May the muffins be forever in your favour."Student Counsel" Review: From Villain to Workaholic or "Lemon Crumble, where are you?" · 10:54pm Jun 8th, 2019
So, this episode really wasn't what I was hoping for. I don't hate it, of course, and I still like what it turned out to be. Even love a certain aspect of it, more about that below.
But, you know..... the lack of a certain filly being spotlit, and the lack of a diverse cast of friendship students in general, but mostly the lack of a certain filly, cuts deeply right now.
I've really hoped that Lemon Crumble will have a big role in this episode and that we will learn something about her, her life and her problems, when she visits Starlight to receive counseling. But the episode quickly made clear that it would be more about Starlight and Trixie than about Lemon Crumble (or other friendship students) and that it would be yet another Starlight Glimmer & Trixie episode.
And if I sound bitter while saying this, then it is because I am bitter about this, cause I usually love Starlight Glimmer & Trixie episodes. And I'm sure I will love this one, too, once I got over it that Lemon Crumble didn't get a role in it.
I'm also not concerned about how to write her in "Dreamwalker Dash", I could already read enough personality aspects of hers to work with out of the background appearances she has. But I've grown quite attached to her while analyzing her appearances and planning her role in "Dreamwalker Dash", so the desire to see Lemon Crumble more often has grown very huge and it's painful to see this expectation for this episode getting crushed.
What I do love about this episode, though, something I'm even infatuated with, is the dedication and self-sacrifice we see Starlight making in it. She enchanted the door to her office so that she will receive a magical signal anytime a student needs her help, she interrupted or outright skipped meetups with Trixie, and probably anything else that's fun for her, and she was there for her students almost 24/7.
The reason why this fascinates me so much is because I can see why Starlight was pushing herself so hard to be there for her students. Right at the beginning of the episode, we heard how she told Trixie that she uses the experiences of her "checkered life" to help her students. I love how Starlight passes on the experiences from her time as a villain and the experiences that brought her on this path to her students. She is doing this because she still feels guilty for the problems she caused as a villain and wants to make up for that and because she wants to prevent students from straying away from the right path because of their own problems.
And this motivation is, in part, also what makes this episode very interesting and complex. Trixie felt hurt because Starlight abandoned her all the time and forgot about their meetups. And Starlight felt guilty over this and tried to make everything better. But, even though Trixie was rightfully sad about it and right with demanding that Starlight spends more time with her, it isn't so easy that one can simply say Starlight has done something wrong. She had very good motivations for tying herself to such a strict and brutal work ethic, which everyone who knows about Starlight's past can easily see, and it was important to her to do a great job because of that.
And when Starlight finally did the "right" thing and let her work rest to spend time with Trixie, it backfired on her almost immediately and suddenly, she had to realize that she made the wrong decision again.
Silverstream went missing and seemingly ran away because Starlight rejected her while she had a serious problem and with this, it became apparent why Starlight's job is so important and why she is 100% right about being there for her students when they need her. Silverstream was fine in the end, but still got herself in danger because Starlight told her to figure out the solution for her problem herself. If she hadn't found out how to tame cockatrices, Silverstream would have joined Mudbriar as a statue. And if Silverstream's problem really would have been a very serious one that burdened her a lot, things could have turned out even worse. It's far from unheard of that someone who has to cope with a heavy problem all alone hurts themselves or even ends everything altogether.
It's true that Starlight should have spent more time with Trixie instead of subordinating her to her job, but it's also true that Starlight's job carries a lot of responsibility and that a student could seriously harm themselves if she doesn't to it right. The moment they found out that Silverstream ran off into the Everfree Forest was the moment when Starlight's reasoning became justified and confirmed.
And the episode added more layers of complexity to everything later on. Trixie felt guilty for pressuring Starlight into quitting work early and had to deal with it that she would be partially responsible for it if something should happen to Silverstream, which motivated her to take the lead in finding Silverstream. And, at the end of the episode, Silverstream admitted a certain amount of fault for it that the situation escalated so much, because she asked Starlight for help with even tiny problems that she could have solved on her own.
In the end, everyone had a bit of fault in it that the situation could get out of control like that; Starlight, Trixie and even Silverstream herself.
And you can't point at any of them and say "She was wrong!" or "She was right!". Trixie was right with demanding more time, but Starlight was also right with caring about her responsibility. While at the same time, Starlight still shouldn't have sacrificed her entire friendship with Trixie to her job, but Trixie wasn't right with pulling Starlight out of it while she still had work to do, either.
And Silverstream shouldn't have come to Starlight with such tiny problems, because other students who possibly had more serious problems (just look at how November Rain teared up after Trixie locked him out, there surely was something that bothered him a lot) had to wait and because she put a lot of stress on Starlight with that, but at the same time, one also can't blame her for it because Starlight offered her to listen to ALL of her problems and Silverstream took her up on this offer.
The conflict in this episode is one of the most complex ones in the entirety of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, with incredibly grey morals in a situation where no one was truly wrong or truly right.
We definitely have one of the best episodes of the show here and even though my hopes regarding Lemon Crumble got shattered, I completely love this episode for its rich complexity.
Now excuse me, I'll need to snuggle up to the Lemon Crumble plushie (that I don't have) and weep until my longing desire for her has reached a more comfortable level again.
That's the spirit! Only because they lack something in the show, doesn't mean we can add that in our stories.
5071428
That's the only thing that soothes me. I can't wait to write for her in the story.
5071429
Yep! If I may ask, what's your option about headcanon being "override" by the actual canon? I for example like the idea if Scoots father being a Royal guard and are not bothered at all about her canon parents
5071430
I don't know anything about canon parents of Scoots. If you do, I don't wanna know. Spoilers.
And when my fics get overridden, I don't care and keep writing them. "Letters to Cozy Glow" was technically overridden by the show already and even though I had to start it later than I wanted, I came up with an end that will seamlessly fit into everything we see of Cozy in Season 9, so I will just keep writing it.
5071468
My point, exactly, our stories have their own universes, so that's actually, no problem.
Spoilers, no worries, I just heard rumors, blame the Italian leaks,.
5071473
A rumor is still a spoiler.
5071474
But not confirmed
5071475
It could be, because the leaks create rumors when people talk about them. I don't want to hear anything from episodes I haven't watched yet.
Listen to the message I sent you. If you spoiler me another time, I'll have to block you until Season 9 is over and I know we both don't want that it comes so far.
5071476
I got no problem, I can do that, although it was a hypothetical question, like if she has canon parents