Thoughts on the Season 6 Premiere in Relation to My Previous Blog Posts Part 1: Season Six Starlight Glimmer

Wow! That was some premiere. It was unexpected, enjoyable, and surprisingly thought-provoking. When we last left off in season 5, Twilight had talked Starlight into becoming her student in friendship. Because of this, the first course of action that I took (once I was done gushing over how heart-meltingly adorable the new baby was) was to compare and contrast Starlight in season 5 with Starlight in the season 6 premiere. Of course, I noticed immediately that unlike in season 5, Starlight seemed more rational and less unstable during the premiere. However, she still retained a tendency to become bitter and sarcastic when things don’t go her way as well as a propensity for emotional outbursts.
As I was analyzing these similarities and differences, I noticed a character flaw in Starlight that may have been present since her appearance in season 5. I realized that Starlight had a deep-seated fear of showing others her true self. Both season 5 and season 6 premieres involved her hiding something that she was ashamed of from other ponies, ponies who she thought of as her friends.
In season 5, she was hiding her cutie mark from the other villagers. Before anyone makes any arguments about why Starlight can’t possibly be ashamed of having her cutie mark, let me give some evidence showing how she could be. Firstly, people/ponies don’t hide things that they are proud of, and considering how strongly she seemed to believe in her philosophy that differences ruin friendships, she probably might have even wished that she could have removed her own cutie mark. Secondly, Starlight doesn’t seem to recognize her own talent for magic. As far as I can tell, she seems to truly believe that between her and Sunburst that Sunburst always has been and always will be the better magic-user, even though everyone else can clearly see evidence to the contrary.
I don’t know how or when, but Starlight seems to have gotten into her head that ponies are incapable of loving and/or being loved unless they hid away their true selves. She seems to want to be loved for her true self but sees her true self as someone who is unlovable. At the end of the season 5 premiere, Starlight’s villagers accused her of denying herself the chance to get to know them for who they are. However, in doing so, Starlight also denied them the chance to know her for who she is. Fortunately for Starlight, Twilight, Spike, Sunburst, and possibly the rest of the Mane 6 are slowly proving her wrong.
In one of my earlier blog posts, I noted how Starlight seemed to serve as a cautionary figure regarding willful immaturity and its role in the dark side of human nature. Now, I’m starting to think that Starlight provides a glimpse of every person’s/pony’s need for unconditional love. See, I am of the opinion that the only characteristic needed to make anyone lovable is a willingness to be loved. It sounds easy, right? Yet, like Starlight, people build walls between themselves and the people who either love them already or could potentially love them because they feel unworthy of love. They act like other people shouldn’t be allowed to love them unless they find a way to deserve it, which, let’s face it, is never going to happen. When Starlight finally allowed herself to open her heart to others, she was finally able to find the love that she longed for.