J.J

But you can't find good fanfics for Starlight eh? This is the biggest problem with Luna/NMM fans they act like headcanon for her is absolute but completely ignore canonical redeeming traits from characters like Starlight when it takes away from the narrative they have about her... Nah Nightmare Moons story is told from the literal LOSERS, she was butthurt that someone more competent and grounded was able to maintain order in Equestria in such ways that almost made her seem irrelevant, and irrelevant she truthfully was as Celestia was able to raise the moon perfectly fine without her... Ive said MANY times myself I need more context if I'm to sympathize with Luna and even suggested that Sunset may have had a falling out with Celestia over similar reasons, but I can't see Celestia as this "unfair tyrant" when she will literally forgive Discord after multiple attempts to over throw Equestria and forgive Luna of the same... Luna is appointed to the second highest position of ruling after failing to take over the world and getting thwarted by a team of ponies that barely know each other, she's a loser in my eyes... Twilight had to beg or plead for Starlight's concession, those cards she controlled, she didn't concede cause she had to, she did it because she actually felt it was the right thing to do...

If you believe "she knew" she was creating those dystopias you clearly didn't watch the s.5 finale, and if you are talking about her knowing that dishonesty undermined the premise of wanting a new and equal world for all ponies, welcome to any political institution, but apparently jealousy is enough to trigger NMM though so, in her new world don't get to popular or take any attention off of her, she may persecute you for it...

That's just not true, if she could go back in time to change it to "whatever she wanted" she could have just altered the past to stop the books from falling on herself that ended the Sunburst friendship, she HAD NO IDEA about the dystopias she was creating, she thought she was ending the friendship circle, not the world, there's a lot of rules that come into play with time travel, the paradox of stopping the books from falling, would have meant that she never learned how to time travel in the first place likely, and it would negate the experience and negate the instance of her stopping the books from falling, it's impossible... and these are "learned abilities" her premise "more destructive" than NMM, Discord, Tirek or Cozy Glow? Are you insane? Everything that those villains would ultimately accomplish would literally disrupt the natural order of Equestria, not bring order to it?

