@Meanlucario  
Eh. Fair enough I guess

@MegaAnimationFan  
This is just a screencap of an episode. There is no reason to delete it other than the comments.

@Archonix  
Pah. Please. When it comes to Starlight, it’ll never be civil. Folks always have something hateful to say (you people know who you are). Even though at this point, it’s just plain sad. OP is probably better off deleting this pic.

So I’m looking through this thread and already seeing insults being thrown just on the most recent page. If that carries on, well, you know what’ll come. Keep it civil, please.

@Cirrus Light  
Might be? Either that, or they’re painfully oblivious to Starlight’s actual reception. That interview of Mike Vogel I mentioned? He seemed convinced that everybody had absolutely loved “Every Little Thing She Does”, so… either he genuinously believes it, or he is actually trolling.

@Alexlayer  
I believe he’s talking about how you keep bringing up thing out of show to explain a question about somthing in show.  
It’s why I was pointing out you using the creator’s pet card for why it called Starlight was not explaining anything.  
And then when you do talk of the in show reason it’s about how it never happened before so it flays in the face of things, and now needs to be explained, but nothing else about how it works need it.
 
And really, this is going off way to much, I think the site staff would might find this needs to be moves elsewhere as half the time it’s not about the image.
 
Maybe I should report all this…

@Alexlayer  
Because you said  
>They knew Starlight Glimmer is a controversial character  
>They started including her as though she’s a mane 6 (ie, in very controversial ways)
 
Even though they know she’s controversial.
 
It’s almost like they’re intentionally making Glimglam haters upset :p

@Cirrus Light  
No, no, I do know what the whole “bait” thing as a form of trolling is. I just don’t get why you said: “So… it’s bait and you’re biting it?”
 
What’s the bait here? What happened in the show itself? Well, I am a fan of the show, even if I’m troubled with the recent developments, so I still gave it a shot. What would you have done?
 
Or is the aforementioned “bait” meant to be something else?

@Alexlayer  
Baiting = trolling you for a reaction.
 
Okay, well, I guess originally it has more to do with saying things that will start a big argument, like walking into a Derpibooru political rally and stating your highly controversial opinion on spoilered text, or like going into a “Starlight Glimmer appreciation thread” and just saying “Starlight Glimmer’s a terrible OC” to get a reaction out of people and make them argue with you.
 
So, basically it’s very similar to trolling, except centered more around getting the other person to write angry walls of text, so I guess what the writers are doing is more like straight-up trolling than baiting :p
 
I’m glad Glimglam stayed, though. She’s an adorable little psychopath. That’s an example of baiting both sides. Okay, I actually typed that as a little joke because that’s how I first viewed her, not actually just to bait. ||This is bait ||.

@Cirrus Light  
Well, I know from reliable sources - Brony Reviewer Silver Quill interviewed Michael Vogel (who wrote “A Hearth’s Warming Tail” and “Every Little Thing She Does” and co-wrote “The Times They Are a Changeling” and “To Where and Back Again”) - that said writer particularly likes Starlight Glimmer solemnly on the fact that he likes/enjoys controversial characters. So… let’s just say that since learning that, my expectations have dropped a lot. Even though he’s not working in Season 7, his influence seems to carry on. In a way, at least, it kept me from feeling disappointing about “A Royal Problem”. It was exactly as awful as I expected the episode to be.
 
Also, no idea what you mean with the bait thing.

@Background Pony #D16A  
Does it remove your free will if it knows what choices you will make? If someone knows you’ll marry a certain person, does that mean you didn’t have free will to not to?
 
Map the Brave and Glorious (all praises to its name) knows you. It loves you. It knows your problems and will send ponies to make you happy.
 
 
@Alexlayer  
So… it’s bait and you’re biting it?
 
At this point I almost wonder if they’re not trolling Starlight haters. We know the writers can be jokesters. I mean, Celestial Advice where they go down this path of getting rid (sending away) her character the whole episode, only to pull the rug out from under you at the last moment? I almost would’ve paid to see the Starlight hater’s reactions when she and Twi decided to have her stay xD

@Cirrus Light  
There’s a difference between it “knowing” stuff, which it obviously does, and trusting a specific individual with a designed responsibility. But really, it’s not even the fact it did that. It’s what it means in the narrative. ‘cause let’s be honest here, the Map isn’t something like a Character. It’s just a plot device to ease the writer’s duties and set up a plot “just cause”. What happened here is that the writers elevated Starlight’s importance by having the map pick her for a Friendship Problem, which on one side raises a lot of questions (Like, is this extension now exclusive to Starlight, or will it include other ponies as well later on as well?), while also ’causing a lot of heat because of how much of a controversial character Starlight already is.

