@Alexlayer  
Indeed, it took an egregiously long time for her big issues to be ironed out, and almost half of her character writing problems were still very apparent.
 
No matter how you look at it….its not a good selling point for ANY character.

@Background Pony #AF8E  
I mean, I doubt “had a better friendship with Trixie” is a good point for validating the character, especially in comparison with another, ESPECIALLY when the dynamics between Sunset and Trixie were explored for just a single special and that was it.
 
Sure, Starlight got better over time, but it took like three seasons and a half to get there…

@Alexlayer  
TL;DR. Most I’ve seen say she’s improved over time, with her friendship with Trixie among thehigh points. That friendship is worlds better than Sunset’s with human Trixie.

I didn’t have time to read the comments by the time you commented (I’m not as present in Derpibooru as much as I’d like), but, after reading all of them (which most of them are nice), I think I should give a proper response.
 
About the Sunset Shimmer topic, I admit I wasn’t interested in her. In the first movie she was a very basic villain. But, even though I don’t consider Rainbow Rocks a good movie, the fourth EG film made me appreciate Sunset Shimmer more than I expected, like a lot.
 
I don’t think Starlight is a “spotlight stealer” (it’s a very empty line, whatever you call it). However, I think she has less character development than needed (2 episodes in season 5… yikes), more magic power than needed, everyone in Ponyville is completely supersticious about her actions, she repeats the same line “I was bad in the past” in season 6 more times than needed and, in Every little thing she does, as someone who wants to redeem herself, her will to finish her friendship homework as quick as possible doesn’t fit with her desire of redemption.
 
If it wasn’t for that episode, I’d probably have continued watching the show and finishing it, even after the redesign of the changelings.
 
It doesn’t really matter though because I accepted that the TV show is just a procedurally-generated story getting more and more off the rails. As a result, I just stopped.
 
Before I finish, quick disclaimer: I don’t think Starlight fans are clueless or idiots. That’s a dumb thought. If you think she’s a great character, that’s great. I just wish she got a better character development in seasons 5 and 6 instead of just waiting for one or two seasons to get to the real point.
 
And, redweasel, I understand the disappointment, I get it. However, if something disappoints you, try to be cool about it, try to take it easy, don’t write your thoughts in the middle of the heat.
 
Whether you love Starlight or you don’t, take care everyone. ;)

@Beau Skunky  
I do remember seeing people complain about Twilight having too little Focus at the same time as people were complaining about her having too much Focus.  
also Twilight Felt More Like a Sue in season 1 because in that season she was the only one who could write a friendship letter so she has to be in every episode even if she did not need to

I like Starlight’s personality. I think the show needed a sarcastic character but not being annoying like reformed Discord.  
The thing I don’t like her is that she’s too OP compared to the rest. Even sometimes she looks more overpowered than Twilight imo.

@Beau Skunky  

 
If there had been SOMETHING that actually showed Starlight putting some effort into being a better person, I could have been alright with her. But her abusing magic for easy shortcuts, at the expense of others, and getting easily forgiven for it practically became a running gag with her, and one that was never funny to begin with.
 

 
She has the same sort of transformation that everyone in her team has, so she’s not “OP” because she’s the same as everyone else there. And the one form that’s unique to her (and that’s questionable because Twilight also had a matching one) is born from the power of them all, so it’s not her own power, but a metaphorical representation of the power of friendship.
 

 
The most that can be said about her for that is that she can be gullible, but really, Cozy Glow played everyone. So it’s not like she’s put below anyone else because of it, unlike the many times the main cast is written as incompetent for the sake of making her look cool.
 

 
Says the one who brought up Sunset Shimmer for comparison to begin with?!
 

 
I told you before: One’s well-written character, the other’s a horribly written one. You have a character as horribly written as Starlight, then you can bet people are gonna complain from just having her show up. But because of the success that was Sunset Shimmer, of course people are gonna want more of her and to be part of the main group. The two characters may have carried similar roles in being “the new member”, but that - the “new member’ thing - never meant anything at large to the fandom. It’s how they were written that really mattered.
 