MORAL INSIGHT FROM ANOTHER POST She was by far the LEAST "evil" of all the MLP villains, her reformation means a lot to me as a person, but no, the experiences Starlight went through as a pony genuinely made her believe that what she was doing was for the greater good of all ponies. We don't get direct context as to how she persuaded the ponies that she did to partake in the project of "Our Town" but there is a lot to be said about why she wasn't honest to begin with, 1. Can a unicorn really even remove her own magic? Or would Starlight have to teach some spell to another unicorn to be able to accomplish doing this? We know that Starlight is LITERALLY the only pony who has ever been able to accomplish doing this? How long would it take her to teach this magic to anyone else? In doing this, that would suggest there be a never ending chain of unicorns teaching new unicorns how to perform this spell so that they all in fact could be equal? Well it's gonna be awfully hard without having magic in general to teach the spell...? How do we know all unicorns would even be capable of such a complex spell? Eventually you would hit a wall in terms of magic capability/comprehension... 2. Starlight NEVER, "enslaved' anypony, she manipulated them, again there is lacking context, but there is nothing to suggest she was threatening them into staying in the community with their lives, they were brainwashed, we don't have all the context as to why they decided to join "Our Town" to begin with, but obviously their lives were indeed lacking if they chose to leave them behind in trust of a unicorn they have just met... The way that the ponies of Our Town rationalize their conformity and the way they neglect to ask any questions or look for these answers despite being long term residents of the town itself says just about as much for their competence as it does for Starlight's manipulative tendencies, they were conceptually "happy" not asking these questions.... 3. Starlight's "control bit" and quite possibly her entire obsession with magic as I have explained MANY times comes from a direct result of her understanding as to how the world prioritizes those that wield it effectively and in her mind, (since I actually do headcanon for good characters) She thought that if she could use this magic effectively at it's conception she may have been able to catch up with her long lost friend or that her being able to use the magic in general was the end all for how the social structure of pony importance worked in general, she got deep into using it because she genuinely disagreed with the sentiment that made her so obsessed with learning it herself, this sentiment is about the social hierarchy and importance of "magic wielders" more or less and not the magic itself, she wanted to genuinely seperate others from having to make personal concessions for not being as "up to snuff" as other ponies, because that is what she knows is capable of happening because of these "special talents"... She uses magic to control because she doesn't want to feel helpless herself, and if she can keep others under control she won't have to make these personal concessions ever again. 4. If there was EVER a pony deserving of her successes and vengeful vindication through the destruction of these, it was DEFINITELY Starlight, Starlight never invited the Mane 6 to "Our Town" they show up randomly via instructions of some little magic map, and start to begin investigated it's political infrastructure based off their own intuition, there really is nothing to prove that if they had not been looking for answers themselves that they wouldn't have not just initially been allowed to leave... Yeah we know Starlight sees Twi and it becomes her goal to confirm an alicorn, but they asked to see the vault, they made it their mission to try to get to the bottom of what was going on there, and up to that point they were welcomed as guests and given crappy muffins to enjoy, not force assimilated by some brainwashing film or whatever, yeah AFTER they tried to step on Starlight's toes, Starlight put them in a room for seemingly causing anarchy in Our Town by making her followers go against the towns philosophy.. who knows what would happen if Starlight just let these ponies go? They would probably come back with an army to destroy everything she worked so hard at building? 5. When Starlight seeks revenge against Twilight and her friends she doesn't do this with the intention of "ending the world" she does this with the intention of ending a single friendship circle? So they can feel like she did when 1. She lost Sunburst (obviously) which makes her backstory make MORE sense in this situation bc she's proving part of her point about special abilities ending friendships by ruining friendships with special abilities. 2. So they can understand the loss of everything that matters most to them and EVERYTHING that they covet being taken away from them, but even this isn't even completely true, because if Starlight had succeeded at altering time in any one if these dystopias, they would have no recollection of what they had even lost, it's not like they get to keep all these memories? It's not like they have to feel the hurt from losing their true friendships? She's just preventing them from ever happening... At the end, when Twilight takes Starlight with her, to this dystopian wasteland that is left of Equestria, DO YOU NOT SEE Starlight's reaction? She doesn't want to end the world? She wants to make it better in her mind? She didn't want that to happen, she just wanted to remove Twilight Sparkle and her friends from being an ideological threat in concept in part of this new world? She wanted to make the world better through equality, not destroy it...? 6. Starlight studied all these spells and had a genuine idea for what she could do to change Equestria for the better, these plots weren't for simply "revenge" or because she "lOvES ChAOs wooo" or because she simply wanted to become more magically powerful? She genuinely did what she did with purpose and conviction not just outright malice? When she says, "everything else I said was true, the only way to be happy is if we're all equal" or when she says "no I stopped them from bullying because we all should be equal, stopping the rainboom is just a bonus". She believes in this philosophy, she just as I've explained before, if she were to adhere to it herself that would add a lot of complications but ultimately contradict the purpose in why she is doing what she is doing. Starlight sacrifices everything BUT her magic to live in this little podunk nothing town in the middle of BFE, and she's sacrificed her time, any luxuries she did have, she's genuinely doing a lot to mobilize for this philosophy she's trying to spread, this did not come without her own hard work and sacrifice, something Twilight utterly invalidated in 2 episodes so she could feel accomplished as the princess of friendship. I'm not going to justify Starlight's obvious lies, but I'm going to say there were objective reasons for some of them, Starlight is by far THE LEAST evil villain of all of My Little Pony, probably the entire franchise, being cunning doesn't add to the malice of someone's intentions, people act like personal competence always is supposed to be attributed to common sense, ummm Starlight has literally been taught from Filly to full grown mare up to this point that magic is the way, it's how she's taught herself? One could argue by extension she's breaking the chains of others that have her claimed inherently that she can't escape, but the point is her reformation... She just gets even better, we get to see that it isn't flawed intention that causes Starlight to make these mistakes, it's flawed thinking... If anything these mistakes should "humanize her" not start up a witch hunt against her because she's been inherently led to think differently than other ponies? Them giving her a chance makes the most sense, but I can give you all these reasons separately as I'm getting way off topic on the MLP gens post lol... There's just a lot to suggest that Starlight may have never been "evil" on its face, rather misguided and prone to a different belief system that was self justified and by her own emotional competence and experiences... Starlight knows little of Hearrhswarming or the Wonderbolts yet, she can change one of Starswirls spells? She had her own intentions, her own interests, her own priorities, she didn't do what she did merely for power, she just couldn't give up her power to achieve what she wanted

