Unpopular opinion time

@Sadrai  
Its hyperbole

@Background Pony #E406  
What do u mean?

@Sadrai  
It means that not literally every frame of screentime Snips and Snails got was spent watching them causing or suffering from slapstick or disasters, just that the walking 5 IQ disasters is the prevailing characterization the S1 & 2 writers gave to snips and snails.

@Background Pony #E406  
Hmm okay I will agree with your other post that the later seasons gave them more character specifically the buckball episodes.

@Don’t  
They could, but a) the comics already did that as well as it could be done and b) they might not have considered him to have a non-evil side, or a history fit for the show’s rating. Also c), that would have done little to serve the plot - who would have been the Season 9 opener villain then?
 
 
@Myoozik  
Does she need a “purpose”? She’s the driving engine of a few episodes and a minor chracter in others.
 
 
@Background Pony #E406  
It’s, like, a totally classic style of cartoon/sitcom writing? With a whole lot of varying flavours.

As a fan of the show, I’m actually impressed that people not only talk a lot about Snips and Snails, but they still talk a lot about these two. I don’t know why, but it’s interesting. xD

I think Father Knows Beast could have been a funnier episode if Twilight and Spike got rid of Sludge like that Simpsons episode where they get rid people via a catapult.
 

 
I dont know, but watching Sludge flying away without getting any wacky punishment bugs me a lot.

Watching Starlight getting away with pretty much everything without any punishment also bugs me a lot. But the fact that the show was some random selective baffling continuity makes me care even less about it, which makes the process of finishing the show much easier. :P
 
It’s not like the writers are even trying to put some consistency in Friendship is Magic.

@Ring Team  
I would get why Starlight could get punished, but the worst thing I could imagine for her is receiving a big scolding from a high authority. Or shaking her senses while screaming “Did you just WHAT!?”
 
Sludge almost ruined the relationship between Spike and Twilight at his own benefit.
 
Spike: I don’t think so. I already know who my real family is.  
Twilight Sparkle: Aww! It’s me, right?
 
both hug
 
Sludge: Awww… I love happy endings.  
Twilight, Smolder and Spike: >:(  
Sludge: Oh oh…
 
changes scene with the catapult
 
Sludge: W-Wait! We can argue this!  
Spike: Good bye, dad.
 
Activates the catapult
 
Sludge: Goofy scream while flying away

@Ring Team  
No no, you’re supposed to love starlight unconditionally remember? She had a totally sad backstory that completely explains starting a cult and almost destroying the spacetime continuum.
 
Seriously, though, she’s the team’s pet in the same way Trixie or Luna is the fandom’s pet. They can do no wrong even if in reality their life choices are crap.
 
Luna fans: Luna becoming a nightmare, trying to kill her sister and become a tyrant because ponies liked the daytime better? Who cares, she’s perfect. I really relate to her. My social awkwardness and sense of being an outcast is totally reflected in her basically getting possessed and trying to commit sororicide.
 
Trixie fans: a self centered second rate stage magician who (sometimes unintentionally) caused harm to others to feed her egotrip? Nah, its endearing, not weird.
 
The showrunners: starlight’s totally the bestest character ever, right? The way she constantly resorts to mind control and other potentially harmful magical solutions to all her problems even after her reformation is just so quirky isn’t it? And that destroying time stuff? Well, a childhood friend moving away to go to school is totally sad enough to justify that. Heck, I bet we could justify straight up warcrimes if the perpetrator’s friend moved away when they were a kid.
 
These pet characters don’t have to be well written, appear often(in Luna’s case) or even have a well thought out and sympathetic backstory. Those who love them will either overlook or explain away how their actions are completely disproportional to their motivations. There’s nothing wrong with this per se, there is something wrong when the character is the pet of the showrunners. This means the team won’t ever question the quality of their fleshing out or the placement of this character. This means that in S7 when starlight was shoehorned in everywhere, while we saw a character spammed in a few too many places, all the team could see was a chance to put their favorite character on screen. Even they must have realized this was bad since they toned it down later on.
 
Taking a step back, the team pretty much let every reformed villain get away with everything they did. But, to be fair, no villain that got reformed really did anything as dangerous as what Starlight did and none of them became Twilight’s personal student right after they became good.

