Does anybody think that fans are being too harsh on Starlight?

[1234zua 19]

I think it's pretty unfair how fans are expecting her to get over not having friends growing up. Not having friends growing up can deteriorate people's social skills and self-esteem, which is why Starlight is the mean evil villain she is. 

 

Now I can agree with the fans that Starlight's backstory needs a lot of improvement because it did seem kind of weak and rushed. It's not realistic for anybody to become evil and angry over one single lost friend. It takes more than just that to become a villain.

 

For me, there are some friends that I lost and I didn't cry or get upset. Heck, I even moved on quickly from some people. However,  I didn't have many friends growing up and my classmates bullied me for being unattractive and weird. I'm a female and I had a difficult time making and keeping female friends. I still don't have many friends as an adult and I've been backstabbed, bullied, and humiliated a lot. Now I've never wanted to go crazy and start a cult like Starlight did, but I'm unhappy and angry as a result and sometimes tempered to just not be a nice person because of it.

 

Here's a question for fans: if Starlight kept on trying and trying to make friends and she was constantly rejected and she was constantly bullied, would her backstory make more sense to you guys?

Edited February 26, 2016 by 1234zua

[Bendy 1,820]

I dunno, killing everyone and wiping out all life during one time line over losing a friend seems a bit of an over overreaction.

 

Starlight has done quite possibly the most evil thing ever. She wiped out all life in Equestria over losing a friend. Probably unintentionally, but it still doesn't change the fact she did it.  

Edited February 27, 2016 by Bendy

[GeekySonic 1,150]

In a way it would. I guess most people just aren't satisfied with the fact that Starlight said because of her one bad experience, she never tried to make friends after that, which doesn't justify much of anything.

 

But I think that even if it were the most complex, well-built, thought-out, carefully executed backstory, lots of people would still hate her. Some people need stuff to hate. It may as well be a fictional villain with a poor motivation.

 

I'm not bothered by her backstory, because I know exactly what it feels like to give trying to make friends after losing some. When I moved and left my best friend, I was absolutely miserable. I moved to a town with less than a thousand people, and I only made three friends in the five years I've been here. Now that I'm moving again, they've drifted off, and I'm back to the bubble of anger and loneliness I was in before.

 

I don't think I'm about to lead a pseudo-cult anytime soon, but people (ponies, in Starlight's case) are complex things. There are a million things that could have happened between then and now to influence her thinking. We couldn't see them, and that in effect made her actions seem irredeemable.

 

(EDIT: I am not speaking for people who dislike Starlight or her motivation. I am simply musing based on interactions with individuals who do)

Edited February 26, 2016 by GeekySonic

[Glike 487]

I never had an issue with Starlight. At all. I find it bizarre how people believe Sunset Shimmer is more redeemable and better off than Starlight.

 

At least, and I'm not advocating the means, Starlight had a vision. Her goal was equality, and no matter how construed her belief was, her end goal was one she believed would benefit Equestria.

 

Meanwhile, Sunset pretty much had a hissy fit because she didn't get what she wanted. She had no motivation for trying to take over a world apart from retaliation. Her whole effort was based upon vengeance.

 

Sure, Starlight was twisted as well. She 'brainwashed' a whole village pretty much. As we saw, though, some ponies were still capable of free thought, and it wasn't like they were 100% mindcontrolled. Meanwhile Sunset enslaved a school in such a way that the students had no freewill whatsoever.

 

And you know what? Even after all of this, Twilight gave Sunset a shot at redemption. There was no rhyme or reason to it, nothing to show that Sunset was redeemable. Her whole reason for turning evil was out of plain anger and a thirst for revenge. Yeah, she turned out to be a very nice person in the long run and she had definitely proved herself.. but that wasn't until the end of the second movie.

 

We've barely seen Starlight after her redemption, for all we know, she could be just as good a pony as Sunset. She just has to be given a chance, just as with Sunset.

 

But this is all just my opinion. I've always thought Starlight was handled better than Sunset and I absolutely look forward to seeing what they do with her.

[1234zua 19]

I dunno, killing everyone and wiping out all life during one time line over losing a friend seems a bit over an overreaction.

 

Starlight has done quite possibly the most evil thing ever. She wiped out all life in Equestria over losing a friend. Probably unintentionally, but it still doesn't change the fact she did it.  

 

I agree. That's what I said. I think what Starlight did was an overreaction because she only lost one friend. I just don't like how how people think it's wrong to be resentful over not having friends growing up. 

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

Actually yes.