I think my "biggest problem" with people that don't like Starlight is their endless crusade to get others to join them, or to persuade others into seeing her the way they do. Like they really really grand stand on the issue of her character, like even going as far as to remind people they don't like her in multiple posts even now nearly 4 years after the shows ending and 7 or 8 after her initial inclusion, it's like bro we can see your post in "new topics" did you need to make a status lol? You really really want people to know something we've already known from your neurotic obsessive hatred for her in your past posts lol Anyways we'll get to the matters at hand you bring up, I won't say she is a flawlessly written character, but through out this post I'll be scrolling up to give you my take on every little obsessive nit pick of her character and try to explain how they try to use her personality defectives to create plot material and how it makes more sense from perspective you don't have or headcanon you won't make for her... Let's start out somewhere where we can agree, yeah I totally agree in season 5 we didn't get ENOUGH Starlight, I think her development was kind of lacking and there was no way to gradually make her familiar to the viewers which created a lot of nit picky cynics like yourself who think her inclusion to the mane cast was rushed and unearned, but honestly? If you are going to present her as the main villain of a seasons arch, going with how the shows plots have ALL been written up to this point, alternatively fans like yourself would have just complained that she was given more time than other crappy senseless villains like Nightmare Moon or Sombra(who I think at least needed speaking roles) You would then have shifted your criticism to the fact of her getting "over emphasized" as a villain and feeling unworthy of her being so due to either Faust googles restricting the amount of oxygen to your brain, or just a general bad taste in character personality or in some of these villains case "lack thereof". It's clear you think she was over emphasized as a reform character, but we'll get more into that as this ridiculously long post I can't believe I'm taking the time to make drags out, as I know there is nothing to say to change the mind of someone that truly hates best pony. The fact that Starlight can take cutie marks herself in and of a premise, light weight supports her lying to the ponies of "Our Town" on its face, it's very unlikely that without her magic potential and years of research that anypony else would also be capable of performing this feat, she would have to have a never ending chain of unicorns preforming the spell and then teaching it to the next to ensure that everypony actually remained truthfully equal. Most likely lacked the genuine potential to preform such a spell themselves let alone be able to teach it to a less experienced unicorn than themselves, we can see throughout the show that most unicorns stick to magic that compliments their career or livelihood, they don't neurotically obsess over magic like ponies like Twilight or Starlight and this just creates another reason all on its own why a magic freak like Twilight would take interest in such a magically gifted unicorn like Starlight... Just because Starlight "can" take cutie marks, doesn't necessarily mean that with the right amount of training and study a pony likevTwilight couldn't, or Starswirl or Celestia... They just don't align themselves with a philosophy that would ever compel them to do such a thing.. Next, AGAIN, I also agree I would have liked more initial back story for Starlight in season 5, "at first" I thought the trauma of having lost her best friend as a filly was shallow and lacking for a pony that had seemed to be so politically motivated, but honestly if you establish a little bit of headcanon for her like everyone loves to do with the shows WORST villain Nightmare Moon, the "in betweens" and justifications really begin to present themselves in large number, but you actually have to use a little imagination on a character you don't like, "imagine that." Lol. I believe that at first she created a neurotic obsession with learning magic in hopes of actually catching up to Sunburst, I think in her mind she thought, well if magic can move you up in the ranks of society it's obviously important that I know how to do it, and know how to do it well, it wasn't 5 minutes later after Sunburst ran out the door heartlessly leaving his best friend in the dust distracted by how awesome he thought he was, Starlight just said as a filly, "I'm going to learn how to take cutie marks and enslave a village some day because of this." If you head Canon it that way, than you really want to take depth away from her character, she went through years of learning how to become an effective magic user, shut off from the rest of society likely much like Twilight initially was, the big difference is Starlight developed conviction in an idea for a world that she GENUINELY believes will prevent ponies the same kind of heartache she felt and that she GENUINELY believes will make Equestria a better place for other ponies, her being a control freak doesn't take away from her actual resolve or perspective, it's not like she's just doing it because she wants revenge at the world because she lost her childhood friend? That was just the event that put everything in motion and lead her to become the pony she was by s.5 of the show? "Twilight has no reason to empathize with Starlight." Oh? And what are the reasons to empathize with an evil alicorn thats literal premise and motivation would utterly disturb the natural balance of all of Equestria and ultimately subject them to famine, and basically end the ponies food supply indirectly? An evil alicorn princess who is just "jealous bc her sister is more popular"? Who has now tried to overthrow the sitting ruler of Equestria twice now? She makes some crappy illusions, runs away into the middle of the forest to hide, then gets rainbow blasted by ponies who have literally only known each other for 30 minutes, no character progression arc AT ALL, then she cries about it because she got thwarted (unlike Starlight who had to willfully concede on her own Accord.) And then it's just all fine, like "aww poor baby woona", let's just appoint her to the second highest role of authority in Equestria after trying to overthrow Equestria twice... That makes a lot of sense... Anyways back to a pony that matters in Starlight.... The main reason to empathize would be for the fact that 1. We already know Starlight is a vengeful pony, look at the entire premise for the s.5 finale? She's made herself emotionally transparent, and willingly conceded the fight to see Twilight's way? What are we gonna throw the book at ponies like Starlight and not ponies like Luna who literally REPEAT injustices or characters like Discord who literally BETRAY their friends after being given special extra chances to reform and price themselves? How about you sympathize with Starlight because it's the right thing to do and consistent with the shows message? She wasn't trying to "end the world"? Obviously you can