Background Pony #D60B
part 3 (still Supes here obviously, forgot to uncheck the anonymity checkmark)
 
@BackgroundLoL
 
Anyway, back to Sunset.  
You did watch Friendship Games, yet you state such things. She had there visibly problems as leader, and didn’t know what to do without Twilight’s advice. Sunset visibly struggled with her decision during the movie, acted completely lost at one point.
 
I’m gonna bring up what I just wrote about Sunset’s “struggles” being relevant to the movies. Yes, she did have inner troubles in RR and FG. But how did they impact the ultimate resolution of either movie? How did Sunset’s mild discomfort at not being 100% accepted into the Rainbooms group affect her actions at the end? I’ll tell you how: if she hadn’t been an outsider, there is a chance she would’ve argued with the others instead of being in the position to talk sense into them. But that’s incredibly flimsy. Ultimately, no problems she had to face in either movie prior to the very resolution mattered in any way to the rest of the plot. Her struggles were not driving the plot, if anything, in both cases the plot was driven forward by Twilights (different ones).  
Maybe “completely smooth” isn’t the right description, but it was the same as, say, if Fluttershy had a subplot about being too shy to participate during “A Canterlot Wedding” or something. Again, don’t just claim I’m twisting the facts, rather, if you can, describe how you think Sunset’s inner struggles were essentials to either RR’s or FG’s resolutions or storylines and how they weren’t almost completely isolated aspects of them. If you claim I’m moving the goalposts, that would be a fair accusation, but I guess you’d just have to believe me that I worded something poorly in a long-ass comment and I meant to say Sunset’s journey through the movies was unimpactful rather than easy for her.  
Again, if anything this is your own biased headcanon, and further material, especially from A Friendship to Remember, confirms Sunset was more innocent originally, showing the picture was at least quite possibly depicting Sunset before she became worse.
 
I’m not taking “A Friendship to Remember” into consideration because such key parts of characterization should not be delegated to books. I’ll consider whatever “Forgotten Friendship” shows us when it comes out. Despite what you might believe, I’m looking forward to it, even if I don’t expect it to achieve much. You can never be sure and, again, despite how hard it might be for you to believe, it’s not like I really want to not enjoy Sunset’s character considering how much I enjoyed everything else about the movies. I just can’t.  
Anyway. Remember what Celestia said about Sunset. “When she didn’t get what she wanted as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest”, unless I’m mistaken. I believe it was more or less that exact wording. Now does that honestly sound like someone who would turn completely innocent for no apparent reason? Does it sound like someone who, upon being stranded in an unfamiliar world, would become a nice person? Even though Sunset was never truly evil, she was still a nasty piece of work. She wanted power she thought she deserved, and she wanted revenge on Celestia. Do you really, honestly believe THAT Sunset would’ve turned into a genuinely sociable, pleasant person - enough to win the title of the crown without any manipulation or pretense? Does it REALLY seem more likely to you than the idea that she remained power-hungry and began manipulating people right off the bat, gradually dropping her act as her power in the school grew? If so, I don’t even know what to say, because that, to me, would be complete craziness.  
Okay, moving on to Starlight.  
Hahaha, Starlight wasn’t selfish or egoistical ? Starlight whole motivation was revealed as at least somewhat selfish and egoistical.
 
If anyone’s twisting facts and lying in this conversation, it would be you with this here statement. Starlight’s original motive was trying to bring true friendship to everyone the only way she thought it was truly possible: by making everyone similar enough so they’d never fight or fall apart. Twisted? Yes. Delusional? Yes. Selfish? Absolutely not. Later, her motive was revenge. Revenge isn’t the same level of selfish so much as an impulse to seek fairness after a perceived slight. Unlike her original driving force, this wasn’t altruism corrupted by a deeply broken understanding of the world, it was her trying to exact what she thought was justice. She didn’t want power for power’s sake, unlike Sunset, she didn’t want revenge on someone who denied her something she thought was owed to her, it was revenge on someone who, she thought, ruined her attempt to make the world better. Ultimately revenge is still for personal satisfaction, true, but the level of selfishness is negligible, especially compared to Sunset, because Sunset didn’t JUST want revenge, and had a different, much more selfish reason for revenge.  
She wasn’t thinking at all about others, and how many she harmed (including pretty certainly Sunsburst and her parents).
 
And this is more “twisting facts and lying”. She wasn’t thinking about others being harmed because she was certain nobody else would be harmed. Prior to seeing the wasteland version of the future, she’d never seen any of the resulting futures. She thought the consequences of her actions would be limited to breaking up Twilight’s friendships and denying her friends their cutie-marks. If you can’t believe she didn’t know about Twilight’s exploits due to her remote location, well, she addressed specifically that herself. She did not believe that any friendship could be so important, “even Princess Twilight’s”. If she had known about the consequences, she would not have gone through with it - demonstrated further by how seeing the consequences was the first step to her calming down. So no, she did not knowingly condemn anyone to deaths and suffering, she only condemned the mane 6 to unhappiness, as far as she knew.  
when Starlight has a sudden change of personality/characterization, or inconsistency in characterization you make up excuses for it
 
At the very least, you again didn’t address my point on how Starlight’s change looked odd, despite your earlier statements…
 
There you have it, I once again explained why I think Starlight’s change of attitude is different from Sunset’s and why it didn’t seem odd. Beyond that, there’s nothing to address or prove here because you aren’t actually making an argument. You state your opinion that it might’ve looked odd, I say that I disagree and no, it didn’t look odd. I explain why, you ignore the vast differences between the two characters and continue claiming I should think the same of both of them as if they’re identically handled.  
Funny you accuse Sunset of being a neutered Twilight from season 1-2, as many see so Starlight. Again, showing you behave exactly like Starlight’s haters, only directed at Sunset.
 
Just because I criticize something and haters criticize something, doesn’t make me behave exactly like the haters. Just because your positive views of Sunset are so deeply entrenched you make things up when it doesn’t hold up, ignore arguments to the contrary, consider your opinions prooven and facts and mine “twisting the facts and lying”, doesn’t mean you have any more claim at being right than I do. From how I see things, you’re a vastly worse Sunset fanboy than I am a Starlight fanboy.  
I mean, as I mentioned similarly before, using your logic, one could say %%%%~
snip
Again, I’m using your logic above, just applied to Starlight and your own behavior.
 
No. You aren’t using “my logic”, because I’m not using logic when I’m stating an opinion. And what logic I do use, you completely ignore. What you’re doing is bringing up a collection of ridiculous and outright wrong claims about Starlight that you don’t even agree with yourself, and trying to equate them to an opinion that you disagree with and seemingly can’t even comprehend. Just because you don’t understand why I think what I think of Sunset and Starlight (separately and comparatively), doesn’t mean you get to claim I’m just spouting nonsense. And you say discussions with ME are impossible? Have you looked at your own comments?
BackgroundLoL
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I meant to write:  
I mean, find me another person as hating and insulting Sunset as a character as much as Supes does. Or someone even hating and insulting Starlight as a character (both examples also using pseudo-factual arguments to justify their hatedom, for a better comparison) - and then show me how Supes is different from them.
BackgroundLoL
Fine Arts - Two hundred uploads with a score of over a hundred (Safe/Suggestive)

@Beau Skunky  
Dunno if Supes if that better than many haters are. He tries to undermine any positive Sunset has as a character, and present her as a character without depth, development, and in general, a horribly writen character. I mean he outright wrote:
 
 
@Supes  
@BackgroundLoL
From my perspective, the notion of Sunset being a good character is completely ridiculous.
 
