spoiler is starlight supposed to be more powerful than twilight?

[ASGARDIANBRONY 128]

I just watched the finale today and LOVED IT! but I wanna know, is starlight supposed to be more powerful than twily? it seems kinda weird considering twilight is a alicorn, but who knows, maybe starlight buffed herself up with some other spell we didn't see. also what is starlights cutie mark? I cant tell what it is.

[Mothra 704]

Yeah, it seems like they made her more powerful that Twilight, confused me too. I think that was the intention, to make her more powerful or at least on the same level as Twilight. Maybe something happened between the seasons first 2 part episode and the finale? Since she didn't even try to fight Twilight then, she always ran away. Maybe we'll get some info about it in season 6?

[ASGARDIANBRONY 128]

Yeah, it seems like they made her more powerful that Twilight, confused me too. I think that was the intention, to make her more powerful or at least on the same level as Twilight. Maybe something happened between the seasons first 2 part episode and the finale? Since she didn't even try to fight Twilight then, she always ran away. Maybe we'll get some info about it in season 6?

my theory is she found a secret stash of starswirls spells and made herself more powerful or her battle with twilight, if she found one spell she could have easily gotten other spells. im pretty sure that according to canon twilight should have unlimited magical potential and one day become the most powerful pony in equestria. im not saying she is the most powerful pony right now but I hope next season we don't see her and starlight as equals.

[EmeraldSkies 93]

The intention is probably to have Starlight surpass her some time later in the show, but for now I'm not sure. She's good at the spells she knows, but doesn't have a wide range to use (teleportation is a big one she'll need to know).

[ASGARDIANBRONY 128]

The intention is probably to have Starlight surpass her some time later in the show, but for now I'm not sure. She's good at the spells she knows, but doesn't have a wide range to use (teleportation is a big one she'll need to know).

this would infuriate me. twilight is the one with unlimited magical potential, shes a alicorn and shes the main character in the show. twilight has so much more magic to learn herself and there gonna have someone who just came into the show last season pass her!

 

sorry, got a little enraged.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

It doesn't really bother me that she seems more powerful than Twilight, although I do wonder how she was able to beat an alicorn, granted Twilight hasn't been an alicorn for a long time so.

Edited December 11, 2015 by MLPFanatic34

[NezPPTS 36]

We have to consider that Twilight hasn't really done anything with her magic (Other than S4 finale, not sure if that counts) since she has become an alicorn. She probably doesn't know her own potential which is rather disappointing.

 

I'd like to see them expand on the magic side of Equestria. 

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Its kind of plot armor to the 10th degree essentially. I think they stated that in order to make her seem more credible about having been a villain and to shill her as ultra important (after all, if you're somehow more magical than the ELEMENT OF MAGIC, that's impressive).


I'm hoping they quietly ignore ever referencing starlight being more powerful again and just kind of dial her back a bit to be under twilight again like she was in the premier where twilight effortlessly blocked her spell the second time.

[Castle Bleck 19,383]

Its kind of plot armor to the 10th degree essentially. I think they stated that in order to make her seem more credible about having been a villain and to shill her as ultra important (after all, if you're somehow more magical than the ELEMENT OF MAGIC, that's impressive).

 

 

I'm hoping they quietly ignore ever referencing starlight being more powerful again and just kind of dial her back a bit to be under twilight again like she was in the premier where twilight effortlessly blocked her spell the second time.

 

Or they could cleverly retcon it to where it was only because the Map gave her enough of a boost for her time-travel.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,803]

It definitely seemed that's how they portrayed her. She was able to completely modify Starswirl's time spell to let her go back as many times as she wanted, for as long as she wanted and to whatever time she wanted. This was the same spell that Twilight could barely modify at all before. Maybe Starlight had the help of the map, but honestly, I find that the whole 'making Starlight overpowered' thing was one of my least favorite things about the finale. WE did not see anything that makes her extreme abilities justified, we did not get any backstory explaining why she is so good ,only her motivation. It seemed pretty stupid to me. Starlight is somehow able to be more powerful than an Alicorn princess that is also the Element of Magic, with no explanation. Still irritates me, but I hope they make up for that in season 6. 

