@Background Pony #684A  
Sorry, that’s you being at a weird angle. Maybe you shouldn’t straighten out first?

I agree with OP
 
Discord’s “redemption arc” was EQUALLY contrived and stupid.

@Background Pony #67AC  
Well you could have fooled me with all these contortions you’re making.

@Jades  
So you two disagree. What of it? It’s not the end of the world so calm down.

@Background Pony #67AC
 
Oh for fucks sake I can’t believe this!!!
 
There is a complete difference between the two in a regard you’re forgetting.
 
One became a recluse but she didn’t harm anybody. The other became a someone who completely went on to create a cult out of sheer spite just because she hated Cutie Marks.
 
Moondancer actually has positive emotional investment in her story. We actually have a reason to give a shit about Moondancer and the characters in it.
 
Starlight’s backstory is completely null and void of any emotional development. Why the fuck should we give two shits about Sunburst and Starlight’s relationship. Everything we have any information on were told and not shown!! She literally misses every basic element of a sympathetic character and comes across a some spoiled brat in a mares body and not only that her backstory is riddled with plot holes!!
 
Just because a backstory is less ridiculous doesn’t mean it’s actually good. Many people have no reason whatsoever to feel sympathy for Starlight with her crappy Freudian Excuse and not only that but the story acts like her backstory excuses her actions and gives her a undeserved happy ending anyways!!!
 
She’s nothing but a pathetic excuse of a sympathetic character that deserves nothing but hate and yet everyone forgives her like besties for no reason!! At least Discord had to earn his way too redemption but apparently Starlight didn’t need to because Twilight felt sorry for her.

@Jades  
Moondancer’s backstory? Twilight didn’t go to her party in favor of saving Equestria and following Celestia’s orders, ignored the rest of her friends, and became a super recluse waiting to explode.
 
Starlight’s backstory? Two best friends, one gets his mark, abandons her immediately, the other becomes paranoid that it will happen again gaining a hatred for cutie marks.
 
Moondancer’s is the more ridiculous backstory. She had other friends, Starlight did not. Moondancer had a support system, we aren’t shown any for Starlight. Moondancer was an adult, Starlight was a child.

@Chapelseed  
Yes, they WILLINGLY joined the cutie unmarking. They even say they did it because they thought she was their friend.

@Background Pony #684A  
No because I don’t have to stretch. Amazing how I’m the only one.

@PonyPon  
Good point.
 
But then her issue would be with that one community, not Equestria as a whole. So instead of building another community, she would most likely just leave that one.

@shiningyouknowwhat  
Just like one where no one is allowed their own cutie mark?

@Serious B  

 
I doubt a community like that would exist in Equestria.

@Background Pony #67AC  
uh rewind! she did NOT have ponies WILLINGLY join her. She took ponies’ talents because she believed that they believed they were better than everyone else. That’s what she reasoned with Cutie Marks. The Equal Marks never signified they were equal to each other, only that everyone was now equally BAD at the same thing.

@Background Pony #67AC
 
 
And yet she still didn’t do it and she still has way more valid reasons to be the way she is than the associated stain upon the series.
 
What’s really ridiculous is how people compare the two.
 
One has a emotional connection of a backstory that actually had characters that you could actually give a crap about that had a personality and weren’t unlikable and a backstory that actually made sense.
 
The other has a backstory that fails at literally everything it’s trying to do. Has no characters that are shown likable and is nothing but a hollow shell and a poor crappy attempt at trying to elict sympathy.
 
That’s literally what Starlight is. A poor crappy parody of Moondancer that shouldn’t have got the happy ending she got.

@Background Pony #67AC
 
Your body must hurt from all that stretching.

@Jades  
Yes, the recluse who was ready to beat Twilight the moment she got a weapon.

@PonyPon  
First of all, Moondancer had a lot less time to fester.
 
Second, what did Starlight do? She built a village based on the philosophy that cutie marks lead to pain with WILLING participants. They state as much, they were not forced to get equalized, they chose to. Starlight was a villain and she had issues but she actually tried to “save” other ponies from her heartache compared to Moondancer who just huddled within herself and not help anyone with anything she had studied.

@Background Pony #67AC
 
No best Pony is way better than the worst garbage character this series has ever shilled out.

@Background Pony #67AC  
Yeah, and all she did was become a bitter recluse in response.

I find it hilarious how pissed people are but how many of them fell in love with Moondancer who was essentially the same as her except Starlight was a little kid.

@Background Pony #E4D7  
This. Exactly.  
That one moment in her past wasn’t the ONLY moment. But it was the beginning. It was the catalyst.
 
And As they explained in this season: Cutie Marks are just a representation of WHO a pony is. And it is up to the individual pony to decide just what their Cutie Mark truly means for them.

@Serious B  
That would probably have required her growing up somewhere outside of Equestria i think.  
also its been increasingly implied that the cutie marks are far more than merely talents. they are windows to the soul if you will. metaphors of a pony. and they are made from experiences.  
think about it. cheese sandwhich’s cutie mark is a sandwhich. to anyone on the outside they would think ‘why is he an entertainer when his talent is cooking?’ but to cheese, it represents the moment in his life where he changed, and found what he was good at, what he wanted to do.
 
outside of that. there is a way to look at a more disturbing aspect of this. her belief is irrational, but how often prejudices irrational? racism is immensely toxic, immensely irrational. and born from a irrational belief.  
Starlight did not start making that cult the next day, she let it stew in her head for years, let it keep her from making friends, isolate herself and keep that fear and confusion bottled up. Till it became something disturbed.  
Eventually she made her decision, and made the town, and felt safe and secure for the first time in years. They would all be equal, thus no fear of separation.
 
Then tiwlight came in and broke down the cult in only a few days.

@Background Pony #E4D7  
Actually it can. subtle changes can affect upbringing, but can leave the original intact. Quantum physics are screwy like that.
 
Silver Quill said it best when he explained that Starlight is a Sociopath.

@Chapelseed  
yeah cause time travel can lie >_< Well i guess the futures they saw were imperfect and false, but the past in the past.
 
I do know the issue here. People are viewing that such a cataclysmic event originates from one distrubed mare. Then again that could be the point. Though i largely blame starswhirl. Great inventor of magic and shit as he was, he was reckless, and his artifacts have caused more than one instance of harm. Joking btw.
 
Also people gotta let the concept stew in theri heads a bit. For starters a lot of people are directly linking the lost friend to the current events, which is untrue. The lsot friend is her motivation for the Town and anti cutiemark sentiment. An unhealthy mindset.  
And that is a theme Throughout the season, we have been dealing with ponies that have adopted destructive mindsets and views, and other ponies pulling them from the brink. Be it the quests the Tree sent the mane six on, or the interactions with others. Hell, even the cmc has done that, first with that giant ass pony, and then with diamond tiara.
 
Starlight is what happens if such mindsets are left to stew.
 
Though i have my own criticism. That ultimately the events of the map are not some culmination to their journeys so far. Then again they might have just changed it up this season.

@Serious B  
Now that right there would have made Starlight’s backstory a lot more interesting and believable since that makes sense imo. :)

@Serious B
 
^^^^^^^ this person gets it.