S06:E21 - Every Little Thing She Does

[Trixie Heartstrings 434]

 

 

- Starlight mind controlling wasn't morally good, but Twilight creating sentient life from an apple? Now that's some OP magic there... Even though she kind of did the reverse with her turning a bluejay into an orange way back when. (Was that Lesson Zero??)

 

That was in Too Many Pinkie Pies.

[Foliha 395]

Not being a Starlight fan, (I still think her color-scheme is the worst) I was kinda dreading this episode.  But I very much enjoyed it.  I caught myself thinking, hey, maybe she is getting reformed...  But her failure - right to the end - to get the point of the friendship lessons, and by extension, friendship itself, soon cured me of that notion.  It's like she's had her empathy circuits disabled.  Yeah, she tries hard, but she's not trying to be a friend, (because she's never grokked the concept) she's trying to be a success.  So although she seems nice, she's nice because it gets her good treatment and kudos.

 

There's a big difference between being a nice person and being a good person.  Nice people are often nice because, in the best case, they think they're supposed to, and in the worst case because it guilts people into giving the nice person whatever they want.  (Oh, I just couldn't say no!  She was being so nice!)

 

I'd much rather have a friend that was a good person with a few personality warts, than a nice person who had no real concept of what being a friend means when push comes to shove.  All of the Mane Six have some, at least occasional, irritating personality flaws.  Rainbow Dash is a solipsist, Applejack is sometimes painfully blunt, Rarity is a drama-queen, Twilight is OCD and for all her brains, she still exhibits fuzzy thinking sometimes, Pinkie is LOUD, and even Fluttershy - she's exasperatingly pollyanna sometimes - to the point that she can't see anything bad about the worst person/situation. (I think that's why her Flutterbat persona went over so well.)

 

But Starlight seems a little too nice to be true, just as her "conversion" to niceness happened too quickly.  She's a survivor, and she seems to me to have donned the "cloak of niceness" to figure out how to come out on top of the ponies in her new environment.  I don't think she necessarily means any harm, but her most basic instinct seems to be to be for power rather than for friendship and harmony.

Edited September 24, 2016 by Foliha

[ggg-2 3,552]

She realized what she did wrong at the end, apologized, and tried to make up for it. She also basically cleaned the entire castle as well, even with some help.

 

 The point of a punishment, a good punishment is to teach someone a lesson. Punishing her when she's already realized what she's done is wrong and is trying to make up for it seems pointless to me, it helps nothing.

 

As The Nth Doctor pointed out, it's still mind raping them which, apology or not, is NOT OKAY. When Twilight mind raped all of Ponyville with the Want It Need It spell, she apologized too, but Celestia still came close to punishing her, only settling on the alternative when convinced by Twilight's friends.

[BastementSparkle 20,326]

 

 

As The Nth Doctor pointed out, it's still mind raping them which, apology or not, is NOT OKAY. When Twilight mind raped all of Ponyville with the Want It Need It spell, she apologized too, but Celestia still came close to punishing her, only settling on the alternative when convinced by Twilight's friends.

 

Sure, and considering Twilight actually shouted at her for doing it, I imagine Starlight would have been punished as well if Starlight hadn't apologized for it and went to the effort of trying to make up for it. She's already feeling guilty and willing to make up for it, what does punishment help for then?

 

 Yes, It's not okay, but what would punishment help in this case? Make Starlight learn the lesson that she already seems to have learned anyway?

[cider float 2,537]

Substantial I suppose. Not really holding onto my flank for anything though. But yeah it was one of "those" episodes, you know when they have one character try and mingle or try something out with each of the mane six. Maud Pie first episode was an example.

 

And well anything Starlight is doing feels like I've already seen Twilight done. Yes Twilight probably didn't do what Starlight did before but still the mindset is too similar.

Edited September 24, 2016 by cider float

[CT-1138 3,182]

Old habits die hard, it seems. 

 

And did Fluttershy REAAALLLYYY need to put all the spiders back in the castle? 