I mean, isn’t this behaving like a true hater?
 
And he made false claims - like claiming Sunset had an easy time developoing to leader in Friendship Games, and that she didn’t struggle there, or that Sunset’s anger issues aren’t an issue (even though others on this site, tv tropes and many others do), or that Sunset didn’t have important personal flaws affecting her through movies (like her Superiority-Inferity Complex did through the movies, claiming Sunset’s close relationship with pony Twilight is just speculation:  
The stuff you say about Twilight’s friendship with Sunset mostly seems like speculation and headcanon.
 
Although he went sillent about it, when I poven it’s not the case.
 
As I wrote he shows also horrifically great double standards - when I pointed out Starlight had a sudden change of personality/characterization, or inconsistency in characterization he imidatelly made up excuses and explanations for it.  
But with Sunset he allways done the opposite, trying underplay everything about her development or flaws, and exaggerating all writing mistakes, or making them up (like Sunset having an very easy time becoming a leader).
 
And I didn’t ever claim Supes has no good points - I wrote:  
And to be clear, I don’t claim the first Equestria Girls movie was perfect – Sunset’s reveal at the end could be more foreshadowed,
 
and
I did admit ( a few comments bellow) Starlight has some advantages over Sunset, just like Sunset has over her. She was shown in more screen time, actually developing out of her flaws.
 
But it’s burried under much of unconstructive criticism also made by Supes. You know, how I described bellow, and in my other comments.
 
If anyone is “twisting things” it’s Supes, especially that it’s he who tries to undermine any positive Sunset has a character (like the ones listed). Can you sincerelly claim it’s not the case?
 
And you are aware he, multiple times, spams how “Sunset is a horriblly writen character”, in all of his commets under this Sunset Centric Annoucement.
 
I am not attacking Supes personally by calling him a hater, and arguably troll, I just state the fact he is a hater.
 
I mean, find me another person hating and insulting Sunset as a character as him as much as him. Or someone even hating and insulting Starlight as a character - and then show me how Supes is different from them.
 
I agree Starlight and Sci-Twi are getting needless hate - including from Sunset fans - but I don’t think being a hater themselves (like Supes), or defending them, and their obvious character hatedom is a solution. If anything, it makes things worse, leads to flame wars between sides.
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@BackgroundLoL  
I think Supes has actually been more respectable to a character he dislikes, then most “haters” are.  
Honestly, he has some points, I agree with him on some things, you may have some points too, but I don’t hate Sunset either. (I just find her a li’l overrated, and I’m tired of her fans bashing, or complaining about other characters like Starlight or Glasses Twilight “stealing” her spotlight, and such, or wanting her to always be the one saving the day, and such.)  
While you claim he’s exaggerating her flaws, it’s his opinions, and he has some points, one could claim you’re kinda twisting things too to make Supes look like some “mindless hater who has no valid opinions/points.”  
It’s not a great way to finish an argument by attacking somebody personally.
 
There’s no need to get so heated in a discussion over a mere fictional horse girl.
BackgroundLoL
Fine Arts - Two hundred uploads with a score of over a hundred (Safe/Suggestive)

@Supes
 
part 1
 
Okay, discussing with you truly has no sense Supes, you’re just hater. It’s curious how the “paragraphs you don’t care to address on its own, are ones you seemingly have no answers for, and point out how you behave like a hater, and you seemingly have no way to counter that accusation.
 
Again you still didn’t tell how are not trolling, or trying to incite people, when all the time, you are writing how much Sunset sucks as a character, under this Sunset Centric announcement. I mean, you do it since your first comment here. I mean, you seemingly intentionally completely derailed the discussion from its original and topic, and what the image is about, into a thread were you *try to prove Sunset is a horribly written character.
 
So yeah, you cannot answer it, seeing you constantly just change the topic, to avoid giving a true answer.
 
Later, you outright overlook facts, or arguably even lie, just to present Sunset as worst possibly written.
 
I mean, I don’t think I ever meet or read something else by person who so hates Sunset so much as a character, and desperately tries to prove she sucks at any cost, even contradicting truth/reality. And yeah, while you may claim you have a logical reaction – I don’t buy, as neither seemingly most people on the site. I mean, dear Celestia, you have an obsession to present her as the worst possible as it can be.
 
You also are VERY hippo critical – when Starlight has a sudden change of personality/characterization, or inconsistency in characterization you make up excuses for it:  
is that I believe they had to show her THAT positive for the sake of the younger audiences, who needed to have no doubts that this character was going to be a on the side of good from now on.
 
But with Sunset you go the OPPOSITE direction, trying underplay everything about her development or flaws, and exaggerating all mistakes, even though you would defend them like above with Sunset. Here you shown how monstrously biased you are. I mean , you tried to claim Sunset’s relationship with pony Twilight was mostly fanon, but when I proven otherwise, you didn’t mention this again.
 
People can be angry, if they look somewhat calm - hence the tranquil fury trope .Not to mention, even if you *don’t think that ome counted, I gave several other examples (her revenge being born in part from anger on Celestia, and being replaced, Sunset yelling at Trixie in Rainbow Rocks, yelling at Sci-Twi, yelling at Snips and Snails). Multiple people notice this character flaw, like commenters bellow, or tv tropes
 
Berserk Button:
Her jealousy hits a breaking point when Rarity calls Twilight a real princess.
Sunset Shimmer: Oh, yes. She’s so very special!
While it doesn’t quite drive her berserk, she gets a little steamed in Rainbow Rocks as the other main characters keep talking about how they’ve beaten dark magic before, forgetting that the (involuntary) dark magic user is literally right there in front of them. She’s sort of over it by Friendship Games, and her friends have learned more tact; at one point in the movie, she playfully does this to herself.
A part of Sunset’s old self breaks through when Trixie suggests her interrupting the Rainbooms when Rainbow started to pony up was out of malicious intent.
Sunset Shimmer: It wasn’t a fit of JEALOUS RAGE!
In Friendship Games she rather frighteningly explodes at Human Twilight for her use of magic without knowing what she was getting into. She has several motives for this: she herself didn’t dive into this sort of thing unprepared; even with her preparations, she wasn’t able to control magic or keep it from ending badly; and she knows from her personal experience that Twilight is endangering her friends/followers. She was protective of Snips and Snails in the first movie, and in this one she’s just as protective of the Humane Five.
 
So it is a visible flaw, on par with that of the rest of Mane 6. Just as was her Superiority-Inferiority complex which was a key part of the first three movies!
 
Sorry, but it’s visible you want to prove at any cost Sunset is a badly written character, without real flaws, and you will lie, or at least reject fact to do so.
 
Starlight was never presented as selfish or egotistical
 
Hahaha, Starlight wasn’t selfish or egoistical ? Starlight whole motivation was revealed as at least somewhat selfish and egoistical. Because of blaming on cutie marks her loss of friendship with Sunburst, and because of that thinking them as wrong she decided to take all cutie marks, and brainwash people (which IS an egoistical train of thought and actions, as she thinks her expiences, are the judge to every other ponies experiences). Again, the finale shows Starlight’s actions motivations were at least somewhat egoistical.
 
And in the finale, she was even more egoistical selfish - she thought her actions, no matter how horrible are justified, and was so absorbed in her purely selfish revenge she didn’t notice how she ruined countless lives, and caused countless deaths, because of how she was absorbed into revenge. She wasn’t thinking at all about others, and how many she harmed (including pretty certainly Sunsburst and her parents). I mean, that isn’t egoism.
 
And Starlight’s egoism, manifested as visible amount of sadism.
 
