Keeping Starlight Evil (or how I would fix seasons 6, 7, 8 and 9) · 10:12pm Aug 13th, 2020
And yes, I am aware that my proposed fixes might make the seasons a bit short but hey, season 3 was the shortest season of the entire show (only 13 episodes long) so...you know.
Anyway, as you can tell by the title, this is how I would fix a majority of the seasons I have mentioned with the most important change I would make is not redeeming Starlight Glimmer. Before her redemption, she was an interesting villain. We never had a pony villain who wasn't just some random jerk (though she was kind of a random jerk) and her goal of equality by removing ponies of what makes them unique made for an interesting villain. Different from the usual power-hungry take over the world type of villain that came before her. And made her terrifying was that she was just a regular unicorn with an affinity for taking away other ponies' destinies and using realistic brainwashing techniques. Seriously, read this and tell me that doesn't have serious cult leader vibes:
In sameness there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie. Free yourself from your cutie mark. Choose equality as your special talent. Difference is frustration. To excel is to fail. Be your best, by never being your best. Conformity will set you free.
Given how much I value my individuality, courtesy of a slightly anti-authoritarian attitude and a desire for fame, I consider that to be disturbing. So when she was exposed as the hypocrite she was, I was happy and couldn't wait to see what the writers would do with her. I was excited when she appeared in the finale.
And then this happened:
Seriously, I call baloney on that. She was willing to permanently screw up the future just to stop Twilight and her friends from getting their cutie marks. How can a little speech from Twilight convince her to give friendship another go? What, did she not think of her villagers as friends? She also knew hypnosis and an array of mind-control spells, as 'Every Little Thing She Does' and 'Starlight The Hypnotist' had proven, so what stopped her from taking over everypony's minds in her quest for order and equality? And what's worse is that, afterwards, she didn't even have a redemption arc. Discord had one. Sunset Shimmer had one. Starlight had sod all!
Okay, enough ranting about Starlight "Extremely OP Discount Twilight" Glimmer. Let's talk about how to fix seasons 8 and 9 by fixing the seasons before that by getting rid of Starlight's redemption.
NOTE: If I don't list an episode, that meant it didn't need changing in my eyes.
Season 5
The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2: Rather than accept Twilight's hoof in friendship, she tore the scroll apart and charged after the filly Rainbow Dash only to be tackled away and restrained by Twilight. You see, I always thought Twilight was holding back when she was fighting Starlight, so now she's doing everything in her power to keep her in one place. So as Starlight frantically bashes away at the force field she was now trapped in, the Sonic Rainboom happened and she and Twilight get teleported away back into the present (dunno how the rules of the scroll worked). The force field disappeared as a result of them travelling back to the present, due to Twilight losing her concentration, and Starlight charged after Twilight, screaming "YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!". And as Twilight immediately conjured another force field (or summons chains around Starlight's hooves, whichever one works), Starlight started to flail about in her rabid state, acting in a way not that different from Azula's breakdown in Avatar: The Last Airbender:
But, you know, replacing the breathing fire with randomly blasting magic.
Season 6
The Crystalling (parts 1 and 2): Twilight is put in charge of transferring Starlight, who had calmed down a bit after her meltdown, to a more secure location within the Crystal Empire after she had tried to hypnotize her way out of the hospital she was staying in. Good thing too because Twilight and her friends were invited to The Crystalling.
No Second Prances:
A Hearth's Warming Tail: Have it be told to the Cutie Mark Crusaders or something.
Spice Up Your Life: Courtesy of Starlight's incarceration, her little cameo had been omitted.
The Times, They Are A Change-ling: Ditto, but you could have a scene where one of the guards, who is implied to be Chrysalis in disguise, talks to Starlight in her padded cell.
Every Little Thing She Does:
To Where And Back Again: Opens up with Starlight escaping her imprisonment with Chrysalis' assistance. Instead of Starlight saving everypony else from the changelings, it would be Luna (because, come on, Luna didn't really have that many episodes where she was in the spotlight) and the only reason she wasn't captured by the changelings was because she was sleeping in a resort far away from Equestria. So Starlight teleports away after she and Chrysalis were defeated.
Season 7
Celestial Advice: Have Sunset in Starlight's place.
All Bottled Up and Rock Solid Friendship:
A Royal Problem: Have the Cutie Map pick Twilight instead and have Starlight be the one to accidentally switch the princesses' cutie marks. Maybe have a funny bit with her getting them to sing 'A True, True Friend' to see if it would fix the problem like last time.
Fame and Misfortune: Even if that one didn't give Starlight a major role, I still hated that episode (Rarity's "WHY I'M CREATING A GOWN, DARLING!" face notwithstanding).
To Change A Changeling: Have Twilight and Spike visit the Changeling Kingdom for diplomatic reasons.
Uncommon Bond: Because Starlight is on the run and is still a villain, 🎵it never happeeeeeeeened 🎵
Shadow Play: This is gonna be controversial but have Star-Swirl be the true villain of the episode in a morally absolute Knight Templar sort of way, believing the only way to stop Equestria's enemies is to either imprison or destroy them. That way, rather than the Pony of Shadows be Nightmare Moon meets Venom, he could just be trying to defend himself from the Pillars and had lost control of his dark power. Maybe even have Star-Swirl become possessed by the Pony of Shadows during an argument with Twilight, with her saying he couldn't be trusted and Star-Swirl replies with "I don't need trust, I demand obedience!" (and yes, I did steal that line from Mortal Kombat 11). Perhaps with some convincing from Celestia and Luna does Star-Swirl see the error of his ways and apologize for not hearing Stygian's side of the story. Oh, and the Mane Six use the Rainbow Power while subduing the Pony of Shadows instead of the Elements of Harmony because, as far as I am aware, the Rainbow Power didn't have a limited amount of uses.
