Visiden Whines It: Uncommon Bonds · 1:28pm Oct 22nd, 2017
I didn't like this episode. Shocking, I know, me not liking a Starlight episode. I thought she was stupidly obnoxious with her insisting that she and Sun Burst were the very best of friends, like she was showing him off as some kind of pet or trophy. Then everyone rushes to accomodate her feewings even though she was being a clingy bitch.
But it made me think about some stuff.
Let's talk about arbitrary rules about Mary Sues again. Here, let me throw in mine. If you're working with an established set of characters like a team of heroes or a gang of friends like the Mane 6 or Starlight's Bitches, don't make it so your new character gets along with each of them perfectly. You don't have to make it so that one of them despises him, but there should be varying degrees of friendship among them. Maybe he can really hit it off with one or two, then be coolly distant but cordial with the others. I know it's part of the plot, but Sunburst conveniently having all the right interests for Twilight, Trixie, and Maud, is ridiculous. He's looking like a shit harem anime protagonist.
I also understand that it's still ultimately a show for the kids, so we can't really have an episode where the correct solution is to stop being friends (although the Gilda one in season 1 comes close). But I do think that a mature take on this situation is for Starlight to admit that she and Sunburst had drifted apart. That's just how it is. When we're young we're flexible, not just physically. We can befriend a variety of people with radically different personalities and form eclectic gangs. But, as we grow older, behaviors begin to set, principles become more nuanced, and friends once found amusing become intolerable. It's like moulting. You grow and discard some friends like old skin.
An apt metaphor. It’s tough, but true, and if the show weren’t targeted at kids, definitely something they'd have to address eventually.