Hell, even after she saw the future and was like “Oh…”, she didn’t IMMEDIATELY undo her actions. She was still on the fence about the whole thing.
Of course she was on the fence.
Rather than changing her philosophy at the drop of a hat, she raised the legitimate point (in theory) that Twilight could have been “showing” her something fake, to try and trick her into giving up.
After a bit more convincing from Twilight, Starlight then asked how Twilight could be so sure that her future friendships wouldn’t crumble like the one she had with Sunburst.
The whole time, she was being pulled out of her old way of thinking and transitioned into accepting that there’s another way. Just like Sunset and Sci-Twi had to learn respectively.
Twilight even admitted that Starlight couldn’t have been defeated by normal means, she had to give up on her own. And by giving up, it showed that she accepted there was another way. That she finally admitted the world was getting fucked up. She then even presented herself before the mane six asking for whatever punishment they deemed necessary, which showed genuine regret and remorse. All good in the hood, as far as I’m concerned.
Now I’m super excited for her season 6 character arc and how she’ll go about life as Twilight’s pupil.
Well regardless of how we might feel about her, the fact remains that she was forgiven, she’s here to stay as Twilights student, we most certainly will be seeing more of her, and the writers are going to pull their asses apart trying to turn her into sunset shimmer 2.0 in order to get us to like her.
I mean, I’m never going to forget how horrible a pony she was, certainly not even going to try and hide how much I wish she was a forgotten villain like suri but I will give the writing staff credit for trying anyways.
@MDL
Except the whole, y’know, trying to brainwash an entire village simply because her friend moved away, then stalking somepony and trying to screw up history, regardless of whether she knew the EXACT consequences of her actions.
Hell, even after she saw the future and was like “Oh…”, she didn’t IMMEDIATELY undo her actions. She was still on the fence about the whole thing.
@SeraphimDawn
True, but in all fairness Discord wanted to basically turn the world upside-down and shake it just for funsies, and did they ever even say what Tirek’s motive was?
Oh, and then there’s Midnight Sparkle, who ripped up the fabric of space and time just to get a better look at Equwstria’s magic. Admittedly, she was nowhere near sane at the time, but still.
Glimmer’s a piece of work, but she’s by no means the only one who’s done terrible things for lame reasons.
@DanielTepesKraus
He did say most ponies. If Starlight’s a sociopath, it would actually make sense for her to not give a damn about the ethics that govern pony society as a whole, right?
Y-you guys do realize she wasn’t aware of the fucked up timelines, right?
Heck, she even went into denial when Twilight showed her.
She was so focused on revenge that she didn’t see the aftereffects coming.
Factoring it into her motivations is stupid, because she wasn’t aware.
It literally counts for nothing against her character.
Maybe most ponies just aren’t vindictive in nature. Unlike humans, they do not see revenge as justice. Forgiveness seems to work for their society much better.
“Why are people making a big deal out of these redemption acts at this point? Discord, Princess Luna, Sunset, Trixie, even Diamond Tiara have gone over the edge and were forgiven eventually.”
Discord’s redemption was a good idea, just rushed so it felt sloppy. Should’ve been a 2-parter really. There was nothing wrong with Luna’s and honestly I’ve never heard people complain about it. Sunset’s was also rushed, but personally, I take a bigger issue with the whole 180 personality flip in Rainbow Rocks.
Trixie didn’t get ‘redeemed’, rather she was under the influence of a mind-corrupting artefact that was removed and Twilight simply chose not to hold it against her. As for DT… That entire episode was fuckin’ terrible, but I’ll not go into that here.
“Have YOU ever gone through friendship issues? I have. They were my fault, but I still felt angry and sorrowful and petty about it. I did stupid things because of those feelings. Just like Starlight. LOTS of people do this.”
I hear ya. My buddy Sadler lost his friend once when he was a kid and went on to become the leader of Los Illuminados. All he wanted to do was spread a brain-controlling parasite to the United States and rule the entire world with an army of super-powerful, hive-minded slaves at his disposal, but then some prick decided to blow him up without even TRYING to be his friend!
In cerealness, how many people lose a friend and go onto brainwashing innocent people on a power-hungry trip and then try to ruin six peoples’ lives no matter how much it will obviously fuck up the rest of the world? When my friend moved away, I was sad, but I wasn’t about to take it out on other people. Even if I DID have power I wouldn’t do that. For that matter, why didn’t she just, I dunno, seek him out? She had power when she was older, what was stopping her?
