Hypno a Go Go

Since her joining the Mane 7, Starlight Glimmer has had an astonishing lack of episodes or focus on her. Hell she's had a total of only four episodes this season where she was the focus. For the most part, all her episodes she was a part of were good. Her best one this season easily being No Second Prances and how fleshed out her character was in that episode. Since she's also Twilight Sparkle's student to learn about friendship, I guess it's only fitting we do another revisit to another old episode, Lesson Zero.

Considered by many to be one of the more popular episodes, Lesson Zero was about Twilight trying to solve some friendship problem, she snapped and caused the town to go insane over a doll, and her friends learned that they should've listened to their friend. Today, I consider this episode to not be canon. The reason being that the "lesson" Twilight's friends learned they have pretty much just ditched it, and continue to ignore Twilight's worries. They did it in A Canterlot Wedding (Though, to be fair, it could be easily interpreted as Twilight being overprotective), and they did it in What About Discord?. So what we get today is a revisit to an episode that's not even really canon to the show anymore.

There are clearly differences though from Lesson Zero. Whereas that episode had Twilight trying to find a friendship problem and solve it, this episode instead has Starlight being given several friendship issues to solve. Instead of trying to impress Princess Celestia, who in Lesson Zero didn't need a report, this one actually has more of a conflict as Starlight is pressured by Twilight to study more on friendship.

So with an episode like this, you would think it would play out the same way and we get to see Starlight go insane to some degree. Well, sadly that is not the case. At no point does Starlight go cuckoo for Coco Puffs, but instead keeps a level head and doesn't really have a nervous breakdown like before. To be fair, they probably didn't want to go completely out of the way to copy Lesson Zero. Not to mention that we have seen Starlight snap in the season five opener. Unfortunately, what Starlight does in this episode is not only a bad idea, but it also touches upon something I'm not exactly a fan of to see in shows.

You ever hear of the trope, Brainwashing? Well, that's really what Starlight Glimmer resorts to in this episode. I have never really been a big fan of episodes that has one protagonist resorting to mind control to get what they want. Part of the problem with this kind of concept is that usually the one doing the brainwashing is doing this because they are lazy, or just being dicks. It's possible to have a concept like this work out. Ed, Edd, n' Eddy did this, as did The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and both of those episodes were great. However, I have never been a huge fan of these kinds of episodes. It's even worse with this episode because of how Starlight came to doing something like this.

The initial problem Starlight is facing is that she decides to tackle five different friendship lessons while Twilight is away. Now this sounds well and good as Starlight could bond and have her character developed. While we've seen her bond with Twilight, Spike, and Sunburst, there's been little interaction with her and the others. Unfortunately, for most of the episode, Starlight does interact with the others, it's done in her own way and it kind of ends up hurting her character far more than helping her.

To cut out the middle man and get around the issues she's facing, Starlight resorts to mind control over her friends. Yup, I'm not kidding here, folks. Starlight resorts to using mind control to "convince" her friends to help her. Ignoring the horrible implications about this whole thing, let's ask a good question; why do this? In Lesson Zero, Twilight did resort to doing something like this, but it was only after she snapped and resorted to using her doll, Smarty Pants, to make others fight over it with a "Want It, Need It" spell. She tried everything else and as time went on, lost her sanity until she went off the deep end.

In the case of Starlight Glimmer though, this was her first option. She didn't choose this option in an act of desperation or anything. She chose to do this to her own best friends. Think about this for a moment. These are Starlight's own friends who willingly gave her a second chance despite all the stuff she's done in the past, and how does Starlight repay this kindness? By deciding to use them to enact her will and follow her every order. Great idea there, Starlight. She must have forgotten about how "Our Town" reacted when the citizens found out Starlight was controlling them. Smooth work, Starlight.

What's even worse is that Starlight showed she was capable of cloning herself earlier in the episode. So why not do that instead of resorting to this? I guess you can argue that the team was trying to also avoid a rehash of Too Many Pinkie Pies, but it has to be said again; this was the best choice she could think of? A method like this against her own best friends and stripping them of their own free will? Hell, she doesn't even get told how morally wrong this is until Twilight calls her out on this. This really makes me think that Starlight is one screwdriver short of a toolkit, if you get my meaning.

