spoiler Can we please stop hating on Starlight?

[TheAnimatorOfficial 567]

Besides the fact that she's

NOT AN ALICORN

, she's proven that yes, she can be a likeable and competent character in this season finale. Not only that, but she's probably one of the most clever characters of the series,

not needing a Deus Ex Machina or rainbow laser to defeat the villain

.

 

Hasbro is not going to get rid of her and yes, she'll 100% be back for season 7, but with a new foreshadowing plot line.

 

So please, can we actually give her a chance now? She's not exactly Flash Sentry or Derpy where they serve no purpose.

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

And can we also stop acting like Starlight is the only character that haven't gotten punished for what they've done. For example, Discord didn't get punished when he helped Tirek, yet nobody complains about that.

[Mesme Rize 15,686]

Wait. Sorry dude, but as a Starlight Glimmer fan, i can tell you that it dosen't work that way. People have a right to like or dislike certain characters in the show, because everyone has the right to express their opinions, no matter how good or bad their opinions might be for us.

 

It reminds me of that Pic:

 

[Concerned Bystander 2,903]

Not everyone will like all characters equally, and Starlight Shimmer is certainly no exception, you're on a hiding to nowhere if you think that the people who fervently dislike her are suddenly going to stop doing so.

 

 

 

 

 

not needing a Deus Ex Machina or rainbow laser to defeat the villain

 

You don't think that Thorax and his monochromatic beam of friendship qualifies as the same?

 

 

 

It's going to be interesting to see what they make of her in season seven, I don't want to see her cropping up everywhere but at this point I don't think that she's beyond redemption.  The main thing that continues to raise my hackles about her is that her continued poor judgement and bad behaviour have still been glossed over with no consequences.  Sadly I doubt this will change, it is not after all in the nature of the cartoon to punish anyone for their wrongdoings.

[Castle Bleck 19,378]

Personally, I really don't hate her at all; I just don't like her quite as much as Sunset.

Edited October 8, 2016 by A.V.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

Haters gonna hate. You cant stop them. Haters are fine as long as they give us some decent criticism. Sometime we need to listen to them too, I learned a lot about my beloved character (Starlight) from them,     BUT IF THEY JUST SAY SOMETHING LIKE "I WANT THIS CHARACTER KILLED/IMPRISONED/DELETED/ERASED AND PISS AT EVERY COMMENT SECTION NON-STOP (Jesus, even i hate something, i dont just comment about them OVER AND OVER  ) then you must... ... ... ... ignore them     Changing their mind is useless, we just give them more attention  Criticism is welcomed, even my most favorite character isnt immuned to criticism, debates are actually healthy for forums as long as we dont insult each other. If you come to tell me how this show for little girls make you depressed... ENOUGH!!! What good about making depressing comments at every different threads and topic? 

 

We WILL BE haters in some different scenerios  , you will hate what people love and they will hate what you love, it's fair. Just try to be nice~  (even i failed sometimes )

 

Can they stop hating on Starlight? I stop thinking about that question after watching the season 6 finale   I celebrate so hard so i forgot to care about that...

[Gloriosa Daisy 37]

I like Starlight Glimmer in fact.... 

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,720]

I believe people have had valid reasons for disliking her. One of my main reasons was how insanely powerful she is with little justification and that still has not been justified, but overall, I don't actually dislike her at this point. There are aspects of her that I don't like but her character overall has grown on me a little. This is mostly thanks to the finale. I would like to learn a bit more about her past to know more about her abilities and why she is so good at it, but in the end, she is decent at this point.

[Balt 109]

Starlight is my 2nd fav pony

[SunsetBaconDrive 169]

People are allowed to dislike whatever they want. I don't hate Starlight to the point of having my life compromised... She just irritates me. I originally never liked Discord all that much.... But they were able to do interesting things with Discord that made me soften up to him. And I am just a Sunset Shimmer fan... I understand few don't like her and that's fine. But I was pissed when DHX just essentially made ANOTHER Twilight Sparkle. What made season 5 interesting for me was the cutie map, memorable songs and new characters... I only like Starlight for the Our Town song, other than that. she's a rip off of Sunset Shimmer. She even rips of Twilight. I felt Starlight was added to the show so DHX can rehash the 'lessons and morals' from season 1-3.

