Who is Starlight Glimmer? · 6:46pm Jun 24th, 2017
I'd like some help understanding the nature of Starlight Glimmer as a main character. Watching her episodes, I've had a lot of trouble divining critical aspects of her personality. (I suppose that's the nice way of saying I think she's bland and pointless. ) So if you could, I'd like for you to pick one of the following models and tell me what Starlight's characterization is through that.
Model 1: FAE Card
High Concept: (A High Concept is the character's basic archetype. If you told me nothing about the character other than their High Concept, I should be able to describe them in broad strokes.)
Trouble: (This is their greatest weakness, issue, or negative facet of their character. Again, knowing this, I should be able to guess what kind of problems they regularly face.)
Flavor Aspect: (Some third thing that, while not as critical, gives the character some unique touches.)
Model 2: Anti-"Nice Guy"
Pick one or more of the following:
Where most people would do X, this character does Y.
This character is unusually good at X.
This character is unusually bad at X.
This character considers X a virtue and follows it slavishly.
This considers X a vice and avoids it at all cost.
Model 3: Chemistry
The character's most prominent relationship is with X.
Away from X, they have A personality; with X, they have B personality.
They agree with X on C but disagree on D.
(Repeat for any other relationships.)
Starlight Glimmer is somebody who desperately longs for love and friendship yet is utterly terrified of things spiralling out of control. Her first instinct is Use Magic, because magic is something she understands; her initial rejection of cutie marks is in fact a rejection of ponykind, of individuality, because people are complex and unpredictable bundles of emotions and processes. She wants everything completely predictable, including herself, and she gets flustered and increasingly frustrated every time things go off the rails.
Starlight Glimmer sees the world as a system, and people as smaller systems within the system. She prefers people who are... obvious about themselves, such as Trixie and Maud. She liked Sunburst because Sunburst took time to explain things; when he disappeared she assumed it was because of One New Influence destroying the system she liked.