SEASON 7 FINISHED! (Favourited episodes, thoughts, a LONG TEXT and concerns)

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Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
A Really Classy Artist - 250+ images under their artist tag
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Artist -

So, I did it. After 3 years and a half, I went back to the show. It took me six months in order to finish it, mainly because of wifi issues, some issues finding the right episode with the right resolution or even image ratio, some personal circumstances, some bigger priorities than watching this TV show and some bad episodes that killed my mood. But I did it, and I wanted to discuss a lot of things right now.
 
MY TOP 6 FAVOURITE EPISODES
 
Before I start sharing my thoughts, I wanna talk about my favourite episodes pretty quickly.
 
6. The perfect pear
 
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This was a pretty interesting episode. And while I assume many people will say this is the best one in the season 7, I think that’s still good. The premise was interesting and it didn’t feel like a twist that was out of nowhere, it felt like a revelation that added more layers to Applejack, her family and some prejudices many characters will overcome. The song was pretty good and I like the conclusion.
 
The only problem I had with this episode is that, while I like watching Applejack’s parents, I wanted to see a progresion and some motivations of why these two ponies love each other. MLP writers don’t tend to write good romances, all of these stories felt like out of nowhere, like in Legend of Everfree or Simple Ways. And, while I like this one, it wasn’t an exception. Applejack’s parents happen to love each other, nothing more. It’s the main reason why I don’t think this is the best episode in the show, but I still like it.
 
5. Discordant Harmony
 
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The Discord episode is pretty decent. Before watching it, my first thought was “ok, Discord will learn how to be himself, but is this gonna be funny and inventive?”. And, thanks to some little genuine touches on animation, it is. And I appreciate it, because he was kinda boring in Celestial Advice. Every five seconds something happens that was made by Discord, something chaotic and random. And this episode is filled with small funny details. And we also see Discord’s houce in his weird dimension. Back in season 5, my first question was “why don’t we see this dimension very often?”. And this episode shows his house and it’s as weird ad him and his dimension or physical plane or whatever it is.
 
And it’s kinda cool to see why Discord likes being chaotic. Let’s face it, we don’t know too much about Discord, so what happens in this episode explains why he’s like that, and it was kinda cool.
 
The only nitpick I have with this episode is that the first minutes of this episode were very slow and less funny than the rest of the story. The water punchline was very predictable and I wish the first scene was faster or funnier. But I think most people would agree this is a pretty good episode. And it’s also nice to see Pinkie Pie not acting or screaming like she consumed some drugs.
 
4. Parental Glideance
 
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When I finished watching Sleepless in Ponyville back in 2012, my first thought was “we need an episode about Rainbow Dash’s parents with their daughter and Scootaloo”. This episode, while late, took a different spin on the concept that I ended up liking: The support Dashie receives from her parents might be too embarrassing. If you didn’t like the episode, it’s because you don’t have parents like Dashie has.
 
The story is pretty decent, with a pretty funny opening that reminds me of the cheat codes from GTA San Andreas. Remember those? I also like the fact that this story started this way to go on and becoming an episode about oversupportive parents. I think it was in Dashie’s room where I started thinking “Oooh, I feel sorry for her”. Nobody is that detailed or that obsessed. So I like that. I think I didn’t even mind the plot was a bit predictable because I was interested in what Rainbow Dash has to say about this.
 
I like some of the funny moments, particularly the animation and the facial expression. It’s really funny. I also find Rainbow Dash pretty relatable in this episode, even in the scene where she loses it. You can see her anger, you can understand her frustration, you can empathize with her.
 
The only thing I didn’t like about the episode (despite the fact that it came too late, it should have been an episode from season 4) is that the ending might be too corny. However, I’d say one detail about the ending I love, and it’s the fact that Dash’s parents said that her apology was too embarrassing. I love that detail.
 
Can I say how refreshing it is to see a My Little Pony episode where Rainbow Dash wasn’t incredibly mean? I usually dislike these episodes, and this one, even though she loses it in one scene, it wasn’t in the entire episode. Remember Tank of Memories where Rainbow Dash denies her turtle needs to be point where she destroys Cloudsdale? Remember Rainbow Rocks, where she was possesive and mean during the entire film except in the last 15 minutes? Remember 28 Pranks later, where Rainbow Dash scares Fluttershy even though she was told back in season 1 that she was too sensitive? Most people are fine with this type of attitude with Rainbow Dash, but I don’t, it’s the total opposite of loyalty. So I really like that detail in this episode.
 
