general Starlight Glimmer bpd

[Pepper Snap 8]

Okay so I strongly believe that Starlight Glimmer may suffer from boarderline personality disorder and here is my reasoning behind this idea. This might be a lot so buckle in:

 

1. Unstable Relationships

• Starlight struggles with maintaining stable relationships, especially early in the show.
• Her intense friendship with Sunburst as a filly set the stage for her abandonment fears when he left, which spiraled into unhealthy coping mechanisms (e.g., creating a commune where everyone was "equal").
• Even after her redemption, she often demonstrates difficulty navigating her relationships, sometimes swinging between extremes of closeness and conflict.

2. Fear of Abandonment

• Her fear of abandonment is a central driving force in her backstory. When Sunburst moved away, she internalized it as a personal failure, leading to deep emotional wounds.
• She overcompensated for this fear by controlling others (such as her village) to avoid being hurt again, even if it meant suppressing their individuality.

3. Identity Disturbance

• Starlight often grapples with her sense of self.
• Post-reformation, she struggles with guilt and doubts about who she is beyond her past mistakes. She’s frequently insecure about her role in the group and whether she’s truly "redeemed."

4. Impulsivity

• Her actions are frequently impulsive and extreme, particularly when she’s emotionally distressed.
  • Examples include traveling back in time to rewrite history, running away from her problems instead of confronting them, or lashing out when she feels cornered.

5. Emotional Instability

• Starlight experiences intense emotional reactions, which she often struggles to regulate.
• She goes from feeling on top of the world to utterly defeated with little provocation, reflecting the rapid mood swings common in BPD.
• Her fear of rejection or failure often manifests in self-critical outbursts or anxious behaviors.

6. Black-and-White Thinking

• Her early philosophy in the village shows her tendency toward all-or-nothing thinking. She believed that "cutie marks" inherently created inequality and that removing them was the only solution.
• Even after her reformation, she sometimes falls back into this mindset, struggling to see nuance in situations.

7. Difficulty Managing Anger

• Starlight’s anger is often explosive and disproportionate.
  • For example, her reaction to Twilight and the Mane Six defeating her in the village was extreme—she pursued a convoluted revenge plan involving time travel rather than processing her feelings.

8. Chronic Feelings of Emptiness

• While not explicitly stated, Starlight often exhibits behaviors that suggest an underlying emptiness.
• Her obsessive need for control and connection can be interpreted as an attempt to fill a void left by her unresolved emotional pain.

9. Intense Fear of Rejection

• Starlight is highly sensitive to perceived rejection.
  • In Every Little Thing She Does, her anxiety about messing up leads her to use magic to control her friends, fearing they’d reject her otherwise.

Counterarguments

While many of Starlight's traits align with BPD, it's important to note other interpretations:

• Her behavior could also stem from past trauma rather than a pervasive personality disorder.
• The show simplifies complex emotions for storytelling, so her actions may be exaggerated for dramatic effect. 

 

now, I’d also like to add that the flashback to Sunburst abandoning her was just a small part of her past that we got to see. When Her and Sunburst had to confront their parents later, we see that Only Starlight’s dad is there like Sunburst’s mom. Her dad is very protective of her and very needy emotionally and it leads me to believe that the incident with Sunburst wasn’t the the catalyst to her spiral into corruption, yet, the straw that broke the camel’s back. I believe that her mom was once in the picture but due to unknown reasons, abandoned Starlight and her father. Making her wounds even more deeply rooted than examined in the show. I also believe that Trixie has NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) I’ll prolly say more about that on another post

[Dawnshine Wonder 27]

Even though Starlight Glimmer did some terrible things in the past with her dictatoresque actions, I think the turning point for her, at least in my opinion, is when she not only became an important ally for Mane Six but she also was willing to show mercy to Chrysalis after defeating her later on. But her actions do stem from difficulty relating to others, fear of rejection and messing things up for others is what in my opinion, makes her worthy of sympathy, people who criticize this character too often forget why something happened can be just as important as the action itself, because not understanding why things happen leads to more of that bad action happening.