@Lavapool  
Considering how one of the Season 8 episodes plays out, they’re more right than you think.

One of the writers did say on Twitter that she was mistreated by her parents. So there is obviously more to her story.

I agree that starlight got stiffed on her background story, and there was a lot going on beyond sunburst that they never got into. (and her redemption was compressed into a montage)
 
but…
 
@TexasUberAlles  

um, I think you may have forgotten about these…
 

 
cloistered alpha nerds form tabletop rpg gaming groups because it lets them get out of the house and hang out with friends. they don’t have the physique to shoot hoops, the ambition to slave for moving up the corporate hierarchy, or the church group to attend, so it frees them up to do actually fun stuff. yes they like roleplaying because it’s safer than real life, but more in the sense that it’s safer to die fighting a giant dragon while roleplaying, than to do so in real life. few actually manage to do much basic socializing through their characters.
 
anyway so yeah starlight totally got abused and rejected many times before resorting to starting a cult to get friends, and yeah they didn’t go into that nearly enough. it’s kind of funny how by avoiding all that painful stuff, they actually make starlight seem like more of a psychopath, like, “whoops, my friend went off to wizard school THEY WILL REGRET CROSSING ME NO PONY EVER DESERVES TO BE FRIENDS WITH ME EVER AGAIN AHAHAHAA”

@TexasUberAlles
 
I really want them to expand on her backstory in season 7. I remember hearing somewhere that there were indeed more details in an earlier draft of the season 5 finale, but they had to be cut due to time constraints. Additionally, we apparently would’ve actually seen Starlight’s parents in the flashbacks in both the season 5 finale and the season 6 premiere, though I couldn’t get any word on whether they would’ve had any lines or whether they had character models designed for them before they were cut from the episode.
 
Unfortunately, I just don’t see them going into more detail about it in later episodes, and ultimately we do just have to guess on what happened.

@Background Pony #DDBC  
The rest is pure made up headcanon not worth wasting time on  
How much time did it take to type out 137 words in four paragraphs?
 
That would require someone who was socially competent, manipulative  
The Starlight we saw in No Second Prances was about as far from “socially competent” and “manipulative” as it’s possible to get. Why do you think so many cloistered alpha nerds form tabletop RPG gaming groups? People who are super bad at peopleing often try to engineer situations where they can control every possible variable and be in charge of their lives in a way they couldn’t be otherwise, and that doesn’t always accidentally result in healthy socialization with others of shared interests the way gaming groups tend to.
 
This isn’t even about defending a particular horse; Starlight was a new main-ish character introduced as an especially creepy villain and arguably redeemed much too quickly, that’s just going to rub a lot of fans the wrong way no matter how well it is or isn’t presented. This is a commentary on the weird, petulant literalism some fans develop where they absolutely refuse to read between the lines of a story and accept that there might actually be perfectly valid in-universe reasons why [thing they disliked] happened, as if what appears onscreen is literally all that happens in a characters life, despite the fact that this is a show where none of the characters have genitals. The most common justification Starlight’s detractors present for their dislike– because apparently “I just hate that dumb jerk and don’t want to see her anymore” isn’t good enough?– is, essentially, “boo hoo, her boyfriend moved away and forgot to write so she became a supervillain”, which is akin to claiming that the only reason Charles Kane used yellow journalism and underhanded media manipulation to run for Governor of New York is because he had to leave his sled behind when he was sent away for school; it kindasorta leaves out some of the important bits between Point A and Point B.
 
but thanks OP for vilifying depression and anxiety  
hahahaha sure that’s totally what’s happening here
 
@Hclegend  
Why is Starlight such a divisive character?  
Established fandoms haaaaate change. Unless they’re demanding something new. Which they’ll hate because it wasn’t the new something they wanted.
 
Basically, Magical Mystery Cure all over again.

I’m sure your friend moving away was a bummer. Could have been easier if you took any happiness in his success but that would require you to care about someone else beyond what is convenient for you.
 
The rest is pure made up headcanon not worth wasting time on.
 
But ask yourself this. Would the character OP described be able to convince ponies to give up their cutiemarks, join a cult and use gas-lighting like techniques to socially pressure a whole village into fearing her? No. That would require someone who was socially competent, manipulative and would likely be a sociopath. Not a depressed and anxious person who couldn’t make other friends (but thanks OP for vilifying depression and anxiety).
 
But defending Glimmer is a nice way to avoid acknowledging Haber’s bad writing and Larson’s decent writing.

