How would you have given Starlight Glimmer a better backstory?

Badumsquish
Generic Messy Hair Anime Anon - Seen and done more than you can imagine
Kalianne - Derpi Supporter
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
King Sombra - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.

ᗡ: 📶 📡
@gingerninja666  
I definitely don’t like it as a start because, to me, it undermines her entire presence as a villain and cheapens her entire motive. Like, you could argue that the intent was to make her petty, but that pettiness is worlds less interesting than the three-dimensional villain she is without it :P
Jarkes
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2018) - Celebrated Derpibooru's six year anniversary with friends.
Magical Inkwell - Wrote MLP fanfiction consisting of at least around 1.5k words, and has a verified link to the platform of their choice
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2017) - Celebrated Derpibooru's five year anniversary with friends.
Thread Starter - Transformers Thread

GOKAAAAI... SILVER!
It was obvious to me that Sunburst leaving her was just the first push down a slippery slope of sadness, anger, and hurt. I just wish we had seen more of that slope.
Zaknel
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Crystal Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2019) - Celebrated Derpibooru's seventh year anniversary with friends
A Tale For The Ages - Celebrated MLP's 35th Anniversary and FiM's 8th Anniversary
Artist -
Notoriously Divine Tagger - Consistently uploads images above and beyond the minimum tag requirements. And/or additionally, bringing over the original description from the source if the image has one. Does NOT apply to the uploader adding several to a dozen tags after originally uploading with minimum to bare tagging.

Mods-Ezekiel 33:11
Maybe if she was an orphan who tragically lost her parents and Sunburst really was the only pony that she had close to her…
Vivace
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Artist -

“ShimSham my GlimGlams”
Basically: show more to it. Maybe we see more, or at least one of the steps that led up to her debut. Perhaps witnessing her in isolation, justifying her ideals to herself. That, and showing how each, or one alteration to the timeline led to its tangent timeline, would improve S5e25-26. As it is now, though, I doubt her childishness and pettiness were accidental at all.
Vivace
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Artist -

“ShimSham my GlimGlams”
Tbh, I don’t think there’s a way to make it more sympathetic, particularly while keeping all else the same. I think that eliciting sympathy was NOT the real goal of revealing the backstory. It shows how Starlight came to see cutie marks in a negative light; it highlights how sophomoric her philosophy was by having the experience occur while she was a child, before she had matured emotionally and mentally; and it nicely juxtaposes how she was metaphorically stuck in the past as she had literally been every time Twilight entered a new timeline until she was physically brought into lifeless Equestria. Cutie Re-Mark spent all the episode showing that Starlight had crossed the moral event horizon, assuming that her methods of induction into the philosophy of her Village of Equality weren’t convincing enough, so to try eliciting sympathy right after leaving the wasteland is pretty silly. As long as she acted with agency, nothing that had happened to her could make Starlight’s evil justified; shitty experiences don’t excuse being a shitty person.
 
Because of this, a backstory that looked like a raspy plea for sympathy at face value alone seems more like a front in retrospect, like the artifice is deceiving you, just it was designed to do. Detailing more of the steps between the catalyst and her debut really wouldn’t justify her anymore than what was shown, but it would give more to objectively point to and understand; not that speculation should be spurned since imagination is a wonderful tool, which we’ve used for other ex-villains. I’ve honestly never been bothered by Starlight’s backstory, and certainly never moved to anger over it, and the fact that even Twilight calls Starlight’s takeaways from the experience ridiculous, and even told her what she should have done in response to her catalyst- to try again instead of isolating herself- tells me that the writers weren’t utterly unaware of what they were doing.
 
Starlight’s backstory is about escalation due to poor coping, and a lot of people have coped badly with stressors in their lives. We’ve all been immature and overreactive at some point. Not as many can say that they let things escalate to the degree Starlight did, no, but the solution to halt or prevent escalation is simple, at least to say: let go of the past, and keep moving forward. It can be developmentally stunting not to.
Interested in advertising on Derpibooru? Click here for information!
KilianKuro Commissions!

Help fund the $15 daily operational cost of Derpibooru - support us financially!

Syntax quick reference: **bold** *italic* ||hide text|| `code` __underline__ ~~strike~~ ^sup^ %sub%

Detailed syntax guide