S8 E08 Review - "The Parent Map" -- This Explains a LOT (SPOILERS for "The Parent Map" · 10:45pm May 5th, 2018
General: This was a perfect example of how to do a character development Slice of Life episode with secondary characters. We got to see a lot, by implication, of how Sunburst and Starlight grew up, and some of the influences that shaped them. Specifically their parents.
I. Firelight: Starlight's father is an antiquarian, who is fascinated by history and ancient things in general, to the point of wanting to freeze the present as an eternal celebration of the past. He is more than a bit of a bookworm, who likes to lecture others regarding his knowledge. Even his style of dress is archaic: while most of the upper-class male fashions in Friendship Is Magic are based on late 19th to early 20th century (Late Victorian to Interwar Era) human male fashions, his is based on early 19th century (Regency to Early Victorian) human male fashions.
His name symbolizes both his obsession with history and his eagerness to share his knowledge with others. Equestria is a gaslight civilization moving into the electrical age, which means that they are about two and a half technological advancements beyond relying on naked flames for illumination (the progression is candles-oil lamps-gaslight-incandescents, one which our civilization made from ~ 1800 to 1900 in urban communities. If we assume that Starlight Glimmer is in her thirties to forties, and that he sired her when he was in his twenties to thirties, then he is in his fifties to seventies -- just young enough to remember when gaslight was coming in, and too young to remember naked firelight being the most common source of illumination (though maybe old enough to remember it in a small town like Sires' Hollow). (*) Hence, "Firelight" is a somewhat anachronistic name.
It has other symbolic significance. "Firelight" is what primitives tell stories around (and this probably applied to the lower-tech ancestors of the modern Equestrians as well). What's more, to "light a fire" is a metaphor for arousing intelligence and interest in others, which is exactly what Firelight does by preserving and spreading historical lore. Thus, Firelight's name also speaks of his mental capabilities in a very positive manner.
He is, however, too much in love with the past. He wants to preserve historical locations, to the point of rendering them useless to the Ponies of the present day. For instance, he has designated a bookstore a historical site, and fenced it off so that nopony can actually come in and buy or read the books; he has some connection with a bakery that bakes "traditional" breads which are so hard they might be usable as military projectiles.
In the context of the Shadow Wars Story Verse, his name indicates membership in the great and farflung Light Clan, which as Post-Traumatic mentions, is also the origin of Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and Dawn Starfall, and from which it was correctly prophesied that the Savior of Princess Luna would be born. This is entirely unsurprising to me, because he's Starlight's father -- but it's gratifying to see vanilla canon agreeing with SWSV canon.
II. Stellar Flare: Sunburst's mother is an aggressive go-getter, what is also known as a "civic booster," who believes in change and progress and profiting from the new -- in some ways, the antithesis of Firelight. She is in as love with the future and change as Firelight is with the past and timelessness. When we meet her, she is leading a town development council which is starting and promoting all sorts of experimental niche enterprises, such as one which substitutes scents for foods, and another which has substituted fruit smoothies for a stand which sold actual fruit. She's installed a recorded greeting onto a town gate, which plays automatically when the gate is opened.
Stellar Flare's whole style reflects this. She dresses like a hyper-modern businessmare -- her style is more mid to late 20th century than the early 20th century ones more common in Equestria, with medium-short swept back mane, indicating that she doesn't have time for a lot of decorative nonsense. She is aggressive, brisk and even brusque in her mannerisms. Her name refers to a sudden and superior event -- both a literal stellar flare (an explosive emission of energy and matter from a star) and a figurative one (something excellent newly bursting out onto the scene).
There is virtue in Stellar Flare's energy and experimentalism. It is precisely because of Ponies like herself that Equestria is growing economically and progressing technologically. Without energy nothing useful would get done; without experimentation, nothing new would ever be done.
However, she is too much in love with the future. Her experimental scents are pushed onto passerby without regard to their wishes, and some smell nasty; the fruit smoothies are not an adequate substitute for real fruits; the automated greeting is startling and rather annoying. She herself comes to realize some of this.
III. Both Parents: Firelight and Stellar Flare are foils for each other, and for their children, to each of which they are the single parent (we do not know what became of Starlight's mother or Sunburst's father). They represent opposite virtues and vices. This leads to them opposing each other in the politics of Sires' Hollow.
What is more, each of their children clearly develops in reaction to and revolt against their parent's vices. Starlight, whose father is an obsessive traditionalist, becomes a rebel, driven to overthrow the Equestrian social order, starting a commune in the attempt to invent an entirely new culture. Sunburst, whose mother loves everything new, comes to love the learning and lore of the past, collecting books as assiduously as does Starlight's father. (Indeed, since Sunburst and Starlight were childhood best friends, it's quite likely that each of them modeled themselves on the parent of the other one).
