Starlight's reformation.

[CastletonSnob 3,089]

How would you have handled Starlight's reformation in the S5 finale? Or would you not have reformed her?

[cmarston1 5,964]

I would have added onto her backstory in order for her pain and agony to feel more believable to lead the way for her to become a psychopathic cult leader.

Her new and improved backstory would be that Starlight Glimmer got her cutie mark which was that of being gifted in magic at a young age, and because of that was bullied by other fillies and colts for getting her cutie mark first.

Shunned and rejected by her peers, she was never really able to make friends.

Plus along with her parents being really strict and forcing her to spend a lot of time studying magic in order to get into some sort of gifted school, she was looked down upon and treated as a snob by her peers.

But Sunburst was the only one was there for her when her peers and parents weren't.

He was her only friend. and they did everything together.

But one day he got his cutie mark and ended up having to move away to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, leaving Starlight with no one who really cares for her.

That raw pain of losing the one person she really cares about along with experienced seeing others make fun of ponies for their special talents and cutie marks being lame or them getting their cutie marks much later than others and other sort of injustices such as having to deal with getting hers too early would have lead for her to resent cutie marks and believe that no one is truly equal with them.

That would then lead to the events of season 5 premiere.

If not all of that would have been able to have been given out due to time restraints, than I would still cut down on the multiple different timelines and only focus on a few of them in order to make room for as much of this backstory to have been given out throughout the episode.

Maybe one of the timelines Twilight and Spike went through could have hinted at some of this, making sure it wouldn't have had to come through in one gigantic speech by Starlight.

Speaking of Starlight, I still really like the idea that she would have had Twilight use the cutie mark removal spell against her in order to defeat her.

Maybe all/ most of this would have happened and she wouldn't have been redeemed.

Maybe just enough for her to stand down, and take responsibility for her actions and accept going to jail, similar to what happened to Kuvira in the Korra Finale.

 

But if she were to be reformed than, she still would have had her magic restrained, and I would have given her an episode focusing on her growing relationship with each of the mane 6 who would be teaching her about friendship, and allowing for a much more satisfying reformation arc, than what we got in the show prior.

And maybe even the finale would involve the changelings not catching all of the mane 6, but just Twilight and the other princesses, and it would be up to Starlight with the help of the remane 5 to save the day, along with Thorax.

And after proving herself in the finale, Starlight would have finally gotten her magic back, after learning how to handle problems without using powerful magic as her first option.

Edited February 4, 2017 by cmarston1

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 42,202]

I would have made her reformation last over the course of season 6, which is sorta what they did. I would do it more in line with her social issues though and less focus on her overpowered magical abilities. Being deprived of friendship is what set her on her destructive path so that is the mane thing that would need to be alleviated. Again, they sorta did that, but they used her magical abilties as the catalyst for some of them, which I would not have done really.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

How would you have handled Starlight's reformation in the S5 finale? Or would you not have reformed her?

Not reformed her. There's too much reformation in the show, and she was good as a foil/villain.

 

Notably, I ALSO would have kept her power level at its Low level from the Cutie mark map, not turn her into Unicorn Broly as far as power levels go like she got boosted to.

[Megas 28,124]

By Starlight's appearance I was already sick of redemptions. I probably would've left her a villain(since, all the other Twilight foils have been reformed already), or may not have even bothered with her, and went with something completely different for the finale

Edited February 27, 2017 by Whompy Whomperson

[Ganondorf8 11,709]

She needed to have been punished for her actions rather than simply be forgiven and act like nothing happened. This is something that Sunset went through during the events of Rainbow Rocks and it resulted in audiences appreciating her character more because she had to suffer before she could find a new lease on life. With Starlight, it was like she was given a free pass. Also, Starlight's backstory needed to be fleshed out more by having her not come off as being petty and having an actual reason for her actions other than because she lost her only friend to a cutie mark.