Is Sunset Shimmer the Worst Major Villain?

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I don't think she's the worst, I do think some of her backstory was left out and they didn't explain too much into her other than being an ex student of Celestia's, I will say compared to Discord, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis and other villains, she's not the best, however she's a decent villain.

[Derpy Azusa 272]

I agree with you ^ It was left on pretty much a cliff hanger. I'd like to know what happened once Twilight stepped back through the portal. Could she really of trusted Sunset alone? It just makes you think and it irritates me a little how we'll probably never know

 

Though I was kind of expecting at the end that Twilight would take Sunset back with her and let her start fresh as a pony and teach her the magic of friendship just as Celestia had to her. Would make sense lol

 

thanks  for agreeing. I think she should have gone back with her 

 

I don't think she's the worst, I do think some of her backstory was left out and they didn't explain too much into her other than being an ex student of Celestia's, I will say compared to Discord, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis and other villains, she's not the best, however she's a decent villain.

 

 

I agree we should have had more of an story about her to have a better story about her

[Misty Shadow 7,848]

She wasn't that bad of a villain. I didn't particularly dig her style of being evil, but that demon form of hers in the climax of the movie is beyond cool.

[Castle Bleck 19,334]

(EDIT: Please ignore this.)

Edited September 20, 2014 by A.V.

[kkomet 1]

really would liked to have seen more of her back story. wanna read the MLP annual comic to find out more on her. didnt really like her as a villain, but i do love her design. 

[Singe 2,111]

Magically, Sunset was weaker in the human world since that world doesn't allow Equestria magic through. Once Sunset crossed over to the pony world, she would have access to all her unicorn powers on top of the demon stuff. All the people she took over would have changed to ponies.

 

There wasn't much of a fight seeing as who ever had the crown, had the power. The crown simply pulled the Elder Wand trick in which it protected its master Twilight once Sunset tried to use it to kill her.

 

Sunset could have been a Diamond Tiara clone in high school.

Edited August 18, 2013 by Singe

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

You know, I'm going to say no, now that I've thought about it some. I suppose it depends on whether you judge their performance as villains, or look at them as characters.

 

Look at Sombra for example. The guy is actually a very effective villain. I don't know what you could say that he did wrong, from a planning perspective. Twilight would've gotten wrecked by his traps and countermeasures if not for the oversight of a baby dragon (that a lot of the fandom likes to overlook too ), and some epic wife javelin action. I'd actually rate his performance above Discord, the clear fan favorite's. Unlike Sombra, Discord could've done much better if he'd just paid more attention to the only things that could defeat him. I suppose that's just Discord though, spirits of chaos aren't usually known for their attention to detail.

 

But, pure effectiveness isn't really what a villain's performance lives or dies by in most people's eyes. How could it be when a villain will eventually get their butt handed to them at the end of the day, almost always? It's more about how much fun you can have along the way. That's why Discord is so popular. He steals every dang scene he's part of. Sunset doesn't exactly manage to do that, but she does have a wonderful backstory that just radiates potential. Even if the movie could have handled her and made her much better, I think she deserves some credit just for who she is. Here's a blog about why I like Sunset Shimmer so much.

 

Anyway, in my opinion the worst villain is Chrysalis. Discord has his set of fantastic episodes and loads of memorable moments, Nightmare Moon has her backstory, Sunset has her backstory, the fact that she's basically Pony Satan and evil Twilight Sparkle at the same time, and a nice character design to boot, and Sombra has his competence and the fact that he might be a homage to Sauron. Chrysalis has a fantastic villain song, but little else that appeals to me.

[ASocialyAwkwardPony 299]

She is TEH FREAKING DEVIL, how can you not find that bloody awesome? I might have said it before, but her suddenly turning out to be TEH DEVIL was what made the whole movie for me.

[Batbrony 16,053]

 Huh, thought I'd replied to this thread already, but I guess not.  Must've been a different thread I was thinking about.  Anyways, yes, I do indeed think that Sunset Shimmer has been the worst of the major villains in MLP thus far.  Here are my full thoughts on her, taken from my review of "Equestria Girls":

 

Sunset Shimmer was... absolutely wasted. Hands down, she's the worst villain the show's had yet. Every other villain thus far has had (1) clear motivations and (2) come across as a real and dangerous threat. Sunset had neither. Her motivations were not revealed until the VERY end of the movie, and since her background was very poorly explained as well, we just got a villain who I had no bucking idea why she was doing ANY of what she was doing other than to be a jerk, which DOES NOT make for a threatening villain. All we got was a bully, and a really cliche bully at that. On top of that, she has one of the worst plans I've ever heard of!!! She basically planned on taking over Equestria with, if I'm being really generous, 50-100 zombified minions, who wouldn't have even been that much of a threat even if they were turned into hellspawn like Snips and Snails. Here's exactly what she said:
 

"I want Equestria! And with my own little teenage army behind me, I'm going to get it!!!"

