Equestria-Daily

Let’s start with how, from the first EG to Rainbow Rocks, Sunset lost every single last negative trait she ever had, ever. Just like that. Her conflict in Rainbow Rocks had absolutely nothing to do with her struggling to become a better, more trustworthy person. It was merely in trying to convince everyone else that she had become that person already. What’s more, she practically treats her old self as if it were a different persona entirely, because that’s what it honestly may as well have been. As if the rainbow blast she took at the end of the first movie straight up exorcised the demon that was living within her, and now what’s left is the real Sunset who, as it turns out, was never mean or a bully at all. And that’s really the only valid explanation as to how someone could do a complete personality change as rapidly as she did.

Oh, and uh, by the way, did we mention that she was great guitar-player? Could do motocross? Is a thoroughly impressive painter and artist in general? Does street art under a pseudonym? Is an avid gamer? Is able to live on only a part-time worker’s salary with no roommate? Yeah, because all of that came in addition to the loss of any and all negative traits: a slew of talents and hobbies, most of which would hardly make any sense for her previous self, and all of which were introduced on whim with the writers suddenly deciding that she was good at something or interested in something. The most jarring of these, in my opinion, was her being an artist, because that one didn’t surface until 2016, long after we already had an idea as to who even the reformed Sunset was. And of course, that was doubled down on with her "Flanksy" persona, because evidently, Sunset just yearns oh so dearly to share her art with the world without anyone knowing who she is…even though she never really alluded to that at all. Nor has it ever been brought up since because of course it hasn’t. It was just another thing that needed to happen just to serve the sole purpose of making the fandom fall that much deeper in love with her.

She long ago stopped being a character in her own right to me and instead became an active experiment on the writers’ part to create the perfect fandom waifu, which they succeeded at, make no friggin’ mistake about that. Sunset is by far the most beloved character of G4 MLP, perhaps aside from some other fandom darlings like Derpy or Maud. Hell, some of the early hate Starlight got was a direct result of the love for Sunset, from people who felt that Starlight "stole" her place as the mane seventh. This experiment clearly started with Rainbow Rocks when the fandom at large suddenly loved her pieces (because of course they would, given how much she was victimized), and it had its most recent development a few months ago with the "revelation" that Sunset is bi. Are you a total nerd who does little more than play Fortnite all day long? Well, guess what?! Sunset’s a gamer, too!!! Are you a girl and upset that you’ll never have a chance with Sunset because she’s apparently only into guys?! Oh, ho, ho, DO I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU!!!!

The end result is that she appeals to absolutely everybody. On paper, there’s absolutely nothing to not like about her, and this is why I find her to be so unappealing (that, and how I generally find her more zealous fans to be obnoxious). Hell, this isn’t even to mention just how flat-out perfect she was for the longest time before some of the more recent EG content gave her the ability to actually get angry or not be utterly adept at absolutely everything she does. Suffice to say, I definitely find a whole lot wrong with her reformed personality.

Sunset the genius programmer, super magical prodigy, singer, painter, comic book artist, guitar player, sushi chef with mind reading powers, and the super secret seventh element of forgiveness.
Sunset the shining alicorn goddess of perfection, a cosmic entity of importance, super specialmuffin x1000 ultra instinct mary snowflake.

Trixie should have filled the role Starlight and Sunset (boring uninspired Twilight clones) stole from her.

You know those brightly colored OC's that are way more talented and important than they have any right to be? That's Sunset, she's like someones deviantart "original" character.

I cant bring myself to try again with Sunset. They made her obnoxiously talented at everything. They made her "better" Trixie and Twilight. They gave her more attitude than Trixie, while also making her super kind and understanding. She is Twilight-tier in magic power, Sombra-tier in magical knowledge, Dash tier in combat abilities, and Cozy-tier in strategy. Everything about her character doesn't feel genuine, its all forced. They even give her a super form and a demon form. They made her everything. Take the problems of Twilight and multiply them a hundredfold. Her life is the opposite of Trixie's life. I refuse to like this forced waifubait. They are screaming for us to like Sunset, but I wont.

You cant build a good character with a foundation of shit.

In the meantime we are supposed to accept her flaws as charming, while they make her talented at everything. Her redemption was not believeable, she was handed that along with all the support she would need, unlike Trixie and exactly like Glimmer. Sunset had the perfect life, threw it away and had it handed back to her. In the end, she is nothing but an unoriginal Twilight clone they try to shove down our throats.

She pretty much did a 180 from evil bland villain to a character that wants to be good. Her character is pathetically shallow. She's exactly as bland in RR, if not more so, than she was in the first movie.

In Rainbow Rocks, the one that according to most people dealt with Sunset's redemption, it didn't affect anything beyond "and Sunset is often seen looking a bit glum in the background", in the end she still gets to be the hero without that much effort.

The extent of Sunset's emotional trouble can be summed up with "Well, that kinda sucked, guess I have to take responsibility for something".

The main cast aren't perfect friends to her in Rainbow Rocks, but after everything she did to them, they still happen to magically like her just like that. The most interesting part of Sunset's situation would've been gaining forgiveness from the humane 5 and we don't see any of it. And I don't see how her "obstacles" are even remotely comparable to what the main cast have had to go through throughout the main series. Oh sure, the entire school didn't magically forgive her immediately... but in a couple of months or so they do. And Sunset wasn't doing much more during RR than skulking in the shadows and supplying ideas here and there, much more pressure was on Twilight.