 

I am for morals in the episodes.... But if you need to essentially do the "student-teacher" thing which we already did for the first three seasons, I kinda have a good reason to dislike her.

[bluseymoe 258]

Doesn't change the fact that she's boring and annoying to me. I don't care what she does. She sucks, and I hope she never over-shadows the mane 6 again.

[Merion 783]

And can we also stop acting like Starlight is the only character that haven't gotten punished for what they've done. 

 

I'm going a little bit off topic here, but...

I think she actually keeps punishing herself, much like Luna did. She's clearly constantly ashamed of what she's done and she gets upset every time someone mentions her villainy (like Sunset does in EqG). Her remorse is a form of punishment, I think.

[weesh 690]

its totally fair to say you don't like her and why.

but there are tons of people who spew pessimistic and negative hyperbole about her at every opportunity.

 

it would be more respectful to her fans to keep the vitriol to yourself when you feel like going off, instead of trying to bring all her fans down.

 

This is one of the most positive pony forums I've ever been to.  And its so refreshing.  

People can have disagreements, and different opinions and that is a GREAT thing.  But it is worth being careful with your negative opinion, so that you don't make everyone around you defensive and angry with you.  

 

Being effusive and excited and hyperbolic about an episode you love isn't going to lend to a destructive spirit of negativity.

but hyperbole is a bit more dangerous in negativity.  

 

When I wrote my negative posts on "Newbie Dash", of which I had many things to say, I found myself exaggerating, and slamming the episode far more than was its due.I ended up not hitting "post" on about 1/3 of posts I wrote, and rewriting many of them to be more explicitly factual, and I tried to take the emotion out of posts to the best of my ability.  Because I wanted to have a frank discussion about major issues, without unnecessarily distracting from the joy others had about it.  Yeah, I did not fully succeed, and it's something I'm going to need to continue working on myself.

 

to be 100% clear, if you don't like her, DEFINITELY say so and why, but consider being careful about how you say so. 

Edited October 8, 2016 by weesh

[MuttonYolk 63]

Being a strong, and competent character does not make her a good character. 

 

It's like saying: "Rainbow Dash is such a good character because she's such a strong flyer that she can make a Sonic Rainboom." A character's proficiency has nothing to do with that at all.

 

Also, NOT requiring a "Deus Ex Machina" to solve a problem isn't a GOOD thing, it's something you're obligated to do. You're not given a medal every time you show up to work on time, are you? Conflicts are expected to be resolved in a cogent manner. Now, she was somewhat clever in this season finale, but it wasn't anything mind blowing, I saw how the conflict was going to be resolved from a mile away, but that's just me.

 

Personally, I think she's an okay character, but struggles to serve a particular purpose for the show's overall narrative. 

[BastementSparkle 20,328]

There's nothing wrong with disliking or even hating Starlight, or any character in this show for that matter. I can even understand where a lot of them are coming from, this new character that they dislike comes along and takes some of the spotlight from their familiar favorites? Must be annoying.

 

 That said some of the over-negativity around her is a bit frustrating to me. Every single episode she's in seems to make a discussion get half-consumed by nothing but Starlight hate. "She's a Mary Sue! Worst character ever! She should be in a dungeon!" over and over again. You even get some of these complaints when she's only in an episode for a short time.

 

 Also, the "Factual" statements are annoying. "She is just a bad character. She simply is not likeable, that's it." I've seen statements like this too much, and while a lot of these people are just saying their opinion a bit poorly, others will still treat these opinions like fact.

 

Guess I sort of owe my love of Starlight to the hate though. It's because of all the critcism that I spent so much time really thinking about her, and realized how much I like her.

