Our favorite scheming villain has now been reformed! Here's a lovely little group where you can post stories and discussions about this wonderful new friend they've made! What does this mean for the show? What does it mean for our fandom?
And how could you say no to that adorable face?!
Story Folders
We encourage that all folders remain SFW and that they apply to this group.
Forgiveness
The folder with this title is specifically for stories about ponies learning to live with and/or around this reformed villain. Usually from the perspective of other ponies.
Apology
These stories would usually be from Starlights point of view and how she adapts to her "new life". Fanfictions would focus around the character development of Starlight and her slow quest for a better life.
Enjoy your stay here! All are welcome!
419231
If you don't like Starlight, what are you doing here?
421792
Absolutely agree. Starlight doesn't deserve so much hate.
419873
Cleary you are another person who doesn't understand the Starlight character. People like you should just shut your mouth and mind your own business. Most fans love her because she is one of the best parts of the show. And that's a fact. People like you are the cancer of the MLP fandom.
419867
Let's find out. Reading it now, and...
First, a defense of the "She looks too much like Twilight" thing. Oh joy, this is going to be a list of "Rebuttals" to complaints. "Rebuttals" is a word that here means "I'll acknowledge the problem, state what it is, and then tell you why I don't consider it a big deal and act like that solves the problem".
Now, keep in mind, I said...
Not "Please, Glimmer fans, tell me why you believe all the complaints we wrongthinkers have are absurd". I told you to justify yourselves, not attack my reasons for considering you unjustified. I'll let you change the subject, I'll say the last word on the subject, and then I'll move this conversation back to the subject at hand.
For the "She looks like Twilight" complaint, the writers putting a "Haha I look like Twilight" scene into it tells us the writers know the mistake they're making, but they don't see it as one. But let's move on.
"Justifying" Starlight's power level by saying "Well, Twilight is strong too!" just proves he's missed the point entirely. And no, I'm not some political moron saying "You missed the point" when I really mean "You have wrong thoughts", I genuinely mean that he has missed the point behind these complaints. Look at that season finale. A normal-ass Unicorn is fighting Princess Twilight to a standstill multiple times in one day, AND beating her each time by succeeding in her goal: Disrupting the race.
Let's use DBZ as a metaphor here. This isn't like Goku meeting Isebax, a badass heroic Freeza from another universe with the same power level as Goku in his Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan state because he's the strongest and baddest dude in his universe. This is Goku going to some small town and meeting some human named Jenny, and she has the same power level as him in his Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan state.
It cheapens the existence of the aforementioned power. And not just in the sense that multiple people getting the same gold medal makes the medals feel less special, but in the sense that they'll apparently hand these medals out to anyone who buys the right mail-order catalogue. Jenny has it for no reason other than her creator thought it'd make this OC cooler, like so much about Glimmer. It introduces plot holes, too. Where was she when the Saiyans attacked? That was a local thing nobody really heard about? Alright, where was she when Cell attacked?
To bring this back into ponies before someone misses the point of that DBZ reference, where was Glimmer when Nightmare Moon returned? Where was Glimmer when Discord escaped, when Chrysalis took over, when Tirekamania was running wild on Equestria? Where was Glimmer when any of these things happening? Was she off in her own little bubble, apart from Equestria, because she hadn't yet been introduced into the show to steal it?
We've established that being stronger than the hero when you have no justification for such in-universe or out is a stupid thing. And the implementation of this broken idea makes it worse. She doesn't have her own gimmick on the hero's side, she isn't the "I use destructive and negative magic for the sake of goodness" person, she's the other Twilight. She can do any magic ever without fail, which was Twilight's gimmick. And it was alright for Twilight to have that gimmick because she trained her whole life to get that level of knowledge and magical mastery, and we often saw her reading. Glimmer? She just shows up and has a power level higher than the embodiment of magic and friendship because potatoes. She's said to "Mix spells", but since we were never told how the magic system works, that's far less impressive than some HunterxHunter character minmaxing the Nen system to become OP.
As for his second point, the "Glimmer is a shitty selfish bastard and I like that, it makes her a more compelling character" part... Not like this. A story about a bastard can be interesting, a story about a selfish asshole can be interesting, but only when the writers have the self-awareness to pull it off. Only when the writers know their character is an ass, and they either give him/her non-assy moments or set him/her up to fight bigger asses. Or they can double down on the assery in an entertaining way, making the hero a smug superpowered jerk you wish you were.
