Regarding Starlight Glimmer

Greetings and salutations, FIMFiction! I haven't written any blog posts here before, but after today's events, I figured that I might as well give it a go now. A bombshell dropped in the world of Equestria today. It has only been a few hours since the Season 5 finale, The Cutie Re-Mark, ended and the contents of its final moments has left the fanbase a bit... perplexed.

For all intents and purposes, it seems very clear from the ending that Starlight Glimmer has gone from being a central antagonist to actually joining the Mane 6 as its new, seventh member. The show has redeemed several of its prominent villains in the past, so Starlight's morality shift isn't much of a surprise, but her new position in the show is a status that only one other former villain has received (Sunset Shimmer in the EQG film series).

So how do we react to this shift in the show?

Some are skeptical and think that Starlight will only continue to be a part-time character that appears every now and again, a la Discord. Some are upset that Sunset Shimmer didn't get the official spot of the Mane 7 in Equestria herself, due to how much development she's had in the EQG films. Others are upset that yet another villain was redeemed at the last minute and that Starlight's motivations for being a villain in the first place are rather ridiculous.

Personally though... I'm not surprised at this turn of events. Really, I'm not.

The fact of the matter is that Twilight Sparkle has been developed about as much as she really can be at this point in the show's run. Or at least, she's been developed as much as she could be in the role that she's had thus far in the series. Twilight has gone from being clueless on friendship to a strong friend to an alicorn Princess of Friendship and she is now starting to get a groove on her role as a Princess in Equestria.

Now the time has come for Twilight to shift into the role of the mentor. That's why Sunset took over as the protagonist in the EQG films and it's also why we were introduced to SciTwi in Friendship Games too. However if Twilight is to become a mentor, that also means that somepony has to rise up to become her pupil.

But who?

While Sunset Shimmer is my personal favorite character in the franchise, I'm also fully aware that we're never going to see her permanently move back to Equestria and be a full-time character in the show proper. She's the single most successful part of the Equestria Girls films and has become the de facto leader and main protagonist of that spinoff series. Her story is there in the human world, though it would be nice to see her pop up outside of the films every now and then.

Which leaves us with Starlight Glimmer. I think most people realized going into this two-parter that Starlight was probably going to be redeemed one way or another. This is a children's show, after all. The issue that I think most people are struggling with right now is this question: "Why is Starlight Glimmer getting this role? Why her, out of all of the characters in the series to pick from?"

On a purely economical level, the answer probably boils down to "Toys." However I do think there is a bit more to it than that. Starlight was only introduced to audiences earlier this year and is a fresh face to the fandom. A pony like Trixie has been around since the early days of the show, but has also only ever appeared every now and again in small episodes. Starlight was introduced to us as a Big Bad and opened up Season 5 with a bang.

Then, unlike other villains before her, we kept seeing Starlight through out Season 5. She didn't go away; she was hiding behind the scenes in a clever little game of "Where's Waldo?" for anyone who noticed her presence. That's why they've been building her up all season long. Introduce her to us in the S5 opener, have her pop up in the background all across the season and then bring her back for the Season Finale too. That's something that hasn't happened before with the show, save for arguably Discord's side-role in Season 4.

Starlight Glimmer was always intended to become Twilight's pupil.

With that in mind, I look forward to seeing what happens in Season 6 and how they utilize this opportunity to develop Starlight. It could be awful, sure, but it could also turn out to be a rewarding experience.