@Mr grump  

 
Flurry Heart > Trixie > Starlight > Sunset

Sunset, Starlight, Twilight…Pffft. Trixie is the greatest and deep down you all know it.

@Background Pony #8C6D  
That is true.

The Glimmer fans shouldn’t take this personally, she is simply first in a line of targets that draw the Shimmer Fans’ ire.
 
If they didn’t have Starlight, they’d be focusing all their rage entirely on the EqG CMCs, and if they didn’t have them, then they’d be pushing to have her Alicorn status officially recognized as per events in Rainbow Rocks. Then writing a litany transgressions by Twilight as for why she didn’t deserve to become a Princess. Then shifting their complaining to blaming Celestia for her incompetence and how Sunset got the raw deal.
 
It goes on and on…

This is a nice. This kind of thing really needed to happen.
 
I hate how Starlight’s a know it all character.
 
Starlight constantly thinks she knows the best way to do thing, and very often tries to use some magic or whatever to instafix whatever the problem is, not always (if at all) the fact that not all problems can be fixed in an instant.

@Philweasel  
Fair enough.

@Sunset’s Minion  
Personally I think a lot of it is down to this pointless fight between the Starlight fans and the Sunset fans, which pisses me off especially since they’re right next to each other on my best pony list.
 
I mean once you could post your assertion that Sunset was better than Starlight and have enough people agree with you that no one wanted to stick their head up and argue. But with Starlight becoming much more popular lately, her being the chosen champion of the very well liked season 7, and the EqG shorts being of variable quality, people are far more willing to retaliate against her aggressive fanbase.

@Philweasel  
Thank you. I was beginning to think hating Sunset was the new fad or something.

@Background Pony #FB14  
I agree about her fans. The amount of them I’ve met who dislike the main series, and every single one of the mane 6 is appalling. I try not to let it affect me, but it does make if difficult to appreciate her sometimes.
 
But it does help that Sunset is really fun to watch and a great character, even if she isn’t that interesting as such. She feels like Shiro from Voltron, sure there’s not much going on there and he’s ridiculously good at everything, but he’s just so cool and… dad, that it’s hard not to appreciate him.
 
Her greatest service to the show is similar to Starlight actually, she has agency. She doesn’t need other characters to drive the plot, because she’s so driven and hyperactive that she refuses to sit down and wait for it to come to her. I appreciate that, as EqG’s biggest problem is the occasionally glacial pace.

Eh, I’m mostly just glad that Starlight wasn’t praised for it. Thorax could have just as easily said, “Well, if you hadn’t endangered our entire hive with your recklessness, Pharnyx never would have been able to change! So thank you, Starlight!” Thus negating the notion that she made any mistake whatsoever.
 
Between that, the lack of any magic-related blunder, her complete inability to do anything to stop the maulwurf, and the lack of a moment where she uses her all-encompassing wisdom to influence a solution, this episode was pretty far outside the norm of most Starlight-focused episodes.

@Background Pony #0AE0  
I’ll admit that this is pretty much how I fell for Sunset too, at least until I started thinking about her. The contrast between the near-soulless bully of EQG1 and the new, red-haired, Fluttershy 2.0 of the Rainbow Rocks promo stuff got my attention and her depiction in the movie just made me want to squeeze her little face! Eventually, the honeymoon phase wore off and her many failings floated to the surface, followed by some of her more enamored fans’ behavior making it difficult to like her at all.
 
@Philweasel  
I’d contest that. Sunset’s flaws are that she’s short-tempered, short-sighted, not especially bright, and possibly a bit of a hypocrite.
 
I say the first three because she does some incredibly stupid things when she gets angry (especially during the first movie), which doesn’t take a whole lot most of the time. If one recalls her actions throughout the movies and shorts and her many, many blunders (most recently ripping up a potted plant and chewing on a leaf to signal to someone that they have lettuce stuck in their teeth…), this probably doesn’t need explaining.
 
She’s possibly a hypocrite because the only villain she’s even tried to reach out to (without someone else starting it for her) was Twilight, who happened to look like her friend, the princess, and was going through a very similar situation to her own story. For the rest of their adversaries, she shows only indifference or smug satisfaction to their defeat, not a shred of empathy or understanding for people in similar situations to her own when she was in the bottom of that crater.
 
Then there’s the fact that most of her ‘strong points’ are either informed traits or just come with the utterly generic Main Character starter pack, like sappy speeches and letting magic instantly solve the big problem of the moment.
 
So I’d agree; Sunset doesn’t need to be taken down a peg, because she’s not all that high up to begin with. :/

@Background Pony #B57A  
Yada yada Starlight got a well deserved roasting and it was sweet.

@Background Pony #0AE0  
Personally I don’t feel Sunset needs to be taken down a peg, and she doesn’t really have flaws.
 
And that’s why Starlight’s so much more interesting than her.

@Background Pony #FB14  
Maybe Sunset needs to be taken down a peg too. Seriously, I tire how every conversation of Starlight leads to “how much better Sunset is,” despite her having just as generic a personality, similarities, and an arguably-forced-redemption too.  
People only like Sunset better, because of how “cute and emotional” she was in “Rainbow Rocks.” If Starlight also had a whole episode, or movie where she was constantly going, “Oh, whoa is me, everybody hates me! I’m so sorry for being bad! Oh, I saved the day! Everbody loves me now!” then she’d just be just another “Sunset Shimmer” that everyone adores. (They kinda tried to do that with Starlight too, but sense it was more subtle, and spaced out over a whole season, rather then just one movie, it didn’t have the same effect. Just being scolded by Applejack, Mrs. Cake, and such isn’t enough “suffering” apparently.)
 