Again, she one intentionally changed the timeline by stopping Fluttershy being bullied, and forced that Twilight, to restore the timeline, had to cause Fluttershy to become bullied again. I mean, this is selfish and sadistic on so many levels, not only to Fluttershy, but also to Twilight, by forcing her to harm her friend, and restore years of pain.
 
Again your “ As soon as she saw the consequences her resolve started cracking”, as Starlight done some deliberate sadistic actions, and her not noticing the consequences of her action until Equestria was seemingly completely dead, shows how self absorbed she was into her revenge. (And don’t claim as Starlight was living remotely, she wouldn’t notice – at the very least Discord’s world of chaos, Nightmare Moon’s eternal night, are very easy to notice, unless one was so utterly blinded by hate, revenge and obsession like Starlight.)
 
It’s notable that Sunset before corruption, at least didn’t wasn’t wiling to harm others to such degree, as shown with her releasing Spike, and clearing up she wouldn’t physically harm him/kill him.
 
Sunset Shimmer: That’s close enough!
Spike: Twilight!
Twilight Sparkle: Don’t hurt him!
Sunset Shimmer: Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it. I’m not a monster, Twilight. [to Snips and Snails] Let him go. [to Twilight] You don’t belong here. Give me the crown, and you can go back to Equestria tonight. Or keep it and never go home.
Twilight Sparkle: [gasp]
 
Again, Sunset could threaten Twilight with Spike’s life or health, and only captured him, to her Twilight to were she wanted him, and then released him. And even with the destruction of the portal, yes it was cruel, but much less so. And it was shown she was bluffing.
 
At the very least, you again didn’t address my point on how Starlight’s change looked odd, despite your earlier statements…
 
I did admit ( a few comments bellow) Starlight has some advantages over Sunset, just like Sunset has over her. She was shown in more screen time, actually developing out of her flaws. But that’s a plus of having much more time in the cartoon, than Sunset in the movie.
 
And while Starlight was kinda more shown as growing out of her flaws, her change was also was also quite abrupt. Again, Starlight through the episode completely ignored what Twilight stated, and was portrayed as to absorbed by revenge o notice the effect of her actions. Agin, this WHY some of her haters, argue her doubts at the last bad timeline, were unrealistic, after she caused so much pain.
 
And she was so blinded by her revenge, she was willing to play some really sick psychological games with Twilight (again, Fluttershy, and Bullying).
 
So one could easily argue Starlight would also need one arc as a neutral character, before getting closer to Twilight. Or do something good before Twilight accepted her as a student, as Sunset did, and there were others who arguably better deserved the position of Twilights student at that point, like Moondancer or Trixie.
 
Again, if one though goes with the suggestion Twilight made Starlight her student because of her experiences with Sunset, it makes a lot more sense.
BackgroundLoL
Fine Arts - Two hundred uploads with a score of over a hundred (Safe/Suggestive)

@Supes  
part 2  
And Starlight also had “IMMEDIATE genuine regrets instead of resentment,” after Twilight changed her mind.
 
And about Starlight changing her mind, because she saw the magnitude of her actions, and that there could be another way – so was Sunset:
 
Sunset Shimmer: [crying] I-I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know there was another way.
Twilight Sparkle: The magic of friendship doesn’t just exist in Equestria. It’s everywhere. You can seek it out, or you can forever be alone. The choice is yours.
Sunset Shimmer: But… But all I’ve ever done since being here is drive everyone apart. I don’t know the first thing about friendship.
Twilight Sparkle: I bet they can teach you.
 
And I meant Sunset’s tears after her transformation, as well as it’s evident from the scene she is horrified by her actions as Sunset Satan – you must act deliberately ignorant to deny it. It’s not “wishful thinking and fanon”, and I can bet if we asked writers, the would confirm such ws the intention the scene.
 
And to be clear, Sunset, as opposed to Discord of Starlight suffered visible consequences of her villainy - she was scorned and hated for months. And as even tvtropes notes, she with Trixie a slip to her old tendencies. Here it is again:  
A part of Sunset’s old self breaks through when Trixie suggests her interrupting the Rainbooms when Rainbow started to pony up was out of malicious intent.
Sunset Shimmer: It wasn’t a fit of JEALOUS RAGE!
 
And for Sunset not acting with resentment towards Twilight or the Humane 5 – neither did Starlight since Season 6, despite her earlier obsession to destroy the friendship of the Mane 6, and as I noted, deliberately sadistic actions she committed earlier towards them.
 
If you criticize Sunset for it, you should criticize also Starlight.
 
And your statement  
and her journey to “confident group leader” is almost perfectly smooth and doesn’t involve any interesting struggle
 
Shows again you operate on a hater logic, and lie, or ignore facts.
 
You did watch Friendship Games, yet you state such things. She had there visibly problems as leader, and didn’t know what to do without Twilight’s advice. Sunset visibly struggled with her decision during the movie, acted completely lost at one point. And was very stressed, which was part of the storyline were she finally snapped at Twilight (there were other reasons, but stress from leadership was an important factor). Sunset also blames herself for ALL magical bad things, showing the leadership has not a fully positive impact on her. Again, from tv tropes for example:
 
The Chains of Commanding: In Rainbow Rocks, Twilight falls into despair when it seems they’ve lost and feels the doesn’t have the solutions everyone was hoping for. Sunset talks Twilight out of it at the climax, assuring her that no one has all the answers. Later in Friendship Games, Sunset herself is put in a position where she feels all of the responsibility rests on her, because the only other person who would have the answers — meaning Twilight, ironically enough — is out of their reach.
 
As for those photos on the wall – my understanding has always been that they represent her putting on a facade at the beginning but then slowly ceasing to bother as she gained her power in the school.
 
Again, if anything this is your own biased headcanon, and further material, especially from A Friendship to Remember, confirms Sunset was more innocent originally, showing the picture was at least quite possibly depicting Sunset before she became worse.
 
Funny you accuse Sunset of being a neutered Twilight from season 1-2, as many see so Starlight. Again, showing you behave exactly like Starlight’s haters, only directed at Sunset.
 
I mean, as I mentioned similarly before, using your logic, one could say you only want to say Sunset has no flaws, and didn’t properly develop from a villain, due to trying to defend Starlight (who using your leaps of logic) is a completely unsympathetic, sociopathic character who maimed (ie removed cutie marks) and brainwashed ponies destroyed the world multiple times, and had a completely unrealistic change o heart. Who next shown to learn nothing, and didn’t change at from her time as a villain, still playing with curie marks of others (again, nearly bringing catastrophe), and with her interactions with Sunburst further showing she doesn’t at learn from her mistakes.
 
Again, I’m using your logic above, just applied to Starlight and your own behavior.
 
But as I stated, I think discussing with you with has no sense…You just have seemingly at least, and agenda to make Sunset come of as bad as possible…
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It’s Starlight. I’m calling it.
Supes

You didn’t respond really at to this – maybe because you couldn’t?
 
Not much to respond to here - I don’t think I’m “manipulating facts” or presenting Sunset in some sort of heavily skewed view. A large portion of all this is subjective opinion, and even after you’ve presented your take on Sunset’s flaws, I still disagree with you on their merits for her character.
 
I think the inferiority-superiority things is completely valid, and a real flaw her character did actually have which I never remember as one just because it’s not interesting to me personally. Anger issues though I’m still not buying, especially after you called her calm request to Rarity in LoE “snapping at her”. Again, a lot of characters snap at others from time to time, but for some reason when Sunset does it, like, twice throughout the whole of canon, that’s considered “anger issues”? Does Rarity have “anger issues” because she got angry at Applejack in LoE during that mountain climbing excercise?
 