Season 8
I'm just gonna be up-front and say all of Starlight's scenes in this season never happened or had Discord in her place. Yeah, just have Discord as the guidance counsellor instead. He already proved himself to be a trickster mentor kind of guy. As a result, A Matter Of Principals never happened. And neither did Road To Friendship. Perhaps then we could have more episodes developing the Young Six as characters.
School Raze: Instead of Twilight and her friends investigating why all the magic is disappearing (because I thought it was dumb that a bunch of random artefacts pooled together could get rid of all of Equestria's magic), they are busy fighting a monster. One they had never seen before. An ancient creature bred from pure darkness. And it was only after they used the Rainbow Power on the creature did it turn back into a regular pony, with the pony weakly saying "he is coming" and they ask who. And Cozy's partner this time around is Starlight Glimmer, who was wearing a familiar bell and sometimes mentally conversed with a certain ram necromancer. One that would like his physical form back. Naturally, both Cozy Glow and Starlight get thrown in Tartarus for their crimes. But little did everypony know that Grogar had returned.
Season 9
The Beginning Of The End (parts 1 and 2): Tirek would be the main antagonist instead of King Sombra, who is still dead this time around. He would use the Rainbow of Darkness given to him by Grogar as a way of turning some of the ponies into monsters as a way of raising an army to attack his brother, King Scorpan. Even have Applejack turn into one of the monsters as the cliffhanger for part 1. While Tirek would destroy both the Elements of Harmony and the Rainbow Power, he would still be defeated by Mane Six (even though I have no idea how they're gonna turn Applejack back to normal) and they destroy him with their magic.
Uprooted: Never happened because I hate it when they destroy something or kill something off only for it to be easily brought back.
Frenemies: Most of this one, or at least during the campfire scene, would be used to explore the backstories of Cozy Glow and Chrysalis this time around, along with detailing how Starlight started her cutie-mark hating cult.
Student Counsel: You know the drill. That one never happened.
Daring Doubt: Contradicts what was previously established. Never happened.
The Ending Of The End (parts 1 and 2): Knowing that Chrysalis, Starlight and Cozy Glow intend on betraying him, Grogar fights them before Starlight hits him with the Rainbow of Darkness. As Grogar painfully transforms into a monster, Starlight takes the Bell and uses her new increased power to force him to kneel. And then she says "And now the Father of Monsters bends to my will" in a manner reminiscent of when Lex Luthor made Superman kneel before him in Batman v Superman. Perhaps while monologuing in part 2, Cozy reveals to the Mane Six that she was an abandoned orphan who was all alone until she met Starlight. Yes, I already established Cozy was abused as my headcanon but I believe orphans are easier to redeem than abused children. And on the subject of Cozy being reformed, have Starlight act abusively towards her to make Cozy siding with the good guys more believable. And rather than have Discord turn the bad guys into stone (because I thought that was OOC for him considering he knew what it was like to be turned into stone and he already said way back in season 2 that he didn't turn ponies into stone), they would be turned to stone as a result of whatever rainbow magic everypony in Equestria used.
So, what do you guys think? Are there any ways my ideas could be expanded on or was there anything I missed out on?
Honestly, I disagree with you strongly on this.
I love Starlight as a reformed character more than a villain every step of the way. She’s one of my favorite characters, and I believe she’s done enough to prove she’s changed for the better. And in case you’ve forgotten, much of her intentions were based on that of a broken friendship that Twilight and the others were called by the Cutie Map to fix, so of course she’d be redeemed. Plus, I thought that her reformation in the Season 5 finale was as well-worked as any MLP reformation would be, and her progression as a good guy was wonderful to me. She definitely proved herself worthy of forgiveness after the events of “To Where and Back Again”, that’s for sure.
Now if you want to talk terrible redemptions, take a look at Vignette Valencia. She’s hardly done anything to prove herself as the redeemable type, and she’s rather irritating.
*sighs* Honestly, this is one of the reasons why I dislike the “I Hate Starlight Glimmer” group, because it gives me a headache with how many people (including you) apparently don’t find it in their hearts to forgive this one character compared to others like Sunset Shimmer and Tempest Shadow, both of whom did unspeakable things that were pretty equal to what Starlight did.
Other than that, I don’t like your ideas. They’re too mean-spirited.
5335195
Huh. For once, I find we are of the same mind.
5335217
Thank you.
5335195
5335217
I knew my suggestions would be divisive but at least you're honest about your opinions.
5335222
Thanks.
Ironically, I was worried that my comment would’ve hurt your feelings because of what I said.
Out of curiosity, did you see the picture I shared with you on the thread you made on the E.R.A group?
5335565
Yes, I did.
5335571
What’d you think of it?
5335585
I...kinda disagree. As far as I am aware, all Sunset did was steal Twilight's crown, bully the human versions of Twilight's friends, act like your typical queen B, and use the crown's magic to turn a majority of the students into her own personal army to invade Equestria with. While that last one was pretty bad, it's not as bad as stripping ponies of their cutie marks, forcing them to be stuck in a room with an anti-individuality mantra on repeat, and screwing around with the space-time continuum.
5335594
That’s where I say hogwash, really. All forms of crime are terrible. No crime is bigger than the other no matter what one says. In this case, what Sunset did was equally as bad as what Starlight did, and she too deserved the kind of punishment that people were wanting Starlight to get. And yet, both managed to prove themselves worthy of forgiveness and showed that they could improve.
So, why are people (including you) thinking that Sunset’s crimes are different compared to Starlight’s? Do you really think they aren’t on the same level? And do you really think that Starlight and Sunset are so different despite the fact that they’re actually quite similar?