Adressing a Common Misconception About Starlight
I see this around from time to time that some fans think that Starlight Glimmer never properly showed remorse for her actions, nor apologized to their satisfaction. They seem to equate this to the idea that a Starlight never really learned her lesson and thus should be punished. This impression seems to be re-enforced in their minds thanks to episodes like Every Little Thing She Does and the more recent Road to Friendship.
The problem is that this perspective seems to largely be based around misconceptions about the feelings of those Starlight wronged along with misconceptions about Starlight's actions as well as the Pony herself.
For starters, many fans think a Starlight was forgiven too quickly. After enslaving a village to her will and nearly destroying Equestria, they say, Starlight deserves to be locked up in Tartarus. But here's the thing... Starlight didn't actually do either of those things.
To begin with, Starlight didn't enslave the ponies in our town. Yes she convinced them to give up their cutie marks and live in her village, promising them friendship and acceptance, but aside from the Mane 6 she never forced any pony to give up their cutie marks. When Starlight's duplicity is revealed, that she had to keep her Cutie Mark and special talents with magic in order to continue to remove cutie marks, the villagers aren't mad that she 'stole their cutie marks' or 'forced them to be her slaves', they are upset that she lied to them. They thought Starlight was their friend and equal, and it's finding out that she isn't that makes them rebel. It's important to note that even before Starlight's redemption that the villagers choose to remain living in Starlight's town, having no problem continuing the lives that they have led there, just with their cutie marks. Starlight's apology to these ponies hat just wanted to be her friends is handled swiftly, so fans can be forgiven for overlooking this nuance, but the fact is that the ponies of Starlight's village never felt wronged the same way many fans felt that they should have felt wronged. They just wanted Starlight to be truthful with them and give them a chance to all be friends with their cutie marks and special talents.
As to the matter of Starlight nearly destroying Equestria, the way the Cutie Remark is structured makes it obvious that the alternate futures Twilight is seeing are just that: Alternate timelines that exist only if events in the ost had gone differently. The Equestria that Starlight and Twilight came from was never in any real danger or peril. Starlight never actually even sees any of the alternate timelines until Twilight forcefully takes her through the time vortex. It's after this that Starlight reveals the Cutie map is not only connected to everwhere in Equestria, but also everywhen, and she demonstrates that she can will them to any point that she likes up and down the timeline. The closest Starlight comes to causing real damage is when she almost destroys the spell she modified, which would have trapped Twilight and herself in an alternate timeline. Fortunately Twilight is able to talk her out of this, but it's no surprise that the rest of the Mane 6 are quick to forgive Starlight's actions in the Cutie Remark having not experienced them themselves and only having Twilight's explaination of the events to go on. They conclude rightfully that Starlight is too powerful to just be sent away, and after Starlight apologized for her actions they conclude that the best way to help her and help Equestria is to become her friends. Punishing her for 'crimes' only Twilight witnessed and that Starlight herself decided to undo wouldn't make any sense. Again, I agree that this part of the episode was rushed and that the reasoning might not have been made all that clear, but the actual impact of Starlight's actions were nullified by Starlight herself.
I do think Starlight has learned her lessons about lying to her friends and messing with forces she barely comprehends. Yes she has commuted other mistakes, such as concocting a mind control spell in Twilight's library and using it on her friends to try and complete multiple friendship lessons at once. She apologized for that and cleaned up the mess her actions made. She also sold Trixie's small wagon out from under her, thinking a more spacious wagon would be more beneficial for their trip to Saddle Arabia. She realized the wagon wasn't hers to sell and that she was mistaken in thinking the trade would fix anything, having almost lost her friendship with Trixie thanks to the bargain rather than resolving their travel problems.
Starlight is likely to continue to make mistakes, but what's important is that she hasn't made the same mistake twice so far. She's definately mischievous and she does have a cynically pragmatic side to her, but Starlight is a pony that is still doing her best to fit in and try not to overly rely on her prodigious magic power to attempt to fix all her problems.
It's ubderstandable if some fans don't like her and can't forgive her actions as readily as the ponies of Equestria can, but I hope with time and careful thought they'll eventually realize that the problems that they have with her are just problems that they personally have with her and not necessarily problems that are reflected in the show.
Submitted September 06, 2018 at 09:42AM by TheKnackerman
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/9djui7/adressing_a_common_misconception_about_starlight/?utm_source=ifttt
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