We know that some of this started in childhood. Sunburst loved books when he was a young colt, and we see a flashback of Starlight's fillyhood room -- it's full of all sorts of rebel imagery. It developed further in adulthood, with Sunburst building up a huge book collection and ultimately moving to the Crystal Empire, which had just returned from being lost for a thousand years; and Starlight founding her cult and commune of Our Town.
IV. Resolution -- and Romance?
The resolution comes when each parent and child becomes able to perceive their vices, and the virtues of the opposing viewpoint, without abandoning their own virtues. Firelight comes to see that he is too obsessed with the past, and that Starlight is no longer a little filly who needs protection from the world. Likewise, Stellar Flare understands that Sunburst has now made his own life and career in the Crystal Empire; he's no longer an aimless drifter.
Firelight and Stellar Flare come to realize that they can work together to improve Sires' Hollow, instead of being forever at cross-purposes. They have obviously become friends; indeed, it is possible that this may develop into love, as there's a strong element of Foe Yay between them as rivals -- and remember that in the original The Parent Trap, the point was to get them to fall in love and get married. It's highly relevant in this connection that they both seem to be single. (**)
In this connection, it is more than a bit relevant that Starlight's father Firelight is a lot like Sunburst, and Sunburst's mother Stellar Flare, a lot like Starlight Glimmer. We first learn to love the opposite sex by learning to love the parent of the opposite sex, and it is quite likely that it is because of Firelight that Starlight finds herself drawn toward a bookish intellectual stallion, and because of Stellar Flare that Sunburst finds herself drawn toward a bossy revolutionary mare. Thus, the developing romantic love between Sunburst and Starlight may well have its origins in the fact that each one resembles the parent of the other.
Conclusion: To reiterate, I was very strongly impressed by the quality of the plot and characterization. This represents a major expansion of the known characters of Sunburst and Starlight; it introduces two more important background characters (Firelight and Stellar Flare); even the minor background characters (such as the baker and the two booksellers) were interesting characters in their own right.
This is how to do a Slice of Life episode!
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(*) These tech levels are not hard and fast: it's an alien culture, and we should also remember that technologies are adopted locally before they are adopted universally. The Mane Six all grew up in the Gaslight Era, and are living through electrification right now; but while Twilight Sparkle was probably familiar with magelight, gaslight and some incandescent electrics as a filly, Rarity may well have used gas, oil and sometimes candles, and Applejack was almost certainly limited to oil and candles -- except when she visited her Orange kin in Manehattan. As for the Pies, I'd say oil and candles -- but they may have had some magelight, because they are rock farmers and help provide the crystals that are key to magelight technology.
(**) Given that Starlight has developed into a mage of roughly Alicorn-level power, and one who came close to accidentally destroying whole worldlines, Firelight's view of her as a helpless little filly requiring protection is both funny and kind of sweet. Likewise, Sunburst is now a court mage to Princess Cadance, crystaller to Princess Flurry Heart, and personal friend to Prince Shining Armor and Princess Twilight Sparkle -- he probably doesn't need any go-getting advice from Stellar Flare any more.
This episode made me think Starlight is younger than she appeared in her, well, first appearance. And that makes sense, because she was hiding an immature temper tantrum underneath the guise of a respectable visionary.
Also, it possibly explains another of her quirks: Starlight herself is rather impulsive, and while her spellwork is undoubtedly powerful and versatile, she doesn't seem as interested in proper research as either Twilight, or Sunset, or Sunburst. Perhaps that's because growing up with an overbearing, history-obsessed father instilled a desire in her to just get on with things instead of sitting around to read some more.
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Building on that, it's no wonder that Twilight's friendship lessons needed reconfiguring before they really started getting through to Starlight. The original, lecture-rich model probably made her feel like she was trapped with a female version of her father.
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Aaand it would partly explain why Starlight is focussed on Princess Twilight, if she's like a younger, more approachable, gender-flipped version of her father to her. Both Starlight and Sunburst clearly have some issues to work through.
Apropos being trapped: Both parents' approaches carried the rather insulting idea that neither of their children can actually care for themselves. Firelight openly treats Starlight like a little girl, and Stellar Flare? She treats Sunburst like a failure. A past one as well as one just waiting to happen again. It's telling that both kids have moved on, but their parents are stuck in the past. They're well-meaning though, and some of the blame rests on Glimmie's and Sunburst's shoulders for avoiding their parents for so long.
