(T>B) Opinion on Starlight · 10:27pm Nov 20th, 2020
From this thread:https://www.fimfiction.net/group/50/the-writers-group/thread/412004/what-do-you-think-about-starlight-glimmer-and-has-your-opinion-changed-since-she-was-reformed
My feelings on Starlight over time? Now there's a story with ups and downs...
When we first saw her as a villain, i quite liked her despite her unoriginal name - she was a good contrast to Tirek and her philosophy the other side of the coin compared to the Dazzlings. I looked forward to her promised time-travelling return and inevitable redemption - and was very disappointed.
Not only had she abandoned her philosophy in favour of crude revenge, not only was she shifted out of focus to show off a bunch of fanservice timelines, not only did she get a horribly inadequate backstory, but to top it all off her redemption was crammed into a two-minute MONTAGE! Yeah, at that point I sort of thought they might have ruined her.
Then came The Crystalling and proof that her redemption was in fact a still ongoing arc, and I felt a bit better. I liked pairing her up with Trixie, too. And I loved them in the finale. But unfortunately, the groundwork for it hadn't been properly laid - she'd been in very few episodes and the only one that focused on her had set her redemption back rather than pushing it forwards. Plus the total brushing over of her victims feelings - no, her arc was definitely one with highs and lows.
The next season opened with an episode-long discourse on whether Starlight still had a purpose on the show, and it seemed a little anti-climatic when they settled on "yes". But in retrospect that was a very good thing, because this was a great season both in general and for Starlight in particular. Teaching Trixie, befriending Maud, her first friendship mission, failing with Pharynx, bringing her whole circle of outcasts together and giving the right advice when it mattered - truly this seasons star. (Also arguably a bit over-pushed, but the only outing I wouldn't call worth it is her jaunt beyond the mirror.)
Season 8 Starlight wasn't shining so bright, but that was fair. The counsellor position was both crazy and genius, she got fun outings with both her besties (also revealing some more of her backstory) and was generally OK. This season she's had one of the best episodes and another pretty solid one.. So yeah, I'm overall pretty happy with her journey as a character, even if it'll always annoy me how she never really faced up to her original sins.
Starlight Glimmer’s one of my all-time favorite characters. I’ve loved her as a reform more than a villain, her development throughout the show, everything!
I’ve frequently felt annoyed whenever people say that her enslaving a town and taking away their cutie marks is even worse than Sunset Shimmer bullying others and mind controlling people, because in all honesty...I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a crime that’s bigger than another. All crimes are bad no matter what.
5401797
Yes, but some are worse than others.
I don't have any strong feelings either way regarding Starlight—she was already 3 seasons old by the time I arrived, and thus her presence never seemed that jarring alongside the rest of the ensemble cast—but I do have a funny story about her.
This happened when I was first getting into the show—either late 2017 or early 2018. I was still trying to feel my way around the fandom, and I stumbled across the then-ongoing fancomic The Shadow Shard by dSana. The comic happened to be my first encounter with Starlight, and because I was running solely off of vague memories of Piemations' circa Season 2 comedy skits, I spent the next month or two thinking her and Sunburst were the author's OCs.
In a more cynical user's hands, that would've been the greatest accidental "roast" of all time. However, I'm not that much of a cynic when it comes to FiM, so instead I'm just gonna chuck that one back into the memory vault.
:)
What about Season 9 Starlight? I know Season 9 had a bad tendency to push Starlight aside and pretend she didn't exist, but I feel like Season 9 Starlight, when we did see her, was an enjoyable character. She kind of reminds me of Korra from The Legend of Korra, more particularly Book 4 Korra. She's been through a lot and has seen her role change, but she's stronger for having gone through it all because it gives her insight she would otherwise not have.
5405031
The thread I took this from predates that, but I did like her. especially in Student Counsel.