3. A Flurry of Emotions
 
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An episode about Twilight and Flurry Heart sounds like a good episode and a type of story we haven’t seen in the show, and it is. The story is decent, the episode wasn’t slow and the jokes are funny, especially the gallery art, definitely my favourite part of the episode. It reminds me of not only the gallery art scene from the 2012 film Skyfall, but it also reminds me of the works from the art school where I studied.
 
I think I like this one much more in comparison to the Starlight episodes because it shows a constant contrast in design or character dynamic for comedic purposes or character development, like Flurry being a little yet so powerful alicorn (that is funny), the dinamic between all the characters, especially Twilight and Spike; and Twilight trying to be patient with Flurry and learning from her mistakes.
 
I think the only two problems I have with this episode is that Pinkie kinda looks scary in two frames, but it’s a nitpick. And two, wouldn’t have made more sense if this episode was from season 6? I mean, you have introduced Flurry Heart in the first episode of that season, you would expect an episode dedicated to her. Why would you wait until the next season when you decide it’s the best moment possible to have an episode dedicated to the little alicorn? I don’t get it, maybe it was too late for season 6 in terms of pre-production or production, maybe they have mixed things up, who knows.
 
But it’s a pretty good episode. I wouldn’t mind watching it again.
 
2. Marks and Rcreation
 
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One of the greatest things about the Cutie Mark Crusaders is that their motivations are strong but dense enough to be adapted in many different premises without getting boring or flanderizing the characters. This episode not only is great at doing that (a camp for all the little ponies who wanted to get their cutie mark), but it also shows an interesting motivation for Rumble. The cutie mark topic of finding your own identity isn’t new, we saw that since season 1 in Call of the Cutie and Cutie Mark Chronicles, but Rumble makes some interesting points that makes you to understand him. It’s just his actions and attitude what makes him an antagonist.
 
And I like the resolution of this. Having one major talent and ignoring a cutie mark just because of it is misleading, but the fact that a little pony says that is what makes this episode very believable. You don’t need excesive magic to tell that type story (ehem, A Royal Problem, Cutie Map, ehem), you just need some decent likeable characters and an interesting premise.
 
1. Campfire Tales
 
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We all heard and read a myth a tale or a fictional story that just fascinated us back when we were kids. Some countries and cultures have different and unique tales, and cinema has some of the greatest stories ever. Campfire Tales not only has very likeable characters, some funny lines and a nice pacing, but it also has some characters that share their stories about characters that they admired and still admire. We see different characters, different worlds, different stories, we want to see more of these stories… It’s great!
 
I like that Friendship is Magic has some tales within the TV show, because it shows that they can tell literally whatever they want without sacrificing the context of the show. It’s like Power Ponies from season 4, or the backstory of Griffonstone, or the beginning of the first episode of the show. And I love all the character interactions, especially the Cutie Mark Crusaders at the end of the story. It’s just great.
 
THE STARLIGHT (AND TRIXIE) PROBLEM
 
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To say that Starlight’s motivations and backstory are a little bit more complicated than the Mane 6 motivations would be an understatement. I don’t mean it in a negative way right now, I’m just saying that Starlight’s story and motivations are not as simple as the original premise of the show.
 
Because of that, we have to recap the entire show from Cutie Map to Shadow Play.
 
Ok, roll the music, because here I go.
 
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The mane 6 discovered a weird sign in the map of Twilight’s castle. Then, they meet Starlight Glimmer, the boss of her own town. And even if the mane 6 noticed something off in there, Pinkie Pie sabotages Twilight’s intentions despite suspecting Starlight’s intentions in the first place, which makes Starlight capture Mane 6 and extract their cutie marks. Then, thanks to Fluttershy they sabotages Starlight’s plans even though we discovered that the stick was a normal stick and Starlight happens to be more powerful than an alicorn. Why? It doesn’t matter, Starlight runs away.
 
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24 episodes later, after ignoring Starlight (because 2 or 3 episodes that are there for the sake of developing her character is too mainstream), she comes back to Twilight’s castle with no security guards whatsoever and she uses a time travel spell to change the past, because the mane 6 cutie marks happen to be the key of Equestria’s peaceful state? But whatever.
 
