I'm just some just random nobody, but I was wondering if anyone in the group would like to just talk for a bit. Friendship is Magic is all about good role models. Twilight shows you that anyone can be brave, and that friends are the greatest strength. Rainbow Dash is a boastful jock, but she does stick up for her pals, she has high goals and is working towards them, but still chooses her friends over steps towards that goal. Applejack shows that strength is more than power, but also strength of character and adherence to ideals. Fluttershy is quiet and meek, but very solid in her stance on what is acceptable, she's a bleeding heart, but knows when to be tough as well. Pinkie Pie, against what a lot of fans think of her is a show that being a tad eccentric in your ways does not make you incapable of being serious, learning to accept the oddballs of life will make you happier in the long run. Rarity is of course the dramatic but ever sacrificing giver, no seriously it's there go back and look if you don't believe me, she may like a high class sort of lifestyle, but I do believe she would give everything she can for others.

Now... Sunset Shimmer as a role model? I think Sunset Shimmer also is a good role model for well just about anyone. I've personally always closely identified with her, especially after the latest movie. She is such a great addition to the show in the absence of a present Luna. Luna's recovery was mostly hand waved and off screen. We got to see Sunset Shimmer risk for redemption. She makes a good role model and shows that you can live past your mistakes. It was something I struggled with in the past after some extremely poor choices on my parts. The only real difference is I didn't get a cute credits sequence where I was accepted again. I am still working on it, but I eagerly wait to see how it goes for Sunset.

Sunset Shimmer's behavior in the first movie obviously does not make for a good role model. She does make an effective mirror though. Hey stop laughing, I mean it. Seeing how she treated others literally brought me back to who I used to be. There are people out there who are that horrible and they also do not think that they are "monsters." I speak from experience when I say that villains do not think they are evil. As I did not, and I actually was worse and used harsher tactics. Again, I feel Sunset Shimmer is an effective mirror.

Then paired with the second movie, it made me feel that they definitely wanted to show that while she was bad before she was still a person. She has feelings and realizes she has done wrong. We watch as she tries to offer the olive branch but is rejected from everyone but the main cast. She has a small support group, but you can see that she is largely shunned by everyone. Even the main cast unconsciously does so what with not being invited into the band and the careless but understandable references to her past. Twilight's reluctance to accept Sunset's help at time's is also telling. They are still hurt but they are moving slowly into forgiving her. That is what I feel is important about Sunset's character.

What's anyone else think on this subject? Is Sunset an important element of the movies? Would they be less without her?

Yes because she shows how one can change themselves for the better.

3750091 I say, yes, they made Sunset Shimmer as a role model for everyone, because she shows that anyone can make mistakes, but can also live past said mistakes, what they showed in Rainbow Rocks (which I can relate to perfectly) is that there are people who do their best to keep you from living past them, but you know you can, and you try your hardest to redeem yourself, which in my opinion makes Sunset that much more relatable.

I think Sunset is a good role model. She shows that everyone can come around. After all, she could've gone somewhere else and taken up her old persona right after Twilight returned to Equestria. The fact that she didn't shows that she's determinded to come around even if all odds were against her and that it's not always best to choose the easy way but sometimes you have to go through hell and back again, but you'll come back to a better place then you were before. Hard work is always rewarding. She also demonstrate the importence of having friends. Just think how different her life could have looked if she had a friend or two.

I think Sunset Shimmer demonstrates what will happen to Twilight if she had put her studies before her friends for enough time. She's also kinda like Luna, turned herself into something she's not and being reformed by the Elements of Harmony. The difference here is that Luna became Nightmare Moon becuse of jealousy and lonliness, while Sunsets motivations was to be more powerful. Just as with Luna, I don't think Sunset should be held responsable for what she did as a demon. It wasn't really she who did it.

Overall, I think Sunset is a great role model and that she should not be judged by her past. She really shows that everyone can come around and that no one that have changed their ways should be judged by their past. You can't change your past, all you can do is shape you own future, and you should make the best of it. Therefore, I only have one thing to say to Sunset Shimmer and everyone who recogince themselves in her: keep on being awsome

We all have our demons, that much is evident. Whether you're walking down a street and you gaze upon weathered faces lined in pain or see an average joe who gives you an acknowledging nod, it does not matter. We all have, either now or at one point, personal demons that are always on our mind and do not know the mercy of giving us peace. The demons may may differ in shapes and sizes, but they all share one abhorrent quality.