Sorry, I’m just so sick of the Sunset & Starlight B.S., but don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Starlight is perfect either.

I’ve learned that I’ll never convince the Starlight haters, so I’m not even going to bother. Let them be hypocritical and judgemental, the only ones looking bad are them.
 
Honestly Starlight is bad at plans. She’s just wired wrong, and she constantly fails to consider what could go wrong (ironically, the opposite problem to Twilight and Spike). She really should have at least run this plan by Trixie first.
 
But at least she takes initiative. Yet again, Thorax is right, but he’s also neither imaginative or aggressive enough to take dramatic action that would fix the problem. And the changlings strike me as judgemental, skittish, weak willed hypocrites, who are essentially punishing Pharynx for actually having a sense of identity and morality that hasn’t just been handed to him by his leader. For all their talk about a better, gentle hive, they haven’t really changed much at their core.
 
Basically everyone in this was wrong in some way, but Starlight at least is willing to actually take risks to fix things. Everyone else is pretty much stuck in a holding pattern, doing what’s easy and hoping the problem will fix itself. Even Pharynx is pretty much just stalking around taking out his frustrations pointlessly, rather than making the effort to really explain what his issues are in a constructive manner.

@Background Pony #B57A  

 
Sorry, twice. He did piss off Twilight once back in season 1. And his massive overreaction ensured she’d never do it again.

Oh yeah, and how about every Spike episode ever? Spike is literally his own worst enemy. He causes all of his own problems, his episodes almost universally suck and he’s only ever been given shit for screwing things up once. In seven seasons of screwing things up, he’s only pissed anyone off once.
 
He’s never going to grow or mature because that means he’ll become a big, greedy dragon that will have to leave his friends and, arguably, the pony who raised him. So the only character development he can have is getting over Rarity.

@Mr grump  

 
Yeah, because everyone has always kissed Starlight’s butt. How quickly we forget how badly Twilight messed up in No Second Prances. How quickly we forget how everyone always kisses Twilight’s butt unless the plot calls for her to be humiliated somehow. Hey, remember that time she brainwashed Ponyville and got away with it scot-free because her friends threw themselves under the bus? How about the time she destroyed Ponyville because she messed with magical creatures she didn’t understand? Or the time she spent a week disaster-proofing Equestria with everyone’s help, for no reason? Or the time she thought a staring contest with lethal consequences was a good way to figure out who the real Pinkie Pie was? Or the time she used magic to move a snow plow after explicitly being told not to? And everyone always goes with it, because Twilight’s never been wrong before. Except for all those times she was. The worst anyone has ever done to Twilight for her egregious troublemaking is shake their heads in dismay. The only time she was actually called out, she was right. All of this, plus princesshood for that time she cast a spell without thinking, screwed up her friends and had to figure out how to fix it. Yay, friendship!
 
Yeah, Twilight’s perfect compared to Starlight. We forgive Twilight’s flaws and eccentricities without question, but Starlight deserves to be barbecued for making mistakes that arguably aren’t as bad as Twilight’s? That’s not being very fair. I believe the term for it is a double standard, and it’s pretty obvious that people who don’t like Starlight are far more critical of her than anyone has ever been of the Mane 6 and Twilight in particular.
 
And Pharynx called them losers for essentially their decision to better themselves. Good to know you’re cool with people getting crapped on just because you don’t like them.
 
Pharynx had a point, but that didn’t make him any less of a bully and a jerk. Starlight was flat out wrong in this case and it’s about time, but she’s been right in other cases and she’s been misguided a couple of times too.
 
Twilight’s supposed to be her teacher and all she ever did was assigned her tasks without any real explanation of what was expected of her. Every Little Thing She Does is a perfect example of this, with Twilight never explaining that it’s not the tasks that mattered, but the spending of time with friends. Maybe that seems obvious, until you remember that Starlight’s still getting her head around friendship at that time.
 
And A Royal Problem justifies her doing what she did by the princesses having physically removed her from interfering verbally in the argument. She didn’t do what was right, but she did what was necessary. Twilight made it clear that allowing the princesses to descend to petty bickering was bad because of what happened the last time they argued with each other. She had to intervene somehow, she was the one sent to fix it. And Twilight would never forgive her for letting go wrong. No pressure, right? None at all.
 
Oh, that’s right, she spends the rest of the episode almost crippled by guilt and uncertainty. Because of the intense pressure placed on her by Twilight and her own awareness of the situation.

I love how this image has both 50 comments and a score of 50…except it doesn’t have 50 comments anymore because of me. Dammit!

It was a first.

@Background Pony #FB14  
That didn’t really answer anything. Because anyone with eyes can see that. Thanks for trying to answer anyway. It doesn’t even matter anymore. Because I’m done.

@gingerninja666  
Starlight not being treated with kid gloves was just a nice bonus. Most of the stuff I find grating about her wasn’t really present this time. The episode was really fun and funny. Pharynx and Trixie made me chuckle internally and the lesson was pretty good. Pharynx learned You don’t have to change who you are to fit in and the other changelings learned that peace and love won’t protect them from hungry moles.

@Mr grump  
Thorax and Pharynx are the best!

@Mr grump
 
As a Starlight fan I agree with this. I found Star especially good in this episode.
 
It’s upsetting that many just enjoyed it for shitting on Star, while I enjoyed it because I think it’s good for her character and it was a strong moment for Thorax.

@Alexlayer  
It’s all I ever asked for really. Also, Starlight meeting a character who didn’t immediately kiss her butt.  
Pharynx became one of my faves when he straight up called her a loser.
 
Sorry trixie, it’s kinda true but I love ya anyway.