I recently did a chapter of a fanfic where Starlight explains her mindset about things. She was focused on revenge and her goal to break Twilight for ruining her village, but she didn’t expect the bad futures that came about because of it. To her, it would just be Equestria “with a new coat of paint.” If Twilight Sparkle wasn’t there to unite with the others then someone else would stand up to be the hero in a time of need. Sparkly Twilight, Blueberry Pie, and so on, would be the ones to wield the Elements and protect Equestria.
 
The little stuff wasn’t worth worrying about, while all the big stuff like the villains would be defeated by the alternate element holders. Essentially, the only real change she believed would happen would be ruining the friendship of the mane 6, while nothing else of significance would happen in the new future.
 
It’s not meant to justify her actions, just to explain her thought process. She was short sighted in trying to alter the timeline, but she didn’t go into it wholly ignoring what breaking the friendship of the mane 6 would mean. She never intended to have all these branching timelines and making thousands suffer and die since the pallet swap mane 6 would help history stay on track.
 
The whole idea of all these different timelines is a bit silly in the first place, with the sole deciding factor in creating them being how Starlight stops the rainboom. It’s clear they just wanted to show as many alternate futures as possible regardless of how little sense it made.

@ILoveMyoozik  
Chick tracts but for ponies

I love this cute little art style that the artist did for the Mane 6, it’s pretty unique and adorable, especially Rarity with her tongue out.

@TheNameIsAzureAce  

@TheNameIsAzureAce  
Congratulations on trying to revive a months old discussion. I strongly suggest no one else try and continue it.

@Dizzy Pen  

 
Dizzy pen, you’re projecting. You should stop that.
 
Am I not allowed to dislike your waifu? Am I not allowed to criticize your waifu? Am I not allowed to criticize a fundamentally bad and broken character, and criticize her fans and their behavior and blind love for her? Please, tell me where your easily-hurt feelings begin, so I’ll know where my human rights end.
 
…Who am I kidding? You’re going to claim I hurt your feelings and went too far, and this comment will soon read “Deleted: Rule 0 Violation”, right?

Since this thread was revived, I’ll just come back to say THANK GOD FOR SEASON 7! Because most of my issues with Starlight have been, imho, fixed all through the season. She finally is a character that stands on her own, with her actual flaws, strenghts and all that, she no longer relies only on the “pity” factor of “I used to be evil” and now gets to act normally, and most importantly: I actually feel she’s been pretty balanced this time. The only time I’ve felt again that “Make Starlight Look Strong” crap was “Mirror Magic”, but that special was absolute dogshit for a lot of reasons.  
…If only Starlight finally being likable didn’t come to the expense of Twilight slow growing unbearable.

@Background Pony #E7B1  
lmao

@Dizzy Pen  
Even though we have different opinions about Starlight, it’s nice to know that we can both agree when someone on either side goes too far.

@Dizzy Pen
 

 
AAAAAND BINGO! here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the one point where I can give you ALL the reason. Yes, THIS is why I TRULY hate Starlight Glimmer. She did NOTHING to fix the timeline, except no fucking it up anymore, and as far as we know those timelines? Still suffering while the culprit is now becoming a graduate. And if we go by the “every timeline is replaced by a new one” theory… yeah, that’s TWICE as fucked up. At least it explains why Starlight was so easily forgiven: Timey-Wimey stuff and Butterfly Effect.
 

 
Uhm, no? She hasn’t remained evil. Seeing nothing wrong in her actions? Well, they must show she’s somehow the same Glimmy that fucked the timeline, I guess? Shitty? That’s a matter of opinion _{(but I kinda agree)}, but at this point EVERYONE has forgiven her already, it’s just her that keeps bringing up her misdoing over, and over, and over again.
 

 
Considering Twilight did a similar screw-up as early as Season 2, I doubt it being illegal (but it should). And no, them having free thought didn’t “trigger” her, but it make her feel like she wouldn’t be able to multitask, so… Yeah, shows her other big flaw: she’s a control-freak. And that’s a flaw the writers seem to ignore a lot, especially in the Season finale.
 

