Is Sunset Shimmer the Worst Major Villain?

[Firehearted 120]

She is the worst villain but not a bad one. She could have been better but she was okay.

[The Mysterious Mare 4]

I agree. But may I just say, you didn't include the great and powerful trixie.

She was actually one of my favourite villains as it took 2 go's  to actually make her

good. And her return with the amulet was pretty cool. Trixie was a way better

villain than sunset shimmer, and the fact that they had her cameo in EQG was 

just wrong. They had basically up-staged the villain from that story, with a better

villan. This movie was doomed from the start.

[Hive King 2,001]

@@The Mysterious Mare, 

How is Trixie a villain?

Antagonist =/= Villain

The Alicorn Amulet, that's a villain, and a good one too....except that it chose the idiot Trixie for a host. The fact that Trixie is but a school bully in terms of malice makes it hard to consider her a villain, especially when compared to

 

Nightmare Moon: Genocide

Discord: Mind raping

Queen Chrysalis: Rape and attempted murder via starvation

Sunset Shimmer: Mind Rape and attempted murder

[Gone Airbourne 21,977]

Quite possibly yes alongside to Sombra in my opinion. The movie Equestria Girls was the most cliched movie I have seen in a while. The whole turn the characters into teenagers in school was as cliched you could get and don't get me started on the mr. perfect flash sentry dude. Yeah Sunset Shimmer was a very shallow character.

[The Mysterious Mare 4]

@@The Mysterious Mare, 

How is Trixie a villain?

Antagonist =/= Villain

The Alicorn Amulet, that's a villain, and a good one too....except that it chose the idiot Trixie for a host. The fact that Trixie is but a school bully in terms of malice makes it hard to consider her a villain, especially when compared to

 

Nightmare Moon: Genocide

Discord: Mind raping

Queen Chrysalis: Rape and attempted murder via starvation

Sunset Shimmer: Mind Rape and attempted murder

 

First of all, I said she was my favourite villain, not the best in terms of evilness.

Secondly, I think anyone in my little pony who seeks revenge, lies and tries to take over

ponyville can be classified as a villain. True, she's no discord or NMM, but she has

got a certain cockiness that I love. 

[Hive King 2,001]

First of all, I said she was my favourite villain, not the best in terms of evilness.

Secondly, I think anyone in my little pony who seeks revenge, lies and tries to take over

ponyville can be classified as a villain. True, she's no discord or NMM, but she has

got a certain cockiness that I love. 

She didn't seek to take over Ponyville, that was the Alicorn Amulet's influence. We don't even know what she wanted it for, for all we know she wanted more power for her show and that goal changed when she was corrupted.

 

She's your favorite antagonist

[The Mysterious Mare 4]

I admit, I think that you are correct about the allicorn amulet and her not wanting to

take over ponyville, but she did go out looking for something powerful to get revenge on

Twilight. That is still quite a villainous thing to do.

[Nobody Special 210]

So Luna got jealous of her sister and was banished to the moon, discord was insane and turned to stone, sombra was power hungry and basically was killed. So, sunset shimmer takes over one world and threatens to take over another, her punishment? LEARNING TO MAKE FRIENDS THE RIGHT WAY!

[Hive King 2,001]

I admit, I think that you are correct about the allicorn amulet and her not wanting to

take over ponyville, but she did go out looking for something powerful to get revenge on

Twilight. That is still quite a villainous thing to do.

We don't know if she went looking for revenge, for all we know here was her thought process

 

"Yes, I'll get more powerful, get more ponies to watch my show *Puts amulet on* KILL TWILIGHT!"

 

So Luna got jealous of her sister and was banished to the moon, discord was insane and turned to stone, sombra was power hungry and basically was killed. So, sunset shimmer takes over one world and threatens to take over another, her punishment? LEARNING TO MAKE FRIENDS THE RIGHT WAY!

That could apply to Discord as well and besides, Sunset was corrupted by the dark magic

[Nobody Special 210]

We don't know if she went looking for revenge, for all we know here was her thought process

 

"Yes, I'll get more powerful, get more ponies to watch my show *Puts amulet on* KILL TWILIGHT!"

 

That could apply to Discord as well and besides, Sunset was corrupted by the dark magic

She was still batsh*t insane enough to go through all that trouble to get the crown, and anyways, that was her plan all along.

[Hive King 2,001]

She was still batsh*t insane enough to go through all that trouble to get the crown, and anyways, that was her plan all along.

