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[reading-sometimes]

I'm glad that you didn't intend for Sunset to be suicidal. I thought that it was a reach, but quotes like "Sunset Shimmer knew she would die purposelessly at Canterlot High" made me raise an eyebrow. And Twilight's Mirror outright asking Sunset if she died on purpose.

“Is that why you died? On purpose? Why you wouldn’t talk to anyone?” Twilight’s Mirror warbled through her static-y voice like it was her fault. “You never wanted to see us again?”

It was Twilight's Mirror, so it probably wasn't accurate to what Twilight herself thought about it.

I hope that you don't see this as me trying to argue with you or anything! I just found it interesting.

Was Sunset supposed to be depressed/suicidal in the last arc of empathy for the devil?

Naturally with a question like that, content warning! I'm going to be using the word so skip this analysis if you don't want to read that.

That's a good question. I think it’s open for interpretation exactly what "exile" translates to metaphorically. You could definitely read it that way

I'll seperate depression and suicidality. From my perspective, she was depressed as of chapter 9 she just doesn't have the words for that. She's not too in tune with her feelings or the language for them. We see her disassociate a bit in class, nothing feels quite real to her. Her friends definitely pick up on it. They'd eventually get to the point where they threw her and Timber an intervention.

Twilight seems to think Sunset "hasn't been herself since before [her] roadtrip." She noticed things like Sunset sounding "stressed and fatalistic" and that all her "cute little jokes are just digs at [herself] now.” And she definitely wasn't the only one. We see the others trying to cheer her up and checkin with her in chapter 8, knowing she told them she doesn't want to talk about her feelings all the way back in chapter 2. Even in chapter 10, Twilight picks up on how many times Sunset’s apologizing without even thinking.

In chapter 8, Sunset even remembers the last time she felt this bad, which was right after the Fall Formal. She makes a checklist of a lot of the external things as signs she wasn't doing well internally then, and she seems to judge herself for them, but interesting that she's talking about not sleeping, not taking care of herself physically, and even mismatched clothes before she even thinks to talk about her emotions.

Depressed, yeah. Suicidal, depends how you read it. But it's a very valid interpretation and would certainly make all her friends' fears for her that much more dire.

Depression is super common - and definitely in high school. Sometimes in middle school, too. It's because around that age your brain is quite literally developing the capacity for emotions in your amygdala before it develops your prefrontal cortex. Your ability to regulate your emotions develops after the emotions do (I would wager a guess that's because you have to have develop it by regulating your emotions - which takes time to learn). I had friends who had depression in high school and one with suicidal ideation.

While it wasn't like an intended goal I had when outlining the story, it also doesn't surprise me. It really just came about as a natural consequence of where the character would be emotionally if she felt she didn't have a real purpose on top of the massive amounts of guilt and shame she doesn't know what to do with. Our girl was going through it.

By the end, though, we do see her find her drive and purpose again. And interestingly, Sunset seemed pretty convinced her exile would be best for everyone but as soon as she sees how devastated her friends were that she was leaving, she realizes how loved and important she is to them. She chooses to stick around for them, for the life she wants to build, and a purpose of her own choosing. And the whole damn school calls out to her when they think she's a demon! Things get better for her despite the fact that it felt to her like it never could.

And you haven't seen it yet, but it's not like she doesn't have emotions to deal with after this is all over. You'll see how Sunset is doing after all that in the next stories! But she's got a good support system, and has learned it's okay not to be okay.

I'm sure that won't come in handy at all 😉

[reading-sometimes]

Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree SHC Sorting

This is part 4 of a 4-part series. I would do the specials, but the only new characters that are introduced in them are the villains, so I feel like it would get pretty repetitive. An explanation of the SHC system by @wisteria-lodge can be found here.

Sunset: Badger Lion

Sunset's goal for this movie is helping Twilight, since Twilight has PTSD after turning into a demon in Friendship Games. Twilight's the friend who needs Sunset the most, so she's mostly focused on her.

She shows her Lion secondary by being very blunt when she's talking to Flash. She tells him to get over his crush on Princess Twilight, since she spends most of her time in Equestria.

She also has a Snake secondary model, which she's never had before. Sunset lies to Timber about why she and Twilight were in the woods in the middle of the night, and she lies to Flash about missing an earring, too. Her Snake secondary model dissapears after this movie.

Timber: Badger Bird

Timber's a Badger primary without a group (besides his sister). He's not burned, but he is really desperate for friends. Unlike Gloriosa, he wants to get away from the camp, to live in a town like everyone else. He's scared of people leaving him, because almost everyone in his life leaves him eventually.