Their one objective is to destroy us. Now it may not appear on the outside (or maybe it does if you can't hide it well), but these demons ravage and chip and gnaw at our soul, our very being for reasons we can never understand. Perhaps it is in man's nature to relish in torment even when we don't want it? I digress. Most demons we have are very personal to us, such as tragic loss, destroyed trust, personal failures, and a repeating loop of blaming ourselves and telling us that we are beyond redemption and we must suffer alone, never to burden another. The demons only get worse if people are hurt in the process, thus fueling our never ending cycle of hatred for ourselves, knowing that because of our actions, innocent people were affected.

Yet despite our shunning of self forgiveness and the constant grieving in our hearts, we see Sunset Shimmer. We see this woman who did some truly despicable things and now has to face the aftermath of her actions. Whereas most of us would embrace the shunning that we rightly deserved and believe that we are beyond the grace of forgiveness, Sunset does not submit to this. She holds her head up high, raises her chin, and goes about her day, facing her failures yet trying her absolute damnedest to rectify what she has done.

Sunset Shimmer does what many of us believe to be impossible. Not that other people won't forgive her; at a base level, I'd like to believe all men are good in some way. No, she tries to do the one thing we can't ever see ourselves doing.

Forgiving herself. She doesn't have to announce to the audience for us to see, it's a process she goes through and succeeds. And seeing this woman who was once so vile become so accepting of herself and forgiving herself of her actions..... it's something that many, many people see as a truly beautiful thing. A rarity.

It's a sad fate of man to forget that self forgiveness can achieved. Tis a strange fate that we see closure is possible but we do not achieve because we see ourselves as unworthy of such mercy.

That's why I'm thankful that Sunset Shimmer exists in this world, not Equestria Girls or My Little Pony. This world, the one you and I are breathing in. Sunset Shimmer represents something truly whole and good for man's soul and heart. She represents the ultimate peace we can achieve even if we cannot see it for ourselves. And by looking at her and seeing what she does, maybe it can remind the lonely, broken man that it does not have to be this way.

It's beautiful. She's beautiful. Without her, this world would have truly experienced a loss it didn't know it had. This world may have never been meant for one as beautiful as her.

(Mfw I saw how much I just typed)

3750140 Its hard not to wax poetic about Sunny. I know your feel bro. I know.

3750142 Ya I feel you dawg. It's just.... when you suddenly start to see yourself in another character and what they're going through, regardless of gender, it's VERY DAMN HARD not to release the writer, the poet, the lover (whatever you wanna call it.) And in a way, I see you do it when you write Sundown. (swaggity jack, good story big dawg)

Its okay but you need more memmbers..

3750112 I have to disagree and that Sunset Shimmer was responsible for her actions in the first movie. It was never implied that there was another force or consciousness that took control of her. And when it was over, other than her saying that she didn't know any other way she still had no excuseses which to me makes her a far interesting character because with no one else to blame she was forced her to own up to her actions making her redemption arc far better and relatable than Luna's, Discord's or Trixie's.

3750517 All I meant by that is that, simmular to Nightmare Moon, the demon wasn't really 100% Sunset Shimmer and that her main motivation was that she was mad at Celestia and tried to get her revenge by taking over Equestria without really realizing what would happen when she put on the crown. She knew she would be more powerful, but I don't think she had expected to turn ito a demon.

3750565
I've always thought Sunset and Luna had so much in common....we need to see more fics with them interacting together!

3750140
"Bravo!"
That's all I can say in response.

3750091
So many people have already pointed out here. But yeah, I think Sunset can most certainly be a role model.

I do think Sunset Shimmer is a role model - a very complicated role model, but an excellent one.

We all have freewill and choice. Sometimes the deck is stacked against us and sometimes we make bad decisions. Sunset Shimmer seems to have taken vast potential for either good or evil and taken it in a horrible direction at first - disappointing Celestia, and choosing exile and an attempt to take over Equestria. That descent from protégé to enemy is a story worth telling (and from my limited exposure to the fanbase, I'm sure that someone has done a great job of that story or it's in a format I haven't found yet).

But, I have thought about Sunset Shimmer's change from Twilight and the Humane 5 defeating her - to learn the value of friendship, to slowly earn her way back into good graces, and to eventually become a leader through good decisions that benefit her friends. Rebounding from mistakes, learning from them, and turning your back on bad paths... that's wisdom and maturity... that's powerful.

I'd say she makes a good one. She shows that who you were may not be who you are.

3751494
That would be... awesome

3752741
Yes it would be.
Fortunately, I know at least one person on this site who is making such a fic right now (and it isn't me btw).

3750091

I would say yes. She shows that your past actions do not show who you are now. Despite what other people see in you, you gotta ask "What do I see in myself?". If you done wrongs in the past, you need to ask yourself "Can I make up for those wrongs?".