And just like her supposed “anger issues”, a lot of the other things you list (and I’ve seen this before when people try to present Sunset’s personality/flaws) are things that she did wrong once that you extrapolated into actual character flaws. Character flaws mean something that influences a lot of their behavior, surfacing over and over. Rainbow Dash’s egotism is a character flaw. Rarity’s occasional vanity is a character flaw. Twilight’s obsessive tendencies are a character flaw. Starlight’s overreliance on magic is a character flaw. Sunset, despite the impressive size of your list, still IMO can’t be shown to have anything of that magnitude or importance, anything as ingrained in her personality as the mane6’s (and some other characters’) flaws.
 
As for the brainwashing thing, I’m not saying I believe they literally brainwashed Sunset, I’m saying it just looks like that because of how completely her personality seems to change. Starlight was not aware of the real consequences of her actions, so the “she was destroying worlds” argument can’t be made to measure her mental state. As soon as she saw the consequences her resolve started cracking. While deeply deluded and angry, Starlight was never presented as selfish or egotistical, and it looks much more beliveable for her to be shocked and persuaded into accepting Twilight’s side. The only reason she didn’t want to make more friends on her own was her view of the viability of being friends without equal talents and such, which ended up being very much tested and taken down during her confrontations with Twilight. Starlight has always been presented as having good, non-selfish intentions buried deep under a heavily twisted perspective on the world. When that perspective is challenged, it’s not at all strange for her to become “good” (even though she still carries a lot of her misconceptions and lack of social skills all through season 6 and beyond).
 
I’ll give you the song montage kind of exaggerated her pace and progress, but there’s two reasons I don’t mind it that much. First is that a montage still implies some passage of time, especially a musical montage. Second is that I believe they had to show her THAT positive for the sake of the younger audiences, who needed to have no doubts that this character was going to be a on the side of good from now on. It’s like Twilight’s crazy flying skills at the closing shot of Magical Mystery Cure: the beginnings of the next seasons backtrack on these things and show a more gradual improvement. Rainbow Rocks, by the way, doesn’t do even that much.
 
Anyway… Sunset, on the other hand, is originally presented as a completely self-centered villain, so with her it doesn’t seem natural in the slightest to suddenly become a good person. While she may have had some doubts about her path, as Rainbow Rocks says, in the original she was never shown as someone who would just accept not being above everyone else after a defeat. I could buy her going along with others because she didn’t have a choice (like Discord, but with more effort to pass as trying), I could believe her accepting friendship after a period of being treated with unconditional kindness by a few people (again, kinda like Discord). Fanfics have done a very good job at depicting that kind of journey for Sunset - compare something like “Long road to friendship” (that’s the name I believe, it was started even before RR) to Sunset’s canon journey and you should understand what I mean.
 
What I don’t buy is, well, exactly what was shown in the original movie: IMMEDIATE genuine regrets instead of resentment, IMMEDIATE willingness to receive charity instead of trying to conserve some of her pride, IMMEDIATE politeness and meekness instead of passive-aggresiveness or accidental insults, etc etc.
 
As for those photos on the wall - my understanding has always been that they represent her putting on a facade at the beginning but then slowly ceasing to bother as she gained her power in the school. I mean, before that innocent-looking photo was taken, she had (presumably recently) run away from Celestia because “she didn’t get what she wanted as quickly as she liked”. That doesn’t mesh with the idea that the photo represents her genuine attitude at the time, rather than acting, in my opinion.
 
And just to mention - I personally don’t think those tears during her transformation are anything more than the transformation being physically painful. The idea that she was “realizing how horrible she’d been” before turning into Satan is a nice one, but I don’t think there is any basis behind it other than wishful thinking and fanon.
 
Also, just to explain why I’m not addressing anything about this upcoming special or the book it’s based on: it’s because the special hasn’t come out yet and I don’t take books into consideration at all. The special might very well fix some things about Sunset as far as I’m concerned, but to me it’ll probably be a case of too little, too late. It’s not like it’s gonna retroactively make me like her in the movies and shorts we already have. I doubt it’ll manage to add some sort of hidden layer of depth that will blow my mind and make me see her previous depictions in a completely new light.
 
Anyway, I don’t care to address every parapgraph on its own, because I won’t be saying anything new, just repeating various takes on “I don’t agree with you on this”. The only “discussible” thing was the brainwashing bit IMO, the rest is purely subjective on both of our sides. As I said, most things you list as flaws I don’t really see as actual parts of her characterization rather than things she happened to stumble with once or twice, and the ones that can be argued to have been legitimate flaws just aren’t interesting to me. And your list of things you’ve enjoyed about her just doesn’t happen to have anything I personally would’ve considered interesting, hence why I say I think she’s a boring character - because to me she very much is.
 
The thing is, for a reformed villain character, the most important aspect of her (at least for a couple movies) should have been having to learn to be a good person. She’s boring to me because she instantly becomes good and makes very minor, insignigicant mistakes after that, and her journey to “confident group leader” is almost perfectly smooth and doesn’t involve any interesting struggle (everything that interesting for me in the movies happens outside of Sunset’s relevance) - as I’ve said before, the one moment she snapped at Sci-Twi was the single time I actually liked her characterization, and I firmly believe she should’ve been like that much more. In my opinion, she should’ve struggled with accepting to appear weak and being stand-offish and stubborn about accepting friendship, help and such. She should’ve had trouble not subconsciously manipulating people like she used to for years. She should’ve had SEVERELY more trouble being nice to people. Instead, starting with Rainbow Rocks she’s acting like Pony Twilight, as if she hadn’t started out a villain at all. Twilight also snapped at people occasionally and made plenty of mistakes, but Sunset should’ve been much, much worse due to her past attitude and actions. Heck, season 1 Twilight is actually more flawed and worse at friendship than Sunset: she is much more sarcastic and dismissive, especially early on. Perhaps my disappointment in Sunset’s characterization comes from the expectations and potential that comes with a villainous past of a character. Instead of a proper reformation process, Sunset is kind of transformed into a neutered Season 1-2 Twilight that just happens to bear this “original sin” of having been a villain which almost seems arbitrary because she has no traces of that.
 
Seriously, just remember early Twilight Sparkle and maybe even other mane6 in the first season. Can you honestly say that Sunset measures up? Sunset should’ve been vastly worse and more flawed, yet even the perfectly good-natured shut-in Twilight Sparkle manages to be snappier, more sarcastic, more full of herself at the beginning of her journey. Can you see, say, Gladmane turning into season 4+ Twilight in terms of personality after the events of “Viva Las Pegasus”? Did Diamond Tiara turn into post-crusaders-of-the-lost-mark Tiara after “ponyville confidential” or “bad seed”? Did Discord become post-Tirek Discord immediately after being unfrozen from stone? Yet that’s pretty much what happened with Sunset, in my opinion. Only Discord still struggles to understand various aspects of friendship, and Tiara isn’t presented as a major protagonist.
BackgroundLoL
Fine Arts - Two hundred uploads with a score of over a hundred (Safe/Suggestive)

@Background Pony #981A  
I kinda debunk it bellow, in my response to Supes - Sunset has flaws, made mistakes, faced consequences of her actions, and struggled against things, - Mary Sues don’t really…
Background Pony #322D
What an amazing Mary Sue. She is the perfect Mary.
BackgroundLoL
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@Supes
 
part 1  
Okay Supes, I’m starting to believe you are a lost cause. I mean you eve didn’t really respond to argument:  
And tell me how are you not trolling, seeing you essentially want to present Sunset as badly as possibly, by at best presenting very subjective opinions and borderline manipulating facts? At a Sunset-centric announcement? Sorry, but now you are playing dumb.
 