 

 ...

 

 ...

 

 ...

 

"My own little teenage army..."

 

"TEENAGE ARMY!!!!!!!" 

That's the stupidest, most unthreatening line and plan I've EVER heard!!!!!!!!!! Sombra was more threatening with his crystal fetish!!!!!! And it's such a shame, because I absolutely LOVED Sunset's pony design!!! It was very different from what we'd gotten in the past with villains, and she as a whole had a lot of potential to be a good villain. Two students of Celestia face off, that should've been AWESOME!!! Instead, she was LAME!!!!!! Just utterly lame, stupid, and cliche. Her rushed redemption at the end, which made Trixie's look like it was balanced and drawn out, did not help, since it was too fast and poorly explained. Overall, I'm very disappointed in how Sunset turned out.

 

I cannot emphasize this enough, I was EXTREMELY disappointed with how Sunset turned out because I WANTED her to be a good villain, heck, a great villain even, because she most certainly had the potential to be just that!  Her pony design looked great, but even more importantly she had a fantastic background that could've made for a fantastic villain!  What we got, however, was anything but a fantastic villain, and I truly am disappointed about that.

Edited September 22, 2013 by Batbrony

[Singe 2,111]

Sunset Shimmer is a weak villain because she's in a movie littered with cliches with little originality herself gets covered by them.

 

She's not that smart, instead it's the people around her that just are dumb enough to let her look like she's this great effective villain.

Edited September 22, 2013 by Singe

[Virulence 254]

Personally, I think her plan was just revenge and not well thought out. Sure she had the evil popular side of her in a remote high school, but I think her minions should of been Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. So it would be an all girl posy. My favorite villain is always Discord. You never know from him. 

 

[FNGRpony 658]

Nope. king sombre was worse.  Failing that snips and snails.  they turned into demons, don't tell me they were not bad guys lol.

 

King sombre (and i've seen the arguments for him) just didn't have any sense of style.

[DokiLoki 519]

I personally love Sunset Shimmer, she's one of my top favourite villains. Though I would say she is quite powerful; the transformation was amazing and unbelievable. If I had to say who was the most powerful villain it would be her.  

[tlcbonaparte 15]

How can anyone think SS is worse than Sombra? He did nothing except laughing. Is that what you consider better? I.. don't even... GAHHHHH!!!

[Misterian 118]

I don't think she's inherently a bad villain, but I personally consider Sunset Shimmer to be the least interesting of the MLP villians.

 

Sure, Sombra didn't have much in terms of development in terms of developement, but he at least stood out by showing alarming amount of competence and genre savviness both on and off-screen, as well has having some of the most badass animation I've seen in the show.

 

Sunset Shimmer struck me as being rather painfully generic compared to the rest of the rogues gallery; just a libby with a serious superiority complex.

 

Which is a shame, 'cause she did have an interesting backstory with her being a former student to Celestia and choosing to seek gaining power and supremacy in a different world, I can see several ways you could've done her more three-dimensional, or at least more interesting. take one example I have in mind.

 

1) Shimmer's superiority complex could be due to a serious sense of insecurity, with her leaving Equestria for the human world for the sole desire to prove herself, and instead of her stealing Twilight's Element of Harmony, you could have the story start with Celestia noticing the mirror gateway to the human world has opened, with Celestia promptly calling for Twilight and telling her about Sunset Shimmer and then having Celestia get Twilight to enter the human world to convince Sunset Shimmer to return to Equestria. Upon entering the human world, Twilight will then spend much of the story using her previous experiences about friendship to help Shimmer see she doesn't need to bully others around or try to be great at everything just to feel better about herself. And have the story end with Shimmer ultimately agreeing with Twilight and either agreeing to return to Equestria, or her telling Twilight she's learned her lesson, but feels happier living in the human world.

 

But then, I probably just wish Equestria Girl ended with Shimmer returning to Equestria with Twilight and seeking forgiveness from Princess Celestia, maybe even offering to turn herself in. 'cause I personally felt that it would've a stronger redemption moment because she was technically trying to conquer both worlds.

