Welp, since this is yet another “op is a duck” image that contributes nothing other than pissing people off in the most passive aggressive way possible… anyone up for a thread derailing?
@cloudkicker108
That’s an extremely lazy and biased excuse, “This form of brainwashing isn’t as bad as this form was” It’s still brainwashing she altered them into obeying her and turning them into brainless drones if anything it’s worse at least the residents of our town got to keep their minds intact and could at least think if they wanted to whereas in ELTSD she got rid of their ability to think for themselves entirely.
@Alexlayer
You have heard of “relapses”, right? Moreover, what Starlight did to the remane 5 in ELTSD was very different and nowhere near as severe as what she did to the ponies of Our Town. ELTSD featured hypnosis; she wasn’t changing the morals or their inherent personalities of the remane 5, but was rather simply heightening their susceptibility to suggestion. Our Town, on the other hand, was an example of brainwashing; she had the beliefs and attitudes of the ponies systematically changed via deceptive prose and psychological torture. Essentially, she broke them down to their core. To put it in another way, Starlight had to give direct orders to the remane 5 in order for them to do anything, while the ponies of Our Town followed her on their own accord.
@Background Pony #2C58
I don’t mind a character having flaws. Heck, I’d say having flaws is some of the best ways to make them complex and multi-dimensional, but unless you’re going for a sitcom style where characters are always jackasses who always end up suffering due to their own flaws, this is not the way to go. Characters need to have both virtues that the viewer can admire, and flaws that they can relate to.
And Starlight is painfully lacking stuff that I can like about her. Every “virtue” they’ve given her is superficial, like her crazy magic potential that allows her to stand against Alicorns should she need to, but nearly nothing of actual virtues that show her improving the lives of those around her (and no, saving the world doesn’t count). Instead, more often than not it feels like the writers just try to manipulate the audience into feeling sorry for her by focusing on her anxiety attacks to the point that that alone has become another trademark trope of her. But sorry to say, I’m not buying into it.
@Background Pony #2C58
Except Pinkie never relapsed at the prospect of abandonment, Applejack never tried to overwork herself again and Twilight never altered ponies wills again, they learned lessons and took steps to improve while still having the flaws Starlight doesn’t. Alex’s point was that Twilight praises Starlight as if she had nipped these problems away when in reality she never even made an attempt and keeps repeating it, even going out of her way in ELTSD to try and prove mind control is the better option, she says she regrets her past actions and then proceeds to try and justify them by doing it again.
One thing I’ve always wondered in my years here is why there are some people who are so confrontational about a show that they can’t do anything about.
@Alexlayer
Have you heard of the concept of “character flaws” in writing? I would hope that she would continue to have to deal with the urge to just make other ponies think what she wants them to, for the rest of the show.
Just like Twilight has to deal with her overwhelming performance and test anxiety, and Pinkie has to deal with her abandonment issues, and Applejack has to deal with her compulsive control and work issues, etc, etc, etc.
The thing that you think makes her a badly written character makes her look to me like a great character with real potential for interesting story arcs.
@Background Pony #6D4B
Uploaded twice to fix an error with the intent of getting merged. Happens all the time here, it’s not spam it’s a way of updating.
@Ihhh
It does if she makes the exact same mistake again, using magic to manipulate other ponies action is not only the crimes she was first pursued for, but also something she had been called out for in “No Second Prances”. Nevermind that “Mind control is a bad idea” should be a logical enough thing, she got called out on this twice, and yet she still does it, as a near instant reaction, the moment things get hard for her in “Every Little Thing She Does.”