tell by her reaction to the dystopia Twilight brings her to, in her mind instilling equality was BETTER for the world, she's quoted being consistent to that sentiment on MULTIPLE occasions... Starlight was trying to end a friendship circle, and it is even more relevant to how she lost her friend as a filly, and reflective of how Twilight's friendship circle made her lose everything she worked so tirelessly to build... I will admit "every little thing's she does" is admittedly her "worst episode" but you really want to compare this mistake of having her friends make a scrap book and bake cakes in a temporary attempt as an excuse to be lazy what more is a poorly written episode all around, but you think Discord can be excused for lying to his to friends, locking them in a literal cage and allowing a mutant centaur man to drain all of their magic power? I just don't see it, and you are using a lot of "word play" to attribute single mistakes to make them seem like an abundant handful while also blatantly ignoring the context of these situations... Discord was begging to be banned from school grounds, the only shame in that scenario is that she didn't obliterate him in my opinion... But I digress She continues making these misconceptions and mistakes with magic because that is literally who her character is designed to be, what kind of character regression do you want when you already know on the surface she is one of the most magically gifted ponies in Equestria, she would be a lot less interesting and you would alternatively complain that she is a character of no depth, and just a background pony echoing the viewpoints of her new friends with very little substance of her own... What makes her different and unique are all of these scenarios that her magic can create. It adds to her, not takes away, she's still defective and on its face this is a pony that was known for cloaking her magic potential for years, not allowing it to be known and acknowledged by all of her friends and peers... The ponies of "Our Town" genuinely did not know about Starlight's capabilities for years, they thought she was a equality pony with a magic staff, not that she had hidden magic powers, and Starlight is now coming to grips with her identity as part of her actual persona and character, it conflicts this is who she is going to be on the surface now, and now she's implementing this magic she's hidden for so long into little wacky slice of life situations bc her primary skill and strong point is magic, we see later that Starlight can hardly last on a camping trip without her magic, she's a lot more codependent on it than you seem to think, she's was just able to sway the ponies of Our Town because they wanted to believe in something more than the lives they were leading, and I have context from multiple other Starlight posts I can bring to this one, but God knows if you will actually read all of it, or just see one thing you disagree with, and proceed to try to ream me for seeing her in a different light or being able to establish headcanon for her.. There is a HUGE difference in being socially disingenuous and being inconsistent with the standards made by your new friends or peers, Starlight goes from manipulating others to serve her cause that in itself she genuinely felt was righteous, to being completely transparent and trying to get others to accept her for who she is on the surface, I mean Mrs Cake was literally mad at her bc her powers could literally make her job irrelevant, she isn't hiding her powers anymore, now she's mildly being encouraged to embrace them? I mean that is the whole message if what Twilight was saying in combatting her correct? Why should Starlight repress her talents for the comfort of others if the philosophy is that "cutie marks and talents make us all special, let's embrace our talents..." So there IS a slight mixed message there, and it more or less adds credence to her social misconceptions not takes them away, she is trying to confidently implement her magic into her day to day life now without hiding it, but she also wants to develop and be able to interact in within the social structure of the other ponies, I will say selling Trixies wagon was one I saw as actually pretty terrible, it was something extremely sentimental to her best friend, but these other scenarios, I mean, instances like these are what helps Starlight continue her progress at being able to "honestly communicate" not just "communicate" she holds back on her perspectives, because she doesn't feel she's in a position to freely speak her mind at time, she uses magic as a crutch, she eventually makes it to the position of guidance counselor I think for a reason, and it's supposed to note how the largest parts of her character progression, INCLUDING her initial inclusion of the show come from being able to communicate with others in the wake of these disagreements and not just keep everything "all bottled up." Lol, you can sympathize with Starlight for many reasons, she's making the efforts to conform to the lifestyles of others she just has to find a way through out the series that she can do this and still embrace what's true about herself and her own talents... She's not "perfect" but she's not supposed to be, she's supposed to be her to tell you that there are varying forms of social and emotional competence, some that greatly rival our own, this doesn't make these individuals perspectives inherently wrong and there is a lot that being a teacher can teach us ourselves... Starlight teaches Twilight on various occasions, but this inclusion I feel was the best way to move Twilight's character forward as well, she was ready to become a teacher herself and what better student for the element of magic to have than arguably the most powerful magic user in Equestria who in herself is looking to become more socially adept... Now these are just merely justifications and reasonings, I haven't even began to touch all of her positive qualities and redeeming traits, but that isn't what my role in defending Starlight in this witch hunt is, As far as "To Where And Back" I always criticize the incompetence of changelings and question their strategies after seeing so e if the forms they can take, but you have no idea how the changelings went about individually replacing the princesses or mane 6 so I obviously to me there is more blatant choice to not want to head Canon in the situation because you dont like Starlight and wish to invalidate one of her triumphs, WHICH she accomplishes WITHOUT MAGIC, I might add... But yeah there's no saying that if Chrysalis hadn't underestimated Starlight she wouldn't have been easily lured into a false sense of security just like the others... Another good question you know, where is Discord in all of this? Obviously his sense for magically imbalances isnt that good? He didn't even want to interfere when Starlight literally changed the course of time separating the elements of harmony? Seems like a pretty big "magical imbalance to me" but whatever forgot he gets the free pass bc "living tombstone rulez" and "John De Lancie" lol .. Hold up I'll bring you some more Starlight context I got it everywhere