@Cirrus Light  
I don’t think the map necessarily knew that the flyer would find Rarity; given that there’s, what, maybe a half-dozen ponies in Manehattan that Applejack or Rarity knew at the time, and that Coco Miss Pommel was actively trying to get that play put on, it was nigh-inevitable that their paths would cross. (Although, yes, it could have known what would happen to the flyer…)
 
It also occurs to me that your comment, except for the last line, could be used word-for-word by someone attacking the very existence of the Cutie Map in the show. Now I sorta want to see fan art of a pony with an athiest cutie mark or banner attacking the Cutie Map while shouting “Down with determinism!” (But I may be a touch weird that way.)

@Alexlayer  
It doesn’t seem so odd to me. As I said before, The Almighty Lord and Savior Cutie Map (Its name be praised) seems to be omniscient. It knows who will solve what and all the stuff that will happen (even down to Coco’s flyer riding the wind into Rarity’s face), so it knowing Starlight Glimmer - especially after she messed with it so directly - is no surprise.
 
Heck, it knew Gilda, Coco and Safron Masala, and exactly what was going on in their lives and who could help them, so knowing Glimglam’s circumstances is just peanuts compared to the stuff it’s already done.
 
But you never complained about any of that, afaik.

@Background Pony #0F21  

 
Heh. Typical words from a hater. And I’m not even mad, I’m more annoyed than anything.

@Alexlayer  
Also, it’s not headcanon, it’s speculation.  
To come up with things to explain how it can be possible for this to happen is not a headcanon, as it’s using established facts to try and give a reason for it.  
If that was headcanon, then every time you say how it’s established to work a set way, you are talking headcanon.  
Both are using established info to draw a conclusion, one is from someone open to the idea of more, the other is from someone being closed to it.

@Alexlayer  
I;‘m going to have to disagree there, it was never established beyond just pointing them to where a friendship problem was.  
Not why it was just them, why it can;t be others, or anything like that, not why it works the way it does, or if it can or cant do more.  
At this point it’s just as much head canon that it’s not capable of sending others as it was not actully established.

@Prof.NightJack  
If this discussion is proof of anything, it’s that the map itself was well established enough that it never warranted as many questions as this specific development did. And up until, say, Cheese Sandwich or Coco Pommel get summoned by the map, that remains a headcanon.
 
And the least I say about Starlight’s hypothetically designed role in the show, the better.

@Alexlayer  
(facepalm)  
The keys to the box…  
Admitadly I didn;t say that here, but I told you about it else where, but you pushed that as being just the main 6 again so…
 
 
And if that needs an explanation in the show, then the map needs it, not just the new development.
 
Also about Starlight’s placement.  
Never heard of a secondary character?  
You know, more then a supporting character but not quite main character.

@Prof.NightJack  
If you did, I missed it. But even then, that’s your own headcanon, not an explanation given by the show.

@Alexlayer  
I already said a reason why it can bee seen as having a connection beyond the Main 6 and the elements, somthing that was there BEFORE the map…

@Prof.NightJack  
Again, this new development could have used some explanation. As it stands, it came out of nowhere and all we got is basically “This is a thing now.” The Map itself at least had an already established connection to the Main 6, the Elements of Harmony and the Tree of Harmony, so it summoning the Main 6 made perfect sense.
 
And sure, it would have risen more questions if it summoned anyone else, but more so than anyone with Starlight because she stands on a very ambiguous area on regards on whether she’s a Main Character in par with the Main 6 (if not only second to Twilight, OR if even that), or is still meant to be considered a recurring supportive character.

@Alexlayer  
So it only now needs a explanation, because this new thing of picking another pony needs an explanation and not the reason for picking the mane six?  
And it IS still working within the established purpose, it was never really established as anything more then “send pony to fix friendship problem”.  
Seems more people want to know why it picked someone else because it was Starlght.  
I bet no one would of given a fuck if it was say, the CMC.

@Cirrus Light  
To say “It’s just magic” is very weak for narrative. The map may be magic, but like I said before, it had an established purpose and proper introduction. This development, however, has come out of nowhere, no explanation is given, and its “introduction” is just the cast reacting to it in… arguably the same ways the fandom’s divided factions have been reacting. Sweet Luna, this is so meta it’s almost a mockery…

@PonyPon  
There’s been at least 3-4 times where neither of them were the solution, even when it seemed obvious. Example; Rarity and AJ in Manehatten. Either of those OP-corns could’ve fixed the park in seconds, but that wouldn’t have gotten the public’s attention by performing on the side of the street and brought the neighborhood together.
 
Twi may be the one who knows most about the Princesses, and is a very powerful alicorn that both the princesses trust, but she could’ve never solved their problem with her godly respect for them and constant anxiety.
 
Also Twi had studied the Griffons extensively, and again, probably could’ve used magic to get the idol.
 
All cases that would’ve failed, and you’d only know that by knowing everyone at the location the map is sending you really well - well enough to predict how interactions will go and what will happen if you do what - so the map knows the mane 6, what they would do, who they would talk to, what flyer will come and smack Rarity in the face after she and Applejack go around Manehatten for hours trying to find problems - and that Gilda needs help baking and that will save Griffonstone, not the lost treasure.
 
Praise the map.