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Twilight finally catches Starlight and she reveals that she’s a villain because her best friend got a cutie mark, which is a bit absurd, even for MLP Standards, but that doesn’t matter because despite the fact that we don’t actually know her because of lack of time, she will be the new main character, and her episodes will be all about Starlight being a bit awkward, which doesn’t make sense because she already got along with a young version of Rainbow Dash to the point where she doesn’t trust Twilight back in Cutie Remark, but whatever. She constanttly mentions her past as a punchline, in case we didn’t hear it the first time, but that’s ok.
 
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We also see the return of Trixie, and not only she hasn’t learned anything from the ending of Magic Duel from seson 3, not only she’s still being selfish for the sake of being selfish, but she also critizices Twilight for judging her despite what she did in Magic Duel. Because Trixie and Starlight, despite their previous actions, like to comfort each other and dislikes being judged.
 
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Then there’s an episode where Starlight, despite wishing to get better and not to be evil, she ends up manipulating Twilight’s friends for the sake of doing insane crazy magic. Everyone is mad at her but that’s ok because she said “sorry”, because the TV show, even though it wants to talk about redemption, it depends on the status quo of the episodes, where everything is ok at the end of a story, like nothing ever happened. She just wanted to get away with everything.
 
Then I thought “when is Chrysalis coming back and when is Starlight going to learn her lesson?”. Don’t worry, Starlight is going to save the entire Ponyville, but in exchange for Chrysalis appearing for 2 minutes and the changelings are no longer the changelings, the changelings are these super weird ugly multicolored alien deers. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. All for a price.
 
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I think I remember why I stopped watching the show 3 years ago.
 
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Anyway, so Starlight, Trixie, Discord and Thorax have each one a medal for their services, but then Starlight happens to create dark magic and manipulate other ponies whenever she gets stressed, which wasn’t established back in season 5, but whatever, don’t question Starlight and don’t bother her, because she’s literally a magic time bomb.
 
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Ok, whatever.
 
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But that’s okay, because she meets Maud Pie and it’s revealed by a flashback that Maud Pie indirectly helped Starlight in order to manipulate an entire town. See? Starlight isn’t that bad, she’s just a misunderstood poor pony. She also says that she likes rocks because they don’t judge you despite what she has done in the past.
 
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She also doesn’t empathise with Rarity and her hair issue. Does she have a problem? I don’t care, as long as it’s not mine. Hell is other people.
 
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She also whines about Sunburst socializing with Twilight and Maud Pie. I’m so sorry, Your Majesty! I forgot you’re the center of the universe! As long as it’s not about you, you deserve to complain and you won’t stop moaning about it.
 
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She also creates out of nowhere very complex magic spells about time traveling like a videogame cheat code, because why not.
 
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She also makes Sunburst and herself much younger, because why not.
 
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She also goes faster than Rainbow Dash to the point where se can be in two places at the same time, becuse why not.
 
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She also translates ancient languages even better than Twilight, because why not.
 
And I also read a couple of days ago that she can create magic memory to remove words from other people vocabulary.
 
Because, why not.
 
And that’s all her character arc until now.
 
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And remember. Starlight’s actions In Every little thing she does presents a very crucial conflict that can really affect how you feel about her going foward in the next seasons. And while a lot of fans will be ok with Starlight, some other people might not feel that way about her.
 
Because of that, Starlight’s presence in Friendhip is Magic creates a very complicated motivator for the people who maybe don’t find her relatable or interesting and don’t want to see her because she’s a very conflicting character with situations where the story being told in dialogue conflicts with the story being told during actions.
 
And some characters in the show are aware of that, but they’re not exactly consequent to Starlight. Which leads up to the next point.
Ring Team
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
A Really Classy Artist - 250+ images under their artist tag
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag
Artist -

SELECTIVE SELF AWARENESS
 
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Sometimes Friendship is Magic shows some self awareness and they show some consequences to a character because of what they did in the past. In Luna Eclipsed, everyone is scared of princess Luna because of her previous actions in season 1 as Nightmare Moon. In Crusaders of the lost mark, Diamond Tiara realizes that she’s not liked by no one, even Silver Spoon, but then we realize that not only she’s being mean because of the influece of her toxic mother, but also Diamond Tiara can change for the better. She learns that being good is not only two words, it’s a possible goal. And since season 3, Discord is constantly questioned by Ponyville, not only the Mane 6. And in season 7 there’s a funny episode where all Ponyville represents some absurd complaints about the show from the fans, like the granny who said “Twilight was great without her wings”.
 