Now in the interest of fairness, it could be possibly argued that since Starlight has lived most of her life controlling and leading other ponies to do her work that she would resort to this. However, it doesn't justify the actions of why Starlight is doing this. Doing this to her own best friends so quickly and without so much as a second thought makes Starlight come off as petty and downright selfish in her actions. I'm not sure about any of you, but seeing someone we're supposed to root for using mind control to order their own best friends around doesn't exactly make me want to root for said character; especially one that was once evil and turned good.

If you're willing to overlook this major morality issue in this episode and the boneheaded move Starlight made, there are some really positive things to this episode. Despite my lengthy rant about the use of mind control, there are a lot of good things I can easily say about this episode. The stuff the Mane 6 do when they are brainwashed is kind of funny, and they all have different quirks that are funny ranging from Applejack and her family history, to Pinkie and her baking. It was kind of funny to see Starlight also freak out a little as she sees the others misunderstand what she wants done.

There are also some nice references scattered about throughout the episode like Applejack quoting some famous movies like Jaws or Braveheart. Another thing is there are some continuity winks to past episodes such as Twilight talking about Trixie and even Starlight having a picture of Trixie in her room. Also, I liked that little photo of Starlight with the "Equal" cutie mark and a big "No" symbol towards it. A good way to show she really wants nothing more to do with that stuff.

When we do get to see Starlight legitimately hang out with the others, the small scenes she shares with each of them are pretty well done and are pretty cute. There's also some decent character growth for Starlight as she comes to face her own problems as well when the spell goes wrong. I do wish we got to see this more in the episode without the mind control, but this was cute nonetheless.

To the episode's credit as well, Starlight doesn't get instant forgiveness for what she pulled. The others, including Twilight, pretty much bring the hammer down on her for her actions. Now granted that the others do quickly forgive her a little too hasty; bar for Pinkie as she's upset about a cake burning. However, it is good to see Starlight be punished for her actions instead of getting instant forgiveness again like the season five finale. The others react as they should; angry and upset about what had happened to them by their own friend.

The moral itself is pretty good as well. Although you may be tempted to use your best skills to avoid or cheat a problem you have difficulty facing, it doesn't work out at all. Not to mention doing stuff that may seem like chores with friends can actually be a good way to learn about them and get to know them a lot better. Even if it's stuff you may not like, having a friend around can give you the chance to learn about them.

Overall, despite a few issues here and there, Every Little Thing She Does ends up being a good episode, but not as good as Starlight's previous outing. Granted the episode does have its moments and there are some good comedy bits, there are glaring issues to it. It does avoid being a complete rehash of Lesson Zero, but it does borrow some elements from it. So points to the episode for avoiding that trap. Not to mention there is some general growth to Starlight's character and the pacing is well done in this episode.

However, Starlight herself is the biggest flaw in this whole episode. Ignoring how much of an idiot she was being in this episode and not considering what she was doing at all; the fact that she resorted to mind control so fast hurt her character a lot. Her quick resort to using mind control is not only a bonehead move, but it shows she may be smart, but lacks common sense to use stuff like this. It just doesn't sit well with me to see a character we're supposed to root for do this to her own best friends without their knowledge.

However, in the interest of fairness, this whole thing does help Starlight's character grow a little more as she comes to learn magic isn't the solution to everything. It may not have been the best way to show this kind of thing, but it did work in the end. So that's one thing I'll give the episode credit for. But seriously, Starlight, mind control? That was the best option? You were better off cloning yourself with that spell you had.

Hopefully, when the season finale rolls in and she takes center stage again, Starlight can really shine and maybe we'll get some more growth for her character. If you can overlook the mind control aspect and how boneheaded Starlight acts, this episode is fun overall and can be a very good episode. I'm not sure if this episode will help people like Starlight more or not, but at the end of the day, this episode does succeed, to a degree, in developing her character and hopefully they can build upon this for her.

Also, here's a nice drinking game for all of you at home. Take a shot every time a pony says "Chillax" in this episode. I guarantee you'll be drunk or passed out before the episode ends.

FINAL SCORE: 8.5 out of 10 (B+)

The Police, take it away!

Comments

[LtMajorDude]

I've said:
"She's gonna use that cloning spell at the beginning of the episode to solve her friendship lessons"
more times than ponies saying:
"Chillax"