The Starlight Glimmer Effect in no uncertain terms

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Regulas314's avatar
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If you wanna know why I as well as many of Starlight's detractors take issue with her redemption it is very simple:

Starlight's redemption along with the redemption of every villain since her teaches the absolute worst lesson in the franchise: That you are OBLIGATED to keep giving second chances to people even if those people abuse you and/or your friendship. And it's TOTES OK to hurt anyone and everyone if you're angry or upset, because you just need a hug... in other words this is actively glorifying terrorists!

The funny thing is I've heard tell of parents forbidding their children from WATCHING FiM because of how AGRRESIVELY this toxic mindset and moral is pushed; and it really is pushed harder than anything the show has ever done. Yeah, Discord KINDA did this, but the effect was more implicitly felt more than directly shown; also Discord was always clearly in the wrong when this happened and he got karma.

Really I should be fortunate Parental Glideance exists because, while it is the worst episode of the show in my eyes, it clearly and blatantly promoted this ideology worse than any other episode in the show in a way that ANYONE would find disgusting! This is why I praised Griffon the Brush-Off as much as I did being it is the ONLY EPISODE to accurately explain why this sort of behavior is so harmful and DANGEROUS!

Friendship and Forgiveness aren't just something you throw around like candy, you have to actually EARN THEM! The first four seasons of the show accurately show how Friendship as a concept cannot fix every single problem and that there are those who really aren't worth it; how Friendship isn't the ultimate cure-all macguffin for every single problem. Season 5 and onward treats the concept of Friendship a lot like how zealots treat Christianity; I'm not even kidding about this.

This behavior started as early as, I wanna say Crusaders of the Lost Mark. Wherein Diamond Tiara, a very infamous bully was easily forgiven by the CMC and everyone else purely because her mother is a bitch to her; and that automatically absolves her of all wrongdoings she's done in the past including but not limited to, ritualistically bullying and teasing the same 3 fillies to the point of obsession and mocking someone for their disability. Naturally everyone was super pissed about this because Diamond Tiara has historically always been a loathesome little toad that never once deserved an ounce of friendship or forgiveness.

In fact I believe her forced redemption is why they're doing this with Starlight. They think that DT no longer has a purpose now that she's not a bully so they just threw her away and shoved a similarly colored pony in our face; in doing this it makes me believe DT's redemption isn't at all genuine because we don't see her after this. I don't believe Starlight's redemption is genuine either, but regardless we at least get to SEE HER TRY TO REFORM!

Getting real for a second, I used to be a fucking asshole! But after being shown what my behavior is like by people who weren't having any of my shit I'm learning how to be a better person. This is why I'm trying to abandon bringing up Mr. Enter whenever I can because it's clearly irritating people even when I try to be positive about the guy; mainly because it usually sounds very back-handed and conceited. Do I fuck up sometimes? Yes but never by intention and people alway call me out when they catch wind of what I'm doing. I thank you very much for helping to keep me in check and for being nice enough to put up with my behavior.

This is why I take so much ire with this villain archetype, why I latch onto someone like Lilian Orchard for rightfully beating the shit out of this monstrously destructive mindset! 
Keep in mind I'm not against sympathetic villains or redeeming villains, but this is just... bad. There are characters specifically written for this sort of thing that's work out just fine, but it doesn't work here. I'm saying you have to know HOW AND WHEN AND WHY to redeem them, not every villain is bult for redemption as I've covered before, just like not everyone deserves to be forgiven or befriended, sometimes for the very best.
© 2018 - 2024 Regulas314
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SpongeGuy11's avatar

If you have so many issues with her, how could Starlight's redemption arc have been better?