first introduced to in EqG1. Even the IDW comic amounts to less than half a FiM episode worth of material, as a Youtube reading of it takes about 6.5 minutes, and part of that is taken up by characters that couldn't have been there, and a depiction of Celestia that might not be accurate. At best, we can simply define EqG1 as her backstory, the way I suggest we treat The Cutie Map and the Cutie Remark for Starlight Glimmer.
One big difference between these two unicorns is that Sunset attempts to keep her past entirely buried, and the stories being told with Sunset Shimmer in canon are content to do exactly that. Starlight Glimmer's backstory haunts her and we get to see her work her way through it. There are entirely different styles of story being told with these characters, and how they're designed and utilized is very different. They appeal to entirely different kinds of audience.
Character Plugs
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/199035/sunset-shimmer
May as well plug my group for the character while I'm here. I mean, why not?
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/222956/my-beloved-student-sunset-shimmer
Ignore my comments on the story itself, they're in-jokes between Jondor and me that clearly weren't well-received by those who downvoted them. Jondor's an underrated author on the site, and he tackled the often desired (at the time) reunion between Celestia and Sunset Shimmer post-Rainbow Rocks. We were briefly teased about this prospect in Mirror Magic when Sunset visits Equestria only long enough to pick up a replacement book and bring Starlight Glimmer back with her for a visit and hijinks. We did finally get this reunion in canon via Forgotten Friendship, but I think Jondor's version is more of a satisfying tear-jerker. Plus, he delves into Sunset's cutie mark story as a bonus!
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/398734/mending-and-entering
Another author I am prone to plugging at any opportunity is Bookish Delight. In Mending and Entering, we get a bit more leadup to Display of Affection, with some interesting interaction between Prim Hemline and Sunset Shimmer. I'm clearly not the only one sensing the Element of Generosity in Sunset Shimmer after watching this short.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/144198/long-road-to-friendship
Sometimes I get the feeling that 90% of material produced by fans involves shipping Sunset Shimmer with Twilight Sparkle. Specifically SciTwi, post-Friendship Games/LoE. If that sounds appealing to you, then you've probably already read Albi's Magnum Opus. If you haven't, you ought to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Yt3QfBqPY
On a lot less serious note, this is simply silly and makes me smile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ixfTKGG8A
As much as, "My Past is Not Today" might come to mind as the go-to Sunset Shimmer song, I like to think this one is better. I think it better represents Sunset's true role as fitting in like a swiss army knife style of character. It covers the notion that Friendship carries on despite changes, and Sunset would be so much more interesting a character if we have her more complete arc and showcased friendship enduring through her growth and trials instead of the phoenix reborn imagery they've gone with instead. To some degree, a lot of the shorts taken in aggregate have focused a lot more on the interpersonal relationships of the M6 rather than as much focus on the magical girls/heroics stuff. I'd like to see them all graduate from high school and maintain their friendships while navigating that transition from student to adult entering the workforce/college.
Next Up:
Canon is an abyss.
“Not long” to a 1000+-year-old alicorn is rather subjective. It could be anywhere between a week to ten years. But suppose SunShim is as old as the comic portrays her as (who we see in the background with no cutie mark with Cadance and Shining. We won’t get into the whole “why does Cadance babysit Twi pre-CSFGU”). What the hell happened after Sunny went through the portal? Did she become a vagabond for 5 years before deciding, “Fuck it, I’ll go back to high school and terrorize kids a decade younger than me.”? Was she thrown into a younger body that matched up with her younger human counterpart putting her in the age range of the Mane 6? If that, then how did she even survive as a homeless pre-teen? Or maybe the portal went full Hero of Time on her and locked her into stasis for 10 years, but when she exited the portal she didn’t even know it happened.
Or maybe the comic is bullshit.
Or maybe it isn’t
Canon is an abyss.
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There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding timeline when it comes to EqG. I'm not attempting to suggest an answer to that, only to bring some light to the fact that it is a bit of a mess. It is a relevant and unclear component of Sunset's backstory. It is one of many factors that, in overall summary, can be stated as "Sunset's backstory is shit."
They really are. Fans of them like to latch onto them and attempt to elevate them to the same status as canon, or just barely below. They're rather poorly written though, and in this particular case they add really nothing at all to the character or her story. As I mentioned, even if we were to think of Fall of Sunset Shimmer as character gold, it only takes someone on Youtube about 6.5 minutes to read it. There isn't even a 22-minute episode worth of material there. Looking at the material itself, there is no story. No real conflict or resolution. It's a series of, "this happened, and then this, and then this." No wonder it wasn't deemed interesting enough to make an episode, let alone a movie about. "Sunset Shimmer tries to learn to drive a car, and gets help from one of her friends" has more story to it in a 3-ish minute short than this comic had.
While not necessarily an untrue statement, this kind of misses the point of the blog. As stated above, Sunset Shimmer's backstory is pretty terrible. It gives us no information on how Sunset became who she was, why she was motivated to do the things she did, and doesn't clarify any of her thought processes behind her actions. We're simply informed she has certain attributes, and we're supposed to simply accept them and move on to her being cute, redeemed, and doing fun things in the here and now.
This is less "man, canon is great/not great" or "the comics totally add value." This is very explicitly, "Starlight's backstory is better. This is what we got for Sunst Shimmer, and still all we have."
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I know you said not to reply cause squirrels ate your internet(externet), but fuck you.
Yeah, Sunny's background, or lack thereof, blows liked my gay uncle(FYI, he's super gay). My background for SunSham is waaaay better. She did have 1 friend. It was this plucky, young, awesome pegasus she met one time on the outskirts of Canterlot when she was avoiding Princess Solar Ass one day. They immediately saw the awesomeness in each other and became scissor-sisters. Needless to say (though I still feel the need to say it apparently), Dashie is still pretty peeved that Sunny disappeared.