You didn’t respond really at to this – maybe because you couldn’t?
 
As what is at Sunset-centric annoucment, just writing over, and over how Sunset sucks as a character - it’s being being a troll, and trying to provoke people.
 
But despite that, I’ll respond to your points, even though I’m really starting to think a debate with you, is a fruitless debate
 
What “wrong leaps of logic” am I making with Sunset? Sure, you “can say that Starlight comes off as brainwashed” but you would be flat out wrong. Sunset was straight selfish, arrogant, egotistical and sociopathic the whole movie, then she gets hit by the big magic blast and comes out of it crying and wanting to be shown another way. Starlight was never hit by any reforming magic blast, she slowly came over to Twilight’s side after being shown the fruits of her revenge, then compassion, then encouragement. Anyone who would “use my logic” to claim that Starlight “comes off as brainwashed” even remotely as much as Sunset would just be objectively wrong, period.
 
So yeah, let’s see, Starlight switched from:  
  • fanatically trying to destroy six mares friendship and bonds, while in rocess *creating horrible timelines were from thousands are dying, I mean the apocalypse/wasteland timeline. All the time to absorbed in her revenge to even notice it, or as many of Starlight’s detractors claim, nor caring at all until she saw a totally dead world. (And don’t claim as Starlight was living remotelly, she wouldn’t notice - at the very least Discord’s world of Chaos, Nightmare Moon’s eternal night, are very easy to notice, unless one was so uterly blinded by hate, revenge and obsession like Starlight.) One could (using your method of leaps of logic logic) claim Starlight is a characterso stubborn, she only stopped to think about the consequences of her ations at the view of the apocalyptic wasteland, and earlier didn’t hear to Twilight at all.  
    And at this point, someone harsh could argue Starlight stopped having any higher goall - she just, at least at the moment, cared for revenge. (And to be fair, she did pretty much abandon her altrustic goals, to get revenge…)
     
    to:
     
    She got fairly easily conviced (comparing her earlier actions) by Twilight, and went from the above, from the point were she abandoned any altruistic goal in the name of selfish, frankly genocidal revenge into this  

     
    Yeah Super, I cannot see how anyone could claim Starlight can come of as brainwashed, if you claim so with Sunset.
     
    And to compare, Sunset was at least unconfortable around the Humane 5, out of guilt, a human reaction.
     
    And to be clear, I don’t claim the first Equestria Girls movie was perfect - Sunset’s reveal at the end could be more foreshadowed, but there were some bits. Like Sunset had has Spike kidnapped in order to lure Twilight to her — and then lets him go as soon as Twilight asks. Most pony villains (including possibly pre-redeemption Starlight) would have tried to keep Spike further as a hostage, or harm him, and it was noted specifically Sunset didn’t like that idea, and explicitly told Twilight, “I’m not a monster.”. (So yeah, she wasn’t completelly socipathic, as you tried to claim).
     
    Compare to after her transformation, she was willing to kill Twilight.
     
    Take that imto consideration, and you realize Sunset’s crying after detransformation, was meant o show horror at what she was Sunset Satan - this is actually similar to Starlight being confronted with the severity of what she done. (She confirms this in Friendship Games, saying the poer of the crown overhelmed her).
     
    And later reveals do, like in Rainbow Rocks do comfirm Sunset had doubts and felt guilt about her action in the first movie, and before before she got hit by the beam.
     
    (And fun fact about the Elements of Harmony, or just the Element of Magic, or Harmony magic - they don’t brainwash a person, rather clease them of corruption. I mean, they, or Harmony magic/Rainbow Force didn’t change at all the personality of Dazzlings, Discord (Despite being hit multiple times), Tirek (the same). It only cleased (ie restored to their right state of mind corrupted characters - Nightmare Moon, Sunset Satan, Gaea Everfree etc. You could as well claim Twiloght used the subtle unseen to the audience alicorn psychic magic, to make Starlight good.)
     
    Bet let’s say you you are still are not conviced with my comparison with Starlight also being able to be accused of being as I brainwashed, if one uses the same leaps of logic as you. (which will probably be the case).
     
    Let’s use the same leaps of logic in another way – to argue Starlight is a character that doesn’t deserve redeemption.
     
    I mean, I listed Starlight’s actions above, going with your methods, but let’s do it again – at the season 5 finalle Starlight abandoned any illusion altruistic goall - she just, cared for revenge. On the Mane 6, and Twilights, and tried, multiple times sadistically to destroy the bond of the Mane 6. I mean, she once done it essentially by stopping Fluttershy being bullied, and forced that Twilight, to restore the timeline, had to cause Fluttershy to become bulllied again. Starlight was so absorbed in revenge that she didn’t notice the countless death and suffering the changes in history she caused, brought on the world. It’s easy to assume she didn’t care.  
    I mean the Dazzlings, Tirek, and Discord, done less damage, also out of their own wil like Starlight, and got blasted or imprissoned (yes, Discord got redeemption, but after he was petrified twice for his actions). And Starlight was comparable in sadism to Dazzlings at least.
     
    (Acompare Sunset, before her transformation/corruption wasn’t as sadistic, she released Spike, and didn’t want to harm him/kill him, and even confirmed it).
     
    And seeing th reveal of Starlight’s motivations, one could say Starlight never had an altrustic goal even in the first place, using this logic, just done stuff out of her chilidish spite towards curie marks, and only pretended it was a higher goal to feel better.
     
    (Again, I don’t think so, just using the same, or similar leaps of logic as you)
     
    Again, one could easily say, using the same amounts of leaps of logic you use to try argue that Sunset behaves like brainwashed, one could say Starlight is a morally bancrupt pony, that deserves\d imprissonment, not redeemption with no punishment or consenquences.
     
And Sunset being a bland and boring character and me disliking her for that would not be the same as people disliking Starlight for having personality flaws. If anything, it’s the exact opposite, because I love Starlight for her flaws, and what flaws does Sunset have? You’re making these grand arguments about how subjective and trolly I am being, but name me a prominent character flaw of Sunset.
 
Yeah it is the same, just the other end of the stick, as both are founded on the same very subjective perceptions of a character, and the same exagerations and leaps in logic, if in a way in opposite direction.
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@Supes
 
part 2  
And Sunset being a bland and boring character and me disliking her for that would not be the same as people disliking Starlight for having personality flaws. If anything, it’s the exact opposite, because I love Starlight for her flaws, and what flaws does Sunset have? You’re making these grand arguments about how subjective and trolly I am being, but name me a prominent character flaw of Sunset. Or something interesting about her personality.
 
About Sunset’s notable flaws:
 
  • Sunset’s still has anger issues (again, with Sci-Twi and Snip and Snails. Screamed at Trixie in Rainbow Rocks, In Legend of Everfree She also snapped at Rarity, when she acidentally hurt Twilight by reminding her of the Friendship Games, despite Rarity only having good intentions). It’s suggested her anger, in part turned her villaous, ie in the first movie, she wanted to have revenge on Celestia, and in part, on Twilight for replacing them. That’s a behaviour motivated by anger/wrath. To be clear, Sunset evodently tries to be less pone to anger, but she still sometimes shows outburst of anger, despite her efforts.
     