 

Look, I'll admit her redemption was on the rushed side and needed fleshing out (Would've been better if they went the Steven Universe route where Peridot slowly became good over the span of several episodes). However, the way some of the fandom reacted was way overboard, some wishing the finale would've been better if Starlight was killed off in some bloody fashion (like they're gonna do that in My Little Pony). It might also have to do with the common trend of reforming villains which I'm not against. It actually fits more with the show's theme of friendship.

 

At worst, Starlight is bland. 

[Glike 487]

Actually yes.

 

Look, I'll admit her redemption was on the rushed side and needed fleshing out (Would've been better if they went the Steven Universe route where Peridot slowly became good over the span of several episodes). However, the way some of the fandom reacted was way overboard, some wishing the finale would've been better if Starlight was killed off in some bloody fashion (like they're gonna do that in My Little Pony). It might also have to do with the common trend of reforming villains which I'm not against. It actually fits more with the show's theme of friendship.

 

At worst, Starlight is bland. 

Yeah, I think the tons of fanfics that had her gruesomely tortured and/or killed that came from this was definitely one of the biggest fan overreactions so far. XP

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

I think for me, i will be dissapointed if the whole redemption dosen't have any sort of payoff and that Starlight is just getting swept under the carpet. That's where we can really be dissapointed.

 

I was also not very surprised at her redemption. I saw it from a mile away, because after all, the show is called "friendship is magic." They certainly won't put her in a dungeon and torture her.

[Glike 487]

I think for me, i will be dissapointed if the whole redemption dosen't have any sort of payoff and that Starlight is just getting swept under the carpet. That's where we can really be dissapointed.

 

I was also not very surprised at her redemption. I saw it from a mile away, because after all, the show is called "friendship is magic." They certainly won't put her in a dungeon and torture her.

Agreed. It's not like they would have killed *ahem*sombra*ahem* or imprisoned *ahem*tirek*ahem* her.

 

I'm joking of course. I know those were two entirely different situations. XD

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

Agreed. It's not like they would have killed *ahem*sombra*ahem* or imprisoned *ahem*tirek*ahem* her.

 

I'm joking of course. I know those were two entirely different situations. XD

 

The thing with Sombra and Tirek are, that they are not normal entities. They remind me more of demons. Sombra is just literally a shadow of his former self and Tirek...do we need to talk about Tirek?

 

Starlight on the other side, is a normal pony, who can choose between right or wrong.

[Nuke87654 1,849]

Didn't Starlight Glimmer lacked the knowledge over what her actions were causing with the alternate universes? I believed the episode tried to at least make the point that she didn't knew that the mane 6 were that important to Equestria as to decide the fate of it as she wanted to ruin Twilight and her friend's lives, not ruin Equestria's. I can be wrong on this so if I' am, please correct me. Still, deciding to ruin several people's lives via time travel is a scummy thing to do so she's not innocent in that manner.

 

My bigger issues with Starlight Glimmer's redemption that I consider one of the worst ones on the show is of how rushed it was, but more importantly to my decision is how it extenuated Starlight Glimmer's actions that we've seen from the pilot. I mean we've seen her:

 

1. Brainwashed the ponies of communist town to believe in her ideology.

2. Lie to them by hiding her own cutie mark, even if she did had a practical reason why.

3. Ignored how Starlight Glimmer had a plan for the mane 6's cutie marks that she stole from them. Which the finale never made mention of.

4. Tried to indoctrinate the mane 6 in turn, which without their initiative, she would've succeeded.

 

Also, she crossed me as a fervent believer of her ideology. When dealing with such individuals, you need to convince them of just how wrong their beliefs are. Twilight never did that. All she did was prove of how Starlight Glimmer was messing up Equestria through her time travel shenanigans. As follows, the only thing Starlight Glimmer would've changed was her tactics in attacking the mane 6 upon realizing she was destroying Equestria, which to me would've revealed a good deal of her character and would've done a better job to make her interesting then to slap a redemption tale on her so soon. This places even more reason why I believe the staff should've let Starlight Glimmer's turn as a villain last at least another season, where the mane 6 try to let her see of how wrong her beliefs are and how Equestria's friendship is much better and stronger in comparison.

 

Finally, her reason for turning to a fanatic for enforced equality was weak as all it did was make her look like a spoiled brat at best, a manipulative sociopath at worst that can't stand not having everything going her way, and like so followed this belief that allowed her to create this own little world separate from the rest of Equestria just so she can live in a society she has full control over.