It gives you something to condemn Twilight for sure, but I actually think it makes the episode better, this gives us a chance to humanize Starlights and Trixies friendship, to show others no, just because YOU don't like someone or somepony doesn't mean that their friendship with someone else will inherently lead to something bad... It shows us that we can all make misconceptions about others, there's a lot of good to having Twilight be a snob, it shows you that the vibe was true and Starlight's genuine persistence to kindle the fire she felt with Trixie was real... You have to TRUST YOURSELF about how you feel about someone or somepony, and that is what this episode ultimately says in the end, not even the Princess of Friendship can tell you what friends are right for you, you have to make the choice within your own heart... Their friendship is great lol, they are both something that the other is missing, one the confidence and common sense, the other the ability the genuine ability to follow through with these sentiments despite having them...

It's almost 2023 and we're seriously still doing this? I'll read this later, but I just thought that was a needed question, I just know with this much spew, my response is going to take me awhile...

Since Feb. 13, 2013, watched my first episode Feb. 11, 2013.

It would have been a lot better if Cozy was a unicorn that was also magically gifted imo, but I do understand and appreciate the metaphor here that most are to blind to actually see, Cozy didn't introduce "alternative perspective" she was a smarmy disingenuous psychopath, her and Tirek being penpals made perfect sense, I just imagine a wholesome picture of the two, they both know how to use others to get what they want, Cozy acted very kind on the surface, not brutally honest with opinions or perspective that defy the norm, she was a psychopath through and through....

Kinda, it helps support the role if authority she would evolve into, her having Starlight as an apprentice was needed to, we could all say, "the school of life is always in session" but that would be true of Celestia to... Not just Twilight, yes Twilight had many more lessons to learn after becoming an alicorn, but she was destined to be the teacher one day and not just a student, and 6 seasons in, it happens, think the show is broken up into pretty good segmented areas... 1-3 acension to alicorn 4-5 coming to grips with these new abilities 6-8 her authority, I mean before she literally ran a school she had a pupil, Starlight is Twilight's biggest success in my eyes, but that's a story for a different post... She had to be a teacher before she could run a school quite literally, and then 9 misc "the ending" it's segmented better than people think... I think her becoming an alicorn was more of a symbol of her diligence and knowledge, and her ascension in sacrifice and experience... Yeah I'm a lot of ways I think it's good