Re: S06E21: Every Little Thing She Does
Headless Horse wrote:
The way they're playing her I almost wonder whether they're actually going for an angle of the "friendship lessons" being meant to be read as a form of therapy. Most of Starlight's episodes, but this one in particular, paint her not just as a clueless weirdo with a traumatic thing that happened in her past, but as someone with some severe untreated mental scarring. In this episode she's a straight-up sociopath, in the "I don't understand why controlling others is wrong" and "I don't understand why you would want to do things with or for other people, rather than for your own self-interest" sense.
*Snipped*
I don't feel I want to address any specific part of this, but very interesting post as always.
SlateSlabrock wrote:
I think the dilemma is that Starlight is ultimately a supervillain. She's redeemed because it's necessary for the safety of Equestria, just like Discord or Nightmare Moon. Trixie was "redeemed" by taking away her magic "I win" button, and she's technically good now, but we didn't really get any clear indication of that until the end of her episode this season.
But Starlight just sort of switches sides because she sees the outcome of her actions is so blindingly terrible even she realizes it's self-defeating. And this season, it's been very clear she doesn't understand friendship or others' feelings or even why she would want companionship at all. I'm surprised she was so broken up over Sunburst because it's the only time she's wanted another pony around just for companionship's sake... or did she just feel insulted that he might have spurned her?
Anyway, Starlight is clearly as powerful as Twilight in a fight, which is a problem for the show if she isn't "good," and they've ignored that all season. This episode proves that she still needs to be handled like Discord -- a potential problem, but one you can't solve without forcing her into friendship situations so she can gradually understand the basic social graces she's missing.
I don't know how much support I have in this stance, but I've never thought of Starlight as a villain in traditional sense. She's more messed up than evil as far as I'm concerned, and so the idea that she was "bad" and turned "good" never really felt to me like an accurate description of what happened. She did bad things seemingly without understanding why they were bad (her first phase, in The Cutie Map) and then with nothing left to do with her life, she went on a reckless revenge trip (her second phase, The Cutie Remark). Once Twilight talked her down, she was completely back to square one. Her life had been reset.
There's never any sense that she has a lust for power or dominance, nor that she takes pleasure in the pain and suffering of others. Her primary problem seems to be, as Headless put it earlier, sociopathy. She's trying to live her life like anyone does, but with an uncommonly powerful skillset and a dangerous lack of empathy.
I guess what I'm saying is that Starlight isn't a really an active threat to Equestria, not because she lacks the power to be, but because she has no ambitions to be. Based on the comic prelude to the first Equestria Girls, I'd have said that Sunset Shimmer fit the bill far more neatly.
The Doctor wrote:Thing is though, Discord has had an actual redemption arc. We've seen him stumble along the way, and he was never instantly friends with any of the mane 6.
I feel like Discord is actually dangerous, though. He ruled Equestria once; we can't know for sure that he wouldn't like to again. We've actually seen him taking delight in the suffering of others. Starlight is, at the end of the day, just a strange horsie with a dark past.
Also, is she really friends with any of the Mane 6 besides Twilight? I mean, they're friendly towards her, but do they like, hang out? Or is it like "Oh I guess this is one of Twilight's lessons, better get over there and do some scrapbooking with her."
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PaulloDEC
Gah! - Joined: Jun 13, 2014
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