 

I mean, Troubleshoes from S5's Appleoosa's most wanted had a FAR better reason to follow the equality religion then Starlight Glimmer did in comparison as his cutie mark gave him nothing but misery and anguish as he was made into a laughing stock of town to an unfairly branded outlaw that lived a recluse life because nobody in Appleoosa wanted to give him a chance at all.

Edited February 27, 2016 by Nuke87654

[Glike 487]

The thing with Sombra and Tirek are, that they are not normal entities. They remind me more of demons. Sombra is just literally a shadow of his former self and Tirek...do we need to talk about Tirek?

 

Starlight on the other side, is a normal pony, who can choose between right or wrong.

I know, I completely see your point.

 

The way I think of it is, though:

 

Princess Luna is also a pony who could choose from right or wrong. And, seeing as she was a princsss, she definitely has a higher expectation of behavior than a pony such as Starlight.

 

Princess Luna attempted to cast Equestria into eternal darkness, which definitely would have caused irreversible harm in Equestria. She acted completely out of jealousy and self-interest, and nearly doomed all Equestrian life as a result.

 

One could make the argument that Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna are entirely different entities, but NM did come about as a result of her jealousy and rage. And so far there's no evidence that she was "possessed" or "controlled." So, only based on what we can gather, all of this was done entirely out of Luna's freewill.

 

Starlight, on the other hand, may have had an overreaction in some people's eyes, but what she was doing was never just for herself. She truly got wrapped up in the belief that the world would be better off without Cutie Marks. Of course, we know how that would have ended, buT what I'm getting at is at least she had a (and this is very subjective) valid reason for what she did.

 

Luna wrought destruction for the heck of it and revenge, motives Starlight didn't possess. And if Celestia had chosen to forgive Luna for what she did and not Starlight, that would be blatant favoritism due to Luna being her Celestia.

 

Basically what I'm trying to say is that there are other ponies who knew from right or wrong, and were expected to make the distinction far better than Starlight, but they still committed crimes that would have completely devastated the world, and they were forgiven.

[Stasis 39]

Pshhhhhhhhh no. Starlight has a ridiculous amount of flaws as a character and her character concept itself is too flawed to even take seriously.

 

One of the reasons is what Nuke said. Starlight had zero reason to change whatsoever. Everything from those last poorly written 10 minutes gave her no reason to change and her personality shift is the biggest insult to our intelligence so far.

 

They tried to pull a Moondancer with her last minute but her little weakness popping up doesn't work for one reason alone. Twilight shows zero empathy to Starlight. There is absolutely zero reason that she should listen to Twilight. Anyways what makes this worse is that her personality shift is never hinted at whatsoever in any of her appearances so instead of development it comes across as derailment.

 

What doesn't help is that she's one of the most OCish ponies we've come across so far. Speaking of said backstory having a rushed backstory with more holes in it then swiss cheese, and completely leaves any logic behind her immense power in the wind, is often worse then having no backstory for a long time. She’s a normal unicorn, so she’s supposed to be more relatable then Discord, Tirek or Chrysalis, yet she wields a completely OC level of magic that is not only never explained and never attempted to explain, but also increases the lack of validation of her own backstory, while allowing her to be both a DIO classy villain one second and the nicest person ever the next.

 

Her incredibly brief backstory and her uber powerful magic makes her one of the most OC ponies we’ve ever met. Its ridiculous how much so: her abilities come out of nowhere, she lords over the Mane 6 with both her abilities and her ideals, episodes during the season partially outline the problems in Equestria her extreme system fixes, she gets to outsmart and even outmagic Twilight in every possible way, due to a contrived plot twist she’s forced to reflect and completely abandon her beliefs for friendship without questioning anything, and she gets to be(what some people are worried about) a new main character.

 

Do you know what kind of characters are written for the sake of having their cake and eating it too?

 

OCs. Poorly written OCs. And the only times when such OCs seem to appeal to people is when every ill-fitting fact about her is something you want to relate to, ergo, she is your perfect blind spot. You can perfectly tell this is the case when not only do people only sympathize with the concept of her backstory and not the actual backstory.

 

Most don't want to see a badly written OC in the show much less be a main character. It's ridiculous how much potential is sapped out in 10mins.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Stasis

[Megas 27,243]

No.

 

Full answer: Considering everything she did up to that point, her backstory makes all of that, her actions and her ideals, look like an extremely comical overreaction, except the show takes it very seriously, and that ending montage, with friendship, redemption, and forgiveness being handed to her on a silver platter, it feels like nothing was earned.

