Oct
28th
2017
Thoughts on the Season 7 Finale · 6:36pm Oct 28th, 2017
- Starswirl the Bearded is a hardhearted jerk who doesn’t know how to admit when he is wrong or doesn’t know something, and how Twilight continues to look up to him throughout the episode puzzles me so much. I mean, okay, Starswirl’s brilliant, powerful, and not TOTALLY heartless, so I can understand why Twilight admires him, but I’m surprised that the pedestal she’s got him on barely even cracked.
- At first glance, the episode seems to make Starlight look good at the expense of making Twilight look bad, but it doesn’t. Twilight and Starlight are actually playing off each other on an equal footing in this episode. Let me explain.
a. Sure, Starlight was right about summoning the Pillars having unintended negative consequences, but Twilight actually made the right call in summoning the Pillars. I mean, the Cutie Map helped her and the Mane 6 find the Pillars’ artifacts without any additional magical stimuli, and if Twilight hadn’t summoned the Pillars, a perfectly good pony would have been stuck in limbo lost to the darkness of his own envy and hurt. In a way, Twilight was right in summoning the Pillars just not for the reasons she initially thought.
b. I said in an earlier post that Starlight is good at not giving ponies special treatment. What I meant was that she’s not easily swayed or impressed by other people’s labels, statuses, or reputations. We see that in full affect here. After Starswirl criticizes Twilight for inadvertently endangering Equestria, Twilight becomes pretty content to follow his leadership and methods despite her slowly realizing how extreme and borderline heartless they were. Starlight had to step in and remind her that she’s more than just another brilliant and powerful magic user and that she doesn’t have to emulate Starswirl to find a solution to the problem.
c. Even though, Starlight was the one talking sense into Twilight. She doesn’t technically end up saving the day. In the end, Twilight had to be the one to make the final call. She had to remember that she didn’t get where she is because of her intelligence and magical prowess and that she became who she is because of her value of others, her willingness to learn from others, and her compassion. In a way, Twilight learning from Starlight was only possible because of Starlight learning from Twilight. Side note: Even though Starlight still obviously has more to learn about friendship, this episode shows that she definitely earned her graduation. Disagree with this statement all you want. I’m not apologizing for it. - I liked this episode. Twilight and Starlight really shone together, not as a teacher and a student but as friends and equals. I’m not too crazy about Starswirl’s characterization though. The only thing he has in common with Twilight are his intelligence and power, and I don’t like that.
You have to recall that back in the Season 3 Finale, Celestia commented that Starswirl didn't understand friendship. Which this consistent with the portrayal of the old wizard in question in this episode.
I can actually understand why Twilight still has Starswirl on the pedestal she had him on and it's so hard for her to admit that Starlight was right, Starswirl taught Celestia and Celestia taught Twilight and we know the pedestal that Twilight has put Sunbutt on.
As for Starswirl's attitude itself, he's clearly older than the other pillars (Mistmane's appearance is brought by the spell she used so she is closer in age to the rest of the pillars), he taught Clover the Clever, Celestia, and Luna, just to list a few, he is well entrenched in his mindset having seen so much of the past and having been proven right almost every single time, it's only after a thousand years of Celestia's and Luna's reign and the world has changed that he can be proven wrong in many things.
4710436
All the same, I think I prefer Banshee531's portrayal of him in his Power Rangers crossover, which is technically an AU now. "shrug"
4710476
I like both equally mostly due to remembering the context.
4710517
I think that experience might also explain why I don't find guys like Timber Spruce attractive. 
I think my dislike of Starswirl stems from my personal experience. I had an old high school crush similar to Starswirl, intelligent, charismatic, prideful, self-centered, mean on occasion. By the time spring of freshman year rolled around, my romantic desire for him was thoroughly killed. Thoroughly killed.
4710546
I think we are not supposed to actually like Starswirl when we actually meet him after he chastises Twilight in the Castle of Friendship.
My issues with Timber steam from being a former RA and Camp Counselor myself and Timber's technically unethical behavior of asking Sci-Twi out the night of the dance in the movie, while she was still attending Camp Everfree.
Back to Starswirl, in the end, I like him because he acknowledged that he's not the source of wisdom he once was, in fact stating that he learned from Twilight, which is a call back to the mentor-mentee aspect of the Hero's Journey Cycle, which should end with the former mentee teaching the mentor, in this case, Twilight taught the mentor of her mentor. Although it was nice to see Starlight remind Twilight of what she taught her.
4710568
Starswirl's admittedly tolerable by the time the credits roll.
4710623
Well to each their own I suppose.
4710713
In my defense, it's kind of difficult to like fictional characters who remind you of the first person to kill your romantic desire. Teehee.
4710738
(Reads that, looks around nervously) um...not sure what to say to that... I kind of fancy myself to be more like Flash Sentry or Shining Armor. .. um...( taking a few steps back)... gtg....
4710808
Maybe it'd be less disturbing if I phrased it this way, it's hard to find a character who reminds you of the first guy you fell HARD out of like with beyond just tolerable. 
"sigh"
4710930
. I guess I didn't think it all the way through, like Twilight when she wanted to pull the pillars out of limbo. I am sorry
can we still be friends?
Sorry, I was trying to make a joke,
4711139
Don't worry about it. My phrasing was pretty poorly thought out on my part also. I was trying to make a reference to this video:
When I got your comment, I realized two things:
1. You probably haven't seen that web series.
2. GoogleTranslate!Anna is kind of crazy and possibly high, and I think everyone dies in the end (the video was kind of vague regarding that), so quoting her probably made me look like a crazy person.
Don't worry. We're totally cool. So cool that we're Frozen.
No regrets!
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