Afterthoughts: Every Little Thing She Does · 10:28pm Oct 8th, 2016
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Since the show began, many of the best slice-of-life episodes have been the ones that pair up two of the Mane Six and focus on their characters and interactions, how they play off of each other in a situation that has significance to them both. With nearly six seasons, we have seen some pairings quite a bit, but others are a precious rarity – case in point, Rainbow Dash and Rarity. In the previous episode, “Viva Las Pegasus”, the writers treated us to our second Applejack/Fluttershy episode in six seasons. As I said in my Afterthoughts for that episode, I definitely want to see more of those two together. But I believe we have now seen all possible combinations of the Mane Six.
If I had one complaint about Season Six, it would be too little Starlight Glimmer. After having started out so strongly for her with the season opening, we have seen surprisingly little of our new mane character. At the beginning of the season, I had really been hoping for slice-of-life episodes that paired her with each of the Mane Six. Considering how impressive and enjoyable nearly every episode has been this season, it is a lack that I can easily forgive. (I do hope for that still next season!)
And this episode, “Every Little Thing She Does”, gives us an excuse for her having not been seen a lot more this year: Starlight Glimmer has been actively avoiding friendship lessons.
And admittedly, this is an issue that wouldn’t have nearly the foundation it does if there hadn’t been so many Starlight-free episodes between “No Second Prances” and “Every Little Thing She Does”. (Although I would say it didn’t have to be quite as many as we got.)
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(As a side note: I know that the finale has been leaked. I am avoiding it until it airs, so my Afterthoughts do not take into account things that some of you might know from having seen it.)
“Every Little Thing She Does” is a very interesting episode. The initial conflict leads to silly mind-control shenanigans that are a familiar cartoon staple but nonetheless quite fun. (And the aftermath was even more so! Much like “28 Pranks Later” allowed the cast and crew of the show to give us a family-friendly zombie apocalypse, “Every Little Thing She Does” allowed them to give us hungover ponies! And it was hilarious.)
But what is the lesson of “Every Little Thing She Does”? After all, the most obvious lesson, in the words of Rainbow Dash, is “DON’T CAST SPELLS ON YOUR FRIENDS!” But that doesn’t really translate well into a real-world moral. The episode has another lesson it is trying to teach. And it revolves around Starlight Glimmer’s anxiety over activities and social situations outside her comfort zone.
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I must admit, I temporarily considered combining my review of “Every Little Thing She Does” and “P.P.O.V.” because I consider them to be strongly thematically linked. But then I realized they aren’t uniquely paired, but rather just how well this episode also flows with the conflicts and lessons from several previous episodes in the season.
Like Discord in “Dungeons and Discords”, Starlight tries to force activities with others into a model she is familiar with. But Discord does so out of ego and a self-important disinterest in pastimes outside of his comfort zone. Starlight Glimmer does so because she lacks confidence to engage in things beyond her (hyper-competent but limited) skill set, and she struggles with a fear of failure that has plagued her since “The Crystalling”.
When she is performing within her wheelhouse – magic – she soars, always impressive. But when asked to step outside that, she becomes a nervous wreck. Especially since she treats every friendship lesson as a performance before a critic she can’t bear to let down. So the moment she thinks things might be going south, it is fairly natural that Starlight Glimmer resorts to magic to try to tackle her friendship lessons.
As the saying goes, “if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”
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Starlight Glimmer’s core fear is failure. It causes her to bite off more than she can handle in an attempt to impress Twilight. It even causes her to miss the point of the lessons entirely because she is too focused on meeting Twilight’s approval. To this end, Starlight Glimmer’s struggle is very similar to that of Zephyr Breeze. But where Zephyr gives up before he starts, and sabotages himself to avoid trying and failing, Starlight goes way overboard in her efforts, focusing on conquering the stated objectives at the expense of the actual lesson.
Considering the similarity to her brother’s issues in “Flutter Brutter”, I would have liked seeing Fluttershy take a more active role in helping Starlight Glimmer through the resolution. It would have made a nice continuation from that prior episode.
The easy lesson in this episode is that we need to be open to new things, new experiences and new friendships. The desire to play it safe, to never leave your personal comfort zone, is both understandable and powerful. Far too many of us far too easily allow ourselves to become shut-ins. As Zephyr Breeze was with jobs, others of us are with relationships. To never try means to never fail. To never put yourself out there, to never risk friendship, means to never be hurt. So instead, we never stray, allowing our comfort zone to become our prison, and eventually our coffin.
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Friendship is magic. It is arguably the most powerful positive force in our lives. Even the stronger and more intimate bonds of companionship must be grounded in friendship. We are stronger with it. We are happier with it. And we are weaker without it. Exceptionally vulnerable, I would add. While solitude may seem like the safe zone before the minefield, you really do yourself no favors by avoiding the opportunity to gain a friend.
This episode reminds us, quite importantly, that before we can gain true friends, we have to take that step. We need to make the effort and have the willingness to step outside that comfort zone. Even for those of us with many friends, this is an important thing to remember. For every one we have helps us become better people ourselves, and becoming someone else’s friend may be throwing them the lifeline they so direly need.
