Unpopular opinion time

So this has been something that’s been floating in the back of my mind and I wanted to get it down.
 
So part of the reason I dislike Starlight, I believe, is from her have a lack of challenge. What I mean by that is very little in the world actually challenges her. You could throw bugbears, massive world changing events or taxes forms in front of her and those in and of themselves present no real issue to her. Her only form of challenge comes from internal sources, ie self doubt.
 
The issue with that it that it means the external factors causing her internal challenge are ultimately inconsequential as they are only there to serve her internal conflict and as such it makes it seem like the world had been altered to fit her and her challenges rather than her reacting to the challenges of the world.
 
Like in A Royal Problem, she isn’t actually challenged by having to reconcile two feuding sisters, she just has to switch up thier Cutie marks, follow them around for a fay and fell sorry about all that and the problem is solved. Like the only external challenge to her is Trixie as a braggard she cant control and thus has to deal with the consequences of but other than that, her only real obstacle is self doubt. Or Shadow Play where The Pony of Shadows is little more than window dressing for Starlight’s and Twilight’s whole “I used to be bad” thing with Starswirl.
 
And yes I am trying to use the Starlight debate to get things on track. Image that XD

@PonyPon
 
Did any of it involve a blue unicorn that first appeared in S1?

WTF happened in here?

@Spinny  
Nothing of consequence.

I already wrote this in another thread, but I find the hate towards Scoot’s parents to be way too overblown. They’re not the greatest parents and I didn’t like them either, but why are people treating them like they’re spawns from Tartarus?

@ILoveMyoozik  
They probably wouldn’t if they had as much exposure as Scoots.

@EotD
 
To be fair, she has been challenged more often lately. But yeah, that’s the very reason why I’ve always been against her (or even Twilight) being uber powerful.
 
@ILoveMyoozik
 

@Spinny  
I know they are and I’m not denying that but wow is the venom towards them way too toxic.

@Philweasel  
You wanted the Dazzlings to die?

@AC97
 
His horn survived, you can see it being blown away in the episode.

Regarding power levels, only real thing that was disappointing about Frenemies is that we didn’t quite get an idea of how strong Tirek is in his current state, at least not yet. I mean, we know he could snap Cozy Glow in half (if he were so inclined), but not much else.
 
Could he say, give Starlight a run for her money in raw power at the moment? (He’d possibly lose in a one-on-one from less finesse though, kind of like how Twilight seemed to have him slightly on the backfoot before he pulled the bargaining chips card)

@Hali the Emoji girl
 
I don’t mean the S3 premiere, I meant how the Elements were seemingly used on him in the S9 premiere, before he came back to attack the Tree.

@AC97
 
On THAT note, even though they could have absolutely used the “his horn survived” thing to have Grogar bring Sombra back, it’s nowhere to be seen in his resurrection spell circle.

Tirek Being redeemed actually wouldn’t be bad if they go the route where Scorpan who is now the king of their homeland concedes that Tirek had a point about Magic even if his action wasn’t the way and that their father was too strict
 
This is assuming this make the Comic background canon

@Broken Adam  
What exactly do you mean?
 

 
@AC97  
I give all ponies increased durability and accelerated healing - but it’s only at noticeable levels in alicorns.
 
As for Grogar, we haven’t really seen him “in action” at all. So it’s hard to say.

@EotD  
An interesting point - but I’ll throw back at you that doesn’t that make her the embodiment of the show itself? All external problems in it exist to draw the characters own personal issues out and resolve them. Hack, you could say that about a LOT of fiction.

@Latecomer  
At that point your getting a bit too meta and arguing the thematic of a work are its intended purpose, which is a train of thought I have many issues with
 
But to relate it back to MLP, take Fluttershy from Hurricane Fluttershy. Yes the water collection is there to challenge her mentally but she also has the external physical challenge of not being a strong flyer, so there is a factor outside of her not believing in herself. And then secondly its presented in a way to that had it decentralized from revolving around Fluttershy, that this is an annual thing and Rainbow Dash is in charge of it, which further separates the internal challenge from the external one and give each thier own stake, if that makes sense

@Latecomer  

One of the unpopular opinions over a thousand pages back is that she’s the most conducive to the show’s themes.

@EotD
 
Actually, if you’ll recall, it’s pretty much a mental block with Fluttershy’s flying strength, because if she’s truly determined, she’s been able to keep up with Rainbow Dash, like what happened in Return of Harmony. Confidence seems to affect magical strength in this setting, and Fluttershy isn’t quite one to believe in herself strongly 24/7.
 
That’s also why Sombra’s MO was pretty great, all things considered: breaking their spirit literally makes them weaker.

@AC97  
I didn’t know since I didn’t watch the season 9 premiere.

@AC97  
Well I could go into the whole issue of power vs speed but I doubt that is the point.
 
Regardless Fluttershy went through a massive training montage and physically worked at her flying, yet was still a weak flyer and thus there was an external factor she had to overcome. Now we can argue how much continuity should count towards an episode is a valid debate but not what I meant to invoke

@EotD  
Well Starlight has certainly faced external challenges - like a changeling hive, or royal sibling problems, or royal sibling problems at the changeling hive. Even a giant human girl, much as we might prefer to forget that.

@Latecomer  
The hive was never a physical challenge as it was never something she had to overcome, just something to showcase her mental challenges more than to be an actual challenge for her. As for A Royal Problem, she didnt solve that, she just switched the Cutie marks and then followed the sisters and had a bad dream, the challenge was on the sisters, not Starlight. And same goes with the not-Bob-Dylan-song-titled Changeling episode, as it was Thorax, Phryhaz and the hive that ultimately solved the problem and had the challenge to overcome. Yes they were all challenges in that they were obstacles but they were never anything that tried and tested Starlight in and of themselves and to need her to preserve, if that in any way clarifies, which I sort of doubt XD
 
Though here is where I admit I testing this concept out so my language might not be the best choice for what I mean to convey

@EotD  
Hmm… so she helps others showcase their qualities? Well, that’s not a bad role - and she’s provided the solution to problems as well.

@EotD
 
In any case, as per Rainbow Dash’s words in Top Bolt, flying is “thirty percent skill and seventy percent confidence,” and Fluttershy just isn’t stellar on the confidence front; Hurricane Fluttershy could be said to have involved an element of stage fright, especially considering how this was an exchange in that exact episode:
 

 
It just makes sense for confidence affecting strength to be a rule in general, for unicorns and earth ponies as well.
 

 
(And I’ll say it again: it would make very little sense to assume that rule applies only to Starlight, when it can help explain so much, like why dark magic could possibly be an appealing thing to anyone ever, because it’s only natural to assume dark magic involves emotions)