I had this thought, I strongly dislike starlight (I don't outright despite her) but I have to wonder why she annoys me yet in once upon a time, I root for villains turned heroes who have done worse

Why is it?

Regina was so focused on destroying the live of her step daughter and her motive is quite arguably even more pettier than starlight's

Starlight: her friend got a cutie mark leading him to a magic school so to her cutie marks are evil

Regina: because of snow telling her mum that she was in love with a stable boy so her mum killed him so Regina could marry the King, yet she decides to pin the blame on snow for telling her

Then there's rumpeltstiltskin my favourite character from the show, he had been the dark one making deals and tricking and killing people for hundreds of years, he was involved with practically every fairy tale character and if someone wrote a crossover fanfic then I am sure it will be revealed starlight got her cutie mark stealing spell from him?

Why does starlight annoy me and yet Regina and rumple I give more leeway?

Perhaps it's because her backstory was last note and she was forgiven after her face turn episode with the one giving her flack for her past being herself, rumpel and Regina had their back stories explained when it was ready and even when they were o mthe heroes side the good guys never forgot what they did and were on the edge and would call them out on their mistakes (especially belle towards who even banished rumpel from storybrooke after catching him in the act), though eve to us rumpel fans his swotcheroo of aliggntme t at a moments notice were tiring

There were consequences for rumpel and Regina and their happy endings they had to earn, plus their dealings in the past coming act to haunt them including a certain boy Regina tried to make a surrogate son who joined a magic destroying agency which was a front by the lost boys, plus when they were in Camelot Regina was dancing with a knight who told of his villages being ravaged by an evil queen.......land Regina figuring out which evil queen it was

Plus their back stories are a bit more tragic, Regina had a controlling mother and a lost first love, rumpel grew up being mocked as a coward and after obtaining power, in a moment of weakness refuses to let go of his source of power dagger for a new life with his beloved son only to immediately regret it and spent the rest of his time as the dark one to find his son and make amends

Plus having been brought up by his childish conman father who ended up trading his son to get his youth back, becoming Peter Pan and I am really shocking non ouat watchers, aren't I

What do you think?

6428976
I think you nailed a big point towards why some of us just can't take Starlight seriously/accept her fully as a character/hate her with a burning passion. She is simply such a rushed and forced example of what she is, with such imbalance in her various aspects (backstory and motive vs her overall impact, et cetera.) that it just aches at us like a rotten tooth. Even in comparison to similar villains with similar concepts.

6428976
I with you 100%, rumpeltstiltskin is by far my favor char in once upon a time, I love to see a fic with someone dress up as him and end up in pony land, I can see him make deal with Sun Butt in order to save Luna, and he send her Twilgiht, only to come back sometime later like right after twilight become an alicorn and take her away as part of the deal, or something else. or even have a shop in town that look small but connect to his home else where and offer deal to anyone who come in.