 

I'm sorry, I just can't, and I know I'm not alone in that

 

The future of Starlight is definitely an interesting topic for fans, but personally, I'd prefer she was ignored, or at the very least makes minimal appearances 

[VengefulStrudel 1,486]

I would say yes, though then again, it'd be a surprise if people didn't overreact.

 

Personally, I didn't feel angry, but disappointed that a villain like her became evil because she lost one single friend (who she could've tried to contact again throughout the years). It just feels too silly and rushed to me. Maybe it's because I expected something more grandiose or more traumatic. Ah well, don't like her anyway, so, whether she'd be imprisoned or redeemed is the same thing to me.

[Drunk Not I Am 1,070]

Nope. Shitty redemption and shitty reason why she went all evil to begin with. I find nothing to like about her.

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

Starlight Glimmer had a lot of potential early, and I think it's right to be disappointed when her appearance in the finale, which had been subtly built up in past episodes, was crowded out of screen time by the alternate universes, which should have gotten less time than they were given. The poor pacing of the episode precluded Starlight from getting a better backstory, and any part other characters (specifically the four from "The Cutie Map") would have had were reduced to montage clips during the final song.

 

To grow up swearing revenge on an entire country for the actions of one person is straight up irrational, and considering we're led to believe Starlight is smarter than that, she should at least be mature enough to see how little sense it makes.

 

Multiply the experience of being shown up multiple times over and then I could empathize with Starlight more, and her ideology would make more sense. Even so, Twilight wouldn't be the one to reconcile with her considering that she's the very epitome of success that Starlight wants to bring down, and given Starlight's position I would not listen to a damn thing she says because of that. Twilight would do better, in such a situation, to bring in Moondancer, Troubleshoes, the Crusaders, Diamond Tiara, and any number of other ponies that have had a cutie mark or self-identity problem in the season to reconcile with her. That would have been much stronger for the show's message of friendship - by showing just how important every single connection is to Equestria, not just those of the Mane 6.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Starlight should have stayed as a villain; I'm only hard on her because she seems to be being upgraded to sunset shimmer seventh Character tier.

Her being an idiot and over reacting I can see for a villain; I've seen worse villains. But moving her up to mane character, or even important secondary character role ala discord is going too far; her backstory is just very weak and her only appealing quality is "She's god mode powerful! look at how cool she is!" and "She's just like twilight but EVIL!" which I find boring.

 

 

Hell, I found trixie as a villain more interesting than her.

[Limeblossom 482]

Her backstory was nothing but a weak excuse to reform her, just like Trouble Shoes'. And both stories came over as anti-Cutie-Mark.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Limeblossom

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,299]

The fandom does seem pretty eager to shine up their pitchforks on a regular basis, and I've been directly at odds with those sorts a number of times.  But, in this case, I think I have to begrudgingly side with the fandom. o_o  This frightens me more than you know. O_O

 

Despite the apparent magnitude of what she did, Starlight was let off easy in the series itself.  That doesn't really surprise me, and I typically favor leniency towards the ponies (see the above pitchforks comment).  However: Her motivations were purely selfish, her actions were thoughtlessly vengeful, and the repercussions were arguably worse - and more far-reaching - than almost anything any previous baddies managed to accomplish.  She was playing with the fate of all of Equestria for an entirely petty reason, and whether or not she appreciated just how thoroughly she was screwing everyone over doesn't strike me as the best excuse in the world.

 

I'm not sure she should have been redeemed at all; she was a more-than-formidable villain.  She wasn't even defeated in the finale; she essentially changed her damn mind at the last second.  The moment she started playing with time and destiny her chances of fitting into the misunderstood and potentially sympathetic slot kind of evaporated.  I didn't get as much out of the Twi v. Tirek DBZ energy battle that some did, but I kinda think Twi should have blasted Starlight's butt the way she did Tirek.

[Cleverclover 1,525]

Absolutely not. 

 

 

 

Starlight has legitimate mental health issues that need to be addressed before I can accept her reformation. Her issues are quite severe, and cannot simply be washed away with a few simple friendship speeches.

 

She's emotionally unstable, has an inferiority complex, and is borderline psychopathic. She showed sinister delight as she allowed Twilight to potentially fall to her death, and expressed an even greater sinister delight as Twilight missed her with a laser blast and subsequently encased Rainbow in a crystal block. Oh, and keep in mind that happened shortly after she had blasted Dash herself (yes, she laser blasted a defenseless filly :okiedokielokie: ). In short, she's insane. 

 

Give her a couple hundred hours of therapy in mental rehabilitation clinic, and then I'll accept it. 

