Re: S06E21: Every Little Thing She Does


(and I forgot to mark Las Pegasus off last week)
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SlateSlabrock
The information's unavailable to the mortal man. - Joined: Feb 14, 2011
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DerFurShur wrote:Sweet now Twilight's castle has its own creepy dungeon.
DerFurShur wrote:Sweet now Twilight's castle has its own creepy dungeon.
DerFurShur wrote:And hey if Starlight ever did go evil for reals, we have the perfect place to put her.
Unless Twilight has the same taste in garden decor as Celestia.
Octavia wrote:Finally got around to watching the episode. I love Rarity's hangover outfit.
Headless Horse wrote:And it's the latter level where they named those characters Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer to begin with. Like, what did they think they were pulling off with that? Are they ever planning on those Twilight-clone names paying off in any way? Even just with a teeny joke lampshading it?
Headless Horse wrote:And it's the latter level where they named those characters Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer to begin with. Like, what did they think they were pulling off with that? Are they ever planning on those Twilight-clone names paying off in any way? Even just with a teeny joke lampshading it?
Aramek wrote:I dunno, man. Not only is Starlight way more powerful, she's less mopey. Sunset feels all ashamed and embarrassed and unsure of herself. Starlight doesn't have room for doubt, she's too busy accomplishing things, whereas Sunset is spending so much time trying to fit in.
Aramek wrote:I dunno, man. Not only is Starlight way more powerful, she's less mopey. Sunset feels all ashamed and embarrassed and unsure of herself. Starlight doesn't have room for doubt, she's too busy accomplishing things, whereas Sunset is spending so much time trying to fit in.
The Doctor wrote:
Because Sunset is actually trying to be friends with others. She doesn't see it as a chore, and doesn't have a "what can they do for ME?" attitude.
The Doctor wrote:
Because Sunset is actually trying to be friends with others. She doesn't see it as a chore, and doesn't have a "what can they do for ME?" attitude.
The Ghost Of Ember wrote:If there's a central flaw to how Glimmer is charactized post villiany, its that if she were really an amoral sociopath she shouldn't care about impressing Twilight, but she does, but she also keeps acting in an amoral sociopathic manner. The writers want to have their cake and eat it too. Glimmer the Twilight Sycophant has no relation to Glimmer the ruthless dictator.
Bremen wrote:Diagnosing mental disorders on the internet is always a tricky thing, I admit.
My understanding is that sociopaths are often hard to detect because they're very good at faking it; they know exactly what other people consider acceptable, and can pretend to fit that mold, they just don't care if they're hurting people. Starlight seems to have the opposite problem; she does care about whether she's doing the right thing, and she doesn't like hurting ponies, but she doesn't know what others would consider acceptable.
Somewhere I saw a post, and I wish I could find it now, that said something similar sometimes pops up in people who were exposed to extreme childhood trauma and have a warped sense of right and wrong. That they really do care about others, and try to do the right thing, but without someone around to show them what that right thing is they often end up hurting people they want to help. Of course, until I can find out where I saw that, it's very much in the category of "things I heard on the internet." It sounds reasonable, though, and is probably a closer match to what's up with Starlight than sociopathy, which would imply she doesn't care about hurting others.
With Glimmer, there's none of that. Glimmer's core is more amoral. The big incident that set her off was someone being taken from her, but the way she talks about it and parses it was how unfair it was for her that she not get what she wants. Her solution was if Cutie Marks had wronged her, they needed to go, and if anyone got in her way they needed to go too. When Twilight foiled her, she became her new obsession, all filtered through an amoral worldview that sees social interactions as a zero-sum set of how things relate to her personally.
The new episode reinforced and clarified this. Even with all of Twilight's teaching so far, Glimmer only wants to game the Friendship Lessons so she can maximize her success. She's not actually absorbing what it means to be a friend, and even that last laugh line was a hint that she just wants to relax to finish the lesson, she's not actually relaxing. Twilight is misreading her issues as being like hers, when they actually run deeper.
Captain Rufus wrote:Remember folks this is primarily a show for little kids.
Y'all might be overthinking it. By a metric buttload. Smoke a blunt/have some hot cocoa with marshmallows, and step back a bit.
Captain Rufus wrote:Remember folks this is primarily a show for little kids.
Y'all might be overthinking it. By a metric buttload. Smoke a blunt/have some hot cocoa with marshmallows, and step back a bit.
Captain Rufus wrote:Remember folks this is primarily a show for little kids.
Y'all might be overthinking it. By a metric buttload. Smoke a blunt/have some hot cocoa with marshmallows, and step back a bit.
Captain Rufus wrote:Remember folks this is primarily a show for little kids.
Y'all might be overthinking it. By a metric buttload. Smoke a blunt/have some hot cocoa with marshmallows, and step back a bit.
The Ghost Of Ember wrote:When a kids show makes the argument that Jim Jones just really needed friendship it deserves, no, demands to be viewed in a critical light, because we're teaching this crap to children.
Captain Rufus wrote:Remember folks this is primarily a show for little kids.
Y'all might be overthinking it. By a metric buttload. Smoke a blunt/have some hot cocoa with marshmallows, and step back a bit.
The Ghost Of Ember wrote:When a kids show makes the argument that Jim Jones just really needed friendship it deserves, no, demands to be viewed in a critical light, because we're teaching this crap to children.
Soft Snow wrote:I think I finally get the difference between Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer.
For a while I figured they were both basically "Evil unicorns who paralleled Twilight and showed what might've happened to her without Friendship, and now they're learning" with only pretty superficial differences in their characterization, but this latest episode clarified what's unique about Glimmer and the different arc she's on.
Glimmer's a sociopath.
Sunset Shimmer went down a bad road, but as she later told human Twilight during their fight, all the power she was after was a way to fill a sense of loneliness. What she really wanted was friendship and acceptance from the outset, and her turn as a Mean Girl was a negative reaction to not feeling that from Celestia or others. That's why she broke down, why Twilight as able to help her, and why she was eventually able to be accepted - the good Shimmer was pretty much always there under a tough front.
With Glimmer, there's none of that. Glimmer's core is more amoral. The big incident that set her off was someone being taken from her, but the way she talks about it and parses it was how unfair it was for her that she not get what she wants. Her solution was if Cutie Marks had wronged her, they needed to go, and if anyone got in her way they needed to go too. When Twilight foiled her, she became her new obsession, all filtered through an amoral worldview that sees social interactions as a zero-sum set of how things relate to her personally.
The new episode reinforced and clarified this. Even with all of Twilight's teaching so far, Glimmer only wants to game the Friendship Lessons so she can maximize her success. She's not actually absorbing what it means to be a friend, and even that last laugh line was a hint that she just wants to relax to finish the lesson, she's not actually relaxing. Twilight is misreading her issues as being like hers, when they actually run deeper.
DerFurShur wrote:They can't just Sunset Shimmer her because they don't have any of the Elements any longer, and apparently they can only go Rainbow Power in Luna's dreams.
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