So, they’re gonna do the same thing for Starlight, right? In a TV show that sometimes talks about redemption, it sounds great, right? It’s possible, it isn’t like it’s a technology issue or a narrative problem that would severely affect the TV show from a dramatic point of view, right?
 
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Yeah, it doesn’t matter at all.
 
Whenever Discord is planning something, it’s ok to question him because he can be crazy. Whenever the writers want, they show some Ponyville characters to critizice some mainstream opinions about the show. However, nobody, absolutely nobody in Ponyville questions Starlight regardless of her actions during seasons 6 and 7. It’s a selective self awareness that doesn’t translate very well in the context of the show.
 
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I don’t think Rainbow Rocks is a good film, but one thing that the movie did right is that it shows some consecuences to Sunset Shimmer because of what she did in the first EG film. The entire high school doesn’t want her as a friend. That makes sense. However, she receives the right treatment after saving her high school and her friends. I wish the story was more organic and funnier, but it was something, it’s not like it’s impossible to show some consequences in a kids TV show.
 
If you think I’m very nitpicker, you’re not wrong because I’m a person who’s losing his sanity in a house where people are not the best confident in the world. But the reason why I’m saying this is that, even more than Sunset Shimmer, Babs Seed or Tempest Shadow, Starlight really wants to talk about redemption. And people who love this character praises her story.
 
So, if everyone wants to talk about Starlight’s story, I’m gonna talk about Starlight’s story.
 
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There’s a popular film called Iron Man, where we see Tony Stark, a playboy millionaire who wants to protect the world by using dangerous weapons. After having the revelation that his weapons are dangerous in the wrong hands, he escapes, he decides to close Stark Industries and he starts working on a suit designed to destroy weapons and to punish enemies if necessary. The film isn’t perfect, I think the last 20 minutes are focused on convenient power fantasy, but it’s not too distracting and it’s still a solid film.
 
And that movie came out in 2008.
 
Let that sink in.
 
Some people don’t seem to have a problem with that because it’s more about redemption in a reformed villain. But, I don’t know, I have the feeling we saw two different shows. Many people would argue it was risky and rewarding to create a character like Starlight, but that’s not risky or brave or rewarding. Besides, most of what Starlight had said or done don’t indicate that she wants to redeem herself.
 
You know what would have been brave? A TV show where the new character doesn’t depend on insane crazy game breaking magic to talk about redemption as the main gimmick of the character.
 
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Starlight’s arc characters reminds me of Weathering with you. Like that movie, the TV show made the decision to highlight the insane magic and powers as the core part of the story as a way to emotionally manipulate the viewer but commit to none of these themes in an organic way. It’s mindless power that doesn’t mean anything. If I really wanna see that, I’ll go and watch a Dragon Ball episode without caring about the story.
 
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I don’t say with this that violence is bad or anything like that, I actually like it. I’m one of the few people who acknoledges the existence of Elfen Lied, and that’s the most violent bloody story ever. I’m talking about showing some consequences of certain actions. Here, that doesn’t happen, at least to Starlight.
 
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It’s not like The Last of Us Part II, where the story shows some consequences of some mean decisions made by some specific characters (which is one of the reasons why I love this game). Or Undertale, where everything you do has some consequences. Or Marie Antoniette’s story, where not only she had an affair despite being married, but also she used public money to buy unnecessary stuff (like beautiful dresses) in an era where the citizens were suffering because of hunger. She was abusing her power in a childish way that she indirectly proved the point that the Ancient Régime was outdated and the social division was so extreme.
 
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Friendship is Magic had shown some consequences because of character’s actions with Putting your hoof down. In that episode, Fluttershy wanted to learn how to be assertive. But we slowly see her going too far to the point where she insulted her best friends, which leads up to a really emotional moment where Fluttershy realizes it was all her fault.
 
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What I’m saying is that this is a very hollow, forced and hipocritical approach for a TV show that wants to tell this specific story with this specific character and this specific way of redemption and empathy that people who love Starlight seem to keep saying that the show is trying to get you to understand.
 
And I agree with them. I think the TV show is trying to do that with Starlight, because if it’s not… what is the point of this scene to being with?
 