Timber's Bird secondary is primarily to make him a good love interest for Twilight - he talks with her about how the scientific name for sapphires is sapphirus, the Latin word for blue.

Gloriosa: Double Badger

Gloriosa struggles with the Double Badger problem of overworking herself. Everything that she does is to make her campers happy, and she shows a mixture of Courier Badger and Bookeeper Badger.

Her Double Badger is incredibly obvious. The existence of the camp gift, where campers work together to build a gift for future campers, is really Double Badger-y. She pretends that there's going to be future campers, even though the camp is on the edge of bankruptcy. She emphasizes multiple times that anyone can come to her if they need anything.

She deals with the fact that her camp is about to go bankrupt by pretending that it isn't, at least around other people. She wants to make their week at camp the best week ever. It's self-imposed toxic positivity.

The pressure of helping everyone gets to her. She's very stressed, since she won't let anyone else help her. When she becomes a villian, it's well-intentioned. She wants to help her camp by gaining enough power to do so, since she believes that she has to do everything alone. She says multiple times that she wants to protect the campers. The camp is saved by contacting people who have come to the camp in the past, and setting up a fundraiser for the camp.

She shows a slight snake secondary model, since she lies about the camp fashion show being a camp tradition when they've never done it before.

[reading-sometimes]

I love analyzing stuff, and I've watched the first paw patrol movie. What unsettled you about it?

hey, does anyone reading this want to do a deep dive analysis of the paw patrol movie (2021)

I don't but my niece made us watch it and I was deeply unsettled

[reading-sometimes]

Equestria Girls: Friendship Games SHC Sorting

This is part 3 of a 4-part series. An explanation of the SHC system by @wisteria-lodge can be found here.

Sci-Twi: Double Bird

Sci-Twi is the version of Twilight from the human world. She's called Sci-Twi by the fandom (it stands for science Twilight) to differentiate her from the other Twilight, who's a Princess. I'll just be calling her Twilight, since it's already established which Twilight she is. Twilight is one of the few people in the movies without a Badger primary model, even though she gets one by the end of the movie.

The only thing that Twilight cares about at the start of the movie is getting into an independent study program, which would mean that she'd be studying alone. She doesn't mind it at all, because knowledge is one of the most important things in the world to her. Twilight is a Bird primary, so she's searching for self-actualization. She wants to get out of her school and explore the world. She wants to understand magic, so much so that she's willing to put everyone in harm's way, including herself. Sunset says that it was purely Principal Cinch's fault that Twilight turned into a demon, but Twilight made the choice herself. Principal Cinch pressured her, but Twilight chose to do it because she wanted to see the magic, not because of Principal Cinch. She's shocked when people are nice to her, and eventually becomes comfortable with an environment where everyone accepts her for who she is. It's the first step to Twilight developing her Badger primary model.

Interestingly for a nerdy character, she flaunts the rules at Crystal Prep, the school that she goes to, all the time. She ignores the rules against pets, and she tends to work around Principle Cinch. It's interesting, since Twilight is a stickler for rules in every other movie. It's more about the difference in environments than anything - when she's surrounded by people who support her, she flourishes. When she's not, she'll get what she wants anyway. She has a Snake secondary model, since she lies to Principal Cinch repeatedly throughout the movie. She drops the model after this movie, so it's probably a coping mechanism to deal with Principal Cinch.

Principal Cinch: Lion Bird

Principal Cinch is the villain of this movie. I'm very unsure about her sorting, but whatever it is, she definitely has a lot of models. She has a Glory Hound Lion primary, and a really strong Authoritarian Badger primary model, so strong that I thought that she was a Badger primary for a while. She could be a Double Bird, which would provide a nice personality contrast to Twilight, but her personal philosophy never shows up in the movie, so it's hard to tell.

She talks about groups all the time, mostly focusing on her school, Crystal Prep. She shows her Lion primary when she talks about how her legacy will be restored; it is the only time she mentions herself instead of the school, though. She also allows her school to be a bastion of competition, with everyone competing for themselves and being miserable. Principal Cinch epitomizes her school; they act like a group, but no one really cares about each other. Everyone expects her school to be the best, so she'll do everything in her power to make sure that they live up to that.

She puts pressure on Twilight by telling her that the whole school is counting on her. She puts her top twelve students into the Friendship Games based on their skills, no matter who they are. She picked Twilight, even though Twilight was bullied and an outcast at Crystal Prep, and she demeans picking students based purely on their popularity. However, she primarily picked Twilight for her abilities; Principal Cinch is very cunning and cold, even though everything that she does is for Crystal Prep.