I just don't see where is this grueling journey we supposedly see her make. Or any gradual attitude change. Horrible person in the original, then suddenly magically 100% repentant and forgiven by those who matter most at the end. Then manages to save the day in the end of the second one which makes her situation pretty much perfect.



Why does Trixie get stepped on after she lived through years of humiliation, why do Glimmer and Shimmer get handed everything she never had on a silver platter.

Why is Trixie treated with such disrespect by the writers, why did they flandeize her and take away the little bit of courage she had. Specialmuffin glimmer had to restrain her with magic because of how hysterical and stupid they made Trixie, and they didn't even give her one magic spell to her name.

let’s go over Trixie's appearances and mentions:

She’s a magician whose white lie during a show turns on her thanks to some idiot kids, loses her only possessions and runs out of town humiliated.

Is humiliated in the local tabloid
Comes back with a mind-affecting talisman, reveals her property was vandalized, she was humiliated wherever she went, worked hard labour to make ends meet, and is ultimately proven to be a powerless fool without the talisman
Comes back, makes a friend, her animosity towards Twilight gets the better of her, and then tries to kill herself
Goes on an adventure with her new friend, is constantly taunted as being useless, and ultimately is only useful as a diversion, getting captured
Is shown, again, to be inept at "real magic", and completely useless without Starlight around
Is shown to be inept at stage magic, so is now in canon utterly useless
Is shown to have a father just as inept as her that doesn’t even know he has a daughter, implying her childhood was crap as well
Her every appearance in the show is to use her to make other character’s look better. I guess that wouldn’t be a problem in most shows, except she’s one of the very few characters in this show that at points is actually relatable as a "real person that could actually exist". For anyone that’s a fan of her for such reasons, that may even identify with her for any number of reasons, and not just waifu-ism nonsense, it’s kinda crap that her every new appearance just makes her look worse or makes her reality more depressing.

It really is at the point where it’d be better for her to just be a background character with no lines; as soon as she’s treated as a character that exists, she’s just the buttmonkey.

Boast Busters:

The episode was a mess. One of the earlier interviews with Thiesen on EqD, and I believe a reddit AMA, had him say that the original script / layout had to be hacked down and it stuck with him over how much overtime they had to do to make the episode make sense.

In the end, they still messed up; they accelerated the initial reason for "conflict" so fast/poorly that they made 3 of the M6 look like petty hecklers and gave valid reasons for Trixie to act out on them. They were front row audience of a free show and were making a fuss about it from second zero, before any callouts; nobody that isn’t a jerkass does something like, but the M6 were made to act that way so Trixie would start her challenges. At that point they’re hecklers, and as anyone that’s seen standup comedy knows, hecklers get humiliated and used to entertain the rest of the audience; of course, making the M6 feel bad is a mortal sin for most of the fandom, as we all know from the way people flipped over Gilda making Fluttershy cry.

The merit of how she treated the challenges is contestable, but as far as I’m concerned was fair given the circumstances; AJ made a point of being so much better and used some rope tricks, Trixie used rope tricks on her and put her down a peg; RD got aggressive and used her flight to control the weather, Trixie used magic to control the weather and give her a shock (the same terrible shock, mind you, that Dash uses to "terrorize" innocent bystanders in Nightmare Night, so hush you with any claims she was assaulted); RY called out her style and looks and trashed Trixie’s stage to make herself look better with magic, Trixie user her magic to trash Rarity’s mane to have her look worse. She was challenged with shows of rope use, weather control, and object transformation, and she proved she was better at those things, put some hecklers in their place, and got cheers from the public. If this had been a M6 character putting on the show in front of a hostile audience, we’d be expected to cheer for them; but it’s not, the show’s always had a clear double standard when dealing with what the M6 can do and what other characters can do.

Trixie messed up by lying about a fantastical event only idiot children or yokels would take seriously in the one town populated by idiot children and yokels that lied on the border of The Forbidden Forest; but the aesop didn’t deal with lies or boasting. RD, AJ, and RY messed up by heckling a performer during their act and having as big of an as her; but the aesop didn’t deal with not harassing artists or biting down your tongue over pride. The wonderdolts and Spike messed up by taking the show too seriously, putting their idols on mile-high pedestals, and fighting over them; but the aesop wasn’t about the dangers of fanboyism. In the end the aesop as about how you should feel OK to prove you’re good at something if you think you’re good at something; it was all about Twilight. And the aftermath was Trixie losing her home, her possessions, her job, and her pride, the wonderdolts getting prized with mustaches, Twilight becoming the town hero and Best Pony That Ever Lived, again, and some random pony having to retile their roof.

Oh, and showing that Dash was more than willing to physically beat up Trixie. But let’s just ignore that part lest we spark a debate on all of Dash’s deep faults and how we’re expected to see them as charming character traits…

Trixie is a parody of what she used to be. She’s a loud, brash idiot who never learns from her mistakes.

She’s not like when she first appeared. When her confident, overbearing attitude was just a front to hide her vulnerability. Like take a look at most of the episodes she’s in with Glimmer. Even the ones where she learns her lesson so to speak (the episode where she shoots herself out of a cannon and the one with Starlight’s bottled up anger) she still acts like an immature brat. It annoys me to no end how little respect they have for her as a character. She’s essentially a walking punchline in FiM.