Girl knows what she wants out of a relationship and ain’t afraid to go for it.

It’s definitely a more sensible approach than all the dinguses who chase a tail because DAT ASS, which for some strange reason doesn’t seem to get quite as much societal flak as DAT BIG FAT WALLET.

The two are way more similar than people are willing to admit, and each has their strengths and weaknesses. In particular people point to “Rainbow Rocks” as the golden standard by which they’re judging Starlight Glimmer’s redemption arc. As much as I LOVE Rainbow Rocks, from the villains to the music to the story, to say that it’s the “perfect redemption story” is pushing it to an insane degree. And when people say they want to see Starlight go through something like that… just makes me shake my head.

A Brief Comparison Between Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer

1: The entire point of “Rainbow Rocks” was that you had an innocent character being bullied by a school that didn’t believe she had changed. The viewer was clued in immediately (and before that even, in the first movie) that she had changed. And yeah it’s UNDERSTANDABLE why the rest of the students didn’t trust her, and it made for some interesting conflict, but the conflict didn’t come from these actions being JUSTIFIED (which is not the same as being understandable), it came from them being entirely needless. You felt bad for Sunset Shimmer because despite her best efforts to show that she had legitimately changed and get along with her fellow students, nobody would believe her.

Whereas with Starlight Glimmer she’s forgiven more quickly and most ponies don’t seem to know what she did in the first place… and that’s basically it. People seem to have a problem with this, for some reason. I’ve stated many times on this site that I simply don’t believe in punishment for the sake of punishment. Punishment should be a means to an end (that end being rehabilitation), not a goal in itself. Punishment without an end-goal is just petty vengeance. Which is exactly what Sunset Shimmer was experiencing in Rainbow Rocks.

2: The reason I think people’s interpretation of “Rainbow Rocks” really doesn’t work as its own ultimate redemption arc is that… Sunset Shimmer doesn’t change in it. It’s less about her redeeming herself for past transgressions than it is in making others realize that she has already become a good person. She’s good in the beginning, she’s good in the end, SO good she literally teaches Princess Twilight a friendship lesson. Seeing a good person grow into a good person just doesn’t seem much like a redemption at this point. It’s a fantastic conflict, no doubt, but not what I’d call a personal redemption arc.

Starlight Glimmer meanwhile spent most of Season 6 legitimately struggling with her own impulses and habits. A lifetime of getting what she wanted with nary a thought for others had turned her into an impulsive self-centered jerk, and this was displayed many times throughout the season. She was continuously trying to manage her own impulses, failing on multiple occasions and trying to learn from it. This all lead up to the Season 6 finale where all of her attempts to control herself, and Twilight teachings, were tested with her being forced to coordinate with others without manipulation magic, without even a chance to make anypony do what she wanted, just through sheer understanding and… well, friendship. Starlight walked a long road not to convince others that she was good, but to actually BECOME good, after spending the rest of the season struggling to change. I’m not saying the writing was perfect, but as far as redemption goes, it’s actually a much greater struggle than Sunset faced, as anybody who has ever had to break their own bad habits and change their own point of view can probably attest to. It’s not nearly as easy as “Oh, I was wrong? Well, tell me what to do now and we’ll get this fixed right up!” This leads into…

3: The thing about Sunset Shimmer is… she’s simply not the same character she was in the first movie. Period. Between the first movie and Rainbow Rocks, not a single shred of who she had been remained. The character who had been harsh, abrasive, selfish, aggressive, confident, and commanding suddenly became a soft-spoken, wide-eyed, supportive and obedient little puppy dog. And I love Sunset Shimmer to death, I really do, but the change is so wild and abrupt that she doesn’t really change in Rainbow Rocks. She’s a good person going in and she’s a good person coming out of it. Which she was distinctly not in the first movie. I would expect that character to be way more loud and aggressively frustrated with being outcast, not become the silent punching bag of Canterlot High.

Starlight Glimmer, meanwhile, retains a lot of her traits through all three seasons, both as a villain and as a protagonist. She continues to be brash and impulsive throughout season 6 and 7, treating others with an awkward smile and attempt at civility consistent with someone who has spent many years getting her way without question and years before that actively avoiding friendships with other ponies. You can see how the villain of Season 5 slowly becomes the pony of Season 7, and again, while the writing wasn’t perfect, Season 6 made an attempt to actually show her progression as a person complete with a final test of her growth and conviction in the finale. It would’ve been better served showing more of that growth, but I mean… if we’re comparing her to Sunset Shimmer, her growth came in the form of magic lasers, so she still has more on-screen growth than that.

I dunno, it just bothers me to see the same arguments thrown down over and over bashing Starlight Glimmer, especially when they hold Sunset Shimmer’s equally flawed redemption up on a pedestal just because she was “punished” for her crimes despite having way less on-screen character growth or really any true internal conflict. All of Sunset’s conflict was external, struggling with the way the students see her, while Starlight spent Season 6 in an internal struggle, fighting with (and learning from) her own villainous habits, trying to reconcile who she has been for most of her life with the ideals that she now wants to hold true. Both good in their own way, but each kind of misses something the other captured a little better.

In my opinion, of course.