Glimmer COULD be a good character, if she was written better. Right now, out of universe, she's a bad OC that's getting screentime and episode plots handed to her on a silver platter solely because the writers love this little darling of theirs. In-universe, she's a horrible selfish monster that thinks nothing of using age regression spells on her crush for spending too much time with Twilight, brainwashing her friends for questioning her, and swapping the Cutie Marks of the goddamn princesses. This COULD be fun, if the writers let her be wrong. If the writers let her suffer consequences for her actions. If the writers let characters in the show hate her. Her occasional "Wah, some ponies still haven't forgiven me. Why can't they just forgive me already? They're such a drag" moments make her sound bitchy, but if we saw her go through bullying like what Sunset went through, she'd be a much more likable character.
Glimmer isn't the sixth ranger, as many Glimmer fans claim. She isn't the seventh element of harmony. She doesn't have the depth to be a good character, she just objectively doesn't. Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates characters have more depth than this character, and before anyone says "Muh age rating", those are fantasy video games for children.
Glimmer isn't redeemed. Glimmer isn't reformed. And Glimmer isn't that one fun douchey escapism character in most cartoons or sitcoms that GETS to screw all the women and burn orphanages and slice people up with his chainsaw katana because it's that guy. Glimmer is a bad character written badly by bad writers that love her so much, they think everyone else will love her if they shove her down our throats enough.
The writers want her to take the spotlight, but she doesn't have enough depth or presence to keep it unless she's acting in an unfun antagonistic way that makes you want to reach through the screen and slam an anti-magic ring on her horn before she fuses Mr and Mrs Cake and their foals into one big screaming ball of multicoloured pony flesh for not having her favorite flavor of cake. She isn't fun. She doesn't kick bullies through walls or shuffle the facial features of assholes. She's a bad character, which would be bad enough on its own, but the writers think she's perfect. That's why we don't get good episodes with this bad character. That's why we don't see her working on her flaws. The writers think having flaws like "No respect for others" and "Evil" make her a more interesting character, even though they don't. They have to double down on her villain status because it's all she's got.
Look at her traits, man. Look at her character traits. Look at the character traits she objectively has.
. A Unicorn like Twilight
. Stronger than Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle
. Is friends with Trixie and Maud and Discord and Thorax and all the other OCs
. Used to be evil and sometimes acts in an evil way
Likes: good things and kites
Dislikes: bad things and unfairness
One of these traits is a physical descriptor. One is a power level statement, not a character trait. One isn't a character trait, it's just a bunch of connections there to give her an artificial sense of connection with the world she exists separately from. And the fourth is all she's got. She has to keep reminding the audience that she used to be evil because it's the only interesting thing about her. She "USED TO" be evil but is "GOOD NOW", except not really. She isn't "Reformed", like Mr Freeze would be if he stopped robbing people and started selling ice-cream made on the spot with his freeze-ray. She isn't "Redeemed" like The Joker would kinda be if he sacrificed himself to stop a multiverse-destroying crossover event from obliterating everything ever. The Batman comic writers could write a funny story where The Joker decides he wants to turn good and partner up with Batman to take down Bane, but he's comically bad at being heroic and he keeps trying to kill people and Batman chews him out for still being evil, that could be fun. But Glimmer? This character is a terrible pony with no interest in becoming nicer, she just gets forgiven for everything she does ever, and at this point, she doesn't seem redeemable or curable. She genuinely needs to be locked away in tartarus for the safety of those around her. And out-of-universe, a character this bad needs to be removed from the show because she embodies all the biggest problems with the writing styles of these new writers.
419231
Does this blog help?
In fifty words or less, please explain in what way Glimmer is reformed. And in twenty words or less, without headcanons, explain why you like this pony.
I got a story!
Ozone Apocalypse
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406976
Great. Thanks. :)
406760 I would say so, as long as you know which folder to place it in, Its fine.
Hi. I've been writing a fanfic where Starlight is one of the female leads, and though she's an antagonist at the start, I do intend to redeem her by the end of the story. Thing is, I'm not playing to the canon of the series, as I've diverged at around the mid-point of Season 5, as a result of the actions of my primary antagonist. Would a story featuring Starlight as an antagonist who ends up redeemed in the mid to late game be allowed on a group like this?
I think that in season 6 Starlight will travel around Equestria learning about friendship and learn from Twilight (LIke Celestia and Twilight) and maybe Starlight will meet new friends.
First to comment! Starlight is one of my very favorite characters