And it's understandable they'd want to make up for their own failures. Sunburst's and Starlight's youth wasn't happy. It must hurt a lot to see your kids suffer and not being able to help.
Great analysis!
But, I just can't see Starlight and Sunburst ever being a thing. Like, I'm looking at Starlight, her personality and the company she actually seems to enjoy keeping (Trixie, Spike, sometimes Twilight) and she appears to like surrounding herself with outgoing, charismatic characters. She's definitely an extrovert and probably feeds off that energy of an outgoing character. Hence, she's great at being friends and leading characters like Sunburst, but actually being with one for an extended period of time would make her emotionally exhausted.
That's not to say she has to be romantically paired with someone just like her, because that never works either. But, someone with a similar, albeit more controlled personality would be like honey to a fly with her.
I think her and Sunburst would always be friends, but I really don't see them being able to commit to each other as they'd probably drain each other way too fast.
Even though he's stopped thinking of her as a helpless filly, I wonder if Firelight quite realizes the damage he did by ignoring or downplaying how hard it was for Starlight to make friends growing up. If he'd been more on the ball, he could have stopped her from impulsively jumping to that rock-stupid conclusion of hers.
Once you pointed it out, it's shocking how similar Sunburst and Starlight are in personality to the parent of their counterpart. Thanks!
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I still think that Starlight Glimmer is considerably older than Twilight Sparkle -- but that in many ways Starlight is exceptionally-immature and Twilight considerably-mature for their chronological ages.
(*nods*)
That's why Sunburst and her mesh so well. Sunburst has the patience and mindset to do the research needed to tell Starlight how best to apply her vast, nigh-Alicorn level magical power.
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(*nods*)
By the same token, this probably helped her accept Twilight Sparkle's authority better. She was in many ways like a younger, friendlier version of Firelight.
I did enjoy the episode for the insight it gave us into Glimmer and Sunburst. Your own words on how and why they developed the way they did -- in reaction against their own parent, and because they were impressed by their friend's parent -- really do help clarify a few things about the episode to me.
Though I have to say that the glimpse we got of Starlight's bedroom made her look so Goth as a teen I have to wonder if she went searching for the Lament Configuration from Hellraiser. You know, just to be Gothier than all the rest of the herd.
Dude, as always, I truly and sincerely love your deep view on things!
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An irony of this is that Sunburst is actually a gigantic success. He's highly-learned, and a friend and associate of the ruling family of the Crystal Empire and Twilight Sparkle and both the Elements and the Pillars of Harmony. Both his social status and wealth seem to be quite secure.
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Given Starlight's combination of magical power and lack of caution, the thought of a teenaged Starlight Glimmer messing around with demon summoning is frankly terrifying. Note that a similar scenario was one of Twilight Sparkle's nightmares in the Season Seven opener.
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I don't know .. aside from Starlight's obvious obsession with the memory of the failure of her friendship with Sunburst, an obsession which was one of the driving forces behind her Equalistic ideology, which implies that this original friendship was exceptionally-intense, there is the fact that she and Sunburst are now single adults of marrigeable age, and -- given their unusual degrees of (respectively) power and knowledge -- a limited pool of compatible mates. They are in an elite profession.
Plus, there are scenes in both vanilla Show canon and in IDW Comics canon that show sexual attraction between them. Most specificially, I cite Starlight Glimmer's jealousy at his friendships with Twilight Sparkle, Trixie and Maud in the penultimate show of Season Seven, and Starlight's flirting with Sunburst in the Legends of Magic miniseries.
And Starlight and Sunburst are demonstrably a good team, with Sunburst doing the research work and Starlight the heavy hitting. They complement each other, covering each other's weaknesses both in abilities and personalities with each other's strengths. They very much like each other, and get along well together.
It's not necessary for them to wed. But it would be make a lot of sense if they did wind up together.
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But..But...
StarSpike
i.pinimg.com/236x/f8/89/be/f889beb40bdd5922cd3d05c17daa0ba6--cuddling-the-babys.jpg
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I could actually see Spike and Starlight going for each other in some worldlines. Starlight Glimmer fits his "type" of "highly-intelligent but emotionally-disturbed Unicorn mare," into which both Twilight Sparkle and Rarity Belle both fall.
It's interesting that while they didn't explicitly cover what Starlight's path to crazy cult leader was, this episode does give us some clues with the parents' behavior and... Starlight's room (holy cow, what a phase
). It is a little read-between-the-lines, so there are some people who wouldn't see it and complain about how there was nothing, but I'm glad we at least have some idea in what went down in her childhood. Took us more than two seasons, but whatever.