What should never have to be a lesson (yet is sadly topical) is that we must always be respectful of others and of their boundaries. We must never allow ourselves to become so focused on what we want or what we are trying to accomplish that we simply use others. It is never, ever, under any circumstances acceptable to treat other people like objects to satisfy your will.
“You treated mares as toys, violating them for your own desires, Starlight Glimmer!”
“I can no longer endorse you for President!”
The trickier lesson is for us to understand that other people have difficulty and anxiety with this, sometimes to a severe degree. Twilight was absolutely surprised, even after all we have seen, to realize that baking a cake with a friend is a stressful situation for Starlight Glimmer. Even now that she knows, it remains to be seen how well Twilight has internalized this understanding. For people who do not have this anxiety, it can be hard to empathize with people who do. We have to be not only willing to reach out the hand of friendship, but to be patient and understanding when it is not immediately taken, or when the person we are reaching out to shies away.
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What I was most impressed about in this episode was how well it was set up, and not only with the now-explained lack of Starlight episodes. This insecurity of Starlight’s has been well-established, and her tendency to turn to magic to solve her problems was touched on in “No Second Prances” when she used magic on Big Macintosh. Even the existence of mind-control spells was foreshadowed in “The Crystalling”
Once Starlight Glimmer made that terrible choice, fairly run-of-the-mill hijinks ensued. The best part of these, by far, was the snippets of Applejack in the background, her spell-enforced condensing of Apple family stories into single sentences resulting in highly amusing movie riffs that left me (and I’m sure many others) wanting to know the whole story behind them. These culminated in the exceptionally applicable, “With a whole lot of power comes a heck of a lot of responsibility.”
While this is unlikely to be an episode I will spend much time re-watching, I do very much appreciate what it was trying to teach. And I am happy to see Starlight Glimmer again.
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Minor castings:
By Celestia’s purring mane, Starlight Glimmer is OP! Even Twilight is thinking, “Plz nerf!”
Speaking of, Twilight should really know better than to practice combat magic in her library.
I love that Starlight Glimmer has Trixie pictures in her bedroom.
“They can take our farm, but they can't take our freedom!”
I am pleased that the Mane Six were both understanding and forgiving of Starlight at the end of the episode. I must admit, it would be far harder for me to be so in their place. For that reason, I also like how Pinkie Pie held onto her anger a little longer. That made their reactions feel more real.
I thought the cobweb-infested hall of the castle was rather cool.
Spike’s friendship with Starlight and they way they play off each other makes the two of them one of the most enjoyable pairings in the show.
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And no doubt there will be the inevitable clopfic based on this story coming to a feature box near you!
Ehh... I don't know about this one. I have a real problem liking Starlight after this debacle.... I mean, with the village, they could still be themselves, and while she may have forced Mac to speak, she didn't force the words he choose. Here.... no, just, no.
My favorite game franchise next to fallout has to be assassin's creed. AC is an obnoxiously boring gaming slog of fetch quests and redundancy, but its story is what I like. Starlight has become Equestria's Eden Apple, and it appalls me that , once again, there's no actual consequences
What I really liked about how Starlight Glimmer tried to handle the lesson was that it reflected on her character being fundamentally a villain. Much like Discord, she is a villain trying to be good, but both characters try to accomplish their objectives through villainous means.
Starlight should really see a doc about her mental disorder( Probably Social Anxiety ), if it gets as bad as any of the stuff I have she might end up torn between killing the mane six or herself in the hopes of never having to actually deal with them or anypony.
The whole "learning your friends" thing resonates so well with me. I'm egocentric in a not mean "oblivious" way. My way of knowing people around is passive. So I try to keep my mind open for the things people throw at me, as it lets me know them better. I do often benefit from it, finding new interesting things for myself.
What dumbfounds me is that it doesn't go both way. People actively shield themselves from anything unfamiliar, even if it can only range from harmless to awesome. "Japanese music? Too exotic for me." "Movie in rhymes? No, thanks!" I can't wrap my mind around it.
Though that's kind of more the Canterlot ponies in "Spice up Your Life" thing, not Starlight's.
Honestly, I was too horrified by the effects of the spell to enjoy the hijinks. I agree that this really does tie in well with Starlight's absence through most of the season, but this episode just creeped me out. Still, always good to hear from people who did enjoy it.
Honestly, I'm more amused that this is the third time a student of a princess has used mind control and been told not to do that.
Agreed, but like you said, once it was pointed out that Starlight had been avoiding the friendship lessons, I was actually okay with how little we've seen her. I'm hoping we get to see more of Starlight in the next season.
Agreed.
As am I!
On the bright side, I was able to spend last night catching up on the two episodes I missed. Can't wait for next weekends episode then the season finale. 