 
Okay, this is just assuming. How do you know the staff wants her to have zero development or depth? I know, bad writing and all that sucks, but IT’S NOT ALWAYS INTENTIONAL! Besides, her having this “I make a terrible leader” dilemma? Out of nowhere. Her flaws are her selfishness, pettines and her desire to control everything in her life, but not about leadership. You know who has that problem? SUNSET SHIMMER. If anything, it proves the writer see Starlight as Sunset 2.0, which is a mistake on itself, but not that writers want her to have no flaws.
 

 
Again, blame the bad writing of the episode, not the character. And this is one of the few times I’ll defend Starlight.
 

 
As much as I hate her… I recognize she HAS learned from her mistakes and knows her morality. Is just, and now I sound like a broken recorder, bad writing putting her in situations where she makes the SAME FUCKING MISTAKES!
 

 
…I don’t wanna agree, but I have to. Yes, she’s been pushed more than Twilight herself, to the point she feels like the new protagonist. I don’t wanna call out Josh Haber, but I do notice him being the one who nearly has her as a Creator’s Pet.
 

 
Hey guys, wanna know how to throw to the shitter all your valid points? THIS IS HOW ^^^  
My personal thoughts? You have NO right to talk about Glimmer the way you do, because you have the same problem than her: pettiness and holding grudges like no tomorrow. Really? Comparing her to Hitler? Defending Tirek over her? Yes, I’m also mad she was made into a pretty bland “protagonist” over how cool she was as a villain, but COME ON! I admit you have some valid points, and I agree with some of your reasons for hating her. But please, for the love of God, LEARN WHEN TO STOP AND THINK WHAT YOU’RE GONNA TYPE! Of course people are gonna get angry and shut you down if you personally attack the staff working on the show acting like an entitled brat who knows what’s better (Kinda like STARLIGHT DID!), and of course, never say someone is “worse than Hitler” if you really want something resembling respect or validation.

…okay, I’m usually against Glimmer and all that, but this just got ridiculous. There are reasons to hate her? Yes. But your argument is.. Well, I’ll make my best to tackle it:
 

 
 
First of all, ALL FANS have an opinion. Some really like Glimmer, others (like me) can’t stand her. And guess what? Only when haters start bitching and saying “YOU CANNOT LIKE THIS BAD CHARACTER!” is when people say “Dude, chill out”. Bitching about a bad character ISN’T inspiring free thought. Giving an opinion on why she’s a bad character and HOW to fix it? That’s free thought.
 

 
Okay, this is just ridiculous. I know the comics aren’t usually taken as canon, but if we go by them, it was made clear Tirek WASN’T born evil. He CHOSE to be evil because he has a power greed. He just want more and more power, and destroy everything for the evulz. He NEVER felt like a woobie saying “I just wanna be special, confident and loved!” (Which, in fact, fit STARLIGHT GLIMMER more than Tirek). Also, draining the ENTIRE KINGDOM OF EQUESTRIA OF ITS MAGIC, PLANNING TO DESTROY EVERYTHING, BACKSTABBING DISCORD WHEN HE GENUINELY THOUGHT THEY WERE FRIENDS is somehow not as evil as anything Chrysalis or Discord did? Because let me remind you, Discord did it all more for the lolz than the evulz: He just wanted to have fun. At the expense of others, yeah, but he’s Chaos incarnated for a reason. Chrysalis had the justification that she did what she did for her changelings (And if we go by comic canon, they were born that way, and probably do it by instinct). Sure, Season 6 retconned everything, but that’s a different can of worms.
 
Now… let’s talk about Starlight for a moment.
 

 
I feel a little bit of projecting, but I agree. She has no real justification of why she’s somehow stronger than Twilight. Fair point.
 

 
Again, fair point! This is my main grip with Starlight: Her motivation makes no sense. Her only friend moved away because of his Cutie Mark? THEN BLAME CUTIE MARKS FOR TAKING HIM AWAY! …even if she kept her in a huge hypocritical moment. This works against her reformation because it makes her look petty and immature… And frankly those are two traits that combined make for a dangerous person, like real life has taught us.
 