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If you wanna talk about redemption, that’s ok. I love Crusaders of the Lost mark because of that. And I love the MLP film because of that. But most of Starlight’s actions and lines conflict with this idea.
 
At this point, I still haven’t seen a change for the better in Starlight. And one of the reasons I wanted to say all this long overdue explanation is because I don’t wanna repeat myself when I finish the seasons 8 and 9.
 
DISSONANCE
 
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One of the biggest problems this TV show has is that the more seasons it gets, the stupider their characters are going to get. If you’ve been in the Internet for many years, you might be familiar with the term flanderization. It’s a term to describe a writer abusing one feature of a character in an exaggerated way to the point where this feature is all the character. Easiest example: Ned Flanders was not as fanatic and controlling in the golden age of The Simpsons. Ned Flanders is suppose to be the opposite of Homer Simpson a good respected family guy. He was religious, but his extreme fanatism was only shown in very few but very funny moments. Right now it’s a fanatic controlling person.
 
Friendship is Magic had that problem many years ago and it still has. Probably the example I used to mention the most was Pinkie Pie. Since season 3, her appearances were only for screaming, telling unfunny jokes and trying to quickly guess the plan of one of her friends. I was so oversaturated because of that. In season 7, almost all her episodes are an excuse for Pinkie to go insane or creepy for 22 minutes, like Secrets and Pies and Rock solid friendship. Rainbow Dash also had that problem. With the exception of Parental Glideance and It isn’t the mane thing about you, she was mean for the sake of being mean. Despite loving her turtle Tank, she still gives cake to a turtle (which is not good) and she doesn’t even care about it. I know some people would find that funny, but, I don’t know. I think you can create funny situations without unlikeable elements, unless that is the point, like the animated show Villainous.
 
UNNECESSARY RETURNS AND REPETITIVE CONCEPTS
 
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Some episodes are very similar to other episodes. All bottled up is Every little thing she does, but with Trixie as the main character. Daring Done is like Stranger than Fanfiction, which was also like Daring Don’t but with an extra plot. Shadow Play is as fanfiction as To where and back again. Hard to say anything is like Top Bolt, but with a character from that town in season 5 I don’t remember its name and a story that passes even less the Bechdel test. Sassy Saddles is like Coco Pommel, but thiner and, unlike Coco Pommel, now she can be used as a complementy character for Rarity.
 
Speaking about characters, everyone returns. Every character in the show (the Flim Flam brothers, Trixie, Sassy Saddles, Maud Pie, Filthy Rich, Diamond Tiara, Nightmare Moon, Thorax, the yaks, Sunburst and finally Iron Will) is back. But when Chrysalis is back, it’s only for a few minutes after waiting for four years. Plus a complete redesidn of the changelings.
 
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Yay…
 
THE NEW CHANGELINGS
 
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Man, the new changelings are really ugly, right? I just needed a place in this text to say this. Damn, they don’t have a lot of charm compared to other characters in the show. The silhouette, the design, the color palette (too many saturated colors when the rest of the characters are fine with 2 or 3 colors). It’s a mess
 
FINAL THOUGHTS
 
Despite its problems, I still like season 7. I think the first two episodes were a bit more annoying than I expected because of the lack of self awareness, including the rest of the Starlight episodes. As a result, and a list of other issues (like wifi connection or finding the right episode with the right aspect ratio), it took me six months to finish it. Out of all my favourite episodes from season 7, I think Campfire Tales would be one of my 20 favourite episodes in the whole show. It has a lot of content and likeable characters that makes My Little Pony so fun, inventive and enjoyable to me.
 
There are three reasons why I went back to the show. The first reason is that the MLP film made me love all these characters and all this magical world again. I remember being so active in that thread back in 2017. The second reason is that Legend of Everfree was the Equestria Girls movie that made me really like Sunset Shimmer.
 
And the third and most important reason is that, as much as I like the show, Friendship is Magic is a procedurally-generated story getting more and more off the rails. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic isn’t supposed to have a concrete planned-out logical storyline. If there was one, it would be there, clear as day, including a consistent arc character for Starlight, that’s for sure. The writers didn’t think of the idea of writing stories for nine seasons. Pinkie Pie had 2 sisters, not 3. Applejack now has fear of big crowds in a time where we already see her in Manehattan without that fear of big crowds. The show has a lot of moments like that. Because of that, I can’t be mad at the redesign of the changelings, or Pinkie Pie’s flanderization. Or Starlight’s inconsistent arc character.
 