@Hclegend  
All ponies are cute by default.

Why is Starlight such a divisive character? Can’t we just agree she’s cute?

It’s no fun without Mr Fan.  
He bailed before I could even work in a tommy wisseau cheeping like chick giph into one of my replies.

Still only seen the Childhood friend part the rest is just someone’s head cannon. even so, that justifies the kidnappings, the assaults, the psychological torture to break wills of the dozens of ponies in the village?  
or maybe they where all volunteers and Glim-glam just had that torture house built and set up just in case an Alicorn princess and her friends showed up.

I would drink with her.

@MegaAnimationFan  
And Starlight will most likely be casting the spell on herself, not Twilight. Because with the stress building after losing the map, she decides to “calm” herslf so she doesn’t make the stupid mistakes she usually does in those situations, little relizing she’s making the same mistake all over again except this time, She’s the one who’ll end up with the headache.
 
At least she’ll know what it’s like to be on the other end of a mind screw and understand properly why it’s so heinous this time.

@Mr grump  
Oh screw this, I’m done. This is getting me nowhere. If anything, I’m backtracking.

@MegaAnimationFan  
A mind manipulation spell then. Not much differance. It’s still a mindscrew.  
And why bring up sunset when we’re talking about Starlight? Her backstory barely exists. Which I find much more preferable to bad one.

@Mr grump  
Ok, a calming spell is not a mind control spell. It’s like a less painful…….tranquilizer. Or a chill pill. Not everything she does is mind control. And she probably will tell her she’s gonna cast it. But lord knows people are gonna blow it out of proportion and say she’s “still evil” or “horribly written” or crap like that.
 
And that’s a pretty big leap in judgement. I see no reason to be embarrassed. Sunset had a weaker stupider backstory. And they still made a comic about it.

@MegaAnimationFan  
You see, thats what I thought the “all bottled up” episode was gonna be about. I thought Twilight was gonna go all therapist mode, plant starlight on a sofa and make her talk more about her past. It would have been a great opportunity to retcon some actual tragedy into her backstory.
 
And then the synopsis came out and it’s apparently about starlight screwing with the map and mindcontrol again.  
Le sigh.
 
I’m starting to think that, other then occasionaly poking some fun at starlights backstory, the writers are staying as far away from it as possible because they’re embarrased by it.

@Mr grump  
Everyone takes things differently. You can’t just generalize it. Hell if I had the power, I’d a lot worse than Starlight because of how I take things (even as an adult). And it’d be worse because I wouldn’t care who it impacts. Starlight does, she just doesn’t think it through.
 
Well, maybe more about her past will be reveled. Or maybe the writers want us to fill in the blanks. Too bad they didn’t count on everyone hating her guts.
 
And you were making a reference to “The Room”? Sorry, didn’t realize that.

@MegaAnimationFan  
So you’re saying that her 5 year old boyfriend ditching her was the most influential moment in her life that set her on the path to becoming a time defiling mind rapist?
 
Because that was how it was written, presented and how the writers wanted us to take it.
 
You didn’t like my bad movie refrence? You are tearing me apart, meganimationfan!

@Mr grump  
Well she was like, what? 5? She was young and impressionable, so of course she’s gonna take that very hard. Her friendship with him meant a lot to her, so yeah, him just up and leaving without a word, right in front of her will hurt her a lot. And why not show that? The same thing could be said about AJ’s parents or the impact that had on the rest of the family.
 
 
And regarding that second question:  

@Mr grump
 
She’ll just break up with him later.
 
Then commit suicide,  
like all dumped stallions.

@MegaAnimationFan  
Oh Hai MeganimationFan. Long time no see.
 
The way it was presented, losing Sunburst was the most painfull thing that happened to her.  
Even the writers have started to poke fun at her weak Freudian excuse. If even worse stuff happened , why not show that?
 
So anyway, How’s your sexlife?

@FlonnesIkramant  
Not everyone is willing to spill everything to their enemy. You ever think that maybe it was too painful to unveil such pain. Of course you didn’t. No one did.
 
@Mr grump  
Hey, just because it wasn’t shown, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

I never saw any childhood bullying or asshole parents. Not that those things excuse Deflowering the time stream and the minds of her friends, even if they did actually happened outside of the artists imagination.

@MegaAnimationFan  
Starlight only showed twilight how her boyfriend left and none of that other stuff, so its entirely her fault for not bringing it up.

Yeah, the haters are stupid like that…….