“What we are saying is that her actions aren’t nearly as evil and overblown or even unforgivable as so many people complain.”
Her actions were entirely unforgivable considering her motivation for them. If it was to say, I dunno, save a life or two, there’d be room for sympathy. She was just bitter that her friend moved away and then also bitter that a group of heroes stopped her villainous schemes.
I feel bad that she lost her friend, it sucks, but it doesn’t excuse the actions she took.
@Digitalgame
Yeah, while I love this finale, I have to agree with Silver Quill. Can’t there be other Element bearers, or something else? The best out of all of them was Sombra’s timeline since everyone was giving it there all and there is a chance they can prevail, it’s just not going to be the ‘one day’ thing that we get in the show. Celestia’s been ruling for a thousand years, dealt with monsters of all sorts. Can’t she handle some returning foes or something?
It’s not a major gripe for me, because this isn’t anything new. It’s happened since day one of the show and examplified in every other arc……….Except when you put Cadance into the mix, since she and ‘and Shining to an extent’ were the crucial parts to defeat both Chrysalis and Sombra. In fact, I think those two could have become heroes in those timelines. Eh, it’s only minor for me. I’m used to it in shows where the fate of the world depends on a small ragtag.
@Exedrus
In a sense, yes because she deliberately set out to change the past and future, this isn’t a case of good-intentions having indirect consequences, this is starlight being vindictive for petty reasons. Alone, I agree she did not and certainly could not have caused all the travesty. But she did create the right circumstances for them to occur.
In a sense, yes, you do share some of the responsibility for your own actions and whatever occurs because of them. A good analogy is putting bullets into a gun and leaving it out for other people to find, in the right circumstances someone else is going to use that weapon to hurt others because someone left it out.
Unfortunately the episode shows us that not only does every action, benevolent or not, create consequences but actually seems to be saying that Twilight and her friends are the ONLY things that have prevented equestrian from falling apart, even when individuals do take matters in their own hands (celestia’s army and Zecora’s resistance) they best they can do is just fight back, not overcome the problems.
Oh, and I forgot to add that when you have emotional problems and just lost the most important thing in your life, a lot of people would go crazy with their emotions the moment they’re given the power to. Face it, I bet a lot of folks here would do WORST things than Starlight did (All she wanted to do was separate a group of friends, not end the world).
Why are people making a big deal out of these redemption acts at this point? Discord, Princess Luna, Sunset, Trixie, even Diamond Tiara have gone over the edge and were forgiven eventually.
Is anyone here really surprised that Starlight was forgiven in a show about friendship and understanding?
Look, the episode SAID that what Starlight did was wrong. The episode SAID that Starlight should have gone another direction. No one is saying Starlight is a saint. What we are saying is that her actions aren’t nearly as evil and overblown or even unforgivable as so many people complain.
Have YOU ever gone through friendship issues? I have. They were my fault, but I still felt angry and sorrowful and petty about it. I did stupid things because of those feelings. Just like Starlight. LOTS of people do this.
Hell, I bet most of the people who hate Starlight would do something as petty and terrible as what she did, because human beings are petty, greedy, jealous, judgmental hypocrites and liars. Simple as that.
@Digitalgame
But does it make sense to take how Starlight’s actions affect the future and use that as a reason to blame her? I mean all the things that cause Equestria to lose out are far off in the future. Is Starlight, alone, really the only one culpable for everything falling apart? No one else could’ve stepped in and stemmed things when they started going bad? Equestria is massive, do the free wills of the other ponies not factor in?
After all, if I do something and that affects some which then affects someone which then affects someone… etc and at the end of that cause-and-effect chain someone gets wronged, am I solely responsible? Even if the causes and effects span hundreds of people and several years? There’s gotta be a limit to all this for it to make any sense…
And, I mean, some of the things Starlight does aren’t even really that bad in-and-of-themselves. She makes Hoops and Flutters friends, and *boom* Equestria is screwed. Like, what if a school teacher had done that instead? This whole thing doesn’t really make me think of Starlight as evil so much as it does make me think that Equestria was just really dang lucky that things turned out the way they did…
@Digitalgame
I would put stock in them continuing to exist, since they are their own bit of realities. {Them being erased is a bit more horrific.} Alternate worlds is a common theory in scientific work, not to mention used by many shows.
Time travel is honestly always a messy business and a little confusing, especially since each show or movie has it’s own set of rules on what happens and whether a character will disappear the moment they change the future.
