About Sunset Shimmer wanting to be a princess

[An Old Head 4,816]

Now, this already seems like a well-known idea (even though I haven't seen it said by anyone) but I noticed something about the whole motives thing behind Sunset Shimmer.

 

We know that Sunset Shimmer was one of Princess Celestia's former students, but was displeased with the fact that her studies were taking too long and eventually went her own path. Twilight Sparkle didn't do this, worked hard on her studies, and ended up becoming a princess. She eventually went to the human world to live life at the high school. It just so happens that throughout the years she spent there, she entered the Fall Formal and won each time in order to become Princess of the Fall Formal; in both instances, the result of her two paths either would be, or ended up being, a Princess.

 

Is Sunset Shimmer's only goal in life, both as a pony and as a human, to have the title of Princess, in one form or another? It would explain the first line she says in the movie here:

 

 

"Sorry it had to be this way... princess." You can hear the cynicism in her voice as she says Princess. It's the sound of spite at the fact that Twilight became a princess by doing all the things that Sunset failed to do right in the beginning.

 

Now my point is, if this is true, then Equestria Girls became a much better film for me. Here's why: it received a lot of flak for being clichéd, right? High school setting, high school crush and all that jazz. However, the title of Princess has always been seen as an amazing thing for girls in real life as has been portrayed by Disney and other entertainment. So for Sunset Shimmer's desire to be a princess going completely astray, it shows that it's not as great as it looks and can cause people to turn blind with power as Shimmer did - totally defying that cliché about princesses. What do you guys think?

Edited September 5, 2013 by Flipturn Costava

[Radiance64 7,057]

Well, that's indeed a very interesting observation. It's definitely typical for Meghan McCarthy and her writing style to take something like that and twist it a bit, so it certainly doesn't surprise me thinking about it. Sometimes getting something you want really can take you to the darkest places, and that's indeed what happened to Sunset Shimmer, deciding to leave everything behind for another world simply so that she could be called a 'princess' with more minimal effort than if she stayed in the human world. Overall, it's good, compelling stuff.

[True Rarity 1,240]

It's entirely possible. Princess Celestia did mention that Sunset Shimmer got angry and corrupted after she didn't get what she wanted fast enough. Perhaps what she wanted was becoming a princess.

[Scootalove 10,689]

That is all true. Sunset Shimmer went down a path that she knew that Celestia would not take her back, so the only way to get she wanted was to steal Twilight's crown to defeat the Mane 6, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. Her goal should have been just to become a princess, not the cliche goal of taking over Equestria.