 
Making a copy-cat of Rainbow Rocks might not be a good idea on paper (never mind that MLP is no stranger to recycling plots/morals, though), but they should have done SOMETHING that was at least similar in some fashion. Something to really feel like Starlight’s redeeming/redemption is earned and that she MEANS to get better, but instead they just have a character who keeps on whining because she feels very bad about what she did, but never puts actual effort into improving herself, and instead keeps doing awful things throughout the show (brainwashing, lying, selling stuff that’s not hers, etc), and you wonder WHY people just don’t like Starlight as much as they like Sunset? ’cause the answers are right before you, buddy, you just need open your damn eyes.
 

 
You already replied to me twice, pal. Don’t lie to me and tell me you’re not trying to debate here.

@northern haste  
Yeah, I remember Twilight got alot of hate to, especially once she earned her wings, many fans started calling her a “Sue,” or “Spotlight stealer,” and such.  
Then when they dialed back her role a bit, fans got upset over that, as well. So you can’t win either way.
 
I find it ironic though, the “Twilight haters” hate on the later seasons for being more “Twilight focused,” but honestly I feel the first seasons were the ones more focused on her.

@Beau Skunky  
technically being a well-written character is not technically an excuse more constantly making her the main character in story and especially when they were others to choose from.  
at one point people were saying the same thing about twilight in the main show that she was getting too much focus regardless of if that was actually true

@northern haste  
Or that she’s into gaming, into sports, can do science, ect. That’s honestly more then what Starlight can do.
 
I don’t think either characters are “Sues,” (I kinda hate that term) but Sunset feels more “Sue-like,” in regards to all those hobbies, but she’s not perfect either.  
The reason Starlight is seen as more “Sue-like,” is because she has more appearances then Sunset, and the EqGirls series unfortunately never got to take off the way FIM did, so I guess fans don’t feel as burnt out on Sunset, as they do Starlight.  
I do remember fans hated Sunset at first, as well, even before the first EqG movie came out. So she was a bit unfairly treated, as well by fans at first. The Starlight hate has died down a tad, as well.
 
But maybe we ought to drop it, because I don’t want to create another “Sunset VS Starlight” argument.

@Beau Skunky  
And as I mentioned before it did kind of become after to defend sunset of being a Mary Sue during the earlier short of the digital series because they just kept giving her new talents so she could play a role in them. Like making her a well-known secret identity graffiti artist so she could paint something big to help rarity

@Alexlayer  
That’s debatable, as I feel she was a bit forced into reformation too.  
She gets shot by rainbows, suddenly she becomes nice. I suppose “Rainbow Rocks” did develop it a bit more, and it was interesting she had more fallout from her past bad actions, but looking back it looks like they were almost trying too hard to make us feel sorry for her. I suppose if Starlight had a whole movie where she acted sad & regretful, and was treated like crap, I guess she would’ve been easily forgiven by fans too.  
As for “not being OP,” she does have a “super form,” she’s used on several occasions, Starlight doesn’t, and Starlight did get captured by Cozy, and such, proving she’s not always OP or perfect either.  
Sunset’s also more flexible, and can handle new situations more then Starlight.
 
So, while I don’t wanna start another lame “Sunset VS Starlight” debate, (those never go well) I don’t think either character are perfect honestly, and both feel kinda forced into their reformations, and roles, but I got used to ‘em, and I can enjoy them both. I just don’t understand why people love Sunset for the same reasons they hate Starlight. (Like people whom hate Starlight being a supporting character, but want Sunset to become more of a main character.)
 
