@DarkStars: “Starlight is more power crazed than Chrysalis”  
And just like that, you’ve lost all credibility.
 
But hey, at least you can stop watching the show and limit yourself to the pre-Starlight episodes.

This image is the magic equivalent to “Not the face!”

@SuperSupermario24  
I wouldn’t say that she completely ruined the show, admittedly. I liked her as a villain during the season five premiere, as she was someone unique, someone whose crimes were more political than destructive, though she did still manage to be more harmful than Tirek in the end. It was during the finale that the writers completely dropped the ball from start to finish.
 
-First and foremost, they use a time travel gimmick. Time travel is the most stupidly abusable way to cheat someone out of a good story, and effectively accomplish nothing but throwing tons of holes into the plot and not doing anyone any favors.
 
-After that, there was how Starlight Glimmer didn’t have anywhere near plausible reasons to become a villain from what amounted to a friend going to boarding school and she simply didn’t have the common sense to try and either contact him or even visit him, and just went straight for fascism/cultism right away. That just plain reeks of rushed development and bad writing.
 
-Lastly, we have the fact that she was forced into the main cast, despite having done nothing to deserve it. They just plain shoehorn her in with no buildup and not even any form of punishment for her. The fact that the main cast seemed to completely forget about how she stole tons of cutie marks-including their own-imprisoned them against their will, and tried to forcibly brainwash them into joining her cult only makes things worse. Had they actually punished her, or at the very least, shoved her off to wander the world to repent for her crimes against nature itself, then that would’ve been better overall. Instead, the writers decide to rush the entire finale, drop the ball with a character, and lower the bar of expectations outrageously low.

@SuperSupermario24  
Derpygate, alicornification, EQG, now Glimmer Redemption. We’ll collectively get over it.

@SuperSupermario24  
Yeah, quite honestly this premiere and Glimmer’s portrayal exceeded my expectations.
 
Back to the image:  

am i the only one who doesn’t completely hate starlight glimmer  
like, i don’t particularly like her, but a lot of people are saying she literally ruined the show forever

@Daneasaur  
yeah I noticed it too, she really does care about him
 
Twilight might have protected him too, but he might of goten hit by the beam if he were standing next to 1 of his other friends _{* cough *} Rarity

@Daneasaur  
Or probably that how Starlight’s Reflex work create that size shield when something destructive come toward her and spike just standing close enough to her.

Anyone else notice that Starlight was thoughtful enough to shield Spike, not just herself from that shot?

@Pagan  
Though now that I think about it the flashbacks in this episode shows Starlight was not very good at understanding spells just that she had the raw power she needed help from Sunburst to turn them into working spells so that makes her becoming a Twilight expy rather strange since after he left and was no longer around wouldn’t she have become less gifted from a lack of understanding?

@Littlecabbit  
I am not audacious enough to speak for you, please do not speak for me. I was not impressed with Sunset Shimmer’s characterization, at least in the first film, as I have not seen the second or third Equestria Girls movies.
 
Sunset Shimmer presentation in the Equestria Girls series notwithstanding, she holds at least a few advantages over Starlight Glimmer in my mind.
 
A.) From an aesthetic standpoint, I feel that Sunset Shimmer has a more interesting color scheme than Starlight Glimmer. I feel that Starlight Glimmer’s color scheme is much too similar to that of Suri Polomare.
 
B.) Sunset Shimmer is a slightly more credible and intriguing threat than Starlight Glimmer. One of my biggest gripes with Glimmer is that she could/can hang with Twilight, who was in the 95th percentile of unicorns before she became an alicorn. At least Shimmer was established as a former student of Celestia’s. That is the type of pedigree a unicorn that can fight Twilight ought to have. A recurring enemy with a grudge against the royal family is also a more interesting concept to me than a random, crazy/hypocritical, cultist. Now, the writers of the first movie utterly failed to capitalize on Sunset Shimmer’s potential, but at least she had any at all.
 
If Starlight Glimmer had been portrayed as some combination of Chairman Mao, Kim Jong-il, Joseph Stalin, Jim Jones, Luc Jouret, or Marshall Applewhite she might have had some traction with me. Maybe throw in an unholy pact with some dark powers (mind flayers, beholders, aboleths, Phyrexians, etc.) for good measure.
 
C.) Sunset Shimmer has more value than Starlight Glimmer in terms of future storytelling potential. This is because Shimmer had a meaningful relationship with Princess Celestia. Also, Shimmer and Twilight have something in common, both being apprentices of Celestia, which would also provide the potential for interesting exchanges and the foundation of a unique relationship. Glimmer is for all intents and purposes a blank slate, as she has no relationships with any previously established characters in the show. Her occupation as an ex-cult leader does not really lend itself to spending time with the Mane 6 either.
 
The main negative of Sunset Shimmer is that acknowledging her existence forces me to acknowledge that Flash Sentry exists, and he is an evil many orders of magnitude greater than Starlight Glimmer. (۶ૈ ᵒ̌ Дᵒ̌)۶ૈ=͟͟͞͞

I think they did an okay job at exploring her character a little more and fixed a couple of issues she had but with that said I’m still not too fond she has been shoehorned in like this with out even punishing her or making her earn their friendship I liked her in this season opener like how she interacted with Spike and showed she was truly sorry for what she did but there is still the issue of her being put in like she’s a main character now with out any build up to it at all.
 
All in all I would say she’s doing better but it will take awhile to get used to and forget how forced in she is and yes I mean forget I like shining armor and cadence and they were forced in as well but not as bad as this and simply accepting it is out of the question for me so trying to forget it is how I will continue to fully enjoy the show.

@DarkStars  
Actually, I can actually say that with a clear conscious say that what Starlight went through and mental state does lend to a credible reason, bro. Starlight’s great.
 
But hey, we’ve spent months arguing. I think we can let it rest.

@DarkStars  

 
@DarkStars  

 
I’m not sure how else I’m supposed to interpret this.
 
@DarkStars  

 
woah woah woah, stop right there bro. Starlight never in any way wanted to “destroy equestria”. she just wanted to destroy twilight and her friends. She had no idea that one event led to the other until the very end.

@DarkStars
 
Eh, whatever you say Bro-man

@DarkStars  

Ok we’ll call you “bruh” instead.

@Blissey1
 
First, I never said that everyone thought that. Second, don’t call me ‘bro’. Third, you can’t possibly say that Starlight Glimmer’s entire reasoning for wanting to destroy Equestria was anywhere near good enough to be plausible, let alone acceptable.

@DarkStars  
>thinking everyone else thinks the same as you
 
bro, you’re in for a world of disappointment.

@Jackarunda  
Don’t blame me for having the guts to say what people are thinking.

@DarkStars  
shut up

@Background Pony #AF98
 
Well, honestly there’s no telling if she was trying to save him or not, he just happened to be standing close enough that the shield still covered him

Yep, Twilight is never this quick to protect Spike; leaving him to smash head first into a tree after falling from the sky once.

@Littlecabbit  
Yeah, it’s just something we’ll have to deal with and hopefully the bitterness will fade over time. I will personally never watch the season 5 finale ever again if only to help myself dissacoiate the old starlight from the new one.

Freaking unicorns!