[Celli 4,338]

Maybe when she earns some respect, then people will stop hating on her.

Sorry to say, she hasn't done much to earn the support she wants, she's had little to no development or even screentime for goodness' sake.

Edited October 8, 2016 by Celli

[Cleverclover 1,526]

I cannot for the life of me see how anyone on the show staff expected Starlight's induction into the cast to be well-received with the entirety of the fandom. She nearly killed Twilight and Spike, nearly doomed Equestria for all time, and received a very flimsy justification as to why she became evil. But it's okay! Mane seventh, guys!!! Whoohoo!!! 

 

Unlike Discord, Starlight, for whatever reason, received undeserved forgiveness and redemption from the mane six instantly. Despite showing signs early on that she did not deserve any of the mane six's friendship or trust, she received it anyway. And ultimately, nothing substantial has come from her inclusion to the show. She does not feel like a friend to the mane five, especially after she mind-controlled them, which she clearly would not have done if she had even a modicum of respect for them. Her inclusion to the cast has not benefited them in the slightest. There is absolutely nothing to indicate that they would not be perfectly happy if Starlight decided to leave Ponyville. And honestly, the fact that the writers have not bothered to have her build a relationship with them, outside of a last-minute montage scene, makes me feel that she was never really intended to become a main character. I imagine she'll still just be a recurring character in season 7. 

 

Her completely unexplained prodigious magic talent does not help either. If anything, it makes her seem like some brony's OC that the staff put into the show for whatever reason, because the notion that there's this completely random unicorn who happens to be even more powerful than the Element of Magic herself definitely seems like a backstory that a brony would give to their OC. How exactly does making her incredibly powerful do anything to benefit her as a character? Are the writers honestly expecting me to like her on the merit of her being more talented than Twilight? As if the only thing that makes Twilight a good character is how powerful she is...

 

I want to like Starlight. I want to give her a chance. But she just has not been handled well at all. And it's perfectly understandable to me that many in the fandom still struggle to accept her. 

Edited October 8, 2016 by Cleverclover

[NotoriousSMALL 1,984]

I don't hate starlight, I actually like her a lot, but the writers just don't handle her well.

[cider float 2,538]

The writers will just keep injecting new characters into this show. The new characters will get their own fans. The writers will keep adding in new characters while they build their own number of fans. The show will get diluted, lots of previous characters won't be used, they won't have the room in an episode to use everyone's favorite pony and then the value of every character gets diluted. A good example of this is Bleach. Wow that show just keeps adding new characters in and the end result is every character is just boring AND the storyline became boring because every episode is putting different characters into it that does not connect with the previous one so there is no carry over.

[The Nth Doctor 663]

I'll stop hating on Starlight when she gets the characterization the show tells me she developed on-screen instead of off-screen

 

Also, she still needs to be properly punished for kidnapping, brainwashing, messing with time, brainwashing again...

[SunsetBaconDrive 169]

The writers will just keep injecting new characters into this show. The new characters will get their own fans. The writers will keep adding in new characters while they build their own number of fans. The show will get diluted, lots of previous characters won't be used, they won't have the room in an episode to use everyone's favorite pony and then the value of every character gets diluted. A good example of this is Bleach. Wow that show just keeps adding new characters in and the end result is every character is just boring AND the storyline became boring because every episode is putting different characters into it that does not connect with the previous one so there is no carry over.

Negima has been criticized for too many characters, but Akamtasu intentionally added charactersto make the world feel very expansive than it already was. Ken made over 80 unique character designs but he developed well over 20 characters. Sometimes I like extra characters, MLP has plenty of them, but they're not ALL intended to be developed. 

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

I don't hate her, but I also don't find her all that interesting either for the most part. I just see her has any other side character to be honest and there are several other side characters I just happen to like far more than her. And speaking only for myself here, as much as I do love the Mane 6, I enjoy seeing episodes with side characters and supporting cast since the show is called "My Little Pony" and not "The Mane 6"... but at the end of the day, I just don't find her as interesting a character as I do some others.

