Ishi Rudell tweets about Sunset’s age · 1:05am Apr 17th, 2020
As part of an old Twitter thread starting with a query about Timber Spruce’s age (just out of high school, apparently, which would make him eighteen and about a year older than Sci-Twi), Mr. Rudell had this to say about Sunset Shimmer:
Sunset would be older . . . age-wise she’s like a senior who was held back a couple years!
Discuss.
Addendum: it isn’t clear exactly how this affects the timeline, partly due to the tweet’s ambiguous phrasing. My best guess is, Sunset was sixteen, rather than fourteen, when she absconded through the portal. This has the least impact on her presence in the human world, provides an explanation for the lack of acquaintance between her and Twilight aside from the latter’s observation of “I don’t really know her. But now I think I remember seeing her in Canterlot. . . .” in the Through the Mirror chapter book, and makes her ability to adapt to a high-tech world more plausible, including lying about her age when enrolling at CHS. Some editing is in order—and it would be another headache for poor Cook, since he would be tasked with helping her straighten out those lies about her age.
Timber Spruce is still a creep for hitting on his campers! :')
It makes sense, really? She's obviously older than Princess Twilight by several years - the timelines just don't work otherwise for Celestia's students.
5243958
No argument there. I understand why they did it—to create a stronger differentiation between the two Twilights—but it was an awkward way to accomplish that goal. Of course, lots of things about LOE were pretty awkward, so.
5243960
A couple of years is a somewhat larger gap than I had figured, but less than a lot of other folks were assuming. It’s big enough I’m going to have to do some thinking and possibly a bit of text revision.
5243965
I always assumed she was like 3 to 8 years older than twilight, and that she just stuck around a high school because high schoolers are, relatively speaking, stupid and easy to manipulate.
Or, you know, so Hasbro could sell toys.
The question is, are we talking age of body or mind? Because goodness knows there are temporal shenanigans at work with the mirror.
5243972
Both, I’m quite certain. That definitely would be my assumption, at any rate. I just don’t see Hasbro being comfortable with that sort of age weirdness, to be honest. Moreover, my rule of thumb is to go by Occam’s razor and assume anything not explicitly described or inherently obviously otherwise is congruent with the real world or at least with the simplest approach: time passes the same in both worlds, human and magical-pony life cycles are similar, and so on.
I've always assumed that Sunset was older than Princess Twilight, though how much is obviously a matter of debate. I also think that it's a safe assumption that humans and ponies age at different rates, so Sunset being more mature than her friends (mentally at least) isn't a stretch.
That being said, I like to think that Sunset's biological age as a human is roughly the same as the rest of her friends in the human world. But that's just me.
I always figured her as around six or so years older. It makes sense since when you’re in eighth grade, you don’t tend to notice second graders, nor would you have concurrent classes with them. Did we ever get a concrete age for which Twilight became Celestia’s pupil?
5243999
So far as I know there has never been a definitive cut-and-dried statement of Twilight’s age. It’s all a matter of back-figuring from indirect evidence.
5243958 5243960 5243969 5243972 5243991 5243999
After a bit more thought, I’ve realized it isn’t clear exactly how the tweet affects the timeline, partly due to its ambiguous phrasing. My best guess is, Sunset was sixteen, rather than fourteen, when she absconded through the portal. This has the least impact on her presence in the human world, explains the lack of acquaintance between her and Twilight aside from the latter’s observation of “I don’t really know her. But now I think I remember seeing her in Canterlot. . . .” in the Through the Mirror chapter book, and makes her ability to adapt to a high-tech world more plausible, including lying about her age when enrolling at CHS. Some editing is in order—and it would be another headache for poor Cook, since he would be tasked with helping her straighten out those lies about her age.
In my story (Full Circle), I make Sunset about 16 when she comes through the portal, so 19 at the time of the first EQG movie. So I’d say I’m largely in line with Rudell. Sunset’s relatively advanced age may explain (along with her innate potential and ability) her role as the effective leader of the Mane 7.
5350157
That’s a good point, and it didn’t occur to me until after I’d posted the journal entry!