Her comic implies that her plan was to become an alicorn and thus go to her rightful place alongside Celestia and Luna. When she was corrupted, her plan changed to being a dictator

Edited January 1, 2014 by Evil Dragon Master

[Nobody Special 210]

Her comic implies that her plan was to become an alicorn and thus go to her rightful place alongside Celestia and Luna. When she was corrupted, her plan changed to being a dictator

There's a comic? Wow, I'm outmatched on this level.

[Nikkers 29]

Sombra is my least favourite villian. He felt VERY pointless, and pretty much was just a cloud of smoke. I do feel sunset shimmer could have been made into a much better character, and could have done ALOT more, but then they gave her almost a teenage agsnt. lol I think they should incorpate her pony into the show and maybe we could understand her a bit better? But I love her as a pony ( like visual apperance)

[Riddle 102]

Sombra could have been a 

something of bad assness if 

they had given him a chance

and such,  he had enough push

for it and everything but loved

once more saved the day!

 

Shimmer was well i think

more like a spoiled rich kid

we all have to deal with in 

highschool  who things she

rules the school (minus turning into

a demon... which all girls can on pms.)

[Mywas 687]

Sombra could have been a 

something of bad assness if 

they had given him a chance

and such,  he had enough push

for it and everything but loved

once more saved the day!

 

Shimmer was well i think

more like a spoiled rich kid

we all have to deal with in 

highschool  who things she

rules the school (minus turning into

a demon... which all girls can on pms.)

But the thing is, King Sombra was more about what he is GOING to do rather than what he did. He was going to enslave everyone if he got the crystal heart and kill Spike, He is like a Meteor.

[Lightwing 12,967]

Well,to explain why Sunset Shimmer is the worst villain,let's recheck his "evil plain",like it sounded on her head:

 

-To conquer equestria,i'll use to create a teenager army one of the most powerful artifacts ever existed,the element of magic.Yes,i'll use it only for the teenager army,not to unleash its true power.

 

With that i said all

[Castle Bleck 19,296]

@Lightwing19,

And yet they still call Sombra narrow-minded for sticking to the Crystal Empire.

Uh... correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Celestia said the Empire can indirectly control the rest of Equestria.

Edited September 20, 2014 by A.V.

[Frosty Flurry 173]

shhe was quick to rise, quick to fall and one of the worst designed characters (her demon form)

not that good  for a movie not impressed hasbro

[Geek0zoid 1,468]

I'll be completely blunt; I don't care about Sunset Shimmer. Her character just feels so flat and so generic that it's almost painful to watch. I honestly couldn't stand her being the main villain as I had my multiple watches of EG. If she were to ever return, hopefully she can be a more competent villain...

[Guest]

fdfdsa fd d asd adf  23r2r r2

Edited December 22, 2016 by plzremoveaccountfdfd

[Solid 1,327]

It's always the same cycle

 

Bad guy kick them ponies' ass oh yeh!!! XD

Then bad guys goes *derp* and does something stupid (like singing to the window, standing there and doing nothing)

Bad guy gets his/her ass kicked pooo...

[rainbow+pie 2]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS ohhhhh welllll they could of done 500% better ya  

[TurtlesForSale 128]

I hate that they forgave her...she did so much bad stuff and was such an annoying character that she shouldn't be forgiven 

[Guest]

If I may bring in some of my thoughts on the subject:

 

The Equestria Girls Annual comic is licensed by Hasbro, so I am assuming that it is considered canon, if not simply for the reason that it does not interfere with canon whatsoever. That being said, I base some of my opinion and explanation on both the film and this particular comic. For those who have not read it, I'll sum it up without spoilers: it talks about Sunset's origins and the mane 5 (Twilight was not there at the time) becoming friends in the Equestria Girls universe. I will be referring to the Equestria Girls universe as the EGU from here on for simplicity's sake. Now, let's get into the details:

 

Is Sunset Shimmer a bad villain?

 

Well to answer that, let's take a look into her motivation, her origin as a villain and her plans.

 

There are spoilers ahead so please be careful if you have not read the comic:

 

 

Sunset we can determine came at a time before Twilight, possibly making her born at a time that is significantly before Twilight's birth even. It is very plausible that Sunset came an entire generation before Twilight. It's made quite clear that in the EGU that time moves at a much slower pace, as when she first enters their world, she is about the same age as she is when Twilight arrives almost an entire generation later. This means that more than likely originally Sunset was older than Twilight, but through time being warped between universes they are around the same age now.

