Sunset Shimmer: An Enormous Waste of Potential

[Dubs 5]

Do you agree. Argue your points and let me know if you think she's wasted as a character. I'll give my scoop

So what we have here is a character who was Celestias once former apprentice. She could be even more powerful then Twilight,It's a possibility.But they don't really show that. There is no sign of her being more powerful. Sure she becomes Demon possessed but again,that's through the crowns power. No raw knowledge or actual power is shown. And the excuse that she's weak I find rather lame reason being. She was thought by celestia,Sunset Shimmer has to know some tricks. Her plan is pretty...by the books in terms of these films. You have the popular bully girl,who picks on the new kid. But that new kid comes in and tells her not to mess around. No unique spin on what she was doing. Now one more thing before I sign this thread off...She had the crown in her possession when in Equestria. Was there any reason for her to go back cause she has the crown that made her a demon in human world. Sunset shimmer could have ended Equestria girls in the first ten minutes. Why didn't she do that and we'd have a different film not trapped by high school stereotypes. Anyways leave your thoughs below

[Scootalove 10,684]

Well, yes both of those villains are wasted potential which could have been used in a good way. So in other words, she could have used the crown to her advantage by going through the mirror portal and take over Equestria.

[Dubs 5]

It's just everything about this character. She's like Nightmare Moon in many respects. Has a great setup,Voice,design. But they never play on that apart from Discord and Chrysalis (Comics do her justice)

[duidamasterXD 9,626]

I agree that Sunset Shimmer could have been used in so many better ways. As a former student of Celestia, she could have shed light on more of her backstory and could have been used to contrast with Twilight more. Generally I love evil counterparts to characters, and I don't deny that I find the idea of somebody willing to defy Celestia's plan for their life appealing, however Sunset's portrayal in the movie was severely lacking in compared to how her concept could be used, though you could blame the length of EQG for her lack of development. It's a shame really, especially considering that she won't be appearing in the show. I consider her the biggest waste of opportunity in the MLP FiM series. 

 

She's actually one of my favorite characters, mostly because of what she could be if used properly.

[Mywas 687]

Sunset Did NOT do her role well, were we suppost to hate her or feel sorry for her? Well she made me feel neither. NMM made me feel sorry for her, Discord and Chrysalis made me laugh, Sombra made me fear him, Sunset did nothing

Edited October 9, 2013 by DashForever
removed off topic material

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,306]

On topic, yes, Shimmer could have had a much larger role, but I feel that for what it is worth, she was good. She was a good representation of Twilight IF she had gone down the wrong path, she had some pretty evil intent and actually tried to KILL Twilight (The only villain to have done so), and personally, I thought her demon form (with that voice) was actually badass, again, just my opinion. I know a lot of people throw the line 'and with my own teenage army....' around and I will admit it does sound very silly at first but match it up with the intent that she had and what she did with Snips and Snails, it could have been a potent combination. Though we did not see that.

So I actually liked her. Could more have been done? Of course, it was the general concept that limited that though. It was worth it with the fact that it was such a huge throwback to the original moral of the show and I loved that. For the record I love the movie so perhaps I am biased. I will accept that possibility but I don't think she was horrible, just not executed perfectly. Kinda like Sombra, I loved the atmosphere surrounding him, he was just defeated a bit too fast for my liking.

Also, the thing with the crown and her not using it in Equestria, remember what Shimmer said later? "Pop quiz; What happens when you bring an Element of Harmony into an alternate world?" We are never specifically explained to what that is, we are just shown. So, it probably had to be in that world for it to trigger the super demon stuff.

Edited October 9, 2013 by DashForever
removed quote of hidden post

[duidamasterXD 9,626]

@Dubs, just letting you know that I've edited the title of your thread slightly to clarify that this thread is about discussing how Sunset Shimmer wasn't used to her full potential as a character, and not about comparing her to Sombra or any other villain, like a few posters have done already. If members would like to talk about how Sunset compares to her fellow villains, there's a thread for that here. Carry on

[Silver Herald 169]

Wow, this turned into a LOTR thread quite quickly x)
If I were to give my two bits, I'd say I had to agree. Sunset Shimmer takes the crown in one of the opening scenes of the movie, and the has to fairly win it at a high school prom...? Some might disagree, but I also feel like she didn't get a lot of character development. She's just kinda there, after being introduced with a single paragraph of dialogue, and then it's off to the high school stereotypes. This makes me sad, since I personally LOVE her character design, as well as the voice behind her. Had they given her a legit backstory as well as some decent signs of development throughout the movie, she could have easily been one of my favorite villains.