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,383]

This was a very enjoyable episode, though I really got a huge sense of Starlight being a (and I hate using this term) 'Mary Sue' in terms of magic. Sure, she isn't all that great at the friendship thing but her magical abilities seem insanely overdone. I am very happy that we finally got more development for her but it also felt like a slight step back before taking steps forward. I really liked the moral though, I know the feeling of being afraid of doing things with other people, so the ending was really nice and sincere. Plus there was a lot of parts that had me laughing so that is another big plus. Lot more humor than I expected.

 

So all in all I really liked this episode, the only major gripe is the beginning and Starlight continuing to be overpowered, but everything else was pretty good. I am still not entirely convinced on Starlight herself though.

[silvadel 1,393]

Starlight here reminds me a lot of Mr Burns in the Simpsons episode "The old man and lisa."

 

Mr Burns loses all his money and Lisa sets him back on track with recycling...

 

But he makes this vast machine that sweeps the seafloor clean...  and puts Lisa's name on it...

 

I remember her saying, "Oh! You haven't changed at all! You're still evil. And when you're trying to be good, you're even more evil."

[Odd Ball 231]

My biggest problem with the episode was that it had a lot of potential that could have focused on Starlight helping secondary characters on their own friendship problems but instead they just took the easy route and had a Twilight's friends fill in the roles.

[TheWhiteBowser 187]

 

The theme for this episode!

Edited September 24, 2016 by TheWhiteBowser

[Cwanky 17,572]

Oh Starlight when will you get it through your head you silly filly? Magic isn't friendship.

 

FRIENDSHIP is magic.  :-P

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

What I thought was gonna turn into an utter trainwreck, had quite the turnout. I tell you, character development in this episode was great. I loved the fact that the episode built up to a climax and resolved. Very well done on the writers' part. 

 

As far as the lesson, very well chosen for Starlight, as she still is struggling with friendship lessons. Love how they're developing the arc for Starlight and I can't wait to see what they'll pull off in the finale!

[The Nth Doctor 662]

I'm just gonna ignore the Trixie mention and pretend this episode takes place before No Second Prances

 

I like to imagine it takes Starlight actually having a friend that helps her see that Friendship Lessons aren't a pain in the flank and maybe using magic to solve everything isn't a good idea

[Luminance 2,186]

Really great episode for Starlight. It really takes up to be just yourself and not enforce friendships the way you want it. Starlight using magic as a advocate to create friendships, oh the irony! She's still OP for still an unknown reason but hey at least she's aware of that and I can see a little ego she's building. Again, Spike showing his consideration for her friendship lessons from the premier and that's very thoughtful of him to do. In the end the mane 5 gets to connect and bond to Starlight after her little dismay and that truly nice. A great Starlight episode that I was waiting for.

[Dynamo Pad 11,275]

This episode was really awesome. I loved the testing of different spells between Twilight and Starlight. I do wonder how they were able to hang upside down in the cave with the bats. The advanced spells looked really cool and interesting. It was also interesting how Starlight was able to combine multiple different spells into one spell. The interaction with Starlight and the mind controlled mane 5 was hilarious. I loved Applejack's watered down stories and the references were amazing.  The moral of the story was really good and it was nice seeing Starlight interacting with the mane 5 after her apology. All in all, this episode was really enjoyable and I would have to say this is my favorite Starlight episode from this season.

[Cirrus. 1,089]

[Yeah, she tries hard, but she's not trying to be a friend, (because she's never grokked the concept) she's trying to be a success.]

 

[she's a survivor, and she seems to me to have donned the "cloak of niceness" to figure out how to come out on top of the ponies in her new environment.  I don't think she necessarily means any harm, but her most basic instinct seems to be to be for power rather than for friendship and harmony.]

 

This episode made me like that they have Starlight in the show now. More of her issues were highlighted in this episode. She is definitely different and more intelligent than Trixie. She is VERY manipulative and again shows she doesn't see the problem with using magic to accomplish whatever it is she needs to do. I wasn't (and still am not really) a fan of her Sunburst backstory and "reformation." At first I also wasn't into Twilight's adopting her as her pupil, but this episode makes it seem like something could come out of it now.

 

One of the valuable things I believe that kids can get out of MLP is exposure to the differing personality types the various characters have. There really aren't a whole lot of shows for kids I can think of that seem to do this as well as MLP.

Edited September 24, 2016 by Cirrus.