Regarding "Not enough Starlight" I full disagree and am glad there was not more, and not her being added to many episodes. And no that is not some 'She shouldn't have have been added, so the less she's around the better" thing, because I DO like her, but rather.. it would be to much, having this new character added, then having her monopolize the show? Even if it wasn't all the time, having her be in to many stories, having to much of the season be all about her, focus on her... it would take a great character, and risk turning them into a Wesley Crusher level blight on the show. Over exposing them, and doing what is responsible, in part, for adding new character being a death knell for other shows, or at least a period of derision and causes the addition to fail. Having the new character take over and make the story all about them, pushing aside the existing cast and stories. It's a zero sum equation, every story about Starlight, is one less story about somepony else. This is an ensemble show, and there are still ponies that get shortchanged on eps, so devoting more time to Starlight could far to easily result in things going down hill and her becoming, as above, MLP's Wesley.
What we got was great, served her well, and did a lot, with little time, to establish who she is in really great ways, but using her more, I can totally see and agree with why they did not. Not that having her mentioned, or appear in a scene or two, or in the background a bit more wouldn't have been welcome.. but every story about Starlight, is one less story about another of the other ponies. And the only ep this season I really would not mind at all having been cut is AJ's Day Off... for being... just so 'meh'.
As the Twilight calling OP... don't see it, that look right before Starlight's power wave hits.. I don't thin that was "Oh shit she's OP hope I can block that" I really do not think, going all out, Starlight could out raw power Twilight. She simply has more skill and finesse with magic. I think that look was less about her about to be hit by it, then "Oh crap, this is going to make such a mess... why did we do this in here!?" look.
But as usual, the rest... very spot on, very well worded, and.... just all around amazing review as always, you really do find a way to get right to the core of what is really so amazing about both the show, and each episode.
I'm very glad that they brought it back around to "Mind control is wrong" for the second half (or maybe one-third) of the episode, because for a while there it did look a lot like the lesson was going to be "Mind control is inefficient".
i really appreciated that you took the morals and lessons of the show we love and extended them. Your words were touching and impacted me, and i want to say thank you for the time you put into them. So, thank you! A wholesome viewpoint of understanding and a heart which desires to learn are welcome pleasures.
It's hard to say Starlight was in the right on this one though. Obviously, it should be a no-brainer that manipulating others magically to do your bidding is just wrong, but when you've done something of the sort, I don't think I would've ever approached those I offended with so much as a straight face. Hell, after all the shit I would've caused, my head would hang in shame for months, if not years.
Someone could've gotten seriously hurt just to satisfy my own comfort zone...
It was... just okay. The moral was, essentially, don't be a sociopath who sees nothing wrong with mind-controling your friends without their consent. I find that they forgive her far to easily at the end. There's being forgiving, then there's being totally hunky-dory with almost literal mind-rape. I mean, as long as she apologized, right? Oh no, can't break the show's insufferable staus-quo, that would be too hard for the writers.
4249352 Please go back and read this whole Afterthoughts again, as it appears that you have failed to grasp any of what Kkat said about the episode including, but not limited to: the existence of multiple morals in this episode applicable to real life. I know that some people my find it tempting to skim a review of this length but doing so may ensure that you don't fully digest everything when crafting a comment and as a result ask a question counter to the review itself. Alternatively you could've just said that because you disagree or were being sarcastic in which case I must look like a complete idiot who takes these things far too seriously.
Also they have no real memory of what happened, so everything they know about the incident amounts to what Twilight told them and how they feel at that moment. Holding a grudge over something you can't remember is at least somewhat more difficult than holding a grudge over something you do remember.
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That is where you are wrong. Imagine, if you will, a scenario in which you go out one night with a friend of yours. You remember walking into a bar and the next thing you know you're waking up with a poinding headache and your best friend tells you that the other friend slipped a roofie in your drink. Would you forgive this friend so easily?
4259326 Depends on how much I know about the situation. For one thing my best friend could be lying or have something against my other friend. Ultimately I'd like to figure out everyone's story first. Personally if something happened that I didn't approve of I wouldn't know how to feel about it because I wouldn't remember it but I'd probably have a few doubts about them and try to figure out why they felt that they had to do that and if they're truly sorry for their actions. Once reconciling that I could figure out how exactly I'd want to deal with it. We all make awful mistakes at some point in our lives that if not reconciled could do permanent damage, so if the right conditions were met, I would try to help them work through things and get back to being the friend I knew before the incident (of course, this is a subjective response and I'm not saying their actions were correct but anyone who believes they have to do this needs some serious help). If they showed no remorse I would deal with things differently. A person is more than a single action, they have reasons for the ways they behave. It would be different if it were a stranger or if there were some irreparable result of this, like if Starlight; for instance, had made me kill my whole family via mind control. If I were put in the place of any of the Mane 5 that Starlight used that spell on, I don't think the repercussions would be so bad that a good enough apology wouldn't sway me to try to help out. The Mane 5 damaged Twilight's castle under Starlight's influence and Twilight understands that it wasn't their fault. Maybe if Twilight had gotten upset at them or if Starlight didn't express remorse or an understanding that what she did was wrong I would be on the same page, but none of these things hold true for the episode. Starlight didn't harm the Mane 5 outside of 1 lost day and migraines which faded in time.
(Had to do it)