  • She had definitelly an Ineriority Superiority complex through the movies - first she wanted to prove herself superior at all costs, but latter it switched (as happens real life) into feelings inferior to pony Twilight, and even others from the Humane 5, to the point she feared to speak up more, to not screw things in Rainbow Rocks (which did hinder the story a bit, as things got solved when Sunset found the courage to speak up), and even after she got over it partially, in Friendship Games often compares herself unfavorably to Pony Twilight and and blamed herself when things go wrong, even when no one else is blaming her. To be clear, this is actually quite how Inferiority-Superiroty complexes work in reall life, if a person who first allways wanted to prove themselves best, failed epically, aand realized. To be clear, this is a flaw Sunset kinda got over, but hey, this is character development, especially seeing how her Inferiority-Superiroty complex changed, and Sunset, gradually, for two movies, grew ouf of it.
     
    You could say through a bit of it remained, as Sunset’s proud site a bit resuffraced - she was so proud and believed so much in her intelectual capabilities in “The Finals Countdown”, she didn’t think she has to learn with others, just played games, and even got Twilight into playing chess with her, instead of studying.
     
    -She can be a bit to direct/ insensitive, as she admits it herself in Legend of Everfree:  
    Flash Sentry: So you’re saying I just need to get over her?  
    Sunset Shimmer: Kinda, yeah.  
    Flash Sentry: Ouch. You’re not pulling any punches.  
    Sunset Shimmer: Not really my style. Sorry.

     
    Which can be seen in her interractions with Flash in the mocie, particulary the first one (refernced above), although latter she is more empathetic to Flash, but that conversation got interrupted.
     
    This is also present in her investigation into magic, as she does it, despite Sci-Twi being scared of. This is though complicated, as Sunset dome it part to help Twilight, ie to help her get over fears, as she thinks Twilight is harmng herself by letting herself being ruled by her fears (which is actually true, as Sci-Twi’s refusal to confront her magic, made things in part worse, up to Midnight’s actual return.
     
    And Sunset also investigated magic, to learn what in reality was causing the annomalities in Camp Everfree, to have Twilight stop blaming herself for it, although latter she became conviced (largelly, but not completelly wrongly) the cause is more mundane. Stil, it can count?
     
    Again in “The Finals Countdown”, Sunset doesn’t seem to realise, as opposed to Twilight, how stressfull the exams are for the rest of the girls.
     
    I think those are the most important ones.
     
Speaking of the comic, I’m not taking those into consideration. “Always being a dick” is just a default assumption because there was never any mention of her becoming a dick at a specific point or due to a specific reason.
 
That Celestia took her as a student, at least strongly impllies she wasn’t a jerk then, and Sunset’s words oi Raonbow Rocks, also at least strongly imply she wasn’t allways jerk ,or at least as mean, as we saw her by the first movie.  
“Deep down, I guess I knew I was making a big mistake, and I wanted to still have a way to reach out to her (Celestia).”
 
Also, in the photo of Sunset from her first Fall Formall (on the very left):  

 
She looks innocent, and to possibly further drive the point, her dress is meant by (possibly out-universe) design, meant to ressemble Princess Celestia. This implies Sunset, when she came to the human world, was at least somewhat more innocent. And I’m not the only onne who thinks so.
 
You can say that a picture is little, but animation is a visual* medium – you can tell in animation stories, without the use of language at all.
 
And you overlooked how I wrote that in “A Friendship to Remember”, on which Forgotten Friendship (the new special) is based on – || , showing Sunset as confused and scared in the human world, after sacrificing all of her memories before going through the portal, and apparently the act of going through the portal and the events right before it. Sunset also was not meanspirited then, showing she wasn’t allways a jerk. ||
BackgroundLoL
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@Supes  
part 3
 
Could you actually describe what you like about Sunset? What makes you enjoy having her on screen? What you think is especially well-written about her character? It’s not like I don’t wanna be entertained by her, but as far as my tastes are concerned they’ve been doing the exact wrong things with her ever since her defeat.
 
Well, Sunset’s struggles with the above superiority-interity complex, and her slowly developing out of it is interesting.
 
Her being a more “hands-on learner” compared to the generally more bookish and theoretical Twilights and up to a level Starlight.
 
The process of Sunset development into a from a guilt ridden 6th ranger, into essentially the team leader.
 
Despite what you write:  
The stuff you say about Twilight’s friendship with Sunset mostly seems like speculation and headcanon. Thing is, we never see Twilight communicate with or even mention Sunset at any point after RR (I mean, sure, she came at the end of FG for an easter egg, and Sunset kind of describes something she said to her through a journal in Mirror Magic, but that’s hardly character interaction). I was looking forward to her playing the mentor role, thankfully I got that with Starlight better than I could’ve hoped for.
 
Sunset’s relationship with both Twilights. With pony Twilight, how they grew closer over their mutual stressfull struggles during Rainbow Rocks, and how they learned from each other. How Twilight had initial fears with Sunset, but overcame them as they quicly grew closer during Rainbow Rocks. While it’s a deleted scene, this shows some neat mentoring from Twilight, and shows of the the share closeness between the girls:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7c4ki7Gs7c
 
It’s debatable whenever it’s canon, but it’s a great sene, I cannot get was cut out.
 
How Twilight seemed terified she couldn’t help Sunset because of dealing with Starlight’s time travel revenge, and fearing she may be to late.
 
Their moments in A Friendship to Remember/A Forgotten Friendship.
 
And ‘bout Twilight forgiving Starlight, and accpting her as a student being just pure speculation – Friendship Games premiered before the season 5 finalle, telling earlier hints about the season 5 finalle, and being directly connected to it. This is at least a strong hint.
 
About Twilight not mentioning Sunset in the main series, it’s due to Hasbro’s stupid policies. But in the comics, while not canon, Sunset is the only person living in the human world, Twilight has a picture. I mean, she doesn’t even have one of Flash.  

 
With Sci-Twi, how their relationship grew – first Sunset was projecting onto Sci-Twi pony Twilight, and had unrealitic expectactions, hence her outburst at the poor girl, which Sunset really regreted, and done everything to help her. How Sunset learned to care about Sci-Twi as her own person.
 
How Sunset didn’t act stupidly, and didn’t needlessly endagner Sci-Twi’s relationship with Timber – she suspected Timber might be up to something bad, feared he may use Twilight, or even hurt her, but as opposed to many, MANY examples, she waited till she got whay she thought damning evidence.
 
(Yes, she was wrong, but Timber covering for his sister REALLY made him come of as the possible bad guy, and the evidence point out to him. Not to mention, Timber’s actions did allow Gloriosa to be fully corrpted, and also him covering for her, alos caused Sci-Twi think she/Midnight was behind the chaos, and feel worse, and worse, so Sunset wasn’t THAT of.)
 
How Sunset helped Sci-Twi to overome her fears, and Midnight, and really comeout of her shell. I mean, compare Sci-Twi from Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree to the Sci-Twi from Dance Magic and latter.
 
While more subtle, Sunset relationship with Celestia - the Princess of the Sun is definitelly was an influence on Sunset, and she was first mitaved by a need of revenge and spite towards Celestia, but it’s visible by Rainbow Rocks this was caused by Sunset feeling rejected by Celestia, and still feeling a bond to the Princess, even in her darkest moments (again):  
Sunset Shimmer: When I was Princess Celestia’s student back in Equestria, she gave me this. Even after I abandoned my studies, I held onto it. Deep down, I guess I knew I was making a big mistake, and I wanted to still have a way to reach out to her. Maybe it still works.
 
This is further confirmed in Broken Friendship/A Friendship to Remember, || for example were Clestia is the first person Sunset calls out to, when she lost all of her memories from before ging throught the mirror portal for the first time.||
 
While possibly not canon, in “Sunset Shimmer’s Time to Shine”, the novel by the same writer as A Friendship to Remember, it’s stated Sunset’ Cutie Mark symbolized her desire to become like Princess Celestia.
 
