How would you improve Starlight's backstory?

[SunsetShimmerStan 36]

Given her backstory does tend to be given flak by her detractors and seen as took weak, what backstory would you all give Starlight for why she became a villain in a way that makes her more sympathetic?

[Rafa Stary 2,991]

I wouldn't change her backstory, I'm really fine the way it is, I don't want MLP characters to have very deep or complex backstories, of course that is welcomed, but what was done with Glimmer's past for me was enough to make me care about her. I really just would've liked to see a full episode focused on telling her story rather than just a short scene 

[Lawyer Slip 2,541]

I'm fine with it honestly.

But if I had to change something the answer is easy. DEATH.

Also, when I say DEATH I mean add a little death by a random pony, not Starlight obviously, to the mix. 

Edited June 22 by Lawyer Slip

[Abstract 832]

On 2024-06-21 at 5:00 PM, Rafa Stary said:

I really just would've liked to see a full episode focused on telling her story rather than just a short scene 

Agreed, I think at least part of the reason so many seem to believe she has a weak backstory is because the scene that shows it is so brief and almost feels like an afterthought.

[Rafa Stary 2,991]

On 2024-06-23 at 4:53 PM, Abstract said:

Agreed, I think at least part of the reason so many seem to believe she has a weak backstory is because the scene that shows it is so brief and almost feels like an afterthought.

Honestly MLP FiM oftenly does that, it doesn't really try to do much planning or have a story built over the long term, so Starlight's backstory was very likely a afterthought indeed. What we see in a episode was probably thought when that specific episode was made. The only moments I think FiM had some planning was in Season 4 (the whole plot about the Mane Six searching for the keys to open the harmony chest, Twilight becoming a princess, and the possible foreshadowing for Tirek in the end of Episode 3) and in Season 9, it was the final season after all, so they made a lot of episodes that are definitive conclusions to specific character arcs (as the episodes with "The Last" in the title), I think Cozy Glown's betrayal was planned too.

[Nightlight1313 176]

To be honest I'd just scrap it entirely and leave her background a mystery. If anything, I feel like that would add to the message. People in real life don't typically have traumatic backstories to explain every cruel thing they do. To truly forgive, you need to know how to accept that possibility, instead of waste your time searching for answers that might not even exist.