And they couldn’t do all the things with Starlight, that they did with Sunset, ‘cause then she’d just be a Sunset Shimmer rip-off. So instead they had to more subtly have her reformation develop over the course of Season 6, because they couldn’t fit it all in a single movie. Like I thought it was clever that one episode dealt with her control issues, and later she was reluctant to return to her old town fearing they’d ostracize & hate her. (But they didn’t, and that actually made her feel worse. Creating kinda an opposite situation from Sunset’s.)
 
So I’m just going to say, both characters have good & bad things about them. I don’t really wanna debate about it, no offense.

@Beau Skunky  
Because Sunset is a well-written character that never had “is overpowered” as one of her very defining characteristics, was actually given a proper redemption/redeeming arc, and actually feels naturally and well integrated into the group dynamics.
 
It’s as simple as that, dude. It’s pretty obvious that with Starlight, they were trying to recreate the success of Sunset, but failed miserably because they just shoved her into the show without bothering to properly do all the work that they did with Sunset.

@Alexlayer  
Yet, you guys don’t seem to mind that Equestria Girls shoves Sunset Shimmer down our throats.
 
At least, FIM gives us breaks from Starlight, and as I and NH pointed out, Starlight’s appearances got less frequent, and she even had to share her spotlight usually with characters like Twilight, or Trixie.

This is literally a friend of mine who dropped the show because of all the Starlight bullshit the writers just kept shoving down our throats.

@northern haste  
Oh, I haven’t seen it yet. Maybe I’ll check it out later.

@Beau Skunky  
No it was a 44 minute special

@northern haste  
Wasn’t that kinda a short though?

@Beau Skunky  
Well to be fair rollercoaster of friendship was focused on AppleJack and rarity sunset and sci two only had a minor subplot that was just an excuse for gags

@northern haste  
I felt Sunset was a huge focus in “Rainbow Rocks” too honestly. In fact, looking back at EqGirls, it’s usually either Sunset, Twilight, or Glasses Twilight getting most of the focus, while the only focus the rest of the “Mane 6” get are in the shorts, and they’re hardly featured in the EqG series in general.
 
I mentioned it to a guy once, and it’s fine with him, because they get “plenty of focus in the Pony World show, but I wouldn’t mind learning about the HuMane characters too, and how they differ or are similar to their pony counterparts, given the differences Glasses Twi’,  
Sadly, it seems most EqG fans only care about Glasses Twilight & Sunset.

@Beau Skunky  
in fact in the first movie twilight is the main character but by the time you get the third one it’s sunset.  
this problem was eventually gone but in the earliest shorts in season 1 it did kind of feel like she had to play a role in every short And it did feel like it was getting harder to defend her

@northern haste  
I’ve seen people complain if Starlight has so much as a non-speaking cameo in an episode. Not to mention, alot of her episodes, she shares the spotlight with characters like Twilight, Maude, and Trixie usually.
 
I kinda agree about Sunset, suddenly she has like 50 hobbies, sports, video games, playing guitar, singing, science, and such. (And it seems they just do that for either plot-convenience, or to make her more applealing to the audience.) What things are Starlight good at besides magic? Flying kites?  
I hate to sound biased, but I feel Sunset is way more “perfect” then Starlight, (but even she’s not always perfect either) and she’s treated as more of a “main character” in the EqG specials/movies/shorts, while Starlight is more of a supporting character usually in FIM.  
Honestly, if people are going to hate Starlight for being a “spotlight stealer,” and such then that means they can’t like Sunset Shimmer, I say.

@Beau Skunky  
I remember even as reasons why season 9 people were still calling her a creator’s pet. even as soon as season 7 she was already having a reduced episode count only had two in both season 8 and 9 and none of them had her be perfect. I even remember in season 6 when it wasn’t her episode she was nowhere to be seen with only two exceptions.  
I’ve also noticed a bit of a double standard with her and sunset. starlight is shown to be very talented was pretty much just magic overpowered Mary Sue but sunset had a bunch of Talent just dumped on her and she’s the perfect waifu and when they eventually stop doing it people got upset about the perfect waifu and not being perfect anymore