How Sunset decided in Friendship Games she must act on her own, even without pony Twilight, in part to help another Twilight, and save everyone. It’s notable, as earlier, she was quite lost without the contact with pony Twilight.
 
An I could add others, but this comment already is REALLY LONG.
 
I don’t know what to write else to you – you’re to stubborn to change your mind. Maybe a comparison of your own words. You are angered by:  
Besides, people saying that Starlight is a pale imitation of Sunset or some such nonsense are infinitely worse anyway.
 
But you write yourself similar things, like:  
From my perspective, the notion of Sunset being a good character is completely ridiculous.
 
Seeing that, I’m not sure I respond to you again under this picture, as it just comes of to me a discussion with you about this may have no sense….
Background Pony #54FD
@Background Pony #063B
 
Repeating the exact same thing over and over and getting in the exact same point is annoying and not endearing at all. Valid points or not.
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🔥Sunset is best girl🔥
@Background Pony #063B  
not really seeing how supes isn’t being a fanboy or how he’s the only one making valid points.
Background Pony #0DCA
@Background Pony #D365  
Why even make a comment like this? Supes actually makes valid points and presents his points. All I’ve seen here is fanboyism from sunset fans
Supes

@BackgroundLoL  
What logic are you even talking about? I’m just expressing my (genuine, thank you very much) opinion on the two characters. There is zero exaggeration in the statement that I don’t enjoy Sunset’s character whatsoever, or that I enjoy Starlight as much as I’ve ever enjoyed any character in MLP.
 
What “wrong leaps of logic” am I making with Sunset? Sure, you “can say that Starlight comes off as brainwashed” but you would be flat out wrong. Sunset was straight selfish, arrogant, egotistical and sociopathic the whole movie, then she gets hit by the big magic blast and comes out of it crying and wanting to be shown another way. Starlight was never hit by any reforming magic blast, she slowly came over to Twilight’s side after being shown the fruits of her revenge, then compassion, then encouragement. Anyone who would “use my logic” to claim that Starlight “comes off as brainwashed” even remotely as much as Sunset would just be objectively wrong, period.
 
And Sunset being a bland and boring character and me disliking her for that would not be the same as people disliking Starlight for having personality flaws. If anything, it’s the exact opposite, because I love Starlight for her flaws, and what flaws does Sunset have? You’re making these grand arguments about how subjective and trolly I am being, but name me a prominent character flaw of Sunset. Or something interesting about her personality.
 
Speaking of the comic, I’m not taking those into consideration. “Always being a dick” is just a default assumption because there was never any mention of her becoming a dick at a specific point or due to a specific reason. I was actually expecting you’d bring the comics in defence of Sunset because at least they give her SOME backstory and context, while without the comics all you get about her is literally one line from Celestia before Twilight ever goes to the human world. In my book, even a weakly presented backstory is better than none at all.
 
The stuff you say about Twilight’s friendship with Sunset mostly seems like speculation and headcanon. Thing is, we never see Twilight communicate with or even mention Sunset at any point after RR (I mean, sure, she came at the end of FG for an easter egg, and Sunset kind of describes something she said to her through a journal in Mirror Magic, but that’s hardly character interaction). I was looking forward to her playing the mentor role, thankfully I got that with Starlight better than I could’ve hoped for.
 
Anyway, predictably, I completely disagree with you. From my perspective, the notion of Sunset being a good character is completely ridiculous. If anything, it’s even worse with all these shorts because they just kept adding more cool and hip hobbies and skills to her trying to make her more and more awesome (drawing comics, graffiti, gaming, painting, etc). From my perspective, saying Sunset is a good character is fanboyism.
 
Could you actually describe what you like about Sunset? What makes you enjoy having her on screen? What you think is especially well-written about her character? It’s not like I don’t wanna be entertained by her, but as far as my tastes are concerned they’ve been doing the exact wrong things with her ever since her defeat.
 
@Background Pony #D365  
Lol sure bud. If anyone ever presented legitimate examples of what is good about Sunset I’d love to agree with them because I loved Rainbow Rocks, Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree, and I love EqG in general. It’s nice that you care enough to remember me, but if you actually read the discussions I participate in you’d have seen they tend to resolve calmly with agreeing to disagree. If anything, I WANT people to change the opinions I express because I really don’t enjoy, well, not enjoying Sunset’s character. Not my fault that the level of arguments for her is usually only good enough for a confused “what? How does someone derive entertainment from this?”.
 
Besides, people saying that Starlight is a pale imitation of Sunset or some such nonsense are infinitely worse anyway.
Gian~
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@ChuymaruZ  
Haha, yeah, that was a really stupid mistake for me to make…(_;)
 
I really should have less tabs oppened at the same time, especially of the same site XD
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meh
@BackgroundLoL  
now you post it in the correct thread KEK
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@Supes  
Jesh Supes, you’re really exaggerating and being very subjective, just to portray Sunset as worse than Starlight. Some blatant fanboyism here.
 
And tell me how are you not trolling, seeing you essentially want to present Sunset as badly as possibly, by at best presenting very subjective opinions and borderline manipulating facts? At a Sunset-centric announcement? Sorry, but now you are playing dumb.
 
The same leaps of logic about you use with Sunset, to portray her as a “bland, boring character”, could be used with Starlight and are used by her haters, and even not haters, them claiming Starlight is sociopath, who doesn’t learn on her mistakes (ie basically had two times the same problems with Sunburst, making a lot of mistakes similar to past, showing she doesn’t learn or really changed), and they that these aren’t flaws that make her deeper, but marks of Jerk Sue. And also the same leaps of logic you use, could be used to claim Starlight is something of a stale character - as she commits constantly the same mistakes.
 
Heck, using your “logic” one could say Starlight also comes of as brainwashed, rather than convinced by “ natural persuasion” - at one moment, she was so blinded by revenge, she at the very least didn’t notice she ruined Equestria a multiple times, or like some of her critics state, she didn’t care, at least until she caused the extinction of life, a scene latter she’s basically all happy, and friends with people she worked over and over to ruin.
 
(note: not something I believe, just using similar leaps of logic as you, which is ironically the same thing Starlight’s haters do).
 
And really, “Sunset allays being a dick” from comics is non canon for a LOOONG time now since Rainbow Rocks (and most IDW comics are declared un-canon, with some exceptions like Legends of Magic). (And I mean, in the prequel comic Moonndancer looks completely different, Mooondancer, Lyra, Colgate, Lemon Heart and Twinkle Shine were shown as also much older than Twilight while in the cartoon they are exactly Twilight’s age) .Sunset stated in Rainbow Rocks she had doubts all the time about what she was doing, or her words:  
“Deep down, I guess I knew I was making a big mistake, and I wanted to still have a way to reach out to her (Celestia).”
 
Even latter comics, if non canon, shown Sunset as being very lonely, which was a reason for her descent to evil:  
 
 

 
And “A Friendship to Remember”/“Forgotten Friendship” further develops this characterisation, showing Sunset || as confused and scared in the human world, after sacrificing all of her memories before going through the portal, and apparently the act of going through the portal and the events right before it||
 
Not to mention, the comic even contradicted stuff in the first Equestria Girls movie - Celestia describes Sunset’s departure visibly differently, Sunset in the comic is in some ways more mean spirited than in the movie, and Sunset words at the end tell she was motivated by lack of real bonds with others:  
“But… But all I’ve ever done since being here is drive everyone apart. I don’t know the first thing about friendship.”
 
In other words, the writer of the prequel comic, screwed up.
 