[cmarston1 5,959]

I don't really have all that much to say about this episode.

I thought it was okay.

It probably would have been better if we actually had Starlight interact with the remane 5 before this episode, so I could believe their friendship.

This episode didn't ruin my view of Starlight Glimmer, but the season so far hasn't really warmed me up to her much either.

At best I think she is okay, but I am mostly indifferent to her character.

Edited September 24, 2016 by cmarston1

[CastletonSnob 3,074]

Off-topic, but I want an episode where Spike introduces Starlight to Oubliettes and Ogres. 

[Scootaloo Is Best Filly 578]

Oh, Starlight, when will you ever learn that magic and Hypnotizing ponies isn't the answer? This episode, was OK, I liked it, but, you would have thought by now, Starchaser would be  farther along. I just thought after all this, Starlight would know that casting magic is never the right way to go about things. Starlight still has a lot to learn about friendships. All though it was really funny when Starlight was like "Get some water" And Rainbow Dash brought in a huge storm cloud to make it rain inside the castle. All in All 8/10  

[Smitty1038 53]

Some of the spells used in this episode wouldn't sound out of place in Harry Potter. Maybe Mike Vogel is a Harry Potter fan?

 

I thought this episode was funny and a nice callback to "Lesson Zero."

[FlareGun45 2,221]

 

 

 

 

Not gonna lie, I REALLY want to know the whole story behind this!   

 

 

I got the strangest feeling that thing might be in the finale! Unless it's just something else. It doesn't look like a Timberwolf.

 

Also... why would AJ take a picture of that? Shouldn't she be hiding too?

 

 

With Trixie being mentioned, and Spike continuing his bond with Starlight, it's continuing the guess of them being in Starlight's team during that time!

 

 

The finale is sooooooooo close now! Only four more weeks!

Edited September 24, 2016 by MegaSean45

[Knightgem 158]

This episode was kind of a mixed bag for me. Good and also a bit bad.  This has taken the term 'brainwashing' from season five premiere ep 1 & 2 to a whole different level. I had a hard time liking Starlight in this one, not I really do (like that is), but it was one moment I hated her, the next I loved her. Sooo torn as to what I'm supossed to do. Talk about a spell backfireing.

[Goat-kun 2,527]

Lesson Zero with more pony abuse. Twilight Celestia’d even further. It is not sociopathic if you use mind control without a second thought as long as writers make you feel sorry afterwards. Good stuff all around. What’s the point of this so called new character if all we’re getting is a less interesting repeat with Miss Wonderhorn over there? I’m not impressed by that magic power which is turning out to be her only upside. Twilight has her books, neediness, ocd-ish nature, a myriad of barely explored relationships, and yes, she’s a powerful mage, but so is every other kid that plays RPGs. I’m not sure why our glorious writers want to throw all that away in exchange for a straight mare that hides her wondrously fluctuating social insecurities behind her horn. This is not how you bake a good redeemed bitch character.

[JH24 385]

I enjoyed this episode and it was interesting to see how things slowly got out of control. Only criticism I have is that the last few minutes felt dragged out. But I liked how they did took some time for Starlight's apology. The magic hangover was fun to watch too.

 

I liked Spike's portrayal here as well. For some reason I couldn't shake the feeling Spike had grown. Somehow, he seemed bigger/more expressive in this episode.

Edited September 24, 2016 by JH24

[That Guy with the CMB 5,873]

Well, this was honestly my favorite episode of the entire season and even (possibly) my favorite episode since I've been following the show! Which was since the beginning of season 3. Still like most of season 1 and 2 better, but...this was puddle-wonderful!

 

 

This episode managed to make me feel actual emotions, which began as anger toward the fact that they were gonna mess with Starlight, who was kinda the first character outside of the mane six I really, really enjoyed. However, I loved that she was hesitant about the spells and tried to resolve it without them at first. She saw the books and it's like she wasn't even considering it until then. I honestly think she was simply carried away, but her new attitude has convinced me she was extremely improved even beforehand, or beforehoof. :-P I love how she seems to fully get it now. I really, really think she knows now that the spells were wrong and she'll be an even better character for it! The atmosphere was wonderful as well!

 

 

Best episode!

Edited September 24, 2016 by Eazyfries