 

 

Also, she still needs to be properly punished for kidnapping, brainwashing, messing with time, brainwashing again...

 

Also, as much as I get what people are saying and why they are saying it when I keep seeing phrases like this uttered again and again, the fact is the very idea of doing so goes against every single thing the show stands for and plays itself to. People are demanding shackles and irons, hot coals and lethal injections when the very premise of the show at its core is love, friendship and forgiveness even if at times it becomes somewhat ridiculous in certain aspects. But to suddenly break that would destroy the very foundation of what the show is and why most people got into it in the first place.

 

It's a half hour kids/family friendly show, not a real life documentary.

[Ninjaed 526]

I'm going a little bit off topic here, but...

I think she actually keeps punishing herself, much like Luna did. She's clearly constantly ashamed of what she's done and she gets upset every time someone mentions her villainy (like Sunset does in EqG). Her remorse is a form of punishment, I think.

 

She is. The one who cannot forgive Starlight the most is Starlight herself. Her village (of ponies who, for the most part, WILLINGLY gave up their cutie mark) forgave her, the Mane 6 is giving her a chance, Trixie bonded with her... They all want to try and turn the page, but Starlight cannot. She's always lived with an emotional trauma, and has now realised that all she'd done during those past years was completely WRONG. That, and discovering her revenge plan would have caused Equestria to fall to ruins. It's a really tough pill to swallow.

 

Imagine getting told that, because you've yelled at and punched someone who's ruined your life, you've unintentionaly doomed the whole world. You wouldn't really believe it, would you? But then, it hits you in the face that it IS true. Her emotional trauma (from when she was a FOAL, meaning easily and more intensely hurt) + being chased away from the village she's founded, by the ones she'd imagined her new friends + her ideals proven wrong + dooming Equestria... While I admit the scene was poorly handled, it's no surprise Starlight threatened to tear the scroll apart, despite not wanting to. She was in tears, screaming for help, begging Twilight to prove her wrong, that she could trust someone again...

 

Unlike Discord, Starlight, for whatever reason, received undeserved forgiveness and redemption from the mane six instantly. Despite showing signs early on that she did not deserve any of the mane six's friendship or trust, she received it anyway. And ultimately, nothing substantial has come from her inclusion to the show. She does not feel like a friend to the mane five, especially after she mind-controlled them, which she clearly would not have done if she had even a modicum of respect for them. Her inclusion to the cast has not benefited them in the slightest. There is absolutely nothing to indicate that they would not be perfectly happy if Starlight decided to leave Ponyville. And honestly, the fact that the writers have not bothered to have her build a relationship with them, outside of a last-minute montage scene, makes me feel that she was never really intended to become a main character. I imagine she'll still just be a recurring character in season 7. 

 

Her completely unexplained prodigious magic talent does not help either. If anything, it makes her seem like some brony's OC that the staff put into the show for whatever reason, because the notion that there's this completely random unicorn who happens to be even more powerful than the Element of Magic herself definitely seems like a backstory that a brony would give to their OC. How exactly does making her incredibly powerful do anything to benefit her as a character? Are the writers honestly expecting me to like her on the merit of her being more talented than Twilight? As if the only thing that makes Twilight a good character is how powerful she is...

 

I want to like Starlight. I want to give her a chance. But she just has not been handled well at all. And it's perfectly understandable to me that many in the fandom still struggle to accept her. 

 

Um... Discord brought chaos to a lot of places and did much harm. Even when he was "reformed", he "forgot" about those seeds he'd thrown and that eventually weakened the Tree of Harmony. He's a wild card, you can never know what he'll do next. Of course they'd be wary of him. Even his reformation was forced unto him.

