Starlight, genius, or mad?

[Shadow Nightwing 24]

I've always wondered, was Starlight Glimmer a genius who came up with the way to build a utopia in the desert, or was she mad, her anger clouding her better judgement, her past experiences twisting her thoughts?  Honestly, I think it was a bit of both, and the idea was brilliant, but the execution was botched by her belief that she was better than everypony. With proper management, her idea had great promise. If course, the magic she possesses is unique, as would be impossible to find elsewhere. But enough about what I think! What do you think?

Edited July 15, 2018 by Shadow Nightwing
Spelling mistake

[A French Derpy full of Salt 404]

She's the type of person that create good idea on paper, but the execution of it is poorly made and turn to a disaster.

Like some mechanics in video games! (I'm looking at you, Smash Bros. Brawl...)

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

I definitely believe that it was both. The reason for the failure of her evil plan was her arrogance and her inability to put aside her ideals even when it could've benefited her, as she clearly had the potential the whole time to do something far greater than simply brainwashing a village into thinking like her.

[Lord Valtasar 12,685]

Her ideas always tend to be a bit extreme.and she's a genius as far as magic is concerned so she can realise those extreme ideas which leads to some unfortunate events.not just the town.she continued this way even after reforming which makes her character more believable imo since no one can change how they think easily

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,278]

I'd classify her as an idiot with good intentions. So she is basically Homer Simpson if Homer had magic and was stupidly overpowered.

[Moonlight 7,279]

@Shadow Nightwing

Moving your thread to Show Discussion, have a lovely day!

[KH7672 1,604]

1 hour ago, Shadow Nightwing said:

...but the execution was botched by her belief that she was better than everypony.

Might I ask where this mindset came from? I believe her exact words were akin to cutie marks make others feel like they're better so by taking them away there is no longer the perceived hierarchy. She even lived with limited use of her mark (only for the removal spell) so that she can be just like them and not in any way better than them.

[Quinch 1,119]

I'd go with somewhere in the middle. I wouldn't call her a genius and more equal parts misguided and driven - apparently she started off with a degree of talent, as evidenced by her cutie mark. Instead, there's pretty heavy hints that some time after Sunburst was sent away, she developed the idea of Equality and pursued both magic and social studies in order to make it happen. If she were merely a genius, however, she would not have made other discoveries along the way, but instead focused on dedicated pursuit of applied magic towards a specific goal - something that also holds the advantage of any progress of knowledge, which is making it obtainable by others as well.

As for her thinking she was better than others - it's debatable. The doesn't seem to have held herself above others, or at least not consciously. When she accidentally exposed her cutie mark, she openly {if privately} chastised herself without any apparent insincerity. On the other hand, to believe that your way is better than all others, whether or not it is resisted by those you wish to impose it on does require a degree perceived self-superiority.

Her idea itself, though... it depends. When we found her, the only equality she could enforce was to lower everyone down to the collective common denominator, and by doing so, while she strengthened the internal integrity of her society, she would have made all its members much more vulnerable, if not outright helpless against any outside crises, whether they be hostile or environmental. If she {or anyone else, for that matter - she seemed idealistic enough to allow others to outshine her} found a way to elevate everyone equally and simultaneously, I imagine she would embrace the idea, but the problem there is that uniform thinking and abilities would have made that kind of breakthrough impossible from within, and accepting it from outside would expose the flaws of the Equality ideal.

 

[Vlazamal 338]

Genius. The execution was good. The idea was genius. Though the villagers were somewhat unsettled due to them being not assimilated yet, but having an equal Equestria would of been better than having a small class of vested elite at canterlot with another group of poorer ponies. It was better before Twilight showed up. She created harmony!

[Props Valroa 26,038]

She was a genius in that her plans were great though her way of executing it was poor. So half and half.

[Goat-kun 2,498]

Neither. She's your basic average idiot with first world problems. The only peculiar circumstances are magic and a notable lack of heroes that would be able to keep such malicious yet powerful idiots at bay. We need Seven Deadly Sins creature edition. I mean, there could be thousands of powerful foals out there with mail-related issues. We cannot go on without a full counter

[Lord Midnight Madness 1,542]

I think she is an evil genius. But she is know good but is still somewhat mischievous and causes some trouble. She also is very intelligent for her own good in my opinion.                                       

[Lunar Glow 674]

I feel like the writers are trying to portray her as a genius, but unfortunately she just doesn't have basic common sense or good intentions to be one. I'd say that her power is just massively uncontrollable, giving the illusion that she has a lot of it even though she simply can't work with it. 

[Senko 459]

13 hours ago, Quinch said:

I'd go with somewhere in the middle. I wouldn't call her a genius and more equal parts misguided and driven - apparently she started off with a degree of talent, as evidenced by her cutie mark. Instead, there's pretty heavy hints that some time after Sunburst was sent away, she developed the idea of Equality and pursued both magic and social studies in order to make it happen. If she were merely a genius, however, she would not have made other discoveries along the way, but instead focused on dedicated pursuit of applied magic towards a specific goal - something that also holds the advantage of any progress of knowledge, which is making it obtainable by others as well.

As for her thinking she was better than others - it's debatable. The doesn't seem to have held herself above others, or at least not consciously. When she accidentally exposed her cutie mark, she openly {if privately} chastised herself without any apparent insincerity. On the other hand, to believe that your way is better than all others, whether or not it is resisted by those you wish to impose it on does require a degree perceived self-superiority.

Her idea itself, though... it depends. When we found her, the only equality she could enforce was to lower everyone down to the collective common denominator, and by doing so, while she strengthened the internal integrity of her society, she would have made all its members much more vulnerable, if not outright helpless against any outside crises, whether they be hostile or environmental. If she {or anyone else, for that matter - she seemed idealistic enough to allow others to outshine her} found a way to elevate everyone equally and simultaneously, I imagine she would embrace the idea, but the problem there is that uniform thinking and abilities would have made that kind of breakthrough impossible from within, and accepting it from outside would expose the flaws of the Equality ideal.

 

It would have been interesting if instead of "Cutie marks = bad" she went with "Unique talents = bad" and rather than lowering everyone to the lowest common denominator she found a way to tap into other ponies cutie mark talent so everyone in the village could ski as well as double diamond or cook as well as Sugar Bell if they wanted to and the only differences is what they want to do rather than what they can do. We did see her = sign magic actually forcced pony's abilities down to match whoever was the least skilled in an area.

In regards to the question I think mad because lowering everyone to the worst performer like that doesn't guarantee happy community life it means no one can do anything when that special talent is actually needed. In addition to which she punished dissenters and kidnapped the mane 6 which is what led to her ultimate defeat. If instead she'd gone "You aren't happy here where we all work together then begone, oh and here's your cutie mark back may it bring you the misery we joined her to escape." Afterall even if there is a "friendship problem" Twilight's shown elsewhere she doesn't like to go beyond the law unless she absoultely has too and with a town that apparently has the choice to leave at any time I think she'd be reluctant to push it.