[Krattoffel 0]

Back to topic:
I totally disagree I find that Sunset Shimmer is all in all a perfect villian, the backstory is also pretty good even so I really can't understand why you guys think she's a waste of potential. Even though her character design is somewhat over the top.

Edited October 8, 2013 by Krattoffel

[Rappy0 338]

I really can't understand why you guys think she's a waste of potential.

Because of what she could have been two students of the same teacher it should have been epic fight but she was just a high school bully.

 

No interaction with Celesta at all which the film was sorely missing.

No magic duel with Twilight

No big unique plan ( it was FiM first movie and you give her some boring generic goal)

No interesting personalityy quirks

No nothing

 

This is NOT how you do a student vs student story you do it l;ike Tales of the Abyss with Luke vs Asch or heck MLP could have easily just copied Naruto and Nagato with the just talking one on one where Twilight makes Sunset see the error of her ways.

 

Wow thinking about it that would have been so much better than the way she was redeemed.That would have shown that Twilight has really grown up and is ready too become a primcess but no just rainbow now your a friend.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Rappy0

[Krattoffel 0]

 

 

Because of what she could have been two students of the same teacher it should have been epic fight but she was just a high school bully.

Yes and that makes her the perfect villian, why does every villian be an osama bin laden like person, why can't be a villian just be a normal villian?

[Rappy0 338]

Yes and that makes her the perfect villian, why does every villian be an osama bin laden like person, why can't be a villian just be a normal villian?

Because if you have a non threatening "normal" villain then there's no reason for the audience too feel suspense when the climax finally happens. If movies had normal people the cinema business would be a lot less popular.

 

What do you mean by normal exactly? Normal is too vague of a word. Right now my sense of normal movie villains is a lot different from yours.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Rappy0

[Pripyat Pony 2,608]

What annoyed me was the whole "Sunset Shimmer is a bully cuz she has no friends" thing. That's already been done with Babs Seed and it annoyed me then, as well. Why can't a person be a bully just cuz they're an evil bitch who gets their rocks off making other people unhappy? Nope, they have to be bullies cuz they can't get friends! -.-

 

Anyway, I thought that Sunset Shimmer wasn't really used as a villain... I would like to see her in the main MLP series and explored far better, and given a good, meaty storyline. For example, the discrediting Twilight idea was way too easily resolved in EQ. In a two parter episode, Sunset could really do a good job of discrediting Twilight and turning everypony save her friends against her, then in the second part, Twilight's friends could find out that Sunset is behind it all.

[The Prime Reaper 179]

She is not the greatest waste of potential. 

King Sombra was the greatest waste of potential as well as talent; i felt pity upon his death while Sunset Shimmer is not potentially a villain because the broken storyline of Equestria Girls.

[Ihei 711]

 And the excuse that she's weak I find rather lame reason being. 

 

 

FINALLY! Somepony agrees with me! I doubt that she's actually weak at all but I guess, since the movie was meant for little girls at first, they used the regular ol' plotline where a new girl comes and defeats the bully, the bully wants to befriend somebody, and, the end. I guess she considers herself "weak" so she decided to hop through the portal finding out about it, probably to prove herself worthy. 

 

The only good thing about her is that she probably took a really long time anticipating the plan to take over Equestria.

[Mywas 687]

She is not the greatest waste of potential. 

King Sombra was the greatest waste of potential as well as talent; i felt pity upon his death while Sunset Shimmer is not potentially a villain because the broken storyline of Equestria Girls.

Sadly I have to agree with you here, Sombra had a lot of potential and had the episode been about him rather than Twilights test the episode would had been A LOT better, he showed power, skills, genre savvy traps, and his background is the most scary out of the villains, the mere fact that he took down an empire and overthrown their Queen who is hinted at being an alicorn all by himself makes me want to know more about how he became what he is. Hopefully he will return atleast in a flashback.