She preys on Twilight's fears of being excluded to get her to do what Principal Cinch wants her to - she understands people's motivations. She knows that Twilight only wants to see the magic, and uses that desire for her own ends. When Twilight turns into a demon, Principal Cinch runs away, which seems like she only values herself, until she suggests that everyone else should run away too.

As for her secondary, she's very direct. Instead of manipulating Twilight to join the Friendship Games, she tells Twilight that if she doesn't join, her application to her independent study program will be denied. She tells Twilight to spy on the other group for an advantage, not caring when Twilight said that it felt wrong. She has a Bird secondary, since she's willing to change her plan if something else works instead.

[reading-sometimes]

Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks SHC Sorting

This is part 2 of a 4-part series. An explanation of the SHC system by @wisteria-lodge is here.

Sunset: Badger Lion

This movie is about Sunset learning how to unburn her Badger primary. It's pretty hard for her, since she feels like she's not part of any group in the first place. Almost everyone in the school hates her because she bullied them for years. She's not a part of the band, while every other member of her friend group is. Everyone in her friend group keeps bringing up how she turned into a demon, describing her demon form as horrifyingly awful. When the new students hate her, she assumes that it was because of something that she did, which would be pretty painful to a Badger primary like Sunset.

She uses her Badger primary pretty well, though. She volunteers to show new students around the school, so that they can know the new her before they heard stories about how she was before she was redeemed. She kept a book that let her contact Princess Celestia, because deep down, she knew that running away from her was a mistake. Eventually, she joins the band. She unburns her Badger primary as the school forgives her, and she feels more like part of a group.

It almost seems like Sunset has a Bird primary model, since she talks about how she's changed completely as a person. It's caused by her dropping her Glory Hound Lion primary model, though. Sunset's Lion secondary primarily appears in her temper and impulsivity, just like how it did in the first movie.

Twilight: Double Bird

When Twilight can't figure out how to defeat the villains, she immediately assumes that it's all her fault. Everyone expects Twilight to fix everything, so the pressure feels suffocating.

Sunset and Twilight have a nice conversation about how everyone expects them to be something that they're not (Twilight, because everyone sees her as someone who can do everything perfectly, and Sunset, who everyone sees as still being a delinquent). They both don't want to let anyone down. Twilight wants to live up to everyone's perceptions of her, but she's trying to be something that doesn't exist. It's caused by her perfectionism, but also because everyone assumes that she's a Badger primary, even though she's not. Her Badger primary model starts to explode here, and it gets worse throughout the series.

She ties her self-worth to bringing value to her friends, and when she can't do that, she falls apart. “But why wasn't it working? I should know what to do. How could I not know what to do? How could I have failed like this?”

Sunset helps Twilight by saying that no one can do anything alone, and that she needs to rely on her friends. Because this is a Badger primary show, Twilight's Badger primary model is treated as a good thing, even when it causes problems.

[reading-sometimes]

Equestria Girls SHC Sorting

This is part 1 of a 4-part series, since I'll be going through all of the movies. There's already a My Little Pony sorting that you can check out here. I agree with most of them, so I'll be focusing on characters that weren't covered or are exclusive to Equestria Girls, like Sunset, Sci-Twi, and Spike. A basic explanation of the system that I'm using by @wisteria-lodge is here.

Sunset: Badger Lion

Sunset starts off the movies as a villain, with a Glory Hound Lion primary model and a Bird secondary model. Sunset's obviously jealous of Twilight, because they're foils - they were both students of Princess Celestia. Sunset wanted power (her Glory Hound Lion primary) and became evil, while Twilight became a Princess, something that Sunset wanted all along.

Sunset also has a Bird secondary model, but she's really bad at using it until later in the series. She tries to make plans, but she's too impulsive to have foresight. Her Bird secondary is used to concoct plans like secretly taking photos of Twilight to show how she'd be a bad Fall Formal Princess, and editing photos to make it look like Twilight trashed the gym. Her plans are pretty bad, since she left the real photos on top of a trash can. Sunset's Lion secondary is pretty obvious - she throws the crown that she stole from Twilight through the portal.

Sunset's Badger primary is burned in the first movie - she bullies everyone around her so that she can be powerful. She dehumanizes everyone, and she says that she doesn't know anything about friendship. She uses her understanding of social situations to tear groups of friends apart. Hints of her Badger primary are visible, even when she's a villain. She says that she rules the school because she knows how to fit in. She didn't do anything to hurt her ex-boyfriend after she broke up with him, even though everyone expected her to (She says in the second movie that she never liked Flash. She was just using him to be more popular, but it's still nice that she didn't do anything to hurt him). She refuses to hurt Spike, and says that she's not a monster (which is ironic, since she turns into a demon in the next scene).