 

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,608]

Her redemption was just terrible, and the way they portrayed her insane powers really makes me hate the character. She was even stronger than Twilight in terms of magic. The reason? Ehhhhh, because. Oh, she lost a friend that one time? Boom! Stronger than Alicorn magical abilities because reasons! Then of course she tried to change and thus destroyed the entire timeline at a point, but all she got was a tiny slap on the hoof and then she became insta friends with all the ponies! 

 

Even though they were all super suspicious of Discord for like, two seasons almost before accepting him as a friend and even now I don't think some of them actually do accept him as a friend. Starlight? Pfffft. we can give her a free pass even though she brainwashed tons of ponies and nearly wiped out everything ever.

 

So in short, Starlight is a character that got a shitty redemption that she did not deserve in the first place and she has abilities that are insane and unexplained and all we get from that is 'she lost a friend one time'. To me, she is a character that doesn't deserve much sympathy and at this point, I don't like her. Maybe in season 6 the writers can win me over, but for now, nope. 

[SilverStarApple 849]

Too... harsh?

 

TOO HARSH?

 

That non-monstrous Unicorn with not even the excuse Tirek or Discord or Sombra or Chrysalis could have used... went on a psychotic cult-forming rampage, putting her townsfolk through the kind of special hell George Orwell would be disgusted by. She planned on hypocritically using Twilight's Cutie Mark (And possibly the others, if her end goal was to put all Cutie Marks on herself and become a Cell/Freeza-ish creature) to FORCE and SUBJUGATE... ALL OF EQUESTRIA.

 

And when THAT failed, HER OWN TWISTED BELIEFS GETTING SHATTERED AND PROVEN WRONG IN THE PROCESS...

 

She decided to mess with time, creating worse timeline after worse timeline and subjecting hundreds, thousands, millions to death or worse after a life not worth living... And at the end of it all, Twilight changed her mind. Starlight didn't redeem herself, she was shown love and immediately turned good, without suffering any negative consequences at all.

 

And why did this petty womanchild do all of this? Because her best friend left her upon finding his power and destiny.

 

...I didn't think I'd ever say this. I thought Obito Uchiha was the worst villain ever on every possible level.

 

But Starlight Glimmer... manages to be worse than Obito Uchiha, and with an even stupider motivation.

 

She should have died in the season five finale. She should have died in that episode. After Twilight tells her why Starlight was wrong, and pathetic, breaking her spirit and focus, Starlight's attacks would be weaker. Twilight would gain the upper hand, and they could resume their fight for just long enough for whatever caused Wasteland Equestria to arrive and let the one who caused all of this know exactly what she thinks of her. My headcanon says Wasteland Equestria was caused by an utterly broken and tortured Celestia (As one of her lines would say... she's no longer a Princess. What would she be a princess of?) who was forced to kill Luna/Nightmare Moon, had Discord stoned, shattered, and spaced after defeating him, killed Tirek, and killed so many more, eventually getting to the point where obliterating all life on the planet with the sun was the best possible option to deal with Changelings, angry mobs, Luna fans, and everything else she'd fought to protect and was betrayed by.

 

Seeing Princess Celestia, whether perpetually in her own Daybreak Doom (I came up with that name myself) transformation or simply coated in ragged, damaged clothing, mane and tail aurora dulled, in canon... that would be a powerful image. And what she'd do to the one who caused all of this, the one who turned one of the show's nicest characters into... this... I want to see that.

 

I'm not sure if Daybreak Doom trying to kill them both, Starlight giving up her life so Twilight can escape... would be a better ending than Starlight getting utterly worfed by Celestia, forever putting an end to the "Celestia is weak" jokes, followed by Celestia sparing Twilight and telling her to go back to her own timeline and make sure things don't go how they went here. It's unclear whether knowing a better timeline exists out there is enough for her, or if she's hoping Twilight going home will erase all of this. Either way... Seeing Twilight fills her with hope. And Starlight gets what she deserved.

 

I'm putting this on my list of fanfics to write. 

[Black Sabbath 2,485]

I do think some people are too harsh on her. Especially considering that she wasn't aware of what would happen if she was successful with preventing the mane six from becoming friends.  

Edited February 26, 2016 by Yamet

[Metemponychosis 1,239]

 

 

I think it's pretty unfair how fans are expecting her to get over not having friends growing up.

 

What actually happened was that she lost A friend and them the show takes this leap into "yep... villainy justified". The problem, to me at least, isn't the character. It's the lazy rushed backstory and lazier rushed redemption. And to pour salt upon wounds, Amending Fences did the same story much better.