I’d say My Little Pony is as inconsistent as Kingdom Hearts, but what makes the TV show so great is not its overall consistency. It’s the episodes and their respective stories regardless of the consistency of the show. Putting your hoof down, Party of One, Rarity Takes Manehattan, Crusaders of the lost mark, the MLP film, Campfire tales, Call of the Cutie, Cutie Mark Chronicles, A Canterlot Wedding, etc.
 
Because of that, instead of Kingdom Hearts, I compare My Little Pony to Metal Gear. What people love about that series is not the series itself (trying to chronologically connect all these games in a logical sense is impossible), it’s some games that have some interesting stories, such as Metal Gear Solid 3. I can see the same thing in My Little Pony.
 
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I guess the lesson here is that, if you are severely disappointed to a movie or a book to the point where you are angry, try to be cool about it. Try to take it easy. Try to focus on the things you know you can change. Try to take the negativity on a different spin to make it more fun and enjoyable. ¿Was I disappointed to some creative decisions made in My Little Pony? I try to look at the individual episodes as if they are their own thing instead of a part of a bigger story.
 
As much as I love A Canterlot Wedding, I accepted that I’m not gonna get an episode where Twilight and Chrysalis are gonna fight like I used to dream every single day since 2012. The closest thing we got was an official comic and some fanarts, and that’s enough for me to be happy and satisfied.
 
If I have this mentality, I might finish the seasons 8 and 9 this year without realizing it. I don’t wanna have high expectations and say “I want 18 really good episodes”, I just want for the season 8 to have at least 5 good episodes. Because I know that, even for unexpected reasons, some of the episodes are gonna be really cool.
 
Take care everyone.
 
PD: I hope most of us can agree that praising a character or a story just “because it wants to say something to us” is a pretty boring way to talk about movies, shows or books. It’s also equally important to talk about what stories might say in an unintentional way.
gingerninja666
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Kaze ni Nare
My problem with the way you analyze Starlight, and I’m really sorry if I’m interpreting you completely wrong here, is that you always seem to assume the worst of her and paint everything she does in the most negative light possible.
 
There are many completely fair reasons to dislike Starlight. But it feels like your dislike of her causes you to interpret all of her appearances really uncharitably. It’s like a feedback loop. You dislike her, and that colours your perception of everything she does and makes you dislike her even more.
 
Anyway, so Starlight, Trixie, Discord and Thorax have each one a medal for their services, but then Starlight happens to create dark magic and manipulate other ponies whenever she gets stressed, which wasn’t established back in season 5, but whatever, don’t question Starlight and don’t bother her, because she’s literally a magic time bomb.
 
Like, the moral of All Bottled Up is that Starlight was wrong to repress herself. She did so precisely because she didn’t want to bother anyone. She turned her own magic on herself rather than use it against Trixie. You saw Every Little Thing She Does. You know that Starlight has the power to mind control people at will. She could’ve easily used a spell like that, or maybe even one more subtle than that, to push Trixie away from being so annoying. But she didn’t do that. Because she learned from ELTSD that using magic on her friends is wrong. So she hurt herself with her magic instead, and ABU was about her learning that doing that is also wrong as well. Her cloud of dark magic dissipated the second she just expressed her irritation to Trixie. The second she got her grievances off her chest, the problem was solved. Starlight made herself into a ticking time bomb, and the episode thinks she was wrong to do so. She’s not one of those naturally.
 
But that’s okay, because she meets Maud Pie and it’s revealed by a flashback that Maud Pie indirectly helped Starlight in order to manipulate an entire town. See? Starlight isn’t that bad, she’s just a misunderstood poor pony. She also says that she likes rocks because they don’t judge you despite what she has done in the past.
 