[tlcbonaparte 15]

You don't know that, maybe Sombra's devious plots are formed by his tax accountants, or his team of lawyers. Without a show of personality you can't know Sombra is the one forging those plans, maybe he's just taking all the credits, people in leadership positions do that you know. 

[Singe 2,111]

Sombra looks like a worst villain only if one chooses to ignore the past that he subjugated the ponies of his kingdom with a hell on Equestria. But that was so 1000 years ago.

 

Anything Sunset does in the movie is child's play to Sombra.

[#1 Flutterfan 174]

Shimmer was "worse" because she tried to actually kill people. By "worst villain" I mean--she's the "best" villain because she does the worst stuff. Yeah--she went to another dimension, knowing full well that she would lose her original form (Temporarily) under the impression that IF she got the crown, she would have powers that were able to rival Twilight/others in Pony-ville. A team of teenagers going into Equestria--that seems better than... oh I don't know. CHANGELINGS?! Yeah--changelings can change, but what happens when a bunch of copy-cats appear. I think we saw this in the Multi-pinkity (instead of Multiplicity, haha see what I did there? I am not funny :[ ) episode. The ponies had a hard time discerning Pinkie Pie from Clonie-pie.

So--here you have counterparts of EVERY pony (excluding the Mane 6) entering Equestria all under a spell of Sunset Shimmer.

So--first let's recap:

A. Sunset Shimmer wants to hurt people/twilight (Discord showed no real intent to murder/kill; Crysalis seemed to have her own issues but she was only a threat as long as she maintained her forms; Sombra. I don't remember much about him. Which was he? The guy who looked like an OC? Because--he had very pathetic motives, and a terrible voice, seriously--did a 7th grader design him?)

B. Snips and Snails (DEMONFORM)

C. Full school full of people ready to invade equestria.

As far as I'm concerned, the fact that 50+ people, Sunset Shimmer, Snips/Snails (Demon) were all going to appear IN the castle first, they would have a heads up against the Mane 6 + Luna/Celestia. The fact of the matter is. Sunset Shimmer within the first five minutes of being back in Equestria--would have taken over the castle fairly easily.

I mean, look at where the portal was. It was right in the castle. If you ask me, Twilight understood that if Shimmer went into Equestria--it was screwed.

[SkyStorm 334]

She sucked! Honestly, she could of just stolen the crown again from celestia, she already proved since she did it before. And the part when she threatens the smash the gateway thing? Well, the hammer would of passed through the portal like any other object.

Don't get me started on her defeat -_-

[Sir Hugsalot 9,307]

I did not like her at all. She was naive, her "epic", "evil" plan was awfully flawed, she looked almost like fool especially before the end of movie. Her personality was awfully annoying and I really hope, that if she ever reappears in MLP she won't be a villain- she'd bore me to death.

[Cestler 9]

Well, although I didn't quite like her, I disagree about your comment on lines. Some villains like Sauron are meant to have few lines. They're supposed to be a commanding evil force, while other villains are supposed to be creepy-cool and have lines that bash the hero or trick the hero or whatever. Sombra would have been much better as the later.

[Mywas 687]

Well, although I didn't quite like her, I disagree about your comment on lines. Some villains like Sauron are meant to have few lines. They're supposed to be a commanding evil force, while other villains are supposed to be creepy-cool and have lines that bash the hero or trick the hero or whatever. Sombra would have been much better as the later.

Something tells me that Sauron is not a villain you can just have a rated Y Villain based off him in only 40 minutes. Sombra might been better off based off the Empreror from Star Wars. Doesn't talk much and stays in the shadows but corrupts good guys and makes them do stuff for them. Perhabs hes the one who turned Luna into NMM.

How can anyone think SS is worse than Sombra? He did nothing except laughing. Is that what you consider better? I.. don't even... GAHHHHH!!!

So defeating Shining Armor is nothing? Trying to eat Spike is nothing? Heck look at this gif

From the looks of it Sombra activated that No teleportations crystal trap by himself. Thats pretty cool.

[DustJacket 213]

I wouldn't say worst... such harsh word to be used on her. It's just that her evil intentions are not evil enough and not to mention illogical. What I would definitely say is that Sunset has a low ability to socialize with other individuals and that she has some issues... psychologically

[Castle Bleck 19,334]

(EDIT: Please ignore this.)

Edited September 20, 2014 by A.V.

[Singe 2,111]

If the intent to murder was a big factor, then the teenager dragons from the great migration episode were better villains than Sunset. They get a sadistic thrill out of killing things weaker than them.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Singe