 
…aaaand here you threw your argument through the window. No, the Unmarking WASN’T a fate worse than death. Need I remind you the townsponies CHOSE to be unmarked because Starlight convinced them that would make them happier? Sure, later they started to FORCE their happiness and missed their Cutie Marks, but if that kept them away from losing friends….
 

 
And once again, you just defeated yourself. NEVER mix headcanon and canon when trying to make an argument.
 

 
All of which cemented her as a good villain. Seriously, how many antagonist have straight up shutted up the protagonist like she did?
 

 
Look, this isn’t like Naruto or Dragon Ball, buddy. Hell, her escaping would’ve STILL lead to her redemption (which it did).
 

 
And this is the reason I can’t bring myself to like or forgive her. The fact the show just ignored this is what makes me rage everytime she makes the same mistakes. Again, this cemented her as an UNREDEMEABLE VILLAIN, but alas it’s my opinion.
 

 
sigh… Never, EVER try to compare a fictional character with Adolf Hitler. Godwin’s Law at its finest.
 

 
Ironically, THIS is the one thing I disagree. She DIDN’T turned good when she showed her the devastated future, if that had been the case, that would’ve shown that her flaw is that she’s selfish and holds a lot of grudges. Instead, EVEN after being show the Bad Future, she STILL wanted to cause it to Twilight out of spite (again, cementing her as really EVIL), and only after a clumsily delivered friendship speech, she stopped and turned 180° and became good and regretful, somehow.

>Tirek just wanted to feel special, powerful, confident and loved  
>wanted to feel loved  

@Derpy Whooves  
Figured it was something like that.

@Meanlucario  
They had just gotten back from a break. They are also taking a break again.

@Archonix  
I thought he(?) just got back, seeing the dust that gathered here.

@TheNameIsAzureAce
 
The irony of you calling others “crybullies” is strong enough to power a small city.
 
Have some more time off.

@Barhandar  

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwz5ixVHxFE
 
OH NO! Not a tone argument! The tone argument, the ultimate tool to shut down honest debate, the favourite weapon of the crybully!
 
This is probably the meanest comment I’ve made so far, since it’s directly calling you out on your dishonest debate tactics, so you’re probably going to crybully me some more while reporting it for violating “Rule zero”. The other crybullies in the comments sure did!

Ace, your points are technically valid, but the way you go about them invalidates your argument entirely. Sorry, there’s nothing to discuss when you have this attitude.

@TheNameIsAzureAce  
Fine, let look at your points.  
:is a normal unicorn with a good friend and what seems like a nice village. Wish I grew up in a place that nice.”  
True, everyone has a start, be them heroes, villains, or peasants. We however don’t see anything other than Sunburst leaving, so we don’t know how nice it really is. It could also be the same case as Moondancer, who had few strong connections, and the betrayal of one crushed her.
 
“has incredible magical power… just because someone thought it’d be cool.” More so to start a cult. When you’re friendless, the books and magical studies are a good get away, and is why Twilight is also good at magic, why Moondancer is smart, ect. Also, many villains are strong to challenge the Mane Six, Star is no exception.
 
“lost said childhood friend when he moved away to be somepony, leaving her behind  
forgot what letters were” Maybe she never got his address, or he never replied because of shame, or the writers didn’t think of that.
 
“dedicated her life to a crusade against not just magic or unicorns or celestia’s school, but the very concepts of individuality, free will, ability and talent themselves” That was what caused him to leave. His parents likely wanted to give him a good education due to his CM, even though we learn that it’s learning magic instead of doing magic. Again, he left because of the CM, not his magic.
 
“created a thought-controlling communofascist cult to spread her goals and give her an excuse to leech off her mindslaves. gave her townsponies a fate arguably worse than death” To her, it’s paradise. The key thing to remember is that she gave up on morals and went with what she thought was right, instead of what is right. It’s like the people who created communism to create an environment that will keep the people safe, forgetting that others can/will abuse that power. The path to Hell is paved in good intentions.
 
“violated ponies on a level not previously thought possible, considering cutie marks are the very culminations of a pony’s destiny, personality, skill, and being  
the ones that survived her reign without killing themselves or being executed for being wrongthinkers… wait, that’s a headcanon” Yes, it is. We have no reason to think that they tried to kill themselves, and judging by their reactions to the truth, they honestly believe her, implying that they went there because the were hurt like her, and truly believed in her ideas.
 