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

I really hated that, because it doesn't make that much sense in universe (Twilight is an Alicorn which in the last season finale, four of  which equaled all of the magic in Equestria including chaos magic as well as Twilight being the Element of Magic) and it screams of character shilling on Starlight's part.  The worst thing is that they didn't even have to include it.  They could have just as easily had the same fight just edit out Twilight being tired to show that she is more powerful than Starlight but it all fail because she distracted Rainbow Dash.  Basically all you need to do is prove Starlight is powerful enough not to get one-shoted by Twilight, not that she's a magical equal. 

Edited December 11, 2015 by Sidral Mundet

[ASGARDIANBRONY 128]

i like to think that starlight used some of starswirls other spells to make her stronger. if thats the case then im totally fne with it, but if they continue to be portrayed as equals I will not be happy!

[Quinch 1,120]

It might just be my age showing, but the topic does seem a bit reminiscent of Dragonball Z powerlevel debates of old, but for lack of a reason not to, I figure I might as well toss my two cents into the ring, if nothing else, for the sake of debate and mixed metaphors.


To begin with, the question seems to be flawed, since it does seem to conflate magical aptitude with magical power. For example, an example of contest of magical power would have been the brief battle between Chrysalis and Celestia in "A Canterlot Wedding" where two characters engaged in what would amount to magical arm-wrestling. In fact, one could argue that Twilight is more powerful than Starlight, as her bubble shield was able to withstand Starlight's magical blasts.

But I digress.

The best point to begin with with any analysis of a character, I believe, is to consider the circumstances that led up to their development. Firstly, the event that crystallized Starlight's philosophy, and ultimately her goal, was her separation from Sunburst, the event that she blamed solely on his cutie mark. One could argue that his being sent away was no reason not to stay in touch, whether by letters or visiting, but what is strongly implied is that they didn't. Reasons are left up in the air, but given Starlight's comments on how one's cutie mark can allow somepony to feel more special than others, it's not difficult to imagine that, as a blank flank whose only other friend was another blank flank, she saw cutie marks as a symbol of isolation from other ponies, especially if her town sported its own version of Diamond Tiara. In fact, it is even plausible that Sunburst himself thought, and told Starlight that his magical talent, and by extension his cutie mark made him special, whether or not he was aware of the effect his cutie marking {we need a better term for this} and subsequent shipping off had on her.

Now, let's fast forward to Starlight Glimmer's own cutie mark, however soon or late it comes, and as it turns out, it's magic itself. And if you combine a great deal of personal potential with a deep-seated resentment, if not outright hatred for one specific thing, it provides the perfect catalyst for a force that can move mountains themselves - focus. Filled with conviction that all cutie marks are bad - they break apart friendships, after all - and the potential ability to remove them, it's easy to imagine Starlight making it her tour de force to spread the equality brought about by a cutie-mark-free society, which in turn brings us to the Equality Village.

I'll skip over Starlight's motivations, that's a topic for a different thread. Instead, one of the main things to take away is, at the end, when she tries to blast Twilight with the decutifying spell she used - unaided, it bears pointing out - she does proclaim that she'd been studying that spell for years. If we take that literally - that the spell existed prior, in some form or another, and Starlight either mastered or modified it, it implies that she has access to resources about less known spells. If we assume she developed it from scratch, that implies that she has considerable intelligence and talent when it comes to magical spells.

So, finally, that takes us to the conclusion. It bears focusing on the fact that the array of spells Starlight Glimmer used is hardly expansive - in fact, we see magical blasts, which seem to be a somewhat vanilla unicorn ability in the FiM universe, telekinesis, apparently inherent to all unicorns, floating, and finally the "force crystal" spell which appears to be rather new. Given her apparent history, it is hardly unimaginable for her to have access to or have developed the latter two, especially as her bragging about how easy it was to modify Starswirl's spell implies that she has a knack for experimental magic.