And the writing with Sunset does pay of - in the (canon) Legend of Magic, Celestia was shown to being youth similar to Sunset for example, and in Forgotten Friendship, the plot is caused by Sunset’s pre-redeemption behavior, and Sunset’s past victim of sorts not understanding how Sunset could be forgiven and accepted, while she is still lonely.
 
Twilight forgiving Starlight so easily, and accepting her as a student, was VERY probably because of her experiences with Sunset.
 
And Sunset’s bond with pony Twilight is VERY important, and has impact – she yelled at Sci-Twi, as she expected her to have pony Twilight’s wisdom, and behave like her. Latter, she also became so close to Sci-Twi, in part due to her bond to pony Twilight, as she stated on Facebook (in an official statement by Hasbro):  
My friend Twilight Sparkle was there for me, and now it’s my turn to be there for her. — Sunset Shimmer
 
Her meeting Starlight, was motivated by need to still have contact with Twilight. And “Forgotten Friendship”/“A Friendship to Remember” further explores the bond of Sunset and pony Twilight.
 
And to be clear, I did not use in my previous comment the “Appeal to Popularity” arguement, as I didn’t claim Sunset being more popular, automatically makes her a better character (It was another commenter). Heck, I wrote both are good characters, and objected to hate towards Starlight in another comment here. And seeing you write about “matters of taste”, can’t you also see your own opinion about Sunset is subjective? And that yes, you can like Starlight much more, but that doesn’t mean you have to be essentially a hater of Sunset
 
So sorry Supes, to me you come as an example of You are What You Hate / He who fights the monsters , only that you use towards Sunset the same fallacious logic, haters of Starlight use.
 
And if anything, you are making the problem worse…as you put fans of Starlight in a bad light with your behavior…(which also kinda am, as I quite like her).
 
Especially as Background Pony #D365 noted, you are doing such stuff for years by now.
Background Pony #54FD
@BackgroundLoL
 
This guy has been whining about Sunset’s character compared to Starlight for the past two years. He’ll never shut up, so don’t waste your time entertaining him. You can’t win against someone like that.
Supes

@BackgroundLoL  
No, I’m not trolling. I absolutely stand by my opinion that Sunset is a bland, boring character. The little outburst at Twilight was the only time she had any personality, and even then, everyone snaps sometimes in this show. It’s not unique enough to her and not prominent enough to be a persistent character trait that makes her entertaining.
 
I really couldn’t care less who was forgiven fast and who wasn’t. After Discord was forgiven in the season 4 finale, I’m not expecting ponies to behave reasonably in that respect whatsoever. However, Sunset being hated by some of her peers did not produce any entertainment and didn’t really add much to her character.
 
My problem with Sunset is that she was pretty much brainwashed, completely lost every iota of her old personality (occasinal anger that many other characters also exhibit from time to time really is nowhere near enough), completely dropped all of her backstory (looks like they’re finally picking parts of it up again, but it’s way too late), and just turned to this angel with no personality and a weird unexplained living situation (why does she still go to the school even? If it’s just because of her friends, it’s unhealthy and stupid). Even her friendship with Pony Twilight never goes anywhere. She never acts in an interesting way anymore. She’s just the Gordon Freeman of EqG.
 
None of that applies to Starlight. She was a much better villain, her reformation was actually not achieved by a seemingly brainwashing laser, but rather by natural persuasion, and she didn’t become a completely different character after it: her past continued to be relevant for more than a whole season. Watching her slow, incremental improvements in attitude and understanding of socialization was the most fascinating a character’s ever been in this show for me. And her relationship with Princess Twilight is one of the most heartwarming ones too, enhancing Twilight’s character beyond what I thought it could reach.
 
 
@Background Pony #162C  
By your logic Sunset Shimmer is just a Twilight replacement, her name is closer to Twilight’s in meaning than to Starlight’s. Not an argument.  
Post-reformation Sunset was received well because everything else about Rainbow Rocks was superb, and everyone fell for the new meek angel waifu Sunset who was a novelty after her bland villain persona in the previous movie. It was pretty much the mix of the shallow reasons people like Rainbow (“Oh she’s so cool and everything she does is cool!”) and the shallow reasons people like Fluttershy (“Oh she’s so meek and adorable!”). Many people completely ignore the fact that she doesn’t have flaws (no, one and a half minor anger outbursts don’t count, even if that scene was the one time Sunset was interesting post-reformation. Actually, I tend to bring that scene up myself in such discussions) or personality because she’s just effective at being so great at everything that people fall for her despite not being directly entertained. I didn’t really mind her lackluster characterization either until Reformed Starlight entered the scene and the comparisons began. Thinking of both characters made me realize that Sunset is only a good character in fanfics, but pretty much never in canon.  
And at least Starlight has a backstory. Sunset doesn’t even have that. Sure, Starlight’s was a bit weak, but it justified her bad side well enough, especially if you were willing to fill in some of the gaps which, fair enough, isn’t optimal and the reason I consider it weakly delivered. Sunset though? Zilch. “Former student of Celestia who was always a dick”. And even that gets immediately forgotten after the original movie and has been ignored ever since.  
Also, appeals to majority opinions are not a good argument either. There are countless things that most people get wrong and only few people get right. This is more of a matter of taste here than of objective truth, but I will never agree that Sunset is a good character at this stage of EqG, or that Starlight is worse thant Sunset in any aspect at all (I mean, really, color scheme? How much more can you scrape from the bottom of the barrel?).
BackgroundLoL
Fine Arts - Two hundred uploads with a score of over a hundred (Safe/Suggestive)

@Background Pony #162C  
And while I agree with your defense of Sunset, and appreciate it (especially that Supes seems to intetonally want to start an argument/conflict), do we have try to argue one of the two sucks?
 
I mean, there are Sunset x Starlight shippers (growing in number), so there are people who like both.
BackgroundLoL
Fine Arts - Two hundred uploads with a score of over a hundred (Safe/Suggestive)

@Supes
 
@Supes  
I mean, are you trolling?  
You pretty much are trying to apply to Sunset, points people (if unfairly) applied to Starlight. I can understand you are maybe not that happy about some of her haters, but doing the same, is hypocrisy.
 
Background Pony #162C pointed out well Sunset was flaws, like her anger issues. Another example is when she again yelled at Snips, and Snails:  

 
And “5 minutes of high schoolers scowling at Sunset”? Nearly everyone hated Sunset at the school. It was through most of the movie, and in reality it was going on for months. And the Humane 5 still didn’t 100% accept her. And even Twilight at the start of Rainbow Rocks having a bit doubts about Sunset.
 
I mean, this is one of the visible advantages Sunset has over Starlight you want to swipe under the rug – Starlight was very easily forgiven, despite Starlight’s actions causing at a point a total extinction of life on World apparently, or at least an extinction event. Yes, she didn’t notice she is doing it, but tells how she was absorbed into at this point petty revenge on the Mane 6, particularly Twilight, that she didn’t notice how she making the world horrible. And Starlight did it at this point to just have revenge on Twilight, yet Twilight after that had no doubts about Starlight (aside from being overprotective). Nor did the rest of Mane 6, despite Starlight’s earlier actions were she essentially wanted to brainwash them (at least in some fashion).
 
(You could say Twilight learned from her bond with Sunset, hence becoming a better mentor, but that means to admitting the revolutionary thing, that maybe, maybe Sunset and Starlight, and their story arcs complement each-other).
 
Yes, Starlight has in turn other advantages, but don’t try to reduce Sunset into a 2-dimensional character, as you are behaving exactly like haters of Starlight.