She wants to be a Princess more for acceptance than power, even though she doesn't realize that until she unburns. She only starts getting mad at Twilight when everyone starts praising her. When Sunset's a Princess, she focuses on how everyone will be loyal to her.

Twilight: Double Bird

Twilight has a Badger primary model that explodes as the movies go on. Twilight, just by existing, brings her group of friends together. She constantly talks about groups, primarily her group of friends. She doesn't understand why everyone in high school is divided into cliques, instead of everyone working together. She refuses to go back to Equestria, where all of her true friends are, if it means that the human world will be destroyed. The human world needs her more, so she's okay with staying there forever if it means that she can keep it safe. When Sunset starts crying, Twilight immediately forgives her.

Twilight's Bird secondary is endearingly obvious - the first thing that she does when she's transported to a new world is gather information about it. She finds a library so that she can research.

Spike: Snake Badger

Spike ran into the portal after Twilight, even though Princess Celestia forbade him from going with her. Everything that Spike does is for Twilight. Spike’s Snake primary is pretty obvious when he tells Twilight to ignore the versions of her friends in the alternate universe, because they aren't Twilight's real friends.

His Badger secondary is something that he uses all the time, mostly to talk Twilight out of anxious spirals. He's definitely more of a Courier Badger than a Bookkeeper Badger, even though he shows elements of both.

[reading-sometimes]

Lol this is literally me except I'm halfway through a Psychology bachelor's because I love psychology that much...I might have to be a therapist anyway but I'll try really hard to get into psychology research or something.

something really funny to me about my mom really thinking i wanted to become a therapist because i'm taking psychology & have like 2-3 psych books

i would genuinely be The Worst therapist i simply wouldn't be able to care about any of my patients . i would believe i am better than my patients . it would be a circus .

[reading-sometimes]

the daria writers really did that

[reading-sometimes]

I would literally be unstoppable if I didn’t have that persistent pit in my stomach that everyone in a room is just a little bit annoyed by my presence

[reading-sometimes]

they hate me because im an effeminate man and a masculine woman

[reading-sometimes]

Every 21st century piece of writing advice: Make us CARE about the character from page 1! Make us empathize with them! Make them interesting and different but still relatable and likable!

Every piece of classic literature: Hi. It's me. The bland everyman whose only purpose is to tell you this story. I have no actual personality. Here's the story of the time I encountered the worst people I ever met in my life. But first, ten pages of description about the place in which I met them.

[reading-sometimes]

You know, an interesting tumblr transformation that's happened gradually, and which I've seen no one talk about: ask-culture has essentially dropped off to nothing.

By which I mean, asks used to be WAY more of the tumblr economy. They used to be more common to send, and receive, and see. They were integral to the collaborative, forum-like behavior of old tumblr communities, not even to speak on the HUGE number of ask-blogs that used to exist to only be interacted with in ask-form.

I'm not saying this in a vying-for-attention way but instead in an observational way: I used to get way way more asks in like 2015, even with a fraction of my follower count. I wonder if it's due to the homogenization of social media sites? There's a lot more of this divide between "content creator" and "consumer" instead of just a bunch of peer blogs who would talk to each other. "Asks" aren't really a thing on twitter, are they? And as I understand it, the closest thing to an "ask" on instagram or tiktok would be a creator screenshotting some comment and responding to it in a new reel or video or whatever those content mediums are. Are asks just too tumblr-specific? Is that aspect of the site culture dying out as more and more people converge to using all their social media sites in the same way?

[reading-sometimes]

🥺🥺🥺

[reading-sometimes]

someone: hey I noticed this thing you did in your writing!

me, kicking my feet up flirtatiously: oh??? do you want to hear my thoughts on why I did that? do you want a play-by-play of the language choices in every related sentence? do you want an exhaustive breakdown of The Themes???

[reading-sometimes]

[reading-sometimes]

Nah, fam. It's not about "taking" criticism. It's about the fact that unless a writer asks for it specifically, it's a dick thing to do on a website that is rooted in community.

If a writer wants critique they will ask trusted friends or professional associates (in the relevant field). When a writer shares a fic on AO3 it's not necessarily with the aim of improving their craft (there are better places for that). It's about sharing joy.

Positive comments enhance that feeling of joy and community. Negative comments do not.

Fic isn't a product to be evaluated. If it's not for you, then you can just walk away. 😁

[reading-sometimes]