I don’t understand this. Rock Solid Friendship isn’t trying to say that Starlight is misunderstood. It just introduced a detail that Maud absent mindedly helped Starlight in the past. Her line about rocks is also just meant to show that she can understand how Maud feels about rocks. She empathizes with a desire to just avoid having to deal with people judging her. Which doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me because she doesn’t act on it outside of very specific conflicts where the point is that she’s wrong. She might fantasize about it, but she still makes friends and does stuff at the risk of being judged and rejected. It might be silly, but within that very episode she brought up how she liked kites to Maud, fully expecting to be judged for it. In a more serious example, when she backed down at the end of Cutie Remark, she submitted herself to any punishment that Twilight deemed fair. She was willing to accept any judgement placed upon her. The truth is, Starlight does fear being judged. Most of her conflicts come from it. She fears being rejected by those she cares about. It’s quite literally the reason why she became evil in the first place. Her village was nothing if not a concerted effort to create a world that could never hurt her again. In ELTSD, she mind controls the cast because she was afraid of failing their lessons and being rejected. In ABU, she feared losing Trixie, and so used magic to gut herself of her own emotions. In Uncommon Bond she feared that Sunburst had grown apart from her and would reject her. So yeah, part of Starlight does kinda wish she wouldn’t have to deal with any of that. But she’s getting better about just living in the world and accepting that interacting with other people is just like that.
 
She also doesn’t empathise with Rarity and her hair issue. Does she have a problem? I don’t care, as long as it’s not mine. Hell is other people.
 
This scene continues after that line. Starlight doesn’t understand Rarity’s problem initially, because she’s not used to Rarity’s specific brand of madness, but she does understand as soon as Rarity actually shows them her mane. Then she’s right there alongside Twilight trying to offer comfort and help.
 
She also whines about Sunburst socializing with Twilight and Maud Pie. I’m so sorry, Your Majesty! I forgot you’re the center of the universe! As long as it’s not about you, you deserve to complain and you won’t stop moaning about it.
 
Starlight lasts a long time pointedly not whining about Sunburst. She deflects his attempts to bring up that she’s not having fun, because she doesn’t want to bother him. And when she does finally whine about it, she says this:
 
“I thought so, too, but it hasn’t worked out that way. When we were foals, we had more in common than any two ponies in Equestria. But now, it seems like he’s got more in common with my friends than he does with me.”
 
The problem isn’t that Sunburst is merely having fun with other people. It’s that she was fully expecting things to be exactly the same between them. And with every interaction, she realizes that she and Sunburst might have drifted apart.
 
She also goes faster than Rainbow Dash to the point where se can be in two places at the same time, becuse why not.
 
She’s not being in two places at once because she’s moving super fast. She’s using a spell that lets her duplicate herself. Her super speed was the result of a spell called Accelero, which is not unique to her. She didn’t invent it.
 
Which goes to another point actually. Starlight’s magic is almost universally seen as a bad thing whenever she busts it out. The whole Accelero/duplication thing was a deliberate attempt by her to distract Twilight from the fact that she was too afraid to do her friendship homework. Her bottling her emotions up was a bad thing. Her using magic to make herself and Sunburst younger was a bad thing, and it’s portrayed as being very invasive and disturbing. She almost never solves a problem with her magic. To change a changeling showed that she can lose just as easily as any other character.
 
She also translates ancient languages even better than Twilight, because why not.
 
I didn’t get the sense that she could understand a single word of Old Ponish.
 
Starlight Glimmer: “Hearg sylfum se Ponhenge”. What’s that?  
Twilight Sparkle: The Temple of Ponhenge?! You can read that?!  
Starlight Glimmer: The hornwriting’s pretty sloppy, but it’s nowhere near as bad as mine. “Toward dol grimlic of Fola Firgenbeorg”?  
Sunburst: “At the base of Foal Mountain”…  
Starlight Glimmer: “User endemest scield”.  
Twilight Sparkle: “Our last stand”.

 
Twilight couldn’t read what was written in Starswirl’s book because his horn writing was so terrible, not because she couldn’t translate it. Starlight, because of her experience reading out her own crappy handwriting, could phonetically read out what was written down, but it seemed like she needed Sunburst and Twilight to actually translate the words. She reads it out very awkwardly.
Megalobronia
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).

Nintendo Nerd
My problem with the way you analyze Starlight, and I’m really sorry if I’m interpreting you completely wrong here, is that you always seem to assume the worst of her and paint everything she does in the most negative light possible.
There are many completely fair reasons to dislike Starlight. But it feels like your dislike of her causes you to interpret all of her appearances really uncharitably. It’s like a feedback loop. You dislike her, and that colours your perception of everything she does and makes you dislike her even more.
You hit the nail right on the head.
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