Let's Talk How I Learned to Like Starlight Glimmer · 7:59pm Mar 28th, 2018
So, around about the end of Season Six, when the latest Civil War of the Fandom was over the inclusion of Starlight Glimmer as a recurring cast member, I wrote this essay attempting to explain why, at that time, I didn't like her all that much in a calm, reasonable way.
Well, we all know what calm and reasonable gets us around here, don't we?
Since then, we've seen both "Where and Back Again," and Season Seven, and even then, I still wasn't all that sold on Starlight as a cast member. And then I did something I'd been planning on for a while.
I went back and watched the entire series to date from the beginning. Netflix had just put up the first half of Season Seven and we were in mid-season hiatus, so it seemed like a good time. And I noticed a few interesting things:
- In terms of story content, Season One plays everything out really safe and more in accordance of what was expected from a My Little Pony series. Honestly, the Mane 6 are largely two dimensional with the occasional forays into the characters they would come to be.
- Applejack's voice has gotten deeper over the years. Her drawl's still there in the early seasons, but the voice is much higher pitched, and occasionally, it sounds like Ashleigh Ball slipped into her Rainbow Dash voice while performing AJ.
- The show as we know it now didn't really begin to take shape until Season Two.
- Musical episodes are really fast paced.
- The early Cutie Mark Crusaders episodes are really painful to watch now.
And, much to my surprise, and in contradiction of what all those who didn't like Starlight Glimmer thought:
Starlight's episodes honestly didn't take up that many in relation to the seasons she's in as a whole, and her actual redemptive arc DOES happen. It just happens over the course of two seasons rather than one. Everything I wanted to happen to make Starlight tolerable did happen in Season Seven.
Starlight wasn't just Diet Twilight, she had her own interests and worries and desires. When it became clear that Starlight's major flaw is that she tends to use magic to solve all her problems which almost always backfires on her, I started paying more attention to what was going on with her. When she became friends with Trixie and Maud Pie, I got what I wanted out of her relationships: her own set of friends that weren't the Mane 6. In that same episode we discovered that Starlight likes to make and fly kites. Great! Interests in something outside of magic.
"To Where and Back Again" added another element that I realized was missing so far: an actual reason Starlight is awkward around other ponies. She was genuinely afraid of going power mad again and trying to manipulate other ponies. She'd already gotten a taste of that in "Every Little Thing..." This was why she didn't want to form friendships with others, not because she suddenly underwent a massive personality change, but because she isn't sure if she can actually be a friend to other ponies without bossing them around or otherwise dominating them.
Season Seven helped me realize that there was a plan for Starlight by the writing team, it just happened over such a long period of time me and a bunch of other Starlight haters didn't realize it. Starlight didn't become Diet Twilight, much as Sunset Shimmer didn't become Diet Twilight either after the first Equestria Girls movie. Starlight just had a slower progression to where she is now.
If you find yourself getting tired of fan arguments and bogged down with headcanons (yours and others) and you think your love of the show is waning, try doing what I did. Go back to the beginning and watch the whole series again. You may spot things you hadn't before, and maybe you'll find that there's more to a character or episode you don't like than you originally thought.
I ended my original essay by saying that I didn't like Starlight Glimmer, but I wanted to. Well, I now like Starlight Glimmer. She'll never replace the Mane 6 in my heart, but there's plenty of room for her in there to join them.
I've been thinking of taking such a walk down memory lane, just for the nostalgia. Guess I have no excuse now.
You still can't get me to re-watch "Mare-Do-Well," though.
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Really, why not? I kinda like that episode.
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Well, I was kind of kidding. That episode was widely panned on its initial release, and it's now sort of a running gag in the fandom that it holds the lifetime achievement award for...
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/steven-universe/images/6/6b/Worst-episode-ever.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170225002752
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Huh, I'd personally have to give that award to Secrets and Pie. Most of season 7 is "meh" at best, but Secrets and Pies - for lack of a better comparison - really takes the cake.