@Background Pony #C232  
Scheduling wise, it would make sense. Episodes are usually finished well before they air, around several months prior in most cases. Given that setup, there’s a high likelihood that Rainbow Rocks was still being worked on after production for the season 5 finale had ended. At the very latest, work on both projects would have occurred concurrently.

@Background Pony #2098  
Where do you people get the idea that Rainbow Rocks was somehow written after S5 finale  
Surely you don’t actually believe that it was thrown together at the very last second

@Evil Emperor Proteus  
Kinda late but that’s not true. Season 5 script was done before Rainbow Rocks so I really doubt that Sunset had much to do with Starlight. People often cite Sunset’s post RR popularity but Glim Glam was conceived before that. Plus Jim Miller has gone on record stating otherwise.

Don’t worry Sunny, nothing normal people can like ever gets a meaningful* Oscar any more.
 

@cloudkicker108  
i was referring to he’s comments on sunset shimmer.

@angrybrony  
I don’t understand; are you claiming that Supes doesn’t understand Starlight’s character? From what he’s said so far, he seems, if anything, quite well versed in Starlight’s attributes and qualities.

@Sunset’s Minion  
She acts as a foil for Twilight and also allows her to take on an actual mentor role. In addition, she reinforces the idea that it’s never too late to change; even the most skewed and isolated individuals still have the chance to make friends and improve their lives, as long as there is someone to guide them and they themselves are willing to put in the effort.

Starlight I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but SUNSET is one of the greatest Twilight counterparts of all time.
 
OF ALL TIME!

@Sunset’s Minion  
So Twilight has a purpose she can suck at.

@Sunset’s Minion  
They want Sunset Shimmer but they didn’t want to abduct her from Equestria Girls.

Why does Starlight need to exist?

 
^{Flash Sentry’s not settling for only one of them.}

Sunset is always >> Starlight

@Supes  
I accept your surrender, Supes.

@Supes  

Opinions are fine but let’s make sure we don’t insult others (even indirectly) for having differing opinions, please.

@Evil Emperor Proteus  
Mental gymnastics are when people claim that Sunset Shimmer is a deep character despite her having almost no personality (the only discernible trait being “excited about magic”) and her backstory being completely irrelevant.
 
Starlight is not for everybody, sure, but to claim she’s a worse character than Sunset is the ultimate delusion. If you didn’t bother trying to understand her character, at least don’t embarass yourself.

@angrybrony  
I’m talking about Supes and others projecting onto Starlight Glimmer to such an extent that it goes well beyond normal mental gymnastics.

@Evil Emperor Proteus  
what do you mean by that.

God damn, I’ve heard of mental gymnastics, but super pan-dimensional hyper-quantum ultra-mega-giga anti-reality mental gymnastics?

@Supes
 
@jui4373  

@Supes  
>She almost feels like she’s from some other, slightly more mature show.  
I felt exactly the same.

@Background Pony #C232  
A child’s very close (possibly only) friend cuts off all ties (or is forced to) because he got a cutie-mark, it’s very much plausible for someone to assume Starlight’s view on them. The smallest things that happen to us as children influence our whole personalities, opinions and lives (heck, small things having giant consequences was the whole theme of the freaking two-parter). Just because it’s not some over the top supervillain tragic backstory doesn’t make it bad, if anything, it only makes it better.
 
Being forgiven is something everyone in the show gets, at this point this is no longer a valid criticism. It’s just how their society is. Discord being forgiven is much worse, anyway, especially after his betrayal. If anyone should’ve ever been denied forgiveness in this show, it’s him after the finale of season 4.
 
OP mary sue magic doesn’t even matter for a character, especially in the show where magic is written to do absolutely whatever the writers want at any point. If anything, it only makes her more interesting, because a person with lingering dangerous views and all the tools to realize those views is more interesting than someone without such tools.
 
Starlight is pretty much the most interesting character the show’s ever done in my eyes. The mane 6 are, while not without depth, mostly obvious and silly stereotypes, Sunset is bland, and only a few antagonists (like Discord and Cinch) are kinda intriguing character-wise. Starlight is a much more grounded look at someone who’s been wrong their entire life trying to learn morality. She almost feels like she’s from some other, slightly more mature show. Of course, if you don’t bother trying to “get” her character and expect her to be as easy and in-your-face as the mane6, whose job was always to hook people in immediately, you won’t see anything in her.

@Supes  
Yeah because deciding that all cutie marks are ebil because your boyfriend moved away, constantly being forgiven without an ounce of resentment from those that you hurt, and pulling OP mary sue magic hax straight out of your ass make for a 10/10 character.

Well, Sunset, maybe you shouldn’t have discarded your entire backstory, from being Celestia’s student to being a former villain, to the point where none of it is relevant to your character beyond a bad running gag. Also, maybe you should’ve had a plausible heel-face turn, instead of inexplicably becoming a completely different person after being defeated.
 
I mean, I love the EqG movies, but I seriously don’t understand why everyone praises Sunset’s character so much. She’s pretty much a Gordon Freeman by now. The only time her character was interesting was when she blew up at Sci-Twi in “Friendship Games”. To me, she’s one of the blandest main characters of the entire generation 4. Starlight is pretty much Sunset done right in my opinion.