Also, I'm not gonna lie, but Stellar Flare kind of makes me think of a nicer and somewhat more reasonable version of Mozzarella. And on another note, I'm having a field day with imagining the scenario of Firelight meeting the parents of the Our Town ponies. It'd be an awkward conversation should they get to the cutie markless cult thing...
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And they do draw strength and comfort from being around each other (when they're not accidentally making the other feel unwelcome). They complement each other really well.
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He is now! But back then? Their parents last seem to have been around them when they were at absolute emotional nadirs. No wonder they want to protect them so badly now.
And both cross a line doing so, with Stellar Flare the worse offender for trying to outright trick her son. That's not okay. Overall she acted worse, I'd say; for all of Firelight's smooshing Starlight's cheeks and baby names, Stellar Flare's attempt to cut off Sunburst's beard or pulling his cape away to comment on his glowing rump, that felt way more uncomfortable, at least in part because I believe Sunburst is overcompensating with all that stuff. He's not comfortable being naked, for example. This is a fellow who had too many instances of feeling vulnerable. If you will, naked in any the sense of the word.
It's funny how much Starlight and Sunburst have in common. After all, her Start of Darkness came from a single moment of powerlessness, when she lost her best friend in the whole wide world. Only... Starlight isn't powerless. She's frighteningly powerful, and was even back then, only she didn't notice (she remembered how much Sunburst knew about magic, but overlooked how she could cast everything? Isn't there a name for not seeing your own exceptional talent?). Sunburst was powerless. Because apparently, knowing more than anyone about magic isn't worth much. Even though there are huge libraries with spells and having someone around who knows his way around them could be worth their weight in gold (The Crystalling, anyone?)
Makes me think Sunburst was so obsessed with being a wizard, being a librarian just didn't occur to him.
A thought occurs on the subject of sidekicks of the genus sort-of-repentant charlatan. It occurs to me that the accidental revelation that Trixie's father may only have the dimmest idea that he's got a child out there might be why most of her life has been a quest for legitimacy....and you can take that last to mean anything you like. Like most suckers that ideologues attract, envy is the lure that drew Trixie to Starlight...envy of the stable life that a certain small-town librarian encouraged to keep humble BECAUSE she was going to be in a power some day lives.
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If we go with that origin for Trixie that makes a lot of sense. Twilight Sparkle, after all, was loved by her family and valued by Princess Celestia even before she made friends at Ponyville. And one way Trixie might have read Twilight's disinterest in confronting her when they first met was that Twilight simply considered Trixie beneath her notice -- not even worthy of making the effort to defeat. Given how Twilight actually dealt with the Star-Beast when it showed up, it must have been obvious to Trixie that Twilight was far her superior in raw power, and not bad at subtlety either.
This would be one reason Trixie was sufficiently obsessed with Twilight to risk the use of a dangerous magical artifact to best her. And, when push came to shove, Twilight then outwitted Trixie and saved her from the Alicorn Amulet's corruption.
After that, Trixie stopped directly challenging Twilight Sparkle. She pretty much gave up on it as pointless.
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I liked Starlight's "rebel teen bedroom," because it showed the more innocent and less serious version of the iconoclastic tendencies that eventually led Starlight to more serious rebellion. Another nice touch was the kite tail, referring to her established kite-flying hobby.
And yes, Stellar Flare also reminds me of a saner Mozzarella. Would you say Sunburst is more like Cheese, or Tommy?
I like when you analyze the episodes. I hope you write something for the episode in two weeks.
Incidentally, I stumbled across this:
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Yeah. She'll shit-talk her behind her back but that's about it.
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That's a tough call, because Cheese and Tommy have different personalities from Sunburst. Though, the bookworm tendencies have me leaning towards Tomato (helps that Tomato has been under Ella's care longer than Cheese has, thus showing more of the crippling self-esteem and anxiety issues caused by her micromanagement of his life and poor handling of some of Tommy's more traumatic events).
One more point perhaps: I personally ship StarBurst hard. Yet Stellar Flare's bringing up how Sunburst should get more missions from The Princess of Friendship and move closer to The Princess and all that... I'm left wondering if maybe Stellar Flare isn't hoping for more than just a working relationship there.
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Oh, Stellar Flare is obviously hoping that Sunburst marries Twilight -- because she probably knows that they are roughly compatible, and Twilight Sparkle is as high-status as he could achieve. Remember, Cadance Is already married.
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They probably wouldn't even be the worst match, they get along pretty well.
Well... I guess it was inevitable.
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