I've always liked Sunset Shimmer. Back when the first Equestria Girls movie released, I was about 17. You know how girls see a troubled guy who's cruel, violent, a straight up criminal wearing a leather jacket and bullying everyone around him and think "I can fix him"? Yeah, that's me but with girls. Limestone and Gilda ftw.

Everyone who was there at the time knows that EQG's reception was shaky at best. I can't blame them. The setting was weird and many things didn't make sense, it all felt like a really rushed fanfic. But even back then I was open to give it a chance. I don't like peeking behind the curtains, but when you're in this fandom, that's all everyone talks about. Lauren Faust this, Josh Haber that, McCarthy did nothing wrong, etc. When you realize the team that worked on EG was the same one as FiM, you realize what's really going on. Hasbro higherups demanded a competitor to Monster High, and MLP was doing well, so they gave the team a deadline, rushed S3 and gave them a list of predetermined tropes they had to make work somehow. Yeah, EG1 was so-so, but they did their best and the highs outweight the lows.

I liked Sunny well enough. Her character was all over the place, her plan didn't make any sense, her motivations were weird, but she had a really nice design, a personality I fell for and a very juicy backstory.

But man, fucking EG2 happened. The Dazzlings are still popular for a reason, but the redemption of Sunset? There's a reason why it resonated with so many people. Yeah, she was terrible, but she was trying to change and no one gave her a chance. You felt her pain when even her friends threw jabs at her or ignored her in favor of Twi. Her relationship with Twi was SO good. That sleepover talk? No wonder they gave Katrina the director role later on, because DAMN, that scene lives rent free in my head. It's just such a good moment of genuine connection between two similar people who are in such different places, yet can still connect over the same pressure. EG2 finally sold me on Sunset being a good character. She had a lot of potential, and they effectively started using her well.