No interaction with Celesta at all which the film was sorely missing. 

 

You sir just said the biggest mistake the writers did with Sunset, a terrible plan I could understand since both NMM and Chrysalis had terrible plans, a terrible personality I could understand since we were not meant to like her at first, heck not having a fight between her and Twilight I could understand because of the ratings, But WHY did she not interact atleast ONCE with pony celestia? One of the big reasons the Former students villains concept is so popular is because almost most of the time we end up with an ipic battle between the evil student and their masters where the Evil Student finds a way to win, Heck even if they just looked at eachother it would have been better.

[PoniesPlease 365]

Two flaws in OP's post.

 

1) Shimmer had no Magic in the human world, so she couldn't have reclaimed the crown through non human ways. 

 

2) She couldn't be more powerful than Twilight Sparkle because that would be bad writing - as the more 'pure of heart' character, it is Twilight's role to be the stronger character.

[Krattoffel 0]

 

 

Normal is too vague of a word. Right now my sense of normal movie villains is a lot different from yours.

  I feel sorry for you that you totally don't understand me or you don't wantto understand me. With "Normal" I mean someone who you could encounter everyday, as it wouldn't be obvious.

[Winona the Dog 1,981]

I think the only good thing about Sunset was her backstory ( which was never elaborated on again after it was revealed) and she actually tried to kill Twilight directly instead of just talking.

 

But she failed as a villain. Meghan McCarthy isn't really good at writing good villains unfortunately though she's really good at writing the characters of the cast.

[Zekromic 1,054]

the length of the movie didn't helped developing he, had the movie been longer (out of the question considering the target demographic), or made a micro series like starwars the clone wars 

there would be more space to develop Sunny.

Hope the comics and the book adaptation fix that

[ponies4fun 9]

It appeared she needed an army to invade Equestria so she was going to go back and take high school students to be her army. Only reason I can think of why she would have an army of high school students rather than the military of that world could be explained that high school students are easily controllable due to their nature to conform easily.

[Lunas Sorrow 21]

actually Fausts original plan for SS was that shed be in season 4 after twilight becomes a princess and become twilights official arch nemesis and rival but with the new writing it seems they prefer SS to only stay on MLPEG so that they can extend the MLPFIM series coz if Fausts plans were to be followed the series would end at Season 4 or 5 when twilight officially takes over celestia as the ruler of equestria

[Azrael the alicorn 72]

Yes, Sunset Shimmer was one huge waste of potential.

I mean really a waste, just like Sombra. She could have been the Twilight Sparkle evil counterpart, but the setting, the rushness of EQG totally ruin it.

[Guest]

Do you agree. Argue your points and let me know if you think she's wasted as a character. I'll give my scoop

 

So what we have here is a character who was Celestias once former apprentice. She could be even more powerful then Twilight,It's a possibility.But they don't really show that. There is no sign of her being more powerful. Sure she becomes Demon possessed but again,that's through the crowns power. No raw knowledge or actual power is shown. And the excuse that she's weak I find rather lame reason being. She was thought by celestia,Sunset Shimmer has to know some tricks. Her plan is pretty...by the books in terms of these films. You have the popular bully girl,who picks on the new kid. But that new kid comes in and tells her not to mess around. No unique spin on what she was doing. Now one more thing before I sign this thread off...She had the crown in her possession when in Equestria. Was there any reason for her to go back cause she has the crown that made her a demon in human world. Sunset shimmer could have ended Equestria girls in the first ten minutes. Why didn't she do that and we'd have a different film not trapped by high school stereotypes. Anyways leave your thoughs below

She IS in fact powerfuller than Twilight. Sunset Shimmer was able to harness the power of the elements of harmony with no outside help. Twilight in fact is in current need of help from the rest of the mane 5.

[ponywipes 0]

Back to topic:

I totally disagree I find that Sunset Shimmer is all in all a perfect villian, the backstory is also pretty good even so I really can't understand why you guys think she's a waste of potential. Even though her character design is somewhat over the top.

that is real true she did that scene well and she's fit for a villian for twilight sparkle but she wont come back in the season 4