“told twilight to shut up” And Pinkie made Flutters cry.
 
“tried to brainwash the mane six, heroes of fucking equestria” I think that her plan is to make everyone equal, so there wouldn’t be anyone to attack Equestria. Plus, as we established, Starlight has strong raw power, so she would likely have a plan for everything.
 
“had her ideology disproven by the heroes shonen-style. If she was redeemable, she’d be redeemed now.” Not quite. She still believe that CMs were the thing that caused her and others pain, and losing doesn’t prove that your ideas are wrong. That’s like stop believing that there’s good when Hitler invade Poland. Well, people suffered unjustly, so there is nothing good in this world. Going to kill people now.
 
“Fucked with the timeline. multiple times” Yes. Now, let’s talk about them. The key thing is that she didn’t know. She didn’t know that her actions has consequences, and it took her seeing the pain she caused herself to question herself, and even than, she tried to deny it. It’s like if Twi realized that Celestia isn’t a goddess, and manipulated others to keep that secret, not realizing the pain and misery it cause. Remember, she know the Want it-Need it spell, and she has shown to care for Celestia very much in the series, so it could happen in the right (or wrong) hands. If she kept on going afterwards, than she is too far gone. The difference between her and Tirek is that he didn’t care about anyone else, Starlight did before she wanted revenge, and still did since her was horrified of her actions.
 
“only “Turned good” when Twilight showed her the devastation her fucking with the timeline caused, breaking her “Everything I do is right because I’m perfect” defense and breaking her.” I’m sure that wasn’t her defence. She wanted revenge for Twi ruining her paradise, and didn’t realized her actions hurt others. She saw her ideas as a better alternative to the society that she lived it, not the only true path. That’s why there are more than one type of government, none of them perfect.
 
“Supposedly turned good but remained evil and shitty, seeing nothing wrong with her actions and finding it exhausting that everypony hasn’t forgiven her already (Even early-show Korra wasn’t this bad)” We are watching the same show, right? Starlight never expected forgiveness, and is horrified by her actions after realizing what she did. Every Little Thing has her prioritizing the word of the lesson instead of the spirit of them, and reverted to her old ways when failure was a real possibility. It doesn’t justify her actions, but it does explain why she did them, and she was scolded for them, kind of like with Twi in Lesson Zero.
 
“Got over her “I don’t want to be the leader ever again! I don’t understand why I do bad things but I do understand that I make a terrible leader!” almost instantly because the writers realized this was a potential avenue for depth and/or character development, and flaws that matter are for ponies not named Suelight.” She kind of had to, since Discord, Trixie, and Thorax where the only other ones, and none of them had her experience or knowledge. She was always a leader, and was afraid of abusing her power again. A town that depended on her and a small team to save Equestia are far from the same thing.
 
“failed to properly laser/use magic on chrysalis, letting her get away for no reason at all.” Because she is trying to become a better pony. Might as well ask why Twilight or Celestia didn’t try to stop Chrysalis, since the answer will be the same.
 
“Never really learns from her mistakes and doesn’t really know what actual morality is.” But she didn’t use magic on Chrysalis, something that takes morality. Also, she has been learning it throughout the season, not just one episode.
 
“Is shilled like there’s no tomorrow and shoved down our throats again and again by bad writers and a worse director, usually at the expense of good storytelling and logic.” She was given a handfull of episodes, less than the main cast in the first few seasons. Also, when you have a new character, you need to give them a episodes for them to develop. Writing 101.
 
As for her being a Sue, no, she isn’t perfect, nor acts like it. Perfection requires that she goes through no problems and everyone else is wrong, which never happens. Being powerful and being a Sue aren’t the same, and Starlight having raw power but no wisdom proves that.

@TheNameIsAzureAce  
“I want a mature and intelligent debate…”
 
Take a step back and look at yourself. If it was a Glimmer fan doing the same thing, you wouldn’t hesitate to call it drama. You go to the extreme to “prove” your point.

If we could all refrain from commenting, this thread would eventually end.
 
To the OP, I’m sorry the inclusion of this new character ruined your favorite show.