Honestly looking at the appearances of Snips an Snails in there early episodes made me realize Imo I feel if boast busters never was a thing and they first appeared in show stoppers which was there next appearance after boast busters they probably wouldn’t be as hated since I feel boast busters being there first appeare really hurt them.

After watching a Justice League Unlimited clip in Youtube, I have come up with the idea that fans who think Starlight deserves severe punishment after what she did are people who are either cold-hearted or have lack of empathy towards her.
 
…Or Twilight is stupidly naive and positive, to the point of failing into manipulation, which is something I like to think as part of her main weaknesses.

@Background Pony #E406  
Or people enjoy these characters despite them having made some bad choices?

@Latecomer  
I’m jaded from spending too long on eqd. Trust me, the luna & trixie obsession over there, especially back in the day, could get really old really quickly.

@RogueBadnik  
I don’t think anyone wants her to be banished or punished or something like that but she arguably was the most dangerous villain Twilight faced (time travel really is such a dangerous power) and for her to go from that to twilight’s student and main character by the end of the same ep was jarring. Twilight’s probably naive but she was just offering friendship to someone who needed it. Its her thing.

@Background Pony #E406  
Sometimes it’s more amusing to watch more messed-up heroines like Starlight and Trixie than more well-adjusted ones like the Mane 6.

@RogueBadnik  
Severe punishment, any punishment at all.
 
A smidge of negative reinforcement.
 
It is not evil to reprimand someone with a tendency to fuck up.
 
I still haven’t forgotten the people who earnestly suggested she was simply too powerful for any of it to stick.

@Latecomer  
There was nothing amusing about S7 starlight being shoved in everywhere. Trixie was kind of amusing but the ego thing got annoying.
 
Luna I just never liked for some reason. Her sister was always better to me anyway.

@Background Pony #E406  
Well, it’s subjective I guess. I can’t think of any individual Season 7 appearance of Starlight’s that wasn’t great, even if she was pushed a bit too much in aggragate (and hadn’t been redeemed very well).

I don’t know, Starlight was kinda like a crazy powerful psychopath in seasons 5, 6 and 7. At least, with the exception of one or two scenes, she’s being ok in season 8. And to me, that’s the only thing that matters with Starlight: Being ok.
 
Although by the time I started watching season 8 I didn’t care about the overall quality or inconsistence of Friendship is Magic, except maybe a couple of details I wanted to discuss.
 
I think that explains why I’m not too harsh on season 8. My least favourite episode of that season was The mean 6, but who cares.
 
It’s just boring, that’s the best way to describe it. xD

@Ring Team  
I think by that point, even they knew the fandom had gotten a bit of Starlight fatigue so they dialed her back a bit both in appearances and in level of crazy. Plus the student 6 were the new kids on the block now by S8. Starlight was yesterday’s news, which ironically may have served to better her as a character by making her appearances feel more natural and Starlight herself a more leveled individual.

@RogueBadnik
 
On the subject of Father Knows Beast:
 

 
Starlight getting chucked out a window while taking a bath is still quite funny.

@Background Pony #E406  
Maybe?
 
I’m not sure what happened to the writers during the making of season 8, and I don’t think anybody’s really sure, but I’m gonna say this: If this is the best they could do with Starlight, I’d ask for a rewrite and a different approach. Maybe more Starlight episodes for season 5 (2 episodes wasn’t enough, and I’m pretty sure some people know it), showing some consequences in character’s actions, like in Putting your hoof down and One bad apple, defining a character with her actions and personality instead of using magic for every single action, and trying to make a unique character instead of making a powerful unicorn (for example, I’ve seen some images of Luster Dawn and I wish Starlight looked more like that character, with a more balanced color selection for the character without making it too saturated).
 
Something like Bab Seed, Diamond Tiara in Crusaders of the Lost Mark, Princess Luna in Luna Eclipsed, Sunset Shimmer in Rainbow Rocks, Tempest Shadow in the MLP film… it’s not that difficult. They can write that character.
 
I still don’t know what happens in the rest of season 8 and the whole season 9, so I might need to finish it

@Ring Team  
Well I talk about them a lot in this thread since most opinions about them would be considered unpopular.

I find Starlight a wonderful character in Season 7. I just have to gloss over her slipshod redemption arc.