 

Sunset was a student of Celestia's before Twilight, however she was arrogant and power driven. She insisted that Celestia was keeping her from reaching her true potential and that was to be a princess and one day a ruler of Equestria. She learned about the portal from reading a book in the royal library and became furious that Celestia kept it from her. Celestia, being the mentor that she is tried to explain to her that she was not ready, and she was stripping her of her title as her student. Angry, Sunset demanded Celestia give her the opportunity to prove her abilities by making her a princess. When Celestia declined, she banned Sunset from entering the castle ever again. In her final hour there, Sunset used the opportunity to escape through the portal where she vowed she would use the untapped power of this new universe to become stronger and one day return to Equestria where she would take over and prove Celestia was wrong about her.

 

 

That all being said, it's clear that what we have here is a story of anguish for Celestia, and a trial for Twilight. The new student must defeat the old student, a classic age old battle. Unlike her fight with Discord, Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon, when fighting Sunset, Twilight must defeat one who started off with good intentions (unless you count Nightmare Moon and Luna as the same character, which the comics sort of don't). Meaning that unlike all the other villains, this one was once a good guy, and more importantly: the original heir to Twilight's crown. It creates kind of an interesting struggle. Sunset represents what Twilight was about to become if she had not caught on when she went to Ponyville. Remember; friendship was more or less forced on Twilight, and if they had not been so persistent, she too would have ended up like Sunset. Heading through a "mirror" world may very well be a reference to the fact that Twilight is looking into a mirror of her own past as well.

 

Sunset's motivation is simple, but justified. She feels that she was denied her rightful place on the throne. She did the work, she excelled at her studies and Celestia denied her simply because she could not make friends. One can imagine that it would be easy to feel robbed.

 

As for her plan, well considering we saw that turning the teenagers into demons granted them power and ability, I think it was safe to say that she had a pretty good thought that with a large enough army she could take over. I saw people earlier mentioning Discord and such; remember Sunset has not been to Equestria through Twilight's entire life perhaps. In her mind, Discord is still gone, Luna is still banished and Celestia is more or less the most powerful entity.

 

I feel her character represents remorse to Celestia in a way. Remorse and a reminder of her failures. After the failure to keep her sister from becoming corrupted, she failed her star student. It created motivation for Celestia to try harder and overcome her fear of having to hurt the people she loved. For Twilight she represents both the fear of her past, and the reminder of her future. Sunset is who she was but having mercy on her reminded her of who she has become and where she is heading. It was her first "real" decision as a princess. She realized that she could have punished Sunset, she could have even destroyed her, but she learned from the mistakes of her past and her mentors past, that sometimes forgiveness is the only way. To change things, you need to put a little faith in them, and that is what Twilight took away from it.

 

It's a classic story of "you created your own worst enemy" for Celestia. Sunset was actually given a reason to be "evil" and a motivation to do what she did. Her plan was not "flawless", however she had not been in Equestria for possibly 15-20 years, so obviously there are holes she didn't account for. For Twilight it is about facing her own past and remembering what she was, so she could finally accept what she has become.

 

Ultimately if you compare her to other villains she has a better story and such than say... King Sombra. Hell, I'd even wager she is given more depth than Discord. Discord's motivation is more or less because he's Discord. Hell, he's not even "really" a villain, just a chaos spirit doing what chaos spirits do. Discord is not inherently evil, he's just a prick who doesn't care about other's feelings most of the time. And Chrysalis I wouldn't even say is a villain, she's a queen trying to feed her people, which more than likely have been discriminated against for their appearance to the point where they must live like underdeveloped species. I mean this is the universe where zebras are "scary", no doubt that there were changelings just cruising along in Equestria when ponies screamed "EWWWW CREEPY BUG PONIES! GET THEM OUT OF HERE!" I wouldn't be surprised if they burned them at the stake to be honest.

 

In terms of villains, Sunset actually makes the most sense and has a lot of depth to her.

[Hive King 2,001]

@, 

Minor nitpick, Sunset Shimmer is stronger than Discord in her demon form, it wasn't a hole in her plan. 

 

Chrysalis's excuse falls apart when you realize she left someone to starve, killed a kitten for the sake of a demo, and taunted twilight for no reason than to fuel her ego