Starlight CHOSE to be reformed. She could have torn the scroll, forever ruining Equestria. Heck, she could have not waited for Twilight to come back to her castle and simply change history without anyone ever knowing about it. But she wanted her revenge against Twilight, she wanted her to know of her suffering. Destroying Equestria had never been her goal, and she freaked out when she saw the consequences of her actions.

 

As for the friendship... Aside from Twilight, the Mane 5 hasn't been THAT welcoming either. Sure, the song was all happy, but afterwards, they were still keeping their distances. And Starlight's mistakes would make them go all defensive (understandably, though). Only Twilight was trying to understand her and correct her mistakes. So yes, she does not feel a friend to the Mane 5 because she is NOT. The whole point of the friendship lessons is to make her become one.

Starlight is socially inept, so she has to learn the hard way how to be a good friend. But another problem she's suffering from is her tunnel vision... Like, when she brainwashed the Mane 5 for her friendship lessons, she only considered her objective, disregarding the rest. When Twilight voiced what her plan actually was, she immediately realised it was a pretty bad plan. Magic is - in her mind - Starlight's only redeeming point, so she's trying to use it for everything, and hopes people will like her for it.

 

For her magic powers, I'd say they're somewhat equal to unicorn Twilight. However, Starlight's good at creating spells, Twilight's good at analysing them (as shown during that Mane 5 brainwashing episode). That can be a really nice dynamic to have, if it's explored further. But to my mind, what Starlight brings is to try and understand others, instead of knee-jerking instantly like even Twilight first did... and a character with a trauma to deal with, who has to learn the hard way.

Twilight was actively rejecting friendship at the beginning. Starlight on the other hand was actively seeking it while being scared of being abandonned again. So she ended up being a control freak to have friendship without any fear of being abandonned. Now that she's not a control freak anymore, only the 'seeking friendship while scared of it' remains, hidden beneath a confident shell and powerful magic.

 

I don't think we've ever seen a character scared of making friends, but wanting to. Those aren't the proactive type, others have to give them a chance, make an effort to bring them out of their shell.

 

I'll stop now, but I'll have to half-agree on your last point - she's not handled as wel as she could have been. So while she's become my favourite character, I can perfectly understand others not liking her yet because of it. Like The Nth Doctor said, she needs on-screen characterisation.

 

 

PS: Wow... I really need to stop with the walls of text ^^'

Edited October 8, 2016 by Ninjaed

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

So please, can we actually give her a chance now? She's not exactly Flash Sentry or Derpy where they serve no purpose.

YOU CAN GET ME TO STOP HATING STARLIGHT WHEN YOU PRY MY KEYBOARD FROM MY COLD, DEAD, HANDS!

but no, seriously, still don't like her, and I will keep hating her.

 

she's proven that yes, she can be a likeable and competent character in this season finale.

COUGH DEBATEABLE COUGH

 

The best parts of the finale were characters BESIDES starlight; it was good despite her, not because of her-- Thorax was good, Discord was INCREDIBLE, trixie was good, starlight was... just there. and bland.

And the first part was significantly worse than part due due to it IMO, since we didn't get heavy discord and thorax until part 2.

 

 

Hasbro is not going to get rid of her and yes, she'll 100% be back for season 7, but with a new foreshadowing plot line.

 

Damnit, stop giving me reasons to drink. >.<

[Ganondorf8 11,362]

I don't dislike Starlight Glimmer, but I won't deny that her reformation was handled way too quickly--Sunset is guilty of this too but I'm well aware of that--and her backstory was her being petty over not accepting Sunburst getting his cutie mark. I also don't like that she didn't have to atone for what she did--Sunset did this in Rainbow Rocks--effectively getting away scot free.

 

However, she has been growing on me throughout season six. I'm still seeing her as Sunset 2.0 given what the season five finale depicted of her, but she has made strides towards becoming her own character. I wanted Starlight to have some actual character development that was beyond Sunburst, and we got that in both Every Little Thing She Does and the season six finale. Right now, she still isn't a character I want to like, not until she has proven herself just a little bit more.